Continuously Updating Content On Your Website

Posted on November 8, 2011 by zpartyka

I read an article on Search Engine Watch about the importance of updating your site’s content. They talked about how you can use press releases,  social media, user-generated and marketing automation content to keep your site fresh.

We have been been using social media and marketing automation for some time now and I can’t stress how important and relatively simple it is. We usually get the excuse that the client doesn’t have the time to manage or create content, however, it’s much easier than you think.

We have created blogs and had clients write multiple posts before the blog went live. This allows them to have a continuous stream of content for a few weeks, or sometimes months, depending on how we setup their posting schedule. We have also setup a posting schedules for Twitter and Facebook.

Our team has also created landing pages or a page full of excerpts with previews similar to what the article discusses. The benefit of doing this is you are creating extra pages with some keyword rich text for the search engines to crawl. Using excerpts also entices readers to click through to a full story, which may lead to them exploring more of your site and eventually turning into a customer.

With that said, I hope this encourages you to take a look at how you are handling your site’s content. If you haven’t been updating at all, I suggest starting with some press releases and then expanding into a blog.

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AdWords Expanding to Videos & YouTube

Posted on September 28, 2011 by zpartyka

Google is now expanding AdWords into videos across the Google Display Network and YouTube. The new expansion to YouTube takes advantage of the TrueView video advertising. Before TrueView, there were only promoted videos which were paid for on a pay-per-click basis but now the inclusion of TruView has changed the game because you only pay-per-view.

I love the addition of TrueView advertising because you will not be paying per click like promoted videos and advertisers will be trying to create unique, engaging and thoughtful ads in hopes of securing the best advertising positions. Furthermore, viewers will benefit from the tailored content advertisers are trying to create.

Another benefit of using the pay-per-view system is how you target a certain demographic and fine tune your video without wasting money on unwanted impressions.

When you tie all the new TrueView advertising features with the ability to target keywords and interests like normal AdWords campaigns it has the potential to make video advertising a very lucrative niche and an interesting field to follow.

If you are interested in learning more about TrueView Video ads head over to YouTube’s website.

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Target Website Crash

Posted on September 16, 2011 by zpartyka

Target’s website crashed a few days ago due to the onslaught of shoppers trying to snag items from Italian Fashion Designer Missoni. The wave of online and in-store traffic was comparable to a Black Friday sale.

As one of the largest retail chains nationwide, I cannot understand how this could happen. Many sites have survived the crazed attack of shoppers on Black Friday and there are groups of sites focused only on exclusive sales (Gilt, Rue La La, Haute Look) similar to what Target did. I understand it is hard to predict the amount of traffic a site will receive, but shouldn’t you always plan for the worst-case scenario?

Aside from the site crash, many of the Missoni for Target items purchased in-store are showing up on eBay with inflated prices. The sad thing is, people are actually bidding on these products. Maccapani Missoni spoke from her Twitter account about the situation and I could not agree with her more, she said, “For that money go out and get M. Missoni.”

I can never understand why you would spend money on goods that you know are inflated in price and probably are not to the quality standards Missoni usually produces. I know it is a limited collection, but, with the publicity Target received, I am sure they will be asking Missoni back again.

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Google’s Unique Product Identifier Requirements Will Be Implemented in Two Weeks

Posted on September 8, 2011 by admin

A couple of months ago, Google Product Search released new Unique Product Identifier (UPI) requirements and Data Feed requirements to be implemented by the 22nd of this month (September). Below are the new requirements for each:

New UPI Requirements are needed for those retailers who list products outside of the apparel and custom category items must now have two of the three listed identifiers:

  • UPC, EAN, or JAN
  • MPN
  • Brand

For media products, retailers must include a UPC, EAN, or JAN and books must include an ISBN number.

Google’s new product feed requirements include the following:

  • Google Product Category – Merchant and Google categorization is now separate.
  • Product Type – Now that Google will be using the Google Product Category, the Product_Type attribute is only for internal categorization.
  • Additional Image Link – You can now put up to ten images for each of your products, however it doesn’t state whether or not additional images will increase your rank.
  • Product Variations – You now must include the parent SKU of a group of items which will be included with each child SKU.

There will also be changes made for apparel merchants. Apparel products now must include the gender, age group, color, size, material, and pattern. If not all of these attributes are listed Google will not recognize them as apparel and you will have to submit to the guidelines stated above.

There are mixed opinions on Google’s new regulations regarding these changes. Some companies don’t have the right resources to obtain and list all of their product information which can result in their products not being listed. On the other hand it somewhat gives retailers an ability to organize their data and have it on file.

Google is ideally trying to create a more functional comprehensive shopping engine for online consumers. Only time will tell if these changes help them to reach that goal. Either companies will progress with the changes and improve the overall shopping database or they’ll drop out completely due to not having the right resources to obtain and record the required product information.

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Daily Deals Not So Exciting Anymore

Posted on August 30, 2011 by zpartyka

I recently read an article from the Time’s Moneyland section about how the once exciting daily-deals are now losing their luster.

Sites like Groupon and Living Social burst onto the scene a few years ago and shortly after, new deal sites started joining the bandwagon. However, the quick action of these spinoffs has oversaturated the market and proved to be a factor in the slowing of the industry. Bloomberg reported July had more deal sites closing opposed to opening — 38 to 36. In addition, PriceGrabber asked U.S. consumers how they feel about daily-deal services and 52 percent said they were “overwhelmed” along with around 60 percent saying the industry was too crowded.

As someone who frequents daily-deal sites, I completely agree with the feelings of the U.S. consumers. I always enjoy receiving a good deal but having to constantly receive deals and sift through the junk is not a fun task.

As the industry dies down and starts to filter out the junk, I believe my attitude and the attitudes of the U.S consumers will change. Luckily, the filtering has begun with sites like Lifesta, which aggregates deals from multiple sites into one area. As more people start using these sites I feel daily-deals will become an exciting and viral experience again.

For some tips about using Groupon successfully for your small business, check out the Wall Street Journal’s August 22, 2011 article.

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Google’s Hand in Helping with a Tough Economy

Posted on August 24, 2011 by admin

Google announced shortly ago that they are introducing an AdWords credit card for advertisers. Now, not everyone can get this credit card right away and you have to have received a special invite via email in order to sign up for the Google AdWords Business credit card. The card can only be used to buy AdWords advertising and offers an 8.99% interest rate with no annual fee.

Google is offering this credit card with the hopes of helping those who cannot immediately pay for AdWords advertising due to the rough economy we’ve been faced with. Google’s Vice President of global online sales states that the credit card is “designed to help small and medium-sized businesses that advertise on Google but who often don’t have the funds to support a heavy ad campaign ahead of a big sales season, such as Valentine’s Day or Halloween.”

Who is really benefiting from this credit card? Sure the advertiser can buy ad space without having the initial investment, but Google will also be raking in the dough with the money that will accrue from interest on balances. So what really are the benefits of getting the Google AdWords Business credit card over any other credit card out there? Since essentially, this is just the same as any other in store credit card. Depending on individual credit scores it’s possible to find other lines of credit at a lower interest rate.

I think that if Google really wants to sell this credit card that they need to offer more. Perhaps there could be a point system where advertisers could gain points for discounts depending on how much they spend using their card. In order for this to be really successful there should be more of an incentive, otherwise, why not use your regular credit card that’s earning you airline tickets, cash prizes, or dinner for two?

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New Top Level Domains Could Be Near

Posted on August 16, 2011 by zpartyka

A few months ago the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers approved the expansion of top level domains. The new domains will be called Generic Top Level Domains or gTLDs. The expansion means you will be able to end your URL with anything other than the 22 familiar domain endings – .com, .org, .net, etc.

The new decision comes with a steep price; $185,000 to be evaluated and a $25,000 annual fee after approval. What is more astounding is ICANN won’t let you group similar domains together.

Let’s say you wanted to buy www.thats.awesome and also wanted to purchase www.thats.soawesome along with www.thats.wayawesome. All three domains would have to be applied for separately even though they are essentially the same website.

The advertising community, specifically the Interactive Advertising Bureau, is expressing their feelings about how ICANN has set up the gTLD system. The IAB is concerned about specific brand domains being financially exploited by cyber squatters or the bidding wars for branded domains causing “incalculable financial damage to brand owners, including the hundreds of media brands in its membership.”

Personally, I don’t think corporations need to worry about squatters purchasing their brand specific domains. It seems ICANN has set a price range that will only be attainable by large companies and very wealthy individuals. We need to remember squatters are purchasing domains that tend to start at a much lower price point than the new gTLDs and by much lower, I mean below $100.

However, the IAB has a valid point when they say new gTLDs could cost brands absurds amounts of money. When you think about worldwide companies like Coca-Cola, Nike or McDonalds, what do they do about their worldwide domains – xxx.jp, xxx.co.uk, xxx.ca etc.? If they follow the ICANN guidelines, just.doit and just.doitUK would be two different domains and would be charged twice for evaluation ($370,000) and double annually for each domain ($50,000).

As you can see, the fees add up extremely fast but I’m curious to see how brands will react once one company creates a gTLD. Will everyone jump on the bandwagon or will the idea just fade away?

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First Scribe & Link Building

Posted on August 9, 2011 by admin

When it comes to SEO one of the main contributing factors is link building. Of course on page optimization is crucially important (meta tags, headings, titles, etc.) but link building also can drastically increase your search rankings. Here at First Scribe, we dedicate a portion of our time to ensure that your website is getting the critical links it needs to increase their rankings in search engines.

Some things to keep in mind when starting your link building strategy are below:

  1. No bad neighborhood sites – We do not submit your website to “link farms” or any other site that has a negative or bad reputation with the search engines.
  2. Permanent one way link placements – We try to make sure that we not only receive one way links that will help increase your ranking but also that these links are permanent so you don’t have to continuously submit them.
  3. Create high quality content – It is very important that the content on your pages is both thorough and recent. Having up-to-date information allows for easier access to gain relevant links.
  4. Directories within the industry – At First Scribe we take a look at our client, find out the industry that they’re in, and then submit them to various directories that solely reflect their industry. This helps to create relative links.

Link building requires a lot of time and effort. It’s important that we always stay current with the trends and to constantly be thinking of different ways to build links. It’s crucial to the success of a website while at the same time helps to create relationships with related sites. Not only does link building increase rankings but it also an opportunity for websites to draw in more traffic from internet users who visit their linked sites.

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Time to evaluate your PPC ad copy for Christmas

Posted on September 2, 2010 by admin
The holiday season (Christmas and Hannakuh)  is the time for buying online without much thought.  They see it; they need it; they buy it.  For online retail sites, traffic is often 50% higher this time of year than any other time of the year so you need to make hay while the sun shines.
However, Internet marketers need to be smart about your tactics for attracting buyers at this time of year or you will see unwelcomed results. If you aren’t careful, your traffic (and ad spend) will raise significantly but it may not lead to sales.

Branding Issues

We normally run PPC ads for vanity search terms throughout the year for branding purposes.  Furthermore, we often run these branded campaigns with very high daily budgets.  This practice needs to be re-evaluated in the lead-up to Christmas because the practices you hang your hat on during the early months of the year will lose effectiveness *for product manufacturers* around this time of year and your ROI will often plummet.

Why?

We specifically identify

Browsers are out shopping for gifts and they’re looking for the best possible price.  At Christmas time, your brand becomes a commodity.

Remember, you don’t need to spend PPC money on branding *if* you are #1 on your name in organic listings.

Reconcile Your Data

Example: You may drive more traffic and eventually sell more men’s product than women’s by a good margin.

Are men buying the men’s product? Are you sure?

Christmas time in the fashion industry tends to show women searching men’s terms and buying men’s product.

So, why do we care? Ad copy, ad copy, ad copy…

Women shoppers have different hot buttons versus men. You need to check the invoices against your traffic and PPC data. Then, write multiple ads around all the hot buttons and refine it every day.

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