I have to admit, I didn’t read it at first, but then seeing other comments I felt I should take a second look.

The complete Yahoo “Master Terms and Conditions and Program Terms” can be found here.

The “SPONSORED SEARCH and CONTENT MATCH® PROGRAM TERM” is where the concern is.

Section 3: “Accordingly, you expressly agree that we may also: (i) create ads, (ii) add and/or remove keywords, and/or (iii) optimize your account(s). We will notify you via email of such changes made to your account(s), and can also include a spreadsheet of such changes upon your written request.”

There is so much wrong with that statement. Here is my response:

Create Ads: Yahoo is going to create ads for me? Really? Ad rules are understandable, but I do not want you, Yahoo, creating ads for me. You do not know my goals, my mission, or my purpose. You do not know my customer or my customer’s mind set. Plus, I have seen your work.

Add and/or Remove Keywords: I could live with “the removing” of keywords, especially if they are too broad or not related to ads. However, “the adding” is a big problem for me. I do not want anyone adding keywords, thus more cost, to my campaigns. I especially do not want anyone adding anything to my account, who is unfamiliar with my objectives.

Optimize your account: Do not optimize my account. If you feel my account performs poorly, then so be it. I will listen to any suggestions or recommendations. I welcome them. But let me decide if I want to take those suggestions. You do not make those decisions for me

I have tried many times to let Yahoo “optimize” campaigns for me. Those results are filled with misspellings, bad links, and clearly written by someone who did not take the time to understand the business goals.

There is a reason paid search marketers are not spending our pay-per-click money with Yahoo. It’s because the product and the customer service is not high quality. Especially, not the high quality that we have come accustomed to.

My 5 Twitter Rules

1. No Auto Reply Direct Message

Auto replies DM’s are about as impersonal as out of office email replies. It’s a quick way to turn away new followers. Some would even call it spam, which by definition would be an unsolicited, impersonal message. An auto DM just says, “You are not contributing to my conversation, nor do you care what my messages are.”

2. Stop Using Twitter to Push Links

Yes, I am talking to you @andersoncooper. After a month of following @andersoncooper, I realized that this is crazy. Obviously, it is not him. It is someone that works for the show.

Twitter is about conversation. In fact, with @andersoncooper there is no conversation. It’s just messages that link back to stories on the website.

It’s okay to have links, but not the majority of the time. Links are used to share ideas and ultimately start conversations. Links in Twitter should be used as the “tender to the fire”. The fire is the conversation.

3. No More RSS Feeds as Twitter Posts

Thanks to @sandraniehaus & @pwnicholson for this one. Again, I use Twitter as a conversation place. I know where to find your blog posts and the other posts. In general, any type of automation with Twitter is annoying and takes personalization out.

4. I DO care what you are doing

I follow you because I do care what you are doing and what you are working on. So tell me. We may be working on similar projects. You may be able to help me or, in the extreme case, I may be able to help you.

5. Don’t turn Twitter into you personal chat or IM client.

I have to admit, I break this rule often. I hope to work on this issue in 2009. I often use the @ command in get involved in one on one conversations that most of my followers don’t care about. That’s what DM’s are for.

Okay, those are my personal rules. But all that being said, do whatever you want to do. That’s what Twitter is. There are no standard rules. We each have our own personal policies and preferences. But don’t let anyone, like me, tell you what you should and should not do with Twitter.

Follow Me: twitter.com/johnwellis

- Michael stresses that content is still king. Quality, well-written content solves many SEO issues. Too many SEO’s spend too much time discussing and worrying about page sculpting, purchasing links, duplicate content, no-follows, and many other minor factors. By creating useful content many ranking problems are solved.
Michael sums everything up in one sentence: “In search engine optimization you can never go wrong by creating more content.”

Local
Anatomy & Optimization of a Local Business Profile
Chris Smith

- Chris takes us through a comprehensive, step by step guide on how to optimize and create local listings. As Chris says, “In many local search and directory sites, most of the enhancement data can be added in for free, yet millions of businesses have never taken advantage of the full scope of free advertising available to them.”

Pay-Per-Click
Key Relevance Review of Google Automatic Match - Measuring the Cost of Skipping Keyword Research
Jim Gilbert and Mike Churchill of Key Relevance

- Key Relevance examines, with real life examples, the problems and pitfalls of Google’s Automatic Matching. Whether you should do Automatic Matching is a decision for each marketer, but what is clear: ”Turn Automatic Matching off until you understand the ramifications of what it will do to your ad spend, traffic, and conversions.”

Travel
Why Real Estate Sales and Vacation Rental Websites Don’t Mix
Blizzard Internet Marketing - Carrie Hill

- Being in the travel industry, I am a little partial toward travel articles. However, there are very few online marketers that truly understand travel AND online marketing. Carrie Hill is one of those. As Carrie says, “The two business models are entirely different, although loosely related, and combining them creates problems with your marketing efforts.”

Social
Five Reasons Twitter is an Essential Social Media Tool
Search Engine Guide - Jennifer Laycock

- From non-Twitter users, it’s always “I don’t get it”. Jennifer helps in simple language explain “the why”.

**

Those were my favorites, although there were many others I loved as well. If you agree, let the authors know. All bloggers love feedback, social media votes, and links. Spread the news.

The Oklahoma Quarterback made his case Saturday night.

As far as the two Texas Tech players go, it’s hard to get stay on top of the voter’s minds this year in the Big 12.

It is clear that Michael Crabtree’s stock took an immediate rise after his game winning catch to beat Texas.

Unfortunately, for him he is still an unknown to many people, especially compared to his quarterback, the one who through that game winning pass, Graham Harrell.

Along with Crabtree, Graham Harrell may suffer from the Texas Tech drop in polls from 2nd to 7th, after the Oklahoma lost.

Colt McCoy, the favorite of many for the Heisman trophy, seems to be suffering from lack of big time games. Texas was last seen by the nation Thanksgiving night. In contrast, the Oklahoma Sooners have been in front of the national voters twice since then, including the Big 12 Championship.

Reigning Heisman Trophy winner, Tim Tebow proved he does not have to run every touchdown in the SEC Championship game against Alabama. Tebow went 14-for-22 for 216 yards and 3 touchdowns.

In his emotional rally cry at the Ole Miss Post game press conference, Tebow promised a new team and a new quarter back. He lived up to that promise and never let up.

Unfortunately for Tebow, Oklahoma had the prime time TV spot on Saturday night. The Big 12 controversy didn’t hurt Bradford either. After a convincing win again Missouri in the Big 12 Championship, Sam Bradford clearly made his case for his Heisman.

Sam Bradford increased his chances Saturday night, throwing for a Big 12 Championship-record 384 yards and two touchdowns in a 62-21 victory over Missouri.

Update: 12/11/08

I noticed that Google is predicting another winner:

tim tebow
sam bradford
colt mccoy

Top 9 Posts (in no particular order)

1. Google Teleportation Pollution
2. Do not cut online marketing funds in face of recession
3. PPC Spend should be more than SEO
4. Vertical Search leads to mistrust
5. Quality internal link building is a result of good content
6. Vertical Search - the Precision is the Problem
7. Mass Marketing is Dead. Long Live Search Marketing
8. Marketing lessons learned form pay-per-click analytics
9. Many travel companies still not taking advantage of Universal Search

(Popularity is based on links, votes and comments.)

Being directly involved in the travel industry, I will have a different opinion on vertical search than many of my co-speakers. I do not see the sense of urgency and immediate need for vertical search engines. I will touch on many different topics during my 15 minutes, below is a taste.

Saturation and Competition

It is not to say that vertical search engines do not work now for many companies. However, there is not a huge demand for vertical search engines in the travel industry and other major verticals because of the competition that exist already. Many industries have 100’s of sites that already handle reviews, pricing and product comparison. Adding more to the mix, with limited inventory, will ultimately confuse the consumer.

These new vertical search engines will only have an impact on smaller industries. However, once that space is filled, then need does not exist anymore. Having multiple search engines in every industry defeats the purpose having a vertical search to begin with. The saturation will eventually send users back to where they were to begin with … Google.

For example, a site like Snooth.com may work well now because it brings users to a specialized search on wine. However, what happens when the next wine vertical search engine comes along? Then, the next? The market becomes flooded with wine verticals. The confusion will ultimately bring the user back to Google. Then, it leads to - “Why add the middle man at all?”

Precision is the Problem

A vertical search engine will never be a complete result. Sites like Snooth.com, for example, will never have a complete list of wine. Because of lack of products a vertical search will eventually lead to mistrust from the consumer. Google is successful because of its exhaustive list of results, not despite it.

Advertising

Smart advertisers are going to fulfill the demand in “”Horizontal Search Engines” first, because that’s where consumers will turn to first. With marketing dollars shrinking every day, there will not be available funds to support the other sites.

Find out more information, by attending Search Engine Strategies Chicago.

I have to say, I went into the document as a skeptic. After all, why would you ask the other team how to beat them? However, I was really impressed by the document.

The SEO Starter Guide runs through the basics of SEO, with some quality information that anyone who maintains a website should know. Although, most of these items will not come as a surprise to any readers of this blog or any other quality search engine optimization blog. However, it’s always a good idea to be refreshed on the basics.

Below are some of my favorite highlights from the SEO Guide. I am not going to get into the details of each of these, you can find those on the article or on previous post of mine.

Create Unique, accurate page titles. Good practices for page title tags:

• Accurately describe the page’s content
• Create unique title tags for each page
• Use brief, but descriptive titles

Good practices for site navigation

• Create a naturally flowing hierarchy
• Use mostly text for navigation
• Use “breadcrumb” navigation
• Put an HTML sitemap page on your site, and use an XML Sitemap file

Good practices for content

• Write easy-to-read text
• Stay organized around the topic
• Create content primarily for your users, not search engines
• Create fresh, unique content

Good practices for promoting your website

• Blog about new content or services
• Know about social media sites
• Add your business to Google’s Local Business Center
• Reach out to those in your site’s related community

Other Great Tips

• Write better anchor text
• Think about anchor text for internal links too

Find the complete Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide here

A larger portion of “search engine experts”, do not understand pay-per-click marketing. Hopefully, I can help clear the air.

First, let’s start with the EyeTracking Study, provided by Enquiro. The heat map clearly shows that more people look at organic results over paid results. This is an undeniable fact. More eyes and more clicks go to the organic listings.

Excerpt:
“SEO drives 75%+ of all search traffic, yet garners less than 15% of marketing budgets for SEM campaigns. PPC receives less than 25% of all search traffic, yet earns 80%+ of SEM campaign budgets.” - http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-disconnect-in-ppc-vs-seo-spending

However, as any online marketer will tell you, it’s not the clicks that matter it’s the conversion. When users are in the purchase state of mind, they will more often go to a paid search ad, over an organic listing. Eye Charts and Heat maps ultimately do not mean anything to a paid search campaign, because these tests can not imitate the buying process.

This same philosophy applies to television commercials. We all say we don’t like commercials. They are a nuisance or we ignore them. That is absolutely true when you are in the middle of watching a quality movie. However, commercials work. How else would you know what products to buy and where to buy them?

Although, I still strongly believe there is a need for SEO. Pay per click marketing is a much better investment. If managed correctly, there is not a better ROI then PPC. If Paid Search Isn’t Working Then You’re Doing Something Wrong.

Not only is it a great investment, but a good SEO campaign is the result of a optimized PPC campaign. The PPC research is often needed before SEO can be executed properly.

Maybe part of the problem is that so many paid search campaigns are poorly optimized. Paid search marketing is deceptively easy. Because Google, and others, make it so easy to get a campaign up and running, marketers make the mistake of not taking the extra steps to optimize a campaign.

Below are a few of the comments from the article:

“SEO better in the long-run …” – “Long-run”, try explaining long run to executives. It’s much easier to explain that 100K returned 500K. The “Long Run” may not exist for many companies. The immediate cash flow is needed now.

“PPC is plug-and-play web marketing that works out of the box” - really? Wow. Again, the misconception that pay-per-click is easy.

There were also some great comments as well:

“A lot of PPC campaigns are run by people (like me) who do not really know what they are doing and so they tend to result in money wasted on phrases that are too broad, misdirected etc.”

“I would disagree that the skill threshold for PPC is low, yes anyone can turn an ad on, but to effectively maximise the revenue and optimise a ppc campaign is a skill set all of it’s own, and takes as much hard work and skill as any other form of marketing. Anyone can write a title tag too, but that doesn’t mean that the skill threshold for SEO is low. I think there is a lack of information and discussion around making the best use of PPC though. “

“SEOs have a spotty reputation with many people.” – Jane Copland

“Companies don’t like or understand PPC more (though they like to think they do), it just gets more money because it’s trackable and the results are immediate.“Kate Morris

BarCamp Nashville is THE event for marketers, designers, developers, and all other self-proclaimed geeks, to gather for free knowledge and fellowship.

If you have not registered, please do so now: BarCamp Nashville.

I will be moderating an SEO Site Clinic session. If you have never attended one of these before, it’s a great concept. This is where users volunteer their sites to praised and critiqued by everyone. Who are we kidding, there is usually more critiquing then praising?

I use the word “moderating” and not “speaking” for that reason. This is not a presentation. There is no outline. The session will go as good as the volunteers allow it to go.

Bring your websites and even your client’s website. Be prepared to take the constructive opinions, sometimes harshly. However, it’s all to benefit your site and your business objectives.

This is where we come together to help each other out. We discuss what works and what does not work. We open our bags of tricks and share with others in the community. Ultimately, that’s the whole essence of BarCamp.

Join me at SEO Site Clinic at BarCamp Nashville.

Vertical search is not new. It has been around for many years. It’s only now that it’s “blog worthy” because major companies seem to be investing dollars in its future. However, vertical search engines have large hurdles to handle before they are in the front of the mind of the average consumer.

Minimal Use Makes it Forgettable

By definition vertical searches are specific. This means that consumers are only using them on as-needed bases. That could be once a week, once a month, or even longer. A travel vertical search, for example, may only be used every 3 months. Because of this lack of use, the consumer becomes unfamiliar with the product. Thus, when the time comes again to search for a vacation, its back to Google they go. Forgetting all about the vertical search engine they used last vacation season.

Minimal Use -> Unfamiliar -> Minimal Use -> Unfamiliar -> Minimal Use

This usage cycle is lot different than the “Googling” consumers are doing every day. Google has become second nature for many consumers. Trying to get them to use another vertical search engine is hard enough, but then asking them to only use it at random times is a very steep mountain to climb.

Broad Results lead to trust

Even if the user can remember the new search engine, is it even needed anyway?

The assumption with vertical is that users want a more precise search results. Supposedly, consumers are getting lost in confusion of the massive index of websites that a Google query returns. Vertical search engines contain information in their indexes about a specific topic. This process eliminates waste and takes the consumer directly to what they are looking for. Many new vertical search engines are selling themselves as a narrowly focused results-oriented solution.

Its sounds like a great solution, but do users really want precise results?

Narrow results lead to mistrust. The smaller the search results, the less likely users are to trust the results. Because Google, Yahoo and others return a wide range of results per query, in some ways it actually proves itself to be more trustworthy. Consumers see the results and admire the breadth of information that is returned. Although, there may be an initial overwhelming sigh that may come over him, the consumer is comfortable with the results because it likely means an exhaustive search. That’s ultimately what the users want: A complete search. They want to know that they have seen all options before making a purchase.

On the other hand, a vertical search engine returns a small narrowly focused result. At first glance, this sounds like a great idea. However, a narrow results leads to skepticism.
Is this a complete list? Are these results paid? It is a true “natural search? Where can I find more results?

Consumers trust Google, because it’s so exhaustive, not despite it.

In other words, it comes down to trust. The broad, sometimes unrelated, results are actually what keep users coming back. It’s a beautiful thing. And right or wrong, the perception is Google is a complete web search. Perception is enough to win a consumer over. Vertical Search engines, by definition, are not a complete web search. That causes distrust.

As mentioned before, the precision is the problem with vertical search engines. Before we all jump on vertical search as the solution let’s make sure we analyze the problem. I am all for building a better product, but not for a “problem” that’s not really a problem to begin with.