Posted by: Alexis Siemon
June 6, 2008
Issue #434

What’s More Important
Than Your Search Engine Ranking?

"A house may draw visitors,
but it is the possessor alone that can detain them."

Charles Caleb Colton

"Get Top 10 Rankings in Google or Your Money Back" read the subject line in my inbox Monday morning. It was a forward from a colleague, Jim - a marketing piece he’d received.

"Can you give Early to Rise a money-back guarantee on their Google rankings?" he joked in his e-mail.

I thought for a minute before replying. "No," I typed. "And I never will." Then I added, "Besides, rankings aren’t really what matters anyway."

Moments later, my phone rang. "What do you mean rankings don’t matter?" said Jim. "Isn’t that the whole point of SEO?""

"That’s a common misconception," I told him. "Think of it this way … It’s kind of like saying the whole point of e-mail marketing is blasting your message out. Isn’t the response what you’re really after?"

Jim’s not alone in his thinking. When measuring the success of a search engine optimization (SEO) effort or campaign, many people focus solely on rankings.

Your website’s search engine ranking refers to where your site’s listing appears on the search engine results page (SERP) for a particular keyword. For instance, if you performed a search on Google for one of your keywords and saw that your site was in the number four position on Google’s SERP, then your site would "rank" fourth for that keyword.

Yes, rankings are important for getting your website noticed for targeted keywords and search phrases. But that’s only the beginning. Many fly-by-night SEO agencies would have you believe the job is done once your site starts to appear in the search engine rankings. But, like any other direct-response marketing effort, there are many Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you should monitor to determine the success of your SEO campaign.

The first step toward measuring these KPIs is to get a great Web analytics tool to measure the traffic the search engines send to your site. There are several available in a wide range of prices and functionality: WebTrends, ClickTracks, Omniture’s Site Catalyst, Mint. Then, of course, there’s Google Analytics- possibly one of the best free tools available right now.

(more…)

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Posted by: Alexis Siemon
April 3, 2008
Issue #388

Rev Up Your Sales With
A Google AdWords Campaign

"When you can do the common things of life
in an uncommon way,
you will command the attention of the world."

– George Washington Carver

You’d been hearing all about how great Google AdWords is for driving traffic to a business’s website, and you were finally ready to get in on the action. So you set up your first online marketing campaign. But while you’re starting to see results, they just aren’t what you expected … and you’re not sure what to do next.

You did everything right. You created your campaign complete with your first Ad Group, the all-important element that holds your keywords and your text ads. You applied your budget. And you were ready to kick back and let the traffic roll in.

I mean, this is AdWords, right? The king of all pay-per-click (PPC) search programs! So … where’s all the traffic? Where’re all the sales? Is anyone out there? Is this thing on?

Don’t panic. The traffic is out there, and so are the sales. Google isn’t the king for nothing. Appease the king and he’ll share his gold. And I’m here to show you how to appease him. Apply the following techniques, and you’ll see a big boost in your AdWords results.

Let’s start by tweaking the most important element of your AdWords campaign.

Your Keywords

When you think of keywords, you probably think "More, more, more!" But have you ever considered less?

Many marketers just starting out in PPC advertising make the mistake of cramming all the keywords they can think of into one Ad Group. Many times, this results in an Ad Group that isn’t as targeted as it could be.

Let’s say you run a website that’s all about dogs. You may have a keyword list that includes terms like:

• Dog training
• Dog breeds
• Healthy dog food
• Best dog toys

By including all these keywords in one Ad Group, you dilute the focus of that Ad Group.

Sure, the words are all related to dogs. But a person searching for information on dog training is not necessarily the same person who is looking for places to buy healthy dog food.

But what if you created an Ad Group for each of these different keywords? Instead of one diluted Ad Group, you now have four extremely targeted Ad Groups. And now you can expand upon each of these topics and really drill down to the various terms people would use to search for "dog training" (how to train my dog, dog training tips, best dog training information) or "healthy dog food" (healthy dog food recipes, healthy dry dog food, healthy dog food brands).

The next step is to write targeted ad text for each of your new Ad Groups.

Your Ad Text

Now that you’re targeting potential customers interested in your valuable dog training tips, how do you encourage them to click through to your website? Why, with targeted and compelling ad text of course!

Easier said than done, I know. But there are several things you can do to stand out amongst your competitors and boost your click-through rate (CTR).

1. Use your keywords in your ad text - especially your headline. Keywords in your ad text that match what was searched show up as bold in your ad and boost your relevancy.
2. Offer something free or promote a sale. Everyone likes free stuff and bargains.
3. Use symbols or vary your punctuation where applicable. Odd punctuation can catch a searcher’s eye and make them click your ad over your competitors’.

Play with these techniques to find what works best. Test like crazy. And since you can write several versions of your text ads for each Ad Group, let Google rotate them and optimize the best ads for the best results.

Remember, relevancy is the most important factor in search engine marketing. Whatever you do, make sure your ad text speaks to the keywords you’re bidding on.

Once your new ads are pulling the clicks of your dreams, now you’d better convert them with …

Your Landing Pages

So your "dog training" keywords trigger your targeted "dog training" text ads, which drive visitors to your … home page? But your home page talks about dog training and different dog breeds and dog food and dog toys and … your visitors are overwhelmed and they leave.

If you make your visitors work too hard to find what they’re looking for, you’ll lose them.

Create unique landing pages specific to each Ad Group. The more relevant your landing pages are to your ad text, the better your conversions will be - whether they be sign-ups, leads, or sales.

Once visitors click on your "dog training" ad, they should arrive at a page that tells them all about your amazing dog training products and/or services. Want them to sign up for a monthly newsletter about dog training advice? Tell them what they’ll learn by subscribing.

Do the same for dog food. Do you sell an e-book about healthy dog food … or about the products that were involved in the wheat gluten scare? Focus your landing page solely on selling that e-book, and make it as relevant as possible to the keywords you’re bidding on and the ad text you’ve written.

Using these techniques to tweak your AdWords campaign will not only rev up your results, it will also boost your AdWords Quality Score, resulting in a lower cost per click (CPC). Lower CPC means more clicks for your money … which ultimately means more sales.

You can’t lose. So start testing now to make 2008 a great year for your online business!

Contributed by Alexis Siemon
Guest Contributor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE™

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