Catalyst SEO | Thoughts on web design, SEO, web marketing, social media and anything else that comes to mind

2nd April 2012
0

Google+

Category : Google+

If you’ve been watching the TV over the past week you may have noticed an advert for Google+ the new(ish) social site from Google. This could be in response to a recent report by comScore, which estimated that the average PC user spends just 3 minutes a month using Google+ .

Compare this to the minutes per month for some of the popular networking sites:

Facebook: 405 minutes
Twitter: 21 minutes
LinkedIn: 17 minutes
Google+: 3 minutes

For Google to be at the bottom of any list is something of a new experience for the company and has led to the Wall Street Journal to call Google+ a “virtual ghost town”.

Google has responded by saying that it’s difficult to accurately estimate this type of data and that their own internal results are far more optimistic. But there is no doubt they are pushing hard with Google+ on the advertising front with a long, detailed and probably very expensive advert.

Will it work? The industry seems undecided and it’s going to take a lot to move people away from Facebook, although Google+ does offer a different way of organising your social network that has some appeal.

My advice is, if you don’t have a Google+ account you should claim one and be ready – just in case . . .

3rd February 2012
0

Video on Adwords PPC

Category : ppc advertising , SEO , video marketing

Those in regular communication with me will know that I have been emphasising the importance of video as a part of website promotion for some time.

For many businesses video is an important part of their marketing and brand promotion. Yesterday I was chatting to a local sports celeb who is successfully combining Facebook and his video chanel on YouTube to promote himself, his sponsors and create an income stream. His following on YouTube is such that any new video is guaranteed thousands of visits. So he regulary produces good quality and interesting videos to promote himself and his sponsors. The same videos are picked up by others and embedded on websites, blogs and Facebook so the distribution goes far beyond initial YouTube exposure.

While this particular format probably won’t work unless you have a high personal profile, it does show the power of video in general and YouTube in particular.

Google, who own YouTube, have taken video a step further and will shortly be allowing Adwords advertisers to insert videos in PPC adverts.

Knowing how much people like video this could be a great advantage in PPC advertising. Being listed at position 3 with a video might produce more clicks than being in the top spot with no video. And if you don’t have to occupy the top spot there must be some potential for maintaining or increasing click through rate while reducing average cost per click.

Yes, this is guesswork, but if you currently don’t have a range of videos that relate to your business, now might be the time to give this some serious thought.

For more information see my previous blog – Video as a Business Promotional Tool

2nd November 2011
0

Does your Website Work on Mobile Phones?

Category : Uncategorized

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Last month, Google held a “From Why to How” mobile webinar and announced that mobile optimisation will be factored into Adwords’ quality score for mobile ad campaigns.

So the policy makers at Google clearly think that website optimisation for mobile devices is important – and probably not just for Adwords. With mobile phones being so widely used to access the web, it’s reaching a point where a website that performs poorly on a mobile phone may harm your business rather than enhance it.

So, how mobile compatible is your website? If you have a smart phone you can check it at any time and make your own evaluation. But for a more formal assessment you can make use of a interesting new site at HowToGoMo.com.

A feature on the GoMo site called the GoMoMeter analyses your website and provides recommendations for mobile optimisation as a downloadable report, as well as resources such as best practices for mobile sites. There is even a section for finding a mobile web developer but these are all in the USA . . .

5th October 2011
0

Video Essential for Top Rankings?

Category : Uncategorized

It’s official. Google’s admits tinkering with it’s search algorithm and as usual there are a some winners and losers.

This time, it appears that video content could be a factor in why sites gained or lost rankings. Sites with video content seem to have improved their positions while those without have suffered.

In Frank Watson’s blog posting on October 3, he examines the details, which also suggests that Google+1 is also a factor, even though it’s not making much of an impression on Facebook or other Social media sites.

To this add what appears to be favouritism towards bigger corporations, especially if they are associated with Google, and it’s not hard to see the direction Google is heading.

For the small businesses my advice is to ensure you have a presence on YouTube with good links to your website, and keep a close eye on Google+1 as it may soon be essential to join if you want a good ranking . . .

4th August 2011
0

Google+ After the Launch Buzz

Category : Google+ , social media

In June, amid much publicity and fanfare, Google launched Google+ as the new networking/social media tool. So how is it doing so far?

Although opinions are mixed it seems that most agree that there was a very strong initial takeup but traffic has now leveled off a little.

So in this brief posting I thought I’d include this chart created by VentureBeat which logs traffic to the various social sites and puts the current situation into perspective.

Although Google+ is the quickest website to reach 20 million users worlwide, and early take-up was very strong, at the moment Google+ is still a small player in the social media world, especially when compared to Facebook.

As the launch buzz dies down and initial traffic slows Google is entering the next phase which will probably decide how successful Google+ will be.

20th June 2011
0

New Domain Suffixes Available

Category : domain name , search engine rankings

You may have read or seen on the news that some new domain suffixes are soon to become available.

The international authority for top-level domain names – ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) – has approved the expansion of generic TLDs (Top Level Domains) to allow companies and organizations to create domains for their brands, eg .tesco, or create generic names such as .boat or .pink.

As you can imagine the competition for generic domains will be fierce. But before you brace yourself for some more domain name expenditure, make sure you have deep pockets because the application fee alone is $185,000 (approx. £115,000), and the annual fee is $25,000 (approx. £15,500).

So at the moment it looks like this is one for larger corporations. The effect it might have on smaller business is currently a bit of an unknown, however as far a search engine rankings are concerned it seems unlikely that the playing field will be as level as it is now, where smaller business can still compete with big companies.

“ICANN has opened the Internet’s addressing system to the limitless possibilities of the human imagination,” according to Rod Beckstrom, president and CEO of ICANN. “No one can predict where this historic decision will take us.”

Applications for the new suffixes will be accepted from January 2012 with new domains probably appearing within the year.

11th May 2011
0

Quick Response (QR) bar codes

Category : Uncategorized

Quick Response (QR) bar codes
This image is a QR Code. These are starting to appear on websites and print adverts and are set to become the hottest trend in web marketing.

These bar codes enable your customer to link their mobile smartphone with your website very quickly. (To track the usage of the bar code, simply add a referral code on the url that it embeds.) This approach may require integrating print advertising with the web but it is not expensive to implement and will give you greater opportunities to trade.

Tip: Place a banner with your QR bar code on your website homepage. If a customer sees it and wants to bookmark your site, this will make it easier for them.

The QR bar code can help to integrate your website with mobiles, for example your customers could click to download any kind of media such as a map or telephone number. Alternatively it can be printed on a business card, or exhibition display giving contacts easy access to your details from their mobile.

To find a site where you generate your own QR barcode for free, put “generate QR bar code” into your favourite search engine. Smartphone users can download a QR bar code reader from their apps store.

25th April 2011
1

PPC – Don’t Check Your Adverts!

Category : Google AdWords

If you advertise on Google and regularly check your advert’s status you could be doing yourself a disservice.

Why . . . ?
Because Google monitors page impressions against the number of clicks on your advert. Over a period of time this provides a score – the Click Through Rate, commonly known as CTR.

Both keywords and adverts have a CTR score so whenever you use Google to search one of your own business keywords and don’t click on the advert you are reducing your Click Through Rate and diminishing the credibility of your keyword and advert.

Google also has a keyword Quality Score which is directly effected by your CTR (amongst other things). So regularly checking of your advert position on Google can move your advert down the rankings and potentially cost you more in keyword bids.

But there is an answer . . .
To counteract this Google provides a handy tool which allows you to make a non-registered search which will still show you how your advert looks and it’s position for any keyword you type in, but won’t affect your CTR or Quality Score.

Bookmark it and use for all your keyword checks – Google Ad Test Tool – without damaging your advert ranking.

18th March 2011
0

Maitaining your AdWords Campaign

Category : Uncategorized

Once you have set up your AdWords campaign the next step is to maintain and refine it. Checking the campaign performance is essential to getting value for money from your clicks.

7th March 2011
0

Google’s Panda Update

Category : ethical seo , Google+ , seach engine rankings , SEO

Google has made another change to it’s algorithm and the way it ranks wesites on Google searches.

Officially known as the Google Panda update (who thinks up these names?*) it has seen nurmerous established sites disappearing from Google’s rankings.

Asssessing who has been effected is never straightforward but Google seems to be targeting sites using duplicate content, non-ethical SEO practices, excessive advertising or what Google terms ‘low trust sites’. There is also evidence that Google is using outside human raters, at least in part, as a form of quality assurance on the Panda update. As the official blog states:

“Google depends on the high-quality content created by wonderful websites around the world, and we do have a responsibility to encourage a healthy web ecosystem.”

So hopefully, this means that well designed sites with original content won’t be effected and will continue to rise to the top of the search rankings.

So far the Panda update has been launched in the USA but will be rolled out worldwide over the coming weeks/months.

If you think your site has been effected by the ‘Panda’ update you can contact me at; barney@catnet.co.uk.

See the Official Google Blog posting on the Panda update here – googleblog.blogspot.com

* Apparently it’s named after a Google engineer . . .

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