If your company has a focus on improving its search engine optimization, then you should speak with us about SEOtool and the unmatched intelligence and SEO metrics it can uncover for your website(s). We’re biased, but we strongly believe there is not a single web-based platform that can deliver the amount of insight and depth that SEOtool provides to both in-house SEO teams, agencies and web development firms.
If you’ve not seen the video from Socialnomics yet, titled “Social Media Revolution”, then you need to carve out 5 minutes to watch and enjoy! If you or your team are trying to get buy-in & more budget, from upper management, for social media content marketing, please share the below video. You can also speak with a New Media Account Executive here at TDM to learn more about solutions, strategies and ways to greatly leverage the power of social media and search optimization.
Channel Advisor just released its bi-annual study titled “How Consumers Shop Online”. As an industry leader in shopping comparison engines & product feeds, CA knows a thing or two about consumer shopping trends for the advertiser’s they serve. The study comprised 850+ individuals in nearly 30 states, ages 18-65 years old. To access the full report, click here.
Here are some key takeaways for online retailers to strongly consider as they plan for the Holiday Shopping season and into the future:
“81 percent of consumers begin their product searches with Google and 11 percent begin with Yahoo”
“Consumers are using more sophisticated, specific searches to seek out the exact products and deals they want. As a sign of this trend, Google recently reported an eight percent increase in searches comprised of three words or more.“
“Free shipping, peer reviews/ratings, free returns and the ability to view products from multiple angles are the most influential purchase drivers on
a retailer’s storefront”
Advertisers are using a diversified mix of shopping comparison engines to help promote their brands and other primary traffic sources such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, Email marketing, etc. Below is a breakdown of where CA customers are investing in comparison engines:
As this study indicates, search engines continue to lead the way for online retailers as a source of traffic, product research & comparison, finding deals and finding new brands. Of that source, search optimization should continue to be a focal point for retailers as it’s the greatest area for improvement, yields the best ROI and provides the longest term impact. It is important that eTailers consider ways to sell more through a multi-channel approach such as shopping comparison engines, affiliate marketing, email marketing, etc. Use some of this proven information as outlined above to plan your efforts for the holidays & going into 2010.
A recent study by PPC management firm EngineReady presents alot of great data for retailers to consider regarding order sizes, conversions & other purchase metrics important to eCommerce. The study was summarized by InternetRetailer, which can be found here.
The problem with this study, as many studies & surveys in the online marketing industry, is that it is SKEWED to the target audience. Below are some reasons why the study is wrong in its claim that PPC is more likely to bring buyers than SEO.
Key findings from the study included:
The conversion rate from paid search is 2.03% versus 1.26% from organic search, according to the study, which is based on traffic to 26 e-retail sites in the 12-month period that ended June 30.
Paid search visitors bought the most, with an average order value of $117.06 versus $109.27 for those coming from other sites, $106.64 for visitors from organic search and $95.29 from direct referrals, such as from a bookmark or direct entry of a URL.
The known trends (SEO vs PPC) from many other industry studies that have been overlooked in this study, thus skewing the claim that PPC can bring more buyers, include:
MORE visitors are reached through SEO as consumers are significantly more likely to click on organic listings over PPC listings (recent Hubspot researched showed 75% of clicks are to SEO listings, 25% to PPC ads)
Due to the sheer volume of traffic delivered through organic search, odds are the conversion rate will decrease. SEO delivers the masses (3-4X reach of PPC) — so conversion rates logically would be somewhat less.
PPC will have a higher conversion rate due to the sophistication of landing pages purely for PPC. As a holistic strategy, SEO can’t really operate with depth of landing page refinement that PPC can.
In aggregate, SEO typically has higher ROI due to rising PPC costs and the fact that SEO clicks are “free”. Granted, you do pay a retainer fee for SEO services to get you & keep you ranked. (SEOMoz study found that 88% of budgets go to PPC, while 12% go to SEO). Net-net, what’s the better ROI?
PPC is the equivalent of renting a house. SEO is like owning a house. The investments in SEO have significantly stronger long-term benefit than PPC.
At the end of the day, PPC has tremendous value for advertisers, and is a powerful mechanism when combined with successful SEO. The study discussed here does have useful findings, but it’s missing important data for eCommerce decision makers. When one looks at the complete reach of SEO, cost-analysis and long-term value —- the benefits of a well run SEO campaign outperform PPC and in sum, bring more buyers.
Microsoft & Yahoo have announced a 10-year partnership to take on Google and its search engine market share dominance. For those companies keenly interested in successes in organic search, this announcement states that Bing’s search engine will power results for Yahoo Sites. How is your website ranking in Bing for your most important keywords, themes & topics? It’s about to be reflected in Yahoo.com organic listings, so plan accordingly!
While Google is still king of the mountain in terms of search engine market share (65%), one can reasonably conclude that Bing’s search engine will now reach approximately 28% of US search engine users! This is derived from June 2009 comScore numbers where Yahoo garnered 19.6% and MSFT 8.4%, of the US search engine market. With the continued advertising push by MSFT for Bing.com on prime-time television and other media outlets, these numbers could keep rising as most feedback has been solid for the Bing ‘experience’. It’s obvious Yahoo likes their advancements!
Online marketers who are experiencing success in Bing.com, with mediocre results in Yahoo, should have an added level of excitement and anticipation with these latest announcements. In contrast, if you’re “off the grid” in Bing.com, you might want to get your act together sooner than later as Yahoo results are about to experience quite the makeover —- which sounds best, “BingHoo” or “YaBing”? ;-) Stay tuned for more to come on this partnership or contact TDM’s new media marketing staff with any questions and how this affects your website’s future.
For the past few months, there have been strong signals that a company’s “brand” is becoming an indicator to Google’s algorithms in determining organic rankings. There was a great deal of chatter back in late-February about this topic within the SEO industry. If this concept is news to you and your company, then you need to take some time to consider how your website is impacted. There is a solid article over at SEW about this very topic and how businesses (small & large) are successfully “branding” themselves online and gaining benefit in higher search engine rankings.
A couple of points web-driven businesses should recognize with SEO-driven branding:
Offline Branding, as a marketing strategy, is a concept many companies shy away from because it lacks immediate results, is very difficult to measure, and often falls far down the priority list as a “want” and not a “need”
Online Branding, as it relates to search engine rankings, is a much more justifiable approach when one considers costs, time investment, resources, measurement, and channels to proliferate a brand.
Practical and proven methods to conduct “Online Branding” include but are not limited to:
+ Blogging
+ Community & Industry Participation
+ Press Release Marketing & Optimization
+ Social Media Content Creation
+ Link Building through Strategic Outreach
“All of these help you gain reach and frequency. Most importantly, you’ll reach those who are interested in (and searching for) your products and services.”
Create great content (on-site & off-site) that educates your audience and strategically links back to your most relevant website pages and you’ll see positive progress. As this content is syndicated and viewed by engaged audiences, you will naturally build “votes” through mentions and natural backlinks.
As we commonly say, Social Media Marketing is converging with Search Engine Optimization. This is proof positive in the Branding component that continues to influence some of the organic search results. We are clearly seeing this in the movement of our client’s rankings, campaigns and success. Those small, mid-size and large brands who embrace the shifting landscape (as is always the case in organic search) and stay ahead of curve, will continue to thrive in ultra-competitive environments.
CollegeHumor.com has a funny video on the new advancements with Bing.com and how it is revolutionizing search for consumers!
Actually Bing does have some nice usability features and is quite an improvement over it’s predecessor, Live.com. Will be interesting to see if MSFT’s advertising and branding campaigns can keep Bing more top-of-mind for searchers in an attempt to swipe some marketshare from Google & Yahoo! Surprising that they have not added in a sound component when you “Bing!” — like a bell at a front desk.
When blogging, every person, company or entity wants to establish and preserve it’s own “voice”. There are obviously many blog writing, blog marketing and branding strategies for a myriad of reasons personal & business reasons. When it comes to writing posts that hit the heart of a topic and may be critically important for increased exposure and SE friendliness, bloggers rarely think about keyword research and search engines.
Well, Wordtracker put its hat in the firefox plug ins game — and it’s fantastic! You can quickly build a keyword list of important terms to include in your post. It’s simply a blog writing “insurance policy” and valuable tool for those posts you really want to optimize for search engines. Based on the topic you want to cover, simply enter some important keywords and start “adding” chosen keywords to your line-up of keywords. This can become a great tool in a bloggers aresenal and regular daily practices. If you have any thoughts or early experiences to share, please feel free to! Hat-tip to SEOBook.
Then just start blogging. When you’re finished with your post, then go back and spot check the # of times you’ve used these keywords. To show this in action, I’ve screenshot how this tool is tracking this current blog post as I type. Here comes a Before & After.
BEFORE
Now just start adding keywords into your blog post once it’s finished — here’s a simple bullet point list to show the tool in action:
keyword research
seo services
free wordtracker tool, free wordtracker tool
keyword reserach
seo services
AFTER screenshot on keyword mentions is below. We’re not suggesting you just bullet point keywords to get them in a post, but for the sake of this example, you can see the increase real-time as you add important keywords (that get search traffic) into your blog posts (and at your own discretion).
Many of you have already seen this alert from Facebook, but we wanted to be 100% certain that all clients working with or considering to work with Triangle Direct Media had advance notice of a very important Facebook Alert:
Starting on Saturday, June 13th, at 12:01am, you’ll be able to choose a username for your Facebook account to easily direct friends, family, and coworkers to your profile.
This opportunity is great for individuals, companies and groups that have established Facebook accounts. Specifically, odds are that a “vanity”, more personalized Facebook URL will lead to increased Google rankings for “branded” search terms. As reputation management continues to grow in popularity and as a pro-active strategy for companies seeking to control the first 10 organic results in Google — this seems to be a “layup”.
Fortunately, Facebook has rigid guidelines preventing “name squatting”, which has given Twitter a blackeye in recent months but securing these new, vanity usernames is on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Shar VanBoskirk and Forrester have released a new report called “Interactive Marketing Channels to Watch in 2009″. MarketingPilgrim served a great chart (see below) showing 10 Interactive categories and where US budgets are currently spent and will be spent over the next 12+ months. The highest growth category over the next 12 months is “Created Social Media” (blogs, podcasts, content, widgets, etc). The top 3 categories where monies are currently invested in US marketing and will continue to be over the next 12+ months are:
Email marketing
SEO
Created Social Media
Over the past 9 years in Internet/Search/Social Marketing, companies have consistently ramped up their online marketing efforts starting in June & July for the last half of the year. Because of the cost effectiveness, reach & measurable ROI – more and more traditional dollars are shifting online (fueled by current economic woes). Of those spending money online, experienced marketers are investing into SEO & Content-drive “Created Social Media”. IS YOUR COMPANY ACTIVELY IN THE GAME IN IT’S OWN INDUSTRY?
If you’re trying to champion the cause for these services in your company, contact TDM to find out how you can engage and fire up your “Created Social Media” & SEO successes!
US Interative Marketing Spending 2009 Forrester Report
A recent study by PPC management firm EngineReady presents alot of great data for retailers to consider regarding order sizes, conversions & other purchase metrics important to eCommerce. The study was summarized by InternetRetailer, which can be found 
Microsoft & Yahoo have 
For the past few months, there have been strong signals that a company’s “brand” is becoming an indicator to Google’s algorithms in determining organic rankings. There was a great deal of chatter back in late-
Many of you have already seen this alert from Facebook, but we wanted to be 100% certain that all clients working with or considering to work with 
