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Google Launches Privacy Dashboard

Tim — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:16:37 +0000

Google Launches Privacy Dashboard

Music Search – competition in search hots up

Natalie — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:39:46 +0000

What a coincidence that both Yahoo and Google have announced search features for music on the same day.

Google explain more about their social search development

Ryan — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:50:21 +0000

Google seem to keep announcing more and more developments in social search....

Yahoo's future role in search

Huxley — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:19:35 +0000

Yahoo’s current position within the search marketplace has recently come under much scrutiny - especially following the "its you" campaign.....

New Google Analytics features: More Goals, More Intelligence and Custom Alerts

Ryan — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:57:11 +0100

Today Google has officially announced the latest features to be rolled out in Google Analytics that we had the opportunity to preview at Mountain View last week......

Diplomacy - the hidden quality of a successful SEO

Natalie — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:04:38 +0100

I never imagined I would end up as a website optimiser when I left college.... but somehow my experiences working in both offline and online marketing have lead me here.

Yahoo! ditches search submit pro

Ryan — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:10:20 +0100

Yahoo! has finally come to its senses and ditched the paid inclusion method for adding results into the organic listings. Not only was this a contradictory method, but it was misleading for users.....

GAAC summit 2009: Day 3 Google Analytics (part two)

Ryan — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:33:06 +0100

Day 3 started with talk of the night before. The entertainment for the evening had been "trampoline dodgeball" (I'm not kidding) and although this had been a lot of fun, the main talk was of one of the GAAC's who had been rushed to hospital with a dislocated ankle! We were told that he is doing ok, so I wish him a speedy recovery......

GAAC summit 2009: Day 2 Google Analytics (part one)

Ryan — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:08:39 +0100

Day two got off to a flying start with an energetic talk by Avinash Kaushik. Avinash is the "Analytics Evengelist" at Google and as such his role is to challenge the product developers to continually deliver improvements to Google Analytics.....

GAAC summit 2009: Day 1 Website Optimiser

Ryan — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:48:02 +0100

An interesting first day at the Google Analytics Authorised Consultant summit in Mountain View. This summit is for all those who are accredited by Google as experts in Analytics and Website Optimiser. As a recently accredited agency, this is our first chance to mix with other experts and learn more about the developments to the tools. The focus for the day was GWO....

Turning around another quick campaign: Christian Aid

Ryan — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:25:58 +0100

Another example of how we turn around fast, relevant media campaigns for Clients went live today....

Digital adspend overtakes TV for the first time!

James — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:09:22 +0100

Today the UK became the world’s first major economy where marketers spend more money online than they do on TV.......

Google Sidewiki – Developments in Personalised and real-time search

Natalie — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:24:46 +0100

For a while now Google users with accounts have been able to see personalised search results: Searchwiki.. ...now Google have launched Sidewiki

What makes good SEO copy?

Natalie — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:45:00 +0100

Websites need an ongoing supply of good quality content in order to keep the site fresh and interesting for users.....But how should you approach creation of good content?

Digg adds no-follow to some links.

Natalie — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:22:30 +0100

Digg has just announced in its blog that external links to sites will have a no-follow tag applied in order to reduce the spammy stories submitted to the social bookmarking site........

Google tests images in paid search ads

Rosie — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:10:51 +0100

Recent press reports have asked many questions about the current state of the search advertising market, one of the ongoing debates being ‘Are Google becoming a Monopoly?’

What is Google Caffeine?

Ryan — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:09:13 +0100

Google is engaging with the web development community to help improve the search engine....

5 principles for effective search engine optimisation

Ryan — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 08:57:51 +0100

As always in the SEO community there are ongoing discussions about various search engine algorithm updates which might affect the tactics used for search engine optimisation. These include debate around updates on weighting given to brand authority (the Google Vince update), the value of PageRank sculpting and the ever reducing value of link acquisition schemes. Despite all these issues and discussions, the core principles of SEO remain steadfast.....

Microsoft and Yahoo! combined - an SEO perspective

Natalie — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:31:45 +0100

Microsoft and Yahoo! have finally joined forces and combined their search offering, Yahoo! natural search will now be provided by Microsoft’s newly launched Bing search engine......

Microsoft and Yahoo! Join Forces in the Search War Against Google

Rosie — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:10:17 +0100

After much anticipation Yahoo! and Microsoft have announced a search deal to help the two companies stand up against the formidable power of Google....

Getting digital terminology right

Ryan — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:15:53 +0100

It is always a key part of communication with Clients to ensure that the use of digital terminology is straightforward and correct. Maybe it is the rigour of ensuring this in a day to day working environment that leads me to spot the incorrect use of terms in the national media so often......

The race to provide real-time search results is on

Rosie — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:08:52 +0100

Wednesday saw the search engine, Bing including updates from Twitterers in US search results......

Has TrustRank rolled out in the UK?

Ryan — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:18:58 +0100

For the last few months we have been closely monitoring the anticipated impact of 'Brands and Trust' on positions within Google UK search engine results. Significant changes have now been seen.....

Watching the internet evolve

Ryan — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:13:20 +0100

Check out the "Way Back Machine" and see what websites looked like in previous incarnations.....

Getting the most out of your Affiliate Marketing Programme (part two)

Emma P — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:06:39 +0100

In the current climate, the need for marketing spend to be more accountable means that affiliate marketing is becoming an increasingly important component of many businesses' marketing mix. Read part two, of our three part guide, on how to ensure this growing channel is optimised.

Be prepared to deliver inspirational digital advertising

Andrew — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:11:42 +0100

Over the past 10 years the digital revolution has changed everybody’s life. Not since the development of television have so many consumers been effected by a media channel. Never has a combined sales and media channel been so influential in changing purchasing behaviour....

Microsoft Bing has arrived

Rosie — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:18:07 +0100

Several days after launch, many people will have now tested out Microsoft Bing, whether directly visiting www.bing.com or searching on www.msn.co.uk. Has it changed the way you will search forever?

Microsoft to finally challenge Google?

Rosie — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:42:27 +0100

Microsoft has today revealed access to its new revamped search engine now entitled ‘Bing’. The full worldwide launch is expected by 3rd June, following much build up via a codename Kumo and £100 million advertising campaign. Is this the next stage in the war against Google?

Creating custom segments in Google Analytics

Ryan — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:05:14 +0100

More and more marketing teams are currently seeing the results of getting full value from their web analytics tools. Google Analytics offers numerous, user friendly reports that anyone can set up, but more importantly it also allows you to create bespoke reports, such as using custom traffic segments to analyse how specific groups of traffic are behaving on site.

Getting the most out of your Affiliate Marketing Programme (part one)

Emma P — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:36:40 +0100

In the current climate, the need for marketing spend to be more accountable means that affiliate marketing is becoming an increasingly important component of many businesses' marketing mix. Read part one, of our three part guide, on how to ensure this growing channel is optimised.

Google’s Search Update - Insights for Site Owners

Tim — Thu, 14 May 2009 10:19:22 +0100

Google yesterday unveiled some new updates to its search engine results, what insights should website owners take from this update?

New Google Search Options

Ryan — Wed, 13 May 2009 13:17:29 +0100

The latest update from Google includes a collection of tools which, using semantic search technology, give the searcher more ability to filter their results. Options include filtering by time and type, displaying results on a timeline and viewing related searches......

Performance Based Affiliate Marketing Proves Paramount

Stacey — Thu, 07 May 2009 09:30:24 +0100

Despite the uncertainty around how marketing budgets may be affected due to current economic conditions at the end of last year, some media channels are weathering the storm better than expected - and others seems to be sailing through it.....

Search Budgets Set to Increase

Huxley — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:45:20 +0100

According to the annual UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report, 55% of companies intend to increase their natural search budgets and 45% will up their paid search investment this year....

Google improves people search service and includes “follow” links

Natalie — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:20:43 +0100

Everyone has searched for their own name on Google at some point. Even your current or potential employers use Google to research employees, but with the new and improved Google profiles facility you can have a some control over your personal organic search result.

Twitter and an Internet Superstar - Susan Boyle

Paul — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:43:26 +0100

Susan Boyle, star of the ITV show ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ has quickly become one of the Internet’s hottest talking points......

Google’s ‘interest based advertising’ is fair game

James — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:19:39 +0100

There has been a lot in the news about Google’s behavioural targeting launch; mainly surrounding privacy concerns.....

Brand Response: Selling the product and building the brand online

Gavin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:55:12 +0100

There has been a constant war over the years between the concepts of branding and direct response marketing. Many clients and agencies think it virtually impossible to do the two things at the same time......

Digital adspend grows in declining advertising market

James — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:55:08 +0100

The latest figures released by the IAB show internet adspend growing 17% year on year- the only medium to show growth in the period......

Semantics: Exposing the true meaning of search queries?

Rosie — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:06:19 +0100

A new stage of search is upon us: ‘Semantic Search’. Semantics within search is the ability to interpret the meaning of a query and so deliver better results.......

Online video extends the reach of TV campaigns

James — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:26:36 +0000

Video advertising is the fastest growing media channel of 2008 (IAB) with more and more brands harnessing the responsiveness it delivers......

Build websites for users not search engines

Natalie — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:31:40 +0000

An SEO specialist’s favourite pastime is predicting the elements of the next Google algorithm update and monitoring new developments in online marketing to work out how to create a competitive advantage for our Clients – improving and maximising the natural rankings in search results and traffic of Clients’ websites for a commercial benefit....

Is Google becoming a monopoly?

Rosie — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 09:10:56 +0000

Recent press reports have asked many questions about the current state of the search advertising market, one of the ongoing debates being ‘Are Google becoming a Monopoly?’

The Google Algorithm: Brands and Trust

Jonathan — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:18:22 +0000

There has been considerable debate recently as to whether Google has updated its algorithm to give more weight to "brands". Official update or not, some brands have certainly seen improvements in positions and there has been more and more talk about the importance of website "trust". So why trust and what is TrustRank?

Effective website sales funnels

Ryan — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:02:37 +0000

All to often, with our conversion marketing hat on, we see evidence of ineffective sales funnels online. After a good personal customer experience with the Autoglass website I thought it was worth highlighting a good example.....

Companies must change to harness digital benefits

Louise — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:43:18 +0000

I agree with Mark Cridge’s final point in his article (NMA 5th March 2009) about agencies future role in the successful use of social media channels by clients. Digital agencies will be best placed to guide brands on the right social channels...

Google announces behavioural targeting

Ryan — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:48:04 +0000

Google has officially announced that its content network will shortly be offering behavioural targeting as a way to improve relevancy and conversion.

It pays to have less bounce in your PPC campaigns

Huxley — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 09:14:59 +0000

When optimising keyword campaigns, it is critical to monitor bounce rates to ensure that you are taking traffic to the most effective landing pages and not losing the traffic immediately post-click.

Charities must wake up to online

Louise — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:31:13 +0000

Mintel research about to be released indicates that 71% of people have cut spending, and of those 71%, 32% have cut back on charity donations. Now is the time for Charities to ensure their online strategy is delivering.

Building confidence in behavioural advertising

Ryan — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:56:22 +0000

Today, the IAB is announcing a new initiative they hope will build consumer confidence in online data collection and subsequent behavioural targeting - www.youronlinechoices.co.uk

Landing page optimisation tips

Ryan — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:48:28 +0000

With a variety of landing page testing tools at your disposal, the old direct marketing mantra of "test and learn" has never been more apt. It doesn't mean landing page testing should become too complex though; here are a few tips on how to keep it simple.