Make sure you don’t loose sales from these situations:

Personalised searches

In Dec 09 Google introduced personalised search which examines your search history and ‘adjusts’ your search results accordingly. Read more here: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/personalized-search-for-everyone.html

Are you really ranking that well ?

While the concept of personalised search sounds great, there are a couple of pitfalls you should be aware of.

To explain lets say you’ve been monitoring your website ranking by occasionally searching for it. Google’s personalised search will kick in and display your site  with a higher rank, but just for you. Meanwhile everyone else including your prospective clients will see (or may not see) the site in its real ranking position which may be way down the list and out of sight  :(

In your personalised search induced naivety you’ll believe your site is doing real well, but actually it might be doing really, really bad!

A suggested solution
If you do monitor your site’s ranking, (and I commend you for doing this!) then use your browsers ‘stealth mode’ to check rankings  and see what the rest of the internet sees.

Most browsers have a stealth mode but it can be a bit hard to find so here’s some clues:

• Internet Explorer 8 calls it ‘In private Filtering’ Ctrl Shift F
• FireFox calls it ‘Private Browsing’ Ctrl Shift P
• Chrome calls it ‘Incognito’ Ctrl Shift N
• Safari calls it ‘Private Browsing’

How much does Google know about you?
The other way that your search results might differ from what your clients see, is when you are signed into your Google ID.
Google may  skew results based on info stored  in your Google ID.

The solution here is to log out of your Google ID, or again use your browser’s stealth mode.

Invisible Flash

Apple iPhones and iPads are becoming increasingly popular internet devices. Sites I monitor have up to 6% of visitors arriving on their iPhones and I suspect iPad usage will explode soon to take this total number much higher.

Flash is used to provide visual interest in websites, and is important for emotional based sales i.e. selling products and services that make us feel good. Flash is also good at attracting attention.

As any iDevice devotee will tell you, iPhones & iPads don’t display Adobe Flash.

Any Flash in your website looks like a gapping black hole to these visitors. There’s no emotional sales value, it looks ugly; even defiled and predictably undermines your website’s ability to engage iDevice visitors .

Read what Apple has to say about Flash and why they are unlikely to ever support it.  http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

What does this mean for your business website?
David Radzikiewicz from A7 Designs suggests, split your web presence over two sites; your traditional site and then a mobile visitor site. Visitors are automatically sent to the best site for their internet device by coding in the site.

If your target market is likely to visit using an iDevice then take action soon.

Display Standards

The last and ongoing display anomaly relates to web design standards. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has a set of technical standards for websites to ensure they all display OK, but many  sites don’t comply.

Display compatibility is complex as your website must be displayed faithfully in the plethora of browsers each with multiple software versions. As context; in the last 30 days, 52 different browsers/browser versions visited just one clients’ site.

This is has been further exacerbated by browsers that didn’t comply with the W3C standards (Microsoft being one of the worst offenders), and as a result W3C has lost relevance for some frustrated Web Developers.

Who cares about standards, I just want sales!
Fortunately there are typically few display issues for non-compliant websites, but occasionally the outcomes can be catastrophic sales-wise:

• Menus don’t work properly, so the visitor can’t access product information or sales pages.
• Product information is displayed completely off the screen and unable to be read.
• Search engine spiders are unable to navigate the site, so products don’t feature in search results.
• Text and/or images are displayed over the top of other content making it impossible to read

These are all excellent sales preventers and something I’m sure you dont want in your site.

Is my site W3C compliant ?
Fortunately W3C has an easy to use validation tool that you can check each page in your website for compliance. http://validator.w3.org/

I suggest you discuss any W3C errors your find with your Web Dev as some are trivial and might cost you a lot to achieve very little.

http://www.browsershots.org/ is also an excellent free resource to see how your site looks in a wide range of other browsers.  It also interesting just see see how many there are out there…

Where to from here

• Monitor the traffic in your site
  I strongly recommend Google Analytics. Its free and world class.
• Use Analytics to check your website’s visitor clickstreams to see if they are doing what you want them to do. If not, take action.
• Use Analytics to identify then check correct display for the more popular browsers used to access your site.
• Check the main pages in your site for W3C compliance

Summary

Dont assume that everyone sees the same as you online. Your Clients may have a very difference experience, and its their reality that determines your online sales success.

This blog is based on the Succinct Update newsletter from July 2010.
You can subscribe directly to our newsletter here

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Not surprisingly, a similar technique also applies to online advertising, and is also equally effective in engaging the searcher.

In my experience a ‘reflective ad’ will typically outperform even the most creative text ad.

Building a reflective ad

To build  a reflective AdWords ad we are going to use Google AdWord’s  Keyword Insertion capability to reflect the searchers term back at them.

Keyword insertion is a special ad statement {Keyword}  that substitutes a  searched term into the ad text. This can be added into your ad copy, the display URL or even the destination URL

When the ad is operating, the searcher sees their own search term where ever {keyword} appears in your ad eg assume the searched term was premium widgets

Practical reflective ads

All good so far, but ad text lengths still apply, so if your searcher enters a long term, your ad could be too long, so keyword insertion provides an alternative value should this occur.

So in this example, a long search term would end up looking like this:

Proper case

A final refinement with the Keyword Insert is it ability to change the case of the original search query. This subtle but important presentation refinement is set by the capitalisation used in the keyword command word itself viz:

Note that AdWords Capitalisation rules also apply which dictate there should be no excessive capitalisation

More information on Keyword Insertion is available here: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=74996

So, set up a reflect ad in your campaigns, and test my theory that they will outperform your other ads.

Ill be interested to hear your results

Cheers
Pete

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The ‘issue’ only arises after the clients engage an internet marketer, who will want to access the site’s Analytics information to better understand the website’s history and traffic characteristics.

Analytics enthusiasts like myself will refine the Analytics settings for improved reporting, specific investigations etc which requires Admin access, and this is where the problem emerges.

Granting Analytics Admin to enable these refinements, also provides access to all profiles;
ie the web dev’s others client’s in that Analytics account.

This is not desirable from either the web dev or the internet marketer’s perspective, and as a result admin rights are not typically granted. This in turn impedes the internet marketer’s ability to deliver services.

Solutions
A simplistic approach is to create a new Analytics account for the client and abandon the web dev’s profile; however this effectively means losing historical web traffic data.

My preferred approach is to use two Analytics accounts in tandem:

• Retain the original account with the client/Internet marketer having read only access
• Create an additional Analytics account that is ‘owned’ by the client, with admin rights granted to the internet marketer.
  Analytics provides the ability to feed web tracking data simultaneously to two independent Analytics accounts – handy hey!

This approach:

• Preserves the website history so it is accessible by all interested parties (web dev, client & internet marketer)
• Places the ownership of web traffic data back with the client (where it should be!) This allows the client to retain their internet statistics even if they move to another web dev or internet marketer.

Checking your Analytics account
You can readily determine if the Analytics ‘account’ on your site is one of many sub-accounts by inspecting the UA number which looks similar to “UA-628649-1″ .

The final section (-1 in this case) indicates the Analytics profile number.
If the profile number is larger than the number of websites you have (eg 15) , then it is likely this is your web devs Analytics account and you are actually one of many profiles or sub-accounts within it.

Summary
In summary web traffic data is an important piece of data about your businesses, so I recommend that you take control of it and ensure you ‘own’ it.

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How can you get this extended SERP showing on your site ?

Sadly, as mere mortals we don’t have the option to ask for these extended SERPs (Google calls them Sitelinks)
Google decides if it will display Sitelinks with the SERP, but it seem to be based on the site home page having a Google PageRank of 5 or more and the search keyword very relevant to the site

For example the Medibank Private site has a PageRank is 7 and a search of medibank private is as you could imagine very relevant hence a Google search result displays:

It is possible to use Google WebMasters Tools to remove selected Sitelinks

So if your site has a PageRank of 5+ then highly relevant searches may bring up a SERP with Sitelinks

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In supermarkets we see these as ‘specials’; and we get bombarded with them in TV advertising, so consider using a campaigning strategy to promote your business via your website.

Ideally a campaign will add value for your clients, while not costing you much if anything e.g.

• Seasonal products or services
• Launching a new product
• Engaging a new client segment
• Bundling to create a larger sale
• etc

These are all opportunities to engage and entice your clients. Try to be creative, but avoid discounting! Here’s a few tips to get you started with your online campaigning.

Paid search for campaigns
Paid search is ideal for campaigning because it is quick to deploy and can be highly targeted. Google AdWords is the most popular paid search system because of Google’s absolute domination of search in Australia.

If you want to reach Australian women 25-34 years; Small business owners based in Adelaide or South Australians with interests in a particular hobby or indeed almost any other target segment, AdWords will do this for you much cheaper than traditional marketing mediums.

The Google Keywords Tool lets you select keywords and you can add up to 2,000 into AdWords based on your target and budget.
Control your Google AdWords expenditure with a daily click budget.
If you have multiple segments then setup multiple Ad Groups for improved targeting, and get campaigning almost straight away.

Organic search campaigning
Using organic search for campaigning can challenging, but ultimately more rewarding. It is rare these days to find keywords that are not already being targeted and competitive keywords take months of lead time to gain appropriate ranking.

A good PageRank on your home page really helps so continue collecting links to your site.
There is an inherent delay from adding your campaign content to it being digested by Google so you can’t rely on attracting campaign related searches immediately. Because of this I suggest starting with a teaser on your home page linked to the campaign page.

If you have recurring or seasonal campaigns, leave the related pages active in your site rather than removing them. This allows search engines to index the page and you to cultivate links to improve its ranking ready for the critical period.
Prepare your site early for upcoming seasons and then lure search engines to update your new content by submitting your XML Sitemap.

Measuring your campaign success
As always, I recommend tracking your campaign with Analytics.
When there are no related visitors then you need to revisit how you are trying to attract them.

If you do generate campaign traffic, but no sales don’t be disheartened. Analytics can track visitor activity trends (i.e. click streams) through your website, which is effectively their feedback on your offer.

Click stream analysis is the online alternative to focus groups, only your visitors tell you what they think with mouse clicks. Modify your offer and try again.
Mike Moran’s book title says it all: Do it wrong quickly

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In a recent meeting a debate arose after I said that Google doesn’t use the keyword metatag. I was challenged on this point by someone confidently asserting that Google is indeed using the keyword metatag once again. He inferred that any suggestion that they weren’t was simply uninformed.

We agreed to disagree. The customer was confused. My creditability was compromised.

I blogged about the keyword metatag back in 2008. More recently even Google’s Matt Cutts once again debunked this urban myth, but the mighty keyword metatags’ magic powers will continue to persist…

My point is that there is so much SEO mis-information that the sheer mass generates its own pseudo-creditability much along the lines of …Oh yeah that must be true because I heard it the other day….

Metatag Basics
A metatag is a special place inside the web page HTML code that can store variables for example the Description meta tag which is used in SERPs

The keyword meta tag is one of a number of common HTML metatags, traditionally used to store a string of words that represent the content on that page.

Its use has persisted, particularly in Content Management Systems where editors are invited to add ‘search words’ etc that are then published into the keyword metatag by the CMS.

The keyword metatag was identified as being open to abuse around 2002, and no longer used by Google from that time and I suspect by many other search engines for the same reason.

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Newsletters, brochures, annual reports etc. in fact anything you can print or scan you can turn into a PDF document and have in your website.

Visitors to your site can download the free PDF viewer from Adobe (and others) to have your document faithful represented on their browser independent of operating system and browser differences.

Of course you need to link the PDF to your menu or content so visitors and search engines can reach it. Search engines? Yes! They treat a PDF as if it’s another page in your website.

PDFs are a great way to increase the amount of content on a key subject to support search marketing efforts, not to mention the benefit of providing additional sales and product information etc that prospective clients can read to support their decision to purchase from you.

Search engines can’t see inside a PDF
This is an urban myth about PDFs that we really need to bust.
Google has been indexing text content and metatags inside PDFs since 2001

Google cant read images inside PDFs
Another myth busted. In fact in Oct 2008 Google announced that they could OCR (Optical Character Recognition) PDF images. That means they can turn images inside of PDFs into indexable text.

Where are your PDFs ?
Use this Google search to find PDF documents in your website:

inurl:pdf

for example inurl:pdf www.succinctideas.com.au

The INURL search operator tells Google to restrict search results to a particular document type. Read more about Google’s inurl: search operator

Statics show that visitors will more readily open another page in your website rather than open a PDF so keep a balance of content types.

So PDFs really are quite genuine content, engaging sales visitors and search engines!

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This is one of a series of YouTube videos that clarify important information about how Google works, because frankly there is a lot of mis-information out there.

To catch more of Matt Cutts and other Googlers on YourTube go to the GoogleWebmasterHelp channel

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The content changes to reflect the evolution in your business; your offerings, even your target clients. But sometimes changes can quite innocently have a catastrophic impact on your website’s sales effectiveness.

Let’s examine which changes to your site can impact its sales effectiveness:

Change a few words…
As innocent as changing a few words sounds, it can alter the page’s “keyword profile” – signature text that a search engine sees for the site / page.

The keyword profile correlates with the searches that your site will rank for. If your edits change the keyword profile sufficiently that the site is no long presenting to searches that present prospective clients, then there is a genuine possibility of impact on sales.

Keyword profile is not something to be casually fiddled with.

Change a filename or directory
If you completely rehash your site then the individual page file names or even directories are likely to change.

Generally this is not a problem unless of course, you’re lucky enough to have an inbound link to that page. Suddenly your luck changes because the inbound link doesn’t connect to your site anymore which has a number of potenial consequences including:

Lost referral visitors
A good link would have brought visitors to your site, but not anymore! You’ve unknowingly slammed the door shut on those prospective clients. Goodbye sales.
If you’ve got Analytics at elast you’ll know exactly how many referrals you just lost

PageRank
Google’s quality score PageRank is directly related to inbound links.
If you loose one or more links it may negatively impact your PageRank which in turn will loose ranking in Google.

The worst thing about PageRank changes is that they happen so infrequently that often its difficult to correlate PageRank changes with the actual cause. The othe rbad thing is that they take a long time to recover from too!

Trying to play catch up on lost Googel PageRank is an unpleasant and financially painful experience.

Keyword profile
Page file & directory names and link tags all have influence on your keyword profile so you may have unknowing skewed your website’s keyword profile further.

Damage control
Well it’s not all bad news; there are a few things you can do to be prepared and an important part of that is being aware of the risks and managing them appropriately.

Which pages rank?
Understanding which pages in your site actually rank and what keywords they rank for is extremely important in these situations.

Typically your home page will rank highest because it normally has the best PageRank, but often the page that attracts prospective clients is another page altogether! I kid you not!

Google a range of keywords you think clients will use and see which pages rank for each keyword.
Chances are they will be different pages in your site.

If you are really organised you’ll have Google Analytics installed and it’s a no-brainer – you can see your best perofming keywrods and then just check their ranking.

The strategy here is to preserve the ranking pages at all cost; so think twice before modifying them.
Get advice from a professional rather than compromising your sales.

Finding your inbound links
There are several methods but here’s a couple:

• The link: command in Google
  i.e. in the Google search bar type link:<your website address>
  Note that Link: is quick but not always comprehensive.
• Google Webmasters Tools
  This environment allows you to see and set characteristics about your website in Google’s infrastructure. You need a website developer or an internet marketer to commission
  Google Webmasters Tools for you.
  You can then download a detailed link showing all inbound links and their landing page in your site.
  This is a more authoritive approach being straight from the horse’s mouth.

Protecting inbound links
Now you’ve identified your links get your web developer to set redirects from the linked pages to its replacement page.

A 301 redirect will preserve your valuable PageRank from the incoming link and also automatically redirect incoming visitors to the right page so they can still buy from you.

In summary:
Don’t be reckless about making major changes if your site performs well.
Having access to information and expertise can reduce the impact of changes
If your site doesn’t perform well then you probably need to make changes anyway!

Assign your website a sales budget
Treat your website like a sales person. Set a budget and demand results.
Investigate why if it fails to meet the budget. Bang the table. Make it happen!

This artcle was originally published in the Succinct Update Newsletter Dec 08

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Including the Content Network in your online advertising; and particularly understanding how to optimise this medium is becoming an important aspect of a successful online campaign.

The statistics from Google are staggering:

• More than 6 billion ad impressions (i.e. displays) per day globally
• Reaching 80% of internet users.

What is the Content Network ?

The Content Network is Google’s term for the burgeoning network of websites that show Google AdWords ads as a form of income. Look for the Ads by Google label

If visitors to their site click on an ad, Google pays a small commission.

AdSense is the Google product that allows website owners to manage the ads they show on their website, which basically connects your ads with keywords nominated by the Content Network participant.

This means that your ads are displayed in ‘on topic’ sites and hence more likely to attract a click (which is their objective) which in turn is more likely to be a sale (which is your objective).

This anonymous sales collaboration is much like affiliate marketing.

Google have just announced this significant study on Content Network performance which reveals some very telling information about the value of Content Network.

Google are also continuing to provide new capabilities for managing and promoting Content Network advertisements; including the Display Ad Builder.

If your business is using AdWords paid search  in any of its many re-badged forms* you really should examine this report.

If your AdWords service provider is not using the Content Network for your online advertising you are missing out.

* Several online marketing organizations re-badge Google AdWords
For example the Sensis Click Manager product contains paid search services from various sources in including AdWords.

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