PPC Accountability

When we started Page 1 in 2001, almost nobody understood the value of PPC - pay per click - as a marketing tool. At that time, top listings for keyword searches - that today might cost $10 per click - could be had on the major search engines for 5 cents (yes, I did say cents) per click. In those days, it was almost impossible not to make money using an aggressive PPC strategy. We might spend $20 - $30 per month and the client would get leads worth many thousands of dollars.

Today, it is a different story. All your competitors know about PPC and many have implemented aggressive PPC strategies. So how can you be successful?

Conversion Tracking.

The key to a successful PPC campaign is to be able to track which keywords actually generate your leads. It is not enough to know which keywords are generating the most clicks - or costing you the most money, you have to know which ones generate leads to your practice. Then work backwards to figure out which are the most cost effective search phrases - on a cost per LEAD basis - in addition to a cost per click basis.

We can help you with this. Just ask one of our account managers....

Links for the Search Engines

The other day I posted a blog entry about content and links, but I ran out of time, so I just focused on content. Today, I am going to talk a little about links.

The basic concept is that if you have your website properly optimized and it has relevant content, links from credible web pages back to your website and to internal pages within your website will improve the credibility of your site in the eyes of the search engine and boost your rankings.

This concept flows from Google's page rank and indexing algorithms. Mere mortals like us really don't know the specifics of either of these algorithms, but we do know the basics and 99 times out of 100, that is enough to get you lots of business.

Search engines like Google are trying to give results that their consumers (people doing the searches) will want to see. How do they figure that out. First is the content. It is easy (relatively) for Google to spider through every page of your website and index what is there. The question is, how does Google know to rank your website higher or lower than one of your compeitors (who's website is about the same thing)? Well, we believe that the Google algorithm counts the links that point back to your website. All other things being equal, if your site has a higher link count than your competitor, your site is more likely to rank higher than your competitor. But it is not just the number of links back to your site. Some links are worth more than others. The more credible a website is (think New York Times, Harvard University, etc.) the higher the value of a link from that site. Similarly, if the web page that links to you is related to the topic of the link, the more valuable the link.

So how do you get more links and how do you get links from credible websites?

1. Directories. Get links from as many directories as you can. Many are free and others charge a one-time or annual fee to consider your website for inclusion in their directory. For the most part, I am not referring to directories that exhibit at the conventions. Those are extremely expensive directories and Google and other search engines recognize that it is purely a pay-to-play option. To be sure, they have some linking value, but if you want to spend the big bucks for those directories, make sure you are getting traffic and leads. Don't just do it for the link value.
The directories that I am talking about here are general directories. They list thousands of different categories of businesses and break them down by region of the World and country. The highest profile directories are www.DMOZ.org (free) and directory.Yahoo.com. The latter charges $299 per year for a listing. But there are hundreds more. And, while some people will tell you that listings on many of these second and third tier directories have no value, I beg to differ. Each link from a directory has some value - even if a little bit - and it may be the edge that puts you over the top.
2. Article Syndication (what we call ePR). Write articles about areas of your expertise and submit them to article directories. Each of your articles should have one or more links back to relevant pages of your website. Many websites want to post articles from you because it enhances their content - a good thing for them (see my earlier post). These links are coming from related pages (since you wrote them about areas of your expertise) and since the pages they come from are relevant to the pages they link to, Google and the other search engines tend to value them more than links from unrelated pages.
3. "Dot EDU" links. Earlier I mentioned that Google values links from sites that it considers credible. Consequently, links from universities and government institutions are highly valued since they are viewed as less likely to be artificial (paid for). It is not easy to get links from ".edu" sites, but if you spend the time necessary to find them, you may well hit the jackpot - and what a jackpot it is. One or two good links (the best is from a relevant page) can push your website right to the top of the listings. Always, always make sure that you get listings from your schools in the schools' alumni directories. Also, if you are on any charitable organizations, make sure they list you on their websites. Of course, a listing has only limited value if it does not link back to your website - so ask for the link. If you get just a few good links, it may be the difference between you being #1 and your competitor.
4. Purchase links. You have to be careful here, but there are many website owners who will sell links to you from within their websites. You want to make sure that the links you purchase are not obviously paid for (make sure they don't say Sponsored or Advertising near your link). And be careful to avoid links from pages where there are hundreds of other links. You want your link to be one of a few going out from a credible page and, ideally, the other links are to highly credible websites - increasing your credibility by being in the same company. Also, you want your link to be from within the text of the page and, ideally, to an internal page of your site. Don't make them all link to the home page.

Alright, I am running out of steam again.... A couple more notes before signing off:
1. Avoid reciprocal links. They don't do much for either party.
2. Avoid link farms. Links from pages with hundreds of other links are considered "bad neighborhoods" by many experienced SEO specialists. If you are in a lot of "bad neighborhoods" the search engines will start to wonder....
3. Content. Content. Content. If you don't simultaneously focus on making your website the best information resource available in your market for your area of expertise, all the links in the world will not get you there - or at least they won't keep you there. Search engines like Google are looking for natural link development. A natural link is one that points to a site because the information on that site (or more specifically, that page) is a good information resource for its readers. If you don't develop your website's content, all the link building will appear artificial since few website owners would be likely to link to you without some compensation.

Something to think about - link bait, also known as link magnets. More on that someday soon.

Remember, ask for the link. If you don't ask, you probably won't get one.

Until next time.

Content and Links

This is my first post on the 24-7 AMs Blog and I want to reiterate my mantra:

More Content + More Links = More Business!


The bottom line with website marketing - whether you are a cosmetic dentist, a cosmetic surgeon, a LASIK surgeon, or a personal injury lawyer - you need to get aggressive about your content. It is no longer enough to optimize a basic website. We used to be able to get great results with that. Now, it is much more competitive and we have to work hard to get to Page 1 and stay there. And by "we" I mean both Page 1 and you - the client.

The most important thing you can do for your site is develop and implement an ongoing plan to add content. Not just any content. It needs to be information that is useful and interesting to consumers - your potential patients or clients. People are looking for information. If you become their information resource, when they are ready to purchase your services, they will come to you. You can provide that information in a blog - as long as you post regularly - or by regularly adding and updating new pages on your website. Ideally, you do both. The more you do, the better you will do.

At Page 1, we write a lot of that content for our clients, but if you really want to dominate your market, you need to get involved and write some too. The more, the merrier.

Get it?!?

Now, the second part is links. Links are the way that search engines evaluate your credibility. The more links you have pointing into your site, the better. However, links alone are not enough. Search engines will only respect links if there is solid content that justifies the links. The natural link building approach is to write lots of content about interesting things and wait for websites to link to you. We can jumpstart that process by purchasing links or exchanging links, but you still need great content that continually expands and evolves or the search engines will perceive the links to be what they are - artificial.

There are several good ways to obtain links and I will write more about each in subsequent issues, but the best are:

Directory Listings - we do this as part of our service at Page 1, but there are some directories that you need to pay for and they tend to be more valuable than the free listings. You should pay extra for them.
Article Syndication - what we refer to as ePR. Write articles - or let us write articles - with links back to your site. We will get them published. This really helps. Again, the more you do, the better.
Other Link Building strategies include purchasing links, exchanging links and more.

Keep coming back to learn more.

To Catch a Spider

You may be wondering what I'm talking about, so I'll let you in on the secret. It's a mysterious creature known as the Search Engine Spider. Until this morning, even I only had a vague awareness of what they actually do. Since I've recently been educated, I thought I'd pass on my knowledge.

So we are all (hopefully) aware that search engine spiders are the vehicle that gets you to the first page of Google, but what exactly are they? What do they see when they look at your website?

Your Friendly, Neighborhood Spider
A search engine spider is a cleverly written, always changing program that the various search engines send out to continuously look over website pages. The information that they come in contact with is then stored based on the ranking, relevancy and variables set by the different search engines. Not all spiders are created equal, though, and different engines have different criteria.

What They See
A spider really doesn't care for the design of your website. They want to go straight for the heart of it, the content. They are always searching for new information and have some definite dislikes:

• Flash pages - a little judicious use of Flash is ok, but the spiders can't read anything on a website constructed entirely in Flash.
• JavaScript
• Text in Images
• Dynamic pages - identified by #, &, ? and = in the url
  

Some Likes
What makes the spiders happy? A handful of things really get them excited.

• TITLE tags
• META tags
• Heading tags
• Relevant content with good keyword phrases
  

A few things to also consider when designing and optimizing a website: duplicate content, keywords, and pleasing design. Duplicate content is a huge hang-up that I run into. If you think you can get away with it, think again. You may be successful for a while, but eventually it will catch up to you. I've seen websites results slip slowly, plummet, or even be black-listed by search engines. And these spiders are getting smarter everyday. You used to be able to just stuff keywords and locations anywhere in a sentence and the spiders would be fine with that. Now, however, they can recognize that. You need to be thoughtful and careful about where you place your keywords; they need to flow with the rest of the content. Lastly, pleasing design. You aren't just out to impress the spiders, you have to think of the people that are viewing the website. You can be top dog on Google, but if you site is poorly designed, you won't get any business out of it.