The Maine SEO Blog

Recently, flyte launched a website for MainelyMara – a site devoted to Portland, Maine deals, discounts, and coupons. Mara gives one offer at a time for savings at area boutiques and spas that will save you up to 66%! Interested in seeing previous deals? Just check out some offers from MainelyMara. Then, it’s easy – simply sign up for your free account!

As you can imagine, the MainelyMara site is constantly being updated with new offers; which, while great for fresh content, doesn’t give much for search engines to grab onto otherwise. So Mara decided to incorporate a blog. Mara’s blog has great tips from fashion trends you can’t live without to how-to beauty tips straight from the experts to Maine fashion. The offers may not be around forever, but Mara’s blogposts certainly will be!

So if you’re looking for great deals around Portland, Maine, check out MainelyMara. If you’re looking to increase your online visibility with a blog, contact flyte.

Nicki Hicks
Maine SEO

A while back, I wrote about what to do when you can’t think of anything to blog about. This post goes a step further. Do you feel like you’ve been keeping up with your blog pretty well, but your posts are always a similar flavor? Let’s spice it up a little…

1. What’s your competition up to?

Use Google’s blog search to search for blogposts in your industry. You’ll have to sort the junk, but I bet you’ll quickly feel inspired with some new and different posts.

2. Write more about what people are already finding

Check out your Google Analytics Traffic Sources section, then in your keywords. Scroll to the bottom of the list – deep down in the long tail. Only a few people found you with these keywords, but perhaps there’s opportunity to expand on some posts you’ve already written by incorporating some of that long tail language.

3. What’s hot in your industry right now?

Have a favorite blog(s)? Follow what’s happening in your industry right now and blog about it. Sure, you won’t be the news source where people find out what happened first; but you’ll certainly be able to put your own, unique spin on it. Or, if you don’t have many other favorite blogs, you could always use one of these cool tools.

4. IRL (In Real Life)

Does something ever happen in your day-to-day life that makes you think “Man, I could relate this to something in my blog!” Grab a piece of scrap paper, a voice recorder, or your phone and jot your idea down! You’d be surprised how you can relate something completely unrelated to your industry.

5. Use what you already know

Tips and tricks you use every day may be common place to you, but not your audience. Write a quick tutorial blogpost or, better yet, create a video how-to!

6. Incorporate FAQs

Are your customers constantly asking you the same questions? Chances are, it’s probably more than just your customer base asking those questions. Make sure you write those questions down when you’re on the phone with a client.

What are your tricks for spicing up your blogposts?

Photo credit: recycle this

Nicki Hicks
Don’t get stale

Last month, we finished a website for Knight Vision International, media and public relations experts. KVI specializes in many services, including:

• Media and Public Relations
• Strategic Positioning and Branding
• Crisis Communications and Management
• Media Training

Knight Vision has also committed to creating a number of witty and informational blogposts, that range from Mel Gibson’s rants to the BP Oil Spill to lessons we can learn from Russian spies. The folks over at KVI realize that blogging is a fantastic way to increase their search engine visibility. Not only are they able to show their expertise on the subject matter, but they’re doing it in a way that will help them get traffic. How, you ask? By incorporating hot, new keywords.

Here’s the latest trend line for the query “russian spies”:

See the spike? Blogposts are a great way to incorporate what’s hip and happening right now – even if it might not tie directly to your industry.

So if you need help with public relations, crisis communication, or media training, give Knight Vision International a call. If you need help increasing your online visibility with a blog, talk to flyte.

Nicki Hicks
Maine SEO

Can you answer “Yes” to any one of these questions?

• Do you have a presence on Facebook already, but want more “likes” on your page?
• Do you have a presence on Facebook already, but want to drive more traffic to your website?
• Do you have a new fan page that needs to build up fans (or “likes”)?

Then Facebook ads are right for you. Facebook ads are inexpensive, intuitive, and, when done the right way, have the ability to drive a ton of traffic.

In the past week, I’ve gone step-by-step through creating Facebook ads. They’re all linked here…so get ‘em while they’re hot.

1. Create ad: Create and Target
2. Create ad: Bidding and Review
3. Measuring and Reporting
4. Measuring Conversions
5. Making sense of the data

Nicki Hicks
Like flyte on Facebook

This post is the fifth of a five-step process to set up, measure, and manage your Facebook ads.

You’ve set up your ads, you’ve started measuring their success, and now you’ve started measuring conversions. You’re done, right? Nope. You can’t just leave those ads stagnant for long. The last step in the series? Making sense of your Facebook ads data.

Here’s what to do if…

My bid is higher than my Avg. CPC/CPM?

More often than not, the actual CPC/CPM you pay will be less than your bid since your bid is just that – the most you’re willing to pay per click or per impression. If your bid seems to be too high, you can certainly decrease it.

My CTR seems too low

A low Click Thru Rate might be from any number of reasons, but include:

• Is your ad copy enticing enough? This might be an opportunity to test different ad copy to see what works and what doesn’t.
• Is your image enticing enough? They say an picture says a thousand words…try adding more ads with different images.

What should I use: CPM/CPC?

It depends on the ad. If your ad is going to get a lot of impressions, you probably want CPC – it’ll be cheaper. [This might be an ad targeted to a large audience.]

For ads that won’t get as many impressions, CPM is probably going to be cheaper. [CPM is best suited for very targeted ads that don't have as many impressions.]

Should I send visitors to my fan page? or to my website?

Do you want to build up your following on Facebook? Or do you want to pass go and send folks directly to your website?

A good strategy may be to start by sending folks to your fan page. Then once your following is where you want it to be, start sending them over to your website.

There are many, many analyses you can make from Facebook ad data, but these hit the major ones. Now get out there and analyze!

Nicki Hicks
Like flyte on Facebook

This post is the fourth of a five-step process to set up, measure, and manage your Facebook ads.

Last time we covered measurement and Facebook reports, today we’re going to talk measuring conversions. You have two options at your disposal for conversion measurement: Google Analytics and Facebook conversion tracking.

Google Analytics

Even if you’re using Facebook ads to direct visitors to your fan page, the goal is probably driving traffic to your website. Wondering how much traffic? Just check your Google Analytics.

Take it a step further: is your Facebook traffic converting? Just check the goals tab.

Conversion tracking

Facebook recently launched conversion tracking for ads. Simply install code on the conversion page, just as you would with Google Analytics code.

Choose a category from:

• Other
• Purchase/Sale
• Sign up
• Lead
• View key page

That way, you can install multiple conversions on different conversion pages, as they apply. You can also give a conversion value, just as you would with Google Analytics goals.

Take it a step further: run “Conversions by Conversion Time” and “Conversions by Impression Time” reports to see how your ads are converting.

You’re almost there. Next time, we’re going to cover the last [and I promise it's the last!] step: making sense of the data.

Nicki Hicks
Like flyte on Facebook

This post is the third of a five-step process to set up, measure, and manage your Facebook ads.

Last week, we went over how to set up bidding and finalize your ad. Today, we’re going to talk about measuring and reporting.

Dashboard

At the base level, Facebook provides some statistics on the dashboard.

• Status: Is the ad running or paused?
• Last updated: I think this one’s pretty self explanatory
• Bid: How much you are bidding to have your ad show up.
• Type: Cost per Click (CPC)? or Cost per Impression (CPM)?
• Clicks: How many clicks on your ad have there been?
• Impressions: Number of times your ad has showed up
• CTR (%): Clicks/Impressions – the percentage of clicks out of impressions (views)
• Avg. CPC: The average you actually pay per click.
• Avg. CPM: The average you actually pay per impression.

Reports

Facebook offers a number of reports; I find them simpler and far easier to use than AdWords reporting. Here’s a break down of what you’ll get with each one:

• Advertising Performance: Much of the same information you get through the dashboard (Impressions, clicks, CTR, money spent), but this may be a nicer way to keep track of these statistics over time.
• Responder Demographics: See who is clicking on your ads – are you targeting the right demographic? Get stats like age range, gender, and region.
• Responder Profiles: Like demographics, you can get a little more information about those who click or see your ads. This report includes books, movies, music, TV shows, and other interests.
• Conversions by Conversion Time: How soon a conversion was made (0-24 hours, 1-7 days, 8-28 days) between conversion event and actual conversion.
• Conversions by Impression Time: How long (0-24 hours, 1-7 days, 8-28 days) it took between an impression (seeing the ad) and conversion.

That’s it for Facebook reports, next time we’ll talk about measuring your conversions.

Nicki Hicks
Like flyte on Facebook

This post is the second of a five-step process to set up, measure, and manage your Facebook ads.

You’ve just finished creating your Facebook ad; now it’s time to finish the setup process.

• Start by selecting the proper currency and time zone.
• Choose a campaign name – be mindful that if you’re going to create multiple campaigns, they should be unique enough to describe exactly what that campaign contains.
• Pick your daily budget. Facebook will never exceed this amount, but be mindful your ad will stop being shown if it reaches a certain ceiling.
• Schedule: choose to run your ad during a specific time frame (for a special event, for example) or to run it continuously.
• Pay for impressions (CPM) or for clicks (CPC). Here is Facebook’s official definition of the two:
  

  If you choose a Pay for Clicks (CPC) model, you will also bid on how much you are willing to pay for each click on your ad. Facebook will display your ad in the Ad Space. The amount you are charged will never exceed your daily budget.

  If you choose a Pay for Views (CPM) model, you will also bid on how much you are willing to pay for every thousand impressions of your ad. Facebook will display your ad in the Ad Space. The amount you are charged will never exceed your daily budget.

• Finally, choose your maximum bid. Notice Facebook will provide you with the estimated number of clicks you will receive based on your budget and bid.

Review your ad, enter your credit card, and your ad is live!

Next time, we’ll talk about measurement and ad reports.

Nicki Hicks
Like flyte on Facebook

This post is the first of a five-step process to set up, measure, and manage your Facebook ads.

First things first, make sure your Facebook fan page is built up and has some content. If you’re directing people from your ad to your page, you’ll want to make sure there’s some content. Start by going here, then follow the three easy steps:

1. Design your ad.
2. Target your audience.
3. Target your audience (Advanced Demographics).

1. Design your ad

• Facebook content: Choose where you want to send people: your fan page? or your website? Both have their perks and are dependent on your Facebook goals. Funneling fans through your page to your website is typically a successful strategy. Or, if you’ve already got a great fan base set up, send people straight to your website.
• Title: The title is the blue text at the top of the ad. If your fan page is the ad’s destination, the title will default to the name of your page. If your website is the goal, you can choose the title.
• Body Text: What is going to entice your audience to click? You can create a series of ads and experiment with what gets the best click thru rates and actions.
• Image: If you’re sending people to your page, the default will be your page’s profile picture. You can certainly change it to whatever you’d like.

2. Start targeting

• Location: Are you targeting internationally? Nationally? State-wide? City-wide?
• Demographics: Targeting a certain age? How about gender?
• Likes & Interests: What does your target market have in common? (e.g. my example might “like” business)
• Estimated Reach: Facebook will give you an idea of how large your ad audience will be on the right with “Estimated Reach”.

3. Keep targeting (Advanced Demographics)

• Birthday: Choose to target people on their birthday – this might be helpful for a specific campaign.
• Interested in: Choose audience based on romantic inclination.
• Relationship: Running a wedding-geared ad? Maybe you’ll want to target engaged women.
• Language: I’m going to stick with English.
• Education: Your audience may be comprised of PhD’s or high school dropouts, or anywhere in between.
• Workplaces: Targeting a specific workforce? You’ll be able to narrow them down here.
• Connections: Target users who are (or are not) already connected to certain pages, groups, events, or applications. [Note: you'll have to be connected to said page/group/event/application in order to list them.]
• Friends of connections: Target users whose friends are connected to certain pages, group, events, or applications.

Congratulations, you’ve just created your first Facebook ad! Next time, we’ll talk about how to finish the setup process and final review.

Nicki Hicks
Like flyte on Facebook

Google Maps is offering a free month trial of Tags. What are tags, you ask? Well, this is what flyte’s Google Maps profile looked like before adding tags:

And here is the profile after:

A tag is essentially a way to promote certain areas of your business. (Get an in-depth look at tags here.) You can choose to promote photos or videos of your business, your website, or coupons:

Then, keep track of your tags activity right in your Google Places dashboard. How many times did users show interest in your tag? How many expansions of the tag were there on the map? How many clicks where there on your tag link?

With a free 30-day trial, why wouldn’t you try tags out?!

Nicki Hicks
Tag, you’re it