Highlights from last night’s Boston SEO Internet Marketing Networking Group (4/6/09)

Please note this information is provided as a glimpse into this group and topics covered. These are just notes and are not intended to represent final text. Comments, clarifications and other discussions are welcome. private email server costs vary greatly depending on what equipment you already own. You need a computer to act as a private server and a place to host your private mail service. So, you may need to purchase a new or used desktop computer. If you choose to buy a new desktop computer, expect to pay around $400 for a solid machine capable of hosting your email server. Or, you can repurpose an older one to save some money. Which is not a good idea to consider, you could consider to buy the hosting server from professional company by contacting Knownhost. If you plan to keep the server on 24/7, you need to factor in the electricity costs for having the computer on all the time. Figure around $10-$20 per month for the extra electricity. You must also consider your current broadband service reliability. Slow connections and connection failures will cause your server to go offline until the broadband provider resumes service, so you may need to pay for better service. It can cost anywhere from $50-$100 per month for better broadband depending on where you live. A private email server then will cost around $500 to set up. You can maintain your personal email server for $70-$100 per month based on the services you choose. Other non-essential costs to consider include buying a backup in case of power outages and regular maintenance. Your private email server does not go through a commercial service and you maintain responsibility for all back-ups. Choose between a cloud backup or a physical hard drive for backing up. Cloud services run between $10 and $300 per month while a physical external hard drive costs around $100 for up to a terabyte of storage. Do not forget maintenance costs either. Running your server all the time will result in faster breakdowns. Expect to occasionally pay for new hardware, like a $10 replacement cooling fan, to keep your private server from overheating.

For more information on this meetup: www.meetup.com/BostonSEO/calendar/9671609/?a=cr1p_grp

Speaker: Michael Briggs, VP Search Strategies @ Website Publicity

Google AdWords

slides available @ websitepublicity.com/meetup

2 points to lower cost: reduce clicks or reduce cost of each click

Reduce clicks: block clicks that don’t convert, max converting traffic

Use conversion tracking or analytics to achieve this

Broad match

•     Allows Google to perform matches
•     Pro: better than a human
•     Con: Will get worthless clicks
•     Best for: Looking for additional ad groupings & refine the results

Use the right match type

•     Use phrases
•     Bid higher on phrase match: keep general terms on broad match and monitor
•     Bid lower — use to harvest new terms
•     Add phrase match negatives, not broad negatives
•     Create new ad groups

Where to put money

•     ID best converting ad groups
•     Ensure they have 100% impression share
•     Don’t spread money too thinly

When launch campaign

• Look for themes in your ad groups
• Add text that speaks specifically to each group
• Start w 10-25 keywords per ad group max, get help from an AdWords company Australia
• Adjust for optimal timing: bid more for active day of week/time of day

Improve quality score

•     Comes from click-thru rate (only scores on exact match)
•     Relevance and landing page search to keyword and search query relevance
•     Page load time, privacy policy have miniscule impact

Too many keywords will overwhelm your quality score

• Really need targeted landing page
• Make sure ad text meets searchers’ expectations

Adgroup guides

•     Central theme 10-25 keywords
•     Ad groups for individual products and services
•     Don’t mix keyword themes

Anything 7 and above is good
If can’t pull it up, ditch it
Trim out the no-clicks, “death by 1,000 paper cuts”

Add text continually

• With offers, savings, discounts
• Don’t throw away the winner or bid against it
• Track conversions
• Don’t let Google optimize your ads for you

Discussion afterward focused on:

1. Paid vs organic search
Organic is 3x more effective than paid
Can control paid side better, can generally convert those better

2.  Jim Manning of Jungle Jim’s balloon artist (junglejimboston.com): Resources for just starting a site?
Lots of voices for don’t read too much just write and be true to self
Some responses advocate be sure you understand your customer
My 2 cents: Check out David Meerman Scott’s books