View From The Other Side Of The May Day Update

There has been a lot of chatter, complaints and the inevitable “let’s start a class action lawsuit against Google” over the past few weeks in relation to an algorithm change dubbed the “MayDay Update”. I wont go into much detail here about all of the complaints or absurd theories, but you can read the main source of this over on the WMW thread here.Last week Vanessa Fox wrote an article on these updates and speculated as to what happened. While most dismissed her speculations, I believe she was right on the money. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that Vanessa (Who’s an absolute sweetheart in real life as well as a genius) might even have known something that the rest of those on WMW didn’t and she was really REALLY doing her best to give a...

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Irish SEO, SEM, Webmasters & Designers Meetup Take 2

The time has come again. Irish SEOs, online marketers, webmasters, all members of the Irish Webmaster forum and anyone with an interest in all things web related are all welcome to come along to the second official IWF meetup.The event will once again be hosted by the Harbour Master in the IFSC, Dublin on Saturday the 9th of August. I encourage everyone who can to attend as it is a great way to have a few drinks with people who don’t get annoyed at you for talking shop when socializing.For the second time running, the event will be sponsored by the most fantastic webhosting company in Ireland, Blacknight Solutions who incidently are launching their new web hosting plans today and have also just exploded onto the scene with their new VPS hosting...

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What Every AdWords Advertiser Should Know About Quality Score – The Ultimate QS Improvement Guide

Do you need to improve your AdWords Quality Score? Do you want to understand what Google wants from you as an advertiser in exchange for a decent Quality Score and lower click prices? Today I will teach you the ins and outs of the algorithm and show you how you can tweak your account and site to influence each Quality Score factor.*Update: I have been contacted by a source inside Google and updated two points in the post accordingly* I am constantly surprised at how little advertisers really understand Quality Scores. If you put in a little effort, you can reap some very tangible benefits and come out leaps and bounds ahead of your competition.While Quality Score is relatively simple to grasp as a concept, it’s a little more complicated in...

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How Too Many Press Releases Can Damage Your Credibility

As an online PR consultant, there are a few questions I repeatedly get from webmasters and online entrepreneurs. One of those common questions is how many press releases a company should send (weekly, monthly, more?). I always give the same answer: Send a press release whenever you have something newsworthy to say.Because press releases are increasingly being used for their SEO benefits, many business owners assume that more is better, or that they should be on some kind of set press release distribution schedule. That’s generally not the case.Sending too many press releases can actually damage your company (or site) reputation and credibility. Here’s why:You’re very likely targeting a similar, if not the same, audience with each press release...

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Introducing The New AdWords Networks (Placements) View

The AdWords content network has been the source of heartbreak and of joy for countless advertisers over the years. There are many opinions on the content targeting and placement targeting but the general consensus is that those new to AdWords should avoid it until they understand it fully. That is about to change. We were recently invited to participate in the new AdWords UI beta. Things have really changed a LOT and to be honest, I don’t really like it yet but there is one feature that really jumped out me as a game changer, the new “networks” tab. ..Below you will find some screenshots of the new interface. Please note that I have removed any data that has identified the campaigns. These details are simply deleted and are indeed included...

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How AdWords Determines How Much You Pay Per Click

Back in the good old days, AdWords worked in a very basic way. The higher your bid per click, the higher your position. Simple. There are a lot of other PPC networks still operating on this model and that is one reason nobody can remember their names.Two years ago (I think) when Google dragged it’s advertisers kicking and screaming into the new Quality based bidding system, the game completely changed. Google AdWords no longer operates on a “highest bid wins” system but on a rather confusing and sometimes illusive set of quality criteria.Some people find it very difficult to get their heads around how this “quality” effects their bid prices and ultimately their ROI. Today, Google’s Chief Economist, Hal Varian has posted a fantastic video that...

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Use PPC To Dominate Your Typo SEO Landscape

PPC advertising is not only great for generating sales and qualified traffic, it’s also the BEST possible keyword research tool available. While other keyword research tools offer a general “starter” set of keywords in most verticals, most only give general words and without demographic information. PPC data can be used for a whole lot more and is completely customized to your market. You’ve paid a premium for this data, now use it to your advantage…With PPC, you can get detailed demographic data, hourly conversion data and of course what we are going to touch on here… typo conversion data.PPC data comes with a huge bonus, conversion data. If you bid on typos, you can see what typos are actually converting. While the volume is usually a lot...

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A Press Release is NOT a PR Campaign

There’s a pretty common misconception (especially on the Web where press releases are booming) that one press release alone is supposed to bring massive exposure, traffic, and links. Well sorry folks. In the vast majority of cases, that’s just not how it works! There is a big difference between an press release and a PR campaign, especially online. When asked about how effective a press release really really is, I hear thee following kinds of things a lot, generally from people who issued their first press release without the results they were hoping for…“Press releases don’t work.”“Press releases only help big companies.”“Press releases aren’t as good as [fill in the blank].”Common Complaints About Press ReleasesHere are a few common complaints...

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5 More Ways to Improve CTR

In a previous post, I went through some ways you can use “strong” words in combination with strong call to action words to improve your PPC click through rate (CTR). Since that post, there have been some updates to the AdWords quality score algorithm and as such, CTR plays an ever important role. In fact, it is my opinion that incremental CTR increase is the most important part of any PPC marketing campaign as it is one of the few factors you can directly influence to increase your ad position and reduce your cost per click (CPC). Remember to always be A/B split testing your ads and never leave an adgroup with only a single ad.Below, I outline five examples of ways you can increase your CTR without doing anything technical or magical. The...

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Free $100 Facebook Coupon Courtesy Of Redfly

For those of you who are not advertising on Facebook already (and even if you are) and want to give it a try, now there is a completely free way to test the waters.As part of the Visa Business promotion, Visa are offering $100 USD in advertising credit to facebook users/advertisers. To get the free credit all you need to do is…Update: We are now offering $100 to one lucky fan of our Facebook page each month. Simply “like” our page for more details.Click here to enter our monthly $100 Facebook advertising coupon code giveaway.Log into facebook and add the Visa Business Network App. Once added, Facebook will send you a coupon code with instructions on how to add the credit to your account.Perfect if you want to test the waters on facebook and...

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How AdWords Can Be The Best SEO Tool In Your Arsenal

There are literally thousands of SEO tools out there. Some paid, some free, some good and some not so good. There is one tool that is often overlooked when it comes to SEO, yes, search engine optimisation, and that’s AdWords. While most people see AdWords as simply a paid traffic generation tool, many fail to realize the organic SEO benefits a tool like AdWords can provide. I’ve touched on this subject briefly before but below, I have outlined a few more detailed ways that AdWords can (and should) be used for SEO. Please note that screenshots have been slightly modified to protect some sensitive data.1) For KeywordsBefore you start to do any SEO on your site, you need to know what keywords to target (You can’t target them all). You could use...

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Take The Guesswork Out Of PPC Campaign Setup

As we grow and take on more and more clients as well as consult with smaller clients, there has been one very alarming trend that we have noticed. The majority of business owners coming to us asking us to “fix” or “improve” their PPC campaigns all arrive with their accounts in the same state. Poorly set up and poorly performing. This is a little mind boggling as all PPC networks give explicit instructions on how an account or campaign should be set up. I will now go through step by step how we set up our campaigns and our campaigns for clients. This is quite a long article, so don’t say you have not been warned.Before we start, here are three tips to save you time and get you the most out of your PPC campaign using this guide:Download the...

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