SEO

Aaron Worsham / 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

Sarah Worsham / Feb 2, 2009

Are You Measuring the Right Metrics?

measureaussiegall 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

Sarah Worsham / Jan 27, 2009

Landing Pages are Key to Converting Sales

landingegmb757lover 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

« Previous Page