Internet Marketing Toronto - Ignite!

Denise Howell of This Week In Law Questions The Effectiveness of Search Engine Optimization

In the most recent episode of This Week In Law (TWIL), part of Leo Laportes TWIT network host Denise Howell openly questions the effectiveness of Search Engine Optimization. That’s an interesting statement to make especially since TWIL is part of the TWIT network. I’ll also go on the record as a huge fan of TWIL and the entire TWIT network which is why I was so surprised by these statements.

Let’s take a step back and see how she got to make these statements. The episode - one of the more interesting in recent times is an interview with AVVO CEO Mark Britton who recently hit the news because of a Class Action Law Suit against his new site www.avvo.com which is a social media site for rating Lawyers. If you’ve not heard about it yet, I suggest you all take a look.

During the interview Denise appeared to take quite a strong stance against AVVO and the need for individual lawyers to actively participate in the system to ensure their ratings are accurate and their profiles current. Instead she argued for a more passive system where the community alone is responsible for rating the Lawyers profile thereby eliminating the need for Lawyers to actively participate. At the same time Denise acknowledged the power of blogging and the need to participate in the active conversation on the Internet. I think it’s imperative that individuals take control of the online profiles and actively participate at maximizing the quality and reach of their presence online vs. sitting back and letting others do it for them.

Social sites like Digg, AVVO, LinkedIn, Twitter, Jaiku, MySpace etc. are “the active” conversation on the Internet and if you’re not participating then you’re really losing out on a lot of opportunities to grow your business. The added benefit of participating is that it raises your overall profile online which has a positive impact on your overall internet marketing efforts including SEO.

I sincerely hope that TWIL takes this as an opportunity to take a closer look at the SEO industry. Thanks to the efforts of all of the SEO firms out there, organizatios such as SEMPO, shows like SES and SMX - Search Engine Optimization works and it’s an established practice with true measurable results!

5 Tips on Adding Video to Landing Pages

Landing pages are an important part of any pay-per-click campaign, the trick is to maximize the potential of those landing pages to “sell” the user on your product or service. Depending on the focus of your business and campaign, the focus of your landing page will take on a different tone. If you operate in the business to business world, your landing page is probably but not always used to generate interest in your product or leads for your sales team.

It is a generally accepted practice that landing pages should be kept simple and provide enough content/information to help the user convert (take whatever form of action you hope them to take). One such tool is the idea of adding a video clip to your landing page which illustrates what your product/service is about better than some text and images ever could. Here are a few points to keep in mind when adding videos:

1. Don’t be intrusive - Try to stick to “click to play” videos rather than auto play. Users may have their speakers turned up to loud or are at work and shouldn’t be watching videos. Utilizing click to play gives the user the option to engage your video on their own time.

2. Keep the size appropriate - Don’t make the video the focus of your page, you don’t want the user to only interact with the video and not fill out the form - your ultimate end goal

3. Make it fast - Consider load times and creating a positive user experience. It makes a lot of sense to host your video on places like Google Video or YouTube, the play back quality is very good and you don’t have to worry about hosting.

4. Keep it Short - Keep your video to under 20-30 seconds. Users don’t want to sit on your page for hours watching a long, boring corporate video that extols the virtues of your product. Your video should focus on what value your product ads, a clear explanation of your product/service and reinforce the focus of filling out the form on your page (or whatever conversion action you hope they take).

5. Always… Test and Measure - A wise man once told me, when in doubt - “test and measure.” If the video is working well, it may not mean it is working at its optimal rate. Perhaps a shorter video improves conversion, or a video with no sound… test, measure, rinse and repeat.

Good Marketing Resources

There are a lot of great resources online for marketing and this blog is no exception. I came across The Marketing Blog Directory a few days ago while searching for site targeted ppc opportunities for a client. I spent a few minutes reading some posts and realized that they have some excellent content for small and medium sized business’ looking for marketing tips.

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Using Bounce Rates For Search Engine Optimization

We’ve always known the importance of bounce rate when it comes to search engine optimizatino. As Google points out on their Analytics Blog:

If your site conversion rates are low, Bounce Rate can help you understand why. If your Bounce Rates are also low, your troubles are likely due to site design and usability issues. In this case, you might focus your efforts on streamlining your conversion funnel or making your site easier to navigate.

Since bounce rates are universally defined as a visitor exiting on the page they arrived on it’s easy to compare the metric to other sites. This is another reason why we insist on using Google Analytics on all our SEO and PPC clients - so that we can accurately monitor the results of our work across all sites and continue to improve the bounce rate statistic depending on each clients circumstances. How do we do that? It depends on the circumstances but it could include improving the page copy, look, calls to action, value propositions, or the quality of the ad text and keywords (if it’s traffic from paid advertising).

If you’re interested in the bounce rate of your site call your internet marketing consultant today.

Getting Through “The Dip” of Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization is far from an easy job. Anyone who has tried it will confirm this fact. If you have not read it yet, Seth Godin’s new book “The Dip” speaks really well on the topic of getting through the dip - the struggle of any single objective, and I think it applies swimmingly to Search Engine Optimization.

Recently on my drive home from work I passed this guy driving his car in my neighbourhood and I could not help but notice he had creatively loaded what appeared to be an entire tree into his trunk! See for yourself. Taking a picture of this was the least I could do. Now, I’ll admit I’d never try this myself, at least not in my own car. What I did get from this chance

encounter is an appreciation for this mans perseverance. I don’t know the entire background of this single event, but I can surely imagine that he needed to get this tree home big time. I can also imagine how many different ways he considered doing it. Most people would have waited to rent a truck, or tried to convince a buddy to help out, while many of us would have simply given up and scrapped the entire idea. Not this guy. He pulled up his sleeves and pushed, squeezed and propped the logs into his truck and then precariously synched them down with a bungee chord. That’s perseverance. Now, we don’t actually recommend anyone do this, nor do we take “dangerous” approaches to Search Engine Optimization. I’m merely pointing out that this guy really stuck with it, and got the thing home!

So, what’s it got to do with Search Engine Optimization? Well, everyday when we’re faced with tough optimization challenges we never give up. We simply put on our thinking caps, roll up our sleeves and figure out different ways to get the results we need for our clients. That’s what we do. That’s why we’re successful at it!

Oh Canada! Canadians Spend More Time Online Than Any Other Country!

Ok. it’s true! We Canadians love the internet. According to new research Canadians top the chart for number of hours spent onlline per month at just under 40! Check out the story on WebPro News video:

Interview with Fair Isaac on Click Fraud Research

Jim Hedger from The Alternative on Webmaster Radio had an opportunity to speak with Joe Milana from Fair Isaac about their research into Click Fraud, and their association with SEMPO.

I had a chance the other day to listen to the interview and it’s quite interesting. If you’re interested in paid advertising and the impact of Click Fraud on the industry, I suggest you give this latest episode a listen.

Although Click Fraud has not been solved / eliminated, through research like this one day it may be overcome. As it stands it looks like more research, and of course more data are needed. In the meantime we can look forward to monitoring our traffic!

Top 10 Website Conversion Tips

Getting traffic to y0ur site is only half the battle. If your site is not setup properly to convert this traffic into leads, you’ve wasted all your efforts. Over the years we have had an opportunity to work on many different websites, and test all kinds of different conversion strategies. Here is our top 10 list. If you’ve got some ideas you’d like to share with us, please post them in the comments.

Top 10 Website Conversion Tips

1. Create strong “Calls to Action”. You know what you want a visitor on your site to do - help them out by making it OBVIOUS!
2. Include your phone number (preferrably an 800 #) in the top header of your site on every page
3. Include your “value proposition” in the banner of your site on every page
4. Add a small (mini) contact form onto every page of your site in the same place, preferrably the left or right hand side column
5. Include Point of Action Assurances. For example, put your privacy statement right next to the submit button on all forms
6. Eliminate distractions and clutter. Make it easy for visitors to scan your pages and quickly identify what they need to do next.
7. Include a “Home” button in your main navigation
8. If you are selling something always try and provide pricing on the site if possible
9. Include logos for associations, accreditations and seals for security and privacy. Make people feel comfortable about dealing with you.
10. Have a great warranty, guarantee, or promise to deliver. Why not? You’re selling a great product or service, right!