It is that time of year again, and holiday decorations are already in stores! It has been reported that over 80% of consumers did at least some of their holiday shopping online in 2006, and the number of online buyers doubled in 2006 compared to 2005. ComScore reported that online consumer spending grew 26% in 2006 to $24.4 billion and that the trend is expected to continue this year. There are a number of reasons that consumers shop online, especially during the holiday season (as if road congestion and long lines weren’t enough):

• Simplicity and convenience
• Flexibility – Internet is 24/7
• Lowest Prices
• Selection of Products
• Easy to Comparison Shop

‘Tis the season for “holiday” and “gift” terms to be packaged into current SEM campaigns with a sprinkle of special holiday creative to entice the holiday shoppers. Some best practices for your holiday campaigns:

• Be sure “holiday,” “Christmas,” ” Hanukkah,” and “gift for mom” keyword variations into your campaigns
• Market seasonal products and promotions through keywords and creative
• Create holiday-specific titles and descriptions to promote holiday promotions
• Drive keywords to relevant landing pages that mention the holiday promotion or special. Prices and promotion should be consistent with the ad text.
• Integrate Search and Display efforts and have a consistent holiday message

Doesn’t it seem that holiday shopping starts earlier each year? Roughly 60% of consumers claim to start shopping before November 1st. Even the biggest planners can’t get everything done in time, which explains why 70% of consumers are expected to still be making purchases within 5 days of the holiday.

Two important days in the holiday season to keep in mind are Black Friday (Friday November 23rd) and Cyber Monday (November 26th). Happy Holidays!

By: Lindsay Blankenship

Sitelinks are additional interior links that appear beneath the first organic listing for a branded search such as US News & World Report or LexisNexis. These convenient links create an easier, more direct pathway into important sections of a website. The links shown in the examples above are some of the most trafficked sections of these sites. This allows users one-click access to relevant sections, instead of having to navigate through the site.

In a recent blog entry, Google states that “selecting pages to appear as Sitelinks is a completely automated process. The algorithms parse the structure and content of websites and identify pages that provide fast navigation and relevant information for the user's query.”

Based on our client experience across multiple industries, we have found several clues to better understand how Sitelinks are generated.

The site structure needs to have a clear hierarchy and some form of text based navigation. Google uses this navigation to understand the theme of a section and page, which helps them to determine if a Sitelink is appropriate.

Performance data also plays a role. CTR, Toolbar Searches, Logged in Searches, and other metrics. If enough people search for “Capital One Auto Loans,” then Google can assume that placing a Sitelink for “Auto Loans” on a broad search for “Capital One” is valuable.

Google’s recent changes to the program increased Sitelinks from 4 links to 8, offering more choices. Additionally, Webmaster Tools now permit webmasters to view potential Sitelinks and block ones that they don't want appearing in search results.

Despite the cryptic nature of Sitelinks, search marketers can stay proactive by examining the top sections of their website and optimizing them with Sitelinks in mind. No matter how strong your navigation, it is always easier to be one click away from the content they desire.

Article by Joshua Palau

As any search marketer knows, much of your campaign success relies on how good your analytics are. With so much competition in this space it was significant news last week when Omniture acquired Visual Sciences for $415 million dollars...wow. While every analytics company has their own pros and cons, they have struggled with differentiation and revenue generation. This acquisition could mark a turning point in this space leading to the world of consolidation.

As with many mergers, there will be integration pains, but this is a step in reaching analytics nirvana; all data sources including display media, paid and organic search, e-mail, and shopping feeds tied to online and offline conversions with full correlations. that’s a mouthful. The combination of these companies, Omniture and Visual Sciences can now focus on dedicating resources to the best aspects that they already did well and abandoning areas that are not working. Omniture does not have to figure out how to make their offering more visually appealing, because they can leverage what Visual Sciences has already done.

So what does this acquisition do for Omniture? It will potentially provide immense value in helping Omniture continue to scale their Genesis Partner program, and bring a more mature user interface to their Discover Analysis Tool. Most importantly the Visual Sciences acquisition will allow Omniture to onboard both web based and offline multi-terabyte data sets for their enterprise customers. That is the true power of Visual Sciences data wheel architecture.

A by-product of this acquisition will be the shrinking of the Web analytics platform market. The Omniture acquisition of Visual Sciences also includes HitBox or HBX, as it’s more commonly known. The new roll call goes Omniture, WebTrends, CoreMetrics and Google Analytics.

The Visual Sciences acquisition combined with Omniture’s recent purchases of Offermatica and Touch Clarity appears to round out a very busy year on the buying front. Who knows what 2008 will bring into this quickly consolidating sector of Web reporting, analysis, and conversion mining tools. One thing is for sure…it won’t be boring.

Article by Rocco Albano

We wanted to take a moment to offer a public service announcement on saving the bees. Our client, Burt’s Bees has launched a new section and page of their website discussing Colony Collapse Disorder that we think is worth a look.

I can’t get enough of this article by Gord Hotchkiss discussing how clients should not hold out for hope that agencies will ever get search.

As poised as they were to take on Google, it looks like Powerset is having some setbacks.