Search Engine Snippets

SEO workshop review

2007-01-26T13:59:00.000Z

First one day workshop now running in Bournemouth

Microsoft adCenter - A Resume on Setting Up a Campaign

2006-08-25T15:35:00.000Z

adCenter is a simple bidding system, the higher you bid the higher your ad is placed (unlike the AdWords system where clickthrough rate partly determines position). Ads are set up in the usual way, the title can be up to 25 characters and the description a maximum of 70 characters which is rather short. There is the option to have a display as well as a destination URL which is useful. You can also direct visitors to different landing pages depending which keyword they used to search. All ads are subject to review before being going live. It was very quick since it's an automated system with ads that are declined then being subject to manual review.

Payment is in arrears (like Adwords) and the set up fee is £5 per campaign. Campaigns correlate with clients so if you are an agency running ads for a number of clients, the set up fee is £5 per client. So that shouldn't break the bank.

There are two interesting tools in the Manage Keywords section (there is also the usual find similar keywords etc). The first is 'Search the destination URL for keywords'. adCenter goes onto your site and comes back with all the keywords it thinks are RELEVANT, and I was told by adCenter support, that any word that comes back from this search will be approved if you want to use it as a keyword in your adCenter account, subject of course to trademark infringements etc. Keywords are listed by popularity of search on MSN last month (with accurate figures I was told!). The top keyword that was returned for the site I tried this out on was 'BBC news'. Considering it's a site about the Isle of Wight I was surprised but it seems that because the site had a link through to the BBC news site, it was considered relevant to that search phrase.

Another useful tool is 'Search this website for keywords'. This allows you to search any site for keywords, and obviously competitors' sites would be an extremely interesting source!

It's only one week on since the launch of Microsoft adCenter and, although we've now had a chance to try it out and see what it is like to use, it's a bit early for assessing the results but we'll keep you posted as to what we find in the ensuing weeks.

At the moment bids are nice and low since so few advertisers have opened accounts with adCenter, so our advice is get in quick and make hay while the sun shines!

Microsoft adCenter - the new MSN - Search Pay Per Click Service

2006-08-18T15:44:00.000Z

Below is a letter circulated this week (commencing 11th August) informing online advertisers of the new MSN Search Pay Per Click service launched by Microsoft adCenter.

Dear Search Advertiser

If you’ve been buying your Pay-Per-Click advertising through Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture), you could lose up to 38% of your traffic*.

That’s because after August 15th, MSN’s audience will no longer be accessible through Yahoo!

Instead, this high-quality audience will only be available through adCenter, Microsoft’s revolutionary new Pay-Per-Click service.

adCenter’s unique targeting capabilities turn clickers that cost into customers that pay, eliminating timewasters and boosting your bottom line. And because it advertises your product on MSN Search – which boasts the audience that clicks to buy most often – it has already been shown to convert 57% better than Google and 48% better than Yahoo in the US (WebSideStory, 02/06).

So to hold on to some of your best leads, make sure you’re ready for adCenter. Here are some tips to help you make the most of it right from the August 15th start date…

- Start organising your campaigns. Allocate some budget so you can trial adCenter straight away.
- Prepare your keywords list. And remember, you’ll be able to import your current list straight into the adCenter tool.
- Think about which audience you’d like to focus on, and when. Selling golf holidays? adCenter will let you target men aged between 25 and 50. Running a food delivery service? adCenter will let you focus on mealtimes.
- Prepare your ad copy.

Make sure you sign up straight away so that your business is one of the first to take off. Go to http://advertising.msn.co.uk/keepyourleads

If you need any help, call our support team on 0800 633 5915 between 8am and 6pm, 7 days a week.

And if you usually do you Pay-Per Click advertising through an agency, let them know you’d like to get set up on adCenter. We’ll work with them to ensure you get the best out of our service.

We look forward to having you on board.

Best regards.

Microsoft adCenter
Pay-Per-Click that pays.

*Source: Nielsen NetRatings, May 2006

Is it a Good Time to start out an SEO - SEM Business in the UK?

2006-04-27T11:44:00.000Z

Last week we invited questions relating to SEM/SEO from you. So far there has been a similarity in the type of questions we have been asked in that they follow the lines of:

Is it a good time to start an SEM business in the UK and what advice do we have for where to start?

Another concern appears to be how much to charge for the service?

The answer to the first question is easy. In our opinion, there has never been a better time. When we first got involved in this business, in what seems like many centuries ago now, there was no perceived need for SEO or SEM. Web designers ‘knew’ that the key was metatags. Everybody else ‘knew’ that all you had to do was build a web site and wait for the visitors to flock to it’.

People are a lot more savvy these days and, in the main, recognise that luck doesn’t come into it. SEO/SEM has come into the mainstream as a major function within the marketing department’s remit, and budgets have increased enormously in the last year reflecting this.

The second question regarding pricing structures is a little more difficult and there is no definitive answer. Of course, some markets are more competitive than others and therefore require more time and input and it is therefore important to handle a client’s expectations very carefully. This might mean that you either avoid very competitive marketplaces such as loans, mortgages etc or prepare to have to work very hard and long and charge your client accordingly. It seems that SEO/SEMs tend to charge out their services in the following ways:

1. Based on results. This could mean a commission basis on an ecommerce site, for example.
2. On a consultancy basis whereby you would charge a monthly retainer. With this, you need to manage your time accurately and ensure you charge for the time you spend on behalf of the client and that you don’t overrun.

One workshop student of ours sold a given number of hours per month to clients but was exceptionally organised in submitting reports/accounting for her time so that clients were able to appreciate how much time she had devoted to particular tasks, particularly link building which can be one of the most time consuming jobs.

Increasingly, we would say that an SEO needs to either offer a true consultancy service, that is explaining what the client needs to do and leaving the client to do it himself. Or the SEO needs to become part of the team and get to know the client’s product intimately so that they are able, for example, to write copy for the client that is authoritative and accurate. Gone are the days when an SEO could come in and tinker with keyword density, add some alt text and Bob’s your Uncle! But then that is why taking on a qualified SEO is such a good idea and makes an excellent selling point for SEO services.

Either way, we feel it is important that any contract you secure is based on a minimum of one year with a satisfactory notice period of say, two months, on either side. You might like to take the lion’s share up front and then settle on a monthly fee for the remainder of the year. Whichever method you decide upon, it is important that clients are aware than SEO/SEM is an ongoing service if they want to really achieve high rankings and maintain them.

Get to know your client well and really understand what SEO/SEM success means to their bottom line and prepare to charge accordingly. For example, we had one workshop student who had contributed towards the success of a software company; as a result of his efforts, the leads being generated often converted into thousands of pounds worth of consultancy. Prepare to charge what you’re worth!

Either way, you're going to have to ensure that your skills are kept fully up-to-date and what better way than by attending a Search Engine Marketing Training Course on a regular basis.

Using Wordtracker, Google AdWords and Web Analytics for Accurate UK Keyword Research

2006-04-21T10:54:00.000Z

How to use Wordtracker, Google Adwords and Web Analytics to identify
the best keywords for your site

Read our keyword research article here

Our Keyword Research module on Day One of our SEO-SEM Workshops always proves to be a popular one with all students, particularly as most of our delegates seem to struggle along with keyword tools that tend to present data that is heavily skewed towards the United States. Given that we know that thorough and accurate keyword research is the essential foundation upon which to build all our SEO and SEM efforts how on earth you find the best keywords for the UK market?

If like our students, you're find yourself struggling and labouring over keyword research, read Sally's article on how 'to sort the wheat from the chaff'. You'll find that it's likely to be the combination of using Wordtracker, Google AdWords and web analytics that provides the key to finding those relevant and targeted keyword phrases that deliver quality not just quantity and prospects/customers not just visitors? Or, to put it another way, success!

If you have any burning issues relating to keyword phrase research, or any other SEO - SEM related topic, why not submit your internet marketing related questions here.

We intend to limit our posted questions and answers to one or two of the topics most likely to interest the majority of our readers on a weekly basis but we'll keep a note of all them and get round to answering as many as we can in turn.

In fact, your first SEO question could even be a query relating to our workshops.

Our next workshop is scheduled for 23rd and 24th May and we are anticipating this to sell out fairly quicky given the early interest we have already received. Don’t wait until we sell out - you can call me on 01406-351556 if you feel you have an interest but aren’t quite sure yet and want to talk your requirements through.

NEXT Search Engine Marketing Workdshop – Rosedale House, Richmond upon Thames – 23rd and 24th May

SEO and SEM Questions and Answers

2006-04-12T18:09:00.000Z

Having just returned from our first Search Engine Marketing Workshop to be held on the south coast in Southampton, it strikes me how different the needs of each group of students are. Although we always have a set agenda, it would be an unusual workshop indeed if we didn’t on occasions veer from it in order to answer apposite and relevant questions that clearly concern the participants within the room.

Before I give a brief example of an extra topic we covered, this has given us the idea of opening a questions and answers facility here as we’re sure there will be burning questions that many of you may like to pose. In anticipation of being swamped with questions, we intend to limit the answers to one or two of the most interesting topics on, time permitting, a weekly basis but we’ll keep a note of them all and get round to answering them all if and when we can.

If you would like to kick off with a question, please visit our Internet Marketing Questions and Answers submission page.

Back to the Southampton training course, we talked about optimising pdf documents for the web. Google likes to index and rank pdf documents so why not make the most of them? For instance, make sure you embed absolute links (eg http://www.yourdomain.co.uk) within the footers and do not waste the opportunity of getting keyword rich titles into the headers. Further, make sure you make the most of the ‘Document Properties’ facility within the pdf writer by inserting a keyword rich title and, whilst you’re at it, why not include your all important keywords? Google treats pdf documents as something to be taken seriously so you should too.

Our next SEO – SEM training course is some time off now and it’s back to our old stomping ground, Richmond upon Thames. So many of our training prospects leave things to the last minute only to become disappointed that either they can’t make the dates because they didn’t plan ahead or find that we’re full because we do seriously limit the numbers of students so that we can indeed be flexible and interactive with the course material. Don’t wait - you can call me on 01406-351556 if you feel you have an interest but aren’t quite sure yet and want to talk your requirements through. In fact, your first SEO question could even be a query relating to our workshops!

NEXT WORKSHOP – Rosedale House, Richmond upon Thames – 23rd and 24th May:

http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/registration.htm

Sue Google for your drop in Rankings?

2006-03-26T07:03:00.000Z

On the very same day that Google refused to hand over to the US government data containing keywords and website addresses contained within its indices, a parental advice internet site, KinderStart.com filed civil lawsuit proceedings against the search engine. The basis of the lawsuit was that Google, without warning in March 2005, downgraded KinderStart’s rankings resulting in a 70% drop in traffic with a resulting 80% decline in revenue.

You can read more here:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-03-19-google-kinderstart_x.htm?POE=TECISVA

This case is definitely worth following though it is difficult to see how Google can be held responsible for the revenue of a company that seems overly dependent upon its positioning in their ‘free’ listings. It will also be interesting to discover whether the ever secretive Google has to reveal why they appear to have actually penalised the site though on my cursory glance over their site there does seem to be some evidence of some dubious coding.

Just imagine! In the future, we may all be able to sue Google when either our clients’, or our own, websites, take a dive in the rankings;-) Somehow, I don’t think so! In which case, why not join us at our next Search Engine Marketing and SEO Training Workshop in sunny Southampton on Wednesday, 5th and Thursday, 6th April? There’s barely a week to go and we still have some very limited space. You will learn how to gain and retain high relevant rankings by using ‘best practice’ SEO and SEM strategies so that you can avoid the pain that KinderStart has clearly suffered.

Visit http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/registration.htm

Or call Sally on 01425 476547 to discuss further.

Google Click Fraud - A Case for Web Analytics?

2006-03-11T16:02:00.000Z

One of the topics that frequently arises on both our search engine marketing workshops as well as web analytics training is click fraud. Click fraud is a form of abuse by third parties which could be an individual but is more likely to be some form of automated software repeatedly clicking on advertising links; at the cost of the advertiser, of course. It has been mooted that if you’re an online retailer this is something that you just have to accept much in the way that an offline retailer accepts that they have to account for shoplifting within their costs. Further, if you are conducting effective web analytics and monitoring your paid campaigns you will know which keywords/bids are delivering a return on your investment so that, in the grander scheme of things, click fraud is not worth getting over obsessed about it. Or is it?

Some experts have speculated that as much as 30% of Google’s advertising income could be emanating from fraudulent clicks and, given that Google’s advertising revenue amounted to some $6.1 billion last year, that’s rather a lot of money to have allegedly earned improperly. It seems that the ongoing debate has prompted Google to offer to pay up to $90 million (£52 million), before legal fees, to any US advertiser proving it has suffered from click fraud since 2002.

$90 billion! 52 million quid? In cash? Well, not quite. Rather, Google is willing to provide free advertising to any company that believes it has suffered at the hands of click fraud. However, the bad news is that it’s not clear whether these credits are being offered to UK advertisers as Google ascertains that it has not been sued by anybody outside the UK with respect to click fraud. So why is that? Well, we might be able to throw some light on this: our partners, SafeBuy, the online retail watchdog (who we congratulate on achieving the Office of Fair Trading approval of their Web Code of Practice, by the way) recently discovered that as many as 66% of their members were using Google AdWords and other online pay per click campaigns with an average spend of some £4000 plus per month. However, only 60% were monitoring the results!

Conclusion? No wonder UK advertisers aren’t suing Google – it seems that the majority of UK businesses are willing to hand a blank cheque book to Google and haven’t a clue what is working/not working as long as the visitors appear to be hitting their websites. Hmmm! It’s not exactly the way most businesses monitor their offline spending and budgets, is it?

Consequently, SafeBuy - http://www.safebuy.org.uk - has been promoting our search engine marketing and web analytics programmes to their members for some months. Now, in response to demand, we are putting together new training events on pay per click advertising and web analytics using the free Google web analytics tool.

Shouldn’t you, or your clients, be attending?

Watch this space! http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/registration.htm

Search Engine Marketing Training comes to Southampton

2006-03-11T15:22:00.000Z

Firstly, we wish to announce that Search Engine Workshops is bringing its popular search engine marketing training courses to Southampton. Having noticed that many of our students come to us in Richmond from places such as Portsmouth, Soutampton, Poole and Bournemouth, we thought we would make it easier for them.

Secondly, here is our take on some topical information, interspersed with a little fun, surrounding a news story related to search in the UK.

Many of you may have already seen the already well documented news about the Arsenal and England defender, Ashley Cole, who is taking libel action against two national newspapers. (For those of you have who haven’t, Cole is taking issue against published stories surrounding some allegedly bisexual antics involving two Premiership players. Although Cole was not, in fact, named, it was assumed that he was one of the players involved by implication.) So what’s that got to do with search engine marketing?

Well, firstly it’s a Saturday so we thought a snippet that combined football with search would be appropriate (!) but, secondly, his lawyers have taken an almost unprecedented step of setting up an online survey inviting respondents to reply to not only whether they read the stories but as to whether they contributed towards articles on chat rooms,websites or forums as a consequence. Clearly, the lawyers are trying to identify possible witnesses to gather evidence but as to whether this
stands up in a court of law remains to be seen. More likely it will increase the speculation and PR surrounding the rumours. It is easy to see that rival fans are likely to have a field day (pun intended?)posting mischievous replies!

Thirdly, and more relevant to this snippet, Cole’s solicitors have asked Google to disclose why typing ‘ashley cole’ into their search engine generates See results for: ashley cole gay half way down the results page.

Graham Shear, solicitor for Mr Cole, said that he is interested in the origin of Google's decision to display the "gay" results alongside generalsearches for his client. He said: "I am keen to find out whether the decision to automatically include the term 'gay' to the keyword 'AshleyCole' was an editorial decision or one made by a computer based on thevolume of searches for 'Ashley Cole' linked to the word 'gay'.

While we can see the funny side of a firm of solicitors somewhat innocently suggesting that some Google ‘editor’ might be colluding in these rumours, Mr Shear has probably highlighted a phenonemen that has been observedwithin the Google results over several months, that is, ‘clustering’. In other words, Google is grouping together pages on what it considers to be a similar topic.

We tend to have a bit of fun on our workshops when discussing ‘Google bombing’ by demonstrating how linking can dramatically influence rankings (try keying ‘miserable failure’ and ‘liar’ into Google and observing the top rankings sites if you haven’t already!) and while this is significantly different to Google bombing, it is easy to see that there is potentially a lot of fun to be had with this as well as yet another way to manipulate Google’s results. I am sure we will be seeing examples of this in the future!

You can read more about this in Danny Sullivan’s excellent Search Engine Watch blog here:

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060306-101828

Meanwhile, for any of you based on, or near, the sunny south coast, we have a couple of places remaining on our Workshop scheduled for 5th and 6th April in Southampton prior to our next SEM Workshop in Richmond in May. Don’t delay though as we do limit the number of spaces on our workshops in order for them to remain interactive!

If you have any queries, regarding our workshops, or other training events, just drop us a line @ http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/contact.htm
or call Marie direct on 01406-351556.

Google - Was it Something I Said?

2006-03-01T12:02:00.000Z

You just cannot keep Google out of the newspapers these days! The Times this morning reports on how comments by Google's chief Financial Officer, George Reyes to investors yesterday managed to wipe more than $8 billion (£4.5 billion) off its market value by admitting that the 'internet company's search for revenue was running out of steam'. I guess George's comments weren't quite on the scale of Gerald Ratner's a few years back but it did mean that Google had to circulate a somewhat modified version of his comments so that the shares only ended down 7.2% on the day on Wall Street.

You can read the complete article here:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-2063696,00.html

You may also have read articles surrounding the demise of the butler in Ask Jeeves over the past week or so. The decision to dismiss Jeeves and become plain old ask.com was influenced by the feeling that teenage boys (one of their key target audiences) don't really see butlers as role models these days. Well, that's not quite how The Times reported it on 27th February but I think that's the gist of it!

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-2060961,00.html

In order to accommodate the wishes of people attending our workshops over the next couple of months, we swapped round the dates so you need to make a note in your diaries that the April Workshop will now take place in Southampton and the May one in Richmond upon Thames rather than the other way round! We find it helps if we get students to the correct venue on the right day;-) See our up-to-date search engine
marketing workshop, Google Analytics and pay per click training dates.

In fact, you don't just need to make a note, you need to register right now as Southampton is proving to be a popular venue!

Search Engine Click Wars

2006-02-22T17:03:00.000Z

Firstly, we'd like to announce that we have responded to feedback from our Workshop students and have launched some new training events with additional venues. See below for further details if you need to run Google AdWords campaigns profitably as well as understand web analytics including the free Google Analytics tool. And, believe me, if all you know about web analytics is visitor numbers and which search engines are referring them then you haven't got to grips with web analytics yet and you're missing out on more than a few tricks as well as a potentially lucrative livelihood for those of you offering SEM services.

On to our latest marketing snippet:

SEARCH ENGINE CLICK WARS?

We reported many months back that it was a possibility that search engines such as MSN could start to financially reward searchers in their efforts to fight back against Google’s prominence! Well, what do you know? We were right (again???) It’s starting to happen. Much as newspapers use promotions to improve their circulation such as running competitions and offering free DVDs and money-saving vouchers, last week, Microsoft announced a three-month incentive inviting searchers to compete for a prize and Yahoo! recently asked searchers whether incentives such as air miles and DVD online subscriptions would entice them to switch over to their
search engine. You might want to try your luck already with the beta version @ http://www.msnsearchandwin.com

Further, Bill Gates has suggested that Microsoft may start to distribute advertising revenue to consumers clicking on Sponsored Searches as some analysts predict a decline in the market for keyword advertising amidst complaints that Google searches are now costing too much in certain competitive industries such as the home loan industry.

Add to this that Microsoft is going to launch Windows Live Search to ‘get fast access to real answers, rather than hundreds of pages with thousands of links’ across the internet, desktops and mobile devices and you have a very interesting article from last Sunday’s Observer full of speculation over how things may pan out in the months to come:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1712860,00.html

Search Engine Workshops are, by popular demand, adding more products and venues to their portfolio. If you fancy a trip down to the south coast (well OK - Southampton!) in May, or you are already based in that neck of the woods, we’d be delighted to see you on one of our training events. If you prefer, we’re back in Richmond upon Thames in April.

Watch this space! It will be Malaga next!

Here you can find out how to register for our new training events on creating profitable Google Adwords and other pay per click campaigns as well as making the most out of Google Analytics, new venues and dates visit:

http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/registration.htm

By the way, did you know that our Search Engine Marketing Workshops have now been officially given CPD (Continuing Professional Development)status from the CIM (Chartered Institute of Marketing)? Just another reason for attending one of our Workshops!

To discuss either the workshops or other training events scheduled, call Marie on 01406-351556 now.

Google, BMW, Ricoh and Big Daddy

2006-02-13T13:27:00.000Z

Search Engine Marketing and SEO have definitely come of age! Up until the last few weeks it’s been unusual to see much mention about Google and other search related matters in the mainstream UK press, other than a smattering of usually badly written and uninformed gibberish by so-called SEO experts that none of us have ever heard of. In the last couple of weeks that seems to have all changed! There has even been a programme on prime time BBC2 television all about Google.

Google has, of course, been in the news with regard to matters relating to China and The White House and, following on from this, Matt Cutts, a Google engineer announced last weekend that it had blacklisted the web sites of both Ricoh, the Japanese photocopier and office equipment manufacturer, and BMW in Germany. You can read Matt Cutt’s blog on this here:

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ramping-up-on-international-webspam/

Needless to say, the car giant was not best pleased with Google for making this public. See:

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,20411-2028624,00.html

The Times, amongst other broadsheets has carried the story all this week. In today’s Times (9th February) it reports: ‘Google has allowed BMW’s German website back on to its search engine index after the carmaker removed webpages that had artificially boosted its popularity. The company was accused of using a dummy “doorway” website that persuaded Google’s computers to put BMW high up on its search lists.’

(To us, it looks as though BMW has in fact employed what is known as ‘cloaking’ techniques to boost its web pages.)

Interestingly, The Times reported yesterday that ‘Google is publicising a new weapon that it is about to unleash on the “black hats”.

The company is testing Big Daddy, an all-powerful new computer infrastructure, which promises to weed out attempts to cheat the system … and is expected to be up and running as early as next month’.

I suspect we’ll be hearing more about Big Daddy in the weeks to come!

Search Engine Workshops is in no doubt that both BMW and Ricoh must be ruing the fact that they haven’t attended one of our Search Engine Marketing - SEO Workshops or they could have avoided getting into this mess ;-) However, you’ll be pleased to know there is one place up for grabs on our workshop on Wednesday and Thursday next week. Enrolment finishes by the end of play tomorrow (Friday) so you need to act quickly:

http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/registration.htm

Yahoo! Throws in the Towel?

2006-02-02T15:10:00.000Z

Google has won the search engine wars – at least for the foreseeable future. Many of us will be saddened to see that Yahoo! appears to have admitted as such - see
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/256748_yahoo24.html
and MSN has certainly not made any significant inroads into Google’s market share in the past year or so since it started using its own engine.

This confirms what we all knew anyway, that as far as attracting visitors from natural search is concerned, Google is king!

But other players are not standing still, of course. Yahoo! may have more or less accepted defeat in its battle with Google but it is now moving sideways and developing its publishing products. This includes the acquisition of del.icio.us - http://del.icio.us/. If you haven’t met it, del.icio.us is a bookmarking service. There are a growing number of similar sites, but this is one of the best established. When you find a page on the net you want to bookmark, instead of adding it to your own bookmarks or favourites on your own computer, you add it to
your del.icio.us account. By adding tags to your page and notes, del.icio.us allows you to build up a well organised resource library without cluttering up your own machine. It also has the advantage that you can share your library with colleagues and friends, which I think will be hugely beneficial to lots of people, myself and Sally included!

So what is its relevance to search? Quite a lot if you think about it. If you feel that a page is so worthwhile that you want to add it to your del.icio.us account, then that is a very big vote for that page, and Yahoo! will be aware of that vote. What better parameter to put into the search algorithm than votes from bookmarking sites? After all, using this bookmarking data gives the search engine up-to-date information on what is popular right at this very minute. One problem with all current algorithms is that they inevitably use slightly out of date information.

Yahoo! has been very good at seeing a good idea and running with it, Hotmail being a prime example. Del.icio.us could well prove to be another!

Our next Search Engine Marketing Workshop scheduled for 15th and 16th February in Richmond upon Thames is already 75% full so why not stop putting it off and make 2006 the year to get your SEO and SEM skills really up to date. You can register right away @
http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk or call Marie on 01406-351556 to discuss your individual requirements.

An Addition to the Quality Score in Google Adwords

2005-12-21T14:25:00.000Z

Google has announced that it is now taking into account the 'content
and the layout of the pages linked from your ads'and incorporating this
into its recently introduced Quality Score in order to determine
minimum bids for keywords.

Now it is even more important to send your Adwords visitors to the
appropriate landing page. If you are setting up your campaigns
carefully and appropriately then you shouldn't notice any changes but
any attempts to take short cuts when running Adwords campaigns are
now likely to cost advertisers more then ever. You can read more on
this @

http://adwords.blogspot.com/2005/12/new-addition-to-quality-score.html

For all those people who expressed interest in our Google Analytics
training, it appears that Google has got its 'knickers in a bit of a
twist' and is still struggling to keep up with the demand for sign ups
to its free web analytics tool that we told you about recently. It
appears there has also been some difficulties with those who did manage
to sign up so we will be keeping a beady eye on events. Once Google
has sorted itself out, we'll let you know about our training course
dates.

Meantime, for those of you who like to keep up with what's happening
with web analytics, Search Engine Workshops attended a very
interesting UK focused Web Measurement and Analytics Suppliers'
Showcase in London a couple of weeks ago and you can read what we
thought of it here:

http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/articles/web_analytics_review.htm

We still have some availability on one of our Workshops in January but
don't leave it late to register as spaces are very limited:

http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/registration.htm

Finally, Sally and I would like to wish all our readers a very Merry
Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

See you in 2006!

Google Analytics - an early Christmas present for online marketers!

2005-12-02T12:32:00.000Z

We’ve long been proponents of the importance of being able to assess where your website visitors come from such as which search terms, which search engines and analysing the success or otherwise of pay per click campaigns versus natural listings) notwithstanding how your visitors behave once they land on your site. Not only has Google given us their new sitemaps programme (http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/articles/xmlsitemaps.htm) Christmas has come early again with their offering of their FREE Google Analytics tool! You can read more about the Google Analytics tools in our article here:
http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/articles/ga.htm

Google has been overwhelmed by the demand for their web analytics tool – which only last year cost several hundred pounds per month to subscribe to under the name of Urchin – so much so that you will now have to leave your email address with them to go on their waiting list to be notified as to when they resume future sign ups. If you haven’t already done so we strongly recommend that you do this at:
http://www.google.com/analytics/index.html

In response to this demand, Search Engine Workshops will be starting half-day training sessions on how to get the most from Google Analytics. We will be posting more details of this shortly, but, meantime, if you feel you would be interested in attending such a training event (first one scheduled for a date to be confirmed in January) please register your interest at:
http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/contact.htm
and we will keep you posted.

Google Sitemaps - How and Why to Use Them

2005-11-23T14:50:00.000Z

No, we're not just talking about an html site map with links to all the important content on your web site!

We're talking about the Sitemaps scheme as launched by Google in the summer. Given that Google says they have launched it to enable them "…to expand our coverage of the web and speed up the discovery and addition of pages to our index." then you really ought to be taking it seriously.

If you've already taken a look at Sitemaps and been put off by techie talk of Python and xml feeds, then you need to read this article:

http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/articles/xmlsitemaps.htm

We demystify Google Sitemaps so that you can set up your own Sitemap quickly and easily using a tried and tested online free tool ensuring that all your important web site content gets indexed by Google. It's also perfect for those of you with dynamic web sites with tricky URLs that Google may be struggling with to include within its indices.

This is an important step forward in overall SEO strategies and, for once, Google appears to be giving up a helping hand. Thanks Google! Find out more about these strategies and other important new developments within SEO and SEM on our January workshop.

One January Workshop is already full so make sure you check out our supplementary January Workshop date @

http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/dates.htm

This one is also likely to sell out fast so don't put off your New Year Resolution any longer. Call us now!

Get Paid to Search the Web!

2005-11-16T11:43:00.000Z

There is no doubt that Microsoft is about to do battle with the mighty Google - both are currently trying to negotiate a deal with AOL after Yahoo! withdrew from that particular fray. Microsoft has seen off much bigger rivals before and one suspects quite relishes the challenge of knocking Google of its No 1 perch.

We now seem to have a possible MSN tactic to achieve this monumental task, that is, being paid to use their engine.

In the interview with Bryan Glick in Computing Magazine ( http://www.itweek.co.uk/computing/news/2145417/search-engines-offer-financial ), Bill Gates said

”As search becomes competitive and people realise that other offerings are as good [as Google], or are even significantly better, there will be price competition.

You will get some free content or a cheque, or some incentive to use a different search engine. Competition for users has not even kicked in. I can assure you it will not stay that way.”

The really interesting bit comes next:

”We are going to run some experiments on that in the next year.”

Now that could throw the search engine world into turmoil, because if MSN starts offering an incentive to use its engine then Google might be forced into following suit. The idea of Google paying us to use their engine for search is just too sublime!

Keep up-to-date with the search engine world and web analytics by attending one of our Search Engine Workshops and/or ClickTracks training. We have now posted dates for December and January. Act fast, as one of our Workshops in January has already sold out! See:

http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/dates.htm

PR as an SEO Tool in Online Marketing

2005-11-01T20:04:00.000Z

We have one more place on our Search Engine Marketing Workshop next week on 8th and 9th November in Richmond upon Thames. We're offering four hours of mentoring for a month after the workshop finishes for anyone who wants to fill the last spot. See:
http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/registration.htm?1101

Don't delay because the next Workshop is unlikely to take place until well into January due to the Christmas holidays!

This week's snippet is based on PR - a valuable tool in increasing online visibility. Press relations is an integral part of off line marketing so why do webmasters omit to use PR when promoting their sites online? Whatever the reason, they are missing a very important trick. Sally recently attended a recent mini conference held in London and run by PR Web of Washington State.

If you're omitting to use PR as part of your online strategy you need to read her detailed article here on how PR can be a valuable tool in increasing online visibility:

http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/articles/pr_seo.htm

By the way, if any of you have an article that you think would be valuable to share with other readers, please feel free to submit them to us. For those that we publish, we will obviously give credit to the author and a provide a link to their site ... so get writing now!

If you would like to have a chat about our Workshops in general or our clickTracks training events, please call Marie or Sally on 020-8255 7064.

Great Tool for Creating html and xml Sitemaps for Google

2005-10-26T13:27:00.000Z

One important recent development that we covered in our September search engine workshop was Google Sitemaps. For those of you that are unaware, or struggling to get to grips with this important topic, please read on ...

Well constructed HTML sitemaps have always been good SEO practice in that they allow spiders to find each page on a site easily and with the anchor text of choice. They used to be constructed manually but assites have become bigger, software programs that create site maps automatically have gained in popularity.

A little while ago, Google further raised the profile of sitemaps when it introduced its XML sitemap feed program and it seems that at least some of the recent changes that many sites have experienced in their Google rankings are down to the increased importance Google is putting on a site having a site map.

One of our former Workshop students, Alison of Tectura Ltd, Microsoft Global Partner of the Year for ERP Software pointed us to a really useful tool for creating both HTML and XML sitemaps,Specifically designed to appeal to Google.

http://www.blocklayer.com/googlesitemap/Default.aspx

Although Google does offer its own sitemap generator, we found this one much easier to use.

Simply type in your website’s address and the Google Sitemap Generator will find every page on the site and build a sitemap, with sensible anchor text and descriptions. The sitemap can be built in either HTML or XML format. Simply upload the HTML sitemap to your site’s root directory, making sure you link to it from at least your index page (always use a simple HTML text link).

The XML format sitemap must be copied and pasted into a text editor (such as Notepad), saved as an XML file and then uploaded to your server. Finally it can be submitted to Google Sitemaps.

The Blocklayer sitemap generator can only handle up to 750 pages (but we wouldn’t recommend having a sitemap with more than this number of links anyway) but by using the filter it offers, multiple site maps can be generated. Simply filter out one or more sub folders for each sitemap to keep each one below 750 pages.

Google provides comprehensive information on its Sitemaps program at https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/faq.html

Coming soon! – Using Press Releases to raise your online visibility!

http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk - SEO and SEM Training in the UK

Are You or Your Clients Taking Notice of SEO Recommendations?

2005-10-19T10:26:00.000Z

A recent report (http://www.searchengineguide.com/hedger/005816.html)
showed that some 64% of companies that outsource their web promotion
work don't implement the recommendations of the seo companies that
they are employing. That got me thinking.

As all professional seo's will know, this is a perennial problem.
We have all explained to a client what action is needed to improve
visibility. Perhaps more content is required, adding new text links,
maybe just changing one or two words in the body text, but the client
either can't or won't allow the changes to be made.

Well this report makes it official. If you are an seo and have
recently felt your efforts are under appreciated then you are not
alone. Equally if you have found that you have not been able to
implement the advice you have been given, then again you are not
alone either.

What can be done about it, as after all it wastes the seo's time and
the client's money?

From the client perspective:

Make sure that you are able to make changes to all parts of your web
pages. This includes the title (of paramount importance), the link
text, the alt tags on images, the meta description tag, the headlines
within the page as well as the body text.

Don't let egos get in the way. However well the copy reads, if changing
it a little will get more traffic to the page, then it must be worth
doing. Also accept you must use the language of your customers even
if they don't use the phrases you would choose! One of my client sold
wigs but much preferred to call them hair pieces. It was not until he
allowed the word wig onto his pages that the traffic started flowing!

From the seo's perspective:

I now include a paragraph in all new proposals explaining that in
order to achieve any improvement in traffic levels (I never talk about
rankings!), then all the advice that I give must be implemented to have
any effect. I also talk through with the client what this is likely
to mean in practice.

With such a high proportion of clients wasting their seo's efforts, then
arranging to implement seo's advice could well be the single most
effective step the vast majority of companies could take in improving
their traffic levels and search engine visibility. A sobering thought!

The Role of Web Analytics in Natural Search SEO

2005-10-02T09:36:00.000Z

We have just posted the dates for our next SEO Workshop and Web Analytics training event using ClickTracks for November 8th, 9th and 10th in Richmond upon Thames. More details can be found here:

http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/dates.htm

The September Workshop sold out well in advance so don't delay and register now by calling Sally on 020-8255 7064.

Sally has written an article on The Role of Web Analytics in SEO which will give you an idea of the approach we take on our web analytics training event.

This article gives you a step by step introduction on how to approach monitoring the visitors to your web site in order to conduct strategic and effective SEO. This article is for those of you who aren't statistical geniuses, and I count myself in on
that! Web analytics doesn't have to be daunting - in fact, it's great fun and the information it can reveal can be truly mindblowing!

If you aren't monitoring your web site visitors effectively then you are missing out on what has become one of the most important components in effective search engine marketing and SEO. Certainly, if you are an internet marketing consultant taking on new clients,then analysing what is currently happening on their web site should be your first port of call so as to really know what approach will most benefit your client. It's almost definite that your competitors won't be doing this so you really will shine against them!

You can read the article here:

http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/articles/seo_role.htm?blog1005

By the way, you can download a free evaluation of ClickTracks Analyzer here:

http://www.clicktracks.com/download.php?blog1005

If you would like to have a chat about either the Workshop or the clickTracks training event, please call Marie or Sally on 020-8255 7064.

Stuck in the Google Sandbox?

2005-09-14T09:12:00.000Z

We return to a subject that you may recall we touched upon in our snippet of 8th June which you can refresh yourself with using the above link.

There has been a suspicion around for a long time now that Google puts new sites (ie new domains) into a Sandbox to play for up to 12 months before allowing them out into the index where they stand a chance of being ranked, at least for the more important, and more competitive,search phrases. Although officially denied by Google, there is every chance that the Sandbox exists. So, how can you avoid getting sucked in?

1. Develop your incoming links slowly, a few a week, they will soon
build up
2. Make sure that all these links come from a wide variety of IP
addresses
3. Vary the link text
4. Do everything in moderation, be very very careful not to over
optimise anything
5. Plan ahead!

The ideal solution is to plan ahead, which means putting up a new site ahead of when you are really ready to do so, developing a few incoming and outgoing links so that it is connected into the web, and include some basic content. That will tell Google the site is around and will start the clock ticking.

So what is the best that can be hoped for? Well you might only get to play in the Sandbox for a couple of months!

This snippet was inspired by an article in this month’s Planet Ocean newsletter – if you only subscribe to one SEO information newsletter, we recommend this one – so that’s two snippets for this week!

Please note that our September SEO training workshop is now full. We have had to disappoint a number of people but have now posted our dates for the next Workshop, as well as our web click analysis training, in November which you can view here:

http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/dates.htm?source=blog

Why should you sign up to an SEO Training Course?

2005-09-02T16:07:00.000Z

As you already know, Search Engine Workshops run - ahem! - search engine workshops which are essentially a two day hands on SEO Training Course.

But who, and why, would anyone want to attend such training? In this article we discuss the benefits of attending such a course.

You can read the full article by following the link above.

The trouble is that a lot of people think they do know what they're doing as they've heard it's all about keywords,submitting to the search engines mixed up with a little trickery. Right? Wrong! Unfortunately, these myths persist and we were extremely disappointed at an article sent out by none other than Business Link to business in the London area which contained a lot of both inaccurate and misleading information. OK, they might not be a government backed organisation these days, but a lot of businesses perceive them to be so and it is simply not good enough. Yes, we did let them know we were 'disgusted of Search Engine Workshops' and drew attention to the article to the new Search Engine Marketing trade association, SMA-UK who were equally disappointed.

Whether you wish to learn SEO yourself, or employ the services of an SEO company, your best decision would be to familiarise yourself with search engine optimisation strategies that actually do work versus those that can get you into trouble with the search engines in the long term.

You can register for the next SEO Training Course here:

http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/registration.htm?source=blog

To find out more about becoming a web analytics'expert you can find more
information here:

http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/click.htm?source=blog

Web analytics - Where does the data come from?

2005-08-24T08:02:00.000Z

In our article, we look at web analytics and where the data comes from.

Log files are the obvious answer but there's also Javascript to bear in mind. But which is best, or what differences are there between them in the information they provide when performing your web site analysis and analysing visitor behaviour?

We discuss the important differences between them and how they impact on whether you choose to use a hosted web analytics program (Javascript) or analyse log files locally or on the server.

Read our full article on web analytics comparing the Javascript method with log files @ http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/articles/web_analytics.htm

PPC Costs Skyrocket

2005-08-12T12:34:00.000Z

Online advertising budgets are skyrocketing, every newsletter you read it seems has some new statistic showing how much money is being poured into getting visitors to sites. And of course the big boys, the corporates for example, have much more deeper pockets than the smaller players.

But, and it's a very big but, the bigger the company the less likely it seems that their site is properly optimised for organic search. One stat I saw recently reported that only 10-12% of corporate websites were optimised and well positioned in the SERPS. Much of the problem in our experience lies with webmasters being prevented from using search enginefriendly strategies by their managers/directors.

The moral of this tale? There is a huge opportunity for sites that take organic search seriously. Not only does investment in organic rankings last longer than in paid ones, all the evidence shows that visitors are more likely to click on an organic listing and to 'buy' from it than from paid ones.

Check our dates for ClickTracks (award winning web analytics software)
training and two day Search Engine Marketing Workshop @

http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/dates.htm?source=blog
If you want to have a chat about either events, please call Marie on
020-8255 7064.