Jon's In Waikiki (AKA The Waikiki Marketer)

Usually using more words than you would think necessary is the deathknell for social popularity. Unless you’re Oprah.

However, this usually reliable idea is being turned on its head by search engines.

A study was recently done that told us something we already knew – searchers rarely use just on word to do a search. Unless it’s ‘Cher’. This isn’t the first study of this kind, BTW.

With the amount of pages in the index of Google and Yahoo, one word is going to give you thousands, maybe even millions of returned listings. On top of that, one word can’t fully define what is in the searcher’s mind.

Say someone searches using the word ‘cars’. What are they after? A new car? A used one? A rental?

Are they looking for information on cars because of a problem they’re having with their own?

The use of two and three terms in a search has taken off in the past few years because of these 2 factors. Still, some haven’t gotten the word.

The study found that a significant number are still using one word searches. Some marketers are as well. You’ll find them bidding on one word terms, which is usually a bigger money pit than Enron stock.

These are the study findings:

1. Two-word phrases — 28.38 percent
2. Three-word phrases — 27.15 percent
3. Four-word phrases — 16.42 percent
4. One-word phrase — 13.48 percent
5. Five-word phrases — 8.03 percent
6. Six-word phrases — 3.67 percent
7. Seven-word phrases — 1.63 percent
8. Eight-word phrases — 0.73 percent
9. Nine-word phrases — 0.34 percent
10. Ten-word phrases — 0.16 percent

The study was done using 2 million SE users, divided up into groups of 20,000 each in 100 countries. This is important as many studies do not have the global search reach that this does.

Most tend to study one country, usually the US, or one continent, such as Europe pr Asia.

As the global economy becomes more and more real, it is important to get the Big Picture.

Although this study did not address them, there are a couple of points that usually accompany these types of research. And you should take note of them.

Number 1 – The sales are often within the multi-term searches, meaning those that use 3 or more terms. Why?

Because someone using that many is probably trying to get more exact about what they’re looking for; and that’s because they know precisely what it is that they want.

That means targeting those multiterm keyphrases, if you can figure them out, might be time and money well spent.

Chances are that they will convert and that means money.

Number 2 – Other studies have shown that people are slowly moving to search keyphrases of more than 2 terms.

That means that the next time you see a study like this, the 3 term keyphrase might be in the number one spot. Or at least nearer to the top.

All of this should be remembered when you work on keyphrases/keywords for your SEO or Google Ads campaign.

Time to expand your search vocabulary.

Hawaii has long depended on tourism for its economy. Before World War II, Hawaii actually had other industries such as sugar, pineapple and other agricultural products that made up the vast majority of the Islands’ wealth.

While there was a tourist industry at that time, it was limited to those with higher incomes – the people who could afford the ocean cruises that brought them here.

After WW II, the visitor industry exploded as America suddenly had more disposable income, air travel came of age and prices for both hotels and travel dropped to a more affordable level.

Hotels, restaurants, tour operators all understood that giving visitors the ‘Hawaii’ experience was important.

It’s what people came for; it’s what they wanted; it’s what made this place unique from all others. Hotel rooms were decorated accordingly so people had Hawaii inside and out.

Fast forward to now. In most Waikiki hotels, once you get past the lobby, you could be anywhere in the world.

If someone knocked you out, flew you here, then woke you up in a hotel room – you would have no idea you were in Hawaii. You get the same bed, tv, chest of drawers as you do in Duluth.

Somewhere along the way, with the invasion of major hotel chains, all that ‘Hawaii Experience’ was junked. There’s nothing special about most Waikiki buildings – at least those built in the last 30 years.

And then, in the last couple of years, we suddenly had a revelation brought to us by the Hawaii Visitors Bureau and other marketers of the Islands, and even local.

They spoke in reverent tones of this brilliant idea of a ‘Sense of Place’ that they would now incorporate into Hawaii.

After a million dollar study, they were shocked to find that people wanted a genuine Hawaii experience. Yes, it took them a million dollars to find this out.

This shows just how clueless these people are. It makes you question why people who can’t see the obvious are making 6 figures in these positions.

I was struck by this same confusion after reading about a similar lightning bolt that has struck a couple of big name SEO ‘gurus’.

These are the guys making hundreds of dollars an hour for their services. The perception is that they have talents over and above the rest of the industry. So when they announced that ‘SEO is Dead’, I was intrigued.

Unfortunately, this idea wasn’t as advertised. The reason ‘SEO is Dead’ is because……..are you ready?……..’you need to do more than just optimize to get people to buy!’

That’s right, they said – you need to do Marketing and use Persuasive copy and techniques to make sales today. This was the revelation they brought down from the search engine Mt. Sinai.

And, despite, in my mind, how laughable this is, they have a multitude of disciples pondering how profound it all is; people are not only swallowing this, they’re ordering another round.

The gurus are correct – SEO produces traffic, but you do still have to sell them once they’re in the door. You must work to complete the trip from search engine to purchase form.

But if you don’t know this, you shouldn’t be in business.

Be careful who you learn from – I’ve learned the hard way that not everybody who is an ‘authority’ actually has authority. They just convinced the right person, or people, somehow.

This great idea they’ve unveiled is Marketing 101 in the real world. That’s why we had the Dot Bomb.

The online market was being run by people who would’ve been shown the door had they proposed the same business plan as a bricks-n-mortar outlet.

And yet, not all of them are gone, even after the loss of millions of dollars from these ridiculous notions.

Research the marketing leaders you’re considering listening to before diving in. Sometimes it’s not just the Emperor who has no clothes. It’s also his marketing team.

I was interested to read that Microsoft is now at work on their own Analytics package. It’s currently in beta and will be released later this year.

Then again ‘Vista’ has had more projected release dates than that new Guns N Roses album. Still, this might be a better bet for actually arriving on, or near, schedule.

An analytics package is, presumably, an easier job than an operating system.

Another good reason for on time delivery is that this fits with Microsoft’s new focus on Internet/Web dominance. They realize that challenging Google is going to mean real action.

And if there’s one thing a monopoly hates, it’s another monopoly.

Google started the Analytics race when they bought Urchin, changed the name to Google Analytics (very imaginative) and cut the price to Free.

Formerly Analytic packages were, for the most part, expensive. That changed with Google Analytics as ClickTracks suddenly had their own Free package on offer.

Of course Google had the advantage as they immediately tied Analytics to AdWords, allowing advertisers to check their stats without leaving their AdWords dashboard.

If you’re thinking that this sounds a little like the Internet Explorer/Windows set-up that caused Microsoft, you’re probably not far off.

It’s not a direct parallel, but it’s a valid one. Another possible benefit of Analytics, and the coming Microsoft analytics package, is that the vendor(s) have access to all the data that is being collected by the users.

Many are worried that Google can , or will, use this data to raise bid prices for the keywords that are producing the most business for advertisers. You don’t have to be paranoid to believe that it’s at least a possibility.

The bottom line is that you should be using Analytics, whether you are doing search engine advertising or not.

You need to give yourself the advantage of knowing where you are strong and where you need to make changes. With the arrival of Free options, you have no excuse for not doing it.

Both the Google and ClickTracks packages are excellent; and there are some others out there that are free, or close to it, that are worth looking into as well.

Remember, though, it’s not just about the numbers you get. It’s equally or even more about interpreting those numbers.

That’s where real skills are needed as you try to interpret what exactly is being said to you by the figures.

Go to Yahoo, or even Google, and search under ‘How to web analytics’. You’ll find some excellent sources of information to get you started. And, best of all – they’re free.

If you were on the Internet in the Late 90’s, and even recent years, you probably knew about the DMOZ.

You might have also known it under the name ‘Open Directory Project’. This directory has been a thorn in the sides of search engine marketers for quite a while. Myself included.

Why all the hostility? Google counted a link/listing in the DMOZ very heavily when ranking sites. The directory was run and edited by volunteers, normally a laudable effort.

Unfortunately, like many of these types of projects, the directory was hijacked by its own editors. At least in certain areas.

It was not uncommon for an Editor to block competitors from being listed in the directory, thereby denying them any boost in ranking that they might have gotten.

For example, one alleged example was a lawyer who saw to it that no other attorney was given space in the section he ruled over. All search engine benefit was reserved for him, and him alone.

An editor could always claim that their competitor’s site was not one of ‘quality’, giving them a cover for the real reason behind the rejection. There were even cases where an editor’s site had multiple listings.

As you can guess, this was supposed to be against the rules of the DMOZ.

Add into that mix the deluge of listing requests by everyone trying to up their Google rank and you have a backlog that rivals the line for Pink Floyd tickets back in the day. But with less ‘wacky tobbacky’.

Basically you made a submission and then forgot about it. The official line was that the wait was 3 to 6 months before a listing would go up.

If it was accepted. Any efforts to check up would get the standard ‘We’re working on it’ retort. Most people never saw their submission accepted.

That would have been okay if there had been some oversight; and if Google hadn’t given them so much influence. Unfortunately, it bred contempt and link greed.

Any complaint about editors was met with the ‘sour grapes’ argument. That was valid in some cases, but not all.

It seems that the DMOZ is finally on its way out. It is rarely, if ever, updated today. Then again, that’s how it always was. But it doesn’t have much influence on your Google/Search engine ranking now.

It’s a lesson for the open-source/user-provided content world. It’s a great concept and it does work. Sometimes. But there needs to be some kind of check and balance system in place.

For now – let me say ‘Good Riddance, to you, DMOZ, and to all your sand-bagging editors’.

More and more the Internet is reflecting conditions and systems of the real world. This first, most famous, example of this is Google and their innovative search engine.

If you’ve read “The Search”, written by John Battelle, an excellent book BTW, you know already how Google modeled their rankings on the academic publishing world.

The importance of an academic work is reflected in how many times it is ‘cited’ by others as well as the prestige of where it is cited. If you think this sounds a lot like links, and linking, you’re correct.

Of course, this is a simplification, though the vital role of links cannot be denied. They play a central role in a site’s success and they will continue to do so for some time.

Another factor that should be recognized is that the academic world isn’t vulnerable to real world equivalents of spammers, link farms & other underhanded techniques.

Although if it was possible, I wouldn’t put it past some of the Professors I had.

Returning to our subject, the Real World model is a concept that we all need to keep in mind when working on a website, especially business sites.

This idea has broad implications – and applications, which we can’t cover in this one post. We couldn’t completely cover it even in a series of posts. But we can start.

One of the things that surprises me is that many businesses still use a Splash Page. Basically that means that the index or home page is nothing but a title and a graphic or something along those lines.

No real content, just something to ‘Get Your Attention’. That might work if the Internet was like a city, where a sign in a store window or an over-the-top entrance way could pull you in as you just happened to walk by.

But that’s not how it is.

When a person arrives at your web site, they want to be already inside the store.

Depending on how they found your site, they want to either be looking at exactly what they’re looking for or for specific information on what you offer and what you’re about.

In other words, your visitor should either be in the front of the store looking at the layout map or they should be standing at the shelf where the product or service they want is kept.

Don’t put anything between the visitor and the end result you want. Slowing down the path to a purchase, or your equivalent, is shooting yourself in the foot.

That doesn’t mean reducing your site to 2 pages – the home page and the Buy Now page. It means taking a good look at how you might be putting barriers in front of your customer. And how you can get rid of them.

Christmas is now over and things are beginning to return to normal even now.

KSSK has returned to their regular format after over a month of 24/7 Christmas music; Clients and prospective clients are telling me that they want to ramp up their efforts along with the New Year.

And speaking of the coming year, one area of search engine marketing we will be seeing & hearing more of is the Mobile Web.

The cell phone revolution that continues to march on is gaining a foothold in the search arena. The ability to query Google, Bing, Yahoo & other search engines from a cell phone is already here, though in an early, primitive form.

In Japan, however, they have adopted this ability and made it common to their daily lives.

How do we take advantage of this new market? The answer is ‘it won’t be easy’. Consider the size of a cellphone screen – how many search results can fit there?

Looking at my own, I would say 1 or 2. Any more and the choices would be too similar for any to stand out. An abbreviated description and title can be confusing, especially if the search engine software is choosing how and where to abbreviate.

The search engines themselves, as well as various gurus, are making such suggestions as making your META descriptions small and to the point in order to maximize your presence on a mobile phone or unit.

Makes sense. But, again, how do you stand out? Good question.

The good news is that proposed standards are being proposed and worked on. Some are suggesting that there be separate sites built and modified for delivery on mobile devices.

The problem is that requires businesses to build yet another website conforming to mobile standards.

Another suggestion is special software that would modify a website before mounting it on the small screen. The question is – would this software be on the mobile device or on the delivery end?

And would all the cell companies agree on that software or would there be competition , such as there is in the different DVD formats.

Unfortunately, this is another area where we have to wait and see how things fall. Still, it’s an essential market that cannot be ignored.

The legitimate next step is here. We just don’t know what shoes to wear yet.

Both my wife and I have been down with a bad cold. ‘Bad’ doesn’t begin to describe it. This was one of those illnesses that crosses borders, like a Mongol horde, expanding the limits of what a Cold could be to new heights.

This had me out of circulation for a full week, while my wife struggled with it for even longer.

Despite this setback, we’ve been enjoying the Christmas season, watching different seasonal movies and adding to my growing Holiday Music collection.

It’s amazing what’s out there. You just have to dig a little to find the really good stuff.

This past weekend we saw Jim Nabors 10th, and final, Christmas Show. It’s amazing to see not only him, but longtime Hawaii star Emma, still belting it out at an age when most have lost their edge.

Emma is close to or even at 80 years old now. Yet she demonstrated a set of lungs that would put today’s so-called divas to shame. No ridiculous multi-note yodeling there.

A recent article caught my eye because it reinforced the fact that getting a top ranking is not the end goal of SEO. There are 2 ways your keyword strategy can go wrong.

First, you can chase the most-searched keywords, wading into a highly competitive arena along with everyone else in your industry. That’s not always a mis-step.

But, the playing field can be so crowded that the negatives can outweigh the benefits.

The article brought up another good reason why this strategy is not always best. That is the fact that the most searched keywords are often the ones used by those who are researching options, rather than actively shopping.

Due to that, their conversion rates can be low. Low conversion rates aren’t worth your time. Too many times, though, business owners are seduced by having a top search engine ranking for a popular keyword.

It’s something to brag about. But wouldn’t you’d rather brag about a profit margin instead of a ranking position?

The second faulty strategy involves working to rank in search engines for keywords that don’t bring real business.

This can happen because of a dishonest SEO, who is aware of the ‘top ranking’ factor. They know they can satisfy some clients when they can point at a number 1 rank in Google, even if it isn’t a keyphrase that brings results.

It looks impressive to the client, so they’re happy.

This can also happen just by finding out after the fact thata keyword isn’t bringing what you need. Risk is inherent to any marketing, no matter what people tell you.

You don’t always know whether the gold is there until you do some digging. Sometimes there isn’t any there. It’s not your fault.

So what can you do? Target keywords that seem to be getting traffic, but may not be the most popular. They can offer opportunities as you can dominate there more easily.

Do a deep, yet broad, campaign to hit a variety of related keywords. Putting all your eggs into one basket is no way to run an SEO campaign.

Should you fall in the search rankings for one, or more, keywords, odds are you will still have other markets to prop up your search business.

Don’t be seduced by the top keywords or the top ranking. There’s much more going on that you must consider before embarking on an SEO campaign.

The season continues its rolling pace here in the Islands. We went to the ‘Honolulu City Lights’ event on Saturday. This includes the lighting of the City tree along with the Electrical Parade.

Although we enjoyed it, as we always do, we both thought that the Waikiki parade is as good, maybe even better.

It’s surprising to see how many mainland HS marching bands are in that one. Is that typical for Christmas parades elsewhere?

The most unusual was a high school from Pennsylvania who were led by a bagpipe ensemble – all of whom were students themselves.

The rest of the rather large band was outfitted in the British army uniforms you see on the Buckingham Palace guards, complete with the big furry hat. I never thought of a HS offering a bagpipe program. Interesting.

Now onto the world of search engines and internet marketing. Do you have a hard to remember business name? Or is you domain name involve a lot of dashes and deliberately misspelled words to give it that ‘hip’ cache?

That might’ve seemed cool around 1999, but now you’re trying to get your business moving and the URL might be hurting you.

So – what do you do? Start all over, losing every bit of linking you built over the years? Luckily, the answer is No.

However, it might be time for you to acquire some new domains that are easier to remember or have a ‘hook’ that people will remember. These domains will merely redirect to your already established site.

What kind of domains are we talking about? Say you sell tools. Go to GoDaddy and see if WeveGotYourTools.com is available. Keep in mind some general rules, though, because the truth is this – You actually don’t want to get WeveGotYourTools.com. Why is that?

Because that phrase, usually, has an apostrophe in ‘We’ve’. That can make people stop and think or even enter it by mistake when typing out your URL. You want to be sure that there is no ambiguity whatsoever.

The person who is looking for you should be able to remember that domain and type it in without any problem. Someone who gets an error message is likely a lost visitor.

What do you do with these domains? Put them on your business card and use them in any publicity efforts. You can still do your SEO efforts on your original domain and reap those benefits.

Plus you get the Quick Recall advantages as well. One more thing – research has shown that people see ‘.com’ urls as more substantial/trustworthy than ‘.net’ urls. Keep that in mind.

I don’t know why, but I was surprised to receive an ad delivered to my mailbox. As part of some of the SE news digests I’ve subscribed to online, I also get occasional emails that are just an ad.

It’s just part of the package. The info they provide in the digests is very good, so an occasional ad is okay with me. But this one was different.

It was for yet another submission service – one of those companies who will, for a fee, submit you to the search engines. This one went one better.

It stated “You Will Be Listed In 48 Hours Guaranteed”. It even read below that guarantee that “Your Website Will Show Up In The Web’s Most Important Engines In 48 Hours” with the logos of Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc mounted below.

Now, if you’ve read this blog, you know that Google does not seem to be indexing new domains, or at least a good percentage of them. So this guarantee of Google visibility sounded good. But then I read some more.

Further down I saw this – “In 48 hours or less…your site will begin to show up in the sponsored links [my emphasis] Google, Yahoo!, AOL, AltaVista, Excite, InfoSpace and many other search engines. No other service is able to match this claim.”

You’re reading that right – they’re not getting you into the ‘organic/regular’ index. They’re charging you $100 to open a Google Ads account for you. How nice of them.

Yes, your paid listing will be showing up in the search engines, but why should you pay them to do something you can do easily? Especially when they’re obviously presenting this service in very deceptive terms.

But, you might think, they can get me up and appearing in those listings in only 48 hours! Here’s something you should know – Google will start showing your paid search listings in as little as 15 MINUTES.

48 hours basically gives these guys time to sit around and get to it later. Unbelievably, the ad got even better.

“Using our superior proprietary submission software, your site will be submitted to Google, Yahoo, Bing…” I’m not sure what software they could have developed to open a Google Ads account, but that is not something I would want handled robotically.

Would you trust software to write an advertisement for you or do your marketing? Of course not, but that’s what’s happening here. Your ad and marketing decisions require human hands and minds.

The capper was their claim to be “The most effective and unique search engine submission service available”. From what I know, there isn’t anything that could be particularly effective or unique about a submission service.

If they were offering to submit you to the organic/regular listings – which they are not – the process is a matter of filling in your URL in a box and pushing the Submit button.

If you can find a ‘unique and effective’ angle on doing that, I’d love to hear about it. Maybe they do it blindfolded.

If they mean the paid search submission, there’s not much room there to color outside the lines, so to speak.

It’s like an accountant saying that they have the most ‘unique and effective’ tax submission service. Frankly, I would prefer that my accountant submit my taxes straight to the government with no panache involved.

Why would I want, or need, my taxes to get there through some new, proprietary way? I can send them instantly online to the government. For free.

Watch your back, folks. These guys are sneaky.

UPDATE: Sorry, my mistake. It’s $100 A MONTH. They keep submitting you every 30 days to different search engines. Even better.

It is Christmas time once more here in Hawaii, as it is everywhere else.

Those outside the Islands often make remarks about how celebrating here must be difficult; after all, it’s warm year ’round. Wrong.

I can say that the absence of cold and snow might put up a hurdle, but Islanders figured out how to vault over that barrier long ago.

Having lived on the Mainland for some time in between Hawaii residencies, I can say from personal experience that Christmas is alive and well here.

You can see at least 8 Holiday parades within a 30 minute drive from where I am in Waikiki.

Food here is important to social bonding everywhere – with your neighbors, in the workplace, or with anyone you want to be friends with; it’s the best way to introduce yourself or mend broken fences.

And at Christmas time Islanders take it up yet another notch. Those mainlanders who complain about the extra 5 or 10 pounds they gain at this time of year? Pikers.

To get back on track, though – every year Jim Nabors, a long-time resident, puts on his Christmas show at Hawaii Theater.

Everything about it is first class, from the Hawaii singing stars that join him, to the sets and the costumes.

Sadly, he has announced that this will be the last year he will do the show. After this season, he, and his show, will be greatly missed.

After my wife and I got our tickets, I went to Jim Nabors’ official site. I was curious if he had a program or even videos of past Christmas shows for sale. He did not.

But what struck me most was that, unlike the show, his website was not First Class.

The site was rarely updated, the content was shallow and the online store was buggy. It also sold only one item – at least when I stopped by. It was a lesson in self-sabotage.

Mr. Nabors has done well in life – he lives in a beachside house here next to Doris Duke’s famous ‘Shangri-La’. That’s some of the most expensive real estate on the Island. And that is saying something.

Because of that, maybe he doesn’t need, or really care about, more income. But that’s not where most of us are right now. Are you leaving money on the table like Nabor’s site does?

If you are, the search engines are probably having a problem with your pages. And that’s a big problem for you.

Add content, check any scripts you are using to see if they are slowing down, or even stopping, search engine bots. Those scripts might be doing the same thing to your human visitors.

Ask yourself some questions:

• Is it easy to navigate  your site?
• Is there Java, or JavaScript, on the pages that’s turning back potential business, or holding down your search engine rankings?
• Is the purchase process simple and straight ahead? Adding unecessary steps to that process is the top cause of shopping cart abandonment.

See things from your visitor’s perspective – both robotic and human – and you will do yourself a huge favor.