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Google Explains the Name HotPot

Google sent me a note on Twitter when I tweeted about Google HotPot recently when I had blogged about it last week. Turns out there actually is a story behind this queer name they chose for their terrific new online review interface.

“Hot pot, the dish, is about community. You and your friends huddle together and add ingredients to a pot of boiling broth, creating a delicious soup to be enjoyed by all. Sometimes you take your own food from the pot, and sometimes you taste what your friends have added. This shared experience of gathering around a fire to cook and eat communally is a fundamental illustration of how we’ve come together to enjoy food from the earliest days of humanity.” Read the full article on the HotPot blog.

So it appears that the Google HotPot team is watching Twitter which that in itself is an interesting note. Okay I’m not sure I buy into the HotPot thing for food, who wants people double dipping into food you actually will eat, but the concept of sharing information on reviews, restaurants, businesses, hair salons, all makes perfect sense.

I like Google HotPot, it is similar to Four Square, but I like HotPot better as I can be at my computer updating Facebook and jot a note in HotPot. I don’t have to be on my mobile phone to write a review like you do with Four Square. The sharing aspect is cool and I am personally using it to write reviews for the local businesses that I use.

Even more interesting for me is that HotPot is integrated with Google.com and Google Places. So anyone who is in my HotPot group has their reviews shown on my Google.com searches and all HotPot reviews appear on Google Places. I think Google has a winner with HotPot, but here are a few names that I ask them to consider while they are at it: Stew Pot, Add to My Stew, Fondue It, Tell Me More, Crazy Spot. What weird and wonderful names can you think of? Just put them in comments below. Google appears to be listening.

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It’s Christmas Eve!

I want to take this moment to thank all my readers and clients for this past year. I have enjoyed tremendously working, communicating, and sharing with each one of you and look forward to a wonderful new year ahead.

Have a Merry Christmas tomorrow and next week a Happy New Year.

I will be on vacation next week and will be back blogging on January 3rd.

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Are You Watching Your Website Stats? Why Not?

You can’t find out if your website is working for you if you never take a look at your website statistics! It is great to have a website and every business should have one, but sometimes just having one is not enough. Sometimes you need to “nurture” and “feed” your website to help it be the best promotion vehicle in your advertising arsenal.

When I say “nurture” and “feed” your website I mean specifically know what your website visitors are looking for when they come to visit, how long they stay, and what they do when they get there. I have found in many cases by a careful analysis of website statistics will allow us to recommend new pages, optimization, and areas for enhanced engagement with readers. Here’s just one example: from the integrated web search report we get for a client we found over and over that users were searching for a specific product. Based on this information, to make it easy for them to find it and to feed sales, we created new content on the home page to speak to this need and point readers to the shopping and more information sections on the product. In other cases, reviewing Google Analytics, we have found new search terms to use for optimization of content, new terms for AdWords programs, and services that readers are looking for and possibly not finding.

One key indicator to review in Google Analytics is a page’s bounce rate. Over 75% and you have some challenges that you need to address as your readers are not finding what they want or you are directing untargeted traffic to the page with pay per click programs and may need to add negative keywords to your program to cut costs and be more targeted.

A careful review of  your website statistics can be used to really review your online health. It is more than a gage of how many visitors you have a day, the wealth of information can help you develop new services, cater to an audience, and more carefully target pay per click advertising. As Google Analytics is free, there is simply no reason you should not be tracking and reviewing what is going online with your website.

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Know Your Cost Per Acquisition to Be Profitable with AdWords

To use pay per click advertising successfully you really need to know what your cost per acquisition is or rather how much you are willing to spend to get a new customer and still have profit left over. Without knowing your cost per acquisition, you can actually be paying Google AdWords for each new customer sale you make or each new customer your get. Google will work hard to spend your money, but it is your job to make AdWords profitable for you.

So, do you know how much it costs for each customer? How to you figure this out? A lead conversion in Google AdWords does not mean a sale. The formula for each business is different. One of my clients told me that for their business, it takes 10 leads to make a sale. Typically the higher the value or price of your service, the more lead conversions you will need to make a sale.

AdWords will track the lead conversions for you, but you need to track sales generated and each month look at the sales generated, total spent on advertising in all areas and then extrapolate to determine your cost per acquisition. In some cases when clients review this information they find which avenue is a better lead generator for their business or that one is more cost effective to use than another. Without this additional information and careful review, you may be spending more than you should on generating new business.

Once you know your desired or average cost per acquisition, Google AdWords has some excellent tools to help balance your traffic and cost per click to keep you within your profit restraints. The conversion optimizer with a maximum cost per acquisition setting is an excellent tool. You can balance what you want to spend with what Google recommends. Remember however that Google is in the business to serve clicks and you need conversions and sales so make sure that the setting you use does not stretch your margin too tightly.