Copyright © 2010 I-COM International 2010-09-09T21:17:41+0100 2010-09-09T21:17:41+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/changes-to-google-trademark-policy-381/ From 14th September Google has announced that they will be bringing their UK trademark policy into line with the US advertisers will now be able to include trademarked terms in ad text. The policy states ads must use the term in a descriptive or generic way, and not in reference to the trademark owner or the goods or services corresponding to the trademark term. It also states that trademarks must be used in a nominative manner to refer to the trademark or its owner, specifically the following: Resale of the trademarked goods or services: The advertiser's site must sell (or clearly facilitate the sale of) the goods or services corresponding to a trademark term. The landing page of the ad must clearly demonstrate that a user is able to purchase the goods or services corresponding to a trademark from the advertiser. Sale of components, replacement parts, or compatible products corresponding to a trademark: The advertiser's site must sell (or clearly facilitate the sale of) the components, replacement parts, or compatible products relating to the goods or services of the trademark. The advertiser's landing page must clearly demonstrate that a user is able to purchase the components, parts, or compatible products corresponding to the trademark term from the advertiser. Informational sites: The primary purpose of the advertiser's site must be to provide non-competitive and informative details about the goods or services corresponding to the trademark term. Additionally, the advertiser may not sell or facilitate the sale of the goods or services of a competitor of the trademark owner. The most obvious beneficiaries of this will be retailers and resellers who will now find advertising a lot easier. For example do a search for Apple or Dell currently and you will see a lot of empty space down the right hand side or a lot generic ads that just dont appeal. These brands are notoriously protective of their brand terms even with official resellers. This of course will in turn improve the user's experience on Google as ads will improve in quality they will be more accurate & relevant through closely targeted ad text. Generic ads can currently be very misleading to the consumer and dont exactly speed up the search process.What does this mean for I-COM clients? Well for retail clients and official resellers this will make the job of writing ad text a lot easier! We would expect to see quick improvements in ads click through rates and quality scores as ad text becomes more accurate and relevant. We will of course see a rise in brand CPCs as the floodgates open and competition increases bids. The increases to brands on their own trademarks should be marginal though if they have a good quality score and relevancy built up historically. Of course all is not lost if as a trademark owner you still want to protect your trademark. If you do not want resellers to use your trademark you can still prevent this through your relationship with them, or through your affiliate terms just not through Google. Its worth also remembering that this policy change does not affect competitors they will not be able to include trademarks, as stated above the ad text must link to a page relating to the trademark not a competitive product.  Through stronger enforcement your brand will still be protected. Search Engine Marketing 2010-08-12 14:09:01 http://www.i-com.net/blog/changes-to-google-trademark-policy-381/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/the-perils-of-writing-french-ppc-ad-text-374/ I recently had to set up a French campaign for a PPC client. Having a holiday home in France and visiting every year since I was 2 years old, I speak pretty fluent French...after a few glasses of vin! So sans alcohol, I began to panic a bit. I started thinking of keywords and ad text and worrying that the right accent wasn't on the right letter and that my ad text would mean something entirely different to what it was meant to say.I wanted to double check my work and remembered using Google Translate to find bigger and better German words to add into my coursework during my A Levels (I didnt necessarily use them in the right context but they sounded and looked impressive). All in all it does a pretty decent job. The main issue is that it translates word for word and doesn't take some of the grammatical structure into consideration. The general consensus on forums is that for European languages, Google Translate works pretty well. Some of the more amusing examples of botched translations are from languages such as Japanese and countries further afield. Whether using Google Translate or another online translating service, mistakes are bound to be made and we must all understand that you obviously won't get the same results as if a human were to translate for you. There have been some forum comments from genuinely angry people who are ranting and raving about the terrible service. I tested my ad text in Google.fr to see if the keywords brought up similar ads which, if you are using a translator for PPC purposes, is a good testing process. Just make sure you double and triple check what you are doing so that you dont end up with things like this! Search Engine Marketing 2010-07-26 16:50:13 http://www.i-com.net/blog/the-perils-of-writing-french-ppc-ad-text-374/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/guaranteed-page-1-listing-google-affiliated-company-349/ Today I've been provided with yet more proof that the SEO industry desperately needs a governing body, capable of protecting clients from unscrupulous scammers who make ridiculous and misleading claims. One of I-COM's clients, The Smile Centre, has been contacted by a company whose salesperson firstly claimed to be a 'Google Affiliate' internet marketer with the ability to GUARANTEE a first page listing for the firm's website, and secondly claimed to be able to get The Smile Centre on page one of Google for the keyword 'dentures' for just 149 a month. To debunk the first claim, I'll simply quote Google's webmaster guidelines: 'Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, (or) allege a "special relationship" with Google'. Google does not associate itself with SEO or PPC firms, nor does it promote individual firms. The second claim, that a first page listing for the keyword 'dentures' can be achieved for 149 a month, is laughable. I-COM is currently managing a PPC campaign for The Smile Centre for this keyword, and even with a high quality score, the cost can be in excess of 4,000 a month! On its website, the online marketing company in question goes out of its way to mislead potential clients, including a logo that is closely modelled on Google's own and a website that talks about organic SEO when the only way you can guarantee a 1st page listing within 48 hours is through use of PPC techniques. Even then it would have to be a very uncompetitive keyword (meaning no-one is searching for it) to only cost 149 a month. Businesses are constantly being scammed out of their hard-earned cash by just this kind of 'online marketing' firm, which go out of their way to present the internet as a fast, easy and cheap way to increase profits. The fact is, internet marketing is hard work - but done properly it can present businesses with a fantastic ROI. If an offline marketing company rang you up and told you that they could guarantee you an advert on the front page of every newspaper in the country for 149 a month, would you believe them? Absolutely not, so don't believe idiots like this. Google is aware of the dubious claims being made by this company's sales team, and is looking in to the matter. In the meantime - beware unscrupulous marketing online marketing companies! If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Search Engine Optimisation 2010-05-07 09:39:44 http://www.i-com.net/blog/guaranteed-page-1-listing-google-affiliated-company-349/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/why-solicitors-need-to-crack-the-online-market-327/ A report published in the Law Society Gazette revealed that the internet has become indispensable when choosing a solicitor. The YouGov poll of 2,266 people found that after recommendations by friends, internet search engines and online review sites were the second most popular way to select a lawyer. The research showed that 21% of the people polled would use search engines to select a law firm.This sentiment was echoed by Simon McCrumb of Darbys Solicitors in Oxford, who explains: "This reflects the fact that even the lawyers world is changing. Companies that do not invest in raising their on-line profile will receive less calls and enquiries than a firm that does - its as simple as that. This brings two challenges though. First - will the callers be as profitable and as productive as callers in 'the old days' were, or will this generate lots of calls that take a lot of time to deal with but which go nowhere? Our view is that you have to kiss a lot of frogs in order to find a prince. The second challenge is whether these people, who are coming to law firms in a very modern way, will still want personal and face-to-face service and whether they will want to pay for it." As Simon rightly points out, these findings show that solicitors firms can no longer afford to ignore the internet. A good position in the search engine listings for a variety of highly relevant keywords is essential to gaining clients.Establishing an online presence for your law firmHowever creating a successful website that turns site visitors into paying clients, not to mention one that conveys the personality of your law firm, your expertise and also speaks to your visitors using language they understand, isn't as easy as it sounds.The poll also revealed that almost 10% of respondents would use specialist web directories of solicitors to find a lawyer and a further 4% stated that they would ask for recommendations for contacts on Facebook and other social networking sites.Sites such as Twitter and Facebook that allow social interaction are gradually going to take the place of personal recommendations so getting a head start in these emerging fields is essential for any business, especially a law firm.Understanding how people search for solicitors onlineThe key to online success is to find an internet marketing agency that you trust, one that understands enough about what you do to know what to say on your website and also knows how people search for solicitors on the web. You need to find a company that can engage with that audience both on your website, through use of compelling content that answers all the right questions, and elsewhere on the internet through social media, online PR and other forms of online advertising.Through years of work with law firms of all sizes, I-COM has established a solid base of knowledge and understand about how people search for legal services online.  Integrating search engine optimisation into site development we can build a firm base for the web presence of any law firm which brings in the right visitors who convert into leads and eventually clients. Our experience of sponsored PPC advertising can ensure high quality traffic and prove return on investment. I-COM also has great experience working with directory owners and developing social media campaigns which can provide law firms with a route into social media. We provide social media training to help customers understand the requirements of working in a social media environment and avoid the many potential pitfalls of bad social media practise that have unsettled many reputable brands in the past. If your law firm is looking to take its first steps into establishing an online presence or if you're simply not happy with how your website is performing online, read more about our expertise in the legal industry or get in touch with us on 0870 164 2389. Search Engine Optimisation 2010-03-23 09:59:27 http://www.i-com.net/blog/why-solicitors-need-to-crack-the-online-market-327/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/3-steps-to-great-pay-per-click-ad-text-320/ With Google Adwords cost per click (CPC) increasing across the board, many advertisers are now placing their adverts in lower positions to reach their targeted ROI. This means that having the right ad text is key as advertisers cannot afford to either lose out on missed clicks which could have generated a sale or waste advertising spend on unsuitable visitors. The basics to good ad text are simple but all too often many advertisers get this aspect of their PPC campaigns wrong and miss out on the all important click. You can ensure you target your ad text correctly by following a very simple proces. Writing good ad text in 3 easy steps Keyword research All good ad text should focus on the most important keywords in your AdGroup. These keywords will either be the main drivers of traffic or will be the keywords that generate the most conversions or revenue. Product Research. Understanding your market and competition is key to writing adverts that target your audience and stand out. When reviewing your market to write ad text you should consider the following factors: Who is your audience? Are you targeting the quick sale with a low-value product or is yours an expensive luxury product with a long buying cycle? For example if you sell Office Chairs your target market may be price conscious small business owners. You will want price-focused, call-to-action-heavy ad text. If, however, you are targeting luxury products such as high end kitchens, a single sentence over both description lines (like in the example) may convey your advertising message more effectively. What do competitors' ads look like? Are other advertisers pushing prices or are they all focusing on free delivery? Even if you offer the same services as other companies it may not be worth mentioning them if all your competitors are doing the same thing. Making your advert standout is key to generating a good click-through rate. When looking at the search result for "office chairs" we can see that although many advertisers are offering discounts, none are pushing prices in their adverts. In this example, mentioning the price of your lowed-priced chair item in your ad text may bring better click-through rates than your competitors' ads. Where does your product sit in the market? Is it a luxury product? Is it a similar offering to your competitors? Is it the cheapest? Understanding these factors are vital when deciding on whether you can use your product's price as its USP. For example, if your product is the most expensive when compared to competitors' products then price is not a USP. Although price is a motivating factor, if your price is not the lowest and your markdown does not provide the greatest financial value, then opting to promote your product's USP may provide a better CTR. Writing your ad text. By this point you should have a good understanding of your product, market, competitors and what keywords are important in your campaign. With this information you are finally ready to write your ad text. Every ad text has 3 main components: Keywords: In point 1 we researched which keywords were driving traffic or sales. With that knowledge in mind, with few exceptions I would place that top keyword in the headline and first description line of the ad text. USP: In step 2 we sought to understand the market and where your product sits in that market. The main USP is often the price and if it is you should seek to place it in both the headline and in one of the description lines. If your product's price is not the most competitive, try to find another USP such as free delivery or product features. Remember to check if the product or service features you are emphasising are not in the ad text of your competitors; for example if every advertiser mentions free delivery in their ads, it may be of little benefit to include it in your ad text as well. CTA (Call to Action): An important part of any ad text is to give a reason to click the advert. Many advertising platforms ban the use of terms such as click here, but that does leave room for the use of other strong calls to action. If you have a few characters left at the end of your ad text include a CTA such as Buy Today or Buy Now. If you have more room, phrases such as Order Today and Get Free Delivery can often prove a strong call to action. All 3 ingredients have been used to create the Office Chair example advert below: Although there are many other factors to consider when writing good ad text, the above steps are the very basic ingredients for any ad text your write and are key to obtaining that all-important click. Search Engine Marketing 2010-03-09 15:09:01 http://www.i-com.net/blog/3-steps-to-great-pay-per-click-ad-text-320/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/yahoo-microsoft-merger-how-does-it-affect-ppc-223/ It has been widely reported in the industry news over the last few days that Yahoo and Microsoft have announced a merger. For those of you who have miraculously escaped this news, the basis is that Yahoo will be adopting Microsoft's Bing search engine technology and the PPC marketing will be powered by Microsoft's Bing AdCenter platform. Microsoft has issued an official press release should you want to read more information. But how will this affect your PPC strategy?The main obvious impact for PPC campaigns will be the fact that advertisers will soon have two decent sized platforms from which to advertise. Until now, Google Adwords has always been the major player, holding the majority share of the market, and Yahoo and Microsoft have only had minimal shares individually.This inevitably in the past has caused advertisers to allocate their main focus and budgets to Google, and either dismiss the other search engines entirely or only allocate comparably smaller budgets due to their lower market share and opportunity to generate conversions.The merger of Yahoo and Bing will allow PPC advertisers to test a larger, combined audience of the two search engines in the hope that this will provide a better chance of conversion due to a higher potential user base.  I am keen to test whether conversion rates will actually improve because it will very according to each client and their target audience.The change is expected to take place in early 2010 and I am excited to see how this is going to make an impact on search. According to Comscore (June 2009) Google still retains the major market share of 65% and following the merger the combined market share for Bing is expected to be 28%. It's clear that there is still a long way to go before Bing can really make a dent in Google's reign of the search industry. Search Engine Marketing 2009-08-03 10:34:28 http://www.i-com.net/blog/yahoo-microsoft-merger-how-does-it-affect-ppc-223/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/having-fun-analysing-conversions-191/ I was asked at a recent network event about what I would recommend (and what do we do at I-COM) to test how a website is converting. I know from years of experience that the individuals and companies that are the most successful with their online marketing do one thing more than most - they are constantly testing and tweaking their sites, always on the lookout for changes they can make to improve their results even by a tiny fraction! Testing is easy to do but Im not surprised that so few people actually do it! Why? Because it takes time. What are we chasing most of the time? Yes, the clock! So, these great ideas, testing different headings, graphics, call to action banners, content never gets implemented... true? So what is going to help? Well we have these fundamental rules at I-COM as far as testing is concerned; it's not rocket science but having a process helps. Test one thing at a time! The key to successful testing is to quickly identify each new element that makes a difference to your conversion rates - if you changed your headline, your content and your call to action all at once, how would you know which of these changes was making a difference (either good or bad)? It sounds like common sense but how many of us break this rule if we are honest? Be methodical! Slowly and methodically go through your website, testing one element at time, monitoring the results carefully, and then either keeping or removing each change, before you move on to the next test. In this way, over time, even tiny improvements will add up to a large increase in conversions and sales! Testing should be fun! It should be fun to test on a regular and ongoing basis, some over weeks, others over months. Look forward to reviewing the results and making the next set of changes as this will keep you motivated and surprise, surprise you will find the time. Benchchmark to measure your test! Look at your current website stats from Analytics or whatever performance tool you are using. Decide on the pages you are going to measure and change. Dont go mad - the more you do the more you will have to measure, and what did we say about time or lack of it? So then, make one change, whether that is to graphics, navigation, headlines or content on each of the pages that you have decided to measure. For example, if a call to action grahic on the page was generating 1% click through conversion rate and your alternative call to action banner generated a 4% conversion rate, you would leave it and that figure becomes the new benchmark. The next time you test the call to action banner the aim is to try and beat that new one. The game begins and its rewarding and fun and creates a positive behaviour of consistent improvement. Timing! Ideally you should run tests within the same time frame to avoid skewing your results. For example, you shouldn't test one headline in September and another in December when seasonal factors could make a difference to your sales. Or, if you're testing an email, you should send the two test emails to the same number of people to get a more accurate idea of which performs better. The other important thing to remember is to always keep a record of your test results! As far as I'm concerned the key numbers to keep an eye on include your bounce rate (number of people who leave the site again without visiting beyond the first page they see), number of visitors who reach your order form, your sales conversion, opt-in and enquiry rates. The truth is, your job of testing never ends... but make it fun! Search Engine Marketing 2009-05-13 09:33:55 http://www.i-com.net/blog/having-fun-analysing-conversions-191/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/the-spamtastic-results-of-pay-per-tweet-on-twitter-177/ There is now an ad service called Magpie which hooks up advertisers with Twitter users. The Twitter users get paid to post links in their Twitter streams and the advertisers get exposure on the social media site of the moment. This pay-per-view Twitter advertising a bad idea for both users and advertisers. For users, it's a very quick way to lose followers who aren't going to want you to send them unsolicited ads for products and services you haven't tried. For advertisers, you risk ending up paying for the following sorts of garbage: Looking at the content of the tweets they seem to follow a pattern - 7 or 8 tweets on a particular topic such as TEFL courses, adventure holidays or van insurance. The subjects bear no relationship to each other and the user doesn't appear to use Twitter for anything other than feeding this stuff into his or her page. In fact, the user could be anybody or nobody as there is no avatar and no profile information. This Twitter user has four followers, who are either new to Twitter or using Twitter to market their own products. The user follows nobody so does not engage with the Twitter community and doesn't appear interested in engaging with the Twitter community. This profile is the Twitter equivalent of the arbitrage site or the thin affiliate - a profile set up to spam other people's marketing guff out to the world for money - except they won't make much because the ads pay out on the basis of how many people see them. The reason that this user has not had this account banned by Twitter yet is because he has yet to start following people - if he were to follow hundreds or even thousands of people in quick succession then Twitter would have already identified the account as spam. Eventually, this is what is likely to happen anyway. The result? Ads served through an account like this will end up nowhere, shown to nobody who is likely to care - so you're wasting your cash. Social Media Marketing 2009-04-01 14:33:07 http://www.i-com.net/blog/the-spamtastic-results-of-pay-per-tweet-on-twitter-177/