This blog post examines 2 categories in Google AdWords. The post attempts to argue that these categories--Networks and Target Audience--remain critical to running profitable AdWords campaigns. It suggests that by controlling these variables, an AdWords manager may reduce costs while maximizing profits. After a brief discussion of the Networks Category, we will discuss the Target Audience.

Networks
The Networks category inside Google AdWords comprises 3 basic categories: Google Search, Search Network, and Content Network.

Google Search is basically the search bar. Many users search for Tonka toys, generally. However, there is a larger than recognized percentage of users who remember domain names and type in www.RudysToys.com. Businesses that run AdWords campaigns should therefore have an Ad Group that comprises their domain name and business name. The reason that you want to doe this is that, if you do not, then your competitor will. For example, my search for ww.rudystoys.com pulled an ad from EBay. The AdWords manager for Ruby's toys had only to pay about 5 cents per click to maintain position 1 -3. The cost to advertise for Tonka Toys would be about 54 cents and higher depending on the nature of the website.

The Search Network includes Google properties and partners such as Google Groups, AOL and ASK. Additional partners, include and are not limited to the following:

• Netscape
• Earthlink.com
• Lycos.com
• Shopping.com
• ATT.com
• TechTarget.com
• Comcast.net
• CNET Search.com
• MyWebSearch.com
• Information.com
• MyWay.com
• BellSouth.net
• DogPile.com
• Adelphia.com
• About.com
• Compuserve.com
• NYTimes.com
• HowStuffWorks.com
• Oingo.com
• TripAdvisor.com

The Search Network provides businesses with a wealth of places to advertise. Unfortunately, the value of a click may vary depending on the goals of your business. If Rudy's Toys is participating in a brand building (or "getting the word out") campaign then advertising in diverse markets regardless of the location of search can be worthwhile. However, if Rudy's Toys is seeking sales, then the search Network might not always provide a business with maximal profit for the investment. To determine the benefits of Google Search versus the Search Network, simply run a 30 day test comparing sales and profits with the Search Network included and with it omitted. Advertise where the customer is ready to buy.

The Content Network places targeted ads in newspapers, special-interest websites and blogs. AdWords interprets the content of a website and places your ad next to that content. This can be a good thing and a bad thing. If your ad for Tonka toys occurs next to a short story where the writer has a particular fascination with children's toys and suggests that "the truck careened as an old Tonka toy" this might not be a good click. However, if your ad occurs next to a blog for toy collectors, the click is a good thing. You want, therefore, to place constraints on the places where your ads are shown to maximize revenue.

Target Audience
The Journal of Medical Internet Research provides ample evidence that online businesses need to think about the fact that the world is really less English or European than it used to be. The journal speculates that two-thirds of web pages are published in English while there are over 5 billion non-English speaking people online. This means that while Rudy's toys is focused on getting that sale from the EBay, Toys R US and Toys.com, its US competitors, the company may be neglecting the high income non-English speaking person who is prepared to buy. The example becomes even more apparent when you consider the fact that in a small metropolis like Vancouver with about 2 million people, roughly 900,000 are non-English speaking. The toy store may have higher returns on investment by simply advertising to unique and often neglected market segments. For example, the word "toy" has the following variations:

• Juguetes – Spanish
• Spielzeug – German
• Jouets – French

To use language targeting, create about 3 – 5 pages. Use questionnaires to determine pull or interest in buying. You might realize that the man from Bombay down the road has visited your website before but felt uncomfortable asking questions about the toy that we wanted to buy for his son's birthday next week.

The point of this blog post has been to open your mind to the possibilities online – they remain endless!

Apache server provides a great feature to help webmasters with SEO. This feature is htaccess file. This file is located in the root of websites and provides additional setting information to server. Webmasters have access to this file and can easy adjust it for specific needs.

Let's take a look how htaccess can help optimize website hosted on Apache server.

1. There are many discussions about non-www and www versions of websites. What version is better for SEO? Neither is better. Just choose one version and stick with it. It will help search engines do not index the same pages under different URLs (with and without www).

Example below redirects from domain.com to www.domain.com

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$1 [L,R=301]

Please note that Google Webmaster Central has a tool to select preferred version of domain (with or without www).

2. Many websites have internal links pointed to homepage of website as http://www.domain.com/index.html . At the same time homepage is accessible under domain as http://www.domain.com . As result, search engines could index homepage (the most important page on website) under 2 different URLs. One line of htaccess code helps avoid or fix it.

RewriteRule ^index.html http://www.domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

3. What to do if you want to move a web page in different directory or rename file/directory? Think about that twice. Do you really need it? It's better to keep URLs of all pages stable and don't change it. In case you have to move/rename page or directory make sure you setup permanent (301) redirects from old URLs to new ones. Code below shows an example of this redirect.

Redirect 301 /old_file.html http://www.domain.com/new_file.html

Code below shows an example of htaccess file that includes all lines we reviewed above

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$1 [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^index.html http://www.domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
Redirect 301 /old_file.html http://www.domain.com/new_file.html
Redirect 301 /old_dir/file.html http://www.domain.com/new_dir/file.html

Make sure you test website after any update of htaccess file. Wrong code or any mistake can put down entire website.

In this blog post, I will attempt to argue that the campaign settings inside Google AdWords define your destiny or fate online. The 2 categories to be discussed are as follows: basic settings and budget options.

The basic settings category asks advertisers to do the little things like simply name the campaign and define its start date and end date. On the surface, the category is simply an attempt to promote products online. Beyond the basics, the category suggests or requests well defined targeted campaigns:

• Restaurant – 2 Can Dine for 1 – Steak & Lobster Dinner. Reservation Required (Dec 15 – 21)
• Garage – Free Oil Change with Every Tune Up (Tuesday And Thursday AM)
• Movie theatre – $1.00 off popcorn with coupon. (Star Wars – Return of the Yeti)

Unlike specific conversion metrics that are defined inside Ad Groups, advertisers receive real metrics from well defined targeted ads because sales changes as a function of online advertising. In other words, the advertiser has more reservations for steak and lobster dinners because they are advertised online.

The budget options category asks advertisers to recommend a daily budget. Surprisingly, this simple question may be the most important question that an advertiser examines for 2 reasons: first, the AdWords budget is spread across a variety of media that include: Google search, Google partner search, and the content network – which is another tiny universe unto itself; and this means that advertising is not just occurring inside Google but in a variety of online properties; second, compared to other media--television, radio, newspaper, magazines, and trade journals--advertisers should be prepared to pay a comparable amount to convert browsers into buyers, generate sales and build brand and reputation online.

Generally, established businesses know theses costs, and consequently, the transition from the offline to online world is smoother. Small businesses, in contrast, struggle because they attempt to accomplish a variety of assumed advertising goals – branding, sales, reputation management, customer service, and promotions – from $10 per day. The cost effectiveness of Google AdWords may be its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. The ancient parable holds true online – the big fish swallows the small fish!

The budget options category contains another valuable tool that often goes unnoticed – the delivery method. It is, in my opinion, more a question of character and corporate culture than of speed or efficacy. Businesses that find themselves using Gorilla marketing tactics to get in the face of customers and never let them never forget that you offer the lowest price in town, should adopt an accelerated delivery method. Businesses that prefer customers who have thought about the decision before investing should consider a gradual delivery method. Despite my interpretations of these concepts, the true difference is that whereas the gradual delivery method means that ads will be shown equally over time, the accelerated delivery method means that ads will be shown as quickly as possible.

Alright, get your mind out of the gutter....were talking about websites. When planning to build your online empire one questions that repeatedly comes up is whether to build one giant website, or create a number of smaller separate sites.

While each site presents its own set of unique circumstances I would advice that in most cases you will want to build one big site. Google seems to favor large sites and I can understand why. Search engines are looking to give users the best experience possible, so if a website has plenty of related content then searchers are probably going to be able to find what they were searching for.

Take advantage of the influence that these sites are given by continuing to build out your content with more articles or blog entries. This should not only help with your top keyword phrases but also with small long tailed terms that can help generate traffic which you wouldn't have normally seen.

What about sub-domains you may ask? Some developers like to break up content this way but I would suggest that this is not the answer. Search engines see sub domains much like they see separate websites. By separating your site into different sub domains you really aren't doing yourself any favors and you won't see the benefit that you can get with one large site.

Remember, just because large sites tend to do better doesn't mean that you should combine your 'pet food' and 'movie review' sites. Search engines can take into account the overall theme and as they continue to get smarter will also get better at differentiating sites that don't provide users a good experience. Also, from a usability perspective having various off-topic sites all bundled together just doesn't make sense.

It's all in the way you move it.

OK, perhaps you have recently built a few small topic related websites and want to consolidate them into one. The best thing to do would be to use a 301 redirect. By using this you will not only be redirecting the website, but you will be redirecting any links that it may have acquired.

Many of you don't have to imagine what it's like to type your name or your company's name in Google and find search results that paint you in, shall I say, a less than positive light. And none of you have to imagine the kind of impression this leaves with people who are looking you up.

Your online reputation doesn't just depend on the press releases you send out, which journalists or bloggers they reach and how these outlets spin your brand. The real battleground for your online reputation is across the online arena in almost all the places where you or your industry are topics of debate, discussion or competition.

Circumvent the Democracy

This online battle is more democratic than ever. These days any individual with a grudge can have one of the loudest voices when it comes to who you are in the online arena.

So how does one battle against the tyranny of this online democracy? If it's a person with a grudge, It's always advisable to start with contacting them and trying to reach an agreement or understanding. If that doesn't work, or if your online image is tarnished by unflattering news articles, then its time to implement a more aggressive campaign.

Outrank negative search results with pages of your own until the bad publicity is pushed down to pages that most people just don't look at. You do this by optimizing your existing pages for the search engines, and creating even more pages that will outrank and quell the banter that's harming your online reputation.

Always Tread Carefully

You don't want to make this investment and have it backfire on you. Search Engines rank pages on the basis of relevance and trust; the pages you optimize have to communicate this not only to the search engines, but to users.

If you're going to dominate the first pages of search engine rankings with your own results, make sure your pages are worth being there. Crowding Google's results with pages that are juiced with links but deliver no real value to the people who will be consuming the information is spamming, which is invariably BAD 'netiquette'. You need to put in your time and understand how to play within the guidelines of the unspoken laws of the web.

Be truthful regarding the content of the pages you are optimizing and engage people in honest conversation; that's how you develop real trust online. This is doubly important in the more social aspects of online communications. More to come on that soon...

On Tuesday the 4th of December from 7:00AM to 9:30AM at the Terminal City Club, 837 West Hastings Street, Vancouver VKI Studios with be hosting the first WAA & eMetrics breakfast event.

This event will feature Jim Sterne, founder of the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summits, and founding Chairman and current President of the Web Analytics Association. Jim will be speaking about the current maturity of the web analytics industry. He will share insights into the level of expertise among today's practitioners; challenges they face; the opportunities that are available; and the role we play as companies adopt the continuous improvement method of marketing optimization (at VKI Studios we have branded this as our Hippo Tango service) and truly start listening, engaging and participating in a dialogue with customers.

In addition to Jim's presentation I will be presenting a recent case study that we have put together on marketing/landing page optimization. This case study will focus on the use of web analytics and testing (in this case Google Analytics and Google's Website Optimizer) and the importance of planning and process to maximize results.

This event is targeted at people who want have an interest in marketing optimization, web analytics, and testing. I hope that attendees will gain a solid understanding of the current state of the analytics arena from Jim and an appreciation of the benefits of becoming a data driven organization and the importance of planning and process from my presentation.

Click here to register

Analytics audits are usually customer focused, so don't get too upset if the below process is missing some steps that you think your audit should include. My intention for posting was to give a little insight into what an Analytics Audit can look like.

Ensure your site is reporting accurately. Can you be confident in the action it suggests you should take?

• Analyze URLs
  • find the identity of referring websites
  • analyze URL structure to ensure organized analytics data;
• Analyze URL parameters
  • document URL parameters and identify their adverse affects
  • distinguish between parameters that make pages unique and those that are simply for tracking purposes
  • ensure your web analytics platform is configured correctly for the parameters
  • provide your development team with parameters "best practices" for your specific requirements
  • perform monthly parameter audits
• Analyze cookies
  • review and document reliability and P3P privacy sensitivity of the cookies you analytics depend upon
  • review and recommend vital first-party cookies best practices
  • measure your cookie rejection and deletion rates
• Visits, Visitors and Unique Visitors
  • explain precisely how these two critical metrics are being computed
  • interpret these metrics in terms of your web analytics tool
  • examine the impact of how your site is dealing with sessionization
  • check the impact of your cookie handling on these vital KPI's
• Time on Pages/Site
  • Examine how this metric is measured on your site
• Page Views
  • a page naming strategy is fundamental to meaningful, actionable analytics. We begin with your site's strategy and the analytic's implementation of that strategy.
  • most rich media or AJAX websites incorrectly implement analytics. We examine its implementation and make specific, actionable recommendations to correct the implementation.
• Filtering Analytics data
  • explain the impact of the rules, repercussions and exclusion on your data collection and reporting
• Conversion funnel accuracy and verification
  • identify your site's fundamental eCommerce and other success events (sales, downloads, leads etc).
  • examine their tracking and display to ensure they point to weak points in the conversion process
• Campaigns
  • review for proper tagging and accurate identification of your traffic sources
  • Correlate this audit with an audit of your Ad Word ROI for more actionable management of your monthly spend.
• Search Engine Traffic
  • examine the accurate identification of your site's Organic Search success and extract recommendations for improvement
  • correlate with an SEO audit to deliver a comprehensive action plan to explain visitor paths to your site and increase rankings and referrals
• Optimization
  • identify weak areas degrading your site's conversion rates
  • propose A/B testing techniques to have your visitors point you to more compelling methods to achieve conversion success

"My name is Michael and I am a web analytics... oholic?"

Yes, I'll admit it: I find my self logging into Google Website Optimizer at all hours – day and night, weekends included – to ensure our freshly-optimized pages are reaching their goals.

I also place bets with co-workers. We'll try to predict which version of a page will perform best, and by what margin it will beat the existing page.

It's embarrassing sometimes:

• Excusing myself from a dinner date, so I can log in to see whether my revised "buy now" button is outperforming the old one.
• Being caught squealing with joy because I've correctly predicted the lift a revised headline will make.
• Predicting a revised photo will improve conversions by 20%... only to find it reduces them by 23%. The agony of defeat!

No, this isn't a cry for help. Please, no interventions. I just wanted come clean and admit I have a new addiction.

Anyone else suffering similar symptoms?

About a week ago Google introduced a new feature in Google Webmaster Central to associate a geographic location with website.

It is a great way for webmasters to tell Google more about geographical location of business associated with website. Country association has impact on search results. Visitors from particular country will see more websites associated with this country in search results. At the same time country oriented searches (for example, restriction 'pages from Canada' in Google.ca) will show websites associated with particular country only.

Search engines can determine the location by using top-level domain names. For example, websites within top-level domain .ca are associated with Canada. Situation with not country specified domains is different. Search engines can use hosting IP address to determine the location of hosting server and associate it with domain. It is not the best way because many websites have country related or language oriented sections in sub-domains or directories.

Now you have an ability to show Google geographical location you would like to associate with your website. Basically, you need an account in Google Webmaster Tools.

After login you can go to Tools --> Set geographic target. There is a form to select country/region, put street address, city/town, state, zip code. You can specify geographical location for entire website, particular sub-domain or directory. It is very useful if some parts of websites are oriented on visitors from specific countries.

Please note that in field City/Town you have to use upper case characters only. And field State should have text code of state or province (for example, HI for Hawaii). If you put full name of state (for example, Hawaii or HAWAII) you will see "No such State/Province in this country. Please enter a valid State name (or Province name)". It is weird but this is way how it works.

This new feature is a big step for Google to allow webmasters provide more information about websites. However, some websites (or sections of websites) are language oriented. Would be great to have an additional feature to associate a website or part of website (sub-domain or directory) with particular language.

My background is in advertising. Many years ago, I read the classic book by Claude Hopkins, Scientific Advertising. The crux of the book is very simple: that advertising should be based on A/B testing and numbers, not just creative hunches.

Hopkins' Scientific Advertising is one of those books that everyone in the advertising industry has read and raves about. David Ogilvy claimed it changed his life, even stating that no one should be allowed to practice advertising until they'd read the book seven times!

And yet, rarely do advertisers actually heed Hopkins' advice and test their ads, one version against another, to determine which approach works best. Instead, they take what they think is their best idea, and run with it. In other words, they guess!

I believe there are three reasons why A/B testing is so rarely done in traditional advertising:

1. Budget. It's expensive enough to produce one ad. Producing a second, test ad is seen as wasteful.
2. Inertia. A/B testing isn't part of the established process.
3. Ego. To succeed in advertising, you must have confidence in your ideas. To admit you're not sure which approach would work best is... well, something most people in the advertising industry just can't do!

And so, Claude Hopkins' ideal of scientific advertising remained largely unrealized despite its unquestionable validity. Advertisers paid lip service to the book's principles, but rarely implemented them.

All this is about to change, at least in the online world. With Google Analytics and Website Optimizer, there's simply no reason not to A/B test one page against another:

• The tool (Google Website Optimizer) is free
• The cost of producing an alternate web page is low (in many cases, free)
• Data collection is free and fast
• In no time, you know which version performs best

Hopkins wrote his classic book in 1923 and died in 1932. But I suspect that if he were alive today, he'd be a big fan of Google Website Optimizer!