Two important variables affecting CPM rates are site traffic and site demographics. SEO can play a role in increasing CPM both on the site level and on the individual page level.
Obviously, the results of SEO vary depending on the goal of the SEO effort. SEO can be used to target broad keywords that drive total site traffic increases or it can be used to target specific long tail keywords that drive targeted sub and category page traffic. Each of these strategies drives CPM increases in its own way.
SEO for increasing site traffic through broad keyword optimization:
- Increase total visitors = Increase total impressions
- Great for brand ads impressions/recall, but may be low converting
SEO for increasing site traffic through long tail keyword optimization:
- Increase quality of traffic = Increase value of CPM
- Great for targeted converting traffic
Once we figure out what the goal is, the next piece of SEO revolves around making great content searchable. The goal is to increase impressions per visitor. Sites like MySpace (bless its heart) and Facebook have become popular ad spots because users are viewing hundreds of pages every time they visit. Who are they? I have no idea. I max out at 1.
Anyhow, how do you improve impressions on your site?
1. Highlight Related Posts.
Probably the best way to build impressions is to link to “Related Posts” in your website on each page, by matching tag, title and/or topic. Cross-linking introduces information related to the page that the visitor was interested in – which builds the impression count AND the visitor’s interest in your site. Keep linking and they will keep clicking. Think “mind maps.”
2. Highlight What’s Popular.
Call out the posts and categories that are most popular on your site in a ‘hotspot’ area. Make sure that you are taking advantage of the website’s content system to keep your hotspots dynamic. A good tip is to make sure that your category names are explicit; like “2009 Album Reviews” or “SEO Quick Wins.”
3. Offer Many Ways to be Interactive.
Readers are loyal and will usually spread the word about websites that engage them. You can create that interactive experience in many ways: make sure you have an RSS Feed for the site, actively react in your own comments section to people’s responses and offer an RSS feed to the comments. You can also deep link within new posts to old posts for examples and related commentary. We also provide a Twitter (or other social feed) that can alert readers of a new post.
It’s all about context, relevancy, timing and targeting. Other ways to keep your content fresh in a publishing environment like a blog:
1. Use your site search results to drive content strategy.
The search box on your site is an incredible tool to keep the most popular content bubbling to the top. Track the searches on your own site and respond accordingly through pushing popular content to the homepage and highlighting it. Search Engines will respond by indexing the content immediately and putting increased importance on it in their own search results.
2. Create relevant content by responding to real time activity.
The web has its own pulse now. By monitoring real time trends on tools like http://search.twitter.com and http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends we are able to respond on our own site and create the content that everyone is looking for. Like in the above example, linking to this fresh content on the home page will lead the Search Engines to index it faster and give it priority importance. This content can also be used to drive mobile applications since most mobile users are looking for trending topics and real time updates.
Other ideas:
Rich Media has played a major part of this. Publishers that allow expandable, overlay, video and interactive ads can typically charge a premium over standard formats.
In-stream video is also starting to gain popularity, where a short video advert is displayed as a pre-roll or overlay of the main video feature.
Some sites are also looking to offer custom solutions for big advertisers.
Page takeovers, podcast sponsorship, advertorial content and mobile are all way to build exclusive packages and charge a premium.
Does anyone have any other good experience helping to drive CPM up on a site? Let us know.
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