Thursday, September 6, 2007
Most people who spent money on Google AdWords and studied the traffic behavior carefully can tell you the same story.
1. Someone clicks on your ad 2-4 times within a few minutes period but not staying one single second on your site. They are mostly bored and have nothing better to do than clicking on ads.
2. Someone clicks on your ad just to leave your site immediately and never come back. Your site simply didn't match their expectations.
PPC campaigns usually attract less motivated visitors than organic listings so this is a common problem.
If you seek publicity and have a large budget this may be good and well but if you like most small businesses are on a shoestring budget you must deal with it properly.
How can you prevent these people from giving away your money to Google and Adsense sites?
The answer is to focus on relevancy and to select very specific keywords.
1. Make a thorough keyword research
Walk the extra mile when you do keyword research. Don't stop after a list of 5-50 keywords, create a list of hundreds or perhaps even thousands of keywords. There are many tools that easily can generate huge lists of relevant keywords so there is no good excuse for not doing it.
Don't throw away similar but irrelevant keyword phrases because you'll need them later. Just keep them in a separate list for now.
2. Select specific keyword phrases
If you only sell CANON DSLR cameras but your ad also pops up for CANON Video camera searches, you are not specific enough. Instead of using a few generic words you should create an extensive list with very specific keyword phrases that together covers all wanted variations of the parent keyword.
Each of the keywords might only generate a small stream of traffic but together they grow to a big river. Every now and then you will also uncover an underground waterfall generating lots of traffic almost for free.
3. Use negative keywords
Your ads for "high-end Widget services" should not pop up when a bargain hunter searches for "free Widget services".
Your list of similar but irrelevant keywords is now very useful. Use the list to identify keywords you don't want your ads to show up for. Google AdWords allows you to enter negative keywords to prevent your ads from popping up for the wrong search terms.
4. Use [exact] or "phrase" match
Using broad match will give you more clicks but also more unwanted clicks. You don't need broad match if you use the extensive and very specific list you created in step 2.
Check your log files and you can see that your ads shows up for some pretty weird and totally unrelated search terms if you use broad match. Always use exact or phrase match for the majority of your keywords. Only use broad match when the risk for "false" impressions is low.
5. Match the ad copy with the keywords in the Ad Group
Group similar keyword phrases into Ad Groups and create ad copy that closely match the keywords. This helps you to minimize unwanted clicks and increases the CTR as a positive side effect.
The number of page-views per visitor from a recent Google AdWords campaign increased with 22% by following the recommendations in this article. The reason is much less visits with only one page-view per visitor.
A side effect was 60% more clicks for the same budget. Thanks to the extensive keyword list it was possible to strip away the most expensive keywords and still get enough traffic from all the low cost keywords together. It took a few hours to generate the keyword list and it's now running on autopilot.
I recommend that you continuously test new actions on AdWords and closely follow up the result. Do split tests whenever possible to increase your confidence level in the tests. Because of the quick feedback loop and flexibility of AdWords it's so easy to scientifically test what works and what doesn't work. Use this to gain advantage over your competitors.
(c) Peter Bergdahl 2006, All Rights Reserved
Which is more import quantity or quality of links?
Using links as a way to get your position on the se increase is a positive thing. Many people ask the same question, though, is just but, links does it take to get my site to the first page? What is the threshold of the number of links? Link marketing is the use of links to expand traffic to your website as hence as to build up it could be that your position on the se. This goes together. If you want to increase your search engine rank, accomplish on it could be that your links.
But, how many to I need?
There is no real set integer. It's not having ten or twenty or having a 100. What we are talking about is having the right type of links coming to your internet site. For example, consider and understand both reciprocal links and the most sought after the best type of link is a one way link. One way links amplify traffic to your site without having the visitors click away with additional links on your website. Reciprocal links, when grouped correctly and applied in the correct way can help as well.
Beyond this, you will want to attempt with having good excellence links. The links will need to be in the same theme in some way to the webpage. This mean you will nee to find webmasters that offers similar, but not the same content as your site.
The number of links you need to allow pointing to your internet site, the perfect figure to go with is as much as you possibly can do. When getting them make sure they are of good quality, well researched links, not just a link that is not in the same theme. Make sure they provide for both reciprocal and one way links. Use them acceptably and it could be that your business really can benefit from them.
David Marc Fishman created linknetics to help people with websites create and manage their link marketing portfolio using one way links and reciprocal link exchange
4 Steps to Improve Your Search Engine Marketing Strategy
Search engine marketing can be a complex and scary topic. Endless opportunities to advertise and market, constantly changing trends and technologies, and overly complex solutions all come with the territory. So, what you don't need when you're evaluating or creating your search engine marketing strategy is lengthy explanations about how different techniques work. Instead, seek out advisors who can guide you with simple explanations and techniques based on real results. That's exactly what the following article is about. It's a simple list of four things business owners can use in creating or evaluating their search engine marketing strategy.
1. Establish Your Internet Marketing Strategy Goal
Many consultants will tell you to set goals about what you want to achieve with your website. Forget it. Those are distractions from the real question you need to ask yourself, which is
"What is THE purpose of my website?"
Once you answer that question, all other aspects of search engine marketing strategy can be leveraged to help you achieve that purpose. Typically, people use their website for many different purposes. Regardless, you still need to answer this question. The focus you will get from it will help you create a more effective strategy.
Here are the top three most common answers to the question "What is THE purpose of my website?"
1. To sell things
2. To generate leads for my sales team
3. To educate my target audience
It can be this simple! Just decide which of the three answers above suits you best (or create your own) and then move on to step 2.
2. Establish a Search Engine Marketing Plan
There's a reason why search engine marketing is so hot. It works. It consistent generates leads, sales, etc. at a lower cost-per-lead or cost-per-sale than traditional mediums like TV or direct mail advertising. It makes sense when you think about it: when people want to find something online, they go to Google, Yahoo!, MSN, etc. and search for it.
Search engine marketing is all about SHOWING UP when people search for what you sell, offer, or have on your website. There is a growing body of knowledge (books, articles, etc.) on how to do this. And like anything else, it has become over analyzed and too complex. To further complicate things, some search engine marketing techniques are ethical and legitimate, while some are not. The best approach is to create a search engine marketing plan that focuses on two aspects:
1. Search engine optimization - showing up in the "free" area of the search engine's results
2. Pay-per click advertising - showing up in the "paid" area of the search engine's results
For search engine optimization, first realize there is no "silver bullet." There just isn't a way to easily get ranked consistently high in the search engines. It is a combination of factors that always come down to one underlying truth: build your website according to web standards, with a focus on accessibility for all.
Just like search engine optimization, there is no "silver bullet" for pay-per click advertising, either. Instead, the formula for PPC success is in well-placed bids (what you will pay to have your ad show up) combined with meaningful landing pages (where people go when they click on your ad).
3. Conduct Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The goal of search engine optimization is to make changes to your website to get higher rankings in search engines. Yet, search engine optimization is a confusing sector. On one hand, there are "snake oil salesmen" ready to get you a number 1 ranking with their latest trick. On the other hand, the things that actually do work are very simple, and frankly, just not very "sexy."
The best strategy to take is a common-sense approach to SEO: develop standards for your website that ALL pages must adhere to. If you do this, and enforce it, you can then branch out to some of the other "niche" aspects of SEO.
Here's a sample list of SEO standards to enforce on your website:
1. Write descriptive HTML page titles that really describe the page it is on (in 255 characters or less)
2. Write a summary sentence that really describes the page it is on (in 255 characters or less)
3. Write page content that is focused on
4. Write descriptive ALT text for all images that describes the concept the image illustrates and never use images for text
5. Build all pages to comply with current web standards observed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
Only once your web pages comply with the above standards should you start more advanced SEO techniques, including keyword targeting, 301 redirects, link building (getting more links to your site), RSS news feeds, blogs, and SEO-specific metrics and tracking.
4. Leverage Pay-Per Click Advertising
Pay-per click advertising helps you get more traffic from search engines through advertising in search engine results. You pick terms that people search on. You bid a price per click on your ad that you are willing to pay. You ad shows up when someone searches on that term, and, if you're lucky, they click on your ad and come to your website.
So, pay-per click advertising really boils down to 3 components:
1. Picking keywords to advertise on (i.e. target keywords)
2. Determining what to bid for those target keywords
3. Writing copy for the ads that show up when people search
Picking keywords is all about knowing what terms your customers, clients, etc. would use when searching for your product or service. There are several tools to help you generate ideas. The best tools also check to see how many searches-per-month your target keywords receive. You typically want to find keywords that generate a lot of searches every month, but are focused enough for your business. For example, a company that sells Keen high-performance outdoor sandals probably would be best served bidding on "keen sandals" versus "sandals" which could include searches for the all-inclusive resort, Sandals.
Determining what to bid for your keywords can be a highly-scientific process, sometimes managed by complex software and several key metrics. To keep it simple, let a tool like Google Adwords Traffic Estimator recommend to you what to bid at first. Start there, and start small. Your best bet is to lock-in a low daily budget limit until you are comfortable with the impressions your ads are getting, the flow of traffic from the ads to your website, and what those people do once they get to your website.
Writing ad copy comes down to writing a headline that people will click on, and creating compelling copy below that headline/link that will get people to click.
Headlines are best created by following what magazine covers do: focus on getting attention through eye-catching, short phrases. Using words like best (i.e. "Best Tips for a Summer Barbeque"), ultimate (i.e. "Ultimate National Park Vacations") and number-based lists (i.e. "Top 5 Hybrid Cars for 2006″) have all been proven to work.
Writing effective ad copy below the title/link is really about reinforcing the term(s) search for. This means using the keywords in the ad copy, and starting the copy with an action verb.
By following the approach above, you can create or evaluate your search engine marketing strategy, focus on what matters most when executing your plans, and more effectively achieve your goals.
This article is published at the Blog of InnovateMedia.Com. This is part of InnovateMedia under heading of Local Internet Marketing.To get more information on Local Internet Marketing visit http://www.innovatemedia.com
