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.

Websites aren't just brochures. They should have calls-to-actions and goals. In my opinion, there’s little point in developing a web presence with no clear measure of success. Some will argue that recording an increase in the number of visitors to your website is a success, but in my book success isn’t achieved until your visitors fulfil a goal.

If you are looking to measure the fulfilment of particular goals on your website then Google Analytics is a good place to start. Google's products are free, but remember, Google is collecting data on your website and its visitors – and this data is Google's, not yours.

Google Analytics is the perfect tool for looking at your website’s conversion performance. But straight out-of-the-box it doesn’t track conversion performance (or goals as Google calls conversions). The good news though is it doesn't take much effort to set up and apply goals.

And Google Analytics doesn’t require additional work on a website's code, as goals are managed at Google's end, within the analytics product. Once the Google tracking score is in place you can report on which marketing channels are delivering conversions or goal events.

Google tracks conversion events by counting the number of times a visitor reaches a particular page on your website. Pages like contact us, download a file or a purchase thank-you page, are all good web pages to track in terms of overall goals for the website.

Increased complexity - goal funnels
Goal funnels offer the next step in terms of analysis. Rather than simply recording whether an event occurs, a funnel provides you with an opportunity to track a defined path through your website.

For instance, if a user purchases a product from your website - the end goal - they’re likely to follow a purchase sequence - select a product, enter personal details, address and credit card details.

Google Analytics shows where users enter into and drop out of this purchase sequence. It will tell you - in both absolute and percentage terms - how many customers complete each stage of the transaction. The goal funnel provides a useful illustration and overview of the process.

Ensure accurate reporting: use Google Analytics handy filters
It’s worth using the handy little filters in Google Analytics to ensure you aren’t diluting your results. Using filters should be self-explanatory but in effect what they do is remove your own data (internal activity) from the Google tracking files so you get a better idea of what your real visitors are looking at.

A good example to consider is where a company’s website homepage has been set up by their IT department as the default browser page for the entire business. In this instance unless internal activity is excluded Google Analytics will show over-inflated figures for the homepage and probably an unusually high bounce rate too.

Exclude all traffic from a domain
This filter helps you remove the traffic information from a particular domain (or domains if you add multiple filters). This is perfect for removing staff or web agency interactions from analytics data for your website. Otherwise your own data will inflate site visitor numbers or skew results in terms of what visitors are looking at. By using this filter Google Analytics will only track the activity of external website users.
 
Exclude all traffic from an IP address
As above - this filter allows you to remove certain IP numbers or IP ranges from your statistics. A practical example of where this might be helpful is if you want to exclude internal monitoring systems which may be indexing content or checking that the website is up and running.

Include only traffic to a subdirectory
Perfect for breaking your website statistics into smaller, component parts. For example, if your website has a 'consumer' section, a 'media centre' and an 'investor relations' section you may require separate reporting for the business owners or departments interested in the performance of these discrete sections of the website.

Read more about Google Analytics and Coast Digital's consulting services at our our web traffic analysis page.

1. There is only one quality score

False. The Google content network and search network have separate quality scores. This is generally because the content network performs very differently to the search network and if there were only one quality score this could adversely affect your overall score.

2. Using different match types improves your quality score

False. Google maintains two types of quality score: one to compute minimum cost-per-click (CPC) bids and another to determine ad position. Neither is directly impacted by match type.

So if you were to add the same keyword but with three different match types, all three would have the same quality score.

3. You can buy a good quality score

False. Many are under the impression that if they bid high and maintain a good click-through-rate (CTR) then their quality score will be high. But Google’s quality score is based on relevance so even if your ads are in lower positions Google will measure relevance relative to position.

4. High CTR = High quality score

False. As mentioned above quality score is based on delivering relevant results to keyword searches. Quality score is calculated by many factors, CTR being only one of a host.

5. Quality score is reset when optimising your account

False. After creating an account or optimising an existing account, quality score will automatically go in at an average level. Google will then calculate the true quality score and will either increase or decrease the existing average. If you optimise an account and are trying to better the relevance of results, you can be sure that Google will compensate you with a higher quality score.

6. Quality score is affected if your ads are not running

False. If you pause an account quality score will not be affected. But bear in mind that seasonal trends can affect your quality score if you reactivate an account.

For example, you have recently run an excellent Adwords campaign selling Christmas trees and Google reward you with a high quality score. But perhaps you reactivate the account in May and due to the lack of relevancy or demand, your quality score drops.

The PPC management team at Coast Digital continually look for ways to develop conversion rates in our AdWords campaigns and Google Website Optimiser is a tool we use to help us achieve great results.

If you are unfamiliar with this addition to Google AdWords you can find a link to it in the header of the AdWords campaign management banner. Set-up is relatively easy and I personally like the prompts which test the code is installed correctly.

To get the best out of Google Website Optimiser I recommend you apply the following points to your PPC landing pages:

• Use a simple, templated structure which enables easy swapping out of headings and other elements
• Clearly define a list of USP’s to test
• Make sure all sign-ups / purchase call-outs are clear to see
• Don’t overload the landing page with content – keep it crisp, clear and concise

Once the script is installed correctly on the landing and succeeding pages I recommend leaving the optimiser to run for at least 3-5 days, this will give the system enough time to collect data and display findings.

Below is an example of an account where Coast Digital managed 4 variations of landing page elements within Google Website Optimiser to improve the conversion rate:

What do these figures tell us?

In this example in particular it is clear that Combination 2 has delivered the highest conversion rate. Next steps are to take the constituent elements of Combination 2 and apply them to the landing page as a permanent fixture – and then look to test other elements of the page.

Overall I would say that Google Website Optimiser can offer as much insight as Google Analytics; its delivery is clear and simply linked from within Google AdWords.

To get the best out of Google Website Optimiser, Coast Digital recommend split testing at least 2 different landing page elements. In doing so you are continually refining the quality of your AdWords traffic; the better the quality the more likely it is to convert.

Google AdWords will reward your campaign with traffic at a cheaper cost when you focus on quality – and Google Website Optimiser can help you achieve this.

We've had a couple of these passed on to us this week, and we think that this is significantly worrying enough to issue a warning to our clients who use AdWords.

There is currently a scam email circulating, from adwords-noreply@google.com sent from people claiming to be "The Google Adwords Team". The email requests billing information and user details be entered into the page shown. The link then directs the user to a spoof duplicate of the AdWords login screen.

The URL shows the standard Adwords link text, but sends the unsuspecting user to (parts of the url are masked for safety) http://adwrods.google.select.*******.cn/index.html (Note the misspelling of "adwords" and the .select.cn domain.)

We would like to reassure our clients that any billing issues are automatically flagged up in the AdWords interface and as such, we will pass these on.

Google rolled out an update to its search result pages this week, which introduces a second search box beneath the top result, for large sites. This allows a site content search to be carried out all without leaving the Google interface.

An example of the new search within a search feature

Essentially it is simply an expansion of the existing advanced search string "keyword + site:url.co.uk", presented to the consumer in a more direct, familiar format. Google have commented that the tool “grew out of observations by Google about the way web search was being used to navigate.”

This 'improved functionality' for the consumer has however, caused a backlash from site owners and online retailers. They argue that they are not only losing out on access to essential consumer search behaviour data - previously obtained from their own site searches - but are also losing out on coveted home page views.

The change also offers Google the chance to display competitor AdWords ads alongside the second set of search results, which in turn increases the chance of a visitor deferring to a competitor site via a strategically placed AdWords ad.

This potentially signifies the beginning of a period of unrest for a number of online retailers and corporations, although there are already reports of Google bowing to pressure and disabling the feature on request for a number of undisclosed brands. We’ll just have to keep watching to see how this potential saga unfolds.

I am continually amazed at the poor quality of some landing pages used by companies advertising on Google (and other search engines). 

Perhaps I should first explain (for those that don't know), that a landing page is the page at which you arrive when clicking on a sponsored advert in a search engine.

Typical problems I encounter when visiting websites through sponsored search results include:

• The landing page is a splash screen - a prelude to the actual website (that's so 90's!). 
• The landing page takes me to the home page of the website, even though my search was very specific. 
• The landing page is text heavy or overly technical. I fall asleep reading it or click away.
• The landing page is deep-linked to the product (well done!), but the product is out-of-stock.
• The landing page looks like something my 8-year-old niece chucked together. 
• The landing page is a dead link and goes nowhere (Google still charge you!). 

All of the above have one thing in common, they result in a poor user experience and a waste of your advertising budget.
 
So before you go wasting more of your precious marketing budget, here are my top 5 tips for effective landing pages:
 
1. Keep it really simple - minimal text, strong graphics and a clear headline.
2. Make it relevant - take the user straight to the product or service they are interested in.
3. Don't get technical - put your marketing hat on and stick to business benefits.
4. Include a clear call-to-action - buy now, enquire, call back are all OK.
5. Check out the competition - and don't be precious about stealing the best ideas!
 
And finally, always test your landing page against the AIDA principle and you won’t go too far wrong:

Attention: Capture attention straight away with a strong call-to-action or headline.
Interest: Create interest in what you offer. Your website text is an opportunity to create interest by addressing user needs or concerns.
Desire: Make users want what you have. Display your products as the solution.
Action: Tell users what to do. Buy Now! Click here and save! It’s amazing what a quick directive can do.

To find out more about effective landing pages, download our pay per click guide, Making every click count.

Here are my top 5 basic SEO tips to help your website perform better in the search engines and to help you improve on your current high position in the search results.

1) Content
2) Links – deep links
3) Domain names and file names
4) Tags – Meta, H1, Alt
5) Tracking – Webmaster tools and analytics

1) Content

Everyone should know by now that good quality content is essential to gain a high position in the search results. Ideally all content should be unique; not stuffed with keywords; and written for the user and not the search engine.

An easy way to find out if your content is unique is to do a search in Google using some of your content. If you put the search in inverted commas (“your content”) Google will return the websites it has indexed with the same content.

As for keyword stuffing there are plenty of tools out there that will show you the percentage of keywords on your page, you should aim for no more than 8%.

2) Links

Link building is still one of the most important aspects of SEO, as the number of backlinks you have is an indication of the popularity or importance of your website.

It’s important to remember that the best backlinks will be from sites that have relevant information about what your site is about, the more relevant the better as Google rates this very highly.

For example, there’s not much point in linking to a site about a local football team from a hair and beauty site. In an ideal world the links you get will be from similar or complementary sites. When looking for backlinks, searching for sites that appear for keywords you want is a good starting point.

But where should the backlinks point to? The answer is the most relevant pages on your site; you should put as much focus on deep-linking to good quality pages within your site as you do on your homepage links.

3) Domain names and file names

There’s lots of scope for SEO around URLs. Google guidelines suggest that you build a brand, but nevertheless keyword rich domains do well in search for the keywords in the domain name… if the SEO is done right.

As for file names they should be based around the top level keywords for that page, there’s no reason to give pages or files random names. If a page is based around keyword content, then the filename should contain that keyword.

For example, a page that has content about blue widgets should use the file name: ../blue-widgets.htm. This is one way of telling the search engine that this page is about blue widgets. One point I will make here is you should try to use hyphens in filenames; it’s well documented that this is best practice.

4) Tags – Meta, H1, Alt

There are certain tags you should be using to full effect as part of your on-page SEO; these include META tags (Title, Description and Keywords), the H1, H2 and H3 tags and Image Alt tags.

META Tags (Title, Description and Keywords)

Title tag should be descriptive, and contain your most important keyword/keyword phrase for that page/content (max 80 characters).

Description tag allows you to control the depiction of your page as some search engines use this text below your title in the search results. The text used should be persuasive and to-the-point to attract users, but also contain keywords relevant to page content (between 150 and 200 characters).

Keywords tag as the name suggests, this tag should contain keywords and keyword phrases relevant to the page content. But try not to include the same word more than 7 times as this can be seen as spammy (max 20 keywords/phrases).

H1, H2, H3 tags

Unlike META tags, these sit in the main body of content on your site and function as level headings for documents, with H1 being the top level, working down to H6 as the lowest level heading or sub heading for content.

So how do you use the H tag? In terms of SEO generally we would recommend that the title of the page is replicated in the H1 tag, then use variations or extended longtail search keywords in the rest of the H tags you use on your page. Normally we only use H1, H2 and H3.

Alt text

As highlighted in a previous post Image alt text in search engine optimisation Alt text is an important tag for image search, but can also provide on-page SEO content delivering useful information to search engines.

5) Tracking

Tracking and stats should form a big part of your SEO as you need to know who is backlinking to you; where traffic is coming from; what keywords people are using; and most importantly your conversion rate.

Google has some great free software; web-based Google Analytics gives you great tracking and stats information you can plug into your current Adwords PPC account.

Also an absolute must is Google Webmaster Tools, which allows you to make your site more Google-friendly; upload sitemaps; get Google’s view of your site; and find out about any potential problems.

To conclude, there are many things that influence SEO, but if you get the basics right you have a much greater chance of achieving a high position in the search results. But always keep in mind you should try to produce a website aimed at users, which gives the best user experience, rather than just attempt to influence search engines and their spiders. This approach always delivers the best results.