Incyte Marketing

Tips for Search Engine Marketing—September 22, 2011

Do economic pressures and a pinched budget have you contemplating writing or editing your own website content for SEO? Our company is helping a lot of people who came to us for Search Engine Marketing services after having spent considerable time, effort and money getting poor results—either by attempting to do it themselves, or by using someone with a related but non-specific skill set (such as their web designer). When it comes to writing content (or "copy") for your website to strengthen your online presence, and ultimately your sales, I strongly encourage you to invest in a professional copywriter with solid SEO experience. The potential long-term benefits of good SEO copy makes it too important to skimp on. Here are some of the tasks a professional will accomplish for you:

• Increase website visibility: By the skillful use of keywords, links, social media and other (often proprietary) SEO techniques. A reputable SEO firm can boost your online presence and move your website up the search engine rankings, but be very careful! There are a lot of self-proclaimed “SEO firms” and "SEO gurus" out there selling snake oil. You can sort out the good, the bad and the ugly by reading, How to Choose a Valid SEOFirm, at www.incytemarketing.com/blackhat
• Write great copy that grabs attention, engages and converts visitors to sales. This is where style, tone and writing technique are crucial. It takes specialized knowledge and artful skill to write engaging content that keeps visitors on your site while weaving in effective keywords and links without compromising copy readability and flow. Brian Clark, founder of Copyblogger, says that using the right words in the right way will help consistently convert visitors to buyers and determine “how well you rank in search engines and how much traffic you get.” Simply “stuffing” your pages with SEO keywords can make content awkward and repulsive and it can backfire in another way—Google may penalize your site if it determines you are playing the system.
• Keep your online content fresh. According to a September 21, 2011 article, Is Branded Journalism Still Journalism? on www.socialtimes.com, "The static corporate website is quickly becoming obsolete, and many smart businesses owners have realized the importance of [frequently] generating relevant, community-focused content to keep their brand top of mind." Your SEO copywriter should be keeping up with the most relevant topics, keywords and links that will help you progressively grow your online presence.

A retainer arrangement for ongoing services is usually recommended for sustained, long-term results. Here’s some of what you should expect from a reasonable and efficient retainer:

• Every few days: Write new content for your social media that is likely to spark conversations, sharing and sales (minimum of 2 hours a month). Visit our website and blog at www.incytemarketing.com for social media marketing tips.
• Weekly: Compose keyword-rich content for your blog and e-newsletters (minimum of 4 hours a month).
• Monthly: Compose keyword-rich articles, white papers and media releases for you—yes, media releases can boost your SEO (Minimum of 2 hours a month).
• Quarterly: Re-vamp your website content so it stays interesting, relevant and search engine-friendly (about 4-10 hours a quarter, depending on the size of your site).

All of these tasks will strengthen your search engine presence and provide interesting, educational and relevant information to increase your customer base and keep them coming back. Considering the important benefits professional SEO copywriting offers your business, it’s well worth the investment to do it right!

Kelly Walker, M.S. is Partner and Brand Communications Director for Incyte Marketing. For more information, visit www.incytemarketing.com

Would you rather hunt for customers, or be seen right where they are hunting for you? By now you have probably heard of search marketing, or search engine marketing (SEM). SEM is the ongoing strategic process of making your business visible to your target audiences where they are searching for your products and services online. A lot of emphasis has been put on search engine optimization (SEO), the goal of which is to get your website listed on page one of Google, Yahoo and Bing for the main keywords people type into the search engines when searching for your products and services. Pay-per-click (PPC), whereby a business pays a search engine when its PPC ad (located above and to the right of organic results in Google) is clicked, is also very popular. While rating high on the search engines is very important, and a well-executed PPC may produce results, there are several other emerging trends in the way people are searching for businesses that you need to be aware of.

Besides traditional searches, more and more people are searching with their mobile devices and via social media. According to a September 10 report by TMP Directional Marketing and 15Miles, Bridging the Gap, From Search to Sales, "Seventy percent of mobile users utilize their device for searches once a week or more. Sixty-four percent use social media for searches once a week or more. The report says that, "Both platforms outperformed search engines (61 percent) and local-search sites (49 percent). Print [directory] users are the least engaged with the medium; only 27 percent use it once a week or more."

Consumers and businesses are searching across a variety of channels, including search engines, mobile searches (including phone directory apps Google Maps, and others), Facebook and Twitter search apps, and emerging channels. These search entities are focusing on local search, as most consumers buy within 15-miles of their location, and most searchers go offline once they find what they are looking for and pick up the phone or visit the storefront; in addition, most people who are searching with a mobile device are searching for the location of a specific local business.

While a national search engine presence (both "organic" results and pay-per-click) is important for some businesses—especially those doing business at a national level—the importance of a presence on local search cannot be under-emphasized; even big corporation are investing in local search. Local search results can take many forms: visibility on organic search results, targeted pay-per-click campaigns, and listings on Google Maps and Mapquest are a few examples. From the report:

"Non-search engines are outperforming search engines in terms of growth. Among search engines, Google, Yahoo!, Ask.com and Microsoft (i.e., MSN, Bing) are on the rise, with the most notable changes from Microsoft (up 77 percent). AOL is the only general-search site studied that experienced a decrease in usage (down 14 percent). Non-search engines demonstrated strong year-over-year search growth, fueled mainly by Facebook (up 210 percent) and Amazon (up 46 percent). These numbers prove that local search has become the industry’s focus, as major players have all turned their attention to enhancing their local products: Bing Maps, Google Maps and Places, and more. Undoubtedly, the local-search market share has been altered. Even non-search engines, such as social networks coupled with mobile penetration, continued their push into the local-search landscape, particularly with the launch of Facebook Places and Twitter Places. Expect more platforms to enhance their local solutions in the coming year, painting a bright future for online and mobile search and an uncertain forecast for traditional channels."

The key takeaways from all this? "Develop your search presence across various online platforms, from general search to social media. Failure to do so could result in missing a major segment of your target consumers. Obviously, data supports the fact that consumers are searching with added frequency, but being unable to find you when (and where) it matters most could spell additional sales for your competition." Also, be sure that you have a robust local search plan, executed across multiple online channels. If you have any budget left over, you can advertise in the print directories for the dwindling number of people who still use them.

Kelly Walker, M.S., is Partner and Brand Communications Director for Incyte Marketing.
Visit www.incytemarketing.com for more information on this and other relevant topics.

"The only thing we have to fear is a ninja dragon with elbow lasers."

"I’ve been using an electric toothbrush, but I think I’ll go acoustic for my next album."

"What’s that thing sneaking up behind you? No peeking!"

"Great minds think alike. I assumed you were thinking about Skittles, too."

These are just a few posts on the Skittles Facebook page. Quite funny, and they highlight a point I want to make: When it comes to social media, content is king.

According to social media consultant, Jeremiah Staes, "People tend to tune out pure marketing messages in social media. The best way to break through that challenge is to be compelling, so that people in diverse yet somewhat connected social circles actually enjoy your stuff and share it themselves."

Generally, social media content should follow the 80/20 rule: At least 80% of your posts should be informative, interesting or entertaining, and about 20% can be used to sell your products or services. If you can wrap sales copy in an attractive package (as the last post I included from Skittles does with humor), all the better. You should spend more time talking withpeople than you do talking at them—folks go onto social media for conversation, entertainment and education, not to read sales pitches. To be effective, content on social media needs to be appealing, relevant and regular. Otherwise, your audience will become bored, disconnected or confused—and winning back these people will be very difficult if not impossible.

Do-it-yourself social media without a content plan, including allocating the time to post at least weekly, and without dedicating a professional writer, is a recipe for frustration and anemic results. The problem is that most corporate people: a) are busy just getting their normal work done and don’t have time to regularly think up and write the kinds of posts people are likely to share b) most are not professional copywriters and c) even the best writers may not understand how to write specifically for social media. A lot of businesses set up Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and a blog because they know they "should" and because they don’t want to be left behind by technology. However, many don’t have a good content plan that will engage their audiences, build trust with their community and customers, strengthen their search engine ranking (SEO) and lead to measurable results down the road. (Go to www.incytemarketing.wordpress.com for more great tips on social media, blogging and search engine optimization.)

A professional social media writer is constantly studying and keeping up with the rapidly-changing trends and technical tweaks in the social media world and in yourindustry, evolving your content strategy accordingly. Not only that, he or she keeps up with the conversations on your sites and responds in a timely manner, with feedback that keeps the buzz going and growing. The professional knows how to use keywords, links, photos, and videos to boost online presence and SEO ratings. They will also skillfully comment, post on and link to outside social media pages and blogs to actively spread your brand messaging to a broader audience than just your fan base, and to increase your following.

Some of our new clients engage our services with the idea that they will take over their social media management once they "learn the ropes." However, most observe the intricate strategy we put into a successful social media marketing program and how efficiently we work, and decide to leave it to the specialists; they see the potential returns of killer content combined with solid strategy as well worth the small investment.

I have to go now. Something is sneaking up behind me, and it’s either a ninja dragon with elbow lasers…or my 7-year-old son with a Nerf gun. Either way, I think I’m in trouble.

For more information, contact Kelly Walker at Incyte Marketing:

kelly@incytemarketing.com

What is the overriding purpose of a your website? To gain conversions—to bring you sales and new customers. Increasing your online sales conversions requires more than just having a website, it requires that you employ progressive techniques that put you in front of the right people and make buying easy and attractive to them.

Here are a few keys to boost your website conversions:

1. Start with an effective website.

Your website is your storefront, and just like a “brick and mortar” store, your website needs to be clean and well organized. Potential clients will quickly leave a visually-cluttered website with too much information. Easy-to-navigate, professional design with a clear logo and attractive typography is crucial. Content is also very important. Include information about your products and services, prices and fees, written in a style your customers can relate to. Make it easy for your customer to make an immediate, informed decision to buy. Be concise and always include a call to action.

2. Optimize your site for the search engines

There are many techniques that need to be employed to get and maintain your website on page one of organic search engine results for both organic results and pay-per-click. I recommend having a professional run your Search Engine Marketing (SEM), as a successful program requires constant and specialized work. (And not just a web designer, but a real SEM specialist. Having a web designer run your SEM program is like having a tool manufacturer build you a house!) Every aspect of your website should be geared to increasing your search engine ranking. One major technique is to research keywords and incorporate them into the content of your site. Keywords with high search volume indicate what people want to read about, so focus on those topics. For more information on SEM, visit http://www.incytemarketing.com/seo.html and our blog at http://incytemarketing.wordpress.com/

3. Utilize the power of social media.

Social media relates directly to the power of your website to drive sales. The major search engines factor social media activity heavily in rating your website. That means that, the more action you have on your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, the better chance you have of landing on page #1. Be sure to publish your blog posts and articles on all your social media on a frequent basis, and encourage followers to comment. Search engines factor in shares and tweets when ranking content and they will improve your organic search ranking results. You must interact regularly with your followers and build your fan base to keep this beneficial conversation going. You can use your keyword research in your social media, to stay up on topics of interest to the public, as these can change dramatically for various reasons. People who are searching for “Christmas treats” in December, may be searching for “New Year’s diets” in January. For more tips, visit our Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/IncyteMktg

4. Point people in the right direction.

It’s a mistake to link everyone to your home page. Instead, provide links to the pages people are interested in. For instance, if you are discussing a product on Facebook, provide a link to that product page, not your home page. People will get impatient if they have to search your site for what they are interested in. The same goes for links you may include in ads and search engine results. Custom landing pages with clear calls to action are easy to create and can be very effective in converting sales.

For more information, contact Incyte Marketing at 541-419-9976 or 303-800-6523.

Check us out at on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/IncyteMktg or www.incytemarketing.com.

You want your website to show up on page #1 of the search engines, but should you choose Pay per click (PPC) or organic SEO as your main strategy?

According to the e-book, SEO, PPC and Analytics by Search Marketing Now, “Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of generating traffic from free or organic search engine results. All major search engines, including Google, Yahoo! and Bing have such results, where web pages and other content such as videos or local listings are shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users. Paid search (PPC) advertising, on the other hand, are the search engine results that marketers pay for in an attempt to raise the ranking and visibility of their listings. Industry experts agree that SEO drives 75 percent of search traffic yet only 15 percent of budget; PPC gets 80 percent of budget yet generates only 25 percent of search traffic.”

PPC requires a monthly fee to the search engine—a fee per click—so you will need a substantial budget and a continual outflow of cash. David Blackburn, of Marketing Quotes, explains that, “Each click will cost you, and the clicks normally are not cheap. The cost of each click is determined by the popularity of the word/phrase. If it is very competitive (like car insurance) then each click could cost you up to $20. There is no money back, you pay for people to click (students, competitors, foreign companies) and there will be a high % of waste. Competitors that are researching will click on your links which cannot really be helped or blocked. Controlling who clicks on your adverts is down to chance.”

Our own firm’s SEO strategist, Mike Johnson, says that he “watched the cost-per-click (CPC) go from $0.74 for ‘Home Loans’ to $3.50 per click in one year. The following year, anything related to mortgages, home loans and the like were hovering around $18.00 per click for the top six listing positions (on the first page of Google).” He adds that, “there were over 6 million results for the term ‘adware and spyware’ when I worked with Symantec back in 2005. Today those same keywords produce over 35.7 million results. This is major reason why search marketing requires professionals who retain the experience to develop and manage both PPC and SEO campaigns.”

The vast majority of consumers are looking for organic results, not PPC ads. Eye studies show that only 10-20% of searchers even look at the PPC portions of search engine results, whereas 70% or more focus on organic results. In addition, there is a perception that the businesses the search engine pulls up are legitimate and trustworthy, while the PPC ads often don’t carry the same credibility. After all, ads are ads. Justin McGill explains in his blog entry, Why do SEO Professionals Dislike PPC? “Increasingly, users have become immune to obvious advertising, resulting in decreased effectiveness of PPC campaigns. This behavior can be attributed to higher levels of trust in the organic search results, natural aversion to the sales pitch, or expectations of better content on a page listed by Google as opposed to one listed by a paying advertiser.”

The goal of SEO is to get your website listed on page one of the search engines. It offers a higher ROI and better results over the long run than PPC, and you should see benefits for years to come. There is a cost associated with SEO and it may take longer than PPC to realize top search results, but once gained (where an ongoing campaign is managed properly) top listing results should continue to appear. Most, if not all, of your site’s pages will be easily found by search engines and consumers at a fraction of the cost of a PPC campaign over time. It’s difficult to maintain a PPC campaign over the long-term, and once you stop paying, you stop appearing. On the other hand, once SEO is in place, it will continue producing results for years to come, if properly managed.

Ideally, if you have the time and the budget, you can integrate both methods to put your website’s pages in front of the highest number of search consumers. It’s highly recommended that you hire a Search Marketing Professional for best results, since both PPC and SEO require specialized strategy and technical know how to get you and keep you on page one. PPC can be useful for short-term campaigns, but in the long run, organic SEO provides more bang for the buck.