Creating content on a website can be achieved in a number of ways and the more ‘niche’ a market might be, the easier it can be to attract attention through the addition of ‘hard to find’ information that the market might be looking for. We’ve outlined some ideas below on ways that content could be used to attract web traffic and links, but in most cases the creation of the content is just the beginning and you also need to consider how others will find this content to then link through to it.

Developing web content can also be a time consuming task, so advance planning on what to produce and how to gain attention will be an important aspect to avoid wasting time creating information that doesn’t achieve its objective. Here are some ideas that you might want to consider for your business:

• Web content – this can be the simplest way of attracting links into your site and involves adding useful content or resources to your site that your target market will find valuable and which is presented in a non-commercial way. This could be a glossary of industry jargon, some background information on your market sector (such as our history of search engines) or free advice on a particular topic that might be hard to find elsewhere. If this content can also be developed with search engine optimization in mind, it can help your site to attract visits and reference links.
• News – adding news stories about your market sector can also attract links from other sites. This could be the use of a news feed or ideally some unique news content or perspective on current issues that might not be available elsewhere.
• Blogs – these are now becoming immensely powerful tools for many companies and provide an easy way to regularly ad content and comment to your website. A blog can be used in many different ways, from commenting on trends in your market sector, to announcing new product developments or publishing opinions that can attract feedback and debate.
• Forums – external forums can be used to discuss issues in your market sector, or you can develop an active forum on your own site. This can be more difficult to achieve than a blog that attracts feedback, but can be a used as a good information exchange in a specialized market, as long as there is no outwardly commercial motivation by your site that could prevent people from getting involved.
• Articles – if you can create good content that is unique and valuable you can publish this through your own site or through many of the free article circulation websites. Other blogs or content sites may use this information in return for including your details and a link back to your site, but this type of market is now highly competitive and you need to find new and interesting angles to get your articles noticed.
• Tools or applications – another popular way of attracting traffic and reference links to your site is to provide a free tool or application that would be used by your market – such as a budgeting tool or mapping application. Again, these techniques are becoming more widespread so you need to consider your market and come up with a unique idea that could address a particular need.

All of the above elements can be developed on your website or through external web services that will create links back to your site (although note the impact of the ‘nofollow’ tag). You need to consider what content will add value to your customers and create interest as well as reference links from other sites.

Creating this type of ‘link bait’ is very much like PR and needs constant development to raise the profile of your business and website, but with the right planning and implementation the time spent can be a valuable investment, not just for attracting links but also new business enquiries as well.

If you’d like to discuss some ideas about how your business could attract links from new content strategies, please contact us.

The research study was conducted by JupiterResearch on behalf of iProspect in the US and a follow-up posting by one of iProspect’s executives on the Yahoo! Search Marketing blog sheds more light on the data that was collected by this survey.

For example, in answer to the question of how many results users tend to look at before clicking on a link, 16% in 2002 said ‘just a few’ whereas in 2008 that figure had increased to 27%. The same figures for those scanning the whole of the first page have also changed from 32% six years ago to 41% this year. These figures also imply that 68% of searchers will tend to click on one or more results within the first page in 2008, compared to 48% in 2002.

A second question, which asked searchers at which point they revised their search query or tried another search engines if they didn’t find what they were looking for, shows that in 2002 14% would do this after reviewing just a few results, compared to 23% this year. Those who revised their search after reviewing the first page of results rose from 14% in 2002 to 26% in 2008.

These results do show an interesting trend which may indicate the growing impatience of searchers, or an improved level of searching skill using more key terms to find a specific result. It can also indicate the improved relevancy of results (and probably more people now using Google) as well as the higher number of optimised sites appearing in the search results and, through highlighted content, appearing to give users the results they are looking for.

The conclusion from this is that high ranking positions have become even more important, despite being harder to achieve, as the competition within search engine results has become more active. No great surprise there, but it also highlights the value of achieving top rankings on Google which is now extremely dominant in most countries, except perhaps for the US (where Yahoo still has a good share) and China (where Baidu currently leads the market).

Of course the Yahoo! article encourages website owners to target their paid search advertising to create relevant rankings for users and to get first page positions to attract the majority of the search traffic. It also recommends focusing optimisation efforts on all aspects of the ‘blended’ search results that are now being served up - such as news stories, video, images and local business listings - to ensure that all opportunities are being taken for the website to put itself infront of relevant searchers.

To find out more about the impact of this research and how it may affect your search engine marketing strategy, please contact us now.

This is a bold - or desperate - move by Microsoft, depending on how it works. The clear intention is to provide a monetary incentive to get users to change their search habits, since the quality of the search results offered by Live Search don’t seem to be making any headway against the dominance of Google. It may certainly lead to more traffic from online shoppers looking for a bargain, but it may not significantly change their online search habits.

Microsoft says that its new cashback program covers more than 10 million products from over 700 merchants. These participating merchants will pay Microsoft a fee each time a customer completes a sale through Live Search Cashback and this fee will be a percentage of the retail price. When the purchase is completed, Microsoft will then return the fee to the consumer in the form of a cash rebate, so in reality Microsoft is simply acting as a middleman through their search tool, in the form of an affiliate programme.

At the moment any searches on the service bring up a limited array of retailers for many products and there is a strong US-basis to the service and the pricing. It works much the same as many shopping comparison websites, and Google’s Product Search service, but adds the discount incentive with each product so that shoppers need to register with Microsoft to receive the discounts.

It remains to be seen how poplar this service becomes and how other services may react to it. Press reports say that this new scheme is part of Microsoft’s plan to “innovate and disrupt” in the search industry, and certainly it is thought that if elements of the cashback plan are adopted more widely by other search services, then it is likely to change the Internet advertising business in fundamental ways, including adapting the ways that search engines provide an ‘independent’ service, to one where conversions and profits could drive search results.

To find out more about this new service and how it could affect you – either as a business or a consumer - please contact us for further information and advice.

Prior to this month, Google has restricted UK advertisers from bidding on their competitors’ trademarked terms, although companies who wanted to protect their terms had to apply in writing to Google to ensure their trademarked names or brands would be blocked.

Now Google’s new trademark policy for the UK falls in line with many other countries, allowing advertisers to bid on competitor trademarks within the search terms used, although the trademarked names still can’t be used within the advert text, unless with permission. The outcome for companies is that they could now find sponsored PPC adverts from competitors appearing when a user searches for their trademarked terms, thus increasing competition and so potentially causing inflation in the cost of their trademark/s as keywords.

The change has come about following a recent legal action against Yahoo! UK when a company tried to sue them for allowing competitor advertisers to bid on their trademark. Yahoo! won the case and their policy allows advertisers to bid on trademarks as long as the landing page includes content about that trademark. Consequently, Google seems to have considered this ruling and so relaxed its previous position about trademark bidding.So now companies need to be more aware of who is bidding on their trademarks and to consider how to counter any aggressive activity. In the same way, advertisers may also consider bidding on their own competitors’ trademarks. However, because Google’s PPC model is based on a combination of bid price and clickthrough rate (as well as the Quality Score of a search term) the issue of relevancy is likely to favour the owner of the trademark.

Combined with the restrictions on using a trademark in the advert, the owner of that trademark will be the only advert that can display the term, thus adding to the relevancy of the listing. In addition, people searching for a brand name are most likely to be looking for the brand website, so the majority of traffic is still likely to flow to the ad containing the trademark they searched for. The only other issue is that if a company is not yet bidding on their own trademark within Google AdWords, they may now need to assert their position by opening an account and bidding on their own trademarked term.

To find out more about this change to Google’s policy and how it might affect your AdWords advertising policy, please contact us now.

Firstly, if you need to move your website to a new server or hosting company, there are a number of steps that can be taken to minimize the impact that such a move may have on the way that the site is being indexed by search engines. Ideally the site should be moved to the new host location and tested on the IP address before any other changes take place.

Next, the DNS settings of the domain name needs to be changed to point to the new IP address. Once that’s all in place it’s really then a question of monitoring the activity logs for the site to see when the ’spiders’ from each of the main search engines visit the site in its new location. This can be achieved directly through the logs or through an account with Google Webmasters or through Yahoo!’s Site Explorer of Microsoft’s Webmaster Live panel.

If there are no crawl errors then there should be no further problems and the old IP address can be closed. The new site should now be getting indexed in the new hosting location and there should be no effect on the ranking performance of the site, although moving the hosting to a new country location could have some impact on rankings within the regional versions of Google.

A more dramatic change can be when your site has to change its domain name for whatever reason, as this is much like creating a brand new website and any ranking performance that the current domain has achieved could be lost. Therefore the process of moving a site to a new domain needs to be handled much more cautiously.

Ideally you can move part of the site first, such as a one directory or section from the existing site. A ‘301 redirect’ will be an essential tool to help the transition as this is a permanent redirect command that tells the search engines that your site has permanently moved to this new location. If you can see the moved pages being indexed under the new domain then this will demonstrate that the redirect is working smoothly and the whole site can then be moved by using the same process.

When using a 301 redirect you need to try to redirect each page if possible, rather than a blanket redirect to the new domain name, which will create a lot of ‘dead’ pages from the old site still being listed in the search results and so generate 404 errors. You will need to ensure that you have a tailored 404 error page for your site in the event that pages get missed and users try to enter the site from an old page which will still be listed on the search results for some time.

Next, you will need to check both the external and internal links pointing to pages on your website. For external links you’ll probably need to update directory listings or contact the webmaster of each site and ask them to update the links to point to the new domain. If this isn’t practical, make sure that all pages with incoming links are redirected to your new site.

You should also check internal links within your old site, and update them to point to your new domain, particularly if the absolute domain path has been used or page names have changed as well. Once your content is in place on your new server, use an online link checker to make sure you don’t have broken links on your new site.

It will be necessary to submit and verify the new domain on each of the webmaster consoles for the main search engines, as mentioned above, and to create a new sitemap and robots file for the new domain. In the event of any problems or errors arising from the move, it’s also best to retain control of your old site domain for at least 180 days so that any issues can still be resolved.

As these comments indicate, it’s really advisable not to move a large or established website to a new domain if it can be helped, but there are ways to avoid problems if you plan ahead and put all these steps into place. Moving to a new hosting location is less of a problem but still one that needs to consider the potential impact on the site’s search engine rankings, especially if these are driving a large amount of business traffic.

To find out more about either of these transfer issues and how they may affect your website, please contact us for further information and advice.

A new research report published by iProspect in the US shows that most web users still tend to prefer making general web searches, rather than use the specialised ‘vertical’ search options, such as news, images or blogs. However, reflecting the more recent move by the search engines to present these ‘universal’ search results – where results from different search options are combined into the main search engine results - the study found that searchers are more responsive to the type of search results that now display multiple forms of results in one place, including text, video, images and news.

The research reports that only 17% of users who conduct a news-specific search actually click on a result, while 36 % of users click on news results that appear within general searches. In a similar way, 26% of users find satisfactory results when conducting an image-specific search, while 31% click on image results within general search results and for video there was also a similar pattern (10% versus 17%).

The report concludes that this trend is due to a common “aversion to vertical search” (or perhaps an unfamiliarity with these options) among web users. As universal search is becoming more integrated and so more commonly displayed for relevant search results, more web users are becoming familiar with these combined results and are therefore becoming more familiar with these options.

This will therefore strengthen the role of universal search and highlights the need for business websites to consider how they can optimise for all the different search results that may be presented. However, as iProspect also point out, vertical search also still exists as an option and companies shouldn’t ignore the need to optimise for these results as well since they can be more focused and less ‘cluttered’ (and competitive) than the main search results list.

To find out more about the impact of ‘universal search’ results and how your business could benefit, please contact us now.

Load time is the length of time it takes for a page to load in the browser, so it can be dependent on the size of the page, the text content, images and underlying page code. Google says that a faster loading page creates a better experience for users, and therefore pages that take longer to load will be penalised as part of the Quality Score ranking criteria. Google will be including load time evaluations within the Keyword Analysis page available to AdWords advertisers, which will provide some indication of potential issues that might need to be reviewed to improve the performance of the landing pages.

Experts in this field say that 80% or more of the end-user response time comes from the ‘front end’ performance of a web page – that is, how the browser deals with all the content with an HTML page, such as images, stylesheets, Flash content or scripts. If the number of these components can be reduced, then this will reduce the number of HTTP requests to display the page, which in turn results in a faster loading page. Very simply, by reducing the number of components on a page will speed up load times, but there can also be ways of reducing the number of HTTP requests while keeping the same content, such as by combining files or images, where appropriate.

Of course there are also factors that are out of the control of a website’s development team to speed up load times, such as the end user’s bandwidth speed, their ISP and proximity to the website’s server, but other design elements can also be used to a positive effect. Cleaning up the HTML coding or use of scripts on a page can make small differences to load times and putting stylesheets in the section of the web page will make pages load faster as the browser is able to render the parts of the page progressively.

In contrast, external JavaScript files work better if they are positioned as low in the page as possible since progressive rendering is blocked for all content below the script so that by moving scripts as low in the page as possible means there’s more content above the script that is rendered sooner.

Another important design element is to make JavaScript and CSS as external files. This generally produces faster loading pages because the JavaScript and CSS files are cached by the browser, so that the size of the HTML document is reduced without increasing the number of HTTP requests. The caching of these files won’t help the load time of a page for a new visitor but if they then view multiple page views and many of website’s pages re-use the same scripts and stylesheets, there is a greater potential benefit from having these external files cached.

With repeat visitors, using an ‘Expires’ header in the HTTP response will tell browsers how long a component on a page can be cached and so can reduce the number and size of HTTP requests in the future, making web pages load faster. However, this also has no effect on the load time for new visitors and if your website uses an Expires header you have to remember to change the component’s filename whenever the component changes.

If you are running an AdWords campaign you should start to consider how the landing pages from the advert link are loading and whether there are ways to increase this performance, either through a few small ‘quick fixes’ or by getting your web designers to implement more structural changes. This process should also be a way of reviewing the usability of your site for visitors and how effective your landing page is with the objective of converting new visitors to a desired action as quickly as possible.

If you’d like to know more about the Quality Score requirements for Google AdWords or the load times for your website, please contact us now for a more detailed discussion.

It was in early 2005 that Google first announced the introduction of the attribute (rel="nofollow") on hyperlinks in an attempt to stop ‘comment spam’ on blogs, guest books and other similar sites. You’ve probably seen the type of thing – meaningless comment added to the bottom of a blog post, or blatant advertising for another website which attempts to take advantage of the link made available with each comment. In short, content that adds no value to the original blog post with the direct intention of gaining some link value from the site.

This tag resulted from the new opportunities that were created to build links from blogs and forums to third party websites. It is also now being applied to other ‘Web 2.0′ applications like Wikipedia, or bookmarking sites (such as del.icio.us), photo sharing sites (like Flickr) and social networks (like Facebook). By recognising this “nofollow” attribute on hyperlinks, Google moved to cut out unnecessary ‘link spam’ by not giving such links any ranking ‘credit’ within their search results. In short, the tag doesn’t provide a negative ‘vote’ for the site where the comment or link is posted, but it just ignores the link and makes sure that spammers get no benefit from abusing public areas like blog comments, trackbacks, and referrer lists.

By reviewing the HTML code of a blog, you are now likely to see a link that used to say something like:
Visit my <a href=”http://www.example.com/”>discount pharmaceuticals</a> site.

to a comment code that says:
Visit my <a href=”http://www.example.com/” rel=”nofollow”>discount pharmaceuticals</a> site.

This is another example of an opportunity for SEO spam being restricted to avoid abuse and, consequently, the application of this link attribute has been the cause of much debate on the extent that it is now being used to block ‘link value’ from some sites. The tag performs much the same function as the ‘nofollow’ attribute within a robots metatag, but allows the ‘blocking’ of the link to be at an individual hyperlink level.

As a result, if you are undertaking any link building work then you need to check whether this tag is being used behind the links on a potential links page, as this can have an impact on the value of any link development work or exchanges with other sites. There has also been some debate about whether it can be used within a site to try to control the value of links between pages and ’sculpt’ Google’s PageRank score, although this is speculative and not recommended.

To find out more about the use of the ‘nofollow’ tag and its role in the development of link popularity, please contact us now.

DoubleClick is primarily an ad-serving software and management service, handling many of the display adverts seen on leading websites. Google has been dabbling with alternative advertising options beyond search but hasn’t been keen to work with other companies in this area. That’s what makes DoubleClick the perfect acquisition for them, giving them access to a leading online advertising service and also a huge amount of traffic data which can be combined with Google’s own search behaviour information.

The implications for the online advertising market are potentially immense as new targeting tools and analytics are incorporated into display advertising, so enabling advertisers to make better use of this medium and leading to a resurgence of this online medium, which has been significantly affected by the growth of search advertising in recent years.

The biggest opportunity for Google – and concern for advertisers and consumers - is how much or how well Google will be able to use DoubleClick’s data on Internet users to target ads with the kind of precision that has made Google’s search ads so lucrative. These ads have been displayed due to what people are searching for and so the development of display advertising is likely to rest in how well behavioural targeting can be used, raising privacy concerns about the way data will be used.

From another angle, the completed purchase has also provided another setback for Microsoft and may precipitate a more urgent attempt to buy Yahoo! so that they can strengthen their position within the search market and avoid losing share in the display advertising sector. Microsoft have just purchased Rapt - a company that enables advertisers to manage their online ad inventory - a further sign that this sector will become a new battleground between the two search rivals.

If you’d like to know more about Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick and the possible implications for online marketing, please contact us for more information.

Microsoft’s offer was to buy Yahoo! for $US45 billion – a move that was prompted by a struggling Yahoo! who had just announced that they would be cutting around 1,000 jobs and had also reported a 23% drop in profits. Microsoft clearly saw this as a good time to acquire a key competitor who hold a good market share in the US and have also established stronger links with the online industry around the world, especially in Asia.

The acquisition would also give Microsoft access to additional search and pay-per-click technology, plus it would give them an extra foothold to compete against their arch-rivals at Google. Not surprisingly, Google raised concerns about the move, partly as ‘payback’ for Microsoft’s action to stall their own takeover of DoubleClick last year, but also due to genuine fears about the additional market reach and technological capability that this combination of their two main rivals could create.

Subsequently, within the week, Yahoo! rejected Microsoft’s offer as being far too low and that Microsoft were clearly trying to take advantage of their recent poor results by offering to buy the business at a bargain price. Now that Microsoft’s intentions have been made clear they have said that they will continue pursuing Yahoo! through all possible channels and are now likely to make an approach directly to Yahoo!’s shareholders to gain acceptance of a strong offer.

If you’d like to know more about the progress of the Microsoft / Yahoo! bid and how it may impact the search advertising market, please contact us now for more information.

Microsoft is unlikely to offer much more to buy Yahoo!, so now the fate of Yahoo! will largely remain in their own hands as their business struggles to maintain and grow value in the face of a determined suitor. Now that Microsoft has commenced this action they are likely to be persistent to achieve their desired result and news coverage will no doubt continue for some months yet. Speculation and comment will also fill online and offline news sources about what the implications for such a move will be for the online marketplace and what Microsoft will do with Yahoo! if, or when, their bid succeeds. You can keep up to date with developments through Google News.