Enter The Net

Sustainable Internet Marketing

Next dates for this workshop:
October 1, 2011, 6:30-9:20 PM

google-adwordsLearn how to use Google’s sponsored links to increase targeted traffic to your website. Don’t bother with people who want you to pay them to manage your sponsored link advertising – learn how to do it yourself! This workshop includes training on Google’s free local results, too. Students who want to get the most out of the workshop should come ready to budget at least $50 toward advertising on Google, although all students are welcome.

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People often ask about the difference between Organic and Sponsored Results.

When you do a search on Google, or just about any other search engine, you usually get at least two types of results – Organic and Sponsored. In some cases you may also have Local Results.

Sponsored results appear at the top and right of search results. If your website appears in sponsored results, you are paying a fee every time someone clicks through to your site. Sponsored results can get your site listed at or near the top of search engine results very quickly, but they go away as soon as you stop paying for them and can grow to be very expensive. Visitors consider sponsored results to be less trustworthy than organic search results so even when people click-thru to your site, only 1 in 100 will take action beyond that.

Organic or natural search engine results appear below and to the left of sponsored results. Organic listings are free on a click-for-click basis, but a website must first be optimized to improve its search engine rankings. Costs for that vary, but as a rough guideline, assume optimization will probably cost as much as it did to build the site in the first place. Organic optimization takes 6 to 12 months before its full impact can be measured, but it produces longer lasting, less expensive, and more profitable results.

Below is a chart that illustrates the different placement of Organic and Sponsored Results.

Image: 3plains.com

Organic vs Paid Search Listings

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The process of getting your listing (or Ad) on the Sponsored Results is called Pay Per Click Advertising. Google’s pay per click program is called Google Adwords.

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The process of getting your site listed on the Organic Results is called Search Engine Optimization. You can hire us to do this or take a workshop to learn how to do it yourself.

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Below is a chart that illustrates the differences between Organic and Sponsored Results. It includes characteristics of Search Engine Optimization and Pay Per Click Advertising, too.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

ORGANIC RESULTS

Sponsored Search / Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

SPONSORED RESULTS

How it Works Your website appears: in the organic section by maintaining, optimizing & promoting according to best SEO practices.

Pricing: A click to your website does not cost you anything.  Setup and management fees vary by company.

Your website appears: In the sponsored area of the search engine result page for keywords that you choose.

Pricing: You are charged a small fee for each click.  Plus any fees the company managing your campaign charges.

Top Rankings Achieved in: Weeks to Months. A Few Hours.
Stopping Efforts Will: Depend on industry.  Rankings could remain for weeks – years. Cause immediate rankings loss in the sponsored area.
Tracking Keyword and traffic performance can be tracked with an analytics program.

Rankings can be used to track performance, but as personalized search grows, this will be an increasingly unreliable statistic.

Personalized search means that people are starting to search by more diverse terms.

A diverse range of tracking available depending on who runs your campaign. Track email addresses, record calls received from clicks, ROI per click, A/B split test different landing pages, and many more.

If running SEO and PPC simultaneously, use PPC feedback to optimize SEO performance.

Searcher’s Impression of Website More clicks than sponsored listings on same page.

Higher trust in results.

Fewer clicks than organic listings on same page.

Less trust of results.

Number of Searches you may appear for Will depend on how each search engine’s algorithm views your website and the size of your website. Infinite – as many as you set up.
Conversion Rate About Equal

Organic listings receive more clicks, but searchers are not as commercially motivated to purchase.

Higher probability that they are in the research phase of their search.

About Equal

Users don’t click sponsored results as much, but when they do, they are more likely to have an intent to purchase.

High probability that they are in the purchase phase of their search.

Upfront Investment Do It Yourself: Cash: Low.  Opportunity Cost: High. Can be a DIY project, but high rankings will take even longer to obtain due to a substantial learning curve.

Hire an Expert: Cash: Medium. Opportunity Cost: High. Depends on who you hire, what your general marketing budget is, how big and in what shape your website is in.

Cost: Varies. Opportunity Cost: Medium.

Decide on your monthly budget.  Budget amount will depend on the competitiveness of your online industry.

Short Term ROI Opportunity Cost: Medium. Ahead of your competitors who haven’t started SEO efforts, but behind those who already have.

Cash:Low – Medium. Make an investment, results could take weeks – months depending on the competitiveness of your industry.

Opportunity Cost: Low. Make an investment, get immediate results.

Cash: Low – High. Depends on how competitive your industry is and what your profit margin is.

Long Term ROI High. Rankings can last for some time and you aren’t paying for every click. Low – High. Depends on Industry and your profit margin.
Ability to Target Local Customers Medium. Target local customers by optimizing for keywords plus geographic keyword modifiers. High. Target local customers for any keyword phrase within virtually any geographic area you choose from specific cities to a radius around a certain city, to entire states or countries.
Level of Control Medium. Pages can be optimized for certain keywords, but the management of the conversion process is slightly less customizable because a variety of keywords bring people with different goals to the same page.

High. Highly customizable marketing message.  You manage the entire marketing message from title and URL appearing in the ad, to the landing page people arrive on to the specific call to action you want visitors to take

What is most effective? Much has been written about this and all agree that Organic Results are more effective than Sponsored Results. The problem is that Organic Results are not guaranteed and they may take months to achieve. Therefore, many effective websites employ both techniques and constantly monitor and maintain them.

The most successful companies view search engine results as dynamic advertising campaigns.

A study conducted by Penn State  reinforces the need for companies to include organic or natural search engine optimization into their online marketing programs. Over 80% of the test searches conducted, respondents went to the “organic” search results.

“Consumers have a bias against the links that businesses pay search engines to rovide,” said Jim Jansen, assistant professor in the Penn State School of Information Sciences and Technology (IST). “By themselves, sponsored links appear not to be a viable business model and should be only one part of an online advertising campaign.”

Source: AllBusiness.com

keywordsAt Enter The Net, we offer two ways to discover which key word combinations are the very best for your optimization project.

Key Word Brainstorming

Both methods begin with an extensive brainstorming session. Our goal is to generate every key word combination that might be relevant to your site and all location terms for your market area.

Together we will brainstorm key words that people might use to find you on the web.  Enter The Net then utilizes online tools that brainstorm more possibilities, based on the words competitive sites use on the web.  Irrelevant words are deleted from the list.

That list is then sent to you to be narrowed further. After all, you are the expert in your business.

Key Word Analysis

Once we have a thoroughly-vetted list of brainstormed key word combinations, ALL of the descriptive terms are combined will ALL of the location terms to form a massive list of combinations to be analyzed. At this point, our clients have two choices.

1. Basic Key Word Analysis

The Basic Key Word Analysis utilizes Google’s free key word suggestion tool to gather popularity about how often the complete combinations are searched on Google. This tool also provides information about how many advertisers have paid to appear for each combination. Enter The Net applies a simple formula to “rate” each key word combination. You then review the whole list and approve or modify our recommendations.

The Basic Key Word Analysis is automatically included in the full optimization package or it can be purchased separately for $350. It may be a good idea to purchase the Basic Key Word Analysis if you want to see some data about key word popularity before deciding on a full optimization. If you decide to purchase a full optimization, the cost of the Basic Key Word Analysis is applied to the full package price.

The Basic Key Word Analysis has some shortcomings. The Google tool used does not provide detailed information about many key word combinations. For example, it may show some combinations as having no popularity when they, in fact, are searched upwards of 10-20 times per month. For most small businesses, that amounts to significant popularity. Therefore, Enter The Net has developed the Deluxe Key Word Analysis…

2. Deluxe Key Word Analysis

The Deluxe Key Word Analysis uses the world’s largest and most popular search engine, Google, to reveal exact search popularity numbers for each of your key word combinations.

google-adwords We use Google’s advertising system, Adwords, to create an account that tests your key word combinations. Part of your payment for this service goes directly to Google to pay for your ads. Since your ads only appear when someone searches for your key word combinations, we can tell how popular the combinations are by analyzing the results of your campaign on Google. The cool thing is that Google will only charge your account when someone actually clicks on your ad and comes to your website. That means that part of the money you are spending to STUDY your key word combinations is actually bringing potential new clients to your site.

After the campaign has run for seven to ten days, we produce a detailed report that tells you which key word combinations are most popular. We infuse the report with our experience in search engine marketing to give you a clear prediction as to what results you can expect from a well-designed search engine optimization plan. You may choose to apply the fee you pay to Enter The Net for the key word analysis to our complete Internet and Search Engine Marketing services. Or, you can hold onto the report and contact us later.

Our services include working with you to generate the most complete set of key word combinations possible for your business (brainstorming, mentioned above.) We use the vast array of websites on the internet to help us generate terms and then work with you to make sure they are relevant and useful. We then set up the Adwords account for you and monitor the campaign to make sure it is running at maximum efficiency. When it is done, we produce the thorough report that gives you a clear direction regarding search engine marketing. The price for our services is $500. If you decide to purchase a full optimization, the cost of the Deluxe Key Word Analysis is applied to the full package price.

You will pay Google separately for the Adwords campaign. We recommend a budget of about $100 for the study. Your account will only accrue charges when a visitor clicks on an ad and comes to your site. When the campaign is over, you can continue by adding more funds to your account with Google or you may pause it and decide later. If you decide to continue the Google Adwords campaign, you may be interested in hiring Enter The Net to manage the campaign for a low monthly fee.

Learn how to use Google Adwords on your own
Learn how to make the search engines love your website

We offer several methods for you to register for workshops. You may also use any of these methods to just get more information about a workshop.

  • Call The SBDC Directly at 503-594-0738. Kathy can help answer your questions and get you registered for the workshops you want. Her office hours are Monday through Thursday, 9-5.
  • Fill Out Our Interest Form. Fill out the form below, which will generate a response within two business days.

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You may also call me, Rob Patton, at any time: 971-570-8063

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About Me

Enter The Net is the passion of Rob Patton. Rob is a successful internet marketing consultant who combines his passion for helping all businesses succeed on the Web with his love of teaching. In addition to running Enter The Net, Rob is a part time instructor at the Clackamas Small Business Development Center. Rob is a proud member of River City LeTip and the Portland Area Business Association.

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