Where are you with Google search or do you have a problem?

Google Eye Tracking Study

I think if you are a leader in the non-profit world and you can't be found in the first three or four listings when I search on your name, you have a problem. I think when I search on the name of your organization and it's at the bottom of page one on Google search results you have even a bigger problem.

And I think if you as an individual don't exist on YouTube and you have no idea how easy it is for your organization to have a YouTube channel you are bang on doing a very poor job and, no, your Web guy or gal isn't responsible, you are.

If you are in a category, say, domestic violence, and when I search on domestic violence in my hometown and you are in my hometown and don't show up, you have a problem.

In the U.S. there are over 300,000 people a month who search on the term, sustainability. About the same number search on climate change. A whopping 1M on global warming* and 1.2M on back pain.

This is what I pay attention to in regards to our site, EarthSayers.tv. We are not yet on the first page of Google search results on the term, sustainability. We have that as our objective along with increasing the volume of search on sustainability. 

Have you run the numbers  (you may need a Google Adwords account to access their traffic estimator) on your category and keywords?

What is your category that you have targeted in your search strategy?  Do you make sure that keywords you use on your Website, blogs, and social media sites support your strategy?  Titles of white papers, reports, studies, and videos are very important. More people search on Africa relief than on African relief.

Recently there has been a lot of press about Google and content farms. Content farms produce content based on what people are searching on so as to garner their attention and sell them something. How about being "farmish" and help out the people searching and enlist them in your cause.  The change Google is making is "designed to weed out low-value content, they say, such as content copied from other websites or non-useful content." You don't have low value content so I brought up the farm idea to bring your attention to the search playing field and your need to be seeding the farm, er Web.

The next line of questioning is about who IS on the top of the search results? Hint for sustainability: Wikipedia. And, last minute, a quote from Seth Godin's blog:

"The web has been a hotbed of siloed content, of deep dives for small audiences. The large scale stuff, though, has tended to be mostly about gossip and other quick reads that's cheap to produce. Tablets offer a new chance to create content worth paying for. Paving the way for that to happen is a smart move for anyone who cares about the audience and the devices."

*Global search on global warming is 2,740,000 with  1,000,000 in U.S. while 63% of the estimated traffic on Google for "global warming hoax" at 49,500 is coming from the United States.  Twice as many people worldwide search on global warming facts (90,500) with 49,500 in the U.S. - a call to the sustainability, climate change, renewable energy and peak oil folks to address global warming with facts from their own field of expertise. What's in a name? A lot.

Best Practice for B2B Online Advertising

There are some best practices regarding online response advertising. Here is an ad and process we did not design, but responded to, and found a best practice that deserves attention and praise.

Response advertising is offer based - in this case the more traditional offer of a whitepaper - and is targeted as reflected in the media buy, usually vertical, rarely general. It is a process supporting the offer consisting of the ad, landing page, thank you, and the email for download.

The ad is clear as to offer, the title being a benefit. The way to obtain the offer jumps out as well as the social media options. The branding makes gigya obvious, but not the focus of the ad. It does a lot of work in a small space and is very well designed.

So, you click.

And then there is the landing page which if poorly designed will result in you losing up to half of those interested enough to click in the first place-maybe more. The main job of the landing page is to merchandise the offer stressing what it is (photo required), what the benefits of the whitepaper are, and "what businesses need to know." The information requested is reasonable and, most importantly, name and company were pre-populated. This was an ad on the Paidcontent site where I have to register. The registration system is tied to response, allowing pre-populating forms. What a concept! Other information on the page was helpful but does not conflict with the focus - the offer and why it is important to you.



It's not over, however. There is the thank you.


In addition to the notice that you will be receiving an email with a link, the next steps (on the right in blue) include the invitation to call, schedule a demo, contact us by email, request a whitepaper, get a developer key. And there is more, the email with a link.

Personalized, first name, starts with a thank you, repeats the offer, and from a sales person with their phone number.

Lead generation is a process and when it starts with a response ad, gigya demonstrates how to use best practices established years ago and supported by high response and conversion rates.

I expect to get a call from Natasha next.