Brand Name Products from 29 cents - HandyloftMen’s Oakley Sunglasses – The top Brand name To acquire This SummerBrand names like GildanBrand name New Casino Could Appear To West Virginia Town With Inhabitants Of 721Radware Acquires Strangeloop Networks, Leader in Web-Performance Optimization (WPO) Solutions for e-commerce and Enterprise ApplicationsSearch Engine Strategies Names 43 Search Engine Marketers as Finalists for SEM Conference’s First Annual SES Awards : 16 Winners Will Be Announced Throughout SES San Jose During Orion and Keynote Panels and Will Be Recognized in SES Awards Showcase on Search Engine WatchIncrease PPC Conversion Rates for Ecommerce WebsitesIt prevailed know-how that the very first t-shirts‘Peter brought naked pictures to training’ — Nehanda RadioSearch Engine Strategies for a Real Online Business

SEO vs. PPC: Should I bid on my brand name when I’m the top organic search listing?

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We’re having a big debate within our company about bidding on our brand name. On one side of the fence they’re saying we don’t need to bid on our brand name because we dominate the organic results. On the other side, numerous studies show that combining paid ads with organic listings can dramatically increase conversion rates. Here’s a study from the Atlas Institute showing a 22% increase over search alone. The study also talks about the “last ad” factor where people will click on your ad even though they intended to visit your site anyway so the study contradicts itself. There are many other studies showing it is worth bidding on your brand name. Unfortunately there are many studies showing it’s not worth bidding on your brand name if you rank well organically. The studies all conclude “it depends” whether you should bid on your brand name so round and round we go!

At the Search Engine Strategies conference last August, Rand Fishkin and Melanie Mitchell said their research showed it’s worth bidding on your brand keywords even if you rank well organically. I respect Rand and Melanie so that’s a big plus in the Yes column for me.

Here are some facts that may help you add your two cents to our debate:

  • We’re bidding about $2 per click for exact match clicks on our brand name and up to $11 per click on our phrase match bids (a wide gap which we’re working to narrow!)
  • In the organic search results, we control 8 out of 10 search results, including our web pages and some external blogs which have many links to our website
  • We’re a B2B software company with a six figure product so our sales cycle is long and requires many “touches” with the customer
  • About 60% of the time, people clicking on our paid brand keywords sign up for a demo of our product which is our “home run” from the marketing perspective
  • Since we added Ad Extensions to our paid ads, our conversion rate for demos has tripled while spending the same amount on the ads
  • We’re testing to see if our demo requests decline if we turn off the paid ads since they can click on our organic listing which includes Sitelinks to our demo request form. This is tricky because we don’t want to lose demo requests but we don’t want to have to pay for clicks if they’re willing to click on our organic listing.
  • Our cost/lead on our brand name paid ads is around $50/lead which is cheap considering each sale is six figures

We know that many people now use the Google search box in their browser toolbar instead of using the address bar. This means they’re just entering our brand name as a Google search instead of typing www.brandname.com in their address bar which would take them directly to our website. I’m sure Google loves the fact that people would rather do a Google Search and make an extra click to visit a website instead of typing a few extra characters but it makes us pay for extra clicks on our ads. Considering our cost/lead and the amount of each sale, it seems like a no brainer to continue running the ads in parallel with our organic domination. But if we turn off our ads, we could spend that money on other advertising channels.

What would you do if you were in our position?

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7 Landing Page Tips That Will Skyrocket Your Conversions

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Landing pages are the key to high conversions on the web. When someone searches Google to find a solution to their problem they want a quick answer. They don’t want to be directed to a home page and have to wade through pages of content to find the answer. They want to find the answer in the least number of clicks possible. A well-designed landing page will provide the solution to their problem in just a few clicks.

Read more about designing landing pages that will skyrocket your conversions on my guest post on the Sitecore Community Blogs at http://www.sitecore.net/en/Community/Best-Practice-Blogs/Ted-Prodromou/Posts/2011/01/7-Landing-Page-Tips-To-Boost-Conversions.aspx

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Social Media is just an excuse…

It’s true. Social Media is just an excuse for us to justify our aimlessly surfing the internet for hours and hours. I’m convinced its a conspiracy by those who want us to waste as much time as we can so we can go days without accomplishing anything.

I keep hearing from Social Media experts that you build your credibility and find new clients by commenting on other people’s blogs and forums. You start out by doing a Google Blog Search forkeywords related to your niche. Next you dig through the search results to find related blogs. Before you know it you’ve spent an hour sampling other blogs looking for something to comment on.

Finally you find a good blog and make your comment. Then back to the Google search results to find more related sites. You find a good article on one site and make a comment. That article leads you to another great site with relevant content. You spend an hour or so reading articles on that wesite which leads you to more articles on another blog. You make some comments on that blog which leads you to another blog from someone’s comment.

And then you realize you just spent 2 hours reading and commenting on blogs and news sites. Next you log into your Facebook account to see what your friends are up to. Your inbox is filled with messages from your "friends" who posted self promotions on your wall. Facebook is getting worse than the spam in your inbox. You get distracted playing on Facebook for a couple of hours and you realize you forgot to eat lunch.

After lunch you check your email and find more messages from friends. You spend 20 minutes deleting those messages and you’re Google Alert notifies you of a new blog post. You jump on that blog to make the first comment and spend another hour reading other blogs.

Does this sound familiar? It has to be a conspiracy but I haven’t figured out their motive other than to make us waste our time.

How Much Time Do You Spend Being “Social” every week?

I’ve been learning about web 2.0 and playing around with it for about 2 years now. It is a really effective tool for building relationships, attracting clients, and driving traffic to your blogs and websites. My business is booming and i have a steady stream of leads coming in daily. The downside, it can be a full time job being "social". If I spend 40 hours a week building relationships online, when do I have time to do the work for my clients? When do I have time for myself? I’m working at least 6 days a week right now and spending at least 12 hours each day in front of my computer. Although I love playing with technology and new sites on the internet, this isn’t the perfect lifestyle I wanted to create.

I found a great blog post today Chris Garrett’s blog at http://www.chrisg.com/need-digg-power-account/ that discusses the obsession with trying to dominate the social media pages. It’s very difficult and time consuming to get a post on the first page of Digg or del.icio.us. It’s even harder to stay at the top over time. Chris reitterates the fact the you shouldn’t worry about dominating the social media sites. Just focus on creating high quality content that helps your prospects and customers and the social media gurus will find you.

10 Steps to Finding Good Blogs


You’ve found a list of blogs in your niche and you’re ready to start commenting to build a relationship with their readers. How do you know if this is a good blog to comment on? There are a number of factors that determine if this is the right blog for you to comment on.

 
1. How many other people are commenting on this blog? If nobody else is commenting on the blog then it’s not a popular blog so don’t waste your time. If there are a few comments, try adding your two cents and see what happens.
 
2. How much traffic does this blog get? Go to Alexa.com and enter the URL of the blog to see how popular this blog is. Look for blogs with low Alexa rankings. The lower the better and you want to comment on blogs that are in the top 100,000 if possible. You can download a toolbar for your browser that makes this easy. I use the Firefox Addon Search Status which gives me instant traffic results at the bottom of my browser window. There’s also a toolbar for Internet Explorer that works well. Check out Alexa.com for the right toolbar for your browser.
 
3. What is the Google PageRank of the blog you want to comment on? You want to comment on blogs that have a high Google PageRank which means the site is considered to have high quality content in Google’s eyes. Making comments on high PageRank sites will also improve your website or blog’s Google ranking. You can download the Google Toolbar to determine the PageRank of the website or blog you’re visiting. The Search Status Addon for Firefox provides both Google Page Rank and the Alexa rating in one tool.
 
4. When you find a popular blog to comment on, read the blog posts and the quality of the comments. Do you want to be associated with this crowd? Don’t comment on a popular blog that you can’t relate to. If you’re a management consultant looking to connect with C level executives, commenting on a blog that’s popular with 20-something programmers won’t help you. Your comments will go over their head and their comments will be in lingo that you don’t understand. Look for blogs with comments coming from your target audience.  
 
5. Remember to read past posts and comments so you get into the flow of the conversation. You want to continue that existing conversation and add value to the conversation. You don’t have to agree with what’s being said and it’s okay to state an oposing opinion. If fact, being controversial is a good way to attract attention.
 
6. Be professional and be honest. Don’t try to be someone you’re not when commenting on blogs because people will read right through you. Remember that you’re trying to build long-term relationships with these readers so they’ll visit your blog or website so they’ll hire you or buy your products.
 
7. Remember to always use your real name when commenting and add your URL to the comment form. If you don’t feel comfortable using your real name and URL then you shouldn’t be posting on that blog.
 
8. Don’t try to sell your product or services in your comments. Just continue the existing conversation and answer questions or add value that demonstrates your expertise.
 
9. Don’t add your website URL in the comment. It’s okay to add a URL to another website that adds value to the conversation but promoting your own website will turn people off. It is okay to direct them to your website if you’re directing them directly to an article you wrote that solves their problem.
 
10. Find a few quality blogs and websites and participate on a regular basis so you build a relationship with the readers. It’s better to focus your effort on 2 or 3 high quality blogs then to spread yourself over 20 blogs where you’re only making a few comments.
 
Follow these steps and you’ll have traffic to your blog or website in no time. Remember it’s all about continuing the existing conversation and adding high quality comments that demonstrate your knowledge and expertise.
 
If you enjoyed this article please take a moment and bookmark this post on your favorite bookmarking website. To learn how to do this click here to watch this simple video.
 
 

 

Brand Name Products from 29 cents - HandyloftMen’s Oakley Sunglasses – The top Brand name To acquire This SummerBrand names like GildanBrand name New Casino Could Appear To West Virginia Town With Inhabitants Of 721Radware Acquires Strangeloop Networks, Leader in Web-Performance Optimization (WPO) Solutions for e-commerce and Enterprise ApplicationsSearch Engine Strategies Names 43 Search Engine Marketers as Finalists for SEM Conference’s First Annual SES Awards : 16 Winners Will Be Announced Throughout SES San Jose During Orion and Keynote Panels and Will Be Recognized in SES Awards Showcase on Search Engine WatchIncrease PPC Conversion Rates for Ecommerce WebsitesIt prevailed know-how that the very first t-shirts‘Peter brought naked pictures to training’ — Nehanda RadioSearch Engine Strategies for a Real Online Business