The filters within Google Analytics allow the tracking, monitoring and recording of a variety of different metrics. One particularly useful filter allows you to track your site’s position within the search engines when a visitor clicks on your listing.
This information can be incredibly valuable as you may be optimising your site for one phrase, but this filter can show that a slightly reworded phrase delivers better quality traffic. If you have e-commerce tracking and goals set up then the real value of these visitors will clearly be displayed.
Before creating the filters it is important that you create a new profile in your Google Analytics Account. Give an appropriate title like, ‘Search Engine Rankings’. There should always be a profile in your Analytics Account which has all your data with no filters, otherwise you won’t have a record of your overall traffic.
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As Social Media continues to expand and lure in vast volumes of Internet traffic, where does its fustier, slower (methodical if you will) and more derided website marketing compadre, SEO, now fit in?
Search Engine Optimisation has been saddled with a reputation for being something of a shadowy practice; online alchemy, created to appease the search engine gods. The thing is though, it works. Better still, it continues to work to this day.
Social Media has emerged from the Friends Reunited Petri dish and exploded into a full-grown living organism, consuming everything in its path; or, at least, nearly everything. Facebook has experienced the most meteoric of rises, propelled by the slipstream of fading stars like MySpace, it has slipped seamlessly into the top 3 sites in the world (2nd by some metrics, 3rd in others) and gained itself over 350 million users.
Thanks to Facebook, along with Twitter, YouTube and a whole multitude of bookmarking cohorts, Social Media has got the world communicating in real-time. This free network of conversations has engulfed the Internet and opened the door of opportunity to marketers. Inevitably, when something huge comes to dominate an entity as the Internet, something has to make way; but is that thing SEO?
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There are many reasons why visitors landing on your site may not be hanging around for long. I am going to highlight some of the common pitfalls many websites are guilty of doing.
By fixing or changing some or all of the reasons below, you could see your websites conversion rate improve considerably.
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Have you been sitting there wondering why there is targeted traffic reaching your website but your goals are just not being met?
Is your Pay per Click marketing campaign working well but visitors are leaving the site before making contact with you?
Do you believe that something can be done on your website to improve conversions?
If you have answered yes to any of these questions, read on….
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As the search engines develop, so too do the potential avenues for effective marketing. So what exactly is the most effective Search Engine Marketing strategy?
Traditionally, the two ways in which you could improve your website’s visibility on search engines was through SEO and Pay per Click (PPC) advertising. Whilst they may remain at the forefront of most strategies, SEO and PPC are by no means the only way to get your name where it matters.
As the search engine results pages (SERPs) have diversified, including new facets and restructuring their layout, marketing methods have been quick to follow suit. With Twitter updates, local search results and news items infiltrating the SERPs, the realms of possibilities are more diverse and in greater supply than ever before.
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Our in-house SEO Copywriter, Steve Logan, recently made an excellent post that explored the importance of spelling and grammar, with particular reference to writing for the web (see ‘The Typos and Language Errors that Turn Visitors Away).
Another consideration content writers and search engine optimisers need to have is for the use of synonyms in their writing. For some time now, Google have been showing synonyms bolded in the search results for stemming variants, such as the plural of a word, e.g. the searcher enters ‘picture’ but ‘pictures’ is also shown in bold. More…
Following Google’s very public fallout with the Chinese Government they remain surprisingly unscathed. Their rivals on the other hand are enduring travails aplenty in the aftermath; so who exactly has come out of this scandal worse?
Whilst Google are reporting ‘business as usual’ behind the bamboo curtain, ascertaining how true that actually is can’t be done without delving deep into the realms of speculation. What we do know though is that Yahoo! have received a severe reprimand from their own Chinese counterparts, Alibaba, for seemingly siding with their search rivals in the Chinese hacking scandal. Likewise, Microsoft have been singled out for blame due to a flaw within their Internet Explorer browser that allowed Google to be hacked; an issue that has subsequently led the French and German Governments to suggest that their respective citizens abandon the Internet browser in favour of the various alternatives available.
So whilst Google have been at loggerheads with the Chinese authorities and threatening a withdrawal from the country [see: Google Threatens China Walkout], their search rivals have done little to steal the initiative. Of course it is all hypothetical at this point, but Yahoo! appear to have dug themselves a bit of a hole by siding with Google – not least with the aforementioned Alibaba – and Microsoft could lose more ground with their browser’s blacklisting in Europe.
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Still in the formative days of this new year, we look ahead at the 7 ways you can help your website get the level of attention you deserve in 2010.
Making bold predictions to cover a 365 day period, you can easily set yourself up for a fairly monumental fall. However, with this very much in mind, I have put together a straightforward guide to promoting your website in 2010.
As anybody who has spent a day or more working amongst websites will no doubt already understand, there are a fair few avenues for you to explore when it comes to promoting your site, brand and company. As any company with limited resources will have no doubt also have discovered, targeting the most effective techniques in the efficient fashion is not always straightforward.
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Christmas is the time of year where retailers, etailers and marketers go into overdrive. A surplus of consumers means that opportunities for good sales figures are abound.
But it would be churlish to suggest that preparations start as we peel back the first door in our advent calendars; in truth, it goes back to the time where summer is turning to autumn, when ice, snow and Christmas Eve panic buys are the furthest things from most people’s minds. Or at least it should.
Despite still being in the grips of a recession, UK consumers aren’t shy when it comes to parting with their cash at Christmas time; as evidenced by this year’s typically frenzied rush for gifts. More and more consumers are turning to the Internet too when buying goods; with recent reports showing that online shopping in November increased by 11% compared with the same period in 2008 and 25% more than the preceding month of October. So the need for ecommerce websites to be fully optimised as the rush begins has never been more evident.
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For quite some time now inbound links have been a major factor in search engine rankings. In days gone by the sheer mass of inbound links on a site was one of the most important ranking factors. However, the search engines have realised that this left scope for gaming the system with dubious link building schemes.
These days all links are not equal and quality links are more influential on ranking positions than sheer quantity alone. It is still vitally important that link building is integrated in to any online marketing plan; so how does having more links benefit your rankings? More…
After what has been another incredibly busy, and often turbulent year in search engine marketing, we look forward to some of the potential stories to break or be resolved in 2010.
Google, the omnipresent overseer of all things search have continued to develop their algorithm with Vince update and discussions about Caffeine. They’ve developed Streetview, explored freely available ebooks, rolled out Wave and updated their search options. In short, Google have been busy.
Yahoo and Microsoft have set aside their differences and shaken hands on a entente-cordiale agreement, combining their powers in an attempt to save off the threat of Google becoming a mononpolising search super power.
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Unfortunately not all websites are owned by companies with endless resources and a bottomless pit of money. Most in fact have tight restrictions when it comes to both time and finances. However all sites share a common desire, which is to be the most successful in their field, regardless of the strength of their competition.
To get to the top with limited resources, particularly for SMEs, is no easy task. It requires an acute understanding of your market and effective management of your priorities. Many businesses see SEO as a cure, others have heard about the emerging success stories emanating from social media, whilst some believe that Paid Search (PPC) will get them the targeted traffic they need. There’s plenty of evidence to support all of these viewpoints, but which will work best for you?
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Your website isn’t just another way to let people know where you are. It is the bridging point between your online and offline worlds, it is your businesses major mouthpiece, it is your leading marketing tool.
Once upon a time a laissez-faire approach to Internet marketing would have been understandable, if slightly unadvisable. However, today an Internet presence is a must for any business. Those who have worked hard to establish themselves online a reaping the rewards, whilst those who haven’t are having to work even harder to catch up.
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When it comes to the future of search engine optimisation, local search looks primed to become indispensable for any business website. Whilst SEO focuses on what it is that your business offers, local search roots that information to a geographic location [see: What is Local Search?].
With the mobilisation of Internet connectivity people aren’t just going online at home or in the office. As such, consumers are increasingly turning to their mobile phones and PDAs to search for businesses and products within their immediate vicinity. This means that wherever we are, whether we are familiar with the surroundings or not, near continuous access to the Internet ensures that we are only a search away from getting directions to the nearest store, bank or hotel.
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By following some straightforward Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) fundamentals, you can be sure that your site is ready to be indexed by the search engines and all set to meet your objectives.
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