Rooket Media Search Blog

Adwords have really impressed me! The new placement feature is a highly advanced way of targeting your audience.

This excerpt from Google explain placements best:

A placement might be an entire website, or a subset of a site. For instance, if you’re selling soccer shoes and you want your ad to appear on a particular soccer website, or only on the sports pages of a newspaper, placement targeting can help you handpick those sites.

It is very similar to the old placement targeted ads, but with more control and more advanced targeting. The placement tool allows you to add placement ads by browsing for categories, searching for keyword topics, search for URLs, or selecting demographics. The placement ads are only available for content targeted ads.

Adwords is becoming more appealing once again. It lost some esteem with me when they started the quality scoring and it wasn’t doing a good job of monitoring the quality of sites, thus increasing keyword targets to a high or insane minimum due to Google software determining it as unrelated or poor quality. I have seen improvements in the quality scoring technology, then they recently modified the Google Adwords Tool to display real numbers for its estimated search volumes — now the integration and upgrade of the placement ads have made targeting the right audience an easier task. They have definitely took a step in the right direction.

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Website Grader cannot be underestimated. The data gathered by Website Grader is very useful for analysis of your own website. It can help you identify weak areas in your website.

What is Website Grader?
It is a free seo tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. It provides a score that incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity, and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective.

This is a non-endorsed review of Website Grader.  I truly think it is a cool software which I use plenty of times to ensure client websites have the best possible optimized website.  It is a “must have” in the SEO toolkit, don’t get caught without it.

If you take the recommended advice which they provide you then you will be well on your way to having an SEO optimized website, there are some techniques which are overlooked in the software, such as page load time, page keyword density, links per page ratio, etc.  Though, it does cover all the basics, such as meta tag data, alternate tag data, domain age info, inbound link count, etc.  Each of these basic factors mean something huge in the world SEO.

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Surprisingly, Google has changed its bar graph display with numerical values for its search volume results in Google Keyword Tool. This change reflects a growing behavior in Google. They have been on a path of being more open with their data. The data obtained from Search Volume is useful in a keyword research and analysis campaign, especially if the data is more close to being accurate. The bar graph gave an guesstimate of search volume, but now having actual numbers helps to better understand the popularity of the keyword term allowing advertisers to make a more targeted and inquisitive decision when making keyword selections or building targeted keyword lists.

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If you haven’t been living under a rock for the last year then you are probably aware of the Viacom vs. Google case. A short debrief, Viacom is suing Google for publication of their copyrighted videos on YouTube. Viacom is the owner of BET, MTV, VH1, etc. So you can imagine the amount of videos and programs that was found on YouTube from these networks. Anyway, to learn more about Viacom vs. Google case see the original court document here.

As you probably already heard, last week U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton, ordered that Google release YouTube data of users who watch videos on YouTube to Viacom, thus violating the privacy of its users. This court order has infuriated some of the public. It seems that the general public privacy is not protected as it should be. The order is said to go against EU law. In any event, it isn’t clear how Viacom will use the data they obtain, but it is assumed it will be used to justify their billion dollar lawsuit against Google and not to prosecute the general public for viewing or publishing the copyrighted videos.

Viacom has stated that they plan to protect the anonymity of the data they receive. However, the problem here is the court order itself, which can set the stage for more erroneous court orders which violate user privacy. Across the blogosphere some have suggested that Google should comply to the court order and send Viacom the results of the data in paper format. This will probably amount to about 10TB of data, almost impossible to sift through on paper. I think this would be a cunning exertion of the court order.

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Yahoo! management decided to increase their low (and competitive) yearly domain registrations from $9.95 to $34.95.  This triple the price hike is non-plausible in the sense I haven’t heard or seen any information justifying the increase.  Many speculate it is a ploy to increase value of their Yahoo! brand at a time when they are getting bids for the acquisition of the company.

Whatever the case, other industry leaders, such as GoDaddy, have reached out to Yahoo! customers to ease their pain and create simple domain transfer to the Godaddy platform.  Yahoo! has been creating waves as of late and showing flaws in management.  This domain name increase is just another situation filed under Yahoo! screw ups.

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I myself am guilty of deciding my fate without first taking action.  I sometimes chose not to send a friendly email communication to a prospective client because in my mind I make myself believe that it would be a waste of time, either the prospect will not respond or will not be a good connection.  While, this may be the case, it is self-destruction for my business for me to make the deciding factor not to make contact because of a way I feel, regardless my experience or education on the matter.  Action must first be taken.

It’s like the person who has never voted but has a lot to say about how poorly the government is doing!  If you don’t vote to make the change because you feel your vote doesn’t make a difference then you will never get the results you want.

Give yourself that extra push you need to improve and make the difference for your business.  Don’t decide your fate without first taking action.  If you start taking action, then I guarantee you will begin seeing progression in your business.

Best of luck to you!

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Client appreciation is important for retaining business and growing solid business relationships. You should have a piece of the pie dedicated to your clients. This would include a simple token of appreciation, by telling them “you appreciate their business”. Or placing a client appreciation list on your website which display links to your top clients website.

True appreciation comes in the shape of something of monetary value. If you have clients who consistently spend over $2,500 a month for your services then it shows appreciation if you send the client a bottle of top shelf wine or cognac.

I know there’s the old adage that you shouldn’t send gifts that you’re not sure the recipient is going to enjoy. What if the client isn’t a drinker? I say to that … everyone is a drinker! Even if they don’t drink. Wine or liquor bottles can make great house decors or it can be saved to entertain a party. Many religious disciplines accept the tastings of wine. An expensive bottle of wine or cognac usually speaks volumes and delivers a “your appreciated” message. It has become tradition to show your appreciation with bottled beverages.

The fact is you can choose anyway you’d like to appreciate your client — you can be unique, trendy, and creative, you just need to appreciate them. Long lasting, influential, and new clients are equally important and each deserve appreciation in their own way. I’d recommend saving the expensive gifts for your long time and highly influential clients. Influential meaning they can send you plenty of repeat business or their word of mouth referrals are highly empowering.

Mastering the art of client appreciation is a skill. Done right it could help your business survive during the slow periods of your business. Clients like being appreciated, even something as small as a mention in a press release will show client appreciation and increase the chances of the client dropping your name as a referral. It’s also a great way to be an ice breaker for a follow-up with a past client

Hey, we are celebrating client appreciation and in honor of this we are mentioning past clients in our press release with a brief company description.  We are glad to announce your company will be a part of this press release.  We had our copywriter create a quality write up for your company.  Please see the attached file for the full press release.

Please feel free to share this press release and refer our services. If you are in need of any more services please feel free to contact us. We will be more than happy to provide you with follow-up services to compliment our previous work. We appreciate your business. Thank you.

Congratulations to being a part of this celebration!

Sincerely

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With the increasing gas prices it has made many families reconsider their lifestyles. Some people are moving back into the inner cities, relying on public transportation to escape the drive or commute to work. Some are cutting back on their basic essentials to make ends meet, such as clothes shopping expense, food shopping expense, vacation/travel expenses, etc. Most are only concerned with what they need and less of what they want.

With monthly gas expenses costing more than most people monthly car note, having a vehicle has become more of a burden than a luxury. At one time owning a vehicle was worth the expense and affordable. You only needed to worry about paying your car loan expense, car insurance (which can be very low if you keep a clean driving history and are over 25), car repairs/maintenance (which can be very low if you do the upkeep to keep the vehicle in good shape, such as periodic oil changes, tune-ups, etc.), and gas (which at one time a budget of less than $100 per month would keep your tank full for the month).

Now with gas prices easily costing $300+ per month it is worth considering alternative methods which relate to less driving and/or savings. These alternative methods can include basic everyday needs, such as food shopping online, clothes shopping online, pick-up/delivery services, etc.

Taking this a step further, it is worthwhile searching for free shipping deals, coupon shopping deals, and savings.

• Yahoo! Shopping Free Shipping Category
  
• Drugstore Free Shipping
• Amazon Free Shipping
• Barnes & Noble Free Shipping
• NetGrocer
• Upons
• Local Thrift Shops and Hand-Me-Ups
• Pickup & delivery dry clenaing
• Pickup & delivery pet grooming
• Pickup & delivery child care

In the grand scheme of things the gas companies are going to make money from your purchases one way or another. Your items much get shipped to you or the business must pickup & delivery to you, which all takes gas to do. Therefore, you can’t escape the fact that the gas companies will get paid in some aspect of the transaction. However, you can control who directly pays the gas companies, I’d personally rather pay them indirectly than directly.

It cost me $60 bucks per week to fill up at the tank. It will cost me probably less than $60 bucks per month for the pickup & delivery charge. Gas prices is a wake up call for us (Americans)! Times are calling for lifestyle changes and frugal dispositions. The America as we see it is the same America as we know it. Gas price hikes will soon create innovative ideas and alternative transportation methods. Gas prices will drive more people to become steady Internet shoppers and repeat visitors. It’s important your website is in a position to reap the rewards! It’s equally as important that your website cater to the needs of gas-centric visitors, such as free shipping, green shipping, alternative shipping, etc.

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Google search has a 1,000 page barrier when it comes to seeing the index pages of your website. If more than 1,000 of your website pages are indexed in Google you will only get to see up to 1,000 pages in their search index. This poses problems when trying to do the best SEO for clients with large sites. Especially when trying to eliminate duplicate content issues on a sites’ internal pages.  Dr. Pete over at SEOMoz helps get pass this barrier with his Google Index Deconstruction Whitepaper

His strategy involves breaking down the site by pages so you can analyze smaller parts of the site.  It’s rather sophisticated but worthwhile if you are examining a large website which has more than 1,000 pages indexed.

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Using Google Adwords for testing keyword popularity, product page usability, page stickiness, landing page effectiveness, etc. is a easy and affordable way to tighten weak areas within your site.

1. Install Google Analytics on site pages to track your website traffic
2. Create a low budget campaign ($5.00 per day or less) in Google Adwords
3. Set up a number of targeted keywords
4. Based on keywords set lowest bids for top placement, but also have a max bid amount which is rather low (such as $0.20 per click)
5. Delete keywords from test campaign which do not comply to your standards or require you to increase bid exceeding your max bid
6. Study Google Analytics traffic data. Where is tracking coming from? How are they navigating? Which pages are the most popular? Which keywords are being used to find your website?
7. Use this data for your upcoming PPC campaign by targeting the keywords, pages, external sites, etc. which the tracking data has revealed

If you run the above campaign for 14 days or more then you should have generated some useful information. If not, then you are targeting weak keywords and should optimize your target keyword set. If all your keywords exceed your low max bid amount then you are probably targeting highly competitive keywords and may want to optimize your target keyword set for more targeted keywords. Using the same campaign, if you tweak the test bed and staging environment then it will start to manifest into your active pay per click campaign and generate hoards of traffic for your website.

So the lesson here is that you don’t rush into a pay per click campaign. Just because you have the money doesn’t mean you spend the money. You take baby steps and study your campaign until you perfect the campaign for your website.

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