Internet Marketing Toronto - Ignite!

Google Keyword Search Volume Released

I got all excited when I read some blog posts showing new search volume numbers that had been released in Google’s Keyword tool. I hurried to my bookmark bar, opened up Adwords, clicked on the Google Keyword tool and…. wait for it… nothing. Booo. I was dissapointed like a kid who wanted a toy bb gun for Christmas and got a one piece pink bunny pj suit complete with fuzzy feet (2 points for those who got the Christmas movie reference there).

BUT

Today, I loged into my campaigns and say a message in my MCC saying that the tool was available and the keyword data was there!

“You can now see statistics on the approximate number of search queries
matching your keywords. This data allows you to better plan your budget
and pick keywords most likely to return quality leads, which in turn
can help improve your ROI. Learn more
|
Dismiss this message”

WHOOO HOOOO

Here’s an interesting question… what happens to tools like Wordze.com, Keyword Discovery and others?

Was it just a freak coincidence that I got this email today from Wordze with a special $4 promotion?

“I hope everyone is enjoying July. As I had talked
about to some of you, I have something really special for July that is going to
help you nock the socks off of your affiliate earnings.

Until July 14th you can send your readers to the
Url below, and they will be able to get access to Wordze for ALL of July for
only $4.

Sign Up Here

Other than that… Enjoy the rest of the month, and best of
luck!

Levi

Wordz

Help! My Bids Got Jacked Up by Google - What Do I Do?

I had an interesting experience yesterday working with a potential ppc management client to evaluate why his bids went from $0.60 to a $12.00 minimum. I have seen this many times before and thought I would share my process and list of things to check when evaluating why your Google AdWords bids have been jacked up. In this case, the clients CTR’s were great in almost all keyword cases and his overall average was above 4%. Thus, his CTR wasn’t the issue for the minimum bid spike.

Start by refreshing yourself with both the AdWords Terms and Conditions and the Landing Page and Site Quality Guidelines. It will give you a framework to evaluate your page and AdWords campaign. If any of the information contained in these documents raises some red flags for you, I would start there.

1. What recent changes did you make? - Have a look in your account at your change history tool. This is located under Campaign Management, Tools and My Change History. Change the date range to go back to when your bids were low and evaluate the changes leading up to the bid increases. Have some specific look at your ad changes, did any of your landing page URL’s change?

3. Website Downtime - If you have downtime monitor running, have a check to see if your site experienced some downtime closer to when your bids were raised. If so, this could be the problem and should be fixed by upgrading to better, more reliable hosting. Another, more in-depth check is to see if Google’s robots are having issues crawling your site. You can check this if you have Google Webmaster Tools running on your site. Check the robot.txt to see if the Google AdBot was having issues with your landing page and site.

2. Landing Page Load Time - Run your page through this page load time tool. Have a look at the speed in which your page loads. Are there any images that are taking a long time to load? Is there flash on your page that is eating away at your load time? If so, consider changing this to decrease your load time.

3. Landing Page Content - Have a read through the content on your landing page and pass it around to a few people who are removed from the situation. Ask them to give you 5 - 10 keywords that sum up the page. If these keywords are different than what your advertising on - they you just failed a human review. Run your site through the following tools and see what Google finds relevant for your page.

a. Google Keyword Tool - Enter in your sites url and see what keywords the tool suggests.

b. Google Adsense Preview Tool - If your using IE, you can download this tool here. Follow the instructions and use the tool on your page. See what Adsense ads Google would display on your site. Are the relevant to your topic and industry? If not, that is a good indication that Google doesn’t like your landing page. If your a Firefox user, you can download a Firefox extension for this here.

4. Privacy Policy - Google’s system tends to disfavour sites that request personal information without a clear purpose. Here are some specifics from Google’s Help Centre to guide you:

Visitors’ personal information:
- Unless necessary for the product or service that you’re offering, don’t request personal information.
- If you do request personal information, provide a privacy policy that discloses how the information will be used.
- Give options to limit the use of a user’s personal information, such as the ability to opt out of receiving newsletters.
- Allow users to access your site’s content without requiring them to register. Or, provide a preview of what users will get by registering.

5. If you are disfavour puzzled, you can try calling up Google and requesting to speak with a rep who can elevate your issue to be reviewed. I am not promising this will lead to anything, but if you get the right person on the right day… sometimes you can get lucky. Failing that, you could always get in touch with an internet marketing agency like us ;) who has dedicated agency reps and can further shed light on the issue.

Cuil Is Live - But Is It Relevant?

Cuil, the new search engine founded by former Googlers has finally launched.

Back on June 10th 2007 we wrote “Cuill - A New Search Engine From Ex Google and IBM Staff“. Well, Cuil has finally launched live and they make some pretty bold claims including having indexed more content than Google itself. I guess only time will tell.

If you’ve not checked it out I suggest you do www.cuil.com. It’s got a nice fresh interface for a change although I’m still not sure if I find it as useful. Searching for me is about accomplishing a task - not playing around with results. I use StumbleUpon for that.

What bugs me more is that I don’t think that Cuil has not quite figured out the relevancy part of search yet. I ran a few tests and for me the results were less than pleasing. For example a search on Google for my name in my opinion produces my profile pages from our company www.sparkinternetmarketing.com. The same search on Cuil does not - in fact you get a bunch of stuff about me from other sites, but not my own site or other sites I operate. The only time site comes up is for a blog posts I did here. That’s just my author name in that page vs. the anchor text off our home page and so on.

Here’s a screen cap of my search results…

I welcome the introduction of another search engine - but Cuil is not going to change my world yet. When I get better more relevant results from Google, Yahoo and yes, MSN - I won’t be switching anytime soon.

That being said - keep it up Cuil and continue rolling out algorithm updates to improve the relevancy! Add in the ability to provide search results feedback and you’ll be on your way to capturing some of that search market share!

Internet Marketing Toronto - Post 8: Directories

Internet Marketing Toronto - Post 8: Directories

In our last post we talked about different forums you could participate in. Today we’re talking about directories!

Directories are a great way to broadcast to the search engines that your “in business” and get referring traffic from the more popular directories.

Before we dive into the list of local Toronto directories I wanted to point out that you should seriously consider submitting to the Yahoo! Directory, Best of the Web and Business.com. These three directories carry alot of weight and worth the extra money if you’re serious about increasing your online presence.

Finding directories is the same as finding forums - but with some modified advanced queries.

• [directory toronto site:.ca] Finds toronto based directories and a .ca domain.

The following directories are some that I’ve come across and like to use depending on the situation. When submitting to these or any directories I recommend you create an email forwarder such as “directories@domain.com” as there is a high probability of getting onto some spam lists.

1. Business.com
2. Yahoo! Directory
3. Best of the Web
4. Toronto Vegetarian Association
5. Downtown Toronto.ca
6. Anar.ca - Catering to Persians in Toronto
7. Canadian Art Directory
8. Yoga Toronto
9. Natural Health Care.ca
10. ServPro.ca
11. CanPages.ca
12. MyGTA

With a little searching it’s not hard to come up with quite a few candidate directories. I encourage you to experiment with the queries and get your business listed!

When it comes down to listing your business be sure to have the following information prepared:

• Title: Write a nice short title that fully describes your business and includes your most important keyword(s)
• Description: Write a longer description of your business that expands on the topic(s) in your title. Be sure to user your keyword again.
• Meta Description: A simplified version of your description which would fit into your meta description tag.
• Contact Name: Use your real name, or someone in your company
• Contact Email: Be sure to create an email forwarder for this as you will get this email address on spam lists.

After submitting to the directories be prepared to activate some of the requests by email - so be sure to check your junk mail folders. A few weeks after submitting to the directories have a look at you backlinks again - you’ll begin to see some of these starting to popup!

Up next: Post #9: Press Releases. Find out how to create Press Releases that will help with your local search engine optimization!

Everyone needs a little fun in their life…

I am sitting at my desk this morning all set to write something intelligent and insightful about videos online… Then I realized that it is time for a bit of a fun blog. I haven’t written one of those in awhile.

Today I woke up on the perfect side of the bed and realized that I needed to spend some time checking in on my favourite websites. Now, everyone has their favourite sites that reflect personal interests and passions. What I love about blogs and community forums in general is that I can read about the sites that other people are interested in. For many of us, reading opinions online is a portal into another world that we did not know was even available.

It would be amazing if a day had 36 hours and I only needed an hour of sleep so that I could spend time exploring the world around me. The internet provides a clear window into the world around us that is so exciting and interesting, it can be hard to pull yourself away.

I was recently sitting with an uncle of mine discussing the internet and what it has to offer. That day, I was particularly spazzier than usual and was going on and on about how exciting podcasts were. I was telling my uncle that I had just listed to a fantastic documentary on China, learning how to improve Customer Service and in tune with all of the up to date news stories of the day.

My brain could not fathom a world without podcasts on this particular day. The debate began to unfold and my excitement started to dwindle as my uncle was laying out the dark side of the internet that he is familiar with. Being a police officer, he is regularly faced with stories of child molesters, addicts, and communities of killers using the internet as a tool to fulfill their deluded mission. A world so scary that I found it a challenge to acknowledge.

The reality is that a dark side exists in every part of our world. Where there is good, there is evil…the world of Batman and Superman are not far off in this case. I stood up straight and started to delve into all of the learning that can be done with the internet and the miraculous information that can be found online. The preaching began on what is available to us at our finger tips and I couldn’t hold myself back. I realized I was an addict.

Addicted to all things new and exciting. I started hearing myself say…”No wonder I get bored so quickly…I am used to immediate mental stimulation”. This information is fantastic; is it possible to overload?

How many of us subscribe to blogs and podcasts? How many of us lose time and aren’t sure where it went as we surf the web? Many. And I am one of them. Although the excitement of the online world has possible drawbacks, none of us can deny the information that comes from it and how many people benefit from access to this type of technology.

If everyone who reads this blog can add at least one of their favourite daily visits, others can start to explore new and interesting aspects of the online world that they weren’t aware of before. Below I am going to share a couple of my personal favourite websites with you all. Keep in mind that I restricted myself to non social networking and non blog and podcast related sites; otherwise we would be here all day. So on to the little fun in this fantastic Friday…

Time Photo Essays: I love photography and politics so this site is the epitome of a happy place for me. I try to visit this site daily and enjoy the fantastic photography available. A friend introduced me to this site and now I am there regularly.

BBC World News: If you had a chance to check out my bio on Spark Internet Marketing, you will know that I majored in Politics for my undergraduate degree which makes me forever a news junkie. The documentaries from the BBC can also be downloaded in the form of a podcast; currently one of my favourites. If I did not hear about a major news break before my husband…yikes, lookout!

Okay, it’s your turn!

~S

New Facebook Design and Ad Placement Location

Facebook announced a new round of changes to its site design and user interface today - in addition to changing the location of it’s ads.

In an announcement on July 20th Facebook states that the changes will result in a “cleaner, and simpler design, along with the opportunity for users to preview and test the next-generation features and functionality” You can read more from their official July 20th press release here

Changing Facebook’s Ad Location
In addition to this press release, advertisers were emailed a seperate announcement detaling the changes to the advertising system. Currently, Facebook ads are placed on the left side of the page, below a profiles navigation. The new changes will place the ad on the RIGHT side of the page - an area of the page that, arguably, users are more used to seeing ads (thank your Google, Yahoo and MSN).

Moreover, Facebook will now be showing TWO ads at any one time on any given page. There was no mention of how an ad is selected to place first, however it is safe to assume that placement will be determined by ones minimum CPC bid. That being said, this change may pave the way for Facebook to adopt a “quality score” type of a system similar to Google and Yahoo’s which “rewards” advertisers with higher ad placement through a calculation involving high click-through-rates, bids and landing pages.

The last major change is the addition of a new ad on Facebook’s home page. This ad will be located to the right of the News Feed and initially run for a limited set of advertisers (no mention of how to be part of that limited set). Their statement does say that “as this space continues to evolve and improve, we’ll provide more details.

It will be interesting to see how these changes affect the uptake of Facebook’s advertising system. Given the recent announcement that MySpace’s advertising platform is now operating in full swing, it appears that Facebook wanted to make a little splash of their own. That… and the fact that Facebook’s investors might be looking for some sort of return on their investment.

As a current Facebook advertiser, it would have been great to see them invest in their platform and add some very basic functionality that other services already have. Here is a list of my “Darn, Sure Wish Facebook Had This in Their System” wishes:

1. Conversion tracking - Google, Yahoo and MSN all have it and it REALLY helps explain to a client where their marketing dollars have gone and specifically what RETURN they have received for it

2. Better Billing Reporting - It can’t be that hard to create a system that sends me a pdf invoice of when a credit card has been changed and shows the breakdown of those charges/clicks

3. An MCC - Recently when I wanted to set up a new client I found that until another client had paid off their credit card… I couldn’t create a new campaign. Having some type of “My Client Centre” would be nice and would help manage different accounts in a more streamlined process.

4. Reports in HTML - Create the option of having reports generated as HTML, not just excel!

Basic rule of thumb (and this goes to Yahoo and MSN too) if you want more advertisers, serve the companies who are selling your product with effective tools to manage your system.

You can see Facebooks new changes by accessing their beta site here - however at last check, this was re-directing to their existing home page.

Internet Marketing Toronto - Post 7: Forums

Internet Marketing Toronto - Post 7: Forums

Forums are a great way to participate in meaningful conversations on your specific topic or industry while building awareness of your website, products and services as well as developing back links to it. In many cases forum links are followed which is even better! However, that’s not what matters in this context. With forums we’re really interested in generating exposure to your brand and developing the back links from .ca domains and have a Toronto focus.

So, how do you find them? I created a list of “Toronto Forums” with .ca domains by using the following three advanced search queries in Google. Use the Advanced Search option in Google and list 100 results at a time to make your life easier.

• [vBulletin toronto site:.ca] Finds toronto based forums using vbulletin and a .ca domain.
• [phpbb toronto site:.ca] Finds toronto based forums using phpbb and a .ca domain.
• [forum toronto site:.ca] Finds toronto based forums which contain forum as a keyword and a .ca domain.

With any one of these queries you can specify additional keywords to target specific topics. For example, if you want to just find gardening forums in Toronto on a .ca domain you can try this:

•  [gardening forum toronto site:.ca]

The following forums are just a selection of ones I found while working some of these queries discussed above.

1. Urban Toronto
2. UFT Students (you don’t need to be student)
3. GT Cars Forum
4. Blue Jay Way (Baseball forum)
5. Leafs Forever (Hockey Forum)
6. Digital Home Forum
7. Toronto Raptors - Hooplife Forums
8. Biking Forum
9. Toronto Argonauts Forum
10. Red Patch Boys - Toronto FC Supporters Club (Soccer)
11. Law Students Forum
12. Toronto Integras (Acura Forum)
13. Toronto Golf Insider Forum
14. Toronto Nissan Forum
15. Toronto Mazda Forum
16. Canadian Aviation Historical Society Forum
17. EHMac - Canada’s MAC Forum
18. Canadian Automobile Sports Club Forum
19. Gardening Life Forum
20. Cybertron
21. CinemaSpy
22. Smart Canucks
23. Golf Resource
24. Pro Gaming League Forum
25. E46 Toronto - BMW Forum
26. Acoustic Neuroma Association of Canada
27. Ask A Master Gardener
28. Canada Jams Forum
29. Canadian Nursing Students’ Association
30. Young Poets

I encourage you to experiment with this and identify possible forums relevant to your site. Most importantly - start participating on the forums. Be sure to setup your signature with a link back to your website and if possible do it with one of your most important keywords!

Up next: Post #8: Directories. Find out which directories might be worth participating in within the Toronto context.

Spark Internet Marketing - Google AdWords Qualified Company

At long last, Spark Internet Marketing has been awarded our Google Qualified Company status (insert polite applause here). Since launching our company under a year and a half ago, it has been a goal of ours to manage enough Google AdWords spend and clients to elevate our standing with Google from “Qualified Individual” to “Qualified Company.”

To become a Qualified Company in the Google Advertising Professionals program, a company must:

1. Have a billing and mailing address in a country where company qualification is available.
2. Employ at least two Qualified Individuals in the program. Individuals must be qualified under the main company-registered My Client Center account and not their own account. See the requirements for becoming a Qualified Individual.
3. Build and maintain the minimum 90-day required total client spend (spend requirements vary by country) for the company’s My Client Center account.

In Canada, a company must maintain a minimum of $100,000 over a 90-day time period to receive certification.

For good measure, Spark also has its Yahoo Ambassador and MSN Adwords certification in addition to its new Google Qualified Company status.

Spark would like to thank our PPC clients for entrusting their internet marketing to us and helping us meet this goal!

Unique Phone Tracking

Unique Phone Tracking - Our Who Called Call Tracking Services.

Calculating a complete ROI on internet marketing can be tricky especially when you need to track conversions. Most sites do so by counting the number of web leads they receive from contact forms. Unfortunately this is only part of the picture. A significant number of web visitors actually turn to the telephone when it comes to taking the big conversion step.

Most business until now have had to rely entirely on sales staff or receptions asking how the caller found them which results in spotty data. Welcome in the age of call tracking services which take the guess work out of this entire process. With our flexible call tracking service our customers can overnight begin tracking phone conversions right back to the marketing medium that generated the lead. That could be search engine optimization via organic clicks on the search engine results pages, pay per click ads, 3rd party websites such as major directories and of course offline marketing as well. Simple javascript replaces the websites usual number with the tracking number produced by the service. The visitor calls the tracking number and the call is instantly bridged to your regular lines. However, in the process the conversion is recorded.

We can track:

• What marketing medium generated the call
• Which keywords
• When they called, and how long the call lasted
• The callers actual phone number
• The callers geographic location
• Calls can even be recorded for training purposes (audio notice must be provided for the caller)
• For a small fee complete address look up can be done as well

A powerful reporting portal lets our WhoCalled customers look at their call volume over time and by campaign as well as dig deeper into individual calls. Data can be exported in various formats to be used in other systems such as your favorite CRM for lead tracking purposes.

The WhoCalled service has been an outstanding accompaniment to our standard marketing efforts. Our clients appreciate the power of the data that comes with it as we’re able to calculate much more accurate ROI’s on their marketing. In some cases we have seen the Cost Per Lead be reduced by as much as 50% because half of the conversions were being done by phone - and our customers had no idea.

If you’re interested in experiencing this powerful yet simple to use service for your business we encourage you to call our marketing team 905 663-2404 ext 114 to find 0ut how you can get started. Service plans start as low as $35 (CDN) / number and $0.15 (CDN) / minute for the long distance

Selling Links Can Land You In Trouble

Google confirms Newsday.com received penalty for selling links!

Advertising, or selling links? It’s fine a fine line but when crossed can have some serious repercussions. Google position is that they don’t like it when you sell links only for PageRank. Instead sell banners and text ads that draw traffic to your site - if they pass a little PageRank, that’s OK!

So what happened to Newsday? Well, Google caught them selling links and penalized them for it. Perhaps overtime they’ll recover as most sites which receive a penalty do.

If you’re going to sell links from your site then you have to do it through back room. Don’t announce it on your site, don’t send the requests via email. Telephones are the only way to go in this regard.

Our opinion? Don’t buy or sell links for PageRank. Most business rely too heavily on Google for the traffic and it simply is not worth the risk.