There are three types of search results returned on a SERP (search engine results page): local, organic and paid.

Red Arrow: Local search
Yellow Arrow: Organic search
Blue Arrow: Paid search

What exactly is paid search? Paid results require a fee in order for the search engine to showcase your ad. The most popular form of paid advertising is Pay Per Click (PPC), where you pay each time someone clicks on your ad and visits your website. Since organic search results take time, paid search can be viewed as a quick way to get your website listed at the top of a SERP. Some people view paid search as an auction, where the highest bidder gets the best spot, however that is not the case and running a truly effective and optimized campaign takes time and skill. As advertising competition continues to increase across all markets this task becomes much more challenging. There are MANY factors that go into how well your ad performs.

Google knows that in order to make money search users need to click on the ad’s ranking within the Sponsored Links at the top and right-hand side of the SERP. For this reason they are constantly improving the user experience by providing the best search results possible. Quality Score is the main factor that determines how relevant an ad is and where it will rank. As an advertiser, if you want potential customers to see your ad – you need to pay attention to Quality Score. This score influences your ads’ position, and it partially determines your keywords’ minimum bids, which can help reduce your budgets.

I recommend setting up paid search within the two major search engines; Google & Yahoo. If your dollars are limited, stick to Google. When trying to determine how to allocate dollars, I suggest breaking it out based on the latest market share numbers. Google currently controls around 75% of the search market while Yahoo holds about 15% and other smaller engines make up the remaining 10%. Based on that – if you are spending $100 per month on PPC advertising, you should allocate $75 – 80 towards Google and $15 – 20 for Yahoo. As and FYI, in my experience Yahoo never performs like Google – so make sure you set realistic expectations and benchmark standards.

Which reminds me, even if you master one search engine, the other doesn’t necessarily use the same algorithm when determining ranking and relevancy. If you refer to the Yahoo SERP below you will see it returned completely different results than Google, even though I searched for the same keyword term, “madison wi restaurants.”

All that being said, do I think anyone can set up a paid search campaign? Yes. Do I think anyone has the ability to set up a fully optimized and effective campaign where the keywords are purchased with the correct tactics and the budget is maximized for the life of the campaign? Maybe.

The moral of my story —-when I was younger my grandma taught me, “If you aren’t going to do it right, don’t do it at all” and I still live by that motto today. When allocating dollars to various marketing tactics it’s important to make sure you are using your dollars wisely so you can fully realize the value of the advertising medium. If you don’t you might deem paid search an ineffective advertising medium, when in actuality it proves to be one of the most effective and targeted ways to drive traffic and awareness to your business.

Don’t feel comfortable setting up your own paid search campaign? Have more questions about paid search? If you’re spending any money on paid advertising, this should be of significant interest to you. Kella Design is definitely interested  and would love to handle your paid advertising for a fraction of the cost of our competitors. Contact us today!

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Lately it seems I have blogged a lot about social media and the benefits it can have for business’ or brands. Since Kella Design is a full-service firm I felt it was time to move onto one of our other specialties, Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

What is Search Engine Marketing? SEM is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of search engine optimization, paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion.  In my last blog I spoke about search engine optimization and through a series of blogs I plan to talk about each of the tactics mentioned above.

It’s important for local business owners to take advantage of any and all marketing tactics that can help gain an edge in search engine marketing. One tactic that Kella Design highly recommends is to take control of your business listing through Google Places.

So, what is Google Places? Once known as Google Local Business Center, Google realized the sophistication level of the general public and the way they searched. People are no longer searching for an oil change, but want to know where they can locally get their oil changed, i.e. Oil change Madison WI. For this reason, Google re-prioritized their SERP listings and moved the Google Maps feature to where the eye focused (through heat map technology —->), increased the amount of listings shown and created Google Places (April 20, 2010).

Within Google Places you are able to claim and sumit your business listing. In order to verify the process Google mails a postcard with a PIN to the physical address within the listing. This usually arrives with a few weeks. Once your business listing is verified, you are able to fully customize your business listing. Some of the major benefits include: manage your business listing, post coupons and live updates and monitor performance.

To learn more about Google Places and the benefits of taking control your business listing view the video below. Want all the benefits but don’t have the time? That’s why we’re here! Contact Kella Design and let us optimize your business listing for you.

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SEO, stands for Search Engine Optimization and for most people, is a pretty confusing topic. Everyone knows you can’t judge a book by it’s covers and the same applies for websites. You may have the most creative graphically designed website but, without completing the other pieces of the puzzle, no one will see it. 

SEO is the other necessary piece of the puzzle but, what does that mean? In short, search engine optimization is the process of improving ranking in search engine results. There are many tactics to improve “organic or natural” rankings and it’s no longer enough to simply add META tags, stuff keywords or do search engine submission of your site to a thousand search engine indexes and directories. SEO is a multi-step process that requires detailed research, exceptional programming, planned link building and patience.

Many web firms will provide you a pretty website, accompanied by a high price tag and no optimization. At Kella Design, we know how important it is to have Google on your side. That’s why all our proposals include SEO – so we can continue to build your relationship with Google, the most powerful search engine in the world!

Questions? We realize there is a lot of information to digest. Feel free to contact us!

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Lately it seems like there is not enough time in the day! Between both of us having full-time jobs, being the parents of a crazy little monster and juggling everyday life and Kella Design, I am surprised we find time to lay our heads on our pillows most nights.

Don’t get me wrong, we are so grateful for all of the things mentioned above and truly appreciative of the success we are experiencing with Kella Design. All the hard work put in has given us quite the pretty portfolio. We have been pushing out so much work lately that I wanted to take the time to show off some of the most recent projects:

Dunner’s Lawn Service
Shaun Andersen approached Kella looking for a logo, website, business cards and trifold brochure to give his new business venture a professional look. We really like how the finished product turned out.

Sew Country
Cathy Lee, owner of Sew Country, located in Clear Lake WI, knew it was time to take her business online. Kella Design provided the fabric store with a website that allows Sew Country the opportunity to feature their many fabrics as well as sell them online through an e-commerce solution.

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If this is true, why does it seem everytime a new marketing tactic arises everyone’s a skeptic? When Social Networking sites came on the scene I expected the same type of scenario. Everyone, specifically business entities, is always hesitant to get on the bandwagon until many others prove success.  The typical questions are usually:

• What’s my ROI?
• Is it really worth my time?
• Isn’t it just teenagers talking to one another?

Now that many of the big brands have seen real results, it seems as if there is no room on the bandwagon due to the masses rushing to get on. As if there were a deadline, everyone has begun to scheme up their social plans and create a presence – even Satan uses Facebook.

In the past, promoting your company via social networking was much easier than today. You simply set up a profile in Facebook and maybe posted a status update once a week. Since so many big players and budgets have embraced social networking as a valuable medium – today, you not only need an active profile in Facebook but, Twitter, LinkedIn, and a blog are a must. You should also be considering other more relevant networks depending upon your industry. Some of the fastest growing social sites include Xanga, Ning and Bebo.

In addition to creating a presence within the social networks, big brands have also shifted from promoting their websites to promoting their social spheres. And it’s not just big brands. Remember how I mentioned Satan is on Facebook – well so is God, and the big guy upstairs is taking it one step further by promoting his social presence via billboards.

Social networking is definitely here to stay and can be a very useful tool for businesses no matter what industry. The important thing to remember – you always need a strategy in place before rushing in. Define your goals and establish realistic time commitments to make sure you are doing a good job. In my opinion the most important thing to remember —— it’s called “Social” Networking because the intent is to be social, conversational, transparent, helpful, etc. Don’t try to control the situation – just go with the flow.

Further resources and tips that can help you strategize your social model:

5 Advanced Social Media Marketing Strategies for Small Business

10 Small Business Social Media Marketing Tips

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1) Redesign Your Website

If you haven’t already, ramp up your marketing plan to update your website. Take a good look at your competitors and see how your website stacks up. Having an outstanding website will increase your sales and draw positive attention to your company. It may even lighten your work load if it is done properly. Plan ahead for items you would like in the future and at the very least have them in mind once you redesign your website. You went basic on the first one because you knew a website is a must, now is the time to do it right. Your investment in a custom built website will pay off in the end!

2) Brand Your Company

Sit down and take a little time to focus on your company image. Having a good company logo can increase the awareness of your company in your community even better than word-of-mouth can at times. If you paid your neighbor’s kid to come up with your logo, now might be the time to rethink that. Re-branding could be one of the best decisions you have ever made, and it will refresh your brand in people’s minds. Give yourself a new logo, update your business cards, stationeries, envelopes, etc. It’s a New Year and time for a new look!

3) Jump on the Social Media Bandwagon

It is not a fad anymore, it is a key component of your marketing strategy. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WordPress are here to stay. When each are used properly they can become a great asset to your business. When you are tight on a budget, or the budget doesn’t exist when it comes to marketing, social media is the way to go. It’s cheap, flexible, gets quick results and gets easier with time. Social Media and Social Networking aren’t going away anytime in the near future. If social media hasn’t become part of your marketing plan, you have some catching up to do!

4) Allocate Money to Online Marketing

Websites with relevant content will continue to rule search engine rankings. No matter what your budget, you can place your ads on Google or Yahoo and they will be displayed as part of their advertising network. Your ads appear beside related search results, people click and connect to your business. The nice thing is that you only pay when people click. Set up SEO performance goals, make them specific, measurable and timely. At the very least you want to determine if the goal has been met and why a trend has occurred.

5) Communicate with Your Customers Through Email Marketing

Use email newsletters to keep in touch with your customers on a regular basis. Your newsletters can include current or upcoming events, hints and tips, deals or promotions you are currently pushing, or topics of interest to readers. Email marketing will build relationships with current or prospective customers. You can use the newsletter as a subtle reminder to return to your website, and put your product or service back in the face of the end user.

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Well looky what we have here….a little blog brought to you by Kella Design!

What can you expect from this blog you may ask? We will hit up ways to help you with design, how to work with different clients, aspects of running a small business, emerging technologies, mobile apps, that myface or spacebook thing everyone seems to be talking about, and hoping my ADHD doesn’t take over and send you down some weird path.

Basically we will hit up stuff we are interested in and things we believe will help others that do the same things we do.  We also may confuse people…..I apologize for that!

So stay tuned, there is a lot more to come!

Happy Holidays and Safe Travels to Everyone as well.

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