Coast Digital Blog

Building your search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy is a complicated process. It takes experience, time and dedication to ensure your website is found in the major search engines – it doesn’t happen overnight.

If you’re considering outsourcing to support your SEO strategy, here are some things to consider when shopping around for the right online marketing agency. 

Research phase

• When looking you may wish to employ an agency offering a range of online marketing such as email, pay per click (PPC), website usability, and web design in addition to SEO. Most online marketing agencies offer a variety of services in-house.
• This is a no brainer really, but once you’ve selected a potential agency type their name into any of the major search engines. If the agency’s name doesn’t appear on page one in Google they obviously haven’t got their act together.
• Ask suppliers and peers in your industry for recommendations or the name of the marketing agency they’re using. You may find the same one pops up a few times.
• Make sure you take a good look at their website. Always check out their case studies and latest news sections. Sometimes there’s a ‘meet the team’ section; it’s always good to learn more about who you could be working with.

Meeting the online marketing agency

• If you can, ensure you meet face-to-face with prospective agencies, taking the time to meet them properly. After all, you’re deciding whether to place your online business in their hands. I believe it’s essential to meet the team who’ll be implementing your SEO strategy.
• Request an overview/proposal from the agency of what they would do to build on your SEO strategy and find out more about what work needs to be done.
• Always ask about white hat and black hat practices. All SEO specialists/agencies should be able to explain briefly how they’ll approach SEO for your particular type of business. You should ensure they’ll take an ethical approach or you could run the risk of your website getting blacklisted. For example, if an agency says they’ll get you onto page one instantly in natural search you should ask them how, as this is entirely unrealistic. Ensure white hat practice is involved especially at this early stage.
• Any good online marketing agency will want to evaluate and ask what your overall marketing and sales objectives are. You should expect lots of intelligent questions about your plans.

Your chosen online marketing agency

• Get a contract in place. Always set goals and objectives. This way you can easily review any progress the agency makes.

And to conclude

Please keep this in mind: Choose an online marketing agency which fits well with your business and offers the full range of services you require. 

Good luck!

From 5 May any advertiser will be able to bid on trademarked single words in the UK and Ireland. Previously companies could ask Google to protect single word trademarks. Multiple word searches have always been subject to open bidding.

Many commentators - including the team here – have observed that this might be bad news for trademark owners. Conversely I see a great opportunity and not just for Google.
 
Open market vs closed market
Until now keyword competition and bid prices have been kept artificially low due to trademarking. With this change we’re about to enter a free and open market place, with average cost per click prices likely to soar before re-adjusting to a new market position.
 
In reality this offers a great opportunity for smaller players, resellers and affiliates. And hopefully, even trademark owners can limit the damage if they follow my tips.
 
Small players & resellers – test a new sales channel
Good times. Where you may have been blocked from even entering the marketplace by trademarked brands, you can now give paid search a go. Be careful though, bid prices are going to be high for the next few months.

My advice: If you’re going to 'go for it' with PPC from May, make sure you do so for a good few months. The longer you run on Adwords the lower you’ll be able to drop your bid prices. If you go into PPC in May it’s going to cost but you’ll be rewarded with better long-term results than if you enter a re-adjusted market later in the year.
 
But remember to develop targeted keyword groups; don't just chase brand owners' main phrases. Go for action-orientated phrases which include the brand name. For example don't just bid on "nike", bid on "cheap nike shoes" or "nike online store" - keyword phrases that lead to sales.
 
Trademark owners - use your affiliate partners
For trademark owners the initial outlook perhaps isn’t so positive but there are some constructive ways to minimise the pain and create opportunities.
 
(a) Monitor your trademark phrase
Many brands currently use trademarks to block affiliates from bidding on their brand name. With the new system brands and their affiliate management partners will need to be much more careful and precise when developing and enforcing their PPC bidding policies.
 
My advice: Frequently monitor your trademark phrases on Google. And don’t allow affiliates to use your domain name in their ads.
 
(b) Embrace your affiliate partners
New tactics may develop in the affiliate market. I can see a situation emerging where major brands may take a u-turn on any long-standing negativity towards brand-bidding affiliates.

Where brands once blocked affiliates with restrictive PPC policies they should now seek to welcome them with open arms and use affiliate partners to block competitors from bidding on their search phrases.

My advice: Brand owners should look after their affiliate partners and work with them to protect the brand and erode the market position of competitors.
 
Consider this hypothetical example; not only can affiliate partners in Brand A's affiliate program help block affiliate competitors from using Brand A's trademarks, but they can now also 'raid' Brand B's trademarked phrases.
 
Because trademarking from the ad text will still be controlled by the trademark owner, you can - to an extent - continue to control the keywords used in the adverts. If needs be you can block all but your closest allies from using your trademark in their adverts.
 
Don't block everyone though. Remember you’re going to need your affiliate partners and resellers to help protect your brand position.
 
Talk to your major PPC partners about what they can do to protect you.
 
(c) Make extra budget available for PPC
If you are a brand with a trademark my advice is to ask for a bigger PPC budget or draw in affiliates to help solidify your position.
 
You are about to see a significant spike in your Google adspend and will no doubt leak or lose sales to competitors. You need to control your cost per sale and keep competitors from the top paid-listings. The best way to do this is by working with your affiliates.
 
(d) Steal competitor's market share
It’s a great time to gain market share on your competitors, but remember the trademark change only affects what search phrases you can bid on. You still won't be able to use your competitor's trademark in your ads.
 
My advice: Speak to your PPC affiliates about competitor bidding. They should be able to grab market-share on your behalf and within a tight budget. Remember, affiliate marketing offers the opportunity to make sales at a known price – and as such de-risks forays into competitor phrases.
 
Final note - trademark exclusions
Trademarks will still be enforced in ad text. Competitors will be able to bid on a brand terms but they won’t be able to use your trademark name in their own ads.
 
For example, BMW will now be able to bid on the search phrase “Mercedes” but they won’t be able to use the word Mercedes in ad text. For example, they won't be able to say "don't buy Mercedes, buy BMW" as the system won't allow it.

From the 5 May Google will stop enforcing trademark protection on all searches in the UK and Ireland. This means that advertisers are no longer restricted from bidding on trademarked terms.

What does this mean to you?
If you currently own a trademarked term then you will be used to your ad sitting all by itself in a land free of all competitors. The bad news for you is that this won’t be the case for much longer. Once the policy change takes place, any tomdickorharry.com will be able to bid on your brand name and anything related.

You own the trademark…surely that means you can legally protect it?
Unfortunately not, UK law is not clear enough on whether bidding on a keyword in a search engine is infringing on the use of a trademark.

Yahoo were cleared on a trademark infringement case after ‘Mr Spicy’ tried to sue them for showing a competitors ad on this trademarked term .Yahoo argued that none of the competitors were bidding on the trademark, and their ads were matching on related terms such as ‘spicy’.

How will it affect your PPC campaign?
Well, costs for your brand-related ad groups will undoubtedly rise because your average CPC will increase. The increase will be relative to the amount of new competitors that appear, and I can imagine that this in turn, will be relative to the industry.

These ads will all be competing for your top spot, and they will be drawing visitors away from your site so you can expect lower click through rates and fewer clicks for a higher CPC. Sounding good so far?

How can I prepare for the change?
I would sign off some more budget for your brand campaign. You’re going to need it if you want to keep your ad on top of the competition!

You need to plaster your ad with your brand name. The competition still aren’t allowed to use your brand name in their ads, so the big bold words will separate you from them.

And if you’ve still got some budget left, why not set up a competitor bidding campaign? It’s a going to be a completely open market and if the competition bid on your brand, I wouldn’t show any remorse when bidding on theirs.