Designaweb Blog - December 2009

Search Engine Marketing Tip (December 2009)

According to Hitwise, this was the first time that Facebook was the most- visited U. S. site. It’s logical: On Christmas day, everybody wanted to connect with their friends and family, which pushed the biggest social networking site to the top.
However it’s still a testament to how large Facebook actually is; and it’s still expanding. Add to that the fact that “Facebook” was the top search term in 2009, as well as its 350 million users, and it’s obvious that Facebook is dominating the world wide web in a way very few internet services have done before. Its by no means too late to join ! The first step is to sign up

Email Marketing (December 2009)

Make sure you test your email in various browsers prior to sending. Obviously LIDL didn't ! They might have redeemed themselves if they had a web version available.
This has been happening for the last month now and the reputation of LIDL must come under scrutiny - The Lidl email error is easily remedied and surprised they have not  corrected the coding error before now.
If it continues Unsubscribe will be the next option. Make sure your email campaign is thoroughly tested prior to launch

Email Marketing (December 2009)

Instead of sending Christmas cards last year we sent Ecards using www.jacquielawson.com. This year we did the same though monitored the results which hopefully you will find useful. Using the monitoring systems available each email campaign can easily track the following information

• Who opened the email and what time
• Who clicked on the hyperlinks in the email and which links
• Who unsubscribed from the email list

Each recipient of the the Christmas Card ecard receives an email saying a card is online for them & by clicking the link the card will be downloaded. This is a negative from the start as many recipients wont click the link ie , too busy, cant be bothered, or uncertain if its spam. The result I am expecting from unopened emails is high because of these facts. Normally emails wont start off with this disadvantage.

Our goal was to get a response without asking for one. I know the product was both unique and good quality so our goal expectation was not unrealistic

The results were very interesting . 113 Ecards sent with 76 emails  (67%) opened - very pleased with this. This is the upper end of the scale of results we would normally receive on any email campaign. The more niche the data base the higher the open rate . If you are already carrying out email campaigns what results do you get ?

19  (17%) responses in the form of reply emails or phone calls , the majority used email. This result was much better than expected - It clearly demonstrates we must be doing something right !

We could have produced a time graph showing opening rates as with a conventional email campaign these respondents could be added to a database segment  for "when its gone its gone " offers .

With email marketing there are no real boundaries and the reporting that is available makes monitoring the campaign a simple exercise as is the costing. You would soon know if email marketing was for your company

For Designaweb the Christmas Card email was a success - our name was in front of the client without any pressure to purchase and this campaign was much cheaper than the alternative of purchasing cards and postage stamps. The next time you are considering advertising don't forget the opportunities that email marketing has - we are always here to advise of the best strategy albeit in-house , outsourced to Designaweb or a mixture of the two - Contact Paul Harris on 01359 231739 or Email

Madlib Spam - SEO Tip December 2009

Madlib spam is a web page or web pages written purely for the Search Engines . These pages work as Doorway or Entrance pages to the website . A typical example of Madlib Spam is a web site which has duplicated pages the only difference being the name of town which is being mentioned eg Chimney sweep in Bury St Edmunds, Chimney sweep in Ipswich etc. Google Webmaster Guidelines clearly says :

• Don't create multiple pages, with substantially duplicate content
• Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines,

Unfortunately Madlib Spam does work, to a degree anyway, though why compromise your website by adopting an SEO strategy which is SEO No No as clearly pointed out by Google.

Search Engine Tip (December 2009)

Site maps are used to assist the visitor in navigating your web site. XML sitemaps are submitted to Google to assist them in spidering your website. This post has a different use for a site map !! Try using a site map generator on a competitor website as it can be very useful and provide insight into their search engine strategy. Firstly you will see clearly how many pages there are plus the Title Tag strategy which is very valuable especially if the competitor has higher rangings than you . The site might look like a site with less than 20 pages and could well turn out to have 100 pages or more, the extra pages written clearly for the search engines . Personally I doubt this strategy is effective or worthwhile, there might be temporary boosts in Search Engine positioning but in my opinion Google will soon work out what's going on. You can get a free Site Map Generator at www.xml-sitemaps.com and simply add the domain. Reported results will follow any you need to check out the HTML version. This free version only tracks up to 500 pages, but should be ok for the majority of websites

Domain Registration Tip (December 2009)

Here's a real live experience from one of our clients , Touchwood Tree Surgery based on the Wirral, Merseyside. We were asked to purchase a domain name and initially a one page website . The only domain name available at the time was www.touchwoodtreesurgery.net, A .co.uk or a .com was preferred though both of these were taken . We kept an eye on both the .com & .co.uk as the registration renewal dates were in September this year, and both domains had not been renewed .To find out the date when registration ends visit this link http://www.whois.domaintools.com.

Search Engine Facts (December 2009)

When you check search phrases ,  (key phrases) using Google, don't assume that the ranks you see for your site are the same as what your customers are seeing. To turn off personalised search, opt out, or add the tag &pws=0 to the end of the Google page URL.

To explain , take a search phrase like "email marketing services in Suffolk" you will receive a set of results which will be influenced by your search preferences over the last 180 days of your search activity. This is great when researching products BUT if this just an exercise to see how your own search phrases are performing then you need to add  "&pws=0" without the quotes at the end of the search url . The interpretation of this is simply "and turn personalised web search off.

Web Hosting Tip (December 2009)

However good your web hosting might be, sooner or later you will have some downtime. It happens to all of us.
Try this FREE monitoring service with Pingdom
You are able to use Pingdom to check your web hosting every 5 minutes, Pingdom will alert you via Email, SMS or even Twitter. Websites at Designaweb are hosted on dedicated servers with 24/7/365 monitoring and maintenance

Google Adwords Tip (December 2009)

When setting up your Google Adwords campaign, consider the landing page for your visitors. Its all too common for visitors to land on the home page which is  a summary of your services and may not be specific enough for visitors  so they need to go deeper into your site to find what they are looking for - As an example the home page of Designaweb is an introduction to the services offered, no different to other sites, so if Designaweb had a Google ad for say Email Marketing the landing page would be the email marketing page ie www.designaweb.biz/email-marketing.html. If your Google ad was even more product specific then consider having a landing page specific for the advert .

Search Engine Facts (December 2009)

Percentage of U.S. searches among leading search engine provider for November 2009

• Google.com 70.60%

• Yahoo.com 16.14%

• Bing.com 9.57%

• Ask.com 2.62%

Email Marketing Tip (December 2009)

The Subject Line is what the recipient will see first ,  Some things to avoid

•  long subject lines, completely capitalised subject lines and using HTML within the subject line.

• All subject lines on outgoing campaigns must clearly relate to the content of the email.

• Deceptive or misleading subject lines will get you nowhere

• Many email clients (e.g. Outlook, Yahoo! Mail) display only the first 40-50 characters of a subject line when your recipients look at their "inbox." In general, we recommend that you keep your subject line short and concise so that it's displayed properly for all of your recipients.

Recent Domain Sales ( December 2009)

Recent Domain sales as reported by Sedo - this company specialises in the marketing of domain names

• Russia.com $1,500,000   Dominio.com $450,000   64.com $89,000   Gameland.com $55,000

• QQ.net $42,812   Billets.com $43,035   Ort.de $35,938   Dental.net $27,500

• Thesan.com $18,500   Lodging.co.uk $19,873

Email Marketing Tip (December 2009)

When setting up your marketing email make sure you use the "no follow" tag to make sure your HTML email is not included in the search results . Whilst being included in search results might sound beneficial this could easily rebound if the information is about a special offer which had expired .

To setup the "no follow" tag simply use the follow tag between the Head tag, ie <head>  </head>
<meta name="robots" content="nofollow" /> This "instruction" simply tells the search engines not to index the following text in its search results

Email Marketing Tip (December 2009)

What's the most important aspect of your email campaign ? What is the first part of the email the recipient sees ? The answer to both questions is the subject line. If your subject line doesn't catch the attention of the reader it will be disregarded or deleted and all your hard work will have been wasted.

Google Ads Tip (December 2009)

Delimiters can be best explained with an example :
In addition to bidding on lake construction, bid on  "lake construction"   and  [lake construction]

• lake construction - this is defined as a broad term and your ad will be triggered if lake construction is included in the search string in any order

• "lake construction" - With " " your ad will be triggered if lake construction is included in the search string in the same order

• [lake construction] -  With [ ]  your ad will be triggered if lake construction is the exact search string

By including delimiters your are narrowing , limiting the search field and in turn targeting your niche sector . This will have the effect of reducing the competition and your ad cost - Try it and see

SEO Tip (December 2009)

Looking to add to your Google listings , try to achieve a double listing. The second listing is indented . The approach is to create a second page which has the same keyword phrases though the text is completely different together with differing title & heading tags. With a double listing especially in the top 10 of Google you increase the space you have plus start to block out your competition

SEO Tip (December 2009)

If you are concerned about your search engine positioning and that Google might have "sandboxed" ( removed ) your site from its listings just try this . Type in cache:www.yoursite.co.uk into the Google search box .
If your results appear your site is ok and ready for SEO work to improve your rankings