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From the desk of Roy Furr, April 16th, 2009
Hey, just wanted to post an article here in which I was featured as a source. It explains how you can more effectively measure the success (or failure) of your search engine optimization (SEO) copywriting and on-page SEO tweaks.
It’s a good article, and it’s always nice to be quoted as an expert source.
Here’s a link to the article in PDF form:
How to Make Sure Your SEO Client Realizes You’re Doing a Great Job
I’ll also copy in the article here:
This article is provided by Fresh Look, Inc. marketing consulting, http://www.FreshLookInc.com. Fresh Look, Inc. President Roy Furr is referenced in this article under “Track Your Visits by Keyword” on page 2.
How to Make Sure Your SEO Client
Realizes You’re Doing a Great Job
By Rebecca Matter, AWAI
Originally published online at: http://www.awaionline.com/2009/04/make-sure-your-seo-client-realizes-your-value/
One of the most important things you can do for yourself as an SEO copywriter is track the effectiveness of the work you do for your clients.
Why would you leave it up to guesswork?
Your income depends on it!
With concrete proof, your client will clearly understand the value you bring to his business.
Which, of course, will result in more work and more money for you.
Earlier this year, I sent out a note on measuring the effectiveness of your SEO work. (http://www.awaionline.com/2009/02/measuring-seo-copywriting-results/) Afterwards I received some additional techniques used by SEO copywriters to measure their results.
So to make sure you have all the tools you need, here are four more SEO tracking tips on ways you can prove to your client your SEO work accomplished its goal.
Have Your Client Add You to Their Google Analytics Account
Web writer Melissa Arnold uses a feature in Google Analytics that allows your customer to go in and set you up as a “view reports only” user. (In the “User Manager” section, they simply click on “Add User.”) This allows you to log in and view their web statistic reports. You can download any report you’d like to your computer (in either PDF or XML file format). Do this before you start your work and then after – and compare the results.
Use the Free Tool From HubSpot.com
This free report gives you all kinds of great information about your client’s website, such as metadata, heading and image summaries, readability level of the site, the number of pages indexed by Google, the current traffic rank of the site (according to Alexa.com), the number of inbound links to it, and so on.
It’s not as detailed as the information you’d get from Google Analytics (or other analytics software), but it’s not a bad snapshot of your client’s website.
Once again, you’ll want to do this before and after. So, after you do your SEO work, simply go to the site and run the report again.
Track Your Visits by Keyword
Copywriter Roy Furr uses the “track by keywords” statistic, which is available in most analytics packages. This shows you how many times a visitor arrives on site by typing specific keywords or keyphrases into a search engine. In Google Analytics you can even break it down on a page-by-page basis.
Before you do your work, make sure you take a snapshot of this statistic in the analytics program your client is using. After you optimize a page, track this statistic and show your customer the increased traffic that’s occurring as a result of your work. Roy cautions that you shouldn’t use the measurement alone, but it’s certainly one of the leading indicators.
Use the Free Tool at SEMRush.com
Input your client’s website into the search field at the top of the SEMRush.com website, and in seconds you’ll have the top 10 keywords and where specific pages rank with Google. If you need more than the top 10, you’ll have to upgrade to the paid version (which starts at $19.95 per month). With one click of the mouse, you can export this information in Excel or CSV format. As with the other methods, make sure you take “before and after” snapshots.
Tracking your results takes relatively little time when you consider the pay off.
And to make sure you’re being consistent, I recommend you keep a detailed “before and after” journal of results for each client. Every time you make a significant change to your client’s website, print out a report (at regular intervals) and record it in your journal. Then input the data into a spreadsheet, and use that information to put together an SEO results report for your client.
A results report is a great way to prove to your client that they made a good decision to hire you. Plus, the same reports can be used to sell the value of what you do to potential clients.
If there is one area of web writing everyone should learn, it’s SEO copywriting. And Heather Lloyd-Martin, the pioneer of SEO copywriting, has made it very easy for you to learn. With her 6-hour, inhome training DVDs, you will have the skills needed to start getting clients on Monday. Learn more about the program here. http://www.awaionline.com/seo-copywriting/learn/
And if you’re already working with clients, but haven’t been tracking your results, go ahead and start taking the snapshots of their websites today, so you’ll have a benchmark to compare to in the near future.
This article appears courtesy of The Golden Thread, an e-letter from AWAI that delivers original, no-nonsense advice on how to build your freelance copywriting business. For a free subscription, visit http://www.awaionline.com/thegoldenthread
Posted in Copywriting, Search Engine Optimization, Website Design | 1 Comment »
From the desk of Roy Furr, April 5th, 2009
I’ve been an insider on quite a few website designs, and it never ceases to amaze me that the first thing everyone seems to ask is, “What do we want this to look like?”
If that’s the first question you’re asking when you’re designing a new website — or even a new page on an existing website — then you’re asking the wrong question.
Instead, let’s think about it this way…
“What’s the single most important action my visitors can take when they hit my website?”
- Do you want them to sign up to download a piece of software, or a special report?
- Do you want them to subscribe for blog updates?
- Do you want them to watch an informative video?
- Do you want visitors to share your content with a friend?
- Do you want them to purchase your product?
What do you want them to do?
Once you have the answer to that question for every page on your website then designing the pages and the site as a whole is a simple two step process:
- How can we design this to make it as natural and easy as possible for our website visitors to complete our desired action?
- What should it look like?
And step 1 is more important than step 2.
Most web designers will disagree. However if you’re looking to grow your business this is how you ensure high ROI from your website.
Posted in Business, Marketing, Sales, Website Design | No Comments »
From the desk of Roy Furr, March 31st, 2009
If you want to improve conversions on your website, there are 3 things you can tweak.
Here’s a quick 6 minute audio where I explain what they are… and how you can improve them for more conversions and more profits from your website.
(download)
Let me know what you think!
Posted in Copywriting, Google Website Optimizer, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Website Design | No Comments »
From the desk of Roy Furr, March 24th, 2009
In the article below I reveal a surefire (and remarkably simple) technique for finding out if people search for your type of business on Google. Use this technique before you spend a penny to determine if building a website for your business will be a profitable investment.
Internet marketing firms and website builders will usually tell you every business needs a website… especially when they’re trying to sell you something.
Well… Contrary to popular belief…
There are still a solid cases for some businesses not to be online… yet.
In fact today I’d like to show you a simple method for determining if people search for your type of business online. This can be the key determining factor in deciding whether or not to invest in a website for your business.
We’re going to use a tool called the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. It’s free to use, and located at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal.
This tool exists to tell you a few things. One, how many people search for specific terms, or keywords, that you’re interested in. Two, what keywords are similar to the ones you’re interested in. And three, what sort of advertising competition exists on the keywords you’re researching.
I’m going to show you how to use it to find something else.
I’ll show you how to discover how many people search for your type of business on Google. Because if nobody’s going to Google to search for your type of business, it’s probably NOT worth putting a website online for it. However, if there ARE a lot of searches on Google for your type of business, then you absolutely SHOULD have a website so you can be found over your competitors.
So let’s jump in and check out this tool…
When you first hit the website you see something like this:
We’re going to do our work on the right-hand side of that box.
Start in the box where it says “Enter one keyword or phrase per line:” and enter a general word that describes your type of business.
Start very general here.
If you have a Chinese Dim Sum Restaurant, type in just “restaurant.”
Below that you could type “Chinese restaurant” and “Dim sum restaurant” too, if you’d like. But be sure to include the general overarching category for your type of business.
Also leave the “Use synonyms” check box checked and the tool will give you a more general picture of your market online.
Then follow the instructions and type in the characters you see in the picture — this is Google’s way of making sure you’re a human using their tool and not just a computer program designed to yank out data and abuse the system.
You do not have to use the “Filter my results” link.
Then click “Get Keyword Ideas.”
Next, you should see something like this:
Now we’re going to do a very minor but important step, and that’s sort the results. Click on the words “Approx Avg Search Volume” at the top of the second column from the right to sort by that stat (it’s my preferred stat to sort by because it represents search trends over time).
So that should give you something that looks like this:
Now we’re getting somewhere!
Like I just said, I like to look at the “Approx Avg Search Volume” column because I think that represents the most reliable data over time. The number you see is an approximation of how many searches are done on Google in a month that contain that keyword.
So in an average month, people will type “restaurant” into Google 24.9 Million times…
In an average month people will type the words “italian restaurant” into Google 550,000 times…
And one of our keywords, “chinese restaurant” will be searched for in an average month 450,000 times…
That’s a lot of people searching for restaurants!
Of course, based on my default settings this is a snapshot of the entire United States (sorry, can’t drill down any further) so you have to take it as what it is.
However, if you consider that the population of the United States is about 300 Million people, that means every month there’s roughly 1 Google search for restaurant for every 12 people you see out walking around.
Of course, when you look at “Chinese restaurant” specifically, there’s only 1 search for every 660 or so people every month (.15%). However, let’s imagine that you’re the first website that comes up when someone searches for “Chinese restaurant” in your local area. If you can leverage this position to get .15% of your local population to visit every month, you’re getting incredible ROI from your website.
Let’s do some quick math.
.15% of 250,000 (small local population) is 375, multiply that by a $30 average ticket — because they didn’t come alone — and you get $11,250 per month from your website. Even if only half of those are new customers who come because of your website, that’s $5,625 per month from your website. Now that math won’t work out 100%, but it starts to make an investment of a few thousand in a website seem very reasonable.
I would say unequivocally that if you have a restaurant — whether it’s Italian, Chinese, or some other cuisine — that you should have a website.
Now let’s look at another — smaller — industry
Let’s try this same thing for “pet grooming.” I’ll include “cat grooming” and “dog grooming” too because those are the two primary niches within pet grooming. I’ve gone fast forward through the steps above to get the sorted results:
Because this is a smaller industry, let’s take my technique one step further.
In the restaurant industry I omitted this step because it quickly became clear how much opportunity there is for a local business to build a business website that would return high ROI.
In a smaller industry like pet grooming, taking this extra step will help you determine how much opportunity is actually available — when a quick snapshot doesn’t give you the confirmation you need.
It’s as simple as adding it up.
So at a quick look, here are the relevant keywords with their approximate average search volume (I’m omitting keywords that look like “do it yourself” searches because these are not customers for a pet grooming service):
- pet grooming – 368,000
- dog groomers – 60,500
- dog groomer – 49,500
- pets grooming – 33,100
- dogs grooming – 22,200
- pet nail grooming – 22,200
- mobile pet grooming – 14,800
- groom dog – 12,100
- mobile dog grooming – 9,900
- cats grooming – 8,100
- pet dog grooming – 8,100
- groom pet – 5,400
If my math is right, that’s 591,700 searches per month across these keywords. Which is more than the 450,000 searches I based my math for “Chinese restaurant” on above. So even though 368,000 is smaller than the number for Chinese restaurant, it becomes clear quickly that there is a lot of opportunity for a local business to put a website online in the pet grooming business.
Quick side note: If you have a high customer value (let’s say $5,000 per customer instead of $30) then you don’t need traffic anywhere near these levels to make your website pay off. In a case like that just getting one or two customers from your website can make an investment of a few thousand be worth every penny and more.
And now for an industry that may not need a website.
I had to rack my brain and do a few searches and I could be wrong on this, but I did find one industry that my technique suggests may not need a website for your local business.
If you run a business that exclusively teaches aerobic fitness classes (not a gym with classes, just classes alone), then the opportunity may NOT exist for you to create a local website for your business that will be profitable.
Here’s a snapshot of traffic stats for “fitness classes” and “aerobics classes” and related keywords:
As you can see, the numbers there just don’t add up to anything that makes sense. So I wouldn’t suggest building a website to promote a business that exclusively offers aerobic fitness classes — at least not without some more research.
So there you have it!
Use this technique as you decide the answer to the question, “Should my business have a website?”
It’s a definite way of finding out if people are searching for what you’re offering online. And if there’s enough traffic you can be reasonably confident that your local business can build a website that will pay off dividends.
Of course there’s more to the story.
How to do it? What to put on the website? Who to have help?
Those are questions to be answered a different day. Stay tuned.
- Roy Furr
Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Sales, Search Engine Optimization, Website Design | No Comments »
From the desk of Roy Furr, January 19th, 2009
I got an email from Perry Marhsall this weekend that laid out the 6 essentials of a profitable internet business.
I’ve known these things for just about as long as I’ve been doing marketing (and implemented them many times over). But never have they been laid out as clearly.
If you’ll do these — and do them right — you’re almost guaranteed to profit.
Miss a step or two along the way and it’ll quickly chip away at your profits — and even pull the foundation out from under your entire business.
Here, for your benefit, are Perry’s 6 essentials of a profitable internet business, with explanation:
In my experience, the foundation of a stable and profitable
Internet business is having six systems in place. Just six:
1. Market Research
2. Properly built Pay Per Click campaign
3. Conversion Tracking
4. Split testing of key sales elements
5. Seductive copy
6. Automated Email follow-up
That’s it. Just six. You can build a $1 million business, or
in some markets, a $10 million business, with just those
six things.
What do you think?
Posted in Business, Copywriting, Marketing, Marketing Testing, Persuasion, Sales, Website Design | No Comments »
From the desk of Roy Furr, November 19th, 2008
Just got notice today of a new tool from Google. It’s designed to help you identify keywords you can use to generate new SEM traffic, that you’re not taking advantage yet. But there’s another (almost secret) use this tool has.
Spying.
You see, you can enter any website into the tool and see the 100 most-commonly searched for terms that match pages on that website. You don’t have to be the website owner to do this. So you can search on your own sites. Or a competitor’s.
I think you can see the value in this.
The tool is called Google Search-Based Keyword Tool and is available at: http://www.google.com/sktool/
The ability to search on other peoples’ sites or sites you don’t have AdWords accounts linking to may be removed, if Google gets wind this is being used to gain competitive intelligence (none of the promotion materials indicate that this is what the tool is for). So use it now while it’s available.
And let me know what you think.
Posted in Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Website Design | 1 Comment »
From the desk of Roy Furr, October 9th, 2008
From “Ten things Google has found to be true:”
3. Fast is better than slow
In search especially, people want what they want and they want it now. Google is constantly working to break their own speed records by giving users their search results even a fraction of a fraction of a second faster.
They tested networked PCs vs. powerhouse servers and found they could serve search results faster with the networked PCs. So they use networked PCs.
The old search algorithms were being pushed to their limits, so search couldn’t work any faster (or so said others). So Google re-wrote their search algorithms.
They’ve shaved every bit and byte and computer decision away until they’ve become a lean, mean, search-serving machine. And arguably the fastest search engine on the planet.
But how does this apply to your business?
First — how fast do customers get product after they order it?
I recently was given the choice between a couple places to buy a book and my deciding factor was based on shipping time. One gave a free upgrade to priority shipping, while the other shipped ground when you paid for ground.
Guess which one I chose…
That’s right — the one that delivered my book faster.
Look for ways to deliver your product faster — even, I’d argue, if it cuts slightly into your profits. It will build customer loyalty and increase the lifetime value of your customer.
Maybe all it takes is adding an overnight delivery option, that the customer can optionally pay for. The customers that want instant gratification will pay for this premium and be happy about it.
Some service businesses may have trouble figuring out exactly how to do this.
But think of this. Some auto mechanics offer an “oil change while you wait” vs. you having to drop off your car in the morning and pick it up at lunch or at the end of the day. Some even change your oil without you having to get out of your car. Which is more convenient? If the price is the same, which do you choose?
If you’re providing business consulting services, maybe you offer an on-site intensive session early in your relationship with a client. That way, you can give them actionable strategies they can start applying right away, while you go back to your office to develop a more thorough plan for their business.
Just use a little creativity and look at ways you can give the client or customer the gratification they need sooner.
It’s worth every ounce of effort.
Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship, Google Website Optimizer, Marketing, Philosophy of Google, Website Design | No Comments »
From the desk of Roy Furr, August 18th, 2008
This is a business blog, and I usually talk about business. But not today. (Of course, it all loops back around to marketing.)
There are many ways to measure success and happiness in life.
Many ways other than how much money you earn or how much stuff you have. All these areas — good health, being socially engaged, growing spiritually, and also living in comfort and security — are important to do well in.
Take an integral approach — work on all areas, going for regular, incremental improvement. This all-around, “cross training” type of approach will get you further in each area than if you attacked each area one by one. And you’ll be happier.
In this vein, I’ll let you know…
I hit the gym somewhere between two and four times a week.
Right now I’m doing mostly body weight exercises grouped into super sets, followed by interval training. (Go to http://www.turbulencetraining.com to learn more about this approach.)
And this morning, I added something on top of that.
I found a really cool website that if you’re interested in feeling a little more fit and getting a great sense of accomplishment, you’ll want to check out. And best of all, it’s free.
It’s called “one hundred push ups” and it’s at http://www.hundredpushups.com.
It’s a program to take you… from where you’re at… to being able to do 100 push ups — in 6 weeks.
It won’t be easy (real change never is). But it’s a system that has worked before, and will work again — if you can follow the instructions. And stick to it.
But you do really care about being healthier, more fit, and more successful. Right?
And one way to do that is to set yourself to a task, and see it through. All the better if it involves some physical exertion, and pushing yourself beyond your boundaries.
You can prove to yourself that you’re capable of great things. Even if it’s something you haven’t done before.
Then your new found ability to do great things can transfer into other areas of your life. Like your business.
You don’t have to do “one hundred push ups.”
Not today. Not ever. But I do challenge you to think about where you’re at right now. And where you want to be.
And seriously consider whether doing something like “one hundred push ups” can take you from where you are now, to where you want to be.
And now a quick 180 degrees… to talk about marketing for a second.
http://www.hundredpushups.com is a great example of a micro site.
Micro sites can have many purposes.
This one looks like it’s mostly to make money off ad revenue (I don’t know for sure, I can just guess — I don’t know nor am I affiliated with the owner of the site).
Other micro sites can draw targeted traffic, prime it for the sale, and then drive it to your e-commerce website.
Or they can be purely informational — maybe with a “sponsored by” banner that builds good will toward your company.
No matter what you do for a micro site, be sure it’s incredibly focused on one specific topic.
And that first it’s helpful — long before it asks for any information or action on the part of your visitor. Giving away content like this can do wonders for long term profitability.
So even if you’re not going to go for the “one hundred push ups” mark, check out the website http://www.hundredpushups.com to learn what a micro site is and what it can do.
To your success (in all areas of your life!),
Roy
P.S. — I’m already pretty fit so I’m on the most advanced track of the “one hundred push ups” program. I’ll let you know how my “training” goes as I work through it.
The cool thing about that though is it doesn’t require you to be fit to start — you just have to start! It can take you from barely being able to eke out a couple push ups to being a push up superstar
Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Website Design | No Comments »
From the desk of Roy Furr, August 16th, 2008
From “Ten things Google has found to be true:”
2. It’s best to do one thing really, really well
As a business owner or internet marketer, when you think of Google you may have 5 or 10 of their different services run through your mind (Google Apps, AdWords, Analytics, Website Optimizer, Google Products/Google Base, etc.). But if you approach the general public, ask 100 people what Google is, and every answer will revolve around “Search.”
Since Google incorporated on September 7, 1998, they’ve been working to perfect search. (Even before that, too.)
They’ve put the best and brightest minds in computing on solving the search issue, to get more relevant results, faster. And even to this day, they’re changing how sites show up in the search results, to continue optimizing this process (remember “optimization” above?!).
They don’t rest on their laurels, even now that they’re completely dominating the search engine market (in terms of percent of searches conducted on their engine vs. competitors). They’re always working to make their search better.
By being the best at that, they can then introduce new, surrounding products into the marketplace. Products that provide a different type of value to the same users that come to their search engine every day.
They have instant credibility with these new products, because they’ve become known as such a behemoth in the search engine market. (And they know as long as they continue to apply their continuous optimization philosophy in these other fields — WITHOUT losing sight of their core mission of search — they’ll dominate there, too.)
So ask yourself — “What is the one thing my company (or I) does really, really well?”
And then — “What are we doing to become known in the marketplace for that one thing?”
And finally — “What can we do to increase the focus on that one thing in our communications, advertising, and media coverage, even if it means spending less time focusing on our additional products or services?”
It sounds counter-intuitive. But you can take Google as proof that it works.
Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Philosophy of Google, Website Design | No Comments »
From the desk of Roy Furr, August 7th, 2008
This will be quick.
I don’t normally talk about Search Engine Optimization — or SEO — because my opinion is that it’s an industry teeming with con artists with no real rules.
It’s the nastiest part of Internet Marketing, if you ask me.
Here’s why.
Some things seem to work, and some don’t — but your SEO firm will bill you for both with utter disregard for your bottom line.
There are black hat tactics to get you to the top today — but tomorrow you’ll be banned.
There’s very little white light in the industry as a whole.
But occasionally (very occasionally) I come across a piece of information or article that makes sense.
(Usually what makes sense — and works — takes a lot more time and effort than you’d like it to take, but when it works it WORKS.)
Today was such a day — and I thought I’d pass it on, for your sake.
So without further ado, here’s the link:
Search Engine Optimization — How I Became Number 1, by Mark Ellison from SEO Chat
(Be sure to read through the last page, because that’s where the real good stuff is.)
Cheers!
Posted in Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Website Design | 2 Comments »
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