Author: Nancy McCord

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We Are Bullish on Microsoft Advertising Due to ChatGPT in Search

Focus of a Computer Screen Open to ChatGPT

The interest in Microsoft Advertising since Bing.com’s introduction of ChatGPT in search is through the roof! We are onboarding new clients into Microsoft Advertising (Bing Ads) weekly and we are seeing great results.

We are bullish on Microsoft right now. With the rollout to more PCs of Windows 11, the new search interface in Windows tied to Bing, the strong press exposure of ChatGPT, and Microsoft’s integration with ChatGPT with their mobile and desktop search, interest is through the roof!

If you have not tried out Bing Search with ChatGPT you need to. Our firm loves the integration and I personally love the search results. In fact, I like the results better than Google’s. Not only are the results with ChatGPT integration immensely improved, but typically exactly what I was looking for is delivered as the first result – saving me time.

Interest in advertising using Microsoft Ads is at one of the highest points that I have seen it in years.  Clearly market share of searches will be improving with Bing vs Google. Add to all this the privacy issues Google has with consumer tracking, pending litigation that looks to break Google into smaller pieces, and the rising cost of clicks and conversions on Google Ads – online advertisers are now seriously looking for alternatives.

For many clients, but not all, the cost per click and cost per conversion is much lower in Microsoft Advertising.  Medical practices selling CoolSculpting will see good conversion generation at more than half the cost of Google Ads.

Industrial Business to Business clients will see great results on Microsoft Advertising using the Bing Ad search ads and the Microsoft network and at lower conversion costs.

In conclusion, we highly recommend you try some searches yourself on the Bing ChatGPT search box. The ChatGPT search box looks bigger than the regular search bar so, if you don’t see the big box, sign up for early access now.

Then, try some searches and we think you will agree – Bing Search has nailed it with better results and a cleaner interface than Google Search.

After that, check with us on getting ads set up in Bing so you can ride the wave of popularity and see lower cost conversion results on the Microsoft Advertising network today.

About Our Author, Nancy McCord

Nancy McCord is the founder and CEO of McCord Web Services LLC. She has been in the internet marketing business since 2001. As a professional writer and seasoned pay per click advertising expert, she has a unique point of view on what really works for business lead generation and growth.

 

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Yandex Leak Reveals Some Intel on Google’s Secret Sauce for Site Rankings

Image of the words Data Leak

Yandex, a search engine in China, that was built by ex-Googlers and matches the Google index about 70% of the time. Since the Yandex data leak, the SEO community has been trying to ID potential items that may actually impact ranking in Google.

We’ve found two really great articles that help to spell out what appear to be possible ranking indicators that Google may… or may not be using. You can visit the links at the bottom of the page to read all the gory details.

In a nutshell, however these are the items that from my years of experience appear to ring true as Google rankings.

• PageRank – Google does not show PageRank anymore, but years ago this was a really important factor and Google may still be using it. PageRank was a combination of factors such as inbound links, authority, and site freshness.

• Clicks and CTR – I have long felt that with Google having access to websites’ Google Analytics accounts that clicks and click through rate would eventually become a ranking factor.

• URL Construction – We have long known that Google like keyword driven URLs. We like to use hyphens versus underscores in our URL building for SEO optimized websites. The Yandex leak goes a step farther and says that too many trailing slashes is an issue and numbers in the URL are problematic.

• The Web Host – The Yandex leak goes farther into stating that web hosts also impact rankings. Low budget host will flow a lower ranking indicator to sites that are hosted on their servers. Reliability (downtime) may also be an important factor.

• Query Relevance that Matches Meta Titles and Page Text –  This rings true to me as a Google index factor as Google is all about relevance. We know the meta title tag is very important for ranking but should reflect page content and not be spammy.

• Presence of Ads on the Page – Yandex might be using this as a ranking factor, but more likely a quality factor. The leak states that Yandex does look for ads and adult ads, but does not reveal if this is a ranking factor.  I do not see Google using that for index rankings nor Yandex.

• Age of Links – Yandex appears to be weighting pages with newer inbound links and depreciates older inbound links when deciding page rank. This rings true to me as a Google index item. Google has done much to drop link numbers in various algorithm updates; impacting the placement of websites organically.

• Page Freshness – Yandex is looking at the age of pages and how frequently site updates are done. We have long know that site freshness is a Google indicator. This is one reason why we like blogging as a way to build organic placement over time.

• Bookmarks – Yandex ranks sites higher in the results if more visitors bookmark the page. Google may or may not be doing this, but I am leaning closer to may versus may not.

We encourage you to view the following article for more information. Does this give us enough to move the needle for organic placement. No, but it does give validation to many things we know that do move the needle over time for organic placement improvement.

Jake Ward’s LinkedIn post.

Russian Search News Article.

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Mark Zuckerberg, Here’s the Problem with Facebook

Facebook Marketing Managers

If we could chat with Mark Zuckerberg about how he could improve profits for Facebook, We would want to chat about Facebook pay per click advertising.

As professional Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising account managers, who manage over $3.5 million in ad spend for clients, we think we know what we are talking about.

•  It is excruciatingly difficult to connect client advertising accounts to a manager profile. Time typically to connect, if you even can, is over 3 hours. Clients can simply not figure out how to approve our access. It is not a simple process.

•  If you can connect the ad building application does not allow you to easily set up conversion tracking.

•  Once you have a manager account, to add additional employees to help with management is nearly impossible. You have to tunnel through many levels of access. And then once connected, you cannot understand why suddenly they cannot login and review accounts. Impossible!

•  With a manager account, you are barraged by hackers. I will routinely have numerous bogus login attempts to my manager account. I have had to confirm my profile, validate several times with Facebook and then turn on draconian security in addition to 2-step verification. I continue to get hackers trying to access my account. A manager account is rife with attempts to gain control of the account and associated advertisers for nefarious purposes.

•  Clients want to spend on Facebook. We alone have over 6 clients who if we gave the go ahead would start advertising on Facebook, but the problems are so severe that we will not take on new clients.

•  Facebook is not honoring the daily budget/30-day budget. When you set a daily ad spend for $50 and the account is routinely spending over $120 a day without a look to adhere to a 30-day ad spend, it puts our reputation on the line. We stopped taking new clients when this happened to one key account.

•  Clean up the system and improve ad quality. We had one client with a low ad spend generate $14K in revenue monthly on Facebook for his industrial supply store. But, suddenly out of the blue he has no revenue and is spending more on clicks than he is generating. Why? What happened. Facebook has no answers and there is no one really to call to ask a question why. The drop was sudden and mysterious. When Google has conversion tracking issues – we account managers know and understand that the data will catch up. For Facebook, we simply cut the budget to a very small daily number hoping to get answers sometime in the future. What a bad way to manage business Facebook!

Mark Zuckerberg, if you don’t know how Google Ads works for account managers, you need to find out. Make Facebook advertising easy to use and allow managers easy set up and management and your pay per click business can grow and generate real profits for Facebook.

We would definitely move clients into Facebook, it is not a hard sell, but with problems like this, you can count on your profits continuing to decrease.

For information about McCord Web Services and our Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising account management services, visit our website www.McCordWeb.com.

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IcelandDriver.com and Hávar Sigurjónsson

Iceland glacial lake

Although this is off my usual topic, I want to recommend a tour service and individual to you today. Hávar Sigurjónsson owner of IcelandDriver.com was my tour guide recently on a 17 day trip to Iceland.

Iceland is a wonderful place to visit and full of interesting sites, waterfalls, history, and glaciers. Our tour guide Hávar Sigurjónsson provided and in-depth tour with engaging conversation and a deep understanding of the history, culture, and folklore of Iceland.

Have a trip your way. Our small group tour of Iceland consisted of travelers age 25 up to 70. Hávar had activities for everyone. For the younger sporter set, he took tourists on additional tours by bike or hiking after we arrived at the hotel. For others, like myself, we relaxed at the first class hotels after a full day and then met the full group at dinner. There were activities for all ages and interests.

My husband and I highly recommend Hávar Sigurjónsson owner of IcelandDriver.com to you for consideration when you decide to book your own tour of Iceland. Our trip was a comprehensive tour and a once in a lifetime experience.