PPC advertising had its highs and lows in 2012. Entrepreneurs watched as the increase in their budgets corresponded with a high return on investment (ROI). During this year you may have noticed that the rates for placing pay per click ads went down.
This was the case in ads for product listings and mobile phones. As we move forward in 2013, we have yet to see substantial movement in this area. Nonetheless, below we share with you some predictions as to what you can expect with AdWords PPC advertising:
• Increased competition on product listing ads: Few retailers dwelt on product listing ads (PLA's). This has in turn translated to low fees for placing ads. In 2013, more merchants are likely to join the bandwagon. As this happens, there is likelihood that Amazon will allow more people to access its advertising program. Google is the other player that will enjoy more patronage as a result of low cost per click fees.
• The end of "Scroogle": During the Christmas holidays, you might have noticed this campaign from Microsoft. It was meant to compete with Google’s model of selling results to highest bidders. Though it is a worthy concept, PLA are going to increase in popularity. In the end, Microsoft will have no choice but to abandon Scroogle in favor of PLAs.
• Aggressive push for re-marketing from Google: Re-marketing was popularized by Google. This was achieved through adoption into the Ad Words network. The same has now been absorbed into Google Analytics. This year, Google is expected to add Dynamic display ads. As a result, advertisers will utilize this to take their potential clients through the process of buying their goods and services. It will be no wonder that Bing will duplicate this.
• More YouTube ads: In the past we never used to have clickable ads on You Tube. Judging by the number of hits this platform has generated, Google decided to launch the feature. The way it works is that you will only pay where users have watched the videos you have posted. It is also referred to as skippable ads. In a nutshell, for any videos that get skipped, you will be safe. This exciting feature is set to get big in 2013.
• Google’s Paid Shopping: The use of Ad Words has been a success. To ride on this model, Google is expected to move Google Shopping to run on the same model. As a result, there will be more space to place advertisements. It will also minimize the possibility of duplication of results from Ad Words and those from the normal shopping activities. Since the service is no longer offered for free, you can use this chance to post products that give high return margins.
• Google Trusted Stores: Google uses this to improve the way a user shops online. Only those stores that have shown reliability in terms of shipping and support to customers get awarded this recognition. It is already in operation in the United States and 2013 is sure going to raise the bar higher.
• Overall growth in PPC: Whenever you do an online search, you will realize that there are a lot of ads appearing on the screen. These translate into huge revenues for Google. As a result, the search engine giant will stick to the PPC advertising model and increase the prominence of ads in all search result pages. Especially for ecommerce PPC advertisers, through the use of PLA's, Google will not only increase visibility through organic searches but from the ads as well.
This is just the tip of the iceberg for PPC advertisers. It's hard to tell exactly what the future holds, so stay abreast some trusted such as Google's API forum and the official AdWords community, to name a few.
continue...Video marketing has become an effective marketing tool for online businesses, particularly ecommerce. No matter what product you intend to promote, video marketing can work to your advantage in many ways.
There are many platforms for video marketing that can give you the audience you seek (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, etc.) You therefore need to employ the right strategies that will help you create video content of great viral potential. The following tips are useful for creation of effective marketing videos which will certainly help you realize maximum benefits.
A good, keyword-relevant video title will help the video to show up in search engine results, thus pulling powerful traffic to your website. Additionally, a great title grabs a viewer's attention making him/her interested in watching the video and eventually buying the product or service. When you post your videos to YouTube or other social sites, the title of the videos will determine a person's decision on whether to watch it or browse on. The title should therefore be catchy yet relevant to the video content and SEO keyword targets.
When creating a marketing video, you should think about your ideal viewer and what he/she considers valuable. A video which teaches the viewer "how to" do or get something are very powerful because they give the viewer great value while showcasing your knowledge and skills hence presenting you as an expert in the field. Quality content is key for a continuous growth of your ecommerce brand. You should also make sure that you keep your videos short because your viewers will lose attention if your videos are too long no matter how good the content is.
When editing your video (whether the video itself or the YouTube description, ensure that you insert a text box which displays your ecommerce website address. This is important especially if you intend to market your business in other online platforms. This is a great way of increasing exposure for your business especially to viewers who have no idea of your business. Your URL's should be clickable so as to transform views into clicks and sales.
Find a creative way of telling your viewers the ecommerce products and services you offer. This can be done by including some creative graphics which help you communicate your message in the best way. Ensure that your videos answer the most important questions your viewers may have concerning your product or service. You can also tell a compelling story to your viewers and bring out a lesson at the end.
For ecommerce branding purposes, include your company logo strategically in your marketing video. You can have the logo displayed throughout the video, or during some key times in the video.
Customers usually value the recommendations of their peers concerning a certain product or service. You should therefore include endorsements of your product or service especially from individuals who your customers look up to. You can also look for credible executives who are bold enough to sell your product in the best way possible.
continue...SEO is a unique marketing channel that's ultimately all about keeping up with the times. The truth is that things change in the SEO community every single year, and usually just a few weeks is all that it takes before Google makes a new update.
The Panda and Penguin updates have evolved over the years and many SEO's have dropped off the face of the earth as a result. Survivors who take these tips (which have been gathered from Google itself,) can see what Google wants site owners to focus on and what you as an SEO can do to get ranked successfully.
These ideas have been extracted and summarized via Josh Bachynski of the TheMoralConcept.net.
Keep up with Great Content Make it a goal to create quality content. In other words, remember that content is king. Google is working extra hard to make sure that quality written sites are the ones ranking.
Code Should Be Clean Keep your overall coding clean and SEO-friendly. You don't want too much going on that Google spiders gets confused when they land on a code-heavy, slow-loading site. If that describes your sites, than invest in the services of a website optimization company.
Upload Videos On Multiple Pages With a video, Google sees your site with a ton more authority simply because they are synced with YouTube, in addition to videos offering greater value and user engagement. If your YouTube video has potential to rank and it happens to be on your new page or blog post, they'll both be ranking at the top for keywords.
Create Additional Pages To Rank A lot of people try to rank their first main URL, but that isn't the only part of your site that you can rank. You can instead create additional pages and then optimize that page to be ranked. The more pages ranking for individual keywords, the stronger your main URL will be to rank for some of the other keywords you want to be ranking for. A good example of this is Traverse City SEO company TCTopofMind.com and how they ranked an educational blog post for their primary keyword target "Traverse City SEO" as a unique lead acquisition strategy.
Create Duplicate Content Stop pasting other peoples articles on your site. It only hurts you in the end. Google wants to give you more maximum exposure, but if you are using other peoples content that is already indexed, it only shows Google that you are spamming your site with used content.
Build Thousands of Sketchy Backlinks Oftentimes, people will try to get hundreds or even thousands of backlinks from backlink sites and social media softwares, but that isn't always the best thing to do. You might as well go slowly but try to keep it more consistent.
Forget About On-Page SEO Do not just focus in backlinks. Make sure that your site up to date with great content and that every tag is cared for. Make sure those tags have keywords, alt text for images, h1 tag on every page, and other on site SEO.
Write For Search Engines Trying to push keywords on every single part of the search engine is not going to benefit you in any way. It will only hurt you in the long run. Writing for the search engines meant to constantly put in keywords in every sentence, but this only hurts your chances with Google. It may have worked in the early 2000's, but it won't work anymore in this generation.
Google is always changing, but the above tips should definitely be up to date and still stay relevant for years to come. Google has some extremely careful algorithms to make sure only the right sites rank, but the tips above should help bring you to the top with ease.
continue...Social media sites can help you improve the SEO potential of your brand. But for this, first of all, you need to improve the set-up, content, and structure of your social media profiles.
Optimizing social media profiles for SEO is done in many ways. However, one of the most important is to ensure that you have a link on each of your profiles directing to your ecommerce site (which should be common sense for those familiar with basic ecommerce SEO.)
Below are a few other methods to optimize your social media presence for SEO.
Use the following tips for to improve the linking structure of your social media profiles (which will help direct new followers and SEO opportunities to these properties):
Below are tips to optimize popular social profiles, namely Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and LinkedIn. We will discuss the strategies for each profile link step by step. Some general tips include:
So, these were some easy to follow tips to help you improve the SEO potential of your social media profiles. With a little effort on a daily basis, you can achieve the desired success and enhance your overall social media marketing efforts, in addition to your ecommerce SEO strategy.
continue...Ecommerce news and information about E-marketing, social media, and more.
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