Search engines read text, and not a whole lot more. Search engines cannot see and interpret your images. They do not give bonus points to sites that look cool because of Flash technology. Search engines read text. Too often, Web sites are built based on design, rather than content. The content you put on your Web site holds a very important key to search visibility and online traffic.

Content is crucial to your Web site's success, but it is not the only source of search visibility. Here, we explain how and why content is essential to your Web site, but bear in mind there are additional important aspects to a successful search engine marketing campaign. Content is still king, but there are other important players in the royal court of online success.

Why is Content So Important?

The content on your Web site that search engines can read is a major factor in earning top search positions. Search engines crawl your Web site's content in order to "understand" what your Web site is about. Without the content, search engines have a very hard time understanding what your Web site is offering, and cannot award search visibility to it. Quite simply, to achieve high natural search visibility, your Web site needs to have unique content that search engines can read to effectively utilizes the keywords you hope to rank for.

Beyond search visibility, your content is what motivates your visitors to take action. On your Web site, you must talk to your market; let them know about your brand, your products and services and your expertise. Integrating the keywords you hope to rank for is important, but not at the expense of the readability of the page. Stuffing keywords into your content will do more harm than good. Write for your Web site's visitors. Keep your keywords in mind, but focus more on your customer's experience than the amount of keyword repetition you use on a page.

Your content not only allows Internet users to find your Web site through search engines, it also gives them a reason to stay once they are there. More factors search engines take into account when awarding search visibility is the length of a visitor's stay on your Web site, and how often they return to your Web site. Content allows users to spend more time on your Web site. Regularly updating your site with new, educational content will bring visitors back time and time again.

Are You On the Right Track?

There needs to be indexable content on every page of a Web site that you want to search engines to deem important. When you create a page for a specific product or service, you need to create content to populate that page. The content has to relate to the topic of the Web page, and it has to use the keywords you've already selected to target for that page.

A lot of emphasis needs to be placed on the term "indexable content". Indexable content can be defined as content that search engines can read. Content that is located within images doesn't count. Search engines only see the indexable content on a page, and can only give search visibility as based on the content their spiders can read. How do you know if your Web site's content is indexable? A simple test is just to try and highlight the text on a page of your Web site with your mouse. If, while holding your left mouse button down, you can highlight the text of your content, it is very likely that the body text is indexable, and search engines can in fact read it.

Web site owners need to understand the importance of the content on their Web site. Companies need to invest the proper resources into creating, optimizing and showcasing the content. Boiler plate content about your company or products doesn't cut it. Take the time to create original, informative content that is written for your Web site's visitors and optimized for search engines.

Content Is Crucial

Search engines need indexable content in order to give your Web site search visibility. Web users need content to understand what your company offers and why they should buy from you. Strong content also attracts links, building your brand's online presence and making your Web site more valuable to the search engines. Strong content that search engines can read is at the core of your online success, though it is not the only factor in gaining search engine visibility. From Social Media Marketing to Branding Strategies and beyond, a complete marketing campaign is driven by the informative, meaningful content your company can produce. A successful, comprehensive SEM campaign is driven by a Web site's content. Give your Web site's content the respect it deserves, and both your visitors and the search engines will take notice.

Labels: Organic SEO

Assumptions are risky, and too often we see companies making the same assumptions about their Web sites and Search Engine Marketing. Luckily, you don't have to make the same mistakes. Educate yourself, and avoid these expensive assumptions.

Assumption 1 - People know how to access your Web site

You believe your clients and potential clients have your Web site URL memorized. Well if they don't have it memorized, they most certainly have it bookmarked, right? Wrong. People forget things. Your customers aren't always accessing your Web site from the same computer, so their bookmarks may not always be available. This makes search visibility and high rankings on the search engines important. Not only will high search visibility allow new customers to find your Web site, it will also make it easy for current customers to make repeat visits and purchases.

Assumption 2 - People understand your products and services

How many times have you seen a commercial, and you have no idea what it's for until the very end, when the brand, product or service is highlighted. Too often, this happens on Web sites as well. Use your Web site, and especially your Home page to briefly educate your visitors about your company, what you offer, and why you're an industry leader. Remember to utilize your target keywords within your content.

Assumption 3 - People refer to your products the same way that you do

Assuming that your customers and potential customers refer to your products or services the same way you do is a dangerous mistake. You have a professional and expert view of your industry. Experience and education within a certain industry or product often leads to an enhanced vocabulary. While this is important for you as an industry expert, it can impair your lines of communication with customers. Keyword research is a critical step in the Web site optimization process. Find the keywords for your products and services that your customers are searching. Some of the data may surprise you! Targeting the keywords your customers are searching for will benefit you in the long run.

Assumption 4 - Creativity generates sales

Often, too much focus is placed on the appearance of a Web site, and other important aspects are sacrificed. A fancy looking Home page may impress some of your visitors, but if they can't figure out how to make a purchase or how to contact you, what good is your Web site? While the creativity can add distinctiveness and visual appeal, it will not ensure that visitors become customers. There has to be more to your Web site; informative content, easy to use navigation, straightforward calls to action. Depending on your Web site's creativity to generate your sales can be a costly mistake.

Assumption 5 - People know how to get around your Web site

Make sure your Web site's navigation is easy to understand and to use. Search engines don't always list your Home page as the top result for your Web site. Ensure that your Web site's architecture is search engine friendly, and that your navigation and menus allow visitors to easily orient themselves on your Web site. You may have great content within the pages of your Web site, but what happens once people have read that information? Can they easily return to your Home page? Is it clear on those interior pages how to make a purchase? Your site's architecture should allow visitors easy access to all of the important pages on your Web site, including the Home page, how to contact you, and how to buy.

Assumption 6 - Once your Web site is online, it's perfect

Web sites hit road bumps. Your customers make mistakes. When you have interactive facets to your Web site (contact forms, checkouts, etc.) things can and will go wrong. Customers can enter the wrong address or credit card expiration date. Make sure you try out your Web site to address functionality issues. Click on those links. Submit a form or order. Take the time to experience what your customers will experience from your Web site.

Assumption 7 - Customer service will answer all questions

Not all of the visitors to your Web site will contact your customer service with questions or problems. Add an FAQ section, and plenty of educational materials to your Web site so that you can answer the questions that are keeping your visitors from becoming customers. Your Web site cannot be solely made up of product descriptions and marketing materials. Use your Web site to educate your visitors. Establish yourself as an industry resource. Provide the tools and news that authenticate your market leadership. Supply the information your customers need to make educated purchases.

Assumption 8 - Visitors will come back

Even customers that love your site won't become regular visitors unless you give them a reason to. Create a "What's New" section. Add a Blog. Regularly develop new content that will keep your Web site fresh and useful for repeat visitors. Utilize the "Add This" tool so people can share and bookmark your URL for future visits. Add an RSS feed so people are made aware of changes to your Web site. Invest in Blog Marketing to create awareness and traffic for your Blog. You need to give people a reason to keep coming back to your site.

Labels: Organic SEO

Google Analytics has a feature called "Advanced Segments" that allows you to separate your data into groups of interest. Perhaps you want to analyze or compare your paid search traffic against your non-paid search traffic. Google Analytics allows you to do just that with the Advanced Segments feature. You can select up to four segments to use in your reports. Advanced Segments easily organizes your data for analysis. This provides the benefit of seeing different groups of data, so you can pinpoint where you need to focus efforts with specific groups of visitors and traffic.

Different groups may behave differently when they visit your site. You want to better target your programs based on the differences between these groups. For example, through segmenting and comparing your paid and non paid search traffic, you learn that you are gaining much higher conversions with your non-paid traffic. This will lead you to look at your paid campaign more thoroughly and spot keywords and ads to revise that you may have missed if you only looked at the overall picture. Looking at segmented data helps you find specific problems so you can better target your audiences.

With Google Analytics Advanced Segments you have the option to organize your data using a list of pre-defined default segments or you can create custom segments for your data.

Advanced Segments are on the right side of the screen on all your reports (see the yellow highlighted box below).


The default segments that Google Analytics currently sets include:

• All visits - this includes all available data and is the default setting.

• New visitors - allows you to look strictly at the behavior of new visitors who have not been to your site before.

• Returning visitors - tracks behavior of visitors who have previously been to your site and returned.

• Paid search traffic - shows only visitor data that came from paid search results.

• Non-paid search traffic - shows visitor data that came from non-paid search results.

• Search traffic - see visits that came from search engines.

• Direct traffic - visits where the user came directly to your site by typing in your URL or coming via a bookmark.

• Referral traffic - see data for all visits that were referred to your Web site from another Web site.

• Visits with conversions - visits that have turned into conversions or sales.

• Visits from iPhones - shows data for visits that came strictly from iPhones.

• Non bounce visits - visits where the visitor went to more than one page of your Web site.

You can utilize Advanced Segments to compare two different types of traffic or visitors. For example, if you want to compare paid search traffic with non-paid search traffic, you simply click to check the boxes next to both paid and non-paid search, then click "apply". Google Analytics will automatically show you separate information for all traffic, paid search traffic and non-paid search traffic.

Segments help you pinpoint where your trouble groups are. For example, when comparing paid and non-paid traffic, you notice that your paid traffic has a much higher bounce rate than your non paid traffic. You can then drill down into your keyword report and see your paid keywords that are attracting visitors with high bounce rates.

Using Advanced Segments will better organize your data so that you can filter the traffic and visitors that are qualified, as well as see which areas need adjustments. You can gain a better understanding of your customers, identify trends in similar groups, and analyze behaviors that occur in particular groups of visitors. Advanced segments allow you to more accurately predict patterns of behavior so you can be proactive and more efficient with your online marketing program.

Advanced Segments is a powerful tool to analyze your visitors and traffic. Whether you use this feature to compare segments or to single out segments of interest, this tool allows you to analyze the effectiveness at attracting qualified visitors and traffic on a group level.

Labels: Google Analytics

One of the great things about pay-per-click advertising over other forms of advertising is how quickly ads can be modified using measurement of results from split testing of ads. At campaign launch, split testing helps advertisers choose between different ad messages so they can utilize what works best. But a campaign needs continuous attention as the marketplace is constantly changing. Therefore ongoing split testing of ad copy could give you a distinct advantage.

Advertisers invest a lot of time into keyword research, landing page development, and budget forecasting just to have the ad copy snuff the fire. What went wrong? Why did the ads not appeal to and engage the market?

Advertisers need to remember that the copy that worked last month may not be what works best this month. Variations in ad copy could be as little as adding an exclamation point to one ad and using a period in another. That variation, regardless of scale, can make a big difference in setting you apart from your competitors. Ongoing split testing gives the best insight into what those changes should be.

Split testing can be done with little effort when using Google AdWords. An easy and almost completely passive way to split test across your campaigns is to place multiple ads into a single ad group and set the Ad Rotation Settings to "Rotate". This way all ads are served more evenly rather than the "Optimize" setting which will serve your best performing ad more often. With different ads showing the same number of times, you get an even comparison between ads to see what ad variation is doing well, and then make adjustments.

Modifying ads, however, does come with a small penalty. When ad copy is changed, Google AdWords treats the edited ad as if it was brand new. This means that the ad has no performance history, which negatively affects the Quality Score and position of the ad. In most cases the ads' Quality Score will bounce back because the adjustments will make the ad more engaging to your audience.

It is also good practice down the road to keep a control ad within each ad group to offset the negative affects of the dip in the Quality Score. This ad would usually be one that has performed well over time and, although not perfect, it will maintain that benchmark when you are optimizing other ad message points.

When it comes to measuring the results of your split testing and choosing the best possible copy, you will want to look at a couple different things. First, the Click Through Rate (CTR) will tell you which of the ads are grabbing the attention of your customers and enticing them into learning more. Secondly, the Conversion Rate will tell you if the ads are attracting qualified visitors.

Having the ideal set up doesn't matter when ad copy is ineffective. There are disadvantages of changing ad copy too often. But the positives of having honed and proven copy can pay big dividends. The trick is to have ad copy that does a better job appealing to your audience, while changing the messages in as few edits as possible along the way.

Labels: PPC Advertising