Online Marketing for Franchises

Our new year at SEO Komodo begins with a renewed commitment to blogging. This post is the first in a series all about online marketing in the world of franchising. Our clients are primarily franchise companies and we have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to online marketing in this industry. We will be sharing our knowledge and experience with all the franchisors and franchisees out there to help you take advantage of the huge opportunities in online marketing and avoid the pitfalls.

Online marketing is a catchall phrase that can include anything to do with conducting business on the web. Each post in this series will delve into the numerous component topics. We intend to educate the reader on a specific subject and then demonstrate how they all fit together in the big picture of online marketing. Most importantly, we will explain how online marketing helps achieve your business's goals. Topics that will be covered include:

Search engine optimization (SEO)
Pay-per-click marketing (PPC)
Website analytics
Writing website content
Social media marketing
Viral content creation
Blogging
Copyright and trademark protection
Link building
Local search
Conversion tracking
Online marketing Coordination between franchisors and franchisees
Call tracking
Franchise portals

Are there other topics that you would like to see covered? Let us know!

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to come back soon for the first topic in our Online Marketing for Franchises series: search engine optimization.

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Marketers Preparing for Pricier PPC Ads

MediaPost published a great article yesterday about the increasing costs of paid search and how marketers are coping by investing in natural search. The article includes many quotes from Tim Kauffold, director of business development at Oneupweb.

The following are some of Mr. Kauffold's quotes from the article along with some of my thoughts on the issue.

"In most cases, natural and paid search campaigns perform better together than they do separately. Greater awareness of a Web site created by a paid ad can lead to more natural traffic. In similar fashion, people are logically more likely to click on a paid promotional ad of marketers they recognize, such as those they've encountered during a natural search." -Kauffold

I would also add that paid search and natural search campaigns perform better together through shared data analysis. Paid search campaigns provide detailed data about which keyword phrases are performing the best. This data is also great at spotting keyword trends like what keywords have increasing conversion rates and vice versa over a given period of time. Marketers can use this keyword data for their SEO campaigns to optimize content around those keyword phrases. On the flip-side, traffic data gathered from search engine optimization can give insights into user behavior on your website. These insights can help marketers improve the quality of paid search landing pages.

"One of the things that surprises marketers--particularly those who have been using the media for several years--is how the costs are rising. They think, 'Why doesn't the same dollar buy me the same volume it used to?' But there are really big inflation numbers with cost-per-click. It's still a great avenue, but as more folks jump in, costs are going higher." -Kauffold

I briefly covered this basic market concept about two weeks ago in our post covering the Kelsey Group's annual forecast, but it's worth repeating here. As Kauffold says, paid search is still a great avenue but costs are increasing. Companies that optimize for natural search will reduce their dependence on paid search for leads and customers.

"Paid search is a media buy, and natural search optimization is an investment in the site itself, and that can take some time--maybe even a few months--to see results," -Kauffold

This statement pretty much speaks for itself, and it is a statement that is important to remember. Many large companies and tech/internet related companies have known this for years. However, many small businesses and franchise companies are just beginning to realize the importance of natural search optimization and how long it takes to see results. If anything, undertaking a search engine optimization campaign is all about building a foundation for the future.

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An introduction to search snippets

Google's Matt Cutts uploaded the following video to his blog last night. In the video, Matt discusses the anatomy of a Google search result. In particular he discusses the search snippet and the many different ways that Google's algorithm "generates" this snippet.





As you can see, the search snippet is a valuable indicator of relevancy for a searcher. It basically tells the searcher a little bit about what content is on the page in relation to their search query. As Matt mentioned, Google will sometimes generate this snippet using your page's meta description tag or Google can pull some text from one or more areas of the page. By optimizing its meta description tags and the content on its pages, a franchise company can increase search engine traffic to its website. Including information such as an individual location's physical address, areas served, etc. in that page's meta description tag and body text, a searcher is much more likely to see relevant information in the snippet. Then (hopefully) they will visit your site.

Thanks to Matt for making this video.

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Welcome to SEO Komodo

The first post to our first blog. Wow!

The dragon is here to optimize your presence on the web. SEO Komodo provides comprehensive website analysis and search engine optimization services that strengthen your organization's presence in search engine results and throughout the internet. Find out more at our Search Engine Optimization Homepage

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