The concept makes sense. As I said back then, it’s a classic advertising strategy. It makes the ad look "clicky," and lets potential customers know that they can get whatever is being advertised by clicking that icon.
The 10% higher clickthrough stat is getting some attention now, as well as another stat from the Google Checkout Merchant page, which claims that ads displaying the badge also have a 40% higher conversion rate. That’s quite a number.

If using the Google Checkout badge becomes a big trend, it may just increase Google Checkout’s market share significantly." Good for Google, perhaps less good for competition like EBay-owned PayPal," says Philipp Lenssen at Google Blogoscoped. It could certainly go a long way in branding the service.

Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Land notes,  "Google first changed to a larger badge set about two years ago and then added a more colorful option in August." They’re still toying around with the look too.

Update: Lenssen reports that a Google representative clarifies:  Google isn’t actually saying that there is 10% gain in CTR. It’s saying there is a 10% gain in CTR for “Google Checkout users”

I discussed with Andrew Goodman some of the problems people are experiencing with Quality Score. Goodman is the Founder and Principal of Page-Zero Media.

The most common difficulties people have with Quality Score come from either a very low click-through-rate or a problem with the Web site. And Goodman believes Google’s Landing Page and Site Quality Guidelines are to blame for a large part of the initial problem.

Every site that accommodates Google ads must abide by the Guidelines. The three main components of the guidelines are:

1.    Relevant and Original Content
2.    Transparency
3.    Navigability

Goodman believes things such as deceptive offers and pop-ups are a result of the guidelines. But Google AdWords Help Center says:

“The AdWords system uses your Quality Score to define several important factors for your ads and keywords, including how much you’ll pay for clicks, whether your ad is eligible to show, and your ad’s position if it does show.”

And even despite a few possible kinks and quirks, Goodman does believe Google’s Quality Score is effective. He says,

“It’s been very effective in achieving what I see as Google’s objective.”

He went on to give his explanation that it’s effective based on the statistical evidence and consumer satisfaction rates pertaining to search.

If you would like to find out more information about this topic, check out the full video right here on WebProNews.

When users see the Local PlusBox and click on it the ad expands to include a map, address, driving instructions, and phone number, in addition to the location name that appears beneath the last line of ad."

They’ll soon make it available at many places.

"We are in the process of rolling out this feature to AdWords accounts in the US, Canada, UK, and Germany. It should be available to all advertisers with top placement ads in these countries within the coming week or so."

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It can sometimes take a couple of weeks to get a new domain indexed by Google (even longer to start ranking!). In order to speed up the process of getting your site indexed quickly, even in 24 hours, follow the steps outlined below:

1) Create 5 pages of content

Skip the “under construction” page and write several pages of real content, at least a few paragraphs.

2) Create Internal Links to your Pages

Put the content in a template with a menu structure to make this step easier. You can find free templates at oswd.org and other places, at least to get started. Link to the content through the menu, and if you have a major landing page, link to it from the content of a page or two.

3) Tag on Social Bookmarking Sites

After just a few minutes to create an account with these sites you can submit a link to your site. This gives you an instant way for Google and other search engines to find your site because these social bookmarking sites get visited by the search engine bots (like the Googlebot) quite regularly. A few bookmarking sites to recommend: Del.icio.us, BlinkList, StumbleUpon.com, and Furl. Make sure you tag them with common words, like those you find on their tag clouds (BlinkList has a good one, just scroll down on the page to see it).

4) Comment on popular and recent blogs (with your link)

Find 5 blogs that are fairly popular, relevant to your site, and have a recent blog post (last day or two). Read the post and add a comment that contributes to the discussion, including a link to your site in the URL field.

5) Create, Submit, and Ping your XML Sitemap

You can create a free XML sitemap here then upload the file to your site (just save it as sitemap.xml). Then ping Google with your sitemap by typing in the following URL in your browser, replacing the domain name with your own:

http://google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ping?sitemap=http://www.mysite.com/sitemap.xml

Next, create an account with Google Webmaster Central, add your site, and submit your XML sitemap.

6) Install Google Analytics

Add Google Analytics (free) to your site. Don’t forget to verify your site with them to get the data collection started.

7) Run some Google Ads

Create an account with Google Adwords and start running some ads, even if its just for the domain name, company name, or some long tail keywords. Google has to go to your site because of their quality score, which includes “your landing page quality”. Just spend a couple of bucks and it can help jumpstart the indexing.

With these steps, you should see your site indexed fairly quickly. I can’t guarantee the 24 hours, but it is possible. At the very least it will speed up the indexing significantly (from weeks to days). Look for the “googlebot” to visit in your site analytics. Then look for your site to show up with Google by doing a search with the site: operator (for example, site:sphinn.com). Enjoy!

Comments

• How about making it work for the account manager who has access to multiple client accounts?

• How about showing me how many word have been flagged as “low quality” and giving me quick access to them.
• Rather than making the time frames in a drop down how about making listing today, yesterday, last 7 days, this month, last month and this year displayed by default. Give me the drop down to isolate specific campaigns.
• Give me the ability to get the snapshot daily via RSS. Yes I know you can email reports but email is filled with spam, I “trust” info that comes in RSS format more since I’m in control.

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Google Analytics allows executives, marketers and Web site owners examine how their users interact with their Web site and help increase online business. The company has done a total redesign on the product and improved the feature set through new email reporting, customizable dashboards, map displays, and plain language descriptions to make information easier to access.

“At Geffen Records, we use Google Analytics to determine what website content is most valuable to music fans so we can craft the most effective marketing strategies," said Aaron Foreman, Head of Digital Media, Geffen Records.

"As an early adopter of the new version of Google Analytics, we are impressed with the richness of the data and its ease of use that provides us with the most important information immediately,” said Lee Hammond, Director of Digital Technology, Geffen Records.

In the new version of Google Analytics, data is organized into combinations of reports, so users can make decisions about site management and Google AdWords campaigns. Google Analytics tracks online marketing campaigns and generates email reports that can be shared with co-workers.

Beginning today new users will have access to the updated version. Current users will be able to access the old version and the new version for 30 days and all historical data will be available in the new version.

“At Google, we’re focused on building powerful tools to help advertisers measure the effectiveness of their marketing dollars and optimize their business," said Paul Muret, Engineering Director, Google.

"The new version of Google Analytics will give advertisers and site owners greater insight into their customers’ needs, thereby increasing advertiser ROI while also improving the e-commerce experience of consumers."

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has famously decried the scattershot approach of broadcast advertising. He’s right; certain ads are a better fit for certain demographics, so why should all of us be subject to feminine hygiene ads unnecessarily?

Broadcasters can make a reasonable guess about their demographics and plan ads accordingly. If you’re watching Oprah, the advertising isn’t quite the same as it is during WWE’s Friday Night Smackdown. So I’ve heard.

Google heard that as well. It’s why their contextual advertising model has pushed them to a $100+ billion salary cap, because it works. Like virtually anything, there’s room for improvement, and that’s why Google has continued to tweak its AdWords program.

The latest update noted on the Inside AdWords blog involves the site-targeting process. Google has released Category Site Selection for the site tool used by AdWords clients.

The new tool complements other methods of finding desirable sites in Google’s content network, like “listing site URLs, describing topics that match your ad, and selecting demographics.”

From the AdWords blog about Category Site Selection:

Depending on your business, there may be a site, and its visitors, just waiting to be targeted today.

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Or, is it just another way for Google to maintain their leadership?

I think the Starter Edition can be compared to taking candy form a baby… it’s easy to do, but in the end all that is left is one disappointed baby.

The Starter Edition of AdWords allows an advertiser to set up an account with ONE ad, a list of keywords and a monthly budget, no CPC… but don’t worry Google will figure that our for you.

The advertiser won’t be able to run reports, or have any type of tracking through Google. What they will be able to see is the impressions, clicks and total cost of their keywords.

It takes constant management of a campaign, creative ads, strategic bidding, a good landing page, and a little time and money to run a successful PPC campaign. And let’s not forget the importance of conversion tracking.

There’s little chance that a new advertiser, with a small budget, is going to be able to come in and be competitive with the big guys who have been there since the start. Think quality score. Think big monthly budgets.

Even if the new advertiser makes it on the first page, how many times is their ad going to be able to be shown to searchers? You need to have a presence in order to be successful.

I think that there comes a point when, to protect the value of your product, you need to tell somebody that your product is not right for them. Whatever the reason may be.

I used to be an Account Executive for a television station and we had a rule of thumb; if a new advertiser couldn’t at least give us a commitment of X consecutive months at a minimum of $X then we would tell them it would be a waste of their money and efforts.

We knew without that commitment from them, there was little chance we could run a successful advertising campaign, one that we would be proud of.

Advertisers who use the Starter Edition of Google AdWords are most likely going to get poor results and walk away thinking PPC doesn’t work; after all, it’s like taking candy from a baby.

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Additional info from:

JenStar: “It will be interesting to see if advertisers find that the profiles are matching the resulting traffic from those sites. And I am sure some publishers will reverse engineer an AdWords campaign to see what demographic profile their own site is, and if it matches what they believe their traffic to be.”

Traffick: “Essentially what this means is an improved functionality for the site selection tool, only applicable to content targeting of the “site targeting” variety. It’s not a major foray into targeting search ads by demographics, then (yet).”

Does this take some wind out of MSN AdCenter’s sails? Well, that’s the power of Google. Once the demographic site selection gets significant usage along with MSN AdCenter, there will be some interesting feedback I’m sure. Seems like a good session idea for SES San Jose.

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Lee Odden is President and Founder of
TopRank Online Marketing, specializing in organic SEO, blog
marketing and online public relations. He’s been cited as a search
marketing expert by publications including U.S. News & World Report and
The Economist and has implemented successful search marketing programs
with top BtoB companies of all sizes. Odden shares his marketing
expertise at Online Marketing Blog offering
daily news, interviews and best practices.