Marketing Technology Blog by Vishal Maru

Although, people understand the importance of keyword research for SEO, it is surprising to know how often this aspect of SEO is neglected. One of the most common mistakes done by SEOs/marketers is that they try to optimize the website for keywords they think are important. They spend a lot of time, effort and money in doing so and also achieve good rankings for those keywords. However, they still do not get expected conversions. Without keyword research you will be just moving, not necessarily in the right direction though. So, make sure you spend enough time getting the keywords right first.

Below, I have outlined a process which will help you with your keyword research.

Step 1: Get suggestions from Keyword Tool
Suppose you have a website which is offering internet marketing tutorials. You are looking for keyword suggestions relevant to ‘internet marketing tutorials’. Use the Google Keyword Tool for getting suggestions. Enter this keyword and you get several suggestions:

google keyword tool results

Initially, you short list the keywords based on only global / local monthly search volume. You can see that keywords ‘internet marketing course’, ‘internet marketing training’ and ‘internet marketing ebook’ have much higher search volume than ‘internet marketing tutorial’. Also try using digital marketing, online marketing; and other specific keywords like seo, sem, online advertising, etc in the keyword tool to get more suggestions. Based on this you can shortlist the following keywords

Step 2: Competitors’ Keywords
Check which are the best ranking competitors for the above keywords. Check the keywords they are using on various pages. It will often give you keywords that you would have not thought of. I checked a few keywords from other websites; however, none of those keywords were better than what we already chose in terms of global monthly searches.

Step 3: Analyze Keywords
You initially develop the content on the website using the keywords shortlisted based on monthly search volume. However, if you have a website up and running for a while you might want to analyze the keywords further based on current rankings and number of conversions for each keyword. Let’s consider the instance below it true for your website

So, although ‘search engine marketing training’ is the most searched keyword and our website is ranking well for this keyword, it is not the most profitable keyword. I would rather focus more on ‘search engine optimization training’, ‘seo training’ and ‘search engine optimization tips’ as they are giving good conversions even if the website is not ranking well for those keywords. So, we can get much more conversions from these keywords once we start ranking well from them, i.e. these keywords have greater potential. I am not saying that we need to neglect all the other keywords. This analysis will give an idea of how much should we focus on each keyword. Some companies do not have the ability to track conversions based on keyword. You can use traffic from that particular keyword as a metric for the above analysis.

Also, remember to conduct the above analysis every few months as search trends tend to change often.

Strategy and technical knowledge play a crucial role in SEO. However, having a process in place is also very important as there is huge amount of information to deal with. In this blog post I am going to talk about the importance of process for achieving efficient search engine optimization of a website. The chart below shows the process that I implement for optimizing a website.

SEO process

1.    Preliminary Analysis:

Before starting to optimize your website, it is very important to understand where it currently stands. I first come up with a set of keywords which are relevant for the website. I use the Google Adwords Keyword tool for researching the keywords. When you type in a few keywords it will give you list of all relevant keywords with search volume for each. I then get the rankings of the website for all of these keywords. I use the SEOmoz toolbar to get the rankings automatically. I also find out which are the top competitors for these keywords. This will help us in understanding what are they doing right to rank higher.

After analyzing the rankings, I check the current optimization of the website. I go through the current on-page optimization scheme to understand the opportunities for improvement. I also check the number of external links which are directing traffic to the website and page authorities of the pages which have those links.

This preliminary analysis will help me set objectives for the website in terms of rankings and traffic.

2.    Development of SEO Plan:
Now that I have all the information about the current standing of the website I proceed with the actual development of the SEO plan. As you might already know, there are two primary aspects of optimization: content and linking.

With regards to content, I write the actual optimization code (title, h1, description, keyword tags etc.). I will also go through the copy on the page and make sure it has appropriate keyword density. Finally, I make sure that the copy and optimization code are relevant, there is good internal linking amongst pages and then submit a sitemap. The preliminary analysis will help me determine which keywords I should focus on.

As far as link building is concerned, I will try and place the links on various websites which are relevant to what the website is offering and rank well themselves. Higher the page ranks of the external websites driving traffic, better the indexing of our website. This aspect of optimization goes hand-in-hand with the affiliate and social media marketing campaign.

3.    Measurement & Monitoring:
After I have implemented the optimization plan, I usually wait for a couple of weeks before measuring the results. I measure the new rankings for the same set of keywords and analyze the traffic, and check if the desired objectives have been achieved.

Finally, SEO is not a onetime process. You have to continually monitor the rankings and traffic, and keep iterating to rank well consistently.

Apple recently announced its new mobile advertising platform – iAd. The main idea behind this initiative is to provide developers of free apps with a channel to make money. This platform is revolutionary because of two reasons. First, the advertisements will be shown within the app which addresses the problem with current mobile advertisements that take the users to a new browser window. Second, the advertisements (developed using HTML 5) can be much more interactive. In fact, advertisements can be as interactive as the native apps themselves. Apple created a few demo advertisements to demonstrate the capabilities of this platform. The iAd platform might completely change the way advertisements are created or viewed. This platform involves three players.

1. App developers, who can embed iAd opportunities in their apps. The apps will serve as publishers where the advertisements will be displayed
2. Advertisers, who will actually develop the advertisements and put it up on the iAd server
3. Apple, which will sell and host the ads, giving 60% of ad revenue back to developers

The advertisements can use information from iPhone’s API like native apps and will be targeted based on this information. Location will be one of the key parameters. However, apart from location, Apple is not very clear about how other API parameters will be used for targeting.

As Steve Jobs says, app advertisements will serve the same function in mobile environment that is served by search in desktop / laptop environment. The numerous free app developers will definitely try to monetize their efforts which will create new marketing opportunities for companies. The advertisements are very similar to apps themselves; thus, these advertisements can be developed not just by agencies but also by app developers. With HTML 5 recently introduced, developers are still trying to understand its capabilities. Thus, the early adopters of these technologies (iAd and HTML 5) will benefit the most.

Companies can create advertisements which use the maximum information from APIs and can be highly customized. This will make the advertisements very relevant for the user which in turn will result in higher click rate and conversions. For instance, movie advertisements can include the show timings at the theatres near the user’s real time location.

The advertisements outside of the iAd network will not be able to access iPhone’s API which will make them less interactive. Also, the iAd platform is only for iPhone. However, the Google-AdMob deal will create a similar platform for other devices.

Location based app

The location tracking system is revolutionizing the social media landscape. Twitter added the location feature to its tweets. Now, Facebook is also planning to follow suit. Over the past few months we have seen numerous location based apps being developed. Gowalla and Foursquare are one of the popular ones. Users across the US and Europe have embraced this technology with great enthusiasm. This technology is also keeping the marketers busy as they trying to figure out ways to implement it for marketing purposes.

Marketing Applications

A few days back I tweeted about playing soccer. A few seconds later, I received a tweet from a sports store in Boston about their latest offer on soccer apparel. So, how does this work? Twitter has an API. API, in simple English, is an interface which allows transfer of information between applications / programs. So Twitter’s API allows other program to access all the public information on Twitter including the tweet, username, location, time, etc. The sports store probably has its own program which pulls information from Twitter using Twitter’s API. The program scans for keywords such as soccer from tweets within the Boston area. Then, the program will start following and send a tweet to the users who match this criterion.

Here’s another example. The screenshot below is taken from the account of a company who is hosting an online seminar. Note that all the tweets were sent at 7:49 am on May 13 and all the tweets are different except for the first and last two tweets. They are using 10 different tweets sequentially so that the tweets seem personal if a user checks the company’s account. However, it’s all programmed. You can also customize the tweets based on the keywords.

Location based tweets

Location based apps use content from various sources such as Twitter, Facebook and Google Maps through their respective APIs. These apps process this data from different sources and add some new data, and present it to us. Now, these apps have their own APIs i.e. another program / application can use information from these apps. For instance, Gowalla Sniffer is a tool which uses information from Gowalla. This sounds really complicated but it’s not. The chart below depicts the entire process.

API

The lower the level, the more specific the information is. Now, marketers have marketing opportunities at all three levels. Also, the targeting gets more focused as we move to lower levels. The Starbucks app uses information from Google maps and can be considered to be at the second level. Businesses can develop their own apps which could be at the second or third level depending on their requirements.

This technology is currently in its growth phase and is the future of social media. If marketers do not keep up with it, they will lose out on great opportunities in the future.

The ongoing battle between Apple and Adobe got intense and personal last week with Steve Jobs (CEO, Apple) publishing an open letter followed by Shantanu Narayen’s (CEO, Adobe) response through the WSJ interview. Steve Jobs explained the 6 reasons why Apple does not allow Flash. Shantanu defended Adobe Flash on these allegations. After listening to both sides of the story, I can draw the following inferences for each of these allegations.

One: Open v/s Close

So, the open v/s closed argument seems to go on forever between Apple and Adobe. Well, to some extent both Apple and Adobe are right. And that is because they have different definitions of ‘open’. For Apple, ‘open’ means open web standards such as HTML, CSS and Javascript which are not proprietary unlike plug-ins like flash which is owned by Adobe. Alright, Apple’s got a point. However, for Adobe ‘open’ has more to do with giving the developers the ability to develop for multiple platforms, and the users the freedom to choose. Apple’s business model is based on ‘Hardware + Software + Services’. For instance, although Apple only uses open web standards for web browsing, it does not allow users to download third party plug-ins. Developers have to write apps for Apple devices separately. Also, Apple users have to rely on iTunes for their content. So, that makes Apple ‘closed’ to a great extent too.

Two: Content

Steve Jobs says that Apple users are not missing out on videos and games because there are several apps which enable users to watch videos and the App Store has over 50,000 games. Although, there is great content on App Stores and great videos which are enabled by specific apps, why should access to content be limited for users? This links back to the previous point. So Apple, are you really ‘open’?

Three: Crash

Steve Jobs blames Flash as the number one reason for Macs crashing. Shantanu argues saying that crashing has as much to do with the Mac OS, as it has to do with Flash. Well, I don’t know what the real story is and probably we will never find out. So, pass.

Four: Battery Life

Well, this one’s too technical. However, I am sure there are ways to make Flash more energy efficient because it’s just technology and innovations are practically limitless these days.

Fifth: Touch

Flash was originally designed for PCs using mice. So, with the new touch screen devices Flash might no longer be valid as the user interaction is completely different. Steve Jobs argues that developers will have to rewrite their flash websites for touch screen devices. However, Adobe claims that it has addressed that problem and Flash works great with touch screen devices too. I am not sure how valid this claim is as we do not have as many non-Apple touch screen devices around. So, I guess we will have to wait and watch till new players like HP slate enter the market.

Sixth: Third Party Software Layer

This is one of the most critical reasons for Apple not allowing Flash on its devices. Having a third party software layer gives Adobe too much control in Apple’s development environment which is scary for Apple, understandably.

Conclusion:

In the end, Apple and Adobe have very different business models. As I mentioned earlier, Apple’s business model is based on ‘Hardware + Software + Service’ whereas that of Adobe is based on ‘multi-platform development and deployment’. Thus, Apple’s reasons for not using Flash are based on maintaining standards and quality, and Adobe’s reasons for having it on all devices are based on democratization of content.

I downloaded the HubSpot Inbound Marketing Software. I have been analyzing the Emerson Graduate Admission website using this tool. I am very impressed with how HubSpot has integrated the various analytical tools related to lead generation, lead nurturing and getting conversions into one single packaged solution. It is a very sophisticated tool which can extract information from the back end of your and your competitor’s website to provide you the best suggestions. Having so many tools crunched into one packet can make things complicated. However, the best part about this software is that it is very easy to use with instructions and help topics linked to every section.

As HubSpot is trying to automate and productize the process of lead generation, lead nurturing and getting conversions, it focuses mainly on analytics for measurement. I am a marketer driven by numbers and very well understand the importance of quantitative data. However, there are a few qualitative aspects of this process which play a very important role in getting conversions. For instance, web usability is a very important inbound marketing tool leading to conversions and many websites face the problem of not having effective web usability. The quantitative parameters such as bounce rate, pages / visit and average time per visit are some parameters which give you some idea about the effectiveness of your website. However, they fail to show you the entire picture. I have conducted usability testing of websites and got some very useful insights from participants. I would have never been able to extract that information from web analytics. How easy is the website to navigate, which navigation schemes are preferred, which parts of the website are attracting user’s attention, what information is the user searching for on a web page and what do users like / dislike on a web page are some scoops of information which can be derived only through qualitative research methods like usability testing. Is it possible to productize this method of measurement? Maybe to some extent. HubSpot can develop usability tool kits wherein they provide checklists and standards for usability (heuristic evaluations) against which the clients can evaluate their websites. They can also add the usability testing guide which can be customized, to this tool kit.

In the end, it’s a matter of what HubSpot considers to be its core competency. Does it want to be a PRODUCT company offering marketing / sales solutions or does it want to establish itself as a COMPREHENSIVE INBOUND MARKETING SOLUTIONS company?

The graph below is the technology hype cycle for 2009.

Hype Cycle 2009

Check out the Wikipedia page to learn more about the technology hype cycle.

*Wiki itself was in the slope of enlightenment phase in the hype cycle of 2009.

Cloud Computing was at the peak of the hype cycle of 2009. Everyone seems to be talking about cloud computing and its increased utility. But what is cloud computing? I really like this YouTube (which was in the trough of disillusionment phase of the hype cycle) video which explains cloud computing in simple English

Oops! Not what you were expecting? Click here for the actual video. It’s the genuine one this time, I promise.

So, what’s going on in the cloud?

So, one might think of Google Chrome as just another browser. However, it’s a Cloud Operating system in the making. All the applications that we use on our Macs or PCs like Office will be now on Google Chrome. Google Chrome OS is basically an environment like Windows; however, everything will be online i.e. in the cloud.

With Google launching Chrome OS, Microsoft can’t stay behind. Microsoft is also planning to take Office online. It will be interesting to see how fast these two companies move in this direction and which one will get there first.

It will also be really interesting to see in which direction all these emerging technologies will move in 2010. For instance, E-book reader is another technology that was at the peak of the hype cycle of 2009. The launch of iPad might completely displace E-book readers on the hype cycle of 2010.

So, what do we marketers need to make of all this? I will let you guys know as soon as I find out.

Based on the suggestions from David Hertog, Director of Marketing at AdMeld, I did some research on ad relevancy. I came across the concept of Intelligent Display Advertising. In this technology, advertisements are decomposed into several components such as brand logo, product / offer, copy, background image, call to action, etc. The technology interface will create the advertisement in real time by combining various components of the advertisement based on the geographic location, content on the publisher website, language, time of the day or past performance of different ads. Thus, it is ensured that the advertisements are relevant to the user.

Teracent and Tumri are the two biggest players in this technology. Teracent, which is now acquired by Google, uses the publishers in the Google content network.  Tumri also has its own intelligent display advertising solution – the AdPod. Tumri has partnered with the Yahoo! content network. The advertising campaigns created using this technology have proven to be much more effective than the traditional display campaigns.

The two sample ads shown above have been taken from the Google blog. The lower ad was customized and chosen from thousands of different creative elements, automatically and in real-time by the Teracent technology interface.

Google and Yahoo! and several other publisher websites have rich information about the profiles of the users. For instance, Pandora knows about the music taste of each of its listener; ABC, Fox and other television network websites know about the viewing tastes of the subscribed users. However, ads are not currently being customized based on this information. More general parameters like content on the website etc. are being used to customize the ads. However, in the future as user profiling becomes more sophisticated and widespread and, these smart interfaces become smart enough to determine buyer behavior based on their interests, we might see ad customization at an individual level.

Although the fundamentals of media buying will always remain the same, with the changing trends in technology and media platforms, there have been considerable changes in the operation, management and measurement part of it. With radio and television moving online, companies are increasing their advertising spends on this platform.

One of the biggest differences in the buying mechanism between the traditional platforms and the online platform is that the online platform is dynamic. While listening to Pandora or while watching your favorite series on Fox or ABC, you must have come across numerous advertisements. Earlier, publishers (websites which show these ads) used to directly deal with Ad Networks and the advertisements were mostly predetermined. Due to this, there was a lot of loss of Ad inventory as sometimes publishers could not sell their ad space and sometimes Ad networks could not sell their ads.

However, with sophisticated technology from AdMeld, the advertisements are not predetermined; rather they are dynamically generated. The article mentioned below shows the operating model of the online media network.

http://www.foliomag.com/2009/ad-network-optimization-service-helps-publishers-sell-unused-inventory-online

This article shows how the Ad Network Optimization service by AdMeld, connects publishers to the Ad networks and optimizes the Ad inventory. This is a service which is similar to Google AdSense but caters to all types of advertisements and not just text advertisements. However, there is a limitation with this service. This service does not seem to profile the viewer and display advertisements accordingly. It just goes by the bidding. It has certain filters to avoid showing completely irrelevant advertisements; however, there is no mechanism for showing advertisements to users which might fall in the target group of the company. Google AdSense, for instance, evaluates the ‘Quality Score’ of the advertisement which determines the placement of this advertisement. This ‘Quality score’ is calculated based on various parameters such as relevancy of the keywords, content on web page etc. Thus, it is ensured that the advertisement is relevant to the web page and the user as well. However, there seems to be no such measure in case of AdMeld.

So the Ad inventory might be optimized but are the advertisements really effective? The publishers and the Ad networks are making profits but is this automation beneficial for the company whose advertisements are shown? Maybe, these are early days for this technology and maybe it will eventually evolve into one that is not just optimized but also effective.