3 Google Analytics Tips for Search Engine Marketing
By Trada


Do you use Google Analytics to see who visits your website? Do you use Google Analytics when determining how to market your website? Be honest…do you even know how to use Google Analytics?

Here are 3 tips on how to make Google Analytics work for you in your search engine marketing campaigns, inspired by our latest webinar, ‘Google Analytics for Good (and Evil)’ hosted by Trada’s own Anna Sawyer and Trada Founder and CEO Niel Robertson.

1. Know when your landing pages are converting to schedule Ad run-time

This is also called day parting…which is the art of knowing what time of day you should run your marketing campaigns to get the most bang-for-your-buck. Using Google Analytics, you can see when your clicks are converting and allocate your PPC budget accordingly (a.k.a. save money!).

To start, set your date range in the upper-right hand corner of your screen (i.e. June 1-30). Next, we want to see the average visits/day broken down by the hour. To do this, go to Visitors>Visitor Trending>Visit and click on the “graph by hour” button (with a picture of a clock face). This provides a look at when the bulk of your traffic is reaching your website.

You can go one step deeper into this and look specifically at just one place on your website. If you’re company values social media, you’ll know it’s important to see what time people are reading your blog. To do this, click on ‘Advanced Segments’ in the lower-right column of the screen and then click on ‘Create New Custom Segment’ on the following screen in the upper-right corner. Create a segment that includes all pages starting with your specific blog URL (i.e. All of Trada’s blog links start in /blog) using the ‘Landing Page’ dimension. Save the Custom Segment and add the new blog segment to the filter (found in bar above the calendar) of your Visits report to cross-reference.

Do you see a difference? Where are the interesting spikes in traffic? Do people visit your blog only during the morning but overall site visitors are higher on the weekend? Tweak Ad campaigns to match peak hours on your site.* If your AdWords aren’t scheduled correctly, you might be missing out on good leads and possible conversion.

*Quick Tip: To schedule ad display times in Google AdWords go to settings>ad scheduling>set>and add copy to all days/weekdays.

2. Figure out which search engine is converting for you.

Google AdWords generally runs the show in paid search when it comes to impressions and overall click volume. But it’s important to ask the question: statistically is Google converting better than Yahoo or Bing? This is simple to figure out once you create a custom report, and is an especially important metric for e-retailers or anyone wanting more than just traffic from their search marketing campaigns. Knowing the quality of your traffic allows you to take advantage of every advertising network and teaches you how to decipher which ones work for you. Yes, advertising on all three networks is cumbersome – but if you are getting more conversions per impressions on Bing…. it’s worth the time sink.

Go to go ‘Traffic Sources’, filter by paid search, click on your Goal Set tab (assuming you’ve set a conversion goal) and then sort by search engine to see what search engine is converting the highest. You can also set up a custom report to see which is driving the most leads if you have multiple goal/goal funnels through the ‘Custom Reports’ section found in the lower-left corner of your analytics screen. (Comparing paid search conversion/sort by custom report goals). The moral of the story is: if your ads are getting 20x more visitor traffic in Google, but 10x more conversion traffic in Yahoo, you probably should put more time in where the value is.

3. Analyze your SEM data to determine your SEO strategy

It’s important to strategically build custom landing pages to align with the offer you’re advertising in paid search. But this can be difficult if you aren’t exactly sure how or what people are searching for before they find your company. Aligning landing pages with offers, services and tying this back into your advertising will give you a needed SEO boost as well as help keep your paid traffic interested in your content/offerings after they’ve click on you ad.

First, take a look at the keywords people are using to find your site. Remember, Google Analytics is oriented for organic search. The trick to turning this SEO data in SEM strategy lies in assigning the top keywords to their own specific landing pages and ads to match.

Because Google Analytics only shows organic search keywords, before looking in Google Analytics, be sure to check out the “search terms report” within Google AdWords – which is based on SEM keywords. The “search terms report” in AdWords show the actual phrases typed into Google search that triggered your paid ad to display that resulted in a click.

Cross-reference the difference between the top search terms reported by Google Analytics and the top search terms reported in your Google AdWords report. By integrating some of the top keywords in Google Analytics and the top keywords in AdWords, you’ll add value, increase relevancy and boot your SEO while better understanding your SEM traffic. AdWords and Analytics are good for different things, but together they are can be an invaluable toolset.

As you can see, using Google Analytics for good (and evil) lets you control your data. Hopefully this post will give you the courage to use Google Analytics to its fullest potential. Feel free to direct any Google Analytics questions to Trada’s CEO Niel Robertson on Twitter . Remember: use your newly found Google Analytics information for good, not evil. And may the force be with you.

3 Essential Small Business Search Marketing Trends

Lee Oden Top Rank

“Qualified”, “showing intent to buy”, “high conversion rate” and many other phrases are used to describe search engine marketing. As a $16 billion industry, Search Marketing including SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC ads (pay per click) represent a substantial opportunity for small businesses to connect with customers at the moment they are looking for products and services to buy.

Even though Search Marketing presents an attractive opportunity to grow online sales, many businesses are too busy running their companies to stay on top of future trends. To that end, here are three search marketing trends worth paying attention to:

1. Online & Offline Marketing Integration - Forrester Research estimates $917 billion worth of retail sales in 2009 were “Web-influenced” in contrast to $155 billion of consumer goods sold online in the same year. Small businesses must pay attention to customer search online influencing offline purchases as well as the influence of the in-store experience on searching and purchasing online.

2. Mobile Device and Local Search – Companies must recognize consumer trends towards mobile search with the proliferation of smart phones. The web experience has definitively extended beyond the personal computer to mobile devices such as iPhones, Blackberries and iPads. Marketers must understand their customers’ use of mobile search and what the marketing opportunities are.

Companies that serve customers in specific regions or with geographically specific needs must be present in local search results, map results and specific geo-location queries. Segmenting potential customers through geo targeting with paid search advertisements will help focus the right ads on the right customers.

3. Social Media Advertising – Savvy small business marketers are increasingly realizing that the opportunity to reach customers extends beyond traditional paid search into the booming social media space. Having surpassed Google as the most visited website for the week ending March 13, 2010 and with over 400 million registered users, Facebook offers a significant audience that shouldn’t be ignored. Social networks like Facebook can provide online marketers hyper-targeted advertising opportunities that can tap into new customer segments and serve as a complement to other paid search programs.

Take the 2011 Digital Marketing Poll

Lee Odden on Jun 17th, 2010 Online Marketing, Reader Polls

It’s safe to say 2009 and 2010 were breakout years for social media. Our last Digital Marketing poll showed 6 of the top 10 tactics as social media complemented by search engine marketing and email. Slimmer marketing budgets and mass media attention have inspired a rush to many types social media marketing tactics bringing a certain over-optimism about what the social web can do for a company’s bottom line.

With the economy recovering slowly, what will 2011 bring? Are social media and content marketing the glue that brings multi channel marketing together? Is 2011 finally the year for mobile? Will companies focus on more holistic online marketing?

Click Here To Go To The Poll

We’d love to hear your opinions in the 2011 TopRank Digital Marketing Poll. Please take the poll here and share it, post it, bookmark it, like it and lick it if you want:

What Bros Icing Bros Can Teach Us About Marketing (And Humanity)

Here's another interesting and entertaining article about social and viral marketing. Unfamiliar with the term of "icing" (not hockey)? The read more here:

Written by Elisa Gabbert
Posted In: Online Marketing Blog Roundup


Thank god somebody is talking about "icing" from a marketing perspective, because I really wanted to write about this and just wasn't sure how. And by "this," I mean the bizarre game/meme known as icing, as documented by the site Bros Icing Bros. And by "somebody," I mean the New York Times. Earlier this week the NYT's J. David Goodman asked, in the form of an embarrassingly lame headline, "Popular New Drinking Game Raises Question, Who’s ‘Icing’ Whom?" (At least they didn't misuse the phrase "begs the question.")

If you're not a frat boy and you've somehow missed this cultural phenomenon, it consists of one "bro" presenting another "bro" with a Smirnoff Ice, frequently lukewarm, as a kind of dare. To maintain his honor the challenged bro must drop to one knee and chug it on the spot, regardless of context. The only defense (there is one, which is one way icing differs from a crane kick) is to carry a bottle of Smirnoff Ice on your own person. If a bro attempts to ice you and you're holding, said bro must chug both malt beverages.

So who, indeed, is icing whom, besides bros? If you think this sounds like a viral marketing scheme cooked up by Smirnoff, you're not alone. Goodman writes:

Amid suspicion that the trend is an elaborate viral marketing campaign by Smirnoff, which the company has denied, new icing photos are posted daily on various blogs, Twitter and Facebook … The game has exposed the mercurial line between guerrilla advertising and genuine social media trends, raising questions about how young consumers can know when they have co-opted a brand for their own purposes, and when that brand has co-opted them.

Is there any reason to doubt that Smirnoff is behind it? Let's look at the evidence from both sides. A few reasons to believe it's Smirnoff's doing:

The game is responsible for a huge spike in sales.
"Icing" has allowed Smirnoff to penetrate a young, male demographic with a beverage that this fratty clientele would typically consider a "chick drink."
The whole thing seems too wildly contrived to have been conceived by an innocent third party, and then to actually catch on without some backing.
But there is also some evidence that Smirnoff didn't start the trend, whether or not the company is enjoying the benefits:

Part of the premise of the game is that Smirnoff Ice is gross, so you wouldn't want to chug one. If someone handed you a delicious frosty beverage, drinking it wouldn't be much of a challenge. So even if sales are spiking, "icing" can be seen as a reputation management issue.
Along the same lines, the game interferes with Smirnoff's "Drink responsibly" messaging.
There's some evidence that it began organically. The "exact origins are murky" (according to the NYT), but "Members of Pi Kappa Alpha at the College of Charleston said they were the first to put the rules online, posting to BroBible.com in early April." But it's possible that Smirnoff caught wind of the game and helped it spread.
For what it's worth, Smirnoff denies any involvement. (You'd expect that of course.)
I'm pretty cynical about big corporations, not to mention malt beverages, but I don't feel entirely comfortable ascribing these shenanigans to Smirnoff. They may be racking up sales this summer, but "icing" has the feel of a trend that will die soon and die hard. Then once again a six-pack of Smirnoff Ice will be the last thing left in the cooler after a bad BBQ.

If this is Smirnoff's marketing strategy, it's a pretty dumb strategy—in a few months what people are going to remember is the sickly aftertaste, and the glory and hilarity of making other dudes experience it—not the good times they had sitting around the fire sipping bottle after bottle. This might help Smirnoff Ice become a legend, but in a bad way—as with Zima or Clear Pepsi.

So what are the lessons for marketers? What can we learn from icing, if anything?

Since the trend is still going on, we don't know yet if Smirnoff will experience a lasting boost in sales. Hell, it's possible that half these "bros" actually like the taste, and are just pretending to hate it. But my prediction is that once the meme plays itself out, sales will crash back down and probably dip lower than before—Ice will feel "so Summer 2010" that no one will be able to bring themselves to buy it, except maybe ironically in a few years, if it still exists by then. So if you're coming up with viral marketing strategies, try to create one that celebrates your product rather than trashes it.
And if Smirnoff really has nothing to do with it? The lesson is, it's pretty hard to control your brand. The only thing you can really do it try to make products that don't suck.
Note to my coworkers: I am aware that we have a full six-pack of Smirnoff Ice in the fridge here at WordStream, for some reason. Let the record show that I preemptively refuse to drink an Ice, even if iced—they're not gluten-free. Peace.

Other Search Marketing Highlights This Week
Google announced that its new indexing system, Caffeine, is officially complete. They claim that "Caffeine provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index, and it's the largest collection of web content we've offered," meaning new pages (blog posts, news) will be indexed faster and show up for relevant queries sooner.

On Search Engine People, Ann Smarty offers a checklist of must-do SEO tasks before you publish a blog post.

Chris Brogan explains why he's going to jump out of a plane.

Lisa Barone lists 10 books to read or reread this summer, including Don't Make Me Think, Words That Sell, and BBQ Makes Everything Better. (I've now used "BBQ" twice in this post. Wait, make that thrice.)

The aforementioned Lisa wasn't able to live-blog SMX due to an injury, but Susan Esparza live-blogged away at the Bruce Clay blog. Some highlights includes sessions on pumping up PPC conversions, a Q&A between Danny Sullivan and Matt Cutts, and how to optimize for Google vs. Bing.

NYT, HuffPo Still Don't Get SEO

Hey Everyone,

Here's a pretty interesting article about how the NYT and HuffPo don't really get SEO and they have shown their lack of understanding in some pretty amusing ways. This article comes from Elisa Gabbert with Word Stream. To View the article click here.

6 Phases of the Web Site Design and Development Process

Hello Everyone,

Check out this quick article for 7 Steps for a successful website. While this article is geared towards a very small company or home business, it does prove helpful in forcing the individual to actually consider why they really want a website and its function for the company.

To learn more click here:

SEO Tips for Small Businesses

Hello Small Businesses! I ran across this article discussing 7 Essential Tips for Small Biz SEO and thought it was a very helpful article. If you have any questions regarding some of these points or would like to discuss further feel free to post a comment and we'll get back with you ASAP!

Thanks and enjoy:
mSL Team

Article from Top Rank (Toprankblog.com)

1. Turn everything into content
Content is still King. Search engines still love unique content, and the more useful content there is on your website, the more opportunities you give searchers to find your products and services. Rob Snell gave a fabulous presentation at PUBCON South, and one of the main takeaways was how to turn everything on an e-commerce site into content. Here are some ways to “free” extra content on your site. Here were some of his tips:

•Record everything and transcribe it all into text. Interviews, conversations, product DVD’s, personal opinions, etc.
•Turn support emails into FAQ pages on your site
•Turn PDF’s into HTML pages (although PDF files can rank on their own)
•Start generating videos of everything

2. Make it personal
Small businesses have a major advantage that most bigger businesses don’t: A personal voice. By making your voice heard, you’re showcasing your authority in your market, and adding trust. Buyers love hearing recommendations or reviews, and are more influenced to buy from those vs. product feature and benefit pages. Consumers use search engines to research products, and other than the lowest price, they’re looking for recommendations. Give them some! If you have a catalog, make a buyers guide in addition to product listings. Show you’re an expert and turn your knowledge into personalized business. Teaching is a great way to make sales.

3. Optimize for local search
Odds are that your small business can take advantage of local search. 63% of consumers use search engines to research information about local companies. Start with Thomas’ excellent guide on local SEO tips that range from claiming your profile to adding media to submitting to content aggregators.

4. Improve your site’s speed
Small business sites can be notoriously slow. Site speed is usually one of the last things that small business owners care about. But now that Google has introduced speed into the ranking algorithm, it’s time to seriously start checking out how fast your site loads. But more importantly, when you improve your site’s speed, you’re also improving your customer’s experience. Don’t make users wait to buy your products! You can use tools like Web Page Analyzerand the Firefox extension YSlow! to see what’s taking your pages so long to load. If you’re using a blog or shopping cart software, search for caching plugins for your software.

5. Refine internal linking
Internal links can add value to your site considerably, but many small businesses don’t understand that you have to develop a linking mindset in order to really capitalize on it. It takes extra time to research old post links and include them in your articles, but the benefits are great. Sites like Copyblogger do an excellent job of referencing older posts in their articles. Not only does this strategy help with SEO, it also adds to the user experience, giving them more Think long and hard about your site’s linking architecture. Is your navigation schema getting to all of your content? Aside from adding sitemaps, related products and posts keep both visitors and search engines happy. Popular posts lists are also great for making sure your best content is getting seen and linked to.

6. Create content for people
If you’re generating content specifically for search engines, you’re missing a major chunk of your market. Humans don’t like to be bamboozled, and when they come to a page on your site that was obviously made for a search engine, they’ll leave in a hurry and never come back. Plus, only humans can link to your site. If you want to get more inbound links and retain customers, you need to write for customers. The goal to higher search results is still to get more people to your site. After all, search engines can’t buy anything from you.

7. Don’t fret about getting nofollow links
It’s easy to get carried away with only trying to get incoming links without the dreaded nofollow. But really, a link is still a link. If that link can bring in a potential customer, then you want it. If you’re only looking for specific types of incoming links, than odds are you’re missing lots of the low-hanging backlink fruit and worrying about the wrong things.

Who knows how long the nofollow link will be around? If you’re smart, you worry about what’s most important: creating great content. You can’t control how Google ranks things in the future. Focus on things you can control, like creating a killer experience for your customers. In the end, if you focus on giving your customers and visitors great content, many aspects of SEO will take care of itself. Great content attracts great links, especially when you promote it and leverage social SEO channels of distribution. If it’s good for your potential customers, odds are it’s good for SEO too.