Announced yesterday on their official AdWords blogspot that the algorithm used in determining a paid ad’s quality score is changing very soon. TechCrunch covered the same story today.
In a continual push for ‘bettering’ their services (including enhancements made to their content network), Google have said that 3 main components in AdWords are changing, in an effort to provide the advertiser with more complete, real-time information that impacts their quality score, and the ability to make it to the front page easier (at a higher cost, of course). In all cases, changes are clearly ‘win-win’ as advertisers get more flexibility and Google gets more money.
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A quick post to point out some very revealing and interesting data from ‘Think Eyetracking‘. After fitting 30 participants with what I assume to be the crazy Clockwork Orange-style headkit, the searchers viewed a Google SERP for the term ‘Oasis’.
Anyone who works in SEO or SEM… Your job just got harder.
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It’s safe to say that Wordpress is now officially more than your basic blogging platform. Often touted as a basic CMS (content management system), Wordpress offers SMB’s a great opportunity to get a professional-looking website up in minutes – allowing for easy creation, updating and editing of content with little to no technical knowledge.
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A bit late on this one, but Google announced on Thursday (Aug 7th) that the content network has (finally) been upgraded to offer a better experience to users, and a better value for us publishers & advertisers.
In summary, Google’s enhancements are as follows:
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It seems the latest free, online product from Google is going to make a big impact in the online ad area – both positive and negative.
Unfortunately I’m still waiting for my granted invitation from Google, but basically Ad Planner is a free online tool that allows online advertisers to find and target sites that match certain demographic criteria. The sites listed are (thankfully) not restricted to the content network, meaning that Google are clearly using some form of data collection method apart from AdSense subscriptions to generate lists of viable, revenue-generating sites for online advertisers.
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Noupe.com have recently started to take off with great lists, but this one takes the cake (so far). Noupe have compiled a list of 13 websites, tools or resources to help you create a better website for SEO, see what your competition is doing, check your SE rankings, and a whole lot more. Check out Noupe’s list here, or here’s a quick summary of the tools on offer:
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Their mantra is ‘don’t be evil’ right? Isn’t transparency Google’s middle name?
So why is it that after installing a real-time site tracking tool (statcounter.com) to my PPC landing pages, I see several (50-60%) of all inbound, paid clicks being referred from websites or pages of questionable quality? Did I mention that, as always, my content network option is most definitely set to ‘off’?
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It’s tough trying to determine whether or not the AdWords crew have finally lost the plot. Over on their blog they’ve just announced that Frank the Hand Turkey is officially the new GAW mascot (complete with new bowtie), and with his new position comes great responsibility. He knows this, and has already started pushing his weight around by introducing a new ranking algorithm - FrankRank(TM).
It looks like Frank is set to become the new cock of the walk at Google, and I wish him the best of luck, and look forward to hearing more about him!
It’s finally here - Google Adwords have introduced (to beta invite users only in the US only) TV advertising from within the Google Adwords interface. This is on the tail-end of Google announcing on their official ‘Inside AdWords’ blog that they’ve integrated Google Audio Ads into Google Analytics, allowing users of the Audio ad platform to track all relevant KPI’s from within their GA account.
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Building a brand from scratch is not an easy thing to do, especially if you are in a market that is very competitive. How does one start to rise above the noise to distinguish themselves as a heavy hitter? What techniques and tricks can you use to reach your brand awareness goals? Below I have outlined some of the most effective ways to build your brand using online marketing techniques.
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