The benefits of strategic linking to SEO are still alive and kicking. Though it’s not the only thing needed to make high rankings, in my experience it is the most effective way to gain authority. It’s amazing how much authority goes to a site with good quality links that point to it.

It’s important not to just take any link you can lasso in. The key is to get links from sites that have similar and supporting content. For example, a good reciprocal link for a food site, would be another site that is food related. The higher the page rank on their home page, the better for you.

You’ll also want to take advantage of your title and description. It’s important to do your research for terms that you want to show up for. When you find one you see as most appropriate, make sure you don’t already rank for it. Your goal is to rank high for a term you don’t already rank for. Your description should also be optimized and supportive towards your title.

If you want to take it a step further, find out what page you will be listed on on their site, and cater your title and description to the main theme of their site and page topic.

Jennifer Kaufman
Linking Strategist

In a recent survey of our own SEO clients, MorePro has discovered that many business owners and marketing directors are not paying full attention to the ROI of their online spending. While Search Engine Optimization is online component of a company’s online marketing program, it’s one of the most critical to the bottom-line. Natural, organic traffic gets cheaper each time a new visitor comes to your site - PPC continues to be costly throughout your campaign, unless you simply turn it off.

Here are some interesting results from our survey:

• Approximately 36% of the individuals we surveyed, said they look at their SEO ranking reports “infrequently” (less than once a month).

Ok, so we’re sending the SEO results to our clients so they can keep tabs on the program’s success… that’s good right? But 36% aren’t even looking at them - ouch!

• 33% of respondents said they’re “Not sure” what affect incoming links have on their SEO campaign.
• 25% said they’re not sure what affect Social Media Marketing has on their SEO campaign.
• Almost 49% of respondents said they did not implement the SEO recommendations provided, or only installed some of them.

The last bullet item has always been a difficulty…
How do you convey the importance and urgency of SEO recommendations to a client? Besides using common SEO best-practices and providing resources confirming the recommendations are in fact legitimate, how do you ensure that the changes get made?

Unfortunately, it’s not always possible to enforce the completion of SEO changes due to numerous circumstances, including: additional unforseen costs, amount of effort to complete, adequate staffing or time, failure to believe recommendations are valid, site limitations (coding, structure, etc.) and many other excuses. For sites that have implemented the recommendations, we see great improvements - so why can’t everyone do it?

What we take from the results of this survey, is that most businesses don’t fully understand the following:

1. What SEO actually is and involves.
2. Common terminology & methods of SEO.
3. How to evaluate the success of an SEO campaign.

By sharing this information, our intention is not to point fingers at these businesses or to say their aren’t smart; we’re simply showing how companies interact with SEO firms, including ours. I’m sure this applies to other SEO companies as well - it’s just as important to teach & inform your clients about our industry, as it is to do the work itself.

We need to do a better job of teaching our clients about SEO best-practices and keeping them updated on the strategies & techniques that are required to continue improving their SEO rankings and traffic. Afterall, if the client doesn’t know what’s going on with their SEO campaign - how are they going to see the “value” in it?

Cory Howell
SEO Strategist

It may not be something you think about when you’re reading one of your favorite blogs or RSS feeds, but each electronic media element that you see could be putting a number of individuals and/or companies at risk.

Not only is the creator of that electronic content at risk for lawsuits or other potential risks, so are the 3rd parties who are tied to that content, such as: ISP’s, Feed Aggregators, Websites, marketing companies, technology companies, etc. Even publishing a “negative” comment about a business or individual could land you in hot water if you’re tied to it and someone believes it is “defamatory”. Copyright and trademark infringement fall in the same boat… you publish it or host it (or contribute to it), you could be found liable.

Yes, there are risks online and in other media formats… but there’s hope.

There is a special type of liability insurance called “Electronic Media Activity” coverage that can help protect you from:

• Defamation
• Right to privacy
• Plagiarism/Piracy
• Copyright infringement
• Negligence

This special coverage is available from Stuckey & Company (www.stuckey.com). Electronic Media Activities services are typically not described on professional liability insurance policies as a covered service. Stuckey’s policy gives coverage for electronic publishing, web casting, or other distribution of electronic content on the internet.

Whether you think you need this coverage or not, you might want to contact your insurance broker and find out. If they don’t provide it themselves, they can signup up w/ Stuckey & Company to get it. You also have the option of getting the coverage directly through www.stuckey.com or via one of their listed brokers.

The folks over at Axandra.com have published a new article today about “Mosaic Cloaking” and how search engine optimizers are now using it to “game” the search engines.

Mosaic Cloaking (the basics)
It’s not much different from regular cloaking, except that instead of serving completely different pages to the search engines, clever marketers are now just serving different parts of their pages via cloaking.

For instance, you might have an E-Commerce site selling bikes. To the average visitor, you’re going to present them with a great photo, bullet list of the bikes features & an easy way for them to purchase. For the search engines, you might swap out that entire product section and fill it with an optimized article about that particular bike.

While this new Mosaic Cloaking is certainly a twist on the original, I would be willing to bet that those of us reading about it now are months (if not years) behind the game, in terms of keeping up with other SEO professionals.

This new method may work for some sites, for an undetermined amount of time, but with it now out in the light and more people talking about it, you can bet that Google and the other search engines will be creating a way to detect it and penalize those sites that are using it.

I’ve never used cloaking personally and our company, MorePro Marketing, has never employed that practice either - something I’m rather proud of. We’ve been able to acquire top search engine rankings for our clients without resorting to that level of “black hat” optimization.

I was reading an SEO newsletter this morning and they had mentioned a number of important SEO strategies to consider when undertaking the optimization of your website on your own.

A number of the SEO tips were quite common and should be practiced by all SEO strategists, not only those working on their own sites, but also those working for agencies and an actual SEO company. Some of those tips include:

• Navigation and internal linking
• Titles & Meta tags
• Unique content
• Relevant backlinks & continuous linking programs

There were two other SEO tips that I feel are generally disregarded or not implemented on a frequent basis:

• Your site’s Value Proposition (Find out how to craft your site’s Value Proposition)
• Code bloat / Site download time

The Value Proposition (VP) issue isn’t always that easy to resolve quickly, because it takes a lot of constructive thinking in order to determine what sets your business apart from your competitors - especially how to communicate that to your potential customers. A good VP can make a world of difference on how your website converts visitors to sales (or leads).

The other item was the “Code bloat / Site download time”, which I strongly feel is overlooked on a regular basis.

The concept is simple… reduce the size of your pages (code & images) and they’ll load faster, enabling better usability from your site visitors, as well as allowing the search engines to spider your pages more quickly. There are a number of rather easy ways to reduce your code bloat & increase your website’s download speed:

• Convert all inline JavaScript to external files and call them as separate files
• Convert embedded font styles & formatting to an external CSS file and reference it as a separate file
• Optimize the size of the images on your pages - For some industries/markets, having crystal clear images is important and those visitors should be willing to wait a few more seconds. For most industries, however, they’re not going to wait, so your fancy, slow loading image is actual a friction point that will hurt your chances of converting that visitor.

There’s nothing that I’ve mentioned here that’s “new” - it’s common knowledge. Use these SEO tips on your website and you’ll see improved results.

It doesn’t matter if you sell widgets, get real estate leads or have a full-fledged store on your domain… if you’re thinking about redesigning your site or adding new features, be sure to do your homework first.

Big-time programming & service companies are missing the boat when it comes to preparing for the search engines, specifically the consequences of not being SEO friendly to an existing website.

Case in point…

SitStay.com, an online retailer of goods for dog owners, grew steadily since its began in 1996. It now operates from a 20,000-square-foot facility in Lincoln, Neb. The owners of the 13-employee company, Darcie and Kent Krueger, invested slightly less than $100,000 in new Web site technology from I.B.M. that, starting last month, allowed them to more quickly post sales and product recommendations, among other things.

But because the new technology required SitStay to replace all of its old Web pages with new ones, search engines no longer rank the site’s products near the top of the results. Because few consumers click to the second or third page of search results, the effect was significant. Bigger merchants like Petco and Petsmart, meanwhile, can easily outbid SitStay for prominent ads.  Read the full story here

This is a great example of a big company, IBM, developing a great storefront interface for it’s customers.  I seriously doubt SitStay.com would’ve invested such a great amount of money if the technology & features of the new site were not superb.

Unfortunately, IBM dropped the ball on the SEO side and SitStay.com is paying the price.  When they switched to the new website, they forgot to map all of the old pages to the new pages (using 301 redirects).  The result… Google and the other search engines lowered their rankings and their traffic died.

SitStay.com will slowly work their way back up the rankings if the new site contains as much quality content as the old one, but they could’ve transferred all the value from the old site to the new one much more quickly w/ the 301 redirects.

You could fault IBM for this one (alone), but at least half the blame for the oversight has to go to the web guys over at SitStay.com, who didn’t prepare fully for the site migration.

If you have not started already; NOW is the time to prepare your PPC Campaigns for the Holiday Shopping Period.

More and more people are turning to the internet to doing their Holiday shopping. Need more incentive, last year during the Holiday season consumers spent $24.4 billion online according to comScore. So you need to get your PPC Campaigns ready and loaded to take advantage of the increase in internet shopping for the Holiday Period.

Your campaigns should already be up, but if not you need to get them up soon.

You should start by making sure your Holiday PPC Campaigns contain all the holiday keywords appropriate for your products and don’t forget to make sure your ads are relevant and contain as much information as possible on your specials. With all the completion for the holiday shoppers you will need to be creative with your Ad content to draw attention to your Ads. You may want to make smaller Ad Groups where you can be sure to include Products in the Ads and any special prices you may have on those items. Also, remember that offering Free Shipping and including that in the Ad is advisable if possible.

Another must do, is make sure that in December as pace really increases to monitor you Campaigns more closely. The increase competition will mean that you may have to adjust your bids more often to keep your Ads in positions to get noticed. Also, don’t forget to have multiple Ads to allow you to do Ad testing and to continue to make tweaks to the Ads to draw more visitors.

Good Luck and Happy Holidays.

Conversion, when used in the context of internet sales/leads, is the process of compelling a site visitor to take a desired action. These desired actions, or conversions, can manifest in many different forms. Some examples include sales, contact information left, catalogs ordered, membership registrations, and newsletter subscriptions…just to name a few.

Having a high conversion rate can depend on several factors: ease of site usability, a good value proposition, driving qualified traffic to your site, appropriate length and tone of content, and many, many more variables. Your conversion rate is easily calculated by dividing the number of conversions by the number of unique visitors in any given time period. For example, if a site gets 1,050 visitors in a month and 26 people sign up for membership (if that’s the objective), the site’s conversion rate is 2.5%.

26 ÷ 1,050 = 2.47%

Obviously, you will need to have some type of tracking system set up on your site to know your unique visitors. People often ask what a “good” conversion rate is. It has been said that if you’re converting at 3 - 5% you are doing well. This standard should be taken with a grain of salt, though, because it can vary greatly by industry. Some high-commitment, complex sales may only convert at less than 1%, while some others may convert visitors at 33%.

If you feel that you are not converting enough of your visitors, you may want to look into having a conversion analysis done on your site. This can provide some valuable insight into your site and you will surely learn some things that you may be doing wrong without realizing it. A conversion analysis typically involves an expert in the field “peeling back the layers” of your site by exploring the navigation, testing your shopping cart system (if applicable), conducting surveys, persona development to look at your site from several perspectives, and possibly multi-variate a/b testing. The depth of your conversion analysis will vary depending on what you opt for and the price.

MorePro Marketing, Inc. has a fantastic offer for site owners not looking to spend much money, but want to get some really great pointers. This is a great way to start figuring out where your site is really lacking and what services would benefit your site, your sales, and your bottom line the most.

Give us a call today for more information!

(866) 249-2432

Ask yourself in, at most, 10 words: “Why Should People Buy from My Website?” This is the start to finding and expressing your value proposition.
 
A value proposition is a statement that expresses the key reason why a prospect should buy from you or leave his or her contact information.  It should leave an impact on your visitors and be displayed prominently on the landing pages. Continuing on within your site, it should be expressed somehow (with logos, images, etc.) throughout.
 
A competitive analysis will help you identify your value proposition by uncovering your company’s strengths and weaknesses. By differentiating yourself from your competitors’ offers, you will excel in at least one element of value; thus, becoming the best choice for some customers. But…you cannot determine what the best choice for your customers is unless you know and understand your customers. It is important to discover your market’s motivation, perceived risks (or concerns), and obstacles they have about purchasing your product/service or leaving their contact information. Once you understand your market, you can address their needs and concerns in your value proposition.
 
Touch Points for Assessing your Value Proposition:
 
a.       It shouldn’t contain too much promotional language.
b.      It communicates who your market is, what you can offer them, and why they should accept your offer.
c.       It is articulated in 1-2 sentences.
d.      It differentiates you from your competitors.
e.      You can really deliver what you’re promising.
 
Lastly, one thing to keep in mind, the creation of your value proposition may be an evolutionary process. I recommend using A/B Testing to determine which versions have the greatest impact on your potential customers. If you would like more information on A/B testing, Multivariate Testing, or Conversion Studies feel free to give us a call!

866-249-2432

Welcome to the first set of tips from MorePro’s Conversion Corner. Rebecca is a conversion analyst, based out of Phoenix, specializing in consulting with website owners on how to convert more of their visitors to customers. Certified through Marketing Experiments, she uses the most recent techniques and up-to-the-minute research to find the best layout for a site.

Below are some free pointers from Rebecca on how to improve your site’s conversion rate:

Create a sense of urgency with stimulating copy, bold action statements, and special promotions. Effectively communicate how visitors can benefit from the product or service. The next step is to tell your site visitor exactly what you want them to do.

For your site: Add action statements, or call to actions, that speak to the visitor and their needs throughout all of the pages, for example:

• Call Today
• Get Your Quote Today
• Need Help Choosing?
• Questions? Contact Us
• Contact Us for More Information
• Compare Cases
• Buy Now
• Learn More
• Add to Cart
• Get Organized!
• For a short time only
• Act now – offer expires August 31st

In order to give the visitor the option to read the content on the page or just take action, the call to actions should be located at the top of the page and at the bottom. Use clear actions statements at the end of every topic and consistently throughout the site. However, be careful of not overdoing it as you might come across as being overly pushy, but being too conservative won’t produce strong marketing results.  You need to find a balance.

Feel free to reply with comments, ask questions, or just give me a quick call toll free at (866) 249-2432. We’d be glad to give you pointers for improving the conversion rate of your website.