Alternatives to Google Analytics 'Not Provided' Organic Search Keywords

Google Closes The Curtain on Organic Keyword Research

Google has mostly shut down the ability to see the organic search terms visitors use when visiting our websites, creating an unwelcome blind-spot when applying organic keyword research to search engine optimization efforts.

To understand what Google did to expand "Secure Search" and what it means to SEO practitioners, read a recent article posted by Thom Craver on September 23, 2013: Goodbye, Keyword Data: Google Moves Entirely to Secure Search.

This is not the end of life as we know it.

But using keyword research to enhance SEO is not dead!

Jennifer Slegg has produced an excellent overview on useful options and tactics to obtain meaningful keyword data for SEO: Google '(Not Provided)' Keywords: 10 Ways to Get Organic Search Data

Here are Jennifer's alternative keyword research suggestions. Read her informative article to learn more:

1. Google Experts (Avinash Kaushik, for example)

2. Non-Google Keywords (BING, for example)

3. Google Webmaster Tools

4. Analyze On-Site Searches

5. Google AdWords

6. Search Volume Tools

7. Filters to Segment "Not Provided" Data

8.  Historical Data on your website

9. Google Trends

10. Additional Ways to Capture Keyword Data

From my own perspective the action Google has taken in cloaking organic search terms is irritating from an SEO perspective, but at the same time this development is not fatal. Far from it.

Organic keyword research solely based upon looking at one's own website analytics can be risky, because like a self-fulfilling prophecy, the organic search terms you see (saw) in Analytics are there only because your webpages ranked for those search terms, and this implies that you already have related, relevant search terms in your website and webpages. But what about the search terms you don't (didn't) see, because your website either doesn't have them, or Google didn't think the content was relevant?

The bottom line is that keyword research must by necessity go beyond the organic search terms used by visitors to your website. In order to cast a wider net for lead generation and target new or overlooked lucrative market niches it is important to use all the options listed by Jennifer in her article.

The best source of valuable keywords will be from your customers and potential customers. What search terms do they use? What terminology and acronyms are important to them? Get close to your markets and customers, find keywords they find important, and you'll be able to ID lucrative opportunities your competition will overlook.

Search Engine Marketing is Industrial Strength Lead Generation (Or Should Be)

Selling B-to-B Services and Products?

Use Search Engine Marketing to give your business "Industrial Strength" Lead Generation.

With nearly 11 years of successful and global search engine marketing lead generation success under my belt, it's easy to assume that everyone should by now understand that good b-to-b marketing and lead generation should include a high dosage of brilliant PPC (pay per click), SEM (search engine marketing), and SEO (search engine optimization) at all times.

But for many companies, search engine success is clearly not working. Many B-to-B companies ignore, discount, flounder, under-invest, follow foolish or bad advice, and badly under-perform when judged by the harsh light of search engine marketing results.

Companies burdened with poor Search Engine Marketing (SEM) capabilities are literally leaving high value quality business leads (money) on the table, just waiting for someone else to pick them up. Entire business streams worth millions of dollars are won or lost this way.

Industrial Strength Lead Generation.

I know, because I've been on the winning side of these search engine wars for a long time. I'm picking my competitor's pockets over and over and over again. Your competitors may not even be aware there is a "search engine battle" for leads going on! Guess what? They lost before the fight even started.

Intelligent search engine marketing, both organic and paid, works extremely well in generating quality leads. When managed properly, SEO, PPC, and SEM work so well they should be considered as strategic "industrial strength" lead generation machines.

How well does search engine marketing work? From my experience, obtaining 67% of all monthly visits to key B-to-B websites by search engines is not unusual. Organic search can often run at over 58% of total visits, while paid search visits produce around 9% of visitor traffic. My approach is to use paid search to produce an additional, smaller, flow of quality leads. Paid search is like adding cream and sugar to your coffee, where organic search is the coffee and paid search is the cream and sugar. Organic search should ideally carry the larger lead gen load.

The percentage of leads generated from search engine visitors via the web is very high. I can't imagine running any serious lead generation campaigns without search engine marketing being a top tactical and strategic component.

Search engine marketing  pulls in leads from unexpected, previously unknown, high-value contacts. Would you like to experience a successful trade show every day, churning out valuable leads for your business on a 24/7/365 basis? Then pay attention to search engine marketing. Success will come for the diligent, the patient, and the persistent.

Stick with the basics and success with SEM will happen. With technical B-to-B, it really helps to know and understand the markets and customers you are targeting. Build relevant, concise, and precise content, using thier terminology and jargon, not yours. Be customer focused. Use proven and sound SEO and PPC practices, and ignore bad, 'trendy', incompetent, or 'black-hat' advice.

When properly designed and applied, Search Engine Marketing is true "Industrial Strength" lead generation.

Give Your Sales Teams What They Crave This Valentine's Day - Good Leads

Updated February 2017.

Search Engine Marketing Psychology

Study Search Engine Psychology for Success, Seriously.

Customers are in "Hunt Mode" when using Search Engines.

Understand and apply Search Engine Marketing Psychology and you'll greatly increase the probability for high organic search rankings, more effective paid ads, and achieve higher conversions and quality lead generation.

When technical business-to-business professionals use a search engine, time is money. They want answers and solutions quickly. They don't want their time wasted! Search engine marketing is high-stakes and is not like other website traffic.

Search engines attract B-to-B customer and prospect usage when:

• They are actively seeking information.
• Searchers are researching. They are in hunt mode.
• Searchers are solving a problem.
• Searcher wants to learn more - NOW.
• They want relevance and answers - FAST.
• They want tangible solutions to their problems.

They usually don't care at this crucial search psychology stage about how wonderful your company history, logo, heritage, or brand are. They want relevant information, a solution, a solution provider, and they want it now.

To boost the chances of being seen in search results and 'win" with quality lead generation, focus is vital. Provide clear, concise, precise, content that a busy professional will usually "scan" (not "read") and make it easy for that prospective customer to take positive action in contacting your company.

How should webpages be optimized so that a organic search engine searcher's psychological need for content clarity and focus are met, and a lead is generated? 

The solution is simple. Focus on what is important. Cut out extraneous verbiage and clutter. 

Reduce or even better eliminate verbose, flowery, brochure-ware content, corporate-talk, and other marketing fluff. Produce lean content which will quickly impress a potential client. Don't use bloated content built to flatter and please you and your management. Focus on the core solutions, features, and benefits, instead. Use the technical terminology your potential client is going to use, remember your target market is that small but lucrative B-to-B niche... not the general public.

Reduce marginal and distracting clutter surrounding the core service or product content. Make it simple and painless for your potential customer to find what they are looking for.

Last but not least, provide a clear and easy call-to-action. Don't make the visitor think too hard about how to contact your company!

Paid Search Engine Marketing Organization Tips

With Paid Search Marketing Structure, it is always a good idea to Start at the Top.

If you want to start using Adwords and BING Ads, and are new to paid search marketing, take the high Earth orbital view first, and focus on the big picture. Also called PPC or pay-per-click, here are some useful paid search pointers I recommend you follow before you launch any new paid search campaign.

Paid Search Campaign Structure: 

How should the strategic campaign structure of your account be organized? Allow for future growth and diversification of large and niche campaigns as your targeting and  business grows. Name your campaigns logically, and related them to the target market, service or product. Logical organization of your campaigns will save confusion and frustration later on as you expand your paid search marketing efforts.

Think of your campaign structure as you would planning the future growth of a potentially large city, think about the big-scale organization first. Then drill-down to get the major 'neighborhoods' right. Only then should you be worried about where to put the 'streets' and 'parks'.

Once you have a good strategic understanding of how you want to organize your campaigns, determining sub-categories are next. In Google, these are called Adword Groups.

Adword Group Structure:

Adword groups are the actual niche mini-campaigns which reside in each of your higher-level Campaigns. These should be very focused. It is in the Adword group where you need to think carefully about:

Keywords - What keyword phrases do you want to trigger your ads. Are they sufficiently targeted using long-tail tactics to avoid wasted clicks or hyper-competitive search terms of only partial value to you? Do the keywords you've chosen for an Adword Group make sense together, or are they too broad? Can they be split into two more focused Groups?

Negative Keywords - What (single) keywords do you NOT want to trigger your ads? Negative search terms are extremely useful to help improve focus, lower costs, improve click-through-rates, and raise conversion rates.

Ad Content - What will the Ad say? Is it relevant to the market and keywords you have targeted? Are you running alternate ads to measure relative success? Avoid one-size-fits-all approaches.

Landing Pages - Your landing webpage must be absolutely targeted and customized to the intended audience and market niche. Don't send people to your homepage or some higher level webpage, you'll only frustrate your visitors and risk a low quality score from Google, resulting in lower click-through and conversion rates.

There are more factors to consider…. a lot more. But by getting these four fundamental paid search management principles well-designed and optimized in the beginning, the other many paid search tasks and factors needed for success become easier to manage and optimize.

Paid Search, (Google Adwords, BING Ads) run in a parallel universe to organic search engine marketing. I've been successfully and efficiently managing paid search campaigns for over 10 years now, with Adwords as my paid search top priority.

SEO MOZ Video: Link Building vs. Content Marketing

SEO's Dilemma - Link Building vs. Content Marketing - Whiteboard Friday

MOZ is such a good resource for insights into search engine marketing. Today is no exception. The new Whiteboard Friday posting today is an informative SEO advice video.

If you're working in Search Engine Marketing you should invest some quality time to watch this video from Rand Fishkin for MOZ Whiteboard Friday today. Rand dives into Link Building versus Content Marketing for achieving optimal organic search engine success.

MOZ Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, August 9, 2013

Anyone who has read my blog will soon figure out that I put major SEO emphasis on content and keywords, a strategy which has produced over 10 years of niche SEO and lead generation success. But there are other paths to SEO success, and Rand Fishkin provides a nice review of the challenges, alternatives, and choices a search engine marketer can make. He offers sage advice for those looking to improve or change their SEO approach in light of Google's Penguin and Panda updates.

View the video on the MOZ website:
http://moz.com/blog/seos-dilemma-link-building-vs-content-marketing-whiteboard-friday

New Survey Says Leads Are Primary Goal for Content Marketers

"Leads Take Hold as the Primary Goal of Content Marketing" - 

From the Second Annual IMN Content Marketing Survey - Executive Report

The results of this just released survey indicate there is a notable shift in content-marketing types to focus more on lead generation. Lead generation was described as the most important goal of content marketing by 44%, compared to 16% last year.

From my perspective, this trend is a most healthy development. Anyone who is successful in generating quality leads by search engine marketing, for example, is deeply engaged in a form of content marketing. Search engines rank webpages by the relevancy of the content to the intention of the person running the search.

Get the content right on your webpages and quality leads will pour in.

Get the content wrong and your webpage will be a failure for lead generation... lonely, unproductive, and unnoticed by your potential customers.

Source: Marketing Charts
http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/interactive/content-marketing-efforts-are-becoming-more-focused-on-lead-gen-35554/attachment/imn-content-marketing-program-goals-2013-v-2012-aug2013/

Lead generation is one of the most important benefits marketing can contribute to an organization - - helping to feed the business with top-line revenue opportunities, ideally with attractive profit margins for the bottom-line.

As I've said here many times over the years: "Content is King".

Concise, precise, and relevant webpage content will help bring success with organic search engines and thus produce bonafide, high-value, leads.

Search Engine Marketing: A Look Behind the Curtain

Search Engine Marketing presentation at the Business Marketing Association in August 2013 luncheon, Houston Chapter:

What goes on with Search Engine Marketing?

There is a lot of depth and detail to Search Engine Marketing. Despite the complexity, success with Search Engine Marketing can be achieved if basic core principles are followed.

In Houston on August 15,2013, I was invited to present a 40 minute overview of search engine marketing to over 100 fellow professional Houston area B2B marketers at the Houston Business Marketing Association's Luncheon for a "Look Behind the Curtain on Search Engine Marketing" (SEM), at the Courtyard-on-St. James Place in Houston.

During the luncheon I shared my 10+ years of success and experience with SEM and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and provided a look into how I and others have developed and exploited international search engine marketing strategies and tactics to drive significant, sustained, organic growth and strategic outsourcing and acquisition opportunities.

If you've wanted to learn more about Search Engine Marketing from an actual (fanatical) practitioner, this short, useful, and informative luncheon presentation can help motivate you to start using SEM, get better at SEM, inspire increased usage of SEM, and re-inspire you to improve and expand current SEM efforts.

Download the Search Engine Marketing presentation. (.pdf)

Learn more about the Houston BMA Search Engine Marketing luncheon.

Join the BMA Houston Chapter.

Search Engine Marketing: Behind the Curtain

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.