Archive for August, 2007
It is a well known fact, that a number of factors aid the route to search, including a number of offline factors. iProspect have conducted a survey regarding Offline Channel Influence on Online Search Behavior Study, covering just that, what influences users to search online?
The study concluded the following
- 37% said a television ad encouraged to use a search engine to find something
- 36% said word-of-mouth initiated a search
- 30% said a print ad
- 20% said a physical store’s location
- 17% said a radio ad.
To read the complete study, please visit the iProspect website.
August 20th, 2007
It still amazes me how many search engine marketeers merely focus on singular aspects of a search marketing strategy, such as traffic generation, or visibility. Whilst on some projects or within certain sectors, this is acceptable as a criteria for successm, it is becoming more and more commonplace for campaigns to be judged on ROI, on cost pers, and rightly so.
This is particularly the scenario with paid search management campaigns where customers are not merely paying for the service, they are paying for the traffic, and as such convertability in whatever guise it may come in, is fundamental when establishing the success of a campaign, and is a vital tool in establishing whether or not your campaign is correctly positioned.
However there are a number of simple things, that can be done in order to maximise your ROI across your search marketing campaigns
1) Web Analytics and stats are your friend
Stats are a fundamental part of any campaign we work on. If you were a pilot/sailor would you fly without either autopilot or a map - no I didn’t think so. Similarly with stats. Correct setup, analysis and planning based on behavioural and traffic stats and trends is fundamental in ensuring that campaigns are correctly focussed.
We have worked on a number of projects where early diagnosis of potential bottlenecks have been identified, and addressed quickly resulting in significant improvements to both ROI and traffic. If a customer has a bad experience on your website, it doesn’t just affect that particular visit, it may stop them from visiting your site again… and again… and again.
We have worked with a number of clients, where despite large figures being spent previously on marketing activity (aimed at driving traffic to the site), there has been no aspects of the ‘conversion process’ addressed, and ultimately these campaigns have failed to produce the expected ROI, and the subsequent failure of the sites put down to ‘customer preference’. Whilst this may be the case in more niche, or highly specialised industries, this site/customer (mentioned above), sits within a booming retailing sector where many of its competitors are fully exploiting the opportunities and benefits that online (and e-commerce) offer.
However stats really IMO come into their own in terms of the ongoing planning of a campaign. Regular reference to stats as regards user keyword activity, traffic sources, bounce rates and the like have been fundamental in ensuring that campaigns are correctly focussed, and optimised and that websites are not positioned in territory where traffic is either irrelevant or highly unlikely to either convert or result in significant brand awareness.
Regular reference to stats, including targeted goal definition, split testing analysis and subsequent planning and implementation won’t just improve the site, it will improve your ROI and ultimately the success of your online (and even offline) marketing activity.
2) Monitor, Monitor, Monitor
Online Marketing is often a long term piece of work, even in the case of paid search, and may require significant amounts of careful monitoring in order to ensure that they return what is expected of them. Never is this more apparent than within search marketing, where careful monitoring and analysis of phrasology can often open up unexpected sources of traffic and income.
Paid search in particular can benefit significantly from such activity. Careful analysis of customer behaviour can provide you with an overview of customer behaviour, such as when users tend to enter your site, what time(s) users tend to convert, and even when the highest percentage of users leave your site (obviously stats play an important part in this process). Such information could then be used to tailor visibility for certain periods of the day (by either turning ads on/off - or merely reducing/increasing the cost-per-click during applicable periods)
Monitoring should be taken particularly seriously - and if done properly will not only significantly increase your ROI, but also the time taken to manage your campaigns in the long run.
2) Test, Learn, Refine
You are very unlikely to get things right first time, particularly where paid search is concerned. This should never be seen as a sign of weakness, and rather more of an opportunity. Campaigns are like pets - they need to be looked after. As such constantly test your campaigns, learn from your mistakes/findings and refine your campaigns accordingly
Online marketing is a skill, and by incorporating such research into our everyday planning, we not only become a profession in our own right, I would suggest we earn the respect of more established sectors as well.
August 17th, 2007
I read a recent article on Adweek which complimented a recent issue we addressed about the future of search engine marketing and advertising. The article entitled ‘‘Old Media’ Still Resonate, Survey Says‘ followed a recent survey by Deloitte & Touche’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications practice.
The survey of 2,200 consumers 13 to 75 years old, offered hope for traditional media/advertising and yielded some fresh insights into new-media trends. THis included:
- Nearly three quarters of respondants enjoyed reading magazines, despite the fact the same publications were often available online as well as offline. This was the case across all generational segments.
- Over half of respondants (51%) consumed user generated content such as blogging
- Television was still a core activity across generational segments - however participatory TV will become more prevelant
However from a online or search marketing perspective, there were a number of very interesting findings
- More than a quarter of consumers would rather pay for online content than be exposed to advertising
- Search engines were the primary source of a driving traffic to a website. Although search engine activity was No. 1 at 84 percent, 82 percent of respondents visited a web site because of a personal recommendation. Adverts on television (65 percent), web site ads - such as banners(55 percent) and e-mail campaigns (54 percent) followed in influence.
- More than a quarter of those survey aged 13-24 said they plan to shop online in the next 12 months
- 60% of respondants visit 10 or more websites a week
- Overall there was more receptivity to print ads - however I would bear in mind the significant difference in response rates between search engine advertising and other forms of online advertising
To read the full article in Adweek, click here
August 15th, 2007
Being the proud Lancashire Search Marketing agency that we are, we thought it apt to take a moment to see what our fellow Lancashire SEO friends are doing.
In particular a number of Lancashire Search Marketing agencies have been making a lot of noise recently. However it has to be said there is still a distinct lack of good/reasonable search agencies in Lancashire (we have excluded Manchester SEO agencies from this list).
However in general I would say many of the local Lancashire new media/internet agencies offer Search Marketing as a mere add-on to their current range of services, rather than a standalone service. I would however say, the benchmark is raising, and we here at E-Gain will be chomping at the bit to ensure that we are at the forefront of SEO and SEM in Lancashire
August 15th, 2007
Its been known for a while … but the supplemental index as we know it is no more. Whilst the index itself still exists, however search engine optimisation specialists such as ourselves are now unable to query the supplemental index in order to find out whether indeed the pages are supplemental or whether there is a greater problem looming.
To this effect, the ‘removal’ of the supplemental is a big step and a big deal for search engine optimisation professionals. Whilst from a visibility perspective it will make no difference at all, it will mean we will have to rely on more intelligent site development. In the meantime however we have compiled a couple of tips to help your pages stay out of the supplemental index.
- Ensure you have unique information on each page - that includes your title, description and to a lesser extent keywords (however probably worth doing for good practise). One of the reasons for being placed in the supplemental index is that Google deems your pages to be too similar
- Ensure your content is unique - this may not sound a big deal but you will be suprised by just how many people just ’scrape’ sites for content. As above - as the saying goes - familiarity breeds contempt (sort of
)
- Get good relevant linkage into your site
August 13th, 2007
I have read a couple of articles recently, some directly saying that Google hates SEO’s others being more stealthy. However during a recent post by John Andrews (www.johnon.com), called ‘Can Google kill off SEO’. In the article John Andrews states
“We all know Google hates SEO. They used to express it openly, before they were a BigPublicCompany. Then they branded it, with the ‘black hat’ references. Now they are quiet about openly opposing SEO, although with each new “advance” of the Google ‘algorithm’ they try and kill off what is commonly understood to be Search Engine Optimization (SEO). They do it by trying to make it irrelevant, or at least trying to make it appear that way. They do it by taking away the signals that suggest a need for SEO, one at a time.”
John does go on to make a good point for why change within Google is good for SEO’s in particular, and how in particular only a complete change in direction would significantly affect SEO activity.
However the question he raises regarding Google hating SEO’s is a good one. Surely not …
Well in my humble opinion, no. What is the point behind Google hating SEO’s. Sure make life difficult for people trying to manipulate the search engine results, but in terms of hating an industry, I would have to draw a line short of that (although perhaps some of our less industrious spam-friendly friends may need their wings clipping somewhat).
To be brutally honest, I can see no reason for Google to hate SEO’s. SEO’s I would suggest are one of the reasons, search engines are as effective are. Us Search Engine marketeers at the end of the day, want our campaigns to work, and may marketeers such as E-Gain, rely heavily on ROI focussed service. For this reason, all aspects of the marketing mix have to be working in synergy, and thus relevance and targeting are fundamental aspects of all our campaigns. Essentially, this is what Google wants - good quality, relevant results.
Google have also provided a wealth of tools, aimed at providing marketeers and potential marketeers with sufficient information to promote their sites - whether it be guidelines, webmaster tools, API access or blogs. Surely such activity is not a case of trying to minimise the effect of would be search engine marketeers.
Above all, most search engine marketing agencies don’t just offer SEO, they offer paid search as well. If you annoy the agencies but attacking SEO, surely you run the risk of affecting paid search spend as well. Google and Yahoo work very closely with agencies as regards their paid search campaigns, and as such any more to alienate the SEO industry, would surely have an effect from a paid search as well. Too much of a risk I would have thought from a company like Google.
At the end of the day, I think it comes down to one thing. What commercial benefits would there be to doing so? If Google was seen to be impartial at the end of the day, I would suggest it would go the same way as Altavista and Yahoo before it
August 8th, 2007
Great news, it appears we have a search engine optimisation meeting coming right up here to the Northwest, in fact the meeting to discuss all things SEO is in Manchester.
Posted on the Searchengineserious website, the Manchester SEO meet is arranged on September 14/15th 2007. Like the original PubCon all attendees are responsible for paying there own way with drinks, meals etc, no sponsors, no presentations etc, etc
To read more about the Manchester SEO meet, please visit the Searchengineserious website to register your interest.
August 6th, 2007
Next Posts
