The Yahoo Search transition to Bing is reportedly scheduled for August and September. One Local Search hiccup: Yahoo targets by ZIP code, but Microsoft’s adCenter will not – omitting a necessary targeting option because IP addresses don’t always identify the exact location or the location within two miles of the advertised store.

Read more here.

The Portland Business Journal has recently announced that we’re the 3rd fastest-growing private company in Oregon/Southwest Washington. With revenue growth of 413.47% and employee count increase of 390%, we shouldn’t be too surprised. See our press release for all the details.

We know, of course, that we’re growing because we’re helping our clients grow their business. Their success is our success. Team G5 is committed to staying at the top of the list – year after year.

There’s never a dull moment for a G5 Marketing Analyst. As the single point of contact (commonly known as an account manager) for clients, a Marketing Analyst spends the day interacting with clients and working with other internal G5 teams. Also known as the Eternal Sunshine team because of our positive attitudes and fun spirits, the Marketing Analyst team tempers professionalism with a dash of mischief.

What does it take to be a G5 Marketing Analyst? Impeccable multi-tasking skills, perpetual optimism, an encouraging spirit, and the willingness to do whatever it takes to make sure clients are happy. Oh, a love for candy is a plus, too.

When G5 launches a website for a new client, the Marketing Analyst anxiously stands in the wings awaiting the opportunity to train that client on what G5 does – drive, engage, track, measure, and optimize. We also take the time to train clients on website functionality and the G5 Client Center reporting and content management capabilities.

After the initial training, G5 Marketing Analysts remain in close contact with clients. Our role is to help clients understand the performance of their websites, online marketing, and new website functionality opportunities, as well as to communicate new developments in the search, social and mobile worlds.

G5 Marketing Analysts are available to assist their clients as soon as an e-mail hits the inbox or the phone starts ringing. They spend time analyzing performance, troubleshooting and advising clients on the best course of action to take in any given situation. They send monthly emails regarding reports and pertinent G5 Client Center or search engine updates, and hold quarterly online marketing performance calls with clients to share what G5 and the client were able to accomplish together. In addition, we also attend annual trade shows and conferences where we have the opportunity to meet valued clients face to face.

Behind every good Marketing Analyst is the G5 team: experts who offer support and knowledge to ensure that the company is a one-stop shop for client needs. The Marketing Analyst team fields questions from clients and relies heavily on the assistance of other G5 teams – including Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay Per Click (PPC), Support, Professional Services and Engineering. Whether a client has questions about website performance metrics, lead reporting, Pay Per Click, how to make updates to their website, search engine rankings, optimization, online directories, call tracking, and everything in between – the Marketing Analyst works closely with other G5 teams to make sure we’re meeting our clients’ expectations.

Marketing Analysts fully embrace the G5 Core Value “Work Hard. Play Hard. Live Life.” and take their fun as seriously as their work. Be it playing on the G5 softball team, competing in Bend’s annual Pole, Pedal, Paddle race, or participating in the annual Gopher Broke Golf Scramble charity, a Marketing Analyst can be found enjoying the competitive and fun camaraderie of other G5 employees. To top it all off, the Marketing Analyst team seeks out fun ways to play throughout the year, such as customizing Mardi Gras masks featuring the G5 executive team with sparkly gems and jewel-toned feathers, throwing a Kentucky Derby party complete with exotic hats, or getting together for a 4th of July barbeque with family and friends.

We love it when this happens.

The other day, we got an email from a client who told us about a new resident. His daughter wanted to learn about a local senior community, and went to the Internet to find its contact information. When she did a search for senior housing in her city, our client’s senior community came up in the search results as well. The daughter (a professional Web developer) was so impressed with our client’s website, she decided to come in for a tour of their community. Not surprisingly, the daughter loved our client’s community and is excited to have found a wonderful place for her dad.

The lesson here is simple: Your Website Matters.

When people are searching for a business in their geographic area and they run across a website that is uninviting, hard to navigate and/or lacking basic information, they move on. You may never get another opportunity to engage and sell that client. We have all heard about usability. But what does that really mean for Senior Housing websites?

The design and layout of your site is critical. A bad first impression can easily cause someone to move on without really seeing what you have to offer. The design needs to convey who you are and what you want people to feel about your community. Does it speak to the type of resident you are looking for? Does it match your demographics?

We have one client with communities in small southern towns. Their site conveys a very homey, warm and welcoming feeling. It looks like the lives of its target residents.

We have another client with locations in Southern California, such as Beverly Hills. Their site exudes sophistication, luxury and a spa-like feeling, directly speaking to their target audience.

Once a potential resident is captured by your design, the layout of your website is what keeps the user engaged. Your website must contain relevant information that is organized and easy to find. Levels of care, amenities, services and other relevant information should be organized in a logical manner. The content must be well written and informative, adding to the overall impression of a successful, inviting community. Your website should also include font size options, sample menus, a calendar of events and photos. Lots of photos. Good quality professional photography that captures the beauty, warmth and essence of your community is essential to your potential residents and their families.

Finally, your website must contain clear directives and calls to action. During the process of designing and developing a website, keep in mind your objective: to have potential residents find your community, contact you and schedule a tour. Never make someone search for your phone number. Many, many websites miss this critical step. They are well designed and engaging, but when it’s decision time, the contact information is nowhere to be found. Give your potential residents a variety of options for contacting you, including a phone number and email address, with the invitation to schedule a tour or request a brochure.

So take a fresh look at your website. A few small changes can make a difference in its effectiveness and, with the right changes, positively affect your occupancy.

Outside Magazine has named us to their 50 Best Places to Work in America list.

Why? We would say why not.

The company goes out of its way to make sure we play as hard as we work. Examples include shortened work hours on Fridays during the summer months, paid participation in various athletic events, flex time for powder ski days, work hours devoted to volunteer time for charitable organizations and company-supplemented gym memberships.

When we say we work hard and play hard together, we mean it.

These are just a few of the many reasons G5 is known for it’s work/life balance.

Our CEO Dan Hobin said it best: “Our employees are committed to delivering the best software platform and services in the marketplace. But they’re also committed to passions outside the company – family, friends, outdoor activities, the community and environmental causes.”

And team members agree.

“Flexibility and respect for family and lifestyle played a strong role in my decision to join the G5 team,” said Aaron Warnock, Director of Product Mangement. “G5 is a company that wow-ed me with their unique local businesses marketing platform and then won me with corporate values that highlight life-work balance.”

A debt of gratitude is also due to our partner in playing: beautiful Bend, Oregon – where we all live, and work.

This is such a great spot that another company here in town, Ruffwear, is also on the list. Congratulations Ruffwear!

Paid Advertising on the major search engines can be a significant driver of leads to your website. However, identifying the best way to spend money in that world is more confusing and arduous than you might imagine.

Prior to 2005, Google was a straightforward process. You bid a certain dollar amount and, if you were the highest bidder, you paid one cent more than the next highest bidder. But Google’s Ad Rank calculation changed that process.

Now knowing what you will pay for a click is not that simple.

What you are willing to bid has only an indirect role on your cost. The more important factors in determining cost are quality score and the aggressiveness and performance of your competition. These will influence your CPC far more than the maximum you are willing to spend.

To determine your CPC, Google uses a two-step process. (Yahoo and Bing do not disclose how CPC is calculated).

Step One is the auction for your Google search term (e.g., Assisted Living, Milwaukee). Every single Google search triggers a unique auction. These auctions use a formula that calculates “ad rank” as the first step. Ad Rank determines which position your ad will appear (or if it will appear at all) for a given search.

Ad Rank = Max CPC X quality score (1-10 scale with 10 the best)

An example:

• You bid $2.00 for the search query Assisted Living, Milwaukee
• Google determines your quality score for your ad is 8
• Your Ad Rank = 16 ($2.00 X 8)

The Ad Rank calculation shows us that Google values both the bid and the quality score of a search query equally.

Step Two is to calculate cost per click.

Google takes the Ad Rank of the ad below yours, divides it by your Assisted Living, Milwaukee quality score, and then adds $0.01. For example:

• Your ad for Assisted Living, Milwaukee earns position #3 with an Ad Rank of 16
• Max CPC is $2.00, quality score is 8
• The Ad Rank of the competitor in position #4 (just below you) was 12
• Your CPC would be $1.51 because (12 ÷ 8) + .01 = $1.51
(The competitor’s Ad Rank of 12 divided by your quality score of 8, plus $0.01)

Bidding is under your control, but its impact is indirect. Let’s take the example above and change your max bid to $3.00 from $2.00:

• Your ad for the Assisted Living, Milwaukee keyword earns position #3 with an Ad Rank of 24
• New Max CPC is $3.00, quality score is still 8
• The Ad Rank of the competitor in position #4 (just below you) is 12
• Your CPC would be $1.51 because (12 ÷ 8) + .01 = $1.51
(Their Ad Rank of 12 divided by your quality score of 8, plus $0.01)
• You still pay the $1.51 based on the formulas despite bidding 50% higher

These calculations show that your bid does play a role, though an indirect one. Ad Rank helps to determine which keyword is below you, and it’s the Ad Rank of that keyword which influences your CPC. This is how the quality and aggressiveness of the competition drives your price.

To illustrate, here is another example:

• Your ad for Assisted Living, Milwaukee earns position #3 with an Ad Rank of 20
• Max CPC is $2.00, quality score is 10; previous quality score was 8
• The Ad Rank of the competitor position #4 (just below you) is 12
• Your CPC would be $1.21 because (12 ÷ 10) + .01 = $1.21
(Their Ad Rank of 12 divided by your quality score of 10, plus $0.01)

Of course the Ad Rank of your competition is not listed in Google. The main reason you can’t simply look it up is that it changes in real time for every search query. Also, Google isn’t running a transparent auction.

The lesson here is that bids and quality score work together to set the prices you pay for paid search clicks. Of the two, quality score has a slightly more important role resulting in the need to allocate as much (or more) time and energy to quality score management as to bid management.

Members of G5’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) department, affectionately known as “10 SERP Plaza,” are often asked: Which directories are the best for me to sign up for?

We consider ourselves the best people to answer this question as our entire department assumes that every inquiry should end “with regards to my SEO?”

And we answer it, at least initially, with a question of our own: Which are the best directory targets for the Senior Housing market?

Target

When developing your target list of directories, first establish a clear objective. Are you trying to get good, trusted citations from directories and improve the consistency with which search engines see your business information across the Web? Or are you trying to drive traffic directly to your website?

The first objective is back-linking while the latter is more about driving traffic and conversions.  This is an extremely important distinction. Deciding which is more important will point you to the best directories to accomplish your goal.

Many directories are built more for search engines than for human users.  It doesn’t take long to look at a directory and identify which audience they are targeting.  One tell-tale sign a directory is targeting search engines is how they list.  If they don’t use images or anything else to give a real live person more information about what your listing is, they are focusing on search engines. Search engine citation style directories will have your business information and little else, as illustrated by this example:

Directories that are more traffic driven sites generally have links back to the pages and have rich content for each listing. This can range from pictures to driving directions to operating hours, etc., as illustrated by this example:

Cost

Some of the best directories on the Internet are entirely free. There are various levels of time and effort you must commit to successfully take advantage of these directories. The commitment varies on a directory-by-directory basis.

The foremost free directory is DMOZ. This site gets a lot of credence from the search engines because it is well edited and has been around for a long time. It boasts a shocking PageRank of 8, a rating Google assigns to websites that shows authority based on a scale of 0 – 10. Some other general high quality free directories are business.com and Yahoo!.

The downside to a free directory is the application process and the data entry required. Denial is not uncommon, particularly for DMOZ. And be aware of paid directories that look to be the exact same as other directories. Search engines inherently give less credence to any links that cost money and are not specified in the HTML as a paid link.

Specificity

There are many generic directories that cover varied industries across the Web. These are just general directories (not unlike the Yellow Pages) and may not be as valuable as finding one that is more specific to your industry. The more specific the directory, the more it can boost your SEO industry expertise.

It is much more valuable to optimize your website by finding a directory that aligns with your specific business. For example, if you have a website dealing with Assisted Living, you will want to find a directory that specializes as close to this industry as possible. A generic Senior Living or Senior Care directory, while still valuable, is not as valuable as a directory that deals just with Assisted Living. A more targeted directory will likely give a larger boost to your website SEO and citations because it is as close to your business as you can get. Listing your Assisted Living business in a directory for Defense Lawyers is probably not going to do much for you.

Directories can be helpful in getting good, accurate citations to your websites. They can also drive traffic and calls-to-action (phone numbers, brochure requests, etc.) for your communities. It takes time to research, time to apply and time to track your return. But it can increase your online profile, and thus your leads and potential business opportunities – making it worth the effort.

In a typical day, the G5 Search Engine Optimizer Team saves the world three to four times. Okay, realistically we’re only saving our clients’ (Google-based) worlds. For the record, it turns out that saving the world allows having a little fun too. It does not require a cape, and the tights are optional, too.

If you were to ask the average person what SEO is, you’d probably get a blank stare. If you ask someone that is familiar with marketing online, they could at least tell you SEO is search engine optimization, and that search engine optimizers do “important stuff” online. But we do oh-so-much-more than that.

We Strategize
First priority: Kamchatka. For playing Risk, anyway. (Ed. Note: We recognize this is a nerdy joke.)

For our client sites, it’s all about keywords – which to use, how to use them, and how to optimize their sites for them. Our figurative tackle box is full of different tools for assessing keywords and we use them all on a regular basis. We could tell you exactly which ones, but then we’d have to…well, probably not kill you, since we’re pretty non-violent, but we’d have to…never mind.
Bottom line: Inventing strategies for working with search engines known to have a multitude of factors that are literally unknowable is quite a challenge. But we meet that challenge head on, and damn if we don’t look good doing it, too.

We Answer Questions
Yes, the G5 SEO team is a veritable dispensary of wisdom. We answer questions – a lot of them – from internal sources, as well as our clients.

These range from the very simple:

Q: “This domain has a 404 – should I use a 301 or a 302?”

A: “Nearly always a 301”.

To the extremely complicated -

Q:“Why isn’t this page ranking?”

A: “Well, Google has stated that there are literally a couple hundred factors that are used in their ranking algorithm, so let’s start weeding through all of them, shall we?”

We’re not afraid to say we don’t know, and we’re not ashamed to give vastly different answers to what is seemingly the same question because, sometimes it really just depends – usually on about 200 different factors.

We Conduct Research
Unfortunately, our research never seems to involve Bunsen burners and mad cackling, but we’re still holding out hope. The only way to be an industry expert is to get in and get your hands dirty – figuratively, of course, as no one likes a filthy keyboard. Relying on pure conjecture or word on the street is no way to keep up on the latest and greatest. You never know what methods are being used to get the information; mysterious 8 balls and tea leaves aren’t what we consider to be SEO research. More often than not, our testing is based on trial and error – but we do keep some tea on hand, just in case.

We Have Fun
Work hard and play hard is one of the G5 core values, and the SEO team embraces it. Really, really tight. Madness and mayhem is another fine product coming out of the SEO team. It may not be a coincidence, then, that in our new workspace the SEO team is in one of the only actual dark corners in a building covered in windows. Affectionately known as the “naughty corner,” we’re kept a safe distance from any members of the public that may stop by the G5 offices. Hooting and hollering, making cupcake runs, hosting Mardi Gras parties, stripping during company video filming – it’s all in a day’s work.