Matt Cutts States ECommerce As We Know It Is Dead
This video from Google’s Lead Web Spam Engineer, Matt Cutts, literally quashes ecommerce as we know it. Make sure you watch this video which states Google’s view of ecommerce sites and be prepared to give up trying to get organic placement for ecommerce enterprises that are reselling products.
Watching this video from Matt Cutts is incredibly concerning and illustrates a HUGE change from Google in regards to how stores can and will be placing and thus selling on Google.com.
Here’s the hard truth from the video:
1. If you are not selling your own unique products, but rather selling someone else’s products as an affiliate or reseller, you must have unique product content on your pages and invest in differentiating yourself from other competing sites as Google will no longer allow you organic placement on Google.com. Matt Cutts clearly states the harsh reality in this video – as an issue for Google in regards to search quality.
2. If you do set up a store borrowing product content from your manufacturer you should expect to only be able to bring in sales and traffic from an investment on Google AdWords. Paying for SEO services to assist your site in improving organic placement will be money wasted if you have not addressed the most important consideration for your site’s ranking which Cutts says is the issue of duplicate content.
3. Matt states that if you don’t have the time or where with all to create unique content for your products, that you should not be posting them and selling on the Web.
With nearly all ecommerce stores picking up cookie cutter content on products this is a very huge hit from Google in regards to how store can and should sell on the Web. Will this impact stores like Amazon and big box stores like Best Buy? Certainly, but the greater impact will be on small enterprises that have made a good living from selling on the Web and have just recently seen their organic placement drop from the Google Panda update.
As I watched the video, I grew increasingly concerned that these new revelations would have serious and long term impact in regards to how small business owners will sell and promote their products on the Web. I see this as a very strong shift to move businesses into paying to play on Google by forcing businesses to get visibility using Google AdWords. As I provide AdWords services this is not necessarily a bad thing for my business, but a very strong indicator and warning to the SEO industry that Google is changing their business model significantly.
Google AdWords – Why I Am Testing Dynamic Search Ads
I just asked all the time what are you watching, what’s new and exciting, what trends to you see happening? This week I will be writing three blog posts about what I’m watching and why. Today’s post is about the new Google AdWords Dynamic Search Ads.
This is why I am watching and testing Dynamic Search Ads right now:
1. With AdWords spidering my website and choosing to show landing pages that match a user’s query I may be able to expand my advertising reach and improve my conversions and ROI. In the hangout Google states the following statistics on performance.
“When compared to broad match keywords the click through rate will typically be 12% higher and the cost per conversion will be 25% lower.”
2. By not having to exhaustively select keywords for a program and with Google dynamically creating the ad title using the user’s search query, and Google choosing the landing page to show the prospect, targeting is improved and unique for each query.
3. Static information rich and e-commerce sites can benefit from Dynamic Search Ads (DSA).
4. DSA work with accounts that contain both regular keyword targeted programs. In fact Google states that with DSA the advertiser will get more activity than with keyword targeted ads alone.
5. The potential to know and understand the potential buyer and what the like versus what you are wanting to push may very well change advertising plans for some clients; allowing the user to be the advertising revenue driver.
You can watch the video from +GoogleAds from the hangout last week on the topic. I think you will find the potential for some clients very interesting.
Great AdWords Landing Page Tips
Not getting the conversions you think you should with Google AdWords? If you are getting clicks, have a good click through rate, but no leads or sales, the first place to really look is at your ad group and even keyword landing pages.
What makes a landing page great for creating sales and leads? Here are my top tips to consider as you design your own.
- Skin the page with your regular website look and feel and include your full website navigation. You are reinforcing your brand when you do this. I am not an advocate of having a landing page that does not look like your website or is just a big graphic with bullet points.l I like the legitimacy a fully skinned website page affords.
- Keep your page load speed snappy! You’ve got 5 to 6 seconds to make an impression, don’t have those precious seconds be in loading images or superfluous content.
- If you have a site search function, include it in the landing page or at the very minimum supply a link to your site map.
- Bulletize your content and condense your sales pitch. Most readers will scan your page – put that to work for you by creating bullets, visual graphics that are appealing, and white space that opens up the content.
- Include a path to the action you want the reader to take. I will typically encourage the introduction of a contact form at the bottom of the landing page content. I want to lead the reader into getting more information or a price fast with one click. I do not require any information on the form and usually just ask for first name, last name, email, phone, and comments. Again I do not require any fields I want to make the information request form process friendly and fast.
- Make sure your phone number is prominently featured on the landing page top and bottom. Many people will sit on that page and pick up the phone right then to chat with you.
- Do not include and excessive amount of content. Identify what your buyer wants to know and link to content that provides more information.
- Add graphics to break of the content or to reinforce your message. One page of text looks dull and if the paragraphs are too long, the reader may simply loose interest and surf off.
- Make sure you have a link to your privacy policy on your AdWords landing page. AdWords is scanning for this so make sure to have a policy in place and have it linked from your landing page.
- Keep all your important information above the fold of the page, that means visible so that someone does not have to scroll to read it.
Creating a landing page is like creating a marketing piece. Give the prospect the information they want fast and entice them to contact you to find out more. Give a sense of urgency to act on the information by offering a promotion with an ending date that encourages interaction to receive the incentive typically within the next week or 30 days.
Even after you have a great landing page, continue to test and refine your message. Find out what resonates with your clients and closes the deal by asking them and then build those items into your new landing page test.