Previously in How To Increase Organic Keyword Conversions, we covered how to use Google Analytics to determine the entrance pages people are landing on after clicking through from organic keyword listings in search engines. We showed you how to look for typical issues with entrance pages that hurt conversions such as files with no navigation, old webpages still live with broken images and links, pages that have been moved or deleted resulting in Page Not Found errors, and entrance pages that are not the best place for people to enter a site after searching on a specific keyword. Here, w [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | How To | How To: SEO | Intermediate | Search & Conversion

My kids and I really enjoy watching the MAKE Magazine video podcasts together. It's one of those rare and happy things that a ten-year-old girl, an eight-year-old boy, and an adult can watch together and find interesting. Inspired by these podcasts, I thought it would be a good idea to create a do-it-yourself SEO project. So today, we'll make a Google Spreadsheet that checks a web page for various on-page factors that can affect SEO. Getting Started What you need: A Google Account for logging into Google Spreadsheets A URL that you want to check. In this article, I'll be chec [...]

Related Topics: All Things SEO | Channel: SEO | How To | How To: SEO | Intermediate

Quality score can drive the success or failure of your paid search keywords, and the two best known impacts of quality score are the effect it has on text ad position and cost-per-click: Ad position is determined by Ad Rank which is calculated as bid x quality score. CPC is calculated by dividing the Ad Rank of the next highest advertiser by your quality score (and rounding up to the nearest $.01). But before fighting for position or even worrying about CPC, each keyword must earn eligibility into the real-time auction that takes place when someone enters a search query that Google de [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Features | Google: AdWords | How To | How To: PPC | Intermediate

Quality score is a system AdWords uses to pass judgment on each of your keywords. They score every one, reflecting how well that keyword has done in the past and how well it's expected to do in the future. This score has impact. It determines how often your ads are shown, where they appear, and how much you pay for every click they generate. The process by which these scores are determined is not clear - all we have is a vague set of explanations we're asked to accept, and loose set of clues as to the behavior that they suggest in order to earn good or even great scores. The power [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Features | Google: AdWords | How To | How To: PPC | Intermediate

Is your website’s URL structure based on the perceived logic of your boss’ teenage son? Or even worse, a software engineer? Search-engine friendly labeling systems are critical for long-term search engine visibility.

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | How To | How To: SEO | Intermediate | Search & Usability

For my last round, I was supposed to share the results from that 300% sales explosion on the leather dog collar with nameplate page, but the folks at Google decided otherwise with the Panda update targeting content farms. Panda bit a few ecommerce sites pretty hard, so I've been helping out some new client-folk sort out the mess. So, today we're getting the Retail Smarts column back on track. In my first installment, I told you about how I spent less than thirty minutes optimizing a single product page, which resulted in a 300% explosion in sales on that SKU. That column pressed the righ [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | How To | How To: SEO | Intermediate | Search & Retail

This article is really part three of our Link Building Foundational Blueprint series, and will focus on using content to attract links. Here are parts one and two. There are many ways to generate links using content, you're probably familiar with article writing, guest blogging, link bait, white papers etc. All of these content tactics are fine and still work, but since they're talked about frequently, I won't go into the basic mechanics behind each. Instead, let's take a look at a handful of tips and twists you can use with these foundational tactics to generate additional links. Use W [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | How To | How To: Links | Intermediate | Link Week

When I first started down this 6-lane highway called Online Marketing over six years ago, we used an absolutely archaic bid management software whose name escapes me. I want to say it was a Yahoo! (or precursor to Yahoo!) product, and basically it automated our bids so they would go up and down based on search volume. It worked about 10% of the time and was always down or broken….we quit using it pretty quickly. Fast forward to today – and remember the leaps and bounds PPC advertising has taken in just the last 12 months - take a look at Google  AdWord’s "Automated Rules" and prepare [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | How To | How To: PPC | Intermediate | Search Marketing Toolbox

B2B search engine marketers understand the value of inbound links but may struggle with execution. With an ever increasing plate of responsibility, emerging search industry trends, and the balance between short-term and long-term goals, it is easy to let a link building program fall to the wayside. Link building does not have to be perceived as a singular, daunting task. Through the identification of key personnel, communication, and coordination of tactics, the B2B search engine marketer can successfully integrate link building campaigns that scale across an organization. Here are some way [...]

Related Topics: B2B Search Marketing | Channel: SEO | How To: Links | Intermediate

"I know why you’re here Neo… It will find you if you want it to." -Trinity Last time I made the case that you’re not mobile-friendly unless you’re friendly to searchers too. I argued that since the marginal cost of achieving basic SEO is lowered by addressing alongside development of mobile friendly content, consumer brands can benefit by making such optimization a launch requirement, thereby accelerating mobile ROI. I also shared an illustration of what I refer to as the "mobile media matrix." Today, I want to apply that framework to put things in bigger perspective, because I u [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | How To: Mobile Marketing | Intermediate | Mobile Search

AdWords recently introduced a new feature to their Ad Rotation Settings called "Optimize for Conversions" (February, 2011). AdWords Advanced Settings Ad Rotation - Optimize for Conversions To find this go to: Campaign Tab | Settings | Advanced Settings | Ad Rotation (expand by clicking the "edit" link) Many advertisers may find this to be a marked improvement over the old "Optimize for Clicks" option. However, if you are already pursuing an ad optimization strategy, you might still find some advantages in your solution. This article covers both situations. This article is intend [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | How To | How To: PPC | Intermediate

There’s an old story of two hikers who come across a hungry-looking bear in their path. The first hiker starts running for his life. The second hiker stops, sits down on a rock, takes off his heavy hiking boots off, reaches into his backpack and pulls out a pair of running shoes. The first hiker yells back at him, "What the heck are you doing? You know you can’t outrun a bear!" To which the second hiker matter-of-factly responds, "I don’t have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you." To me, running PPC campaigns is a lot like being chased by a hungry bear twenty-four hours a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | How To | Intermediate | Paid Search

There are so many reasons to make your website faster:  Higher conversion rates, lower bandwidth costs and yes, higher rankings in organic search. Frankly, I’m stunned how often web teams resist doing it. Here’s a list from easy to not-so-easy, of 29 ways you can get things running faster on your website: Put your images on a separate domain. Services like Amazon S3 make this very easy. Open an S3 account. Point a subdomain like ‘blah.yoursite.com’ at the S3 storage. Put your images there. Web browsers can load from multiple domains simultaneously, creating the impression [...]

Related Topics: All Things SEO | Channel: SEO | How To: SEO | Intermediate

A few weeks ago, we went over the pros and cons of using Phone Extensions and Location Extensions in your AdWords campaigns. This week, I’d like to finish up our AdWords Extension feature by running through the best practices for using Site Extensions and Product Extensions. Using Product Extensions In Adwords Being in the travel niche, product extensions are not available to us because vacation rentals or hotel rooms are not allowed in Google Products. I’ve done a few tests with various other non-travel products and think they work very well for a business that sells and ships merchandi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | How To: PPC | Intermediate | Search Marketing Toolbox

So, you think you created a campaign structure that covers all the bases. You added broad, phrase, and exact match keywords with distinct keyword roots defining meaningful AdGroups. You have ad copy that leverages those core words for that important boost in CTR and conversion rate, and targeted landing pages to match. And you have used broad match modifiers… right? Let’s take a look at some practical examples of using broad match modifiers in a how to format with an imaginary company, MallowMayhem. We will build on previous Search Engine Land contributions. If you are a regular S [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | How To: PPC | Intermediate

Over the last year or so, Google has been steadily adding features to the AdWords interface that on the surface seem wonderful, unless managing and learning AdWords isn’t your full time job. It seems like just keeping up with what remains and what is gone and how to work the new stuff is a 40+ hour a week endeavor. I answer a lot of questions about Google Ad Extensions – when to use them, when not to use them, and how to use them effectively. I’m sure my clients are not the only ones searching for guidance, so I’m going to share what I’ve learned over the past few months in an eff [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | How To: PPC | Intermediate | Search Marketing Toolbox