Google is ready to make some more changes to way they are currently ranking Adwords ads. What does this mean for advertisers? It means you really need to be sure your keywords in ad groups are very relevant, along with your ads and landing pages. We know that is important but now it is crucial that you ensure your keywords are grouped together as tightly as possible so that your ads become that much more relevant!
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Friday, October 31, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Marketing Through Tough Economic Times
Typically the first reaction to a market trending downward is to cut marketing spend. In these tough economic times savvy brand, and search marketers alike are seeing this time as an advantageous opportunity. Well how can THAT be, you ask!?
When things get quiet in the world of our competitors opportunities may present themselves in a way you have not thought about. Think about it, if you are considering cutting back on marketing spend what do you think your competitor is thinking, potentially the same thing, right? Therefore, continuing your marketing efforts as you were, or even increasing your spend, to gain more exposure can open a door of opportunity to increased brand awareness and higher profits in the end when all is said and done. As a business owner you just need to be wise in how you spend those marketing dollars. Tune into your customer base and present a message that will stick as well as make sense in these tough economic times.
Now you might ask yourself, well what do you mean by “stick” or “make sense”? If you are running a Paid Search Campaign in Google, Yahoo! or MSN, now is the time to be creative and test new ad copy that could have a positive affect on your traffic and overall sales. Change your call to action to something like, “Shop Online Now” vs. “Buy Now,” if you are running a special promotion try, “Save Now,” instead of “Shop Now.” Get it? You can also call more attention to your products or services by stating they are more “efficient” or “provide a better value.” These slight variations can really hit home with what consumers “want” to hear instead of what you want to tell them.
The bottom line is to be innovative, don’t be afraid to try new things, stand strong through tough times. Tailoring your message to consumers can really grab their attention and make a difference in your success. This is the time to be more visible, and emerge with a stronger brand when things get back to normal. Spending money wisely is the key, and focusing more on your consumers needs is crucial. But please be careful when you begin to ask untrained employees to make critical decisions for your business just to save a buck. Be smart, yes these are tough economic times but that does not mean you need to lose sight of your business goals. Plan ahead with thoughts to replace companies that probably won’t survive this economy, this should make your pain a bit more manageable don’t you think?
When things get quiet in the world of our competitors opportunities may present themselves in a way you have not thought about. Think about it, if you are considering cutting back on marketing spend what do you think your competitor is thinking, potentially the same thing, right? Therefore, continuing your marketing efforts as you were, or even increasing your spend, to gain more exposure can open a door of opportunity to increased brand awareness and higher profits in the end when all is said and done. As a business owner you just need to be wise in how you spend those marketing dollars. Tune into your customer base and present a message that will stick as well as make sense in these tough economic times.
Now you might ask yourself, well what do you mean by “stick” or “make sense”? If you are running a Paid Search Campaign in Google, Yahoo! or MSN, now is the time to be creative and test new ad copy that could have a positive affect on your traffic and overall sales. Change your call to action to something like, “Shop Online Now” vs. “Buy Now,” if you are running a special promotion try, “Save Now,” instead of “Shop Now.” Get it? You can also call more attention to your products or services by stating they are more “efficient” or “provide a better value.” These slight variations can really hit home with what consumers “want” to hear instead of what you want to tell them.
The bottom line is to be innovative, don’t be afraid to try new things, stand strong through tough times. Tailoring your message to consumers can really grab their attention and make a difference in your success. This is the time to be more visible, and emerge with a stronger brand when things get back to normal. Spending money wisely is the key, and focusing more on your consumers needs is crucial. But please be careful when you begin to ask untrained employees to make critical decisions for your business just to save a buck. Be smart, yes these are tough economic times but that does not mean you need to lose sight of your business goals. Plan ahead with thoughts to replace companies that probably won’t survive this economy, this should make your pain a bit more manageable don’t you think?
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
The 10 Truths Every CMO Should Know About Search Marketing
Last week I attended Search Engine Land’s SMX East show in New York City. What a great time of year to be in New York. My first day there I attended a couple of seminars, day one was not the best for me, but the one that really stood out to me was The 10 Truths Every CMO Must Know About Search Marketing.....
What amazed me about this track was how trivial it was...if you are a CMO, Chief Marketing Officer, I would think you should already know what those 10 truths are.
1 - SEO is an ongoing process – as an executive in a company please don’t ask for miracles, you cannot just optimize your meta tags and think everything is “A OK,” now where are our rankings!!!???
2- The #1 position is not always everything and sometimes not even possible--- NO KIDDING!!! Multiple positions can and should be a blessing...
3 - The long tail is your friend --- if you are a CMO and do not know what the long tail is and that it can bring in extremely qualified traffic then maybe you should not be a CMO! Sorry just my opinion.
4 - Both paid and natural search are equally important. Ask yourself, do you want to increase brand awareness??? Well being seen more often will allow that and then some....
5 - Customers -- hear “their" language not "yours" -- yes by golly darn you betcha -- you should be speaking to your customers telling them what they WANT to hear not what YOU want to say!!
**SIGH** half way through what a CMO should already know!!
6 - Web pages are not the ONLY assets you need to optimize -- come on folks there are Press Releases, blogs, articles so much MORE than just the web pages which should be optimized and even bidded on at times in paid search arenas.
7 - Integration is a must! -- if you are NOT sending the same message in print, that you are on the web there is a serious issue, get it together!
8 - Tools simplify everything -- well I was hoping to get some golden nugget from this statement, and well I didn't, yes tools simplify everything and yes you should be using them to make your life easier, but is there a new one, a better one????? I didn't get anything from this one other than if you are able to utilize tools to make your life easier and it does not have a negative affect on your consumer then good for you ... I already knew that – **SIGH**
9 - Bid on brand terms - if you are not doing this you are completely missing the boat ....enough said..
FINALLY – Number 10!!!
10 - Set goals -- ya think??? All CMO’s should know that goals need to be set, but you need to understand what you are trying to accomplish before you set those goals, be clear, and don’t be unrealistic, please!
Someone told me there were 11 things a CMO should know but I didn't buy it, this pretty much covers it unless someone else can think of something I might have missed. If so, please do chime in!!!
What amazed me about this track was how trivial it was...if you are a CMO, Chief Marketing Officer, I would think you should already know what those 10 truths are.
1 - SEO is an ongoing process – as an executive in a company please don’t ask for miracles, you cannot just optimize your meta tags and think everything is “A OK,” now where are our rankings!!!???
2- The #1 position is not always everything and sometimes not even possible--- NO KIDDING!!! Multiple positions can and should be a blessing...
3 - The long tail is your friend --- if you are a CMO and do not know what the long tail is and that it can bring in extremely qualified traffic then maybe you should not be a CMO! Sorry just my opinion.
4 - Both paid and natural search are equally important. Ask yourself, do you want to increase brand awareness??? Well being seen more often will allow that and then some....
5 - Customers -- hear “their" language not "yours" -- yes by golly darn you betcha -- you should be speaking to your customers telling them what they WANT to hear not what YOU want to say!!
**SIGH** half way through what a CMO should already know!!
6 - Web pages are not the ONLY assets you need to optimize -- come on folks there are Press Releases, blogs, articles so much MORE than just the web pages which should be optimized and even bidded on at times in paid search arenas.
7 - Integration is a must! -- if you are NOT sending the same message in print, that you are on the web there is a serious issue, get it together!
8 - Tools simplify everything -- well I was hoping to get some golden nugget from this statement, and well I didn't, yes tools simplify everything and yes you should be using them to make your life easier, but is there a new one, a better one????? I didn't get anything from this one other than if you are able to utilize tools to make your life easier and it does not have a negative affect on your consumer then good for you ... I already knew that – **SIGH**
9 - Bid on brand terms - if you are not doing this you are completely missing the boat ....enough said..
FINALLY – Number 10!!!
10 - Set goals -- ya think??? All CMO’s should know that goals need to be set, but you need to understand what you are trying to accomplish before you set those goals, be clear, and don’t be unrealistic, please!
Someone told me there were 11 things a CMO should know but I didn't buy it, this pretty much covers it unless someone else can think of something I might have missed. If so, please do chime in!!!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Google Says, Don't Rewrite Dynamic URLs To Static URLs
Google says that it's better to leave the dynamic urls as they are, than to rewrite them to look static, So now Google says do not rewrite dynamic URLs, they can crawl them just fine?? Well I tend to think that it would be easier to index, as well as being more user friendly, like this:
whereever.com/camping/tents/accessories
VS.
whereever.com?product_cat=camping&sub_cat=tents&sub_sub_cat=supplies
Who knows maybe this is a good thing for all those who do not know much about this, it will keep them from doing it incorrectly and could save a lot of headache. I am anxious to hear more about this at SMX-East!
read more | digg story
whereever.com/camping/tents/accessories
VS.
whereever.com?product_cat=camping&sub_cat=tents&sub_sub_cat=supplies
Who knows maybe this is a good thing for all those who do not know much about this, it will keep them from doing it incorrectly and could save a lot of headache. I am anxious to hear more about this at SMX-East!
read more | digg story
Monday, July 14, 2008
Google Releases Keyword Search Numbers
Keywords. It is always the hot subject of every online marketing campaign. How do I find them? What is the best tool to use? Can you tell me how many people search for this phrase or that phrase! There was a time when Yahoo offered up tons of information with their keyword selector tool. But alas that tool is old and not updated. Sure there are others out there, like SeoBook keyword suggestion tool, keyword discovery, wordtracker and even SpyFu although it does not really provide search volume data it does provide some very useful keyword information and I was quite upset when they started to charge a membership fee for their keyword data services.
So what is the hype about Keyword Data? Well I was happy to hear that Google FINALLY released keyword search data after years and years and years of advertisers waiting for the information we have wanted to know for so long. Is it good information? Of course! Do I think it is accurate? I am sure it is somewhat accurate, but Google has been so evasive when it comes to releasing data that will "really" help online marketers, but it is helpful and also a great gauge for keyword research. So, now if you need to determine how many searches were done per month for a specific keyword on the Google Search Engine, have at it, the new and improved Google Keyword Tool will give you that data and all I can say is it’s about time!!!
So what is the hype about Keyword Data? Well I was happy to hear that Google FINALLY released keyword search data after years and years and years of advertisers waiting for the information we have wanted to know for so long. Is it good information? Of course! Do I think it is accurate? I am sure it is somewhat accurate, but Google has been so evasive when it comes to releasing data that will "really" help online marketers, but it is helpful and also a great gauge for keyword research. So, now if you need to determine how many searches were done per month for a specific keyword on the Google Search Engine, have at it, the new and improved Google Keyword Tool will give you that data and all I can say is it’s about time!!!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Brand new Google Reader for iPhone
As if the Google Reader on the IPhone wasnt already awesome they just made that much better.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Internet Marketing Tools - Assisting Small Business Owners
These days it seems that everyone claims to be some sort of Internet expert. I have quite a few years of experience and have been lucky enough to work with and be mentored by some pretty talented folks. However, I am always learning more and I try to stay abreast of as much as I can with regard to Internet search and search marketing in general. With my own busy schedule I know how hard it is for me, based on that, I know it must be even harder for small and mid-sized business owners who are at a loss for information I may be privy to, just simply because they are caught up in everyday life of managing their business while I am immersed in finding the next best solution as an Internet Marketing Executive. I am always looking to help business owners with their Internet strategies, so I thought it would be fitting to offer some easy to use tools that will assist business owners as they try to wrap their heads around the idea of marketing their website online with little or no help.
Check for Rankings:
SEO Digger -Just plug in your URL and see what turns up.
Google Webmaster Tools - Gain insight into rankings, keywords, indexed pages (how many pages of your site are in the search engine database) and much more.
WordTracker’s Free Keyword Tool
Keyword Spy -Check out information related to your competitors and find out what keywords are important to them.
XML Sitemap Generator - When you create an XML Sitemap,this file resides in the root directory of your website. It helps to inform the search engines of the pages within your website. This tool can also assist you with creating an HTML sitemap which should reside on your website as a content page, it serves as a table of contents for your visitors and search engines as well.
Links are the backbone of the web
Free Backlink Checker -This tool will not only tell you how many web pages link back to you, but it also shows you the detail so you can visit the page. You can also use this tool to research links for your competitors.
These are just a few helpful tools to start you on your way. Ensuring your website is visible online can ultimately be the turning point for the success, or lack of success, for your online business. Be sure you have educated yourself thoroughly regarding what it takes to gain more exposure online. If you decide that it is too overwhelming and you would rather talk with someone who has the experience to assist you, research and find the right person who understands your individual needs as it relates to your business’ Internet marketing strategies.
Good Luck!
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