Get a Google Boost for Local Search Results

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A quick Search Marketing tip to drop your way on the subject of Google Local search results.

Google has launched yet another new advertising format for local business owners known as Google Boost. This new PPC ad format will be available for advertisers in Google Places (Local) account and Ads will be appear in sponsored results in Google search results and Google Maps.

Advertisers only need to add business name, a small description, relevant categories and monthly budget. The relevant keywords for which the ads appear will be automatically selected by the system.

A minimum budget of $50/month is required to run the ads and as per Google, no ongoing campaign maintenance is required after initial setup.

Unfortunately as all things Google are constantly in beta or being innovated, Google Boost is only available in some selected locations in the United States. It will be released to wider audience soon.

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Google Instant – Impact on SEO and PPC

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Google launched Google Instant Search interface on the 8th of September 2010, which shows search results as you type, in real time.

Many search engine marketers (SEM), including your house-hold searchers, have reacted sharply to the new Google Instant interface. Google Instant is being sold as a faster and better User Interface, and the feedback leans in the other direction of the new interface as distracting, confusing and even annoying.

Matt Cutts from Google says that the change is more about rolling out a new User Interface (UI) rather than an algorithmic change. Matt attempted to allay the fears of the SEM industry by suggesting “SEO is not dead” but may change due to instant search query feedback to users, which in turn, may change their search behaviour. He believes that the searchers will diversify their queries within the scope of the original intent. Read more

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Mashing Search & Social Marketing

Online marketing today is not quite what it used to be. Just a couple of years ago, the combination of SEO with PPC seemed to be the final word in online marketing (excluding affiliate and email marketing). With Social Media having made a strong presence in recent years, more and more web channels and communities are accessible to users where they prefer to ‘hang out.’
Users are researching blogsphere & community websites for product reviews they want to buy, find solutions to their problems, or just share their views and feedback on subjects that would interest most marketers in reaching out to them. Most users feel that peer groups tend to offer a more unbiased and genuine reviews about products.
Facebook’s traffic alone is inching close to Google’s traffic and is growing at a much faster rate than Google’s traffic. Twitter’s traffic is in the vicinity of Yahoo’s & Bing’s traffic put together. Smart marketers need to put their content in front of these potential buyers, right where they hang out. 

The increase of Social Media usage, as against traditional marketing channels like SEO & PPC is also throwing up several uneasy questions – Read more
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Gmail Breaking Email Templates? The Fix

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Gmail logoTypically I don’t like to post on ‘technical’ topics relating to Internet marketing, but after a long day of the team doing trial and error, researching the web and a few head bangs and random curse words shout-outs, I felt this quick-win technical fix will save a number of developers who build email templates frustrations and sensitivity to their co-workers ears.

A few months Gmail made some changes to how its Gmail accounts render HTML email templates. The result, frustration among many email developers trying to understand how and why their email templates are breaking when building the template layouts using tables. These changes by Googles Gmail team adversely affected how images are displaying in browsers, and how the clients browser renders table rows and column spans (HTML geek talk). And its not just Gmail who did this…Hotmail as well (though Live and MSN is unconfirmed). Read more

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Essential Metrics of SEO

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2010 – another year, and another round of changes expected to come in the new year. From Googles pending dance that could shake up the Search space, to a foreseen boom in mobile advertising (likely in 2011), to some who tout conversion rate optimization being the big thing in 2010 (IMHO was covered in 2008/09). Unfortunately I don’t get to write on here as much as I’d like due to demanding clients ;-), though I thought it would be timely to cover a few points that touches on what the crystal ball holds for 2010.

And with Google dance around the corner, and the push on conversion optimization, what better time than to touch on some of the essential metrics that SEO (search engine optimization) specialists, marketers and business owners should be tracking and reporting. Its essential to know these metrics so you know your SEO ROI is being attained, or at least paying back some dividends. And yes, there are a number of important metrics to benchmark and that provide valuable insight…but these are the areas I see as ‘essential’ in you business intelligence SEO tool box, especially if our crystal ball vision is true with Google’s dance and conversion rate optimization. Read more

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Rank Local – Google Local

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google local listings for vancouver internet marketingYou’re finally on board with some of the changes and new features Google’s rolled out over the last few years, along with watching the suitors as Yahoo and Bing (MSN) follow suit. You’ve come to grips that if you plan to succeed in your online business, you cannot let your online marketing sit idle. Investment into your online strategy is a necessity as the digital marketing landscape has evolved over time; Search, Email, Social Media have all drastically evolved the last couple years.

Searches evolution provides a significant source for lead generation and new sales for businesses on the web. And this evolution didn’t stop simply with organic / natural search rankings.

Google Local, launched in 2004, is one of the latest advancements by Google to undergo an evolution and compliment the various channels within Search that a visitor will use to find your business on the web. Its finally recognized in the arsenal of tactics with Search strategist to leverage in natural / organic search to accomplish top search rankings, and increased Search market share. One will hedge their bets a major shift in Google Local we’ll soon see is the evolution of Google Maps and Google Maps Street View. Read more

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Google Local Business Center…Analytics?

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Google Local Listing AnalyticsYou read right. Adding to the arsenal of website and business intelligence tools such as Google Analytics, Google launches in October the new beta analytics view of Google Local Business Center.

Operators and owners of websites who have already created a Google Local Listing, can now view the performance of their Google Local listing directly within the Google Local Business Center.

What are Google Local Listings? The Local listings by Google is a it’s a combination of Googles popular Google Maps and Google Local Business Listings, organic search results, and complimented with optional sponsored Search results from Google’s Adwords program (paid search marketing). Read more

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I Just Saved Your Job – Undo Your Email Send

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bad email send. I wish I could unsend that email to the bossWe all have on the top of our wish list a magic button we can use to retrieve an email we sent prematurely. Believe it or not, its now possible, and if you’re reading this, I may have just saved your job. Thank you Google!
You received an email from your boss, friend or friend and quickly responded out of passion and click send, then shortly after realized your should have given yourself a grace period before sending. Within minutes, you get a reply demanding that you explain your response. Sound familiar? More and more this happens where people don’t take the time to wait to collect their thoughts before sending…or perhaps drafted the email but accidentally hit the send button.

Google has finally launched a ‘band-aid’ solution to this. Launched in beta back in March 2009, Google’s gmail launched a new feature to allow its users to defer the send of emails. Enabling this will give you the time you should need to retract the email you fired off.

We live in a fast paced world where email was supposed to cut down our work load and time. Conversely, the email technology has tripled our work load and time and now fully consumes us in the office, at home and on the go through our cell phones, black berries and iPhones. With the abundance of email we receive and respond to every day, and our demands to respond immediately, there has never been a need more than now for a tool such as this.

Even on the legal front, a tool to undo your email send can be a lifesaver. For example, an office worker who works for Patrick Fitzgerald, a U.S. Attorney in Chicago, sent an e-mail to the media that contained the names of 24 confidential witnesses involved in a federal probe. Read more

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Customer Lifecycle Email Marketing – The Neglected Child of Web Marketing

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IMHO one of the more exciting areas of Internet marketing is an area that is often neglected and rarely talked about within most small to medium sized companies. Much emphasis and water cooler talk in Internet marketing is often focussed on Search, Social Media and how to involve Facebook into the marketing strategy. All are good and great channels and mediums for the lead generation, acquisition, branding, market intelligence and immediate distribution of marketing messaging. So while these are all great for investing marketing budgets, why is it the 80/20 rule (80% of your business/revenue comes from 20% of customers) so often overlooked and neglected? For marketers its not as sexy as the latter as their campaign strategies are focussed primarily on acquisition marketing channels for new customers, and lack of accountability for showing revenue, profits, and sustainability from existing customers.

So how does this relate to online marketing? Whether 80/20 rule strategies are sought to increase revenue from the 20% of customers through up-sell, cross-sell or direct sell tactics, the 80/20 rule impacts all web marketing channels – including Search, and especially Email. Read more

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Landing Page Testing – Identifying Target Pages

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Earlier this month we started down the path of “landing page strategy testing – is it worth it?“. Landing pages can be an extremely useful tactic to increase conversions in a campaign. Employing landing pages is typically utilized in paid search campaigns, internal conversion pages and more recently, email marketing campaigns.

This week I’ll continue the subject on landing page strategy and jump into the second step; Test Strategy – determining pages worth testing. Determine your target page for testing by working down the list in order of importance and priority of your defined goals.

Start with visitors who are already leads. These individuals are those who are in the “action-mode” and ready to convert (purchase/opt-in/download, etc). They have already begun the journey down your conversion path. Utilize your analytics (ex. Google analytics), ‘Goals’ (if set up) and the conversion funnels. The conversion funnel overview will provide insight into page attrition of the leads who area already in the conversion mood. By establishing KPI’s in the conversion path such as page attrition, will allow you to easily gauge any positive or negative impacts of visitors in the conversion path. This itself will speak volumes of where to begin testing and optimization.

Again, this may cover the conversion paths of your eStore checkout, or your opt-in page, or a paid search campaign. Whatever area you identify is most critical to the success of your goals, is the ideal place to start. Read more

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