Posted by Jeff on March 19, 2011 under SEO Services | 
Google Local Listings
If you are a local business with a physical address the best and most rudimentary marketing tactic is to be in the Google local listings or sometimes called Google Maps listing, but now officially called Google Places. If your store front is not on a Google map your store front mind as well not exist. 10 years ago if you wanted to find out a business address or phone number you went to the Yellow Pages. Today people just type in the business name or category into Google and expect to not only find the address and phone number, but a map that directs them how to get there. If you are using a mobile device like an iphone you want to simply tap the phone number and be able to call the business.
If Google doesn’t “pin drop” your business I’m going to show you how to do it for free. Do not pay anyone to do this for you. I recently met a lawyer who paid someone $3,000 to have his business added to Google Maps. This folks is an outright scam! Believe it or not there are some Internet marketeers out there that want to take advantage of your lack of Internet marketing expertise. Ok with any further adieu:
Step 1: Go here: www.google.com/local/add
Step 2: If you do not have a Google account then sign up for one. If you do then sign in with that user name and password.
Step 3: Enter Your business phone number
Step 4: As long as you have an established brick and mortar business Google will have no trouble finding the address and “pin dropping” you.
Step 5: Click the edit button and you will be able to fill out a more detailed profile of your business. You can add:
- Contact information
- Website Address
- Business Description
- Business Category (Note: 1 category has to match one of Google’s preassigned categories) You can add up to 5 categories. I recommend adding all 5 categories. The other 4 can be targeted Keyword phrases customers would use to find your business.
- Hours of operation
- Payment Options
- Photos
- Video
- Additional Details
Step 6: Submit the business profile. You will be able to choose a method of verification either phone or “snail mail” e-mail is not an option for verification. Phone is the quickest method. Mail will take 2-3 weeks.
Step 7: Google will give you a pin number (either by phone or mail). You will enter that pin number into your Google Places Dashboard. This will verify your business.
If you run into any trouble or if this too advanced please contact me. I will set up your Google Places for FREE!
Posted by Jeff on March 16, 2011 under PPC Management |
If you are starting a new PPC campaign I will show you how to start making money from day one. What Keywords you bid on will be the most important aspect of how high your ROI will be. This post assumes your landing page is related to the keyword, you are aware of properly structuring your account, and building adgroups.
Words have meaning
Different words mean different things. What someone searches for in the beginning of the their buying process may look very different by the time they make their purchasing decision. A car buyer may start out looking for car buying tips, five searches later be looking for Toyota Camry buying tips, three searches later look for best price for 2005 Toyota Camry LE. You want your ad to show up near the end of this person’s buying cycle.
Don’t bid on general Keywords in your market
If you only sell Toyota’s then it doesn’t make sense to bid on anything else other then Toyota related keywords in the beginning. There are advanced marketing strategies you can use to flip customers to your previously unknown product. However, when you first start a PPC campaign start with the low hanging fruit.
Assumption is a keyword killer
Never assume the keywords your customers are using to find you. How you think customers are searching for and what they actually are searching for can be very different. Look at the company’s business model and derive keywords from that. Then plug those keywords into Adwords Keyword tool. Make sure you click the columns button and select all columns. Take one keyword at a time. The keyword tool will also give you synonyms or “like” keyword phrases.
Local Keywords
If making your keywords local makes any sense then do that. 90% of all searches are local and many national advertisers do not bid on the local keywords. Find yourself a list of cities, states, and counties plug in your main keyword.
Keyword Match
Do not bid on broad match terms right away. Broad match keywords will be shown for anything and everything related to each keyword in the keyword phrase. Start with exact match which will only trigger your ad for the exact keyword match. Then move up to phrase and then broad.
If you follow these tips you should have a profitable PPC campaign from day one.
Posted by Jeff on March 14, 2011 under SEO Services |
Conversion Optimization
Successful websites create a path for their visitors to follow. These paths will be determined by the market segmentation we create and include content recommendations based on what the visitor is looking for when they arrive on your site, what information they need to make a decision, and what the likely next steps down the conversion path will be for that customer. We define a path for each profile.
Website Optimization Services
We will suggest specific changes and content that will increase your conversion rate.
Increase Conversion Rate
Google Analytics allows us to help you establish your current conversion rate. Based on our process, we will set new conversion goals for your site.
Conversion Rate Review
For our Search Engine marketing customers, we will review the performance of your site each month. Are your goals being met? What have we learned from your site analytics? What additional changes would produce better results?
Posted by Jeff on March 13, 2011 under SEO Services |
Keyword Research
More than any other factor, the content of your website will determine how much business you do online. Search problems on your website lower your revenue. It is critical that your marketing message is both clear to the search engines and compels visitors to take action.
Step One:
Keyword Search
Discover how your customers are looking for you.
We need to select the keywords that will bring the most qualified visitors to your site. While some keywords are intuitive, we have advanced tools that tell us what people search for to find your products based on the keywords competitor sites are targeting.
Step Two:
Keyword Effectiveness
8 Ways to Maximize the Keywords on Your Website
Keyword-rich and key phrase-rich text communicates to the search engines that you are an authority on these terms. In most cases it is not necessary to rewrite your site but only to improve it by enhancing the impact of your marketing message. We will consult on adding the keywords where they fit into the grammar and style of your website. For example, if you sell anti-virus software you would automatically assume you should optimize your site for the keyword phrase antivirus software which has 18,100 monthly search on Google. If you do a search for antivirus software you will see this is exactly what 45.4 million sites have done. However, what if I were to tell you the number of monthly searches for the keyword phrase antivirus soft – the abbreviated word for software – is 27,100. You would want to optimize your anti-virus software site more for that keyword phrase and access 50% more traffic, right? Well if you do a search for antivirus soft you will see there are only 3.5 million sites listed. So actually the keyword phrase that gets more searches has a fraction of the search results and therefore easier for your website to get a much higher listing for.
We will check & advise you on these 8 things to increase the effectiveness of keywords on your site:
1. Body Content—Sometimes called “visible text”, the body of your website is probably made up of paragraphs that talk to your site visitors. This is a very powerful place to include proper key phrases.
2. Title—The page title (sometimes called a “Title Tag”) is a line of text summarizing what each web page in your site is about. It is the text that is displayed at the top of your browser when you visit any site or when you create a bookmark.
3. Headings—Headings are different than title tags in that they are visible while title tags are not. Headings normally show up large and bold at the top of your website. These are indicators of what the page is about and should be part of your site structure.
4. Internal Linking Structure—If done properly, including key phrases in your site’s internal navigation is very helpful to the search engines.
5. Website address—We will evaluate how your website uses web addresses and determine if a change should be made. For example, some database-driven sites use a “?” followed by a long string of characters, like this: www.site.com/data.php?index=383890kj&a=78bq2
This style of URL is not readable by some search engines and should be rewritten.
6. Proper HTML and XHTML —We will run a scan of the HTML (the behind-the-scenes code that creates your website) to check for improperly formed code, links, and other oversights that could hurt your position with the search engines. Your website should also comply with the W3C standards.
7. Ecommerce—If you are selling products online then your e-commerce site has specific SEO needs. For example, we want to make sure that every product available to purchase has its own title tag and that the description is using proper headings and embedded keywords.
8. Minimize Problem Technology—Use of graphics, Flash, redirects, and frames can be detrimental to your search engine ranking by obscuring your keywords. For example, search engines do not read text that is embedded in a graphic. We will make specific recommendations on how to fix these issues.
Posted by Jeff on March 12, 2011 under SEO Services |
Link Building
“Have other relevant sites link to yours.”
Google Webmaster Guidelines
Link building is the process of getting other websites to link to yours. Links are one factor in how search engines determine the importance of a website. In general, a website with a lot of inbound links is viewed by the search engines as very important while a website with only a few links is not considered important.
Good link building focuses on getting relevant links from high quality websites or high Page Rank (PR) sites.
Search Engine Submission
• Inclusion—It stands to reason that if your website isn’t included in the search engines then you will not rank highly for many searches. This simple truth is an often-overlooked part of link building. The links from the search engines will generate most of your traffic. We will make sure that every page of your website is indexed in Google, Yahoo, and MSN.
Link Building Strategies
• Increase the number of relevant, authoritative sites that link to you—We will work to get other relevant, authoritative sites to link to yours. This is the most effective way to increase the visibility and credibility of your website. We focus on 9 link-building strategies:
1. Link requests—Ask a relevant site for a link.
2. Link exchange—Offer to link to them if they link to you.
3. Articles—Syndicate articles about your industry that link back to you.
4. Social News sites—Digg.com, delicious, etc.
5. Press releases—Submit press releases online and be sure to embed a link.
6. Social networking sites—Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, ect are authority sites.
7. Channel links—Ask your suppliers and industry partners to link to you.
8. Sponsorships—Sponsoring a project related to your industry often results in a link.
9. Testimonial—Write a testimonial for a product or service that you like.
Directory submissions
Your site should be included in major directories under the appropriate categories. Our directory specialist meticulously submits your site to 500 top directories, monitors the results, and resubmits as needed to insure that you are included. Despite the widespread availability of submission software, this is not a process that can be automated and still achieve top results. Also, a directory is more than just a great way to get a link; it is also an excellent place to find sites that will link to yours.
Posted by Jeff on March 11, 2011 under SEO Services |
Market Segmentation
Market Segmentation is the concept of customer profiling to create groups of customers that can be target marketed to.
Why Profile Your Customer:
“The aim of marketing is to know and
understand the customer so well the
product or service fits him and sells itself.”
–Peter Drucker
Just getting people to click your link on the search results is not enough. Your web site has a purpose, whether it is persuading a customer to purchase your product, coaxing a prospect to provide his email address, or simply providing information. No matter what you do in “search marketing”, the job is not done unless the searcher not only finds your site but also follows through and completes the conversion process.
Visitors landing on your site from search engines typically decide within ten seconds whether to click further. Successful websites construct the optimal path for their visitors to follow to complete any task, and the only way to do that is to understand your visitors’ expected behavior.
The Landslide Profits conversion process includes this 6-step process:
Profile Questionnaire
We will guide you through an interactive exercise that allows us to identify who your most valuable and most common customers are.
Market Segmentation
Using the results from your Profile Questionnaire, we will create a market segmentation of your ideal customers by Personality Types. Based on research and experience, we have found that most web visitors fall under one of four Primary Personality Types. They are:
a. Feeling – They want to know and like the company before they buy. This person needs to have an emotional connection to the company before they will follow through the conversion path.
b. Competitive – They will buy to outdo their friends, competitors, coworkers, ect.
c. Decisive –They make quick purchasing decisions based on limited information.
d. Meticulous – They will read every page of your website before they buy.
We also know that there are 3 phases that a buyer goes through. They are:
a. “I have a vague notion of what I want”
b. “I have a good idea of what I want.”
c. “I know exactly what I want.”
Once market segmentation has been done we can create specific content and develop a specific marketing strategy for each target audience.
