Many Britons lack an understanding of how search engines work, according to a new study from Tickbox and Fasthosts.
According to the survey, less than 30 per cent of consumers knew that search engine optimisation (SEO) and website relevance can both affect the ranking of a particular site.
Over one-fifth of Britons put forward the belief that websites paid for their rankings, while five per cent said they thought the positioning of websites worked like a lottery - completely at random.
The study also suggested that SEO may need to be a greater focus for some firms, as two-thirds of consumers said they looked at organic listings ahead of pay-per-click ads.
"Search engines comprise an invaluable link between consumers and retailers. Web users who can better interpret search engine results will often enjoy a more meaningful online experience," stated Steve Holford of Fasthosts
A growing number of UK consumers are using the web to search for second-hand goods and other money-saving products and services as the credit crunch continues, according to Hitwise.... read full details »
Search engine marketing (SEM) budgets will be increased by 44 per cent of businesses in 2009, new research has revealed.
According to StrongMail Systems, which conducted the survey of international business leaders, a further 73 per cent of firms intended to spend more on email marketing next year.
Both of these channels were seen as particularly effective in terms of return on investment.
Conversely, investment in less targeted platforms such as trade shows and general advertising was expected to be reduced by many global businesses.
"It's telling that in this tough economic climate, a majority of marketers are actually planning to increase their spend on email marketing," stated executive vice-president of business operations at StrongMail Systems Bill Wagner.
Spending on pay-per-click marketing among UK firms rose by 28 per cent to £981 million in the first half of this year, recent research from the Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers showed.... read full details »
Certain page status codes could ease the crawling process for search engines, according to one expert.
Ann Smarty of Search Engine Journal said that using a 503 service unavailable header response if a site's bandwidth is exceeded implies that the problem is temporary.
Meanwhile, using the 304 not modified status code could be ideal for those pages that have not been recently updated, as this could mean that crawlers visit the site more often and search deeper into its pages.
"Be very careful with [this] 302 ('found') status code: The requested resource resides temporarily under a different URI [uniform resource identifier]," Ms Smarty added.
"Googlers are reported to have advised to use [this] only in case when redirect is placed for no more than one week."
Following such practices could potentially increase the chances of a website appearing in search listings.
Google's Webmaster Tools offerings help website owners to detect crawl errors and analyse content for potential issues that may hinder search engine crawlers.... read full details »
Marketers could benefit by taking steps to ensure affiliate links offer the best possible value in terms of search engine optimisation (SEO), it has been suggested.
According to Patrick Altoft of Blogstorm, simple actions that can boost SEO for affiliate links include refraining from going through a third party and enabling deep linking to product pages.
Tougher practices include changing URLs so they do not look like affiliate links and manipulating cookies so they too do not appear to be connected with affiliate programs, he said.
Mr Altoft stated: "Search engines are not quite decided on whether they class affiliate links as paid links or not.
"If you take the time to set up an affiliate program, why not use it to generate thousands of high value links to your product pages?"
Earlier this year, a report from E-consultancy suggested that almost half of merchants view affiliate marketing as a highly cost-effective way of boosting sales. ... read full details »
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