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Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation

Whether you are selling directly online or developing leads from your website, there are few companies in this day and age who can afford to ignore the on-line world in their marketing campaigns.

Online Growth

Last year alone the value of online ecommerce sales in the UK was a whopping £408 billion, and with the internet economy predicted to be in double digit growth for a least the next 5 years there are opportunities that should not be missed.

But where do you start and what is suitable for your company? Here we provide a brief introduction to some key areas, and link through to further useful articles on each specific aspect of Internet Marketing.

SEO - Search Engine Optimisation

The process of making a web site show at the top of search engines. This is mainly focused on Google, which is likely to bring you well over half of all the visitors to your web site.

SMM - Social Media marketing

Social Media marketing might be described as the process of using interactive and community sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In, Digg and many more to reach out and engage with more people on the web. This not only allows you to attract new visitors to your site, but to develop stronger relationships with the ones you already have.

PPC - Pay per Click Advertising

Google Adwords are the text adverts on the right hand side of the Google search page, as well as many of the ads that you may see distributed around the web. You can list your business here, and bring visi

tors immediately to your site. However you pay a little bit for every one that clicks through to your site, so this absolutely has to be done well, and when done right can then be very profitable.

The following articles will give you a taste for some of the different online marketing techniques that can be used. Please contact us if you would like to find out how your business or other organisation can grow and develop online.

Winners and Losers of Googles Farmer Update

Google Farmer update

Google are constantly updating their rankings algorithm, sometimes with several small changes daily, but occasionally they do a big update that can really shake up the search results. The most recent has been dubbed the “Farmer” update by the press, although internally at Google it is called Panda. This update has led to some dramatic changes for rankings and traffic for a number of websites.

Presently it appears to have only affected the US but it will be rolled out worldwide soon. Exactly when is anyone’s guess but we expect to see these changes in the UK before long.

How can you safeguard yourself against these changes?

The information provided by Google is sketchy but most commentators are in agreement about what these changes have set out to achieve. With any updates by Google their aim is to provide the most relevant and informative results for any search query. The Farmer update has been targeted at low quality sites, content farms and even some article directories - for example Ezine Articles lost a huge amount of their traffic in the aftermath of the update. This will have many people who use article marketing as their sole link-building tactic going back to the drawing board for new ideas.

Top Tips for Google Alerts

Google alerts are emails sent to you by Google about the latest news, video, web and online chat based on your choice of topic or query.

This is ideal for keeping a track of a number of things including:

Manage your online reputation.

Competition research.

Back linking opportunities.

Track a news story at it develops.

How to Set Up Google Alerts

Decide on the keyword phrases that you would like to receive information about. For ideas on related keywords visit Google Adwords Keyword Tool
Visit Google Alerts and your keywords and set your preferences.
Repeat the process for your other target keywords. You are allowed up to 1000 alerts!
Your alerts will automatically emailed to you.

How to Use Google Alerts Effectively

Now you are being inundated with Google Alerts here are some top tips to make the most out of them.

Use your business name and personal name (especially useful for well known personality, authors etc) enclosed in quotes (see our tips below). Are people saying good things or bad things about you online? This is your opportunity to thank the good ones and address any issues that are being published online.

Read more...

Sorry - You Are Not Really on Page 1 of Google!

topimage I have lost count of the number of times I have been speaking to a client on the phone and while we are reviewing their online rankings what they can see is very different from the results shown on my computer.

This is easily explained and fixed by removing Google Web History, but how many people are actually aware that this feature is enabled on their Google accounts and their computers by default?

What is Google Web History

If you often think that your search results are overly tailored then they probably are. Google collects information on your browsing habits every time you do a search enabling them to serve up more personalized results to suit you.

The simple fact is Google shows you what they think you want to see. You may find that your regular visits to your own website or competitors websites are skewing your search results.

From an online marketing perspective this functionality is very misleading. When researching how you are positioned in Google you need to see a standard set of results, similar to what your potential customers are viewing, not tailored to your search habits.

If you are using the online arena to generate leads and traffic to your website it is essential to make sure you disable Google Web HIstory. Otherwise how to do you benchmark how you are actually performing in Google with this personalization distorting your view?

I can see many of you throwing up your hands in horror at this 'big brother' aspect of Google. However it is a function that is here to stay and can be viewed as good or bad depending on what angle you look at it.

How Do I Disable Google Web History?

Google keep a track of your search history if you are signed into a Google account as well as when you are not. These are slightly different and can trip you up if you are not aware.

Reciprocal Linking Directories

One method of generating more incoming links to your web site is to list it in directories on line. There are various groups of directories, which could be summarised as:

Free Listings
Listings requiring reciprocal links
Paid listings

We normally avoid paid listings, unless of course they are highly relevant to what you do and proven to generate traffic to your site. So many do not, and the money is best spent elsewhere. There are so many good directories where payment is not required that you can be very choosy about paying for listintgs.

On this page we will build a list of some of the directories that you may use, suggesting that by building listings in more and more your web site wil lbegin to rank more highly for search, and your visitor traffic will increase.

Channel Computing Limited