John

I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed

Google, Search, SEO / By /

How many of these emails have your received, with promises of #1 rankings, yada, yada, yada? Surprisingly, even Google gets them.

In Google’s Webmaster Help Center, they say, “Amazingly, we get these spam emails too.”

“Dear google.com,
I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories…”

We get them, and frequently some of our clients forward them to us, asking what we think of the offers, and why don’t we, “offer the same guarantees.” We don’t because no one can do so honestly. But, don’t take it from me. I am happy to concur with, and tell you, what Google writes about them.

Google says you should, “reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for ‘burn fat at night’ diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.”

Those of you who have the need or desire to peruse Google’s Webmaster Help Center, likely know all of this. For rest of you, here is a list of the headings in one article.

  • Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that send you email out of the blue.
  • No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
  • Be careful if a company is secretive or won’t clearly explain what they intend to do.
  • You should never have to link to an SEO.
  • Some SEOs may try to sell you the ability to type keywords directly into the browser address bar.
  • Choose wisely.

The bottom-line is, people or companies you can trust don’t send out unsolicited email promising the Holy Grail.

As Google says, “chose wisely.” The fact that you are reading this means you have chosen, or are close to choosing, wisely.

Thanks for your time!

Read more on Google’s Webmaster Help Center.

Landing pages – not just for Pay-Per-Click

Ads - Pay-Per-Click, Google, Marketing, Search, SEO, Web Design / By /

So, what is a “Landing Page,” and when and why do you need them? Well, practically all of your pages are, or should be, landing pages. Those of you with PPC campaigns should already understand the importance of landing pages. All of your pages that have been indexed by Google and other search engines are defacto landing pages for search terms that are on your pages.

PPC landing pages should be about a specific topic, product, item or event you want to promote or sell. Putting multiple topics, products, items or events on a page will most assuredly not serve you well for PPC landing pages. Nor will they serve you well in organic (so-called free) search results. Your content should be page-specific to compete well (obviously, there are many other factors as well) in organic search results. Talking about more than one thing on a page dilutes the value as far as search engines are concerned.

The point is you should pay careful attention to creating any of your pages. Always follow Google’s guidelines for creating content. The essence of their most important guidelines is as follows:

  • Write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.
  • Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your page actually includes those words within it.
  • Make pages for visitors, not for search engines. (A useful test is to ask, “Does this help my visitors? Would I do this if search engines did not exist?”)

Treat all your pages as potential landing pages, and you won’t have to write one specifically for your next Google Adwords campaign. Just choose one that already exists on your site.

Good landing pages will help you meet your objectives and exceed your goals.

URL, URL, everywhere URL

Marketing / By /

Recently I saw a newspaper ad placed by one of our clients, and I noticed they had not included the URL (some people spell it out, others of us say, “Earl”) for their web site. I called and reminded them that they should always include their URL in ads, and practically everywhere else.

It reminded me of an experience I had a couple of years ago at a Wisconsin Economic Development Association conference I was attending. I was visiting with a group of WEDA members, and a gentleman walked up, looked at me and said, “URL, URL, everywhere URL.” I couldn’t help but smile. Five years earlier, I had given a presentation for members of the Association of University Related Research Parks (AURRP) on marketing their respective web sites. I talked about several strategies, including optimizing their web sites for Search Engines. The only PPC player was goto.com, the predecessor to Overture, now known as Yahoo Sponsored Search. And Google Adwords was only a rumor. I told them that everywhere your logo goes, your URL should go as well. If you have a fleet of vehicles, it should go on the doors, or as a decal in the back window. Use it on your letter head, business cards, email signature, bill boards, signs, water towers, and every ad (including radio and TV) you place.

I finished that presentation by telling the audience if they only remembered one thing from my talk, it should be “URL, URL, everywhere URL.”

It was true over seven years ago, and it is true today. When you think advertising, think, “URL, URL, everywhere URL.”

Why your email “From” is important.

Email, Marketing, Tips / By /

The first thing people see when you send an email is “From:” and then your “Subject” (see “How to avoid email Subject Mistakes). You control “From” in your email client settings. For those of you using Outlook or Outlook Express, it is the “Name” field in your Mail Account “Properties” box. For those of you using Eudora, it is called “Real Name.” You get the idea. The same types of conventions generally hold true for most web-based mail interfaces.

The “From” in your e-mail address can, and often does, make the difference between someone opening or deleting an email. That is if the intended recipient actually sees it.

As we have talked about before (What your email address says about you.), spam filters are everywhere including at the mail server level, the recipient’s ISP, often at the company level, possibly on the desktop as a standalone program, and finally, as a feature in the recipient’s e-mail program. Consequently, your “From” gets looked at several times before your email is (or isn’t) delivered. A “From” that includes a spammy-looking nick name, may make the difference as to whether your email is delivered and/or opened.

Your “From” should include your name (as the recipient knows it) and possibly your company name, your title or department. Couple a good “From” with a well-written “Subject” and your email will get delivered and opened before the others in those ever-expanding in-boxes of your recipients.

Paying attention to both the “From” and your email “Subject” will, indeed, pay you dividends for your time.

Pay Per Click — Not just advertising

Ads - Pay-Per-Click, Marketing, Search / By /

For many of you, I’ll be preaching to the choir. For the rest of you, let’s talk pay-per-click.

For several years now, we have been saying in meetings, seminars and on our Web site, that for all practical purposes, there are two ways to get your Web site found when people use a search engine. One you can influence, and one you can control. The former is through results in the organic or so-called free listings in search results of the major search sites. The latter is to use Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising.

Pay-per-click, or PPC, is simply what is says. You pay the search engine company when someone clicks on your ad, landing on the page of your choice on your Web site. Notice I said landing on the page of your choice. You control what your ad says, you control your ad placement (more-or-less), you control what your visitor sees when they land on your site, and you control what it costs.

Oh, and you can easily track the effectiveness of your advertising and marketing campaigns. Not many other types of advertising offer all of those elements.

PPC is also a way to jump-start a new or redesigned site. You can be proximately displayed for your most important search terms long before your pages are indexed and start to show in organic listings.

We recommend starting with a Google Ads campaign and then a similar campaign using Yahoo! Search Ads. There are others (including Microsoft Advertising) that offer PPC. Because of audience reach, we believe it is a good idea to get your feet wet with Google Ads first.

There is much that goes into a successful pay-per-click campaign, and we’ll discuss in more detail later. You do need to embrace the following. It is imperative that:

  • Your search terms (keywords) need to be researched and chosen carefully.
  • Your ads need to be well-written and include your keywords.
  • Your landing pages need to be well-written and include your keywords.

Of course, that just scratches the surface, but you get the idea. It is also imperative that you chose a firm with experience and expertise to manage your pay-per-click campaigns.

Pay-per-click, it’s not just advertising. It’s marketing.