To push the point home, I recently ran a series of advertisements for Forge and conducted several tests to demonstrate just how powerful ad copy is. I began by collecting a very targeted list of keywords relating to pay-per-click management services, which I planned on directing to the Pay Per Click Management page here on Forge’s site. Keep in mind, ad copy isn’t just about attracting clicks but also helping to establish a good quality score. I ran each of the below advertisements one at a time and collected around 50 clicks for each to get fairly accurate statistics.

The first ad I created was rather generic:

Note that this ad does include some best practices such as utilizing a call-to-action (Start Now!), but overall I expected it to get a fairly low quality score as the keywords do not particularly match up with those of Forge’s Pay Per Click Management page. Using a uniform keyword scheme in ads and to the landing page is a common mistake, but intentional in this case for demonstrative purposes.

After setting an appropriate Max Bid value and letting the ad run for a few days, it resulted in a dismal 0.22% Click Through Rate (CTR) on the search engine results page alone (this doesn’t include the Content Network, which in most cases drastically reduces the CTR.) Additionally, the quality score was a horrific “4″, meaning I was not only ranking poorly, but paying more than it needed to.

Alright, a small improvement:

Trying a slightly different direction, I added “management” which is only part of my keyword scheme, in addition to some very exciting ad copy to attempt to draw attention. A few days later the ad was looking at a 0.39% CTR and a quality score of “5″–a minor improvement, but an improvement none the less.

Getting the hang of it:

This is where I really began to kick in the usage of best practices, along with adding some verbal credibility to the advertisement. You can see the the keyword scheme is in line with my landing page, as well as noting I was a “Certified Pay Per Click Manager,” which is sure to draw more attention and interest than any Joe Schmoe that dabbles in per-per-click advertising. The entire ad copy is one large call-to-action and I added a dynamic URL structure in the display URL to allow for the ad to match up with more queries. Lo-and-behold, the ad received a generous 1.19% CTR and a quality score of “7″.

One Final Adjustment:

Now having lined up not only titles, but the ad copy with the keyword scheme, maintaining a call-to-action, and allowing for dynamic titles and display URLs, this advertisement took the cake with a CTR of 1.64% and maintaining the quality score of “7″. In addition, the cost-per-click of this ad was $0.34 less expensive than the advertisement we started with.

I hope this demonstrates how critical it is to vary your advertisement text, whether it is you or the professional you hired doing such. Good luck!

As has been the case for some time, Pay Per Click campaigns are the definitive and proven way to quickly drive relevant traffic to an array of pages on your website. In addition, I personally find Pay Per Click Management the most enjoyable role to play for my clients as there are often times ridiculous amounts of ROI involved. There are few things that get people more excited than seeing a monthly report with large, green numbers scattered about. After all, more sales or signups means raises for employees, vacations for families, and less worry in a troubled economy.

Unfortunately, in my years of experience I have seen pay per click campaigns placed into the hands of unskilled practitioners and spiral out of control with little to no return. Thus, I cannot caution enough that when you are seeking to employ someone to handle your campaign, be sure to question on them on their experience, credentials, and a measurement of actual ROI that he/she/they have provided to clients in the past. At a glance, Adwords, adCenter and Yahoo! Search Marketing seem like campaign tools that can be easily tackled and handled. However, one must realize that these are programs that offer certifications for a reason–they are as dangerous as they are wildly effective.

The unlimited potential of Pay Per Click is what really fuels my passion for providing the service to my clients. With the right budget, the right research, and a skilled hand, you can create a campaign that not just drives results, but demands more of a business.

If you have any success or horror stories about Pay Per Click, I would love to hear them! And of course, if you would like a no-obligation campaign audit, you can always feel free to contact me.

Just like when investing in any marketing campaign, results should be tracked in order to determine the ROI of that campaign and see how it compares to other endeavors you and your company are engaging in to drive sales. You wouldn’t spend $5000 on a radio advertisement and not see how many leads or sales you received from it, would you? Similarly, you do not want to spend $10,000 on an SEO campaign only for them to say, “Oh yeah, things are going great! Traffic is up 200%!”

Establish KPIs and Hold Them To It!

In the initial discussions with the SEO practitioner(s), you need to establish Key Performance Indicators that will be tracked and measured on a consistent basis. Tracking organic rankings and traffic is not enough. If you are selling a product or service online, obviously leads and sales are KPIs that you want to track – after all, that IS why you are employing an SEO, is it not? Also, keep in mind that you may need to discuss conversion rate optimization versus search engine optimization and see which part of your online presence needs the most emphasis to increase your bottom line the most efficiently. As we’ve said before, there is no point in driving traffic if the problematic issue is a poorly designed website or landing page.

After having decided on the KPIs you want to track, hold the SEO company to it and demand results. You are more than likely spending a considerable amount to get your website where it needs to be when it comes to being found and you need to make sure that money is being spent effectively. If anything seems shady on your reports, ask questions. Ensure that both you and your SEO practitioner are tracking conversions on your website and make sure you know where your traffic is coming from. Compare notes and don’t be duped into believing that they are doing excellent work just because they say so!

Kate Morris of Distilled recently posted on the SEOmoz blog and defined CRO as:

“Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is simply focusing on the conversion as the core metric when optimizing any particular page. I personally see this as an offshoot of Landing Page Optimization (LPO) and is sometimes seen as just another way of saying LPO.”

The key point here being that Landing Page Optimization has always been a focus of good SEO professionals, though perhaps not prioritized as much as this new class of Conversion Rate Optimization professionals who make this their sole focus.

There is an age-old contention in the industry as to whether driving traffic with SEO or converting more of that traffic with CRO is of higher value. It is not uncommon for us to work with a client that is looking to generate more leads or sales from their website, but the core issue is not their traffic it is the website itself. On the other hand, several clients have wonderfully designed websites with clear calls-to-action, intuitive interfaces and low purchase barriers, but simply don’t have exposure they need to really be successful.

Which Service? And When?

The decision of to focus on landing page / conversion rate optimization versus search engine optimization is unique for every client and website. In most cases clients benefit from both services, resulting in a highly visited website that converts optimally, though we generally recommend starting with conversion rate optimization before driving traffic. After all, it doesn’t matter if you are sending 100,000 visitors a month to a website if they leave as soon as they arrive. In contrast, if a website is only receiving 50 visitors a day but converts well, the end result is much better.

In summary, when approaching a consultant or firm for search engine optimization, don’t be surprised if their first initiative has nothing to do with driving traffic to your website. Good SEO professionals have a single goal in mind and that is to make your website more profitable and the work required to do that comes in a variety of forms.

Do you have any examples of when you used Conversion Rate Optimization to increase the performance of your website? Let us know in the comments below, we’d love to hear your story!

Initially, we establish how much knowledge the client has about the work they are asking us to perform and then immediately clear up any misconceptions they have with sound documentation. A wonderful recent example of this is how a client did not understand how Quality Score for Google Adwords worked and was skeptical when we suggested adding a few pages of valuable content to his website.

We explained that one of the factors Google looks at for Quality Score is where the pay-per-click advertisement links to and what content that page has. Thus, by adding a few pages to his site that detailed individual services, not only would the Quality Score of specific advertisements go up, yielding lower cost-per-click values, but the pages could also be used for organic rankings. To help prove our claims, we provided the client with some Quality Score documentation straight from Google. The result? A client that was not only better educated about the service he was getting, but visibly excited for newfound possibilities.

With myths debunked and trust established, we maintain an open line of communication with our clients and explain in detail the process that we are going to take to garner results. Within the conversations about our work, we often find that our educated clients ask more informed questions and are able to assist us in making the best decisions for their business, yielding a very healthy working relationship.

Our goal as a company is not simply to provide a service, but to provide knowledge. Not only do our clients get the results they deserve with a substantial ROI, but they learn how to be – excuse our French – bullshit detectors for SEO and out web related services. Thus, we are fervent believers that client education is essential to conducting good business.

Improving your content may be very easy, depending on your current writing skills. There are many things you can do to insure you content writing is good, and you don’t necessarily need to be the greatest writer. It all starts with making sure that you are writing something that has value. There is no point to publishing anything on the Internet that does add value. With that said, the following will help to prevent bad content, and help you improve. Additionally, this will lead to more traffic.

1. Leave Out the Filler

There is no reason to include useless words in your content. Why would you want to put something on your site that was worthless? Every word should have a purpose, and there should not be any waffle or filler content. An example of filler, would be as follows.

“That was a really good page of content, it had lots of good stuff. You will get a lot of traffic from that content.”

Those two sentences add absolutely no value to the page. They are really just opinion. Instead, you want to give the facts. Tell the reader why the page of content is really good.

2. Have Good Scan Ability

As you read this article, you will notice that it is very easy to scan. There are sub headings, and the content is broken up. That is how you should write all of your pages. The reason for this, is so the reader can quickly and easily scan through the content. When you are writing, keep in mind that you are writing for the Web. Most users do not want to spend a lot of time reading. They want to find what they are looking for and move on.

3. Make your Writing Informative

There is a time and a place to write creatively. The Internet, is rarely the place to do so. People are looking for information. If you give them what they are looking for, they will come back again for more. Of course, if you are running a celebrity blog, then your writing should probably also be creative. For the most part though, creative writing gets in the way of writing a solid informative article.

4. Link to Other Relevant Pages

When it makes sense, you should link to other sources. Especially, if it is another page within your site. It is not only good user navigation, but also very good for SEO. As you write each page, get in the habit of keeping your other pages in mind. If you have another page that is more thoroughly written about a topic mentioned, then link to it. Also, do not be afraid to link out to good relevant sources. That will add credibility to your site, and could potentially lead to those sites linking back to you.

5. Go Back to Old Content

You would be amazed at the results you will get from going back and reading through old content on your site(s). By reading through the pages you wrote a few months ago, you will be able to look at it with a fresh perspective. A quick rewrite and some additions could drastically improve your content. Also, take the time to consider your keyword placement and your on page SEO. Go back and do a little keyword research based on that page, and make sure you are aiming to rank for the right keywords. Having indexed old content and making some small changes can lead to some huge increases in search engine rankings.

6. Consider Hiring a Content Company

If you are no good at writing, and you just do not get it, then you may want to consider a content company. Hiring someone that offers article writing services is a good option if you are struggling with content. Additionally, if you are too busy to write content yourself, this is also a good option. A good content company will be able to increase your search rankings solely by developing good content. They can also help with other forms of writing as well.

Engagement has commonly been noted by many professionals as the way to measure the success of your Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Buzz, Youtube and other social media accounts, but companies must realize that even if their level of engagement is high, if your are not making any money as a result of your social media presence it isn’t benefiting you as much as another advertising avenue may. Now, don’t confuse this as us saying that engagement and conversation are not important – they most certainly are – but there should come some sort of positive cashflow as a result of the time and money you spend within the social media sphere.

Measuring Social Media Campaign ROI

Naturally the resulting question is, “How do we track our social media ROI?” One of the less complicated methods for companies to utilize are UTM tags. UTM tags allow you to segment your visitors and create specific campaigns within Google Analytics (which is free) and as a result you can track how much of your traffic from your various social media endeavors convert. A practical example would be if you post a link on twitter to a book you wrote and want to see how many people that clicked that link actually bought the book from your site.

By adding the UTM tags to the URL and converting it to a tinyurl, your followers will not only click the link but distribute it to others, who may or may not be on Twitter. Because that UTM tag is attached, your analytics will show that those clicks came as a result of your tweet. Thus, you can check your analytics and see how many of those people purchased the book. From there, you can either measure the ROI manually, or you can setup goals to automatically determine how much you made as a result.

UTM tags are only one way that you can track your social media campaigns’ performance, but we have found that is generally the easiest for companies who are aiming to do it themselves. No matter what you decide to do when it comes to social media, please keep in mind that your time is worth something. If you are spending hours upon hours getting involved in social media, or even paying an agency or consultant to do it on your behalf, make sure that you track the ROI. After all, you wouldn’t run a TV advertisement without seeing how many sales you got from it, would you?

To quote from the article:

“All company owners know they want to market and want to take their product or service to the masses, they just aren’t sure how best to do it. Luckily for them, the basic principles of marketing a new venture are easy and can be effectively done by anyone.”

So, without further adieu, you can find the article here.

Our good friend Kevin Spence over at MakeItRank.com invited us to guest post on his SEO blog and to share some more of our experiences in working with clients. As a result, we compiled a list of some of the best tools for seo companies to use to interact with their clients. The article is highly comprehensive that discusses how the tools mentioned allow for high levels of communication and transparency, ultimately resulting in client trust and loyalty. We hope you enjoy the article as much as we enjoyed writing it!

You can view the article here.

Local Organic Ranking Domination

One of our initial key goals that we not only set for some of our clients, but ourselves, was that we wanted to establish local dominance on a city and state level. Even though our services are international, it’s particularly nice to have a “home base” where you are the known figure for a certain product or service where you can meet you clients face to face. Thus, since we are based in Lexington, KY we initiated a strategy that would yield top results.

Local Keyword Rankings *

• SEO Company KY – #1 Organic Ranking
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• Search Marketing Lexington, KY – #2 Organic Ranking
• Search Marketing Kentucky – #2 Organic Ranking