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Watchdog Group Takes Google to Task in Times Square

Written on September 2, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Advertising, book, marketing

Consumer Watchdog’s InsideGoogle.com has something to say about Google’s disrespect for people’s privacy and they’re saying it at one of the busiest intersections in the world.

The group has purchased advertising space on a 540 sq ft Jumbotron in Times Square and they’re using it to blast Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt. The animated feature is called “Don’t be Evil?” and shows cartoon Schmidt spying on children from the innocent trappings of an ice cream truck.

In a press release, Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog said;

“We’re satirizing Schmidt in the most highly trafficked public square in the nation to make the public aware of how out of touch Schmidt and Google are when it comes to our privacy rights.”

The ad asks people to text the word Evil to 69866 to show their support. I guess “666″ wasn’t available.

“Don’t be evil” is Google’s unofficial corporate motto, but Consumer Watchdog says that Google isn’t doing a good job keeping the mounds of personal data they collect private.

Court says that Schmidt himself is clueless when it comes to privacy and quotes him as saying,

“If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

Then there’s this, from a recent Wall Street Journal interview;

“[Schmidt] predicts, apparently seriously, that every young person one day will be entitled automatically to change his or her name on reaching adulthood in order to disown youthful hijinks stored on their friends’ social media sites.

“I mean we really have to think about these things as a society,” he adds. “I’m not even talking about the really terrible stuff, terrorism and access to evil things.”

Really? When I started writing about this sign in Times Square I thought it was overkill. Now, I’ve now changed my mind.

John M. Simpson, director of the group’s Inside Google Project, suggests a “Do Not Track Me” list that would keep Google, or anyone from tracking your moves online.

According to a poll conducted on behalf of InsideGoogle.com, 80% of people in the US supported such a list. They also like the idea of an “anonymous button” that allows individuals to stop anyone from tracking their online searches or purchases and a ban on collecting data on minors.

All good ideas, but implementation and enforcement would be very difficult. The trouble is, it’s not just Google who is collecting and / or spreading private data. Schmidt was right about one thing when he mentioned the “youthful hijinks stored on their friends’ social media sites,” and then there are the drunken Facebook updates and the obscenity-filled blog post aimed at your ex.

Maybe, before we go throwing stones at Google, we should be looking at how much information we ourselves put online for all to see.

Not passing by Times Square anytime soon? You can watch the ad on YouTube.

Go here to see the original:
Watchdog Group Takes Google to Task in Times Square

The Real Cost of Buying Links for SEO: $4 Million

Written on September 1, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Advertising, book, marketing, seo

I was reading a copy of the Inc. 500 issue on my flight back from Dallas this weekend and came across an article about a seasonal online retailer that was “penalized” right before the Holidays for paid links. He estimated the revenue loss due to plummeting organic search visibility at $4 million in sales.  Now he’s “thanking” Google for the spanking because he’s mended his ways and is reborn as a social media enthusiast.

I’m not sure I buy the “social media has turned things around” story exactly, but I do wonder how many companies and consultants roll the dice and take shortcuts and loopholes to get ahead only to find out later it’s worthless? The notion of paid links is an old story (Paid Links Evil? Dec 2005) but many of the tactics used to shortcut results for SEO will always be a fresh topic of discussion.

It turns out the retailer in the Inc. story was doing SEO internally then hired two SEO companies to help out. The story goes on to say that a SEO company was to “reach out to relevant sites and ask them for links. Instead, one of the companies admitted it was paying for links.”  That’s worded in a way that makes you think maybe the retailer didn’t know the SEO company was buying links.

We don’t buy links at TopRank Marketing.

We never have. Not ever in 10 years of being in the search marketing business. As far as the retailer in the Inc. article, it’s surprising because buying links isn’t cheap.  If a company didn’t know the SEO consultant was buying links, it’s peculiar any way you look at it. Where did the money come from to buy the links? How did the SEO company not report what it was doing? How did the company owner not know what the SEO company was doing?

I polled followers of @leeodden on Twitter whether they or someone they knew knew had ever been penalized for buying links. Almost all of them said yes. When I’ve mentioned that we never buy links to other search marketers, the disbelief was like I told them I didn’t need to breathe air.

The point of relating this story to you isn’t so much about the risks and rewards of paid links, defining exactly what “paid means” (what about a 3 way barter?) or even judging those that sell and buy links. The point is that the online retailer in the story says social media tactics were largely ignored and now they’re committed to blogging, Tweeting and being active on Facebook. He claims all is now well in their SEO world. “We’re back on top.”

The point:  Why didn’t the online retailer commit to a better online marketing strategy in the first place?

It’s been promoted for years that paid links can carry consequences.  People like Google’s Anti-Spam Czar Matt Cutts make their perspective clear and make it easy to report paid links. Right or wrong, it’s the way search engines want to play.  Obviously, paid links with the right anchor text from very authoritative and relevant websites have a positive impact, or SEOs and website owners wouldn’t participate.  It’s important to note that Google doesn’t have a problem with paid links per se, but with paid links that pass PageRank.

The question I have for companies that rely too much on shortcuts and loopholes is, “Why not suspend the “free money now” attitude and invest in a smart and competitive online marketing program that can get results AND stand the test of scrutiny?”  Won’t a customer focused marketing effort that provides optimized and linkable content to a growing social network earn more links, more traffic and more revenue anyway?

I don’t think there’s much reason to put your brand and revenue at risk if you have a long term view of how the search and social web works. The investment in understanding and engaging customers plus the staff, software and time to implement content, analyze performance data and ongoing content marketing is well worth the cost and there’s virtually no risk.

“Don’t bring a sword to a gun fight”

Years ago at a search conference discussion about black hat and white hat tactics, Tim Mayer, ex head of Search at Yahoo! made the comment “”If you’re being entirely organic and going after ‘Viagra,’ it’s like taking a sword to a gunfight. You just aren’t going to rank” when discussing acceptable tactics in really aggressive industries like “PPC” (pills pron casino).

The temptation and pressures to profitability are great in industries that are flush with heavily optimized and marketed web sites.  However, most companies don’t fall in that category and I think smarter and more creative marketing can still win for the vast majority of websites, especially in the long run. We’ve seen it happen with our own clients nearly 10 years.

Why rent when you can own?

The reason I’ve never participated in link purchases or endorsed the practice isn’t as much about Google’s rules on paid links that pass PageRank. It’s because I could never understand why anyone would “buy” something with such risk associated with it when they could “earn it and own it”?   With roots in Public Relations, our online marketing agency has been accustomed to earning media placements and often times highly desirable links since we started the business in 2001. It can take more time to see aggressive results, but when you focus on making creative content and doing the hard work of promotion to earn traffic and links, the cost is one of investment vs. the often higher cost of advertising with no equity in what you’ve purchased. Then there’s the cost if the links are devalued by the search engines and subsequent lost revenue. I’d rather build, promote and earn those links that will be in place indefinitely.

Using that strategy, Online Marketing Blog has accumulated a substantial number and quality of links (according to Majestic SEO). The devil is in the details with this sort of thing of course, since it matters very much what the topic, anchor text and PageRank are of the link sources. But suffice it to say, we experience very good results in each of those areas as evidenced by over 21,000 different keyword phrases that sent organic traffic each month and top visibility for important and challenging keyword queries.

What’s your experience with managing risk with SEO tactics? Have you experienced what the online retailer above went through and focused anew on a sustainable and longer term online marketing strategy?

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From Clicks to Conversions at the SEOmoz Training Raceway

Written on August 31, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Advertising, book, marketing, seo

Posted by Dana Lookadoo

This post was originally in YOUmoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author’s views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc.

Day 1 of SEOmoz Pro Training was like being at a race track. The course careened from clicks to conversions and from search results to landing pages. The audience watched 9 speakers drive their search marketing race cars at speeds faster than fingers can type. Given the finger-breaking speeds, it was fortunate all SEO fans were well fueled - beginning with a healthy breakfast buffet, mid-morning energy bars, lunch (more all-you-can-eat) and a scrumptious mid-afternoon pit stop with fresh cookies and treats. After everyone was fed each time, it was off to the races.

Todd Freisen was in the sports booth service as emcee, host of ceremonies, referee, judge and time keeper. The event was like a well-oiled machine. Maybe that’s why they call Todd, “Oilman.”

When I said “yes” to attending the Mozinar on a Press Pass, I didn’t realize I was going to be covering a sporting event. GoodNewsCowboy asked me how I was going to recap and condense this “wild ride.” I realized there was a lot of horsepower on-stage and that we were at the SEOmoz Training Raceway.

Mozinar fans experienced exhilaration and gleaned insights as we watched performance race car drivers present their seminar presentations. The following race highlights are condensed from 32 pages of notes. I strongly suggest you buy the Pro Seminar DVD when it’s produced so you can see under the hood for yourself.

From Clicks to Conversions with Local, Social, Analytics and SEO in Between

1st up: Rand Fishkin had pole position and drove a car with a most unusual name, “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad SERP.”

The results we are seeing in blended search results are even more unusual, starting with changes of the past 2 weeks. For those who attend SEO races regularly and are watching Google, this may be old news. For others, brace yourself. A branded search can have more than 2 results. Rand explained:

• You have to be seen as a brand.
• You have to have lots of links pointing to those pages with the brand name.
• You need to have a high volume set of people searching for those terms, so off-site advertising and media buys can influence the SERPs.

Changes to Image SEO was next, and guess what? Google has a new image search interface.

• Image results don’t always match image SERP’s order, i.e. images for the artist “manet.”
• Understand, and be prepared. You will not always get the same position in the blended results, leading to frustration.
• Image SEO value is reduced by the new overlay.

The image below results from clicking on one of the images for the artist “manet” and clicking on an image

Tip: Write some JavaScript that breaks the overlay to avoid having the image overlay. Not only does it produce the longest, ugliest URL, but “it’s just an invite to right click and steal this image.”

Rand covered 10 Tips for Image Rankings. (Since we are in race synopsis mode, we’ll speed through this.) One quick takeaway was the minimum image size:

Image Pixel Size - If you go smaller than 400×300 pixels your chances to show in image search are dramatically decreased.

So you don’t have to remember any formulas, basic on-page SEO factors for image SEO include page title and surrounding text.

Video SERPs

It’s or easier to get into video SERPs than to get into the regular SERPS. There is lower competition than ordinary results (most of the time), so take the opportunity. Follow this inclusion process to enter your video race for top ranking:

Step #1: Embed Video Content on Your Pages
Step #2: Create Thumbnail Images for Videos
Step #3: Build a Video XML Sitemap & Submit
Step #4: PROFIT $$$

See Google Webmaster Tools for Video to learn more.

Rand’s foot stayed pedal-to-the-metal as he showed how to produce Rich Snippets in the SERPs. Why is this important? This is where you get most of your clicks. His closing remarks were retweeted with fervor:

“If you can stay on top of this, you will have a big win. It demands full-time SEO.”

2nd up: David Mihm was full-speed as he raced through “Ranking in Competitive Local Results.” He explained:

Straight from Google’s mouth:
Local intent is 20% of total search volume (April 2010)

And who would imagine that local results could equal 100% of page 1? Try a search for “dentist chicago.” (If it’s not 100%, it’s close.)

Google organic results are not, however, the dominate factor for local search. Neither are results from Yahoo! or Bing. Local search is now:

• Craigslist
• Twitter
• FaceBook
• Citysearch
• Google Products
• Mobile devices
• Garmin GPS
• Wikipedia
• Virtual Augmented Reality

Understand that local requires a different mindset from traditional SEO, because the ecosystems vary:

• Traditional SEO is about optimizing websites.
• Local SEO is about optimizing locations.

Takeaway:

“It is essential to have a holistic local search marketing strategy.”

“Even if all your boss cares about is that friggin’ 7-pack!”

Resources to claim your listings:

• Google Places
• Bing Local Listing Center
• Yahoo! Local Business Center

“The Big Three” major data providers:

• infoUSA
• Localeze
• Acxiom

Citations - David recommended a new citation finder tool by Darren Shaw & Garrett French: Whitespark.ca Citation Finder

Find local SEO resources on GetListed.org.

3rd up to race: Dan Zarrella racing in the “Science of Twitter” car. Dan warned us he talked fast. Pro Seminar attendees listened attentively, but given the subject was Twitter … many tweeted insights into how one can get clicks and retweets.

SES San Francisco 2010 Wrap-Up

Written on August 25, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Advertising, marketing, seo

QR code on the side of a building? Geek cool.

Last week the West Coast Search Engine Strategies conference moved from San Jose back to its roots in San Francisco. It was a well attended show (5,000+ in 2009 vs. 6,000 in 2010 registrations), despite the illusion created by the voluminous Moscone.

As part of Connected Marketing Week, SES included a great mix of sessions. In fact, there were quite a few new sessions and solo presentations such as the one by Andy Beal on Online Reputation Management and the one on Content Marketing Optimization by moi.

Networking events were popular, but of course anything with free booze and thirsty smart search marketers equals popular. Networking opportunities like the black hat / white hat brings an interesting mix of people together. There were specialized training sessions as well and a full exhibit hall. I thought the hall closed a bit early, 3pm, but hey – if the vendors want to go home, let them go home.

White Hat, Black Hat Who? - Mike Grehan & Matt McGowan

I talked to Mike Grehan, VP and Global Content Director for Search Engine Watch, ClickZ and Search Engine Strategies, who said the conference programming mix was well received. On the launch of Connected Marketing Week, Mike says,

“I’ll borrow the motto from the UK special air service: Who dares wins!”.

Mike’s partner in crime, Matt McGowan, who is Vice President and Publisher for Incisive Media’s Interactive Marketing Group, had a few things to say about the event:

“The Connected Marketing Week “test” has now been proven.  While all of us @ Incisive Media were pretty sure it would work out (remember, it was past and prospective attendees who asked us to do this) we never really did know how it was going to play out until now… the response from delegates, sponsors and speakers has been resoundingly positive.

Most of the partner events in their own right had strong attendance with @ 200 people registered for 140Conf,  100 for IAB, 100 for the E-mail and Search Marketing workshops, almost 100 for OMS and just about 6,000 for SES SF.  We plan to build on this year’s success and we hope to see you at the 2nd addition of Connected Marketing Week in SF in 2011 (with many of the same partners and a few surprises) if not before!”

TopRank Online Marketing had a great experience at SES San Francisco with a mix of liveblogging, speaking and moderating 3 sessions as well as plenty of networking. I gave two new presentations: One for a long running session on Blog and Feed SEO and another for an all new session called Content Marketing Optimization that I gave solo. It was a full room and such great attendance was very much appreciated.

Here are a few of the blog posts published by other search engine marketing bloggers on the presentations given by TopRank plus one post from Yahoo.

• aimclear blog – Think Outside the Blog: Tasty Tips for Feed SEO
• PageTraffic – SEO Through Blogs and Feeds — SES San Francisco 2010
• Bruce Clay blog – Content Marketing Optimization SES San Francisco
• Search Engine Roundtable – SES SFO: Content Marketing Optimization
• Yahoo Advertising Blog – Lessons-from-ses-day-3

One of the great things about attending industry conferences is the opportunity to connect with our current clients and meet new companies to work with. Both PRWeb and Marketo exhibited at SES San Francisco:

TopRank Client Maria Pergolino and co-worker from Marketo

TopRank's Adam Singer & Client Meg Walker from PRWeb

Quite a few of the software and technology companies that exhibit at shows like SES are the kinds of companies we work with at TopRank Marketing, so spending time at the exhibit hall is very productive for multiple reasons.

TopRank's Mike Yanke diligently liveblogging SES

In the spirit of our conference liveblogging schedule post for SES San Francisco, check out the nifty Flash thingy below made by Thomas McMahon to navigate to all the liveblog posts Mike Yanke and Adam Singer put up during the week. Congrats to SES for a great show and to Mike and Adam who did a great job covering the event for Online Marketing Blog.

What’s up next? I’m looking forward to speaking at the next SES, which is in Hong Kong, on “The Business Value of Social Media”.

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Mobile Ads Make Politics Even Flimsier

Written on August 24, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Advertising, book, marketing

In case you haven’t noticed, I am not a big fan of politics or politicians. It doesn’t matter which side of the aisle they come from or claim to have allegiance to, to me a politician is a politician is a politician.

So what is happening in Florida Democratic primaries today doesn’t help me feel any better about these folks. According to ClickZ, some folks running are using mobile ads to help them get the vote during the ‘last mile’ to the ballot box (or whatever it is in Florida these days).

Mobile advertising is often a direct-response marketing tool, something focused on a call-to-action, but for one Florida Attorney General candidate, it’s all about persuasion. Today, as Democrats queue up to vote in their party’s primary – quite possibly with mobile devices in pocket – Dan Gelber’s campaign aims to reach them there. The AG hopeful is running Google mobile ads targeted to Floridians in the hopes of convincing them to vote for Gelber if they search for more information about the candidate while en route to the polls or waiting in line.

“The point is, it’s really just the last ad people will see when they’re getting ready to vote…. It’s the last way some voters will look for info,” said Josh Koster, managing partner for Washington, DC-based Chong + Koster, a digital consulting firm working with the Gelber campaign.

Now don’t get me wrong. I realize this is what advertising is all about. The trouble here is that we are not talking about which brand of deodorant you are going to be buying. No this is about persuading people through a blue text ad to make a decision that could impact a lot more than if they smell nice.

Think I’m over-reacting? What’s your take on this comment from the agency that put together this campaign?

The Gelber campaign has one message to get across to voters searching for information about the candidate and his opponents: He’s been endorsed by several major Florida newspapers.

“Gelber Gets Endorsements,” reads a mobile ad running today. “Every Major FL Newspaper Endorses Dan Gelber for AG. Learn more,” it continues. The St Petersburg Times, Miami Herald, and South Florida Sun Sentinel are among papers that have given Gelber the nod.

“It’s pure persuasion at this point,” said Koster. Indeed, though the ads link to the Gelber campaign site, the campaign isn’t necessarily concerned with people clicking on them. Rather, the goal is to convince them to vote for Gelber after reading the brief ad copy itself. “These are very, very highly valuable persuasion impressions…Very few times do you have a persuasion message that can be boiled down to one [short ad message],” said Koster, calling the Gelber situation “a somewhat unique case.”

How lame is this? Trying to persuade people to vote for someone because a dying industry (the newspapers) have decided that they will back a certain candidate. If you are basing your vote on which paper endorsed what candidate that’s not research, that’s just lazy, especially if it is a last minute decision. Oh and aren’t the newspapers supposed to be unbiased? Oh, sorry, that hasn’t been the case in, oh, let’s say forever.

If we have gotten to the point where it’s only about the last message anyone sees before they make a decision does that mean that many people will stop thinking and just do what they are told right before they need to act? I’m sure you are shouting “No way!” but maybe you should stop giving people so much credit. After all, if that wasn’t the case why would these ads appear?

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Mobile Ads Make Politics Even Flimsier

IKEA Turns Consumer Behavior into Viral Marketing

Written on August 23, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Advertising, book, marketing

Have you ever played hide-and-seek at IKEA? I have, though not intentionally. The stores are set up in these funky little mazes that make it very easy to lose a husband or a child while shopping, so it’s no wonder that people have taken to playing the game there on purpose. This week, the idea rose to new heights when a person in Australia set up a Facebook event announcing a “massive” game at their local store. Since then, almost 4,000 people have signed up and the news has gone viral.

Smart Company Australia quoted the local IKEA spokesperson as saying that they weren’t behind anything that might endanger shoppers, but they weren’t going to go so far as to ban the game.

And why should they? This is the kind of thing PR companies get paid big money to arrange and IKEA is getting it for free. But short of waiting for a public epiphany to happen related to your product, Smart Company says there’s a way to create this kind of event for yourself.

“People play hide-and-seek at IKEA anyway, and that’s why this is gaining attention. I think the idea here is to look at what people are doing in your business and try and create Facebook pages or similar campaigns from that.”

They give the example of a lollipop company where people can never decide which flavor to buy when they come to the store. The response? Put up a Facebook page that asks people to choose their favorite flavor.

Avon had a situation similar to this years ago with a body oil that consumers swore was the best bug repellent. So many people were buying it for that purpose, despite proof that it wasn’t effective at all, Avon finally started packaging and promoting the item as such.

The lesson here, says Smart Company, is to focus on what your customers are already doing and not what you want them to do.

Remember, “how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?” There’s a major Facebook game in that, I just know it.

Coke vs Pepsi. Federal Express becoming Fedex. Consumer behavior has a history of influencing marketing. Can you think of another example?

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IKEA Turns Consumer Behavior into Viral Marketing

Behavioral Targeting: Publishers Love It, Targets Not So Much

Written on August 23, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Advertising, book, marketing

Let’s take a look at what is being said here just from the headline. The advertising community with its publishers and advertisers loves the idea of being able to target ads more directly to users with the right ‘profiles’ for products. That makes sense. A survey reported on by emarketer from DM2PRO and AudienceScience conducted recently shows just how much publishers love it.

Here’s the rub. The people being targeted really don’t like the idea of giving up what is needed to be targeted. In other words, people don’t like having a lot of data collected about them. Take a look at the numbers below that say that nearly ¾ of those surveyed have concerns about too much data being collected on theme.

So if publishers are excited about something but the people that they must have in order to make this happen don’t really like what is required to take part, you would suspect that something’s gotta give right?

I don’t have a crystal ball about how this will all shake out but I have some suspicions. Based on the past arrogance and general “We’ll do what we want” attitude of the advertising industry, I think that advertisers will do a Facebook. In other words, they will push every limit to see just where (or even if) people will really push back to the point of hurting their efforts. They’ll take slaps on the wrist from the press and even the government because those are worth the upside potential of the revenue.

This cat and mouse game will keep going until publishers and advertisers do something so over the top and stupid that everyone will want to crash down on them in a huge way.

What might be the best way for this to play out, if there were even a shred of long term thinking left in business, would be to give visitors more say in what they allow publishers to collect. In essence publishers would then get the ‘long tail’ of advertising targets. Sure there would be smaller numbers but there would be better conversions which would allow everyone to charge a premium because the shotgun advertising approach gets more accurate and thus more valuable.

Guess what though? That won’t happen. People are too myopic (read: focused on short term needs) to pay attention to detail. Since they have been trained to look at larger numbers in advertising as the most important metric, they will be hesitant to jump into something that may cost as much but reach fewer (albeit much more qualified or willing) targets.

Either way this chasm between the publishers’ desires and the reality of the consumer will end in a worse way than it should. Why? Because in order for it to end well, reason would need to prevail and that is in short supply these days. I’m just sayin’…….

See more here:
Behavioral Targeting: Publishers Love It, Targets Not So Much

Take Your Online Business to New Heights With the Display Network - Part 5

Written on August 22, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Advertising, Object, marketing, searchengineguide

by Mike Fleming

Google’s Display Network has two types of targeting options. The first, automatic placements, we’ve talked about already. This is where you create keyword-themed ad groups and Google makes your ads eligible to appear on web pages whose content theme matches the theme of the keywords in your ad group. Now, we’ll talk about the second - managed placements.

This type of campaign is useful for two purposes:

1. Targeting specific websites that you’ve already found have performed well for your ads in an automatic placement campaign to maximize your exposure on those sites.

2. Targeting specific websites that you’ve found through research.

With this campaign, you do not choose keywords because you are telling Google exactly which sites you want your ad to be eligible for auction, so they don’t need keywords to come up with a theme to match to websites. The way to create this campaign is to choose “relevant pages only on the placements and audiences I manage” under “Networks” in the “Network and Devices” option of your campaign settings.

The easiest way to pick some websites where you want your ad to be shown is to run and analyze a Placement Performance Report of your Automatic Placement Campaign once a significant amount of data has been collected. You can export the data in this report to Excel and find some websites that have historically met the marketing objectives you have set for your ads. Once you add them to your new Managed Placement Campaign, make sure you exclude them from your Automatic Placement Campaign by selecting the placement and hitting “Exclude Placement” above the list -

Then, you go in to the Networks tab of your new Managed Placement campaign, click on “show details” next to managed placements and then click “add placements.” This is where you enter and submit the sites where you want your ads to be shown.

If you are not as patient and/or you would rather not rely on Google’s imperfect algorithm to find some websites you’d like to test, once you hit “add placements” and choose an ad group, you can click on a link to take you to the Placement Tool. Here, you can look up sites by category, keyword, ad type or size, and URL and the tool will spit out all sorts of options for you to pick from to add to your ad group.

You’ll want to monitor these choices over time to weed out the bad and maximize the good. Remember, just because you think something in marketing will work doesn’t mean it will. It has to be proven with data.

Take a look at the sites that are suggested and decide on some that are locations where your target audience frequents, select them and add them to your campaign.

Once you start to find some websites that are working for you, you can start to develop themed ad groups with your managed placements and write more targeted ads for similar types of sites.

For instance, if you sold guitars and you are finding that guitar lesson sites work well for you, group all of the sites about guitar lessons together and create targeted ads for those sites. You should see click-through and conversion rates improve significantly. This makes it easier to identify sites and themes that work best for your business.

Now, you’ve got one campaign that is going out to hunt down sites that will work for what you’re advertising (automatic placement) and one campaign that contains sites that work for you that you can optimize for the long-run (managed placement). As time passes and data is collected, continue to add keyword-themed ad groups to your Automatic Placement Campaign to replace themes that aren’t working for you while pulling the sites that work to place into your Managed Placement campaign. Frequently, you should go in and apply standard optimization techniques to your ad groups and placements similar to how you would optimize search campaigns with keywords.

Hopefully, my short introduction series to the Display Network will allow you to take your online business to new heights! Down the road, we’ll get into some more advanced Display Network strategies. Hope you’ll hang around.

Be sure and visit our small business news site.

Read more from the original source:
Take Your Online Business to New Heights With the Display Network - Part 5

10-Minute Missing Page Audit

Written on August 17, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Advertising, marketing, seo

Posted by Dr. Pete

Some of you know that I spend a lot of time behind the scenes here on Pro Q&A. One of the challenges of Q&A is that we often have to tackle complex problems in a very short amount of time – we might have 10-15 minutes to solve an issue like “Why isn’t my page showing up on Google?” with no access to internal data, server-side code, etc.

Of course, I’d never suggest you try to solve your own SEO problems in just 10 minutes, but it’s amazing what you can do when you’re forced to really make your time count. I’d like to share my 10-minute (give or take) process for solving one common SEO problem – finding a “missing” page. You can actually apply it to a number of problems, including:

• Finding out why a page isn’t getting indexed
• Discovering why a page isn’t ranking
• Determining if a page has been penalized
• Spotting duplicate content problems

I’ll break the 10 minutes down, minute by minute (give or take). The mini-clock on each item shows you the elapsed time, for real-time drama.

Tags: a-page-isn ,Advertising ,anchor-text ,google ,img-alt ,page ,post ,review ,same ,seo ,specific ,time

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