In 2011, with the social inter-webs, time have certainly changed. While the core concepts of SEO (content+links) are still true, you’ll have a hard time getting listed on the first page of Google without using different strategies.

What can you do?

Consider alternate media uses.

When you look at the Google results listings today, you’d notice the blended results for many searches: video, books, news, pictures – even real-time search (Twitter). With so many options to get listed, it would be un-wise to not consider optimization within these channels.

Go Video.

Create a 90-120 second “tips” video to begin. Upload it to YouTube. Since YouTube is owned by Google, and is the #2 search engine in the world, it’s a good place to be.

Optimize It.

Make sure to include keywords in the TITLE of the video. Add a description using keywords you are trying to target. (Tip: Add the company/business URL first, so it can be seen in the description).

Share, Contribute.

Subscribe to other channels in your niche, share into your network, and become a listener first. Watch what others are doing, and try to think of “how can I add value”, not “how can I advertise”. There is a new, different thinking here.

Depending on your keyword, and levels of competitiveness, you’ll see your video listed on the first page of Google pretty quickly. And, if you need some help, give the YouTube page some incoming links as well.

Have you tried it yet?

Related articles

• Get More Views on YouTube (chrisbrogan.com)
• Getting started with search engine optimization (pandia.com)
• YouTube Keyword Tool and Video Optimization Techniques (searchenginewatch.com)

Are you ready to make changes to your corporate web-pages? It may be a smart thing to do, but as with anything in SEO – all factors as a total matters. If you have poor user experience, or low traffic, you might start with that instead.

Here are some resources to help you:

http://www.webpagetest.org/

http://code.google.com/speed/

http://code.google.com/speed/articles/

Quality Scores - Your Golden Eggs

The Quality Score (rated 1-10) on the Google Adwords platform is much discussed, and equally mis-understood. If you know the secrets to elevation of the scores (higher is better) – it can be a game changer for your business. For example, the keyword quality score improvement will help on your overall costs of campaigns and CPC (cost per click), ad rankings and more. You’ll sleep better at night, having obsessed about it for months.

Consider these tips and resources to help improve your quality score for advertising with Google paid search.

1. What is the Google Quality Score?

Every keyword you bid on inside the Adwords system is assigned a score. It’s done real-time, and gets assigned once somebody executes a query on Google and clicks on your ad. It helps Google – to help you:

• Get your ad shown
• Reveal the cost if ad is clicked
• Increase or decrease ad ranking – what position to show your ad

Here’s what Google says about Quality Score:

“Quality Score helps ensure that only the most relevant ads appear to users on Google and the Google Network. The AdWords system works best for everybody — advertisers, users, publishers, and Google too — when the ads we display match our users’ needs as closely as possible. Relevant ads tend to earn more clicks, appear in a higher position, and bring you the most success”.

2. What about Relevance?

The main topic of discussion when “quality” is discussed on all search engines, and for Google in specific, is “relevancy”. Does the query match the expectation of the user? Does a link back to web-page match the link and is it topically relevant? (for SEO, search engine optimization). If so, you’ll have a much better chance to rank and get a boost.  The quality score looks at this important model, because ultimately, nobody should (and cannot) be able to simply buy your way into the first position for very long (unless you have seriously deep pockets, and don’t have a brain). It should always be considered, and having keywords tied into the ad copy itself, along with correct matching type (broad, phrase, exact) into campaigns and ad group, gives you a serious head start.  Example: If an ad is clicked 500 times at $2 dollars, Google makes more money if you have 1,000 clicks at $1.50, for example. So, Google wants the clicks, versus just high buys with ads that nobody clicks. (think about this important concept again!). The truth is – it’s set up so that Google, the searcher and the advertiser wins. Users find what they want, more traffic to you, lowered cost for advertiser, better ranking, and more money back to Google.

3. Does Google Reveal The Quality Score?

Inside the Adwords interface, you can see the Quality Score for each of your keywords. However, it’s an optional column that you have check off. The number shown is an approximate value, and a good average is 7, and very common. 1 (one) represents a poor quality score, 10 (ten) is optimum. Don’t obsess, just work through this article, and measure yourself.

4. Why is Quality Score Important?

Ad ranking (positions) on the results pages are important, since it affects click-through-rates (CTR) and bids.

Remember this formula: Bid x Quality Score = Ad Rank.

A paid search specialist should spend time looking at options for improving quality scores because of the above.

5. Things You Can Do to Improve Your Quality Indicators

This list is not exhaustive, but will get you into positive territory, if followed.

• The historical Click-Through-Rate (CTR) of the ad matching keyword on Google (search network)
• The total account history – measure by the overall CTR to ads in total, including keywords
• The quality of your landing page
• Relevance matching factors from keywords to ads within ad groups
• Overall account performance in the geo area when ad shown

Google reveals these things to assist webmasters and advertisers help themselves. However, many of the critical low level factors and secrets are kept safe, so we make some assumptions along the way.  They can change the dials at any time, and not tell us.

We heave learned however, that the CTR of your keywords is the most critical influence on the QS (Quality Score) . The proof is shown because of ads clicked more over time have the biggest impact.  Furthermore, the relevancy of matching from query to ad, to landing page is very much part of this exercise. Landing pages themselves impact the QS in either direction, and you are serving yourself well if applying the right principles to landing page construction. More on that later.

6. Recommendations for fast campaign and landing page optimizations.

A) If somebody is searching for [chocolate cookies], you are helping scoring by providing close alignment of keywords to ad groups. The ad copy in your text should be tightly targeted. Small ad groups, with close relationships of keywords and matching types will help immensly. For example, you can create 3 adgroups to test “chocolate cookie B” (Broad), “chocolate cookie P” (phrase) and “”chocolate cookie E” (exact). Inside each ad group, you would use a limited set of keywords, from 1-10, for example. Also, make sure to include negative keywords. For example, at a higher level, a ‘cookie’ could also be an’ http cookie’ , and would not be related. A negative match type would not create an impression for that keyword, ie. your ad would not be shown.

B) Test, test, test – your ad copy. You must improve your click-through-rate (CTR), and it will improve quality. The copy in the ad is absolutely critical. We often will recommend adding 3-4 variations of the ad, pause 2 of them, and use the built-in A/B mechanisms to show the ads. Note: Make sure to remove the “optimize” setting within the campaign settings. It should allow you to monitor the balance of ads shown better. (Incidentally, “A/B” comes from the mail order business, where they would test the “A” version with a different headline or offer against the “B” version). You can do this only, and very quickly as well. You need 100-1,000 impressions, depending – to get valid data to work from. Don’t stop too soon, and don’t let it run ‘forever’ without changing and updating either. You will be putting money on the table, and giving it to Google instead. We call this the “Google Tax”. You don’t want that.

C) A compelling, clear action-oriented ad should also have a strong landing page to match. The topical and contextual relationships are very important.  Do not stuff keywords on the landing page, and use SEO principles to feed the machine.

D) Monitoring and validation. Google reporting allows a number of fields in “custom” settings, and you should add the Quality Score to keywords and ad groups.

E) Account quality. Deleting or pausing poor performers is recommended. In fact, deleting them completely is likely more preferred, but you should keep track of them somewhere. Pausing is easier, and less work of course. If you have a lot of ad groups, you should look at overall quality indicators and get a sense for “global” views, not just the “detail” view levels.  Keep in mind that a high quality performing platform doesn’t change overnight, so make sure to work with the system, and track it.

F) Geographical impact. You may find great CTRs in Chicago, whereas similar ads get poorer results in Los Angeles. Try to discover where this happens, and fix it.

G) History and testing. Some are afraid to touch highly performing account structures. We agree you have a goal in mind – for all your efforts – but online marketing and Adwords is all about testing and tuning. Testing ads, keywords, landing pages, bids – all is an ongoing exercise, and you are never truly done. Some will set up completely new, different Adwords accounts, and test in a different environment, but it’s not the same.  Also, any time you add new campaigns, you don’t automatically get the benefit of a quality account. Expect to build these out each time, and tune, watch them as before. As you build out new campaigns, we offer this advice: “start high, and work downwards”. You’ll know from keyword research what traffic is available, but it’s not until you launch into your (niche) marketplace, that will truly know. Bidding high, and working downwards is a better strategy. You are showing Google you are not afraid to test, and you are indeed a “Google Adwords Player”!

BONUS: Make sure to read Google Advertising Policies, and Landing Page Guidelines.

Finally – a great video by Hal Varian, Chief Economist at Google. It captures the awesome engine that is the world’s most profitable advertising platform, the keyword auctioning system: Google Adwords.

But what about those consumers who don’t have or use credit cards and/or debit cards? Believe it or not, there are quite a lot of them, about 72 million in fact, according to eBillme.com. Ebillme is trying to capitalize on this demographic by offering them the option to pay for their online purchases in cash.

How does this work?

Through the site’s “walk-in” payment option can purchase items online from 840 different ecommerce sites, and then pay for their purchases in cash at one of Ebillme’s payment locations. Once payment is confirmed, the merchant is notified, and the product is sent.

If this service catches on, more online retailers may have to rethink the types of payment options that they offer their customers, and expand these options accordingly.

While paying in cash for online purchases may allow customers to take advantage of special online deals,  critics also point out that it may also be time-consuming and confusing for some “cash only” customers who are, according to eBillme CEO Marwan Forzley,  primarily seniors or recent immigrants  without access to banking.

1. Their website is brand new and/or it needs too much work, and client doesn’t understand work versus cost versus return: ask yourself if the time investment is worth it in this case, especially if there are significant problems with their site that will need to be fixed before any real SEO work can be completed.

2. Their expectations are much too high: Do they want to get to the first page of Google. . . in a month? Do they seem to think that you have some magic SEO wand that you can wave to get them instant results? If so, beware. . .

3. They are resistant to making the changes that you recommend and to new ideas in general: If they don’t want to listen to your ideas and defer to your experience in the initial consultation phase, expect this to be a recurring trend.

4. Their website deals with controversial subject matter (this is relative of course, but if you are uncomfortable working with websites that deal with illegal topics, hate themes, porn, etc. than this should be a red flag). It’s the “other” white meat: PPC = Pills, Porn, Casino

5. They don’t want to do any work themselves: in other words, they assume that you will take over the marketing, maintenance, and generally run every aspect of their website for them once they sign with you.

When it comes to choosing SEO clients, trust your instincts and don’t be afraid to say no when necessary—you’ll be glad that you did. Don’t just go for the money!

Image via CrunchBase

Image by Tywak via Flickr

Since July, Google, Inc has been planning the purchase of Zao Begun, a search and contextual video and text advertising business, owned by Russian based Rambler Media.

“We are very disappointed to hear that FAS has come to this decision,” said Google in a statement. “We strongly believe that this acquisition will enable us to significantly improve opportunities for Russian users,advertisers, and publishers, as well as the entire industry.”

Zao Begun currently has a network with 40,000 advertisers covering 143,000 Russian language Web sites.

In related news, the U.S. Department of Justice is currentlyinvestigating a deal made by Google and Yahoo that would allowYahoo to show Google search ads. This program had been slated to start this month, but has been delayed pending the DOJ review.

Google first introduced Sitemaps in June 2005 so web publishers could publish lists of links from their sites. Shortly afterward, MSN and Yahoo announced joint support for the Sitemaps protocol along with Google. Sitemaps are now everywhere on the net, not just on the corporate business site.

So, a Sitemap is an XML file that lists all the URLs of your website with additional metadata about each URL. It is useful for every site (or blog) to have a sitemap because it is an easy way to keep the search engines informed on when a page was last updated, how often it is updated, and how important it is in relation to the other URLs of your site.

What are the Benefits of a Sitemap?

1.    Sitemaps make your site more search engine friendly.

The more friendly your site is to the search engines, the more visible your site becomes.  When you create new content, the search engine crawlers (also known as “spiders”) can discover that content more rapidly through the use of a sitemap.

2.    Sitemaps help make your bandwidth usage more efficient.

When new content is created, search engines can find it more rapidly with a Sitemap and avoid having to crawl unchanged pages. This is especially useful for large sites with dynamic content. Search engine spiders will be able to quickly discover what is new and what hasn’t changed without scanning thousands of pages.

3.    Help index large sites.

For sites that have a large archive or a database of resources, it is sometimes very difficult to return quality search results for deep pages. If your pages are not well linked to one another, or your site uses AJAX or Flash that is not visible to the search engines, a Sitemap will help the search engines find the content.

4.    Find new sites sooner.

If your site is new and has few links to it, submitting a Sitemap will help the search engines discover it faster.
Please note that submitting and/or using a Sitemap does not guarantee inclusion in any search engine, it is just a way to help the web crawlers find all your site pages.

But – this is only the beginning. What types of tools, process can you use – if you decide to utilize these options?

Click for More…

Google just released a free service called Google Moderator. This is a port to Google App Engine of an existing tool, internally it was called Dory (after the fish who asked questions all the time in Finding Nemo).

What does Google Moderator do? When you have company-wide meetings, it lets anyone ask a question and then people can vote up the questions that they’d like answered.

The interface looks like this:

It’s good for prioritizing which questions are most important.

There are many tools to use, and Yahoo for example has their excellent Yahoo User Interface Library, Yahoo Pipes, or YSlow. Its just nice when companies release code or tools that benefit lots of people on the web.

Google Moderator is a free service, so give it a try sometime.