define: Jared Barden

Ever noticed that some companies like to tell you to, “search for us on Yahoo! and learn more…” ? That seems like a risky strategy to me, and here’s my reasons why.

1.) Why not just send the person right to your web site? If you’ve ever read Don’t Make Me Think , this will make sense. Basically, you want to decrease the number of steps for someone to accomplish the action you want them to take, and you want to make it as easy and “thoughtless” as possible. Sending them to a search engine, telling them to search, and then hoping they click the link you want them to, seems to not follow the “Don’t Make Me Think” mantra.

2.) You increase the risk of competition.

Case in point, Pontiac did an ad a year or two ago, where they told you to search on Google for them. Well, the competition got smart and bought Pay Per Click ads for that term and got some great branding and exposure out of Pontiac’s ad.

Also, what happens if someone gets their page to rank higher for the phrase you’ve suggested to the TV viewer? Then you’re kind of stuck.

Or what happens if someone decides to Google Bomb the phrase you’ve targeted in your ad? Granted, Google has gotten stricter on this practice, but you could still use your PPC ad to get negative press out their about the competition.

Just seems like it would be easier to send the person right to the page you want them to go to. However, lots of companies take this, “search for this and click the link” kind of approach, which just seems like one too many steps to me, but maybe I’m just lazy when it comes to my surfing behavior.

A post I recently wrote about the test of Google Health drove some unexpected traffic to my blog from an unexpected source - none other than Google itself.

The following is one of my “Jedi Web Geek” tips on how to drive some traffic to your site from the world’s biggest search engine.

The steps are pretty easy.

1. Read a blog post on one of Google’s many blogs.
2. Write a post on your own blog reflecting on the post you’ve just read. Write it as soon as possible after reading the post.
3. Wait to show up in Google’s “Links to this post” section of their post.
4. Hopefully get some unlikely traffic to your site.

It really does work. See the “Google Wants Your Medical Records?” link in the screenshot below? That link points to this site, and has driven some traffic over the last couple of weeks that I wasn’t expecting when I first wrote the post.

Give it a try. You just might get some unexpected results.

It appears that after Yahoo! rebuffed Microsoft’s $40+ Billion hostile takeover bid, Microsoft might be taking another route to acquire the company.

Apparently Microsoft is considering a proxy fight to gain control of Yahoo! Apparently they really don’t want to take “no” for an answer.

Both Microsoft and Yahoo! seem to have a way to go before they can really compete with Google in terms of search, where Google, according to Hitwise, holds approximately 66% of the U.S. search market share. Putting Yahoo! and Microsoft’s share together still doesn’t even equal half of Google’s. Talk about dominance on Google’s end.

It will be interesting to see how this whole situation plays out and what kind of competition can be put up against the mighty Google.

Apparently the much-rumored Google Health is going to enter testing soon with a group of patients from a clinic in Cleveland.

I’m not sure what to think of this program yet. I don’t really like the idea of any other company having access to my health records, but let’s face it, how do we know who has access to our medical records currently?

Don’t get me wrong, I love the Google, but the amount of information that they possess is somewhat scary when you step back and think about it. The thought of them having access to my medical records seems just a little much for me. However, the blog post does note that you will have access to your records through a secure API (Application Program Interface - aka. “nerd stuff”). So, it’s hard to say how much access Google will actually have to the records.

Either way, it seems a little scary and “Big Brother” to me.

I was referred to as a, “Jedi Web Geek” in a post one of my friends wrote last night. Let me explain.

My friend, Dennis, is the Public Relations Director for Mansfield University. I’ve know Dennis off an on for years, since my dad works with him pretty regularly. When I was at my last job, Dennis’ office called saying they needed help with some web work that was giving them fits. Dennis offered to pay me, but I asked for a signed copy of his novel, The Perfect Song, instead.

Afterwards, as I was getting ready to leave, I decided I would “pitch” to Dennis what I thought was a crazy notion - maybe the University should start podcasting. Podcasting was getting big at that point, and I thought it could be a cool idea and possibly be a way to spark some (relatively) cheap buzz for Mansfield.

To my surprise, Dennis mentioned that he had already been thinking about the idea. I think we spent the rest of the conversation talking about “geek” stuff - what was going on with podcasting, Google, the web in general, etc.

Today the Mansfield University Podcast has loads of episodes about all sorts of different topics, and has even gained national notoriety.

Ever since our first meeting, I have become (still becoming I would say) the Jedi Web Geek, helping Dennis along the way of the web. That name suggests that I know all or something like that, and that is far from the truth, but I like to help and share my knowledge where I can, especially to people like Dennis, who are so interested in learning whatever they can.

I can’t really even begin to express how much I enjoy my time spent with Dennis, learning about marketing, talk about the latest tech news, talking about life, etc. It truly has been great.

If you’re interested in what the meetings of a Jedi Web Geek and  a PR Director are like, check out Dennis’ new blog, The Higher Ed Marketing Blog.

In light of reading Dennis’ latest post, I hope to start a series of posts with some Search Engine Optimization tips. Search Engine Optimization is basically the process of making changes to your web site (in my opinion) for the benefit of not only search engines (to help you rank higher on Google, for instance) but also for the benefit of users. There is definitely way more to it than that, but I hope to share some basic tips that should be useful.

Stay tuned…

Google just keeps on rolling. Today (or perhaps last night) Google released Google Docs and Spreadsheets.

Earlier this year Google aquired a company name Writely, which specialized in allowing users to edit documents (imported Word files, etc.) online. I always thought this was a great way of working. Your documents aren’t tied to a machine, and there accessible from anywhere.

Google also released on online spreadsheet program earlier this year, which allowed you to edit spreadsheets online, rather than using Excel or OpenOffice.

This appears to simply be the combination of the two into one location, plus some other features. One of the coolest features is document collaboration. You (and other Google Accounts users) can edit the same document at the same time. My wife, Danielle, and I tried this out once, and it worked really well.

So, you don’t feel like paying a bundle of money for Microsoft Office? Try Google Docs and Spreadsheets (needs a shorter name I think).  Do you loathe using OpenOffice for whatever reason? Try Google Docs and Spreadsheets.

Apparently Google has just bougt YouTube for a cool $1.65 Billion in stock.

What does this mean for Google Video and YouTube? I’m not too sure at this point. I do know that it means that Google has purchasedly one of the most popular video sites on the internet.

I also know that it will probably mean lots of legal headaches for Google due to all the copyright infringement that takes place on YouTube. Google and YouTube both took steps today to include Sony and Warner Music Group content on both of their sites, so that helps with some of the legal issues.

This also means that Google is one step closer to ruling the world…err “organizing the world’s information and making it readily accessible.”

So I figured I would share a little bit about myself in this post today. I am a Search Engine Marketer / Search Engine Optimizer / lots of other things.

Let’s start with Search Engine Marketing. That’s the simple (or most of the time simple) part of what I do. Have you ever done a Google / Yahoo / MSN search and seen the “Sponsored Results?” Well I do those. We advertise on a variety of different search engines, and I manage / help to manage each of our accounts. It really is interesting to see where people come from, what they search for, and then to see them make a purchase. We use tracking cookies (no personal information) to help us know which ads are performing up to our standards and which ones aren’t.

Recently we’ve been much more involved with our Pay Per Click program. You see, that’s why these are Sponsored Results. They aren’t free, that’s for sure! Every time someone clicks one of our ads, it costs us. I know it sounds kind of crazy, but it actually works pretty well for us.

The second part of my job, Search Engine Optimization, can be challenging, and that’s putting it nicely. Basically, the goal is to rank well in the different search engines for certain keyword phrases. (Those phrases will remain anonymous). This part can be extremely frustrating. Basically you learn as much as you can about how to design Search Engine friendly web sites and then you take that knowledge, put it to use, and see what happens from there. It’s not quite that simple, but that’s the basic gist of it.

The challenging part is that this environment is always changing. You never know if what you did 3 months ago is still acceptable today or not. Well that’s not entirely true, but the engines do change their rules sometimes, and for some people it has drastic consquences. We try to follow the design guidelines laid out mostly by Google. If you follow those rules, you should be pretty safe.

There are lots of techniques you can use to try to fool the engines into ranking you higher. The problem with taking this approach is that it can cost you dearly in the end. Especially once the engines catch on to the tactic you are using.

Playing it safe is my best bet when I give advice regarding search engines. I hope to post more on the site about some tips I’ve learned in my time at my job. I know that everyone “in the industry” already knows them, but I would like to have one place where people can receive good information.

So that’s what I do in a nutshell. I’m Search Engine Man, you could say. I never thought I would, but I love it.