Archives for August 2015

Top 5 Technical Issues That Impact Your Organic Search

August 26, 2015 by Dabrian Marketing Group 1 Comment

Optimizing your site to perform well in organic search is not a set it and forget it process. There are several factors that go into determining your site’s positioning in the search engines. In fact, backlinko.com reports (and lists them for you) that Google uses over 205 different factors! While many business owners tend to focus on the visible on-page components such as content and keywords (which are very important), there are several technical issues that often go unnoticed because they are not visible to the end users. These issues listed below greatly impact your business’s organic search results and should be a top priority when creating and maintaining your site.

1. Navigation

Before your website appears in a search engine, it must be crawled, and then indexed. During this process, search engines will collect information about your site’s content. Just as users prefer sites that are easy to navigate, so do search engines.

If you wish to perform better in search engines, it would greatly benefit your business to create and maintain a sitemap. A sitemap is a document or a webpage containing all the pages on your site. Search engines evaluate sitemaps to understand the structure of the site. This is regularly done so it is a best practice to make sure this sitemap is being updated when new pages are created.

Your navigation bar is not just for the user either, search engines consider them into their organic search rankings. While (quality) links are always good for your site, not all links are created equal in a search engine’s eyes. Links placed in your navigation bar are deemed more important. Therefore your navigation bar should only contain links that are most valuable to your business. These are the links that generate more traffic and lead to more sales and conversions. Many website owners make the mistake of placing too many links in their navigation. This not only worsens the user experience (which worsens your position in organic search), but it also dilutes the authority/value of your links.

Having descriptive anchor texts, the text that appears highlighted in a hypertext link, is another factor associated with navigation. Having descriptive anchor texts means linking to your pages using content related words and not something generic such as “click here” or “read more.” These generic links tell search engines that the page should be about clicking things, or reading. This appears spammy and can negatively impact your performance in organic search.

2. Site Speed

One of the 200+ factors that Google and other search engines take into account is site speed, or how fast your site finishes loading. Search engines have become focused on providing the best user experience for those searching, so a faster load time to them, means a better experience and will correlate to the improvement of your rankings. Common mistakes that many site owners make that cause slow site speed are things such as large pictures, flash animation, bulky code, and external media. While some of these things may look nice, it would be wise to reduce or remove them in order to increase site speed. To evaluate your site’s speed, use Google’s pagespeed insight tool.

3. Mobile Capability

On April 21st of this year, Google released an algorithm change requiring sites to be mobile friendly if they wished to perform well in organic search on mobile phones. Before the update, a study from Adobe reported that 45% of business did not have a mobile friendly site. To be mobile friendly, search engines such as Google recommend using a responsive design. This means that all your site’s content will remain the same for all users, it will just appear differently depending on the device the user is using. For more information about the update, please read my blog on Google’s Algorithm change posted near the time of the release.

4. Duplicate Content

Most business owners are aware that copying content from other sites is not only unethical, but will result in a ranking penalty from search engines. However, many are not aware of the internal duplicate content happening on their site right now. When a user visits a specific page, a URL is generated based upon the path they take. For example, a user may search Amazon looking for a cellphone, and once there, they decide they want a smartphone so they click on the smartphone section. After going to that section, they click on their desired phone (let’s say an Iphone 6). Their URL will look something like this: Amazon.com/cellphone/smartphones/Iphones/Iphone6. Now let’s say another user knows exactly what they want. They go to Amazon and enter in the search bar “Iphone 6.” Their URL will be shorter and look something like this: Amazon.com/iphone6. While this is the same page, they have two separate URLs. Search engines will recognize them as two separate separate pages with duplicate content. Google lists solutions and explanations on how to deal with duplicate content.

5. Include a Robot.txt file

A Robot.txt file is used to direct search engines when crawling. It’s usually used to prevent search engines from indexing specific pages and files. So why would you want to prevent search engines from crawling any part of your site? Let’s say for example you are in the process of updating your site. You’ve began adding pages but they aren’t complete yet. If a search engine were to crawl those pages, they would not perform well in organic search due to lack of content. That places you in a uphill battle from the start. A similar issue arises when you are performance testing different layouts for pages. The pages have identical content, but you wish to see which layout users prefer. A Robot.txt file will tell search engines not to crawl these pages yet until you are finished or have picked a layout. Another reason would be to prevent search engines from penalizing you for duplicate content. For example if you have a print version of a page, you can tell search engines not to crawl it.

Learn more about Robot.txt files.

Performing well in organic search is essential for a business that wishes to improve digitally. A study done by BrightEdge shows that the majority of web traffic (51%) comes from organic search. That is a huge opportunity to miss out on. While having great content may be the priority in some business owners mind, none of that means anything if your website has the technical issues listed above.

Contact Us today to make sure your site is technically sound to perform well in organic search!

By: David McDowell

4 Ways Pay per Click (PPC) can Help Your Business Grow

August 24, 2015 by Daniel Laws Leave a Comment

Macquarie Research estimates that Google has approximately 4 million advertisers. Google has more direct advertising relationships in the digital advertising space than Facebook or Twitter. Is your business being hunted by the competition using Pay per Click (PPC) advertising or is your business hunting for new business with Google AdWords (PPC) and Bing Ads?

You’ve probably heard these terms before: Online Marketing, Online Advertising, Google AdWords, Search Marketing, Bing Ads, Paid Search, Cost per Click (CPC), Pay per Click (PPC). To the general public, these terms are used interchangeably and generally refer to advertising with Google AdWords or Bing Ads. These words are often associated with cost, but they should also be associated with opportunities for your business! Pay Per Click advertising can help you to increase your brand or product awareness, expand into new markets, generate leads, grow online sales, or even increase traffic into your stores.

Flexible Solution for Brand Awareness across the Internet

The opportunities to increase brand awareness through Pay per Click advertising are countless. AdWords & Bing Ads offer local, national, and global targeting with language settings. They also provide additional targeting settings to only show your brand when, where, and to whom you want to be shown. Businesses can even advertise on non-search sites like Gmail, YouTube, Forbes, MSNBC, and lots of other partners sites within minutes.

Lead Generation Tool that Controls Cost

Business Owners can generate leads such as calls, online form completions, and e-commerce sales while setting a campaign daily or monthly budget. Regardless of how a customer is looking for products or services, businesses are able to stay connected with them across a variety of devices (desktop, mobile, and tablet). No matter the target audience (businesses or consumers), Pay per Click can get your business quality leads to grow sales, while sticking to the set budget.

Drive in-store traffic and E-commerce/Online Sales

According to Google’s March 2015 case study, Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores used Google’s Local Inventory Ads (LIAs), which allows online visitors to see what their local store currently has in stock to bring nearby customers on mobile devices into stores. The results yielded a 122% higher store visit rate compared to online Product Listing Ads (PLAs) for shopping campaigns. Product Listing Ads allow you to include an image, title, price, promotional message, and your store or business name inside your ads, without the need for you to create unique ads for each product you sell. The local inventory ads generated in-store sales at more than 5X the rate of TV advertising for each dollar spent.

Diversify Marketing Channels with Pay Per Click advertising:

Pay per Click offers a diverse platform to deliver the exact type of content, specific to their device for exactly what potential customers are looking for and exactly when they’re looking for it. Most Pay per Click platforms have the capability to use text, video, mobile, banner or display ads, so your business has the ability to connect with potential customers regardless of the device.

See Advertising Formats for examples

Interested in a free no obligation consultation for your business? Contact Us for more details on Pay per Click opportunities today!

5 Best Practices for Better B2B Website User Experience

August 19, 2015 by Mark Mapp 1 Comment

It’s generally a good idea to start your web design project using best practices, especially if you haven’t accumulated any data to support a specific design change, or direction. Remember that you shouldn’t end your design solely implementing best practice solutions; however, you should use the data feedback, by use of analytics, to optimize and improve user experience. Here are five effective best practices that can help you get started.

1. Make Your Navigation and Visitors Location on the Site Highly Visible

Users should know where they were, and where they are on your site. This can be accomplished using elements like breadcrumbs, page-headers, highlighted menu options, progress bars, thank you and confirmation pages. Not using these elements can cause an unhappy user experience when they try to navigate deeper into your website or try to navigate through a purchasing process. Always remember that creating a smooth and comfortable user experience is your ultimate goal when designing your B2B website.

2. Match Your Content to Real World Language by Eliminating Jargon

The language used on B2B websites should be familiar to the visitor rather than using industry specific terms or jargon. Using jargon, or language that is too technical to comprehend can create a disconnect with the visitor. To find out what words and phrases your website visitors are using it’s best to do a little keyword research. This will help you define how you go after potential customers or leads using language they are comfortable with.

3. Allow Total User Control and Freedom From Automated Processes

Simply put, eliminate anything that takes control out of the user’s hands. If not implemented correctly, elements such as popups, auto-play videos, and automatic carousels can cause lack of user control and freedom, hence creating a bad user experience. If the user doesn’t want to subscribe to a newsletter popup, or watch a demo video they should have a way of exiting or navigating away from that element without any complications.

4. Create Your B2B Website Using a Minimalistic Design Approach

For the past several years, taking a minimalist approach seems to be the most effective way to create a B2B website. In a study conducted by Google, it was scientifically proven that minimalist design are more appealing to buyers. In addition, an effective use of white space can clearly guide buyers to the important sections of information. Cluttered websites don’t effectively allow this to happen and that’s why it is best to focus on the important information visitors are looking for.

5. Offer Solutions and Help Documentation

If designed correctly, your website shouldn’t need much of this best practice solution. However, offering help solutions is a big plus. Help solutions such as live chat pop-ups, FAQ’s, pricing tables, and microcopy, which are little words or phrases that enhance the subscription or buying process that helps to reduce friction and get people taking action. Usually, if you submit a form without the required information being entered, you may receive a prompt in the form of microcopy letting you know that the information for that field is needed to submit the form request.

Conclusion

Whether you are creating a new website, redesigning, or just optimizing an existing one, utilizing best practices will offer a great peace of mind. Although the best practices mentioned aren’t actual principles or laws of web design, they provide a good starting point in most cases. Also, remember that these best practices are backed by data which support their effectiveness.

What other B2B website best practices do you recommend not mentioned in the blog? Please provide your comments below.

We Partner with Google to “Get Your Business Online”

August 17, 2015 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

DaBrian Marketing Group Partners with Google to “Get Your Business Online”

Reading, PA-based DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC will hold a Google-sponsored event for local businesses along with showcasing their new office additions to the public on September 14, 2015 at 500 Penn Street, Suite 201, Reading, PA 19602. Get Your Business On the Map event begins at 4 p.m. and the Grand Re-opening will follow at 5:30 p.m.

DaBrian Marketing Group started utilizing Google’s services eight years ago through Google AdWords, Google Analytics, and more. DaBrian Marketing is one of the few certified Google Partners in Reading, PA. As a Google Partner, we have the knowledge, resources, and credentials to help other businesses in the community connect with their customers online.

Google, the world’s leading search engine, has committed itself to helping local businesses around the globe optimize their presence online since 2011. Their “Get Your Business Online” (GYBO) program offers business owners the ability to to grow their reach and visibility by showing up for local search results.

According to Google “Businesses that are online grow 40% faster than those that aren’t,” and they have already helped 1,342 businesses get on the map in the Reading area. If your local listing is not up to par, make sure to attend this event and see how DaBrian Marketing Group can assist you and make sure any potential customer can locate your business.

In addition to the GYBO event, DaBrian Marketing will reveal the new additions to their office space and provide food and refreshments and offer giveaways to those who attend.

For more information, contact DaBrian Marketing Group to find how they can help your business. RSVP for each event today on Eventbrite.

Leveraging Attribution Modeling to Measure ROI & ROAS

August 11, 2015 by Daniel Laws Leave a Comment

According to 2015 CMO.com Stats about Marketing ROI, 93% of CMOs say that they are under more pressure to deliver measurable return-on-investment (ROI). Google Analytic defines “attribution modeling” as “the rule or set of rules that determines how credit for sales and conversions is assigned to touch-points or any point of contact between a buyer and a seller in conversion paths” (i.e. lead generation or sales process). Are you using attribution modeling to measure ROI or return on advertising spend (ROAS)?

Measure Marketing ROI and ROAS with Attribution Modeling

In general, most web analytics tools (Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, comScore, WebTrends, etc.) associate the last point of contact, whether it be search, email marketing, social media, or ad that referred the customer with all the credit for the lead or sale. If paid advertising was the initial marketing channel in the lead generation process, but the potential customer didn’t fill out the online form until later via non-paid search (SEO), shouldn’t this count for something?

Understand Metrics, Act on Insights and Make Recommendations with Attribution

Can marketing executives really make better decisions without understanding the metrics that are associated with reporting? Attribution modeling provides marketing executives with a tool to compare different attribution models, understand their impact on lead/sales and the cost per lead/sale, and identify marketing channels that lead to higher ROI/ROAS. For example, take a look at the ROAS for last interaction vs. position based attribution modeling with Google Analytics:

Why Should Marketing Executives care about Attribution Modeling?

As marketers, we know that a lead or sale is based upon multiple points of contact with a brand. So, why should we continue to only allocate credit to the last interaction? Let’s take the Google Analytics scenario above for example. Take a look at the image above, the ROAS for paid search was 232% for the last point of contact (last interaction). If you use the position based model, this would have been an ROAS of 314.77% which is 82.47% than the last point of contact. This could be the difference between continuously running paid search and reallocating your budget elsewhere. By doing this more than once, it can create the perception of paid search marketing as an expense versus revenue generator.

Take Action with Multi-channel Attribution Modeling

The pressure is on marketers to measure ROI and to tell the story through data so here are our recommendations to get you started. First, identify the value of a lead or a sale and get confirmation from the executive team. Without a value, it’s going to be impossible to calculate ROI or ROAS. Then, identify an attribution model that best fits your business, test it and compare the metrics to put it into context. Finally, align your chosen attribution modeling with your insights, recommendations, and actions. Remember, attribution model isn’t perfect and technology continues to evolve, so continuously evaluate your chosen attribution model with the actual leads and sales your business is getting.

Leave us a comment below to share your thoughts or your experience with attribution modeling.

Successful Tips for B2B White Papers

August 5, 2015 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

Pardot states that “86% of B2B marketers are producing content.” Your company may be part of this percentage, but are you creating the RIGHT content specifically for your customers? White papers at times get bypassed by blogs or other social platforms, but using them as a medium to inform clients about relevant information is a fantastic idea. One you will not regret. Forgetting about this form of communication and focusing more on the others can be a gigantic mistake for your company. When a white paper is executed correctly, it can be an incredible attribution to your company and impact it positively. Business can attract new customers and educate followers by writing white papers with these best practices. Before you begin, sit down with your team to create a strategy and set objectives of what your white papers will look like altogether.

Assure each white paper is written to capture attention

The most fascinating topic will be meaningless if the paper is poorly written. It will instantly lose your reader’s attention. Write in a tone that your audience will clearly understand and will want to continue reading. As Pardot says, these papers do not have to be “cut and dry.” Captivate their attention with humor, compelling stories, and quality content. Add personal character to your business’s white paper to allow a distinct uniqueness to set yourself apart from the rest. Other options include adding pictures, quotes, and sidebars. Being visually friendly is just as important as the content itself.

Gain quality content

After choosing a familiar topic that will be useful for your readers to gain additional knowledge, find ways to get reliable information to support what you already know. Content Marketing Institute suggests conducting interviews with other experts in the industry. Ask for the marketing material they are currently using and what their most popular or trusted resources are. Use dependable search engines, such as Google Scholar, and other well-researched white papers to complete your research. It does not matter whether your company writes a five or fifty-page paper as long as the content is entertaining and entirely relevant. Cushion your content with facts and quotes by respected professionals that pertain to the topic.

Educate, Do not sell

Customers, clients, and competitors read your white papers to become educated and to see what exactly does your company know. Your content is to educate and NOT directly sell your product or service. While reading it, they want to be intrigued. Displaying your company’s expertise without pushing a sale may bring in new clients you might not have originally thought of.

White papers can be an essential way to connect with your clients. It can be the first step in signing a new customer for your service. Entice them to contact your company personally. Spark their desire to work with you by writing a successful B2B white paper they will learn from and enjoy.