So after writing my blog on Google Analytics I said I would post one providing some information on Google AdWords. I said this completely forgetting I was already registered to attend a conference hosted by Google, on AdWords. 

Google held their presentation in a large auditorium enough to capacitate the whole lot of us and focused their first presentation on trends in the industry. This is the one piece of information I took from it. Social media and mobile marketing is not a fad. Paraphrased and not that I thought otherwise but if Google says it, it must be true… right? 

So we broke for lunch, killed about an hour and a bit talking to people and what not, then we (Google conference attendees) were separated into two groups, by choice of course. Beginner or advanced? Not that I claim to be an expert on AdWords, I chose the advanced seminar hoping to pick up some tidbit or gem that I could take back to the office. Nope. I had to double check again to see if I had entered the beginner room by mistake.

I don’t know who they were targeting with their presentation because it wasn’t helpful enough to people who have some sort of understanding, yet I heard from a couple of people with no understanding that it was very confusing and too heavy on the lingo that means nothing to them. It’s Google… one of the most recognizable brands in the world… I thought this was going to be the be all and end all of seminars. Oh well.

I’ll sum it up to my top ten benefits to make it a little easier of a read for you since this post is already getting too text heavy.

My Top 10 Benefits of Google AdWords

1. Allows you to be seen on Google
2. Cost effective way to market your business or products
3. You chose how much or how little you want to spend
4. Your position on Google is not determined by how much you spend, but rather by how relevant your ad is to your target and how many clicks you receive
5. All of your ads are completely customizable in terms of what text or link is displayed. If you’re running ads on the Google Content Network, your ads can even have images and video.
6. All of your ads are completely targetable by keywords, location, even time of day. If you’re running ads on the Google Content Network, you can even target your ads to certain age demographics.
7. All of your ads are easy to track to see which ones are performing well and which need to be revised, allowing you to spend your dollar wisely
8. AdWords software is very user friendly and will allow you to make it as complicated or as simple as you want
9. Google provides tools to generate keyword ideas, they let you know how heavy the competition is for each of the keywords you are targeting, recommend pricing points and much more to help you maximize your money
10. It will boost traffic to your website and create more brand awareness

When my kids were small, a regular routine at bedtime was telling them a story. I would sit at the top of the stairs and weave a tale inspired by recent events of one sort or another. Their favourite was about an old lady who lived deep in the woods. The Bucket Lady, as she came to be called, loved to catch children and scrub them clean when they were careless enough to enter her domain.

Okay a little weird, but they thoroughly enjoyed it and it went on for months. My kids, who were key characters in the story, got great pleasure out of cleverly avoiding the cleansing from the Bucket Lady on a nightly basis.

You might say that it was my first pre-internet blog. It was original content that resonated with my listeners, who looked forward to the next release and shared the story with their closest friends. Moving forward, we’re now telling our story to a vast audience, eager to listen and share information too…if it’s relevant.

What’s involved? Personally I take a few hours every weekend to create my blog for the following week. After a while it becomes a habit. You let recent events shape the article and relay something you find interesting and others might too. Blogging is a big contributor to our significantly increased rankings on Google. Like any new initiative it takes time, someone in your organization needs to champion the cause and collaborative writing across your team is a big help.

Lee’s quote for the day, “It is better to have blogged and not been tweeted then to never have blogged at all.”

"629,000 results. Wow. And all this time I thought that Googling yourself meant the other thing."

What do you do when you are puzzled by something? You google it, like everyone else, since Google is the dominant search engine. Today millions of business professionals are only willing to reach as far as their keyboard for the answers they need. The question is will they find you? Do yourself a favor, Google yourself and find out if you are on the first page. If you’re not, here are some things you can do to increase your visibility on Google:

1. Update your employees’ profiles (photos, bios, links to their online profiles)

Web analytics reveal that the most viewed pages are the About Us and Contact Us pages. Why is that? It is driven by genuine human curiosity. People want know who they are doing business with, their names and faces, and not only that, they want to contact them too!

2. Blog, Blog, Blog.

As highlighted in our previous blog articles, there are many benefits in blogging. You can write about the things your customers want to know, share your insights in the market, and anything else that may interest your clients.

3. Incorporate Social Media on your site.

Social Media creates much larger audience groups for businesses. The Internet is a public and social place and having social media incorporated within your website means you are connected to more people more topics and subjects, thus increasing the chances your website will be picked up by Google’s search engine.

What else do you need? Commitment, Commitment and Commitment! It is a full time job to maintain your website and do it right. Update your website, blog and social media frequently, as a less active site is not going to rank well on Google.