Lets look at how and why using a combination of Pay Per Click (PPC), Search engine optimisation (SEO), Email marketing and website landing page optimisation does the business.

Pay Per Click

Many people use pay per click as their only form of online marketing – its easy, everything can be monitored and theres no need to make large scale changes to an existing website.

Just make sure you do the basics right:-

- choose a large number of relevant keyphrases (so you capture the ‘long tail’ as well as the volume terms)

- make sure your ads are written effectively (ensure the keyphrase searched for is repeated in the ad and that the ad entices a click through; and ideally ensure the url of the landing page contains the keyphrase)

-drive searchers through to an appropriate, optimised landing page.

If you do these things your campaigns will be effective and you will receive a reasonable to very good return on your investment.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Consider this search for ‘dr martens’:-

As you can see here Cloggs have two snippets in the top positions – a pay per click ad and also a SEO snippet.

In average terms you can argue that this is at least doubling your return on investment. Because once the SEO snippet is there its there for free so you are getting two click throughs for the price of one – actually its better than this because in average terms you get three times the click throughs on the natural, or SEO results, than on the paid-for ones. Any way you look at it your ROI is improved dramatically.

Landing page Optimisation

Consider this page – the landing page for a search for ‘Worcester Greenstar Boiler’:-
(Click on image to enlarge)

After doing the search for ‘worcester greenstar boiler’ and clicking on the snippet this is the page you land on, which is optimised, and by this we mean:-

- the searcher knows he’s found what he’s looking for – it says ‘Worcester Greenstar Boiler’ at the top of the page

- there’s also an image of a greenstar boiler and a comprehensive description

- There are appropriate ‘calls to action’ that is the searcher can go on to buy the product if he wishes by using the ecommerce functions on that page OR, and very importantly, he can call the supplier via the very prominent phone number at the top of the page.

This is what we mean by landing page optimisation, a page which maximises the chance of soliciting the desired response from the searcher. (in addition to being optimised for natural SEO results)

You may know also that google promotes a PPC result higher in the rankings based on the effectiveness of this landing page. (ie what people do when they get there) and there is a further bit of synergy here between SEO and PPC. This page is optimised for both.

Email Marketing

Where does email fit into the picture?

Its an unpalatable truth folks that most people visiting your website wont do what you want – that is they wont buy or wont make contact with you, and certainly they wont try to remember your url for later consideration.

So the onus is really on you to keep the communications going, and this can best be done by asking them for their email address when they visit (obviously in return for something they will value in a regular newsletter) – educational information, seasonal offers, promotions – whatever is relevant to your audience but really the key is to keep the name in front of them for when they are ready to buy
(incidentally 4 to 5 of you reading this will become customers of ours as a result of this communication – so be careful!)

Collecting emails is simply done:-

The point is:-

-Dont ask them for anything other than an email address

-Spell out the advantages of what they’ll get in return

-Make sure you include sign ups on many pages – not just one or two (AND, certainly on all your optimised landing pages)

So there you go, a well put together blend of SEO, PPC, Email and landing page optimisation will do the trick for you and deliver a huge return on investment compared to any other form of marketing you will do.

Please call if we can help and have a Great Christmas and New Year

Jan Klin – 01928 788100 – jan@janklin.com

Incidentally if you are a Manchester based manufacturing company (I know, its only a few of you) you can get a 50% grant for your ecommerce web projects – call if you need more.

Share/Bookmark

Follow Jan Klin

We are promoting local services in Manchester, Chester and Liverpool so wanted to gain some visibility by being top for appropriate phrases. If you search for ‘seo Liverpool’; ‘search engine optimisation chester’ – and many other variants I’m now in the top spot after 2 weeks of creating the page…..
(click on image to enlarge)

In fact I needed only four links to get this position for ‘Search engine optimisation chester’.

Just a reminder that to get the top spot you dont need many links you just have to make them ‘contextually relevant’ – mainly by making sure that the correct anchor text is included.

Below is an example of how this appears on one of your sites – note the link includes the phrases we want a high ranking for. (ie the correct anchor text)

Of course, in addition to this, the target page has to be optimised. If you go to the target page you’ll see a great example of SEO copywriting at work.

I hope its been as successful for you as it has for me – so thanks again.
If anyone out there wants to see the specific piece of code I asked to be included as the link drop me an email and I’ll send it to you. (jan@janklin.com)

Share/Bookmark

Follow Jan Klin

You can see here that our customer, www.Plumbnation.co.uk , takes the top spot and their snippet has the shopping bag icon next to it indicating this result has been drawn from Google Base.

(Incidentally, Plumbnation will be the largest low cost, heating and plumbing ecommerce site in Europe – a great place to get the best deal on a Worcester Boiler)

There are a few important points to make about this:-

- They were number one on Google within a few weeks of their brand new website going live! on the search term you see above and many other variants of ‘boilers’.

(In fact Google will display results for you within 24 hrs of you submitting your products to G Base.)

- These entries are free! – not only this but are more effective for click throughs than conventional SEO and pay per click because the shopping bag icon makes them stand out.

So, how much better can it get than having rankings which are both free and better than Pay per Click?

So much for the myth that new sites take a long time to get free rankings.

I cant tell you how much money this customer has made since their site went live, customer confidentiality prohibits me from divulging this, but I can tell you its surpassed everyone’s expectations by a very wide margin. (I hope that seems understated enough – I’m trying desperately to suppress my desire to go overboard and hype this)

So, how does this work and why is it so effective? more detail later but there are a couple of points to make you aware of:-

1. The listings have been ‘optimised’ for G Base. A similar, but easier process, than conventional SEO.

2. Google Universal Search (which I may have mentioned before?) has a major part to play. Up until 6 months ago you would have to go to Google Base and do a search to see this result, but now, Google brings in results for its main search page from all over the place. (Including Google Base)

So, you need to go to Google Base and learn how to do this…
http://base.google.com/
Its all there including what sorts of products and services its for (most actually)

If you dont have time to learn about it and do it – we can do it for you. Just give us a call or email and we’ll send you the details (jan@janklin.com; 01928 788100).
We have limited availability to run trials on this for some of you if you may be interested.

Dont hesitate too long….

Share/Bookmark

Follow Jan Klin

The ‘black art’ days of SEO are now a thing of the past. It’s now a recognised marketing science with the power to deliver real business benefits.

We offer a tried and trusted, credible, money-making subscription service to make it easier for you to get it absolutely right.

We’ve developed systems to ensure that you can give your clients higher rankings, tangible results and increased business.

Simple Service – Tangible Business Benefits….You and your clients win

It’s a “white label” service, at a reasonable price, so you could mark-up by as much as 100% and brand it as your own.

The benefits to you are obvious but worth repeating:

• A source of revenue – an add on service for your agency (with a typical 100% margin on our standard rates)
• Additional source of revenue – through client website updates and improvements
• Puts you at the forefront of SEO development
• Increases customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy – because of their high search engine positions
• Provides your agency with new skills, without the added cost of recruiting.

How does it work? We can help you identify your top three clients who would gain most benefit from enhanced SEO. This gives you the confidence to offer a full SEO service, knowing that these clients would get immediate improvements in rankings and a related increase in business.

We would provide:

• A comprehensive SEO report for each client, with detailed instructions on how to optimise their sites and maximise rankings
• Keyphrase and technical analysis from professionals with a long track record for working with the major search engines and web developers
• Guaranteed prompt e-mail and telephone technical support
• A monthly report showing keyphrase positions against major search engines (typically the top ten)
• Regular reports direct to you, the client or both – branded according to your specifications
• Copies of marketing materials to promote the SEO service
• Free access to our authoritative ‘SEO Webinar’ to train your staff (normally costs £250 through the Institute of Direct Marketing).

How much does it cost? Its designed to ensure you make money from it – so you’ll get up to a 50% discount off our normal pricing.

What to do next? To hear about the benefits in more detail, question me on why our service is at the leading edge and offers tangible results, please call me or email.

Yours sincerely

Jan Klin

Jan A Klin & Associates –
01928 788100
07946 513521
www.janklin.com
email:jan@janklin.com

Share/Bookmark

Follow Jan Klin

I will create a link for you from my site (from a Page Rank 4 page) complete with relevant anchor text for your most important keyphrase.

I’ll also make it ‘contextually relevant’ for you.

Those of you who know the power of this type of link building should be answering the question above with a yes, yes, yes please Jan (but what’s the catch?).

There is no catch – all I need in return is a link from your site to mine (from any page which does not have a Page Rank 0).

If you wish to do this (honestly you should because it will make a difference to your rankings) just drop me an email (jan@janklin.com) and I’ll send along the details to you. Or call me if you wish. (01928 788100)

Best Wishes

Jan

Share/Bookmark

Follow Jan Klin

What do we offer:-

In addition to our normal SEO services and associated consultancy we offer training courses throughout the year in each of these cities. Dates and venues for the courses can be found at the following:-

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Liverpool
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Manchester
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Chester

Also we are able to offer ‘in company’ training designed to your specific needs where we will take you through the whole process of optimising your companies’ website (or your clients if you are a web design company).

If you are a company in Liverpool, Manchester or Chester (or of course the surrounding area) you can see full details of the SEO training courses and all other associated services at our website www.janklin.com/SEO-Local.htm

Please get in touch if you wish to discuss your specific needs – Jan Klin – Direct Line: 01928 788100.

Share/Bookmark

Follow Jan Klin

How would you describe your company and its mission?

Small with a big website! Everyone who contacts us presumes that we are a large national company. I don’t think we are misleading them, I think because we have good rankings they assume we must be big.

Our mission is to design and build top quality additional living space in our client’s gardens. We solve accommodation problems in a unique way by building ‘housing quality’ home offices in people’s gardens.

We also design and build en-suite guest rooms and granny annexes for the bottom of the garden. A great alternative for people who don’t have the space to extend their house.

How long have you had a website and what is its main purpose?

We have had a website since the day we started trading four years ago. Our website is our only route to our customers. Because our clients come from diverse backgrounds and interest groups and can live anywhere in the country, contacting them through targeted, printed media is difficult.

Does the site work for you? ie deliver the benefits you were expecting?

The site does work for us, but I do need to work on expanding our marketing to drive more prospective customers to it.

What is your online marketing strategy? – which methods do you use to attract potential customers?

Our on-line strategy is purely based on search rankings. Thanks to your effort (Jan) we are positions one and two for our two main search terms.

More specifically for the term garden office we are second out of 157,000,000 competing pages! and for the term garden offices first out of 4,700,000!

Adwords for niche markets such as ours is prohibitively – up to £2 per click.

How does your online activity mesh with your offline marketing?

The market we are trading in is new and I have yet to find a reliable form of off-line marketing. I am always open to suggestions for off-line activity!

How much business do you do on the web?
100%

How do you see the future regarding your online activity?

I find it alarming that we have to rely 100% on the web, so I do value your work (Jan) as a way of protecting our valuable position.

What is the single biggest lesson you have learned about your web activities?

We have to fight hard to keep our position using ethical methods. Some of our competitors aren’t interested in trading ethically on the internet and use cloaking and other dubious techniques. I think this makes them the losers in the long run.

Can you imagine life without a website?

It would be nice, but I wouldn’t have a business

Share/Bookmark

Follow Jan Klin

Plumbnation will eventually offer over 30,000 products making it the largest heating and plumbing supplies company in the UK.

The site sells every thing from major brand products – like Worcester Boilers – to the smallest pipe and fittings for DIY enthusiasts.

The site will be promoted through conventional offline means and of course aggressively through Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Pay per Click advertising.

Remember the ‘google sandbox’? This site was number one on google for a ‘Worcester TR212E’ within one day of going live!

I’ll keep you posted.

Jan Klin

Share/Bookmark

Follow Jan Klin

It also means those of you who exploit it stand to gain substantial advantages over your online competitors.

Look at the following search:-

What you see here is one company dominating the first 5 positions. The significance of this of course is that their competitors are being kept out of the frame so their click throughs, and the number of sales or enquiries, is maximised.

(Remember that these 5 positions account for anywhere between 50% to 90% of click throughs.)

This possibility has been brought about through ‘universal search’. Essentially it means that Google is now bringing its results from different databases to try to deliver the best results for searchers – not just their main index. As you can see above YouTube clips are also integrated.

Where else does Google bring it results from?

So, Google will now bring results from its main index, from You Tube, from its image database (like for Britney Spears below):-

Takes a good photo doesnt she?

And many other sources including blogs, google news, google local/maps and of course Google Base.

Raising The Bar for Search Marketing

So, the task for our clients is not just to get them one snippet at the top of the hitlist but to get multiple snippets in there to maximise click throughs.

Its not difficult to submit your images to google images; its easy to set up a blog; its simplicity itself to upload a clip to YouTube; Its essential to submit to Google local and get yourself on a google map (see previous post on how to do this).
Last, but by no means least, enter your products or services at Google base.. By doing this you’ll even appear in search results if you havent got a website!

Of course as you do these things you’ll need to optimise your submissions to ensure you get high rankings for them. For example if you add images to the Google images database you’ll need to make sure the filenames include a keyphrase. I could go on but there’s oodles of stuff on the web about this already – just do a search, for example, for ‘google images SEO’. Interestingly if you do this you’ll even get (courtesy of Google Universal Search) a videoclip of a chap from Google explaining how to do it.

If you need help dont hesitate to call us (01928 788100).

Share/Bookmark

Follow Jan Klin

Imogen Davies, FreshFields Packaging, Carlisle

ANSWER: The keyword tag is relatively unimportant, however it should be completed as some minor search engines still appear to use it. There’s some evidence that the search engine spiders look for consistency across the metatags even if they dont use them for ranking purposes so best to populate them.

In the past some people have commented that Yahoo may penalise you if you have keywords in the keyword tag that dont exist on the page. So, something like 4-5 words in the tag is what we generally do nowadays – making sure all words exist as visible text on the page in question.

The description tag is an important tag. Again its not generally used for ranking purposes (although I have seen pages ranked where the phrase getting searched on doesnt appear on the page but does appear in the description tag).

The main use of the decription tag is for maximising click-through rates. Look at the following example snippet:-

This is not bad. The term searched for is ‘dr martens’. You can see the way Google highlights the term searched for in the description tag (and the title) so this is what your eye gravitates to in the searchlist thus maximising the click-throughs.

We always recommend that you repeat the keyphrase in question 3 times in the description tag which generally works quite well.

Also, you have 25 words available. Use them all to maximise the visibility of your snippet and push the competitors that bit further down the list. Make it a bit salesy as well, as in the above example, to encourage people to click through.

A final point on the description tag: If you dont enter one the search engines will take content from your page to populate the snippet. You dont want this to happen. Also sometimes your snippet content gets taken from the Open Directory (DMOZ) if you have an entry there; and sometimes from the Yahoo directory.

You can override this by using the NOODP tag and the NOYDIR tags in your code so your snippet content is taken from the optimised content in your description tag.

Share/Bookmark

Follow Jan Klin