Firstly, we'd like to announce that we have responded to feedback from our Workshop students and have launched some new training events with additional venues. See below for further details if you need to run Google AdWords campaigns profitably as well as understand web analytics including the free Google Analytics tool. And, believe me, if all you know about web analytics is visitor numbers and which search engines are referring them then you haven't got to grips with web analytics yet and you're missing out on more than a few tricks as well as a potentially lucrative livelihood for those of you offering SEM services.

On to our latest marketing snippet:

SEARCH ENGINE CLICK WARS?

We reported many months back that it was a possibility that search engines such as MSN could start to financially reward searchers in their efforts to fight back against Google’s prominence! Well, what do you know? We were right (again???) It’s starting to happen. Much as newspapers use promotions to improve their circulation such as running competitions and offering free DVDs and money-saving vouchers, last week, Microsoft announced a three-month incentive inviting searchers to compete for a prize and Yahoo! recently asked searchers whether incentives such as air miles and DVD online subscriptions would entice them to switch over to their
search engine. You might want to try your luck already with the beta version @ http://www.msnsearchandwin.com

Further, Bill Gates has suggested that Microsoft may start to distribute advertising revenue to consumers clicking on Sponsored Searches as some analysts predict a decline in the market for keyword advertising amidst complaints that Google searches are now costing too much in certain competitive industries such as the home loan industry.

Add to this that Microsoft is going to launch Windows Live Search to ‘get fast access to real answers, rather than hundreds of pages with thousands of links’ across the internet, desktops and mobile devices and you have a very interesting article from last Sunday’s Observer full of speculation over how things may pan out in the months to come:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1712860,00.html

Search Engine Workshops are, by popular demand, adding more products and venues to their portfolio. If you fancy a trip down to the south coast (well OK - Southampton!) in May, or you are already based in that neck of the woods, we’d be delighted to see you on one of our training events. If you prefer, we’re back in Richmond upon Thames in April.

Watch this space! It will be Malaga next!

Here you can find out how to register for our new training events on creating profitable Google Adwords and other pay per click campaigns as well as making the most out of Google Analytics, new venues and dates visit:

http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/registration.htm

By the way, did you know that our Search Engine Marketing Workshops have now been officially given CPD (Continuing Professional Development)status from the CIM (Chartered Institute of Marketing)? Just another reason for attending one of our Workshops!

To discuss either the workshops or other training events scheduled, call Marie on 01406-351556 now.

Search Engine Marketing and SEO have definitely come of age! Up until the last few weeks it’s been unusual to see much mention about Google and other search related matters in the mainstream UK press, other than a smattering of usually badly written and uninformed gibberish by so-called SEO experts that none of us have ever heard of. In the last couple of weeks that seems to have all changed! There has even been a programme on prime time BBC2 television all about Google.

Google has, of course, been in the news with regard to matters relating to China and The White House and, following on from this, Matt Cutts, a Google engineer announced last weekend that it had blacklisted the web sites of both Ricoh, the Japanese photocopier and office equipment manufacturer, and BMW in Germany. You can read Matt Cutt’s blog on this here:

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ramping-up-on-international-webspam/

Needless to say, the car giant was not best pleased with Google for making this public. See:

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,20411-2028624,00.html

The Times, amongst other broadsheets has carried the story all this week. In today’s Times (9th February) it reports: ‘Google has allowed BMW’s German website back on to its search engine index after the carmaker removed webpages that had artificially boosted its popularity. The company was accused of using a dummy “doorway” website that persuaded Google’s computers to put BMW high up on its search lists.’

(To us, it looks as though BMW has in fact employed what is known as ‘cloaking’ techniques to boost its web pages.)

Interestingly, The Times reported yesterday that ‘Google is publicising a new weapon that it is about to unleash on the “black hats”.

The company is testing Big Daddy, an all-powerful new computer infrastructure, which promises to weed out attempts to cheat the system … and is expected to be up and running as early as next month’.

I suspect we’ll be hearing more about Big Daddy in the weeks to come!

Search Engine Workshops is in no doubt that both BMW and Ricoh must be ruing the fact that they haven’t attended one of our Search Engine Marketing - SEO Workshops or they could have avoided getting into this mess ;-) However, you’ll be pleased to know there is one place up for grabs on our workshop on Wednesday and Thursday next week. Enrolment finishes by the end of play tomorrow (Friday) so you need to act quickly:

http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/registration.htm

Google has won the search engine wars – at least for the foreseeable future. Many of us will be saddened to see that Yahoo! appears to have admitted as such - see
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/256748_yahoo24.html
and MSN has certainly not made any significant inroads into Google’s market share in the past year or so since it started using its own engine.

This confirms what we all knew anyway, that as far as attracting visitors from natural search is concerned, Google is king!

But other players are not standing still, of course. Yahoo! may have more or less accepted defeat in its battle with Google but it is now moving sideways and developing its publishing products. This includes the acquisition of del.icio.us - http://del.icio.us/. If you haven’t met it, del.icio.us is a bookmarking service. There are a growing number of similar sites, but this is one of the best established. When you find a page on the net you want to bookmark, instead of adding it to your own bookmarks or favourites on your own computer, you add it to
your del.icio.us account. By adding tags to your page and notes, del.icio.us allows you to build up a well organised resource library without cluttering up your own machine. It also has the advantage that you can share your library with colleagues and friends, which I think will be hugely beneficial to lots of people, myself and Sally included!

So what is its relevance to search? Quite a lot if you think about it. If you feel that a page is so worthwhile that you want to add it to your del.icio.us account, then that is a very big vote for that page, and Yahoo! will be aware of that vote. What better parameter to put into the search algorithm than votes from bookmarking sites? After all, using this bookmarking data gives the search engine up-to-date information on what is popular right at this very minute. One problem with all current algorithms is that they inevitably use slightly out of date information.

Yahoo! has been very good at seeing a good idea and running with it, Hotmail being a prime example. Del.icio.us could well prove to be another!

Our next Search Engine Marketing Workshop scheduled for 15th and 16th February in Richmond upon Thames is already 75% full so why not stop putting it off and make 2006 the year to get your SEO and SEM skills really up to date. You can register right away @
http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk or call Marie on 01406-351556 to discuss your individual requirements.