Developing On Page SEO Strategy

This Post is Written by Alexander Zagoumenov

There's a number of ways to categorize your SEO efforts (on-site and off-site, for instance). In this article I want to discuss on-site SEO elements as opposed to off-site strategy. In other words, I'll provide you with tips and tools to keep your site clean and have a great relationship with search engines. This article will be useful for both professional SEO (as a refresher) and novice SEOs (to get a perspective of on-site SEO strategy).
First of all, let me define the on-site SEO strategy. For further discussion, on-site SEO strategy is a collection of tactics to ensure that

1. Search engines know about your site;
2. Search bots can properly index your site;
3. Your pages are well-formatted for SERPs.

Second of all, it's important to note that on-site SEO is not a one-time activity that you do at the beginning and forget about it. So, the following on-site strategy elements need to be monitored over time (weekly, monthly) depending on type and size of your site. Larger news sites need to be audited more often.
It is useful to get a hold of a good crawler tool such as SEOmoz where you can track changes in site errors and warnings on weekly basis. Or you can use desktop SEO tools such as Screaming Frog and Xenu.

Do search engines know about my site?

The way Google-bot works (discovers new pages through links) Google will eventually find your site even if you do nothing (a link or two from external resources are still needed). However, there's a way to 1) speed up the indexing process, and 2) ensure that all new updates (new pages / categories, etc.) get indexed in timely manner. Here's a couple of things to keep in mind

XML sitemaps

Sitemap.xml files are sitemaps in a format that is easy to understand for search engine bots. Such file is not created to humans (/sitemap.html/ or /sitemap/). It's located in the root directory of your site for search engines to pick it up. Learn more about XML sitemaps. There's a number of ways to generate such file once the site structure is finalized. Here's only a few of them:

• XML Sitemap generator (500 pages limit in a free version)
• Screaming Frog Spider (500 pages limit in a free version)
• WordPress SEO by Yoast Plugin (if you have a WP-based site)

Webmaster Tools

Webmaster Tools such as Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) and Bing Webmaster are the most direct doorway between your site and a search engine. These accounts will help you keep track of your site's health as it relates to search engines. So, ensure that you have such account created and your site's XML sitemap or feed is submitted.

Can search engines see what I want them to see?

To answer this question we need to make sure that there's nothing preventing robots from discovering pages inside the website. You can run a quick scan manually by searching Google for [site:www.domain.com] and taking a note of the number of results displayed. If it's about the same as you expected, then you shouldn't have a problem. If it's not, read on Let's take a look at several important domain-level and page-level.

Robots.txt

Robots.txt file is a file in the root directory of your website (yourdomain.com/robots.txt) that instructs search bots on what to index on your site. Read more about Robots.txt, what it is, how to configure it here.

404 errors

404 error pages appear when a page on the site is absent. Keep in mind, 404 errors happen, they are ok, nothing to panic about, but if your site is not prepared for it, such errors can damage your reputation and play a role in reduced rankings. Worst case scenario is when a user gets something like this

These pages are bad because they degrade user experience on your site. Of course your visitor can alter the URL in address bar and land on the homepage (yoursite.com/page-that-does-not-exist/) BUT most likely he / she will close the window / press the back button on the browser and never come back.
So in order to make sure you keep visitors happy and longer on the site (Google likes sites that keep users on the site longer), make sure you have a custom 404 error page.
Above is a good example that evokes positive feeling. However, here's a few things I would add to this 404 error page:

• a few (2-3) text links to point people to popular directions on the site
• a list (3-5) of options pointing to pages / posts related to the search query
• a search field that would provide additional navigational opportunity

Redirects

It happens that you update / change URLs (due to a new site structure or specific page optimization) on the site. Once you did that, it's important to make sure that your XML sitemap is updated with a new one (and the old one removed). Also, it's a great idea to create a redirect from old to the new pages. The steps will depend on a server you are running but here's a good place to start.

URLs

Make sure your site's URLs follow a few rules in terms of depth, length, descriptiveness:

• Fix URLs that are over 3-4 directories deep. Flatter URLs tend to index faster when the page is created. Plus it's less confusing for the bot and users.
• URLs that are 100 characters long tend to rank worse. So, avoid stop words (in, a, the, etc.). Keep it short to 3-5 words.
• Make sure your URLs are descriptive of the content on the page. Stay away from keyword stuffing the URL, but try to get a phrase in, if possible.

Here's a good read on changing URL structures on your site.

Titles

Your titles need to be short, specific and descriptive. It should tell an engine what the page is about in a short form. Avoid stuffing the title tag with keywords. Optimal title length is between 70 and 100 characters long including spaces. For dynamic titles I recommend you go from detailed to broad: Product > Category > Brand name. Read more in my earlier article here.

Headings

Make sure there's one h1 per page, it's descriptive, preferably short and includes your page-level target term. Headings (H1, H2, etc.) are supposed to divide your page content into logical sections, therefore presenting a value to search bots trying to understand what your page is about. Make sure your pages use heading, and those headings include your page's focus terms. Also, my rule of thumb: One H1, Two H2s and Three H3s per page. You don't have to follow this exactly, but make sure there's only one H1 per page.

Links (interlinking)

I've worked with a number of Yandex SEO projects. It appears that interlinking of pages is not as important for Yandex algorithm as it is for Google. So, if you're optimizing for Google, have a read on internal linking here.
Also, if you run a blog, forum, e-commerce site or a news site you are likely to have pagination issues. Learn more about the pagination issues for SEO and find how to solve it here.

Site speed

Users love faster sites. Therefore Google rewards faster loading pages with higher rankings. Make sure your site doesn't have slow pages that negatively affect your rankings and user experience. Test your site regularly using Pingdom or page speed test tools from Google.

Site analytics

Analytics can tell you a lot of things about your site performance (issues and speed) and your visitors. Regardless of what you use, Google Analytics or something else, make sure you keep an eye on content efficiency (how effective your pages are).
Want to create custom reports and save time in Google Analytics, check this guide from Google. Or feel free to import these templates by other people here and here.

Does my target audience like what it sees in SERPs?

Yes, it's important to rank highly on a search engine results page (SERP) but it's also key to ensure that users click on your results. Studies show that with the proliferation of rich snippets users tend to click on listings that provide 1) value proposition in descriptions and 2) additional information about the page through advanced search snippets. Let's look at both in more details.

Descriptions

Meta descriptions do not affect rankings, but they do affect your listing's click-through rates. A description that clearly shows the page's USP has a higher chance to be clicked on by the user. A few best practices on meta descriptions. Also, make sure to review this post on creating meta descriptions based on your PPC text ads.

Rich snippets & microdata

Same as good descriptions, search listings complete with rich snippets tend to get higher click through rates. Here's a good article on why rich snippets are important. Make sure your most valuable pages / landing pages have appropriate rich snippets implemented. Read my recent article on rich snippets. Use this Google's tool to test your pages for rich snippets. Want to see how your listing might look with microdata added, check out this cool tool.

In conclusion

Creating great content is primarily what it's about these days. However, if Google can't see your pages OR can't understand their relevance for specific terms OR if your listing looks incomplete and confusing, you'll be missing out a lot both in terms of rankings and actual search traffic to your site. As practice shows, on-site SEO is still very important to being successful in organic search.

Source: http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog

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Paid Prod­uct List­ing Ads (PLAs) - Best Practices for Maximizing Retail Ad Spend with Google PLAs

The hol­i­days are a hec­tic time for every­one, espe­cially for retail­ers try­ing to max­i­mize their sales per­for­mance dur­ing this cru­cial sea­son. This year brings an addi­tional chal­lenge (and oppor­tu­nity) with the tran­si­tion from free Google Shop­ping to paid Prod­uct List­ing Ads (PLAs). The for­merly free Google Shop­ping chan­nel has become a major paid chan­nel with a unique set of fea­tures to be mas­tered. With all the chal­lenges in this new space there is great oppor­tu­nity for those who can mas­ter the shift­ing land­scape. Here are some best prac­tices to both sur­vive and get ahead in this new marketplace.

1) Be There! First and fore­most – you need to be present. The traf­fic that was free through Google Shop­ping is gone, replaced by paid PLAs. So far this paid traf­fic has proven to be a sig­nif­i­cant and prof­itable source of traf­fic. We are see­ing PLAs typ­i­cally account for more than 10% of total search spend with a sig­nif­i­cant upside when fully built out and prop­erly man­aged. The eco­nom­ics to date have also been com­pelling as shown in the table below. To cap­ture as much of this traffic as pos­si­ble, make sure you are eli­gi­ble to serve for any search that is rel­e­vant to your catalog.

Early Per­for­mance Gains

	Cost per Order	Aver­age Order Value	Return on Investment
Aver­age Across Advertisers	–41%	29%	119%

2) Be Gran­u­lar: Full cov­er­age is just the start­ing point. The more finely you can match each search to a spe­cific ad (and land­ing page) the more suc­cess you will see this hol­i­day sea­son. Pre­cise match­ing allows you to tai­lor bids to the eco­nom­ics of each search so the traf­fic get­ting served to your site mat­ters most to you.

For exam­ple, if you sell Christ­mas trees, but can­not dis­tin­guish between searches for “cheap Christ­mas trees” and searches for “Christ­mas trees,” you will find your­self pay­ing more for fewer con­ver­sions. If you show an expen­sive tree to cus­tomers look­ing for a cheap tree, they won’t buy it. On the bid­ding side, you need to be able to tai­lor the bid to the expected rev­enue per click. Assum­ing “cheap Christ­mas trees” has a lower rev­enue per click because of the lower order value then you should set a lower bid for these searches. Split­ting the traf­fic also frees you to bid more aggres­sively on high Rev­enue Per Click (RPC) traf­fic. Not only will you gar­ner more high RPC impres­sions, they will have a higher Click-Through Rate (CTR) and take rate with tar­geted ad, image, and copy.



Com­plex­ity should not be a bar­rier to gran­u­lar tar­get­ing. With the right tools and tac­tics, you can eas­ily scale up your account to mir­ror your true busi­ness. A well-built feed and PLA account can cover your whole cat­a­log at the SKU level. Updat­ing bids and cre­ative match­ing across a large account is com­plex, but straight­for­ward if you are using the right tools. For exam­ple, Adobe AdLens, the first uni­fied ad man­age­ment sys­tem for cross-channel opti­miza­tion, uses hier­ar­chi­cal mod­els to man­age sparse data across mul­ti­ple ad units. Lastly, prop­erly imple­mented neg­a­tive key­words will ensure traf­fic is fun­neled to the right ad and offer.

3) Be Nim­ble: The tran­si­tion from Google Shop­ping to PLAs is very new and there will be a lot of volatil­ity in the mar­ket­place this sea­son. Google is actively tweak­ing their ad treat­ments; vary­ing the num­ber, lay­out and loca­tion of ads on the results page. Many retail­ers are still fig­ur­ing out what PLAs are and how they can use them. As they move in and out of the mar­ket you can expect to see volatil­ity in Cost Per Clicks (CPCs). In this shift­ing mar­ket­place you will need to be able to quickly adjust your bids and tar­get­ing to make sure you can find pock­ets of opportunity.

While you can’t con­trol these exter­nal fac­tors, you can make sure your PLA cam­paigns are closely aligned with your inven­tory and pro­mo­tional activ­ity. If you have a tar­get that is per­form­ing well or receiv­ing increased com­pe­ti­tion, make sure you have enough inven­tory on hand before tak­ing action on that target.

4) Pro­mote: Make sure your PLA pro­mo­tions line up with any spe­cial pro­mo­tions you have hap­pen­ing. If ‘super toy of 2012′ is in stock and you’re drop­ping the price by 20% this week­end, make sure your pro­mo­tion line says that in it!

This is where gran­u­lar tar­get­ing is par­tic­u­larly rel­e­vant. Price dis­counts and other pro­mo­tions have a huge effect on the eco­nom­ics of a search (higher CTR, higher con­ver­sion rate, lower mar­gin). If Google can’t match your bid and offer to the cor­rect search, you will find your­self at a major dis­ad­van­tage. For exam­ple, if you have just one ad unit cov­er­ing ‘tools-wrenches’ but only one brand of wrenches is on sale, you will be forced to have one bid and one pro­mo­tional mes­sage for both products.

5) Think holis­ti­cally:  PLAs should fit into your larger mar­ket­ing efforts. We have seen sig­nif­i­cant inter­ac­tion between PLAs and reg­u­lar paid search. Across Adobe AdLens cus­tomers, we have seen more than 15% of pur­chases that start on Prod­uct List­ing Ads later con­vert through reg­u­lar paid search. Know­ing how traf­fic is flow­ing across PLAs, paid search, and other chan­nels allows you to attribute con­ver­sions cor­rectly and allo­cate your mar­ket­ing bud­get in the best way to max­i­mize ROI.

The tran­si­tion from Google Shop­ping to a paid for­mat is a major oppor­tu­nity for retail­ers. This chan­nel has already proven to be very prof­itable in its first few months. With so many retail­ers start­ing from scratch this sea­son, the peo­ple who best scale the learn­ing curve and man­age the com­plex­ity and volatil­ity of this mar­ket­place stand to gain a com­pet­i­tive advantage.

Adobe AdLens makes it easy to build out full cov­er­age of your cat­a­log while sophis­ti­cated mod­el­ing and work­flow allow you to match tai­lored bids and cre­ative to spe­cific audi­ences of searchers.

By Sid Shah

Source : Adobe Digital Marketing Blog http://blogs.adobe.com/ 

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List of Tools for PPC Advertising

Ultimate list of PPC advertising tools

The Internet is a killer place to advertise. Since 2006, the percentage of online advertising spend has grown from 6% to 13.3% of total media expense. That’s $16.9 billion to $42 billion.

There’s good reason for that. Unlike traditional advertising channels, online advertising is less expensive, far faster to market and easy to measure. Good news for you if you’re in the hot seat for getting the boss or client results. But there’s a hitch: without the right tools, you can find yourself way over your head and way over your budget.

Here’s a peek at the tools that can help you manage a successful online advertising campaign. Today’s list is limited to PPC advertising tools. Tomorrow, we’ll have an ultimate list of social media advertising tools. And soon, we’ll circle back around with display and ad network advertising tools.

Search engine PPC tools

There are few online advertising tools that can put you in front of an audience that rivals a small nation in size. But build an effective campaign with PPC on a search engine and you’ll accomplish just that. Roll that campaign across multiple search engines and in no time you’ll be a little online ad mogul.

• Google AdWords
  With nearly 65% of search traffic, Google AdWords will get your text ads out in front of the lion’s share of search traffic. But it’s not cheap. A Sponsored Link is a coveted ad position that will drive traffic, but comes with a hefty price, too.
• Yahoo! Search Marketing
  Out of the big three search engines, Yahoo! has the smallest market share at 14%. But it’s still a percentage you don’t want to ignore: it has the highest search success rate at 81.14%.
• Bing AdCenter
  With two powerhouse search engines (Yahoo! and Bing) under one platform, you can interact with over 30% of search traffic, traffic that’s supposed to be known for buying, not just browsing. Sweet keyword tool.”If you do not diversify your paid search campaigns beyond Google AdWords, you’re not only missing the boat—but losing your company money via inaction.”—Loren Baker
• Baidu Phoenix Next
  Baidu is China’s No. 1 search engine, with 75.9% of the market share in Q2 of 2011. (In comparison, Google China had about 18% of the market share during the same period.) Its advertising models and networks are similar to Google’s, but there are significant differences. Before you jump into Baidu PPC advertising, read up from experts like Gordon Choi and those at China Internet Watch.
• Yandex.Direct
  If you want to buy PPC ads for Russian audiences, add Yandex to the list—CTR is better than Google.ru. There are some good descriptions of the tools in English, including anEnglish-language help center, but you’ll still want to read from experts like those at RussianSearchTips.com.

Google AdWords tools

Google AdWords allows you to display your ads on Google, and across its advertising network, at the moment people are searching for your product. The following tools help you leverage this powerful platform.

• Google AdWords Keyword Tool
  When you want to find out what related word searches your ad will show on, use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. Free and dead simple to use.
• Google AdWords Traffic Estimator
  Google will give you rough estimates on clicks and bid prices for your ads at the top position. Helpful for planning your budget. Free.
• Conversion Optimizer
  Google dishes out yet another AdWords tool, this time to help you achieve double-digit conversions by bidding on your CPA (cost-per-acquisition). Free, but to be eligible, campaigns must have had 15 conversions in the last 30 days.
• AdWord Accelerator
  For a one-year subscription at $299, the AdWord Accelerator will give you access to tools like the keyword basket, estimates and competition tracking in one convenient suite.
• Google AdWords Manager
  Raven debuted its AdWords management and reporting tools a couple of months ago. You can create AdWords campaigns, adjust budgets, pause or start campaigns in bulk, manage multiple accounts, set extensions and more. Reporting AdWords campaigns is extremely simple. $99/month for a Pro account, which gives you access to all the SEO, social media and PPC tools in the platform.
• AdWords Wrapper
  Enter a list of keyword phrases into the Google AdWords Wrapper, click “Wrap Keywords” and bingo: you’ve got a combination of Broad, Phrase and Exact Match keywords, a combination of Phrase and Exact Match keyword, Phrase Match only keywords and Exact Match only keywords. Free.
• Keyword Wrapper Another free tool that lets you create various combinations of your keywords. @markkennedysem says this about their service. “SEOM’s keyword wrapper is a free tool for PPC campaign managers to wrap keywords in [exact], “phrase,” and +Broad +Match +Modified match types.”
• AdGrenade
  A super fast, super efficient way to expand your keyword list, write ads for each keyword and track each core keyword. In just six seconds. One time cost of $147.
• AdWords Editor
  Free Google application to download your AdWords account, update your campaigns with the editing tools and then upload your changes. A must.
• Negative Keywords Maker
  Negative keywords allow you to filter out unwanted impressions, reduce your CPC and increase ROI. But they can be a pain to create. Until now. Insert the minus sign “-” in front of keywords with one click. Free.
• AdWords Insights
  Uncover poorly performing keywords and landing pages with low Quality Scores in bulkwith this Raven tool. Fix problems to save money and increase conversions. $99/month for a Raven Pro account, which gives you access to all the SEO, social media and PPC tools in the platform.
• Keyword Niche Finder
  If you want to find profitable keyword niches that you can dominate, then use this free tool. You can start with general terms like “auto” or “sports” and refine until you find that keyword phrase or two no one knows about.

PPC budgeting tools

Pay-per-click advertising is probably the fastest way to dominate search engine rankings. But it can also be the most expensive. The following tools will help you manage, budget and succeed at the PPC game without breaking the bank.

• Pay Per Click Universe
  A free resource dedicated to provide unbiased information to the small-to-medium sized business owner interested in exploring the world of PPC advertising.
• Acquisio
  If you run multi-channel advertisements across Search, Social and Display networks, you have no shortage in the amount of data you collect. But data means nothing if you don’t turn it into action. With Acquisio, you get one integrated platform to purchase, track, manage and optimize all your marketing efforts.
• CPC ROI Calculator
  Want a tool that figures out how you can profitably pay for your ads? This cost-per-click ROI calculator from SEOBook is just the ticket. Free.
• PPC Bid Max
  Software solution that automatically manages your PPC campaigns. Perfect for the time-starved one-man shop. Standard edition starts at $96.
• PPC G-Test Calculator
  This free tool allows you to predict the winner out of two competing ads, thus allowing you to save money while you optimize your ads.
• Taguchi-based Ad Optimizer
  Want to speed up the testing process AND test up to 15 elements in your ads at a time? Then this free tool is what you need. It will blow your mind. In a good way.
• Wordstream
  Wordstream touts its new Pause Keyword Alerts, weekly updates that tell you the keywords to pause for better campaign performance. Monthly plans for its PPC tools start at $299.

Competitive PPC analysis tools

Knowing what your competitors are doing in the online advertising space is a must if you want to dominate. These tools will help you pay attention to their campaigns and respond accordingly.

• Spyfu
  The concept is simple: when you spy on your competitor’s AdWords campaigns you are bound to find AND capture profitable opportunities. Spyfu allows you to do this for $79 a month.
• PPC Web Spy
  Another competitive analysis too—this time free. Uncover the Google AdWords keywords your competitors are using with Brad Cullen’s downloadable PPC tool.
• My Ads Advertising
  In minutes you can build and customize ads, reach broad audiences or target your customers and track and monitor your ad to see how it is performing with flexible budgets and no minimum bid.
• iSpionage
  Simply enter any domain for rich results on PPC competitors. Test it for free right from the home page, or sign up for a plan starting at $59 for more tools.
• SEMRush
  SEMRush offers deep competitive intelligence for Google AdWords. Plans begin at $69 a month (or access SEMRush data from within Raven at no added cost.)

Your turn

What am I missing? Are there any online advertising tools out there that you think a website owner shouldn’t be caught dead without? Share your thoughts in the comments. Brutal and all.

By - Demian Farnworth

Ultimate list of Ultimate lists

• Ultimate list of conversion optimization tools
• Ultimate list of blogging tools for pros
• Ultimate list of social media advertising tools
• Ultimate list of online public relations tools
• Ultimate list of online content readability tests
• Ultimate list of Internet marketing humor sites
• Ultimate list of PPC bid management solutions

Source:  http://raventools.com/blog/

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SEO Copywriting - How To Structure Your Copy

You may think that your writing is so SEO-perfect that the Google angels sing when they spider it. But are you sure that your angelic writing doesn't contain some devilish SEO content mistakes? If you're writing content using outdated or incorrect strategies, you may be committing sins without even realizing it.

The simplest SEO copywriting definition is: The technique of writing the copy of a website so that it flows and reads well for a page viewer and features selected keywords and phrases that the site owner wants optimized so that the site ranks well for those terms.

That may sound simple but it’s really not that easy to define SEO copywriting content.

Why Is Copywriting Important?

If visitors land on your page, but click back, you’ll do less well at search. Recent changes in search algorithms mean your pages are likely being judged on how useful a user finds your page.
One way to hook readers into your site is by using well-crafted copywriting. If you convince more of your visitors to engage in a “desired action”, which is the end-goal of copywriting, then the more profitable your site should become.
As internet traffic gets more expensive, the sites using copy that converts more visitors than the competition will likely win the game. These sites will be more able to afford to invest in traffic generation.

If You Fail To Get Your Copy And Offer Right

If a searcher is looking for a good offer on a product, they might click the result at #1.
If they don’t find an offer to their liking, what do they do? They’ll likely click back. They’ll try another site further down the page. They may click on three of four results before they find the offer they want. They may rephrase the search query.
There is no point ranking well if the customer doesn’t like the offer, or the offer is not clearly articulated. There is SEO value in presenting a great offer. There is also SEO value in making that offer clear to the reader. The value comes from making the most of each visitor. The higher your conversion rates, the more distance you put between you and your competitors.

Integrating Copywriting With SEO

There are two aspects to SEO. External and internal. External aspects concern factors beyond your site. A search engine will rank your site by looking at links pointing to your site from other pages.
The second aspect is pages on your site. You have a lot more control over these pages. If you have interesting, well written content, then it is more likely people will be happy to link to you. Once visitors arrive on your site, it is more likely they will engage with your message. If your pages are on topic, and interest a reader enough so they don’t immediately click back, then your rankings are likely to increase.
Both external and internal factors must work together in order to get the most out of SEO. It’s not just about getting visitors to your site via search engines, it’s also about what visitors do when they get there. Poor writing, or writing that doesn’t hook people in, can lose hard-won visitors.

How To Structure Your Copy

 

1. Headline

The most important aspect of copywriting is the headline. It’s the hook that draws people in. If we don’t have a great hook, people are unlikely to read further.
In terms of SEO, the headline plays an even more important function. When a user clicks-thru on link text from a search result, they expect to see a similar headline on the page they land on. This serves as confirmation they have found a relevant result.
The title tag is a good place to use keywords terms. These will be displayed in the search result. If a reader clicks on your link, they’ve already committed to read further, so long as the headline on your landing page reaffirms their interest.

Appeal To Self Interest

Readers aren’t interested in you. Or your product. Readers are interested in themselves. Therefore, effective copy makes an appeal to self interest.
The three time-tested ways of appealing to self-interest are:

• Outline Benefits
• Make Offers
• Provide News

Outline Benefits

A benefit is what the product or service does for the user. For example, an iPhone “holds the internet in your pocket”.
Benefits are typically stated as verbs. Benefits are active. For example, “the iPhone’s slim shape makes it easy to fit in your pocket”. You may notice I’ve rolled a feature – the slim shape – into a benefit i.e. “easy to fit in your pocket”. This is a powerful technique that intertwines the features and benefits, and thus makes them more memorable.
Benefits should not be confused with features. A feature describes an aspect of the product or service. For example, a 24 hour battery life. A benefit is something the feature enables the user to do. In the case of a 24 hour phone battery, the benefit is “you can go all day without plugging the phone into a charger”.
People care very little about your product or service. They care a lot about the benefits your product and service can offer them.
Try making a list of benefits to integrate into your copy. An easy way to do this is to make a list of features, then write next to them what each feature does for the reader.
For example:

• Feature: 24 Hour Battery Life Benefit: You can go all day without a recharge
• Feature: Run-flat tires Benefit: you don’t have to change a tire if you get a puncture
• Feature: Padded headphones Benefit: comfortable to wear for long periods

When you come to write your copy, identify the benefit you most want your reader to remember, and work this into your headline.
Here’s an easy formula to remember when crafting headlines:

• Take a verb
• Add a desirable quality

Here are a few examples:

• Drive all day without getting tired
• Select the cheapest flights while you sleep
• Clean dishes in half the time it usually takes, using half the water

Readers are certainly likely to want to read further as the unexplained benefit headline is an enticement to discover more. Also note that in the last example, I added two benefits to make the headline even more compelling.
In terms of SEO, it can be a good idea to work a keyword into a headline if you can do so without compromising the headline. It’s better to have a compelling headline than force an inappropriate keyword where it should not go. Keywords can be integrated elsewhere, if necessary i.e. in the body text and/or in the title tag. You only get one chance to make an impact, and a click back is likely to cost your rankings, and business.
You can look at benefits in a number of ways. Opportunities to “reduce pain” are a benefit. For example, “Clean a window in ten seconds using MicroClean technology”.The “pain” is that windows can take a long time to clean.
I’ve also added a proof i.e. “MicoClean Technology”. The reader may not know what “MicroClean Technology” is, but it creates a lead in for me to explain it in the body copy. If nothing else, the readers curiosity is aroused.
Make Offers
We’re all familiar with offers. “Buy one, get two free!” “Buy now, and pay nothing for the first 12 months”. “Fill out your email address and go in the draw to win a holiday”.
An offer makes for a simple, compelling headline. Offers as headlines work best when the reader is already familiar with your product. Offer headlines work less well when your product and service needs explaining.
Provide News
People like hearing news. They like the new, because change is inherently interesting. Two of my example headlines integrated a new(s) element:

• Drive all day without getting tired
• Select the cheapest flights while you sleep

Clearly, these headlines imply a change to the status quo. You cannot currently cannot drive all day without getting tired – well, most of us can’t – and you can’t book flights in your sleep. I’m setting up an expectation that I’ll provide information about a new way to do those things. If someone reads further, they will find out what it is.

2. The Body

The headline has one purpose. To get people to read down into the body copy. The body copy has one purpose. To get people reading to the close. Each line has a purpose. To get people to read the next line.
The First Line
The promise setup in the headline must be satisfied in the body copy. Once you’ve crafted a great headline, the first line of the body copy should come easily, as all you have to do is explain the headlines.
If we led with a benefit, such as “Drive all day without getting tired“, then the first line would explain the benefit i.e. how one can drive all day without getting tired? For example, a first line might be “when you drive long distances, your body aches. You get tired. But there’s now a great way to avoid those aches and strains, with contour car seat covers that gently massage your pressure points”
If we led with an offer, we explain the offer. If we used “Go in the draw to win a holiday”, then the first line would explain the offer. “All you need do is give us your email address, and you’ll go in the draw to win an all-expenses paid trip to the destination of your choice”.
If we led with news, we demonstrate the impact of the news on the reader. We demonstrate how the news will change their lives. If we used the headline “Latest in-home power generation unit means no more monthly power bills”, the first line of our body copy might be “Latest developments in home power generation units mean you need no longer pay line charges for grid electricity. Simply install a HomePower unit and it will provide all your electricity needs for up to a year. Your local dealer will then swap the replaceable power unit with another fully charged unit, and you’re good to go for another 12 months”.

The Three-Step Body Copy

The body copy has a beginning, middle and end. Obvious, of course. But why does this three-step format work so well?
It’s the format of stories. Stories are a very powerful means of communication.
A film will start with a depiction of the status quo, usually a problem the protagonists must overcome. We see the protagonist overcome the problem, and then reach a new status quo. Viewers like to see movement from stasis to a period of chaos, to a new stasis. Order. Disorder. Order.
This structure can also be applied to copywriting.
At the beginning of a movie, the main character will face some form of trouble in the first twenty minutes. In copywriting, that “trouble” is the problem to be solved.
If we look at our example, “when you drive long distances, your body aches. You get tired. But there’s now a great way to avoid those aches and strains, with contour car seat covers that gently massage your pressure points”
“Your body aches”. “You get tired”. These are the challenges our central character must face. You can identify “the pain” by examining your product or service and look at the problem it is solves. An SEO agency is trying to solve the problem of lack of visitor traffic from search engines. A car manufacturer is trying to solve a transport problem. A movie maker is trying to solve a boredom problem.
“The middle” is where you counter the problem. To use our example “when you drive long distances, your body aches. You get tired. But there’s now a great way to avoid those aches and strains, with contour car seat covers that gently massage your pressure points”. The middle is “But there’s now a great way to avoid those aches and strains, with contour car seat covers that gently massage your pressure points”. The solution to the pain of body aches is the “contour massage seat covers”. The contour solves the pain – in this case, quite literally.
This is also the point you can build credibility. People today tend to cynical, especially of exaggerated advertising claims. The headline and opening lines make some big claims – which sound great – but the reader now wants proof. If the middle fails to provide proof, you’ll lose them.
When providing proof, switch to factual mode. Describe features, make comparisons, expand on the characteristics of the product, talk about quality aspects, provide credible research data and endorsements from other customers.
The end of the story is when you bring the reader into the narrative. Up until this point, they’ve been interested, passive observers. Tell them what action they should take should they identify with the story. This action will save them from pain, or provide them the benefits – or pleasure – that have been outlined. They should ring this number now, make an order, sign up for an email, or whatever it is you want them to do. This is called….

3. The Close

Now is also a good time to restate the offer.
In long copy, you may need to restate the offer a number of times, but regardless of copy length, you should always do so in the close.
You then need to tell the reader how they can accept the offer. This could be and address, a form, a telephone number. It should be crystal clear at this point what the user has to do – make it explicit. If the reader has read this far, they are definitely interested – so don’t be shy about coming right out and saying what you want them to do.
This is also the point you may have to overcome final objections. This is tricky to get right, as you need to anticipate what the objections are likely to be.
In commerce, especially online commerce, people are concerned about security of their credit card numbers. Ensure you address this concern by displaying security badges and other safety identifiers.
People are concerned they are buying based on description, rather than seeing the actual product. If you can, try and offer free trial periods and money back guarantees to reduce the buyers risk. These offers can work well, because the number of people who claim their money back tends to be small, yet those who are put off if you do not offer such guarantees can be significant.
Buyers may also resist doing anything, because it’s easier to do nothing that to take the risk and do something. This is where time limited offers work well. If they don’t act now, they risk missing out. The fear of missing out is a strong driver to act.

Finishing Touches

There are various other tools you can use throughout your copy to give the final shine and polish.
Subheadings
Smaller headlines are particularly useful for breaking up long text. This is especially important online, because readers tend to scan.
Graphically emphasize important points using larger type, or different fonts and colours. Again, this can help connect with readers who scan. Not everyone is the same, so will react to different points you make. By using subheadings, you can can draw attention to multiple points that may otherwise get lost within the text.
Bursts, Callouts, And Sidebars
You can use images, different fonts, boxes to attract attention to individual points within the copy. Callouts help break up the monotony of a page full of text and draw attention to specific features.

Summary

When crafting a page:

• Make a list of features and benefits.
• Decide on the most important benefit. Make this your headline.
• To craft a headline, take a verb and add a desirable quality.
• The first line should explain the promise setup by the headline.
• In the body, highlight the problem, and show how it can be overcome. Describe features and benefits.
• End with an offer. Tell the reader what they need to do next.

By Peter
Source: 1)
2)  

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How To Make CPA Bidding Work For You?

Setting bids is necessary; but merely setting them only leads to short-term progress. Your bidding work is only useful until the data changes, and then you have to set bids again.

The maxim, “your data are only good until the data changes,” can be applied to ads, landing pages, placements and any data point within your PPC campaign.

The issue that needs to be examined, here, is the frequency of data changes and how that affects your strategy. Typically, ads do not need to be changed every few days. An ad or a landing page can perform well for long periods of time. The same cannot be said of bids.

Rarely do you have an optimal bid set for a keyword for a month straight. So, when you consider areas of your campaign where you can make long-term gains, they are not in bidding. CPA bidding is a short-term gain, but a necessary action; and when done right, it leaves the PPC manager free to spend more time focusing on these long-term gains and less time on bidding.

However, I often find a simple mistake with CPA bidding, or even with 3rd-party bid systems. Once CPA bidding (or a 3rd-party system) has been enabled, the PPC manager sits back and thinks his or her work is done.

For the purpose of this article, we will leave out all of the testing you should be doing regardless of your bidding methodology, and focus on making CPA bidding work for you.

I find that when CPA bidding fails, it does so for one of three reasons:

1. The campaign’s conversion data is sporadic by keywords and ads. An example is when you have thousands of keywords; but only 20% of them have received a conversion in the past 30 days; however, since all contribute to total conversions over the course of a year, you can’t really delete any.
2. “Best Practices” of account management are ignored because the bidding is being taken care of by Google.
3. It just doesn’t work for totally unknown reasons. I do see this happen on occasion, where everything is set up and managed perfectly, but for unknown reasons, the CPA bidding just can’t seem to get the bids correct.

Let’s look at four scenarios in which CPA bidding initially failed, but ultimately succeeded after applying some minor changes.

Scenario 1: Data Problems

This first example is one that amazed me. I was auditing an account that was using CPA bidding and discovered that the company had failed to set up conversion tracking on their mobile site. However, the campaign was set to all devices. It wasn’t immediately noticeable because desktop performance was high enough to ensure that CPA bidding had enough conversion data to keep running.

After using CPA bidding for three months, 25% of all traffic was still coming from mobile devices.

CPA bidding does take devices into account when setting bids. However, it rarely ‘gives up’ on a device; instead, it keeps trying to find a bid that will work. By just adding the conversion code to the mobile site, CPA bidding becomes much more effective.

The Lesson: Make sure all your tracking is set up correctly.

Scenario 2: Using Call Extensions To Create Goals

The second example features an e-commerce site. They were B2B e-commerce, so they did use the phone extension, as calls often converted into sales; however, they were all sales on the phone that were not put back into analytics to see the actual revenue per conversion.

When this company upgraded to an enhanced campaign, they liked the fact that they could count calls as conversions and thus, used the ‘report phone call conversions’ option in their account.

They continued to receive phone calls, but their CPAs climbed considerably for all e-commerce goals and were well above their target CPAs. While CPA bidding didn’t technically fail in this case (they were getting the calls, after all), the e-commerce manager was quite unhappy as the overall site e-commerce was declining, and there wasn’t any data to show them exactly what data points were generating the calls.

They disabled the option to report calls as goals. After the disabling, they still received calls (as they did before going to enhanced campaigns); however, their CPAs went back to their target goals, and all the conversions were actual e-commerce checkouts

The Lesson: If you are going to add additional conversions for CPA bidding, make sure you really want the optimizer working off of those goals.

Scenario 3: Keyword Expansion

The next lesson comes from a company that used CPA bidding for months. They were very much enjoying the bid system, and they had put so much faith into it that they just kept adding keywords and thought Google would figure it all out.

Every month, their CPAs went up; but not by enough that anyone was motivated to investigate. They just assumed it was bid pressure and kept adding more keywords.

After several months of expansion, it was time to give their quarterly report to the VP of Marketing. The CPA trend worried her, so she asked for a larger time frame for the CPA trend. Once she saw the CPA climbing for several months, she asked for a 3rd-party investigation.

The answer was quite simple. They were adding keywords, but they were not paying attention to the search queries of those keywords. Just by adding a few hundred negative keywords, the CPAs quickly returned to an acceptable amount.

The Lesson: You must still follow best practices of account organization, match type selection, query analysis, and adding negative keywords — even when using CPA bidding.

Scenario 4: Ad Copy Testing

The next example comes from a company that is great at landing page testing, but decided it was time to start doing more ad tests. So, they created a program for testing their ads, wrote lots of new ads, and put them live into their account.

Their CTRs almost doubled. But their conversion rates dropped nearly by half, and their CPAs rose more than 30%.

The problem? They were using Google’s default ad serving option: optimize for clicks.

If you are going to test ads in CPA bidding campaigns, you have two options:

• Control everything: use rotate indefinitely, watch the data, pick winners, delete losers, repeat.
• Know you’ll forget to end tests: in this case, if you are going to create multiple ads and then forget about them, use ‘Optimize for Conversions’ for your ad testing. With this method, Google will pick the ad with the best conversion rate and show it more frequently.

The Lesson: CPA bidding does not serve ads; it sets bids. If you are going to test ads — and you should — make sure you are using the correct ad rotation settings.

Conclusion

I find that more often than not, CPA bidding is highly effective. There are times when it fails, but that now seems to be the exception, even for low-conversion accounts.

Now, CPA bidding is great when you have a static CPA target for all keywords in each ad group; however, many e-commerce sites have a target ROAS instead of a target CPA. In that case, CPA bidding is rarely the best bid method to use.

Regardless, no matter how good CPA bidding is for you, if you don’t continue to follow best practices for optimizing your account, CPA bidding can often become ineffective.

Just because you have an automatic bidding system — either Google’s CPA bidding or a 3rd-party bid management system — that doesn’t mean you can stop working on your account. Those systems change bids based upon the system inputs. If you give them bad data, they will make bad decisions.

Using automated bid management is great. It gives you back the time you would have spent setting bids so you can make sure your account is optimized. However, you can’t abandon your account when you use such a system — you must still continue to follow best practices.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

by Brad Geddes
Source : http://searchengineland.com:

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