Online Travel Marketing Blog

US Online Advertising Grows by 27% in 2007

2008-02-13T08:24:00.004Z

Online advertising in the US grew 27 percent last year, according to an IDC analyst. Internet ad spending totaled $7.3 billion for the fourth-quarter of 2007, about 28 percent more than the same period in 2006, according to IDC. For the 2007 calendar year, it reached $25.5 billion, representing year-over-year growth of 27 percent.

However, there was less positive news for Google as for the first time ever, IDC's research found Google actually lost market share. "Their domestic sales growth has slowed down," the analyst said. Google's net U.S. market share was down 0.5 percentage points to 23.7 last quarter compared to the prior quarter.

Mobile web set to unleash a "huge revolution" says Google CEO

2008-02-12T15:34:00.000Z

The arrival of a truly mobile Web, offering a new generation of location-based advertising, is set to unleash a "huge revolution", Google Inc Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said on Friday at World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Although consultancy firm Forrester predict mobile ad revenues of under $1 billion by 2012, Schmidt countered this figure by claiming that the mobile Web was reaching a tipping point.

"It's the recreation of the Internet, it's the recreation of the PC (personal computer) story and it is before us -- and it is very likely it will happen in the next year," Schmidt told a panel at the World Economic Forum.

Google aims to be a prime mover by launching an open U.S. wireless network.

51% of U.S. Travel Booked Online in 2007

2008-01-11T15:52:00.000Z

According to the PhoCusWright Consumer Travel Trends Survey the year 2007 was the first in which more travel was purchased online than off-line in the U.S.

The report goes on to predict that "the gap between online and off-line will continue to widen as more and more travelers shift behavior to online shopping and buying." The study said that 51% of U.S. travel was booked online in 2007, and it projected that percentage to increase to 56% in 2008 and 60% in 2009.

Interestingly, the survey also suggests that the more complex travel products, such as package holidays, are being purchased less frequently online, while simple products like plane tickets and car hire are being purchased more frequently.

Omni Hotels Launch Brand-wide Mobile Web Site

2008-01-11T15:47:00.000Z

Omni Hotels announced today the launch of a new, brand-wide mobile Web site. Guests can now conveniently access hotel information from any Web-enabled mobile device. The mobile Web site can be used to book a reservation, get hotel information or look at special offers. In addition, Omni Hotels is the first hotel brand to feature online check-in as a mobile Web site function. This unique feature enables travelers to check-in before they even arrive at their destination, ensuring that guestroom keys are ready and waiting upon arrival.

“Our goal was to give travelers the means to check-in to the hotel while on-the-go, obtain maps and get directions to the hotel,” said Kerry Kennedy, director of e-commerce for Omni Hotels. “Today, these are becoming necessities for the busy business traveler.”

Omni Hotels’ mobile Web site is powered by Usablenet Mobile. The technology employed for the mobile Web site automatically detects what type of mobile device is being used. When a guest visits omnihotels.com, a mobile-friendly version of the site optimized for the wireless device, provides a rich user experience with speed, ease and all major functions of the full Web site for the mobile user.

"Users visit 22 sites before making a travel booking" says Google UK MD.

2007-11-30T08:52:00.000Z

Speaking at the recent Internet Advertising Bureau's annual Engage conference in London Google's UK MD, Matt Brittin suggested that 25% of all searches end in a purchase.

However, this does not appear to be the case in the travel sector as Brittin goes on to say that an average user looking for a travel product would make 12 searches, visit 22 sites and take 29 days before they ultimately made their booking.

"67% of online searches are driven by an offline "impression"

2007-11-22T12:32:00.000Z

According to David Feldman from Iprospect, speaking at SMX Travel@PhoCusWright, 67% of online searches are driven by an offline "impression" such as word-of-mouth, TV, Radio, brochures etc.

In other words, online searches are heavily impacted by offline marketing activities. Most search marketers are aware of the power of offline promotion to drive traffic to websites, but 67% does seem to be a suprisingly high percentage.

Presumably this is a global average and includes the huge volume of searches that are stimulated by news and media coverage. For example, the most used search phrases at any one time are often related to news events or to celebrity names.

The percentage of traffic to most travel websites that has been generated by offline "impressions" is likely to be much less than 67%.

Is a Pay Per Click meltdown inevitable?

2007-11-20T14:41:00.000Z

A report recently published by Forrester suggests that Pay Per Click bid costs have risen by an average of 33% in just 12 months. The "US Interactive Marketing Forecast, 2007 To 2012" surveyed click costs for the 1st quarter of 2007 and compared them to the 1st quarter of 2006.

This is no surprise to most online marketers who are facing an uphill battle to maintain the profitability of their PPC campaigns in the face of an explosion in the number of new advertisers over the last couple of years. Pay Per Click has become a widely used advertising tool and an established component of nearly every business's marketing plan.

So what does all this means for the typical PPC advertiser? For a start they will be getting 33% less visitors than last year for the same ad spend. More importantly, they will need to increase their conversion rates by 33% just to maintain the same campaign ROI.

The reason for this inflationary pressure is the continually increasing number of advertisers that have been drawn to the PPC model and, as a result, more and more advertisers are vying for the same limited search space.

This has been exacerbated by the fact that many companies have based their whole online business model on PPC advertising (especially Google Adwords), and they are being driven to bid higher and higher in a desperate attempt to maintain their prominent position for the most lucrative search phrases.

At the same time, many of the larger businesses that have traditionally dismissed search marketing as unnecessary have gradually come to the realisation that it is, in fact, a powerful sales and branding tool. These large businesses take a different economic approach to PPC advertising and are not necessarily playing to the same ROI rules as the smaller player.

So, not only does the online travel marketer have to deal with increased competition, they also have to deal with more and more campaigns that are being run unprofitably.

Many savvy businesses have managed to offset this inflationary pressure by ignoring the more expensive generic phrases and buying more 'long tail phrases' instead. These are longer and more specific phrases that generate lower search volumes, but they often produce higher conversion rates and are generally cheaper to buy than the more popular phrases. Many businesses are also implementing more sophisticated ROI measurement systems so that they manage their campaigns more profitably. Others have scaled back their PPC spend and started looking at alternative channels.

The big question going forward is how will continued click cost inflation impact on the future of search engine PPC as an effective advertising model? There is no doubt that Pay Per Click advertising has outperformed many other channels in recent years and there is enough margin left for ROI figures to decline further, and yet still be good enough for it to remain a profitable advertising tool.

Of course, there will be a 'tipping point' at which continued click cost inflation will render PPC as unviable for all but the most niche markets. Some commentators are already forecasting the imminent demise of PPC advertising due to untenable click costs and the increasing development of new advertising opportunities offered by the many social media websites. The highly popular Facebook has recently announced the launch of their own innovative new marketing platform called Facebook Ads (see below), and this will undoubtedly take advertising dollars from the traditional PPC platforms such as Google Adwords.

Despite the doom and gloom I still don't believe that the demise of PPC as an effective advertising medium is a foregone conclusion. It will certainly continue to get more challenging to make a PPC campaign profitable, and there will almost certainly be some kind of shake out eventually, but I believe that the outcome of all this could still be positive for many advertisers.

To explain the reason for my optimism we need to look at the key causal factors behind the current situation. There are many contributing factors to the continual increase in the number of businesses using PPC advertising. To a certain extent it has been a victim of its own success as many businesses have been drawn to the excellent returns that are possible.

Also, the increased popularity of affiliate marketing has spawned thousands of new advertisers all effectively selling the same product. This is particularly true of the hotel sector. But perhaps the biggest contributing factor of all is the simplicity of the management interface created by Google and, to a lesser extent, Yahoo and MSN.

It's relatively simple for anyone to set up and run a Pay Per Click campaign with very little knowledge or expertise, and this has encouraged many small businesses to enter the market without having to pay for outside assistance. For the same reasons, many larger businesses manage their own campaigns in house by delegating the responsibility to a person in the marketing department who may have no prior experience of PPC management.

However, the simple and intuitive management interface is deceptive and hides a sophisticated and complex marketing tool that requires a relatively high level of knowledge and expertise in order to get the most out of it. I am often shocked by the limited PPC service product knowledge of many business owners and marketing people that I come across, despite the fact that they control significant PPC spends.

This ease of entry to PPC advertising has not only fueled the increase in advertisers but I believe that it has also contributed to an increase in the number of campaigns that are poorly managed and, in many cases, unprofitable. As click costs continue to rise and returns decline many of these advertisers will simply fall by the wayside or drop out in order to look for more profitable marketing channels. Others will hand the management of their campaigns to experienced online marketers who will refocus their campaigns and make them more economically viable. Other advertisers will move part of their PPC budgets to new emerging online opportunities from social media sites such as Facebook.

Forecasting a PPC 'meltdown' might be a little too dramatic and 'rationalisation' is probably a better description. Either way, the end result of this process will be fewer advertisers and a higher percentage of profitably managed campaigns.

Creating and managing an effective search engine PPC campaign will still be challenging, but the smaller advertiser will have a better chance of realising a viable return.

Facebook unveil Facebook Ads

2007-11-08T13:37:00.000Z

Popular social media website Facebook have announced the launch of Facebook Ads, an ad system for businesses to connect with users and target advertising to the exact audiences they want. Facebook Ads will enable users to learn about new businesses, brands and products through the trusted referrals of their friends.

“Facebook Ads represent a completely new way of advertising online,” said Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg . “For the last hundred years media has been pushed out to people, but now marketers are going to be a part of the conversation. And they’re going to do this by using the social graph in the same way our users do.”

Advertising messages will gain distribution through what Facebook has termed the “social graph,” the network of real connections through which people communicate and share information. When people engage with a business’ Facebook Page, that action will spread information about that business through the social graph.

Users can become a fan of a business and can share information about that business with their friends and act as a trusted referral. Facebook users can interact directly with the business through its Facebook Page by adding reviews, writing on that business’ Wall, uploading photos and in any other ways that a business may want to enable. These actions could appear in users’ Mini-Feed and News Feed, Facebook’s popular products that allow users to share information more efficiently with their friends.

The advertising system works by allowing businesses to build their own pages on facebook. Starting with a blank canvas, the business can then add all the information and content they want, including photos, videos, music and Facebook Platform applications. Outside developers have created a range of applications to enhance Facebook Pages, such as booking reservations or providing reviews of restaurant pages, buying tickets on a movie page or creating a custom t-shirt. Companies launching applications for Pages include Fandango, iLike, Musictoday LLC, OpenTable, SeamlessWeb, Zagat Survey LLC and Zazzle.

Facebook's Zuckerberg goes on to say, “It’s no longer just about messages that are broadcasted out by companies, but increasingly about information that is shared between friends. So we set out to use these social actions to build a new kind of ad system.”

Facebook is a hugely popular and successful social utility with more than 52 million active users. There is no doubt that by opening up their membership through this new advertising platform, Facebook have changed the way that many businesses will view customer interaction in the future. The challenge for travel businesses is to learn how to harness and maximise this powerful new advertising medium.

Kayak announce new paid search platform

2007-11-08T13:03:00.000Z

Kayak.com have announced the launch of the Kayak Network, a new paid search solution for the European travel sector. A number of high profile brands such as British Airways, KLM, lastminute.com and ebookers.com have already signed up to the service.

The new advertising platform is similar in many ways to existing Pay Per Click services, but the Kayak Network enables advertisers to target their marketing based on specific search criteria including destination city, origination city, trip dates, length of stay, specific airline/hotel/car brands and car type. Another innovative feature of the service is that the user's search information including destination, departure date and length of stay, for example, are relayed to the advertiser enabling them to offer tailored information rather than a static landing page. Kayak believe that this innovative approach will result in stronger click through rates and higher ROI.

Annie Wilson, Kayak Business Development Director for Europe, offered "The conversion rate is higher than other sites because Kayak Network provides advertisers with contextual search parameters and sends the user's search details such as dates of travel, destination and preferences to the advertiser. They can then use the information to create more relevant search results, thus increasing the likelihood of consumer purchase." More information is available from the Kayak Network.

The web is still the top holiday planning tool

2007-10-24T09:16:00.000Z

A third of US Internet users now research and book travel online, according to the Conference Board and TNS' "Consumer Internet Barometer" study.

Two in 10 consumers used the Internet more this year than last to research travel arrangements, and 18% increased their online bookings.

However, the same survey concludes that the number of consumers using the internet to research travel outnumbers those that book online by nearly 2 to 1.

The vast majority of viral marketing campaigns fail.

2007-10-18T13:44:00.000Z

Viral marketing campaigns can be a highly effective means of generating site visitor traffic, as well as incoming links to help boost an SEO campaign.

However, a recent study from JupiterResearch suggests that only 15% of viral campaigns are successful. The reason for this high failure rate is simple - poor content.

One third of travel consumers abandoned websites after just 4 seconds

2007-10-15T07:55:00.000Z

An Akamai study shows that one third of consumers to travel sites will abandon their search if they have to wait more than 4 seconds for their results to load. The results of the study are a clear warning to travel businesses to ensure fast loading times and data delivery on their websites - or risk losing over 30% of their online business.

Google dominates world search market.

2007-10-12T09:01:00.000Z

Google generates 37 billion searches in August and dominates world search market. A recent comscore survey has revealed that Google sites generated 37 billion searches out of a global search total of 61 billion in August 2007.

That makes Google the world's biggest search property with a market share of 60%. Yahoo was placed second with a 14% share while MSN was in 4th with a 3.4% share.

Interestingly, the 3rd biggest search property in the world is now China's Baidu.com with over 5% of global search traffic.

Should you bid on your own company name?

2007-10-11T08:25:00.000Z

Bidding on your own company or brand name in a pay per click campaign is an issue that gets raised from time to time with my clients. It’s an important issue because a good percentage of traffic to many websites is generated by company name or brand based phrases, and often this traffic converts very well. However, many businesses are reluctant to pay for visitors that are already looking for their website. One client described it as feeling like they are paying twice for the same visitor.

More often than not visitors using the company name in a search are responding to an offline promotion, a word of mouth recommendation or are trying to find a site that they did not bookmark the first time around. Whatever the source, these are highly qualified visitors that have a higher chance of converting to a sale than visitors using other search phrases and every effort should be made to ensure that they can easily find your website.

Should your business bid on its own company or brand names? If your business experiences any of the following scenarios then bidding on your company or brand name may be a worthwhile strategy;

1. Your company name or brand is a generic and popular phrase.
If your business has a generic name or brand that is similar to a popular search phrase then it may be very difficult to secure the top spot for a company name search in the natural listings. If this is the case it may be that visitors looking for your site end up clicking through to a competitor’s site instead. In this scenario I would recommend bidding for a top 3 placement in the paid search listings so your site appears above the main natural search results. This would significantly increase the chance of visitors finding your site rather than your competitors.

This could be an expensive strategy depending on the popularity of the search term. However, not only will you be securing a top position for your company or brand, you will also be securing a top position for a highly targeted search phrase. So this strategy should result in a healthy ROI.

2. Your company name is not a registered trademark and your competitors are bidding on it.
A common paid search strategy is to bid on competitor names and brands in the hope of picking up some of the visitor traffic that was destined for their sites. This is clearly an attempt to cash in on a competitor’s brand equity or offline promotional spend, but it is a perfectly legal strategy if the company name or brand is not a registered trademark.

Even if you have the No 1 position in the natural listings in Google for your company name or brand it is still possible for a competitor to secure a spot in the paid listings that would site just above your site listing. The danger here is that many people don’t distinguish between paid and non-paid listings and may click on the first link they see, especially if the company or brand name is used in the competitor’s ad listing text.

In this scenario, securing the top spot in the paid listings above your competitors should be straightforward and relatively inexpensive. This is because the main search engines reward better performing ads with higher positioning and your ad listing will almost certainly have a higher click through rate than your competitors listings.

3. Recently launched websites.
A new website may not get listed in the natural results for its company or brand name for several weeks after launch, this is especially true in Google. If this is the case, and you are spending money on offline promotions with the objective of driving visitors to your new website, it would be a good idea to include your company and brand name in a PPC campaign until the search engines index your new domain.

In many ways bidding on your own company and brand names could be considered a defensive PPC tactic. However, it’s important to remember that these are your visitors and your bookings and this may be the only way to ensure that they don’t both end up with your competitors.

Online reviews twice as trusted as search ads

2007-10-09T07:47:00.000Z

A recent global Nielsen Internet survey shows that nearly twice as many consumers trust online reviews than they do search engine ads. The precise figures were 61% compared to 34%. Only banner ads at 26% and mobile text ads at 18% were trusted less than paid search ads. The question posed was "To what extent do you trust the following forms of advertising?" and the results are as follows;

Recommendations from consumers - 78%
Newspapers - 63%
Consumer opinions posted online - 61%
Brand websites - 60%
Television - 56%
Magazines - 56%
Radio - 54%
Brand sponsorships - 49%
Email I signed up for - 49%
Ads before movies - 38%
Search engine ads - 34%
Online banner ads - 26%
Text ads on mobile phones - 18%

The Nielsen survey - which covered 26,486 internet users in 47 markets from Europe, Asia Pacific, the Americas and the Middle East - is further evidence of the growth in importance of consumer generate reviews and content, as well as the emergence of online review based sites such as TripAdvisor, Holiday Critic, and RealHolidayReports.com. It also issues a clear warning to those businesses that ignore user generated content and rely solely on paid search marketing strategies such as pay per click and banner ads to influence online consumers.

However, before proceeding to terminate your paid search campaigns and divert all of your precious online marketing budget into social media websites, it is worth taking a moment to look more closely at what the survey results are actually saying.

First of all, these results are really only reinforcing what we already know - which is that "word of mouth" and "personal recommendations" are one of the most influential marketing tools available to any business. There is nothing earth shattering in this revelation.

We also know that the internet consistently receives bad publicity through spam, fraud, phishing and other unsavoury activities, so it shouldn't be that surprising if some of this filters through to influence the way consumers view online advertising. This credibility issue is unique to the internet and traditional media such as newspapers, TV and radio do not face the same level of negativity.

Another important point is that the survey is not suggesting that paid search ads, banner ads or mobile text ads are not effective. The issue here is about perception and not effectiveness - even though the two are inextricably linked. Many people may say that they do not trust search ads, but there is no doubting that well organised pay per click campaigns can be highly profitable and many businesses rely heavily on them.

One final point, the Nielsen survey did not include natural search engine listings in the mix. This is a shame as it would have been very interesting to see how these stacked up credibility wise against both online reviews and paid search ads. There is plenty of research to show that consumers view the natural listings as somehow being "endorsed" by the search engines and so attach a greater trust to these than they do paid listings. It is possible that the paid search ads from businesses that have good exposure in the natural search listings have a greater trust amongst consumers than those that don't.

So, what can we learn from the results of this survey.

In recent years many travel and leisure based businesses have had to re-think the way they approach their online marketing with the emergence of consumer generated content. This is particularly true of the hotels sector where user generated reviews have been a widely used component of the online buying process for several years, and cannot be ignored. As the survey clearly shows, the time has come for online PR and online reputation management to be key components of every hotel's online marketing mix.

What about other travel and leisure based businesses that are less affected by online reviews and rely heavily on paid search strategies? Well, despite the 'trust" issue highlighted by the survey, Pay Per Click, banner ads and mobile text ads are still highly effective advertising mediums. If a paid search campaign has a positive ROI then why would you not continue with that campaign?

It is not an 'either or scenario', and there is an increasingly compelling argument for all travel based businesses to look at diverting at least some marketing funds to social media websites to ensure that they are maximising their opportunities to generate sales through creating positive digital word of mouth.

Marketing on multi-language search engines

2007-10-08T15:37:00.000Z

A client of mine who prefers to remain anonymous was recently approached by an agency offering to increase the visibility of their website on multilingual search engines without having to translate their website. Their service involves creating a translated and optimised version of the home page in as many languages as required. The client asked for our views on the value of this type of service and whether we thought it would be effective. This is our response;

Clearly, if you want to sell your holidays into other language markets then translating and optimising your site in the local languages would be a key part of this.

However, there are some issues with the proposed approach that need to be considered;

1. The first thing to make clear is that if your site is ranked well in the English language versions of the major search properties then it will also be ranked in the foreign search engines. For example, if you go to Google Spain (http://www.google.es/) and just type in your company name (or a phrase that your site ranks well for in Google.com) you will see your site appear in the listings. This is because the default setting of the foreign language versions of most major search engines is the global database. This is the same in any language version of Google (and other major search engines).

There are 2 other search options; 'Pages in Spanish' and 'Pages from Spain'. If you make the same search after selecting either of these 2 options your site will not appear. To appear in a 'Pages in Spanish' search you need to have some Spanish content on your website. To appear in a 'Pages from Spain' search you need to have an .es domain or have your site hosted in Spain. So, just optimising one site page will only allow you to enter the 'Pages in Spanish' option index, not 'Pages from Spain' index.

2. Translating and optimising just one site page will only allow you to effectively target 2 or 3 search phrases, so your exposure will be very limited. If a business is serious about wanting to access the German market, for example, then a much greater number of site pages need to be translated into German and then optimised in order to create any real level of exposure for your target search phrases.

3. You also need to take into account that if you are marketing to a foreign language audience you are likely to need to have staff within your company that can deal with enquiries in that language, otherwise you are unlikely to convert many of the enquiries.

If you are serious about wanting to market your business on foreign language search engines simply optimising your home page into various languages is not an effective way of doing this. We would recommend that you have your website professionally translated into the target languages, and then optimised by search marketing experts native in those languages.

How to get your site in the Google UK index

2007-10-08T15:30:00.000Z

This is a question emailed in by Peter Thomson, President of Thomson Bike Tours (http://www.thomsonbiketours.com/).

Peter asks "Our company website is well ranked in Google.com and much of our business is from the US, however, we would now like to increase our focus on the UK market. My question is how do we get our site listed on Google UK?"

To answer Peter's question we first of all we need to distinguish between Google UK and Google's UK index. If you go to Google.co.uk you will see that the default search setting is 'the web'. This is basically Google's main global index and usually returns the same results as Google.com. Your site does appear in this index.

However, if I make the same search again, but this time select 'pages from the UK', your site does not appear. This is a problem for you because a relatively significant percentage of UK consumers use the 'pages from the UK' option to narrow their search. As it stands, these potential customers will not find your website in the natural search results.

To get your site in the Google UK sites only index you must have one of two things; either a .co.uk domain, or a site hosted within the UK with a UK I.P. address. A word of warning though, just because you use a UK based hosting company does not guarantee that your site is physically hosted in the UK. This is because some hosting companies use offshore servers. It's definitely worth getting assurances on this before committing to new hosting services.

Mobile Search Marketing - get a head start on your competitors.

2007-04-25T16:28:00.000Z

As discussed in the article above, the mobile search market is still in its infancy and many advertisers are taking a 'wait and see' approach. This lack of competition in the mobile search space surely presents an opportunity for businesses to get a head start on their competitors. While most advertisers are reluctant to commit, it is relatively straightforward to get positioned well in the natural search listings of the mobile search engines, and PPC programme click costs are still comparatively low.

So, how do you start to market your business on the mobile web? The good news is that a mobile search marketing campaign is relatively simple to set up. But before you can promote your website to the mobile search market you need to ensure that it is compatible with mobile screens (you can view your site through a mobile screen here), or you need a specifically designed site in a mobile ready format such as XHTML, WML, or iMode.

The reality is that most sites will be difficult to adapt to small mobile screens and will not have the simplified functionality that is required by mobile users, so a dedicated mobile site is preferable. Fortunately, mobile sites are relatively cheap and quick to build. You can also register a .mobi domain so that users (and search engines) will know that your site is fully mobile compatible.Once you have your site established, accessing the mobile search market is now quick, easy and cost effective with both Google and Yahoo offering the ability to place PPC text ads on their mobile web search engines. There are also other 3rd party mobile ad network providers such as Admob (www.admob.com) that allow you to place contextual ads on selected content. In addition, mobile websites can be optimised for high visibility in the natural search results of the mobile websites using conventional SEO tactics. You can even submit a Google Mobile Sitemap. As few business have mobile ready websites the competition for valuable screen real estate is surprisingly light and it is relatively easy to get well positioned on the mobile search engines.

While the majority of people may not yet be ready to book their holidays on a mobile handset, there is clearly a business for other travel and tourism related suppliers like hotels, restaurants, bars, clubs, golf courses, attractions, tour guides and other local services.

Very few businesses have mobile versions of their websites, so there is an opportunity to get ahead of your competitors through early exposure for your products and services on the mobile web.

Mobile Search - the next big thing?

2007-04-25T16:20:00.000Z

Annual mobile phone sales are predicted to hit 1 billion by 2009 and there are already 4 times as many internet-enabled phones in the world than there are PC's.

According to Dotmobi (www.dotmobi.net), one third of the global population are connected via mobile phones today and approximately half are expected to be using a mobile Internet phone by 2008. An IPSOS survey suggests that 29% of mobile phone users in the UK searched for news and information on their handset during 2005.

The statistics are impressive and will get any marketers pulse racing. But it does seem as if we've been hearing about the potential of mobile search market for some time, and yet very few travel companies appear to be active in the mobile search space and mobile e-commerce revenues are still modest.

Up until now most advertisers have been ignoring mobile as a marketing channel, according to a new report by Forrester Research called "Interactive Marketing Channels to Watch in 2007." It suggests that only 13 percent of marketers use mobile text message ads and only 11 percent bother advertising on wireless application protocol (WAP) sites. It seems clear that advertisers are waiting for evidence that the market is there before deciding to jump in themselves.

Barrier and limitations to growth
Despite the huge number of people that have access to the mobile internet there are a number of barriers to mobile web adoption. For example;

1. Cost and clarity - carrier data plans can be expensive and confusing compared to normal internet access plans.

2. Screen Size - the limited screen size of many hand sets negatively impacts the user's browsing experience.

3. Ease of use - due to the limited screen size there is an increased number of clicks needed to get to content.

4. Lack of content - there is a 'walled garden' approach to the content offered by many mobile network operators which means that not all mobile users get full access to content.

Competition - the WiFi explosion
Another factor that may have impacted on the growth of mobile internet usage is the increasing availability of high-speed WiFi internet access in many public areas. Airports, hotels, bars, libraries and commercial shopping centres are increasingly offering WiFi, and it's often free. This has encouraged users to use laptops and PDA's to access the internet while on the move rather than through mobile phones.

Mobile is the perfect advertising platform
Despite these barriers to growth travel companies cannot afford to ignore the e-commerce and marketing potential of this platform. All of the barriers to growth outlined above will be overcome over time as technology improves and network and content providers adapt their services to facilitate the growth. The issue is not really whether the mobile search market will make an impact, but how it will make an impact.

In many ways mobile is the perfect advertising platform. It's always with the consumer, it's always on, it provides personal profiling data, it provides location data, it's interactive and it has multiple billing options already built in.

At present the major bulk of mobile searches are related to ring tones, news, entertainment, maps and directions, directory listings, local restaurants and other local services. As many as 60,000 UK users a day are checking train times on their mobile phones.

Local search is clearly the natural mobile advertising opportunity. Going forward, more complex searches and bigger transactions will become viable as technology advances and users become more comfortable with using their handsets for searching.

In a recent Travelmole interview, Nancy Lyndhurst, the product manager for O2, said some of the larger travel brands like Cathay Pacific, Accor Hotels and KLM are already successfully marketing with mobile technology. She also cites the example of Lastminute who received a £3,000 holiday booking online from a customer using their mobile telephone.

Mobile marketing spend to reach $11 billion by 2011
A recent report by the telecom division of Informa Group stated that advertisers are expected to spend a massive $11 billion on mobile marketing by 2011. Optimistic predictions like this have compelled the major search engines to start making significant investment in the future of mobile search themselves.

Google have predicted that their own mobile division, based in London, will "become the biggest driver of new business" for the company.

Google has developed its own mobile search engine and has signed a number of deals to provide mobile search services to major operator portals. Motorola have even agreed to add a dedicated "Google" button to some of its hand sets. LG, one of the top 5 mobile firms in the world, have announced that they will start to ship handsets pre-loaded with Google services from this month.

Yahoo has unveiled a new application called Yahoo Go Mobile which makes its various services available on certain phones. Not to be outdone, Microsoft launched Live Search for Mobile in February at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona.

There are also a number of start ups like Jumptap and Medio who will be bringing services to the new mobile search space.

It's clear that the major search properties, in partnership with the phone manufacturers and network services, are intent on driving the mobile search sector forward. With this kind of momentum there's no doubt that mobile search marketing will eventually become a major part of online marketing, it's just a question of when. Could 2007 be the year of mobile search?

Google Site Maps - does your site need one?

2007-03-28T06:58:00.000Z

If you are involved in the marketing of your company website then you may well have received a call at some point from businesses offering to create and submit a Google site map on your behalf.

The caller stresses the importance of a Google site map and the positive benefit to your site's positioning in Google. But just how necessary is it for your website to have a Google site map? The answer is "it depends".

A Google site map is a highly useful tool as it allows a website owner to 'tell' Google which pages it should index, and in which order of priority. However, if your site is already well positioned in Google then there may be little if any benefit to submitting a Google Site Map, and it is unlikely to have any impact on your existing rankings.

The real value of a Google Site Map is if your site uses complex technology, has poor internal navigation or delivers dynamic content and you are having problems in getting your content successfully spidered. On bigger and more complex sites using a Site Map could help encourage a deeper crawl and ensure that constantly changing URL's are indexed. It's also a useful exercise when you launch a new website as it puts it firmly on Google's radar.

If your site would benefit from a Google Site Map it's relatively simple and quick to put in place. If you have a small and uncomplicated site then you can do it yourself using one of the many third party site map generator tools that are now available(http://code.google.com/sm_thirdparty.html). For larger and more complex sites this is something that your IT or development department should already have put in place. More information on Google Site Maps can be found here https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/docs/en/about.html

AJAX & SEO - Are they compatible?

2007-03-28T06:53:00.000Z

Many travel and holiday websites are now utilising AJAX. AJAX is not new, but it is developing into a major buzzword in IT departments and at web developers. It's also a potential source of friction between IT/development and marketing.

AJAX is short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, a development technique designed to create interactive web applications. AJAX makes web pages faster loading and more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server so that the whole page does not have to be reloaded each time the user requests a change. This is meant to increase the web page's interactivity, speed, and usability. One of the "classic" AJAX applications that most people are familiar with is Google Maps.

There are some major benefits to implementing AJAX on a travel or holiday websites. It can assist in delivering an improved user experience through faster loading, improved page interactivity and enhanced visual presentation. There is also the benefit of reduced bandwidth usage as smaller packets of data are downloaded rather than whole web pages.

However, there is a price to pay for delivering this enhanced user experience. The problem is that search engines can't see your AJAX delivered content or navigation as they are unable to run the javascript code necessary to generate the html content. If the search engines cannot access your content or follow your navigational links you could be seriously restricting your site's exposure in the search engines.

There is no doubt that AJAX is here to stay, at least until something better comes along. It's also likely that the major search engines will become more adept at spidering and indexing AJAX generated content. However, until they do, the simple solution is to avoid using AJAX where it is not needed on your site. If you do intend to use AJAX make sure that your IT department or web developer create real links and html content to feed the spiders with.

Dot.Travel domains - the pros and cons.

2007-03-28T06:51:00.000Z

The first websites using the dot-travel domain name went live back in October 2005 in a flurry of media announcements and hype. Since then the hype has subsided and there appears to be little evidence of a major take up of the new Dot.Travel domains.

The benefits of taking a new Dot.Travel domain are presented as;

- improved branding and connection with the travel and tourism industry.

- enforced authentication by an independent third party which reduces the likelihood of cyber-squatting and domain name speculators.

- Dot.Travel domain holders can get listings in the internet's first global travel directory and dedicated search engine.

The global travel directory and dedicated search engine could potentially be a useful promotional tool. However, are these compelling enough reasons to add a Dot.Travel to your .com or .co.uk domains?

Many travel and holiday firms have spent millions of pounds and many years investing in their .com and .co.uk domains. so the addition of another top level domain would simply dilute their online branding for little perceived benefit.

Also, you can only effectively promote one domain in the search engines, so if your existing domain is already positioned well in the natural search results why would you want to start all over again with a new domain?

Anyone that has been involved in the launch of a new website recently will know that a major investment in time and resources is now required to create the kind of exposure necessary for a site to be commercially successful.

So, if there is a risk that an additional domain could dilute your existing online branding, and promoting this new domain in the search engines would be a time consuming and costly exercise, is there really a compelling argument for the Dot.Travel domain? Could the Dot.Travel domain go the same way as dotTV and dotBiz?

What do you think? Let us know at etravel.success@turismotec.com