On November 9, 2010 Google launched its new Instant Search option allowing Google users to preview a site before deciding to click on it. There has been a lot of speculation on how this will affect Internet Marketers. Being a Pay Per Click (PPC) specialist myself, it got me thinking. If you’re familiar with ProspectMX and our PPC services, it would be no surprise to you when I say that PPC is a highly effective tool for most clients. It has the ability to generate instant targeted traffic to your site from users who are actually looking for your service. And, since you’re only paying for the traffic that actually ends up on your site, your ad can display as many times as your budget would allow.

How has Google Instant changed the way we view search results?

With the introduction of Google Instant, there have been subtle changes in the PPC world. When someone searches using Google Instant, it opens up a drop down preview box with all the possible suggestions. During the initial launch there were many downsides to this. For example, once the preview was opened, sponsored links in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place were obscured behind the preview, hiding it from a potentially interested user. Furthermore, the search results and ads changed as the user typed in lengthy long tail keywords. For example, if I’m searching for “paint ball locations in New York” Google search will display ads for “paint” as soon as the word is typed in and then change accordingly as the user entered the rest. Due to this, your ads were potentially displaying for keywords that have no relevance to your campaign.

Since the launch of Google Instant, Google has been very busy tweaking the system to make it more amicable to PPC clients. Google has fixed the glitch of the overlapping preview box so that now when you type in a keyword, all the search results move down in full view as well. Google has also stated that unless the users stay on the page for more 5 seconds or the user clicks on search or presses enter, the impression will not count. Considering that most users complete searches in mere seconds, this eliminates the initial concern of having unwanted impressions in your campaign.

How has this affected Pay Per Click?

Even though initially it seemed that Instant was rather detrimental to PPC clients, it seems that things have turned around. With the changes Google has made since the launch it’s my opinion that Google Instant may actually help PPC clients in the long run. One of the reasons why is because when a user searches with a particular keyword, the ads that used to get hidden are now the point of attention on the page itself. This allows ads that are in 1st or 2nd spot to have more visibility and drive more traffic to the site. Historically, the 1st or 2nd spot for any keyword were not that coveted, however with Google Instant, this may change.

My opinion is to run your PPC campaigns as usual. Even though there have been many developments with Google Instant, it’s still in its infancy and I believe there are many more improvements to come. Many PPC campaigns can be optimized to start displaying ads in the 1st or 2nd spot and long tail keywords would need to be carefully monitored to see if there are too many impressions. These suggestions should help you get a better Click thru rate and hopefully conversions as well. In the end, the success of a PPC campaign always depends on the amount of work you put into it.

What is Linkbait?

For those who are familiar with ProspectMX and linkbait, it’s no surprise that link bait and link baiting is a strong marketing tool used to attract new website visitors and more importantly, backlinks for greater rankings on search engines. But the more important question is, what is a successful piece of linkbait?

The good news is that there are several types of linkbait that can be deemed successful. First, like any marketing campaign, you have to know your target audience for the company, product or service you wish to promote. Any marketer or link baiter knows this is a critical element for the overall success of the campaign being put into action. Once you have your target audience down to a science, you can then determine which type or piece of link bait is most relevant to your audience.

Once you decide who to target, the fun part begins. It is now time to decide which form of linkbait is best for your website. Listed below are some of the most modern forms of linkbait flowing through the internet today.

• Useful Web Based Tools/Software
• Lists of Valuable Resources
• Interesting Infographics
• WordPress Themes/Plug-ins
• Widgets
• Just About Anything Funny (Videos, blog post, etc.)
• Press Releases
• Contests

Once you have created your linkbait master piece it is time to market it through the right channels. Remember when we found our target audience, well here is where it makes life a bit easier. Most linkbait ideas are always Digg and StumbleUpon worthy especially if it is funny or controversial. These sites allow you to display your linkbait in front of millions of viewers where it either goes viral or just gets a few hits. You can also market the piece on your social media outlets, broadcasting it to all your Fans and Followers. Other types of linkbait such as blog posts and press releases are useful as well to help with web traffic, rankings and online presence. If submitting press releases online, a few well noted ones are:

• I-newswire
• PRLog.com
• Pressreleasepoint.com
• PRWeb.com (Paid)

How do you tell if your linkbait is working?

If you are using Digg and StumbleUpon to market your linkbait, they provide a system that tallies up how many viewers were interested in your linkbait. The more Diggs or Thumbs Up you receive the more interesting your viewers find your linkbait. If you are using blog posts and press releases to announce your linkbait, your best bet is to use a web tracking service. Google provides this for free, it is called Google Analytics. Within this tracking system you can tell exactly where your website visitors are coming from. You can also track individual URLs (the exact URL that your blog post or press release was listed on) and view how many people are coming from those sites.

Example of a Successful Linkbait Campaign

One example of a successful linkbait campaign was performed by Red Bull, a company well known throughout the Western and European countries for their energy drinks. The company has built their website upon a strong foundation of linkbait. Their target audience is adrenaline junkies who thrive on high risk sports.

One of their most popular contests was the Flúgtag, or in English, Airshow. It was an event where a bunch of idiots decide to launch something off of a pier 30ft over a reservoir of water. What makes this contest so fun to watch is the fact that most participants create flying contraptions that rarely fly at all, and plummet the moment they are pushed off the pier. Once these flights are filmed they immediately become linkbait on the internet and are posted everywhere.

Contests are just a scratch in the selection of linkbait ideas available out there, as you saw when reviewing the “Types of Linkbait” above. But, since Redbull has such a well known brand there may not always need a backlink. All they need to do is advertise their logo, which encourages viewers to go to the website to see more.

Conclusion

So, the result? Any piece of linkbait can be successful as long as you know your target audience, gear the piece to them, and market it well. If you want a jump start with your linkbait piece, check out StumbleUpon for some starter ideas to get the juices flowing. Also, more brains are better than one, so call in some friends or co-workers to discuss creative ideas. It is important to remember that linkbait can be implemented into a project at any time during your products life cycle. It just depends on the form of linkbait you wish to implement.

As you may have heard, we here at ProspectMX are sending Matt Cutts to space.

Well, ok, not the REAL Matt Cutts… and not really into space, but…well watch the video if you haven’t heard.

ProspectMX is Sending Matt Cutts to Space! from Dave Conklin on Vimeo.

That’s right, we had a doll of Matt Cutts made and we’re going to send it on various adventures in the coming months. Hopefully, other prominent members of the SEM community will be on their own adventures, too.

Joe Latrell, a fellow employee, also happens to be a Rocket Scientist (isn’t everyone?). He volunteered to build us a 10 foot rocket to help Matt on his journey.

But there was one critical piece left that we didn’t have for the launch next week.

A name.

So, we polled the community and got a couple great suggestions as to what to call this magnificent beast of a rocket. After much deliberation, crying, voting, and tallying – we have reached a consensus. The rocket will be called…

Drumroll please…

SPAM BLASTER!

Yes, the rocket will be called Spam Blaster. And what better name for the rocket-fueled-speed-machine that will hold Matt Cutts on that fateful day? A phrase that not only encompasses a giant rocket but also Matt Cutt’s day to day responsibilities at Google?

We’re quite pleased with the name and would like to thank everyone that suggested names and voted.

So it’s the final countdown. We have a rocket. We have Matt Cutts. And we have a name.

There’s less than a week left until the launch, so we hope to see you all back here next Monday at 2pm to see how it all goes down.

Comment Below To Name The 10 Foot Matt Cutts Rocket That Sends Matt To Space In April

OK, not to space. BUT, we are indeed going to launch a rocket… and Matt Cutts… really freakin’ high.  The flight should last about 2 minutes and will be videotaped with both on board and exterior cameras.  If you’ve never see an on board rocket cam, you’re going to be in for a treat.

For those of you who don’t know (many of our readers are not actually in the internet marketing world), Matt Cutts is the spam engineer for Google. He’s kind of the “face” of Google at search conferences and the like.

We Had A Company Make A Custom Matt Cutts Action Figure

Last year, our team decided that we were going to spend a few bucks to have action figures created of different SEO’s and do some crazy videos and things with them throughout 2010.  Of course, it seemed appropriate to start with Matt being that he is the Greenspan of the search world.

Joe Latrell, a rocket scientist who works on the ProspectMX team with the top portion of his custom made rocket that is set to send Matt rocketing to space this April

Understand that when we ordered the Matt Cutts “doll,” Matt had just shaved his head and was looking extremely buff. So, you’ll notice that the action figure is that of a “ripped” Matt Cutts with a shaved head.  haha… We love you, Matt. 

After debating in our meetings about what we should do with him, we finally decided the obvious:

Build a 10 foot rocket and launch it into the air, with video cams on board.

It just so happens, that Joe Latrell (who is a rocket scientist… literally) works on our team and has been lauching enormous rockets (some the whole way to space) for years. While this one isn’t going to go to space, it will go about 1 mile into the atmosphere.

Matt Cutts relaxing in his ergonomic chair inside of his custom made rocket

So, the launch date that we’re shooting for is some time in April. But we have a problem. We need a name.

We Need Your Help To Come Up With A Name!

Soooo… All you have to do is comment below with what you think the name should be. Then, in a later blog post, we’re going to allow you to vote for the winner from the best 5 (as decided by us). The final name selected will be placed on the rocket.

We will keep you updated with the progress of our rocket as it’s assembled with videos and pictures right here on the ProspectMX blog.

So… go ahead… What should we name the rocket?

One of my biggest struggles as a writer is keeping my copy concise and to the point. I am the queen of long winded copy, because it allows me to let loose my thoughts, opinions and knowledge. But I realize that just because I find my “flow of consciousness” style interesting, doesn’t mean my audience does.

So the last time I wrote copy for a website I made it a point to be as concise and to the point as possible. And you know what? That stuff STILL came out longer than I wanted! So I’ve come to the conclusion that I suck at concise copy, and it’s something I need to work on.

The Web Copy Light at the End of the Tunnel

Then I came across a guest post on Graywolf’s SEO blog about how much you should be willing to pay for good copy. The post is a great read (nice job Malcolm!) and it opened my eyes to things that have been in the back of my mind, but I never wound up giving voice to.

People love to preach about “short” copy on the web, because people only read 18 words out of a 100 and you only have so many words to catch their interest, blah, blah blah…but the bottom-line is that if your writing is compelling and your tone engaging, then there’s a good chance you’ll keep the reader’s interest and get them to read exactly what you want.  In other words – your web copy can be as long as it needs to be!

The Littlest Tweak Can Make a Huge Difference

In reading that post, which was full of linky goodness, I clicked through to read Dustin Curtis’s “You Should Follow Me on Twitter.” It’s basically a case study on how just a few tweaks to a very short sentence increased his clickthrough rate by over 170%.

Literally, by changing the call to action at the end of his posts from “I’m on Twitter” to “You should follow me on twitter here.” he saw a 173% increase in clickthroughs to his account.

It’s amazing to me the power a few words can have…. He took a rather static, dull statement, added some persuasive force and voila! A veritable flood of clicks!

Writing Web Copy that Achieves Your Goals

There’s no right or wrong answer to writing copy on the web (IMO)…it’s all about who you’re writing for and what your overall goal is – what do you want those people to do. That’s what should determine how you write your copy.

For example, when I think of the 3 main types of web writing I do, I realize I have a different tone/style for each.

SEO Copy – this is typically for ranking purposes – I’m trying to optimize the copy to rank for as many long tail keywords as possible. My writing tends to be more professional, but can get a bit long because of my method of optimizing content. Of course, I’m ALSO trying to write copy that will help conversions, so there’s a fine balance to writing good SEO copy and making sure it’s persuasive to the reader.

Landing Page Copy - this is usually for PPC campaigns, and so my biggest focus is writing copy that will convert (or sell) visitors – or at least draw a clear and persuasive picture of the path and actions we want them to take on the site. I don’t have to worry about rankings, so this copy tends to be a bit shorter in some cases.

Blogs – there’s pretty much an infinite number of purposes or reasons for blogging. Your style should change depending on your purpose. For example, I tend to write blogs jut to share my opinion – so I kick back and write in my own voice, the same one I used to breeze through my Creative Writing courses in College. Does it work for a blog? I don’t know…but I sure have fun writing it!

I’ll Say It Till I’m Blue In The Face…

Web copy is IMPORTANT! Muy, muy importante! And yet so many people don’t think they should pay top dollar for quality writing. After all…everyone can write, right? Um yeah… I guess that’s why an experienced freelance writer can make over $50 and hour….