Wikipedia in the SERPs: Appears on Page 1 for 60% of Informational, 34% Transactional Queries

Posted by Nathan Safran on March 20, 2012

A recent study suggested Wikipedia appears on page one of the search results for 99 percent of search results. Conductor analyzed 2,000 informational and transactional queries and found Wikipedia on page one for 6 out of 10 informational and 34 percent of transactional queries. A Study on Wikipedia, and an Alternative Approach Last month Danny Goodwin at Search Engine Watch and Matt McGee over at Search Engine Land each wrote about a study from Intelligent Positioning that found Wikipedia ranks on Google UK for 99 percent of searches. The study looked at Wikipedia’s appearances in the search results for 1,000 keywords. From Search Engine Land on the methodology: As Intelligent Position explains, the company used a couple random noun generators … Continue reading →

Social in the SERPs: How the Social Networks Appear in the Search Results for the World's 500 Top Tech Writers

Posted by Nathan Safran on March 12, 2012

A version of this article originally appeared in Search Engine Watch on February 28th, 2012. Considerable attention has recently been paid in the search industry to Google’s Search Plus Your World’. The release, which went live January 10th, has shaken up the SERPs, as Google has begun mixing in Google + results with greater frequency.  If much of the coverage is to be taken at face value, brand queries (both corporate and personal) have been among those most impacted by the change, presumably because Google has ‘deeper Google+ knowledge’ of brands than it does for other queries. The discussion around the increased emphasis of Google+ in the SERPs has also brought with it some controversy around other social networks in … Continue reading →

51 Million Visits Analyzed: [Not Provided] 16% of Google Organic Traffic

Posted by Nathan Safran on March 7, 2012

I spent last week out in San Francisco at SMX West. Conductor CEO Seth Besmertnik gave an excellent session on Search Marketing & Competitive Analysis and I presented on a panel on Life in a [Not Provided] World. The energy was great and there were a number of excellent sessions on search and social related topics. The most difficult part was choosing between sessions running at the same time. Danny Sullivan and co. did a great job with this year’s conference. While there were no magic bullets [at SMX West] for recouping the keyword data that has been lost, a starting point for dealing with the situation is understanding the landscape in which it is occurring. Over the next week … Continue reading →

How the ‘Big-Data’ Era is Changing the Practice of Online Marketing

Posted by Nathan Safran on March 5, 2012

A version of this article originally appeared in Search Engine Land on February 24th, 2012. In the early days of ‘Mad Men’ marketing, half of all Marketing spend was famously wasted – the Marketer just didn’t know which half. Many a Marketer’s sleepless night was spent wondering what levers of their Marketing spend to push forward and which to dial back. Then, along came the Internet, and with it a new kind of marketing. Marketing online brought with it ‘cause-and-effect marketing’ and a greater ability to measure the effectiveness of marketing effort. New metrics such as click-through rates, bounce rates and page views made its way into our lexicon and marketing gradually became a discipline rooted in data, with Excel … Continue reading →

The Best Active is Proactive When It Comes to Search Marketing

Posted by Conductor on February 23, 2012

Adam Dince is currently the VP, Director of Search and Content Strategy for MRM Worldwide, a top-five global digital and direct agency.     I have found that, for the most part, Google only makes changes when it believes change can improve the customer experience [...] If we take to heart the notion of building for users and not search engines, we’ve then essentially adapted a proactive mindset. One thing search engine marketers know for sure is that search engine algorithms, processes and features will continue to evolve as the needs and expectations of its users do. Over time, search engines have optimized their own performance – they have become smarter, faster, more robust, and continue to offer new options … Continue reading →

Valentine's Day Study Gets to the Heart of Success for Internet Retailers [Infographic]

Posted by Nathan Safran on February 13, 2012

Growth in online commerce has impacted many holidays in the United States, perhaps none more so than Valentine’s Day. According to a recent Google Consumer Insights study, Valentine’s Day searches have increased 35% year over year, with an expected $210B on the line for web-influenced sales in 2012. …Valentine’s Day searches have increased 35% year over year, with an expected $210B on the line for web-influenced sales in 2012. In late January 2012, Conductor analyzed over 1,700 high-volume local and non-location specific keywords in our SEO platform Searchlight, to determine domains that appeared most frequently for Valentine’s Day queries. Our analysis showed gifts.com was the overall winner, appearing in the top five search results for 6 out of 10 non-geographic … Continue reading →