Internet marketing ROI realized through non-traditional Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

Internet marketing goals can typically be tied back to conversions, otherwise known as desired actions that website visitors take that enable Internet marketers to realize a pre-defined business goal. Typical conversions evaluated by marketers include measuring when users:

• Click through on links from search results
• Subscribe to RSS and e-mail
• Click through on links posted on social networks
• Shares on social networks, blogs, websites
• Purchase something and become customer (for ecommerce)
• Sign-up for a free or paid trial
• Download a white paper in exchange for providing information such as their email address
• Maintain customer information service subscription.

For traditional CRO, we know for instance that there is a relationship between click through rates in the search results and things like position/rank in the search results, search results that contain rich snippets and having sitelinks where a search result will include indented links to multiple pages on a website (see sitelinks example below).

Saratoga Fit sitelinks example

Typically these kinds of conversions and their conversion rates are associated with a number of factors that can be tested during traditional CRO. Testing typically includes changing the anchor text (clickable part of a text link) in links, changing graphical elements composition and position, colors, position of call to action buttons and a myriad of other factors. For a good tutorial on traditional CRO, along with a number of example tests and their results, check out the following video (runtime: 9 minutes, 29 seconds). It is fun to see if you can guess the outcome of the tests prior to the results being shared.

Beyond tradition CRO, there are a number of other more subtle factors that can come into play when influencing conversions. A good litmus test for uncovering these factors, proposed by Rand Fiskin of SEOMoz.org, are in these two simple questions:

1. Does the product or service or thing that you want me to do meet my needs?
2. Do I trust and like the brand and/or people behind the brand?

In the following SEOMoz.org Whiteboard Friday video (runtime: 17 mins 24 seconds), Rand Fishkin explores The Hidden Factors in Accomplishing Your Online Marketing Goals.

Rand looks at factors beyond the ones examined in traditional CRO. Most, if not all, can be mapped back to how those factors support or detract from a positive response to one of the two fundamental questions. These factors include things like:

• Page load time – Google penalty may be small compared to user perception and brand impact
• Forcing user to view ads prior to consuming content (pre-roll videos) – inhibits shares
• Pricing transparency – even if your prices are higher than competitors, studies have shown that conversion rates are positively impacted when pricing information is provided.
• Trust factors like known brand domains versus generic direct match domains which could feel spammy
• Brand perception in terms company, what it stands for and the people that represent it?
• Contact information easily accessible including phone, email and physical address
• Information about individuals and team members of the company
• Relationship of content relative to the company, product or service offerings
• Social proof which can be illustrated in a variety of ways including likes, shares by key industry influencers

So next time you are planning to perform CRO for an Internet marketing project, remember to think out of the box and ask yourself those 2 simple questions to uncover hidden factors that can greately impact yours or your client’s conversion rates and ultimately, the bottom line.

If you found value in this post, please like eBiz ROI on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ebizroi(or click like button directly below) and Follow eBiz ROI on Twitter @eBizROI (or click the Twitter follow button directly below) to stay connected to the Terrific Time for Traffic series and other quality content for growing your business online while maximizing marketing ROI (Return on Investment).

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Like shopping malls and strip centers, websites rely on traffic to generate sales and leads. It might surprise you to know that more than half of all US residents and more than 75% of all US adults are online today. Source: Us Census Bureau, May 2011.

Business websites need traffic to add value and deliver ROI - Internet advertising can provide targeted traffic

In fact, 35% of US consumers spend more than three hours online every day (Source: The Media Audit, October 2010). I am sure the numbers today skew higher. It’s like the old proverb says, “if a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” The analogy here is, if a website exists on the Internet but there are no mechanisms for people to discover the website, does it exist?

This post is part of a series that will discuss strategies to reach targeted markets with laser precision. Included in this series will be recommended Internet marketing and Internet advertising tactics. While writing the initial piece, the need to chunk the content into digestible posts quickly became clear. With that, the Terrific Time for Traffic series was born.

One of the biggest challenges that business owners face online or off is to be found. Discovery of a new website can be especially challenging. Business owners ask how can we cost-effectively market our website on the Internet? Another related question is how can we quickly ramp up website visitors? Not just any visitors, but targeted visitors otherwise known as qualified prospects? How can we connect with those businesses and consumers researching purchases online for the very products and services we offer?

The question is will these businesses and consumers in market for the products and services sold by your business find your website? If they don’t find your website, won’t they likely find your competitor’s website? This is a huge challenge for new businesses and for business whose name and brand are not currently well-known in the market.

Business owners have many Internet advertising options available to lead online researchers to their products and services on their business website, including:

Internet advertising and Internet marketing options to drive targeted, qualified visitors to your website

• Purchasing advertisements on search engines where ads are shown for search term bid on for placement in the paid search results.
• Purchasing display advertisements on websites; these can be contextually targeted based on context (what type of site they are on) or behavioral factors such as show ads to those who have already visited your website (remarketing)
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your website, mostly accomplished through obtaining non-paid links from other authoritative websites to your. These links are required to rank well for user searches that are relevant to the products and services offered by your business. More on this topic in an upcoming segment.
• Issuing press releases with links to your website; this can provide huge value if/when the press release get picked up by mainstream news outlets or niche news outlets in the case of a more targeted release.
• Writing and publishing articles and posting those articles to article directories with links to your website; this practice is referred to as Article Marketing. Other places to publish include newspapers, magazines and other publications looking for relevant content.
• Commenting on blogs whose content is contextually relevant to your website, focusing on blogs that allow you to link back to your website in the comments form. Avoid automated commenting software or leaving spam comments.
• Inter-linking multiple websites owned by the same company to create a network of websites, focusing on carefully worded links with preferred placement. This practice can also be viewed as risky as search engines may view as an attempt to manipulate search results, risking possible ranking penalties.
• Purchasing targeted advertising on social media networks such as facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Facebook and LinkedIn offer self-serve options including the ability to target your ads to specific user demographics and geographies (more on this in subsequent posts).
• e-mail marketing with messages that contain links back to your website; email marketing is safest when using a double opt-in list to avoid email marketing pitfalls.
• Listing your website in search engines and local directories under your business category or categories.
• Creating social media profiles and then using those profiles/pages to promote your products and services while networking and engaging potential clients online.
• Referencing the website address (e.g. www.eBizROI.com) in all marketing materials and communications, both online and offline.
• Purchasing text links to your website from other websites whose content is relevant to your products and services; Caution: negative impacts on search engine rankings a risk with purchased links.
• Create a blog and post content of interest to your target market which, according to HubSpot, a leading supplier of marketing software, results in obtaining 97% more inbound links that websites without a blog - Source: Hubspot, State Of Inbound Marketing Lead Generation Report, 2010. Blogging also adds value to your clients while building trust.
• Too many more to list without needing to break this first post in the series into a series itsel, but you get the idea.

The key takeaway is that If you are a business owner, marketing manager or CMO with a marketing budget and better yet, an Internet advertising/marketing budget, there has never been more options for businesses, large and small, to target and reach well-defined niche(s) online efficiently and effectively.

In the next post in the Terrific Time for Traffic series, we will discuss data points that demonstrate the breadth of US Internet users and how they rely on search engines over 50% of the time to begin researching products and services that they are in the market for.

If you found value in this post, please like eBiz ROI on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ebizroi(or click like button directly below) and Follow eBiz ROI on Twitter @eBizROI (or click the Twitter follow button directly below) to stay connected to the Terrific Time for Traffic series and other quality content for growing your business online while maximizing marketing ROI (Return on Investment).

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The .XXX domain is a sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) intended as a voluntary option for pornographic sites on the Internet. The sponsoring organization is the International Foundation for Online Responsibility. The ICANN Board, responsible for regulating the domain registration process globally, voted to approve the sTLD on March 18, 2011. It went into operation on April 15, 2011. The registry is operated by ICM Registry LLC. If your not in the Adult industry, then why care?

As a result of the recently approved .XXX Domains, there is a lot of buzz in the online industry these days about how that will impact brands outside of the adult industry. XXX domains have been referenced in trade journals, IP attorney websites, domain registrars and other key XXX domain stakeholders.

Danger, Danger Will Robinson – XXX Domains Dilemma

Because of this buzz, many businesses are worried about protecting their brands and wondering  what they need to do to be protected from third parties in the adult industry registering their brands as a XXX domain (www.brandname.xxx).  Some stakeholders are promoting  “protect your brand from being registered as a .XXX, pre-registration helps you stay in control of your online reputation.”

XXX domain pre-registration to block registration by 3rd party

The ICM Registry has provided a provision for registered trademark and service mark holders to block the registration of those marks as .XXX  domains by third parties through what is referred to as Sunrise B which began September 7^th 2011 and runs through October 28^th 2011.

Sunrise B Information Requirements:

Before asking if Sunset B is necessary for your protect your brand is important to ask if you are eligible to do it. Not just anyone can pre-register a .XXX domain under the Sunset B provisions. To be eligible to register under Sunset B, a business, organization or other entity must have a registered trademark or service mark that was registered prior to September 1, 2011.

The following are requirements for participation in the Sunrise B program. Trademarked name, the registration number for your trademark (not your application number), the nation code denoting the country or region where your trademark was registered, the product or services classes for which the mark is registered, the trademark registration date and your relation to the trademark (i.e. owner or assignee.)on your brand that they desired to register as an .XXX domain.

If that entity does not have the trademark, then they are theoretically at risk of someone registering their brand as an XXX domain. Practically speaking, if your brand is worth protecting, then generally you will have an IP attorney initiate the trademark process to ensure that you have adequate protection of your brand. The process typically cost a few thousand dollars and takes several months to complete.

Sunrise B Fees:

The fee for  .XXX pre-registration is $199, to participate in Sunset B and protect against anyone registering your brand as a XXX domain for a ten year period. For anyone holding a registered trademark, it is worth doing a little research to understand the risk and implications so that you can make a conscious decision on whether to accept the risk or to mitigate it through the Sunset B option.

XXX domain pre registration sunrise b required information

Notice in the form above, from a real registrar, that if you enter incorrect or inaccurate information, the application and registration will fail and you will not receive a refund. This is not a big issue, but just a note of caution to double check your application information before submission (old timers, think punch cards for old school compilers). The bigger issue for those interested in pre-registration through Sunrise B is that success is not guaranteed. In fact, in the instance where multiple parties file under competing pre-registration (see below), priority will be given to verified members of the adult entertainment industry who can prove ownership of a national trademark registration or another top level domain. Conflicts between applicants representing the adult entertainment industry and one or more Sunrise B trademark owners will be resolved by the ICM Registry appointed by ICANN to manage the XXX registration and pre-registration process.

What XXX Domain Pre-Registration Options Exist?

• Adult Trademark Holder (Sunrise AT)
• Adult Domain Name Owner (Sunrise AD)
• Standard Trademark Holder (Sunrise B)
• Priority Pre-Registration (Landrush)
• Pre-Registration (General Availability)

(see options below from one registrar for more details)

XXX domain pre-registration types

A brand-holders choice of for XXX domain pregisration option of Sunrise AT, Sunrise AD, Sunrise B, Landrush or General Availability will depend on if they are in adult industry and the intended use or blocked use of the cooresponding brand in an xxx domain name.

XXX Domain Pre-registration Summary

If you own a brand and want to block an entity in the adult industry from registering a xxx-yourbrand.com domain, the by all means, if eligible, spend the $199 to pre-register with Sunrise B to block your brand from showing up in an XXX domain.  In practice, I don’t think that adult businesses are likely to target specific brands as it is not going to be worth the potential legal hassle. It is my opinion (legal disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and don’t offer legal advice) that those entities with valuable trademarked brands and deep pockets that somehow  miss Sunset B due to focusing on important things such as growing their revenue and not those of IP attorneys and registrars will likely be able to block use of their brand in an adult .XXX domain through litigation, forcing third parties who register their trademarked brand as a .XXX domain to relinquish them in the unlikely event an adult industry entity registers their brand.

I say this because it is my recollection that in the past, in more than one case, large companies where able to take over ownership of domains registered by third parties (usually speculators looking to cash in on brand awareness of brands asleep at the wheel) based on registered trademark protection.

Look for this to be a topic in the courts and for certain providing ongoing revenue streams for lawyers and XXX domain registrars for years to come!

The following video is an excerpt of the 676 th episode of Schenectady Today hosted and produced by Ann Parillo. This video is on Internet marketing for SMB’s (Small Medium Businesses), was taped on 21 June 2011 and runs just under 9 minutes.

The topic of Internet marketing for SMB’s focused specifically on the importance of a business website, promoting a business website on the search engines, analytics for business websites and the importance of website analytics for measuring (ROI) return on investment and getting listed in Google places so that your business shows up on the map.

Video Transcript

Ann: Rick, tell me a little bit about what you do because it seems as though life is changing so much, business is changing. If you own a business and don’t have a website you’re missing out because I know the first thing I do when I hear about a business is try to find the website and it’s like you don’t have one? Then I wonder, why not? So talk about that.

Rick: Exactly. Thank you and for having me on the show. Today, business websites are in expectation of users. People go online for anything from looking for the hours of the business, perhaps a phone number.

Ann: Menus.

Rick: Menus, that’s a great application. Now, in fact, not only do people go online now home, now with the technology, people can use their phone with its GPS and look up which restaurants might be close to them for instance. So having a business website is critical. But I think the big thing that inhibits people from getting started, and when I say people, I mean entrepreneurs or solopreneurs, small businesses that don’t have an IT staff and they …

Ann: if you’re a small business, you don’t usually have an IT staff. It your kid probably that your IT staff.

Rick: exactly, in fact my father can attest that I provide IT support for the family. But the businesses have to find a place to start. They have to pick a name, a domain name, which is like a phone number as it’s unique to your business, except that a domain name oftentimes has linked to your brand.  And when I do when I work with clients this to say when you’re overwhelmed take a step back and look at the business objectives that you have for your website. Business objectives could range from anything from getting your brand out there, making people aware of your restaurant versus having the ability to capture leads if you’re an insurance person or financial planner, you want to get people to enter their information so that you can contact them, add them to your newsletter. Or it could actually be e-commerce selling products and services online.

Ann: now what is the issue with the need to get certain words in the beginning so that Google or chrome or whatever is searching is in a find you? How does that happen?

Rick: That’s an excellent question. That’s a big question because as a lot of businesses understand, and consumers like yourself understand as they use the Internet through search engines. They find information about products and services that they’re looking for. When you go to the search engines, you enter words that are relevant to what you’re searching for.

Ann: you think it’s close enough to get what you want, right?

Rick: You hope, right?

Ann: With a little + in between it or something to make sure you’ve excluded all the other junk

Rick: well that’s the hard part and that’s a search engine challenge how do you search through the billions of web pages and the businesses challenge is how do I get to the top of that list.

Ann: Exactly.

Rick: and getting to the top of that list, there’s two different ways that businesses can do that. The first is called organic, or search engine optimization, which is what you were alluding to before when you mentioned some of the techniques that people use to put keywords in the title of the page and make sure that those words are prominent in their page so that the search engines can figure out very easily what the business is about.

The second way the businesses can give the top of the search engines is just by paying for that privilege and they can pay …

Ann: and they do pay?

Rick: and they do pay for each visitor area and in that case…

Ann: there the ones that are usually on the top? I think they’re kind of like separated almost because they probably got their money and there.

Rick: exactly right. So it doesn’t matter if if you use any of the three big search engines, and Google isby far is the biggest, and you’ll notice that on the top of the search results at the be in a slightly different color. It’s very subtle and Google spends a lot of time testing which colors work the best in the be on the side. Those people will bid on an auction system.

Ann: Really?

Rick: Yes, yes, and it’s not just how much they bid, Ann, it’s also how much click through the they get because when Google gets paid when, if we use Google as an example, Google gets paid when somebody clicks on your ad. So the good news is that if you’re a business owner, you only pay for the performance of somebody going to your website.

Ann: I see

Rick: so you can show your ad to 1000 people …

Ann: But if only 10 look at it ..

Rick: but if only 10 people click on it and go to your website, you are only charged for those 10.

Ann: is there a large charge for that? Is that something that, say I come to you and, and there’s other people and not just you know, Rick is here to explain it, if I go to you and I say here’s a good idea and here’s a website and here’s the words you put in there, can I make money on my website by putting ads on it?

Rick: that’s a good question and it goes back to the business objectives part. You have to look at all of the map from a business perspective. For instance, if you’re paying $10 for a visitor to your website, and the average conversion rates are about 2% it varies depending on what it is that you’re trying to do in terms of  leads versus sales, but if you’re paying $10 and 2% of the people coming to your website buy that means you got a get 100 people for $1000 to get those two sales. So if you’re an attorney with the average lifetime value client is very large, that it might make sense and people and people pay $45 for bidding on a keyword such as mesothelioma.

Ann: Really? Oh my goodness! Learning so much!

Rick: The nice thing is that you can really do the math and then using what’s called analytics, which something that all business owners I have websites should have analytics, which in layman’s terms means the ability to see how many people are coming to my website, where they coming from and what they do when they get there. And once I have that level of visibility, I can make better business decisions to say that I’m willing to bid two dollars because of the way the math works, I need to spend no more than two dollars for this type of visitor to make money.

If I’m selling Callaway golf clubs and 50% of the people I come to my website buy, then I might be able to afford to bid higher.

Ann: but if you’re selling widgets or little things that don’t add up to much, then you have to rethink this.

Rick: Exactly right.

Ann: What are some of the tips.., I know that you have a blog, and we did put the blog up there, and its business tips, and are these types of tips you give? Are these the types of business tips that you’ll find on your blog? Is that something that only you write on or do you let other people respond to you?

Rick: I am open to invite your members in your viewers to guest post on my blog. I would certainly entertain that. I have 65 posts and each post is like a mini article. Most of the articles are do-it-yourself style articles. Simple videos like how do I create a Facebook page.

Ann: you do have a very nice page and I did look at it.

Rick: Thank you Ann, I appreciate that, as do you. The other thing to think about is that … I guess one tip that I’d like to give all businesses before we end the segment, and this is a freebie and everybody likes freebies. Free perpetual advertising is the way I look at it, but if you think of Google, and Google maps, which you may have used sometimes like when you search for a restaurant on Google, say “restaurants Schenectady,” what you probably see the search result is like a map with pushpins on it.

Ann: Yeah I know. I always check on it to see exactly where it is. Now I got it.

Rick: Exactly.

Ann: Yeah but one time it was wrong

Rick: That’s true, I have been …yeah that GPS device is a wonderful friend but it’s not always a friend!

Ann: Exactly

Rick: but you can put your business listing into Google for free, it stays there, it’s perpetual. You don’t pay per individual user. If you sign up for, and you claim your business, and is a process for claiming your business because Google probably has a listing for your business whether you know it or not.

Ann: Sure

Rick: because they source information from different data sources

Ann: and it’s all there

Rick: but you want to make sure that it’s reflective of your brand, so for Google for instance you can upload 10 pictures, you can upload five videos, just like you do on http://www.annparillo.com/, you have a lot of interactivity going on, you got videos you’ve got pictures, behind the scene making of the show so before people ever show up they can go to your website and have a whole wealth of information.

Ann:  Yes.

Rick 24 x 7 x 365 days a year

Ann: You don’t even have to be there, right?

Rick: You don’t have to know. Then you augment that with the newsletter which is a great thing for businesses. If you are out at events and you are collecting business cards, when you click those business cards asked those people if you can add them to your mailing list.

Ann: Yes I always do that, because I like to do that otherwise. I do have a disclaimer at the end of my newsletter that says if you don’t want to receive this, please let me know and I won’t feel bad, honest, I really won’t feel bad. But I do cry a lot (just kidding). Rick, such a pleasure to have you on. Let our viewers know little bit more about it. So many people now, because of these economic times, are going into business for themselves so this is a great way to augment your business by getting it out there. Thanks. Here I

Rick: Thanks Ann.

A website without traffic, in other words, without visitors, is like a restaurant without patrons. Much like an off-line brick-and-mortar business requires visitors that can be turned into customers. A website requires visitors in order to provide business value. Think of it this way: what if you built a wonderful restaurant in the middle of the jungle with no roads, waterway or other known means for people to find and get to your restaurant. It would not matter to the business what world-renowned chef was hired or the quality of the ingredients used to produce the dishes as there would be noone to serve.

NO visibility = NO traffic = NO business

Much like a restaurant, a business website needs to have visibility and the means for people to easily discover and get to it in order to have visitors and therefore deliver business value. Oftentimes, business owners will make significant investments in very well-designed, highly functional business websites without much thought or regard to how people will find and get to their website. Then, eventually, those same businesses will ask the questions like: 

• How many visitors are coming to the website?
• Where do the website visitors come from (e.g. links from other websites, search engines, which ones)?
• What words or phrases did visitors using search engines use to find the site?
• How many are new versus returning visitors?
• How many pages did visitors view on average before leaving the site?
• How long did visitors who come to the site stay on average?

The data can be collected and tracked automatically on these key metrics which is part of the beauty of Internet marketing. It’s only natural for business owners to want answers to these questions so that they can find ways to increase user engagement and increase visitors and their time on site. Once business owners have this level of visibility, usually the need drive more sustained, targeted traffic to the website becomes clear.

The good news for business owners is that there are number of affordable options to market a business online, some for little or no out of pocket investment. The choice of not using the word the free was deliberate as nothing in life is free. Affordable recognizes the very real cost of the time required to take advantages of the many “free” opportunities to market a business on the Internet. The key to success is to prioritize investments of time and money based on those opportunities that can have the maximum ROI. Some of you are saying “well DUH!”  but you would be surprised.

Like anything, to be effective, marketing requires an investment in time. What the Internet really provides is affordable and cost effective and targeted distribution of messaging for maximum advertising efficiency and ROI. If you have more time than Money, the Internet, mixed with creativity, drive and a thirst for knowledge can translate into real business.

However, time is a precious commodity indeed and for those who have more money than time, there are plenty of options to cost-effectively purchase targeted traffic for your business website including using contextual advertising, behavioral targeting display advertising, targeted advertising on social networks and search advertising, all of which can be used to identify and match users with specific purchase intent with relevant business and their offers.

To learn more about these kind of opportunities to use the Internet to attract targeted, prequalified visitors to your website, contact eBiz ROI for a complimentary 30 minute traffic consultation valued at $99 by emailing us at sales@eBizROI.com or by contacting eBiz ROI through any of the means below.

eBiz ROI, Inc.
30 Rosemere Rd
Ballston Lake, NY 12019
http://www.eBizROI.com
+1 (518) 557-3502

How does one calculate the value of a website? That’s a somewhat loaded question. This question comes up often with clients in a variety of contexts such as a business owners looking for an exit strategy selling off a website or an entrepreneur looking to purchase a website to start or take over a business or use the website as part of a linking strategy.

In any and all cases, it is nearly impossible to calculate the precise value of a website but understanding some key website value components can help buyers and sellers estimate website valuations while understanding the risks to that valuation. Website buyers, like buyers of any major asset, need to perform the due diligence to understand the various components that drive website value to make informed business decisions.

Website Value Components to Consider

Top Ten Website Value Components

:

1. Age of the domain Google, the dominant search engine in the US, places value on the age of the domain. The older the domain, the more value Google sees.
2. Google Page Rank Named after Larry Page, one of the Google founders, which is a calculated value tracked by Google for each of the billions of web pages in its index. Page Rank is a numeric value between zero and ten. Pages that have zero page rank are little to no authority in Googles assement and search results and web pages that have higher page rank are viewed as more authoratative and generally are returned higher in the Google search results.
3. Inbound links how many links does the website have pointing to it from other websites. This includes not only links to the homepage of a website, but also links to other pages within the website. Look carefully at the longevity of these links. If possible use a tool to evaluate the prominence of certain links and ensure to the best of your ability that the most prominent links will survive well beyond the transaction.
4. Number of special inbound links (i.e. links from websites on .edu, .gov top-level domains) search engines view the value of different types of links, well …, differently. Two top-level domains in particular are typically more difficult for websites to obtain due to reguations, in turn making obtaining inbound links from websites on these domains more difficult as well. Possibly for this reason, evidence has demonstrated that Google provide additional authority to websites that have links from other websites on .edu and .gov domains.
5. Number of different domains that link to the website a metric that is calculated by evaluating the diversity of domains with pages that link to a website. For example, a website with 100 inbound links from one domain would tend to receive less authority from Google than a web site with a single link each from 100 different domains.
6. Number of pages indexed in Google, Yahoo! & Bing which simply means how many pages of a website exists in the search engine index (or database) so that when users are searching for relevant information in that search engine, links to the website content will show up somewhere in the search results.
7. Number of unique visitors per month or how many different visitors did a website have for a one-month period of time. One month is the normal industry time period to evaluate number of unique visitors to a website. Third-party verification from trusted sites is very important to substantiate claims of unique visitors. Google analytics and Compete.com provide data and serve as a trusted third-party source of traffic data.
8. Traffic diversity making sure that no single source of website traffic is a majority source of traffic to that website. This can reduce the impact that any one traffic source can have on the overall web site traffic. For instance, if all the website traffic virtually all comes from Google and Google decides to alter the way that it ranks websites, disproportionate impacts to overall site traffic will happen.
9. Visitor growth trend to ensure that a website visitor growth is trending positive, especially when relying on increasing traffic to meet a business plan. A negative visitor growth trend is often indicative of underlying issues in the market or possibly with the website itself, both of which will affect website value.
10. The financials including revenue and profit numbers as verified by a third-party whenever possible. Depending on the type of website and the business objectives driving the purchase, a common buyer mistake in all the excitement is to underestimate website operations costs including hosting, content creation, search engine optimization, advertising, moderation of user-generated content, system administration, online transaction processing and many others.

Why Compoents Matter for Google which Matters for Website Value

All of the top ten website value components have a relationship to Google and its treatment of a website authority and relevancy from the Google perspective, thus impacting position in the search results and therefore traffic. The reason Google matters so much is that for US English-speaking search market, the Google share is between 65 and 70% at the time of this writing. Search engine traffic drives a majority of Internet traffic. Internet traffic equates to website visitors, and as with any business, more visitors means more chances to convert those visitors to customers. That is why understanding the top ten key website value components are so important.

That said, it’s important to recognize that value, much like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder. The value or potential value of a website will be driven in part by the business objectives it’s intended to support. For example, an e-commerce website is designed to be a platform for retail sales over the Internet. Valuation can be simply viewed as the profit potential of the website over some desired payback period. For a website investor looking to generate revenue by selling advertising on the website, value will be based on existing and potential ad revenue driven by things like pages views and click-through rates. Still other investors will purchase websites with high Page Rank in order to manipulate the search results by passing authority from a purchased web site through linking it to other investor web sites. Still other publishing businesses can find value from the unique content that a website contains often being able to purchase that content for a small fraction of what it would cost to create similar content. In this case, verifying the uniqueness of the content through tools like Copyscape.com are crucial to valuation.

Pulling it all Together

Wow, that seems like a lot of information to digest. Bear in mind that there are free tools that can help you gather all of this information simply by going to the website of interest. One can use the SEO book for Firefox toolbar to gather information on all ten website value components listed above. Regardless of the goal of buying or selling a website, understanding key website value components of all parties involved in the transaction will ensure the transparency for a sound business deal made in full view of foreseeable risks and help ensure a successful and mutually beneficial transaction for all.

If interested in assistance with valuation of a website or websites, contact eBiz ROI for a complimentary high-level website valuation consultation.

In today’s business climate all businesses are looking for win-win situations. Some of the hungry Internet marketing serivce providers have and will peform work at a discounted rate in exchange for high quality links. Let’s face it, like it or not, it has been and will likely continue to be a buyers market for many advertising clients, both offline and online. Macro economic conditions have put many advertising and Internet marketing initiatives on hold due to uncertain budgets and economic conditions.

What those in market for Internet marketing services aren’t always aware of is that if they have a well-established website that has Google page rank (a measure from Google on how relevant a website is as well as how authoritative interviews that website), they have negotiating leverage when requesting discounts for Internet marketing services.

Internet marketers who understand SEO (search engine optimization), understand the value of a homepage link from a high page rank site on an authoritative domain. The more the website owner understands the value of this link, the better position they are in during contract negotiations to secure discounts on work to be performed in exchange for a link from the client’s homepage. The higher the page rank and traffic, the more negotiating leverage the site owner has.

This becomes particularly relevant when, over time, businesses need to update their website as their business/product/service lines evolve. When a business solicit proposal for website development and/or enhancement quotes, this information is most valuable. A link from an established website has intrinsic value in terms of its ability to increase traffic for a webpage that’s linked to and if the Internet marketing firm that you’re negotiating with doesn’t understand or acknowledge that, their ethics or knowledge may be questionable. The higher your website’s Page Rank and traffic, the better the discounts your can expect. That’s why knowledge is key.

The Google view of a website’s authority is one of the key ingredients for websites to be able to list high in the search results for the keywords that are relevant to their business. Page Rank is one of the largest valuation indicators for a page to be linked from. Therefore, many web development organizations will provide a reference discount to customers who will link back to their webpage once the work is complete. This kind of attribution is not only common in Internet marketing, but is analogous to similar offline marketing techniques such as leave-behind signs used by contractors and landscapers to promote their work once a job is complete.

So, if you have a high Page Rank home page from website on a domain that is been established for a decade or more, you may be able to get a great deal on your next Internet marketing initiative. If interested in learning more about evaluating your linking negotiation position based on the value of links from your homepage, contact eBiz ROI at 518-557-3502. eBiz ROI will provide additional discounts from our already affordable Internet marketing services in exchange for a link back to our business from your homepage.

This post will show you step by step how to add then claim your local business listing on Insiderpages.com

Go to insiderpages.com  and search for your business by business name, zip code.

If your business is found in the list, drink a homebrew and celebrate! If not, you will be presented with the option to add your business listing to insiderpages.com

If your business is not found in insiderpages.com, your will see the following:

Click the Add a New Business button at which point you will be offered the option to either login or join Insiderpages.com.

Joining Insiderpages.com is painless and only requires a valid email address, first name and last initial. Once this screen has been filled out with the required data, then the following screen to add your local business listing data is presented:

Fill in the required data including Business Name, Address, City, State, Phone. Optional fields include: Zip Code, Email and Webiste, all of which are strongly recommended to be filled out the benefit of increasing your business listing in the Insiderpages.com search results. Make sure to select the most relevant categories from those available by searching using key words that related to your businesses products and services. Once all of your business information is filled out on the form, press the Submitt and Go to Step 2 button. As can be seen in the figure above, your business listing can take up to 24 hours to show up in the search results.

Once your insiderpages listing is created, your business listing including adding photos by clicking on the Add Photo button. Additional business information such as describing your services, message to your customers and special offers can be added to your listing.

eBiz ROI strongly recommends that you claim and update your Insiderpages.com local business listing to provide control over your business listing content. If you would like eBiz ROI, Inc to assist you with creating and claiming your Insiderpages.com local business listing, we can be reached at eBiz ROI, Inc., 30 Rosemere Rd, Ballston Lake, NY 12019, +1 518 557-3502, Sales@eBizROI.com or on the web at www.eBizROI.com.

Creative Link Building Techniques Video by SEOMoz

This weeks SEOMoz Whiteboard Friday presented by Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz, one of the most well-known and trusted names in the SEO industry provides some great online and offline techiques to acquire links from authorative webistes that may be hesitant at first to give a link wihtout some motivation. If I had to sum it up, Quid-Pro-Quo is the way to go in applying creative link building techniques.

The great thing about the creative link building techniques presented by Rand is the video below is that they have what I would refer to as great business sense, which is a lot like common sense, but in a business context. All of the techniques recognize the old addage that you have to give something to get something, the golden rule in my professional experience.

Rand’s creative link building techniques include:

• Testimonial - value of named testimonial from a real person, name, title, real photo = bonus points!
• Social Connection - Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn can be powerful tools in support of this technique
• In-Person Connection - Taking potential link source/business partner out to dinner and picking up the check
• Missing Content - ID content of value from link source/business partner and offer to create it – make sure attribution applies

SEOmoz – SEO Software

One last great creative link building technique is to provide an embed widget for any engagement objects such as audio, video that you produce as this is sort of like mass production of the Missing Content that results in many links back to your site, the source of the content. Thanks for SEOMoz for producing Whiteboard Fridays which are publically available with content that is easy to embed and share!

Just starting a new business and want to make sure that your business is on the map? Looking to maximize the return on your time and advertising investments?

Beginning this Wed, Jan 5, eBiz ROI, Inc. will be offering complimentary Internet marketing webinars providing an overview focused on enabling SMBs (Small to Medium-sized Businesses) to use the Internet to drive sales and revenue, while maximizing their return on marketing investments.

These complimentary Internet marketing webinars will be offered each Wed from 1-2 pm ET. Registration is required 24 hours prior to these webinar events and is limited to the first 25 respondents.

Those interested in participating in these Internet marketing webinars can register at Webinars@eBizROI.com. Registration details will be provided to the first 25 respondents for each session.