Google Adwords Content Network – Get the Most Out of It!

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Google Adwords Content Network – Get the Most Out of It!

Google’s Content Network can be a very powerful tool in your gig bag of PPC Management success. By selecting a simple setting inside your campaign settings, you can literally reach millions of readers / potential customers that Google.com and Google’s Search Network simply doesn’t reach. Read on for PPC Optimization tips and potential hazards when it comes to the Content Network.

Campaign Organization: When setting up your campaigns there are a couple of ways to effectively organize them. One way is to have a single campaign that is enabled for both Google.com (and their search network if you so choose) and Google’s Content Network. When chosing this feature, make sure you select the option that give you control over the bids across both networks. My preferred method is to set up separate campaigns … one is for Google’s Search Network (AOL, Earthlink, Dogpile) and one is for Google’s Content Network. This will allow you to better control the daily / monthly spend since you can only set budget caps at the Campaign Level.

Ad Groups Inside Your Content Network Campaigns. Don’t worry about duplicate keyword issues with the keywords inside your Content Network Ad Groups. Google decides where to show your ads across their Content Network based on the Ad Group relevancy as a whole. This includes both keywords and ad copy. So, remember it this way … Google’s Content Network is NOT keyword driven – it’s relevancy driven. After all, when you see ads on another site that are Sponsored Listings from Google Adsense, you didn’t have to type in a keyword to display those ads.

Laser Target Your Content Network Ad Groups. When adding keywords in your Content Network ad groups, keep the list short and Laser Focused! Remember, Google decides where to show your ads based on the Ad Group relevancy … not based on each keyword. For example, if your business is generating leads for colleges and schools providing nursing degrees, then it makes sense to have an Ad Group in your Search Network campaigns targeting keywords such as “nursing jobs” or “nurse salary”. But, for the Content Network, those keywords should not be in your Ad Group because this give Google the option to show your ads on medical job boards, resume writing sites and other non relevant sites. For the Content Network Ad Groups it’s best to keep your keywords laser focused – in Exact Match format – targeting your specific niche … like [nursing degree] [nursing degrees] [nursing school] [nursing schools] [cna degree] etc.

Placement Reports. Closely monitor your Content Network performance by pulling Placement Reports from Google’s Reporting tool. When you receive enough data to start crunching useful stats, find the Domains that are driving quality / converting traffic to your site.

Site Match Campaigns. Set up Site Match campaigns targeting the converting Domains you identified in your Reports and allocate your budgets accordingly. (Don’t forget to add these domains to your Excluded Domain list for your Content Network Campaigns). Here’s a tip – when analyzing your reports to determine which sites you want to add to your Site Match campaign, calculate your Avg. Cost p/ Impression for that site to start off your Site Match CPM Bid. After you start receiving conversion / sales data from each domain you can then dial in your CPM Bids to achieve your CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) target.

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An Introduction to Search Engine Optimization

admin    Google Optimization     Engine, Introduction, Optimization, Search

An Introduction to Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization, though an integral part of developing a complete web presence, is something that’s often overlooked by both web design companies and their clients alike. This article is meant to serve as an introduction to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and it will be followed with a 2nd article which contains a basic primer on how to go about properly optimizing a site. My intended audience for this first article is the savvy consumer who is trying to educate himself or herself, and the follow-up article will endeavor to help those design/development firms who are only just breaking into the world of SEO.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the process of increasing a site’s ranking on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or MSN. Ideally, you want your business to appear as the first result to someone who is searching for a product or service you provide to your customers. For example, if you own a vegetarian restaurant in Philadelphia, it would significantly increase your restaurant’s exposure if your website were the first result for “vegetarian restaurant Philadelphia” on Google. This type of positioning is the goal of search engine optimization.

Organic Results vs. Paid Results

It is important to understand the difference between organic search results and paid search results. Organic search results are selected and positioned by the search engine itself, with no external bias toward one site over another. With organic searching, the order of results is determined exclusively by the relevance of the site to the user’s specific query, as determined by the search engine’s internal algorithms. Search engine optimization endeavors to “educate” the search engine about a site so that the site will be seen as relevant for certain queries, and therefore given better positioning in the results. This “most relevant site first” method of ordering search results is in sharp contrast to pay-per-click, in which the highest bidder for a given search query is given preference. However, pay-per-click results are generally shown on separate parts of the screen from the main organic results, usually at the top of the window or in a sidebar labeled “sponsored links”. Although there are compelling reasons to launch a pay-per-click campaign as part of your online marketing plan, this article focuses exclusively on organic search optimization.

Won’t the search engines just find my site on their own?

Modern search engines are very adept at crawling the web and creating a comprehensive index that contains every website they come across. However, the algorithms used by search engines take into account many different factors when determining where to position a site, and if your site doesn’t measure up when it comes to some of the more important factors, you will end up buried among thousands or millions of other sites.

Search engines have one goal: to return the most relevant results to a user’s query in order to help them find what they are looking for. Why is it, then, that if you do in fact own a vegetarian restaurant in Philadelphia, your website can still get buried on page 29 for the exact query “vegetarian restaurant in Philadelphia”? One reason for this apparent discrepancy is that search engines don’t view websites the way a person does. When a search engine downloads a web page, it sees only the markup code that was used to create the site – it doesn’t see visual elements like graphics or page layout. If the site hasn’t been optimized, more often than not, the search engine’s back-end view of the site offers little indication of what content is important and what the primary focus of the site is. These search engine “spiders” – the algorithms that do the actual searching and indexing – can make a good guess as to what the site is about, but without a clear understanding of why it would be a great result for a specific search query, the site will end up in a mediocre position at best.

Another reason sites receive a poor ranking is that they simply don’t appear to be very important to the grand scheme of the Internet. Search engines are trying to return the most useful results to their users, so if your content appears to be of little value, and if no other sites on the web are linking back to yours, your site is going to be very poorly positioned. One way to combat this problem is to work to build inbound links, which are links to your site from other sites. This can be accomplished by submitting your site to online directories, participating in forum discussions or blog discussions relevant to your site and including a link back, or by marketing the site via press releases or external product reviews (where applicable). Inbound links, however, aren’t the whole story, and it takes a comprehensive SEO plan to ensure long term, first page positioning, especially in competitive markets.

Why didn’t my web designer optimize my site when he built it?

There is a common misconception that search optimization is simply a matter of altering the design of the site or adding a few keywords to the content, and that such SEO-related tasks should be handled by the web designer prior to the site launch. While it’s true that there are design elements that need to be addressed when optimizing a site, SEO is, in many ways, a marketing effort rather than a technical one. The optimization process involves tasks such as copywriting and press release distribution, which fall well outside the technical realm of web development. In the end, SEO is an entirely separate product and process from the actual web design, and it needs to be treated (and budgeted) as such.

Recall what I said earlier regarding search engines evaluating the overall importance of your site in order to determine its search positioning. Much like a print campaign or TV ad, your goal on the web is to increase brand awareness, because it gives a sense of stability and competitive importance to your company, and it creates a connection between the company and your customers. The idea of brand awareness is well understood and sought after in the marketing world, but it often becomes diluted when crossing over to the web, sometimes to the point of being tacked on as an afterthought to the development of a company website. SEO should, conversely, be considered an integral part of any marketing plan, and should be budgeted and managed separately from web design and development.

Who can optimize my site?

In the world of SEO, it’s very easy to find companies who are essentially selling snake oil. Oftentimes, these companies offer little more than “directory submission”, which, while it is a piece of the SEO puzzle when done correctly, may not affect your positioning at all when done incorrectly (in some cases, it can actually hurt your positioning).  Choosing the right SEO firm can be tricky, but Google has a page dedicated to the most important things to consider when choosing an SEO company. You can find that page here: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291

To add to what Google has suggested on that page, it’s important that the SEO firm you choose offers a plan that is tailored specifically for your website. If their plan seems instead to consist of generic link building and indiscriminate directory submission, it’s likely that you won’t see the kind of results you would ideally expect (if you see any results at all). The SEO company should take the time to detail individual changes to each page of your site, and should suggest new pages to be added. Additionally, any good SEO firm will be able to not only provide analytics and metrics, but will also be able to explain the data’s significance within the context of your specific website.

Conclusion

Search engine optimization should be considered an integral part of developing your company’s web presence, but it’s important to remember that SEO effectively crosses the boundary between technical process and marketing endeavor, so it needs to be managed and budgeted as an independent project, rather than being tacked on as part of the general site design. If your web development company doesn’t offer comprehensive and developed SEO services, it is important to hire a separate SEO firm and facilitate ongoing cooperation between the two companies.

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New Google needs new SEO tips

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New Google needs new SEO tips

Search engine optimization is a continuous process and there has been some new updates and revisions in the Google SEO ranking policy known as algorithm. The task of attaining a good rank with Google is no longer an easy task and now that the trend has changed so we must also mend our ways to set the task right.

The changes which Google has come up with have affected the all over rating of many of the websites but the three major areas which are tremendously affected by the shift are:

1) website history

In today’s scenario, the website history is playing an important role for its webmaster. The history of the website mainly concerns with the date or the duration for which the WebPages of the website exist on the web. In short, the longer your website has been online, the higher are the chances that your website rates higher with Google. So, you need a lot of patience for your website to rank high with Google, however, the first thing you can do is to choose a decent or an appropriate keyword and key phrase, and get good original content for the website whereas, by the time you are finished with doing the optimizing the site will have gained some seasoning online.

In the beginning your concern should be just to gain a fair amount of ranking and a decent traffic while looking for relevant links to increase the inbound links and allow them to stay with you till they get old.

2) Backlinks can make a difference

The link popularity can make a difference to your rankings only when you have had links that have existed with you for a long period of time. Websites with newer links are likely to face the brunt of the new Google SEO policy. So, if you have just launched a website and are looking forward to a good Google ranking, you just need to wait.

What is significant here is that, you must make links that are relevant and can stay with you for a longer period of time. The answer to the question as how to make them stay longer is that, you choose links that are relevant to your business because not any unrelated website link would do. For example, a designer whole website having a link with a designer apparel retail house is meaningful as they are related to each other, even though they might not have the same keyword or keyphrase.

The next thing that must not go without notice is the natural links which have been gaining a lot of importance since the past few years in Google SEO ranking Algorithms.

Natural links are the ones which gain a place in the content of the website. Natural links are always rated higher than unnatural or the links that are mentioned in the website directory. So, it is advised to that you should place the links with the descriptive pattern or rather content of the website. What is also advisable here is that better not create links with similar website or anchor. Such an attempt will be quickly discovered by the search engine. So, better if you anchor different links with your website and place them somewhere within the content of the website.

3) Structure and the content

Unlike the earlier trend the importance of the keyword density has declined a lot and that there is more emphasis on the site based key phrases. The important point here is that Google has been scrutinizing the relevancy of the key phrases also with the content of the site. This hints towards the basic or rather the core process of the website development which should be well planned to get a good SEO ranking. The website structure should be in relevant with purpose and that content should bear a relation with the purpose of the site. Nonetheless, the relevancy or the relation of the keyphrase to the content of the website articles is also very important. So, if in the past just a specific amount of keyword got you a good SEO ranking this time you need to change your strategy.

During the development of the site make sure you have specifically conveyed the purpose of the website all through the content of the WebPages. While link building had been significant, forum formation is also important. Google lays a lot of importance to websites that have created a well planned user friendly, compelling useful content. To conclude the last word here, I would only say that Google give preference to the websites that are there to help users and make web browsing a healthy experience.

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AT T goes from a search in Googles latest Android phone

admin    Google Optimization     Android, From, goes, Googles, latest, Phone, Search

AT T goes from a search in Googles latest Android phone

We gave AT T difficult , removed the Google search, Yahoo on your first phone on Android Backflip , but the carrier now reversed that experiment with new HTC Aria .
In a quick demo video new Aria, AT Ts Product Manager Dante Martin presents the ability to search for a voice device which is powered by Google. We also benefit from a quick look at the home screen search widget, also powered by Google.
All AT T custom applications for Android make a return(Family Maps, Hot Spots, maps, navigator, radio), but it looks like the carrier has left all other Google services on site. Customers who purchase Aria will continue to have access to Gmail, Gtalk, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Navigation and the official Android Market.
At this moment we still have the rank of AT T as the last option for the purchase of equipment for Android, but it may turn out this year. AT T is reportedly to launch a wave of high-end Android phones this summer( Galaxy S Dell Streak LG Aloha ) and its new data cheaper plans average user can save money. The carrier also still boast the nation as soon as 3G, which has given impetus when upgrade to HSPA + (14.4 Mb / s) by the end of 2010.

Via: AT T goes from a search in Googles latest Android phone
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Google Position

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Google Position

For those who type a word into the Google search field it gives you one million results. You’d be swamped by this flood of information in case you didn’t know that the most related results would show in the very first pages. The highest sites occupy prime Google positions. To outlive, and flourish, available in the market you need to catch individuals’s attention. So it’s pure that the competition to get to the highest Google positions is stiff.

However how does one get there? There aren’t any magic formulas. But there are certainly sure common guidelines. First, you’ll want to be affected person, all of the more so if you’re a young site. It’s more durable to get to the top ten on Google than on other search engines like Yahoo.

The traffic-share of different search engines in numerous areas varies greatly. Google controls around 90 per cent of the market in Spain. So should you’ve designed your site nicely you’ve gotten an opportunity to rank high on each vital search engine. However don’t anticipate related positioning on all of them.

If you want to occupy one of many prime Google positions, design your web site with care. Your web site ought to look and skim smart. Select the key phrases well. A search engine ascribes precedence to a website by trying on the web-pages, not at the website itself. Hold this in thoughts when designing your pages.

Try to make the key phrases of your title page simple but memorable. Take care to not sound odd in making an attempt to avoid clichés.

The physique of your text should have a rigorously graded focus of keywords. Begin and finish your textual content in such a approach that the key phrases leap to the eyes. Make them much less distinguished within the middle, otherwise they’ll only distract and irritate the reader.
Optimum keyword density ranges between 5 to 20 per cent. This interprets into 2 to three phrases a page. Don’t cram keywords into a page. Google will interpret this as spam.

To be within the high Google positions your keywords should have high relevance; they should be easily noticed by Google. To make this occur, guantee that each web page of your website carries all the important key phrases and are linked to one another. The content of each web page should remind the reader of what the location as an entire wants to say.

A good number of external links is crucial if you happen to’re to search out your self amongst one of the best Google positions. You’ll be able to go about constructing links by sending your links to different websites and to internet-directories. But you should definitely select you’re associate websites with caution. It’ll aid you if different sites share their links with yours.

Should you can turn out to be in style inside a community of websites that share similar concerns after which on a world scale, it can multiply your links and lead you to the top Google positions in time.

So for those who take note of good content, nicely chosen and well arranged key phrases and plenty of exterior hyperlinks, and don’t lose your endurance, then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t make it to the top Google positions.

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Website Marketing: Google ’staked Its Ground’ With Super Bowl Ad

admin    Google Optimization     'staked, Bowl, Google, Ground, Marketing, Super, Website

Website Marketing: Google ’staked Its Ground’ With Super Bowl Ad

Google’s unprecedented decision to take out a major advert at the Super Bowl is likely to have been a strategic move to step up the battle against Microsoft Bing, website marketing specialists have suggested.

The one-minute commercial aired to hundreds of thousands of American football fans on February 7th featured a simple Google search box and told a Parisian love story narrative through search queries.

Google is estimated to have paid million (£3.2 million) for the advertising slot.

Analysts and media pundits believe that by taking advantage of one of the most high-profile – and exclusive – advertising venues in the US market, Google was effectively “staking its ground” as king of the search engines.

Early last month, Google reported a year-on-year revenue growth of 17 per cent, with impressive fourth-quarter profits of .67 billion (£4.12bn).

David Hallerman, a senior website marketing analyst for eMarketer, said Google made the move not so much to establish itself, but to take away a little market share from its competitors.

“It’s a way of staking ground,” he said, adding that the Super Bowl was the perfect choice for Google to ensure it made the biggest possible impact because “the Super Bowl is a one-of-a-kind venue for advertisers.”

Mr Hallerman compared the advert to Pixar’s recent box office smash Up, because it created a heartfelt picture of a relationship without audio or major on-screen action.

“Bringing emotion through search queries and showing the life behind it is extremely effective advertising,” said Mr Hallerman.

However, he noted that the battle of the search engines was far from over, adding that Google’s competition from Microsoft was not to be underestimated.

Clint Boulton, writing for eWeek, notes that Microsoft Bing was used for 11 per cent of search engine requests in the US in January, stealing market share from Google and sinking search rival Yahoo!

Google notched 65.4 per cent of US searches, down from 65.7 per cent in December.

Meanwhile, Yahoo! claimed 17 per cent of the market, down from 17.3 per cent a month earlier.

However, the deal that Yahoo! signed with Microsoft last July essentially places Bing in place of Yahoo! search and Yahoo!’s ad sales in place of Microsoft’s.

In this arrangement, notes Mr Boulton, Microsoft in reality has a 28 per cent of the market – which poses a serious threat to Google.

Making Google Work for you

admin    Google Optimization     Google, Making, Work

Making Google Work for you

When you think about search engines, likely the first name that springs to mind is Google. A popular and fast search engine, it has come to be relied upon by many as the first place people head to when they want to search the billions of pages of information on the world wide web in order to find the specific information they need. For those individuals with an online business, Google takes on new meaning. These individuals want their online storefront represented adequetely. In order to do this, it has become clear that procuring search engine optimization services can be one way to making Google work for you.

An search engine optimization company can improve both the number and quality of visitors that stop to peruse your website, and take some kind of action you wish of them. Internet marketing services will look at what actions you wish customers to take. This might be purchasing something, or downloading some type of information, or filling out some kind of action form. A good search engine optimization company can help improve your web business’s conversion rate of number of visitors to your site versus the number of visitors who take the action you request.

Google, like most other major search engines, searches the Internet for key words that you have entered, and then they index the specific words and their locations, after which they allow you to search the index for the information you desire. Google was started at Stanford University and originally was used as an academic search engine. Google relies of web robots, called spiders, to search for the keyword you type in, and all pages that link to its initial search findings. Not only do the spiders have to work quickly, but delays must be minimized by having an optimized system for sending information to the spiders. To make this happen, Google utilizes its own domain name server to maximize speed.

Spiders used in Google look for keywords on a webpage and where those keywords are located on the page. The spiders start at the top of the page, moving to the bottom, and also start from left to right. This means that if your keywords are located at the top left side of the page the spider will get to it sooner than if it is located farther down the page. Knowing this, an SEO company can create content for your website so that your specific useful keywords relevant to your website appear in the most strategic places in the content, making it quicker and easier for the spiders to find them.

Optimization helps boost your website in the index listing that you see on your computer screen. Although several pages of index are available, many people confine their search to the first page, and even the top few results on the first page. SEO can help move your website further up the list, improving the chances that a visitor will stop at your site. Google also offers more refined searches, including local searches, product searches, web page translations so that foreign readers can understand your website’s content and more that an SEO company can utilize to your advantage.

Why You Really Need Search Engine Optimization

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Why You Really Need Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is something that no company that keeps a presence online can afford to ignore. The internet is difficult, if not entirely impossible to navigate without the the use of a search engine like Google, and when you think about all the traffic that filters through Google on a daily basis, it is obvious that search engine optimization can serve as an enormous benefit to business that draw some or all of their customers through their webpage.

Through search engine optimization, you will take advantage of the people who are coming through search engines like Google. The goal of search engine optimization is to ensure that the link to your site is as close to the top of the list of natural search results as possible when words relating to their business are searched. Because more than fifty percent of all purchases online are preceded by the use of a search engine and because people seldom tend to look below the first four or five results of their search, it can be seen that search engine optimization is an important part of getting the web traffic that you need.

Search engine optimization offers many advantages over traditional methods of advertising. When you succeed in optimizing your page for search engine results, you have also succeeded in making a page that is considered to be relevant and valuable to the search topic. One of the most important things about search engine optimization, however, is the fact that it is self-motivated, directed advertising. Essentially, no one wants to be bombarded with ads and links when they don’t have time or aren’t in the mood. With search engine optimization, however, your prospective customers are already searching for you, and when they find your page, they’ll be pleased and grateful.

Whether you offer high tech networking solutions or you are an artist with a budding online gallery, it cannot be overstated that you need make sure that you can grab the attention of people who may become customers. If you are looking to work with search engine optimization techniques, there are many places to start. Considering building your keyword density and ensuring that you provide plenty of context for those keywords; Google is definitely sophisticated enough to pick up on sites that merely stuff their pages with lists of keywords. Think about building an article archive or a glossary to help you with this. You can also try to raise your position with Google through a concentrated effort at link building. Through link building, that is, making sure that plenty of sites link to you without your providing a link in return, you can make sure that your standing with the search engine goes up.

If you are interested in search engine optimization but aren’t sure where to start, there are plenty of professionals and consultants who can help you out. These people carry out optimization projects on behalf of their customers and their services can range from simple advice to working with the HTML code of your webpage. No matter how you do it, make sure that you don’t let this important resource leave your website in the dust!

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