PR 20/20 Blog

3 Reasons PR Professionals Should be Trained in Google AdWords

By Tracy DiMarino | Posted Jun 16, 2010 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Internet Marketing, Public Relations, Search Marketing
Recently, I took the new Google Advertising Fundamentals Exam, the first of two tests required to become a Google AdWords Certified Professional. And, let me tell you, it makes you think.

The exam tests your knowledge of Google AdWords tools, account management, analytics and ad optimization techniques. Although it focuses particularly on online advertising, we highly recommend it for all PR professionals due to the test’s ability to foster analytical thinking, refine budgeting skills and expand knowledge in how search engines work. These skills are becoming increasingly more important in an evolving industry where there is a growing demand for hybrid professionals.

In fact, we feel so strongly in its value that we require all PR 20/20 consultants to take and pass the Fundamentals Exam, despite the heavy time commitment involved.

(The AdWords Learning Center contains 21 lessons for the Fundamentals Exam alone, totaling more than 400 pages of reading. For me, this translated into about 10 hours of serious studying and note taking. Think college finals all over again, and you’ll get the gist.)

So, as a PR professional, why is it worth investing the time and energy into AdWords training?

Encourages Analytical Thinking

PR pros can no longer hide behind impressions and ad equivalency. Being able to demonstrate your success through tangible factors such as search engine rankings, website traffic, inbound links, leads and sales is essential in today’s business environment.

The Google AdWords Exam forces you to think analytically, translate data into meaningful measurements and adjust strategies based on results. All of these skills are vital for PR pros looking to demonstrate their value to clients and manage successful campaigns.

Refines Budgeting Skills

An organization’s return on investment (ROI) using Google AdWords doesn’t necessarily relate to how much the organization spends; its determined by how well their budget is used through keyword and bid selections, targeting and optimization. These factors usually need to be tweaked often based on past performance in order to get the most benefit for your money.

This same logic can be applied to the financial aspects of managing any type of campaign. PR pros need to be able to work within a client’s budget - choosing those activities, which will have the largest ROI - while simultaneously being able to determine when a larger budget is needed to achieve desired objectives. They also need to continuously review their current campaigns and budget allocations to determine if their existing financial distribution is optimal, or if funds should be reallocated to better-performing activities.

Provides a General Understanding of Search Engines

In his post “7 Benefits of Partnering SEO & PR,” Lee Odden explains why search engine optimization is becoming increasingly more important for PR practitioners looking to reach and influence journalists, and connect with consumers who are actively searching for relevant information online. However, to optimize content for online audiences, PR pros need a sound understanding of search engines and how they function.

The AdWords training program offers a general overview of Google paid and organic search. It also provides an in-depth lesson on keyword selection. While most information has a paid search focus, the knowledge derived can be applied to organic search as well. Having basic knowledge of how the search engines work can significantly impact the success of press releases and other PR-related content distributed online.

What Do You Think?

In an industry that traditionally has offered relatively few options for training or certification, we continuously look for outside accreditations that will showcase our value and expand our skill sets.
- What tools are you using to enhance your expertise and refine your skills?
- What courses, certification programs and classes do you recommend for PR pros?
- How can the lessons from Google AdWords enhance a PR pro's skill set?
Image Note: My colleague Natalie studying hard for the AdWords exam.

Tracy DiMarino is an associate consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Tracy on Twitter @TracyDiMarino.

Subscribe to receive the PR 20/20 blog by email or RSS feed.
Applying for Google Grants: A Guide for Nonprofits

By Tracy DiMarino | Posted Mar 19, 2010 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Internet Marketing, Search Marketing
Google Grants is an in-kind donation program that awards free AdWords advertising to qualified nonprofit organizations, helping them increase awareness, donations and support.

By applying for and maximizing Google Grants, your nonprofit organization can advertise for free in front of an audience who is actively searching for information on your cause.

Introduction to AdWords Advertising

Google AdWords lets you bid for keyword search queries related to your cause. When people search on Google using one of your selected keywords, your ad may appear above, or next to, the search results. This enables you to reach an audience who is already interested in your organization’s mission.

Users place bids on which keywords they would like to trigger their ads, called cost-per-click (CPC) bids. AdWords users are charged only for those clicks they receive. Google provides keyword traffic and cost estimates to help you make informed decisions.

Including spaces, ads can contain 25 characters for the title, 70 characters for the ad text and 35 characters for the display URL. On Google, this is displayed on four lines: a title, two lines of ad text (each with 35 characters) and a URL line.

Grant Application Requirements & Best Practices

To apply for a Google Grant in the United States, you must have current 501(c)(3) status, as assigned by the Internal Revenue Service.

Restrictions for eligibility include: primarily focusing on selling goods, products or services; requiring membership, having religious content on your Website or serving primarily as a political function.

After checking to make sure that you meet all requirements, fill out the online application as completely as possible. Be sure to clearly convey how Google AdWords can benefit your organization, as well as your understanding of how Google AdWords works. In doing so, the following resources might be helpful:
- The Google AdWords Learning Center features step-by-step guides and instructional videos on how to manage a PPC campaign.
- Jacob Wolfsheimer’s article “Google Grants Application Process for Nonprofits” offers best practices for filling out your application.
Note: The application contains sections on your organization’s goals and target audiences, but also asks for sample AdWords ads and keywords. (Google’s Keyword Tool can be used to help you find and decide upon keywords.)

In addition to your application, Google employees will also review your Website before a grant is awarded. Therefore, be sure to maximize the strength and visibility of your Website by installing and using Google Webmaster Tools and Analytics. These tools will help you diagnose and fix any problems with your Website prior to applying.

Grants are given on an ongoing basis, but they can take up to four months to process.

Optimizing your Google Grant AdWords Campaign

Most grantees are awarded a maximum monthly ad spend of $10,000 ($329/day) with a maximum cost per click of $1. However, the monthly budget can be increased to $40,000 per month for successful Google Grant campaigns.

If you’re the lucky recipient of a Google Grant, make sure to put it to the best use possible by employing AdWords best practices. To maximize the impact of your advertising budget, consider the following:
- Develop an AdWords Strategy to guide the campaign, including goals, target audiences, priority keywords and ad distribution.
- Select keywords that are highly relevant to your cause and that have high search volumes and low competition. These will provide the most optimal return on investment.
- Separate keywords into different ad groups by similar core words.
- Write targeted ad copy that incorporates targeted keywords and is action-oriented.
- Create separate landing pages for each ad group to guarantee visitors are taken directly to the information they are interested in. For example, an animal shelter ad about dogs should take you to a landing page featuring only information on dogs, not on dogs and other animals.
- Include a call to action on the landing page, such as “Donate now” or “Volunteer your time.”
- Monitor your campaign using information from Google’s analytic tools; then, make changes to improve your ads’ effectiveness. Note: Google’s Conversion Academy offers tips on how to optimize your AdWords ROI with Google Analytics.
- Log into your account regularly, respond to emails from Google’s team and continuously tweak your campaign. As long as you stay active on AdWords, you can stay in the program. There is no set end date or need to reapply.
For more tips and tools on using Google AdWords, check out the Google AdWords Learning Center, which I mentioned earlier.

Your Thoughts?
- What tips do you have for maximizing a Google AdWords budget?
- How has Google Grants benefited your organization?
- What advice would you give to organizations interested in applying for a Google Grant?
I’d like to thank Natalie Villalobos (@nataliaenvy), community manager at Google, for introducing me to the Google Grants program at SXSW.

Tracy DiMarino is an associate consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Tracy on Twitter @TracyDiMarino.

Subscribe to receive the PR 20/20 blog by email or RSS feed.
9 Content-Driven Link Building Tips

By Paul Roetzer | Posted Mar 17, 2010 | 2 Comment(s) | Filed in: Content Marketing, Internet Marketing, Search Marketing
Google’s Webmaster Central Channel on YouTube is one of my favorite sources of information for marketers, and today it was my inspiration for a blog post. The Channel features short videos of Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam team, answering user-submitted questions.

It’s the perfect example of how organizations can use video to give their brands personality, connect with audiences in more authentic ways and bring true value to the online community.

One of Matt’s recent videos addressed the most effective ways to build organic links:

As we discussed in the Inbound Marketing GamePlan eBook, “in order to grow smarter and faster than the competition, organizations must maintain powerful and informative Websites, participate in social media and continually publish great content through blogs, podcasts, videos, optimized press releases, case studies, white papers, eBooks and articles.”

Matt’s video reinforces a number of these points, and offers some additional ideas on how to participate, and what to publish in order to build links, relationships and brand:

1) Participate in the Community

It seems so obvious, but many organizations and professionals are still sitting on the sidelines. Get in the game!

Answer questions on social networks, contribute reviews on products and services, and add value to other people’s blog posts by leaving comments. Helping people may not bring an immediate link, but it does build goodwill, which often goes much further than a link.

Matt cautions to avoid controversy though in social media. We all know bloggers and commenters who spend their lives projecting their negativity onto others, and while we may read, and even react, from time to time, “people will end up paying less attention to you,” so don’t rely on controversy to consistently build links.

Social media is not as simple as creating profiles on each social networking site and making random posts. It's about listening, learning, building relationships and bringing value to the communities relevant to your organization.

Social media, when connected to search marketing, content marketing and public relations strategies, can help your organization boost search engine rankings, build relationships, manage and strengthen your brand, and enhance your positioning as a thought leader and innovator.

As Matt points out, you might even begin to earn speaking opportunities as a result of your social media activity.

2) Publish Original Research

This is one of our favorite strategies because great original research can be an asset in your search, social, content and PR strategies, and have a direct affect on your organization’s ability to generate leads and build customer loyalty:
- Search Marketing: Drives Website traffic and builds links, which help boost search engine rankings.
- Social Media & Content Marketing: Contributes valuable content to the online community, which helps to establish and strengthen relationships while enhancing your brand positioning and thought leadership.
- Public Relations: Provides unique content for targeted publicity efforts that support media relations and brand-building activities.
Here are a few examples of original research in action:
3) Distribute Email Newsletters

Opt-in email newsletters are still effective vehicles to drive traffic, build blog subscribers and enhance engagement with your audiences.

Every organization should consider newsletters as part of its content strategy.

4) Use Lists (in Moderation)

We all create and click on them (otherwise you wouldn’t be here now), but Matt advises to use lists in moderation, as they do, “tend to get a little tiresome after a while.”

5) Get a Blog

This one speaks for itself. According to Matt, “There’s no excuse for a company these days not to have a blog.” And I agree 100 percent.

6) Provide How Tos and Tutorials

How tos and tutorials, including videos like Matt’s, are excellent ways to provide value and position yourself or your organization as a thought leader.

Consider offering a series of educational posts as part of your blog editorial calendar.

7) Release a Free Product or Service

Free tools can be great link builders and resources. While we’re not all developers with the resources to create powerful tools like HubSpot’s Website Grader, think about what your organization can offer that will generate links, and even leads.

8) Maintain Good Site Architecture

Make it easy on Google, and other search engines, to find and index your entire site. Visit Google Webmaster Tools to get started.

9) Make a Few Videos

If you’re not convinced of the power and impact of videos, according to a recent TechCrunch article, “Forrester Research found that videos were 53 times more likely than traditional web pages to receive an organic first-page ranking.”

So needless to say, video is important. Check out these posts to learn more:
Paul Roetzer is founder and president of PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. He can be found on Twitter @PaulRoetzer

Subscribe to receive the PR 20/20 blog by email or RSS feed.
Building the Ultimate Website for Capturing Leads

By Keith Moehring | Posted Feb 26, 2010 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Search Marketing
A goal of any Website should be to rank high on search engines for specific keyword phrases in an effort to drive qualified traffic, and as a result generate leads.

But when does traffic become a lead? Is it when they fill out a form on your site? When they first communicate with your sales team? How about when they subscribe to your blog’s RSS feed? Or when they return to your site two days in a row to read, or watch, the latest industry news?

Just because a searcher may not be looking to buy a product or service right now, doesn’t mean they can’t be a lead. In fact, if they found your site via search, you can reasonably assume they are interested in your industry, or line of business, and may potentially be in need of your services down the road.

The key is to give the visitors who aren’t interested in buying an avenue to find your site and a reason to come back. To do this, you must first structure your site to satisfy all types of searcher intent.

Understanding Searcher Intent

Searcher Intent is a user’s purpose for performing a query on a search engine or social site. It’s the answer to, “Why are you looking for that?”

“When Search Meets Web Usability,” by Shari Thurow and Nick Musica, is a great resource for helping to understand searcher intent (or query intent). In this book, the authors classify searcher intent in three ways:

“Navigational Queries are ones in which the searcher wants to go to a specific website, or specific web page (usually a homepage) on a specific Website. “ For example:

“Informational Queries are ones in which the searcher wishes to read or view more information about a topic.“ For example:

“Transactional Queries are ones in which the searcher wishes to perform some interaction on the web, aside from reading.” For example:

(“When Search Meets Web Usability” does a great job defining these further, provides percentages of how often these three queries are performed, and offers help on how best to optimize for each query. Highly recommended read!)

Types Of Websites

Generally speaking, there are five different classifications of Websites that satisfy the three types of searcher intent above.
- Organizational – Educate visitors about an organization’s purpose and drive them to take a desired call to action (i.e. purchase a product, call about a service, donate money, play a game, download a file, etc.)
- Blogs – Provide resource articles to visitors, offering insight, opinions and timely information on a specific topic.
- News Sites – Supply readers with news about a variety of topics, including international affairs, a specific industry, pop culture, sports, politics, and much more.
- Social Networks – Connect people who share a common bond or interest, including business associates, classmates, friends or industry peers.
- Aggregators – Collect and display information from other Websites, or user submitted content, to help users find specific things of interest on the Internet. These include social bookmarking sites (i.e. Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon), search engines (i.e. Google, Technorati, Dogpile), video sharing sites (i.e. YouTube, MetaCafe), Directories (i.e. Yahoo! Directory, DMOZ), Wikis (i.e. Wikipedia, superman.wikia.com), and forums.
Building the Ultimate Lead-Capturing Website

To have the greatest opportunity to reach the broadest audience of potential leads online, your Website must do more than just sell products and services. It needs to satisfy all three searcher intents by doing the job of some, if not all, of the website types above.

But How?

A great example of a site that does this well is Mashable. According to their About Us page, they are “the world’s largest blog ... reviewing new Web sites and services (Aggregator), publishing breaking news on what’s new on the web (News) and offering social media resources and guides (blog).” In addition, they integrate their social network feeds and users directly into the site, while sharing links to site content on their fan and Twitter pages (social networking).

Here are a few suggestions on how to start building your own Ultimate Lead-Capturing Website:
- Launch a Blog.
- Build a team of internal experts who are capable of generating insightful, unique content (i.e. blog posts, video, white papers, eBooks, etc.) to publish on your site.
- Create a resource center on your site that houses links to other online resources, eBooks and case studies to download, and blogs of your industry’s thought leaders.
- Connect with other industry thought leaders. Ask them to develop a useful post for your blog.
- Stay up to date on the latest happenings in your industry by setting up Google News Alerts, reading news sites, and subscribing to blogs and forums, and then publish your own thoughts on the latest industry news and trends.
- Continuously publish resource articles that may help searchers better understand your industry, while positioning your experts as thought leaders.
- Establish a social media presence using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. Use your website to invite visitors to join your network and connect with others who have similar interests.
The key takeaway here is that every searcher, no matter what their intent, is a lead in some form or another. Be sure that your site is ready to capture all of them.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic, and any ideas you have on building your Website to rank well for all types of search queries.

Keith Moehring is a consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Keith on Twitter @keithmoehring.
SEO's Magic Bullet

By Keith Moehring | Posted Jan 27, 2010 | 2 Comment(s) | Filed in: Content Marketing, Search Marketing, Social Media
The concept of a Magic Bullet is an intriguing one — a magical solution to solve a vexing problem without the fear of any side effects. This is especially true in search engine optimization, where there is so much money to be made by ranking at the top of a Google search result page for a key term.

Well, what if I told you...

... Search Engine Optimization may just have a “Magic Bullet,"

And it is BLOGGING.

Half of you just stopped reading. You were ready to hear something new and exciting, and instead were given the same ole same old. Allow me to explain.

Several months ago, SEOmoz.org released their Search Engine 2009 Ranking Factors. (For those who don’t subscribe to this blog, you’re missing out on some of the most advanced and useful thinking on the topic.)

The 2009 Ranking Factors rate the importance of search engine ranking factors based on the opinions of 72 SEO experts. Below I’ve detailed how a blog can impact the factors ranked as “very high importance” or “high importance.”

(It is important to note that while blogging can have a big impact on the factors below and growing your business, to have the greatest success, it should be one part of a comprehensive marketing strategy that includes search marketing, social media, content publishing, and PR. Learn more here.

On-Page (Keyword-Specific) Ranking Factors:

Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag (Very High Importance)

Blogging makes it simple to continuously generate new Web pages, all with keyword-rich Title Tags. In most blogging platforms, your Title Tag is taken from your headline, and if you follow SEO best practices, you are already integrating keywords here anyway.

Keyword Use as the First Word(s) of the Title Tag (High Importance)

This again falls in-line with writing effective headlines. By positioning your keywords near the beginning, you can easily satisfy this factor. Word of caution however, don’t get to focused on search engines when writing headlines. First and foremost, headlines should be written to catch the attention of your readers. Always be thinking user-friendly first, optimization second. Search engines are smart enough to understand what you’re optimizing around.

Keyword Use in the Root Domain Name (High Importance)

If your company is looking to boost its site's search engine rankings through blogging, don’t worry about this factor. For a blog to provide the maximum SEO value it must be attached to your site as a subdirectory or subdomain (i.e. www.CompanyName.com/blog or blog.CompanyName.com). The root domain name should ALWAYS be your main site.

On-Page (Non-Keyword) Ranking Factors

Existence of Substantive, Unique Content on the Page (High Importance)

Blogs give you a medium to consistently publish new, original content that addresses specific subject matters. By keeping in mind your buyer personas and objectives, there is no limit to how much keyword-rich, unique content you can create.

Recency (freshness) of Page Content (Moderate Importance)

As Russ Jones commented in the SEOmoz post, “If Google only ranked the ‘tried and true,’ their results would be old and outdated.” A blog gives you the ability to quickly publish timely content. The more often search engines find new content, the more frequently they’ll return to your site. Every new blog post you create is another page for Google, and other search engines, to index.

Page-Specific Link Popularity Ranking Factors

Keyword-Focused Anchor Text from External Links (Very High Importance)

At first look, it may appear that you have no influence over what anchor text people use in their links. Not exactly true. Typically, when creating links, others will use the title/headline of your post — another reason to focus on getting keywords in your headlines. Something else to keep in mind — a number of bloggers understand the value of keywords in link anchor text and may automatically integrate words you use, or even consider changing their anchor text if you ask nicely.

External Link Popularity (quantity/quality of external links) (Very High Importance)

The beauty of quality, useful blog content is that if you share it using the right social-media channels (i.e. Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc.), your network will spread it for you. As more people see your content, the chances of generating links increase exponentially. Always be trying to grow your reach through social media in tandem with writing good, useful blog content.

Diversity of Link Sources (many root domains) (Very High Importance)

This goes hand-in-hand with External Link Popularity (above). The greater your social media reach, the broader your audience of potential linkers. Consider pushing the boundaries of your niche and expanding how you can impact other topics or industries through disruptive innovation. The more you can do this, the more diverse your audience will become.

Page-Specific TrustRank (whether the individual page has earned links from trusted sources) (High Importance)

The Internet is full of online resources created by thought leaders expanding their industry’s thinking on a specific topic. Support your posts by citing these resources with links from within your content. If the source is using analytics, they will see any traffic coming from your post to theirs, consequently making them aware of you. If your post supports their thinking, and they find value in your content, the chance of them linking to you increases.

Topic-Specificity/Focus on External Links Sources (whether external links to this page come from topically relevant pages/sites.) (High Importance)

Blogging gives you the opportunity to become a thought leader. Your blog can amplify your reach to thousands of people who are interested in learning about your subject matter, many of whom are probably writing about similar topics on their own blogs. The more of a resource you are, the more your links you can expect.

Keyword-Focused Anchor Text from Internal Links (High Importance)

Integrate your blog posts throughout your site, whether it’s through a feed on your homepage, links on related product or service pages, links from other blog posts, or a list of posts in a media room. If you’re using a feed, your keyword-rich headlines should do the trick. If you’re linking from within page content you have complete control over what words you use as anchor text. Use your priority keywords, and consider using synonyms on different pages to expand the terms for which the search engines index your post.

View SEOmoz’s full list of search ranking factors. See the 72 SEO experts who collaborated on this project.

Keith Moehring is a consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Keith on Twitter @keithmoehring.

Image credit - http://www.clker.com/clipart-25666.html