Archive for January, 2010
January 7th, 2010 by Patrick Hare
A properly optimized Google Shopping Feed can be the difference between success and failure in the online world. Additionally, the lessons learned in feed optimization can be carried over to paid comparison engines like Shopzilla and Shopping.com.
Also know as a “Google Base Feed” or a “Froogle Feed,” the Google Shopping feed is basically a file containing a list of all your products along with relevant information like pricing, image locations, and so on. Google has a list of minimum requirements for a shopping feed, but it pays to provide as much information as possible.
How do you know if you need to optimize your feed? If you have an active feed which gets lots of impressions (views), but very few clicks, then you may want to make some adjustments. Likewise, if you have a lot of products listed, but aren’t getting many impressions, then you have an even greater need to fix the information in your feed.
Here are some hints for feed optimization:
- Do a little keyword research - By using the Google Keyword Tool, you can find out which keywords related to your product get the highest search demand.
- Be Original - Lots of people might be selling the exact same product using the manufacturer’s title and description. Originality can set you apart, and get more attention.
- Put Relevant Information First – Aside from appearing in the Google Shopping Results, a truncated title for your product may appear among general searches, so make sure that the first part of the title (product name) describes the product succinctly.
- Include Part Numbers – Many people know exactly what they’re looking for. This is especially true for people buying ink cartridges, batteries, and memory cards.
- Include Brands – This is very important in shopping. Brand searches have a very high conversion rate, and you can list items in shopping feeds that have trademark filtering in PPC engines. An item like the “HP 60 Combo Pack Ink Cartridge” illustrates relevance, part number, and branding, plus it ties in with the principle that someone looking for this item is a motivated buyer.
- Write Good Descriptions – Create a compelling, keyword-rich snippet encouraging the reader to buy the product. Note that descriptions in shopping feeds are also used to help the engine deliver relevant results. Once again, the best information should be at the beginning of the description.
- Check Images – Remember that people are doing their shopping from the pages of Google, so make sure that the image presented portrays the product as clearly as possible. Listings that show good images are far more likely to get clicked.
- Check Pricing – This can be the biggest reason you’re not getting clicks. If somebody else sells the exact same product for a dollar less, the consumer will consider the other site first!
- Add Attributes – More detail helps the search engine show more relevant products. You can add product attributes like color, compatibility, height, length, weight, year (useful for automotive accessories, collectibles), and custom attributes. If you sell products that are based around a variety of factors, you can gain a competitive advantage by being the most relevant.
- Disclose Shipping – For competitive items in Google Shopping, Google will show a list of base prices, a list of shipping costs, and then the total cost. If you have free shipping, you can float to the top of a vendor list when people are looking for the lowest total price. (For an illustration, type in “ipod touch 32gb” into Google Shopping and then hit the “compare prices” button.)
Optimizing a Google Shopping feed is not a one-time process, but requires a little tinkering. Basically, what you want to do is make a few changes, see how consumers react over the space of a week or two, and then make adjustments to products that aren’t showing results. Part of the process also involves searching for specific items and seeing how your competitors are describing the same item. Put yourselves in the shoes of a consumer, and ask yourself if the competing product listing has any features that should be part of your offering. Considering the high relative value of a click from Google shopping, a well optimized feed can improve your bottom line with very little additional cost on your end. If you’ve been running the same feed for a long time, and haven’t been getting the results you want, then a little feed optimization can go a long way.
Tags: optimize google base, optimize google shopping
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
January 7th, 2010 by Patrick Hare
The Google Shopping feature is a free way to get exposure for the products in your shopping cart. Many of our clients set up Google Shopping (AKA Froogle) but are sometimes unhappy about the relatively low number of clicks it brings in, compared to SEO and PPC. However, they also notice that clicks from Google Shopping convert at a much higher rate.
Why do clicks from Google Shopping (or many other shopping engines) convert better? Basically, the customer is pre-screened. When a product is uploaded via the Google Base feed (now via google.com/merchants) it includes information including an image, price, title, and brief description. Therefore, a potential customer who sees your product in Google Shopping is probably comparing what you sell with results from other vendors, and making a choice, then clicking through to your store. In this way, the shopper is “pre qualified,” and will end up landing on the page for the product that he/she has already selected. This pre-qualification, along with the trust afforded to Google by the customer, means that a click from the Shopping results is more likely to result in a sale.
Another reason that clicks convert better is that not every impression results in a click. A normal visitor to your site, whether acquired via natural search or PPC, will go through an entire shopping process on your site, visiting multiple pages. This visitor has a very high probability (90% or more) of leaving your site without taking any action. Shopping tools and price comparison services like Google Shopping, Shopzilla, PriceGrabber, and Shopping.com allow the consumer to find items and make comparisons. If you have a shopping feed with Google, you can actually find out the number of impressions (views) a product got vs. the number of clicks that came to your site. If you have a high number of impressions but few clicks, you may want to adjust your images, description, or price to attract more buyers.
An even better reason to get on the Google Shopping feed is that the natural search results in Google will often show 3 matching product results for certain queries. Even though these results appear to be shown in a randomized fashion (sometimes your product will show, sometimes someone else’s) this still can represent a significant opportunity for exposure. For e-commerce merchants waiting on better SEO results, a presence in the shopping results and among natural searches can be quite profitable. Even better, having a higher number of available products (and part numbers) gives you a better chance of being found by customers who are shopping for specific items. Having lots of items on the feed also increases the collective number of clicks on multiple items which would otherwise have a low daily search volume.
Finally, it is hard to underestimate the value of “free” traffic, and having a shopping feed is no exception. Most shopping cart software packages have a tool that will distill product listings into the format required by Google. If not, a programmer can be called upon to extract the proper information. Many other shopping feeds will charge by the click, and still represent a good value. Once a feed is in place, it needs to be renewed every month, and if your product list hasn’t changed, you can upload the same feed every time. In an era when ecommerce companies can’t afford to leave money on the table, Google Shopping traffic may not always deliver spectacular results, but several of our clients can attest that the added boost in sales makes for a nice extra revenue stream.
Tags: google base, google shopping
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
January 6th, 2010 by Patrick Hare
If you’re in a competitive sector, an SEO project can be hard work, and take a long time. It can also be very expensive. However, if you aren’t tied to a domain name, you can buy your way into the search engines.
How do you do this? Actually, it is pretty simple. First, identify your top keyword, or one that gets profitable results. Next, do a search in Google (or your preferred engine) and see what the top results are. Look at the actual sites and you should be able to determine whether they’re ones you could go out and buy. (Hint: You’ll probably find Wikipedia in the top 10 for most searches, but you can’t buy Wikipedia.) Third, do a little digging to see who owns the site, and if it’s already for sale. If not, you can always make an offer.
Usually you can find out the domain owner by looking at the website and getting a phone number or email address. If these aren’t readily apparent, you can do a Whois search by going to domaintools.com and entering the name of the site. Normally you will see contact info for the site. If you see that the domain is held privately, you can usually email through the agency that holds the domain. For instance, if Domains By Proxy (a Godaddy Company) holds the domain, you can email the owner through the address listed, which looks like example.com@domainsbyproxy.com. Make sure you are direct in saying you want to buy the site, and provide your email address in the body of your message.
There are always some caveats to buying a ranking site. First of all, you would want to preserve the site content for several months following the acquisition, because search engines can react negatively to an ownership change that accompanies a radical shift in site content or architecture. One of the reasons that the site got its position is that the search engine identified the site as a trusted resource, by way of its content and links from other websites. This doesn’t mean you can’t make minor modifications, or additions, to the site, but a change of ownership should not immediately be accompanied by major alterations to the site, or else you will lose the very rankings you went out and bought. You will also want to have an SEO strategy going forward, since any competitive sector is going to also come with competing SEO experts who are jockeying for top spots. Furthermore, you probably want to push your new site as close to the #1 spot as it can get, which requires competent SEO advice.
What kind of company is best suited to buying an existing site? In most cases, it would be a company that is looking to take advantage of the traffic that goes to the site, without looking to build a brand with it, except in those cases where the URL makes for a good brand. For example, if you’re looking to get leads online, you may not care where your visitors land as long as they fill out a form. You can often buy a ranking site, incorporate the form, and preserve many of the site’s other features. Depending on the site, you may also be purchasing the services of the people who built and maintained it, or you may be able to get a semi-defunct site that still holds good search engine rankings. There are quite a few people in the internet world who maintain a diverse portfolio of sites that make money by showing or converting traffic on an empire of otherwise autonomous sites.
Companies often buy ranking sites because of the positions they hold in the search engines. Having spot in the top 10 is akin to having a great “location,” but savvy people in the SEO field may even buy a site on the second page which has good potential, as a kind of “fixer upper.” In many cases there are sites that have good positions that could be popped into the top 10 with a little work. Sometimes the site owners will even let the sites go for a bargain price, since they were working off a different business model. Other sites may fetch a premium, but would still be worth the price depending on the value of the keyword traffic. For people who want to get fast results in the SEO game without the time and expense of standard optimization (which is still worth it) a timely site purchase can be a quick solution for people who are looking for traffic.
Tags: buy website
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
January 6th, 2010 by Patrick Hare
In December of last year, Google added a subtle change to the results you get when you look for something on its search engine. Basically, the results you’re getting are now factoring in your search history over the past several months, in addition to the standard results from the search engine’s algorithm. Google’s “personalized” search results are intended to help consumers by matching them up with more relevant product and service listings.
For any site owner who wants to get visitor traffic from Google, the downside if fairly obvious. For one thing, personalized search means that everyone is getting different results, so a #1 keyword ranking for you could be a #6 result for your neighbor. Because individualized search results are based on your IP address, there can be an added level of confusion for the customer. IP addresses are supposed to be a good indicator of a person’s location, but they can be off by up to 100 miles. The history of searches at your particular IP address also skews results, so if you have a website, and are always looking for your own company in the search engines, you may be seeing an artificially high ranking for your own site.
For people who want to see their actual search engine position, outside of the personalized result, there are a few solutions. One of the fastest is to add this snippet to the search results URL:
&pws;=0
After adding this snippet, press “enter” and you will see a closer representation of Google results. You can also get online tools that do this automatically. Google also tells you how to remove your history from your Google Account, but this does not necessarily mean that your IP personalization has been removed.
Part of the problem with personalized search results is also that your computer may be used by a wide variety of people, and individualized results can be based on searches that are only marginally relevant to what you’re looking for right now. Theoretically, individualized search could be building a demographic based on queries, so your results would then contain additions built around several months of searches. This might be fine if you’re the only one who uses the computer, but what if you log on from a Coffee Shop?
Personalized search also hits the world of Search Engine Optimization. Whether you’re hiring an agency or doing your own SEO, you want to get consistent results based on searches. In the past, a top spot on a search engine could be kept for months, or even years. Now, there is a great deal of volatility. Nonetheless, the same SEO principles apply, since it is necessary to have good content, good code, and good links to even become competitive on the first page for most searches. In some cases, personalized search is going to give an advantage to websites that have been visited by the user in the past. In other cases, the best site may be obscured by results that Google “thinks” are a better match.
In the final analysis, personalized search does not diminish the need for optimizing a website correctly. In fact, personalization plus good SEO means that many sites may suddenly get better results. Ideally, Google’s personalization of search will give consumers better information. For website owners who are seeking traffic, being more relevant for more keywords is going to have a greater level of importance, since it is now necessary to get higher average places in a sea of ever-changing results.
Tags: depersonalize
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
January 5th, 2010 by Jessica Runberg
Keywords come in all shapes and sizes. From long-tail to short-tail keywords and broad-match to exact-match keywords, there are always plenty of variations to choose from. Deciding which and how many keywords to use is one of the most important aspects of any PPC or SEO campaign.
Keyword matching plays an important role in narrowing down the myriad of keyword options. While traditionally used for PPC campaigns, keyword match designations can also be helpful in making SEO decisions.
When evaluating keywords for inclusion, whether for SEO or PPC, there are three basic types of matches: broad, phrase and exact. Here, we will examine the differences between these keyword matching options on the Google Adwords Keyword Tool and see you how can find your perfect keyword match.
Broad Match
Broad match keywords encompass not only the keyword itself, but any keyword variations, including singular and plural varieties. For example, if you bid on “flowers” your ad may also appear when Web users type in queries for mother’s day flowers, buy flowers, flower photos and so on.
The advantage of broad match is that these queries receive the most search volume since the keyword is likely to appear in a variety of search queries; however, the disadvantage is that some of these queries may not be relevant to your line of business.
Phrase Match
Phrase match allows you to narrow down matching to a specific keyword phrase such as “flower bouquets.” This matching technique guarantees that your keyword selection will be kept intact and in order; however, it will still capture variations that contain additional words before or after the keyword phrase. For example, if you bid on “flower bouquets,” your ad may also display on queries such as graduation flower bouquets, flower bouquets for weddings, flower bouquets delivery and so on.
Phrase match gives you more control over the keyword, while also giving you the flexibility to incorporate longer-tail varieties. Some of these varieties will be relevant while others may not.
Exact Match
Exact match keywords are exactly that: an exact match. If you bid on “Scottsdale flower deliveries” that is the only query in which your Google Adwords keyword will appear. This gives you a lot of control over the keyword and ensures that your ad won’t appear on any irrelevant queries. However, traffic will be limited to people who type in that exact keyword phrase which means there is a possibility of missing related longer-tail traffic.
So which is best? It depends. A seasoned PPC or SEO expert, such as those employed at Web.com Search Agency, can help you determine the right mix of broad, phrase and exact match keywords for your campaign. It’s a delicate balance between search volume and relevancy, but once you find your perfect match, it’s a wonderful thing.
Give us a call at 1-877-Rank-321 to learn more about PPC and keyword selection.
Tags: Keyword Matching
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
January 5th, 2010 by Jessica Runberg
The goal of the search engines is to bring you content that is relevant to your query. If you search for “best colleges in North America” the search engines want to bring you results about, you guessed it, the best colleges in North America. Perhaps it will return a listing of colleges ranked in order of reputation or a directory of the top schools in the U.S. or Canada. Whatever results come up, the name of the game is relevance.
Given this simple fact, it’s amazing how many websites do not strive for a highly relevant and optimized website landing page. Once a visitor lands on your site, what they see (in the search engine results page) should be exactly what they get. Otherwise, they’re liable to bounce out of your website and back to the search engine results.
The higher your website’s bounce rate for a given keyword phrase, the more likely your rankings are going to slip for that keyword. The goal is to get visitors to stay on your website and be enticed to dig deeper into your navigational structure and, ultimately, purchase your products or services. And it all begins with the landing page.
Landing page optimization, whether for an SEO or PPC campaign, is a very important part of the optimization process. The landing page copy and web design elements should reflect the keyword query. In natural search engine optimization, this means selecting a related theme of keywords and optimizing the page for those keywords. A Google Adwords PPC landing page should also be highly customized to match the keyword query, although these campaigns also have the flexibility to experiment with different formats of landing pages or create dynamic content for geo-specific locations.
Whether you are optimizing for SEO or PPC, your homepage is the most important landing page on your website. This is the page where you want to use your most relevant and competitive keywords. Another way to think of it is this: If you had to describe your business using just one or two words, what would they be? Create compelling content that highlights your top keywords and you’ll be well on your way to creating a winning landing page.
Ready to learn more? Contact us at 1-877-Rank-321.
Tags: landing page optimization
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
January 5th, 2010 by Jessica Runberg
Anytime you see a website or online article that has hyperlinks throughout, they’re using anchor text. These blue words do a lot more than just link to another page or website; they tell Web users – and the search engines – precisely what that link is about.
An anchor text link holds a lot of weight in the SEO world. These links are an important part of on-page and off-page optimization. Strategically placed internal links, combined with other on-page optimization strategies, can give your internal pages a boost. They can be especially helpful in assisting with increasing rankings for a page that otherwise may not be performing as well as it should. You should never have an internal link with generic anchor text that merely says “click here.”
Even links that come from other websites, also referred to as external links or off-page optimization, should have anchor text optimized for SEO. This is why in addition to natural links, you also want to have a portfolio of high-quality custom and directory links that include the desired anchor texts for your website. These links hold even greater weight than internal links, as the search engines view them as a virtual endorsement for your website and the keyword used in the anchor text.
Whether on- or off-page, moderation is key in anchor text optimization. Too many links, especially those with the same anchor text, raise a red flag as being spam. As with other search engine optimization strategies, there is a balance that you want to strike. Ready to learn how anchor text can increase your rankings? Give us a call at 1-877-Rank-321 for a complimentary analysis of your website’s SEO effectiveness.
Tags: anchor text
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
|
|
