Last month, I (Louise from Search Scientist) had the privilege of delivering 3 Advanced Pay Per Click workshops across Northern Ireland on behalf of Invest NI. These were in based in Cookstown, Craigavon and Ballymena. Thanks very much to everyone who attended. You made it all the more enjoyable for me.

If you missed these workshops, not to worry, you can view the presentation here:
www.searchscientist.co.uk/advanced-adwords-pay-per-click-presentation-invest-ni

Anyway, at the end of each workshop, attendees were asked to fill in a feedback form. I’ve only just got my hands on these and am delighted with your responses, so have shared some quotes below. Thanks so much, I’d never presented to groups this large before, so it was a little daunting at first, but I really did enjoy them. I hope that showed.

Responses to 

‘We would welcome any other comments you may have on the event’:

“Speaker very knowledgeable”

“Excellent”

“Really good speaker. Very competent + nice presentation style”

“Overall good event. Great speaker”

“Speaker very good + informative”

“Some very valuable tips and knowledge picked up”

“Very good + helpful for a self employed person”

“Good event + educational”

“Practical”

“Very helpful, could see the added value this would bring to our business”

“These are very valuable – keep them coming!”

“The best presentation so far – engaging!”

“Very informative speaker – knows stuff + can convey it!”

“Speaker was excellent”

“Good, informative, interactive & useful!”

“Very interesting & informative”

Among the responses to
‘Following this event, what action will you be taking’:

“Booking Louise for AdWords management”

“Further development of AdWords campaigns – Louise provided some very good tips/advice. We’ll also be implementing reviews/rich snippets to improve CTR’s”

“I will contact the presenter to get her in and look directly at my business”

“Creating a brilliant PPC campaign!!”

“Testing Testing Testing!!!”

“Integrating adwords campaign, contact Louise McCartan!”

I can’t say bad to that. Thanks so much. If you would like help with your AdWords advertising, please feel free to contact me on louise@searchscientist.co.uk or 07526404106.

I offer AdWords Account Reviews, AdWords Management, AdWords Training tailored to your business and SEO consultancy.

Firstly, thanks to all the great local businesses who attended the Advanced Pay Per Click Workshops delivered in Ballymena, Cookstown and Craigavon this March. I had a blast doing them and really enjoyed speaking with many of you there. I love hearing about upcoming, interesting businesses in Northern Ireland.

So, without further ado, here’s the presentation that many of you have been waiting for. Also, I hope those who didn’t make the workshop will still find this presentation useful. Let me know what you think in the comments section below. Thanks a million, Louise

Please feel free to Share this presentation – e.g. on Facebook, Twitter or Google Plus. Thanks.

About Zespoke.com

Zespoke are a furniture manufacturer based in Northern Ireland. They create funky retro designs and produce high quality hand crafted coffee tables and TV stands. They make each piece of furniture individually for each customer, allowing you to choose from approx 30 different colours with endless combinations or a single colour is fine too. With Zespoke you can even add your own image to the centre of the table, as above.

You’ve also the option of adding glass shelves and/or legs to your table. There’s word of more options becoming available through Zespoke too – rumours of them also making bespoke chairs, radiator covers and maybe more. Watch this space! A very exciting local company – that Search Scientist loves!

Go to www.zespoke.com to browse their off the shelf hoop shaped retro tables, or design your own!

Zespoke are a furniture manufacturer based in Northern Ireland. They create funky retro designs and produce high quality hand crafted coffee tables and TV stands. They make each piece of furniture individually for each customer, allowing you to choose from approx 30 different colours with endless combinations or a single colour is fine too. Go to www.zespoke.com to browse their off the shelf hoop shaped retro tables, or design your own!

You can also add an image of your choice to the centre of the table. Check out the Search Scientist table made by Zespoke. Love it!

Narm-ribboats.com is the new site for North Atlantic RIB Marine. NARM distribute ASIS Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIBs) throughout Europe and sell chandlery, kayaks, marine electronics & navigation (e.g. GPS, fishfinders, Garmin radars etc) and boating accessories online here - www.narm-ribboats.com.

If you like boats, Like North Atlantic RIB Marine on Facebook or follow them on Twitter for cool boats, boating tips and promotional offers.

]]> http://www.searchscientist.co.uk/portfolio/adwords-seo-narm-ribboats/feed 0 http://www.searchscientist.co.uk/adwords-tips.html http://www.searchscientist.co.uk/adwords-tips.html#comments Wed, 27 Mar 2013 17:30:48 +0000 Louise McCartan http://www.searchscientist.co.uk/?p=2035 As a Google AdWords Certified Partner, former Google employee (AdWords Strategist, Trainer & Optimisation Specialist) as well as being Search Scientist’s primary AdWords Consultant, I have compiled a list of the most important, need to know AdWords tips below. Follow these steps to improve your AdWords advertising return on investment and cut wastage. If you have any questions or would like help with your AdWords advertising, comment below, or contact us at info@searchscientist.co.uk.

Follow these steps to AdWords Advertising Success…

1. Keyword Research

Your number one go to tool for keyword research is Google’s Keyword Tool. Use it before adding new keywords. Be sure to be signed in and add the ‘Approximate CPC’ column in order to see  how much you’re likely to pay per click for each keyword. Generally, aim for long keywords (e.g. three words or more) that have traffic, are likely to convert and have a reasonable estimated cost per click.

 To research search term trends, use Google Trends (formerly Insights for Search).

See what keywords and ads your competitors are using with www.keywordspy.co.uk or www.semrush.com. These tools will help you to advertise on the right keywords at the right time. Always do keyword research before adding keywords to advertise on.

2. Set up Tracking – Conversion Tracking & Analytics

 3.  Website Optimisation

Optimise your website to improve conversion rate. Small changes can make a big difference. There’s no point spending money on advertising if the chance of that visitor converting is low.

- Review your navigation and checkout process.
- Make it as quick and easy as possible.
- Ask people what they think.
- Run Content Experiments in Google Analytics
- Keep an eye on ‘bounce rates’, ‘time on site’ and ‘conversion rates’ in Google Analytics.

4. Separate Keywords into Tightly Themed Ad Groups

Keywords in each ad group should all generally have at least two words in common within each keyword. Each of those keywords should be completely interchangeable. The keywords and ads within each ad group should be highly relevant, as in the example below.

5. Keyword Match Types

By default, the new keywords you add in AdWords are ‘broad match’. They expand to show your ad when users search for ‘similar’ terms. For example, you might have the broad match keyword, digital camera, but Google expands to show your ad when someone searches for slr camera, or phone camera, or camera reviews.

The other keyword match types allow more control. Find out more about AdWords match types here.

6. Add Negative Keywords

Restrict your ads from showing on irrelevant searches by adding ‘negative keywords’. Block searches that include ‘free’, ‘review’, ‘jobs’ etc from triggering your ad to show.

On your Keywords Tab, scroll down to the bottom and click on ‘Negative Keywords’. You can choose whether you want to block your ad from showing on those terms at the campaign or ad group level.

 7. See Search Terms that Triggered your Ads to show

That is, see all the search terms that your keywords expanded to and showed your ads on. With the Keywords Tab selected, choose ‘See Search Terms’.

8. Add Quality Score Column

Google gives keywords a score out of 10 based on relevance and performance, ie. a ‘Quality Score‘. By default, this column is hidden. To show the Quality Score for each of your keywords, when on the Keywords Tab, click on Columns and add the Quality Score attribute.

9. Separate Campaign for Display Network

By default, when you add a new campaign, it’s opted into showing your ads both on the Search Results pages and on the Display Network.

The Display Network is a massive range of websites, from the New York Times to your sister’s blog, that you can place ads on. Unless you want to target your ads to appear on specific Display Network sites (which you’d be best to do in a separate campaign), opt out of the Display Network (in the Campaign Settings, as below).

  {KeyWord: _________}

12. Include Calls to Action in your Ads

13. Include Unique Selling Points in your Ads

14. Make Sure Your Prices are Competitive

15. Use Ad Extensions

16. Can’t See Your Ads? Use the Ads Diagnostic Tool

17. See your ads in a different position to that stated in account?

18. Segment your Data

19. Ad Scheduling

20. Geo Targeting

21. Download AdWords Editor

22. Use an AdWords Voucher

23. Still not getting a good AdWords ROI? Get help

A brief post today, but hopefully a useful one. Here’s a list of things to have in mind before you ever set a new AdWords campaign live. It runs over the campaign settings, aspects related to the keywords and ads that are often overlooked, and tracking.

You’ll find out more information on all of the above aspects of an AdWords campaign on our AdWords Tips page - www.searchscientist.co.uk/adwords-tips

If you’ve any important campaign features that are often over looked that you suggest adding to this list, please comment below. Thanks, Louise

Hughes Insurance is Northern Irelands largest independent insurance broker with over 200 staff in 12 towns across Northern Ireland. It provides car insurance, home insurance, van insurance, travel insurance and business insurance.

AdWords Training

Search Scientist has delivered several AdWords training sessions tailored to Hughes Insurance’ marketing team. Please see below for a testimonial from the Hughes Insurance Marketing Manager, Laura Maddison.

Louise gave us straightforward, simple and clear training for adwords – going back to basics we were able to come up with a comprehensive plan of attack to improve our adwords accounts, and the confidence to develop new campaigns.

- Laura Maddison, Marketing Manager at Hughes Insurance

In this article I’ll focus on the latter part of this, assuming that your site is technically and structurally sound.

When working on your website, put the user first. Without them your site is worthless. Don’t bother with ‘shortcuts’. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I know it’s hard, but it’s probably best to ignore the dozens of emails you get offering 50 links for £10. These are likely to do more harm to your ranking than good.

In this article I’m going to explain the core of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). I’ll note what you need to bear in mind when updating your website. Get this right and you’ll be on track for an increase in rank and valuable traffic.

Provide what your Audience is Searching for

Search engines work hard to give the user exactly what they’re looking for. There were ways in the past in which site owners could trick search engines into thinking their page was the best match to that search. Put that behind you. Search engines are getting much smarter, quickly.

1. Find your niche

What are you really good at? If you’re an expert in a certain area, then you can create great content about that and place yourself as the best in that area. Providing the best content related to that topic makes you deserving of the top spot in the search engines.

E.g. Sperrin-Metal.com is a pallet racking manufacturer with bases in the UK and Ireland, and as such can be found in position 1 on Google.co.uk and Google.ie when someone searches for ‘pallet racking manufacturer’.  Note that they weren’t in the first few pages of search results six months ago, but by following these core steps Search Scientist has placed them prominently in the top positions (as below).

2. Find Keywords

Once you’ve had a good think about your niche, make a list of search terms that you think are well suited to your business that you’d like to be found on. From those, do research to find the core search terms (aka ‘keywords’). Add your suggestions to the Google Keyword Tool, and choose suggested terms that have reasonable traffic and competition, that are well suited to your site.

 3. Have Useful Content for those Searchers

Now you have your niche and the related search terms you want your site to rank on. Make sure you have content matching what your audience is searching for (as in the example above with Sperrin Metal). Add new, useful content regularly. A blog within your site makes this easier.

N.B. Avoid using Flash and images as text. It’ll make ranking all the more difficult.

Tag Site Content so Google can Match it to Searches

There are lots of areas within your site that you can ‘tag’. These include images, headings, page titles and descriptions (that appear in the search results). If this is unknown territory for you, ask your webmaster how you can edit these tags using your website’s Content Management System (CMS).

1. SEO friendly URLs

Make sure your URLs contain words that describe the page, separated by hyphens e.g. www.searchscientist.co.uk/adwords-tips rather than www.searchscientist.co.uk/item7?=789792379

2. Descriptive Title Tags & Meta Descriptions 

Title tags and meta descriptions should be descriptive and unique to each page. Title tags should be approx 60 characters long and meta descriptions approx 160 characters or less long.

 3. Descriptive Header Tags

That is, H1, H2, H3 etc tags wrapped around each of your page headers and subheadings, ranked by order of importance. Make sure these are descriptive of that page.

 4. Tag your Images

Add an alt tag to each and every image on your site. When saving your images also be aware that search engines read the file names. Avoid using ‘picture 1’. Instead use the product name, for example.

Publicise your Site Content

So you now have this great content that’s all nicely tagged. Next step is to spread the word about it. The more people that search engines see being interested in your content, the more weight they’ll give it and the higher it will rank.

1. Make your content easy to share

Add social media sharing buttons to any pages of your site worth sharing. It’s easy and certainly worthwhile. Check out Add This (as below).

2.  Get Links / Recommendations from other sites

This is probably the most comprehensive and useful guide I’ve seen on link building, so check it out –

Point Blank SEO Link Building Strategies Guide 

3. Don’t forget about Internal Links

If on one page of your site you write about a topic mentioned on another page of your site, link from that page to the other. These links encourage users to browse your site for longer; they help to establish an information hierarchy within your site and they help search engines to find and rank the linked to pages.

N.B. Remember to add both an XML and a HTML sitemap to your site.

There is of course more that you can do to help your search engine ranking and increase traffic. If you get your head around the points above though, you’re well on track. These actions are at the core of Search Engine Optimisation.

Best of luck! Share your comments below.

Louise

In the mean time, you might like to take a look at our:

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