According to Richard Zwicky of Eightfold Logic, formerly Enquisite, marketers are not effectively monitoring and measuring online attribution.  Many analytics products attribute all or most conversions to the last click, which isn’t always correct.

By applying attribution to the wrong place, marketers are not able to understand how different channels contribute to the sales process. Zwicky says this of marketers, “Basically, they’re undercutting their own opportunities.”

He goes on to stress the importance of finding the true sources of value in order to increase conversions and, ultimately, grow the business.

Zwicky also talks with WebProNews about a new Eightfold Logic product for link building. The product applies a dating service model to the process of link building. Just like an online dating service, users begin by filling out a profile that explains what they want in a link, instead of a date.

Once a match is found, the system contacts the party and advises it to review the match. At this point, if the user wants an introduction and both parties agree, the system connects the two.

“It isn’t designed to overwhelm you with a lot of links; it’s designed to deliver you high-valued, contextually relevant links, which… in the end, is really more valuable,” says Zwicky.

For more information on the product, sign up here.

As mobile grows, we also see the rise of local search. Dylan Swift of Yelp spoke with WebProNews about this phenomenon recently at SMX Advanced. He explains how companies such as Yelp are helping to close the gap between the PC and local business. These companies are doing this through the mobile device.

From Yelp’s mobile application for the iPhone, it can see that there is a phone call happening to a local business every 5 seconds of every day. Another statistic they are seeing is 27 percent of all the company’s searches are happening through their app. In addition, a little less than 1 million mobile searches for directions to a local business have occurred in the last 30 days.

In other words, Yelp is helping bring consumers and local businesses together. With the continued adoption of smartphones, Swift does not see mobile traffic dropping for a while. For example, the company saw 1.8 million unique visitors through its mobile app in the last month, which is up from less than 1 million 9 months ago.

Yelp also has an app for the iPad. Swift says it is similar to what users see on their website, since they have a more real estate to work with on the iPad. Although the majority of Yelp’s mobile traffic comes from the iPhone, Swift pointed out that the company is investing in Android as well.

Quality score has experienced several changes over the past few years. At SMX Advanced, WebProNews caught up with Benny Blum of eSearchVision, to talk about these changes and how they are affecting current campaigns. As a result of these changes, he believes ad campaigns need to handled differently than they were in the past.

One change Blum addresses is Google’s AdRank algorithm. He says this is a metric that is equal to the product of what you are wiling to pay. In other words, it is your maximum bid and quality score.

Problems arise because it is possible that users could have multiple keywords for the same quality score, which would prompt the same query. This means that you could be competing with yourself and, ultimately, increasing what you have to pay.

According to Blum, an ideal ad combination exists, but you have to find it through research and analysis. Once you find it, he says you can force impressions to go the right keyword ad combination through siloing. In the end, your cost-per-click (CPC) will go down, as your click-through-rate (CTR) goes up.

To do this, Blum advises advertisers to have organized accounts with relevant ad groups. He again stresses the importance of having the right keyword ad combination. After these elements are in place, he says advertisers can utilize negative keyword applications.

In this interview, Blum also discusses the differences in accounts on PCs and mobile devices. He believes the biggest difference is in user behavior and explains how to leverage it.

Are you applying this knowledge to your ad campaigns?

Now that Google is including tweets in its main search results, many businesses are wondering how they can leverage it to their benefit. At SMX Advanced, WebProNews spoke with Stew Langille, the Vice President of Marketing at Mint.com, about what Mint is doing in this area.

As he explains, Mint merges SEO and social media efforts together to get the best results. The company recently launched an answers program that merges the two together and, ultimately, helps it rank well in search results and provide viral capabilities.

Mint takes topics such as “saving money” and develops content around it. They distribute the content on their blog and share it through social media. In the end, these topics appear in Google’s real-time search results.

Langille says that Mint does not monitor exact keywords or tweets. Instead, they take a more holistic approach and develop a blanket of content around a particular topic. If they do not appear in the real-time results, Langille says they ask themselves the following questions:

-    Do we need to be more specific in the topics we cover?
-    Do we need to develop better relationships with influencers within Twitter?
-    Do we need to build other Twitter accounts?

By combining SEO and social media efforts, businesses can actually be more successful in both areas. Are you merging SEO and social together?

It’s interesting how much weight we put on search results. Search is not only the primary method that we use to access information online, but it is also quickly becoming the primary method we use to access all information. Vanessa Fox of Nine By Blue spoke with WebProNews about this topic recently and had some very compelling points to make about it.

Most consumers search for information related to legislation, government, health, and other important areas. The problem is that searchers see the top 10 results and think that they are accurate because they’re at the top. Unfortunately, that is not always true. To make matters worse, many governments do not always make their information available, and those that do, don’t always know how to do it well.

Another element that intensifies the concern is that search is not going anywhere and will only become a larger part of our lives over time. So, what does this mean for the future of the way we consume information? It’s an intriguing question that does not have an answer yet.

Fox believes it is important that we consider these types of issues to help find solutions for them. What are your thoughts on this matter?

In addition, she shares her excitement for recent advancements with HTML5 and how they will make the Web better. Fox also discusses her blog post explaining how not to move a url as well as her new book, Marketing in the Age of Google.

Google’s Matt Cutts always offers helpful advice, and our conversation with him at Google I/O was no exception. Cutts catches us up on a variety of search items including Google Squared, PageRank, and the recent redesign to Google’s search results page.

Google Squared is a new tool that puts search results into a spreadsheet-like list. It essentially organizes the results into facts, so users don’t have to click on multiples sites to find what they need. Cutts refers to it as a “sideways query” and points out that it could provide new information for users that they would not have previously found using traditional search.

When we spoke with Cutts earlier this year, he mentioned the growing obsession that SEOs and webmasters have with PageRank. We asked him about it in the above video, and while he did say it was important, he was quick to point out that it was only one of the more than 200 signals Google takes into consideration. He says content, title, url, and proximity are a few of the factors that have additional influence.

Users have also probably noticed the new redesign to the search results page. Cutts says the left-handed navigation was present for a while before the company decided to surface it for all search results.

Interestingly enough, the options are different based on each query. A search for Tom Cruise, for example, would probably return image results in the navigation. On the other hand, a search for President Obama would return real-time results and updates. Cutts says it creates more opportunities for webmasters and SEOs.

Lastly, Cutts did say that Caffeine was coming along nicely and indicated that there would be some announcements regarding it coming soon. Keep watching WebProNews for all the latest details on it.

It seems that no one can get enough of the funny cat pictures online. As a result of the fans and community these pictures have created, the Cheezburger Network has been very successful. WebProNews spoke with network’s CEO Ben Huh, who explains how the community was its focus from day one.

Although technology plays a big role in a business, users often have difficulty knowing what to do with it. Because the Cheezburger Network didn’t have the resources to invest in technological advances, Huh says it concentrated on the community’s needs.

“For us, technology was a tool,” points out Huh.

He advises other businesses to adopt this same focus since it not only allows for growth, but it also provides businesses with the ability to do bigger and better things.

There are currently 52 sites in the Cheezburger Network and it is continuing to add properties. Huh calls the sites “playgrounds” that users can play on. Although the sustainability of these “playgrounds” is not certain, he says the network is the largest human destination on the Web and it will find ways to maintain that status.

Huh credits the success of his company to the acceptance of the Internet culture. He believes this culture is in the very early stages but says it is gaining momentum.

To learn more about the company and its hilarious content, check out the latest book, “I Has a Hotdog: What Your Dog Is Really Thinking.”

PayPal made some cloud computing advancements at Google I/O by announcing its X Toolkit for Google App Engine (GAE). WebProNews spoke with PayPal’s Evangelist Rasesh Shah, who explains how the toolkit makes it easier for Google App Engine developers to take PayPal APIs and further develop on top of them.

Developers can simply download the toolkit and take advantage of all the APIs available. In addition, this platform allows developers create and run Web applications and services on Google’s cloud. Since it is on Google’s cloud, developers do not need any other hosting.

According to PayPal, the platform will enable many new payments in various marketplaces. The company is encouraging developers to utilize this platform to continue innovation.

“We want to make it as open as possible… so now, you don’t have to think about payment as a problem,” says Shah.

To learn more about this announcement, visit PayPal’s Developer Network.

Although the news of Google TV is one week old, it is still raising eyebrows. The open platform brings the power of the Web to the living room television experience. Aside from Google, partners in this endeavor include Intel, Logitech, Sony, Best Buy, DISH Network, and Adobe.

WebProNews had the opportunity to talk with Ashish Arora, the Vice President and General Manager of Logitech Digital Home to learn more about Logitech’s role in this innovation. Arora shares that Logitech became involved with Google TV because it wanted “to build a new presence in the living room that consumers have never had before.”

Although Logitech is known for devices such as mice and keyboards, the company has actually been innovating in the living room for quite some time. According to Arora, the company could take all the experiences it built around the PC and now offer them in the living room through Google TV.

Logitech, specifically, brings its companion box to Google TV, which allows easy access to HDTVs with HDMI-enabled set-top boxes. The companion box includes Logitech’s Harmony remote control technology and also comes with a remote control that has both keyboard and remote control capabilities.

Many times throughout the interview, Arora expresses Logitech’s excitement around the openness of Google TV.

“It’s a great time for consumers, for people to really enhance their current TV watching experience with Google TV,” he says.

Google TV is scheduled to be available this fall.

Android was obviously a hot topic at Google I/O and WebProNews had the opportunity to talk to Andrew Kameka about some of the challenges with it. Kameka is the Managing Editor at Androinica, which is a site dedicated to all things Android.

Although admittedly an avid Android supporter, Kameka tells us that there are several issues with the platform. One of the biggest issues for developers, currently, is the fact that there are so many different versions of Android. As a result, developers are forced to find a balance between keeping the hardware current and appealing to the largest consumer market.

“The problem is Google is innovating faster than other companies can keep up,” says Kameka.

Although some solutions were announced at Google I/O, many challenges remain that impact developers, mobile carriers, and users.

What is your biggest challenge with Android?

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