Value/Importance: [rating=2]
Recommended link: Eenox introduction to Qube
We’re fans of the options QR codes give for new marketing applications, so it’s interesting to see a new tool, launched this week by France-based company Eenox that enables better geographical tracking of how offline ads like posters drive response.
According to its developers, Eenox Qube is the first QR code tracking solutions to provide geolocalisation support using the HTML5 API.
The solution tracks specific geolocalisation informations such as a latitude and longitude using either GPS information or either IP location method. Users have the option of disclosing their location, for example, on a basis of 100 scans the system can show that 78 scans have been geolocalised, 18 users refused to provide their positions, and 4 positions where unavailable for technical reasons.
…
Page Layout Algorithm update to affect a small proportion of sites
Value/Importance: [rating=2]
Recommended link: Google : Page Layout Algorithm improvement
A minor update compared to the major announcement last week of Google Search Plus Your World update (still only available on Google.com). This release seeks to penalise sites which have a high proportion of ads above-the-fold, according to Google:
“This algorithmic change does not affect sites who place ads above-the-fold to a normal degree, but affects sites that go much further to load the top of the page with ads to an excessive degree or that make it hard to find the actual original content on the page.
This new algorithmic improvement tends to impact sites where there is only a small amount of visible content above-the-fold or relevant content is persistently pushed down by large blocks of ads”.
This change is expected to effect…
How to promote your company blog to reach a larger audience
Writing a blog doesn't end when you hit the publish button. Far from it. In this third part of our series on business blogging, René Power reviews the best approaches to seeding and distributing your blog content - giving it the best chance of being seen by the people you're targeting.
1. Promote it on your website
Add a snippet to your home page. It provides a sign post for visitors and also offers some additional search engine optimisation benefits if you have considered your keywords carefully.
2. Index your blog with major blog directories
Ensure your blog is listed in as many blog directories as possible, particularly those with specialist sections. Why? Backlinks to your blog are still one of the most important factors in determining how visible your blog (and…
Part 5 in James Gurd's website optimisation series
In Part Five of this SEO series, I'll show how to improve page titles and meta descriptions to increase traffic from natural search. This type of testing should be an integral part of any optimisation program and these two elements are often overlooked.
As many of you will know, there are two key elements that appear in every listing, regardless of whether or not you have optimised your webpages to display targeted content:
Page title
Meta description
Why is this important?
It's simple, the words that people see on search engines results pages (SERPs) influences their click decision. The more persuasive the copy and the closer it appeals to the needs of the searcher, the greater the propensity to click. Google rewards pages which have a higher relative click through rate since this is a positive relevance signal. Furthermore, the title…
New Global survey reveals variation in Facebook ad clickthrough rates and cost per click
Value/Importance: [rating=4]
Recommended link: TBG Digital UK
TBG Digital are one of the largest agencies managing Facebook advertising campaigns worldwide, so it’s interesting to see their summary of trends in effectiveness in Facebook advertising across different sectors. This new research, released today, is based on 326 billion impressions for 266 clients across 205 countries.
Facebook advertising clickthrough rates
Although we only have an index rather than absolute clickthrough rates, it’s interesting to see that clickthrough varies dramatically across sector:
As would be expected lifestyle-related sectors are highest, but transactional sectors like Retail, Travel and Computer and Electronics aren’t significantly lower. As might be expected Finance is at the base of the league table.
Facebook advertising cost-per-click (CPC) rates
Again it would be good to have…
Update relevant to Facebook advertisers
Value/Importance: [rating=3]
Recommended link: ReadWriteWeb reporting - describing change on 10th January
This is a relatively minor change within Facebook unless you’re actively advertising since it will affect your reach and costs. The main difference is that sponsored stories are now featured in each users news feed, so giving more chance to increase visibility.
The importance of Sponsored Stories is that they are like recommendations to friends of your fans - they appear in the ad. They can appear for apps and checkins, but the two most common types are:
Page Like. One of your fans liked one of your Page posts in the last seven days.
Page post Like. Someone liked your Page directly from Facebook or from the Like Box on your website at any point in time.
Marketing implications of the update
If you’re not using Sponsored Stories this is another argument…
Currently available on Google.com only
Importance: [rating=5]
Value: [rating=1]
Source: Google Official Blog annoucement
Make no mistake, Google's bold start to 2012, announced this week will have a massive impact on digital marketing in the years ahead if it retains its current form. Although the change has been widely covered, even in the main stream media, you may not have seen it yet since it's not available, in local engines the UK, Europe or elsewhere. We will let you know when it is.
How big a change is this?
If you've seen the Google.com site you'll know it's a big change for the user experience and the way companies gain visibility - so it will have big marketing implications we think. But in our discussions at Smart Insights, we've been arguing about how big the impact will be. It does depend on the type of search…
7 quick win ideas for your Google Adwords campaigns
At this time of year, search marketers are inundated with requests to push out new offers, react quickly to competitors’ promotions and, above all, maintain traffic levels and search engine visibility. However, January could be a great time for paid search marketers to beef up and fine-tune their Adwords campaigns in time for 2012 - I'll concentrate on quick wins for Google Adwords.
Here’s a list of housekeeping tasks and potential areas for expansion to investigate, once (if) the new year rush quietens down:
1. Run and review search query reports: If you have been pre-occupied with pushing out timely seasonal campaigns over Q4 then you may not have had time to review the actual searches that have triggered your ads.
If that sounds familiar, consider running a search query report. You may be surprised at the queries being entered, and by isolating frequently-repeated one,…
A roundup of what the experts say
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It's the end of the first week January and most of the influential bloggers / "experts" have published their predictions for what will change in the world of SEO in 2012. Rather than add to the noise and because most of the authors are far more knowledgable than I am I have decided to filter the predictions and give you the 3 most likely predictions of 2012 (in my opinion)
These are four best SEO 2012 roundups if you missed them:
Econsultancy
Search Engine Land
Search Engine Journal
SEOMOZ
1. Social Media Influence Will Impact Search Results
It will come as no surprise to most, indeed looking back, it's over a year since I reported "Official: Facebook and Twitter do influence rankings". Still, in 2012, precisely how metrics and engagement…
A review with Geno Prussakov
Affiliate marketing is still a core online marketing technique for many businesses like retail, travel and financial services. The principles of working with and incentivising partners can also be applied to many other areas.
To understand how to make affiliate marketing work better from a marketers point-of-view, I've always turned to Geno Prussakov (@ePrussakov), initially through his first book, A practical guide to affiliate marketing and more recently through his latest book from Wiley, [amazon-product text="Affiliate Program Management: An Hour a Day" type="text"]0470651733[/amazon-product] and his excellent AM Navigator blog.
He's also founder and chair of Affiliate Management Days conference and a speaker at many other conferences. If its one of your new years resolutions to attend an affiliate conference, check out Geno's guide to affiliate marketing events and conferences in…
