Search Marketing & SEO Blog

How Out of Date is the Learning Center and AdWords Exam?


By On October 18, 2012 In google adwords, ppc With 12 Comments

 

AdWords has changed a bit over the years. The interface changes, functions come and go, new settings appear…

The problem is that not everything changes at the same time, meaning AdWords Help might not immediately reflect shiny new features. The AdWords exams – and the Exam Study Learning Center – are always behind on something.

It’s possible that some things are left out for simplicity. For example, it’s possible they left out some of the many and varied targeting methods for the Display network in the Fundamentals sections to avoid over-complicating things. But some things are just plain wrong.

If you use AdWords quite a lot but are just studying for the AdWords exams, it’s useful to know what the exam thinks is the case and what actually is the case. Or if you’re using the Learning Center to teach yourself about AdWords, you may be wondering why what you’re reading doesn’t match the real thing. Here’s a rough guide to where the Learning Center and exams are behind.

10 Tips, Tools and Resources for Online Copywriters


By On October 11, 2012 In blogging, content creation, Copywriting With 11 Comments

Web marketing is a constantly developing challenge and it can be useful to have staff who specialise in particular areas. That’s certainly true with online copywriting – there’s such a lot to consider that having a dedicated copywriter can make a real difference to your overall online performance.

But whether you’re a writer trying to perfect your online capabilities, or an SEO exec needing to brush up, there’s a wide range of issues to consider. Online copywriting poses its own challenges, from knowing the basics of HTML to understanding the ever-changing world of SEO.

So what help is available?

How to Write the Perfect Headline


By On October 4, 2012 In seo With 10 Comments

Sometimes it can seem like the demands of SEO and clickability are fundamentally opposed, but this isn’t true. Your SEO team may want you to use keywords in the header and subheaders, but that doesn’t mean they have to be lengthy lists of keywords. With the right care and attention, your headlines can still be interesting, clickable, and amusing.

So, whether it’s for a blog, press release, or article, here’s what you need to consider:

The Benefit of Brevity

First, remember that a headline should be brief – this is not the place to target that eight-word long-tail keyword phrase. Stick to the basics and pull out the most important point of your entire article, as this is most likely to engage with the reader.

There’s no reason why you shouldn’t include a short keyword phrase if appropriate, but remember the article needs to be read by people, and not just search bots – so if it looks too forced it’s going to be a huge turn-off for your audience.

How to find blogging inspiration & 20 blogging ideas


By On September 20, 2012 In blogging, content creation, Copywriting, seo With 17 Comments

Even if you have the best intentions in the world, coming up with a constant stream of new ideas for blog posts can be pretty intimidating. All too soon, the corporate blog lies empty because the company has run out of ideas. Don’t let that happen to you! From company brainstorms to new ways of planning copy, we are going to provide you with some great tips on how to generate ideas for blog content.

WARNING: This is a long post, but we think it’s worth the read (and hopefully you’ll agree). If you really don’t have time then there’s a list of our top tips at the end!

brightonSEO: Live Blog & Ultimate List of Takeaways


By On September 14, 2012 In conferences, seo With 6 Comments

We are live from Brighton, and we’re really looking forward to hearing the insights and thoughts of all the speakers (all 19 of them!) Doors opened at 9:00am and the first speaker is scheduled to speak at 10:00 am. Stay tuned.

We don’t have fancy auto-refreshes so you’ll need to refresh your browser to see the updates :-)

10:01 am: The first speaker is on stage, Dave Trott – Executive Creative Director at CSTTG will be talking about “Predatory Thinking”. Sounds intriguing. Must be similar to “Guerilla Marketing”. Dave’s using an analogy of pure maths and applied math with pure creativity and applied creativity.

What SEOs can learn from online journalists


By On September 6, 2012 In blogging, content creation, Copywriting, Online PR, seo With 11 Comments

Journalists have been frantically learning SEO and social media techniques over recent years, so they can stay ahead online. But now some of them are so skilled that SEO teams could learn a few things from them too. From writing clickable headlines, to using Twitter to network, here are all the journo skills that I’ve learnt by following (no, not stalking!) some of the best in the business…

Monitoring and Targeting

Like most blogs, news sites tend to cover a number of different subjects. For the main newspapers, these tend to be major topics such as politics, finance, property, jobs and so on. However, within those ‘channels’, similar stories often come up again and again – interest rates, house prices, unemployment figures, that kind of thing.

Journalists and editors use analytics programs to check how many readers are visiting each section and which stories are grabbing their interest. That means that they can give more coverage to the stories that really interest their readers, and move other stories further down the hierarchy. This also allows them to maximise click-throughs from their front pages because they know what stories get readers excited.

Why every department needs to care about SEO


By On September 4, 2012 In seo With 12 Comments

SEO used to be something that happened on the sidelines of a business, usually by some tech specialist in a separate office. It often seemed like it had very little to do with the rest of the organisation.

But as the internet and what we do with it has changed, most firms have now realised that this needs to change. To make the most of their online presence, SEO has to be an integral part of their online operations in every department.

Search engine optimisation is now too important to be left lingering on the sidelines. From customer services and HR to marketing and PR, here’s how SEO matters to every single area in your business. Read on to find out why you should be optimising everything you do online.

Changes at SEOptimise


By On August 30, 2012 In seo With 3 Comments

Although I wouldn’t usually use the blog for this, I thought I’d give you a quick update on the recent changes here at SEOptimise.

As you may have heard, my co-founder, Kevin Gibbons has moved on to pastures new. I’m sure Kevin will make a great success of his new business, and it leaves SEOptimise in a strong position as it continues to forge forward under the key Oxford team.

SEOptimise was formed in 2007 when Kevin and I started to work together. We brought together different skill sets that complemented each other and enabled us to grow quickly from a couple of desks in my spare bedroom to offices in multiple locations, working with blue chip organisations.

How will Google’s ‘transition rank’ patent affect SEO?


By On August 28, 2012 In google, link building, search, seo With 21 Comments

Recently, I read an interesting blog post by Barry Adams titled “The Adversarial Relationship between Google and SEO“. He argues that Google’s not an SEO’s friend but rather an adversary and cited quite an interesting patent filing by Google titled ‘Ranking Documents’. If you’re an SEO I’d strongly suggest you take the time to read this document in full. Also, Bill Slawski provides an excellent analysis of how this new approach will affect a page’s rankings.

In layman’s terms, this patent document specifies how Google intends on making rank changes to its search engine results pages (SERPs). Instead of allowing the algorithm to use its ranking factors to decide how documents (or pages) are ranked, Google will randomly initiate a “transition” period between when a rank change happens.

brightonSEO Sponsorship & Ticket Giveaway


By On August 22, 2012 In conferences With 6 Comments

Image of Brighton SEO from http://www.brightonseo.com/

SEOptimise is really pleased to announce that we’re sponsoring brightonSEO this year. Since we started in 2007 we have really enjoyed being part of the SEO community, and this sponsorship opportunity gives us a chance to give something small back in helping Kelvin keep the conference free.

As one of the main events in the UK SEO calendar, and now running twice a year, brightonSEO really is a must-attend event, which always delivers on both content and fun. The tickets for this years event went in an hour and considering that the number of tickets has nearly doubled, it’s even more impressive.

From this year’s event I wanted to highlight some of the things that I’m looking forward to (Kelvin did prompt me a little, but it’s been good looking through what’s happening):

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