Six Strategies for Keyword Optimization Success
Optimizing a Web site doesn’t require a huge budget. It doesn’t require the latest and greatest technology, a “Beautiful Mind” mind, or round-the-clock vigilance to keep your site ranked highly.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that it does require diligence, especially if your primary online marketing component is paid search. You’ve spent hours upon hours coming up with and testing the right keywords to attract the right traffic to your site. Now it’s time to fine-tune them.
There are six easy ways to redefine and expand your keyword list to help ensure paid search success.
Add Related Keywords
By adding related keywords, you ensure you are covering a broad spectrum of searches, as well as increasing your traffic. For instance, if you are using the keyword phrase “women’s shoes,” you may also want to consider adding related terms such as “girls’ shoes” or “ladies’ shoes.”
Use Keyword Variations
Adding variations of the same keyword will also maximize your traffic. For instance, if “women’s shoes” is working well, then add variations of it like “women’s shoe,” or “woman’s shoes.” This works great for URLs, too. So for example, in addition to targeting “soppaz” (fictional shoe site), try “.soppaz.com” or just “soppaz.”
Target Your Keywords
Specificity sells. Try adding specific keywords to zero in on customers who are ready to buy. The keyword phrase “women’s shoes,” while good, is pretty broad. Refine your list with terms that more narrowly match what your customers are looking for, such as “red women’s shoes” or “designer women’s shoes.” Also, consider your specific product/service and use terms that are related. If you are selling a line of Steve Madden shoes, then using a keyword phrase like “Steve Madden sandals” will target those customers who are most interested in that specific product type.
Broaden Keywords
Okay. I know. I just told you to be specific. But very specific keywords often generate limited volume, so finding that perfect mix of both targeted and broad keywords is the goal. You’ll want to test your keywords to find the right mix for you and your product/service.
Take Advantage of Your Competition
If you are only using keywords in your campaign, you’re missing out on great traffic! Adding your competitors’ relevant URLs is an extremely successful way to drive more, better, and yet still highly targeted traffic to your site. Still using women’s shoes as an example, a shoe advertiser may want to target Web sites that promote similar products, such as “soppaz.com/womens.html.” Targeting competitor URLs will allow you to reach consumers who are looking to buy your product or service. Both consumers and savvy advertisers benefit when relevant competitor URLs are properly utilized.
Separate Top Converting Keywords
If you have a keyword or a few keywords in a campaign that are consistently converting but causing you to hit your daily budget consistently, you may want to separate these keywords into their own campaigns. These keywords are probably consuming a large portion of your budget and preventing the remainder of your keywords from receiving more traffic. Moving your top converting keywords into their own campaign will allow you to maximize traffic for all of your keywords.
Source: Sarah Moore
Entrepreneur Rulebook: 5 Rules for Better Communication in a Web 2.0 World
1. Know your customer. If you’re going to reach the greatest number of customers and prospects, you have to know who they are and what their media habits are.
We know that more than 70% of car buyers do research on the Internet before they visit a dealership. How do your customers seek out information? Are they reading ads in the paper, searching on Google, or reading blogs? Are they talking with friends on FaceBook, or over the back fence? Would they read your blog, would they respond to a contest for the best home-made video of someone trying out your product?
2. Get people’s attention! When you know what you want to say, say it loud. Stand out. Be lively, be interesting, be fun. Don’t hold back. And never, ever be boring.
Most ads, most brochures, most website copy is dull. Boring. Written by people who didn’t understand people’s needs to be entertained, amused, teased and intrigued. Take a chance, hire a marketer, and find a way to be dazzling, fascinating, habit-forming.
3. Make it easy for your audience to find you. Archive all your ads, your press releases, your product specs or announcements, your newsletters. Get an SEO specialist to give your site more Google juice (i.e., a higher ranking on the search engines). Trade links with other businesses. Put your URL in your ads and n your business cards, let people know where to find your blogs, newsletters or limited-time coupons. If your market can’t find you, it doesn’t matter what you’re saying.
4. Overuse the word “You.” Have your customers and their needs in mind at all times. Don’t talk about your products or services – talk about how your products and services solve their problems. Get over yourself and put the customer and his or her needs at the centre of all you do.
5. Experiment. There is no one fix for every business. If blogging isn’t for you, maybe you’ll make a splash with YouTube videos or pay-per-click advertising. If newspaper ads work for you, stick with them, but experiment with interactive elements that help you build your database and communicate with more customers directly.
Above all, ask your customers what they’re listening to, what they’re reading, how they’re using the net. That’s how you can focus on the best opportunities for your business to stand out, be heard, and serve its customers better.
SOURCE: Rick Spence
Everyone’s talking about campaign integration. So why are so few doing it well?
One of the hottest topics in marketing today is campaign integration. While virtually all marketers agree on the importance of integration, they don’t feel like they’re doing it very well. According to a recent report published by the American Association of Advertising Agencies, developing integrated marketing communications is the number one concern of senior marketing executives (followed by accountability, aligning their marketing organization with innovation and building strong brands). Of those surveyed, 91% believe that an integrated campaign is of critical importance to their success; however only 21% believe that their organization actually does a great job delivering it.
The conception, execution and implementation of a successful integrated marketing campaign, is a tough job for any marketer because of the vast array of disciplines involved. There’s traditional media advertising, online marketing, public relations, product placement, promotions, mobile marketing, event marketing, direct response, in-store advertising, merchandising, multi-cultural marketing, guerilla marketing, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. To complicate matters even further, most companies operate in silos with each department working with a different specialized agency. Anyone can see why CMOs become frustrated. They receive different recommendations from different professionals at different agencies, and they’re then faced with the challenge of making sense of it all. It’s like trying to wrestle down a twelve-headed monster.
To make matters even worse, advertising agencies suffer from similar silos. In agency holding companies everyone fights for their share of the client’s dollar in order to meet their numbers. In these situations, the agencies are looking to defend their own turf and find it almost impossible to truly be media agnostic. In the end, the clients are the ones that suffer.
So how can CMOs launch successful integrated campaigns? Well, they have several options. They can hire several specialized agencies and coordinate the entire effort themselves. They can hire a holding company or full-service advertising agency and have them both develop and implement the integrated campaign. Or, they can hire a marketing consultant that works with all the agencies to coordinate the campaign integration.
Of these options, I believe that it is the marketers’ responsibility to lead the campaign integration process. They must centralize their marketing departments and break down the silos. I find it ironic that we’re in the communications business, and yet we communicate so poorly with each other. Try to send a few less IMs and emails, and instead meet face-to-face or pick up the phone more often. The result will be stronger relationships between internal departments and agencies alike. Marketers must also value their agencies as strategic partners, openly communicate with them and nurture positive relationships amongst the different specialized agency teams. All this requires a great deal of effort and a lot of hard work. But in the end, CMOs will be rewarded with a media neutral approach, best-in-class expertise, a consistent message and a truly integrated campaign.
