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Are you referring to a CDN?  We use a CDN for our images.  However we are contemplating using the image url from the manufacturers website, instead of downloading and hosting the image on our domain.

We are building several sites for several clients which will be using images from the manufacturer.  Our dev team wants to insert the manufacturer's url for the images, instead of actually downloading the image and hosting on our server.  There are thousands of images, so downloading images to our server will be time consuming, so we are looking for a shortcut.... however I'm concerned this will cause other issues.

Is using manufactueresdomain.com/12345.jpg going to cause SEO issues?  will this generate Google penalties?  Since we are not able to control the image file name, we cannot optimize it.  We will add Alt text and Title tag for each image, but the file name is random characters.  How important is the file name for SEO?

First, yes it's an issue if 80% of the content is duplicate.  Panda will not like this at all.

There are a few strategies that will fix the issue... primarily write new content.  I know its time consuming, but content is king.  Take the old description and reword it, tweek it, change it. ...anything to make it different than last years product content.

You can also iframe the old product description on the new page.  This will prevent Google from indexing the old content on the new page.  But then your new page might have too thin of content...back to the original solution...write more content.

Rand had a video about this issue a few weeks ago.  http://moz.com/blog/handling-duplicate-content-across-large-numbers-of-urls

Hope this helps

866 2 Google

Hi Dave,

Yes you can test conversion tracking...its the first thing I do when launching a new campaign.  You will need to go to Google.com, search for a keyword, click your text ad, and perform an actual conversion on your site.  I recommend performing this test for each individual conversion page on your site. Use a different keyword for each conversion page. This way you can verify each thank you/conversion page has the AdWords conversion tracking code installed correctly.  Wait until tomorrow (There is a 12-24 hour delay in AdWords conversion reporting), and verify AdWords and Analytics are reporting each conversion was tracked.

Hope this helps

Branden

Hey Erik,

You want separate AdWords accounts for separate businesses.  You should keep them separate for a variety of reasons...billing, reporting, conversion rates are different, different goals, etc.  You will need to have 2 separate email addresses for the 2 accounts.  However you can manage both of the accounts inside 1 account called an MCC.  An MCC allows you to have several separate accounts inside 1 master shell.

Hope this helps

Branden

Our site has gone down twice in a week...hosted by Fat Cow. So we're going to switch hosts this week.

We currently have 2 WP sites on a Fat Cow VPS.   8 GB file size and 2 GB data transfer monthly.  We use a CDN and video hosting company (Wistia) so the file sizes are small.  I've contacted several hosts and narrowed it down to WP Engine, Rack Space and A Small Orange.

I care about fast page load time (1 second), 99.999% up-time and great support.  Price is a secondary concern.

I'm leaning towards WP Engine, but wanted to ask Moz community before making a decision.  Any other hosting companies I should call?

Bing Ads (AdCenter) is the only other network that's worthwhile.  People still use Bing and Yahoo for search, so you will get some traffic, and AdCenter network is less competitive than AdWords, so AdCenter CPC is cheaper.

I've tried out a handful of the other search networks besides AdWords and AdCenter and have never had any success.  I've been doing PPC for over a decade and the only networks I spend any money on is AdWords and AdCenter.

ask google adwords this question.  1 866 2 Google

Marin is the best.  I've used Acquisio and WordStream before, and my campaigns perform best when using Marin.  Acquisio has better charts/reporting than Marin, but my campaigns perform best using Marin.  Also use Mongoose if you want to track inbound phone calls back to the keyword searched for.  Mongoose integrates into Marin seamlessly.

Marin Enterprise will cost 3-5% of your spend, which comes with a dedicated Marin rep who will help you with all of Marins features/tools.  If money is an issue, you can use Marin Pro for 1% of spend, but you wont get a dedicated Marin rep.  I started with Enterprise and then switched to Pro after I understood all of Marins tools.

Marins bidding algorithm is awesome.  Marin allows for various keyword attribution, A/B split test for text ads & creative, different bidding based on cpl, cps, roi, margin % etc.  You can also bid different for various conversion types...purchase, lead, facebook like, newsletter signup, phone call, etc.  It also stream lines your work flow which allows me to manage 2X more campaigns.

Here's an good article on anchor text & over optimization.  ... exact match vs partial match.

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/beyond-exact-match-anchor-text-to-next-generation-link-signals-whiteboard-friday

I have a client that has been penalized for over optimization.  We've been focused on partial match links for a while.  We've even used a few links that were the actual url, and 'click here'.  Anything that makes your link profile look natural.

There is no relationship between AdWords and organic.  I've spent over $30MM in AdWords, and have several relationships with dedicated AdWords reps, and have never been able to get anything special from the organic team  (I've tried several times, with 0 success).  I could not even get the organic side to expedite a reconsideration request.

From what my dedicated AdWords rep tells me, Quality Score is PRIMARILY based on CTR...however there is a small weight to text ad and landing page relevancy.  My rep has told me that if my landing page meta title, H1 & content use the keyword, then the landing page will have a good relevancy rating....beyond this, don't worry about it.

I've asked him several questions about improving On Page SEO items to improve my Quality Score.  He told me to focus on CTR, since this is primarily what determines Quality Score.

I recommend optimizing your text ads to increase CTR, which will result in a high Quality Score....use the keyword in your text ad headline, line 1 or 2 ad copy, and the display url.  I also recommend using dynamic keyword insertion...preferably in headline.

Also go through your search query reports, identify keywords that generated lots impressions & low clicks, and add these keywords as a negative keywords.  This will increase CTR & Quality Score...especially for your broad match keywords.

You can even go a step further in your campaigns to ensure high quality score... Stop using broad match...just use exact, phrase, & broad modified match type for every keyword.

Also remember that Quality Score is a long term metric, Google is looking at the CTR for the week, month & year...so don't expect changes you make today to impact your Quality Score tomorrow.

I run PPC campaigns on both platforms.  Bing's CPC is cheaper than Google, and will result in lower CPA / CPL.  However Bing/Yahoo only have 20% of the volume that Google generates.  I recommend just taking your AdWords account and upload it to Bing.  Same campaigns, ad groups & keywords.  The only thing you will need to change is the text ads...different structures between the platforms.  Other wise its definitely worth it.  Bing is less competitive and produces cheaper leads & sales.

Adam has provided good advice already, but here's a few things that jumped out to me.

You mentioned that you have 4 few campaigns that target both Search & Display.... which is a major red flag.  Search and Display are very different and should always be separate campaigns.  They have very different Click thru rates, conversion rates and CPC, so they should always be separate campaigns.

You really need to focus on Quality Score & Click thru Rate...Quality Score is Google's primary metric to determine CPC and position.  Quality Score of 7-10 will lower your CPC and move you into a higher position.  Quality Score of 1-4 will increase your CPC and lower your position.  Quality Score is a metric for Search Campaigns that is primarily based on CTR..its a long term average, so if you improve your CTR today, your quality score will slowly increase over the following weeks/months.

You mentioned 8 clicks from 3712 clicks = 0.2% CTR.  This is OK for Display, but if this metric includes search, this is a red flag.  To achieve a high Quality Score you will need a CTR of 5-25%.  Less than a 1% CTR will lower your Quality Score.

There are a few ways to improve CTR & Quality Score... create better text ads, use extensions, create negative keywords, use dynamic keyword insertion & stop using broad match type.

Use Dynamic Keyword Insertion in your headline.. {KeyWord:Credit Card Processor}.  This code will make your headline appear as whatever keyword the person searched for.  This will make the visitor think that you have exactly what they are searching for...increasing your CTR.

Use all site link extensions..this will make you are appear larger and make it stand out...site link extensions ( use 6 or 8).  Phone extensions, location extensions, social extension,etc.  The more extensions the better.

Stop using broad match, especially when you are trying to improve your campaign metrics...broad modified, phrase & exact match are all I use, which deliver more targeted traffic, higher CTR, higher conversion rate, etc.

Also make sure your average position is above 2.7.  At the beginning you will need to bid higher to achieve this. I know this takes a healthy budget, but this is a long term game, and will pay off down the road.  If you ads appear on top (position 1-3), you will have a higher CTR and your Quality Score will improve, which in the long run will lower your CPC.  If you ads appear on the right side (position 4-10), your CTR and Quality Score will drop, which will increase your CPC.

I would also recommend running separate campaigns for each country.  In Editor, you can just copy/paste your current campaign into your new campaign..groups, keywords text ads, etc.  Then just change targeted geography.  This is a quick fix. and will give you the ability to change budgets & bids per country.  You will then be able to determine which countries perform better/worse for you.

I hope these ideas make sense...I know its a lot to take in at once.  By the way, have you ever considered working with a PPC Agency?  I own an Advertising Agency that specializes in PPC with a decade of experience managing over $30 million spend in AdWords.  I offer a free PPC campaign review, where we'll review your current campaigns, and I will provide several in depth action plans to improve your PPC campaigns.  Is this something you are open to?  Usually take 30-45 minutes, and has no strings attached. Private message me if you are interested

Hope this helps...Have a great day

Branden

Bing Ads (AdCenter) is the only other network that's worthwhile.  People still use Bing and Yahoo for search, so you will get some traffic, and AdCenter network is less competitive than AdWords, so AdCenter CPC is cheaper.

I've tried out a handful of the other search networks besides AdWords and AdCenter and have never had any success.  I've been doing PPC for over a decade and the only networks I spend any money on is AdWords and AdCenter.

Hey Erik,

You want separate AdWords accounts for separate businesses.  You should keep them separate for a variety of reasons...billing, reporting, conversion rates are different, different goals, etc.  You will need to have 2 separate email addresses for the 2 accounts.  However you can manage both of the accounts inside 1 account called an MCC.  An MCC allows you to have several separate accounts inside 1 master shell.

Hope this helps

Branden

One way to get your new webpage page indexed really quickly is to write a post on your Google+ page with a link to the new page on your website.

tags default setting is 'follow".  You need to change to no-follow.

Its standard practice to set tags to no-follow.  Search Moz for 'should I no-follow my tags"?  you will find a bunch of answers to this question.

Do both!!  Send a personalized email and then follow up with a phone call.  Phone calls generate a better response than email, and if the phone call is a few days after the email, its not completely a cold call.