Keyword Strategy

5 Secrets to Writing Irresistible Product Descriptions

Peter A. Liefer II — Fri, 06 May 2016 08:04:10 +0000

Product descriptions are one of the crucial and essential elements of an e-commerce website. With online selling, potential customers don’t get to hold and examine items in actuality. They only have photos and descriptions to refer to in determining whether a product is worth their money or not. That’s why you need to make descriptions so enticing to the point that it will leave people with no choice but to hit the buy button. Here are five effective ways to do so.

Focus on the customer.

Obviously, the purpose of a product description is to provide information about an item. But that’s only part of the big picture. If you want to sell, you need to tap into the client’s emotion, and you can only do that if you know who you’re selling to.

Create a buyer persona. Who is this product intended for? Think about your target market, but go beyond demographics. Find out what makes them tick, their interests, or what makes them laugh. That’s how you can tailor descriptions that become more personal, compelling, and persuasive.

Highlight the benefits of the product.

People read product descriptions not just to know what an item does, but also to find out what’s in it for them should they decide to purchase it. Ultimately, that’s what you should aim to communicate.

Of course, it’s normal to want to put every amazing specification of your product in the description, hoping that people would fall in love with it the way you do. However, that’s not advisable. In reality, people just want to know how the product can help them and not go through vague terms or too technical jargon.

Write and layout concisely.

People don’t have the time to go through huge chunks of text especially when shopping online. So, write and format your product descriptions in such a way that it’s easy for them to read and skim. Be straight to the point and break content into bullet points or subheadings.

TIP: At the beginning of your product description, make your copy as compelling as possible, because that’s how you can hook clients and urge them to read the rest of your content.

Make it search-engine friendly.

If you want your product to have a better position in the search engines, consider adding keywords in your headline, subheading, and the text body. However, be careful not to overdo it because going overboard with keywords (aka keyword stuffing) can turn readers off, especially if the terms or phrase used has an apparent disconnect with the rest of your copy. Write for your audience first, then try to modify your text for search engine later.

Avoid sounding too generic.

Don’t just say your product is of excellent quality. Explain why.

If you want to stand out, you need to specify why people should buy your item. For instance, you’re trying to sell a pair of sunglasses. Instead of simply saying that they are of high quality, you can highlight that its lenses are shatter resistant and have UV 400 protection.

Follow these five tips and make your descriptions sell. It may take time and work, but it will be worth it when your sales start growing.

Leading the Pack: Keeping up with the Latest Local SEO Trends

Peter A. Liefer II — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 00:00:07 +0000

Today, having a physical business location may not cut it if you want to gain a foothold in a local market. If you want to lead the pack, you need to be visible in local search results.

Local searches has become a major factor to consider when marketing a business on the web. In 2015, 43% of consumers searched for local businesses at least once per month (38% in 2014) and 60% searched at least 6 times per year (56% in 2014), according to a survey conducted by BrightLocal.

The Shift from 7-pack to 3-pack

In August 2015, local SEO experienced a major shake-up when Google reduced the 7-pack, the list of seven local businesses that appear on the top of SERP for local queries, to 3-pack. Other changes that took place were the reduced visibility of phone numbers, shortened addresses, placement of websites, and less focus on Google+. Meanwhile, there are no changes with how reviews and review stars were displayed as well as with the significance of Google Maps.

While review stars appear as they used to, Google added a filter that gives searchers an option to search only for businesses that fall under a particular rating. 43% of consumers say that a business should have at least 3/5 stars before they work with them, while 38% say that a brand should have at least 4/5 stars, according to the same study from Bright Local.

Businesses who were penalized by Panda and Penguin may experience a graver implication.

“Sites that are looking to replace that pack listing with a regular organic listing will not be able to do so if they are penalized. Previously, even if they didn’t make the top three, but were somewhere in that top seven, they were assured that their business was still visible on that all-important first page of Google search results. But this new 3-pack change can really hurt a penalized local business if they aren’t appearing in that pack,” according to Jennifer Slegg, founder of The SEM Post.

How to Stay on Top

It’s normal to be concerned about the changes, especially if you’re in a business arena with two or more competitors. However, the key is to adapt and to innovate systems and techniques that can help improve, if not maintain, your visibility and reach within local queries and organic search results.

“We basically designed a new program to become more effective at what we’re doing. We’ve also targeted more local search keyword terms that weren’t necessarily in the seven pack. It’s all adjusting the program, so it’s up and out basically. It’s about getting more keywords out there that aren’t necessarily in the keyword phrase but identify with local or a specific geographical area,” said Peter Liefer, CEO of PrimeView.

Businesses can also get exposure through reputable and high ranking websites, which is a practice that can be referred to as Barnacle SEO. Getting listed on trusted directories such as Yelp, Angie’s List, and Google My Business can work to your advantage, especially if you have a strong profile and link to your website.

Increasing brand awareness is also imperative. Because competition for the 3-pack became more steep, businesses should increase focus on other strategies such as content and social media marketing in creating buzz about who they are and what they can offer. More so, all important information (name, address, phone number, and operating hours) should be published and must be uniform in all listings—may it be on the website, directory listings, and social media accounts.

At the end of the day, quality service, products, or information is the core of any business. When you provide what people are looking for, clients will be naturally drawn to you. As a result, good citations and reviews will just trickle in and your marketing efforts can easily adapt with any changes in Local SEO algorithm.

The Price of a Negative Keyword

Peter A. Liefer II — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 21:02:41 +0000

Here at PrimeView, we strive to provide maximum value for every dollar our customers spend with us whether it’s a web site redesign, a local seo campaign or a pay per click campaign. We want you to be happy, and in the case below, allow us to show you how we managed to keep our customer happy with a very simple yet crucial step in running adwords campaigns.

Customer A has been running a thousand dollar pay per click campaign. With more or less an 80% bounce rate, and a conversion rate of 0.26%, the campaign was certainly getting sadder by the day. We stepped in at their behest and took a look at their campaign, and at the onset noticed the lack of negative keywords.

What are negative keywords? Basically negative keywords are keywords you don’t want your ad from appearing. For instance, you’re company is selling red velvet hats. Now if you’re selling, you certainly don’t want your ads to appear in searches for red velvet hats DIY or how to make red velvet hats. Adding negative keywords to your campaign prevents you from spending on irrelevant keywords.

Now back to Customer A.

For the last 3 months, without them noticing, they have been getting clicks from a completely unrelated phrase. Upon further check, we discovered that they’ve spent roughly $600 for clicks for that phrase alone. A phrase, that remember, is completely unrelated to the product they’re selling! Adding insult to injury, the word usually costs them less than a dollar per click so if you do the math…they’ve gotten 600 clicks for that phrase alone!

By just adding that phrase as a negative keyword, we have been able to save our client thousands of dollars in estimated annual costs. That’s just the first step, we’re keen on cutting out clicks that don’t convert, focus on keywords that bring in business and get more relevant traffic for their spend.

Take away:

If you’re doing your Pay per click campaign without the help of an agency, it pays to review your search queries on a daily basis so you can immediately weed out unrelated phrases and add to your negative keywords. There are also available keyword lists on the web you may find useful to add to your campaign. Get a fresh set of eyes to look at your search queries to see if you missed a phrase or two. For the more advanced customer, you can also use the keyword tool of adwords to search for negative keywords by entering your keyword and checking the corresponding “related” keywords the tool will suggest. Filter your list and keep on adding those negative keywords!

This could mean spending more money on traffic that converts, than traffic that only drains your budget.

If you prefer PrimeView to run your PPC campaign, talk to us…we’re waiting for your call!!!

The Great SEO Software Roundup for the Small Business Owner: Keyword Research and Ranking Part 2

Peter A. Liefer II — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 07:00:57 +0000

In the first part of this two-part blog, we discussed the importance of keyword research and the role it plays in achieving a successful online marketing campaign. Other noteworthy keyword research tools worth considering, on top of those

ubersuggest (keyword suggestion tool)
WordTracker (organized user interface; results sorted by competition and volume)
SearchLatte (look up Google SERPs based on your specific search queries and parameters)
YouTube KeywordTool (keyword ideas for your videos based on your own suggested phrases)
Colibri IO (advanced monitoring platform for conversions, SEO, and traffic)
Wordpot.com (seamless keyword research tool with detailed suggestions)
Kgen (Firefox add-on that generates keywords based on strong queries on visited pages from within search engines)
Soovle (compare top search terms in different major search engines)
WordStream (covers all aspects of the keyword research process)
Keyword Eye (visual search optimizer and competitor research tool)It is crucial that the keywords that you choose to rank for your website are directly connected to the products or services that you offer, not to mention are already garnering a lot of queries in search engines.

Now the best way to keep track of that and find out which keywords are ranking or not, is by using a software that is specifically made for that. Here is the list for keyword ranking statistics.

STATSearchAnalytics – STAT provides rank statistics and SERP analytics for the experienced SEO. Track unlimited keywords data from any location across the globe for the best analytics you can find.

Clicky – Ready to see your competitor web analytics in real time? The Clicy app gives you that and more, allowing you to monitor individual vistors and actions with startling accuracy in the web app.

Free Keyword Rank Checker – Keep tabs on your keyword ranks for Google, Bing, and Yahoo in more than 100 languages and country configurations. You can also track rankings over time and look at rankings from specific cities.

SEscout – SEscout offers a detailed view of your domain and search engine keywords with hourly updates, rank tracking, and in-depth reporting for agencies. Sign up now for your SEOscout subscription!

Serpfox – Use the powerful and automated Serpfox for tracking your targeted keywords. Discover results instantaneously, and oversee changes to your keyword rankings through a period of time.

KeywordDensityTool – Zippy incorporates all the keyword data you need to know about a web domain. Enter in the site you’re researching, type in the keywords you want to configure, and see the full keyword report to optimize.

SpyFu – SpyFu offers several features for a trustworthy search marketing keyword research tool. Check out the competitive keyword assessment, keyword tracking, and rank analysis to learn more.

Rage Software’s SERank – This app is full of insight for your competitors and your own website! SERank encourages you to monitor keyword rankings from more than 100 search engines over time; try it out today!

WebPosition Reporter – Track your keywords from anywhere or anytime with WebPosition Reporter. In addition, easily view insights from keyword positions across all the major search engines.

Piwik – Piwik is a free, open-source web analytics software tool. It transmits insights on visitors, marketing campaigns, and more in order to optimize your online strategy!

Authority Labs – If you want to earn better rankings, start think about partnering with Authority Labs. Personalize your SERP tracking with competition, keywords, locations, and number of sites. Pricing is based upon your needs as an agency or SMB.

Bright Edge – BrightEdge should be your first choice for enterprise SEO solutions. Customize your SEO reporting, dashboard, and forecasting while collaboratng with your entire team on the perfect local, mobile, or social optimization strategy.

UpCity – UpCity is the perfect do-it-yourself (or alternatively, do-it-for-me) solution to improving your business’s SEO. Track your keywords on Google, Bing, and Yahoo on a chosen period of time, and monitor your overall SEO progress by using this robust tool.

Panguin Tool 2.0 – The latest Google update affected every business in some way. Do you care to see how? Panguin Tool gives you a before-and-after snapshots of organic and search traffic to your site.

YouTubeAnalytics – Monitor views, traffic sources, and demographic information to your videos with YouTube Analytics. Download reports for your traffic and look at which devices are sending the most views to your videos.

Microsite Master – Welcome to reliable search tracking for SEO professionals! Use Microsite Masters to track keyword performance and test campaign ranking results over time.

SEO Rank Monitor – SEO Rank Monitor tracks your competitor data and website rankings. Who doesn’t want a tool that is low cost, no sweat to set up, and offers smart reporting?

Some of these tools we use, some we have yet to explore. What SEO tools have you used to further your search campaign? Share it with us!

The Great SEO Software Roundup for the Small Business Owner: Keyword Research and Ranking

Peter A. Liefer II — Wed, 20 Aug 2014 07:00:24 +0000

Source: Unsplash

One of the most effective and surefire ways of getting your website to rank above the competition is by using keywords to rank for it. When you choose the wrong keyword and insert it in your website content, then you are bound to redirect what could be your potential customers to competitor sites that are utilizing the right keywords. This is why part of a successful search engine optimization (SEO) campaign involves careful keyword research and planning.It is important for business owners like you to take note of the fact that search engines use a site’s keywords and phrases to help web users find the right products or services that they are looking for. If you handpicked your keywords, which should be specific to your industry, then your business website will be well optimized for these search engines.The key is to speak the same language as your target audience. When search engines detect that you are using keywords that searchers are typing in on their devices, you have a higher chance of ranking well in the search engine results pages (SERPs) or even dominating it.So how do you win a game that involves choosing the right words? Well, the key is to do research, choose wisely, and then to make your chosen words rank. This is why you need to create a list of industry-specific, high-ranking keywords that you will incorporate into your website. While there is no doubt that keyword research and ranking is well worth your time and investment, doing everything on your own can be overwhelming. You have to have the right tools to help you pick the correct keywords, so we have come up with a list of SEO software that will help you with keyword research and ranking.

Doing Your Keyword Research

Before you can aim to rank in SERPs and rise above other businesses targeting the same audience, you have to do your research and these reliable software will do just the job. SEO experts from all over the globe have continued to depend on these software for the information about keywords they are targeting.

Term Explorer – Term Explorer changes the way keyword research is done with its impressive features. The free option allows you up to five keyword checks daily, and once you decide to upgrade, you can analyze up to 1,000 keywords! You can even grab keywords in batches of 10,000, 25,000, and a whopping 90,000.

Source: Unsplash

Trellians Keyword Discovery – Utilize Trellian’s Keyword Discovery is a powerful keyword research tool, it compiles and measures keyword search statistics from major search engines on a global scale. You can use it to keep an eye on competitors and the buzzwords that are working for them, as well as the popular key phrases that consumers within your industry are searching for.

Market Samurai – Excellent for online marketers that need strong keyword research tools, Market Samurai is your key to getting those high-traffic, low-competition keywords and phrases that always make you one step ahead of your competitors. They won’t even know what hit them.

Long Tail Pro – Find keywords faster than most search tools out there. Generate up to 800 results for each seed keyword when you sign for the 10-day free trial or pay for $97 a month. Also allows you to look at competitor keywords, run a competitive analysis, and check keyword rankings on major search engines.

nTopic – nTopic provides your keyword content relevancy needs. If you need to know how a specific set of content works with a particular keyword, this is the tool for you! The software also offers an API for your site.

Google Adwords – Google Adwords allows you to research keywords and then advertise your business directly in the Google Search Engine. Optimize your daily budget to get in front of potential customers knowing what they search for online.

Google Keyword Planner, Google Correlate, and Google Trends – Think Google Keyword Tool and Traffic Estimator combined. The Google Keyword Planner is considered the ultimate keyword search tool for creating profitable SEO campaigns. You can get historical data for exact match keywords and multi-platform search estimates, as well as keyword lists. Google Correlate, on the other hand, matches your searches with real-life trends so you can easily determine high volume keyword data for your site. The updated Google Trends tool, on the other hand, helps you find out search engine trends as well as provide you with searchable keywords to that matches your website.

Live Keyword Analysis – What the Live Keyword Analysis tool does is it runs a quick density test for your website’s highest ranking keywords. Just copy your content text straight from your site, and find how your keyword density will help your site content.

Bing Keyword Research – Looking for a free analysis tool that is guaranteed to find keywords for your site? Bing Keyword Research will provide keyword data, research, and suggestions for your markets and topics.

Pay Per Click Advertising – The Importance of Landing Page

Peter A. Liefer II — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 07:00:40 +0000

A Landing Page also known as a destination page, is a website page that allows you to capture a visitor’s information through a lead form. Potential customers typically arrive on a landing page by following links from a variety of social media, email, and search engine optimized advertising campaigns.

Why is it important? It generally displays logical information, usually something that pertains directly to the keywords searched, or has the keywords directly on the page. In pay per click, the landing page is considered the place where “the deal is closed” which basically means that visitors decide on the landing page whether they are going to use the service of the web page or not.

Here’s an example, think about having a Google AdWords PPC ad running for one of your best keywords. Even if you advertise how great your company is and a potential customer clicks through on that ad, do you want them to be sent to your homepage? Of course not, there’s a big chance that they will leave your website especially if the customer cannot find the offer you are promoting or they need to search/navigate your website before they reach what they are looking for. In addition to this, there are several things to avoid when creating a PPC landing page:

Unclear call to action (must have a large visible button that allows the customer clicking it)
A page filled with unnecessary visual distractions. (Keep the page simple, clean, and straight to the point.)
Having a long or heavy description. (Keep the sentence short and simple)
Do not keep promises (the Ad Copy must be visible or relevant to the content of landing page)
Having Long Forms (Keep forms as short and concise as possible)

Pay per click advertising is something that should be very hands on. If you’re not managing it on a constant basis you’ll be losing out on opportunities to improve, capitalize on successes, and increase the chance of spending money on fruitless campaigns.

5 Press Release Best Practices

Peter A. Liefer II — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 20:00:41 +0000

Writing a press release isn’t rocket science but it isn’t easy either. In your head, you’re writing a winning press release only to end up getting denied or disapproved after submitting it to the top PR sites. What gives?Before we dive in to the best practices, let’s see why Press Releases don’t get approved:

You submitted a press release in all UPPER CASE LETTERS. A newbie mistake, but a mistake commonly made.
You’ve embedded HTML, Java or any other markup language. There’s a right place to put it, and this is normally assigned by the press release submission site itself.
You’ve violated the rules of the press release site you’re submitting to. Save yourself the trouble and go read the guidelines before submission.
It’s full of grammatical errors, punctuation marks are incorrectly placed, incorrect use of words and spelling.

Now that you’re aware of the why-nots, here are some of the best practices to implement when writing and submitting a press release.

Make it news-worthy. There are typical angle to a press release – product launch, relaunch of a website, new management, received awards, survey results etc. If your press release doesn’t have news worthy angle, then by all means, do not waste your time – do not submit it. It will only get rejected.
Write an attention grabbing, head twisting, snappy headline. The wonder of press releases is this – once it gets approved, and it really is an interesting piece, you not only get approved in that site, it might also get the attention of the other sites thereby syndicating your release. The more it gets republished, the better for your brand.
Make your press release effective by including a quote. When writing your press release, make sure to include a quote from an authority figure in the company or a satisfied customer. Dust some quotes in the middle or the end – but don’t overdo it.
Pepper it with keywords. Keywords are important especially since you’re submitting a digital press release that gets crawled by the search engines spiders. From the title to the content, ensure keywords are included. A word of warning though – don’t force it. You’re writing for a human being, not search engine spiders. It has to make sense to them first to make a successful impact.
When formatting your press release, write in short paragraphs. Keep it simple silly, as they say. Use bulleted or numbered lists to break up chunks of information. Make it easier to read. Why? Because nowadays, people scan and skim then if it’s deemed important then that’s when we dwell on it and read it.

Press Releases still make an impact for the brand – exposure wise, and SEO wise. Neglecting to give it a try means losing potential clients. What other best practices are you aware of? Do share!

7 Tips to Improve your LOCAL SEO

Peter A. Liefer II — Mon, 21 May 2012 04:39:06 +0000

And so the landscape of shopping has changed in the last few years. Gone were the days when people would go out on a spending spree and come home disappointed because the item they bought wasn’t what they expected. Although there will always be an option to get your money refunded, there’s always the unaccounted cost of going to the place where you bought the item and returning it. Nowadays, before buying an item, most shoppers would either ask their friends for recommendation, or go online and check out reviews. With search engines like Google showing results for both local and national, it’s important for a business to have reviews on their local listings. Such local listing sites include Yellow Pages, Google Places, Bing local. If you don’t have an account on any of the local listing sites, we suggest you create one immediately. But before you do so, heed our suggestions below in improving your chances of ranking for your area.

It goes without saying that you need to claim your profile. The local listing sites provide easy steps to claiming and verifying your listings.
Upload Photos of your business – whether it’s the location of your business, or your business in action or perhaps the happy customers you’ve served.
Ensure your contact details are correct – believe me, numerous clients have been dumbfounded by a lack of business despite stellar listings only to find their contact details were incorrect
Make sure your physical address can be found on ALL pages of your website. While it’s helpful for your customers, ultimately you’re sending a consistent message to the search engines.
Keywords – search for the keywords ideal for your business and make sure to optimize your listings for these keywords. From photos, titles, categories and keywords, it will be much easier to find you if your listing is keyword optimized.
Ask for reviews – although these local seo sites don’t support bloated reviews on your listings, there are other ways to ask for reviews from your satisfied customers. On your contact page, on the receipt you issue, on email communications – why not indicate a note that says “Thank you for your continued patronage, we’d appreciate it if you could give us a review on Google Local”. Now, this doesn’t mean only good reviews. Encourage your customers to post an honest appraisal of your business – good or bad. Bad reviews are a part of business from which you can learn.
Do you have multiple locations? It’s best to have multiple landing pages on your site that links to each separate local listing. The landing page should contain all information pertaining to the location and what it can offer your customers.

Local SEO listings can be an avenue to both increase the number of your customers and help your link building campaign along with best practices such as press releases, video distribution and others. With the constant algorithm updates of Google, it pays to be on the safe side and optimize on all fronts.