Search engine marketing is more than just adding links and joining the social networks.  Tracking and measuring conversion rates is an essential step to effective SEO.  There are several key factors in successfully converting online prospects into customers.  Call to Action -- Increasing your relevant traffic is critical and making an attractive offer can enhance the quality of your web traffic.  Increasing general traffic doesn’t always increase sales online and usually it’s a lost opportunity. 

Watch Yahoo Video on Conversion Rates

Conversion rates should be measured regularly to effectively manage and leverage your web traffic. Increasing your conversion rate takes time, but is imperative to realize your sales potential online. Maximizing a higher percentage of website visitors to act on your intended “Call to Action” is a profitable practice.

> Define your Call to Action

> Integrate an effective landing page to make it easy for prospects to act on your offer

>  Use web analytics, track and evaluate conversion rates

> Change up your offers to see what motivates the visitors

Internet marketing continues to grow rapidly worldwide.  The global search engine market showed “extraordinary” growth last year, expanding by 46% between December 2008 and December 2009, according to a new report from comScore.

In news that could provide a significant boost to search engine marketing, there were 131 billion searches conducted by people over the age of 15 from home and work locations last month.   The United States was the largest individual search market, accounting for 22.7 billion, or 17%, of all queries.   China was in second place with 13.3 billion searches, followed by Japan and the UK.

Google remained the dominant force in the market, handling 87.8 billion searches in December, or 66.8% of all queries. This was 58% higher than its search volume for December 2008, comScore said.   Yahoo! came second with 9.4 billion searches, followed by Chinese search engine Baidu with 8.5 billion.

Microsoft sites, including the Bing search engine launched in May 2009, were fourth with 4.09 billion searches, up 70% on December 2008.

Is Your Website Ranked at Number One in The Search Engines?  When your website is ranked highly in all of the major search engines, you benefit from more internet exposure and increased traffic online.  SEO  is the most important keys to your company’s success with internet marketing. Your business goes from being unseen or ranked very low to a very high ranking, making you sales 24/7.

At no cost to you, our search engine optimization experts will run a ranking report showing you exactly where your website currently stands in all the major search engines. Then we will email you our analysis report along with the recommendations of how we can increase your ranking, and improve your websites traffic dramatically! 

Nationwide Marketing offers lead generation and search engine marketing strategies led by Bryan Dornan that will benefit your bottom line. Please call 760-579-9336 and we will send you an SEO proposal based on your keywords, needs and goals.

In a recent Web Pro News article, Chris Crum proposed the question, “Is Pay Per Click more important than Search Engine Optimization for a new website?” The published article considered the debate over what is better between search engine optimization and pay-per-click. Of course both should be used typically, but on a recent panel at SES Chicago, participants were asked to pick a side to highlight the benefits of each compared to the other.  Certainly PPC with Google is a great way to jump-start your site with lead generation, but long term that PPC model can prove to be much more costly than white-hat search engine optimization.  The general consensus seems to be that you should use both when possible, but that SEO is better for the long term, and PPC is better for quick results.

A new mortgage marketing service from Google allows consumers to compare multiple offers from lenders and brokers that are generated automatically when prospective applicants submit information about the mortgage loan they are seeking along with their credit rating.  Unlike some similar services, Google’s AdWords Mortgage Comparison Ads enables borrowers to refine their criteria and request loan quotes anonymously.  Lead Planet founder, Bryan Dornan thought it was a good idea.  In a recent interview, Dornan said, “Google bringing together the technology vendors for the mortgage industry makes sense.”  He continued, “The fact that Google is getting involved in mortgage lead generation says a lot about the mortgage industry.”

In October of 2009, Google launched Comparison Mortgage Ads in Beta test mode . Google moved Mortgage Comparison Ads out of the Beta test phase today, allowing three vendors to announce their roles in the project: Insight Lending Solutions, which is providing its PriceMyLoan pricing engine; Lead360, a lead management software provider; and Mortech, which provides both loan pricing and lead management services to lenders. 

For a Free mortgage lead generation evaluation, call 888-271-9581- extension 103 and take advantage of our lead generation solutions.

A recent article in Web Pro News discussed the upcoming changes in search engine optimization for 2010.  Of course, the search industry is constantly changing, and that means SEO marketing, lead generation and businesses must adapt. This is always made abundantly clear at the change of each year as the previous year is reflected upon, and predictions about trends in the upcoming year are discussed. SEO consultants understand that adaptation and ongoing education are crucial. The problem is that businesses don’t always understand just how much the search landscape actually does change. This can present a whole different set of challenges for both the small business and SEO professionals.

Web Pro News highlights some of the things you should keep in mind:

ü  Site Speed

ü  Personalized Search

ü  Universal Search  

ü  Real-Time Search

ü  Changes in Local

We recommend staying informed and take advantage of a free SEO consultation from Nationwide Marketing.

Press releases are a great way to promote business with announcements that put a spotlight on your business. They can also drive traffic, particularly from search engines. This is not news, but it’s a commonly overlooked fact.  As many search engine marketing experts will tell you, press releases can enhance search traffic.  “Search engine rankings are arguably the most important small business marketing tool available today because it drives Web traffic and potential prospects to a small business’ Web site,” a PRWeb spokesperson once told Web Pro News. “However, because improving search rankings are desirable, achieving results can be both challenging and highly competitive.”

Back in the summer, PRWeb shared a case study with us, involving a firm that typically sees a boost in search engine rankings and a 50% spike in web traffic after they issue a release. In fact, for one release in particular, the firm saw a spike of 400% on two different Web sites, and the firm doesn’t believe they were from the same users. They also incorporate social media tools like Twitter to extend the “shelf life” of press releases, and say that drives additional traffic.

“When we included a link to our press releases on Twitter and other social media networks, we saw these both expanded the scope of distribution and the extended the longevity of the announcement,” the CEO of the company behind the case study had said. “With other news releases we saw an initial spike in Web site traffic on the first two days and then it dropped off. With these features we’ve seen increases in traffic up to five days after the news release was issued.”

In a study from Arketi Group, also back in the summer, reporters were found to use the web in the following ways:

- 95% search
- 92% reading news
- 92% emailing
- 89% finding story ideas
- 87% finding news sources
- 75% reading blogs
- 64% watching webinars
- 61% watching YouTube
- 59% social networks

Today, Nationwide Marketing announced the partnership of the Mortgage Lead Vault who is a direct lead provider specializing in mortgage leads, to provide comprehensive, private label mortgage lead generation services. Nationwide Marketing will provide Mortgage Lead Vault with technology and internet marketing precision for outsourcing for American consumers to compare mortgage loan quotes online. The lead marketing services will include customer service, loan approvals, underwriting guidelines and article publishing. Nationwide will help drive additional web traffic to the online portal of Mortgage Lead Vault targeting lead types such as, conventional, conforming, jumbo, FHA and VA mortgage products.

Mortgage Lead Vault is an online company that matches consumers with mortgage lending professionals who compete for their home loan business. The company provides an end-to-end loan shopping experience from customer acquisition to loan disclosure capabilities. The mortgage lead company, which also works with lenders, brokers and loan modification law firms to help distressed homeowners refinance and modify loans in their portfolios, is a licensed mortgage lender authorized to conduct business nationwide.

Our goal is to provide customers a seamless lending experience from start to finish and the Nationwide Marketing will become an important partner in that effort for the Mortgage Lead Vault business.” “We are excited to support Mortgage Lead Vault and their focus on connecting qualified borrowers with their online loan quote process and its exceptional commitment to the better closing conversions for loan officers,” said Sanford Sarconi, regional manager,  for Mortgage Lead Vault.   According to Nationwide’s founder, Bryan Dornan, “Nationwide Marketing is committed to working with Mortgage Lead Vault to enhance the experience of consumers shopping for home loans online.”

Search engine marketers will argue about content and linking until they are blue in the face.   Many of our clients ask the SEO team on a regular basis, “Which is more important – Content or SEO Links?  Both SEO linking and content are critical to a website success for marketing online. 

Clearly, you must have good search engine placement to get traffic and linking and keyword placement are important, but if you your content doesn’t flow and users just see keywords splattered all over the site, they will smell a rat miles away, so well-written content I just as critical. We recommend creating content for users with “call to action” headlines and landing pages to capture data and maximize lead generation.  you don’t write your content for your human site visitors, the people who do show up might end up leaving without making a purchase. Canned content is no fun to read.  The phrase “content is king” is true as long as it’s relevant content and linking isn’t overlooked. 

Lead generation is a general term referred to the process of aggregating leads and data with the intention of marketing a specific offer. Quite often people get confused by thinking that lead generation is exclusively only for online marketing tools. In fact, lead generation is a broad marketing term that includes online and offline advertising campaigns.  Direct mail marketing and outbound dialing would be consider offline lead generation because they utilize traditional marketing methods by telephone and postal delivery services.  Online lead generation would refer to organic search engine optimization, email marketing, pay per click advertising, banner advertising and contextual advertising.

Combining online and offline marketing technologies can be very effective for boosting conversion ratios.  Consider combining several marketing methods in an effort to maximize lead volumes.  This also provides choices for the consumers, because some people want to talk by phone and some just info emailed to them to read at their leisure.

Example 1: Consider combining internet marketing with voice broadcasting.  With our live transfer technology a prospect could be browsing your website and click the “Live Agents” button and the click to call system will connect the prospect and sales agent together by telephone. 

Example 2: Consider a direct mail campaign that drive consumers to call a telephone or go online to your website to complete an info request form that generates a lead that goes instantly to your live agents.  Landing pages are critically for generating leads for consumers that are not ready to speak with someone by phone yet. They are also instrumental in aggregating leads after-hours. 

For the last several months, a large team of Google engineers have been working on a new search engine project.  Google is making an effort to improve the “search” experience with the “next-generation architecture” for their online search engine. It’s the 1st step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions. Google is calling on web developers and SEO programmers test ride the new engine and then provide feedback.  

Google wants feedback on the differences between the present search results and the SERPS in the new system. They are also interested in higher-level feedback (“These types of sites seem to rank better or worse in the new system”) in addition to “This specific site should or shouldn’t rank for this query.” Google said their engineers will read and consider the feedback, but will not be able to reply to the comments directly.Here’s how to offer feedback to Google: Go online and visit http://www2.sandbox.google.com/.   Check out the search results page and look for the link at the bottom of the page that says “Dissatisfied? Help us improve.” Roll over and click on that link.  Google encourages people to provide detailed feedback in the comments box and then include the word “caffeine” somewhere in the text box.  Sign up now to have the latest search engine marketing to me emailed you.

Click to Call live transfer lead solutions remain one of the best methods for maximizing organic SEO and Pay-Per-Click campaigns with your website.  Lead generation specialists can offer companies a combination of live chat and Click to Call wherein live operators escalate visitor from chat to voice to close high-value sales or resolve complex service issues. 

 

 

 

Click to Call technology connects internet visitors with live operators and sales people with the click of a button.  Voice broadcasting support is imperative for integrating websites to 3rd party lead generation systems.  Take advantage of web based support from experienced voice broadcasting companies.  These technology companies offer lead capture capabilities and queue placement features as a high-end telephone system, without expensive hardware investments and maintenance fees.  Mortgage Lead generation companies like the Lead Planet have reported significant results for their clients.

 

When online visitors enter their telephone number to click to talk, Click to Call automatically routes the request to the agent and as soon as an agent accepts the request, the call is placed, connecting the customer and agent immediately. It eliminates frustrating wait times, busy signals and annoying IVR loops by bypassing traditional phonee lines. Real-time queue placement indicators with Click to call have the ability to display accurate wait times online so visitors know exactly when to expect the call that is transferred automatically with the voice broadcasting technology.

Live Lead Transfer Company can refer you to lead generation companies that are dedicated to marketing, outbound dialing and the entire live transfer process consisting of real time daily monitoring of each agent’s sales and customer service performance. Many lead generation companies have the call center facilities to provide live telephone operators with local telephone number in most major countries including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Australia, France, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Germany, India, China, Vietnam and many more countries.

What if we told you that you could make thousands of dollars a week without investing any money for internet advertising or search engine marketing?

What if I told that we could get you top placement for any keyword terms on any of the search engines for less than $100?

You may have received email from “SEO marketers” stating that Google, Yahoo, MSN and others were sending them hundreds of new customers every week at no cost! They send you unsolicited emails with subject lines like, “Make Money On Google…While You’re Sleeping…Or Get top placement on Yahoo and Google for nothing?

I certainly hope you let those go into your junk email bin, because these SEO marketing claims are ridiculous and the sources are clearly not credible.  Search engine optimization and internet advertising takes a lot of content, relevant links and careful planning and execution.  To achieve high ranking search engine rankings, you have to provide quality original content with accurate meta-tags and extremely good timing.  Yes SEO can be done, but it doesn’t happen overnight and it certainly is not free.

According to a recent RINF article, Google Trends continue to indicate that the demand for SEO has tripled in recent years, including the topic being a frequent search in Google News, again with a steady climb in searches. With SEO companies and online marketing reporting a significant increase n demand for their search engine optimization services and finally has started to connect with the mainstream.  Comparison searches in Google Trends for celebrity names, TV shows and pop artists still produce much larger search volumes, as expected.

 

 

Search Engine Optimization techniques do work.  According to marketing executive, Joe Koller, “Successful SEO is a marketing strategy that involves promotions and value added content, not black-hat tricks that gen your website banned.”  Koller continued, “SEO marketing firms like Nationwide Marketing and Bruce Clay can get your company’s website visible online.”

 

Take a quick snapshot of a search for ‘SEO’ in Google Trends demonstrates how more and more people are searching for a new way to market their Internet business. Search Engine Optimization provides a simple solution for companies to increase their internet traffic, which can introduce lead generation, improved customer service and enhance your image online. RINF News announced a SEO video series that offers over 30 videos from beginner to expert.  They explain the SEO basics, like achieving high 1st page rankings for relevant search terms.

Don’t forget that when are optimizing your site and measuring keyword density that you should consider both the search engines and the viewers.   Think – “How will Yahoo, Google and MSN find my site?” and -- “What services or products best describe my niche?”  At the same time, read your pages from a viewer’s perspective.  Are you using the terminology that readers can understand?  Are you delivering a “call to action”, that gets you a lead or inquiry that helps your business?

Watch SEO Marketing Tips Video

If you over-indulge keywords in your content, the search engines will penalize you, but if you don’t use enough, then no one will ever find you.  There is a fine line, and you will likely get different advice on keyword denisty all over the internet. If you create your content for viewers and website visitors then in most cases you will get the best results that produce the best leads for your business. 

Nationwide Marketing offers helpful search engine marketing advice with regular posts for aspiring SEO marketers.  Content critical for search marketing effectively, so remember to deliver relevant and interesting content for viewers and SEO purposes as well.

comScore released their January 2009 report on search market share, and reported that Yahoo rose and that Google’s share declined month to month.  In December 2008, Google had a 63.5% share, but in January, they dropped down to a 63% share. Yahoo gained month to month with a gain from 20.5% to 21.0%.

 

Google Sites led the U.S. core search market in December with 63.0% of the searches conducted, followed by Yahoo! Sites (21.0%), Microsoft Sites (8.5%), AOL LLC (3.9%) and Ask Network (3.7%). In any event, you need to understand this is month to month and you need to look at the numbers over time. So I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions after looking at the monthly numbers.

 

Is Google News dropping publishers from their index? In a recent SEO article, several posts were noted from the Google News Help forum. There are a handful of threads from upset publishers, including two large threads here and here.  Jason Dowdell, Founder & Editor of MarketingShift.com was one of those publishers who noticed his site being dropped by Google News. Dowdell’s site had been in Google News for over four years now and as of today, but now his content is no longer getting picked up. In addition, Dowdell was quoted in the article saying, he no longer sees the “News” tab in Google Webmaster Tools Diagnostics area. To me, that is a clear sign that his site is no longer syndicated by Google News.  As you can see, the last article indexed by Google News from MarketingShift.com was from yesterday, even though, MarketingShift.com has new articles today.

 

 

Read the complete article.

Dowdell may be afraid that Google is ranking the smaller sites and not valuing the smaller publishers enough.  “Google doesn’t value the small publishers who work hard to produce quality content day in and day out.” Jason told me that he, “personally spent $25k a year for the past 4 years on MarketingShift, by employing full time writers because we wanted to make sure we remained in Google News and abided by their quality content guidelines.”  Mr. Dowdell suspects that Google is dropping the small publishers to help “save the newspaper business.” 

 

Nationwide Marketing has been unable to verify that Google is devaluing publishers.

 

 

 

 

Byron Gordon, SEO-PR interviews Byron White, President, ideaLaunch, about the company and its focus on helping clients improve their online visibility and success with its focus on building content, community and conversions.

 

The Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP today announced that Internet advertising revenues reached almost $5.9 billion for the third quarter of 2008, representing an 11% increase over the same period in 2007. While double-digit annual growth continues, the quarter-to-quarter curve remains relatively flat compared to recent past performance. The Q3 2008 figures, published in the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report, are 2% higher than the Q2 2008 results. Set against strong economic headwinds in the U.S. economy, Q3 2008’s $5.9 billion represents nonetheless the second-highest quarter results ever. For the first nine months of 2008, revenues totaled $17.3 billion, up from $15.2 billion in the same period a year ago and surpassing the record set in the first nine months of 2007 by nearly 14 percent.

 

 

The growth of interactive advertising that we’ve been experiencing over the past few years has stabilized due in large part to the difficult current economic climate,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “Interactive advertising continues to be the most measurable and cost-effective way to reach consumers, and we see more and more marketers seeking to harness its power.”

David Silverman, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, added that, “a weakening economy will continue to be a challenge to all forms of advertising-supported media. However, the Internet should be better poised to withstand the storm given its ability to combine performance-based advertising along with broad-based branding.” Search marketing continues to be the primary focus for internet advertising. Read the complete article >

In a recent Site pro News article, Suzanne Morrison delivers the “7 deadly Sins” for search engine optimization.  This is a “must read” for all SEO professionals who are serious about maximizing the search engine results with Google, Yahoo and MSN.

1. Keyword Ignorance 

One of the most common mistakes that people make when building a website is to completely disregard keyword research. Take a look at the results and be sure that the keywords you pick have a good number of searches per month. Also type your keywords into Google and make sure that you feel confident about beating the competition and getting your site on to the first page of results.

 

 

2.  Keyword Spamming

Mentioning your keywords over and over hundreds of times throughout your web page or making large lists of keywords with a font color that is the same as the background color is not going to help your search engine rank. Neither is adding keywords that have nothing to do with the content of your page.  Read the complete article > 7 Deadly Search Engine Sins written by Suzanne Morrison.

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