Before I read the comments on Tom’s blog (which I have summarized and compiled below) I thought about it. These are my thoughts:  

User Generated Content

I am a huge proponent of user generated content (UGC), and its impact on search results, conversions, and online transparency which contributes to the accessibility and exposure of product or service related feedback and reviews. It has also resulted in a significant contribution to site usability, information accessibility and more where it has been effectively and applicable incorporated on official company sites and blogs.

While UGC is by no means a new concept (it entered mainstream use in 2005 according to Wikipedia), it might be considered to have gained enormous traction and exposure, and thus interest over the past 12-18 months due to new studies from big name research corporations including Rubicon, Forrester, Juniper, AdAge and others (see this great list of UGC stats and their compilers). The studies revealed, reiterated and supported each other entirely in their data to the (summary) effect that:

·         Users are actively seeking input from other ‘people’ online via reviews and feedback

·         Usability in the form of ‘satisfaction’ increased with the inclusion of reviews on a site

·         Sites with reviews had higher conversion rates

·         Sites with reviews had higher ‘recall’ rates

·         More than 60% of potential purchasers research online regardless of whether they purchase on or offline and look for both positive and negative reviews

·         Negative reviews are unlikely to detract from positive reviews as long as there are positive reviews, and the negative review is deemed ‘constructive’.

·         Brands appreciate the ability to include reviews as it enhances transparency, and enables the publication of information on the site that they would normally, due to brand legal or marketing constraints, be unable to publish.

The 1to1 Media Survey of the 1to1 Xchange panel in April of this year summarized overall trend based predications on the findings of the studies very concisely in my opinion:

·         By 2020, 84% of marketers agree that building customer trust will become marketing’s primary objective, and 82% agree that collaboration with customers will prevail over marketing.

Reputation Management

The same type of scenario (not new, but ‘newly realized’) is true for the discipline of monitoring one’s, or one’s competitors, reputation online. Despite the fact that Google Alerts has been around for quite some time (2006 I think) reputation management really got a kick in the rear this year with the publication of Andy Beal’s book Radically Transparent, and the advent of TrackUR and numerous other reputation management tools.

I think the boost of interest in UGC and the need to implement it while watching for on-site spam intersected very nicely with the desire to monitor both positive and negative commentary around the web. Finding out what brand evangelists are saying can be a great way to build out a social media campaign, or any other form of online marketing initiative. Knowing who the brand evangelists are enables a company to ‘recruit’ them via empowering them with early news tid-bits, free stuff (like screen savers… no, I don’t mean a new Lamborghini – though that would be nice…), special offers for their readers and other similar free tools or offerings of gratuity and incentive. There is a fine line between empowering brand evangelists and bribing them. My heart-felt advice is;  ‘don’t cross the invisible line’.

Monitoring what is being said about you on the net and in the blogosphere also enables a business to find out what people don’t like about their company, a brand, a product line, a specific product, customer service, an affiliate, a brick and mortar store, and so on. It is a great way to be knowledgeable while at the same time proactive, assuming you develop a strategy to deal quickly, diplomatically, carefully, and positively with brand detractors. Answer them on their own site/blog or wherever they have posted the review or comment, and copy the issue raised along with your responding solution or answer onto your official site.

Not only can you answer your detractors quickly and effectively, you are also likely to gather some great insights for R&D (research and development) and I&P (insight and planning). 

In closing – my thoughts are that…

…the potential impact of effective integration and management of UGC via effective use of a well-thought strategy and a great reputation management tool  is what I think we have really come to see as a ‘significant advance’ in SMM this year.

Other comments from Tom’s readers:

Please do read his post and comment there first as I have unashamedly lifted this whole blog-post-idea-thingey from him via LinkedIn.

Tom’s readers feel that the following are the ‘significant advances in SMM during 2008’ – in no particular order:

·         Microblogging

·         Reconsidering the social dynamic

·         Adoption and consolidation

·         Mobile and iPhone use and effect

·         Leveraging online and offline more holistically

·         Personalized platforms (like Ning)

·         Mobile microblogging facilitation

·         Aggregation of multiple profiles and streamlining enabled

·         Simply the enormous boost in interest as the idea of social networking has grown, matured and solidified as ‘something to stay’ as opposed to a ‘fad’.

Have a wonderful festive season and a blessed New year if I don’t get around to stealing blogging again in the next 2 weeks J !!!

What is Consumer Generated Content?

It is content that users (or consumers) write and submit online and can be:

·         Product reviews (e.g. Amazon.com)

·         Service reviews (e.g. Google Local)

·         Seller reviews (e.g. ebay)

·         Blog comments

·         News comments

·         Forum posts or comments

·         Video/Audio and Photo sharing sites (e.g. YouTube and Flickr)

·         Social networking sites comments or posts (e.g. Twitter, SecondLife, Facebook, MySpace)

·         Wikis

·         Composite review sites (e.g. ConsumerReport.org)

Is Consumer Generated Content (CGC) Really Such A Big Deal?

The data is two-sided; and both sides of the coin – Consumers and Marketers – answer with a resounding ‘Yes!’:

1. Consumers are relying more and more on UGC:

·         According to Rubicon, ‘online comments and reviews posted by the enthusiasts are second only to word of mouth as a purchase driver for all web users. Those personal reviews are far more influential than official reviews posted by a website or magazine, or information posted online by a manufacturer.’

·         The Rubicon data also indicates that around 80% of all UGC is contributed by around 9% of the US online population. This 9% is in the majority impartial, honest and equally likely to post both negative and positive comments or opinions. In some cases, such as on Amazon, the reviews themselves are open to voting:

·         As of October 2008, almost half of US online adults read ratings and reviews at least once a month, and 19% post them. Nearly twice as many read reviews compared with 2007. (The Growth Of Social Technology Adoption, Forrester, 2008)*

·         Satisfaction for those who recalled customer reviews on the retailers’ site is 10% higher than those who said there were no reviews offered. (30 UK Online Retail Satisfaction Index, January 2008, ForeSee Results)*

·         83% of shoppers said online product evaluations and reviews had at least some level of influence on their purchasing decisions. (Opinion Research Corporation, an infoGROUP company, July 2008)*

·         74% agree—including 14% who strongly agree—that they choose companies and brands based on what others say online about their customer service experiences, the survey shows. (Society for New Communications Research, May 2008)*

·         70% of online consumers said they use the Internet to research everyday grocery products. (Prospectiv, 2008)*

·         91% of millionaires say they always or often look at reviews before buying luxury goods; 68% of ultra-affluent shoppers use consumer reviews. (Unity Marketing/Google study, reported in AdAge October 2008)*

2. Marketers are relying more and more on UGC:

·         The Shop.org State of Retailing Online study, conducted by Forrester Research, found only 26% of the 137 top retailers surveyed offered customer ratings and reviews, but 96% of them ranked customer ratings and reviews as an effective or very effective tactic at driving conversion. (Forrester)*

·         68% of online marketers believe “media is in big trouble and will lose dollars to user-generated content.” (iMedia Connection, February 2008)*

·         By 2020, 84% of marketers agree that building customer trust will become marketing’s primary objective, and 82% agree that collaboration with customers will prevail over marketing. (1to1 Media survey of the 1to1 Xchange panel, April, 2008)*

·         11% of retailers reported a 20% or more overall increase in conversions as a result of adding reviews to their sites, 21% reported an 11% to 20% increase and 5% reported a 1% to 10% increase. (eTailing Group, 2008)*

·         Consumers were willing to pay between 20 to 99% more for a 5-star rated product than for a 4-star rated product, depending on the product category. (comScore/Kelsey, October 2007)*

·         Reviews usage drives higher spending: 27% of users report an increase of 5-10%; almost 7% report an increase of 20%+. (Avenue A/Razorfish “Digital Consumer Behavior Study,” October 2007) *

·         In a study of a major electronics retailer site of 30,000 search visitors landing on user review  pages converted 60% more often, spent 50% more, and viewed 82% more pages than search visitors to other pages. (Bazaarvoice case study with major electronics retailer)*

Case Study: PETCO (2007)*:

• Shoppers who browsed the site’s “Top Rated Products” page, which features products rated most highly by customers, had a 49% higher conversion rate than the site average.
• Giving shoppers the ability to sort products within a category by customer rating led to a sales increase of 41% per unique visitor.
• After their order, PETCO asked customers, “What online tool most influenced your purchase decision?“ The Number 1 answer was product ratings and reviews, with site search coming in a distant second.
• PETCO realized a 5X increase in email click-through rates by including relevant ratings and reviews content in the campaign promotion.
• Products with reviews have a 17% lower return rate than those without reviews.

…But, the impact of UGC doesn’t stop there…

UGC Influences Offline Commerce

·         For every $1 in online sales, the Internet influenced $3.45 of store sales. (eMarketer, 2007)

·         24% of internet users reported using online reviews prior to paying for a service delivered offline. (comScore/The Kelsey Group, October 2007)

·         More than 75% of review users in nearly every category reported that the review had a significant influence on their purchase, with hotels ranking the highest (87%). (comScore/The Kelsey Group, October 2007)

·         97% of those surveyed who said they made a purchase based on an online review said they found the review to have been accurate. (comScore/The Kelsey Group, October 2007)

·         Consumers who shop online for digital cameras and TVs spend 10% more on in-store purchases than consumers who do not search online. (ChannelForce for Yahoo Search Marketing)

·         90% of those surveyed say they have a better overall shopping experience when they research products online before shopping in-store. (Harris Interactive, October 2007)

“But What About Negative UGC?”

If people are researching a product online, they are looking for what might be wrong with it. If you can be transparent on your own site about your product or service by offering reviews, then you can be sure that both positive and negative feedback (if warranted) will be included.**

1. Negative Reviews are actually of interest:

Based on the fact that folks are likely to continue searching if there is nothing negative about a product, just to make sure, especially with electronics or high-end purchases, if you don’t offer a transparent insight into your offering on your own site, by people who have actually bought from you, these researchers are very likely to go elsewhere to keep researching.**

·         “As for the product(s) with negative reviews … my experience is that negative reviews do not hurt a product as long as there are also positive reviews associated with it.”  - Don Zeidler, Director, Burpee.com**

2. Negative reviews provide helpful feedback to consumers and R&D:

·         “For example, what’s one of the best selling products so far this decade? The Apple iPod. It gets a ton of positive reviews, but one negative comment you’ll see over and over again is that the surface of the iPod scratches easily. Customers say things that the retailer and Apple can’t say: “When you buy this, get a case”. Obviously this is not stopping customers from buying the iPod, but this constructive advice is getting them to buy a case.” – Sam Decker, VP Marketing, BazaarVoice

3. Negative Reviews provide authenticity:

Why would a well known, enormously powerful and successful online retailer continue selling a product that had far more negative reviews than positive? Should they? Yes!

·         Case Study**:

·         Product: Hot Wheels Slimecano

·         Reseller: Amazon.com

·         Some Review Titles:

o        “Junk, not worth any price”         

o        “I wish I could give it zero stars”

o        “If you want your son to cry, buy this toy!”

o        “If you want your husband to cry, buy this toy!”

·         Reseller Objective:

If the retailer’s mission is to be a trusted editor of its assortment, then products with overwhelmingly negative reviews will prune the assortment quickly for the best products. But the reseller needs to continue selling the product as an ‘objective provider’ and let the market forces, or in this case, parental voices, have their impact. After a year and half, Amazon stopped selling the toy, but kept the reviews, the image and the page… Good Job!

4. Positive Reviews Outweigh Negatives:

·         62 percent of brand-related talk features products in a positive light, while less than 10% of conversations feature products negatively. (KellerFay Group)

·         60 percent of online shoppers provide feedback about shopping experiences, and they are more likely to give feedback about a positive experience than a negative one.  (Jupiter)

Conclusion

If you sell products and services, and if you have a web site, make sure you allow for reviews. If your products are great to mediocre, you should get far more positive than negative feedback, and a resultant positive impact on sales and revenue.

If you sell a crappy product – in the words of Sam Decker:

1.  Without reviews, you keep selling the product and risk costly returns and low customer satisfaction

2.  With reviews, you can use the leading indicator of negative reviews and quickly remove this product from inventory to reduce returns and improve satisfaction

3.  Or, just allow the negative reviews to steer customers to a more satisfying purchase within the category. Let the best products win, and you will win.

Therefore, make sure you enable and allow feedback, optimize your review pages, and get traction for them in the search results by supporting brand evangelists, and answering detractor issues promptly and diplomatically.

Happy UGC integration!!!

* BazaarVoice

** iMediaConnection

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I therefore find Google’s new release (last Wednesday) interesting to say the least.

A Bit About Display Ad Builder

Google has now integrated a do-it-yourself display (banner) ad creation tool for all AdWords users (i.e. you must have an account).

1. You can target your audience via:

• contextual (ads displayed on contextually/keyword relevance basis on sites that are part of Google’s content network); or
• placement targeting (choosing specific websites on which you want your shiny new display ad to appear; again these sites must be part of Google’s content network).

2. Then you choose your design template and customize it. There are fully customizable direct response and interactive ad templates; and there are pre-designed by industry templates – currently entertainment, financial, retail, travel. (If you log in to your Google Adwords account and click on a campaign, you will get a little ‘invitation’ asking you to try it out – there you will see a whole bunch more information on available templates – here is one screen grab)

3. You then set your daily budget and your CPC and off you go.

4. They have also included another little acronym for us all to get used to – introducing the PPR (Placement Performance Report).

Despite banner blindness, I would be very interested to see the results between the CTR and conversion rates on a specifically selected set of sites on the content network for a traditional text PPC ad and a ‘DIY’ display ad. Traditionally display ads are far less targeted in distribution than PPC ads, Google has made that annoying state of affairs disappear ‘poof’.

Admittedly the designs are by no means all stunning creatives, but they are display ads, and some are interactive, and some are dynamic – and they are free to create. I really like the idea; I think it is a great opportunity for small businesses to really test the waters far more effectively by trying both display and text ads via both contextual and placement targeting to determine what really works for them, without the prohibitive cost of creating display ads, requiring ad houses to produce reports no-one can understand, and with the ability to a/b test creatives themselves. It opens up a whole new area of online advertising streamlining and tactical refinement, and is very well times with the economic downturn.

(I wonder though if these DIY ads will count as search marketing or display advertising for adspend determination purposes?)

Anyhoo…  what I do think is that it would have been a bigger feather in Google’s hat if they had come out with the idea first, not apparently  rushed into it on MySpace’s heels. And, not to be outdone by any manner of means… Meet My Ads by Yahoo! AND Yahoo! now allows you to target your ads to a ZIP code level… That’s right – beats the socks off Google.

I think it’s great that these big online companies are being so proactive. I think it bodes well for our industry, and for the small business advertiser who can very easily manage his ad spend. And I think it bodes well for their investors.

I got a call a few weeks ago from an exceptionally talented woman I used to work with at a pretty big agency. She is a super hot account manager, and she had been getting some queries from clients through her team indicating interest in SEM services. She called me.

The gist of the call was that she wanted to know if I might give her team an insight into SEM; pros, cons, opportunities, challenges and market insights. The team, being mostly traditional media execs and hard web devs (all very good I might add) were not enthused by the idea of a lunch and learn with an ‘SEO person’, and she was not going to get funding for it. Ergo I agreed to go in for a lunch and learn over my lunch hour and give them a run down, gratis.

Initially (after the most inspiring parking experience I can remember courtesy of God) I was worried that no one was going to show, but over the 45 minutes I chatted and went over a prepared ppt and answered questions, the room filled up. Apparently they had thought I was going to bore them to death with ‘keyword research’. I don’t think I actually mentioned keyword research more than once.

It was very insightful from my point of view. Initial blasé and almost humorous interest ended up with enlightening Q&A as we continued through my ppt, with more and more direct and targeted interest from the web devs as we progressed. Unfortunately I think I pitched it a bit ‘low’ level for some of the account execs, but some of them were really interested and both happily surprised and encouraged by what they already knew, and what they could understand.

I walked away with a new set of contacts, a new set of web developers in a really great Calgary digital house with awesome talent who requested if they could tap me with more questions. They have my email, and they are not the type of company or people to take advantage. I’m cool with that.

I realize that from a financial point of view doing something for free is bad business. However, I strongly believe in both loss-leaders and in the power of effective SEM; both SEO and PPC. I also believe in giving a little for a practice I believe will benefit businesses.

My final take-away is this; this company has

• clients that need SEM
• the in-house talent to create incredibly attractive and functional websites and other marketing collateral as well as marketing proposals
• the ability to manage, produce and deliver on client briefs…

They now also have the ability to:

• speak to SEM queries and pitch accordingly
• answer basic SEO and PPC questions
• understand basic bad vs. good SEO practice, and 
• they totally get the need for great analytics to allow for efficient benchmarking, reporting and client profitability and ROI proof

They also:

• understand the possibilities and challenges associated with SEO and effective PPC
• have a contact to bounce ideas off ..of (? – terrible grammar)
• have someone they can call to find a contractor for SEO,PPC or SEM services

They are excited.

I am thrilled to have been able to spend 45 minutes with a progressive company to enable them to effectively begin to explain SEM to their rather substantial client base.

If I personally get anything financial out of it in the long run – great. If I don’t, I already have the enormous feeling of gratification of being able to educate out some basic SEO and PPC principles to a progressive, attentive and open audience who took it to heart and participated in learning. I hope to get a full series going… it would be huge fun for me as well as something I would just love to do, a knock on from my days as an economics lecturer. I miss those days.

I think if I could spend my time educating companies on SEM, I would be a very happy bunny. It was an enormously positive experience for me… Of-course, I would like to start actually making some money for it at some point … just sayin’… I’m a nice person and all, but I have three little kids and a mortgage, you know how it goes – altruism starts with a feeling and ends with a need J.

God bless you everyone, and Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians!

It’s not a case of the chicken-before-the-egg or vice versa. They are two completely different disciplines, though each can benefit from the other much as SEO and paid search can benefit from other online and offline advertising.

Let’s look at each of these terms in isolation:

SMM:

abbreviation for:

social media marketing

definition a’la SEMI:

An internet marketing practice involving the participation of a company/brand/identity on social media* sites to pursue marketing & brand objectives online via social bookmarking*, media* and professional networking sites.

*Bookmarking sites traditionally allow you to bookmark and share sites, while social media sites offer bookmarking capabilities along with advanced voting ‘rights’ to ‘thumbs-up’ or ‘thumbs-down’ a post.

achieved via:

1. Finding relevant social sites around your online offering. For example;

·    Sphinn is pretty much utilized and targeted by search marketing bloggers and professionals involved in SEM;

·    Care2 is for businesses making a serious attempt to ‘go green’;

·    NetParty for younger SMM practitioners to connect online & organize real meets to network in the flesh;

·    Autospies focuses on everything auto related;

·    NowPublic focuses on citizen journalism;

·    Twitter is a ‘mini-blog’ site allowing users to post short messages on new products, posts & ideas.

2. Determine if the sites you see as ‘relevant’ actually have a following of people that will make engagement worth your while.

It’s easy to get fixated on the ‘popularity’ element of these sites, but if you don’t find and interact with your target market, it’s ultimately a waste of time.

·    Look for brand evangelists or competitor evangelists on the sites. Read what they have to say. Follow the commentary for a while. Determine if you can get mileage out of being involved, or if it is too contentious, too combative, too irrelevant, too targeted, too whatever. You need to plan your SMM strategy with clear objectives, just as with any other media. Just because it’s free to join, does not mean that your time is free. And building and maintaining your presence on the social sites does take time. A lot of it.

3. Create a realistic, robust, ‘cool’ profile and engage the community

·    Develop your social persona as a brand evangelist with a personality

·    Keep the same handle on all sites for recognition

·    Use your logo as your avatar, or your picture – how ‘big’ or ‘recognised’ are you at the start? You can always change your avatar. Start with easy identification one-way or the other. Be as ‘personable’ as you can if you are a new entrant with little to no social brand recognition.

·    Be fair

·    Never be judgmental or rude

·    Never ignore negative commentary

·    Always acknowledge positive feedback

·    Deal with detractors as soon as possible either via your persona, or by directing them to an ‘answering’ official blog post on the brand site as soon as negative comments arise

·    Empower your brand evangelists by giving them new story heads-up early, by giving them acknowledgement on your official site, and by following their social media profiles and commenting as warranted

·    Consider promoting test market products not only through geographic areas, but also through your social media network. If you’ve built your persona up right, they’ll be fair and impartial in an effort to assist you in your R&D

·    Offer contests & competitions around your brand embracing online media – the best humorous amateur video promoting a specific product or service gets a free ‘whatever’ and a month’s free publicity when you include it in your newsletter and on your News page; a bit like ‘iReport’ on HNN

·    Drive media to your social profiles via other online and offline media

·    Use your social profiles to link to your feed, blog, site, microsites, videos, mobile sites etc

·    Offer (limited) printable, redeemable-on-site ‘coupons’ to community members

·    Keep engaging to build your reputation, your recognition, and your authority

SEM

abbreviation for:

search engine marketing

definition a’la SEMI:

SEM involves the use of search engine optimization (SEO), paid search, and web analytics.

·    The objective of SEO is to rank a site in the organic listings for a sample (defined population) of the universe of relevant terms;

·    the objective of paid search is to list the site in the sponsored results across the engines for the universe of performing terms;

·    the objective of web analytics is to monitor the efficacy in terms of return on investment, profit and exposure for either or both of these practices.

SEO and Paid Search complement each other to a significant extent. Neither is cheap, and neither is easy. It’s not a case of rocket science, it’s a case of experience in an increasingly competitive and combative environment as web site numbers climb into the multi-billion numbers, and paid search advertisers reach into their comparative stratosphere.

achieved via:

·    effective keyword research

·    integration of SEO with IA, copy, web design, development, and analytics

·    relevant, aggressive targeted and relevant backlinking campaigns for SEO (where SMM plays part of it’s related and enormously important role)

·    tactical refinement of both SEO and paid search (more immediately) via web analytics data from all sites including referral sites, some based on SMM personas

·    web analytics reporting on conversions, profit and exposure via both impressions (on placement), CTR and messaging of paid search ads

·    integrated analytics reporting where provided for to monitor effect of other online campaigns and offline campaigns on paid and SEO listed pages

·    overall increase in exposure and recognition of brand online in the search engines including listings and exposure due to SMM efforts

Conclusions 1 & 2:

1. The only time SMM can be seen to be boosting SEM strategy without dedicated spend on a paid search campaign to persona pages which may, or may not (in most cases), be worth your investment is when SMM profile pages, blog posts or reviews start moving into viably ‘visible’ pages of the engines (from a CTR pov), and begin to generate traffic of their own. This is when SEM would step in, as warranted, to boost that exposure, assuming it was worth the additional investment.

2. The only time SEM can be seen to boost SMM is when the SEO or paid search efforts are actively targeting prfiles.

My by-line for these two disciplines is this:

‘united-but-unique; related but mutually exclusive’.

My disclaimer is this:

This is for folks new to SMM. If you are a fundi and find fault, please say so in the comments, but please link to a relevant respond page on your site to substantiate your answer for the newbies. Thanks – (it’s all about the readers – and if you’re new – Welcome! – L)

This post will try to demystify the issue.

Why Spying on the Online Competition Can Benefit SEM (SEO & PPC) Efforts

Competitive intelligence can tell what phrases your competition is effectively ranking on, and what they aren’t, providing you with additional guidance as you plan your organic and paid search strategies.

How to Spy on the Online Competition

SEO – First;

·    Check out your top online competitors.

·    Check their title tags, META data, headers and primary targeted terms. Make a list of terms for which they appear to be optimizing.

·    Run the terms they are ‘optimized’ for through Google and see if they rank in the top 10 (or 30). Make a note of the terms they actually rank for.

·    Then run their URL through SEODigger.com. For example; if you are a Sushi restaurant in Chicago, SushiWabi.com is a direct online competitor.  SEODigger.com will show you (depending on data centers and other impacting factors, but it’s not a bad guide) what positions this site holds in Google, and for what terms.

·    Then run their URL through SpyFu.com. If you are a subscriber, their results are more comprehensive. The free tool is not a bad quick check on SEODigger for organic results, but is more useful for seeing their Paid Search terms. Which we look at in the Paid search step below.

·    Run the list of ranking terms through Wordtracker, Google Keywords, KeyWord Discovery, Suggest tools on the various search engines.

·    Make a list of the top 20-50 terms on each keyword research resource you use (use at least 2 or 3 to take into account variations and discrepancies).

·    Make this list for each primary term you are investigating, noting which competitor is advertising for which primary term, and what the search volume and competition for each term is. Apply information in Third step below…

SEO – Second;

·    Check out your top offline competitors, especially if your business is offline based or has a strong offline market. If your offline competitors are the same as your online competitors it makes life a smidge easier, but it is not always the case.

·    For example: In the town of Calgary in Alberta, a search on plumbers yields a results listing ‘grouped’ plumbers with a list of ‘top plumbers’

·    BUT If I look in the YellowPages (offline) I get:

o        Knight Plumbing

o        Roto-Rooters

o        Action Auger

o        Abacus

·    none of the plumbers mentioned in my online list from my first selection are mentioned. Incidentally the iYP search yields nearly the same results. This is indicating that the top offline listings with their big YP ads are hitting the iYP advertising as well… Anyone ever tell them about SEO? I reckon iYP is keeping it close. They can’t really take to SEO can they… way too much conflict of interest.

·    Take these top offline competitors and run them through Google looking to see if they have websites, and if they have, what they are optimized for. If you are not optimized, you may see some strong relationships between their site and yours in terms of what is being missed. It’s a nice way to view a poorly optimized site and figure out why they are not working when compared to competitors that are – almost a DIY audit on the competition. You can request that your SEO Consultant do that for you as extra data for future development.

SEO – Third;

Take all the terms you have seen, even if they are not ranking a site but are relevant to your business. Pass them to your IA team, and get a decent site plan drawn up utilizing the primary keywords. Check, refine, review and then continue as per best practice SEO redevelopment. (I reccommend reading the post on Keyword Research, and Search Query vs Search Intent as well)

Paid Search

·    Take the data gleaned from SEODigger.

·    Look at the PPC data from SpyFu.com. For a better example I’ll look at a restaurant that is advertising via PPC (I can only see those advertising across North America and including Canada in their geo-target). Let’s look at OliveGarden.com.

o     This site has a lot more traffic, and the image shows organic data on competitors as well as search terms. Paid subscription yields more data, but for this exercise this is sufficient.

o     PPC data from the Olive Garden tells us whose advertising on prime terms *click a term in the ‘advertisements’* section as above and you’ll see the top list of 10 PPC competitors ranking for the phrase you clicked in Google. Again, subscription gives much more info. The list you chose from is the list of PPC terms people are using to rank for your business. You can check that data for any URL, assuming they are advertisinig via PPC on Google. From image above, you can see that OliveGarden appears to be targeting the term ‘chilis gift card’

·    SpyFu is super easy to use, and free as you figure it out. I highly recommend it.

·    Take all the keywords you have, from organic research as per steps 1&2.

·    Take the terms you have gathered in excess left over from your IA and copy team for SEO site plan.

·    Take the terms you found from PPC competitive insights and run them through the keyword research tools to get variations.

·    Make a final trim and split the keywords into a usable, adgroup and keyword targeted PPC campaign.

Note on brands targeting other brands… Some brands have ‘gentleman deals’ not to target other competitor brand names in the PPC results to keep PPC costs down. If they work, it is of enormous benefit to all brands concerned.

In most cases this is not the case. HOWEVER, my advice is to type your brand and variations of it into Google and see who’s advertising in the paid results via SpyFu (or more advanced AdGooroo – there are a huge number of software solutions out there, I personally know these two and recommend them both).

Contact them and request a mutual cease and desist on brand name terms. If they are amenable, get a document from both/all parties listing the brand name terms they want kept ‘free’. Review all terms individually and then collectively and form a ‘brand exclusive’ partnership. As soon as you can get something off the ground, the collective is likely to have the combined power to absorb new *brand stealers*, or negate their opportunity to capitalize on your grouped name terms.

Reputation Management Spying

·    If you know what initiatives your online competition is engaging in, or what issues are befalling them you can combat them immediately via PPC initiatives, and long term via SEO.

·    For example; if a competitors is having financial issues, or board in-fighting, if they are closing stores or opening new ones, you can be among the first to know via reputation monitoring and management.

·    You can use the information to create targeted PPC campaigns, and create long term competitive, combative, or superior pages. You can use the information to create a new niche, extend a niche, or as an idea for your own product or service development. The possibilities are virtually limitless.

·    A great free tool is Google Alerts. Easy to set up, and easy to monitor. Whatever ‘term’ or ‘brand’ you enter will be monitored and emailed to you if you choose it to be an ‘alert’ any time that ‘term’ is included in a Google news, web, blog or other result.

·    Two superb paid for tools include TruCast  (a social media and blog monitoring solution from VisibleTechnologies) and TrakUr (Google Alert on steroids according to it’s creators).

Conclusion:

Monitor your competition online and off. See what they are doing and strategize reactively, and proactively depending on what you find!

Trends From an Investors Perspective

• Microsoft bid for Yahoo!, then withdrew the offer and Yahoo!’s shares dropped nearly 20%
• Google and Yahoo! are still skirting around a search advertising partnership
• Ask withdrew from main stream search to focus on women searchers
• Google’s search share has increased slightly
• Yahoo! search share has remained stagnant in aggregate
• Microsoft’s share has fallen

What to do from an Investors Perspective

Yahoo! (Nasdaq) is not dead by a long shot. While the 2 year trend has been a decline, there is much positive speculation about the future of company and thus the stock.

Google’s share price saw a sharp decline in the first quarter (roughly 45%), but has increased approximately 43% on March values in the last 6-7 weeks. Google’s not going anywhere, and I’m not convinced the share price will experience a similar drop in the near future.

Microsoft’s general trend over the last 2 years has been strongly positive. The share value decrease from February to May 5th can be almost entirely attributed to the Yahoo! bid. Prior to that, many technology shares were hit by poor estimates, the oil price and general instability in the market – all of which fuelled concerns of a general recession.

Off on a mini-tangent, it may be worth looking a little more closely at Apple shares…

[DISCLAIMER – I am not suggesting that anyone who reads this blog pay the slightest bit of notice to my investor ramblings. I have no idea what is going to happen with any of these shares. I thought it might be nice for our readers to see what’s been going on in summary in one place all nice and easy like . If you choose to buy or sell any of the shares I have mentioned, please do so at your own risk. Neither I, nor this blog, take any responsibility for your actions - or the results and consequences of those actions in any way - should you choose to buy or sell any of the shares discussed above.]

Trends From a Marketers Perspective

If we look at trends from the perspective of consumer behavior we see:

• Continued growth in the use of image and video search
• An astronomical increase in the influence of social media marketing in the form of consumer feedback and reviews
• Impact on the traditional F-shaped heat maps generated by eye-tracking studies due to Google’s Universal search results as ‘eyes’ are drawn to image and video search results
• Increased local awareness and power due to the inclusion of the OneBox ten-pack
• Increased SERP interaction due to the roll-out of more Sitelinks and ‘Search Within a Site’ search box features

User interaction is facilitated by these features and the probability is that the trend in click-throughs will skew towards increased searcher interaction with more ‘visible’, usable, graphic listings – assuming the relevancy factor is retained.

If we look at paid search changes in Google alone we see that:

• Google has also recently revised its display URL protocol in AdWords, and
• Google has been experimenting with the inclusion of video results in the paid search listings.

What to do from a Marketer’s Perspective

• Marketers should seriously consider budgeting for continued SEO initiatives, particularly regarding internet market research on consumer search behavior.
• Assigning marketing dollars to image and video production and optimization is imperative as is integrating with relevant social communities.
• Brands need to aggressively begin to empower brand proponents and embrace reputation management (RM) tools. RM has only recently gained the recognition it should have attained years ago.
• With the astronomical growth in both social influence and social media marketing, and the impact of reviews and consumer feedback on online purchase decisions, the need for brand transparency is becoming ever more important.
• Consequently, the need to facilitate consumer feedback and interaction is key to future success in the search and ecommerce space.

Future trends…

If you know – please let me know…

• Laura can be found here and on Twitter.
• Come to the SEMCanada Conference September 2008!

After over an hour of interview time the actual live segment was less than 6 minutes long, but the reporter, consumer advocate Tony Tighe, really managed to convey the most salient points in that short space of time.

This post is about those points and how SEO was described to a mass, un-SEO-educated audience by an exceptionally talented and experienced reporter:

1. The report touched on internet market research and the importance of understanding the search query language of your online target market.
2. The importance of ranking on the first page for core converting terms was covered, as was the fact that in most cases 60% of searchers are likely to conduct a new search if their search query is not sufficiently answered on the first page of results.
3. The necessity of conducting an aggressive backlink campaign targeting industry related, authority websites with relevant anchor-text was also mentioned.
4. The fact that revenues from online businesses grew 26% to exceed $60BN last year in Canada was explained, as was the fact that only 8% of private Canadian businesses currently have a piece of the pie.

The client interviewed for the segment was one of Epiar’s Canadian clients, AxeMusic.com. What was not aired but was covered prior to cutting and editing was the following:

• AxeMusic has been an Epiar client for over 3 years. They invested in SEO, and have seen incredible results. 
• They rank number 1 for the generic term ‘online music store’ out of 12 million results
• They rank number 1 for the generic term ‘drum kits’ (1.4 million results)
• They rank number 2 for the generic term ‘acoustic bass guitars’ – after Wikipedia (4.3 million results)
• They rank number 1 for ‘electric guitars Canada’ (1 million results)
• They rank number 1 for ‘digital home pianos’. (3.7 million results)
•  Of the 256 phrases for which they were initially actively optimized (we are reoptimizing), they currently rank number 1 for 83, in the top 5 for 183, and in the top 10 for 217 – we expect that to increase
• The client is pleased with the results and was very gracious in the interview. They are, in fact, currently conducting renewed market research with Epiar for tactical refinement and a site upgrade.

I am thrilled that the media is taking an active interest in search engine optimization and beginning to assist in the mass education of its potential as an effective marketing tactic.

In closing, and on a more personal note, I can say that I now fully appreciate what they mean when they say the ‘camera adds 10 pounds’, and I’ve decided that I definitely have a not-so-good-side.

Nonetheless, being interviewed was a blast (entirely due the fact that Tony Tighe made me feel totally at ease from the outset), and my kids were entranced watching me cavort around on TV. I will not share the family comments due to the embarrassment factor any possible legal ramifications.

I also want to apologize for my recent lack of blogging. The flu is a bad thing. Very bad, and not to be repeated. I am considering moving to Barbados… Dreams are a wonderful thing

Specifically as regards SEO this might entail sharing keyword research data among same industry clients. For example, while many ‘life insurance companies’ may share many of the same terms, there are numerous issues to take into account that require specific client focused research including:

• specific brand or product name,
• geographic targeting,
• market demographics in terms of age, gender and size,
• different online and offline competitors.

This seems obvious, but many firms who under charge due to client budget constraints can be tempted to simply apply previous or generic research to clients within the same industry.

2. Dealing in extreme terms

Specifically as regards SEO this is a two-sided issue. One side of the dichotomy occurs where an SEO firm simply agrees with everything the client says and does not offer due diligence in pushing back on key requirements for deliverable performance. An example we can refer to from a previous post on search query language vs search query intent considered a scenario where a used car salesman restricted all keyword use to the terms ‘pre-owned’ and ‘automobile’ and refused to include any reference to the words ‘used’ or ‘car’ on his site.

The other extreme is where an SEO agency is so set in their project processes and procedures that they will not allow for any form of compromise and require clients to conform to their way of thinking, or no way at all.

3. Failing to consider the ramifications of code change

SEO agencies need to ensure that the client has been made fully aware of what the recommended code changes will mean to the site as a whole prior to implementation. If they do not, the client may not be able to offer insights on other concurrent campaigns. This may result in the SEO agency inadvertently corrupting code pertaining to the maintenance and performance of different specific online marketing campaigns or deliverables.

4. Providing inadequate expectation management and education

An uneducated client may very well assume that SEOing their site will result in a No.1 spot. The client’s expectations need to be determined and dealt with during the initial stages of project scoping. Many prospective clients are still unaware of what SEO is, what it can achieve, potential long term and short term commitments and objectives, and what reporting and performance data they can expect.

They may also assume that as SEO is new to them it must be relatively new to the rest of their industry, and therefore it will be a shoo-in for them to quickly get the Google position 1 for their core key term ‘unique blue baby shoes’.

I’m not saying that getting position 1 for this term is not possible, I’m saying that the client needs to be educated as to how much work it will take and why, how the algorithms work in general, why the SEO phases are important, why the entire project should be completed from research to link-building, and that they should probably not expect to get number 1 by EOD Friday.

5. Outsourcing without client knowledge

As you might imagine this becomes especially sticky if NDAs are involved. It also becomes an issue when the client calls you for progress reports and your outsource company is unavailable, or has not reported back to you in a timely manner. Despite an outsourcing SEO agency’s most diligent efforts, the agency to which they have outsourced the work may simply not get back to them within 24 hours.

Regardless of how well established the relationship, if the agency of choice does not have once daily data at least on project progression, the chances are they will get caught short by the client at one time or another.

It is usually better to explain at the outset that:

• there may be a need to outsource, and
• that the agency of choice will in fact be effectively project managing any affected phases of the project on the clients behalf, but may not always have the most recent information on the current project status.

It is also important to get in writing that the outsourcing is legally viable as far as the client is concerned.

There are numerous other ‘deadly’ SEO agency sins but many of them are more generic to agencies as a whole. Ten Most Expensive Mistakes in Consulting by Khalid Hajsaleh deals with many of those issues superbly.

 Contact: laura at semcanada dot org; tweet at …/lauracallow

From an agency perspective, there are a number of options that can be offered to clients:

• Pay Per Hour
• Pay Per Page (full page by page SEO)
• Pay Per Phase (e.g. keyword research, html element composition, copywriting, link campaign etc)
• Pay Per Revenue
• Pay Per Performance

Pay Per Hour (PPH)

This is pretty much exactly what it says. The agency applies a standard charge per hour regardless of what actual SEO work is being managed whether it is a site audit, keyword research, implementation, copywriting, link building, analytics etc.

PPH usually works very well for very both very large and very small budgets:

• Many large budgets (usually large companies) tend to prefer to pay hourly rates as it makes it easier for them to compare service offerings and to calculate ROI. It also makes it easier for them to compile comparable cost data on a month by month and project by project basis.
• Many small budgets may be very small scale projects that require quick turn around. The per hour rate provides the client with a clear, cost backed time frame from the SOW (statement of work) phase. Alternatively, a small budgets may simply mean a start up company which really needs to manage the project on a cost per hour basis due to severe budget constraints.

Pay Per Page (PPPg)

This also is pretty much what it implies, but agencies need to be careful to specify exactly what is included in a PPPg model, and what is not. For example:

• SEO audit
• Keyword Research
• Composition of html elements based on keyword research
• Copy writing
• Link Building
• Analytics
• New page creation (e.g. custom 404)
• etc

Some clients simply wish to have their home page and a few key pages audited. If this is the case, it is necessary to explain the concept of page rank bleed to non-optimized pages along with options including robots.txt and nofollow (for example). This is especially pertinent to larger sites with numerous pages which employ a CMS on the product area that they do not want optimized for cost or other reasons.

Apart from clarifying which SEO elements will be applied on a page by page basis, it is also very important to ensure that the agency provide accurate page number data in their proposal. Actually listing the pages by URL in the proposal and subsequent SOW is prudent.

PPPg requires significant initial cost workings on behalf of the agency to ensure that all resources required are included in the costing. For example:

• Insight and Planning (SEO keyword research)
• SEO Information Architecture
• Web design
• SEO Web dev
• SEO Copy writing
• Analytics
• Project managers (PM)
• Quality assurance (QA)
• etc

Pay Per Phase (PPF)

Intuitively this option is not obvious to many clients. However, when it is explained it is often the preferred option as it allows the client to pull out upon completion of any specific contracted phase. For this reason it is important that all fixed costs attributable to each project phase be applied on a phase by phase basis.

PPF basically allows the client to choose from one or all of the following core SEO project deliverables:

• Keyword research
• Implementation of keyword research (including associated design time, dev time, PM time, QA time, etc)
• Copywriting (this is often requested as a separate phase)
• Analytics
• Link campaigning

Agencies often balk at providing any PPF option if they do not start with the keyword research phase as they cannot guarantee results. If a client is determined to utilize their own research, and if an agency shows due diligence by explaining that this may not be optimal, there is no reason for the agency not to embark on a different phase. They are being paid for the phase they deliver regardless of performance. While I would not recommend doing this, it is true that some clients can be both difficult and obstinate. It is therefore often necessary to simply do what is requested to keep them on your books. If this is the case, then objections must be clearly communicated and referred to if (or when) the client starts to complain about a lack of results.

Pay Per Revenue (PPR)

PPR models start to get a little tricky. They should only be offered if the client gives the agency full control of the website from an SEO perspective and contracts to the fact that all recommendations will be implemented. For example, the agency must be allowed to:

• Conduct an SEO site audit and gap analysis
• Conduct full keyword and competitive research
• Implement all recommendations
• Manage the backlink campaign
• Have full access to analytics data
• etc

If the client has their own in house dev team, then it must be clearly stipulated in the contractual agreement between the agency and the client that the in house team implement all changes exactly as provided, and to proposed time scale.

A sticky point is that all clients have the right to review all recommendations for their web site prior to implementation. The initial proposal needs to ensure that there is a per hour charge, or a scalable oversight fee which applies to any time spent on client review of recommendations, client disputes, client nay-says, and simple client tardiness in sign-off.

PPR models usually allow for a percentage fee of every sale made in excess of a per month benchmark sales volume (taken prior to optimization as an average of the previous twelve month period). PPR model providers also need to be careful to consider the state of the economy as well as the client’s market and industry before committing themselves. For example; if an online mortgage company requires a PPR model (based on amount borrowed) for full SEO services and a recession is looming, it may not be financially feasible for an agency to embark on an SEO project for which the model is PPR.

Pay Per Performance (PPP)

This model is possibly the most convoluted, but also the most realistic option for many clients.

The easier types of PPP that an agency might offer include a fee per:

• Email sign-up
• Pay per view access document (e.g. a single research doc)
• Pay for subscription access to content (e.g.an annual membership to all pay-for research, tools, database information etc)
• Pay per conversion rate (some companies have difficulty assigning a specific value to a sale; e.g. a marketing VP who works for a hospital and has been tasked with increasing new patient visits to the in-hospital optometric specialists. Gaining an average cost per client over a 12 month period is usually the best option as it changes this model into a more intuitive PPR model, but it is not always possible. These models need to have revenue applied on an incremental percentage conversion rate point, which further complicates matters.)
• Pay per click-through-rate (this is usually not optimal for any online business apart from one simply attempting to increase brand or product awareness in a highly competitive or niche field. It should be complemented by some kind of sign-up or specific trackable page interaction.)

More ‘convoluted’ PPP options include applying specific scalable charges to:

• New exposure (new rankings) in the top 10 listings for:
  • Specific keywords
  • Pages
  • Microsites
• Increased exposure (improved rankings) in the top 10 listings for:
  • Specific keywords
  • Pages
  • Microsites
• Maintenance of top 10 listings for:
  • Specific keywords
  • Pages
  • Microsites

These options require at the very least:

• Very carefully worded proposals
• High (scalable) per ranking charges to include every facet of the SEO work that goes into the project
• Full agency access to the entire site
• Full agency SEO recommendation implementation (owner-management of in-house client team if necessary)
• Full disclosure to the agency by the client of any changes made to the site that were not agency initiated or recommended
• etc [yes, there is more (scary, no? ) - but it depends on project and client relationship]

While engines crawl, index and rank pages, the home page authority plays a very big role, as does the fact that engines can ban or penalize sites and not pages if they identify manipulative abuse.

These last PPP options can, by definition, be a very risky option for an agency, and prove a great option for clients. But as we all know high risk often leads to high return, so it depends on the agency. If an agency should choose to consider this PPP model it is imperative that they have full understanding of the internet market place, competition, and the respective apparent algorithm’s perception of the site as an authority in it’s topical area. It is also vital that the agency be fully aware of algorithmic changes, economic variables that might affect the target market and the industry, and consumer awareness of (and interest in) both the generic market and specific product or service online offering.

Conclusion

Providing a range of revenue models for clients can increase business in the form of interest and project initiation. Some models may be best left untouched for some agencies.

Determining the advantages, disadvantages, risks and opportunities of each revenue model needs to be done at an agency level. It should also be based at the very least on knowledge of each respective client’s online industry competitiveness, market penetration, target market awareness and the financial capability of the agency to carry costs if the PPP model does not return the anticipated results.

Laura can be reached at: laura at semcanada dot org

You can follow her on Twitter

Or you can view her public CV via LinkedIn