Dispatches from Search Engine Strategies

August 8, 2006 | In SEO/SEM | 5 Comments

I am attending some sessions at the Search Engine Strategies conference this week. Here are some brief (very brief) thoughts on one of the sessions I attended.

Search Behavior Research Update

  • Anne Frisbee of Yahoo! Search Marketing shared details of a report, The Long Winding Road to the Cash Register. Some interesting findings from that:
    • Search allows for research at every phase of the buying process meaning that instead of a funnel of conversion, merchants need to think of it as more of an hour glass or “tumbler”.Takeaway: It’s never too late to convince buyers to purchase from you if they are researching at each phase. Create compelling content that buyers researching products will find.
    • Buyers enjoy researching and often do not always purchase right away.Takeaway: Give buyers a way to bookmark your site so they can come back, and even better give them a reason to return to your site by offering product reviews, testimonials, and product comparisons.
  • Bill Barnes of Enquiro presented some eye-tracking research (where researchers track where users look on web pages when using them). The reports are not available for free but there is more information and sample pages available on the web site.
  • David Willams of 360i presented research into search queries and transactions that begin and end with non-branded and branded searches. You can download their latest whitepaper with this research for free (registration required).
  • Robert Murray of iProspect spoke about how users search and their behavior when searches are unsuccessful. I wrote a post about this study that includes a link to download it, and what it covers.

Stay tuned for more.

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business

5 Comments »

RSS feed for comments on this post.

  1. Are there any plans to improve the analytics included with Merchant Solutions? It seems to be an area that could be greatly improved. We would love to stop relying on a 3rd party solution.

    Comment by FinnishGifts — August 9, 2006 #

  2. As with other areas of the product, we are always looking into ways to improve the offering and prioritizing which areas are selected for improvements based on the number of merchants requesting a feature enhancement and the impact it will have on their success.

    Paul

    Comment by Administrator — August 13, 2006 #

  3. I would think that if it was based on user input, there would be better information on the RTML aspect – since there seems to be a monopoly on the language, and only 1 place really has any “books” on the subject. The RTML is the core of the Yahoo Store, but getting assistance on it is only through 3rd party – but I’m sure there have been several hundreds of people wanting much better information and instructions on it than what Yahoo provides – instead, we go buy the books and guides from another company, and pay hundreds of dollars for any kind of modification or assistance in it.

    Comment by Pat Heiden — August 14, 2006 #

  4. I just opened a new Yahoo business http://www.earthtechproducts.com & would like to know if yahoo could refer me to any companies specializing in SEO work. I am looking to “hire” someone to submitt my site to major search engines, optimize my site, & make recomendations. Can you point me in the right direction or can you show me a resource that provides a list of reputable SEO firms to choose from ? Thanks in advance!

    Comment by Frank Bianco — August 24, 2006 #

  5. Hi Frank,

    Congratulations on opening. Your site looks great.

    In terms of hiring a company for SEO work, I would recommend looking in the Merchant Solutions Developer Network for developers specializing in organic search optimization. You will find many reputable companies listed there that all know the platform and how to optimize for it. Also, ask around of other Yahoo! merchants to get their feedback on who they liked working with and why.

    My own two cents worth on optimizing for your site would be to get started imemdiately on adding more content to your product pages. Search engines favor pages with original content. You have a wide range of products so researching keywords may take some time but you can always add more content now and refine the keywords later. Take a stand. Tell people why your products are better than similar products elsewhere, or why they should buy these products from you. Add customer product testimonials possibly.

    Good luck,
    Paul

    Comment by Administrator — August 24, 2006 #

Leave a comment

XHTML: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Disclaimer and Reminder. The opinions expressed here are not necessarily the opinions of Yahoo! and we assume no responsibility for such content. Yahoo! may, in our sole discretion, remove comments that are off topic, inappropriate or otherwise violate our Terms of Service. Please do not post any private information unless you want it to be available publicly and never assume that you are completely anonymous and cannot be identified by your comments.

Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy - Terms of Service

Powered by WordPress on Yahoo! Web Hosting.
Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy - Terms of Service