November 20, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
I was excited by the large turn-out at the Q&A session I hosted in Santa Clara at SMX West—the popular conference for online and search engine marketing experts.
Leading up to the SMX conference what weighed on my mind was the obvious—our collective anxiety about the recession and the ubiquitous pressure to do more with less. Focusing the Q&A on strategies and spending choices across PPC, SEO and Social Media Marketing must have struck a chord because we covered more questions in greater depth than I anticipated.
The savvy search marketers at SMX zeroed in on questions like “PPC advertising–Technology or Human Driven?” and “Social Media Marketing for brand reputation monitoring and brand healing?”. Folks wanted to hear about Ford’s Scott Monty smartly using social media to nip a PR nightmare in the bud. I went on to explain how a major travel firm used the social media group at Position2 to turn around negative sentiment from a promotion gone wrong.
In these tough times, every search/online marketing manager and CMO is ready to listen to innovative approaches. I’m glad the Q&A lifted attention from each company’s specific business challenges and the sometimes arcane technical aspects of a conference for experts.
About Position2
Position2 is a full service search engine marketing agency, combining the performance goals of clients with a comprehensive and fully integrated methodology to increase traffic, leads, sales and brand identity. With delivery centers in the US and Asia, Position2 provides pay per click advertising (PPC) management, search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing (SMM) and web analytics services. A personalized yet systematic approach allows Position2 to provide reliable services for clients ranging from startups to Fortune 500 worldwide. With a client management center in the US and a full service delivery center in India, Position2 provides a comprehensive range of SEM services that allow clients of all sizes to reach their customer acquisition goals with client friendly performance-based fees.
Jenifer Helen has 5 years experience as a Search engine marketing manager, her key areas are pay per click advertising and search engine optimization. For more articles visit http://blogs.position2.com/
To view the full Q&A presentation visit http://www.position2.com/toughtimes-toughquestions.html.
November 16, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to those tactics employed to make a website and its pages more user-friendly, to increase site traffic and to as such organically achieve higher search engine rankings. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) encompasses a wider scope of activities, and features SEO as well as other tactics to realize higher engine rankings for a site. Such measures invariably involve the purchase of paid search engine ads and PPC (pay per click advertising).
Newcomers to SEO often hear about the “science” of optimization, and sometimes feel overwhelmed by terms such as relevant keywords research, algorithms, cost per click and web analytics. The SEO industry itself is relatively new, not really a decade old, so it is constantly changing and even SEO “veterans” are still on an information learning curve.
Algorithms and analytics aside, there is really no bag of magic tricks for practicing effective SEO. Strong, long-term SEO services are not about “tricking” the search engines to rank a site highly; they are about making sure that the site has original, relevant content and is a valuable source of information for its industry community. Strong SEO is about making sure that the site is also fine-tuned in other ways, so that it is more user-friendly and attracts more visitors. Making your site more “findable” for the specific keywords and phrases which will drive customers to your site is essential to this process. Strong SEO also involves ensuring that there are strong internal link structures and that quality, respected external website pages are linking to your site.
Good SEO really begins with extensive and intelligent keywords research, organization and selection. Always remember what the search engines really do – they organize all search results based on the words or phrases people actually type into the engine. Choosing the relevant keywords for your site is the ultimate goal here, and you can complement your research into the best keywords with audience surveys, keywords software and helpful websites (WordTracker.com, Yahoo Search Marketing).
Once chosen, managing those keywords is also important. Always examine data and statistics on the type and scope of traffic your site is receiving from specific keywords, and then identify the most valuable words as well as those bringing little or no traffic. You can complement your keywords management research with SEO software tool kits (i.e. Trellian) as well as surveys and helpful sites.
Strong website content, writing and design are also very important to good SEO, and improve your site’s ability to get engine-noticed. To help your site get better indexed, you should do the following: limit the size of each web page; avoid broken links; use correct HTML; make sure the server is always up; avoid duplication pages on your site; and employ user-friendly, text link navigation menus.
Ensuring that each website page has an appropriate title tag is also important; these tags are one-sentence descriptions coded into the HTML and displayed at the top of the browser of each page.
Organizing your site in URLs (Universal Resource Locators) is another factor facilitating easier engine-indexing; these locators refer to the address system employed by the Internet to locate sites and other resources.
A strong internal linking mechanism helps to bring in those incoming links from other sources and to “bleed” the Google PageRank (“link juice”, if you will) to the other pages within the site. Thus you can better realize high search engine rankings not only for your index or home page, but also for the pages of secondary importance containing valuable information. Good internal links are also user-friendly, allowing for easier site navigation.
Employing descriptive internal links and strong text link navigation will enhance your site’s internal linking mechanisms. Adding an informative sitelink map to your text link menu, limiting incoming and outgoing links to site-relevant ones and having your pages indexed in Google and Yahoo will make your internal links even more potent!
Ensuring that there are quality external websites linking to your own is also very user- and engine-friendly. Both free and paid external links pointing to your site will help to attract viewers and engines, allow for easier site indexing (particularly if the link text actually contains one of your keywords) and leads to higher engine rankings.
Another viable SEO practice is linkbaiting, generally defined as the creation of great, original and relevant website content to essentially attract or “bait” links for search engine rankings.
Regular postings on your company website blog can also positively impact on your SEO campaign in several different ways:
Regardless of whether you define SEO as an art or a science or both, it is important to remember that there is no quick fix, no simple solution. SEO requires lots of hard, honest work to ensure that your website is attracting both visitors and search engine spiders not only in the short-term, but also over the long haul. Those who practice short-sighted SEO, designed to trick the search engines and achieve higher rankings in the short-term, may be able to pull a rabbit out of the hat once in awhile. Long-term SEO strategies will pay dividends over time, however, whereas eventually short-term SEO providers will come up empty when they reach into their bag of tricks.
Google Analytics in retrospect and as real benefits, for free
Google has earned its giant position in search engine marketplace through real innovative solutions, and of course, strategic moves all aimed at users’ ultimate convenience. It has been almost customary for Google to bring in some exciting features – initially for a price – then slashing the rate drastically to making it FREE — for all. This sort of repeated move could be seen as first serving the target market with its innovative solutions, and later making it free to give many a business in similar or remotely similar categories a run for their money.
Google Analytics traversed the same path. Launched with the brand name of Urchin Web Analytics for $400 a month, conceived and designed to help webmasters or web owners keep track of their web advertising campaign gripped the market, albeit slowly. Then came a hefty slash, making this service available for $199 a year, and it made many unwilling mind tempted to the offer. Similar businesses were in for a big shock, and before they could act sensibly, Google made it free for all. Confronted with a killer move from giant like Google, other businesses could only foresee their imminent extinction, to say the least.
Google Analytics became an overnight rage all over. It was precisely because free offer, with such an exhilarating range of features and benefits, is hardly to be missed out by anyone in his or her right senses.
Google Analytics allows users to do a whole lot of useful things: from traffic analysis, reconsideration on right keywords, right web design to overall effectiveness of online ad campaign. On micro level, it helps users have incisive insights with regard to the specialty of traffic visiting the web site. Users can have an understanding of what sort of visitors surf their sites, where they come from, and how well they receive the features of their sites, and how bad they react to the lack of preferred features on them.
Phenomenal demand of Google Analytics as an indication of its real worth
This was not surprise that soon after the launch of free Google Analytics, the demand was so vehement that Google had to reconsider the continuity of this offer. After catering to 234,725 individual instances of demand, the Google’s servers began to face unprecedented loads while processing such a huge amount of information.
In the aftermath, users had to bear with the slow service, and further prospective users were deprived of it advantages because Google kept this service on hold for some time on a sorry note. History apart, Google Analytics at the moment is powerful vehicle to incorporate effectiveness in one’s online ad campaign, and arguably, auger well for the web promotion and search engine ranking .
How you stand to gain from Google Analytics
Google analytics is a wonderful help to channelize your online ad budget in the right direction. It helps you consider the effectiveness of you online ad program, and helps you reconsider the way you go about it as well.
Here is how you can make the most out of this unique assistive offer right away from Goolge :
You can come to know what types of visitors come surfing your site. What turns them on, and what turns them off. Importantly, you come to know what features on your site lead to a desired outcome like sales, enquiry, or a registration – and what, in fact, impedes it.
It can help you see the workability of your key words, and can actually help you go for more rewarding selection of keywords, as and when required.
Whether you need some sort of changes in your web design is another interesting area to decide on. Changes might be needed in navigability, user friendliness of the site, or readability or better presentation of content to draw still more traffic.
You can segregate your visitors into geographies, or particular categories. It can help you target your market niches in an informed manner
As a matter of fact, quite many things go hand in hand toward driving the traffic to your site like e-newsletters, affiliate programs, referrals, inbound and outbound links, and keywords. Google Analytics can help you get a fair understanding of how each of theses components of Internet marketing per se is contributing their bit.
Comparisons are other valuable inputs from Google Analytics. You can compare the amount of traffic based on select parameters. Like traffic comparison between any particular time and the same time last day, or month or year. In other words, you can have a cue as to whether traffic at the moment is more or less as compared to the same time the previous day or the previous month.
Some issues around Google Analytics
Some critics raise the question that Google Analytics deals with a lot of business critical data, and it might impact privacy concerns of enterprises. Some other argue that while this will not be a case of misuse of privacy from a company of stature like Goolge, still it can use in some form or the other to further their business interests. To substantiate their viewpoints they say that while Adswords is closely related to Google Analytics, Google can charge a premium price for Adswords.
Another crucial grey area is the fact that Google has misused its giant position to have an undue advantage over others. Google has virtually swept all the existing companies in this domain which used to thrive on in this niche. It might trigger lawsuits.
However, if the matters reach to the courts, verdict can be speculated either as the right sustainable business strategy from Google to stay on the top or the violation of business ethics..
Can the above critiques be answered or rebuffed?
Critics’ claims have to stand the test of contemporary business realities
Taking the critique of the possibility of a hike in Adswords’ charges on a pragmatic platform, Adswords efficacy is well worth the fee charged and it is primarily meant for corporates whose online ad budget allows them to opt for it – even in the event of premium price. The matter boils down to reaping a good return on the supposedly high investment.
Google Analytics has proved to be real worth for small and mid scale companies who cannot go for web analytics software or paid services, and still wish to go ahead on the path of increasing ad effectiveness.
On Google instances of misusing its leadership position in the unrelated web analytics domain, it can be said that though it threw out many small fishes out of the pound – big fishes still cater to big corporates in commensurate with the scale and scope of their online advertisement needs.
On conclusive note it can be rightly observed that small businesses or vendors can bask in the benefits of Google Analytics to drive their commercial interests further.
Deepak Sharma is a Web Designer at BlueApple, a Web Design and Development Company with a well connected development infrastructure in India having a strong portfolio with global clientele and offering superior web services and solutions at competitive costs.
November 11, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
If you want to utilize SEO to increase your website rankings within the major search engines, I must state that Google Analytics is not something you should consider utilizing for SEO. Google Analytics is flawed even with its ease of usage and tools.
Firstly, Google Analytics utilizes “page tagging technology” and this particular program can only record information on browsers which execute JavaScript. These types of browsers will never execute JavaScript in your source code. Google Analytics is wonderful at tracking visitors but Google Analytics is flawed when it comes to reporting spider behavior.
If you want to make the most of your SEO techniques, you need to understand when a spider comes into the picture, what pages the spiders are asking for and when they will come back. This information is very much needed so you can launch new pages as well as set up great internal links while prioritizing your changes with your source code. You must keep in mind that tracking spiders are as important as tracking your visitors to your website.
Google Analytics is very much relied on by numerous SEOs. I would recommend utilizing log file analyzers as compared to Google Analytics. Log file analyzers oppose page tagging with technologies directly behind web analytics. Particular tools do indeed rely on log files which are using coded server logs to mine the information. The requests for files on your site are recorded with the IP address, referral sting and user agents. This is of course more work however; the data you will get back makes it worth the effort.
Log analysis allows you to build filters. Google Analytics does attempt to address this however; Google Analytics lacks the control which you have. You are not allowed to upload log files with Google Analytics as with other applications.
You will need to check reports as well as access then online. Google Analytics does not make this accessible and offers no way of archiving your data. Google has full control over your particular data period. If Google changes the style of reporting or the interface, you will then be stuck with whatever Google gives you. If you think about it, do you want Google to have control over your website as well as your visitors? Of course you don’t therefore, do not give Google that particular power which you should retain in the first place.
It sounds as if I’m on a rampage about Google, I’m here to state I am not however if you are looking to make the most with analytics, you should utilize multiple tools. Where I’m stating that Google contains many flaws, I will also state that Google Analytics is not overall a useless tool but if you want a tool which addresses the serious needs of your business marketing needs, Google Analytical is not for you.
SKG Technologies is a professional search engine optimization firm that aids enterprises, small businesses, and nonprofits rise to the top of their industries. Our clients enjoy top rankings on Google, Yahoo and Bing through a suite of unique pay-for-performance search engine optimization with online marketing services. The SKG Technologies team of SEO engineers, copywriters, and web designers are one hundred percent dedicated to increasing the value of your business web site. Ask us for info@skgtechnologies.com“> free seo analysis of your website
October 25, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Redesign – Many webmasters ignore this aspect; but when your website takes about 30 seconds to load, few visitors would stick around. If your website is facing a similar problem, you have found the reason #1 why there is an upward movement in the bounce rate of your website traffic. To begin with, for instance, you can remove the java scripts and optimize the images if any that are responsible for the slow loading of your website.
Recommend – While your prospects are already confused and lost amidst the chaos of your competitors offering similar products or services, you can do them a favor by recommending a package that seems worthy and picked by most of your delighted customers. More often than not, visitors come confused with an open mind to recommendation. Hence, they tend to leave a site when they don’t get any guidance.
Freebies – Few things can elicit response as positive as freebies. A free trial of your products or services for a limited period, for example, helps your visitors decide if they want to purchase a full-version of your products, when they use the free-trial offer. Freebies are also a reason why a visitor would come back to your website to return your favor by making a purchase when they don’t want to buy a big package.
Communication – Among all the reasons of a customer leaving your website within a couple of minutes of their arrival is they often feel helpless and lost looking for help and guidance to use your website. Having a live chat support on your website can go a long way in retaining the outgoing visitors.
Web Analytics Tools – Web Analytics tools are extremely handy in figuring out the sources of traffic to your website and other critical details of traffic conversion dynamics. It is imperative that your website has web analytics tool in order to measure the sources of traffic to your website. Besides, a meticulous analysis of traffic and other data in the web analytics tool can critically reduce the bounce rate on your website.
These are just some of the elements you can tweak to achieve a healthier bounce rate on your website. However, you need not break the bank and hire an SEO package to do it. There are simpler ways to reduce the bounce rate and boost conversions.
Many training programs avaliable today are designed as a cost effective traffic conversion tools for web traffic conversion. If you truly are serious about making money online you have to give them a try and you’ll see that you’ll never regret you did!
The author, Samuel Baron, fanatically believes that conversion rate optimization is the only key to any website survival online… and this is true especially for a new LOW traffic websites. “TrafficTrickle” delivers effective solutions to a new and even seasoned webmasters to dramatically increase conversion rates on their LOW traffic websites during a recession.
