Correctly identifying these valuable business opportunities and installing conversion tracking, allows Client Managers to target your AdWords campaign towards keywords that make you money, and avoid those that cost you money.

There are many steps in maintaining a successful AdWords campaign, Conversion Tracking is one of many. Another separate program geared towards a similar purpose is Google Analytics. This is a free Google program that enables website owners to analyse the performance of their websites and track this alongside their advertising.

Integrated with AdWords, users can review online campaigns by tracking landing page quality and conversions.  It is through this analysis of both campaign and website that can help AdWords users to define a more targeted, cost efficient and performance driven campaign.

While the AdWords conversion code can track the valuable leads that you define, Google Analytics allows conversion tracking in other avenues – you can allocate Goals and Funnels to trace an eCommerce transaction, follow website interaction between pages & identify trends in your visitors browsing tendencies.

Just like AdWords Conversion tracking, Google Analytics can be fully integrated into your AdWords account and pinpoint the specific keywords that lead to interaction, and those that may be wasting money and sending people to the wrong place.

If you do not have Google Analytics installed on your site, speak with your Client Manager for more information.

Fortunately, this type of unscrupulous practice is prevented on Google AdWords through advanced browser fingerprinting, cookies and IP address recognition. The clicks and impressions which are from known sources of invalid activity are automatically discarded. Google will issue a credit for fraudulent clicks that contributed to your ad spend after escaping automatic detection.

Click fraud is not as common in Australia as it is in the rest of the world, but to ensure that it does not become prominent, accounts can exclude certain IP addresses that are suspected of being sources of automated clicks. Speak with your client manager for more information on click fraud and preventative measures.

Broad Match:

This is the most commonly used match type and is a simple as it sounds.  A broad match takes the keyword and similar phrases or variations into account when used by a Google search.

Example: holiday house.

Ads will display for: holiday house, holiday accommodation, noosa holiday house, holiday house in melbourne city, holiday hotel.

You also have the ability of broad match modifying a keyword by adding a + to one or more of the keywords used.  This eliminates the variations on the specific word and it must be used in the search to display your ads.

Example: holiday +house

Ads will display for: holiday house, noosa holiday house, holiday house in melbourne city

Ads will not display for: holiday accommodation, holiday hotel

Phrase Match:

By entering your keywords surrounded by “xxx” we create a phrase match type.  This option means that the words in a Google search must be entered in this order.   Variations and similar phrases are now excluded however we are still able to have surrounding words.

Example: “holiday house”

Ads will display for: holiday house , noosa holiday house, holiday house in the Daintree rainforest, perfect holiday house in Australia

Ads will not display for: house for holiday, noosa house holiday, holiday where I stay in a house.

Exact Match:

By entering your keywords surrounded by [xxx] we create an exact match type.  This option allows the most specific and targeted keywords.  A search must contain these keywords in their correct order.  No variations, similar phrases or order will display ads.

Example: [holiday house]

Ads will display for: holiday house

Ads will not display for: noosa holiday house, house holiday, holiday house in the Daintree rainforest, holiday home.

Keyword match types are applicable to both your positive and negative keywords.  Effective use of your match types will help to drive both the amount and relevancy of traffic that visits your website through your Google Advertising.  By utilising the correct match type you can create a more effective and efficient Google Advertising campaign.

When creating a successful ad for Google you need to be aware that there are up to 10 other ads that can be displayed on the page that are in direct competition with you. To help you create successful ads, here is a list of pointers that will help you differentiate your ads from your competitors:

• Headline Relevance - 5 times more people read the headline than any other element of your ad. You need to draw the user’s attention by being as relevant to the user’s search as possible. To do this, you should ensure that the keyword searched is in the headline.
• Headline Testing - It is important to split test multiple ads at the same time to allow you to identify what users prefer to click on. Trial things such as “Secrets”, “Cheap”, “Affordable”, “Quality” & “Buy Online”, or simply trial different wording to target people in different stages of the buying cycle. For example, “Buy Relaxation Music” (the user is ready to buy) or “Music For Relaxation” (the user is in the research stage as they have already identified their need).
• Compelling Call to Action – All users need to be direct to act now or they will simply turn to your competitor who is asking them to. Things such as “Book Online Today”, “2 Year Warranty & Free Shipping”, “Get a Free Quote Online Now”, should be utilised in all ads.
• Capitilisation – To draw the users attention to your ad it is important to capitalise the words in your ad. As a rule of thumb, capitalise the initial letter in all words apart from words like “and”, “to, “in”.
• Compare – Once you have made your ads, be sure to compare them to your competitors ads. Are you offering a better offer? Do you utilise the keywords in your ads? Is your call to action stronger? – You should be able to answer Y.E.S to all of these, and if not, go back to the drawing board. Note that being the cheapest is not necissary here, but communicating your point of difference is most important
• Experiment – Using the same concept mentioned in ‘headline testing’ -  you really need to test all elements of your ad. To do this you should be running multiple ads that have differing elements to identify what users prefer. Because remember, it is ALL about the searcher! We need to identify what they want to see, not what we want to see.

I can assure you that if you follow these simple steps and make sure you address them better than your competitors you will triumph in the Google AdWords game.

Happy ad writing!

Conversion Tracking is not a new development within AdWords campaigns; however it is often a tool that is overlooked. What many people do not realise, is that by successfully installing conversion tracking into a campaign, you are enabled with the power to directly focus your budget towards keywords that convert into sales and leads.

Each keyword can then be evaluated and used within the campaign based on its ability to produce a return on investment (ROI). Therefore saving your excess spend on keywords that bring in ‘browsers’ or ‘window shoppers.’

Over time, solid data provided by Conversion Tracking will help to take any guess work out of Campaign Optimisation. A unique tracking code is generated through AdWords and simply needs to be installed within the final point of purchase, or enquiry on a website.

While these reporting capabilities have been useful in the development and optimisation of AdWords campaigns, there has always been an inability to track the effectiveness of Ad Extensions within a campaign. Client Managers have often installed Call Extensions, Sitelink Extensions and Location Extensions as additional methods to appeal to Google Searchers.

Up until 2 weeks ago, Conversion Tracking on Ad Extensions was not available. In an exciting new development, Google has expanded the Conversion Tracking to provide highly sought after data associated with Ad Extensions. This is a huge step forward in terms of reporting and targeting AdWords campaigns.

Not only are Client Managers now able to identify which Keywords are producing ROI within a campaign, they are now also able to prove the worth of the Ad Extensions.

Real and efficient data is the key to a successful AdWords campaign, if you have not already had conversion tracking installed in your campaign, your Client Manager would be happy to advise you on how to have this set up correctly.

Many believe a good password means it is impossible to remember. Stop thinking of a good password being a series of random letters, numbers and other characters which doesnt mean anything and is impossible to keep track of. Think of a password as being a phrase and a set of rules which you can easily store in your head to recreate your secure passwords on the fly. You may pick and remember a funny phrase and your rules may be to use the first letter of each word in the phrase, every third letter is capitalised, with each number in your age placed at the start and end of the password.

Using the phrase “a locked door keeps out the evil” with the rules listed above as an example would create a password “3alDkoTe4″ which is secure, cant be easily guessed and not a common or dictionary word used by automatic cracking computer software. Be creative with your own rules, add in other characters like ‘$#@%&’ in locations only you know. Pick a phrase which is easy to recall and remember and stop the need to write down your passwords for good. Keep your banking, personal and business passwords safe and secure and stop the possibility of your identity being compromised or stolen. People continuously underestimate what a hacker can do with access to your personal information.

In the end, if you rank well, it will be for the page Google deems most relevant to the keyword being searched. This may or may not be your homepage, but either way, it is only one of many factors that make up your page rank so provided that the pages you want to rank for and the site in general are optimized you shouldn’t find that it has a huge effect.

That isn’t to say that a keyword based domain wouldn’t help from a marketing perspective and contribute to your rankings, but it’s not something you need to worry too much about.

With that said; if you’re deciding on a domain name, try something with both the keyword and a bit of branding combined.

In my opinion the best sort of domain name would be something along the lines of www.companynamekeyword.com.au. To demonstrate in a little more detail, let’s say your company is in finance and the company name is “True Blue”. A domain name something like www.truebluefinance.com.au or www.truebluefinanceandloans.com.au is going to give you the biggest bang for your buck.

You’ll also find that specific, relevant domain names like this are much less likely to be taken already when you go to purchase one.

A client once said to me,

“If you’re not the cheapest you just can’t compete!”

If this were the case there would only be one business operating in any industry at any one time with a monopoly over the market. We know this isn’t the case so where are the other opportunities?  The key to competing against the cheapest player is to focus on your competitive advantage.  Why do people buy Chrysler when they can buy a Great Wall for half the price?  It’s still a car; it still gets you from A to B.  The answer is perception.

In the above mentioned case Chrysler is perceived to be of a greater quality and has a level of prestige that Great Wall does not, and as a result, has tapped a different part of the market. This is their competitive advantage! Now, how can this apply to you and your business?

Know what your customers think about your business.  Ask them!  Where do you fit into your market, both online and offline?  How do your products differ from your competitors?  Are you cheaper?  Are you better quality?  Do you appeal to a niche?  These questions are all ones you should know the answer to.  Furthermore, how does your web offering differ from you competitors? Is your website congruent to this competitive advantage? If you’re cheaper does your website communicate that?  If you are better quality, does your website communicate that? If you aren’t sure, ask your customers! The best tool to use is a Perception Map.

(Source: http://www.learnmarketing.net/perceptualmaps.htm)

A Perception Map is a visual tool that is used to determine where your business is situated in relation to your competitors considering two key variables, most notably Quality and Price

This marketing tool will allow you to visualize where you sit in your marketplace and allow you to analyze your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.  With this, you can better target your marketing and get more bang out of your advertising buck!

The thing with SEO is that a lot of companies will offer “too good to be true” deals, promising results and prices that are a little too easy on the wallet but in this department, as with others, you really do get what you pay for. It’s important to be sure that you’re ranking legitimately, with legitimate content (and legitimate links, but that’s another story) because Google is getting smarter every day. They’re particularly getting better at identifying illegitimate methods of ranking.

For this reason, even if you weren’t concerned with the quality of the SEO content on your site, quality content will future proof you against any changes in search algorithms. You might be safe for the moment, but if you’re uncertain about the legitimacy of your content (whether or not it could be seen as spam) then this could change with a simple update on Google’s part.

Another way to look at it is from a potential customer’s point of view. How often have you actually used a service or bought a product from a site that you didn’t trust? How often has poor spelling and grammar or content that didn’t make sense decreased your level of trust in a business online? You’re not exactly getting off on the right foot if the first thing someone looking to buy a product sees is something they can’t make sense of or that leads them to believe that you can’t string a sentence together properly.

Your SEO content (not to mention any other SEO strategy) is worth the time and effort it needs to reach a certain level of quality. In the end Google just wants to know that you are legitimate, because they’re thinking like your customers. Otherwise who would even use their search engine?

1)     Non-technical users can update content and edit the website

2)     Development and management of the website can become much easier

If you are interested in either of these benefits, then choosing the right platform is critical. While all CMS’ are created to solve the same problems, they are not all created equal, and some will cause you more headaches than others.

There are hundreds of systems to choose from, so making sure you know what you want from your website over the next few years will help you make the right choice. If you have lots of products to sell, choose a CMS built around ecommerce. If the majority of your website is going to be information based then choose a system that is more focussed around publishing. Integrating shopping carts into publishing websites, and vice versa, can become a costly nightmare that usually ends in poor implementation and poor user experience. You want to get longevity out of your website and proper planning and implementation will save you in the long run.

Top 3

1. Silverstripe

A relatively new player in the CMS game, Silverstripe has joined the ranks as one of the best in the business. A solid foundation built around a strong MVC programming architecture makes this software a dream to develop websites with. It also has a great backend system that makes life easier for the non-technical user. With a simple interface and all the tools you need (with none of the things you don’t) this system can certainly deliver results.

The good

• Easy to use
• Solid system core
• All the functionally you need

The bad

• Developer Community is still growing
• Administration can be sluggish at times

2. Wordpress

Wordpress has been around a long time and has proven to be one of the best systems available. Having a large development community means there are always readily available plugins you can use to upgrade your website, saving development time and cost. Its backend administration area can be a little confusing at first, but after publishing your first few pages everything becomes much more clear.

The good

• Easy to use
• Large developer community

The bad

• Tends to generate a lot of spam

3. OpenCart

Silverstripe and Wordpress are great publishing platforms, but if your website is ecommerce based, or you want to display a lot of products, including categories, then going to a proper ecommerce system like OpenCart will be a great benefit. OpenCart makes it very easy for users to manage all areas of an online store including users, invoicing, shipping, payment and specials. It also has a strong programming core and development community which makes updates a breeze.

The Good

• Easy to Use
• Strong development community
• Great software features

The Bad

• Default store setups have poor URL rewriting (SEO)

Bottom 3

1. Joomla!

I have been in web development for over 13 years and it still astounds me how confusing the Joomla! system is. Both for developers and users, this system is far too complicated. Simple changes to a website become a chore, basic updates to text can cause a ripple effect of layout errors. I believe the only reason this platform still exists is because it has been around for so long. It has a large pool of plugins which may seem tempting at first, but the generally poor architecture of the system almost always leads to headaches and poor implementations. In the end, a system that makes managing content harder goes against the fundamental reason it was created in the first place.

The Good

• I cannot think of a good reason to use this system

The Bad

• Poor core architecture
• Poor security
• Complicated to use

2. Joomla! + VirtueMart

The shopping cart plugin for Joomla!. When you start building highly technical plugins for a poorly developed CMS you really are setting yourself up for failure. While VirtueMart is certainly the best of a bad bunch it will never compare to a proper ecommerce system like OpenCart. The only reason this plugin exists is because so many websites have been built on Joomla! where they later decided they need a shopping cart. If you decide your website now needs a shopping cart, and your on Joomla! then build a new website. Build a new ecommerce website on a new platform, it may cost you more in the short term, but the user experience for both customers and administrators will give you the most reward in the long run.

3. Joomla!

I know it seems like I’m picking on Joomla! here, and I guess I am, but I think its important for people to understand that there are literally hundreds of other systems out there that could make their website run better, be safer and easier to use. It is my only hope that people who are considering a new website do not go down the Joomla! path. If you currently have Joomla! as a CMS system, then seriously consider the benefits of building  new website on a much more solid platform.