The Changing Faces Of Google Adwords And Overture

Recently Google Adwords and Overture, leaders of the PPC market with a total of 90% of the market, changed their interfaces and upgraded their systems. This article will discuss these new changes, why there was a need for change, and will also analyze what this means for the PPC customer.Recently Google Adwords and Overture, leaders of the PPC market with a total of 90% of the market, changed their interfaces and upgraded their systems. This article will discuss these new changes, why there was a need for change, and will also analyze what this means for the PPC customer.

In the past, Google Adwords and Overture had different solutions to running and managing their PPC ads and interfaces. Both had advantages and disadvantages but we can see from the new features that they have introduced, that these 2 leaders are become more similar than ever.

The Changing Faces Of Google Adwords And Overture - Google Adwords Vs. Overture ' Head To Head With New Features

Both Google Adwords and Overture realized that each of them had features that were lacking in their systems, and perhaps the other competitor had this feature. Therefore a change and improvement of their systems was needed.

Google Adwords were quicker than Overture in bringing their interface to a live status. Although Google introduced their new interface quickly, a nice gesture exists when one still has the option of using the old interface. Overture's site was down a few days, leaving customers frustrated as they could not see nor manage their accounts daily during that period.

Nevertheless, both Google Adwords and Overture have many new and exciting features.

The Changing Faces Of Google Adwords And Overture - Google Adwords New Features:

* Easier management and customization of campaigns and ad groups
* Keyword management made easier (ability to add keywords without bringing the whole list; easy filtering system)
* Much easier "Power Posting" management
* Customization of each ad group name
* Personalized reports with statistics and graphs (helpful to agencies running many campaigns)
* Search function within campaigns

The Changing Faces Of Google Adwords And Overture - Overture's New Features

* Easier management of campaigns
* Account summary with detailed information
* New match types including:
- Exact Match ' displays listing exactly as submitted plus plural and misspellings.
- Phrase Match ' displays the exact match results plus any other keywords before and/or after the keyword phrase.
- Broad Match - displays the phrase match results plus any other keywords before, after or between the selected keywords.
- Keywords Exclusion ' The ability to add "stop words"
- Conversion Counter (an important feature that allows you to track your Overture listings that lead to conversions. This will be reviewed separately)
- Campaign status - online/offline modes (great feature allowing the user to switch campaigns online and offline. This is good for campaigns that work better at certain times of the day, days of week etc. ' day part bidding)

The Changing Faces Of Google Adwords And Overture - Overture's Conversion Counter ' Will It Convert Well'

According to Overture, "Conversion Counter lets you see how well Overture listings are performing by measuring the number of clicks that lead to conversions on your site".
A conversion could be a sale, newsletter subscription, download or any other type of action that leads to results.

The main advantage of this feature is that we can gain much more insight into campaigns and how effective they are. We can understand which keywords bring quality traffic and sales, and which just cost money and don't convert to actions. The Conversion Counter allows you to view information by multiple periods ' day, week or month. This feature, which Google Adwords is lacking, puts Overture one step ahead with customers who want to actually track results and ROI.

The Changing Faces Of Google Adwords And Overture - Similar Yet Different ' What Does This Mean For The PPC Customer'

Both Google Adwords and Overture want to keep their clients, and attract new ones. The change in their interfaces shows this, and one might think that Overture is trying to be more like Google, and Google trying to be more like Overture. Both Google Adwords and Overture took good features from the other, and implemented them.

Although they are becoming similar within their management systems, there are key differences that still remain. Their bidding models are different and in Overture, in order to be at the top, you need to bid the highest. In Google, your position is measured by your bid, as well as the CTR of your ad (Relevancy, according to Google). Overture has a minimum CPC of $0.10, whilst Google's is $0.05. Their destination sites are different (Overture together with Yahoo! etc., whilst Google with AOL etc.) making both Google and Overture hot contenders when creating your PPC campaigns (if you have top listings in both, your listings are seen within 90% of the search market).

The Changing Faces Of Google Adwords And Overture - Conclusion

Google Adwords and Overture's both realized that the other leader had great features, and implemented them within their own system. Google Adwords and Overture's management strategies are becoming more and more alike, but there are still key differences between them. These changes show that each of them is willing to fight and strive to be the best. The question still remains, which is better for the PPC market today' The answer is both. Even though their management systems have improved, they represent a huge percentage of the market and one cannot exclude either when running a successful PPC campaign. Even though it is best to use both, circumstances do not always allow this. In these cases, decide which of the two is the "correct" for your campaign. Both Google Adwords and Overture have quality assurance mechanisms and time will tell whether they will learn more from each other ' will Overture's Conversion Counter turn into successful conversions, or will Google learn from Overture, and include their own "Conversion Counter. In short, a successful ROI and conversion is what you should ultimately want to see from your campaign. Let's wait and see if Overture's Conversion Counter will convert into a good ROI for Overture, and if Google will follow.

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Yahoo!’s New Search Engine

On February 18th, Yahoo launched its new search engine, Yahoo Search, a mix of technologies built around its subsidiaries Inktomi and Overture Services, and replaced Google as search engine results provider.

A day earlier, Google officially announced that it had reached an important milestone with immediate access to more than 6 billion items, including 4.28 billion web pages, 880 million images, 845 million Usenet messages, and a growing collection of book-related information pages. Why would Google brag about its leading position at this auspicious time? Because changes are comingSuch changes will have immediate impact on search engine rankings and traffic as the main search engines’ market share is anticipated to change dramatically.

According to a Nielsen//NetRatings report released on February 23rd, search engine use in the United States increased to include one of every three Americans or, 39% of the US population! Specifically, 114.5 million unique users turned to search engines to find information about products and services in January, and each spent nearly 40 minutes there.

The heavy usage of search engines in January was no different from the reliance on search engines during the 2003 holiday shopping season:

• 36 % of those surveyed said they used Google during the shopping season
• 25 % used Yahoo! Search
• 14 % used MSN Search
• 5 % used either AOL or Ask Jeeves.

Not surprisingly, the top five search engines in January were:

• Google (59 million visitors)
• Yahoo! Search (46 million)
• MSN Search (45 million)
• AOL Search (23 million)
• Ask Jeeves (13 million)

What the Nielsen report did not indicate is the intricate connections between the main search engines and the results they provide to their partners. In January, Yahoo used to show the organic search engine results provided by Google. MSN Search provides organic search engine results provided by Inktomi, a Yahoo company. And AOL Search shows Google-provided search engine results. This complex interdependence between the main search engines makes current changes in the web search market place more intriguing.

Yahoo!’s New Search Engine - Yahoo Replaces Google as Search Provider

The impact of Yahoo replacing Google as search engine provider can be enormous on anyone’s web traffic. Until now, according to comScore Media Metrix, a Nielsen//NetRatings competitor, Google boasted market share of around 79% which included 16% through the AOL partnership and 28% through Google’s agreement to provide search results at Yahoo’s portal.

Yahoo, on the other hand, through its Inktomi subsidiary, has been providing search results to MSN. In addition, Yahoo through its Overture subsidiary owns AltaVista and AllTheWeb. The switch from Google-provided search results to Yahoo’s own search results at Yahoo Search implies a major shift in search engine market share — from 28% to 51% for all Yahoo search properties and partnerships.

While nobody argues the dominance of Google as the top search engine, now that Yahoo provides its own search results, it is only logical to anticipate that Google’s position will be diminished. This leaves Yahoo and Google as the two main search engine providers, leaving Ask Jeeves (and its Teoma subsidiary) with 3% market share and 2% for all other search engines.

What if you are not included in Yahoo’s index?

Currently, Yahoo provides two options to get your web content indexed in its new search engine: by using a free URL submission box available to its registered users (you would need to login to Yahoo to access that feature), or by using Yahoo’s paid inclusion program, Inktomi.

Yahoo claims that submitting a web link via the free URL submission box is considered only “suggestion” and not a guarantee that the page will be added to the index.

The only guaranteed way to have your content included is to use the Inktomi paid inclusion program. The pricing for Inktomi paid inclusion is as follows:

1st URL - $39
URLs 2-1000 - $25 each

Yahoo has not commented on the fate of its other search engines, AltaVista and AllTheWeb, which were acquired through the Overture purchase last year. Currently only the Inktomi inclusion will feed search results into the new Yahoo Search index.

Yahoo!’s New Search Engine - Yahoo Search is NOT the same as Inktomi

Submitting a URL to Inktomi is valuable because the results would feed MSN Search, at least until MSN Search develops their own search engine. In addition, an Inktomi submission would provide results to About.com and other partners.

However, the interesting thing about Yahoo and Inktomi is that, at least according to industry insiders, the new Yahoo Search is not a simple copy of Inktomi but rather an evolved, advanced form of Inktomi. As proof one can consider comparing the search results provided by MSN and HotBot both of which serve Inktomi results – they are certainly different from the results provided by Yahoo Search.

There are even claims that Yahoo will stop using the Inktomi database or paid inclusion after April 15 when a new Yahoo paid inclusion program will be made available.

This is what one of Inktomi partners, PositionTech.com:

“IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT INKTOMI SEARCH SUBMIT: “Yahoo! Search has transitioned to its own search technology and is preparing to launch a new inclusion program. As a bonus for Search Submit customers, Yahoo! Search is providing a free trial of Yahoo! traffic that will end on April 15, 2004.

“When the new inclusion program launches, Search Submit customers will have the option of joining the new program for ongoing participation in Yahoo! Search results.”

So what are we to do with all this confusing information? My opinion is to continue using Inktomi at least for the benefit of appearing in the MSN Search results and to have one’s options open for the April 15th planned introduction of Yahoo Search paid submission. Nobody knows if paid inclusion in Yahoo Search will be more expensive than the $39 Inktomi currently charges per URL, so putting some portion of your marketing budget for the new big search engine player would be wise.

Yahoo!’s New Search Engine - How to Optimize for Yahoo Search

Just before the launch of Yahoo Search, rumors started appearing on the renaming of the new spider. It is official now - it is called Yahoo Slurp and you can see its visits in your web server log file like this:

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Yahoo! Slurp)

Yahoo! Slurp will continue to follow the Robot Exclusion Standard, so as long as you have your robots.txt file valid, you should be fine.

For more information on the new Yahoo spider, see http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp/.

What are the Yahoo’s site submission guidelines?

Yahoo! Search crawls the web every 2-4 weeks and automatically finds new content for indexing. If pages already in the Yahoo! Search index link to your site, it will be considered for inclusion in the next update of the index.

Not surprisingly, getting your site listed in major directory services such as the Yahoo! Directory and DMOZ is an excellent way to be sure that there are links to your site.

What is different in Yahoo-optimization from Google-optimization?

Careful selection of keywords, incoming links, title tags, header and keyword-rich content are of course going to be as important to Yahoo as they are to Google.

Yahoo cares about page descriptions. Google usually composes its own page description based on the text of the first paragraph of the indexed page. Yahoo wants you to have a unique page description and you should diligently follow their advice.

Specifically, Yahoo advises:

“Use a “description” meta-tag and write your description accurately and carefully. After the title, the description is the most important draw for users. Make sure the document title and description attract the interest of the user but also fit the content on your site. Use a “keyword” meta-tag to list key words for the document. Use a distinct list of keywords that relate to the specific page on your site instead of using one broad set of keywords for every page.”

Yahoo!’s New Search Engine - In conclusion

Yahoo dropped Google and this will impact anyone’s traffic. Instead of search results provided by Google, Yahoo is serving its own search engine results. They are different from the ones provided by Inktomi although Inktomi seems to partially feed results.

While we all wait to see what happens on April 15, when Yahoo will announce its own new paid inclusion program for Yahoo Search, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of having one’s web site submitted to Inktomi. In addition to partially feeding Yahoo Search, Inktomi currently provides search results to MSN Search, About.com, and others.

All these changes in the search engine market place should remind us all once again how important it is to monitor and maintain one’s search engine rankings.