http://www.articletrader.com/ Articles at ArticleTrader en-us http://www.articletrader.com/internet/seo/evaluating-your-search-engine-marketing-adviser.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/seo/evaluating-your-search-engine-marketing-adviser.html Tue, 03 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0500
How do you know if the adviser you are working with is any good? Unfortunately, there is no central spot allowing you to research an adviser’s professional qualifications and results history. This leaves you with both subjective and quantitative analysis to be done to arrive at your conclusion. Here are some key questions to ask:

How well am I doing?

Mike Moran, IBM’s search engine marketing expert, states that many companies make the mistake of measuring their performance against others. The error with this approach is that it fails to allow for differences between businesses’ goals and objectives, as well as fails to acknowledge incremental improvements gained through search marketing efforts.

It’s also important to make sure you are evaluating the elements that are really important to your business success. Most organic search marketing programs need six months or more for maximum impacts. With all this being said, the key thing to look for is consistent incremental improvements in your key metric performance areas.

What is this costing me?

The purpose of a search engine marketing or search engine optimization adviser is to make you money. Obviously, if your results are improving, that’s a good sign. However, it’s a short-sighted approach to focus on growth only without costs being considered. Great advisers provide gross results and net results with management and advisory fees included. This allows you to fully assess how much you are paying for performance.

Am I getting the correct advice?

Is the advice you are getting specific to your situation, or is your adviser currently promoting the latest internet fad that they recommend to everyone? What qualifications does the adviser have to make recommendations? What attempts has the adviser made to understand your business objectives and processes. What do they know about your other marketing initiatives, both traditional and online?

Your adviser should be up-to-date on the latest communication technologies and their impacts on search marketing. They should be actively involved in trade associations promoting best practices, ethical search engine marketing standards and on-going education. Some of the professional associations promoting these ideals include the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), the Web Analytics Association, the eMarketing Association, the American Marketing Association and the Direct Marketing Association.

How often do I hear from my adviser?

Regular interactions with your adviser are crucial for long-term, consistent search engine marketing success. The purpose of these interactions is to discuss results and take corrective actions.

Search engines constantly change the factors they use to provide organic search results. The highly competitive and ever-changing nature of online marketing demands more than just yearly attention to your search engine marketing program. A quarterly review should be the minimum requirement for most search marketers.

Great advisers also publish newsletters, write blogs, and produce podcasts, all with the intention of increasing your online marketing knowledge and effectiveness.

Finally, ask yourself how often you hear from your adviser and how long it takes them to respond to your inquiries. If the only time you hear from them is when they want you to buy something, that may indicate a need for a change.

Is my adviser putting my interests first?

Trust your instincts on this one. Is your adviser more interested in getting your money or in helping your business profit from their efforts? Are you working with a “bill you by the second machine” or someone that appears genuinely interested in seeing your business grow? Do you feel like your adviser really cares about what happens with your investment and its return?

Do I need more than search engine marketing advice?

Developing search engine marketing and search engine optimization strategies and tactics may be all you need from a search engine marketing adviser, but most companies require a broader array of professional services, including web site development, copywriting, ad campaign management, web performance analytics and more. Is your adviser capable of providing that?

A great search marketing adviser helps your business to be found online; works to convert web site visitors into desired business actions; and, measures impacts and analyzes data to ensure peak marketing results. This often requires the search engine marketing adviser to offer programming and development services, graphic design, link building, newsletter, web page and other copywriting services, web analytics services and much more.

Make an assessment of your current and future online marketing needs and make sure your adviser has the professional expertise to assist in those areas.


Still unsure if you are working with the right adviser?

Ask for advice from professional trade organizations like those mentioned earlier within this article. Ask your accountant about other businesses like yours (not direct competitors) that are growing well and contact them to find out who they work with.

For those of you with multiple websites or businesses, hire multiple advisers. Let them dish it out while you evaluate who performs the best. Returns are important but also test them by asking their opinion on issues of importance to you. You’ll learn a lot by the answers you receive.

© 2006. BizGrowth Search Engine Solutions and Brian Offenberger. All rights reserved. Permission to publish online or in print granted provided the article and byline are printed intact with live links.


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Launch your business to greater success through better online marketing results. Learn from an online marketing expert, Brian Offenberger, and benefit from his wisdom by visiting http://www.bizgrowthseo.com. Get free tools for search engine marketing success at http://bizgrowthseo.com/free_seo_tools.php.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/internet/online-business/seven-top-website-marketing-strategies-for-all-business.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/online-business/seven-top-website-marketing-strategies-for-all-business.html Fri, 07 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0500
Look at your website traffic logs

Information is collected as visitors find and move through your website. This information is displayed on what is referred to as “traffic logs.” This marketing data is pure because it is collected mechanically as visitors move freely throughout your website. Your website offers unprecedented opportunities to gather visitor and customer behavior data. Keep reading to learn more about this valuable information source.

Traffic logs provide key indicators of online marketing performance

Before diving into the wealth of data available through these logs, let’s clear up a common misconception that exists amongst most business executives: “hits” really aren’t a sound indicator of website traffic. A “hit” is counted every time a visitor requests a page or every individual image that a visitor requests. This means that the vast majority of visits generate multiple “hits” per visit. Ratios of “hits” to individual visits can be quite high.

The first section of the traffic log shows visits and/or visitor sessions. This is the indicator to use concerning site traffic measurements. This section also shows the average time per visit spent with the website.

Pay attention to the most requested and least requested page information contained within the traffic log. This is great information for business development purposes as well as many other applications.

Traffic logs show what is known as “top entry pages.” These are the first pages that a visitor sees when coming to a website, and great sites drive entry traffic to multiple pages, not just the home page. The information contained here helps you determine what is driving the traffic to your site. It also assists in helping make decisions concerning overall site navigation.

Logs also show what pages visitors use to exit your site. At a minimum, these exit pages should match your expectations and should contain strong call to action statements.

Some visitors only visit one page of a website and then go off the site. These “single entry pages” again reveal a lot about your site. Your site may be too slow in loading, may not have contained what the visitor is looking for etc. There is a myriad of potential strategies and tactics revealed in the page information within the traffic log.

Find out where visitors come from and what keywords drive the visit

Traffic logs will let you know which search engines send you website visitors. They tell you what links generated site visitors for you. They’ll tell you what search keywords and phrases people use to find your site. They’ll even let you know what call-to-action initiatives on the site produce the best results.

Low cost data for online marketing and entire business marketing applications

Information from traffic logs is pure data that is gathered mechanically through visitor actions. There is no outside human influence in data collection, making it an invaluable part of your entire marketing efforts.

Web analytics value is found in the answers to these basic questions

The high value of regular review and analysis of your website traffic logs (along with a few other key performance measurements we’ve previously written about) is directly reflected in your online marketing ROI. To see the value in another way, look at the answers analytics provides to necessary business questions:
• What do people do when they visit your site?
• Is that what you want them to do?
• Where are they coming from?
• What terms are they using to find you?
• What other websites send visitors to yours?
• What activities generate the most sales or lower costs of sales?
• How long are people staying on your site?
• Much More

It’s nearly impossible to reach your full potential in anything without measurement and analysis of performance and accomplishments. A website is no different. Take the time to regularly review and analyze these logs for improved internet marketing results.


© 2005 Brian Offenberger. All rights reserved. Brian Offenberger owns the copyright to this article. You may distribute it freely as long as you keep the article, its copyright and its byline intact.


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Brian Offenberger is a certified eMarketer, professional speaker on eMarketing, RSS, and search marketing, and host of weekly radio program “Online Marketing with RSS Ray.” He is also the founder and managing partner of search engine marketing and web analytics company, BizGrowth Search Engine Solutions. He can be reached at 877.837.8803 or at brian@bizgrowthseo.com Visit Brian’s website at http://www.bizgrowthseo.com for more details and to view his other free reprint articles.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/internet/online-business/seven-top-website-marketing-strategies-for-every-business.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/online-business/seven-top-website-marketing-strategies-for-every-business.html Fri, 07 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0500
1. Focus a great deal of your search marketing efforts on linking.
There are many variables involved in marketing your website so it is found on the internet. Many of the tactics involved in search marketing, both paid and non- paid search, are subject to change. Here is one constant you can bank on: linking your website so that it is accessible from other websites.

Think of it this way: for every website that links to yours, you have another venue through which customers and prospects can interact with your business. These “links” are really just selling extensions of your firm. They are like “internet salespeople” that are out prospecting for business on your behalf.

Search engines love websites with lots of incoming links from others. They view these links as an indicator of a website’s relative importance in its subject matter. Most search engines also tend to give higher search rankings to those sites with lots of incoming links.

2. Make “appearance” the last thing you evaluate about your website.
Your website needs to be found and responded to in a positive way by visitors for online success. Many of the aesthetically pleasing features available in website design technologies are counter-productive to best practices of website marketing. As an example, most crawler based search engines (Google) can’t see and thus index Flash technology websites. Rich media, streaming video and other “frills” often slow down website loading times, a real no-no in today’s on demand society. Businesses selling to business especially need to understand that these visitors want information and to buy, not a song and dance show. Avoid type on fancy colored backgrounds, and rotating messages and banner ads. State your case and give your visitors great content with strong call to action statements. Then worry about how your site looks. Go for substance with sound search marketing practices over style most every time.

3. Convey a “feel good” attitude about your company and its policies to your website visitors.
The internet has made new buying options available to consumers with just a few short keystrokes. For many consumers, a website is the only interaction they will ever have with a company. Convey a good feeling to website visitors about your company. Give visitors information that helps them understand and feel good about your company. All sites should tell about the company, its privacy and identity protection policies, and include a site map for visitors, at a minimum. Also understand that website visitors come to a website looking for something. Make it easy for customers to find you or reach you through ways outside of your website.

4. Keep your site fresh and up-to-date.
Adding content regularly to your website helps with search engine rankings and visitor’s impressions of your business. Nothing is worse than seeing a website that hasn’t been refreshed in years. Keep your site current and full of informative value to visitors. Use your site as a sales tool for customer presentations and to lower costs of sales.

5. Make your site easy to use.
Your website is not a video game whose purpose is to challenge visitors. Make your site easy to use, easy to read and make information easy to find. Put your most important site navigational topics on the left of the page as this is where the eye goes first. Include a site map so people can readily find needed information. Every page should offer a link to the home page and try to keep visitors no more than one click away from necessary information. Make sure your website is easy to read and free of “clutter.”

6. Read your website traffic reports and do something smart with the data.
Website traffic reports and website analytics offer tremendous chances for you to learn more about your site visitors and their behaviors. Learn where they come to your site, where they go while on your site, what they are looking for, what they respond to and more. A systematic review of your website traffic reports, along with regular site analytics performed by a certified eMarketer, should be considered a vital part of any key performance indicator metrics for business.

7. Spend more money and attention on website marketing.
Reallocate your marketing dollars and time from traditional efforts to online marketing. Over 15% of all advertising impressions occur online and yet less than 8% of business dollars are spent on online marketing. The internet is the most valuable marketing vehicle in the past 100 years. Its popularity and use is rapidly increasing with no signs of slowing. Too many business people do not feel comfortable with online marketing and websites and thus fail to give these subjects the attention they deserve. Don’t let a lack of familiarity become a barrier to business results. Devote the attention and the resources to online marketing and watch ROI that will blow your mind.


© 2005 Brian Offenberger. All rights reserved. Brian Offenberger owns the copyright to this article. You may distribute it freely as long as you keep the article, its copyright and its byline intact.


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Brian Offenberger is a certified eMarketer, professional speaker on eMarketing, RSS, and search marketing, and host of weekly radio program “Online Marketing with RSS Ray.” He is also the founder and managing partner of search engine marketing and web analytics company, BizGrowth Search Engine Solutions. He can be reached at 877.837.8803 or at brian@bizgrowthseo.com Visit Brian’s website at http://www.bizgrowthseo.com for more details and to view his other free reprint articles.

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