The Eightfold Logic Blog
Enquisite Suite Update - April 2010
Earlier this week we released an update to the Enquisite reporting suite, extending the functionality of some key components. We are very excited to share the news, and outline the features and benefits with you. Many of these changes are very significant, and are benefits unique to Enquisite: you can’t do most of these things with any other analytics package on the marketplace.
Cross-Domain and Sub-Domain Tracking
We’ve added the ability to track actions and conversions across different domains and display the results as a unified reporting set. This is particularity useful if a booking engine or shopping cart is hosted on a separate domain, or if multiple domains all point in to one site for conversion purposes. Please note that cross-domain and sub-domain tracking will require assistance from the Enquisite team to implement: it’s not complicated, and shouldn’t require any effort from you. If you would like to take advantage of these new capabilities, please send us an email at [email protected].
Sub-Domain Tracking
Cookies can now be tracked across sub-domains and we now tie sub-domain activity together using a single Enquisite tracking code. This allows you to take advantage of our entire platform of functionality while ensuring accurate cross-channel attribution of actions and conversions, no matter where your customers go on your site.
Advanced Organic Keyword Predictions
We are already widely regarded as industry leader in Organic Keyword Research and Predictive Analysis. But being the best isn’t good enough. There’s always room to improve. During the last year, our research scientists have been working hard to enhance the core algorithms and validation routines that deliver predictive keyword suggestions to Enquisite Campaign users. This update is a major step forward on a lot of fronts, and it means you’ll benefit even more than ever from our predictive insights far in advance of the rest of your competitors in the marketplace.
Advanced Regex Segmentation
Enquisite’s Search and Social Analytics platform, Optimizer, is recognized by advanced search marketers as the fastest and most accurate way to segmenting your search traffic. We’ve enhanced your ability to segment by adding the ability for you to take advantage of the most powerful commands in the regular expression (regex) database query set.
In doing so, we have opened up a whole new way to look at your search data. These newly added commands can also function with lists, meaning that if there is a large selection of keywords that you need to work with you simply create a list, and use the list within an expression. Advanced segmentation functions are available when using the ‘contains’ and ‘does not contain’ match type in the Optimizer Longtail segmentation panel. Commands and variables include:
* An asterix is any number of characters,
? A question mark is a single wild character.
| The pipe symbol denotes alternation (either of a number of alternatives).
() Parentheses may be used to group items into a single item. (e.g. (a|b|c))
{x} Brackets indicate a list substitution where ‘x’ is the name of the defined list of words
\ Backward Slash before a control character denotes it as that character not the command (e.g. ” \ * ” is the ” * ” character, not a wildcard)
The search marketers we previewed the regex features to were absolutely thrilled. It makes the management of large datasets so much easier on a lot of levels, and saves them days of work each month.
We Want Your Feedback
We are eager to get any thoughts or suggestions on improvements or new features that you would like to see in the Enquisite Performance Suite in order to exceed your expectations and best meets your needs. You can submit your ideas at [email protected].
Enquisite Linker is Now Available!
Enquisite is thrilled to release our latest offering, Enquisite Linker into pre-commercial release today. We’ve been preparing the application for a while, and are amazed at how many people have already signed up! In fact, we had a mini pre-launch by invite only. The response was great, and on launch we flicked the switch, and contextually relevant introductions started being sent out. Now, anyone can join.
I’ve spent a lot of time today speaking with people here at SES New York. Lots of great comments and feedback. People absolutely love the fact that this system is not a link exchange, nor a link network, nor a system by which we buy, sell, or broker links. None of that. It’s very simply a transparent introduction service which matches your defined business objectives with the goals of others, and provides introductions based on symmetrical interests.
I wanted to get this post out earlier today, but got so busy, I failed to post this earlier. I’d like to walk you through the steps of Linker, so that you can read more than just buzz.
When you join Enquisite Linker, you register for access to the system, and receive a username and password. Some Linker users are Enquisite Search & Social Analytics clients, but many are not. We don’t treat you differently in either case. However, as a Linker only user, you don’t get access to all the advanced reporting features in the rest of the Enquisite suite. But you don’t need it to leverage the full power of Linker either.
I often describe Linker as a dating service for webmasters and marketers to connect with each other based on contextual relevance. Like a dating service, success is measured by successful introductions.
When you first log in to Linker, you’ll get directed to the Site Profile screen. On subsequent visits, you’ll be directed to the Summary page.
The Site Profile screen is where you define your web site.
On this page, you define what site you are representing, what business categories it belongs to, and where it is geographically located. For a lot of businesses, geography matters. Beyond that, we ask for some keywords which describe your business, and additional classifying information. Once you’ve completed the information, we look up other, objective information such as your PageRank and mozRank. This completes your site profile. Some businesses will have multiple site profiles, because they operate multiple locations which service different geographies. Remember, the system is about driving contextual relevance.
Next, you need to complete the linking criteria page. Dating services feature match criteria about whom you would like to be introduced to. Enquisite Linker does the same, but the criteria defines which sites would be ideal matches for your business objectives. Again, it’s all about contextual relevance.
So here, it’s much like the site profile you completed earlier, except that you’re defining whom you are willing to accept introductions to. If a webmaster represents a site which doesn’t match your needs, you never get introduced.
In addition to the qualifiers you set up on your own site profile, here, you define what the ideal site possesses for PageRank, mozRank, etc. Again, objective, third-party values.
When you complete your profile, the system takes over. Whenever a new site joins the network, we check to see if it’s a match to your defined needs, and if so, whether or not your site matches theirs. If there is a bilateral match, we email you to advise you thereof, and you log-in to Enquisite Linker to review, approve, or reject the introduction. That part of the process happens on the Linker Summary page, which is now your default login page. Across the top, you can review your history-to-date: How many introductions are new, how many have you accepted, and how many have resulted in an introductory email to yourself and a match.
Here, you see a list of all available matches, ranked by overall score. Click a listing, and review the details. Prior to any listing appearing as a potential match, one of our quality control agents will review both sites to ensure suitability and relevance. This will also keep down spam, and help ensure greater relevance:
Once you’ve reviewed the details, you can decide to accept, reject, or think about the introduction. The details page disclose your business categories, geography, and scores. It doesn’t disclose any identifying information to anyone.
If you accept the potential introduction, our system waits for the other party to do the same. Once both accept, the system will email both of you a contact email, so that you can connect, and set a time to meet. At this point, Enquisite Linker has done it’s job, and it’s up to you to discuss the suitability of the link.
It’s pretty simple really. A very complicated piece of software and algorithms, which you really can set up once, and then have it deliver value for years.
I should note that as a business evolves, you can edit, add or remove linking criteria and site profile information on as needed basis. The market evolves, and so do your needs.
Ready to get going: Sign up for Linker today!
Another Patent for Enquisite!
Just over a month ago, I posted a note on this blog, recording my feeling at having a patent issued. I was excited.
This week, I’m at SES NY, and am thrilled at lots of amazing things which are occurring this week. First up, I am happy to report that today, Enquisite has had a second patent issued. It’s Patent number 7,685,191, and the Abstract describes it as “Selection of advertisements to present on a web page or other destination based on search activities of users who selected the destination.” If you’re interested you can read the whole thing over at the USPTO office site. If you do, let me know, please.
How a patent came to be
Many, many years ago when I was a youngster growing up, I read lots of books about people like Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell. I marveled at how many things they had invented, and the effects just the things they patented still had on our lives.
At the time, I never expected to be in a position where I would have my name associated with a published patent.
Yesterday, a patent I wrote was issued. It’s patent number 7,657,626, and refers to an original method of detecting click fraud. It’s a dry read, so I’m not sure if you want to rush out and read it, but if you’re having a hard time sleeping, you can find the patent here, at the USPTO office.
Now, in no way do I consider that this one issued patent in any way puts me, or any of my ideas in the league of these great inventors or innovators, but I am thrilled nonetheless. To have an idea recognized as truly original in this process is special, and I truly feel honored, and am indebted to everyone who helped guide me through the process.
Of all the things I’ve done, this one really was like a light bulb going on. The idea came to me over a holiday weekend a few years ago. My son and I were enjoying a boy’s weekend getaway at our cabin at a lake near Victoria. I’d been deep in data looking at random server activity data all week, so playing around in the water, cooking meals over the fire, and staring at the night sky was a welcome change. The second night I went to bed around 11, and was out solid until 2:30 a.m. I woke up with a start and an idea in my head. Normally, like most people I’d just roll over and go back to sleep, telling myself that I’d deal with it in the morning, by which time I’d forget about it. But this time, I grabbed a pen and paper and started writing. Two hours later I was stuck; I’d written many pages of notes, and long-form formulae / processes, but something was missing. I put the notes away and went back to sleep.
The next day I spent being very busy doing nothing! I didn’t even read my notes from the night before, figuring that I could get back to it after the weekend. That night, I woke up at 3:00 a.m., with an idea how to break through the last barrier in the process. I started writing, and that night completed what turned out to be the first draft of the provisional patent application.
The following week I sat down with our Mathematican, Rafael Parra Hernandez, and he helped me take my long-form formulae and convert them to more conventional mathematics. He also explained to me the various types of math I had incorporated in the processes. If my high-school math teachers could see it now, they’d never believe it!
And, that’s how a patent came to be.
Search Engine Market Share by Click Through Activity - December 2009
Surprisingly, I haven’t posted a search engine market share report in 30 days. We did post lots of other interesting data in the interim however. This week, we’re getting back to the evolving search engine landscape. Of course, not a lot overall has changed since our last look at the data.
Google continues to own almost 80% of the actual click through market share. We recognize that our numbers are different from some other reports. The core difference is our reports reflect click through activity, as opposed to general activity. As demonstrated in the post “how long is normal,” while most search lookup activity is on one word queries, click throughs occur most often on three-word searches. The same holds true for the various engines. A lot of people apparently run searches on Bing / Yahoo, but they refine their searches prior to clicking through. Hence, Google shows a much higher market share when we examine just click through activity.
As it relates to the change in activity over the last month, Bing continues to show strong forward momentum, and Yahoo continues to fade away. Sad, really. Google’s decline which started in June appears to have stabilized at a dominating ~78.4% market share. If we look at areas outside the US, Google’s share is even higher.
For convenience, this graph shows the change in Yahoo / Bing / and other non-google shares since May 2009. If you want to look at the raw data that for back you can view it on the prior blog post about search engine market shares. The data table is getting so long however that we’ll just show the last 4 months from here on out. I’m using an “all-time” chart to show the trends though.
The raw data for those who prefer the numbers:
| Yahoo | Bing | Other | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 7 | 78.68% | 11.51% | 6.80% | 3.01% |
| September 14 | 78.35% | 11.13% | 6.50% | 4.02% |
| September 21 | 77.43% | 11.35% | 7.11% | 4.11% |
| September 28 | 77.65% | 10.80% | 7.27% | 4.28% |
| October 4 | 77.78% | 10.66% | 7.23% | 4.33% |
| October 12 | 77.78% | 10.66% | 7.21% | 4.35% |
| October 18 | 77.89% | 10.65% | 7.29% | 4.17% |
| October 25 | 77.83% | 10.56% | 7.56% | 4.05% |
| November 1 | 77.75% | 10.46% | 7.66% | 4.12% |
| November 8 | 77.96% | 10.21% | 7.75% | 4.08% |
| November 15 | 77.60% | 10.39% | 7.59% | 4.42% |
| November 22 | 77.59% | 10.41% | 7.67% | 4.37% |
| December 22 | 78.43% | 9.73% | 7.86% | 3.97% |
Enquisite collects data from a network of thousands of web sites distributed globally. The data used in this reports represents web sites distributed globally, accessed by searchers located in the U.S., and reflects click-through activity data.
Is Longer Better? What the Best Length for a Query?
In my recent post, “How Long is Normal?” I published data which showed that based on click through rate, four-word queries are more common than one-word queries, and five-word ones are almost as common.
Today, I’m adding to that information with an additional layer showing a correlation between the number of words used in a query and the time on site, and pages viewed.
One would assume that a more specific query would result in longer time on site and pages viewed. Surprisingly, That’s not the case. In fact it appears that the more specific a query, the more a search referral visitor’s behaviour will reflect a decisive intent and higher level of sophistication in how they navigate web sites. They use the search process to pre-filter results more aggressively, and then they get to the point of their visit very quickly.
This information will of course have implications for bounce rate reporting, as a significant number of search referrals which normally could be classified as bounces more likely indicate a higher than expected level of satisfaction with the results.
| Words in Query | Percentage of Queries | Avg Pages Viewed | Avg Time on site |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11.08% | 6.64 | 4:32 |
| 2 | 24.56% | 4.13 | 2:53 |
| 3 | 25.77% | 3.06 | 1:57 |
| 4 | 17.68% | 2.62 | 1:42 |
| 5 | 10.03% | 2.29 | 1:27 | 6 | 5.36% | 2.11 | 1:21 | 7 | 2.65% | 1.97 | 1.14 | 8 | 1.36% | 1.84 | 1:07 | 9 | 0.70% | 1.74 | 1:04 | 10 | 0.37% | 1.69 | 0:59 |
The longest query recorded in this data sample was a search referral with 594 “keywords” in it. Likely it was someone was searching for exact copies of an article, either to identify plagiarism, or link opportunities.
So, if this is “normal” for the Internet, how does your site match up? Interesting to think of this as one more way to determine if your web site’s SEO strategy is healthy.
About the data. Enquisite works with thousands of sites worldwide and captures a trove of relevant search-related data every day. The browser shares reported here are based on data from a selection of Enquisite-tagged sites that cumulatively represent over 350 million page views/month, across most major industry sectors - a very significant sample size. The information published reported solely reflects our data.