Don't forget Yahoo!

I am not sure if Microsoft has pushed Yahoo! from their consciousness but as a search engine marketer I definitely should not. Yahoo! still holds the second place in the amount of searches out there in the webiverse. I am not saying that you should sacrifice your Google rankings to appear in Yahoo! SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). It is definitely a balancing act but if you have valuable content for your consumers you should be able to rank high in the results for both Google and Yahoo!.

There is some duplication of searches between these two giants of search, but Yahoo! has their loyal fan base just like Google does. Tapping into that fan base can extend your reach and thus your brand awareness.

So I advocate tracking not only your Google rankings but your Yahoo! rankings as well. You should know how people are finding you. If your analytics shows that you have no search traffic from Yahoo! then something is wrong and you are missing a good stream of potential customers to your website. Take a look it could very well be worth your while.

If you are not sure how to track where people are coming into your website and to see how your website ranks on the various search engines. Leave me a comment below or send me a message on Twitter and I will be glad to talk with you.

Video of my interview with Fox12

Someone over at Fox12 deleted the video from their servers. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Welcome KTRV Fox 12 Viewers and New and Old Visitors

Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog or visit again if you are returning. If you are here just by chance, welcome! If you are here due to the story on KTRV Fox 12 www.ktrv.com, double welcome.

As mentioned on the newscast; I am out on the job hunt but it has not yet produced a full time job offer. What my hunt has uncovered are some opportunities for me to assist businesses with;

-Their ongoing web presence on the search engines
-Marketing strategy (including media buying recommendations)
-Pay-per-click advertising setup and maintenance

I will be glad to talk to anyone interested in what my services may offer. Leave me a message below or direct message me at
www.twitter.com/kgamache. Sorry I do not post my email or phone number as sites often get scraped by spammers and I am lucky to thus far be pretty spam free.
By the way, if you are not yet on Twitter it is a great opportunity to start networking as well as researching direct consumer comments about products you are about to buy. This tool has helped immensely thus far.

Please review my resume and my other blog postings and discussions. Leave comments there as well and I will gladly further discuss my thoughts on the topics I have covered.

Thanks again for visiting hope to talk to you soon.

Kevin's Experience with Internet Explorer 8

Ok I know it is still in a somewhat beta format but since it is being released to the public I will give my experiences and the curious things I found:

1) On initial installation of IE8 the default Search Engine is Google. Is this Microsoft giving up on forcing people into their search engine? Is this Microsoft finally saying to their customers, "Ok we know that you use Google A LOT but please still use our browser to get there"?

2) For all the moves that Microsoft has made to purchase Yahoo they sure don't show that they are interested in their search engine. I had to manually, through several screens, add Yahoo as my preferred search engine whereas Google and Live were easy to access. I would have thought that since I had Yahoo as my default search engine it would have imported that in from the previous IE install. FAIL!

3) To their benefit it does seem to load things faster than IE6 did. So I can't complain about the speed.

4) Some of their embedded features still are a bit buggy. I expect these to be fixed as they release the final version.

5) Lots of similarities to Google Chrome in this release including: the favorites/bookmark icon and how they list those favorites/bookmarks; the tabbing system with recovering recently closed tabs; possibly more as I search more

6) I don't like that I have to click on a tab to enable the X in the tab to close it. Sometimes I search in another tab and find what I am looking for and just want to click the x to close it.


So my quick summary is that if you did not like Google Chrome you will probably not like Internet Explorer 8. A lot of the same functionality is resident in IE8 that was built into Google Chrome and IE7.

Microsoft's Presidential Search Failure

While watching the history making events of the 44th President's Inauguration, I wanted to see how the search engines performed for this ground breaking event.

I performed this search: "44th President"

Google and Yahoo searches returned a variety of sources: wikipedia, news sites, barackobama.com, and also one souvenir buying page on Yahoo.

MSN/Live returned predominantly souvenir buying sites, in fact 8 of the top 10 were souvenir buying sites. It will be interesting to track the evolution of these rankings on Live/MSN as time moves on. I find it curious that these sites were able to get top ranking over the top of reliable news sites and other "trusted" sources.

If someone else has done this search a few weeks ago on Live/MSN I would love to get some historical data as what the top 10 sites were before inauguration day. This will help to see how MSN/Live justifies their high ranking. See picture below

Blending of Media Buying and Search Engine Marketing

I don't know how many people, at least in Boise, are both a Media Buyer (TV, Radio, Print, Outdoor, Banner ads, etc...) and a search engine marketer but I am one of the few, at least according to some sources.

When I started working with both of these at the same time I noticed that it is possible to take what I know from both worlds and combine them to make both of them better.

This blog post is strictly off the cuff, as most of mine are, but it lays out some of the basic thoughts I have on this topic. They are much more in depth than what is written here (think of an onion) but it is a start.

Search Marketing Tactics used in Media Buying:

If we start to think of TV watchers as Search Engine users there are characteristics that I think both use when deciding what "information" they wish to receive. For instance, on TV if a watcher notices that both his/her favorite shows are on at the same time, will they switch back and forth, probably...unless they have a DVR. Now if there is only one source of "information" they will not switch back and forth they will more than likely stay on that source for the entire duration. So as we are buying media we need to look at what other "information" sources are conflicting with other sources. There are also other factors that obviously play into these as well, social life of the target audience as well as other media sources.

Media Buying strategies used in Search Marketing:

The Search Engine marketplace is becoming a hotbed of activity especially in a down economy. Companies are searching for ways to attract top level leads that can quickly and easily convert into sales for very little cost. Now apply that same need to what a good media buyer does. They look for the best way to reach the most people who fit the target audience for the least amount of money. So when looking at Search Engine Optimization and Pay-per-click we need to follow the demographic trail and target the words (keywords and keyword phrases) that the demographic uses to find the client's product. Just as a certain demographic is more likely to watch a certain show; I think there are some cases where a certain demographic uses a keyword or phrase to find a product or goes through a search process to find that product.
Now getting to the money part of the Media Buying process as Search Marketers we should also analyze the cost to benefit ratio. Does it really make sense to optimize the site or does it make more sense to advertise on social media where people are making their final buying decision based off of user input. Or is doing both the best thing? They are questions that need to be answered and can be answered by looking at the possible ROI of each. In Media Buying one way that is referred to is cost-per-point (CPP), in internet advertising cost-per-thousand (CPM).


I think these media are inter-related and, at least from my perspective, can work together to come up with a great strategy looking both at online and traditional media.

Give me your feedback, tell me I am full of it. I would love to start some critical thinking on this.

Kevin Gamache's Resume

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Kevin Gamache

(Leave a blog comment below to receive additional contact information)

Relevant Experience:

CLM, LLC, Boise, ID 2006 - 2008
Full service marketing and advertising firm servicing clients around Idaho, Utah and California

New Media Specialist

• Research, organize and implement interactive media and search marketing campaigns for broad range of clients. This includes banner advertising, pay-per-click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO); coordination and implementation

Media Buyer

• Plan, implement, and track media buys for CLM’s diverse client base. Types of media purchased are, TV, Radio, Newspaper, Magazine, & Event

Spotlight Events, Inc., Eagle, ID 2002 - 2006
National dance competition company devoted to providing a fun, family-oriented environment to compete against other dancers on both a local and National level

Advertising Manager

• Manage external advertising presence in Dance trade magazines such as Dance Teacher, Dance Spirit, Dancer, etc…
  
• Work with web developer on company website design, incorporating each year’s theme and marketing message to participating studios and dancers
  
• Develop press contacts for each event city and submit press releases regarding the competition dates and times and invites for press coverage

Event Coordinator

• Supervise and direct 7-10 member teams at event locations to ensure quality, customer service-oriented show for large 700 – 1200 member audiences
  
• Book and organize facility rentals and maintain constant contact with event location officials to ensure problem free event
  
• Organize giveaways and promotional items for weeklong National event participants in Branson, MO and Las Vegas, NV

HNA Impression Management, Boise, ID 2002
Regional Advertising, Marketing, impression management firm specializing in corporate image redesign for long term marketing effect

Project Coordinator

• Developed database of press contacts in wide range of media outlets for clients from diverse corporate interests
  
• Maintained client portfolio flow through office to ensure client received materials in a timely manner but thoroughly edited and complete.

Other Experience:

Treasure Valley TV Public Access Station, Winter 2000
Acted as consultant for initial launch of the Public Access station, organizing Public Relations events to promote the startup of this station.

Education:

Boise State University, Boise, ID
Bachelor of Arts in Communication, 1997-2000
Pi Sigma Epsilon, 1998-2000 – Professional Marketing Fraternity

• Activities Coordinator, President - During term as president, increased membership and increased participation in National events by membership.