Your Marketing Plans Should be Warming Up!

Posted on 21. Feb, 2011 by Westchester Internet Marketing in All Local Search Posts, Automotive, Home Services, Internet Marketing & Local SEO, Legal & Financial, Optimization, Pay-Per-Click, Professional Services, Real Estate, Recreation & Entertainment, Retail, Travel & Transportation

The majority of the U.S. is covered by record-breaking snow and cold weather, but smart business owners and marketers are starting to have “warmer thoughts”…

Several months ago I wrote about those businesses that could take advantage of the increasing holiday searches, now it’s time to look at those upcoming warmer weather opportunities…

Thanks to predictive search tools like Google Insights and historical search data, local businesses can now position themselves “ahead of the curve” to capture the upcoming surge of new potential customers and clients. As it can take up to 30 days to effectively launch a PPC program, and 60-90+ days to benefit from an SEO project, now is the time start!

Businesses that can benefit from increasing search volume (new customers) March – May:

• Landscapers / Lawn Care
• Fence Repair
• Roof / Gutter Contractors (major winter damage this season!)
• Accountants / Tax Prep.
• Bicycle Shops
• Anything related to Weddings (caterers, tent rentals, tux shops, florists, etc)
• Summer Camps (yes, they are booked by June 1!)
• Boat Dealers
• Auto Dealers
• Vacation planning / travel agents
• Home Improvements / Contractors
• Auto Body Repair
• Golf shops / courses

Any others you can come up with?

Filed under: All Local Search Posts, Automotive, Home Services, Legal & Financial, Optimization, Pay-Per-Click, Professional Services, Real Estate, Recreation & Entertainment, Retail, Travel & Transportation

“Search engine marketing doesn’t build awareness; it captures existing demand”

Posted on 18. Dec, 2010 by Westchester Internet Marketing in All Local Search Posts, Internet Marketing & Local SEO, Internet Yellow Pages, Optimization, Pay-Per-Click

Some very relevant points from Business News Daily.

All businesses are Internet businesses — even if they don’t have a website or sell anything online. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Up to  70 percent of offline purchase decisions are made on the Web, according to Herschel Thompson, head of InteractiveStrategist.com, an online marketing consultancy.

Online searches are the new Yellow Pages, leading customers to goods and services. Even the most conservative observers of the online space concede that search engine marketing is playing an increasingly important role in driving business, particularly for small companies serving local markets.

And the local market is search’s sweet spot, he said — 29 percent of all online searches are local. There are lots of acronyms flying around in the realm of online search — SEO, SEM, PPC, etc. But it boils down to two main categories: organic search, which is based on a site’s contents and the number of other sites that link to it, and paid search, which involves bidding on key words and phrases that you believe will drive profitable traffic to your business.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves building a site that is search-engine friendly so that your business shows up in organic search results.

“With SEO, there are no guarantees,” said Thompson. “In some industries, it’s going to be hard to get to the top through organic search.”

But there are ways of maximizing how you appear to the algorithms that guide online search. High-quality original content is key,” he said.

“Hyperbole gets filtered out by skeptical consumers,” Thompson said. “You win online by being authentic. You can’t put lipstick on a pig.”

Search engine authority Matt McGee agrees that content is king.

“There are a whole lot of things you can do that you don’t have to hire an expert to do,” McGee said. “A lot of really good content is an absolute must. Content that answers people’s questions, all the stuff people ask when they send you an e-mail.”

McGee’s specialty is Search Engine Marketing (SEM), which takes up where SEO leaves off. That process begins by taking stock of what you already have, auditing your current Web presence to see what content you have and what could be improved, how search-friendly the architecture of the site is and how well the key words and phrases match the actual language people use when they search.

Not paying attention to how customers search is a major stumbling block for many sites, he said. How you refer to your goods and services may not be the way your customers refer to them.

Once you know what you have, SEM addresses what you need.

“Identify phrases and terms you could use to add new content to your site,” McGee said. “Make sure you have analytics on your site. Google Analytics is probably more than enough for most websites. You have to know what’s working. The great thing about online markets is the analytics on the web — you’ll get solid, actionable information.”

The hardest part follows — link-building. Your company’s visibility, McGee said, is largely dependent on how many links you have to your site. There are several ways to attract links, including becoming active in social media and leaving quality comments on blogs that don’t necessarily include a hard sales pitch. But link-building can be very difficult for many small businesses.

Social media audiences are extremely attuned to nuance, McGee said. They don’t want to swamped by a barrage of hard-sell postings and a constant barrage of sales pitches.

“Social stuff is about adding benefit to the community,” he said.

“Link-building is time-consuming,” McGee said. “And if it’s not time-consuming, then it’s costly. It’s either a time or money issue.”

Even though link-building eats up time and has a steep learning curve, though, McGee recommends businesses give it a try.

“The most successful online marketers are the ones who are willing to commit the time to learn as much as they can,” McGee said.

The third leg of the search marketing stool is paid search, also known as Pay-Per-Click (PPC).

“With SEO, there are no guarantees,” said Thompson. “Pay-per-click is easiest to measure. “

That’s both SEO’s beauty and its liability, said Ben Kirshner, CEO of Elite SEM.

“The best thing about PPC is the measurability,” Kirshner said. “It’s good because you can see how much money you’re making. It’s bad because you can see how much money you’re losing.”

Managing a PPC account, much like link-building, is very time-consuming, he said — which is why many companies outsource this function to agencies specializing in PPC.

If you do decide to outsource, Kirshner said, ask the agency how much time will be devoted to your account and who will be working on it. Will it be staffed with untested rookies or vetted professionals?

Find out their terms of engagement. Some agencies want to lock you up for a year, he said. And ask about the technology they’ll be using.

“You have to use technology to beat the big boys,” Kirshner said.

Filed under: All Local Search Posts, Internet Yellow Pages, Optimization, Pay-Per-Click

Winter in Westchester, The Holidays & SEM…

Posted on 15. Nov, 2010 by Westchester Internet Marketing in All Local Search Posts, Automotive, Food & Dining, Health & Medicine, Home Services, Internet Marketing & Local SEO, Internet Yellow Pages, Legal & Financial, Pay-Per-Click, Recreation & Entertainment, Retail, Travel & Transportation

While  driving the other day I passed the 2010 Rockefeller Christmas tree being transported into NYC, police escort and all.

Pretty cool, but hard to believe I’m seeing Christmas preparations already. It got me thinking about all the SEM advertisers that need to start preparations of their own.

Most businesses experience ups and downs throughout the year; some cyclical, some triggered by one-time events.  Christmas of course is a biggie, as are other holidays. Changing seasons, one-time economic and weather events and increased competition are also factors. Thinking 30 days ahead of these predictable trends and positioning yourself  “ahead of the curve” will ensure you remain competitive. At the same time, you’ll capture additional new customers and gain market share.

For example, I know of a Manhattan-based Costume Shop increases their PPC budget ten-fold every August to prepare for the upcoming crush of consumers in the following 60 days. Google Insights data confirms this decision as being a smart one:

Insights is just one of the great tools you can use to predict things like search interest (aka: “demand”). Based on this, as well as IYP usage data, I’ve looked at a number of businesses verticals and identified those that are now entering their “prime season”. They include:

• Caterers & Restaurants
• Anything retail
• Electronics
• Jewelery & Watches
• Ski Shops
• Snow plowing & Equipment
• Tires
• D.J.s
• Carpet Cleaners
• Accountants
• Tax Attorneys
• Divorce Lawyers
• DUI Attorneys
• Health Clubs

Competition is increasing, as is demand for these products and services. Smart businesses that are prepared and proactive will benefit from the increased exposure and additional new sales that are sure to follow!

Filed under: All Local Search Posts, Automotive, Food & Dining, Health & Medicine, Home Services, Internet Yellow Pages, Legal & Financial, Pay-Per-Click, Recreation & Entertainment, Retail, Travel & Transportation

Search Alert: Pest Control Services

Posted on 20. Sep, 2010 by Westchester Internet Marketing in All Local Search Posts, Home Services, Internet Marketing & Local SEO, Pay-Per-Click

Thanks to these nasty little creatures, searches for bed bug removal and related terms are exploding.

According to Google, general searches for “bedbugs” have increased 83 percent in the last year and 182 percent for bedbug-related searches for a four-week period in Aug., compared with the same period a year earlier. Take a look at NY based search volume, where the problem has been particularly significant:

According to this NY Times article, “with more people fearing a bedbug infestation, however, many companies are seeing fewer leads for business and more people clicking on their ads in search of information, increasing the amount of money they spend on their campaigns each day.

This emphasizes the need to either “become a SEM expert” and manage your campaign very carefully, or hire a professional. And if hiring, be sure to qualify the firm by asking the following: 

• Are they either Google certified, or is their firm an Authorized  Google partner?
• How about Yahoo/Bing – what are there levels of certification?
• Do they have testimonials or successful case studies to share? 
• Years of experience?  What’s their track record?
• Is any level of enhanced reporting or analytics available, like call or conversion tracking?
• Are they involved with other areas on Internet marketing like SEO or website design?  

Filed under: All Local Search Posts, Home Services, Pay-Per-Click

Microsoft and Yahoo! join forces to compete with Google.

Posted on 26. Aug, 2010 by Westchester Internet Marketing in All Local Search Posts, Internet Marketing & Local SEO, Optimization, Pay-Per-Click

I imagine this has gone mostly unnoticed by most Yahoo! users, but this past week there’s been a significant change to Yahoo! search results. Effective Tuesday, they are “powered by Bing” (see bottom of Yahoo! SERP)…

So after nearly two years in the making, Bing can now claim it’s the #2 search provider in the U.S. I imagine this additional search volume will help them to become an even better search engine in the next several months, and beyond. 

Although Google’ still claims 66 percent of the U.S. market (7/10), Microsoft’s 11 percent and Yahoo’s 17 percent will now represent a 28 percent share. Out of the 15.6 billion times a search button is clicked every month in the U.S., 4.4 billion will now go through Microsoft’s Bing. Pretty exciting for Microsoft, they’ve been #3 for more than a decade.

“We’re obviously happy,” said Adam Sohn, spokesman for the Microsoft Online Services division. “In the grand scheme of things, we’re barely a year since the original deal announcement and we’ve deployed in the largest search country in the world.”

In time the Sponsored Ad’s will be merged as well, advertisers will manage their PPC campaigns via Microsoft’s AdCenter.

Filed under: All Local Search Posts, Optimization, Pay-Per-Click

PPC or SEO? The Ultimate Search Marketing Battle – SES San Francisco

Posted on 23. Aug, 2010 by Westchester Internet Marketing in All Local Search Posts, Internet Marketing & Local SEO, Optimization, Pay-Per-Click

Aug. 19, the final day of  Search Engine Strategies - 

So, PPC or SEO? This has to be a loaded question, right? Still, everyone likes a good fight.

Mark Jackson (Vizion Interactive) is the moderator come referee, with fighters Rand Fishkin (SEOmoz), Melanie Mitchell (Digitas), Thomas Bindl (Refined Labs GmbH), and Benu Aggarwal (Milestone Internet Marketing) taking up their corners.

The fight has already started as to who is going to go first. I think I’ll hide behind Rand on this one. Swig down your caffeine as this fight is about to start.

Benu is up first. She’s gunning for SEO.

Benu says you cannot build a strong house without a good foundation. SEO is the foundation. This is where she sees the maximum return and the most unique visitors in the long haul.

If you do your SEO right, you’ll own Google in standard and universal results. That’s what we all want, right?

Melanie is up next. She wants everyone to get along. It isn’t either/or, but rather 1 + 1 = 3. There is a 32% uplift when you use both. Today, however, she’s siding with PPC.

PPC is a quick and easy way to own the space and to support short-term promotions, rather than waiting around for your SEO results to show. It also allows you to own the full experience, from the keyword to the message to the landing page, unlike SEO.

Another reason not to like SEO is because bad things can happen. An example is Toyota: The news results on the Toyota recall started owning the SEO results, so they focused efforts on PPC to address the negative news.

Delta wondered whether they needed to use PPC on their branded terms as they were already Number 1 in SEO, so they did a test: They pulled back 50% of their PPC spend and saw significant decreases in revenue. PPC actually took away from SEO.

Melanie says PPC and SEO does not cannibalize each other. The lesson is don’t fight, but let your campaigns complement each other.

Why you should use a Holistic Search Strategy

- Using PPC and SEO will provide significant lift for each listing than only appearing in one or the other
- Ability to reach the entire search audience
- Increased revenue from the non branded searches
- More efficient budget allocation of PPC campaigns based on natural results

Here comes Rand. He doesn’t want to get along with PPC. He says SEO vs. PPC is like Spain vs. North Korea in the World Cup. Rand’s tip of the day is to focus efforts on video SEO as you can achieve page 1 results relatively easily.

PPC may have 1.2x SEO’s conversion rate, but who gets more traffic? SEO gets 7.3x more clicks compared to PPC.

Marketers spend more on PPC; it’s a proven channel. Only 10% is spent on SEO but what this means is that 10% of search marketing spend is focused on where 90% of the clicks come from. He’d rather be putting his time and money in SEO, where it’s less competitive.

He finishes up with a below the belt blow by saying PPC is not a competitive advantage because it’s for simpletons. SEO is hard and requires actual skill! Nice.

Finally, Thomas is up. He’s calling SEOs a bunch of liars and is backing PPC because it’s cool and it makes money. PPC people are also nicer!

Why PPC is Necessary
- Full flexibility of budget and spend
- Adjustments on short notice
- Results are quicker to achieve
- No or only small changes to website required
- Various targeting options to ensure happy visitors
- Full transparency

However (if you must), he says PPC and SEO can be used together:
- Data generated can be exchanged for optimization
- Remove space for bad reputation
- SEO helps for AdWords Quality Score
- Big PPC spend helps getting answers from Google (on SEO)
- Less space for the competition

Great discussion. Round one is over and the panelists kiss and make up again.

This live blog post was written by guest blogger Imelda Khoo. Imelda is the E-Marketing Manager at Tektronix, responsible for global SEO, PPC and social media. Imelda blogs at SEM Booty and is also on Twitter @imeldak

Filed under: All Local Search Posts, Optimization, Pay-Per-Click

Happy Birthday Bing!

Posted on 14. Jul, 2010 by Westchester Internet Marketing in All Local Search Posts, Internet Marketing & Local SEO, Mobile, Optimization, Pay-Per-Click

Now one-year old, Microsoft’s revamped search engine Bing has quickly secured an impressive share of the market. 

 In its first year, Microsoft managed to go from about 8 percent market share to 12.7 percent as of June, according to Comscore. That gain is significant, although the company spent a fortune to get there using both heavy advertising and pricey distribution deals that make Bing the search engine default on new PCs from Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and others. Our toolbar deals played a significant role in getting us users,” acknowledged senior vice president Satya Nadella.

Microsoft will release its first full-featured Bing search client for Android in the next six weeks, matching the search capabilities that Microsoft offers for the iPhone, company executives said Tuesday.

Mobile is clearly an opportunity for Bing’s future growth. Microsoft already offers a basic Bing client for Android, but it’s geared mainly toward mapping tasks. The new client will have features similar to those in the desktop version of Bing.com, including full Web, image and news search – look for it in about six weeks.

Clearly one big task for Nadella and team will be the integration with Yahoo under the search partnership reached last year. This fall, Microsoft is due to start supplying both algorithmic and paid search results for Yahoo’s site, though Nadella said that the companies are further along on the former than they are on the latter front.

Filed under: All Local Search Posts, Mobile, Optimization, Pay-Per-Click

Local Internet Marketing is Complicated!

Posted on 29. Mar, 2010 by Westchester Internet Marketing in All Local Search Posts, Automotive, Business-to-Business, Classified Sites, Food & Dining, Health & Medicine, Home Services, Internet Marketing & Local SEO, Internet Yellow Pages, Legal & Financial, Maps, Mobile, Optimization, Pay-Per-Click, Professional Services, Real Estate, Recreation & Entertainment, Retail, Social Networking, Travel & Transportation

David Mihm’s illustration representing the “local search” relationships makes a great point: this business of local search marketing is complicated! 

In my experience, the typical local business owner doesn’t have the time or expertise to effectively manage online advertising investments - as illustrated in the recent Search Engine Land article ”Local Search Complexity = SMB Frustration“. 

Not only do you have numerous, complex supplier/directory relationships – but the continued fragmentation which is taking place keeps everyone on their toes! Search Engines,  social networking, blogs, directories and Internet Yellow Pages, mobile, vertical and hyper-local sites, etc., etc., etc.  Additionally, there are website design issues, analytics to keep up with, billing reconciliation, A/B testing, optimization and many other time-consuming elements.  Oh, and by the way – let’s not forget about the day job! It can be challenging, to say the least.

This is the primary reason so many third-party providers have jumped-into the game over the past several years – there is a void to fill; an overwelming demand to hand off this business of Internet marketing to a trusted advisor. Problem is: exactly who can you trust? The local SEO expert? Your website design guy? An out-of-work executive or moonlighting sales rep? The phone company, the local newspaper publisher, your tax software company?  All these characters are now in the game!

A word to the wise: be careful with whom you choose to work with! Here are a few quick tips:

• Stick with a well-known firm. Check their history; how long have they been in the Internet marketing business? Is it one of their core competencies? 
• Was the term “guarantee” used in their pitch? If so, run for the hills!  
• Are they charging you for free services like Google Maps, or worse yet – taking “credit” for those leads/clicks? 
• Is there a monthly recurring management fee? And if so, is it based on a percent of your overall budget? Hmmmm - could be a conflict of interest…
• Are they willing to provide full transparency and reporting?
• Are testimonials, references or case-studies from happy clients available?

Filed under: All Local Search Posts, Automotive, Business-to-Business, Classified Sites, Food & Dining, Health & Medicine, Home Services, Internet Yellow Pages, Legal & Financial, Maps, Mobile, Optimization, Pay-Per-Click, Professional Services, Real Estate, Recreation & Entertainment, Retail, Social Networking, Travel & Transportation

Search Alert: Carpet & Rug Cleaning

Posted on 14. Feb, 2010 by Westchester Internet Marketing in All Local Search Posts, Home Services, Pay-Per-Click

In Jan 2010, there were over 3.8 million searches for local carpet &  rug cleaners online. This includes both Internet Yellow Pages sites, as well as local search sites. The majority of these searches are using the same 335 keywords and keyword combinations, including:

• carpet cleaning
• steam cleaning
• rug cleaners
• local carpet cleaner
• NYC rug cleaning
• carpet shampoo
• upholstery cleaning
• boston rug shampoo
• chem dry
• green carpet cleaner
• professional rug cleaner
• oriental rugs cleaning
• cleaning berber carpet
• area rug cleaning
• rug cleaning LA
• macy’s rug cleaning
• residential carpet cleaner

Are you visible?

Filed under: All Local Search Posts, Home Services, Pay-Per-Click

Web, Print to Dominate 2010 Real Estate Ad Spends.

Posted on 24. Jan, 2010 by Westchester Internet Marketing in All Local Search Posts, Internet Marketing & Local SEO, Optimization, Pay-Per-Click, Real Estate, Traditional Media, Video

Print newspapers and Internet media to dominate advertising spends from local Real Estate Agencies in 2010, according to Borrell Associates, who just released their 2010 forecast. In summary:  

“Newspapers will see an increase in real estate advertising this year over last due in large part to spending by government agencies and banks to promote the sale of distressed properties. Other print vehicles will also rebound in 2010, but not to their 2008 levels. Online advertising continues to dominate the real estate market, reacting the consumer’s ongoing rapid adoption of the Web as a preferred method for researching homes for sale. The Web has now caught up to Agents as the top way that consumers found the homes they ended up buying.

A more immediate development within online advertising is the strong growth of video, which provides real estate shoppers with a much more immersive and compelling experience of the attributes of each unique property.

The uptick expected in 2010 will also mask large differences among media choices, as the following table indicates. Within these totals, advertising by locally-based real estate businesses spending to reach nearby consumers is actually heading up in 2010, although not enough to overcome the decline in spending by out-of-market advertisers”.

Posted in All Local Search Posts, Optimization, Pay-Per-Click, Real Estate, Traditional Media, Video