SEO Blog

New Google Competitor - July 30th, 2008

Google has long been the dominant search engine in the market but can any of the new and emerging search engines be a real competitor. At Just Search we see new search engines with novel ideas come and go but much media hype has surrounded the recent release of Cuil. The hype generated mainly surround the pedigree of the founders and the unique selling points of the search engine.

Cuil?s founders are quite simply some of the best in the business when it comes to search. Two former employees of Google and its TeraGoogle project along with Tom Costello from IBM’s Web Fountain project and Louis Monier, founder of Altavista form the foundations. These guys certainly know about search.

Along with this great line up Cuil differs in four major areas. They are web index, algorithm, results display and finally privacy. According to Cuil size does matter and it is there belief that they have the biggest web index on the web. It has an estimated 120 billion pages. One of the other things is privacy. I personally don’t think this is big issue but many of the older generation regard privacy as important so this will put their minds at ease. Cuil does say that it will not log IP addresses.

I think the most important USP’s are the algorithm and the unique results display. Google is of course famed for its algorithm so how does Cuil stack up. Well, Cuil is trying to rank its results by content rather than popularity. It obviously has to take into account popularity as people will expect to see certain results for search terms. It will also be interesting to see how back links are considered in the Cuil algorithm. Currently the relevancy levels created from the algorithm don’t really match up to the levels of Google but given time and refinement it may catch up. It’s also disappointing to see we don’t rank highly for search engine optimisation whereas we do in Google.

The other thing is the unique layout. Cuil has a simple front screen like Google but the search results screen is completely different. Cuil is lays out its results screen in three columns and the descriptions provided for results seem to be longer than that of Google. You are also given an associated image to the side of the site description. I think this is a nice touch. I also like the descriptions but think the layout makes the results difficult to read. The one advantage is that with the column layout you have three site listings at the top of the page rather than one. This could significantly change the click through rates for the sites. Users can also change the layout through the preference options.

In conclusion Cuil is a lot better than most start-ups and they have clearly learnt from the mistakes of other start-ups. The novel layout and large index does make a difference and with the right direction and advancements this search engine could make a real difference. It may take some time before we really see the true performance of this search engine. Everyone loves an underdog though. I think Cuil will also need to develop some more search functions and results in order to really get to the next level. It will be interesting to see if this site effects seo in the future.

Mark

SEO Programmer

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Posted in Search Engine Optimisation | No Comments »

4 Ways to Cut Your PPC Budget - July 29th, 2008

PPC is the best way for small companies to begin online advertising presence. With low set up costs and quick returns, the only problem is that with access to such a wide market, it can sometimes be difficult to restrict spends effectively.

The following tips will help you to effectively manage your budget.

1. Target your Audience

Make sure that your geographic targeting is set to your target audience. If the majority of your business comes from the Greater London area for example, then set up your targeting for a 100 mile radius of London. That way you won’t waste your budget on people that are unlikely to purchase your products.

2. Ad Scheduling

If your product or service is generally bought by businesses, then it is unlikely that your product will be bought after 6pm. You could then restrict your campaign to only show ads between 8am - 6pm, this would prevent consumers from clicking on your ad and wasting your money.

3. Cull your Keywords

Look through your keywords individually, there will be a number that receive high volumes of traffic but that do not convert well. These keywords will burn a large proportion of your budget and so should be put to low CPC’s or paused altogether.

4. Positioning Strategy

For words that are likely to convert, i.e. long tail keywords, positioning can be high, say between 2-4 as they are cheaper and the searcher is further down the buying cycle. More generic keywords get more traffic but are generally less likely to convert. For this reason they should be positioned lower and have cheaper CPC’s. You’ll still get some researchers, but should get more clicks that convert well from the long tail keywords.

Tanase Rivers

PPC Account Manager

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Posted in Pay Per Click | No Comments »