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Thirty years ago I had a brother with a GTHO Phase 3 Ford Falcon.  Known affectionately in car circles just as ”The HO”, the Phase 3 was the high point in the Falcon’s 50 year life. An uncouth, muscular brute of a car it scored a truckload of wins including an outright win at Bathurst in the 1971 Hardie-Ferodo 500.

I remember the ground shaking when he started it up and the way you got pushed deep into the black vinyl bucket seat courtesy of the seriously tweaked 351 V8.  Sadly not all Falcons have been as ground breaking as the Phase 3, but nonetheless the news this week that Ford planned to cease car production in Australia caused an emotive outcry from fans of the big blue oval.

A number of reasons were given including the cost of labour, the Aussie dollar and Asian efficiency.  But to my thinking it was an example of Ford Australia losing control of its brand.  Once Ford USA introduced its ”go further” brand last year, along with its commitment to have the most fuel efficient car in every segment, the outdated Falcon and the engine production plant in Geelong were doomed.

Ford’s not the only company that’s challenged with losing control over its brand with the news last month that Google was no longer going to prevent companies from buying trademarked keywords.

A keyword is the term you type into a search engine, before you tell it to go and find stuff.  So if you are looking for a new car you might tap in ”new cars for sale” and the search engine lists webpages with content relevant to those keywords. 

The more specific the keyword, the more specific and useful the results will be.  From a consumer perspective, this typically means brand names, say Ford or Holden.

Until last month, Google prevented New Zealand companies from using the registered trademarks of other companies as keywords.  So if Holden tried to use Ford’s brand as a keyword, Ford could get Google to remove the keywords.  And we weren’t alone, the same policy applied to a host of countries including China, Australia and Brazil.

Intuitively this makes sense.  If you own the intellectual property for your branded products, you are going to be miffed if a competitor uses that property to lure customers to their competing product. And in a world where most consumers’ buying journeys begin with a search engine, keywords are about as influential in the buying process as you can get.

But four weeks ago, Google removed the restriction against companies using trademarked key words in Google AdWords advertising campaigns.  Google now has one single AdWords trademark policy for keywords right across the world.  And that policy is effectively ”fill your
boots”.

BNZ can buy ASB AdWords, CourierPost can buy NZ Couriers and NZ Herald can buy Stuff. The only remaining restriction is that trademark owners can still complain to Google if their brand is used in ad copy (i.e. in the actual wording used in the AdWord).

The impact could be considerable.

First, companies will lose control they previously had over their brands when it comes to keywords in Google, unless they are prepared to fund a lengthy legal process with no promise of result. 

Second, companies with the deepest pockets should be able to dominate keywords simply by bidding more for them.  There’s no reason this wouldn’t extend to Government agencies as well.  So if you are an immigration consultant, you can now buy keywords for ”Immigration New Zealand”.  If you are a security firm you can buy ”NZ Police”.

While larger companies will likely do well out of the extra traffic, smaller companies will likely suffer as they may not be able to afford to bid for their own brand name.

Google’s stated objective from the change is to provide users with greater choice.  And in this context, greater choice can include seeing ads for Holdens even though you searched for Fords.  Google describes it as akin to a shopper seeing a variety of brands’ products on a store shelf.  Meanwhile, Google looks set to do well out of it commercially.  It will avoid it being involved in time-consuming spats between IP owners and cheeky competitors (which often means lost revenue), and will enjoy increased revenue streams as companies participate in bidding wars for their own brands.  And thanks to a couple of deft manoeuveres called the Dutch Sandwich and the Double Irish, it’s unlikely to be encumbered with too much tax.

Losing control of its brand has cost Ford Australia dearly, and will cost jobs, growth and people’s livelihoods.  While it’s still early days to measure the impact of Google’s new keyword policy on local brands in New Zealand, it will be interesting to see what sort of step growth the paid search market sees in predatory AdWord spend.  Like the Phase 3 Falcon it could prove pretty unsettling.

Mike ”MOD” O’Donnell is a professional director and eCommerce manager. His Twitter handle is @modsta and he’s owned two Capris and an  Escort but always wanted an XAGT Falcon. 

– © Fairfax NZ News

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Article source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/8713139/Losing-control-of-your-brand

VM Web Marketing

Since the switch to enhanced campaigns AdWords has become a system of overlapping targets and multipliers. When Google announced Enhanced Campaigns they said that mobile device bids would now be controlled by a multiplier on the base bid.

Leaving aside the argument of which level (campaign, ad group or keyword) this multiplier should be set at, it hints at a major shift in AdWords and how we’ll be managing campaigns over the years to come.

All About Multipliers

Your keyword bid still exists. Let’s make that clear up front. Consider that your “default” bid from now on. It’s the basic level you choose which people to target, so it’s the basic choice of how aggressive you want to be in the auction.

But there are other ways to broaden or (more importantly) narrow down your targets. Crucially for this discussion we can talk about Time of Day, Location and Device.

A lot has been written about the new device targeting, from the integration of tablets with desktops to the categorization of devices. What we’re interested in now is how a device signal changes your targeting.

Every campaign is different, and in different circumstances a different device will tell you different things about a user. The same applies to time of day and location.

You can’t say “12 noon is best” and apply that to all campaigns. You can’t even apply it to different parts of the same campaign.

If a user is near your physical stores, then time of day might be crucial to their chances of coming to the store. That might not apply if they’re remote.

Think in Layers

All the multipliers work together in conjunction with one another. Consider device, time of day and location as filters to your targeting. If somebody shows certain characteristics then you can filter to be more aggressive, or less aggressive if you think that person is a poorer prospect.

Let your bid multipliers overlap. At the base you still start with your keyword. But now a user who matches your keyword and is nearby at the right time of day can be targeted easily. That approach works well for retailers with physical locations, but a small percentage of AdWords advertisers fit that description.

Think About Research Cycles

Consider the case of a B2B advertiser looking to target CTOs and IT Directors. In that case you may be able to assume that a user on a mobile device during rush hour is commuting, and target your bids and ads accordingly.

A user doing searches on the train or late at night may interact differently with your site than the same person on his work machine during the day.

Think about research cycles for your typical customers and decide how the multipliers should overlap.

Act in Terms of Conversion Rates

This is hard to apply. Be conservative about this. Every assumption you make about your searchers (no matter how accurate) will only reflect one of many possible motivations.

With so many forces acting on people it’s easy to make predictions that will swing wildly away from reality.

Think in terms of multipliers and layers, but act in terms of conversion rates.

Every time slice you add, every location you include, they will all report back detailed stats including conversion rates. The higher your conversion rate, the more you can afford in the auction, and the more traffic you can get from matching users.

Set your multipliers to be more aggressive where you have a history of good conversion, and less aggressive when you don’t. But temper that with some attempt to understand your consumers.

What do the key combinations of targets suggest about those users? If you have an outlier target combination that performs very well or very poorly, try to work out why. Your long-term optimization can come from tailoring your ads and your site to these scenarios.

Google Display Network

The Google Display Network (GDN) has its own version. Consider the six primary targeting methods that are broadly available:

Keywords, topics and placements and “contextual” triggers. They depend on the material that the user is looking at that very moment. Remarketing, interests and similar users are “audience” triggers. These describe some aspect about the person but don’t narrow down what the user is looking at.

I’ve written before in this column about combining targets on the GDN. The system is slightly changed when you upgrade to enhanced campaigns.

Choose one of your targeting methods as your “default” or “canonical” target. This one gets a bid, same as always. Every other targeting method you layer on top gets a multiplier.

If each target appropriately filters users and has a decent chance of defining a group of people who will convert, then each target should narrow things down. A user matching multiple targets is likely a better prospect, meaning you want to be more sure that they see your ad. By increasing your bid when the user matches more and more targets at once you are refining your spend towards those users you think will convert best.

What’s Next?

Multipliers are clearly on Google’s minds. In fact there are several existing features that will probably work better when set up as multipliers.

It’s very likely that over the next couple of years we’ll see new targeting mechanisms added that will arrive as multipliers, on both search and display. The ability to start with a keyword bid and layer on increases or decreases in aggressiveness based on conversion rate of different user groups is a fantastic way for AdWords to develop.

Be prepared for this to be the future, and make sure that your bidding strategies can cope.

Image Credit: www.freeimages.co.uk

Know your Ambiguous Customer: Effective Multi-Channel Tracking

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Article source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2269992/Using-Multipliers-Effectively-in-AdWords

VM Web Marketing

Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool has been the standard for AdWords keyword research for over a decade, but there’s a new sheriff in town: the AdWords Keyword Planner. This new keyword tool combines the functionality of the existing Google Keyword Tool as well as AdWords Traffic Estimator into a single integrated workflow to help advertisers find new keywords for their PPC campaigns.

My understanding is that the new Keyword Planner will eventually replace the Google Keyword Tool and Traffic Estimator, so if you currently use either of these tools in your search marketing efforts, be they organic or paid, here’s what you need to know about the new tool.

1. Keyword Planner Is a Playground for Keyword Discovery

AdWords Keyword Planner works like a standard keyword research tool but with more bells and whistles. Features include:

• Keyword search options: You can look for new keywords to add to your campaigns based on the product or service you’re marketing, your landing page URL, your product category or all of the above.
• Keyword statistics and performance estimates:  Specify targeting options (such as country, language and search network) to get more accurate estimates on PPC results for each keyword.
• Keyword filters: You can narrow your keyword list based on criteria like average CPC and monthly search volume. You can also include or exclude keywords containing specific terms and exclude keywords that are already in your AdWords account.
• Group view and list view: Keyword Planner can either show your keywords as a list, as in the old keyword tool, or you can also see them grouped into niches by relevance.

These new features make Keyword Planner more robust than the old Google Keyword Tool. Here’s what it looks like!

Behold the AdWords Keyword Planner Tool

2. Keyword Planner is a PPC Campaign Creation Wizard That Maintains State

A key technical difference between Keyword Planner vs. the Google Keyword Tool is that it’s designed to be a “wizard” for creating AdWords campaigns. The Keyword Planner walks you through several steps including:

1. Choose how you want to get your keywords.
2. Pick keywords and/or keyword groupings to add into your “Keyword Plan”
3. Get bid and budget estimates for the keywords you picked
4. Export your data

Thus, your “Keyword Plan” can be viewed as like having a keyword shopping cart. It maintains state so that you can take the keywords you picked in the keyword picking stage, and then do more work on it later in the traffic and bids estimation stage. This is better than having separate tools for doing Keyword Suggestion and Traffic Estimation because previously you had to export from one tool and import into the next – the new process flow is more seamless.

So, even if you leave the tool, then come back a day later, it remembers the keywords you picked from your last session, as shown here:

3. You Can Create Campaigns Based On Your Own Keyword List

If you already have a keyword list from another tool, previous research, your own analytics, etc., you can upload your custom list into the Keyword Planner interface and do all the same keyword researching tasks like organizing keywords, get estimates, filtering keywords (etc.) – all based on the list of keywords that you provided.

4. Keyword Planner Has a New Keyword Mash-Up Capability

Another new feature that wasn’t available in the old Keyword Tool is the ability to mash up and multiply keyword lists. For example, let’s say you own a chain of car dealerships. You could mash up a list of keywords related to the cars you sell (Honda Accord, Honda CRV, etc.) with a list of all the town and city names near your dealerships to get a single combined list. You can then get estimates on those new keywords.

5. The New Keyword Planner is Available Now, But Only if You’re Lucky!

Like what you see? Check your AdWords account under the tools tab, and you may have access. Currently, Keyword Planner is in limited beta – I estimate that it’s live in around 1% of AdWords accounts out there today. However, Google says they will be rolling out the tool to more accounts soon, so keep your eyes peeled.

While you’re waiting, if you’re into advanced long tail keyword research, keyword grouping and discovering keyword niches – be sure to check out my free Keyword Tool, Keyword Niche Finder and Keyword Grouping tools!

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Article source: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-adwords-new-keyword-planner/63073/

VM Web Marketing

Those who work in the B2B sector have probably seen non-descriptive labeling used on just about every site they’ve worked on. Such labels may include title tags, URLs, H1 tags or navigation labels.

Aside from irritating users, poor labeling practices will also hurt your site’s SEO. The concept of “context auditing” should be part of every search marketer’s process to make websites more search and user friendly.

How Poor Labeling Practices Hurt Your Site

The biggest issue that bad labeling creates is a poor internal linking structure. For example, if the text of a link in your navigation is not descriptive of the content it’s linking to, users will be confused, and the anchor text will provide no keyword value to the destination page.

Another potential issue is low click-through rate. Per SEO best practices, the URL path should match the title tag and site navigation labels. According to usability expert Shari Thurow, most search engine users (around 70%) look at the title tag and URL in SERPs and don’t even bother reading the meta description — so if your URL is not descriptive of the page content, users may feel misled.

Of course, the most significant issue caused by bad labeling is a poor user experience. Have you ever landed on a website that left you confused about what to do or where to go to get the information you were looking for? Or perhaps you’ve visited a website where it was unclear what services the business provides? You keep clicking through the navigation, but the H1 tags don’t match the navigation labels, so you’re not entirely sure if you’re in the right place. Don’t leave your users wondering, “What the *$@# am I supposed to do?” Chances are, they’ll get fed up and leave!

Case Study: The Manufacturing Services Client

I recently did some work for a client that provides process improvement services for manufacturing companies. The client’s website had two pages in their tertiary navigation labeled “OpCon” and “Sustaining Services.” The former was an internal, branded name for their operational consulting service; the latter, “Sustaining Services,” was just a catchall term that served as a parent page for several more specific services. Both pages were located under the parent page, “Strategic Manufacturing Solutions.”

From delving into heatmaps and traffic metrics, I noticed that organic visitors to these pages had a 93% bounce rate, and users who landed on these pages through navigating the site were not converting — they seemed to only click on those sections out of curiosity.

There were many factors contributing to the poor performance of these two pages. As you might imagine, the label “OpCon” provided no keyword value to the term “operational consulting,” which resulted in the page never ranking for any keyword phrases related to operational consulting. “Sustaining services” was vague and irrelevant to the company’s service offerings, which caused a big spike in bounces.

In fact, if you Google “operational consulting” or “sustaining services,” you’ll come up with a wide variety of companies in several different industries. That’s because these are very general, non-descriptive terms. Without any context, these terms could mean a multitude of things.

Google search results for “operational consulting”

Additionally, the child pages of both OpCon and Sustaining Services performed poorly, despite being highly focused on specific service offerings. Their location several levels deep within the site architecture (at the quaternary level) caused them to have lower overall page authority and long URLs that were over the 115-character parsing limit. For that matter, users rarely made it to these pages from within the site — once they reached the tertiary level, they were confused by the context of the navigation labels and clicked back to the homepage.

The solution I came up with was very simple: eliminate the tertiary level of navigation. These pages and their labels provided no context and were irrelevant — so it seemed that removing them (rather than reworking them) would be the best approach. Doing so helped the child pages receive more authority and rank better, resolved the 115 URL character limit issue, created one less navigation level for users to click through, and created an overall better user experience.

How To Perform A Context Audit

Whether you work in-house or at an agency, your job as a marketer, information architect or Web developer is to become an expert in your client’s business. The problem is that immersing yourself in their business will often cause you to use internal lingo, branding and jargon on the website, which may only be understood by the client.

Before beginning the audit, you will need to take a few steps back and get into the mind of the client’s target audience — a practice generally known as creating user personas. If your client is a manufacturer of car parts, get yourself into the mindset of an auto parts shop manager. If the client manufactures pharmaceuticals, get into the mindset of a pharmacist, doctor and brainless mid-level office manager for your local doctor’s office or pharmacy. Even if you work in the B2B sector, I would also recommend including someone that knows absolutely nothing about the client or their industry — if they have trouble understanding the website, it’s likely potential customers might as well.

Now that you have created a user persona (or several) of someone that doesn’t stare at your client’s website on a daily basis, navigate through every page on the site and ask yourself if the navigation labels, URLs and H1 tags would make sense to you if you were that user. You should also take those labels and run them through a search engine to see if the results are relevant to your client’s site — if not, you’ll likely want to reconsider your focus keywords.

In many cases, the problem is one of specificity. During the 2012 SES Chicago conference, I attended a session presented by Shari Thurow, who used the example “gas” as a keyword. The term “gas” can mean gasoline, flatulence, natural gas and dozens of other things. If you do a search for “gas industry” in Google, you’ll see a variety of different types of gas industries.

Google search results for “gas industry”

It  is important to consider the various contexts in which your target keywords are used. Chances are that if someone is performing the search above and has a specific gas industry in mind, they’re going to refine their search to find something a little closer to what they’re looking for. You’ll want to respond to this by refining your target keywords (and thus various page labels) to attract the right searchers.

Next, take a look at your organic search rankings compare these with your non-branded organic search traffic in Google Analytics (or whatever your chosen analytics platform is). If you are getting a lot of search traffic for irrelevant terms, but not getting much traffic for the terms you are targeting and ranking for, you may be experiencing a context issue with your targeted keywords.

For example, if you have a page on your site using “gas industry” for its labels, but you are targeting “natural gas refinery solutions” as your keyword, your analytics reporting should reflect a lack of organic traffic for terms related to natural gas.

Once you’ve spotted areas where you need better labels and context, you will need to come up with a solution to these issues. In the case of my client above, I eliminated an unnecessary navigation level that was confusing both search engines and users. Other solutions may include changing the navigational labeling, H1 tags, URL or Title tag. Whichever solution you choose, keep an eye on character counts of your URLs and tags to ensure you don’t go over the parsing limits.

The Results

Executing a context audit and taking action on your findings will increase search performance and create an overall better user experience. You will have better keyword targeting, higher click-through rates, lower bounce rates and (in some cases) higher page authority. You will also notice through in-page analytics and heatmapping that users will spend less time seeking the information they are looking for — and more time converting.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

Related Topics: B2B Search Marketing | Channel: SEO

Article source: http://searchengineland.com/nondescriptive-labeling-can-hurt-your-seo-site-usability-160103

VM Web Marketing

NEWS / WEB SERVICES

22 May, 2013 |
by tech2 News Staff
| <!– 33 Comments –>

Google’s Tor Norbye has briefed users about a little known but impressive Google+ feature – Photo Search in Google+, in his blog post. 

This new Google+ feature is capable of recognising subjects – people, animals and objects in the user’s photos – both on the desktop version of the service and in the Android app. You can start off by starting the Photos option by going to the left navigation bar and then selecting Search Photos from the menu button (top right).

To begin with, you can type any keyword in the search option and have results pertaining to that keyword show up. 

Google+ Photo Search brings up images matching your keyword

An impressive feature, Photo Search in Google+ can help users type a particular keyword and have Google pull out relevant pictures. Of what is known at the moment, it may not pull out all pictures pertaining to that keyword, but the ones it is bringing out seem spot on. 

In his post, Norbye has a picture of his photo search for “snake”. He says, “I’m blown away by the new photo search in Google+ where it’s recognizing subjects in my own photos — here the various times I’ve run into snakes while hiking.

It’s unbelievable how the state of the art in computer vision has progressed recently. And I can’t imagine the amount of number crunching that must have gone into all this picture processing!”

Yesterday’s Google+ Android app update also brought in an improved Photos experience. The Auto Backup feature allows users to store their photos privately and safely as they click them. The auto highlight feature lets them look through a selection of top click from every set of photos that they add. Plus, there is auto enhance to make slight improvements to the people and places in the images automatically. Auto Awesome lets users create new versions of their images, say, by adding animations and panoramas based on the images.

To get started, all you have to do is upload a few shots, visit the Photos section of the updated app and view the Highlights. Here, users can also check out the enhancements by Google and remove them if they don’t like it. 

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VM Web Marketing

In pay per click management, many times we are told to simply increase our budget if we want to get more results. While increasing your budget will likely bring more clicks, this is not always a feasible option for all companies. If this is the case for your account, there are a few ways that you can boost your results.

1. Ad Extensions

Sitelinks

Sitelinks are one of several types of ad extensions, which are additional features that can be added on to your search ads. Sitelinks add four to six links below your search ad, which appear when your ad is on the top of the search page. You can customize the text and URL for each link.

There are many benefits that your account can derive from using sitelinks. Since they extend the copy of your ad, the search engine will give your ad space on the results page that is sometimes two or three times the space given for a normal search ad. This equates to valuable real estate that you gain without spending anything more, since clicks to sitelinks count the same as clicks on a normal ad. Indeed, research has shown that advertisers have increased their click-through-rates by an average of 20-30% by using sitelinks.

AdWords can also match relevant text ads in your account to sitelinks, and will sometimes show them within an ad’s sitelinks. This provides even more detail and takes up more room on the page.

Additionally, Adwords recently introduced upgraded sitelinks (part of their enhanced campaign updates), which enables advertisers to select different sitelinks for each ad group in a campaign. This allows you to be more focused and specific by tailoring the sitelinks to keywords and ads that appear in that ad group and sending visitors to relevant landing pages.

Other Ad Extensions

There are several other ad extension types available including call, location, social and offers. The use of these should depend on your specific goals. For instance, if you run a local business and want to get more foot traffic in the door, location extensions may work well. If you operate your business mainly through phone orders, call extensions may be a better option.

2. Negative Keywords

Negative keywords indicate to search engines which keywords you do not want your ads to show up for. Without negative keywords, you may be showing your ads on irrelevant search terms. For example, if you are selling software and have “enterprise software” as a keyword, your ad could also show for terms such as “enterprise software consulting,” “software management” or “what is enterprise software.” If people searching for these terms click on your ad, you pay for a wasted click, and with limited budgets it is especially important to get as many quality clicks as possible.

It is essential to check your search query report regularly and add any irrelevant terms that are showing up to your negative keyword list. You can do so right from the search query report page in AdWords.

If you’re managing multiple campaigns, it can be more efficient to utilize a shared negative keyword library which automatically applies keywords to multiple campaigns. In addition, sometimes it may be necessary to add keywords at the ad group level if you need more control.

Additionally, keep in mind that negative keywords can be any of the three match types (broad, phrase or exact). It is a best practice to use either phrase or exact match when selecting negative keywords in order to ensure that you are not excluding traffic that may be related to a broad keyword.

3. Adjust Bidding Settings

Ad Schedule

Sometimes your budget may not give you enough room to bid on keywords all day, every day. In order to maximize your returns for your budget, it is a good idea to set up ad schedules, so that your ads are only running at specific times or days.

This is also useful if your audience will usually only be searching during a specific time period. For example, if most of your prospects are searching for you while at work, it may be a wise strategy to not show your ads on weekends or overnight.

Devices

Different devices create different usage patterns. By segmenting your statistics by device type, you can see how visitors on different types of devices interact with your ads. You may want to increase your bids on devices that perform well or decrease your bids on devices that are not performing well.

Location

Targeting an audience by location can be a good strategy in order to more effectively reach your target audience. If you are a local business, this can be especially useful as you will not show your ads to those who are not located near your business. This is also useful to exclude geographic areas where your company does not currently sell in. If you have no international presence, it would be a good idea to only show ads in the United States.

Pay-per-click marketing can be a useful marketing tactic, but it is important to continually optimize your account in order to achieve the greatest ROI. A few simple additions to your account can boost your results, even if you are not able to increase your budget. Consider the above features and utilize those that are relevant to your campaign’s goals.

This article is an original contribution by Kathryn Drake.

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Article source: http://www.business2community.com/online-marketing/3-easy-ways-to-boost-ppc-results-without-increasing-your-budget-0500978

VM Web Marketing

Do you do SEO for a brand involved in a straight fight with another company? It’s pretty common for brands to become fixated on one particular competitor; I’ve seen entire marketing strategies geared towards beating another brand, rather than hitting a specific revenue target.

While some would argue it’s unhealthy to define any market as a two-horse race (especially in today’s fast-changing world), some marketing leaders like to do it to motivate their staff. They believe that you can better channel your team’s competitive spirit when your staff can relate to what / who the “enemy” is.

Pros and cons aside, there’s a good chance you will eventually work for a company that thinks this way. In the long term maybe you’ll be able to convince them to broaden their competitive focus, but in the meantime, wouldn’t it be awesome to deliver a content strategy specifically to them that is designed to help them build market share at the expense of their SEO nemesis?

How to Design Your Content Strategy

To do this I’m going to use the following model to visualize the content landscape:

By using the following methodology you should be able to build a content strategy, which enables you to:

• Expand your visibility into areas currently considered business threats.
• Understand in detail the dogfight between you and your competitor, as well as how to gain the upper hand in this battle.
• Expand your visibility through a focus on where your audience is being underserved.

The methodology pits two companies against each other across an unlimited number of keywords, using search volume and click curve data to understand each brand’s current reach. It then classifies each keyword so that they can be slotted into the model above. We can then understand the relative size of each part of the content landscape and tell the client what topics they should be publishing on in future.

If you don’t care about the methodology there is a template you can download here.

Use Keyword Click Curve Data

You will need as many relevant keywords as you can lay your hands on, grouped by topic. For each keyword you will need:

• Your organic rank.
• Your competitor’s organic rank.
• Exact match local search volume.

You will also need click curve data in a separate table. If you don’t have the data to build your own click curve, there is a ready made one here.

Once you have that data in two tables you’ll first need to estimate current traffic for both you and your competitor from each keyword.

Do this by multiplying the exact match search volume by the CTR figure corresponding to current rank (simple vlookup to retrieve this).

Determine Traffic Differences

Work out the percentage difference between your traffic and your competitors. If your competitor receives more traffic for a keyword, the figure should be negative.

Use if statements to ensure that where both brands receive no traffic a figure of 0 is returned, or a large positive figure (I use 1000 percent) if your brand receives a lot of traffic and your competitor receives none at all. You need to use these statements because percentage change involves division and if 0 figures you will have errors returned.

Classify Each Keyword

We can classify each keyword based on our content landscape model using nested if statements. The criteria is described below:

Once we have applied your nested if statement across all keywords and related each keyword to a place on the content landscape we can use filters to quickly isolate the keywords we’re interested in.

Get Visual

Use pivot tables to quickly show the number of searches in each sector, and other details, such as how much traffic each brand is getting within the dogfight sector, or the size of the business success sector relative to the business threat sector.

Here your keyword grouping comes into their own as you can visualize both the overall content landscape and the landscape for just a small subset of similar terms.

I’ve yet to build a Venn diagram or bubble chart that can show the relative sizes of each sector of the content landscape; I’d love to know if you can do this in the comments!

Despite the lack of a proportionally sized Venn, you have been able to visualize for your client how well their content serves the consumers need, as well as indicating which topics they should be focusing their content creation on in order to take the SEO fight to their main competitor and steal their SEO market share.

Prioritize Terms

As a next step, you could prioritize the most important terms, a process which enables you to make the task of content ideation much more disciplined and less prone to becoming one endless, unfocused brainstorm.

Simply take all the opportunity and threat keywords from above and estimate how difficult it will be to improve ranking for these keywords using a tool like SEOmoz’s keyword difficulty estimator.

You can then multiply the difficulty score by the search volume for each keyword to give a weighted score for how important each keyword is.

Brainstorm

Following this step my recommendation would be to hold a brainstorming session focused on the topics identified as a priority in the graph above, but that’s a topic that could take up a series of posts in itself!

Summary

For this piece I’ll leave you with a template for the process outlined above: there are a lot of possibilities for making this process even better; for instance, you could quickly use the click curve to model what the content landscape would look like if you managed to alter your clients visibility, leading to a forecast of how market share might change based on your content strategy.

All in all, I hope this template will enable you to compare and contrast your content strategy and SEO performance with that of your SEO nemesis and come up with a way to vanquish your most dreaded foe once and for all!

Just a final reminder that you can download the content strategy template here.

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June 12-14, 2013: Join industry experts at SES Toronto for a crash course in the latest strategies in Online Marketing and Advertising.
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Article source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2269352/Designing-a-Content-Strategy-to-Destroy-Your-SEO-Nemesis

VM Web Marketing

Keyword research is an integral part of both PPC and SEO and not getting it right can lead you down the wrong path right from the very beginning. I do a lot of keyword research here at QueryClick and while I give the impression that the secret to good keywords is a lot of coffee and loud electronic music (they definitely help) the real secret is the tools available being able to connect with your target audience. For that you need the most important tool, you need…empathy. 

Target Audience 

This will vary from vertical to vertical and chances are that you won’t be a master at understanding who they are from the get go. That’s OK though as this is what a client is there for and you should be in constant communication with them to develop a deeper understanding of not only the products they’re selling but how their customers might relate to those. This can be a back and forth process that leads to insights both for yourself and even the client if they’ve not really advertised online before (as people can use Google in different ways to conventional shopping). The best part about this is that it’s helping you develop a relationship with a client. They’re the experts of their field and you of yours and it’s by working together that you’ll get the best results and best understanding of the audience you’re trying to target.

Empathising With the Audience 

Frankly, it scares me how many people lack empathy, but for keyword research it’s essential to understanding how other people think and what they’re searching for There’s no real quantifiable way to do this and the gist of it is that you have to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. This means you have to imagine that you are the searcher behind a particular keyword and you have to always ask “why am I searching with this term?”. Once you’re in that mindset you can begin to look at the structure of the keyphrase that’s in use. 

Keyphrase Structure 

The structure and makeup of a keyword is the only evidence and insight you have to a users search intent and  reading into it properly is how to attain good results. As mentioned above you need to keep asking why? Look at the number of keywords they’ve used, why have they used that many? Look at the terminology they’ve used, why have they used that? Look at the modifiers they’ve used, what is it they (you) are actually looking for. Ask these questions in your head whilst keeping in mind the function that a client’s products provide and you’ll soon narrow down to keywords that are relevant. 

The Process 

Ok, so I’ve outlined a rough idea of the mindset you have to be in when conducting keyword research, the next step is to actually do it. 

Generally, unless you’re given a specific list of keywords to start with, the best approach is to visit the site that’s going to be advertised and look at what the products are. 

You’ll find that there will be branded and non-branded keywords and it’s worth bearing in mind that you’ll often have a much narrower selection of keywords for branded items as users searching for them tend not to very their queries too much. Non-branded on the other hand can be vast…. very, very vast. 

Once you have your brand/non-brand keywords it’s time to use the Google Keyword Tool. 

This is a tool from Google that will let you know how many people have searched for terms or terms that Google has deemed related both locally (depending on the region you’ve set) and globally. It’ll also give you an approximate idea of how many other people are bidding on keyphrases under the ‘competition’ label.

There are a few settings you can play about with to customise your search, things like platform and location, etc, but you can also use filters at the top to exlude or include certain terms. There’s also a check box to tell it to show closely related terms and this can produce a much smaller list but at the same time is relying on Google’s automated system which might not show you something you’d personally consider relevant.

The best approach to this is to get as wide and as broad a selection of keywords as possible, it’s though this that you’ll find relevant long tail keywords that are generally low competition, high conversion terms that will help drive ROI through a site. So take your keyword and throw it into the phrase box at the top, make sure that the options and filters are set to the appropriate preferences, set the match type to broad and grab all the keyword ideas that show up. 

More often than not, this will give you hundreds of keywords, but don’t despair as you’ll also want to include the “core” keyword you’ve searched for. Making sure these terms are in the keywords provided will bring your list down considerably. If you’ve got a lot of terms to search for, you’ll still end up with thousands of keywords to sift through and analyse (this is where the coffee and music come in) but that’s the nature of the game and at the end you’ll have a nice thorough and relevant list that can be easily organised into appropriate Ad Groups and Campaigns. 

You’ll also end up seeing patterns emerge for what people search for and this will let you determine if there are any negative keywords that should be used. For example, if there are a lot of searches for a type of product that’s similar, but not stocked on the site you’re advertising for, or you see a pattern of user intent that’s not relevant to a site (i.e. Someone searching for wiki’s) you can add those to a list of negative keywords to block that traffic.

Search Term Report 

The keywords that the GKT suggests are just based on internet searches, but there is also a tool within the AdWords interface called the Search Term Report and this lets you see the terms that people used before clicking on any of the ads in your account. It can be used in the same process as above but as you can pull interaction data for them from Google Analytics, you can determine with greater accuracy whether a keyword should or shouldn’t be added to your account. 

This is accessed through the ‘keyword details’ drop down menu in the keywords tab of the AdWords interface.

Keyword research can be long and tricky experience and hopefully the information above is helpful to anyone just getting into the process, but feel free to drop us a line if you have any questions or advice. 

Article source: http://uk.queryclick.com/seo-news/how-use-keyword-research-tools-best-results/

VM Web Marketing

There is an age-old argument about structuring your account based on the match type of the keywords in each ad group. Should you add all keywords on exact, phrase, and broad (and don’t forget modified broad)? What is the right way to do it? If there are so many ways to structure, how do you choose? These are all questions that, so far, I haven’t seen definitive answers to. Everyone seems to have an opinion on how to structure an account – do this, don’t do that, add this, follow this best practice, etc. But who is right?

Hard evidence seems to be lacking for one view or another, but is adding all these match types ever necessary? If you have a keyword on a broad match type, why do you need phrase and exact? Aren’t you already getting enough traffic? And this is where the problem lies; people don’t know the differences of the match types, when to use them and why. You don’t need all three match types for each keyword in an ad group if you understand the fundamentals of each match type. I find it unnecessary to add all three match types and costly if you do structure your account that way.

Broad match keywords can bring in a lot of unwanted traffic, and you end up spending more time adding negatives and fighting with your low CTR’s than you do working on other important parts in your account. I don’t think broad match is all doom and gloom, but I do find it to be time-consuming, and they usually end up being the underperforming keywords in your account.

One good thing about having all three match types is the ability to test each keyword match type against each other to find out which one is cheaper, has a better CTR, and drives more conversions than the others. Usually, through testing, you can find out which match types work for you and which ones don’t.

Looking at the example above, you can see that in this case, the broad match keyword “Design your own favors” has the highest number of impressions, lowest CTR, and a pretty low cost per click. The same keyword on exact match has a high CTR, low impressions and a more expensive CPC. Then the phrase match version has a low CTR, decent amount of impressions and the lowest CPC.

This would be a case of what I mentioned earlier, where the broad match keyword now becomes one of your more time-consuming tasks to manage. It seems to be doing satisfactory but it is also the most costly keyword in the group. My suggestion, in this case, would be to stick with the exact match keyword. While it is a bit more expensive per click, you know that the searchers are looking for your keyword exactly. You should be willing to pay slightly more for those search queries that are the most relevant because the searcher is more likely to convert to a customer. Also, the exact matched keyword has the best average position and overall seems to be the best match type based on the historical data.

Knowing the different match types is vital to figuring out which ones to use in your account. As a rule of thumb, broad tends to be more expansive, phrase is great for those keywords that only make sense in that exact order or phrasing (typically branded terms), and exact is great for those competitive terms that may be a bit more costly but you know you always want to show up for, or those terms that don’t make sense in any other order. Everyone has a match type they like to stick with but knowing which works best for your business is the best and most efficient way of saving time and money. Testing your keywords on all three match types is always an option, but it is time-consuming, can be costly and may not be worth it for those who have a limited budget. If you can accomplish your business goals using an exact match keyword, then why add it on phrase and broad as well?

There are many ways to structure your account and everyone does it differently. Some think that adding all three match types will bring in traffic and clicks which will lead to conversions. Others think that having all three in an ad group will capture all audiences out there which they think is the best approach. Personally, I’d rather have less traffic if I know I’m bringing in the right traffic. However, everyone has an opinion on this topic and I would love to hear yours! If you feel differently or would like to weigh in, let me know by commenting below.

This article originally appeared on Internet Marketing Blog by WordStream and has been republished with permission.

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Article source: http://www.business2community.com/online-marketing/should-you-include-the-same-keyword-with-all-match-types-in-adwords-0492630

VM Web Marketing

Posted: Monday, May 20, 2013 12:00 am

Man fatally stabbed in Richmond

From staff reports

Richmond Times-Dispatch

A man was fatally stabbed during an argument in Richmond on Saturday, and city police said they have a suspect in custody.

Police were called to the 00 block of East 29th Street for the report of a stabbing about 8:41 p.m. and found a man in his 50s with multiple stab wounds. He was taken to VCU Medical Center, where he died.

Police said a suspect was in custody and that no one else was being sought. The suspect was not immediately identified.

The victim’s identification was being withheld pending notification of family.

Richmond police Capt. John O’Kleasky said the stabbing resulted from an argument between the two men.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 780-1000. Citizens also can text Crime Stoppers at 274637, using the keyword “iTip” followed by your tip.

© 2013 Richmond Times Dispatch. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Monday, May 20, 2013 12:00 am.

Article source: http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/local/crime/article_098b7119-0fdb-51a9-8537-5258df5b5324.html

VM Web Marketing