Seo Louisville

It is too often I find results in the search engines under highly competitive terms and once I click on the top result I find a poorly designed website. It is almost pointless to spend money marketing a website that does not keep searchers on the site and make them take an action.
I know that many companies feel like they must have internet marketing but sometimes they fail to realize that the true problem lies in their poor website design. If you do not ask your users to take an action on your site they won’t. You can’t get what you don’t ask for so make sure your website asks what you want.
When someone comes to your site if you want them to give you contact information so that you can contact them about your service or product you must ask them to do that. You have to have a good call to action on your site. So when I come to your website if you want me to leave contact information then you need to have a form visible that says something like give us your information and we will contact you about our product or service. I think that you will be surprised at the response you get with a form like this.
Recently we had client who was spending way too much per conversion on his website so we suggested a targeted landing page. What was then created was a page that had content on his service and a form that said for a free consultation give us your information and the form asked for name, email, and phone number then a comment box. The changes that we made caused his conversions to increase by 210%, this was all because we told the user what to do. If you would like more ways to give your site a call to action check out these
Calls to action.
So make sure you remember that like the old GI Joe saying goes “knowing is have the battle” well in the website design world marketing is half the battle the other is up to the website. So until next time “GO JOE” and keep improving your website funcitonality.

Author: Shaun Tinnell
Sales and Service
Directory One, Inc.

Most companies have a goal to grow by increasing their sales and eventually becoming a household name. Some companies achieve this goal almost overnight. It takes other companies many years to do this. I think with a good sales team and a great marketing group this can be an obtainable goal for most companies.

However, be aware that new challenges may arise when that growth has taken place quickly. When sales are at a record high, you have satisfied customers and the money is pouring in, life seems great. Bare in mind those record high sales will call for increased production. Unless you have a detailed plan for handling increased sales and set a realistic timeline for providing those services, you can easily overload the production team. If your team is stressed, they will be unable to provide that quality service you’ve promised in a timely manner.

So, if your companies intention is to increase sales and become a household name, it is vital to also have a growth plan in place. Many times companies become so focused on stimulating growth they fail to develop a workable plan to handle the increased business. Management must be willing to increase their production team so the promised deadlines can be met.

Ultimately any successful business must be able to meet company, staff and customer needs. To be efficient, effective and give quality customer service, your team must continue to grow as your company grows. Knowing what your company can handle will make the company, employees and the customers happy with the end result product or service.

Author: Shaun Tinnell
Directory One, Inc.
PPC Management & Sales

A colleague and I had the chance to go to a Google Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Training course. This Seminar was held by Sitening LLC but sponsored by Google. This was a crash course in Google Adwords. While it was good for the beginning Adword User; it was very basic. The morning seemed like a drawn out Adwords Instruction Guide, although we both were able to pick up a few new things. I asked myself. Could it be my expectations were a little high?

One great new Keyword Tool that I learned however was the Site-Related Keywords. This tool will actually scan through your Website and tell you what Google thinks of your keywords and then break them down into categories. This is a very useful tool because it can help generate keywords. It also gives you a view of how the search engine is reading your Website.

While this course gave us the ability make better use of the tools Google offers, it did not teach us how to create better ads or market potential clients better. I’m not sure that anything except doing individual market research for each client will insure great marketing.

The ideal seminar for me would have been about more effective advertising. It would be one with many Marketing Professionals speaking about their past experiences and sharing solutions to problems they ran into.

What does it take to get that number one position in a paid listing? This is a very important question. Many companies will fail to assess this important issue, when going into a Pay Per Click (PPC) Campaign. I have talked with many companies that just tell me, “I want to be number one”. This is said with no regard to what it may cost them or how they will profit. Most companies, when going into Print or TV Advertising, determine their profit margin before giving a budget. The same should be true for PPC Advertising; however, that number one position can sound very tempting. Yes. Being number one on a paid listing feels great and is good for pr but just ask yourself. What good is it to your bottom line, if no profit is being made from it?

When advertising you ultimately want the best Return On Investment (ROI) possible. Doing some minimal research can help do this. The first question you must ask is, how much profit am I making on this product or service? Next, how much can I invest in advertising to get a sale? Once this is determined, you must do your market research and find keywords that fit within your budget. A small budget means you must use less competitive keywords.A great tool to help you do just that, find less competitive keywords, is Google Keyword Research Tool. Typically you want keywords with high search volume and low advertiser competition.

Being number one in this game does not always mean you are the winner in paid listings. Only you can determine what position and spending level will make your company a winner with its advertising. Take your time. Do the research before throwing money at any PPC Campaign and you’ll get better results. To find out more ways to make the most out of your Internet Marketing Budget you can read this article about PPC Mangement Tips.

Author: Shaun Tinnell
PPC Management
Directory One, Inc.

Not long ago, when you wanted to be in the number one position on a paid listing, you put the highest bid forward. Then, that number 1 spot became yours on Yahoo. Things have changed for the top bidder these days. The top bid does not necessarily mean the top spot anymore. Search Engines like Yahoo, Google, and MSN now look at a combination of ad quality, relevance, and bid when ranking an ad.

The question now is, how do you get the highest placement for the lowest bid price per click? There are a few things to consider when writing your ad and choosing keywords. The first and most important is choosing keywords that fit your business and website. When you choose keywords that might not be as relevant to get a compulsive buy, the conversion rate often does not make it profitable. For the best results, be sure to choose keywords that represent your product or service.

Next, evaluate the ad quality. Your ad must mention the keywords within it and the location if you are targeting a certain area like a City, State, or Country. Using the keywords in the ad tells the Search Engine that this ad is relevant to the keyword it is used for. Also, the location in the ad really helps the searcher so they know right away that you only service that specific area. This ensures that, if the searcher is outside of this area, another click will not be wasted.

Then, take a look at what page your ad is going to. Does this page have the keyword in it, or does it explain it? Your keywords need linking pages that talk about the product or service. This shows Search Engines like Google how your website page is relevant to the search term or keyword. When a searcher clicks on the ad, it will take him or her to the information pertaining to the keyword searched. They don’t have to keep searching around for the information.

When you make sure your ads and keywords are similar, this not only helps you attain a higher position, but also makes it easier for a searcher to determine if you offer what they are looking for. The closer your ad and keywords represent what you offer, the higher Return On Investment (ROI) you will receive. My hope is that these guidelines will help you ensure that the search gives relevant results and also helps your ad traffic be more effective.

Author: Shaun Tinnell
Search Engine Marketing

In the months of January and February many SEO companies were scrambling to get their clients set up properly in the new Yahoo Pay Per Click (PPC) management system. While I think it has been updated for the better in most cases, it still has a few problems. Upgrading to the new system placed ads and keywords in many different campaigns and ad groups. While doing this they left out important keywords in the title or description. These were expected changes and easy to fix, however it did cause lower ad performance for many advertisers.

The system change has caused many extra hours on Yahoo and numerous phone calls, but overall the change has smoothed out just fine. Tools that are now available on the Yahoo PPC system are very helpful and allow you to track your keyword performance more accurately. You are able to see what is and isn’t working. The options availible on Yahoo now are more similar to Google and make adding keywords and ads a lot easier.

Will there be problems for Yahoo as they turn into Google mimics? This is a improvement to the old Yahoo but I’m not sure for PPC management systems as a whole. Even though Google is the leader in Search Engine Marketing, I am not sure that following in their footsteps will be Yahoo’s recipe for success. As you probably know, Google did not gain dominance in the Search Engine world from following another Search Engine’s lead.

Both systems could use changes in their budget structure. A daily budget is a great option, however most businesses look at a monthly spending budget for advertising, not what they have to spend each day. This poses a problem if you are in a area with competitive keywords but a lower daily budget. You will not place towards the top. Google and Yahoo work so that your top keyword bids can’t be more than the daily budget. This can hurt customers like lawyers and doctors because if they have a budget of $100.00 monthly their daily budget is only $3.00. With a $3.00 bid per click you will most likely not be on the first two pages of search results for lawyer or doctor keywords. One possible solution to this problem is a monthly budget, so if a customer has a smaller budget, they have the option to spend more on a keyword bid than a daily budget would allow.

I can see the possibilty of changes taking place because nothing stays the same very long in the Search Engine world. Google and Yahoo have maintained their top positions in the Search Engine Industry because they have listened to what the searchers want. I critique these companies to influence change, but hold much respect for the way of life they have created for all of us. They say knowledge is power so Search Engines must be the gate keepers of power, because all the knowledge you want can be at your finger tips.

Author
Shaun Tinnell

This will be the first of many blogs to be written for www.seolouisville.com. You will read about the great businesses in Louisville and how Search Engine Optimization(SEO) affects the Louisville industry. As managing partner and sales associate here in Louisville, as well as PPC (Pay Per Click) Manager for some of our Houston customers, I will be able to post some of our latest happenings at Directory One, Inc. My hope for future blogs is to teach you more about marketing your company on the Internet and SEO friendly Website Design.
Search Engine Optimization/Marketing is the way companies get exposure through Search Engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Directory One Inc. came to the Louisville Community to promote the benefits and exposure you can get from Search Engine Marketing. One thing to remember, Search Engine Marketing has the highest return on investment of any other form of marketing when done effectively.