Optimize your PPC campaigns 2008. The year is coming to an end. How much are you spending on search marketing ? Are your marketing dollars well spent ? Or are you throwing your $ out of your window ?
So how do you better optimize your ppc campaigns ? Enough said, here's some quick tips to implement now.
PPC elements optimization:
Negative keywords * Removal of non-performing keywords which are not converting but costing $
Split testing * Any split test conducted on a on-going basis ? * Which ad group is converting better ? In individual countries ? In seasonal period ? * How long is the test conducted ? Too long ? Too Short period ?
Historical keyword performance * What's the historical keyword performance of individual ad groups / campaigns ?
Other on-page elements to test:
Call to Action Button * Colour - which colour on the cta button converts better ? In different countries ? In different seasonal period ? * Copy on cta - which copy on cta converts better ? In different countries ? In different seasonal period ? * Shape - Which shape coverts better ? In different countries ?
Web Form * Which part of your web form field is actually necessary ? Or which part of web form fields are hindering conversion rates ? * Shorter web form field, have you tried testing the conversion after alteration ?
Landing Page Load Time * How fast is your landing page loading ? * What is the landing page individual document size ? * What is the average Internet connection speed of your visitors ?
Landing Page Copy Font * Is your landing page fonts visible ? (Even though visitors / potential customers scan web pages) * Which Font size / colour converts better ? In different countries ?
Landing Page Friction Elements * Which element of your landing page is actually hindering conversion rate ? (Don't make the visitors / potential customers think !) * Are there any substantial claims or testimonials to support your copy content in reducing friction,thereby increasing trust factor ?
Implement this: > Try using Google Website Optimizer, let the consumers test / decide for you, which on page elements work best at which country, for which seasonal period, for which promotional campaign, etc.
Test, Test, Test Learn. Optimize. Re-Test, Re-Test
Search Engine Analytics Simply just enter any Url into the search query and voila you get a trend report from link popularity, PageRank™, Alexa Rank, keywords.
Head Checker This tool will check any web page's header tags.
Search Combination Tool This tool will generate all possible combinations of two separate lists of search phrases.
Keyword Density Analysis Tool Enter a page URL and this tool will tell you the keyword density of all the phrases on the page.
Spider Viewer Wonder how your page is viewed by a search engine spider / bot ?
Index Rank Check and benchmark your website indexation against your competition
SeoDigger Find out for which keywords your site ranks high enough to be in Google Top 20. Registering for a free account at SeoDigger gives you information per entire domain as well as per separate pages.
Site Comparison Analysis A useful tool in benchmarking your website against a competitor via a radar diagram. Stomper Ranker A firefox plugin in finding out how well your site fare against the competition in Google, Yahoo, and MSN/Live.
SEO Site Audit Tool A quick audit on your website or competitor on how well your website is faring on search engines, social bookmarking, etc
SEO Audit Report Free SEO audit which provides score that incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors on how your website can be improved from a marketing perspective.
Backlink Analysis Find out all the important information about your competitor's links. This free tool reporting includes pagerank, anchor texts, no-follow information , etc.
Website Analysis Another tool in digging out everything regarding a website
SEM Tools:
Keyword Tool The free keyword tool from Google Find out how competitive your particular keyword is / are; Crawl your own website to determine which keyword / s are getting higher traffic
Traffic Estimator The free Traffic Estimator tool from Google Get quick traffic estimates for keywords for your sem campaigns
Keyword Competition Tool Find out how competitive the particular keyword /s is for your sem campaigns. Search Radar Search for topics relevant to your search query
Page Size Calculator Useful in calculating the size of your web page and the estimated time it would take to download on a 56k Modem. Heatmap Analysis Identify how people view your website, photo or ad and which areas are getting most of the attention.
If you know of any SEO / SEM tools that were not mentioned here or missed any goodies, drop a note and I will update the post.
Yes, which call to action button would entice you to click onto it if you were a student signing up for your degree program ?
Have your answers ready ?
As a business owner / marketer, which copy would you put onto your call to action button ?
Would a generic copy on the button entice more clicks from your users / visitors ?
Or would a copy which inform your users / visitors on the next step or what's IN for them once they click onto the the call to action button ?
Why not implement a simple A/B testing and let your users or visitors decide for you. Let them decide which copy; which colour of the call to action button; which size entice them better to click onto the call to action button.
This is only part of the equation, make sure you test your landing page elements in an integrated approach, taking into consideration the following elements as well:
Body copy
Hero shot images
Sign up form fields
Landing page load time
Are you testing your landing page ? Or are you sitting in the cubic room guessing ? Are you optimizing your landing page ? You decide.
You have a great idea. You have a great team to start with (Best case scenario) You are ready to gear up and kick start your startup. So you have everything in place.... What else is required ?
Idea + team + ? = Profit
In the following video,David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of the Ruby on Rails framework and Partner at 37Signals will be sharing his insights in creating a profitable startup company.
Here's an analogy of how a spider might crawl your website: Imagine yourself visiting a newly constructed mall down by your town, what might you do when you first find yourself inside the mall ?
Navigating around ? For something of interest to you ?
Looking around ? For something of interest to you ?
Which varieties of stores are available ? Which is / are relevant to your needs ?
Where are the restaurants / fast food outlets / restrooms ?
You decided to locate the restroom but to your surprise.....the door to the restroom was locked when you reached it.
One week later, you came back to the mall and when you went to the same restroom...the door was locked once again.....
Another week later.....history repeats itself..... Will you still try using the same restroom the next time round ? Yes ? No ?
Similarly the search engine bot faces the same issue when their navigation is blocked either by your password protected content areas; your graphical images which displays nothing when being blocked by ad block programs, missing images....etc...
So what could you do to prevent such mishaps ?
Adding appropriate ALT attribute descriptions to your graphical image; Making sure the surrounding copy / text around your image clearly sets the context.
Having password protected content area only for those content that would require registration such as pay-per view content / subscription based premium contents.
Your turn. What could you ensure the crawl-ability of your website ?
