Ian Harris

Ian Harris is the CEO and founder of Search Laboratory.

Ian has been programming for the internet since 1995 and has an MSc in internet technologies. He is a specialist in search marketing for global web sites.

He has helped many companies take their websites global including IBM, Novell, British Airways and HSBC.

How dirty is your PPC?

A well managed Google's AdWords campaign does a great job in delivering relevant traffic to your site.

However, if you leave AdWords alone to judge what is 'relevant' for your products or services you may uncover some surprising results.

We have compiled a list of frightening and sometimes comical examples from real campaigns.

by Ian Harris 26 October 2011 09:53am 18 comments

Should I translate my website?

With orders received from other non-English speaking countries and a desire to expand, many companies are faced with a choice of how far to go with the localisation of their site.

New research helps brands make that decision, from a full localisation of site and all campaigns, to a partial localisation of just the keywords and ads.

by Ian Harris 21 July 2011 09:29am 15 comments

Paid links: will the police now be after you as well as Google?

The Bribery Act 2010 comes into force this Spring and this could land paid linking strategies in even more hot water than they are already.

With the J C Penney problems and the Google Farmer update that attempts to discredit links from link farms, it is time now more than ever to get away from paid linking.

by Ian Harris 10 March 2011 09:58am 18 comments

Parked domains: is Google wasting your money?

Parked domains are generally low quality resources, housing value-less directories or pages of AdSense ads. Why then is the proportion of AdWords spend that is going to these parked domains on the rise?

Turning off this source of traffic in AdWords is possible, but hidden away. Therefore Google, as well as the domain owner, is using increasing amounts of your campaign budget on what appears to be low value traffic.