Google’s Black Box

Advertisers are one step closer to having the information from Google required to determine how to improve their click cost on Ad Words. Up to this point we knew only of the black box that determined the Quality Score for the Ads. We know that the price we pay for a click is based upon a good Quality Score. Previously we could only infer that our ad and/or landing page was bad or good when our cost per click went up or down, respectively.

Why a Quality Score?

The enforcement of Google’s Quality Score makes sense. Its ultimate purpose is to nudge the advertiser toward more relevant ads and landing pages. As advertisers we see that an ad is doing good or bad by the click through rate. Since, reportedly, the Quality Score factors in the relevancy of the landing page, among other things, the introduction of a gauge other than the click through rate is welcomed.

Quality Score Grades

Google is now assigning a Quality Score grade (Great, OK, Poor) to each keyword. We don’t know where Google draws the lines but I think it is safe to assume that a grade of “Great” indicates you are getting a better cost per click that the guy with a “OK” grade. Also a Quality Score of “Poor” is likely to yield a higher click cost than “OK”.

Improving the Grade

The first thing I will do with the Quality Score grade is to compare it with what I thought I knew. If I have a “Great” score does it mean I will always have a good click through rate? Can I detect any variations and trends in this? Is there any correlation between a “Great” score and how many times I repeat a search term on the landing page? Can I overdo it and cause my score to drop? Can I detect other patterns related to a poor grade? Some may look at this new keyword column as a simple monitoring attribute. I see it as a little more information that can help perfect an ad word campaign.

Check back here periodically to see what I learned. Feel free to share your thoughts on this new addition.

Technorati Tags: Pay per click, Google Quality Score, Search Engine Marketing

Pay Per Click | No Comments »

It’s the Holy Grail of SEO’s.  They are also great channels to drive relevant traffic to your site outside of search.  What are they?  Authoritative Links!

The “Authority” of a site is calculated by the value of the sites linking in to it, as well as the quality of the content on those sites.  Many “A-List” blogs can carry amazing link value, along with huge readerships (so they drive traffic directly to your site as well).  How do you get a link from a top blog?  Content.

Writing great, relevant content is the best method to get links, get search rankings, and create and keep a dedicated readership.  It also helps to know how to network with bloggers, and how to create relationships with them.

Other top sources for great links are .edu and .gov sites.  These links can be hard to come by, but are worth the effort.  The SearchEngineWatch Blog has a great post on how to get authoritative links:

1. Focus on links from authoritative sites that are relevant.
2. Be prepared for the fact that success in a campaign to get a link from an authoritative site might take many months.
3. Be prepared for your strategies to fail more often than they succeed. If you do a really good job, perhaps 1 in 4 of your campaigns will work.
4. Be prepared to invest in building a relationship. Your first communications with the authoritative site may not include a request for a link.
5. It’s a campaign. You need a strategy, and it may have multiple steps. Be prepared to invest in the strategy to make it work
6. Know that they won’t link to you because they want to help you make money
7. Know that they will link to your site because your content is valuable to their users (and because they actually care about their users).
8. Meet their needs.
9. Study their needs. Figure out what they need, and then figure out which of their needs you can meet. One way to do this is to review things written in the past by key contacts at the site. They may have expressed a need, such as “I wish I knew how to …”, “The web needs a resource that …”, etc.
10. Be opportunistic. Your target site may identify a need that you can address. Jump on it as quickly as you can, and then fill the need completely.
11. Invest more in your first 2 or 3 killer links than you will in the ones that follow it. Your first authoritative link will simplify obtaining the ones that will come later, as that endorsement makes all the difference in the world.

Thanks to Eric for providing that guide!

Technorati Tags: Search Engine Optimization, Link Building, Blogs

SEO, Link Building | No Comments »

SEOmoz has a great list of 24 Checkups for Clueless Developers/Marketers. As it turns out, this is essentially a how-to guide to get started in the SEO process for your business site.

Each of these points are very pertinent - and I wanted to list my favorites, and add a little extra to each of those:

5. Double check your code to make sure you’ve got your content titles and subtitles under H1 / H2 tags.

This is one tactic you don’t see nearly enough of. As a general rule, I like to use H1/H2 tags wherever possible. It really helps in telling the search engines what the gist of the content below it is, and also organizes the content for your users. Hot Tip - Make your first H1 Tag match up with your Title tag if possible.

7. Make sure contextual links are widely spread and commonly used all across the website content to emphasize key pages.

Despite the fact you already have great site-wide navigation (making it easy for your users to get around), breadcrumbs (making it even easier) - you cannot forget to link to key pages on your site from within the content itself! This give you the opportunity to use specific anchor text (and different versions of anchor text) within your site. This will also help in the overall crawlability of the site.

13. Ensure that your 404 page contains links to your main categories and maybe a search box.

Whenever I suggest setting up a default 404 page with content on it, instead of the usual error message, clients never fail to smack their foreheads with a big “Why didn’t I think of that?” It’s easy to do, so there’s really no excuse. It can help users who go astray, as well as help alleviate the pain of broken links in the SERPS and from inbound links. If nothing else, default the error page to your sitemap.

You do have a sitemap, right?

Technorati Tags: SEO, SEOmoz, Website Development, Search Engine Optimization

SEO | No Comments »

I was reading a post at David Lorenzo’s Sales Intensity about Sales Strategies for Entrepreneurs. The main gist of the post is that sales people looking for the ‘magic bullet’ to get new clients usually fail. I couldn’t help thinking that this relates well to a number of our online clients as well.

While search engine marketing (SEO and PPC) is an amazing tool that CAN deliver high ROI and help build a business, relying solely upon that can be dangerous. David’s post tells you to think of 100 ways to get one client, instead of 1 way to get 100 clients - and that is a smart strategy for online as well.

The key to a successful online marketing campaign is to not only build up search, but also other online channels that can deliver you customers. That way, if you find it’s prohibitively expensive to get customers via PPC, then you have a tool kit of other tactics that can deliver you that customer.

If you want to know more about integrated online marketing campaigns, and how they can help you grow your business cost-effectively - contact us now for a free consultation!

Technorati Tags: PPC, SEO, Online Marketing, Integrated Marketing Strategies

Strategy | No Comments »

If you’re an AdWords advertiser, make sure you read the post on the AdWords blog, Quality Score Updates.  As you may have noticed, your campaign management dashboard now contains a new Quality Score column.  (To see this, click on the Keywords tab in your Ad Group, then Show/Hide columns, then select Show Quality Score).  According to Google, this is a precursor to a change that will occur next week in the AdWords algorithm.  So if you see an “OK” or “Poor”, you should either select a keyword that is more relevant to the product or service that you’re advertising or make your ads more closely related to the keywords.  If you make the changes now, you’ll be better positioned to benefit from the algorithm changes which will reward those with “Great” quality scores with lower minimum bids.

For another good overview of the pending changes, check out what Andy Beal at Marketing Pilgrim has to say.

Technorati Tags: google, adwords, quality score, PPC

Pay Per Click | No Comments »

We run a lot of paid search campaigns for companies with service area constraints. In some cases, the client has already been running the campaign before we take over. So we get the opportunity to see the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to local ppc marketing. Here’s a list of the top mistakes:

1. Running a National Campaign Without Using Location Specific Keywords

We’ve all seen the results of this one. You type in a term like “carpet cleaning” on Google. You click on an ad and then find out that the advertiser only services the greater Atlanta area and you’re in Kansas City. The only winner in this equation is Google. If you’re running a national campaign and you only service a certain area, make sure you add the location(s) served to all you keywords (e.g. carpet cleaning Atlanta).

2. Running a Local Campaign and Using Only Location Specific Keywords

This happens when an advertiser selects a specific city when setting up where the ad should be displayed and then includes that city name as part of every keyword (e.g. carpet cleaning kansas city, duct cleaning kansas city). People who live in the service area may not always include the location in the search query, so you’ll miss out on legitimate traffic.

3. Not Mentioning That You’re a Local Merchant

If you are advertising to a specific area and you have a physical location in the area, flaunt it! People like doing business with members of their community.

4. Not Testing Ads and Landing Pages for Market Differences

If your business services 5 metropolitan areas, don’t make the mistake of assuming that each area will respond identically to the same offer. It’s very easy and cheap to run separate campaigns and offers for each area. It’s also inexpensive to develop specific landing pages (where the person ends up after they click the ad) for each market. In some markets, it may also make sense to run campaigns in more than one language (e.g. a merchant in Houston may want to market directly to the areas’ Hispanic population). If you choose to do this, make sure that you can execute seamlessly from the click on the ad to the phone call or visit to your location.

5. Not Using a Local Tracking Phone Number on Your Landing Page

This reasoning here is very similar to what was discussed under # 3. The local tracking number is important if, like so many local merchants, your business thrives on phone calls. You’ll be able to gauge the performance of your ad campaign.

6. Not Examining the Click Through Rate (CTR) and the Conversion Rate (CR) at the Market Level

If you fail to examine the CTRs and corresponding CRs at the market level (e.g. region or city), you will end up investing too much in a campaign that gives you very little bang for your buck, and not enough in a campaign that’s a real winner. Here’s a guideline for determining what to do: High CTR + High CR = Invest More Money; Low CTR + High CR = Improve Ads then Invest More Money; Low CTR + Low CR = Try Improving the Ad and Landing Page before making a decision; High CTR + Low CR = Improve the Landing page then Invest More Money. For a local campaign that’s not getting a ton of impressions and clicks, it may take several months of testing before you get definitive results.

7. Not Taking Advantage of Yahoo Panama

We have seen significant improvements in available clicks and overall campaign costs for our local clients post Panama. The key is going in and properly setting up a local campaign on Yahoo for all the new targeting features. If you were running a campaign on Yahoo/Overture, not Yahoo Local, you need to go in and create new campaigns and ad groups that target your service area(s).

8. Running a 24/7 Campaign

This is particularly wasteful unless you are selling a product online (your site has a shopping cart). If not, make sure you set up Google and MSN Ad Center so that your campaign only shows during your business hours. (This function is not currently available on Yahoo).

9. Not Tying in Your PPC Campaign with Local Offline Advertising

Research shows that there is a strong connection between the airing of national TV commecials and online searches related to the product. While the connection may not be as strong for local merchants, it still makes sense to buy all the keywords related to ads you’re running on local radio or TV. This can be especially powerful if you use a local celebrity endorser in your radio or TV spot. People often remember the celebrity’s name and the product or service (e.g. Buck O’Neil mortgage) even when they forget your brand name (e.g. James B. Nutter mortgage).

10. Not Bidding on Your Company Name

Even if your site is number one in the organic rankings for your brand name, you should still include your brand name in your list of keywords. At least this will keep your competition from occupying one available paid search listing space.

If you’re not a local marketer, here are some other great tips.

Technorati Tags: ppc, local ppc

Pay Per Click, Local Search | No Comments »

On today’s web - a static ‘brochure’ site doesn’t cut it anymore.  If you provide a service, sell a product, or want to generate traffic, you have to produce fresh content that engages your readers on a regular basis.  One of the best ways to do this? - Blogging.

What is a blog?  You can read the Wikipedia Entry for that.  What I want to do is give you 7 steps to making a blog work for your business.

What are the potential benefits to blogging about your business?  They are numerous: search engine traffic, blog search traffic, positioning yourself as an expert in your field, engaging your customers, creating a community, positive PR, RSS subscribers, easy content creation and archiving, and, most importantly - gaining new customers.

Just see what it did for one lawyer here. (requires a free signup - sorry!)

Step 1 - Do some research and planning.
Look at your business.  What sets you apart?  What are you an expert in?  What subjects do you feel comfortable writing about?  Go to Google and type in some keywords related to your business.  Are people blogging on the same subjects?  What are they talking about?  Can you add value to the conversation?  Answer all of the above questions, and find your niche.

Step 2 - Choose your platform.
There are a number of services out there, from free blog sites to very expensive systems.  Each has drawbacks and positives, so you have to decide what’s most important for you.  Ideally, you want a blog system that is easy to use, customize, and will allow you to have your own domain name pointed to it. If you can find one that offers web stats, even better!

Step 3 - Get started.
An empty blog can be intimidating, and the best way to get through it is to just get started.  As you post more, you can discover your voice, and it will get easier as you go along.  Remember, you don’t have to impress Harvard scholars here (unless they are your target audience) - blogs are supposed to sound like you wrote them.

Step 4 - Keep going.
Once you start, set out a schedule of posts that you try to keep to.  1-2 per day is best, but make sure to try to post at least a few times per week.  If you keep the content fresh, people will find you, and come back.

Step 5 - Interact.
The magic of blogging is that they create communities based around them.  Read other people’s blogs, and comment on their posts.  Allow readers to comment on yours.  Respond to those comments.  Provide links to others (and they will reciprocate).

Step 6 - Rinse, and Repeat.
Once you get rolling, keep the momentum going.  With a few months of effort, you can create a very valuable web property.

Step 7 - Get help.
As a business owner, you’re busy - and we get that.  Sometimes, it makes sense to get some help executing these steps.  If you hire a professional consultant, you can use their expertise in this area to kick-start the success of your blog, get ideas for content, change the look and feel of your blog, stay up to date with new plugins and technology, and have expert help in promoting your blog.

And, you’ll find that many consultants are reasonably priced.  Contact siteEDGE for more information on how we can help you build a successful blog to get you new customers.

Strategy, Blogs, Social Media | No Comments »

Like many I have purposely delayed converting client accounts over to Yahoo Search’s Project Panama. I had a sneak peek months ago and knew about the new fresh look but was not convinced our agency should be the first to expose our clients to this unproven platform.

I learned one year ago at the 2006 SES Conference in New York directly from Yahoo that Panama would be using a quality score to determine the cost per click opposed to the traditional Overture bidding that we have grown accustomed to. There was a small uproar with some attendees when this was announced. To be honest I was kind of relieved. I still cringe when I think of the inflated bid prices that have been artificial set by hyperactive bidders who didn’t take time to romance the campaign instead of trying to seduce it. Now these individuals will have to spend time in writing good ads and landing pages, or pay more than the ones who do.

I have seen the blog postings of some who are unimpressed with Panama. A reoccurring theme is that they are happy with the new user interface but will not be satisfied until Yahoo Search increases the volume of available searches.

I actually agree with both these points but will point out one thing I have not yet seen discussed in a blog posting. Yahoo’s implementation of local search has paid off well for us and our clients. Our firm has a heavy emphasis on geo-targeted searches and have campaigns that target up to 20 DMAs for one client. The goal, of course, is to generate traffic only within these geographic pockets. Up to this point Google and MSN have allowed this but Yahoo Search was a non performer. And no, Yahoo Local was not the answer.

We didn’t want to miss the coverage that Yahoo offered so we made location a part of each and every search term. This is very tedious and made for a lot of search terms but we have done this for years with many clients and thought the results were worth the effort.

The initial results of our Panama geo targeted campaigns are extremely promising. The volume of searches has increased of course, but with the added benefit of multiple ad groups and the ability to test them we have also increased the click through rate. Since we have a good quality score, we are paying less for more.

What is truly note worthy is the increase in conversions. We have to study this over a longer period but first indications are, in proportion to the clicks, we are getting more conversions from Yahoo than with Google. For the client in this particular study we track conversions by telephone appointments with each call recorded. We are seeing cases where the phone appointments are up while the overall click costs are down. We contribute this to Yahoo having, for this industry, a better conversion rate than Google.

Again these are early results but look promising. I will give it another month and report back with further details. Let me know what you have seen.

Pay Per Click, Blogs | No Comments »

Yesterday I received a very lengthy e-mail message from the office of one of the contenders for the top job in Kansas City. (No, I’m not naming names…so if that’s all you care about, you can quit reading now). It contained his campaign platform, an invitation to a fundraising event, and list of other ways that I could help his campaign. Finally at the end of the message, it contained the obligatory “You are subscribed to the following list: Candidate A for Mayor using the following email…” and a link to unsubscribe.

So what’s wrong with this? Everything! First, I have never subscribed to Candidate A’s or any other Kansas City mayoral candidate’s list. So the email constitutes SPAM. Now, don’t get me wrong. I have nothing personal against Candidate A. I just don’t appreciate having political SPAM clutter up my in box.

So, here’s a quick e-mail marketing list of “Dos and Don’ts” for all the the Kansas City mayoral candidates, their staff members, their consultants etc.

1. Make sure your list is double opt-in clean. Translation–make sure everyone has really subscribed to your list before you hit the send button. Don’t force them to have to waste more of their precious time unsubscribing to something they never said they wanted to receive in the first place. You could antagonize potential voters.
2. Keep the e-mail message short and to the point. Don’t try to explain your entire platform or list all your political accomplishments in one e-mail message. Use links to your site instead.
3. Don’t center the body of your entire e-mail message. It’s really hard to read.
4. Personalize the message. E-mail marketing is not the same as a radio or TV spot.
5. Remember that some of your constituents may still have dial-up, so go light on the big smiling photos and logos.
6. Don’t assume that everyone can read an HTML message. Give a text option.
7. Make sure you’re in sync with subscribers’ expectations for frequency of mailing.

E-mail marketing, blogging, and various other online marketing tactics can be great tools for fund raising and mobilizing supporters. Just make sure you know and follow the online rules before you start trying to play the game.

Technorati Tags: Kansas City Mayoral Race, Email Blunders, Email Marketing, Email Strategy

E-Mail Marketing | No Comments »

Brand Equity is a key concept for many marketers. Big companies spend millions creating the ‘experience’ of their brand. In the past, maintaining that brand equity wasn’t that hard to do - but things have changed.

With the advent of blogs and social networks, the ability of a one unhappy consumer to tear down your company’s brand equity has never been more powerful. For example, check out this post from Seth Godin, linking to a number of customer service horror stories.

I just have one question for the CEOs of the companies mentioned here - what are you doing while hundreds and thousands of people are reading this and forming opinions about your brand? Are you engaging these customers, finding out how to make things right, and saving the value of your brand name?

If you choose to meet these very vocal, very influential, very unhappy customers on their turf, start a discussion with them, and resolve the situation - you can turn a potential brand disaster into PR more valuable than the best written press release or Super Bowl commercial.

Think about it. Then contact us to find out more.

Technorati Tags: Seth Godin, Online Brand Management, Online Reputation, PR

Brand Management | No Comments »