Google Market Finder is a terrific free tool designed by Google which allows users to take a look at local monthly search volumes for specific locations. It also includes the costs of targeting particular keywords in every market, including foreign ones. This has been very beneficial in terms of growing our business on a world-wide basis.

Find New Markets

The free Google Market Finder tool uses world-wide Internet search data to reveal the number of times that keywords are searched for, in 56 different languages. We use the tool to see where consumers search for our products and services. Then we evaluate the new potential markets by comparing the local search volume, estimated keyword price and the competition for each keyword in all markets. This is really helpful in planning our marketing budget for the best results.

Here is an example of how it works:

Let’s say your company manufactures a cool line of sunglasses and you are interested in selling them outside of the US.  And let’s say (just for example) that you had several Spanish speaking employees and could support new business from Latin America.

You could use the Google Market Finder tool to search this type of query, and the results would look something like this:

Translate Key Words

Now that you have identified the countries that had the highest search volume for the phrase “sunglasses” you could use the free Global Market Finder tool to automatically translate our keywords into the language of our choosing (in this case Spanish), for all of our new potential customers. Using the tool, we can also see where people are searching for our products and services. Then we can narrow it down to specific locations to target in our online marketing plan. For this reason alone, it is an invaluable service, since we are not fluent in other languages. We would actually need to hire someone to do these translations, which would be quite costly. By knowing where our target audience is, we can best take advantage of the world-wide marketplace to expand our business and take it to the next level.

Use With Google AdWords

Google Market Finder is particularly effective when combined with Google AdWords. The free Google Market Finder tool showcases all of the estimates of a suggested keyword bid, as well as the competition for each Google translation for that specific target market keyword. In this way, since we are already using a Google Adwords campaign, we can use the Google Market Finder to choose a precise location and language with which to display our ads.

Access to All Marketing Media

The Google Market Finder can be used as a powerful marketing tool to help reach our potential customers on a worldwide level. Used with ad formats such as search engines, mobile devices, video and TV, this tool is extremely helpful in targeting exact marketing locations to find the best audience for our business products and services.

Google+ is the newest and most anticipated social networking site that I can remember hearing about for some time.  Google claims it does much more than other sites used by most people and that it ties Google’s most popular features together, making it much easier to manage your public profile, as well as, streamlining how you interact with friends, family and business associates and spend your leisure web time.

Google+ is now live, and chances are you have already starting seeing the +1 button showing up on website pages and even in your search results.

Here is a quick look at how Google + works:

Google Circles – these are your friends; you can organize them by lists, such as Childhood Friends or Family, to easily target messaging, share images, music and other important things with only who you want.

Sparks – is a reader similar to the current Google Reader, that brings content you are interested in directly to you on topic specific Spark pages; easily categorized, your interests will be streamlined, thus saving you search time and having to scroll through unwanted material.

Hangouts – is a video chat room where you can interact with friends in your Google Circles lists.

Notes for Mobile Devices

For mobile devices Google+ is currently available as an Android App, (iPhone app on the way) and offers two significant services:

• Hudddles – is a targeted messaging program that uses your Google Circles list.
• The App will also automatically upload photos to Google+ to share with your Circles members when you take them with your mobile device.

How to get in the action

If you are invited to join, the first step is to accept the invitation to join and finish the simple registration process.  You will then notice a change to your gray toolbar at the top of our Google homepage. The bar will become transparent gray and a, “+You” tab will join the Images, News and other tabs currently on the bar.

Clicking the +You tab will give you access to all the features mentioned above.

Reviews are being closely guarded by Google, but the information I have seen shows positive results thus far.

The competition for social network users is fierce in today’s market as more people are using these sites to manage lives and businesses. Google is counting on branding and reputation to set it above other providers. Releasing Google+ by invitation has done a great job at generating buzz on the net and will undoubtedly generate a surge of users as more invitations become available.

If you have any questions about Google + or any other social media questions, please email me info@mywsiconsultant.com.

How to evaluate how “good” is your website?

When we talk to new clients, most of them fall into one of 2 categories. First are the people who know they have a lousy website and need a new one. We applaud these people for being reasonable and open to suggestions.

However, the 2^nd crowd thinks their websites are great. And we have to be careful with this because websites are sometimes like children, in that only a parent can call them ugly without fear of a fist fight.

The brutal truth

At the end of the day, the goal is to get people to your website and get them to become customers. And the truth is that if your website isn’t good enough, your online marketing efforts may be largely wasted. And in today’s economy, that’s a luxury most of us can’t afford.

Questions to consider if your website passes the “smell test”

• Does it engage visitors quickly? You have about seven seconds to convince someone who comes to your website that they want to stay, and this time includes load time.
• Does it load quickly? Not only does load time count towards engaging visitors, it also affects the way that search engines rank a website. Slower sites are ranked lower, so ensuring that yours loads quickly is a necessity.
• Does it have great content? When the visitor feels engaged with the site, they want to read more and take part in conversations on the website. They are more likely to turn into customers when they find your site interesting, and more likely to return regularly.
• Does it set you apart from competitors? This is more than great graphics or pleasing colors. Smart design involves placing the information in a way that will lead to conversions, such as clearly telling visitors how your are different than everyone else that offers the same service.

Don’t Ignore Your 2010 Business Card

Remember, your primary digital asset is not your Facebook page or your Twitter account or a really great email ad; it is your website. Take the time to make sure that your website is representing your business well and serving as an effective business tool.

The Final Frontier?  Maybe…

While we have covered A/B split testing extensively in previous posts, there is still a great deal to be said about the many ways that this tool can be used and the advantages to be gained from its regular use.

There are three additional points that are highly relevant when  learning about this type of testing for online optimization:

1. When true A/B testing is not possible, there are other ways to create alternative A/B split tests. In a true A/B split test, two versions of a given page are displayed in an alternating pattern to visitors who come to your site. Sometimes, due to technological issues or other limitations, this cannot be done on your site. Consider setting up a sequential test in which you leave one page up for a certain period of time and then switch to the other version.
2. Testing may seem like unnecessary work, but in reality it is the only way you can understand what is working and what is not in your online marketing system. With regular, well-designed, and ongoing testing, you can identify and solve problems, correct false assumptions, and reach the highest possible conversion rates. Testing provides the data necessary to show those in charge which design works best.
3. Additionally, testing regularly will give you a large data set to draw upon when faced with any new challenges or major choices. The aggregated data will allow you to draw larger conclusions about overall trends, resulting in better overall design and a smarter, more effective marketing plan.

Advantages You Can’t Pass Up

The advantages to testing your design, copy, and other components of your online plan regularly are nearly limitless. As a business owner, it is only logical that you incorporate testing into your overall strategy as not only an immediate choice, but also as part of the ongoing maintenance.

A/B Split Testing: Steps 5-8

As discussed in the previous post, A/B split testing is a smart way to determine whether or not changes you have made or plan on making are an efficient way to accomplish your goals for improving your website and online performance, whether that means an increase in conversion rate, a higher number of subscribers, or something else for your specific business.

After you have gone through the first four steps described earlier, you are half way done with your first A/B split testing endeavor!

The following four steps will take you all the way to completion:

1. Use between one and three completely different designs. The goal here is not to test subtle changes but to determine which overall page structure is the best at accomplishing your goal.
2. Take each design through an A/B split test. Compare the redesigned page to the control, which is the original landing page for those who are just beginning to incorporate A/B split testing into their evaluation process. For each of the redesigns, determine how much better they are than the current design, or if the current design prevails, how much better it performs than the redesign. Using heat maps can help you track the impact of specific elements so that you can gauge the potential impact.
3. Use these results to choose the true control page. The best of these dramatically different pages will tell you what the general format of your pages should be. Once you know the best general format, you can work with the details.
4. Optimize the page that has performed the best by continuing to test traditional variables such as color, graphics, page copy, or the call to action.

What is A/B Testing All About?

A/B split testing refers to tests in which there are two choices for the testers, choice A and choice B. With only two choices, there is a clear indication of which is the preferred option and this yields results that are easily turned into actions by those looking to optimize their conversions.

It is a great way to structure testing for this purpose. Here are the first four steps in an eight step guide to using A/B split testing for your testing needs:

1. Examine capabilities and choose the right tools. While there are some complex A/B split testing tools available, you can also make use of simple sequential testing as well. Your capabilities will determine how your tests should go.
2. Choose the control page. This is the page that you will compare all the tested versions to. If this is your first A/B split test, then the control page is your current landing page that is yet to be optimized.
3. Determine goals and parameters. You are looking for the best page, but what does best mean in this situation? More conversions, a greater return on investment in pay per click campaigns, or perhaps an increased number of subscribers? You have to know what you are comparing in order to determine the best option.
4. Set a time limit. How long will you run the test? You need to ensure that you will be able to have enough trials to yield relevant data. Decide how much data will make it relevant and then determine how long the test should run to yield that amount of data.

Reading between the lines

Once you have decided that the information collected is valid, you must interpret the results in way that is meaningful and also correct. Determining what the results actually mean is how you will turn the testing you have completed into action, creating a more functional and efficient website and online marketing operation.

However, do not feel the need to force your test to “mean” something. If there is nothing to be gleaned from the results, then making any significant changes would be an inefficient way to increase the conversion rates and revenue produced from your website.

Learning from the process

However, if at first you cannot determine anything from the data you have collected, do not just throw the information away. There is something to be learned from the process.

First, you may want to run the test a second time, especially if you are concerned that there were issues with timing or the instruments used for measurement that could be corrected in a second run of the test. If you do not think that there is anything you could correct for a second testing run, look more closely at the result and consider filtering them in a different way.

Sometimes there are patterns that you may have overlooked that are related to certain days of the week or times of the day that can explain the results that previously looked meaningless.

Finally, consider what can be learned from your lack of results. Perhaps this tells you that changing this variable is not going to meaningfully affect conversions or result in more unique visitors, so it is not something that you should spend more time examining, or that each of the choices you have are poor ones and that you should not use any of them in the future.

Making sure the results are accurate

After you determine what you are looking to evaluate in your web marketing campaign, how you will find it out, and how you can measure the results that you obtain, it is time to evaluate those results to ensure that they are valid and relevant. Any data that is going to be used for determining the course of your marketing strategy must be meaningful from a statistical perspective, which means that there must be substantial proof from an objective, numerical perspective that one of the options is superior to the others in regard to the measure that is being tested.

Margin for Error

In order to be statistically relevant, the results must have a very small margin of error. The margin of error refers to the likelihood that the information is correct, and generally statisticians will not accept any margin of error that is greater than five percent. If there is only a five percent margin of error then you could say that you are 95% certain that your conclusions are correct.

One way to keep the margin of error low is to make sure that the size of the sample is high. A bigger sample size reduces the margin of error because the more people that are included, the less likely it is that a single variable or person can throw off the whole data set.

What to watch for

There are several things that can negatively affect the validity of online testing. Some those include events that happen at that moment in time, referred to as history events, problems with the tools used in the test which are referred to as instrumentation effects, problems with the selection of the subjects so that they are not evenly distributed, which is called a selection effect, and sampling distortion effects which occur when there is not enough data collected during a given test.

You must keep score

Once you have developed the question and the process for getting the answer to that question, it is time to determine how the answers to that question will be tabulated so that the answers will mean something to you as you structure your marketing efforts. You must decide how you will measure the performance of one treatment as compared to another and of each treatment as compared to the control.

When working with online marketing, there are four basic elements that can be measured that, from a business perspective, are relevant:

1. The amount of activity on your site. How many unique visitors are coming to the site?
2. The source of the activity on your site. Are people visiting the site as a result of an email promotion or a facebook post? Have they found you on Google or as the result of a pay-per-click campaign?
3. The nature of the activity – what are people doing? What pages are they looking at and how long are they spending on specific pages? Are they clicking on certain things?
4. The results of activity on the site. Are people signing up for newsletters? Are they putting items into a cart but not checking out? Are they completing sales? Are they calling your business to speak to a representative?

When you determine which of these factors you want to measure, you can develop the tools to record the relevant information so that you can answer the question that you defined at the beginning of this process. This will put you farther along on your path to optimizing the way your company interacts with potential customer online.

It’s OK to ask questions

The first steps in the benchmarking process are the same steps that one undertakes when attempting to examine any problem: deciding the answers they want and the questions that must be asked to yield those answers. This can be challenging for many clients. In a recent clinic held on this subject, the leaders of the clinic reported that more than half of the audience found that this first step, deciding on the research question, was the most challenging part of the testing process.

Deciding on the questions

In order to test something using benchmarking, there must be a “which” question. Which format results in more conversions? Which color leads to more subscribers? Although you may begin this process thinking hat your question is a what or why question, in order to test it using this process, you must get it into a “which” format. Instead of what color do customers prefer, ask which of several choices produces the desired actions from potential customers.

Asking the question

This is referred to as the treatment – the process through which the question will be asked and answered. In this process, you must identity the variable, value, and control. The variable is the element that will be tested such as a price point, a color, or the headline on a given web page. The value refers to the aspect of the variable that will be tested – lowering or increasing the price point, the position of a certain element, the different colors you are considering. The control is the existing condition and the treatment is the new page, email, or ad that you are comparing to the existing one. When the treatment performs better than the current control, it becomes the new control for future testing.