ABLAC Selects Amplify for SEO Initiative

Posted on 21 December, 2009 by Tom Petryshen

ablac-logoThe Australian Business Limited Apprenticeships Centre (ABLAC), a wholly owned subsidiary of the NSW Business Chamber (NSWBC) has selected Amplify to implement a SEO strategy across the business.

Amplify will work closely with ABLAC and third party partners to increase awareness of ABLAC’s Australian Apprenticeships services with employers and potential apprentices and trainees through SEO and later Paid Search.

“We chose Amplify because they took the time to understand our business and showed a genuine interest to work closely with our team and technology partner. We needed a partner with the right culture and expertise to help manage our stakeholders and educate the group” says Danielle Wilmot, ABLAC’s Marketing Manager.

Amplify’s proven SEO methodology & stakeholder management experience helped win the work from some of Australia’s leading providers that were short listed. “We are very transparent with our approach to SEO and spend a lot of time managing the stakeholders throughout the process,” says Amplify Managing Director, Tom Petryshen. “There are no smoke and mirrors. The success of a SEO project hinges as much on managing people and expectations as it does on the strategy, especially with a large group like ABLAC.”

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Google Introduces Cross-domain Canonical Tag

Posted on 17 December, 2009 by Tom Petryshen

In a move that provides more control to webmasters to handle duplicate content, Google has introduced cross-domain canonical tag support.

The new cross-domain rel=”canonical” link element provides some hope for businesses that are not able to setup server-side redirects such as a permanent 301 redirect. Unfortunately though, the tag is still treated as a suggestion, so there’s no guarantee it will be followed.

If possible, we still recommend that you use a 301 redirect to tell search engine crawlers the preferred domain as it makes it very clear which URL should be indexed. As part of a strong migration strategy, a 301 redirect ensures that you leave nothing to chance.

Outside of moving your domain, the tag could also be used for content syndication to ensure that your own content does not get outranked by the sites you share it with.

Overall, it’s great to see Google providing this additional support and provides another tool in our arsenal to tell the search engines which domain to pay attention to.

Posted in SEO, website migration | 2 Comments

Amplify Appointed Search Marketing Strategist for AOT Holidays & Crazy Sales

Posted on 8 November, 2009 by Tom Petryshen

aot-holidays-logoIndependent search marketing agency, Amplify has been appointed to handle the search marketing strategy of Australia’s largest wholesaler of domestic travel product, Australia Outback Travel (AOT) Holidays.

With a stable of consumer facing brands such as NeeditNow.com.au, Need to Escape, Sunlover Holidays, NSW Holidays and Travel Mate, Amplify will manage the search activities campaigns across all brands with a focus to lift conversions and revenue from the search channel.

AOT Holidays chose Amplify based on its results oriented methodology and proven track record in travel working with the likes of Webjet, Europcar and travel insurance provider, Mondial Assistance.

crazysales-logoThis latest appointment comes on the heels of winning the search engine optimisation (SEO) business for Crazy Sales, a rapidly growing online retailer located in Melbourne. Having previous experience with Deals Direct and OO.com.au, Amplify brings an intimate mix of strategic and technical knowledge within the competitive online retail space and will help Crazy Sales to drive sales and build their brand via search.

“We wanted a supplier that understood our market and business with the insight to improve our sales” says David Yin, Crazy Sale’s General Manager. “Amplify’s background with other leading online retailers gave us the confidence that they could help us achieve better results than we could do on our own.”

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Are you Wasting Money on Google’s Content Network?

Posted on 28 October, 2009 by Tom Petryshen

As a search agency, we were tickled when Google first launched the Content Network and Adsense for Publishers. Not only did it give us a new channel to increase the exposure and sales of our clients but it also allowed us to help some of our clients monitise their content. When setup correctly, Adsense can be profitable for both advertisers and publishers alike.

However, without the right strategy, advertising on the Google network can also be a costly adventure.

The biggest issue we see with advertisers is that they inadvertently use their ads created for the search network across the content network (thanks in large part to Google leaving the content network on by default). While it is possible to achieve a positive Return on Investment (ROI) running your ads across both networks in the same campaign, we often find that it leads to wastage as the ads are less targeted . Most accounts we review where ads are setup in this manner tend to only make money for Google.

Sadly, combining search and content ads in the same campaign often leads to poor targeting as shown in the example below from About Seniors.

about-seniors-adsense1

In this example it’s clear that the advertisers have not actively targeted ads for Seniors Travel Insurance. In fact, only the dating ad is even targeted at seniors with the others focused on general insurance, or worse ski travel insurance. Based on our knowledge of the content network, there’s a very good chance that these ads will not be profitable for the advertisers in question. In fact, the only bottom line they’re helping is Google’s.

How to improve your ads on Google’s Content Network?

So what can you do prevent your hard earned cash from funding Google’s slush fund? Here’s what we recommend at Amplify:

  1. Turn off the content network in campaigns where you’re already running ads across the search network.
  2. Setup a new campaign that only targets the content network.
  3. Be specific about the keywords you use for each Adgroup. In other words don’t include keywords that are not inline with your product theme.
  4. Be creative. Remember your audience is not searching so you will need to entice them to click away from the other website.
  5. Use different tracking code to help identify the ads in analytics.

These simple steps will help ensure that your content based ads are easier to manage, measure, more targeted and make you money.

Note: We believe strongly that Google should make the content network opt-in or clearly explain the difference between the search and content networks during the campaign setup process. We find their opt-out practice just a tad misleading.

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Windows 7 in 1 Minute

Posted on 27 October, 2009 by Jamie

Thinking about upgrading to Windows 7 for your business? We asked Joel Montgomery from Powerbuy, online home of I.T. coupons and cashbacks, to give us a quick overview of what to expect with Windows 7.

7 Things About Windows 7

Here are 7 things we think all Australian small businesses should know about Windows 7:

  1. Windows 7 is a lot faster than XP and Vista. Our partner, Correct Solutions, estimates a saving of 20-30 mins per person per day because everything works that bit quicker.
  2. You don’t need to buy a new PC to run it. Windows 7 is less “resource hungry” than Vista and requires a minimum 1GHz processor, 1GB memory (RAM) & 16GB hard disk space. If you’re running 512MB RAM then a Computer Troubleshooters engineer can come on-site and install it for cheap.
  3. Three  versions of Windows 7 will be available at launch – Home Premium, Professional & Ultimate. Vista Business and XP Professional users should upgrade to the equivalent Windows 7 Professional Edition.
  4. Vista  and XP compatible programs will also work on Windows 7, but, if you plan to run your XP compatible software on Windows 7 then make sure you buy the Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate Editions because the Home Premium edition does not support XP backwards compatibility.
  5. Upgrading to Windows 7 from XP is not that easy. All of your files, settings and folder structures will be lost when you do a fresh install. Make sure you have the original CDs for your XP-compatible software and back-up all of your files first. The whole process will take hours to complete.
  6. Take  advantage of the introductory upgrade pricing. If you’re running XP or Vista you can upgrade for between A$200 and A$400 per computer (except home version upgrades). Earlier models will pay full price for Windows 7. Better pricing is available for companies with Microsoft volume license agreements.
  7. If you purchased a laptop or desktop after June 26 2009 then it’s likely you’ll be entitled to a cheap or free upgrade. You’ll need to register with your manufacturer first, so check with Microsoft to see if you’re entitled.

What do you think? Is there anything else Australian small businesses should consider before upgrading to Windows 7?

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Australia.com and the Comic Side of Google Adsense

Posted on 26 October, 2009 by Tom Petryshen

For publishers, Google Adsense can be a great way to monitise traffic. However, we don’t recommend the following approach currently in use at Tourism Australia.

While conducting research for one of our clients, I came across a very interesting implementation of Google Adsense on Australia.com that left me scratching my head. Whether by design (without knowing Tourism Australia’s strategy there’s a chance that they wanted this outcome) or error, the Australia.com website is only showing their own ads (see screenshot below).

australia-adsense

As a general rule, most advertisers use Adsense to display ads from other businesses so they can make money. So using Adsense to pay Google to display your own ads defeats the purpose of using it in the first place (at least it would if I were using it).

Of course it doesn’t mean I’m right. I’m sure someone at Tourism Australia has a very valid reason for using Adsense in this manner. I’m just not sure what it is.

If you do, please feel free to drop us a note to clarify their strategy.

Posted in SEM | 2 Comments

Windows 7 – What Features Really Matter?

Posted on 23 October, 2009 by Jamie

With the launch of Windows 7, we asked Amplify friend Joel Montgomery, the tech-savvy owner of Powerbuy, the online PC cashback and Dell discount coupon super site, to give us his impression of Microsoft’s new OS.

Without further ado, here’s Joel’s perspective on Windows 7.

With the full launch of Windows 7 on October 22, we’ve weeded through over fifty new features to bring you what we believe are the most important features for small business users. Here is a quick summary of what’s great, and not so great, about the new Windows platform.

Windows 7 is Great For:

1. Employee Productivity

Things just seem to happen faster with Windows 7. Whilst start up and shut down time hasn’t reduced noticeably, opening files (particularly recent documents) and using Microsoft Office is much faster, and compared to Vista you’ll notice a lot less of those nonsense pop-up messages. If you’re using a smaller netbook [link] with less power you’ll notice an even more significant lift in performance.

What surprises most people about Windows 7 is that it seems to be less ‘buggy’ than Vista even in early release (before all the service packs and bug fixes come out). You can expect future revisions of Windows 7 will be even slicker.

2. Using Two Documents at the Same Time

Windows 7 Aero Snap

Windows 7 is great for editing to two word documents, comparing two excel files, or having both your Internet browser and email displayed on the screen simultaneously. In previous versions it was difficult to re-size two windows to fit nicely next to each other but with the Windows 7 “Aero Snap” function you can position two adjacent windows with a very simple click and drag of the mouse.

If you find yourself using the Aero Snap function then you should know that this works best on widescreen flat panel monitors, so if you don’t have a widescreen now might be the right time to upgrade.

3. Sharing Files Between Multiple Computers

Windows 7 HomeGroups

If your business runs a small group of computers then we think you’ll love the HomeGroups feature. HomeGroups is a really simple, new method of creating a network between multiple computers without the need for a server or a techie to set it up. Previous versions of Windows made this really difficult, but now you can share files, printers, media and more with only a few mouse clicks. No more USB memory keys or emails to share large files amongst your team!

Windows 7 is Not Great For:

1. Surfing the Internet

Windows 7 comes with Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) and if you ask any enthusiast they’ll tell you IE8 underperforms against the competition. It crashes unexpectedly, it’s not very fast and the features are lacking. People in the know use Firefox – a great web browser that is stable and feature rich. Thankfully you can install Firefox for free and it works fine on Windows 7.

2. Playing Media Files (Music & Video)

Listening to music and watching videos may not be a big deal in the work environment, but Microsoft Windows Media player continues to be difficult to use and unable to support all common media types. iTunes is still a far better alternative for playing media files.

The General Consensus on Windows 7

The techies are very positive about Windows 7 which is a huge contrast to the negative press Vista received prior to launch. For day to day business use we think you will see a noticeable improvement in productivity because Windows 7 works faster and crashes less than both Vista and XP. If you use Firefox instead of IE8 and iTunes instead of Windows Media Player then you’re guaranteed a better experience than you’ve ever had with your PC.

So, have you tried Windows 7 yet? Tell us your thoughts below.

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Selling Shoes Online – Startup Lessons from an ex-Googler

Posted on 19 October, 2009 by Marc

Ever wanted to start your own business online? Odds are you have, but found the whole process of kicking off your own startup a daunting task. Well if that’s the case, you’re going to find this blog post by former Googler (and Amplify friend) Michael Fox well worth your time. Michael left Google to sell shoes online and we think his insights make for delightful and informative reading. Without further ado… over to Michael!

From Google to Selling Shoes Online

Mike, Jodie and I have always liked to dabble in starting different online businesses and over Christmas 2008 we decided that we wanted to explore doing something more seriously so we started brainstorming different ideas for a business. We came up with the following criteria for what we wanted in a business:

Online Retail Offers Opportunities

1. We wanted to do something in online retail as it’s a space that is well behind on the innovation front. The reason for that is it’s not a super easy area to work in so a lot of web savvy startup people avoid it – you have to deal with a physical product and all the issues that brings. The second benefit of online retail is that it’s simple enough to monetise – you sell a product. Unlike other online businesses you don’t have to re-invent the wheel to monetise what you’ve created.

2. We wanted to find a product that had a strong point of difference and a good PR story to it. The best way to market a business these days is by word of mouth, and (although we might be biased having worked at Google) not too far behind that is search engines. A product that is different and exciting encourages people to tell their friends about it = great for word of mouth. And when they talk about it online, on their blogs and websites it’s great for SEO.

And so we chose to sell… Shoes!

So armed with these criteria we went in search of a product. Jodie loves shoes and on her trips to Europe she would always fly through Hong Kong to visit her favourite bespoke shoe stores. So we thought if we could offer reasonably priced, high quality custom made women’s shoes online we would have met our criteria, so Shoes of Prey was born.

From having the initial idea to launch took 9 months, a rather apt gestation period! While we’ve detailed many of the challenges we’ve faced on our blog 22 Michaels, some of the key ones have been:

1. Finding a suitable supplier.

This posed a potentially business killing problem as most shoe suppliers want runs of 1000′s of shoes, not 1 shoe! We decided the best course of action was to find a supplier who already makes custom made shoes. We traveled to Hong Kong and China to meet with various suppliers and eventually settled on a supplier who had made many of the custom shoes Jodie had bought over the years. They were keen to work with us and we knew their product was great and it’s been a great match!

2. Making shoes in the right size for our customers.

This is difficult. Large online shoe retailers like Zappos get around this problem by suggesting you order your shoes in 2 or 3 different sizes, then returning the ones that don’t fit which Zappos can then put back on the warehouse shelf. Clearly we can’t do this because our shoes are custom made. We explored many different possibilities like instructions for how to measure your feet or an iPhone app along the lines of the very cool RulerPhone, however we’ve settled on having you tell us your most common size which we’ll then make for you. And if we don’t get it right you can return the shoes and we’ll remake them in a new size. This is potentially costly for us if our return rate is high, both in monetary terms and customer satisfaction, however we’re upfront about this with our customers and we’re exploring other sales channels to sell the shoes that don’t fit. This sizing issue means repeat customers have an even higher value for us than a normal business.

3. Online marketing.

As we outlined above online marketing potential was a key criteria in selecting a business and so far so good. Communicating with only our personal networks and the 100 people who signed up to our email list prior to launch, we’ve had over 10,000 site visits and excellent sales in the first week. So now we’re up and running we’re looking to ramp up our online marketing efforts:

  • We selected the business for it’s word of mouth potential and our plan is to encourage this by finding PR opportunities for the brand, particularly in the online space.
  • We’ve built the site to be SEO friendly.
  • There’s solid search engine traffic on keywords like ‘bespoke shoes’ and ‘custom shoes’ so we’re in the process of setting up a Google AdWords campaign.
  • We’re adding social features to the site to encourage customers to discuss their designs with their friends.
  • When you design a shoe we provide the html code so you can easily embed a link to your shoe on your website (great for SEO).
  • We’ve created a Facebook Page and Twitter account so we can communicate with our customers in the places they like to spend their time.
  • We’ve set up a fashion blog where Jodie discusses the latest fashion trends and provides ideas on how to incorporate these into your shoe designs.

It’s been a challenging and very exciting 9 months getting the business up and running and we’re so pleased to have had a great launch. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us and we’re well aware of the statistic that 90% of business fail within the first few years so we’re keen to do our bit towards reducing that number! To that end we’d love to hear and be very grateful for your thoughts and suggestions for the business in the comments section below.

Posted in Online Retail | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Import Google Analytics Goals to Adwords in 5 minutes

Posted on 29 September, 2009 by Josh

Some time ago Google announced that Adwords advertisers can now import Google Analytics (GA) goals to their Adwords account. This feature allows advertisers to use Adwords Conversion Optimizer even if they are only tracking conversions through GA goals. Secondly, if you don’t already have Adwords conversion tracking, you can now start to measure your SEM performance more effectively with conversion rate and CPA (cost-per-acquisition) data available in the Adwords interface. I recently set this up for a client and it started to collect and display conversion data on Adwords after a few days. It took me less than 5 minutes! Here’s how:

1. Link your Google Adwords & Analytics Accounts

You’ll have to link your Google Adwords and Analytics accounts before anything else, and also have at least one active goal in GA that is already tracking conversions through PPC. This is important – if your active goals haven’t tracked any conversions or transactions yet, the option to import your GA goals in the Adwords interface won’t appear in the account.

2. Link your Google Analytics Goals & Transactions

In the Conversion Tracking section of your Adwords account, you should now see a message saying “Google Analytics Goals and Transactions are now available”.

conv-tracking-link-goals

Eureka! Link your goals, and proceed to the next step.

3. Specify Action Name and Tracking Purpose

Think of a relevant and descriptive action name for each of the Analytics goals that you want to track.

link-analytics-goals

As the goals I wanted to track involve downloading a programme or emailing the client, I used action names like ‘Software Download XYZ’ and ‘Email XYZ’ to describe each goal. Next, specify the tracking purpose of each goal.

link-analytics-goals-1

It is vital that the correct tracking purposes are assigned to each goal, as this will appear when conversion reports are created in the Adwords Report Centre. For a website tracking multiple goals/actions, this can help advertisers see where each transaction type achieves the best performance at the campaign, adgroup and keyword level.

With the action name and tracking purpose correctly assigned, all you have to do now is link the goals!

link-analytics-goals-2

4. Accrue Conversion Data & Start Testing

link-goals-successful

You should then be sent back to the main Conversion Tracking page, with your new goals successfully linked! You now have better measurable data to optimise your Adwords account in line with targets and sales goals.

Google says it takes about 24 hours before conversions start appearing in your Adwords account. But do not stress if conversions still are not showing after this time, even if Google Analytics says otherwise.  I waited 48-72 hours before any goal conversions from GA started showing in the Adwords interface. I cannot figure out the reason for this other than to assume that it takes a while for data to be sent through from Analytics to Adwords.

Good Luck!

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Yahoo Search Marketing Updates Reporting (Hallelujah)

Posted on 23 September, 2009 by Patrick

A recent addition to the YSM! Reporting emporium, known as the Ad Delivery Report, is a step in the right direction for Yahoo and in the interest of its advertisers. The report is aimed at giving advertisers the feeling they have more control over where the money they allocate to the Yahoo network is spent.

The new Yahoo Ad Delivery Report does have some great features. The most obvious is that your current YSM accounts could benefit from higher ROI and cost savings, through optimisation using this report. More exciting though is the potential growth of this tool into something much bigger, which could encourage other search engines to follow suit.

How useful is the data offered in the new Yahoo Ad Delivery Report?

The new report is aimed at giving users more transparency, into the performance of the traffic they receive from Yahoo. Although the report works as advertised, it lacks the punch Yahoo so desperately needs.

For instance, we would have loved for the Ad Delivery Report to provide information on domains at the campaign, ad group and even keyword level. With this additional information in hand, advertisers would likely block more, less targeted domains at the campaign level, and improve the ROI of their campaigns.

(The Google content network already uses this functionality to track the performance of each domain at the campaign and ad group level.)

Yahoo Network Distribution

Yahoo has released a new network distribution tool. This feature is more of a blanket, high level approach to domain blocking. Using this distribution tool, Yahoo advertisers can actively select whether they want to appear in Yahoo’s premium network (yahoo.com and bing.com) or on the standard network (similar to the Google partner network).

Yahoo advertisers can choose to appear in the standard network only and be excluded from the premium search engine pages. As shown below in the network distribution diagram taken from a Yahoo! search marketing account.

yahoo-network-distribution-table

Know your Traffic Volumes before Making Changes

The best feature of this tool is that it shows the advertiser campaign metrics, specific to the individual distribution channels. Advertisers can instantly see what traffic would be eliminated, before requesting the change.

To make a more informed decision before opting out of either channel, advertisers can use the Ad Delivery Report to access more detailed metrics including revenue and conversion data for each channel.

Good, but could be Better!

It’s unfortunate that Yahoo has rolled out another half baked attempt at improving the user experience for its advertisers. While these new tools do offer some benefit, it is hard to compare them to other tools like Google’s Search Query Report which offers a whole lot more and allows advertisers to truly improve their paid search campaigns through optimisation with targeted, accurate information.

Improvements to some of the new and existing features at Yahoo could be really boost advertiser confidence and give Yahoo a competitive edge that other search engines would need to follow.

Posted in General, Search Engines, SEM | Tagged | 2 Comments