1. You Google “Halloween” just for the hell of it, curious as to who comes up.
2. You are no longer creeped out by spiders because you talk about them all day and are constantly trying to figure out what they are looking for.
3. You can’t wait to post a photo blog showcasing your company’s office costume party.
4. You’re looking forward to the discussion over lunch about the “decorations” posted by Google and Yahoo on Friday.
5. The skeletons in your closet are wearing Google t-shirts, throwing around a Yahoo football and eating cookies sent by MSN.

   

6. Your Halloween “loot” (a.k.a. candy) is sorted by size and in order which you will eat them, the king size Snickers bar from Google, the Miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups from Yahoo! and the penny candies from ABC Search.
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One of the remarkable things about the search industry is that it is largely built on self serving. And in this case I’m not talking about Google’s ability to generate the bulk of its revenues from the tens of thousands of advertisers who go online with a credit card and sign up. I’m talking about the characters who inhabit the noise portion of the search space. People who spend their time writing about search.

My issue isn’t with those that write about the space, but write about it through the lens of their financial agenda. There are certain people in the industry who write about Paid Search because that’s where their expertise is, just as there are blogs and authors who slant towards Organic Search. I have no issue with them. The issue I have is with the constant ink spilled explaining why one approach must be above all others and it is so at the detriment of everything else.

I wrote a column for MediaPost’s Search Insider earlier this month where I started with a pending panel discussion at SMX East on “Do Agencies Get Search?” That reference served as a quick jumping off point for ways that search marketers and agencies alike should think about search. Whether agencies got it or not was never up for debate or even discussion in the column. Yet, all comments about the post on the MediaPost site were about that panel topic and all from the bent of non-agency search marketers extolling why agencies couldn’t get it. Ability to read past the first paragraph when choosing to comment apparently doesn’t factor into some search marketers’ skill sets, either.

Likewise, how many columns from tool vendors must we have about why those who license not build are wrong. And how many paid authors must slam organic as being inefficient when measured by the standards of paid. You think? Paid Search is more measured and receives credit as last click for virtually all online activity; you think it’s going to out perform organic on those grounds? Those of us who write in this space have an obligation to do one of two things: bring a piece of our own expertise to the market which advances enlightenment or education, or provide pro-active forward thinking suggestions that cause the industry to think about its direction and the opportunities ahead.

Otherwise, it’s just pandering to the base and I can get enough of that from CNN and the presidential candidates.

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I am at a cocktail party and Sally asks the inevitable question, “What do you do?”   I cringe because most likely, she will say the two words that I hate most when it comes to descriptions about what I do.  So I say to my imbibing interviewer, I am a Director of Search Engine Marketing.  Sally offers back, “Oh yeah, I know, Search Engine Marketing is made up of two areas, PPC and SEO, isn’t it?”  So my usual dilemma presents itself yet again: Do I launch into an educational rant explaining what I feel are the proper names for the two components of SEM, or drop it?  Slurry Sally seems interested, so I launch.

“Sally, I think you have the gist of what I do in that there are two main areas, but they are called Paid & Organic SEM.  Please let me explain.  On the Paid side of things, we are talking about ‘Paid Search Engine Marketing’ or marketing to the ‘Paid’ or ‘Sponsored’ listings.   When you do a search from, say your laptop or mobile device, using Google, Yahoo, MSN, or even Facebook, the paid or sponsored listings are usually located at the top and to the right of the Organic listings.  A marketer can expect to market to roughly 20-30% of the search engine results when they employ Paid SEM.  When you said PPC, or pay per click, this is a type of ad that is utilized in Paid Search Engine Marketing.  Paid Inclusion is another.”

Sally’s eyes haven’t glazed over yet, so I continue.

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My topic for this post comes from a thought I had during my last blog entry, Google’s Real Time Quality Score Changes Your Query Results.

“One of the reasons search works so well is because it’s the most-efficient advertising medium available. If the search engines keep making changes like this, it is not going to stay that way and then you have to wonder – will search still be as popular or will advertisers give up on it?”

Google’s Quality Score nightmares, while the most significant, haven’t been the only changes the engines have been making in the last few months. We’ve seen Yahoo’s unannounced version of extended broad match appear as if from no where. MSN had a fun time surprising us, and themselves for that matter, with their change in display URL de-duping policy. And good old Ask has upgraded their technology to provide faster and more relevant results.

What’s with all of the unannounced system upgrades guys? Not only did we find out about the Yahoo!, MSN and Ask upgrades after the fact, but why are the big four releasing these changes that are supposed to make things more relevant all at the same time? September and October have been crazy months here in the search world.

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My dog is your typical dog.  Actually, I take that back…if you could take the best qualities from every dog in the world and lump them all together, that would be my dog.  She is beautiful, sweet, and she always does exactly what I tell her; most times what I want her to before I even say it.  If you told my dog to click on your ad and go to your website and buy your product, you know what?  She would.  Probably buy two just to make you happy.

If only our beloved searchers were like my dog.  Alas, most of them are much more similar to my cat.  She will also do what I want, provided it’s the one time a year or so that our wants align.  Otherwise, she pretty much laughs in my face.  Take, for example, the only real rule I really try to “enforce” with my cats: stay off the counters and kitchen table.  I’ve tried foil, I’ve tried nasty tasting sprays, I’ve tried yelling and spraying water.  I clearly just haven’t found the right thing to motivate her to do what I want her to do.

If your searchers are like my cat, you have your work cut out for you.  Sure, they might click on an ad, but you bet your tail they’re not going to convert unless THEY want to.  And the goodies had better be there every step of the way to keep them moving in the direction you want them to.
This brings me to my point (finally! you say) – how do we get those naughty cats of the world to do what we want them to do?

Let’s take this opportunity to go back to Search 101.

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