Google AdWords on the right side of the screen are gone.

Right hand AdWords have come to an end; the roll-out started on 19th Feb 2016. At present, ads will only show towards the top and base of the SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS PAGES. It also looks very possible that Google has increased the quantity of ads from 3 – 4 and in some cases even 6 Ads – 3 at the top and 3 at the bottom.

Just what, exactly, does this suggest for on-line marketers and consumers alike?

The continuous ‘pushing down’ of organic and natural listings will surely be a concern for many individuals.

For businesses loans-cash.net this will likely mean that the organic room or space is a lot more precious and may therefore cause an even greater focus on SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION

For Paid Search, the transformation will certainly increase average CPCs as the levels of competition for the leading spots increase. Hold on to your credit cards, people, it’s likely to get unpleasant.

So why reduce the amount of space or room for organic results on the Search Engine Results Pages?

The reason for this could be as simple as Google having established the average click-through-rate for right side AdWords is poor. This, of course, means less money in the Google coffers. The expected COST-PER-CLICK inflation out of this major change is probably forecast to be a lot more profitable in the end.

However, as a result of the change, ranking 10th for a particular keyword may no longer get you on the front page, banishing you to the top of the second page.

Will all organic results eventually start on the second page??

We think this change could have a huge impact on many of our clients, and could affect many of their rankings but at this point, it doesn’t look like Google will go that far.

The roll out should have been completed on Monday 22^nd February 2016.

What are your thoughts?

Is this good or bad?

The post Google’s Paid Ads on the Right Hand Side Are Gone! first appeared on Agile SEO - Search Engine Optimisation.

For local business owners, getting online is an essential yet sometimes overwhelming part of running your own business. Agile SEO Brisbane recently discovered a client who had a terrible breakup experience with his previous SEO Company which included them hacking his email and deleting emails, changing every password for every online login they could find in his inbox and deleting both his Google Analytics & AdWords accounts, to name but a few.

Most SEO companies will draw the line at breaking the law to get back at you (something I never thought I’d have to type), but why make it possible in the first place?  Here are our tips and tricks for getting online in a way that helps to protect your business from the possibility of being taken over by a malicious individual or organisation.

Part 1 – Strong Foundations

A) If you’ve not already chosen something, think about your business name and try to create a name that includes a popular search term that describes your business and is easy to remember. If you have multiple search terms that you could include in your business name, try to use the most popular.

If you already have an established business name, think very carefully before making the decision to change it – as a general rule of thumb, the only time you would change your business name is if you’re starting a new company.

B) Once you’ve chosen your business name, set up a gmail account (and subsequent recovery account) as ‘yourbusinessname@gmail.com’. Make sure you have a VERY secure password for each email account.

This email will be used for ALL of the following steps. Do not, under any circumstances use your youremail@yourdomainname.com.au email address to set up your web hosting, business listings, social media accounts etc. By directing these to the gmail account instead you’re protecting yourself against a bad breakup or a malicious hacker. If someone manages to hack your site they will gain access to your youremail@yourdomainname.com.au email, but at least they won’t also gain control of all of your online services.

Use the youremail@yourdomainname.com.au as the display email address in customer communications and listing pages, but not for logins.

C) Beware of dodgy companies. Sounds simple, I know, but what are things you can look out for?

1. Ask what happens to your business listings and site if you stop working with them and who owns the site and listings.
2. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – if a company says they have a ‘special relationship’ with Google, NEVER do business with them, they’re liars!
3. If an SEO Company manages Adwords, ask what commission they charge – they’re going to charge you either a flat fee (payable up front each month) or a percentage of your monthly AdWords spend. If they’re not prepared to give you firm numbers, don’t trust them.
4. Ask if they offer Google Analytics integration and what type of reports they’ll be sending you.
5. Find out if you’ll have weekly or monthly meetings to go over the reports to ensure that you understand what they’re sending you and what they’re doing for their money.
6. Every SEO company should have standard tasks that they do each month like optimising meta tags for all pages, auditing your local listings, adding new listings if required, adding you to quality local directories, add content regularly (if this is a part of your package; and it should be). Make sure they provide you with information on what they will do each month and that they report back on it as promised.
7. Check their portfolio and make contact with their existing clients via the ‘contact us’ page on the client’s website to check references.
8. NEVER sign a long term contract, 3 months may sometimes be a little short to really start seeing results but 6 months will allow you to see if things improve. After 6 months, if you’re happy, then consider a longer term. Either way, avoid lock in contracts until you’re sure that you’re happy with their service. Agile SEO Brisbane offers a 6 month Service Agreement that can be terminated with 30 days’ notice for this exact reason.
9. If you don’t follow up with an agency after signing with them, anything that happens (or doesn’t, as the case may be) is at least partly your fault – you need to track their progress and ensure you are across what’s happening with your site and SEO.

D) Buy your domain name. Try to include the main search term for your business but make it short and easy to remember. A really good test is to read it to your friends over the phone, if they enter it correctly the first time, it’s a winner!

E) OWN your domain name – don’t ever let your designer, developer or anyone else buy the domain for you; don’t allow anything that may call into question your ownership of the domain! (And remember that you’re going to use your yourbusinessname@gmail.com account to set this up!)

You will need to provide details to your host, developers etc so make sure that you change the sign in details once they’re done. Ditto with your SEO company. As soon as you part ways, change your passwords to something secure, it needs to be unrelated to your previous password and not your name, your business name or anything similar. I can’t even begin to list how many horror stories I have heard about designers, developers or SEO companies hijacking a company’s site and either destroying it or holding it to ransom when they stop working together.

F) Create a simple site using WordPress. You can buy good, clean designs for as little as $100, just make sure it’s responsive, mobile friendly and professional. Above all, it must be fast – Google loves fast.

Agile SEO Brisbane is a fan, why? WordPress is one of the most common CMSs around, making it easy for you to find someone else to manage your website / SEO if you decide to move on from your original providers. In addition, search engine robots can crawl the whole site easily, which isn’t possible if you build the site in FLASH or AJAX. If search engine robots can’t crawl your site, it will have a negative impact on your rankings.

Agile SEO Brisbane works with businesses of all sizes and we know that starting a new business or website can be tough, but with a clear roadmap, it’s a lot easier. Tune in for Part II, which will cover site content & architecture, while subsequent posts will deal with how to get business listings, tracking your results, marketing, reviews and social media. Alternatively, if you’d like to speak to us directly about how we can help your business, contact us for more info.

The post Agile SEO Brisbane – Tips for Small Business (Part I) first appeared on Agile SEO - Search Engine Optimisation.

In a lot of ways, the Search Engine Optimisation industry is like the wild west – there are a lot of cowboys. In an industry that really has very little oversight and about which there is little ‘general knowledge’, rip-off merchants flourish and it can be difficult to find an ethical SEO company. Sure, everyone’s website claims that they’re legit and above board, but they’re hardly going to brand themselves ‘Dodgy Bros Inc’, are they? In this article, we wanted to share some of the things we’ve seen ourselves and been told by our clients, so that you know what to look out for.

Client 1

This client was paying $1200 / month for his SEO from a very well ranked SEO firm. He decided to leave them as he just didn’t feel that he was getting the results he wanted. Every time he called them to cancel, they used scare tactics and told him that without the Search Engine Optimisation they were doing, his site would quickly drop in the rankings and he’d end up dropping off Google altogether.

When we spoke to the client, he was unwilling to commit to the same monthly spend, so we came up with an SEO strategy that started at around half of what he had been paying for the first couple of months, then increased each month thereafter, giving him time to see the value in our service.

But wait, it gets better. When we took over his account, we logged into his website and couldn’t find ANY SEO tools – no Google Analytics, nothing. When we called his web hosting & development company they were only too happy to turn on the SEO tools section of his site. This allowed us to create his Site Map and add his new Google Analytics account, among other things.

This begs the question – what, exactly, was his last Search Engine Optimisation company doing? They didn’t build any links back to his site, they didn’t even create, let alone install a Google Analytics account, there was no site map and there were certainly no articles created or any content added… The mind boggles.

Client 2

This gentleman was using an SEO group that typically appears on the first page of Google search results. He was paying $900 / month for his Search Engine Optimisation and while the company had gotten him to rank #1 for a particular keyword, he didn’t feel like he was getting the results he wanted. He contacted us for a quote and when we analysed his site, we discovered that the key word that he was ranked #1 for only attracted about 10 searches per month.

It turns out that when he signed on with them, this SEO company guaranteed him that he didn’t have to pay a thing until they got him a number 1 ranking, which they achieved; they just failed to mention that the keyword they were going to get him to #1 for, was a keyword that wasn’t actually going to drive any business to his site!

He decided to move his business across to us because with no lock in contracts, it wasn’t a risk for him to sign on with us, knowing that he could walk away this time if he wasn’t happy. Since he joined us, we’ve been working on a mix of high and medium value keywords, targeting words that we can get quickly in order to start driving business his way while we go after the high value words that, while more commonly used in searches, will take longer to rank for.

Client 3

This client came to us more to confirm that his current SEO provider was doing a good job than because he really wanted to change. While he hadn’t seen an increase in traffic or business, he could see that his SEO company was building a lot of links and optimising his website for certain key words.

These links, when analysed by our software, were identified as being potentially toxic. We discovered that his SEO company was using free directory submission pages to build his links, which is a big no-no in the new world of Search Engine Optimisation. Search Engines often regard these types of links as spam, meaning that it was likely Google would penalise the client for these links, impacting his search engine ranking and, worst case scenario, getting his site black listed with the search engines altogether!

In addition, we discovered that the SEO firm wasn’t just using a low value keyword, they had made up a whole new one (which also happened to be grammatically incorrect – a personal pet hate!) and ranked him #1 for it so that he had to start paying them their monthly fee. Even though it’s highly likely that they were the only ones entering it into Google!

Unfortunately, this client was locked in to a contract that didn’t end for another couple of months – it was a very long wait for him (and, I should imagine, a very frustrating one – having to pay a company that he knew wasn’t giving him what he was paying for) but now he’s come on board and loves our transparent reporting.

These aren’t the only horror stories we’ve heard, but they’re 3 of our ‘favourites’ and they demonstrate a few things to look out for when you’re choosing an SEO company.

1. Look for a company that is transparent and collaborative.
2. Make sure that if your SEO guru is choosing your keywords, they can tell you why you want to target that keyword – make sure it’s worth it! They need to be able to show you how many people are searching for that term, on average, a month, especially if gaining page 1 for that term means that you have to start paying.
3. Not all links are created equal, some can actually damage your site ranking, so make sure your SEO provider is creating quality Australian based (depending on your business – some of you may wish to target overseas markets) links.
4. Beware of any company that
   1. Guarantees you #1 ranking or
   2. Doesn’t charge you until you reach page 1 – there’s a very good chance that they’re going to rank you for keywords that don’t really exist.
5. If your SEO company doesn’t
   1. Create and add Google analytics to your website
   2. Create a site map for your website,
   3. Add robots.txt to your website,
   4. Add you to Google Business,
   5. If your site is new, submit it to Google, Bing & Yahoo or
   6. Ask you for your website log in details then run – don’t walk – away as they clearly have no intention of actually doing any SEO work on your site.
6. Beware of lock in contracts, companies will hold you to them if it is financially beneficial to them to do so.

If you’re looking for a transparent SEO company that believes in client education, why not contact us to discover how Agile SEO can help you grow your business.

The post SEO Company Rip Offs first appeared on Agile SEO - Search Engine Optimisation.

As experts in Web Design Brisbane and Australia-wide, we often encounter the question of ‘how much is too much’ when it comes to scrolling? It may surprise you to learn that most users spend approximately 80% of their time looking at information above the fold and only 20% below the fold.

Firstly, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page (pun intended); when you open a web page everything that you can see without having to scroll is called ‘above the fold’, everything below that is, unsurprisingly, ‘below the fold’. Users that are on the hunt for information tend to rely upon what is above the fold to decide if a site is going to meet their need. Even those that are more willing to scroll assign less value to information further down the page.

How Does This Impact Web Design?

From a design perspective, this is huge – as web design Brisbane experts, we’d suggest that you keep your pages shorter and to the point. I’m sure we’ve all seen sites that are effectively one long page; they’re easier to design but if users don’t like them, what’s the point? A combination of limited attention span, a basic reluctance to read any extra words and a preference for doing less work (scrolling) means less is definitely more.

In saying that, scrolling is still a better option than fragmenting a page. Forcing the user to make a decision (“Is this interesting enough to justify clicking through?”) is more dangerous than making them to scroll.

NN/g’s theory of Information Foraging tells us that people decide whether or not to continue an action, be it scrolling or clicking through to another page, based upon the current content. Like hunting dogs on a trail, your user is asking themselves one thing, is the information they are reading now, valuable enough to convince them to continue with your site, or should they abandon this scent and look for another? This leads us to our next point of impact:

How Does This Impact Content Design?

In terms of how you put your content together, it means that you’re always going to put your most valuable content at the beginning. It sounds counter-intuitive, I know, but the best way to get your reader to keep reading is to give them what they want to know upfront. Information provided above the fold is more likely to attract and retain the users attention.

Traditionally, we’re taught that an article has a beginning, middle, climax and (hopefully) a conclusion to wrap it all up. By writing in this way, you are less likely to keep your readers attention, instead, try using the inverted pyramid style of writing that is commonly used by journalists.

As seen above, this style focuses on getting the critical information to the reader ASAP. By doing this, you ensure that even if your user doesn’t scroll, starts skimming or goes to another page, you’ve told them what they need to know.

Take Aways

Try to avoid long pages that require a lot of scrolling, but better to scroll than require a click through

80% of your users attention is going to be on information that is above the fold, put your critical info there to grab their attention and entice them to keep reading.

People will scroll if the layout encourages it and the information they first looked at encouraged them to believe it was worth their time to do so.

If your user makes it to the bottom, the recency effect shows that the last thing that users read will usually be well retained, so don’t forget to put some great info at the end as a reward for reading that far!

Looking for great web design Brisbane? Contact us today and let us help you design and build your online masterpiece.

The post Great Web Design; Scrolling, Attention & Content Design first appeared on Agile SEO - Search Engine Optimisation.

When it comes to internet marketing, the first choice is often the hardest – to use an SEO firm or DIY?

Search Engine Ranking Matters Because If it Can’t be Found, It Can’t be Bought

No matter how great your product is or how user friendly your site, if customers can’t find you then to them, you don’t exist.

63% of people never search past the first page. Most of those 63% never look any further than the top 3 results. With more business being done online, your website and your search engine ranking are key to your business thriving, not just surviving. You’ll find a lot of conflicting advice online on how to improve your rankings but the very first decision you need to make is clear: get a specialist SEO Firm or DIY?

1. Hire a specialist SEO firm to do the work for you.

Use an SEO firm that is happy to educate you on what they’re doing and why. Look for an organisation that is happy to answer questions rather than trying to shut them down. You need an SEO company that is consultative and open.

Beware of any company offering guaranteed page 1 ranking – they’re usually going to rank you for a low volume search term – or worse, a new term they’ve made up which won’t actually drive any business your way. Beware of lock in contracts and actively avoid any company that claims to have an ‘inside track’ or a ‘special relationship’ with any search engine company.

As with anything else, make sure that you shop around; a cheap price doesn’t always mean substandard service but be cautious of companies who offer ‘pay on achievement’ style deals; rightly or wrongly, these kinds of ‘bargains’ are most often associated with less ethical SEO firms and you may find yourself paying more in the long run.

2. DIY your SEO.

Read everything you can find on SEO. I know when you own your own business you do long hours – you finally close for the day and you get to go home and do book work, or read industry journals, or try to write something for your website or social media page but if you plan to DIY, you need to invest time into reading everything you can on SEO. You’re going to read a lot of conflicting advice. You’re going to be confused by poorly written articles. You’re going to start drinking lots of coffee.

But in amongst all of the fluff, you’re going to find tools and techniques that work. Try to remember that when it comes it SEO there is no right or wrong, there are just techniques and some work better than others for you and your business. No one knows exactly how the search engine algorithms work, most SEO is the result of studying the often limited information that the Search Engine companies release, then making educated guesses and running experiments. Don’t be afraid to run your own experiments to see what works best for your industry. Commit to spending a set amount of time each week on your SEO, whether that’s reading articles, creating content or doing keyword research, consistency is key.

SEO is not a quick fix. Even when you know what you’re doing, it can take months of painstaking work to get to where you’re going. The most important thing to do, is start.

Not sure if you want to hire an SEO firm or DIY? Want some more info on what Agile SEO can offer? Contact us today to find out how we can help you grow your business!

The post SEO Choices – Hire an SEO Firm or DIY? first appeared on Agile SEO - Search Engine Optimisation.

As SEO Brisbane specialists, we often hear people who don’t really understand SEO, but have decided that they ‘don’t like it’ (usually due to a poor experience with an inexperienced SEO company) praise content marketing like it’s a completely different thing. News flash: it isn’t. Content Marketing and SEO are like strawberries and cream – great on their own but put them together and WOW.

SEO

SEO tends to be narrower in focus. It’s more technical. It makes demands. SEO requires content – you need words and articles in order to have something to optimise! There are things in SEO that may not appear to be directly related to content marketing, but they all support content marketing.

Content Marketing

Where SEO is focused and technical, content marketing is holistic. When SEO demands, Content answers. Need a blog post to optimise? Content’s got your back. SEO wants to target some new keywords? Let Content provide you with the vehicle to do it. SEO needs link backs? Who you gonna call? Content!

Supporting Roles

SEO and Content Marketing essentially provide the star supporting roles to each other. Why do you need robots.txt? So that search engines can crawl your site and access your content. Why do you need a sitemap? So users can easily find and access your content. Once all technical optimisation tasks are completed, you’ll find that it’s easier for the user to get to that great content. Because the most brilliant, thought-provoking and technically perfect content is wasted if your site isn’t optimised and no one will ever find it.

SEO is constantly hungry for new content – fresh content is rapidly indexed and ranked higher on SERP’s than older content. Even better, if – due to your SEO efforts – your site’s authority level has historically been ranked quite highly, your consistent, fresh content will usually get a boost in the search engine rankings.

Take Aways

SEO & Content Marketing go together like a horse and carriage. You just can’t have one without the other.

A Content Marketing campaign will not achieve the desired results without SEO techniques. An SEO campaign will require great content to be successful.

Bring them together to get the most out of your next online marketing campaign and get the most out of your SEO Brisbane.

Don’t have time to do it yourself? Contact us now to find out how Agile SEO Brisbane can help you manage your online marketing!

The post SEO & Content Marketing Work Together first appeared on Agile SEO - Search Engine Optimisation.

Key Points to Remember:

Most people will find your site through search engine rankings.

If a customer cannot find your product, they cannot buy your product.

Social Media supports discovery.

Search Engines aim to help users solve their problems by giving them the best sites to do so.

Search Engine algorithms rely on ‘cues’ to help them determine which sites can best solve users problems.

Use frequently updated, compelling content to gain incoming links.

Aim to create concise, scannable content; most people won’t read the whole page.

Where Are You Ranked? How Do People Find You Online?

What search terms are they using? Are there other (closely related) terms that are getting more traffic that you can target as well? Whereabouts do you sit on the search engine rankings? What search engine optimization changes can you make to get higher?

Social Media

Your social media pages can also rank on search engine listings and they feel more personal than a website. In addition, increased traffic to your site from social media can have a positive impact on your search engine ranking, so make sure that your social media and your website complement each other.

Search Engines Solve Problems

The user enters a question and the search engine finds the sites that are most likely to answer it. What questions are users asking that you can answer? Does your website reflect this?

Search Engine Algorithm Cues

Search Engines are continually monitoring users online behaviour, they use this and other cues to help determine which sites are most likely to answer a user’s search query. Good design plays a key part in this, as does speaking the users language – avoid jargon, made up words or ‘cutesy’ headlines. Use keywords that users are actually entering – as shown below, there can be a massive difference between the singular and plural forms of a search term or by adding/removing a location.

Using Content to Gain Quality Incoming Links

Incoming links are an important way to build the authority of your site in the eyes of the search engines. Remember, they exist to solve users problems, if other people are linking to your site it shows the search engines that you must be answering someone’s needs already and thus, can be trusted. Just remember that not all links are created equal and some can do more harm than good. Good search engine optimization will involve building quality links from trusted sites.

Concise, Scannable Content

Want an example? Check out the BBC’s news headlines. On average they use 5 words – that’s around 35 characters to draw readers in. No fluff, no filler; most of us are rarely so concise. There is a multitude of research that shows users rarely read an entire article, rather, they skim over it to find key pieces of information in order to save time. By cutting out fluff, you increase the chance that they’ll read the entire piece, ensuring that your message is clearly received and understood.

Of course, if you don’t want to do all this yourself, you can always contact us for assistance with your search engine optimization, we’d love to help!

The post Search Engine Optimization – Key Points first appeared on Agile SEO - Search Engine Optimisation.

In the online age, many organisations are facing both internal and external disruption, resulting in leaders who are actively searching for methods to deliver increased digital value.

Every business is striving to gain a competitive advantage from their investment and it can be difficult to determine just where you should be directing your efforts.

Here are our tips on how to make sure your digital marketing strategies create higher revenue growth and margins.

The CEO Must be an Advocate for Digital.

In today’s online society digital is what makes your vision, reality. Thus, digital is of vital importance to every area of the business. It appears that this message is being taken on board. The majority of CEO’s today actively lead the charge on the importance of digital marketing to the business. It is a necessity and CEO’s need to be creating their business strategy around digital, not the other way around. On top of this, the CEO’s attitude will set the tone for the entire executive line-up and thus, the wider team. If your CEO isn’t converted yet, they need to be.

Get the Executive Team on Board

If you are your entire executive team, then the good news is that you should already be doing this.

PwC’s annual Digital IQ Survey uncovered that on a global basis, CEO’s are 5 times more likely to focus on disruption than CDO’s, leaving huge potential for plans to fall apart. Every member of the executive team has to be on the same page with it comes to digital. By ensuring this, you will maximise the value of your investments as well as making it more likely that you will identify anything that could adversely affect your strategy.

Use External Innovators to Drive Change

Engage with external parties to utilise their insights and agility on technology. Many organisations are reaching out to those looking from the outside in, in a bid to find solutions to challenges, gain inspiration and react to disruptive technology. Connect with the community via Face Book, Twitter, Instagram and any other way that works for your business. There is an entire world full of people with valuable insights. Use them.

Digital Investment = Competitive Advantage

Actively look for emerging technology that can assist you in growing your business. While it can be difficult to know which step to take first, the priority will always be anything that is going to maximise your growth. Strategically speaking, technology for data mining, data analysis and cyber security are almost always going to be at the top end of your list.

Utilise Your Data

It’s not enough to capture data – all the data in the world does you no good if it sits in a vault. Pull it out, dust it off and use it! Businesses who understand the value of the data they gain will work to extract every ounce of value from it. The biggest barrier to success is a lack of the skill to interpret said data. If you’re unsure, speak to an expert, just don’t let it go to waste.

Build a Road Map

If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re never going to get there. The biggest challenge to growing your revenues via digital marketing is not having a clear plan that details what you want to accomplish and how you plan to accomplish it. There’s always scope to update a roadmap as the digital landscape changes, but you need to have something in place.

Measure Your Results

Any business that invests in digital marketing & tech is going to want evidence that the investment was a sound decision. When comparing your results against your roadmap, don’t forget to measure increased customer satisfaction. Traditional metrics such as ROI and increased revenue only tell part of the story where digital is concerned – cyber security, improved brand awareness and customer satisfaction are all valuable outcomes of your investment.

Digital investment is a necessity in todays marketing landscape and is frequently the difference between mere survival and stratospheric success. Think of the most successful businesses that you know – chances are, they all have a digital marketing strategy that is executed with meticulous care. If you need some help with your digital marketing, why not contact us today to find out how we can help?

The post Maximising the Return on Your Digital Marketing Strategies first appeared on Agile SEO - Search Engine Optimisation.

Ensuring that Marketing spend is optimised, and wastage minimised, are key benefits of hiring experts in GoogleAdWords Management.

Research suggests that a common mistake made by businesses is to assume that free AdWords marketing services deliver the same outcomes as Expert GoogleAdWords Management companies like Agile SEO. In reality, they are not comparable in quality or value for money. “Saving” money on an initial outlay or committing to the management of ad words using a free “do it yourself” service or methodology can be a false economy by actually wasting valuable time, effort and Marketing budget.

Businesses in all industries, especially those in competitive markets, need focused and targeted strategies to get the most out of their marketing investment. More and more consumers and prospects are searching online for products and services while more and more companies understand the importance of a strong online presence.

It is good business sense to ensure that all the time involved and financial investment required to launch an online presence is not wasted. To this end, the Technology experts at Agile SEO recommend that the advertising of a business and protection of that online investment – through Search Engine Optimisation, Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising and overall AdWords Management – should be managed by expert specialised SEO Companies.

So what are some of the key reasons companies should hire GoogleAdWords Management experts’ verses “do it yourself” service options….

• Ad Words Management and Keyword Research Is A Technical Discipline
• Understanding PPC Terminology Is Required For Success
• Product and Technology Innovation Analysis and Time Investment
• Low Conversion Rates Can Be The Result Of Poor Online Content
• Technical Expertise Reporting Services Are Services Offered With Expert Ad Words Management
• Landing Page Strategies & Click Fraud Analysis Experience

GoogleAdWords Management and Keyword Research Is A Technical Discipline 

Expert analysis of Ad Words & PPC Management has determined that using poor quality keywords can quickly exhaust an advertising budget and result in campaigns with poor quality returns.

“Do it yourself” free tools and one time only pay per use tools can be used to support advertising campaigns, however these require understanding of the technical disciplines associated in researching key words. Many SEO companies will offer Ad Words Management and keyword research in packages, using multiple data strategies and methods to form a comprehensive picture of the business opportunities available.

Understanding PPC Terminology Is Required For Success

Understanding PPC terminology is what businesses pay the experts for, therefore ensuring that they can get on with the business of doing business.

Impressions, Views, Hits, CPM, CPC, CPA these terms are important in the management of your campaigns. Unless businesses are familiar with the meaning and importance then the recommendation is that “do it yourself” SEO and Keywords management isn’t for you.

Product and Technology Innovation Analysis and Time Investment

Outsourcing Ad Word and Keyword management also ensures that trend and innovation research is completed on behalf of your business. Time investment is key – can a business afford to “do business” and manage keyword management? If not, the experts can deliver.

Low Conversion Rates Can Be The Result Of Poor Online Content

Experts in GoogleAdWords and PPC perform competitive research of online content and study the types of content that bring success to businesses. This service is one of the key strengths associated with expert SEO companies and is exactly the type of service that requires technical expertise.

The “right” online content can elevate your campaigns successful click-through rate and net more conversions, while ‘bad’ copy may convey the wrong message about a site (and its content), resulting in low conversion.

The difference between Expert Ad Words Management services and “Doing It Yourself” opportunities is that the experts already have an understanding of the components that make good versus “bad” content.

Technical Expertise Reporting Services Are Services Offered With Expert Ad Words Management

Good reporting analysis is the key to all good PPC campaigns, these reporting services include not only analysing sales volumes, but where those sales were initiated from. This reporting analysis allows insight into the keywords that are likely to bring the highest number of conversions, therefore saving time, money and energy.

Landing Page Strategies

Content and style relevance is not just an important SEO term, and it’s also key in PPC marketing, too. The less relevant that landing pages are, the more money is spent on conversions. PPC and GoogleAdWords Management experts not only  understand the principles of landing page design, but how to test the principles to optimise a site and support it being found online quickly.

Click Fraud Analysis Experience

Pass on the task of analysing click fraud to the experts. What is click fraud? How is it investigated? How often does it need to be monitored? All questions that an expert will manage on your behalf if hiring an Ad Word Expert.

Overall….

The recommendation is that hiring a PPC expert can deliver expertise; terminology understanding; innovation and trend analysis; reporting and perhaps most importantly, design strategies and fraud risk mitigation services so you don’t have to.

Agile SEO are experts in GoogleAdWords Management. With Set Up fees currently waived* and prices starting at $99 / month, our AdWords Management Package includes the following services:

• No lock-in contracts
• Account setup
• Installation of Google analytics
• AdWords landing page optimisation
• Ad copy writing and testing
• Sales & lead conversion tracking
• Conversion optimisation advice
• Split testing of ads
• Analytics analysis
• Mobile ads targeting

AdWords training to ensure that you understand why we do what we do!

Contact us today to discover more!

*as at November 2015

The post Investing in GoogleAdWords Management Versus “DIY” first appeared on Agile SEO - Search Engine Optimisation.

SEO and PPC are both powerful methods of growing your online business. However, that’s where the similarity ends.

Let’s Talk SEO

SEO is the difference between being on the first page of search results or one of the others (which no one ever ventures to) and can make or break a business. SEO is about creating organic, long term and sustainable traffic to your website, increasing your brand awareness and delivering ongoing returns.

Be warned – SEO can be a frustrating business. Inevitably, as soon as you fully optimise your site and content, one or more of the major search engines will change their algorithms. If you’re not properly prepared, all of a sudden you’re back on the second page or worse!

While it’s not a great feeling, sliding back to the second page isn’t impossible for you to reverse without professional assistance, it will just take some time. You’ll need to spend time researching what the changes were and figuring out how they impacted your site. Once you’ve done that, you’ll need to work through how to update your site and content in order to compensate for those changes.

Potential impacts of algorithm changes and the time you’ll need to invest to adjust and respond to them is something to be aware of if you choose to do your SEO yourself. No matter how frustrating it may become, don’t ever abandon it entirely – do it yourself or pay someone else to do it if you can afford it but SEO is vital to any business, large or small, in this digital age.

Let’s Talk PPC

PPC is about getting on the first page of Google, NOW. Of course, there’s a price for doing so and it can be quite hefty, especially if your campaign isn’t tightly focused. PPC can be used for several different strategies but for the purposes of this article, let’s look at a sales based campaign where the ultimate or desired result is an increase in sales.

Keywords are tricky things and while Ad Words has some great tools within it, if you are new to online marketing, you can make simple mistakes that can cost you dearly. If improved sales are your goal, then with PPC you need to make sure you’re paying for the right keywords and that the people who click on your ads are ready to buy straight away. If you’ve paid for ‘researching’ style keywords rather than ‘buying’ style keywords, you could end up paying a lot of money for no reason.

As an example, if I’m thinking about buying a pair of ladies sneakers, I might google ‘Ladies sneakers, size 7’ while I’m in my researching phase. During this time, I’m going to go to multiple sites and have a look around while I make a decision as to what kind of sneakers I want and how much I’m prepared to pay. On the other hand, when I’m ready to buy, I’ll be more specific, perhaps searching for ‘Nike Ladies Sneakers, Size 7’.

Now if you’re a sports store running a PPC campaign and you paid for me to visit your site when I was researching, there’s a good chance that you wasted your marketing money. However the person who paid for the ad I saw when I was ready to buy is going to get my money, making their PPC campaign more successful. This shows you why having the right PPC ad words management is essential to getting the most ‘bang for your buck’.

Great PPC management can create great ROI, it’s just a matter of experience.

So… Which One Is Best For Me?

Ultimately, both. A comprehensive online marketing strategy should have SEO as standard and either include targeted PPC campaigns or have the flexibility to add PPC campaigns as required. If you can’t afford to pay someone to manage your SEO or your PPC Ad Words campaign for you, be prepared to do a lot of learning. If you plan to manage your own digital campaigns, we suggest you try reading Hanan Kattan’s acclaimed digital marketing book ‘Grow Your Profits’ for expert advice to help you avoid some of the pitfalls.

For more information on SEO and or PPC, contact us today to find out how Agile SEO can make it easy for you to grow your business online.

The post SEO vs PPC Ad Words first appeared on Agile SEO - Search Engine Optimisation.