Marketing your ecommerce store can be difficult. Since you’re selling things online, it’s best to market yourself online. One of the most common forms of online marketing that ecommerce merchants use is pay per click (PPC) advertising. PPC, however, can be a financial investment, and it can be an [...]]]>

Marketing your ecommerce store can be difficult. Since you’re selling things online, it’s best to market yourself online. One of the most common forms of online marketing that ecommerce merchants use is pay per click (PPC) advertising. PPC, however, can be a financial investment, and it can be an investment that doesn’t always pay off significantly. Why? PPC requires a lot of analysis and effort before it makes you any sort of profit. If you’re deciding whether PPC is right for you, keep reading.

Two reasons you might want to use PPC

1. Traffic to your store is low – If your social media efforts haven’t paid off, and traffic to your store is minimal, it may be time to consider PPC. PPC will undoubtedly bring you some traffic, especially if you’re willing to spend a good amount of money on it. Just remember that traffic doesn’t always equal sales.

2. You rank low in the search engines – If you sell rugged laptops, and you rank low for all the terms associated with rugged laptops on Google, you could launch an SEO campaign to try to get your store to rank higher for relevant terms. However, getting organic search traffic takes time. Even if you search engine optimize all of your site’s content and start networking with other sites to get some link juice, you’re still going to have to wait a few months for the search engines to catch on and move you up the ranks. PPC is instantaneous. As soon as you sign up, people will be able to see your store when they search for certain terms on search engines.

Of course, PPC isn’t right for everyone.

Two reasons you might be better off without PPC

1. Your marketing/advertising budget is limited – PPC requires that you spend money each and every day to attract visitors to your site. If your budget for marketing is rather limited, PPC probably isn’t for you. The ROI of PPC can be considerable, if you have enough cash freed up to invest. If you don’t, that’s ok. You can pursue other avenues. SEO and social media marketing, for instance, might be better matches. All it takes to launch a successful SEO campaign or social media marketing campaign is time and research. So, costs for that type of marketing are nominal (unless you hire an agency or employee to help you out).

2. Your site still needs some work – The first thing you should do when you open an ecommerce store is make sure that your site is attractive, professional-looking, and easy-to-use. If your site isn’t quite there yet, hold off on PPC. Your conversion rate will be low if you people visit your site and then leave it because it doesn’t look credible enough. So, spend some time working on your website and building your store’s brand. Once you have the basics in place, you can move on to aggressively marketing your store.

Takeaway

Consider the reasons PPC might benefit your store and the reasons it might not. And remember that you don’t want to spend any of your funds on a marketing campaign that may not have much ROI.

Author’s Bio: Carolyn is a guest blogger on the subjects of marketing, ecommerce, and software for ecommerce merchants, like the software provided by Ordoro. 

The Microsoft Office suite has advanced in numerous ways and has been able to help many users share data in between different programs, like MS Excel and Word. Such advances have made the lives of direct mailers a lot easier by allowing them to easily insert Excel data into [...]]]>

The Microsoft Office suite has advanced in numerous ways and has been able to help many users share data in between different programs, like MS Excel and Word. Such advances have made the lives of direct mailers a lot easier by allowing them to easily insert Excel data into a Word document in order to have several personalized copies of the same material. It is rather easy to figure out and once you have mastered this skill, sharing data between different Microsoft Office programs will become a breeze.

1. Create or open an MS Excel document. Go about this step as usual and make sure that everything is correct in the finished MS Excel document because it is usually much easier to fix any formatting issues within the actual MS Excel document rather than trying to fix errors once it’s been transferred to the Word document.

2. Open a Word document. If you already have a predetermined Word document for your project, then proceed to open that specific Word document; however, a blank Word document will do just fine.

3. Locate the Insert tab. This tab is right next to the Home tab, which is the default tab whenever you open a Word document. Once you locate the Insert tab, proceed to click on it.

4. Find the Table section. This section is approximately four from the left side of the document window. Click on this section once you find it and examine its contents.

5. Click on Excel Spreadsheet. A new window within the Word document will expand and a small Excel Spreadsheet will be placed within your document.

6. Select the data from the MS Excel document. Once it is highlighted in a bluish color, either right click and select Copy or press CTRL+C on your keyword (for Mac users, it is Command-C).

7. Transfer the data over to the Word document. Be sure that your Excel spreadsheet is also selected in the Word document. Either right click inside the spreadsheet and select paste or press CTRL+V (for Mac users, it is Command-V). Look at the spreadsheet to see if everything looks okay and if needed, make the spreadsheet bigger by dragging on its handles located on each corner of the box.

8. Click outside of the Excel Spreadsheet to place it. Once you click on another part of the Word document, your Excel spreadsheet will set and be placed wherever you positioned it. If you need to edit it for any reason, you can do so by double clicking on the inside of the Excel spreadsheet.

***Important to note – If you have the most updated version of MS Word, then all you must do is copy the selection from the MS Excel document and before pasting it into the Word document, be sure to select Keep Source Formatting, which is the first paste option when you right click. Sometimes, this option is automatically selected, so all it takes is simply pasting it and it will keep all formatting.

Takeaway

By pulling in data from MS Excel and entering it into a Word document this way, you are able to keep the gridlines so that everything is neat and organized. This can be done to several Word documents and instead of repeating the above steps, just copy and paste the Excel spreadsheet within the Word document and paste it into other documents. Having several personalized copies of the same data has never been easier to do and you may find yourself with extra time to spend on other marketing methods!

When a business starts investing in online media for the first time, the first step for its digital media specialist is to educate company management in cost per click (CPC, also known as pay per click or PPC) as a benchmark to establish the effectiveness of purchased media channels. A common [...]]]>

When a business starts investing in online media for the first time, the first step for its digital media specialist is to educate company management in cost per click (CPC, also known as pay per click or PPC) as a benchmark to establish the effectiveness of purchased media channels. A common challenge for first-time-online-media buyers is to evaluate media with CPC rather than a conversion metric.

The Usual Scenario

I have seen this happen over and over: a first-time media buyer at the management level is very skeptic about investing, say for example, $1.40 per click on an ad that may or may not lead to a sale. After the buyer finally commits to an initial purchase and receives the first report after the first trial period, he or she gets really excited that some conversions happen. Then, the manager is open to a higher budget. the cycle goes on and on, until the buyer starts forgetting about conversions and is willing to try just about any media channel because the CPC is just “too low that it is so worth it”.

CPA: A Viable Alternative to CPC

The initial gut reaction of the manager to evaluate any media channel in terms of whether it leads to a sale or not, is a correct one. While it is important to minimize costs in order to keep a sustainable operation, it is far more important to invest in advertising channels that actually lead to sales. A cost per acquisition networks, also known as a CPA network, is a publisher that only charges the advertiser when the publisher delivers an acqusition (or a conversion as mutually agreed between the publisher and advertiser.). CPA networks offer similar assets to CPC networks such as display banners, contextual advertising, mobile banners, leaderboards and social media.

Takeaway

CPA is an effective way of cost advertising because the publisher only gets paid when a channel delivers on conversion. An example of a CPA publisher is Statusmediaplc.com.

The new launch of Google’s “Search Plus Your World” is the latest evolution in the Internet giant’s ever-expanding wave of algorithm restructuring in an effort to refine users’ search results, and unlike other frequent tweaks this change will be hard to miss.

This most recent [...]]]>

Get ready, because Google is getting personal.

The new launch of Google’s “Search Plus Your World” is the latest evolution in the Internet giant’s ever-expanding wave of algorithm restructuring in an effort to refine users’ search results, and unlike other frequent tweaks this change will be hard to miss.

This most recent revision essentially combines search results that contain personal information stored by users that they share with other members in the Google+ network (e.g., photos and posts) with Internet results on the same search engine results page (SERP). It is important to note, however, that although the private information appears in the results it is not publicly displayed.

The new changes help shed some light on Google’s ongoing business and algorithmic engineering decisions, particularly the launch of the Google+ social network and the secure search capabilities within it. The integrated nature of search when signed in to Google will allow users to streamline their personal and Internet searches, and make new connections between friends, trending topics, product searches and shared information.

Some experts wonder whether the broadened search capability will raise privacy concerns among users. Google+ users will notice it is the new default system, and results may feel a little too personal even though on-screen indicators are available to help sift through the different results and otherwise control the level of exposure.

Google’s motivations for this integration are clear in that they want to capture more of the search market share by increasing relevance of searches, but it will also obviously make the Google+ social network more relevant – and attractive to users. Twitter reps spoke out about the change, arguing that the new SERPs will be heavy on Google content that will eclipse other results, like tweets.

The Twitter statement is an indirect note that Search Plus Your World will not contain data users have shared through Facebook and Twitter, because there is no agreement between the companies to share information. Many will likely feel this is a good thing, considering the very serious privacy implications it raises, although there are no guarantees these wards of personal information will remain unaffiliated.

Search engine optimization (SEO) specialists are also interested in how the new Google will change Internet marketing. A major driver for the creation of “social search” is that consumers are more influenced by their peers’ buying habits, which Search Plus Your World will bring to the forefront as SERPs display friends’ opinions about searches for products, restaurants, vacation spots, etc.

This may mean a need for SEO experts to consider new strategies that better address these changes as Google pushes “social search” into the mainstream, and users grow accustomed to a new era in Web search

James Madeiros is a staff writer at Sparkplug Digital, a Seattle SEO company providing online marketing strategy and execution for tech companies and non-profits.

If you’ve read any SEO resource out there, the same thing crops up again and again: if you want results in search then you need to be engaged in a link building campaign. However, this “advice” typically falls a bit short. It falls short because it neglects to mention [...]]]>

If you’ve read any SEO resource out there, the same thing crops up again and again: if you want results in search then you need to be engaged in a link building campaign. However, this “advice” typically falls a bit short. It falls short because it neglects to mention “how” to achieve this, at least in a practical way.

Let’s Start With Two Simple Points.

1. Link Building Isn’t About Numbers, It’s About Quality

This is the first thing you need to reconcile yourself to: link building isn’t about quantity, it’s about quality. That may be difficult to believe, but one solid, authoritative link from a website like BBC.co.uk (which you won’t achieve without a great deal of effort), is far more valuable than hundreds of low quality directory links.

2. Link Building isn’t About PageRank

PageRank is a marketing gimmick, that’s probably the best way to think about it – it’s a ranking factor, but it’s one of many ranking factors. The fact of the matter is that you can easily go out tomorrow and buy ten PageRank links for around $20 – does that spell “value” or “quality” to you?

It’s not just about the PageRank value of the page you are acquiring the link from, it’s also about the overall authority of the website (the total quality of all links pointing in), relevance, trustworthiness and so on.

So, What is Successful Link Building?

This is the million dollar question. There are hundreds of potential link building strategies out there but before we review a couple, remember this: there is no such thing as a “magic bullet” (well, unless you have an astoundingly original business concept which will naturally generate links). Link Building is about tenacity, creativity and perseverance – apply these in equal measure, with a little bit of knowledge, and you will succeed.

Blog Networks: Securing Links From Authoritative Websites

What’s better, an in-content link or a comment link? The in-content link of course, but that’s not really that important – above all else you need to focus on acquiring links from a diverse range of quality websites; blog networks can help you achieve this objective.

Three of the best websites to utilise are LinkVana.com ($147 per month), BuildMyRank.com ($57 per month) and MyBlogGuest.com ($29 per month) – what makes them the best? They can help you submit your content to authoritative blogs which get indexed regularly and contribute value to your web presence.

The great thing about blog networks – or general blogs owned by webmasters – is that they help you build out a diverse link profile; you can essentially acquire links from a range of different sources. Compliment this with social bookmarking submissions (again, available through LinkVana) and press release distribution via various press release hubs, and you have a link building strategy.

This Isn’t Rocket Science, But It Is Hard Work

Link Building, and SEO for that matter, isn’t rocket science – but it does take practical application and consistency; rankings will be built up incrementally, however create a plan and stick to it.

For example, you may decide to build 15 blog submissions, 5 guest blog submissions, 25 social bookmarking submissions and 1 press release distribution per month – providing you are targeting the right terms i.e. terms you can realistically rank for, you should have absolutely no problem creating a business model out of Search Engine Optimization.

Gareth Mailer is an SEO professional at Clickwork Media who spends far too much time thinking about links – visit ClickworkMedia.co.uk for more SEO and link building tips.

Google HQ is constantly looking for ways to improve the quality of searches. While arriving late to the social media party, the search giant is finally showing signs of introducing user-generated into the search algorithms. There are several issues with ranking user-generated content through social media because it depends who is [...]]]>

Google HQ is constantly looking for ways to improve the quality of searches. While arriving late to the social media party, the search giant is finally showing signs of introducing user-generated into the search algorithms. There are several issues with ranking user-generated content through social media because it depends who is the original author, to what communities the author belongs to, and whether the author is an authority on the subject of the content.

The introduction of Google+ is an interesting attempt in bringing user-generated content through social media closer to the Google search engine.

Here is a discussion of how Google+ could affect SEO.

Circles

Through circles, Google+ could measure the reputation of users. For example, you could determine the influence of a user in technology consulting by the number of circles related to the topic of technology consulting. One curious aspect of this ranking methodology would be whether you consider an expert in one field but most users include you in circles related to a completely different topic.  This could happen as people in Twitter often have bios along the lines of “foodie, fashion lover, humanitarian, social ninja”.

At the same time, some circles could have a higher ranking if they include users with high ranking themselves.

By measuring the reputation or ranking of Google+ users, user-generated content could be evaluated more properly by the Google search engine.

Quality of Posts

Another way to pick top quality user-generated content would be through the +1 button.

Google could not only count the amount of +1′s that a post receives but also consider how many of those +1′s come from influential users. So following the technology consultant example from above, a post generated by an user that receives a lot of +1′s from people  that are involved with an IT outsourcing company, website or organization, could be ranked as more relevant than others.

Comments within Google+

In the past one would think that a post with 2,000 comments would be better than one with just 200, however social media has proven that it is important to consider who is making the comment and how close the comment was created in relation to the time of the original post. A thank you comment is not as relevant as a insightful review, unless it comes from an expert in the subject matter being discussed. The +1′s counts on the comment should help to shed some light for search engines.

Integration with Other Social Networks

Facebook is with Bing. Google+ will certainly be with Google.

Wouldn’t it be helpful to connect all this data? While the Klout and Peer Index approach may not be the favorite one, it is the only one trying to combine all social data into one measure. Through a similar approach, Google could introduce factors into the search algorithm.

Conclusion

Organizations ranging from Dallas SEO organizations to major tech blogs such as Mashable are watching as Google implements Google+. Through the use of circles, the measurement of the quality of posts and comments, and the potential integration of other social networks, Google+ aims to introduce user-generated content into its search engine algorithm in a smoother fashion.

One of the main reasons for this is that Google does make up a vast amount of the total search traffic in the [...]]]>

When the topic of SEO (search engine optimization) is discussed many people automatically think about optimizing for Google and do not really think about Yahoo or Bing.

One of the main reasons for this is that Google does make up a vast amount of the total search traffic in the world while Yahoo and Bing’s percentages are much smaller, however there might be missed opportunities for many small and medium sized businesses by not devoting any time to the other search engines.

Closer Analysis

Yahoo and Bing combined do still command a decent amount of search market (between 10% and 24% depending on which figures you choose to go off). Of course Google commands the largest percentage and for this reason they do get the main focus of many seo companies.

With this fact alone we can come to the conclusion that putting some effort into optimising for Yahoo and Bing could prove far easier because many seo companies are solely focused on Google. So for example if a website selling football shirts was ranking well on Google then if they put 10% of their budget into their SEO for Yahoo and Bing, they might be able to get a 10% bump in traffic far quicker than they would see on Google due to the competitiveness.

How To Target Specific Search Engines

The first fundamental step to take for both the Yahoo and Bing search engines will be to sign up to the webmasters tools services they offer and then using this data you will be able to see more detail on how they are seeing your website. Furthermore they will outline any issues they have with crawling your website and then you can address these which will improve your on page seo for both Yahoo and Bing.

Link building for all search engines is definitely a good practice to implement as all search engines including Google, Yahoo and Bing will look at the number of inbound links your site has. Also Yahoo and Bing do look more at on page content of your site, so it is definitely worth looking into making sure all your meta descriptions, meta tags, original content and a regularly updated blog are up to scratch on your site.

Finally have a good look on the seo forums and specific Yahoo and Bing forums to find out what the latest optimising techniques are because like Google they will be changing constantly.

Final Word

It is worth noting that optimizing your website specifically for Google will help you rank on Yahoo and Bing unintentionally, however if you apply some specific SEO techniques that Yahoo and Bing pay more attention to than Google, then you will find your site will rank far more effectively on both Yahoo and Bing and generate you additional traffic.

Jonathan is working with Soccerbox who specialize in retailing quality football shirts such as the Manchester United shirt, Chelsea shirt, Arsenal shirt and many more quality football shirts.