How Local Businesses Reach Mobile Searchers

Why Local Search is So Important to Local Businesses Today

For local businesses, it's become increasingly imperative to focus more energy on addressing local search in an overall Internet marketing strategy, especially for those businesses who serve a local service area such as restaurants, dry cleaners, doctors, accountants and lawyers. 

 

Local Search Example on Google Search - "Lawyers, Albany NY"

 

As we can see from graph below, previously published on Search Engine Land, based on the local search and mobile search data released by the online ad network Chitika, 43% of Google searches are local searches. This is one reason why  Getting found in local searches has never been more important to local businesses. Understanding that Google has maintained a 2/3 majority of the US search market for several years highlights the importance of this statistic. Still wonder why Google Maps and Android were central to Google's strategic vision?

 

For Bing and Yahoo! who share a portion of the remaining 1/3 of the US search market,  the percentage of local searches is less at 25% for each, but significant if you consider that 1 in 4 searches conducted on those search engines are local searches.

 

Local Search Traffic by Search Engine

Local Search Traffic % of Search Volume for Bing, Google and Yahoo!

Source: http://searchengineland.com/study-43-percent-of-total-google-search-queries-have-local-intent-135428 

 

Local Search Breakdown – Mobile Search versus Non-mobile

What's interesting is that mobile searches as a percentage of local searches, at least on Google, is growing in parallel with the increase of local searches. In fact, according to the Chitika Study, 74% of local searches on Google were performed from a mobile device.

 

Often times mobile searches are from search users shopping for a product or service while on the go, which can typically be very close in time to a transaction. For Yahoo! and Bing, the percentages of local searches that were performed on a mobile device were much lower, at 17% and 7% respectively.

Local Search Breakdown – Mobile Search versus Non-mobile

 

 We can see from another 2013 Local Search study, done in partnership by 15miles and Localeze – conducted by comScore, that the trend of local search on mobile phones and tablets is steadily on the rise as more local searches are initiated from smartphones by users shopping online while on the go. 

 

Mobile Stakes Its Claim on Local Search

 

The study found that in only 8 months, the number of mobile  searches  increased 21%. In Dec 2012, the number of searches from mobile phones was just over 113 million and 39 million for tablets. 

 

Another aspect of the local search study was to examine which devices are used at various stages of a local business search including:

• in the beginning,
• in the middle,
• at the end,
• throughout the entire process.

Mobile phones are used more after a local business search has begun

 

The study found that mobile phones are used by 69% of those surveyed after the beginning of the local business search has begun as compared to 67% for tablets and 47% for PCs/Laptops.

 

The data shows that mobile devices are used further along in a buying process which makes them an opportune device to target by marketers trying to influence purchase decisions closer to the transaction. That's one of several reasons why mobile marketing matters so much to local businesses today.

 

That data is in alignment with the findings of another study which showed 70% of mobile searches were found to lead to action on a website within just 1 hour of the search  Source: BizReport.  

Getting found on mobile is all about search, and in particular, local search. 

Gaining an Understanding of Local Search

When you want to get somewhere, sometimes it's helpful to know where you've been. Below is a video of one of the most well-known, trusted and respected local search experts in the industry, David Mihm of SEOmoz presenting on the Evolution of the Local Algorithm to provide viewers with some local search context, past, present and future.

Evolution of the Local Algorithm by David Mihm

 

David covers how local search and the algorithms that drive the local search results has evolved over the last decade, including local search signals that influence search results.  

 

Towards the end of the video, David speculates where he thinks local search might be going in the future. Armed with this knowledge, the viewer is primed and well-prepared to immerse themself in a panel discussion with top local search experts.

 

Local Search Expert Panel Discussion 

What better way to gain local search insights than to hear from an expert panel comprised of some of the most well-respected local search experts in the industry including:

• Mike Blumenthal (http://blumenthals.com/blog)
• Darren Shaw (http://www.whitespark.ca)
• Will Scott (http://www.searchinfluence.com)
• Max Minzer (http://www.maxminzer.com/about/)

Local SEO - Max Impact

[Skip 1:02 to 2:47as the audio of the speaker, Max Minzer, the hangout organizer and moderator, was muted].

 

The local search experts featured in this Max Impact Google+ hangout answered a fairly broad set of local search questions during the Q&A portion of the hangout. The questions answered are the types of questions that an agency performing local search engine optimization or a local business trying to gain more visibility in the local search results might have.

 

Online Reviews Influence Purchases

 

According to a recently released survey conducted by Dimensional Research, 90% who recalled reading online reviews claimed that positive reviews influenced buying decisions, while 86% said buying decisions were influenced by negative reviews. Therefore, the data suggests that customer reviews can cut strongly in both directions.

Source: Marketing Land

 The survey cited was sponsored by Zendesk in the early part of 2013 and includes responses from 1,046 participants who were from the United States and had experienced a recent customer service issue. 

 

Summary

Local search has never been more important for local businesses to get found online, by their customers and prospective customers, who are searching for relevant products and services while on the go from their smartphones and in record numbers.

 

If you have watched the two videos in this post, you will have a reasonable understanding and perspective on what it takes to get a business represented in the local search results to reach mobile users shopping and dining on the go.

 

Given that there are so many resources to gain local citations (a concept covered by Darren Shaw in the hangout video), it is critical that Internet marketers and local businesses managing their online presence, find resources to help them prioritize which local listings to create based on potential impact/ROI as it is not practical or affordable to claim all possible local listings now available online.

 

Believe it or not, the priority of which local listing sites to create is location-dependent. For instance, certain local citations may be more valuable for a business located in Seattle, WA than for a businesses located in Albany, NY. A citation's value is also dependent on industry. For instance, to restaurants, Yelp is a critical listing to obtain as its reviews are often consulted by patrons while in the process deciding where dine out.

 

The one local listing that should be created by all local businesses is a Google+ Local Business Page. A Google+ local business page includes a business profile which will quickly become the cornerstone of businesses' local search presence.

The profile should include, at a minimum, the business:

1. Name,
2. Address,
3. Phone.

These three pieces of information are referred to in the industry as the NAP and also called a citation and are typically augmented with category and other critical business information.

 

Perhaps most importantly, a Google+ Local Business listing provides a place for customers to leave reviews. Google+ local pages also aggregate reviews from other sites. In our experience, 6 customer reviews on Google+ Local Business profiles represent a tipping point for enhanced representation of a profile in the local search results.

 

These customer reviews have been shown to have a significant impact on customer purchases which many can relate to from their own personal experiences of reading online reviews and knowing how those reviews have influenced our purchases.

 

The hangout video covers the right and wrong way to go about soliciting and collecting these reviews from customers in a way that does not jeopardize your investment in local search optimization.

 

Now armed with this local search knowledge, go forth and be found! If you leave this post with more questions than answers, then please contact eBiz ROI for a free consultation to get your questions answered and receive valuable local search insights to grow sales and maximize ROI.

Facebook Home - The Best Mobile Experience or Just an Upgrade?

Facebook Home Announcement with HTC First and AT&T 4G LTE 

The highly anticipated Facebook phone, which as it turns out, is not really a phone after all, has been dubbed Facebook Home and was announce this past Thursday, 4 April 2013.

The newly announced Facebook Home is touted by Mark Zuckerburg as turning Android phones into a "great, simple, social device." Learn more by reading on or visiting the official Facebook Home page.

Mark Zukerburg introducing Facebook Home (see video of Facebook Home press conference below).

Mark reiterates that our the Facebook mission is "give the people the power to share and make the world more open and connected."

 

Facebook Home - Press Conference Video

Video of Full Facebook Home Press Conference - 4 Apr 2013 

Mobile Users Spend Most of their Time on Social ... Well Yeah!

Mobile Apps by Percentage of Time Spent, US, Feb 2013 - Data from comScore

 Mark uses the data from comScore to make the point that we spend most of our mobile time on social activities and that no other categories come close. "We spend our lives sharing and connecting."

 

So we asked ourselves if we are all spending so much time on our phones interacting with people, then how can we make this easier? What if we transformed the mobile experience of one organized around apps, 

to a mobile experienced organized around people,

and with a quick path to get the apps when we need them?

 What Would it Feel Like if Our Phones Were Designed Around People, Not Apps?

According to Mark, it would feel really different as computers have been designed around tasks and applications for more than 30 years, dating back to Windows 1.0 (side note: interesting that Mark doesn't cite the Mac which many die hard Mac fans claim was ripped off by Windows 1.0).

 Examples of User Interfaces Designed Around Tasks and Applications 

A New Non-task-based Use Case for Smartphones is Emerging

Mark introduces an emerging smartphone use case that is not task or application driven. Users today are checking their smartphones in moments between meetings, at the line in the store, traveling on an airplane, when the user is interested in what is going on in their social sphere.

New Non-task-based use case for smartphones is emerging. A socially-driven experience.

Mark positioned Facebook Home as an immersive, all encompassing application for Android devices, a wrap-around app utlizing Andriod openness to transform the users experience for those 100 times a day that smartphone users interact with their devices. This is what Mark refers to as "just being human."

 Mark's premise is "why should the user experience be to have to open individual apps just to find out what is gonig on in the world they care about?"

Mark states that Facebook Home is designed to shift the existing user experience paradigm away from interfaces organized around apps and towards interfaces organized around people.

Market Driven User Interface Paradigm Shift Towards Social 

That is non-task oriented use case is not driven by the need to get something done, but the desire to stay connected. Mark uses pior versions of Facebook and the evolution of Facebook to emphasize the paradigm shift.

 

Facebook Home Distribution Strategy

Mark shares his vision for a broad distribution strategy to get Facebook Home on devices and into as many hands as possible.

Goal is provide broad-based smartphone market support for Facebook Home

 Mark's positioning of the choice of Android application for Facebook Home was based on the Android device's broad global market share and openness of the Android platform which offered the best option to develop a socially-driven mobile user experience.

To be clear, Mark indicated that Facebook Home was not a phone nor was it an operating system but rather an immersive application leveraging the Android platform. His reasoning was that if Facebook built a successful phone (hardware, device) in terms of market adoption, 20 million could be considered successful, while only being able to reach 2% of the over 1 billion Facebook users.

Where Does Facebook Home Fit in the Mobile Apps Stack?

By providing Facebook Home on an Android platform, Facebook has the ability to offer support for a much broader segment of the smartphone market while reaching a much higher percentage of the mobile Facebook user population. The figure below depicts exactly where Facebook Home fits in the Andriod application stack.

 

Facebook Home Integrations with Mobile Apps, the Phone OS (Operating System)

Mark indicated that it's Google's commitment to the openness of Android platform that allows for the deep integration required for the new user experience to be provided by Facebook Home.

A New Category of User Experiences - the Home Screen of your Phone

 Mark refers to the home screen as the soul of your phone which he claims that users look at, on average, 100 times a day. "It sets the tone of your whole experience and the feel should be deeply personal." 

 

During the press conference, Mark showcased an animated storyboard of Facebook Home along with some use cases. 

Facebook Home Cover Feed, Notifications and App Launcher Demo

About 13 minutes into the press conference, Mark hands off the stage for a live demonstration of the Facebook Home by Adam Mosseri, Director of Facebook Product.

Live Facebook Home Demo by Adam Mosseri, Facebook Director of Product

 

The Facebook Home live demo by Adam showed the real-life application of many of the use cases described by Mark in his storyboard. The scripted demo gave the audience a good feel of how Facebook Home would be used by Android smartphone users.

The demonstration provided by Adam covered Facebook Home:

• Cover feed,
• Notifications and
• App launcher.

Demonstration of Facebook Home Messaging and Chat Heads

Joey Flynn, Facebook Director of Product, came out next to provide a more detailed description and demonstration of the Facebook Home Messaging and Chat Heads. 

 Joey Flynn -  Demo of Facebook Home Messaging, Chat Head

The Facebook Home demo provided by Joey covered Messaging and how that integrates with the use of applications on Facebook Home. Joey's product demo also covered the concept of the Facebook Home Chat Heads and what they mean in the context of a rich, immersive, more social user experience.

 

How Does Somebody Install Facebook Home?

Corey Ondrejka, Facebook Vice President, Engineering, showed the mechanics of how to obtain and install Facebook Home on your Android phone, both in a mode of trying out just once and another mode for permanent installation.

Corey Ondrejka, Demonstrating How to Obtain and Install Facebook Home

Although Facebook won't be released until 12 April 2013, supported on a limited number of android devices, the installation process demonstrated by Corey at the press conference showed how easy it will be for current Android users with the latest release Facebook to upgrade to Facebook Home.

 

Corey positione Facebook Home as the next step in the evolution of Facebook mobile ( the lease for android users) and what he refers to is not only mobile first but mobile best. 

Facebook Home Promo Video

 Mark was beaming when he introduced the Facebook Home promo video showcased three quarters of the way through the carefully choreographed press conference. The promo video is a 60 second spot, which is imaginative, entertaining and will no doubt resonate with a large % of their early adopter target market. You can find this promo video integrated into the press conference video above and can be seen running between 28:05 - 29:05)

The promo depicting a traveler on a plane prior to takeoff, demonstrating a high level of engagement (based on active imagination) with the Facebook Home on their phone while waiting for others to board the plane,  leading to a rich experience in those short moments of white space that make up our lives.

 

Official Facebook Home - Promo Video

The following official Facebook Home Promo video below, which is embedded on the official Facebook Home webapge, differs from the promo video showcased at the press conference, maybe based on feedback from the attendees and ad critics.

Initial Phones Supported by Facebook Home

Facebook Home will be available for download from the Google Play store beginning April 12th and will include support for the following Android devices:

• HTC One (future)
• HTC One X, HTC One X+,
• Samsung GALAXYS III, 
• Samsung GALAXY S4 (Future)
• Samsung GALAXY Note II

Facebook Home Program

There are two ways that users can get Facebook Home:

1. Download Facebook Home to your Android device
2. Purchase a phone with Facebook Home preloaded

Facebook Home Program for Smartphone Device Manufactures 

The Facebook Home Program and the smartphones preloaded with Facebook Home as a result, enable those who purchase one of these preloaded phones to share right out of the box. It will be interesting to see how much of a piece of the existing Apple market share will be shifted to Android based on the Facebook Home Program.

Facebook Home Supply Chain Adoption

Even before Facebook Home was announced, a number of device manufacturers and mobile network service providers had signed up for the Facebook Home Program to accelerate it's availability and adoption while driving smartphone sales for phones that are optimized to support it.

Facebook Home Program - Smartphone Manufacturers and Mobile Service Providers 

 If you look at some of the program participants, one can't help but wonder what will be the Apple iOS response to this market development. Two particular partners that Mark focused on for this Facebook press conference include HTC and AT&T Mobility, with the leadership of both invited to participate and present at the Facebook Home announcement.

Pete Chou - HTC CEO - Introducing the HTC First

Pete Chou - HTC CEO - Introducing the HTC First

Pete introduced the HTC First, the first smartphone to ship with Facebook Home preloaded. He stated that the HTC First represents a great opportunity to bring the advantages of mobile and social together in one well-designed device.

 

The advantages of the HTC First, according to Pete, is that it was designed from the ground up to be tightly integrated with Facebook Home, delivering the best user experience, providing users Facebook Home right out of the box.

 

Ralph de la Vega -  ATT Mobility President CEO

Ralph de la Vega, ATT Mobility President CEO

Ralph talked about the fact that the HTC First is an LTE smartphone which will utilize the AT&T Mobility 4G LTE network, the fasted 4G mobile data network in the US according to Root Metrics. He also stated that the HTC First would be offered through AT&T exclusively for $99.99 and could be pre-ordered from AT&T mobility on 4 Apr 2013 for a 12 Apr 2013 delivery.

 

In the words of the great Yogi Berra, this seems like Dejavu all over again, except last time around the block, it was Apple who was offering the subsidized iPhone exclusively through AT&T Mobile.

 

Summary

While the Facebook Home application will be far from ubiquitous for a while after its announcement, it appears to have all the makings of a game changer in terms of both the social and mobile realms. It's hard to ignore the irony of Facebook leveraging the mobile operating system of their primary competitor in the online advertising market.

The winners in this space are likely to be

• Facebook more advertising inventory, user engagement and user generated content
• HTC to be the first smart phone manufacturer to ship with Facebook Home preloaded
• AT&T Mobility to be the first mobile operator to offer the HTC First

In fact, those interested can pre-order and HTC first from AT&T mobility beginning on April 4 to ensure they are one of the first users to experience the Facebook Home, fully integrated into a smartphone optimize for its integration. Note: The preceding pre-order links are not affiliate links.

 

The losers in this space are likely to be Apple and computer manufacturers whose users are increasingly using mobile devices to support social pursuits and even tasked based activities, especially with Facebook positioning Facebook Home as the best and preferred experience for the 1,000,000,000+ current Facebook users.

What do you think about Facebook Home and who do you think will be the winners and losers? We would love to hear from you in the comments below. Thanks for your time, attention and feedback.

SEO Top Follows for the Aspiring Internet Marketer

Achieve SEO Enlightenment by Following the SEO Masters

Knowledge is power. Sometimes knowing who to follow in your industry is a challenge, especially if your industry is Internet marketing and more specifically, SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

 

The folks over at Wildfire Digital have put together seriously one of the coolest infographics ever which provides a great list of  whose who from the Digital Marketing/SEO industry to enable you to choose wisely who to follow so as to not waste your valuable time.

 

Knowing which SEOs to follow is a huge help for serious learners, enabling them to cut through the clutter created by those wannabe, self anointed gurus who give the Internet marketing industry a bad reputation while wasting the reader's valuable time suggesting questionable SEO software, strategies and services which, in the best case, won't help, and in the worst case, result in losses from penalties incurred.

 

Why this Top SEO Follows Infographic is so Darn Cool

With the vast amount of SEO content available on the Internet and no shortage of self-appointment experts, how is one new to the industry to know:

 

• Who and what information is relevant?
• Who is most knowledgeable and trustworthy?
• Who is worth following?
• What conferences are worth attending based on the roster of speakers?

 

Aside from the fact that all of the SEO experts depicted in the infographic are characterures and that the characterures are represented in the context of Yu-Gi-Oh! style trading cards similar to the ones that adorned the households of those with Children in the early 2000s, the information it contains is worth it's weight in gold.

One of the great aspects of this SEO Top follows infographic is that it provides a wealth of information to substantiate why the individuals depicted are worth following including scores for:

• Social influence
• Social following
• Industry interaction
• Achievement score

Note that many of the top SEOs have more than one symbol/designation, with a few of my favorite SEOs, like Aaron Wall, Rand Fishkin and Bruce Clay earning all 5 designations. Aaron, Rand and Bruce are all must-follows for any aspiring or even established SEO in my opinion.

The Who and Why 

Each individual person/trading card also has a short synopsis of why that individual’s role in the industry (?) and why (!) that makes that individual worth following in your journey to SEO enlightenment.

 For example, for Aaron Wall, the following information is provided:

 

? - Aaron is a highly respected SE0 veteran, best known for SEO Book - formerly the most popular ebook on SE0 which is now a complete training program and toolset.

! - Aaron is a key figure in the industry and an entertaining follow. His blogging on seobook.com) (and his personal blog) is interesting and diverse, as are his tweets.

 

If you have not tried any of the SEO Book free tools such as

• The SEO Toolbar
• Rank Checker
• Keyword Suggestion Tool

Then I highly recommend that you head over to seobook.com and sign-up a free account required to access these free tools and begin incorporating them into your SEO workflows.

While you are there, you can sign up for the free "7 Days to SEO Success" mini course which will be delivered to your inbox. 

 

Another great example is Rank Fishkin, CEO and co-founder of SEOmoz.org:

? - Rand is CEO of SE0Moz, a company which started out as an SEO consultancy business and is now provider of the most popular SE° toolset available.

! - Perhaps the strongest advocate of white-hat SEO, Rand is a great source of content marketing tips, :lean SE0 advice and interesting retweets covering all sorts of topics.

  

Much like SEOBook, SEOmoz.org offers a great set of freemium tools and training materials that can be accessed and used in exchange for signing up for an SEOmoz.org account. This will give the SEO access to the SEOmoz blog and even post on the YouMoz blog, comprised entirely of super high quality user generated content. 

Free versions of the following SEO tools are available when signing up for a free SEOmoz account:

 

• On-Page Analysis
• SEO Toolbar
• Rank Tracking
• Link Analysis (Open Site Explorer)

 

Users get a ton of value from the free tools offered by SEOBook and SEOmoz which results in the strong desire to become paid users of these tools. Smart business model, right? These guys didn't become self-made millionares on business models that don't work. Maybe a good approach to take for your own business is to look for opportunities to add value before the sale!

 

The great thing about both toolsets is that they offer a ton of value before requiring you to pay which is the way of the new Internet marketing world and the path to SEO enlightenment.

 

Follow this list on Twitter

In the comments on the Wildfire Digital blog post where Top SEO Follows infographic was originally published, one of the commentors, Kasey LaRose, created a Twitter list (https://twitter.com/KaseyLaRose/seo-top-trumps) which includes the Top SEO Follows. Thanks to Kasey for making it easy to follow these SEO legends on Twitter.

 

Summary

We appreciate your time and attention, two of the most valuable assets any of us have, whether we realize it or not. This post is intended to get you on the right track to make sure you don't spend time following the wrong resources whose only motivation is to sepearte you from your other most important resource, that is your hard-earned cash.

 

If you found value in this post, please subscribe to our blog, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or circle us on G+ for more of the same. 

 

Now go and continue on your journey to SEO enlightment!

 

SEO PowerSuite Review

SEO PowerSuite Review

 

Our online marketing agency is always on the lookout for new tools support our Internet marketing services practice. Tools are evaluated based on:

• Efficacy (does the tools provide accurate results, consistently)
• Cost (initial and ongoing recurring costs)
• Feature fit with our agencies requirements

One of the tools that we’ve test drove several times over the past few years is a package called SEO PowerSuite. The applications are written in Java and can therefore run on a variety of platforms including Windows, Mac, Linux.

One distinguishing characteristic of the SEO PowerSuite is that it runs on local hardware as opposed to running in the cloud like the SEOmoz toolset which is sold on a monthly subscription basis using the software as a service model.

The software checks for updates each time it is started and will automatically download updates based on a maintenance model that charged a % of the licensing fee each 6 months to keep the applications current with changes in the search engine algorithms.

The SEO PowerSuite is licensed with a one-time license fee based on which edition is purchased. The SEO PowerSuite comes in three editions:

• Free with limitations in terms of saving and exporting data
• Professional which has limitations in terms of being able to white label reporting
• Enterprise which is designed for agencies who want to white label the end customer reporting

The SEO PowerSuite is comprised of four modules which include:

1. Rank Tracker to check and track ranking of keywords and keyphrases over a large variety of search engines from multiple countries around the world
2. WebSite Auditor to perform SEO audits on websites with the goal of looking for opportunities to improve on page optimizations
3. SEO SpyGlass,  - to look at the link graphs  of competing domains and analyze those link graph so long a variety of different factors including page rank.
4. LinkAssistant – to organize, implement and project manage link outreach efforts

Each of these four modules will be reviewed in more detail below:

 

Rank Tracker

Rank Tracker – module used to check the ranking of keywords by search engine, by country tracked and reported on over time.

Once aspect of Rank Tracker that is handy, especially for SEOs with multi-national, global clients, is the ability to track  rankings of keywords for a large number of search engines (see sample of the search engines supported in the screen capture below)

During the selection process of which search engines to track ranking on, the search engines be grouped by either search engine or country (see drop down box on upper right corner).

 

 

Once the keywords are entered and the search engines selected, click the next button to check rankings and then run resulting reports.

 

Here we see the results of rankings for some of the keywords for www.ebizroi.com  for the following keywords: affordable

business websites, affordable Internet marketing services, increase marketing ROI, Internet marketing blog, Internet marketing services across Bing US, Google US and Yahoo! US.

 

Search Engine Rankings for eBizROI.com

The Rank Tracker application allows you to set up search engine API keys to avoid violating the terms of service for those individual search engines. The application makes it easy with links to request the API keys necessary to configure the rank tracker application.

 

 

Rank Tracker Pricing:

Professional ($99.75, designed for website owners and webmasters)
Enterprise ($249.75, designed for professional SEO and Online Marketing Agencies)

 

Over the last several years, many of the marketing promotions distributed to their e-mail marketing campaigns offer the applications that significant discounts, as high as 40% off list price.

 

Note: this pricing is a one-time right to use fee. There is also a fee for updates every 6 months. Therefore, when evaluating SEO PowerSuite and any of its four modules relative to alternative SEO software solutions in the market, one has to factor in not only the initial SEO PowerSuite licensing fee, but also a fee to update the software to keep current with search engine updates, which is licensed on a six month subscription fee, with the first six months of updates included with the one-time licensing fee.  Since this model is true for all the SEO PowerSuite modules, it will not be repeated in subsequent sections or pricing information is provided.

 

WebSite Auditor

 WebSite Auditor examines and provides advice on the important structural aspects of a website, its links, structure, page coding and other factors that may influence a pages rank in the search results.

Like the other SEO PowerSuite applications, the WebSite Auditor starts out with a website optimization wizard which steps users through the process. Step 1 is to enter a website URL. In this example, www.ebizroi.com is used.

 

Pressing next advances the application to Step 2, Searching for Webpages.  Once each webpage is found, ranking factors for each of the pages found on the website are performed. Once finished, a confirmation is provided along with the total URLs found. The free version of WebSite Auditor limits the analysis to 39 pages. In this example, 130 URLs were found and pages will be used in the reports. 

 

 

Clicking finish results in the following next step, which is the option to analyze ranking factors of each of the 39 pages included in the analysis.

 

 

Clicking yes results in the ability to choose a number of options, including selecting On-Page factors (internal) and/or Off-Page factors (external) in Step 1: Choose Page Ranking Factors.

 

Once next is clicked, the ranking factors selected in the previous step are now being analyzed for each of the 39 pages included in the analysis of Step 2: Update Page Ranking Factors.

 

 

Once the page ranking factors have been updated, the following reports are generated and can be viewed – The Website Report, as shown below, showing PageRank Statistics

 

 

The Website Structure Audit Report:

 

 

While statistics for individual webpages can also be viewed:

 

The WebSite Auditor module, even the free version used to write this review, provides a wealth of data that can be used to evaluate both on page and off page SEO factors. The application has the ability to generate and xml sitemap and robots.txt files, both of which can provide search engines with a mechanism to discover, crawl and index pages more efficiently and effectively.

WebSite Auditor Pricing

Professional ($99.75, designed for website owners and webmasters)
Enterprise ($249.75, designed for professional SEO and Online Marketing Agencies)

 

SEO SpyGlass

The SEO SpyGlass module allow users to track how competitors are ranking in the major search engine such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing with the goal to understand their overall link profile and what are some of the authoritative websites that currently link to them.

Like the other of the SEO PowerSuite applications, SEO SpyGlass operates on a wizard basis walking the user through the steps necessary to gather the information to deliver insights. For this example, I want to run some competitive analysis against a keyword of interest to eBiz ROI, namely “Internet marketing services” – Step 1: Select Competitor to Analyze

 

SEO SpyGlass will find the top competitor for the keyphrase entered. Once I click next, the wizard will proceed to Step 2: Choose the Search Engine to Find Competitor.  Much like Rank Tracker, the SEO SpyGlass application will allow me to select search engines grouped by either search engine or country. Due primarily to markets share, in the US at least, the obvious choice is Google.

 

 

In this case, the user selected Google US among the several choices available in the interface. Once clicking the next button, the wizard proceeds to Step 3: Set up a Google Analytics Account where the user is presented with the option to connect, and if necessary, set up connecting to a Google Analytics account.

Connecting SEO SpyGlass with the Google analytics account enables the application to use information from the Google analytics data to track additional inbound links and traffic to augment the back link sources used in the overall analysis.

 

 

After bypassing this optional step three and clicking the next button, SEO SpyGlass will proceed to Step 4: Collecting Backlink Data on your Competitor  (i.e. the website ranked #1 for the keyphrase entered in step 1).

 

 

Once step 4 has completed, the following confirmation from SEO SpyGlass is displayed:

 

 

Once the user clicks the Finish Button, the follow options are presented:

 

 

Selecting Yes will present Step 1: Choose Backlink Factors updating the search engine data for back links in the project. The following options for updating back link factors from the search engines:

 

 

Selecting Next Button kicks off a process to where SEO SpyGlass begins checking the various Backlink factors selected in step one of the project.

The resulting reports available include the backlinks report (in this case, for the website that currently ranks #1 for the keyphrase “Internet marketing services”:

 

 

Here is the Website Backlinks Analysis Report

 

 

The SEO SpyGlass reports include a lot of information that can be used to identify high quality, link partners based on your top competitor’s link profile and, of the four modules in the SEO PowerSuite, the one that I found most interesting and valuable.

 

SEO SpyGlass Pricing

Professional ($99.75, designed for website owners and webmasters)
Enterprise ($249.75, designed for professional SEO and Online Marketing Agencies)

 

LinkAssistant

The LinkAssistant module is designed to help SEOs Project Management link outreach efforts while tracking backlinks requested, earned, exchanged etc. The LinkAssistant application wizard begins with asking the user to enter a URL of your website that you want to build links to, Step 1: Specify Your Site

 

Entering a website URL and clicking next brings the user to Step 2: Getting Project Info:

 

 

LinkAssistant is acquiring data from the webpage that will be used in the project to be used in Step 3: Project Info

 

Clicking the Next Button brings the user to Step 4: Enter Contact Info

 

 

Clicking the Finish Button brings the user to an interface where users can generate a link directory structure with Step 1: Select Template Type

 

 

Then Step 2: Layout Options chose options to include in your generated link directory

 

 

Step 3: Page Design And Link Location

 

 

Step 4: Links Page Preview

 

 

Step 5: Select Storage Settings

 

 

This will generate the code necessary to create a link exchange page for a website or blog.

Though LinkAssistant has many features that make it interesting, including locating potential link partners, those features that focus on link exchange are may be less effective for some markets as Google updates in the US, such as Penguin, are likely to discount links gained through link exchange schemes and possibly view unnatural and manipulative.

LinkAssistant offers multiple mechanisms for locating potential link partners.

 

 

Step 2 – Enter Keyword (based on selecting Find sites by keyword search option)

 

 

Step 3:  Search Conditions Overview

 

 

Step 4: Searching For Link Partners

 

 

Step 5:  Select URLs to Use

 

 

Step 6:  Common Link Partner Settings

 

 

Click Finish Button to complete process

 

LinkAssistant form email templates are a bit spammy looking in my opinion, but certain industries, geographies and contexts, the email outreach templates and project management capabilities of the tools may prove valuable, especially for ensuring that links exchanged are note removed from the partner site while kept in the users link directory.

LinkAssistant Pricing

Professional ($99.75, designed for website owners and webmasters)
Enterprise ($249.75, designed for professional SEO and Online Marketing Agencies)

 

SEO PowerSuite pricing

The SEO PowerSuite pricing, at the time of this post, was discounted from a list of $399 down to $249 for the professional edition, making it clear that the company prefers to sell all four modules together and make up the margin on the bi-annual maintenance fee. The SEO PowerSuite pricing for the Enterprise edition, at the time of this post, was discounted from $999 down to $599, I suspected for the reasons stated.

Summary of Evaluation

 

Based on our SEO tool evaluation of the SEO PowerSuite applications, we found that the,

• Efficacy, as measured by if the tools provide accurate results, consistently seemed to be legitimate. For example, our rankings from Rank Tracker and recommendations from WebSite Auditor appeared to be spot on. The SEO Spyglass module has some interesting features for supporting competitive intelligence gathering. Link Assistant and the efficacy of link exchange and template based email outreach may be something where efficacy could vary greatly across markets, geographies and search engines.
• Cost (initial and ongoing recurring costs) are on par and similar to many of the software as a service model such as SEOmoz tools. The nuances come about based on limitations of each licenses based on how the tools are being used, limits on number of keywords tracked, domains managed, queries run.  One cost difference is that hardware costs must be accounted for with SEO PowerSuite modules since the software runs locally, using bandwidth and computing resources, but for certain scale, SEO PowerSuite could be more cost effective.  Top SEOs may use both along with other SEO tools. Global SEOs should definitely give SEO PowerSuite a look. Semi-annual maintenance for SEO PowerSuite is estimated at 20% of initial purchase price and is payable every 6 months to keep software current with rapidly evolving search engine algorithms and APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). This cost should be factored into total cost of ownership.
• Feature fit with our agencies requirement – SEO PowerSuite appears to be a good fit for our agency and will augment other tools we license such as SEOmoz Pro subscription.

 

Since there are free versions of all 4 applications, we recommend that those that found this post informative and interesting, in addition to those that are performing SEO for global multi-national companies will find value in test driving the free versions to see if one or more modules provides value to warrant purchasing one of the editions to support your SEO and Internet marketing efforts.

The modules of SEO PowerSuite are wizard-driven for beginners while offering power users the ability to set a number of advanced options. The modules all include support for many different search engines from around the globe.

Since the modules are written in Java, multiplatform support is built in. Each time the modules are started, updates are checked for and downloaded automatically upon startup, along with a summary of changes included in each update.

Agencies who adopt these modules will likely require the Enterprise edition which is necessary to white label, export and publish client reports.

Internet Marketing Agencies of the Future

Finding an Online Marketing Agency for the Future

Look into our crystal ball to find the digital marketing agency of the future ...

Marketing agencies of the future will be increasingly online, mobile and technologically savvy Marketing agencies of the future will embrace the Internet and mobile like never before, in creative ways recently unimaginable. To succeed and thrive, the marketing agencies of the future will require transparency and agility like never before, while they compete for clients both B2B and B2C. Marketing strategies will integrate campaigns across Internet, mobile, broadcast radio and TV, cable, print, outdoor and more into unified campaigns where value (i.e. conversions) need be attributed across diverse disconnected channels.

Are you currently doing business with an a marketing agency able to position your businesses to capitalize on the emerging opportunities of the future? 

 

The digital revolution, accelerated by the always on, always connected, location aware, mobile devices, has redefined marketing in fundamental ways. Targeting by interests as determined by context, location and/or behavior can be a powerful mechanisms to deliver a laser-focused message to a very receptive audience.

 

In addition, the business landscape has shifted dramatically with introduction of disruptive technologies.

• End customers buying processes are evolving with the customer more in control than ever before,
• Budgetary pressures and the need to demonstrate clear ROI (Return on Investment) drive marketing investments,
• High adoption of established social channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter require adaption to new, relevant channels, managed by resources with specialized skills,
• Rapid introduction of emerging social channels such as Google+, Pinterest, Instagram. New social channels are constantly emerging, creating a significant ongoing investment in technology and training to keep up with the rapidly evolving social landscape,
• "Content marketing" and the mass proliferation of high quality content is raising the bar for marketers to create content that not only fills an unserviced or under-addressed need, but also stands out in a crowded web of quality content that is easy to find,
• Changes to the way that Google ranks websites, penalizing those marketers who produce and position content that Google views as manipulative and lacking value (has SEO become a dirty word?)
• Marketing automation technologies have evolved how some marketers, particularly B2B focused marketers, work and are de-emphasizing the need for classic email service providers and individual components products to manage and track each channel as they related to contacts/leads/customers,
• Lack of In-house skilled marketing resources necessary to execute will drive business to rely on agencies to provide a managed services,
• Customer ROI Focus where the agency of the future will be required to retain business based on results and valued delivered as opposed to relying on existing relationships and court-side seats being the primary reason for doing business or continuing to do business with a marketing agency.

Full service marketing agencies of the future will embrace technology and offer innovation, including digital and mobile. Only then will businesses realize the full promise of Internet as a marketing channel, with its inherent characteristic of providing near real-time data through reporting and analytics, which can then be used to continually test and optimize marketing campaigns while substantiating results and ROI.

The Marketing Agency of the Future ... According to Marketo

According to the MarketingSherpa 2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report, by far the greatest challenge facing B2B marketing agencies is downward pressure on clients' marketing budget. Five years ago, this was far less of a problem. Now, the burning issue of the moment is that marketers need to produce and demonstrate ROI. The upside of this is that marketing becomes a value generating asset as opposed to being viewed as a necessary expense.

In the last five years, marketing automation technology has been adopted by a wide range of B2B companies of different sizes, across a variety of industries. These companies have implemented marketing automation solutions to support:

• Lead generation, nurturing and scoring to drive sales focus and increased revenue and ROI,
• Increase prospect engagement across a variety of online channels,
• Measure and track ROI, from initial discovery through closed sale.

It’s not only in-house marketers that need to keep pace with new technology innovations in online marketing, the agencies of the future will need to be capable of evaluating these technologies to add value for their clients and prospects. Agencies that ignore these advancements do so at their own peril while running the risk of becoming irrelevant.

 

Agencies of the Future Have a New Role

• Agencies must be digitally focused and demonstrate ROI,
• Responsible for helping customers portray a consistent brand presence across multiple diverse channels,
• Understand and embrace emerging and relevant technology to enable clients to capitalize on innovations when and where they add value

 

What Does the Roadmap Look Like?

B2B clients demand change, so therefore, the agency itself must change. But how can the agency realize the changes necessary to stay relevant?

Positioning

• Many B2B marketers have implemented marketing automation technology. They are looking for external support to augment their in-house marketing efforts.
• Certain clients will select an agency that offers a managed service to support them, especially ones that don't have to be paid to learn their business.

Services

• Extraordinary content is the fuel of any marketing automation engine, especially in industries rich with existing, high-quality content.
• Content planning, creation and management are growth areas for agencies of the future. Those agencies that execute this well will gain significant market share in competitive markets.

Skills

• New sets of recruiting skills supporting virtual, multilingual teams physically located in different cities and possibly different countries.
• Technology, data reporting and analysis skills will be required to compliment creative and communication skills more common in the traditional agencies.

 

The Agency of the Future focused primarily on B2B clients will invest in marketing automation technology to drive efficiencies and ROI for their clients. The agencies who win will understand the client’s most pressing business challenges and introduce innovative solutions that solve to the clients problems using insights that the client would not likely have come up with on their own.

 

Questions that should be asked of agencies used to deploy marketing automation technology include:

1. What do you offer in terms of solution implementation, training, reporting and ongoing support. What are your standard support hours and what kind of response times can we expect? Does your agency provide support or refer calls to the marketing automation technology provider.
2. What package and best practice guidance is integrated into the solution your are proposing?
3. How broad is your partner ecosystem? Is there an active marketplace of complimenting products that are pre-integrated with the solution proposed? Is there a robust services marketplace to support the marketing automation technology?
4. How frequently is your software updated?  What influence do clients have on the product roadmap? Is there a formal process for clients to submit feature requests?
5.  Can social media campaigns be integrated into the solution? Does this include tracking engagement from initial interaction through to closed sale?
6. What innovations are on the existing product roadmap? How early before a release is the product roadmap published to clients?

 

What to Expect

In the future, you can expect inbound marketing to become a competitive differentiator for B2B companies that adopt it and generate the kind of valuable content necessary to enable interested prospects to discover the products and services they seek. Specially, expect that in the future,

• Technology will have a greater impact on marketing and the activities and goals they support
• Agencies will  have to incorporate marketing automation fueled by extraordinary content while providing the reporting and analytics to enable measurement  of ROI
• Many marketers will enlist the assistance of agencies to help them evolve their marketing programs.  Agencies that embrace marketing automation now will be best positioned as the winning marketing agencies of the future, best equipped to service the marketing needs of their B2B clients.

 

There is Much Yet to be Done

In a report conducted by B2B Marketing, studies show that only 20% of marketers efficiently design, measure, and execute optimized programs across multiple channels. While 43% have a strategy, it requires a lot of manual efforts. A startling 13% only produce random acts of marketing with little strategy.

What is your business doing to ensure it's positioned for success in the evolving market of the future?

 

Free Business Website to Get Your Business Online Today

Why Your Business Needs a Website

 

In this post and accompanying videos produced by Google as part of their Get Your Business Online initiative, we discuss why every business needs and online presence and how to do it for free. This post is writen for the 58% (~15M) US businesses that don't currently have a website for their business.

 

Here is an ad campaign with some well known political figures including Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Mayor of Los Angelos, Antonio Villaraigosa, Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu and Kansas City, Missouri Mayor Sly James who are showing their support of the initiative and explaining how this could help address our current US job deficit and jumpstart the US economy.

 

Perhaps the most compelling reason to get your business online is the research findings showing that nearly all online consumers, 97% use online media when researching local products and services, even for purchases made offline. Source: BIA/Kelsey, User View Wave VII, March 2010.

 

 

Local searches constitute 24% of Google search queries which means someone is looking for a product or service nearby.  Source: http://chitika.com/insights/2012/local-search-study

 

What does that mean for you, the business owner? It means that more than ever your online business presence matters. In fact, the research phase is a critical time for connecting with potential customers but many businesses cannot be found online.

 

Fifty eight percent of American small businesses (~15 million) do not have a website at all. As an online marketer with admitted tunnel vision when it comes to Internet marketing, I was shocked at how many are missing this opportunity to grow their business online, profitably.

  

Would it surprise you to know that business that can be found online are growing faster than those that have no online presence? Over the next three years, businesses that make use of the web expect to grow 40% faster than those that don't. Source: BCG Report, "The Connected World: The $4.2 Trillion Opportunity," March 2012.  

 

Is your business in that fifty-eight percent that is missing out on online growth opportunities? What is stopping you from creating a website for your business?

Let’s Hear More from Learn with Google on Why Your Business Needs a Website

 

Five Solid Reasons Your Business Can Benefit from a Website

 

Maybe your business has plenty of customers. Maybe you don't sell anything online so why should you bother? A website can help potential customers:

 

1. find your store location and hours of operation,
2. find your telephone number or email address,
3. learn about your products and services,
4.  read testimonials from customers which can help establish your credibility and
5. learned about special offers and promotions

 

This information can help even the smallest most locally based business connect with more customers online.  Think of your website as an open for business sign on the Internet, but unlike your business, your website is open twenty four hours a day, seven days a week and never takes a vacation!

 

Things to Ponder before Launching your Business Website

 

Here are a few things to think about before creating the website

• How much do you want to spend?
• How comfortable are you with the computer and teaching yourself new technology-based skills?
• How often will you update or change your website content?

  

There are a variety of paid and free website services for getting your business online quickly. They may give you a library of designs to choose from and include tools that you can edit your website quickly and easily from the any Internet browser.

 

You can use the service to build an e-commerce website for selling your products and services online.

  

if you don't have the time to do it yourself or if you prefer something more customized, then maybe consider hiring the an Internet marketing consultant who does website development.

 

In the end, you want a web site that you're proud of and excited to share with customers. One option to consider is Intuit websites which includes a domain and hosting for the first year free.

  

Get your Business Online for Free, in an Hour or Less

 

Google, in partnership with Intuit, is offering free websites to small businesses through to Get Your Business Online Program. Participants of the Get Your Business Online Program are eligible for:

 

• A free easy to build professional website from intuit,
• A free domain name and web hosting for one year
• Free tools resources and local event sponsored by Google

 

Using one of the 2000+ intuit templates, a business owner like you can create and publish a website in less than one hour, and the best part, it is for free for the first year.

 

A credit card is required for those interested in choosing their own domain name. This is to ensure continuation of domain name registration and hosting after 1 year.

  

Ready to get Started:

1. Visit www.gybo.com
• Select your state to get started
• You can create and publish site in about an hour
2. Make sure potential customers know your website exists. To promote your site everywhere you can including:
• signs in your store and on your company vehicles,
• product boxes containers and shopping bags,
• estimates invoices and receipts,
• ads in newspapers magazines and direct mail,
• and business cards and email signatures.
3. Explore Google's products like:
• Google AdWords
• AdWords Express and
• Google+  for business to promote yourself online

 

These topics will be covered in more detail in subsequent blog posts. Download the Create Your Website worksheet that accompanies this post to help put these ideas into practice.

 

If you need any help at all with the process and would like some dedicated support, contact eBiz ROI and for the cost a small print ad in a local newspaper, we will walk you through the entire process, answering any questions and advising you until your website is up and running. We can also train you on how to maintain your website yourself, or if you prefer, we can maintain it on your behalf so that you can focus on running your business.

 

So what are you waiting for? Isn’t it time to get your business online so that your  future customers know that you are open for business?

Getting Found in Local Searches through Local SEO

Getting Found on Local Search is not an Accident

The are a number of steps that you as a business owner can take to help ensure that your business is visible in the #1 place that people go to look for local products and services, that is, online.

The following webinar, which was sponsored by Manta and Yext, will demonstrate several new tips that you can use to boost your online presense and connect with more customers, including:

• how to get more targeted traffic from basic local SEO tactics,
• increase profits and ROI by converting more business from leads,
• get more sales by improving your site content strategy.

Manta maintains an online community and directory focused on small businesses and gets over 10M visitors per month according to the latest data from Compete.com. 

 

Yext offers an online service enabling businesses to upload and manage their business location information, including business category, photos, rich content lists, offers and more for one or more location.

 

But enough about the sponsors, now on to the star of the show, Andrew Shotland, of Local SEO Guide. Andrew is a Search Marketer With Specialty in Local SEO, News SEO, Google Plus SEO & Ecommerce SEO.

 

Local SEO: Learn How Local SEO Can Put Your Business on the Map, Literally

Learning Local SEO Video - Detailed Agenda with Timeline 

In the Webinar, Andrew covers what he refers to as the Top Local SE0 Ranking Factors

1. Understanding Your Customer 8:30 - 9:27 (the most important place to start as all the remaining factors will be based on your understanding of your customer and how they search for what it is you offer)
    
2. "National" Local SE0 9:28 - 18:06
• Targeted Title Tags
• Pages targeting service/category keywords
• Pages for each business location
• Phone numbers and addresses on each page
• Regularly updated text content (e.g. blog)
• Photos & videos with keywords (videos convert at much higher rate than text links)
• Links to pages with keywords in links (i.e. anchor text)
• Links from other relevant sites with some ideas to get links including the following creative ideas:
• Host parties/events
• Provide ATM at your location
• Provide free wifi
• Post a silly photo/video
• Sponsor a local charity/festival/sports team
• Offer some products/services online to shopping search engines
• Give special deals to local groups
• Write a blog and link to other local blogger
• Make your websites accessible (e.g. avoid flash, over use of images, etc.)
   
3. Keyword Targeting on Website 18:07 - 19:26
• Change the title tags - 

  Keyword Targeting: each URL needs a unique. targeted Title Tag, Headline (H1 Tag) and Meta Description text 

  My favorite home page, title tag and meta description:
  
  Main Keyword + Location | Business Name | More Keywords
  Information about more services/keywords, PHONE NUMBER and location information, directions 

4. Location 19:27 - 20:21 - Doesn't recommend creating fake locations; must use a real business address - no P.O. boxes allowed
   
   
5. Google+ Local Page - Complete and Verify 20:22 - 21:24
• Correct NAP (Name, Address, Phone)
• URL (local landing page for each physical location)
• Description
• 5 Categories
• Service Area and Location Setting
• Hours of Operation
• Payment Options
• Photos
• Videos
• Additional Details
6. Categorization 21:25 - 22:02 most important aspect of Google+ Local page setup.
    
7. Data Consistency 22:03 - 23:54 especially when it comes to NAP - Name, Address and Phone number. This includes on your website and any other local listings that exist elsewhere online (e.g. main yellow pages, maps, listings and data aggregators who supply local business information such as Acxiom, Factual,InfoGroup, NeuStar Localeze).
    
8. Citations 23:55 - 26:41 defined as when another website mentions your name, address and phone number. Andrew mentions some top citation sources including local directory sites (i.e. IYP - Internet Yellow Pages), industry specific directories, local sites such as news associations, other topic related sites. Some resources for finding the best local citation sources include:
• The Most Important Local Business Directories for SEO
• Lean Top 50 Best Local Citation Sources in the USA
• Internet marketing resources for local listing prioritization
   
9. Reviews 26:42 - 29:22 For categories where reviews are popular, based on Andrew's experience, five reviews on Google+ Local Pages seems to be the magic Number in terms of having business reviews impact local search ranking for a business. Some advice from Andrew includes:
• Create a plan for obtaining customer reviews
• Follow-up emails and surveys are a great mechanism to get reviews
• Target review requests by email address. For instance, if some has a gmail account, then they already have the login required to leave feedback on a Google+ Local business page. If they have a Yahoo!, send them a link to your Yahoo! local page. Do not ask a customer who has never left a review on Yelp before to leave you a review on Yelp as it probably will be viewed as SPAM and removed.
• Avoid providing incentives such as free gifts in exchange for a customer review as it is against the terms of use for services such as Yelp or Google+. Violations, if caught, may result in loss of all reviews or worse yet, lost of a Google+ or Yelp profile for your local business.
• Retail locations should not use Kiosks as this will be viewed by Google+ and other services as SPAM since they will flag multiple reviews originating from the same IP address.
• Monitor your reviews especially if you are a restaurant or hotel as these categories are most likely to have negative reviews that can impact a business' online reputation while negatively influencing purchase decisions and driving away potential clients. Respond in a firm, non emotional tone while sticking to the facts. Never ignore negative feedback as it will be accepted by those viewed if un-addressed.
   
10. Regular Content Updates 29:23 - 31:50 Andrew strongly recommends investing in content creation, then promotion as a way to marketing and grow your business online. 
• When trying to come up with content ideas, think like a reporter thinking, then writing about the Who, What, Where, Why as it applied to your customers (remember the first point, know your customer) and their context
• FAQs - write answers to the top 10 or top 100 questions that all potential customers always ask during their buying process.
• How Much Does it Cost?
• Does it Hurt?
• What Size Does it Come in?
• What Does it Mean? 
• The Best ..., The Top ..., How To ...)
• Here's the questions you didn't ask but should
• Anything that helps build trust and adds value

Advanced Local SEO Tactics

• Video SEO 31:51 - 33:40
• Create a video on a product or service,
• Upload that video to popular video sites such as YouTube, metacafe, DailyMotion,
• Use keywords in video title and description, 
• Add a call to action and phone number,
• Link to website from video and embed video in website
• Uploading transcript to a video site will help with video SEO.
   
• Link up your profiles 33:40 - 35:39 to and from the business website; this can allow a business to dominate the first page of the search results while pushing reviews that are less than positive off the first page of the search results (sometimes).
   
• Link to your partners to provide more links on the first page
   
• Authorship 35:40 - 36:33 (through Google+) - how to setup Author information in search results article withing Google Webmaster Tools Help. Results in thumbnail image from Google+ profile appearing next to your search results. Andrew indicated that for him, this increased his click-through rate by 20%, right off the bat.

10  Local SEO tactics that you can do right away

36:34 - 37:43

Google, Bing for Researchers by Internet Marketing & Search Experts

Google and Bing for Researchers Seminar - Hosted by NIH Center for Information Technology

 

Josh Duberman, Informationist, NIH Library (http://nihlibrary.nih.gov).

No matter what the topic your are researching, search engines can play a critical role in supporting your research efforts in ways that many are not even aware of. Learn advanced web searching tips for researchers from Bing and Google search experts via the recording of the Feb 6, 2013 Google and Bing for Researchers Seminar included below. Search engines are useful for finding all kinds of information including research for science and technology as well as conducting market research on the Internet through searching out valuable, publically available information and resources. The video was produced for the NIH Library Seminar - Google and Bing for Researchers. This seminar is part of a of the NIH Library’s Resource Training Program on New and Existing Research Tools. Many thanks to Josh Duberman for organizing this excellent, informative seminar. The seminar slides can be viewed alongside the videocast a the NIH Video and Podcasting site.

 The Google and Bing for Researchers Seminar recording runs for 2 hrs and 9 minutes and features presentations from: 

•  Duane Forrester, Bing Senior Product Manager with Bing’s Webmaster Program. Duane is also the founding co-chair of Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization's (SEMPO) In-House Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Committee, and is the author of two books: How to Make Money with Your Blog and Turn Clicks into Customers.
  
  Prior to joining Bing, Duane was an in-house search marketer running the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) program for MSN in the US and Americas, and was formerly on the Board of Directors for SEMPO.
  
  Duane maintains his own blog, theonlinmarketingguy.com. In this seminar, Duane discusses, in his very entertaining presentation style, deep search, and specific tips, techniques and tricks to use to narrow search results and uncover exactly what is saught as efficiently as possible, 
   
•  Daniel Russell, Google from Google, is a Research Scientist at Google focused on search quality with an emphasis on understanding what makes Google users happy, skilled, and competent in their use of web search.
  
  Often called a search anthropologist, Daniel has spent most of his career understanding how people use the tools of technology to amplify their intelligence. Prior to joining Google, he worked for IBM, Xerox, and Apple in the area of user experience.
  
  Daniel maintains a blog, SearchReSearch, which focuses on topics related to search who demonstrates various intermediate and advanced Google Search tools and techniques for finding information that you didn’t think could be found, and some of the strategies and tactics searchers can use for online investigations, both now and in the future.

Google and Bing for Researchers Seminar - Detailed Agenda

 Duane Forrester, Bing:

• Advanced Bing Search Tools and Techniques for Researchers
• Introductions (10:00 - 12:27)
• Search: we are trying to solve imprecise results, refinements and lengthy tasks - used example of searching for truck bumper (12:28 - 14:55)
• Best Hotel in NY search example (14:56 - 15:55)
• A Changing Web of Objects (15:56 - 16:49)
• Search: Discovery and Interaction (web, online services, vertically integrated areas) (16:50 - 19:04)
• Reorganize the web for task completion (19:05 - 19:40)
• Reinventing search across 3 dimensions - information architecture, interaction model, entry points (19:41 - 20:49)
• Search evolved (20:50 - 22:48)
• Semantic User Experiennce (22:49 - 23:48)
• Why Social Matters (23:49 - 26:02)
• What's on your mind? Uses example of purchasing a camera. (26:03 - 28:11)
• How social impacts search (28:12 - 28:41)
• Humanity is leaving its traces on social media (Alaska, Hawaii example) (28:42 - 31:08)
• Academic Research - http://academic.research.microsoft.com/ place to locate other Acedemics to liason with (31:09 - 32:11)
• Turning on and off personalized search in Bing (32:12)
• Tailoring results (34:00)
• Advanced search operators - altloc, and/or, contains/ext/filetype, domain, intitle, site, imagesize, (35:25-42:00) For more info, see the Bing Search Advanced Operator Reference
• Finding a site owners contact information (Whois.net) (42:00 - 45:30)

Daniel Russell, Google:

• Google Search Tips and Strategies for Researchers
• What phone of the office was this image taken from? challenge (48:30 - 52:29)
• What is the length of the runway? What date was this picture taken? challenge (51:18 - 52:40)
• Around Operator (52:45 - 53:36)
• Boilerplate / repeated language (54:40)
• Goals: skills that you can use for your own searches, deep strategies for search, how to quickly come up to speed on a topic (55:44)
• What do you need to know about search to be good at it? 55:54
• *Key Skill - usinging Control-F (Command-F on a Mac) to find a word on the page (55:54) less than 10% of searchers know and use this valuable in-page searching technique!
• Google Earth (60:30)
• http://followyourworld.appspot.com/
   
• Key Lesson #1: Expert searchers know the capabilities of their tools. They know what is possible.
• Finding ans using other resources (62:17)
• Reverse dictionaries - http://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml (62:30)
• Search/visualize public data (64:18)
• Search, visualize and with interactive datasets (64:47)
• Search, visualize public data sources (65:18)
• Key Lesson #2: Experts use more than one resource (65:55)
• Beach photo example - using different resources to determine location of photo (66:30 - 68:53)
• Key lesson #3: Expert searchers deeply understand their language, especially synonyms (69:10)
• Related searches (72:40)
• Grill Kangaroo example (74:00)
• Anti-Reading  (74:20)
• SERP Reading (75:00)
• Use of define (76:15)
• Key Lesson #4: Expert searchers understand the terms and key concepts AND know how to read the genre. (77:57)
• Naming the un-nameable
• Using obvious language (78:50)
• Using maps (81:04)
• How to remove bougus results from your searches (84:35)
• Example of minus use, quotes,  (85:00)
• Find a particluar kind of document with filetype operator (87:38), site operator (88:30)
• Key Lesson #5: Expert searches know the structure of their information space (88:52)
• Limit search by time (88:57), intext (89:40), look for tools (90:00), mashups (91:00), conversions (91:36), alerts (93:10), personal search history (93:36), Google Trends (93:56), YouTube (95:00) CitizenTube, YouTube Trends, YouTube Direct,
• Images (97:00)
• Creative Commons Filtering (98:18)
• Search by image (99:30) 

Re-imagining Advertising when Digital met Legendary

Google Project Re: Brief: A Film About Re-imagining Advertising

 

Film Credits: Made with friends from Johannes Leonardo and Grow Interactive, Directed by Doug Pray. Additional film credits below.

What Would Happen to Advertising if We Marry the Best of the Old and the Best of the New?

What happens when you team the industry leader in interactive advertising, Google, and their all-star creative team and pair them up with advetising industry legends responsible for creating four of Americas greatest advertisments of all time? 

Coca Cola with "Hilltop",  

  

Volvo with "Drive it like you hate it", 

Alka-Seltzer with "I can't believe I at the whole thing" and 

 

Avis with "We try harder." 

The Google Project RE: Brief documentary film covers 4 individual stories behind 5 ad industry legends leading the Google Advertising team on the journey to “re-imagine” the 4 legendary brands within a creative process and a digital advetising medium that will build on the existing brand legacies while providing engagement in a way that was unimaginable 40 years ago.

 

This documentary covers how these ad legends collaborating with a talented team of Google advertising leaders to bring these brands back to life for today’s generation using technology for creative digital delivery.

 

The A-Team of legendary ad executives who are, in my opinion, the real stars of the show are:

• Harvey Gabor, Art Director with his legendary "Hilltop, I’d love to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony, but like to the world a Coke and keep it company" (1971) for Coca-Cola
  
   
   
• Howie Cohen, Copywriter and Bob Pasqualina, Art Director with their legendary “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” (1972) ad for Alka-Seltzer (Bob Pasqualina, far left, Howie Cohen, far right)
  
   
   
• Amil Gargano, Art Director with his "Drive it like you hate it" (1962) ad for Volvo (far left),
  
   
   
• Paula Green, Copywriter with her "We Try Harder" (1962) ad for Avis
  
   

These are the ad industry giants, legends and icons that created a living, lasting brand legacy for these four legendary brands, a legacy that survives even today.

 

The goal of the Google Project RE: was to create the inspiration for the digital advertising industry to re-imagine what advertising could become with the delivery capabilities that new and emerging technologies offer in terms of personalization, targeting, engagement and fun.

 

The ad legends above brought something even more valuable to the table, the ideas and creative process behind these monumental advertising accomplishments that have stood the multi-decade test of time.

 

Where is all Begins - in NYC

 

The documentary begins with Google enticing each of the five ad executives out of retirement and bringing them together in New York City to kick off this exciting new and innovating advertising project with the goal to reimagine advertising in the 21st century. 

 

The ad legends brought the most valuable assets to the table; their ideas and creative genius.

 

Here's more recent photos of the Ad Legends profiled in the film.

Harvey Gabor

 

Howie Cohen and Bob Pasqualina

 

Amil Gargano

 

Paula Green

Beyond the ad legends, the film features a broad array of digital advertising industry leaders including, key members of the Google RE Project team as well as industry giants like Emma Cookson, Chairman, BBH, NY and Keith Reinhard, Chairman Emeritus, DDB Worldwide, providing insights and commentary on the creative process and how that relates to the current state of the digital advertising industry.

• Deepak Ramanathan, Head of Google Display Marketing
  
  
• Emma Cookson, Chairman, BBH, NY
   
• Ted Royer, Executive Creative Director, Droga5
   
• Keith Reinhard, Chairman Emeritus, DDB Worldwide
   
• Andy Berndt, Google Creative Lab
   
• Aman Govil, Product Marketing, Google, Project RE: Brief Lead
   
• Jason Jacobs, Creative Director, Johannes Leonardo, Project RE: Brief Creative Agency
   
• Leo Premutico, Creative Director, Johannes Leonardo, Project RE: Brief Creative Agency
   
• Brad Bender, Director of Product Management, Google
   
• Drew Ungvarsky, Creative Director & CEO, Grow Interactive, Project RE: Brief Digital Agency
   
• Alex Romans, Senior Copywriter, Johannes Leonardo, Project RE: Brief Creative Agency
   
• Susan Wojcicki, Senior Vice President of Google Advertising
   
• Jarrette Beeler, Project Manager, Grow Interactive
   
• Julie Matheny, Copywriter, Johannes Leonardo
   

 

How Can We Inspire Better Digital Advertising?

 

Old Meets New

Once arriving at the Google offices, the Ad Legends were quite in wonder ... "They were barefoot, and they're cool, and they're young, and they look great. And God knows what they understand and do." --Bob Pasqualina

 

"I was concerned that technology would rule rather than the idea, because I think that it I can get swept away by all of this newness, like little toys to play with, but that's really not the point. It's not the point of advertising. The idea is primary." --Paula Green

 

"If Bill Bernbach were, here what would he say about what's going on? I believe he would say, "You're making it too complicated." He said among many other things, "Always adapt your technique to the idea, never your idea to the technique." -- Keith Reinhard

 

"They [Google and Partners] will tend to become ensconced a lot smaller ideas, and it's my job, I believe, to keep bringing them back to what the major idea is. Because it can be executed in any number of ways if they can keep focused on it.

• Who are we trying to reach?
• what do we want to tell them?
• Here's how we're going to do it. 

If I can get them to stay on that, then that's my job." -- Amil Gargano

"

 

Howie Cohen On Inspiriation - The Four I's of Creativity

 

"I sat down one time to try and define it, and I came up with what I call the Four Is of Creativity.

• First "I" is intuition, but there's an intuition, but we don't have very much information yet.
• The Second "I" is information. Let's find out what this is about. Let's see the technology.
• The third "I" is incubation. It's like a creative soup, you know, you go to sleep, you go in to shower. You're not thinking about it, and then all of a sudden,
• the fourth "I" happens, its inspiration, and then you have an idea."

 --Howie Cohen

 

Harvey Gabor on the Creative Process

 

" I don't have a particular way of working. I read the strategy, do all the research. It's a stream of consciousness. What inspires me is to recreate the feeling you get when you think you've nailed the creative project, and it's a rush.

If you're working with a partner, you say something, he hits the ball back. He gets excited, and pretty soon you have something on the table  that the world never saw before.

 The creative moment is instantaneous, and it's the greatest feeling in the world. You're in flow, they call it. Nothing beats it. It's better than sex. Is my wife going to see this? I remember sex." 

 

Positive Feedback from the Coca Cola brand meeting

 

After meeting with Coca-Cola Brand/Marketing team, the Google team, led by Harvey Gabor, was given the green light to bring their ideas to the next level for a proof of concept.

 

"The point is if a 78-year-old man who has barely ever used the Internet can come in, sit with us for 48 hours and then come up with an idea of how his work from 40 years ago is going to be translated into a display, and still make sense, and actually advance the idea... I mean that's fascinating."

--Aman Govil

 

Amil Gargano on Creating Personas

"We created the personality. That's what advertising agencies do. They create personalities. They create an association and a persona that s largely the creation of the creative people in an advertising agency."

--Amil Gargano

I wonder if this is like when pet owners and their pets begin to look alike :-) 

Closing Thoughts and Quotes from Project RE: Brief Team Members 

"A machine created an emotional experience. That's seismic. It's going to change the way things are going to be done in the business. It reminds me of when print went to television." 

 --Harvey Gabor

 

Aman Govil: "How do we start using technology, you know, to make ads that all of us will remember 50 years from now just like you're remembering this add from 1962?"

Man on the street: "I would say the Internet is more creative than TV with advertising. Perhaps because it's [that] you can take greater risks on the Internet."

Woman om the street: "It's important for us all to constantly be geeking out. We have to all been using the tools and the things that we are constantly talking about."

Man: "The web is evolving all the time. And it's getting more and more natural how you handle it. It's getting better in so many different ways."

 

"We live in this world and we can pollute it or we can embellish it. And advertising is everywhere and companies have a responsibility to improve environment and certainly not to destroy environment. It's like the Hippocratic Oath thing, isn't it? First, do no harm. First, create no ugly mess. Second, create some delight."

--Emma Cookson

  

"I definitely believe the potential for telling great stories is there. I feel like we're just starting to see it. The fact that there is so much more to do, there is so many ways to find crazy interesting expressions for the--for the thing you want to do. It couldn't be a more exciting time."

--Ted Royer, Executive Creative Director, Droga5

 

"The truth is probably that we're really only at the beginning. We're really at the beginning of change. And to see Amil and to see Harvey, and Bob, just come to grips and succeed in adapting to these new opportunities. I think it is a very comforting thing for anybody else who's working today."

--Leo Premutico, Creative Director, Johannes Leonardo, Project RE: Brief Creative Agency

 

"I'm hoping that this is the moment that we shift, you know, shift the industry and our role is to help facilitate that."

 

--Deepak Ramanathan, Head of Google Display Marketing 

 

"We grew up in those days in an age of we had control, advertising control.  And we could tell you and we could sell you, and we push the message out. Now, we're in this age where we're sharing. You have to share."

--Howie Cohen

 

"The act of just trying to create something and you think, What can I do to make it better? What can I do to make myself happy?" And I think that's the first requirement is to make yourself happy. There's a good chance you'll make somebody else happy."

--Amil Gargano

 

"I've loved it. I haven't been doing anything for some time. The little gray [brain] cells get very lazy and it was good for me. It made me think again. "We Try Harder" is somewhat the story of my life."

--Paula Green

 

 

"What Google did was very creative. They said, "What would happen if we marry the best of the old and the best of the new?" No one ever did that before."

--Havery Gabor

 

Project Re: Brief: A Film About Re-imagining Advertising - Credits

Google

Project Re: Brief: A Film About Re-imagining Advertising
Made by Google, with friends from Johannes Leonardo and Grow Interactive.

Independent Contributors & Executive Creative Directors:

Harvey Gabor, Amil Gargano, Howie Cohen, Bob Pasqualina, Paula Green 

Project Leads & Film Producers:
Aman Govil,
Deepak Ramanathan

Marketing Managers: Mike Glaser. Emel Mutlu, Sally Cole, Pamela Eng.

Production Company: Oil Factory

Director: Doug Pray

Executive Producers: Billy Poveda. Jay Wakefield

Line Producer: Peter L Murray

Director of Photography: Peter Nelson

Editor: Philip Owens

Original Music: Garton Chang 

Post Producer: Izabela Frank

Assistant Editor: Ruben Proenca Dias

Additional Editing: Mark Imgrund, Doug Pray

Additional Camera: Zeus Morand, Doug Pray, Chris Reynolds, Edwin Stevens, Justin D. Weinstein

1st Assistant Director: Peter L Murray

2nd Assistant Director: Dino CasteIli

Production Supervisor: Melanie Kai Murray

Assistant Production Supervisor: Danny Gomez

Additional Interviews: Peter L. Bull

1st Assistant Camera: Kevin Walter

Gaffers: Glenn Miller. Ion Montgomery, Scott Ramsey

Grips: Garrett Boehling, Steve Ramsey

Sound Mixers: Tom Holman, Michael Lonsdale. Roger Phenix, Dave Powers. Mark Roy, Len Schmitz, Scott Harber

Boom Operator: David Role

Make-up: Michelle Brown, Melanie Quevedo-Murray

Clearance Supervisor: Toby Dana

Production Assistants: Kellen Davidson. Cab Hatfield. Shepherd Lashley, Su Lee. Annie Ra Jordan Quevedo, Heather Shaw, Edwin Stevens

Colorist and Finishing: Michael Gossen.

Helium Digital Sound Mix: Dan Creech. Subtractive, Inc.

Visual Effects: Mind Over Eye, a division of Source Interlink Media. Shapeshilter Post 

Special Thanks: Arash Ayrom: Diana & Sophia Pray, Zizu Frank: Kevin Frank. Frank Speak Elizabeth Bemheim. Alex Bushe, Mary Warlick, Kevin Swanepoel, The One Club Russo Anastasio. Shapeshifter. Kyle Schember, Subtractive, Andy Dellenbach & Gail Paget-Wilkes, Mind Over Eye

Creative Agency: Johannes Leonario 

Co-Founders: Jan Jacobs, Leo Premutico

Senior Creatives: Alex Romans, Ben CMre, Steven McElligot, Jerome Marucci

Creatives: Emmie Nostitz, Sandra Nicholas, Harv Bains, Julie Matheny, Paul Caiozzo

Head of Design: Andrea Gustafson

Designer: Isaac Weeber

Head ol Integrated Production: Jenny Gadd

Executive Producer: Aaron Royer

Digital Producer: lames Young

Producer: Floyd Russ

Account Team: Dean Rubinstein, Carter Collins, Emily Hoyle

Lead Digital Agency: Grow Interactive

Creative Director and CEO: Drew Ungvarsky

Senior Art Director: Matt Clack

Producers: Jarrett Beeler, Sonya Parker, Michael Rose

Design Director: Joe Stanton

Developers: Ricky Williams, Chris Gammon, Gabe Molochko, Jeff Penano, Darius Pilapil, Zach Young, Matt Campbell

Animators/Designers: Jason Levesque. Josh Newton

Account Director: Eric Green

Featured

Creative Icons: Amil Gargano, Bob Pasqualina, Harvey Gabor, Howie Cohen, Paula Green

Google: Aman Govil, Lisa Gevelher, Andy Berndt, Matt Ackley, Brad Bender, Mike Glaser, Cecelia Wogan-Silva, Neal Mohan, Deepak Ramanathan, Pamela Eng, Emel Mutlu, Sally Cole, Joe Sparks, Susan Wojcick,i Wook Chung

Special Thanks: Alene Latimer. Andrea Faville, Bianca Livi, Brian Zeug, Dahni Ma, David Monsees, Debbie Hagan, Erin McMahon, Izabela Hawken, Jaci Badzin, Janine Gianfredi, Jen Murphy, Jessica Igoe, Jim Lecinski, Karen Sauder, Kenneth Rubenstein, Kevin Kells, Kristen Chard, Larissa Cardenas. Lorraine Twohill, Mandy Klearman, Samantha Fink, Samantha Gould, Scott Gerwin, Seth Fast Glass, Whitney Horton

Johannes Leonardo: Aaron Royer, Alex Romans, Ben Clare, Carter Collins, Dean Rubinstein, Emily Hoyle, Emmie Nostitz, Ian Jacobs, Julie Matheny, Leo Premutico 

Grow: Drew Ungvanky Jarrett Beeler Jeff Penano Matt Campbell, Matt Clack, Ricky Williams, Sophie the Dog

 Alka-Seltzer: Laura Schwieterman,  Odette Canton, Tracy Nunziata, Wilmette Dadzie 

 

Special Thanks: Allyson Daly, Jessica Graf, Richard Bulllitt 

Avis: Jeannine Haas, John Peebles

Special Thanks: Allyson Botto, Diane Matthews, Eric Chang, John Barrows 

Coca-Cola: Jackie Jantos

Special Thanks: Angus Haig, Anthony Phillips, Bernadette Drankoski, Jonathan Mildenhall, Judith Snyder, Liz Gorski, Ted Ryan. Wendy Clark 

Volvo: Linda Gangeri

Special Thanks: Geno Effler

FakeLove: Blair Neal,  Caitlin Morris, Josh Horowitz 

Special Thanks: Caitlin DeAngelis. Layne Braunstein

Nexus: Johnny Kelly, Luke Youngman, Michael Kirkham

Industry Contributors: Emma Cookson, Gareth Kay, Keith Reinhard, Ted Royer

Also Appearing: Eric Gabor, Iry Gordon Milt Moss, Urszula Nicewicz 

Made Possible with Support from:
Re:Brief Website Design & Development

Digital Production Company: Fantasy Interactive

Senior Designer: Simon Magurno

User Experience Designers: Adam Diehl, lack Wright. and Yuwei Fu

Senior Digital Producers: Chris Rubin

Digital Producer: lohnny Michaelson

Senior Technical Manager: Jeff Yamada

Senior Interactive Developer: Kris Hedstrom

Interactive Developer: Darcy Clarke

Account Director: Carol Callesano 

Coke Interactive Machine:

Interactive Production House: FakeLove

Partners/Creative Directors: Josh Horowitz & Layne Braunstein

Creative Technologists: Blair Neat and Caitlin Morris

Producer: Caitlin DeAngelis 

Coke Content Production

Production Company: Rebolucion

Director: Nicolas Nubile

Executive Producer: Mariano Avellaneda

Editorial House: Cosmo Street

Editor: Davie Cea and Steve Bell

Music: Human

Volvo Content Production

Production Company: RSA

Director: Henrik Hansen

Executive Producer: Philip Fox-Mills

Editorial House: Rock Paper Scissors

Editor: David Brody

Music: House of Hayduk

Special Thanks: Cape Henry Lighthouse and Preservation Virginia

Alka-Seltzer Content Production

Production Company: Radical Media

Director: Rosey

Editorial House: Cosmo Street

Editor: Steve Belle

Editor: Craig One

Editor: Tiffany Burchard

Assistant Editors: Hugo Jordan, Nikolai Johnson, and Zack Winick

Executive Producer: Maura Woodward

Producer: Stacey Piculell

Post House: Katabatic Digital

Post Producer: Seth Tabor

Artist: Emery Wells

Mix/Sound Design: Penny Lane Studios

Sound Designers: Bobby Sorentino and Dan Walsh

Sound Producer: Claudia Gaspar

Music: Beacon Street

Avis Content Production

Animation Company: Nexus

Director: Johnny Kelly

Executive Producer: Luke Youngman

Producer: Jo Bierton

Music: Human

Voiceover Production: Studio Center

 

Addtional Production: Joey Cardella, Mike Potter

 

 

Search and Deploy - B2B Online Marketing Trends in 2012

B2B marketing is different than B2C marketing, both in terms of online marketing and offline. Studies that segment out digital B2B marketing  data are especially relevant when trying to benchmark online marketing efforts as a B2B business.

 

This is why the Optify 2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report, released yesterday, is particularly interesting. In their study, Optify analyzed B2B marketing tactics based on data from over:

• 62 million visits,
• 215 million page views,
• 350,000 leads from over 600 SMB B2B websites in the US 

to deliver insights on which B2B marketing tactics are working and which are not. With these kind of data inputs, the study meets the statistically significant smell test. The report and corresponding Search and Deploy infographic cover:

• B2B traffic drivers,
• lead generation source efficiency,
• social media performance by channel,
• SEO and paid search trends.

 

Key Findings of the B2B Marketing Trends in 2012 Report

 

Organic Search is the leading driver of traffic to B2B sites driving 41% of traffic. Google dominance of organic search makes it the single most important referring domain for B2B websites, driving more than 36% of visits. What's interesting is that SEO was the category that most marketers reporting using no tools. This could represent an opportunity for B2B search marketers to use SEO tools and techniques to gain a competitive advantage.

 

Paid search showed a steady decline among B2B marketers in 2012 with more than 10% of businesses in the report having discontinued their paid search campaigns during 2012. For those businesses who did run paid search campaigns 2012, this channel realized above average conversion rates of 2.34%, with the 75th percentile clocking in at 3.58%.

 

Paid search provided a large percentage of the site visits and leads with 23.3% of all visits coming from paid search for those businesses running active campaigns.

 

Social Media Accounts for Less than 2% of Traffic and 5% of leads on B2B Sites

Social media remains a small percentage of referral traffic and lead generation for B2B websites, contributing an average of 2% of all traffic 5% of all leads. The B2B marketing study found that social media currently ranks last on driving referral traffic and lead generation of all online channels evaluated. Interestingly enough, despite its performance, social media is the leading channel where study participants reported using more than one tool. Perhaps this is due to the fragmented state of social media management tools or the broad selection of free niche tools currently available and broadly in use (e.g. Hootsuite, Buffer).

 

Email Marketing is the Top Ranked Online B2B Conversion Channel

As Marketers, a large part of our jobs is to generate leads and nurtured those to sales-ready leads. That's where email marketing can be a B2B marketers best friend. The study found that email marketing delivers high engagement referral traffic with an average 3.75 page views/visit.

 

Perhaps as, if not more important, email referral traffic was found to have the highest click to conversion rate at 2.9% which eclipsed the 1.6% overall average of the combined online channels included in the study. B2B lead nurturing and lead generation are driving this trend in email marketing.

 

Facebook Reigns Supreme in Traffic Generation, Twitter in Lead Generation 

 

Facebook is largest social traffic referrer among the top three social media sites, outperforming Twitter and LinkedIn for driving visits.

 

Twitter proved to be the strongest social media channel for lead generation. In fact, Twitter outperformed Facebook and LinkedIn by a factor of 9 to 1 in lead generation, with 82% of leads from social media attributable to Twitter.

 

Key B2B Marketing Study Take Aways

Google is the single most important source of referral traffic for small to medium sized B2B businesses. SMBs who ignore Google do so at their own peril as Google drove over 35% of all traffic to sites included in the study.

 

Business should be careful to not put all their eggs in one basket though. Google is constantly updating its search ranking algorithm which can significantly impact a sites largest traffic referrer if a new algorithm penalizes that site. For this reason, diversification of referral traffic is very important for sustainability.

 

Email marketing is still the strongest source of highly engaged traffic and should be part of the overall B2B digital marketing mix. The study found email to be the strongest channel for driving engaged visitors as measured by pages/visit. Email marketing is especially effective for lead generation and lead nurturing.

 

B2B marketers, especially within SMBs, can use the data contained in this study to compare to their own performance data in terms of traffic drivers, lead generation efficiency, social media channel performance and PPC/SEO search trends. Results will vary across and within industries, but these benchmarks and trends provide a point of reference, especially for the many SMBs who may currently have none.