If you’re reading this, then you no doubt realize how important the online world is in establishing and maintaining your authority. Regardless how big the offline portion of your business is, online is the key to your future success. But let me ask you: how are you measuring your online success?
It’s a difficult question – and there’s no one single answer for everyone. But there isn’t a business (or individual, for that matter) out there that can’t benefit from using an analytics tool to help track, measure, and improve their online presence. I specifically reference Google Analytics, because it is free and best in class, but really any package will do the same thing. What does analytics measure, anyway?
How do people find you?
Wouldn’t it always be nice to know how people find you? You can ask everyone who ends up being a buyer, but when it comes to website customers, you can even find out about people who just came to browse as well as those who make a purchase.
Analytics holds a scary amount of detail about each and every person that visits your website, including:
- What country they’re from (and in some cases, state/province, or city)
- What browser they’re using
- What website (banner ad, director link/etc) they used to find you
You can use the tool to segment these visitors into different groups, and understand the buying patterns of each better. Does your site seem to resonate more with Germans and less with Americans? Is that banner ad a waste of time, whereas the premium directory listing sending in lots of leads? All here, just waiting for you to have a peek.
What do people really think about your website?
In the old days (read: less than a couple years ago), you had to ask customers for their opinion, and hope that enough people took you up on your offer and actually told you what was on their mind. Something of an inexact science, to say the least. Now, you can see your online buyer’s behavior without them even knowing. Consider the statistics that analytics provide:
- Do people linger over your sales pages, or immediately turn away when they find them?
- Do you have key content that nobody ever manages to find?
- Are there popular pages and content that is missing a strong call to action?
These are all fairly easy problems to fix, but only if you know about the problem.
How’s your search engine optimization?
You know how important getting backlinks is. Maybe you’ve researched your keywords and maybe you’ve done a little outreach to get your website more visible in search. But do you measure the traffic search engine send you?
Google Analytics provides data from all the major search engines (not just Google). With this information you should be asking yourself two key questions:
- Are the search phrases you expect to see actually sending traffic?
- Any surprises on keywords you didn’t know you were ranking for?
After all, it just goes to say: you cannot tweak performance if you aren’t measuring.
Andy Hayes is the managing director for Travel Online Partners, a travel online marketing firm. Don’t miss their popular Google analytics ebook, a simple yet effective resource to keep your own authority in check.
Over the past week every other headline seems to be about privacy online. Google and Facebook have both been making headlines about questionable security practices. Each of these online giants touches our lives on a daily basis and it is important to stay on top of their security practices.
Google has many countries across the world are in an up roar about “accidental collection” of personal information from the public Wi-Fi Networks. Many countries, including the US, have started an investigation to whether or not they breached data protection and computer hacking laws. Google is claiming they overlooked this problem and that they did not use the gathered information for any other purpose then to improve services. Look for more headlines regarding Google’s oversight and how they will be correcting their privacy issues.
Facebook has been topping the headlines with their privacy settings issues that affect all of their 400 million users. So, what is going on with Mark Zuckerberg and all of his friends at Facebook? They have been receiving a lot of heat for their lack of privacy and bulky privacy settings page. The current privacy settings are defaulted to public, and you have to navigate your way through about 170 different granular settings to make the switch to having a more private setting. Facebook users have been voicing their concerns for months about the default privacy settings and awkward granular privacy settings page. Finally, Facebook has listened to the users and will be making significant changes to their privacy. The changes will include;
- Sharing
- One page of privacy settings that will have a default privacy setting, along with separate levels of privacy.
- Granular controls are still available to use, but do not have to be used.
- Basic Directory Information
- Less publically available information.
- Only necessary information for people to find you on the site.
- Platforms
- Control over what applications (Farmville, Mafia Wars, etc) and sites have access to your information.
You can read more about the updated privacy settings on Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg also posted a nice blog and video today reviewing the changes to the privacy settings. These new privacy controls will start taking effect gradually over the next few weeks, so you won’t see them right away. If you are interested in changing your privacy settings, you can log into your Facebook account, go to Account, and select privacy settings.
You may have heard Google is rolling out “Brand Links” suggestions for a ton of generic keyword searches.
So far I have heard a ton of whining about how this is going to kill mom and pop shops (again!). Where others see despair I see opportunity. Here are 4 ways to use Google brand links to your advantage.
SEO/Link Building
- Search Google for as many generic terms that relate to your products as possible.
- Write down all the various brands that show up.
- Sort your list between brands you carry and your competition.
For the brands that you do carry make sure to check your search engine rankings. Concentrate your link building efforts on your brand pages that are lagging in the search engine. Maybe do a contest giveaway for brand x. That always nets some good links.
Also make sure you take a look at your on page optimization. Could you internally link to that brand page more? Are your internal links to that brand keyword rich? Would a new title tag be more effective than the one you have?
Content Creation
I know some of you are thinking…but I only sell MY brand not my competitor’s brand and this new Google feature is going to kill my organic traffic. First, the longer you complain and envision the sky is falling, the longer you put off doing something about it. Second, although generic searches can yield a lot of traffic they rarely offer high conversions. These searches represent someone at the start of the buying cycle, not the end.
A simple solution would be to create a landing page for each of these competing brands and compare your widget to their widget. Be honest and show the pros and the cons and why you think you come out ahead. If you do not want to host a review on your own site then leverage the domain authority of a site like squidoo and do reviews of brand X and compare it yours.
Drive some links to these review pages and you can get them ranking in no time. Especially by leveraging web 2.0 sites like squidoo if your domain is not an established authority.
As a customer gets closer to the end of the buying cycle they start doing brand searches and comparing widgets. By positioning your site to rank on the various brand searches Google is suggesting, you will keep yourself in front of the customer and do some positive branding of your own. This will be huge for your site if you do it right.
PPC
I tend to skip biding on generic traffic like “laptops” because it converts poorly and is usually bid up too high by people with “broad match” turned on. Google brand links gives you an opportunity to gobble up some quality traffic by bidding on their suggested brands.
Again, you don’t have to sell that brand to put up a PPC ad for it. You will have to test but from my previous experience you are likely to see a nice ROI on those branded searches.
Also, getting your ad there now before everyone else figures it out can help you to establish your click through rate and account history for that keyword, which is huge for adwords.
Research
Looking to expand your product offerings? Take a good look at all the brands Google is suggesting in your niche because that is where you know additional traffic is going to be headed. I have seen some rather small brands showing up for high volume search queries. Jump in and start carrying that brand and establish your site before your competition does.
I also find these links extremely helpful when researching a new product. Simply do a generic search and Google shows you some popular brands. You can quickly build a list of who you would want to start out carrying or who you would need to beat in that sector.
I hope this sheds some light on the possibilities this new feature brings. While everyone else is complaining, take action and get a leg up on them!
If you have additional ideas please post them in the comments.
On January 12, 2009 Google Inc. posted a very important blog post about reviewing their business operations in China. In 2006 Google.cn went live in attempt to increase access of information for people in China. However, the Chinese Government censored a large amount of information on Google.cn. Until now, Google allowed this type of censorship.
In December of 2009 a highly sophisticated cyber attack on Google had originated from China. Google launched an investigation for these cyber attacks. During the investigation, they found evidence that suggested the goal of the attacks were to access control over Gmail accounts owned by Chinese human rights activists. After further review, only two Gmail accounts were accessed by third parties. Only the accounts profile information and subject line were read, the content of the actual emails were left untouched. Because of this problem, Google has decided they will no longer censor the results for Google.cn.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has come out strong in defense of Google’s threat to pull out of China unless Beijing permitted it to “operate an unfiltered search engine”.
However, a new report from Fox News has suggested that Google is in “delicate” talks with the Chinese Government about trying to keep business open in China. The main business would be the new Google phones, advertising sales team, and its research center.
After Google’s decisions, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmar has announced they will continue censoring information for the Chinese Government. In an interview with ABC Bill Gates stated that China’s censorship is“very limited”. A large number of the Chinese media supported Mr. Gates statements.
It will be very interesting to see how this situation will play out in the next few months.
Yesterday I posted two videos on my Facebook wall and realized that they both are great examples of how Social Media is allowing even the smallest business or individual stand eye to eye with large organizations or celebrities. Both are a true David versus the Goliath story. Or is it?
Case 1: AARP posted this video:
What I love about this video is how viral it has become with a positive message attached to a brand. But the beauty is any one person could create a video like this and help build their own personal brand that rivals the likes of AARP. Dollars are no longer needed to market effectively.
Case 2: Ask for what you want & come across capable:
A former client of mine recently became a free agent. She is a bright lady that knows how to use Social Media to market not only a corporate community- but her own brand as well. Case in point above! What is beautiful is she can use this video as the spine of her job finding campaign. Point to it with external
links and use the keywords she wants to rank for in her job search. She also shared the video with her peers who..well….shared it again. Case in point here! I will share this post in all the usual DoFollow channels and she will receive the very same link juice and viral exposure that we will. My point? 10 years ago the brand of an individual had no chance of being seen in the very same channels as Google and Microsoft – for free no less. This is affecting the News Media- the many is reporting news better then the major new agencies. Read Craig Newmark’s article- “A Nerds Take On The Future Of News Media”. Today, the gap between the bigs and the smalls, the corporations and the individuals has shrunk. The playing field has been leveled. Corporate responsibility is prevalent (a plus in my eyes) while their weight is decreasing, while the individual has more opportunity to be seen and thrive! Another plus! Before long there will no longer be a goliath, just a whole lot of David’s – some with a greater commitment to their brand! Which begs the question, what are you doing to grow your personal brand or your companies brand? Opportunity is ripe for the taking! Have you thought about your brand when watching the AARP and Naomi Marr videos?
I was recently putting together a document for benchmarks involving Social Media, and to make sure I wasn’t missing anything I did a Google search to see if I was missing any benchmarks. What I found was interesting was most everything was for pay, which makes little sense. There isn’t much giving away of intellectual property with sharing how to set goals? So with that, here are 5 benchmarks that your social media presence can strive for. If you reach these goals you will see success:
Twitter- Number of followers. In order to effectively spread your message and engage successfully we suggest organically getting over 1000 followers, and over 100 Tweets.
Facebook Fanpage – Once you get to 50 posts with unique content (articles and blogs), and over 200 followers you will see some calls to actions occur.
LinkedIn Group – Same deal with 50 posts, but with Linked In usually 100 followers on LinkedIn does the trick. We have found most folks on LinkedIn are inclined to participate in business ventures then on Facebook. So less is more!
Youtube – Once you get 15 new video posted and shared in Social Bookmarking channels and embedded in your blog or social website, you will start seeing success. Remember unique content is key, so these videos need to be created by you and your organization.
Alexa – We have seen a direct correlation between traffic ranking under 800,000 and social media success. If you do your due diligence of sharing your unique content in DoFollow Social Media channels with the link pointing back to your blog or social website, you will start seeing success at achieving your business objectives once you get under 800,000 (lower the better- Facebook is ranked 4 in the world). Share the link to your unique content in as many Do follow Social Media channels! It is laborious, but incredibly important.
We have well over 200 benchmarks that we share with our clients. But these are 5 benchmarks that will help you be successful using Social Media if you do your due diligence (commitment to unique content) and track to these markers. Don’t hesitate to contact Authority Domains if you need additional help or guidance.
When you log into your Google Adwords account, Google has a surprise for you, a note that says:
“Vote on November 4th Democracy works best when we all participate. Please take time to vote on Election Day. Google’s 2008 Voter Info Map can help you find your local polling place. Find your local polling place.”
We found it particularly amusing that Google is messaging users via their AdWords accounts, but its still kinda cool. Just a tidbit for you to nibble on today:)
