Search Engine Optimisation Blog

A rival search engine to Google has been launched earlier this week. Cuil pronounced “cool” and means knowledge in Gaelic. Founded by former Google engineers, they claim that it does a better job indexing information online.

Cuil delivers search results in a magazine format with images. The founders behind Cuil say that the technology used indexes the web pages by assessing and understanding the content on the page to provide relevant search results.

Like most new ventures, currently there are a few teething problems with incorrect images being returned with listings. But the question is, will users give this new search engine a second chance if they can’t find the desired information first time?

If you’re fairly active online, you’ve no doubt come across the news that Google’s Knol is now open for business.

First of, what is it? Apparently “a knol is an authoritative article about a specific topic“. Interesting word, ‘authoritative’. Presumably that’s different to having just anyone write about anything they fancy?

Why do we need it? I have to be honest and say that I don’t really know. For Google, I’m sure there are many good reasons to have these “authoritative articles” as content within their own system and it will be interesting to see how much of this content is unique to Knol as opposed to having been published elsewhere, either on the author’s own site or some third party platform such as Wikipedia who publish authoritative articles about specific topics. Hang on a sec…

When it comes to duplicate content, we all know that Google frowns upon this appearing in its own very popular search engine so it will be fascinating to see how they deal with this issue in Knol. Aaron Wall of SEObook fame has recently published an article (on his own site, interestingly enough) entitled “Google Knol - Google’s Latest Attack on Copyright“. He’s run through an experiment he carried out with his own knol that certainly seems to have highlighted some interesting points with regards how Google is starting to rank these in its index.

Clearly this is very early days for Google Knol but let’s hope it can sit alongside other comparative services rather than attempting to squeeze the smaller sites out.

DebtProtect is a specialist credit insurance brokerage which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority, the company know the value that effective search engine marketing (SEM) will add to their marketing communications, and came to us in order to improve the ROI achieved through paid search.

We are pleased to announce that we have been appointed to manage DebtProtect’s Pay Per Click (PPC) activity, and we anticipate great success with their campaign.

At Impact Media we have recently become a major contributor to Solent Rescue after donating our services to the Independant Lifeboat Organisation, this donation will raise the profile of the Solent Rescue website and increase their online visibility.

Solent Rescue were established in 1971, since then they have developed into a fully operational lifeboat station, which operates under the direct control of HM Coastguard and is responsible for approximately 33 square miles of the central and western Solent.

In order to fund their operation the organisation rely purely on donations from the public and local businesses; therfore we hope our contribution will greatly benefit Solent Rescue and help raise awareness of their work over the coming months.

Simply Mirror TV are a specialist mirror TV supplier based in the UK, they supply the finest mirror TV technology available on the market today.

We are delighted to have been selected as Simply Mirror TV’s search engine marketing partner of choice, and look forward to delivering a successful campaign over the forthcoming months.

Katara Ltd provides QuickBooks accounting software training and support, the company offer QuickBooks In House Training and QuickBooks Courses for customers throughout the UK.

We are delighted to announce that we have been appointed to manage Katara Ltd’s natural search strategy, and look forward to working with them on their campaign.

Impact Media take first place in the Top Seo’s Best Link Popularity Services for July 2008.

Top SEO’s evaluate the the leading search engine marketing companies and ranks the top performers taking into account both results and customer satisfaction.

See the link popularity services results for yourself.

Two recent snippets of news should bring some cheer amongst the incessant reports of recession and predictions of doom that seem to dominate the press at the moment.

Google announced yesterday that their revenue for the second quarter of 2008 topped $5.37 billion. This is an increase of 39% compared to the same period in 2007 and a small increase over quarter one of 2008.

Perhaps more importantly is the fact that within the UK, online shopping spend has increased by 38% in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2007. The total amount spent online was £26.5 billion, according to findings recently published by IMRG and Capgemini.

UK shoppers now spend 17 pence in every pound online, almost 20% of total retail spending.

This could, of course, just be down to the fact that with many households feeling the squeeze they are turning online to ‘bag a bargain’ but hopefully the buoyant trend of Internet shopping will continue.

Hopefully we’ll be reporting more good news soon, including how rival London gangs have turned to hugging each other in a ‘love off’ and how Team GB are confident of winning at least one bronze medal in the Olympics*

*London, not Beijing

Pyrenees Homes offer holiday houses / apartments for sale in the ski resorts of Luchon - the Pyrenees area of France.

The company realise the recruitment potential of the search engines, and know that having a strong online presence within their target market is essential.

We are delighted to have been selected as Pyrenees Homes search marketing partner and look forward to working with them on their campaign.

If you use Google’s Pay per Click service, it can seem at first that you’re on your own when it comes to getting help with managing your AdWords campaign.

Google make it really easy to set-up your account and, although they provide a comprehensive AdWords help section, it can sometimes seem quite daunting when you first get started with this form of online marketing.

So, what else should you do? Well, if you plan on using Pay per Click (PPC) consistently, you should invest in at least one good book. Just do a search of Amazon and check out the reviews. Perry Marshall and Andrew Goodman are two well respected authors on the topic.

You could also join the AdWords Help Group ‘though this may appear overwhelming at first.

We’ve published a handy checklist of Google AdWords Tips that you should find useful.

Finally, you may decide that you want to spend your time managing your business rather than becoming an AdWords expert. If that’s the case and you plan on investing significantly in PPC then the answer may be to out-source your AdWords management to a qualified specialist. Clearly this will carry a cost but if you pick the right service provider, they should add significantly more value to your bottom line.

The main thing though if you plan on diverting some of your marketing budget online is to seek out appropriate help and not assume that just handing your credit card details to Google is all it takes to make a successful campaign!