Professional Search Engine Optimization and SEO Marketing Firm

Home

Package Deals

Optimization

Submission

Pay-Per-Click

Paid Inclusion

Conversion

Free Tools

Blog

Welcome to the ineedhits Search Engine Marketing blog, where we share the latest search engine and online marketing news, releases, industry trends and great DIY tips and advice.

We encourage you to get involved in our blog community - so share your opinions and experiences by leaving comments on our posts.

If you're looking for help with promoting your website - check out our range of affordable search engine marketing services.

Monday, September 8

DIY Tip: Browser Compatibility - Get Your Website Shining in All Browsers

The release of Google Chrome (Google's new internet browser), has re-opened a can of worms for webmasters and site owners in terms of website compatibility.

Accordingly I've whipped up a list of resources to help ensure your site's looking its best and functioning properly no matter what browser your site visitors are using.

While there are too many browsers and versions out there to monitor continuously, if you're not putting your site through its paces in the major new browser environments (Internet Explorer, FireFox, Safari, Opera and now Chrome) - you could be doing yourself more harm than good.

First things firstÂ - checking your site in the various browsers:
Now if you want to check your website in the major browsers and versions out there, then you'll need to download them and set them up on your computer. Note running different versions of the same browser can difficult, so aim for the latest (stable) version.

Here's the majors:

If your primary focus is appearances rather than function, and you want a quicker way to check your site in the various browsers - then I recommend giving BrowserShots a whirl. They'll check your site across almost all browser and operating systems (incl. Linux and Mac)

BrowserShots - Access Here.

If you're the tech person behind your website, then the following tips and resources will help ensure your site is designed for optimal compatibility (if you're not - you'll need to get your website designer/developer on the case - maybe send them this post) :

Anthony Short, an enterprising young graphic and web designer, provides the following summary for browser compatibility (his whole post is worth reading and bookmarking). (Warning - it's totally tech speak.)

1. Always use strict doctype and standards-compliant HTML/CSS
2. Always use a reset at the start of your css
3. Use -moz-opacity:0.99 on text elements to clean up rendering in Firefox, and text-shadow: #000 0 0 0 in Safari
4. Never resize images in the CSS or HTML
5. Check font rendering in every browser. Don't use Lucida
6. Size text as a % in the body, and as em's throughout
7. All layout divs that are floated should include display:inline and overflow:hidden
8. Containers should have overflow:auto and trigger hasLayout via a width or height
9. Don't use any fancy CSS3 selectors
10. Don't use transparent PNG's unless you have loaded the alpha

Here's some other great links for more vital browser compatibility resources:

HTML 4.01 / XHTML 1.0 Reference

CSS 2.0 Reference

QuirksMode.org Browser Compatibility Tables

JavaScript and Browser Objects Quick Reference

Migrating from IE to Mozilla

Doctype

Friday, September 5

Google Now Showing Geographic Location of Clicks

A member of our PPC team (thanks Sam!) recently alerted me to a new report Google have introduced which can provide details on which geographic locations are generating your clicks.

Recently announced on the Inside AdWords blog, the geographic location report provides Google AdWords advertisers with an understanding of the geographic distribution of their impressions, clicks, and conversions down to the ad group level.

Sam claims the report is something he's "dreamed about for ages" and will definitely help us to improve our clients location targeting and make it easier to provide more information whenever necessary.

So how can the campaign help? Well say for example you sell flowers in the United States and are targeting that geographic region. Now, you'll be able to run this report to determine particular areas are converting the best and further enhance your campaigns in these areas. You may wish to setup geo targeted campaigns in these areas, or promote special offers to lower performing regions to improve their conversion rate.

Search Engine Land have a sample copy of the report which I've included below:

To run the report, simply visit the Reports center in your AdWords account and select the geographic location report.

If you're thinking about advertising on Google but don't have the technical skills, try our Easy Search Advertising Service. It places your business on the first page of search results next to keywords related to your business, and sends traffic to a highly optimized webpage to capture potential customer's information and send interested buyers straight to your inbox.

Labels: Google AdWords

Thursday, September 4

SEM Tips for Time-Strapped Small Business Owners

Never enough time in the day to complete all your tasks? Don't worry your not on your own. Most small business owners and operators are in the same boat, trying to cram everything into the day which just seems to disappear as quickly as it started.

You know how passionate we are about search engine marketing and the success we can achieve for your website; however we know that sometimes you just have to put it on the backburner.

Well, the folks over at Search Engine Watch have put together a great list of 10 tasks you can complete in about 10 minutes which will drastically improve your search engine marketing results.

Knowing that your time-strapped (you're probably reading this article close to midnight after a long days work), I have chosen the top 3 that I think will be the most helpful. Here they are:

1. Update Your Keyword Research

Keyword trends change with the season, the economy, and any number of other outside factors. Spend a few minutes looking at the keywords you're currently targeting, and then go find something new and shiny to focus a new page of content on.

2. Place Your Address and Phone Number on Every Page

Local search is location-based. That sounds obvious, but many people forget that if their brick-and-mortar business relies on people showing up at your door, they need to tell the local search engines where they are. Putting your address and phone number on every page can help improve your rankings in location-based searches.

3. Rewrite a Poorly-Performing PPC Ad

Do you have an ad in your PPC campaign that has a pretty low click-through rate (CTR)? Try rewriting the ad to better focus on giving the user the experience they're searching for. Alternatively, if you don't have the time or expertise here, then leave the work to us.

Want to check out the 7 additional tasks? Then click here.

So use these tips and take out 10 minutes from your busy day to get stuck into making your search engine marketing efforts a success.

Tuesday, September 2

Exciting Improvements to our Google Advertising Services!

This is an exciting time for us here at ineedhits!

We've just released some industry leading improvements to our range of Google and Yahoo! Advertising packages. Our Easy Search Advertising range now makes it even easier for you to capture and convert more customers from your online advertising!

By far our most popular service, these enhancements make Easy Search Advertising the most affordable, but feature packed Google advertising solution in the marketplace today!

Let's have a look at some of the new features we've added:

Lead Generator Technology - Easy Search Advertising now includes our unique Lead Generator technology that delivers qualified sales leads from your advertising, straight to your inbox for FREE!
Optimized Landing Page - All customers now receive a highly optimized 'landing page' to help convert campaign visitors into sales leads!
New Lead Management Interface - This will allow our customers to sort and store their sales leads and download them straight from their account!
Enhanced Reporting - We've improved the frequency of our reporting while also providing information on the total number of sales leads we've delivered each month!

We've also made some other improvements to the program which should make it quicker and easier to select the best solution for your budget, whilst also being more transparent in the setup and monthly pricing.

New Budget Calculator - Try the new budget calculator which should make it simple to choose the right Easy Search Advertising package for your budget. Simply enter your advertising budget and industry and we'll give you an estimate of how many visitors you can expect to receive, and which package is best suited to your needs!

Better Shopping Cart Display - We've split out the monthly management fee and one time setup costs so you can better understand how much you'll be paying each month!

All this means there's never been a better time to try Google search advertising for your website, with fresh sales leads delivered straight to your inbox!

If you'd like to give the new service a try, visit the Easy Search Advertising page and use our new budget calculator to pick the right package for your needs!

Labels: Google AdWords, Internet Advertising, Online Advertising

Google Won't Sit and Wait for U.S. Government, Progresses with Yahoo! Deal.

When you're the world's biggest search engine (not to mention one of the world's biggest companies) and you have the deal of a lifetime in your hands, then something as small a U.S. Justice Department review isn't going to stop you from pushing on.

That's exactly what Google believes with their search advertising deal. Google CEO Eric Schmidt told the Seattle Times recently that they still plan to move ahead with their search advertising deal with Yahoo! despite recent speculation from the U.S. senate as to whether the deal was ethical.

"We are going to move forward," Schmidt said. "We are in the process of talking to the government. They've not indicated one way or the other how they're dealing with us."

News of the search deal between Google & Yahoo! first surfaced back in June, however both parties said they would give the Justice Department three and a half months to review the partnership, even though, legally, it wasn't necessary.

Under the agreement, Google ads will be shown in the Yahoo! search engine and Google will share a percentage of the revenue with Yahoo! This is where the problem lies... Senator. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., questioned last month whether the agreement will reduce Yahoo to "nothing more than the newest satellite in the Google orbit."

Well, it seems that this isn't going to stop Google from making more money from their all conquering search advertising platform.

Monday, September 1

Microsoft Reveals New Focus for Search Success - Retail Therapy

The headlines have been abuzz with the announcement that Microsoft has acquired Europe's biggest shopping comparison site. The tech giant has purchased Ciao (www.ciao.com) for $486M - from Greenfield Online.

The move does more than highlight that Microsoft is back in buying mode - it provides a strong insight into its strategy for securing Search Engine market revenue it has struggled to capture from the likes of Google and Yahoo!

Ciao.com attracts 19.6 million unique visitors per month in Europe according to comScore, which is more than double its closest rival Kelkoo.com.

"Integrating Ciao's capabilities into Live Search will provide a strong launch-pad for our commercial search offer in Europe and enhance our e-commerce offering on MSN," said John Mangelaars, Microsoft's vice president of European Consumer and Online.

"Search is currently a list of rulings, but we want to provide users with information such as a list of airlines with the best fares or when users type in a restaurant name, we want to give them a map to the venue..."

The acquisition of ciao.com won't provide Microsoft with a quick win in catching up to Google in terms of search market share, but moving away from competing purely on algorithm or ad platform is a smart move.

Google currently offers integrated product listings in its results via Google Products, but the service is far from a dominant offering. This could be Microsoft's inroad.

The grand plan for Microsoft is to integrate product listings/reviews and retailer locations (via the recent Multimap acquisition), with the ultimate goal being to charge retailers for product specific traffic sent to their businesses.

Given that Google has most of this technology at its disposal already, and an extremely loyal advertiser base, Microsoft will have its work cut out on this front - but time will tell whether Microsoft can pull something out of their bag of tricks.

Google Secures Firefox Search Engine Default until 2011

Mozilla, the makers of Firefox internet browser (the only notable competitor to Microsoft's Internet Explorer), has extended its deal with Google - meaning the search giant will continue to be the default search engine on all its Firefox installs until 2011.

The deal, which was first agreed on in 2006, represents the single biggest income stream for Mozilla, almost 85% of its total income (approx $57M in 2006).

Users of the Firefox browser are able to change their preferred search engine once it's installed, however complacency by users often sees the default remain in place permanently.

Last year, Mozilla's former CEO was adamant that the company would walk away from the lucrative deal, should it compromise the independence of the company - not wanting to become just another arm of the Google empire. Hard to believe when you're talking about almost all your organization's revenue.

Either way, it appears that Mozilla's independence remains intact and Google yet again gets one up on its primary competitors Yahoo! and Microsoft.

Being the search engine default on browsers isn't the "be all and end all" of market dominance. Google still reigns supreme even though Microsoft's Internet Explorer holds over 70% of the browser market.

Though Microsoft dominates the browser world, Mozilla continues to gain ground, with recent estimates suggesting its share is closing in on 20%. When you consider how many internet users there are in the world - Google's deal will ensure its the first search engine many millions of new Firefox users see.

Thursday, August 28

Search Experiment Insights from Google!

It seems that Google is not wholly obsessed with algorithm changes and ranking updates; they conduct minor experiments too - on a daily basis.

On the Official Google Blog, Engineer Ben Gomes explains that some of Google's search experiments can be very subtle and they can run up to 200 experiments on Google sites all over the world at any given time.

"Experimentation is a very powerful tool, and we use it very widely to test potential changes to search. At any given time, we run anywhere from 50 to 200 experiments on Google sites all over the world... experimental changes so small that you can barely tell the difference after staring at the page." Gomes says.

Most of the time, experiments with smaller changes are almost never noticed.

For example, can you tell the difference between the two search results pages below?

Ok, times up... did you pick it? For those that didn't, the white space around the first search result has increased. Google thinks this makes the first result in picture 2 slightly more visually prominent. Would you agree?

This is just one example of many experiments to make our searching experience easier and more enjoyable, if you want to check out some more click here.

My question is however, are these small experiments actually valuable? Google seems to think so - "We test almost everything, even things that you would think are so small that we could not possibly care (nor could they possibly matter). In fact, small changes do matter, and we do care."

Google Plays Catch-up, Finally Implements Search Suggest

Earlier this week, Google announced they have finally released their search suggestion feature called Google Suggest. Google Suggest is a tool that helps users find the best search results by providing a dropdown menu of choices based on the text entered by the searcher.

The suggested text is updated while you type and displays the number of results for each suggestion. For example, start entering the text [flower delivery] into the search box and Google suggests the following searches based on the keywords you've already entered. A screenshot is below.

Google claims this will improve searching in a number of ways including:

Helping to formulate queries when parts of the information is missing
Reducing spelling errors by suggesting the correct spelling
Saving time and keystrokes

Google Suggest originally started as a project back in 2004, and has appeared on a number of other Google properties, but never its core search engine. It's also an existing feature of other Google competitors like Yahoo! and Ask.com - so it's about time Google finally released it.

For website owners, it's a very quick SEO tool to do some simple checks on the most popular searches related to a particular keyword, based on the number of results for each suggestion.

Labels: Google Search

Tuesday, August 26

DIY Tip: Create a Custom 404 Page with Google's New Tool

Google has launched a new tool in their Webmaster Tools suite that allows website owners to create custom 404 pages. 404 pages are those that don't exist and therefore return a "not found" error when users try to view them in their web browser.

Visitors can stumble on to a 404 page for many reasons including:

The URL they are entering has been miss spelt.
They have followed an old link to content that has been moved or deleted.
The link they are following has been truncated in an email message etc.

When visitors land on these pages, it's very likely that many of them may just leave because they can't be bothered searching through your website to find the correct URL. To combat this, instead of returning a "File not found" error page, try using Google's "Enhance 404 pages" tool to create a much more useful 404 error page.

The first step is to configure your web server to display your new 404 page. This is usually quite simple but varies for each hosting setup, so please check your server or web host documentation on how to do this.

Once this has been done, visit the "Enhance 404 pages" section in Webmaster tools and copy and paste a javascript snippet into your page. Because this page is designed in HTML, you can also customize the look of the page to match your sites overall design.

Here's how it works, from the Google blog:

Example: Jamie receives the link www.example.com/activities/adventurecruise.html in an email message. Because of formatting due to a bad email client, the URL is truncated to
www.example.com/activities/adventur. As a result it returns a 404 page. With the 404 widget added, however, she could instead see the following:

In addition to attempting to correct the URL, the 404 widget also suggests the following, if available:
a link to the parent subdirectory
a sitemap webpage
site search query suggestions and search box

Google says the feature is currently experimental and they will work on improving it in the meantime. If you've successfully used custom 404 pages on your site, let us know how its impacted your visitors experience!

Labels: Google Webmaster Tools

Our Newsletter

Subscribe!

Atom Site Feed

Free Tools

www.gooruze.com