Filed under: Search Engine Marketing
*This is a guest blog by our AdWords Guru Frank Andolina. Enjoy!*
Do you manage your own Pay Per Click campaigns using Adwords? It can be challenging to see the results you’d like to achieve. Here are some insider tips to help you increase your ROI.
1. Make sure to keep your keywords in small, manageable groups. Your Ad Groups should always be specific to one product, service or idea. If you own an online computer supply store, you wouldn’t want every keyword displaying just any ad. You should have an ad group for each product you sell to ensure that the searcher sees the ad most related to their search. You wouldn’t want a potential customer searching for a new router to trigger your ad that describes your printers.
2. Download AdWords Editor today! This is a great application to help handle bulk edits within your campaign. You don’t necessarily have to have a robust campaign to find value in AdWords Editor (it is free). It will cut campaign change times immensely.
3. Using AdWords without tracking website activity with Analytics could be very costly as you won’t know which keywords are truly converting for you. It’s like driving with your eyes closed. Maybe even more dangerous.
4. Use embedded match when appropriate. If you sell Barack Obama merchandise, you should set an embedded match on –[Barack Obama]. This way, your ad will appear for “Barack Obama merchandise” or “Barack Obama t-shirts”, but not the exact match, “Barack Obama”.
5. If you don’t have time to run your own PPC campaign, hire someone. Because we’re also down with PPC!
Filed under: Search Engine Optimization
Everyone wants to see organic growth with regard to their rankings on Google, Yahoo and other search engines. There are many tweaks you can make to help your company creep up into the top spots for your target keywords. Remember that this is process and that to see improvement make take weeks and in some instances months!
1. Determine Your Target Keywords: If you own a local car dealership then it would be advantageous that when someone Googled “Raleigh cars” that your business showed up in the results. Take the time to determine which search terms similar to the one above best describe your business. (Hint: Be very specific! The more general your keywords are, the more competition there will be for them.
Average keyword term= car
Good keyword term= Raleigh Chevrolet car dealership
2. Setup a Google Analytics Account: The most important step in experiencing growth via search engines is to know where you currently stand and how the changes you make influence your ranking. Visit http://www.google.com/analytics to create an account. This easy to use tool with allow you to quantify your growth.
3. Get Local: How much of your business comes from within the 919 area code? If a particular town, city or region is important to your firm make sure that when you’re targeting keywords you include terms like Cary, Raleigh, North Carolina or Southeast. This will help prequalify your site visitors and lead to more traffic.
4. Online Directories: This method is fairly simple. Find local or industry specific online directories that offer to list your company for free. Fill out the information they request and they will provide a link back to your site. The links they provide add authority to your site and can lead to a higher ranking on Google, Yahoo or other search engines. Here’s a great list of free directories to get you started. http://www.onewaytextlink.com/links
5. Spying On the Competition: If you’re curious as to what sites your competitors are being linked from surf over to Google and enter this phrase “link:www.yourcompetitor.com” Substitute in www.yourcompetitor.com with the appropriate site. This will show you who is linking to your rivals. Feel free to contact these sites and see if they’re willing to provide a link to your site as
well.
Posted on March 17th, 2009 by Nick
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