Five Tools for Spying on Your Competition
by Kim Roach (c) 2006


Did you know that an ancient Chinese military document unlocks many of the secrets to your online success? This book is called "The Art of War" and was written during the 6th century by Sun Tzu. This famous document is one of the oldest and most famous studies of strategy and has had a huge influence on military planning as well as business tactics.
Sun Tzu wrote about the importance of knowing your competitors before competing. This wisdom is crucial to your online success. Here are some quotes that verify this truth in the art of war as well as business.

"If you know yourself, but not your enemy, for every battle won, you will suffer a loss."

"If you know your enemy and yourself, you will wín every battle."

Before you create your own marketing strategies, you must first know your competitors. By understanding your competitor's strategies, you can always stay a step ahead of them.

The key is knowing how to obtain all of this vital information without having to hire a PR firm, an FBI agent, or an undercover spy. Luckily for us, all we need are a few online tools to find out exactly how are competitors are running the show.

1. SpyFu.com

The first tool you should add to your arsenal can be found at SpyFu.com.

SpyFu.com is the long-awaited sequel to Googspy.com, a free competitive research tool that allows you to research your competitors marketing campaigns. SpyFu.com, however, stands head and shoulders above its predecessor, providing over twenty times more data.

This website monitors nearly 4.5 million domains, showing you exactly how much your competitors are paying for search advertising on a daily basis, the total number of clicks they are receiving, and their average ad position. SpyFu also reveals the exact keywords that your competitors are ranking for in organic search and who their top 100 competitors are.

2. Internet Archive

The next spy tool will enable you to explore a website's history and how it has changed over time. You can find all of this information at http://www.archive.org.

Many of you have probably heard of the Internet Archive. However, you may not realize that it is an extremely powerful tool for spying on your competition. Using this free and simple tool you can discover:

• How often a website has changed their copy?
  
  
• Whether or not a website is split testing? (This alone could show you years of data on what type of copy works best. Testing your own website copy is extremely important, but you should also be checking to see what your competitors are doing as well. You can learn volumes just by looking at what their salës page looks like over time.)
  
  
• Find out if your competitors have made any big changes in their offer, including price, bonuses, guarantees, etc.
  If you're just looking to have a little fun, then look up Google in the Internet Archive and see what their site looked like in 1998. You see, competitive intelligence can informative as well as amusing!
  

Next up is one of my favorite search tools.

3. Search Status

Search Status is one of the best SEO tools around. It is a plug-in for the Firefox browser so it comes completely free of charge.

You can use this tool to:

• Highlight no-follow links
  
  
• View any page in Archive.org
  
  
• Show all Whois information. This is especially useful if you want to find out who the owner of a website is. (great for setting up a joint venture)
  
  
• Show robots.txt file. This feature will show you exactly which pages and directories a website does not want listed because they want to keep them private. (can be quite informative.)
  
  
• Show Indexed Pages. Find out exactly how many pages a website has listed in all 3 major search engines.
  
  
• Show Backward Links. This feature will show you exactly which sites are linking to the current page or website that you are visiting. This is especially useful for finding link partners and affiliates.
  

The next tool will allow you to find out which web host a company is using. This information can be found at:

4. WhoIs.sc

Once you arrive at this site, you simply enter the domain name into the search box. You will then be taken to a page that will give you a wide variety of information on that domain. Scroll down to where it says "name servers". In this column you will often find the exact URL for the web hostíng company they use.

Our final spy tool comes straight from Google, allowing you to keep full-time tabs on the Internet without the hours of research it would normally require.

For many years, companies paid lots of monëy to PR firms to provide news items and updates on their competitors, often referred to as a "clipping service". With the onset of the Internet, these tools are now automated and free.

One such tool is:

5. Google Alerts

Using Google Alerts, you can easily monitor what is being said online about you, your company, your products, and your competition.

Google alerts shows results from the Web, Google News, and Google Blog search. All of this competitive intelligence can then be sent directly to your email inbox.

Simply enter the terms you want to track and Google will scour the Internet on a daily basis to keep you updated on your particular industry.

These alerts can notify you of when new links start pointing to your website, when someone uses one of your articles, or when the blogosphere mentions your name.

If you want to keep up with your competitor, simply enter the company name or their product and you can begin tracking what people are saying online about them.

Google Alerts is an indispensable tool for market research. Start creating your own Google Alerts at http://www.google.com/alerts.

Keep in mind, however, that these are only tools. Some of the most powerful competitive intelligence comes from actually surfing around your marketplace, visiting the forums, and buying your competitors' products. This is the only way to get a complete picture of what is happening in your industry.

If you want to wín in your marketplace, it's time you go undercover.


About The Author

Kim Roach is a staff writer and editor for the SiteProNews and SEO-News newsletters. You can also find additional tips and news on webmaster and SEO topics by Kim at the SiteProNews blog. Kim's email is: kim @ seo-news.com

How To Write Google Adwords Ads That Get Clicks
by Ryan Cole

A typical AdWords newbie is often guilty of several profit-squashing mistakes when setting up his first campaign. There are dozens of no-nos, but perhaps none so egregious as writing ineffective ads.

An effective AdWords ad is one that gets lots of clicks — that's the only thing you should be concerned about when writing your ads (except, of course, Google’s editorial policy). If you’ve done your keyword research, you’ll get impressions; if you’ve got a page that converts to sales, you’ll get a return on your investment. But getting people to your landing page is the ad’s job, and there are some things you can do to pump up your clickthrough rate (CTR), which will improve your ads' positioning and lower your click costs.

First, some ad basics. Each AdWords ad comprises four lines of text: the first is the headline, which can contain up to 25 characters including spaces; the next two are the ad copy, 35 characters each; and the last is your display URL, also 35 characters. (There is actually a fifth line — the destination URL — but that won't display with your ad and shouldn't affect your CTRs). Obviously, the headline is most important, because it’s usually the first thing a searcher sees. If you can make your headline jump out from the rest, your ad will be more visible. Fortunately, Google makes this pretty easy.

You may have noticed that, when searching on Google, your search query is bolded when it appears in any of the search results. The same thing goes for sponsored search results: if you include the keywords you’re bidding on in your ad text, specifically the headline, your ad will stand out.

But what if you’ve got hundreds or thousands of keywords? You can’t be expected to write a different ad for each keyword, right? Of course not — and you don’t have to. In AdWords, your keywords can be separated into groups, aptly dubbed "ad groups." Each ad group should contain a set of keywords and phrases that all have a common thread. For example, if you’re bidding on the term “widgets,” you should place each phrase containing that term into one ad group. You then write an ad whose title contains the word “widgets” — for example, “Get Your Widgets Here.” You can even repeat this for terms within ad groups. For example, in your “widgets” group, you might have the terms “red widgets” and “green widgets.” You can take these out and place each in its own ad group, along with any other similar phrases. Then your ads will be even more focused — for example, “Get Red Widgets Here.” The more keywords that appear in your ad, the more relevant your ad becomes.

Chris McNeeney, author of "AdWords Miracle," has some great copywriting tips. Chris used to write classified ads for a living, and his mastery of the art is evident in the techniques he outlines in his book. For example, he talks about a method called "stop them in their tracks." To stop potential customers in their tracks, you've got to come up with ad copy that tells customers to do the opposite of what they're trying to do. In keeping with the widgets theme, you could write an ad whose headline says, "Don't Buy Any Widgets!" Follow that up with some relevant ad text that entices people to buy your widgets rather than someone else's, by including the benefits your widgets offer; e.g., "Check out ours first. Better, cheaper, and guaranteed." This kind of ad will get people's attention right away, and getting their attention is all you need to do.

And now, an experiment. Pretend you want to buy something online. Head over to Google and do a search for whatever it is. See the sponsored links? Look at the headlines. Which one jumps out at you first? I’m betting it’s the one that seemed most relevant to your search because it contained the exact information you searched for. What’s the headline look like? I bet at least one of the words is bolded (if not all of them), and I’ll bet the rest of the ad lets you know exactly what you’ll get when you click on it. This is the best way to figure out how to write ads. Put yourself in the place of your target market, and then actually do some searches and check out the ads. Which one makes you want to click? Ask people you know to do searches and tell you which ads grab their attention. You’ll probably find it’s the same kind of ad every time.


About the Author:

Find more articles by Ryan Cole at http://www.theinternetmarketingblog.org. Read more about Chris McNeeney's http://www.theinternetmarketingblog.org

Using Ideal Words to Describe Your Products ... Adjectives really do matter
by Robin Nobles

When you create content, titles, and descriptions for your products and product lines, what descriptive words do you use? What descriptive words do your potential customers use? Have you even taken the time to think about it, or better yet, find out?

Let me give you a perfect example: watches.

I’ve been in the market for a watch lately, but not just any watch. I like unique and unusual things. But when I plugged in descriptive keywords into the search engines—words like unique, unusual, colorful, and funky—ladies watches, the organic results held nothing of interest.

In the organic results, I found collector sites, blogs, and sites in other languages. I found description tag spam. However, the watch sites were classic women’s watches like you’d find in any department store. There were absolutely nothing unique about them.

I actually went through six pages of search results under numerous keyword sets each and came up with nothing. Count them ... six pages.

So, I went to the PPC results. Again, most of those weren’t relevant to my search. However, I did find the most phenomenal watches made from safety pins. That’s what I call unique!

Look at Your Own Products

How are you describing your own products? What descriptive words would your customers use when searching for your products? The more accurately you describe your products, the more targeted your traffic will be.

How do you know how people are searching? Try Wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com), which is the best online resource for researching your customer’s behavior. Also, study your log files.

A Niche Within a Niche

If you’re selling classic ladies’ watches by Seiko, use those words to describe the watches. Don’t call them unique or unusual unless they are. Call them feminine, elegant, or classy. Or describe them as being bracelet watches, silver-tone, or with diamonds. Are they replica watches? Luxury watches? Fashion watches? Waterproof? Made of a particular material?

Men’s watches can be a certain brand as well as military watches, LED, dress, sports, diving, vintage, casual, bargain, pocket, pre-owned, and the list goes on.

Form a niche within a niche, and build content around the types of watches you sell. That way, if you sell vintage watches reminiscent of the 70’s, you can describe one of your unique watches like this:

Psychedelic orange orb ladies’ watch that brings back memories of the smell of patchouli and the sound of Janis Joplin

If you have a whole section on vintage watches, you’ll have a much better chance at ranking high for that keyword phrase. Use “vintage” in the title, description, and content on each page, but describe each watch differently. You certainly wouldn’t describe a watch like the one above as “classic” or “feminine.”

Plus, your visitors will be getting relevant results from the organic searches, and your site will be getting targeted traffic. Win/win situation.

Adjectives are Subjective

Yes, you’re right—they are. When searching for watches, I didn’t consider the majority of watches I found to be unique. I personally don’t consider classic ladies’ gold-toned watches that you can find in any department store to be unique. However, someone else might.

However, I also wasn’t after unique in the sense of a watch with Gene Autry in the center of it. Even I have my limits on unique!

Look for Keyword “Holes” in Your Niche Industry

In the case of watches, I definitely found some keyword holes that a good SEO needs to explore. The organic results are desperately lacking the long tail of marketing keywords that are well known for bringing in a steady stream of targeted traffic. The results may be there, but they’re pointing to irrelevant pages. How many people are going to go through the first six pages of results? This is a treasure mine for SEOs.

Do you have something similar in your industry? Study your industry and how people are searching. Again, Wordtracker is your best source for this type of information as well as your own log files.

Describing Versus Searching

Let’s visit the following Web site: http://www.monjiusa.com/

Click on products. Study the watches, and come up with five words to describe those watches. We know they’re unique, so let’s come up with other words.

We’ll do it together:

one of a kind
ingenious
extraordinary
safety pin
multicolored

Now, I want you to study the words above. If you were looking for a unique watch, would you type any of those words into a search box?

The answer is probably no. How you describe something and how buyers search for something are two totally different things. You have to use descriptive and accurate words to describe your products, but you have to use words in your title, description, and content that your potential buyers will use when searching for your products.

Make sense?

Useit.com ... an Excellent Resource

To me, Jakob Nielsen is and always has been synonymous with usability on the Internet, and I’ve been watching what he writes for years. His latest article couldn’t have been published at a better time.

“Summary: Familiar words spring to mind when users create their search queries. If your writing favors made-up terms over legacy words, users won't find your site.” http://www.useit.com/alertbox/search-keywords.html

In Conclusion ...

Describe your products and product lines accurately. Use descriptive words (adjectives) that your readers will type into the search engines in your title and description tags as well as in the content of your page.

Don’t deceive your potential customers. You want happy potential buyers, not disgruntled, deceived potential prospects that are ready to hit the back button.


About the Author:

Robin Nobles conducts live SEO workshops (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com) in locations across North America. Localized SEO training is now being offered through the Search Engine Academy. (http://www.searchengineacademy.com) Sign up for SEO tips of the day at mailto:seo-tip@aweber.com.

Copywriting With Google's Dynamic Keyword Insertion Tool
by Karon Thackston

Automation is an odd creature. It usually seems, at first glance, that automating a process can make things easier, simpler and faster. But oftentimes, once an automated process is in place, trouble spots pop up. This is sometimes the case when looking at the copywriting aspect of Google's dynamic keyword insertion tool.

In case you're unfamiliar with dynamic keyword insertion (DKI), it's a feature of Google's AdWords program. It is often used for large campaigns in order to automatically insert the keyword into the headline of an ad. Truly, it's a lifesaver for many pay-per-click (PPC) ad managers who have to stay on top of thousands of ads every day. It's all done with a simple syntax command: {keyword:_______}.

From a timesaving standpoint, this is a wonder tool that has rescued PPC managers from the mind-numbing chore of typing the same keywords over and over. From an economic point-of-view, DKI *can* (not always) perform well enough to make it a viable option for larger campaigns. But what happens with regard to copywriting and eye tracking?

See It and Click It

The human eye is normally drawn to things that are unusual. Things that look out of place or different get noticed far more than things that blend in. For instance, on a page full of black text and black & white photographs, a small red square in the bottom corner will get focused on almost immediately. Why? Because it is completely different than everything else around it.

This same principle applies when considering your copywriting strategy for AdWords. When using DKI, you'll want to keep your eye on the results pages. Why? We've all heard that using the keyphrase in the headline pulls better. It does. most of the time. There is an exception, however. This exception is what you'll be watching.

In fact, a study done last year by Enquiro, Did-It and Eyetools tracked users' interactions with the Google search results page. It found that surfers normally reviewed the page in an F formation. They would scan vertically down the left side of the page and then over to the right (where paid ads are) *IF* something caught their attention. That's the point we'll explore in this article.

In order to get clicks, you first have to get seen. If your ad looks and reads like all the rest, you've completely lost your originality advantage.

See For Yourself

Copywriting using DKI is a balancing act. You have to consider several factors, including the character count of your longest keyphrase, your ability to add text to the keyword-rich headline and how the ad looks on the page.

Take a look at some examples below. Remember that AdWords results show differently at various points throughout the day (and in relation to individual account parameters), so you may not see exactly what I saw when doing this research. I'm sure it will be close enough for you to get the idea.

Go to Google and type in the phrase "cruise vacation center" (without using the quote marks). See how all the ads look different? They don't all have the same words bolded. They don't all use the same copy. The bold words stand out because they are different. In this case, your eye will usually go first to the ads with bolded words in the headline.

You see ads offering a 6-night cruise for $xx.xx and other ads promoting X% off on a cruise vacation, etc. There is diversity and that's a good thing.

Now, what if you type in "home improvement"? (Again, without the quotes.) If your results page looks like mine, practically every ad has the exact same headline: home improvement. Not only do most of the ads look the same, the headlines read the same. Your eye doesn't know where to go because everything seems identical. But wait! About four or five ads down, something catches your eye. It's an ad that has no bold in the headline. That stands out because it's different! As you scroll further down the page, more ads with no bold in the headlines pop out at you. In this case, because everyone else has opted for the DKI feature, their headlines are all very similar, making them less noticeable. But the ones who wrote custom headlines won out, thanks to diversity.

Tips for Writing With DKI

If you want or need to write using the DKI option, consider these tips:

1. Use a descriptive word along with your keyphrase. Instead of just inserting the phrase "airline tickets," place the word "discount" or "cheap" before your keyphrase to help it stand out.

2. For keyphrases that will take the entire 25-character limit, consider using one word of the keyphrase in the headline, instead of the entire phrase. Rather than "home improvement," try inserting just "home" or "improvement" along with other text you write yourself.

3. Keep it applicable. Your headline still has to convey a strong message about what the customer can expect at your site.

4. Test & Track! Everything in advertising is subject to change. Smart marketers always test and track to get the best results.

With a little forethought, you can develop a combination of DKI and custom-written AdWords ads that drive qualified visitors to your site.


About the Author:

Copy not getting results? Learn to write SEO and online copywriting that impresses the engines and your visitors at http://www.copywritingcourse.com. Be sure to also check out Karon's report "How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy)" at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword.

Google AdWords Optimization: Why You Must Increase Your Keyword Relevancy
by Simon Leung

Many Google AdWords advertisers are frustrated. Most are even confused.

Can you relate?

You've done your keyword research. You've compiled a long list of terms and implemented them into your AdWords account.

What happens next?

Half of the terms aren't even running. Why?

The AdWords system has given you a low quality score, which means that you don't have a very relevant keyword list.

What does the system want?

Answer: Improve your quality, or increase your bid.

Of course, you don't want to increase your bid. So, you must improve your quality score.

How? By increasing your keyword relevancy.

Indeed!

Keyword relevancy is the key to success with Google AdWords.

While it's tempting to include all the keywords you got your hands on, you should note that this is the #1 mistake advertisers make in their campaign.

Keyword relevancy qualifies the end user.

When this user searches on a relevant keyword term that activates your ad, you have qualified someone who is interested in your product/service.

For this reason, you need to increase your keyword relevancy as much as possible.

What is considered a relevant keyword?

The term must be exactly what you are advertising.

For example, if you are promoting AdWords tips, a relevant keyword list may be:

google adwords tips
google adwords help
google adwords advice

Although the following group of keywords is somewhat related, notice that they are targeting a totally different audience:

google adwords expert
google adwords consultant
google adwords professional

In the latter batch, AdWords will surely deem your keyword relevancy lower than former.

Even if you were to raise your bid so that you can appear on these terms, chances are that even if users do click on your ad, they will end up leaving your website without making a purchase.

Why?

The product/service you offer was not exactly what they were searching for.

This is precisely why keyword relevancy is so important.

You need to know who you are targeting, and your target audience needs to know how to find you.

Both sides of the fence are met when you find that relevant keyword term.

Follow these easy steps on keyword relevancy and you're on the road to AdWords success!


About the Author:

Simon Leung, AdWords Optimization Expert for Google, helps advertisers increase, improve, & expand results FAST! To get 10 of his most powerful strategies for explosive results & profits using AdWords for FREE, go to http://AdwordsOptimization.com