Pay Per Click StrategiesBetter Search Engine Marketing / Pay-Per-Click Results Start Here – We Guarantee It!

When most business stick their toes in the search engine marketing waters, one of the first things they hear about is search engine optimization (SEO), as it relates to content. Not a lot of talk revolves around images; but it should for, everything on your site (eg, videos, photos, etc.) can help it rank well in search engines. And, this is what search engine marketing is all about.

The first thing you should know is that search engine bots (ie, spiders) can only read (search) text. And this is why things like Flash should be kept to a minimum, or not used at all unless it’s really, really necessary to your industry (eg, you’re a web developer, animator, movie maker, etc.).

Following is a mini tutorial on how to name your site’s images so that it ranks higher in search results.

Name Images Using Keywords: For example, instead of naming a photo photo.jpg1, name it pay-per-marketing-tips.jpg (if PPC marketing is what your firm specializes in).

Use the “ALT” Tag in Your Coding: Piggybacking on the last point, add the ALT tag when you name images. This tag explains what an image file is. A completed coded image with this tag may look like this:
<img src=”images/pay-per-click-services.jpg”width=”250″ height=”135″
ALT=”ABC Firm pay per click marketing services”>

Text Surrounding Images: The text that immediately surrounds your site’s images is valuable real estate from an SEO standpoint. Hence, you should do things like put captions on all of them and use keyworded text (ie, SEO content) in this space.

If you do these three things, your images (just like your site’s content) will increase the effectiveness of your search engine marketing efforts.

One of the easiest ways to stay front and center with your prospects is to blog.

Blogging is free, it’s easy to start and you can personalize your brand via this medium. For these reasons, it’s one of the most effective B2B search engine marketing weapons in your online advertising arsenal. But, it can be time consuming.

And if you’re a small business without a dedicated blogger on staff, it can eat up a lot of your time. However, it doesn’t have to. Following is one way to make sure you use this B2B search marketing weapon frequently and effectively, but also time consciously.

B2B Search Marketing: Contact Prospects Daily without Being a Nuisance

Have you ever belonged to any kind of mailing list where you got daily tips? This could be anything from a link to a useful industry website, to a link to a relevant news article, to a daily joke about your niche.

In today’s world, we’re all programmed to consume in small bites, ie: 15-second news bites, 30-second promo videos, 140-character Twitter tweets, etc.

Hence the groundwork for a blog that dispenses compact daily tips, tricks, ideas and/or jokes has already been laid. A blog like this is quick and easy to update, and it keeps your brand in front of customers.

And, this is really what B2B search engine marketing is all about – staying top of mind so that when customers need what you have to offer, you’re the first one they think of.

All B2B marketers know the importance of keywords to their online marketing initiatives. But, many make a common mistake when it comes to keyword usage. Following is what it is and how to fix it.

Are You Using Keywords That Are Important to You or Your Customers

There’s an idiomatic expression in marketing that goes, “What’s in it for me?” Marketers are supposed to answer this with their customer in mind. In other words, they should be using keywords that reflect what’s important to their customer, NOT what’s important to them – which is exactly what many do.

While many offline marketers have embraced this line of thinking, many online marketers haven’t. One reason may be that for many B2B marketers, they use applications, processes and marketing procedures that their customers don’t know anything about.

All a customer may know is that they land on a site, it has what they want – at the right price – so they purchase.

But what if your customer is not landing on your site, but your competitor’s site? Are you using the right keyword phrases – keyword phrases that likely prospects would use to find your site?

In B2B search marketing, one of the most difficult things to do is divorce yourself from high-tech processes and procedures and think like your customer. When your customer sits down to conduct a web search, what will they type in? It may be very different than the terminology reflected in your marketing that you “think” they’ll type in.

While B2B marketing reflects a 21st world, the foundation of what works is as old as marketing itself, ie, “What’s in it for me?” And, in this case “me” is your customer.

Did you know – The b2b Search Strategy Summit will bring 150 B2B senior level marketers together to hone their seach marketing skills and increase their campaign results on June 23, 2010 in San Francisco. Will you be there? Check it out at http://www.b2bSearchStrategy.com

You can have a killer AdWords ad, but still not be getting the conversion rates you want. It’s at this point that many pay-per-click advertisers start to shake their heads, wring their hands and tweak their ads. Don’t. Stop!

You’ve forgotten to do one thing. What is it? Take a look at your landing page. Remember, your AdWords ad and your landing page are like a married couple – it takes the two of them working in concert to be effective.

If you’re getting lots of clicks on your AdWords ad, but you’re not converting those clicks into sales, then your landing page may be the culprit. Following are some landing page areas to assess to increase your pay-per-click ad results.

Landing Page Areas to Assess to Increase Your AdWords Conversion Rates

Copywriting: Many times, PPC advertisers will spend hours and hours on the 130 words or so of an AdWords ad, but they spend practically no time on the few thousand words that can make up a landing page.

For example, does your landing page deliver on the promise of your AdWords ad? Does it boldly state the benefits? Does it differentiate your product/service from your competition? All of this needs to be present before customers will part with their hard-earned dollars.

Don’t Oversell: What we mean by this is, don’t try to sell a prospect on every product or service you offer. Remember, confused customers don’t buy. If you’ve gotten them to click through, deliver on the promise in the ad they clicked on.

Ease of Payment: Does your site make it easy for prospects to purchase? If not, change it. This is a simple fix.

Your landing page is every bit as important as your AdWords ad. The two work together to make the sale for you. So if your AdWords ad is doing its part, make sure that your landing page is also.

Learn more at the upcoming PPC Summits in Chicago (April 22 – 23) or New York (May 13-14)! Register now and save $400 at www.ppcsummit.com.

YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A FREE PASS TO
PPC SUMMIT LA SEPT. 25-26, 2008
Prize Valued at $1199.00

Pay Per Click Summit is calling all internet marketers to submit the Top 3 Search Engine Marketing techniques that increased your conversions and results!

Only one submission per person and make sure to include your name and email in the spaces provided on the submission form at www.ppcsummit.com/contest

Stand by to see if your Best Strategy submission is chosen as the winner, and you will win a FREE FULL CONFERENCE PASS TO PPC SUMMIT LA (Sept. 25-26)! The PPC Summit experts will review all submissions and choose one overall winner to be notified by email on Sept. 9.

PPC Summit is the leading educational two-day Search Engine Marketing workshop. For more details, go to www.ppcsummit.com

Thank you for participating and good luck!

The PPC Summit Team

We’re excited to introduce the Pay Per Click (PPC) Summit blog where we’ll offer successful strategies and insider techniques for Search Engine Marketing (SEM) best practices on Google Adwords, MSN adCenter and all the search engines. PPC Summit is the leading SEM conference that delivers two days of educational training for online marketers eager to learn how to reach the most customers at the lowest cost per click. Now, we will connect you with SEM hot topics, expert advice, education and training through our blog coverage.

We invite those who truly want to learn the facets of successful Search Engine Marketing and stay abreast on PPC trends and strategies to participate in our blog. Our goal is to provide How-To guidance and tools to increase your internet marketing results. We look forward to sharing exclusive Search Engine Marketing and Pay Per Click information, answering your questions and providing exclusive strategies to ensure higher campaign results!

To Your Success,
Mary O’Brien, PPC Summit Founder

PPC Summit, Search Engine Marketing Conference, founder Mary O’Brien and the PPC Summit expert trainers have educated thousands of online marketers around the U.S. during two days of SEM training sessions covering case studies, best practices, client tactics, test results and strategies for successful campaign management. We look forward to seeing you at the next PPC Summit in LA on Sept. 25-26, 2008!

PPCSummit.com

More Clicks. Higher Conversions. Insider Secrets.

Register now for Los Angeles, Sept 25 – 26, 2008