Archive for the ‘Internet Marketing’ Category

Google Adwords and Keyword Quality Scores

A customer has asked you to create a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising campaign to drive traffic to their web site. You do your competitive keyword analysis, research the industry, and develop a targeted plan that should theoretically work wonders. But it doesn’t. What happened? Have you looked at your keywords quality score? In Google Adwords each keyword is assigned a numerical value out of 10 that affects how much you are paying per click. If you are scoring 4 / 10 or lower then you have some work to do. Google calculates your quality score for each keyword based on several factors including  historical clickthrough rate (CTR),  the quality of your landing page content,  and the relevance of the keywords to your ads in the keyword’s ad group. Improving your score for a specific keyword can mean a better return on your adwords budget. In other words, less money for more traffic. Google isn’t stupid. If you are selling real estate and your keywords are for hair care and your ads are targeted for electronics then your quality score is likely to be low. Everything flows from the keywords so be sure that the keywords you are using are actually contained within the content of your landing page and then create ads that are interesting and concise (not like you have a choice with brevity).  If one ad doesn’t perform try several variations and weed out the weak ones.

Good Luck!

—Alan

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Posted in Internet Marketing, Usability - Conversion | 1 Comment »

Writing Great Web Content

Every web site owner wants more traffic and one of the methods that has been proven to be beneficial in obtaining higher organic search engine rankings is content optimization. In the world search engines, content is king! But what does it mean to have “good” content on your site? Does it mean that it has to have the breadth and depth of the Encyclopedia Britannica? Not at all. The old saying that sometimes less is more applies to copy writing and creating content for the web. You  can have good content without rewriting War and Peace. One of the most important hallmarks of superior web content is focus. Noted editorial strategist Erin Kissane says, “Copy needs specific goals to accomplish.” Simply staying focused on a topic, while using correct punctuation, grammar, and spelling, can go a long way in increasing the quality of your copy and, consequently, your search engine rankings by feeding the the crawlers what they want: high quality content.

First, have a plan. Sit down, take a deep breath, and  figure out exactly who is your audience. What do you want them to know and then what do you want them to do? A typical web visitor is looking for something and your site may be one of many competing for their attention. Well organized content that is easy to read and think through will help Then, organize those thoughts  while asking yourself questions:

Do I have a main idea that is the focus of this single web page? Is that focus clear in the page’s description and title? Can I expand on this main idea and provide support for it? Does this thought belong with other like ideas in this page or is this idea so dissimilar that it belongs on another page?

So now look at what you have and pick out your topic sentences and calls to action. If these items were taken in isolation could you figure out exactly what the message was and what you should be compelled to do? If not, then keep at it until there is a clear relationship between your ideas and the knowledge you want the visitor to have and the action you want them to take.

A terrific resource for all web content authors is Janice Redish’s Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works which can be found at Amazon.com.

Good luck!

—Alan

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