When you're new to AdWords, it's tempting to devote far too much time and energy in trying to craft that "killer" ad. But the truth is that writing ads is a science, not an art. Here are a few of the rules.
1) Don't Fly Blind...
In over five years developing AdWords campaigns, we've haven't ever seen a profitable example that didn't track conversions.
AdWords Conversion Tracking is simple to install and a "must" for measuring ad performance. Remember, by itself the Clíck-Through- Rate (CTR) of an ad tells you nothing about the ROI it's delivering. We've seen many examples of ads with a lower CTR, but higher conversion rate.
Google Analytics obviously adds a great deal more data, but takes time to master. However, one feature worth using immediately is its ability to tell you which ad position yields the best results.
Finally, don't forget the AdWords Reports section. This has improved significantly over the past year, and the Search Query Performance report is a real asset in optimizing keywords and ad copy.
2) Cut out the Middle Man...
In this case, the "middle man" is Google. When developing and testing your ads, it's vital to put yourself in control as far as possible:
Delivery Method: By default, Google spreads the delivery of your ads evenly throughout the day, ensuring you don't exhaust your daily budget (and they get to spend as much of it as possible). However, it also serves to mask the true demand for your product or service. We have seen many cases where ads are more profitable at certain times of the day. If you have a limited budget, spend it when you'll get the best return. We recommend running campaigns using Accelerated delivery. Keep an eye on your daily budget and adjust accordingly.
Ad Serving: If you're running multiple ads, Google will automatically start favouring the one with the highest CTR once a certain volume of clicks have been receíved. We don't use the default Optimize option, and recommend you select Rotate for ad serving.
We have AdWords campaigns for some of our clients that have been running for over three years, but we always maintain at least two ad variations per ad group. Even if there's only a single word difference, one ad will ultimately prove superior and deliver an improved ROI.
The Rotate option also gives you more granularity when testing ad variations. Say you want to do a 1/3-2/3 split; you simply create two copies of ad "A" and one of ad "B". Using the same principal allows you to create 60/40 and 70/30 splits, which are very useful in some circumstances.
Network Options: Start your testing using Google's Search network only. Uncheck both their Partner and Content networks. Once you have some solid data from mainstream search traffic, you can add their Partners. Google's partners are a pretty "mixed bag", and you may decide to exclude them altogether (we often do).
Finally, enable the Content network and Content Bids. Don't run on the Content network with the same bid as Search - you're just handing Google money. By default, we set Content Bids at 1/10 of that on the Search network: so if your Search bid is 0.50p, set your Content bid to 0.05p for openers.
If you find your product or service has "traction" on the Content network (true in about 25% of cases in our experience), it may be worth running separate campaigns for Content searches.
All these options can be set from the Campaign Management tab in your account. Select a campaign and clíck the Edit Settings button.
3) A Stitch in Time...
It's important to optimize your ads (and separately your keywords and bids) to a fixed schedule. By default, we run a three-month cycle: Every three hours for the first day. Every day for the first week. Every week for the first month. Every second week for the second month. At the end of the third month.
You can adapt this schedule to suit your clíck volume, but make sure you have a schedule and stick to it. You'll learn more about your target audience, and employ your time more efficiently. Don't forget to take weekdays, weekends and seasonal trends into account.
4) Study your Competition First...
Before writing your first ad, take time to study your competition using a selection of core keywords and phrases.
This is particularly important if you're thinking of using Google's Keyword Insertion feature. This is becoming increasingly popular and can be counter-productive; making your headline look identical to the competition.
5) All for One and One for All...
Achieving a good Quality Score, and providing visitors with a rewarding experience, means treating your keywords, ads and landing page as a single unit.
Ensure your most popular keywords appear in your ad's headline and copy. If you cannot accommodate core keywords in your ads, segment your ad groups further.
Make sure core keywords follow-through to your meta data and landing page copy. Try to write ad copy that flows naturally and qualifies visitors to your site. If you sell software for Microsoft Outlook, for example, a headline such as "Using Microsoft Outlook?" will help avoid Apple users, who might find your product of interest, but are unlikely to become customers.
6) Simplicity Sells Harder...
Capitalize letters and words in your ad copy for emphasis (not all the time). Capitalizing the first letter of every word in your copy actually makes reading more difficult.
Be honest and don't use words like "free" unless you're really giving something away for free within 3 clicks of your landing page.
7) Understand what Matters...
According to research undertaken by Google in 2005, the headline of your ad represents 40% of its impact. The first line of copy accounts for 25%, the second line 20% and the Display URL 15%.
AdWords' power comes from the ability it gives you to intercept prospects at the exact moment they're looking for what you sell. The basic PPC ad format is simple, and works best with a single clear message and a strong call to action.
About The Author
Peter runs AdWords Magic, one of the UK's leading AdWords training and campaign management providers.
source: sitepro news
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Top 5 Ways To Use Web 2.0 for Web Marketing
Web 2.0 and Web marketing is a match made in heaven. There are many ways to create traffic to your website using the power of Web 2.0. Below I am going to examine what I consider to be the top five.
Jack Humphrey, a well-known Web 2.0 expert, defines it this way in his Authority Black Book:
Generally speaking, if people can submit links to content, submit content, make comments and vote good/bad content up/down thus affecting the amount of traffic that content can generate, it's Web 2.0.
Blogs, wikis, file sharing sites, content rating systems, book-marking sites, and social networking sites are all examples of Web 2.0. Some of the more well-known Web 2.0 sites are YouTube (file sharing), Facebook and MySpace (social networking), Wikipedia (wiki), del.icio.us (book-marking) and Digg (content rating system). The líst is almost endless, and the traffic that these websites generate is absolutely staggering.
So how can you harness some of this traffic?
1) Create original, quality and compelling content and submit them to Web 2.0 websites.
For example, if you write an original and compelling article, you can submit it to content sharing and content rating system websites such as Digg, Propeller, Newsvine, MarkTD or Reddit. Sometimes content sharing and content rating system websites specialize in a particular industry. MarkTD specializes in marketing, for example.
When you submit your article to these sites, people will give it a vote, and each vote moves the article up where it can be seen by more and more people. This has the potential of creating a lot of traffic for your website since each reader will need to click on the link to go to your site to read the full article. And you're building a permanent link pointing to your website that can be followed for months and years to come. (And don't forget, a link from a quality site to your website helps in your search engine rankings too.)
Or you can create an original video and submit it to YouTube. Here it will get rated and possibly seen by many people. If the video contains your website or a plug for your business, then all the better. YouTube is not the only video sharing website however. There are many, and one video can be submitted to them all. This same concept applies to your original images, photographs, digital art and audio files.
2) Web 2.0-ize other people's sites that contain a link back to your website
I'll assume you already know how your bookmarks (or Favorites) work in your browser. There are websites that exist that act in the same way, but the bookmarks you set are public. Del.icio.us was one of the first and a very popular example of this. People's public bookmarks are browsed by others and lead to clicks to the sites you've bookmarked. So be sure to bookmark your business website and inner pages that are important. Also, these bookmarks can appear in search results in engines like Google and Yahoo. And some even think that search engines use book-marking sites in their algorithms, although this has not been conclusively proven. Simpy and BlinkList are two more examples of these kinds of Web 2.0 book-marking sites.
Let's say you write an original, quality article and post it to your business website. Then let's say you submit the article to a handful of content rating websites like some of the ones explained above. To further market this article, you can then use social book-marking sites to bookmark the page on the content rating websites that líst your new article and that contain a link back to your article. This can be very powerful.
Or let's say you notice that an authority in your industry has a link on its website that points back to your website. Go ahead and bookmark the page on the authority site, thus marketing it, which in turn markets your site as well. One particular Web 2.0 website that is very popular and can generate tons of traffic is StumbleUpon. This site allows people to give any page you deem worthy a "thumbs-up". And if you get enough "thumbs-up", people browsing StumbleUpon will see it and click over to that page. So I always make it a point to "Stumble" my business websites' homepages and sites that contain links to my business websites as well.
If you become an active member in a handful of Web 2.0 websites and utilize these first two suggestions alone, you will be amazëd at the kind of traffic you can generate.
3) Engage in the conversations and activities
When I suggest above to become an active member I mean that you need to visit a few of your favorite Web 2.0 sites on a regular basis and actually contribute to the site with your opinions, votes, comments and submissions. For instance, if you like Digg or Newsvine, visit them often and submit quality articles, content and sites to them. And they don't all have to be your sites. In fact, the more impartial you are, the more people will trust you when you submit one of your articles. And you ought to vote for other people's Digg submissions as well. You may enjoy Facebook, Linkedin or MySpace. First, create a profile on the site, then go out and make connections within the community. The more you do this, the more you can harness the power of the people you meet to help market your website or yourself.
Visit and comment on blogs in your industry. This is another tried and true way to engage in the online conversation. Blogs are Web 2.0 and have been around for a while now. Unfortunately, leaving blog comments has been abused by so many people that you absolutely must only leave blog comments that contribute to the overall blog post.
Only add your website's link if you're asked to. These links won't help your search engine rankings but can drive traffic to your site.
4) Encourage visitors to bookmark and tag your content
If you have a blog, add a feature that shows up at the end of every post that allows users to bookmark or submit your post to other Web 2.0 websites. 'Share This' is just such a blog add-on (or plug-in) that can do this for you. If you have a Wordpress blog you'll be able to find a plug-in that allows you to integrate this type of feature (including Share This) into your blog very easily and without the need for any technical knowledge. If you write a memorable or compelling post, people can use this to make bookmarks to the post, Stumble it, Digg it and so forth. All of this can lead to more traffíc.
5) Add a Web 2.0 feature to your website
First of all, your business website needs a blog. If you don't have one, then stop reading this and go to it. A blog provides you and your employees an easy way to post new information that is relevant to your business and helpful to your customers. And it allows your customers to easily communicate with you by leaving comments.
But beyond a blog, what other Web 2.0 features can you add to your website? If you're selling products, consider adding in a feature that allows customers to rate each product. It can be something as simple as one to five stars or more elaborate where they leave reviews. Amazon does this and it one of the major driving forces in their sales. When potential customers see that your products are rated by existing customers, they'll be more likely to trust you and buy.
You could add a wiki to your website. A wiki is software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content. By encouraging your website visitors to create content for you, you're allowing your site to grow and become more informative, thus creating more chances to be found in search engines. These features can be found as third-party software packages and integrated into your existing website surprisingly easily.
The power of Web 2.0 is substantial. It's time you begin to harness its potential and by following these five suggestions, you'll be well on your way. See JackHumphrey.com for a great líst to start with.
About The Author
Jason O'Connor is the owner of The Net Gazette, a free newsletter that teaches Web professionals all about Web design, development and Web marketing.
Source: sitepro news
Jack Humphrey, a well-known Web 2.0 expert, defines it this way in his Authority Black Book:
Generally speaking, if people can submit links to content, submit content, make comments and vote good/bad content up/down thus affecting the amount of traffic that content can generate, it's Web 2.0.
Blogs, wikis, file sharing sites, content rating systems, book-marking sites, and social networking sites are all examples of Web 2.0. Some of the more well-known Web 2.0 sites are YouTube (file sharing), Facebook and MySpace (social networking), Wikipedia (wiki), del.icio.us (book-marking) and Digg (content rating system). The líst is almost endless, and the traffic that these websites generate is absolutely staggering.
So how can you harness some of this traffic?
1) Create original, quality and compelling content and submit them to Web 2.0 websites.
For example, if you write an original and compelling article, you can submit it to content sharing and content rating system websites such as Digg, Propeller, Newsvine, MarkTD or Reddit. Sometimes content sharing and content rating system websites specialize in a particular industry. MarkTD specializes in marketing, for example.
When you submit your article to these sites, people will give it a vote, and each vote moves the article up where it can be seen by more and more people. This has the potential of creating a lot of traffic for your website since each reader will need to click on the link to go to your site to read the full article. And you're building a permanent link pointing to your website that can be followed for months and years to come. (And don't forget, a link from a quality site to your website helps in your search engine rankings too.)
Or you can create an original video and submit it to YouTube. Here it will get rated and possibly seen by many people. If the video contains your website or a plug for your business, then all the better. YouTube is not the only video sharing website however. There are many, and one video can be submitted to them all. This same concept applies to your original images, photographs, digital art and audio files.
2) Web 2.0-ize other people's sites that contain a link back to your website
I'll assume you already know how your bookmarks (or Favorites) work in your browser. There are websites that exist that act in the same way, but the bookmarks you set are public. Del.icio.us was one of the first and a very popular example of this. People's public bookmarks are browsed by others and lead to clicks to the sites you've bookmarked. So be sure to bookmark your business website and inner pages that are important. Also, these bookmarks can appear in search results in engines like Google and Yahoo. And some even think that search engines use book-marking sites in their algorithms, although this has not been conclusively proven. Simpy and BlinkList are two more examples of these kinds of Web 2.0 book-marking sites.
Let's say you write an original, quality article and post it to your business website. Then let's say you submit the article to a handful of content rating websites like some of the ones explained above. To further market this article, you can then use social book-marking sites to bookmark the page on the content rating websites that líst your new article and that contain a link back to your article. This can be very powerful.
Or let's say you notice that an authority in your industry has a link on its website that points back to your website. Go ahead and bookmark the page on the authority site, thus marketing it, which in turn markets your site as well. One particular Web 2.0 website that is very popular and can generate tons of traffic is StumbleUpon. This site allows people to give any page you deem worthy a "thumbs-up". And if you get enough "thumbs-up", people browsing StumbleUpon will see it and click over to that page. So I always make it a point to "Stumble" my business websites' homepages and sites that contain links to my business websites as well.
If you become an active member in a handful of Web 2.0 websites and utilize these first two suggestions alone, you will be amazëd at the kind of traffic you can generate.
3) Engage in the conversations and activities
When I suggest above to become an active member I mean that you need to visit a few of your favorite Web 2.0 sites on a regular basis and actually contribute to the site with your opinions, votes, comments and submissions. For instance, if you like Digg or Newsvine, visit them often and submit quality articles, content and sites to them. And they don't all have to be your sites. In fact, the more impartial you are, the more people will trust you when you submit one of your articles. And you ought to vote for other people's Digg submissions as well. You may enjoy Facebook, Linkedin or MySpace. First, create a profile on the site, then go out and make connections within the community. The more you do this, the more you can harness the power of the people you meet to help market your website or yourself.
Visit and comment on blogs in your industry. This is another tried and true way to engage in the online conversation. Blogs are Web 2.0 and have been around for a while now. Unfortunately, leaving blog comments has been abused by so many people that you absolutely must only leave blog comments that contribute to the overall blog post.
Only add your website's link if you're asked to. These links won't help your search engine rankings but can drive traffic to your site.
4) Encourage visitors to bookmark and tag your content
If you have a blog, add a feature that shows up at the end of every post that allows users to bookmark or submit your post to other Web 2.0 websites. 'Share This' is just such a blog add-on (or plug-in) that can do this for you. If you have a Wordpress blog you'll be able to find a plug-in that allows you to integrate this type of feature (including Share This) into your blog very easily and without the need for any technical knowledge. If you write a memorable or compelling post, people can use this to make bookmarks to the post, Stumble it, Digg it and so forth. All of this can lead to more traffíc.
5) Add a Web 2.0 feature to your website
First of all, your business website needs a blog. If you don't have one, then stop reading this and go to it. A blog provides you and your employees an easy way to post new information that is relevant to your business and helpful to your customers. And it allows your customers to easily communicate with you by leaving comments.
But beyond a blog, what other Web 2.0 features can you add to your website? If you're selling products, consider adding in a feature that allows customers to rate each product. It can be something as simple as one to five stars or more elaborate where they leave reviews. Amazon does this and it one of the major driving forces in their sales. When potential customers see that your products are rated by existing customers, they'll be more likely to trust you and buy.
You could add a wiki to your website. A wiki is software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content. By encouraging your website visitors to create content for you, you're allowing your site to grow and become more informative, thus creating more chances to be found in search engines. These features can be found as third-party software packages and integrated into your existing website surprisingly easily.
The power of Web 2.0 is substantial. It's time you begin to harness its potential and by following these five suggestions, you'll be well on your way. See JackHumphrey.com for a great líst to start with.
About The Author
Jason O'Connor is the owner of The Net Gazette, a free newsletter that teaches Web professionals all about Web design, development and Web marketing.
Source: sitepro news
Secrets Your Web Designer Isn't Telling You
If I was to ask you right now "Are you absolutely certain that your web site is optimized for high visibility in search engines?", what would you say?
What if I was to ask "What position in the major search engines does your site appear in for your target search terms?" Or how about "Does each page of your site have tailored Title and META Tags?"
If you would answer "No" or "I don't know" to any of these questions, you would be amongst the 60% of web site owners whose web sites are missing out on traffic because they are not designed for search engine compatibility. Has your web designer optimized YOUR site for your target keywords? Have they made sure it is visible in Google and the other major search engines? More than likely, you don't know because they haven't told you. Ask them today!
But what exactly is search engine optimization? Simply explained, it is the technique of attaining a high ranking in search engines and directories via changes to your site code to make it more search engine compatible.
In my experience, web designers keep a lot of secrets. One of the biggest ones is that they have no clue about what makes a web site compatible with search engines. Another is that they like to build expensive, flashy sites and so convince their clients that an attractive web site never uses a lot of text.
So your web designer may have included target keywords and phrases in your Title tag and META tags (in the HTML code of your site). They may even have explained to you that these are very important references that search engines use when ranking web sites for search relevancy. I've met many a web designer who claimed that this was all it took to optimize a web site.
But did you know that you need to tailor your Title and META tags for each page of your site? Did you know that optimizing your site meta tags is only a tiny fraction of the job? Did you know that search engines actually need to find target keywords within the visible body text on your site pages in order to find it a relevant match for related search queries? Did you know that they also need to find those same keywords and phrases used within the text links that help people navigate your pages?
It's true. For search engines to rank your site highly for particular words or phrases that you would expect potential visitors to type in, each individual page of your site MUST be built with those words and phrases in mind.
For example, if you are a Miami florist, you should have logical search phrases such as "flowers", "Miami florists", "bouquets Miami" and even target search terms such as "Miami weddings", "Valentine's Day gifts" etc integrated in your title and meta tags, as well as in the visible text of your site. Better still, build and optimize a page for each product or service that you offer. That way, if anyone types in those phrases in a search engine, your site is more likely to appear higher in the search results.
Can you honestly say your web designer has built your site with your target search terms in mind? If not, it might be time to schedule an appointment with them.
So why wasn't your site optimized for search engines when it was built? Depending on who developed your site and how it was built, you'll find a million different reasons for this. Many web developers believe it is the site marketer's job to ensure the site is found in search engines and vice versa. Most don't bother checking that your site is found in the important search engines, assuming you or your marketing department will do it. Or perhaps it wasn't discussed in your original development budget.
Not many web design firms know how or have time to optimize a site successfully, no matter what they tell you. They might feel it is outside their core business, or they might believe it is not part of the "design process". Consequently, your site can be launched for many months without the search engines having any idea it exists.
Some web development firms don't include even the most basic META tags in your site code when building it. Or those that do include META tags without close consultation with you, resulting in the wrong search terms used and poor performance. This is quite typical! Remember that search engine optimization requires both client interaction and constant monitoring to be successful.
The bottom line? If your designer can't show you substantial search engine traffic they've achieved for other clients, chances are they won't be able to optimize your site properly. Search engine optimization (SEO) specialists have sprung up to fill the need for these services. Many SEO's will work either directly with you or with your web site designer to ensure your site gets the exposure it deserves in the most popular search engines and directories. My suggestion is to pay a little more for a specialist with a good track record and reap the rewards.
Remember, search engine users generally only explore the first 10 or 20 search results. If you site isn't in the top 20, you won't be found, it's as simple as that. Always include search engine optimization into your marketing budget or your site could be as effective as a billboard at the end of a dead end street.
About The Author
Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S.
What if I was to ask "What position in the major search engines does your site appear in for your target search terms?" Or how about "Does each page of your site have tailored Title and META Tags?"
If you would answer "No" or "I don't know" to any of these questions, you would be amongst the 60% of web site owners whose web sites are missing out on traffic because they are not designed for search engine compatibility. Has your web designer optimized YOUR site for your target keywords? Have they made sure it is visible in Google and the other major search engines? More than likely, you don't know because they haven't told you. Ask them today!
But what exactly is search engine optimization? Simply explained, it is the technique of attaining a high ranking in search engines and directories via changes to your site code to make it more search engine compatible.
In my experience, web designers keep a lot of secrets. One of the biggest ones is that they have no clue about what makes a web site compatible with search engines. Another is that they like to build expensive, flashy sites and so convince their clients that an attractive web site never uses a lot of text.
So your web designer may have included target keywords and phrases in your Title tag and META tags (in the HTML code of your site). They may even have explained to you that these are very important references that search engines use when ranking web sites for search relevancy. I've met many a web designer who claimed that this was all it took to optimize a web site.
But did you know that you need to tailor your Title and META tags for each page of your site? Did you know that optimizing your site meta tags is only a tiny fraction of the job? Did you know that search engines actually need to find target keywords within the visible body text on your site pages in order to find it a relevant match for related search queries? Did you know that they also need to find those same keywords and phrases used within the text links that help people navigate your pages?
It's true. For search engines to rank your site highly for particular words or phrases that you would expect potential visitors to type in, each individual page of your site MUST be built with those words and phrases in mind.
For example, if you are a Miami florist, you should have logical search phrases such as "flowers", "Miami florists", "bouquets Miami" and even target search terms such as "Miami weddings", "Valentine's Day gifts" etc integrated in your title and meta tags, as well as in the visible text of your site. Better still, build and optimize a page for each product or service that you offer. That way, if anyone types in those phrases in a search engine, your site is more likely to appear higher in the search results.
Can you honestly say your web designer has built your site with your target search terms in mind? If not, it might be time to schedule an appointment with them.
So why wasn't your site optimized for search engines when it was built? Depending on who developed your site and how it was built, you'll find a million different reasons for this. Many web developers believe it is the site marketer's job to ensure the site is found in search engines and vice versa. Most don't bother checking that your site is found in the important search engines, assuming you or your marketing department will do it. Or perhaps it wasn't discussed in your original development budget.
Not many web design firms know how or have time to optimize a site successfully, no matter what they tell you. They might feel it is outside their core business, or they might believe it is not part of the "design process". Consequently, your site can be launched for many months without the search engines having any idea it exists.
Some web development firms don't include even the most basic META tags in your site code when building it. Or those that do include META tags without close consultation with you, resulting in the wrong search terms used and poor performance. This is quite typical! Remember that search engine optimization requires both client interaction and constant monitoring to be successful.
The bottom line? If your designer can't show you substantial search engine traffic they've achieved for other clients, chances are they won't be able to optimize your site properly. Search engine optimization (SEO) specialists have sprung up to fill the need for these services. Many SEO's will work either directly with you or with your web site designer to ensure your site gets the exposure it deserves in the most popular search engines and directories. My suggestion is to pay a little more for a specialist with a good track record and reap the rewards.
Remember, search engine users generally only explore the first 10 or 20 search results. If you site isn't in the top 20, you won't be found, it's as simple as that. Always include search engine optimization into your marketing budget or your site could be as effective as a billboard at the end of a dead end street.
About The Author
Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Look Beyond Google: Meta-Search Engines Can Help Online Marketers
For businesses that market wholly or partially online, it may seem that three words are the only way to get more customers: search engine optimization (SEO). Typically, the search engines being referred to are: Google, Yahoo, and MSN. These three engines have almost become interchangeable with the phrase "do a search", so much so that the word "Google" has entered the English lexicon as "find information".
There are actually hundreds of search engines, not just the Big Three (Google, Yahoo, and MSN) that many Internet users think of. By focusing only on the most well known search engines for your marketing online strategy, you may be missing out on as much as 30% of the billions of searches being done online every single day.
While not the oldest search engine on the internet, Google does have the reputation of being the granddaddy. However, it is worth investigating alternative search engines - niche engines, meta-search engines, and human-powered engines.
Niche search engines focus their searches on a particular subject matter, such as blogs or articles. Meta-search engines (DogPile, Widow) compile results from multiple search engines . Finally, human-powered search engines (Mahalo, DMOZ) are composed of directory pages with link and general information, put together by humans who search for the most relevant content. These alternative search engines tend to have pretty high page ranks, which give more credence to the fact that online marketers shouldn't overlook them.
There is also the fact that some Internet searchers do not want to use Google because of personal or political views. Because of Google's popularity, it can (incorrectly) be perceived as having a monopoly on the search engine market. That perception, combined with opposition to a seemingly growing "corporate world", turns off some potential customers and eliminates your potential to reach them, if you focus only on Google or other big search engines.
As part of SEO, using keywords to bring in consumers is all the rage. Businesses spend a great deal of time and money researching keywords, keyword density, and effects on page rankings in results lists. Guess what? It's not only a pain for the businesses to constantly be looking for which words may get them more hits and higher rankings; it's quickly becoming over done.
Consumers are fatigued with seeing keyword-loaded articles and websites tagged with anything that could possibly be related to their search terms. This online marketíng strategy may make sense in the short-term, but chances are good that by the time the strategy is perfected by your marketers, there will be a different trend altogether that needs to be learned. Marketing with the intent to only improve your page rankings, by any means necessary, is only a quick fix and could be quite expensive.
SEO tactics are starting to turn customers off. If SEO is the main priority of a marketing campaign and keyword-dense content was the impetus for the customer finding the website, this hurts the site's credibility with the consumer. Perhaps they'll buy from you once because you showed up at the top of the results page, but will they remember you next time or just do another search?
Another concern with search engines is the program spiders that crawl the Internet, looking for relevant pages for search results. Even the largest of the search engines can only cover a portion of the internet. According to Wikipedia, no search engine can search more than 16% of the net!
In addition, the spiders have a massive amount of searching to do, which can be a slow and taxing process on the sites they are crawling. By the time a spider finishes crawling the Internet, the information collected can be outdated - pages and links have either been deleted or new information added. Spiders are certainly not a perfect means of finding good results with one search engine.
Searching just one engine at a time is time-consuming and not very cost-efficient for searchers looking for the most appropriate information or businesses to suit their needs. Enter, meta-search engines. As mentioned earlier, meta-search engines compile results from multiple engines.
Among these, dogpile.com is probably the most well-known. The problem with dogpile, as I see it, is that it spits back the top 10 results from each of the Big Three engines. This results in a lot of sponsored results at the top of the result líst, followed by a mix of "normal" results and more sponsored results. The truth be known, I simply consider dogpile to be really annoying, so I avoid it.
In comparison, widow.com uses a different sort of math equation that sorts through search engine results for the most relevant information and ranks them in their results pages. In an unscientific but entertaining comparison I performed, I plugged in "celebrity gossip" to both dogpile.com and widow.com.
On dogpile.com, I felt like I had to search through commercials to find the content. The results on widow.com were much more relevant, giving me results with the desired content. Plus, I didn't have to look between the annoying sponsored results to find the information I wanted.
Utilizing meta-search engines can be very time-efficient and cost-effective for online marketers, especially when doing market research, even for keywords.
More importantly, if you can also rank in the meta-search and smaller niche search engines, you have a better chance of reaching the approximately 30% of searchers who do not use one of the Big Three engines, as their search tool of choice.
The niche audience may be smaller than the number of consumers you're exposed to on Google, but if you can gain an audience in the niche search engines, you are likely to find consumers intent on buying what you are selling. It's a good general marketing strategy to remember that "quantity exposure" does not always equate to "quality exposure". It's also a good general marketing strategy to not rely on only one advertising platform to help you reach your target audience.
About The Author
Bill Platt has been helping online marketers promote their online businesses since 2001, through thephantomwriters.com
There are actually hundreds of search engines, not just the Big Three (Google, Yahoo, and MSN) that many Internet users think of. By focusing only on the most well known search engines for your marketing online strategy, you may be missing out on as much as 30% of the billions of searches being done online every single day.
While not the oldest search engine on the internet, Google does have the reputation of being the granddaddy. However, it is worth investigating alternative search engines - niche engines, meta-search engines, and human-powered engines.
Niche search engines focus their searches on a particular subject matter, such as blogs or articles. Meta-search engines (DogPile, Widow) compile results from multiple search engines . Finally, human-powered search engines (Mahalo, DMOZ) are composed of directory pages with link and general information, put together by humans who search for the most relevant content. These alternative search engines tend to have pretty high page ranks, which give more credence to the fact that online marketers shouldn't overlook them.
There is also the fact that some Internet searchers do not want to use Google because of personal or political views. Because of Google's popularity, it can (incorrectly) be perceived as having a monopoly on the search engine market. That perception, combined with opposition to a seemingly growing "corporate world", turns off some potential customers and eliminates your potential to reach them, if you focus only on Google or other big search engines.
As part of SEO, using keywords to bring in consumers is all the rage. Businesses spend a great deal of time and money researching keywords, keyword density, and effects on page rankings in results lists. Guess what? It's not only a pain for the businesses to constantly be looking for which words may get them more hits and higher rankings; it's quickly becoming over done.
Consumers are fatigued with seeing keyword-loaded articles and websites tagged with anything that could possibly be related to their search terms. This online marketíng strategy may make sense in the short-term, but chances are good that by the time the strategy is perfected by your marketers, there will be a different trend altogether that needs to be learned. Marketing with the intent to only improve your page rankings, by any means necessary, is only a quick fix and could be quite expensive.
SEO tactics are starting to turn customers off. If SEO is the main priority of a marketing campaign and keyword-dense content was the impetus for the customer finding the website, this hurts the site's credibility with the consumer. Perhaps they'll buy from you once because you showed up at the top of the results page, but will they remember you next time or just do another search?
Another concern with search engines is the program spiders that crawl the Internet, looking for relevant pages for search results. Even the largest of the search engines can only cover a portion of the internet. According to Wikipedia, no search engine can search more than 16% of the net!
In addition, the spiders have a massive amount of searching to do, which can be a slow and taxing process on the sites they are crawling. By the time a spider finishes crawling the Internet, the information collected can be outdated - pages and links have either been deleted or new information added. Spiders are certainly not a perfect means of finding good results with one search engine.
Searching just one engine at a time is time-consuming and not very cost-efficient for searchers looking for the most appropriate information or businesses to suit their needs. Enter, meta-search engines. As mentioned earlier, meta-search engines compile results from multiple engines.
Among these, dogpile.com is probably the most well-known. The problem with dogpile, as I see it, is that it spits back the top 10 results from each of the Big Three engines. This results in a lot of sponsored results at the top of the result líst, followed by a mix of "normal" results and more sponsored results. The truth be known, I simply consider dogpile to be really annoying, so I avoid it.
In comparison, widow.com uses a different sort of math equation that sorts through search engine results for the most relevant information and ranks them in their results pages. In an unscientific but entertaining comparison I performed, I plugged in "celebrity gossip" to both dogpile.com and widow.com.
On dogpile.com, I felt like I had to search through commercials to find the content. The results on widow.com were much more relevant, giving me results with the desired content. Plus, I didn't have to look between the annoying sponsored results to find the information I wanted.
Utilizing meta-search engines can be very time-efficient and cost-effective for online marketers, especially when doing market research, even for keywords.
More importantly, if you can also rank in the meta-search and smaller niche search engines, you have a better chance of reaching the approximately 30% of searchers who do not use one of the Big Three engines, as their search tool of choice.
The niche audience may be smaller than the number of consumers you're exposed to on Google, but if you can gain an audience in the niche search engines, you are likely to find consumers intent on buying what you are selling. It's a good general marketing strategy to remember that "quantity exposure" does not always equate to "quality exposure". It's also a good general marketing strategy to not rely on only one advertising platform to help you reach your target audience.
About The Author
Bill Platt has been helping online marketers promote their online businesses since 2001, through thephantomwriters.com
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Patent analysis: how search engines deal with inbound links
This month, Yahoo was granted a patent that describes how link texts may be used to increase the relevancy ranking of a web page. Although the patent was filed in 2002, it provides interesting details about how search engines can use link texts.
Why are link texts important?
All major search engines pay close attention to the text that is used in links pointing to web pages. A web page might be considered more relevant to a search term if the search term not only appears on the web page but is also used in the text of the link that points to the page.
Web pages can even get high rankings for a search term if they don't contain that search term. It's enough that many websites link to the page with the search term in the link text. This has been demonstrated with several Google bombs.
How do search engines treat link texts?
While it is clear that link texts are very important for search engines, it's not clear how much weight search engines assign to a link text when they index a page. Are some link texts more important than others?
The patent indicates that link texts are broken into parts, called tokens:
Once an anchortext phrase is identified, it is converted into a set of tokens. For example, page 306 contains the phrase "best Louis Armstrong site" pointing to page 200. The tokenization produces the following tokens:
* Trumpet"Best Louis Armstrong site"
* "Louis Armstrong"
* "Louis"
* "Armstrong"
* "Best"
* "Best Louis"
* "Best Armstrong"
* "Best site"
The search engine algorithm calculates a weight for each of these tokens. If the weight exceeds a threshold, the linked web page may be indexed under that token.
How do search engines calculate the weight?
Search engines consider how often each word or word sequence can be found in link texts pointing to a particular page and how often the token appears in the index.
Search engines might assign the greatest importance to words that appear the least frequently in the search index. The reason for that is that those words are often more specifically related to the searched topic.
In addition, a token that appears very often in link texts that point to a special web page could be given higher weight. Tokens that appear very frequently in the search index ("site" or "best") might be discounted because they are not relevant to the special topic.
What does this mean to your website?
All major search engines use this method to rank web pages. If you want to get high rankings on search engines, you must make sure that your web site has good inbound links with the right link texts.
Optimized web pages are important to tell search engines that your website is relevant to your keywords. Good inbound links with the right link texts will enforce the relevancy of your pages for your keywords.
What you have to do to get high rankings on Yahoo and Google
1. Optimize your web pages for your keywords. While it is possible to get high rankings for a keyword if you have enough inbound links that contain that keyword, it is much easier to get high rankings for a special keyword if your web page has been optimized for that keyword.
2. Try to get as many inbound links as possible. The links to your website should use your targeted keywords in the link text. Do not use the exactly same text over and over. Vary your link texts and use related but different expressions for the links to your site.
The Yahoo patent confirms the methods that modern search engines use to rank web pages. If you follow the tips and tricks above, your website will get the best possible rankings on Yahoo, Google and other major search engines.
for more visit: facts.axandra.com
Why are link texts important?
All major search engines pay close attention to the text that is used in links pointing to web pages. A web page might be considered more relevant to a search term if the search term not only appears on the web page but is also used in the text of the link that points to the page.
Web pages can even get high rankings for a search term if they don't contain that search term. It's enough that many websites link to the page with the search term in the link text. This has been demonstrated with several Google bombs.
How do search engines treat link texts?
While it is clear that link texts are very important for search engines, it's not clear how much weight search engines assign to a link text when they index a page. Are some link texts more important than others?
The patent indicates that link texts are broken into parts, called tokens:
Once an anchortext phrase is identified, it is converted into a set of tokens. For example, page 306 contains the phrase "best Louis Armstrong site" pointing to page 200. The tokenization produces the following tokens:
* Trumpet"Best Louis Armstrong site"
* "Louis Armstrong"
* "Louis"
* "Armstrong"
* "Best"
* "Best Louis"
* "Best Armstrong"
* "Best site"
The search engine algorithm calculates a weight for each of these tokens. If the weight exceeds a threshold, the linked web page may be indexed under that token.
How do search engines calculate the weight?
Search engines consider how often each word or word sequence can be found in link texts pointing to a particular page and how often the token appears in the index.
Search engines might assign the greatest importance to words that appear the least frequently in the search index. The reason for that is that those words are often more specifically related to the searched topic.
In addition, a token that appears very often in link texts that point to a special web page could be given higher weight. Tokens that appear very frequently in the search index ("site" or "best") might be discounted because they are not relevant to the special topic.
What does this mean to your website?
All major search engines use this method to rank web pages. If you want to get high rankings on search engines, you must make sure that your web site has good inbound links with the right link texts.
Optimized web pages are important to tell search engines that your website is relevant to your keywords. Good inbound links with the right link texts will enforce the relevancy of your pages for your keywords.
What you have to do to get high rankings on Yahoo and Google
1. Optimize your web pages for your keywords. While it is possible to get high rankings for a keyword if you have enough inbound links that contain that keyword, it is much easier to get high rankings for a special keyword if your web page has been optimized for that keyword.
2. Try to get as many inbound links as possible. The links to your website should use your targeted keywords in the link text. Do not use the exactly same text over and over. Vary your link texts and use related but different expressions for the links to your site.
The Yahoo patent confirms the methods that modern search engines use to rank web pages. If you follow the tips and tricks above, your website will get the best possible rankings on Yahoo, Google and other major search engines.
for more visit: facts.axandra.com
Friday, July 18, 2008
Search Engine Facts
. Step-by-step guide: How to get high quality links
Link building is one of the most important search engine optimization steps. Without good inbound links, your website cannot get high rankings. Although it is very important that your website has optimized content, without the links to your website, search engines won't consider that content much.
It's important to get the right links to your website. Link spamming doesn't work. You must make sure that you get high quality links that Google and other search engines like.
Step 1: Make your website linkworthy
You must make your website linkworthy. You cannot expect that other websites link to your website if your site is basically a collection of affiliate links or an online shop that looks like a thousand other online shops.
Your website must be different. Try the following:
* Add articles about your products or services to your website.
* Add tutorials and how-to articles about the topic of your website.
* If you have a lot to say, add a blog to your website.
* Add a directory with links to valuable resources on your website.
Step 2: Check your competitors
The best way to start link building is to duplicate the links that your competitors have. Find all websites that link to your competitors and then try to convince them to link to your website.
The link builder tool in IBP makes it easy to find these websites. Just click Add Sites > Find websites that link to your competitors in IBP's link builder and IBP will return all websites that link to your competitors in a clearly arranged list.
You can then check the websites one after the other and convince them to link to your website.
Step 3: Get links from blogs
There are millions of blogs on the Internet and they all need something to write about. Getting links from blogs is a good way to get links from related websites.
To find blogs that deal with your website topic, select Add sites > Find websites by keyword search in IBP's link builder and enter the topic of your website plus the word blog. For example, you could enter "real estate blog" or "music blog" in IBP, depending on what you sell on your website.
The advantage of using IBP instead of manually searching for the blogs is that IBP automatically presents all found blogs in a clearly arranged list.
IBP also allows you to contact the blog owners quickly and easily and it automatically keeps track of the websites that you've already contacted so that you don't contact the same person twice.
Bloggers give out millions of free links each month. Use IBP to make sure that you get your share of these links.
Step 4: Get links from Internet directories
Submitting your website to Internet directories can be a good way to show Google that you have a reputable website. Low quality websites usually don't invest the time and money that is needed to be listed in Internet directories.
An easy way to submit your website to many Internet directories as possible is IBP's directory submitter.
Inbound links are very important if you want to get high rankings on search engines. You should optimize your web page content first to make sure that search engines find your website relevant to your targeted keywords.
If more than one website has been optimized for the same keywords (and that's usually the case) then the website with the best links will get the best rankings.
Link building is one of the most important search engine optimization steps. Without good inbound links, your website cannot get high rankings. Although it is very important that your website has optimized content, without the links to your website, search engines won't consider that content much.
It's important to get the right links to your website. Link spamming doesn't work. You must make sure that you get high quality links that Google and other search engines like.
Step 1: Make your website linkworthy
You must make your website linkworthy. You cannot expect that other websites link to your website if your site is basically a collection of affiliate links or an online shop that looks like a thousand other online shops.
Your website must be different. Try the following:
* Add articles about your products or services to your website.
* Add tutorials and how-to articles about the topic of your website.
* If you have a lot to say, add a blog to your website.
* Add a directory with links to valuable resources on your website.
Step 2: Check your competitors
The best way to start link building is to duplicate the links that your competitors have. Find all websites that link to your competitors and then try to convince them to link to your website.
The link builder tool in IBP makes it easy to find these websites. Just click Add Sites > Find websites that link to your competitors in IBP's link builder and IBP will return all websites that link to your competitors in a clearly arranged list.
You can then check the websites one after the other and convince them to link to your website.
Step 3: Get links from blogs
There are millions of blogs on the Internet and they all need something to write about. Getting links from blogs is a good way to get links from related websites.
To find blogs that deal with your website topic, select Add sites > Find websites by keyword search in IBP's link builder and enter the topic of your website plus the word blog. For example, you could enter "real estate blog" or "music blog" in IBP, depending on what you sell on your website.
The advantage of using IBP instead of manually searching for the blogs is that IBP automatically presents all found blogs in a clearly arranged list.
IBP also allows you to contact the blog owners quickly and easily and it automatically keeps track of the websites that you've already contacted so that you don't contact the same person twice.
Bloggers give out millions of free links each month. Use IBP to make sure that you get your share of these links.
Step 4: Get links from Internet directories
Submitting your website to Internet directories can be a good way to show Google that you have a reputable website. Low quality websites usually don't invest the time and money that is needed to be listed in Internet directories.
An easy way to submit your website to many Internet directories as possible is IBP's directory submitter.
Inbound links are very important if you want to get high rankings on search engines. You should optimize your web page content first to make sure that search engines find your website relevant to your targeted keywords.
If more than one website has been optimized for the same keywords (and that's usually the case) then the website with the best links will get the best rankings.
Search Engine Facts 15 July 2008
1. How to GEO target Google
Do you want to get customers from outside the United States? Is your business located in Europe or another part of the world? There are a few things to consider if your website is aimed at people outside the United States.
Google's market share outside the US:
Google is the biggest player in the US market. They also have a big market share in other countries:
Country Market Share
Google Germany 89.20%
Google UK 70,25%
Google Bulgaria 90.00%
Google France 89.79%
Google Netherlands 95.00%
Google Poland 90.00%
Google Israel 90.00%
Source: Lunapark
If you want to get customers from outside the US then you must make sure that your website is prepared for Google's local versions. For example, Germans who enter Google.com in their web browsers are automatically redirected to Google.de.
Google returns different results in different countries
Google.com and Google.de return different results. For example, Google.de returns totally different results for the keyword "auto" than Google.com.
That means that websites must meet certain criteria to be listed in Google's local versions.
What you can do to get listed in Google's local versions
1. Get a country specific domain name
If you want to get high rankings in Google.co.uk then you should have a .co.uk domain name. This is by far the most important factor. A local domain name makes it much easier to get high rankings in country specific search engines.
2. Make your web page content relevant to your target market
If you're trying to sell something in Germany, it is obvious that your web page content should be in German. If you're website is aimed at people living in the UK, mention your full UK address in the footer so that search engines can associate that address with your website.
3. Check your server location
If the IP address of your server is based in France then Google can take this as an indicator that you're targeting the French market.
Getting high rankings in Google's local variations is easier if you follow the tips above. Note that your web pages still must be optimized for your keywords if you want to get high rankings.
In addition, Google only lists your web pages if you have good inbound links,
Do you want to get customers from outside the United States? Is your business located in Europe or another part of the world? There are a few things to consider if your website is aimed at people outside the United States.
Google's market share outside the US:
Google is the biggest player in the US market. They also have a big market share in other countries:
Country Market Share
Google Germany 89.20%
Google UK 70,25%
Google Bulgaria 90.00%
Google France 89.79%
Google Netherlands 95.00%
Google Poland 90.00%
Google Israel 90.00%
Source: Lunapark
If you want to get customers from outside the US then you must make sure that your website is prepared for Google's local versions. For example, Germans who enter Google.com in their web browsers are automatically redirected to Google.de.
Google returns different results in different countries
Google.com and Google.de return different results. For example, Google.de returns totally different results for the keyword "auto" than Google.com.
That means that websites must meet certain criteria to be listed in Google's local versions.
What you can do to get listed in Google's local versions
1. Get a country specific domain name
If you want to get high rankings in Google.co.uk then you should have a .co.uk domain name. This is by far the most important factor. A local domain name makes it much easier to get high rankings in country specific search engines.
2. Make your web page content relevant to your target market
If you're trying to sell something in Germany, it is obvious that your web page content should be in German. If you're website is aimed at people living in the UK, mention your full UK address in the footer so that search engines can associate that address with your website.
3. Check your server location
If the IP address of your server is based in France then Google can take this as an indicator that you're targeting the French market.
Getting high rankings in Google's local variations is easier if you follow the tips above. Note that your web pages still must be optimized for your keywords if you want to get high rankings.
In addition, Google only lists your web pages if you have good inbound links,
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