The Big Wave Blog

Reporting from San Francisco, I have an update for our readers on Evision’s first speaking engagement of 2008. Our partners at CHLA invited me to speak to a group of California Bed and Breakfast owners this afternoon.

First of all, arriving in California from 10-degree Chicago weather feels great. Add to that a packed session that was very well received and raised some interesting points. I will summarize the important ones for you:

• Let there be light! From corporate boardrooms to independent business owners, there is still a lot of education that needs to be delivered. Having worked in the industry for several years, I sometimes feel that everyone must know the basics by now. But it’s never true! It may be 2008, but there are many people who have not been educated about the web in the right way. Educational sessions are always needed on search engines and website marketing.
• Count your chickens every day. There needs to be a major emphasis on analytics. Nothing great ever comes out of making an assumption. It is shocking to hear people discuss how they made decisions about their website based on some story they heard. You will never know what is really happening until you get analytics on your website. Good analytics are the key to making the right marketing decisions… and some of the best analytic software is FREE.
• Web reputation management is key. Keep an eye on what people are saying about you on the web. Message control is gone. It is now your job to keep tabs on what is being said about you and your business. It pays to be reasonable with people you do business with. Good actions will be duly noted, but bad ones will circulate much faster than you think!
• Weigh price vs. value. In 2008, an election year, it is time for your business to make a critical decision. Are you going to be the cheapest option with more sales, or the prestigious one with few? It’s up to you to become either Wal-Mart or Nordstrom. The most successful businesses online have a clear idea of who they want to do business with.

At the end of the session, there were a lot of questions from the audience. (Quite an accomplishment for an after-lunch session!)  It was a pleasure to be there, and I would like to thank Lynn, Jennifer, Sherri, Guy, Heidi, Jim & Bernice for their wonderful compliments.

Ok, the holiday season has passed. With February quickly approaching, it’s time to reevaluate your PPC marketing campaign. So, stop bidding for top placement, and stop adding every phrase from the Google Keyword tool! It is time to get back to the basics, and build a solid paid search campaign strategy for 2008.

Follow these 5 easy steps in 2008 to better optimize your pay-per-click campaign.

1. Audit your inventory. Before analyzing your paid search account, you need to know which items/services need increased sales or need the most attention. This will help target your keyword list and ad copy, as well as create a stronger bidding strategy.

2. Analyze your 2007 paid search campaigns, paying extra close attention to your cost per acquisition for each item and keyword. Note which products/services have the lowest cost per acquisition, and which ones have the highest. This information will help you determine which landing pages need more optimization, or which keywords need to be cut.

3. Test, Test, and Retest Ad Copy. When was the last time you changed your ad copy? You should make monthly changes to ad copy, highlighting new promotions and testing different calls to action.

4. Optimize your campaign for Quality Score. Make sure your keywords are properly grouped and have correct match types, write strong ad copy, and land users on relevant pages. This will boost click-thru-rate, increase return visitors, and improve quality scores. Hence, you will get better placement on the SERPs at a lower CPC.

5. Reorganize your campaign. Group long-tail, targeted keywords and high-conversion keywords into their own accounts with their own monthly budgets. Make a 2nd account targeting broader keywords, focused on creating buzz and building brand awareness. Typically, these keywords will have a high cost per acquisition, but they are equally important for building brand recognition within your industry.

Also, if your PPC is outsourced to an internet marketing agency, then make it a monthly or semi-monthly habit of speaking with your Paid Search Analyst. Keep them up to date on the latest promotions, offline marketing efforts, and any email marketing campaigns that might be coming in the near future. This communication will help them estimate possible traffic spikes and properly place you within the market.

Many of you have ignored your website for the past 2 years. Now is the time to start putting some serious effort into SEO, and this whole crazy social media/web 2.0 stuff. So, stop the black-hat link-building campaigns and stop the keyword stuffing techniques, because 2008 is about getting back to the basics.

I recommend that you follow these 6 easy steps to improve your search engine optimization efforts in 2008.

1. Check your site map and website navigation. Make sure that your interior pages are linking properly, and that your shopping cart/lead generation form is not buried deep within the site.

2. Make sure you are targeting the correct keywords on each page. Each year, searchers are getting smarter, typing in phrases that are more targeted. There are excellent keyword research tools available. Make sure that each page on your website is targeting 1-3 keyword phrases.

3. Reread and rewrite your content. Make sure your website copy conveys your company message, theme and mission. Be sure to write for your target audience, whether it’s teens, males, females or senior citizens. To enhance SEO, stop stuffing 10 different keyword phrases into the first paragraph of every page. Optimize each page of your site for 1-3 targeted keywords. Rewrite your header tags to include the keyword phrase that is being targeted for each page.

4. Name the images on your site. Recent search engine stats have indicated that 10% to 16% of all searches are for image results.

5. Spend some time with your online shopping cart, booking engine, or lead generation form. If it was made before 2005, then you might need an update. There have been some excellent improvements to online lead generation forms in the last 3 years. An updated, easy-to-use lead generation form can add a huge boost to your website conversions or leads. There is plenty of data available to help you pick the best form for your particular industry.

6. Once these website improvements are completed, add social booking buttons on key pages to help increase traffic and add to your link-building campaign. Popular social media/bookmarking sites include: Digg, Delicious, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Furl; and the list grows longer each day. You can opt for an all-in-one social bookmarking button from addthis.com, which is quick and easy to integrate into your site. You can even edit which sites you want to include.

Try these easy website improvements, and you should see improvements in usability and online conversions without spending a huge amount of money.

Be sure to check back later this week for Part 2: Optimizing Your Paid Search Campaign for 2008.

The Wall Street Journal came out with a very interesting article on January 19, predicting an imminent shakeup in Yahoo’s near future. Here are some recent hard-hitting facts about Yahoo:

• Even after the return of Mr. Jerry Yang (Yahoo’s co-founder), stock is down 23%.
• The value of company has been reduced by 50% just in the past 2 years!
• Search share for the engine is down by 3% over last year.

Why is this happening to Yahoo? What is turning Yahoo from a romantic favorite into a Shakespearian tragedy?

Answer: Maybe Yahoo is masquerading as a search engine.

When Jerry Yang took over from Mr. Hollywood (Terry Semel), he set out with a 100-day turnaround strategy. Several hundred days later, he announces his latest and most ambitious goal: to make Yahoo the start page of every internet user around the world. Bravo!

So, Jerry, could you please stop pretending that Yahoo is a search engine? Outsource your search to Google or Microsoft. You could earn some serious revenue without the hassle of running a proper search engine. Google and MSN are forever striving to be better search engines. Irrespective of their media projects on the side, being a search engine is a top priority for them. If Yahoo is planning to be a media company, then it needs to stop dragging the search engine anchor.

Losing the Search Anchor = Buoyant Stock Price

Put a cap on being a search engine tragedy.

1. Your reporting interface is painful; Panama should have been left as an independent nation and a canal for trade.
2. Stop calling my PPC team trying to sell them Yahoo Search Marketing services (which they already use)! Get a CRM system and know who your customers are.
3. Oh, and know your own products and departments as well. Please don’t forward our calls to 6 different support groups who have never heard of each other when we call in for help navigating your system.
4. Show up when you’re invited to speak at an industry event. You should know by now that the guy who is not in the room takes all the abuse!

Yahoo has been my home page from the very beginning. Yahoo has a very loyal following that wants to be retained. But we need some reassurance that you know what you’re doing. Get some Apple-style evangelists and go after your new goal of being a media company!

“Good luck.

We’re all counting on you.”

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