Extra! Extra!

One of the most important factors search engines use to rank your website for keyword phrases is analyzing the number of websites and how popular (or important) the websites that are linking to you are (note: I’ll refer to these type of links as “backward links” although other SEO professionals might call them inward links, insite links, etc).  Google even patented a link analysis algorithm called Page Rank (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank) which helps Google determine the ranking of your website on keyword phrases.

Hence, link building should be an integral (and ongoing effort) in any search engine optimization (SEO) program.  Where should you look to increase the number and quality of backward links to your website?

• Find industry related blogs; and blog!
• Find and participate in industry related websites and forums.
• Submit your website to free search engine directories like DMOZ.org.
• Build relationships with similar website owners and prove value in having them add a link to your website.

To elaborate on the last point a little more; in Google’s search engine find related websites by using the following search syntax “related:www.yourwebsitehere.com” and identify any websites that might benefit from adding a link to your website.   Don’t email or call the website owner blindly.  You will need to build a relationship and prove value to the other website owner that creating a link to your website is in their best interests. 

Show value!  For example, if your websites focuses on listing all the Happy Hour events in the city of San Francisco consider contacting websites like MustSeeSanFranisco.com or SFTravel.com.  Who on vacation in San Francisco doesn’t want to have a drink at a local Happy Hour event?

Lastly, don’t forget to “optimize” the hyperlink by including the primary keyword phrase in the actual link.  Example:  Instead of adding the following text to another website you are getting a link from, “Visit http://www.yourwebsitehere.com/ to see some social events including happy hours in the city” write “Visit our partner to find great happy hours events in San Francisco”

The direct benefits of getting backward links is A) your website will receive more site traffic from visitors clicking through on that backward link and B) search engines will give your website more “weight” when determining where your website should appear on related keyword searches.

One of the most frustrating situations for any online marketer is not getting credit for sales that take place in the companies’ brick-and-mortar stores when the initial lead was generated online.  This often occurs when running a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign which attracts customers to the companies’ website (where they can purchase the product online) but who still choose to purchase the product at the companies brick-and-mortar store.

Here’s a trick on how to setup one of your Pay-Per-Click campaigns so you can get credit for the sale and receive the allocades of your coworkers you know you deserve!

Setup one of your Pay-Per-Campaigns so the ads only display in a major city where your company has most of their brick-and-mortar stores.

Example: If your company focuses on selling competitive priced jewelry, setup a PPC campaign to only display ads in New York (assuming that’s where a majority of your stores are located) and bid on keywords like “discount jewelry, jewelry distributor, diamond wholesaler”.

Next, write all your ads to lead with the city abbreviation “NY” (an obvious abbreviation for anyone living in New York) and then include some of the keyword phrases that you are bidding on (eg. NY Diamond Wholesaler).  Use the second line of the ad to explain what your company sells (eg. necklaces, bracelets, rings etc) and use the last line of the ad to “hook” your customer (eg. advertise free shipping and a coupon for 10-20% off any purchase).

Keeping best practices in mind, create a specific landing page for this campaign.  Include (and better yet bold) the keywords you are bidding on, pictures of your products, etc.  Most importantly include a 10-20% coupon that can be used online upon checkout or printed out for in-store purchases.

If you’re a PPC rockstar you’ll probably already realize that setting up a geographic targeted PPC campaign with targeted ads that include the city name and take customers to a custom landing pages will result in:

1.    Higher clickthrough rates (don’t be surprised if you get close to 10%)!
2.    Higher online conversions (who doesn’t like a good 10-20% discount on a product they are already interested in?)
3.    Higher total sales (since you’ll get credit for offline sales generated online).

Have you figured out how number 3 happens?

The coupon code!  By setting up your campaign this way, you’ll have customers print off and use the coupon in-store (in order to get the 10-20% discount)!  Since, this coupon is only on your PPC landing page you’ll get credit for the sale!

Congratulations to Credit Union ONE for launching an enhanced website which provides members additional features and benefits.

CU ONE approached Extractable to help design a website that would “provide exceptional value to CU ONE members by delivering outstanding products and services anytime, anywhere.”  By having the website function as a 24 hour online member center (by empowering members to do more of their financial tasks online and by organizing information on the website more clearly) the website is poised to be a success!

Some great CU ONE site features include:

• Secure loan and mortgage applications
• Ability to open and fund an account online
• Wide array of financial calculators
• Numerous online forms
• Detailed online map
• Numerous online forms
• Dynamic Frequently Asked Questions
• Print and send-to-friend features
• Online help demos
• Online chat support

In the next month CUONE will be working to implement RSS feeds on their website and dynamically pull in rates into specific webpages in order to ensure their members have the latest rate information possibly available.

If you live in Michigan (or surrounding states) and are looking for a stable financial institution that still feels “personal” please make sure to visit Credit Union ONE.

It’s great to see our client SAFE Credit Union winning cheers from the greater credit union community for their 2007 WebAward-winning site. Credit Union Magazine just published an article titled “Build a Better Web Site” which features SAFE’s three-pronged approach to web marketing. It’s also great to see Extractable referenced within the article!

Extractable, the leading West Coast interactive agency, today announced it has won eight awards at the annual Web Marketing Association WebAwards.

Awards Extractable took home include:

* Best Credit Union Web Site - SAFE Credit Union
* Financial Services Site Standard of Excellence - Schwab MoneyWise
* Investment Site Standard of Excellence - Contango Capital Advisors
* Medical Site Standard of Excellence - Merit Medical
* Medical Equipment Site Standard of Excellence - Merit Medical
* Pharmaceuticals Site Standard of Excellence - Victory Pharma
* Technology Site Standard of Excellence - Network General
* Technology Site Standard of Excellence - IDT

The Web Marketing Association was founded in 1997 to help set a high standard for Internet marketing and development of the best web sites on the World Wide Web. Staffed by volunteers, this organization is made up of Internet marketing, online advertising, PR, and top web site design professionals who share an interest in improving the quality of online advertising, internet marketing, and web site promotion. Now in its 11th year, the WebAwards is the premier annual web site award competition that names the best Web sites in 96 industries while setting the standard of excellence for all web site development. More than 2,400 sites from 40 countries were adjudicated during this year’s competition. Entries were judged on design, copy writing, innovation, content, interactivity, navigation, and use of technology.

“We are very pleased to receive this recognition from our peers,” commented Craig McLaughlin, Extractable’s President and CEO. “These awards further validate Extractable as the leading provider of interactive services to financial services, life sciences, and high technology firms looking to leverage the web as a core component of their overall customer experience strategy. Our primary focus is creating business results for our clients through the online channel. The sheer number of awards we won this year is a testament to the quality of our people and their commitment to consistently delivering the best to our clients. We are lucky to have such a killer team.”

We are proud to announce the launch of our first project with McAfee. We designed a Flash-based product demo with voiceover to market McAfee’s Secure Internet Gateway appliance. The Secure Internet Gateway provides small and medium-sized businesses a strong line of defense against web and email threats, including spam, phishing, viruses, and spyware.

Nice job, team!

The demo is live at: www.mcafee.com/us/smb/products/promos/sig/index.html

Extractable is pleased to annouce the launch of the Schwab MoneyWise web site! Kudos to the Extractable team for a solid inital project, resulting in site launch during Financial Literacy Month. The team is excited to continue enhancing the site with additional activities, tools, content, and a community forum! More information regarding the site’s charter can be found in the official Charles Schwab press release.

The site is live at: http://www.schwabmoneywise.com

Today Google announced an updated version of their Analytics service. The service was already terrific, and free. It now features a much more robust dashboard, the ability to better track campaigns and the ability to email reports to collegues.

Check out the flash demo for an overview of the service and this blog for details on what has changed in the reporting interface.

Congrats to the Extractable team on the launch of the redesigned Merit Medical website.

The site is live at: http://www.merit.com

Jakob Nielsen’s latest Alertbox column discusses “12 High-Profit Redesign Priorities.” He mentions tactics he believes have a high return on investment.

Looking over the list, I have to agree, in general, that these are all really good ideas.

I do, however, worry a bit about such lists. Lists from experts are sometimes prone to misuse. Managers may blindly use the list as their roadmap for planning upcoming web projects, trying to do everything on the list without determining the relevance to their site. For example, “Catering to Seniors” might not make much sense if you sell skateboards. (Apologies to any skateboarders out there with several decades behind you.) Each site is different, and priorities for change should be based on business objectives, the focus of the site, and the intended audiences.

I would also like to have the ROI for these actions explained in a little more detail. Or at least the mention of a good method for calculating the return on each suggested change, along with maybe a benchmark. It has been my experience that CFO’s won’t simply accept an assertion of positive ROI when making decisions on project funding. Instead, they want to see the calculations, or at least the projections of return.

The list contains good ideas and probably bears evaluation against your current sites for a bit of guidance in setting priorities, but like many useful tools (such as hammers, bulldozers, etc.), incorrect use can have a negative impact.