Archive for September, 2006

I just changed web hosts. After I uploaded all the files & database, I clicked on a link, but got served a 404 error page. The sterility of the page, and limited information made me shiver. This was the wake-up call I needed to not put off developing my custom 404 page any longer.

So, here is my custom 404 page. According to Todd, it certainly is not the ultimate 404 page.

Creating the ultimate 404 page

Recipe calls for:
-(1) Customized message to include: enough humor to elicit a response and prevent boredom, a few words of self deprecation and apology for the error, and written instructions on how to proceed.
-(1) search box
-(1) basic sitemap - directory style
-optional: Funny picture because it’s an error page and you can do that kinda stuff on the web no matter how “corporate” you are.

My 404 page doesn’t have all of those ingredients, but I feel better knowing that it’s better than the default 404 page. And, it will evolve over time. Here is a list of some of the best 404 pages on the web.

What’s the value of impressions in Search? I was unable to find any industry research. I checked all the usual sources ( Jupiter, eMarketer, comScore, SEMPO, Forrester, and the IAB). I even asked my Google rep for any case studies. Everyone came up with a goose egg.

So, if you say, Branding. I could make an arguement against that. Because, if advertisers are spending millions on direct mail with glossy brochures and other gimmicks, and that doesn’t work, what makes you think 95 characters in Search will work? Search is meant to be a direct response medium.

The counter-argument is: Because the impression is only “activated” when a consumer is actively seeking information on the product or serviced being marketed, whereas direct mail it is not requested. The impression is valuable because it is being served to the right consumer at the right moment in time. And with PPC , if the impression doesn’t turn into a click, the cost is very minimal. Thats a big component, less waste.

For a brand awareness campaign, low impressions are definitely a concern because a large part of branding is the message association. On the other hand, for a direct response campaign, low impressions are not that important because the key performance metrics are usually CPA or ROAS. Brand engagement is different. That’s about the clicks, not the impressions. Low impressions can also indicate that the total amount of people searching on your terms, is minimal. That means, time for a keyword expansion.

Additionally, most people just look at the 1st page results. So, if the ad is on the 2nd page of the SERP’s, it could reflect in low impressions, and be a reason to increase the CPC’s to gain a higher position. Thereby, increasing the impressions.

On the other hand, let’s assume there is a large amount of impressions and low CTR. If nobody clicks thru, then there probably is no value in an impression. A click indicates interest. No clicks = No interest. Time to optimize. Revise the creative to be more targeted, and/or revise & expand the keyword list. Targeting & relevance should lead to clicks, and brand engagement.

In my opinion, Impressions have some value & are best used as an analytic metric when the objective of the search campaign is brand awareness. Impressions seem to have very little value for a direct response campaign.

In this post, I’ll discuss Bidding Strategies, other than rules-based bidding strategies.

How you determine your bidding strategy is dependent on several variables. Is your campaign a branding campaign or direct response? Will ad position be influenced by the business objectives? Is ROAS a key performance metric of your campaign?

1) One Bidding Strategy is to determine your maximum bid per visitor.

Step 1: Calculate the dollar value of your campaign objective. Eg: If your objective is to sell widgets, figure out how many clicks you need in order to generate one sale.
If it takes 50 clicks to generate 1 sale…..and the average sale price is $250, then the “value of a click” is:
$250 / 50 clicks = $5.00 (the value of your objective).

Step 2: Determine your maximum bid per visitor while remaining at a break-even point with the value of your objective. Do this by calculating your current conversion rate, which is defined as the number of actions (sales) divided by the number of clicks within a specific period of time.

The formula to calculate the maximum bid price per visitor to break-even is:
Campaign Objective’s Value * Conversion Rate=Maximum bid price per visitor

Therefore, in our example, a $5.00 objective value multiplied by a 5% conversion rate equals $0.25 maximum bid price per visitor. And, a bid equal to or less than $0.25 will remain at a breakeven point with the objective’s value.

2) Another bidding strategy is to start off aggressively bidding, and dial down. Or, you can start off conservatively bidding, and dial up.

If your primary campaign objective is brand awareness, then your bidding strategy could be much more aggressive to keep your ads in the 1st thru 3rd position. As opposed to, if your campaign is direct response, and you need to manage to a CPA, then you might want to be more conservative in your bidding at the beginning of the campaign.

Keep in mind that if you’re too conservative, it could have an adverse affect on your quality score. So, it might be tougher to catch up, and attain your campaign success metrics.

3) There is the 1% rule. That states if your CPA is x. Your Avg CPC should be managed to 1% of your CPA. Eg: if the CPA is $40.00., then your Avg CPC should be $0.40. So, you’ll be getting 100 clicks and hoping to attain at least a 1% conversion rate.

4) Another bidding strategy is to base the CPC on your profit margins, or a percentage of your gross revenue. Eg: if your sale price is $100, and you want to spend 10% of revenue on advertising, then your ad spend would work out to $10 per sale. If you conservatively assume a 1% conversion rate, that would leave you with $0.10 per click. However, you might want to pay a little more for an initial sale, if you know the lifetime value of a customer.

Using Bid management & Conversion Tracking software can be extremely helpful regardless of what your bidding strategy is.

And, don’t make the mistake if you are using an SEO Consultant assuming that they will automatically know PPC Bidding Strategies just because they are experts at SEO. Some SEO’s will be very saavy in PPC, while others are not.

Every manager has their own management style. I kinda relate my style similarly to how I manage my children.
For example, if my 4 and a half year old son did something he shouldn’t have, I might call him over, have him sit on my knee, and tell him that he is good at this, good at that, and good at the other thing. And, how much I love him. But….I really didn’t like what he did to his sister a moment ago. And, tell him, he’s better than that. He’s a good boy.

In business, it’s different but similar. I think the best policy for a manager is never to lose their cool, and always be gentle with their words. Nobody wants to be talked down to. During a performance review, if someone is weak in a certain area(s), then start the conversation by telling them how good they are in other areas. Always look for the good. Don’t just wait for review time to praise employees. Always look for the good, and be generous with praise ( all the time). Most people want to feel appreciated, and valued. Even if the employee has several areas that need improvemment, just pick one or two to begin with. Because you don’t want to overwhelm them. And/or make them feel like complete losers, or like they are in danger of losing their job. Focus on 1 or 2 areas of improvement, and rock n roll with it. If you try to improve them in too many things at once, then you could just frustrate them, and set them up for failure. So, stick with one or two areas of improvement. You’ll both be happier.

The review might sound like this: Ya know Johnny, you’re great at this, good at that, and good at the other thing. But…it seems like you need some improvement in *blank*. Get Johnny to agree or disagree. Most likely, he’ll agree.

Then, chart out a development plan. Use SMART goals. Set up a process. And, don’t worry if he hasn’t become an expert by the next review. As long as Johnny is showing progress, you’re both in good shape. He’ll keep getting better, and appreciate you as a caring manager and most likely be a more productive employee. He’ll also respect you more as a manager. In my opinion, employee development is very important.

Most people do not want to be micro-managed. Depending on the experience level of the employee, some people a manager will just need to delegate to, while others he/she will need to be more hands-on. This component of managing is called Situational Leadership.

Some managers will use the fear factor in an attempt to motivate employees. Personally I think that’s horrible. It might work in the short term. But, nobody wants to work in that type of environment. In my opinion, positive motivation is much healthier .

Or, just forget about everything I wrote above, and live a goal-free life.

Here’s a keyword strategy to use to avoid bidding wars, and increase ROAS.

Initially, you can generate a keyword list from the content on your website. However, more than likely those terms will be your “main” terms, and be highly competitive.

Rather than bidding on your main terms, try to think of related terms. Sounds simple, right? It really is. For example, if your main terms are “diet pills”, then try some related phrases to a symptom, or a solution, or a cause/effect. Like, “out of shape”, big and tall, etc. Bid low on those terms because they are not as targeted as your main keywords. Remember, search is a numbers game.

You’ll need to create separate adgroups, and ad creatives for these terms. And, use multiple keyword generation tools to create the list like the: Google Keyword Tool, Yahoo Keyword Tool, and Wordtracker. Although, just don’t rely on the terms from the keyword generation tools. I’ve heard that it’s possible that up to 25% of all web searches are unique. So try to think like your target audience, and use the keyword tools to expand on your “new” search terms list.

Other methods to expand your keyword list is by using keyword stemming, and misspelling tools.

Here’s a Keyword Strategy for almost any Search campaign:

1) Determine which keywords will pull in qualified traffic, how many searches do these terms/phrases receive, how should keywords & copy be used in combination to attract search traffic.

2) Determine which keywords are most popular and effective within their market segment.

3) Categorize all your keywords by implementing Keyword Bucketing

4) Bid on Competitive terms to capture heavy category users, brand switchers, and competitive users.

5) Perform a thorough keyword analysis to identify under-priced keywords and keyword combinations ( as described above).

6) Utilize various keyword matching options; broad, exact, phrase, and negative.

7) If you have a trademark, you might want to consider Trademark Protection from other advertisers.

So… What does an SEO Consultant really do?

The SEO Consultant must start with understanding the clients’ business and marketing goals to develop the strategy and approach for a winning SEO campaign.

Ideally, the SEO Consultant should understand things like: Business Objectives, Marketing Strategies, Demographics of Target Audience, Media Mix & Flight Dates, Creative considerations, Messaging, Success Metrics, Dependencies, and Methods of Measurement.

Then, the SEO Consultant starts the process of leveraging the client’s strategic marketing and messaging information (industry segment, target market, value proposition or offer, etc.) for keyword selection and creative development.

Here is a summarized task list for the SEO Consultant.

1) Understanding Client’s Business Objectives & Strategic Marketing Plan
2) Comprehensive Website Analysis
3) Keyword Research and Analysis.
4) Baseline report
5) Competitive analysis for main keywords/keyword phrases in Search Engines.
6) Content Analysis & SEO Copywriting
7) Analysis of information architecture and linking structure.
Analysis of HTML and page layout.
9) HTML validation.
10) Recommendations for necessary modifications to essential page text elements for achieving satisfactory search engine placement.
11) Recommendations to optimize source code including the URL, filenames, page titles, descriptions, javascript, etc.
12) Search Engine Saturation / Link Popularity Analysis
13) Link Relevancy & Co-Citation Analysis
14) Internal & External Linking Strategy & Recommendation.
15) Ongoing Monthly monitoring, reporting and recommendations.
16) Continually optimize according to the client’s needs and business objectives

Below is an SEO Proposal that I’ve used in the past:

SEO Process, Deliverables, and Pricing

The following provides details on our 9-Step SEO process, along with pricing. Our 9-step SEO Process ensures that we provide a thorough and comprehensive analysis and recommendation.

Step 1: Identify initial webpages for SEO: We will identify and optimize the most important pages on your web property first.

Step 2: Identify the main and alternate keywords for each web page: Identifying the right keyword phrase that will drive results is critical for successful SEO. Our findings show that in many cases, a phrase is better than single word, especially in an online competitive situation.

Step 3: Interim Client Approval: Review the webpage’s and keywords with you to obtain agreement or make adjustments before beginning the actual SEO analysis and recommendations.

Step 4: Baseline Reporting: Generate a baseline report for the primary & secondary keywords. The baseline, as the name implies, gives us an indication of where your pages are ranked on the leading search engines, and will be used to measure results.

Step 5: Critical element analysis: We provide a deep analysis on the key elements that, when adjusted & optimized, leads to an overall successful SEO campaign.

Step 6: Recommendations: Leveraging the analysis performed in Step 5, we create a comprehensive document that addresses specific changes and additions for your site. In some cases we include sample copy and the exact HTML code, suitable for cut & paste by your programming team. Further, we will explain in detail each of these attributes and include industry standards. We will review this document with you in detail and address any questions.

Step 7: Programming: The actual implementation of our detailed recommendations. Once all the changes have been completed, we will run an audit to verify that the recommendation was implemented correctly and identify any changes, if needed.

Step 8: Submission to Search Engines & Web Directories: Although search channels regularly spider new & existing pages, we recommend submitting pages to the key channels. We will, as part of the recommendation, identify the key search channels where we should submit your webpage’s, and any fee associated with each. (Eg: Google Sitemaps, BOTW, etc.)

Step 9: Monitoring and Optimizing: SEO takes patience and continuous monitoring and optimizing to achieve success – more so in a highly competitive keyword segment. We will provide monthly reporting and optimization recommendations. The reporting is compared to the baseline (or previous month’s results) to identify trends and help guide additional adjustments.

Optional SEO services include:
1) Writing Press Releases that are optimized for Search.
2) SEO Copywriting Service

SEO Consultant Pricing:
We charge a fair fixed price per project. The price depends according to the complexity and industry competitiveness, so we charge a retainer fee starting at $2,000. A monthly budget cap can be instituted.