Google has added another option to their Robots Exclusion Protocol (REP). Website owners now have the ability to flag webpages to be dropped out of the Google index on a specific date and time. This additional flexibility will allow website owners to expire content that has a specific shelf life and will be useful on websites that run specials online, sell products that are seasonal in nature, and so on. An example of the new tag and its syntax is included below. This example is the same as seen on Google’s Official Blog.

One morning in late July in the midst of my morning routine to start my day, I turn to my wife and say, “I need to go to California next month for SES.”  Being as far away from the Marketing field as one can be as a Personal Banker, she replies, “What is SES?”  That is the question of the day.

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Are paid links evil? Well that was the question posed in one of the sessions at the SES Conference in San Jose this year and I’ve got to tell you, it made for a heated discussion. On one side you have the search engines who say yes paid links are evil, we will find them, they will be discounted, and you will be noted. On the other side you have seasoned SEO professionals who know they work, know they can be done in a manner that can go undetected, and who claim it should not be up to the engines to police and discount this technique.

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On August 20^th, AdWeek published an article titled “Are Search Ads a Waste of Money?”, which focused on new research released by Microsoft, performed by Atlas (formerly part of aQuantive, now a part of Microsoft) that suggests spending money on branded paid search keywords is a waste. The article argues that people who search on branded keywords are already intending to go to your site, and quotes a VP of analytics at Atlas who stated that “What you are really paying for is a glorified yellow pages listing”. As an agency, the question of placing on branded keywords is one that we often face from our clients. Our advice? Branded terms absolutely need to be a part of the SEM mix. They are an integral part of the search purchase process, as well as branding component of SEM.

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Before we continue our review of local search strategies and tactics, I would like to take a moment to comment on a new program by Google that I found interesting over the past week.

Google Local Business Referrals

Google is placing a high value on sourcing accurate local business information by making its first move into organizing a local data collection and potential future sales force. Google’s Local Business Referrals (LBR) program provides registered “business referral representatives” with up to $10 for each listing approved by Google and verified by the local business via online form or postcard. (more…)

As many of you have probably heard, Google has recently tested and introduced their Pay Per Action (PPA) pricing model. This model allows advertisers to shy away from the standard Pay Per Click (PPC) model and pay only when a desired action has been completed by a user. These actions can be anything from filling out an online form to an actual sale. Although it was the next logical step in Pay For Performance, does it improve upon the PPC model? At first glance is seems that this model does improve upon the PPC model for advertisers but not necessarily for publishers.
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