The web is a wonderful source of information. Sites about building web sites, internet marketing, SEO and PPC are in abundance, but how do you sift through the enormous quantity of information to find the most relevant data? Even for experienced and savvy web “experts” it is very difficult to select the relevant information, what chance does Josh have?

Planning, Business Strategy and Goals

Josh’s problem is actually much more acute. Josh has no planning, no business strategy and no goals. Josh needs a well defined business plan with clear achievable goals. The goals must be realistic with a good chance of succeeding. I asked Josh a few more questions to verify my impression of how runs his business.

Shia: Have you seen web sites you like?

Josh: A few

Shia: Do you have the URL of these sites?

Josh: No?

Shia: Josh. How long do you estimate it will take to build the web site?

Josh: A few weeks!

Shia: OK – How long do you think it will take until the web site starts to bring in profits?

Josh: Oh I guess a few months?

Shia: I see! Has your friend (Bill) who is building your web site given you a schedule with dates for completion of each stage?

Josh: No?

Shia: Did you write up a list of tasks and features you want include?

Josh: No?

Shia: Josh, if I understand correctly there is documentation designating the features you want.

Josh: Yes?

Shia: How did you make an agreement?

Josh: We just discussed the concept and Bill seems to know what to do.

Business Chaos

Josh’s business has no organization; I do not have space in this article to discuss how to put your business in order. The main issues are the stage and planning needed for a new web site.

Stages for setting up a New Web Site

The following is an example of a list of tasks needed to setup a new web site based on setting up an online health food store. The principles apply to every business. The idea is give you an overall idea of the different tasks needed to compete a successful execution of a new or updated web site.

• Research
• Requirements – Features
• Site Concept – Graphics design
• Contract – feature, pricing, schedule
• Development – stages of development with schedule
• Population
• Testing
• Launch

Research

The purpose of research is search out the online health food industry. Josh needs to know what’s out there. The type of products sold, prices and the look and feel of these sites. Here are some of the issues Josh should be studying.

How are the products displayed?

Range of products sold (organic, Nuts and Seeds, Beans and Grains, Macrobiotics)

Location, (local, regional, national, international….)

How much free health advice given, (diet, sports, nutrition, Vitamins …..)

How these sites are designed, (layout, graphics, images, navigation)

How to offer something these site don’t do.

Here are links to a few online health food stores, each has their own flavor

True Foods Market

yourhealthfoodstore

OrganicDirect

Green Acres Natural Foods Market

Williamsfoods

Organic Kingdom

Now Josh has a idea of the different designs used in online health food stores, he can visualize the type of web site to build.

Requirements – Features

Here is where Josh writes his shopping list, (products, feature and options). The planning stage includes requirements. This is where you or a consultant write up all the features you want for your site. For example you want to have a shopping cart where users can select items and add or remove them from the shopping cart. You probably want to arrange your products into and sub-groups, (see below for an example).

• CMS (Content Management Systems) where products may be added and updated
• Product title
• Photo
• Description
• Price
• Layout

• Shopping Cart – Payment gateway
• Stock Control

I cannot emphasis how important writing down all the features you want and ensuring the developer understands and signs the document with a well defined date schedule for completion of each stage. The payments should be linked to progress, as each stage is completed.

Example of List of Products

Options for selecting from the home page (each option will have a space for photo)

a. Health food

b. Nuts and Seeds

1. Almond Nuts

2. Cashew Nuts

3. Roasted

4. Nuts

5. Seeds

6. Raw Nuts

1. Almonds

2. Brazil Nuts

3. Cashews

4. Hazelnuts

c. Beans and Grains

1. Beans

2. Bean Soups

3. Lentils

4. Peas

5. Grains

6. Rice

d. Organic foods

e. Nutritional supplements (Vitamins and minerals)

f. Macrobiotics and Whole Cereals

g. Herbs

h. Diet and Energy

i. Sports Nutrition

See below for an example of products

Site Concept

Graphic designer creates several examples how the home page will look, (no programming done at this stage)

The process is review and changing the design until you to arrive at final blueprint.

My next post will continue with Site Concept

My Analysis of the Situation:

• Advertising on Google’s Content Network was consuming 85% of the company’s on-line advertising budget. The Content Network is an option when advertising with Google that is enabled by default. If you do not want this option, you have to turn it off.

• One keyword was attracting a lot of clicks for a product that the company did not sell.

• Keywords were poorly selected.

• The names of competitors’ products and companies were not included in the keyword list.

• The PPC ads were not showing up on European Google sites like France, Germany and Russia.

• The same ad was used for about 20 products.

• The ads had URLs pointing to the home page and not to the appropriate landing page.

• Web site was not optimized.

Action Taken:

Set Clear Goals

• Set a clear goal.

·         What is the desired result of the campaign?

·         Buy something?

·         Sign up for a subscription?

·         Ask for a quotation?

·         On line order?

·         Establish Tracking Procedure – How you know when a goal is accomplished?

Google Campaigns

• Turned off Google Content Network. Removed the keyword attracting worthless clicks.

• Added names of competitors companies and products to the Campaign settings.

• Added European languages to the Languages setting which was set to only to English. If you are targeting France you may want to create an ad in French.

• Comprehensive Keywords analysis

·         Searched for keywords using Google’s Keyword Tool and Wordtracker. 

·         Studied competitor’s sites and keywords.

·         Brainstormed with team members for keyword ideas.

·         Built new list of keywords.

·         Daily tracking of impressions, CTR and rankings.

• Setup different ads targeting specific products.

• Directed URLs to the appropriate landing pages for each ad.

• Suggested Search Engine Optimizations to improve the ranking of the site:

·         Added more keywords to content.

·         Refreshed current content.

·         Designed new landing pages for each product.

·         Enhanced the site with new content, pictures and regular updates to” News and Events section”.

Watch the Numbers

Making changes a campaign is only the first stage; you must watch the numbers and keep track of the results. This requires a lot of time and effort:

• Watch which keywords are getting the most clicks.

• Exclude poor performing keywords.

• If your campaign is international keep track of which countries are generating the most interest.

• Are some days better than others?

• Which adds are the most effective?

• Track clicks, impressions, CTR and Average CPC.

• Start with a low daily budget and gradually increase as you learn which keywords are effective.

• Watch the Conversion Rate and ROI.

• Use Google Analytics.

Summary

This company is not alone in using a marketing team who have very little experience with PPC advertising and do not have the technical skills needed to perform a good job. However, just knowing the techniques needed to run a PPC campaign is not sufficient, the PPC consultant must also have an in depth understanding of the client’s business and industry.

Therefore, conducting good PPC campaigns requires a combination of PPC skills, industry knowledge and marketing skills.

There has been some interesting discussion about Gene Marks article Tech ‘Solutions’ Your Small Biz Can’t Use take a look at Marks Misses the Mark on “Tech Solutions” and Marks Post Link Bait?

A lot of businesses are overwhelmed by the Web; they panic under pressure to build a web presence. They do not understand there are many tasks involved – Web designers, Web developers, Content Writers, SEO and PPC consultants. Having a good well designed, optimized site requires a lot of time and hard work.

Many of the best web designers know very little about SEO, they know how to make stunning sites, but will they be found by the search engines? AdWords and the whole PPC advertising industry need an expert who not only understands AdWords, but also SEO and how your business works.

Google Powered Mobile Phones

The iPhone will not be the only cool product to watch during 2008. There have been several reports that Google will be launching the gPhone at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, in mid-February. Google has reserved two large booths fueling speculation of a spectacular launch of the gPhone.

What is the gPhone? There is a lot of speculation, but very little concrete information. Presumably the gPhone will have cool futures dedicated to helping user’s surfing the Web, helping to increase Google’s share of search engine traffic. An interesting article in the New York Times suggests “the gPhone is a platform, known as Android, that will allow phone makers to put inexpensive software on their handsets”. If the gPhone is an operating system designed to make surfing the Web on mobile phones easier, Google will be able to direct a lot more traffic to Google applications like their search engine, gMail and Docs.

Google is clearly interested in attracting more traffic by encouraging people browsing the internet to use their applications and services. If the DoubleClick merger is approved, Thestreet.com reports that Google will further tighten their grip in the on-line advertising world.

Since its release in mid-2007, Apple has sold over one million iPhones, albeit with some criticism:

· Third party software cannot be used

· The network is slow

· There is no GPS

Many of these drawbacks will be fixed in the next version of the iPhone due in 2008. A report by Bloomberg says a 3G iPhone will be released enabling faster downloads.

Techcrunch has a nice comparison of the iPhone and the Blackberry – a phone popular with business executives.

What do These Developments Mean to PPC and SEO?

More and more users will be browsing the Web from their mobile phones. The iPhone has a great looking screen, but at 3.5 inches it is a lot smaller than a standard computer screen. This means PPC advertisements will look different on an iPhone, with advertisers needing to find a way to catch the users’ interest. There is also a significant opportunity for businesses to offer their services to a new group of potential customers. Commuters can shop on-line while travelling to and from work or just standing in line at the checkout counter.

The overall number of searches fell during November partly due to November having only 30 days.

The social networking scene is getting a lot of attention from the big boys with Google teaming up with Myspace and Microsoft acquiring a small share in Facebook for $240 million dollars.

Amazon continues to grow with a 22% increase in searches.

“My gut feeling is that even today, many execs and VPs out there just don’t understand the value in it, especially the long term investment it provides.”

Interesting article at Create Business Growth about using an in house marketing person or outsourcing the PPC campaigns.

These are some of the issues I will be discussing:

• Internet Marketing
• SEO – Search Engine Optimization
• PPC – Price Per Click
• Making money from your web site
• Execution
• Getting things done
• Starters guide to business on the web
• Getting a project finished and shipped
• Keeping workers happy and highly motivated
• Book reviews and recommendations