The recently released Nielsen//NetRatings for the month of December/2006 illustrates the importance of a good keyword ranking in a Google search query.
The report covers the top U.S. search providers and is ranked by the total number of queries conducted at the provider.
According to NetRatings, Google Search received more queries than the other nine search engines combined. Google handled an estimated 3 billion queries for the period representing about 51% of all searches.

SEARCH ENGINE ESTIMATED # of SEARCHES SHARE OF SEARCH
Google Search 3,035,617,000 50.8%
Yahoo! Search 1,412,904,000 23.6%
MSN/Windows Live Search 499,946,000 8.4%
AOL Search - 362,140,000 6.1%
My Way Search 141,527,000 2.4%
ASK.com Search 128,452,000 2.1%
Earthlink Search 31,930,000 0.5%
Dogpile.com Search 30,487,000 0.5%
Comcast Search 26,931,000 0.5%
NexTag Search 26,835,000 0.4%

…Nielsen//NetRatings is the global standard for internet audience measurement…for more information please visit: www.nielsen-netratings.com

These announcements of free advertising dollars are from the Paul Allen blog. You can now get a ton of free promotions thanks to pay per click advertising. You will received a combined $575 in free website promotion tools from paid search ads.

• MSN ($200 Free)- MSN is offering you $200 free after you pay the very small $5 activation fee for their advertising program.
• LookSmart ($300 Free) - LookSmart will give you $300 free advertising bucks to start promoting your website, blog, or online business. Use this coupon code at checkout: SESCHQ4
• Enhance Interactive ($25 Free) - They will give you a considerable $25 to start with.
• Ask ($50 Free) - Ask.com will give you a $50 credit on your account. Enter promo code SESCHI06 during the checkout process.
• Google AdWords ($50 Free) - Now, this coupon, from what I’ve read does not seem to have any expiration to it but my instincts tell me that it’s only going to be available during the Christmas season.

I know I’m about a week late on this, but Advertising Age recently launched a 52 page guide to search engines, keywords, sites, and case studies. The free .pdf file is available online and provides an enormous amount of interesting and new information concerning online marketing trends and tips.

Search Engine Fact Pact 2006

Here’s a list of free web site search engine optimization keyword research tools that I’ve compiled

Free Keyword Research Tools

Niche Bot Classic
Market Leap Keyword Verification
SEMOZ Keyword Difficulty Check
Keyword Prominence and Density Check
Abakus Top Word

Free Keyword Suggestion Tools

Good Keywords
Overture Suggestion
Miva Generator Box

WebSnapr is an interesting new service that is head on Web 2.0. The service lets works well and will provide a popup preview bubble of any link on your website. You can use WebSnapr to create an image thumbnail of your site with ease. You can get thumbnails in sizes 92 x 70, 202 x 152, 400 x 300, and 640 x 480.

WebSnapr will allow you to capture screenshots of (almost) any web page. WebSnapr claims their free service will “increase site traffic, click-through rate and site stickiness.” I used the service yesterday for my web design business and found it to be very useful in creating thumbnails of my clients websites for my portfolio.

As an online marketer, we know that the internet is filled with loopholes, misleading information, and hype. How can you wade through the clutter to find out what really works online? How can you trust just anybody’s ideas? Where do you find the best information for online marketing tools? Well, I wrote this article to examine and answer your online marketing needs. Below I have outlined the top 7 tools you can use to increase your online exposure, boost your daily traffic, improve your website, and all while giving you what you’ve been looking for.

1. Website Translation
Did you know that you can multiply your content and extend your reach 10 fold by simply spending a few minutes? Simply translate your website into 10 different languages with ease. You won’t need to hire a professional translator for this one.

Considering only 36.2% of internet users read in english, a huge untapped market is out there for your website. By translating your website, you instantly open new doors to a new stream of markets and increase traffic from foreign language search engines.Â� Read the rest of this entry »

An emerging trend amongst mobile marketers is referred to as “mapvertising” or sponsored listings for local search results. This could include your software business, restaurant, or bakery. Getting found on Google Local can mean big things from serious buyers. Buyers will use Google local to find businesses in their local area in a particular geographical location. Increase your rearch with Google Local and you won’t have to spend a penny.

Want to get your article and picture on Google News? It’s one great way of getting your small business (online or off) some very valuable exposure and it’s really easy.

The first thing you have to go is to to American Chronicle, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click on “Submit Work.” This will allow you to sign up as a regular contributor.

When you are accepted, you will be able to submit your work to American� Chronicle. Google News receives much of their news syndication through American Chronicle. Your article could be exposed to millions of searchers everyday.

Why pay search engine optimization specialists hundreds of dollars to submit your work for you when you can do it for free? You can get into Google news 100% free.

What about Press Releases? Just as easy. Go to PR Leap and submit your press release. You’ll have to sign up and be accepted by the editors.

Generally, when you place an image or logo on the top of your website you are going to lose valuable space for your important keywords. These keywords are often denoted by H1 tags where you try to maximize your website’s placement in the search engines by finding a unique marketable niche. The niche is required to find untapped hot spots where competition is low but searches are high and valuable.

Aside from adding an ALT anchor tag which will allow for your top logo or graphic, the most valuable way to promote your site is to creatve the top image as a background with CSS scripting. Then place the name of your website and keywords over the top background. This way, when search engines crawl your website they will not be interrupted by an image when does not notify a search engine robot of your sites content. The keywords at the top of your page are the most valuable placement real estate you can use.

The only downside of this is that the majority of internet users are used to clicking on a top logo or graphic to return to the home page. The way to solve this is through simple CSS scripting. Click ‘continue’ to see the CSS and HTML to use for your website. Read the rest of this entry »

Marketing Sherpa has recently released the 2007 Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Guide which analyzes 3,9944 search engine marketing company efforts. This data includes how much each company spent and how effective their campaigns were. The report also includes search engine optimization charts, 18 foll color eyetracking “heatmaps” to show you how visitors view your website and advertisements, and paid search advertising campaign stats. Unforunately, for bums like myself with low levels of yearly income the 262 page report costs $247.00. Read Report

Starting today, domain names are being offered with the extension .mobi to trademark holders such as Microsoft, Nokia, and Vodafone. Critics of the .mobi domain say these new domains are going to cost corporations millions of dollars in fraud lawsuits when domain sitters buy up popular domain names with the new .mobi extension. Verizon Communications told the Financial Times that they only registered verizon.mobi to avoid others from taking it and attempting to sell it back to the company for a huge profit. Many web developers, such as myself, agree that the .mobi extension will not be useful and can only create trouble and panic across the web.

As mobile devices such as the Blackberry can already access websites with .com .net, .org extensions there is no real need for a .mobi other than for domain name sales companies such as GoDaddy to generate more revenue of the sale of the new extension. No one can yet agree on whether or not the .mobi buy out will become a domain and infringer’s omega of profits. However, I can agree that a tremendous amount of trademark conflict will arise out of the valuable new domain name extensions. It’s up to the community of the internet and how valuable views are on the .mobi extension by both developers and those who visit websites with a .mobi extension. Stay tuned!

Read

Google is begining to experiment with the way you use the web. Their new contextual based advertising delivery system which publishes sponsorship links at the top of search results (in blue) are being removed if you do not click them. Based on trials by Clickz and other search engine watch web sites, it was discovered that the ads shift positions as you refresh a page without clicking on a blue background sponsor ad. With the countless lawsuits Google is facing, the company hopes this new advertisement delivery system would add value for the advertiser.

Undoubtly, Google will be charging a premium for their new fangled features. I can only wish Google could bounce Adsense ads around my site to increase revenue. We’ll just have to wait and see how this affects Adsense.

Marginalized posted this very interesting look at The Digg Effect. Check out the short exerpt below and click continue reading to see the whole thing.

I recently had a blog entry hit the front page on Digg. “But, how can all that traffic hurt,” you ask? Simple. Because Diggers do not click on advertising you will find your “click-through” ratio (or CTR) drops into the decimal range. The CTR is a prime factor in getting paid by the company who puts advertising on your blog. If you have a high CTR you get more money and better ads showing up on your site. If your CTR drops very low you will find the money drops with it…continue reading

Link baiting has become an important discussion with internet marketers in recent years. We all need and actively seek out incoming links to increase not only our site’s traffic but link popularity for search engine results standings amongst our competitors. Asking for links from other webmasters and submitting our sites to directories for higher standings can be a pain for most. Commonly, other webmasters will completely ignore our open arms invitation for a link exchange. One way links are of course the best for optimization purposes, however, what can we do to bait people into linking us?

Social Happenings:
Do you read the newspaper? Of course you do whether it is online or in old fashioned paper format. You may have noticed that John Mark Karr and Facebook have been in the news over the past few weeks because of their heightened controversy and newsworthy happenings. Track these social happenings and implement them! For example, I noticed that Facebook was a highly controversial issue starting only a few days ago after the social networking site jumped into Web 2.0 with News Feeds. I went ahead and already registered BanFacebook.com to have a resource for Facebook users to converge and discuss the issue. With several million users backing the issue those users are looking for a place on the web to converge and ‘fight’ against authority. I’ll be using the site to provide them what they are looking for and also link back to my websites. Do the something similar for yourself.

Interviews:
Interviews are a great way to gaining link popularity and baiting for webmasters and internet marketers. If you could interview someone within your industry and post that interview somewhere on your website while notifying other webmasters of the article, you are almost guaranteed incoming links. In addition to your interview, transcribe the interview to a .txt file or upload the conversation to your site for other webmasters to link to. Simply put, asking for a link to your site won’t cut it. You have to provide an informational resource for other webmasters to want to link to.

Awards:
The Grammy’s, MTV Awards, and Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice awards. Then there is your web site. Awards can be a great way to bring in traffic from relevant resources while building link popularity. Your award must be unique and related to your industry. In addition, make your awarding guidelines strict. Simply awarding everyone who applies will only build incoming links from low popularity resources. Hand out your award to only the best in your industry and create a graphic which links back to your site. For an added boost, the html code sent to the winning webmaster should have a text link to your site underneath the graphic which uses the keywords for which you’re looking to optimize your search engine placement.

Podcasts:
Podcasts are a relatively new and rising technology on the web today. Create a podcast that discusses your industry news, tips, tools, and informational resources for other webmasters to link to. Your podcasts must be unique and related to your industry.

Guest Appearances:
This is a relatively new idea that I’ve already implemented for the site you’re looking at. Simply offer the ability for guest writers to submit their content and require a link back to your site. In addition, ask other webmasters in your industry if you can submit your original and unique content or tools in exchange for a small excerpt about your site with a link back. The internet, of course, is the world of free exchange of information. Adhere to it and you will build link popularity.

Blogs:
An often overlooked form of link baiting, blogs and even forums allow for link baiting. Nothing says link to me like the free exchange of ideas and resources that come from groups of intellectual free thinkers who participate in a blog/forum.

Informational Lists:
Lists become hot button and highly popular articles. As you browse this website, you will notice a variety of “Top 10 ways to….” or “100 Article Directory Listings” resources that many other webmasters link to because of their unique and resourcefulness. You might also want to consider building a directory list on your website to exchange links with other webmasters.

Contests:
This is a quick way to boost traffic because of the ’sphere of instant popularity’ associated with giving something away for free on the internet. Much like the “Free Brighams Ice Cream” article I wrote concerning Boston.com’s implementation of an ice cream giveaway, many other webmasters will link to your site simply because you’re giving away something for simply signing up. Your contest will give you hits and popularity. Take the contest a step further by requiring the contest entrants to sign up for your newsletter. You’ll bait them with the offer and pitch them down the road for your services or goods. Hooked and sinked!

Tools:
If you’re a programmer or know someone who is, have them make a tool related to your industry. Search engine optimization specialists are wonderful at this. Consistently, new SEO tools are developed which help webmasters build link popularity and track their standings. In your industry, design a tool which other webmasters will want to link to. If you run a blog, develop a Wordpress or Typepad plug in that other webmasters will want to download and use.

WebSideStory and Patricia Seybold Group released a new study showing that most searchers use a one or two word query when searching on a major search engine such as Google. On average, the study showed that 83% of all searches contained one or two word phrases. On e-commerce web sites that number shot up to 91%. Of course many of us online marketers and search engine optimization specialists already know that if we use and utilize the benefits of a keyword tracker tool.

However, the newfound discovery of the study showed that nearly 12% of searches lead to no results - a lost opportunity for online marketers and search engines looking to profit from pay per click. This study examined more than 34 million searches on 42 different web sites, 15 e-commerce sites, 13 lead generation sites, and 14 media sites.

Although this informaiton might be useful it brings about quite a few problems from my standpoint. For one, if someone wanted to optimize a web site on the search engines for “mp3 player” a two word phrase there would be many problems. First, the web site that would appear on the first page of results would likely be the “sponsored results” and those web sites that have been optimized like crazy with tons of reciprocal links.

Those sites are usually the corporate web sites. The way a smaller business like Costumes Galore, a business I helped boost in the search engines, gets to the top of search results for those two word key phrases that WebSideStory mentions is to utilize marketing niche holes. For example, the Costume shop sold Mickey� Mouse Costumes, Queen Amidala Costumes, etc. We optimized an individual costumes page for that particular costume rather than keeping the optimization generalized as WebSideStory insists we do to capture on the one to two word keyphrase searches. By using a niche at the costume shop, we were able to catch on those people who were looking for a specific product (Queen Amidala Costume) and produced top results on the search engines leading to more sales to higher qualified searches.