Social networking is ‘entertainment’ say consumers

May 31, 2011 | Category : Social Media | Tags: , , , ,

By Jackie Yeadon

Around a quarter of British and US consumers have revealed that they consider social networking sites to be all about fun.

The 2011 Edelman Value, Engagement and Trust in the Era of Social Entertainment Survey said 31% of respondents in the UK thought social sites – such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube – provided “very good” or “excellent” value. This number rose slightly in the US to 37%.

These figures provide insight into the uses of social networking sites: for a business viewing these figures, obviously it’s pertinent to point out that the survey seemed to be angled very much towards an entertainment focus rather than a purely commercial one: but don’t abandon your business tweeting just yet!

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Get your own Google-powered e-commerce website

May 27, 2011 | Category : Advertising,e-Commerce,Google Search Engine,Online Marketing | Tags: ,

By Jackie Yeadon

Huge volumes of data pose problems that can only be solved by a powerful navigation (or search) tool. On the world wide web, big data is managed by search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and so on; on a micro level, searches within a large e-commerce website can be a real headache – for businesses and customers.

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How do you pay for paid advertising?

May 25, 2011 | Category : Advertising,AdWords,Company,Marketing,Paid advertising,PPC Pay Per Click | Tags: , , ,

By Jackie Yeadon

The traditional way to employ an online marketing agency to manage paid advertising (PPC) is to allocate a monthly budget for your campaigns and pay a percentage fee on top for the work it actually does. This tends to be around 15% but it can vary between agencies and reputations. Other activities, like content optimisation, link building and so on, are extra. There is usually a minimum-term contract, which can also vary between three and 12 months.

This is the model that Adrac Ltd was built on in the early days of paid advertising and online marketing. When it was acquired by Reach Global Ltd in 2003, this changed with incoming operations director Israr Sarwar.

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Adrac Ltd: Risk assess your website

May 19, 2011 | Category : Google Search Engine,Quality score | Tags: , ,

by Jackie Yeadon

Whether you are doing your online marketing yourself or have someone handling it, your website is an asset. It should, at the very least, be integrated into your business plan and budgeting; it should also be party to a risk assessment on a regular basis.

If you’re an SME new to the idea of online marketing, you need to take five minutes and answer these 10 questions.

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Mirroring: a case study

May 11, 2011 | Category : Quality score,SEO Copywriting | Tags: ,

By Jackie Yeadon

A new client website health check provoked a bit of head scratching for the Adrac team. We honestly could not work out why her quality score for both natural search and pay per click was so low.

During a chat it emerged that she actually had two websites where she displayed her brand. The websites had different names but identical content. 100% identical.

Google’s quality score guidelines allow for as much as 70% of website content to be the same as another, enabling companies to duplicate, say, technical content in great swathes while retaining 30% unique content for the softer information.

Our client had compelling reasons for maintaining both websites so the remedy for her low quality score was to rewrite at least 30% of the copy.

Mirroring a website – making an identical or substantially similar version of a site – is frowned upon by all the major search engines, which assume it is a rogue link building exercise. Our client did it in all innocence, simply wanting to sell her services under two separate brands, but she was penalised for it nevertheless.

Businesses wishing to replicate the content of a parent company’s website should also ensure they do not mirror information, or they will find themselves penalised.

Google’s AdWords has some advice on PPC landing page content here. And here is some more information about duplicate content see here. Bing webmaster tools are here.

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AdWords preview, digested for SMEs

May 3, 2011 | Category : Advertising,AdWords,Google Search Engine,Paid advertising,PPC Pay Per Click | Tags: , ,

We have seen Google testing it for a while, but now the AdWords Preview is official. Below is a list of the good and bad aspects of the new feature, as seen through the eyes of internet users and SMEs who include paid search advertising in their marketing mix.

The good news for internet searchers
•    See what a page looks like before clicking – is it attractive, is it relevant?
•    Could save time it takes to reload the Serp (search engine results page),  as previews are displayed on-page.

The bad news for internet searchers
•    It’s an extra stage and more time.
•    Is the preview large enough to isolate the detail you need to assess it?
•    May miss out on good content if the previewed website doesn’t look attractive, even if it’s relevant.

The good news for SME paid advertisers
•    You don’t pay for a preview click, only a click through.
•    Your quality traffic and conversions could increase.
•    It does not affect your quality score.

The bad news for SME paid advertisers
•    Preview is free but not optional.
•    If your landing page doesn’t look good on the preview, your quality traffic and conversions could decrease.
•    It might not last if it affects click throughs massively from Google’s point of view.

It will be interesting to see how this takes off or flops in the next few months – that is, if users appreciate the offering, ignore it or purposefully avoid it.

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