What is comparative advertising? Comparative advertising is where companies like to pit their product features next to other well known competitors in an effort to differentiate their product. You have probably seen this in a table format with product features listed along the right with check marks showing which product holds which features. This is usually occurs when either the company sees particular features they hold to be a competitive advantage, or simply because their name is not as strong as the other leading competitors.

So this brings up a few questions to consider.

1. Should I do comparative advertising? What are the pros and cons?
2. Are there any legal ramifications for using competitor names and what are the legal considerations for the claims you make about your competitor’s product?

Let’s briefly tackle them here.
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Setting up SEM Campaigns
One of the most overlooked aspect of running a SEM campaign is how important the structure of the account is for both management purposes and for performance. There are numerous factors to consider when deciding how to structure your account.

How can I make my structure tight?
What type of keywords am I targeting?
How should I best group my keywords?
Is targeting by product type more important? Geo-type?
How does creatives factor into all this?
Do I need to split out keywords with good history vs ones with bad history?
How does keyword combinations affect content campaigns?
Should I structure search campaigns differently from content campaigns?
How do I factor in budget constraints and budget management issues?
What landingpages do I have for use?
The list is endless…

Tip of the Week
Today we’ll throw out one tip to consider when organizing your accounts after you have collected some data. After you have collected a good sample size you probably are starting to get a better idea on what keywords are performing. If you have cast a good enough umbrella of keywords you would easily find some surprising performers as well as surprising duds. So how can you sort through all this data for management purposes?
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One of the most common SEO recommendations these days is to use an XML site map file.  But how important is a site map file for SEO?

An XML site map is a file you place on your website that lists some or all of the pages in your site.  The idea is that search engine spiders can read the site map file(s), and locate all of your pages so they can be indexed.  You can also give some useful information such as the relative priority of pages for crawling.  XML site map files are used by all the major search engines, including Google, Yahoo and MSN/Live.  For details on implementing sitemap files, see http://www.sitemaps.org/

So back to the question:  How important are XML site map files?

The short answer is, like in so much of SEO:  It depends.

The real answer goes back to the purpose of sitemap files:  To help search engines find and crawl the pages on your website, and to do so efficiently.  XML site map files do not have any direct impact on rankings.  They only help search engines find pages.

For some search engines, such as Google, sitemap files are used for one other purpose:  to help establish the “canonical” URL for content that is served under multiple URLS, and for deterining what URL to index when duplicate content is found.  This can be very important if your site uses session IDs or other parameters in URLs, or serves the same content under different sections of the site. 

Thus, the only time sitemap files will change your rankings is in how they help find pages sooner, or to find pages that can’t otherwise be found on your site by crawling links.  It may also speed resolution of which URL to index in cases of duplicate content.  It won’t actually increase rankings — it may just get them to rank sooner.

If your website does not change too often and is well structured, with HTML links that search engines can easily follow to find all of your pages, then using an XML site map file will probably make no real difference at all in rankings. 

So when should you use XML site maps?  Here are some examples:

1. If your site is very large, you might use XML site map files to guide search engines to those pages that are new or change frequently so they are indexed sooner.  This is useful even if your site is well structured for spidering.
2. If your site has pages that are behind a search function, login, or other barrier to crawling by search engine spiders, then a sitemap file can get all of your content indexed.  This is a primary purpose of site map files:  to help find content that can’t be found by crawling.  Keep in mind, however, that a major disadvantage here is that these pages will generally have little or no page rank, since there is no internal page rank “flow” to the pages.
3. If your site has lots of issues with session IDs, dynamic URLs and duplicate content, then an XML site map file can help search engines to quickly determine the canonical URL for the content.  This can speed indexing and ensure the canonical URL is shown in search results.  Of course, if your site has these types of issues, you should work on them, but an XML site map file can help in the interrim.
4. If your website has frequent new or changed content, you can use site map files to guide search engines to crawling those new pages first.  Simply use the priority field in the sitemap records.  Note that in this case you would only need to list new/changed pages.  Removing a page from a sitemap file will have no impact once the page is found and initially indexed.

In general, it is a good idea to have an XML site map file.  It helps search engines find all your good content, and you can use the priority field to help them discover and index new/changed content more quickly.  However, don’t expect a big change in rankings just because you use a site map file.  Think of it as a “best practice” that is part of your overall SEO strategy.

It is easy for everyone to think that Google owns the search market. If I want to be on search, I need to be on Google simple as that. Well it isn’t so simple when it comes to international markets. Though Google has a strong grip on the US market, this isn’t always the case in other countries especially when compared to the local search engines.

Who are the players?
Some of these engines are familiar. Yahoo Japan owns more than half the market of Japan. They also have a strong grip on many other international countries. However you will also find country specific engines such as Baidu in China which owns about 60% of its market. Naver in Korea also owns over 60% of it’s market. Yandex in Russia owns little less than half it’s market. Seznam controls nearly 65% of the Czech market.

How is it that these search engines are able to compete with the likes of Google?
They know their market. They have the competitive advantage of targeting a local market and studying on their behaviors, their use of language as well as their preferences. They have worked on their technology and algorithms specifically catering to their local audience. Google unfortunately due to their sheer size and international presence have a more difficult time focusing on their individual markets. For example did you know in Korea, the more busy and complex the page is, the more authority the site is given by it’s users? This goes completely opposite of what one should do in the US where simplicity and targeted pages are key to a good conversion.

Foreign Laws
Another aspect is foreign laws. Local engines like Baidu are well aware with the regulations and as a local pioneer has a lot of say and influence. Large engines like Google have a hard time dealing with all the various laws especially as many countries favor local companies as opposed to foreign competitors. Many of these search engines were started before Google and has firmly established themselves as the market leader.

Google however has put a lot of investment in trying to target these local markets and it is Google’s hope that continued investment and effort will eventually entrench them deeper into these markets.

Paul Lee
Director of Online Marketing
LeadQual - SEM

First, I’d like to thank the CAPPS (California Association of Private Postsecondary Schools) team for allowing me to speak at thier annual conference.  We have done a number of tests in the edu veritcal and find a lot of areas of opportunities.  This vertical is highly competitive and the big players have a lot of advantages - we believe by working with us, you can level the playing field.  I have been asked for my presentation by a number of folks, so I have uploaded it here.  Thanks,

 Andrew