Using Search Engines to Your Advantage – Part 2

It’s All About Quality

SEM, SEO, PPC, CPC – the list of acronyms is seemingly endless. An entire sub-industry has formed to serve businesses who want to use search engines to drive traffic to their websites with the hopes of increasing their profits.

Google is the undisputed king. Google currently commands about 80% of the market share because of one simple fact:

Google returns the highest quality websites back for any search conducted.

Google has a definite cult-like following much like Apple does, but loyalty formed after Google clearly outperformed its competitors for years on end. It is false to assume that people are loyal to a free service for any other reason. Regardless of what any Search Engine Marketing business tells you, Google’s business and the success they have achieved are due to their quality. Preserving the quality of their results is the cornerstone of their business. If your site does not meet their established criteria, you will not rank higher naturally than one that does – despite what any quick-talking salesperson tells you.

Any company that employs tricks to get your website to gain ranking is not looking out for your business’ best interests. By cheating the system, they are damaging Google’s business and it is only a matter of time before Google catches on. Remember, Google has infinitely more resources than you do and will continually refine their algorithm to account for sites using gimmicks to attain a higher ranking. Their business demands that they continually produce the best quality for every inquiry coming their way. Always keep that in mind. That’s what this all comes down to.

Natural Ranking Vs. Sponsored Ranking

There are 2 different ways your site can be ranked in any major search engine:

Naturally and Sponsored.

Natural ranking or Organic ranking is just like it sounds. Google, Yahoo, Dogpile, MSN, whoever, has listed your site based on its determination of your website’s quality. The more valuable your site is the closer to the top it will be. As discussed in Part 1 of this series, this is equivalent to the NY Times writing about your business on their own as opposed to paying to be included through advertisements. The power of ranking naturally is immense. Just as most people will visit a restaurant after reading a two page spread about it in a newspaper, the same is true online.

The investment in time and resources required to rank well naturally fluctuates depending on the competitiveness of your industry and more specifically on the keywords/phrases you want to rank for. The heavier the competition, the harder it is going to be to move above them. But the value derived from ranking in the top 5 for effective key terms is incredible and can continue to pay dividends even as your PPC advertising budget dries up. Imagine if the article written about your business in the NY Times lasted day after day, month after month. Imagine if it appeared every time someone searched for the type of food you served or the type of products you sell. This is what it means to rank well naturally.

I always explain to my clients the value of ranking well naturally because it is something I strongly believe in, however it is not always the most effective way to close sales. From a conversion or ROI standpoint, you want to aim for the most relevance to what a user is looking for. If a prospect searches for “Santa Monica Surf Lessons” and finds your website in the natural rankings, but then discovers that your business is located in Santa Cruz, that prospect is most likely going to start their search over. In other words, you may get substantial traffic, but if there is discrepancy between what a user is looking for and what you actually offer, your conversion rate is going to be low.

Either way, you’ve increased the awareness of your business and made an impression on that visitor, but you might not have sold anything.

The Importance of Sponsored Ads

While Google’s natural rankings are not specifically set-up to help you close a sale, their paid advertising campaigns are. A Pay Per Click or Cost Per Click campaign puts (almost all) of the controls in your hands, so that you can dictate the keyword phrases you want to target, the regions you want to cover, the time of day you want your campaign to run, the verbiage on your ad, the web-page a user will be taken to when they click on your ad, and to some extent, the placement of your ad.

Implementing a CPC campaign enables you to quickly launch yourself to the top of a search engine. This can be critical if you have a time-sensitive product or service. For example, if you have a product or discount you want to offer for the Christmas Holiday, time is of the essence and relevance is key. You can use a CPC campaign to begin ranking for key terms that match what your demographic is searching for (but your site is not ranking for naturally) and then send visitors to the web-page of your choice.

One of the advantages of a PPC campaign is that you can link your ad to the web-page of your choice, meaning you can send a user directly to the order page of the product they searched for rather than the page Google has deemed the best and most relevant. In addition, a PPC campaign offers you the flexibility to design highly relevant, effective pages that relate specifically to the term that brought the user there. These specialized pages are commonly referred to as Landing Pages and their sole purpose is to convert your traffic into paying customers. All of the images, verbiage, functionality, prices, etc. can be tailored to the exact product or service you are offering. You can implement a PPC campaign with corresponding landing pages at strategic times during the year, or you can run multiple campaigns simultaneously that appeal to different demographics. You can run different campaigns consecutively or only use them during down times in the year. The options are obviously numerous, which is why we recommend working with a professional to help you develop the right overall strategy, one that is tailored specifically to your business, budget and goals.

Pay Per Click AND Natural Ranking

More often than not, the answer for most businesses is to use both tactics in conjunction with one another. A PPC campaign can bring you instant, highly targeted traffic and will allow you to refine your ad in real time so you can maximize the results you are getting. Ranking naturally will bring you a constant stream of traffic that you do not need to subsidize by paying monthly for them and is a long term, but less specific solution. The right mix of both SEO and PPC will help generate sales. Each approach has its strengths and weaknesses and subtleties.

We advise you work with an expert in the field of Search Engine Marketing (SEM). In a later article, we’ll outline how to find a good SEM company and what to be careful of, but in the meantime, please feel free to contact us with any questions or sends us the names of companies you have worked with in the past. We would love to make that information known to our readers.

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Quick Tips: Improving Conversion Rates – Tip 3

Marketing consistency.

The rate at which people find your site and take the leap of faith of contacting or buying from you is based highly on the trust they place in your company. Since you are not standing before them, pleading your case, the vibe your site gives off coupled with your marketing consistency is one of your biggest assets in building trust.

By marketing consistency I mean maintaining continuity between what you are advertising and the actual product or service you are selling. While misleading visitors with deceptive verbiage in an ad might cause a spike in traffic, it is ultimately ineffective because you have failed to deliver on the promises that initially piqued your visitor’s interest. Although they have come to your site, they are likely leaving with a negative impression and future sales could be jeopardized.

Choose the words in your ad carefully, being mindful of their context and implications and the impression the imagery your advertising creates. Every aspect of your ad should be in line with what you are actually selling. Apple’s stock fell 5% the other day because of a rumor claiming that their new laptops would be sold at $800, a lower price point than any of their other models thus far. When CEO Steve Jobs corrected the rumor at the unveiling of the laptops and announced that prices would start at almost $500 more, the reaction was less than enthusiastic. Even though Apple did not deceive anyone in any way, the situation reveals the importance consumers place on expectations, regardless of how they are created.

Advertising something remarkable and then being able to deliver it is a proven way to generate sales and increase the effectiveness of your site, build customer loyalty and create consumer-driven buzz.

For more on this subject, I recommend reading The Anonymous Ad Guy’s insightful article that covers this principle and many others in more detail.

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Quick Tips: Improving Conversion Rates – Tip 2

Less is More

There is one constant mistake businesses large and small make that continually reduces the effectiveness of their websites:

Their websites are about too much.

As hard as it may be to swallow, people are only visiting your website for a small number of reasons. At Blue Sky Online, our clients come to us to improve the conversion rates of their websites, not in search of religious advice, marriage counseling or an exercise regimen. And although I’m confident that we can help our clients in a variety of areas, our business and website are only built around one:

Helping our clients make their websites more effective.

So where do you start?

The home page!

• Does the design showcase the primary reason people are visiting the site?
• Does the design highlight the advantages of doing business with you versus a competitor?
• Does the feel of the site promote a sense of professionalism, authority and trustworthiness?
• Does the functionality engage your site’s visitors?
• Does your site identify and promote the core products that propel your business?
• Is it easy to purchase / get in contact with you?
• What is unnecessary? What can be removed / reorganized?

Time and time again, companies dilute their greatest strength by trying to be everything to everyone but overlook the fact that in doing so, they fail to be anything to anyone. It is vital you find your place online as you have likely done in the brick and mortar world.

“Do only what you are best at.” – Raymond Aaron

Guidelines to Streamline Your Website:

1. Limit the different sections your site has, restricting them to just your core business; everything else is a distraction.
2. Make the navigation of your site self-explanatory, straight-forward and clean. Use drop down menus to organize extensive content more effectively. Group the navigation together rather than having multiple sets of buttons / links.
3. Design the site to immediately address the concerns a prospect has about your product / service / company. Any questions you continually receive from your customers add to a Frequently Asked Question page that is easily accessible and read.
4. Use imagery instead of lengthy explanations whenever possible. A picture is worth at least 2,000 words online.
5. At every point where you are providing information, give the user an exit to purchase your product / service or contact you immediately.
6. Keep your site simple. If a chat, blog, RSS feed or MySpace pages does not directly help you sell more, consider eliminating it even if it reduces your popularity among Web 2.0 “gurus”

The underlining concept is a simple one: find the simplest, most direct solution to the problem your customers are attempting to resolve by buying from your company. The onus is on you (and your web designer) to find the most efficient answer to the problem your prospect is facing. Focus solely on the answer to that problem and not other questions that you may know the answer to.

Shoot us an email if you would like Blue Sky Online to assess areas of your website that can be improved and for a vigorous workout routine we recommend CrossFit – even though you didn’t ask.

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Quick Tips: Improving Conversion Rates – Tip 1

Respond quickly!

Websites often feel so cold and impersonal. The sense of trust that a customer needs to feel before buying from a company they are otherwise unfamiliar with can often be hard to convey through a website. Warm photographs of smiling grandparents lovingly pushing their grandchildren on a swing on a sunny day might not be appropriate for your business. But you can create trust by being accessible. In addition to making your contact information prominent, a prompt response to your visitors’ questions will go a long way to reassure them that they are safe spending their money with you.

That being said, I rarely see chats on small business websites that are effective. A chat is like a blog in the sense that it is only valuable if it is regularly being attended to and chats can be a definite draw on resources. One trick I personally use is to set up filters in my email to weed out spam and “non-vital” emails and then have the rest forwarded to my cell phone via SMS. Set up is easy and guarantees that I’m notified when important emails come in, regardless of my proximity to a computer.

I get around having an expensive data plan by having my emails forwarded as text messages. Almost all major carriers have an email address you can set up as a forward from your inbox:

AT&T
[10 digit phone number]@txt.att.net

Boost Mobile
10 digit phone number@myboostmobile.com

Metro
10 digit phone number@mymetropcs.com

T-Mobile
[10 digit phone number]@tmomail.net

Verizon
[10 digit phone number]@vtext.com

Virgin Mobile
[10 digit phone number]@vmobl.com

Source

You can also sync your website to a CRM solution like Salesforce to create a log of every contact a potential customer has made through your website. Having a record of all the incoming and outgoing correspondence will allow you to review the frequency and the details of the contact being made to ensure it is timely and processed in an efficient manner. Pre-drafted emails can be sent automatically and email marketing services like Constant Contact can help you keep in touch with your customers, but nothing beats a friendly voice on the phone that is one toll-free call away.