Advertising your services or products on the Internet is
both extremely effective and extremely competitive. There
are several ways to go about attracting traffic to your
website; Pay-Per-Click is one of the options you can choose
from, along with developing an SEO, or search engine
optimization campaign. Both pay-per-click and SEO are
targeted to get your website placed as close to the top of
search engine results as possible. One of the differences
is that it takes minutes to set up a pay-per-click campaign
versus months for a good SEO campaign.
Pay-Per-Click is a simple type of paid advertising that
most search engines, including some of the largest ones,
now offer. It requires a bid for a "per-click" basis, which
translates to your company paying the bid amount every time
the search engine directs a visitor to your site. There is
the added bonus that when a per-click site sends your
website traffic, your site often appears in the results of
other prevalent search engines.
As with all marketing campaigns, there are advantages and
disadvantages. If you understand the process and monitor
your pay-per-click campaign frequently, it can be very
effective. One of the greatest advantages is that you never
have to tweak your web pages to change your position in
search engine results, as you must do in a typical SEO
campaign. What you do have to do in a pay-per-click
campaign is pay a fee.
Another advantage is the simplicity of the pay-per-click
process. You just bid and you're up and running. It doesn't
demand any specific technical knowledge, though the more
you know about search engines and keywords, the easier -
and more effective - the process will be.
The downside is that pay-per-click is essentially a bidding
war. A higher bid than yours will lower your position on
search engine results. This means that you will have to
raise your bid to regain your position - which can
obviously become quite expensive, especially if you are
bidding on a popular keyword.
In order to determine if pay-per-click is a cost effective
form of marketing for your business, you must do some
computing to figure out how much each visitor to your site
is worth. You can compute this value by dividing the profit
you make on your website over a given period of time by the
total number of visitors for that same time period. For
example, if your site made $5,000 in profits and there were
2,5000 hids, each visitor would be theoretically worth 50
cents. The basic formula is profits divided by visitors.
The figure of 50 cents per visitor is the point at which
your business breaks even. The idea, of course, is to show
a profit, not to merely cover your costs. Therefore, you
are aiming at a figure less than 50 cents per click.
Be aware that the most popular keywords often cost
considerably more than 50 cents a click. The only way
around this is to bid less for these phrases or you will be
paying too much for each individual hit.
The key (pun intended) to success is to learn everything
you can about search engine keyword research. The good news
is there isn't a limit to the amount of keywords you can
add to your bid because additional keywords do not add
additional cost. This translates into a lot less hassle for
you because there is no need to optimize your site to index
a particular set of keywords.
Obviously, some keywords are much more effective than
others are, but they will not cost you anything except time
to set-up your account in your pay-per-click bid. Of the
popular search engines that offer pay-per-click, one called
Overture provides an online tool that will give you the
data on how often particular keywords are entered into
their search engine. They also offer suggestions for
keywords after you enter a description of your site.
In pay-per-click, this written description is crucial. You
must understand that the object of your description is not
to generally attract visitors, but to be as specific as
possible so that only those visitors who are likely to buy
your service or product go to your site. You must use
expert marketing copy to guarantee that your description is
both precise and enticing to attract the most ideal
candidates to your site. This description is your most
powerful tool to insure that your bid is profitable.
Another essential element of pay-per-click advertising is
that you constantly monitor your bid. It is very important
that you bear in mind that the results of the top search
engines providing pay-per-click advertising, which are
Overture and Adwords Select, usually appear on other
popular search engines. Because of this, the competition
for top ranking is intense, and very often you will find
that the bidding price balloons too high for pay-per-click
to yield a profit.
If this happens, it is advisable to withdraw your bid on
that particular keyword and try another one. Remember: when
you pay too much per click to make a profit, you are in
essence losing the bidding war.
Since losing is not acceptable, you must have a plan in
place to closely track the effectiveness of your keyword.
It is advisable to monitor your keywords on at least a
monthly basis.
Not only is careful monitoring important, but the analysis
of visitor behavior can produce invaluable knowledge about
consumer motivation, habits, and trends. Expert monitoring
and consumer analysis is essential to your overall business
needs, and will also insure that your pay-per-click
campaign is a success.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
INCREASING YOUR SEARCH ENGINE RANKING
The methods employed to increase your search enginerankings may seem like rocket science to you, so you haveprobably avoided dealing with this issue. I am here to tellyou - the time has come to face your website! A high searchengine ranking for your website is so essential that if youhave the slightest desire to actually succeed in yourbusiness, there is no way you can continue to avoid this issue.
At least 85% of people looking for goods and services onthe Internet find websites through search engines such asGoogle, Yahoo, and MSN. The idea of optimizing your pagesfor high search engine rankings is to attract targetedcustomers to your site who will be more than likely to makea purchase. The higher your page comes up in search engineresults, the greater the traffic that is directed to yourwebsite. That's what search engine optimization is about.
You can immerse yourself in all the technical informationavailable online to figure out how to optimize your webpages to achieve higher rankings. Or you can look at a fewsimple items on your pages, make some small adjustments,and most likely see improved rankings quite rapidly. Thefirst item you should examine is the title bar on yourhomepage.
The title bar is the colored bar at the top of the page.Look at the words that appear there when you access yourhome page. To increase search engine rankings, the words onyour homepage's title bar should include the most importantkeywords or phrases, one of which would include yourcompany name.
Then click on all your links and examine the title bars onthe pages you access. Each title bar on every single pageof your site should contain the most important keywords andphrases taken from the page itself. However, avoid verylong strings of keywords, keeping them to six words orless. Avoid repeating keywords more than once in the titlebars, and make sure that identical words are not next toeach other.
The next item to put under your microscope is your websitecontent. Search engines generally list sites that containquality content rather than scintillating graphics. Thetext on your site must contain the most important keywords- the words that potential customers will be typing intosearch engines to find your site.
Aim to have around 250 words on each page, but if this isnot desirable due to your design, aim for at least 100carefully chosen words. If you want to achieve a highranking on search engines, this text is essential. However,the search engines must be able to read the text, meaningthat the text must be in HTML and not graphic format.
To find out if your text is in HTML format, take yourcursor and try to highlight a word or two. If you are ableto do this, the text is HTML. If the text will nothighlight, it is probably in graphic form. In this case,ask your webmaster to change the text into HTML format inorder to increase your search engine rankings.
Next we come to what is called meta tags. I know thissounds like something out of science fiction, but it isreally just simple code. Many people believe that meta tagsare the key to high search engine rankings, but in reality,they only have a limited effect. Still, it's worth addingthem in the event that a search engine will use meta tagsin their ranking formula.
To find out if your page is set up with meta tags, you mustaccess the code. To do this, click the "view" button on thebrowser menu bar, and select "source." This will pull up awindow revealing the underlying code that created the page.If there are meta tags, they usually appear near the top ofthe window. For example, a meta tag would read: metaname="keywords" content=. If you do not find code thatreads like this, ask your webmaster to put them in. Thismay not do much for your search engine rankings, but anylittle boost helps.
Lastly, we come to the issue of link popularity. This is afactor that is extremely important in terms of searchengine rankings. Almost all search engines use linkpopularity to rank your website. Link popularity is basedon the quality of the sites you have linked to from yourlinks page.
If you type in "free link popularity check" in a popularsearch engine, the search engine will then show you whatsites are linked to your site. In the case that therearen't many sites linked up to yours, or that the sitesthat are linked up have low search engine rankings,consider launching a link popularity campaign. Essentially,this entails contacting quality sites and requesting thatthey exchange links with your site. Of course, thisrequires checking out the rankings of the websites you wantto link up with. Linking to popular, quality sites not onlyboosts your search engine ranking, but it also directs morequality traffic to your website.
Search engine rankings are extremely important for asuccessful Internet marketing campaign. Before you go outand hire a search engine optimization company, try takingsome of the simple steps listed above, and see if you can'tboost your rankings yourself. Don't ever ignore thisall-important factor in Internet marketing. Remember, thehigher your search engine ranking, the more qualitycustomers will be directed your way.
God bless you!
At least 85% of people looking for goods and services onthe Internet find websites through search engines such asGoogle, Yahoo, and MSN. The idea of optimizing your pagesfor high search engine rankings is to attract targetedcustomers to your site who will be more than likely to makea purchase. The higher your page comes up in search engineresults, the greater the traffic that is directed to yourwebsite. That's what search engine optimization is about.
You can immerse yourself in all the technical informationavailable online to figure out how to optimize your webpages to achieve higher rankings. Or you can look at a fewsimple items on your pages, make some small adjustments,and most likely see improved rankings quite rapidly. Thefirst item you should examine is the title bar on yourhomepage.
The title bar is the colored bar at the top of the page.Look at the words that appear there when you access yourhome page. To increase search engine rankings, the words onyour homepage's title bar should include the most importantkeywords or phrases, one of which would include yourcompany name.
Then click on all your links and examine the title bars onthe pages you access. Each title bar on every single pageof your site should contain the most important keywords andphrases taken from the page itself. However, avoid verylong strings of keywords, keeping them to six words orless. Avoid repeating keywords more than once in the titlebars, and make sure that identical words are not next toeach other.
The next item to put under your microscope is your websitecontent. Search engines generally list sites that containquality content rather than scintillating graphics. Thetext on your site must contain the most important keywords- the words that potential customers will be typing intosearch engines to find your site.
Aim to have around 250 words on each page, but if this isnot desirable due to your design, aim for at least 100carefully chosen words. If you want to achieve a highranking on search engines, this text is essential. However,the search engines must be able to read the text, meaningthat the text must be in HTML and not graphic format.
To find out if your text is in HTML format, take yourcursor and try to highlight a word or two. If you are ableto do this, the text is HTML. If the text will nothighlight, it is probably in graphic form. In this case,ask your webmaster to change the text into HTML format inorder to increase your search engine rankings.
Next we come to what is called meta tags. I know thissounds like something out of science fiction, but it isreally just simple code. Many people believe that meta tagsare the key to high search engine rankings, but in reality,they only have a limited effect. Still, it's worth addingthem in the event that a search engine will use meta tagsin their ranking formula.
To find out if your page is set up with meta tags, you mustaccess the code. To do this, click the "view" button on thebrowser menu bar, and select "source." This will pull up awindow revealing the underlying code that created the page.If there are meta tags, they usually appear near the top ofthe window. For example, a meta tag would read: metaname="keywords" content=. If you do not find code thatreads like this, ask your webmaster to put them in. Thismay not do much for your search engine rankings, but anylittle boost helps.
Lastly, we come to the issue of link popularity. This is afactor that is extremely important in terms of searchengine rankings. Almost all search engines use linkpopularity to rank your website. Link popularity is basedon the quality of the sites you have linked to from yourlinks page.
If you type in "free link popularity check" in a popularsearch engine, the search engine will then show you whatsites are linked to your site. In the case that therearen't many sites linked up to yours, or that the sitesthat are linked up have low search engine rankings,consider launching a link popularity campaign. Essentially,this entails contacting quality sites and requesting thatthey exchange links with your site. Of course, thisrequires checking out the rankings of the websites you wantto link up with. Linking to popular, quality sites not onlyboosts your search engine ranking, but it also directs morequality traffic to your website.
Search engine rankings are extremely important for asuccessful Internet marketing campaign. Before you go outand hire a search engine optimization company, try takingsome of the simple steps listed above, and see if you can'tboost your rankings yourself. Don't ever ignore thisall-important factor in Internet marketing. Remember, thehigher your search engine ranking, the more qualitycustomers will be directed your way.
God bless you!
Sunday, February 26, 2006
SEARCH ENGINE KEYWORDS SELECTION
Search engines are the vehicles that drive potential
customers to your websites. But in order for visitors to
reach their destination - your website - you need to
provide them with specific and effective signs that will
direct them right to your site. You do this by creating
carefully chosen keywords.
Think of the right keywords as the Open Sesame! of the
Internet. Find the exactly right words or phrases, and
presto! hoards of traffic will be pulling up to your front
door. But if your keywords are too general or too
over-used, the possibility of visitors actually making it
all the way to your site - or of seeing any real profits
from the visitors that do arrive - decreases dramatically.
Your keywords serve as the foundation of your marketing
strategy. If they are not chosen with great precision, no
matter how aggressive your marketing campaign may be, the
right people may never get the chance to find out about it.
So your first step in plotting your strategy is to gather
and evaluate keywords and phrases.
You probably think you already know EXACTLY the right words
for your search phrases. Unfortunately, if you haven't
followed certain specific steps, you are probably WRONG.
It's hard to be objective when you are right in the center
of your business network, which is the reason that you may
not be able to choose the most efficient keywords from the
inside. You need to be able to think like your customers.
And since you are a business owner and not the consumer,
your best bet is to go directly to the source.
Instead of plunging in and scribbling down a list of
potential search words and phrases yourself, ask for words
from as many potential customers as you can. You will most
likely find out that your understanding of your business
and your customers' understanding is significantly
different.
The consumer is an invaluable resource. You will find the
words you accumulate from them are words and phrases you
probably never would have considered from deep inside the
trenches of your business.
Only after you have gathered as many words and phrases from
outside resources should you add your own keyword to the
list. Once you have this list in hand, you are ready for
the next step: evaluation.
The aim of evaluation is to narrow down your list to a
small number of words and phrases that will direct the
highest number of quality visitors to your website. By
"quality visitors" I mean those consumers who are most
likely to make a purchase rather than just cruise around
your site and take off for greener pastures. In evaluating
the effectiveness of keywords, bear in mind three elements:
popularity, specificity, and motivation.
Popularity is the easiest to evaluate because it is an
objective quality. The more popular your keyword is, the
more likely the chances are that it will be typed into a
search engine which will then bring up your URL.
You can now purchase software that will rate the popularity
of keywords and phrases by giving words a number rating
based on real search engine activity. Software such as
WordTracker will even suggest variations of your words and
phrases. The higher the number this software assigns to a
given keyword, the more traffic you can logically expect to
be directed to your site. The only fallacy with this
concept is the more popular the keyword is, the greater the
search engine position you will need to obtain. If you are
down at the bottom of the search results, the consumer will
probably never scroll down to find you.
Popularity isn't enough to declare a keyword a good choice.
You must move on to the next criteria, which is
specificity. The more specific your keyword is, the greater
the likelihood that the consumer who is ready to purchase
your goods or services will find you.
Let's look at a hypothetical example. Imagine that you have
obtained popularity rankings for the keyword "automobile
companies." However, you company specializes in bodywork
only. The keyword "automobile body shops" would rank lower
on the popularity scale than "automobile companies," but it
would nevertheless serve you much better. Instead of
getting a slew of people interested in everything from
buying a car to changing their oil filters, you will get
only those consumers with trashed front ends or crumpled
fenders being directed to your site. In other words,
consumers ready to buy your services are the ones who will
immediately find you. Not only that, but the greater the
specificity of your keyword is, the less competition you
will face.
The third factor is consumer motivation. Once again, this
requires putting yourself inside the mind of the customer
rather than the seller to figure out what motivation
prompts a person looking for a service or product to type
in a particular word or phrase. Let's look at another
example, such as a consumer who is searching for a job as
an IT manager in a new city. If you have to choose between
"Seattle job listings" and "Seattle IT recruiters" which do
you think will benefit the consumer more? If you were
looking for this type of specific job, which keyword would
you type in? The second one, of course! Using the second
keyword targets people who have decided on their career,
have the necessary experience, and are ready to enlist you
as their recruiter, rather than someone just out of school
who is casually trying to figure out what to do with his or
her life in between beer parties. You want to find people
who are ready to act or make a purchase, and this requires
subtle tinkering of your keywords until your find the most
specific and directly targeted phrases to bring the most
motivated traffic to you site.
Once you have chosen your keywords, your work is not done.
You must continually evaluate performance across a variety
of search engines, bearing in mind that times and trends
change, as does popular lingo. You cannot rely on your log
traffic analysis alone because it will not tell you how
many of your visitors actually made a purchase.
Luckily, some new tools have been invented to help you
judge the effectiveness of your keywords in individual
search engines. There is now software available that
analyzes consumer behavior in relation to consumer traffic.
This allows you to discern which keywords are bringing you
the most valuable customers.
This is an essential concept: numbers alone do not make a
good keyword; profits per visitor do. You need to find
keywords that direct consumers to your site who actually
buy your product, fill out your forms, or download your
product. This is the most important factor in evaluating
the efficacy of a keyword or phrase, and should be the
sword you wield when discarding and replacing ineffective
or inefficient keywords with keywords that bring in better
profits.
Ongoing analysis of tested keywords is the formula for
search engine success. This may sound like a lot of work -
and it is! But the amount of informed effort you put into
your keyword campaign is what will ultimately generate your
business' rewards.
customers to your websites. But in order for visitors to
reach their destination - your website - you need to
provide them with specific and effective signs that will
direct them right to your site. You do this by creating
carefully chosen keywords.
Think of the right keywords as the Open Sesame! of the
Internet. Find the exactly right words or phrases, and
presto! hoards of traffic will be pulling up to your front
door. But if your keywords are too general or too
over-used, the possibility of visitors actually making it
all the way to your site - or of seeing any real profits
from the visitors that do arrive - decreases dramatically.
Your keywords serve as the foundation of your marketing
strategy. If they are not chosen with great precision, no
matter how aggressive your marketing campaign may be, the
right people may never get the chance to find out about it.
So your first step in plotting your strategy is to gather
and evaluate keywords and phrases.
You probably think you already know EXACTLY the right words
for your search phrases. Unfortunately, if you haven't
followed certain specific steps, you are probably WRONG.
It's hard to be objective when you are right in the center
of your business network, which is the reason that you may
not be able to choose the most efficient keywords from the
inside. You need to be able to think like your customers.
And since you are a business owner and not the consumer,
your best bet is to go directly to the source.
Instead of plunging in and scribbling down a list of
potential search words and phrases yourself, ask for words
from as many potential customers as you can. You will most
likely find out that your understanding of your business
and your customers' understanding is significantly
different.
The consumer is an invaluable resource. You will find the
words you accumulate from them are words and phrases you
probably never would have considered from deep inside the
trenches of your business.
Only after you have gathered as many words and phrases from
outside resources should you add your own keyword to the
list. Once you have this list in hand, you are ready for
the next step: evaluation.
The aim of evaluation is to narrow down your list to a
small number of words and phrases that will direct the
highest number of quality visitors to your website. By
"quality visitors" I mean those consumers who are most
likely to make a purchase rather than just cruise around
your site and take off for greener pastures. In evaluating
the effectiveness of keywords, bear in mind three elements:
popularity, specificity, and motivation.
Popularity is the easiest to evaluate because it is an
objective quality. The more popular your keyword is, the
more likely the chances are that it will be typed into a
search engine which will then bring up your URL.
You can now purchase software that will rate the popularity
of keywords and phrases by giving words a number rating
based on real search engine activity. Software such as
WordTracker will even suggest variations of your words and
phrases. The higher the number this software assigns to a
given keyword, the more traffic you can logically expect to
be directed to your site. The only fallacy with this
concept is the more popular the keyword is, the greater the
search engine position you will need to obtain. If you are
down at the bottom of the search results, the consumer will
probably never scroll down to find you.
Popularity isn't enough to declare a keyword a good choice.
You must move on to the next criteria, which is
specificity. The more specific your keyword is, the greater
the likelihood that the consumer who is ready to purchase
your goods or services will find you.
Let's look at a hypothetical example. Imagine that you have
obtained popularity rankings for the keyword "automobile
companies." However, you company specializes in bodywork
only. The keyword "automobile body shops" would rank lower
on the popularity scale than "automobile companies," but it
would nevertheless serve you much better. Instead of
getting a slew of people interested in everything from
buying a car to changing their oil filters, you will get
only those consumers with trashed front ends or crumpled
fenders being directed to your site. In other words,
consumers ready to buy your services are the ones who will
immediately find you. Not only that, but the greater the
specificity of your keyword is, the less competition you
will face.
The third factor is consumer motivation. Once again, this
requires putting yourself inside the mind of the customer
rather than the seller to figure out what motivation
prompts a person looking for a service or product to type
in a particular word or phrase. Let's look at another
example, such as a consumer who is searching for a job as
an IT manager in a new city. If you have to choose between
"Seattle job listings" and "Seattle IT recruiters" which do
you think will benefit the consumer more? If you were
looking for this type of specific job, which keyword would
you type in? The second one, of course! Using the second
keyword targets people who have decided on their career,
have the necessary experience, and are ready to enlist you
as their recruiter, rather than someone just out of school
who is casually trying to figure out what to do with his or
her life in between beer parties. You want to find people
who are ready to act or make a purchase, and this requires
subtle tinkering of your keywords until your find the most
specific and directly targeted phrases to bring the most
motivated traffic to you site.
Once you have chosen your keywords, your work is not done.
You must continually evaluate performance across a variety
of search engines, bearing in mind that times and trends
change, as does popular lingo. You cannot rely on your log
traffic analysis alone because it will not tell you how
many of your visitors actually made a purchase.
Luckily, some new tools have been invented to help you
judge the effectiveness of your keywords in individual
search engines. There is now software available that
analyzes consumer behavior in relation to consumer traffic.
This allows you to discern which keywords are bringing you
the most valuable customers.
This is an essential concept: numbers alone do not make a
good keyword; profits per visitor do. You need to find
keywords that direct consumers to your site who actually
buy your product, fill out your forms, or download your
product. This is the most important factor in evaluating
the efficacy of a keyword or phrase, and should be the
sword you wield when discarding and replacing ineffective
or inefficient keywords with keywords that bring in better
profits.
Ongoing analysis of tested keywords is the formula for
search engine success. This may sound like a lot of work -
and it is! But the amount of informed effort you put into
your keyword campaign is what will ultimately generate your
business' rewards.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
SELECTING A SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION COMPANY
A Search Engine Optimization Company can be an invaluableasset in your Internet marketing campaign. They specializein knowing how to raise your search engine positions,monitoring those positions on the regular basis, andadjusting their strategies to account for undesirableresults in any given month. Since this takes a lot of time,effort, and specialized knowledge, it can be in your bestinterest to go to an outside source rather than try tomaintain high search engine positions on your own.
However, like every business, there are good companies andthere are lemons. Knowing the right questions to ask andthe criteria to look for will help you in choosing anaffordable, effective search engine optimization company.
When looking at different companies, begin by consideringthe approach they employ to raise your search enginepositions. Steer clear of companies that use cloaked,doorway, or bridge pages to raise your positions. Thesetechniques violate most search engine policy, and in theworst case scenario, will only get your website severelypenalized, if not removed entirely from a search engine'sindex.
A cloaked page is a page that is created which is invisibleto the regular visitor to your website. The cloaked page iscoded to detect a search engine spider and divert them tothis special page, which is set-up to artificially boostyour search engine position. Doorway or bridge pagesutilize the same concept, but often reside on an entirelydifferent server. Google, one of the largest and mostimportant search engine on the Internet, will remove yourwebsite from their index if they detect you have cloakedpages. Never, never employ any company that uses thistechnique!
Another important element is to get a guarantee that thecompany you hire will not work with your competitors whilethey are working for you. Obviously, this would seriouslycompromise the effectiveness of the search engineoptimization campaign. Be aware that some companies willuse the success they achieve for your website to sell theirservices to your competitors. So get your guarantee inwriting, and make sure it is legally binding.
Of course, one of the most important factors you want tocheck out is the company's track record of results.However, don't take the company's word for it. They willundoubtedly be slanting their results in order to selltheir services to you. To go beyond their simple statementof success, ask them a few pertinent questions, and verifytheir answers.
Ask them which engines they have achieved the best resultson. The ones that are important are the most popularengines, and these are the ones you want to see goodresults on. Since the popularity of search engines canchange with the landscape of the overall Internet, checkout the Nielsen Netratings page at Search Engine Watch. Youcan access this at http://www.searchenginewatch.com/article.php/2156451.
Next, find out what keywords and phrases they are claiminggreat results with. It's easy to get high rankings withunpopular words. For instance, the keyword "cat leashes"will get high popularity ranking because no one else wouldthink of using it. What you are looking for is good resultsusing popular keywords. Check out the software Wordtracker,available at www.wordtracker.com. You can order a freetrial, or a subscription ranging from 1 day to 1 year. Thissoftware rates the popularity of keywords and phrases basedon actual search engine use.
Next, look for good results over an entire site that thecompany claims to have successfully worked for. You want tosee a wide range of positions over a number of differentsearch engines using different keywords or phrases for theentire site. Request a report for any client the companyclaims to have done well for. This report should show goodpositions on a number of the most popular search enginesfor a variety of different, popular keywords and phrases.
When you are checking out search engine optimizationcompanies, make sure they have actually done the work theyare claiming to have done. Some companies will use othercompany's results in order to get you to sign on with them.If you are in doubt, call the company they are showing youresults for, and ask for the name of their search engineoptimization company.
It's important to keep in mind that a successful searchengine optimization campaign will result in maximumexposure across a wide range of popular search enginesusing a variety of keywords and phrases. This is theformula for a successful campaign, and you should keep italways in the forefront of your marketing strategy.
Ask the search engine optimization company you areconsidering for a report that shows you rankings across anumber of popular search engines for a period of at leastsix months. Remember: search engine marketing is a processthat is continual, and you need a company that not onlyunderstands this, but keeps constant tabs on your searchengine positions. That company must also be able to adjustits strategy in the event that search engine rankings drop.
Since search engine marketing is an on-going process, yourpositions must be constantly monitored. If you want yoursearch engine optimization company to do this for you,request a sample of a monthly report. It is essential thatthis report should show rankings for the most popularsearch engines. Don't be impressed by a report that onlyshows great results for a limited number of small searchengines. These are fairly easy results to acquire. Alsoconfirm that the popular search engine results they areshowing you are indeed the popular search enginescurrently.
Be sure the sample report the company shows you is in aformat that you can easily understand. For example, itcould be in the form of a chart that covers a period of atleast six months and presents data such as the top 50positions broken down on a monthly basis or the top 5 pageseach month. Then, ascertain that the company you areconsidering actually monitors these positions or pagesevery month, and that the sample report they show youincludes findings and recommendations for the specificsite. This insures that the company will actively monitorand make adjustments to their strategy on a continual basisrather than simply gather statistics on your positions. Youneed a company that is actively participant in your searchengine marketing campaign, not just an informationgatherer.
Obviously, your finances have to figure into your choice ofcompany, but bear in mind that a search engine optimizationcompany is crucial the success of your marketing campaign.It is not just a casual accessory. If you cannot afford acompany that will do a thorough and reliable job for yourwebsite, you might consider waiting until you do have thefinances in place.
If you have to find a company and can't wait for yourfinances to catch up, you may be able to find an affordablecompany that will also be able to supply quality, reliablework, such as a fairly new company. Just remember thatthere are risks involved with using a company without aproven track record - and that risk is your money! Don'ttake that leap unless the company can supply you with aleast a few references.
References are the most reliable indicator of a goodcompany. Don't use a company that won't show yourreferences because of any reason, confidentiality included.Remember - even doctors will provide references! The firmyou choose should provide you with a minimum of tworeferences, one that is from the past, and one that iscurrent.
When you contact these references, be prepared to askprecise, specific questions so that neither of your time iswasted. Ask them what their experience was like with thecompany, such as their availability to answer questions anddeal with problems and their ability to meet deadlines. Askthe reference to rate the overall performance of thecompany.
Find out if the company requested that the reference makesignificant changes to their web pages that affected thevisitors coming to their site. You are looking for a searchengine optimization company that can balance the needs ofboth search engines and site visitors without compromisingeither.
The most essential question to ask is whether the work ofthe search engine optimization company resulted in higherprofits for the reference. Without profits, it doesn'tmatter whether your positions are at the top of the list ornot.
However, like every business, there are good companies andthere are lemons. Knowing the right questions to ask andthe criteria to look for will help you in choosing anaffordable, effective search engine optimization company.
When looking at different companies, begin by consideringthe approach they employ to raise your search enginepositions. Steer clear of companies that use cloaked,doorway, or bridge pages to raise your positions. Thesetechniques violate most search engine policy, and in theworst case scenario, will only get your website severelypenalized, if not removed entirely from a search engine'sindex.
A cloaked page is a page that is created which is invisibleto the regular visitor to your website. The cloaked page iscoded to detect a search engine spider and divert them tothis special page, which is set-up to artificially boostyour search engine position. Doorway or bridge pagesutilize the same concept, but often reside on an entirelydifferent server. Google, one of the largest and mostimportant search engine on the Internet, will remove yourwebsite from their index if they detect you have cloakedpages. Never, never employ any company that uses thistechnique!
Another important element is to get a guarantee that thecompany you hire will not work with your competitors whilethey are working for you. Obviously, this would seriouslycompromise the effectiveness of the search engineoptimization campaign. Be aware that some companies willuse the success they achieve for your website to sell theirservices to your competitors. So get your guarantee inwriting, and make sure it is legally binding.
Of course, one of the most important factors you want tocheck out is the company's track record of results.However, don't take the company's word for it. They willundoubtedly be slanting their results in order to selltheir services to you. To go beyond their simple statementof success, ask them a few pertinent questions, and verifytheir answers.
Ask them which engines they have achieved the best resultson. The ones that are important are the most popularengines, and these are the ones you want to see goodresults on. Since the popularity of search engines canchange with the landscape of the overall Internet, checkout the Nielsen Netratings page at Search Engine Watch. Youcan access this at http://www.searchenginewatch.com/article.php/2156451.
Next, find out what keywords and phrases they are claiminggreat results with. It's easy to get high rankings withunpopular words. For instance, the keyword "cat leashes"will get high popularity ranking because no one else wouldthink of using it. What you are looking for is good resultsusing popular keywords. Check out the software Wordtracker,available at www.wordtracker.com. You can order a freetrial, or a subscription ranging from 1 day to 1 year. Thissoftware rates the popularity of keywords and phrases basedon actual search engine use.
Next, look for good results over an entire site that thecompany claims to have successfully worked for. You want tosee a wide range of positions over a number of differentsearch engines using different keywords or phrases for theentire site. Request a report for any client the companyclaims to have done well for. This report should show goodpositions on a number of the most popular search enginesfor a variety of different, popular keywords and phrases.
When you are checking out search engine optimizationcompanies, make sure they have actually done the work theyare claiming to have done. Some companies will use othercompany's results in order to get you to sign on with them.If you are in doubt, call the company they are showing youresults for, and ask for the name of their search engineoptimization company.
It's important to keep in mind that a successful searchengine optimization campaign will result in maximumexposure across a wide range of popular search enginesusing a variety of keywords and phrases. This is theformula for a successful campaign, and you should keep italways in the forefront of your marketing strategy.
Ask the search engine optimization company you areconsidering for a report that shows you rankings across anumber of popular search engines for a period of at leastsix months. Remember: search engine marketing is a processthat is continual, and you need a company that not onlyunderstands this, but keeps constant tabs on your searchengine positions. That company must also be able to adjustits strategy in the event that search engine rankings drop.
Since search engine marketing is an on-going process, yourpositions must be constantly monitored. If you want yoursearch engine optimization company to do this for you,request a sample of a monthly report. It is essential thatthis report should show rankings for the most popularsearch engines. Don't be impressed by a report that onlyshows great results for a limited number of small searchengines. These are fairly easy results to acquire. Alsoconfirm that the popular search engine results they areshowing you are indeed the popular search enginescurrently.
Be sure the sample report the company shows you is in aformat that you can easily understand. For example, itcould be in the form of a chart that covers a period of atleast six months and presents data such as the top 50positions broken down on a monthly basis or the top 5 pageseach month. Then, ascertain that the company you areconsidering actually monitors these positions or pagesevery month, and that the sample report they show youincludes findings and recommendations for the specificsite. This insures that the company will actively monitorand make adjustments to their strategy on a continual basisrather than simply gather statistics on your positions. Youneed a company that is actively participant in your searchengine marketing campaign, not just an informationgatherer.
Obviously, your finances have to figure into your choice ofcompany, but bear in mind that a search engine optimizationcompany is crucial the success of your marketing campaign.It is not just a casual accessory. If you cannot afford acompany that will do a thorough and reliable job for yourwebsite, you might consider waiting until you do have thefinances in place.
If you have to find a company and can't wait for yourfinances to catch up, you may be able to find an affordablecompany that will also be able to supply quality, reliablework, such as a fairly new company. Just remember thatthere are risks involved with using a company without aproven track record - and that risk is your money! Don'ttake that leap unless the company can supply you with aleast a few references.
References are the most reliable indicator of a goodcompany. Don't use a company that won't show yourreferences because of any reason, confidentiality included.Remember - even doctors will provide references! The firmyou choose should provide you with a minimum of tworeferences, one that is from the past, and one that iscurrent.
When you contact these references, be prepared to askprecise, specific questions so that neither of your time iswasted. Ask them what their experience was like with thecompany, such as their availability to answer questions anddeal with problems and their ability to meet deadlines. Askthe reference to rate the overall performance of thecompany.
Find out if the company requested that the reference makesignificant changes to their web pages that affected thevisitors coming to their site. You are looking for a searchengine optimization company that can balance the needs ofboth search engines and site visitors without compromisingeither.
The most essential question to ask is whether the work ofthe search engine optimization company resulted in higherprofits for the reference. Without profits, it doesn'tmatter whether your positions are at the top of the list ornot.
Friday, February 24, 2006
EVALUATING WEB SITE PERFORMANCE
Setting up a website is the very first step of an Internetmarketing campaign, and the success or failure of your sitedepends greatly on how specifically you have defined yourwebsite goals. If you don't know what you want your site toaccomplish, it will most likely fail to accomplishanything. Without goals to guide you in developing andmonitoring your website, all your site will be is an onlineannouncement that you are in business.
If you expect your site to stimulate some form of action,whether it is visitors filling out a form so arepresentative can contact them, or purchasing a product,there are steps you can take to insure that your website isfunctioning at peak efficiency. One of the first indicatorsof how well your site is working for you is finding out thenumber of visitors in a given period of time. A goodbaseline measurement is a month in which you haven't beendoing any unusual offline promotional activities.
However, just because hoards of people have passed throughyour gates does not mean your site is successful. Usually,you want those visitors to actually do something there. Itis equally important to monitor the number of visitors toyour site who made a purchase. This figure is called thesite conversion rate, and it is an essential element of theefficacy of your website.
To find the site conversion rate, take the number ofvisitors per month and figure out the percentage of themthat actually performed the action your site is set up for.For example, if you had 2,000 hits to your site, but only25 of them purchased your product, your site conversionrate equals 1.25%. To get this figure, take your number ofvisitors and divide that figure by the number of visitorswho made a purchase. Then divide that result by 100 (25 ?00 X 100).
If your website is set-up to get visitors to fill out aform, make sure to then figure out what the difference isbetween your site conversion rate and your sales conversionrate. This is because not everyone who fills out your formwill actually become your customer. However, whether yoursite is set-up to sell a service or product, or to get thevisitor to fill out a form, the site conversion rate willmeasure the success or failure of your website whenever youmake changes to the site.
You may find that you need to implement some additionalmarketing strategies if you find that traffic to your siteis extremely low. There are several effective methods toimprove the flow of traffic to your website, particularlylaunching a search engine optimization campaign. Thiscampaign is targeted at increasing your position in searchengine results so that consumers can find your pages fasterand easier. You can either research the steps you need totake to improve your search engine rankings, or employ asearch engine optimization company to do the work for you.In either case, after your have improved your search enginepositions, make sure you keep on top of them by regularmonitoring and adjusting of your efforts to maintain highpositions.
Another factor to examine is how easy it is for a visitorto your website to accomplish the action the site is set-upfor. For example, if your goal is for the visitor to fillout a form, is this form easily accessible, or does thevisitor have to go through four levels to get to it? Ifit's too difficult to get to, the customer may just throwin the towel and move on to another site. Make sure yourbuttons are highly visible, and the path to your form orordering page quickly accessible.
Finally, have a professional evaluate the copy on yourwebsite. The goal is, of course, to get your visitor tomake a purchase or fill out your form. Website copy must bespecifically geared to your online campaign and not just acut and paste job from your company brochure. The rightcopy can make the difference between profit and loss inyour online campaign.
God Bless you!
If you expect your site to stimulate some form of action,whether it is visitors filling out a form so arepresentative can contact them, or purchasing a product,there are steps you can take to insure that your website isfunctioning at peak efficiency. One of the first indicatorsof how well your site is working for you is finding out thenumber of visitors in a given period of time. A goodbaseline measurement is a month in which you haven't beendoing any unusual offline promotional activities.
However, just because hoards of people have passed throughyour gates does not mean your site is successful. Usually,you want those visitors to actually do something there. Itis equally important to monitor the number of visitors toyour site who made a purchase. This figure is called thesite conversion rate, and it is an essential element of theefficacy of your website.
To find the site conversion rate, take the number ofvisitors per month and figure out the percentage of themthat actually performed the action your site is set up for.For example, if you had 2,000 hits to your site, but only25 of them purchased your product, your site conversionrate equals 1.25%. To get this figure, take your number ofvisitors and divide that figure by the number of visitorswho made a purchase. Then divide that result by 100 (25 ?00 X 100).
If your website is set-up to get visitors to fill out aform, make sure to then figure out what the difference isbetween your site conversion rate and your sales conversionrate. This is because not everyone who fills out your formwill actually become your customer. However, whether yoursite is set-up to sell a service or product, or to get thevisitor to fill out a form, the site conversion rate willmeasure the success or failure of your website whenever youmake changes to the site.
You may find that you need to implement some additionalmarketing strategies if you find that traffic to your siteis extremely low. There are several effective methods toimprove the flow of traffic to your website, particularlylaunching a search engine optimization campaign. Thiscampaign is targeted at increasing your position in searchengine results so that consumers can find your pages fasterand easier. You can either research the steps you need totake to improve your search engine rankings, or employ asearch engine optimization company to do the work for you.In either case, after your have improved your search enginepositions, make sure you keep on top of them by regularmonitoring and adjusting of your efforts to maintain highpositions.
Another factor to examine is how easy it is for a visitorto your website to accomplish the action the site is set-upfor. For example, if your goal is for the visitor to fillout a form, is this form easily accessible, or does thevisitor have to go through four levels to get to it? Ifit's too difficult to get to, the customer may just throwin the towel and move on to another site. Make sure yourbuttons are highly visible, and the path to your form orordering page quickly accessible.
Finally, have a professional evaluate the copy on yourwebsite. The goal is, of course, to get your visitor tomake a purchase or fill out your form. Website copy must bespecifically geared to your online campaign and not just acut and paste job from your company brochure. The rightcopy can make the difference between profit and loss inyour online campaign.
God Bless you!
Thursday, February 23, 2006
ANALYZING WEBSITE TRAFFIC
Analyzing your web traffic statistics can be an invaluable
tool for a number of different reasons. But before you can
make full use of this tool, you need to understand how to
interpret the data.
Most web hosting companies will provide you with basic web
traffic information that you then have to interpret and
make pertinent use of. However, the data you receive from
your host company can be overwhelming if you don't
understand how to apply it to your particular business and
website. Let's start by examining the most basic data - the
average visitors to your site on a daily, weekly, and
monthly basis.
These figures are the most accurate measure of your
website's activity. It would appear on the surface that the
more traffic you see recorded, the better you can assume
your website is doing, but this is an inaccurate
perception. You must also look at the behavior of your
visitors once they come to your website to accurately gauge
the effectiveness of your site.
There is often a great misconception about what is commonly
known as "hits" and what is really effective, quality
traffic to your site. Hits simply means the number of
information requests received by the server. If you think
about the fact that a hit can simply equate to the number
of graphics per page, you will get an idea of how overblown
the concept of hits can be. For example, if your homepage
has 15 graphics on it, the server records this as 15 hits,
when in reality we are talking about a single visitor
checking out a single page on your site. As you can see,
hits are not useful in analyzing your website traffic.
The more visitors that come to your website, the more
accurate your interpretation will become. The greater the
traffic is to your website, the more precise your analysis
will be of overall trends in visitor behavior. The smaller
the number of visitors, the more a few anomalous visitors
can distort the analysis.
The aim is to use the web traffic statistics to figure out
how well or how poorly your site is working for your
visitors. One way to determine this is to find out how long
on average your visitors spend on your site. If the time
spent is relatively brief, it usually indicates an
underlying problem. Then the challenge is to figure out
what that problem is.
It could be that your keywords are directing the wrong type
of visitors to your website, or that your graphics are
confusing or intimidating, causing the visitor to exit
rapidly. Use the knowledge of how much time visitors are
spending on your site to pinpoint specific problems, and
after you fix those problems, continue to use time spent as
a gauge of how effective your fix has been.
Additionally, web traffic stats can help you determine
effective and ineffective areas of your website. If you
have a page that you believe is important, but visitors are
exiting it rapidly, that page needs attention. You could,
for example, consider improving the link to this page by
making the link more noticeable and enticing, or you could
improve the look of the page or the ease that your visitors
can access the necessary information on that page.
If, on the other hand, you notice that visitors are
spending a lot of time on pages that you think are less
important, you might consider moving some of your sales
copy and marketing focus to that particular page.
As you can see, these statistics will reveal vital
information about the effectiveness of individual pages,
and visitor habits and motivation. This is essential
information to any successful Internet marketing campaign.
Your website undoubtedly has exit pages, such as a final
order or contact form. This is a page you can expect your
visitor to exit rapidly. However, not every visitor to your
site is going to find exactly what he or she is looking
for, so statistics may show you a number of different exit
pages. This is normal unless you notice a exit trend on a
particular page that is not intended as an exit page. In
the case that a significant percentage of visitors are
exiting your website on a page not designed for that
purpose, you must closely examine that particular page to
discern what the problem is. Once you pinpoint potential
weaknesses on that page, minor modifications in content or
graphic may have a significant impact on the keeping
visitors moving through your site instead of exiting at the
wrong page.
After you have analyzed your visitor statistics, it's time
to turn to your keywords and phrases. Notice if particular
keywords are directing a specific type of visitor to your
site. The more targeted the visitor - meaning that they
find what they are looking for on your site, and even
better, fill out your contact form or make a purchase - the
more valuable that keyword is.
However, if you find a large number of visitors are being
directed - or should I say misdirected - to your site by a
particular keyword or phrase, that keyword demands
adjustment. Keywords are vital to bringing quality visitors
to your site who are ready to do business with you. Close
analysis of the keywords your visitors are using to find
your site will give you a vital understanding of your
visitor's needs and motivations.
Finally, if you notice that users are finding your website
by typing in your company name, break open the champagne!
It means you have achieved a significant level of brand
recognition, and this is a sure sign of burgeoning success.
God bless you!
tool for a number of different reasons. But before you can
make full use of this tool, you need to understand how to
interpret the data.
Most web hosting companies will provide you with basic web
traffic information that you then have to interpret and
make pertinent use of. However, the data you receive from
your host company can be overwhelming if you don't
understand how to apply it to your particular business and
website. Let's start by examining the most basic data - the
average visitors to your site on a daily, weekly, and
monthly basis.
These figures are the most accurate measure of your
website's activity. It would appear on the surface that the
more traffic you see recorded, the better you can assume
your website is doing, but this is an inaccurate
perception. You must also look at the behavior of your
visitors once they come to your website to accurately gauge
the effectiveness of your site.
There is often a great misconception about what is commonly
known as "hits" and what is really effective, quality
traffic to your site. Hits simply means the number of
information requests received by the server. If you think
about the fact that a hit can simply equate to the number
of graphics per page, you will get an idea of how overblown
the concept of hits can be. For example, if your homepage
has 15 graphics on it, the server records this as 15 hits,
when in reality we are talking about a single visitor
checking out a single page on your site. As you can see,
hits are not useful in analyzing your website traffic.
The more visitors that come to your website, the more
accurate your interpretation will become. The greater the
traffic is to your website, the more precise your analysis
will be of overall trends in visitor behavior. The smaller
the number of visitors, the more a few anomalous visitors
can distort the analysis.
The aim is to use the web traffic statistics to figure out
how well or how poorly your site is working for your
visitors. One way to determine this is to find out how long
on average your visitors spend on your site. If the time
spent is relatively brief, it usually indicates an
underlying problem. Then the challenge is to figure out
what that problem is.
It could be that your keywords are directing the wrong type
of visitors to your website, or that your graphics are
confusing or intimidating, causing the visitor to exit
rapidly. Use the knowledge of how much time visitors are
spending on your site to pinpoint specific problems, and
after you fix those problems, continue to use time spent as
a gauge of how effective your fix has been.
Additionally, web traffic stats can help you determine
effective and ineffective areas of your website. If you
have a page that you believe is important, but visitors are
exiting it rapidly, that page needs attention. You could,
for example, consider improving the link to this page by
making the link more noticeable and enticing, or you could
improve the look of the page or the ease that your visitors
can access the necessary information on that page.
If, on the other hand, you notice that visitors are
spending a lot of time on pages that you think are less
important, you might consider moving some of your sales
copy and marketing focus to that particular page.
As you can see, these statistics will reveal vital
information about the effectiveness of individual pages,
and visitor habits and motivation. This is essential
information to any successful Internet marketing campaign.
Your website undoubtedly has exit pages, such as a final
order or contact form. This is a page you can expect your
visitor to exit rapidly. However, not every visitor to your
site is going to find exactly what he or she is looking
for, so statistics may show you a number of different exit
pages. This is normal unless you notice a exit trend on a
particular page that is not intended as an exit page. In
the case that a significant percentage of visitors are
exiting your website on a page not designed for that
purpose, you must closely examine that particular page to
discern what the problem is. Once you pinpoint potential
weaknesses on that page, minor modifications in content or
graphic may have a significant impact on the keeping
visitors moving through your site instead of exiting at the
wrong page.
After you have analyzed your visitor statistics, it's time
to turn to your keywords and phrases. Notice if particular
keywords are directing a specific type of visitor to your
site. The more targeted the visitor - meaning that they
find what they are looking for on your site, and even
better, fill out your contact form or make a purchase - the
more valuable that keyword is.
However, if you find a large number of visitors are being
directed - or should I say misdirected - to your site by a
particular keyword or phrase, that keyword demands
adjustment. Keywords are vital to bringing quality visitors
to your site who are ready to do business with you. Close
analysis of the keywords your visitors are using to find
your site will give you a vital understanding of your
visitor's needs and motivations.
Finally, if you notice that users are finding your website
by typing in your company name, break open the champagne!
It means you have achieved a significant level of brand
recognition, and this is a sure sign of burgeoning success.
God bless you!
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