In today’s world, it’s not uncommon to hear someone say they “Googled” something.  Or more commonly, just “Google” it.

But just because “Google” has become synonymous with “search” on the internet, does that mean it’s the only game in town?  You might think so, but users and our analytics dashboard traffic reports show otherwise.  The most recent studies indicate that roughly 71.6% of search engine users use Google, but that leaves almost 30% using other sources.

While the use of their search engine has turned Google into a verb in today’s internet lexicon, some individuals prefer not to use the industry leader because of concerns over how their personal information is protected, among other reasons.  There are several alternatives out there from paid to open access. Some are better than others, so finding the best search engines besides Google, can be trial and error.

Yahoo to the rescue

For sheer name recognition, Yahoo holds strong as the number two search engine option. Once an industry leader, Yahoo is the #2 choice for the best search engines besides Google with roughly 14.3% of search engine traffic.

A few reasons people continue to love Yahoo include:

• When you open up the Yahoo search engine main page you find an easy to navigate site with loads of information available.
• The day’s top news is placed at the top center position of the main page and cycles through more than 40 stories that are currently trending.
• Trending topic keywords are displayed in the top right position.
• The left-hand side of the main page provides links to Yahoo services and information such as weather, email, games and job searches.
• Putting a keyword in the search engine quickly produces your classic list of related sites that relate to the topic.
• The right side of the page displays text advertisements with hyperlinks.
• The left side offers filtered search options based on the main search topic.

Many people stayed with Yahoo after they fell to number two because of the ease of use and accuracy of their searches.

bing a happy song

bing has been steadily on the rise as an option when looking for the best search engines besides Google since their debut in 2009. A Microsoft product, bing is marketed as a “decision engine”, and was known previously as Live Search, Windows Live Search and MSN Search. bing’s increasing popularity and aggressive marketing is quickly closing the gap between them and Yahoo, as they have roughly 9.9% of search engine usage.

A few things that bing users love include:

• The main page contains a huge interactive graphic that changes regularly and is based on varied topics that tie in to current events related to the topic.
• Across the top of the main page you will find several tabs to various types of searchable information such as images, shopping, news, etc.
• One key tab that sets bing apart from other search engines is the Search History tab. This tab does just what it sounds like it does and is a more useful tool tan you might think.
• Across the bottom of the home page you have the option to enable what is called Stay in the loop with bing. Clicking on this link takes you to a page where you can sign up to receive trending information in your email.
• Bing Trends is another bottom of the page link that will take you to a page that uses graphics and keywords to show the topics trending the highest on bing. The page will displays six days worth of topics.
• The popular now links are simply the top four trending topics of the moment that you can link to directly without having to go to the Bing Trends page.
• A search on bing takes you to the standard list of results, but provides additional information about the topic in an interactive pop-out window.

The best of the rest

There are several other options when searching for the best search engines besides Google, but when it comes right down to it, it is a personal choice. Yes AOL, Ask and Dogpile are still out there, but their percentage of search traffic is growing smaller and smaller over time.  Probably one of the main reasons is that many of these search engines don’t actually give their own results, many are part of the Google network meaning they show you Google search results from their own search portal.

Our best advice is to step outside the Google box and try a few others before settling on the one you’ll call your own.  Our guess is you’ll come to one of 2 conclusions – either a renewed sense of awe for why Google is so highly regarded, or you’ll begin to appreciate the finer points of why some other search engines manage to hold on.

Halloween in New Orleans – A Local’s Guide

Here in New Orleans, you are never truly far from the morbid mystery of the Halloween Crescent City. It is with great pride that the “Most Haunted City in America” morphs with its frightening festivities as fall settles in.  Here is a guide to fun stuff around the city no matter what types of tricks or treats you prefer:

Classic French Quarter Scares

The French Quarters offers a unique supernatural experience for the whole family with a selection of walking tours. Finding inspiration from the Haunted History of New Orleans with its vampires, Voodoo the world famous tale Madame LaLaurie, now is a great time to not only learn about the history of New Orleans but also enjoy some fantastic street entertainment performed by actors eager to spook, speculating on what sets this city apart from every other. Children are encouraged to ask questions and become involved as you journey back through time in the picturesque Quarters.

LaLaurie House

Photo From:  The World’s 3 Best Ghost Tours

In keeping with New Orleans traditions, make sure you are a step ahead of the trend-kill and plan your fancy dress costume in advance – local residents have been working on theirs for months! Whether you decide to create a unique design at home or hire one from one of the many macabre costume shops in the French Quarters, arrive frightfully fashionable to all of the October excursions. After all, you never know who you may run into. Perhaps a werewolf, a vampire or a high-power priestess.

And what better way to enjoy the Halloween season than visiting one of the many above-ground cemeteries throughout the city, where you can literally walk amongst the dead? Truly terrifying! And if you would like to step away from the Quarters, Frenchman Street is the place to be in October where you are invited to join local residents in an array of street parties and celebrations!

Kid friendly Halloween Activities

So not everyone is quite so brave at Halloween, and parents are often looking for fun things to do for their little ones that won’t produce nightmares!  The Audubon Zoo has been busy preparing for its annual ‘Boo in the Zoo’celebrations with trick-or-treating, storytelling and a haunted mansion. The Louisiana Children Museum is also hosting a ‘Spook Saturday,’ from 11am to 3pm on October 29^th both orientated for younger patrons.

Boo at the Audubon Zoo

 Photo from:  Boo at the Audubon Zoo

Top Rated Haunted Houses

If you are looking for the ultimate trick-or-teat experience, look no further! Why not try knocking on the door of the Number 1 Haunted House of New Orleans – a legendary haunted attraction with over twenty years of international acclaim. Prepare to be thrilled, chilled and spooked as all ages are welcomed to venture through a gruesomely themed, interactive mansion complete with zombies, bloodshed and cattle prods, oh my! With free on-site parking, a fully licensed bar, daring outside entertainers and intermittent entertainment shows, as well as cuisine available for sale from the famous Hell’s Kitchen revolting themed restaurant, there’s plenty to do and see for everyone.

Don’t forget the Arts

The amazing Acro-Cats return to New Orleans and The Shadowbox Theater with a special Halloween treat. Samantha Martin and her group of performing cats are set to wow crowds with rolling pumpkins, jumping tombstones and other cat-marish tricks. There will also be a special musical performance by Tuna and the Skele-Cats, where the cats actually play the instruments! This is the world’s only cat band and will be playing seasonal hits such as, “Don’t purr the reaper,” an unusual experience not to be missed!

The Shadowbox, in the Bywater/Marigny area, are also hosting a Halloween Fundraiser,  a night of Gourd Stories on the 23^rd of October. Come celebrate with local artists as they carve pumpkins and then star opposite them in a  macabre performance sure to get you in a ghoulish mood.

ShadowBox Theatre

Don’t forget to buy your tickets to the Voodoo Musical Experience Festival (children under 10 go free with a paying adult) to round off the Halloween season. The Voodoo Fest is a three day musical extravaganza that will have residents and visors jamming around the clock to international headliners in true New Orleans style.

Whatever it is you decide to do over the upcoming weeks, be sure to be safe and have a spooktacular time. Don’t forget to shop at one of the many authentic Voodoo shops across the French Quarters and pick up a souvenir or two to regale your tales.

If you are looking for traffic to your website, there are few tools better than Google AdWords.  But before you get started you really should get a handle on making sure you know how you’re getting the best Google AdWords bid price possible.

You see, one of the beauties of Google AdWords is that it’s free to use, and doesn’t require an agency to manage it for you.  But that’s also one of the drawbacks. After all, if you were to negotiate your own TV ad rates or billboard rates without an intermediary, how do you think that would end up?

This is the basic problem most people encounter when they start on AdWords – figuring out what to set as a fair bid price?

AdWords Basics

The first that you need to know that AdWords is a pay-per-click service so when your ad appears, you are charged every time someone clicks on your ad, not when it appears.

This is a major difference between actually paying for clicks and paying for impressions (display advertising)!

The amount you are charged is your winning Google AdWords bid price. Therefore, you want to keep it as low as possible. But you still need to bid high enough to ensure that you actually get the click – which means your ad position needs to be high enough so the user sees it.

Determining the right bid price

Trial and error is one way to figure it out; many have done this, which is at least partially why Google’s stock price is so high.  But the secret to understanding what you need to do, to get the best Google AdWords bid price, is understand how the bidding process actually works and then putting that knowledge into action the next time you bid.

The bidding system that Google employs is called a Vickrey auction; named for American economist William Vickrey, the auction is a sealed-bid auction, in which bidders submit bids blindly. When the auction ends, the highest bidder wins as in any other auction, but unique to the Vickrey auction, the winner only pays the amount of the second-highest bid made. According to Vickrey the knowledge that you will pay less than you bid, provides the incentive to bid your high-end price or true value of the item.

Taking this method and moving it into the virtual economy, a Vickrey auction benefits the advertiser by increasing the value of their ad dollars (pay less for more) and benefits the seller (in this case Google AdWords) by ensuring that more advertisers will invest their dollars with their service and they will make more in volume rather than price per unit.

Therefore the strategy would be:

• Tommy wants the keyword ‘roofing’ to promote his construction business and so do Kyle and John.
• Kyle bids $1, John bids $1.25 and knowing the he’s bidding in a Vickery auction, Tommy bids $2.25.
• When he wins the auction, he will pay only the $1.25 bid John made plus one cent for a total of $1.26 or the AdWord. This saves Tommy $.99 per click.

There is of course always a risk when utilizing this method of bidding, in that you are not alone in the knowledge of how they process works and so there is a risk of having to pay more than you want to. Let’s look at our construction business owners again.

• This time, Tommy wants the keyword ‘siding’ to promote his construction business and again, so do Kyle and John.
• Kyle again bids $1, but John has learned the system and bids $2.15, knowing he did well the last time, Tommy again bids $2.25 and wins again.
• This time however, he will pay $2.16 John’s bid plus one cent for a total of $2.16 or the AdWord. This time Tommy only saves $.09 per click. Of course the other way to think about it is that it costs Tommy $.90 per click.

Other considerations:  Desired ad position

Sample PPC (Pay Per Click) Ad

Another major component of choosing the right bid price is having a better understanding of ad positions.  Ad position refers to the spot on the page where your ad appears.  So while vanity or ego might compel you to shoot for the highest price for a bid, most Google AdWords professionals would tell you this isn’t always the best practice.

Here are a few considerations:

• The #1 ad spot is the most expensive, meaning you will get the fewest clicks for your budget
• Placing bids that place your ad in spots 2-4 will gain significantly more clicks while still keeping your ad visible above the fold
• Bids that appear low on page 1 will have trouble getting clicks, and are considered lower value as users may not take them seriously due to the low ad position

Our recommendation: shoot for spots 2-4 on ad position.

In Summary

So, it’s plain that while the benefits can be great for your business if you get lots of clicks, it can be a two edged sword. If you end up paying a high price per click, it can eat into your ad budget quickly and significantly. But if you watch for trending keywords and find ways to tie your business to them and make smart bids, you can rest assured that you know that you’re getting the best Google AdWords bid price.

After reading this blog post, if you still have questions about Google AdWords or would like help, please contact us today via email info@mywsiconsultant.com for a free consultation.