Monthly Archives: July 2008

Just Say No, Benching Bad Keywords

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by Brandy Eddings

(Another awesome guest post by Brandy Eddings, CEO of New Edge Media. I love it, she makes me look smart)

I’m going to run with the football theme again, writing the last one I thought of another analogy that I started using with my clients that works really well.

Football coaches have tough jobs. They have to watch each player carefully to make sure they are performing their best, decide which ones play and which ones to bench. All the while, they have angry agents all over them wanting the player they represent to get some field time. As the coach they have to stand their ground and only let the players that they feel will get in there and win the game.

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Paid Search in Football Terms

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by Brandy Eddings

This is a guest post by Brandy Eddings.  She is one of the brightest young minds in paid search and SEM. She is the owner of New Edge Media, an SEM company based in Texas. She is also speaking at Scary SEO in October.

Duplicate Keywords = Too Many Players on the Field

Use the duplicate keyword tool in the AdWords Editor to identify and delete the lower performing keywords. Having keywords that compete with each other will lower your quality scores and cause you to have higher CPC. Just as in a football game a coach does not send the entire team out for every play.
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By the Numbers: Conversion Rate

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How can I tell a great SEO from a crappy SEO?

A crappy SEO, when asked about what they have accomplished in their career, will rattle off a long list of organic rankings.

A great SEO will rattle of results in terms of conversion as well as rankings.

Why do we optimize sites?

For traffic?

What good is traffic, in a non CPM format, if it does not convert? In fact, large quantities of non converting traffic can be costing you money that cuts into the bottom line.

A crappy SEO is obsessed with clickstream data figures such as visitors.

A great SEO is obsessed with conversion rate.

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Posted in Analytics, By the Numbers | 38 Comments

Be an Internet Glass Chewer, not a Glass Jaw

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This post will seem like a rant in spots, but if you stick with it I think some of you will be inspired enough in your efforts to fill your pockets with a little extra coin; the only result that matters in our industry.

I read a post by Lisa Barone at BruceClay.com entitled Don’t Be Popular. Be Useful. , and got to thinking about how some of those same concepts translate past blogging into the actual fabric of the industry.

The ratio of self-promoting perpetrators in our industry to actual talent seems to be ever increasing.

The former is soft and glass jawed, the later is a mean spirited glass chewer.

The former has a limited value based mostly on a segmented time line, the later will be an innovator in our industry as long as there is one.

You shouldn’t really need to have me tell you which one of these two schools you fall into, but I love allegory so let me tell you a tale to help you understand what the heart of a glass chewer is made of.

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The Six Ladies of SEO I Would Want to Be Stuck Next to on a Cross Country Flight

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Maybe this will become all that Snydey Sense is. One list after another of people I like.

If that happens someone put a pillow over my face while I’m sleeping.

The reality of the situation is that I wrote the last piece with six specific individuals in mind, and none of them happened to be women. There was an obvious backlash to that, and now I must defend myself against sexist allegations, even though I am actually a misogynistic (or is it masochist? I don’t remember.)

There are a plethora of brilliant women in search, but once again, and specifically for the people that bitched about certain people being left off the last list, these are people that I not only respect for their offerings to our industry, but also for who they are.

The situation this time?

We are on a flight from my home town of Ft.Lauderdale to San Jose for SES. I can think of no more uncomfortable situation for a human than sitting next to my big ass on a cross country flight, except perhaps being stuck with my big ass in an elevator.

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