Internet Marketing Blog

Getting A Winning Quality Score

Alan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 08:00:23 +0000

Higher click through rates tend to go hand-in-hand with higher quality scores on PPC accounts. If you are looking for ways to drive your quality score higher, there are some simple steps you can take:

Keep your PPC Account

Some people may advise ditching an account if it’s not performing well but unfortunately this is only an option if the quality score is at rock bottom. If you stop an account you not only lose the poor history but also the good history, which can take years to recoup.

Delete poor performing ads and keywords

Delete any poor performing ads or keywords as they will adversely affect your quality score. This allows for a tidier account with only those keywords that perform well producing high click through rates.

Monitor keyword selection

The success of your keywords is intrinsically linked to the quality score. If your keywords do not relate to your ads well, and then the ads don’t relate well to the landing pages you will get a low quality score. There must be keywords on the landing pages so double check.

Improve the loading time of landing pages

As a quality score also relates to the user experience, if the loading time is slow you will get a bad score. Make sure landing pages can load quickly no matter what the platform.

If you are getting a quality score of 7 or below then follow the above tips to see improvements. They won’t happen overnight but over time you will see some great changes.

At Click Consult we are experts in PPC account management and at creating an effective web marketing campaign.

Accessibility Matters In Web Development

Richard — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:05:52 +0000

These days, web design is supposed to allow access for all users, including those with disabilities. In practice, however, there are still many websites where poor design prevents use by people with physical and cognitive problems.

A site’s design can allow or bar disabled users in a number of specific ways. One important example is the use of alternative text in case images cannot be viewed. Visually impaired visitors using a screen reader will have no information about an image unless this vital ‘equivalent alternative text’ is present on the page. Similarly, audio files should be accompanied by a written transcript for those who are unable to listen to them. Otherwise, such visitors are denied that information. For people who find it difficult to handle a mouse, a web page which cannot be fully utilised via the keyboard will limit their use.

A common misconception is that by ignoring accessibility requirements or providing a disclaimer that the site is ‘working towards’ them, a website cannot be held to account. Yet the UN Convention on the rights of people with disabilities views access to communication and information technology, such as the Internet, as one of the basic human rights. In America, the National Federation for the Blind took the company Target to court over failure to use alternative text on its website. It should not be difficult to incorporate accessibility techniques into the web design process as a matter of course. At Click Consult we realise that the best web design results from accessible web development and search marketing.

Successful Affiliate Marketing

Dan — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:00:58 +0000

Affiliate marketing is a low cost method of advertising for a merchant as well as being a profitable business for affiliates. As a merchant will only pay an affiliate for their actions that result in a sale, affiliate marketing is also a very low risk strategy and a valuable tool in search marketing. By taking care when recruiting affiliates and creating your own affiliate network, it is almost like having your very own sales team.

Any merchant who takes the time and effort required to build a successful team of affiliates will see the results in the form of increased sales, higher website traffic volumes as well as building his product brand. Creating an affiliate marketing campaign that will reap results is a lengthy process and takes a large amount of time to perfect. Seeking the advice and assistance of a professional company who have many years of experience of affiliate marketing is advisable in order to save you both time and money. The early days of creating an effective affiliate marketing campaign are the hardest, and also the days when a merchant is most likely to fail through lack of time, persistence or knowledge.

Here at Click Consult we have marketing experts who have had many years of experience in the world of affiliate marketing as well as the technology to enable you to track the results of your affiliate program. By enlisting the help of our team of experts you will increase your return on investment as well as building a successful affiliate marketing business.

Email – The Marketer’s Friend

James — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 08:05:50 +0000

The Internet has made it easier than ever to have your own business. As the majority of people have access to the Internet and rely heavily upon it for their every day requirements it presents the ideal situation for any online business. You also have access to one of the cheapest forms of communication as well as the fastest email around.

Email marketing, if used correctly and ethically is an instant delivery method that enables you to contact customers both existing and new from all over the world, at a minimal cost. In the past, unscrupulous marketers have used email to target people whether they wanted to receive communications or not, which became a major nuisance. There are now anti spam rules in place to prevent this unethical practice which goes some way to preventing people from receiving unwanted emails.

Of course the measures put in place to prevent unsolicited communications can also make it difficult to get permitted emails through to a recipient’s inbox which can make life difficult for honest marketers. An effective email marketing campaign can build a list of subscribers who are interested in the information you have for them and therefore may be interested in your merchandise. By carefully building trust and respect with these subscribers you will have customers for many years.

The creation of an email web marketing campaign is a complex task, as well as the tracking of emails which allows for constant improvement. By employing the services of a professional email marketing company such as here at Click Consult you will have more time to spend on other important aspects of your business.

The ‘Newsworthy’ Test For Online Press Releases

John — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 08:00:27 +0000

An online press release is traditionally intended for the press. That means news. Although the possibilities for an online press release go well beyond the traditional news makers, news is still central to online press releases. For your press release to be considered news, it needs to contain something newsworthy.

Newsworthy events happen to a business more often than you might think, but it often takes a fair bit of thinking before the average business event can be turned into something newsworthy. The help of a professional can be extremely useful when you’re looking for a newsworthy angle for your online press release, and you can talk to us at Click Consult.

The writing of a press release also needs to take on the news style. This means answering the five W’s – the what, where, who, when and why, in the early stages of the press release, and avoiding any sort of language that seems like advertising.

There are a few tests you can put your online press release under to ensure that you’re taking the right approach. The first is to read a series of news articles from the publications to which you will be submitting the press release. If the writing style of your internet marketing press release is similar, you’re probably on the right track. The second is to hand the press release over to a colleague who is unconnected with your business and can give an honest opinion whether they think it works. Their honest opinion is valuable, as it’s likely to resemble the opinion of the average internet user.

Keyword Rich Domains

Nick — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:05:44 +0000

All SEO professionals know that domains that are rich in keywords are loved by Google, and search engines will show favouritism towards those websites that have domains with keywords included in them. If a domain name is a direct match to a keyword that is being searched for, then it goes without saying that the website will rank higher for the keyword than other sites whose domains are not rich in keywords.

There are many people who argue that this is a flaw in the Google Algorithm and that this type of favouritism is clearly wrong. There is perhaps a case to support this as people have long since realised that Google favours a domain rich in keywords and this has led to huge competition when buying domain names in an attempt to have a top ranking website and to get increased traffic in a quick and easy way.

There are several methods that are becoming popular in dealing with keyword rich domains, such as 301 redirecting where the keyword rich domain is directed to the actual website in use. There is also an upsurge in doorway pages being created that are content rich, and finally entire websites are being moved to new domains in an attempt to piggyback on the benefits of a keyword rich domain.

However, Google is catching up with these methods and is starting to penalise those that have employed a keyword rich domain purely to boost their search engine optimisation efforts.

At Click Consult we can develop an effective search engine optimisation internet marketing strategy to build your site effectively, without fear of penalties.

How Deleted Ads Affect Quality Score

Laura — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:00:42 +0000

How you ever considered what your Quality Score looks like for your PPC account in general and whether it has affected the account throughout the years?

Everything you do now will affect the future score and gaining a good Quality Score will take time. For some it may take just a week but for others it can take much longer. By optimising the PPC account on an ongoing basis you will start to see the benefits of a great Quality Score. In time, costs should drop and the ad will have better placements.

What many people do not realise is that deleted or paused ads will still have an effect on the Quality Score. Both paused or deleted ads and keywords still have an effect and their historical performance can continue to affect the account history long after they are deleted. However it is still recommended to delete those that do not perform well to increase the quality score. This prevents them affecting the quality score and your account history in the future. Over time as other ads gain positive performance history the effect of the deleted keywords and ads will start to diminish and the affect on the quality score will lessen.

It is recommended to delete poor performers rather than to pause them, as they could be resumed by accident. In Adwords for example it is possible to start deleted keywords and ads so beware of that possibility.

If you want to increase the click through rate the keep deleting poor performers and adding new ads.

At Click Consult we can help you manage all your pay per click accounts.

Web Design And Usability Testing

James — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:05:43 +0000

Carrying out usability testing as part of the web marketing and development process is potentially beneficial, but there are a number of pitfalls to avoid. Tests can be unreliable if they are not carefully planned and results can be useless if they are taken in isolation rather than as part of a bigger picture.

One obvious benefit of usability testing is that it can reveal glaring errors made by the web design team. Other more subtle aspects of tests can be easier to miss. Selection of the right participants is crucial. If a user is asked to carry out a task he or she has no interest in, the results will differ from those of a more motivated person. If the aim of a test is to help streamline a site for new visitors, it is no use testing with participants selected from existing users, as they will already have come to terms with the established system and will find it familiar.

Results must be analysed with caution. If a person visits lots of pages, does that show extreme interest or could it mean that the information that was sought for could not be found? Alternatively, a user lingering on one spot could be a good sign, and mean that the page was engaging, or it could be that the visitor was unsure how to proceed. Awareness of such possibilities makes it more likely that testing a web design will prove fruitful. At Click Consult, our web development professionals fully understand the pros and cons of usability testing.

Take Care Of Your Affiliates

Dan — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:00:46 +0000

A merchant is only successful if his affiliate marketing network is up to standard and performing well. It is worth putting a lot of effort into maintaining the high standard of your affiliate network as this is where you will gain a greater return on investment.

The most obvious improvement that any affiliate merchant can make is to implement actions in their affiliate network that they would welcome if they were an affiliate. Many merchants don’t consider whether their affiliates will be happy when they reduce commission levels or alter the payment periods, they just presume that affiliates will tolerate any changes. Unfortunately, there are numerous affiliate programs and it is all too easy to lose your affiliates to another merchant.

Offering a training or mentoring program is a good way to increase your affiliates’ sales. If you notice that some affiliates aren’t making many sales, offering some advice or recommendations on how to increase traffic to a website will be appreciated by your affiliates as well as increasing profits.

Technology is an important aspect of an affiliate program. Keeping abreast of changes in the market is imperative if you want to stay ahead of the competition and your affiliates will love being provided with the latest sales techniques.

Creating an affiliate marketing campaign that is successful is time consuming which is why it is advisable to employ the services of an internet marketing specialist such as here at Click Consult as we can take care of your affiliate network for you.