ISO SEO CPC SEM CTR

**pluckyduck** · #1 06-15-2008, 07:06 AM

So, since last we met up a lot, a *lot* of any online time has been emeshed in those acronyms. If they mean anything to you, it won't surprise you to hear that I have Analytics, Ad Words and Webmaster tools each open in their own window here as I'm drinking my Sunday AM coffee. Been tweaking keywords since 4AM.

I would love to have some converations and trade ideas with any EA folks who spend time wrestling with the same things I'm wrestling with.

There are a bazillion online communities where I can have the conversation but everybody has an agenda. Plus there's only so much I'm going to say about our strategies publicly (not a lot).

??

Failing that, we can always talk about bread. mmmmmm, bread.

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #2 06-15-2008, 08:00 AM

Sorry, I don't know your acronyms. I work with ACS, CPS, ISC, DFY, DJJOY, OCFS, PYA, IFF, IOC, and there's and RFP coming out soon.

**pluckyduck** · #3 06-15-2008, 08:06 AM

Quote:

mjfrombuffalo said

Sorry, I don't know your acronyms. I work with ACS, CPS, ISC, DFY, DJJOY, OCFS, PYA, IFF, IOC, and there's and RFP coming out soon.

RFP! I knows RFP!

Wait, I hate RFPs.

phoenixx · #4 06-15-2008, 04:16 PM

You need Woopra.

And you can email me or Twitter me anytime to talk about the social media and internet marketing world I am immersed in. I'm working on a review of Woopra for Profy, so if you wait a day or so I'll come back an link it here.

**pluckyduck** · #5 06-15-2008, 05:55 PM

Quote:

phoenixx said

You need Woopra.

And you can email me or Twitter me anytime to talk about the social media and internet marketing world I am immersed in. I'm working on a review of Woopra for Profy, so if you wait a day or so I'll come back an link it here.

Woopra!

I duz not no dis 1! (sorry, sorry, sorry, I am addicted to lolcats, it's a plague, i'm trying to stop)

Anyway, I'll check the link. ALSO, I am on Twitter, under windy_moon, not pluckyduck. I'll follow you.

My tweets are boring. My kids follow me so the tweets are things like "I had gobstoppers after lunch" and "somebody in my house has to laundry, but it's not me".

magenta321 · #6 06-15-2008, 06:46 PM

I know these terms but I am not great with the whole SEM thing. I mean, we do well... number 1 in the places I care most about (including on some of the competition's business names, lol), top 3 for almost all our keywords, but it's either luck or that I'm bidding on very specific words in a very specific geographical area. I just check the graphs once a week and make sure I don't need to feed more money at adwords and yahoo.

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #7 06-15-2008, 07:03 PM

I can has glossary?

magenta321 · #8 06-15-2008, 07:06 PM

ISO SEO CPC SEM CTR

In Search Of?
Search Engine Optimization
Cost Per Click
Search Engine Marketing
Click Through Rate

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #9 06-15-2008, 07:09 PM

Ah. We're getting someone to talk about that stuff at our statewide IT conference in October. Didn't seem to have much applicability for non-profits until we started talking about recruiting foster parents, recruiting staff, and encouraging donations.

**pluckyduck** · #10 06-15-2008, 07:27 PM

Quote:

mjfrombuffalo said

Ah. We're getting someone to talk about that stuff at our statewide IT conference in October. Didn't seem to have much applicability for non-profits until we started talking about recruiting foster parents, recruiting staff, and encouraging donations.

Let me give you an example. DH and I heard the NPR piece on Meals on Wheels being impacted, services cut, by gas prices. Losing volunteers.

This is upsetting to both of us, so I hit google to see if there was a Meals on Wheels in our area and what they might be looking for in volunteers

Not an easy search. I never really got the answer to my question. A truly determined person, of course, would have picked up the phone and started calling.............but people do that less and less nowadays and respond to the immediacy of what they find on Page One of search results for Google more.

It *has* to matter at least some, depending on what a non-profit needs from the public.

My point isn't really about Meals On Wheels. I did eventually find this form, which I didn't fill out because as near as I can tell there isn't a program in our immediate area that I could nudge the husband into delivering for. (He's home during the day).

I really do think it matters though.

**pluckyduck** · #11 06-15-2008, 07:53 PM

Quote:

magenta321 said

I know these terms but I am not great with the whole SEM thing. I mean, we do well... number 1 in the places I care most about (including on some of the competition's business names, lol), top 3 for almost all our keywords, but it's either luck or that I'm bidding on very specific words in a very specific geographical area. I just check the graphs once a week and make sure I don't need to feed more money at adwords and yahoo.

Thanks for doing the glossary, Margaret. Sometimes (often) I'm too clever for my own good.

Adwords isn't *too* bad for me. Huge ramp up learning curve, huge, dumped tons and tons of time into it. I now buy a bunch of ads on a bunch of keywords...am always testing and tweaking. It gets exhausting.

Tracking ROI (Return On Investment) is a bitch. I throw my hands up. We have B2B purchases often done by committee, often with long purchase cycles, often submitted by PO in methods other than online ordering. It's tough. I have a pretty big budget line item and no real way to tie sales to expenditure.

Other than that, it's easy.

SEM, yeah, wow, there's a topic. I'm doing better though than I was six months ago.

This is work!

magenta321 · #12 06-15-2008, 08:02 PM

Was I right on "in search of?" cause now I'm thinking maybe it means "internet search optimization" and I just spend more time on craigslist than I do monitoring my adwords account.

Your business and my business are different. You can actually measure ROI by tracking if your customers actually buy something. In theory we could to, if we did special numbers for each type of ad we do, but TPTB refuse. Then they ask me to show their ROI... hello... you haven't given me a way to measure it :p

I basically throw however much money it wants at it. Because my keywords are inexpensive and we get way fewer searches and clicks on our line of business than I am sure you get on yours, my "throwing money at it" is a very little amount of money. Basically, if we had one person come in and have a test because of my SEM, we've paid for the entire month's SEM. I'm certain you couldn't recoup your expenses based on one sale

I thought I had a meeting coming up in NYC about SEM that I was going to welcome you to attend but I just checked the details and it's on branding instead. You're still welcome to come though!

**pluckyduck** · #13 06-15-2008, 08:17 PM

Quote:

magenta321 said

Was I right on "in search of?" cause now I'm thinking maybe it means "internet search optimization" and I just spend more time on craigslist than I do monitoring my adwords account.

Your business and my business are different. You can actually measure ROI by tracking if your customers actually buy something. In theory we could to, if we did special numbers for each type of ad we do, but TPTB refuse. Then they ask me to show their ROI... hello... you haven't given me a way to measure it :p

I basically throw however much money it wants at it. Because my keywords are inexpensive and we get way fewer searches and clicks on our line of business than I am sure you get on yours, my "throwing money at it" is a very little amount of money. Basically, if we had one person come in and have a test because of my SEM, we've paid for the entire month's SEM. I'm certain you couldn't recoup your expenses based on one sale

I thought I had a meeting coming up in NYC about SEM that I was going to welcome you to attend but I just checked the details and it's on branding instead. You're still welcome to come though!

ISO was an old dating ad joke, "Is Seeking Out", you know ISO SWM.

If I wanted to, I could spend $50,000 a month in google alone, and not get anywhere near blanket coverage on a dream list of ads, keywords and products. There are lots of keywords that are way too rich for my blood, upwards of $10.00. I tip my hat to the folks who have figure out how to make money of those. I run some words at a couple bucks, but back off the highly competitive ones.

(There's an area I dabble in, not tied to my industry but a spot where keywords I would want mesh into keywords another industry is frothing over. $23.00 CPC. I kid you not.)

And I *can't* actually measure if customers buy something, dammit. Decisions for what I sell are a process. They click, they look around, if I'm lucky they request something and I capture their info, but the actual sale could be a month from now via onlne, fax, phone, or by an entirely different entity who is paying for what the original clicker clicked on.

Gah! B2B is really a pain in the horses patoot.

*emeleel* · #14 06-15-2008, 09:14 PM

George and Joan are doing a lot with SEO stuff, you might want to drop them a line. They're not hanging around here anymore, they're too busy. You can find them at CONSUMER HELP WEB and there might be email addys in their profiles here.

**mtomm**[$] · #15 06-16-2008, 01:27 PM

CTR isn't Choose the Right?

**pluckyduck** · #16 06-16-2008, 06:26 PM

Quote:

mtomm said

CTR isn't Choose the Right?

Ah, if you Choose the Right, then your Click Thru Rate skyrockets, so you know, it really is the same thing.

Melanie, thanks for the note about George and Joan. I did catch that. George and I exchanged a quick email recently and I'm sure we'll talk more. He said they were office rearranging or something this week.

Thanks!