5 Hard Truths About SEO

1. It’s a LOT of hard work
2. It takes months and years to yield results
3. There are no guarantees (so don’t fall for that from an “SEO” consultant)
4. It’s always changing
5. SEO projects never end – they are iterative -> implement, analyze, repeat

Got anything to add? Leave a comment or jump into the forums!

How Can I Get More Traffic To My Website?

The most commonly asked question of me is “How can I get more traffic to my website?“…

After which I immediately follow with “What are you going to do with it?“…

At this point I generally receive blank stares followed by a request to elaborate.

Here’s the thing – most website owners think that getting “hits” to their website is the most important thing in a web strategy. They don’t care what they are going to do with new visitors – just that they come.

This is a fundamental flaw in your web strategy. Granted – traffic is important but the most critical aspect in your web strategy is doing something with the traffic you get. By “doing something” – we mean accomplishing and executing on your website’s goals (you do have goals for your website, right?).

What’s the point of getting an extra thousand visitors to your site if you aren’t doing anything with them? If they aren’t signing up for your email list, buying your widget, leaving a comment, subscribing to your RSS feed, or whatever – than what’s the point?

Why do you need to generate more traffic when are doing nothing with the traffic you are getting now?

Our colleague Brian Kaldenberg maintains the idea of “It’s easier to double your conversion rate than to double your website’s traffic”. What he means is that it’s easier to optimize your website to meet your goals than it is to get more people to come to your site. It could also be more profitable…

Lets get technical…

All of this data can be found inside your web analytics.

Let’s assume your business, Acme INC, sells a single widget for $97. Currently, your conversion rate – percentage of website visitors who end up buying your widget – is 3%. And let’s say you get 2,000 visitors to your website every month. If we do the math…

• 2,000 visitors * .03 conversion rate = 60 widgets/mo sold on your website
• 60 widgets * $97/ea = $5,820/mo revenue generate by your website

So what Brian is saying above is that it will be easier to increase your conversion rate to 6% than it is to increase your website’s traffic to 4,000 visitors per month. Here comes more math

If you Acme INC doubles their conversion rate to 6%…

• 2,000 visitors * .06 conversion rate = 120 widgets/mo sold
• 120 widgets * $97/ea = $11,640/mo

But guess what – you can optimize your website RIGHT NOW and increase your conversion rate. Doubling the traffic to your website will take a lot of hard work, great content, advertising, and patience (like years). Both are important – but don’t you think Acme INC would like a 6% conversion rate BEFORE they double their traffic?

• 4,000 visitors * .03 = 120 => $11,640/mo
• 4,000 visitors * .06 = 240 => $23,280/mo

For Acme INC doubling their conversion rate before they generate more traffic is a difference of 12,000/mo … doubling their revenue.

Wrapping Up

Back to our main point… Instead of asking “How can I get more traffic to my website”, you should be asking “How can I convert more of my website traffic into my goals”.

Once you’ve optimized for conversion – than you should start generating more traffic. Look at the numbers and make data driven decisions.

If you have any questions, please let us know in the comments or jump into the forums!

15% Of Mobile Web Traffic Are Searches

A recent report from Opera (a web browser company) called “State Of The Mobile Web” determined that Google Search accounts for more than 9% of all page views on mobiles in the United States.  Add Bing and Yahoo mobile search share into the mix and you have almost 15% of mobile internet traffic being search.

Can you guess what someone may be searching for on a mobile? Local search results come to mind…

By default on mobile devices Google drops local search right into the top of the results.

Is your business listed in local directories? If not – you should get started now!

If you have any questions on local listings, please ask us in the comments or jump into the forums…

And if you need help… we offer a google local listing service…

The Great Copy Debate

There was a great post from Search Engine Land last week called “It’s A Fatal Mistake To Copy Successful Web Sites“…

Someone asked, “Why don’t we all just copy Amazon.com?” I replied, “Never, ever copy what Amazon does.” The audience responded with surprise, thinking I was not a fan of Amazon.

Not true. The reason you don’t want to copy a successful site like Amazon is that their website requirements are not likely to be the same as your site requirements. Their users may have different characteristics than your site visitors. Their customers’ needs may be completely different. You don’t have the user, traffic analysis and usability testing data they’ve collected over the years that they use as a base for their user interface, information architecture and content delivery.

Now this goes in the exact opposite direction when we said “You Should Copy Amazon.com E-Commerce Design“.

However – I think we are both right. In the context Kim speaks about in her argument why you should not copy is the varying degree of requirements. Obviously Amazon has a unique audience that demands specific requirements that Amazon has thoughtfully researched and implemented over the last ten years. We don’t recommend that you try (why would you?) to copy Amazon’s information architecture or to layout your site in the same exact fashion.

But when it comes down to function, usability, and conversion – why not copy them? They’ve been doing research for the last 10 years on e-commerce usability and conversion optimization. Most small businesses running e-commerce don’t have an analytics research staff – let alone the data to even begin. So why not copy the color of their buttons, or their “Add To Cart” text, or even their shopping cart layout.

One of the taglines we have at 48Web is – “We’ve done the research so you don’t have to“…

In the case of Amazon – they’ve done the research so why not copy them?

Let us know what you think in the comments or jump into the forums!

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Two Ways To Do Local PPC

If it hasn’t been obvious to you over the last couple of months we think local is the next big thing. There are many reasons for this – from Google adding location filters into search and advances with Google Local Listings…

Beyond your local listings, you can target local through Google AdWords as well. If your business operates in a geographic based market – a localized PPC campaign on AdWords is a great way to run a low cost and high click-thru online advertising campaign.

What does that mean? It’s easy to keep a low budget and have a highly effective campaign if you target local. Here are two ways to get started.

1. Target Keywords In A Geographically Targeted Area

When setting up a Google AdWords campaign you can target keywords based on a specific geographic region. For instance – let’s say you are a plumber in des moines…

If you were to bid on the keyword “plumber” and not set a location you will

• Pay a lot of money for clicks
• And you will have irrelevant traffic = waste of money

However in AdWords there is an option to target ads based on geography under “Settings -> Locations”. Here you can drill down to states or cities you wish to target. Now if you bid on the keyword “plumber” your ad will only show up for people searching from that geographic region – in this case we chose the state of Iowa.

2. Target Localized Keywords

In our plumber’s case he can target localized keywords in AdWords rather than generic keywords. For instance – instead of targeting the high priced keyword “plumber” they can target “des moines plumber”. Not only does that keyword cost much less per click – you know you are getting relevant clicks on your ad. This makes for a higher conversion rate, meaning more people that click on your ad will end up buying from you.

Do you have any questions on local PPC or AdWords targeting? Let us know in the comments or jump into the forums!

E-Commerce Tips – Interstate Batteries

Does this look odd to you?

Either Interstate Batteries are advertising their markup by blatantly stating they charge more than the Suggested Retail Price.

- OR -

Someone screwed up and hasn’t looked at it since…

Which do you think?

Confusing a user is the first way to get them to abandon your E-commerce site. Are you confusing your users?

Try ordering something from your own site and see if the process is confusing! When we told you to break up with your website we said the same thing… If you can’t use your site chances are your visitors can’t either.

Google Adds “Nearby” To Search

Google is taking another step in the local direction – once again making Google Local Listings even more important! They’ve just added a way to refine search results by location.

From Google’s press release…

Location has become an important part of the way we search. If you’re a foodie looking for restaurant details, food blogs or the closest farmer’s market, location can be vital to helping you find the right information. Starting today, we’ve added the ability to refine your searches with the “Nearby” tool in the Search Options panel. One of the really helpful things about this tool is that it works geographically — not just with keywords — so you don’t have to worry about adding “Minneapolis” to your query and missing webpages that only say “St. Paul” or “Twin Cities.” Check it out by doing a search, clicking on “show options” and selecting “Nearby.”

What’s this look like?

When you click on “Nearby” Google Filters Results Based On Your Location

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5 Reasons You Need A Local Business Listing

Here’s a quick video we extracted from a recent webinar – 5 Reasons You Need A Local Business Listing…

Want to learn more? Check out our Google Local Listing topic page!

Do you have any questions? Let us know in the comments or jump into the forums!

A Sample Local Web Strategy

Here are six things I would include in the foundation of a good local web strategy. You have a local internet marketing strategy – right?

Targeted Advertising - You can set up geographically targeted advertising campaigns very easily and they are relatively inexpensive

Local Listing – An optimized Google Local listing could do wonders for your businesses. People search for local products and services they want to buy every day. If you aren’t showing up in those results you could be missing out. It’s free and easy to get started.

Location Services - Location is getting big. Services like FourSquare and others have force the big players into the game like Facebook, Twitter, and Google. Google has already integrated Buzz into the mobile experience – making that Google Local Listing we mentioned above even more important.

Social - It’s free and easy to set up profiles on social websites. Set them up and use them as a content outposts while building relationships and having conversations – you know how that goes. The point is to be active on these networks and talk to people who are local – because when people need that plumber, for example, they know to contact you. (if you are a plumber, of course)

Monitor Local Opportunities – People on Twitter are talking about how they are going tile shopping and need their driveway cleared of snow. If you are listening – those become sales opportunities. Keep your ears to the ground where your customers live online. They’ll tell you what they want and when they want it.

Craigslist – I hired a guy of Craigslist to come plow my driveway during one of the many winter storms we have had in Iowa this year. He had a listing with an email address and a phone number. Oh – and he answered the email right away. That was a conversion from Craigslist for him. Sometimes during events like storms it’s a great place to be found for the casual browser or intent searcher.

Do you have any questions on our local web strategy sample? Is there something we should add that we missed? Let us know in the comments or jump into the forums!

Internet Video Marketing Extends Marketing Arm

Using the internet and social networking sites is a fantastic way to market a business of any size today. Most young people today are expecting to see a Facebook fan page for businesses they work with. It’s really not surprising at all. Next, there’s internet video marketing. Using videos on the internet is so powerful, because the human mind reacts differently to videos than text. Videos more or less tell a story, and the human brain is very receptive to that, so videos are more effective in getting the human mind to respond positively.

Because of how well the mind responds to internet video marketing, its popularity is growing exponentially in today’s personal and business world. Websites like YouTube have made it incredibly easy and simple to share a video online and also to upload a video from your own camera. Making your company seem more down to earth by offering helpful information in a format that the brain can grab and understand is very powerful indeed. Tell your company’s story while helping your potential clientele with a topic that relates to your product or service.

Putting a face to your business’ name is another good part of internet video marketing. When you put some of your people online speaking to the potential or current clientele, it lets them see that you are real people, with real faces and names, not just some big corporate company who doesn’t care. It gives you some confidence to your customers, and it lets them trust you more easily. When they can see that you are real, and that you are down to earth and sincere, they are more likely to trust you. Today’s world is full of shady characters, so let them see who you really are.

So, in short, tell them a story with video. Videos are powerful because the human mind loves a story! Internet video marketing is one of the most viral and powerful forces in the world of business today, so you absolutely do not want to miss out on this! Make this form of marketing another arm for your business and its ability to reach out to people that you haven’t been able to reach before. Put your face to your name and let them see that they should want to work with you. Let social networking and videos work to your advantage and get ahead in your industry!

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