If you have the money to spend on a real time analytic system,  a step above and beyond Google Analytics, I recommend either Omniture or Hitslink.  Listed below is a quick breakdown of the differences between these two companies.  Click on the images to see them on a fuller scale.

Omniture:

• Costs more
• More comprehensive reporting with additional drill down and customizable reports
• You could eventually use this to replace GA entirely since it has a similar interface and functionality
• More complex, higher learning curve
• More time-consuming installation that requires more customization
• Provides an integration of Adobe Suite including consolidation of PPC management
• can potentially integrate additional data sources
• can query the data warehouse for highly customized reporting

Hitslink:

• Costs less
• More high level, easy to understand reporting with capabilities for custom reporting
• Used as an addition to GA for top level real time KPI reporting
• Easy, intuitive, lower learning curve
• Simple and fast installation
• Doesn’t provide consolidated paid search management, but does allow for campaign tracking
• Doesn’t provide data API for additional data integration
• Can’t query the data warehouse
• Can create new funnels on the fly that are applied to historical data (below is a snapshot of an example  funnel page)

1)      Consistency with the theme is so important. Make sure that the images, offers, and text content you include on your graphic are highly visible on the destination landing page so that visitors don’t feel lost when they arrive on your site.

2)      Don’t negate the necessity for testing. Things can always improve.  Why not create future ads by learning what did and did not work for the ads in the past.  HINT: Here is where Google Website Optimizer comes in handy! Always think about your options in the following areas:

• The Call to Action:
  • wording,
  • color,
  • shape,
  • size,
  • prominence

• The Point of Action Assurances:
  • Should you include a verification logo for secured online purchases?
  • Should you include a privacy policy?

• The Font You Use:
  • Which font should I choose?
  • Can my demographic read it easily?
  • If this is a mobile site, can they read the text of the ad?
  • Should I make it bold or italic?

Remember, what looks good on paper doesn’t always look so good online.

• The Headline Message
  • Should you use punctuation?
  • Should you include an explanation of benefits/features?
  • Does it need to evoke emotion?
  • Should you ask a question?

• The Graphic
  • What size/shape should it be?
  • Would the ad be more effective if there is an image of a person present for a relatable personability factor?

Remember, if you are going to have an image of a person, make sure that their eyes are facing forward to increase the false connection.

3)      Always track your destination URL. If you are new to this, use this link to help you build it.

If done right, an image ad is a great way to target your audience.  It is more visually attractive than a text ad, and is usually larger and easier to see and gain an impression.  You can also draw a visitor in by telling a story through basic animation.

Executing great Search Engine Optimization tactics to your website is much like personifying the perfect date.  Practice the tips below and I guarantee you will see fireworks at the end of the night and a higher page rank from the search engines.

1)      Choose the Right Target Market: Dating Translation: If you are about the age that I am and are looking to settle down with Mr. Right, your dream house, your Volvo C70, and your white picket fence, make sure you are dating men who are also ready for a commitment.  I wouldn’t recommend dating the bad boy from your circle of friends who has a new girl on his arm every time you see him.

The most important part of marketing your company is knowing exactly to whom you want to sell.  Your website is your biggest marketing tool to acquire the conversions you desire, so make sure that you direct your SEO strategy to gain relevant traffic to your website.

2)      Use Correct Title Tags on Each Page: Dating Translation: Always wear appropriate attire when going on a date.  If Mr. Right decides to take you to a go-cart track for the afternoon, I recommend wearing comfortable and casual clothes; now is not the time to pull out your Nine West heels and BCBG sequin dress.

Your title tag is the first impression the search engines have for your web page, so make sure that the title clearly reflects the content displayed on the page.  Also, you would never wear the same outfit on the first few dates, so never use the same title tag on more than one page.

3)      Use Appropriate Keywords on Each Page: Dating Translation:  Always be sure to answer the questions he may ask you with the appropriate answers.  For example, if he asks if you are dating anyone, your answer should be “No,” not “My heart will always belong to my favorite teddy bear Mr. Snuggles.”

One spends so much time and money focusing on the application of the right keywords on each and every page of your website.  Be sure you emphasize your content on what visitors of your demographic are searching for, not what you think the content should be.

4)      Reduce the Excessive Use of Keywords: Dating Translation: Do not talk constantly about your ex while on a date with Mr. Right.  If he asks about the last person you dated, explain briefly that the door to that part of your life is closed, and you are living in the present.  Do not continue babbling about how great Chester was.  After all, he was a 30-year-old man who still lived at home with his parents, thought MC Hammer Jam Pants were still in style, and believed that Justin Beiber will become the next patron saint.

Once you have chosen the right keywords to implement in your website pages, be sure you do not overuse them. It is very important to apply a good ratio of these keywords, so you do not appear to be “stuffing.”  Such is a quick way to find your website blacklisted on the search engines.  If you keep reminiscing about Chester, you will find yourself with a permanent reservation on your couch Friday nights watching the next Lifetime Movie Premier.

5)      Have an Effective and Relevant Linking Strategy: Dating Translation:  If you have a crush on a guy in your circle of friends, I recommend telling one or two of his best buddies that you like him to ascertain that the message finds its way to Mr. Right; however, telling everyone in his neighborhood and purchasing a billboard on I-40 East might not be the smartest move to inform him of your interest.

Implementing a linking plan to increase your website’s page rank is an excellent way to increase the amount of traffic browsing your website.  Even so, if you post links on irrelevant websites, you will not only be spending money, but also lots of unnecessary time because you are not going to receive the conversions you are seeking.  Similarly, the fastest way for Mr. Right to recognize the tip that you like him would be to tell those buddies with whom he spends the most time.  It would be a waste of your time to tell his old middle-school, baseball team buddies you discovered on Facebook that you like him because fifteen years later, they have little or nothing left in common and rarely if ever speak to one another.

Good luck, and may the SEO/Dating gods shine down upon you this year!

Because there has been so much talk and speculation over what will happen this fall in conjunction with the Bing/Yahoo merger, I thought it would be prudent to explain some of the major points to everyone.

Background

During the fall of 2009, after concluding that it just could not compete with Microsoft, Yahoo abandoned its own search engine technology and signed a deal to replace it with  that of Bing.  With Microsoft covering the bill for innovation on the search front, Yahoo planned to focus more on cleaning up its advertising and content delivery.  Yahoo also became the primary, paid search sales effort for both.  The two competitors hoped to make a greater impact on Google, who at the time carried about 70% of the total search market space.

Fast Forward to the Present

Beginning this fall, along with Bing running Yahoo’s search engine, the latter’s paid search results will also run under the Microsoft platform, which will allow Bing to manage the relevance, quality control, and target markets; consequently, Bing will provide a  much larger market share and a greater inventory of advertisers.  Yahoo will still get 88% of the total revenue, while Microsoft’s Bing assumes all of the power.

Implications for Paid Search

Beginning in September, Bing will manage all paid search results on both search engines.  For most search engine marketers, this news is great because now we really only have to develop a method to optimize two PPC campaigns (Google and Bing) instead of three.

By gaining a larger audience with more technology and expertise, SEO and Paid Search firms will probably also begin spending more money on Yahoo traffic, which never before carried heavy conversion traffic.  I am fairly certain Google will continue to dominate the SERP world, but it better make sure it keeps its advertisers happy so that firms do not start transferring more money to Bing.

Microsoft’s Bing is now in a great position because it can really step up its game by providing some major innovation to the market.  If it does so successfully, it will definitely put a fire under Google to become more innovative with its paid search platform, which has not changed that dramatically over the past few years.

To Wrap it Up

Do not worry.  Despite that the demographic of users on these respective search engines are different, so far the circumstances look like a win/win situation , similar to when Bing began to take over Yahoo’s search engine back in 2009.

When maintaining your website, every inch of space on the screen is crucial to helping you hit your conversions. Why would you leave anything to chance?

You never want to waste space or hide an important call to action because it may cause your visitors to grow frustrated; consequently, you could continue to lose sales. Therefore, the million dollar question is: How do we determine the effectiveness of your layout site? The answer, my friends, becomes apparent with the use of heat maps, which illustrate the behavioral trending of your site’s visitors, or to know where potential customers are clicking, and more importantly, where they are not.

How the software works

When we optimize a client’s website, we install a special application that tracks movements, hovering, and clicks visitors make on your site. What is most impressive from this application is that we can analyze the data in several ways, all of which start with a true-to-form heat map that registers density by click. From here, we can break down the clicks and divide them by search engine source, day of the week, time of day visited, new vs. return visitor, IP location, referral paths, search terms, etc. We can also filter and block specific IPs to refine our data better as well.

At this point, we can begin testing and monitoring test page variations against each other to optimize sales-driven pages more effectively.

Albert Einstein must have slipped when he claimed that “not everything that counts can be measured.” I wish I could have introduced him to the world of Dynamic Number Insertion/Replacement, in which you have the ability to measure and review the information surrounding your website. As for me, if I can’t count it, track it, or measure it, I have a difficult time finding it reliable. Call me crazy, but most of us need immediate gratification for our hard work, and dynamic phone tracking does just that by allowing you to quantify the success of your website and media advertising. What can I say? I’m just a numbers and figures kind of girl.

We use dynamic phone number replacement tracking for several of our clients to allow them to see and measure precisely which keywords, traffic sources, or paid campaigns are performing the best. Once we can apply a metrics to your call volume paths, we know exactly what areas need improvement for better conversion rates. Not only that, but now we can establish an actual cost per click to measure your paid search ROI more accurately.

Here is how it works:

First we install our code. We can provide a different number based upon whatever segmentation you want to review, such as by traffic source (organic, paid, referral, direct) or by keyword (branded or non-branded). We can even dig deeper and divide out the paid traffic by campaign! Then, when a visiting prospect comes to your website and contacts you by phone, we are able to segment that traffic lead to learn how the call generated. Do you want to see how well the money you are investing on a link partner’s site is operating? Well, now you can.

Here is another example: You begin a pay-per-click campaign and do not find the online conversions you hoped for, so you consider putting the money elsewhere. Then you let us install the dynamic phone tracking and discover that while you may not be receive any of your paid traffic to contact you through the web, more than half of your call center volume this past month contacted you by the number they found when visiting your site through a paid search. As you consider the results, do you still want to pull the plug on your Adwords account?

Check out our Contact Form here on our blog if you are interested in letting Beacon help you find the answers you need.

Even though a title tag is just one small piece of a webpage, it is still one of the most important factors in a search engine’s algorithm to achieve the organic rankings you desire.  Despite your flashing lights and the sales copy for your site’s pages, the tag will pull visitors to your page.  It should be short but send a clear message.

If you update the content on your pages, don’t forget about the title tags!  These 65-70 characters are what actually appear on the search engine result pages (SERPs), so revising them will bring more clicks to your site.  Therefore, make sure that the search engines are indexing your revised pages correctly.

Here at Beacon Technologies, we often here customers ask, “Is it okay to include our company name in our title tags?”  I always answer yes unless you are completely ubiquitous in your market.  For Kleenex, I would say no, but for any highly competitive market, we would strongly recommend doing so.  Publicize your brand name!  However, make sure you add some strong keywords along with your name.

If you are not sure what keywords to use, take some time with the Keyword Tool from Google- http://www.google.com/sktool.  This gizmo is an awesome timesaver because it pulls its recommendations from actual Google search queries!

Finally, avoid any superfluous characters, such as ampersands, and never duplicate title tags throughout your site.  Additionally, don’t ever surpass 65-70 character spaces, or else the “…” will get you.

When looking for a quick fix to gain more exposure, remember your title tags!

“Hit them now and hit them hard” is a phrase that should never be associated to your strategy for an effective, email marketing campaign.  You have worked hard to collect the addresses in your database, and you want these contacts to continue strengthening their loyalty to you through your commitment to excellence and your brand credibility.  You do not want to attack them at all angles so much that they feel bombarded or pressured to take action immediately.  While hoping for them to react to your specific calls to action, they shouldn’t have to do so three times a week.  Your contacts vary and therefore should be divided appropriately into different email lists.

Segmenting Your Email Database

Some customers want everything you have and more,  while others want to demonstrate their loyalty to your company or brand but might only want to hear from you once a month.  We need to differentiate these customers and keep them all happy by utilizing a more complex opt-out option when unsubscribing.

Over the years, you have continued striving for excellence on your website, as well as collecting email lists from customers, clients, and vendors.  You now have one big email list, but you notice that while the traffic hitting your website continues to grow alongside your conversions for email address submissions each month, your total email address database continues to remain flat.  You do some further review in Google Analytics and see that one of your top landing pages is your unsubscribe page.  What can you do to decrease the number of opt-outs?

Updating your Opt-Out Page

When customers receive your email blasts, they have the option from the link to go directly to your un-subscription page to remove their email addresses from your database list.  Like most companies, your site probably only has one option on this page–to unsubscribe completely.  Once they select this option, their direct connection with you is gone. You have worked so hard to gather their information, so don’t you think it would be wise to provide them some options in an attempt to retain some of these customers?

Your goal as a company should be to make the opting out process as easy and painless as possible for the customer, even if you don’t want them to go.  Remember, by leading an effective and positive unsubscribe experience; you can keep the user as a customer for years to come even if they are no longer on your email list because despite popular belief in the marketing world, an unsubscribe is not necessarily the end of your relationship with that customer.

Instead of a single unsubscribe option, why not provide them with some choices for them to consider before they sever all ties?  A great ecommerce website that provides two simple options is Victoria’s Secret.  When customers receive an email blast and click on the unsubscribe link, they are directed to a certain page, and instead of disconnecting themselves completely, they can choose their level of intensity.  More often than not, the customer will select the “fewer” emails than the end-all “unsubscribe.”

Ideas to Expand and Optimize your Opt-Out Page:

1)  If you send a quarterly newsletter along with custom email blasts, you could split up your groups into three main lists:  Newsletters Only (B2B and promotional), Email Blasts Only (promotional), and both.

2)  Provide options such as brand specific targeting if your company hosts a series of products and services, or for products that tend to be seasonal, it may be appropriate for you to give them the option to only be emailed during the specific seasons or holidays.

3)  Provide them the option to update their email address listed since they might be leaving if you are sending these blasts to their work account

4)  Consider briefly reminding the subscribers at the top of the page the benefits of remaining on your email lists ( seasonal promotions, exclusive offers, new and online only merchandise, etc)

Just for the record, revising your unsubscribe request to include options will not keep 100% of your database in constant conversation with you but it is a great start to providing excellent customer service to your need-based clients.

Professionals who are shocked when their competition copies one of their latest innovations bewilder me. How could they find out so fast? Did they know about this new unique promotional concept or product before it was released last week? Is this a case of espionage? More than likely, it is not. Intelligent competitors are not your colleagues; they are your clients. More importantly, you should be one of theirs, too, before they sail away and leave you in their wake.

Impede the number of late nights and weekends wasted browsing the web, and start receiving accurate information sent directly to you as soon as it is released. Simply follow their social media accounts, sign up for their email blasts and coupon offers, and become a member of their Web page or club. Consequently, you will have a handle on all information available. My dad was right when he taught me, “Work smart, not hard,” and this strategy, my friends, is a perfect example.

One of the best FREE tools is Google Alerts, http://www.google.com/alerts, and you should be implementing it every day. This tool will send you email alerts every time one of their triggers locates a company name, keyword, or phrase you entered in a news story, blog, or website. Do not be worried about the constant flow of emails you may receive; Google has already thought of this. For your convenience, you can set up how often you receive these gifts of knowledge: as they happen, once a day, or once a week. Here is how to do it:

1. Go to http://www.google.com/alerts.
2. In the “Create a Google Alert” box on the right, insert your keyword in quotes, i.e. “Superhero Training Classes.” Using quotes will help ensure relevant results.
3. Select the Type of alert (news, web, blog, video, groups or comprehensive (all)).
4. Select your desired e-mail frequency.
5. Enter your e-mail address and you’re done!
6. And repeat…Enter your next keyword phrase, i.e. your company name, your name, a competitive company name, etc.

If you select daily notifications under the category of “Web,” tomorrow you will start receiving the latest Website pages that are being indexed by Google for your specific keywords/phrases. If you input very specific, niche terms, you may not get much on a normal basis. But if your keyword/phrase is more generic, you may find that you are getting too much and you need to refine your alert keywords.

Remember: always keep your friends close and your enemies closer.