2007 in Review.
2007 was a great year for this blog.
First of all, I broke the dry posting spell by actually getting back to it in May, thanks to seeing a co-worker blog personally and professionally at the same time. (Simon).
Second of all, I actually drove a considerable amount of traffic (for this blog) during 2007. Visitors increased 123%, people averaged 25% more pages viewed per visit, my bounce rate dropped over 30%, and average time on the site increased 120%.
My Top Sources of Traffic Outside of Organic and Direct Traffic:
Stumbleupon, MyBlogLog, and Sphinn.
Stumbleupon traffic appeared to actually read my site, as did MyBlogLog users. Sphinn users did not appear to read content based on the time on site. If they did, they read at least twice as fast.
My Organic Traffic
Organic traffic is definitely improving, and one lone experiment in keyword research prior to posting did result in that blog post lodging itself for several months in a top ten listing in Google for my targeted phrase and subsequently delivering traffic.
The top ten posts by number of visitors:
11 Measures of Social Networking Profile Success
Blog Improvement Tips for the Meme
PPC Bid Management Strategy - Bid Optimization of Non-Converting Keywords
SEO for Federal Agencies
Airline Marketing Strategies and Travel Advertising
Holiday E-Commerce Marketing Roundup
Why Internet Marketing Is Like A Treasure Hunt
Stop Shooting Viral Marketing Blanks
Michael Vick, Atlanta Falcons, NFL, and Reputation Management
Opt-in Email Marketing Techniques
Happy New Year! See you in 2008!
Facebook Flyers Make Room for Facebook Targeting.
When I first experimented as an advertiser with Facebook Flyers, I could purchase impressions for a flat fee and target it to a university. At least, that’s how I remember it going. As a Facebook user, I saw a slew of generic ads for affiliate programs and university apparel, amongst those that I remember showing up in the era of Facebook Flyers.
Now, Facebook ads can be targeted based on all sorts of things: location, gender, keywords, education status, workplace, political view, and relationship status.
Prior to Facebook Flyers being turned off, I was still receiving ads that said, “Single?” Even after, I’m still getting ads for dating sites, though fewer of them.
The following advertisers I assume are doing a good job and are targeting their ads to my marital status as “engaged”:
Holiday E-Commerce Marketing Roundup
Tips, Steps, and Best Practices to Improve Your E-Commerce Holiday Sales
In September, Taming the Beast covered what it takes to have your customer service ready for the holiday season.
Offer discounts, increase server capacity, learn from your competitors, and bundle products are just some of the 25 E-Commerce Holiday Tips for Your Website.
Check out the step-by-step synopsis and critique of Network Solution’s 7 Steps to Improve Your Online Holiday Sales Whitepaper in Improving eCommerce Holiday Sales Whitepaper Is Really A Best Practices List.
Search Engine Optimization for the Holidays
Make sure you’re getting the basics of SEO right with 25 eCommerce SEO Tips.
Don’t forget that the keywords that drive traffic to your site on a regular basis may not be the same keywords that can drive traffic around the holidays and that you can find out when keywords are searched during the year, with Rebecca’s Plan for the Holidays Nice and Early By Analyzing Search Trends.
And in the event your on-page SEO is top-notch already, you should definitely work on these 9 Linkbuilding Tips for Ecommerce Websites.
How E-Commerce Sites Can Embrace Social Media
There are answers to questions about how e-commerce sites can reach social media users, and which social media sites to target in the Practical eCommerce Interview: Ecommerce Implications From Social Media.
And whether you’ve started blogging for your e-commerce site or not, you’re sure to find tips and tricks in this monster list of ECOMMERCE BLOGS: 75+ Community Sites of the Top Online Retailers.
Pay-Per-Click Preparation for the Holidays
Just like this post probably comes too late in the holiday season to implement everything, regarding your ppc campaigns, you should have fleshed out your keywords, developed holiday ad copy, and focused on the buying cycle. Check out Holiday PPC Preparation: You should have started yesterday for suggestions on writing ad copy for holiday shoppers.
Mistakes can effect the performance of your PPC campaigns. Just check out this post on E-Commerce PPC Campaign Metrics with stats to prove the point!
Google Analytics Tracking E-Commerce Sales
Google Analytics can do a whole lot of things, and sometimes, a nice soul will go step-by-step to help you get your reports to Match Specific Transactions to Specific Keywords.
Shopping Cart Usability
I’ve argued that SEO is more than just on-page and off-page optimization, but includes driving visitors through a funnel. Usability and conversion really needs to be considered a part of SEO. Until it is, you might enjoy the eMarketer graphs on conversion rates and this post that says, “Your Ecommerce site ranks, but boy does it suck.”
And when you’ve been shocked into realizing your site can convert at a higher rate, you’ll be well served to check out eCommerce & Shopping Cart Usability: 21 Best Practices
