Local Optimization-What Does It Mean for Lansing SEO?

I have posted a few examples in my poor, sporadically used and lonely blog (especially compared to my partner Adam Henige, who is a blog machine) about the importance of localized search results. I believe it will be an important and ever growing role for businesses as they market on the web. As Google looks to increase value for users, it is seeking to create geographically relevant search results for searchers.

I have discussed using the Local Business Center. But I have not gotten around to discussing some new features in the Local tool which was launched a few months ago - the Local Business Center Dashboard. The business center is now providing information on your company’s total impressions, and actions taken. On the impressions side, you can view the keywords in which you appeared, a la Google Webmaster Tools.

For example, for Netvantage Marketing in the last month, I can see that our local listing appeared for:

• Netvantage Marketing
• Netvantage east lansing
• East Lansing web marketing
• Lansing SEO
• marketing consulting (which is more of an accidental listing for us)

As importantly in the dashboard, we can see the actions taken on the listing - with a neat breakdown of:

• Those who went on to visit your website
• Got driving directions to your business
• Gained more info about your business on Google Maps

So when Lansing businesses are figuring our their SEO tactics for the web, again, don’t discard the Local Business Center. It has also provided great free advertising, and now, it provides solid reporting to back it up.

SES New York (live from Michigan)

Last week many SEO industry gurus gathered at the Hilton New York for Search Engine Strategies Search Engine Marketing and Optimization Event.  We wanted to attend the event, but it was in the cards for a variety of reasons.  However, I did listen to a few of the Webmaster Radio’s broadcasts. It seemed like a really informative week with top panelists and speakers, and in judging from some of David Szetela’s tweets, very fun week as well.  I must say being in Manhattan at highly regarded event would be great, and we are putting it on our calendar for next year. 

In watching the conference from afar, it struck me how I could track and gather information being discussed.  I did this primarily through Twitter, with the aforementioned Szetela as well as with the web radio broadcasts that were conducted from event.  Now, this event didn’t have any TV coverage, it did get some Wall Street Journal coverage.  However, through all of the interactive tools available, Webmasters Radio, blogs, and Twitter, I was able to follow the conference quite well.  Not that I was totally glued, there IS client work to care of first and foremost of course - but I was able to hear many experts speak on search engine marketing tips, tactics, and trends. 

Now, of course following this conference from afar cannot replace the experience of attending SES NY.  The interesting point to think about here is how social media and online communication tactics can enhance the experience of an event.  I wonder how this could be applied to events in Lansing.  Is there value in using these tactics to build interest and value around the upcoming Greater Lansing Strategic Business Luncheon, or Ignite Lansing. Combine this mentality with Bob Ruggio of Webgio’s Guest Blog Post on my blog on how he used social media for a critical crisis rallying cause.  

I attended the Central Michigan PRSA’s guest presentation by Jim Tobin of Ignite Social Media. (not related to aforementioned event)  Ignite is a social media agency, not an ad agency or search engine marketing agency, a social media agency.  He had some great insights, but the most important one was that it’s still not the technology, its the people driving it.  Not a new point when grappling with technology in a business environment, BUT, one that most be remembered and refreshed when a small-medium sized company begins a social media initiative.  

Bring this all together: think about how to make this work for a local event, or a product launch, or a tradeshow.  There are tremendous opportunities here to build audience beyond a local reach, such as following SES Strategies NY, but as Jim Tobin points out, it can’t just be about starting a Facebook page. You must have the people as the touch point, and making sure content is fresh and relevant.  All examples and things to think about as we continue to help companies use the web as a marketing tool.

Guest Blogger - Harnessing the Power of Social Networking

The blog post below is courtesy of Bob Ruggio, of Webgio.

Webgio is one of our web solutions partners, based out of New York, and Bob is one of the sharpest minds that I know when it comes to web strategy, and has a great pulse on emerging tech trends.  He was kind enough to provide a guest blog for me. 

Harnessing the Power of Social Networking

Article by: Bob Ruggio

Social networking has been a media buzz word over the last few years.

Sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter are connecting friends, businesses and information through the World Wide Web via any device, anytime and anywhere.  I personally think social media is in its infancy and yet to be fully tapped.  This is what makes it such an exciting topic to follow.  In mid December I had the opportunity to experiment with this technology in a non-conventional way.  The outcome was a viable model for harnessing the power of social networking within communities, businesses and organizations to achieve results.

Here’s how we did it -

The Challenge 

A Central New York family of twelve lost everything in a fire in the middle of winter and needed the help of the community.  Unfortunately every possession was lost, the children only had the clothes on their back and some evacuated without shoes into the snow covered streets.

When hearing this tragic news, the number of children involved, and losing every possession including car keys, it was a moment in my life that I felt the need to step up.  My next immediate thought was “What could I do to help?”   And within seconds I was planning to use a social networking solution.

 Action Taken 

I choose Facebook as the social medium because that network had the largest number of community members within my network who could provide local support for the victims.  It all started as a simple note and making friends aware.  The family needs were clothing, nonperishable foods, toys, financial gifts and a key ingredient of helping us spread the word.

Within minutes of our first post, a flood of questions came in from the network.  Within hours we had over one hundred members participating.

Until this event I never truly felt tapped into the sheer power of social networking on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. 

The first thing we did was coordinate with volunteers and local businesses to identify drop zones for donations.  Next we conducted a needs assessment with the family for ages, gender, shirts size, pants size, and shoes size.  This information was then updated on a newly created group called the Angel Donations Network.  The use of a group vs. a note gave us several advantages for administrative control and communication over the project.

Then something special happened as donations began to pour in on the first day.  Traditional media outlets learned of our use of the social networking tools to help the family and this created a viral media buzz.

For some reason traditional media loves writing about social networking.

This resulted in people joining Facebook through traditional media awareness such as television and newspaper.  It was very exciting being able to harness on a small scale the power of social networking, turning what started as a dripping faucet of data, into a full water main break of information flow by Facebook members.  This presented one of our biggest challenges, controlling the information of the social network.

As donations came in volunteers kept inventories and relayed data from the donation drop zones to the Facebook inventory.  We learned to control the information through the use of well crafted press releases posted to the Facebook group.  The press releases served as what I call a “valve”.  The press release valves gave us control over the flow of activity and information.  After this discovery we now had the ability to turn a dripping faucet into a full water main break of information flow on command.  This served as an effective tool in the project.

The Results       

As in any project, this didn’t go without logistical challenges but some amazing social networking lessons were learned while using social media.

In the end social networking helped catalyze traditional media and successfully rallied an online community around donating all basic needs for the family within 4 days. 

The first lesson learned from this experiment was the speed that we were able to enlist the help of community members.  Within minutes we began helping this family.  Very few phone calls and most communication happened by social media. 

The second lesson was the level of awareness we could achieve by using social media.  Each member of the Facebook group was able to stay up to date with posted statuses as the family was helped.  This allowed for easy viewing of outstanding donation needs against current inventory levels.  From a management standpoint this was vital to in achieving our objectives responsibly.

The third lesson was choosing the correct mediums, frequency, and timing around using each.  I viewed this as situational.  In this experiment we used Facebook notes then shifted gears to a group to allow more advanced features of control.

The forth lesson was balancing traditional media with social media at a low cost or no cost based on the “buzz” of what you are doing.

Traditional media is always looking for a good story to fill a newspaper or evening news spot so exploit that gently. 

Lastly and probably the most important lesson was learning to control the flow of information by carefully crafting press releases in the Facebook group.  This served as a valve for speeding up and slowing down the flow of efforts and activities based on needs.  This allowed us to effectively communicate the message at specific frequencies and outline specific actions the group could help with.  It gave everyone direction and turned what could be chaos into social harmony.

Summary 

Social networking has many uses and can be very powerful.  I believe we’ve only seen the tip of the ice berg on harnessing its true value withinc ommunities, businesses and organizations.   Since this event I’ve had the opportunity to use this model to help a small business build its clientele base and develop a means for effectively communicating messages outside the use of traditional mediums.   While both projects are small in scope it has yielded the results we set out to achieve in both cases.  The next time you have a community or business challenge try tapping into the power of social networking as a solution or compliment to the main plan.

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About the guest author:

Bob Ruggio is a Sr. Business Analyst, Project Manager and .NET Developer specializing in building and growing businesses using next generation web solutions.  He holds a Computer Science degree from Hawaii Pacific University, a Master’s Certificate in Applied Project Management from Villanova University, a Certificate in Entrepreneurship from Syracuse University’s Whitman’s School of Management, an M.B.A. in Management from the State University of New York at Oswego, and multiple computer based technical certifications.

Tips and Tactics for your AdWords Ad Text Part 3

Time to finally wrap this series of posts up.  (AKA, time to put the egg nog away and get back to work, but more on that in my next post)

So far, in our review of AdWords ad text tips and tactics, we have discussed the following points:

• Utilizing tight ad groups with small amounts of keywords in order to incorporate keywords into ad text.
• The tactic of using keywords in your Display URLs : www.example.com/giftbasket
• The importance of qualifying and providing incentive for your prospective users to click through with  strong content writing in your headlines and text lines, given the challenge of the character limits.

Tips and Tactics for your AdWords Ad Text Part 2

In today’s post, I will continue to discuss tips and tactics for ad writing pay per click marketing campaigns.  Now, keep in mind that there are several great resources on the web for this, and some fantastic articles written by experts.   Last post we discussed creating small ad groups to enable the ability to use keywords in ad text, and the tactic of using keywords in the “/” of Display URLs.  

The next tips center around the body of the ad itself.  Here is where the two campaigns - holiday gift baskets, and plastics manufacturing, bring examples to bear as to where campaign goals have an impact on writing.

Headlines: Don’t forget about headlines.  From a usability standpoint, this is what gets your searcher’s attention.  We have 25 characters in the headline to stay within. Again, based on my previous posts, using keywords in your headlines is an important tactic to qualify and motivate a user to click.  However, sometimes due your competitors, it isn’t that easy when it comes to improving your click through rate.  In light of this, use motivational headlines that stand out from our competitors. For gift baskets, “Act Now, Save $20″ can appeal to a consumer.  For the plastics manufacturer, “Plastics Molding Experience” may appeal to the purchase engineer or plant manager looking for a trusted partner. 

Lines 1 and 2: In our ad lines, we have 35 characters to work with on each, which of course makes the challenge fun.  For holiday baskets, ads are crafted against a heavy amount of direct competition.  In this environment, where most players are using keywords in their ad text, it is important to differentiate to get a qualified click.  Ways to do this in an consumer driven environment would be:

• Including cost
• Phone number
• Any sales or offers: “Holiday Gift Baskets, Act Now to Save %20″

Another way to differentiate in this case is to try to be specific on the details of the product.

“Comany X Gift Baskets”

“Holiday Gift Baskets, wine,

cheese, and tasty chocolate”

The key to this approach to do searches and study your competitor’s ads.  (And don’t be malicious and click on them, of course)  Just like any advertising, be thinking what will make your “billboard” on the Google highway stand out.  

For the plastics manufacturer, it is important to differentiate against your competitors.  The goal is entirely different, we are not selling online we are trying to generate a lead.  In this case, less energy in the ad is needed, but we still need to stand out.  Again, relying in keywords in ad text is very important here, so that we may best resonate with the user.  Focusing on your experience, your location, sub segements you reach:

Plastic Molding Company

80 years of plastics exp. 
Focused on Medical Suppliers

Some very broad key points before I wrap this post up:

Keywords in your ad text.  The most important point that I am driving home and have talked about before on this blog is to use keywords in your ad headline and text.  Nothing helps out better qualify and motivate your users to click, as well having a positive impact on Quality Score. If you do nothing else, do this.  And in order to do this, you must craft small ad groups with focused sets of keywords.  It is very hard to write a relevant ad for a keyphrase “holiday gift baskets” if your ad text is focused on Wine gift baskets. 

Writing ads for search engines is challenging, and requires creativity!  You must qualify the searcher, motivate them to click, and tell your message all in about 90 characters.  And, many times you must do this with competing ads all around you.  

Which is why my final point is important:  Research and test.  These two items are coming up on my next post.

Tips and Tactics for your AdWords Ad Text

Now, either I have been really lazy or really busy — no posts since November 11th?  Terrible! Especially when my blogtastic business partner Adam Henige has been posting like crazy. Oh well.  Things have been busy at Netvantage, we have several new Pay Per Click campaigns starting this week.  Two of the campaigns are in very different sectors - one is for higher end, consumer based, luxury goods, and very seasonal - wine gift baskets.  The other is manufacturing based, business to business focused, and is very widgety, for lack of a better term - plastic molding. 

There are the obvious advertising thought processes that needs to go into developing and launching this campaign: audience targeting, audience personas and associated keyword selection, product mix, landing pages, bid amounts, you know the usual.  However, despite the massive differences in the two campaigns, there are some definite similarities.  And one of those is in the make up of the ad text.

As you consider your search marketing campaigns, an often overlooked component is ad text.  I spoke of it at the Google 101 event in October, and it is important.  Ad text in structured for your target audiences for your search results pages is tricky.  All engines, Google included, have character limits on each of the lines for headlines, ad text, and display URLs.  Some basics:

Use keywords within ad text.  And to do this, create ad groups with a low number of keyphrases.  As I covered in my horrible stab at Halloween humor in the attack of the Adblob, large ad groups in your campaigns do not lend themselves to well written ads.  So that is tip number one, and the most important for running good foundational campaigns, not use writing good ads. Use small ad groups to give yourself the opporutnity to write ads that incorporate your keywords.    Remember, as keywords appear in your ad text, they will be highlighted and provide visual incentives to click.  

Display URLs An interesting tactic that we are seeing that has positive impacts on click through rate is the use of effective display URLs.  Keep in mind that you must use the domain name for your website.  However, in the display URL /, you can leverage your keywords to display in your ad text.  For example, www.netvantagemarketing.com/seo.  But, keep it in mind that you’ll have to keep it within the character limits, and if you have a long URL, this may not be an option.

That’s all for now, more tips to come this week! ( I promise, not January 11th,)

Back to School

I had an opportunity to do some guest teaching at Mason High School yesterday.  I came in for Kristin Higgins’s Info Tech class.  I talked about the importance of Google, and how it will become an increasingly important channel for marketers to market to their generation.  To make the point obvious to them, we took some polls. We took an obvious poll of how many of them watch TV, or even watch the commercials on TV.  Many of them barely listened to the radio, much less listening to those commercials.  Finally, I rattled off some search engines, Yahoo, Live, AOL, Cuil, Omgili, Ask, and a few kids raised their hands.  Then of course it was nearly 100% of those that raised their hands for Google as their search engine of choice.  We then talked further about how Google will become the primary marketing channel for their generation of consumers. 

We then walked through some fun keyword volumes examples, such as approximatley how many times do you think Jay-Z was searched on Google in September. (1.8 Million) I showed them some of the basics of natura search, keeping light, of course.  We then walked through and set up a Google AdWords campaign for Mason Bulldog Sweatshirts, writing the ad, selecting geography, setting the budget, etc.  Within 10 minutes, there ad was showing on Google, which of course was neat.

Finally, I talked about careers in search marketing, and in marketing/IT in general.  Within this, I mentioned the Capital Area IT Council, and their efforts in trying to promote careers in our field, and getting people excited.  As high school kids go, many haven’t thought that far ahead, but I tried to stress the possible educational/career track, as well as the many benefits of working in our industry.  In summary, it was great to be in the classroom with young people, and give them a little insight into how a powerful marketing channel works.  I look forward to representing Netvantage Marketing, and the CAITC in the future with such events.

A Visit from Google

I attended the Lansing Economic Club Luncheon at the Kellogg Center yesterday, and we were able to hear John Kelley, of Google Adwords to speak.  Aside from the surprisingly good chicken lunch, it was very good. John primarily heads up the Google AdWords division, I believe the official title is Manager, Online Sales and Operations, and works in the Google office in Ann Arbor.  John dida very good job of laying out Google’s history, direction, and current opportunities for advertising. 

And he did it in a way that resonated with a group of business people that really don’t have an understanding of tech, yet of course use Google every day.  The event had around 200 people in attendance.  I am not sure who on the Economic Club was responsible for bringing John in, but it was a good move, and a great move for our new company. 

Having him in front of that audience was a great way to heighten awareness to the advertising potential, and accountability, that Google and search marketing can deliver.  My hope of course is that those in the audience may turn to Netvantage for assistance in setting up and/or managing their campaign.  And again, my hats off to the foresight of the the Lansing Economic Club to bring in a top-line speaker on an important and innovative subject. (well, of course I am biased in how important it is

Network, Network, NETwork

Well, shame on me.  It has been two weeks since I have posted.  We have been very busy at Netvantage Marketing.  It seems to me that the business community and associations have a vast period of inactivity between July 1st and Labor Day, and then bam - I am going to Capital Area IT Council meetings, Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce Bottom Line breakfasts, luncheons, and local business association meetings.  Why? Well because we want to network, and pursue all avenues possible to spread the word on Netvantage Marketing.  And I am guessing that we will be on this torrid pace until Thanksgiving - and then of course its “we’ll get to it after the Holidays”.  But until then, lots of meetings and networking events, which should be a lot of fun.

Why network?  Well for lots of reasons that you know.  But this is not a post about why network to build leads.  You can get that in something like the local paper’s business tips section.  Besides the odd chance that we will gain a lead, we network to help build brand.  Build brand?  Yes, remember a brand is not your logo.  A brand is what your various target audiences perceive of you.  Is is totally controllable?  Unless you  can manipulate people’s minds, no.  But can you contribute to it?  Of course!  Giving the right first impression when you network at events helps build your perception and resultant brand.

However, don’t forget to build your online brand.  Online brand development is very key to your business.  Thinking of the home page of your website as that first handshake and 45 second elevator pitch at a cocktail mixer will go a long way in the success of your website as an important part of your business model.  At Netvantage, we are always looking at ways to drive more traffic to your site, with search engine marketing, and search engine optimization, and web analytics.  However, first and foremost, before we can do our work, we also need to make sure that our client’s online handshake is strong enough, and that their website is able to NETwork.  So if you are looking to generate more traffic to your site, be sure to take a good look at the site, and take the appropriate steps to develop the right online brand.

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