Call tracking is a tool used to track offline conversions from pay-per-click campaigns. Even if you’ve shied away from SEA because of a seemingly low ROI or you’re an advertiser looking for another way of tracking the success of your online campaign, call tracking may be the answer you need.
Imagine if half of your conversions created by search engine advertising (SEA) resulted in a purchase over the phone, instead of online. If your company wasn’t tracking these offline conversions, how could you be sure which keywords are best converting into offline sales?
Not only would you have a difficult time managing your search engine marketing campaigns, your return-on-investment (ROI) figures would look dramatically lower than they should. This misleading data could have a profound impact on how your company approaches its campaign strategy and may result in missteps that hurt your sales.
Is Call Tracking for You?
It’s a fact that, of all the purchasing research done online, less than half of all orders are placed over the Internet. According to a 2006 research study by comScore Networks, 25% of searchers purchased an item directly related to their query. Of those buyers, a whopping 63% made their purchase offline. This means in order to track the effectiveness of your SEA campaigns in turning searchers into buyers, you need another method for tracking the customers who place orders by phone.
How Call Tracking Works
Call tracking makes SEA more quantifiable. With call tracking, you not only get the conversion tracking results, but a transcript of what happened during the call, so you can see what worked, what didn’t, and where the marketing message needs to be honed to streamline the telesales.
To start measuring calls, a call tracking code must be pasted on the landing page of your website. When a visitor clicks on the “Call me” phone icon and enters the phone number, the service company directs the visitor’s call to your phone center. Within a few seconds, the phone rings and connects you with the visitor. Your sales representative can access a screen at any time, with all the information about your customer already collected. The call tracking service then captures the call details and reports it in the interface.
Some great features of call tracking include call routing, call disposition, and the ability to review fraud. Call routing allows different searches to lead to different groups of your sales team. Not only will the search query lead the person to the appropriate product page, he or she will be connected directly to the product’s sales rep via a toll-free number. Call disposition allows the sales rep to report the results of the call at the click of a button, and the fraud feature allows you to use the referring URL to determine if a conversion is real or not.
Call tracking places a high value to your inbound calls, helps you measure your ROI for SEA more effectively, and allows your company to record calls so you can better evaluate your sales team. If you’ve made the decision to invest money in SEA, adding call tracking as a simple, cost-effective performance monitoring effort is an important next step.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Monday, July 17, 2006
Sub-Domains, Smart Choice?
By using sub-domains as part of your search engine marketing strategy, you may be able to increase the relevancy, keyword richness, and human appeal of your site’s pages. When done well, sub-domains offer several potential advantages over sub-directories. What’s the big difference? Let me explain.
Many sites separate their individual pages using sub-directories. This is how they appear:
http://www.site.com/optimize/page.htm
Sub-domains are also known as vanity names, machine names, or domain aliases. They are more concise than sub-directories and, therefore, easier for users to remember. The “www.” is replaced with a keyword that describes the page content. This is how they appear:
http://optimize.site.com
Sub-domains gain additional privilege compared to sub-directories because of their “top level” status. Most search engines will treat sub-domain URLs as a primary domain. This allows you to submit both your site’s domain and sub-domains as part of your search engine marketing strategy without being penalized. However, the content of each page must be unique for the multiple listings to be successfully indexed.
This search engine marketing strategy is especially useful to companies offering multiple products or services. Sub-domains help to tie your different offerings together by pairing page-specific keywords to your main domain name (i.e. http://sneakers.shoesrus.com; http://sandals.shoesrus.com; http://boots.shoesrus.com). By using descriptive keywords that you’re optimizing for in the URL, you add relevancy to your page. That is, search engines will rank your site more highly for that particular keyword. Users will also come to identify your company with that keyword, which can bolster your overall marketing and branding strategy.
Though sub-domains are being treated as unique domains, there is still debate going on about spammers abusing this privilege. Search engines may soon come up with clustering algorithms to counter the tricks.
Sub-Domain Spamming Controversy
Recently an industrious spammer noticed that Google's recent Big Daddy update has been giving undo credit to sub-domains. The spammer registered a few nonsense domain names, created literally millions of sub-domains on them, filled those sub-domain pages with nonsense content (mostly content scraped directly off of Google's search pages, mixed with random phrases and paragraphs likely pulled from article directories), got a bunch of links mostly from link-spamming blogs, then sat back while Google ate it all up.
In less than three weeks, the spammer had upwards of 5 BILLION pages indexed and ranking in Google, many generating profits by running Google AdSense. The pages were gibberish, and they were hosted on mostly gibberish domains. That didn't stop them from ranking well for a huge number of search queries. Once this spam attack was exposed on tech sites like Digg.com, Google got wind of it and we could actually watch the number of indexed pages drop before our eyes, from 5 billion to 4 billion to 3 billion, and eventually down to almost nothing.
The interesting part about spam these days is that everyone uses it to make money from Adsense. So, this person probably made a lot of money very quickly with this strategy and Google may owe them a big chunk of money. In light of this incident, you can be certain that the search engines will be more careful from now on when it comes to sub-domains.
Sub-Domains and SEM Strategy
To get the most out of sub-domains without incurring any penalties, make sure you don't create a sub-domain when there isn't a good user focused reason to do so. Avoid having sub-domains with only one or two pages on them—a small number of pages on a sub-domain (other than www.) is a red flag to a search engine. You can expect that ranking penalties or outright bans could be levied on any site that combines the typical www.domain.com format with a bunch of low-populated keyword-laced sub-domains in an obvious effort to manipulate rankings.
At this time, sub-domains continue to provide increased visitor traffic and can improve your site’s relevancy with the search engines. Even if your site won’t be switching from sub-directories to sub-domains right away, it’s a smart move to register the keyword-rich URLs now so they’ll be available down the road. We will continue to monitor the search engines to see how the sub-domain controversy plays out, so keep your eyes on our blog for future updates.
Many sites separate their individual pages using sub-directories. This is how they appear:
http://www.site.com/optimize/page.htm
Sub-domains are also known as vanity names, machine names, or domain aliases. They are more concise than sub-directories and, therefore, easier for users to remember. The “www.” is replaced with a keyword that describes the page content. This is how they appear:
http://optimize.site.com
Sub-domains gain additional privilege compared to sub-directories because of their “top level” status. Most search engines will treat sub-domain URLs as a primary domain. This allows you to submit both your site’s domain and sub-domains as part of your search engine marketing strategy without being penalized. However, the content of each page must be unique for the multiple listings to be successfully indexed.
This search engine marketing strategy is especially useful to companies offering multiple products or services. Sub-domains help to tie your different offerings together by pairing page-specific keywords to your main domain name (i.e. http://sneakers.shoesrus.com; http://sandals.shoesrus.com; http://boots.shoesrus.com). By using descriptive keywords that you’re optimizing for in the URL, you add relevancy to your page. That is, search engines will rank your site more highly for that particular keyword. Users will also come to identify your company with that keyword, which can bolster your overall marketing and branding strategy.
Though sub-domains are being treated as unique domains, there is still debate going on about spammers abusing this privilege. Search engines may soon come up with clustering algorithms to counter the tricks.
Sub-Domain Spamming Controversy
Recently an industrious spammer noticed that Google's recent Big Daddy update has been giving undo credit to sub-domains. The spammer registered a few nonsense domain names, created literally millions of sub-domains on them, filled those sub-domain pages with nonsense content (mostly content scraped directly off of Google's search pages, mixed with random phrases and paragraphs likely pulled from article directories), got a bunch of links mostly from link-spamming blogs, then sat back while Google ate it all up.
In less than three weeks, the spammer had upwards of 5 BILLION pages indexed and ranking in Google, many generating profits by running Google AdSense. The pages were gibberish, and they were hosted on mostly gibberish domains. That didn't stop them from ranking well for a huge number of search queries. Once this spam attack was exposed on tech sites like Digg.com, Google got wind of it and we could actually watch the number of indexed pages drop before our eyes, from 5 billion to 4 billion to 3 billion, and eventually down to almost nothing.
The interesting part about spam these days is that everyone uses it to make money from Adsense. So, this person probably made a lot of money very quickly with this strategy and Google may owe them a big chunk of money. In light of this incident, you can be certain that the search engines will be more careful from now on when it comes to sub-domains.
Sub-Domains and SEM Strategy
To get the most out of sub-domains without incurring any penalties, make sure you don't create a sub-domain when there isn't a good user focused reason to do so. Avoid having sub-domains with only one or two pages on them—a small number of pages on a sub-domain (other than www.) is a red flag to a search engine. You can expect that ranking penalties or outright bans could be levied on any site that combines the typical www.domain.com format with a bunch of low-populated keyword-laced sub-domains in an obvious effort to manipulate rankings.
At this time, sub-domains continue to provide increased visitor traffic and can improve your site’s relevancy with the search engines. Even if your site won’t be switching from sub-directories to sub-domains right away, it’s a smart move to register the keyword-rich URLs now so they’ll be available down the road. We will continue to monitor the search engines to see how the sub-domain controversy plays out, so keep your eyes on our blog for future updates.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Linker Beware!
Diving head-first into a link-exchange or swapping relationship could land you in hot water. Be careful when linking to or requesting links from other sites. Partnerships with off-topic or non-trusted sites can hurt your search engine ranking.
As we noted in the post “Link Popularity vs. Page Reputation,” link popularity is important for increasing your page rank, but that’s only small part of the picture. It’s no longer enough to have links from any old place pointing to your site. You need a variety of links from high quality sites in order to improve your search rank.
The Dos and Don’ts of Linking
While it’s true that a collection of in-bound links of a high enough quantity can give your site ranking a slight boost, a more efficient strategy involves targeting the sites whose links can move you up the rankings in greater strides. In a sense, you want in-bound links to give you the most “mileage per gallon,” the greatest boost in rankings per link. To refine your strategy, consider the following Dos and Don’ts of linking:
Linking Dos
- DO seek in-bound links from authoritative pages that do well on the search engines due to reputation and popularity.
- DO stick to relevant sites. That is, don’t look for links from generic or off-topic sites when you can request links from industry- or topic-related sites.
- DO stay away from reciprocal linking. Reciprocal linking is when sites agree to exchange links in an “I’ll scratch your back, if you scratch mine” arrangement. These links look the most artificial to search engines. They won’t do you much good and might even hurt your ranking.
- DO work toward building a natural link structure that has gradual and diverse link growth.
Linking Don’ts
- DON’T swap or exchange reciprocal links for the sheer purpose of increasing links. Search engines consider this a big “no-no.” A good analogy is two basketball teams agree to let each other score points. You’ll both get a lot of baskets, but you’re also disqualified for being cheaters.
- DON’T request links from pages with long lists of links. It won’t necessarily hurt to be on these pages (if the pages are relevant), but probably won’t help if your link is buried among a pile of other links.
- DON’T submit your site to a bunch of sites all using the same description. If a large number of identical links to your site appear suddenly, the search engines are likely to get suspicious.
- DON’T link to pages that have been penalized or banned for activities such as search engine spamming. While links from these pages probably won’t affect you much, a return link from your site could get you labeled negatively as well.
If you engage in link swapping with non-relevant sites or sites that have been penalized for policy infractions, it can hinder your rankings and possibly even get your site banned from the search engines.
When it comes to link exchange partnerships, even if you don’t run into trouble, the benefits tend to be relatively minor. Even if your popularity improves, your page relevancy won’t gain much from the exchange. Remember, increasing both your popularity and your relevancy is what will help move your site toward the top of the search results. This can be quite an undertaking, but the hard work involved in quality link building will get you further in the long run than these questionable linking short-cuts can.
As we noted in the post “Link Popularity vs. Page Reputation,” link popularity is important for increasing your page rank, but that’s only small part of the picture. It’s no longer enough to have links from any old place pointing to your site. You need a variety of links from high quality sites in order to improve your search rank.
The Dos and Don’ts of Linking
While it’s true that a collection of in-bound links of a high enough quantity can give your site ranking a slight boost, a more efficient strategy involves targeting the sites whose links can move you up the rankings in greater strides. In a sense, you want in-bound links to give you the most “mileage per gallon,” the greatest boost in rankings per link. To refine your strategy, consider the following Dos and Don’ts of linking:
Linking Dos
- DO seek in-bound links from authoritative pages that do well on the search engines due to reputation and popularity.
- DO stick to relevant sites. That is, don’t look for links from generic or off-topic sites when you can request links from industry- or topic-related sites.
- DO stay away from reciprocal linking. Reciprocal linking is when sites agree to exchange links in an “I’ll scratch your back, if you scratch mine” arrangement. These links look the most artificial to search engines. They won’t do you much good and might even hurt your ranking.
- DO work toward building a natural link structure that has gradual and diverse link growth.
Linking Don’ts
- DON’T swap or exchange reciprocal links for the sheer purpose of increasing links. Search engines consider this a big “no-no.” A good analogy is two basketball teams agree to let each other score points. You’ll both get a lot of baskets, but you’re also disqualified for being cheaters.
- DON’T request links from pages with long lists of links. It won’t necessarily hurt to be on these pages (if the pages are relevant), but probably won’t help if your link is buried among a pile of other links.
- DON’T submit your site to a bunch of sites all using the same description. If a large number of identical links to your site appear suddenly, the search engines are likely to get suspicious.
- DON’T link to pages that have been penalized or banned for activities such as search engine spamming. While links from these pages probably won’t affect you much, a return link from your site could get you labeled negatively as well.
If you engage in link swapping with non-relevant sites or sites that have been penalized for policy infractions, it can hinder your rankings and possibly even get your site banned from the search engines.
When it comes to link exchange partnerships, even if you don’t run into trouble, the benefits tend to be relatively minor. Even if your popularity improves, your page relevancy won’t gain much from the exchange. Remember, increasing both your popularity and your relevancy is what will help move your site toward the top of the search results. This can be quite an undertaking, but the hard work involved in quality link building will get you further in the long run than these questionable linking short-cuts can.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
