Google Adds +1 Metrics to Google Webmaster Tools
I just checked my Google Webmaster Tools account and noticed “+1 Metrics” for the first time. I’m sure you’re already aware of Google’s most recent venture into social media called “+1″, which is pretty much the same thing as a Facebook Like button. Over time, the site that has more +1 votes will surely outrank other websites that do not have any +1 votes. I wouldn’t be surprised if these social media factors, including Google’s +1, Facebook Likes, Twitter ReTweets, Stumbles from StumbleUpon, Upvotes on Reddit, Diggs on Digg, and so on end up replacing the importance of simple backlinks from other websites, which is the lifeblood of Google’s algorithm and PageRank formula. Obviously, Google knows that backlinks can easily be spammed to manipulate the rankings, so putting more weight on actual “trust” factors from actual humans voting that they like a particular page will aim to solve that problem. However, I can see an entire new industry propping up offering services to vote up your site just as there are tons of linkbuilding services around today. It’s basically the neverending game of cat and mouse so it will be interesting to see how this all plays out!
Best Keyword Research Tools for SEO
Best Keyword Research Tools for SEO
I have been doing search engine optimization (SEO) for many clients for about eight years now and I am often asked questions about how do I know which keywords to target and how do I know how many times a keyword is searched and so on. To which I reply that I have several keyword research tools at my disposal, many of which are free and available for anybody to use.
First off, I just wanted to point out one of the challenges I frequently come across in dealing with SEO clients. Oftentimes, a new client will come in and demand that they rank #1 on Google for a random keyword phrase such as “buy uber profitable biz now for sale” simply because that’s a keyword that they thought of on their own. Then I calmly explain to them that I can certainly work on getting their website to rank #1 for that phrase, but I guarantee nobody is searching for that phrase besides him and thus there’s going to be no benefit in ranking for that phrase besides his own vanity. And instead of having to waste my breath on trying to convince him, I simply plug in that phrase into my keyword research tools and show him that nobody searches for that keyword phrase and provide him with some other more popular options.
The primary keyword research tool that nearly every competent SEO will use is the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. Why? Because it provides keyword data directly from Google, which is by far the world’s most used search engine. Also because it is 100% free. Now, it’s a little tricky to use correctly for SEO.
The first step is to go to https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal.
Next, enter in your keyword ideas in the form at the top. Most of the time you will want to tick the checkbox that says “Only show ideas closely related to my search terms.” Then click the Search button.
Next, you should get a list of keyword phrases in a table. Now here is the most important option in using this keyword research tool for SEO – Scroll down on the left hand side of the screen where it says “Match Types” and only tick the checkbox that says [Exact]. This means both Broad and “Phrase” match should be unticked!!! Otherwise, you are wasting your time.
Next, sort the table of keyword phrases by “Local Monthly Searches.” Pay no attention to the Competition column because that only applies to AdWords, not organic rankings which we are trying to target for SEO. Now you will have a list of the most popular keyword phrases related to your original keyword and the approximate number of times that keyword is searched in the United States each month. Copy and paste the most relevant keywords to a spreadsheet.
Next, take those keywords and search them in Google to determine how competitive they are. It would be awesome if you could get your site to rank #1 for all of the keyword phrases, but 99% of the time, the most popular keyword phrases will be very competitive and thus will take a lot of effort to rank highly for. The goal is to find those keyword phrases that get a decent number of searches but have low competition.
Which is what I will teach you in Part 2 of this post, coming soon! 
Google Webmaster Tools Issue – Googlebot Caching Wrong Website Due to DNS Errors from Shared Hosting
Today, I was looking at the Google Webmaster Tools report for one of my client’s websites and I noticed a couple of peculiar bugs. First of all, I noticed that the website was getting an influx of inbound links pointing to it from other domains. Upon additional investigation, I noticed that there were at least 10 different domain names that were credited as pointing thousands of links to my website, but these links were actually pointing to a whole another website altogether. None of these websites have anything in common except for the fact that they are all on the same shared webhost and share the same IP address.
But yet when I look at the cached version of one of the other websites, my client’s website shows up in Google’s cache. This makes absolutely no sense since none of the websites are affiliated with each other in any respect except for having the same IP address. I tried to do some initial investigation into the DNS records including A records, CNAME records, NameServer records, and even MX records but I couldn’t see anything that stood out.
Why would Google associate one site with another site for no reasonable explanation??
Small Business SEO Marketing Services
Small Business SEO Marketing Services - I have been providing web development, search engine optimization and search engine marketing services for small businesses for several years. While I am convinced that search engine marketing is the most effective form of advertising in the history of mankind for several reasons, it is still an everyday struggle to explain to some prospective and/or skeptical clients the justification for why this is the case. The majority of people that are skeptical of SEO or SEM services is because they got burned multiple times by incompetent so-called SEOs peddling their “search engine submission” services and “guaranteed click packages” on Google AdWords (I’m looking at you YellowPages.com!) which produce absolutely zero results. I know I am good at what I do because I have the results to back it up, but I am going to let you in on a secret – SEO is not rocket science! There are no hidden magic tricks to get you ranked at the top of the Google and there are no backroom deals to be made with Google employees to get you ranked #1. Even though I have been doing this for years, I did not take any MBA-level classes or receive any prestigious awards for groundbreaking revelations in the search engine marketing industry. Everything I know is a result of reading lots of SEO books, articles, forums and blog posts and then running my own trial and error experiments. I stuck with what worked, and ditched the things that turned out to be outdated or just outright false. All this being said, a small business owner that is at least somewhat web savvy can have a lot of success with SEO without getting burned by snake oil salesman or paying out the nose for a qualified professional. Here are a few of my tips for succeeding at small business SEO marketing:
1. Create a website in WordPress – Simply put, WordPress is my favorite web publishing platform. Even though it was originally created to be blog software, it has evolved to become my top choice to use as a simple Content Management System (CMS) for a lot of my small business clients. I have worked with several other CMS platforms such as Joomla, Drupal, MODx, Expression Engine, etc. and WordPress continues to be my favorite. Once it is installed, you can manage all of the content on the site within a WYSIWIG dashboard so you don’t need to know any HTML or buy any expensive web editing software like Dreamweaver.
2. Add SEO Plugins - While WordPress continues to improve the SEO features inherent in the system with each and every update, there are several plugins that help with SEO. I used to be a fan of All-in-one-SEO Pack by now my favorite is WordPress SEO by Yoast.
3. Write content on your site - If you have installed a WordPress blog and added SEO plugins, you are going to be better off than 90% of other websites on the web. Now all you need to do is constantly write articles, blog posts, news releases, etc. about your company, industry trends, etc. For example, if you just started a Chiropractor business in Chicago, you would write about things related to Chiropractors and/or things related to businesses in Chicago. If your target audience is located in Chicago, then this is critical.
4. Add a Location page on your website - If you run a small business with an actual brick and mortar location, make sure to add a page to your website that is dedicated to just information about where your company is located, the business hours, a phone number, an email address and a contact form. Not only is going to be one of the most popular pages on your website for your customers, but the search engines love these pages for ranking local businesses in their rankings.
5. Claim your local business listings - If you run a small business that caters to a local audience, it is absolutely critical to claim your Google Places listing as well as your local business listings on other sites like Bing and Yahoo. Check out http://getlisted.org for all of the other sites.
6. Join social media sites – Especially Facebook and Twitter. Those two sites are by far the largest so I recommend starting with them. Get involved with the people in your industry and the people that live in your target market. All that it takes is to become an active participant and let your potential customers become aware that your business is around, so don’t worry about trying to be a pushy salesman or else you run the risk of scaring everybody away.
I know these 6 tips may seem a little vague but to be honest, if you just do these six steps, I guarantee you will be better off than 99% of your competition (unless you are in a crazy competitive industry like credit cards or mortgages!). If you want any additional help, feel free to contact me.
What is a Good Conversion Rate? How to Improve My Conversion Rate on My Landing Page or Website
What is a Good Conversion Rate? How to Improve My Conversion Rate on My Landing Page or Website
Conversion Rate Optimization is all the rage these days. It’s practically becoming its own industry, as it should be since improving the conversion rate on your website basically means making more money from the traffic already visiting your website. However, not all conversions are the same and thus not all conversion rates are the same. In fact, far from it.
Simply put, there is no correct answer to the age-old question “what is a good conversion rate?” Mainly because a “conversion” can vary from website to website. Some websites count contact form submissions as conversions, some websites count clicks on a Sign Up button as conversions, some websites count views of a certain number of pages as conversions and so on. So in order to get an accurate comparison for the comparison of two different websites, the conversions need to be the exact same for each site.
Another issue is that simply because a website may have received more contact form submissions, it does not necessarily mean that those contact form submissions actually turn into sales. So just by seeing an increase in the conversion rate of contact form submissions may not convey into an increase in the conversion rate of actual sales. So depending on how long the sales process and lifecycle of the customer is, what makes a good conversion rate totally varies from industry to industry. For example, the mortgage industry may only need to see a conversion rate of 10% to see a positive ROI and the shipping industry may need a 5% conversion rate to generate a profit. There is simply no end all answer for every website.
That being said, I have seen several different industry averages that say an online conversion rate of 2-3% is considered average. So your goal should be to at least hit that average, but the ultimate goal is to go above and beyond that. And more importantly, you should strive to increase your conversion rate and sales each and every month no matter what your current conversion rate is!
Lead Tracking Spreadsheet for Tracking Online Leads
Lead Tracking Spreadsheet for Tracking Online Leads
Most of the websites I have developed over the years for my clients use contact forms to generate leads from the websites. And 99% of those contact forms simply sent an email to a specific email address and that was the end of the tracking pipeline. Some of my more savvy clients used a lead tracking spreadsheet to manage their leads, but even using a spreadsheet is quite a cumbersome and outdated process.
Instead of using a lead tracking spreadsheet for tracking online leads, I am working on a lead tracking and lead management database system for small businesses to easily manage their website inquiries without the need for blowing their budgets on a complicated CRM system or even more advanced tools like a marketing automation system. Most companies that do not already have a CRM most likely are not at the stage of needing a CRM just yet. Obviously, a full-featured CRM makes sense for large or fast-growing companies, but for the most part, a lot of small businesses just want a way to ensure their website contact forms are always working and a place to store these leads. That’s it.
A lead tracking spreadsheet is one way to track leads, but as I said above, spreadsheets most of the time are only accessible on a local computer for one specific user. So the system I am working on will consist of an online database that can be accessible from anywhere by anyone at anytime.
Verizon iPhone 4 vs HTC Incredible vs HTC Thunderbolt – Why do I have to keep entering my password on my Verizon iPhone to install free apps?
Verizon iPhone 4 vs HTC Incredible vs HTC Thunderbolt – Why do I have to keep entering my password on my Verizon iPhone to install free apps? And other questions about the iPhone from an Android user.
After dropping my HTC Droid Incredible one too many times so that the screen was cracked badly that it was essentially rendered useless, I decided to finally switch over to iPhone. I always thought I had wanted an iPhone but since I was on Verizon, that was never an option until they just released it last month. So today I took my busted HTC Incredible to the Verizon store to pick up an iPhone. Even though I’ve had the iPhone for a couple hours, there are already a few things I don’t like about the iPhone and things I miss having in the HTC Incredible.
The thing that keeps bothering me enough to write this blog post on a Friday night is that each time I try to download a free app from the App Store, I am prompted to enter in my Apple ID password. The first time I let it slide, the second time it was annoying, and the third time, it’s just getting ridiculous. Especially since the password has to be at least one uppercase letter, one number and one lowercase letter. Which on a tiny touchscreen keyboard, it gets to be frustrating switching the keys over to uppercase or to numerical characters. What is the point of requiring the password? Especially since the apps are free? I *might* understand if it required them for paid apps to prevent children racking up outrageous fees on oblivious parents, but for free apps? This is going to be a dealbreaker if I have to keep typing in the password every freaking time.
There are a few other things I already don’t like about the Apple iPhone 4 that I like in the HTC Incredible:
1. No automatic rotating keyboard? – On the HTC Incredible, I turned the phone sideways and the keyboard automatically rotated and got bigger, which made it much easier to type. The iPhone keyboard apparently doesn’t rotate? Why not?
2. When you click on Install on an app in the app store, you are taken to the home screen for some unknown reason whereas apps are downloaded in the background on the Droid. What’s the point of leaving the App Store each time you want to install an app?
3. No Google Maps?
4. No ‘Back’ button – The HTC Incredible has a physical back button at the bottom of the phone. This is helpful navigating in so many different ways. The iPhone requires you to press the random buttons at the top of the screen, which look different and are located in different spots in different apps. I understand Apple’s whole mantra is simplicity by only offering one button at the bottom of the phone, but I’d much rather have buttons that actually are useful, and the Back button is one of them.
5. Camera button – Why doesn’t the iPhone camera app allow you to use the physical button to take a picture? It would be much easier to hold the phone in one hand and push the button with your thumb, but that’s not really an option since you have to click the icon on the touchscreen. Stupid.
6. Holding the button down long enough brings up a Voice Control screen? WTF?
7. I backed up my contacts from my Droid Incredible through Verizon’s Backup Assistance app. I downloaded the iPhone Verizon app to import my contacts. However, when I opened that app, I got a prompt saying that the app could not work with WiFi so I had to exit the app, manually turn off WiFi, and then open the app again. I’m not sure if this is just an iPhone issue or what, but why the hell can’t it work with WiFi and if it can’t, why can’t it request to use the 3G network automatically? I had no problems automatically switching between WiFi and 3G on my Incredible and never encountered any apps that required me to turn one of them off.
Again, I’ve only had the iPhone 4 for a little over 6 hours now so maybe it will grow on me over the weekend. Otherwise, I still have 14 days to decide whether I like it enough to keep it or return it for a refund. Hopefully the HTC Thunderbolt will be released within the next two weeks which will make my decision to return the phone a lot easier. Otherwise, I may just swap out the iPhone for another Incredible. This time, I’ll make sure to also buy the case.
Conversion Tracking Code Script for Google Analytics & Google AdWords
Conversion Tracking Code Script for Google Analytics & Google AdWords
This is just a quick post about how and where to install your conversion tracking code or script to begin tracking conversions on your website. Believe it or not, most people do not have a clue what a conversion is and why they should be tracking them. Below are some examples of things that could be counted as conversions on your website:
- Sales of products or services generated through your website
- Leads, or inquiries generated through a contact form on your website, about your products or services in which it is up to the company to follow up and close the deal
- Website membership sign ups
- Newsletter subscription sign ups
- Phone calls generated through a specific number on your website
Other examples of “micro-conversions” that may be worth tracking:
- Downloads of a specific file such as a white paper PDF
- Views of specific pages on your website
- Amount of time spent on your site
- Clicks on any specific buttons or links to gauge interest
Most of these can be tracked with Google Analytics and Google AdWords conversion tracking codes. Below are two handy links to get started with either of these:
How Does Google Analytics Conversion Tracking compare with Google AdWords Conversion Tracking? – http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55535
Guide to Setting Up Ecommerce Conversion Tracking in Google Analytics – http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/tracking/gaTrackingEcommerce.html
Google AdWords Conversion Tracking Set Up Guide – http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=115794
Outer Banks Mile Marker Map – Milepost Map OBX
Outer Banks Mile Marker Map – Milepost Map OBX. I have gone to the beaches of the Outer Banks of North Carolina for summer vacation at least ten times throughout my life, but I always seem to forget exactly everything is. Obviously, Corolla and Duck are north of the bridge, and that the mileposts or mile markers begin as you travel south. We are researching houses to book for a big family reunion this summer and were trying to figure out which location was best – houses at Milepost 10, Milepost 12, Milepost 16 or Milepost 18. I attempted to search for a mile post map of the Outer Banks on Google and surprisingly was not able to find one.
Eventually we decided on a house in South Nags Head, just beyond mile post 18. Apparently anything after Mile Post 16 or so becomes a lot more residential and less commercial. This is perfectly fine, but it would have been helpful if I could have found an OBX mile marker map somewhere just in case any of the other locations were a lot closer to the restaurants and activities that we may want to experience.
Anyways, this just goes to show how Google and other search engines still have a long ways to go. If I somehow come across an image of the map, I will post it in this entry just in case anybody else looking for it will actually be able to find it!
CRO Tools – Conversion Rate Optimization Software & Tools
CRO Tools - Conversion Rate Optimization and Landing Page Optimization are all of the rage these days. It’s no longer suffice to generate 500 visitors from SEO or PPC campaigns if those 500 visitors convert into sales or leads for the client. Conversion Rate Optimization, or CRO, is the process of setting up different A/B split and multivariate tests in order to improve the conversion rate of the traffic once they are already on your site. Here are some CRO Tools that I am aware of:
Unbounce – Landing page optimization platform
Visual Website Optimizer – Set up A/B and multivariate tests
Google Website Optimizer – Free testing platform
CrazyEgg – Visitor heatmaps
Clicktale – Record user activity with videos
Does anybody have any other Conversion Rate Optimization Tools suggestions?