The SEO Website Report must be the first step of any SEO project initiation. Without a thorough SEO Website Report it is not possible to determine the current Search Optimization status or future recommendations. The SEO Website Report is the base document from which SEO Strategic Planning will be developed.

The following evaluation criteria are not strictly Search Engine Optimization and include other related issues which are required to make a website successful. SEO should utilize a heuristic approach for the overall good of the website.

SEO Website Report – What’s Included

The SEO Website Report should provide a comprehensive report of all aspects of the web sites current use of the various techniques to:

• Obtain good results in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)
• Increase website traffic
• Improve website conversions
• Evaluate website usability

SEO Website Report – Organic Search Optimization

Organic Search Optimization is the foundation of a well developed and presented website. Getting it right is crucial to long term Optimization and business goals.

The following items should be analysed by your SEO Consultant during the initial SEO Website Report:

• Web page URLs
• Keyword selection and content integration
• Use of various media images/video/audio
• META tags including Title, Description, Alt and Keyword
• Web development code including Javascript and CSS
• Inbound link quality, quantity and anchor text

SEO Website Report – Competitive Analysis

Understanding your website’s competition is just not crucial to your website’s success it is critical to the success of any business regardless of the trading environment online or offline.

A comparative analysis should be completed on a minimum of 3 competitors. However a comprehensive investigation of the website’s competitors that achieve top 5 results for your primary keywords should be investigated. Depending on business niche this may include a high number of competitors.

The competitive analysis should investigate the following:

• Competitors keyword/keyword phrase usage
• Rankings for high value keywords
• Assessment of inbound links for quality, quantity and anchor text
• A visual evaluation and assessment of general website issues

SEO Website Report – Pay Per Click

Pay Per Click is a valuable tool when properly utilised to drive targeted traffic to your website. However, due to PPC advertising cost’s ability to become excessive quickly careful analysis of current programs is required.

SEO Website Report issues which require evaluation include:

• PPC keyword and keyword phrase usage and cost
• Pay Per Click advertising companies used
• Evaluation of advertising copy
• Landing page analysis

SEO Website Report – Social Media Utilization

Social Media and Networking is potentially beneficial however, in my opinion business niche related.

Social Media evaluation should include:

• Assessment of current Social Networking utilization
• Evaluation of Social Media opportunities for business niche
• Blog usage, frequency and blog commenting

SEO Website Report – Website Usability

Web Usability has a significant impact on website visitors. A successful SEO program which increases website traffic can be a waste of time and money if the website is not immediately usable and user-friendly.

Website Usability issues to be evaluated include:

• Information Architecture
• Website navigational structure
• Evaluate content for clear and concise writing
• Clear and intuitive web interface

SEO Website Report – Conversion Optimization

There are numerous issues which affect the success of web site conversions. Some of these issues are related to web usability and others can be combined within a Pay Per Click advertising analysis.

Conversion optimization evaluation will evaluate some of the following issues which potentially affect conversion rates:

• Professionalism of web design
• Ad copy and Landing pages for keyword relevance and calls to action
• The Conversion funnel pages leading to the final conversion objective
• The website processes such as shopping carts etc

SEO Website Report – Recommendations

The recommendations section of the SEO Website Report is of course one of the most important aspects of the report. Essentially any report no matter the topic is to discover the problems and to suggest recommendations to resolve them.

In general the recommendations section will provide an outline on an issue by issue basis of how the SEO project should proceed. The recommendation section of the initial SEO Website Report is not meant to be a substitution for SEO Strategic Planning which will provide your business with additional goal analysis and in-depth details of how the recommended tasks will be completed.

SEO Website Report – The Cost

The cost of the SEO Website Report will of course vary depending on the size and complexity of the website. Some SEO firms will provide a free initial report however, remember you get what you pay for a good report takes time and effort to prepare.

The most common method of providing SEO Website Reports is a quote based the expected time involved at a specified hourly rate. Many SEOs will rebate the initial cost of the report if the client proceeds with an SEO Program.

SEO Website Report – The Conclusion

The SEO Website Report is required if you are to develop an effective Search Optimization program. As with everything we do shortcuts just don’t work and often end up with extra costs and time being required to accomplish the sought-after goals.

As the old saying goes “Do it once Do it right”

source:  www.seowizardry.ca

Lets start out with Google and do a search on Google Local to find it. You will notice that two results show up Google maps and Google Local Business Center. This is because they are both the same.

In Google I have typed in the search term “honda new jersey” notice that they have the same ranking in Google maps and Google local listing.

So What is Google local?

Google Local is a service from Google that lets you search business pertaining to a particular locality and find all the contact information including the exact location. It is more or like the traditional yellow pages, gone completely online.

To use Google Local go to http://local.google.com

When you go to Google Local you can sign up for a New account or if you have a current Google id you can sign in with your current Google ID.

 So let’s presume you do have a Google account:

Lets begin with Adding a Listing.

As you can see above there are a lot of fields that you can fill out.  The important  thing is that Google Local almost works like a Search Engine where each of these fields depicts where your search results show up overall.  So you really “NEED TO OPTIMIZE” this listing to show up in the Search  Engines.

Next would be to add Basic Information

Tip #1  What you put in for your company/Organization is very important. You want (1) The company name (2) The keywords you are trying to optimize. For example we put “  Izmo Honda- Honda Dealership in New Jersey.

Tip# 2  Always put your exact address and avoid putting a 1-800 number.

Tip#3  Put in a long description and try to add several keywords.

Adding Categories would be the next step

Tip# 1  Always research in Google web search for keywords. What do I mean by that? Well Google Local/Map lsitings only appear in Google’s regular web search for certain keywords. For example, if you type in the keyword “used honda new jersey” No Google/Local Maps appears. I would not waste time optimizing for this page for “used honda new jersey” but would concentrate on organic search positioning.

Tip #2  Google’s Suggest categories usually appear in the listings

Tip #3  If you don’t see a suggested category you can type in your owm category

Tip #4  Choose as many categories as possible (5) is the maximum

Tip #5  If you can’t find a category that does not show up in Google Web Search but fits by all means use it.

Other information you can add:

You have to tell Google what time you work. There are some set time slots which you can select from, or you can give your own custom timmings.  Next up on the same page you have to give in your payment options select from all the methods you will accept to recieve payments from clients. You can optionally slect a photo to show up near your listings. It could be a logo or something recognizable. You can also upload videos that will help explain your business listings. If you have a video yoloaded on You Tube you can provide the url and it will be up. Additionally you can also provide any extra information regarding your business in the last column.

Verification Process ( Important)

Once you are satisfied with your settings click submit and Google will ask for a verification preference. This is a step to ensure that ou are actually a genuine business establishment. There are three types:

-By Phone

-By SMS

-By Snail Mail

On either method Google will give you a verification code that you have to use to verify the listing. As soon as you activate the verification pin code it takes a few hours before the listing gets active. Please be sure to double check your information befote it gets active.

Benefits of Google Local Listings:

-Zero Bounce Rate advertising- The listings are very appropriate and targeted

-Free and easy set up

-Works for all businesses regardless of size and shape

-Listings appear above regular search results

- Higher Conversion rates

- You can add unlimited listings

- You can get listed in Google Maps

-  You can connect a Google API to your site maps for a great contact form

-Google Recieves more traffic than all competing search engines combined

- Its absolutely Free!

Let’s say you are moving your website to a new domain, how would you do that without affecting your website performance in the Search Engine results.
When you move your site a 404 Error page (File Not Found) will hamper a user’s experience and can negatively impact your site’s performance.

Here are some useful tips on what you need to do:
- You need to move the contents of one directory or sub domain and test the move after which you need to use a 301 Redirect to permanently redirect those pages on your old site to your new site. This will tell Google and other search engines that your site has permanently moved.

- After this you need to check to see if the pages on your new site appears in the search engine result pages. If you are satisfied it is now safe enough for you to move your entire site. To gain a good user experience a page to page redirect is recommended although time consuming it will give the users a consistent experience.

Now what if your brand has changed or maybe your are looking at a re-design you would first want to move your site and then launch your redesign.

- Both external and internal links need to be thoroughly checked and make sure that all the pages with the in coming links are redirected to your new site.

- Add your new site to your webmaster tools account and then create and submit a sitemap listing all the urls of your new site.

- Lastly verify and keep both your old and new site verified in webmaster Tools and look for crawl errors regularly also make sure that that there are no unwanted 404 errors.

Face book is a Social Utility that connects you with the people around you. Originally it was started in 2004 as a closed community for college students. Today there are over 120 million active users. Face book has been adding 250,000 new users each day since January 2007. It is the 4^th most trafficked website and the most trafficked social media site. It is also considered the Top Social Search Engine. There are over 55,000 networks on Face book and more than half are outside of college and the fastest demographic is 25 years and older. There are two kinds of marketing Outbound and Inbound Marketing. Typically Outbound Marketing would be TV ads, Newspaper, Radio, direct mail, Email blasts etc, but overtime these methods have become ineffective, these are old school methods that rely heavily upon buying time to get someone’s attention, But these days almost everyone has Tivo, or Satellite radios or subscribe to RSS Feeds and have spam filters that are keeping away from delivering your messages as an advertiser. In bound marketing involves a much more effective approach of delivering your message through Blogs, SEO, Social Media, PR groups and Online reviews to get your audience interested in you and your products and services.

Outbound marketing methods like trade shows, direct mail, email blasts really interrupt your users. It is like hitting someone with a hammer on the head. Inbound marketing is permission based and draws people to you, to your website and product creating interesting content and getting to know your user and what they are looking for.

Social media is about connecting with people and Face book allows you to do that very easily.

Marketing yourself and your company on Face book takes a special approach. Social networks are designed to foster human interaction not to just promote products.

Here are some great tips from industry professionals. These may require you to invest some time but would be well worth the effort.

#1 Create and Build a Business Page: Enter as much as information as you can, you must have a personal profile in order to do this. Which means all you need is a valid e mail id. Add a photo, Basic information about your company, Interests, Join as many groups as you can and add tons of applications. Building a relationship is easier when people know more about you. Be a Fan of other relevant groups. After you are done creating a business page you can publish a page. Also you must start by becoming a fan of your page. That way all of the pages you are a fan of will show up on your profile. Here is a link to create a page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

Join groups: Next, join a group to start networking with interesting people. There are thousands of groups on Face book in two categories:

a. Global

b. Network

You can browse for different groups to join. Check your network categories by looking at users profiles. If for instance you are interested in the automobile industry join the global and the network specific auto groups and then check which groups other members belong to. Face book allows you to join up to 200 groups. After you join a group you can send other members emails or text messages or even comment on their profiles or use a third party application.

 #2. Create an Engaging Page: Once your profile is what you want it to be, start building your credibility by adding content to the site. Anything that establishes your company or product should be used. Events, Videos, Discussions, Photos and blog articles
This can also include:
o Links to articles you have on your website
o Product photos and information
o Incorporating your Company blog
o Host an events or start discussions
o Having many “friends” from the industry specific to our company

#4 Draw on your Network: Don’t forget your existing network. Include a link on your email signature. Blog about your facebook page or post a link or badge on your website or blog.

 #5 Optimize your Facebook:  This will depend upon how many fans that your page has. Let people know you are out there. The name of your page also plays a great factor. Include keywords on your title. This would mean having a commitment. Also make sure you do not keyword stuff it. On the public search side of things facebook pages are getting indexed by search engines as well this depends on how you set up your privacy settings.

 #6 Advertise on Facebook: You need to decide what you are going to advertise. A website or a group or a specific product. After that you can start creating your ad. It is somewhat similar to Google Adwords. You can put in a title , a text. Please check out their website for guidelines as facebook is quiet strict with what they will allow. Be sure to ad an image as it will increase your click through rate. You can also add social actions. Facebook will add to the connections with any page or groups that you are connected to. You can also target your audience to only be shown say in a particular geographic location or a specific age group this also includes job titles and keywords to further target your ad. This way you can profile your ad to fit the right target audience. Lastly you can set the budget. Pay per click is the best as facebook has a notoriously low click through rate.

#7 Measure and Track through Facebook Insights: Finally you can track the number of friends and fans overtime and also the level of activity, page views and fans can be measured . On the ad side the ad manager lets you track how your ad has been performing so you can track the ROI that you get from it.

E books are promotional powerhouses. They are an entirely new medium of sharing marketing information ideas, technologies and expert knowledge. E books have certain abilities and qualities that other mediums do not possess. They are easy to produce and the production cost is inexpensive, you do not need a publisher or an agent neither a printing press, you just need a concept to write, additionally ebooks are easily distributed and easily obtainable. All you have to do is download it from a website and it is on your computer ready to read. E books are interactive, you can add surveys, order forms for customers to purchase your products and services.

How to market your E book?

There are innumerable ways in which you can drive quality traffic to your website. Once you have an ebook posted on the website you can turn them into a daily course which brings in customers back to read the next chapter. You can also use them as free gifts for making a purchase or filling out a survey. Copyright your E book and immediately you will have a powerful tool that  you can alone offer to the public. People will come to your website to acquire your e book eventually increasing traffic to your website. Make sure that you keep your E book is always updated with fresh content. The E book will also allow you to learn about your market and customer habits over a period of time. Many people think that producing an Ebook is time consuming, that is not necessarily true. A free Ebook has a lot of power. It shows your potential clients that you are willing to go above and beyond the normal expectations of doing business. The fact is that by giving away something you are increasing the conversion rate and traffic to your website. A simple and easy way to increase your website traffic and keep your visitors from coming back is to give away free ebooks on your website.

The Error 404 ” Page Not Found” is the error page displayed whenever someone asks for a page that is simply not available on the site. The reason for this is that there may be a link on your site that was wrong or the page might have been recently removed from the site. As there is no web page to display the web server sends a page that simply says “404 Page Not Found”. Now thw advantage of using customized 404 error page is highly useful because it enables you to benefit from traffic that would have otherwise been lost. But one dark side to it is it can make maintaining the site more difficult. Usually whan a server encounters a 404 error it records the details about the event into its log file. For example you accidentally linked to”abutus.html” somewhere in your page instead of using the correct filename “aboutus.html”. The functionality offered by log files makes it a great help to keep your site relatively free of insite broken links. If you replace the standard 404 error page you cannot utilize this feature. Finding and fixng errors will become a difficult task causing them to pile up over time and deteriorate the image of the website. So in my opinion one needs to audit the website to ensure that at all times the pages on your website are 404 error free. But once can customize 404 error pages if they need to with relevant links to all inner pages of he website. My favorite example is http://www.apple.com/seroundtable/

Here are some cool 404 error pages:

Launched on Monday July 28 2008 Cuil the next generation search engine claims to Index three times more pages than Google and ten times more than Microsoft. With a different look and feel compared to the traditional search engine instead of listing results vertically in a top 10 manner Cuil uses two or three columns. Cuil is able to display longer descriptions and images associated with the listings. The images displayed with the listings often does not appear on the site or is even sometimes irrelevant  to the key phrase. Cuil does not rely upon popularity metrics.

Cuil is an Old Irish word for Knowledge or Wisdom. Cuil also says it has come up with a search engine that indexes 120 billion web pages it ranks results by relevancy instead of popularity, organizes results by idea and protects the privacy of its users. With a ” Magazine layout” with tabs and images for subjects a start up in Menlo Park California which has 30 employees has already raised $33 million Some of the feedback from search gurus and general public have been the following: “Sometimes the images seem completely random” or ” Some say it gives in accurate search results”, kind of embarassing. In my opinion they should have had a beta version and got feedback from users before launching.

Alt Text: It is also known as alternative text or alt attribute. An HTML tag (Alt tag) used to provide images with a text description in the event images are turned off in a web browser. The images text description is usually visible while “hovering” over the image. This tag is also important for the web access of the visually impaired

Anchor Text: These are words used to link to a page. known as anchor text are an important signal to the search engines to determine the relevancy of a page.

Back Links: All the links pointing to a particular web page. Also called inbound links. Source Webmaster World Forums

Baseline Metrics: This is a time lagged calculation which provides a basis for making comparisons of past performance to current performance.

Bid: The maximum amount of money that an advertiser is willing to pay each time a searcher clicks on an ad. Bid prices can vary widely depending on competition from advertisers and keyword popularity.

Blogs: A truncated form for “web log”. A blog is a frequently updated journal that is intended for general public consumption. They usually represent the personality of the author or a web site. A good source of blogging terms is at http://www.whatis.techtarget.com

Brand: A customer or User experience represented by images and ideas often referring to a symbol ( name,logo,symbols,fonts,colors) a slogan and a design scheme. Brand recognition and other reactions are created by the accumulation of experiences with the specific product or service, both from its use, and as influenced by advertising, design and media commentary. Brand is often developed to represent implicit values, ideas and even personality. Source: Wikipedia

CPA: Acronym for Cost Per Acquisition. This is the total cost of an ad campaign divided by the number of conversions. For example, if a campaign cost $100 and resulted in 5 conversions the CPA is $20 ($100/5). It cost $20 to generate one conversion.

CPC: Acronym for Cost Per Click, or the amount search engines charge advertisers for every click that sends a searcher to the advertiser’s website or landing page. For an advertiser, CPC is the total cost for each click through received when its ad is clicked on.

CTR: Acronym for Click Through Rate, the number of clicks that an ad gets, divided by the total number of times that ad is displayed or served. ( Represented as total clicks/ total impressions for a specific ad = CTR. For example, if an ad has 100 impressions and 6 clicks, the CTR is 6 %. The higher the CTR, the more visitors your site is receiving, CTR also factors into your advertiser search engine Quality Score and therefore your minimum keyword on Tier 1 engines GYM- Google, Yahoo, MSN.

Click Through Rate: The percentage of those clicking on a link out of a total number who see the link. For example, imagine 10 people do a web search. In response, they see links to a variety of web pages. Three of the 10 people all choose one particular link. That link then has a 30 percent click-through rate. Source: Webmaster World.

Competitive Analysis: As used in SEO, CA is the assessment and analysis of strenghts and weaknesses of competing websites, including identifying traffic patterns, major traffic sources and keyword selection.

Conversion Rate: Conversion rates are measurements that determine how many of your prospect perform the prescribed or desired action step. If your prescribed response is for a visitor to sign up for a newsletter or fill out a lead form and you had 100 visitors and 1 lead form submitted then your conversion rate would be 1 %. Typically micro-conversions ( for instance, reading different pages on your site) lead to your main conversion setup (making a purchase, signing up for a service ).

Crawler: Also known as a bot and spider, a crawler is a program that search engines use to seek out information on the web. The act of crawling on the website is referred to when the crawler begins to search through documents contained within the website.

Description Tag: Refers to the information contained in the description META tag. This tag is meant to hold the brief description of the web page it is included on. The information contained in this tag is generally the description displayed immediately later the main link on many search engine result pages.

Directory Search: Also known as Directory Search. Refers to a directory of web sites contained in an engine that are categorized into topics. The main difference between a search directory and a search engine is in how the listings are obtained For example Yahoo is a Directory and Google is a Search Engine. A search directory relies on user input in order to categorize and include a web site. Additionally, a directory usually only includes higher- level pages of a domain.

Display URL: The web page URL that one sees in a PPC text ad. Display url usually appears as the last line in the ad, it may be a simplified path for the longer actual URL, which is not visible.

Domain: Refers to a specific web site address

Doorway Page: A web page specifically created in order to obtain rankings within the natural listings of a search engine. These pages generally are filled with keywords and are meant to funnel surfers into the main website. This practice is generally considered an outdated spam tactic. This term is not to be confused with a “Landing Page”

Entry Page: Refers to any page within a website that a user employs to enter your website. Also see Landing Page.

FTP: Stands for “File Transfer Protocol”

Feeds: A web document that is a shortened or updated ( revised content only ) version of a web page created for syndication. Usually served at user request, through subscription also includes ad feeds to shopping engines and paid inclusion ad models. Ad feeds are ussally in Extensible Markup Language XML or Rich Site Summary (RSS) format.

Geo Targeting: The geographic location of the searcher. Geo- targeting allows you to specify where your ads will or won’t be shown based on the searcher’s location enabling more localized and personalized results.

HTTP: Stands for “Hypertext Transfer Protocol”

Index: A search engine’s “index” refers to the amount of documents found by search engine crawler on the web.

IP Address: Abbreviation for Internet Protocol Address, a unique combination of numbers assigned to individual electronic devices or networks that communicate over the internet. Basically, it is a tractable address for any computer, and it can be used to localize results. Internet Assigned Numbers Authority ( IANA ) overseas global IP address allocation.

Keyword: A single word that relates to a specific subject or topic. For example “glossary” would be a keyword for this document.

Keyword Phrase: A specific word or combination of words that a searcher might type into a search field. Includes generic, category keywords, industry- specific terms, product brands, common mis spellings and expanded variations ( called keyword stemming ) or multiple words ( called long tail for their lower CTR but sometimes better conversion rate ). All might be entered as a search query. For example, someone looking to buy coffee mugs might use the keyword phrase ” ceramic coffee mugs” Also, keywords- which trigger as network and contextual network ad serves- are the auction components on which PPC advertisers bid for all Ad Groups/Orders and campaigns.

Landing Page/ Destination Page: The web page at which a searcher arrives after clicking on an ad. When creating a PPC ad, the advertiser displays a URL ( and specifies the exact page URL in the code) on which the searcher will land after clicking on an ad in the SERP. Landing Pages are also known as ” where the deal is closed” as it is the landing page actions that determine an advertisers conversion rate success.

Lead generation: Web sites that generate leads for products or services offered by another company. On a lead generation site, the visitor is unable to make a purchase but will fill out a contact form in order to get more information about the product or service presented. A submitted contact form is considered a lead. It contains personal information about a visitor who has some degree of interest in a product or service.

Link popularity: Link popularity generally refers to the total number of links pointing to any particular URL. There are typically two types of links pointing to any particular URL. Internal and External. Internal link popularity typically refers to the number of links or pages within a web site that link to a specific URL. External link popularity refers to the number of inbound links from external web sites tha are pointing to a specific URL. If you have more “links” than your competitors, you are typically known to have link cardinality or link superiority.

Long Tail: Keyword phrases with at least three, sometimes four or five words in them. These long tailed keywords are ususaly highly specific and draw lower traffic than shorter, more competitive keyword phrases, which is why they are also cheaper. Oftentimes, long tailed keywords, in aggregate, have a good conversion ratio for the low number of click throughs they generate.

Metrics: A system of measure to quantify particular characteristics. In SEO the following are some important metrics to measure, overall traffic, search engine traffic, converions, top traffic driving keywords, top conversion-driving keywords, keyword rankings etc Google analytics is a very good free tool to use http://www.google.com/analytics/

Multivariate Testing: A type of testing that varies and tests more than one or two campaign elements at a time to determine the best performing elements and combinations. Multivariate testing can gather significant results on many different components of, for example alernative PPC ad titles or descriptions in a short period of time. Often it requires special expertise to analyze complex statistical results. Compare to A/B Split Testing which changes only one element at a time, alternately serving an old version ad and a changed ad. In search advertising, you might do A/B Split or Multivariate testing to learn what parts of a landing page ( background color, title, headline, fill in forms, design, images ) produce higher conversions and are more cost effective.

Negative Keywords: Filtered out keywords to prevent ad serves on them in order to avoid irrelevant click through charges on for example products that do not sell, or refine and narrow the targetting of your Ad group’s keywords. Microsoft ad center calls them “excluded keywords”. Formatting negative keywords varies by search engine, but they are ususally designated with a minus sign.

Organic Results: Listings on SERP’s that are not paid for , listings for which search engines d not sell space. Sites appear in organic ( also called “natural” ) results become a search engine has applied formulas ( algorithms ) to its search crawler index, combined with editorial decisions and content weighting, that it deems important enough inclusion wihout payment. Paid Inclusion content is also often considered “organic” even though its paid advertising because paid inclusion content usually appears on SERP’S mixed with unpaid, organic results.

Organic Search listings: Listingsthat search engines so not sell ( unlike paid listings) . Instead, sites appear solely beacuse search engine has deemed it editorially important for them to be included regardless of payment. Paid Inclusion Content is often considered ‘organic” even though it is paid for. This is because paid inclusion content ususally appears intermixed with unpaid organic results.

Organic Search Rankings: Search engine rankings of web pages found in the SERP’s

PPC: Acronym for Pay Per Click, a model of online advertising in which advertisers pay only for each click on their ads that directs serachers to a specified landing page on the advertisers website.PPC advertisers only pay when their as is clicked on. Charges per ad click-through are based on advertiser bids in hybrid as space auctions and are influenced by competitor bids,competition for keywords and search engines proprietary quality measures of advertiser ad and landing page content.

Page Rank: PR is the Google technology developed at Stanford University for placing importance on pages and websites. At one point PageRanl ( PR ) was a major factor in rankings. Today it is one of hundreds of factors in the algorithm that determines a page’s rankings.

Paid Inclusion: This refers to the process of paying a fee to a search engine in order to be included in that search engine or directory. Also known as “guaranteed inclusion”. Paid inclusion does not impact rankings of a web page. It merely gurantees that the web page itself will be included in the index. These programs were typically used by web sites that were not being fully crawled or were incapable of being crawled, due to dynamic URL structures, frames etc.

Podcasts: A podcast is a media file that is distributed over the internet using syndication feeds, for playback on portable media players and personal computers. Like “radio” it can mean both the content and the method of syndication. The latter may also be termed podcating. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster. Source Wikipedia.

Quality Score: A number assigned by Google to paid ads in a hybrid auction that, together with maximum CPC, determine’s each ad’s rank and SERP position. Quality Score reflect an ad’s historical CTR,keyword relevance, landing page relevance, and other factors proprietary to Google. Yahoo refers to the Quality Score as a Quality Index. And both Google and Yahoo display 3-5 step indicators of qulaity evaluations for individual advertisers.

Query: The keyword or the keyword phrase a searcher enters into a search field, which initiates a search and results in a SERP with organic and paid listings.

ROI: Acronym for Return On Investment, the amount of money you make on your ads compared to the amount of money you spend on your ads. For example if you spend $100 on PPC ads and make $150 from those ads, then your ROI would be 50% ( Calculated as ($150-$100= $50/100=50%) The higher your ROI, the more successful your advertising.

RSS: Acronym for Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication, a family of web feed formats that leverage XML for distributing and sharing headlines and information from other web content ( also known as syndication)

Rank: How well positioned a particular web page or web site appears in search engine results. For example, if you rank a position #1, you’re the first listed paid or sponsored ad. If you are in position #18, it is likely that your ad appears on the second or third page of the search results, after 17 competitor paid ads and organic listings. Tank and position affect your click-through rates and, ultimately, conversion rates for your landing pages.

Reciprocal Link: Two different sites that link out to each other. Also referred to as Cross linking.

Relevance: In relation to PPC advertising, relevance is a measure of how closely your ad title, description and keywords are related to the search query and the searcher’s expectations.

Reverse DNS: A process to determine the hostname or host associated with an IP or host address

Robots.txt: A text file present in the root directory of a website which is used to direct the activity of search engine crawlers. This file is typically used to tell a crawler which portions of the site should be crawled and which should not be crawled.

SEO: Acronym for “Search Engine Optimization”. This is the process of editing a web site’s content and code in order to improve visibility within one or more search engines. When this term is useed to describe an individual, it stands for ” Search Engine Optimizer” or one who performs SEO.

SERP: Acronym for”Search Engine Results Page”, the page delivered to a searcher that displays the results of a search query entered into the search field. Displays both paid ad (sponsored) and organic listings in varying positions or rank.

Search Directory: Similar to a Search engine, in that they both compie databases of web sites. A directory does not use crawlers in order to obtain enties in its search database. Instaed, it relies on user interaction and submissions for the content it contains. Submissions are the categorized by topic and normally alphabetically, so that the results of any search will start with site descriptions that begin with some number or non-letter character, then moving A-Z.

Search Engines: A search engine is a database of many web pages. Most engines display the number of web pages they hold in their database at any given time. A search engine generally “ranks” or orders the results according to a set of parameters. These parameters ( called algorithms) vary among search engines, they are always inproving in order to identify spam as well as improve relevance.

SPAM: Any search marketing method that a search engine deems to be detrimental to its efforts to deliver relevant, quality search results. Some search engines have written guidelines on their definations and penalties for SPAM, Examples include doorway landing pages designed primarily to game search engine algorithms rather than meet searcher expectations from the advertiser’s clicked on ad, keyword stuffing in which search terms that motivated a click-through are heavily and redundantly repeated on a page in place of relevant content, attempts to redirect click -through searchers to irrelevant pages, product offers and services, and landing pages that simply compile additional links on which a searcher must click to get any information. Determining what contributes SPAM is complicated by the fact that different search engines have different standards, including what is allowed for listings gathered through organic methods versus paid inclusion ( referred to as spamdexing), whether the listing is from commercial or reseacrh/academic source. Source Webmaster World Forums

Splash Page: Refers to an entry page or main page of the website that is interactive or graphically intense. Many splash pages are designed using Flash.

Stop Word: A word that often appears in a page’s copy or content, but it has no significance by itself. Examples of stop words are: and,the,of etc

Submissions: The act of submitting a website to search engines and search directories. For some search engines, this is performed simply by typing in the absolute home page url of the website you wish to submit. Other serach engines and directories request that descriptions of the website be submitted for approval.

Managing ad copy for paid advertising on Search Engines can be very tricky at times. Many advertisers do not effectively capitalize on the potential of SEM ( Search Engine Marketing) opportunities. Writing effective ad copy can make a big difference to your paid search campaigns.

1. Create Specific Ads for Specific Keywords: Your ad copy should be geared towards specific terms in your paid search. Statistics tell us that a visitor is most likely to convert to a sale or a sign up or any other type of conversion when they see query terms keyed into the search engines present in the actual ad copy. For example for a term like “Hoover wind tunnel vaccums” and effective ad copy should look like this:

Hoover Windtunnel Vaccums

Bagless, Upright Vaccums in

Many Colors  Free Shipping. Order Today!

www.hoover.com/windtunnel_vac

Try to avoid Broader ads, as they are unfocused and will lead to fewer conversions. A broad ad would look like this:

Hoover Vaccums

We offer 1000+ Vaccum Cleaners

Deals on Hoover Vaccums

www.hoover.com

2. Your Ad copy should identify our Buyers Needs: Buyers are motivated by different factors. Try different ad vaiations in an ad copy and see where you get the best response. For the price sensitive user focus on ads with prices. For buyers looking for reassurance try ads mentioning service, 24/7 support, return policies. And for those looking for Deals focus on special offers, incentives and limited offers to encourage buyers to make purchases more quickly than they would have without an offer. 

3. Your ad copy should be approriate in the industry category: Always use an appropriate ad tone for the audience. For example if you are selling children’s toys, the ad copy should be lighter and playful than if your selling to a business executive. Take a look at the following examples:

Kids Reading Software

Fun and Easy to Use Software

Get Your Chids Reading up to speed

www.readingsoftware.com/kids

Auto Financing

Up to 4 Loan Offers in Minutes

Compare Many Lenders Online Today!

www.myautoloan.com

4. Consider the Buying Cycle: With many products and services there are several buying stages. At the begining of the buying cycle the user might be looking for general information or merely researching for product information or reviews, while at the end of the cycle they may be looking for a return policy information or to make a purchase. For effective ad copy segment the keywords and write the ad copy thats most appropriate to the buying stage . Take a look at the following example related to financial planning,  for an ad like the one below at this stage the purpose of the ad is to give visitors information.

ING Financial Services

Financial Planning Services & Info

Reliable with Long term Growth

www.ing.com

For terms that appear later in the buying cycle like “Buy CD” or “Get IRA” on can try an ad like the one below.

High Yield-CD’s-8 %

Why Settle for less than 8 %

High interest rate CD’s and IRA’s

www.mybank.com

5. Analyse Paid Search Results:In PPC, CTR ( Click Through Rate) and Conversions are key factors. Higher the CTR the more cost effective the bidding of keywords is and this will have a significant impact on ROI ( Return On Investment).

These two examples from a company selling Product A

Ad A:

Clicks: 1000

CTR:1.5%

CPC:0.75

Total Cost: $ 750

 Ad B:

Clicks:1000

CTR: 3.5 %

CPC: 0.50

Total Cost: $500

Conversion Rate: 5%

Number of Products sold: 50

CPA: $10.00

Cost per Acquisition (CPA) bid is the amount you are willing to pay for a conversion. When you enable a conversion.

6.Ensure PPC Data is Statistically Significant:Sometimes advertisers can get conflicting data. Sometimes Ads will show a High CTR and a low Conversion rate or a low CTR and High Conversion Rate or a Low CTR and high conversion rate. You generally want high CTR and a high conversion rate. Generally speaking inconclusive data means that the ad tests has not been running long enough. Sometimes insufficient PPC traffic can give you inconclusive data.

7. Ad Copy Keywords and Landing Pages:  Try and have the keywords in your ad copy appear on your landing page ( the page that people will go to when they click on your ads) or vice versa. Keyword continuity between the query term, the ad copy and the content on the landing pages help the searcher feel that he/she has reached the right place and the search needs have been met. When ad copy and landing pages are related, conversion figures tend to be higher. Design special PPC landing pages if appropriate pages don’t exisit on your website.

8. Test your Ad copy:It is very important to test A/B Testing to get a feel for ad tone and marketing postioning. Test atleast 3 ads at time per ad group. If you feel you have done enough of A/B look at Mutivariate testing. Here are some main criteria’s

a. Ad Headlines

b. Different offers

c. Different USP’s ( Unique Selling Propositions)

9. Spend time writing Good Ad Copy:Break up the task by generating ad copy. Determine the differences between you and your competitors. Get Clear on your company’s USP. Write ads in diferent tones. Brainstorm copy segments, product, services, descriptions. Try to keep them short and to the point. Create various combinations.

10. Think Outside the box: Don’t write boring ads. Make them compelling yet factual and credible.

Example of a Borings Ad:

Used Honda- Fremont Ca

Easy No Risk Price Quote

For Used Honda Visit

www.autowesthondafremont.net

As Against:

Honda Dealers

See Our Large Inventory of Cars

Call Today, Drive Tonight Pricing

www.hondaelcerrito.com

Optimizing your website content involves a number of steps which include the use of appropriate page titles, headers and links or anchors. But in my opinion the most important is deciding what keywords and keyphrases to use in the main page elements. Choosing appropriate keywords and using them correctly is one of the most important factors when addressing Search Engine Optimization. The most important use for keywords, contrary to popular belief is NOT in the “keyword” meta tag. Most Search Engines including Google have been ignoring keywords for along time when indexing websites for search, this does not mean that one should not be using your keyword meta tags, however one must not rely heavily on them for search rankings. Remember the Title tag and the Description meta tags are also important as the first paragraph that a potential visitor will see when looking at your site listing in a search engine.

Keywords should also be specific to your business and reflect the terms and phrases that your website visitors actually use to search for you. It is crucial to target keywords and phrases that are unique to your specific business and sets you apart.

Here are some tips for choosing and using keyword phrases:

• Optimize each of your pages seperately for a set of unique keywords or keyword phrases
• Choose phrases that visitors to your site would realistically use to search for your site, service or product. Avoid using business or industry jargon thatthe potential visitor may never search for
• Optimize for “long tail” phrases (more specific v/s general) rather than shorter phrases that are ususally more competitive for example if you have a specific running shoe product (i.e.Forrest Gump Running Shoe) you should optimize for that phrase first rather than trying to optimize for the highly competitive phrase “Running Shoe”
• Consider your individual good or services that might help you stand out in search
• Consider regional terms and geo locations.
• What keywords are your competitors using? Analyse where they have placed the keywords in their content (i.e Title tags,headings, page descriptions,anchors) and how they rank in search engines.
• Always ask yor customers and get feedback from them as to what phrases the would use to serach for you, your products and services.
• Give your pages time to rank. Don’t expect your well optimized pages to rank well immediately. Ther are many factors that affect the rate at which optimized pages increase in rankings for specific keywords and phrases, including the age of the domain and how often your site is crawled.
• Once you have determined your keyword phrases and allowed time for them to be indexed in the search engine continue to re-evaluate them. This is where Web Analytics becomes very important. Use your Web Analytics to determine which keywords are doing well for you, which are falling and how they are performing in serach engines.