Understanding Google Adwords Quality Score
We get questions all the time on how to improve Pay Per Click PPC campaigns. One issue that comes up a lot is related to how Google ranks Adwords ads. What we find is that small businesses as well as large businesses do not understand that Google Adwords has it's own algorithm that is entirely separate from their organic search algorithm. It used to be that which ever advertiser bid the most on a keyword would have their ad show up the highest. This is no longer the case. Google has now gone...
Display Google Base Products in Google Adwords
Google introduced a new feature for Google Adwords advertisers this past week. The new feature allows advertisers to integrate their existing Google Base products into their current Adwords campaigns. By integrating your Google Base products into your Adwords account you will be able to gain additional exposure for your product listings. Once integrated you will see a expandable "Show products from COMPANY NAME" link right under the Adwords ad. Clicking this link displays three products with...
5 Great Google Adwords Tips for Saving Money
Running Google Adwords on a budget? We work with many small and local businesses that are battling the same issues as you. Therefore we've come up with some tips to lower your costs. Here are five Adwords tips to help you get more bang for your buck with Google Adwords. 1. Put your phone number in the Google ad, because some people are likely to call instead of clicking through. Having a strong call to action in your ads, such as 'call us now', will let customers know what to do next with...
Best Reputation Management Tips and Tools
Updated: Feb. 2015 When it comes to your image, or the image of your brand, reputation management is a phrase you need to know. The Internet is a very powerful and quick force. Negative comments on a blog, social media, or a forum can literally spread across the Internet in minutes and can result in a loss of business and profit. That’s where reputation management comes in. Monitoring what is said about you on the Internet and responding quickly, and with the right message, can reduce...
How do I increase traffic & sales on my website?
I hear this question How do I increase traffic & sales on my website? all the time, and the funny thing is most of the time its from clients who’s sales have doubled and even tripled over the past year. The answer to this question is simple but applying the principles is not quite as simple because it usually requires some work. To increase traffic & sales on websites, I like to use what I call the CLUB method which is: C = Content Content needs to be fresh, think of your website...
How To Launch A New Site
Shhh… Do you hear that? Yeah, me neither. If you want to avoid launch failure and the crickets, follow these easy steps to create a buzz about your newly launched site.
1 Check, Check, and Check Again
I can’t tell you how many internet users shy away from websites because of failed image loads, broken links, and/or internet browsers displaying the content wrong. It is so important to do a thorough check of your site to assure the functionality and display check in multiple...
Google Adwords Smart Positioning Beta
Today I noticed a new option in one of our clients Adwords accounts, Smart Positioning Beta. Google describes Smart Positioning as: Smart Positioning beta is a bidding feature based on an auction model that differs from the regular AdWords auction model. Here are a few benefits of using Smart Positioning: * It’s designed to get you more clicks for the same total cost. * It aims to place your ad in the most cost-effective position each time it’s displayed on Google and the search...
Reputation Management - Protect Your Company Online
It's time to consider online reputation management into your monthly marketing budget. If you have never thought about reputation management for your business according to Wikipedia it's "the process of tracking an entity’s actions and other entities’ opinions about those actions; reporting on those actions and opinions; and reacting to that report". With more and more user generated content online your company's reputation is under constant threat of attack be it from bloggers...
5 Keys to Planning Your 2008 Digital Marketing Strategy
As 2007 comes to an end and 2008 is just around the corner, now is the time to review just how far you and your business has come. Did you improve your website, adjust content, include conversion, develop tools that benefit your audience; are you getting more out of this 24 workhorse than you did a year ago? If the answer is no, you need to start looking making changes. And if the answer is yes, then you are most likely already planning changes for 2008. So Where Do You Start to Plan Your 2008...
Using Web Site Behavioral Clickstream Data As An Email Targeting Tactic
Using web analytics can help you better understand your customer’s needs and help you market to them more effectively. It has been found that emails generated from clickstream data saw a 9x improvement in revenue and 32x more in net profit versus undifferentiated broadcast emails The ROI of Email Relevance, Jupiter Research. Who has not completed a transaction? Use your web analytics to see which customers have abandon your shopping cart. After a few days send a reminder email...
Increase Web Site Traffic by Eliminating These 5 Web Site Mistakes
Web designers, programmers, IT specialist and business marketing departments are all involved in the development of wonderful, and functional web sites. However, few of these professionals are able to understand the ways to get your website to rank in search engines and how important that can be your website sales. If you want to increase website traffic, you need to see if your site makes any of these website mistakes and then take action to correct them. 1. Flash Home Page / Web Site Nothing...
Keeping Offline and Online Branding Consistent
Updated: Feb. 2015 The importance of having a consistent message should never be overlooked. Especially when it comes to your website. Recognition that carries over from print or traditional media to the Internet will greatly strengthen your branding and can result in brand recognition or perhaps the beginning of brand loyalty. If you are planning to update the your website design in the near future, here are some points to keep in mind to help ensure your message is clear and consistent: 1...
Online Marketing: Before or After Website Development?
It’s not altogether uncommon; a prospective client calls in and says, We just finished our website and now we are looking for a marketing firm to drive in new business via search engine traffic and media buys. The first thing we do is take a look at their newly designed website after asking for their domain name. Sometimes, no matter how hard it might be for the client to swallow, we have to say, "You have a beautiful website that showcases your product/service as a high-end prestigious...
Tracking Offline Media Buys
Updated: Feb. 2015 Your website analytics can be used for far more than just tracking the performance of your search engine optimization efforts. Media buys these days almost always have a website address as one, if not the only, path for conversion. Think about how many television spots, radio reads, magazine ads, direct mail pieces, or billboards feature prominently a website address as the next step for an interested party to take. When the people making these media buys are not working...
9 Years of Digital Marketing and Everything Continues to Change
When I started Search Engine Marketing in 1998, there were 10 to 20 key players, instant search engine updates, Google was in beta, GoTo a new pay per click search engine had penny bids, banner ads were overpriced, and black hat techniques of hidden text and tag manipulation were all the rage. Today there are 3 main players in the search engine world, content is king and offsite factors are a greater influence in your online success. How It Has Changed Web site promotion has grown from...