Posts Tagged "SEM"

12 Steps to Becoming an SEO Expert

Posted on May 20, 2011 in Guest Posts, Marketing |

Guest Post by Amber McDougon .

If you dream of becoming a successful freelance SEO consultant, or joining or creating a robust SEO Services company, this 12-step program details the path to success.

1. Know Your Basics

This step is simple for those familiar with SEO, like bloggers and web developers. For those unfamiliar with the intricacies SEO, do a search for phrases like “SEO techniques.” The links will uncover articles about respected techniques, as well as so-called black hat tactics that should be avoided. There are books on the topic abound, but honestly, most of the information can be found online.

2. Going Live

Start an SEO-related website once you have a command of the basics. Begin with an unambiguous plan. Clearly detail the site through a complete development life cycle: Initial capital and time investment, the right hosting plan, simple setup and administration, the best CMS for you, required optimizations, and monitoring of important metrics and dimensions.

3. Optimize and Thrive

Double and triple check that you are utilizing every optimization tactic in your newly-acquired arsenal: Effective keyword research, optimized tags, metas and headers, a properly configured robots.txt, compelling content, keyword-to-content ratio, etc. These will become first nature before long.

Take the time and the steps necessary to build your own page rank. Social media is immensely useful to this end. Prove to potential clients that you understand the finer points of SEO by building a quality site that gets results.

4. Establish a Base of Satisfied Clientele

Good references are a prerequisite to landing that big project, more often than not. Friends and family can play an important role in your success. Help build websites for them. Do to their sites what you did to yours.

Search in the beginning for the smaller fish in the pond. Once your portfolio boasts satisfied clients, many will personally vouch for the results they had due to your expertise.

5. Do the Legwork: Network

Standard business marketing applies; Word of mouth, business cards, cold calls, make bids for jobs, and so on. With enough legwork, projects are sure to flow your direction.

6. Have an Open Door Policy

Inform potential clients about the process you will implement. Be an open book when it comes to details. When a homeowner hires a renovation company, the homeowner wants specific details of the work to be done. A simple “We do it all!” doesn’t pass muster. Undisclosed changes made without the owner’s permission could end badly.

7. Research, Work, Research, Work

Search algorithms change with lightning speed. Follow closely the blogs of search engineers. Remember the basics that brought you this far. Distractions can cause simple oversights, so always double check your work. Update XML sitemaps after even minor changes so that spiders index those updates.

8. Silence is Not Always Golden

Do not tell a client some new feature will appear on their site in three days, then neglect to update them for two days. A quick phone call or e-mail will suffice. During these points of contact, elaborate on how well the feature works. Use screenshots or uploaded files to backup your claims.

9. A Good Name Equals More Sales

Up-selling is easier for those with reputations for honest work and full disclosure. Up-sell every chance you get.

10. Reach Out and Touch…Everyone

Satisfied clients almost always allow blurbs about how well you improved their business. Note on your site about what you did for them.

11. Entrepreneur or Team Player?

You have built a fine reputation and strong skills. Should you freelance some more, or join or start an SEO firm? Pros and cons are part of each choice. Weigh this decision with the same care you exercised in both yours and your clients’ businesses.

12. “Kaizen”

“Kaizen” is Japanese for “continuous improvement” and “change for the better.” It’s a business philosophy advocating the tweaking of any aspect that could be enhanced or streamlined, down to the smallest detail.

—

Amber McDougon who is a professional writer and blogger with a particular interest in the open source Joomla platform. She has been helping companies build and maintain their online relationships with customers since 2005.

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Chango Expands Search Retargeting

Posted on Apr 12, 2011 in Guest Posts, Rambles |

April 12th, 2011 (San Francisco @ Ad:Tech). Having successfully delivered fully managed search retargeting campaigns at scale for agencies and brands, Chango is now providing direct access to its technology for self-serve marketers and partners. As of May 2nd, clients will be able to harness the power of Chango’s Intent Marketing Platform to launch and optimize campaigns with the same level of control as they have with a SEM campaign. Clients already on board with Chango’s solutions include iCrossing, Booyah, AKQA and Clickable.
“While we continue to expand Chango’s fully managed solutions, the direct access we are providing to our Intent Marketing Platform satisfies a demand from marketers who are looking to get more hands-on, particularly search marketers. Using our dashboard, these marketers can now target in-market shoppers and keyword searchers right down to the keyword level” said Chris Sukornyk, founder and CEO of Chango.
Chris Wallace, SVP Media, iCrossing said “we are excited about the results we are seeing with Chango’s search retargeting offering and are looking towards a more enhanced integration. Search retargeting is positioned at the crossroads between search and display, using the best of both mediums. The use of search data as a measurement of consumer intent has already been proven in SEM and can be applied to display through this solution; enabling campaigns to successfully achieve both acquisition and brand messaging goals for clients.”
Whilst Chango’s first offering on the platform has been search retargeting, a highly targeted solution that finds those individuals who are expressing the intent to take an action in the form of a search action, other types of intent marketing include site retargeting that talks specifically to previous site visitors. The combination of both search + site retargeting in one platform makes for an intuitive and powerful combination.
Troy Lerner, President of agency Booyah commented on the performance they have been seeing for a variety of their clients. “Our clients expect us to bring them the newest and most effective methods for meeting ROI goals – Chango has been a top performer across all of our media options for the past several quarters.”
In addition to today’s announcement of self-serve access, partners can also connect directly into Chango’s platform through an API. Programmatic access allows search management platforms and other ad platforms to seamlessly launch and optimize hundreds of campaigns that use RTB (Real Time Bidding), including site and search retargeting.
“Search retargeting is not only a smart strategy on its own, it’s a great way to expand the ROI of your hard-earned and highly qualified paid traffic,” said Peter Chun, Senior Director of Solutions at Clickable. “We look forward to working with Chango to expand our retargeting solutions to search and social advertisers across our platform.”
Mazdak Rezvani (VP Engineering) elaborates. “Unlike most ad companies that rely on third party demand side platforms, our platform is directly connected to all major ad exchanges via our own proprietary RTB system and has the ability to bid on billions of ads today. This direct connection allows us to optimize media buying down to each individual, thereby efficiently optimizing campaigns. Customers of our Intent Marketing Platform can now access this power under their own terms.”
Customers interested in our self-serve dashboard should pre-register at: http://www.chango.com/.

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Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 46: Interviewing Amanda Orson

Posted on Dec 21, 2010 in Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Marketing Fanatics, Conferences & Networking |

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Affiliate Marketing Fanatics – A couple of hyper-caffeinated affiliate marketers (Mike Buechele) and (Trisha Lyn Fawver) talk about all things Affiliate Marketing. From blogging to branding, social media to search, video and more!

We’re continuing our series of interviews with some speakers at Affiliate Summit West 2011, taking place at the Wynn Casino & Hotel in Las Vegas. This time, we talk to Amanda Orson about her origins in affiliate marketing & her panel “Local Lead Generation – Heaven & Hell”. Unfortunately, her co-panelist Ad Hustler was unable to join us. In in this episode we discuss:

  • You might know Amanda better as @Phillian on Twitter (got questions for their panel, ask now)!
  • Amanda got her start by picking up a copy of The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss and reading up on WickedFire.com.
  • They’ll be looking at things from both an SEO approach and an SEM approach.
  • Find good PPC stuff on Chad Frederiksen’s blog CDF Networks.
  • Mike’s interest in how the local lead gen can be worked into Pay Per Call technologies.
  • Amanda says don’t come for her, come for Ad Hustler!

Want to catch up with us & ask questions for the next show? Find us on Twitter: @AMF_Podcast, @MikeBuechele & @TrishaLyn. Like us on Facebook! You can also ask Trisha questions through FormSpring.me. Or leave us a comment!

Special thanks to GeekCast.fm for hosting Affiliate Marketing Fanatics.

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SMX @ ad:tech: Paid Search Fundamentals

Posted on May 5, 2009 in Conferences & Networking, Marketing | 1 comment

Session Description: Paid search lets you generate traffic from search engines by purchasing ads, usually on a cost-per-click (CPC) or pay-per-click (PPC) basis. This session covers the basics and current best practices of how to purchase placement from the major search engines, including the best ways to succeed with your ads, how to successfully measure performance and how to optimize your complete paid-search marketing strategies. Come join Danny Sullivan and several paid search experts in what promises to be an in-depth review of the paid search marketplace.

This session took place Wednesday, April 22, 2009. The speakers:

  • Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief, SearchEngineLand.com (Moderator)
  • Mona Elesseily, Director of Marketing Strategy, Page Zero Media
  • Chris Zaharias, VP, Search Sales, Omniture
  • Nick Sheth, Director of Business Development, Gap Inc. Direct

Unfortunately the presenters talked really quickly, so I tried to get down as much as I could!

Bullet Point Review!  Mona Elesseily:

  • Get campaign architecture straight from the beginning.
  • Think about keywords.
  • Tap external sources.
  • Proper tracking should be in place from the beginning.
    • Is your company equipped to track?
    • Define your PPC objectives.
    • Tie the objectives to solid metrics.
  • Tracking online conversion.
    • Online order and pickup offline.
    • Store location page.
    • PPC local
  • Focus on ad copy.
    • Brainstorm.
      • Product and Service descriptions.
      • Calls to action.
      • Offers.
      • Features/Benefits.
    • String things together after brainstorming.
  • Think “buying cycle”.
  • Testing yields results!
  • Get rid of extra information if it doesn’t impact conversions, doesn’t belong.

Nick Sheth:

  • Know Your Trademarks.
    • Register your marks with Google (including misspellings).
    • Ensure you have clear, well communicated policy usage of marks by partners (affiliates, shopping engines, partners, etc.)
    • Monitor your marks with a service
    • Remember your domains (offensive and defensive).
      • Suggestions: Alias Encore (which, again, I can personally vouch for), CitizenHawk.
    • Hold domains that are even remotely related.
  • Know Your Promotions & Offline Marketing Calendar.
    • Calendar your promotions and share them with your agency and all digital marketing teams.
    • Leverage offline marketing (buy terms, watch trends, use content ads).
    • Finely tune search copy; don’t use blunt force – promotions should be relevant to your ad group.
    • Work closely with marketing within your organization on all levels.  Building trust is paramount to gaining the autonomy needed to execute quickly.
  • Know Your Site.
    • Landing page relevancy – right page for right copy and keyword.
    • Product availability and assortment – consider using data feeds to automate.
    • Dead pages – seems like common sense but there are a lot of ads out there that point to dead pages.  Make sure you have internal tools and/or an agency to monitor pages.
  • Know More About Your Site.
    • Use on-site search to drive SEM & SEO.
    • Use paid search to get ideas for SEO.
    • Use SEO for paid search keyword ideas.
    • Have a human review – don’t leave it all up to automation.
  • Know What Works.
    • Develop a culture of testing, including landing pages, copy, and promotions.
    • Build a test budget into your annual P & L.
    • Statistical significance is key.
    • Maintain a testing plan that always has tasks and is consistent.
  • Know Your Business.
    • Understand your goals.
    • Understand how you are moving the needle.
    • Ensure you’re thinking about your portfolio optimization.
    • Question branded search and answer: is it incremental?
    • Look at everything holistically.

Chris Zaharias:

  • Start -> key business requirements -> keyword research -> campaigns & ad groups -> syndicated strategy -> ad copy -> bid optimization -> analyze & conversions
  • Business goals -> KPIs -> Optimization
    • Use pre-defined metrics.
    • Clicks, Impressions, Click-Through Rate
    • Return on ad spend.
    • Cost per Acquisition.
  • Define and value customer metrics.
    • Cart abandonment rate.
    • Average Order Value.
    • KPIs to measure branding.
  • Multi-KPI Optimization.
  • Search reacts to TV advertising.
  • Measure across channels.
  • There’s a myth that the long tail keeps growing – this isn’t true.
  • The long tail is now in reverse.
  • People are using search as navigation – i.e. they already know what they’re looking for but they go to a search engine to find it easily instead of typing in the URL directly.
  • Assumptions:
    • The long tail keeps growing.
    • There’s 1001 things to do in search.
    • PPC = Traffic Management.
    • Listen to your search engine.
  • Reality:
    • Win the head, win the battle.
    • Return on efficient, defined work flow.
    • Pre & post-click are equally important.
    • Search engine advise is often a contrary indicator.

I don’t have any notes from a question period, and I definitely don’t remember there being time for questions.  Overall this was a completely useful session for me, given that I’m not an old hat at PPC marketing.  It was presented very well and clearly thought out.  I appreciated the slide presentations that all three presenters used and I only wish they’d shared them online somehow!

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