1.  Test ad texts and keywords

Have you noticed that ads on Google and other search engines are different from other ads/banners you see on the web?
This is because users’ behavior is distinct in these two places. When people are searching for things, they are in a different mindset than when they are just reading news/blogs/articles.
They are looking for very specific things and it takes needle-point wording to grab their attention. Here’s how you do it:

• Include a “call to action” into your ads:  ”Buy”,  “Get”, “Book”, “Save” and similar.
• Add the word “now” to create a sense of connection between space and time.
• If you have any special offers make sure you include them in your ads!
• Don’t forget the importance of landing pages – link your specific ad to a specific landing page.

Example: If you’re advertising new sneakers, don’t link the ad to your home page or your general sneakers’ page.
Link the ad to the specific sneakers’ page. That way you won’t lose your customers’ attention and make it more likely for them to go through with the desired action.

  Track results

And last but not least, track your campaign results so you can modify your campaign for even better results in the future. Keeping track of your campaign is simple because all the reports you need are right there within the AdWords interface!

You can pull reports from any tab (Campaign, Ad groups, Ads, Keywords) to get as high-level or granular data as you need and use it to track your campaign’s success, depending on the goals you’ve set for it:

 a) Sales – focusing on high volume of purchases
b) Leads – focusing on a ‘contact us’  form or using a phone number to make and offline enquiry about your products/services
c) Sign-ups – focusing on getting users’ data for your database
d) Return on investment (ROI) – focusing on tracking margins from every sale
e) Traffic – focusing on impressions and site visits

 And that’s everything you need to get started with Google AdWords right here! We wish you the best of luck with your Google AdWords campaign and will be happy to answer your questions. Post your questions in the comments section and we’ll have our resident Google AdWords expert reply to them ASAP.

What Google AdWords Can Do for your Business

Using Google AdWords means your website will be more likely to appear when users are searching for products/services you’re offering. It also means that you’re able to start sending traffic to your website immediately after placing your ad.

How to Get Started

Getting started on Google AdWords is a lot easier than you think:

1. Go to http://adwords.google.com
2. Select your time zone and currency (careful, you won’t be able to change them later!)
3. Select targeting countries and languages for your campaigns
4. Set the budget you’re willing to spend
5. Use the AdWords template provided to write your first ad text
6. Choose keywords you want your ads to appear for
7. Set up your billing options
   …. and you’re good to go!

In the next two posts, we’ll take you through the 5 stages of running a successful AdWords campaign for your website. In the meantime, we’re sending you home with some homework ;)
Check out these wonderful resources for Newbie Google AdWorders:

• Need a quick refresher of the basic terminology relating to AdWords advertising? Find it here.
• AdWords Help Center – Comprehensive and searchable database of everything you ever wanted to know about AdWords.

Spring’s here, and it’s a great opportunity for a quick SEO refresh for your website. Take a break from cleaning out your closet and add some water + sunshine to your site’s SEO. By the time summer rolls around, you could be reeling in a fresh new stream of traffic!

Optimize Your Site Settings

When building a new free website with Wix, default text is populated into the site’s SEO settings. If you don’t customize the Title and Description of your website, you miss out on the most effective (and easiest) way to present your website to online visitors and search engines.

From the top menu of the website builder: click Settings > Site Optimization.

1. Site Title

Below is what a website’s title looks like, in a search for “spring dresses”:

> Enter a straightforward title with your name and basic description of what you offer. If you’re a local business, include your city, or “regional” location.

2. Site Description

This text is referred by Google as a “snippet”. It is the text that appears below a site title in a search result:

> Enter in 1-2 sentences that describe your services or product. Use simple, catchy languages that appeals to visitors and makes them want to click.

3. Allow search engines to see your site

There’s an option that allows website owners to block search engines from site. It’s a good tool for sites under construction or website owners experimenting with different versions of a site before selecting the winner.

> Make sure the box “Let search engines find my website” is checked. Be sure to Save!

Optimize Content

The meat of your site is the on-page content. All the text that explains or promotes what you offer is hugely important. The goal is to offer quality and relevant information that provides one thing: value.

4. Refresh your on-page text

Show that a real flesh-and-blood person is behind your website.

> Do a quick sweep over your on-page content.

> Make sure dates are updated to 2011

> Offer updates about about new products or industry-relevant changes

> Fix any grammar or spelling mistakes

5. No spam

It’s easy for search engines (and human visitors) to detect spam content and to leave your site as soon as they enter. Google is getting better and better at spotting spammers.

> Make sure all content is original. Do not “hide” text or links by making them the same color as the background. This is a cheap trick that search engines have been able to detect for years.

6. Use keywords smartly

“Keywords” are words describing your site, that visitors are likely to type into a search.

> Use keywords organically, so it doesn’t seem you’re “packing” them in.

> Check out the free Google AdWords Keyword Tool for new trends or words to consider using.

> Use them in both Site Settings AND on-page text.

Reinvent Your Link-building Campaign

Getting other websites to link back to yours is still the most powerful way to get higher rankings in search engines. However, it’s also one of the toughest parts of SEO since it’s not directly under your control.

7.  Content is king. Add unique, quality content to your site and give people a genuine reason to want to link to you!

8.  Tap into your online community. Find sites, blogs, forums, etc. in your field/industry, and build a name for yourself by offering comments, answering questions.

9.  E-mail or call people. Networking on the web is similar to the real-world model it’s based on. Organize partnerships, joint events, cooperative promotions, etc.

10. Customize your social media profiles. Make it as easy as possible for others to find you by linking your site to Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks. Check out this earlier post on top 5 Facebook apps for businesses (Wix’ new free app is # 1!)

Spring is upon us – welcome it with an SEO refresh!

What is Site Architecture?

Your site’s architecture can have a significant effect on the way your site is perceived by visitors – and search engines. Site architecture is the structure of your website, or how the pages connect to one another.

The easier it is for visitors to find your content, the longer they’ll spend inside your site – and the more likely they are to take action. Filling out a contact form, making a purchase or clicking a Facebook Like button are all actions made by happy visitors…not lost, confused or frustrated visitors who are more likely to press the Back button on their browser.

So, just like the boy in the 1970′s commercials for Tootsie Roll asked Mr. Owl: “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?” you should be asking yourself:

“How many clicks does it take to get to the center of my website?”

Tootsie Roll's Mr. Owl

(Rule of thumb: it should take a visitor no more than 3 clicks to access your deepest content!)

Here are some ways to improve the way your site is built:

1. There’s No Place like Home

Is your homepage really a “homepage?” Or is it the 1st page your visitors land on, never to return to again once they dive into your actual content?

If you’re creating a free website from scratch, or are customizing your page/menu options, make sure your visitors can arrive home in 1 click from any page.

2. Link your Logo

This is a neat little trick that taps into something site visitors naturally expect. Clicking a website’s logo should immediately transport a visitor to the homepage. Whether your company logo is an image file, your name in bold text, animated clip art, or a mixed bag – it’s easy to link any item in your website to your homepage.

3. Cross-link Pages

Visitors shouldn’t have to “dig” to reach your deepest content. Linking related pages to one another opens up the navigation flow – for your users and search engines.

Cross-links for Photography / Artist Portfolios:

• Most popular photos
• Recently added galleries
• About this Gallery

For eCommerce Sites:

• Top products
• Promotional packages linked from HP
• Customers who bought THIS also bought THESE
• Recently reviewed items

For blogs / Personal / Article Websites:

• Similar posts
• Most popular posts
• Latest posts

4. Text Works Best

For your menu buttons and page navigation, try to use text-based links as much as possible, over images / icons / animations, etc. It’s cute to use a funky CD player icon to link to your music page, but guess what? It means squat to Googlebot. Search engine crawlers cannot “read” anything but text, so elements that are crucial to your site’s architecture should be expressed with words:

5. Save the Personal Expression for your Content

We see too many portfolios with impressive artwork that takes too long to find. We know Wix’ free website editor makes it tempting to express your creativity. But when it comes to providing online visitors with content – don’t be a unique rebel.

Instead, treat your visitors to a headache-free experience with:

• Easy-to-spot links
• Good old-fashioned fonts like Arial and Times New Roman
• Link colors in high-contrast with background colors

A Few Final Words

Most of Wix’ free website templates are pre-built with user-friendly navigation. There is usually a homepage and a menu set up and linked to four or five other pages. If you are using several master pages, it’s especially important to make sure people and search engines can get around easily! Go over these 5 steps.

Make your website is easy to get around, and everyone goes home happy…even robots.

A few months ago, a news story broke out about a company that took a different approach to attracting Google’s attention. DecorMyEyes.com is an online seller of designer eyeglasses, whose owner – Vitaly Borker – harrassed and bullied his customers in an attempt to improve his company’s online visibility.

“Organic Link-Building” on a New Level

As angry customers posted furious comments about their DecorMyEyes experience on forums, blogs and consumer review sites, more and more backlinks to the company’s site were created. This type of activity attracted Googlebot…and new orders were placed from uninformed consumers conducting online searches for designer eyeglasses.

This was precisely the result anticipated by Borker, who himself posted a response on one of the forums stating:

“I just wanted to let you guys know that the more replies you people post, the more business and the more hits and sales I get. My goal is NEGATIVE advertisement.”

Unreal, right??

Art Imitates Web

The whole sleazy scam was actually reenacted in a single scene of a recent episode of Law & Order, SVU. From his hospital bed — after getting shot by an angry customer!–, the owner of a fictitious leather goods company explained his actions to Detectives Benson and Stabler.

Here’s the excerpt from the episode (titled “Bully”), summarized on the show’s website:

Alvarez shows no remorse about his tactics, explaining that the more comments his site generates, positive or negative, the higher his Google ranking and the more traffic to his website. Stabler determines that while Alvarez is a terrible, remorseless person, he has an alibi for the time of Ellen’s murder, as he was harassing yet another customer.

Being a Bully Doesn’t Pay Off

The real-life creep who pulled this stunt, Vitaly Borker, was arrested in December 2010 for fraud and harassment. As of this post, he awaits sentencing. He can face up to 20 years in prison.

A few weeks before the arrest, Google posted “Being bad to your customers is bad for business” on its blog. The post was a response to the DecorMyEyes scandal. Google announced that it had made a slight change to its algorithm in order to detect merchants who provide “an extremely poor user experience,” to avoid a repeat-offense.

Word to the wise: you can’t fool Google in the long-run.

We recommend instead that you play nice, don’t stalk or threaten your customers, and practice organic, civilized link-building.  :-)

While many people still don’t associatively link between social media and SEO, fact is most professional web SEO agencies are integrating social media into their SEO strategies.

The Merging of Social Media and SEO

So when and how did social media become symbiotic with SEO? Here’s a little timeline showing the main events:

• 2009: Google Social Search is added to Google’s algorithm, as a feature that finds “relevant public content from your friends and contacts and highlights it for you at the bottom of your search results.” When you search for something, you may find content written by someone you know, at the bottom of your search results with relevant links to Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, blogs, etc.

For example, when planning a trip to the south of France, my friend Brittany’s Flickr album pops up at the bottom of my search results:

• Dec. 2, 2010: Google and Bing both confirm that links from Twitter and Facebook can affect SEO. (Check it out in this article from SEOMoz.)

• Feb. 17, 2011: Google made a tune-up to Social Search, lifting social content so it appears higher on a page, mixed in with organic search results.

• Feb. 17, 2011: Bing released the Bing Bar – a tool that lets you access Facebook from inside Bing. Users can check their news feeds, notifications, update their statuses, and more. This was a sort-of “power move” by Bing, as Google Social Search does not include Facebook content.

What This All Means or Google vs. Facebook

Let’s face it: many of us learn about breaking-news and current events from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. By combining social web content with organic search results, Google and Bing are trying to get people back into the search box, and away from the “time-suck” of pure social media.

This merging of worlds could bring us more quality, comprehensive search results than we would receive from using only social media, or only search. The implications are huge. We could turn into more informed consumers, world-citizens. We may even find ourselves connecting to people in interesting new ways. Or we might just crack open a Bud and stare aimlessly.

How to Maximize Your Visibility on the New Social Web

1. Customize your social media for the web. Wix recently released a great app for fully customized Facebook fan pages. Use it.
2. Become an “authority” on social media sites. When someone you know searches for something you mention or offer inside your website, now you can boost the chances of appearing inside results. Post a relevant video on YouTube, a photo album on Flickr, maintain a blog, a Tweet-schedule and a Facebook campaign. Link all of these back to your website.
3. Continue practicing SEO. If people wind up spending more time searching the web and less time stalking their Facebook friends, that means more search volume inside Google and Bing.

Chuck the SEO Rapper

There’s been a recent buzz around his “Page Rank” video which started with an article in the New York Times earlier this week featuring the clip. Although the video was originally released on YouTube around a year and a half ago, its message remains highly relevant today – and its popularity is actually growing.

A likely reason is this: As it becomes easier and easier to make your own website, people are getting more and more interested in getting their sites noticed.

The SEO Rapper fits perfectly into this trend of simplifying things for the average consumer. He makes something with a reputation of being “complicated” and “technical” (i.e. Google’s PageRank) into something fun that people can enjoy:

Who is “The SEO Rapper”?

Chuck Lewis, or the “SEO Rapper”, is a web savvy MC who has carved out quite a niche for himself. A professional online strategist by trade, Lewis has worked at several online marketing agencies where he honed his knowledge and inspiration for the videos. He combined his interests in hip-hop and internet marketing, and recorded a series of rap videos released on YouTube, with lyrics that tackle different areas of web-marketing. Popular titles include “Social Media Marketing”, (Oct. 2010), “Page Rank” (Sept. 2009), “Design Coding” (March 2008) and the first track recorded, “Link Building 101″ (Feb. 2007).

Words to Live By

Each rap is as hilarious as it is educational.

Here are some of our favorite snippets by The SEO Rapper. You may want to hum these pearls of wisdom to yourself while you work on optimizing your Wix website:

“your links should always be adding not subtracting”

- from Page Rank

“the internet changed its all about sharing, web 2.0 / on the road or at home / mac book or on my phone”

– from Social Media Marketing

“make friends with who you’re targeting / get a buzz and it goes viral / social media marketing”

– from Social Media Marketing

Check out the rest of the beats by The SEO Rapper on his own site, theseorapper.com, or his YouTube channel.

Gaining links to your website is a challenging task. No nicer way to put it. This also happens to be the key to getting Google to find and index your site.

Search Engines Crawl on Links

Visitors will only discover your site through Google, Bing and the other search engines if those search engines already know about your site in advance. Search engines send “crawlers” all around the web to locate and retrieve data about new sites. This data is used to match a user’s query in a search, in order to provide him or her with the most relevant results.

Getting a new site noticed by the search engines can take time. Submitting your site to the search engines directly can help speed up the process. But this method pales in comparison to the power of link-building. “Link-bait” is the most powerful way to attract search engines.

4 Ways to Gain Links:

1.       Submit Site URL to Directories

Directories are like online libraries of sites. They are themselves websites that categorize and list other sites, based on topic. Getting listed in a directory can boost your site’s visibility with a valuable backlink. DMoz is the web’s largest and most popular directory. It’s somewhat of a challenge to get listed, and there are specific instructions on the DMoz site. Smaller, niche-based directories can be powerful as well. For instance, if you’re an art gallery, try searching the web for art-based directories.

2.       Submit Content to Article Databases

Article databases like EzineArticles.com and Squidoo.com have loads of articles written on a variety of topics. Write a few quality articles relating to your website’s niche, and include some backlinks to your website. Try to use keywords as the anchor text for your links. Here’s a list of the Top 50 article directories.

3.       Write and Release Press Releases

Same concept as the article submissions, only the content must be announcing something news-worthy related to your website, or industry. A product release, a special event or promotion, a new partnership, etc. are all great fodder for press releases. Include backlinks to your website. PRWeb and 24-7 Press Release are great PR sites to use. They cost money, but can lead to valuable links.

4.       Social Networking

Getting involved in an online community related to your niche can lead to many link-building opportunities. Blogs, forums and social media sites are full of people interested in the same topics as you, looking to connect and form business relationships. Join as many of these groups as you can, and make yourself known as someone offering value to the community. Guest blogging and affiliate marketing are two great ways to gain back-links to your Flash website.

Check out this post for more tips and advice on link-building strategies, including how to check the amount of back-links your Wix site has.

We last checked-in with our SEO Clinic patients a few weeks ago. Let’s catch up with our wedding photographers.

Blaine Photographers

Main Keyword = “California wedding photographers”

Google Rank History:

• before SEO: 650
• after 5 weeks of SEO: 49
• after 7 weeks of SEO: 7

What’s New with Blaine:

Since checking into the Wix SEO Clinic, Blaine Photography has enjoyed increased visibility in search engines, and actually booked 2 weddings! We are thrilled with their success (and are not surprised – these guys are excellent photographers).

Megan Blaine, a savvy businesswoman and half of the Blaine team, has taken it to the next step, contacting publishers of top wedding-industry blogs, promoting her photography services and scoring herself some killer links. Has successfully managed to get herself featured at TheKnot.com, and Style Me Pretty.

“It’s a full-and-a-half-time job”, says Megan, of her SEO efforts. “The thing that helps the most is connecting to other wedding vendors and working together to promote each other. Also link exchange.”

Jaime Miller Photography

Main Keyword = “New Jersey wedding photographer”

Google Rank History:

• before SEO: 350
• after 5 weeks of SEO: 70
• after 7 weeks of SEO: 11
• after 10 weeks of SEO: 3

What’s New with Jaime Miller:

Jaime Miller’s ranking jumped from # 11 to # 3 since we last checked in. That’s a phenomenal change, and placed her right smack at the top of page 1 results in Google. A stellar combination of on-site SEO optimization and a back-link campaign pushed Jaime’s site to where it is today. She made sure her site had updated, fully optimized-content that would feed those hungry spiders and keep them coming back for more.

Studio 48

Main keyword = “Minnesota wedding photographer”

Google Rank History:

• before SEO: 150
• after 5 weeks of SEO: 25
• after 7 weeks of SEO: 5

What’s New with Studio 48:

Studio 48 remains on Page 1 of Google for it’s main keyword phrase. True, there was a 2-spot drop since we last checked, but it’s normal for rankings to slightly fluctuate as Google re-indexes the site. This is not necessarily something to be concerned with, so long as you continue your SEO efforts. Studio 48′s site has undergone a major renovation of format and visual layout, and they’ve added a link to their own wedding photo blog – a terrific way to score SEO brownie points, with constantly updated content.

No Check-Out

SEO is an ongoing-effort that actually benefits from the passing of time. New sites have more of an uphill battle when it comes to getting ranked by Google. But each time your site gets indexed is a fresh chance for you to present Google with new reasons to boost your ranking. For ideas on how to increase your ranking in Google, review the Wix SEO Clinic’s earlier chapters and see real SEO success stories – from real Wix users like you!

Last week, we took a deep look at the visibility of 3 Wix websites in Google. While the sites may have been ranking well for their own names or URLs, if you run a small business – most of your potential customers out there aren’t going to be searching for you by name before they land on your site for the first time.

Real Results in Google

During their “stay” at the Wix SEO Clinic, these sites underwent rigorous tracking by our SEO experts, to see how SEO efforts affected their rankings in Google. We searched for each site’s target keyword in Google, before any of our recommended changes were implemented. We conducted these searches every few days and marked down the # that each site ranked for its particular keyword. Sure enough, over the course of 5 weeks, some real progress was shown:

Case Study # 1: Blaine Photographers

• Main keyword = “California wedding photographers”
• Google rank before SEO:  650
• Google rank after 5 weeks of SEO:  49

Case Study # 2: Jaime Miller Photography

• Main keyword: “New jersey wedding photographer”
• Google rank before SEO: 350
  
• Google rank after 5 weeks of SEO: 70

Case Study # 3: Studio 48

• Main keyword: “Minnesota wedding photographer”
• Google rank before SEO: 150
• Google rank after 5 weeks of SEO: 25

How Did These Jumps Happen?

Magic? No. SEO efforts? Definitely.

As you can see, some real changes were made in the rankings of these 3 Wix websites. (Remember: in terms of search engine rankings – the lower the ranking, the more visible your site is to those searching for your keywords!)

These users followed step-by-step instructions given by the Wix SEO Clinic, and implemented minor changes inside their websites in order to make them more attractive to Google. These changes are known as SEO. In addition, our experts submitted these sites to some key places on the web, in order to score some powerful backlinks (a.k.a. Google food).

3 Sites, 3 SEO Treatments

1. Optimize Meta Data (Blaine, Jaime Miller, Studio 48)

This is probably the most important thing you can do for your website’s SEO. It’s also really easy with the Wix website builder. There is now a main keyword for each site in both the <Title> tag, and meta description.

2. Added Content to Home Page (Blaine)

To add some content to their site’s home page without disrupting the page’s clean look and feel, we told the folks of Blaine Photography to add footer text. This was done by creating a text box, and simply dragging it to the bottom of the main page. Using the color pickW tool in the editor, a light gray color was chosen for this text, keeping it readable yet not too distracting.

Footer text is a terrific opportunity to get in some quality content, while preserving the look of your site’s homepage. Blaine wrote a basic description of their services in their footer text. And of course, keywords were also included.

3. Added Keyword-Rich Headers (Blaine, Studio 48)

Google loves headers. To add a header in a Wix document, select the “Text” tool and select “Title”. Title texts in Wix are interpreted by Google as header tags.

Blaine was asked by one of our doctors at the Wix SEO Clinic, to add the following keyword-rich headers to various pages in their site.

Home Page Header: “California Wedding Photographers”; Page 2 Header: “California Wedding Photos”; Page 3 Header: “California Engagement Photos”; Page 4 Header: “California Wedding Photographers”; Page 5 Header: “Wedding Photographer Prices”; Page 7 Header: “Wedding Photographer Blog”

Studio 48 was told to add a keyword header on Home page = “Minnesota wedding photographer”

4. Submitted to Google Places (Blaine, Jaime Miller, Studio 48)

This is a crucial step for any small business hoping to get ranked for regional keywords. We submitted each of these websites to Google Places, and customized their profiles. The instructions for doing this are explained pretty well at the Google Places site.

5. Submitted to Wedding Photographer Directories

To gain some more backlinks (and inject some SEO juice into these sites), we looked for some good wedding photography directories. Getting listed in a directory once you submit your URL can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, but it’s well worth the wait. Especially if it’s a directory with a good PageRank. For our wedding photographers, we submitted to the following directories: www.wedplan.net, www.photographypros.com, www.freephotogallery.info,  and www.ferenc.biz.

Resources

We told these users exactly what to do in order to optimize their site’s performance in Google. If you want to do the same for your site, follow the steps listed above. Here are some helpful links to help you along the way:

• How to Choose Your Keywords
  
• How to Optimize Your Site Title and Description Meta
• How to Make Header Tags in Wix
• How to Get Ranked for Physical Locations
• How to Gain Backlinks

Note: These methods can be applied to any site created with Wix – whether a free website or premium. There’s no excuse for applying some basic, subtle SEO adjustments to your site to get the best traffic you can.

Remember: SEO is an ongoing process.  We will continue to track the position of these sites as time goes by, more pages are crawled, indices are updated – and SEO efforts continue to be made.

Stay tuned for more Wix SEO Clinic!