Ranking Analysis

How to Look Beyond What Is or Isn't Ranking
By Mike Murray (c) 2010
Featured Video: Matt Cutts 301s, Googlebot & Page Rank Website owners and managers will always be fascinated with how well they rank on
search engines. However, rankings can be deceiving because they only provide a  small part of the data set anyone will need to gauge online success.
Who wouldn't like to be No. 1 on Google for an organic listing? Among the busy array of results (including paid ads and local search), a top ranking still
shines. It shouts: "I climbed the mountain and beat out the other guy."
But did you?
Here are 12 key points to consider with your ranking numbers that quickly touch  on other aspects of your marketing online initiative. Keeping these factors in  mind will help you make better choices about what next steps you should take to  ensure that you're better positioned to improve your company's bottom line.

1. Did you pursue the right keyword?
A No. 1 ranking is possible with barely any effort, but will it drive traffic?
You might rank well for Cleveland Legal Counselors, but odds are more people are searching for Cleveland Lawyers. If that's too competitive, try Lawyers in Cleveland and get your share of traffic from the many ways people search.

2. Are you targeting the right search engine?
A top ranking on Bing can trigger big smiles. However, if your website only gets  3.5% of its traffic from Bing - for all keywords - the ranking may not deserve a lot of attention. Yes, conversions are worth considering, but you need to constantly think about what precious time you're committing to Bing when other engines may pay off in an even bigger way.

3. What's your track record?
You need to chart the progress. It's not a good sign if months go by and you
can't crack the top 30 positions in any search engine results. Own up to the
fact that maybe the keyword phrase is too competitive if it doesn't show an
improvement. Look for headway. For keywords with little competition, maybe
you'll rank higher sooner. But that's not always the case. Your search engine
optimization (SEO) practices may help you show a marked improvement even for more competitive search terms.

4. Setbacks are common.
If you manage to get a great ranking - perhaps in the top 5 spots - don't panic if your ranking dips a bit. It could easily rebound.

5. Substitutions aren't inferior.
Like NBA bench players, new keyword options can excel if given the chance. If
you can't get a high ranking for a keyword phrase among your starting lineup, drop it after a few months. Why keep it if the keyword phrase isn't gaining momentum - either toward a top ranking or in its ability to convert.
[Stop Waiting for Website Traffic]

6. Don't be misled by your computer.
With personal settings, browser history and different data centers, it's
increasingly tough to know if your exceptional ranking is really what it seems. For your most significant keywords, you may want to have someone else tell you how the keyword phrases ranks. Or, test out the search terms with some other ranking checkers (including third-party sources) like the ones listed below.
SEO Book Rank Checker (for Firefox): This tool still references your computer
but has a setting to avoid your Google personal settings.
RankChecker.net: Easy-to-use third party (note that it defaults to top 10)
Mike's Marketing Tools: Third-party tool with multiple engines

7. Understand your landing pages.
It's not uncommon for the home page to be the landing page for a powerful
keyword phrase. Your conversion option may really be an inside page. In a
fantasy world, you could tag keywords and they would magically be directed to your preferred pages. In reality, that's the beauty of paid search. But don't give up on your home page. If it's working, find a way to establish Calls to Action within the content, the core navigation, and diverse user cues to make sure visitors go where you lead them.

8. The crowded home page.
Another problem with the home page is the fact that many keyword phrases often rank well for it. A few keywords may perform better if you are able to adapt your strategy and target some interior pages for some of the keywords. Your website analytics package should help you see what keywords are being used to reach the home page or any other page with a crowded keyword field.

9. Balance greed with diversity.
Online marketers get excited if they have more than one page appearing in the top 10 search results for the same keyword phrase. You should consider whether one of the pages could better support another keyword phrase that lacks the visibility it needs to generate traffic and sales or leads for your business.
Don't make a hasty decision. If a keyword phrase ranks No. 7 on one page and No. 15 on another page, don't assume the No. 7 ranking is the best one to attack because it's closer to the No. 1 position. You need to weigh what you've already done with both pages, keyword themes on the website, the amount of content on each page, conversion opportunities and more. For example, the No. 7 ranking may be the best you'll do for the one page. For another page, the No. 15 ranking may not have taken as much effort to achieve (meaning you could still do more with SEO to improve the ranking).

10. Visitors tell another part of the story.
Unfortunately some businesses lack conversion data and settings. At least you can look at the visitor data in your website analytics. In the purest sense, visitor metrics will indicate whether the ranking has any merit.

11. Be honest about your conversions.
Many websites lack opportunities to connect with visitors. Your top ranking may be wasted if your potential customer encounters a poor design (with usability messes), text overload (visitors typically prefer to scan) and information without a clear Call to Action. Offering your phone number in the 14th paragraph isn't very effective.

12. Know your website strengths.
To appreciate your rankings (or lack of them), you need to know your website's strengths and weaknesses. Take a look at the competition. Study which website ranks No. 1 or even No. 10. What do they have that your website lacks? Maybe it's a great domain name (with a keyword), an age advantage, more links, and more content (multiple pages) to accentuate keyword themes, etc.
Business owners and marketers can study rankings every day, but the ranking position alone won't help. Look at the rankings within the context of overall traffic, conversions, your SEO efforts to date, the viability of your website, and your ability to spread keywords across the website.
Ultimately, you may need more pages to support your preferred ranking over the long haul. While making that investment, keep an eye out for alternative
keywords that your website can realistically support - today and in the future.

About The Author
Mike Murray is the Web Strategy Thought Leader for World Synergy, an interactive online marketíng firm that focuses on website design, custom web applications and business infrastructure services and strategy. Mike has more than 13 years of experience with web site development and marketing online, frequently speaking at regional and national conferences, including Search Engine Strategies.The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Google Personalized Search - Optimization Nightmare or Opportunity

Hello again and welcome to another AddMe.com newsletter, in this issue we touch
on personalized search and how this effects your websites search engine traffic.
I'm also excited to announce a new addition to the newsletter, Industry Events.
Industry events will feature up and coming industry and trade events that I feel
are worth checking out, these events are great for learning about internet
marketing, website promotion and networking.
If you have an up and coming event that you would like included in please feel
free to contact me via the website.
Thanks again to our sponsors for making this newsletter possible!
Featured Blog Posts
Google Street View Funnies
Some classic and strange pics of people and animals caught during the latesst
Google Street View update
Marketing Your Business and Website Online
4 important points to consider when starting your online business.
Google Internet Speed Test
This is an old post though becoming more important when it comes to Google and
SEO, is your website up to speed?
Input about these and all other posts are always welcome, please leave a comment
about any post you find interesting on the Blog.
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Industry Events
Sydney
Search Marketing Expo (SMX) - April 22-23, 2010
SMX Sydney, Australia's #1 Search Marketing Event is the "must-attend" Search
Engine Marketing and Social Media event of the year in Australia, delivering
superior value to Conference Delegates and Exhibition Hall attendees alike. more
info.....
Search Engine Boot-Camp - April 22-23, 2010
Whilst SMX Sydney is on we are offering our Exhibition Hall delegates the chance
to learn Free of Charge from some of the industries brightest minds, the Agenda
below will run on Day One and Two of the Conference and is Free for anyone to
attend. Limited seating is available, so get to the sessions you want to see
early.more info.....
Google Personalized Search - Optimization Nightmare or Opportunity
In December 2009 Google rolled out Personalized Search for users who were not
signed in, and in over 40 languages. Personalized search has been around for a
while for signed in users who have web history enabled. This allows Google to
fine-tune your search results based on past searches and on the sites you've
clicked on in the past. This is how Google tries to optimize searches for you
when your search terms have more than one meaning.
For example, Googling the term "blackberry" while signed in with web history on
gets the results you see on the first screen shot. From my search history it is
clear that I'm much more likely to be searching for information about the
BlackBerry PDA than about the actual fruit. On the other hand, my mom, who does
a lot of baking and jam-making, would probably end up with search results about
the fruit rather than about the electronic device, based on her history of
looking up recipes.
So now that personalized search is on offer for signed out users, exactly what
does that mean?
It means that personalized search can use an anonymous cookie on your browser to
base your search results on 180 days of search activity linked to this cookie.
This is completely separate and apart from your Web History and your Google
account. When you have the option of personalized results while signed out, you
will see a link that says View Customizations in the top right corner of the
results page, as you can see in the second screen shot. When you click on it,
you can see how the results are customized and, if you want, you can turn off
this type of customization.
Now, there are obviously computers where lots of different people search, so the
browser cookie might be influenced by multiple people's search activity. To
protect the privacy of the non-signed-in users, you can't actually view the
specific search activity upon which the signed-out personalized search is based.
Plus, you can turn off personalized search settings for signed-out personalized
search altogether if you want.
As for signed-in personalized search, you can clear the history upon which your
personalized results are based at any time to protect your privacy. That way, if
you stay signed in and someone else wants to know what you've been searching on,
they won't be able to do it through your personalized search history. Of course
they could still go through your web history, so if you're concerned, you should
use your browser to clear your web history.
If you're a webmaster, you might be wondering whether personalized search,
adopted on a massive scale, will affect your ability to reach the people you
want to visit your website. The answer, unsatisfactory as it may be, is "Yes,
and no."
Consider this. If a user searches for, say, "pith helmets," and visits the top
result and the last two results on the first page of listings. Then those three
websites will be added into the person's personalized search data. Next time the
user decides to do a search for "pith helmets" then those two sites from the
bottom of the first page of results will rank higher than they would in an
organic, starting from scratch search.
But what if the user finds another search result, say the 7th one on the new
results page, and bookmarks it and goes there henceforth rather than searching
for pith helmets anymore for the time being. But then, a few months later, he
thinks that maybe there's a better pith helmet out there so he does another
search. But this time, the one he bookmarked shows up as the top result. What gives?
Even though that site didn't do any special SEO, there it is, right at the top
of our pith helmet-loving searcher. However, other searchers will find other
pith helmet dealers at the top of their results pages.
Dominate Google for Your Keywords Today!
So how do you, the webmaster, change your SEO strategy? Or do you need to change
it? If you're doing legitimate, white-hat ways of getting traffic to your site,
then your site will be more likely to bubble to the top of the research results
for personalized search. A first time searcher might find your site perched at
No. 1 simply because he has already visited it a bunch of times through other
routes. This is true even if your site wouldn't be tops in an organic search.
There's nothing really that you should change in terms of your SEO strategy.
Keep doing the on-site SEO as you have been, and you'll probably do fine. But
there's nothing wrong with using off-site SEO to build up your brand and keep
your visitors happy. Again, it boils down to having great content that people
will find compelling and that will make them want to come back. This helps you
whether the game is organic search or personalized search.
The takeaway is this: Google personalized search isn't so much revolutionary as
evolutionary. It's not going to take all the search engine results and shuffle
them massively. It may mean that sites that focus on the mechanics of SEO
without focusing on great content could lose some ranking, but even that seems
unlikely. Personalized search will change things up a little on an individual
basis, but it by no means throws out the concept of organic search results based
on SEO.
About the Author
John Wieber from http://www.seomoves.org, a full service, bleeding edge seo company.

Outsourcing Marketing

by Gail McGovern and John Quelch

Companies have long outsourced creative, right-brain marketing activities, such as advertising and promotion campaigns. But a fundamental change is under way: Increasingly, firms are farming out marketing operations and analytics as well. A Forrester Research survey of 650 B2B marketing executives found that 53% aimed to outsource more than half their marketing activities in 2004. Forrester projects that CRM outsourcing in the United States will quadruple to $4.6 billion by 2008. And the British firm Astron Group forecasts that customer database and lead management outsourcing is growing 10% annually. What’s going on?

We believe there are two key reasons for this trend: First, outsourcing can save money and improve quality. American Express’s consolidation of customer service call center operations in India, for example, cut service costs per customer by 20% to 30% while improving response time and boosting the percentage of satisfied customers by 20 points.
Second, outsourcing can provide increasingly critical left-brain marketing expertise that many companies lack, such as customer database management and analysis. When Sony, a legendary marketer, wanted to build a customer database, sell services, and market new, high-end products through its online store, Sony Style, it outsourced the program, recognizing that it didn’t have the required skills in-house. Allstate has outsourced lead management, which has doubled the leads each agent gets. Ericsson has outsourced the management of its extranet, which provides the sales force with up-to-date customer information and allows direct communication with selected customers.
American Express now outsources its data mining to specialist third-party firms that can process millions of transactions a day to reveal purchasing patterns and other aspects of consumer behavior. And Best Buy, the electronics retailer, is outsourcing not just database management but also marketing analyses and the complete execution of the marketing programs for two of its six segments—business and high-end customers.
The need for left-brain marketing expertise, we think, will only grow. A discipline that was once principally creative has become increasingly analytic, as the old workhorses—print and television advertising, and direct mail—become less and less effective. Marketing managers tend to be right-brain creatives with a fondness for mass-marketing campaigns when what’s needed are left-brain number crunchers who zero in on the “market of one.” Today, computer models optimize the allocation of pharmaceutical sales representatives’ time, determining which customers to address and which products to promote to achieve the greatest return. Dynamic pricing models allow airlines to change ticket prices in real time based on the number of seats sold on a given flight. And IT-intensive database management now lets companies precisely target just the right messages to just the right customers in just the right terms.
While many things, from customer call centers to pricing-elasticity studies and sales force deployment models, can be outsourced, some aspects of marketing can’t: those that directly drive marketing strategy. The CEO and top management team must regularly spend face time with customers and end consumers and drive this customer-focused culture throughout the organization. A chief marketing officer should be appointed to lead the marketing strategy, inject the customer perspective into new product development, and ensure that the company’s intangible brand assets are carefully stewarded. Major accounts must be served by sales and service teams that have been given the right incentives so that they can integrate themselves into those customer organizations and ensure the “stickiness” necessary for long-term relationships.
To create the most value from outsourcing, marketing managers must become expert ringmasters who cherry-pick, develop, and monitor an integrated network of outside suppliers that brings new capabilities to the marketing effort. Above all, management must start seeing its marketing suppliers not as contractors that need to be controlled but as partners that can create shared value over the long term.

Design Thinking

Thinking like a designer can transform the way you develop products, services, processes—and even strategy.

by Tim Brown

Thomas Edison created the electric lightbulb and then wrapped an entire industry around it. The lightbulb is most often thought of as his signature invention, but Edison understood that the bulb was little more than a parlor trick without a system of electric power generation and transmission to make it truly useful. So he created that, too.
Thus Edison’s genius lay in his ability to conceive of a fully developed marketplace, not simply a discrete device. He was able to envision how people would want to use what he made, and he engineered toward that insight. He wasn’t always prescient (he originally believed the phonograph would be used mainly as a business machine for recording and replaying dictation), but he invariably gave great consideration to users’ needs and preferences.
Edison’s approach was an early example of what is now called “design thinking”—a methodology that imbues the full spectrum of innovation activities with a human-centered design ethos. By this I mean that innovation is powered by a thorough understanding, through direct observation, of what people want and need in their lives and what they like or dislike about the way particular products are made, packaged, marketed, sold, and supported.
Many people believe that Edison’s greatest invention was the modern R&D laboratory and methods of experimental investigation. Edison wasn’t a narrowly specialized scientist but a broad generalist with a shrewd business sense. In his Menlo Park, New Jersey, laboratory he surrounded himself with gifted tinkerers, improvisers, and experimenters. Indeed, he broke the mold of the “lone genius inventor” by creating a team-based approach to innovation. Although Edison biographers write of the camaraderie enjoyed by this merry band, the process also featured endless rounds of trial and error—the “99% perspiration” in Edison’s famous definition of genius. His approach was intended not to validate preconceived hypotheses but to help experimenters learn something new from each iterative stab. Innovation is hard work; Edison made it a profession that blended art, craft, science, business savvy, and an astute understanding of customers and markets.
Design thinking is a lineal descendant of that tradition. Put simply, it is a discipline that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods to match people’s needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity. Like Edison’s painstaking innovation process, it often entails a great deal of perspiration.
I believe that design thinking has much to offer a business world in which most management ideas and best practices are freely available to be copied and exploited. Leaders now look to innovation as a principal source of differentiation and competitive advantage; they would do well to incorporate design thinking into all phases of the process.

Getting Beneath the Surface

Historically, design has been treated as a downstream step in the development process—the point where designers, who have played no earlier role in the substantive work of innovation, come along and put a beautiful wrapper around the idea. To be sure, this approach has stimulated market growth in many areas by making new products and technologies aesthetically attractive and therefore more desirable to consumers or by enhancing brand perception through smart, evocative advertising and communication strategies. During the latter half of the twentieth century design became an increasingly valuable competitive asset in, for example, the consumer electronics, automotive, and consumer packaged goods industries. But in most others it remained a late-stage add-on.
Now, however, rather than asking designers to make an already developed idea more attractive to consumers, companies are asking them to create ideas that better meet consumers’ needs and desires. The former role is tactical, and results in limited value creation; the latter is strategic, and leads to dramatic new forms of value.