Search Engine Marketing Blog

Blogs are now being adopted more and more by business’ but why? That’s easy, because not only can they communicate to your clients and potentials clients but they can also be a great source of traffic for you. If you have a business and you are knowledgeable on your niche then the chance are you have a lot to offer people in the way of information.

Information you can blog about are:

• Tips
• How to Guides
• Articles on different subjects
• Latest products
• Discounts and offers
• New Clients
• Latest Company News
• Jobs and Recruitment

There are many benefits to blogging within your business but the main 4 are:

1. Increase your online visibility for the blogged about subjects
2. Become an industry authority on your niche subject
3. Create a rapport with potential clients and show you are a real company not just a pretty site
4. Keep existing clients informed

Blogging does take effort and discipline to ensure it is kept up to date and current but it is well worth it when you start seeing the results.

The only warning I would give is if you are not prepared to keep your blog up to date you are better off not having one as nothing puts potential clients off like an out of date blog.

Although an AdWords Search Query Report can give you some idea of what search queries are triggering broad and phrase match keywords much of the useful data is hidden under ‘….other unique queries’ entries.

This data is an absolute gold mine for identifying new keyterms and negative keywords.

So how do we find out what some of those hidden terms were?

By using Google Analytics thats how. By following the simple instructions shown at www.semvironment.com you can easily start to use this vital data.

Did you know it only takes 8 seconds for your website’s visitors to decide to leave your website?

First impressions really count in business and they can make the difference between your business’ success and failure.

Things that can make visitors hit the dreaded back button are:

• Slow loading speed (caused by big page sizes and bad hosting providers)
• Poor navigation
• Unprofessional design (made in your bedroom type designs)
• Background music (elevator music is not a good idea)
• Flash only sites (some people don’t have the applicable plug ins)
• Site is an obvious ad farm
• Not displaying correctly in all browsers (very common problem with websites)
• Excessive pop up or pop under adverts
• Poor spelling / grammar
• Hard to read text (too small or non standard colours of text or backgrounds)

Are you making any of the above mistakes? If so you know what to do, fix them!

It’s amazing with an industry such as Search Engine Marketing how many people know a lot about it but, for whatever reason, fail to implement the basics, even on their own site.

Just as interesting is how many web designers, in fact anyone who’s job involves using computers, seem to have gained an inside knowledge into the finer points of search engine optimisation or building effective pay per click campaigns without needing to do any form of study.

In his recent article, Don’t Hire a Butcher to do a Baker’s Job, Mark Jackson, has written an excellent piece explaining why you really shouldn’t trust your site’s search marketing success to someone who just happens to “know a bit”.

Before you let your web designer, IT support technician or Milkman loose on your site, check their credentials. Get evidence of success. Case studies? Testimonials? Anything!

Of course I’m going to suggest that if you’re a UK business you at least have a chat with us but, whatever you do, don’t just leave your site’s search marketing to chance. Getting it wrong could leave you more than just a bit disappointed; you could find yourself worse off than if you did nothing at all!

Do you know how many people leave your site as soon as they arrive? Do you know where these visitors came from? If the answer is no, then you had better sign up for a Google Analytics account immediately.

The bounce rate can be found on the dashboard in Google Analytics and quickly provides you with a snapshot of the user’s first impression of your website.

If they found your site relevant to their search they will stay and explore your site further. This lets you know that the user found your site relevant and as a result your bounce rate will be low. However, if the page the visitor arrived at was not relevant and they left your site without visiting any other page, then you would expect to see a high bounce rate. Remember the landing page may not always be your homepage.

Your bounce rate has a relationship with your conversion rate so if you are able to lower your bounce rate and become more relevant to user’s searches then you could see in an increase in the number of sales and leads.

Use the reports within Google Analytics to identify individual pages which have a high bounce rate so you are able to improve landing pages and spot traffic sources which are delivering unqualified visitors.

I wrote a post back in February that highlighted social media marketing problems.

Now, eMarketer have just published an interesting article (UK Advertisers Shy From Social Networks) that takes data from a recent study conducted by SPA Research and Synovate.

The article refers to a number of major UK companies that have tried the social networks only to move away. No great surprises there as clearly this platform is not going to be appropriate for all-comers.

As with anything new online, there’s going to be a lot of hype surrounding the ‘next big thing’. When it comes to marketing, the same ‘old’ rules apply: Understand your market, your goals and test.

This is a very basic issue but one that we see crop up regularly.

Duplicate content, in very simple terms, is to be avoided. This could be a page that has been used elsewhere on your site or a very keen Webmaster buying every domain extension of your brand and replicating the content on each.

We sometimes have a situation where a client purchased a domain and then through a branding initiative or other strategic reason, have gone on to buy a second domain. This could be a different name or just a change of extension, e.g. .com to .co.uk.

Either way, if not properly managed, this could lead to duplicate content penalty and one or all sites could be negatively affected.

So what should you do? If you’re dealing with a potential issue of duplicate content within the same site, e.g. landing pages used for Pay per Click, these should be excluded from the natural search results by use of your robots.txt file.

If you have moved from ‘old.domain’ to ‘new.domain’ you should implement a 301 re-direct, i.e. permanent redirect in your .htaccess file. A 301 can also be used to manage ‘old.page’ to ‘new.page’ and acts basically as a sign-post informing the search engines that there has been a change. If used correctly, as well as re-directing the visitor to the correct destination, other factors such as in-bound links and search rankings should carry over to the new location.

There is an excellent article at Google Webmaster Central Blog that discusses dealing with duplicate content in more detail.

The stage has been set and the business south 2008 show is nearly upon us.

Our stand has been setup and is looking good so if you would like to come along and say hi please feel to drop by to the Southampton Stadium tomorrow between the hours of 9am and 5pm, or Thursday between the hours of 10 and 4pm.

We look forward to seeing you there.

P.S. don’t forget our competition where you can win a free search engine optimisation service worth over £1000!

When it comes to Social Media, Web 2.0 or whatever it’s called, there’s a lot of companies trying to find a way to cash in on the trend of connecting with people (known or unknown) online and finding happiness in having so many friends…

Anywhere there’s a gathering of people, there’s sure to be advertisers wanting to unlock some cash from these social groups but how effective is it?

At this point I should declare that at Impact Media, we are performing a full evaluation of the Social Media space but do not currently offer professional services in this area.

Aaron Wall has recently published a great article - The Inconvenient Truth About Social Media Marketing - which basically suggests this area does not monetise. Of course, others would beg to differ and, looking at some of the multi-million dollar tie ups between major software companies, search engines and the current darlings of social media, you’d have to believe that there is gold in them there hills!

Purely from a marketing perspective, I guess my advice to anyone looking at investing in this marketplace right now, is to tread carefully and ensure that you take small steps and carry out tests just as you would any other Internet marketing platform. If you’re a business looking to sell more products or services, I would also ensure that you’ve fully exploited the more orthodox search marketing efforts, e.g. search engine optimisation and pay per click before moving into Social Media.

Meanwhile, I’m off to buy myself a white elephant

With the ever increasing popularity of the Internet, it comes as no surprise that more and more people are finding a new career in search marketing.

The problem, of course, is how do you explain to someone else what it is you do exactly? Perhaps you shouldn’t worry? For my part, I just ask if they use a search engine, such as Google or Yahoo, and then explain I help people with websites get their site listed higher in the search engines so that their products or services get seen by targeted visitors.

With that out of the way, would you want a job in search? Is an online marketing career something you’d be proud to do and enjoy at the same time? Of course, the answer is ‘it depends’ but generally speaking, a career in the fast moving Internet industry can be both exciting and rewarding at the same time. If you find yourself working in the right search marketing company then you’d be hard pushed to find a job that offers as much scope for change as a career in search marketing. Add to that the feel good factor of knowing that you’re contributing to another company’s success and you’re on for a really good career*

* that is if you enjoy working on the Internet and spending hours trawling through keywords, links and web pages!

At Impact Media we’re a fast growing, UK-based search marketing company always on the look out for the right people to join our team. Attitude is more important than experience. We work hard but believe in fun at the same time, as our table football can testify!

Our offices are located in Hampshire, about midway between Portsmouth and Southampton. If you have some search marketing experience, either in SEO or Pay Per Click (PPC) or are an enthusiastic individual who can demonstrate a keen interest in the Internet and willingness to learn, why not contact us or review our current jobs in search marketing.