mYfAVE'StOYOU: 2012

lunes, 31 de diciembre de 2012

5 Ways to Differentiate Your Company from Your Competitors

5 Ways to Differentiate Your Company from Your Competitors

Post from: Quality SEO Services & Link Building Services

5 Ways to Differentiate Your Company from Your CompetitorsPost from: Quality SEO Services & Link Building Services In a world where competition is fierce and everyone seems to be offering a ?me too? service or product, it?s important to find ways to differentiate your company from your competitors. But just how does one go about [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/quantumseolabs/~3/FE3BaktZgUs/

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What?s the ROI of Corporate Blogging?

In a few weeks this business blog will be 9 years old. �That’s 3,145 posts overall, of which I have written 2,537 myself. If someone would have suggested to me 9 years ago that I should write 1.2 million words as a key component of my agency’s online marketing strategy, I would have dismissed them [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog/~3/iFUEMyb26C4/

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The 3 Step Guide to Creating Pinterest-friendly Graphics for Your Blog

It�s well established that Pinterest can be a strong driver of traffic. We�ve been having a lot of success at our Digital Photography School account and have seen other blogs, like Hair Romance, experiencing similar success. In my experience, most bloggers focus on curating boards to build their expertise and drive traffic back to their [...]

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

The 3 Step Guide to Creating Pinterest-friendly Graphics for Your Blog

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney/~3/yJ4IZ1AQzsU/

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The Path to SEO Success

Ever wonder how to succeed as an SEO? Dr Pete Meyers of User Effect wrote an excellent “love letter” to newbie SEOs that is worth re-sharing. You won’t find the usual basic technical SEO tips in his letter, nor would …

The Path to SEO Success was originally posted on the Phoenixrealm SEO Blog by Gary Cottam.

You can connect with Gary on Google+, on Twitter @garycottam, or follow these links to find out more about Doublespark SEO or Doublespark Web Design.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/phoenixrealm/UynW/~3/sw1fUhUk3r4/

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I?m Back? Let?s Make SEJ a Better Place

I am back temporarily. I will be helping out at SEJ until a new editor can be found and the SEJ Advisory Board is set up and running. Search Engine Journal is going to be doing some restructuring for 2013 and until the new year we are going to be reaching out to the industry [...]

The post I’m Back… Let’s Make SEJ a Better Place appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SearchEngineJournal/~3/woolYm-PeLc/

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10 Reasons Why Public Relations is a ?Must-do? for SEO in 2013

Until recently SEO and PR often made uneasy bedfellows, although this has been changing as more people realize how much they have to offer each other. These are the best reasons SEO professionals should get to grips with public relations in 2013.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/sewblog/~3/d_O57QLJA_c/10-Reasons-Why-Public-Relations-is-a-Must-do-for-SEO-in-2013

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Why every department needs to care about SEO

SEO used to be something that happened on the sidelines of a business, usually by some tech specialist in a separate office. It often seemed like it had very little ...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seoptimise/~3/eVqKI4LODKQ/why-every-department-needs-to-care-about-seo.html

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Worldwide Social Media Usage Trends in 2012

With social networks playing an increasingly important part in many people's lives, more global businesses are taking advantage of the social media benefits ? for advertising, promotions, PR, customer services, market research, recruitment and more.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/sewblog/~3/cakNnQtLfzI/Worldwide-Social-Media-Usage-Trends-in-2012

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Get More Blog Readers Using Lessons from Email Marketers

This guest post is by Alana Bender. Bloggers could probably stand to learn a few marketing tips from email marketers. For years, email marketers have used all kinds of demographic email lists to build up customer bases. They’ve created lists aimed at women aged 40-plus, with kids, driving a family car, and working part-time from [...]

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Get More Blog Readers Using Lessons from Email Marketers

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney/~3/y4t-Q-ATidw/

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How to set up Google Authorship and why I should care

Google Authorship has been around for a fair while now and with growing speculation about whether AuthorRank will be incorporated in Google?s algorithm next, you need to make sure you have it set up properly for your website. Aside from being speculated to inform the next algorithm update, Authorship can provide other benefits such as

Source: http://www.branded3.com/blogs/how-to-set-up-google-authorship-and-why-i-should-care/

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The 12 Days of Social Media & Content Marketing

The team at TopRank Online Marketing would like to wish our online community a very merry holiday season.� I for one get very nostalgic around the holidays and count down the days (starting in October) until I get to gather with family and friends to share a meal and make new memories. For many families, [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog/~3/sCovephFmxI/

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Setting up Google plus communities ? what you need to know

If�you’ve�been on Google + recently, you might have noticed Google?s latest feature called�Google+ communities. It?s probably too early to judge its success just yet, but based on my personal Google ...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seoptimise/~3/yCpT5KIX6w4/setting-up-google-plus-communities-what-you-need-to-know.html

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5 Ways to Differentiate Your Company from Your Competitors

5 Ways to Differentiate Your Company from Your Competitors

Post from: Quality SEO Services & Link Building Services

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/quantumseolabs/~3/FE3BaktZgUs/

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How Out of Date is the Learning Center and AdWords Exam?

AdWords has changed a bit over the years. The interface changes, functions come and go, new settings appear? The problem is that not everything changes at the same time, ...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seoptimise/~3/ro376B_cW1k/how-out-of-date-is-the-adwords-exam.html

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The importance of updating your social buttons

In an attempt to stay ahead of the curve it is imperative to read industry blogs and white papers, everyone knows this. But as a Social Media Strategist, I am more often than not logged in to a brand account on Facebook. These two points seem to be mutually exclusive and bare no obvious link,

Source: http://www.branded3.com/blogs/the-importance-of-updating-your-social-buttons/

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5 Ways to Differentiate Your Company from Your Competitors

5 Ways to Differentiate Your Company from Your Competitors

Post from: Quality SEO Services & Link Building Services

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/quantumseolabs/~3/FE3BaktZgUs/

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Video SEO plugin video

I’ve been very hard at work with the Video SEO plugin, adding support for the most used video embed plugins for WordPress. See the changelog for specifics. The plugin is, I’m proud to say, selling well and people seem to be loving it. I’m also working on another project with the guys from Video User…

Video SEO plugin video is a post by Joost de Valk on Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/joostdevalk/~3/LDYf7XxKQ60/

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Our Looking into the Crystal Ball of 2013 Predications Post

It's hard to believe it is the middle of December and a whole year has blown by.� To say 2012 was an interesting year would be an understatement, one thing is for sure, it was never dull!

Some of the SEOBook Moderators and I want to share what we feel will be hot (or not) in 2013, we have a diverse mixture of topics, opinions and practical marketing tactics for you to consider.� First up is our fearless leader Aaron Wall!

Aaron Wall

Google Verticals

I believe we'll see additional Google verticals launched (soon) and they'll be added to the organic search listings.� My guess is that (now that the advisor ad units are below AdWords) we can expect to see Google seriously step into education & insurance next year. I also expect them to vastly expand their automotive category in 2013.

SEO's Move On

Tired by the pace of change & instability in the search ecosystem (along with the "2 books of guidelines" approach of enforcement in the search ecosystem), many people who are known as SEOs will move on in 2013. Many of these will be via acquisitions, and many more will be due to people simply hanging it up & moving on.

Rebranding Away From SEO

A company in the SEO niche that has long been known as an SEO company will rebrand away from the term SEO. After that happens, that will lead to a further polarization of public discourse (where most anything that is effective and profitable gets branded as being spam), only further fueling #2.

Geordie Carswell from Clearly Canadian (err, we mean here)

Adwords

Regarding Adwords, Google will aggressively dial up Quality Scores on keywords that have languished in activity due to low-QS but haven't yet been deleted by advertisers. They seem to have given Quality Scores a bump across the board in Q4, bringing in unexpected increases in traffic and cost to advertisers who weren't aware 'dormant' keywords were even still in their accounts. It's a fantastic revenue generator almost on-demand for Google if the quarterly numbers aren't looking good.

Peter DaVanzo (aka Kiwi)

Building Brand

More focus on building brands i.e. the people behind the site, their story, their history.

This is to encourage higher levels of engagement, leading to increased loyalty. Making the most of the traffic we already have

Eric Covino� (aka vanillacoke)

SEO Diversifies

I think the industry will continue to become more divisive as more people either get out or go more underground and those that continue to remain overly-public will continue to invent language to serve their own commercial purposes while chastising those who do not fall in line; labeling these folks as spammers and bad for the industry in desperate attempts at differentiation so they can continue to try and sell to brands and the lower part of the consumer pyramid (read: mindless sheep)

There will be exceptions where the company will do and probably continue to do really well, but largely those who try and move from being pure SEO agencies to full service [insert new term here] ad-type agencies will fail at delivering real value to their clients. These people will resort to more outing and public spam report filings despite their amusing posts on how they are "different" and "clean". I believe this will spawn a return of enterprise-level SEO services to competent SEO's and SEO firms but not to the "point, link, report ranking agencies". I believe the latter will die a faster death in 2013. Technical proficiency in SEO will become more and more valuable as well, especially if enterprise-level SEO returns as I think it will.

SEO Pricing Structures Will Change

A fractured search landscape where data is harder to come by (not provided, rank checking issues, mobile disruption) in addition to frequent algo shifts and confusion with local rankings will make low-cost SEO much harder to justify and measure, especially in the local area. These issues, coupled with the rising cost of doing business online, will make low to even moderate budget SEO (really low 4 figures or high 3 figures per month) difficult to provide effectively and profitably over a sustained period of time.

The closing window will stay somewhat wide for those that stay around and can afford to take down the margins a bit on some projects. This would be a result of a fairy sizable exodus from the industry as a whole (the self-SEO crowd, for lack of a better term)

Debra Mastaler from Alliance Link

Mobile Applications (apps) and Content for Them

Doesn't it seem like everyone has been talking about the mobile explosion for years now?� I'm jumping on that bandwagon but from a slightly different angle.

If your product lends itself to having an app, I'd urge you to get one started, even if it's a basic program or you have to partner with someone to make it happen.� Recent statistics show there are one billion smart phone users and five billion mobile phone users in the world; being seen on mobile devices is no longer a novelty when those kinds of numbers are involved.� So how do you get your content in front of mobile users?�

For Android fans, you can turn your best content into an Android App by using tools like AppsGeyser.� Their simple three step process allows you to create apps by using content you've already written or showcasing a widget you have in service. If you have evergreen content or a popular widget a lot of people download, create an app to keep them one click away and receiving fresh streams of content from your site.

If you're in a space already filled with apps or can't create one, consider creating unique content to go with what is out there.�� For example, novelist Robin Sloan created an iPhone app for ?tappable? content.� To move the story along, you tap the screen to the next page.� It is a super simple concept that has exploded over the Internet.�� (For more tappable story examples visit here)� creating this kind of content sets you apart from your competitors and provides you with a fresh news angle to pitch the media.

If you do create an app, add it to popular download sites like iTunes but make it exclusively available on your website first.�

(Tip:� Search on ?content for iPad? for ideas on creating unique content for tablets and then use the suggestions above to promote them)

Video

OK, more impressive stats to start this section:�

?In general, we know that 800 million people around the world use YouTube each month, a stat that I'm sure we're going to see increase to a billion soon.� And nearly all 100 of AdAge's top 100 advertisers have run ad campaigns on YouTube and Google Display Network?98 in fact.?

There is the word ?billion? again!� But there's more and it comes appropriately, right after my pitch for mobile apps:

??mobile access, which gets over 600 million views a day, tripled in 2011.?

They are talking about access to YouTube here, that's an astonishing number of views per day.� Add to it video results have a tendency to:

be shown in the first fold of the organic search results (so annoying)
help make a site ?sticky?
are easily passed around social media sites ?like? Facebook

Three sound reasons why you should be involved in making and promoting video in 2013.� Since video works well on smartphones, I'd focus equal resources on creating, optimizing and promoting video and written content in 2013. Check out what top brands are doing on YouTube for promotion ideas, where they're pimping their vids and how.� �(And an app to play them on, see above) J

Content Partnerships and Variety is a Search Spice

I think everyone will agree using ?content? is the tactic du jour when it comes to attracting links and traffic.� I expect the trend to continue and with good reason, online news outlets, magazines and topical blogs are as eager to run good content as webmasters are to place it.�� Finding good outlets will be key, when you do, consider developing a ?content partnership" with a set number of sites and negotiate to place more than written content.

What is a content partnership?� In a nutshell it's an exclusive commitment you have to provide content to a set number of sites.� You find a handful of authoritative sites to write for and negotiate the amount and type of content you want to submit. They in turn, get a steady stream of well-produced content and build a solid editorial team.� Win-win!

In a perfect world it's best to be the only one writing on a topic but we all know perfection is hard to achieve.� In that case, zero in on what you want to write about and approach an outlet with a narrow focus.� For example, instead of saying "I'll write all your baby food articles", say, "I'll provide articles, podcasts and videos on natural and organic baby food".� You are much more likely to get what you want if you agree to create content on a specific subject rather than a broad or general topic.

Authentic networking will be key in the future, lock down your sources early and take advantage of the popularity boost you'll receive associating with highly visible, authority sites in your niche.� Use a variety of content methods, the public doesn't live on written content alone.� Video, news and images dominate universal search results; create this type of content so you improve your chances of being seen especially if brands dominate your sector. (So annoying!)

Will Spencer from Tech FAQ

The Value of Links

With Google penalizing obviously generated links instead of simply ignoring them, the value of less-obviously generated links will continue to rise. This will result in higher prices for paid links and an improved return on investment for those links. It will also bring link trading back in vogue, particularly with three-way linking.

We'll be paying more (or charging more) for links than ever before. With most links being discounted or penalized, it will require fewer links to rank -- but those links will have to be acquired at higher prices.

Anita Campbell from Small Business Trends

Website Design Goes Pinterest

We are seeing more websites and blogs designed and displayed a la Pinterest. Content appears in visual boxes with limited text. With that comes a lot more of the infinite scroll ? the page that never ends. The new Mashable design is an example. It is hard to tell whether this is a short term fad or a long term trend ? but when you have an infinite scrolling page the footer often goes. So all those footer links ? well, many may go away.

Social Media Gets the Blender Effect

Social media aggregators are popping up like mushrooms. Tools like Rebelmouse, Scoop.it, Paper.li and a dozen more grab Facebook posts, tweets, retweets and/or blog posts, and mix them all together in a visually appealing presentation that you can embed on your own domain. Some of these tools are not so hot for SEO (all the content is in javascript and/or iframes) or they duplicate a page that resides on the tool's own site, and search agencies will have to get good at sorting them out and explaining the pros and cons to clients who say ?I want one!?

The Line Between Content and Advertising Further Blurs:

The CPM rates of banner ads continue to drop, and the standard banner ad sizes are less appealing except as AdWords. The hot types of advertising today are:

Rich media such as ads that slide out or down when you slide over or large videos that begin to play, and larger sizes that take up a lot of space on the page (even Google this year introduced the 300 x 600 ?half-page? size ad);
?Native ads? which are ads that sites like Twitter and Facebook sell such as sponsored tweets and sponsored posts ? leading to the further commercialization of social media;
Sponsored content, such as sponsored blog posts and sponsored content features on news sites.

There are different schools of thought around sponsored content, and publishers and agencies need to understand the differences and figure out where they want to play. The natural tendency of many SEO professionals is to think of sponsored content purely as link building. But in my experience, sponsors can have many goals and they may have nothing to do with link building. For many sponsors, their goals are branding, product launch exposure, co-citation/co-reference, thought leadership, sales lead generation, general PR, and/or building positive social media sentiment.

Depending on the sponsor's goals, sponsored content covers a wide range. It can range from run-of-the-mill link buying and selling, to various levels of guest blog posting ("spun" junk to high quality well-researched articles), to custom-written content pieces such as articles, eBooks and webinars that are clearly labeled as sponsored, designed to build thought leadership, reach out to new audiences, and to associate the sponsor's name with certain topics.

Marketing agencies will want to sort out the client's objectives, and also educate clients on the broader benefits to be had from sponsored content.

Now you know our thoughts for 2013, what are yours?�

On behalf of everyone here at SEOBook, we wish you a joyous holiday season and much success in 2013!

Debra Mastaler is an experienced link building & publicity expert who has trained clients for over a decade at�Alliance-Link. She is the link building moderator of our SEO Community & can be found on Twitter @DebraMastaler.

Source: http://www.seobook.com/2013-predications

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SEJ Talks with Marketing Dynamo Bryan Eisenberg

Recently, I had the distinct pleasure of talking with one of the web’s most influential marketing experts,�Bryan Eisenberg. The interview you see below is the end result of these discussions. Eisenberg, co-author of the best selling books�”Call to Action,” “Waiting For Your Cat to Bark?,” and “Always Be Testing“, is one of the industry’s most [...]

The post SEJ Talks with Marketing Dynamo Bryan Eisenberg appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SearchEngineJournal/~3/R91fhOGzUIs/

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Persuasion Optimization

There are many ways to optimize.

We optimize to align a site with search engine algorithms in order to gain higher rankings, which, in turn, leads to visitor traffic. Other forms of optimization occur after the visitor has landed on our pages.

One such optimization is called persuasion optimization.

After going to the effort of getting a visitor to land on our pages, the last thing we want them to do is to click back. We want them to read and act upon our messages.

There Are Many Ways To Persuade

Robert Cialdini, a Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University, identified six categories into which persuasion techniques commonly fall: reciprocity, consistency, social proof, liking, authority and scarcity.

We can use these techniques to optimize both our content and site design so that visitors are more likely to stay on our pages, and more likely to convert to desired action.

Whilst these techniques could be seen as being manipulative, it depends how they?re used. If used in good faith, they?re a natural part of the ritual involved in selling people on our point of view. On the other hand, being aware of these techniques makes them easy to spot if used against us!

1. Reciprocity

Reciprocity is when we give something to someone, and they return the favour. The act of reciprocity is so ingrained in our culture, it can occur whether the person asked for the favor or not, and whether the people involved previously knew each other, or not.

Reciprocity creates an obligation.

Examine your offer to see if you can give something of real value away. For example, some information product vendors give away large chunks of the product, or long trials. People may reciprocate by paying for the remaining sections or full product. They may have been less likely to do so if the vendor gave less value up front. Think about what you can do for your audience, rather than the other way around.

Another way of thinking about reciprocity is to provide a concession. If you concede something small, but do so early, the other party may feel obligated to concede something greater later on.

For example, ask for something significant. When this is turned down, ask for something moderate - the moderate request being what you wanted all along. The second request is more likely to be accepted as it appears you?ve already made a concession, so the other party feels obligated to do likewise.

2. Commitment and Consistency

People like people to be consistent.

People who lack consistency can be seen as untrustworthy or disorganized. If we?re consistent, it reduces complexity, because other people don?t have to re-evaluate us each time they need to make a decision about us. They merely need to remain consistent with their previous evaluation of us, and their previous decision. If we start acting differently, it forces a re-evaluation.

The same goes for websites.

Look for areas of your website where the messages may conflict. This could be as obvious as a mistake in the copy about the offer, or as subtle as a change in tone of voice. Each page should flow from one to the next in a consistent manner, using consistent tone and design, and the message should not contradict, or wander off on unexpected tangents.

There are exceptions of course. If you?re trying to shock people, or draw attention to something out of the ordinary, then playing against consistency can work. However, consistency would have to have been established first, before it?s possible to successfully play against it.

3. Social Proof

Does your site show evidence that other people find it valuable? Examples may include testimonials, reviews, and associations.

Social proof helps establish trust quickly by leveraging existing trust relationships. If someone trusts those associations you cite - say, ?As seen in the New York Times? - or is merely inclined to trust the crowd over their own judgement, then the path of least resistance is to trust you, too.

Establishing trust quickly is critical online, because it?s easy for the user to click back, so social proof can be a very powerful technique.

It?s also easy to get wrong, as to can look contrived. People are most likely to be persuaded by social proof if the person or entity providing the proof is a known authority. Who does your audience already know and trust? Some sites make the mistake of using testimonials from non-entities.

4. Liking

People like to do business with those they like.

Attractive people, rightly or wrongly, can be persuasive, as others tend to assign them positive traits. At a base level, the use of physically attractive male and female models is a staple of the advertising industry. At a higher level, people respond to people who are like them. The attraction is based on similarity.

In terms of web marketing, your level of ?likeability? will very much depend on the audience. A
site selling fashion is likely to be aspirational i.e. less like the actual audience, but exhibiting attractive traits to which the audience aspires. A site selling technical solutions will likely focus on familiarity and affinity. A site about weighty subjects will likely convey intellectualism. It's all a way of mirroring the audience, either literally who they are or how they perceive they are, in order to be liked.

Another aspect of liking is association. Look at ways you can associate yourself with entities or people you visitors already like. Common tactics include aligning your site with a charity, celebrity or industry event.

5. Authority

People often respond to authority figures.

?Correct conduct? is a response to authority figures. For example, the ?white hat/black hat? positioning in SEO is defined by an authority figure, in this case, the search engine and their representatives.

Authority on websites can be conveyed using symbols, qualifications and associations. However, these days, people tend to more cynical of authority than in times past. They will likely question authority by wanting to see evidence of claims made, and try to establish if the person telling them the information is trustworthy.

Does your site offer evidence and proof of your claims?

6. Scarcity

We tend to undervalue what is plentiful, and overvalue what is scarce.

An overt use of this tactic is to create artificial scarcity, particularly in the frauduct world. For example, I?m sure you?ve seen aggressive marketers claiming there are only so many places/products left, in an attempt to make you perceive scarcity, so you?re more inclined to act impulsively.

Cialdini notes:

?According to psychological reactance theory, people respond to the loss of freedom by wanting to have it more. This includes the freedom to have certain goods and services. As a motivator, psychological reactance is present throughout the great majority of a person's life span. However, it is especially evident at a pair of ages: "the terrible twos" and the teenage years. Both of these periods are characterized by an emerging sense of individuality, which brings to prominence such issues as control, individual rights, and freedoms. People at these ages are especially sensitive to restrictions?.

People are most attracted to scarcity when they are newly scare i.e. they haven?t always been scarce, and secondly, when other people are competing for the same resources. In terms of a website, these two concepts could be combined. Time is both running out, and demand has been overwhelming. This is also a form of social proof, of course.

Summary

Seth Godin said ?All Marketers Are Liars?

There are elements of manipulation and story-telling in marketing, and no doubt you can see these concepts in some of the worst examples of web marketing. But they also exist in some of the best. And no doubt we all use some of these techniques, possibly unknowingly, in our everyday lives.

These ideas can be very powerful when combined on a website. Try evaluating your competitors against each of the six categories. Have they used them well? Overused them? Then audit your own site, experiment and track changes.

A little effort spent on persuasion can go a long way to maximizing the value of the traffic you have already won.

Categories:

marketing

Source: http://www.seobook.com/persuasion-optimization

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Persuasion Optimization

There are many ways to optimize.

One such optimization is called persuasion optimization.

After going to the effort of getting a visitor to land on our pages, the last thing we want them to do is to click back. We want them to read and act upon our messages.

There Are Many Ways To Persuade

We can use these techniques to optimize both our content and site design so that visitors are more likely to stay on our pages, and more likely to convert to desired action.

1. Reciprocity

Reciprocity creates an obligation.

Another way of thinking about reciprocity is to provide a concession. If you concede something small, but do so early, the other party may feel obligated to concede something greater later on.

2. Commitment and Consistency

People like people to be consistent.

The same goes for websites.

3. Social Proof

Does your site show evidence that other people find it valuable? Examples may include testimonials, reviews, and associations.

Establishing trust quickly is critical online, because it?s easy for the user to click back, so social proof can be a very powerful technique.

4. Liking

People like to do business with those they like.

5. Authority

People often respond to authority figures.

Does your site offer evidence and proof of your claims?

6. Scarcity

We tend to undervalue what is plentiful, and overvalue what is scarce.

Cialdini notes:

?According to psychological reactance theory, people respond to the loss of freedom by wanting to have it more. This includes the freedom to have certain goods and services. As a motivator, psychological reactance is present throughout the great majority of a person's life span. However, it is especially evident at a pair of ages: "the terrible twos" and the teenage years. Both of these periods are characterized by an emerging sense of individuality, which brings to prominence such issues as control, individual rights, and freedoms. People at these ages are especially sensitive to restrictions?.

Summary

Seth Godin said ?All Marketers Are Liars?

A little effort spent on persuasion can go a long way to maximizing the value of the traffic you have already won.

Categories:

marketing

Source: http://www.seobook.com/persuasion-optimization

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Bare Minimum SEO: 3 Things You Must Do

If you don?t have time, staff, or budget to invest fully in search engine optimization, you?re in a bit of a tough spot. However, there are a few minimal things you can do to help your website to be found by search engines and attract traffic.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/sewblog/~3/Jy7Fv4IuRqw/Bare-Minimum-SEO-3-Things-You-Must-Do

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3 Reasons Google Won?t Offer Car Insurance Comparisons in the US Anytime Soon

The following is a guest column written by Rory Joyce from CoverHound.

Last week Google Advisor made its long-awaited debut in the car insurance vertical -- in the UK. Given Google?s 2011 acquisition of BeatThatQuote.com, a UK comparison site, for 37.7 million pounds ($61.5 million US), it comes as little surprise that the company chose to enter the UK ahead of other markets. While some might suspect Google?s foray into the UK market is merely a trial balloon, and that an entrance into the US market is inevitable, I certainly wouldn?t hold my breath.

Here are three reasons Google will not be offering an insurance comparison product anytime soon in the US market:

1) High Opportunity Cost

Finance and insurance is the number one revenue - generating advertising vertical for Google, totaling $4 billion in 2011. While some of that $4 billion is made up of products like health insurance, life insurance and credit cards, the largest segment within the vertical is undoubtedly car insurance. The top 3 advertisers in the vertical as a whole are US carriers -- State Farm, Progressive and Geico -- spending a combined sum of $110 million in 2011.

The keyword landscape for the car insurance vertical is relatively dense. A vast majority of searches occur across 10-20 generic terms (ie - ?car insurance,? ?auto insurance,? ?cheap auto insurance,? ?auto insurance quotes,? etc). This is an important point because it helps explain the relatively high market CPC of car insurance keywords versus other verticals. All of the major advertisers are in the auction for a large majority of searches, resulting in higher prices. The top spot for head term searches can reach CPCs well over $40. The overall average revenue/click for Google is probably somewhere around $30. Having run run similar experiments with carrier click listing ads using SEM traffic, I can confidently assume that the click velocity (clicks per clicker) is around 1.5. So the average revenue per searcher who clicks is probably somewhere around $45 for Google.

Now, let?s speculate on Google?s potential revenues from advertisers in a comparison environment. Carriers? marketing allowable is approximately $250 per new policy. When structuring pay-for-performance pricing deep in the funnel (or on a sold-policy basis), carriers are unlikely to stray from those fundamentals. In a fluid marketplace higher in the funnel (i.e.� Adwords PPC), they very often are managing to a marginal cost per policy that far exceeds even $500 (see $40 CPCs). While it may seem like irrational behavior, there are two reasons they are able to get away with this:

a) They are managing to an overall average cost per policy, meaning all direct response marketing channels benefit from ?free,? or unattributable sales. With mega-brands like Geico, this can be a huge factor.

b) There are pressures to meet sales goals at all costs. Google presents the highest intent of any marketing channel available to insurance marketers. If marketers need to move the needle in a hurry, this is where they spend.

Regardless of how Google actually structures the pricing, the conversion point will be much more efficient for the consumer since they will be armed with rates and thus there will be less conversion velocity for Google. The net-net here is a much more efficient marketplace, and one where Google can expect average revenue to be about $250 per sold policy.

How does this match up against the $45 unit revenue they would significantly cannibalize? The most optimized and competitive carriers can convert as high as 10% of clicks into sales. Since Google would be presenting multiple policies we can expect that in a fully optimized state, they may see 50% higher conversion and thus 15% of clicks into sales. Here is a summary of the math:

With the Advisor product, in an optimized state, Google will make about $37.50 ($250 x .15) per clicker. Each cannibalized lead will thus cost Google $7.50 of unit revenue ($45 - $37.50). Given the dearth of compelling comparison options in insurance (that can afford AdWords), consumers would definitely be intrigued and so one can assume the penetration/cannibalization would be significant.

Of course there are other impacts to consider: How would this affect competition and average revenue for non-cannibalized clicks? Will responders to Advisor be incremental and therefore have zero opportunity cost?

2) Advisor Has Poor Traction in Other Verticals

Over the past couple of years, Google has rolled out its Advisor product in several verticals including: personal banking, mortgage, and flight search.

We know that at least mortgage didn?t work out very well. Rolled out in early 2011, it was not even a year before Google apparently shut the service down in January of 2012.

I personally don?t have a good grasp on the Mortgage vertical so I had a chat with a high-ranking executive at a leading mortgage site, an active AdWords advertiser. In talking to him it became clear that there were actually quite a bit of similarities between mortgage and insurance as it relates to Google including:

Both industries are highly regulated in the US, at the state level.
Both verticals are competitive and lucrative. CPCs in mortgage can exceed $40.
Like insurance, Google tested Advisor in the UK market first.

Hoping he could serve as my crystal ball for insurance, I asked, ?So why did Advisor for Mortgage fail?? His response was, ?The chief issue was that the opportunity cost was unsustainably high. Google needed to be as or more efficient than direct marketers who had been doing this for years. They underestimated this learning curve and ultimately couldn?t sustain the lost revenue as a result of click cannibalization.?

Google better be sure it has a good understanding of the US insurance market before entering, or else history will repeat itself, which brings me to my next point...

3) They Don?t Yet Have Expertise

Let?s quickly review some key differences between the UK and US insurance markets:

Approximately 80% of car insurance is purchased through comparison sites in the UK vs under 5% in the US.
There is one very business-friendly pricing regulatory body in the UK versus state-level, sometimes aggressive, regulation in the US.
The UK is an efficient market for consumers, the US is not. This means margins are tighter for UK advertisers, as evidenced by the fact that CPCs in the UK are about a third of what they are in the US.

As you can see, these markets are completely different animals. Despite the seemingly low barriers for entry in the UK, Google still felt compelled to acquire BeatThatQuote to better understand the market. Yet, it still took them a year and a half post acquisition before they launched Advisor.

I spoke with an executive at a top-tier UK insurance comparison site earlier this week about Google?s entry. He mentioned that Google wanted to acquire a UK entity primarily for its general knowledge of the market, technology, and infrastructure (API integrations). He said, ?Given [Google?s] objectives, it didn?t make sense for them to acquire a top tier site (ie - gocompare, comparethemarket, moneysupermarket, confused) so they acquired BeatThatQuote, which was unknown to most consumers but had the infrastructure in place for Google to test the market effectively.?

It?s very unlikely BeatThatQuote will be of much use for the US market. Google will need to build its product from the ground up. Beyond accruing the knowledge of a very complex, and nuanced market, they will need to acquire or build out the infrastructure. In the US there are no public rate APIs for insurance carriers; very few insurance comparison sites actually publish instant, accurate, real-time rates. Google will need to understand and navigate its way to the rates (though it?s not impossible). It will take some time to get carriers comfortable and then of course build out the technology. Insurance carriers, like most financial service companies, can be painfully slow.

Conclusion

I do believe Google will do something with insurance at some point in the US. Of the various challenges the company currently faces, I believe the high opportunity cost is the toughest to overcome. However, the market will shift. As true insurance comparison options continue to mature, consumers will be searching exclusively for comparison sites (see travel), and carriers will no longer be able to effectively compete at the scale they are now -- driving down the market for CPCs and thus lowering the opportunity cost.

This opportunity cost is much lower however for other search engines where average car insurance CPC?s are lower. If I am Microsoft or Yahoo, I am seriously considering using my valuable real estate to promote something worthwhile in insurance. There is currently a big void for consumers as it relates to shopping for insurance. A rival search engine can instantly differentiate themselves from Google overnight in one of the biggest verticals. This may be one of their best opportunities to regain some market share.

Categories:

business

Source: http://www.seobook.com/google-car-insurance

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