Archive for October, 2007.
Pilkington owned Alexandra Business have launched their new website www.alexandrapark.co.uk
Set in 22 acres of landscaped grounds, this major business campus offers the support and services you need, without the premium price tag.
When we were looking to develop a website to promote Alexandra Business Park we had to look no further than one of our own tenants - Bad Robot Limited, and we’re glad we did.
Not only did Bad Robot provide a website design service but they were also able to provide much of the photography and graphics as well as design an electronic brochure for us. I was pleased and impressed to see our site listed in Google - on the First page!
Overall, a helpful and professional service
John Bracken, Pilkington Group
What is Black Hat SEO?
Basically it is the use of techniques which have been banned by the search engines because they results in a distortion of the search engine results. The use of these techniques is at your own risk as they can (and probably will) result in permanent exclusion from the search engines. We never use them - they are reserved for those companies who have moved over to the “dark side”.
What should I avoid?
- The following is not an exhaustive list but it will give you a good idea.
keyword, anchor text and domain name stuffing - repeating your key phrases over and over to raise its presence on the page
- Using hidden text or links - a definate “No No”
- Using techniques to artificially raise the number of inbound links to your page - eg through the services of link farms
- Cloaking - that is delivering different content to the search engines than your users to artificially raise your rankings
- Doorway / Gateway / Jump pages - pages which are designed as an entrance to the web site but which have no real content. Great care needs to be taken when developing landing pages to ensure they are not classed as doorway pages.
- Excessive outbound links to sites which are using black hat SEO
- Link Hoarding - obtaining as many inbound links as possible whilst giving out few outbound links
- Auto-generated content of no value to the user which is used purely to generate high ranking pages
So why are these banned?
These techniques are banned because they artificially raise your rankings. The principle of most search engines is to deliver results that are relevant to the search term you entered. If you are trying to distort these results you may find your site banned. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the art of optimising your site without the use of techniques which get you banned!
Search Engine Optimation, SEO, Website Optimisation, Page Optimisation - all names for the same process. Adjusting the content and structure of your page to achieve high rankings on search engines for selected key phrases.
Do I need my website optimised?
No doubt you are aware that search engines produce their results based on the keywords that you enter. Most search engines produce two sets of results, the natural listings and sponsored listings, and then present them together on your system. Without optimisation your website is virtually invisible to the natural listings.
It is a one-off process?
Unfortunately SEO is a continuous process, both to maintain existing rankings and to improve rankings for other key phrases that may bring in relevant traffic. However once your site ranks highly in a search engine you don’t pay for any traffic from that natural listing.
A lawyer and a blonde are sitting next to each other on a long flight from LA to NY. The lawyer leans over to her and asks if she would like to play a fun game. The blonde just wants to take a nap, so she politely declines and rolls over to the window to catch a few winks. The lawyer persists and explains that the game is really easy and a lot of fun.
He explains” I ask you a question, and if you don’t know the answer, you pay me $5, and vice-versa.” Again, she politely declines and tries to get some sleep.
The lawyer, now somewhat agitated, says, “Okay, if you don’t know the answer you pay me $5, and if I don’t know the answer, I will pay you $500!.” Figuring that since she is a blonde that he will easily win the match. This catches the blonde’s attention and, figuring that there will be no end to this torment unless she plays, agrees to the game.
The lawyer asks the first question. “What’s the distance from the earth to the moon?” The blonde doesn’t say a word, reaches in to her purse, pulls out a five dollar bill and hands it to the lawyer. Now, it’s the blonde’s turn.
She asks the lawyer: “What goes up a hill with three legs, and comes down with four?” The lawyer looks at her with a puzzled look. He takes out his laptop computer and searches all his references.He taps into the Airphone with his modem and searches the Net and the Library of Congress. Frustrated, he sends E-mails to all his coworkers and friends he knows. All to no avail. Afterover an hour, he wakes the blonde and hands her $500. The blonde politely takes the $500 and turns away to get back to sleep. The lawyer, who is more than a little miffed, wakes the blonde and asks,
“Well, so what IS the answer!?” Without a word, the blonde reaches into her purse, hands the lawyer $5, and goes back to sleep.
When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300 C.
The Russians used a pencil.
It’s always handy to know the advantages and disadvantages of your chosen advertising medium - especially when the MD asks why you’ve done it that way. With that in mind here are 5 cons closely followed by 5 pros. Yes the title is “The Pros and Cons” but we like to finish on a positive:
Con - Requires some technical knowledge
Despite all of the search engines declaring PPC as simple as sliced bread, it does require some technical knowledge to ensure the tracking is functional, landing pages are optimised etc etc.
Con - Requires constant monitoring
To ensure value for money campaigns require almost constant monitoring. Competitors change their bid values daily, search volumes change daily, and businesses change daily. Your campaigns needs to reflect the needs of your business - often on a daily or weekly basis.
Con - There are no guarantees
Pay Per Click does not guarantee you sales. It does guarantee to give you traffic but that assumes there are sufficient searches to give you that traffic - which is not guaranteed!
Con - Increasing competition means increasing budget
As you can imagine when you start to bid on a keyword/phrase that is popular most people will simple increase the value of their bid to gain the top positions. This leads to increasing costs.
Con - Belief PPC is a pancea for all ills..
Scraping the barrel but we had to have a fifth one! Still there is the belief out there that PPC will deliver all the promises that search engine optimisation failed to - high rankings and lots of traffic. Pay per click should be one part of your internet strategy, SEO should be another.
Pro - You only pay for what you get
Pay per click is exactly that - you pay when someone clicks on your ad.
Pro - You only spend what you can afford
Pay Per Click is cheap to setup and your expense is limited to the daily budgets you set. Campaigns can be paused and resumed, allowing you time to evaluate your results.
Pro - Accurate targeting
Unlike other forms of advertings, such as newspapers and magazines, PPC is targetted by its nature. A search for hotels in Manchester returns relevant Hotel sites because that is what they are looking for. Averts can also be targetted by countries, cities, time slots and languages.
Pro - Fast set up and immediate results
It is widely known that SEO takes a while to generate decent rankings. Pay Per Click is immediate to set up and can start delivering within days. For this reason many people temporarily increase their PPC budgets until the natural listings start to provide traffic.
Pro - Accurate Trackability
As you would expect you can track keywords/phrases to determine which are the most cost effective and which contribute most to your objectives. Accurate tracking is vital to get the most from your Pay Per Click campaign.
Whilst we have manipulated the pros and cons to give us and equal list, there are far more pros than cons. PPC is another route to market and a value tool for driving qualified traffic.
Pay Per Click - So what is it?
Pay Per Click (PPC) is an advertising system offered by search engines in which the advertiser pays every time someone clicks on their advert - hence the term. PPC adverts appear along side natural listings within search engine results, most commonly at the top, bottom and right hand side of the page.
Where will my ad appear?
Advertiser bid on keywords or phrases. In general the higher the bid, the higher the position. Some search engines, including Google Adwords, use additional factors:
- The Click Through Rate (CTR) which is a measure of how popular your ad is
- The relevance of your ad to the keywords you are bidding on.
- The relevance of your landing page to the keywords you are bidding on - the landing page is the page I get on your website when I click on your ad.
These factors help determine the amount you pay - the cost per click (CPC). The less relevant your ad and content, the higher you will have to pay to obtain the higher positions. Better, more relevant ads and content, will cost less for the same position.
How do I make my Pay Per Click campaign successful?
Success has to be measured. Before you start any PPC campaign you need complete 2 tasks:
A) Clearly define what the objective of your campaign is
Are you trying to increase awareness; launch a new product; increase turnover or increase profit. Your overall objective will drive the rest of your campaign.
B) Clearly define what success looks like to you
Clear measures of success before you start will help you review your progress. Examples include increase traffic by 100%; increase enquiries by 20 per week; grow newsletter subscribers by 5 per day.
PPC - Setting up the Campaign
Regardless of the objective all campaigns follow the same generic process:
- Campaign Structure - structuring your campaign around products or brands will reviewing performance and future bidding easier. Subdivide into geographical regions if necessary.
- Keyword Selection - keywords/phrases should be selected according to budget and relevance. Choose keywords that people are actually using rather than what you believe they should be.
- Ad Copy - use enticing copy that gets your message across. The more revevant the copy the less your cost per click (CPC) will be.
- Landing Pages - create landing pages specifically for the search term. Not only does this ensure your pages are relevant, it reassures your potential customers they have come to the right page. Give them all the information they need here and overcome the common objectives in your copy.
- Tracking - tracking performance is essential to determine if the campaign is on target. Tracking also highlights areas where improvement is possible.
PPC - Running and Evaluating Campaign Performance
There are 3 main elements which will affect the performance of your campaign. Small changes can produce dramatic results.
- Keywords - identify the keywords which lead to the highest conversion and focus on these. Don’t forget to review the poor performers each time you change the ad copy or landing page.
- Ad Copy - continually test new copy. Adopt an attitude of continuous improvement using a champion/challenger approach. Run new copy against the existing ones. If the new copy outperforms the old, then out with the old.
- Landing Page - again continually test new copy. Ensure common objections are handled and that the customer is given clear instructions on what to do next. Optimise your landing pages to improve their relevance.
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