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Canada is the fifth country in which AdCenter has been launched. They honed the product first in France and Singapore, followed by the U.S. and U.K. last year.

Barry and I (along with 300? others) attended the launch at an event in Toronto this afternoon. I am just back to Montreal in time to squeak in this post before midnight.

David Jakubowski, general manager, Microsoft AdCenter made the trip up from the US to speak - we happened to meet his dad (a nice guy) from Buffalo who was up for the launch and tonight’s hockey game Buffalo (6) vs. Leafs (1) so no doubt will go home happy - about the rosy future of AdCenter for Microsoft and it’s advertisers.

However there was no talk about how MSN would increase market share where according to November’s comScore Media Metrix, Google sites represented 76.3% of all searches performed in Canada, followed by MSN sites with 9.9% and Yahoo at 9.6%.

In the present, today MSN reported conversion rates on AdCenter over 50% higher than Google and Yahoo based on beta tests in 4 Industries. Impressive.

Traffic is low on MSN Canada so rates are low too, and MSN says you can sign up for an account in only 5 minutes so get going (on Yahoo Canada too) while the getting is good!

Big news is AdCenter’s demographic targeting capabilities (based on data from sources such as MSN Messenger and Hotmail account profiles) whose data lets advertisers refine their campaigns by targeting online Canadians by age and gender, as well as by region and time of day.

(TIP: Time zones and hence “Time of day” for non-premium advertisers is linked to where the advertiser’s place of business is, so if you want to reach searchers in BC between 8PM and 10PM you need to indicate the time zone it at the campaign level or you will miss them completely.)

For more info: http://adcentercanada.ca/en/default.aspx

Have a great (rest of the) day, Greg

MSN launches their own version of YouTube. MSN is testing their own video site, soapbox, as well is dipping their feet into the water looking for additional video content.

In our Yahoo! seminar on Tuesday, we discussed following the individual search engine guidelines.

Here is a link to Yahoo! search quality guidelines that include:

• Original and unique content of genuine value
• Pages designed primarily for humans, with search engine considerations secondary
• Hyperlinks intended to help people find interesting, related content, when applicable
• Metadata (including title and description) that accurately describes the contents of a web page
• Good web design in general

The guidelines also describe what not to do with a section on unwanted content.

At yesterday’s (very successful) SEO 101 Basics Seminars we delivered for some of Yahoo! Search Marketing Canada’s client’s (more on this in another post soon) Barry told of delicate situations that can arise if your PPC ad winds up on a page with negatively related content.

The example he used was a Travel Agent’s PPC ad being on a page telling of a disaster.

Well last night while waiting (and waiting) for the plane back to Montreal I read that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) found their recruitment PPC ad on the site of an allegedly notorious street gang in LA.

It seems the PPC ad was programmed to run on youth sites.

Of course as soon as they were told of the mix up, the PPC ad, along with the smiling face of a female RCMP officer, was promptly removed.

Just goes to show you, crime doesn’t pay.

Have a great day, Greg

A great article in The Australian , regarding the about to be released IBM report, Navigating The Media Devide, warns about the divide between new and old media. (Once you click on the link, you have to scroll down to read the article.)

What does this have to do with SEO?

Educating your staff on SEO and SEM before you start an in-house program makes all the difference.  Make sure everyone is on board and motivated to see the project through to its success.

Matt McGee looks at Google’s local search algorithm. Here are his top ten tecniques.

1. Use of Google’s Local Business Center (LBC)
2. Availability/Trust of other business data
3. A Business Web Site
4. Listings in 2nd-tier Local Directories
5. Listings in Vertical Directories
6. References from other Web sites
7. Reviews
8. Proximity to location
9. Location Prominence and User Query
10. Use of other Google services

Matt has done his homework. No time like the present to put the research into action.

One of our advanced search engine course graduates  has launched his shoe covers website. He would love to receive comments from fellow academy students.

SearhEngineNews reports that Google may be ready to shake things up again. “Google is going to consider the strength of your site based not only on the link you get and its link text, but also by the “votes” that link gets based on usage from Internet surfers (and it’ll be calculated uniquely to cut down on shenanigans).”

I have been following the Kelsey Group for years but mostly checking out their research on yellow pages advertising. Like the rest of us, they are now well into search.  Here is some interesting info they have provided for local search:

Online maps, in combination with local search engines, have become very popular in recent years, giving people a way to discover local businesses and attractions, obtain driving directions and view satellite images of an area, among other things. Google competitors like Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, and Ask.com have made their mapping sites a high priority for development. Advertising revenue in local search engines is expected to grow from $3.4 billion in 2005 to $13 billion in 2010.

In a Google blog entry in January, Google indicated that it would remove the linking value on NoFollow links. Now  SearchEngineJournal gives us 13 reasons why NoFollow tags suck. 

Before trying any seo techniques, ask yourself if you are following the Vulcan theory of SEO.

Is what I am about to do logical for the growth of my business or am I trying to manipulate the search engines? Frankly, if you are asking the question, you already know the answer, don’t you.