Archive for November, 2008

   Not many people are aware of this but these days PPC and SEO go hand in hand. Ever since Google introduced the concept of quality score and landing page quality scores, search engine ranking of your site and landing pages will affect the amount of money you pay for each click. Google puts it this way:

“Advertisers who may be providing a poor experience on their site will notice that their traffic will decrease and their minimum cost per click will increase.”

   How can you ensure that your website doesn’t have a low quality score? Here are some tips:

• Work on SEO for your site, if your site ranks well you will have a higher quality score
• Provide relevant, unique and substantial content on the product or service.
• Add an ‘about us’ page
• Add a short privacy policy
• Add details on returns / refunds if you’re selling something on your website
• Add a contacts page
• If your site displays advertising, distinguish sponsored links from the rest of your site content or think about removing completely.
• Don’t link to shady sites.

Here’s what Google has to say about this https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=9356.

Technorati Tags: Internet Marketing, ppc, promoting your business, Search Engine Friendly, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), search engines, seo, site promotion, website promotion, website traffic

   Local search can be a very valuable tool. A lot of people use Internet for product and service research purposes and then go transact locally. It is important to keep in mind that as with any direct marketing tool the focus should be on the return on investment (ROI). Track results you get from customers that contact you through the site to calculate your ROI. Many internet marketers say this is not possible for regular brick and mortar stores and local businesses. This is not true. The problem is they forgot the old school tactics  of using coupons for tracking. Display discount coupons for people that come to your website from local search in cases like these and you’ll be able to track your ROI by tracking sales you get from each specific coupon code.

Technorati Tags: brick and mortar business, double my sales, leads generation, promoting your business

   These days small businesses are strapped for cash more than ever. The trick to getting results from your advertising budget is to handle it the same way you would handle your investments – diversify. Split your advertising budget for this quarter into at least 5 chunks and pick 5 advertising methods that you like. Try these 5 methods and track their results (ask people how they heard about you). ALWAYS track results – if you can’t tie your advertising directly to your sales this is not the type of advertising a small business needs. Most advertising methods on the Internet (like PPC and SEO) are great that way because you will always know if your advertising is bringing you results. Hopefully after the first quarter you found a few methods that worked well for you. Keep doing them and try some new methods. Never bet a big portion of your money on something that hasn’t worked for you before. Slowly each quarter you will discover more and more advertising methods that work for you and your business will grow.

Technorati Tags: ppc, promoting your business, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), seo