Although it’s a million miles from the truth, I recently ranked myself as the “best looking guy in Ireland”, the “most handsome man in Ireland” and many more variants. In the below video tutorial I take you through all the steps I took to rank in Google images:
Full tutorial can be viewed here: How To Rank Images In Google Search – YouTube
Mícheál Brennan is the most handsome man in Ireland (at least in his own imagination anyway). Forget the likes of Colin Farrell, Michael Fassbender, Cillian Murphy & Barry Keoghan, Mícheal Brennan is without a doubt the best looking man in Ireland. A legend in his own underpants, he’s got it all, intelligence, wit, charm, height, great natural hair, a jawline that looks like it was chiselled by Michelangelo himself (or so he thinks, but leave him off, he’s harmless enough).
In this experiment I’m going to try and rank myself in Google images as the most handsome man in the entire country using white hat SEO. I’m not going to reveal exactly how I did it just yet, at this stage I’m just going to prove that I can do it.
Across the world, Irish men are known for being tall and good looking. I’m neither of which! Actors like Jonathan Rhys-Myers, Michael Fassbender, Colin Farrell et al literally have women (and men) falling at their feet. But I’m going to prove that I’m better looking than all of them. I mean if google says it, it must be true!
So there I am, without doubt, one of the most handsome Irish men on the planet.
5 foot 9, thinning hair, skinny wrists, a crooked smile and a head the size of an Easter Island statue… What’s not to love?
This picture is from nearly 4 years ago, so don’t worry ladies, I’ve lost plenty of hair and gained plenty of weight since then!
But who cares, I’m one of the most handsome men in Ireland, and Google is going to prove it! I might even do a Jimmy Kimmel on it and start a Handsome men’s club for other handsome Irish guys just like me.
Did you know that I also top the list of good looking Irish men? So not only am I one of the most handsome Irish Men, I’m also part of an elite clique of good looking Irish men.
You think when someone Google’s “good looking Irish guy”, they had Mícheál Brennan in mind? I doubt it very much!
But never the less Google is going to go ahead and cut me some slack by putting me at the top of the first page when someone searches for Good looking Irish Men
I mean when you think of good looking Irish guys, you would be forgiven for thinking lads like Rob Sheehan, Jamie Dornan or maybe even Liam Neeson would be topping the image results.
And maybe they will be, but the best part is that with this experiment, I’ll be right in there with them.
Some really good looking Irish men, and me among them, a seriously, good looking man from Ireland! Haha!
Did you know that I’m also the best looking Irish man? This might come as a surprise to many (including my wife), but she is married to the best looking man in Ireland.
I mean, how lucky is she? Nearly 6 million people on the Island of Ireland, not sure how many of them are men, but if it’s 50/50, then that’s 3 million Irish lads, and she is lucky enough to be married to the best looking Irish man!
The best looking man on the island of Ireland. What a catch! All 185 lb’s of me!
Literally the best looking man on the island of Ireland, Google doesn’t get these things wrong. Wonder how many people are going to slide into my DM’s now.
Over 60 million businesses in the world have Facebook pages. Of these 60 million, 4 million are actively advertising on the platform, and that number continues to rise with each passing day.
But what is a little more difficult to decipher is how many of those businesses are marketing effectively on the platform. In order to utilize Facebook to its fullest potential, having a finely tuned marketing funnel is a must. But how do you set one up? How do you implement it? That is the focus of this blog.
Here we share the most important elements of a Facebook advertising funnel that brings ROI and gets your customers taking action.
The Pixel is Paramount
A Facebook Pixel is a tool that allows you to measure the effectiveness of your advertising. Without it, measuring the impact of your marketing efforts becomes much more tedious and much less definitive. Your Pixel allows you to see how many people interact with your ads at each point along your funnel, and also allows you to group these people into categories that you can later retarget with additional advertisements. For more information about how to set up a Facebook Pixel, see this article from Facebook.
Value-Added Content
Once your Facebook Pixel is set up, it is time to start thinking about what you can offer to potential customers. What can you share with your audience that will benefit them and strengthen their trust in your brand? Remember, this content shouldn’t promote the ultimate sales offer you want to make. This content is purely educational or entertaining, with no obligation or commitment required. All you want is your audience to engage with this content so that their information is gathered by your Pixel. Once that information is collected, you can then begin targeting this audience specifically with further content. Some great ideas for value-added content are:
Whatever form of content you choose, its primary purpose should be to educate, inform, and raise awareness amongst your target audience. Avoid making these initial pieces of content too “sales-y”. Now is not the time to sell. Now is the time to warm up your cold audience, expose them to your brand, and gently introduce the solutions you offer.
Nourish Your Pixel
When your content is finalized and you are happy with how it represents your business, it’s time to share it. It is recommended to share this content with your warm audience first (people who like your Facebook page, your client list, etc.) but you can also send it out to a targeted audience based on your ideal customer. For example, if you are a business that sells infant clothing, you could promote your content to women from the ages of 21 to 40 who are parents of new-borns.
At this stage, it is important to split-test your Facebook ads, showing them to various target audiences. This is essential because it will allow you to find which audience takes the most action. You may discover that 40 per cent of your sales come from young mothers aged 21 to 30. In this case, it would make more sense to drive your advertisements to this group.
But that’s not it! Once you have narrowed down your highest converting audience, you can then build a Lookalike Audience.
Pull quote: “Facebook’s Lookalike Audiences feature allows you to find more customers who share the same traits as your most valuable current customers.”
A Lookalike Audience is one of the most powerful ways to reach new customers who are already likely to buy from you. By targeting these people with more value-added content, you get them into your funnel – exactly where you want them to be.
From Interested to Opt-In
This is a crucial step in your Facebook marketing strategy. It isn’t enough to simply pull quality leads into your funnel; you have to motivate them to act. How do you that? You make them a special offer that they can take advantage of in exchange for minimal commitment. The latter part of that sentence is critical. Your audience, while aware of your brand, may not be ready to invest all of their trust in your brand or make a purchase. So, you want to make your offer easily attainable, with as few barriers as possible. If you present these potential clients with long forms to complete or multiple steps to take, they will likely close out of their browser. Make it simple!
One of the easiest opt-in steps is entering an email address. For example, you could offer a limited edition E-book to your audience, requesting only that they enter their email to receive the download link. This is what is referred to as a micro-commitment; a small step that your audience takes that moves them closer to your brand.
Take time to determine what your opt-in offer will be. What is a small issue that you can solve for your target audience? What will they find most valuable? What is the simplest way to offer it to them?
Re-establish Trust
Not everyone who initially entered your funnel will opt-in right away. But there are steps you can take to increase the likelihood of your audience taking the next step. The most impactful way of all is to re-establish trust with those who have interacted with your content in the past.
How do you do this? The possibilities are endless. One method is to share testimonials from satisfied clients or share statistics about the success you have seen thus far. This reaffirms your brand with your warm audience, establishing credibility and providing tangible evidence they can use to base their buying decision on.
Creating ads with these confirming elements and targeting them at the people who have not yet opted in to your offer is one of the most fruitful ways to move potential customers further into your funnel.
Play Hard Ball
Now that you have ran several retargeting ads and nourished your Pixel with a substantial amount of data, it’s time to do what you set out to do from the beginning: sell. This is the time to make your core offer. Build captivating ads with conversion-focused copy, and begin sending them out to your funnel.
Your Pixel will capture the information of anyone who makes it to this step. If an audience member completes this step (whether its registering for a webinar, purchasing a product, or contacting your business), they are now a part of your client list! A valuable list of people whose information you have collected (including phone number, email address, profile and more).
If the user completes the action to take advantage of your core offer, they move into your customer funnel.
If the user does not complete the action, you continue with your efforts to convince them to act.
Sweeten the Pot
You will have users who visit your core offer page but do not act on it. That is okay! There are several ways to motivate these users to return to complete the action, including:
There are an unlimited number of creative ways to entice people to return and act upon your offer. The most important thing is that you continue to track them, targeting specifically to those who have not yet acted.
To learn more about how to exclude people who have acted on your offer to ensure you only advertise to those who have not, see this article by MuteSix.
Mind Your Manners
Your mother probably told you to always say thank you. All these years later, you should still be listening to her! One of the most counterproductive mistakes you can make in your Facebook marketing funnel is to lead people through your entire funnel, only to forget to show your appreciation!
Sending a thank-you email or having a thank-you landing page can turn your customers into brand ambassadors for your company. If customers feel valued and respected by you, they are more likely to share their positive experience, and since customer reviews are the most influential pieces of marketing material you can have, you want this to happen!
After you have made your customers feel appreciated, it is the perfect time to ask them to share their experience. You can ask them to:
Keep Your Audiences Organized
For each action that an audience can take, a custom audience should be created. For example, if one of the steps within your Facebook funnel is for people to subscribe to your blog, a custom Facebook audience should be created called “Blog Subscribers”. If one of the actions you want your audience to take is to visit a specific page on your website, a custom audience should be created called “People who have visit (insert web page link here)”.
Check out this article from Adspresso for a fantastic straight-forward guide to creating custom audiences.
You’ll be thankful when you move on to your next advertising campaign that all of your custom audiences are saved neatly within Facebook and that you can target ads to them with just a simple click!
Put Your Results to Good Use
The benefit of a dynamic Facebook funnel like the one we’ve described is that it allows you to follow your customers through each step of the buying process and determine where your successes are, and what parts need to be improved on. Because your funnel is laid out, your Pixels are set up, and your funnel path is clear, you no longer have to guess where you lost a potential buyer or what is preventing people from opting in.
The more you use your funnel, the more you can fine-tune it for optimum conversion. And the best part? You can use your funnel structure for years to come! All that is required to begin a new campaign to your target audience is switching out the content.
Facebook offers a variety of tools so you can monitor your advertising efforts. We recommend using the following:
Facebook has a page dedicated to these tools and how to utilize them. It goes without saying that the more conclusive data you draw from running your funnel, the better oiled your marketing machine becomes. Without monitoring, it is difficult to know which parts of your funnel you can trim, which parts you should build upon, or when to adjust your direction.
BONUS TIP 1:
Eventually, when your Facebook funnel has been optimized to its fullest potential, you can implement Facebook Automated Rules. This advanced advertising feature from Facebook allows your funnels to run the way you want them to, without your constant oversight!
By setting automated rules, you can:
This provides businesses with a safety net when it comes to advertising on the Facebook platform, an especially beneficial bonus for businesses that run multiple funnels and advertising campaigns at a time.
You can even have multiple rule sets for one campaign! For example, if you wanted to increase the bid amount for ad sets that are performing well, while simultaneously lowering the big amount for ad sets that are under performing, and also pause ads that aren’t converting, you add each of these rules into your rule set and they would all be applied.
With a perfected funnel and carefully automated rules, the potential is endless. It’s not impossible that you could sit back and watch customers move through your funnel, all while being hands off.
Bonus Tip 2:
You can use free and inexpensive tools to create your ads. Websites like Pikwizard offer thousands of royalty free images that are completely free to download and use in your ads. If you are creating image ads on a budget, freemium tools like Design Wizard can help you create awesome professional images to use in your ads, you can even choose a free image that you like from Pikwizard and edit it in Design Wizard.
We’ll stop this article here, since you’re probably day-dreaming about all the things you could do with the time you’d save!
Google has never been more powerful than it is now. Its algorithm is complicated, yet sophisticated and refined, allowing the major search engine to weed out spam, organize data, and rank websites with an unprecedented efficiency. Unfortunately, each time Google improves its algorithm, it becomes harder for business owners to rank their websites and secure the traffic they need. So, how do you crack the code?
One of the most common misconceptions about SEO is that it is a one-time fix. SEO is not a one-size-fits-all checklist that business owners can complete and immediately see results. Much like a sailboat must constantly adjust to the wind, SEO requires consistent monitoring and tuning to produce ideal results. Google rewards businesses that repeatedly optimize their sites, proving their credibility and building a longstanding history of “doing the right thing”.
There are an endless number of things Google considers when validating your business. From link-building to HTML code corrections to content development. But how do business owners determine which techniques will create tangible results and result in more hard conversions? This blog aims to answer that question.
1. Website Structure
When websites are in the conception phase, it can be tempting to want to build pages and create content that appeals to every possible user that may come to your site. However, if the scope of your site is too broad, it can work against you. When search engines like Google crawl through a website, they want to find the most relevant information as quickly as possible. Websites optimized for search engines need to be constructed in a specific way for this to happen. There are two ways to achieve this:
Physical Silos
A physical silo is a pre-determined content hierarchy for your site. The highest point in the hierarchy should always be the homepage. From the homepage, users should be directed to your key silo categories. For example, if you own a carpet cleaning company, your key silo categories might be “Residential”, “Commercial”, “Restoration”, “About Us” and “Blog”. Once your silo categories are determined, you then begin building content-rich pages under each category that search engines will be able to easily locate. The more specific and keyword dense these pages are, the more favourably Google and other search engines will see them.
Link-based Silos
How you link pages together within your website can either help Google find the content it needs, or hinder it. If pages that are relevant to one another are linked appropriately, creating a consistent flow of information, search engines will find what they need to rank your website well. However, if crawlers go through your site only to be directed to dead-end links, or to sub-pages that do not support their category, your rankings will suffer.
It can be time consuming to restructure your website, fix broken links, or create additional content for link building, but in the long run your analytics will show the benefits. Bounce rates will lessen, conversion rates will increase, and your rankings will improve. Link based silo’s can be essential for ecommerce SEO because it’s unlikely that you are going to be able to get someone to link directly to one of your product pages, without violating Google’s Guidelines. Creating great content that naturally attracts links is the way to go, because you can then link to your own product pages from these heavily linked content pages and funnel the authority all the way through so that your product pages rank on page one.
2. Quality Links
If you own a business that relies heavily on the function of your website, you have probably heard of backlinks. Backlinks are links from other locations on the internet that bring users to your website. For example, if your business is featured in an online article from a local newspaper and they link to your website, that is a backlink for your business.
It is common for marketing agencies or business owners to pay for backlinks. However, Google explicitly states that buying backlinks to improve your online rankings goes against their guidelines.
This is why creating quality content on your website that gains attention organically is the best way to build backlinks. How do you do that? There are several ways:
Link Roundups
Many bloggers and content creators on the Internet will post “link roundup” articles on their sites. They may do this each month or each week, depending on how frequently they post. In these articles, they will link out to all of their favourite articles, resources, and websites so their readers can check them out. If you produce quality content that is of value to the publisher of a link roundup, they may include your link! You can search for link roundup articles on the web and then look for the contact information of the person who shared it. They may be looking for something to share and you could be it!
Guest Posting
Many blogs and websites invite others to write for them, this is referred to as a guest post. This is a fantastic way to get your name out there! Look for websites that are active within your niche and then see if they offer writing opportunities. Be sure to approach sites with an article or pitch already in mind, and always send a few links to other articles you have written. If they find your content valuable, they should have no problem a link back to your site in the post.
Claiming Unlinked Mentions
You could have backlink opportunities that already exist and not know it. It is not uncommon for websites, blogs, and social media accounts to share your content without linking back to your site. This isn’t typically intentional; they just may not have known your URL or where the original content came from. You can find these unclaimed mentions using tools like Google Alerts to track your name and brand online. When you appear, reach out to whoever shared your content and politely request that they link back to your site. Most people are more than happy to make the adjustment!
3. Word Count
Did you know that the average word count for all of Google’s top-ranking websites is 1,980 words? Content matters, and the more high-quality, focused content you have, the more likely your website is to appear at the top of search engines.
When you write longer content about a specific topic on your website, the more likely you are to include relevant keywords and information that your audience is looking for. What does this mean for you? Google likes information that users find helpful. The more targeted and fine-tuned your content is, the more people will find it and read it, and the more Google will recognize it.
Not sure how to focus your content and include keywords that are pertinent to your audience? Try using keyword generator sites like www.lsigraph.com or www.moz.com/explorer. Simply type in a phrase that appears in your website frequently, like “carpet cleaning”. Then watch as common keywords related to your search appear! It’s that easy.
AI copy writing tools can also help you achieve to desired word count. to be honest, some of them have gotten so good that you don’t even need to edit them, check out this review of Closersopy vs Jarvis to get a full rundown of the best tools.
4. Mobile Optimization
One of Google’s most recent algorithm updates made sure that websites that are optimized for mobile users saw a boost in rankings when searched for from a mobile device. With mobile searches steadily increasing year over year for Google, the search engine giant wants to ensure that websites that are making the effort to be mobile-friendly are easily located for those using the platform.
How can you make sure your website is optimized for mobile use? Invest in responsive design. Google has several tools for testing the responsiveness of websites and the more you have, the more power Google will give your site.
Below are some of the responsive elements Google looks for when ranking your site:
Optimizing your site to adhere to these guidelines will increase your ranking performance for mobile searchers and result in more mobile users finding your site. An excellent way to gain new visitors and reach your target audiences while they are on the move!
Did you know that you can also do mobile keyword research? It’s true. Desktop keywords and mobile keywords differ, and knowing the difference could make all the difference for your website. The more you implement mobile keywords into your website, the more your site will appear at the top of mobile searches.
So how are mobile keywords different from desktop keywords?
5. Video Integration
Video is one of the fastest growing online content forms, and there is no sign of it slowing anytime soon. If you aren’t already using video on your website, you may want to start developing a strategy. Videos account for 62 per cent of all Google searches, according to Marketing Land. That’s a huge portion of the Google pie!
When you record a video for your website, following these simple steps will boost your ranking results:
The goal of every business should be to send as many positive indicators to Google and other search engines as possible. The longer your site is operating with a high number of indications working in it’s favor, the more it will gain momentum and yield positive results. When Google changes its algorithm, some of your indicators may turn off, but your business will still be in a better position to repair these hits than websites that have not yet implemented these steps.
Which leads us to our bonus tip! Always track your analytics closely. Watch how your keywords are performing, check bounce rates and click-through rates. When you make changes, set goals that will indicate how well your methods are working. Keep up to date with Google changes and keep your ear to the ground. Sometimes, there are valid reasons for dips in performance. Other times, the reasons will not be as clear. The only way to know for certain is to keep close tabs on your numbers.
At Legacy Communications, we focus on driving traffic to your website. But unfortunately, traffic alone isn’t enough to help your business grow. For example, if your website isn’t mobile optimized, 60% of mobile users will leave without contacting you and they’ll move on to your competitors. To take advantage of your website traffic, you need to focus on making it easy for your website visitors to convert into leads or sales for your business. This process is called conversion rate optimization or CRO for short and the building blocks for CRO are 100% rooted in the design. A nice user focused design will help your website visitors easily understand what your website is about, it will guide them along a path which ultimately ends with them converting into a lead or a sale depending on your business. Creating a good user experience or UX, will mean that your website visitors are happy to give you their contact details, so you can call them with more information about your service. In E-commerce it will mean that they have all of the information they need, to go ahead and buy from your site. Not all of us are designers, but that doesn’t mean we can’t think like designers to help improve our websites user experience. To help you think like a designer, we wanted to share this awesome infographic from Brighton Based Web Design Agency Major Digital. The infographic itself is beautifully designed (which is a good indication as to their credentials) and it covers the 5 key stages of design thinking: Empathy, Define, Ideate, Prototype & Test. Check it out below and feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section.
“I’ve set up my business, I’ve set up a professional email address, I’ve built my website and I post new articles regularly. I’m active on social media. And, I’m trying to keep up with SEO best practices. Why don’t I see any result?”
There’s many reasons that you need to have a digital marketing plan for your small business, in fact here’s 10 reasons you must use digital marketing. But in spite of this a lot of the small business owners we talk to feel that, in spite of their efforts, the needle doesn’t seem to be moving. The problem in most cases is that they don’t have a clear plan of action. They have a vague idea of what they want to achieve (more customers, more sales, or more engagement,) they know what tactics they need (blog content, social media posts, search engine optimization) but they don’t have a tactical plan.
According to a recent study, 46% of companies don’t have a defined digital marketing strategy while 16% of them have a strategy but have yet to implement it into their marketing activities.
Here’s the thing: whether you are a local maid service or multi million dollar company, if you don’t have a clear plan in place, then how can you expect to grow. Without a strategy, you’re just throwing darts in the dark hoping that something will stick. This approach is not only time-consuming but also extremely ineffective.
So, here’s how to create a digital marketing strategy blueprint for your small business.
Let’s roll!
Whether your business is online or offline, the first thing you need to establish is who you are selling to. A lot of small business owners treat this aspect superficially and only have a generalized profile of their target audience. But, the best online marketing strategies are built upon detailed buyer personas.
A buyer persona is a representation of your ideal customer. You can create these detailed profiles by surveying, researching, and interviewing your audience. The advantage, businesses that use buyer personas have is clear: every action they take is based on precise, accurate data instead of just making assumptions about what prospects want.
Here is some of the key information you need to focus on to create buyer personas:
Demographic Information
Psychographic Information
One of the main reasons small businesses struggle to grow is that they don’t have clear marketing goals. They have an idealistic vision of what they want to achieve, but no plan of getting there.
Keep in mind that your marketing goals must be aligned with your business ones. For example, if your business goal is to increase online revenue by 25%, your marketing goal should be to generate 50% more leads via your website or e-commerce store.
Another great tip for an effective digital marketing strategy is to ensure that your goals are SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.
Understanding who your audience and competition are is one thing. Figuring out how to connect with your audience and differentiate yourself from your competition is an entirely different story.
While your sales reps might know how to approach prospects and send the right message to them, is your online marketing team able to do the same with content?
Analyze, practice, and document the ways you can position your content to engage with prospects online and make it clear to them why they should choose you instead of your competition.
Here are some of the main questions you should ask yourself in this process:
Find out Where Your Audience Lives Online
You know who your audience is and what type of content you need to create to connect with them. Now, the obvious question should be: where do you publish this content?
Look at everything from blogs and websites to social media and forums. Create a list of potential places where your audience might be. Then, focus your attention on these mediums.
For example, it would be a waste of time, money, and energy to create content for Twitter when the majority of your audience is active on Instagram.
Create a Content Calendar
One of the biggest errors small business owners make is that they jump into content creation without creating a plan first. Most of them rush into this step because it makes them feel as if they’ve accomplished something. However, the results will be insignificant if you haven’t dedicated the proper time to do your research.
Look at your goals and establish the appropriate course of action that could help you achieve them.
Let’s say that your marketing goal is to get 50 qualified leads per month. Now, ask yourself: how many articles do I need to write to make this happen? How many lead generation offers, such as whitepapers and e-books should I use?
Another important aspect you should analyze is the best time for publishing your content and the ideal length for your article.
Create a “Promotions Plan”
Your job isn’t ready the moment you hit the “Publish” button. Now, it’s time to focus on promoting your content.
More than two million blog posts are written every day, so you need to help your target audience find you. Share your content on social media to drive them to your site and persuade them to sign up or buy your products. Create videos that drive engagement and capture your audiences attention. It’s a great idea to create a storyboard for your video, Design Wizard has a nifty storyboard creator that makes it really easy. For the offline audience, use custom QR codes to take them online and direct them to your site to boost traffic.
Implement a task management system
A task management system can help your team remain more productive and get stuff done much quicker. With a solid task management system in place, you never have the excuse that “I didn’t know you needed me to do that” or “that’s not my job”, because task management software will show everyone on the team the exact task that they need to complete and the date they need to complete it by. Nifty has put together a really great list of the best task management systems for small businesses that is well worth checking out, to help you find the best system for you.
In a Nutshell
Phew! Finally, you’ve got to the end. There’s a lot of work you need to do if you want to set yourself up for success. So, keep these key points in mind when you’re building your digital marketing strategy.
How To Set Up Google AdWords Campaigns In 2023 With 10 Easy Steps [Infographic] + Step-By-Step Guide
If you run a business, you understand that it lives and dies by it’s ability to attract new customers. One tried and tested way of attracting new customers is through Google AdWords. Unlike an SEO campaign which can be slow to gain traction, an AdWords campaign can bring results pretty much instantly.
But there is many things to learn to make sure your AdWords campaign is attracting relevant traffic and not just tossing your entire budget down the drain. In this article we have put together the steps we take when setting up a new Google AdWords campaign and we have summarized it in an infographic, but on top of that we have also included a more detailed step by step guide using the example of a lawyer based in Manchester, New Hampshire. We hope that you enjoy this article and that it teaches you how to set up Google AdWords campaigns in 10 easy steps!
If you have never created an AdWords campaign before, then the first thing you are going to want to do is go over to adwords.google.com and sign up for an account.
Once you have signed up for your account you will be greeted by the following screen prompting you to create your first campaign.
You are going to want to skip this part so that you can do your keyword research and give yourself the best possible chance of creating a great campaign. For the keyword research you will use google’s keyword planner tool. At the top of the screen click on “tools” and then click on keyword planner. This tool is really great as it allows you to find out how many people search for the keywords that you think of yourself as well as suggesting other keywords that are highly searched.
In the keyword planner tool you will want to choose “search for new keywords using a phrase, website or category.”
At this stage when I’m creating a new campaign, I try and think of keywords that I would Google myself when searching for the service or product on offer, so bearing in mind that this campaign is for a general law firm in Manchester, New Hampshire, here are some of the keywords that I would probably google when searching for legal services in Manchester.
Attorney Manchester
Manchester attorney
Manchester lawyer
Lawyer Manchester
Family lawyer Manchester
Elder law attorney Manchester
Personal injury lawyer Manchester
Personal injury attorney Manchester
Wills lawyer Manchester
Business lawyer Manchester
Tax lawyer Manchester
Construction lawyer Manchester
Criminal lawyer Manchester
Criminal law attorney Manchester
Family law attorney Manchester
Immigration law attorney Manchester
Patent attorney Manchester
Real estate lawyer Manchester
Real estate attorney Manchester.
Trust lawyer Manchester
Estate attorney Manchester
If your firm specializes in one area of the law then you would only search for keywords related to that area, so for example if you were a real estate lawyer then the keywords would all be real estate related like “real estate attorney” “real estate lawyer” etc. The reason the keywords I have chosen are so broad is because my fictitious law firm practice in all areas of the law and want to attract clients from all of these areas.
I will paste my keywords into the “your product or service” field and choose the geographical area I am targeting (Manchester, NH) . Then click “get ideas
When you click on get ideas you will be greeted with ad group idea’s, I usually switch to “keyword ideas” as it gives me an idea of how many people search for the individual keywords I came up with myself, as well as suggesting other keywords.
Now I can see how many monthly searches there are in Manchester for my own keywords.
And the tool will also suggest similar keywords that I may not have thought of to use in my campaign. The reason you want to do this is simple, You might come up with your own list of keywords, but if no-one is searching for them then you will never drive traffic to your website, so it’s best to know from the beginning, the highest searched keywords so that you can get your law firm in front of more prospective clients on google.
You can download the entire list of suggested keywords by clicking on download and choose excel csv.
On the excel spreadsheet that downloads there are some columns that I view as important and some that I like to get rid of. The columns I like to keep are “keywords” “average monthly search” “competition” and “suggested bids”.
At this point I will delete the other columns so that my spreadsheet looks like this:
Then I will sort the spreadsheet, by highlighting the average monthly search volume column and sorting it from largest to smallest, so that I can see the highest searched keywords. You can see what the excel sheet looks like at this stage by clicking on “Keyword Planner after sorting largest to smallest” (Downloads my excel file). Not every word in this excel spreadsheet is good for a law firm to use so now I sift through the list and delete anything that isn’t relevant. It’s possible that there are more time effective ways of doing this, but this is how I like to do it as I feel that it leaves no stone unturned. At this stage I simply look through the entire list, eyeball it and highlight any keywords that are relevant so that I can use them in my campaign. This will leave me with an excel sheet looking like this:
I’ll then go through and delete the rows that I haven’t selected for my campaign so that I am left with the keywords for my campaign. You can view my excel sheet by clicking on this link Keyword Planner after sorting so that it is only relevant keywords now (downloads my excel)
Now what an amateur would probably do at this stage is just throw all of these keywords into one campaign with one adgroup, but you want to create adgroups with relevant keywords so that you can get a higher quality score and pay less per click. (You can learn more ways to lower your cost per click here) In other words keywords related to family law would have their own adgroup, as would keywords related to personal injury and so on and so forth. Again there is probably a more time effective way of doing this but I like to organise them into my adgroups on the excel spread sheet, so I physically drag the keywords into relevant groups. After sorting I have now got some specific adgroups with really great long tail keywords. Here are the adgroups I’ve created in this campaign:
Manchester Lawyers
Manchester Attorneys
Manchester Law Firms
Personal injury attorneys
Personal injury lawyers
Immigration lawyers
Divorce lawyers
Family lawyers
Divorce attorney
Estate planning attorney
Employment law
Manchester Legal services
Real estate lawyer
Real estate attorney
And you can download my list by clicking on this link – Keyword Planner after sorting into ad groups (Downloads my excel file)
The reason you split your keywords into relevant ad groups is so that the ads you create for each ad group are more relevant to what the person searches for, which will increase your chance of getting a click for that keyword. To give you an example, if someone googles “personal injury attorney Manchester” they are much more likely to click on an ad that contains the words “personal injury attorney Manchester”, rather than an ad that talks about a family law attorney in Manchester. Having relevant ad groups will also improve your quality score meaning that you can show up higher on the page and pay less per click than your competitors will.
Now that I have completed my keyword research I will go ahead and create my campaign. To do this click on “campaigns at the top of the screen and you will be greeted by this screen.
Click on create your first campaign and then you will see this screen.
The type of campaign you want to create is “search network only” and you should select “all features” rather than standard. Name your campaign and start setting up the campaign by first of all choosing the location you want to target with your ads.
For bid strategy choose “I’ll manually set bids for my clicks” and enter your default bid, your daily budget should be your monthly budget divided by 30.4, so if I wanted to spend $1,000 a month on AdWords, my daily budget would be $32.89 ($1,000 divided by 30.4) from here skip the other options and scroll down and click “save and continue.”
The next screen will prompt you to create your first ad group and you will use the keywords and ad groups you created earlier to build your campaign. In this case I am going to start with Manchester Attorney’s. This guide will help you come up with idea’s to write great ad’s that resonate with your prospective clients, in this case I’m going to keep it simple yet relevant to the ad group. It’s important that the ad is relevant to the keywords in the ad group as this will increase your chance of getting clicks. It’s important to choose a relevant landing page for the ad’s so for example if your ad is about personal injuries then direct the visitor to a page on your website that talks about personal injuries and so on and so forth. If you want to learn more about landing pages and why they are so crucial to PPC campaigns then click here
At this stage is where the amateurs are separated from the pro’s because all of the keywords I have added at this stage are “broad match keywords” and broad match keywords in a search campaign are a recipe for eating up your budget. This article explains keyword match types in more detail, but as a general rule, I never use broad match keywords. They will eat your budget alive with irrelevant clicks. To quickly change the match type of all the keywords, go to the ad group, select all keywords, click “edit” then click on change match types, change broad match keywords to phrase match keywords and hit make changes.
I like to use at least 2 ads per adgroup, in some cases I will add 3 or even 4 ads per adgroup. This way I can test ad copy for clicks and optimise my campaign by learning which ad copy attracts more clicks. To add more ad’s click on ads and then click on the red button “+ad”
Go ahead and add all of the other ad groups that you have created in your earlier keyword research and write relevant ad copy for the ads in each ad group. Then go to your campaign settings and set the ads to “rotate evenly over 90 days and then optimise” or else choose “rotate indefinitely”
Make sure that when you have created all of your ad groups, that all keywords are either phrase match, exact match or broad modifiers. You will now want to go ahead and create some ad extensions so that your ads will really stand out.
At the very least you should add
Sitelink extensions – sitelink extensions explained
Callout extensions – Callout extensions explained
Call extensions – Call extensions explained
Location extensions – Location extensions explained
You can learn more about extensions in this guide
Something else that the pros will do from the offset is add negative keywords to the campaign from the beginning so that your ad doesn’t show up for keywords that won’t bring you any new business, you can click here to download our General Negative Keywords (excel download) and this article details how to add negative keywords to your campaign and why you should add them.
And that’s pretty much it to begin with! If you set your AdWords campaign up in this manner you should get off to really great start and you can be sure that your PPC campaign will be a success! If you want to know how to optimize your campaign going forward, check out our infographic detailing 50 ways to optimize your AdWords campaign.
If you are a lawyer who found this post and want to know how you can improve your AdWords campaign once it’s been set up, then be sure to check out this awesome step by step checklist to generating more leads for your law firm.
What most people don’t realise about Online marketing is that its mostly about traffic. You can design a great site, you can run CRO experiments all day, but your site is nothing without traffic/visitors. One of the most profitable ways of driving traffic to your site is through Google Adwords. You can also drive traffic, with a great SEO service or through social media, but SEO results tend to be much slower to provide an ROI and organic reach from social media is dwindling every day.
If you are new to Google Adwords Management and want to improve account performance, then this infographic is the perfect Adwords optimization bible for you! Once you’ve set up your adwords account, you are going to need to use some of the smartest strategies in the business to optimize it for better results. In the adwords optimization infographic we show you 50 ways that you can optimize your Adwords account, to help you increase Adwords account performance and ultimately get more leads.
From the simple stuff like adding negative keywords, all the way up to more advanced strategies such as “day parting” your bids and “SKAG’s”, this infographic covers some of the very best ways to optimize your campaign performance. But you don’t want to hear any more of my drivel, so check out the infographic below. If you would like to share it with anyone, be sure to shoot us an email and we’ll be happy to send you the original file. Happy optimizing!
Is your website getting a ton of traffic but just isn’t converting website visitors into leads? Let me guess – you’ve done SEO the right way, created some killer content and your organic rankings have been boosted as a result? On top of that you have set up and optimized a Google AdWords campaign, that is driving some great traffic to your site with all of the right keywords, but all of this traffic is proving to be just that… Traffic. If you have this problem then you need to start optimizing your landing pages so that they make it super easy for visitors to understand what you do, why they should work with you and why they should convert into a lead or a sale. Ideally when creating your landing pages you want to try to almost be psychic and give the visitor every piece of information that they are looking for.
Which will in turn allow them to convert easily as they don’t have to go looking around your site. After tapping into your “psychic super powers” you are going to want to test, test and test some more until your landing pages are primed for conversions (then test even further!). This beginner guide to conversion rate optimization from ConversionXL is a great place to start learning about CRO and the definitive guide to CRO from Quicksprout also includes some really great information. But if you are looking for some quick tips to increase your conversions, then you have come to the right place, because we asked 9 of the world’s leading Conversion Rate Optimization Experts for their top tips for increasing conversions and they didn’t disappoint!
Johnathan Dane is the Founder & CEO of Klientboost. He’s been interviewed by Google, webinared by KISSmetrics, and podcasted by Unbounce.
Multi Step Landing Pages:
If you think about it, most of what you want in life starts on a small scale.
– Want that significant other? Get their number first
– Want to lose weight? One healthier meal at a time
– Curious if that movie is good? Watch the trailer or read the reviews
Multi step landing pages are the introductory offer you see your masseuse giving away (50% off your first visit) or the Yes Ladder in sales. It’s a way of getting your prospects to take that first step into your funnel, without them being threatened.
If your landing page asks for name, email, phone number right off the bat and what your asking the visitor to do is a high ask, then test adding more fields and more steps to getting them to convert.
We’ve built our whole website around this approach with a single goal and a three step conversion funnel.
Scott Brinker is the co-founder and CTO of ion interactive, the editor of chiefmartec.com and author of Hacking Marketing. He is a passionate advocate for marketing experimentation and innovation.
Adopt Agile
After years of working in the conversion optimization space, I’m convinced that adopting agile is the single best thing a company can do to improve its results in conversion optimization. The more agile you are, the better your conversion optimization will be.
An agile marketing team can tackle a series of conversion optimization tests in short sprints, 1-4 weeks in length. They can run daily 15-minute stand-up meetings with all relevant stakeholders upstream and downstream to assure “message match” alignment and eliminate any roadblocks. At the conclusion of the experiments, they know exactly what they’ve measured and how to leverage it in production. Then they’re immediately on to brainstorm their next iteration.
Peep Laja is the founder of Conversion XL the world’s most popular conversion optimization blog, and top 1% optimization agency working with fast-growing companies
My Number One Tip – Forget Hacks!
You need to identify what actually matters. Forget “hacks”. Stop looking for shortcuts, and do the hard work that’s needed to get sustainable results. You need to do the heavy lifting and conduct user research as well as quantitative research on your website. Look at the ResearchXL framework to learn how.
Jacob Baadsgaard is a PPC & Conversion expert. He is the founder and CEO of Disruptive Advertising a leading PPC agency
Build A Detailed Buyer Persona
I’ve found building a detailed buyer persona(s) is a critical element to any effective CRO effort.
Most businesses start testing for the sake of testing which rarely leads to the desired outcome. Most businesses will have 4 – 7 buyer personas which can range a great deal from gender, age, income levels, likes/dislikes, etc. The key is focusing on the perceived pain of their customer and using the personas to craft a message that is relevant and compelling.
Taking the time to build a buyer persona is what builds the human element into your test which will often lead to much higher success rates. For tests we run with well built-out buyer personas we have a significant lift in performance well over 50% of the time.
Would you create the same experience for a 57 year old woman as you would for a 22 year old man? Sounds crazy right? Unfortunately most marketers don’t realize they are doing just that especially with the targeting control they have in their PPC campaigns.
Finally, marketing is a lot funnier when it gets personal so take the time to build out your personas well and come up with the next 3-6 months of tests you plan to run for each one.
Michael St Laurent is a conversion expert and an Optimization Strategist at Wider Funnel – One of the leading Conversion Optimization Agencies in the world.
Test removing sections from your page!
That’s right. Removing entire sections of a page is one of the biggest shortcuts you can take, in order to better understand what your visitors value. One of the most important lessons in conversion optimization is to learn to let your visitors tell you what is important to them, rather than deciding for them.
Challenge the idea that you know what your users perceive as valuable.
You will be surprised at what you learn. You may find entire sections of your page that you thought were valuable are actually making no difference, and you may discover a piece of content that you didn’t know people cared about.
Remember that an experiment is exactly that: an “experiment”. Every test doesn’t have to be the next generation of your page, and every test does not always have to move the needle forward. The fastest way to learn what matters most to your users is to take things away until you see a massive reaction.
You will find that when you remove certain pieces of content, your conversion rate changes dramatically. This is what you are looking for, and it means your visitors are telling you what is important to them.
Once you know the value of each of your value propositions, it is a lot easier to focus your efforts in the right place. Happy testing!
Samantha Kerr, is the CRO Manager at Hanapin Marketing, the world leading PPC Agency behind the PPC Hero Blog and Hero Conference – the world largest All PPC Conference series
I don’t believe there is one single tip anyone can give that is sure to increase conversions. However, I will discuss one of the most important things you should keep in mind when you’re looking for something to test or assessing any type of data. Your user and their expectations. To read more on this topic, check out my blog post on PPC Hero. Your users need to be at the forefront of your mind when you’re making optimizations to your landing pages. What do they expect to see when they land on your page? What is their intent? Ensuring you understand your users and know what information they’re looking for will help you send them to the most appropriate landing pages and deliver the content they’re looking for. If their expectations are met, they’re more likely to explore your site and move further down the funnel.
Kate Wilcox, is a CRO Coordinator at Hanapin Marketing, the world leading PPC agency behind the PPC Hero blog and Hero Conference – the world’s largest all PPC Conference series:
I’m sure most CRO folks would agree that there’s no single thing you can do that will most definitely boost your conversion rate every single time. This is why we test our little hearts out! I will however give you a solid piece of advice that will greatly benefit you in a grand majority of situations you may find yourself in: Create a dedicated landing page. Dedicated landing pages address and nullify numerous major issues that can cause friction for users including too much information and stimulus presented on the page, access to too many egress points, and lack of congruency or relevancy to the user intent just to name a few. Check out my recent article on PPC Hero if you want to read more about this specific topic. Bottom line, dedicated landing pages can ensure that you’re bringing relevance to the table in a succinct fashion. Aligning relevance can greatly benefit any page
Keith Hagen, is the Director Of Conversion Services at GoInFlow.com (formerly conversion IQ), one of the leading eCommerce marketing agencies in the world. He’s been gaining insights into what is and isn’t working with websites since 2002.
I get close to prospective customers. I find out what they want and try to give it to them. The only barrier is they are on one side of a website, and I on the other. That means I have to do almost anything I can to learn about their decision making process. My hack is (get ready for it) talking to people!!!
Yes, I know GA, I have access to online user test platforms as well as qualitative polling and survey tools, heat-maps, screen recordings, feedback tools, live chat transcripts, etc, and I use ALL of them as well. But NONE of them reveal the insights that talking to people do. Here is how I do it:
1) User Interviews – Research Panels allow you to pin point a type of person and ask them questions. For a bit more money, you can often set up a web meeting, interview them and then go through the website in an assistive user testing manner.
2) User Focus Groups
3) CSR Focus Groups – Sure, the people mostly deal with post purchase issues and only hear from certain types of people otherwise, but they have nuggets, so get them together (for synergy) and start digging.
4) Sales Folks – They know and carp load and don’t want to take the time to talk to you unless you demand it while at the same time selling the benefits of your work to them. If you can’t relate to sales people, you shouldn’t be optimizing websites (psssst: Its the same thing).
5) In Store Customers – Is your site brick and mortar? Go shadow a sales person for a day, or even a week. You will see how people shop off-line, this will help you realize how the process translates online.
Once you have real insights from real people, now you can go off to the “old” CRO tool sets you are more familiar with, like Analytics and Heat-maps, to quantify, validate, prioritize etc ’til your hearts content.
The difference is that your insights will be better, your treatments will be better, and your tests will (almost) always win!
Susan Su, is a Venture Partner at 500 Startup, a leading Venture Capital seed fund and startup accelerator, an expert content marketer, you can find her on Twitter under @susanfsu
My number one conversion “hack” is about email marketing. It’s my favorite because it’s dead-simple and everyone can and should do it. Go to http://mail-tester.com and check your sender score. Make sure it’s above a 9. Make sure you’ve verified your SPF and your DKIM (google those terms, plus whatever email marketing tool you’re using), and follow the help instructions from your provider. Most people don’t know about these easy fixes that can improve your open rates by up to 10% all by themselves. Higher open rates will give you more replies and more replies will give you more conversions!
Mícheál Brennan is the Principal Consultant at SMBclix.com, a digital marketing agency based in Cork. He has generated millions in revenue for his clients through Google Adwords & SEO.
The absolute best hack that I have used to increase conversions and grow leads for my clients is by implementing live chat with a pre chat survey. It’s a phenomenal way to increase engagement and create customer delight. The ideal sequence goes as follows: The live chat prompts the website/landing page visitor with something like “Hi there! is there anything I can help you with?” if the visitor wants to engage, they will then click on the button to chat now, but after clicking chat now and before being put through to an operator they have to fill out their name, email and phone number (or just name and email in some cases, depending on the information you need).
My favourite provider to use is Live Chat Inc, because they have the capability to do the exact sequence I mentioned and they offer a 30 day free trial, so you can try it out without any additional cost. We’ve increased leads by 300-400% in some cases using this strategy. They even have a mobile app, so if you are a busy business owner who can’t sit in front of the computer all day, you can still chat with your potential customers from your phone while they are on your site.
Grant Perry is Marketing Director of Agora Integrated Marketing (AIM), the in-house agency of “The Agora” – a billion dollar a year direct responsive publisher with millions of subscribers around the world.
Use pop ups to double your conversions.
People say they hate them but they work like gangbusters. As with any marketing device they can be annoying, but used right pop ups can double your conversion rate without irritating your prospects.
Ultimately you’re ensuring you get that relevant message to the right person at the right time. Pops ups do this perfectly and allow a clear call to action.
To avoid a poor user experience you can tailor the message to both the content and the user. You can also limit to a frequency you’re comfortable with. Also consider removing pops for logged in customers or show them a targeted message, perhaps pushing to a subscriber only benefit or renewal notice. Exit intent pops (based on browser movement) can be an excellent way to only display a message as someone is leaving, therefore not disrupting their experience. They don’t work on mobile devices so you will need to use a timed pop up there. The temptation we’ve found is for people to wait too long to show the pop and miss most of your traffic seeing it. Somewhere around the 5 second mark works very well.
Since Google is trying to penalise pop ups that completely take over a mobile screen, or prevent a user from seeing content, you have to balance the risk of lower traffic with the upside of super charged conversions. In this scenario, the current best practice is to show all mobile traffic from Google search a compliant pop, while hitting mobile traffic from other sources with a higher converting interstitial.
You may also face issues with some ad platforms, especially on “squeeze” style landing pages but generally for blog or editorial content you’ll be fine to use a pop up to reinforce your offer or other compelling reason to convert.
Brad Gerlach is a Hubspot Certified inbound marketing consultant and at Pittsburgh Internet Consulting. A jack-of-all trades and master of many, his favorite focus is SEO and lead generation for B2B.
The truth is that generic offers don’t work as well as topic specific offers. Providing a Content Upgrade is my favorite conversion tactic. A CU is simply a topic specific download or offer for a specific post that provides added value, or an upgrade, on the topic of the post. This can be a checklist for a tutorial, a list of resources mentioned in the post (with a couple bonus resources that weren’t in the blog post) or in-depth guide on the topic of the post.
Bonus Tip: Get an SSL! An SSL will be much more important in when Chrome 62 update hits in October. Chrome will be showing a “Not Secure” warning on non-SSL sites when a user has to input any type of data. This includes your optin and contact forms. I am sure that warning will drive down conversions.
At Legacy Communications we love Google AdWords and SEO. We hate bad marketing! In our opinion, bad marketing is any marketing campaign that doesn’t produce a positive return on investment. Some of the more traditional forms of advertising such as newspaper advertising, command really high fees and in our opinion don’t produce great results any more – unless you have a monster budget and don’t need to actively measure the ROI from your marketing campaign.
Because we love Google AdWords so much and hate bad marketing even more, we decided to create a Google AdWords Infographic to compare pay per click advertising with some other advertising platforms, to illustrate just how much more value you can get from a Google AdWords campaign versus some other advertising options. Whether you are looking to increase ROI on your marketing budget, or just simply measure the results of your marketing campaigns better, Google AdWords is the answer!
![How To Set Up Google Adwords Campaigns In 2023 With 10 Easy Steps [Infographic] + Step By Step Guide](https://legacycommunications.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Google-Adwords-scaled.jpg)
![50 Google Ads Tips To Help You Get More Leads [Infographic]](https://legacycommunications.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/50-Google-Ads-Tips-Infographic.png)
