SEO Fairy Tales Without Happy Endings
We share office space with Vertical Nerve, a web analytics, search marketing, and mobile marketing company. In other words, they’re Google Analytics geeks, who understand exactly how to measure, monitor and tweak marketing campaigns to get the results you want. I’m not, even though I’ve known about Google longer than most people on the planet. Months before Sergei Brinn and Larry Page announced their new search engine, I attended a hush-hush meeting (after signing “binding mutual non-disclosure agreements and information embargoes” explained with great seriousness by two teams of lawyers), and saw one of the very first demos of the product that Read More
What 6 Months Has Taught Us About Google+
In June, 2011, the search giant Google launched Google+. At the time, many people thought it was a challenge to Facebook’s domination of the social media space, and treated it as little more than one more social media channel among many. Just over six months later, Google+ marketing best practices are starting to emerge. It’s already clear that two things make Google+ quite different than other social media platforms. One of them is the “Hangouts” feature that allows companies to engage with fans, prospects, and customers through video conference calls. Of all the Google+ basics for corporate marketers, this feature Read More
Do You See What I See? On Google, Probably Not
If you and I use Google to search for the same keyword, do you see what I see? Probably not. I’m in Dallas, Texas, so the first thing that Google does is to look at my IP address, which tells it where I am. If you’re anywhere else – even in a Dallas suburb – Google will automatically adjust the search results according to location. Users get no say as to whether or not we want “local” results (and ads). Search history factors in, too. Google results are based on assumptions that are supposed to help make the results more relevant Read More
Going Mobile in 2012: How and Why It Matters
Mobile web traffic has quickly become one of the fastest growing segments for businesses. More & more people rely on mobile devices to conduct transactions using their smart-phones, tablets, iPads and even an ebooks. As Marketers, we have to be ready to reach consumers all day, every day. Many companies are already catering to mobile consumers by offering direct updates via text, mobile apps and/or mobile optimized websites, while others haven’t developed a mobile strategy yet. Does my business really need a mobile site? If your business is having trouble deciding whether to develop a mobile optimized version of your Read More
Turning Google Analytics Data into Dollars and Sense
Since its release in November 2005, Google Analytics (GA) has continually provided marketing teams with a wide range of data to help them understand just how users interact online with their business. GA now offers everything from real-time analytics, multi-channel funnels to social media and mobile tracking. More often than not, marketers approach the Vertical Nerve Analytics team and just want to know, “What terms, numbers and metrics should I really focus on?” Although the answer varies from business to business, these are some of our top tips for success in Google Analytics. Regular Account Auditing When was the last Read More
Go Google Yourself!
Once upon a time, in the days before social media became ubiquitous, entering your own name into a Google search window was a guilty pleasure called “vanity surfing” or “ego searching”. Everyone did it, but no one talked about it. Today, it’s a requirement for anyone who needs a job, a credit card, or even a potential mate. That’s because if you don’t check out your own online reputation, it’s a dead certainty that other people will. And if you don’t know what’s out there, you don’t have a prayer of correcting a problem that can ruin your reputation for years Read More
Reducing Bounce Rates for Websites & Blogs
Bounce rate is the measurement for the number of visitors who leave a website or blog within seconds of their arrival. I like to call it the “THAT isn’t what I wanted” metric. Sometimes the bounce rate is a problem – and sometimes it isn’t. You can find the bounce rate easily for any webpage or blog that has Google Analytics installed; the graphic below shows what a typical Google Analytics bounce rate table looks like. For instance, blogs can often have a higher bounce rate than other websites because people come to read a particular short post – and Read More
Search Marketing in Google’s New World
Early in 2011, marketers got a wake-up call in the form of something called The Panda Algorithm Update. What’s a Panda algorithm, and why was it a wake-up call for marketers? The Panda algorithm is one of Google’s top-secret formulas for determining page rank — that is, where a particular web page will show up in a Google search. The release of this algorithm was a wake-up call that showed marketers in no uncertain terms that to achieve higher online rankings meant playing by Google’s rules with white-hat Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tactics. It started in February when retail giant Read More
Best Source of Qualified Leads? SEM
Multi-channel marketers have many channels to reach potential customers — but few have the budget to use all of them for every message. So what’s the single best source of qualified leads? According to a survey from Hearst Business Media Electronics Group and Goldstein Group Communications, it’s search engine marketing. You can see the complete survey here, but we’ve excerpted one table below. With the company’s website and search engines as the two primary sources of qualified leads, the message for marketers is clear: focus on the essentials of search engine marketing. And that means measuring, monitoring, and understanding how prospective Read More
Writing Guaranteed Press Releases
by Deb McAlister-Holland Long ago, in an office less than three miles from the one I am in today, I wrote my first press release on an IBM Selectric typewriter. The goal was simple: to persuade a reporter (radio, TV, or print) to take one or more of the sentences in the press release and include it in a story they were creating, or to get them to arrange an interview with my client. The release was ephemeral and disposable. We hoped that the small number of journalists who got it (via fax, postal mail, hand-delivered as part of a printed press kit, Read More
