Pay-per-click (PPC) advertisers could benefit from including references to perks like free shipping and gift wrapping in their ads this Christmas, according to Google.
Retailers aiming to increase online sales this festive period should look for new ways of enticing consumers as the economic downturn continues to squeeze shoppers' finances, Yael Davidowitz-neu of the Google Retail Team said on the Google Retail Blog.
She also suggested removing negative keywords like 'free' and 'discount' from PPC campaigns to avoid consumers going to rival companies' websites.
"You may want to use negative exact match keywords like '-[Free "brand name" Purse]', which filter out unnecessary clicks as you likely don't intend to give away a free purse, without preventing your ads from showing to potential buyers who are hoping for 'free shipping'," Ms Davidowitz-neu commented.
UK consumers will spend £13.16 billion on online shopping in the run-up to Christmas this year, according to a recent IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index report.... read full details »
Keeping website structure consistent by refraining from changing URLs for the same content too often could be a boon for search engine optimisation, an expert has noted.
Doing this can help search engines index website content better without having to crawl the same content several times because of a change in URL, SEO Book author Aaron Wall said on the Search Engine Land blog.
Websites that require updated content as part of a seasonal timetable - such as for Christmas promotions - could change the content on the existing page (such as on yoursite.com/Christmas) while archiving old information under an address like yoursite.com/Christmas/2009, he stated.
"When a person links to a very specific URL it does not consolidate PageRank and anchor text between years. So in a zen-like fashion changing URLs each year throws away your old anchor text and has you starting from scratch again," Mr Wall remarked.
A link checking tool is available from the World Wide Web Consortium to help web managers find broken links on their pages.... read full details »
A new offering from Google allows users to exert control over search results for every query possible.
SearchWiki allows those with a Google account to add, delete, move and comment on results, with changes only appearing to the person who made them.
These customised results come up each time the same query is made and do not affect the usual rankings for websites listed on Google.
Users can start using the new tool by conducting a Google search while logged in to their Google accounts, a post on the Official Google Blog said.
"This new feature is an example of how search is becoming increasingly dynamic, giving people tools that make search even more useful to them in their daily lives," Cedric Dupont and Corin Anderson at Google commented.
Mr Dupont also told the BBC that the launch of the new service was a "revolutionary" step in the search world.... read full details »
Marketers must concentrate more on search engine optimisation (SEO) when deploying online campaigns, it has been urged.
Duane Forrester, SEO senior program manager for Microsoft, told BtoB magazine in an interview that firms should do more to invest in organic search optimisation rather than view it as a "free" platform.
He said: "Businesses need to hire experts here and that isn't inexpensive. But the long-term costs aren't high when you consider the ROI of organic search marketing."
Mr Forrester also commented that businesses looking for success in the social media marketing sector must integrate well with online communities and be open and honest in order to earn the trust of other members of the community.
Facebook is the preferred social media marketing platform for a fifth of US firms, according to a recent poll conducted by the Association of National Advertisers.
Almost three in ten respondents said they believed social media integration offered the best growth opportunities for their brands.... read full details »
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