Perhaps I haven’t had enough coffee this morning…you know us Seattleites…

But I just felt I had to call out an example of how poor copywriting and writing for search engine robots can ruin a decent Unique Value Proposition.

I was referred to a site to look at their homepage design (see screenshot, highlighting is mine), and immediately noticed that they had a prominent Unique Value Proposition (UVP) statement, which was promising.

The UVP statement wasn’t the best I’ve read, but at least it…

...continue to read "When We-We and SEO Copy Attack"

Most companies measure keyword performance – and especially PPC keyword performance – based on one factor: did that word or phrase bring converting visitors to the site on the visit in which they converted.

So the natural thing to do is trim non-performing words and phrases in order to increase the efficiency of your PPC spend.  And that’s exactly what one client did, except rather than increasing his efficiency, he dropped his sales by 30%.

Why?

Because, depending on what you…

...continue to read "Are Your Analytics Causing You to Lose 30% of Your Sales?"

Who: Bryan Eisenberg, Co-Founder & EVP at FutureNow, and Craig Danuloff, Founder and President of Commerce360 Inc, a full service paid search management firm and developed the ClickEquations paid search software platform.

What: “Always Be Testing” Webinar: Google Quality Score – Exposing the Secret Factor to PPC Success

Quality Score is the PageRank of PPC. It’s a number Google assigns to your keywords which determines how much you have to bid, the position in which your ads appear, how often your ads are…

...continue to read "Free Webinar: Google Quality Score – Exposing the Secret Factor to PPC Success"

When you look at the keywords that are sending traffic to your site, what do you see? Are they highly targeted keywords demonstrating that your traffic is qualified? Or are you getting less targeted traffic from visitors who are searching for more general keywords?

Let’s compare a few keywords to demonstrate the difference.

Traffic searching for “buy Monet print” is highly targeted. These are visitors who are looking to purchase a product from a vendor who sells Monet prints. If someone is…

...continue to read "Bucket Your Visitors By Intent"

If you sold Widgets, and a Widget-buying customer walks into your store, can’t find any Widgets on her own, and when she asks what aisle they’re in you remain silent, would you fire yourself? Maybe contribute to the Darwin Awards?

Think of your site’s search box as a last chance to get a visitor to take action on your site.  A majority of visitors will only use internal search as a last resort when they are unable to find what they…

...continue to read "Tweaking Internal Site-Searches into Buying Opportunities"

Google released another great tool today, Google Insights for Search. Whether you’re an advertising agency, a small business owner, a multinational corporation, or an academic researcher, Insights for Search can help you gauge interest in your relevant search terms. It allows you to compare search volume patterns (and trends) across specific geographic regions, categories (like finance, health, and sports), and time frames. You can read more about it at the Insight for Search help center or get a quick overview here.How does…

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Have you ever noticed that if you really want good information about a product, you’re much more likely to find that information in a product review than in the product description itself?

Why aren’t product descriptions more helpful?

Here’s one thought: Men and women may care about different things. Product descriptions may not be speaking to both genders’ needs. In product reviews, men talk about what they care about, and women talk about what they care about. This may be one reason why…

...continue to read "Using Customer Review Keywords to Pick Up Women, Men"

Is it really such a bad thing to have a website that stinks?

In the second and final installment of Bryan’s interview with Ralph Wilson — recorded at February’s Search Engine Strategies conference in London — the two shift their focus from personas (as discussed in Part 1) to improving landing page conversion by creating better “scent” for the visitor.

In the video, Bryan talks about a study conducted by usability guru Jared Spool that shows, among other things, that…

...continue to read "Bryan Eisenberg on Websites That Stink (in a Good Way)"

Personas are everywhere these days. They’ve long surpassed the buzzword and fad stage. They’re mainstream.

Marketing firms, usability firms, even companies’ internal marketing teams are crafting personas. Posters of personas are hung proudly in conference rooms. Tacked-up personas dress cubicles from coast to coast.

Sadly, many of these personas are only attracting dust bunnies. They don’t see any recognition past the initial creation.

If you spent any amount of time and resources building personas that represent your customers, it’s reasonable to consider getting…

...continue to read "Getting the Most Out of Your Personas"

Here’s a great “Why didn’t I think of that?” tip from TechSoapbox. Want to find some great keyword fodder for your site, or borrow a bit of mojo from the competition? Search del.icio.us/url to see how people who’ve tagged the sites you’re interested in have phrased their description of the website.

And don’t forget to check out the tag cloud on the top-right [example], which will give you some sense of visitors — at least the ones interested enough to bookmark it…

...continue to read "How to Find Del.icio.us Keywords"