Andy has an interesting post on Marketing Pilgrim examining the question of whether or not print is dead. I’ve been on both the media and ad agency side of this equation, and I think I can say that if print isn’t dead, then most newspaper companies are on life support.

IMO, newspapers’ problems start and end with the fact that they are primarily paper. Maybe they need to change their overall name from “newspaper” to “newsportal” or maybe just “news.” Most newspapers and magazines have an online format, but few have really embraced the ability to make money from the electronic versions.

Specifically:

• Usability remains an issue with cluttered layout and sub-par navigation and internal search functionality
• Advertising is positioned in counter-intuitive fashions, without regard to recent eye-tracking studies
• Newspapers have not accepted the fact that users have different expectations when reading online than they do when reading paper

It’s almost as if reading a newspaper is a hobby. Print is slower to navigate and more importantly, it’s dated. What happened at press check is rarely what happened 5 minutes ago. Who wants to be the last to know after they’ve read the article?

Average Circulation of U.S. Daily Newspapers

Weekday and Sunday editions, 1990 to 2003

The vultures are circling.

Fantastic post from Stoney deGeyter on Search Engine Land on what it takes for a top SERP ranking.

I can’t tell you how many previous client conversations have gone something like this:

Jeremy: Let’s talk a little about your goals.
Client: I want to be number one on Google for my core search terms.
Jeremy: That’s not exactly what I was looking for, but okay. Why should you be number 1 on Google for your core terms.
Client: Because you put me there!
Jeremy: [Sound of a gun blowing my brains out.]
Client: I just put some metatags up 2 minutes ago, and I’m not number 1 yet.
Jeremy: ……………………………………………

Position 1 sites generally provide OUTSTANDING user experiences and offer value for their customers and visitors. So if you “wanna be number 1,” think about what you do best (this does not include free shipping, great customer service, and/or competitive prices—YOU and everyone else) and focus your branded message on it.

Then you can begin thinking about an SEO strategy.

I read an interesting post from Seth Godin today about how Reed Elsevier keeps sending him solicitations.

Over the last few weeks, I've received several [emails], all the same, all from real people at Reed. They baldly (and boldly) ask me to swap links with them as part of a scheme to move up the Google rankings…

The point of his story was how this company is large and callous enough to continue to send him spam, regardless of his several attempts to get off their email list. And that’s certainly a problem in itself. However, what I found more interesting (and troublesome) is that this multi-million dollar global company still believes that they will increase rankings on Google with a reciprocal linking campaign.

Who are these idiots? I don’t think I’ve talked with a client about a reciprocal link since 2005. And even then, it was to tell them it was a waste of time.

So my question is: how many companies out there are still this behind the times for organic search?

Jon Miller posted an interesting article on The 5 Secrets PPC Agencies Don't Want You to Know. Aside from a headline that was similar to something I’d expect to see in a woman’s magazine, he made some pretty good points. I found myself agreeing most with:

Agencies will never understand your customers and your business as well as you, especially B2B firms that sell more complicated products and services.

HOWEVER, there are plenty of companies who have extensive technical offerings. They use consulting firms and ad agencies that do phenomenal jobs. So maybe it’s the 80/20 rule.

Very detailed products and services often require enhanced insight into a company’s industry. If you are unable or unwilling to do your homework, then you shouldn’t accept the business. My litmus test is that if you can’t find demand on keywords that you feel are relevant, then a blinking red light should be going off.

However, for the most part, I disagree with the premise. So in response to Jon’s post, here are 5 ways for building successful paid search relationships with clients:

1. Choose the right goals

A strong agency/client relationship starts with setting realistic, but aggressive goals. You don’t need to explain in detail of your exact plan to meet those goals, but an overall strategy goes a long way.

2. If you can’t improve their existing performance cost effectively, then help with a different project

I’ll probably get a lot of flack for this one, but it’s fairly important. When we talk with prospects about earning their business, one of the steps is looking at what they are currently doing for a paid search strategy to see what kinds of improvements can be made. If our strategies will not help them, we don’t offer it. So I can definitely see Jon’s point with this one. It’s my opinion that too many companies bring on clients for the sake of having them versus truly being able to help them.

3. Make your money the old fashioned way, earn it

We’ve discussed using a performance model for billing, and Web Diversity has had success. I think it makes some sense, and in many cases, it is more profitable that billing on percent of spend. Our media buying department has become extremely aggressive with online channels in requesting that they deliver leads on a performance model, so PPC could be the same way. Obviously, this is dependent upon your prospect’s business model and site usability.

If anyone has positive or negative feedback on this one, I’d love to hear about it.

4. Incorporate landing page consultation and usability

It doesn’t take a genius to drive traffic. You have to be somewhat intelligent to drive relevant traffic. But since we’re looking for performance and conversion, it makes sense to provide landing page/micro site recommendations (best practices, pricing comparisons, etc.). This includes measurements before and after recommendations.

5. Rework, Review, Rebuild

Customers want and need tools to help them make better decisions. A paid search campaign can drive relevant traffic and lucrative conversions. However, a Web site that offers product/service-centric tools will also create link-driven traffic and a more informed customer. Here are some examples:

• Office furniture: The customer knows the room dimensions, help them design the room with your furniture and plan it out. A conversion point could be emailing a finished design plan (complete with your furniture) to a local dealer.

• Home theater systems: Compatibility can be an issue. Build a resource that provides information on which brands work best with others.

• Auto parts: There are thousands of sites that sell car parts, but a video archive tied to individual parts that show you how to install them yourself would be valuable.

If your existing paid agency is not adapting any/all of these tactics, then maybe Jon has a point.

Rand does an excellent job explaining (and illustrating) the very common problem of keyword cannibalization, as well as the solution for fixing it.

The recommendation of branching out pages based on keyword modifiers really hits home for me. And I love the fact that he recognizes the conversion element:

Conversion Rate - If one page is converting better than the others, it's a waste to have multiple, lower-converting versions targeting the same traffic. If you want to do conversion tracking, use a multiple-delivery testing system (either A/B or multivariate).

We used to have this issue with clients frequently. When they only care about getting the ranking for the keyword term versus worrying about what happens when someone actually gets to the page, everyone loses.

If the term is extremely competitive, that’s all the more reason to have a page that meets the need of the search query more effectively.

All gone! Well, it would be if I were attempting to use MySpace at the Wake County Public Library. Starting today, the library system is blocking it completely.

Thomas Moore, the Libraries Director points out that:

“They've been bringing up some graphic pornographic sites on our PCs that children have inadvertently seen, and we just can't tolerate that…”

I whole-heartedly agree children inadvertently seeing pornography is a major problem. Forcing that to end should be, and apparently is, the highest priority.

Other problems include drug pick-ups and gang recruitment, all tied to page views on MySpace.