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Its not always the person that pays the most that will out rank other advertisers

The formula looks like this:

CPC bid × Quality Score = Ad score (The highest scores will rank in the top)

so what does that mean? Lets say that advertiser A has a Quality Score of 8 and he is willing to pay a max cpc of 2$ that gives him a total of 16 points ( 2$ x 8 quality score) But advertiser B is willing to pay 3$ per bid but only has a quality score of 5 giving him a total score of 15.

In this scenario Advertiser A would get the top position.

The avg _Quality Score is 5.. if you do a great job with your _Quality Score you will pay less to rank, and visa versa. __

__CTR has a huge impact on _Quality Score - So make sure your ads are relevant, interesting and standing out. ___

As Monica already stated it depends on various factors. The keywords you are targeting, but most of all the landingpages ability to convert visitors into customers.

I've done some work in that area

It wouldn't be unlikely to convert 2-3% on some keywords while others would be a waste of money. A perfectly optimized landingpage might do way better then these numbers, but that takes time and you obviously need to do some A/B testing. If you do a great job you might get x2 - x4 times the avg conversion (~2%)

A few tips:

• Devide your groups and ads to get the best possible quality score
• Test ads on how they perform - try to optimize as mush as you can
• Keep an eye on you CTR for keywords (higher CTR = you pay less pr click)
• track conversion rates for keywords, ads and campaigns
• Use negative keywords to filter out broadmatches that will lower you CTR
• Use ad Extensions to get a higher CTR
• Do A/B Testing of landingpages as well

Hi  Carl Ashfield

First of all SEO is a marathon - not a sprint!

And it seems to me, that you might be rushing into things a bit. I am not trying to discourage you, but it does seem like you might be better of working on your own project for a few months to gain more experience before you start on selling your services to customers.

There are alot of factors to consider, when it comes to ranking on page for a keyword/phrase even with a score of 38%

obviously links and social signals will help you rank, no doubt about that, but there are other metrics to take into considerations as well.

Maybe its better to tell you that I would do if I was in your shoes.

First of all, I would start by working on the domain authority, gaining links, mentions, awareness in your specific niche. I know this part takes some time, but take the time and put in the effort to gain some editorial links instead of adding you link to link directories.

Again, there are lots of ways to do that, but i would suggest that you take a step back, take a look at you link profile and figure out how to address this matter, from a natural and relationship building approach.

Take look at the page that you have build for a specific product/service and put yourself in the searchers/customers shoes and ask your self that obvious question, how are you addressing your visitors problem and what makes your content stand out?

Sure, I know there a lot of SEO guides are talking about "unique content" or "SEO optimized pages" but what you really want to do, is not just write 1000 words of content and hope that you content is a bit more compelling that the competitors content. what you should want to achieve is finding some unique value that everyone else is missing.. So, what might that be? - Well it might be making a video, collect data and make it more compelling for the reader with graphs or making a calculator etc.

Always keep the customer/visitor in mind, what are they expecting to see on you page and how can you present it in interesting and engaging way?

Make it simple for the visitor - What do you want them to do once the visit your page? Watch a video? Signup for a newsletter? buy a product? Yeah I know that the "Call to action" seems like a no brainer, but again and again I see companies forgetting to implement this very important part.

Keep track of bounce rate, time on site and other metrics that will have a impact on your rankings. If you don't already have an Google Analytics account - Make one

Depends on how much its worth for a conversion from those terms. It's all about ROI (Return of investment)

Just so you know, the "high competition" is a measurement of the interest from advertisers in adwords, not the difficulty of the organic search result. So I recommend you use the "Keyword Difficulty and SERP Analysis"-tool (Moz tool) to determent what keywords to go for.

The "Keyword Analysis" tool will also give you some insight on what your competitors have done to rank, which will give you some great knowledge on how to beat them.

Hi jamiecbmetals

Open Site Explorer is an awesome tool, To use this tool to find keyword ideas, enter the competitor’s URL and you go to the "Anchor Text" Distribution tab

You can also use Google KeywordPlanner - Click on "Search for new keyword and ad group ideas" Type in the competitor’s URL an you'll get ideas for terms. The best part is you can see suggestions and also search volume.

These tools should give you a pretty good idea how to get started.

Maybe you should start with talking to a consultant and analyse what your site needs? and also what you need to fix from the last guy you hired.

Before you start getting anything done its important to know the status of your site and also to get to know something about the competitors in other to beat them at there own game

There are a lot of great consultants out there and I wish you the best.

Feel free to contact me if you need future advise.

The juice flowing to your posts from your frontpage will still be the same, but if you have post that have external links pointing to them you wanna make sure that you are using 301's to direct the traffic to the new path.

And just because your post urls are example.com/category/postname doesnt send them any less value then you link from you frontpage. The juice till not go to the category it would still go to the post. But the stucture is more clear to people and search engines

I have to Agree with Lumina and I would like to add:

When you are using a url string like this:

example.com/category/postname

It makes it easier to track what categories that are doing best on your site in analytics or other tracking software you might be using. As well as it tells the user what topic the post is all about.

In My opinion the example.com/category/postname is the best practice and it also helps defining how you site is structured.

That depends..

Marketing is a huge area to cover so I would ask them for more information so i could give them the best possible advise.

In some cases a business school would be recommendable but in other cases like for instance online marketing, you need to be able to adjust all the time to all the new changes online. But they need to know the basics and a business school would provide the basic understanding (and more) so they had that part covered.

You'll Never stop being a student!!! - In my opinion it is of great importance to constantly be able to adjust to the marked and whats hot and whats not when it comes to marketing, you need to keep tabs on everything and try to figure out how to do your job better.. Read books / blogs and watch videos from prominent people in your field of business.

but anyways, back to your question, its hard to say that if you want to learn marketing you have to "do this" and you'll have success. I think you need to have a broader view on things and also really know what the person would need marketing for.. before you can give a satisfying answer

Hi  CalicoKitty2000

I don't know where you got all this information (where you read it or who told you) but IMO you have been mislead or only been told half of the story

Anchor text isn't bad.. its actually a good thing.. BUT if all the links pointing to you site have exact match anchor text, that might look pretty suspicious.

websites with unrelated subjects isn't a bad thing.. If the link is relevant in the context it has been written.

about submitted articles or guest blogging.. in general links that you influences/have control over in one way or another won't help you all that mush.. but the links that you have no control over will help you.. in other words; if someone refers to your site in some way that's a link that you have "no control" over - so to speak

Instead of thinking of building links, you should think of making outreach to people that might have an interest in your product or brand.

make content that people would want to link to or share.. that's a mush better approach.

Hi  Carl Ashfield

First of all SEO is a marathon - not a sprint!

And it seems to me, that you might be rushing into things a bit. I am not trying to discourage you, but it does seem like you might be better of working on your own project for a few months to gain more experience before you start on selling your services to customers.

There are alot of factors to consider, when it comes to ranking on page for a keyword/phrase even with a score of 38%

obviously links and social signals will help you rank, no doubt about that, but there are other metrics to take into considerations as well.

Maybe its better to tell you that I would do if I was in your shoes.

First of all, I would start by working on the domain authority, gaining links, mentions, awareness in your specific niche. I know this part takes some time, but take the time and put in the effort to gain some editorial links instead of adding you link to link directories.

Again, there are lots of ways to do that, but i would suggest that you take a step back, take a look at you link profile and figure out how to address this matter, from a natural and relationship building approach.

Take look at the page that you have build for a specific product/service and put yourself in the searchers/customers shoes and ask your self that obvious question, how are you addressing your visitors problem and what makes your content stand out?

Sure, I know there a lot of SEO guides are talking about "unique content" or "SEO optimized pages" but what you really want to do, is not just write 1000 words of content and hope that you content is a bit more compelling that the competitors content. what you should want to achieve is finding some unique value that everyone else is missing.. So, what might that be? - Well it might be making a video, collect data and make it more compelling for the reader with graphs or making a calculator etc.

Always keep the customer/visitor in mind, what are they expecting to see on you page and how can you present it in interesting and engaging way?

Make it simple for the visitor - What do you want them to do once the visit your page? Watch a video? Signup for a newsletter? buy a product? Yeah I know that the "Call to action" seems like a no brainer, but again and again I see companies forgetting to implement this very important part.

Keep track of bounce rate, time on site and other metrics that will have a impact on your rankings. If you don't already have an Google Analytics account - Make one

I have to Agree with Lumina and I would like to add:

When you are using a url string like this:

example.com/category/postname

It makes it easier to track what categories that are doing best on your site in analytics or other tracking software you might be using. As well as it tells the user what topic the post is all about.

In My opinion the example.com/category/postname is the best practice and it also helps defining how you site is structured.

There is a mozinar about this specific topic called "Online Reputation Management: Branding for SERP Domination" and the mozinar breaks it down for you step by step.

here is the link

http://moz.com/webinars/online-reputation-management-branding-for-serp-domination

As Monica already stated it depends on various factors. The keywords you are targeting, but most of all the landingpages ability to convert visitors into customers.

I've done some work in that area

It wouldn't be unlikely to convert 2-3% on some keywords while others would be a waste of money. A perfectly optimized landingpage might do way better then these numbers, but that takes time and you obviously need to do some A/B testing. If you do a great job you might get x2 - x4 times the avg conversion (~2%)

A few tips:

• Devide your groups and ads to get the best possible quality score
• Test ads on how they perform - try to optimize as mush as you can
• Keep an eye on you CTR for keywords (higher CTR = you pay less pr click)
• track conversion rates for keywords, ads and campaigns
• Use negative keywords to filter out broadmatches that will lower you CTR
• Use ad Extensions to get a higher CTR
• Do A/B Testing of landingpages as well

Not long ago I was working on a local project for an Event agency that needed local links. What we did was:

We contacted a local soccer club about making an event (for free to support the team) right there on the stadium. The deal sounded like:

We would setup two Bouncing castle for families with kids, so they could have some fun at half time. We asked if they were willing to announce this service on their homepage and Social account.

The event went smooth and gave us:

• A Post about about the company and the event on the clubs homepage with link
• Mentions in the local news
• New customers from the audience.
• And last but not least a contract for 2 more events at the club

Hope you will find this useful.

Hi jamiecbmetals

Open Site Explorer is an awesome tool, To use this tool to find keyword ideas, enter the competitor’s URL and you go to the "Anchor Text" Distribution tab

You can also use Google KeywordPlanner - Click on "Search for new keyword and ad group ideas" Type in the competitor’s URL an you'll get ideas for terms. The best part is you can see suggestions and also search volume.

These tools should give you a pretty good idea how to get started.

That depends..

Marketing is a huge area to cover so I would ask them for more information so i could give them the best possible advise.

In some cases a business school would be recommendable but in other cases like for instance online marketing, you need to be able to adjust all the time to all the new changes online. But they need to know the basics and a business school would provide the basic understanding (and more) so they had that part covered.

You'll Never stop being a student!!! - In my opinion it is of great importance to constantly be able to adjust to the marked and whats hot and whats not when it comes to marketing, you need to keep tabs on everything and try to figure out how to do your job better.. Read books / blogs and watch videos from prominent people in your field of business.

but anyways, back to your question, its hard to say that if you want to learn marketing you have to "do this" and you'll have success. I think you need to have a broader view on things and also really know what the person would need marketing for.. before you can give a satisfying answer

The juice flowing to your posts from your frontpage will still be the same, but if you have post that have external links pointing to them you wanna make sure that you are using 301's to direct the traffic to the new path.

And just because your post urls are example.com/category/postname doesnt send them any less value then you link from you frontpage. The juice till not go to the category it would still go to the post. But the stucture is more clear to people and search engines

Its not always the person that pays the most that will out rank other advertisers

The formula looks like this:

CPC bid × Quality Score = Ad score (The highest scores will rank in the top)

so what does that mean? Lets say that advertiser A has a Quality Score of 8 and he is willing to pay a max cpc of 2$ that gives him a total of 16 points ( 2$ x 8 quality score) But advertiser B is willing to pay 3$ per bid but only has a quality score of 5 giving him a total score of 15.

In this scenario Advertiser A would get the top position.

The avg _Quality Score is 5.. if you do a great job with your _Quality Score you will pay less to rank, and visa versa. __

__CTR has a huge impact on _Quality Score - So make sure your ads are relevant, interesting and standing out. ___

Hi

First of all it is ALWAYS a great idea to know you competition, study them! And see what they have been upto and gather knowledge on how to beat them. You might even find link opportunities while doing so.

Creating healthy back links is all about quality rather then volume. Building content that your industry are interested in and what they might find helpful can lead to natural links coming from "on topic" sites.Try to figure out how to get links/mentions from authority sites, that might send you traffic as well.

There isn't a right amount of blog post to publish per week. I would put more time into each blog post to make sure the quality and likability of the content is spot on.

Great content will make people want to comeback to your block and also make them stay and read longer (That way your are sending the right signals to google as well... that you content makes people stay and read and not bounce back)

What would be the best procedure to begin creating healthy back links? Would looking at my competitors back links help me?

What would be the recommended amount of back links created per week? Also how many blogs entries should we aim to create per week?

The website i'm working on is manvanlondon.co.uk