3 Ways to Improve Your Keyword Selection in 2012

Are you using the best keywords to drive more potential customers to your website?

It’s no trade secret by now that the keywords your company’s web content contains make a big impact on whether potential customers find your business online—and ultimately whether you generate sales from web leads. Are you in the practice of regularly reevaluating your keywords to make sure you’re driving the right audience to your website?

Here are some quick tips for improving your keyword selection to match the terms your potential customers are using on search engines. Ask yourself:

1.    What do we sell most?

Is there a specific model, style, design or brand that your company emphasizes? These could be important indicators to help you determine effective keywords. By pinpointing the products you sell in your keyword selection, you can eliminate the ones that are too broad.

Consider, for example, Aerospace Industry Company (AIC), which manufactures “Part-A.” Much of the content on AIC’s website is about airplanes, and when people search for “airplanes,” AIC ranks very high. However, we know that the vast majority of people who search for “airplanes” are not looking to buy Part-A. Instead, they may be looking to get an aviation license or read about aircraft history. Focusing on more specific keywords such as “Part-A” will help AIC rank higher in search engines for more relevant searches.

2.    What keywords are our competitors using?

Doing some Google, Bing or Yahoo searches for the products that your competitors sell can provide some insight into what keywords you may want to rank for (another good place to start is the free Google Keyword Tool). This reconnaissance-style research method can help you guard against another common keyword mistake—focusing on phrases that are too specific.

Here’s another example: The primary product manufactured by Electronics Engineering Company (EEC) is a motherboard called the “JLS-5 chip.”  Most of the content on EEC’s website refers to that part name, so when people search for the “JLS-5 chip,” EEC’s website comes up. However, most potential customers would simply search for “computer motherboard,” meaning that EEC should optimize their website to rank in search engines for the keyword that their potential customers are actually using.

3.    Has the terminology our customers are using changed?

Have your products or services changed? Or are you targeting a new market or geographic area where keyword search terms may be different? If so, your website keywords should reflect these changes. (Google Insights is a free tool that allows you to compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories and timeframes.)

Feeling overwhelmed? Oxiem Interactive can help you conduct advanced keyword research and site evaluation to help you determine exactly what keywords your company should be targeting in 2012. Contact us today for a free search marketing analysis. We look forward to helping you make 2012 a record sales year!

3 Ways to Increase Your Web Leads in 2012

We’ve been asking marketing & sales managers the following question: ”What’s your top marketing goal in 2012?”

The most popular response? “Drastically increase the number of leads we receive from our website.” Sound familiar? As you start to see more and more potential sales opportunities from your website it’s common to wonder, “How can I get more?”

3 ways to increase your web leads in 2012

1. EXPLORE
Try a new marketing method and put the measurement tools in place.

Raise Awareness With Remarketing
Set up a display ad campaign in Google using their remarketing system. This causes your ad to display much more than your competitors’ ads when the visitor has been to your site in the past. This is a great tool to raise awareness about your brand.

Keyword “Tasting”
Set up a landing page and try 5 keywords. Change the 5 keywords each week. Only run your campaign during business hours. Utilize Google’s keyword tool to help you identify some great keywords to test. Watch your analytics closely to determine which keywords work the best.

2. Measure
One of the strengths of search marketing is its extreme measurability. Beef up your tracking in 2012 so you know exactly what’s working.

Measure URLs & Phone Numbers
You can easily measure your campaigns using Google Analytics and Google’s URL builder for creating tracking URLs. For phone calls, we suggest IfByPhone. The URL builder is free, and IfByPhone is fast to set up and very inexpensive.

Multivariate Landing Page Testing
Design multiple landing pages (we suggest using UnBounce to help). Utilize different imagery, messaging and offers on each. Split the traffic evenly between the two and identify which elements work the best. Then, utilize those elements throughout your entire campaign!

3. Adjust
The key to a high-performing search marketing campaign is to be constantly tweaking activities based on the large amount of data received.

Use SEO & SEM Together
Once you identify which keywords work best in the SEM environment, take those keywords and optimize your website for them. Publish new articles, update content pages and write press releases integrating your newly discovered keywords.

Make Your Design Work
Don’t be afraid to adjust some of the design elements of your website based on what you’ve learned from your search activities. Simplify pages, highlight conversions, change images and continue to evolve your design.

What are you planning to do in 2012 that will increase your web leads in 2012?

Central Ohio Businesses Learn about Search Engine Marketing and Website Optimization with Oxiem

Oxiem welcomed small business owners and marketers from around central Ohio for a two-hour workshop on search engine marketing and website optimization on June 29 at the Dublin Entrepreneurial Center. Attendees needed help learning the basics of search, as well as tips, tricks and techniques they could implement on their own sites.

After a quick intro to the basics (fueled by a little caffeine and carbs  – a.k.a. coffee and bagels – just to get brains revving to go), a series of roundtable sessions hosted by Oxiem’s search experts allowed attendees to ask questions and learn from each other.

Roundtable topics included:

• Conversions: Connecting with your customer, with Lindsay Malone
• Organic Search: Grabbing growth gradually, with Bill Sterzenbach
• Technical: Build it (right) and they will come, with Angela Trego
• Paid Search: I want traffic now!, with David Kragel

At the end, each attendee had the opportunity for an individual consultation with Oxiem experts on his or her own site, including the opportunity to examine in-depth functionality, ask questions and make notes for improvement.

Here are a few comments from attendees:

• “I enjoyed being able to talk/learn more about all the different aspects of web marketing and even social media. I understood the content & didn’t feel like it was something that was over my head! And everyone was fun & personable!” – Megan Stengel, President,  Libre, LLC (www.libreclothing.com)

• “This is my second trip to an Oxiem [workshop]. There is a reason why: The professionals of Oxiem know how to deliver knowledge and value in their educational seminars. Just imagine the results they can deliver their clients.” – Jason Veliquette, Marketing Director, Peer Assist, LLC (www.PeerAssistLLC.com) (Wow, thanks Jason! We sure try!)

• “Oxiem makes search engine marketing easy to understand, with specific suggestions and ideas I can use today. My head is swimming with the possibilities, rather than confusion.” – Heather Dicianna, Owner, Rewondered (www.rewondered.com)

• “Great use of time with good amount of information.” – Deonna Barnett, Increase CDC (www.increasecdc.org)

• “I always learn something when I attend one of your workshops. Excellent!” – Steve Cover, CEO, Entertainment Resource Group, LLC (www.entertainmentresourcegroup.com)

• “This was wonderful! I learned more here than in several months of research. I appreciate the straightforward answers and willingness to help. Thank you!” – Anonymous
  
• “Maybe break out sessions could be a bit longer. Or it could be set-up as a 2-part event. I learned so much and had a wonderful time!” – Mandy, Libre, LLC (www.libreclothing.com)

• “Really good introduction and lots of helpful tips and advice. Thanks for sharing your knowledge & experience.” – Bethia Wolf, Columbus Food Adventures (www.columbusfoodadventures.com)

• “The areas of focus and time spend at each [roundtable] was perfect! The outside perspective was really helpful.” –Bethany Skaff,  Libre, LLC (www.libreclothing.com)

More photos from the event are live on the Oxiem Marketing Technology Facebook page. Check ‘em out, tag yourself, and please give us a “like” while you’re there!

Follow up surveys indicated that attendees were pleased with the session, and gave us a few pointers for subsequent workshops the Oxiem team will host. The most common feedback said we needed to make each roundtable its own session — so much to teach and learn, so little time!  We’ll definitely be back with more focused sessions in the future.

Our primary goal for this and other similar sessions is simply to give back to other small businesses by sharing our expertise. When the Ohio business community and economy grows, we all win. As a whole, the team is so pleased we had the chance to meet all the entrepreneurs and marketers who attended, and are thankful they gave us a few minutes to help de-mystify the world of search marketing. THANK YOU!

Check back here often for more tips on Columbus search engine marketing, local website optimization and events from the Oxiem team.

Search Engine Marketing & Website Optimization Workshop for Businesses

Oxiem Marketing Technology Presents:
Search Engine Marketing &  Website Optimization Workshop for Businesses

Tuesday, June 29
10 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Dublin Entrepreneurial Center
7003 Post Rd., Dublin OH 43016
4^th Floor Training Room

Google’s the big kid in the sandbox, and he’s hungry. Are you feeding the beast? The right content, keywords and structure can dramatically impact the success of your business online. On Tuesday, June 29 from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m., you can find out how you’re doing in a free workshop-format session with the experts in search and SEO from Oxiem Marketing Technology. One lucky attendee will WIN a free search marketing campaign from Oxiem. Register now!

First, we’ll discuss key website features like overall structure, links, title tags and keywords. You’ll learn best practices and theory behind search engine marketing, and walk away with tips you can implement now to:

• Convert lurkers into potential clients
• Painlessly collect contact information from visitors
• Better understand online metrics and measurement goals
• Make sure your site is performing well with key quality measurements
• Consistently grow online traffic

Next, the first 15 pre-registered attendees will have the opportunity to discuss your existing website with an expert from Oxiem one-on-one, and get recommendations about content, structure, keywords and more.

Fill out the form here to register today!
Questions? Call 614.787.6676 or e-mail Crystal at colig(at)oxiem.com.

–

About the Presenters

David Kragel
David is the lead search marketing analyst at Oxiem and manages the
day-to-day operations of their search marketing campaigns. David’s
responsibilities include market and keyword research, developing and
optimizing search advertisements, and implementing unique, visitor-driven
conversion opportunities. He also develops organic search marketing
campaigns, analyzing websites for strengths and weaknesses and integrating
content and technical changes to fully optimize client websites.

Bill Sterzenbach
Bill is co-founder of  Oxiem and is the company’s technology director. His
professional career spans web site architecture, online marketing,
technology application, website development and hosting for a range of B2B,
manufacturing and consumer clients. With more than 20 years of IT
leadership experience and a decade’s worth of online marketing expertise,
he’s a recognized expert in search marketing and search engine
optimization, specializing in driving real, measurable business results
through savvy and insightful search strategy.

Post-Event Recap

See our intro presentation slides below, with a quick capture of the basics of search and topics discussed at the workshop.

Search Marketing 101: The basics of getting your business found

Join us March 18 at an educational session at the DEC

Note: Thanks to everyone who participated in the session! You can find all the slides at the bottom of this post.

Where do you go first for information? Google? So do your customers. What are they searching for when they need a product or service like yours? Harnessing the search stream and catching people during their decision-making process is key. Learn the basics of search marketing with the experts from Oxiem Marketing Technology, at this fast-paced session that will help you understand the world of search engine marketing and website optimization.

Come on over to the Dublin Entrepreneurial Center on Thursday, March 18 from 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. Register and get directions on the Meetup Page for the event or by e-mailing colig(at)oxiem.com. The session is complimentary, and you can grab some free lunch from Buffalo Wild Wings on your way out!

You Will Learn:
•    What search engines see and care about when they are on your site
•    How to link your business to relevant sites and directories
•    How to improve your site to gain more traffic – and how to know if it’s good, quality traffic.
•    What kind of content you should put on your site
•    How to integrate marketing efforts, including social media, into an online strategy
•    Basics of pay per click advertising strategies
•    Tips on developing keyword lists and key phrases

It’s a “Jelly” coworking day at the DEC, so you are welcome to stay the whole day, as well, and network with other professionals in casual setting. The full schedule for the day’s events can be found here.

About the Presenters:

Bill Sterzenbach
Bill is co-founder of Oxiem and is the company’s technology director. His professional career spans web site architecture, online marketing, technology application, website development and hosting for a range of B2B, manufacturing and consumer clients. With more than 20 years of IT leadership experience and a decade’s worth of online marketing expertise, he’s a recognized expert in search marketing and search engine optimization, specializing in driving real, measurable business results through savvy and insightful search strategy.

Crystal Olig
Crystal Olig helps Oxiem’s clients through the web development and search campaign planning process, and has expertise in online content management, marketing communications, editorial strategy for blogs and publications, public relations, social media, branding and design. Crystal was previously the Marketing & PR Manager for Event Solutions magazine, conference and tradeshow and has a strong background in event planning, PR and journalism.

Questions? Email colig(at)oxiem.com or tweet @sparklegem.

Generating Leads Using the Web Training Session

In partnership with TechLife Columbus and the Dublin Entrepreneurial Center, Oxiem’s Billy Fischer and Bill Sterzenbach will host a training session on web lead generation tools and tactics on Thursday, February 11 at 12:30 p.m. at the DEC.

Come support us, and learn a little something, too! RSVP on the Meetup page.

DEC Presents…Generating Leads Using the Web with Oxiem

Just having a website isn’t enough anymore. Having an online presence for your business is crucial – but once you’ve got it, what do you do with it? How do you make it work for you? From search engine optimization and web marketing to converting visitors to lead and capturing names, you’ll walk away with 10 things you can do to generate leads online.

In this session, Oxiem Marketing Technology will demonstrate how to use the web to:

* Get more leads
* Generate new business
* Maximize exposure to target customers

About the Presenters

Billy Fischer is the business development manager for Oxiem Marketing Technology and leads the social media practice area. He’s a frequent speaker on social media tools and tactics for community and business organizations. His expertise in marketing and PR spans health care, franchised businesses, the restaurant industry and community organizations. Prior to joining Oxiem, his experience includes time at advertising agency Buchanan & Associates and the Columbus Zoo. He also leads the company’s expanded presence in Columbus, heading up a new office based in the business community of Dublin, Ohio.

Contact Billy

bfischer(at)oxiem.com
614.448.1809 office
937.408.2133 cell
@billyfischer on Twitter

Bill Sterzenbach

Bill is co-founder of  Oxiem and is the company’s technology director. His professional career spans web site architecture, online marketing, technology application, website development and hosting for a range of B2B, manufacturing and consumer clients. With more than 20 years of IT leadership experience and a decade’s worth of online marketing expertise, he’s a recognized expert in search marketing and search engine optimization, specializing in driving real, measurable business results through savvy and insightful search strategy.

Contact Bill

937.206.3920
Email Bill
@bsterzenbach

Using Yelp to Connect with Customers

A lot of small businesses are jumping on the bandwagon and using Facebook and Twitter to promote their business and connect with consumers. I think that’s great. However, I’ve noticed that Yelp is one of the most under utilized sites on the web. If your a retail brand, here is my case for why you should consider using Yelp to market your business.

Growth
Yelp has seen continued growth over the last couple of years. In 2009, the site saw a 60 percent increase in unique visitors! The site has also seen adoption from mobile users and is thinking ahead by launching one of the first Augmented Reality iPhone apps.

With all of this traffic, chances are your business is already being reviewed on Yelp. I’d recommend looking right away.

Yelp Business Accounts
Most businesses I talk to are surprised to hear that you can create a business account on Yelp for free. This feature alone makes Yelp a great tool.

As explained above, creating a Yelp business account is very simple. All you need to do is click on “get a business owner account” and your on your way to claiming your business. Once you’ve claimed your business, you’ll have the ability to take full control of Yelp. At minimum, make sure you update the information for your business. This will help with local listings on the search engines. Below is a quick capture of just a few other things you can do once logged in.

Using Yelp to Interact with Customers
The best part of having a Business Account is the ability to interact with customers. Once you’ve followed all the sign-up steps, it’s time to utilize these tools. Here are a few things you should be doing:

1. Special offers
   What better way to capture a potential customer that is checking out your reviews than giving them a special offer? Try to add some exclusivity to the offer (i.e. “Yelp Members Special”). These are the type of visitors that are going to come back to Yelp and give you a review following a great experience, so make sure you capture them when you can.
2. Respond to reviews
   Make sure you respond to both positive and negative reviews. You can choose to send a public or private message to anyone that post a review. Try to change a negative reviewers perception with an offer to make things right, on the house. And thank your positive reviewers, perhaps with a free meal. These are the influencers that are going to spread the word about you, so take advantage!
3. Ask for reviews!
   Don’t be afraid to ask for reviews from your best customers. Once you have enough reviews, Yelp will send you signage that you can display in your storefront.
4. Watch Analytics
   The business account comes with analytics so you can see how many people are viewing your page. It will be interesting to watch this data and see if there is any connection to page visitors and sales. A great way to measure your success.

Hopefully this is enough to convince you that Yelp can be a powerful business tool. Good luck!

Do Some Search Marketing Today. It’s 10 Minutes, Free, and Effective

Sign up for Google Local Business listings today. It’s free, fast, easy, and effective.

What can you accomplish in 10 minutes today that will bring visitors to your website? It’s very seldom that such little effort can produce such great results, but there is no catch. Getting your business in the top local listings has never been so easy. Simply visit Google’s local business Center to sign up today. One note – you need to be near your business phone to sign up as Google will call you to verify you are who you claim to be.

What Will it Do For You?

A google local listing will get your business into the local listings that display with nearly all Google searches. It’s basically a shortcut into the top 5 Google listings for your business.  An interesting side-benefit is that others sites may use Google’s info for their listings, giving you that much more exposure for your efforts.

How Long Does it Take?

You should be able to complete the entire process in less than 10 minutes. It’s the single most effective thing you can do in place of a smoke break or refreshing your cup of coffee. Do it now. Why are you still reading this? You’re supposed to be on your way to Google (and Yahoo, Bing, etc if you have time). Shoo!

Columbus Social Experts – Are You Keeping Up?

Don’t be the Last to the Party when it Comes to Marketing Your Social Media Business

It’s tough to keep up with trends in search. Technology changes, behavior changes, terminology changes – but if you’re in the Social Media space you need to be aware of the spike in search behavior in your space. People are becoming aware of your business and they are starting to search it – are you ready?

Trends in Search for Columbus Google Searchers (source: Google Insights)

Which Phrases are Trending Up So Rapidly?

Of course phrases such as Facebook, Twitter, and other large site names are contributing to this trend, but we researched the more ‘action oriented’ phrases such as ‘Social Media’ and ‘Social Networking’ and we find the trend to be just as sharp, if not sharper.

What Can You as a Social Media Expert Do?

Get your name out there on the non-social sites! Yes, you may be known in your social marketing circles, but does the average business owner who is investigating the need for an audit or a strategy know your name? This can be done easily in your area using paid search and organic search.

Here are some great keyword starters:

• social web
• social sites
• social media sites
• social marketing services
• social marketing agency
• social marketing campaigns
• social marketing plan
• social marketing strategy
• social marketing research
• social marketing strategies
• social marketing campaign
• social marketing advertising
• social media press release
• social marketing theory
• what is social marketing
• social marketing firms
• social marketing agencies
• social marketing program
• social marketing programs
• social media marketing

Wrapping it Up

The tips and keywords in this post should get you started along the path of thinking about search marketing for your social marketing business. Use the keywords above as a way to get thinking about the ways people may search for you. Quick hint – there are about 1,000 other such phrases being search on the web right now, so this is not a comprehensive list, but just a ‘brain-tickler’ to get you started. Go out and start a paid search campaign to ‘test the waters;’ I’ll bet you’re surprised at how many people you are not yet reaching through just social marketing.

Free SEO with Twitter – Google Indexes Twitter Links

Url shorteners are great. They allow us to maximize our tiny Twitter space more effectively, and they make cleaner URL’s in general. Until recently, there were no draw-backs to using them. In the past few months search engines have begun to treat Twitter posts much differently, and opportunities abound.  Today we are going to discuss when it makes sense to use a URL shortening service and when it’s better to direct-link.
To start our discussion, we first have to define a few terms:

Key terms

URL Text: this is the text in the actual URL of a link

• Anchor Text: This is the text that folks click on a link (usually blue and underlined)
• Backlink: this is any link that resides on some site that points directly to your site
• Parameters: These are added to URL’s and are not part of the ‘real’ address. For example, oxiem.com/marketing/ is  a ‘standard’ URL, while oxiem.com/?marketing is a ‘parameterized’ URL. Google tends to look at parameters as less valuable than page names or directory names.
• LinkPOP: A somewhat outdated term for Link Popularity. This once played very heavily into Google’s ranking algorithm. Inbound links are still important, but now we just refer to ‘links’ as folks don’t talk about Link Pop and PageRank much anymore.

The importance of links

Google looks at links to your site as ‘votes of confidence’ by other sites. More links = better (within reason). Google generally only counts ONE link from each unique domain for link popularity, but Google pays attention to ALL links for anchor text, location, etc.

Are links from Twitter good?

Yes. Most importantly, the text within the link is apparently used by Google. In the past, we’ve learned that keywords in links found on Twitter have a positive impact on your ranking WITHIN Twitter results from Google. Now, Google appears to use Twitter links for overall ranking as well.

Recently I did a test where I created a link on Twitter (through my bsterzenbach account) with a nonsense term in it (a nonsense word, that I won’t post because it could change the test results) just to see if Google would ‘pay attention to it’.  Before the test, there were no results for the term when searching on Google. I placed the link in a Twitter post and after about 3 weeks, the Oxiem site started showing up for the term. What is important is not that we are going to go out trying to rank for this term, but that Google paid attention to the term and ranked us for it.

The take-away

When linking to YOUR site – use direct urls, and put important keywords in the URL. When linking to other peoples sites – who cares – use URL shorteners