Problems with the current Pay Per Click Management Industry
PPC management companies need to make a change. There is a very small relationship between amount of advertising spend you invest on a campaign and amount of work needed to run the most efficient and ROI producing search campaign. But if this is widely known, then why on earth are all of the companies charging this way? The answer is an old way of doing business. Spend more - Make More. Ad agencies are used to making commissions. The more a client spends, the more the make.
The Zenergy Internet Marketing difference
Zenergy Internet Marketing has taken a bold step to start the migration of how companies pay for PPC Search Engine Management. We are now offering a "NO" set up fee and no commission based platform. Just A $125 dollar Flat Rate.
The answers are below:
1. Know that we will only spend dollars that make you money, not us
2. We will shave all the fat from your account instantly, instead of keeping it there to get paid.
3. Know that when we suggest you spend more, it’s not for our benefit
4. Rest easy knowing that everything that can be done is being done despite budget size.
5. We are available to you for regular communication
6. Our core competency is Internet Marketing
7. We are transparent
8. We are consultants, not employees. (proactive VS Reactive)
Zenergy Internet Marketing is not a "set it and forget it" Internet Marketing Agency. We are not a volume-driven powerhouse of mediocre results and sub-par service. We are highly skilled and experienced Pay Per Click Professionals. We don't just send you an automated report without an explanation; we work with you to make incremental increases in ROI every month.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Search Engine Optimization
What is Search Engine Optimization?
Search Engine Optimization improves a website's placement on search engines like google. Using methods that search engines employ to rank a page, a search engine optimization company can make your website appear on the very first or second page of a search engine's listings for industry relevant keywords.
Good search engine optimization combines processes, features, additions and ongoing changes to a website in order to achieve top rankings in the major search engines. Google, Yahoo!, AOL, MSN, and Ask all look for different ranking criteria. A good Search Engine Optimization firm can make your site friendly to all of these search engines at once.
Why You Need Organic Search Engine Optimization
Search engine traffic has been increasing at an even more rapid rate than Internet usage. According to Jupiter Media Metrix, 80 percent of Internet users start off in search engines before they buy a product or service online. Not appearing in the top listings for your specific keywords can mean the difference between the success or failure of your online business.
How Can Zenergy Internet Marketing Help?
All Of Our Packages Include:
* Competitive analysis
* Keyword and marketplace research
* Analysis of your written content
* Title tag and meta keyword optimization
* HTML code optimization
* Database rewrites with Spider-friendly site architecture
* Press releases (optional service)
* XML sitemap creation and implementation
* Robots.txt creation and implementation
* Blog Syndications
* Article Syndications
* Enhanced Directory Submissions
* Local Directory Submissions (Google, Yahoo, MSN, and many more)
* Ongoing Consulting Time
* Keyword Ranking Report
Search Engine Optimization improves a website's placement on search engines like google. Using methods that search engines employ to rank a page, a search engine optimization company can make your website appear on the very first or second page of a search engine's listings for industry relevant keywords.
Good search engine optimization combines processes, features, additions and ongoing changes to a website in order to achieve top rankings in the major search engines. Google, Yahoo!, AOL, MSN, and Ask all look for different ranking criteria. A good Search Engine Optimization firm can make your site friendly to all of these search engines at once.
Why You Need Organic Search Engine Optimization
Search engine traffic has been increasing at an even more rapid rate than Internet usage. According to Jupiter Media Metrix, 80 percent of Internet users start off in search engines before they buy a product or service online. Not appearing in the top listings for your specific keywords can mean the difference between the success or failure of your online business.
How Can Zenergy Internet Marketing Help?
All Of Our Packages Include:
* Competitive analysis
* Keyword and marketplace research
* Analysis of your written content
* Title tag and meta keyword optimization
* HTML code optimization
* Database rewrites with Spider-friendly site architecture
* Press releases (optional service)
* XML sitemap creation and implementation
* Robots.txt creation and implementation
* Blog Syndications
* Article Syndications
* Enhanced Directory Submissions
* Local Directory Submissions (Google, Yahoo, MSN, and many more)
* Ongoing Consulting Time
* Keyword Ranking Report
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Total Track
ReachLocal
WOODLAND HILLS, CA--(Marketwire - April 15, 2008) - ReachLocal, Inc. (http://www.reachlocal.com/) announced today the release of its automated TotalTrack ™ product that gives local businesses a comprehensive view into the effectiveness of their offline and online marketing expenditures in real time. TotalTrack is a powerful extension of ReachLocal's existing patent-pending, reverse-proxy tracking solution that has been measuring and optimizing thousands of Internet search advertising campaigns on Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Superpages.com for local businesses across the United States and Australia.
According to a recent survey by the The Velos Group and Sales Lead Management Association, over 82 percent of small businesses do not track their return on investment for their lead-generating sources. The inability to track ROI for marketing campaigns was listed as the number one concern of the respondents. TotalTrack automates this process by offering advertisers easy-to-use call tracking, including call recording, and web conversion functionality that highlights which offline and online advertising campaigns are offering the best ROI. By consolidating these reports into a single interface, the ReachLocal solution allows advertisers to view and analyze the use of their marketing dollars simply and affordably.
"Local businesses do not have large marketing budgets, so each dollar matters," said Zorik Gordon, ReachLocal's Chief Executive Officer. "In this economic climate they especially need to know if a single lead is costing them one dollar or one hundred dollars. TotalTrack empowers them to make the best choices to achieve the most profitable return on their investment."
TotalTrack launches with existing ReachLocal customers ranging from automobile dealerships tracking banner advertising campaigns to auto repair shops measuring the ROI on their Yellow Page print spend. TotalTrack monitors a marketing campaign's ability to deliver customers over a wide range of offline and online media, including newspapers, broadcast/cable television, Yellow Page directories, direct mail, search engines, banner ads, Internet Yellow Pages and emails without having to employ a team of marketing analysts to do so.
"Technology has finally solved what has always been a time-consuming, inaccurate, or unachievable process of determining which marketing campaign generated which sale," said Michael Kline, ReachLocal's Chief Operating Officer and Chief Product Officer. "Small businesses simply do not have the time or resources to purchase tracking phone numbers and contact a Web site developer to put those tracking phone numbers and tracking code on their Web site. TotalTrack is a dynamic product that frees up advertisers to concentrate on running their business."
Earlier this year, ReachLocal solidified its ongoing relationship with Google by announcing a strategic alliance as an authorized reseller of Google's AdWords™ advertising program. ReachLocal makes available to advertisers 98 percent of the search engine landscape via its strategic alliances with Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Superpages.com and others.
About ReachLocal, Inc.
ReachLocal, Inc. (http://www.reachlocal.com/) is a leading provider of local online marketing solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses. The Company's mission is to become the digital advertising agency of record for these companies, delivering the same broad set of online marketing functions currently only afforded to large corporations on a national basis. ReachLocal pioneered the local search engine marketing industry by bringing together a patent-pending technology with a strong partnership model and a proprietary national sales force. The result is a simple, scalable and affordable platform local businesses need to create, maintain, track and analyze their Internet search advertising campaigns. ReachLocal makes available to advertisers 98 percent of the search engine landscape through strategic alliances with Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Superpages.com and others. Founded in 2004, ReachLocal is a privately held corporation led by Zorik Gordon, its Chief Executive Officer. The company is headquartered in Woodland Hills, California.
WOODLAND HILLS, CA--(Marketwire - April 15, 2008) - ReachLocal, Inc. (http://www.reachlocal.com/) announced today the release of its automated TotalTrack ™ product that gives local businesses a comprehensive view into the effectiveness of their offline and online marketing expenditures in real time. TotalTrack is a powerful extension of ReachLocal's existing patent-pending, reverse-proxy tracking solution that has been measuring and optimizing thousands of Internet search advertising campaigns on Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Superpages.com for local businesses across the United States and Australia.
According to a recent survey by the The Velos Group and Sales Lead Management Association, over 82 percent of small businesses do not track their return on investment for their lead-generating sources. The inability to track ROI for marketing campaigns was listed as the number one concern of the respondents. TotalTrack automates this process by offering advertisers easy-to-use call tracking, including call recording, and web conversion functionality that highlights which offline and online advertising campaigns are offering the best ROI. By consolidating these reports into a single interface, the ReachLocal solution allows advertisers to view and analyze the use of their marketing dollars simply and affordably.
"Local businesses do not have large marketing budgets, so each dollar matters," said Zorik Gordon, ReachLocal's Chief Executive Officer. "In this economic climate they especially need to know if a single lead is costing them one dollar or one hundred dollars. TotalTrack empowers them to make the best choices to achieve the most profitable return on their investment."
TotalTrack launches with existing ReachLocal customers ranging from automobile dealerships tracking banner advertising campaigns to auto repair shops measuring the ROI on their Yellow Page print spend. TotalTrack monitors a marketing campaign's ability to deliver customers over a wide range of offline and online media, including newspapers, broadcast/cable television, Yellow Page directories, direct mail, search engines, banner ads, Internet Yellow Pages and emails without having to employ a team of marketing analysts to do so.
"Technology has finally solved what has always been a time-consuming, inaccurate, or unachievable process of determining which marketing campaign generated which sale," said Michael Kline, ReachLocal's Chief Operating Officer and Chief Product Officer. "Small businesses simply do not have the time or resources to purchase tracking phone numbers and contact a Web site developer to put those tracking phone numbers and tracking code on their Web site. TotalTrack is a dynamic product that frees up advertisers to concentrate on running their business."
Earlier this year, ReachLocal solidified its ongoing relationship with Google by announcing a strategic alliance as an authorized reseller of Google's AdWords™ advertising program. ReachLocal makes available to advertisers 98 percent of the search engine landscape via its strategic alliances with Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Superpages.com and others.
About ReachLocal, Inc.
ReachLocal, Inc. (http://www.reachlocal.com/) is a leading provider of local online marketing solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses. The Company's mission is to become the digital advertising agency of record for these companies, delivering the same broad set of online marketing functions currently only afforded to large corporations on a national basis. ReachLocal pioneered the local search engine marketing industry by bringing together a patent-pending technology with a strong partnership model and a proprietary national sales force. The result is a simple, scalable and affordable platform local businesses need to create, maintain, track and analyze their Internet search advertising campaigns. ReachLocal makes available to advertisers 98 percent of the search engine landscape through strategic alliances with Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Superpages.com and others. Founded in 2004, ReachLocal is a privately held corporation led by Zorik Gordon, its Chief Executive Officer. The company is headquartered in Woodland Hills, California.
Friday, October 3, 2008
The Four Best Human Reviewed Internet Directories
Even after decades of advancement in computer technology, there are some tasks that humans are just superior at doing. One of those things is evaluating the quality of a website. The most dominant search engines are all computer based today because of the vast pace at which content is published online. However, this was not always the case. Back in the 1990's when the Internet was just a small set of interconnected tubes [smile] a number of websites tried using people to review and list websites in a directory and use that directory to power search results. The idea was that humans could do a better job of deciding if a website was good or not and should be included in search results.
In fact, that is still true today. A human can do a much better job than Google of looking at a website and deciding if the content is good and it is a quality website. Computerized search engines have won the search engine battle, because to review all of the websites on the Internet using people would be cost prohibitive and time consuming given the explosion of content on the web. We prefer search engines that are always including new content that was just published and that search nearly all of the web. But human reviewed directories still do a good job of only including good websites, even if they only include a small percentage of the overall Internet. And because of this, the computerized search engines look at the human reviewed directories as a list of websites that are more trustworthy than other websites.
Getting your company listed in a human reviewed directory is sort of like getting into a good college. It doesn't mean you are smart, but it means a human looked at your application and thought you are smart. It is also somewhat expensive and time consuming. But, just like a good college on your resume sends a positive message to potential employers, getting listed in a human reviewed directory sends a positive message to the search engines.
Here are four of the better human reviewed directories, along with a bit of info on how to use them.
Four Directories That Should Include Your Company
1. DMOZ - The name for DMOZ.org comes from directory.mozilla.org, the original name/location of the directory. Because it is all volunteer run, it can take a long time (months, sometimes never) for them to act upon your request to get listed. Only sites that have some history to them and decent content get listed. Here are the instructions for suggesting your website for listing in DMOZ.
2. Yahoo Directory - Like DMOZ, the Yahoo Directory started as a way to use humans to screen websites for quality and use those as part of search results. The good news about Yahoo is that they act pretty fast on your submission (a week). The bad news is that it costs you $299/year. Here is information about listing your website in the Yahoo Directory.
3. Business.com Directory - The Business.com directory is another human reviewed directory. Like Yahoo, they will review your website quickly, but they also charge $199 for the first year and $149 annually after that. Here is information about listing your website in the Business.com directory.
4. ZoomInfo - ZoomInfo is a newer website than the other three. It is also not really a completely human reviewed directory, but it does have a verification method to edit your company listing and it uses trustworthy sources (other than your own website) to build your company profile. Also unlike the other three that really just have a link to your company, ZoomInfo has a full profile on your company, so that page sometimes shows up in search results. The other great news is that it is free. Just got to ZoomInfo, search for your company name, click on the result, and on the page that shows your company name and website, click the edit link. You'll have to create an account and verify through email you work at the company. If your company is not listed, they don't have a great way to get it listed, but you can use this form to make a request.
In fact, that is still true today. A human can do a much better job than Google of looking at a website and deciding if the content is good and it is a quality website. Computerized search engines have won the search engine battle, because to review all of the websites on the Internet using people would be cost prohibitive and time consuming given the explosion of content on the web. We prefer search engines that are always including new content that was just published and that search nearly all of the web. But human reviewed directories still do a good job of only including good websites, even if they only include a small percentage of the overall Internet. And because of this, the computerized search engines look at the human reviewed directories as a list of websites that are more trustworthy than other websites.
Getting your company listed in a human reviewed directory is sort of like getting into a good college. It doesn't mean you are smart, but it means a human looked at your application and thought you are smart. It is also somewhat expensive and time consuming. But, just like a good college on your resume sends a positive message to potential employers, getting listed in a human reviewed directory sends a positive message to the search engines.
Here are four of the better human reviewed directories, along with a bit of info on how to use them.
Four Directories That Should Include Your Company
1. DMOZ - The name for DMOZ.org comes from directory.mozilla.org, the original name/location of the directory. Because it is all volunteer run, it can take a long time (months, sometimes never) for them to act upon your request to get listed. Only sites that have some history to them and decent content get listed. Here are the instructions for suggesting your website for listing in DMOZ.
2. Yahoo Directory - Like DMOZ, the Yahoo Directory started as a way to use humans to screen websites for quality and use those as part of search results. The good news about Yahoo is that they act pretty fast on your submission (a week). The bad news is that it costs you $299/year. Here is information about listing your website in the Yahoo Directory.
3. Business.com Directory - The Business.com directory is another human reviewed directory. Like Yahoo, they will review your website quickly, but they also charge $199 for the first year and $149 annually after that. Here is information about listing your website in the Business.com directory.
4. ZoomInfo - ZoomInfo is a newer website than the other three. It is also not really a completely human reviewed directory, but it does have a verification method to edit your company listing and it uses trustworthy sources (other than your own website) to build your company profile. Also unlike the other three that really just have a link to your company, ZoomInfo has a full profile on your company, so that page sometimes shows up in search results. The other great news is that it is free. Just got to ZoomInfo, search for your company name, click on the result, and on the page that shows your company name and website, click the edit link. You'll have to create an account and verify through email you work at the company. If your company is not listed, they don't have a great way to get it listed, but you can use this form to make a request.
SEO For Business - The Importance of Meta Data
Every time I start off a Search Engine Optimization campaign with a client we look at the On page structure of the site. As part of this analysis process, one area that we look at is the “meta-data” elements of the site. This concept is often new to the business owners I talk to, so I thought it’d be helpful to provide a simple description of what it is and why it’s important. As is the case with prior articles in this series, if you’re an uber-techie and already gauk at all this stuff, feel free to save a bookmark to this article for the next time a business-type asks you what meta-data is. It will save you 10 minutes of your life that you can’t get back. You’re welcome.
Meta-Data Overview: Meta-data is information about a web page that is not part of the “core” content of the page. It provides useful information regarding the page to various pieces of software (a browser, search engine crawlers, etc.). From a structural perspective, meta-data is stored in a different part of the web page’s HTML code than the usual web content that people see.
There are three primary pieces of meta-data that you should be concerned with.
1. Title: This is without a doubt, the most important piece of meta-data there is. One could further argue that it is the most important part of your web page, period. Why? Two reasons. First, the title is what is recognized to be the one piece of information that describes what the page is about. (Similar to a book title or article title). It shows up at the top of the browser when users are browsing your site. It is the default title your browser and book-marking sites will automatically use when people decide to “save” your site for future use. Second, it is what search engines also use to figure out what the site is about. Compared to everything else on your page, it gets the most “weight” from the search engines. Think of your meta-data title just like you would if you were writing an article for the Wall Street Journal or authoring a book. The title is immensely important.
2. Description: This is an “abstract” or summary of the web page. Most SEO experts will advise you that you should ensure that important words and terms about your site should be crafted into the description somehow. I would agree. Another use of the description is that currently Yahoo! (and possibly other engines) use this provided description, or a part thereof, when your site “matches” on a given search term and it has to show a small summary of your site below the title.
3. Keywords: This element provides a set of key terms or words that describe the web page. Many years ago, when search engines were first introduced, the keywords element was very heavily weighted towards determining the context of a web page. It was a quick way for the search engine to “figure out” what a web page was about (instead of having to scan all the content). But, as time went on, people started abusing this “feature”. They stuffed words into the meta-keywords element that had nothing to do with the web page’s content. (The rationale was that by stuffing “popular” words, they’d draw some traffic). As a result of this abuse, the importance of the meta-keywords element has been greatly diminished. Search engines no longer look at this information as the definitive way to figure out context. However, most SEO experts continue to advise that it is important to use the keywords element because it is still used.
That’s it. Basically, the key is to make sure that you understand what the three most important pieces of meta-data are and ensure that you include them in your web pages.
Meta-Data Overview: Meta-data is information about a web page that is not part of the “core” content of the page. It provides useful information regarding the page to various pieces of software (a browser, search engine crawlers, etc.). From a structural perspective, meta-data is stored in a different part of the web page’s HTML code than the usual web content that people see.
There are three primary pieces of meta-data that you should be concerned with.
1. Title: This is without a doubt, the most important piece of meta-data there is. One could further argue that it is the most important part of your web page, period. Why? Two reasons. First, the title is what is recognized to be the one piece of information that describes what the page is about. (Similar to a book title or article title). It shows up at the top of the browser when users are browsing your site. It is the default title your browser and book-marking sites will automatically use when people decide to “save” your site for future use. Second, it is what search engines also use to figure out what the site is about. Compared to everything else on your page, it gets the most “weight” from the search engines. Think of your meta-data title just like you would if you were writing an article for the Wall Street Journal or authoring a book. The title is immensely important.
2. Description: This is an “abstract” or summary of the web page. Most SEO experts will advise you that you should ensure that important words and terms about your site should be crafted into the description somehow. I would agree. Another use of the description is that currently Yahoo! (and possibly other engines) use this provided description, or a part thereof, when your site “matches” on a given search term and it has to show a small summary of your site below the title.
3. Keywords: This element provides a set of key terms or words that describe the web page. Many years ago, when search engines were first introduced, the keywords element was very heavily weighted towards determining the context of a web page. It was a quick way for the search engine to “figure out” what a web page was about (instead of having to scan all the content). But, as time went on, people started abusing this “feature”. They stuffed words into the meta-keywords element that had nothing to do with the web page’s content. (The rationale was that by stuffing “popular” words, they’d draw some traffic). As a result of this abuse, the importance of the meta-keywords element has been greatly diminished. Search engines no longer look at this information as the definitive way to figure out context. However, most SEO experts continue to advise that it is important to use the keywords element because it is still used.
That’s it. Basically, the key is to make sure that you understand what the three most important pieces of meta-data are and ensure that you include them in your web pages.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The Importance of Google PageRank: A Word to Business Owners
If you’ve spent time learning about online marketing, then the topic of search engine optimization (SEO) usually comes up. And, no discussion of search engine talk is complete these days without someone mentioning Google. This insert provides a brief overview of how Google ranks search results with a look at their Page Rank™ algorithm. I'm an not a programming expert (that is the bad news) The good news is that I am not going to describe Google Page Rank in complex terms but rather a simple terms (such that you can impress your friends and family with your new-found knowledge).
Quick Intro To S.E.O (Search Engine Optimization)
Put quite simply, SEO is the process of optimizing your website for the search engines (like Google, Yahoo, AOL, and MSN). By “optimizing”, I mean attempting to make it such that searches for specific key word phrases rank your website higher in the search results than other websites. There are lots of good reasons to want to rank higher, but for businesses, the primary reason is to generate good leads and traffic for your product or service. Hundreds of Millions of people use Google looking for a product, service, or information. Some of these people might be potential clients looking for your particular type of company. There are two ways for you to show up on the results page when users are doing a search. The first is paid advertising (I’ll talk about this in a future blog) and the second is what is known as “organic” (or “natural”) search. The natural search results are listed free and are dependent on Google’s estimation of how relevant and credible your website is. Natural search results are my favorite kind, because you don’t have to pay money for them, and they often works better than paid advertising. I liken this to the difference between getting mentioned in a magazine article and purchasing an ad in that same magazine.
If you can rank high on the free (organic) search results for Google, it’s like getting potential hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of free advertising in the most relevant trade magazines, trade show, radio, tv, or print for your industry. I’m not sure about you, but that’s pretty interesting to me. It’s a great way to grow your business and find new clients. So, how do you get all this free, effective advertising in the search engines? Well, to do that you need to understand the Google algorithm and how it determines who gets listed. And oh yea, hire someone like me to get you there. That, unfortunately, is not free.
Google’s Search Algorithm
First, let’s establish a simple example which we can use to frame our discussion. Let’s assume you are the owner of a large background checks firm. Lets further say that your specialization is providing custom solutions to big business. Now, you could probably identify a number of search phrases that your potential clients might use when interested in this particular topic. Users may search for something like “background checks”. Or, they may just start by looking for content (instead of consulting) and search on “how to get hire a background check company”. In either case, Google has an algorithm that figures out which websites of the hundreds of millions out there should be displayed in rank order on the results page. These are the organic (i.e. non-paid) results. You want to rank high on these results.
Though Google’s algorithm is extremely sophisticated, it boils down to something like this:
Search Ranking = Relevance * PageRank
Relevance is basically the measure of how your website (or more accurately one of your web pages) matches the search phrase the user has entered. Measuring relevance is a relatively sophisticated process, but it boils down to some fundamentals like the title of the page, words on the page and how frequently they occur, etc. So, if your home page has things like “background checks”, it drives up the relevance for this particular search. Basically, Google figures out what your page is “about” by looking at it’s content (and by looking at other sites with similar content that are linking to yours). It then uses this to figure out how relevant you are for a particular search phrase.
Page Rank is an independent measure of Google’s perception of the quality/authority/credibility of an individual web page. It does not depend on any particular search phrase. For the public (you and me), Google conveniently reports this as a number from 0-10 (10 being the best). So, assuming for a second that your web page and your competitors web-page has the same relevance – then whoever has the higher Page Rank gets the better ranking – and shows up at the top of the results page. This is why Page Rank is so important. Your relevance is based on your content (if you’re a consulting company specializes in performing background checks, your relevance for high powered lawn mower searches is going to be understandably low). Your Page Rank is what counts.
How Page Rank Is Calculated
There has been a lot written and a lot debated about Google’s Page Rank, but on one point there is near unanimous agreement. PageR ank is primarily determined by how many other web pages are linking into you. Google considers this kind of inbound a link a vote of confidence. But, here’s the trick: Not all inbound links are created equal. Web pages with more credibility that link to you have more “value” to your Page Rank than those with less credibility. How is this credibility determined? Why, by their PageR ank, of course! So, let’s take an example. Lets say you have your Best Friend linked to you from his blog to your small business website. Let’s also say that Best Friend's blog has a Page Rank of 3 (this is being a little generous because all your Best Friend writes about is his Hot Rod and has limited inbound links). This link from your best friend will certainly help you – a little bit. It will help you more if you can find 100 such websites with a Page Rank of 3 and get them to link to you.
However, if you get a single link from a website with a Page Rank of 8, it’ll help you more than a 100 best friend websites. Why? Because a site with a Page Rank of 8 is 100 times more powerful than a Rank of 3. I divide up Page Rank into these broad categories:
0-3: New sites or sites with very minimal links
4-5: Popular sites with a fair amount of inbound links
6: Very popular sites that have hundreds of links, many of them quality links
7-10: Usually media brands (NYTimes.com), big companies or A-list bloggers.
Now, it’s important to note that Page Rank is believed to be calculated on a logarithmic scale. What this roughly means is that the difference between PR4 and PR5 is likely 5-10 times than the difference between PR3 and PR4. So, there are likely over a 100 times as many web pages with a Page Rank of 2 than there are with a Page Rank of 4. This means that if you get to a Page Rank of 6 or so, you’re likely well into the top 0.1% of all websites out there. If most of your peer group is struggling around with a PR2 or PR3, you’re way ahead of the game.
What’s Your Page Rank?
There are two ways to figure out what your approximate Page Rank is. One, you can download the Google Toolbar (the Page Rank feature is not turned on by default, so you’d have to enable it after installation).
Quick recap: Organic search is like free advertising. It’s worth the investment to try and get a high ranking by the major search engines. To rank high you should do two things: First, make sure your site has the right relevant content for the types of searches your potential clients are conducting. Second, try to get the highest Page Rank possible. To do this, you need to get as many inbound links from as many high Page Rank web pages as possible.
Quick Intro To S.E.O (Search Engine Optimization)
Put quite simply, SEO is the process of optimizing your website for the search engines (like Google, Yahoo, AOL, and MSN). By “optimizing”, I mean attempting to make it such that searches for specific key word phrases rank your website higher in the search results than other websites. There are lots of good reasons to want to rank higher, but for businesses, the primary reason is to generate good leads and traffic for your product or service. Hundreds of Millions of people use Google looking for a product, service, or information. Some of these people might be potential clients looking for your particular type of company. There are two ways for you to show up on the results page when users are doing a search. The first is paid advertising (I’ll talk about this in a future blog) and the second is what is known as “organic” (or “natural”) search. The natural search results are listed free and are dependent on Google’s estimation of how relevant and credible your website is. Natural search results are my favorite kind, because you don’t have to pay money for them, and they often works better than paid advertising. I liken this to the difference between getting mentioned in a magazine article and purchasing an ad in that same magazine.
If you can rank high on the free (organic) search results for Google, it’s like getting potential hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of free advertising in the most relevant trade magazines, trade show, radio, tv, or print for your industry. I’m not sure about you, but that’s pretty interesting to me. It’s a great way to grow your business and find new clients. So, how do you get all this free, effective advertising in the search engines? Well, to do that you need to understand the Google algorithm and how it determines who gets listed. And oh yea, hire someone like me to get you there. That, unfortunately, is not free.
Google’s Search Algorithm
First, let’s establish a simple example which we can use to frame our discussion. Let’s assume you are the owner of a large background checks firm. Lets further say that your specialization is providing custom solutions to big business. Now, you could probably identify a number of search phrases that your potential clients might use when interested in this particular topic. Users may search for something like “background checks”. Or, they may just start by looking for content (instead of consulting) and search on “how to get hire a background check company”. In either case, Google has an algorithm that figures out which websites of the hundreds of millions out there should be displayed in rank order on the results page. These are the organic (i.e. non-paid) results. You want to rank high on these results.
Though Google’s algorithm is extremely sophisticated, it boils down to something like this:
Search Ranking = Relevance * PageRank
Relevance is basically the measure of how your website (or more accurately one of your web pages) matches the search phrase the user has entered. Measuring relevance is a relatively sophisticated process, but it boils down to some fundamentals like the title of the page, words on the page and how frequently they occur, etc. So, if your home page has things like “background checks”, it drives up the relevance for this particular search. Basically, Google figures out what your page is “about” by looking at it’s content (and by looking at other sites with similar content that are linking to yours). It then uses this to figure out how relevant you are for a particular search phrase.
Page Rank is an independent measure of Google’s perception of the quality/authority/credibility of an individual web page. It does not depend on any particular search phrase. For the public (you and me), Google conveniently reports this as a number from 0-10 (10 being the best). So, assuming for a second that your web page and your competitors web-page has the same relevance – then whoever has the higher Page Rank gets the better ranking – and shows up at the top of the results page. This is why Page Rank is so important. Your relevance is based on your content (if you’re a consulting company specializes in performing background checks, your relevance for high powered lawn mower searches is going to be understandably low). Your Page Rank is what counts.
How Page Rank Is Calculated
There has been a lot written and a lot debated about Google’s Page Rank, but on one point there is near unanimous agreement. PageR ank is primarily determined by how many other web pages are linking into you. Google considers this kind of inbound a link a vote of confidence. But, here’s the trick: Not all inbound links are created equal. Web pages with more credibility that link to you have more “value” to your Page Rank than those with less credibility. How is this credibility determined? Why, by their PageR ank, of course! So, let’s take an example. Lets say you have your Best Friend linked to you from his blog to your small business website. Let’s also say that Best Friend's blog has a Page Rank of 3 (this is being a little generous because all your Best Friend writes about is his Hot Rod and has limited inbound links). This link from your best friend will certainly help you – a little bit. It will help you more if you can find 100 such websites with a Page Rank of 3 and get them to link to you.
However, if you get a single link from a website with a Page Rank of 8, it’ll help you more than a 100 best friend websites. Why? Because a site with a Page Rank of 8 is 100 times more powerful than a Rank of 3. I divide up Page Rank into these broad categories:
0-3: New sites or sites with very minimal links
4-5: Popular sites with a fair amount of inbound links
6: Very popular sites that have hundreds of links, many of them quality links
7-10: Usually media brands (NYTimes.com), big companies or A-list bloggers.
Now, it’s important to note that Page Rank is believed to be calculated on a logarithmic scale. What this roughly means is that the difference between PR4 and PR5 is likely 5-10 times than the difference between PR3 and PR4. So, there are likely over a 100 times as many web pages with a Page Rank of 2 than there are with a Page Rank of 4. This means that if you get to a Page Rank of 6 or so, you’re likely well into the top 0.1% of all websites out there. If most of your peer group is struggling around with a PR2 or PR3, you’re way ahead of the game.
What’s Your Page Rank?
There are two ways to figure out what your approximate Page Rank is. One, you can download the Google Toolbar (the Page Rank feature is not turned on by default, so you’d have to enable it after installation).
Quick recap: Organic search is like free advertising. It’s worth the investment to try and get a high ranking by the major search engines. To rank high you should do two things: First, make sure your site has the right relevant content for the types of searches your potential clients are conducting. Second, try to get the highest Page Rank possible. To do this, you need to get as many inbound links from as many high Page Rank web pages as possible.
Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing
When I talk with most people in marketing today about how they generate leads and fill the top of their sales funnel, most say seminars, trade shows, email blasts to purchased lists, internal cold calling, outsourced telemarketing, and advertising. I call these methods "outbound marketing" where a marketer pushes his message out far and wide hoping that it resonates with that needle in the haystack.
I think outbound marketing techniques are getting less and less effective over time for two reasons. First, your average human today is innundated with over 5000 outbound marketing messages per day and is figuring out more and more creative ways to block them out, including caller id, spam filtering, Tivo, and XM satellite radio. Second, the cost to learn something new or shopping for something new using the internet (search engines, blogs, and social media sites) is now much lower than going to a seminar at the Hilton or flying to a trade show in Vegas.
Rather than do outbound marketing to the masses of people who are trying to block you out, I advocate doing "inbound marketing" where you help yourself "get discovered" by people already learning about you and shopping in your industry. In order to do this, you need to set your website up like a "hub" for your industry that attracts visitors naturally through the search engines, through the blog-o-sphere, and through the social media sites. I believe most marketers today spend 80% of their efforts on outbound marketing and 20% on inbound marketing and I advocate that those ratios flip.
I think outbound marketing techniques are getting less and less effective over time for two reasons. First, your average human today is innundated with over 5000 outbound marketing messages per day and is figuring out more and more creative ways to block them out, including caller id, spam filtering, Tivo, and XM satellite radio. Second, the cost to learn something new or shopping for something new using the internet (search engines, blogs, and social media sites) is now much lower than going to a seminar at the Hilton or flying to a trade show in Vegas.
Rather than do outbound marketing to the masses of people who are trying to block you out, I advocate doing "inbound marketing" where you help yourself "get discovered" by people already learning about you and shopping in your industry. In order to do this, you need to set your website up like a "hub" for your industry that attracts visitors naturally through the search engines, through the blog-o-sphere, and through the social media sites. I believe most marketers today spend 80% of their efforts on outbound marketing and 20% on inbound marketing and I advocate that those ratios flip.
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