Blog

Here are some of the better pictures, hope you enjoy as much as we did.

Competition for best in show was fierce

Jason (Sales Guy) wins "Funniest Design" for his pumpkin titled "The Future of SiteLab"

Mike finished 2nd in Best in Show voting for his pumpkin, "Jack Skeleton"

Tom takes home honors for Best in Show with his pumpkin, "Parisi's Cat"

Marlene's the Cat takes runner up for Best Costume

Todd wins Best Costume with "Big PimpFoot"

Posted in Awards, SiteLab News & Events | 2 Comments »

Mobile search marketing has been in a state of limbo to date as there have been a significant number of mobile internet users, yet not enough to require full scale adoption by most companies.  Instead, mobile search has been dominated by news sites, sites offering mobile products, and sites offering navigation.  So how does a company know when the time is right to begin mobile marketing?  That’s simple: right now.  Based on recently released data not only are there more than enough current users to target, the growth of mobile search and mobile marketing in general is staggering.

A comScore report released earlier this year shows that 22.4 million people access the mobile web daily.  Between January 2008 and January 2009 the number of daily mobile web users doubled. Don’t make the mistake of believing this is simply a result of more people getting phones with fully enabled browsers, such as the iPhone or other smart phones.  Not only have mobile platforms become more sophisticated, but more and more mobile content is now available as well.  This creates a positive feedback loop where as technology gets better (faster connection speeds, better equipped phones, etc) and as mobile web content grows more people adopt mobile web.  As more people adopt mobile web, more content is posted and technology is developed faster.

According to a Nielsen Online report released recently, mobile visits to web site grew 34% from July 08 to July 09.  This is another staggering growth statistic showing that the mobile web is in its infancy and is sure to grow rapidly in the near term.  What this report also demonstrates, is the fact that this rapid growth rate is being fueled by a wider demographic range than ever before.  Year over year growth was greatest for the 65+ age group, showing that mobile web usership is expanding beyond traditional younger early adopters.  Having a mobile web presence now could establish a loyal long term following based on the fact that new users will gravitate towards tried and true mobile sites that were around since their mobile web adoption.

So, what are people using the mobile web for?  Well, the traditional uses of mobile internet (mainly news and information oriented – sports, weather, maps, etc) still dominate the landscape (107% year over year growth) as those mobile web uses were already popular with mobile users for good reason.  However, other mobile internet uses gaining popularity include social networking (427% growth), banking/financial trading (188% growth), and accessing business directories (161% growth) among other activities.

As more and more users adopt the mobile web, be certain that your company is there from the time of adoption.  Check the mobile friendliness of your website today to ensure you aren’t stuck playing catch up months from now.

Posted in Industry News, Mobile Marketing, Search Marketing Today | No Comments »

Google’s recent earnings announcement beat earnings estimates and confirms the strength of online advertising in the face of the continuing recession.  Google’s earnings announcements have become economic indicators in and of themselves recently as analysts grasp any possible news for implications for the market.  No matter your opinion, there’s no denying the figures showing that Google’s revenue grew 7% year over year in Q3.  In addition, Google CEO Eric Schmidt felt strongly enough to state, “While there is a lot of uncertainty about the pace of economic recovery, we believe the worst of the recession is behind us and now feel confident about investing heavily in our future.”

What this means in practice is that Google will step up hiring and will continue acquiring companies both large and small.  If you remember earlier this year it was a huge deal when Google announced some layoffs which many attributed to Google predicting a protracted down economy.  This announcement appears to allay these concerns as using the same logic would seem to suggest that Google increasing hiring indicates a Google perception that the economy is improving.

Google reported the following stats demonstrating the strength of online advertising despite an overall weak economy:

• Revenues rose 7% year over year to 5.94 billion for Q3 09
• Aggregate paid clicks up 14% year over year from Q3 08 to Q3 09
• Aggregate paid clicks up 4% from Q2 09
• Average cost per click down 6% year over year from Q3 08 to Q3 09
• Average cost per click up 5% from Q2 09

We feel that the year over year and quarterly growth of paid ad clicks demonstrates the strength of online advertising as people continue to spend more time and money online despite the fact that consumers are spending less overall.  The fact that cost per click has fallen year over year is mitigated by the fact that cost per click increased from last quarter.  Since cost per click is an indicator of advertiser competition, the increasing price actually indicates the health of the system as advertisers continue to spend more online from Q2 to Q3.  Coupled with Yahoo’s recent earnings announcement, also beating estimates, we feel stronger than ever about the future prospects for and effectiveness of online advertising.  This economy presents an opportunity to realign ad spends closer to actual consumer behavior by spending more online.

Posted in Industry News, Search Marketing Today | No Comments »

The World’s Tallest Building (and SiteLab Client), Burj Dubai, will be featured on Amazing Race on CBS this Sunday at 8PM.  Check out the trailer here: CBS Amazing Race Trailer

We’re currently in the process of designing and building a web site more fitting of the Tallest Building in the World than their current site (check out the current site here: The World’s Tallest Building.  Keep in mind, the new site will be quite an improvement).  Check back later and we’ll post an update when the new site is live.

Posted in SiteLab Clients, SiteLab Creative, SiteLab News & Events | No Comments »

Landing pages are only as successful as the number of sales or leads they bring in. Too often a page is designed that lacks the essential elements necessary to guide a user down a conversion path. To help spark your optimization efforts, here are five fundamentals that are crucial to the success of a landing page:

1. Simple CTA – Be clear and concise with your call to action and limit them to two or fewer. Decide what your goals are for every visitor and build the page around that goal. Don’t overcomplicate things with lengthy copy or elaborate buttons. Simple color and simple fonts work best.  And always make sure the call to action is above the fold…always.  If it takes effort to locate the call to action, it isn’t clear enough!
2. Offer Clarity – Don’t make your visitors spend valuable seconds on your site distinguishing what exactly it is you are offering, promoting or selling.  Keep in mind you only have 4-5 seconds to grab that user’s attention. Clearly state or show your product or service with the most distinguishable benefits and features listed first. If you choose to use an image as the focal point, make sure it visually represents and enhances the offer or service.  Adhere to the marketing acronym, AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action). Make the most of the short amount of time you have to engage that user by keeping things simple and clear.
3. Maintain Balance – Avoid text heavy and image heavy pages. Nobody wants to spend all of their time on the page reading copy or searching for content. Use bullets or numbers to highlight key benefits or differentiators as opposed to writing in complete sentences. Carefully select only images that are relevant. Too many images can often detract the user away from finding the call to action. Make use of the white space available to separate components of the page. A well balanced page is more visually appealing and generates more clicks.
4. Pay Off – Depending on the channel used to bring visitors to your site, do your best to ensure the user lands on the right page. If someone searches for “buy red shoes” or clicks on an ad showing red shoes, those shoes better be on the landing page. Too often this searcher will be brought to a home page or a category page and not the page relevant for those shoes.  Don’t make your user think!  Once they do, it’s usually too late.
5. Don’t Ask For Too Much – If you’re requesting visitors fill out a form to complete some type of action (newsletter sign up, contact us form, etc), only include fields that are absolutely necessary to fulfill the page’s goal. Asking for too much information before establishing any type of relationship will cause a major deterrent in the conversion process. Additional info can be extracted from the user in subsequent marketing efforts so only ask for what you absolutely need.

Be sure to follow these guidelines on your own landing page and you’re sure to have success.  Nothing in marketing is absolute, but if you’re going to break one of the rules above, you better have a good reason!

Posted in Industry News, Search Marketing Today | No Comments »