Michael Roebuck's Blog

My good friend and co-worker, Karl Ribas was recently interviewed by Joe Balestrino with Mr. SEO. I'm a bit behind in my podcasts and finally got to hear his interview this morning. It was a great discussion about PPC advertising. As with every great discussion, I feel my two cents worth will only make them better. So, as you listen to this great podcast, here is my 2 cents worth....

1 Cent: My first cent involves the ability to run A/B tests with Google Adwords. Joe briefly stated the ability was there but I feel that topic needs more time. The ability to run an A/B test will help virtually every aspect of PPC advertising, from landing page design to ad copy. When asked what to avoid in ad copy, Karl mentioned each business was different. Well, how can you tell what works for your business if you don't run A/B tests? Google make the ability to test so easy, that not to test, is a crime. Changing one word in your ad can make a big conversion difference. (Karl mentioned Rob Snell; Our friend and Yahoo Store conversion expert) By running against a control, you can guage just how much of a difference you'll get.

By testing different landing pages within same viewable ad, you can test various aspects of your landing page copy. Yahoo trackable links make testing not only your ads but the landing pages easy as pie!

By the way, Yahoo Search Marketing also allows for ad copy A/B testing as well.

In short, the ability to do A/B testing is easy to do and a necessity. Call me (or Karl) if you get stuck or need any help.

2 Cent: My second cent involves Karl's comment about his use of Yahoo Search if he wanted to buy something and Google search if he was researching. I think he's wrong. Some people might say that different people search using different engines and different styles, but since he doesn't follow my style, he's wrong. (Joke)

I search differently. If I'm looking to buy something, I use Google Adwords because those people are paying for the ad and therefore want to sell something. If I'm researching, I use the organic results and Alta Vista. I like to read reviews on Amazon or other sites where people review. Organic results are chock full of independent reviews on why something is good or bad.

For example, Kelly sold me on the Cingular Blackjack phone. Before I buy, I want to see other reviews so I search Google for "Cingular Blackjack" and read the organic results showing me various opinions and reviews that have been published. When I'm ready to buy, I click on the paid links. Alta Vista provides good organic results as well.

OK. There you have it. My 2 cents worth on Karl's interview with Mr. SEO. Please be sure to listen to the Podcast and all Joe's podcasts as they are very educational and informative for the seasoned SEO person as well as the do it yourselfer. It's full of legitimate information and not fluff about what the speakers did over the weekend. Karl's blog is great as well! Check them both out:

Labels: balestrino, google, karl, ppc, ribas, seo, yahoo

I was reading the February issue of Website Magazine and stumbled across there list of the Top 50 Sites for Designers and Developers. Who do you think was ranked 24 in the Top 25 SEO and Marketing Firms? I'll give you a hint: We were. And we didn't pay for it.

I'm very familliar with top SEO houses like, "Bruce Clay","Zunch","iProspect" and others. I respect the work they do and feel they are top shelf Marketing firms. It's nice to see All Web Promotion ranked up there with them.

All Web Promotion has been optimizing web sites since 1999 and has helped achieve hundreds of top rankings.

According to the magazine article, "Research for this report comes courtesy of Ranking.com, the Web’s largest provider of website popularity metrics and detailed website information for more than one million online destinations."

Congrats All Web!

Labels: marketing, seo

It's been a rather slow several weeks regarding Yahoo. We haven't had any mind blowing test results and nothing major has been released or dictated by Yahoo that required warning everyone. It's been rather slow.

Slow Yahoo wise. We here at the office have been swamped. Apparently something happened around 9 months ago that caused everyone to want to have a baby. Brandi just returned from maternity leave Wednesday and Michelle, who has been part time for the past several weeks just had her second baby yesterday. Megan is also pregnant and due in a couple months.

Poor Alan has been swamped with Brandi's job as well as helping Michelle while her time was cut. Kelly ran around and helped everywhere that was needed. Needless to say it's been an interesting couple months and looking to be another interesting couple.

To make everyone's heart jump just a little faster, Today at lunch Kelly announced she was pregnant. We knew this was a joke as she's been telling her husband she was pregnant all week. Is it really a joke or does no-one believe her? She has been eating rather healthy all week. I guess time will tell.

Kelly also had an interesting twist of the Baby Mozart concept. The Baby Mozart concept is where pregnant mothers play Mozart and other specific music to there unborn babies. It supposedly helps make the babies a bit brighter. I can't say anything as my wife played music constantly to our children. (I slipped in a few Metallica and Nine inch Nails CD's which might explain a few things) Anyway, Kelly thought that playing SEO podcasts would be better than classical music. I'm not sure I agree. I'm not sure I want my babies first words to be "Google" , "ROI" , "keyword" or something like that.

Maybe we should just play theme music. I bet the some of the musical themes would increase any childs awareness level! Here are just a taste of some of my favorites:

Joe Balestrino / Mr. SEO Love the chorus. Good for childs inner harmony.

SEO Rockstars Rush - Rush is just good for everything.

WebmasterRadio.FM - The voice on the preceding recordings they play remind me of Pennywise the clown from "It." It's bound to get the childs heart pumping.

Kusala Bhikshu OK, he's a Buddhist monk and has nothing to do with SEO. But he has a great web site and plays the blues harmonica. Also, if more SEO people would listen to him, it would be a wonderful thing and everyone's karma would be at peace. I mean, let's face it. Some SEO people argue about the dumbest stuff. But I digress....

Finally, the best theme for any unborn child has got to be the Yahoo Yodel. This will definitely increase any childs awareness level.

What do you all think? Would podcasts be beneficial to unborn children or the theme music? Any ideas? Suggestions? Examples?

Labels: mozart, seo