 Clients regularly ask me about online privacy and security as they feel constantly under attack from spam, viruses and the dark forces on the internet.
One resource I regularly point them towards is www.getsafeonline.org .
Its a comprehensive website with lots of great advice and resources for protecting yourself, your business and your PC and other devices online.
Whether you want guidance on stopping employees ‘cyberslacking’ or worried about sharing personal details with online retailers, you will find useful help on the Get Safe Online website.
Click on the banner to visit the Get Safe Online site now and start improving your online security and privacy.
UPDATE: Google have launched a complementary site in partnership with the Citizens Advice Bureau called Good To Know – also definitely worth visiting and bookmarking.
Display advertising is graphical advertising on the Internet that appears adjacent to content on web pages, Instant Messaging applications, email, etc. These ads can include text, logos, pictures, or rich media like video. Even if potential customers don’t click on your ad, they are still exposed to your message, logo, and business image.
How does display advertising benefit your online marketing initiatives?
- Immediate results. Online display advertising is generally used to enhance brand reach, but it is equally effective at generating a direct response.
- Targeted advertising. You can utilize a full spectrum of behavioural and contextual algorithms, demographics, site based targeting or geographical locations; enabling higher conversion rates.
- Monitor your marketing. You can track the performance of your ad campaign daily to measure metrics such as impressions, clicks and conversions to calculate ROI.
- Cost Effective Advertising. You can reach a wide audience with a small advertising budget. Pay per click (PPC) advertising campaigns require you to pay only when someone clicks on the link in your ad, not for the number of impressions.
Keep your ads interesting and relevant – drive traffic!
The ‘first impression’ is crucial. A display ad should draw curiosity, attract the immediate attention of Internet users/website passersby, and encourage them to click on it. Using the right mix of visuals, colours and copy, your ad can stand out among millions of others.
Use some of these tips to improve the conversion ratio of your display ads:
- Keep it Simple – Multiple messages in a single ad are confusing. One or two main ideas along with a compelling offer will suffice.
- A Clear and Succinct Call to Action – Your call to action should be easy to see, strong, and must coincide with your campaign goal. Put your call to action on a button. For example, ‘Click Here’, ‘Buy Now’, ‘Get Started’ or ‘Search Now’.
- Improve Creative Quality – Use videos or interactive ad units to grab attention. Good design should highlight the content in a visually appealing manner.
- Include Keywords in Your Ad – One of the basic (but often overlooked) strategies is to include the keywords assigned to an ad in the title and description. So when someone searches for these keywords, your ad is most likely to show up.
- Avoid Broken Link(s) – Check and re-check all links, to make sure your display ads take users where you want them to go. A 404 error page not only creates a poor online user experience, it also damages your brand image.
- Professional Designs Yield Better Results – Even if your goal is not branding, your advertising should look sleek, professional and engaging. Get a professional designer rather than doing it yourself.
Online advertising means thinking out-of-the-box – viral marketing can bring great results! Freely downloadable e-books, attractive wall papers, animated banners, free samples and iPhone apps will provide cost-free brand promotion. Customers will spread your message further via their blogs, social networking pages and smart phones.
Find the right place to display your ads
An online advertising strategy must ensure that you are accurately targeting prospects.
- Avoid Clutter. Don’t advertise on a webpage that already has too many ads. Your message will be lost with so many others competing for audience attention.
- Placement. Specify the placement of the ad on the website. While home pages may get a majority of the traffic, ad placement on subject-specific pages can help hone in on your target.
- Ad Exchange. Carefully review “free” online advertising offers. For example a “free” banner ad developer may want reciprocal links or ad placement on low quality websites.
- Accurate Links. Ensure that the ad takes the user to the most appropriate page on your website (i.e. the page with relevant information rather than simply the home page).
- Self-Serve Advertising. An increasing number of ad companies/networks are offering self-service ad choices. As well as Google AdWords, some options are Facebook, AdReady, AdBrite and Add It All.
- Contextual Advertising. Some companies/ad networks will place your ads in search results pages and other relevant websites (using a network of partner sites). They typically allow you to bid on a set of keywords, and your ad is displayed until the budget limit is reached.
- Product/Service Search Engines. Special product search engines can be used to find specific products or services. Products are usually ranked according to how much the advertiser pays. However, the user can also sort the search results by price. Some popular search engines for this are www.shopzilla.com, www.nextag.com, www.shopping.com and www.tripadvisor.com.
Even though social media has stolen the limelight in recent years, display advertising spending continues to grow. Contact Andy at WSI Cheshire, your local WSI Consultant to manage your display advertising campaign – get leads, get results, get a real ROI.
There was an interesting case in the High Court this week (article link) where a former employee of Hays, a recruitment company, was ordered to ‘hand over’ his LinkedIn business contacts built up while employed by them.
This spotlights highlight the area of potential conflict between businesses encouraging employees to use public social networking websites for work but then claiming that those contacts should remain confidential information at the end of their employment.
It also perhaps illustrates the challenges of deciding who you ought to connect with. For most LinkedIn users who only link to personally known contacts, then the impact of this ruling is likely to be minimal. But where companies use LinkedIn as a prospecting and client management tool, then there is the potential for this conflict to arise.
As a spokesperson for LinkedIn stated, “It is important that customers abide by their current employment contract and ensure that they have the right to use the information provided.”
The onus is therefore on employers to ensure that their employment contracts clearly cover social network use and ownership of data obtained during employment, and that their employees understand their obligations.
There is nothing new in this High Court ruling, they have just confirmed that existing confidentiality legislation extends to data held in social network accounts as well as internal databases.
For further help and guidance on how to use LinkedIn within your business, contact Andy at WSI Chester, 01928 787026.
Online sales need online visibility!
If your business relies on an eCommerce site, then you know it’s important to appear in the organic search results ahead of your competitors; especially if your competitors are selling the same products online. Having top rankings for an eCommerce website is crucial for long term success in the online marketing world.
On-Page Optimization
Optimizing an eCommerce site isn’t that different than optimizing any other type of web site. To make a page rank well in the organic search results, it needs a good title tag (that includes the keywords you’re targeting); and good content on the page that includes the appropriate keywords. Here are some more tips for on-page optimization:
- Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.
- To achieve good keyword focus, limit yourself to just one or two keywords per content page. You can even create a page for each product in your store so that you can take advantage of long-tail keyword phrases.
- One reason why product pages on eCommerce sites appear in the search engine indexes and then disappear is because they are duplicating content (which the search engines catch on). Keep content and tags unique.
- If you’re selling products that your competitors are also selling, then your product descriptions need to be unique and different from theirs. Don’t just copy the generic product descriptions of items that are provided by the manufacturer. You’ll risk having your page considered a duplicate page by Google and other search engines.
- Add links to related products or accessories, or perhaps a testimonial about the product. Adding ‘related products’ type of navigation on your product pages will help visitors stay on your site.
- Product Reviews can increase your visibility and improve your page rankings. This gives the search engines more content to read and also creates a third party endorsement for your product.
Online shoppers are using search engines to compare product features and prices, and if your eCommerce site isn’t positioned in the top search engine results, you’re missing out on a lot of potential online sales!
Off-Page Optimization
Offsite optimization is all about acquiring quality inbound keyword links. It is best to get links from high ranking websites and web pages, but internal repeating links within your own website also count. Here’s how to improve off-page SEO:
- Submit articles to various article directories for syndication and curation, making sure your content contains many keyword links back to your other content pages.
- Go social! Create profiles on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other social networks to get links from existing customers.
- Cross-reference related items between individual product pages (include accessories or similar products). This creates healthy internal links.
- Create and share video content to attract more visitors.
- Create a blog and be active in forum discussions in the area of your business.
- Issue press releases and PR briefs about product launches, events and promotional offers regularly.
Just starting out as an online retailer with a few products to sell? Selling thousands of products online for many years now? Either way, make sure your eCommerce site is optimized for the search engines so you are most visible to your potential customers.
WSI Chester can help optimize you eCommerce site for higher page rankings, better conversions and increased sales. Contact us today on 01928 787026 to drive greater search engine traffic and more conversions (sales) on your eCommerce website.
Here’s a great tool for examining the uptake and use of smartphones around the world – http://www.ourmobileplanet.com
?Produce customised reports such as the one below, and export as charts, images, etc.
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