Canadian SEM Issues

I was looking for a research from enquiro minutes ago and instead I found this great video interview with Gord Hotchkiss on Search Marketing. I think you should check out if you ever want to become a leader in the online space. This interview was made by Yahoo Canada.

What attracted my attention is when he was asked about how the mainstream media marketers are responding to search, Gord does not hesitate to mention that most people are really scared. He is using the term *crapless* and I am still trying to figure out exactly what it means but I am guessing it is not flattering. In his usual style, he does not make any favor to Canadians when on the text version of the interview, he goes on by saying that “when you get to C-Level in Canada, it is like somebody has poured maple syrup on everyone… Everything slows down”. Canada has a culture of caution, which does not work well in search. The video is only 3 minutes long and he brings you straight to the point.

Here is the text version of the interview with Gord

Permalink /// Comments (0)

Here is a slide that was taken from the Canadian Search Marketing Landscape presentation during Search Engine Strategies Toronto in June 2007.

This unfortunately correlates with other studies and research, especially the ones conducted by ComScore Media Metrix Canada, which clearly points out how Canada trumps U.S. in broadband use as well as how Canadians Are More active online searchers than their U.S. counterparts. With 70% of Canadians household connected to the web with broadband access, you no longer have excuses to avoid clueing into Search Marketing. 

Permalink /// Comments (0)

As presented in an earlier post on the rant made by Gord Hotchkiss on why Ontario Tourism does not “get” Search Marketing, I want to present to you today what they should take a look at from time to time to measure up against other major provincial travel websites, such as Quebec and BC. During my days at a major ad agency, I was taking care of a important Paid Search Advertising budget for Tourism British Columbia - HelloBC.com - and one of the things I really liked to measure was my improvement on the Alexa ranking scale. Despite issues with accuracy that this tool has, since Alexa rankings are calculated based on the people who have installed the Alexa toolbar, it gives somewhat a good indication of the overall traffic to the site, compare to competitors. It is the proportion that we are interested in, not sheer numbers.  Alexa ranking is easy to track over time and this is what I am using this SEO tool for. The lower the Alexa ranking means the more heavily visited the site is. That being said, when I started working it, the Alexa ranking for HelloBC.com was near 90,000. Check where it is today, compare to Quebec and Ontario:

As you can see, BonjourQuebec.com (red) has the lead in terms of traffic, followed closely by HelloBC.com (blue). Ontario Tourism is not yet in the race according to this graph, which correlates with the comments made by Gord last week about how poorly constructed Ontario Tourism’s Search Marketing plan is. Also, as traffic goes up, your Alexa ranking goes down. In this case, HelloBC.com’s new Alexa Ranking is 69,038. In the same time period, Alexa Ranking for BonjourQuebec.com went from 65,000 to 57,144. Ontario Tourism is way behind at 187,583. Therefore, if you are actively involved in Paid Search Advertising (PPC) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO), take a minute or 2 per month and check your Alexa Ranking. It is fascinating what you can find over time and how you can beat your competitors and bring more qualified customers your way.

Permalink /// Comments (2)

I have seen this kind of situation many times over the years but this one is perfect. 2 weeks go, Gord Hotchkiss, the most renowned search expert in Canada made a blunt statement saying that Canadian advertisers have their heads up their ass and that Canada is clueless about search marketing. In his article, Gord explains that he was in an hotel room during Search Engine Strategies in Toronto and made a few obvious searches such as Ontario vacations, Ontario resorts, Toronto vacations, Ontario getaways and Ontario holidays in an attempt to see if Ontario Tourism would appear on the radar. Zip. According to Google Trends’ keyword research tool, these are the most common searches for Ontario, by a substantial margin. Any half-decent search marketer would conclude based on this 30 second experiment that a major chunk of the search marketing opportunity is wasted and that Ontario Tourism is clueless. 

Now, Ontario Tourism defends itself and they are saying that Gord’s claim was “wildly inaccurate” and that Ontario Tourism does in fact have “an extensive search program.” Really? According to the most recent article on this episode that is called “ ‘Doing Search’ Only Counts If You’re Seen” it’s one thing to say “we’re doing search” internally—and it’s a totally different thing to have the searcher realize that yes, you’re doing search. There is a fundamental disconnect there which is why most Canadian search experts agree that Canadian advertisers aren’t clueing into the power of search. They are missing out on obvious opportunities and they don’t factor in searcher behaviors.

Maybe the budget was limited which is why they could not include head terms (aka. heavily searched key phrases). A little more digging in the way their advertising budget is used allowed to discover that most of the advertising dollars go to TV and print (loads of it apparently) and the goal of this campaign is to drive traffic to the site. Yes, you read it right. What a waste! Here is the quote on how the budget is used:

But in this case, are budgets really limited? Let me share some things I was able to dig up on Ontario Tourism’s site. First of all, the tourist bureau is doing print (lots of print) and TV (lots of TV). The goal? To drive people to its Web site. Full-page 4-color ads are running multiple times in over 70 dailies and weekly newspapers and 9 magazines. One 4-color full-page ad in the Toronto Star would run about $54,000 (there’s a certain amount of guessing here, as print rate cards are really a mathematical exercise in confusion and frustration). Circulation of the Toronto Star is 350,000 (on an average day). An excellent conversion rate for a newspaper ad would be 0.5% That means, ideally, 1,750 people would actually visit the Ontario Tourism website. Now, I have never in my life seen a newspaper ad convert this well, but even if it did, that would be a cost per visitor of $30.85. If the ad doesn’t work that well, the average cost climbs dramatically. And you pay whether or not the ad works.

And it goes on like this. The complete experiment, supported by key research and shopper behaviors, concludes that, according to 97 out of 100 people who are using search to find the official site for Ontario Tourism, the tourism bureau is not “doing search.” Read the full article here and please start making sense with your advertising budget. Otherwise don’t be surprised to make the headlines and potentially not in a flattering way. Make sure you blog about it so everybody knows.

Permalink /// Comments (5)