David Pann, the General Manager of Search Networks at Microsoft, told us that these improvements hope to create a good consumer experience and also produce a greater ROI for advertisers. He said that advertisers could expect better targeting, better reporting capabilities, and an increase in quality traffic.

These improvements are expected to be rolled out in full over the next several months.

Microsoft and Yahoo partnered in a search alliance 2 years ago in an effort to better compete with Google. However, neither company has shown a tremendous amount of improvement.

Ballard told us that he was pulling for Bing but that it needed to make some changes to better meet advertisers needs.

“It lets you take advantage of another 10-20-30 percent click volume that you wouldn’t have,” he said.

Interestingly, paid search is a lot more than just advertising. It also involves landing page optimization. For example, Geddes pointed out that if a page has several thousand clicks but no conversions, there is a problem with the landing page. He goes on to say that one of the most important elements of landing pages that is often missed, is when people neglect to put their call to action above-the-fold.

“80 percent of the time, 76 percent of clicks occur in that above-the-fold section,” he said.

Geddes also discussed some recent changes to bg Theory and the impact they had on the site. The site has 3 major goals for getting conversions. Its blog, although it received a significant amount of traffic, had really bad conversion rates. As a result, Geddes moved the conversions to the blog. When this happened, the site’s overall conversion rate decreased considerably, but its revenue increased greatly.

From these changes, Geddes found that they were bringing more customers into the funnel. He said, “Traffic gets someone to your site; the page then has to pick up the traffic in order to convert it.”

In other words, while the tools are helpful, marketers should not rely on them alone. A successful PPC campaign actually requires a lot of work on top of the tools. For example, tools such as Kenshoo allow marketers to measure how much they are spending and whether or not they are making money based upon their bids.

According to Enge, the tools will return a figure very close to the ROI that you requested, but several other factors will be inaccurate. To avoid this, he suggests using human input. One way to do this is through negative keywords. He said that, although it seems obvious, a lot of people neglect to do it. Negative keywords allow for marketers to see which queries are generating clicks and much more. Enge recommends Epiar’s negative keyword tool for anyone needing the service.

Another area that marketers often leave out is ad optimization. It is extremely important for marketers to test before they push out an ad. He referenced a case study in which one company had a 473 percent gain on an ad campaign simply because it tested. They were able to come up with this aggregate number by taking the click-through-rate and multiplying it by the conversion rate.

With an enterprise PPC campaign, there is a lot of money to be made, if it is done right; but there is also a lot of money to be lost, if it is done wrong. Enge also advises marketers to utilize the adCenter from the joint efforts of Yahoo and Microsoft.

“If people weren’t playing in that territory before, they absolutely should be now,” he said.

Take, for instance, a company such as IBM that has 55 million pages. How can a company of that magnitude even make sure that all of those 55 million pages are indexed? According to Hunt, the same SEO techniques apply to both small and large programs, but the large programs just need to be approached holistically and with scale in mind.

Measurement is another challenge with large SEO programs since the metrics are different than they are in smaller campaigns. Ego is also a challenge because many of these companies think they should automatically rank #1 in the search engines since their business is a $50 million dollar company.

For these reasons, it is very important to communicate in a language that C-level executives understand. These executives only want to know about objectives such as the opportunities involved, the costs of the program, and the yield they will receive.

“You have to speak their language. Just trying to overwhelm them with your brilliance about algorithms and stuff like that doesn’t work,” adds Hunt.

Many of these factors fall into the Missed Opportunity Matrix, which is a concept he introduced many years ago to the SEO community. It is, essentially, an exercise that shows what companies could be doing if they were effectively utilizing SEO. Learn more about the concept in this blog post.

Are you successfully scaling your large SEO program?

She goes on to say that marketers also need to utilize the recently combined Yahoo and Microsoft adCenter. Operating as one, “Binghoo,” as Churchill calls it, has approximately 30 percent of the paid search market share. Although Google AdWords is established and has great tools, there is still value in “Binghoo.”

“Keep advertising on Google, but don’t give up on adCenter. I think that it will prove in the long-term to be a beneficial thing because it gives us another opportunity to get in front of potential customers,” she said.

For those marketers who still need to embrace adCenter, Churchill offers an easy tip. She suggests that marketers download their Google accounts into the AdWords Editor tool, which is free. Marketers can then export the information into an Excel spreadsheet. Although marketers will need to do some tweaking especially regarding negative keywords and geo-targeting, this step saves a lot of time when beginning an adCenter campaign.

In this interview with WebProNews, Churchill also discusses several basic, older tools that are still relevant today. For instance, Xenu’s Link Sleuth is still very effective for checking links.

In addition, she talks about recent changes to Google’s keyword tool. The search engine changed the data source from Google.com and its partner sites to just Google.com. Google is also looking at commercial words as opposed to informational words. Churchill personally believes this was a bad move on Google’s part since 80 percent of searches on the Web are informational.

“I think Google is doing a real disservice to users by doing that,” she adds.

What are your thoughts on adCenter and Google’s recent changes to its keyword tool?

“It just gets harder and harder every year to maintain your edge if you’re out there doing big paid search programs,” he said.

To better manage these programs, he believes that marketers should integrate their paid efforts into other campaigns such as organic, display, affiliate, and social media. In other words, he recommends that marketers view all the programs as one and optimize them as a whole.

Yahoo, for instance, had a #1 ranking for an organic listing for a brand keyword. It then purchased a paid search ad on top of it, which drove more traffic to the organic listing. Marketing efforts are, essentially, more effective when they are blended together.

Incidentally, Roth also discusses the Yahoo/Microsoft transition. His job was to transfer all of Yahoo’s advertising over to adCenter and use it to manage Yahoo. In addition, he was responsible for monetizing search results all over Yahoo. He said that both companies continuously evaluated the transition in order to ensure that the highest level of quality was being maintained.

Earlier this week, the companies also gave advertisers the go ahead to start transitioning from Yahoo search ads to Microsoft Bing search ads. As this transition begins to unfold, we can start to see what some of the changes will be and how they might impact the future of search.

From a visual perspective, Yahoo Search still looks the same but has a small “Powered by Bing” at the bottom of the results page. Another aspect worth noting is that the two companies combined own approximately 28 percent of the search market, according to comScore’s July search report.

Long time search marketing expert Bruce Clay has also noticed some interesting findings regarding SEO and the new Yahoo search. He tells WebProNews that, based upon information from Yahoo’s API team, the company intends to use Bing’s index but apply a slightly different algorithm to it. In other words, the search engines will still produce different search results. From this information, Clay believes that users will still see value in Yahoo search.

The paid search transition, on the other hand, could have a more dramatic impact. Bing has been very effective in pay per click, and as a result, Clays says it offers a high click through rate.

“I would have a tendency to think that Bing advertising will see many, many more people using it,” he points out.

Although the companies would like to have the paid search transition completed by October, they have said it could be delayed if they see a potential interference with this year’s holiday season.

Regardless of what other changes will come as this transition is fully rolled out, there is no doubt that it will be marked as a turning point in the search and advertising industry. Interestingly, Clay calls these latest developments a “resurrection” of the second and third search engines. Do you agree?

As the economy continues to turn around, there are some elements that retailers should apply to better leverage the comeback. From a paid search perspective, Gibson recommends that retailers update their keywords based on incoming inventory.

During the recession, many retailers cut back on their inventory. Now that the economy is starting to improve, they are ordering more products. Gibson says retailers need to make sure that their new inventory is represented in paid search. He also adds that retailers need to optimize pages to guarantee that they are found in the search engines. Ultimately, no one will benefit if the new inventory cannot be found.

Gibson also tells WebProNews that The Rimm-Kaufman Group is adding products. In the past, the company focused primarily on paid search. As Gibson explains, it is now adding an attribution management component that will help its clients understand what is happening outside of paid search. RKG will talk with clients about the data it collects and help them build an attribution model.

Because Google cannot tell every advertiser all the factors that go into quality score, it often results in confusion. However, if Google did reveal this information, advertisers would get an unfair advantage. As he explains to WebProNews, there are so many other elements that are involved with quality score that the aforementioned factors play a minor role.

Google uses quality score as a rewards system since it wants to provide relevant answers to search queries. The advertisers that are able to help it do this not only receive a better quality score, but also receive a lower price for their ad position.

“Basically, Google rewards advertisers with better quality score and a lower price to do what they should be doing anyway,” says Szetela.

He goes on to say that good quality score has two parts: great ads and acceptable landing pages. People think that by improving their landing page, their quality score will improve as well. Szetela points out that this is not the case. Instead, he says the landing page component of quality score can only hurt, not help.

Overall, having great ads are the key to having good quality score. Szetela recommends including the following elements in an ad:

1.    Keyword in text (preferably in headline)
2.    Reader addressed in first person
3.    Features/Benefits
4.    Call to action

Are you using this information to help improve your quality score?

Taylor Pratt of Raven Internet Marketing Tools talks to WebProNews and offers some advanced advice regarding keyword research. First of all, he explains a trick that users can do with the Google’s AdWords tool. He tells users to conduct a logged out Google search, copy the url, and paste it into the AdWords tool. This will then scan the top 10 results and provide keyword recommendations. Pratt says users can take it even further and use this trick with Amazon, Wikipedia, eBay pages, directories, and more.

Unfortunately, many people often become biased toward certain keywords and, essentially, push for them to win even when they are not performing. Pratt suggests that users take the keyword list from their analytics package, export it, and then block out all the keywords. By doing this, users will only be able to see the metrics, which will determine the keywords that are converting and performing.

Many times, the C-level suite is guilty of showing partiality toward particular keywords. To reach them, Pratt says marketers should talk to them in a way that they understand. In other words, tell them if a long tail term is the one that is bringing in the money and traffic as opposed to the one they simply like.

Pratt also discusses another trick users can do with Google analytics. He says if users look at their keywords, there is a second drop-down menu. From that menu, if users select the “landing page” option, they will see a list of landing pages from which a specific keyword visited their site. This will also show how the keyword is performing. With this information, users can determine what they should be targeting.

In regards to advice for marketers doing mobile paid search, Pratt believes marketers should find out which action terms people are searching for. He goes on to point out that marketers should think about the user, since mobile users know exactly what they want when they search.

Are you taking your keyword research to the next level?

First of all, although social is growing in popularity and value, Clay says it is still hard to determine the extent of its impact on search. Both people and businesses are still learning how to use it. He believes there are two different camps on social. The first is similar to PPC since users can leverage ads in their social networks. This way can be thought of as an ad network, and it allows users to drive traffic and raise awareness.

He classifies the second camp as being closer to SEO since it can be used to encourage people to link to you. In addition, it can be used for reputation management. Just as SEO and PPC are more effective together, using both camps of social media are equally important. He says marketers will miss out on valuable opportunities if they do not utilize social media.

Linking is another area that has changed. As Clay discusses, there are several ways to do links such as stimulating people socially, begging for links, and being a link magnet. Social media is tied to the aforementioned stimulating people for links and also to link begging, since it could provide a target through a social relationship. As he points out, link magnets are the best method because marketers create great content that people want to link to.

Although link networks are also included in linking practices, Clay believes they could become a serious problem. These networks allow one user or company to have some level of control over a group of different sites. Although he has no direct inclination from Google, he believes the search giant will crack down on this practice. He thinks Google has no choice but to either lighten up on its standards, which he believes is wrong, or enforce stronger regulation. If link networks were eliminated, he says there would be a “massive change in the linking structure and rankings.”

In regards to changes in search results, Clay recalls that Google offers more options, maps, and more in the SERPs. He predicts that searchers will be able to selectively turn on live feeds and engagements objects (video, images, etc.). Google has also made efforts pertaining to search intent and behavior. With linking practices changing as well, he believes we will see many new developments in search results. Additionally, he says these changes will continue and traditional SEO will lose its effectiveness.

Are you accommodating these changes?

As Andrew Goodman of Page Zero Media tells WebProNews, those on the organic side argue that 80 percent of clicks come from organic. Those on the paid side, contend that more business revenue comes from paid as opposed to organic. For example, Microsoft conducted a study in which it found that 60 percent of revenue across thousands of sites was driven by paid and 40 percent of the revenue was driven by organic. However, Goodman says all these reports are misleading.

He does point out that specific verticals indicate a trend in favor of paid over organic. For instance, if you do a search for “San Diego tours,” the top 3 results are paid, there are paid listings on the right side, and there are also local results that could have a paid element. In addition, these practically take up all the room above the fold.

As a result, Goodman says, “To not do paid just basically means your competitors are there and you’re not.”

He went on to say how he believes that organic will begin to lose its meaning over time. Taking it even further, he says it’s getting difficult to clearly define the “10 blue links” as either paid or organic, since results include news, YouTube, and more.

Because the search environment is being flooded with personalization, localization, and other new factors, Goodman says people need to realize that the “fixed 10 blue links” do not exist anymore. That said, he thinks paid search is more reliable moving forward.

As the search dynamic continues to evolve, what do you see happening to paid and organic search?

One change Blum addresses is Google’s AdRank algorithm. He says this is a metric that is equal to the product of what you are wiling to pay. In other words, it is your maximum bid and quality score.

Problems arise because it is possible that users could have multiple keywords for the same quality score, which would prompt the same query. This means that you could be competing with yourself and, ultimately, increasing what you have to pay.

According to Blum, an ideal ad combination exists, but you have to find it through research and analysis. Once you find it, he says you can force impressions to go the right keyword ad combination through siloing. In the end, your cost-per-click (CPC) will go down, as your click-through-rate (CTR) goes up.

To do this, Blum advises advertisers to have organized accounts with relevant ad groups. He again stresses the importance of having the right keyword ad combination. After these elements are in place, he says advertisers can utilize negative keyword applications.

In this interview, Blum also discusses the differences in accounts on PCs and mobile devices. He believes the biggest difference is in user behavior and explains how to leverage it.

Are you applying this knowledge to your ad campaigns?

They found that these companies are spending a lot of money on paid search. Interestingly enough, they are not investing in natural search despite the many opportunities there.

In the report, Conductor looked at 6.7 million keywords and found that only 2 percent of the companies involved showed a significant percentage of keywords in the top 30 results. In other words, these companies are spending millions of dollars daily on PPC and yet only 2 percent showed up in the top 30 results.

The report also found that more than 50 percent of the companies were not showing up at all. In reality, Dotterer says that these keywords would be found if these companies ranked in organic search. In addition, the companies would not have to spend as much for natural search.

“As people started to get more and more specific about what they were searching for, Fortune 500 tanked even further,” adds Dotterer.

In the end, natural search has many opportunities that PPC does not. In addition, companies could save a lot of wasted money by investing some of their time on the organic side of search.

Are you utilizing the opportunities natural search provides?