Battleground Search

October 21, 2009
 

Information services company Experian Hitwise released a study this month reporting that long-tail searches and Google’s market share both rose in September. The shifting search market was further shaken up by news that Yahoo! would be discontinuing its paid inclusion program, Search Submit, at the end of the year. Bruce Clay, Susan Esparza and Virginia Nussey discuss the implications of increasing long-tail queries and potential strategies of Yahoo! following these announcements.


Gregg Poulin, general manager at Compete.com, then talks to Virginia about data coming out of the online research company. The Web intelligence gleaned by Compete’s 2 million + opt-in Internet users reveal trends in searcher behavior — a valuable resource for marketers trying to reach their audience online. This data is available through the competitive Web intelligence of freshly upgraded Compete PRO. Gregg tells Virginia about Compete’s findings regarding users’ paid search and natural search preferences as well as predictions for the e-commerce holiday season based on both early indicators and last year’s performance.


With all the time and resources required of marketers to understand the changing technologies and guidelines of the engines, wouldn’t it be nice to have the ability to freeze time, be in two places at once, or decipher vague search engine announcements? Maybe something long the lines of super powers? Search marketer, industry reporter and research evangelist David Harry (alter ego: The Gypsy) introduced an incredible new team to the search marketing community, the League of Awesome Optimizers! The League welcomes the superheroes of the SEO community to join forces and fight the evils of the Web. SEM Synergy hosts Susan, Michael Terry and Dærick Gröss pick their own SEO superhero powers in hopes of joining the righteous crew.