The Vizion Search Engine Optimization Blog 
- Google AdWords Display URL Policy Reaches Local PPC Advertisers
UPDATE - We have received word that ReachLocal is not affected by the new policy
Beginning April 1, 2008, Google has officially changed their display URL policy. In short, what that means is that the URL that shows in your ad absolutely must be the URL that visitors get to when they click on your ad. In most cases, if you have a website and are directly paying Google AdWords to advertise on Google then this should not effect you. After all, when someone clicks on your ad they directly reach your website. If you are paying a third party to manage your pay per click (PPC) advertising, you may have seen an interruption.The Google AdWords Display URL policy has changed, and the following is a Google AdWords message describing the policy change.
This policy change is in line with other changes that Google has made to their policies, which has typically included a policy to do everything they can to make sure that the URL displayed is going to be the URL that you get to when you click on that URL. This been a goal of Google’s organic search for a while; now it is coming into effect on Google AdWords, and you can find out more information here.
Let’s take, for example, the case of ReachLocal (www.reachlocal.com). ReachLocal is a company that manages local PPC advertising for their clients. They appear to have been hit hard by this latest update to the Google AdWords policy. Local companies (such as a local air conditioning contractor) sign up with ReachLocal. When someone searches for a local keyword phrase such as “Dallas Texas air conditioning service”, a ReachLocal PPC ad shows up amongst the Sponsored Results. ReachLocal sends PPC traffic to their clients.
Before the new Google Display URL Policy took effect April 1, 2008, ReachLocal clients’ website URls were displayed in the search results. When someone clicked on the PPC ad, although something like www.dallas-air-conditioning-contractor.com was displayed in the Google AdWords ad, the visitor was brought to an unique page on www.reachlocal.com. However, after April 1, 2008, ReachLocal, just like all the other Google AdWords advertisers, has been forced to change the display URL in the Google AdWords Ads. Now, the display URLs show something like “dallas-air-conditioning-contractor.reachlocal.com”. The following is a sample screen capture from a recent Google search:
By looking at the ads, I personally would tend to click on an ad that I know is a specific air conditioning contractor. In this case, I probably would click on the first, third, or fourth ad. Before I was familiar with what ReachLocal does, I might not click on that particular ad, thinking it’s just another “yellow pages listing” of a bunch of other ads. Therefore, my conclusion is that ReachLocal and their advertisers must be seeing lower click-thru ratios, which ultimately has an effect on the Quality Score. A bad Quality Score ultimately means that you’re going to pay more.
Another consideration is that Google has an auction affiliate policy as explained here. Google will “only display one ad per search query for advertisers sharing the same top-level domain in the display URL.” So, in the case of ReachLocal’s local advertisers, ReachLocal can only have one type of local client as their client. If there are more, then those other local clients will “lose out”. For example, if more than one Dallas real estate agent hires ReachLocal, then only one of those real estate agents can bid on the word “Dallas Real Estate”, a highly-sought-after keyword phrase. Google’s auction affiliate policy only allows one ad to show up per domain, which includes subdomains.
Written by Bill Hartzer on Apr, 2nd 2008 in The Vizion Search Engine Optimization Blog, Search Engine Marketing / PPC | 6 Comments »
- An Employee’s Lack of Attention to Detail - Is it Culture or a Disorder?
What I am referring to is how people in the search marketing and other fields seem to be ‘not paying attention to paying attention’. Mark Jackson addressed this issue in his latest Search Engine Watch column titled “All SEOs Are Living with Adult ADD“.
Some people think that this lack of attention may be due to a cultural shift in the workforce – younger workers are characterized by their desire for short-term instant gratification and lack the ‘big picture’ focus and spend too much time worrying about the details of a single project – neglecting other items that need addressing. Older workers are characterized by their desire to build a career and may have too much of a ‘big picture’ focus and can often neglect the smaller details. This is not always the case though but it tends to ring true in many businesses.
However, it may not be that culture affects the ability of either generation to focus on multiple tasks and follow through on all fronts of a project. It may actually be that these people have so much going on and just don’t have the ability to go back with a fine tooth comb to ensure that all tasks are being done and done properly – and as Mark J points out, it may be because you have a disease that you didn’t know you have.
The solution? Take the time to figure out how you may be affected and make sure to structure your team of employees to compensate for any bit of SEO ADD that your team has on board. Doing so will ensure that work is done, it is done right, and done to the satisfaction of your clients who are the reason you exist at all.
Written by Mark Barrera on Mar, 26th 2008 in The Vizion Search Engine Optimization Blog, Interactive Marketing | 1 Comment »
- 3 Questions You Must Ask Yourself About Your PPC
No matter if your campaigns spend $500 or $500,000 a month these three questions could save you from wasting your money and almost immediately increase the return of your investment in paid search marketing.
1. How many keywords are you currently bidding on in your paid search campaigns?
2. How many of those keywords have had some type of conversion in the last 6 to 12 months?
3. Why are you still bidding on keywords that have not had any conversions?
This is one of the most common errors I find when our agency begins managing an existing paid search account for a new client. Would you keep betting on a horse if it continuously lost?
If you are not tracking conversions, bookmark this blog and come back in a month after you begin tracking conversions and read this again.
Written by Brandy Eddings on Feb, 19th 2008 in The Vizion Search Engine Optimization Blog, Search Engine Marketing / PPC | 3 Comments »
- Search Engine Optimization Pricing
I’ve written about this in my Search Engine Watch column, to some extent, but I think it’s worth a little more detail.
It seems to me that many prospects who call into Vizion Interactive want to gravitate - almost immediately - to the question “how much do you charge for search engine optimization services”.
This is why I have made it my mission to try and help people understand what goes into a search engine optimization project, so that they get a better understanding why there should not be a “cookie cutter price” for search engine optimization services.
Imagine if you were to build a house. You would probably need to get a quote for the land, a quote for the various builders (quality varies), a quote depending on the square footage, etc.. All of these things must be considered because it’s a unique project based upon what you want.
It’s the same thing with search engine optimization. Some websites are “ready made” for search engine optimization and may require “nothing more” than keyword research, competitive analysis, site structure/Information architecture analysis, standard recommendations for titles/meta descriptions/meta keywords, a sitemap, etc.. However, some other websites may be lacking on content for keywords that the prospect has mentioned that they “must” be found for, or they could have a lot of issues with the way that their site was designed/developed that may need to be addressed.
Certainly, there are firms who offer “Package Pricing” for SEO. It doesn’t make much sense to me, but I guess it’s pretty much the same thing as templated websites. I’ve even seen some SEO firms sell the SAME RECOMMENDATIONS (titles/descriptions/keywords) to several websites in the SAME INDUSTRY. What a rip off, huh? No research. Nothing custom about it. I guess it would have been okay for these websites if the owners had been told “we’re selling you templated SEO recommendations” and if the pricing reflected this. However, this firm was/is charging almost as much as our firm does.
For those of you seeking a “package deal”, I strongly urge you to read/study search engine optimization a little more before you jump into hiring a firm. You should begin to understand that you should be creating a “scope of work” for search engine optimization. At the end of the day, you are paying for time/talent. And, if you’ve ever tried to hire an SEO, you know that the good ones don’t come cheaply. So, the more talent involved in your project, and the more time that it takes, the more that you can expect to pay.
Written by Mark Jackson on Feb, 12th 2008 in The Vizion Search Engine Optimization Blog, Interactive Marketing | 3 Comments »
- SEO Request for Proposal RFP
In my push towards helping to create some Standards, demystify search engine optimization and help more and more people get search engine optimization into their marketing budgets, I am offering up a free RFP template for those seeking search engine optimization services.
Certainly, there will be other search engine optimization firms out there who may want to offer some suggestions AND I WELCOME THEM! (add them as a comment to this post, and I will try to include them, as we revise this moving forward).
As with all things “interactive”, this document should be a living/breathing thing, constantly evolving to include other key influencers.
I look forward to hearing more suggestions. In the meantime, here is Version 1 of the Search Engine Optimization RFP.
Written by Mark Jackson on Feb, 8th 2008 in The Vizion Search Engine Optimization Blog, Search Engine Marketing / PPC | 2 Comments »