Many website owners obsess over organic keyword rankings. Our clients often tell us, “We have to improve our rankings for “keyword X!”. However, focusing on rankings as the primarily goal of SEO will not likely deliver the results most site owners want which is to increase business from their websites. In this example, we will […]
Google has announced it will be retiring AdWords position preference, which automatically sets bids to achieve a certain position on the page, in early May. The company is seeking to dissuade advertisers from putting an emphasis on the position of their ads. Yesterday, the company posted an analysis from chief economist Hal Varian that concluded […]
The official tweet button from Twitter is easy to implement, aggregates direct tweets and retweets in its counter, and includes a mechanism to encourage following (discussed below). These features almost certainly outweigh the slender benefits of employing third-party tweeting tools (the main benefit being more flexibility in styling the tweet button’s appearance). There are a […]
Call tracking pre-dates the internet. At times it has been the subject of intense debate about its use in online (local) marketing (see Related Entries below). However in Q4 last year Google launched its own call tracking solution: Google Call Metrics. Google Call Metrics uses the same technology that’s behind Google Voice. It generates a […]
Much has been said about A/B testing techniques and the value that Website Testing can bring to website owners. In this article, I will not discuss what to test or how to do it, but how to analyze what you have already done. I have written in the past about the differences between A/B and […]
In my last article, Search Marketing is a Game of Resources, I shared with you how improving your site’s conversion rate and profitability is essential if you want to compete in search engine marketing. The ecommerce businesses with the resources and money are much better positioned to compete for organic and paid positions, and their […]
Optimizing based on click-through data? That’s so 2010. Google is now letting AdWords advertisers automatically optimize what ads display most based on conversion rates. “We’ve always encouraged you to test multiple ads in each ad group, and we’ve offered our help by showing ads with the highest clickthrough rates more often,” the company wrote in […]
Data has always been at the center of marketing decisions, but today it enjoys a constant, glaring spotlight! Results based marketing is here to stay, so it’s time to get the tracking machinery in place and get in front of the dashboard for some action. At a very basic level, you need to know which […]
A lesson I learned many years ago (the hard way), is that the “free traffic” from organic rankings (SEO) is anything but free. Even something as basic as rewriting your vendor’s product descriptions to create unique content takes time – or you have to pay someone to do it. And if you’re getting traffic, you […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing: Why Google’s Wrong In Its Accusations Along with everything else going on for Bing’s Harry Shum on Tuesday — a panel about search spam, dealing with Google’s accusations that Bing […]
In 2004, our family business came off the tracks. Sales growth stopped. Overhead skyrocketed. We took a hard look at how we sold online, and made one simple, but substantial change. The result was an extra $10,354,767 in additional sales above our normal growth. How? In this column, I’m going to show you. We created compelling […]
Once campaigns reach a certain size, successful paid search marketing becomes less about generating traffic and more about identifying and driving the highest value visitors. At the same time, however, scale makes creative testing and ad group refinement difficult to implement across hundreds of thousands or even millions of keywords. In a high-volume world, actively […]
As a member of the Search Marketing community, I am always eager to see what great announcements those search engine powerhouses have in store for us. This year, my hope is that the search engines will realize that usability should be a primary ranking factor over some current metrics that are so often manipulated such […]
We know that measurement is essential for marketers to get the most out of their campaigns today, Fortunately, attribution technology allows us to measure ROI across online channels in great detail. But what about offline efforts? Can marketers measure the success of an offline program with a similar level of granularity? Absolutely. And search can […]
Conversion Optimization Science Presentations from SMX East, October 2010 Testing alternative landing page content can dramatically increase conversion rates. But how do you come up with ideas for what to test? Should you go with straightforward A/B testing, or invest the time and resources to conduct more complex multivariate tests? How do you know when […]
Below is the live blog coverage of the SMX East 2010 coverage that I found throughout the day: Ask The SEOs, outspokenmedia.com Analytics For Social Media, outspokenmedia.com SEO & Competitive Analysis, outspokenmedia.com SEO Myths, Mistakes & The Madness of Crowds, outspokenmedia.com SMX East: Analytics For Social Media, Search Engine Roundtable SMX East: Ask The Search […]
The holidays are just around the corner, and with shoppers gearing up for the holiday rush, smart marketers are already preparing their paid search campaigns for the 2010 season. By evaluating consumer trends from last year’s holiday season we found some interesting insights that will help marketers be even more successful this year, including a […]
In the first two posts of this series (PPC Testing Part 1: The Ground Rules and PPC Testing Part 2: Optimization Cheat Sheet), the basic rules have been set and you’ve learned some of the optimization points you have to work with in order to gain more efficiencies in your accounts. However, for some, the […]
Many search marketers have experimented with call tracking and measurement as a way to capture online-to-offline consumer activity and determine which ads and campaigns are generating calls. But there has also been debate about whether unique phone numbers required by call tracking harms SEO especially for local advertisers. Some new developments in the field make […]
Will this year be the year when online holiday sales return to double digit growth? Or will the holidays once again deliver lackluster growth in the low single digits for online advertisers? While predicting how much consumers will buy may be difficult, predicting how they will likely behave is not.
The Google AdWords blog announced a new bidding method available to advertisers named enhanced CPC. Enhanced CPC uses your conversion data, the one you may willing provide to Google AdWords, to automatically adjust your Max CPC prices. The system predicts the likelihood of an ad converting based on the historical conversion tracking data in your […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Oracle Sued Google Over Patent Infringement Of Java Within Android Oracle has filed suit against Google for allegedly infringing on patents they hold for Java, which Oracle acquired last year. Karen […]
So, you’ve actually launched a PPC account! Woo-hoo! I think back to that great IBM commercial from a few years ago where an anxious boardroom launches the company website and the first sale appears on the monitor. They all cheer. Then another sale. And another. The boardroom is going wild. And then, the sales counter […]
The end of the conversion funnel rightly garners a lot of attention. By getting to that stage of the process, your visitors have shown that they have a great deal of intent to convert, so work done at this stage can have significant impact. However I thought that I’d talk a little about how people […]
If you had the time and resources to personalize every sales pitch, every piece of marketing collateral, every special offer, how would that affect your bottom line? If your customers told you, “I don’t want that, but if you offer me this in a different color, I’ll buy three,” you would listen, right? Onsite behavioral […]
Pump Up Those Conversions! Presentations from SMX Advanced Seattle, June 2010 You’ve got them to your site — that’s half the battle. Win the war. Convert, convert, convert! Convert them on the landing pages! Guide them past landing page as necessary, converting them deeper in the site. But convert! This session looks at tools, testing […]
Have you ever tried something once, failed, and ditched it entirely because of that bad experience? Few of us would ever learn to ride a bike or do much of anything else following that model. Yet, that’s exactly the approach many B2B marketers have taken with content networks. But ruling them out could be a […]
Paid search focused videos, slide presentations, and podcasts recorded at various Search Marketing Expo conferences. To see the full presentation, click on either the screenshot, or the session’s title. SMX Advanced – June 11-12, 2013 – Seattle, WA Slides & Speaker Audio: Big Data + Big Math = Exponential Search Performance Seems every industry is […]
SMX West Conversion Ninja Toolbox – A Review of Tools & Technologies Testing alternative landing page content can dramatically increase conversion rates. But how do you know what to test? A number of powerful, inexpensive and easy-to-use new tools now make the process much easier. Learn the secrets of the pros by seeing a rapid-fire […]
Landing Pages & Multivariate Testing to Increase Conversions You say ta-may-toe, I say toh-mah-toh… It’s easy to assume that the landing page you (or your boss) likes the best is best. But research conclusively demonstrates this is a false and a profit-limiting assumption. In this session, we’ll look at what happens when you test alternative […]
>"I'm investing a lot of money in search marketing, but don't see the results I expected."... "I brought search in-house to save money but the return is still not acceptable."... These are common complaints made by B2B marketers. Often times it's because these firms are focused on only half of the success equation. SEO programs and PPC campaigns improve visibility and drive traffic to your website. But it takes more than traffic to achieve an acceptable ROI
When building out a successful campaign on the major search engines, there often comes a time when the influx of traffic hits a plateau. To continue growing results, advertisers need to extend their reach and resources elsewhere. There are a few different routes to take when it comes to acquiring new traffic—however, the path most […]
We've theorized that people who search by trademark usually search by trademark and that those who use more specific search terms rather than more general search terms behave that way consistently. Now we have some data to back that up.
Over the past two months in this column, I’ve discussed some of the pitfalls of A/B ad testing, and in this third and final installment, I’ll discuss a new PPC ad optimization model I’ve been working on and have lovingly entitled, the Van Wagner Ad Sets Optimization Model. The model is completely new and thoroughly […]
At SMX West last month, in a session called “Supercharging Your Descriptions With Sitelinks,” Google Senior Product Manager Jerry Dischler covered various strategies related to Sitelinks—specifically for the new Google AdWords ad unit that offers additional links below the main destination URL. (There’s a similar new listing format for organic search as well, which may […]
So you’ve assessed the feedback from your surveys and usability tests, analyzed the site within an inch of its life for obstructions in the customers’ paths, fixed the glaring errors and now you are ready to start devising some tests that will send the site into overdrive. However, if you are trying to explain your […]
Are you getting bad or conflicting SEO advice from landing page and conversion specialists? Keep your ears open for these deadly SEO sins.
Most search advertisers have no question that testing ads is a good thing, and can lead to much higher performing campaigns. But is it possible to over-test and over-optimize, actually leading to worse results? The answer may surprise you.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Yelp Alleging “Extortion” It must be the season for litigation. Two class action law firms have filed suit in Los Angeles federal court claiming that Yelp […]
The focus on the utility (or lack thereof) of long tail keywords in paid search campaigns seems to ebb and flow, but recently a series of articles about leveraging the long tail for pay-per click have been published. But in all the debate there’s an important distinction that most people fail to focus on. Keywords […]