Things to keep in mind when looking to increase traffic.

Ad Traffic Quality Resource Center

Things to keep in mind when looking to increase traffic

Site optimization to increase traffic is usually grouped into two parts - Web enhancements and new traffic acquisition.

• Discussed Topics in Article
• Web enhancements
• New traffic acquisition

Web enhancements

Web enhancements, such as optimizing ad placement and navigation, can help increase traffic. We offer some tips to help you improve your website. Check out these tips to learn how fast-loading pages, relevant, fresh content, and effective mobile sites can help increase traffic to your website.
Publishers should be aware of the AdSense program policies and the Google Webmaster Guidelines and optimize their sites without violating any of the policies or quality guidelines. For example, Google ads, search boxes, and search results may not be:

• Integrated into a software application (does not apply to AdMob) of any kind, including toolbars
• Displayed in pop-ups or pop-unders
• Placed in emails, email programs, or chat programs
• Obscured by elements on a page
• Placed on any non-content-based page (Does not apply to AdSense for search or mobile AdSense for search)
• Placed on pages published specifically for the purpose of showing ads
• Placed on pages whose content or URL could confuse users into thinking it is associated with Google due to the misuse of logos, trademarks or other brand features
• Placed on, within, or alongside other Google products or services in a manner that violates the policies of that product or service

This list of prohibited activity is not intended to be exhaustive. Please consult the AdSense program policies and AdSense Terms and Conditions for a more comprehensive overview of policies. Ultimately, in order to promote and ensure a good experience for users and advertisers, clicks on Google ads must result from genuine visitor interest.

New traffic acquisition

Acquiring new traffic to your website is another common way to generate increased traffic. Common ways to do this include search engine optimization, advertising, and partnering with traffic providers.

Search engine optimization

We understand that you may look to search engine optimization to increase traffic. In order to help you ensure that the implemented search engine optimization is clean and adheres to Google policy, please read our Webmaster Guidelines (also referenced in the above “Web enhancements” section), which are best practices to follow when creating a site that Google can find, crawl, index, and understand. For a more in-depth guide to search engine optimization, we offer the Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide In addition, as mentioned in the Understanding traffic on your site article, Google Webmaster Tools enables you to submit all of your pages to the Google index, which can increase your visibility by optimizing your website for Google search.
Before you decide to work with any search engine optimizers we suggest the following:

• It’s best to ask for recommendations from webmasters that you personally know and trust or search for well-known optimizers with good reputations on the web. If possible, read what others have written about them on forums before proceeding to work with them.
• If you decide to go with an optimizer based on their reputation on the web, ask for examples of sites they have optimized. The sites should be as similar to yours as possible based on your content vertical, demographics, number of visits/month, etc.
• Make sure that the SEO won't make your site violate the Webmaster Guidelines, for example, by purchasing links to your site in order to increase its PageRank.

Other helpful tips and things to consider are outlined in this Search Engine Optimization help article.

Advertising

AdSense publishers are also welcome to use online advertising as a way to direct new users to their sites. However, in order to ensure a positive experience for users and advertisers, publishers that use any form of online advertising to pages with Google ads are required to comply with the spirit of our landing page quality guidelines. The three main components of a high quality landing page are: relevant and original content, transparency, and site navigability. Please read the use of online advertising Help Center article to learn more about each of these components.
We also prohibit the promotion of your site using the following techniques:

• spam emails
• comment spamming
• creation of fake forum profiles
• posting links on link farms and "private blog networks", link exchanges and social network spamming.

Partnering with traffic providers

Ultimately, you’re welcome to promote your site in any manner that complies with our program policies. However, AdSense publishers are ultimately responsible for the traffic to their ads, so if you choose to partner with a third-party service to increase traffic to your site, it’s critical that you monitor your reports closely to gauge the impact that each source has on your ad traffic.
There are many services out there that can increase traffic to your site, including pay-per-click solutions to connect advertisers and publishers, as well as search engines and directory sites. However, we’ve found that some of these services actually send artificial traffic to websites, despite their appearance. To deliver the traffic levels that their customers expect, these services often generate clicks and impressions using click bots, or by providing users incentives to visit sites or click on ads. For this reason, we strongly urge you to use caution when partnering with third-party traffic services. If you find that one of your traffic sources has suspicious activity, we recommend stopping or pausing your relationship with that traffic source to stop any traffic that may be invalid. We also encourage publishers to report any suspicious activity which they’ve detected on their site via the Invalid Clicks Contact Form.
Refer to the Proactive steps to prevent invalid activity article for more information about how to avoid partnering with low-quality traffic providers. Specifically, the traffic provider checklist can help guide your discussions with any potential traffic provider. This checklist provides a list of suggested questions to ask when you start to explore how you and a traffic provider can work together. Once you've spoken with a traffic provider and want to move forward, it’s also critical that you have the ability to monitor the traffic they are sending to your site.

Ben Norman's SEO course: Day 6 - Email Marketing.

Ben Norman's SEO Made Easy Range

|  Main Site   |  SEO Blog   |  DIY SEO   |

7 Day Search Engine Optimisation Course

Day 6 - Email Marketing   Email marketing, although not strictly part of a normal SEO process, is, in my opinion, a great way to catch and make maximum use of the new traffic to your website. Whilst the SEO process brings good targeted traffic to a website, not everyone is quick to catch on to harnessing every last visitor. Most web sites focus on visitors that are ready to buy and totally ignore their future buyers (the people that are there to look around and get more information). Email marketing allows you to capture those people in a list and then keep marketing to them through emails. There is a great tool out there called AWeber which allows you to setup an email list on your website which is very easy to do and the system does all of the hard work for you enabling you to just focus on building your lists. For example to build my list I have given away this week long search engine optimisation course. This gives people in my list a great informative course which helps them and their websites do better and I then have permission to contact them with other information as and when. Now it is important to remember that you can't just bombard people with rubbish as they will just remove themselves from your list but as long as you keep it informative there would be no reason to leave. Ways in which to market this is: Offer a free course such as this one Offer a free video Offer access to a forum or members area The key thing to remember is not to sell at people. You just need to be informative and keep giving information this way you will be able to not only make the sales through your website but also take the window shoppers by the hand then educate them and then sell to them later. It is very easy to get started with AWeber and cost effective too. They will also make sure everything is double opt in etc, so you stay legal. The system will also allow you to set up auto responders like that you are receiving from me so the system will automatically send you a series of emails over an adjustable period of time. So go to Aweber and sign up for a trial and remember why waste the visits when you can push them to your newsletter educate them and sell to them later.   Tomorrow   Tomorrow we will be looking at blogs and RSS so be sure to check your inbox.

Ben Norman's SEO: Day 5 - Link Building

Ben Norman's SEO Made Easy Range

|  Main Site   |  SEO Blog   |  DIY SEO   |

7 Day Search Engine Optimisation Course

Day 5 - Link Building.   Link building is a fundamental point when it comes to getting your website moving up the search engines. The search engines now use the inward links pointing at a website to confirm what a website is about and where to rank it. This is because it is thought that other websites are likely to be more truthful about your website than you would. It is important to remember that not all links are made equal and the only links you want to focus on getting are one way links. This means that a website links to your website but you don't have to link back. This is the most powerful link and the only one you want to focus on. Reciprocal links are where you link to someone and they link back but this has a few problems being: Google knows it's reciprocated and takes away relevance If the website turns into a bad neighbourhood in the future and your linking to it your website could get penalised You also want to ensure you get the most from your links by making sure the anchor text (the text that has the hyperlink in it) is relevant for example instead of having "click here" or your website address if you sold Sony Cameras you would have that as your link mixed with other relevant phrases such as "cheap Sony cameras" "buy Sony cameras". Another way to make sure you get the most out of links is to make sure the links you get are from relevant websites as if they are not they are not worth as much. Now there are many different ways in obtaining links including: Writing articles that you post to places like ezine articles then other webmasters can publish them on their website in return for linking back Going to relevant directories free (use the Vilesilencer list) and paid (such as Yahoo directory) and adding your website Producing surveys which people can use in return for a link Write great blog posts that people will link to Create applications, documents and put on your website to get links Just remember Google has declared war on link buyers so stay away for buying links on people's websites as sooner or later Google will find it and penalise your website for it.   Tomorrow   Tomorrow we will be looking at email marketing and how to capitalise on non-buyers so be sure to check your inbox.

Buying likes is not a valid business model: Kirthiga Reddy, FB India head

Shelley Singh & Chaitali Chakravarty, ET Bureau Feb 4, 2014, 09.42AM IST

Tags:

• 

('Fans are important, but…)

The world's biggest social media platform Facebook has its second largest user base, after the US, in India and it's growing fast. At 93 million users as of December 2013, it's a huge leap since Facebook set up operations in India in 2010, when it had only eight million users.

Back then Kirthiga Reddy, 42, joined as head of Facebook India. Reddy, the first employee of Facebook India. Now faces the daunting task of monetising the platform. The user base is galloping but are the advertisers buying it?
In an exclusive interview with ET Reddy, says she would like advertisers, marketers and brand managers leverage the power of the platform with targetted messages and campaigns and reach out to the expanding user base. Edited excerpts:
How much time do Indians spend on Facebook?
ComScore - an American internet analytics company - has done studies with us which show that on the internet, people spend most time on Facebook than on Google, YouTube, MSN, Yahoo or any other internet property. In terms of activity pattern, students and homemakers are most active. In general, we see peak use in the late evening just like prime time (TV) hours.
Now there is a medium on mobile to reach people all the time. From a brand and consumer perspective it's about being able to reach your consumer all day, every day. Brands don't have to wait for prime time to reach their audience.
Facebook is personal space where users may not want to be intruded by ads and brand messages. How do you cope with the challenge of connecting people without being intrusive?
There are millions of friend requests and interactions every single day. There are also millions of brand interactions every single day. People are sharing with friends their choice of restaurants, cameras they use, movies they see and so on. These are as much part of their lives as their friends. The beauty of the platform is it lets you deliver messages to a targeted audience. If I am not interested in sports, the advertiser will not deliver that message to me. It is a wasted impression. Our technology ensures if I am cancelling out a particular message, the system knows not to show it again. That's key part of our engagement — to give the user only relevant content. Zuck (Facebook co-founder & CEO Mark Zuckerberg) spoke about this in his last earnings call. We constantly monitor what happens to user experience and we see user engagement increase with the right content.
How does Zuck see India?
He sees India as a strategic market. India is important from a user base perspective, the growth that we have, the kind of numbers that we have. Second we have core operations offices in India, that is what India does for Facebook globally. Third, from monetisation perspective, India is a large market. It is a lead for emerging markets monetisation. We constantly ask what is it that we can learn from India and implement in other emerging markets.

Last month, the emerging markets ad products team came visiting. They met with clients, agency partners, did focus groups, consumer groups, to understand how Indian consumer interacts with brands. Those are some of the pillars that we look at in India.
How many brands advertise on Facebook in India?
There are over a million advertisers on Facebook globally, a very significant milestone for us to reach. We don't share country-specific numbers. But I can see different genres of advertisers coming. To give you some examples, Coca-Cola India did significant launches with us last year. Yepme is an example of an online fashion retailer, that used Facebook with 4.5 times returns on ad-sales dollars. Small businesses like Pigtales and Ponys - two college students in Bangalore started this hair accessories company — leveraged Facebook and it became a business on its own.
There are large brands, direct response (DR) advertisers, home businesses, the small and medium businesses and developers that we enable. We have a strong product solutions portfolio to drive mobile apps.
The FMCG companies, mobile companies and several others are clued into what Facebook offers, but what about the back end companies like Reliance, L&T etc?
There are several shifts that we are looking to make. FMCG companies see us as a social media company and there's lot of work going in terms of fans, fan engagements etc. They think of us as social media. But given the kind of numbers that we have they must think of us as mass media in order to leverage the power of the platform. That's the trend that I see, that's the shift that I see, that's the kind of conversation I have with CEO, CMOs.

How competitive is Facebook vis-a-vis other media?

We don't share numbers but every situation is different based on what the media campaign is, what the brands want to do on Facebook. We are conscious that every dollar they spend on Facebook is a dollar they can spend on any other medium. We are effective and efficient for our ability to do targeted ads. For example, when Samsung did its Note 3 launch last quarter, they used a different creative for men and women on Facebook. Brands can't do this on television or on print. Another example is the launch of Nokia 205. Using Facebook, the company targeted only the feature phone users with a customised message because they were most likely to upgrade to the new model.

Its the ability of the platform to drive a message in a particular way with zero spillage that drives return on investment (RoI). We are results focused. We ask brands what are your biggest brand and business objectives? We are measured on this and what we deliver fuels the next stage of growth.
What do companies seek from Facebook?
Firt thing that companies want to know is how to use the platform. They want to be educated. Lot of companies have been using Facebook for fan engagement and that is valuable in itself. We have studies that show fans buy 1.9 times more than non-fans, however, fans are small percentage of the target audience.
If the strategy is to target fans, then companies are really missing the point of being on Facebook. For me conversations like these are a way to help clients. We work with clients and do sessions with marketing teams and ad agencies on how best to use the platform. There are many CEOs and CMOs who tell me, "Oh you have 93 million users. We didn't know that. We must do something together....,''
Often, CEOs, CMOs heads of marketing tell me they have reached 5 million fans. Fans are important, but I hope they tell me the next time that Facebook is an integral part in driving market penetration, new branding etc. That is the shift in conversations we are looking at. It's a trend in the making.
Is Facebook a must buy for media planners?
The trend that we see is that it will be a must buy. There are advertisers, brands and marketers today for whom it is a must buy. But is it a universal truth at this point? No, but that's the trend that we see. They will buy where the consumer is, where mobile is.
Companies can buy 'likes'. And there are fake likes as well. But that can be misleading for users. Does Facebook encourage it?
Buying likes is not a valid business model, we are a real identity platform. We have a whole team making sure we keep that trust. We certainly don't allow or encourage that.
Though brands do invest in building their fan community — which happens in both paid and organic way. It's about your like, nobody is automatically liking anything. It's all within the users control, with complete ability to unlike a page.

Hacking AdWords: The Secrets to Quality Score [Webinar]

Hacking AdWords: The Secrets to Quality Score [Webinar] Did you know that a higher than average Quality Score in AdWords can save you up to 50% on your cost per click? Those savings carry over to your CPA too – advertisers with high Quality Scores save up to 80% on cost per conversion! Google's exact formula for calculating Quality Score is famously mysterious. So how do you know how to make improvements? In this free webinar, WordStream founder and paid search veteran Larry Kim will reveal the secrets to hacking AdWords Quality Score. You'll learn: Why you should care about Quality Score in AdWords How AdWords Quality Score is actually calculated Case Study: How one advertiser got an average Quality score of 8.8/10! What does it all mean? And what you should be doing now! Space is limited, register today!

The Best Way to Structure Your Google Product Listing Ad Campaigns.

The Best Way to Structure Your Google Product Listing Ad Campaigns

DIGITAL MARKETING

By Jon Gregoire, Published October 3, 2013

It’s well-known that the Google Product Listing Ads program is a big deal for ecommerce merchants and will be a significant revenue driver during the holiday shopping season. The best way to manage your PLA campaigns, on the other hand, seems to be up for debate.

It has become apparent that many PLA merchants and advertisers have been misinformed by agencies and industry professionals about the most cost-effective Product Listing Ad campaign structure.

The structure I refer to is the SKU-level (a.k.a. product-level) ad group strategy, or creating an ad group for each and every SKU in a retailer’s inventory. This strategy has been packaged as “cutting edge“ and “innovative,” and this selling point naturally makes many PLA campaign managers feel like they’re missing out.

Plain and simple, breaking out your entire PLA campaign at the SKU level is by itself a detrimental PLA strategy. This holds true for merchants with sizable inventories and tight time resources. The reality is that, when used alone and as the primary foundation for a PLA campaign, the product-level ad group strategy is insufficient and primitive at best. RELATED CLASS: Google Shopping Overview: Strategies and Tactics for Success

Why the SKU-level Ad Group Strategy Is Primitive

If you currently structure your PLA campaign like this, I highly recommend stopping by our white paper on its downfalls and what to do about it. In theory, product-level ad groups are totally logical. Right off the bat, a PLA manager could imagine that he/she has the utmost control over bids for each of their products. The structure also lends itself to automation pretty seamlessly. However, in practice the SKU-level ad group strategy typically results in:

1. Less bidding optimizations and modifications*

The more ad groups you have, the less likely you are to go in and make bid changes to each. We took over one campaign with 7000 SKU-level ad groups. Who’s going to take the time every day (because management is best done daily) to make changes to all 7000 of those ad groups? This directly impacts product rankings and performance.

2. Less control over ad spend*

The more ad groups you have, the less control you have over the campaign’s overall ad spend. For example, let’s say you have 500 ad groups. That means you have 500 different entities contributing to just one total ad spend so if a manager wants to lower overall ad spend, he/she has to go in and evaluate and make changes to each of those. You can see how handling and maintaining ad spend can be considered cumbersome.

3. An inhibited ability to track and analyze campaign performance

When you have only data for just one product, there’s not much to go off of and the data can become cluttered. For example, after 30 days of a PLA campaign with SKU-level break outs, the data (for a retailer with a small inventory) may tell you that you have 20 products with 50+ clicks, 70 products with 25-50 clicks, and 200 products with less than 25+ clicks. Great.

This data doesn’t tell you that Nike is doing great for you or that your top-sellers continue to do great or that you’re not doing well in the sock department. Well technically it does tell you that, but now you have to go in and manually make those bid changes to each individual Nike product or sock. When you compare this reality to the nicer categorization of product type, brand, and top-sellers ad groups, you can see how a product-level breakout just isn’t feasible from a management perspective for a retailer with a decent-sized inventory.

*These general results from merchants with sizable inventories. A small PLA campaign with only 10-100 SKUs is far more manageable at the product-level than a PLA campaign for a medium-sized retailer with a hundreds or thousands of SKUs.

The Right Way to Structure PLA Campaigns

You might be thinking that this isn’t a problem for you either because A) you have product-level ad groups and automate your account smoothly or B) you have an agency or tool that automates and runs the account for you (regardless of their strategy).

Here’s an analogy: Having an automated PLA campaign is like having an iPhone with no internet access. You’re simply not going to get the most value that you can out of the lucrative program (yeah I know, I need to up my analogy game).

As I mentioned earlier, the most effective way to structure your PLA campaigns is by breaking out your products by:

• Top-Sellers: Group your best-performing products in one ad group. This way you can dedicate more attention to the products that need an aggressive strategy most. Bid high on this ad group.
• Some Brands: You should do some research and see if customers are searching for particular brands that you carry. If you find that there are a few brands that convert better than others, give them their own ad group and implement a more aggressive bid strategy for these so they get more exposure.
• Product Types: This is the same deal with the brand-level ad groups. If you find that as an apparel retailer, your shorts are converting much better than any other category, you’ll want to segment these and bid higher so the group as a whole gets more exposure.
• Seasonal Products: Halloween is quickly approaching, and so if you carry related items in your inventory, you’ll of course want to give all of these relevant, seasonal products more exposure this time of year.
• All – Products: This is the catch-all ad group of all your products where the remainder of your products not categorized in more segmented ad groups will be accounted for. Typically you bid as low as 1 cent for this entire group.
• 
  

Learn how to drive more ecommerce transactions with Google Product Listing Ads.

Watch Google Shopping Overview: Strategies and Tactics for Success, and start leveraging Google Product Listing Ads (part of Google Shopping) to drive more transactions today. You’ll see how to integrate Google Product Listing Ads into your current search strategy, and get expert tips for optimizing your PPC spend. Get instant access now.

Read more at http://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/best-way-structure-google-product-listing-ad-campaigns-0634758#bWRGCrA92P306ViY.99

AdSense

Google

Recibir pago

Nueva experiencia de pago

Hemos modificado nuestro sistema de pagos para mejorarlo y hemos seleccionado su cuenta para beneficiarse de esta mejora. A continuación se incluye un resumen de las acciones necesarias, los cambios y las ventajas añadidas de los nuevos procesos de pagos:
Novedades
Se han rediseñado las páginas Pagos y Configuración de pagos:

• "Resumen de pagos" ahora se denomina "Historial de transacciones".
• Ahora, el método de pago se denomina "Forma de pago".
• Ahora, a los ingresos finales pendientes de pago se les denomina "Saldo actual".
• El nuevo diseño de la tabla del historial de transacciones muestra las últimas actividades al principio.
• La nueva compatibilidad con barra de herramientas permite filtrar, imprimir, exportar o descargar la información de las transacciones.

Más flexibilidad en la configuración de sus pagos:

• El nuevo plazo ampliado le permite modificar su información sobre pagos hasta el día 20 de cada mes.
• Puede elegir cualquier límite de pago mayor que el límite de pago predeterminado según la moneda del informe.
• También puede retener sus pagos hasta una fecha especificada.

Navegación mejorada de la interfaz de pagos:

• Ubicaciones centralizadas para administrar la configuración de los pagos y el perfil del beneficiario.
• La ayuda contextual depende de las páginas a las que acceda.

Seguiremos añadiendo mejoras durante las próximas semanas y los próximos meses, incluido un enlace a la antigua página Resumen de pagos para que pueda ver todos los pagos anteriores.