search

A few months back we sung the praises of Google’s Local Business Center and encouraged all the business owners in the blogosphere to snap up their listings. Creating/claiming a business listing is really one of the simplest things in the world to do, and since Google features its listings front and center on search engine results page one, having a listing is also one of the best ways to reach customers. But if, for some reason, you have not already claimed your listing, you really ought to do so before your competitors can monopolize the top spots. Why? Because most customers figure they can get what they need from one of the first few listings they see, so they won’t look beyond the main pack. Your business listing must occupy one of the top spots if it’s going to be effective. Thankfully, the tricks to boosting your listing’s rank are just as straightforward as getting a listing in the first place:

• Put keywords in the title of your listing: From Google’s perspective, the title of your listing (the name searchers see on the search engine results page) is the most important place for keywords. Your title should indicate what type of business yours is and where it’s located because those terms will be the ones used most often in a search. For example, if you own an art supply store in Chicago called “Glitter ‘n Glue,” the title of your listing should be “Glitter ‘n Glue Chicago Art Supplies.”
• Make sure the business address you enter in your listing exactly matches the address on your website and in internet Yellow Pages: The more often Google sees one business address, the more likely it’ll be to recognize the legitimacy and popularity of that business.
• Submit a phone number with a local area code: Local phone numbers prove to Google that you are actually doing business in the area you claim you are. If you have an 800 number you can add it as an additional number, but it will do you no favors in the primary position.
• Include keywords in the description of your business: Think about some of the words people might use to search for your business and arrange them in a readable 200-word description. Glitter ‘n Glue might choose “canvas,” “crafts,” “paint brushes,” “ceramic,” and “scrapbooking,” but they would never arrange them thusly: “We sell canvas paint brushes for your ceramic and scrapbooking crafts.” Customers want to understand who you are, so make sure your description makes sense to them.
• Fill out as much information about your business as you possibly can: Google wants to have the most complete collection of Local Search business listings on the Web. If you scratch Google’s back by submitting an informative listing, Google will scratch yours by ranking you higher.
• Consider who will be searching for your business: Will your customers be local or out-of-towners? If your customer base is local, you should use colloquial keywords in your listing. For example, if you own an ice cream shop in Rhode Island, it’d be better to mention your 200 varieties of colorful “jimmies” rather than your 200 varieties of colorful “sprinkles.” If your customer base is from out of town (perhaps you own a hotel or a restaurant) identifying your location is especially important because potential customers who are planning a visit will use it as their search term 100% of the time.
• Get reviewed: Potential customers love reading what other people have to say about a business they’re considering using; Google loves listings that can boast a lot of customer reviews. Let your current customers know about your listing and encourage them to leave feedback there.

As always, too much of a good thing can be, well, bad. So don’t stuff keywords (it looks spam-y), don’t write 100 five-star reviews for your own business (it looks fake), and for heaven’s sake don’t create multiple listings (Google really hates that). If you play well and you play fairly, your listing will make you proud.

One of the biggest arguments for encouraging businesses to invest in social media marketing is that they’ll be able to monitor what customers are saying about their brand, guide the conversations, address issues that arise, and generally be more in-tune with how their brand is perceived. Regardless of whether or not you currently use social media to market your business, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ve been touched by a company’s social media monitoring efforts. Well, provided you were one of the over 100 million people who tuned in to the Super Bowl on Sunday to watch the ads as well as the game, that is.

The ad in question wafted onto the TV screen during the third quarter, it lasted a warm and fuzzy minute, and then it faded to black. The ad was from Google, but it wasn’t hawking Google Chrome or Google Android or Google ISP or any of the other new products and services that keep cropping up in the Google-verse. Nope, the ad featured the most basic Google service of all—its search engine:



The ad (called “Parisian Love”) was certainly a hit—a number of outlets have reported that it was one of the most talked-about ads of Super Bowl XLIV —but it also left many people scratching their heads. Google never advertises on TV, why would they spend $6 million to start now? Does Google feel threatened by Bing? Who hasn’t heard of Google search? (To be fair, though, everyone’s heard of Budweiser too, yet we still see their Clydesdales prance through every single Super Bowl.) 

"Parisian Love" wasn’t actually intended to attract the Super Bowl audience to the search engine that made Google famous and still brings in nearly all of its revenue. In fact, the ad wasn’t originally intended to air during the Super Bowl at all. It was created by Google’s creative team and posted to Google’s YouTube channel almost three months ago as one in a series of promotional “Search Stories” videos. The purpose of these videos is not to promote a Google service, but rather to contribute to Google’s “don’t be evil” image. 

According to Google CEO Eric Schmidt , “Our goal was simply to create a series of short online videos about our products and our users, and how they interact. But we liked this video so much, and it's had such a positive reaction on YouTube, that we decided to share it with a wider audience,” said Schmidt. In other words, Google’s monitoring efforts directly influenced their Super Bowl presence. Google could have chosen to remain off-air, they could have put that $6 million toward something else, but when you already know your ad’s a winner (a luxury most other Super Bowl advertisers don’t have. Ahem, Taco Bell.) heck, what’s $6 mil?

And judging by "Parisian Love"’s reported popularity, I think I can safely speak for much of the Super Bowl audience when I say that when that familiar search bar popped up on our TV screens, we put down our buffalo wings and our tasty beverages, we watched, we smiled, and when the “Search On” tag line popped up we sighed, “Well gee wiz, Google! That was an unexpected treat! I wonder if I have any new e-mail.” If you’re already sure that your ad is going to illicit nearly 100 million responses like that, well, what’s $6 mil indeed!     

In 1998, a small start-up company introduced the tech world to a new search engine marketing model that became the exceedingly popular Pay-per-Click (PPC) Internet advertising system. Hundreds of search engines offer PPC marketing services today, but because Google is such a dominate player in the search engine world, its AdWords PPC tool is the one that gets our dollars. Campaigning the AdWords way may seem intimidating to the novice marketer, so we’ve paired a few common questions with cut-and-dry answers to show you just how straightforward and important PPC is.

Where will my ad appear?
Sponsored ads appear both above and to the right of organic results on search engine results pages:
The top spots receive the most customer attention and are, therefore, the most coveted. Reaching the top spot used to mean spending top dollar, but Google’s now rewarding advertisers for writing relevant content, by factoring in the ad’s Click-Through Rate (CTR). If you bid $1.00 for a keyword and boast a CTR of 12%, you’ll be positioned higher than the guy who bids $3.00 and has the CTR of 0.1%.
 
How will it look?
Ads have three components—a 25-character headline, two rows of text (each row may contain about 35 characters), and one row for a destination URL:

You’ll need to fill that limited space with relevant keywords and clear, common, and specific language. You want to make sure that your ad copy targets the correct audience rather than a ragtag bunch of crazy characters who won’t buy your product. You’re paying for clicks, after all.

How much does it cost?
The beauty of the PPC campaign is that it costs however much you want it to. You tell Google how much you are willing to spend per day and on each keyword (called a “bid”). When someone searches for one of your keywords, Google takes into account the day, the time, and the searcher’s location and then compares the bids to determine which ad will be displayed. Google will show your ad as often as possible until you meet your daily budget. Hundreds of users may see your ad in a day, but you only pay the price you set if someone clicks. 

How do I decide who will see it?
With keywords and geo-tagging. Once you’ve identified your target audience, you can use a keyword research tool (like the AdWords keyword tool or Wordtracker) to generate keyword ideas and to get an idea of how popular certain keywords are. Remember that more popular keywords are usually more expensive and less effective; choosing more specific keywords will not only save you money, but may also increase the number of clicks your ad receives. Google also allows you to target your ad to specific regions, cities, and countries, lessening the chance that your ad will fall on deaf ears.

How do I know if it’s working?
An ad’s success is measured in its Click-Through Rate (CTR) and Conversion Rate. CTR is the number of times an ad is clicked on divided by the number of times an ad is viewed. For example, an ad that appears 1000 times and receives only 1 click would have a (pretty dismal) CTR of 0.1%. An ad’s Conversion Rate is based on how many people are taking action on your website (buying a product or requesting more information) once they get there via the ad. If you’re spending $.10 per click and one out of every five clicks turns into a $50 sale, that’s a pretty easy way to earn $49.50.      

How much work is involved?
The set up is fairly simple, but your efforts should not end there. In order for your campaign to be successful, you’ll need to monitor it closely. The game can change quickly, and you’ll want to keep track of the keywords that are converted into profits so you don’t continue to spend money on those that are ineffective. Google offers a couple of free tracking tools—Conversion Tracking and Campaign Summary—that can help you keep up with your campaign.

When PPC campaigns are managed successfully, they can result in heaps of revenue and brand exposure. If you’re not already investing time and funds in a PPC campaign, now is a fine time to start.

One of the most beneficial activities you can do for your internet marketing initiative is come up with a good, solid list of keywords and phrases that will help customers find your site on the World Wide Web. Sounds easy enough, right? After all, no one’s more tuned in to your industry than you are, so you’re bound to know what your customers are looking for. All you have to do is think of ten or fifteen words you use every day, plug them into your website, and voila! Instant hits!

Unfortunately, generating a keyword list is a bit trickier than that, and when the task is taken too lightly, the work usually ends up being all for naught. If you really want to be found online, you need to do some research and refining.

• Start with a good brainstorming session. Browse trade publications, read customers’ emails, analyze your competition, study your products, and jot down all the words that might apply to your business. Some of these words might end up being gems; others might be duds, but what’s important is that you have some raw material to work with.

• Back when the Internet was shiny and new, searchers could use generic terms to find what they wanted. Now that the Internet is older and a heck of a lot bigger, searchers have to look for specifics if they want search engines to turn up anything worthwhile. Your customers aren’t searching for any old “suit” or any old “dress” anymore—they’re looking for a “custom suit in Dallas, TX” and a “vintage evening gown.” So if you’re selling prom dresses in Timbuktu, make sure your keywords tell that story.

• Only choose words that are relevant to you. You might think that you’ll reach a broader audience by using popular keyphrases like “global warming” and “Star Wars” on your fashion boutique’s website, but anyone who finds your site using these terms won’t stick around long enough to browse your selection of designer scarves. Also remember that search engines don’t respond well to sites that try to trick them, so using irrelevant keywords and phrases might get your site penalized.

• You might know your industry better than anyone, but your insider info could actually harm your keyword list if you’re not careful. For example, you might notice that your female customers are suddenly so ravenous for weskits that you’re having trouble keeping them on the shelves of your fashion boutique and it occurs to you that “weskit” would make a great keyword. Except all the women who are buying your weskits are calling them “vests” or “blouses,” so odds are good that introducing “weskit” as a keyword won’t do much for business. To avoid this snafu, try asking friends, family, and customers to look over your keyword list or to generate some ideas of their own. These people are some of the best representatives of the searching public and might make some excellent suggestions that hadn’t even occurred to you.
   
• Plug your keywords into a keyword research tool (we like Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool and Wordtracker) to determine how many people are actually using them in searches and how competitive they are (that is, how many other sites are linking to them). You want to use words that are searched often and that aren’t so competitive that you’ll never make it to page one. These research tools might also suggest great words and synonyms that you hadn’t thought of, so keep an eye out for them.
   
• As with any marketing initiative, you have to make some alterations time to time. Your site’s and customers’ needs will change, and your keyword list needs to keep up, so you’ll have to update as necessary.

Google recently rolled out some highly-anticipated real-time features for its search engine that include Twitter and news and blog feeds that can (and often do) occupy the top spots on search results pages. Google says that the changes will give its search engine users access to the most up-to-the-minute news possible.  We say the changes will give social media-savvy business owners an even greater chance of being found online.

Google’s real-time search is meant to give Google users access to news as it breaks, even if the user wasn’t necessarily searching for news. Google gives the following example on its blog: “The big story [in the top position when we searched for GM] was about GM's stabilizing car sales, which shows under 'News results.' Nonetheless, thanks to our powerful real-time algorithms, the 'Latest results' feature surfaces another important story breaking just seconds before: GM's CEO stepped down.…” If the real-time search had been live when Michael Jackson died, Google users searching for his biography might have seen tweets about his death before the mainstream media had a chance to report it (I, for example, found out very early by reading statuses on Facebook).

Could some of this “real-time” news actually be just plain old gossip? It certainly could, yes, but that doesn’t stop it from occasionally receiving top billing, and there are some strategies that businesses can use to make themselves visible in that spot:
•    Tweet about trending topics. They are the ones that make it to the top of the search results page.
•    Update your business page’s Facebook status with subjects people want to know about. Facebook statuses are not yet part of Google real-time search, but they will be in the near future. When they are, their feed will probably behave much like Twitter’s.
•    Blog about interesting or useful information that people will want to share. The more popular a blog post is, the better chance it will have of showing up at the top of the results page.
•    Include keywords in blog titles, status updates, and social media descriptors whenever possible. That way, when people search for one of your keywords, the live feed will show them your blog (and, by extension, your business).

It’s important to note that Twitter feeds and blog posts are not always displayed in the prime top position (they usually only appear there when the searched term is a hot Twitter or current event topic). They are, however, always available in the “Show Options” menu, and there’s no telling where they’ll end up once Google has refined the real-time search algorithm. Google admits that there are quite a few wrinkles it needs to iron out of its upgraded system; however, the mere fact that Google is taking the steps to include social media so prominently in its search results points to the breadth of social media’s influence and to its mighty staying power.

*Google has released this video to demonstrate how its new real-time search functions.

I will never know as much as the folks at Planet Ocean or John and Robin at Search Engine Workshops.  John & Robin introduced me to SEO some five years ago and while I continue to learn about SEO and feel good about my trade, I am at best – in ski parlance – a black run hack, while the folks mentioned previously are Double Black Diamond, Mogul skiers.  There are many experts, the web is full of them and they all offer advice good, average and bad, and some charge serious money for the advice that is common on the web, but they charge it to the unsuspecting, those who know SEO must be done, but not real sure how to do it.

John Alexander and Robin Nobles do charge for their workshops and to participate in Search Engine Workshops as does Planet Ocean, but both have modest fees for their information and certainly give value for those charges.  I pay a small annual fee to receive monthly reports from Planet Ocean and have always valued the information as informative, relevant and easy to apply.  I encourage anyone who is interested in SEO to check either of both for current and informative information about the ever changing world of Search Engine Optimization.

Thank you all,

On June 30, Google posted detail on the their improved indexing of Adobe Flash files, specifically SWF files of all kinds, according to Rod Adler and Janis Stipins -- Google software Engineers.  They go on to say that all of the text that users can see will be indexed, as well as the URLs in that text. 

They also point out that this applies only to contextual text and that they will not recognize or index text or links within an image.  Nor will they index FLV files, such as many videos on You Tube, as those files do not contain text elements. 

The best part of this is that webmasters need take no special action to ensure their flash files are read.  The engineers created an algorithm that explores the files, just be sure that the content in those files is information you want indexed and if not, embed that detail in an image, making it invisible to Google.

They continue to have limits on their technical ability. For further details, check out the Google Webmaster Central blog.