uplinkwebdesign’s blog

What Is Google’s Insights For Search Good For?

nobody@vox.com(uplinkwebdesign) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 20:23:18 -0700

After the success of Google Trends, the search giant has now launched a new tool, called ‘Google Insights For Search‘. This tool is similar to Trends, but shows rising searches in relation to other terms, geographic location and time periods.

Insights For Search adds to the bunch of new tools and features that Google has released in the past month. It is supposed to enable AdWords advertisers to understand search better. However, closer inspection makes it seem more like a repackaging of already available data with some pretty graphs.

An advertiser interested in selling a product or service, say SEO, could type in the search term “seo” to study search volume patterns across a given time period. The data can be compared for various geographical markets, as shown below:

The advertiser can also see the top and rising related searches and to compare search volumes across multiple local markets within each of the geographical locations being compared.

For the statistics and trivia buffs, Google Insights For Search also includes the ability to compare trends for multiple search terms…

Read Full News

Resources for

Uplink Web Designs & Marketing

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

'Irresponsible' internet advert banned

nobody@vox.com(uplinkwebdesign) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:06:50 -0700

An "irresponsible" internet marketing campaign for a slimming diet patch has been banned by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA).

The controversial Pink Patch claimed that wearers would experience significant weight loss just from wearing the patch, despite the ingredients not having been tested on humans.

In particular however, the internet marketing campaign's claim that the Pink Patch could result in weight loss of up to one stone in two weeks were branded as "unsubstantiated" and misleading by the ASA.

Olivia Campbell, a spokesperson for the organisation, said: "The ad was irresponsible for promoting bad medical practice of losing a stone in two weeks and failed to provide persuasive scientific evidence to substantiate its claims."

Read Full News

Resources for

Uplink Web Designs & Marketing

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

SaaS 'key to online marketing'

nobody@vox.com(uplinkwebdesign) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:25:12 -0700

Some 90 per cent of online businesses will make use of software-as-a-service (SaaS) by 2013, it has been predicted.

Research carried out by IT analyst Gartner revealed organisations will increasingly make use of these services in the coming years and by 2013, 40 per cent of e-commerce deployments will use a complete SaaS solution.

Gene Alvarez, research vice president for the firm, said the trend towards the facility has affected customer relationship management and other applications and internet marketing will not resist the shift.

"E-commerce SaaS solutions enable companies that couldn't afford e-commerce to have these capabilities and compete online," he added.

Read Full News

Resources for

Uplink Web Designs & Marketing

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Internet marketing benefits newspapers

nobody@vox.com(uplinkwebdesign) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:23:04 -0700

British newspapers have benefited from internet marketing strategies, according to new research.

The Newspaper Marketing Agency (NMA) study reveals that unique visitors to online national newspapers totalled more than 94 million in June.

It also shows that most visits occur during lunchtime and that users are younger, more affluent and spend more time and money online.

According to the research, Google provides newspapers with most of their search engine optimisation traffic, although online marketing is the main driver for online searches.

More than nine out of every ten top search terms leading to newspaper website visits were associated with the title of the publication, rather than general news themes.

Read Full News

Resources for

Uplink Web Designs & Marketing

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Learn online marketing supertips

nobody@vox.com(uplinkwebdesign) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:15:49 -0700

At http://www.supertips.com/ultimate/x/?id=613 Harvey Segal has done something quite fascinating - a viral ebook that’s free, and the affiliate gets 100% of the sales on products inside. Yet, everyone wins.

"The book is not just free, it’s a good read on the subject of viral products. But it’s the details of his viral plan I found fascinating. The ebook describes how to make money with viral ebooks; in fact, the ebook itself is an example of that viral plan, while also explaining the viral plan, while BEING the viral plan, and so on and on, like some sort of Escher painting" says David Pankhurst, respected internet marketer.

It presents a strategy for selling any type of product using methods which will never become obsolete. Plus an ingenious twist which will send your traffic rocketing.

The Ultimate SuperTip, written by Harvey Segal (Mr SuperTips) is neatly set out, easy to follow, written without hype and not littered with annoying links.

Remember the cost of this book is FREE and it ends with an amazing idea for making you money from the book itself.

Read Full News

Resources for

Uplink Web Designs & Marketing

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Online papers attract 90m unique visitors a month

nobody@vox.com(uplinkwebdesign) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:44:15 -0700

Online national newspapers attracted a total of 94.8 million unique visitors in June, 35.5 million of them from the UK, according to new data on traffic to national newspaper websites.

According to the figures, to be published by the Newspaper Marketing Agency (NMA), online users of national newspaper websites owned by NMA members spent more than 715 million minutes on the sites in June.

The new Newspapers Online Analytics (Noa), to be published monthly by the NMA, show the scale of the traffic generated by the hundreds of millions of pounds invested by the national newspapers in taking their brands online.

Noa will also give a more detailed picture of the traffic to the sites, including unique visits and visitors by day and by hour of day as well as by month, how long is being spent on the sites, the traffic to different sections, the most popular entry points, the referring domains and the search terms used on search engines.

The latest report shows that average weekday unique visitors totalled 5.3 million, with traffic peaking at lunchtime. Traffic volumes were lower at weekends.

Read Full News

Resources for

Uplink Web Design & Marketing

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Do You Know What Your Company's Web Site Is For?

nobody@vox.com(uplinkwebdesign) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:12:18 -0700

New York (PRWEB) July 24, 2008 -- Sure, you have a Web site. You created it a few years back, it has an overview of your company and its products, you've updated it a few times, but--let's be honest here--it's not really a high priority.

But maybe it should be.

That's the message of the groundbreaking new marketing book Get Content. Get Customers. Authors Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett are on a mission to teach marketers about the importance of high-quality, information-rich content that draws consumers in and keeps them coming back.

And in the age of the Internet, nothing has more power to reach consumers than a well-designed Web site.

"It's really unbelievable how many companies squander the inherent possibility of their Web sites," said Pulizzi. "Marketers need to understand that their site can make or break a consumer's opinion of their brand in just a few seconds, and that nothing drives off a potential customer more quickly than a stagnant, self-promoting site."

Added Barrett, "A Web site has to be more than just a placeholder--it should be a dynamic resource that educates customers and builds loyalty through unique, informative content."

In Get Content. Get Customers., Pulizzi and Barrett examine some of the most successful Web sites, from both large and small companies, to showcase the best of the medium and to help readers understand what draws customers in…and keeps them coming back.

Read Full News

Resources for

Uplink Web Designs & Marketing

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

The Power of Website Translation

nobody@vox.com(uplinkwebdesign) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:51:19 -0700

Expanding Horizons
Have you ever dreamed of selling your product or service all over the world, to millions and millions of customers who have created a demand you are expanding daily to fulfill? Perhaps your goal is simply to broaden your existing customer base to include members of some of the largest immigrant populations who may or may not feel comfortable enough in English to use your shopping cart or read your testimonials. Whatever your ultimate goal, translating vital pages of copy into any one of the most popular modern languages (such as Spanish, French, Arabic, Japanese, and more), can bring a host of positive results.

Goals
The first thing is that you will undoubtedly attract the non-native-English-speaking target market that you were trying to reach. Next, your company will appear confident and competent in the global marketplace. Many of the largest companies in the US and abroad have either their entire website content available in at least two languages, or at least the most critical pages available in translation. The hospitality industry, for one, would be lost without the art and science of translation. How can an Englishman travelling to Madrid expect to find that cozy little bed and breakfast he had his heart set on unless he books in advance and understands what he paid for?

Lost in Translation
Now that you’re sold on the need to implement at least some foreign language copy into your English language website, remember the importance of a quality translation. It is crucial to your business’ success to not have native-speakers laughing at your poor attempt at self-translation. A dictionary and an online automatic translator are not enough. You need real people, not machines, to generate your translation. Only the human brain can understand the complexities, the nuances, the intentions and the evolution of the spoken word. If your site is about 20 pages in English, you’d probably want to translate the most necessary pages first – for example:

product or service information pages
request form or shopping cart page
thank you page

Read Full News

Resources for

Uplink Web Designs & Marketing

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Seven Google Tools to Manage Media Campaigns

nobody@vox.com(uplinkwebdesign) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:00:27 -0700

One of the things I'm always talking about is how the line between search marketing and online media is blurring. Indeed, they've crossed over right into offline.

Clearly, search marketing is a form of online media, but consider this: when you turn on content targeting for your PPC (define) campaign on Google, are you now running online media even though your ads are targeted by keywords contained in the content the ads appear next to? Of course you are. Add in Google Image and click-to-play ads, and you're now actively running an online media campaign.

Every once in a while, Google visits our office to give us the full update on all the kinds of media that can be managed by both media and search professionals through its system. Here's a quick breakdown for search marketers, online media planners, and offline media planners of all the things Google has to offer. I'm not writing this because I'm trying to promote Google. It certainly doesn't need more promotion. I just find it interesting and useful to understand what can be obtained through the Google interface.

Google Offerings

Google PPC ads on the search network. Unless you've been asleep for the last seven years, you know about this. These are the sponsored text ads that usually appear on the right-hand side of the Google SERP (define). It's always good to supplement your traditional display ads with search ads. Not only will you have a heavier, consistent presence online, but you'll also reach your target consumer at the critical moment -- when she's actively seeking your offerings or information about your offerings. PPC ads deliver extremely meaningful brand impressions and interactions when consumers are most receptive to your marketing messages, thus they usually deliver higher conversion rates.
Google PPC ads on the content network. These are the text, image, or video ads that appear on Google's content network, which consists of thousands of Web sites that will show your ad based on keyword relevancy. You can also opt to exclude some sites to optimize your campaign. The content network offers an inexpensive way to display your ads based on a site's content, which could complement the existing display ads you bought on a property basis. The click-to-play video ads are particularly interesting because you don't pay for the play, just the click.
Site-targeted ads. These are also known as placement-targeted campaigns. Google can act as an ad network where you can pick placements on Web sites based on categories, topics, or specific URLs. Site-targeted ads may be text, image, or video ads and may be bought through CPM (define) or CPC (define) bidding. Having site-targeted ads further saturates specific sites with your ads, and if you combine these with direct property buys and ad network buys, you can come up with an optimum online media mix that balances out extremely high prices -- thus achieving more impressions and ultimately generating more clicks and higher CTRs (define) and conversion rates.

Read Full News

Resources for

Uplink Web Designs & Marketing

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Are Enterprises Effectively Tapping The Social?

nobody@vox.com(uplinkwebdesign) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:23:11 -0700

Enterprises have made progress plumbing the benefits of social networks, but they're missing out on truly leveraging the technology, according to a research report released last week.

A Deloitte survey of companies sponsoring online communities confirms that many of them have begun to effectively use social media tools and online communities to engage with customers and employees for brand discussions, idea generation and product discovery.

But Deloitte analysts said there are many more benefits to be realized, and while the results indicate these online initiatives are having a positive impact, enterprises have not yet harnessed the true potential of these communities.

One of the main barriers is that many of these online communities have failed to reach a critical mass of involvement. According to the survey, a majority has fewer than 500 active members, and 50 percent of the respondents replied that the biggest obstacle to making communities work is getting people engaged.

Companies participating in Deloitte's 2008 Tribalization of Business Survey (conducted with help from Beeline Labs and the Society for New Communications Research) did report a significant impact from their communities.

Thirty-five percent said they'd seen an increase in word-of-mouth for their brands, and 28 percent have seen overall brand awareness increase. Online communities are also helping companies increase customer loyalty and bring outside ideas into the organization faster, according to 24 percent of survey respondents.

Read Full News

Resources for

Uplink Web Designs & Marketing

Read and post comments | Send to a friend