Website Magazine December 2013

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DECEMBER 2013 | SPECIAL ISSUE

INNOVATION & WEB INSPIRATION >> Holiday Advertising Tips >> Mind-Melting jQuery >> SEO Myths Debunked

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Cover Story

Digital

INNOVATION

2013 was an epic year for Internet professionals from an innovation standpoint. We’re moving faster, making better decisions, and collectively and aggressively moving toward the ultimate aim — success in the digital realm. Let’s explore some of the most exciting technologies as well as emerging Web solutions setting the pace of innovation today.

Explore theWebsite Magazine

Departments

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Holiday Ad Tips

Conversion Fails

Move the CTR needle this holiday season with these last-minute PPC tips and best practices.

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Gmail Tabs in Focus

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12

Small Business Lab: Hiring a Digital Consultant

14

50 Top: Lead-Gen Networks

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Mastering Search: SEO Myths

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E-Commerce Express: Analytics for Merchants

& Development Digest: 20 Design jQuery Favorites

40 Commentary: Holiday Stress (Less)

Don’t sell any domains from your portfolio without reviewing the best places to do so.

38

Google’s Ghost Town

Dynamic Content Marketing

Be a Google+ trailblazer by learning how to maximize your time on the network.

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Enterprise Ready: On-time, On-Budget Projects

Selling Domains

See why you should embrace change, especially when it comes to Gmail’s new inbox layout.

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Does your e-commerce business make these common retail errors?

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Start matching content development and traffic generation for a better ROI.

Get the digital scoop with Website Magazine’s email newsletters, covering e-commerce, search, SoLoMo, design and more at wsm.co/webscoop.

2013 CALL FOR ENTRIES DEADLINE DECEMBER 20, 2013

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Business Education Entertainment Game Magazine / News Productivity Utility

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The Horizon Interactive Awards, now in its 12th season, is a prestigious international competition recognizing outstanding achievement among interactive media producers. The competition awards the best web sites, videos, print media, mobile applications and online advertising. Enter now for your chance to be honored as one of this year’s “best of the best.”

F R O M T H E E D I TO R

With Peter Prestipino

Innovation Inspiration “The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible,” said Arthur C. Clarke.

Pretty inspiring, right?

Visit Website Magazine at these upcoming internet tradeshows:

ad:tech November 6-7 New York SES Conference & Expo November 4-7 Chicago SMX November 20-21 Las Vegas Affiliate Summit January 12-14 Las Vegas

What the English physicist and science fiction author might have meant is that only by pushing the limits of our systems, imaginations and creativity (and sometimes our wallets) is it possible to achieve the impossibly inspirational — which can truly differentiate us individually and separate our enterprises from the hordes of competitors — keeping us relevant in the future.

Innovation is a tricky subject. Often confused with invention, what we’re really after here is a better system or ecosystem (not a new one), a modified process or practice (technical or otherwise), that results in a net positive improvement to the bottom line. The Web is the perfect playground for a discussion of innovation, because the pace is undeniably swift and agile — there is nothing in human history quite like it. In our feature article this month, we explore some of the most exciting emerging technologies as well as several practical solutions available today that are setting the pace of innovation, and inspiring Web users across the globe.

This edition of Website Magazine will also help Internet professionals round out 2013 in true digital style. Offering up information and insights that will prove immediately useful in their efforts to acquire greater ’Net business success, Website Magazine’s December issue provides readers with practical guidance on managing application development initiatives, a foundation for hiring a digital consultant, and practical and actionable guidance on SEO, e-commerce and Web design. Readers can also review articles on pay-per-click advertising, common conversion fails, the new tabbed inbox layout in Gmail, content marketing and much, much more.

Enjoy this issue of Website Magazine and make sure to visit us on the Web at WebsiteMagazine.com to experience the in-depth coverage of emerging trends, best practices and industry news that matters most to your success as an Internet professional.

Best Web Wishes,

The Magazine for Website Success Reaching the largest audience of Web professionals of any Internet industry publication 999 E. Touhy Ave., Des Plaines, IL 60018 Toll Free: 1.800.817.1518 International: 1-773-628-2779 Fax: 1-773-272-0920

PUBLISHER: Susan Whitehurst susan@websitemagazine.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Peter Prestipino peter@websitemagazine.com GENERAL MANAGER: David Ruiz druiz@websitemagazine.com MANAGING EDITOR: Amberly Dressler adressler@websitemagazine.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Allison Howen ahowen@websitemagazine.com *CONTRIBUTORS: Tony Rago Cleofe Betancourt Tim Ash Chad White Alit Bar Sadeh ART DIRECTOR: Janet Crouch www.grafikadesign.net GRAPHIC DESIGNERS: Jesse Erbach jesse@websitemagazine.com Shannon Rickson shannon@websitemagazine.com ADVERTISING: Kelly Springer kspringer@websitemagazine.com Brian Wallace brian@websitemagazine.com Andrew Walter awalter@websitemagazine.com SUBSCRIPTIONS: Sandra Woods sandra@websitemagazine.com

Peter Prestipino — Editor-in-Chief, Website Magazine Peter@WebsiteMagazine.com Access the Dec. 2013 issue at

wsm.co/wmdec13 or by scanning the QR code below.

NOTED & QUOTED See which companies and executives made this issue actionable and

Website Magazine, Volume 9, Issue 2, December 2013, (ISSN# 1942-0633) is published 4 times per year in February, May, August and November with 8 special issues (January, March, April, June, July, September, October and December) by Website Services, Inc., 999 E. Touhy Ave., Des Plaines, IL 60018. Periodicals Postage Paid at Des Plaines, IL and at additional mailing offices.

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Don’t wait, subscribe FREE at wsm.co/subscribe14

Join the largest audience* of Internet professionals of any industry publication by claiming your FREE subscription** to Website Magazine today.

*Audited by BPA Worldwide **A complimentary one-year subscription to Website Magazine will be sent to applicants who qualify

“G-Commerce” Intentions Google is making available Product Listing Ads (PLAs) for local businesses — and potentially revealing its e-commerce intentions. When users search for products on Google they will now encounter localized, productcentered advertisements on the search results from nearby merchants. Should they click, users will arrive at “local storefronts” (powered by Google) where they can browse store inventory.

The company is also innovating on a number of other levels of course — from the release of Hummingbird to the introduction of hashtag search to the gradual retooling of its analytics offering. Stay in the virtual loop on these and all the most important Google developments with Website Magazine’s ’Net Features news stream at wsm.co/NetFeatures.

ALSO READ: Getting Started with Enhanced Campaigns — wsm.co/getstartedec

App Annie Studies eBooks App Annie is taking on a new vertical, launching two new tools for authors and publishers of eBooks. The tools include analytics and store statistics dashboards, which can be used to gauge the success of specific eBooks as well as to study larger market trends. The Analytics dashboard, for example, enables users to keep track of sales, bookstore rankings, downloads, customer reviews and ratings. Conversely, the Store Stat dashboard provides market insights, such as rankings, ratings and information on featured sections.

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10.10.13 11:35

m o b i l e a p p wa tc h Shopify

Web-based services for consumers are entering their monetization phase as both Pinterest and Instagram formally introduced advertising opportunities in the past month. Pinterest announced its ads would be coming to the network in September, but just a month later, the ads are now being tested and can be seen in the digital wild. According to Pinterest, ads will be “tasteful, transparent and relevant” and won’t come in display banner or pop-up form. Instead, ads will be shown as “promoted pins” and found in the network’s search results and category feeds. Promoted pins will work just like regular pins, according to Pinterest, but they will have special “promoted” labels with links.

Not to be forgotten, Facebook-owned Instagram also made its ad platform official. Users of the image-based social network will begin to see the occasional image and video advertisement from several popular brands that are currently using the network. Stay up to date on all the digital advertising news important to your enterprise at wsm.co/DigitalAdChannel.

ALSO READ: Facebook Bests Pinterest — wsm.co/socialfight

Run your online and in-store business through a unified platform via the iOS-enabled Shopify POS app. Shopify merchants can turn their iPads into POS systems that can accept credit cards, be used to manage online and in-store inventory from the cloud, track sales, send email receipts and more.

Talkboard by Citrix The Talkboard app by Citrix lets Web professionals get more creative with their collaboration efforts. This free iPad app is essentially a social whiteboard that colleagues can use to brainstorm, take notes, draw diagrams and draft presentations. Plus, the app updates live so everyone can see changes as they happen, making collaborations easier and more efficient.

ShiftPlanning

In the most unexpected-expected news, Twitter finally filed for its IPO. And,

Start managing your workforce from the palm of your hand with ShiftPlanning for Android, iOS and Blackberry. The app enables employers to manage schedules and staff, while also allowing employees to view schedules, pick up shifts and clock in or out on their timesheets. In addition, users can communicate with colleagues or with entire departments via private messaging or the app’s message wall.

what better way to announce the news

Kashoo Accounting

Twitter to Go Public and kick off the roadshow than with a tweet? The social network indicated it will be offering up nearly 500 million shares of stock in its initial release midNovember, but many are wondering if the company will suffer the same fate as Facebook after its IPO. According to Twitter, the social network currently has 218 million monthly active users, which have created more than 300 billion tweets since launching the service. As far as revenue is concerned, the filing reveals that Twitter has never been profitable and even lost $69.3 million in the first half of 2013. So will it be boom or bust for Twitter’s IPO? Join other Website Magazine readers, the largest group of Internet professionals, and cast your vote at

wsm.co/2013twitterIPO.

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The Kashoo Accounting app is gaining a reputation of being one of the best apps for small businesses. iPad compatible, Kashoo gives users the ability to create and send customized invoices, view customer balances and payment history, track expenses and monitor cash flow, track and report sales tax from any country, and even import accounts and opening balances from Quickbooks. SMBs can try Kashoo free, which includes up to 20 transactions per month, or subscribe to Kashoo for a year for unlimited transactions.

S TAT

W AT C H

It’s a (Stat) Wrap 2013 is ending and it’s safe to say that this was the year where consumer shopping, research and social habits really took a digital turn — driving enormous change in what it means for Internet professionals to be successful on the Web. And while final numbers for this year aren’t in at time of print, eMarketer reports online sales will grow more than four times the rate of 3.4 percent that the National Retail Federation forecasted for total retail sales.

Not all companies are getting an equal share of the digital pie though. Brands that are making investments in better user experience, from on-site search and navigation to mobile channels and social integrations, are closer to closing the gap between them and major competitors. The gap is big, especially when looking at Amazon’s rapid growth, but innovative approaches and technologies are helping to close it. According to digital and luxury research firm L2, retailers like American Eagle, Brooks Brothers and others, are offering free two-day shipping, for example, to try and match Amazon Prime’s appeal.

Competing against bigger retailers is one of the most frequent concerns for small business owners (45 percent), but the impact of the stuttering economy (63 percent) and attracting new customers (58 percent) are bigger worries, according to a 2012 pre-holiday survey.

Hopefully, that puts your e-commerce initiatives in perspective.

90%

UPS and comScore released results from a consumer study that found nearly 90 percent of online shoppers have placed items in their shopping carts but left the site without making purchases. Online consumers indicated that communicating shipping costs and delivery times early in the online shopping experience can help alleviate cart abandonment.

52%

Despite consumers’ preference toward gathering information digitally (60 percent use search engines as their primary source for business listings), 52 percent of consumers have visited a closed business after looking up information using services such as search engines, navigation systems and online directories according to Infogroup’s “Real-Time in the Real-World” report.

416

On average, subscribers receive 416 commercial email messages a month, according to Return Path who says that more people read emails that deal with their finances or travel than any other category.

$646

U.S. consumers intend to spend an average of $646 on gifts this holiday season, according to a recent Accenture survey.

Find more useful data and valuable insights at WebsiteMagazine.com.

300%

Lead management campaigns integrating four or more digital channels will outperform single- or dual-channel campaigns by 300 percent according to Gartner.

D E CE M B E R 2013

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ENTERPRISE

“Controlled Chaos” Managing Digital Development While Maintaining Your Sanity

By Tony Rago

Successfully managing Web and application development in today’s fast-paced and complex digital world requires a special kind of leader. It’s not enough to simply be organized or a skilled multitasker able to manage the numerous moving parts that go into building digital experiences. Producers also need the quick wits to know how to play off each developer’s unique personality and ego, when to involve the appropriate team members (creative, UX, analytics, quality assurance), and perhaps most importantly, how to best manage client expectations.

It’s certainly a juggling act, but one that flows much smoother with certain guidelines and procedures in place. It took me many years of Web development experience — first in client

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implementation and training, then on to quality assurance (QA) testing, through the treacherous world of being a technical support lead and now an interactive producer — to feel comfortable managing the “controlled chaos” that is inherent in digital production.

Here is some guidance borne out of many late nights and weekends full of virtual blood, sweat and tears that should help you successfully manage a digital project and maintain your personal sanity.

Understand the Overall Roadmap Have a comprehensive plan that takes you from A to Z (a.k.a. the completed project) and know it inside and out. This starts with a statement of work (SOW), which is the backbone for what is being promised to the client at an agreed upon budget. Then create a schedule that outlines the earliest stages of planning, all the way through final testing and delivery. It’s important to keep this schedule updated and continually share it with the client to keep them up to speed. Scheduling software such as Merlin can help you

accomplish this task. A realistic schedule is also crucial to creating task assignments that allow you to segment work properly and prevent an overlap of duties.

When it comes to tracking and managing the overall project per the roadmap, forget spreadsheets. Use a central online project management and bug tracking system where everyone on the team can see the statuses of what’s being worked on, who’s handling each task and where each step stands for being QA’ed and signed off. There are many free project management tools available online, as well as those for purchase such as activeCollab.

“Sprints” and “Scrums” Run the project as an iterative process, with planned weekly and monthly deliverables. Having tasks planned out will provide the producer with a queue of work items to assign. These can include a mix of legitimate bugs, client requests, and actual work items and tasks from the overall roadmap. Then determine the goals for that given time, and execute and deliver on those for that period.

Short bursts of planned activity, known as “sprints”, will set realistic expectations to get the team to a point of comfort and keep the workflow on course.

Beware of the dreaded “scope creep”, where features not originally referenced in the SOW are added to the queue. These new requests, which can come from your team or the client, are sometimes necessary as project circumstances change and need to be tightly managed. For every action, there is a reaction, and for every new element added to a project, there should be something else that’s dropped. For each addition, the producer must be the decider on new priorities for the given sprint delivery.

Have morning “scrums”, which are daily 1015 minute standup meetings where all members of your team state what they worked on yesterday, what they plan to do today and give a heads up on any potential roadblocks preventing progress. These brief meetings help set expectations for all parties and enable the producer to manage deliverable better. Clarity is king.

Manage Client Expectations Mid-project is not the time for surprises. Have frequent and fluid conversations with the client so everyone is on the same page and up to date on status and issues. Establish a working relationship

ect j o r 10 P ement ag n a M ls Too sional

where everyone is on the same team, and the goals for both sides are unified in delivering a finished product that makes everyone happy. Have s t profe weekly client status meetings, typie n r e t t10 y In cally around a delivered product, and /pgm o for an .c m keep the schedule current and visible at ws to the client.

While not always possible, make an effort to be friends with the client and not just a hired hand. It always helps if there’s a level of comfort between the two parties, allowing for communication to be open and honest.

Manage Your Team Properly managing your own team is just as critical as managing the client. A typical development team always consists of varying personality types, each of whom require a specific approach for managing. Some people need more hand holding while others perform best when allowed to run with it. Either way, managing the personalities is a challenge requiring tact and patience.

It’s nice to all be friends, but you all also have a job to do.

As with dealing with clients, I typically take the friendly route. When your team knows you care about them, it creates an environment where everyone believes in the end goal and bonds throughout that process to get to the desired result. It usually also makes everyone happier and more productive. However, the producer is the captain of the ship and ultimately must decide the approaches that work best in given situations.

Sometimes the nice guy has to be less nice, and it’s important to know when to get strict and not let friendships take advantage of you.

One last note: All the rules in the world won’t prepare you for every situation and solve every problem. Just as the creative process involves a certain amount of improvisation to accommodate better ideas that sometimes come out of left field (often at inopportune times), so too does a digital development team’s need to remain agile and flexible enough to make decisions and changes on the fly.

Everything is a process, and the more planning and ongoing communication you bring to the project, the greater likelihood you’ll have a fighting chance of completing the work on time and within budget, and with your sanity intact.

Tony Rago is an interactive producer with The Famous Group, Culver City, CA (www.thefamousgroup.com).

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WEBSITE MAGAZINE’S

SMALL BUSINESS LAB

By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor

The Whens and Hows of

HIRING A DIGITAL CONSULTANT There comes a moment in every small business owner’s virtual life, when he or she asks, is it time to hire a digital consultant?

The answer, of course, is different for every enterprise, but there are some telltale signs it’s time to make the move and what to look for when one does.

Today’s Internet is complex; the sophisticated acquisition, retention and personalization tactics and tools alone can be challenging for even the savviest to wrap their heads around. Adding to this complexity (and cost, of course), are the countless digital touchpoints that are now necessary investments to help grow a business, such as search and social, email and mobile. It’s a fast-moving, multi-channel world — can a digital consultant help you navigate through it?

Red Flags

Learn th ew that a dig arning signs ita may not l consultant business be who your need at wsm.c s (or wants) o/7nohir e

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EXPERTISE Growing a business online can be a significant investment of time, particularly for those small- and mid-size businesses not already versed in certain tech practices; this may be especially true with paid search, as it is deceptively simple to get started but can quickly become complex to manage.

“Most small businesses do not have the time to become digital experts, so they go through quite a bit of trial and error while they learn search,” said Kristina Cutura, AdWords consultant and former client education specialist and optimization specialist at Google. “Many spend their tight budgets on keywords that are ineffective while they experiment with different targets. These are valuable small business funds being wasted on strategies that will never work.”

For paid search (or any digital initiative really), it’s imperative business owners track the time and cost involved in learning and executing projects, and then compare the return on investment between doing it themselves and what it would cost for someone else to do it. A spa owner, for example, might spend an unknown amount of hours making small changes on his website with a

DECEMB ER 2013

website builder that charges a monthly fee, may find it beneficial to know if a designer can make the same adjustments faster and cheaper. The designer might spend just five minutes making the changes whereas the owner could invest hours only to get ultimately frustrated with formatting mistakes. This is where tracking time comes in. So how much time is this spa owner spending on website design that can be used more efficiently in other areas? Time tracking software like Toggl or Hubstaff can go a long way in identifying where it is actually best spent.

COMMITMENT Hiring a digital consultant sounds like a nobrainer for many small business owners, but cost is typically where plans are stalled. Oftentimes, consultants work on monthly flat fees for all of their work — like social media, content, website management, etc. — and the consultant pays (either out of his monthly fee or on top of his monthly fee) for any help he needs on the site, like design assistance. Of course, this varies by consultant, but knowing price structures in advance will keep both parties happy and productive.

When it is time to make the move, no small business owner wants to be in the dark about any areas of his business, which is why many ownerconsultant relationships can go sour if there is not a high level of transparency and equal footing between the two. Even if a small business owner turns over some or all of their digital projects to a consultant, he will still want to commit to educating himself on what it takes to succeed in that specific niche and on the Web in general. Website Magazine is, obviously, a terrific free resource for keeping industry awareness high, but nearly every B2B platform or software provider also offers white papers, webinars and other educational material to consider. Website Magazine editors have compiled a dozen of the best of these free reports/ guides from 2013 at wsm.co/12resources.

Aside from personal learning, small business owners also need to commit to establishing strong rapport with their consultants and that starts from the very beginning of the relationship.

CONSIDERATION When going into business with anyone, there have to be questions involved.

This is why there are things like job interviews. To start a partnership between a business and a consultant off on the right foot, it’s important that both parties do their due diligence. Cutura suggests that small business owners ask consultants how long they’ve been doing this work.

“There are many ‘experts’ in the digital space who are just getting started and learning the platform themselves and may be experimenting on your account,” said Cutura.

Stakeholders will also want to ask prospective consultants what types of businesses they are currently working with or have consulted in the past.

They’ll ideally want to hire based on experience with related business issues, whatever the general focus of the enterprise being served. LinkedIn is a fantastic resource for small businesses looking to fact check or just do a little more homework on consultants. Learn how to research potential consultants or partners using LinkedIn at wsm.co/consultlinkedin.

Lastly, Cutura suggests asking, “How often will you make changes to my account and what types of reports do you provide?”

FULL FORCE The best advisors can not only shift through the Web wasteland to identify and leverage truly best-of-breed solutions, but also serve as strategic advocates providing your company with opportunities you may never have been aware of, or had access to. This can level the playing field between your small business and the bigger guys, as well as free up time to grow your company in other ways.

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50

TOP

Performance and Lead Gen Networks Your Competitors are Using Performance marketing is a fast paced and exciting industry, one with all the digital thrills and spills you’d expect when technology, marketing, the creative arts and data science, are combined.

When companies and enterprises want to put lead-centered initiatives on center stage in their digital marketing campaigns, they are fortunate in that there are innumerable services and software solutions to make capturing more conversions — in a more effective and efficient way — possible.

This edition of Website Magazine features 50 of the top performance marketing vendors, those playing a central role in the space today and perpetually innovating and actively serving those seeking more leads and opportunities to close more sales.

The challenge for those entities involved with the performance marketing industry is that they must ensure that the methods, practices and processes each use helps achieve the desired outcome. Advertisers have to know which designs and promotions will help publishers drive leads, while networks must provide the optimal technologies and exchange environments to manage those leads.

Affiliates and publishers have to initiate aggressively in the digital landscape, educate through discussion and demonstrate value to get users to convert. The most sophisticated networks, like those featured here, understand these challenges and their corresponding opportunities and over time, have built platforms to enable their users (publisher-affiliates and advertisers) to influence the customer’s journey to conversion.

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ClickBank.com Clicksor.com cj.com Tradedoubler.com LinkShare.com zanox.com Infolinks.com ShareASale.com BidVertiser.com Chitika.com Affili.net AffiliateWindow.com Avangate.com 7Search.com PeerFly.com Webgains.com MaxBounty.com AdWorkMedia.com Matomy.com eBayPartnerNetwork.com AdscendMedia.com LinkConnector.com AvantLink.com Clickbooth.com LogicalMedia.com Kontera.com Adknowledge.com AffiliateFuture.com ClickDealer.com AdMedia.com Advertise.com oneNetworkDirect.com clixGalore.com vCommission.com Offervault.com DiabloMedia.com PayDotCom.com AdSupply.com CommissionSoup.com ValueClick.com FluxAds.com AffiliRed.com CPADNA.com Axill.com LeadPile.com Convert2Media.com MediaWhiz.com RevenueWire.com Adperio.com offerforge.com

Don’t miss out on headlines from these companies and others at Website Magazine’s Affiliate Insider Channel. Make sure to visit us at wsm.co/ai2014.

PERFORMANCE IN FOCUS: eBay Partner Network recently announced that in the future, its program pricing for publishers will be based on category-level commission rates (varying for each of its worldwide programs) and would add a bonus for publishers driving transactions from new and reactivated buyers.

Master the Web Fundamentals Web 360: Fundamentals of Web Success is the one-and-only guide to mastering all the elements critical to Web success.

Here’s what subscribers are saying about Web360: “A must-read for any level of Internet marketer.”

“Very impressed with both the journal as well as the no-nonsense book.”

“So much insightful information I had to reread the book, highlighting all over the place.”

To learn more, visit WebsiteMagazine.com/Web360 WebFund_Full.indd 1

2/12/13 3:23 PM

mastering

search

By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor

Searching for SEO Truth

COMMON MYTHS DISPELLED Regardless of how many times these myths, halftruths and lies are repeated, they will never help an enterprise optimize its digital efforts. Let’s debunk four of these fallacies.

Despite the increasing maturity of the SEO industry, there are still many unfounded beliefs,

MYTH #1: Organic & Paid Search Cannot Play Nice

practices and tactics that website owners adhere to in

Many website owners fall into two types: those who choose between SEO and paid search advertising/marketing and those looking for the “right” engine result pages (SERPs) balance of the two. and oust their competition.

Digital marketing technology company Kenshoo and digital marketing agency Resolution Media explored this topic in a Sept. 2013 white paper, The Search Sandbox: Paid Plays Well with Organic.

When analyzing the relationship between paid and organic search marketing for a major retail division of Hewlett Packard (HP), Kenshoo found definitive evidence that running paid search alongside organic results provided positive value.

“This research puts to rest the controversy over running paid search advertising for brands that have strong organic coverage,” said Aaron Goldman, chief marketing officer at Kenshoo in a company statement.

“Our study shows that visitors arriving from paid search are more profitable than those arriving from organic search, even when you take into account traffic acquisition costs.”

The report found that paid search drives higher net revenue per visit (NRPV, which is paid search revenue minus the direct media costs from those clicks) than organic search.

Plus, even with an organic result at first position, consumers still click and convert on paid listings 39.6 percent of the time. Perhaps even more importantly, Kenshoo reto build ports that paid search is the only viable Learn how ic without nd traff a option when organic results fall off the first ty ili ib s d g in cre your rank page, garnering 93.1 percent of a keyword’s damaging tion at ta u p click share (percentage of total clicks re or ost101 tp s e u g achieved when both a paid search and or/ o wsm.c ganic listing appear together). an effort to top the search

st Gue g 101 gin g o l B

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Even if NRPV was equal, having an extra (paid) link on the SERP is more valuable than having just the organic link, according to the search marketing company. By leveraging a paid listing, for example, it takes up space where a competitor’s ad may appear. There is also value in the data that marketers can collect from paid search, such as the originating query or keyword that initiated the ad. Kenshoo recommends companies figure out where the gaps are in their organic search presences and use paid search to fill in those holes.

Kenshoo, and other well-informed agencies, subscribe to the truth that smart marketers are those embracing holistic approaches to search engine marketing. They are also likely the ones getting the most out of their investments.

MYTH #2: SEO is for Search Engines, Not Users Search engines are evolving; and the richer, more dynamic experience they want to provide users is also changing the way companies need to approach on-site optimization today.

“SEO is not about gaming the system; it’s about making great content and great sites that provide value, are structurally sound and easily navigable by user and search engines alike, as well as demonstrate viable authority. It’s not easy, but it is absolutely worthwhile,” said Smarter Searches Internet Marketing Director Courtney Herda.

The recent Hummingbird update is the perfect example of Google’s affinity toward user-centric search — providing quicker, more relevant information to users.

This algorithm change also marks the beginning of a new formal, broader use of semantic markup in the digital age.

By using schema.org markup, for example, websites are essentially providing additional layers of data to enable search engines to associate their sites with user queries. More specifically, since the Hummingbird update addresses how “conversational” or “voice” search queries (that take into account context, location and more) can be more useful for a searcher,

site owners must provide an immense amount of information to be included in their results and semantic markup provides the optimal way to do that.

Hummingbird Feeder: Discover five semantic markup usecases to implement today at wsm.co/seonectar.

MYTH #3: Social is not the New SEO SEO and social is becoming one of the most effective marketing combinations. The only surefire way to leverage the new social-SEO is to create relevant, rich content that consumers want to consume and, of course, share, like, retweet, +1, etc.

“There’s a saying that says ‘Correlation does not imply causation’ and this applies to SEO,” said Smarter Searches’ Herda. “If you create great content, people will share it. If your content gets shared, it must be great.”

While there might not be an absolute direct correlation, it’s not difficult to see that share-worthy content can benefit your total digital presence (wsm.co/sharethis8).

MYTH #4: SEOs Are Scammers This industry is closing in on two decades and SEO still doesn’t have a governing body. Companies rely on forprofit companies to tell them what they can and can’t do

on their websites — at least if they want to appear atop the SERPs. Over the years, many black and gray hat agencies, consultants, link builders and more have polluted the industry, leading to the common misconception that SEO is a dark art and an industry made up of liars, cheaters, scammers and spammers. Even to this day, according to Herda, it is the most common concern that SMBs have about the practice.

The fact is, according to Herda, that legitimate SEO agencies can do great work. Similarly, many of the agencies that have stood the test of time have evolved into integrated marketing agencies, taking holistic and white hat approaches to Web success.

“The spirit of SEO is to improve your website so that it ranks better,” said Herda. “When done correctly, this means the user engaging in search is getting a better experience when visiting your site because your site is more relevant to their queries.”

The Truth Will Set SEO Free In the end, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to getting your business higher in the search rankings, but by leveraging a 360-degree strategy to SEO and looking at content creation, social signals, marketing mix and user experience, you’ll be living, working and optimizing in SEO truth.

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e- c o m m erce

express

By Allison Howen, Associate Editor

MINING THE TREASURE TROVE OF

RETAIL ANALYTICS For Internet retailers, When the correct data gems are excavated from these platforms, merchants the data needed to obtain gain insights into the performance of their digital stores, the satisfaction of all the e-commerce riches their customers and the effectiveness of in the digital world. their marketing campaigns, knowledge that can be leveraged. These insights can be used to optimize business strategies and increase revenues. The problem, however, is knowing which metrics really matter the most and how they can be used to measure the success of a digital enterprise.

analytics platforms contain

Cost-Per-Acquisition/Action (CPA) Consumers typically don’t arrive at your site by chance, rather, they have seen or heard about your brand somewhere — whether it be from friends, on social media, in the search results or through display ads. In order to gauge a marketing campaigns’ impact, it is vital to calculate the cost of acquiring a customer — wherever they come from.

The cost-per-acquisition metric is determined by dividing the amount of money spent on marketing your brand (including discounts offered, the time and cost of support) by the number of customers who made purchases at your store. For example, if a merchant spends $500 on an ad campaign that brings in 10 purchasing customers, the CPA is $50.

[

]

($ amount spent on marketing) / (# of purchasing customers) = CPA

To derive a more accurate picture and gain the most value from CPA data, merchants should analyze the cost of acquiring customers in specific channels, such as social, organic search, paid search, mobile search and display campaigns. By doing this, merchants can identify the channels and campaigns that perform best, and adjust their strategies, including the financial and time resources put into each of these channels, accordingly.

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Lifetime Value (LTV) After discovering just how much it costs to acquire, the focus should be on keeping customers rather than acquiring new ones. In order to determine the true value of repeat shoppers, merchants must calculate lifetime value (LTV).

The LTV metric not only shows how loyal a customer base is, but also the economic value of customers to a business. Founder and Chairman of MarketLive Ken Burke says that merchants should determine LTV for entire customer bases or specific customer segments. Although there are many ways to calculate the metric, Burke suggests the following formula:

[

(average number of purchases per year) X (average order value) X (average lifetime of a customer) = LTV

]

The most difficult aspect of working out this equation is defining the average lifetime of a customer segment. Because of this, many merchants assess lifetime customer value in predetermined increments, such as 12, 24 or 36 months. Burke notes that weighting factors should be incorporated into this model, such as the length of time the customer has been on file and the opportunities he has had to purchase.

Churn Rate If your LTV is low, it could be due to a high churn rate.

By identifying this metric, merchants can discover how many one-time customers they have.

While this performance rate is rather easy to calculate for subscription-based businesses, it is a bit more complicated to generate for traditional e-commerce models. Merchants can start by identifying a cutoff date, so they can consider customers who have not made a purchase in that timeframe — officially, a ‘churn’. The best way to select a cutoff date is to take into consideration data like a site’s repeat purchase rate. For instance,

if most loyal customers make repeat purchases within 75 days, any customer who has not made a second purchase within that period is considered “churned”. The formula for determining churn rate:

can use analytics to compute customer loyalty, MarketLive’s Burke believes that the most straightforward way to discover a customer’s level of devotion is by quantifying their RFM pattern (recency, frequency, monetary):

][

[

]

(# of one-time customers) / (total # of customers) = Churn Rate

(# purchases over past 12 months) X (total sales) / (months since last purchase) = Loyalty X Factor

By identifying churned customers, or customers who are about to churn, merchants can take steps to win them back. For example, merchants can segment customer groups and email promotions to encourage purchases. Moreover, merchants who notice their churn rates increasing over time can take steps to improve customer loyalty for their digital businesses, whether it be through more personal marketing strategies or implementing more rewarding loyalty programs.

To calculate a more robust Loyalty X Factor, Burke says merchants can weight additional events with RFM, such as the number of product categories purchased from, the number of items purchased in an order, or non-purchase metrics like page-views, cross-channel interactions, marketing and social activity. By weighting and scoring these types of events, merchants can build loyalty scores for their audiences that can help with marketing initiatives. For instance, a merchant could send a free shipping promotion to all customers within a certain score range in an effort to further influence conversions, increasing their lifetime value as a customer over time.

Loyalty X Factor Perhaps the most intriguing data gem that can be derived from analytics is the Loyalty X Factor, a mathematic value that represents a specific metric or combination of metrics that correlate with, and influence, higher spending levels and lifetime value.

Essentially, the Loyalty X Factor identifies the degree of customer loyalty and what behaviors or channels influence that loyalty. Although there are many ways merchants

Digging the Data Digging deep into data is the only way to maximize revenue and improve the performance of your digital store.

All of these metrics tell a story about your digital enterprise, which is why merchants must know what data to look for and how to use it.

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de s i g n & de v e l o pment

digest

By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief

jQUERY TO MELT YOUR MIND There are numerous reasons

The CSS3-compliant JavaScript library is compatible across browsers; it’s super-fast and it leaves a small footprint. There is popular with the design and excellent documentation and, of course, development set. thousands of ready-to-implement plugins available for nearly every need — from HTML document traversing and event handling to animation and Ajax interactions. jQuery is one of the most popular topics that editors at Website Magazine write about regularly (check out a few posts and articles on the ’Net at wsm.co/tag-jquery) and in this month’s Design & Development Digest, we’re featuring numerous plugins that will wholly impress — if not melt your digital mind in its entirety — with their awesomeness.

If you’re looking for a better way to build forms or present navigation or improve the digital experience, consider these 10 plugins for your next design and digital project. why jQuery has become so

Progression.js Forms are tricky to design and can be challenging for users to navigate. Many considerations must be made but sometimes all that’s really needed is a little guidance to get users to that essential point of conversion.

Progression.js provides an excellent opportunity, offering users progress updates as they complete different form fields.

Turn.js If you’re getting tired of presenting Web pages in a blog post or article format, or showcasing products on e-commerce landing pages, and are looking for something a little more flashy (without the Flash) then turn to Turn.js. Using HTML, this plugin makes content look as though it’s a real book or magazine.

Turn.js works on iPad and iPhone, allows pages to be loaded dynamically and offers two different transaction effects.

Smint.js jQuery has encouraged many designers to rethink the use of navigational elements — one of the most important variables in the website experience. As onepage websites reach critical mass, designers will be looking to optimize this site element, and Smint is an ideal solution. The jQuery plugin essentially creates a sticky navigation bar (staying on top of the page as

Impress.js Impress.js is built to impress. The jQuery plugin enables designers and developers to create websites on what is known as the infinite canvas (the theoretical notion that there are not conventional page limits like size or dimension). The plugin is essentially a presentation framework that uses the power of CSS3 transforms and modern browser transitions. When done well, the effects are impressive to say the least. Users can navigate through the page/site via the arrow keys, the space bar or scroll with a mouse.

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Interactive SVG Map The Interactive SVG Map takes a Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG) and lets Web designers add interactivity —and all without Flash. The plugin is re-sizable and is responsive so it is smartphone and tablet (e.g. iPad and iPhone) friendly. Users can zoom and pan on the inter active maps, and designers can customize colors, create tool tips and markers and define URLs.

users scroll down) and provides menu buttons that let users navigate directly to the section they clicked on.

FlowType.js Navigation is important, but it is typography that is increasingly capturing the attention of Web designers. With the multitude of device and screen sizes however, it’s difficult to know and display the appropriate character limit using CSS3 Media-queries. FlowType comes to the rescue with its plugin for responsive typography, changing the font size, and subsequently the line height, based on a specific element’s width.

TOOLBOX FAVORITES jInvertScroll Who says parallax websites have to scroll up and down — why not side by side (horizontal as opposed to vertical)? That’s exactly the functionality that jInvertScroll provides. By including the CSS file, jQuery and the plugin, creating the desired elements that you want to scroll, setting the desired attributes and ordering the layers

TwentyTwenty If you want to see — or show rather — the difference between two images (an actual beforeand-after effect), look no further than Zurb’s TwentyTwenty tool. The jQuery plugin uses the CSS clip property to trim an image on the left, allowing the image on the right to show through the container as the user manually moves a slider across the complete image with their mouse.

Intro.js Developing guided tours can be challenging from a development perspective, but they serve as a very powerful and effective means to introducing new features to existing users. With plugins like Intro.js, websites can profile an element within the page as users navigate with their mouse or keyboards. The free plugin is open source (even for commercial use) and works in Firefox, Chrome and IE8. Another very viable alternative to guided tours comes from the Chardin.js. The plugin lets designers and developers create overlays that display instructions on any pre-defined page elements.

— you're off and scrolling.

Type ahead Search engines aren’t the only ones that benefit from autocomplete — if you have lots of content, publishers and merchants can too. Autocomplete library Typeahead.js provides a range of features for those requiring advanced search functionality and the ability to display suggested searches as end-users-type.

SimplerCart Selling products (either information or physical goods) does not always require a robust e-commerce software system. In the instances when a full-on shopping cart or retail platform is not required, solutions like SimplerCart can easily be integrated into a website or Web page without the need for a database or any programming familiarity at all per say — just copy and paste some HTML and Javascript and you’re done. The plugin currently works with PayPal Express, Google Checkout and Amazon Payments, with Authorize.net expected soon.

D E CE M B E R 2013

WebsiteMagazine.com See these plugins in action at wsm.co/jquerydemos.

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INNOVATION & Web Inspiration

By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief

2013 was an epic year for Internet professionals from an innovation standpoint. We’re moving faster, making better decisions, and collectively and aggressively moving toward the ultimate aim – success in the digital realm.

While it can be overwhelming to keep up with the variety of technologies that are bringing digital-focused enterprises to new heights on the ’Net (and beyond into brick-and-mortar), there are a handful that every business professional interacts with — or will at some point in their careers — and as a result should be at least somewhat familiar with. In this edition of Website Magazine that’s just what you’ll find — an overview of what’s trending and inspiring on the digital innovation front.

Weaved into the discussion are some of the most exciting emerging technologies, practical digital solutions from software vendors and service providers that are setting the pace of innovation, standing (virtually, of course) ready to support your enterprise for its immediate survival and long-term success.

If there’s one particular overarching trend it’s this — businesses, digital enterprises in particular, are innovating at a feverish pace — but doing so increasingly with an eye to the big picture, maximizing use of their capital, rethinking the whole notion of “performance”, leveraging existing relationships and moving seamlessly to a more holistic approach to profiting from their endeavors.

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Innovation & The Function of Business Popular management consultant, educator and author Peter Drucker once famously mused that “business has two functions — marketing and innovation.” While few, myself humbly included, could ever dare call themselves innovators, it doesn’t mean that you/we shouldn’t try. Besides, even if you’re not an innovator, you can always be a marketer.

The definition of “innovation” is hotly contested, but think of it this way — you are an innovator and you innovate upon things or processes. That’s different from invention — when something entirely new is created. Where the discussion usually breaks down is not in the defining of the term “innovation,” but rather in the “something” that is changed, altered, evolved, transformed or metamorphosed. A significant breakthrough, an improvement in process or significant modification of anything is innovation — upon what, it really doesn’t matter.

Digital entrepreneurs and Internet professionals, those that understand the importance of innovation when it comes to staying on the cusp of digital leadership, must first know the core principles of innovation. They have to concentrate and understand what problem is being solved, be discriminating in their choices of what needs change first, be organized and creative throughout the process, experiment endlessly, listen and analyze qualitative feedback and quantitative data and communicate the vision. That’s not all of course — it’s still fundamentally important to design and implement everything. With all the background work in general, it’s amazing that anything is innovated upon (not invented) at all.

Above everything else, the real innovators know that what they are innovating must be disruptive to the digital status quo; it must fundamentally be useful to the potential audience, and even more, in demand. The solutions you’ll encounter below

“

Digital entrepreneurs and Internet professionals, those that understand the importance of innovation when it comes to staying on the cusp of digital

�

leadership, must first

know the core principles of innovation.

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are those living up to this ideal and our collective expectations, those that can support you on your own quest to digital success.

The Innovation Framework One of the areas of technology that has been ripe for innovation over the past decade has been that of Web hosting, data storage and network delivery services in general. The reason there is so little innovation (and thus so boring to so many) is because it’s quite expensive. The hardware and functions it could provide in the past, were far more costly and required greater expertise to operate.

Some rather innovative thinkers decided that it was better to leverage software to reduce many of the hardware hurdles that enterprises experience — and the cloud (and content delivery networks and loads of related software solutions) emerged. Now the cloud, while innovative itself (ever-changing) by definition, is also ripe for innovation.

Take for example providers such as OnApp, which offers software to power cloud, CDN and storage services. What’s innovative about OnApp is its “federated approach” explained OnApp’s Chief Commercial Officer Kosten Metreweli. OnApp enables small and mid-size hosts and service providers (including telcos) to tap into a global pool (geographically diverse) of cloud capacity and do so at scale. The result of combining the solution with their customers’ local market knowledge and support is that they create a better, more compelling and more innovative service for their own customers.

Los Angeles cloud computing provider Reliam, whose clients include the Grammy Awards, the Oscars and Miss Universe, serves as a powerful example of why solution such as OnApp is appealing. Websites such as MissUniverse.com can receive more than 2 million page views in a single day while events are taking place. OnApp CDN allows Reliam to scale instantly during these traffic spikes, customizing the service to leverage only the locations they need from among 200 global POPs. Reliam has reduced CDN expenditures by 50 percent since moving to OnApp from its previous provider, while still guaranteeing performance — for example, 100 percent uptime even when Miss USA was a top 50 most visited website for an entire day.

Development and the Roots of Innovation Necessity isn’t just the mother of invention, but the mother of innovation as well. Internet professionals and digital entrepreneurs innovate when they are faced with challenges, turmoil, crisis

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and time of great change. With those challenges and changes, come opportunities to satisfy needs. Consider the opportunity you have in your daily life to work productively, responsibly and in service to others (and yourself). Rather than stopping at the wall, the barrier to achieve success, you need to exercise your talents and find and develop innovative solutions to whatever is standing in your way — be it process or product.

One of the most common walls (challenges) facing Internet professionals of all experience levels these days is the practice of application development. There is likely a good reason that digital media and the Web in general have captured your attention — you had an idea, an innovation, about doing something your own way, doing something faster or better than someone else or another company. But you hit a wall because you’re not a designer or a developer, right? Fear not, some rather innovative technology solutions have emerged recently (and over the years) that will turn you and your team from dreamers into doers.

UBot Studio, for example, recently launched a new version of its software that enables anyone to develop — and more importantly sell (distribute) — applications through its all-in-one design and app delivery system. Unlike other automation software platforms, UBot Studio 5 lets aspiring innovators create executable applications that can be customized to automate any repetitive or routine tasks including those for social media marketing, online advertising, market research, SEO and other functions (more on that below).

The new version is built in C++ and incorporates HTML 5, offering an intuitive and highly flexible user interface — complete with drag-and-drop features — to enable their users to create proprietary applications. The platform also provides layered encryption that combines SSL certification with an authentication algorithm, resulting in a platform that allows innovators to create useful (and secure) applications that are unreadable/unusable until validated through a new customer licensing and distribution dashboard.

“There is a growing need for technology to help streamline the marketing process as it increasingly becomes more complex and this is an area that a lot of businesses and professionals see as a huge opportunity,” said Seth Turin, president of Seth Turin Media, Inc. “Our response is the introduction of UBot Studio 5, which helps marketers turn their ideas into solutions that they can easily, safely and securely distribute to their clients. At the same time, the platform’s easy-to-use WYSIWYG interface removes barriers, making the tasks involved in creating applications — which are normally linear — much more intuitive.”

Social Innovation in Focus UBot Studio also provides a way for its users to create custom user interfaces for the bots and compiled files. A user simply selects the UI element he wants to add his interface, dragging it to the interface, positioning it and finally customizing each element (color, font, content, etc.). Users can even see previews before finalizing their projects.

There are, of course, many other innovative technology solutions worthy of note. One would be remiss to not mention, from a pure design perspective, what role solutions like Adobe’s Creative Suite are offering up. Adobe is currently unmatched, but it’s not preventing some rather big companies from giving it a go on the innovation challenge.

Google Web Designer, just released in beta, is far less robust than even Adobe’s early versions, but it does lower the hurdles to ideas and innovations considerably. The free, downloadable application enables users to create HTML5-based designs and even motion graphics (see “How to Create Ads in Google Web Designer” at wsm.co/gwebdes) for Web use across any device. By offering full code control, Google is enabling a broader segment of Internet professionals to take control, solve their own problems and, therefore, innovate.

There’s some direct benefit for Google’s innovation though.

The Web Designer solution makes it possible to publish the ads that are created to platforms including DoubleClick Studio or AdMob. It’s interesting to see how easily innovations in one market, so greatly influence the success of other industries, companies or individuals. That’s no more so the case than in design.

Slight Permutations in Digital Advertising Display advertising has seen an incredible resurgence over the last few years and in great part due to the increasing sophistication of design, as well as the near meteoric increase in usage of the Web and technology in general. There are more connected humans today than yesterday; there are more websites and, of course, more inventory to display ads.

The developments and innovations made in the retargeting and behavioral-based display market are important (and you can read more about them in Website Magazine’s new “Quick Guide to Retargeting and Display” at wsm.co/targetguide), but they don’t mean much without the right creative, in the right format, size and shape. Internet, where we’re going, there are no 468x60 banners.

AOL, for example, recently released a set of new ad formats that many hope will provide advertisers and publishers with bumps in performance. The new products include a “reactive”

There's more data in social networks than you might think.

Discover five solutions helping Internet professionals like you extract data and develop richer user profiles at wsm.co/socialfocus.

wallpaper (or takeover) unit that transforms as users scroll, a “persistent” loft unit that travels down a Web page and opens up to display video or other multimedia elements, a multiscreen unit built with HTML5 and another proprietary format, which is a version of the IAB’s Mobile Rising Star unit. What’s so important about the AOL release, and those of the IAB as well, is that they are innovative and force advertisers and publishers to rethink the concept of advertising altogether. It might be a challenge (unless you’re working with one of those aforementioned tools) but the rewards are immense.

Another reason that display advertising, and all digital advertising in general, is so prominent in the virtual lives of Internet professionals today, is because we as users can simply do more with it. AOL's new persistent loft unit serves as a good example. Opening up when interacted with by the user, the ad unit has the ability to show videos or dynamic content. Users are coming to expect this sort of immediate gratification of their curiosity, satisfying their desire for information, education or simply entertainment. And companies, including Microsoft and its Bing search engine, know all too well that the faster they help others (e.g. consumers) solve problems and reach their digital destinations, good things can happen.

In a “why didn’t we do this before” moment, Bing announced recently that it will be introducing a click-to-call feature on paid listings that is powered by Skype, enabling advertisers to connect with customers through phone calls directly from their ads.

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E-Commerce Tech to Know The e-commerce technology space is diverse, offering solutions to fit every need and demand of even the most discriminating buyer of Web-based services for retailers.

See 50 of the top companies that are leading the digital way at wsm.co/50ecomm.

Bing introduced a beta of the Call Extensions ad feature last year, which was limited to smartphones. The project yielded some positive results for advertisers (higher ad click-through rates, more phone calls and better engagement according to Bing) and was formally introduced just in time for the holidays.

The Call Extensions feature enables advertisers to show their phone numbers along with their ads on smartphones, PCs and tablets, and do so on a cost-per-click basis. Advertisers, marketers and their data analysts and business management will also be able to access performance metrics/reports to understand impressions, call volume, and spend data at the campaign, ad group and individual call extension level. Analytics of this nature are exceedingly important, because it’s one of the only ways available to ensure the strategic decisions made are good ones moving forward. But they aren’t the only ones.

Analytical Variations Many of the great innovations of our age are a result of some epic shift, a change that sends Internet professionals into a digital tizzy.

The most recent change of this nature comes from Google, which (over a course of roughly two years) has now moved to fully encrypted search. The result is that search engines no longer share keyword-level data about the users visit. That’s caused some discomfort for many solution providers. There are platforms however, such as BrightEdge and GinzaMetrics, that are releasing products that hope to lessen the associated anxiety (which has been at fever pitch of late) and encourage SEOs

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in particular to rethink the very definition of digital success.

BrightEdge, for example, released its new Page Reporting feature, which allows marketers to transition from keyworddependent SEO to what BrightEdge is calling a “content-centric” model. The company believes the approach will give marketers the insights they need about the performance of Web page visits, conversions and revenue that results from organic traffic, displaying the revenue performance from organic search and how pages are converting against pre-set goals.

Search and content marketing platform GinzaMetrics is another solution innovating in the face of continual search updates.

“Four major trends are converging to present new challenges to online marketers: secure search, semantic search, device proliferation and the growing influence of content marketing,” said Ray Grieselhuber, GinzaMetrics CEO. “All four of these trends ultimately result in a better experience for Internet users. It also means, however, that marketers need a technology platform that responds to these trends in order to reach those users most effectively.”

With its newly created Content Insights report, GinzaMetrics’ users can view page-level data pulled from their existing third-party analytics solutions (Google Analytics, Adobe SiteCatalyst, etc.). Analytics data is taken for each page, then correlated to the most relevant keywords for that specific page based on a user’s target keyword settings and GinzaMetrics’ own algorithm. This allows GinzaMetrics to display page data, utilize page traffic to infer how much traffic a specific keyword is driving and project monthly traffic based on search volume and click-through-rat curve.

A content-centric search algorithm from Google has placed a growing need on understanding which content is performing well, what keywords and topics are driving traffic, what page content drives conversion and how to utilize this data to optimize pages now as well as know what content to create moving forward. GinzaMetrics’ hybrid solution provides this data to users and allows them to drill down into pages and keywords to uncover recommendations that can help teams further optimize content and campaigns.

Integrated with Content Insights is Social Signals, a feature of the platform that helps users uncover how social signal interactions may influence search rankings. A user can view Facebook shares, likes and posts; Google +1s; and Twitter tweets and retweets for content across a site and sorted by target keyword. GinzaMetrics’ competitor analysis feature also allows users to view social signal data for selected competitors for comparison.

Another noteworthy feature is the device filtering layer.

Users can now select a device type including desktop, mobile,

Innovation Everywhere Website Magazine readers, one of the or tablet, and view page level data based on their selection. The company is looking to expand device and mobile integrations across the platform as a growing number of search queries originate from devices other than users’ desktop computers.

Understanding that this is a first step toward ensuring that search and marketing professionals can continue to promote findability of their brand online, GinzaMetrics is set to release additional features this year that tackle Hummingbird and secure search head-on.

Analytics, of course, isn’t limited to SEO performance or advertising; nearly everything is measured on today’s Web properties and that’s causing some trouble for Internet professionals that they likely never imagined when they set out on the path toward ’Net success.

For example, Adobe recently released new dynamic tag management capabilities for its Adobe Marketing Cloud that the company suggests will speed up the process for tagging content that needs to be measured and optimized on websites.

The technology itself results from an acquisition Adobe made in July of 2013. Satellite, formerly part of interactive agency Search Discovery, will help Adobe’s Marketing Cloud users to consolidate code for different marketing and advertising services (as well as analytics) that are implemented by websites to monitor how content is being used.

Dynamic tag management is unique in that it not only solves standard tag management problems such as code deployment, data management and rule building, but also provides the capabilities to map these activities directly to marketing scenarios and user experiences. The functionality is substantially more robust than what is commonly known as a universal tag, which is essentially nothing more than a tag container. Dynamic tag management essentially includes logic that determines what action should be taken on a page to measure the “right” data about a particular interaction, making it easier for marketers to develop digital marketing strategies and implement them without any IT support.

Epic E-Commerce Shifts Internet retailers aren’t known to be aggressive when it comes to innovation. It can take years for a company to decide to replatform, and they take great precautions with their brands and budgets when promoting their services, serving their customers and reaching for revenue opportunities.

What’s unique about the e-commerce environment today is that merchants are closing in on the technology, catching up as it were with some of the most innovative solutions on the market and preparing their enterprises for success.

largest collectives of Internet professionals on the ‘Net, are always on the lookout for the most innovative digital solutions to accelerate their success. Stay in the loop with the Software Everywhere channel, available at wsm.co/softwaretoday.

At its annual client summit, eBay introduced a new suite of commerce-focused technologies for eBay Enterprise that aim to help merchants focus on omnichannel operations and marketing solutions. The “Exchange Platform” offers retailers backend capabilities, including distributed order management, omnichannel inventory management, payment processing, fraud management and reporting. The Exchange Platform is pre-integrated, not surprisingly, with Magento, eBay Marketplaces and PayPal. eBay Enterprise’s Interfaces and Tools module also serves as the front-end, a commerce storefront solution for retailers to create “...experiences across devices, locations, users, geographies and brands,” said Chris Saridakis, president of eBay Enterprise.

“Retailers and brands understand the importance of having industry-leading capabilities across their entire value chain to support a new retail environment where consumers demand consistent, seamless and personalized experiences anywhere, at any time,” said Saridakis. “We’ve been singularly focused on being a strategic growth partner to our clients, and our new suite of modular commerce technologies will give our clients a competitive edge in this rapidly changing retail landscape.”

There’s no denying that companies like eBay are innovating and fulfilling the expectations of their users (and stockholders) but there are hundreds of fascinating digital, e-commerce focused software and service companies that are working as hard or harder and deserve an equal amount of attention from Internet professionals (see sidebar on page 28).

Let’s INNOVATE! Easier said than done, right? To develop an innovative product or solution, everything must be working in perfect virtual harmony, moving you faster and more efficiently toward the ultimate aim — success in the digital realm.

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I N T E R N E T A DV E RT I S I N G

By Cleofe Betancourt

Last-Minute Ad Tips to Move the CTR Needle this Holiday Season Let’s face facts. We have made it to the December issue of Website Magazine and you find yourself here reading an article providing tips for improving the click through rate (CTR) on your PPC advertising campaigns.

A

B

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This can only lead me to one of three conclusions: a) You are late to the party and looking to launch your last-minute holiday campaigns before it is too late. b) Your campaigns have been running this season but could use a boost to help get you over the hump. c) This author peaked your interest with his exotic name and intriguing headline.

After quickly dismissing option C (your laughter hurts people), we can get down to the business of help-

Major League Bidding WrigleyvilleSports.com sells Chicago Cubs merchandise, making its Online Marketing Manager Eric Castellucci all too familiar with competing against large enterprises, like MLB Shop. For him, and others, PPC is becoming more competitive.

ing to improve your CTR with these actionable tips.

Before beginning, I would like to issue the following disclaimer: We are not going to reinvent the wheel fearless reader! Oftentimes, the process of creating online campaigns becomes so daunting that we fail to consider how the ad would impact us if we were the potential purchaser. Commonsense can often win the day in both ad copy and landing page design, which are the two key elements we are touching on here.

A few years ago, the big companies would bid on a few keywords. Now, he says, it’s obvious they have put more efforts into PPC and bid on more specific, long-tailed keywords, as well. It forces Castellucci and his team to be more creative in their strategies and more aggressive in their bidding.

One way Wrigleyville Sports stands out from the digital crowd is by using its brick-and-mortar location to its advantage. By pointing out it has a store directly across from Wrigley Field, it is able to build credibility among Web surfers. Castellucci shares more PPC tips and insights at wsm.co/homerunppc.

PPC Tips to Try • Be exclusive. Don’t be afraid to play up the uniqueness and/or scarcity of your offer. A surfer looking at your offer on the SERP needs to make an emotional connection with your campaign in less than five seconds. Your listings face that reality each time they are viewed. Eye-catching phrases like “Save X% off regular price” or “Free Next Day Shipping” might seem cliché, but used in combination with a targeted landing page, can provide a significant boost to your CTR. You can boost perceived scarcity further by including an expiration date within your ad copy (see image A). No one wants to miss a great deal; capitalize on that.

• Name drop as if your (PPC) life depends on it. It is always a good idea to take full advantage of built-in brand value whenever you can. Mentioning a well-known brand in your copy adds an additional layer of relevance in the eyes of your potential customer. Even if the brand you are promoting is not as well known as major competitors, utilizing the brand name in your copy, compared to a broader term, can improve performance.

• Don’t fight the science! Experiment with A/B testing. A/B testing is a methodology in advertising of using randomized experiments with two variants, A and B, which are the control and treatment in the controlled experiment — at least that’s how Wikipedia describes it. Put plainly, craft two versions of your ad copy and run them for a specified period. Since these are last-minute tips for your holiday campaigns, time is of the essence. Run for 3-5 days, at most, in order to accrue enough data to pick a winner.

With your winning ad identified, create a new ad, testing additional elements and repeat the

experiment. Your goal should be to take the best aspects of the winning ad and continue growing them through additional trials.

• Make the connection between their search and your offer. Use the keyword or a Dynamic Keyword Insert (DKI) in your ad title and/or description. Most ad platforms offer some sort of DKI to ensure that the searched keyword appears in the ad title or description (see image B). A surfer is more likely to click on your ad if their search query appears in it, due to a perceived greater relevance to the query. Use this to your advantage to drive higher CTRs. • Consider the mobile dilemma. Is your website optimized to capitalize on mobile visitors?

While this may be less of an issue for newer landing pages, older sites may not display properly on the small screen. Not sure if this applies to you?

Then it likely does. Exclude mobile traffic sources to make sure more of your advertising dollars are targeted toward sources that have traditionally worked for you.

Remember the words of Mark Twain, “Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.”Following these best practices is sure to get those cash registers, or in this case payment processors, ringing this holiday season.

Cleofe Betancourt is a business development strategist at online advertising network 7Search, and shares his eight-plus years of expertise in the PPC world every day at AskPPCBlog.com.

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CONVERSION

CONNECTION

Common E-Commerce

Conversion Fails

By Tim Ash

Many Internet retailers are failing to convert enough visitors into customers. However, much of the time, the reasons are foreseeable. How does your site stack up against this list of common problems?

Slow Page Load Speed Internet visitors want it yesterday! Any delay becomes seen as intolerable. Google is on a mission to speed up the Internet, because they have seen that even small increases in page load speed can affect conversion. Your page load speed not only influences your search rankings, but also has a direct impact on the conversion rate of visitors who land on your site.

Often, just tweaking some of your Web server settings can result in dramatic gains. Taking the time to set up a content delivery network (CDN) properly, purchasing the proper amount of hosting

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power and bandwidth, and optimizing assets like images and videos can also pay dividends. Pay attention to your coding and programming. Reducing the number of database calls to the minimum required in server-side code like PHP, Python or Ruby, or optimizing client-side code like HTML, CSS and JavaScript can all make major improvements in your page load speed (or at least the time it takes for the page to start rendering).

Lack of Visual Continuity between Mobile and Desktop Mobile sites are fundamentally different from desktop websites. You have less space to do the important stuff. It’s necessary to reduce, but not to change the experience. The content on your mobile site should be highlights and essentials from your desktop site. It should be information chopped down to the specifics that visitors might be looking for: a price, a phone number or click to

call, a few features and benefits and a purchase button. It should be limited information but not different information.

But even though mobile is increasingly a popular choice for key activities, it would be a mistake to think that mobile is always used alone. In fact, in the “always-on” world that we live in, people often bounce between devices and regularly use more than one device simultaneously. So there must be continuity among their experiences.

The style, colors, headlines and branding elements should all stay the same. Logical aspects like product categories and content hierarchy should remain consistent so that your mobile site is intuitive to people who have already shopped your desktop site. Make your mobile site an extension of your desktop site and your customers will thank you with their hard-earned money.

Excluding International Visitors It’s 2 a.m. — do you know where your website traffic is coming from? Some of it’s not from your time zone, or even your country. You must recognize and honor cultural differences and provide appropriate checkout and onsite experiences.

If you have significant international traffic, you should make sure that the checkout is specific to their country and no weird “Americanisms” creep in.

On checkout forms, for example, rather than asking for a state, you should be requesting state/province. For zip code, request zip/postal code. By speaking to visitors on their terms, you make them feel at home on your site. Some countries don’t even have states or provinces. So if you require a state or province in checkout, you will literally block the sale. Including a “No State or Province” option or disabling the state/province section when applicable countries are selected keeps the conversion funnel flowing.

Better yet, auto detect the origin of your visitor and show them a country-specific experience whenever possible. Display prices in their local currency and offer text translation. Making your site accessible and even comfortable to international visitors opens up your business to an entire world of customers.

Negative Bias from Initial Reviewers If one person doesn’t like chocolate ice cream, that doesn’t mean it’s bad. The next person might love it. So don’t let a single bad review ruin a product (and your bottom line). If the first review posted on a product page is a one-star review, and you show the rating upstream in your site (on search results or category pages), fewer people will consider buying it after a quick visual scan of the starrating images. Avoid creating an average review

score for a product with only a few reviews. You can still post the text of the review on the product page, but let it be in the context that it’s just one person’s opinion. Wait until you have several reviews before you start showing them as star ratings throughout the site.

On-the-Go Conversions

Difficult Purchase Process

solutions that enable

See five e-commerce

If customers can’t figure out how to buy your product — they won’t. It’s critical to have an easy, intuitive purchase process. So the purchase button needs to be easy to find. Calls-to-action need to be: • Appropriately labeled (telling you accurately what will happen when you click) • Big enough to click on mobile (we use our thumbs a lot and need bigger areas) • Few in number (too many buttons on your cart page are a sure way to kill conversion) • Obvious (prominent and unique compared to other visual elements) After passing the checks listed above, it’s time to think about your shopping cart. Customers need an intuitive way to check out. Frequent online shoppers have become accustomed to a shopping cart button in the top right-hand corner of the page, but it’s important that the button stands out and is visible on all devices, especially on mobile. If you don’t have a site that offers responsive design, your visit cart button may be extra difficult to find for mobile customers. One solution to this is to add an overlay after an item has been added to the cart that gives the option to start the checkout process or keep shopping.

merchants to capitalize on the mobile market at wsm.co/5mcommerce.

Routing All Mobile Traffic to the Mobile Home Page Congratulations, you have finally created a fantastic dedicated site for mobile! But it’s too early to celebrate if you are sending all redirected visitors to your mobile homepage. Don’t route all mobile visitors to m.yoursite.com. Instead, take the extra time to route visitors to the specific internal landing page requested. For instance, if someone tries to click on a link to a specific product on a mobile device, they don’t want to be sent back to your home page to find it from there. They want to go directly to that page. It’s better to hold off on your mobile site launch until you have made sure that deep-linking is working properly.

Correct this checklist of conversion fails, and your digital cash register will ring more often!

Tim Ash is the CEO of SiteTuners, Chair of Conversion Conference and bestselling author of “Landing Page Optimization.”

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Website Magazine

>>>Resource Center FINELY FOCUSED INFORMATION FROM INDUSTRY SPONSORS Website Magazine’s Resource Center presents white papers from our sponsors that provide information, specifics, and metrics to help you make decisions for website success. Download free at www.WebsiteMagazine.com/resources.

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SEO 101: The Basics (and Beyond)

The rules of the game for digital ad buying in display, social, mobile and video are rapidly changing. And that’s good news for marketers that are eager to maximize the value of their limited advertising dollars.

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8 Content Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Sweet Success: How Spangler Candy, maker of Dum Dums, saw its highest day of online sales since 1998 with datadriven email

Learn the eight deadly sins of content marketing, from the structural (don’t overlook calls to action) to the intangible (what not to focus on). Five experts participated in a fascinating panel discussion: Ardath Albee, Marketing Interactions; Matt Heinz, Heinz Marketing; Carmen Hill, Babcock & Jenkins; Craig Rosenberg, The Funnelholic; and Marcus Sheridan, The Sales Lion – and you get the benefit.

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Windsor Circle client Spangler Candy, a global candy retailer who manufactures 10 million Dum Dums daily, recently used purchase history data to identify and win back, “churning customers,” resulting in its highest online sales ever.

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EMAIL

EXPERIENCE

INSIDE GMAIL TABS 5 Reasons to Embrace the New Inbox Layout

By Chad White

The introduction of Tabs in Google’s Gmail has generated concern among email senders about how the new filtering feature will affect open rates.

Here are five reasons why those concerns are overblown: 1. Tabs only affect a small percentage of your subscribers.

5. Consumers are still adjusting to Tabs.

On average, less than 2 percent of email opens occur on Tab-supported Gmail clients, according to Litmus. Gmail’s new inbox mostly affects the shrinking number of desktop users, not the growing number of mobile users.

While Gmail announced the roll out of their new inbox interface in May, it is still being rolled out. Gmail users are in an adjustment period.

Some will end up turning off Tabs while others will move email streams around until they get senders’ emails into the tabs that are most convenient for them. The behavior that we’re seeing right now is really unsettled and does not represent the new baseline.

The long-term effects are also unknown. Marketers could very well reap additional benefits from users that keep Tabs enabled, but that will not become evident for some time. For instance, since promotional emails won’t be competing directly with emails from their friends and family, Tabs users may become more likely to stay subscribed to promotional emails longer, producing a more accurate subscriber lifetime value. For the same reason, Tabs users may be more inclined to sign up for promotional emails in the first place, so list growth could benefit.

Gmail Tabs should be embraced as a welcomed change. We’ve seen similar inbox changes before — like Gmail’s Priority Inbox and Hotmail’s Sweep functionality — and none of them impacted email’s return on investment, which is still stellar.

In general, email marketers should applaud any development that improves the email experience for users.

2. Highly engaged subscribers — which generate the most email revenue — have been positively impacted by Tabs.

According to Return Path, these subscribers are opening more promotional emails and inbox placement rates increased slightly after rollout of Tabs. Most of the decline in opens has been among less engaged subscribers.

3. The Promotions tab is shifting engagement patterns.

There’s growing evidence that Gmail users are checking their Promotion tabs once every day or so and then engaging heavily with the emails in that tab. That may mean that Tab users are less responsive to unexpected or unannounced flash sales, for instance, but they are engaging with the Tab consistently.

4. The Promotions tab is a virtual mall.

Having your emails in the Promotions tab will be a net positive for most brands. When subscribers go to that tab, they’re in a buying mood — or at least more in a buying mood than when they’re interacting with emails from their friends and family in their Primary tabs.

When users go to the Promotions tab, they expect to find promotional emails and that’s what they get. This allows them to focus and get in a shopping mode. Just visiting the Promotions tab is a signal of buying intent, in the same way that visiting the mall is.

D E CE M B E R 2013

Chad White is the principal of marketing research at marketing cloud platform ExactTarget, a Salesforce.com company, and author of “Email Marketing Rules”.

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DOMAIN MASTERS

By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor

Where to Sell

Sell Domains in 2014 The Internet is changing. How companies select and leverage domain names will evolve drastically as the adoption of new gTLDs increases. And despite the initial confusion these new Web addresses are likely to cause, 62 percent of those surveyed for a Sedo report believe the adoption will ultimately be successful.

The Changing Face of the Domain Name Aftermarket See how GoDaddy's acquisition of Afternic will disrupt the industry (in a good way) at wsm.co/goafternic.

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For those interested in buying and selling domain names for profit, these new gTLDs could be an untapped revenue generator. First, let’s explore some of the reasons why these new Web addresses can shake up the industry.

“We’re going to see the market flooded with hundreds of new domain extensions in the coming months and years, and our data shows that investors and corporations are evidently warming up to the idea of using different extensions,” said Tobias Flaitz, Sedo’s CEO in a company statement. “It will take time and effort before we see mass adoption of new TLDs, and Sedo is contributing its part to raise awareness through global marketing, sales efforts and partnerships with applicants. The fact that more extensions than ever are being traded and successfully used for business is a promising development.”

In the past, companies have been restricted to 22 TLDs, including .com, .org and others. Now, hundreds of extensions will be released, so brands can choose from .map, .book, .deals, .vegas, .report, .ads, etc. Almost a dozen gTLDs could be released each week. Most expect that .com will still be favored by most businesses, but the new gTLDs can help them secure more memorable website addresses. A lot of the success of these new extensions, especially for selling them, will come down to awareness and, of course, demand. There is a bigger supply of extensions, so it will definitely dilute the market. The popular consensus, however, is that there will be “buzz” extensions that are highly in demand, and thus, profitable while most of the inventory might be useful to buy but not to sell.

That’s why it’s fun to be a domainer, right? You have to play the digital lotto to win, so where are the best places on the Interwebs to sell domains today?

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GoDaddy GoDaddy Auctions is a massive marketplace for buyers and sellers of domain names, allowing anyone to list their domains for a flat $4.99 annual fee. Domain registrants can auction their domain names and potential buyers can bid on them, make offers or buy them on the spot, depending on the listing type. Sellers can also use various features to increase the exposure of their auction listings, and receive free instant appraisals of their domain names. The auction platform is backed by GoDaddy systems and support, which includes 24/7 customer assistance.

Sedo Domain name and website marketplace, Sedo is a domain name and website marketplace and domainparking provider responsible for more than 40,000 sales each year. Sedo’s international auction capabilities and domain trading platform, along with its global network of domain brokers, makes its well positioned to support the introduction of the new gTLDs. Sedo also offers domain appraisals and secure purchase, transfer and escrow.

Flippa Professionals can sell online property at Flippa in two ways: at public auction or in private sales.

Flippa considers itself to be like a matchmaking site for online property buyers and sellers: they put the two together, and help them work out if one wants what the other party has to offer. Their involvement ends when the auction or sale is completed. Read Editor-In-Chief Peter Prestipino’s report on his own successful sale through Flippa at wsm.co/eicflippa.

Do you have compliments or criticisms of selling domains on GoDaddy, Sedo, Flippa or Afternic? Tweet us @WebsiteMagazine.

SOCIAL MEDIA

M AV E N S

Getting the Most from

Google’s Ghost Town

By Allison Howen, Associate Editor

When Google+ first arrived on the social scene, everyone wanted an invitation. Its membership numbers soared once it opened to the public, and when the network’s business profiles finally arrived, enterprising Internet professionals acted quickly to claim their places.

The initial newness has worn off though and most brands have all but abandoned their Google+ presence in favor of networks with established audiences and higher levels of engagement. Google+ may be a virtual ghost town compared to the likes of Facebook or Twitter, but the network actually offers several unique and business-friendly features to help companies create active and engaged communities while gaining a whole lot more than “likes” in the future.

resources about their local areas. Google+ is still young enough that a business can be the first to create a niche community that will grow as more companies join Google+. There are only 25 members in our community right now, but I have no doubt that number will increase exponentially in the next year.”

Communities can be kept either public or private, and provide businesses with opportunities to connect with key groups on more personal levels. Plus, members can create events within communities, which opens up offline networking and lead generation opportunities.

The Google+ Search Debate

One of the features that sets Google+ apart from other social networks is its ‘Hangout’ offering, which enables users to engage in group conversations, host Q&A sessions or virtual conferences or launch products live with ‘Hangouts on Air’. In fact, Hangouts On Air are broadcast not only on Google+, but can also be distributed on YouTube and websites where they have been embedded.

Rasmussen College, for example, leverages this feature to connect with both current and future students.

“The Hangout feature is great for allowing businesses to be seen and continue to prove themselves as subject matter experts within their industry,” said Grant Tilus, inbound marketing specialist for Rasmussen College. “It is also a simple way to create visually engaging video content without the need for big budgets or time commitments.”

Since the arrival of Google+, some SEOs have claimed that having a presence on the social network can boost a page’s position in the search results. In fact, a recent study from SEO software and analytics provider Moz claims that after page authority, a URL’s number of Google +1s is “more highly correlated with search rankings than any other factor.”

After Moz’s study was published, however, Google’s Matt Cutts came out to “debunk” its claim, stating “If you make compelling content, people will link to it, like it, share it on Facebook, +1 it, etc. But that doesn't mean that Google is using those signals in our ranking. Rather than chasing +1s of content, your time is much better spent making great content.”

With that said, the debate between Google+ and search ranking will continue to wage on. But what businesses can count on is that people have more personalized search experiences when they are logged into Google, which includes seeing content from the brands and people in their Google + Circles with higher frequencies. Essentially, having a presence on Google+ has the potential to boost your enterprise’s visibility, regardless if Google takes +1s into consideration or not.

Google+ Communities

Ghost Busters

Similar to Facebook Groups, Google+ offers a ‘Communities’ feature, which empowers interest-based communities to gather and interact. IT service provider Baroan Technologies saw the potential in this feature and quickly took advantage of it.

“Communities are a great opportunity for businesses to interact with their target markets,” said Yvonne Miaoulis, marketing manager at Baroan Technologies. “We made a community for Bergen County businesses that serves as a platform for us to provide potential prospects with helpful information and

In the end, Google+ should not be an afterthought. Not only can the platform’s features help businesses foster tight-knit communities, but time will also tell how the social network is further intertwined into Google’s other product offerings. Businesses should proceed with their digital strategies knowing that maintaining presences on Google+ is likely preparing their enterprises for long-term digital success.

Google+ Hangouts

D E CE M B E R 2013

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PERFORMANCE INSIDER

By Alit Bar Sadeh

CONTENT TRAFFIC Inbound B2B marketing and the Relevancy Gap Welcome to the content-generation generation, in which B2B marketers spend about a third of their budgets creating content-rich Web experiences in the form of videos, white papers, case studies, webinars and other resources designed to capture interest and business leads. It’s a growing trend, with some estimates showing the practice of content marketing up by more than 25 percent since 2012.

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Another significant portion of B2B marketing budgets is spent on acquiring Web traffic in an increasingly competitive and thus, costly digital environment.

The two investments — content and traffic — should be working together in your digital enterprise.

If you bring users to your site and offer them valuable content, you should be gathering leads. That’s the idea anyway.

The problem is that for many B2B sites, there remains a costly disconnect between inbound traffic and rich content. One metric that starkly underscores the gap is bounce rate. BrightInfo’s own studies of B2B website landing pages show that an average of 90 percent of anonymous visitors exit after viewing only one page, with just 10 percent retention of that, only about 3 percent convert into leads. Clearly, marketers have a very brief window to make their online marketing budgets pay off, but the great majority of their visitors remain anonymous.

Why aren’t online marketers getting more value from the content they create?

The B2B B ridge G

The problem is a combination of short user attention spans and high volumes of diverse content. The latter is a good thing — designed to ensure every kind of visitor (think IT vs. COO, or those who prefer data points versus rich videos) can access information they care about in the formats they desire. That volume, however, means visitors are typically faced with too much message diversity and choices at once — without a way to quickly and easily discover the information they need.

When all your content references, calls-to-action and offers are aggregated, the noise can be deafening to the typical visitor. Without some sort of intelligent curation, the most content-rich website will present too many irrelevant options to a given user, and away they bounce. Searching your site for relevant material is the Web equivalent of asking a user to flip through microfiche. No one has the time or patience — especially with so many competitive options just a click away.

So, the question is how to get the right (e.g. relevant and in the preferred format) content — in a manageable amount — in front of each consumer within the few seconds you have their attention?

It’s possible to target content manually, assigning categories of information to different users based on pre-segmentation criteria. But for the volume of content and diversity of users in play (and given that few small- and mid-sized businesses have the resources necessary to devote to this activity full-time), a manual approach isn’t likely to be cost efficient or particularly effective.

A better answer is dynamic, automated content recommendation. Just as dynamic advertising serves a tailored advertisement to a consumer based on previous behaviors; marketers need a way to identify the needs and preferences of site visitors in order to promote the most useful marketing materials (content) — in seconds.

Machine learning technologies enable automated user profiling and dynamic content recommendations to promote marketing materials based on individual visitor needs gleaned from the user’s entry point and on-site behaviors.

An algorithmic approach can be designed to enable any number of anonymous visitors to be targeted at a high resolution with the ideal subsets of content from even the most enormous libraries. Instead of facing masses of irrelevant content, the user is offered

et up c lo with th se and pers e dyna o mic co nal engine n s — an tent de you did n’t eve verything n know could p y wsm.c ersonalize — ou o/4cus a tomco t ntent

a small set of highly appropriate choices. In seconds, they have what they came for and are that much closer to becoming a lead.

For most B2B websites, spending more on content development and traffic generation is a wasted effort without a way to match the two efficiently. Dynamic content recommendation allows matching to be automated and fluid — delivering instant engagement from existing content resources to turn anonymous users into known leads.

As the VP of Marketing at BrightInfo, Alit Bar Sadeh is instrumental in driving product strategy and market share.

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION 1. Publication title: Website Magazine. 2. Publication No. 1942-0633 3. Filing date: October 1, 2013. 4. Issue frequency: Four times per year with 8 special issues (January, March, April, June, July, September, October, and December). 5. No. of issues published annually: 12. 6. Annual subscription price $44.95. 7. Complete mailing address of known office of publication: 999 E. Touhy Ave., Ste 590, Des Plaines, IL 60018. 8. Complete mailing address of headquarters or general business office of publisher: 999 E. Touhy Ave., Ste 590, Des Plaines, IL 60018. 9. Full names and mailing addresses of general manager, editor, and managing editor: David Ruiz, 999 E. Touhy Ave., Suite 590, Des Plaines, IL 60018; Peter Prestipino, 999 E. Touhy Ave., Suite 590, Des Plaines, IL 60018; Amberly Dressler, 999 E. Touhy Ave., Suite 590, Des Plaines, IL 60018. 10. Owner: Website Services Inc., Dante Monteverde, 999 E. Touhy Ave., Suite 590, Des Plaines, IL 60018. 11. None. 12. Not applicable. 13.

Publication title: Website Magazine. 14. Issue date for circulation data below: December 2013. 15. Extent and nature of circulation: Average No. Copies No. Copies of Single Each Issue During Issue Published Preceding 12 Months Nearest to Filing Date A. Total No. copies (net press run)

47,181

53,853

41,826

49,821

B. Paid or Requested Distribution 1. Outside-county paid/requested mail subscriptions 2. In-county paid/requested mail subscriptions

-

0

3. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, counter sales, and other paid or requested distribution outside USPS

1,929

2,232

4. Requested copies distributed by other mail classes through the USPS

-

0

43,754

52,053

C. Total paid and/or requested circulation D. Nonrequested distribution 1.Outside-county nonrequested copies stated on PS Form 3541 2. In-county nonrequested copies included on PS Form 3541 3. Nonrequested copies distributed through the USPS by other classes of mail 4. Nonrequested copies distributed outside the mail E. Total nonrequested distribution F. Total distribution G. Copies not distributed H. Total I. Percent paid and/or requested circulation

2,191

0

-

0

79

18

1,008

1,400

3,278

1,418

47,033

53,471

148

382

47,181

53,853

93%

97%

16. This statement of ownership will be printed in December issue of this publication 17. I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete.

Signature and title: David Ruiz, General Manager, October 1, 2013

D E CE M B E R 2013

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39

W E B C O M M E N TA R Y

By Amberly Dressler, Managing Editor

STRESS LESS THIS HOLIDAY “TERM” Have you seen those before-and-after pictures floating around the Web of Presidents, from Barack Obama and George W. Bush to Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush? Over the years, multiple websites have published these presidents’ inauguration pictures side-by-side with pictures of them in office or finishing their terms.

Perhaps needless to say, their “after” pictures show noticeably older men — carrying years of stress in their faces. It’s no wonder why. In office, they had arguably the toughest job in the world, responsible for the life and liberty of hundreds of millions of people.

At scale, running a business can feel like running a country. Small business owners (SBOs) are not only responsible for their company profits, but also their employees’ wellbeing, as their staff counts on them for steady paychecks, at the very least. Often resource strapped, SBOs are some of the hardest working people in our economy with Bank of America reporting on average, 72 percent of them work 40-plus hours a week and sacrifice a work-life balance we all seek.

The holiday retail season — 61 days between November and December — can be even more trying for SBOs, as many of them depend on the revenue of this season all year long. For some retailers, the holiday season can represent as much as 20-40 percent of annual sales, according to the National Retail Federation. In fact, in 2012, holiday sales represented 19.3 percent of total retail industry sales.

Talk about stress. Despite this, even retail SBOs who heavily depend on strong sales during this time to ensure success, are feeling hopeful (66 percent according to FedEx). Even 47 percent of SBOs counting on the season are actually excited. Is this their before picture?

Maybe, but they do have reasons to be excited.

E-commerce is a thriving environment fueled by

40

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DECEMB ER 2013

innovation and changing consumer habits, but the demands of providing a consistent, reliable retail experience can quickly pose problems — adding fine lines in faces of small business owners and small cracks in their companies’ foundations. Some issues that arise this shopping season may be unavoidable, but others are nearly 100 percent preventable. Most — if not all — businesses that sell consumer-facing products will see a spike in holiday traffic this month and next. That said, the additional influx of traffic can send a website crashing down. SBOs can call their Web hosting companies to take measures against downtime, before the fact. A few extra hours of employee training, a calendar for email promotions or thumbing through the pages of this magazine couldn’t hurt either.

Time management is also of the essence this busy season. There are countless Web-based productivity tools that Website Magazine writes about nearly every issue, but good old-fashioned to-do lists can help manage some stress and ensure there are no loose ends simply forgot about because of mind-overload. And, when it doubt, taking a deep breath or a quick walk can go a long way in stress relief.

Expectations are high at the inauguration of this holiday “term”, as they should be. Quickly, however, the stresses that come along with increases in marketing activities and customer interactions, as well as life-work management, can take a toll. Start the season off right by relying on trusted providers or solutions, delegating to reliable employees, learning to say no if you need to and staying organized. In doing so, the twinkle in your digital eye should stick around for your after picture.

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