Look Big, Grow Big Small Business Advice from Root Orange

Have you seen Google’s Wonder Wheel?  You’ll see it as an option on the left side column adjacent to any search result.  This nifty little SEO, and I think SEM, map tool allows you to see related search terms that people are actually using.  While not data heavy, it does provide a glimpse into optimizing your content for a keyword family.  While the SEO implications are obvious, I think this also has applications in SEM.   In any case, it is a very visual way to organize the keywords you need to be using on your website, I recommend you check it out.

If you want to learn how to find and use the Google Wonder Wheel, check out this video I found.

At Root Orange we are adamant believers that we only succeed if we help our clients succeed.  To that end, we put our generic domains to the SEM test: can generic domain names lower search engine marketing cost-per-click?

We partnered with a lawyer we contacted out of the blue Randi Vladimer, who runs a divorce and family law practice in the Main Line suburbs of Philadelphia.  She let us run SEM campaigns, on our dime, to see if generic domains worked to lower CPC costs for your typical small business.

In order to test the efficacy of the generic domain, we ran one Google AdWords campaign using her website’s domain, and another campaign using the generic domain “DivorceLawyer.com”.   Aside from the domain, we held every other variable constant in both campaigns: keywords, ad copy, bid price, and budget.  The results were astounding.

The generic display domain lowered CPC by 21% and increased CTR by 400%.  Our study replicated the results found by a 2009 British study, providing further confirmation that generic display URLs confer a competitive advantage to users in SEM campaigns.  We will release the full case study online in the coming weeks.

Over the last several months we have learned a great deal about the legal regulations that surround advertising online, especially in the legal arena.  It is surprising that field of law is so heavily regulated when it comes to advertising.  After all, just about any service provider can scam an unsuspecting individual, so why are lawyers targeted for such tough regulation?

Even more frustrating for lawyers is that regulations vary from state to state.  So if you’re admitted to the bar of three states, as attorneys in the NY/NJ/CT area or the DC/MD/VA area might be, you have to worry about differing advertising regulations in three jurisdictions.   Kelley Spradley, VP of Marketing & Sales at Impirus Legal Websites wrote an insightful guest blog post on MyShingle.com that delves further into this issue.

If state regulations cover attorney websites as advertisements, how long will it take before they start policing Facebook pages or SEM campaigns?  Have any states started doing this?  We’d love to hear from readers.