Build web authority and trust to place better on Google.com.
It is not unusual for a new page on your website, or for that matter a new website to place, well initially in the organic search results and then drop in placement over time. Why?
Matt Cutts at Google explains why there are fluctuations in organic placement on Google.com in this video found on YouTube http://youtu.be/BzfK6isC7CA.
Here’s a synopsis of his comments as to why there is fluctuation:
As Google spiders the Web, it may find similar content knocking down your placement.
New content may be created over time that is more recent and knocks down your content’s placement.
Google initially boosts the page and then drops it if over time it does not garner backlinks.
Google is initially guessing where a page should place and then understands later due to links and co-citation if the page should continue to stay highly placed.
AdWords remarketing has been around for a while, but AdWords has made some nice changes recently and if you haven’t tried remarketing or tried it previously and did not have success, it is time to try it again.
Remarketing audiences are easy to set up. You’ll access the audience creation feature from the slide out library menu on the left of your Google AdWords control panel. Go to the Shared Library and then Audiences. Build a new audience for your needs. I recommend one to target the whole website and then refine to specific audiences using tag rules.
Once your audience is set up, AdWords will generate code. Get your webmaster to install the code in all pages of your website. Make sure to update your privacy policy as you need to be transparent on what you are now doing and allow people to opt out of remarketing. There are some good privacy policy examples out there already for you to use as a starting point for your updates.
Then create a new Display campaign. At set up, select remarketing as your option and the steps are very simple you will select your audience (pulled from your shared library) and then create text and display ads using the Display Ad Builder.
Once your audience lists hits 100 people, Google will start to serve ads. I have to say from experience that this process is now so simple and streamlined that it should be used by every account using AdWords. I like to set the daily budget at about $10 a day and pay about $.79 a click for most account initially. I have found that nearly all account are having conversion success with remarketing.
If you haven’t given AdWords remarketing a look, now’s the time to check it out to see if it would work for you
In continuation from Tuesday in this blog post on trends for business website marketing and visibility, I’ll talk about Google+ Local pages and YouTube.
Google+ Local Pages Also Known as Google Places
Big changes happened last year for Google+ Local pages. First, Google removed many of the fields you can use to add information, removing any degree of optimization you could previously do on keywords. Once the account is set up, what the customer sees about your business is limited. Google now returns listings not based on optimization or the number of reviews but based on the smartphone user’s location. For desktop searches, Google Places/Local Page listings are shown based on proximity to your location and possibly in some markets based on the number of reviews and possibly again on click through rates.
What a business owner used to be able to do to get placement on location specific keywords is gone. We do still recommend a regular update of videos and pictures on the account, but there is simply not a lot of updating to be done once the account is set up. In fact in the last three months, Google even removed the owner’s comment field where promotions and specials were listed.
YouTube Videos
For many businesses we work with, YouTube is still “undiscovered country”. Many business owners feel that they have to pay to have professionally created video for YouTube, but actually even videos made with your phone or camera are considered the same to Google. Videos that show your products, explain your services, explain briefly a concept are still excellent for business owners to use for exposure. As videos may be shown in with organic results and not even associated with a link to your website utilizing YouTube better should be a New Year’s resolution for business owners for 2014.
Product Listing Ads Now Called Google Shopping Campaigns in AdWords
If you have an ecommerce store and are an AdWords advertiser and are not using Product Listing Ads – soon to be called Google Shopping Campaigns, you are missing out on one of the best things that Google has brought to the AdWords arena. Google shows pictures of products within the organic results and you pay be the click for activity on your store products. Although the data feed is onerous to create and requires much more than just a download of your products (it requires the use of Google’s own taxonomy for each product,) implementation can really boost your individual product sales. Your competition is already embracing Google Shopping Campaigns!
2013 has brought us some sweeping changes at Google. It will be interesting to see how these important changes will impact business and visibility as we enter 2014.
Confused about how to effectively promote your business on the Web?
As a online business marketing provider and small advertising agency since 2001, this post is about my identification of trends that will impact online visibility and business for 2014.
Google AdWords
Everyday I am getting more calls from old clients who state – “Our business has lost placement. We’ve been doing some things ourselves over the past years and now we know we need professional help. We seem to have simply fallen out of the Google index and need to get fast exposure and leads. Can you help us?” In fact in the last 10 days alone I have had five calls just like this.
What Google did in 2013 is now bleeding over into 2014; with businesses being pushed right into AdWords to get exposure and sales leads. Many prospects ask “Isn’t there a better way to get sales other than paying for them in pay per click? Won’t blogging get me sales?” Hands down the best way to increase revenue is to get into pay per click. Although for some clients Bing may be the right place to start, typically it is best to start off in AdWords.
Organic Placement and Blogging
The new SEO model is not about anchor text, volumes of links, or even article marketing – rather the new SEO is about relevant, unique, quality content for your website and blog. I am seeing very few clients invest in blog postings with a three day a week frequency, rather the preferred trend is to buy longer more authoritative blog posts with a one post per week frequency.
Although I am still getting clients that want keyword density, keyword anchor text links, and think they want article marketing, using these tactics now for placement on Google may actually push your site into one of Google’s filters that looks like a penalty.
Tune in Thursday for our trends on Google+ Local and You Tube.
