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Pay-Per-Click is Customer Analytics

July 19, 2007 By Leave a Comment

I was recently asked to contribute to The DM News Essential Guide to Search Engine Marketing. Below are some highlights from the article …

Pay-per-click advertising is, at its basic level, paying for ad placement in search engines.

That is pay-per-click for the basic user. Unfortunately, most PPC advertisers are basic users. Pay-per-click is much more then paid advertising. Not only is PPC the best return on investment available, but it is, or should be, at the heart of all marketing campaigns. Pay-per-click can provide customer analytics through ad testing, geo-targeting, match types and discovering SEO targets. PPC advertising provides an instant view into the mind of the customer at an extremely low-price.

Ad Testing
Ad rotation gives the advertiser great insight into the mind of the customer. For instance, do customers click more on ads that offer “Free Shipping” or “Free Item with Purchase?” Another example, do discount mentions convert better than guarantees?


Geo-targeting
Geo-targeting resolves any geographic uncertainty about customers. For example, more customers from Region A may click on ads. However, more customers from Region B may actually convert and purchase.

Learn the customer’s language with exact keyword matching
Exact Match is the most targeted option available. It only shows ads when the exact phrase is used. Exact Match will provide instant feedback into the language of the customer. It is not to say there is not a place for other match types. Ideally, all variations should be tested. In fact, Exact Matching will inevitably bring in fewer visitors than other forms of matching. However, Exact Matching is a great way to gather instant customer analytics.

Discover highly targeted keywords for organic search rankings
Instead of creating search engine optimization initiatives to tackle hundreds of keywords, the top converted pay-per-click keywords are targets. Site content, link building, and various other search engine optimization techniques can push these elite keywords. Advertisers do not have to waste time trying to get rankings on keywords that do not convert. The numbers are provided; it does not matter where the competition is ranked. By following the pay-per- click keyword statistics advertisers are able to get instant customer analytics to use for search engine optimization efforts.

With PPC, there is very little guesswork in marketing. By analyzing pay-per-click reports advertisers can pull dramatic customer analytics. With that knowledge all marketing campaigns can benefit, thus eliminating traditional guesswork from traditional advertising.

** Find more articles from John W Ellis at http://www.johnwellis.com

Filed Under: john ellis, pay-per-click, ppc, Web Analytics

Back to Basics: 5 Easy tips for higher Search Engine Rankings

July 12, 2007 By Leave a Comment

With all the talk over the latest search engine optimization buzz words, we often forget about the basic necessities for search rankings. Yes, all of those advance techniques work, but only if every effort has been exhausted through the basic fundamental steps for obtaining higher search engine rankings.

I often get questions about all of the advance search techniques and how to implement them. Then I look at the site in question and realize we have a long way to go before we attempt those.


It’s good to step back every now and then to get back to the basics.

Five Basic (and Easy) Search Engine Optimization Tips:

  1. Title Tag – This is still the most important thing that can make a difference in rankings. Others may not agree, but I hold strong on this. To get decent ranking, the title tag must include highly targeted keywords. If necessary to include the company name, put that at the end. Don’t waste that valuable real estate with vanity.

  2. Search Friendly URL’s – The URL’s of the site needs to be short and concise. Ideally, they should also include a keyword that is relevant to the content of the page.

  3. Quality Content – It is said over and over again, but yet most still do not do it. It’s important for a site to contain quality information. Web editors do not need to focus on writing to please the search engines. If the content is well written and user friendly, then it probably is search-friendly. If not, sprinkle in a few keywords afterwards, do not adjust the content to please search engines. That only makes for an awkward user experience.

  4. Link Building – The important word to remember about getting other sites linking to your site is “quality”. Focusing on a handful of popular and related sites help popularity a lot quicker than mass link building efforts. It is also not enough to have just a link. The text of the link needs to include highly targeted keywords. A link needs to tell the search engines the keywords that are associated with that link.

  5. Site Maps – This is probably one of the easiest things to do, even for a novice. Having one central page that tells the search engines the layout and link structure of a website make a big difference. Using this opportunity to connect highly targeted keywords with specific pages is a great way to give each page it’s own boost in rankings.

Keeping these basic fundamentals in mind search rankings will move up.

** Find more articles from John W. Ellis at http://www.johnwellis.com/

Filed Under: john ellis, rankings, SEO