How to diagnose a drop in search engine rankings - Matt Cutts

Google's Matt Cutts presents suggestions and resources which may help address a sudden, mysterious drop in your website organic search engine rankings. Anyone concerned about poor search engine result pages (SERPs) should watch this video for an overview of possible fixes and remedies. "What steps can I take to diagnose a drop in ranking?" is worth viewing even if your websites do not (presently) have organic search problems.



Matt Cutts is Google's Chief Engineer in charge of Google's web search quality regarding spam.

Also view What to expect in SEO in the coming months from Matt Cutts, issued on May 13, 2013.

For additional resources, try the Google Webmasters Resource site for valuable insights and guidance on optimizing a website for Google Search.

Promote Your Business - Wear The Brand

Inexpensive branding is easy when employees wear the Brand. 

Looking for a cheap (cost-effective) way to promote your company and brand?

Look no further than the shirt or blouse on your back. Wearing branded shirts while conducting business with clients and during business travel is an inexpensive, economical, and effective way to promote your company and business.

When travelling on business and attending business events such as seminars, conferences, and expositions, consider wearing branded shirts, where appropriate.

Wearing a company branded shirt while attending an industry event and during business travel by air, subway, and train, enables your company name and logo to be seen by hundreds, even thousands, of people in a single day.

A company branded shirt brings instant recognition from potentially valuable contacts who might have heard of your business and want to know more. Existing clients will introduce themselves and present an opportunity to further strengthen your business relationship.

Wearing a branded shirt is a great low-cost marketing tactic straight out of the Guerilla Marketing playbook. Any business can take advantage of this simple but valuable method for promoting attention to your business, from a local Mom & Pop operation to a global Fortune 500 company.

Lessons Learned from Ten Years with Google Adwords

10 Years Managing Google Adwords

Happy Anniversary Adwords! I've been using Google Adwords for 10 years. Adwords has supported me ever since with a never-ending stream of high quality leads and highly visible branding.

I opened my first Google Adwords account on April 4, 2003. I still manage that account and have added others. My knowledge, experience, and skills managing Adwords have grown, as Adwords itself has evolved over the years.

10 Great Years with
Google Adwords.

In those 10 years, this original account has generated over 3.8 million visits (clicks) for niche B-to-B technical and industrial service websites I manage and/or promote. This history includes Adwords campaigns in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, German, Arabic, Chinese, French, and other languages targeting over 30 nations.

Thanks to continuing education and hands-on use of Adwords, my click-through-rates and conversion rates are strong and continue to rise incrementally in a continuous improvement process. While nothing, and I mean nothing, can replace organic search ranking optimization for quality lead generation, the intelligent use of Adwords has been an indispensable weapon for my success with search engine marketing.

What I learned during 10 Years with Adwords:

• Get Adwords Educated:
  Nothing helps manage Adwords better than learning from experts and keeping up with the latest Adwords features and the latest strategies and tactics. Adwords education saves time, improves efficiency and effectiveness, allowing you to spend less money, reduce wasted efforts and increase quality lead generation and ROI. Keep up with the latest Adwords developments.
  Brian Geddes is a highly rated Adwords expert you should follow, and there are others. Search Engine Strategies (SES) and Search Marketing Expo (SMX) are perhaps the best big conference meetings to learn more about paid search marketing updates, tactics, and advice. The depth of knowledge shared can be amazing. PPC Hero is another paid search blog and newsletter service full of tips and tactics, and they sponsor a devoted all-pay-per-click search conference in the USA.
  Google offers extremely valuable Adwords 101, 201, 301 classes. Take these classes! Take the 301 class again after a few years, as Awords is constantly evolving.
• Control your spend in the face of rising pay-per-click costs:
  Take intelligent steps to manage spending limits with Google. When I started out in 2003, the CPC rate was very low, especially for long-tail search terms. My competitors were oblivious or ignorant of the lead generation and branding power of Adwords for many years, often leaving me a monopoly on key search terms. But between direct and indirect competitors 'waking up'  to coveted search terms and Google tweaking Adwords to force higher CPC rates, the general long term trend for CPC is going up, not down. 
• Budget:
  Google loves you. But Google loves your money even more. Adwords is extremely profitable, and it is the core source of Google's revenues. If you are too generous in your Adwords search settings and parameters, Google will find innovative ways to spend your budget down to the last penny. To reduce waste or bankruptcy, make sure budget settings are locked down, and monitor your spend. While click fraud is rarer these days, you should monitor for sudden trend changes and anomalies. I tend to avoid runnning Adwords in some countries specifically because I experience high click volumes of low quality.
• Campaign Structure:
  Organize and Structure your Adwords campaigns and groups logically and effectively.
• Ad Ranking:
  Being "Number One" in Adwords is not always an advantage. It can be expensive and wasteful, inviting many lower quality clicks. Targeting Rankings alone is not the best approach. What is your real goal: Conversions or Click Throughs? Do you already enjoy high organic search rankings? Then you can look at running ads ranked number 2, 3 or 4. Lower ranked ads will result in lower click throughs, but they will produce a higher quality click rate, attracting more motivated leads and enhancing conversion rates at a lower cost. The top right hand side of Google SERP results is a good position for an Ad.
  There is no simple answer to ad  placement. If the campaign has great filtering for where, when, and to whom, ads are shown, it becomes more cost-effective to target a number one ranking with less risk of wasted spend.
• Keyword Research:
  This may seem like common sense, but it is surprising how much opportunity is missed, or waste produced, from insufficient keyword research. Long-tail search takes work, experimentation and patience, but the results are well worth the effort. Keyword candidates can be found using the Google Keyword Tool, external resources like Wordtracker, your customers, your target markets, your employees, and other sources.
• Adwords Experimenting and Investigating:
  Running multiple ad versions to improve adword group performance is essential and will help improve your ad copy and performance.
  Want to conduct low cost market research? Using Adwords is a very cost-effective way to measure keywords related to potential market interest or popularity.
  Exploit your growing wealth of historical data in Adwords, it can be a true "Big Data" resource for trends and keyword data mining.
• Filter, Filter, Filter:
  With Adwords, less is more. Avoid the easy route of using just broad search terms... you'll get a lot of impressions and clicks, but most will be worthless. Take the time to add long-tail keyword terms, use the vocabulary of our target markets. Use negative search terms (really important). Use Geographic, Language, Device, and Time Zone options as needed. 
• Embrace Your Negative Side When Managing Paid Search Campaigns.
• Track, Track, Track:
  I can't imagine using Adwords without having the Conversion tracking enabled and working. CTR is a good indicator for ad popularity. Conversion Rates are a great indicator for quality. Separate your Display Ad Campaigns for better clarity. I keep my Display Ad Campaigns in a totally different account.
• Know Your Goals:
  What are important to you: Conversions? Visits? Impressions? CTR? Conversion Rate? CPC? Mastering an optimal blend of these factors is idea for lead generation and branding, while keeping to a reasonable budget. Managing Adwords successfully is essentially the equivalent of juggling. Everything is dynamic, fluid, and in motion. An important feature in Adwords is the ability to set your campaign settings to optimize for conversions or clicks. I find greater value from optimizing for conversions, but your goals may differ.

10 Ways to Increase Your PPC Click-Through Rates

10 Ways to Increase Your PPC Click-Through Rates Today - A webinar presentation from WordStream and Hanapin Marketing.

If you directly manage or supervise Paid Search Campaigns, like Google Adwords or Microsoft BING, this presentation on click through rates (CTR) is highly suggested.

We benefit from higher click through rates with more efficient campaigns, lower cost per acquisition (CPA) and higher conversion rates, if thoughtful targeting, organization & structure, keyword selection, negative search terms, and other campaign settings are used to better weed out non-relevant (wasted) clicks and spending.

Presented by Larry Kim (Founder, CTO of Wordstream), Sean Quadlin (Writer and account manager at PPC Hero & Hanapin Marketing), this presentation on "10 Ways to Increase Your PPC Click-Through Rates Today" is well worth watching and learning. You'll be inspired to improve the PPC CTRs for your own campaigns.

 

10 Ways to Increase Your PPC Click-Through Rates Today [WordStream and Hanapin Marketing Webinar] from Internet Marketing Software - WordStream

Success with International Trade Shows

Success with International Trade Shows is as Easy as Uno, Dos, Tres.

Have you been tasked with managing a trade show or conference overseas? Calma te, there is no need to panico!

By following good practices for exhibitions and preparing & planning with care, the odds are greatly improved that your overseas event will be a solid business success.

Local country conference support can make the difference
 between success and failure.

I've successfully managed, supported and/or participated in numerous industry exhibitions and trade shows in  in North America, South America, Asia, and Europe. The countries include the United States, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Venezuela, Panama, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Korea, China, Singapore, and other locations. Combined teams from "global staff" and the host countries, when available, have ensured success. I've learned some best practices along the way which increase the chances for a productive event.

International Trade Shows: Evaluate the worthiness of the event.

Just because a trade show is in Monaco, Lake Tahoe, Bali, or some other attractive locale doesn't mean you should participate. Evaluate the event on its own merit, irregardless of location. There are plenty of expensive near-worthless trade conferences in exotic locations which have little real business value. There is a global cottage industry of boiler-room salespeople promoting many industry events of dubious value. Don't be fooled into investing into a poor quality conference.

Use Unbiased Business Assessments to Determine:

A. Is the event under consideration really relevant to the business? 
B. Do real decision makers and influencers attend who can affect the business?
C. If yes to A & B: should delegates be sent to exploit the event?
D. If yes to A, B, C: is the added cost of exhibiting or sponsorship worthwhile and promises decent ROI?
E. Will your local management, if you have some, be able lend support for the event?

An evaluation strictly based on business potential will determine if a conference or event is a suitable candidate for follow-up. If yes, research and contact the event organizers for input and options. Of course the conference promoters will be positive and enthusiastic, that is expected. Buyer Beware! Get the opinion of major stakeholders close to that market niche - - inside and outside your company - - and from relevant employees in the region or location of the event, if possible.

Best Trade Show Booth Practices Apply, in any language:

Business is truly global, but many key business
interactions occur face-to-face at the local level.

No matter where a conference or trade show is held, basic best practices are required. Select your best "A" team from local and international sources. Don't use slackers, wallflowers, holiday seekers, or unmanageable personnel at the booth - - these conferences can be expensive... so invest in good, professional, people who want to WORK the event. Follow good trade show etiquette. Train the booth staff on your products and services, and know who on the team has specialized knowledge the team can exploit. Make sure everyone is aware of local culture, simple greetings, and other protocols. Promote your company's presence using SEO, PR, Email, Conference Program and Trade Publication Ads, etc. Select the best booth location possible. Focus on the target customers and the target market.

Leverage your local advantage:

If the event is held abroad, the risks from unknowns increase. If you are lucky enough to have local people in the country where the trade conference is being held, they can be a helpful resource and ensure success.

It is vital to get input from suitable employees from your company who work and are familiar with market conditions in that locale and the surrounding region. For example, a  trade show in Belgium will likely attract potential business from other nations in Western Europe, along with global visitors. So advice and input from relevant colleagues in surrounding nations is suggested. DON'T go charging into an event "blind" or trust the event organizer's 'guidance' alone - - this can lead to potential failure and wasted resources.

Managing your company participation at an international conference or
exhibition can be painless and productive, if best practices are followed.

Local support varies according to infrastructure, resources, and attitude. Remember the event must be relevant for them, too. If the event makes sense for the local staff to participate, then the hard work needed on your part becomes easier. Mutual cooperation, coordination, and optimization for best effect will evolve during planning, preparation, and execution.

Trade show logistics, such as the booth, promotional items, literature, etc can be shipped directly to your own offices in that country, and on-site delivery can be arranged once you are on site. The locals can perhaps set-up the exhibition on their own. Materials transport, translations, and more, become much easier. If your local colleagues see potential value in an event for their local business, they will more be motivated to work with you to help make it a success. You may have a local or regional 'champion' who is capable and eager to mange many of the exhibit details needed for success. Support, encourage, and work with such a person, as they are going to be your best friend for this event!

If the local staff are well connected to people in the industry targeted by the conference, then their value as company delegates and booth staff becomes extremely high. They will know the locals, the market, the culture, and the language far better than you do, in most cases.

It is often assumed that attendees of large internationally focused trade conferences know English. This is only partially true. Many people, while perhaps also knowing English, find it easier and more comfortable to speak their own language, such as German, Spanish, or Chinese. Having a multi-lingual and multi-cultural booth staff and conference delegate team is the best approach.

Invest in your local advantage:

Invest in the local team's participation. Pay for their delegate and exhibitor passes, don't make this event a burden on their budget if the focus is global. Work with them to review, and if needed, produce local sales literature in their own language (if requested), for use during and after the conference. If logical, invest in a trade show booth for permanent local use, if potential payback is promising.

New business opportunities and synergies happen when global
and local teams collaborate at trade shows and conferences.

For local operations strapped for marketing funds but blessed with latent and/or promising market potential, trade show investments can act as an investment "trigger" for future actions which spur growth. Your investment into enhancing  local marketing resources around a specific event such as a trade show can "spark" improvements, moving local capabilities and attitudes up to another level. By supporting and investing into the local marketing team you're investing in the future, enjoying marketing dividends long after the original trade show.

I've found one of the most long-lasting benefits of multinational participation at large international trade conferences is the enhanced professional networking and personal ties created between colleagues, which helps to strengthen the company locally and globally.

For conferences with a 'global' focus, there will always be important local and regional influences. Take full advantage of the knowledge your local staff bring. The use of booth staff from the local country will greatly enhance your effectiveness at the event.

No Locals? Then Plan the Conference Like You're Going to the Moon.
If you're going to have to manage a exhibition and conference in another country on your own, all is not lost. You must take extra care to ensure every logistical step is covered. You'll have to do much of this work anyway, even with local support. Like NASA, plan and review in detail. Double-check all tasks. One mistake or oversight and you may face trade exhibit disaster, only to be salvaged with lots of time and money.

1. Paperwork: 
Make sure you understand all the exhibition forms and orders you must submit. Fill them out, send them, confirm receipt. You don't want any nasty surprises. Trade show horrors can include not having electricity, the booth is missing or damaged, promotional items go missing, or that mandatory "Shell Scheme" you forget to order is now going to be imposed upon you at an expensive "floor" price. Be complete, be thorough. Be prepared for contingencies, and don't lose your cool.

2. Have a good reliable booth and materials shipping service. 
Fed-Ex is quite good for international shipments. Ship as early as possible, and label contents correctly, to ensure they don't get trapped in customs and disrupt your plans. Follow conference instructions so you'll be confident your stuff will be waiting for you at the conference hall or hotel when you arrive. You should consider if bringing the materials with you on your flight is the best option. You might need a local customs agent to help move your materials through bureaucratic delays.

3. Passport, Visa, Airfare, Hotel, Local Transportation Options are all really important. 

Bring Your "A Team" for best results.

Take care of logistical details as early as possible. Ensure proper documents, travel, hotel, and local logistics options are arranged. Avoid nasty surprises because your Passport expires soon or you forgot to obtain a Visa. Get hotel reservations as soon as possible. Large conferences sell out of decent hotels early on. Quality, convenient hotels may be gone at an affordable price. You may get stuck in a hotel far away from the conference center, or have to stay in a run-down dump in a dodgy part of town.

4. No locals to help? Don't know the local language? No worries - start studying!
Try to have translations of your key brochures and services, even if just basic overviews. This will help prospective local clients, and you. Another technique is to show them key webpages on your local language website (if it exists) or your English language website. You might be able to use the "Translate" option on the Chrome browser so they can view the page in their local language.

Conference attendees will normally appreciate your effort to communicate in their language, and even simple translations of products and services will enable comprehension on the part of the potential client much faster if their English skills are not sufficient or lacking. I've often found that I can have a more in-depth, technical conversation with Spanish Speakers if a little "Spanglish" is used to fill the gaps. I remember one trade show where several Italians approached the booth and wanted to discuss business. Their English was very poor, my Italian was even worse. But if I used Spanish, and talked slowly and clearly, we could actually communicate. In that case, Spanish was similar enough to Italian where using a third language was possible.

Learn some of the local language, if relevant. Too many people don't even try, and this can hurt them. Learn basic phrases like 'hello', 'thank you', 'Sorry', 'I do not speak....', etc. Get a translation phrase book to help with small comments. Learn about local culture and customs and try to be aware of and respect these cultural practices as much as possible.

Speak your English at a slower cadence for better comprehension. If they know English, be aware it may be a second or third language for the speaker. Be friendly and smile, and be patient. These traits will help you extract valuable business contacts and potential.

Plan, Review, Confirm, Execute:

Managing exhibits at international trade shows and conferences in a foreign country is not daunting if sufficient time and resources are applied to the project. The entire operation can be accomplished with relative ease and a minimum number of problems or hassles. The business rewards to your company can be significant.

Successful trade show management tips:

• Trade Shows Still Work
• It’s a Different Game for Trade Show Exhibitors Overseas
• 11 Quick Tips For International Exhibiting
• 3 Tips For International Trade Show Exhibiting

Periodic Table of Google Analytics

Jeff Sauer of jeffalytics.com has created a nice visualization tool for Google Analytics.

This "periodic table" is a useful at-a-glance look that the multiple features and functions of Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a free website analytics package which produces a huge amount of useful historical visitor and visitor behavior data for your websites, including integration with Adwords. A person can literally spend hours diving into Google Analytics for data... lot's of data.

Click the image to see the original version, which is rather large!

You can view an updated version of the Periodic Table of Google Analytics here.

Courtesy of: https://www.jeffalytics.com/

Jeff Sauer's Blog: https://www.jeffalytics.com/blog/

Google Adwords Scripts

Fred Vallaeys of Top Tier Marketing is a 10 year Google Adwords veteran, including Google's Adword Evangelist, before starting his own company. Fred's presentation at HEROPPC during the "Winning in a Hypercompetitive Market" session today was very informative, sharing how anyone managing Adwords accounts can use a useful tool provided free by Google Adwords to help make campaign adjustments and analysis easier and more automated.

Learn more about Google Adwords Scripts in this video from Google, "Go Bigger, Faster, with Adwords Scripts":



The Adwords Scripts video is nearly one hour long, and is deep on detail, so make sure you have some quality time to view it. You can also visit the Google Developers website to learn more: https://developers.google.com/adwords/scripts/.

Access and use complete Adword scripts from Google: https://developers.google.com/adwords/scripts/docs/examples/complete-scripts

60% of Consumers Ignore Banners - Study

Poor Engagement Results for Banner Ads Indicate Need for Better Targeting.

Thanks to an article by Kristina Knight with BizReport, and a Linkedin post by Larry Bassani promoting Kristina's article, a recent study by InfoLinks on Banner Ad results has come to my attention. Keeping in mind this is just one study by one advertising agency, which has a vested interest in pointing these things out. Even so, the performance numbers cited are worrisome for banner advertisers and platforms.

Key findings from the InfoLinks study read like a banner ad disaster movie:

• 14% recalled the last display ad they saw online and the company or product advertised. This means 86% could not recall the last display ad they saw.
• Less than 3% said the ad they saw was relevant to them. This means 97% did not see relevancy in the banners ads they saw.
• 35% of those surveyed click on 5 or fewer display ads per month. 
• 50% never click display ads. This means 50% do click.
• From the 40% who did view the banner ads, 75% were on a computer and 25% used mobile devices.

Referencing the Infolinks banner ad study, if less than 3% said the ad they saw was relevant to them, there is a dire need for better targeting. Search Engine Marketing does a fantastic job of targeting compared to banner ads by comparison. What Banner Ads need for targeting are less shotgun approaches and better sniper capabilities.

And yet 40% of consumers did remember seeing the banner ads, and some of the other 60% might have subconsciously acknowledged the banner ad. From direct experience, I know that banners can attract new business (mostly indirectly), improve competitive 'mind share', and help build brand presence and awareness.

Banner Ads, along with print advertising, have a place in B-to-B marketing. They need to be put into perspective.... useful for branding, building 'mind-share', and creating favorable conditions for future business conversions. But for targeting and efficiency, as compared to search engine marketing, they are not even close.

But that is not the point. Banner Ads and Print Ads complement Search Engine Marketing. To learn more about the role of print and banner ads for successful B-to-B marketing, please read: In Praise of Print Ads, within limits.

A to Z Lists on Websites Really Work

A-to-Z lists help visitors and search engine bots find what they need in large, complex websites.

Recently I worked on a website development project in Bogotá, Colombia as part of an Americas multinational and multilingual team. We were tasked with training, building and launching multiple company country websites en Español. The Latin America websites project was a great success and worthy of a 'case study' review. I'll share this success in a future blog article, for another day.

But first, I have an important list I want to share with you.... an A-to-Z list.

In Bogotá during some intense training on CMS, content optimization, SEO, visitor usability, and navigation tactics, a eureka moment appeared when we could demonstrate for the new web content-masters the formidable benefits of relevant A-Z lists of linked services and products in a complex website.

It is worth praising, yet again, the virtues of including A-to-Z internal content link lists on your website. A-to-Z list advantages were first brought up in this blog back in 2009, with Back to the Future with Static A-Z Directories.

Like a city map, A-to-Z lists benefit
 visitors as effective road maps
  in large, complex websites.

A-to-Z listings are mini-directories, tables of contents, and indexes. They are also, in effect, mini-site-maps which make finding pages in large websites easier and more logical for humans (customers) and search-engine bots. They do not replace or challenge internal search engines, they complement them.

Make a logical A-to-Z list of webpages focused on similar or identical core markets, products, or service niches, list them A-to-Z (include A-Z subcategories if needed), then link each of them to their source webpage. Add a link to your new A-to-Z page in your appropriate higher-level indexes or navigation menus, as appropriate. Then wait... interesting things, wonderful things, will happen to your website over time.

Do A-Z lists work? From years of pouring over website analytics for multiple long-running websites, data clearly show the advantages of A-Z lists. Here is what I've seen, over and over again:

The main advantage of A-Z lists on Websites is high quality customer involvement. The large majority of visitors to A-Z lists are already in your website searching for answers, solutions, and products. A-Z lists are a popular search method for this activity. A-Z pages are for quality visitors, who are engaged enough to dive in and search for information and services in a logical and linear manner.

Below is top-level analytics data showing visitor activities for one service niche A-to-Z webpage, tracked for five months:

2,600 visits
2,050 unique visits
Landing page entrances:	1.0%
From previous pages in website:	99.0%
To next pages in website:	81.0%
Exits:	19.0%

The exit rate is significantly lower than the website average. Visitors find superior value and utility in the webpage. Landing page entrance rates for other A-Z pages can be higher, this particular example was at the lower range.           

When looking at navigation data in detail, visitors to these pages come from a diverse (but similar 'theme') list of internal webpages. The visitors research and review their options, and then fan out to new webpages in the website which spike their interest. Just like the intelligent behavior shown when people look at table of contents in books, indexes, and other alpha-beta listed data resources. A-Z lists have real, tangible utility.

However, depending upon depth and length, A-Z lists are not set-up for search engine optimization. As SEO landing pages, A-Z pages are usually poor performers, as the very essence of A-to-Z listing means displaying diffuse and dilute keyword phrases. Having dedicated niche webpages for SEO are absolutely required.

But for helping guide visitors and prospective clients to the B-to-B services they want and seek, A-Z list pages serve an important usability role, giving users an alternative way to find the data they want while complementing internal search engines.

The advantages of A-Z service niche directory lists are as manifestly beneficial today as when I first discussed them in 2009.

• Back to the Future with Static A-Z Directories
• CROSS-LINK IT - For Better Sales and Leads

New Google Interactive Infographic: How Search Works

Here is a great review and update on Google's search criteria for ranking quality organic search results, courtesy of Danny Sullivan and Search Engine Land.

You can view the animated and interactive Google infographic in the Google.com "Inside Search" website section: HOW SEARCH WORKS - From algorithms to answers ("The Story").

Google has now searched and indexed over 30 Trillion webpages, which is one of the reasons why Google is the best search engine around and dominates the global search engine market.

Search Marketing Expo – SMX West is this month (March 2012) in San Jose, California.