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AdWords Changes Are All Right

Google AdWords was recently altered at a grand scale and your business could be too if you?re not on top of the PPC game

Judging by the immediate panic resonating from Google’s biggest change to its SERPs in a decade, one would think a major crime against humanity had been committed. Phones rang feverishly, email boxes overflowed and bloggers churned out all sorts of rants. All the while advertisers were left to wade through a sea of instant evaluation and too often misleading information.

Let us state clearly that now is NOT a time to panic, but rather an opportunity to make more money.

Yes, Google went all in. Adhering to the ever swelling mobile tide, it created a more universal search experience across all devices. With one flail swoop they axed all the ads from the right-hand rail on desktop results. The shift includes a fourth ad position to appear just above the organic listings. Paid results ranking five through seven fall below SEO to the bottom of the page, while all other PPC results are shoved into the abyss of Page 2 and beyond.

But what did all this really mean to you the advertiser? Well, based on the plethora of research out there here are some top nuggets to consider:

  • Since Google?s change, clicks on top 3 ad placements are up 10-15% overall. (Wordstream)

There are actually MORE clicks on paid ads coming in for the best advertisers. This is leading to more revenue across multiple industries. Fact of the matter is, roughly only 10% of all clicks came from right side ads. Now those clicks are shifting to top positions.

You MUST attain top 3 ranking for profitable keywords. While 4 ads are showing more often, it?s still quite common to see just 2 or 3 in spots. However, the cost for being ineffective is steeper too as competition increases. You could use lose money just as fast as making it by pursuing the wrong terms or possessing a poor conversion strategy.

  • PLAs from Shopping Campaigns are actually appearing at the top of the page more frequently than ever before. As a result, PLA click share has increased, in comparison to text ads (Merkle/RKG)

google-adwords-changes-blog

If you?re an e-commerce company, Shopping Campaigns should not be new news to you. You knew getting more out of them is critical to sustaining PPC success, but in most cases have been unable to attain solid ROI. While these campaigns look simple to launch and manage, it?s really a place where the strong thrive while others struggle to survive or worse.

The difference between good strategy and execution can mean a consistent revenue stream or a loss of countless daily sales opportunities.

  • After scouring dozens of ?early returns? from PPC pundits, it?s pretty clear since late February, CPCs have been rising slightly faster than they were prior to Google?s change, but nothing significant.

There is no need to expand budgets until you realize that you can increase revenue and/or ROI in return. Don?t fight a bidding war because of media hype or executive panic. Let the numbers speak for themselves . Success will come from managing more actively and wisely than ever before.

The change from Google (it’s biggest in more than a decade) is by some estimations rewarding the top 1% of advertisers with 10% more revenue. I can personally validate that claim as our clients have already seen revenue and ROI shoot up considerably.

That’s the good news!
The bad news?!?!

  • It’s going to take more time, effort and expertise to stay atop the mix. There are many nuisances in AdWords to exploit and being on top the changing game will be critical to success.
  • Competition will rise quickly with some big budgets coming after your ROI. Winning battles will come through flexible budgeting, diverse strategy, creative copy and nimble PPC skills.
  • PPC strategies will need more breadth of coverage across channels. You need to go beyond SERPs to develop a multi-pronged plan that keeps your brand, product and services atop prospects minds (and screens).

Experts across Google Analytics and Adwords portals are seeing exponential value in moving users between channels. Having your brand is seen and engaged across Google Search, YouTube, Facebook, and sites they frequent (via retargeting) is no longer a luxury. Longer conversion path lengths and multi-channel touch points have been trending, but are quickly accelerating.

To boil it all down, what you need now more than ever is PPC expertise, experience and manpower. Don?t go this alone and don?t continue to spend on managers who are not showing you the money. Amazing results are out there to be had for those prepared to do PPC the right way today and tomorrow. You just need to hire the right guides to manage your efforts and lead the way.

Stop Throwing Money Down the Toilet on Paid Search

Money Going Down The ToiletUntil the day Google is no longer synonymous with how people find out information on just about everything, your business will need to be found for keyword phrases pivotal to your profits. The lack of a sound Paid Search game plan and skills to execute it is detrimental to maximizing revenue from the this channel. However, many are ecommerce sites are too timid or scared to tackle Paid Search properly.

Google and Bing are fantastic resources to market your brand, but they are not altruistic. Without these search engines countless businesses would not have survived, let alone thrived. But without your ads, Google would never had become a household name, Yahoo! would just be another exclamation and Bing would be but a gleam in Microsoft?s eye.

You?ve got to be careful and extremely knowledgeable in this space or succumb to a minefield that can destroy budgets and kill potential for positive ROI.

If any of the following management clich?s seem too familiar, then you?re likely helping add revenue to a pair of nation?s largest companies while risking your bottom line. Here are the most likely ways your company is losing money on Paid Search advertising.

Set it and forget it

Paid Search is the wrong time to invoke a timeless infomercial catch phrase. The principle here simply take time to prepare a meal then put in the oven and walk away. Not exactly a stretch to appeal to being too busy to focus and seeking quick solutions. Quite frankly that?s where Paid Search platforms make their easy money. Don?t fret, human nature demands when handling tasks we don?t enjoy or know that much about to find the path of least resistance.

In reality, even if you take your time to setup a well-targeted campaign, it still needs constant attention and consistent nurturing. It?s been proven time and time again having a well thought out yet flexible plan and sticking to it on a daily or weekly basis is critical.

Haste Makes Waste

Too often Google Adwords and Bing AdCenter accounts are setup in minutes because they can be. After all, the appeal of being on Page 1 of major search engines in less than 30 minutes is tempting. There are countless tools provided to make it easy to find and add keywords to account, write a quick ad or two, set a budget and press go. However, this will lead to tons of unwanted visitors and wasted spend.

Take the time to really think through your audiences and what they?d be searching. Conduct extensive keyword research to find good long-tail and negative keywords. And never assume a recommended ad group is filled with closely related terms. You?ve got to read through them all!

Writers Block

But what should I write about? What else can I say? How can say anything in a 25 character headline with 70 characters to drive home my message or offer while providing a CTA?

Developing new ad copy on a routine basis is a daunting challenge to many business owners, but this simple act can have a profound impact that goes beyond a new session. Like a question, the only bad ad is the one left in your mind and not given a chance to battle for supremacy. Ongoing A/B ad testing is vital to improving your account.

Window Shopping

Would you place every product in the window of your brick and mortar store? Nope. That prime real estate is saved for items that draw in customers and show your edge over the competition. Google Shopping campaigns have become so ?easy? to use that store owners are lining to promote every widget in the inventory. Sure, it?s nice to go for the volume, but not at these costs (which is an issue for our next blog post). Instead you should be focusing budget on products you can make good margin on even after paying for non-converting clicks. Branch out to test additional products once you?re steadily making money in this fiercely competitive area.

Match Game broad-match-modifier

Can we be frank? If you?re using broad match without the modifier for any significant number of terms then you saying to the search engines feel free to show my add when you want. Exact and Phrase match are the cornerstones of long-term success. However, broad match can be a necessity for many reasons. You need to modify broad match in order to show the search algorithms the words are connect and cannot be isolated. Keep in mind, if there is an ?of?, ?how to?, ?for? or ?what is? in the keyword term you might as well start with phrase match.

Think Positive

It?s not nice to promote a negative attitude, but that?s exactly the mindset needed to save money and improve ROI. Adding keywords to the list of negative terms that do not relate to your intended audience keeps you from getting clicks from folks who never intended to convert. It also restricts unwanted impressions, which allows your ads to show in front of more-targeted searchers more often.

Your ecommerce story paved with the peaks and valleys of search engine success. Whether riding a high tide or you?re struggling to tread water, getting the most out of every dollar spent on Paid Search ad clicks is critical to ecommerce success. Make sure you?re on top of your account focusing on the bottom line and business objectives at all times or hire someone you can trust to do so.

5 Adwords Tips For Maximizing Profit

The bottom line with any website?s marketing campaign is to increase traffic to ultimately drive more sales.? Google Adwords give web marketers the chance to tap into a true marketing juggernaut that presents a lot of opportunity.

Within Google, there are approximately 5.9 billion searches per day.? Adwords can help draw interest to your site from potential customers who are not only interested in the products you are offering, but they are generally qualified buyers as well.? Google Adwords is an advertising system in which advertisers bid on certain keywords in order for their ?clickable? ads to appear within search results.

So why do we care?? I was a guest presenter for a Nexternal webinar last week that focused on the importance of Adwords and what it can bring your business.? The advantages of an Adword campaign are numerous and some of the most important reasons why include:

? ? ? ??* You pay only when someone clicks on your link
? ? ? ? * You can control your own budget
? ? ? ? * You have access to extensive reporting
? ? ? ? * You learn more about your business

So now, if you?ve decided that you?d like to give Adwords a try, I have outlined a number of helpful tips that will help your website succeed.? Once you?ve created an account, you?ll be able to access the system and can follow along with these tips.

 

1) Start With ?Exact Matching?

* Broad Match = misspellings, synonyms, variations of your keyword(s)
* Broad+Match+Modifier = not synonyms, in any order
* ?Phrase Match? = your keyword(s) with words in front and back
* ?Exact Match? = your exact keyword(s)
* Negative Match = searches without your keyword(s) term

** Why is ?exact matching? important?
* You pay only for clicks on the keywords that you desire
* Higher click-through-rates (better targeting)
* Reduces wasted spend
* Allows for controlled expansion of keyword phrase

 

?2) Use Shopping Campaigns

Use Shopping Campaigns1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

** Where can you create a shopping campaign?

Shopping Campaigns2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the ?campaign? tab, simply click on ?shopping? to start your campaign.

** Why are shopping campaigns important?

* Allows for more control than Product Listing Ads
* You can sort and bid by Category
* Typically lower cost-per-click than normal search campaign
* Better return on investment

 

3) Bid On Your Own Brand

** Why is bidding on your own brand important?

* Very inexpensive click cost
* Two links are better than one
* Control your messaging
* Fight off competition

** Suggestions:

–> Create a separate branded campaign

–> Control budgeting and reporting

 

4) View ?All? Search Terms to Find Negative Keywords

** Why is viewing ?all? search terms important?

* If you don?t use it, you may be bidding on undesirable keywords
* Budget is wasted on bad keywords
* Improve the efficiency of your spend

** Where is it found?

View All Search Terms1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can find ?view all? is located in the Keywords tab, by clicking the ?details? tab and then clicking on ?search terms – all?.? This makes all keywords viewable, even if they are relevant or not.

 

Here is an example of ?view all search term.?? You can see the keywords that match exactly as well as others with little relevance:

View All Search Terms2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5) Use Sitelinks

Sitelinks

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** Why are sitelinks important?

* Your ad gets more real estate and exposure
* Ads with sitelinks have a 30% higher click-through-rate
* Ability to test different wording and calls to action

 

** Where do I implement sitelinks?

* Ad extensions tab
* Either the Campaign or Ad Group level

 

While many businesses and online stores have Adwords campaigns, are they truly effective?? Are they utilizing the correct strategy?? In an ultra-competitive marketplace like the Internet, creating an effective Google Adwords campaign is crucial to your site?s success.? Following tips and recommendations like the ones provided will help to drive traffic to your site and influence your potential customers, ultimately improving conversions and sales.

Living In The Now: Content Marketing

Content marketing.? We hear it more and more, every day.Content Marketing

Smart marketers understand that traditional marketing is becoming less and less effective by the minute, but what exactly is content marketing?

The main purpose of content marketing is to not only attract customers and engage a clearly defined target audience but to retain them as well.? This is achieved by consistently creating relevant and valuable content with the intention of changing or enhancing consumer behavior (Content Marketing Institute).? Changing or enhancing consumer behavior basically means to drive profitable customer action.

So how do you drive profitable customer action or call customers to action with this type of marketing?? While no one has it down to an exact science just yet, what has been successful for many companies, both small and large, has been communication with customers and prospects openly and honestly without selling.? It sounds funny, but it works.? Consumers have been approached, from a marketing standpoint anyway, the same way for years.? They know and understand the process well.

Instead of simply pitching products, content marketing seeks to deliver information to the consumer which is informative and engaging, ultimately making the consumer more intelligent.? The bare essence of a strategy like this is that if sellers and businesses can deliver consistent and truly valuable information to consumers, they will be rewarded by consumers with their business and loyalty.? For Ecommerce websites, this concept is extremely important.

According to Roper Public Affairs, 80% of business decision makers prefer to learn about a company and their products in a series of articles versus an advertisement.? ?70% say that overall, content marketing makes them feel closer to the sponsoring company and 60% say that content and information about the company helps them make better product decisions? (Content Marketing Institute).? The proof is right there: people want to know more about what they are buying and who they are buying from.

 

Content Marketing Examples

The age-old internet standard, ?content is king? truly applies in this digital day and age.? There are many ways to engage an audience, while educating them on your goods and services and hopefully turning them into not only customers, but repeat customers.? Here are a few very simple content marketing ideas with which you can inform your audience about your site and its products:

* Blogs

* Webcasts/Podcasts

* Newsletters

*?White Papers

* Videos

* Social Media

You may want to consider running an informative ?series? which examines at greater depth a particular model or item that is new or popular in separate installments.? This will keep consumers tuning in to learn the latest.? In addition to keeping your content fresh, engaging, and informative, make sure that you actively participate in discussions by asking questions and urging your audience to get involved in the conversation.? Think about creating polls or areas for feedback where anyone can get involved.

The bottom line is simple: it?s ok to be creative and expand upon conventional marketing techniques.? Besides, old-school, traditional practices just aren?t as effective as they used to be.? Consumers are much wiser to the marketing practices of old.? Not only that, search engines are really focusing on high-quality, relevant content and ranking websites accordingly.? Content marketing isn?t just the future; it?s here now.

8 Title Tag Optimization Tips For Ecommerce Success

Title TagOur last couple of blogs have focused on the changing landscape of SEO.? While SEO isn?t dead per se, it has made a huge shift towards a more semantic focus.? But don?t let that fool you, keywords are still important basics as are metatags and content.? Included within the realm of metatags are title tags.

Title tags and page titles are crucial to any site and especially Ecommerce sites and according to the search experts at?Moz, ?35 out of 37 ?influential thought leaders? in the SEO community thought that keyword usage in the title tag was the most important place to use keywords to achieve high rankings.?? There are more than a few ideas regarding the strategy behind using them, but some, more than others, are recommended by most SEO professionals.

Here are my ?8 Title Tag Optimization Tips for Ecommerce Success? to help organize and strategize your Ecommerce site?s marketing/SEO campaign:

1)????? Your homepage title should use your two most important keywords.? I prefer to limit any given page to focus on two keywords (excluding the site name/title) even though some people like to use 3 or 4.? I think it starts to look spammy .? Your homepage optimization is really important to tell the engines what your site is going to focus on and you definitely need to have the strongest keywords as titles on this page.

2)????? Use no more than two keywords for category pages.? Using two keywords will really start to narrow down the page?s attention.? It?s ok to use a single keyword (like the category name if you have optimized that) surrounded by calls to action if it makes sense for that category.? ?Whether you use 2 keywords or not, you will need to make sure that the keywords are used throughout those pages (in H tags, content, etc.).

3)????? Category keywords should be plural.? Since there are typically more than one product in a category, it makes more sense to have the category keywords be plural.

4)????? Use no more than two keywords for product pages.? This way, the value of the keyword(s) can be focused squarely on the product itself, not diluted through other less-relevant and less important keywords.? Be sure to customize the product page titles.? If your Ecommerce software allows dynamic insertion, use it.? For example, if you can tell the system to use specific elements of the product in the title, try that.? You can use product names, manufacturer, and SKU.? They are all valuable.?? If you don?t have a lot of products and your software allows for custom title writing, be sure to write custom titles.

5)????? Product page keywords should be singular.? Since you are usually featuring a single product on the detail product page, you should use the singular of the keyword.? This provides you the ability to optimize for both plural (on categories) and singular keywords which are both important for attracting traffic.

6)????? Title length is about pixel width not character count.? Most SEO experts agree that limiting your title tags to a maximum of 70 characters (including spaces) is probably the best practice.? However, search engines like Google are now placing a lot more emphasis on?pixel width?of a title tag vs. a simple character count.? Basically, this means that while you may be able to ?go over? the recommended 70 characters by having narrower characters (i.e. ?i? and ?l?), if you use wider letters (i.e. ?m? and ?w?), you may go over the max width restriction with fewer than 70 characters.

7)????? Use the most important keyword in the beginning of the title tag.? The beginning of the title has more weight than the end so be sure to put your more important keywords in the fron if you are using more than one.

8)????? Format your title tags for clicks as well as relevance.? This plays a bit on the marketing side of things, and can apply to your category and product pages.? The formatting of a title I like to use is ?keyword phrase 1 ? (call to action or benefit using keyword phrase 2 and 3 if possible).?? For example: ?Hospital Towels ? Wholesale Medical Towels On Sale?

One last note: Google, Yahoo, and Bing search result titles are pulled from your title tags.? With Google, it has become a bit more difficult to gauge exactly what they will decide to display.? Many people have noticed recently that the search engine has displayed a condensed version of a site?s title tags or even a different tag altogether.? Trying to understand or figure out how and why Google is doing this is an exercise in futility.? Just look for high-quality keywords and keep optimizing your site and it?s titles!

Set It & Forget It Does Not Work With SEO: Don’t Stop Optimizing!

Set It And Forget It SEOThe world of search engine optimization is never stagnant.??Web sites need constant attention and updating in order to perform well in search engines while maintaining the attention your audience.??Think of a car that drives and keeps driving.??At some point, you will need to re-fuel by adding gas in order for it to keep going.??Of course, re-fueling is an ongoing process that we are all very familiar with (especially with the price of gas!).??The same can be said for your website.? If you approach things with a “set it and forget it” mentality, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

Optimizing?doesn?t mean to keep changing your keywords and technical structure often (unless they need serious improvement), it simply means that optimization is an ongoing process.??If you add products to your Ecommerce site for example, make sure they go through a strict optimization process before or when they are added (i.e. coptimized titles, meta descriptions, seo-friendly URLs, and new content).

Changing keywords as well as the technical structure of a web site is generally frowned upon as search engines tend to rank websites that have an established history and consistency much higher than others that don?t.? Again, this certainly doesn?t mean you should ever take the ?set it and forget it? approach.

The bottom line, however, is that you shouldn?t change any of the targeted keywords or your site?s structure (web design, etc.) if it?s not?really?necessary to do so.

You should always focus on adding to your website, not taking away.

Search engines are increasingly looking for and ranking websites that are ?well-rounded? and relevant with high visibility throughout multiple channels.??There are a number of ways your site can achieve this.

You can create additional pages of content in your site describing a product or certain product or products in detail.??Within your site, you can also host a blog and make it interactive with links to other similar blogs.??Think about writing articles and press releases about your website and its products and submitting them to other websites as well.??Social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest allow users to ?like? and ?follow? your website while creating backlinks to it and boosting relevance.

Simply put, generating original content is very important and should be part of your ongoing business.??Adding information to products, writing articles, blog posts, and using social media are all great ways to not only create links but to increase your site?s relevancy.??Creating fresh and new content can generate a bit of a buzz around the web and it never hurts to create a little awareness about your site or something new or exciting about it.

If you continue to optimize, you will continue to improve your search engine results and generate more traffic.

SEO: I Keep Forgettin? We Are Not In Love Anymore

seo-heartbreakAs the great Michael McDonald sang, ?I Keep Forgettin? We Are Not In Love Anymore, I Keep Forgettin? Things Will Never Be The Same.? ?This soulfully explains what my relationship with SEO has become.? I have been optimizing websites since 1997 and over the past year, we have seen the most significant changes to the industry that I can remember.? I used to be in love with SEO but the reality is that it will never be the same again.? They (Google, Bing, etc.) made it very easy to love them in the past.? We were able to look good very easily, knowing the ?secrets? of how to rank websites.? There really were no secrets but as SEOs we liked to believe there were.? There were simply tactics that were either designed to make your site more attractive to the engines or if you used ?black hat? techniques, you used tactics that broke rules in order to compete.

In the late 90?s and early 2000?s, marketers could simply register a domain name with a keyword and make it to the top of the rankings.? In fact, we could register 10 keyword rich domains and fill up a lot of the first page. Times were good.? We were in love with SEO and we made a lot of money doing it.

Then in the mid 2000?s, link building became the secret of success.? While everyone began to pay for links and see great results, the engines caught on and made it clear that buying links was not acceptable.? While things once again changed, I was still in love with SEO.? We just had to figure out ways that did not involve paying for links and we had to make sure the links were relative and made sense to the visitors.

Over the last few years, links and link acquisition tactics had become more scrutinized.? Social media emerged and became an integral part of ranking factors, building links, and distributing content.? While I don?t consider myself a big social media guy, I was still in love with SEO.? I appreciated the changes and understood the game always changes.

Then we enter the last year and half.? Google pushes multiple updates and begins a huge shift toward semantic search.? This is where I realized that we were not in love anymore.? Things will never be the same.? While I know Google doesn?t owe me anything, a one-sided relationship simply doesn?t feel very good.? Maybe we can be ?friends with benefits??? ?I had to come to terms with the fact that the SEO industry is not what it used to be.? I have the option of breaking up and leaving, or staying and adapting to the changes.? The truth is, I don?t want to leave.

So I did what I have been doing for over 16 years?I decided to adapt to the changes.? I also realized I was able to fall in love again, but not with SEO.? My new love is semantic markup.? It is an incredible world of new opportunities, both exciting and overwhelming.? I created a new division of my company called Rich Snippets (www.richsnippets.com) to focus on this area.? It feels good to love again.

Spreading Your Content Wealth

 

We all know that content is king. ?Even more so now that there are so many different channels that you can utilize to get your Ecommerce name and your products out there. ?Here are a few non-traditional ways that you can increase awareness of your brand and drive traffic to your site, all by using relevant content:

1) Write and submit?SEO-friendly Press Releases. ?Whether you do it yourself, use a service, or have a professional write it, consider using some keywords and creating keyword anchor text links in the release. You?ll only want to include 2 or 3 links at most. ?It?s a good way to build relevant backlinks to your site when the release is published on other websites.

2) Get customer reviews for your products. ?Solicit your customers for feedback and comments if they are not posting it themselves. It usually takes a little pushing in emails or phone calls. ?There are 3rd party services that will give you product reviews and these are good for user experience but not for the engines. ?Numerous sites share the reviews so the products reviews are not ?original? content on your site.

3) Write ?editor? comments on product detail pages. ?Consider writing your own personal info about the product. While your business may not be allowed to personally recommend or condemn the product, you should be able to write information that you feel is relative.

4) Submit articles to social bookmarking sites. ?While submitting alone may not get your article seen by too many users, it still can create a link back to your site. ?Do enough good submissions and people will begin to trust you and the articles will gain some traction.

5) Write Guest Blogs. ?Blog owners will often welcome additional content to their site. ?Contact some blog owners with sites relative to your products and ask them if you can write an informational article to be included on their site. ?If they don?t offer for free, it can even sometimes be worth paying to have the article published if they have a big enough audience and traffic.

6) Participate in related discussion forums. ?If your industry has any kind of community around it, try participating in forums or community groups frequently. ?Answer questions as an expert and become an authority. Once you are a trusted member, communities often then let you put a link to your website in your signature file.

Keyword Basics For Ecommerce Websites

 

Recent search engine algorithm updates have caused a stir in the SEO world, especially as they apply to keywords in general. ?It would seem that Google, Bing, and Yahoo are placing quite a bit less emphasis on keywords alone, preferring to rank sites that are more relevant to user search queries, listing them in the search engine results pages (SERPs) according to their quality.

Does that mean that a keyword-rich site isn?t relevant anymore? ?Of course not! ?Should you give up on keywords? ?Nope! ?Should you abandon all hope when constructing your site?s category and product pages? ?No way! ?Don?t be intimidated by the recent updates. ?Keywords are still very important and still a huge ranking factor. ?In fact, when used properly, they are still the building blocks of a website.

A lot of the following ideas and recommendations for keywords work well on many types of websites, however, they work really well on Ecommerce sites and sites that sell lots of products:

* Be sure your homepage title tag (<title>) uses your 3 most important keywords (sometimes 2 plus your company or site name).

* Choose 3 keyword phrases to focus on per category page (sometimes 2 if it?s very focused), and use those in your title as well.

* Make your top keyword for each page the first word in your title tag (<title>) for all category pages.

* Customize your product page titles to include the actual product keyword.

* Format your titles for clicks as well as relevance (this is the ?call to action? part).

?* Use keyword-rich page names and create URLs that separate words with dashes (dashes are seen as spaces by search engines).

 

Of course, this is just the start of how to construct your website using keywords. ?It may be a bit tedious, but it?s definitely worth it. ?No matter what search engines tell you, keywords are still the backbone of a website and need to be utilized properly.

Figuring Out Your Competition

 

Whether you?re just starting out in the Ecommerce world or you?ve established yourself as a legit player, one thing you should always do is keep an eye on your competition. That doesn?t mean that you should mimick their every move, but if you notice that their website ranks higher than yours for similar keywords, browsing their website might help you understand why.

Try this: do a search in Google using:?site:www.yourdomain.com. This allows you to see what pages of your site are being indexed and how they look. ?The results should be keyword-rich and definitely include a call to action for users to click.

Do the same thing for your competitors by entering their site in Google search. ?Are their results optimized better than yours? ?Are they written better?

Granted, there are a few factors that you can?t really change about your website vs. your competition (like how old a site is), but virtually everything else is under your control. ?You owe it to your website and the future of your business to become the authority on your products and services.

A few basics: after researching your competition, make sure that each and every page on your site has the proper meta tags implemented. ?This means utilizing keywords that you have studied and adding them to detailed meta descriptions and creating title tags and page names with the right keywords. ?Also, you can never have too much good, descriptive content. ?Keep it fresh if possible, calling to action potential customers. ?Remember, you?re not trying to?match?your competition, you?re trying to?beat?them.

Following these simple steps will help your site start in the right direction. ?Next, you can think about diving into other important ranking factors like linking and using social media as a tool to drive more traffic to your site.

Quality Over 

Quantity

Quality Over Quantity

Not all ecommerce traffic is created equally. We help drive targeted visitors to your ecommerce site through SEO, PPC, Shopping Engines, and other channels.

Give 'Em What 

They Want

Give 'Em What They Want

Semantic markup improves click through rates in the SERPs. Modifications to the user experience increase conversion rates on the site. Small changes improve the bottom line.

Scream & 

Shout With Purpose

Scream & Shout With Purpose

Content marketing and social media offer numerous opportunities to create awareness. However, you must have the right purpose and strategy, otherwise nobody will hear it.

Money, Money, Money

Money, Money, Money

Invest and build in an online store to supplement your current offline sales. If you already sell online, expand and grow your sales by selling on Amazon and ebay.

AdWords Changes Are All Right

Google AdWords was recently altered at a grand scale and your business could be too if you?re not on top of the PPC game Judging by the immediate panic reson

Stop Throwing Money Down the Toilet on Paid...

Until the day Google is no longer synonymous with how people find out information on just about everything, your business will need to be found for keyword phra

5 Adwords Tips For Maximizing Profit

The bottom line with any website?s marketing campaign is to increase traffic to ultimately drive more sales.? Google Adwords give web marketers the chance to ta