Frequently Asked Questions:

Search Engine Marketing FAQ

• ►  I already rank organically. Why do I need Pay Per Click?
  Studies show that 60% of searchers focus on and click through the organic search results. The other 40% typically focus on and click in the sponsored search sections. Bottom line: without utilizing an effective PPC campaign, you are missing out on valuable search traffic.
  A custom search engine marketing campaign also allows you to tailor your ads and landing pages for specific marketing goals, whereas SEO alone simply helps your page rank. The ability to bid on as many keywords as you’d like also allows you to rank in the sponsored search where your SEO efforts may have been less effective.
• ►  Why do I need a landing page?
  Newsday Connect landing pages are built with specific conversion goals in mind. A landing page is different from a website, in that it only includes the information most vital and relevant to the specific product or service you are trying to market. Our landing pages intentionally omit any distracting links, or otherwise irrelevant content. This allows the searcher to find the information they are looking for, without distracting them from your conversion points, like the contact form and phone number. All of this helps to increase the likelihood of converting clicks into leads and sales.
• ►  Why can’t I run my own PPC campaign?
  Running a Pay-Per-Click search marketing campaign is not easy. It requires a tremendous amount of your time and dedication. Inexperienced search engine marketers may also find they are quickly spending much more money than they ever intended.
  At Newsday Connect, a dedicated and knowledgeable, Google-Certified Digital Consultant will be dedicated to your campaign. This allows you to sit back and watch the success of your ad campaign & landing page, with minimal effort on your part. Your Digital Consultant monitors your campaign each day, helping to ensure you only pay for quality clicks & leads. Their expertise will help keep your campaign within budget, while enabling your ads to be displayed throughout the month.
• ►  Where will my ads show up?
  Your Pay-Per-Click ads will be displayed within the sponsored search sections of the three major search engines, Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Your Digital Consultant ensures that your ads are specifically targeted to the regions & localities you choose to advertise in. This includes bidding on keywords to display when searched within your area, as well as geo-modified keywords. Our tested search engine marketing tactics allow your site to be found by users searching for services in your area, regardless of where they are searching from.
• ►  What will my reporting show?
  Your direct reporting login will provide you with access to real-time click information, including amounts of clicks and impressions (times your ad was displayed), costs per click and click-through rates, broken down by Search Engine.
  This reporting also provides information on and recordings of phone calls generated through your landing page, details of any lead-generating actions taken on your landing page, including detailed reporting on emails received through your contact form.
  Finally, Newsday Connect’s reporting provides you with granular details of where people are clicking, on both your landing page and proxied website.

Search Engine Optimization FAQ

• ►  What is SEO & why is it important?
  SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a website from search engines via “natural” or “organic” search results. The higher your placement within the organic results, the more opportunity there is for potential customers to choose your business when they are ready to buy. Our SEO process can help deliver more targeted traffic & provide cost-effective leads to your business.
• ►  Why should I hire someone to increase my on-line presence?
  With over 100 factors that influence organic search results, including both on-site & off-site management, SEO can be time consuming. At Newsday Connect, our processes can help make your site more relevant, popular & trustworthy!
  We’ll build you a search optimized website or business profile, help you choose relevant key phrases, incorporate SEO best practices to help boost your rankings. We also provide monthly reports, so you can monitor your progress!
• ►  What are backlinks & why do I need them?
  Backlinks, or inbound links, are links that are on an external site that point to your site. These links measure the “popularity” of the site. Not all backlinks are considered equal; these links should come from reputable sites.
  Search Engines factor in the amount of quality backlinks a site has when determining its relevancy. A site with quality backlinks will be considered more important & appear higher on the search engines when searched by a user.
  By submitting your landing page to relevant directories, we’ll obtain backlinks to help increase your page’s relevancy on the Search Engines.
• ►  Why can’t I see great results immediately?
  Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo! & Bing can take as long as 4-6 weeks to crawl & index a site, let alone rank a site on the first page. We’ll incorporate SEO best practices along with constant updates to your business profile, or landing page, to get you the results you need!
• ►  What is the difference between on-site & off-site optimization?
  On-site optimization is the process of updating the information on your website, or business profile page, to increase its relevancy on the Search Engines.
  Off-site optimization includes increasing your visibility from other sources, such as local listings or directories. Through off-site optimization, you will obtain backlinks which is crucial to increases your value to the Search Engines.
  Our proven process of combining on-site & off-site optimization techniques will improve your on-line presence!

Social Media Management FAQ

• ►  Why do I need to be on Facebook and Twitter?
  Facebook and Twitter are two social networks that have seen (and continue to see) a tremendous growth in popularity and active users. Additionally, recent reports suggest that around 25% of the average person’s time online is spent on blogs & social networks. By utilizing our custom-made business pages on the most popular social networks, we offer you the potential to interact with over 500 million people, many of which are in your local area!
  “Americans spend nearly a quarter of their time online on social networking sites and blogs, up from 15.8 percent just a year ago”
  (43 percent increase¹)

  ¹ http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/what-americans-do-online-social-media-and-games-dominate-activity

• ►  Aren’t Facebook & Twitter just for kids?
  Actually, the vast majority of users on both sites are over the age of 35.
  

• ►  Aren’t these sites free? Why should I pay you to do this for me?
  It’s true that you could set up profiles on most popular social networks for free. However, the time and energy that goes into properly managing your presence on all of these sites is significant. Our easy-to-use tools allow you to update all of your pages simultaneously, saving you time and energy. Our experienced Social Media Management team can also offer you advice on updating your blog, and make any changes you require to help ensure the campaign is meeting your needs. We also run Facebook ads on behalf of your page, helping to create more traffic and brand exposure for your company, and offer a custom Facebook Welcome tab.
• ►  Who will see my posts?
  Your blog posts will automatically be posted as Facebook wall posts and Tweets.
  Your tweets will be displayed to anyone following you on Twitter when they log in, as well as being permanently displayed on your profile page. These tweets are also indexed and displayed to users searching Twitter for keywords contained in your posts.
  Your Facebook wall posts are shown in the News Feed of anyone liking your page. Any activity from that person on your page or posts will in turn be broadcasted to their friends in their news feeds as well.
• ►  What type of content should I post?
  The whole idea of Social Media Marketing is engaging your customers, establishing trust. These tools can be great for customer retention, allowing you to keep in touch with customers and address potential concerns. They can also be great word of mouth advertising, as people are much more likely to purchase products or services from a company that is recommended to them by friends. Social Networking allows these “recommendations” to happen passively as well.
  The best-performing campaigns will be those that update with genuinely unique and useful content. Try posting blogs about industry news in addition to things like special offers, and company-specific updates. This can help boost your credibility as a local expert in your field, and provide followers a real benefit to following your page.
  Keep in mind that special offers are good, and enticing, but posting solely offers and things like “Call us today” can look spammy and cause people to stop paying attention to your business online.

Reputation Management FAQ

• ►  What is reputation management, and why is it important?

  Reputation management is the monitoring and “maintenance” of your online reputation, which consists of reviews of your business, mentions of your business around the web, and your “share of voice” in the discussion of your industry online.
  It is important to monitor your reputation online.
  With the recent boom in user-generated content like blogs, review sites and social media, customers are more likely than ever to share their experience with your business online.
  A recent study by BIA/Kelsey indicates that 97% of consumers go online to research products & services locally before buying. As the general population becomes more and more Internet savvy, it’s increasingly important that you monitor your reputation online.

• ►  How often should I monitor my reputation? Will I be notified if I have a negative review or mention?
  Newsday Connect will notify you by email and telephone when we find a negative review or mention of your business online.
  Still, your reputation is important, and timeliness is most definitely a factor.
  You should log in to your Reputation Management tool as often as possible.
  The nice part is, the time-consuming work is done for you.
  All you need to do is log in, briefly review your reviews and mentions, and respond if necessary.
• ►  If negative reviews are found, can’t I just have them deleted?
  Part of the Internet’s beauty is that it allows everyone to have a voice, and have their opinion published.
  Unfortunately, this includes the ability to post negative reviews about your business.
  Even more unfortunately, it is not possible to have these reviews removed.
  Your best course of action is to respond.
• ►  If I get a negative review, what do I do?
  The beauty of Newsday Connect’s Reputation Management product is that it locates negative reviews and mentions of your business in real time.
  This allows you to provide a prompt response to your negative reviews and mentions.Here are some suggestions:

  • Encourage happy customers to review your business online, comment on your Facebook page, or otherwise share their experience online. This can help counterbalance the negative reviews.
  • Take the negative review as constructive criticism. Perhaps there is some truth to the review, and it can help you address issues with your staff.
  • Respond to the review. Let the customer know their feedback is appreciated, regardless of the negativity, and that you will do what it takes to correct perceived problems with your company.
• ►  Can’t I hire somebody to respond to my negative reviews for me?
  You could, in theory, but it ain’t us.

Constant Contact® Email Marketing FAQ

• ►  What is Constant Contact®?
  From their website: “Constant Contact®, Inc. helps small businesses, associations, and nonprofits connect with their customers, clients, and members.
  Launched in 1998, Constant Contact champions the needs of small organizations and provides them with an easy and affordable way to build successful, lasting customer relationships.”Newsday Connect is proud to offer Constant Contact email marketing in conjunction with our other online marketing solutions.

• ►  How do I know my emails won’t be filtered out as spam?
  By definition, Constant Contact Email Marketing is an opt-in service.
  This means that the customers and potential customers receiving your emails have willingly signed up to receive emails from you.
  Constant Contact is also a trusted name in online marketing.
  Their long-standing relationship with many Internet Service Providers has resulted in a 97%+ delivery rate for emails sent through their service.
  Constant Contact also provides an “Anti-Spam Checker” that spots potential issues with your email and helps you to address them – nipping any potential spam issues in the bud.
• ►  So I have to find email contacts myself? How do you suggest I do that?
  Opt-in email marketing is a great supplement to traditional marketing, and other online marketing.
  You can encourage signups in your store, or out in the field; in your print advertising; in radio spots; through a signup form on your website; on your social media pages, and anywhere else you can think of.
  You can also use your Constant Contact email to drive traffic in the reverse.
  If you have an existing mailing list, you can also import it to our tool.
• ►  Can you help me make sure my emails look enticing?
  Constant Contact offers over 400 templates to help you quickly, easily design a professional-looking email marketing campaign that will be most effective for your company.
  Our HTML email templates allow for images and highly-formattable settings – the possibilities are endless!
  Our templates can help you design email invitations for special events, coupon offers for your mailing list, special promotion announcements, newsletters, and much, much more!
  No special design or technical skills required!
• ►  How can I measure the success of my Email Marketing campaign?
  We offer complete tracking and easy-to-interpret reporting on your email marketing campaign.
  With Constant Contact, you can see what percentage of your mailing list reads your email, and who they are.
  You can also see granular details, like what links in your emails generate the most click-throughs from your readers; how often social media users share your emails with their friends, which readers forward your emails to friends and more.
  We also allow you to track your contact list as it grows, see who unsubscribes from your list and what drove them to do so, and even compare the success of your campaign to other Constant Contact customers in your industry.

Website FAQ

• ►  Why does my business need a website? What makes a website an effective marketing tool?
  Roughly 80% of the U.S. population actively uses the Internet.
  Studies show that over 97% of these users actively use the web to research local products & services, in order to make informed buying decisions.
  Without a functional, optimized website providing your potential customers with accurate information about your business, products & services, you are losing out on business.Your website can be the cornerstone of your online marketing plan.
  Your website lets customers find vital information about your business and know that it is trustworthy – straight from the source.
  It also provides you with virtually unlimited space to make your pitch, and persuade customers that your service or product is the one for them.
  Your website can even be used to offer your products for purchase directly from the site.

• ►  How fancy can I get with my website?
  Newsday Connect offers a range of website options to meet our customers’ diverse needs.
  Whether you’re looking for a basic website consisting of a few pages with streaming video and information about your company, products & services; or you’re looking for a fully-customized site with animation, custom forms, database integration and robust e-commerce solutions, Newsday Connect can create the perfect website to meet your company’s needs.
• ►  I don’t know much about web design. Will updating my site be difficult?
  Newsday Connect is proud to offer two templated website options, the Website Standard and the Website Advanced, which make updating your website a breeze.
  Our Basic website option and easy-to-use tool allow you to make updates to your website’s content, add images, and a lot more with ease.
  Our Advanced website option allows for a more customized design, while maintaining the same ease of updating.
  You’ll also have a dedicated website design specialist on hand for three hours each month, to make those changes and updates that are beyond your capacity.
  Our Custom website option allows for a fully customized design and fully customized content.
  Don’t fret, this option also comes with a full-time dedicated web design specialist to handle all your updates & changes.
• ►  How can I get an “official” company email address?
  Newsday Connect’s website packages are designed specifically for businesses.
  Our Website Standard comes with 10 email addresses for your business, hosted at your domain name.
  No more johndoe77@nullyahoo.com – your customized, business email addresses will help to lend an air of professionalism that your company may currently be lacking.
  Our Website Advanced comes with 20 custom email addresses, and our Website Custom provides you with unlimited email addresses for you, your company and your employees.
• ►  What if I want to sell my products on my website?
  If you’re looking to digitize your business, our website packages are all E-Commerce ready, with a PayPal checkout option.
  Featuring your products on your website provides your customers a safe, secure means of finding, purchasing and paying for your products from the comfort of their home or office.A large, fully-functional E-Commerce store may take a significant amount of work to get started, but the rewards can be well worth it.
  Selling your products online is a great way to encourage new business, and the lack of costs associated with a physical store location can help you expand to new markets that weren’t otherwise possible.

Landing Pages FAQ

• ►  What is a Landing Page?
  A Landing Page is a one page online advertisement that allows for full customer access.
  It offers customers flexibility in the ability to edit, update and track their information in real-time all from one simple tool.
  A Landing Page also offers customers visibility by offering keyword-based search results.
• ►  Where will my Landing Page display?

  Landing Pages display within local search results.
  This includes all keyword and category-based local searches completed on one of our local portals.
  Additionally, Landing Pages will display within members sites throughout the country, and, through Search Engine Optimization, on all of the Web’s greatest search engines.

• ►  Can a custom URL be purchased for a Landing Page?
  Yes, the Landing Page URL product allows a custom domain name for a Landing Page, creating an instant webpage for a business.