Web Search & Marketing Newsletter – January 2013

Web Search & Marketing Newsletter – January 2013

Welcome to the first issue of our monthly newsletter for 2013, where you can read about some of the latest news, tips and advice on the best website marketing techniques and trends.

In a change from our usual January issue, we focus on a website marketing health check in this newsletter. That’s because the first month of the year is always a good time to pause and review, to consider your current strategy and to set future plans for the new year. The online market is becoming ever more competitive, with new entrants, updated websites, different marketing opportunities and, in most cases, a more crowded space to compete for business.

This means that your website needs to be performing as efficiently and effectively as possible. It means that you should be reviewing your website, your marketing and your online tools to get the most from your website spend. You need to ensure that you’re getting in front of your target market as effectively as possible, and then converting your website visits to enquiries or sales as efficiently as you can.

You can read more below, or you can also browse through previous editions of the newsletter, either by month or by subject. You can also follow us on Twitter for the latest developments during the month, or follow our Facebook page for updates.

On to this month’s edition…

Website Marketing Health Check for 2013

We’ve outlined below some of the key things you should have in place or be thinking about to tackle in 2013 as a prominent website in your sector. You may be targeting a small local area, or a national or even international marketplace. Either way, you can ensure that you’re one step ahead with our health check report, which will highlight any areas of potential improvement – some of which can be quick to fix, others may take more time and cost.

We’re also offering our standard health check reports – either for your overall website marketing positioning, or specifically for your Google AdWords account – at half the usual price for January only. So now’s the time to start and see what needs to be done to get 2013 to the best possible start.

What does the marketing health check cover?

There are some core areas that we would recommend need to be in place for any website competing online and our health check review will address these, including the following:

Website Indexing – how well is your site being indexed by Google and Bing, and how often? Is your site using the Webmaster Consoles provided by these search engines? Are your robots.txt and sitemap.xml files being used correctly? Do you have duplicate content pages and, if so, is canonicalisation being used?

Search Engine Optimisation – if your pages are being indexed, how well can your website be found? How effective is your search engine optimisation structure, including the use of search terms, body content and design issues? Are you targeting your local market effectively? How strong is your brand name reputation in the search results?

Links – one of the key requirements for a good ranking performance on Google is the number and quality of inbound links to your site. How does your domain perform and what else could be done, both with internal and external links?

Pay-per-click advertising – are you using PPC advertising, such as Google AdWords, and how well does this perform? We can give your account a brief review, or we offer a more in-depth health check for PPC advertisers if required (see below).

Website design & functionality – once you drive visits to your website, how well does it perform? Our health check will identify any key issues like navigation, design or content issues, how ‘trustworthy’ is it, and more. We will also review your site on smartphones to see how you are catering for the growing mobile search market.

Analytics – does your site use an analytics package, and specifically Google Analytics? If so, what does it show and how can you use this powerful business information tool for your advantage?

Social media – finally, what role does social media play in your market and are you doing enough to capture potential customers from this market?

Google AdWords Health Check for 2013

If you’re currently using Google AdWords as part of your online marketing strategy, make sure your account is set up as effectively as possible for 2013 with our health check report. It’s becoming more important than ever to get the most from your search advertising spend, and so this report will highlight any key issues with your campaigns.

Our 10-point review will identify any potential areas for improving your AdWords campaigns, either through better targeting or reducing wasted spend. We’ll look at your account structure, the use of search terms (including negatives), how your adverts could be improved, and which ad extensions could help your clickthrough rates – all with the aim of improving your quality scores and get more visits and conversions for your spend.