Wingnut SEO

So I have access to a pretty rad team of developers who want to start making some tools for the company I am now working with.  I have a pretty good idea of what I have always wanted in a sweet SEO tool but I thought I’d open up the floor to everyone to chime in and help out with some ideas.  Any tools created will be free to all

So - If you could have your dream SEO/SEM/PPC/Social Media tool - What would it be?  What would it do?  How would it work?  Would it be web-based?  Should you have to download something? Tell me about it… If you have an amazing idea that isn’t already out there I want to know what you would like to see.  I won’t be working with this company forever but I may continue to use the tools long after I’m gone - Free SEO tools help everyone

So don’t be shy - Either leave your dream tool idea in a comment or Email me Dave@DaveWinget.com

As we all do on our free time, I was discussing PPC over lunch with someone.  Her claim was that bidding on branded terms was illegal and unethical.  While I respect her opinion as she is highly regarded in the search marketing world - I disagree.

Lets look at the first statement:  Illegal - Nope, Google is not the law… It may be against the GoogleAds TOS, but this does not make it illegal.  Until such time that The Oracle (aka Google) assumes control of the legal system and imposes a curfew and mandatory internet search time - The legality of this is not questioned - It is perfectly legal.  Not only that all it takes to shut down someone bidding on your branded terms is a simple phone call to Google… If you’re not paying attention that’s your companies fault.

Her second point is slightly more ambiguous.  Is bidding on someones branded keywords ethical?  I’m going to have to say it is perfectly ethical - and here’s why:

PPC and SEO are not a game - They are a war.  You are in constant struggle with your competition for top rankings.  Sure, you can play nice and make it a friendly battle… but at the end of the day you are in it to win it.  If you are not in the top of the SERPs you have lost the day - and more importantly -  lost valuable traffic.

You do whatever it takes to drive that traffic to your site.  If that’s pushing the boundaries of SEO or bidding on your competitions branded terms for your PPC campaigns - SO BE IT.

If you don’t look at SEO/PPC as a fierce competition then you are going to lose the war and end up falling behind.

Now with twice the annoyance of Google ads! Net Audio Ads - The Pay Per Play ones - are coming and you can sign up for them and start getting money in February.

So Pay-Per-Play ads are geared up to bombard the web and all the pages you visit with 5 second audio ads. Greeeeeat. The sad thing is, it’s probably going to catch on. They say they pay out (up-to) $28 CPM… meaning for 1000 page views you get 28 buck-o-roos for people listening to these clips (that they claim will be relevant to the content on the page). Thing about them, you don’t need clicks - just plays - so it’s intriguing.

But wait, there’s more! It’s also totally a Pyramid scheme you get people to sign up for these Net Audio PPP Ads and you make 5% of what the advertiser spends on ads on their site… and 5% of what advertisers spend on the people they refer sites. Or some nonsense like that. It is only a 3 tiered system, so not a perfect pyramid but still… it will make people refer their asses off.

If it works… could be some good money in it… especially if you live in the blog-o-sphere and know a lot of people with scraper and spam sites who get a lot of traffic and are able to get them to sign up… Wait a second, I live in the blog-o-sphere and know a lot of spammy-spammersons. Hey guys, help your old friend Wingnut out and sign up for these pay per play - net audio ads here.

As I work away in my medium sized agency in the middle of America, working with one of the our Pay Per Click (PPC) E-commerce clients, I am reminded of a game that I played in grade school called Lemonade Stand. Looking at it now I notice the similarities it has to the PPC accounts I run.

The goal of Lemonade stand was to make as much money as possible within a 30-day period. The player had complete control over every aspect of the business including cost of goods, pricing, purchasing supplies and budget.

There of course was a big unknown, and that was the weather. That unknown could make or break your day. If the weather was hot and sunny a lemonade stand operator could raise the price and still maintain volume and ultimately make more money. If it were raining and cold, a player would be lucky to break even.

This is not unlike running a PPC campaign. Being a Search Manager I have control over my cost per click, keywords, ad-copy, and managing my clients budget. Of course my big unknown is search volume. Search volume is what will ultimately drive sales volume. Factors that influence search volume:

• Seasonality of the product
• What engines the campaigns are running on
• What keywords are bought
• The Quality Score - how relevant your keyword is to your ad group and to a user’s search query
• Max Cost Per Click

The list goes on and on. Without search volume, I am sitting at my lemonade stand in the rain and watching my ice cubes melt. With it, however, I am a lemonade tycoon!

-Dan Tisser - Sr. Search Marketing Manager