Google SERP Change Makes Local SEO Techniques Critical.

Since everyone is in a panic over the new Google SERP I thought I’d collect a handful of blog posts that will provide a good understanding of Google Maps/Local/Places.  In the end it means it is critical to add “Local SEO” into your SEO offering if you haven’t already.

General Update of SERP change by Greg Sterling: http://searchengineland.com/new-place-search-shows-googles-commitment-to-local-53990

What it may mean to SMBs by Eric Ward: http://searchengineland.com/what-googles-place-page-update-means-to-local-link-building-54643

SEOers opinions on Local by David Mihm: http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml

Local SEO detail by Chris Silver Smith: http://searchengineland.com/anatomy-optimization-of-a-local-business-profile-12943

ReachLocal goes public and raises $54.17

The ReachLocal IPO occurred Thursday. They raised about half ($54m) of what they expected ($100m).

Any CFOs want to break down the numbers and pull out some nuggets of wisdom?  Does the Revenue ($203K) and Cost of Revenue ($112) directly expose the amount they spend on click traffic (55%)? If this math is right, then that means they take a margin of 45% right off the top.

Check the SEC website for the full IPO doc

Website Metrics Primer. Read this before reading a Websites 101-type post.

A friend who helps small businesses in Ireland asked me a question about measuring website traffic.  They wanted to know two things:

1. What are “hits?”
2. How does a small and medium-sized business (SMB) owner  know what a good traffic deal looks like?

I tried to answer the question directly but instead ending up writing a mini-tutorial on website metrics.  I decided to share that information here for those looking for a very basic primer in website metrics. If this is your first look at website metrics, welcome to the world of performanced-based marketing and good luck!

Before I write about the terminology about website metrics I want to make a few broad suggestions and comments that will help provide context.

1. Website analytics is a young industry and it is eternally evolving.  Standards changes, new labels emerge and definitions get re-written.
2. You’ll see variation across different website measurement tools in terms of labeling and rules behind the metrics.
3. Google Analytics is the industry standard for small businesses. It’s simple yet feature-rich and best of all, it is free. Spend some time in the Google Analytics help/educational sections.
4. in my opinion, Avinash is the messiah of web analytics. Read Avinash’s blog here.
5. Try to get some experience in Google Analytics by asking a friend who has an account to let you see there reports.  Or, even better, just set-up a free blog on WordPress or Blogger and do it yourself. You need a tiny bit of skill navigating the code insertion but there are enough FAQs online to figure it out.
6. If you’ve set up Google Analytics on your blog then compare it against the metrics built into the blog tool your using you’ll start seeing how there is almost always some discrepancy in the numbers.
7. The average small business in the US likely does not understand ANY of this. After all, only 50-60% of them even have websites.

I’ll now try to help you make some sense out of all the terminology regarding website metrics.  You can always spend some time on Wikipedia checking out their explanations if mine aren’t clear enough. Also there is very little technical information here. That is for two reasons.  Number one, it will add confusion without providing much helpful insight. Number two, I am not a developer and don’t pretend to be one.  I view these topics through the lens of a small business owner, not a programmer.

In the US, the SMB market has evolved quite a bit in how it thinks about measuring websites.  In the old days, people wanted to know how many people came to their site so they knew how much technical resources they needed to support the website.  In simplest terms, did the webmaster need to buy more computers to support the traffic to a website without the site crashing?  At this time, the value was measured in “hits.”

The technical meaning of “hits” refers to the number of times a server is called to serve up a piece of a webpage.  For example, when someone visits my blog, www.WickCentric.com then the browser will send a message to the computer (server) that is storing the data for my blog.  The computer then responds by sending the text and images needed for the browser to show you the page. Each request is counted (e.g. 1 for the text. 1 for the image, 1 for some other stuff). These request are the “hits.”

Because of the way hits are counted, you can see how a single person going to my website may generate multiple hits. Furthermore, the only person who really cares about this number is likely the person responsible for maintaining your server or managing your IT infrastructure.  When server space was really limited and pages were simple (usually with only one hit per page) this was a big deal.  In the present day, for most SMBs this is no longer an issue.

Once SMBs stopped having to worry about server space and their site crashing, they started focusing on measuring how much of their website was being viewed.  As a result, hits as “the” metric for measurement was replaced by something called “page views.”  This is the number of times the web page (regardless of how many images or other files were accessed to show it)  was displayed.  For example, 1 page view could equate to 8 hits. As a website owner or webmaster, this gives me a much clearer sense of what’s happening on my site.

But wait, there’s more.  One visitor can often browse many pages on a site.  If one person visits WickCentric.com and clicks on every post they could generate dozens of page views.  But, even though they viewed many pages, they are physically only one person.  As the owner of WickCentric, if I only look at page views it will look like I have dozens of people reading my blog but instead it could just be a few, very engaged, people.

As a result of this last challenge, people who analyze their website traffic also look at something called “Visits.”  This is the number of people who come to a website regardless of how many pages they click on.  So in my example, assume I have 3 visits and each visit results in 4 pages of my site being viewed; I have 12 page views. To take it one step further, assume each page of my site generates 5 server requests for images, text and other code, which we earlier defined as hits.  With your new perspective on web traffic, you can see that can see that those 3 visits generated 12 pageviews which equate to 60 hits. Now there’s one last step to take…

In the WickCentric example, I had three visits to my site.  Let’s pretend one was on the 1st of the month, another on the 14th of the month and another on the 29th of the month. What if the three visits were from the same person that came back over-and-over again. To determine if that occurred I also have to look at something called “Unique Visitors” (UV).  This metric measures how many unique visitors came to my site in the past 30 days.  Let’s pretend that the three visits I got to my site on the three days above were all from the same user.  In my metrics, even though I have 3 visits, I only have 1 UV.

So to put my example into one simple expression:   1 UV = 3 Visits = 12 Page views = 60 Hits

Now think about the goals of the SMB that owns the website.  They are trying to sell some product or service to a human being.  What should they really care about when evaluating traffic to their website? The answer will vary based on the type of business, the type of traffic and the sales cycle of the business.  However, in most cases the SMB is concerned with getting a real, live human being to their website (UV), possibly getting them to return often (visits), having them browse multiple pages of the site collecting information about their product or service (pageviews), and then ultimately buying. (This last step is measured by Conversions, which we haven’t talked about)

Once a business owner has an understanding of these metrics, they can start combining them to get an even deeper look at the behavior of their visitors and the value that those visitors bring to your business.

For example, suppose you are a car dealership.  You have gleaned from your sales conversion data, that the users who buy a car share some behavioral traits on your website.  The majority of those car buyers have visited the site at least three times,  average at least 2 minutes of browsing time per visit and view at least 25 pages of your site.

So what can a your dealership do with that data?  Let’s suppose you purchased traffic from a local website and the contract is up for renewal. You look at the profile of the traffic you are receiving from that website and it appears that it often performs the desired behaviors. It is likely that you would want to continue purchasing that traffic.  While in reality the data is rarely this clear, this example shows how some companies using website performance metrics to make business decisions.

In the future, as businesses get more web-savvy, website analytics evolve and online marketing eclipses traditional marketing, you’ll see these conversations becoming commonplace. Take a look at the image of Google Analytics below and see if you can now make sense of these website metrics.

Want more information on website metrics? Try Googling some of the following topics and see what you find:

• What is conversion tracking
• Online versus offline conversion tracking
• Click attribution wars
• Website tracking using Javascipt code (aka tags or pixels).
• Why do website metrics rarely match?
• Bots, Spiders and crawlers in your website metrics

Want to suggest other topics regarding website metrics? Have a better definition?  Comment below!

5 Observations about Google’s New Website Design

Google has made a series of visual design changes to both the home page and the results page.  Here are five quick observations from a design perspective.

1.  The new Google logo no longer has the 3D-rounded look. While this was trendy a few years ago, now 3D images should go the way of stick-figure clip art.  After all, once something is added to Microsoft Office it generally means it has lost all design appeal.

2.  Google is defaulting the left sidebar on the search engine results page (SERP). The side bar acts as a filter… an element we see most search sites implementing in some form.

3.  The left sidebar now has icons for each filter option. In the app-driven design world we now live in, get used to see icons for everything.

4.  Google ditched the underline on most hyperlinks. This one shocked me.  For years, Google was the gold standard for explaining to people, “if it is a link, make it look like a link.”  That meant blue underlined text.  (See, you tried to click that didn’t you?)  Now, Google has chosen only to underline particular links in order to imply elevated importance.

5.   I like it.  A move to a visually simple, clean and modern interface. It’s only fitting that the company that brought the simple one-box design to a industry filled with crowded content-rich homepages once again leads the way.

Thanks to sixrevisions.com for the Google screenshots.

Small Business Optimism

MerchantCircle, the Facebook for small business owners, released some survey results.  While I’m always skeptical of these quasi-surveys in which there is no real analytical rigor, the results seem to support the common sense opinion about the economic attitude of the small business community.

Taken directly form the press release:

Sentiment About Current Economy Improves, Sales Projections Up, But Merchants Remain Uncertain About What Lies Ahead

• When merchants were asked to rate today’s current economy versus the past 12 months, 27.8 percent said it was “somewhat” or “significantly” improved while 30.7 percent said it was “about the same”. 22.6 percent said the economy was “somewhat weaker” today and 18.9 percent said it was “much weaker.”
• Nearly 50 percent of local merchants surveyed expect an increase in sales revenue to “somewhat” or “significantly” improve over the next three months. This marks a nearly 10 percent increase over November 2009.
• Holiday 2009 sales finished slightly better than expected among local businesses. When asked in November 2009 how they expected holiday sales to go, only 19 percent of merchants expected any improvement over holiday 2008. In reality, the post-holiday index reveals that 25.8 percent of local merchants saw an improvement in 2009 holiday sales over 2008.
• When asked to rate the statement “The worst effects of the recession are behind us”, sentiment was virtually flat from the November survey results. 44.7 percent of merchants indicated that they think the worst is yet to come (versus 47.3 Nov. 2009), and nearly 24 percent think the worst is behind us (versus 23.2 percent Nov. 2009).

Hiring and Marketing Expectations Barely Inching Up; Lines of Credit Remain Hard to Access

• Currently, 17.1 percent of small businesses expect to increase their headcount over the next three months, compared to 14.7 percent in November, 2009, a 16 percent increase. 11.5 percent expect to reduce headcount over the next three months, versus 13.4 in November, 2009, a 17 percent decrease.
• Currently 46.3 percent of merchants expect their marketing expenditures to remain flat over the next three months. 29.2 percent expect to increase marketing spend, up 2.6 percent from November 2009. 24.5 percent expect to cut marketing expenditures over the next three months, down 1.2 percent from the last survey.

58.8 percent of local merchants said credit availability had “worsened” or “significantly worsened” over the last three months, 36.7 percent said access to credit remained the same, and just 4.6 percent said it had “improved” or “significantly improved.”

Targeting Small Businesses? Consider the 55+ Crowd.

I always assumed the “generational shift” of small business owners would quickly move to a younger more tech-savvy crowd. On the contrary, according to this NYTimes article it looks as if the 55+ age group is counteracting that movement.  Maybe this is one reason why Google has been introducing a series of fixed fee products.  They realize that SMB’s will not buy complex PPC campaigns anytime in the foreseeable future.

If you’re doing some customer segmenting and you offer products to the small business community maybe you should introduce Ms. Dolphin as a new persona.

Google Ads Another Ad format

Google’s product management needs to get in the same room and work on there local ad strategy. Amazingly, Google has launched yet ANOTHER way to pay for a listing using a self-service platform that small businesses continue to ignore.  For an overview  go to Greg Sterling’s post on Search Engine Land. (you can read this post in the comments)

Get your listing on Google in 31 easy steps. (Clarification for those who have emailed/tweeted to me: This is sarcasm, there is no real step-by-step instructions to this)

1. Follow steps 1 thru 7 to set up your LBL in the LBC. (Free)

2. Follow steps 8 though 19 to set up an AdWords account with LBA (now called Local Ad Extensions) to link to your listing. (PPC)

3. Follow steps 20 thru 23 to set up an LLA to appear between the map listings and the algo results (Variable Fixed Fee)

4. Follow rules 24 – 31 to set up an Enhanced LBA (Fixed fee)

Um…what?!

Obviously I’m not a big fan of Google’s new ad formats. I mentioned my dislike of the LLA in my prior over-dramatic post.

SEOmoz Devoted Fully to Reputation Managament

Soon people will realize that reputation management is just a way of monitoring how your business is indexed on the web. It’s good old SEO tools underneath a new veneer.

SEO tools (a.k.a. Reputation management tools) are clearly the cat’s pajamas in 2010. Everyone and their sister has built some scraper that spits out some ranking/grading scale and then offers to help the business improve. If anyone is in a position to do this right it’s probably SEOmoz.

Read the announcement from SEOmoz here

Shopping for a Snowboarding Helmet?

Some helpful advice from Adam Seidel.

First of all, it is really, really, really important to try them on before you buy.  Every helmet is cut a little differently, and depending on your head shape your size/brand choice can be different.  The options that were important to me were:

1. Comfort/Lightweight (no neck fatigue for me!)
2. Adjustable Vents (so I can close them on cold days, but leave them open most days)
3. Audio (not a deal breaker, but saves me having to buy another set of decent earbuds)

Bern:

By far the most comfortable helmets out there, and the 2nd most popular, probably for that reason.  The one downside is that they all do not use EPS foam.  EPS foam is considered “certified” (by whom or what I have no idea, but the theory goes that EPS foam offer the highest level of protection…not that it helped Kevin Peirce much to have an EPS helmet…).  From what I can gather, a helmet needs EPS to get certified by this mystical board.  However, an EPS helmet is also only good for 1, ONE, impact, then the EPS breaks down, and needs to be replaced, where as the Zipmold and Brock foam supposedly can take multiple impacts.  Bern offers Helmets (zipmold) and Hardhats (brock).  A hardhat is essentially a hard candy shell for your brain.  More protection than a beanie, but not as much as an actualy helmet.

I purchased a Bern G2, which has adjustable sliding vents, and which uses their “zipmold foam”.  Again, i have no idea what this means, all I know is that it is certified for skate/mountain bike use, and approved, but not certified for snowboarding.  I’m fine with that since I take more shots, and harder impacts, to the head falling off my mountain bike than snowboarding, so I really can’t see why there is this “certification” issue.

What’s also great about Bern helmets is that they can be easily converted to warm weather helmets by just snapping out the knit liners, so my G2 can also be used for Kayaking, Mountain Biking, etc.  I wear a 7 3/8 inch hat, and went with an XL, but I could have squeezed into a L as well. Every Bern helmet I have tried on has been hands down the most comfortable, and seeing as how they seem to be the 2nd most popular on the slopes (almost every guy I see in the park has the Bern Baker Hard Hat), the certification thing can’t really be that big of a deal.  Finding the audio upgrade for it is proving to be difficult however (at least in an XL), so be warned. Helmet was $120, audio is $40 but proving elusive.

RED:

This is Burton’s helmet/armor division.  They seem to be the most popular on the hill for snowboarders.  Sizing is different depending on which model helmet you choose with them.  For example, in the Mutiny ($80), and Trace ($65) models, I was a Large, yet in the Hi-Fi  (their best helmet) and Avid ($75) I was an XL for some reason.  I ordered the XL Hi-Fi, then tracked downs the headphone inserts for the earpads on a differant website.  The Hi-Fi isn’t as comfy as my G2, but it still has vents (always open, non-adjustable vents), and is “certiffied”, so we shall see which one I end up using more. Total cost for helmet ($100) and Audio ($20) was $120

Giro:

Really awesome helmets, but not the coolest looking helmets.  My girlfriend just got the Giro G10, and I dropped in the Skullcandy audio system into the earpads.  She seems to love the helmet, it has vents that can be opened/closed with a switch on the top of the helmet.  It uses EPS foam, so it has the top level protection, but it is also very, very lite.  It seems to weigh the same as my G2, and to be honest, the only reason I didn’t also get a Giro G10 is A) I thought it was gay if my girlfriend and I had the same helmet, and B) the Giro just doesn’t look cool.  It looks like a skier’s helmet.  Hard to explain.  Total cost for the helmet w/ audio was about $150, but it can be had cheaper online (i bought the G10 at EMS in Manchester)  The difference between the G9 and G10 is that the G9 vents are fixed open.

POC:

Best helmet money can buy.  Honestly, I would have purchased a POC bug receptor audio helmet but I couldn’t find an XL/XXL anywhere to try on.  The downside to the POCs, other than the cost (they are going to run you $150-$200), is that they run small, and that depending on the model you choose, they can either be very low profile, or make you look like Marvin the Martian.

Pro-Tec:

Not a very popular helmet, but they have the best audio solution of anyone.  They use a plantronics set-up in the earpad, and incorporate volume/mute into the earpad itself.  Tap the outside of your left ear to mute, and the outside of the right earpad has an over sized volume roller.  You can use both with mittens on.  Great idea that has been well executed.  It’s just a shame that their helmets are on the heavy side.  I see maybe 1 out of 20 people wearing a Pro-tec.

Smith:

The company has been around forever, and they make decent, not great, stuff.  A smith audio helmet will run you around $80.  If you don’t want to spend a ton of cash on a Helmet, the smith is probably the one for you.  Personally, I would rather buy a RED trace for $80 and add the audio later, or just use earbuds, but if it’s a personal choice.

Where to Buy

Check out Backcountry.com, and Evogear.com for some good deals.  Altrec.com also has good prices, but every time I order from them the shipping takes 5 weeks.

That’s my two cents.  Let me know if I’m missing any of your favorites and I’ll take a look.

Why the Google Local Listing Ad Must Change or Die

Maybe I’m being a little over dramatic in the headline but this move by Google seems like a true lack of understanding of the small business. Google is introducing a third ad type to a user base that is not willing to self-serve.  To try to attract these folks they are abandoning their “pay-for-performance” credo and introducing a flat rate model.  If Google is looking to set the stage for success in 2015 then this may be a good move, if they think they’ll get revenue generation out of it in the short term, I remain skeptical.

I see more confusion in the space, continued low adoption and cannibalization of their current PPC campaigns. To the current generation of small business owners, Google is speaking gibberish.

Things about the Local Listing Ad (LLA) small businesses don’t like:

• Pre-roll on the phone call: Many SMB don’t like having call tracking set up.  Chalk it up to an irrational fear of big-brother, some bizarre pride in their actual telephone number or simply the lack of faith in the ability of the call forwarding process to work.  As if that’s not bad enough when you tell them you’re going to record their calls and then transcribe them to “show the value of the call”  they get ready to punch you in the face and call the FBI. Now you want to pre-roll big-brother’s voice on every call!? The combination of annoying and frightening will be enough to drive away many SMBs.

• Mysterious pricing: Somehow Google took flat-rate pricing and made it confusing. SMBs don’t reject PPC because the auction model is broken, it’s because of a perceived lack and value and a general sense of confusion over what they are buying.  Don’t get me wrong, flat-rate pricing is generally easier to understand but unless the entire pricing model (Cost + Volume)  is simplified and transparent, SMBs won’t see the benefit in it. In the end, it doesn’t address the biggest pricing question “What do I get for my $x00?”

• Confusion: The number one question I address when speaking to owners of small businesses about SEM is “Where does my ad appear?” By introducing the LLA Google has added to the confusion.

Let me end by saying, small business don’t care about marketing.  It can be illustrated by the fact that business owners rarely claim their free Local Business Listings (adoption anecdotally ranges from 10-25%).  How do you get them to pay for an ad when you can’t give them away for free?