Twitter Updates for 2010-07-15

• Protect organics from Monsanto's GMO alfalfa. Tell Vilsack to act TODAY. http://bit.ly/dggQbi @credomobile Please RT #

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SMB Mobile Marketing for the Holidays

Now is the time to start planning your campaigns for holiday sales later in the year. Mobile marketing can be a good tactic for SMBs. It takes time to develop a mobile marketing strategy so you need to start early to set up the technology and build your list.

Mobile Marketing Elements

Your basic mobile marketing elements are the short code, the keyword, and the message.

Your short code is a number, usually five digits, which is the mobile equivalent of your telephone number. It is used by mobile subscribers to contact you.

Your keyword is a unique word or number that users text to your short code. For instance, if you’re a retailer, consumers can text the keyword “win” to a unique short code for a special offer, discount, etc.

Your SMS message is a short and simple message limited to 160 characters of plain text. You can’t use HTML, links or images. Some phones offer a multimedia messaging service that allows you send images and video, but SMS is the most widely used mobile marketing tactic.

Making Mobile Marketing Work for You

If you provide coupons, tickets, or other relevant promotions and offers that people can use at brick-and-mortar stores, you’ve got a viable marketing campaign. Or you can design a text-to-win promotion.

Remember, SMS mobile marketing doesn’t work well as a stand-alone blast without the incentive. Users must find your text message relevant at the exact moment they receive it and be motivated to act. That means the text must be tied to a wider promotion or initiative.

Mobile messages work best in conjunction with other marketing channels such as e-mail and social media to support your marketing initiative. Start with email to introduce and explain your promotion. Mobile can be used to send text alerts reminding your users when they’re at the point of purchase. Then social marketing can be used to make it easy for recipients to spread the word about your promotion via their social networking sites, social bookmarking pages, etc. A smart campaign can even go viral.

Planning a mobile strategy for holiday sales isn’t easy. So take the time now to plan your promotion early by getting started and learning as you grow and expand your mobile initiatives.  If you need some help let me know, I have friends who can help you get set-up.

PPC Advertising for Small Business

A question many small businesses face is whether to invest in PPC or SEO. The answer is both. While pay-per-click advertising can be a quick and easy way to drive traffic to your site, it can also break your budget if you’re not careful. To plan a smart PPC campaign, you must choose the right keywords, write relevant ads, and optimize your landing pages. This can help cut your average cost-per-click while increasing your sales.

Advantages of PPC

• Immediate search presence.
• Great for seasonal or promotional items.
• Useful for sites with challenges getting organic listings.
• Good for new sites that have not yet ranked organically.
• Easy to track performance and ROI.
• Allows for quick and easy testing of new site design
• Easy testing of organic keywords.
• Quick feedback on market conditions or demands.
• Split test to a live audience for real time results.

Drawbacks of PPC

• Can be expensive.
• Bid prices always rise and can create bidding wars.
• Time intensive to set up and monitor.
• Benefits disappear when campaign is turned off.
• Possibility of click fraud.

Advantages of PPC over Organic SEO

• More control over placement (i.e., 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.).
• Better control of titles and descriptions in the SERPs.
• Match keywords to specific landing pages to increase conversions.
• If set up correctly, PPC can lead to improved branding.

Advantages of organic SEO over PPC

• Users prefer organic over PPC links.
• No cost for organic listings unless you pay for SEO consulting.
• Easy to track performance and ROI.

PPC Strategy for SMBs

Start a PPC campaign to gain visibility in the SERPs and define the best keywords to target for SEO. As you gain SEO visibility, you can reduce some of your PPC spend, but not all, because you need both PPC and SEO for best results.

While PPC search engines have similar rules, they are not all the same. They have different demographics, a different reach, and the cost-per-click will vary.

Bidding Strategy

It’s important to define a bidding strategy. What position do you want to be in? Which positions convert better than others? The number one spot is not always your best choice. It’s crucial to monitor the first few hours of your campaign to determine answers to these questions. It’s also important to avoid bidding wars.

Planning Your PPC Campaign

Start with smart keyword research. Use a keyword tool like Keyword Discovery or Word Tracker. Many engines also provide keyword tools. You may find that longer word phrases will convert better and that single words rarely convert well. You must select the best keywords for your campaign and also understand your matching options.

For instance, at Google, you can set each search-targeted keyword to have one of four settings: broad match, phrase match, exact match, or negative match. These four keyword matching options help control who sees your ads.

• Broad match allows your ad to show for searches on similar phrases and relevant variations.
• Phrase match allows your ad to show for searches that match the exact phrase.
• Exact match allows your ad to show for searches that match the exact phrase exclusively.
• Negative match ensures your ad doesn’t show for any search that includes that term.

Note that broad match can eat up your budget quickly. That’s why you need to understand the matching options and don’t forget to use negative match. If you are not using exact match, remember to use negative keywords to keep your budget under control.

Writing Ad Copy

You can write the best ad copy possible by testing multiple ads with different ad elements like the title, call-to-action, benefit statement, display URLs, etc. You want to use keywords in your title because the engines will bold keywords if they match the search query. You really can’t tell which ad is going to perform best until you test.

In creating ad copy, give users an incentive that will garner the click. This might be a discount, time-sensitive offer, etc. Ask a question (Do you need kick-ass web design?). Compelling copy calls for benefits rather than features. Try to differentiate yourself from the competition by reviewing their ads. You can also pre-quality prospects by age, price range,  geographical location, etc.

Creating Landing Pages

Your landing pages are very important. They must be optimized for targeted keywords. Test various versions of your landing pages the same way you tested your ad copy. Create consistency between your keywords, ad copy and landing pages for maximum findability. Landing pages don’t have to be part of your website. You can exclude them from indexing by using the robots.txt file. Don’t use your homepage as a landing page; it’s not specific enough. Your landing page has to be specific to the ad and should focus on one action per landing page. That means it should be simple. Establish trust on landing pages by showing BBB affiliation and by offering secure transactions.

Conclusion

SMBs need a balance of organic and paid listings for best results. The more search real estate you own, the higher your click-through rates. Ultimately, more exposure in the SERPs will build your brand.

Twitter Updates for 2009-07-04

• if concerned about a traffic drop off, verify you are in compliance with Google dup content guidelines http://tinyurl.com/344jw7 #

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Twitter Updates for 2009-07-01

• Pitch Engine looks sa-weet – http://tinyurl.com/c4nyc3 (I have no affiliation) #

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SEO: Best Marketing Tactic for Small-Medium Businesses or Celebrity Blogs

Everyone does research first to save time and money and we all use search engines to find what we’re looking for. When your business and brand ranks in the top search engnine result pages (SERPs), your business message is pre-disposed to millions of individuals in active “search & engage” mode. It can’t get any better than that for a business or celebrity wanting to voice the right message.

While it used to be that SEO took too much time or was expensive to resource or outsource, it’s largely automated today. SEO is one of the most powerful marketing tools you can invest in for your small business or blog, and it’s reasonably priced.

Below are some of Google’s commonly known and published SEO Best Practices they recommend to rank well in the SERPs:

• Website Analysis
• Keyword Identification
• Unique Title Tags for each page
• Unique Heading Tags for each page
• Image ALT Tags
• Dynamic Site Map Generation
• Search Engine Referrer URL
• Syndication to RSS Feeds
• Social Media Icons Insertion
• Linking to Establish Website Authority

Most of you are busy on a daily basis running your business. You want more visitors, customers, and the right message delivered but you need it to KISS (keep it simple stupid). Doing SEO yourself can take 40+ hours per month.

We now have a good solution for getting all the SEO basics done and managed automatically on a recurring basis. This will straighten out all of the confusion a search engine may have trying to understand your website or blog. As you know, a search engine is a robot and has a difficult time attempting to understand the difference between Fork in the road and Fork on the table. This software will make your website or blog work very well with all search engine robots by following all the robot rules. No web developer can keep up with everything on their own, even teams of developers fall behind or make honest mistakes when it comes to robot behavior.

This new SEO server plugIn software does it all for you while you tend to your business.

Businesses who will benefit from the SEO server plugIn software include:

Automotive Services

• Dealers
• Driving Schools
• Limo Services
• Mechanics & Repair
• Parts & Supplies
• Salvage

• Beauty & Health Care
• Bridal Services
• Gyms/Health Clubs
• Personal Trainers
• Spas & Salons
• Tanning Salons

Home Services

• Carpet Cleaning Services
• Cleaning Services
• Contractors

Medical Services

• Acupuncture and Massage Therapy
• Allergists
• Chiropractors
• Dentists
• Dermatologists
• Electrolysis
• Home Health Care
• MediSpas
• Optometrists
• Veterinarians

Professional Services

• Accountants
• Appraisers
• Architects
• Attorneys
• Caterers
• Computer Technicians
• Credit
• Event Planners
• Graphics
• Insurance
• Notary
• Shipping Services
• Tax

Retail Stores

• Bike Shops
• Book Stores
• Dry Cleaners
• Florists
• Hardware Stores
• Mail and Copy Shops
• Restaurants & Bars
• Sporting Goods
• Studios (Dance, Martial Arts)

Also, enterprise level systems optimizing millions of pages or Agencies representing multiple accounts can lease option to purchase a dedicated server appliance with SEO plugin software installed locally.

Beta Release – SEO Server PlugIn Software

First of it’s kind semantic SEO intuitive crawler for Apache, Linux and Windows based websites and blogs is release for Beta testing Friday June 26, 2009.

• Automated SEO server software
• White Hat SEO for Blogs and Websites
• Social Media engagement and influence
• Fully compliant with Google, Yahoo! and MSN

No SEO Knowledge Required: SEO server plug-in software grows your business by automating SEO for small business blogs and websites with 100% white-hat compliant Google guidelines. Essential best practice SEO tactics for your blog or website are performed automatically by a secure API get-call and provides you with a user interface dashboard to monitor your results. Watch your traffic and conversions grow, increase repeat visitors, boost conversions. Google Webmaster Central and Analytics included.

For more information download, read, sign and return the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). A completed non-disclosure agreement must be on file to receive additional information and/or sign-up for SEO server plug-in services.

Call 619-299-9858 to request the NDA; then read, sign and return NDA by Fax: (619) 342-2673

The Branding Value of Search

As early as 2005, we’ve been writing articles saying that the SERPs provide branding as well as direct response. Here is some recent survey data from Google and Yahoo! illustrating this.

Google commissioned a study through Media Screen to measure the impact of paid search ads on organic search terms for four consumer packaged goods (CPG) categories: cosmetic, beverage, food/snack, and household/laundry.

Respondents were asked to complete a brand survey to measure the brand impact on aided awareness, unaided awareness, purchase intent, and purchase consideration after being exposed to search results.

Key findings:

When the test brand appeared in paid search positions, unaided awareness and purchase intent increased for that brand.

The survey also observed the impact on competitive brands and found: When the test brand appeared in paid search positions, unaided and aided awareness decreased for other brands.

Yahoo! did a similar study with Media Vest and found that a sponsored search link has a positive impact on unaided awareness. Conclusions were that search provides branding for consumer packaged goods.

Source: Google CPG Blog

Note: There are other studies and sources to support the branding value of search; if interested contact me directly.

Google Changes Quality Score Algo for AdWords

As announced last week on the AdWords blog, Google is making some changes in the way it calculates your AdWords quality score. This will happen over the next few weeks and is based on feedback from users and advertisers.

· Removal of the minimum bid requirement. This will be replaced by “first page bid,” which is the bid estimated to get your ad on page one. All listings will be eligible to appear, and positioning will be based on quality score and maximum bid amount.

· Quality Score will now be calculated at the time of each search query.

· Keywords will no longer be judged “inactive for search.”

These changes will produce a lot more listings for any given search phrase if advertisers are willing to pay. It remains to be seen if advertisers will pay more to be on the first page. If the past is any indication, they probably will because paid search is effective, affordable and accountable if you have the advertising budget.

Google will make these quality score changes to a very small set of advertisers over the next few days with a full rollout in the coming weeks.

Consumer Satisfaction Soars on Google

As reported on AdAge, Google leads in search satisfaction. Satisfaction increased a whopping 10.3 percent in this year’s American Consumer Satisfaction Index. It looks like Google’s efforts to improve the user experience through universal search and personalization have paid off. Other factors like being named ubiquitously in the news doesn’t hurt, either.

Other search engines remained stable or declined slightly. AOL gained (3 percent), Yahoo! and Ask dropped (2.5% and 1.3%, respectively), and MSN remained the same.
This year’s survey gives the highest satisfaction score to Google (86), with other portals trailing. Yahoo!’s score was 77; MSN’s, 75; Ask’s, 74 and AOL’s, 69.

Conducted by the University of Michigan and ForeSee, the American Consumer Satisfaction Index began their annual consumer satisfaction surveys 14 years ago.
The report notes its consumer satisfaction data correlates with market share data from Hitwise. In June, Google had 69.2 percent market share, up from June last year at 63.9 percent.

ForeSee President Larry Freed attributes the big gain to word of mouth about many of Google’s non search products. “On one hand, there’s a simple and basic interface to search,” said Freed. “But Google is also known as an innovative company and has other great apps that are slowly starting to gain market share. … As they launch these things, sometimes it takes a while until users get to know it.”