Google AdwordsAdWords and Google Maps Advertising
You may have considered, or even used, Google’s “AdWords” or Google Map’s “Promoted Pins” in trying to direct traffic to your website. Many amateurs have given this a try (or a half-try) and concluded that it is just too complicated or confusing. The fact is that these are very powerful tools, but they are not easy to master.
Put simply, AdWords is a Google service in which advertisers pay to display a small piece of advertising text (a “snippet”) along with a web address at or near the top of the results page that is generated by a specific search term. The advertisers pay only when users divert their browsing to click on the advertising copy. AdWords can enable a small business to set an advertising budget which cannot be exceeded, to reach an audience that is interested in their product or service and even to determine the time of day this happens. The AdWords customer pays only when their site is clicked and can set a limit to the amount of money they will spend.
To say the least, AdWords has been a success for Google, generating a huge part of its multi-billion-dollar revenue. This continued success tells us that many people and companies are using AdWords successfully.
To illustrate, let’s use a real-life example. You have a friend or relative, and a special occasion is coming up for that person. You need the services of a florist in Daytona Beach, Florida. This need sends you to the first place most people go today, the Google search engine. Entering the search term, “florists in Daytona Beach” immediately returns a list of results called a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). If you look at the top four to five results, you can see that each of them has a web address preceded by this small icon that says “Ad.”
The whole thing might look something like this-
Ad www.yourflowerbiz.com
We deliver 24/7 in Daytona, Port Orange, and Ormond
Same Day Delivery, Satisfaction Guarantee, $12.99 Bouquet.
These results are the paid ads (Search Ads) featured by Google. The business owners whose information is in this list have paid Google to place their web addresses at the top of the SERP, where the most people are going to see and ‘click’ on them. Typically, they consist of the web address followed by a few lines of text called a “snippet.” For a florist, the snippet might contain terms like, “Same Day Delivery, Satisfaction Guarantee, $12.99 Bouquet.”
Below this list of AdWords is the Google Map showing the map locations of several florists (and perhaps some unrelated businesses). On the map there will be icons called “promoted pins.”
The promoted pins give searchers a graphic idea of the physical locations of businesses that might be able to meet their requirements. Clicking on one of the promoted pins will cause a pop out window to appear with essential information about the business (hours, website, phone, etc.). The Google Maps and their promoted pins are meant to take advantage of several known facts-
- Most consumers do at least some local searches.
- 75% of people who search for nearby merchants use smartphone queries and visit the store within a day.
- Between one third and one half of all mobile device searches relate to location; location-related searches have been growing much faster than mobile searches overall.
- 1 billion+ people have downloaded the Google Maps application to their mobile devices.
Every year, searches on Google.com and Google Maps steer consumers to 1.5 billion destinations. Being on Google Maps is like having your own billboard in consumers’ smart phones.
Perhaps the most common question asked about AdWords and Google Maps is about how much it costs. The answer is, “It depends.” It depends on the geographical area, the keywords in the search term and market forces (the price is responsive to demand). Retailers like Walmart or Amazon can spend up to $50 million per year on paid searches in AdWords. The most expensive keywords in AdWords can cost as much as $50 per click, but these are high-end businesses or services whose customers have very high lifetime value (for example, some law firms or insurance underwriters). The average cost per click (CPC) in Google AdWords is about one to two dollars.
So, how do you go about taking advantage of these tools? It is possible to educate yourself and to devote enough time to branding strategies, to SEO techniques and to finding your own digital marketing solutions. However, most small business owners or service providers do not want to do this. The best choice for most web users is to turn to a professional internet marketing agency, a local SEO services provider who can coordinate direct mail advertising and local SEO services to produce an overall branding strategy that works.
If you are struggling to find those digital marketing solutions that work and branding strategies that make your business stand out, turn to Axiom. Your business deserves more than a cheap web design, and Axiom is more than an internet marketing agency. Axiom Administrative Services has the professional skill and small business SEO skills needed to get your web presence the ranking it deserves.
Our business marketing team can combine traditional marketing tools like direct mail advertising with local SEO services to build your branding strategy. Please visit Axiom’s small business services page or call Axiom at 800-888-6348.
SEO Link Building
The algorithms used by Google, Bing and other search engine operators are complex, dynamic (always changing), and they are well-guarded secrets. Any internet marketing agency or search engine optimization company that claims to have “cracked” the Google, Bing or other search engine algorithm is foolish. Those complex processes are among the best-kept secrets in the world, and they are always changing, sometimes daily.
That said, there are some key aspects of SEO techniques that are involved in any variation of SEO strategy. One of those standard SEO techniques is SEO link building. Put simply, SEO link building is the process of getting other internet pages to link back to your website. SEO link building is important because it is such a big factor in how search engines rank web pages.
Internet marketing agencies and search engine optimization companies should be interested in building links to other sites to direct referral traffic and to increase their site’s gravity. There are a number of SEO link building strategies that can get external websites to link to yours. Unfortunately, none of them are easy and none can be accomplished by cheap web design. They all require time, skill, involvement and knowledge of SEO techniques, especially SEO link building.
Here are some building blocks to help your SEO link building –
- Links from Business Partners, Networking Organizations or Professional Groups. Many businesses and professional people belong to civic groups, professional organizations, networking clusters or just plain social clutches. Ask associates you refer customers to, buy materials from, or know in any business or personal way to link to your website.
- Reviews, Mentions and ‘Likes.’ Get your service or product in front of opinion shapers and influencers. This might be a review site like Angie’s List, TripAdvisor, Yelp or YP. Ask customers or clients who have experience to review and link to your site. There is a caution here: search engines are becoming better and better at detecting material left by “bots,” automated programs that crawl the internet leaving ‘Likes,’ links or reviews. If you are linked on another site, make sure it is accompanied by original, readable text.
- Content Creation. This might be the most important point. High-quality, compelling and unique content will make your website an attractive link target. This means material that viewers will find useful in solving problems or filling needs. If you do not have the time or inclination to do this yourself, pay someone to do it. This must be an integral part of your branding strategy.
- Remember that it will take time to form a lot of SEO link building connections, so be patient and keep at it. Shortcuts like buying links from ‘bots’ violate many search engine guidelines and will actually hurt your page ranking.
The bottom line is this: SEO link building is an important part of your overall branding strategy and your SEO strategy. If you do not think you have the time or expertise to do this, get professional help. Axiom’s business marketing team can combine traditional marketing tools like direct mail advertising with local SEO services and SEO link building to build your branding strategy.
If you are struggling to find digital marketing solutions that work and branding strategies that make your business stand out, turn to Axiom. Your business deserves more than a cheap web design, and Axiom is more than an internet marketing agency. Axiom Administrative Services has the professional skill and small business SEO skills needed to get your web presence the ranking it deserves.
Please visit Axiom’s small business services page or call Axiom at 800-888-6348.
What is Organic SEO?
Most internet users have heard the term, “SEO” and possibly “organic SEO.” Are you sure that you understand these terms? Knowing the ins and outs of SEO strategy and how to execute good SEO techniques is an essential part of digital marketing. Let’s make sure that we understand exactly what we are trying to accomplish.
SEO, Search Engine Optimization, is a very basic concept. It is the process of managing a website’s code in a way that makes it most visible to search engines. Although the process seems clear and simple in the abstract, executing actual SEO techniques and the development of a good SEO strategy can become quite complicated. In truth, this task is best left to full-time professional SEO services. Still , it helps the small business person, service provider or professional to know the vocabulary and some of the basic concepts of SEO techniques and SEO strategy, and how this fits into your overall branding strategy.
Let’s start with the difference between organic SEO and paid SEO. SEO techniques that lead to your webpage ranking highly in Google, Bing or other search engine results without purchasing AdWords (from Google) or Bing Ads (from Microsoft) constitute organic SEO.
Let’s take an example, say the search term, “plumbers in Daytona.” Entering that exact search term in Google and Bing will yield two different pages of search term results. At the top of both pages, you will see results that are labeled as ads. Here is an actual example –Ad · www.mrrooter.com/DaytonaBeach . Directly below, is the Google or Bing map with a graphic representation of locations. You need to toggle down a bit to see the organic SEO or the unpaid results. This is where good SEO techniques can place your web ranking without any ad expense at all.
This pattern is repeated for almost any search term related to a business, product or service. Try it with the term, “medical clinics in Daytona.” You can see that this applies even to professional practices like medicine. The advantage of using professional SEO services from an internet marketing agency like Axiom is that your page is more likely to be found on that first results page.
If you struggle to find digital marketing solutions that work and branding strategies that make your business stand out, turn to Axiom. Your business deserves more than a cheap web design, and Axiom is more than an internet marketing agency. Axiom Administrative Services has the professional skill and small business SEO skills needed to get your web presence the ranking it deserves.
Our business marketing team can combine traditional marketing tools like direct mail advertising with local SEO services to build your branding strategy. Please visit Axiom’s small business services page or call Axiom at 800-888-6348.
Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines
Did you know that you can get a copy of the “secret” Quality Evaluator Guidelines used by Google? This information manual was kept from the public for years until Google decided that it was in its own best interest to release it. Presumably, this will help web designers conform better to Google guidelines and give an open source of information about what Google considers to be the best practices of webpage design and content creation.
All you need do is to use your browser and enter the query, “Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines – Google.” This will direct you to a 160-page PDF document that Google’s human evaluators study. Of course, much of Google’s ranking system is based on non-human, automated algorithms that check things like sitemaps, page titles or meta tags. Still, reading the document (if you have time for 160 pages) will give some insight into Google’s page ranking system, especially some “Don’t Do This” warnings.
One of the important factors considered is the page’s uniqueness and originality. Copying or “scraping” content from another website will lower the ranking of a webpage. Here is a quote lifted from Google’s July 27, 2017 General Guidelines –
“7.4.5 Copied Main Content – Every page needs MC (Main Content). One way to create MC with no time, effort, or expertise is to copy it from another source. Why does the page exist? What value does the page have for users? Why should users look at the page with copied content instead of the original source?”
Obviously original, useful content helps your page ranking. All of this is fine to know, but if you are a busy professional, service provider or business owner, you probably do not have time to read a 160-page quality assessment manual or to create quality material for your website. Axiom can give you professional help on both counts.
Your professional practice or small business deserves more than cheap web design, and the low search engine rankings that come with it. Axiom is more than an internet marketing agency. Axiom Administrative Services has the professional skill and small business SEO skills needed to get your web presence the ranking it deserves.
Turn to Axiom Administrative Services if you are struggling to find branding strategies or digital marketing solutions that work, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques that get results, or a logo design service that makes your business stand out. Our business marketing team can combine traditional marketing tools like direct mail advertising with local SEO services to build your branding strategy. Please visit Axiom’s small business services page by clicking this LINK or call Axiom at 800-888-6348.
Common Mistakes in SEO Techniques
Professional SEO techniques are essential to internet branding strategies and to perfecting digital marketing solutions. Without the correct SEO techniques, the best of web designs, the finest of branding strategies or the most professional of logo design services will all be for naught. Few people will see it.
For those who have the time to pay close attention, Google is now pretty transparent about the “Do’s and Do Not’s” involved in good website design and SEO techniques. It is hard to say which issue is at the top of the list for a given set of webpages, but today one SEO technique is an absolute “Must Do.” Your website must be mobile friendly! If it is not, it will suffer in webpage rankings. There is a simple reason for this- most web surfing is now done on mobile devices, mostly on smart phones.
Also near the top of “Must Do” SEO techniques is the uniqueness and originality of page content. Here is a quote from the 2017 Google Quality Evaluator Guidelines-
“Important: The Lowest rating is appropriate if all or almost all of the MC (main content) on the page is copied with little or no time, effort, expertise, manual curation, or added value for users. Such pages should be rated Lowest, even if the page assigns credit for the content to another source.“
– Google Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines March 2017
Your website should contain original, unique content that is useful or entertaining to the viewer. There is no way to get around this; a website that consists of “scraped” or plagiarized material will not rank high.
If your website is for a local business, a clear statement of location is critical. A search query like, “Dentists in Daytona” will not rank dental offices in Port Orange as highly as those with a physical address in Daytona Beach. This is true even though residents of the two communities travel back and forth routinely without thinking much of it. Many times, professional SEO services can remedy this using technical devices like meta descriptions, page titles, alt attributes for images, etc.
You should take care to avoid broken or outdated links, to balance the distribution of H1, H2, etc. tags and to include a sitemap. Much of this will sound very obscure to a small business person, a non-profit operator or service provider. They do not have time to worry about page titles, sitemaps, image attributes, meta data or even to create original content.
If you or your organization is searching to find digital marketing solutions that work or internet branding strategies that make your business stand out, turn to Axiom Administrative Services. You need and deserve more than a cheap web design, and Axiom is more than an internet marketing agency. Axiom Administrative Services has the small business SEO skills needed to get your web presence the ranking it deserves. Axiom can combine traditional marketing tools like direct mail advertising with local SEO services to build your branding strategy. Please visit Axiom Administrative Services or call Axiom at 800-888-6348.
Digital Marketing Solutions and Branding Strategies for Medical and Dental Professionals
Axiom has designed websites, branding strategies, and digital marketing solutions for all types of businesses, service providers, non-profits and professional practices. Medical and Dental practice are something of a specialty at Axiom. In fact, Axiom’s founder had decades of experience in the medical profession.
If you are engaged in a professional practice of any type, you owe it to yourself to go beyond a cheap web design and to find the best possible digital marketing solutions for your office. Websites and digital marketing solutions for medical and dental practices are special, because they can promote your practice at the same time as providing an important educational function. Take a look at this webpage: Atrial Fibrillation.
It is part of a medical practice website that provides knowledgeable, professional information about a common medical condition. At the same time, it builds trust in the professional ability, qualifications and credentials of the physicians in this practice. Importantly, this page incorporates video content explaining a complicated subject, atrial fibrillation. The future of internet branding strategies and digital marketing solutions will be heavily dependent on video content.
If you are struggling with your internet branding strategy and trying to find digital marketing solutions that work, it would pay you to turn to a professional SEO services organization. Axiom Administrative Services has the professional digital marketing skills needed to guide your web presence to the rankings it should have. Axiom is more than an internet marketing agency. Our digital marketing solution and marketing teams are able to combine traditional marketing techniques like direct mail marketing with creative web services. Please visit our home page to find out how Axiom Administrative Services can fill your digital marketing needs. You can contact Axiom Administrative Services by clicking the link or call Axiom at 800-888-6348.
Keywords and Writing Quality
Web content writers struggle to balance SEO strategy and SEO techniques with the demands of good writing. Good digital marketing solutions and branding strategies can sometimes conflict with good grammar or even with understandable text. This conflict began the day that professional SEO services discovered that proper use of keywords could help their page rank higher with Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engine operators.
Nationally known search engine optimization services, as well as local SEO services did the logical thing. They began to “stuff” their websites and the written content on those sites with the keywords thought to be involved in webpage ranking. Sometimes this would go to ridiculous extremes. Repetitive keyword text was sometimes written on a background that exactly matched the text color, so a casual observer could not detect keyword stuffing. Keywords were inserted into inappropriate places in the HTML code and amateur search engine optimization services tried numerous other schemes to get the attention of search engines.
Keep two things in mind:
- Google, Bing and other search engine operators guard their ranking algorithms closely and change them frequently.
- An SEO strategy that relies only on repetitive use of keywords will fail. There are simply too many other factors taken into account by search engines. Factors like backlinking, cross linking, link quality, SEO link building, titles of graphic elements and page titles all count. Keywords alone will not do it.
Many webpages consist almost entirely of graphic elements like pictures, banners or links to other sites. Writing quality for such webpages may not be that important. However, if you publish a blog or provide written information, the quality and originality of your web content are also important.
For years, Google was not open about how it told webpage evaluators to judge a page. Recently, the search engine giant has been very open about many aspects of webpage evaluation, even publishing its guidelines openly. Those guidelines say this-
High-quality pages and websites need enough expertise to be authoritative and trustworthy on their topic.…it should, likewise, be written in a professional style and will need to be reviewed, updated, and edited regularly in order to ensure that it remains current and authoritative.
Poorly produced, out-of-date or plagiarized written content can kill your ranking chances. This is especially true for business and professional sites. These webpages commonly ask the viewers to make some important choice or decision. They want you to spend money, frequent a professional practice, buy a product or service, shop at a given store, or make life changing decisions. In short, these are the type of webpages that should be produced and maintained by a professional SEO services company.
If your website is devoted to publishing pictures of kittens, you do not need quality content writing. However if you are looking for effective branding strategies, SEO techniques that work and written content that is effective, you need an internet marketing agency that can provide writing services which balance quality with SEO strategy.
AXIOM understands the need for high-quality web content. To discuss your website, its content or SEO strategy, please visit AXIOM Administrative Services, by clicking the link and then call AXIOM at 800-888-6348.
What Do Search Engines Know and How Can This Help Your Web Marketing?
Many people are concerned about the amounts of personal data that can be gathered by search engines. In many cases, search engines know your location, they have been given a lot of your personal data, they know what kind of device you are using and (very importantly) they remember your search history. Although it is sensible to be careful about what information you give out, the truth is that most of the data that a search engine retains has been voluntarily given to it by the user.
This is unavoidable because when you enter a search term in a search engine, you are automatically telling the search provider that you have an interest in a particular topic. In a previous article, we gave this example-
“….. choose a professional practice in your local area, an ophthalmologist for example. Then search for their office phone number. That’s all, do not actually call them. There is a good chance that you are going to start seeing pop-ups for laser eye surgery soon. You may get ‘buy-one-get-one-free’ offers for eyeglasses or ads for contact lenses.”
Most people will recognize the experience described above. Digital marketing, especially search marketing, has made it possible for businesses and service providers to target their advertising dollars directly at the people who need them. It is important to understand that the laser surgery and buy-one-get-one free eyeglass ads may appear when you are using the search engine for an entirely different and unrelated purpose, say browsing for movie times. It is as if the browser is tapping you on the shoulder and saying, “Have you forgotten about your eye exam or eyeglasses?”
It is likely that the default setting in your favorite browser allows the search engine to know your location. This has a very important effect; it allows the search engine to match your search query phrase with your location. If you are using a mobile device or a computer connected to an IP address in Daytona Beach, Florida, the search engine will combine its knowledge of your location with the search term in order to yield the most useful results.
For many search terms, this has no effect at all. Entering the query, “capital city of Vermont” will likely get the same results whether you are in that state or home in Florida. However, in many cases the location from which the query is entered will dramatically change the search engine results you see. If you search for “Chinese food,” the results will almost certainly direct you to a number of local restaurants, not famous places in San Francisco’s Chinatown or to restaurants in Beijing. You are going to see a list that includes local providers of Chinese food and also well-known websites like Yelp.com or Tripadvisor.com.
This utility of search engine results to users has made ‘search marketing’ the most profitable source of revenue for search engine companies. Google, the largest of browser and search engine providers, had revenue of over $89 billion in 2016, most coming from its proprietary advertising service, Google AdWords. AdWords is an online advertising service owned by Google that enables advertisers to display small bits of advertising copy to web users. The system is made possible in part by ‘cookies’ collected and stored by the search engine and partly by ‘keywords’ determined by advertisers. Using these characteristics, the search engine places targeted advertising on pages where it is most likely to be relevant. Advertisers pay when users divert their browsing to click on the advertising copy. Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, offers a similar service called “Bing ads.” The Microsoft service claims to offer a better return on investment, lower cost per click and a higher value audience than is found on Google AdWords.
So, what does this mean for your branding strategies, the SEO techniques and SEO strategy you develop? You can use AdWords or Bing Ads to enhance the effect of local SEO services aimed at the market you want to reach when you want to reach them. For decades, direct mail marketing was the only way to reach a target audience in a defined area. Now, with expert help, you can target your ads to a specific zip code or codes even to a certain time frame. You can even set an advertising budget and when that amount is reached, it will stop.
If you have been depending on a cheap web design, have no branding strategy or SEO strategy, the time has come to change. If you are serious about your website, about adopting good SEO techniques, you need the professional SEO services of an organization like AXIOM. AXIOM understands the needs of small businesses, professional practices and non-profits. Please visit AXIOM’s small business services page by clicking this LINK or call Axiom at 800-888-6348.
Well-written content is key for good SEO
A lot of factors must combine to make your website successful. Good web design, professional SEO, a comprehensive internet marketing strategy, device responsiveness, and good search marketing are all important. However, there is an even more basic element: solidly written content. Your webpage ranking and internet marketing efforts can be seriously damaged by poorly produced, out-of-date or plagiarized content.
Google has a term for websites that can affect a viewer’s happiness, health or wealth. This is the “YMYL” (Your Money or Your Life) category, Google’s term for sites that ask you to spend money, frequent a professional practice, buy a product or service, shop at a given store, or make life-changing decisions. In short, these are the types of webpages that are produced and maintained by a business marketing organization or an online marketing company like Axiom Administrative Services.
If you are keeping a website for purely personal purposes, for family communication or simply as a hobby, professional content writing will not help you. On the other hand, if your website is there to promote your service, professional practice, product or non-profit organization, professionally written content is indispensable. Content writing is just one part of a successful web marketing, digital marketing and internet advertising effort. The professionals at Axiom Administrative Services (AAS) can help you to master the digital marketing techniques needed to achieve an effective web presence. You can learn more about the critical importance of web content by reading “Should You Hire Someone to Write your Blog?” in the AXIOM ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES blog archives.
Keyword research is important for SEO
You may know that keywords and key phrases are an important part of search engine optimization, but how do you know which words and phrases are really important. Well, believe it or not, there is actually a field of study called “Keyword Research.” Read about it by clicking the link.
