There is a unique relationship between the inbound marketing efforts that we undertake when it comes to on-site marketing and off-site marketing. In a way, this relationship could be described as a push and pull of traffic to a website.
The Analytics Proving a Successful Social Campaign
Over the last month or so there been millions of impressions on thousands of creative videos, and social media has helped raise $100 million and counting for ALS research through the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge social campaign.
Be skeptical. In the world of SEO, anyone can call themselves an expert. Many so-called SEO gurus are operating on guesswork ("It worked for me!"), outdated knowledge ("Stuff those keywords!") and outright lies ("I'll be gone by the time they know it!). In fact, quite a few popular SEO tips either do nothing at all or can be outright harmful to your business.
When you start looking at your keyword options for Adwords, you'll discover that there are a few basic keyword types that you can use when choosing which searches trigger your ads. By picking the right match at the right time, you can better hit the audience that is going to get you the results that you want.
In PPC advertising, you need to know that your ads and landing pages are effective. A/B testing can help you determine what is working and what is bleeding your campaign of funds.
When it comes to traffic generation, the building block of any digital initiative, you need to be savvy in how you reach and engage the highest number of qualified visitors to your website. In terms of the search landscape, and for this purpose, specifically Google search results, searchers should be introduced to as many click-through opportunities as possible. The more “real estate” that your business owns on the first page of Google Search results, the better chance you have of gaining a new visitor.
Below is an image of the typical Google Search result page, specifically a search for ‘denver inbound marketing agency’. Following that, we describe the 4 main elements of the page that we advise businesses capitalize on.
The most popular form of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) or Paid Search is Google AdWords. Carefully crafted AdWords can be a very cost-effective way of generating quality traffic to your website and boosting your sales. If you do it right, your business can attract a wealth of new prospects. But if you do it wrong, it is just another advertisement that doesn’t work.
If you think your business can’t take advantage of this online marketing opportunity, you might want to think again because this can be the perfect way to draw attention. Because it’s pay-per-click, you pay only if prospects click and visit your website. But, of course, you do want them to visit, so you have to create killer AdWords copy that will really get your prospect’s attention:
- The headline: This is the first thing that prospects will notice. Although it can contain no more than 25 characters, the headline must immediately grab their attention. You can’t use any punctuation except a question mark, and use of all capitals is not permitted. Try to put one of your keywords right up there in the headline because it will appear in bold and have more chance of motivating prospects to click-through to your website. If you don't use a keyword, remember to keep it relevant to entice prospects to click.
- Body copy: You have two descriptive lines to make your case for why this prospect should visit your website. Each of these rows can only have up to 35 characters so each word must be strong. Include at least one keyword and highlight what makes your company different. Promote any special offers or pricing. Use a strong call to action like “call today,” “order now,” “sign up,” or “get a quote” to let prospects know what they should do next.
- Display URL: AdWords lets you choose a brief but meaningful display URL, which can be no more than 35 characters. This may be different from your destination URL, which can be as long as 1024 characters. Make sure that the landing page you take prospects to matches what they saw in your ad.
It's easy to get confused about the importance of keywords. Some people come to a mistaken belief that everything on your site should be optimized all the time. Others, also mistakenly, think that we're in a post keyword era and that they can safely be ignored. While search engines continue to evolve their algorithms, keywords remain an integral part of good SEO. However, they need to be used wisely. A few tips on where they count and where they do not: