The search engines are always looking to make more money. Google has had a lot of success with their Adwords platform and they keep making changes to it to try and test new things. One of their newer announcements is for their product listing ads. Typically with their PPC advertisements you just get the blue text ads. These new product listing ads are going to have pictures along with price information. There are some images in Google’s announcement but I actually saw these myself while doing some research and decided to share them.

Search for “water filter”

Search for “water filtration system”

The pricing model Google will use on these ads is also new. Currently you pay per click on their ads but these new ads will be on a cost-per-action basis, meaning the product has to sell to get charged for the ad.

From Google:

Product Listing Ads is part of our effort to simplify the advertising process for merchants with large product inventories. Some of the key features of Product Listing Ads include:

* Pay only for results: Product Listing Ads are charged on a cost-per-action (CPA) basis, which means that you only pay when a user clicks on your ad and completes a purchase on your site. Because Product Listing Ads is charged on a CPA basis, it offers a risk-free way for you to reach a larger audience on Google.com.

* List your entire inventory: Product Listing Ads requires no keywords or additional ad text. Whenever a user enters a search query relevant to an item in your Google Merchant Center account, Google will automatically show the most relevant products along with the associated image, price and product name. Product Listing Ads makes it easy for you to promote your entire product inventory on Google.com.

Looking for beginner SEO tips and info?

I know that getting started in search engine optimization can be confusing and overwhelming – trust me I’ve been there! Check out TKG’s free SEO E-book, “Search Engine Optimization for Newbies: Getting You On Your Way to Web Marketing Nirvana”. It has all of the web marketing advice you need to strategize and implement effective SEO tactics.

Did we mention that it’s free? Happy reading!

Last week I got to attend Pubcon in Vegas. It was a really great conference with a lot of awesome speakers. On Thursday they had a session with Matt Cutts from Google and Sean Suchter from Bing.

During the session Matt expressed that the load time or speed of a page could be increasingly more important in Google down the road. He explained it as a “quality sign” or “trust sign” of sorts. It is pretty obvious information and has had an impact on the crawl-ability of a site. Just think of your own experiences, do you trust a site that runs smooth and is easy to navigate over a slow loading site that times out?

Matt gives some resources for webmasters, site owners, and developers to use and there is a video interview from WebProNews below.

• Google’s Code for Speed
• Firefox Plugin to test page speed
• Web Page Test

If you are launching a new website, then there is no better time to think about SEO than now. You can increase your chances of being seen by the Search Engines if you give thoughtful consideration to your on and off page optimization efforts.

Some good SEO tips include:

1. Make it simple –The more complex you make your code, the more difficult it becomes for the Search Engines to read your content.

2. Meta-Descriptions – A lot of people downplay the importance of meta-descriptions. Although meta-descriptions themselves won’t drastically change the organic ranking of your site, they do create the display text users will see when your site appears in search results. If your meta-descriptions are Search Engine optimized and compelling, you increase the changes of improving traffic.

3. Header Tags – By applying the proper header tags (H1, H2) to your page, you will call attention to your content and promote your keywords and keyword phrases. Try to use the first phrase of your page title for best practice, but make sure the content flows and doesn’t look too out of place.

After ensuring that you’ve made your page easy to access and presented copy that is optimized, you also want to consider other factors that can help long-term with your SEO efforts. We sometimes get caught up with on-page factors, that we overlook things that would be great for the long run.

For example, you may want to consider having pages that you can add to over time that support link building and better Search Engine access. Be sure to include:

1. Sitemap - Including a sitemap on your site makes it easy for the Search Engines to access your full website index accordingly.

2. New Content - One of the most powerful Search Engine optimization techniques is the addition of new content. When Search Engines see new content, they respond well. Don’t underestimate how important it is to add optimized copy from time to time.

So what are you waiting for?  Give your new site an “SEO facelift” today!

I don’t think that Local SEO gets the recognition that it deserves; it is a very valuable resource to all SEO’s. Local SEO includes many different strategies with the most popular being local search engine submissions. These submissions are a great way to increase your site’s link popularity and attract targeted users that are more likely to convert. Utilizing local search will help increase rankings for location-specific searches such as “cleveland ohio pediatrician”. Local SEO helps users find relevant local information that they are searching for. There are many products and services that people search for, but they need some help finding appropriate information. For example, if you live in San Francisco, California, I highly doubt that you want to read about a dentist whose office is located in New Hampshire. And even though a dentist in Los Angeles is much closer, you probably could care even less about that dentist (it’s over 350 miles away!).

I found an article on SearchEngineLand that outlines “10 Fundamentals of Local SEO”. It points out areas of local SEO that need to be utilized, including claiming business lists on the major search engines (Google, MSN, & Yahoo!), putting your business in relevant categories, utilizing consistent information in business listings, and more. According to SearchEngineLand, local search engine submissions “give the search engines more trust in your business and improve your chances at ranking (not to mention prevent someone else from hijacking your listing).” It also important to make sure that your business is listed in the right category because it “plays a central role in your business’s ability to show up for your target searches.” Check out “10 Fundamentals of Local SEO” to learn more about Local SEO.

One of the biggest things people think about when starting a business is the name they are going to pick. It can be drawn out process sometimes! Do I name it after myself, do I come up with something catchy and brand-able, or maybe I just keep it super simple. Something that isn’t really considered is Google. As the internet evolves especially in the local space, Google is evolving and setting guidelines for business on how to play in their Local Business Center. The Local Business Center allows business owners to claim their business’ listing to control the information that is provided when people do a search on Google Maps or in the universal search local packs.

Matt McGee wrote a post on Search Engine Land called Google Targets Spammers With New Local Business Listing Guidelines. He cites 2 other recaps of the changes one by Mike Blumenthal and Barry Schwartz. He says:

According to Mike’s tracking, there are five new guidelines:

1. The business name on Google Maps must be your full legal business name.
2. PO Boxes do not count as physical locations.
3. A property for rent is not considered a place of business. Please create one listing for the central office that processes the rentals.
4. Use a shared, business email account, if multiple users will be updating your business listing.
5. If possible, use an email account with a domain that matches your business URL. For example, if your business website is www.giraffetoys.com, a matching email address would be you@giraffetoys.com.

Google’s Local Business Center has been trying to fight spam and this is another set of guidelines they are rolling out to try and control that. How could this affect your business? Say you sell tractors. If you call your business “Bob’s Shop”, it doesn’t really say what you do. Remember, the search engines are driven by keywords. Now if your business was named “Bob’s Tractor Sales”, that describes your business and gives the search engines something more to work with when their rank your local business listing. If you’re going to start a company, think of how Google might perceive your business based on its name. It does also help consumers if they have a descriptive business name to look at.