 |
 |
| Related
WebProWorld Posts |
Pondering
Possibilities in Podvertising
Savvy online marketers have a whole new medium to exploit: It's called "podcasting."
Could this be the next BMWFilms.com? You can’t walk 50 feet in a major city without
seeing them. You can spot them a mile away by the dual white wires that dangle
from their ears.
Monetizing
Blogs
There's lots of talk these days about making money with blogs. Some of its solid
information with factual research to back it up but some of it's just pure rubbish.
Which
pronoun -- "I" or "we"?
The internet has been an invaluable opportunity as a level playing field for both
large companies and self-starters. Many freelancers and entrepreneurs have taken
to the web for their marketing.
|
|
|
Targeting The Late Shopper
Even though the end of the holiday shopping season is coming to a fast finish,
there's still time to optimize your site or PPC campaign for holiday shoppers.
While it's true that time is of the essence, during the Christmas season there
will always be late shoppers. When you consider some of the shipping options offered,
last minute shopping is becoming more and more possible on the WWW.
Believe it or not, there is still time to go after holiday shoppers. With shipping
flexibility and shoppers taking a "must have it" approach; there are still things
that can be done to target late Christmas shoppers. Discuss at WebProWorld.
Both FedEx and UPS
offer services that can next-day a delivery up until December 23rd (arriving on
Christmas Eve), provided the customer is willing to pay for it. When you consider
the available shipping options, and the fact that some of the busiest shopping
days of the year are coming up, there are still opportunities to provide potential
shoppers service.
 Unfortunately,
because of the time and related shipping issues, this article may not be very
applicable if the buyer needs the merchandise moved internationally. However,
if the commerce is being done from state to state, then there is still time for
a last minute effort.
Normally, because of ground shipment schedules, the window for internet shoppers
usually closes on or about the 13th of December. If you're looking to do some
last minute optimization, here are some things you should be aware of. A great
place to concentrate on during the holiday season if Pay-Per-Click advertising.
In an article appearing on ClickZ,
Shari Thurow reinforced this by saying, "Search engine advertising offers two
things natural optimization doesn't: fast turnaround time and guaranteed placement."
Because of the time limitations, PPC advertising is probably the best area of
concentration. Trying to acquire backlinks and boosting keyword weight won't have
much of an effect with the search engines that likely will be utilized (G, Y,
MSN) in the shoppers' last minute approach. However, provided your business offers
something that would be considered a "hot item" or has a last-days-of-shopping-gift
level of worthiness, PPC can still targeted. Not only will it increase opportunity,
the data PPC campaigns yield will also give you an idea of what to concentrate
on the next holiday season.
In an article by Rob Wilk that appeared in IMediaConnection.com,
the holiday season was approached from an SEO point of view. The lessons in the
article should be applied when there is more time on your side. However, the PPC
advice is still be viable.
 As
with any PPC campaign, the keywords you target are what drive any success you
may have. With this in mind, consider this advice offered by Rob, "Advertisers
will add keywords like "Christmas gift" or "Holiday gift", etc. Be very wary of
these terms. These terms get a lot of volume, but do not convert all that well
-- unless you are an eBay or Amazon.com type business. For the most part, people
who type in these sorts of queries are people looking for gift ideas. They are
not necessarily ready to buy."
Wilk goes on to say, "Costs-per-click WILL increase. As search volume and conversion
rates increase, advertisers (the smart ones) will get a lot more aggressive in
their bidding to take advantage of this prime traffic. Keep an eye on your competition
in terms of what keywords they are bidding on."
With responses to PPC advertising increasing during the Christmas holidays, this
vehicle remains the best tool to get your product noticed in such short a time.
Jim Banks of Web Diversity, in an interview at SearchEngineBlog.com,
had these thoughts, "Time sensitivity is another biggie. Many advertisers are
running time sensitive events, or promotions and SEO isn't as effective in delivering
the 4 P's that any good marketer will tell you about, product, price, place, promotion.
PPC is much better at delivering it. Some examples of this might be Christmas,
Valentines Day..."
So, make use of the keyword tracking and ranking tools available to you. Also
keep your ears open in order to keep up with what shoppers are looking for. If
you offer these products/services, perhaps a temporary increase in your PPC budget
could go a long way…
Comment on this article
in WebProWorld.
Chris Richardson
|
 |
 |
| Articles:
13,365 |
Contributing
Authors: 2,344 |
|
|
|
|
Should
You Use Targeted Keywords In URLs?
 By
Olivier Duffez
 As
you know, search engine algorithms look at over 100 criteria. If you read forums
about Search Engine Optimization, you will see that some SEOs recommend to use
keywords in URLs and others claim it is useless.
The problem is that no one has made a real test (or they have not published it).
We have decided to run some tests in order to make sure that words in URLs are
criteria for search engines algorithms.
Below are the tests we made
As we were only focused on one item (keyword in URL), we have decided:
 Read
the Full Article
Do new competitors risk playing in the sand?
Our post today comes from starboard
1. They have been reading about the sandbox
theory in Google, and want your opinion on this matter. They were at a recent
SES conference and heard a Google representative speak about how it isn't
possible to hurt another company by linking to it from blacklisted sites.
This has got starboard 1 thinking that this doesn't hurt existing sites but what
about new ones? The sudden surge in links for that site might look a little
odd to Google in which would cause the site to appear bad. What would stop
someone from getting competitors new site put in the sandbox?
Think you can help starboard 1 out? Tell us your
thoughts at WebProWorld.
|| Rafael||
Sandbox
and Competitors
By starboard1
 I've
been reading up on the sandbox theory, one of the suggestions as to what triggers
this feature is if a site gains an excessive amount of back links too quickly.
My problem with this is that I attended the SES conference in June this year,
and a speaker from Google said that it was not possible to damage another companies
rankings, for example by linking to them from blacklisted/spam sites.
So my question is, what is stopping a company from hindering a competitor's new
website by linking to them from let's say every one of it's 1000 pages of it's
own website. Obviously it's not a great long term strategy, but seems to be a
flaw in that part of the theory. I'd be interested in your comments.
|
|
|
|
|
View
Profile
,
Inc. 880 Corporate Drive, Lexington, KY 40503
