Online Marketing

When I first read about Google’s latest algo update, penalizing websites for being “top heavy” with advertisements, I thought it was contradictory considering AdWords ads are known to take up a large majority of above-the-fold results when searching Google. This is especially true when looking over the past couple of years; Google has given PPC advertisers plenty of toys – ad extensions – to play with that have resulted in larger sized ads that take up even more space on the SERPs.

But then I thought about it more.

At the same time that Google is known for pushing out AdWords ads and making money, it is known for working hard to give its users the best possible searching experience. In fact, when I explain PPC to people unfamiliar with the medium, I have told them that the paid ads on Google can be more relevant than the natural results (assuming the advertiser is doing a good job). Now, I understand that is a strong statement that some may disagree with…but for now, at the very least, it can be agreed that paid ads can give just as relevant as search results as found in the top organic listings. And if that is the case, Google’s AdWords ads are helping the user experience, rather than hurting it.

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Our organization just grew larger and wiser within our Search Marketing department with  the addition of Cassandra (Cassy) McClure who joins us as a Sr. Search Marketing Specialist.

Cassy joins us with great paid search experience as well as some web development and quality assurance testing. As a senior search marketer, Cassy will be responsible for delivering best practice deliverable material, industry thought leadership, and drive efficiencies within our internal processes in alignment with current team members.

When not monitoring quality score and average cost-per-click bidding strategies, you can find Cassy playing video games (Zelda) or hopping into the nearest shark cage for a quick swim with her ocean pals. Clearly thrills don’t stop there as the only reason she tried sky diving was because it scared the heck out of her.

It is great to have you on the team Cassy. Welcome to Zeon!

-Ross

A few months have passed now since Google announced it is going to hide search referral data for Google searchers who are logged into their private account. This has meant facing more and more visits associated to the value, “(not provided)” when searching for visits by keyword in Google Analytics.

…Organic visits by keyword that is. That’s right; my favorite medium hasn’t skipped a beat in all of this. Looking at paid traffic in Google Analytics and drilling down to the keyword level is just as visible as it ever was. Regardless of whether a searcher is logged into their Google account, Google Analytics is still providing visibility to the keywords one searched if it resulted in a PPC ad followed by a clickthrough. After all, advertisers paid Google for the word.

This idea brings up a few questions…

• Is PPC going to become an even more practiced form of advertising and driving traffic as it continues to not only provide numerical metrics to the advertiser, but also relevant keyword data that now is difficult to find elsewhere?
• Are search marketing professionals and agencies going to need to ramp up their PPC experience in order to prove their value as internet marketers all together?
• Are SEOs going to rely on statistics and insights from PPC analytical data to get ideas on keywords that may be covered with the value, “(not provided)”?

I’ve always felt that I cannot create or manage a great PPC account without SEO insights, and I’ve always preferred to implement and manage SEO initiatives with PPC insights.  Organic searcher keyword data can provide more insights to my PPC expansion than a given keyword tool. And matched search queries from AdWords has shed light on a searcher intent I was unaware of several times when analyzing a specific page in regards to organic optimization. However, I know there are plenty of other SEMs – and website owners – who do not feel that both practices are necessary. If this hasn’t started to change already, we’ll just give them a few more months of “(not provided)” to analyze.

With the holidays quickly approaching, it’s easy for some marketers to get caught up in the Christmas spirit and put programs on auto-pilot until the end of the year.  With the exception of taking time to decorate the Christmas tree and exchange white elephant gifts, we’re working harder than ever here at Zeon Solutions to increase revenues for our B2C clients during this mission-critical time of year. If you’re worried about it being too late to do anything special, then put down the roasted chestnuts and glass of eggnog because we’ve got some work to do! According to a recent PriceGrabber study, Last Minute Larry is still looking to buy – and he’ll be shopping for gifts as late as December 24th! Continue reading →

I just received an email with the subject line, “SES Chicago Attendee Survey & Speaker Presentations” prompting me to fill out a survey providing feedback on last week’s Search Engine Strategies conference in Chicago. SES will be happy to receive my survey results, because I had a great experience at the event this year. I was able to attend all three days of speakers and partake in the SEO, PPC, Accelerator and eCommerce tracks.

I went to SES to meet people within the industry, attend presentations, listen to speakers, learn some new “nuggets” of information, and of course…pick up swag. I walked away feeling I accomplished all those things. In fact, I think the best way to review my highlights from the conference will be “award show style” going over the best of them…

SES Chicago Best Presentation goes to…Taking Over Paid Search Like a Pro Continue reading →

I absolutely love the AMC original series Mad Men. As a matter of fact, I like it so much that I went as the show’s main character, Don Draper, for Halloween. In case you’ve been living under a rock the past five years and haven’t heard of the show, it’s set at a 1960’s-era advertising agency on Madison Avenue. Not only is the show highly entertaining, but it also imparts the timeless teachings of marketing and advertising that can easily be applied to search engine marketing.

Patience is a virtue

“Well, Connie. There are snakes that go months without eating and then they catch something, but they’re so hungry that they suffocate while they’re eating. One opportunity at a time.”

- Don Draper to Conrad Hilton – Season 3, Episode 6

Immediately after hearing this gem, I thought of battling the big fish for competitive keywords. Whether you’re an SEO or SEM, you can easily identify with starting off small and working towards your goal. If there’s too much competition for a head term like “power tools”, we’ll naturally advise our clients to go longer-tail while you build links, content, and page authority. Phrases like “24v power tools” or “18v power tools” could be less competitive, save 1,000’s of dollars in ad spend, and drive more qualified traffic.  Search engine marketing is an ongoing, iterative process that doesn’t have a finish line. Be sure to educate your clients on the basics in an effort to effectively manage expectations.

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No matter how big your company’s website, the process of going through a redesign can be a stressful experience – and that’s before you take your brand’s organic search engine visibility into consideration. We’ve spoken with many clients that take SEO into consideration after the site is built and more often than not the end result is the same: an enormous drop in organic search traffic. Luckily for us, that didn’t happen when we redesigned our site last month and we’ve decided to breakdown our 25+ item “go-live” checklist into 5 easy-to-remember steps to keep in mind when you redesign yours. Continue reading →

I have a soft-spot for comparison shopping engines (CSE’s). I think they are a great medium for e-commerce websites to be able to use to get their products to their consumers. Google is always working to give the searcher the most relevant result as fast as possible, and Google Shopping (as well as other CSE’s) are an easy way for users looking to buy, to cut out all results that won’t lead them to a shopping cart.

Using CSE’s for our e-commerce clients allows us to reach a target market that is ready to make a purchase. I’ve always put an emphasis on loading data feeds frequently to various CSE’s to ensure the most up-to-date information is available to the searchers. But I take it further by providing as much detail as possible about all the products I am posting. I will spend time analyzing the results pages of CSE’s in order to work toward having my client’s products show up. However, having my client’s product listings appear is only half the battle – I want the users to click on the result as well. Continue reading →