Keywords and Google Results – Overrated? May be.

What’s overrated is the obsessive desire to score in the top ten results for a certain key phrase. Now don’t get us wrong, it is always good to show in the top twenty search results for a key word or key phrase (we show in the top ten for private investigator and private investigators amongst others).


Problem is, you are assuming that your target keyword or phrase is what searchers are using.
We find that most search queries are much more complex than the particular keyword we are focused on. So for example take the following list of keywords for the Rominger Legal NJ PI page…

new+jersey+private+investigators
private investigators in new jersey
private investigators in south jersey
missing person
private detective in nj
private investigators in central nj
anthony's pi, nj
central jersey private investigator
investigation companies new jersey
investigator education in new jersey
new jersey private detectives
new jersey private investigator
new jersey private investigators
nj private detective forum
north jersey investigations blairstown nj
private detective bridgewater nj
private investigater in nj
private investigation in new jersey
private investigation, central nj
private investigator collingswood nj
private investigator in new jersey
private investigator license new jersey
private investigators in nj directory

Notice that no one search is the same, and that the exact mix of keywords changes. You can't optimize for each key phrase, and you can't optimize to any one keyword and get all of the traffic. So how do we get lots of traffic from lots of different searches? Links that build page rank!

So what to do? Do worry about your meta tags, your keyword density, and your sites search engine optimization, but don't forget to collect quality links, and draw web traffic from web links. Look at wikipedia, they are a top return for zillions of searches. This is only partly because they have the right keywords. More importantly it is because they have so many links coming in.

In summation, obsessive keyword optimization should be avoided or at the very least combined with getting links and building content.

Google Adwords vs Directory Advertising

A common question that comes up with advertisers and marketers is how to compare Google Adwords with Online Directory advertising. Many simply count visitors and divide by the total costs.

One of the sale people here at Rominger Legal wrote this e-mail to a customer, which we have decided to share with you. Of course we have redacted some information to protect the privacy of the advertiser, and changed the names, but it is the actual dispatch edited for clarity.

The advertiser was wondering why if he paid $1.25 per click from Google Adwords, why our "cost per click" was so much higher.

Dear A.

I know this is long. If you can take 10 minutes to review it I would appreciate it. Because you are doing Google Ad Words I think you need to see the numbers. We are fan of Google Ad Words – over 1 million bought to date. Thanks- B.

Thank you for taking the time to speak with me the other day. I am sorry it has taken a few days to get this over to you. I have spent the last two days home with my son who is sick with the flu (if you have children I am sure you understand / 1st time this year so cross your fingers).

Your situation is a tough one because you don't track where clients come from but rather look at where your online traffic is generated. We believe that we send you a better class of visitors who are more likely to need your services. So we may not send you as much but what we send you is better!!!!

I understand your logic on the cost per click with Rominger Legal vs Google Ad Words, but I think you may want to look at it another way. We are different form Ad Words and I will see if I can explain. There is no national average for bounce rates, click fraud or conversions. However, our experience and research has allowed us to conclude that bounce rates are 60-70%, click fraud around 10%, conversions (depending on what you consider a conversion) 10-25%. We came to these figures by analyzing our own data. What data you may ask?


1. Our Main Pi directory page had 100,000 + visitors in the last quarter of 07
2. In 2007 we purchased 353,667 clicks (Ad Words) to our Private Investigators Directory
3. In Dec 2007 alone we purchased 37,152 clicks (Ad Words) to our PI directory

Take this example:
If you buy 100 clicks from Google for $150 you have spent $1.50 per click
(not bad when you are paying $5.50 per click from us). The piece that is missing is the bounce rate and click fraud. If you average a 65% bounce rate and 10% click fraud 75 of you 100 initial clicks are gone leaving 25 qualified clicks at $6 per click (150/$25). If you pay $2 per click initially you are actually paying $8 per click for your 25 qualified leads. If any of these are repeat clicks or from the same source the rate goes up again. So your true cost for a visitor from Adwords is much higher than your cost per click.

The visitors that travel on to your website from Rominger Legal have already past the bounce point and because we are not PPC there is no click fraud. What you are getting is conversions or people who (most of the time) land on our California PI page and then take action to click your profile page with all of your information, then chose to travel on to your website (Remember some people will contact you directly from Rominger Legal and never travel on to your website ).

Let me break down in real numbers:
1. Our California Private Investigators Page has had 406 unique visitors in the last 30 days: http://www.romingerlegal.com/californiapi.htm (This is a spot where people bounce because it is not what they were looking for!!!)

2. Of those 406 visitors - 40 went the next step and clicked on the link to your listing page (These are people who must have felt they where in the right place because they are moving forward also they spent 1 minute and 45 seconds on your listing page at this point). (for $99 you paid $2.47 per visitor) [PAGE LINK REMOVED]

3. Based on our 90 day average counts, of those 40 visitors on your profile page appx 18 are going to travel on to your website. These are people who have viewed your brief profile and are still moving forward (quality lead / for $99 you paid $5.50 per visitor)

I will follow up later this week.


So that was the e-mail.

In summary, because a click to your web site from a directory listing has been "funneled and filtered", the traffic is of a much higher quality. As the users click through the directory and drill down to your web site, they have multiple chances to go somewhere else.

Would you rather pay $100 to talk to 1,000 random people about your business, or $500 to talk to 25 who are definitely needing to buy your services? The true cost per click on Adwords is not the total cost divided by the number of clicks. First you have to filter out the bounce rate and fraudulent clicks. Then you know the true cost per interested visitor. So once you know the bounce rates, you can start comparing apples with apples, and get a better view of your true marketing investment.

Marketing in 2008

All right the new year is here! I'm sure by now you have a written plan for your advertising and marketing efforts in 2008.

No? Well now might be the time to start scratching one out.

First, figure out what percentage of your gross revenue from 07 should be dedicated to marketing. More than 15% is probably too much and less than 5% is too little.

Divide that number by 12 and you have your monthly "budget".

So if you grossed $190,000.00 last year, and want to dedicate 6% to marketing, you have $11,400.00 to spend, or about $1000.00 a month.

So if you purchase a yellow page ad for $100.00 a month, and buy $200.00 in Adwords each month, you still have $700.00 to spend. If someone charges you a one time fee, amortize it across the months it will last, etc.

So get to work and start planning.

A few ideas and items you might want to consider...

Try this article - Pros & Cons Of Online Directory Advertising for Process Servers and Private Investigators - "There are a lot of directories online that profess to charge a modest monthly or annual fee to list a Process Server or Private investigator, and they insist the investment will produce results. Here's my personal feelings about the value of Directory Advertising, and what you should think about when making this decision:" - FULL TEXT

Or expand your library with these books -

Or try some case management software - PI - Professional Investigator (TM) - Private Investigator ... Case and contact management software for PI's, investigators, detectives, bailiffs.

Customer misreports once again! - ad tracking incident #42

Its a little involved, but here it goes... We run a program called live meeting, which allows folks to talk with a customer representative on-line in real time. It also shows us when someone enters the site, and what keywords, and search engine they came in on.

One of the programmers was monitoring the program, when he saw some one had typed "process server in Pennsylvania" into Yahoo. He saw that they came to the PA Process Server page, and then to the listing page of one of the advertisers. Their IP address resolved to a city in Florida.

Happening to know the woman who answers the phone for that process serving advertiser, he called there to see if she had gotten any business from Florida in the last few minutes. She said yes, and he then told her what city the customer was from. She thought he might be psychic. (we know that not to be the case, although here in the office he has been called psycho)

Then he asked, how did they say they found you. This is where the story gets interesting.

The woman said the customer related that she typed "Pennsylvania and process server into the search engine". The process server said well what site, and the customer said I found you on Yahoo. Knowing that Rominger Legal sends her a lot of business, the server says she asked specifically about Rominger Legal, and the customer insisted it was Yahoo where she found the process server! She simply didn't "remember" the two or three clicks she made as she left Yahoo!

So if you are a process server or private investigator and you advertise on romingerlegal.com, servenow.com, or any of the free sites, be careful when someone says they found you on yahoo, google, ask, msn, etc. And if they say they found your website, check again, because they might just mean your web listing with romingerlegal.com, servenow.com, infoguys.com, yellowbook.com, etc., etc.

The moral... try typing the phrase private investigators into google. See if your site is in the top 10, if not, stop assuming that when folks say google, they mean google! (PS look who's currently # 2)