UK Search - SEO and PPC Management

SEO Ranking Factors Study

2015-04-09T10:04:00.004+01:00

The UK Search Blog on Blogger is only used on an occasional basis. Simply Clicks' principal blogging activity is carried out on the home site. The most recent post refers to a study on SEO ranking factors and their correlation with organic search volumes.

Hosting By 1&1 - Beware The PHP 5.2 Rip-off

2014-11-12T10:56:00.000+00:00

You may have noticed 1&1 advertising a lot on TV and on the Internet. 1&1, or One and One, as they are also known, are one of the biggest providers of hosting services. Their services aren't bad. However, they do have a tendency to rip-off their customers. The latest example is a charge for PHP support.

1&1 have recently decided that support for PHP 5.2 will only be provided at a cost of £4.57 per quarter. Fine if you know what you are doing. But how many 1&1 subscribers knew they had PHP 5.2. Yup, you've guessed it. I'm one of them. I have just received 2 invoices from 1&1 for this service.

I have tried calling 1&1 to complain but they don't answer. I've tried cancelling the domains and hosting for the contracts they are charging me for. But their website that hosts the cancellation system isn't loading. So it looks to me like a total rip off and a classic case of inertia selling.

The only way around the problem is to go into to your 1&1 hosting account and set the default PHP version to PHP 5.5 or similar. Doing nothing means 1&1 will continue to make the quarterly charge.

A Bigger Christmas PPC Campaign for The Christmas Jumper Store

2013-10-02T17:30:00.000+01:00

The New Penguin Christmas Jumper for 2013

The Christmas Jumper Store has returned with a bigger PPC campaign for Christmas 2013.
The success of the Christmas 2012 campaign has encouraged the business owners to expand their range of fun Christmas jumpers.

Additional styles this year include:

Penguin
Snowman
Chimney pot
Bah humbug
Snowflake
Nordic

The range of new jumper styles complements last Christmas' favourites of which the biggest success was the Christmas pudding jumper.

This is the third search marketing campaign undertaken for Manchester based JT Macs Ltd, The owners of The Christmas Jumper store.

Christmas jumpers have become and increasingly popular fashion item.

Lapsed PPC Management Client Returns

2013-02-07T13:37:00.000+00:00

Simply Clicks has regained the PPC management of lapsed client Redford Charles. Redford Charles is a training course operator based in Rochester, Kent.

Redford Charles - Electrical Training and Assessment

Simply Clicks originally set-up a PPC campaign for Redford Charles over 12 months ago and managed the business on a retainer for an initial period of 3-months. The pay per click campaign targeted a range of terms related to electrical training and formal qualifications.

After a trial period the client subsequently decided to manage the business in-house. A combination recent change of circumstances at the client and the increasing complexity of PPC have encouraged the client to had the management of the campaign back to Simply Clicks.

Brighton SEO Salary Survey

2013-01-22T12:01:00.000+00:00

Brighton SEO has published its 2012 UK SEO salary survey. Its full of good data showing SEO salary data across the UK by region, experience and type of employment role - i.e. in-house SEO vs agency SEO vs freelance SEO.

The most surprising piece of data is that at the owner or director level SEO salaries in Brighton are the highest in the UK - being even higher than SEO agencies in London. See the graphic below for SEO salaries of in-house SEO salaries by location.

UK SEO Salaries By Location

The survey found that on average, in-house SEO staff are paid more than SEO agency staff, with freelancers generally paid the most. Obviously, the data is drawn from a survey of reported salaries so there is a risk of a high margin of error.

SEO salaries, not surprisingly, also increased with experience. The highest paid salary registered by the survey was £190k, a freelance SEO with 9 years experience. The highest in-house SEO salary recorded was for an in-house SEO with 12 years experience. The highest SEO agency salary appeared to be about £82k.

For all the detail and more detailed graphics please go to the UK SEO Salary Survey.

Tactical PPC Campaigns for Beds and Mattress

2012-11-23T12:59:00.003+00:00

One key advantage of Pay Per Click over SEO is the ability to immediately launch and run short-term, tactical marketing campaigns that would not warrant the equivalent SEO effort. Simply Clicks has launched two such campaigns in the last 24 hours. Both are targeting the pre-Christmas consumer market and are for online beds retailer, Beds on Legs.

Silentnight Kingsize Mattress - PPC Ad

Campaign 1 is for Stompa bunk beds. Stompa is an increasingly popular bed brand for children and Beds on Legs wants to build its position with the bed manufacturer.

The second PPC campaign is a manufacturer funded price-based promotion for Silentnight kingsize mattresses. The PPC campaign has an end date of 16th December. Using this short-term time frame an SEO campaign would effectively be over before it got underway.

As in all of these things, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The acid test will be whether the return on expenditure justifies the activity. We will know by early January.

Paper Crafts Client

2012-10-03T17:10:00.001+01:00

Papaya Art Images - 2013

Simply Clicks has taken on a new project for a client that specialises in paper crafts. The Paper Parlour is an online only retailer that stocks a range of items and materials that are popular for personalised gifts or use by home hobbyists.

These include:

Printed tape
Craft tape
Cup cake boxes
Alphabet stamps
Letter stamps
Washi tape

They stock items from brands such as Papaya Art, Meri Meri, Magic Soup and Cavillini.

Christmas Jumpers - For Christmas 2013

2012-09-27T11:49:00.001+01:00

The Christmas Pudding Jumper

The Christmas Jumper Store has just joined Simply Clicks' stable of clients. As its name implies The Christmas Jumper store will retail Christmas novelty jumpers.

Simply Clicks will provide PPC management services in the run up to Christmas 2013. The campaign for Christmas sales gets underway in the first week of October.

The Christmas jumpers are available in a range of Christmas related designs for both men and women:

Elf
Reindeer - in Red or White designs
Christmas Pudding
Santa Claus

Testing the Tynt SEO Tool

2012-09-20T16:29:00.000+01:00

I have come across a new SEO tool on the E-Consultancy blog. The tool is called Tynt. Apparently it helps you build backlinks by creating a link back to your site whenever anybody copy and pastes your website content. I have installed the system on the Simply Clicks home page.

So here goes:
We have an acute understanding of effective marketing and profitable brand building. Since 2003 we have specialised in a highly analytical approach to combining SEO managementwith pay per click advertising and web analytics to transform the market position and profitability of our clients.

Life Insurance Pay Per Lead PPC

2012-07-17T09:54:00.000+01:00

I've recently been approach to work on a pay per lead basis in the life insurance category. Following the request I have undertaken some basic keyword research. Having worked on payment protection insurance (PPI) and dental insurance I wasn't too surprised to receive such a request.

The problems started with Google's estimated cost per click (CPC) rates. These were quoted by Google in a range of £15 to £22. Assuming that with a good quality score the cost per click can be reduced to an average of around £12, a 1.5% conversion rate gives a cost per conversion of £800. This strikes me as ridiculously high. Is life insurance really that profitable?

An alternative approach is to start with the lead value of the insurance policy and ensure that all elements of the conversion funnel work at maximum efficiency. As an illustration if a lead is ultimately worth £50 an average cost per click of £5 would need to convert at 10%. To secure a £5 cost per click and 10% conversion rate would involve hunting through the long tail of the keyword searches and then writing specific ads for each very small ad group. No doubt there are absolute specialists in this market category. But my guess is that these people are running their own affiliate operations rather than taking a cut of the commission from an insurance broker.

Facebook IPO and Emperors New Clothes

2012-05-24T09:55:00.001+01:00

Matt the cartoonist on the Daily Telegraph has his own take on the Facebook IPO.

Matt on the Facebook IPO. Daily Telegraph 24th May 2012

Google Penguin and Link Building

2012-05-22T20:00:00.000+01:00

Today I've taken my first anti-Penguin action. That is a change in link building behaviour in response to the Google Penguin update. The change in behaviour was my response to a client request to create a reciprocal link. I receive these requests periodically and have access to the client's website so I normally oblige. However, this time round I decided to advise the client to reject the link. Essentially, I smelled a rat when I noticed the request cam from an a US website but the email address showed up as having an IP address in a different country. Secondly the PR3 page of the reciprocal link was obviously just a link page. No good post-Penguin I'm afraid.

I suggest that the Google Penguin update will do more to clean up poor linking practise than all of the more recent Google algorithm changes since the Florida update.

Average Bounce Rate and Facebook

2012-02-07T22:47:00.000+00:00

I would be the first to admit that I am no great expert as to how to generate website traffic from Facebook. However, tonight, out of the blue, Simply Clicks is getting a stream of traffic from the social media site. The traffic appears to originate from a link within a Facebook article on average bounce rate. The link points to a Simply Clicks blogpost from last year. The post refers to data from Google Analytics and shows variations on average bounce rate based on geography and type of website content. It also discusses some of the issues and cause of bounce rate. The irony of the issue is that most of the Facebook traffic, as expected, bounces.

Google Punishes Its Own Spamming

2012-01-04T11:47:00.000+00:00

Google Chrome - Now Invisible

Google appears to be punishing its own attempt to spam Google rankings with a sponsored article campaign for Google Chrome. The campaign initially boosted the rankings of Google Chrome before falling and then disappearing from the results.

The rankings boosting campaign by digital agency Essence, has created uproar within the SEO community. Essence has apparently paid for as many as 400 sponsored articles and blog posts all with anchor text designed to boost the standing of Google Chrome versus Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Google has denied that there has been any intention to manipulate their rankings and has blamed the agency for over reaching their brief. Essence has written there own version of events on their Google+ page. As at this morning Google Chrome has disappeared from the Google SERPs for the search term "Browser". So it appears that Google is punishing itself for breaching its own webmaster guidelines.

To read more on the story, click on the post title or follow-up the story at Search Engine Land.

Brands Wasting Time On Social Networks

2011-11-10T08:54:00.000+00:00

According to research into social media by TNS two-thirds of Britons do not want brands polluting social networks. The research appears to be that people do not believe brands fail to listen to what they want. The research comes a month after advertising mogul Martin Sorrell predicted that advertising would never work on Facebook and the same week as Google launched Google+ brand pages.

TNS’s survey is based on a sample of 72,000 people in 60 countries. It found that half of all social efforts are wasted. In the UK, 61 per cent of respondents said they “do not want to engage with brands via social media”. Responses in other parts of the world, such as China, appear more favourable. One issue may well be that consumers are more cynical in more advanced economies.

Google+ Brand Pages are Launched

2011-11-08T13:14:00.001+00:00

Google has finally launched the Google+ service for companies. The service is called Google+ Brand Pages. I have set up Simply Clicks' own brand page.
See: The Simply Clicks Google+ Brand page.

There is much coverage of the issue. It would appear that most people are slightly underwhelmed. However, it is early days. And the nature of Google launches is to go very quickly, then build the platform and its features over time.

For me the most interesting aspect will be how Google will integrate Google Brand Pages with Google Place Pages. The two most dynamic areas of the search market are now mobile and local search. In my opinion Google Place pages have a key role with both. Place pages have been down grade in recent updates and I believe there is a risk that Google+ Brand Pages may well be intended to supersede Google Places.

What's Really Behind Google's Secure Search Move?

2011-10-20T17:14:00.000+01:00

Google have announced that Google account holders that are signed into their accounts will be directed to a secure version of their search service. In such a mode the recipient of search traffic will not be able to establish the keyword search term used to find their website. Google claims that this move is to protect the privacy of searchers as the search results they are shown are personalised.

At the simplest level this move means many of us in the digital marketing, search engine optimisation and web analytics communities will be flying blind when it comes to analysing this traffic. Google says it is making the move in order to protect the privacy of the searcher. Many in the SEO industry suspect its about Google making more money. The reason is that in the absence of incomplete information about organic traffic digital marketers will give priority to Google's Google Adwords pay per click service. This priority means a shift of effort and marketing budgets. When it comes to paid search, Google owns over 90% of the UK market.

In recent years a whole new science within web analytics has grown up. Its called attribution. Attribution refers to the way digital marketers apportion, or attribute, the contribution value of each component of the marketing mix towards a sale or conversion. Terms such as "first click" and "last click" attribution indicate whether the behaviour of the buyer or enquirer has relied upon the first or last click when making their conversion decision. Indeed Google UK has only recently commissioned a research report on the subject via E-Consultancy. The secure search move means more grey areas in attribution analysis whenever a website visitor has utilised organic search.

Its another nail in the coffin for Google's "don't be evil" mantra.

Google Adwords Selling David Burdon

2011-10-19T10:40:00.000+01:00

It may come across as slightly vain but I spotted on our analytics that someone had come onto the Simply Clicks' website having searched for "david burdon". We get about 1 search a week for people searching for me by name. The reason for writing this post is that on the original search page I noticed a Google Adwords ad from Facebook. See below:

David Burdon - Google Adwords Ad

I am actually on Facebook. But I never imagined that Facebook would find it worthwhile to advertise the fact! On the Google Adwords side I will check out the cost per click. I just wonder what value David Burdon has, say, against a more exotic name such as David Cameron?

Is SEO Training Becoming Devalued?

2011-10-14T19:53:00.000+01:00

I speak with some authority on SEO training. Simply Clicks has been running search engine marketing training courses in SEO, PPC, analytics and integrated search since 2004. Indeed, Simply Clicks may have been the first UK business to run such dedicated training. We have delivered courses in the UK, Ireland and in mainland Europe. However, I have noticed an increasing deterioration in the pricing levels that various competitor businesses are now offering.

Tonight I saw one training business offering SEO courses for £99 per person. Typically, our lowest rates for SEO training work out at about £500 per course delegate. Incidentally, all of our courses are over two days and a tailored to the needs of the client company and their market category.

As a free marketeer I have no priority rights in the SEO training market but I question whether such a low value should be placed on what is still a vital and valuable skill.

As the ad was placed on the Simply Clicks Google place page by DoubleClick, I thought I would give it a click and investigate. In my defence I can say we do not make money from these ads. I landed on a very general page about the training agency's social media, SEO and paid search courses. Not a specific page about SEO training. Nowhere did I see anything specific about what I might learn about SEO and secondly, and perhaps more importantly, I could not see how I could book a course. Lastly, the £99 lead-in price for the course was nowhere to be seen. Safe to say, given the lack of thought applied to the alignment of their SEO training ad, landing page and approach to conversion I am now resting a little easier.

Growing PPC Complexity Raises Procurement Issues

2011-10-12T10:44:00.000+01:00

Pay per click advertising is getting more complex by the week. Every few days we have news of a new Google Adwords initiative that changes the way at least one feature of the Account, Campaign, Ad Group, Quality Score or Analytics section of the service. The key question is firstly how to keep up with the changes and secondly how to ensure that you fully exploit the opportunities that each change brings about.

As PPC agents we have to keep abreast of all of the changes. Whether its how to exploit mobile search or how to make sure your clients ads generate sufficient visibility and lead ultimately to a meaninful conversion. The good news for us is that we are pay per click specialists. The key problem for client companies is to make sure their PPC agency is delivering maximum impact for their investments. One way of doing this would be to hire a procurement consulting firm that could advise on the best option for handling client PPC investments.

If your budgets are small, say less than £200 per month, you may find the cost of hiring an agent prohibitive. But once budgets reach, say £500 per month, the cost of the agent fee may well justify both the expertise and time saving that outsourcing brings. Once your budget reaches £10,000 per month you may consider having an inhouse specialist. But beware a good inhouse PPC specialist likely to be on the lookout for promotion or a job with a PPC specialist agency.

I shall back to this matter at a later date.

Google Adwords Tablet targeting options now available

2011-07-13T16:46:00.000+01:00

Google has announced that tablet targeting options are now available with Google Adwords. See link:

New: Tablet targeting options now available - Inside AdWords

Until recently only smartphones had this flexibility. I have yet to check whether a similar data split is available within Google Analytics.

My own experience of investigating the various mobile device platforms is that iPads - the leading tablet computer - tend to perform much more like desktop and laptop computers than they do like smartphones.

Google Plus Project

2011-06-29T08:59:00.000+01:00

Google has launched the Google Plus project. In what seems to be its latest attempt to imitate Facebook.
Currently the project is by invitation only. The core theme appears to be sharing. It has very contemporary graphics. I just wonder what the motives of the launch are. Does Google genuinely think it can penetrate the social media space in a major way? If so, is a brand extension really the way to go? Or is it an attempt to spoil the development of Facebook?

Matt Takes a Pop at Hackers

2011-06-23T15:35:00.000+01:00

Matt Cartoon Taken from Telegraph 23-6-11

Matt, a cartoonist in The Telegraph, today takes a pop at hackers. Whatever Matt says about hackers could be said about SEOers. Hackers are in the UK news due to some high profile extradition attempts. The latest involves a 19 year-old from Essex who is being investigated for a cyber attack on Facebook.

WordPress Plugins Cause Security Leak

2011-06-23T14:32:00.000+01:00

WordPress, the leading blogging platform, has issued a major security alert after it was revealed that malware has been found in three WordPress plugins. The three plugins are AddThis, WPtouch and W3Total Cache. The plugins each carry cleverly disguised backdoors that allow unauthorised users access to personal information carried inside the WordPress control panel.

Plugins are thrid party productivity tools that improve the presentation or function of a WordPress website. Only two weeks ago I wrote a blog post on a hidden link found within a WordPress plugin.

WordPress.org has announced that users will need to reset their passwords. Get full details of WordPress advise.

WordPress is used by 14% of the world's top 1,000,000 websites.

Google Launches Instant Pages And More

2011-06-15T10:37:00.000+01:00

Google has launched "Instant pages" and a range of new features to mobile and voice based search at a media event in San Francisco. The new features include voice search for desktop computers. Voice search was previously restircted to mobile devices. The desktop version will be restricted to users of the Chrome browser. Of course you will need a microphone as well.

You can get all the details of the latest Google developments by clicking on the post title.