All of us at Dynamics Online want to wish you and your loved ones a happy, fun, and relaxing Thanksgiving weekend. We have a lot to be thankful for this year, but the one thing I am thankful for this morning is Google’s cool Thanksgiving themed Google Doodle. Google has been getting creative with it’s holiday logos on their homepage. This Thanksgiving you are able to create your own customized hand turkey and share it with others, just like you did as a kid. Our turkey is in the photo above. To create your own, visit the Google homepage. Then, head over to the Dynamics Online Facebook page and share your creation with us!
(PS – Don’t go too crazy shopping on Black Friday, as an Internet agency we would be remiss if we didn’t remind you that Cyber Monday is just around the corner!)
Today we conclude our week-long look at a few new features Google has begun to roll out over the past few weeks, and how you can use them to enhance your search engine marketing. Previously we looked at Google Instant Preview and Google Places Tags. Today we will look at a new feature available as an extension within a Google AdWords campaign (Google’s pay-per-click platform):
Google AdWords Call Metrics
Presently, the Google AdWords interface allows you to see which keywords and ads are attracting traffic to your site and generating the most leads. This information is important not only to see that your marketing dollars are being spent effectively, but also to monitor which ad groups in your campaign you should devote more of your budget to, or improve. The one thing AdWords does not measure, however, is how many phone calls you receive as a result of seeing or clicking on a paid search ad.
The performance of your AdWords campaign can increase significantly once calls are measured. Companies like Mongoose Metrics provide a great call measurement service to more accurately report your paid search ROI, but the monthly service can be costly to a business with a limited marketing budget. As an alternative, Google is starting to beta test its own call metrics within AdWords.
Utilizing their Google Voice software, call metrics assigns your campaign a unique phone number which is automatically inserted into well performing ads on both desktop and high-end mobile devices. Using that number (which redirects to your business’ phone number), AdWords is able to track when the number is called, clicked on when the ad appears on a mobile device, and the duration of the phone call. You can then use this information to get a better idea of where your leads are coming from, and adjust the campaign accordingly.
Google’s call metrics is currently only available to select AdWords campaigns, but should be available everywhere soon. Check out the video below to learn more how call metrics works:
All this week we are taking a look at a few new features Google has begun to roll out over the past few weeks, and how you can use them to enhance your search engine marketing. Previously we looked at Google Instant Preview. Today we will look at a new feature available as a part of Google’s local search database, Google Places:
Google Places Tags
Google Places provides a free local search listing for your business where you can provide details about your business, including location, contact information, customer reviews, hours, pictures, menus, coupons, and even video. Once created, your listing will appear in search results and Google Maps whenever a user searches around your location for your business or business category.
With more and more people going to search engines first to find local information, having a strong local search presence online has become just as important (or even more important) than being listed in the phone book.
This past summer, Google introduced Tags for Google Places listings. Just as buying an ad in the Yellow Pages can help your business stand out among the competition, Tags are unique sponsored listings that visually stand out among others by highlighting them with a yellow sales tag, and emphasizing key information for your customers (coupons, limited deals, videos, etc). Tags cost a flat rate of $25 per month and can be activated (or deactivated) at any time.
Local search is important for any small business, and we recommend you claim a Google Places listing if you have not already. Buying a Google Tag will not improve your ranking within local search listings, but is can help you stand out among the crowd.
Watch the video below for more information on the importance of local search listings and what you can do with Google Places.
Internet marketing is ever changing. Major players like Google are constantly developing new tools and opportunities for businesses to utilize to better reach the right audience and be found by those that are searching for them. Taking advantage of emerging search engine marketing opportunities can make your business stand out among the competition. This week we will look at three new features Google has begun to roll out, and how you can use them to enhance your search engine marketing. First up:
Google Instant Preview
Recently, Google introduced Google Instant, redefined how their search results can be displayed to the user by auto completing search results as they type .
With Google Instant Preview, you can now view a visual preview of your search results. Next to each organic search result is a magnifying glass icon. Clicking once on the magnifying glass opens up a small preview image of the web page listed. Relevant keywords the user has searched for are highlighted in bold on the preview.
Google Instant Preview reinforces that the look of your website is just as important as the content of the site. A user can now look at your site and decide whether or not you offer what they need without even visiting your site. Having a clean, appealing website with relevant keywords has always been important in Search Engine Marketing, but now not having a well designed site may even decrease traffic to the site. If it has been a while since you have taken a close look at how your website is designed and optimized, it might be worth your while to take a second look.
Check out this video demonstrating how Google Instant Preview works:
This is a test to determine if a non-related website hyperlink can provide benefit to another site. The keyword we are optimizing for is Home Office Furniture.
