Marketing on the Web I attended an Advanced AdWords seminar last week and am revisiting the topic of Building National Ads for Local Needs . This seminar was sponsored by Google and lead by Brad Geddes of BG theory . While most of the Advanced Class was more a refresher than anything new, it has prompted me to make a change in my national campaign strategy for local business. In addition to the negative terms I use (listed in the original article), I now also use exclude cities, regions and metro areas in the cam...
MoreSEM
PPC Management Options
I handle pay per click campaigns for most of my customers. The front-end, setting up and tuning the campaign is the most time consuming part of the effort. Finding the right words and then determining which words best convert. After the initial set-up maintenance requires fewer hours, with much of the time spent, testing new ad copy and adjusting bids to improve acquisition cost. However diligence and attention are important as search phrases should be constantly evaluated and the results fed ba...
MoreHuntsville Internet Marketing Services
When I started my consulting business, I imagined that I would be working with larger firms as part of a team, with in-house web and marketing resources, applying my SEO/SEM skills to a given situation for others to carry out. While it does work that way with larger accounts, I am frequently called to apply technical changes for small companies that have little or no marketing and/or the technical expertise. (It is unlikely they employ anyone who knows what an <H1> tag is, or how to con...
MoreChasing the Long Tail
It appears that attitudes on mining the lesser used, but more specific "long-tail" phrases is changing. Quality Score is making it too expensive to go after these phrases. What this means is to improve the performance and lower the cost of your campaigns you need to clear out the deadwood. If you must stubbornly clinging to your long-tail phrases, move them their own group so they aren't needlessly impacting the Quality Score of your other campaigns. More on this topic here in Yahoo's Sear...
MoreInternet Marketing Overview
This past week I was asked to speak to a group of CEOs at the Huntsville business incubator, BizTech . In preparation for the meeting, I created a slide presentation that discusses organic versus paid search results and some of the elements that come into play when improving Search Engine Rank. Here is a link to that presentation. Internet Marketing Overview. I recently updated this presentation for the North Alabama Web Developers group. The update is here.
MoreBuilding National Ads for Local Needs
Google says that they are accurate in identifying only about 35% of "local" traffic. This means if you run ads to your local market there is a good chance that 65% of your target audience will never see your ads. Including your city and state in national ads will also reduce the likelihood of someone outside your area clicking your ad. (more…)
MoreThe Importance of About Us and Contact Us Pages
I am always amazed when I find a site that is lacking an About Us or Contact page. Unlike a bricks and mortar business, a website can be created out of thin air, making these pages essential to establishing trust and closing business. The content of these pages should communicate the people or company behind the website and where you are physically located. About Us: An About page helps people identify with you and you passions. Leave the sales pitch out. Small businesses should tell peop...
MoreBreak your PPC Campaigns into bits for better conversion
I think most of us do the basics with our PPC campaigns, grouping phrases and then those phrases with related ads (such as marketing: internet marketing, web marketing, and services: SEM services, PPC Services...). However a recent exercise I went through yielded big benefits. Now let me preface this by saying I don't advocate the use of click through rates to determine the effectiveness of an ad. I always look for some kind of conversion metric to use. You may be thinking that you don't have...
More