on site search Archives

SearchChat Podcast: Ring in the Year by Putting Data to Work

Posted on January 2, 2019 by Tim Peter

Analytics matter: this is the unavoidable fact of digital marketing, even for those digital marketers that fear it. But are you even measuring the right things? Do you know how to make meaningful improvements?

In this episode of our SearchChat podcast, Steve and I talk about site search, personalization, and big data. In our work in website search, we’ve seen that clicks are a measure of activity, but not necessarily an indicator that something good happened. Did the click lead to a purchase? Did the click answer to a visitor’s question?

First, a brag: Marketing Tech Outlook named SoloSegment to its top 10 marketing analytics solutions. We talk about what we’ve learned and what we now offer our customers. When I first heard about receiving the award, SoloSegment was mostly collecting data. Now, we realized what sets us apart is automating changes using that data.

Our focus for 2019 is on putting data to work. It’s not an easy task — it means determining if your data is accurate, as well as usable to measure success.

We discuss personalization, which every marketer wants to jump into. Not everyone is ready. Do you have the data to identify your audience, what the right content is, and identifying whether it’s working or not?

Tune in and discover more!

00m 00s — Intro and overview

02m 00s — SoloSegment named in top 10 marketing analytics solutions

5m 20s — Why measurements like clicks fail

9m 25s — Can you use your data to power success?

15m 15s — Why your B2B content marketing isn’t ready for personalization

20m 45s — How to think about Google Discover

28m 02s — Subscription links and outro

SearchChat is available on

Check us out on Facebook, Twitter, or email info@solosegment.com.

Originally posted on Biznology

About Tim Peter

SearchChat Podcast: AI Goes Back to the Basics

Posted on December 4, 2018 by Tim Peter1 Comment

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We at SeachChat frequently talk about how AI and site search produce value for your site. But let’s break that down for a minute. What this is all about at the end of the day is customer experience.

When a prospective customer arrives on your site: are you helping them? Are you answering their question? What value might you be creating — for them, and for yourself?

Steve and I focus on some of the most important ways to fix your site search improvement program. It might not sound like the most glamorous solution, but it’s the best way to ensure you can capitalize on site search insights. Site search offers some valuable information: what can you learn about a visitor and their intent.

As I wrote recently, site search is your company’s best salesperson. When powered by AI, your site search learns about your prospective customers and can tailor results to guide them. Machine learning lets site search deliver results that drive sales. If a salesperson was performing as poorly as your site search, would you even keep them around?

00m 00s — Intro and overview

02m 20s — Site search insights on Search Engine Land

13m 00s — Site search value and site search as your best salesperson

18m 50s — Developing a strong site search improvement program

23m 16s — AI and its connection to search

32m 30s — Customer experience

33m 23s — Subscription links and outro

SearchChat is now on

Check us out on Facebook, Twitter, or email info@solosegment.com.

Originally post on Biznology

About Tim Peter

SearchChat Podcast: Budget Season Survival Guide

Posted on November 13, 2018 by Tim Peter

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Not enough marketers take advantage of the other kind of search — the one on your own website. Few companies budget for it, while budgeting for content without a second thought. We’ve talked about the cost of value before. But when they search, can visitors even find the content they need on your site?

Steve and I are excited to introduce a new podcast, exploring the topics we are fascinated by: AI, search, and content. Site search is part of a customer journey. When you optimize your site search with automation, visitors can find your content and continue on their journey.

Today we cover the Budget Season problems: proving why site search matters, what makes for good analytics, and how much budget you need to make your search better.

00m 00s – Intro and overview

01m 17s – Start of discussion with Steve

07m 04s – Do clicks mean success?

11m 44s – What do we mean by upstream/downstream traffic to/from search?

13m 12s – Why it matters that Google exited the site search market

14m 58s – How much budget is enough to make your site search better?

17m 27s – How can you get started on improving site search?

SearchChat is now on

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Check us out on Facebook, Twitter, or email info@solosegment.com.

About Tim Peter

How long will business models based on personal data survive?

Posted on June 4, 2018 by Steve Zakur

I don’t use Snapchat mostly because nobody I know uses it. I’m not the target demographic, apparently. But that doesn’t keep me from talking about how much I dislike the user experience. I know that when I register such complaints I probably sound like a codger who wants his buggy whip back. But even so, I never really “got” why someone would build a platform where content is ephemeral. Isn’t the whole point of social platforms to catalog our lives? Maybe I’m missing something.

About Steve Zakur

Stephen Zakur is CEO of SoloSegment. SoloSegment provides analytics that improve site search conversion and machine learning technologies that improve content effectiveness.

The People Element: How SEO and Site Search Come Together

Posted on May 18, 2018 by Steve Zakur

Today we’re talking about a much-neglected aspect of search: how people work together. Recently I was on a Google hangout sponsored by the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO). The focus of the conversation was making site search more effective. As you’d expect, when you get a lot of those professionals together, we talked a lot about technology, and tools, and techniques — but didn’t spend a lot of time on one element that I think is really important, and that is the people element. For mid-market and large enterprise companies, that’s often an organizational discussion.

There are generally four main components to search within large companies. There’s folks doing external search, that’s the organic and paid element. Then there are folks doing website search, that’s the business perspective. Add to that two technology teams, supporting each of them. As many of you know, search internally and search externally are very close cousins. Usually the things that you do to make internal search better, make external search better.

So what I want to encourage organizations to do is create the management systems that more tightly integrate all four of these elements. Bring the two business teams together, the ones focused on internal and external search, as well as the IT teams together. Even if for no other reason than, say, content optimization — low hanging fruit. Internal teams are going to want better product content so that they can get better relevancy rankings. External teams are going to benefit from that as well because better product content is going to rank better in Google. There are lots of opportunities, and content is just one example.

What’s important is creating the right environment for that kind of collaboration. Creating the right management system is an important critical success factor for most teams working on search both internally and externally at large companies.

Best of luck on improving your search results! And if you think you could use SoloSegment’s assistance, reach out to us for a free consultation.

About Steve Zakur

Stephen Zakur is CEO of SoloSegment. SoloSegment provides analytics that improve site search conversion and machine learning technologies that improve content effectiveness.