Getting creative with SEO tactics
Increasingly it is common knowledge on how to do best practice search engine optimisation. That doesn't make it easy, but it does mean you'll need to start thinking more creatively to keep a competitive edge.
So outside your standard SEO best practice, what more creative tactics might you use?
Google's Smart Pricing - how's it working for you?
In the past people have commented that their ROI from clicks from Google's Adsense content network didn't match performance from Google search-referred clicks.
Smart Pricing, a click-discounting system for AdSense, was meant to help address this - so how's it working out?
eBay 2.0 to introduce user blogs, wiki and tags
eBay is launching new community tools and features to help sellers better market their products, according to a report on AuctionBytes. In particular, the online auction behemoth is adopting tagging, blogs and a community wiki.
Good move, by my reckoning...
Does keyword deflation add up to click fraud?
Pay-per-click keyword prices have been falling in many sectors for the past year or so, according to the agencies and client-side marketers whom we regularly speak with in the UK, and as evidenced by the great US-focused research published by Fathom.
In 2005, my gut reaction to falling keyword prices was that it was merely a correction. After all, growth in spending on paid-search surged massively between 2004 and 2005, driven by much competition and new entrants to the PPC scene.
New advertisers – and some existing ones - may have over-egged the cake to secure a number one listing, before revising keyword bids downwards once the resulting sales didn’t provide enough (or any) return on investment. Paid-search is seen as one of the lowest hanging fruits for those new to online marketing, and PPC virgins may simply have been a bit too gung-ho to begin with.
But maybe keyword deflation suggests something more sinister, something that isn’t purely about new entrants bidding too much to attract visitors. Falling ROI may indicate a rising number of fraudulent clicks.
Is click fraud is in fact a bigger issue than the paid-search networks are prepared to let on? And is keyword deflation the smoking gun?
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
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Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
