Author: Dave J.

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What happens next?

I thought I would start my CRM project for next year by requesting information from Goldmine. There are two problems with that.

1. There are three ways to buy the software…through a retailer, through a “partner”/consultant, or dealing directly with the company. I can accept that they have multiple channels, but it does slow me down. What does someone who doesn’t want a call from a salesperson do? What does someone who DOES want a call from a salesperson do? Leading to my second problem…

In order to find out who my local “partner” would be, I had to register at the site with complete contact information. After registration they list the dealer’s info & website, plus information on the direct person at the company. But, know that I’ve registered, are these people going to be alerted to my inquiry, or am I supposed to call them??? They didn’t offer to send a brochure or a demo CD after I registered, either. For experts in sales management, I’m already dissappointed with them. I’ll wait and see if anybody contacts me.

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Great article on Google. Two observations: 1. Google being privately owned is one of its strengths. 2. Google’s search results would actually benefit if they weren’t the only game in town, as people would find less benefit manipulating the search results.

Wired 11.01: Google vs. Evil

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TR part 2

Part of the problem with TR’s EZ search sites is that they are cross-pollinating, i.e. they link to each other. Unfortunately, this generates multiple instances of EZ sites under one search. Seven different EZ sites populate the first 32 results for the “screw machine products” search I discussed on Friday. To the user this is polluting the search results, plus bumping out at least six other deserving sites.

But how to fix the problem? Google’s desire is to run a completely automated website. They undoubtedly feel that links are the hardest to manipulate and the most meaningful. But apparently that is changing. I think over time, they will adjust for such problems. One needs to watch search results over a long-term, like a stock, not over the day-to-day results.

One can register their dissatisfaction at the link at the bottom of the page, but one can only wonder what happens with those.

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While checking links for the previous post, I just found out that Google Monitor that I recommended has been disabled by Google, as far as I can tell. Another reason to use a real tool like WebPosition Gold.

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Thomas Register rears its head again

While it is not a secret that Thomas Register has been copying IndustrialQuickSearch with “EZ” listing sites, but now they are starting to show up in search results on some terms. Let’s make this a case study…its a slow Friday anyway, isn’t it?

Search for screw machine products on Google and you will find the seventh result to be an EZ site. This page has a Google PageRank of 0. That’s -zero-. What it does have is 16 text links to “screw machine products”, each for a different type or category. Review the article I posted yesterday, After PageRank…, to understand that the author considers link text the second most important factor for a page’s ranking.

This isn’t the first page I’ve seen with good rankings in Google that would considered to be spamming. Case in point is this site: www.lre.com. Go there and check out the home page before it redirects to the real home page. That page is so loaded with hidden words and links it isn’t funny. I just reported to Google via their “dissatisfied with results” link at the bottom of the page. We’ll see what happens.

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Alphabet Soup?

This site just got blogged at Strategic Public Relations. If you go there you will see a critique against the use of acronyms. He’s right, and I’ll have to make sure that “B2B” is spelled out somewhere. But, by the same token, the people I am targeting this blog at should understand this language. Well, perhaps some are so steeped in what they are doing that they don’t differentiate their kind of marketing as B2B.

I think we all adjust our conversations to our audience, we just need to make sure our websites do the same.