1. Use Google apps for your email. Offering Microsoft exchange features such as multi device sync and calender management, it is a great tool for email management and more. Combined with virtually permanent up time and the backing of a massive company like Google its difficult to argue against it, especially when it is free.

2. Use 123-reg.co.uk for your domain management. Not the cheapest domain name supplier but as I have said in a previous post you don’t end up paying for everything as an extra.

3. Pick your hosting provider. I don’t have any recommendations here, yet, I have tried a few with varying degrees of success and each has its pros and cons. Probably an ideal topic for another day.

If you need help setting any of these up then feel free to give me a call.

Michael Bates – Managing Director – MSI Commerce – Marketing driven ebusiness

A company I have been working with was offered some Pay per click (PPC) advertising, 8 keywords for a fixed fee of £100 a month. Wow all you can eat advertising for £100 a month.

That’s fine as long as the 8 keywords selected actually generated any traffic, they weren’t, so basically the company was making £100 a month for doing nothing and incurring no costs – no clicking – no pay.

The company in question could have had an account and the keywords setup in an hour. I could then have monitored for an hour a month/bi-monthly/once a quarter and saved the best part of £100 a month for advertising on worthwhile keywords.

If you are unsure about any aspect of internet marketing it is probably worth spending an hour on some consultancy, rather than wasting a fortune on nothing every month.

Michael Bates – MSI Commerce – Advice on all aspects of  online marketing.

Unfortunately we watched the the site move from 700+ to 800+.

Then the email we had been waiting for… Google saying we have reconsidered your site. Great. Then the site fell out of the top 1000.

I was left scratching my head.

However, now a week after the email the site is back to the top.

Finally.

Anyway, we went back through the basics just to make sure we hadn’t overstepped the mark. Removed some recently added products, just in case the balance of keywords had been thrown. And we waited … position 700+. Not good, we were moving backwards rapidly.

I had gone through and checked that each of the links from the home page connected to sensible content using Microsofts internet explorer. What I should have done, and as a tip to those focusing on Google, was to use Google Chrome browser to review the sites. It turns out that one of the links connected to a site containing malware links. Only when I opened the site through Google’s Chrome browser was a warning displayed regarding the problem.

Links are removed and a reconsideration submitted, just waiting for the Google bods now.

Michael Bates – Director – MSI Commerce for SEO

Now if you own a domain name, I can guarantee that you will want to hook it up to a website. If the site is hosted somewhere else it appears that some domain name companies want to charge you for the privilege of pointing it to your website. Not just once either but every year and this is on top of your domain name registration fee.

There is a better way 123-reg.co.uk offer an all in price when you register the domain name. Unlimited updates and access to a host of other services. They might be £2 more expensive to register your domain name but it pays in the long run.

If you need assistance registering your domain name then do give me a call.

Michael Bates – Director – MSI Commerce, marketing driven e-business

A recent call revealed that an acquaintance had been off and had a website developed. The company in question didn’t do search engine optimisation, which is a shame as this is critical in developing a site. I have said it before and will say it again there are a few key elements to a site which are vital from an SEO stand point.

1. Ensure that each page has appropriate titles and that they are not the same across the whole site. Google prefers that they are not the same, as this indicates that the content is the same across all the pages. Titles should be unique.

2. Please ensure that you have the ability, if they are not their already, to add tags to existing/new content. Specifically marking certain parts of the page with h1 tages is key.

3. If you are buying a site with a content management system (please do it will save you money in the long run) then ensure it has access to elements such as the page titles, meta keywords and meta description. The meta description is still the call to action from the search results page. If you can’t add something, then Google will randomly select some other stuff from the page which may not be an appropriate message for a potential customer.

The concept is very simple really, a web site (probably ecommerce) will pay affiliate web sites for sending them traffic. Why? I here you ask.

Well the web is a massive place and someone like Amazon (Don’t worry if you are a little smaller than the big A this still applies) can never expect to reach the top position for every product they sell. In fact if you look at the web today, it is mainly the review and user generated content sites that reach the top. It therefore makes sense, rather than spending money on search engine marketing, to share some of your margin with those at the top. It will probably cost you less in the long run.

Plus it is not just one link to a product from one site, it could be hundreds of links from many sites. Similar to having a high street presence in every city… well in the world.

The really interesting part about Pennymix, is that it will pay you money back for clicking through the to ecommerce sites and making a purchase. What, what, what??? exactly. Well the margins are just cut further. Pennymix now takes some of the money it earns and gives it back to you for using its site as the launch pad into the retailer. Everyone wins so to speak. The retailer sells, Pennymix gets paid and you earn cash back on your shopping. Affiliate heaven.

This isn’t limited to the big boys (sorry persons), small retailers can provide an affiliate application form on their site. You may need to make it worth their while but it starts your expansion on to every high street in the world….