I just ran across this video in researching HubSpot. LMAO….

Seeing how continued education is important habit for any internet marketer I have decided that I will begin sharing some resources, articles, posts, etc with you on a regular basis that I feel provides beneficial insight and education (should you decide to read them).

Typically I do this type of sharing on Twitter or Facebook so placing these resources on my site simply adds another layer to the continuing education process.

Keep in mind that I sift through a bucket full of junk on a daily basis to find what is appealing. Hopefully you find these as helpful as I.

Here are the top 5 resources I found value in today, enjoy.

Re-Thinging Relevance In Link Building  Jennifer Van Iderstyne breaks down the belief in linking relevancy in an easy to read format. She expands on how relevancy varies between ‘direct, indirect, geographical & customer’ focused link building efforts.

SEO Is Deeper Than What You Read  The SEORoundTable touches on the fact that new SEO’s sometimes take advice at face value, when they should not. I have a similar topic post in draft right now that will expand my thoughts on the ‘newbie SEO’ shortly. This particular round table post is a great pre-curser for what is soon to be coming down stream.

44 Questions To Ask Your SEO Company  Bill Harzter provides a very detailed list of quality questions that anyone can use when performing due diligence on a SEO provider. To take one step forward, these questions are also great for SEO providers to use in preparation when trying to land a new client. It is always better to be over prepared then under prepared.

30 Blogging Tips From 30 Bloggers  Eric Branter put together a valuable list of blogging tips that provides substance. Some of these tips are no-brainers, but sometimes we forget the basic stuff. It is always good to be reminded that “the little things in life make a big difference” (Zig Ziglar quote).

Your Wandering Viral Eye is Making You Fat  Ou Spoken Media put together an interesting piece on how too many people are focusing on viral marketing; something that cannot be easily measured. Does viral attract and satisfy the right customer?  Should you place your focus on efforts that are more measurable and more targeted?

With all of the recent talk about content spam and how it is outranking other peoples quality site & content I can’t help but to toss in my own views. The bottom line question to all of this content spam is ‘Why is Google allowing content spam to rank’?

I have a two sided theory on all of this. Either they simply can’t stop it because the algorithms are not as advanced as they want us to believe or they don’t care as much as they did in the past, because they’re working on something else; such as GoogleMe social (when you dump 300+ million in purchasing/acquiring social companies, you gotta be up to something..lol)

In all of this, it doesn’t really matter. Google, Bing, Yahoo…. you have to sift through the crap to find what you are looking for regardless of content spam. People create bad content all the time, because they don’t know how to create good content. The bad content writers never had the vision of internet marketing or content spamming to get top rankings, they just wanted to write. So not only is good content competing with content spam, it also competes with just bad content. Is it Google’s job to become an English lit major?

Maybe Bing is the answer to bringing quality back to the web. Is Bing honestly a better/smarter search engine? No. You simply have a tech empire marketing department tossing millions of dollars against the mass media wall and seeing what sticks. Bing algorithms are no more advanced than Google’s.

The only way I see to create a SERP (search engine results page) without junk is to get the users involved in a type of voting format such as digg. However, most users are lazy with short attentions spans; a great idea with a non-participating audience = garbage. This type of search engine would still be useless. The road to hell is paved with good intention

Is the next phase of search ’social search’ in order to weed out the content spam? I have no idea. What I can tell you simply by looking at data from Google Trends for the hospitality industry (as an example) is that even though the industry is trending up the search volume is trending down - historically. So what does this mean? To me it means that users are finding the search engines less valuable and placing more trust on social (as it relates to hospitality) sites such as tripadvisor. Maybe social search is the answer, but I don’t see this taking place across all industry verticles.

So now the question becomes: are users finding more value in niche related sites when they know what they are looking for? This one example would lead me to say yes, but it’s only one industry in which the conclusion to the answer is not fully reliable due to data scarcity; but a great future research project to dive into.

So why do users use search engines? Basically, to find information on a topic, question etc in which they do not know what they are looking for. If I was looking to purchase a book I would go to Amazon or half.com or Barnes & Noble directly, not a search engine. And this is where the migration into conversion and ROI takes place. It’s the typical purchasing funnel. When I don’t have an answer to my question or I need a form of data or resource I visit a search engine.

By nature, a human should eat vegetables and fruit - not hamburgers and fries followed by a 32oz coke (maybe a diet coke if your on a diet…lol).
By programmed nature, a search engine should display information, links to (so called) trusted sources for additional information and resources and so on.

At this point (going back to the original issue at hand) search engines are being flooded with content spam and an abundance of un-natural linking to boost organic rank. But what can Google do? Content is information and links are resources… makes sense to me. There is only so much an algorithm can do when determining quality content from content spam and natural links from non-natural links (which most links are non-natural).

But wait, what do you do when there is too much crap overfilling your quality content and resources? According to Google you place your trust into ‘brands’. Brands are the perfect ‘web-citizen’s’ that play by the search engines rules (or so Google believes) - that’s why. Is that really going to make a big impact, enough to flush out the crap? Hell no. If it was we would not have this problem today.

When you shop for a new car do you visit the largest dealership in your town? Probably so. But, do you walk up to salesman and say “I’ll take the blue one” or do you walk the lot, get an idea on pricing, take a spin a one or two vehicles then drive to the next town over and visit their dealerships and repeat the process UNTIL you find the best deal for you?

There lies your answer. For some reason strongly opinioned user’s, web master and a select group of internet marketers (and possibly Google) want Google to be the start and finish when in fact it’s not.

As it relates to content spam, un-natural linking, SERP results etc… It is up to ME to filter out the crap and decide for MYSELF what is relevant and what is not. Yeah, I might visit 15 crap sites to find that 1 site that I purchase from. The same as test driving 9 vehicles to find the 1 that fits in my budget and criteria.

I don’t expect the car dealership to magically place the perfect car on my lap so I can sign the dotted line. And I sure as hell don’t expect any search engine to give me the perfect, content spam free SERP results.

I do expect the car dealership to listen to my needs & budget and tell me if they have anything fitting my criteria on the lot. I do expect the search engine to analyze my search query and tell me what they believe is relevant according their index.

The car dealership will give me three options:
1 - The vehicle that sucks ass, smells funny and is in or below my price range
2 - The vehicle that is super bad ass but way above my price range
3 - The vehicle that fits near exact to my criteria and is within my price range.

The search engines also give me three options:
1 - Query results that suck ass and have minimal relevancy to my query
2 - Query results that are similar to my query but not necessarily suitable to my query - industry related but not exactly query specific related
3 - Query results that match near exact to my query.

And guess what… it’s up to me to decide which of the three options is best for me.

Sure, option 1 might smell a little funky but it’s somewhat relevant - I can still afford it just like I can still click on it.

Option 2 might seem cool and yeah it’s a little out of my range, but any good negotiator knows you never reveal all your cards. Just because I told you I can’t afford it really doesn’t mean it’s out of the question. I can still potentially purchase just like I can potentially click.

Option 3, well… Option 3 is a dream come true. But when was the last time you found exactly what you were looking for at the first place you looked?

When option 3 is not an option because it’s not available, options 1 and 2 become possibilities.

When you mix and match options 1, 2 & 3 all on one page or one car lot - it’s up to me to find what I want, not you.

The problem is that users have set the bar for Google, and Google has not said ‘no’. Users (and internet marketers) expect option 3 to be the only option on the Google SERP. What makes matters worse is when you take internet marketing folk and toss them into the mix. “I’m option 3 for this query, why is option 1 and 2 outranking me??? Grrr – options 1 and 2 are obviously content spam, my site is totally better than the other sites, I should get all the glory…Grrr… let’s boycott Google..”

It’s no different than sales. Talk to enough prospects and you will make a sale. From the search engine standpoint, show enough results and your users will click/interact.

If I take 10 awesome cars, 10 decent cars and 10 shitty cars and put them on my sales lot; they will eventually all sell and I will make money.

If I take 10 relevant results, 10 semi-relevant results and 10 not-so-relevant results and place them on the SERP, they will eventually get clicked on and I will make money. Notice the word of the day was ‘relevant’ not content spam free.

Just like the car dealership knows which vehicles move faster off the lot, the search engines know which results produce better click-thrus based on relevancy. The dealership will modify his inventory and the search engine will modify its algorithm. New cars will arrive daily and the dealership will put them on his lot to see if they sell. New relevant domains and web pages will arrive daily and the search engines will place them on its SERP to see if they get clicked on.

People buy crappy cars every day, even when they had no intention of buying crap – and the buyer finds value in their newly found crap. That’s why dealerships sell crap.

People create crappy websites and so-called content spam for the purpose of outperforming good websites and good content every day and the search engines display the crap because users find content spam valuable and relevant to one degree or another. That’s why search engines display content spam. No matter how good your Nasa PHD and algorithm is, you can’t filter out valuable and relevant content, no matter how many people cry content spam.

Rather than complaining about the content spam and how people bought someone’s crap rather than yours (aka out rank you); focus on what you can do to provide a better, more reliable experience, resource, product, service, content etc….

Stop worrying about the search engines as well as content spam and start worrying about your business. How can you take your business to the next level? If Google went offline this very second and never returned; what would you do?

There has been much talk these past few months surround ‘content spam’. Basically sites developing poor quality content in efforts to rank high. There are a few businesses that have actually made this approach their business; and it’s working.

There are a few SEO industry leaders that frown upon such, one of them being Aaron Wall from SEObook. I subscribe to Aaron’s RSS as I find it very valuable at times due to his knowledge and views on certain topics. I encourage anyone in SEO to subscribe to his RSS and even sign up on his site (free of charge) if you have not already. The Rank Checker Tool is worth it alone.

I received a recent post in my inbox regarding content spam that Aaron wrote. I enjoyed the post so much that I went to the site and made a comment as it relates to this topic detailing my views on whole content spam topic.

Once again, I would like to share with you my response to Aaron’s post. My comments centered on the fact that although content spam is flooding the web, Google appears to be doing nothing about it. And there is a good reason why, because Google can’t do anything about it.

……. As it relates to Google and content spam, I do not believe Google is advanced enough to identify spam in the same manner as humans. This is why content spam works.

Moving a step forward, will Google (non-human) ever be able to identify content spam? Probably not. Maybe 10 years plus from now this is possible, but not in the near future.

If I build a site with mid-level quality content, create a linking campaign; choose my keywords wisely etc… I can outrank any high quality content site with minimal links etc (page rank means nothing when you strategize and research competition properly)… Now, am I wrong in doing so? Heck No. Am I spamming? No. Is this black-hat? No. Am I am taking advantage of Google? Yes, because they told us what they want and we did it: should we be penalized for doing what they told us to do in order to rank?

If your site does not provide ‘value’ then you won’t monetize properly anyway. Rank #1 or #100 - is your site providing visitors with value? Value is where the $$ is…

Too many people give too much credit to the technology behind Google. And because of this, they think Google is the ‘emperor of search’ or a type of ’search police’. If you walk out of line you will be taken down by Google. Seriously?… Where would Google be right now if they did not have AdSense? Where would Google be right now if Gmail, Docs, Images, Directory etc were paid services and not free?

Google is NOT a big bad search engine ready to strike you down the second you cross the line. Google is nothing more than a little insecure child that made some very good decisions at the right time and has the $$ to prove it. Google is only as smart as the dude that programmed it… and no one is perfect.

Shortly after I made this comment, Aaron replied. He called out my paragraph about ‘value’ stating that there are plenty of site that do not provide value and still monetize very well. I could not agree more with his reply.

Where I stand on value as it relates to monetization is that if one is monetizing on poor quality how much more can one monetize if they focused on good quality?

We have all performed a Google query in which one of the top organic results seemed authoritative. Upon click, the assumed quality site was nothing more than an affiliate site which only provides AdSense links and other affiliate outbounds. There was no true quality, but yet these sites ranked very well.

I know what an affiliate site link farm looks like, and I am sure you do too. But the average person does not, to them these sites seem legit. The unknowing visitor makes a few more clicks and is taken to another site, and the affiliate site owner cashes their check 30 days later all because they took advantage of Google by purchasing a quality domain that was keyword rich that knew they could rank for by provide little no value.

Can you imagine how much more money the affiliate site would make if they provide quality on their site? This is my point to the paragraph that Aaron pulled out. Of course you can make money by providing no value, have you ever seen those Fushigi Gravity Ball commercials?

Quality and Value are where true web monetization takes place.

I signed up for a linkedin account a few months back and never really found time to dive into the platform, until recently.  I have to say I am enjoying what little time I have experienced on the site and will be writing more about linkedin at a later date.  If you would like to connect with me on linkedin you can do so: Robert Greco on Linedin

Moving on… I answered a question on one of the seo groups and later that day the original question poster sent me a private message.  Basically, he wanted more info on duplicate content.  As I was writing my reply, I thought it would be a good idea to post my views on duplicate content; so here it is…

For simplicity sake, the question related to duplicate content being good or bad.  In addition, the individual asking the question wanted to purchase a secondary domain and copy the content from the original domain (aka duplicate content) asking for my advise.

Duplicate content is something you want to avoid when possible.  The 301 redirect is a permanent redirect; meaning that you are telling the search engines that page X on domain Y has officially (and permanently) moved to page Z on domain W.  All the authority that page X on domain Y had ’should’ (no guarantee from the search engines) be passed to the new location on page Z on domain W.

This is why purchasing existing domains is so popular, it’s because a visitor might remember a URL or the URL itself was a vanity URL.  It is because exiting domains that have expired have gained certain levels (and in some instance very high levels) of authority over time.  When these expired domains do not renew, and the domain is re-purchased, the new owner can can run a simple cache search and redirect all cached pages and top level domain to their main site by means of a 301 redirect.  This in turn passes all authority of the recently purchased expired domain to the owners domain of choice.  Doing so can have significant impact in increased SERP reach and rankings.

The reason duplicate content is considered something to avoid is because the originator gets the credit, not the 2nd/3rd/4th tier publishers.  Keep in mind as well that if you create a piece of content and distribute it through the web and other site owners re-publish your content; they ‘might’ be indexed and cached on your content before you are.  To keep safe, you always want to make sure your original content has been indexed and cached before you distribute the content.  This will help ensure you are giving credit for the original content and not the re-publishers.  If the re-publishers gets indexed and cached on your content before you are, then they are giving original content authority, not you.

More specific to your situation.  If you are purchasing an additional domain and have plans to duplicate content word-for-word, then the original site will have original content authority.  Is this bad?  Depends on how you want to look at it.

You own both domains, so does it really matter? It’s your content.

Typically if you already have XYZ.com and you are purchasing XYZ.biz the search engines will understand that the sites are one in the same to a degree.  Dot com’s have higher creditability levels in general, so the likelihood of the .com and .biz consuming all 10 results on the first page of the SERP is unlikely because they do have the same content and the original credit will be giving to the .com therefore the .com will outrank the .biz on the same set of keywords.

I would now ask you this: Why are you purchasing an additional domain to provide the same (100%) exact content?  It is very difficult to dominate the search engines on a particular keyword with different domains and identical content.  Usually, the purchase of the additional domain and the 301 redirect is all you need.  It all depends on your goal.

If you are trying to dominate the search engines through different domains then you MUST have different content.  Not 100% different, but not less than 30% different.  In other words, write multiple copies of your content and distribute the different version across your sites.  The search engines will see the content is different, the domains are different and therefore your domination potential will increase.

So what do you think, is duplicate content as big of a concerns as many “experts” lead you to believe?

When a business is considering the services of a digital agency, they generally search high and low in Google for the name they are most impressed by. Firstly, let me tell you that the best digital agencies will always be those that have their websites ranking on the first page of Google for the term ‘digital agency’. The next thing to remember is that there are a wide range of digital agencies out there, so you have to decide whether you want a large city based digital agency, or one that’s smaller and out of town. If you need some help deciding which digital agency to choose, we have some valuable tips for you.

The Big Digital Agency

In most cases, the large digital agency will have large offices in a city location. They will focus heavily on the branding and the exterior aesthetics, but sometimes when you dig deeper, you find that a lot of them are just full of ‘hot air’. This isn’t the case with every large digital agency, but you will often find that some of them just don’t have the skills and longevity to make the business last. Of course, there are some large, city based digital agencies that really are impressive, but you have to do some thorough searching to find which ones they are.

The Little Digital Agency

Some of the smaller digital agencies have a much more personalised approach, which is what many businesses like. Out of town companies that pride themselves on their digital expertise are often favourable to the flamboyant, big city digital agencies. Many clients prefer to deal with out of town companies because of their budget. The big city digital agency will usually only do business with equally large companies, which means if you’re smaller company with a modest budget, you probably won’t get anywhere with the big agency. As a business, you might not have lots of money to spend on web design and online marketing, but you do offer the trust and confidence to a digital agency that you will be a long-term client that they can build a relationship with.

Many of the big digital agencies in the city have a façade; an impressive shop window, but the inside lacks the quality. When you choose a smaller digital agency you can be sure of quality inside and out.

It requires a good deal of preparing and difficult perform to assemble any excellent business. Generating a successful company on the web is no several. Going on the internet isn’t as simple because it may possibly look. You’ll require to create a excellent work in purchase to have a productive enterprise on-line. Applying the finest instruments for world-wide-web marketing need to make your job far better and faster. You should see superior final results by employing these methods and procedures. Get to learn these four beginner’s advertising strategies so you can get your small business online and in front on the appropriate people. Understanding all of these procedures will boost the likelihood of your small business accomplishment.

1. Your website
Decide on your domain brand wisely. It must be quick and towards the point. Shorter domains are less complicated to bear in mind. Your domain title ought to also be catchy and directly associated to your online business. Your web site have to be simple to navigate and intended properly. The nice design and easy navigation will retain your web visitors there a bit longer. It is best to use a professional pattern your website and fit in some small business resources that will make your existence and your visitor’s life a whole whole lot less difficult. An online payment technique and purchasing cart method are two of the most essential web site organization equipment you are able to have.

2. Employing Search phrases
Making use of search phrases in a site is essential. You’ll need to obtain your blog within the seek effects of by far the most commonly utilized research engines. If somebody varieties in anything similar to your company merchandise and/or services they ought to see your web site link inside 1st page of effects. Believe like a potential client. What word or phrase would they use to discover your solutions or providers? Get written content produced by professional writers who know how to produce Search engine optimization content. The additional readers you’ve got which have been looking for your solutions or solutions, the more probably it is the fact that they’ll turn into customers. Applying search phrases as part of your information can help bring in these specific readers.

3. Email Newsletters
Get your visitor’s brand and electronic mail as often when you can. It is possible to easily do this by offering free facts within the form of an mail newsletter. This will also allow you to remind your precise audience that you are there and keep them coming back to your web site. With an e-mail newsletter you should see more internet site targeted visitors and enhanced profits. Get a type to fit on all of this website’s pages so guests can simply enter their mail and subscribe for your mail newsletter. This should be a weekly newsletter on the incredibly least.

4. Write-up Promoting
Folks are much more probable to obtain your solutions with totally free data. It does not matter what that you are marketing or what sort of company you might have, you might usually have to be targeting your probable shoppers. It is possible to effortlessly pre market your solutions and items with write-up promoting. By having a writer develop some simple articles or blog posts for your company you possibly can draw in much more of your respective targeted buyers. In case you can deliver this beneficial and entertaining info they’re going to be additional probable to examine, and then you definitely can make your pitch with the finish with the piece of writing. These articles should be short and uncomplicated to study. They should be no more time than 700 words. You possibly can put the posts on your site and all more than the world wide web by sending them to article sites. All you have to do is create a stellar bio which has a link back again to your blog so readers can click on it. Deliver this in together with your articles or blog posts and you should start seeing an boost in website targeted visitors. There are a lot of cost-free post sites to send your content to.

Having your business on the web seriously isn’t simple, but knowing what marketing procedures work will make your career less difficult. Find out as significantly as you can about marketing and advertising your online business online so you will make the ideal use of your website and increase your sales.

Internet marketing tips

Good web site design is crucial to your website’s success. An effective web site design can expand your client base and increase earnings. On the other hand, if the design is poor, it would repel the users even if you have great products and service. Keep in mind the following points while you design your site if you want it to be successful:

Top 10 Dos of Great Website Design

1. Do provide effortless search and navigation capabilities. It should be easy to search information on you site. All pages also need to have the key links to information that would improve the user experience. Any useful information should not be more that two or three clicks away else you risk losing the user. The faster your customers can navigate through your website and find what they are looking for, the more likely you are to get repeat visits from them.

2. Do keep your website content simple and easy to understand. All content on the site must be clear and easy to comprehend else you risk losing the user’s attention. develop content such that it addresses customer problems and offers effective solutions to them.

3. Do give your site a consistent look and feel. Creating a consistent look and feel for your whole website through the use of similar fonts, colors and layouts is a must to give it a professional look. This is especially important with regards to the interlinked pages.

4. Do make sure your website works well on multiple browsers such as Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer, for greatest impact. Increasingly large number of users are browsing web sites on the mobile phones. It may make sense to test the site for access on mobile web browsers.

5. Do display your contact information on every page.

List your physical address including other contact information like phone and email on the ‘Contact Us’ page. It is also important to list phone and email at the bottom of each page for easy accessibility.

6. Do put essential information near the heading of each page to allow customers to conveniently see it and not wait to scroll down to find it.

7. Do use high-quality pictures and graphics. Images on your website, including your logo, should be of high-quality to attract the customer and create interest but should not take too much time to load.

8. Do use headlines, italicized words, bold face, pleasant colors, bullet points and icons to draw customer attention to important segments of your content.

9. Do understand that security of the web site is important and develops confidence. Make your website secure for visitors. Privacy policy also needs to be easily accessible to the users.

10. Do use clear and concise page titles. Site visitors see web page title in search results and clear effective titles can considerably increase the traffic coming to your website.

Top 10 Don’ts of Great Website Design

1. Don’t clutter up your web pages with too much information or they become difficult to read and navigate. Create a new page for each separate topic, product or product category. Any advertisement on the web pages must be non intrusive else the site visitors would leave and most likely not return for a repeat visit.

2. Don’t go overboard while using audio and video features that use high bandwidth. These may be slow to download and are aggravating if the customer has to wait too long for them.

3. Don’t use text and color combination that makes content difficult to read. Additionally, don’t include distracting visuals on your web pages.

4. Don’t add any information or features to the site that do not serve the expected purpose of the site. It would be a waste of time for your visitors to use features or browse information that does not carry any meaning for them.

5. Don’t let the content of the links get stale. Content should be frequently refreshed and links monitored. Out-of-date links are annoying and can seriously affect your business reputation.

6. Don’t use jargon or overly technical terms on your pages unless your website is designed to address the needs of a small segment of technical people. Moreover, do not use conflicting information in your site. In addition to confusing customers, such information gives a highly negative and unprofessional image to your website.

7. Don’t use flashing icons and text as that can distract browsers and could possibly be detrimental to the popularity of your website.

8. Don’t fill up your web pages with advertisements. Also, limit pop-ups as they can irritate shoppers.

9. Don’t include introductory advertisements on the first page before your web content appears. Such advertisements put customers in a sore mood even before they look at your content.

10. Don’t just brag about your company’s achievements. Offer your users easy to consume information and back it up with references and customer testimonials to permit them to judge your performance.

Follow the dos and avoid the don’ts to develop an effective website, and greatly increase the chances of successful web entrepreneurship. - Daljeet Sidhu is the author of this article.

Developments in the world of marketing, particularly in the declining importance of the conventional print ads, have created a niche for local search marketing services. This is the type of service needed by local businesses to ensure that shifting a large part of their marketing efforts to the Internet would get the desired results. It may be safe to assume that most business owners are aware of the reduced impact of ads placed on the Yellow pages, circulars, newspapers, and magazines, while advertising costs are moving up rapidly. This article looks at these changes that have provided a fertile ground for the emergence of local search marketing services.

The first thing that one may notice is that the response rates of the ads in local newspapers have been declining while advertising costs are rising because the number of people reading newspapers has been on a downtrend. Why would people read the newspaper when the news that they could get through online sources are more up-to-date? In addition to this, the news feeds could even be conveniently provided to consumers through their mobile phones. Indeed, newspaper circulation has been moving downhill because aside from the above mentioned reasons, people no longer have enough time to read the printed newspapers and are turning to online news sources. Hence, those who want to advertise have to use the Internet and rely on local search marketing services.

Another key development is that the number of local buyers using the printed Yellows Pages is decreasing. This is understandable because keying in the type of service or product required on the computer is much easier than browsing through the Yellow Pages. Using the Internet to search for the wanted product or service offers the convenience of easier checking of the prices and quality of the services or products. Local search marketing services are also helpful in ensuring that the local company is presented in the best manner in the business listings found on the Web.

What is more, the number of homes that do not have a regular phone is also on the rise because the cell phone provides the means of communication that they require. And because there is no regular phone, the Yellow Pages are also not found in such homes. Thus, businesses cannot advertise to such homes through the Yellow Pages. Obviously, the Internet is the most convenient way to market to them, thus making the local search marketing services firm more valuable. Also, the possibility that marketers using the Web will have better results is greatly enhanced as more and more people choose to use their cell phones to access the Internet because they can visit the sites anywhere and any time.

Every marketer needs traffic, so you can either get it for free, or pay for it. But Pay per Click, or PPC advertising, is all we’ll be discussing here, today. If properly used, it’s possible to generate large amounts of highly targeted traffic very quickly. You’ll only pay the cost per click rate when one of your ads get clicked on.
But you must make sure the rest of your marketing converts that traffic. Overall, it’s really not as simple as it appears. Search engines have made the whole PPC game really complicated because of high competition. But of course there are very many businesses that are killing it and making tremendous money with it. As with all forms of major reward, there are major risks involved, as well. So you need to have some education about it, proper research, and planning so you don’t lose your shirt and can actually make money. We can help you get started off on the right track, though, in your ppc campaigns.

As a PPC advertiser you need to look into different keyword variations for your campaign. If you want it to succeed, it’s important that you do proper keyword research, analyze your competitor’s keywords, and match your keywords the right way. It’s imperative that you understand what keyword matching is, and know the difference between exact, phrase and broad match. Your ads will be displayed for broad match keywords when similar phrases but different variations are used that contain your keywords. Exact phrase match means your ads will be served up when someone searches using the exact keyword phrase you’ve specified. Besides that, using negative match keywords can be used to stop your ad from showing up for the keywords you want to exclude.

Watch your ads for two or three weeks and then narrow it down to the ad groups that are performing best. This is enough time to look over your results and stop running ads that are not performing. If the cost per conversion on any ad is more than the profit margin, you have to make some changes. Don’t keep running the ad the way it is if this is the case; either drop it or make changes and try it again. On the other hand, if there’s an ad group that isn’t costing you much per conversion, let it run and make you money.

You cannot ignore your numbers with PPC advertising. To plan your budget and campaigns, you must keep track of how much you are spending relative to your conversions. By doing this, you can increase your budget on campaigns that are performing well and discontinue ones that aren’t.

You can find advertising based on a similar model with Bing, Yahoo and even Facebook many of the basic principles apply with these but obviously there are technical differences.  Remember to check localisation, you can target your adverts to specific countries but make sure there’s a market there first - for instance if you were looking at German customers, connect through a German proxy first to check the competition in the search engines.

PPC advertising is the way to go if you want to get some fast and targeted traffic to your website. When starting out with PPC, however, you should start with a small amount and gradually build it up, so that you don’t lose too much before you know what you’re doing.

Don’t just rely on PPC thought, successful Internet marketers use all the resources at their disposal, PPC is yet another tool and one that can be combined with SEO tactics for instance to gain free traffic through higher search engine rankings.