Businesses of any size should have a clear understanding of where their customers turn to find information. Often, smaller local businesses rely on outdated marketing models such as news print ads, yellowpage, and locally distributed mailers.
A recent study highlights where people turn for information on local companies. Not so surprisingly, customers turn to search engines over anything else for information on local businesses.
Here is the breakdown:
31% used search engines for information on local businesses
28% used white or yellow page listings
21% used an internet yellow page site
12% used local search sites
It is clear that a strong online presence and effective search engine optimization campaign can give you better exposure to an incredible 64% of customers looking for information. This can be a great return on investment and improvement in your business development plans.
As part of our SEO company, we often help clients add revenue streams to blogs and websites they own to help monetize their online presence.
We have seen a marked increase in rejection of Google Adsense applications in the past few months. It appears, in our opinion, that Google is tightening up their requirements for Google Adsense to help improve the quality they deliver in the targeted online advertising. This is a very positive impact on the web, and for Google in general.
So, how does this impact you?
Websites with little content and that are deemed under construction will never be approved for a Google Adsense account. Google is looking for sites with lots of good, targeted content. This will allow their spiders to accurately assess the site and place the best matched Google Adsense ads on the site.
If you site is new, you might consider boosting up your content to a high level before you submit your site for Google Adsense. Submitting too early will most likely lead to a rejection anyway.
As with all website, focus on content, content, and more content. That is a good rule of thumb not only for Google Adsense, but websites in general.
Ready for Adsense? Click Here for the Google Adsense Sign Up Page.
The FTC has issued the ruling that bloggers may be fined up to $11,000 per post if they endorse a product but do not disclose that they received payment for their endorsement. Payment can be in the form of free goods or services or cash compensation.
The FTC States:
The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other “word-of-mouth” marketers. The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service. Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.
This is an attempt to promote and improve on fair advertising practices for websites. It is much similar to a local paper writing a story on the benefits of a product, but then they do not disclose they received money for the story.
What does this mean to you? If you are a heavy blogger with a big following, you should decide if you still want to receive these endorsements. If you do, you MUST stress that you receive financial compensation for your posts. If you decide to go the more journalistic route, you can not continue to take money for your endorsements.
Here is a look at the latest search engine usage stats for
September is the first month Bing has not improved upon their share of the search engine market. What does this mean? probably not a lot at the current moment. It is way too early to draw long term conclusions from such a small set of data, but it will be interesting to watch how Bing can rebound in the coming months ahead.
Ok, lets take a quick look at conversion rates and what is realistic and what is not realistic.
First, what is not realistic is expecting a 100% conversion ratio. Operating a website is much like operating a store. Sometimes you get serious buyers and sometimes you get the “just lookers”.
What is more important is to have a benchmark conversion ratio for your site that is realistic, then measure your conversions from there. For example, you own and retail store and are starting up and e-commerce website. From past experience, you know that 40% of people that walk into your brick and mortar store. Since websites will have a great deal more traffic that a brick and mortar, you should drop this estimate down to maybe 5 to 10%.
Here are some tips to nail down your conversion ratio:
- Monitor your initial conversion estimate for the first 6 months of your website. You may find it is consistently higher or lower than your additional projections. Once you have some data, then you can more accurately predict expected conversion ratios and profits.
- Research some industry standards for conversion ratios. Certain types of websites have different conversion ratios than other types of sites.
- Remember, as your site traffic grows, the conversion ratios may change. Once you are able to establish a pattern in traffic and growth, you can adjust your conversion targets accordingly.
- Conversion ratios can often improve. Having a targeted landing page designed to get results can often improve conversions. It might be the way the offer is presented and not the offer itself.
As with any marketing venture (websites included) consumers are exercising control of what they see or do in everyday life. This includes DVR of favorite shows and skipping commercials, spam email filters, and a seemingly endless supply of entertainment alternatives.
It is essential to keep this in mind when branding and constructing a website. Studies have shown that you have a little as 30 seconds in many cases to catch consumer’s attention and get them interested in your website.
So, how do you do this? Here are a few guidelines that may help:
- Use titles – visitors often scan titles for information, so eye-catching bold titles grab attention
- Use images – good, professional images that fit with your story are a great way to catch attention
- Use shorter paragraphs – breaking information into shorter paragraphs makes it much more manageable at a first glance
- Use professional website design services – there is no quicker way to drive someone away from a website than an un-professional and disorganized site
Overall, use a simple design with an easy navigation menu and keep the content clean.
In our article HERE we discussed what long tail search results are.
Now that you understand the concept, how do you apply it to your site?
First, and foremost, you must be very knowledgeable in your industry to understand what the applicable long tail searches might be. For example, if you run a coin collecting website, there are certain longer phrases that people inside the industry might search for that the casual coin enthusiast would not know about.
Second, research the keywords. The key here is the determine if there is a significant volume of searches for this term. For example, a certain phrased might be prominent in an industry, but rarely searched for online.
The key is to balance knowledge and actual traffic to hit the “sweet spot” of long tail search results.
Long tail search is the idea of optimizing a website for longer and more specific search strings that people may search for. For example, you run a website specializing in organic dog shampoo.
A short tail “regular” search term that you optimize your website for may be “dog shampoo” or “dog bath products”. A long tail search term that you optimize for may be “organic dog shampoo reduce dandruff”.
The benefit is that people who use long tail search terms are very targeted and looking for a specific product. You have a much higher chance of converting these customers over those who use short tail searches.
Optimizing a website for a few key long tail searches is sometimes a very productive way to tap into a dedicated market for your website.
No matter if your campaigns spend $500 or $500,000 a month these three questions could save you from wasting your money and almost immediately increase the return of your investment in paid search marketing.
1. How many keywords are you currently bidding on in your paid search campaigns?
2. How many of those keywords have had some type of conversion in the last 6 to 12 months?
3. Why are you still bidding on keywords that have not had any conversions?
This is one of the most common errors I find when our agency begins managing an existing paid search account for a new client. Would you keep betting on a horse if it continuously lost?
It is extremely important in any PPC campaign to know where your traffic is coming from, and if they convert or not. PPC campaigns are a waste of money and a poor return on investment if your visitors do not convert to customers or clients.
A great way to track your traffic and conversions is to implement Google Analytics into your site. Analytics is relatively easy to install and will give you very detailed information on a website you are monitoring.
1. How many keywords are you currently bidding on in your paid search campaigns?
2. How many of those keywords have had some type of conversion in the last 6 to 12 months?
3. Why are you still bidding on keywords that have not had any conversions?
This is one of the most common errors I find when our agency begins managing an existing paid search account for a new client. Would you keep betting on a horse if it continuously lost?
If you are not tracking conversions, bookmark this blog and come back in a month after you begin tracking conversions and read this again.
An interesting article from Web Pro News discusses the measurement of ROI from social media campaigns.
It is well known in website circles that it is vitally important to utilize web 2.0 features including developing a robust and active social network community. This can include social media sites like facebook and twitter, and also include individual blogging efforts.
Their research shows, however, that few businesses track the ROI of such campaigns. With any business investment, it is critical that expenditures and returns are tracked accurately and effectively. This new field of tracking ROI of social media should be a new and growing field in the future.
