Icon Marketing

Complexity on Top of Complexity

admin — Sat, 12 May 2012 13:31:00 +0000

Just one more angle on how complex it is becoming to get ranked on Google. According to recent research, it’s been found that Google applies a different algorithm to determine rankings within a given vertical than it does in a different one. So, if you are trying to sell self storage the playing field is algorithmically different than it would be if you are trying to mortgages or hitting hitting lessons.

Google is just getting started here as far as complexity goes. Stay tuned.

Before You Consider Adwords…Be Ready to Run With the Big Boys:

admin — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 22:45:35 +0000

Before You Consider Adwords…Be Ready to Run With the Big Boys:

WordStream, a provider of software for keywords and pay-per-click marketing campaigns, has done research to discover which keywords receive the highest costs per click (CPC) in Google AdWords. Unless you are marketing a term like “yard sale” or something else for which there is little competition, be ready to spend.

Following are the top 20 keyword categories that fetched the highest costs per click.

1. Insurance – $54.91 per click

2. Loans – $44.28 per click

3. Mortgáge – $47.12 per click

4. Attorney – $47.07 per click

5. Credít – $36.06 per click

6. Lawyer – $42.51 per click

7. Donate – $42.02 per click

8. Degree – $40.61 per click

9. Hosting – $31.91 per click

10. Claim – $45.51 per click

11. Conference Call – $42.05 per click

12. Trading – $33.19 per click

13. Software – $35.29 per click

14. Recovery – $42.03 per click

15. Transfer – $29.86 per click

16. Gas/Electricity – $54.62 per click

17. Classes – $35.04 per click

18. Rehab – $33.59 per click

19. Treatment – $37.18 per click

20. Cord Blood – $27.80 per click (Source: PracticalEcommerce.com)

Can you believe the cost-per-click of the top 20 keyword categories? Not only is Google thumbing its nose at searchers, it’s also kicking small advertisers to the curb as well. The same small advertisers who helped Google become the dominant advertising force that it’s become. At those prices, it’s impossible for small advertisers to compete. The playing field is tilted decidedly towards the side of big business.

Just Plain Trying Too Hard

admin — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 05:25:05 +0000

We came upon this place when we were out visiting a client in the Inland Empire. Are they just trying too hard? Is it an attempt at some sort of ironic branding humor (like a handlebar mustache or something)? Is the joke really on us?

Your thoughts?

Not sure if this is ironic humor or if they're just trying too hard.

Funny Take on Social Media

admin — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 14:45:39 +0000

Can’t remember who sent this to us, but it’s so good we had to share. If it is yours, please let us know and we’ll link it over to your site.

Great Breakdown of Social Media

The SEO Silver Bullet

admin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:50:53 +0000

If someone tells you there is a silver bullet in SEO we have a bit of advice for you. Run.

When you get tired of running…catch your breath, and then run some more. After that…run more…and faster.

Fact: There is no lasting silver bullet in SEO. The more an SEO huckster alludes to there being one the less credibility they should have in your eyes. So if you are trying to market toy haulers, homes, energy drinks or your garage sale, the only way to the top is the hard way. So grab your tools and get to work.

Consider this…when someone says they have an SEO silver bullet, they are basically saying that they are smarter than the hundreds of PhD’s they have at Google working to prevent such a silver bullet from materializing and being exploited. When one does materialize, these same PhD’s work day and night to eliminate that loophole.

…But that guy with the funny haircut, pomade, hipster shoes, the big collar and big watch is smarter than those Google PhD guys.

Content is Enough for Ranking, Until it Isn’t

admin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:48:56 +0000

Content is king, and to rank online, it is indeed key to have great content. But when your vertical gets competitive, everyone has budget, time and bandwidth to create great content, and lots of it. When that point in time arrives, the pendulum will invariably swing back to how well you optimize, leverage and spread that content.

So, content is enough, until it isn’t. If your industry is competitive (and what industry isn’t?), then you’ll still have to do the hard work of optimizing, leveraging, sharing, spreading and otherwise getting every drop of SEO value out of every blog post, video, press release, page and social media drop you make.

So why not start from the beginning?

Got to Love Ted Talks

admin — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:58:01 +0000

Just thought we’d share…
We love Ted Talks here at Icon. In our view, they should part of the curriculum in every high school across America.

Here are some great ones from 2011:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_best_10_ted_talks_of_2011.php

Chasing the Algorithm

admin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:28:05 +0000

We’ve been doing SEO for a while. We’ve seen over a dozen major Google updates over that time. With each Google update we get a client who sees the next Google update as the coming Apocalypse. This time it was Panda, and the client had it in his mind that Panda was going to kill our rankings. Here is some of what we relayed to him to shed some light on Panda:

Here is the skinny on updates:
Google updates are largely targeted at loopholes and shortcuts SEOs take to get ranked. To be fair, each update brings with it some collateral damage of clean sites. But, if your site gets smashed by an update you probably (1) were cheating, (2) had a lopsided, shortcut oriented approach or (3) just weren’t doing enough of the right things to merit ranking highly.

So what is a company to do? Many SEO companies relentlessly chase the algorithm…

Our approach…
We pay attention to Google updates, but we try to avoid having to “chase the algorithm” and being held captive by the latest and greatest SEO loopholes (which Google will quickly close). In the long run, whether you sell insurance or cage free eggs, it is better to do SEO correctly, taking the time to build content, rankings, traffic, audience engagement, social media reach, public relations and such the good old fashioned way…by actually doing it (as opposed to putting up a facade that will trick Google for a few months but will leave your site high and dry later).

Google is smart. They will close the loophole your SEO is using. Then what?

Phrases to Avoid in Your Email Marketing

admin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:08:40 +0000

Want to avoid having all of your outbound marketing emails caught by spam filters? Try avoiding these phrases from www.wilsonweb.com (you can find other phrases there).

Amazing stuff

Auto email removal

Cable converter

Cash bonus

Claims you can be removed from the list

Collect child support

Compare rates

Compete for your business

Dig up dirt on friends

Free grant money

free installation

Free investment

Free leads

‘Hidden’ assets

Multi level marketing

Promise you …!

Removes wrinkles

Reverses aging

Stock disclaimer statement

stop snoring

Tells you it’s an ad

Yes, Ranking is Getting More Complicated

admin — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 23:39:11 +0000

If you or your company are cited as an authoritative/expert source of information, here are just of few of the factors that factor into Google, Yahoo and Bing’s rankings these days…How the search engines are piecing all of this info together is where it gets messy. Your job is to make it easier for them.

-Educational degrees held by the source

-Where those degrees were obtained

-Citations of the source in scholarly or technical works

-Number of publications associated with a source

-Number of social network connections and/or followers

-Whether or not the source is employed by and/or graduated from a well respected and/or highly cited institution

-Social networking information such as a number of posts relating to the source and/or a particular topic addressed by the source

-Number of patents held by the source

-Number of links to content associated with the source

-Number of articles citing work associated with the source

-Ratings and Reviews associated with the source

Yes…it’s getting more complicated.