http://www.egnwebcraft.co.uk/blog/ Search engine marketing and web development tips, ideas and news from Eugene Mulligan to help small businesses make their websites more productive. en egn@egnwebcraft.co.uk Copyright 2008 2008-06-12T10:53:00+00:00 http://www.egnwebcraft.co.uk/blog/split-testing/ http://www.egnwebcraft.co.uk/blog/split-testing/ When you create your first ad, don’t stop there and hope for the best, even if the ad appears to be attracting a good number of clicks. There is always room for improvement and AdWords provides plenty of functionality to help you. Pay Per Click 2008-06-12T10:53:00+00:00 http://www.egnwebcraft.co.uk/blog/keyword-research-with-wordtracker/ http://www.egnwebcraft.co.uk/blog/keyword-research-with-wordtracker/ Wordtracker is a web based tool for identifying the search terms that are being used by search engine visitors. Its wealth of analysis features will tell you search term popularity, alternative relevant terms and strength of competition for those terms. Search Engine Optimisation 2008-06-11T10:23:00+00:00 http://www.egnwebcraft.co.uk/blog/google-adwords-ad-structure/ http://www.egnwebcraft.co.uk/blog/google-adwords-ad-structure/ Google AdWords offers a variety of ad formats including text, image, animated, video and mobile. Text ads are the most common. These are the ads that appear on the right of the search results page under the Sponsored Links heading. On some results pages these ads may also show above the organic search results on the left hand side. Pay Per Click 2008-06-10T09:43:00+00:00 http://www.egnwebcraft.co.uk/blog/adwords-keyword-matching/ http://www.egnwebcraft.co.uk/blog/adwords-keyword-matching/ Use keyword matching to specify how precise and relevant a search term must be to trigger your ad. If the ad shows for terms that are not relevant, you could be wasting money. If the ad only shows for very precise terms, you could be losing custom.  Pay Per Click 2008-06-09T16:57:01+00:00 http://www.egnwebcraft.co.uk/blog/track-your-website-traffic-with-google-analytics/ http://www.egnwebcraft.co.uk/blog/track-your-website-traffic-with-google-analytics/ Google Analytics is a tool provided free by Google that allows you to monitor visitor activity on your website. You can see where your visitors have come from, how they reached your site, where they went on your site and how long they stayed.  Pay Per Click, Search Engine Optimisation 2008-06-08T16:33:00+00:00 http://www.egnwebcraft.co.uk/blog/language-and-location-targeting/ http://www.egnwebcraft.co.uk/blog/language-and-location-targeting/ From global right down to customised local. An AdWords campaign can be targeted as broadly or precisely as required. Pay Per Click 2008-06-07T11:09:00+00:00 http://www.egnwebcraft.co.uk/blog/black-hat-seo-is-unethical-and-risky/ http://www.egnwebcraft.co.uk/blog/black-hat-seo-is-unethical-and-risky/ There are two types of search engine optimiser – White Hats and Black Hats. The White Hats follow legitimate best practices to achieve high rankings based on the credibility and merit of the website. Black Hats pursue seamier tactics to try and fool the search engines into awarding high rankings. These tactics may produce some limited success but will more likely result in the website being (sometimes severely) penalised. The search engines employ very sophisticated mechanisms for detecting such practices. Do not be tempted to try any of the following, stick to ethical SEO.  Search Engine Optimisation 2008-06-06T09:54:00+00:00 http://www.egnwebcraft.co.uk/blog/how-a-google-adwords-account-is-structured/ http://www.egnwebcraft.co.uk/blog/how-a-google-adwords-account-is-structured/ Use the account structure to define a strategy. Signing up for the standard edition of Google AdWords equates to opening an account. An account consists of Campaigns and each Campaign consists of Ad Groups. Ad Groups contain ads and sets of keywords that are assigned to the ads.  Pay Per Click 2008-06-05T10:11:00+00:00 http://www.egnwebcraft.co.uk/blog/search-engine-friendly-web-pages-help-spiders-and-people/ http://www.egnwebcraft.co.uk/blog/search-engine-friendly-web-pages-help-spiders-and-people/ Whilst a website’s design should be aesthetically pleasing, it mustn’t compromise on functionality. Functionality includes ease of use, compliance with disability accessibility legislation, copy that conveys your message and search engine visibility. These aspects are inter-related. Designing for one will help with the others. So making a website search engine friendly will contribute to its usability, accessibility and readability.  Search Engine Optimisation 2008-06-04T09:50:00+00:00 http://www.egnwebcraft.co.uk/blog/where-to-get-backlinks/ http://www.egnwebcraft.co.uk/blog/where-to-get-backlinks/ The most valuable backlinks are those from pages on reputable, relevant sites that include a keyword phrase in the anchor text and contain few links to other sites. Search Engine Optimisation 2008-06-03T13:51:00+00:00