Pay Per Click Marketing Centricity

SEM: Why use website instead of Web site?

It seems most of Terrakon's search engine marketing competitors choose to use the term "Web site." Terrakon, on the other hand, uses the term "website." What's the deal? Are we a rebel organization just trying to be different? Do we just not know what we're doing? Who's right?

Like many controversial issues, it depends upon who you ask. Most style guides, like the AP style guide that newspapers use, say the correct spelling is "Web site." Dictionary.com lists "Web site" and then "website" as an alternate spelling. Sometimes, though, it takes awhile for these style guides to catch up with new trends that become fixtures in our society.

One of the keys to successful search engine marketing is understanding the number of potential prospects who search on a keyword phrase that describes the products and services you offer. In our case, we selected "website" because that is how most people spell the word - at least when using Google.

   

Using Google Trends, you'll notice that "website" is used far more often than "Web site." If you look at the bottom graph labeled "news reference volume," you'll notice that even news organizations have started to use the official "Web site" term less often - notice how the gap between the two has decreased between 2004 and 2006?

I think it's just a matter of time before the style guides and other SEM firms "catch up" with how most people think about the "website" term. Kind of like "email," instead of "e-mail." Oops, that's another issue...

Rob Reed
Terrakon - a search engine marketing firm and sales consultancy

Web Design Tool Shows What Others See on Your Website

Have you ever wondered what your website looks like to other people with different browsers, operation systems, screen sizes, etc.? There are literally thousands of combinations which makes it nearly impossible to design a website to appear properly in all combinations.

At the very least, you should be testing your new website with the "major" combinations of browsers, operating systems and screen sizes. Even tackling only the latest major players, however, is still very difficult for most organizations.

In steps BrowserCam. BrowserCam will check any website from a multitude of these combinations and take an image of the web page so you can see what it looks like from systems other than your own.

While there is a charge to use the system, they do offer a free trial for up to 24 hours and 200 screen shots. This will limit you to one screen size and a subset of the browser/operating system combinations. It seemed to have a few hiccups in the nearly 200 screen shots, but I still found it to be a website design worth checking out.

Rob Reed
Terrakon - a sales and internet marketing consulting firm

Where Do Your Prospects Notice Your Advertising?

I found another advertising survey that may be of interest to many of you who read this marketing and internet marketing blog. comScore conducted a survey of 1,000 Internet users and asked the following question:

Where are you most likely to pay attention to or notice advertising for any product or service?

Advertising Medium - Percent of Respondents

1. TV - 85%
2. Print - 60%
3. News/Media sites - 53%
4. Corporate sites - 51%
5. User Generated Content sites (e.g. My Space, YouTube, etc.) - 28%
6. Billboard - 22%
7. Radio - 22%

Of course, since I'm an avid Tivo user, I wonder how long TV will be able to hold the number one spot? It would also be interesting to see how this has changed and will change over time as electronic advertising continues to eat away at traditional advertising.

Trust in Advertising

Syndication Header: Rob Reed is president of Terrakon Sales and Marketing Consulting. Terrakon provides sales, marketing, and internet marketing services that increase online and offline conversions using a trust-building framework.

Post: If you are exploring different advertising mediums, you may want to consider survey results from comScore Networks conducted in Fall 2006. The question of 1,000 respondents representing the general internet population:

Where would you find trustworthy advertising for any product or service?

Advertising Medium - Percent of respondents

1. TV - 63%
2. Corporate sites - 51%
3. Print - 50%
4. News/Media sites - 49%
5. Radio - 28%
6. User Generated Content Sites (UGC) - 23%
7. Billboard - 19%

There are at least three significant takeaways from this survey:

1. If you offer a service or more complex product where trust is critical to your success, you may want to think twice about which advertising vehicle is used in your marketing mix.
2. It appears the majority of people do not believe advertising is trustworthy for products and services. The lack of trust could be because many companies and ad agencies use way too much hype; focus too much on the creative and not enough on the consumer; and don't understand how to build trust elements into their advertising.
3. If you can create trustworthy advertising, you can significantly differentiate yourself in the minds of potential customers and win more business - regardless of which advertising vehicle you choose.