Archive for the ‘search engine marketing’ Category

What Story Web Analytics Tells?

At one time, corporate America depended on advertising agencies to assume the role of consumer psychologist. Ad agencies, no longer have the ability to misconstrue the target audience. There’s no more manipulating the consumer data. Fortunately, search engine marketing delivered a brand new age of transparency: Web analytics.

Advertisers need not risk running an inept ad campaign, ultimately tarnishing the brand identity. These days, misaligned ad campaigns have a short shelf life. Thanks to Google web analytics, the era of advertising in the dark ages is over.

An essential component of Internet marketing, web analytics tells a compelling story. It conveys visitor behavior, presenting a site evaluation of the proceeding data:

  • Keywords and search terms 
  • Traffic referrals (which sites are directing traffic)
  • Which pages attain the highest traffic and conversion?
  • What is the most sought after information on the site?
  • Which web page pathways are the most frequently traveled?
  • Which pages lack visitor interest?
  • How does site traffic navigate through the site?
  • Which pages are of least interest?
  • On which page do visitors tend to exit the site?
  • How to convert more site traffic to ensure the greatest ROI?

Given a blueprint of the aforementioned information, web analytics develops an exacting composite of how to chart a site’s clickstream.

Clickstream tracking is the path of how visitors navigate through a website.

Without web analytics it is merely impossible to measure, evaluate and forecast website visitor behavior. With an accurate visitor analysis, profits and sales are almost a matter of precise calculations.

Contact the Net Impact for a free Google Analytics Consulting assessment!

SEO Lessons Learned in 2009

Search engine marketing is not becoming any easier for small businesses to follow. To simplify the learning curve, a St. Louis SEO company was the host of several symposiums in 2009. Google analytics, social media networking and email marketing were the focal points of these interactive seminars. In this installment of SEO St. Louis, we’re reviewing some the lessons learned about SEO in 2009:  

Google’s Analytical Tool

Throughout 2009, the marketing mantra was: Use Googles’ analytical toolbar to enhance sales and customer retention. In the realm of search engine marketing, the Net Impact also demonstrated the importance of using Google’s analytical tool to track target audience traffic. Just to recap a few bytes, review the video

  

YouTube Google Analytics Trending

Email Marketing Campaigns

Based on the information gleaned from analyzing traffic or (Clickstream tracking), companies can develop an email campaign to target and convert prospective new clients and customers. Moreover, database marketing email campaigns provide transparent results. In other words, these marketing catalysts illustrate measurable statistics, enabling businesses to custom fit the communiqué to augment conversion rates.

Additionally, with an exacting Web site traffic analysis, demographic segmentation, and Net Impact’s email marketing database programs, achieving a higher retention rate is a matter of putting a strategy into motion. Review the Email Marketing Guide

In November of 2009, Search engine marketing analyst, Erica Scharringhausen hosted a highly informative search engine marketing overview. If you click on the link below, you can watch the video to discover the importance of social media tagging and how to do-it-yourself.

 

For additional information, watch the YouTube video. Be sure to contact The Net Impact team with your search engine marketing questions and feedback.

To learn more about implementing a solid social media networking or developing a stalwart marketing strategy, the Net Impact offers complementary SEO Consultations.

Sowing the Seeds of SEO

There is a parallel between search engine optimization (SEO) and produce. Cultivating a vegetable garden is verisimilar to optimizing a site for search engine exposure. A regular schedule of water, sunshine and pruning is key to the harvest. When Web sites are not nourished with new information, search engine bots have no reason to re-index old content.

For the company Web site, seeds are sown from frequent content updates and submissions to RSS feeds, search engines and other online news directories.

Content management systems, blogs and company news pages require new doses of information for one major purpose: to sow the seed of SEO as in organic search engine exposure.

Organic search engine exposure is like growing vegetables

without any pesticides or chemical additives. 

In other words, organic search engine exposure is when a company’s Web site appears in the top 5-page results of Google, based on its name and services. It does not rely on a sponsored ad or pay-per-click campaign to boost its visibility. It’s 100% pure SEO.

 Here’s an example:

 A search query on Google, using the words “St. Louis Web Design company” returns The Net Impact on the first page. The site is an organically popular Web site. Since several resources refer and link back to the company’s Web site, it has a high page rank sans any crafty SEO tricks. 

Back in the vegetable garden, propagation yields more crops. In the realm of search engine marketing, this means disseminating the message to multiple sources. Other blogs, RSS feeds and of course social media networking sites are accessible outlets to circulate link popularity.

For instance, Google Blog Search and Topic Exchange are two blog engines to fuel your Web site’s visibility. For obvious reason’s Google’s Blog search engine assures that the company web site achieves optimal exposure. Topic Exchange is comprised of information aggregated from a cross sector of market places. When your site adds new information, make sure your content pings the aforementioned sites.

But in the agricultural world, not all farmers cultivate their own crops. And in the business strata, not all companies sow the seeds of their SEO.

Do you need help sowing the seeds of your site’s SEO? If so, click on St. Louis SEO company to learn more.

Scorned By Google’s Ad Word Pay-Per-Click Advertising?

Some small-sized businesses complain: “We have been scorned by Google’s Ad Word campaign, left feeling like a PPC fool.”

As a company that designs SEO-friendly Web sites, and who manages companies search engine-marketing (SEM) campaigns, we work frequently with organizations scorned by Google’s Ad Words pay-per-click (PPC) programs.

In 98 percent of the cases, the aversion to Google’s Ad Word campaign is based on the following sequence of events:

Company Xample spends months studying the Google Ad Words “way.” They invest painstaking time learning how to select keywords. Next, detective work comes into play, researching competitors and their online marketing tactics. And after Company Xample does all the “due diligence,” they set their ad bids.  Meanwhile, the only return on their investment is overwhelming disillusionment.

In the interim, another disgruntled company ends up scorned, boycotting Google, thus hindering the success of their site’s results.

Whether we (the masses) approve or disapprove, Google has cornered the online advertising market – meaning that if we want to gain Internet exposure we have to play by their nebulous rules. So, how does a company beat Google Ad Words PPC at their own game?

The answer is quite simple:

LANDING PAGE

The secret recipe, to creating a successful ad campaign — as in lead generation and sales transactions, relies upon the development of a high conversion-landing page.

And for anyone, who wants to learn how a high conversion, landing page can assure a veritable ROI, contact The Net Impact for more details. Simply call us and say: “High conversion landing page HELP.”

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Search Engine Market QA: Usability

Recently, we were approached by a search engine-marketing (SEM) firm. They analyzed our site and told us that we could improve our Web site’s sales and lead generation, if we had better usability. We have no idea what usability has to do with converting our site traffic. Can you clarify?

Clueless in St. Louis Missouri

——————————————————————————————————————————————–
Usability is technical terminology, describing how your visitors experience or move from each room or page of your site.  We’ve included a few web design – tips and examples on “usability.”

Define each page of your site.
The confusion factor is the best way to alienate a prospective client or customer. As a result, properly titled or outlined pages enhance the possibilities of converting a visitor’s attention to learn more about your company’s offerings.

Keep your content short, succinct and scan-able. Most visitors who stumble upon your site are looking for specific information. Therefore, it’s a good idea to organize your site’s content with stylized features: bullet points, bolded content and paragraphs with 4-6 sentences.


Be contact accessible.
Would you do business with someone wearing a bag over his or her head? Forget about your company story. Let visitors know how to contact you and where your offices are headquartered. Failure to identify basic contact information is the fastest method for losing prospective client credibility.

Abbreviate the contact form.
Generally, Internet users have a short attention span and are too impatient to complete a lengthy form. Keep your contact forms short and sweet.

Meanwhile, for additional search engine marketing and web design tips, contact St. Louis’ premier web design company.


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SEO – Traffic Analysis

Without the appropriate analytics, search engine marketing (SEM) is an exercise in futility.

• Do you know the origin of your website’s traffic?

• Have you ever evaluated where your prospects enter and exit?

• What is your visitor’s average span of stay on your site?

Without the aforementioned analytics or information, pay-per-click advertising and search engine optimization is like donating substantial contributions to Google and your SEO company.

While many companies are obsessed with where their site ranks on Google, the germane questions are:

• How is traffic generated on your site?
• How often are clicks turning into clients and prospects?
• What percentage are conversions?

In terms of your website’s traffic, the old adage: “What you don’t know can’t hurt you,” is an exorbitant gaffe. Because in the realm of attaining a return on your adverting and marketing budget, what you don’t know can cost you. Traffic origin is a fundamental component of the search engine marketing game.

Be informed about your site’s traffic. Dial 1.888.629.4672 to request a free analysis.

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Elements of a Search Engine Marketing Strategy

In the previous installment, the topic was on driving quality traffic. This week at St. Louis SEO, we’re delving into how the various conduits (search engine traffic, social media, pay-per-click advertising, press releases, etc.) influence your site’s traffic. The following elements are central to developing a successful search engine marketing strategy:

Starting with Google, Ask and Bing, these major search engines account for multiple traffic channels. Since, they   aggregate all the links or a Web site’s referrals, they’re highly influential.


Pay-per-click advertising
vitalizes site exposure. It simultaneously directs targeted traffic, assuring a measurable means of prominence. More importantly, with the right PPC campaign sites tend to generate a percentile of leads, conversions and sales predictability.

Social media sites, such as such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, and Jigsaw are relevant traffic tributaries. These cyber hotspots have the capacity to nurture the client following and consumer loyalty.

A regularly maintained blog assures that your site is being indexed on a regular basis by media outlets, RSS feeds and of course main blog search engine directories. Blogs comprised of information, news and industry-specific resources fuel repeat traffic and ultimately better page rank.

Press releases and major media outlets authenticate a Web site’s real estate on the Internet. For instance, PRWeb.com is a press release distribution portal, which categorizes company news, referring target specific traffic.

In due course, anywhere on the Internet, where your site is relevantly linked, influences site traffic. Not to mention, the above elements of the search engine market (SEM) strategy pay for themselves overtime.

For additional SEM advice, visit The Net Impact, Missouri’s Best web design company.

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How to drive Quality Traffic?

The number of attendees and the span of their stay usually gauge the success of a party, event or gathering. The same concept is applicable on the company Web site:

•    How much traffic does a site attract?
•    What is the average duration of the visit?

However, one area of site statistics is commonly overlooked. Who referred those visitors (partygoers)? Did one person invite a bunch of complete strangers (unique visitors)? A good party has a mixture of people. Web sites are not any different. Most small businesses understand the importance of generating well-rounded traffic referrals. From organic search engine results, pay-per-click campaigns to linked referrals within a targeted network, the best traffic attracts an assortment of visitors.

Here are six different sources to drive quality traffic to your site

•    Major search engines: Google, Bing,
•    Pay-per-click advertising
•    Twitter
•    Facebook, Flickr, or Linked In
•    Press releases
•    Complementary sites
•    Related blogs
•    Major media outlets

Next time, we’ll review how and why all of the aforementioned referrals influence your site’s traffic. Read more about link building, click here.

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How to select key words for your pay-per-click campaign?

In the Chinese language, there are more than 15 million words. [Source: Chinese language]. If we were Chinese, there would be at least more than 4000 ways to communicate one idea. Fortunately, the English language is comprised of a short list of synonyms, phrases and keywords.  Selecting the appropriate keywords to use for a pay- per-click-campaign is the difference between losing and attaining a return on the advertising budget.

Use these tips to develop a portfolio of keywords for your key word campaign:

Compile a short list of generic keywords.

Craft a long list of keywords, which best depict the products and services featured on each page of your Web site.

Next, narrow down your keywords specific to your company; in example, the location of your business, the neighborhood, other marketplace synonyms, et cetera.

Then, evaluate your competition’s keywords. Since the assessment of your keywords requires a modicum of search engine optimization (SEO) expertise, consult a St. Louis SEO company that has a proven track record for delivering results.

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Is Style Relevant to Website Design?

Style is underrated. When we think about panache, certain people come to mind. There’s, Ashton Kutcher, Brad Pitt and Paris Hilton — to name a few. In terms of the company Website, style performs a major role: enables visibility, emphasizing design qualities and appearance.

Ashton, Brad, and Paris are the American prototypes of style. Highly visible in the public’s eye, their style is not based on good looks alone. These “celebrities,” dress impeccably. For the company Website, style serves a similar purpose for business.

Here’s how:

In order for a target market to find a business on the Internet, the Website must be search engine optimized for exposure.

Exposure is gleaned from an assortment of style features:

•    Is the site’s layout clean and appealing?
•    How long does it take a Website to load?
•    Is the navigation clean?
•    Are key words, describing the business bolded, underlined and/or italicized?
•    Is the site properly linked?

Linked, bold and italicized content enable exposure or search engine traffic. Meanwhile, layout, navigation and page load punctuate a site’s style and Web design.  These style characteristics are the difference between repelling and retaining new business opportunities.

So in the end, although, your site may not command the same popularity as Brad, Ashton and Paris– style does matter.

Get your Website tested for style, click here.

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