WSI Marketing, Surf, Search and Social

Analytics Data & PPC Optimization

Analytics Data & PPC Optimization to Achieve Meaningful Results:
Using a Network of Tools and a Data-Driven Approach to Optimize PPC Marketing

Download this pay per click advertising and  Guaranteed you will walk away with incredible information to help your internet advertising and internet marketing campaigns.

Think about it, a great website that few people see will not get the marketing results you desire, and with the explosion of online marketing activity, capturing your place online has never been more important.  As the internet becomes the dominant vehicle for marketing, an internet marketing plan including; pay per click advertising, search engine marketing, and social media marketing is essential to compete in the years to come. Too many businesses are failing to fully capture the potential from online marketing, and this is due primarily to a lack of knowledge about the tools available to be successful.

Google has made enhancements to their Adwords platform. Paid search marketing or pay per click advertising, sponsored link marketing, and PPC are all terms that describe the process of paid online advertising with Adwords as the platform to manage paid search marketing. Also, Google has made free to the marketplace its Google Analytics tool, which captures all kinds of data about how people are using your website, where visitors are coming from, and what keywords people are typing to find you. The combination of free Google Analytics and pay per click advertising, Adwords, bring forth opportunities for businesses large and small to succeed online advertising. After all, the more business are successful advertising and marketing online, the more they will spend doing it. In this case, everyone wins – the business and the search engines.

Download Pay Per Click and Website Analytics Whitepaper.

September 23, 2010

At the upcoming WSI Global Excellence and Innovation Convention in Miami, USA, we’re also organizing an annual charity golf event on September 23^rd, 2010. And this year we’re inviting businesses of all sizes and industries in various regions around the globe to get involved by sponsoring the event and making a contribution towards our Make Child Poverty History (MCPH) Program. The MCPH is a global initiative aiming to provide food, water, health care, and education to children in need.

We’ve been so fortunate to have established ourselves as the world’s largest digital marketing franchise, and with that recognition, WSI has remained dedicated to fulfilling our social responsibilities as well. As a founding member of the MCPH Program in 2004, WSI has strived to serve as a catalyst to help eradicate child poverty around the world. With initiatives like corporate and individual sponsorships, or fundraising events and donation drives, our global network of franchisees and suppliers are continuously working towards accomplishing the MCPH goal of providing the basic necessities of life to impoverished children.

There are three types of sponsorships available, each with unique branding opportunities for participating companies.

Here are the details:

Donation of $50 – your business can have your logo featured on a Make Child Poverty History (MCPH) banner at the golf tournament.

Donation of $150 – your business may feature your logo on a large banner at the tournament and receive a certificate from WSI thanking you for your generous contribution.

Donation of $250 – this is the “sponsor a hole” opportunity, allowing your business the ability to brand yourself with a “Sponsored Hole” sign at one of the holes on the golf course. Additionally, you will also have your business name and logo featured on a large banner and you’ll receive a signed wall plaque from WSI thanking you for your generous contribution.

Ultimately the goal of the sponsorship program is to raise $20,000 toward MCPH. Everyone at WSI is really looking forward to the charity golf event and we’re hoping that you and your business will be able to join us in taking one step closer to eliminating child poverty.

Get more information on the event and learn how you can become a sponsor.

Thank you to everyone who was able to join us yesterday for this month’s free webinar “PR on a Shoe String.” Facilitated by one of WSI’s PR and Social Media experts, Tracy Spence, this special webinar tackled some best-in-class business strategies on how you can generate PR campaigns on a “shoe string” budget.

All attendees are sure to have benefited from Tracy’s industry expertise. Each one hour session was packed with the ins and outs of how you can develop simple – yet highly effective – public relations and social media strategies to generate publicity for your company. So, now there’s no way you can be left behind in the social media boom.

Tracy Spence has been with WSI since 2005 and has been instrumental in providing leading edge public relations strategies for her clients as well as for several business and digital marketing seminars, including one of WSI’s Global Conventions. What’s more, is that Tracy is a regular blogger right here for the WSI Digital Marketing blog, so everyone is sure to gain continual tips and industry secrets on how the role of PR and social media can serve as profit-driving business solutions for your company.

And in remaining true to her character, Tracy has provided even more resources that will give you the knowledge to increase your brand and business online with a complimentary whitepaper “PR on a Shoe String: Online PR Using Social Media.”

All in all, this was another excellent edition in WSI’s Internet Marketing Expert Webinar Series. This is a year-round initiative from the WSI Franchisee Network, who work tirelessly to facilitate free webinars and complimentary whitepapers each month, covering topics that will prove to drive online sales and growth for your company. So, keep an eye out for an announcement of our next great webinar topic.

Click here to download your complimentary whitepaper: “PR on a Shoestring: Online PR using Social Media.”

Title tags is one of the most important tags on a web page for on page SEO. A website title (defined with the title tag) is the first thing that appears on search engine result pages (SERP) on which the site visitors click to go to the site.

Simple on page Search Engine Optimization methods like the title tag can make such a big difference on how well a website does on the search result pages. Many website owners are not even aware about the title tag defined within the HTML of the page (<title>page title</title>). Most website owners confuse it with the big bold text on the page.

SEO Title Tag Tips

1. The length of your titles should not exceed 65 characters including the spaces.
2. Use your keyword phrases in the title tag, taking care that the title looks natural and does not appear keyword stuffed.
3. If you wish to use your site name for branding, use your brand or site name at the end of the title tag on every page of your site. A good way to separate your title from your brand/business name is by using the “|” symbol between them.
4. Each page of your site should have a unique, descriptive title tag which should match with your page content. It also makes sense to reuse the text in title tag of each page in H1 header tag too – from the viewpoint of on-page optimization as well as for enhancing user experience.
5. Shorter page titles are usually better than long ones. However, longer titles make sense when you don’t want to lose traffic from long tail keywords. You may also combine or overlap many keyword phrases in the page title. For example, a title such as ‘Search Engine Optimization and Marketing Tips’ can help you to rank for keyword phrases such as ‘Search Engine Marketing’, ‘Search Engine Optimization Tips’, etc.
6. A compelling title can attract more eyeballs and clicks when your page appears in search results. You should therefore focus on the art of writing headlines and titles for improving your conversion rate.

Have you noticed that Youtube internet marketing in be coming the new big stage for advertising?

Currently, video produces more sales than any other means of advertising or marketing (Could Youtube Be The Missing Tabasco in Your Marketing Bloody Mary, 2010). So, how are you going to use this knowledge to leverage your access to Youtube to support your bottom line?

Although it is a cost-effective marketing option, however, like all avernues of marketing, video marketing must be executed correctly in order to compete and become an asset.

WSI has some tips to help your videos rank higher. The basic peice of information that you should grasp, in terms of ensuring that your video will be found online, is that the more information provided about your video, the better it can be searched (and found!).

Here are 4 steps to a high ranking video:

1) Add a descriptive title to your video
2) Make your descriptive content clear and specific
3) Provide accurate tags
4) Embed your video in your website

Want to learn more about how to boost your video’s ranking? With our expertise in internet marketing SEO services, WSI can go into further detail with you on the steps we provided.  Simply contact us and we’d be happy to speak with you, share our knowledge and answer any questions you may have.

Learn more about the other 4 of the top 5 social portals (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and blogs) on our website, wsi-webdesign.com.

5 Tips for Getting Started In Link Building

We explained in a previous post why it is important to build links to your website.  But after reading that post you are probably wondering “how, exactly, can I get started building links to my site?”

To be honest, there is no surefire, quick way to build up tons of links in a very short amount of time.  And you should be very wary of any person, company or service who tells you they can build massive amounts of links with very little effort because those methods are not usually above board.

With that said, there are some ways that you can start building links now so that you will continually increase the number of sites that link back to yours.

Here are five ways you can get started:

1. Be smart with anchor text. Anchor text refers to the words that you click on in order to be directed to another site. Rather than using yourwebsite.com as the anchor text, you can use words that refer to your product and make sense in the context where the link is found.
2. Try content syndication. Syndication refers to when someone uses an article, blog post or news item you wrote and publishes it on their site. When they give credit to the source, they will link back to your site.
3. Directories can also be a great way to build links. The Yahoo Directory is a great one, or you can try to find one that features topics related to your product or service.
4. Bookmarks. Sites such as Digg allow people to share their bookmarks with one another, allowing people to bookmark and share your site. This works best if you have a particularly interesting picture, blog post, or event on your site that people would like to talk about.
5. Ask clients, associates and organizations to put a link to your website on theirs. When you work with people, it is a good idea to see if it would be possible to use the relationship for link building. Also, for any organizations in which you are a member, ask the people in charge what it would take to get your link on their site, and then see if that is feasible for you.

Aim for Quality over Quantity

I’ll share a quick story with you to demonstrate why quality trumps quantity in link building.  A client of mine in the IT business has a very large company that they serve.  I suggested they request a link in the footer of their very popular and well established site saying “Technology consulting by ABC…”  And within a few weeks, our client moved up quickly in the rankings.

Now, this digital marketing strategy does not yield the same results every time.  However it does demonstrate that when Google, Yahoo and Bing find a link to your site on another site they trust, this helps your credibility in the online world.

Can you afford to ignore internet marketing?

Gone are the days when business marketing was about creating a message. Today, success is pretty dependent on online marketing or better to say ‘Internet Marketing.’

In this era, almost every company has its online interface, which helps the company in attaining a local and global outlook as well as leaving an impact on all the web-surfers and web researchers who can turn into clients. Keeping the target users in mind, internet marketing is done in a comprehensive manner.

It incorporates several online marketing strategies, starting with On-line Competitor Analysis, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), SEM (Search Engine Management), Link Building, Content Marketing,  PPC (Pay per Click) Management and Social Media Marketing.

The goal is to improve your search engine rankings or ‘Your Popularity”

Content is a King

To make this statement more definite, I would change the phrase for – rich content is king. But what sense in creating the greatest content in the world if nobody can find and view it. If you want to run your online business successfully you have to be seen.

Nonetheless, this is absolutely web-based marketing but it leaves a great impact on mass, which is considered the major USP of Internet Marketing. This cost-effective marketing tactic is absolutely measurable focuses on driving web/customer traffic and converting that into revenue influx and visitor count.

A linking strategy is an absolute must

Back links are the life blood of a successful site and although you might not actually see them, the search engines do and reward you as links back to your site are seen as subtle endorsements and can be built up with a strategy of regular blogging, using social media and on-line press releases article directories, etc.  The more links to your site, the more Google see you as popular and relevant to their searcher.

Before You Do Anything, Do Keyword Research

Yes,  it is very important. Besides, keyword research does not mean that you should guess which keyword sounds good and will be ranked high in the search engines. Judging by my experience they are the worst ones.

Again work with the professionals who have access to tools providing you with information on specific keywords and the number of clicks that they attract. Also find out what keywords your competitors are using AND which words get clicked on.

How do you stay ahead of your competitors?

Though, nowadays, millions of pages are online and many of them share category listings and key words with your site, It becomes very difficult to stay ahead in the race… Internet Marketing is the only solution that can help you in emerging as the winner.

For impact internet marketing, you must have the idea of your target client or target ‘persona’ enabling you to communicate with ‘relevance’ using persuasion architecture within your website to achieve those sought after conversions. This helps professionals in preparation of a well-versed strategy.

Internet Marketing should always be done with a progressive approach

Implemented by almost every entrepreneurial organization, internet-marketing tactics are considered great not only for the budding enterprises but also for those who are in queued in the list of big guns… and those smaller companies who have the drive and will to take on those ‘big guns’!

If you too want to give a boom to traffic count of your site and increase revenue generation, understand what your competitors are doing on-line in order to develop and commission an online marketing strategy that will allow you to pass your competitors and win the much needed market share.

Contact us today for a Analysis Report. This report will help you understand what you top ten competitors are doing online and what your target audience is searching on Google.

If you’ve already searched for some Fan Page inspiration and taken up the task of building a custom landing page for your business’s Facebook presence, you may now be in the market for some features that will further engage fans of your brand.

A nice feature of the modern social web is that it’s modular. You can plug in and customize pre-made pieces of software (often created by other users or companies), and mix and match what works best for you without a lot of technical know-how. Facebook works the same way with apps.

Many Facebook apps are built for casual use, like the social games and quizzes you may see your friends using in their personal feeds. But there are quite a few apps that are ideal for a business Fan Page. These are useful for customizing your page with greater detail, showcasing your content from other social sites, and getting more information from your customers. Here are five essential Facebook apps that your business may want to take for a spin.

1. Static FBML for Your Page Sidebar

We’ve already discussed how the Static FBML app can be used to make your Fan Page a unique destination. But this versatile plugin can also bring some interactivity to the column that appears on the left-hand side of your page.

Vertical, left-hand navigation is something users expect to find on most websites. They will be comfortable looking there for additional links, promotions, and contact details. Moving a Static FBML box over to the left-hand column is a great way to exploit this valuable real estate. Here’s how to do it.

If you haven’t already done so, add the app to your Fan Page and make sure it’s functioning as a “Box” rather than a “Tab.” Add content to your box using standard HTML. Graphics cannot be uploaded to Facebook here, so you must reference them from a URL — likely, one on your own hosted website or blog.

For a sidebar, think about adding some clean graphic buttons or icons that link out to other destinations your fans would be interested in, such as your company website, blog, or Twitter account. This sidebar will be visible no matter what Fan Page tab your visitors are on, so consider using graphic elements that coincide with your existing logo and color scheme.

Once your content is added and saved, it will appear as a box on the “Boxes” tab. Head over there to ensure that your HTML has rendered properly. If so, click the “Pencil” in the top-right corner of the box and select “Move To Wall Tab.” This will display your content in the left-hand navigation of your page.

2. Promotions

Contests and giveaways are a great way to engage people with your brand, especially on the social web. A chance at some free stuff is one of the top reasons people follow and friend brands in the first place. The Promotions app makes it easy to build and publish a contest on Facebook in a way that is inherently social and shareable.

Promotions is different from many Facebook apps in that the content you create for it lives on the developer’s website. This makes it a versatile tool, but you’ll have to sign up for a free account at wildfireapp.com.

Once you create an account and connect the registered app to Facebook, the promotions you generate on WildFire will populate the tab on your Fan Page. Promotions are easily built through a step-by-step process. Provide the dates of the contest, the types of prizes, the fields for the entry form, specific parameters about contest entry and rules, and upload any additional artwork you want to include.

A nice advantage of having contest data centralized on WildFire is that it can be sourced out to other social networks, and even to your own company website. Any changes or additions you make to your promotions will dynamically update on all of the locations where your customers and fans find you on the web.

Note, the cost to publish a basic promotional campaign through Wildfire is $5, plus $.99 for each day the campaign is active. Additional packages with more customization and publishing options are available.

3. Social RSS

If you already have great content from your company’s blog or another social network that you’d like to bring to the fore of your Facebook presence, Social RSS is a smart tool.

You can configure this app to automatically pull in updates from any RSS or ATOM feed and display them as posts on your Fan Page, either on a dedicated tab, a wall tab (on the left side) or as part of your core news feed. It’s a useful way to automate your content and eliminate the need to republish things manually to your Facebook Page.

Take note, however, that fans on social networks are much more responsive to curated content. Especially on Facebook, where people connect to a smaller community of personal friends and family, an unfiltered pipeline of RSS content may not be welcome in all news feeds. If your core customers are already subscribed to your blog and other social accounts, a double-dose of the same exact content may trigger some to hide your updates or “un-fan” you. Consider relegating your Social RSS feed to a tab if this is the case.

Test where and how an app like Social RSS is best implemented on Facebook, and adjust as needed depending on the size and response of your audience.

4. Poll

Sometimes you just need a little feedback. That’s what social engagement is all about, right?

On Facebook, it doesn’t get any simpler than the Poll app. There’s no account to sign up for. Once you connect it to your Page, all the setup and data lives right in your settings panel.

A poll can be a casual way to get a read from your fans about a new product, a new page design, or your business in general.

In the poll settings, simply name your burning question (What do you think of our new spicy burritos?), list your choices (Delicious, Pretty Tasty, Needs Work, Offensive) and select your publishing options.

Polls can be published to your Page wall/feed, live on a custom tab, or be popped into your left-hand navigation where visitors can click anytime they come to your Page. You can invite your friends to take a poll, and they can easily share it out as they would any other post or app. Both you and your visitors can see the poll results without leaving Facebook.

Publishing a weekly poll about new products or changes in your industry is a great way to keep fans coming back to your Page and talking about your brand.

5. YouTube for Pages

If creating video content is part of your business’s social media strategy (and we recommend it should be) you can squeeze more views out of your productions by dedicating a Fan Page tab to your YouTube channel.

That’s exactly what the YouTube for Pages app does. To activate the app, you’ll have to set up a free account at the developer website involver. Once it’s connected to your Fan Page, simply input the YouTube channel you’d like to pull videos from (it could be your own, or anyone else’s), pick a few more settings, and you’re all set.

The app “features” your most recent upload or favorite, and displays thumbnails for previous videos on a simple, clean interface. The videos play directly on Facebook of course, so fans can watch without ever leaving your Fan Page. Just be sure to add the tab in the app’s “Application Settings.”

A Facebook fan page is an essential part of online marketing. You can see some outstanding examples of how large brands use their pages in this list of the top 50 branded pages of 2010.

1. Use your personal profile for professional networking. Having a personal profile allows you to reach out and add select individuals as friends, comment on their walls, and begin to build key relationships. Plus, be mindful of your status updates and posts—you never know who’s reading your content in their stream!

2. Make use of Friend Lists. To better manage your friends, create lists with specific influentials, for example; you can then more easily view your News Feed each day and quickly Like and Comment as appropriate to continue nurturing those important relationships!

3. Use @ tags strategically. You can have up to six “@ tags” in any update/wall post (on your profile or fan page) consisting of a mix of friends, fan pages, events or groups. Use @ tags to give credit, thank, acknowledge and be enchanting!

4. Add an attractive landing tab to your fan page. A popular tab is a simple “welcome” message with custom graphics and possibly a video message. The purpose of this tab is to inspire visitors to join (like) your fan page. Check out these examples: NHL, EzineArticles, Steve Spangler, SocialMediaExaminer, and my own fan page.

5. Provide an area for your fans to promote themselves. To honor your fans and to help minimize any possible spam posts on your wall, give your fans their own forum using the Discussion tab. Specify exactly how and where you want them to post. For example, I have a long-running, popular thread encouraging fans to promote their Twitter accounts.

6. Respond to fans posts promptly and personally. Implement an effective engagement strategy (you may need team members to help) and reply to your fans’ comments and questions. Personalize your replies and use fans’ first names for an informal feel. BestBuy is an excellent example of enchanting engagement!

7. Surprise your fans and think outside the box. From time to time, give your Facebook fan page a burst of excitement by introducing initiatives like “Fan Page Friday” or “Share Your Blog Day” and invite all your fans to share their links on your wall. Every wall post creates viral visibility for your page throughout Facebook!

8. Give away a special free gift. Using the FBML app on your fan page, you can add any custom content as a tab or in the left column, including an opt-in box. Offer your fans a valuable, free download and you’ll grow your email list as a result. You can then continue building your relationship with your fans via email.

9. Chat live with your fans. Your fans will love to interact with you LIVE from time to time. Use the Vpype or Ustream apps to stream live video and get your fans to interact and chat. Also, try out the Clobby app (Chat Lobby) to chat real-time with your fans. Your fans will love you for the enchanting live element and you’ll stand out from others on Facebook!

10. Get your fans involved in product and content creation. Involve and include your Facebook fans when creating new products or when seeking ideas for new blog posts, etc. This is called “crowdsourcing.” You might also run a contest. Wildfireapp.com is a good choice for contests on Facebook.

The easiest websites to optimize are the horrible ones. In fact, the hardest part about optimizing a site that has a million and one problems is deciding which ones to go after first. However, where do you begin if you have a beautiful, clean, profitable website? If there are no clear issues – if the calls to action are visible and the page uncluttered and the buttons big and shiny – then what can be done short of remaking the entire site (an idea as scary as it is unnecessary)?

Sometimes, all you need is a change in perspective. We, the web savvy, see the Internet through big, clear monitors and 11 point font. We look at our site and we can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t be able to perform whatever task the site is designed to do. Well, to that end, Google Labs has created Browser Size. This nifty little tool allows you to see how much of your web page is immediately visible to your visitor depending on the size of their monitor and resolution settings.

The concept of “the fold” of a web page (as in “above the fold”, i.e., what can be seen upon landing on a webpage without any scrolling) is not a solid line that snips the bottom off every page, but rather a subjective experience. The notion of having important links, buttons and messages above the fold is taken for granted as a good policy, so what if you found out that 20% of your visitors couldn’t immediately see what you thought they could?

Plug your site into Browser Size and you’ll get that perspective. Each band of color represents approximately how many visitors will see that section immediately upon landing (the seemingly shaky lines are actually a true representation of the visible area excluding the title bar, toolbars, etc). If you have important information or buttons in the 70% range, that means 30% of your visitors are forced to scroll to see that information and convert.

Take a look at this example from the Website Optimizer homepage:

As you can see, most people can see our primary call to action, the “Start testing now” button. However, some of our educational content like Benefits and Testing 101 sections is below the fold for 50% of viewers.

Think the numbers are different for your site? Browser Size bases its data on a sample of visitors to Google.com, but you can check out your screen resolutions report in your web analytics tool to see the most common visitor screen resolutions for your own site. For most sites the list of dimensions is quite long, and the ones we in the industry tend to use – 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024 – typically only represent about 50% of the visitors at best.

So get back to the optimization grindstone, squeeze another percentage point or two into your conversion rate, and give all of your visitors the experience they deserve. You can start using Browser Size at http://browsersize.googlelabs.com