Online Marketing Articles & Blogs

The Importance of Landing Pages

20th Jan 2010

When you have your website built and are ready to market your goods or services to the wider community, you will probably engage a professional marketing company to help you. More than likely, you will begin your marketing campaign with pay per click. This will bring you instant customers, however, there are some rules which must be obeyed. The first of which is make sure that your keywords are very relevant to what you are selling.

Full Online Marketing Article >>>>

Some things to consider when setting up your PPC campaign

10th Jan 2010

Attracting visitors to your website is all important when you are trying to increase your company’s visibility on the internet and there are a few things you need to consider before embarking on this. First of all you need to know exactly what you want to achieve from your pay per click (ppc) campaign, do you want to increase sales, increase visitor numbers, impart information or do you have some other purpose or agenda. Once you have this clear idea, you can then go about targeting the right sort of visitors for your site.

Full Online Marketing Article >>>>

SEO - Trickery or Being Convincing?

16th Dec 2009

There is a lot of discussion about the relationship between SEO practitioners and the Search Engines, particularly Google. Some see it as a war between the two parties, whilst the others (the wise ones in my view) see it as a matter of co-operation.

True the two don't see eye to eye all the time, the Engines wanting to get the very best sites listed for any given term, while the SEO professional just wants the site they are working on on the front page, as that is after all how they make their money.

There is however a way of pleasing both of these groups, and in reality it is quite simple.

All you have to do is have something interesting to say or sell and then say it in a way that the Engines understand....

Full Online Marketing Article >>>>

Google's Real Time Search

10th Dec 2009

The integration of 'Real Time' Search in Google's listings is going have to some real impacts on online marketing and some of them may well cause Brand Managers a bit of concern.

What is Real Time Search?

Basically it means the inclusion of items from Twitter (later from Facebook and the like too), short items of news or comment that are related to the search term used. These real time lists seem to vary in size and placement on the screen, and in many cases are constantly changing in their own Marquee area.

Being helpful as ever, Google allow you to pause the lists, to remove them totally, or to switch to another screen where you see just these 'real time' items.

Full Online Marketing Article >>>>

Google Makes Breadcrumb Navigation Even More Important .

4th Dec 2009

Google is in the process of changing the way they display search results. This time they've decided to change the actual URL of the page you're about to click on to something that is more user friendly.

Full Online Marketing Article >>>>

Talking to a Salesperson v Professional Search Engine Technician – The differences and Dangers..

5th July 2008

As many a business owner knows, there are quite a number of companies operating in the Internet Search Engine Marketing arena who use cold calling techniques to obtain business. Now I must admit to not being a fan of cold calling myself, we never use it and never will, but that is another matter and not the subject of the concern I have today.

Full Online Marketing Article >>>>

The PPC Hare v the Organic Tortoise

20th June 2008

The fable of the hare and tortoise is known by most people, but it has parallels in the world of the Internet, specifically in the area of Search Engine Marketing.

Search Engine Marketing covers all the ways by which a website can be made more visible in the listings provided by the engines in response to a request for pages relating to a search phrase. This of course covers the areas on “Pay Per Click” (PPC) and that of “Organic” or “Merit” listings, the latter of course being free.

Full Online Marketing Article >>>>

The Lustication - Justification Proces

14th Feb 2008

Yes it is true, there is such a word (well there is now) as "Lustication", this being coined by the well know marketing guru Clotaire Rapaille. In essence he points out that most purchases are made purely for emotional reasons (we "Lust" after them) and then having to "Justify" it later, hence the "lustication - justification" process that he says we all, man or woman, go through. I for one can see his point, for when I was choosing my car I really did so on emotional reasons and then backed this up with all sorts of logical points later on....

Full Article >>>>

The Meta Keywords, Should You Use Them?

24th Jan 2008

The debate on the merit of using “Meta keywords” is still going on in the SEO world, and looking around the web I can see that many comments have been made, however, I have noticed that in may cases some really salient points had been missed.

For the most part most participants agreed that the Meta tag could do no harm, but was also of little use, a pretty good summation, but missing some really vital points.

Full Article >>>>

Santa Didn't Come - But Why?

2nd Jan 2008

You may not know it but spiders celebrate Christmas too, and this year, little Cedric's first Xmas, Spider Santa didn't come...

Cedric rushed down to his little tree and found not a single present underneath, the carefully wrapped fly for Spider Santa was untouched, just the same as the little glass of Flywhisky.

Full Article >>>>

The Right Way to Check Your Google PPC Adverts are Showing

10th December 2007

Many many people run PPC campaigns, and many of them just can't resist typing in their keywords to see if their advert appears...

Full Article >>>>

So What is Your Website Really "Saying" to the Search Engines?

26th November 2007

So Just Exactly What is your Site "Saying to the Search Engines"?

At SOM, we get to talk to lots of people who want their site to appear on the first page of the Search Engines for their " target phrases", the pole position on Google being defined as the "holy grail" for them all.

Now we are not going to go into which phrase they should want to be found under, as that is another story and is all about the important topic of Keyword Research, mixed up with a lot of common sense and some good old guesswork. No this article is all about what your site "looks like" from the Search Engines point of view.

Full Article >>>>

Microblogging and the Fragmentation of the Blogsphere

31st October 2007

Microblogging is the latest way to "chat"

Yes it's true, there is now such a thing as "microblogging", which is to the uninitiated a blog that is 140 characters or less. But why has it been developed you might (indded in my view should) ask?. Well it seems so that "chatting" on the web can be extended to mobile devices like the mobile phone....

What started this trend, well the website Twitter (on which the postings are called “Tweets” sweet isn’t it) was the first one, but now there are at least five, with Yappd, Ponce, Jaiku and Tumblr joining in with the fun...

Full Article >>>>

The Search Box on Your Site is Important

20th October 2007

Search boxes are quite a common site on websites today days, and while this is a good thing, there is a problem in that many simply do not work the way they should. Search boxes are all a part of the new art of "Searchandising" and is an area that is getting an increasing amount of attention from the big names on the web.

Consider what the Search Box Really is to Your Visitors.

So what is the Search box?, is it merely a box in which people can type things in, in an attempt to find what they are looking for, or what? In my view it is far more than that, it is in fact a gateway to a site and just how well it does it's job can make the difference between a sale and potential customer leaving empty handed.

Full Article >>>>

Lies, Damn Lies and Web Statistics.

17th Oct 07

Web Statistics are not all that you thought?.

Benjamin Disraeli was heard to have said that there were lies, damn lies and statistics, and certainly when it comes to the internet this phrase can certainly be said to be true, especially as few, (or none) of the agents delivering these statistics agree with each other

Log Files, Google and Flightpath Analytics

I use three sources of data when checking on what is happening on my customers sites, and can say that in my experience none of them agree with the other, something which makes deciding what to believe and thus what to do very difficult indeed. Google even disagrees with itself, the number of clicks being charged for (as stated by the Adwords Engine) being different from the number that their own Google analytics tracks


Full Article >>>>

The Choice of the Domain Name Is Even More Important Now.

12th Oct 07

Domain names have always been thought to be important, but before the spotlight has been on them from a branding / ease of use perspective. After all it is madness to have a hugely long easily misspelled domain name, or is it?

Short domain names have always been thought to be great, easily remembered, they were snapped up in their hundreds by businesses and collectors (of domain names). At the time it seemed to be a good idea and even today you can’t argue that the easily remembered issue is important. However, there is a change afoot and it is being powered by the Search Engines themselves.



Full Article >>>>

The Death of Google's Supplemental Tag.

11th Sept 07

The Death of the Google Supplemental tag and what this means to us all

Those website owners who've done a bit of research will know that they can see if the existence of their pages has been acknowledged by Google, i.e. that they are in the Google index.

What puzzles many is that they can see that their pages are there, but for all but a few very terms (these more often than not including the company name) the site never shows in the normal results.



Full Article >>>>

Searchandising and the Second Biggest Problem for E Commerce Site Owners.

25th August 07

So what is Searchandising and what is the second biggest problem for E commerce site owners, plus for good measure what is the first problem??

The First Problem (for all site owners)

If you haven’t guessed it yet, the first problem is getting people to the site in the first place. As many business people have found, setting up a website and waiting for the people to flock in normally has only one outcome, a long wait (and a website covered in electronic dust). No, for all but the luckiest of businesses, a lot of hard work is required to get those potential customers to their site in the first place…

Full Article >>>>