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A good overview of SEO
Below is a great overview of many things that should be considered when looking at the optimisation of your website:
Google Analytics Premium Launches
Google launched a premium paid for version of it’s extremely popular Google Analytics today, but before you start going to fetch the pitchforks and loudly claiming that Google were “always going to charge” for this service – it is aimed squarely at large enterprises – it would have to be, as a price tag of £90,000 per annum is probably a stretch for many business budgets.
The new features include the ability to track up to 1 BILLION web hits per month (current limit on “free” Google Analytics is 10 Million – I have a while to go before that worries me!).
There are also more advanced segments available – 50 (from the current 5 on offer normally).
For those who have Google Analytics but don’t really use it – you really are missing a trick as it can help you make genuine informed decision regarding your website, the traffic it receives and what exactly converts into business. Why else would they launch a version worth £90,000 per annum?
Simple – because enterprises using it to it’s full potential (and now backed with a Google Analytics help department) know just how valuable (and crucial) it is to understand your website (and understand what marketing is driving converting traffic through your doors).
Why Hire A Google AdWords Certified Partner?
I was looking at the results of a clients Google AdWords campaign for this year and thought the graph below probably summed up the value of a Google AdWords certified partner better than anything else I could say:
Google AdWords Results Graph
As with most companies using Google AdWords, the top two spots in the Google AdWords listings is always the target. The theory being that more people will click the top two spots compared to the other positions.
This is true, the click through rate for the top two positions IS higher, however when you take into consideration the cost, the number of conversions and the cost of those conversions then a different strategy is often much better.
As you will see from the graph above, we finally convinced the client that top position wasn’t the best place to be, and finally (guess when!) we were able to completely revamp the entire campaign to exactly how we wanted it to be.
As a result we:
- Reduced the total monthly cost by over 66%.
- Increased the total number of conversions.
- Reduced the cost per conversion significantly.
- We have saved this client over £2000 per month since March, and yet we have INCREASED the number of clicks to their website.
We also introduced a mobile targeted campaign, an image AdWords campaign and a Google Remarketing campaign.
Just thought I would share this with you as I do enjoy being right 
PS The spike in cost at the end of the graph (31st August 2011) is the start of the Google Remarketing campaign – will let you know how this turns out, but the client has over 20,000 people to start advertising their services & offers to throughout the rest of the year!
Did I Dream It Or Is This A New Google Search Result Layout?
I (think) I only noticed this style of layout on Google yesterday -
But then I got to thinking – have I read about this ages ago on another forum (or did I dream it?).
Does anyone know how long Google has been showing these types of results? Is this a sign of how it might show results moving forward? Is it a way to protect a “brand” search for the big brand websites? As you can see from the results, doing a search for my company name “Zaddle” realistically moves everything else “below the fold” – i.e. I have to scroll down to see any other results.
If this is the case on a “branded” search (or even just a company name search that isn’t necessarily branded) – could this make any difference for affiliate marketers (in a negative way for them)?
Sorry to ask more questions than give answers!!
Please leave your thoughts below.
Liam
Google Joins Social Networking With Google+
Google have announced today (finally!) their latest (first?) attempt at getting a foothold in the Social Networking arena, and it would appear they have Facebook firmly in their sights.
Google+ – Facebook Worrier?
For more information read the Original Detailed Blog From HubSpot
But in summary it would appear to offer very different functionality:
- Firstly it contains “Circles” – (something I blogged about a while back when I was speculating on their entrance into the Social Networking Marketing) – this is the foundation of Google+, whereby it allows you to categorise your friends into different “groups” of friends. When you think about how you have your friends at the moment (e.g. on Facebook) – everyone just sits there…as a friend. No shared interests, no shared locations. At the most of facebook you might join a group, but this doesn’t really “categorise” your friends. Even on Twitter, the most you can do with people you follow is to put them into “lists” and listen. That’s it! Circles+ allows you place friends into groups – for example football mad, family, geeks etc.
- Secondly, Google+ Sparks - create a “spark” (i.e. a subject) and Google will collect information for you on this relevant topic and pull this through to your “spark”.
- Thirdly, A Separate Video & Photo section - allowing users to edit images, create photo effects and share this info with their friends (not sure about this to be honest, but I suppose we will wait and see!). There will also be “hangouts” which will allow people to video chat (in groups) which sounds like a good idea.
Unfortunately for us mere mortals this is still in beta – and invites would appear to be hard to come by (heck you can’t even join the waiting list the last time I clicked!!).
So what do people think – does this sound exciting or just another platform to get your head around?
