WordStream offers a paid keyword and seo tool, which they’ve recently updated with some new features (integration with Google Analytics and their free keyword tool, analysis based on different traffic sources). I’m taking a look at the paid keyword tool for a separate review (and to see if we want to use it), but WordStream also released a free keyword tool back in September that I thought I would take a look at. I mostly use Google AdWord’s tools currently.
Nov
11
2009
Review: WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool
Sep
02
2009
Referrers are Not Necessarily your Competitors
Sometimes companies get a little crazy about who links to their stuff, but linking is really the power of the web and without it, we’d just have boring text on a page. When someone links to your site, they’re a referrer in analytics terms – they’re referring people to your site. Sometimes this is done as a way of using your content or services for their own benefit, but if people have to get to your site to see that content or use the service, the referrer is sending people to your site. That’s a good thing right?
Jul
17
2009
Be Careful What You Say – It May Affect Your Permanent Record
While I was teaching a Blogging for Business class out at Insights Group in Brighton yesterday, I mentioned that you need to be careful what you say online because it lasts for eternity (or you should consider that it does). People were pretty shocked to know that just because you delete something, it may still be available on the Internet somewhere.
Jul
15
2009
Don't We Have More Important Things to Regulate Other Than SEO & Google?
Recently there was a call for the government to regulate Google in terms of how the search engine displays results. The anonymous author of the post called for transparency in terms of how Google’s algorithm works. Reading the post, I became convinced that the author’s company had recently had some type of run-in with Google – which probably means they did something that was against Google’s TOS. Just like any 5-year old that gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar, our anonymous author has started to throw a temper tantrum and scream “It’s not fair!”
Apr
08
2009
Web-based Tools We Use Everyday
We’re an Internet company, so we’re on the nets pretty much all the time. Many of the tools we use every day and couldn’t work without are web-based. We thought we’d share them and find out what you use and like.
Analytics, Statistics & SEO (oh my!)
- HitTail
- Google Analytics
- Google WebMaster Tools
- FeedBurner
- Website Grader
- Twitter Grader
- WHOIS
- SEOQuake
Firefox plugins/clients
Productivity
Images & Design
News
Social Media
What are your favorite tools?
(photo by batega @ Flickr CC)
Technorati tags: analytics, web tools, productivity, social media, business, SEO, marketing
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Apr
06
2009
Important Metrics for Your Pay-Per-Click Campaign
Many businesses run pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns in order to increase traffic and sales to to their websites. However, many are not looking at how effective those campaigns are. I’ve run across several websites which thought they were doing ok with their PPC campaigns, but upon closer examination, we found they were spending more than they were getting out of the advertising.
Conversions
A conversion is when an action that you’re advertising is actually taken on your website. So if you’re advertising a product, it’s when someone actually purchases that product. This is usually tracked by putting a script tag from your PPC ad on your thank you page that happens after a purchase is made. Conversions are the whole reason you’re advertising, so they are very important to track.
Cost Per Conversion
For the number of conversions you get in any time period, how much are you spending on advertising? Taking the total amount spent and dividing it by the number of conversions will give you how much you’re spending per conversion – or cost per conversion. This metric is extremely important for knowing whether you’re spending too much on your advertising for what you’re getting out of it. If this number is too high, it’s time to look at optimizing your ads, website and landing pages. (As an aside, sometimes people will click on an ad and purchase a product much later – days or weeks – this is not tracked with this metric).
Conversion Rate
How many clicks do you have to get before someone purchases from you? How effective is the path the visitor takes to purchase the product? The number of conversions divided by the number of ad clicks gives you the conversion rate.
Clicks
How many times people are clicking on your ad- how much interest and traffic it is generating. If you are using advertising for branding or just for traffic, and are not tracking conversions or sales, this is an important metric.
Cost Per Click
How much each click costs – or how much you’re paying for each person that your ad brings to your website. Taking the total amount spent and dividing it by the number of clicks will give you this metric.
Click Through Rate (CTR)
How effective your ad is – in message and targeting (keywords, placements, etc.) Measured by the number of clicks on an ad divided by the number of impressions (number of times it is shown). A low CTR can indicate poor messaging or targeting (keywords, placements, etc.).
(photo by The Ancient Brit @ Flickr CC)
Technorati tags: pay-per-click advertising, internet advertising, internet marketing, search engine marketing, business, SEM, SEO, PPC, marketing
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Feb
23
2009
Ask Sazbean – What's a Pingback?
Sandra from Brighton (MI), asks:
Can you explain what a pingback is?
A pingback is when another blog links to an article on your blog and their blogging software automatically notifies your blogging software of the link (also works with websites). Usually blogging software will then put a link on your article with a link to the page linking to it. Sounds a bit confusing, but it just lets you and your readers know who has linked to a particular article and posts a link to it so anyone can go see what was said.
Since part of blogging is having a conversation, pingbacks make it possible to know when someone may be saying something about what you’ve said. Reversely, if you comment on someone else’s articles, they’ll know about it. It’s also a way to get some extra traffic to your blog – readers often follow links to get more information on a particular subject.
Have a question you’d like an answer to? Just email us and we’d be happy to help.
Feb
13
2009
Is your brand 'Google Safe'?
There is a term we used to throw around the publishing desks back in the day. If we had a new branded product or publication we wanted to create, the first bullet point on the ToDo list was to find out if the name it was ‘Google Safe’. For us, ‘Google Safe’ meant the term or name or phrase or tagline was light on targeted search results in Google and was available for someone to make their own. I use the quotes there because, unaware at the time, Google was branding its own line of services and calling them Google Safe Browsing (who knew). The term stuck in my head since and I’m not sure what the the kids are calling it today but at least the concept is alive and well. The CEO of a web startup that will intentionally mispell an english word as their brand to find a niche in a crowded search market, that’s a woman who enjoys the path less chosen.
Good online branding is getting difficult. It has to be memorable, short, representative if possible, and it has to be somewhat available on Google. I was sitting down just today thinking of a good product name when I came up with some guidelines that at least helped.
- Pick one word that speaks to your product, lets say Community, and another word that neither adds nor distracts from the first word. CommunityOne, CommunityPrime, CommunityNow
- Prefix words like colors are easy to remember and can give your name a little separation from the pack. Sure you could call your wireless mini networking technology ‘tooth’ but ‘Bluetooth’ is so much cooler and more unique.
- Locations make good Google Safe additions to names. Your town, your county, your street, your state can all help you find a unique name for your business that is easy to remember and representative as well
- Numbers are popular with the online community. 37siganls, 43folders, 30helens.
- So are strange animal combinations. RazorFrog, GlassFish, FireFox. Entire product releases for Ubuntu are renamed with an allerating combination of Adjective and Animal name: Gutsy Gibbon, Intrepid Ibex, Hardy Heron.
- Of course, would be remise if I didn’t mention the trend Apple foisted upon us. Take a word, slap on a lower case letter in front, surround with rounded corners. iPod, iTouch, iMac, iGotNothing
I’m sure you can come up with better suggestions of how to pick the next great name.
Photo attributed to audreyjm529
Technorati tags: strategy, marketing, google, google safe, search engine optimization, seo, search engine marketing, sem
Feb
02
2009
Are You Measuring the Right Metrics?
Avinash Kaushik had a great post this morning about the different types of keywords visitors use to reach your site, what their intentions are, and how to measure keyword effectiveness based on where customers are in the sales funnel. This got me thinking about metrics in general. I often hear people complain that they are not getting enough hits to their website (which is a very outdated metric in any case). But when you ask them what goal/objective they are trying to measure, they usually cannot tie the two together.
From both a business and sanity point of view, it is imperative that you use metrics that will give you the information you need. For example, if you are trying to measure whether or not your website is giving you leads, the number of hits isn’t the right number. You need a way to collect leads from your website, or some way to tell if people were there (an offer unique to the website) to measure lead generation from your website.
So before you start pouring over your web and advertising statistics, take a moment to figure out exactly what it is that you’re trying to find out. Then decide what metric will help you answer that question. Matching up metrics and goals/questions/objectives will give you much more reliable informaton – saving time and resources and allowing you to focus on efforts that are actually working for your business.
(photo by aussiegall @ Flickr CC)
Technorati Tags: analytics, statistics, internet marketing, metrics, business, marketing
Jan
27
2009
Landing Pages are Key to Converting Sales
One of the most common problems we see with our clients is landing pages that are not converting website visitors into customers. Many clients will spend quite a bit of money on advertising, but fail to complete the transaction on their landing pages. Often visitors will be just directed to a home page, which is a bit like dropping your 5 year old off at the mall and expecting them to be able to buy their own tennis shoes.
When you’re designing your landing pages, you need to put yourself into your customer’s shoes. What information would you need to make a purchase decision? A landing page needs to have all the information that a customer would need to make a purchase decision – ideally it also lets them make a purchase right there.
If you have a wide range of products, you’ll need to have multiple landing pages which target each one. The same for multiple target audiences and advertising. Think of a landing page as a one page print ad – you really need to engage the customer, entice them with your offer, and get them to take action.
It may take a bit of time to get a landing page that you’re happy with. Make changes and then give them some time to work. Take a look at your statistics and see what’s working and what’s not. Good landing pages will be well worth the effort (with a side benefit of a bit of seo juice).
(photo by egmb757lover @ Flickr CC)
Technorati Tags: landing page, seo, advertising, ads, marketing strategy, internet marketing, internet advertising, business, marketing
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