Rob Sanders Online Marketing & Consulting

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Are your Website Vistors Behaving Properly?

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 03:58:00 +0000

Remember the good old days when the success of a website was gauged solely on tracking hits. How about hit counters on the bottom of a website that would display the total number of hits and accumulate with each passing visitor. The more hits, the more successful the website. Bring back memories? In just a few years web analytics, as we now know it, is a completely different animal for a completely different audience. No longer is analytics just for developers and technology professionals. Viewing analytics has now shifted to marketers, designers, small business owners and business executives, all of whom seek answers to more complex questions about website behavior.

Fortunately, analytics has adapted to the complexity of today's websites, which is no longer about getting just visitors but rather turning those visitors into customers. For most websites, it all starts with understanding visitor behavior. Whether you know it or not, the people who visit your website are doing you a favor by helping you improve site performance, telling you what's working or not working and growing your business. That's why there's a whole area in Google Analytics dedicated to visitors. Here are some key performance indicators (KPI) to understanding visitor behavior.

1. Time on site: Time spent on site is calculated by generating time stamps on a visit to every page and then calculating the difference between the last and first time-stamp of a visitor session. In case of a bounce, time on site and time on page are both reported as 00:00 minutes. Because the time on page cannot be fetched for bounces and exits, the reported values are not 100% accurate because the data for exited and bounced traffic on a page is missing.

2. Average Pageview: Average pageviews per session is one of the most used KPIs as it's a quick indicator of website engagement. This is a ratio of the number of pageviews the average web visitor views per session. This a ratio and not a metric so it can be compared between segments, varying time frames and across multiple sites or sub-domains.

3. Bounce Rate: Google Analytics defines a bounce as any visit where the visitor views only one page on the site, and then does something else like clicking on a link to a page on a different web site, closing an open window or tab, typing a new URL, clicking the “back” button to leave the site, or perhaps the user doesn’t do anything and a session timeout occurs. Furthermore, there's been studies that correlates bounce rates with search engine rankings. Although these studies are not conclusive, they do serve as a warning that high bounce rates may be a very good indicator of a poor site experience.

4. Funnel Visualization: This report allows you to create a custom path that you want the visitors to take before they reach your designated goal. This can be used for both e-commerce and lead generation websites. If your shopping cart abandonment rates are high, you can see what page visitors are most likely to drop off before making a transaction. Then take action to change or fix this page so that visitors are more likely to continue with their purchase.

You don't necessarily need experienced professionals to identify behavior patterns. Simply utilizing the above KPIs will help you identify and understand visitor behavior, which will, in turn, assist you in improving your website's overall performance.

What Goal Type Are You?

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:15:00 +0000

Talking about goals is an old topic in the world of analytics but one worth repeating. Enabling goals is one of the best ways to assess how well your site meets its business objectives. The hardest part for most website owners always seems to be identifying what goal type to use. A goal can be any activity on your website that’s important to the success of your business. An account signup or request for a sales call are two examples of a goal. No website is immune from setting up a goal, especially if you would like to:

1. Understand how much time visitors stay or, more importantly, do not stay on your site.

2. Try to minimize the amount of time people spend on a specific section of your site (ex. support section)

3. Move visitors from one time-based goal to the next (i.e. from 2 to 5 minutes, 5 to 10 minutes, etc.)

Every website should have at least one goal, especially now since Google Analytics allows for up to 20 goals. Let's take a look at the different variations of goals to choose from.

Time Based Goals

Time based goals can be set if you would like to measure a specific amount of time a visitor has spent on your website. Simply edit the goal by entering in the hours, minutes and seconds that you would like a visitor to spend on your site before a goal is counted. You can even track a time based goal if a visitor does not reach a certain period of time on your site simply by setting the condition to "less than".

Pageview Based Goals

This is similar to time based goals except you are tracking goals when a visitor exceeds (or doesn't exceed) a certain number of pages. The same conditions apply, meaning greater than or less than and the number of pageviews you would like to set up as a goal for each visitor.

URL Destination Goals

Identifying a specific URL destination has alway been the traditional method of tracking goals in Google Analytics. To define a goal in Google Analytics, you specify the page that visitors see once they have completed the activity. For an account sign-up, you might set the “Thank You for signing up” page as a goal. For this type of goal, you can even enable a funnel to see where visitors have dropped off in the process. The trick here is determining the type of "match" for your URL. Google has three to choose from. I recommend visiting the following URL for more information on match types - http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en_US&answer=72285&utm_id=ad

Downloads

This is a variation from the other three goals but worth mentioning as many sites have downloadable files. The beauty of setting a download as a goal is that you can assign a value, just like the other three goals mentioned. The only difference being is that file downloads can occur multiple times during one visitor session whereas any other type of goal can only happen once during a visit. So, for example, if a visitor comes to your site and downloads 5 PDF files during a single session, and each file is worth, say, $5, then you would accumulate 5 transactions totaling $25.

Setting goals is not a difficult process but rather a thought process. With that said, keep the below points in mind and you will be on your way to successful tracking.

Consider organizing goals by function (i.e. by time, download, etc.)
A visitor can only convert at each goal once per visit.
If you have multiple goals then consider consolidating into one profile in order view them all in one interface
Creating new goals will not modify your historical data, only future data
Add a value for each goal

Is Event Tracking One of Your New Year's Resolutions?

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:07:00 +0000

It's a new year and a fresh start. For some, that means resolutions and goals for 2010. Okay. I realize that dropping a few pounds and not smoking are ideal resolutions but what about goals for your website? To me, setting up a goal would be just as easy as not touching that piece of chocolate cake.

The process of establishing website goals begins with identifying and then tracking specific events on your website. Alas, most analytics programs, Google specifically, give us the ability to track a wide variety of events visitors take on websites and then act on those results to improve upon your website's performance.

The first of the two-step process begins with you, the site owner, asking questions in order to determine what event it is you would like to track. For example, if you have an e-commerce site then you would probably want to know how many sales were generated last week or last month. That seems obvious. But, have you ever wondered how many people are clicking on Product A on the products page? For non-e-commerce related sites, you might ask yourself whether people are opting-in your recurring e-newsletter or downloading the latest e-newletter in PDF format.

Event tracking really depends on the specific goals and needs of your site, and what you want to track. Nonetheless, you should be tracking some type of event because when a visitor interacts with a video player or game on your website, no pageview is generated, thus making it difficult to measure.

Here are some common events that are tracked that do not generate pageviews:

Clicks on links that take the visitor to another site
Clicks on an image or button (ex. Facebook icon or ‘shop now’ button)
Banner Ad clicks
File downloads (ex. PDF)
Page widgets
E-commerce activity/shopping cart purchases
Member functions (ex. tracking new member sign-ups, log-ins, etc.)
Flash, Ajax and Javascript related contentPlay button on a video or audio

Tracking specific events, the second part of the process, is relatively easy. If you are using Google Analytics, then all you need to do is call the _trackEvent() method each time you want to register an event such as how many clicks to an external link or video downloads. For example, if you want to track how many people clicked on the "follow us" Twitter icon/link on your web page then the code would look something like this:

onclick="pageTracker._trackEvent('Home', 'Follow', 'Twitter');" href="http://www.twitter.com/companyname">

The "Home", "Follow" and "Twitter" identifiers represent the category, action and label so you can view the specific results for this event right in your Analytics account. It's really that simple. For more information on setting up event tracking in Google Analytics visit: http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/tracking/eventTrackerGuide.html

Remember, event tracking is there to help improve your overall online sales and marketing goals and allow you to have a better understanding of your visitors' actions. Now, isn't this a resolution worth sticking with?

Google Personalizing & Going Real-Time is Good for SEO

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 14:05:00 +0000

I saw the writing on the wall in February 2007 when Google began personalizing search results based on a user's search history. But back then, a user had to log in to their Google account and opt in to enable Google to track their web history. Now personalized search is widespread, regardless of your log in status.

Your search experience will be customized based upon 180 days of search activity linked to an anonymous cookie on your browser. Clicking the link “View customizations” will let you see how Google customized your results. A simple two-step process will allow you to turn off this feature. But let's be frank. Not many people knew how to log in or even disable the tracking of web history, so I doubt many users will bother disabling personalization. As a result, a lot of people in the SEO world are freaking out. Why? I'm not quite sure. Yes, users will see different results. Yes, it will have some impact on the way we go about optimizing web sites? But I see it as a chance to step up our optimization efforts as well as force us to innovate right along with Google.

SEO is a nice mix of technical know-how, a bit of creativity and a lot of the unknown. Since creativity is what we control most then why not be compelled to write better Title and Meta tags in order to entice more clicks? Besides, optimizing a web site is about generating traffic and not so much about the rankings. Is it not? And speaking of traffic, let's not lose sight of analytics. Okay, if you do see a dramatic drop in traffic then have a contingency plan. Using a portion of the SEO budget for a pay per click campaign to make up for lost organic traffic sounds like a good contingency to me.

Still not convinced? Well, how about that thing called social media? It is no coincidence that just a few days after announcing personalized search, Google introduced new features that will integrate real-time, relevant content and live updates right on the search results page from social media sites like Twitter and news and blog posts. See screen shot below.

Yes, there are pros and cons to what people post on Twitter and how that might affect search results. But remember, we're in control of the creativity and what we write does influence what people click on. Therefore, if Google is going to rank "hot off the submit button" content then blogging, micro-blogging and pushing content seems like a great strategy as it will influence the end user, rankings and traffic. This new strategy will also force you to:

Establish and maintain a social network “status”
Increase the number of followers or fans
Communicate with more frequency
Create original content & update older posts
Link to micro-blogging services (ex. TwitterFeed)
Follow solid SEO best practices
Encourage site visitors to react and share your content

Google slamming the worlds of SEO and social media together sounds good to me. As Google states, it will "bring us the freshest, most comprehensive and relevant search results over an ever expanding universe of content." Let's accept the change and move forward to the next big thing like Google Goggles, a visual search application that lets you search for objects using images rather than words, using your camera phone. Now that's something to focus on!

Web Site Success Comes With Goals, Not Design

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:54:00 +0000

It's amazing there are still business owners who just don't understand the fundamentals of owning a web site. With all the buzz about technology and social media, the primary focus always appears to be on web design. True, web design is important. Especially when it comes to branding. But good web site design and layout is not rocket science given the plethora of open source solutions and software available on the Internet.

Truth be told, the success of any web site will depend on more than just design. Besides, just having a web site isn't good enough anymore. If a business is spending money on a web site, shouldn't there be some talk about a return on investment? With no cookie cutter approach to count on, we can take a look at some guidelines for establishing goals to measure that return.

Before you even start the design and development of your web site, ask what you want to accomplish with your web site and what type of desired result you seek not only for you but also for your visitors.

Describe what you want to accomplish with as much clarity and detail as possible. If your goal is to provide information to the public or generate product brand awareness, don't just state that. Write down exactly how you are going to provide information or generate product awareness. You should also state exactly how and when you will evaluate your progress.

Break your web site goal(s) into smaller, obtainable minor goals. For example, if you sell multiple products organized in multiple categories, then establish a goal for each category or each product web page. This will help identify areas of strengths and weaknesses on your way to evaluating your overall web site goal.

Establish goals you know you are actually capable of obtaining. If the goal is to generate new leads but you get very little site traffic, then set your sites low. Be realistic. It's better to reach your goal regardless of how small than to not reach it at all. That will allow you to better determine what works or doesn't work.

Set goals by time and/or importance into specified target dates. For example, if you are trying to sell products for the holiday season or communicating the latest product or service information to customers, then make sure you note your start and completion dates.

If your goal is to obtain new web site visitors and customers, then your site should be centered around the relevant keywords that new customers would use to search for your site.

Whether it's increasing traffic, converting customers or just simply sharing information, having clear, established goals and objectives will prevent you from performing unnecessary analysis. It will also help you better understand your web site's successes and failures and allow you fix and improve your web site. Otherwise, you will never be satisfied with the results regardless of the design.

I Have the Analytics Data, Now What?

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:55:00 +0000

Every business entity today is faced with a problem (or two), whether related to an internal process or customer. Analytics offers up part of the solution by providing us with the intelligence to understand and address the problem while benefiting the customer in the end. Yet, the data offered up by web analytics providers like StatCounter, Webtrends, Google, etc. can be overwhelming, to say the least. This is especially true if you are a small business owner or new to the business of tracking website visitor behavior.

One look at an analytics dashboard and one can come away feeling lost or anxious to get answers. Ah, but therein lies the key: Intelligently interpreting, disseminating and utilizing the data to derive at conclusions and decisions. Otherwise, the information becomes useless. Here are some suggestions on dealing with your data.

Invest in the analysis, not the technology - You will want to first establish a team of analytical minds that will be able to interpret, disseminate and manage the mounds of data. Free programs (e.g. Google Analytics) are sufficient for the needs of most businesses. So there's no need to fret over the technology. However, you should try to avoid using two analytics programs. Experience has taught me that more discrepancies and questions arise when dealing with multiple sets of data. Not everyone may agree but let's not forget, the primary goal and a better use of time for the Analytics team should be on the analysis and drawing conclusions. Not on the technology.

Establish Goals - Ask yourself "What is the desired result?" or "What am I trying to accomplish?" for a particular web page. Whether it's increasing traffic or converting customers, having clear, established goals and objectives will prevent you from performing unnecessary analysis. It will also keep your website on right track to achieving its goals. Note that Google Analytics now lets you create up to 20 conversion goals per profile, a feature released just this week. Now there is no excuse for adding such simple goals as length of time on site and number of pages per visit.

Test and tweak then test some more - Now that you have a team in place and goals established it is time to put the data to the test. Literally. Because what do bounce rates really mean if the data is not coupled with the testing of a message, design, layout or call to action? The results will show how users react to changes. So, if your goal is to decrease the bounce rate, then did the test show the visitor staying on the website longer or leaving quicker? You want to keep tweaking and testing until you reach the desired result. Otherwise, how can you really make a sound, logical decision pertaining to your website? And there are no excuses for not testing. Google has a free tool called 'Website Optimizer' to achieve the desired test data you seek.

Patience is a virtue - It is generally not a good idea to make changes on the basis of a few days worth of data. Before you delete or pause a keyword or ad, for example, question whether you have enough data to make a sound decision. The longer the date range, the more abundance of data. Thus, the easier the decision. Shorter time frames offer misleading theories and lead to miscalculated decisions. Take into account returning customers, those who find the site via a paid ad, for example, and then return later to the site to make a purchase. You may miss out on important conversion data if you react too quickly due to a small sample set of data. Also, depending on your goal, it may take days or even months for many of your visitors to convert to customers. So, be patient and set a date range that will last as long as your expected sales cycle or return statistically significant conclusions.

Remember, we're dealing with technology so stay 'in the know' by subscribing to the plethora of blogs out there including the Google Analytics Blog, Analytics Market, or Web Analytics World.

The In’s & Out’s of Local Search

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:40:00 +0000

More and more Americans are relying on the Internet for product/service searches. As a result of this drastic yearly growth I have always stressed the importance of search engine optimization as "the" most important online marketing strategy today. I now must admit that having a good local search listing might just trump SEO as an initial strategy, especially if you own a small, local business that needs a strong online presence for the product or service you offer.

Gone are the days of that 10-pound book often found stuffed into the closet (for you Generation Y readers, that would be the Yellow Pages). Today we are dealing with local search listings online. For example, if you typed in a certain query containing a geographic modifier then the search engine would display a number of local search results at the top of the listings alongside a map that shows the locations of local businesses as well as results from local search directory sites like Merchant Circle, City Search and others. Here's an example:

Why is local search so important?

Most searches today for information on local businesses occur online. If local businesses reported that ~ 75% of all their customers originated from within a 50-mile radius of their location, according to a 2003 survey conducted by the Kelsey Group, then that number must be higher today. Below are some other benefits.

It's probably no secret that many customers prefer to deal with local businesses. Despite globalization, people seem to be more inclined to work with someone in their community or with an address in close proximity found through local search. Our business is proof of that.

Local search gives your business a golden opportunity of appearing on the first page of a search and above “organic” results.

People are getting better at search. Yes, most still tend to start with a general search query. Others are quickly realizing that by adding city names to their queries they will be able to locate the information they need quicker.

Listing with the likes of Yellowpages.com or Superpages.com will get your data syndicated. This results in more of an online presence and more back links linking to your site.

How do I get listed on local search?

The entire process is fairly easy and straightforward assuming you are good at following the instructions.

First, create an account on the search engine of choice.

Second, enter in the appropriate, relevant information. Try to include photos and videos.

Third, claim your listing. Verifying your business listing is the final and the most important step. Search engines want to see that you’re physically located in the city you claim but each search engine has different requirements. Google and Bing require you to verify your business. Yahoo does not. If you are not sure you are listed or need additional assistance then I recommend using GetListed.org. This site will allow you to check your local listing status and will guide you through the process of claiming your listing on the various search engines.

What can I do to rank higher?

Maximize your listing with photos and videos. Plain and simple. The more information, the better.

Include the location name in your listing title and/or description.

Categorize yourself properly by including your business in the appropriate, keyword-rich categories.

Add the product or service keyword in the listing title.

Make sure you get customer reviews. But make sure they are genuine. More good reviews will catapult you ahead of those who have no reviews.

Use your local business phone number. Search engines do not like toll-free 1-800 numbers. Remember, we're dealing with local listings.

If you still feel the need for more information on local search then check out this very good article on Local Search Ranking Factors.

The only guarantee with SEO is there are no guarantees

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:24:00 +0000

SEO and guarantees. It's like running with cotton socks, mixing water and oil and drinking and driving. They do not belong together! I have a potential client who is gun shy about working with me because I will NOT guarantee top rankings in organic search. Just recently, I lost another client who was wooed away by a guarantee-driven SEO firm. This is the response I received:

"So (SEO company - I'll spare the name) agreed to work with us on a no results no fee basis. They have pretty much guaranteed me that by the 3rd week in October we will be listed among the top 10 spas in SF on the google search engine - if not nothing lost on our side.We don't have to sign a contract or anything unless we see the results."

My friends at SEOMoz wrote a great article titled "Why Reputable SEO Firms Don't Promise Guaranteed Search Engine Rankings". The article hit the bullseye and is well worth the read. However, there are three points worth reemphasizing.

1. We're dealing with technology folks! In particular algorithms that are constantly changing. The pure nature of the industry means that rankings are in a constant state of fluctuation. Besides, search results vary across different geographical regions and are moving toward more personalized results. So, guaranteeing a top ranking is like hitting a moving target traveling at the speed of light.

2. Rankings don't equal more traffic. Assuring the client the top position in the SERPs is completely useless unless the keyword drives traffic to your website and causes a conversion of some type. Yes, traffic should be the measure of success, not rankings.

3. “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.” I did not say this, the search engine giant also known as Google clearly states this on their SEO guidelines page. If you're still not convinced then I have some swamp land in Florida I would like to sell you.

Ben Franklin was quoted as saying "but in the world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes." It's safe to say that even today that statement holds true even in the world of SEO.

Simple SEO Tips for Bloggers

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:12:00 +0000

A lot of my clients know that blogging about their products and services is an important part of marketing in today's social media crazed cyber world. Yet, they are not quite sure how it will help them with their search rankings. Regardless of what platform you use (Blogger, Drupal, WordPress, etc.) make sure you follow these best practices for blogging as they will assist with your SEO efforts.

* Identify a few targeted keywords that you want to be ranked and found by the search engines. These keywords will need to be the most common words used in your blog post and make sure they are in the title, URL, used in outbound links and are bolded.

*Change your permalink (i.e. permanent URL) structure to show the title of your blog post rather than the default URL (ex. "yourblog.com/?p=123"). This will make it easy for search engine spiders to find and crawl blog content.

* Write the title of your blog as a headline in order to grab the reader's attention but also include targeted keywords because your blog will get archived and your titles can become searchable.

* Categorize your content so it allows the aggregation of content according to themes, thus making it easier for search engines to understand your content and giving you a better chance of ranking well on particular topics.

* Keep the content fresh in order to keep the readers and search engines coming back. From a search engine perspective, if your blog is updated frequently, it will attract the attention of spiders and causes more crawling and faster indexing, thus allowing your new content to become searchable more quickly.

* Create internal links by deep linking anchor text to product and/or information pages on interior pages of the site.

* Encourage interaction through comments. This will help create a more active community, which will translate in more content, traffic and eventually higher rankings.

SEO Should Still be at the Top of the List

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:33:00 +0000

Businesses seem to spend a lot of time, resources, money and effort on designing and developing a website and fail to spend as much time on their online marketing initiatives. Driving traffic to a website is challenging enough, let alone retaining and converting visitors into buyers or subscribers. That's why deciding on a marketing channel is an important decision as any.

Deciding on where to spend the marketing dollars is not an easy choice. There's affiliate, blogging, display, email, mobile, pay per click, social media and search engine optimization (SEO), to name a few.

The type of business, industry, business model and, of course, budget have a lot say in this decision. However, one could argue that SEO would be a good channel to start with. Let's examine a few supporting points.

1. SEO is both art and science. Meaning, it allows us (the business owner) to examine our marketing message, keywords and competition. Other channels don't off an in depth look at these areas.

2. Search Engines is the starting point to the world’s information. Yes, social media is picking up steam in knowledge sharing but search engines provide a comfortable user experience coupled with high quality search results. Surveys show that ~ 65-70% of searchers are more likely to favor natural search listings when seeking information or purchasing a product or service.

3. There are a bevy of tools that support SEO efforts. For example, after launching a website, Google's Webmaster Tools is the logical next step and perfect complement to improving your site's visibility, identifying site errors and understanding keywords. There are also a number of page ranking, keyword density and competitor related reports available at no or little cost.

4. ROI for SEO can be in the thousands of percents. No joke. SEO can help you build traffic levels in a cost-effective way versus, say, pay per click or banner advertising where keyword bids or impressions may be costly over time. Besides, very few websites are in the business of driving traffic short term so if you take the long-term approach then your return on investment will eventually start to grow.

5. There's a lot of cross over into other channels. Working on SEO allows you to venture into the world of content writing, social bookmarking, directory submissions, article writing, blogging, press releases, forum posting and more. The end result of this overlap will drive incremental traffic and build up relevancy via external linking.

6. Numbers speak for themselves. According to IAB/PWC Internet Advertising Report, search represented 45% of the overall advertising revenue in 2008.

Controlling Your Content Using a robots.txt File

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:10:00 +0000

Part of optimizing a site for organic search is deciding what pages you want the search engine robots to index. Why would I not want my web pages indexed by the search engines, you ask? Well, there are a lot of reasons why. The real answer depends on whether or not you want all your pages to be found on the search engines. Regardless, this can be easily controlled via a file called "robots.txt".

Creating a robots.txt file is a relatively simple process and you don't need to be a certified webmaster to create one either. Name the text file "robots.txt" using any text editor and place the robots.txt file in the root directory of your domain or sub-domain.

A few rules to remember about robots.txt files.

1. Adding a robots.txt file to your sub-directories will not work
2. You will need to add robots.txt file for each sub-domain that you manage
3. You will need a separate robots.txt files for your secure (https) and nonsecure (http) pages
4. Each robots.txt file must contain at least two lines to be effective:

* User-agent: the robot the following rule applies to
* Disallow: the URL you want to block (this entry should begin with a forward slash "/")

Below are a few examples:

* Allow all robots to visit all files:
User-agent: *
Disallow:

* To block the entire site:
Disallow: /

* To block a directory and everything in it:
Disallow: /junk-directory/

* To block a page, list the page:
Disallow: /private_file.html

* To block files of a specific file type (ex..gif):
Disallow: /*.gif$

Clear as mud? Not to worry. Just having a robots.txt file is a step in the right direction.

AdWords & Analytics are Even Closer

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 21:38:00 +0000

The on again, off again relationship between Google AdWords and Google Analytics has taken another turn in the search engine soap opera but this time for the better. Google has recently announced that it is possible to import goals and transactions from Analytics into AdWords. This is a significant move in the relationship. Think of it as Analytics moving in with AdWords after years of dating.

For years, AdWords users would have to click to and from Analytics to see which campaigns, ad groups, and keywords were returning an investment. For those of us managing multiple accounts, this was nothing short of annoying.

In typical Google fashion, they made this "move in" as easy as 1-2-3, but under one stipulation: AdWords must be linked with Analytics (i.e. each committed to the relationship). Simply:

1. Find conversion tracking under the tools tab.
2. Click on the link "Link your Analytics Goals and Transactions" in the message box.
3. Select the Analytics goals you want to see in AdWords and click "Link".

Presto! AdWords is now including all your Analytics Goals and Transactions. This will allow you to track conversion performance (including conversion rate and cost per acquisition) and use Analytics data with Conversion Optimizer.

Now, if all relationship move ins were this smooth...

Google Continues to Impress with New Features

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:56:00 +0000

Ever since the launch of their Universal Search feature two years ago, Google has been quietly working behind the scenes to improve search. That feature broke barriers by allowing us to view results of various types such as images, videos, books, etc.

The downside to Universal Search was that it left most of us with more questions than answers such as:

How can I find the most recent information?
How do I assess which results are best?
How do I know what I am looking for?

Their latest feature, Search Options, is actually a collection of features or "tools" designed to help you find what you need faster and easier. As if spitting back results in a matter of milliseconds wasn't good enough for the king of search. Their goal all along was to quickly connect people to what they were looking for by providing filters that allow us to view by result and time frame.

They even outdid themselves by adding a cool feature called "Wonder wheel" (see screen shot below).

Still, we know Google is back at it improving Search Options with more innovative and useful features for future search. Now it's easy to understand why Google continues to be the leader in the search industry.

Getting the Most Out of Keywords

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 23:48:00 +0000

Targeting the right keywords is arguably the most important part of any SEO methodology. What to do with or, better yet, how to optimize for those keywords is "1B" in terms of importance. Below are helpful recommendations to consider when optimizing for your targeted keywords.

Forget about and remove long keyword lists and/or "stuffed" keywords from your web pages. Search engines consider keyword stuffing spam. Meta keyword tags with dozens of keywords will not work either. Search engines do not consider this meta tag in ranking calculations and it's never seen by visitors or searchers.

Optimize a web page for 1-2 keywords or keyword phrases so that you build more relevancy between the copy and the keyword versus many keywords assigned to one page. It is much easier to get high rankings if the web page is very relevant to the searched keyword.

If you have multiple-pages targeting the same keywords, avoid cannibalization by placing links on all the secondary pages back to the page you most want ranking for the term/phrase using the primary keywords as the anchor text of those links.

Add keyword modifiers and combine keyword variations in one sentence. For example, an optimized web page title for a San Francisco shoe store could read: Buy cool Puma sneakers in our sneakers shop in San Francisco.

Don't be afraid to use your targeted keywords in the URLs of your web pages. Search engines do look at keyword-targeted domains. But don't obsess with the order of the words or go overboard by using too many keywords in the same URL.

The Importance of Site Maps & Sitemaps

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 01:16:00 +0000

HTML site maps and XML Sitemaps both serve the same important function of providing the search engines information about your site. The HTML site map is the traditional method. However in recent years, search engines have developed the XML Sitemap protocol to assist in spidering. The benefits are:

Allows Google, Yahoo and MSN to locate all the site’s content
Informs the search engine when content changes
Shows spiders deep content that is unable to be found in a normal crawl process
Tells the spider the date the content was last modified
Assigns the importance or priority of information
Allows robots to crawl a web site in a much more timely fashion

An HTML site map is still very useful for site owners who would like to organize their site and provide information in a more clearer manner. HTML site maps also lend to usability for visitors who can't use or don't understand your navigation.

For more information about Sitemaps visit http://sitemaps.org.
You can also view Google's site map at http://www.google.com/sitemap.html.

SEM Spending Habits in 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:10:00 +0000

According to recent research conducted by Radar Research, $13.5 billion was spent on search marketing in 2008. Paid placement or sponsored search consumed 88% of the total search spend. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was a distant second with a very small percentage going to technology providers.

This is interesting data considering Internet users overwhelmingly prefer organic listings over sponsored search ads due the relevant nature of organic results.

Furthermore, SEO is cost-effective, works across multiple search engines and delivers longer-term results. In addition, an optimized site doesn’t drop in ranking when the advertiser's spending slows or stops, as paid search does.

If search marketing spending continues to increase in the coming years, as most sources predict it will, then one would have to bet that there will be a dramatic shift in SEM spending habits.

How Analytics helps to improve Your Business

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:33:00 +0000

So your website is as noticeable as an elephant in the room? Great, but is the elephant working for your business, or is it the other way round? Is your “great” website also great for your business, in fattening your order books, and adding to your bottom line?

That’s why you need analytics. Loosely speaking, analytics drives real shopping, not window shopping. It helps you to distinguish the real customer from the window shopper.

When you know what kind of visitor buys your product or service, when, why, where, how, and the conversion time between a casual interest in your product and confirmed point of sale, your sales pitch can be on song!

With analytics enabled on your website, you can track where your traffic is coming from, from which referring website and landing page, the search engine and keyword used. It tells you about the visitor’s location, their operating system, browser and monitor resolution (yes!). It gives you a snapshot of how much time the visitor spent on your site/your advertising/listing on another website, the number of pages visited, the bounce rate (percentage of users who viewed only one page before leaving), the conversion rate. It gives you precise data on your past and current traffic.

Analyze This. Go for analytics.

How Deep Linking Helps SEO

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:51:00 +0000

How deep are your links? That determines your website’s search engine ranking. Here’s a quick guided tour about Deep linking and back linking:

How to add back links: Email webmasters and ask them to place a link on their website, submit your site to directories, distribute free reprint articles, and post to relevant blogs.

What to watch out for: Do not have all the links point to your homepage, but draw down the links to your inner web pages.

What is deep linking: When a visitor finds content interesting in your inner web page and is more likely to copy and paste the actual webpage address into a blog. This is what is meant by deep linking or natural linking by the search engines.

The problem with creating deep links: Webmasters or directories normally allow a link to your homepage only, not a deep link, and even when you submit a deep link, they will not allow you to submit 10 deep links.

Useful Tips: Use free reprint articles as part of your link building campaign. Another way out is to take keywords in each page of the text on your website and make a hyperlink on that word or phrase to another page on your site. Spread links across all the pages of your domain, because users are likely to be turned off by a page that is almost all hyperlinks.

Why they are important: Because search engines like Google, Yahoo! And MSN have put the official seal on the importance of back links and deep links.

Effective SEO techniques for your website

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 22:14:00 +0000

Let’s get real. Getting great search engine rankings is not rocket science. Also, easy and effective SEO doesn’t cost the White House. The thumb rule: Create a real site for real people. And let inbound links come naturally, to your website. Caution: Don’t pay for links, it’s ugly and controversial too.

So how do you gain inbound links? First off, don’t be content with a website, but include a blog with tons of content, to attract more traffic. A good blog will grow content fast and always pay off in the long run.

Sometimes, you do all the things right but still don’t get the ranking right for your website. Here’s a big tip to boost your search engine rankings: Provide the search engines with sitemaps to your website. The sitemap essentially speeds up the search engines like Google and Yahoo to spider, index and rank your web pages, so that what used to take months now happens real quick. The search engines will find your site, search it, index it in their database, and most importantly, show your site high up in the search results. As you grow your blog, your new posts will be easily spidered, indexed and ranked because of your sitemap submissions. Now, you are on way to becoming an SEO specialist – and keep your White House!

Creating Successful PPC ad copy for B2B and B2C

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:18:00 +0000

Writing successful PPC ad copy for B2B and B2C audience is not always the same and not always different!

Take timing – the time that lapses between the solution research and point of purchase. In a B2C, the time span is shorter, in contrast to a B2B purchase. So the ad copy for B2C customers has to show a sense of urgency, so as to close the sale, while the ad copy for B2B customers cannot focus too much on the sales part.

As an advertiser, there is no need to push your product for B2B customers as the prospect should be guided slowly; Woo the prospect with useful content that will make life easier and gain goodwill, perhaps by free registration, free widget or free literature. Also, in a B2B audience, sometimes the visitor is not the end-user, so you need to make a convincing pitch about your product to embolden the visitor to justify the purchase to the end-user.

In a B2C purchase, you talk direct to the customer, and specifically address his/her needs. However, in both B2B and B2C ad copy, remember to talk fast, and let your ad copy be the solution they are looking out for, for their pain points.

Can SEO help Small Businesses in a down economy?

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:18:00 +0000

Can investing in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) during a recession “bail out” the small business enterprise? Of late, SEO has gained more eyeballs after a survey pointed out that, in terms of driving primary traffic on the web, search engines are second only to email. Three reasons suggest this:

1. It costs less.
2. The return on investment (ROI) is much higher.
3. It helps you to define your market and connect to you qualified customers.

On a comparative scale, SEO gives you unparalleled ROI because it has great potential to drive the right kind of people you are looking for to your product or service and it gets your message in front of your real customers, real time, in a real language they speak. The key to this is keyword analysis and use of keywords, with the help of tools like Google Analytics (which is free to boot!).

With such web analytics tools at our disposal, we can precision track customers and end-users. Analytics tell us where visitors are coming from, including what search engines and keywords, what pages bring in the most users, which keywords have bounce and which do not, what keywords drive the most pages per visit, etc. Bottom line: SEO thus helps reboot, retool and refocus your marketing strategy so as to optimize your marketing budget in real time. More value for less money? It could define SEO.

Tips to Owning a Successful Web Site

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:15:00 +0000

There are some things that don’t need an expert. Like creating your own web site, making a success of it, adding to its popularity and to your bottom line. Here are four lessons to be learned in achieving your web site goals.

1. Don’t let your programmer design your web site! You know best what you want your web site to do, be, say, show and find. Or do you? That’s the homework for you, before you dream of having your own dot com. Hint for your homework: The Internet’s thumb rule: Keep it simple.

2. Learn, re-learn and learn a little more – about the latest web tools, editors, blogs, platforms, payment windows, shopping carts, search engines, keywords, search engine optimization, and stuff. Learn what they do and not necessarily how they work.

3. What’s your product or service? Find out that first. It need not be tangible even. Also, your web site can be a touch point for other products, services, etc. available in other web sites.

4. Know your customer! Why should people visit your web site? For what? When, or whenever? How are you going to woo them – 24/7/365? Why would they come to you again and again? Not an easy exercise, but don’t go looking for shortcuts that don’t exist anyway!

Google Secrets to Webmasters

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:47:00 +0000

OK, Google-ians, so how are the links to your website ranked? How do you link out? How to construct internal links to your site? And get more inbound links? How many links to a page is okay?

The revelation came recently, not from the sage saints of the web, but verily from the Oracle, Google Inc., at its recent Links Week event. And that is: Quality content and relevant, inbound links. That’s what draws in the crowds to your website and pushes up its b/o (box office) ratings.

Creating valuable, unique and relevant useful content (videos, original research, interesting tidbits, insights, entertaining and engaging copy, value-adds, useful product or service) is one of the best ways to get your site and pages highly ranked in Google. Do this, and other sites will want to link to you naturally.

Useful hints:

For interior linking, use descriptive anchor text links to explain the content to your visitors.
Anchor text should be rich in your keywords.
Outbound links to other sites are about adding value to the visitor’s experience.
Don’t post too many links on a page as this overloads the search engine robots that regularly crawl the web, indexing pages.
Make sure your important pages are no more than a few clicks away from your homepage.

Will this unraveling of Google’s secret-that-isn’t help your website win higher Page Ranks and better web links? It’s difficult to say. Which means, the game is all about providing relevant, unique, valuable and quality content.

Content on Social Media

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:58:00 +0000

Who needs social media? Answer: Who doesn’t?

In a global market that has no boundaries, and where consumers could be anyone from Texas to Timbuktoo, you need to ‘shout’ your product, again, and some more again.

It applies even to the big boys too. Suppose Coke stops its marketing campaign for a week. Do you think its sales would not dip? Suppose again Coke doubles its p.r. for the same period. Would its sales not rise?

Now, how do you make your product or service reach your customers from Timbuktoo to Texas? No one is asking this question today anymore. It shows how relevant, critical, and mandatory social media has become as a cutting edge marketing tool.

For the die-hard naysayers, a 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study has come with some revelations that effectively ends the argument about the utility of social media. This is what the Cone team found out:

• Sixty percent of Americans use social media, and out of which, 59 percent interact with companies on social media Web sites. One in four interacts more than once per week.
• 93 percent of social media users believe a company should have a presence in social media, while an overwhelming 85 percent believe a company should not only be present but also interact with its consumers via social media.
• 56 percent of users feel both a stronger connection with and better served by companies when they can interact with them in a social media environment.
• When asked about specific types of interactions, Americans who use social media believe:

a) Companies should use social networks to solve my problems (43%)
b) Companies should solicit feedback on their products and services (41%)
c) Companies should develop new ways for consumers to interact with their brand (37%)
d) Companies should market to consumers (25%)

* Men, a much sought-after target in the online space, are twice as likely as women to interact frequently (one or more times per week) with companies via social media (33% to 17%, respectively).

* Of the younger, hard-to-reach users (ages 18-34), one-third believe companies should actively market to them via social networks, and the same is true of the wealthiest households (household income of $75,000+). Two-thirds of the wealthiest households and the largest households (3 or more members) feel stronger connections to brands they interact with online.

Moral of the story: If you have anything to market at all, you cannot do without social media – even if you are an elephant in the room!