Using Google Webmaster Tools To Best Use

Written by Melanie Ullman

It's been a while since I updated this blog, but I'll try and get back to a regular routine.

When you're trying to rank your landing page, whether it's for PPC or simply to get organic search traffic to an offer page, backlinking is the key. In short, the more back links you get, the higher you will go in the SERPs. Now of course this is a relative thing. Trying to rank against strong "authority sites" that have high Pagerank and thousands of backlinks can be an exercise in futility. But generally speaking, the more links, the better your site will do.

But all back links aren't created equally. Links from strong sites, those with a high Page rank, are worth more to your site than those with lower rank. It's actually the passing of this "link juice" that gives your target site it's boost. This means you want higher value links.

Just as important however, perhaps even more pertinently is whether or not Google sees and counts your links. Though they may index nearly every page, not every link they come across counts towards your SERP ranking.

How do you know which is which? That's where Google's Webmaster Tools comes into play. Webmaster Tools was designed to show the webmaster where their links are coming from. As such, you can see which of the backlinks you are taking the time to get are being seen AND counted by Google. If it isn't in Webmaster Tools, it isn't doing your site any good, at least as far as boosting your ranking is concerned.

Another great use for Google's Webmaster Tools is for you to see which links you might be able to take more advantage of. When you see that your links are sticking for instance from your blogs, Squidoo lenses, other sites, etc., you immediately know they are more valuable links.

So why not go back and re-visit those web sites? You might just be able to post more links, or put in links to your other sites. I spend a lot of time in Webmaster Tools. I look to see where my backlinking efforts are paying off, focus further efforts where they count, and reduce the time I put into those that aren't paying me dividends.

Plus I comb through the results always looking for new and better sites to go back to with more links.

It's also worth noting that Webmaster Tools will show you the specific pages where you are linking to. You should make sure to vary your links, vary your anchor text, and don't just link to your home page, but your inner pages as well.

Make Google Webmaster Tools a routine part of your own "site intelligence". You'll find you can spend your time in a more valuable manner, and that you avoid going through the process of building, checking, waiting, checking some more, all for something that won't help you in the long fun anyway.

If you've found some interesting or little-known, little-used tricks that you want to share, make sure you come back here and post them in the comments section. I'll be very appreciative, as will the readers! Plus, you'll get a lot of good Karma points!

Keyword "Profitability"

Anyone doing PPC for more than a day knows that keyword research is one of the fundamentals of the game. Focusing on the “wrong” keywords will cost you money, lower your CTR (Click-Through Rate), and bring down the Quality Score of your whole campaign.

Knowing which keywords are profitable and which aren't mean the difference between making money, and losing money, plain and simple.

A new post on Improve Your Internet Marketing talks about an easy way to 'test' the viability of your keywords - before spending your money on 'bad' clicks!

According to the post, one of the ‘tried & true’ methods for testing keyword profitability is to ’spy’ on PPC ads. The rational is that anyone advertising on a given keyword consistently is probably making money. After all, no one is going to pay indefinitely for PPC ads on a keyword that isn’t making them money, right?

While this technique is quite effective, it is extremely time-consuming. In order for your data to be meaningful, you have to track ads over time, usually at least 2 weeks to a month.

This technique uses Spyfu (http://www.spyfu.com) to 'leapfrog' the time you would have to wait using traditional ad-spying programs.

I've used this method myself, and I can tell you it not only saves time, but it works! But don't take my word for it... :)

SpeedPPC - Astounding PPC Results, and EXCLUSIVE DISCOUNT!

I know I've mentioned this many times, but if you're serious about Pay Per Click, you simply MUST consider SpeedPPC - and with an EXCLUSIVE $100 DISCOUNT!

In it's newest version, SpeedPPC Version 3, you can now apply it's magic across more search engines, automate ad building, integrate vendor datafeeds, and so much more.

It’s actually a suite of tools, all based on ultra-smart methodologies.

Relevancy and Quality Score are the keys to SpeedPPC - they are vital for your campaigns’ success. That means tight-knit relationships between your keywords, ads and landing pages.

The application is simple to use. Simple to get results. If there was one piece of software that reduced the most amount of work and still created the best returns, SpeedPPC is it.

If you are doing Pay Per Click, your cost, return, and ultimate success is dependent on creating ads triggered by the right keywords, and paying the least possible CPC for those keywords. The primary factor determining what you will pay for clicks is your Quality Score. For PPC ads, your Quality Score is determined by the relevancy and relationship between your keyword, ad, domain, and landing page. SpeedPPC is the first and only system that creates a perfectly optimized coupling between all these elements, giving you the lowest possible CPC.

Article Marketing and Bum Marketing

Article marketing has become one of the most talked about strategies for Internet marketing lately. As one of the chief components in the bum marketing, and its newfound popularity is due to two significant characteristics: it's free, and it works.

Article marketing provides Internet marketers with two important benefits. First, it creates wider exposure for the author and their website. Secondly, it provides valuable inbound links or IBL's.

Just like the other bum marketing strategies, article marketing is all about numbers. It's effectiveness relies on consistent and ongoing effort. A single article has limited benefit, however daily submissions have an overall benefit greater than the sum of its parts.

Maximizing your article submission strategy means targeting a single keyword or phrase, one per article. It's equally important to optimize each article, similar to each page in a website. In fact, each article acts as a one-page mini site.

You optimize an article for the search engines the same way you would for a web page. Put your keyword or phrase in the article title, as the beginning of the first paragraph, the beginning of the last paragraph, and for the anchor text in your link or resource box.

By following a few simple steps, you will gain maximum return for your effort. As part of a multipronged approach, article marketing becomes an extremely effective and inexpensive technique in your arsenal.

How to create a better sales page!

In internet marketing and affiliate marketing, creating a good sales page can be difficult, tedious, even costly, and we’re usually all too eager to get it uploaded and working. But certainly we understand it’s importance. So you have your graphics done professionally, and eventually you’re happy with your sales copy.

If you’re selling something directly, be it your own info-product, membership, or service, your sales page is arguably the most important thing there is. A great product is worthless if no one buys it. Traffic? Useless if it doesn’t convert.

All too often, we settle for “good”, then don’t understand why our businesses fail to really take off. If you plan to succeed in the Internet Marketing world, “good” isn’t enough. In fact, “Good” is the enemy of “Great”.

Most Internet Marketers - myself included! - are guilty of leaving it there. After all, good is good, right?

It isn't hard to go from “Good” to “Great!”. Often, it’s simply a matter of degrees and small steps.

Be VERY careful with your use of fonts, colors, and formatting. Never use fully-saturated red, even for those main headlines. If you’re using red, use a slightly darker red. Avoid primary colors altogether. Don’t use a lot of colors in your text. If you want to differentiate, use different shades of your headline and body text colors. Limit your width, it’s a strain to try and read back and forth across the entire screen. Limit your emphasis so that they really emphasize something. Having to much bolded, underlined, italicized text is hard to read and dilutes their significance. Use “whitespace” liberally, but no so much that the sales page looks “chunky” from far away.

It’s easy to get caught up in sophisticated messaging, overly-complex USP’s (”Unique Selling Proposition”), etc. Print out the text of your sales page, and read it out loud to yourself. If you can, have someone much older & much younger than you read it aloud as well. Take note of the parts that are stumble over, or don’t sound clear and easy to understand.

What’s your message? Does it take six screens of text to get it across? If your visitor has to scroll and scroll and scroll… it’s probably too long. While “long form” sales pages have become rampant, most of them are far longer than they could - or should - be. In the off-line world of sales, we have the concept of the “elevator story”. If whatever you’re offer’s USP can’t be stated in the 30 seconds you have next to someone on an elevator ride, you’re in trouble. Of course you have more than 30 seconds on a sales page… or do you? The fact is, the longer your sales page, the more visitors will abandon it.

How To Expand Google Adwords PPC Reach

A common mistake that is usually made by newer pay-per-click marketers are warned about is targeting too many countries when they’re creating their campaign settings. After all, language, dialect, and preferences will vary greatly from country to country, so by running ads for your latest “Guide To Cactus Growing” ebook in Iceland is completely pointless.

With that being said there are certain products and services with markets outside the U.S. which have little competition and a demand that is unmet. Along with the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia, you also want to test ads in other countries where your product or service could be useful, because English is widely used in many countries.

Another way to expand your reach is to have your ads and landing pages translated into different languages so you can sell to countries where few people speak English.

Pay Per Click Strategies For Internet Marketers

PPC strategies abound. A quick perusal of Internet Marketing products will turn up hundreds if not thousands of ebooks, programs, courses, and the like, designed to help you become more effective in your Pay Per Click efforts.

I recently wrote a series of articles for Associate Programs excellent PPC website, payperclicksearchengines.com

One of the strategies I wrote about is the idea of using "self-qualifying" headlines. I wrote up a real-life case study.

In this case study, I talked about a campaign I ran that was getting great click-through rates (CTR's), but lousy conversions.

I decided to use a "self-qualifying" headline: I put the price right in the headline of the ad!

The result was far fewer clicks, but the clicks I did get were much, much higher quality. In fact, I boosted my conversions by 880%!

You can use "self-qualifying" headlines for any product-pitch ad. Try it, you'll find your overall conversion ratio go through the roof!

UPDATE

You can now purchase "The Ultimate IM Toolchest", the last Internet Marketing product you will EVER need - and it's only $27!!