Tag: SEO

Google’s War on Free Clicks: Why SEO Isn’t the Answer

Posted on by Andrew

Search marketing company WordStream says Google has declared war on free clicks and the SEO industry. And I agree with them. Here’s why.

1. Google doesn’t make any money from SEO.

That’s right, Google is a multi-billion dollar company whose business is based almost entirely on getting you to click on search ads. It doesn’t benefit Google for you to have “good” SEO – they care about more people clicking.

2. People Click Search Ads

We all like to think that no one clicks on search ads. Wrong. In fact, 64.6% of commercial intent keywords come from SEM ads in Google. Only 35.4% come from organic, unpaid results.  That’s almost two-thirds of all clicks that go to paid results.

3. SEO is Convoluted and Dying

In the modern Google search page, ads and local listings dominate the results. On average, less than 15% of the page is from organic listings. Additionally, the top three spots take 41.1% of the clicks, whereas the top organic listing only gets 8.9% of the clicks. Since Google never discloses exactly what makes “good” SEO, most companies are forced to make educated guesses on exactly what Google is looking for.

Those are just three of the many reasons why the SEO industry is dying. Clickstream made an awesome infographic which you can find here.

It’s time to start putting your hard-earned advertising dollars into something that converts. Contact us today and see why you should get started with Google AdWords.

Small Business SEO Tips from Google

Posted on by Andrew

On Tuesday, Google released a video with some helpful SEO tips for small businesses.

One of Google’s tips is to make sure your content is readable for humans. If people can read it, Google can read it. They also said to make sure to link content in your site with strong anchor text. For example, instead of saying “For product specifications, click here.” You should say “For more information, look at our product specifications.”

Once you get your SEO all figured out, come talk to us at Conversion Logix. We specialize in bringing you more qualified traffic than any other form of advertising. You can watch the entire Google video below.

We’ll drive traffic to your website with Search Engine Marketing. Once you get traffic, we can capture leads with a Conversion Driver landing page and remarket to your website visitors with Retargeting.

The options are limited for small businesses that want to advertise online. Contact us today for your free consultation and we can help you get more from the Internet.

Search Retargeting: Filling The Gaps In Your Marketing Strategy

Posted on by Andrew

It can be intimidating to try and figure out where to spend your money on digital advertising. With so many options to choose from, it can be difficult to find what’s really necessary.

A good place to start is with paid search advertising. We call it search targeting, and it gets your business listed at the top of the search results for everything relevant to your company. This is important because the Internet may be the first place your customers ever hear about you.

A second way to advertise is by using Site Retargeting. Every time you get a website hit, that’s a potential lead. Aside from the people who accidentally click on your site, all of your visitors are at least somewhat interested in your products or services. The sad truth is that 98% of your website visitors leave without taking any action.

Site Retargeting remedies this by delivering ad impressions to people after they leave your website. This allows you to effectively follow-up with every single person who visits your website.

So what happens if someone searches for you, sees your ad, but doesn’t click your links? The answer is Search Retargeting.

Search Retargeting works by focusing on people who conduct searches for things related to your business, products or services. That way, even if they don’t click on your link, you can still advertise to them.

Every search represents someone trying to solve a problem. They might be looking for a new car, a pizza shop or the best way to tie a tie. Most of the time, consumers will research something without a specific business in mind. By focusing on their search intent, you can reach out to them as they research.

This helps fill in the gaps left by your SEO and paid search efforts by advertising to people who intend to buy what you have to sell.

These three tactics give you the ability to target your advertising to the right person at the right time. First, Search Engine Marketing lets people with purchase intent find your website. Next, if they visit your site and don’t take an action, Site Retargeting will advertise to them, keeping your business top of mind. Finally, if they search for a business, product or service like you, Search Retargeting will allow you to advertise to them regardless if they visited your website or not.

Don’t waste your money on advertising products that don’t work and can’t be easily measured. Instead, deliver your message to a targeted prospect rather than an ambiguous group.

Contact us today if you’re interested in learning more about Search Retargeting and other forms of digital advertising.

An Introduction to Search Retargeting

Posted on by Andrew

Site Retargeting and Search Engine Marketing are two staples of local digital advertising. Now, we have a third piece called Search Retargeting that compliments all your existing advertising campaigns.

Search Retargeting works by focusing on people who conduct searches for things related to your business, products or services. That way, even if they don’t click on your link, you can still advertise to them.

Every search represents someone trying to solve a problem. They might be looking for a new car, a pizza shop or the best way to tie a tie. Most of the time, consumers will research something without a specific business in mind. By focusing on their search intent, you can reach out to them as they research.

For example, if someone is searching for “valentine’s day flowers” or “flower bouquet,” you can be sure that they are trying to find a place to buy flowers for a loved one. Search Retargeting uses this intent to deliver banner advertisements to people who search for anything related to your business, products or services. Your ads will appear on millions of sites all over the Internet: social, news, entertainment and more.

Search Retargeting works because it allows you to target people who actually want to buy your product rather than focusing on a single demographic or geographic area.

You may have great SEO and search ads, but there is no way to guarantee that someone will click on your links. With Search Retargeting, you can deliver banner ads to anyone who is looking for companies like yours, regardless of whether they clicked your link or not.

This makes Search Retargeting a powerful piece to add into your existing advertising. You’ll be able to target a bigger audience than ever before, but still advertise only to people who are in the market for what you have to sell.

If you have questions about Search Retargeting or other digital advertising campaigns, contact us for a free consultation.

Clicks aren’t the only thing to look at in a display campaign

Posted on by Andrew

A lot of the time, people focus on the click-through rate of banner ads to measure how successful they are. This is a fine way to get the baseline statistics on how a display campaign is performing, but banner ads offer much more than just ways for people to get to your website.

One of the ways they help is with overall brand recognition. Your display advertisement could be the first time that someone hears about your brand, and even if they don’t click on it, they are still being exposed to your company.

A second way it helps is by bringing a lift to your search engine marketing campaign. Running a display ad campaign with a SEM campaign has proved to bring significant lift in sales volume. For example, Salesforce.com found that running a display campaign with their search campaign increased branded search and conversion volume by 80 percent.

You can also get a lift in your website conversions through Retargeting. Retargeting displays ads to all the people who have visited your website, keeping you top of mind throughout their researching cycle.

Display and search can combine to make your website a lead-generation machine. If you have questions, or want to get started with either search or display ads, contact us for a free consultation.

Local Advertising is Going Digital

Posted on by Andrew

According to research firm BIA/Kelsey, more than one out of every four ad dollars will be spent on digital advertising by 2016.

US companies are expected to spend $136.2 billion on local advertising this year, and that number is expected to rise to $151.3 billion by end of 2016.

Out of that rise in local advertising, traditional is expected to remain flat during the period, with most of the growth coming from digital advertising.

Digital advertising is expected to grow from 16% of total local advertising to more than 25% over the next four years.

Digital advertising is gaining traction and there’s never been a better time to get started with a campaign of your own. We are a full-service, digital ad agency that specializes in creating the best campaigns for your business.

If you want to learn more about products like search targeting, retargeting and mobile landing pages, check out our website. Or, contact us for a free consultation.

The Big Shift From Traditional to Digital Advertising

Posted on by Andrew

About three-quarters of enterprise decision makers have been shifting their budgets from traditional advertising to digital in the last year. In fact, about one-third of the marketing executives said they shifted more than half of their budget from traditional to digital.

According to a March 2012 report from DataXu, these numbers will continue next year as well, with 4 out of 5 who are shifting to digital saying that they will continue to do so for the next year.

The main reasons for the big switch is increased metastability. With a lot of traditional media, especially print, you can’t choose who sees your ads and how they see them. With digital advertising, you can choose how many people you target, what actions you are targeting them through, and you can interact with them directly after they take an action. With print media, you have to hope they respond, but you have no way of knowing if they do.

Are you doing any sort of digital advertising such as search engine marketing, retargeting or banner ads? If not, you need to get started. Internet marketing is here to stay, and can give you the best bang for your buck, while at the same time giving you more control over your campaigns than you ever thought possible.

Contact us for a free consultation.

Paid Search Impressions and Clicks Increasing, Cost Decreasing

Posted on by Andrew

Paid search spending grew 30.3% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2012, representing the highest growth rate since the last quarter of 2010 (35%).

These numbers come from IgnitonOne, who tracked Internet marketing usage during this time period.

Mobile and tablet paid search also increased, with spending up 221.1% year-over-year, and impressions up 119.9%.

Despite the increased budget spending, cost-per-click didn’t increase, rising just 0.9% year-over-year. Clicks rose 32.5% and click-through rates were up 25.3%.

All these numbers mean good things for small businesses trying to use search marketing. Clicks and click-through rates are rising, and the cost per click isn’t changing at all. This means that businesses are getting more impression and clicks than ever before for the same price.

If you’re interested in getting started with search engine marketing, contact us today. We target and fine-tune all of our campaigns, giving you the best return possible on all your marketing efforts.

Mobile, Mobile and More Mobile

Posted on by Andrew

We’ve preached over and over how mobile is changing the digital marketing and advertising business. We’ve seen it with our own clients, and marketers across the U.S. are increasing their mobile budgets as well.

The latest report comes from Marin, a search-management software company. They predict that mobile will be bigger than desktop soon, and that marketers need to raise budgets accordingly.

One prediction is that at the current run-rates, mobile devices will account for 25% of all paid search clicks on Google by December 2012. Additionally, the share of ad spend will be 23%. Those are additions of 103% and 164%, respectively.

One of the driving factors behind all of this growth in mobile is the insanely fast consumer adoption of smartphones and tablets. In 2011 alone, Apple sold more iOS devices than the total number of Macs ever sold in the last 28 years.

Another reason for adding mobile into your business’ marketing strategy is that smartphones have higher click-through rate, and a lower cost-per-click than both desktop and tablets. Smartphone users click on ads 4.12% of the time compared with 2.39% for desktops and 3.12% for tablets. Additionally, the cost per click is only $.53 for smartphones, compared with $.83 and $.63 for desktops and tablets, respectively.

So have you decided that you need mobile yet? Well if you haven’t yet, I’ll do my best to convince you with some more data about mobile over the next few days.

Search Engine Use Continues to Grow

Posted on by Andrew

More than half of adult search engine users make searches at least once a day. That represents a 54% increase from 35% in 2004. This represents a huge increase in the number of people that use search engines to find information.

These numbers come from a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Search engine use has never been higher. Daily use is highest among 18-29 and 30-49 year-olds (60%), college graduates (70%), and people with household incomes of more than $75k (68%).


Search engines are also seen as reliable sources of information, while almost three-quarters of users say that most of the information they find is accurate and trustworthy.

So what does all this mean for small business marketing? Well, it means that if you aren’t in the search results, you need to be. Search engines are being used more frequently than ever to find information, and users see them as a reliable and trustworthy way to find what they’re looking for.

One way to get in the top of the search results is with search targeting. Also known as paid search, search targeting gets your ads into the top of the search results page, resulting in increased visibility and clicks.

Another way to show up in search results is to optimize your Google Places page. Create a unique Google Places page that provides information for people to find your business.

Another way to get better results in the local search rankings is to use a business directory service to get more citations of your business. A service such as Local AdsUpNow gets your business listed in almost 150 directories, giving your business increased presence and authority in Google’s eyes.

It’s not too late to get in the search results. Contact us today to get started with search targeting or Google Places Optimization.