Google Update in Google Webmaster Tools

Google has updated their keyword tool with a new interface that promises to update once a day. This keyword tool, which is found when logged into your webmasters account, tracks keywords that your website is getting visits for. See below for a screenshot of the new interface that shows a significance bar:

Google says…

"The significance column compares the frequency of a keyword to the frequency of the most popular keyword on your site. When you click on a keyword to view more details, you will get a list of up to 10 URLs which contain that keyword. This will be really useful when you re-implement your site on a new technology framework, or need to identify which URLs may have been hacked."

You should log into your Webmaster Tools account daily or weekly and track your significance levels for certain keywords. If you are getting visits from keywords that have no relevance to your site, you can scan your site for these words and edit them. If you see keywords that have a high significance level you can also work to improve your search engine optimization with these words.

If you don’t have a Google Webmaster Tools account, you can sign up here.

Online Coupons Improve Email Open Rates

Everyone is looking for a deal these days. Shoppers will go buy something just because they “got a deal.”

Using coupons as leverage for customers to open and view your emails is what a lot companies are engaging in.

Making it known in your subject header that the recipient can receive 20% off their purchase will give them an incentive to open your email. Over two-thirds of American households use coupons and this has grown 46% in the past three years, according to Experian.

There is a big difference in open rates for emails that have coupons and emails that do not. According to Experian open rates of about 24% to 25% for coupon emails dropped to only 16% to 18% for non-coupon emails.

“Understanding the purchase drivers and triggers along with the channel preferences of unique customers is an essential element in building loyalty and engagement. Today’s consumers are multi-channel and marketers that acknowledge this will see greater return on their marketing spend,” said Matt Seeley, president of Experian Marketing Services’ Platforms division.

How Fast Does Your Website Load?

Google has been talking about the importance of load time on websites --- if your website loads fast you may soon have an advantage in search rankings.

Load time doesn’t have an impact yet…however, speed may soon become a ranking factor!

In an interview with a software engineer at Google, Matt Cutts, he stated:

"Historically, we haven't had to use it in our search rankings, but a lot of people within Google think that the web should be fast… It should be a good experience, and so it's sort of fair to say that if you're a fast site, maybe you should get a little bit of a bonus. If you really have an awfully slow site, then maybe users don't want that as much."

"I think a lot of people in 2010 are going to be thinking more about 'how do I have my site be fast,' how do I have it be rich without writing a bunch of custom javascript?'"

If you have 10 different widgets on your site pulling data from all different sources, maybe it’s time you thought about “cleaning up” your site a little… it’s safe to assume load-time will become a factor in where you’re listed in the search engines. If your site loads slowly, your bounce rate will increase because as soon as someone enters your site and has to wait more than 5 seconds to load, they’ll hit the back button immediately --- and move onto your competitors!

Increase in US Interactive Marketing Spending

According to Forrester Research, US interactive marketing spending is projected to have a 17% compound annual growth rate for the next 5 years.

Search engine marketing is currently at $15,393,000, which is 12% of total ad spending. In 2014 search engine marketing is projected to be at $31,588,000, or 21% of total ad spending. Search engine marketing makes up more than one-half of all interactive marketing spending and will remain the largest sector in interactive marketing.

This trend isn’t only apparent in the US. In the UK, search engine marketing makes up a majority of the UK’s online advertising spending.

Email Marketing has also become very popular. Although email marketing sometimes has a bad name due to all the spammers out there, total spending is also projected to grow within the next 5 years.

Is Social Networking Really that Important?

A recent report by eMarketer revealed that social networking is one of the most important online activities, trailing close behind email.

Respondents were asked to rank the importance of Email, Online Social Networking, Online Chat/IM, Web Browsing, Online Forums, Texting, Online Discussions, Online News Feeds, and Blogging...with “1” being the most important.

As you can see, Email is ranked #1 at an importance level of 2.6; Online Social Networking is 3.1.

81% of respondents taking part in social networking claimed posting photos was the top social networking activity.

“This is a particularly important finding,” according to the report, “in that it suggests that these younger users have integrated social networks into their lives to such an extent that it has become a trusted resource for their decision making.”

A March 2009 study by Knowledge Networks found that “between 10% and 24% of US social media users turned to social networks when making purchase decisions about various categories of products and services. Less than 5% said they ‘always’ did so.”

Will Bing become the Next Google?

Bing is having some success these past few months (maybe from the push of television commercials?).

According to the comScore report on September 22, 2009, between July 2009 and August 2009 Bing added 7% to its total number of searches. This is a huge jump for one month, considering the competition from Google and Yahoo. Google grew only 2% and Yahoo 1%.

Voice your opinions with Google’s new tool, Sidewiki

Problem: You are looking to buy a new digital camera online, but don’t want to spend an arm and a leg. You search around for websites that advertise the lowest price on the camera you want. However, you don’t really trust the website you found with the cheapest price, but don’t want to spend full-price at a national retailer... what do you do?!

Solution: Use Sidewiki, a new feature on Google Toolbar that allows you to see posted comments about any site.

Google’s new toolbar feature called Google Sidewiki allows users to read and comment on any website they want...all within the Google Toolbar. If you want to find out if there are any problems with the website, or if you want to warn other visitors of abuse, Sidewiki can be very helpful.

Comments are not automatically posted, though. In order to get your comments posted, you must frequently comment on a variety of sites (this shows Google that you are a heavy user, and will be more likely to approve your comments). Google does this to prevent spam and abuse by angry users who have nothing better to do with their time than to make up lies about a website.

If you want to help increase the chances that your comments get posted start browsing sites in your niche and take time to read throughout the sites and post any interesting information about them that you think will be helpful to future visitors.

You can also see how many people found a specific comment helpful or unhelpful.

Remember that this tool is new, so there may not be as many comments as you’d wish.

Web Analytics doesn’t have to be a Foreign Language

Web analytics is an important part of a website owner’s efforts in tracking how well money spent on online campaigns are converting into sales.

A lot of businesses are doing without web analytics, or not following up with data, because of the “un-user-friendliness,” difficulty of integration with other marketing solutions, or accuracy of data of most analytic programs.

In a survey done by Unica, they found that the two biggest challenges with the use of web analytics was integration with other marketing solutions and the accuracy of data.

“The biggest challenge for marketers was integrating Web analytics with other marketing solutions, cited by 46% of respondents. Verifying the accuracy of data was a problem for 41% of marketers, while 32% reported trouble with analytics that were not comprehensive and 29% complained of budgets that were too small.”

Web analytics requires hours, and sometimes days, of usage to learn the ins and outs of all the features. Even though the difficulty level may frustrate website owners, they acknowledge the fact that more resources and time must be spent on them if they want to maximize online profits.

“Fully 72% of respondents to the Unica survey had no full-time worker devoted to analytics.”

Google has an extensive web analytics program called Google Analytics. Their program is absolutely free and has most of the same features as the paid analytics programs. The best part about Google Analytics is that it’s very user-friendly. You can also link your Google AdWords account to the analytics account and have everything tracked, including calculated conversion rates, on one dashboard. Visit www.google.com/analytics to learn more!

The Internet Business Hour Announces New Flagship Station, WWNN 1470 AM Radio in South Florida

Contact:

Diego Baeza

dbaeza@securenetsystems.net

Director of New Business Development

Securenet Systems

356 SW 12th Avenue

Deerfield Beach, FL 33442

(866) 568-9402

Deerfield Beach - September 18, 2009 - The Internet Business Hour, a radio talk show about tips and tricks on how to successfully conduct business on the Internet, is announcing their new flagship station WWNN 1470 AM Radio in Boca Raton, Florida, a 50,000 watt AM station serving the South Florida market. Starting Saturday, September 19, 2009, “The Internet Business Hour” will be broadcast weekly from WWNN 1470 AM.

The show will air every Saturday at 2:00 pm, and can be picked up on your radio dial all along the Gold Coast from Vero Beach to South Miami. The show can also be heard streamed live from http://www.wwnnradio.com/.

The show’s host, Kerry Brewer, is a long-time veteran of business talk radio. Each week he, and special guest George Dubec, Internet marketing expert, will be discussing the latest internet marketing trends and how business owners can take advantage of the Internet to boost sales and increase online exposure. They will also be giving out weekly informational reports that business owners can use as guidelines to increase Internet exposure.

For more information on The Internet Business Hour, or if you would like to be a special guest on the show, please visit www.theinternetbusinesshour.com, call toll-free (866) 568-9402 or email info@securenetsystems.net.

First Page Placement on Google

As a local business owner or a company looking to do business in a local area, you must realize it is critical to use the Internet for advertising.

The problem is most businesses don’t have a sufficient budget to use PPC (pay per click) advertising and it is costly and time consuming to try to get high rankings on the organic (free) search listings on major search engines. Budgets of at least $1,000 per month for local PPC campaigns and approximately $10,000 over three months for nationwide PPC campaigns are recommended by most SEO specialists.

If you are a business owner and don’t have that kind of budget available, what are you to do?

Use the AdzZoo online Ad Program to promote and advertise your business using geo-targeting of keywords within your local area radius. AdzZoo will create an optimized Landing Page for your business (whether you have an existing site or not), which gives you the chance to get higher organic or free search listings on the major search engines.

In fact, with this program, you don’t even need a website to generate leads from the Internet!