Matt Cutts: How Does Google Handle Duplicate Content? [YouTube]

Using SEO & PPC Together! Tutorial

This post is part three of four content articles to help you learn how to market your website.

Why does your business need both organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and PayPerClick (PPC)?

You are sacrificing traffic if you aren't targeting customers in both areas:

• 80% of the time searchers go to the organic results first
• 65% of search traffic goes to the top ten search results
• 60% of searchers click on paid ads sometimes while 12% say they click on them always or most of the time.

Use them together for the most effective marketing strategy:

• Organic SEO is a great long term investment which everyone who is serious about their website should invest in, but PPC can start driving traffic right away. Smart customers will use this to their benefit—Begin SEO and PPC at the same time so you are getting traffic to your site right away, while you wait for your organic rankings start to rise. Once you've obtained strong organic rankings, you can reduce your PPC spending, but you shouldn't stop it altogether.

You should never put all your marketing dollars in one basket—it's too risky. A solid marketing plan should minimize risks and maximize impressions:

• If you have high organic rankings but no paid ads, then you are letting your PPC-savvy competitors steal away some traffic from you b/c a large percentage of potential customers will click on paid ads too.
• If your organic rankings suddenly take a dive due to search engine algorithm changes and you don't have a PPC campaign then you are suddenly invisible in the SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages). Granted you can start PPC at any time, but if you aren't familiar with it, it can take some time (even for a professional) to figure out the most-effective PPC strategy for your site.
• If you only focus on paid listings, you are missing out on the 80% of traffic that goes to organic rankings. Also, research indicates that many customers put a higher "trust" level on organic rankings since many customers are aware that those ads are paid for. You may find that your conversion rate for organic rankings is higher than that of your PPC campaign.
• If you only focus on paid listings and suddenly a competitor enters the PPC market with a big budget that you can't compete with, then you are going to lose your placement and now you are looking at 3-5 months before you can counter that with organic rankings.

Budgeting

PPC and SEO can be combined to offer an excellent search marketing campaign. Together they can help to maximize web traffic, capture highly targeted visitors, enhance sales, and generate brand awareness. By budgeting wisely, you will be able to use PPC and SEO to their full advantage.

• For new online storefronts or websites, PPC will drive traffic to your site immediately. Based on your budget, a good strategy will be to start using PPC advertising, invest in SEO as soon as you have the funds to invest in it, and begin to taper off your PPC advertising as your organic listings begin to increase.
• From a recent study at the Penn State School of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), researchers found that on more than 80% of searches, study participants went first to the results identified as "organic." Sponsored links were viewed first less than 10% of the time. A safe bet is to break down your SEO and PPC budget into roughly 70-80% organic SEO and 20-30% PPC. This will help you drive long-term, consistent traffic to your site.
• Set a goal for the amount of traffic you expect to see in a given day. Then, monitor your traffic sources using a quality web analytics program. Turn on conversion tracking code provided by PPC engines like Google and Yahoo!. Information is power. You will begin to see which form of advertising is working best for your industry and your unique situation. When you know where your traffic is coming from and which visitors are converting, you'll be able to make better marketing decisions.
• Diversify your efforts. Remember that the search engine marketing industry is not limited to these two forms of advertising. Additional options such as blogs, press releases and RSS feeds will help you take advantage of the fact that consumers are first visiting search engines when they are looking to make a purchase.

More!

I also wanted to direct your attention to a new tool available at Network Solutions called the Online Marketing Budget Calculator.

What is Pay Per Click? Tutorial

This post is part two of four content articles to help you learn how to market your website.

PPC is the process of advertising your site through the use of pay-per-click advertisements in the search engines. The search engines sell relevant ads to anyone willing to join in a friendly bidding war. By bidding on keywords, advertisers are able to control when their ads are shown. In many cases the sky is the limit on how high the price will go. However, you only pay when the ad is clicked on, making PPC a very budget-friendly advertising option. With each bid, marketers are guaranteed a certain spot on the search engine page. Ads run on a search engine usually consist of a heading, body copy and a display URL. More often then not, the search ad will contain the keyword that was bid on.

Every day more and more people turn to the Internet to find information, products, and services. As a result, businesses and web site owners are always looking for ways to be found in search results and ultimately drive more traffic to their site. Pay per click, or PPC, is a cost effective and immediate way to do just that. With proper management and a clear focus, pay per click services offer some of the most well targeted, far-reaching, and economical advertising on the Internet.

Pay per click advertising is the fastest growing segment of online advertising. According to a Forbes Magazine prediction, companies will spend $8 billion a year on PPC advertising in 2009. While many companies exist in this space, Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture) were the largest network operators as of 2006. MSN has their own PPC services, called MSN adCenter. Customers specify keywords that directly relate to their business and ones they think people will use when initiating an online search. When a user searches for a product, service, or category that matches what the customer has to offer, their ad appears on the results pages. This means they get clicks from people who are ready to buy. Search engines recognize users who are searching for these keywords and display the customer’s ad to them. Advertisers are charged based on the number of times a visitor clicks on that ad or web site; therefore the cost is action-driven. This means advertisers are only charged when a user who is searching for information directly relevant to their business, clicks their ad. This helps drive traffic, target leads, and convert users to customers.

How Pay Per Click Works

Pay per click involves using the right keywords and ad copy to attract visitors to your site.

• Right Keywords
• Attractive Ad Copy
• High Traffic to your Web site
• Good Landing pages
• The conversions you always wanted.

Benefits of Pay Per Click

There are several benefits to using a pay per click advertising program. Some of the benefits include:

• Quick and effective way to promote products and services
• Advertising is highly targeted and results are quantifiable
• Customer only pays when a prospective customer clicks their ad
• Results are immediate and provide instant traffic
• Different keywords, titles and descriptions can be selected for most effective results
• Effectiveness of the campaign can be measured
• Controlled spending by establishing predefined budgets

What is Search Engine Optimization? Tutorial

This post is part one of four content articles to help you learn how to market your website.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of "naturally" driving traffic to your site and is generally seen as the more cost efficient way. By making a website more search engine friendly, a site will rank higher on the search engine result page. To optimize your site for the search engines is to try to get it listed in the top rankings when any particular keyword phrase related to your industry is typed into the query box. SEO is particularly important for e-commerce sites. Site improvements include changing or adding content, improving internal and external links, and formatting meta tags. The most important thing to remember is that content is king. Without enough content containing the right keywords, you have very little chance of ranking well. Used correctly, SEO can lead to a very profitable search marketing campaign.

You can perform search engine optimization on your own site if you have the time and knowledge to do so, or you can invest in professional site optimization work. Here is a run-down of the essential elements needed to optimize your site:

1. Do Keyword Research.

Think you know what people are searching for in the major search engines? Think again. The only real way to tell is to ask the search engines themselves. Google and Yahoo make up the lion's share of search engine traffic. Here are some tools to help show you what consumers are searching for on a regular basis:

• Google AdWords Keyword Suggestion Tool
• Yahoo! Search Marketing Keyword Selector Tool

Choose only keywords related to your site. Check all synonyms and alternative phrasing such as plurals and singulars.

2. Adjust your title, meta keyword tag and meta description tags.

These are bits of code that do not appear on the page for visitors to view, but instead are placed into the code for search engines to pick up. You will want to place your chosen keywords throughout these areas of your site, but be careful not to overdo it.

3. Create keyword-rich page content.

Using the keywords that were researched, write paragraphs of information for your on-page content. You will want to describe your business and what you offer for your homepage text. Give a quick summary of brands and features in your category description, and provide detailed information in your product descriptions. These are all primary opportunities for optimized text. Make sure you take advantage of them. Here are some quick guidelines:

• Homepage: Write at least 200 words of text, including your main keyword phrases, about three times.
• Category description: Your description should be 1 to 2 sentences. The description should include the keyword phrase one time. Write a natural sounding sentence describing that product category.
• Product description: In your long description, add as much related content as possible: 200-400 words will help fill this page out. Try a <h1> tag or <h2> tag, using your keyword phrases. Include any phrases you are targeting one time only. Include variations, plurals, possessives or synonyms. Occasionally bold and italicize a few of the keyword phrases within your text.

You should also consider creating some custom pages of information about your products using your keyword phrases. Be sure to never copy information from another site or web page. Duplicate content can result in penalties from the search engines.

4. Properly link back to your homepage.

Whenever you link back to your homepage, always use your full domain name with the "http" (http://www.domainname.com/) instead of a relative link to /index.asp. This will help increase your site's link popularity.

5. Work on link popularity.

Having strong link popularity means that your site has a lot of other websites linking to it and that the sites that link to yours are also doing well in the search engines. You'll want to work on both quality and quantity when it comes to getting other sites to link to you. The more sites that are linking to you and the better those sites are doing with the search engines, the more search engine visibility your site will have.

• Submit your site to search engines and directories
• Trade links with related sites
• Read more about link popularity and how to increase it

These five basic steps will give you an idea of what it will take to start getting your site listed in the major search engines. Of course, search engine optimization is complex, and the methods for achieving top rankings change often.

Official Google Blog: Introduction to Google Search Quality

Okay, I've only just now gotten to view this post on Google's Official Blog, but from my first reaction this may be a big step in the direction where Google is going to be opening up some of the secrecy behind their search results and how they are determined. This could potentially be a big deal to any search-engine optimizer and small-business owners who rely on their search results. Many businesses live and die by visitors from Google. Get ready to learn more with this Introduction to Google Search Quality.

Webinar Announcement

This was posted internally today.

Network Solutions and Google will offer a Webinar entitled "Discover a New Audience with Pay Per Click."

Held on Thursday, July 26, 2007 at 2pm Eastern Daylight Time, this Webinar will be moderated by Lara Mehanna from the Online Marketing team at Network Solutions, and Lauren Frandsen of Google AdWords.

This Webinar is designed to introduce pay per click services (PPC) to business owners who may not understand how important use of a pay per click company can be in an online marketing campaign. The moderators of this Webinar will explain the differences between PPC and organic search marketing, how to spotlight a business online, and how to obtain targeted leads while improving click-to-close rates. Mehanna and Frandsen will also detail the advantages of PPC in measuring the methods of delivery from search engine to site, as well as the quick turnaround and return of investment given by a successful PPC campaign.

"Pay per click advertising is really a great way for companies to get out in the forefront of the market, utilizing a tool that their customers are already using—the Internet," said Jeff Zimmerman, Vice President of Product Marketing and Management with Network Solutions. About 80% of internet traffic begins at a search engine, and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) was an $8.73 billion industry in North America in 2006, with $7.94 billion of that going towards paid searches.

This Webinar will also explain the benefits of going with a pay per click company, rather than trying to manage it in-house, focusing on the expertise needed to properly manage a PPC account, from daily budgeting to keyword research.

To register for the Webinar, visit the the NetSol Event Center.

Digesting Google's New PPA Advertising Product

Here's a new product from Google that ought to of interest to webmasters looking to boost their paid advertising effectiveness.

Google announced the testing of a new pay-per-action, or PPA, advertising product today. It's important for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that Google controls so much of the online advertising market that just about anything they do in advertising has real consequences around the Internet.

Get started Digesting Google's New PPA Advertising Product.

How to Attract New Customers With Google AdWords

Here is a very useful article on how to get started with Google Adwords for the first time. An effective web marketing plan will include Pay-Per-Click advertising from the very beginning and Google's system is one of the best to get started with.

Small Biz Resource - How to Attract New Customers With Google AdWords - Small Business Business Analysis

The AdWords program allows you to target your advertising to customers seeking your services by specifying key words with which you'd like to associate your product or service.

The best part is that Google's fee for the service is structured so that you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad -- and you set a cap on how much you're willing to pay. Assuming that your goods and/or services are satisfying to customers and that they will become repeat consumers, the ability to use Google advertising to draw in new customers has tremendous value for small businesses.

The four-page article walks you through all the necessary steps with some well done screen shots to highlight the features and benefits.

More information:

• Budgeting PPC and SEO
• Tips For Enhancing Your PPC Results
• Understanding Click Fraud
• Keyword Density Analyzer
• Keyword Suggestion Tool

Don't have the time to learn PPC advertising yourself? Have Network Solutions Online Marketing take care of it for you.

Ecommerce FAQs

The following Frequently Asked Questions are relevant to the Pro Ecommerce solutions with Network Solutions.

What Do I Do for My DNS Settings?

DNS stands for Domain Name Servers. In order for your site to be live at your domain name, your registrar needs to have the domain's record pointed to the proper server, usually at your web host. Until that point, your site will only be available at an IP address or a third-level domain. How to change these settings varies on whether your domain is registered with Network Solutions or not.

Registered with Network Solutions

Using your Account Manager, select the Pro Ecommerce package from your list of services, and scroll down to a section labled Manage Hosting Domains & SubDomains. You should see a green button labled Assign Domains. Use this to select your domain and assign it. DNS changes will usually take about 24 hours or more to update.

Not Registered with Network Solutions

Follow the same steps above, but then when you get to the Assign Domain Names page, click the link to assign a domain that is not listed. Carefully type in the domain name that you want to use and assign it to the store. Once this has been done, the Account Manager will give you some instructions and settings for your DNS at the registrar. As above, DNS changes will usually take about 24 hours or more to update.

How Do I Set Up Categories?

Setting up categories for your new site is very simply. Once logged into the Storefront Admin Panel, go to the Inventory menu under the Sales Manager area and then select the Category Manager. Using this tool, you can add categories, delete categories or rename categories and also add details to the category pages. Once your categories are done, you can assign products to them using the Product Manager, also under Inventory.

You can also use DataPort to upload product and category information from a spreadsheet on your computer. Learn more about DataPort.

How Do I Load Products?

The best resource for adding products is the following QuickGuide - Product Creation - Admin Panel Entry

For a new client, the easiest way to learn about the Product Manager is to edit an existing product, which is why most clients start with a Sample product. Go to Inventory > Product Manger and use the Search feature at the bottom of the menu. Leave the box blank and hit 'Search'. You should then see the one Sample product with three links to the right of it; Edit, Basic Edit and Delete. Use the Basic Edit to get started and familiar with the system. You will see two tabs; General and Images. You can customize this product and see where the text shows up by using the link at the bottom of the General tab to view the product.

You can also use DataPort to upload product and category information from a spreadsheet on your computer. Learn more about DataPort.

How Do I Do Extra Customizations (Fonts & Colors)?

You can do quite a bit of customization to the store template. You should start in Layout > Theme Builder and then customize your chosen theme from there in the HTML and Layout menus. The best references for modifying your site's theme are the following QuickGuide pages -

• Designing Your Online Storefront - Site HTML
• Designing Your Online Storefront - Site Layout
• Designing Your Online Storefront - Site Wide Colors
• Designing Your Online Storefront - Site Wide Fonts
• Designing Your Online Storefront - Site Wide Borders & Misc

Where Do I Go for More Help?

Technical support is available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. If you are in your Network Solutions administration panel, you can create an express service request, or you can call our technical support team at 888.252.ECOM.

How Do I Add Extra Custom Fields Into the Shopping Cart / Checkout?

Checkout can be customized to add additional questions with the Checkout > Checkout Questions menu. You can also learn more about customizing checkout with the following QuickGuides -

• Checkout Settings
• Checkout Workflows

Do I Need MonsterMerchantAccount?

If you will be accepting credit cards online and do not have any other method for completing the transaction (such as a physical terminal), then you will need a Merchant Account and an online Payment Gateway. But you do not need to use MonsterMerchantAccount specifically. If you do not yet have a gateway, however, it is recommended. Our software is also compatible with many other gateways, including but not limited to the following.

• CyberSource: Getting Started
• LinkPoint API: Getting Started
• PayPal Website Payments Pro
• 2Checkout: Getting Started
• Google Checkout: Getting Started

How Do I Set Up Email Boxes?

You can set up your email addresses from your Network Solutions Account Manager home page. In your list of services, look for Hosting Package E-mailboxes. Set some up and there are several links from there to set them up using any POP3 email client (like Microsoft Outlook).

• Use a Wizard or
• View Instructions

How Do I Register My Domain Name?

If you didn't already register your domain name when you first signed up, you will want to the Network Solutions home page and search for the name you want and then follow the steps to purchase it. Once you have this name in your account, you can assign this domain name using the instructions for your DNS settings.

When Will My Site Go Live?

You can make your site live whenever you would like. Once your DNS settings are set for the first time, it can take 24 hours or more to be completed. From there, your site can be live. However, you can also set your site to be Disabled. To manage this setting, go to Admin > Enable/Disable Store and set up a construction page. As long as your store is disabled, unless a user is logged in as administrator, they will only see that construction message.

Google SiteMap Now Included with SEO Packages!

A Google Sitemap is now included when you purchase an SEO package from the MonsterCommerce Web Promotion Team. The packages are outlined on MonsterWebPromotion site, or call 877-663-5169 to speak with an SEO Account Manager.

Google Site Map Upload Now Available!

Per popular request:

Beginning today, MonsterCommerce will offer Google Site Map .xml file uploads through our Technical Support team! Many clients have expressed a great deal of interest in having the capability of getting a site map of their storefronts in place and we are pleased to be able to do so now.

Google Mini Enterprise

MonsterCommerce listed on the Google Mini Enterprise Map page, along with a quote from Ryan Noble, President of MC.
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MonsterCommerce Live on WebmasterRadio.FM for TownHall Meeting

I personally use Google news alerts to have any new information about subjects that interest me automatically sent to my email inbox. The following story showed up on Sun, May 1, 2005. The article is posted to PRWeb.

The WebmasterRadio.FM MonsterCommerce TownHall meeting is an hour long radio special airing May 4th at 6:00 p.m. EST.

Fort Lauderdale, FL (PRWEB) May 2, 2005 -- MonsterCommerce senior executivesDan Kennedy (VP Client Services) and Jen Heil (CTO) are set to co-host a live "TownHall" meeting on WebmasterRadio.FM scheduled for Wednesday, May 4th at 6:00 p.m. EST. To tune in, visit http://www.webmasterradio.fm.

The WebmasterRadio.FM MonsterCommerce TownHall meeting is an hour long radio special. Listeners will have the ability to either call into the show live or post questions or observations in the Lounge (formerly known as the chat room). The TownHall meeting is open to WebmasterRadio.FM listeners currently doing business with or interested in finding out more about MonsterCommerce. This program is a continuation of their strong outreach program to the webmaster / on-line business community.

"As e-commerce experts, we feel that providing an open forum for WebmasterRadio.FM listeners allows us to show our continued support of webmasters and the industry in general," Dan Kennedy explained.

MonsterCommerce is the industry leader in web-based e-commerce storefront systems, trusted by thousands of companies to manage their vital e-commerce operations. A provider since 1998, MonsterCommerce powers over 5,000 stores with their customizable and integrated services including domain registration, storefront systems, merchant accounts, Web site promotion, SSL security and e-commerce power hosting.

MonsterCommerce also offers Reseller Packages with deep discounts for webmasters with multiple stores. To meet customer needs in accordance with the company's dedication to exceptional customer support, promotion services and design are also offered.

About WebmasterRadio.FM
WebmasterRadio.FM strives to lift the "veiled curtain" of the Internet to bring the business community together through an interactive radio network. Its listeners are a global group comprised of everyone from corporate executives and decision makers to individuals who work for themselves, small and mid-sized businesses to those just starting out. The WebmasterRadio.FM listening audience has a vast appeal to anyone looking to learn industry-specific information from the most successful marketers and technology experts in the world. These Internet "influencers" create, learn and listen in a true community destination. Visit http://www.webmasterradio.fm to join in the MonsterCommerce TownMeeting or to check out the stellar lineup of programming.

Media Contact:
Brandy Shapiro-Babin
303-882-5246

# # #

Read more: MonsterCommerce Live on WebmasterRadio.FM for TownHall Meeting

How Google Can Make or Break A Small Business

Slashdot: How Google Can Make or Break A Small Business For those of you too young to remember the days before Google, there were other search engines, such as Altavista (the first big one) and Yahoo. The reason Google became the most popular is that they do a very good job of ranking the interesting items first, which is important when there are 39000 hits for your query. The Search Engine Promotion business, when it's not just a scam sold by spammers, is mainly about doing artificial things to make Google's robots think your page would be interesting to humans; it's much better to actually make your page interesting to actual humans, and hope Google's robots pick up on that.

I couldn't have said it better myself. Of course, every web site promotion company will tell you that is exactly what they do; 'make your page more interesting.' What I like best about our web promotion department is the level of dedication and research that goes in to improving the site's features, researching the specific company's industry and creating or placing relative content onto the site. They also stay away from so-called 'black-hat' tactics that inevitably get a site banned.

For more information, check out our team's work at MonsterWebPromotion and prepare for more qualified traffic!