Learn And Earn More!

I have shown you how search traffic has increased significantly since Google let me back into their search engine. With this post, I want to show you one of the ways I’ve been monetizing this new traffic.

Ramped Reviews Case Study

Ramped Reviews is an ebook written by Robb Sutton on how to start a review site or blog, get free stuff to review and make a lot of money at it. I wrote the review back on July 10 and sold quite a few copies. However, like most blogs, once the post goes off the front page, sales goes to pretty much nothing because no one checks the archives.

Shortly after writing the review on Ramped Reviews, Google let me back into their index. This resulted in me ranking for the phase “how to start a review blog” and other related keywords.

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Now that the masses have access to Google’s newly redesigned results pages, it’s time to consider this in an SEO light if you have not already been considering it.

Google has had its search option available for about a year, but they have not been in the face of the user like the newly redesigned SERP is. With this new design, users don’t have any choice but to notice the options that are available. It’s not too different from Bing or Yahoo in that respect (Danny Sullivan notes that Ask pioneered this design). The difference is that way more people search with Google on a regular basis (in fact, last month Google reportedly dominated the search market by even more than usual).

SEO Strategies and Increased Engagement from Searchers

The new SERPs may shake up SEO efforts, simply because users will start going to the different options Google provides them, taking them to different sets of results. Now that the options are in the limelight, users are more likely to use them.

Yahoo tells us when they added features to their left-hand navigation bar, engagement increased. “We’ve been steadily adding more filtering options and relevant search suggestions to our left-hand navigation bar…and have seen engagement and click-throughs for those features double over the past seven months.” I can’t imagine why Google wouldn’t also see an engagement increase for certain features that are now more visible.

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Here is the hierarchy of optimization techniques listed by importance:

1. Completeness of information in your listing
2. Keywords included in your company name (don’t SPAM)
3. Website Optimization – use City and State keywords in your Titles and Meta Tags, add your address to your web pages, etc.
4. Category w/ Search Terms (cosmetic dentist, personal injury attorney)
5. Proximity to center of city(****from what I hear this is not as important as it once was****) – Think Locally – Having a business location in the CENTER of town helps you get to the top of the list. The closer your office is to the center of your city, the higher your listing is usually positioned on the Google Maps list. For example, if you view any Google Maps list, the first three listings returned (A,B & C) are located in the center of the city. The businesses listed further down the list migrate out from the center of town.
6. “Flair” – photos, videos, coupons, payment methods, parking instructions
7. Listings in directories that include local address info (SuperPagesd*tc*m, YellowPagesd*tc*m, CitySearchd*tc*m, etc.)
8. Number of In-Bound Links (IBLs) from local city websites and directories
9. Total number of reviews
10. High ratings in your Google reviews (More stars can mean higher positioning)

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