Benefits of Advertising Online

Website Conversion, Website Traffic No Responses »
Dec 282011

Online advertising can be one of your most powerful low-cost marketing tools!

When you advertise online, your message is out there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Online marketing tools vary from banner and pay-per-click ads, to auto-responder and email blasts.

Pay- Per- Click (PPC) ads target the traffic you want.  Advertising in this way means more realistic and relevant results.  Your initial investment for PPC is small.  You pay for only the users that click thru on the ad.  PPC campaigns are just as effective for small businesses as well as large businesses.  Results can be immediate and tracked in real time.

Banner ads can be either Pay Per Click or Flat Rate.  You can place your banner ads on websites that cater to your target market.  Banner ads can be extremely effective if you put them on websites in the right spot.  Banner ads work well because they are highly visible and attractive.

72% of businesses recently surveyed claim that email campaigns bring better ROI than traditional marketing methods.  According to the 8000 respondents of a 2010 Internet Marketing Survey, some email campaigns generate a return of almost 42 dollars for every one dollar spent.  Promotional emails give better results if you are a retail business.

36% of the respondents favor email marketing over SEO and social networking.   40% of the respondents are highly satisfied with the results of their email campaigns because of increased sales conversions.

Email marketing efforts are more likely to generate repeat sales, cross sell and up sell.

Posted by Bryn Kirk at 10:00 AM Tagged with: ,

Common SEO Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make

Website Tools, Website Traffic No Responses »
Aug 092011

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is essential in getting traffic driven to your site.  When optimizing your site, there are several common mistakes that too many people tend to make.  It is important to become aware of what these mistakes are, so that you don’t make them too!

Search engine spiders have trouble reading flash and cannot read javascript at all.  Despite this, there are many people who use flash or javascript for the majority of their site.  Now maybe it’s just me, but I would personally want my site to be something that spiders can successfully read and index.  If you are absolutely set on using “unfriendly” methods for spiders, make an HTML version of your site so that the spiders can still read it.

There is such a thing as over-optimizing your website.  Cramming keywords everywhere is not the proper way to achieve a higher search engine ranking.  People often believe that the more keywords, the better.  It turns out that search engines will see a site full of keywords as spam, and potentially bump your site down the search results or block it all together.  Use the correct keyword frequency for your site to ensure that this doesn’t happen to you.

Going along with this is something that I have mentioned before… make sure you are doing your keyword research! If you don’t optimize your site using the correct keywords, you aren’t going to be getting the traffic from your target audience that you expected to get.  What good is that going to do you?

You may have heard that the more back links you include on your site, the better ranking you will have.  So, people go off and link pages that are totally irrelevant to what their site is about, just to have this high back link count.  This doesn’t not help you at all.  Just like keyword cramming, it makes your site look like spam, and has the potential to be banned from search engines.  When you do back links, make sure that all of the links are relevant to your site.

By far the most common mistake is that people forget SEO is an ongoing process.  Once you optimize you site, you aren’t done.  You need to periodically check on your competitors and the changes in search engine ranking algorithms.  Are new keywords and phrases being used?  Make any necessary changes to your site.  Neglecting this can cause your ranking to fall.

Do you want to optimize your site but have no idea where to begin or how to do it?  We’d love to help you!  Visit us at comstar.biz or call 262-953-6000 for more info!

Posted by Joe Como at 12:47 PM Tagged with: , , , , ,

The Importance of Internet Marketing

Shameless Self Promotion, Website Tools, Website Traffic No Responses »
Aug 022011

Internet marketing is rapidly increasing in today’s online society, and is something that all businesses should do.  Today I want to give you some quick facts on how internet marketing would be of great benefit your business:

- 24/7 online presence.  You never have to close up shop at the end of the day or for holidays.

-It’s more convenient for visitors to browse your products and services than to drive to your place of business.

-You can attract prospective customers who are already searching for what you have to offer.

-You can expand your target audience and customer base.

-You can gear special offers to specific audiences.

-Content can easily be added or changed.

-Boost your sales, and increase repeat-customer loyalty.

-Improve your competitive edge!

If you don’t have internet marketing and your competitors do, they have a leg up on you.  They are able to quickly reach a wider audience and gain more customers, as well as all of the  above.  Don’t become the underdog – start internet marketing for your business!

Visit comstar.biz or call us at 262-953-6000 for more information.

Posted by Joe Como at 11:30 AM Tagged with: , ,

Let’s See, PPC?

Website Tips, Website Tools, Website Traffic No Responses »
Jul 122011

PPC.  Yet another acronym to shove into your brain, right?  Well, this is one you will want to remember.  PPC, or Pay-Per-Click, is a great way to advertise your website online.

You have decided to create a PPC ad for your website that sells…drum roll…leaf blowers!!  The ad itself will only take a few days to create, and then it’s all set to appear on the search engine results page (SERP).  Where will your ad appear, you may ask?  Well, it can be in a couple of places.  One is on the right side of the SERP, and the other is at the top of the page, in the colored “Sponsored Results” box.

This is where the name Pay-Per-Click comes into play.  You bid on keyword phrases that are relevant to your website, and when someone types in that keyword phrase, your ad will appear.  Your ranking order amongst other ads is generally based on how much you bid in comparison to others.  When someone clicks on your ad, you pay the amount you bid for 1 click.  Hence PPC!  You do not have to pay anything for your ad to appear, you only pay when someone clicks on it.

Here is an example of how all of this works.  You bid 30 cents for the keyword phrase “durable leaf blowers.”  I come and search for that exact phrase, and I see your ad come up on my screen.  I click on it because I can honestly say I have always wanted a durable leaf blower.  Now that I have clicked on your ad, you pay the 30 cents that you bid.

PPC ads are also nice in a sense that they are very flexible.  They can be turned on and off whenever you want.  You can also write the description for the ad, and chose which page it sends your visitors to on your site.

Even though you have to pay your bid price for each click, PPC is a very effective form of advertisement, and can drive more traffic to your website!

Do you want to have a PPC ad for your website?  We would love to help you out!  Call us at 262-953-6000 for more information!

Posted by Joe Como at 9:43 AM Tagged with: , ,

Conversion Chatter

Website Conversion, Website Tools, Website Traffic No Responses »
Jul 072011

You have probably heard talk of website conversion.  It may sound intimidating, but it really isn’t.  Website conversion is simply the comparison of the number of people who visit your site with the number of people that take the action you want them to take.  When discussing and determining your conversion rate, there are a few things that you need to know.

First, there is some conversion lingo that you should know.  Some common words that come to mind are hits, visits and actions.

A “hit” is the number of items that load on a page of your website in one view.  If you have basic HTML and 3 graphics, it would be a total of 4 hits.  When looking at your website stats, your number of hits will be quite large.  This number is not one that you should use to determine your conversion rate, because it does not represent the actual number of visits that your site got.

“Visits” are what you should really be looking at.  While the number of visits will not be as large of a number as your hits, it is the number you should pay a lot more attention to.  Visits are the actual count of unique IP addresses that came to your site.  This is one of the numbers that you will use in determining your conversion rate.

An “action” is what you want your site visitor to do.  It could be calling you, filling out a form, signing up for a newsletter, etc.  You want visitors to take action on your site.  Your total amount of  “actions” is the other number that you use in figuring out your conversion rate.

Now that you know some basic vocab, let’s calculate your conversion rate.  Take your number of actions and divide it by your number of visits.  Your answer should be written as a percent.  For example, lets say you had 4 people take action out of 200 total visitors. Divided out, that would equal a 2% conversion rate.

Hopefully website conversion seems a lot more simple to you now!

For more information, visit us at http://www.comstar.biz/Internet_Marketing/Default.asp or call us at 262-953-6000.

Posted by Joe Como at 9:38 AM Tagged with: , ,

Preparing Your Press Release

Shameless Self Promotion, Website Traffic No Responses »
Jul 012011

Press releases are used to share something newsworthy about your business with the public.  But there is a secret use for them as well!  You can use press releases to advertise your business, create more links to your site,  and have another page to show up in search engine results.  Here are some aspects of press releases that every new press release author should know.

To start off, there are two things to keep in mind when writing a press release: short paragraphs and your audience.  Use language and words that the average person will know the meanings of, and keep your paragraphs short so they are easy to read or scan.

First, let’s tackle the news aspect of the release.  You can literally turn anything about your business into news.  For example: a new website, new location, new desks, bigger parking lot, fancy name tags, etc.  Take your topic and turn it into a great headline – “More Customers at the Scissor Store Allows for Parking Lot Expansion.” See how easy that is?  It’s instant news!

Now it’s time to sneak in your advertising.  You can easily do this by quoting someone such as a co-worker, yourself, a customer, and so on.  As long as you have their permission, anyone’s words are fair game.  “Scissor Store started out small, only serving local art supply stores.  Now we are reaching out to schools, businesses, and more craft stores throughout the city and surrounding areas.”  The quote gives your news story a nice edge.  Plus, it shows just how much your scissor store has recently grown.

It’s important to have fun when writing an online press release.  They don’t have to be as serious and structured as a print press release, so enjoy writing!  Make your news story fun, and find some creative ways to sneak in some company advertising.  Your possibilities are endless!  It also never hurts to add in a couple keywords and a link or two.

Once you release your story, don’t expect to get waves of people coming to you for business.  Things like this take time.  The more press releases you write, the more will show up in search engine results, and the more links there will be that lead to your site.  You will build up a large amount of credibility, and people will start to see that your business is the place to go.

Enjoy writing your press release!

Posted by Joe Como at 5:34 PM Tagged with: , , , , ,

Bounce Rates – Part 2

Website Conversion, Website Tools, Website Traffic No Responses »
Jun 232011

Want to lower your bounce rate? Here are some easy tips on how you can achieve this!

Check to make sure that your meta tags and keywords are relevant to your site.  Irrelevant words and phrases target the wrong audience, which leads to you getting a bunch of visitors who are not looking for what your site has to offer.  Correct words and phrases will target people who are actually looking for what is on your website.

Does your site have an easy to use navigation system?  People will often leave your site if they can’t figure out where to click next.  Having a simple navigation bar that makes it easy for a visitor to find what page they are looking for will have them clicking through your site with ease.

Going along with easy navigation, make sure the general layout of your page looks nice and tidy.  Flashing lights, pictures, videos, music, and tons of colors are overwhelming to visitors, and make your content hard to see and read.  Settle for a more neutral layout that will attract and keep your visitors on your site, not scare them away.

Your content should be professional and credible.  If you write in an unprofessional, sloppy manner, or “you’re visiter seas spelling mystaikes,” they will not think you are a good source of information/services/products, etc.  Take pride in what you write, and proofread everything!  Having someone leave your site because of a very preventable mistake is just foolish.

If you have links on your site, make sure they are easy to spot.  Linking to articles and other pages in your site that are related to what your visitor searched for is a great way to get them deeper into your site.

These are all great ways to help you lower your bounce rate.  Hopefully they help you out!

 

Posted by Joe Como at 9:30 AM Tagged with: , , ,

Bounce Rates – Part 1

Website Conversion, Website Tools, Website Traffic No Responses »
Jun 212011

Bounce Rates are a way to gain insight on your readers’ behaviors when visiting your site.  Some sites’ bounce rates are lower, and some can be quite high.  Why is this?  What is an ideal bounce rate to have?  But most importantly, what the heck is bounce rate?

A Bounce Rate (BR) is the percentage of site visitors who arrive on a page of your site, and then leave without visiting any other pages or going deeper into your site.

A low BR shows that your site has grabbed your visitors’ attention, and that they are clicking on other pages of your site in addition to the page they entered on.  They are finding your site to be relevant to what they were looking for.

A higher bounce rate could mean 1 of 2 things, and can sometimes get slightly confusing.  Either the landing page was irrelevant to what your visitor was looking for, or it was exactly what they were hoping to find.  If it wasn’t what they wanted, it is rather obvious that they would leave without a second thought, thus making your bounce rate go up.  If it is exactly what they were looking for and that single page gave every bit of info they ever wanted to know, your BR would still go up if they didn’t click on any other page.  So while it still increased, it wasn’t because the page wasn’t helpful, it was extremely helpful.  The visitor didn’t need to go to any other pages on your site to find more information.

This brings up the question “What is a good BR?”  Some may reply with specific percentages, but in reality, there is no set number.  For example, BR’s on blog sites are typically very high, because a visitor will often read the latest post and then leave the site.  The high BR in this case is acceptable, as the visitor still read what your blog had to say, and didn’t immediately leave.  However, if you have a high BR because your horse website always comes up when people search for monkeys, it could be a red flag that you need to make changes to your site in order for it to appear under relevant search terms.  A lower BR would be ideal for sites offering products or services to purchase.  It shows that visitors are taking interest in what you have to offer, and are going deeper into your site.

Are you frustrated with your high bounce rate?  Ask yourself what could be some possible reasons that your visitors are leaving without clicking deeper into your site.  Stay tuned for a brief list of ideas that can help lower your bounce rate.

 

 

Posted by Joe Como at 9:39 AM Tagged with: , , ,

The Key is in Your Keywords – Part 2

Website Tips, Website Tools, Website Traffic No Responses »
Jun 092011

You are all set with your list of keywords and are ready to add them to your site – but where should you put them to ensure that search engine spiders see them?  Once you figure this out, how often should each word or phrase appear?

There are several key places to make sure you have your keywords.  The first place is in the title of your website.  Titles are most often shown in search results, so what better place to put some keywords?  Another excellent place for keywords is in the first paragraph on your site.  Since it is one of the first things a person will read when getting to your site, it is also one of the first things a spider will see.  Page headings and URL’s are also good places to add some keywords.  Try not to cram 5 or 6 keywords into your URL, though, as it makes it very lengthy and harder for people to remember.

When placing your keywords, make sure the flow of your text is still natural.  Don’t cram words in just so you can use all of the keywords you thought of.  Having them in logical sentences allows the spiders to get a better idea of what your website is about.  This gives you a chance to have a higher ranking on the search results page.

This brings up a good point.  Cramming keywords in every nook and cranny of your site will make it appear as spam to spiders, and not show up on the results page.  Having abundances of keywords on your site can also result in it being banned from search engines all together.  We don’t want that!

To ensure that this doesn’t happen, try keeping track of your keyword density.  Keyword density is the percentage of times that a keyword appears on your site, compared to the total number of words on the page.  A good keywords density to aim for is around 5%.  So for example, if you have 300 words on your page, 15 of those words could be keywords or phrases.

As you can see, keywords are an essential part of your website.  Use them the right way, and they will be of great benefit to you.

Comstar provides SEO services that include keyword research and placement, as well as reports on how well the keywords are working for your site.  Visit us at http://www.comstar.biz/Internet_Marketing/Search_Engine_Optimization.asp for more information on these services!

Posted by Joe Como at 11:51 AM Tagged with: , , , , ,

The Key is in Your Keywords – Part 1

Website Tips, Website Tools, Website Traffic No Responses »
Jun 072011

Do you know what keywords you should include in your website?  Also, do you know where to place your keywords, and how frequently to use them?  Knowing what keywords work best for your website, along with good placement and frequency of occurrence, are what gets your website noticed by search engines.  In Part 1 of “The Key is in Your Keywords,” we will discuss how to select your keywords, and in Part 2, address the placement and frequency of them.

A keyword is a word or phrase that a person types into a search engine, and that the search engine then uses to determine relevant websites to display on the search results page.  But how do you know what words are going to give you a high ranking?

Begin your keyword journey by making a list of possible keywords  and phrases to incorporate into your website.  It is best to do some research on current keywords people are using that relate to your business, and start with those (a good keyword research tool is Google Adwords). If you use keywords that you think are relevant to your website, but aren’t words that people are currently searching under, the words you chose aren’t going to do you any good.  I cannot stress this point enough, as you absolutely need to include keywords that people are using in order to drive the correct audience to your site.  This is why it is important to take your time and do research.

Once you have a start on your list, try to think of the keyword’s synonyms that people might use to search with.  For example, if your business focuses on computer repair, you could add “computer fixing” or “computer troubleshooting” to your list of possible keywords.  Not all people will search under the word “repair,” so it is nice to include its synonyms as keywords.

You should also keep in mind geographic modifiers.  Adding a location to your keyword or phrase, such as “computer repair Milwaukee” will be very useful for people looking for computer repair specifically in the Milwaukee area.

It is important to consider that even though a keyword is popular today, it might not be as popular in a few months.  Do some more research every now and then, and see if there are new keywords that people are searching under.  If there are, adjust your words and phrases accordingly.

Choosing your keywords is just the beginning.  Stay tuned for Part 2 of “The Key is in Your Keywords” on Thursday, and find out the best places for your keywords, and how often you should use them.

Comstar provides SEO services that include keyword research and placement, as well as reports on how well the keywords are working for your site.  Visit us at http://www.comstar.biz/Internet_Marketing/Search_Engine_Optimization.asp for more information on these services!

Posted by Joe Como at 9:48 AM Tagged with: , , , , ,
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