This weekend is the celebration of the American Independence Day on July 4th and if you have ever lived or travelled to America on this date, you know that the day is typically celebrated with BBQs and fireworks. Across the nation, people get ready for traditions that have remained largely unchanged. As the big day dawns, though, there are several ways that social media and particularly social media tools on mobile devices could transform the day for the digitally connected - and offer a great promotional idea for the right brand in the process.

Here are a few ideas:

1. Fireworks Finder Mobile App - A simple map based application that would allow you to search for local destinations that have fireworks to decide where to go. In addition to the location, it would offer useful information like what else is happening, and how long the fireworks in that area are estimated to go for. After all, who doesn't want to see the longest fireworks display? Who This Idea Works For?: Fast Food Restaurant (could show nearby restaurants), Fireworks seller (link to nearby retail spots), Local city governments (to increase tourism and locals who stay close to home)
2. Fireworks Countdown Timer - One of the biggest questions on the 4th of July as people pack into large cities and gathering areas to watch fireworks is when exactly they will start. Though they are scheduled, often the real start time is different and due to weather or when it actually gets dark enough. This timer could be a mobile app that would be updated in real time with the true start time of the fireworks. It could also count down as the fireworks are running until then end so you know how much time is left. Who This Idea Works For?: Baby/Kids Product Makers (as a useful service for parents to answer impatient kids), Watch/Timekeeping Brand (relates to keeping time), Cell Provider (exclusive download to certain cell networks for subscribers)
3. Fireworks Photo Tips PDF - During the fireworks, people often can't help taking their point and click cameras and trying to get a shot of the fireworks. Usually, there are some simple things, like zooming in, turning autofocus off and turning the flash off that can make a big difference in the quality of pictures. Giving people a download ahead of time with how to get the best photos from the day could be a great useful printout that people actually offer their email in exchange to download and print to take with them. Who This Idea Works For?: Photographic Equipment Manufacturer (include info on best cameras with night modes), Photo printing services (offer a coupon for discount on uploading and printing your photos afterwards).

Anyone seen any of these ideas being used already? While every retail brand is doing the typical "4th of July sale" - the may be opportunities are out there and waiting for your brand to engage people through social media and stand out from your competitors in the process.

Comments

Growing your in-house database should be at the top of every marketers list.  Why?  When done correctly, it will house your most qualified and responsive prospects.  Though organic list growth may take time and effort, you will definitely see a high return on your investment. 

Consider the following techniques to acquire new leads and grow your list with success.

1. Who is your ideal lead and how do you reach them? Create a profile for your best customer(s). This should include things such as age, gender, hobbies, job function, how do they shop (online or at stores), where do they shop, what they read, website do they visit, etc.
   
   
2. Analyze your competition. Take some time to find out what your competitors are doing to generate leads.  If they have an e-newsletter, be sure to sign up to receive it.  This will help you find out what type of promotions they are running, any marketing alliances they have formed, and how they are positioning their product or service.  Then take some time to find out which websites and / or magazines they advertising in, whether they are running PPC campaigns and if so which key words they using, etc. Most of this can be accomplished with simple web searches. 
   
   
3. Reach your best customer.  Once you’ve created your customer profile(s) and finished your competitive analysis, you are ready to develop your lead generation strategy.  Your strategy can include initiatives such as: banner ads on websites that your target audience visits, PPC campaign using relevant key words, direct mail or email campaigns to magazine subscriber opt-in lists, etc.  You can also approach other products or service providers for co-promotions or mutually beneficial partners.  If you have time to dedicate to creating editorial content, two other great lead generation and PR strategies are starting a blog or an e-newsletter. 
   
   
4. Your offer is everything!  You must create an intriguing offer that will prompt recipients to willingly give you their information in exchange for something they want. Your offer should be something of great interest to your target audience. For instance, you might send an email introducing your company to a magazine subscriber opt-in list that you believe your target audience reads. By including a free downloadable document such as an industry salary guide, a list of the hottest bars in town, or a best practices whitepaper, you will be able to capture contact and demographic information for many of the recipients. Another approach is to ask them to answer a few short questions in exchange for movie tickets or some other premium. Once you’ve captured their information and they’ve opted-in to your database, you will be able to continue communicating with that lead on an ongoing basis. 

5. Create a landing page. It is extremely important to guide the campaign recipient through the entire process.  By creating a landing page on your website that mirrors your campaign’s message / offer both from a design and copy perspective, you will encourage the recipient to follow through and fill out the form. In addition, you should give prospects the option to call you, in case they do not feel comfortable filling out the form.

6. Use a lead capture form. Your landing page can either link to a lead capture form or you can embed the form in the landing page itself. 
   1. Since, your prospects will be more prone to fill out a shorter form than fill out a long and drawn out questionnaire, limit the amount of information you are asking them to provide in exchange for their premium. Besides the basic name and email address, think of including one or two other demographic questions. These questions should be well thought out to provide you with information you can leverage for future campaigns. 
   2. In addition to the demographic questions, your form should include a check box giving people the option to opt-in to receive information about your company and future promotions. According to the CAN-SPAM Act, if people do not explicitly say that they would like to receive emails from you in the future, it is unlawful to send them commercial marketing emails.
   3. If you do not currently have a way to capture leads, an easy way to do this is by signing up for a web-based email marketing software. All of them will provide you with both the lead capture form and a database to house the acquired leads. They all provide you with the ability to download your list as well, so you can upload the new leads into your main database. Some are quite inexpensive with a monthly cost as low as $19.99.

7. Track your efforts. If you track your lead generation efforts, you will be able to pinpoint which initiatives are working the best and focus more of your energy on those. You might decide that others aren’t worth your time. Easy ways to track your initiatives are:
   1. Web Analytics: sign up for a free Google Analytics account. This will enable you to track how many people are visiting each page on your site and which campaign they are coming from.
   2. In your lead capture form, include one questions asking people how they heard about you with a drop down menu where customers can select from a list of your current marketing initiatives.
   3. Landing Pages: make sure you have a separate landing page for each marketing initiative. Each email, banner and PPC ad should have its own landing page so you can track page visits to these dedicated pages with your Analytics account.
   4. Dedicated 800 numbers: There are services that will provide you with a range of 800 numbers that redirect to your main phone number.  Including a dedicated 800 number on each landing page will enable you to associate each call with a specific campaign.

Twitter is the latest web-centric communications service to explode onto the scene, and businesses have moved in rapidly. However, a little discretion goes a long way, as the users of "social" sites and services have demonstrated that they will stomach only so much commercialization of what they consider their personal space. As MySpace evolved from an upstart new kid on the block where everyone let everything "hang out" to a part of the Rupert Murdoch media empire, people who'd had enough began looking for other places. This influenced the rise of Facebook. Now that Facebook has begun acting like a "regular old corporation," too, folks are on the search again.

Your company can most definitely benefit from using Twitter. The primary use for it in business is to listen, because, as every top-performing salesman knows, listening is more important than talking most of the time. You want to hear from every customer, vendor, client, industry leader, journalist, activist, colleague and competitor who has anything to say about your product, service or business. Twitter has much in common with old-style networking, like early morning meetings at diners and water-cooler chats, except it's been "virtualized" for 21st century knowledge sharing. With that brief introduction, let's look at 10 great ways to use Twitter to your business's advantage.

#1. Listen more, talk less: If you just think of Twitter as another way to "post" your messages and advertisements, you're missing the whole point and your following will probably be nonexistent. Spend more time listening to what others are "tweeting" (posting) about you and you will gather valuable information. When you do post a message, make it something people want to know, not something you want them to know.

#2. Find your niche: Twitter's uses are limited only by your imagination, or someone else's if you're fresh out of ideas. Don't think of what you can get, but what you can offer and what you can learn. You may want to share knowledge, you may want to obtain it, or you may just want to assure customers, colleagues and others that you are available to them. You will benefit to the extent that you listen and stay engaged, which means referring back to #1 a lot.

#3. Develop a personality (or a few): A number of business bloggers have commented on how well Twitter works to humanize an otherwise impersonal entity like a corporation. A fresh and interesting personality attracts followers, and some successful firms even allow numerous voices to reach out from within the company's offices and cubicles.

#4. Eavesdrop: There are several good tools for monitoring what is being said, starting with Twitter's own search field. Search for your term(s) and when the results are displayed, you will also get a list of the current most-popular searches (to the right) so you always know what's hot at the moment. The site monitter.com, as the name implies, was developed specifically for use with Twitter, to allow simultaneous multiple searches.

#5. Build your audience: The first thing to do is post a few tweets to get a handle on how it all works, of course, and dedicate some study time to see what your competitors and companies in the same industry are doing. Make use of the "Find People" function on the top of the Twitter page to find people in your own company, your current clients and colleagues, old classmates and friends, etc. Use the "@" reply to connect directly with people, to make sure they see your tweet, and discuss matters of interest to them. When they respond with the @ reply, other folks following them may notice you and choose to follow you, too.

#6. Follow the followers: You should find out who else your followers are following, as that can give you fresh insight into the types of people to seek. Use the various search methods (see #4 above) to find subjects that relate to your industry, and pay attention to who's talking about these matters. Don't be a broadcaster, be a conversationalist, and if you do Twitter right, you will build a following daily.

#7. Be human: Too many people, from firms both large and small, represent their firms poorly by appearing to be robots on a fixed schedule. They crank out PR verbiage and automated data and don't offer anything for followers to grab hold of. You have to "throw them a line" or you will sail right by everyone.

#8. Be polite and respectful: This means that the rules for eating Thanksgiving dinner at the neighbor's house are in effect-no politics, no religion, unless you're a politician or a clergyman, of course. These subjects have no place in a business conversation, so leave them out.

#9: Play nice: Don't get emotionally involved or rant about a person, place or product. One marketing blogger called Twitter "a ship we are all traveling on," so it's important to act appropriately-or be forced to "walk the plank."

#10: Stay positive: Don't be pessimistic, and don't whine or complain about what's wrong with this or that industry or the world in general. People will follow people they like, who offer something of value, who are upbeat and who stay on an even keel. Of course, some situations require a serious, even solemn approach, but those are the exceptions and should be handled delicately. Anyone can bellyache, gripe, moan and groan. A leader, on the other hand, offers solutions.

Bottom line? Twitter is a tool, and a good one, for keeping conversations going with stakeholders, potential customers, colleagues and even competitors. It takes real-time management because it's a real-time tool, but when it's done right Twitter can be an important addition to your sales, marketing and business communications arsenal.

June 10, 2009, was the day when opposing forces clashed over the future of online gambling. First, U.S. authorities froze the online bank accounts belonging to some 27,000 online gamers as part of a general crackdown against illegal gaming and money laundering. Almost at the exact same moment, the European Union accused the U.S. of violating international trade rules by banning online gaming, going so far as demanding compensation for what EU-based gaming outfits claim is a $100 billion loss.  At the same time, HR 6870, the Payments System Protection Act, which partially decriminalizes online gaming, was approved by a House committee and appears headed for a vote within days.

What impact would the decriminalization of online gaming have on the search engines, which have banned any paid search ads for several years? Armed with Google’s keyword suggestion tool, which lists approximate monthly keyword volume, average CPCs, I created a list of 200 keywords consisting of those which were obvious choices for online gaming outfits vying for the attention of searchers. My findings follow (you can examine the complete spreadsheet here (link to spreadsheet).

How Much Is This Costing Google?
My list of 200 keywords were hardly exhaustive (many search marketers have keyword lists in the thousands or even hundreds of thousands in order to mine the long tail), but they are instructive in terms of setting a minimum benchmark for what the search engines are leaving on the table. My CPC figures were taken directly from the keyword tool’s listing of average CPC for each keyword/keyword phrase. The sampling period for all of these figures was April of 2009. My assumption was that paid clicks would constitute a 15 percent CTR rate for each gambling oriented SERP, a rate that I believe to be conservative.

Bottom line? In Google’s case, the amount of lost revenue is $9,632,382.62 million per month, or about $115 million per year. Again, I would regard this to be a very conservative estimate, both because my keyword list was very limited and my CTR per SERP rate was at the low end of industry estimates.

How About The Other Engines?
It’s easy enough to extrapolate these results out to Yahoo and Microsoft (Bing), using comScore’s search query rankings for the same period (April 2009). According to comScore, Google’s share was 64.2 percent, Yahoo’s at 20.4, and Microsoft at 8.2, which would put Yahoo’s monthly loss at $3,060,756.77 and Microsoft’s at $1,230,304.32. Ask, with a 3.8 share, is out $570,377.72 and AOL, with a 3.4 share, is out $510,377.97. Collectively, then, the money that all the search engines are leaving on the table each month is $15,004,198.40, or about $180 million per year.

These numbers are very rough approximations and I believe they’re quite conservative. But they’re not exactly chump change, either for the engines or for the offline casino industry which will likely fight hard to keep the old prohibitions in place.  Nor is the $180 million annual loss figure really indicative of what the overall online advertising business has lost over the past several years, because display media is typically a preferred medium for online casino owners.

Search engine optimization is no longer a big secret. In fact, even the search engines release public information about SEO. There are two components that you need to take note of for your SEO campaign to be successful. The first component involves being a good webmaster. The second component, which is what most marketers don’t do well, is link building. And this is the secret that will help push your rankings to the top. But before that happens, you need to set yourself up for success. Make sure that your website is ready for the search engines. That is the role of the webmaster.

So what does a good webmaster do?

Use static text links. - A good webmaster makes sure that your website is search engine friendly. That happens when the content can easily be found by the search bots. To make it easier for search bots to find and index the content, try as much as you can to use static text links. Avoid using Javascript links or Image links whenever possible.

Use a proper sitemap. – A sitemap is not always necessary. But if you have many pages of content, including a sitemap with links to all the web pages can be useful. That will ensure that nothing is missed out when the bots make a visit to your site. Keep the number of links for each sitemap to about 100 links or so. If there are more than a hundred links, generate a second page for the sitemap.

Avoid posting duplicate content. – Many webmasters are concerned about duplicate content. It is true that the search engines do penalize websites with excessive duplicate content. But if your main intention is to publish quality information for your readers, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. The kind of sites that need to worry about duplicate content are those that scrap texts off other websites using some kind of automated tools.

Some websites have a print friendly version of the articles on their websites. The search engines are smart enough to figure out that there is a need for this feature. So it is completely acceptable for sites to have print friendly articles that have exactly the same content as the original article.

Avoid linking out to unrelated websites. – One of the main goals of the search engines is to determine the overall theme of your website. If you link to a bunch of unrelated sites, the search engines many find it hard to learn more about the theme of your website.

In addition, if you add a ton of unrelated links on your homepage, you may be penalized for selling links. It doesn’t matter if you really did sell links. If there is no reason for an external link to be present, search engines may come to the conclusion that the only reason the links are there is because someone paid money for them to be there.

So far, the discussion has been about on-site optimization. This is the easy part because you have full control over the site, the link structure, and the content. But there is another part to SEO, and that is link building. That is where most marketers fail.

The Right Way to Build Links.

As mentioned earlier, the search bots want to learn more about the content on your site. Besides having good title and Meta tags, you should also make it a habit to build back links to your site. What are back links?

Back links are links pointing to your website from external sites. Do note that not all back links are created equal. Some will be more valuable than others. What is important here is that you need to know the difference between a desirable back link, and a non-desirable back link.

A desirable back link. – A desirable back link is a link from a relevant site. It has your target keyword phrase as the anchor texts. For example, if you are targeting the keyword phrase “article marketing”, your back links will have these words in them. So instead of saying something like “Click Here”, your links will show “article marketing”.

Search bots use anchor texts as a way to determine the type of content on your website. A back link is similar to a vote for your site. So if enough websites “vote” for your site with the anchor texts “article marketing”, your site will eventually rank well in the search results for those keywords.

Non-desirable back links. – In your attempt to acquire links, avoid going to link farms and posting your links on non-related websites. You want quality and authoritative sites to link to your website.

How to Acquire Desirable Back Links.

There are many ways you can acquire desirable back links. One of the most effective methods of building back links quickly is to use article marketing. Article marketing is the process of writing and distributing high quality content to article directories.

There are literally hundreds (perhaps even thousands) of article directories on the Internet. Some have been around for years, and are well established with a solid reader base. For sure, a back link from such well established sites would be most welcome.

However, I can almost hear you groan because the thought of writing articles can be painful for some people. Besides, distributing articles to hundreds of article directories can be a rather time consuming process. Fortunately, there are ways to help you overcome these problems.

Use semi-automated software. – Semi-automated article submission software is a great way to save time. The only drawback for such software is that you need to sit at your computer and select the categories manually.

Fully automated software. – With the evolution of technology, innovative developers have come up with fully automated software. You will be able to launch the software and let it run by itself for a few hours while the submission takes place.

Outsource article submission and writing. – Software can never write quality articles for you. Only human beings can do that. If you don’t have the time to write articles or sit around to wait for the articles to be distributed, you can always outsource all your article marketing activities. When you outsource, everything goes on autopilot. Unique and exclusive articles are written on your behalf, and your articles are being distributed as you sleep.

What Comes After Link Building?

If your website is brand new, you will have to be patient. Wait for the articles to be approved and published. The search engines will pick up the articles and start counting all the links that point to your site. For new sites, be prepared to wait a couple of months before seeing results from the search engines. Existing sites can expect movements in the search rankings within 4 to 6 weeks.

Remember, the more desirable back links you get to your website, the higher your rankings will be. Once you get to the top 5 spots of the search results for your desired keyword, you will be enjoying a steady stream of traffic.

There is an interview on Open Forum in which Seth Godin interviews Richard Branson. The question is: Why is small business is better than big business?

Branson explains how he structures Virgin so that it is a series of small companies. People know each other by first name. People need to know each others strengths and weakness, and collaborate, and be responsible for the work they do. Branson believes this open small company results in a better service to clients.

Check out this article on Harvard Business:

In the worst economy we've seen in decades, Passlogix, a privately owned 100-person software development company, just received over a million dollars in prepaid commitments for the next three to five years of service....Now, how do you explain that? The bigger companies aren't getting similar deals.....I think it's a trend. And understanding it might just be the difference between failing and thriving in this economy.

The difference, the article goes on to suggest, is the trust factor.

People need to be able to trust companies to deliver. And in the current climate, where big companies are just as likely to go to the wall as small ones, big companies no longer have the advantage of being trusted to deliver by virtue of their size.

Small companies can build trust quickly in ways that big companies cannot.

How To Establish Trust

SEOs and marketers spend a lot of time trying to get traffic to sites. This is a difficult task, but it's a task that only solves half the problem.
The problem is how do you get traffic to you site and get it to do what you want.

If my traffic dropped by 50% tomorrow, I couldn't care less, so long as conversions stayed the same or increased. Traffic, like ranking, is is not a good metric of success, unless you're selling advertising by the page view, and even then it can be seriously misleading. i.e. how many people acted on the ads?

What makes people engage? Underlying all transactions, is that the buyer trusts the seller to deliver.

In order to help establish trust, consider these factors, especially if you're operating in an area where you're looking to sell an ongoing relationship:

Familiarity & Personality

It's never been easier to build a personal, trusted brand. Twitter, social networks, e-mail lists, blogs and other personal communication channels all make it easy for people to see how you think and act before they engage with you.

If you're seen often enough, in the right places, doing good things, people will come to you, because the known feels safe. The unknown is risky.

This is why PR and networking are critical. They help establish familiarity, which leads to trust, especially if the same person customers see writing articles/Twittering/networking is the same person who answers the phone.

Let customers to know you before you know them.

Reputation

Do you have markers on your site that show you have earned a good reputation? Credible media mentions? Recommendations from satisfied customers? Proof you've got customers?

Again, a quick search is likely to reveal the state of your reputation.

Stability

With companies going to the wall left right and center, stability is a major factor for any long term engagement.

Ever worked with a colleague who is inconsistent and unpredictable? Is that trustworthy? Consistency and predictability build trust.

Respond to emails and inquiries promptly. Say what you'll do, do it, and then tell people you've done it. If you've been operating for a while, make a point of saying it - anything that screams "consistency and predictability".

Immediacy

Do you trust that web site with (c) 2004 at the bottom? Is it still going? Google is chock full of outdated search results from companies, that, on face value, show no sign of life. That's not a good look in the current economic climate.

Staying up to date and engaged is important, especially if the real time web becomes more established, which I strongly suspect it will. Customers will expect companies to communicate using the same method and channels they do, and these channels increasingly favor the immediate and frequent over the slow and infrequent.

Transparency

Big companies have long indulged in being secretive, unapproachable and oblique. It isn't very appealing.

Why on earth would a small company follow this model? Plenty of them do, presumably to create the illusion they're just like a big company. But big no longer means better like it used to.

Open people and companies build trust. If a company is transparent in it's operations, people are more likely to trust them. Show people who you are, what you're about, and what problems you can solve for them. It's often a good idea to say if you can't solve someone's problem, you'll tell them, and recommend to them someone who can. By doing so, you'll even build trust with non-customers, and you never know who they'll talk to. Every engagement is an opportunity.

There is nothing worse, from a trust point of view, in a company saying they'll do something, and then not do it.

Big companies often fall into this trap because their sales force are separated from their operations divisions, and the sales people are working on commission. Sales people can promise the world in order to get the signature, knowing they're not the ones who have to deliver. That's some other faceless divisions problem.

Small companies seldom have this problem, a problem Branson also tries to counter by organizing small.

Got any ideas on how to build trust? How have you built trust with your customers?

Comments

I just spent the past two days at the Inbound Marketing Summit in Dallas. While I am no expert on social media, I am also not a novice so there was plenty for me to learn. Chris Brogan's New Marketing Labs puts on the event and they did a great job. The roster of speakers spanned nearly every area of Internet Marketing with a strong emphasis on social media which is no surprise whatsoever considering the source.

What was interesting to me was the range of social media experience that was present for the event. There are wide ranges of experience at any event like this and that's good. You always want to be around people who know more than you do so growth can occur.

What was both surprising and encouraging all at once were some of the folks and the companies they represented that obviously had little to no knowledge about how Internet marketing works. I realized at this event that I make way too many assumptions about who knows what about Internet marketing. For some of these folks I have to suspect that social media must have looked like a "dark art' to them since one of the questions asked was "What's an RSS?"

We are all drinking from a fire hose on social media. It changes often and is rife with opinion based on conjecture that may have some actual facts mixed in along the way.

It does, however, offer hope in a time that it is desperately needed. Here's what I mean.

1. With people being totally new to the medium attending it reminds us that there are many people out there that may end up being customers for others now that are online. This could help move the needle a bit on this economic malaise we live in.
2. There are people that are actually able to say with all seriousness "What recession?" If you check the history books not everyone became dirt poor during the Great Depression. Many built their fortunes at a time when many others suffered. That's the way it works. The Internet age is no different. For those who are smart enough to find a way to have their best year ever during these times all I can do is tip my hat and wonder what I can do to get there as well.
3. The Internet offers more opportunity to grow even during tough times. I loved the fact there were people a conference that is put on by arguably the most well known social media "celebrity" in Chris Brogan who had no idea what they were getting into. They did know, however, that they needed to change and grow. All I can do for these folks is tip my cap to them and admire their courage and willingness to start from nothing.
4. Even with all of the talk of government intervention and takeovers and general meddling with the free market there is an undercurrent of fierce independence in people who embrace the Internet for commercial needs. It's a pioneering spirit that is sorely needed and one that could provide a light for others to follow so we can get out of this.

So where are you on this continuum of Internet marketing? Are you so experienced that you are too jaded to care about newcomers? Are you wading into the deep end and experimenting more so you can get more from your Internet marketing efforts? Lastly, are you just coming out of the shadows and making the move to get in the game since it is painfully obvious that the old ways are being redefined which in turn redefines how we must do business to survive?

I am rooting for these folks that are saying that they do not want to be left behind. It takes guts to step out into this expanding frontier of the Internet economy. Keep trying everything and remember that NO ONE has this all figured out. That's why it's fun!

Comments

Bill from SEO By The Sea published a good article entitled "Writing Content for Small Businesses Online", in which he talks about search taxonomies.

For those new to the topic, I thought I'd go over it, and show it applies to SEO strategy.

I'm basing this article on the study "A Taxonomy Of Web Search"(PDF), by Andrei Broder. Andrei is VP of Search Advertising at Yahoo, although he wrote this report while he was with AltaVista.

What Is A Search Taxonomy?

In summary, a taxonomy is the practice and science of classification.

In terms of search, we focus on classifying keywords into three distinct classes - navigational, informational and transactional.

If you can determine user intent behind keyword queries, you can better target your keyword strategies. For example, if your aim is to sell goods online, you may choose to focus on transactional queries e.g. "where can I buy an LCD monitor....", as opposed to informational queries e.g. "power requirements of an LCD monitor......".

There is, of course, a lot of cross-over between these three types of queries, which I'll address shortly.

The Three Types Of Searches

In the study, keyword queries are divided into three groups.

Navigational

A navigational query indicates the searcher wants to find a specific site.

For example, a search for "BMW" most likely indicates the the user wants to find BMW.com. Navigational queries usually only have one "right" answer. The user either finds the site they are after, or they do not.

Informational

An informational query indicates the searcher is looking for specific information.

For example, "symptoms of cancer", "San Francisco" or "Scoville heat units". Informational queries tend to be broad. The informational query doesn't tend to be site specific.

Transactional

A transactional query indicates the searcher wants to perform a web-mediated activity. For example, "buy LCD TV online".

If your aim is to sell goods and services online, you might focus more on transactional queries than informational queries. The problem with such classification, of course, is that it is narrow. We can't really determine user intent from just looking at the keyword, however this classification gives us a useful way of thinking about which keyword terms might be the most useful in achieving our goals.

Results Of The Survey

There are some really interesting results in this report.

24.53% of people want to get to a specific website they already have in mind. This is a navigational query

This is why brand, and making your brand memorable, is so important. Searchers often type a site name into a search engine, rather than type http://www....etc into the address bar. Optimizing for the name of your site is imperative if you want to catch navigational queries.

68.41% of people want to find a good site on a particular topic. They don't have a specific site in mind. This is an informational query

A lot of SEO is focused on this type of query.

Why did people conduct their searches?

• 8.16% were shopping for something to buy on the internet
• 5.46% of people were shopping to buy an item, but not on the internet
• 22.55% of people wanted to download a file (i.e. image, music, software, etc)
• 57.19% None of these reasons

What were people looking for?

• 14.83% were looking for a collection of links to other sites regarding a particular topic
• 76.62% The best site regarding this topic

Interesting, huh. Site's like About.com and Mahalo capture both these types of queries.

Eye Tracking Studies

Now, with these figures in mind, check out this eye tracking study.

Although the test data is limited, it is interesting to note that sites targeting a transactional query can be further down the search result set than the informational query and still receive attention, if not a click.

When conducting an informational query, if searchers don't see the information they want in the first search result, they will refine their search. The same goes for navigational queries.

If you're targeting the transactional query, however, the wording of your title tag could give you an advantage over those who rank higher than you. When conducting a transactional query, searchers often hunt further down the result page, or across to the Adwords, to see which listing sounds most interesting to them.

How To Integrate This Knowledge Into Your Strategy

So how do you apply this information?

If you choose to focus on one type of query.....

Know Your Users

There are many cues of relevancy left by the market. All you have to do is look for them.

Look at the ads

Google typically only shows AdWords ads above the organic search results *if* they generate a high clickthrough rate (CTR). And since advertisers using AdWords are paying for every click, you can presume that for expensive keywords many of those ads are matched up with strong user intent.

Tools like SpyFu ad history and KeywordSpy can help show you who has been advertising on those keywords for the longest period of time. Those who have been doing it a long time are typically either optimizing their ad copy OR losing a lot of money.

Where Are They Searching From?

Google's keyword tools, Insights for Search, and Google Trends show where a particular search query is popular (and if there is any interesting news that is driving search queries). In addition to seeing the query breakdown by country (or state, or city), you can view ads from different locations by using the Google ad preview tool and/or the Google Global plug in.

Understanding Search Demographics

Google's Insights for Search categorizes user searches for the broad match version of a particular keyword

Microsoft offers a tool to categorize content.

Google's Ad Planner lets you select pre-defined audiences, websites, and keywords to analyze.

Both Microsoft and Quantcast offer similar functionality on a per website or per keyword basis.

What Did They Recently Search For?

Microsoft offers a search funnels tool which allows you to research keywords they recently searched for prior to searching for a keyword, OR keywords they searched for after they searched for a keyword.

Microsoft also has an entity association tool which can be used to find keywords that were co-occuring in the search or searched for in the same session.

Commercial Intent?

Microsoft's Online Commercial Intent tool estimates if search queries or web pages have a high probability of being informational or commercial in nature.

Who is Getting The Click?

Since Google AdWords factors ad clickthrough rate into their calculations, you can presume that the top advertisers are either getting a decent CTR, or are paying through the nose for clicks.

Compete.com's keyword destination data lets you know the relative click volume sites receive for a particular search query.

Further Analysis

Beyond data from the above tools, you can also infer a lot of data just by putting yourself in the mind of the consumer

• Determine which type of search you're targeting - informational, transactional, navigational - and segment the audience accordingly
• Align your site to the intent of the user. For example, a searcher who is after information is going to want to see an authoritative looking site. What is an authoritative looking site? It will differ depending on the market you are in, but it is highly unlikely the searcher will react well to a site plastered with advertising. The site will have markers of authority, such as recommendations, perhaps a display of qualifications, and information laid out in an "academic" way (Wikipedia), as opposed to a blatant sales pitch (Multi-Level Marketing). The transaction searcher will want confirmation (e.g. a big logo) s/he has arrived in the right place.
• Look for emotional angles and user intent targeting strategies that competing businesses are missing. Is free shipping a big deal? Is everyone trying to sell to a person that is looking to research and compare? Find a compelling way to stand out and differentiate yourself from the competition. Even if you are only targeting 30% of searchers you can still get more traffic being the only person doing that rather than the 8th consecutive similar offer.
• Track user behavior to confirm intent. Get people to sign up for more detailed information, note which pages people spend the most time on, which keyword terms lead to conversion, etc. Feed this information back into your strategy

The transactional user is more likely to forgive ads. In fact, they may even welcome them, so long as the advertising is relevant.

Conversely....

Integrate All Three Search Types

One of the problems with the study, as noted in the study, is that it is very difficult to determine intent just by looking at the keyword.

For example, an informational search could end up being a transactional search once the user is satisfied that with the answer to the information they were seeking. For example, "symptoms of flu" might turn into a purchase for a flu remedy.

That's why it can be a good idea to target all types of query, in an integrated way.

Carefully consider how you word your title tags. Integrate brand aspects for the navigational query i.e. "SEOBook.com - SEO Training Made Easy". Convey the information you provide "i.e. SEO Training" and transactional information i.e. the implication is that people can buy "SEO training". This information is also repeated in the snippet, although webmasters often have less control over this aspect.

Keep in mind that transactional doesn't just mean e-commerce. It can relate to any desired action, such as a sign-up to a newsletter, or a request for more information.

One aspect of web marketing that is getting more important is building communities and tribes. People who will return, in other words. You're unlikely to engage a community of people if all you ever offer is transactions. This is why Amazon integrates reviews and other social aspects in order to hook people in on a number of levels, even though the primary aim is to sell goods. Also check out Bill's excellent "Bills Blues" example.

What approach do you take? Do you narrow in on one type of query? Go wide and try to catch all three? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Comments

Among SEO professionals, there isn’t always consensus on precisely which and to what degree site factors contribute or detract from rankings on Google because the factors actually vary by industry. There are indeed, a number of contentious issues: markup and content quality, use of title tags, site organization and even arguments that Google Analytics data factors in to site rankings. Not likely (yet), but certainly up for debate among SEO professionals.

However, there are some Google ranking factors that most professionals agree affect site positioning on Google SERPs. However, these are opinions, find out for yourself how these apply to projects you’re working on.

Recommended Steps to Improve Google Ranking

1. Use keywords in HTML title tags. Probably the most significant factor for a site regardless of the competitive landscape, the title tag must be consistent with content in the page for best results. The more keywords in your title, the less effective this factor, be judicious.

2. Create quality anchor text for inbound links. At one time, according to some SEO professionals, quality anchor text was an essential component of a well-ranked site. After all, this is the text the user opted to see by clicking a link on another site. Most SEOs still contend that quality anchor text is a highly significant, positive ranking factor. If not for spiders, for visitors clicking in as well. Obviously the text should be relevant to the destination page for best results; that’s where your on page optimization comes in to play.

3. Increase link popularity. Link popularity takes into account the number of inbound links present. Link authority has less relevance, though it is still a factor depending on the competitive landscape. Link popularity is based on a global count of links from all sites. However, quality links are still critical to creating site authority; authority means ranking for more phrases than you intentionally target.

4. Hang in there. The age of a site is an important positive weighting factor according to many SEO professionals. It’s certainly a reasonable assumption. Failed sites are dropped as soon as the hosting subscription ends. If a site has been around for 10 years, the owners must be dong something right, especially if link popularity is steady developed over the years. Unfortunately for site owners, there’s no way to speed up the aging process – except hanging in there.

5. Increase the popularity of internal links. These links direct visitors to helpful, related content. They’re important in providing visitors with a positive on-site experience. Search engines view on-site link popularity as a sign that visitors like what they see and want to learn more.

7. Build deep links. Deep links are relevant to the topicality of the target page or keyword. The relevance of these inbound links matters to a site’s Google ranking. However, please note point 3. The sheer number of inbound links is a factor as well. Quality deep links carry more weight and add credibility to a site.

8. Connect with sites selling to the same demographic. Create a number of links with sites within your topical community. This helps visitors further their searches – something Google likes very much.

9. Keep old links. Google looks for web stability. The older the link, the more trust it has. It indicates a happy relationship with the site owner linking in who recognizes the value of sending visitors off-site. Google watchers suggest a three to four month time window for spiders to determine that this is a well-established, long-term link that has value to visitors of both sites.

10. Use keywords in body text. Make sure that keywords receive prominent display in headlines, headers, sub-heads. It’s important that the keywords used in HTML text on page match with keywords used in the site’s meta data and title tags.

Not Recommended

1. Don’t use session IDs in URLs. It sounds like a good idea on the surface, an easy way to track customer information, but here’s the problem. Each time a spider crawls the site, a new URL with session ID is created. The spider now has two, or three or more URLs all showing duplicate content. Go back to Go, do not collect $200. Don’t confuse this with pages that may have a couple GET variables in them; avoid that when you can, but just avoid having your pages containing session IDs.

2. Choose a reputable web host. The most potent negative ranking factor is server accessibility. If your server, located in Timbuktu, is inaccessible to spiders, it’s inaccessible to visitors. Down time soon becomes down and out time.

3. Avoid duplicate content. Googlebots employ filters to detect duplicate content. Now, if you opt to post some syndicated articles, you’re providing a service to visitors. However, a bot will recognize that content (it’s already appeared on 400 sites) and you’ll see a drop in traffic rank.

4. Jettison low-quality links. Google assesses the character of your site by the company you keep so keep good company by unlinking from (1) links farms, (2) sites with absolutely no quality content and (3) otherwise low-quality sites; e.g. FFA (free for all) sites.

5. Avoid any kind of links deception. Googlebots aren’t smart, but they can detect some paid links and a variety of links scams, including generated links. If a Googlebot suspects links fraud, your site may be penalized and sent to the basement or banned altogether.

6. Avoid a log-in before visitors and bots access “the good stuff.” Log-ins can easily confuse a bot who won’t be able to access quality content hidden behind a log in. Even though users with Google toolbars will be unknowingly suggesting new URLs to be crawled as they surf about, having teasers for the content your monetizing by subscription will help your SEO.

7. Avoid using frames. Horizontal and vertical framesets <frameset> are commonly used by designers to present more than one page of a site on the screen at the same time. However, frames are also bot traps. They can get in but they can’t get out, making it impossible for them to index a site – at all! Tell your developer to look at using iframes if possible or absolutely necessary.

8. Avoid duplicate title/meta tags. Title/meta tags are a valuable resource for site owners to expand access points to a site. Using title tags ensures that more pages are indexed and listed in Google’s SERPs as distinct links. All good. Unfortunately, too many duplicate title tags on pages in which the content topic hasn’t changed, is redundant and a waste of the bots time. Use tag your pages uniquely and judiciously.

9. Do not keyword stuff. Even though search engines no longer give much weight to keyword tags, keyword stuffing continues. Select 20 to 30 keywords – top-tier and long-tail – and focus on them. Keep keyword density in body text at no more than 3%. The old 5% rule still led to on-site gibberish – obviously these figures vary by competitive landscape.

10. Do not let quality slip – even for a day. Spiders crawl sites with greater frequency and sophistication and index updates are common as changes to a site are implemented. During periods of construction, be sure to keep spiders out of staging areas that have yet to be completed <nofollow> or block with robots. These works-in-progress may cost you points in the ranking sweepstakes.

Google controls 46% of all searches. Doesn’t it make sense to give this search engine exactly what it wants and delete what it doesn’t want?

Rhetorical question.

At the MediaPost Search Insider Summit, I got the opportunity to join a panel on social media and search with Darrin Shamo of Zappos and panel moderator Bob Heyman of MediaSmith (and co-author of the book Digital Engagement). I'm not going to discuss that panel here and will leave that to another post. But an interesting thing came up during my presentation...

The event is pretty heavily weighted toward SEM and I asked what turned out, to those in attendance, to be a bit of a dopey question. I asked "How many here are interested purely in SEM?" then when only a couple of hands were raised, I was encouraged to think it may be more of an SEO crowd, so I asked "How many are interested purely in SEO?" and saw only another sprinkling of raised hands.

So, based on one of my previous experiences at a major company where the team was half SEM and half SEO, and my current position, which is entirely SEO team with no SEM - I assumed a similar situation would be true of most in-house teams at substantially sized companies.

My assumption was apparently skewed. It seems that most do double-duty on in-house teams. When I asked "What's the balance here?" a few people said, (a few with emotion) "Both!"

That surprised me, based on what I knew before asking that question. But now I know that, at least among the crowd attending Search Insider Summit, that the oft joined SEM/SEO label applies to most. Well I suppose that was a gaff then, but...

Later in the day, I overheard a conversation on a shuttle bus which makes me wonder if SEO is being best served by in-house SEM/SEO's. After two strangers from the conference exchanged greetings & pleasantries, the inevitable "What do you do?" came up from one.

The answer, "SEM and I've been tasked with learning SEO for our team." (emphasis mine) Then the response from an ill-informed questioner was short-sighted and probably simplistic thinking from those who THINK they understand SEO - "So you're learning about meta tags and H1's?"

I'd like to argue that the two disciplines should be divided and I'd wager that many SEM's who love what they do will agree. The skill-set is completely different. Both SEM's and SEO's deal with keywords, and target search engine results pages, but that is where the similarity ends.

Having recently worked day-to-day with an SEM team in-house and being separated only by a cubicle wall for 18 months. I recall the SEO team only dealing with the SEM team during our bi-weekly online marketing group meetings.

So if someone who loves SEM is "tasked with learning SEO," (like that overheard conversation I mentioned above) they are not likely to understand or fully invest themselves in truly learning an important aspect of the Search Marketing business. They'll learn a couple of things and not all aspects of the work. They'll continue to do a great job of SEM and start doing a poor job of SEO.

I'll also argue that if that role is reversed and an SEO is "tasked with learning SEM for the team" then they will learn a few things, but not all of the elements of good SEM and not do a complete and thorough job of SEM but will continue to do a good job of SEO.

I recall a couple of job interviews about 5 years ago where in both cases, I was talking with an SEM manager who had convinced their boss that they needed a full-time SEO on staff to handle things they weren't able to continue doing as the company grew. Rather than evenly split SEM and SEO tasks among two staffers, they were dividing the two. That's the smart way to go.

I didn't take either of those jobs, and I'm quite happy about that now. I also walked away from a job that would have required me to significantly sharpen my SEM skills so that I could handle both. I didn't doubt that I could do it, but love SEO and very likely wouldn't have done as well with the SEM piece.

So I'd like to ask the question of those SEM/SEO dual purpose people - are you doing both because you love both or are you doing both because you were "tasked to learn" one of those pieces because your company won't increase the budget enough for a new head on the payroll? Would you rather focus on one or continue doing both?

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