The SEOsource (see introduction in Issue #13) product development team leverages a methodology known as Agile software development to build and release new versions of their software. The guiding principles behind Agile enable the team to incrementally release new functionality, and incorporate feedback rapidly to keep pace with the ever-changing search landscape.  Rather than relying on lengthy feature specifications and upfront review processes, the SEOsource team leverages their close relationship with the AA|RF search team to gather and incorporate feedback as part of weekly development cycles.  As developers add features, procedures called “unit tests” are built alongside them. These automated tests serve as efficient “self-QA” and eliminate the traditional testing periods that usually must occur before a software release.

In addition to formal releases, the SEOsource team makes available an experimental version, known as the daily build. This version of SEOsource is released every day as part of an automated process that takes all currently implemented functionality and makes it available to everyone. This allows the AA|RF search team to work with features that are still in development, and provide feedback before they are incorporated into a formal release.  The development team designed SEOsource as a Windows application in order to leverage the richness of the platform. Traditionally, providing updates to a Windows application was more difficult than a web-based one, since the software was installed locally on each user’s PC. The development team used a new technology called ClickOnce, which enabled the richness of a Windows application with the deployment ease of a web-based application.

Each time a user launches SEOsource, the application checks if a newer version has been released. If so, the application is updated automatically, ensuring that everyone has the most recent functionality. In the case of the daily build, this means that a user launching the application will get a new update every day.  By taking advantage of Agile practices the SEOsource team delivered over twenty releases in 2006, and is positioned to exceed that number this year. These practices make it possible to easily and quickly adapt to change, ensuring that as search engines evolve and the AA|RF search team develops new SEO strategies, SEOsource will be on the cutting edge with them.

The Feeds Management team in Philadelphia has found additional value in a fairly new offering tied into Yahoo!’s Search Submit Pro product (often known as Paid Inclusion, called “Quick Links.”  This is an option that can be chosen during the campaign setup or when maintaining current listings. Quick Links are short text links that appear under a home page feed listing, similar to the additional links found below the first result in this search for aQuantive at Google (called “Sitelinks” in the Google world).  The Yahoo! Version can be seen in the number one result for this search for “aQuantive Wikipedia,” as well as in the first result for this airline search. (One should not confuse these Quick Links with the other type available in the Yahoo! Small Business Web Hosting world.)

Quick Links allow an advertiser to leverage the strength of their home page to promote a page that lies deeper in the site.  These deeper pages can be ones that would not show up on their own accord, or they can be sale or other pages the advertiser wishes to bring attention to. One of the major benefits of running quick links is that there is no additional cost associated.  The cost is the same as the standard Cost-per-Click (CPC) for the listing.  Aside from being able to call out special offers, Quick Links make a listing stand out from the rest of the page.  This typically results in an increased click-through rate for campaigns running Quick Links.

The Feeds Management team also has the ability to rotate Quick Links, test different copy, and even schedule start and stop dates for sets of Quick Links.  This is ideal for retail clients who have a set promotional schedule.  While an increased CTR is harder to measure, one retail client had amazing success with implementing Quick Links.  From January 12 until January 24, the conversion rate for the campaign as a whole was 28.1%.  The conversion rate for just the Quick Links listings was 38.2%, and the conversion rate for the most specific conversion point Quick Link was 45.7%.  It is also worth noting that AA|RF has measured an average of 3 clicks out of every 100 happen on a Quick Link.  Yahoo! reports that the industry average is 1 click out of every 100.

Search Engine Strategies is in full swing, and the halls are packed. Below is some coverage of sessions provided by SMTrends Editor Chris Boggs to the Search Engine Roundtable. The next few weeks will incorporate some additional topics, as well as major takeaways and a report of trendy products or services.

Video Search Optimization – “He feels that video is driven by viral marketing, not search engine marketing… people have the idea of using video as a content provider. Everybody that produces content on this level has a stake in the game or could benefit from it.” Full blog coverage. **Please note this and the following were covered and published nearly “live,” so grammatical and/or spelling errors may be present.

Podcast and Audio Search Optimization – “(About FeedBurner) In Q1 2007, over 100K podcast feeds managed. In aggregate, they are tracking more than 5M subscribers, up from 50K in Q1 2005. Full blog coverage.

Benchmarking and SEM Campaign – “They found that, no matter how important IBM was in 2001, Google didn’t really feel they were that big of a deal. Less than 1% of visitors came from SE’s.” Full blog coverage.

Advanced Paid Search Techniques – “So what about rewarding the choices made by the searcher? Respond to them with the proper creatives in ad copy as well as on landing pages. Many pages in the PPC listings do not present the proper information to reward the visitor for choosing their listing.” Full blog coverage.