Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Are you referring to a CDN?  We use a CDN for our images.  However we are contemplating using the image url from the manufacturers website, instead of downloading and hosting the image on our domain.

We are building several sites for several clients which will be using images from the manufacturer.  Our dev team wants to insert the manufacturer's url for the images, instead of actually downloading the image and hosting on our server.  There are thousands of images, so downloading images to our server will be time consuming, so we are looking for a shortcut.... however I'm concerned this will cause other issues.

Is using manufactueresdomain.com/12345.jpg going to cause SEO issues?  will this generate Google penalties?  Since we are not able to control the image file name, we cannot optimize it.  We will add Alt text and Title tag for each image, but the file name is random characters.  How important is the file name for SEO?

First, yes it's an issue if 80% of the content is duplicate.  Panda will not like this at all.

There are a few strategies that will fix the issue... primarily write new content.  I know its time consuming, but content is king.  Take the old description and reword it, tweek it, change it. ...anything to make it different than last years product content.

You can also iframe the old product description on the new page.  This will prevent Google from indexing the old content on the new page.  But then your new page might have too thin of content...back to the original solution...write more content.

Rand had a video about this issue a few weeks ago.  http://moz.com/blog/handling-duplicate-content-across-large-numbers-of-urls

Hope this helps

866 2 Google

Hi Dave,

Yes you can test conversion tracking...its the first thing I do when launching a new campaign.  You will need to go to Google.com, search for a keyword, click your text ad, and perform an actual conversion on your site.  I recommend performing this test for each individual conversion page on your site. Use a different keyword for each conversion page. This way you can verify each thank you/conversion page has the AdWords conversion tracking code installed correctly.  Wait until tomorrow (There is a 12-24 hour delay in AdWords conversion reporting), and verify AdWords and Analytics are reporting each conversion was tracked.

Hope this helps

Branden

Hey Erik,

You want separate AdWords accounts for separate businesses.  You should keep them separate for a variety of reasons...billing, reporting, conversion rates are different, different goals, etc.  You will need to have 2 separate email addresses for the 2 accounts.  However you can manage both of the accounts inside 1 account called an MCC.  An MCC allows you to have several separate accounts inside 1 master shell.

Hope this helps

Branden

Our site has gone down twice in a week...hosted by Fat Cow. So we're going to switch hosts this week.

We currently have 2 WP sites on a Fat Cow VPS.   8 GB file size and 2 GB data transfer monthly.  We use a CDN and video hosting company (Wistia) so the file sizes are small.  I've contacted several hosts and narrowed it down to WP Engine, Rack Space and A Small Orange.

I care about fast page load time (1 second), 99.999% up-time and great support.  Price is a secondary concern.

I'm leaning towards WP Engine, but wanted to ask Moz community before making a decision.  Any other hosting companies I should call?

Bing Ads (AdCenter) is the only other network that's worthwhile.  People still use Bing and Yahoo for search, so you will get some traffic, and AdCenter network is less competitive than AdWords, so AdCenter CPC is cheaper.

I've tried out a handful of the other search networks besides AdWords and AdCenter and have never had any success.  I've been doing PPC for over a decade and the only networks I spend any money on is AdWords and AdCenter.

ask google adwords this question.  1 866 2 Google

Marin is the best.  I've used Acquisio and WordStream before, and my campaigns perform best when using Marin.  Acquisio has better charts/reporting than Marin, but my campaigns perform best using Marin.  Also use Mongoose if you want to track inbound phone calls back to the keyword searched for.  Mongoose integrates into Marin seamlessly.

Marin Enterprise will cost 3-5% of your spend, which comes with a dedicated Marin rep who will help you with all of Marins features/tools.  If money is an issue, you can use Marin Pro for 1% of spend, but you wont get a dedicated Marin rep.  I started with Enterprise and then switched to Pro after I understood all of Marins tools.

Marins bidding algorithm is awesome.  Marin allows for various keyword attribution, A/B split test for text ads & creative, different bidding based on cpl, cps, roi, margin % etc.  You can also bid different for various conversion types...purchase, lead, facebook like, newsletter signup, phone call, etc.  It also stream lines your work flow which allows me to manage 2X more campaigns.

Do both!!  Send a personalized email and then follow up with a phone call.  Phone calls generate a better response than email, and if the phone call is a few days after the email, its not completely a cold call.

Vista Print and Office Depot don't have Quality Score of 10 for all of their keywords...but I imagine they have QS 7-10 for tons of keywords.  They have a huge budget to test things with, many PPC tools (marin, hubspot, mongoose, analytics, omniture, etc) and a team of PPC managers/designers/programmers who have been optimizing their campaigns for years.  They also have a high CTR because of their brand name recognition, which raises their QS.  However you can compete and win!!  You just need to pick your battles.  What are your advantages over Vista and Office Depot?  Higher quality, faster turnaround, local service?  Focus on the areas you beat the big players.  Do you get a lot of business from local companies?  Create campaigns focused on local geography.  If your business is well known in your hometown, Office Max/Vista print don't have an advantage.

QS is the most important long term metric, which is primarily based on CTR.  Create compelling text ads that get people to click them.  Use as many extensions as you can.... site-link, phone extension, location extension, social extension, etc....these all help increase CTR & QS.  When I am trying to increase QS, I only use exact, phrase & broad modified match type...no broad match type.  This will generate more targeted keyword traffic and increase CTR and conversions.  I also use dynamic keyword insertion, which increases CTR & QS.  Also remember that QS is a long term metric, so if you increase your CTR today, you QS will increase in a few weeks/months.

Chris and Mat gave some good areas to start out with for SEO and social media.  If you are getting into PPC, I recommend starting with Google AdWords certificate...its an online class that reviews many aspects of PPC and is a good starting point for any PPC manager.

On a side note, you mentioned that you are a 1 man band and your asking some really big questions, some dealing with creative writing, some involve mathematical analysis.  In my experience 1 person can't effectively write content, optimize on page seo, build links, manage PPC campaigns and engage in social media conversations.  Nothing against you, but there's just not that many hours in a day for 1 person to do everything.

A good question for you to answer is " whats more important to you, time or money"?  If time is more important, I would consider working with an agency who specializes in SEO, PPC, social media etc. There is a learning curve with online marketing, and a good agency is already over the curve.   If money is more important, you will need to roll up your sleeves and prepare to tackle several major projects. I got thrown into the deep end years ago, and I figured things out, so it can be done, but it took 60+ hours/week.

Hi Meghan,

Broad modified keywords are a new variation of broad match.  They are a hybrid between broad and phrase match types.  Broad modified keywords must use all the keywords.(like phrase) but they allow the keywords to be in any order.   Broad modified keywords main benefit is they will not be triggered by synonyms or keywords the Google/Bing believe are 'relevant".   Synonyms and 'relevant' keywords are what cause trouble for broad match...sometimes they are relevant, but often they are not relevant...broad modified does not have this issue.

To create broad modified keywords you just need to put a "+" in front of each word, and have a match type of broad.   While this can be time consuming to create manually, here is an awesome broad match generator.  http://www.acquisio.com/ppc/google-adwords-modified-broad-match-keyword-tool/

Use Editor... just export to excel ...all of your keywords, campaign, group, match type & dest url.  Make sure your keyword column in Excel is set to "text"...if its set to 'general' it will create problems when you paste '+keyword" back later.  Copy your keyword column, paste into the above Acquisio page, click the 'generate broad match button" , copy the new broad modified keywords and paste them back onto your spreadsheet.  Make sure all keywords have broad match type.  Save excel file and import back into AdWords editor.  You now have all keywords with a broad modified match type.  Should only take 5 minutes.  I would then recommend pausing broad match types...you will begin receiving much more targeted traffic, and will not need to micro manage your negative keywords.

By the way, I offer a free PPC marketing review.  Do you have 30 minutes to chat with me?  I can really help your PPC campaigns.  Private message me if you are interested.

Branden

Competitor campaigns work very well.  Just make sure you are targeting a competitor offering a similar product.

Brian gives good advice...I structure my competitor campaigns similarly..separate campaign...separate groups for each competitor.  Be careful about Dynamic Keyword Insertion....I've used it before in competitor campaigns, and it generated high CTR, but also generated complaints.  I do not use DKI for competitor campaigns any longer.

I found that I can get high CTR if I show why my product is great, not focused on my brand or my competitor.  ie. I will use Coke vs Pepsi in an example.  If I am Pepsi, and I am targeting keyword of "Coke"... My text ads would say thing like, Cold Refreshing Soda, Summer Soda Sale, Refreshing Beverage, #1 Taste Test Winner, Caffeine Free Beverage, etc.  Focus on the product, not the brand.  Why is the customer looking for this product? They are thirsty... show how your product can help the customer...they will click on your ad and buy your product.

My competitor campaigns perform very well...they are a great way to gain market share.

The best way I have found to create negative keywords is by going through the search queries.  I do this every month for my clients.  It takes some time to do this, especially at the beginning, when you don't have a large negative keyword list. But as time goes by you will have developed an extensive negative keyword list.

Set a broad date range, go into an ad group >>>  keyword tab>>  Details drop down >>  select Search terms All.  This will show you every search term that triggered your keyword.  Sort by impressions and start with the most impressions.  If this is a term that you don't want to show your ad for, just check the box and click "add as negative".  This will add this term as a negative exact match for this ad group.  It takes a while to go through all of the search terms, but it will pay off in the long run.  This is also a good way to add keywords.

Another thing that will help you is to stop using broad match for your keywords, ..broad modified, phrase & exact match are the only match types I use for keywords. This will give you much more targeted search queries.

I use Marin for my keyword research.  It combines keyword suggestions and search query reports from both AdWords and AdCenter into 1 tool.

Hi Brett,

EGOL is correct...PPC is really competitive, especially for high volume / expensive products.  John is correct that Re-marketing, PLA and branded keywords are the most profitable.  I also recommend going after competitors names / product name.  PPC is the only way to rank for competitors terms, and since competitors keywords are targeting people looking to buy your type of product, they will convert well.

PPC takes time and money to determine the best keywords for you...it will also take some time/money to establish high Quality Scores, which are essential to the long term success of a PPC campaign.  However I always recommend my clients start with PPC because you can rank at the top of page 1 today; and SEO can take months to get to the top of page 1.  Even when you rank on page 1 organically, having multiple ads in the SERP will increase your overall clicks (1+1=2.25)  i.e. 1 PPC ad + 1 SEO ad = more clicks than  you would achieve with just 1 organic ad.

I also recommend using a high quality PPC manager who has the knowledge, experience and ppc tools to make your ppc campaigns profitable quickly.  There is a learning curve with PPC, as with SEO, or any other marketing niche.  Its better to use a ppc manager who is already over the learning curve. You should also look for a manager that uses Marin Software to manage their campaigns...Marin's bidding algorithm optimizes keyword bids better than any person can.  A person can't optimize millions of keyword bids daily...that's what computers / PPC software is for.

If you would consider working with a PPC manager, please private message me.  I offer a free AdWords review, no strings attached.  To demonstrate my PPC skills, I will give you a handful of actionable ideas that will improve your ppc campaigns.  If you think I am worthy of managing your PPC campaigns, we can start a marketing relationship. If not, you will have a handful of PPC strategies that will improve your campaigns.

Have a great day

Branden

One way to get your new webpage page indexed really quickly is to write a post on your Google+ page with a link to the new page on your website.

yes Devanur is correct, Google will not serve 2 ads for the same keyword in 1 account..  The solution is to create a new AdWords account ...1 AdWords account for each domain.

With 2 accounts , you can have your ads appear in position 1 & 2, and yes you will be competing against yourself.  This is a really aggressive tactic, but it can be successful.  Just be aware that you can drive up your own costs.  Make sure to look at both your bids and Quality Scores.  The keyword with a higher quality score should have a bid that generates position 1.5.  The keywords with a lower quality score should have a bid that generates position 2.5.  If you closely monitor your bids & positions, you can be successful.