Copyright © 2010 I-COM International 2010-07-30T07:23:34+0100 2010-07-30T07:23:34+0100 http://www.i-com.net/blog/ Leading Manchester SEO, SEM and web design agency blog. http://www.i-com.net/blog/ http://i-com.net/images/icom-net.gif http://www.i-com.net/blog/ Leading Manchester SEO, SEM and web design agency blog. I-COM International blogmaster at i-com dot net I-COM International I-COM International en SEO, SEM, Web Design, Web Development 1440 http://www.i-com.net/blog/adwords-tools-are-no-comparison-to-real-day-to-day-ppc-management-283/ During a recent update and optimisation of one of our many Christmas PPC campaigns, I noticed Google Adwords recommending hundreds of new keywords for one of our accounts. Here at I-COM, we're always looking for new ways to extend our clients' reach, so I decided to look into the suggestions. When I reached one ad group in particular, constructed for Bangles designed to hold lovelink beads, I was amused to find Google suggesting that we add the keywords Susanna Hoffs Bangles and walk like an Egyptian. Despite being impressed by the connection, as a one time fan of the 80s pop band that was the Bangles, I was amused by the apparent failure of Google and its tools. It just goes to show that Google doesn't get it right every time, and no matter how many tools you use there is nothing that beats good old common sense and the human touch! Search Engine Marketing 2009-12-07 16:05:15 http://www.i-com.net/blog/adwords-tools-are-no-comparison-to-real-day-to-day-ppc-management-283/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/top-10-ways-to-maximise-your-adwords-roi-this-christmas-274/ We at I-COM have recently been told by Google that despite the tough economic times, this Christmas promises to be a bumper year for online retailers! It has recently been reported that gross revenue generated by online retail this year could reach 8.9bn, accounting for 20% of all UK sales. In light of this, the team at Google have put together a list of tips designed to help e-commerce websites make the most of their Adwords campaigns this Christmas, maximising their ROI in the process. It coincided with the some of the work we have been doing for our clients and, rather that reinvent the wheel I thought this would be useful information to pass on in order for you to maximise on the opportunities available at this time of year: Set up a separate Christmas campaign on Adwords: Come up with Christmas-themed keywords by inserting words like Christmas and Xmas into the names of popular products e.g. Christmas Coffee Gifts Run a series of Christmas ads alongside your normal campaign: The Christmas rush can start as early as September for some retailers, thus it is useful to start generating festive ad text as early as possible which can then be filtered into your campaign. Create Christmas landing pages: Make sure the page to which your festive ad text links is 100% relevant to the product mentioned in the ad, as well as being Christmas themed in terms of both copy and design. Mention USPs in your ad text: Make sure you highlight any Christmas promotions or offers in your ad, and then offer further explanation (if necessary) on your landing page. Also ensure that you have relevant calls to action; calls to action which include final order dates are particularly relevant at this time of year. Uncap budgets on popular categories: Uncapping the budgets on well structured and popular campaigns should push in plenty of relevant traffic, generating excellent ROI. Increase bids on keywords, especially if they relate to a popular product: Make sure youre in a good position in the Google results in time for the pre-Christmas rush by increasing your bids on keywords. Take a fresh look at your keywords: Do they cover your entire product range? Savvy festive shoppers may be aware of individual product names, so it might be worth investing some time in coming up with some long-tail keywords. Check and double check your keywords: Spend some time going through your keywords; check there arent any left over from defunct campaigns or advertising out of stock products. The last thing you want to do is frustrate your online customers. Expand your negative keywords: Make sure the negative keywords on your campaigns have been carefully selected and well built. If youre setting up a Christmas campaign add in some season-relevant negatives. Spend time building your content campaigns: They need to be well structured with tightly themed ad groups. Investing time in generating seasonal Adwords campaigns could have a really positive affect on your ROI this Christmas as with everything, you get out what you put in! If you need any advice on making the most of your e-commerce site, I-COM offers a range of SEM (Search Engine Marketing) services that can help you maximise your online potential this festive season. Search Engine Marketing 2009-11-23 11:33:49 http://www.i-com.net/blog/top-10-ways-to-maximise-your-adwords-roi-this-christmas-274/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/google-legitimises-seo-44/ Google has recently changed its webmaster guidelines relating to SEO and for the first time they seem to be accepting that there is a place in the market for search engine optimisation companies. They do however warn webmasters to be careful over SEO selection as there are a lot of companies that won't help add value their websites. Their advice to businesses is that "If you're thinking about hiring an SEO, the earlier the better. A great time to hire is when you're considering a site redesign, or planning to launch a new site. That way, you and your SEO can ensure that your site is designed to be search engine-friendly from the bottom up. However, a good SEO can also help improve an existing site." A blog is not the place for a business pitch, but the article does suggest some useful questions to ask a prospective SEO which it would be remiss of me not to answer: Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?  At I-COM we're always happy to show off our latest results, to see some take a look at our latest newsletter.  Do you follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines? Yes! Do you offer any online marketing services to complement your organic search business? We can offer a one-stop shop for your online marketing requirements, everything from design through development. We're also a Google Adwords Qualified Company. What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? We don't promise first place results and the timeframe involved in seeing real progress depends very much on the competitiveness of the sector. We do go so far as to say that you should expect to see some progress in terms of listings and traffic within three months. What's your experience in my industry? We work with a wide range of clients from different sectors and we'll always be upfront about other companies we work with - it's the best way to avoid any issues of conflict. How long have you been in business? I-COM was established in 2003, and we've developed a fair amount of experience in SEO - our team has over 36 years of it. Anyway enough of the pitch, our advice is to read what Google says to help make sure you engage the SEO partner that's going to help your business and not hinder it    Search Engine Optimisation 2008-07-03 10:45:00 http://www.i-com.net/blog/google-legitimises-seo-44/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/want-viral-video-hire-a-spamtastic-certified-youtube-pro-23/ Every day my spam folder reveals a wonderful cornucopia of new online mischief. Today's gem offers an "Unstoppable Traffic Explosion" enabling me to take advantage of "A Wall-To-Wall Stampede Of Red Hot, Hungry Prospects Melting Your Hit Counter." Wow! I mean, the moment I read that I knew that our Business Development guys would be positively salivating over the idea of "red hot, hungry prospects" reading all about I-COM's internet marketing services! Certainly this was a proposal that couldn't go wrong because the sender is, apparently, a "Certified YouTube Pros." I mean, this guy's so good that he's not just a pro, he's more than one! He's "pros"! Fantastic! We're all going to be millionaires in a week! There's only one problem with this email (actually, there's more than one, but there's one major one I want to address) - how do you get to be a "Certified YouTube Pros"? As far as I know neither YouTube or Google offer a certification on YouTube Marketing. I can't think of any university or NVQ programs for it either. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, the only certification you can get involves passing a Google Adwords exam to become a certified Google Adwords Professional. We have several of those here at I-COM. I'm sure they'd be chomping at the bit to get certified to send out spamtastic unsolicited emails about how to create a successful viral marketing campaign (which, no doubt, would begin with sending out more spamtastic, unsolicited emails). We see websites and emails and have even received phone calls from numerous people claiming to be search engine optimisation specialists who are "certified" by Google or who have a special relationship with Google. All of these claims are either exaggerated or blatantly false. No SEO certification from Google exists, although you can trust that a Google Adwords Professional will be able to run a successful Pay-Per-Click campaign. If anyone tells you that their Google certification is anything other than an Adwords Professional qualification then run a mile because all they'll do to your website is damage it. Search Engine Optimisation 2008-06-04 14:24:32 http://www.i-com.net/blog/want-viral-video-hire-a-spamtastic-certified-youtube-pro-23/