Tag Archives: san diego internet marketing

Want to stay on top of things? Here is the Next Generation Website Architecture.

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The biggest challenge for web developers is to design next generation site architecture that takes the visibility of sites to the maximum level. This concern has gained utmost importance after the extreme popularity of Smartphones and tablets. It’s not easy to create a site that caters to the needs of both the present and future world.

When you are planning your new digital presence, there are a plenty of things to be kept in mind. First of all, when we talk about digital realm architecture, we are not referring to a list of pages or just a site map. It’s also not a static information which doesn’t interact with the users. We are talking about real design of digital services over here. Let’s have a look at some of the things to be considered.

Social Authority- Building social authority supposes to be one of the foremost goals of any internet marketing campaign. Site architecture must be connected to some social networking sites in order to be benefited from social authority. Usually accounts verified by social media sites are a good source of information for people. This fact may be taken into account for social authority.

Fonts- For futuristic sites, the font should be selected very carefully. Web fonts can add to the beauty and attraction of your site. If you use the web fonts, you will not have to take the help of the images to make your text look better.

Images and Videos- You also need to follow the excellent practices when it comes to images and videos. The name of the file should be describing it. Also, the size should be kept in a small size so that it can work in all the devices. Same things hold true for videos.

Responsive Design- It means to use the same HTML and URL but different CSS. It can save resources for both the site and the crawlers. Though it takes much of time and money but if you receive a significant amount of traffic from mobile phones, it can reap many benefits.

Today we live in a multi device world where not just computers and laptops are to be covered, various devices like Smartphones and tablets are also there. In such a scenario, responsive design may be highly beneficial in designing next generation site architecture.

wordpress-seo

Have a WordPress Website? Top Marketing Tips inside…

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WordPress!! WordPress!! WordPress!! Seems like everyone who is looking to launch a new website runs past the CMS giant WordPress. Last year, a report said that about one out of six websites were powered by WordPress. It can prove to be very good for SEO, performance and security of a site. But just installation of this content management system is not enough.

Here are a few tips that can help you reap the most benefits from the popular CMS:

Wordpress SEO

Remove Some Defaults- There are many a things like “Hello World” and “Sample Page” which need to be removed before the site is hosted. These things are fine while the site is in the development phase as they help in checking typography and layout but when it’s time to host the site for public, these things should be removed positively. You can delete them permanently in order to facilitate management of your database.

Set Permalinks- The default WordPress setting for Permalinks doesn’t seem to be the most efficient URL structure. Changing this setting to Post Name is the best thing to do. Though there are a few other options also but Post Name is the most used one among them.

Add Update Services- Indexing of the new pages by search engines may take some time. This duration usually depends on the crawl rate of the site. You can speed this process up by adding some update services to the general setting page of the CMS.

Customize Media Settings- There is a default setting in WordPress which deals with the presentation of image thumbnails. But these settings can be customized easily. You can set dimensions for all the image sizes, i.e. thumbnail, medium and large. Moreover, the images which retain their proportion on being re sized look more attractive.

Considering the above points while using WordPress can bring new vigor to the SEO efforts. If you are also running an SEO campaign for your site, be benefited from them.

Hispanic buying power on the rise – Multilingual Marketing

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Hispanic buying power on the rise

Marketers know that it is important to target US Hispanics which are currently the fastest growing minority group. They spent over $1.02 trillion in 2010 and projected to jump that figure to $1.48 trillion by 2015. There was a study conducted that shows Hispanics are more responsive to online Advertising mediums then other groups. Is your business market ready for the Hispanic community?

The new age of advertising is one must consider cultural factors as well and not just age, gender, geographic location, and language preference. Successful campaigns are those that are targeted at a culture and provoke a message that is appealing to that group specifically. This type of advertising will keep the consumer interested and have them take in the ad message better.

The Hispanic culture is one that is predominate in various parts of the world but mostly popular in the United States. Our agency is based in San Diego, California and we have clients who seek to market their businesses to the Hispanic audience because of the populations that our region has. We have a team of bilingual marketers that work at WebitMD Inc. and have an understanding of the cultural attributes of the Hispanic sector. We offer Multilingual marketing services to clients both in US and abroad.

We recently also launched our sister website www.EspanolInternetMarketing.com that is available in English and Spanish and describes our multilingual marketing services a bit more. Please shoot any questions via email to info@espanolinternetmarketing.com or call us at (800) 601-2990 x5

Buena suerte con su comercialización!

Google AdWords – Search vs. Display Advertising

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Google Search vs. Display – Pros and Cons

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Search vs. Display: What Are They?

In Google Adwords, there are two primary “venues” on which you can display ads, the first being Google Search, the second being the Google Display Network (GDN).

Google Search and their search partners, such as search.aol.com, allow the display of text ads along with organic results (unpaid) that are triggered by keywords. You type in a keyword or phrase, Google displays the most relevant ads. When you click on the ad, the advertiser is charged based on an auction price and you are re-directed to the advertiser’s website.

GDN on the other hand are “contextually” targeted ads based on content, interests, or topics. Publishers of content use Google Adsense as the vehicle for displaying ads. In addition, Google uses your demographic data and interests to display ads you might be interested in.

So if, for example, you are reading an article about Tiger Woods skipping the US Open and see an ad for the new Nike 20XI golf ball, the ad is there. Nike recognizes that, if you are reading an article on golfchannel.com, you probably have an interest in Golf. So you might buy golf balls.

On the other hand, if you are reading an article on nytimes.com, you might see the same Nike 20XI Golf ball ad. Most likely, this ad was displayed because your Ad Preferences indicate “Golf” as an interest.

How to Find a Good Site Where You Can Advertise?

There are a variety of ways to find relevant/high quality sites to target. Generally speaking, I look for them in this order:

Search Google using the most valuable keywords I am trying to target. I prefer using Google Search initially to find sites to advertise on, since those that show up on the first page are presumably more relevant. From the organic search results, I look at the websites on page one to see if they are running ads from either Google or Double Click. I also check the depth and content of the site for quality. If you see display ads on the site, check the link of the ad by either hovering over it, or look for the “Ads by Google” logo. (Hint: If you are a publisher, invest in SEO so we can find your site.

Next step is to use the Google Adplanner. Adplanner allows me to more specifically target websites running Adsense based on audience parameters such as geography, language, demographics, online activity, and interests. Adplanner also provides filtering based on Google Ranking method, inventory, category, ad specific, and domain suffix.
I’ll use the “Placement Tool” in Adwords, even though the results are typically comparable to those found in Adplanner.

I look at the sites referring traffic in Google Analytics to find sites that are sending some traffic, but would be good prospect for sending more.

From the research above, I will add sites as “Managed Placements,” in addition to a list of standard sites I always target such as mail.google.com, ehow.com, about.com. and nytimes.com

Managed placements are my highest value group of websites, as opposed to automatic placements, which are those that Google is determining as relevant and then displaying my ads accordingly.

Think of the difference between Automatic and Managed placements as if they were baseball teams. Managed placements are the players on the team that have made it to a Major League Team. I hand picked them, and if they don’t play well, I kick them off them team. In the past, they have performed well and are of above average quality.

Automatic placements are those that are still in the farm system working extremely hard to perform well enough to make it to the Major League. Automatic placements, like a Baseball Scout, are also always on the lookout for new sites to target or new players to add to the team.

Search Pros:

Simple to set up and manage

Search Cons

It’s the first thing everyone thinks of when launching a paid search campaign, so the competition for a keyword may be high resulting in poor ROI / Return-on-Investment.
In order to have an effective search campaign, a large amount of emphasis needs to be on targeting high Quality Score keywords
It is available as “Cost-Per-Click” Pricing Only (also referred to as PPC / Pay-per-click pricing)
Text ads are the only format allowed

Display Pros

Lower Cost per click and conversion. On average the CPC is 30% less for display than search.
Remarketing – This is the practice of displaying an ads on GDN to someone that visited a particular page on your web site
Measuring “view-through-conversion”, which is a metric of the number of conversions that happened within 30 days of someone seeing the ad
Casts a much wider net (better reach) across content that is related to your keywords
Pricing flexibility: Cost per Click or Cost per thousand (CPM pricing)
Better targeting to content-rich and relevant sites
More visually appealing ad options rather than just text
Behavioral, demographic, and geographic targeting capabilities

Display Cons

Getting your boss or client to understand why such a low Click Through Rate (CTR) is a good thing can be challenging
Initial set up is more complicated that search
Initial cost to set up is higher than search as you may incur a cost for advertisement design
Less control can mean lower quality traffic if you are using automatic placement. Automatic placements require increased maintenance to exclude sites that are of poor quality (i.e. one page websites running Adsense on what is essentially nothing more than a doorway page)
So how do you sell this to your metrics-driven Boss or Client?
First, focus on what the key metrics are as follows:

Impressions: Depending on a number of factors, including your overall budget and how much of it is allocated to display, you can see 10-20 times as many impressions as you can in search

Cost per click: As a general rule of thumb, your cost per click on display should be 30% less than Search

Cost per conversion: The metric I personally manage to for display conversions is 20% less than search
Info from ReturnonNow.com

Google Inc. recognizes WebitMD as a Certified AdWords Partner!

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We have exciting news to share!

Google Inc. has recognized WebitMD as an official partner in the Google AdWords Search platform. We are publicly showcased as an agency under the Google Certification guidelines and are included in the Google Partner search as well.

We currently manage multiple Google PPC (AdWords) accounts meeting the performance criteria set by Google. We are based in San Diego , CA but manage PPC accounts for our clients internationally.

What this means for you?

As a client, you can rest assure that our PPC Management services are sound in strategy, execution, analytics, and reporting. We also have a dedicated Google representative at the Google headquarters that speaks directly with our team.

WebitMD is a boutique Internet Marketing agency that provides streamlined SEO, PPC, Web Design, and Conversion Optimization services for a select clientele. We work closely with our clients to build both of our businesses in a synergistic manner.

If you are new to Online Advertising and have interest in trying Google AdWords let us know. We would be happy to answer your questions and see if it’s a fit for your business.

CLICK HERE to view our certification and feel free to contact us for more details on PPC Advertising on Google.

Online Ad Spend Surpasses Newspapers

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DECEMBER 21, 2010

A milestone for advertising on the internet 2010 will mark the first time marketers put more money into online advertising than newspapers, eMarketer estimates.

Total newspaper spending, including advertising in print and online editions, will fall to $25.7 billion in 2010, a decline of 6.6%. Spending on print newspapers alone will fall more steeply to $22.8 billion. Meanwhile, a rise of 13.9% will push US online ad spending up to $25.8 billion by year’s end.

The spending gap will widen significantly next year, as total newspaper spending falls again to $24.6 billion (including $21.4 billion for print) and online climbs to $28.5 billion.

“It’s something we’ve seen coming for a long time, but this is a tipping point,” Geoff Ramsey, CEO of eMarketer, told The Wall Street Journal.

Despite a drop in the dollar amount of online newspaper spending during the recession, online has been accounting for a growing portion of all newspaper ads as print spending declines even more sharply. In 2010, online makes up about 11.7% of all US newspaper ad spending, a proportion set to rise to 13% next year.

This data is impressive!!

This data is impressive!!

Ad spending on newspapers is expected to continue its decline. eMarketer estimates that print newspaper spending has already been cut in half since 2006, and online has done relatively little to make up the difference. By contrast, total US online ad spending will continue double-digit growth through 2014, when it will surpass $40 billion.

Article provided by: emarketer.com

Google Maps/Local Marketing on the rise

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A recent blog post from the SEOmoz blog, described tips regarding improving your ranking on Google Maps and increasing local search optimization. Rand, the CEO of SEOmoz, walks internet marketers through the research and strategy development internet marketers must take to ensure the best results for a dominant presence in local search results.

He recommends using the following steps to improve your ranking on Google Maps::

Step 1: Do Lots of Searches Related to Your Business & Region

Actively search and understand your competitors within your business and understand what they are doing online, where they are located online within local directories, and how they are getting to the top of Google Maps. You’re seeking results that show competing or closely related businesses in local search results, so get creative and do a thorough search of the local market.

Step 2: Identify a Handful (or a Few Dozen) Businesses that Consistently Get Top Rankings

You could build a formal spreadsheet and perform tracking to identify these top ranking competitors or start with gut feel and expand later on in the process. For less competitive listings, an informal approach may work just fine but what you want to do is get a full understanding of why the top competitors are on the top!

Step 3: In Google Maps, Go to the Local Business Profile for Each of These

Don’t click the name of the listing itself. Instead, follow the links to the “reviews” about each of your competitors’ businesses. You’ll get a page with information about the business, reviews and lists of data that Google has found about them.

Step 4: In the Business Listing, Click on the Links to “More About this Place”

The “more about this place” section of the business listing shows brief snippets, titles and URLs where Google has found relevant information pertaining to the business. This is your potential goldmine for discovering listing sources.

Step 5: After Reviewing Relevant Listing Sources, Go to those Sites & Get Your Business Added/Updated

The domains that are listed are places where Google is pulling information about your business. This is where the Maps algorithm comes into play – it relies on not only the number of listings, but the quality of the sources and the consistency between them. You want every listing to perfectly match one another, right down the the suffix on the reservations phone number and the formatting of your suite number (e.g. 1221 E Pike Street vs. 1221 East Pike Street vs. 1221 E Pike Street Suite 200 vs. 1221 East Pike Street #200 are all DIFFERENT – don’t make that mistake).

In addition to the potential local ranking boost, a majority of these sources offer the potential to earn links! Even if you don’t care much about the local results themselves, this is a pretty terrific way to get some good quality, trusted sites linking to you.

Step 6: Repeat Step 4 & 5 for the “Reviews” and “User Content” Sections

If you’re hungry for even more sources, you can look at where listings come from on other competitors and/or go back to the business listing’s page in Google Maps/Local and choose from the “reviews” and “user content” sections for even more potential spots. Much like manual link building back in the late ’90′s, perseverance and careful attention to detail will take you far.

There are automated services out there to help with this process, but I haven’t yet seen one I feel completely comfortable about. The biggest issue is the dramatic value of and need for consistency in the listings. When automated systems submit, they can mix in a suite number in the wrong place, cut off a phone number because the form doesn’t accept hyphens or confirm a URL that doesn’t match what you’ve submitted elsewhere. For now, I recommend playing it safe and spending the hours (even if that’s a dozen or two) to get those 50-250 listings correct. Google will reward you with local rankings and high quality traffic.

Essentially, you want to research and understand what your competitors are doing to receive high rankings on Google Maps and mimic they ways they are receiving links, gaining customer reviews, and other methods that help them get to the top. Hope this series of steps can help get your business on the map, literally!

Information Provided By: Rand, SEOmoz

Start-up Success

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Perhaps the most ambitious campaign of start-ups, Y Combinator is a hybrid venture capital fund and business school that invests in, advises, and literally, feeds 40 or so early-stage businesses a year. Paul Graham, it’s fearless and optimistic leader, supplements his nominally sized investments of under $25,000 with lots of smart advice, technical help, and sense of community. The model has produced 145 companies to date, a few sizable acquisitions, and copycat funds in cities across the country and around the world.

For all the pain of nurturing a start-up, Graham believes that founding a company is the most efficient way to create wealth — for investors, for founders, for society at large. “There’s this classic pattern that has happened over and over again throughout history in which something is made one at a time, very expensively and unreliably by hand, and then someone comes along and figures out how to make large numbers of them cheaply and reliably,” Graham says. “We’re pulling this kind of transformation with venture funding. We’re mass-producing the start-up.”

Graham is something of a folk hero to a generation of ambitious techies, who debate his essays, read his books, and pitch him start-ups by the hundreds. His philosophies are simple: founders should live as cheaply as possible so that they can first become cash-flow positive. Wealth will follow.

Indeed, there’s something exhilarating about Graham’s optimism, especially at a time when so many once-great companies are sitting on the verge of bankruptcy. Graham believes, deeply, that start-ups are the answer to the world’s problems; that they are easy to make if you are determined enough and cheap enough; and that it’s getting a lot easier to start one.

Social Media Measurability

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One of the most important facets of online marketing is measurability. Datran Media’s recent “4th Annual Marketing & Media Survey” found that measuring and understanding audiences was a priority for the majority of respondents since it could increase brand awareness, performance or revenues. However, producing hard metrics in social media advertising remains difficult. Increased site traffic is generally the leading metric used to measure social media success, but by itself does not justify heavier investment in social media.

“For the few marketers who do attempt to apply quantitative measures to their social marketing efforts, the metrics they use are not terribly sophisticated,” noted eMarketer CEO and co-founder Geoff Ramsey in the eMarketer Insight Brief “Seven Guidelines for Achieving Social Media ROI.” “Most marketers today do not invest sufficient time, effort or money on social media measurement.”

Datran’s respondents, with about 72% having Facebook and Twitter profiles—were most likely to track all their online campaigns based on clicks, conversions and impressions. A gap exists, however, between finding and monitoring appropriate metrics and actually quantifying the results in a meaningful way. To remedy this, marketers must connect business goals, such as increased sales and leads, to social metrics before they can quantify social media return.

North American Search Market Heats Up!!

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Search engine marketing spending is expected to be up 14% to $16.6 billion in North America in 2010. While growth in this marketing channel, which includes paid search, search engine optimization, and other search engine marketing technologies, slowed in 2008 and 2009, it still proved to relatively recession-resistant. As we progress into 2010, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) projects steady growth to return.

In a recent survey, SEMPO found that a majority of marketers planned to shift marketing budgets away from other channels such as direct mail and spend more on paid search and search optimization. Marketers see search optimization as a valuable means for increasing Website traffic and generating leads. In turn, site traffic metrics could measure the success of campaigns, such as conversation rate.

Respondents, however, are concerned about measuring return on investment, effectively optimizing their sites, and choosing the best keywords. Further, markets were also daunted with the challenge of integrating paid search and search optimization with other online and offline marketing strategies.