If you haven’t been on Google.com in the past couple of days, you have yet to see their new tool, Google Suggest. This addition is aimed to give searchers recommendations of what keywords to search upon. Results are determined based on algorithms that can ascertain query predictions. For example, when I go to Google, attempting to search for “Orlando Hotels,” I only have to type four letters until I see my desired keyword:

So what does all this mean for Search Engine Marketing? Easy… you can now pretty much rule out bidding on and paying for any misspelled keywords. In addition, you can get a very good grasp on how competitive a search keyword will be based on the results provided in green. For example, understanding how popular a given keyword is on the World Wide Web can help in determining its potential competitiveness and, therefore, picking the minimum and maximum Cost per Click (CPC) amount. Lastly, Google Suggest acts almost as a keyword research tool, providing anyone building a campaign with additional keyword recommendations, based on what other terms show up in the Suggest drop-down. 

It’s a simple question but one that could increase your company’s profit when applied to your business.  I came up with this title as I sat in a company meeting the other day. Our EVP was telling a story about the cohesiveness that needs to occur between a website and a search engine marketing campaign. A past client in the cookie business wasn’t getting the kind of ROI on their cookie products that they were seeking. Their search engine marketing campaign was great but their cookie sales weren’t increasing. After some extensive research, my EVP pulled out her credit card and attempted to buy some cookies online. After attempting to buy cookies online for fifteen minutes and still not completing an order, she called the client and asked, “Have You Bought Your Own Cookies?”  The client was a little taken back, but went to their site and attempted to buy cookies. The client called back and said I understand.  The next step for them was optimizing their site’s usability.

 This is the same question that any company should ask themselves from time to time. Switch perspectives and become the consumer, the person checking out the internet. Would you sign up for a newsletter or buy products from yourself if you had never heard of your company? Some company’s aren’t realistic when it comes to this question. Their pages don’t load quickly, their site looks prehistoric, the content is too generic and not targeted to the audience, they have poor site navigation and the list can go on. If any of these issues sound familiar then you should look into optimizing the user friendliness of your site. Not only will it help your organic positions it will help your search engine marketing campaign. Optimization is a good for business.  Think about it, you can have the best ad copy in the world, have the best positions, and good keywords, but if people are appalled or confused by your site when they get there, they aren’t going to stay.  They are going hit the back button and find a competitors ad and get what they’re looking for in no time at all.

Optimization is a must for both good organic traffic and for a good search engine marketing campaign to perform at its’ best. The next time you’re looking to increase online productivity, go ahead and ask yourself the question. “Have I Bought My Own Cookies?” You may be surprised to find that your need to optimize your site’s usability.

Google just announced a new tool called Ad Planner – a research and media planning tool that connects advertisers & publishers, and helps identify the best places to buy ads online. Media planners can now enter demographics and sites associated with your target audience, and the tool will return information about sites that are likely to be visited by their target demographic.

The tool, which isn’t a complete surprise to the industry, will compete with established leaders in the web measurement space – ComScore and Nielsen. While these services base their estimates on surveys or customer panels, Google’s web measurement results will be based on data collected from servers, which should provide a deeper picture of Internet behavior. As is the case with the majority of Google offerings, the tool is free which should help to attract additional advertising business. Since the tool is new, it’s currently available by invitation only.

The announcement of this tool did draw the attention of critics. With Google already controlling a good chunk of online advertising pie, some advertising executives are uncomfortable with placing more power into the company’s hands. One senior executive was quoted as saying “For an advertiser, the last thing you want to do is to have your adviser be the same person you are spending your money with.”