Latest Articles

Where In The World Is (Insert Your Company Name Here)? Are you in Google, Yahoo, or Ask’s Maps or Local Databases?

November 9, 2007 By Webposition SEO Team

By Scott Goodyear

Does your business fit a local market? How is your local search marketing campaign coming along? Can you be found on a map in Google, Yahoo, or Ask?

Whether you are promoting a realtor’s site, a restaurant, a comic book store, or anything else that can potentially be “local” in nature, you shouldn’t ignore the various map and local options that the search engines offer. We all want to be the “number 1″ ranked site, but it is often an uphill battle. The more active competative a keyword has, the longer that it will take to get on the first page. By registering with an engine’s map or local search option, you can some times land on the first page even if you are not the top ranked page in the normal, “organic” results.

Top Ranking Skips Organic -and- Pay Per Click Ads

Lets look at the Google search for: car rental portland oregon.

The first 30 organic, non-paid results are for for sites like Expedia, Thrify Car Rental, Priceline, a local company called Landmarkford, and others. Above the normal search results you will see a special map area that also lists several Portland rental care companies. Hertz shows up with several links in this maps area despite the fact that they’re not in the top 30 organic search results, and they are not playing the Pay Per Click game.

Go to a local or map search and plug in your business name and a local area.
http://maps.google.com
http://local.yahoo.com
http://city.ask.com/city

If you find that you are not listed, add yourself. These services are usually free.
Google: http://www.google.com/local/add/lookup
Yahoo: http://listings.local.yahoo.com/csubmit/index.php
Ask: You’ll need to email your business info to Ask. Ross Dunn’s Optimize for Ask article tell us:

Submit your business information to askcitybusiness@help.ask.com with the subject line Ask City Feedback ” Business. Ensure the following information is added to the email:* Business name and complete address
* Phone number
* The category your business best fits
* The website URL
* A contact persons email address

Reputation Management

Just as you might monitor your search engine rankings, make sure that you watch your map/local listings. You may notice that some companies have additional items in their listings like photos, reviews, stars/ratings and other bits and pieces.

Below: Does a five star location stick out a bit more than a no star location?

In Hertz’s case some reputation management is called for. Google has a review area where they display a negative review that they’ve indexed from Citysearch. A Hertz manager should probably head to Citysearch and post something there about how management has changed, how you only need to notify their staff of the issue, etc. Post something to encourage web visitors of what you are doing today to ensure great service, let them know that you aren’t letting a negative review in 2006 hang up today’s visitors.

For the rest of us, now is the time to encourage your users to post their positive experiences at Citysearch, Epinions, and other sites. If you have some one that is emailing in and singing your praises, give them a few outlets.

Most popular search engines re-use data provided by Google or Yahoo. This is why you receive Google search results when you go to Earthlink, AOL, and others. Even so, engines like Google and Yahoo source reviews, maps, and other data from a wide variety of third party sources including:

Yelp
Epinions
Insiderpages
Discoverourtown
Directory Assistance Plus

If you find that your Google or Yahoo listing does not include a photo of your building, a review, or other data, you’ll want to contact companies like those above.

Summary

Being found online is more than just a ranking. Getting into some of these alternative searches now may also help down the road. Search engines are already on many cell phones. Search engines, and their mapping data, are being used by airlines with seatback monitors. Soon you may find Google and other engines providing driving directions and local data to terminals in gas stations. Ask the engines, where in the world your company is found in their local and mapping services. If you are not found or the listing can be improved, now is the time to do something about it.

PPA you say, don’t you mean PPC?

May 31, 2007 By Webposition SEO Team

By Curtis Friedl

What is ppa, cpa, cpm, or ppc? Well we are not talking about the latest accounting jargon, and you don’t have to worry about a new executive acronym to be used during your next company meeting. These initials refer to some of the most frequently used paid online marketing program options.

CPM = Cost Per (thousand) impressions
PPC = Pay Per Click
CPC = Cost Per Click
PPA = Pay Per Action
CPA = Cost Per Action

All of these have been around for some time. CPM, PPC, and CPC have receive the most press in the last few years, and many people have used the programs like Adwords, Adsense, and Yahoo Search Marketing as a basis for their online marketing efforts. Much of the press surrounds some of the fraud activities that have been debated in the press. Last year Google announced a limited trial of a new addition, a PPA program. Recently they announced that they are expanding the membership of this group.

If you have never heard of PPA(Pay Per Action), or CPA(Cost Per Action) before, and don’t know what it is about, don’t worry. While there has been some activity in this type of a program through a search engine called http://www.snap.com/about/advertise.phpSnap little else has occurred. That is until Google entered the game. It will likely be only a short time until MSN and Yahoo may do the same. PPA or CPA, are simple ideas, the advertiser only pays when someone clicks the add link, and completes a particular action. These actions can be anything that the advertiser defines, and can be measured, and tracked by a computer such as signing up for a newsletter, or making a purchase, etc.

This program like Google’s other ones permit you to adjust your daily spend for the program. Unlike with the Adsense, and Adwords programs you are responsible for activities/conversions that occur up to 30 days after the PPA visit.

Some people have indicated that this will eliminate the issues with click fraud others have suggested that this may instead lead to “Refund Fraud”. While this will be more difficult, and time consuming, it also may be more costly for the advertiser, with expenses up front, and at the refund.

If and when this program goes live to the general public one thing is sure that the landscape of advertising and ads on pages will no longer be the same. Google’s program currently permits you to run the standard adds we are familiar with, in addition to banners, and maybe most controversial inline text ads. The only way to tell that the link is sponsored will be to place your mouse over the top of the link and review its information, and they should be labeled as “Ads by Google”.

With this program still in beta there are sure to be additional changes to keep an eye open for. Only time will tell how beneficial this program will be to the internet using public, or if a new form of abuse will be learned that tarnishes this new program.

Key Components That Guarantee a Return on Investment for PPC Management The Four E’s of a Successful Pay-per-Click Advertising Program

July 19, 2006 By Webposition SEO Team

By Kent Lewis (Anvil Media, Inc.)

The good news: you can setup and manage a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising program on Google, Yahoo! or MSN within minutes.  The bad news: you can setup and manage a PPC advertising program within minutes.  That means anyone can set up a PPC program, which has led to higher overall cost, lower click-through rates and conversions.  There is hope, however.

The Process

Developing and refining a PPC advertising management process is essential.  It enables a company or individual to train, automate and scale a PPC program, compounding the ROI.  There are four key components of a winning PPC advertising program: explore, evaluate, expand and enhance.  By following the 4E process, you can virtually guarantee an ROI on your PPC advertising program.

Explore

The exploration phase requires information gathering and assessment, which includes historical PPC account data, internal Web analytics data and peripheral research on customers and competitors.  Determining the amount of additional keyword and competitive market research depends on the quality and quantity of information collected in the initial research phase.  The desired goal is to formulate a PPC advertising program test campaign that runs anywhere from two to four weeks in duration.

Evaluate

The evaluation phase consists of implementing the PPC program test strategy (keywords, text ads and associated landing pages) and monitoring performance.  In this phase, the goal is to determine which keyword phrases, ad copy, landing pages and bid strategies have the greatest potential, and will serve as the foundation for the ongoing PPC advertising program.

Expand

The expansion phase focuses on leveraging insights from the evaluation phase to increase the number of keyword phrases in the overall PPC advertising program to generate the desired quantity of leads or sales without sacrificing conversion performance.  For example, a test campaign may incorporate 50 keyword phrases, while the expanded campaign may include 500.

Enhance

The enhancement phase involves constant tuning and tweaking of keyword phrases, text ad copy, landing page elements and bid strategies.  Typically, this phase incorporates A/B or multivariate testing to ensure optimal PPC program performance.  Developing a highly successful PPC advertising program is an iterative process that is never fully-optimized due to changes in the technology, industry and competitive landscape.  As such, it is often necessary to cycle back to the exploration phase and test peripheral keywords, ad copy and landing page creative.

Campaign Elements

Once you’ve mastered the “4E process” concept for PPC advertising, the next step is to apply it to the core PPC advertising campaign elements: keywords, structure, copy, landing page, bid strategies and testing.  Each of the following campaign elements are incorporated into each phase of the 4E process.

Keywords

There are an abundance of tools and techniques for identifying possible keyword phrases.  While compiling your list of keywords for testing in the evaluation phase, don’t forget to explore “tail” terms, which are typically 4 to 6 keywords in length and are highly focused.  Although they generate less traffic, they are often more qualified, less expensive and have a higher conversion rate.  Always look at your competitor’s sites and PPC advertising campaigns to enlighten your overall PPC strategy.

Account Structure

One of the most overlooked aspects of a PPC advertising campaign is the PPC account structure.  An improperly configured PPC account can nullify brilliant keyword selection, ad copy and landing page creative.  Key considerations in PPC account setup include the use of campaigns and ad groups that focus on business or keyword seasonality, geographic targeting, branded terms and the buying cycle.

Ad Copy

When it comes to creating PPC text ad copy that generates clicks and conversions, pay close attention to the following elements: messaging, offer and display URL.  Utilizing dynamic keyword insertion (DKI) in Google AdWords can be very powerful, but can backfire if not properly implemented.  For example, try a search for “scum” on Google and look at the PPC text ads.

Landing Page

The single most important element of an effective landing page is the “scent.”  Does the scent, or theme, of the PPC text ad carry through to the landing page?  If not, you can all but guarantee low performance.  For example, there are very few good reasons to direct PPC text ads to a home page.  Beyond targeting each PPC text ad to a specific landing page, ensure that messaging is consistent across campaigns.  Also offer limited options to maximize conversion.  If you haven’t implemented conversion tracking by this point, you’ll never be able to truly optimize your PPC advertising campaign.

Bid Strategies

With keywords, text ads and landing pages set up and ready to go; the next step is to determine the overall bid strategy.  Are you going to manually manage the PPC advertising program, or utilize automated bid software?  There are benefits and drawbacks to both, but our experience is that PPC bid software is overrated, even for larger campaigns.  Consider PPC platform capabilities such as geographic targeting and day-parting in your overall PPC strategy.  Also consider what time of day, days of week or months of the year you will advertise heaviest.

Testing

Virtually every component of a PPC program can be tested, but that doesn’t mean it should be done all at once.  An effective approach to optimizing a PPC advertising program includes a structured and methodical assessment of each component, one at a time.  Once you’ve mastered A/B testing of text ad copy and landing page creative over time, move on to simultaneous multivariate testing.  This requires additional infrastructure and support, but can boost overall conversion in a time-compressed manner.

Conclusion

Utilizing the 4E process (explore, evaluate, expand and enhance) ensures maximum ROI on your PPC advertising program.  This process requires assessing key elements of your PPC advertising campaign: keywords, account structure, ad copy, landing page, bid strategies and testing.  In the end, you’ll be pleased with the results.

The Scoop on Pay Per Click Engines

September 15, 2001 By Webposition SEO Team

Pay Per Click engines like Goto.com have been growing rapidly in popularity over the past couple years. This has spurred an onslaught of new Pay Per Click (PPC) engines such as Sprinks, FindWhat, Kanoodle, and others. In fact, at least 70 “me-too” PPC engines have sprung up across the Web, many in the past year. The question is, are PPC engines really the big marketing opportunity that some people make them out to be?

Before answering this question, let’s address “What is a PPC engine?” As with many emerging technologies, they are known by several different names and acronyms. Some people call them Pay Per Placement engines (PPP), others call them Bid for Placement engines, and the list goes on.

I believe the industry is now trying to standardize on “Pay Per Click” as the official terminology. The reasoning goes that you do not actually pay for placement on the majority of these engines. Technically, the positions or listings are free. You pay only for each click (i.e., visitor) that you receive from that search engine listing. The person placing the highest bid per click price for a keyword achieves the highest placement or ranking.

So why pay for top rankings when they can still be achieved for free on many major engines like Google, AltaVista, Lycos, and others? Applying tips from this newsletter, WebPosition’s Page Critic, and other resources will launch me to the top right? So why pay to be listed?

There are many reasons for considering PPC’s as part of your over-all marketing strategy. You can achieve a top ranking on many PPC engines the very same day versus waiting for weeks or months with the regular search engines. You will also receive a guaranteed placement on every keyword you choose without needing to tweak the content of your pages. You’ll then keep your ranking until someone outbids you. When this happens, your listing will be pushed down a notch. In essence, you bid on rankings in a real-time auction environment similar to the way eBay auctions products. You pay only as much as you choose for the visitors they send you.

The advantage of PPC’s over paying for banner ads is that you do not pay for impressions displayed, but instead for actual click-throughs. With banners, you could purchase 1,000 impressions for $40 and receive only 20 clicks, costing you a whopping $2 per visitor (this has happened to us a number of times). In general, there’s no guarantees how much you’ll pay per visitor acquired with most forms of advertising. TV, radio, magazines, and others normally force you to bear all the risk. YOU must create ads and pick advertising locations that will be cost-effective for your business.

With PPC’s, you still gamble that the visitors acquired will convert to enough sales to pay for all those clicks. The sales generated versus the cost paid to make that sale is often referred to as your Return on Investment, or ROI. With the slowdown in the US economy and the stock market decline, ROI has received renewed focus with the marketing departments at most companies.

Even though a PPC cannot guarantee you’ll make a profit, it does offer you significantly less risk than many other forms of advertising. It’s also commonly known that visitors from search engines (PPC or otherwise) are much more likely to make a purchase than visitors derived from traditional ads. Search engines provide you with highly targeted visitors. Each click in theory comes from someone who was actively looking for your products or services.

Not all PPC’s are created equal. Most receive relatively little traffic to their site. Therefore, you could gain dozens of top rankings yet receive little to no clicks during the month. That’s the big problem with the majority of the seventy or more “me-too” PPC’s out there. They aren’t worth your time or attention.

On the other hand, Goto.com boasts over a billion searches per month. It has risen to become a significant player by paying the major portals like AOL, MSN, AltaVista, Lycos, and others to carry Goto listings on their results pages. The top two to three Goto.com listings for each keyword will often be displayed under a “Featured” or “Sponsored” area near the top of the engine’s results page.

Are these “featured” listings clicked on as often as the regular search results? No. However, because you pay only for clicks, you don’t really care. If you know you are profitable paying 30 cents a click, then you want all the targeted clicks you can get.

Unfortunately, the greater volume of clicks from Goto comes at a price. The average bid price on Goto will be significantly higher that “second-tier” players like Sprinks, FindWhat, Kanoodle, and others. You could average 50 cents per click on Goto and pay only 15 cents per click on Sprinks for the same keywords. Goto also has a 5 cent minimum bid whereas many other PPC’s have 1 cent minimum bids.

So why use Goto? Because the second-tier PPC’s may generate one third to even one twentieth the amount of clicks that Goto generates, the extra volume that Goto offers can be worth it. It then comes down to the value of your time. You must set up and manage more bids on the less popular PPC’s to generate the same amount of traffic as Goto offers per month. However, you’ll get a lot more for your money with the second-tier PPC’s.

Paying as little as 1 cent per visitor is dirt-cheap. If you can’t make a profit paying 1 cent per visitor, then you may be hard pressed to find many advertising options that will work for you.

An exception might be to optimize for free rankings on the non-PPC search engines. You can’t beat free, targeted advertising. In addition, a top ranking on a major engine like Yahoo, MSN, or AOL will yield far more traffic than the same ranking on most PPC engines. However, you will have an investment in your time used to achieve those rankings. Once you come up to speed on search engine optimization and acquire a tool to assist you (like WebPosition), the investment will pay off many times over. However, most companies will want to diversify into more than one type of advertising, which is why PPC’s are worth a look.

PPC Tip #1: Focus your bids on keywords that closely apply to your Web site’s content. You’ll be tempted to purchase listings on the most popular keywords, which are often the most expensive and least targeted. However, you pay by the click, so you want to do everything you can to ensure that those who click on your ad are truly interested in what you offer.

PPC Tip #2: You’ll also want to make the listing description closely match your site’s content. Create persuasive and compelling descriptions. However, avoid descriptions that are so broad that they bring in too many unqualified prospects. Otherwise you may secure a reasonable per click price but discover that few of those visitors are converting to sales.

PPC Tip #3: You may also be tempted to bid only on keywords costing 1 cent. Why pay 30 cents when you can pay 1 cent right? Not necessarily. You can find bargains for sure, but quite often the cheapest keywords are also less popular, and thereby will bring less traffic. It doesn’t cost you any money to bid on terms that few people may be clicking on, but it does cost you some time. It’s generally worthwhile to use Goto’s free keyword analysis service and/or the WordTracker service to find applicable keywords that are also reasonably popular.

For more information on PPC’s see the advice in the webposition page critic.