I came across a little article today called Six Newbie SEO Questions made by Jill Whalen which reminded me to add a few new SEM terms to my Search Marketing glossary arsenal such as KEI & 3-Way Link. You can find more about them and other Search Marketing terms in my SEM Glossary. It is helpful to know what we are talking about. 

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Last night I had a meeting with Michael from MJAImpressions.com and during the meeting, I mentioned to him how much I like to provide pointers on my blog for resources on anything related to Search Marketing. I mentioned this one on link building so I thought I’d better post it. It is called
131 Legitimate Link Building Strategies. I believe this is the best link building primer you can get to kick start your link building development plan. Please note that most of it is written by the link god himself, Eric Ward, who started link building before that was even A book on Internet Marketing. Enjoy! 

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Last year, I wrote this article about targeting the tail of search queries to maximize return on investment in Paid search advertising. For the benefit of everyone, I share it with you in its entirety: 

A lot has been said about pay-per-click management since its introduction in the late 1990s by GoTo.com, now known as Yahoo! Search Marketing. Google jumped on the bandwagon as first-generation “paid search expert” Kevin Lee was fueling education and general enthusiasm for a brand new form of online marketing known as pay per click (PPC).

I remember the day it became clear to me that in order to get the most out of every online marketing dollar utilizing pay per click, we had to target the tail, or focus on search words that are used less often, but carry a far greater level of information. The term “targeting the tail” took some time to get into our everyday online marketing conversation, but intuitively our discovery confirmed itself over time as we dug into a gold mine. This article unleashes the gold nugget of Search Marketing. So listen up.

Even though PPC management techniques have been around for years and the underlying principles for targeting the tail are quite simple (really, a million of microscopic target markets that need to be looked after with precision in every step of the PPC creation process), few pay-per-click campaigns reflect this basic principle. Just plain not taking the time needed might be to blame for this lack of sound customer-service focus in elaborating a campaign, but for now, let’s take a look at some other arguments for targeting the tail.

The Challenge: Rising Click Cost
SEMPO recently published their latest report, “State of Search Engine Marketing 2005”, where it clearly points out that the biggest share (83%) of online marketing expenditures is spent on paid search advertising. That being said, as more and more companies are fighting hard for the top five paid positions, all that they see climbing nowadays is their average cost per click and their blood pressure.

The Tail And The Purchase Sales Cycle
If you build PPC campaigns in a competitive environment like travel, you know by now that this query is searched more than 2.7 million times a month (source: Yahoo! Search inventory tool). The first question that should come to mind is: Where do all these people want to go? A little more analysis allows us to discover that a one-word search query is often initiated by an online shopper who is not quite ready to buy, but as they progress in the sales cycle, they will eventually refine their search query to something substantially more specific that reflects their true intent. What was at first an intuitive online behavior was confirmed later on: focusing on tail search term queries is like selling to customers when they are far more advanced in the sales cycle, and therefore much closer to a completed sale. Responding to the uniqueness of their intentions and desires is in fact good customer service.

Campaign Optimization
Once you understand the need to target the tail and you have established the keyword inventory you are planning to use for your campaign (including misspelled words, synonyms etc.), it is time to work the ad copy. It is in fact quite painful to go through every keyword contained within the tail, regardless of your product/service category. As a Google or Yahoo! Search Marketing rep will tell you, in order to make sure your customers understand that you are talking to them, you need to repeat the search terms in the title of your ad as well as in the description. Of course, they also need to land on a page that reflects the content of the initial search term they used, but that is another topic all by itself. Doing so implies that you write the ad copy on a keyword-by-keyword basis, which is especially the case for Yahoo! Search Marketing, as they allow you to refine your campaign at the keyword level. Sometimes it takes days or weeks to go through your keyword list, but when you are done, you will be flabbergasted by the results and will thank your lucky stars that you took the time to work your keyword list to that level of detail. At the end of the day, not only will you be more impressed with the results of your campaigns, but also your customers will think your site is relevant to their true intent and will respond positively to it.

Closer To Completed Sale: ROI
As I pointed out earlier, one of the secrets of a successful pay-per-click campaign lies in the tracking and the measure of the ROI (Return On Investment), especially when it comes to the search terms located in the tail and their corresponding cost per click. I have found that there is in fact an inverse relationship between the quality of a search term in its ability to convert into sales and its cost. In short, terms that cost less convert better. Then again, it takes a bit longer to build campaigns that contain hundreds, if not thousands, of search terms. By doing so, it should not come as a surprise that the average cost per click of a newly optimized campaign can go from over a dollar per click to $0.50 or even lower. If you can get more qualified traffic per dollar you invest, while every other variable remains stable, you will generate more sales at less cost. You will then be able to measure your cost of sales over time and will be pleased to see it dropping as you drill deeper in the tail.

Conclusion
I have heard too many business owners say that they care about their customers and are always striving to find ways to serve them better. If that is truly the case and you believe you are building a customer-service-driven organization, then you should take the time to understand all the search terms that your target audiences uses in search engines to build pay-per-click campaigns around their desires, needs and wants. Their search behavior should be your guide in developing your online marketing plan, which implies using all the search terms within your category. Targeting the tail is not difficult per se, but it needs time, dedication, and effort. Fortunately, there are tools out there to help you get the job done, and, by doing so, not only will you be delighted with the results, but so will your customers.

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I am very pleased to announce a new Search Marketing project with the nice folks at Boxcar Marketing to work on one of their clients, galeforcesolutions.com. Gale Force Software is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software for the Financial Services sector. They have been involved in Paid search advertising for some time but need some clever Pay Per Click (PPC) program optimization to fuel momentum of their new site, which was launched last month. 

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Every now and then, I like to focus my attention on Search Marketing terminology 101 and explain it in more details & provide examples. Today, I want to talk about Link Baiting. Simply put, link baiting refers to anything on a website that encourages links from other websites. This is especially important to understand when it comes to blogging as we write post titles very often. Link baiting can include content, online tools, downloads, or anything else that another site owner might find compelling enough to link to. Link bait is important because most search engines use backlinks as a major factor in determining ranking. 

So here is your link bait for the day: Microsoft is “Dead”. You can also found the original post on Microsoft is “Dead” here.

Of course it is not, the article refers to the difference in philosophy that Google, Yahoo & Microsoft has, which compromise its longterm survival since no one fears them anymore. Fear (or lack thereof) seemed to be the main factor that contributed to the emergence of new leaders. According to the author, Paul Graham, a few factors contributed to the death of Microsoft:

1- Google, of course
2- Gmail and “Ajax” & the decreasing need for a desktop
3- Broadband Internet
4- Apple

Le roi est mort, vive le roi.

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This week is Search Engine Strategies New York and as I am browsing through search marketing sites like I always do, I came across this very interesting video from Laura Thieme of BizResearch, which presents key findings in search marketing, including personality types & gender to specific areas of search: organic listings, paid search, Web analytics and more. It is a quick 3 min of good insights. It is made by Lee Odden from Top Rank Blog when he was in SES Chicago back in December.

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A long time ago, I wrote an article about things you need to look into before you start a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) plan. Surprisingly, the article is still very current and helpful for anyone who get started in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Paid Search (PPC). Here it is:

Are you Ready to Optimize your Site for Search Engines? Take a Look at This Getting Started Checklist.

We recently sat down with Alexandre Brabant, President of Vancouver eMarketing 101 and asked him about Search Engine Optimization and where small business operators who want to market their website on search engines should start. Alex provided us with a checklist of things to think about before you make the financial leap to hiring a web developer or e-marketer to optimize your website.

Here’s what Alex has to say:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) have become popular subjects nowadays, as more people begin to understand the importance of making their site visible in search results as a way of getting traffic. What most business owners don’t know is what they are up against when they attempt to optimize their site for search engines.

Online business variables have changed since the Internet began, and although some SEO techniques are still valid, the days when you submitted your site to search engines for free are long gone. Now SEO requires some solid investment and careful planning.

Before you even ask a web consultant to help you build a new site or drive more traffic to your existing site, do your homework and make a checklist. If you take the time to assess your readiness before moving forward with SEM you will save yourself a lot of money in the long run.

1- Check your Web Analytics reports

First and foremost - do you have a comprehensive statistical report of your web traffic? A comprehensive stats report is the primary tool you should have in place before launching a Search Engine Marketing campaign. Why? Because, if you understand your web analytics & KPIs, you will be more comfortable making decisions about SEM.

When looking for a web stats report, keep in mind, that there are still a lot of hosting companies out there that provide very poor reports—reports that lack graphical content & are not easily understood. The most reliable Stats report packages are Webtrends and Mediahouse Live Stats.

And please, make sure you choose a company that won’t make your stats available for just anyone to see. Case in point:  http://www.cancun-aquasports.com/stats/. (this has been public since the first time I found this, which is February 2001… I swear)

For more information on this topic, please take a minute to read Mark Sakalosky’s article, Ignorance is Bliss. It’s old but it’s worth it!

2- Assess your current website marketability

Ask yourself, is your website marketable in its current state?

For most online businesses with storefronts, the main focus should be to build trust among your customers. And a sense of trust can only be achieved with a professional design. A lot of companies have very poor websites that don’t focus on raising trust. — Ask yourself what your site has to offer your customers in it’s content, how often it’s updated, it’s look and feel and it’s professionalism.

Standards increase over time, and if you are still operating on a site you built in 1999 or even 2004, there is a good chance that it may no longer be competitive. If your site is not interesting, there is no point investing money in getting more traffic, as your site will not retain visitors over time.

Make sure your site is trustworthy before stepping into a Search Engine Marketing campaign. By raising trust you will convert strangers into friends, and eventually, friends into customers. Remember, traffic is only half the distance between a complete stranger that clicks on your link and a completed sale.

3- What’s in your name?

Take another look at your domain name. Does it represent what you are selling? The fact of the matter is, it is extremely important to have a keyword-rich online business name. For example, Joe Smith sets up a Web site selling plastic widgets and registers the domain name “JoeSmith.com.” This is a mistake, especially for smaller companies or entrepreneurs running their online businesses from home. Joe should have registered a domain name that contains keywords that relate to the products he sells, such as ‘plasticwidgets.com’ or ‘plastic-widgets.com’.  By having keywords in his domain name, Joe will do a lot more to help his site rank higher in search engines than by using his own name alone. Before implementing a long term Search Engine Marketing plan, please make sure your online business name contains keywords that are relevant to your business.  For more information on this topic, read Andy Beal’s article Is your domain name optimized?

4-Assess your hosting plan

Do you have a reliable hosting plan? Increasing your web traffic implies increased usage of your web host’s server. Before implementing a Search Engine Marketing campaign, you need to make sure the hosting package you currently use allows you to handle any additional traffic you may experience. Upgrades can easily be obtained from hosting companies. Please, take a minute to ask your hosting supplier about your current plan. 

5- Assess your web tracking methods

I have seen a lot of companies invest a lot of money in ‘pay for performance’ marketing (also known as pay per click advertising), yet these same companies were not calculating the amount of leads they were generating (phone calls, email inquiries & completed sales) from this.

It is critical to track results from your website activity in order to ensure your e-marketing strategy is on the right path. Search Engine Marketing requires an investment and I can easily guess that business owners want to know what their Return on Investment (ROI) will be—don’t you? It takes little effort to isolate your website from other marketing initiatives and measure your ROI with great accuracy. For example, you may want to put a separate phone number on your website to track calls from your site.

6- Assess your budget

What is your online budget? How much traffic would you like? How much do you want to invest to get it? When developing an online project, it is important to allocate funds to building and fine-tuning your site, to the ongoing maintenance of your site and to increasing traffic. 

The proportion you spend on each will vary depending on the project and the competition. Nevertheless, if you put all your money in developing your site and nothing into acquiring traffic, it is likely your brand new site will not provide the expected results. 

You cannot simply submit your site to search engines and wait for your traffic to build. Today, marketing a website requires some investment—of thought and time, not just money. Investing in acquiring visitors to your site is much like investing time to make new friends. They keep coming back - free of charge—if they like what they see.

7- Check out the competition

What are you fighting for? Most business owners do not seem to be aware of the amount of competitors in their market. In some markets, thousands of companies are fighting for the same top 10 positions in search results. Simply put, you are not the only company who is trying to achieve top ranking in search results with the keywords you have selected.

The web is global, so is the competition! In any online project, you need to identify who the players are so you can react with an online marketing strategy that rocks! Make sure your competitors are clearly defined before implementing a Search Engine Marketing strategy. 

8- Make a plan

What is your search marketing plan? How much volume in traffic can you handle? Before you start investing in search marketing, whether you do it yourself or outsource the work, make sure you know where you are going, and how much time is required to get there. A comprehensive Search Engine Optimization strategy takes time to bring the expected results. Remember, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. But, the right kind of campaign will provide an impressive ROI if it is planned and implemented properly in a measurable environment. 

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Yesterday, I tried to convince a few people that we must stop interrupting when we prepare marketing messages, especially online and with search marketing, which is my jurisdiction. Being a search marketing expert, my job is to help online consumers make choices when they read search results. I have to explain & inform them what’s on the site and describe how I can help them. I have to be user centric to do this right. I also need to follow a permission marketing scheme. I hope online users will give me permission to market to them. It is a simple concept and yet, I don’t understand how it is so difficult for traditional marketing people to “get” this. This is the first and foremost aspect I want people to get before they start doing search.

Despite my effort to explain how to structure the search program we were talking about with the right philosophy, I was after all invited to meeting, I have to admit it wasn’t a pleasant meeting. There was a lot of resistance. Of course, I was somewhat mad and disappointed to realize how short sighted people can be. They fear change. They don’t want to reconsider their position, even in search marketing. Today, as I was researching definition and examples to illustrate my point, I came across an excellent article called “Did Jesus get Killed for Practicing Interruption Marketing?” Wow. This is pretty awesome. According to the author: “if Jesus would have practiced Permission Marketing rather than Interruption Marketing, he probably wouldn’t have gotten himself murdered by religious politicians just fighting to hold things together--some things haven’t changed in two thousand years.”

Here is an excerpt which makes an overview of the 2 concepts, which I think is helpful:

“I’m reading Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing and he brings up the difference between Interruption Marketing and Permission Marketing.
Interruption Marketing is when you interrupt people from what they are doing in order to ask them to pay attention to something else.
Permission Marketing is when you build your product around a consumer base that is expressing a need that you design your product to fulfill.”

If you want to know more about these concepts, where asking for permission represents a new trend for interacting with consumers, you can read Bryan Eisenberg’s latest book, Waiting for your Cat to Bark as well as Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing. In my opinion, if you want to succeed online, especially in search marketing, you MUST understand what permission marketing is and you have to willing to implement its core principles in everything you write for being granted the privilege to market to your potential customers. 

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A few weeks ago, I came across a short clip about the truth in ad sales from Leo Burnett’s Blog called the fruits of your imagination. It is a great blog. It is also refreshing to see an advertising agency who is embracing new media with honesty and philosophy. The clip is hilarious and is a satire of the sales cycle in a traditional ad agency. If you know other major ad agency with blogs, please let me know as I would like to show a few examples here on how it is possible to incorporate new visions to traditional ad agencies, which still have their focus and attention on interruption marketing. Maybe this will help them reconsider their business model.

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Il y a 2 semaines déjà, j’ai fait l’aquisition de ma première toile, dont je suis très fier d’ailleurs. J’ai acquis “le Malamute” fait par l’artiste peintre de Vancouver Marion Landry. Marion organise fréquemment des vernissages, des vins et fromages et des activités en tous genres pour présenter ses toiles, les plus anciennes comme les plus récentes. Le dernier vin et fromage avait lieu le Vendredi 16 Mars 2007. Encore une fois, ce fut un grand succès. Plus de 50 personnes étaient présentes pour voir ses dernières réalisations. Marion est très talentueuse et prolifique tel que vous pouvez voir sur son site web à MarionLandryArt.com.

Voici ma toile, le Malamute, avec l’artiste:

L’histoire de ma toile sera publié ici bientôt, en vidéo, dès que je touverais le temps avec Marion pour faire un petit clip. 

Le prochain vernissage n’est pas encore connu mais je vous en ferais part, sans faute. 

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A while ago, I found a very good document that summarize the ranking factors that contribute to good rankings in SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). It is called the Top 93 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) factors. Therefore, as I like to use my blog to store top SEM resources, please feel free to check out the word doc and let me know if you find it helpful. Some more of these pointers can be expected as I find gold nuggets all over the web. Enjoy!

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If you would like to discover a great Canadian directory & search engine, try Search-eh.ca. They do reciprocal linking which can help your own link building campaign. 

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