Domain Age and SEO
Domain names have been around for a while. Decades in fact. But how important in 2010 is domain age to SEO and your website ranking results?
At Reload Media we believe it’s very important to Google and your search engine rankings.
If you combine domain age with URL matches and good on-page optimisation, you are setting yourself up to have some great results.
Many businesses such as Digital Point are selling people (and spammers) older domains than what they can buy brand new on say Go Daddy.
At Reload, what we prefer to do is work with clients that have existing domain age and a good website, and therefore relevancy in the Google search algorithm.
That way, you aren’t artificially creating a result with a domain you don’t personally know or control and one that might have been in ‘blacklisting’ trouble in the past.
If you buy a business in the future it’s worth considering the value of the domain. With many baby boomers selling up in the next few years there are going to be many domains out there that aren’t valued properly if domain age isn’t factored in.
Popularity: 22%
Read MoreIntegrate Your Digital Strategy: The IDS Approach
If you haven’t heard already, there’s a new buzzword in town. Integrated Digital Strategy or IDS. At the centre of this theory, is the idea that your business’ digital and online marketing elements need to be fully integrated into your complete marketing approach.
“Googling it” has become a common form of follow up action after hearing a radio ad or viewing an ad on TV. This means that there is no clear cut segmentation between online consumers and offline consumers.
The benefits of creating an integrated digital strategy are numerous. In short, however, one of the best outcomes of implementing an IDS is that just about everything can be tracked.
For example, different website URLs can be referenced in offline advertisements which can then be tracked using code like Google Analytics. This means that you can track the actual advertising sources that your users are coming from.
But what does it mean for your digital marketing strategies? We’ve included a quick check list below to help you check the health of your digital strategy.
- Do you have Google Analytics installed on your website? YES / NO
- Do you have code installed in all your links on your website to track which link has been clicked? YES / NO
- Are you ranking in the search engines for slogans and tag lines that are used in your offline advertisements? YES / NO
- Are you using promotional codes or unique URLs in your offline advertising so that you can track where your website visitors are coming from? YES / NO
- Are your digital offers available offline as well, in-store or over the phone? YES / NO
If you answered no to any of the above questions, your digital strategy may not be fully integrated. Contact Reload today to discuss how we can help your business get the most out of your marketing strategies.
Popularity: 23%
Read MoreGoogle Eyes World Domination
There’s no doubt that Google has changed the way the world’s online information is gathered and stored. Google state that their mission is to make the web’s aggregated information “universally accessible and useful.”
It would appear that this is quite a simple mission statement for a company that already dominates over 85% of the planet’s search market share and has 620 million daily visitors to Google.com.
But Google are taking the ‘usefulness’ and functionality of online information so much further.
Google owns mobile phone software that works like a computer, communication platforms that allow you to contact everyone you do (or don’t yet) know and apps that can answer every question or situation you may face.
Here’s a sugarcoated overview of Google’s most impressive acquisitions and projects:
Google Chrome – OS
Google Chrome is an open source Operating System that has been designed to work exclusively with web applications. Google Chrome integrates application and standard web pages into a single tab and “is aimed at users that spend most of their computer time on the internet.” Google’s Chrome OS has an expected release for the second half of 2010 and is free to the public.
Google Chrome – Web Browser
Google Chrome has been designed to work with Web Applications and aims to improve ‘security, speed and stability’ when surfing the net, through its Application performance and JavaScript processing speed. Google Chrome currently holds 5.61% of the web browser market share, a big feat since its release in September 2009.
Google Wave – Personal Communication Software
Google Wave will be the new Facebook. Big call, I know but this web-based service creates a unified personal communication platform via voice, text, photos, videos, maps, and other digital tools. The aim is for multiple users to set up a collaborative environment known as a “wave” and then edit the content and add replies, just like a wiki.
Android – Mobile Software
Bought by Google in 2005 and announced in November 2007, Android is a open-source mobile phone operating system that will have enough apps to run your life, nearly. There are over 20,000 android phone applications available and over 60,000 new android phones are shipped daily.
Google Goggles – Android App
Google Goggles is an android application that allows phone users to search Google via pictures they take on their mobile phones. Google use various image recognition back ends such as object recognition then returns relevant search results. See the following video:
YouTube – Video Sharing
Google bought YouTube in October 2006 for $1.65 billion; not a bad deal for a garage project! If you didn’t already know how massive YouTube is, this video sharing platform dominates nearly 40% of the online video market share in the USA. With 20 hours of video uploaded every minute, YouTube will have no problems broadcasting the Indian Premier League this month.
So how did Lord Google gain its Googlopoly? They simplified accessing the web, built trust with users’ and managed to release technologies at the right pace for the market and society. Not to mention that most Google products are free; a surefire way to increase popularity.
With 45% of Google’s products still in Beta, I’m pretty sure that Google’s world domination is just getting started. Just Google it.
Popularity: 30%
Read MoreHow to Improve Your Conversion Rate in Under 5 Minutes…
…by Excluding Internal Traffic from your Google Analytics Reports!
Forgive the hyped up title, the following is simply a quick description of how to block your own IP address from being counted towards your Google Analytics traffic.
Do this and watch your conversion rates rise!
By the end of these ten steps you will know everything you need to know in order to exclude internal traffic from your reports.
The steps are as follows:
- Login to Google Analytics
- Click the name of the account you wish to create a filter for
- Click the link to the “Filter Manager” (bottom right of your account dashboard)
- Click “Add Filter” (top right corner of the grey box)
- Give the filter a name
- Select the “Predefined Filter” option
- From the drop-down menus you will want to select “Exclude” “traffic from the IP addresses” “that are equal to”
- Visit IP Chicken and make a note of the numbers that appear beneath “Current IP Address” – your IP address will appear in the following format: 74.125.74.129
- You will now need to enter your IP address into the fields provided. If you see four boxes separated by dots simply enter the numbers in the corresponding box. If, however, there’s just the one box then you will need to enter your IP address using regular expressions. Don’t freak out – all this means is you have to put a backslash in front of all the decimal points, eg: 74\.125\.74\.129
- The final step is to select the website “profiles” you wish to apply this filter to. Simply select your profile(s) and click “Add >>”. Once you’ve done this just hit “Save Changes” and you’re done!
How will this improve your conversion rate as promised in the title of this post? It’s simple – since you probably visit your own site regularly and never buy anything (you tyrekicker) you are unconsciously bloating your visitor numbers. Since conversion rate are essentially the number of visits required to make a sale, taking your own visits out of the equation will instantly improve your conversion rate!
Popularity: 24%
Read MoreApplying the Four P’s of Marketing to AdWords
Ok everybody. Time to dust off that old marketing textbook you’re using to prop up your computer – we’re going back to basics!
If you turn to one of the first chapters you will find a tried and true path to AdWords marketing success. The 4 P’s of Marketing.
The 4 P’s of Marketing (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) should be one of this first ad creation strategies a search engine marketer turns to when building any new AdWords’ campaign. These four elements – which are the cornerstone of nearly all first year marketing textbooks – are of paramount importance in the search engine marketing sphere.
Here’s why.
Search engine marketing is a curious beast. Many bright eyed, bushy tailed newly graduated marketers who find themselves in a search engine marketing position often neglect these core marketing principles and attempt to develop over creative, over complicated and ultimately unattractive search advertising.
However, when creating ads for search engines, marketers need to put results ahead of creative ambitions. By keeping the 4 P’s in mind at all times, a marketer will discover very quickly that utilising some or all of these four elements in their ads – while adhering to strict advertising character limits – will automatically cut the fat off any over-ambitious advertising copy.
This is critical to AdWords success as, through employing this ad creation strategy, one can instantaneously increase any ad’s probability of quickly solving their audience’s perceived problem.
AdWords Solves Problems Quickly
Google is fast becoming the number one go-to source for problem solution amongst consumers. This is great news for advertisers as search engines create a veritable feeding ground of qualified, purchase ready individuals ready to have their problems solved by intuitive, relevant and magnetic advertising. Purchase ready consumers on Google are generally looking to find the quickest and most attractive solution to their perceived problem. So solve their problems quickly and creatively with your ads!
Integrating the 4 P’s
The trick with Search Marketing is to create ads that possess an even balance of creativity and detail about the advertised product/service. If you put yourself in the shoes of a purchase ready consumer on Google, you will begin to understand the importance of utilising the 4P’s in your ads.
For example…
Let’s say you are searching to buy a new acoustic guitar and the following two ads appear:
As you can see, although the first ad in this scenario uses a (somewhat) creative emotional appeal, the second ad would likely generate a much higher CTR as it gives users more than one reason to click.
Let’s break it down.
Assuming the search term was ‘acoustic guitar sydney’, the ad above touches on all four of the 4 P’s:
Product: Acoustic Guitar
Price: From $499
Place: Sydney
Promotion: Huge Acoustic Guitar Sale
The lesson here is to take some time out to evaluate some of your current ads to see whether they are working hard to solve your target audience’s problem. If they aren’t try rebuilding some of your ads with the product, price, place and/or promotion details integrated into your copy.
Or, if you don’t have the time or patience to do it yourself, talk to a specialist AdWords’ firm like Reload.
Popularity: 33%
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