Sometimes you need a map to know where you are going. And in the world of digital marketing, a map is just another word for A Strategic Plan. And at ArcherSEM, the map begins with Google Analytics.

At ArcherSEM, the first step when working with our Phoenix internet marketing clients is to create a strategic plan that will help map out our steps. And unlike many other internet marketing agencies, the plan is a practical affair, and not a huge document full of powerpoint charts and meaningless catch phrases.

The goal of the plan is to a) find the most efficient and smartest way to help our clients and b) explain the client how we will do that.

The first step of the plan is to examine the current situation – how is our client’s web site doing? What is working and what is not working with our client’s current digital marketing efforts?

That’s when our background as Google Analytics Metrics experts comes into play. A deep analysis of a site’s Google Analytics data will give us a lot of clues about what we need to address in a search engine marketing plan, such as:

What keywords are driving sales and conversions? In other words, what are the search terms that people are using to get to the client’s site? More importantly, what search terms are being used by the visitors that you want to attract?

What other sites are bringing visitors to your sites? Google Analytics will help our clients determine what marketing efforts are making them money – and what is losing money for them. Google Analytics can provide nuggets that will help guide both the clients’ organic and paid search marketing efforts.

What are visitors doing when they get to the client’s site? By analyzing the click patterns on a website, we can advise our clients about why visitors are abandoning the site before making a purchase – or what is enticing them to stay on your site or return to your site.

Talk to one of the Google Analytics experts at ArcherSEM about creating a strategic internet marketing plan for your website.

What follows is a common conversation we have with an online marketing client at ArcherSEM:

“We’d like to talk to you about reaching out to your customer base with regular blog and social media tools.”

“Oh – no, we don’t do social media.”

“I see. How do you reach your customers now?”
“We have a newsletter.” (proudly) “We mail it out, then even put it up on a .pdf file and put it on our website.”

“Ah.”

And then we gently lead a discussion into bringing their newsletter into the era of Web 3.0.

Newsletters are great – and we recommend them as a way to keep in touch with your customer base. By keeping your customer base engaged, your business can benefit from the loyalty of your customers, ensuring positive word of mouth reputation and steady new referrals for customers.

ArcherSEM will help bring businesses out of the era of print newsletters into the era of Web 3.0. Instead of one large print download of information in the form of a newsletter, we advocate sending your customers a slow, steady stream of new information across multiple mediums – via a blog, RSS feed, email blasts, Twitter and Facebook.

Here’s a summary of the reasons why the Web 3.0 approach to digital marketing works over the old-school newsletter method:

*Searchability: Search Engines can search through .pdfs and index the files, but the technology is still limited. Files in a .pdf format tend to get lower rankings.

*Saturation: By using different formats and Social Media media, you have a better chance of populating more spots in the search engine results. As a result, Internet searchers who are looking, for example, for the term “Phoenix Internet Marketing Agency” will find ArcherSEM in various Search Engine results, instead of just one.

*Steady Flow of Fresh Data: Search Engines – particularly Google’s new Caffeine indexing technology – want to see websites that are updated frequently with new, relevant data. By providing a steady flow of updates to your website, you will improve your Search Engine rankings over competitors.

Talk to the Search Engine marketing consultants at ArcherSEM about how to employ Web 3.0 methods for your company newsletter – a free consultation is always available!

Google is finally acknowledging its rollout of its new way of indexing web pages, code-named Caffeine.

A little background on Caffeine: It is an indexing system that takes into account that “with the advent of video, images, news and real-time updates, the average webpage is richer and more complex.” In addition to indexing all these new Web 3.0 innovations, Caffeine is supposed to index pages more quickly, allowing Internet searchers to get fresh data sooner.
What does this mean to the Search Engine Optimization experts at ArcherSEM?
It means that we will have to ramp up our SEO strategies to take advantage of the advancements in technology – and keep our SEO techniques up to date for our clients.
In the past, so-called SEO experts offered two basic solutions to optimizing a website – metatags and lots of content.
Now, with the advent of Web 3.0, we are working to take our clients’ websites to the next stage in optimizing. Some of the basic features that need to be included in this SEO strategy:
•    Blogs
•    Optimized video
•    Twitter
•    Facebook
•    Social bookmarking
•    Link development
•    Optimized press releases

But more importantly: Once these tools are set up, they must be constantly be updated. Caffeine appears to reward websites that show fresh, relevant data. This requires coordination of managing the content – and making sure that your site reflects any new changes in the market or customer interests.

For example: A client is an e-commerce site that sells high-end toys made by artisans in the U.S. News appears about faulty Chinese toys that are dangerous to small children. In response to this news, our digital marketing specialists would recommend the following:
a)    Blog entries explaining the safety of our toys
b)    Press releases urging parents to check the origins of the toys they purchase
c)    Creating videos featuring the artisans creating the toys
d)    Twitter feeds about this topic
e)    Sharing the data on the company Facebook page and ads

A word of warning to anyone out there who is hiring a so-called SEO Agency – ask them what they are doing to respond to this new Web 3.0 version of indexing. If you have an SEO consultant, ask for a plan on how to change your website, taking into account these new changes.

If your digital marketing agency simply says they plan to refresh your meta-tags, you might want to reconsider your choice in online marketing consultants. Give ArcherSEM a call for a quick, free consultation – and decide for yourself!