newsletter – Page 31

The Mysteries of Online Advertising Explained

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

PPC or SEO: Which Is Best?

When it comes to advertising online, most small businesses realize they need to have a strong Internet presence. But with all of the different options—and acronyms—out there, it can be hard to determine which tactics will work best for your specific needs. Let us help clear up some of that alphabet soup confusion for you…

PPC = Pay Per Click

Unsurprisingly, this type of Internet advertising involves paid ads. These small ads appear on the top and/or side of the search engine results pages and contain a link to your website. That way, people can see the ad and then visit your site simply by clicking on the ad. Although a variety of factors can affect which place (1 through 10) your ad will occupy on the results page, it boils down to two main issues:

How much are you willing to spend on each click? The more you pay per click, the higher your ad can be placed. If one of your competitors wants to pay more, they’re typically going to rank higher than you do.
How closely does the topic of your website match the topic of the search? If, for example, your site is about plumbing services, but the search was for “wedding rings,” your website is not particularly relevant to the search performed. The more relevant your site is to the search, the lower the price per click…That makes relevancy extremely important for PPC campaigns.

SEO = Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization involves maximizing the relevance of your site content to the searches being performed. The good news is that you don’t have to pay for your placement like you do with PPC: That means all the traffic is FREE. But there is a catch. There are practically infinite factors controlling which sites are chosen for positions 1 through 10 in the middle of the search results page, and their order is all based on how much Google believes that your site is what the searcher is looking for. Because of this inherent complexity, most small business owners find the game of SEO to be even more overwhelming than PPC. It also takes considerable time and resources to optimize your site properly. In fact, simply optimizing your site often isn’t enough.

Nerd Alert! Here’s the Scoop…

SEO has two main parts:

On-page optimization: This involves optimizing the content of your own site. Let’s not get into the gory details, but the basics include properly constructing the structure of the site, its navigational links, and its text.
Off-page optimization: This involves maximizing how your site interacts with other websites.

Here’s where the nerdy part comes in: Google regards links to your site like votes. If person A links to person B’s website, person A must think that person B’s site is of some value. Creating that link functions like a vote, and according to Google more votes equal more value.
That’s the basics, but the reality of the situation is somewhat more complicated. Off-page optimization is all about increasing the number of quality links pointing to your site. The tricky part is that not all links count, and not all links are of the same value. Off-page optimization involves figuring out which links will help boost your website’s results ranking in the best way!

That’s Nice, But Which One Do I Pick?

Choosing between PPC and SEO depends a lot on your goals but also on your budget. Let’s look at it like opening a store in the real world: Do you want to quickly set up a kiosk in the mall to capitalize on holiday shoppers, or do you want a storefront that you can build value in over time?
Like the kiosk, PPC is the clear choice if you’re looking for immediate results. You can set it up, turn it on, and get traffic the next day. There are already shoppers in the mall (and on the web), so you just have to rent some space to get to them. The downside is that the kiosks tend to have high rent because they’re prime real estate. The same is true for PPC. The rates are high, and increasing all the time because more and more companies are using PPC and consequently bidding up the prices.
Opting to construct a storefront is more like SEO. You can leverage a storefront for years to come—you have control over your own space and your business will become more recognized and trusted as the years go by, just like with SEO. Although there are costs involved with building a store (or website) and getting people to visit it (online traffic), the long-term cost is far less than with PPC. It also becomes harder and harder to knock you out of your spot the longer you’re in business.

What This Means for Your Business

In an ideal world, you would have an unlimited budget for online advertising—and if you did, we would recommend that you do both SEO and PPC! This would ensure you get the best of both worlds. As the SEO ramps up, you can cut back on the PPC campaign: That way you get immediate results but also long-term stability.
However, most small businesses are operating on a limited Internet marketing budget. If that’s the case, we generally recommend SEO. That’s because SEO can be looked as more of an investment than an expense. The simple truth is that it is a more cost-effective strategy. Of course, it all depends on your goals, but most of our clients find they’re happy they went with our program over a PPC campaign. That’s generally because the cost is lower and the overall value just can’t be beaten by PPC.

Dip Your Toe in the Water

If you’re ready to try out a little of this SEO thing but don’t want to jump all the way in, Prospect Genius has a great way for you to sample it. Our Ad Blast program can promote your website in all sorts of local places online. We use this strategy for our Lead Generation customers, but we now offer it as a stand-alone service. For a low, one-time fee, we’ll generate a whole pile of links pointing back to your site. We leverage directories, newspapers, classified ads, online magazines, and a bunch of other site types to make your business more visible to people the web.
This program is especially effective if you have a seasonal special or sale that you want to advertise online. Give us a call (800-689-1273) if you’d like to learn more about how SEO, our Ad Blast campaign, and the PG team can help your business!
Prospect Genius has other services that can complement the Ad Blast program as well. For details, visit our website.

The Ins and Outs of Googling Yourself

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Googling Yourself: Too Much of a Good Thing
Are you one of those people that googles themselves every day? Then you might want to reconsider. Of course, googling yourself isn’t going to make you go blind or anything like that, but it can skew the results you see. That’s because Google is designed to provide each person with individual results. Factoring in things like search history, what particular search terms you favor, where you are searching from, and other data, Google search results are tailored specifically for you. So if you search for something, you’ll get different results than your next-door neighbor or even your coworkers.
If you continually search for one term or keyword—say, your name or a service like “Hardwood Flooring in New York City”—and then don’t click on any of the results, Google will assume you did not like the listings it returned. The next time you perform the same search, Google will give you slightly different results. If you don’t click on any of the results again, it will again assume you don’t like the results and try another variation the next time. This cycle will just keep continuing and continuing…
In your own, individualized Google results, you can drive your placement down in the listings by repeatedly searching for—and not clicking on—yourself. This certainly happens for your own personal search engine results, but if you do it enough, it’s also conceivable that you could impact your rankings when other people search as well!
So while there are certainly valid reasons to occasionally search for yourself online, the key is to not get carried away! Constant searching for your name or company will ensure you don’t get a good representation of your actual placement on Google.

Everything in Moderation
So now you know why it’s important to not google yourself all the time, but there are some good reasons to search for yourself every once and a while…
1. Reputation management. For local companies, your reputation is everything. Bad PR can run off potential clients, so you need to know what’s being said about you online. Occasionally googling your company’s name or services can help you see what people are putting on the Internet about your business. At Prospect Genius, our lead generation service encompasses a lot of reputation management elements: by distributing press releases, articles, blog entries, and social networking posts about your local company online, we generate a positive buzz and make sure that prospective customers can see the great things that are being said about you on the web! If you’re interested in finding out more about reputation management online, check out this article about how to be both proactive and reactive.
2. Checking on the competition. Did you know that some unscrupulous companies use their competition’s names in their own advertising? That means that your competitors could be using YOUR company’s name as part of their PPC or AdWords advertising strategy. And according to this article, it doesn’t seem like Google is willing to do much about this nefarious practice! However, searching for your business’s name online every so often can help alert you to when your competition is using this underhanded tactic. If you do see this happening, you may wish to contact both us here at Prospect Genius for online advertising help as well as an attorney for legal assistance.
Just like with so many other things, you’ll need to find the right balance when it comes to searching for your company online: too often can have negative effects, but too little can leave your business vulnerable. Occasional Google searches can help you stay on top of your online reputation and competitors without causing any major setbacks.
For more information on how Prospect Genius can help your company navigate the treacherous waters of online advertising, give us a call at 1-800-689-1273 or visit our website today.

The Myth of Speedy Ranking

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

At Prospect Genius, we work with hundreds of local business owners, and we’re often surprised to learn about the misconceptions and misunderstandings they have about online advertising. One of the most common we come across is the idea that Internet marketing should be fast. Because we hear about this false impression all the time, we thought it might be helpful to clear up some of the confusion!
Speedy Ranking Is a Myth!
With PPC (pay per click) online advertising it is possible to buy your way to the top quickly. However, unless you’re doing a PPC campaign, it simply isn’t realistic to expect that ANY online marketing company can get your business’s website into the number one slot on Google overnight. That’s because one of major factors Google—and all the other search engines—use when determining the value/relevancy of a website is how long it’s been on the web (with relevant content). This policy helps the search engines avoid useless SPAM sites (thousands of which pop up every day and soon disappear) and focus on quality sites instead. Unfortunately, this also means that it takes time for new, quality sites to achieve high rankings.
Real World Parallels
Opening a new store and starting a new website or SEO campaign have a lot in common. When you’re opening a brick-and-mortar enterprise, you first need to get the location set up and then you need to get the word out to people about your new shop. Just like you need to make a little noise with a grand opening and/or advertising campaign to spread the word when you open a new store, you need to launch your website with a little fanfare so Google (and potential customers) know about it. You need to bring attention to yourself so the search engines will hear about your site and deem it worthy of inclusion in their results. And just like you can’t pull off the launch of a new store overnight, the online equivalent—starting a new website or SEO program—can’t work that fast either.
That’s because every day thousands of new sites burst onto the scene and millions of sites alter their content. Google then has to visit each and every one of these sites to find out what’s new and relevant. Even though Google has almost unimaginable resources dedicated to this, it still takes time for them to locate each and every site out there.

Campaign Hopping Spells Doom
If you’re one of those business owners who sets a 90-day limit for results when it comes to SEO and/or lead generation, you might actually be sabotaging your chances for a strong online presence! That’s because while arbitrary 90-day windows may work fine when testing out a new Yellow Pages or print ad, they can be a major impediment to the success of an Internet marketing program. The difference is that while media like Yellow Pages and print ads already have an established distribution channel that they simply include you in, with advertising online the distribution channel has to be developed along with the ad. The benefits of this system are myriad, but it does take some time to develop.
Ultimately, this means that by giving up on an SEO campaign before a proper test can be completed, you’re probably wasting lots of time and money. So unless a company tells you that three months is long enough to execute their lead generation campaign (in which case, you need to start asking some serious questions), you need to allow plenty of time for the company to implement their strategy (usually between three and six months). By sticking with an SEO company for a longer period of time, you enable them to make the minor adjustments required to ensure your lead generation campaign gets off the ground running.
The Naked Truth
In short, this means if you’re hopping from one SEO company to another every 90 days, your lack of results probably has more to do with your impatience than any inherent shortcomings in their lead generation programs.
That’s because when you leave after 90 days, each company only has enough time to execute its standard tactics that work for most businesses. If your company has a unique location, product, business model, or other distinctive features that don’t shoehorn neatly into their boilerplate, you’re depriving the SEO company of the time they need to make the necessary adjustments to get you the best results. By the end of the year, you’ve probably spent more money on four different lead generation companies than you would have by sticking with just one company for 6-12 months and seeing if they could get you the results you deserve.
But remember, it never pays off to stay with an advertising company that is unresponsive, waves away your concerns, or simply doesn’t produce the desired outcomes over time. If you’ve been with an SEO company for more than 90 days, and you aren’t seeing results, it’s time to start asking questions. If they aren’t offering to make changes to your site, distribution channels, or other parts of your campaign, that’s probably not a good sign. Statements like, “Just keep waiting,” that aren’t supported by information like feedback about changes, new directions, or other strategies to boost your performance are also warning signs. And if you hear, “It worked for everyone else,” that’s definitely a red flag. You need to stay with your lead generation company long enough for them to implement a productive SEO campaign, but if they’re not working to make changes or giving you feedback, that’s the time to jump ship and find a more reputable company.
Before working with any online advertising company, we strongly advise you to do a simple Google search. A little research can help you avoid getting started with a bad egg in the first place and help make sure that you aren’t wasting your hard-earned money on ineffective or fraudulent companies. Just Google the name of the business along with the word “scam” or “complaints” and see what you get. The results invariably will be somewhat skewed due to the fact that most happy customers don’t take time to comment on the Internet, but a fast search can help you get a sense of how a company performs for their customers and whether they’re worth your time. Just be sure that you give them enough of your time to really get the SEO campaign rolling before you decide whether or not they’re a company you want to keep working with into the future!

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