Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Search Engine Marketing Help


First... I have not clicked thru these links.

Second... The world is still trying to figure out how to use the internet as a marketing tool
.

Third... Search Engines are one of the most common ways that folks use the internet to find stuff that they are looking for. Google is the leader.

Fourth... I have a way that works at driving people to your website. But you will have to ask me.

Now, if you want to read more, this is from Mediapost:

Stand Out From the Pack With A Net Promoter Score Search Engine Journal How do you explain your firm's value proposition to potential search clients? If you use statements like "our world-class customer service," "a customized, effective SEO/SEM methodology," or "an experienced team of industry thought-leaders," chances are, your possible client has heard some of the same things from the other firm pitching them. Ken Clark offers a different set of benchmarks, or differentiators to help explain why a client should work with (or stick with) your firm, called the Net Promoter Score (NPS). The system, as developed by Fred Reichfeld, is determined by the ratio of promoters (or customers that are unflinchingly loyal to your company), passives (people that are apathetic about your brand) and detractors (consumers that are unhappy with your company's performance). You can find out your NPS by surveying your current clients, and subtracting the number of detractors from the number of promoters. Passives are considered neutral, so they're not factored in. "The power of NPS is not based on how high you scored on your first NPS survey, but instead the subsequent impact you get from your employees and company becoming focused on improving the score," Clark says. "An increase in your NPS score means you are getting more referrals and higher customer satisfaction - which will lead to more growth and profitability." - Read the whole story...

Building Your Supplemental Web Marketing Skills
ViperChill
Glen Allsop gives the rundown on a host of online marketing disciplines and the various sources of free info available to help a search specialist, for example, learn more about affiliate marketing, copywriting or social media.

He outlines the basics of PPC and SEO, and offers links to forums like Cre8asitePPC and SEORefugee, respectively, for newcomers to search. For affiliate marketing, Allsop says it "combines many things you don't see that often elsewhere such as landing page optimization, persuasive copy and email marketing." He lists blogs like Affiliate Tip and UberAffliate, as well as forums like eWealth and WickedFire as reference points. - Read the whole story...

Offering A Warranty With Your SEO Services
SEOmoz
Sarah Bird makes the case for including a warranty or disclaimer in your client contracts, arguing that such provisions help protect both search firms and their clients from false claims and exorbitant expectations.

"Clients forget and/or misinterpret verbal conversation," Bird says. "If it is written down, your client is more likely to remember that you didn't promise the moon and the stars. Thus, your client will be less upset on the day their rankings drop by five results for no apparent reason." A warranty also limits your liability if you can't snag or sustain high rankings.

When including a warranty, make sure the client is aware of it from the proposal stage, and try to use language that clearly explains your stance. Call in legal counsel to check over your warranty, as customer protection laws vary by state.

Bird also reminds search firms that a warranty isn't a cloak to hide behind if they do over-hype their services. "I want to be clear that I am not advocating over-selling your services and then relying on a disclaimer of warranties to either avoid liability or bully clients," she says. "Doing so is dishonest and bad business. I am advocating the use of warranties because every talented and honest SEO consultant is going to run into an over-demanding, unsatisfied client." - Read the whole story...

Crafting The Appropriate Ad Text
Search Marketing Standard
Testing, competitive research and dynamic keyword insertion (DKI) are some of the tools David Rodnitsky counts as essential to the search copywriter's repertoire.

With testing, your goal should be trying to find a slightly "generic" ad text that can work across multiple, diverse ad groups. Pit two or three of these ad texts against each other, then suss out the winner and repeat with a new set of challengers. "Wash and repeat until the increase in performance becomes minimal or your ad text winner holds the top position through many ad text wars," he says.

"When first developing your ad text copy, you can save yourself a lot of time by first looking at what your competitors are doing," Rodnitsky says. "More specifically, look at what the advertisers in the top positions are using for their ad text." Then, use those terms to influence your own copy--perhaps finding value proposition keywords that they're missing, or related terms that are more appropriate for your company.

And lastly, remember to not be overly concerned with CTR, as its just one metric of ad copy performance. "Many people have been duped into thinking that the sole determinant of ad text success is click through rate (CTR)," Rodnitsky says. "While it is true that your CTR will reduce your CPC; on the search engines, sending thousands of unqualified visitors to your site will quickly deplete your budget and ruin your ROI." - Read the whole story...

Crafting The Appropriate Ad Text
Search Marketing Standard
Testing, competitive research and dynamic keyword insertion (DKI) are some of the tools David Rodnitsky counts as essential to the search copywriter's repertoire.

With testing, your goal should be trying to find a slightly "generic" ad text that can work across multiple, diverse ad groups. Pit two or three of these ad texts against each other, then suss out the winner and repeat with a new set of challengers. "Wash and repeat until the increase in performance becomes minimal or your ad text winner holds the top position through many ad text wars," he says.

"When first developing your ad text copy, you can save yourself a lot of time by first looking at what your competitors are doing," Rodnitsky says. "More specifically, look at what the advertisers in the top positions are using for their ad text." Then, use those terms to influence your own copy--perhaps finding value proposition keywords that they're missing, or related terms that are more appropriate for your company.

And lastly, don't be overly concerned with CTR, as it's just one metric of ad copy performance. "On the search engines, sending thousands of unqualified visitors to your site will quickly deplete your budget and ruin your ROI," Rodnitsky says - Read the whole story...

Launching International Search Campaigns On Yahoo
PPC Blog
Gordon Choi outlines some tactics for running international campaigns with Yahoo Search Marketing. The first step is, of course, to test. "Whether you are starting a keyword list from scratch or migrating the keyword list from your Adwords campaigns, start by launching search-targeted campaigns in the country that can deliver the most traffic to your Web site," he says. "This will allow you to test Yahoo Search Marketing's platform thoroughly and quickly."

Once you've tested to see which countries and keywords will work best, bring in a professional copywriter (or appoint someone from your team) to deal with drafting the copy. Either way, the person should be a native speaker of the target language, as even if you're targeting another English-speaking country, you'll still need to take into account their use of accents and colloquialisms.

Try to stay on top of local news, so you can also develop ad campaigns that (tastefully) capitalize on major events. "Writing the exact copy for the exact events will certainly improve CTR with conversions," Choi says. - Read the whole story...

Google Using TinyURL For SMS Search?
Digital Inspiration

The Search For Booze (In Australia)
Alt Search Engines
- Read the whole story...

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