“Dear site owner or webmaster, We’ve detected that some of your site’s pages may be using techniques that are outside Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Specifically, look for possibly artificial or unnatural links pointing to your site that could be intended to manipulate PageRank. Examples of unnatural linking could include buying links to pass PageRank or participating in link schemes. We encourage you to make changes to your site so that it meets our quality guidelines. Once you’ve made these changes, please submit your site for reconsideration in Google’s search results. If you find unnatural links to your site that you are unable to control or remove, please provide the details in your reconsideration request. If you have any questions about how to resolve this issue, please see our Webmaster Help Forum for support. Sincerely,Google Search Quality Team.”

Since then, unsurprisingly, the web has been full of comment.  What’s extraordinary though, is the number of features indicating that you shouldn’t panic, and that an element of this is bluff!  Amazing.

If you’ve received this message it’s because Google perceives that your website has been promoted through unsavoury link building. ie links for the sake of links, merely to achieve a higher page rank in Google and other search engines.  We’re often amazed at the number of ‘gurus’ in existence who promise you search engine results based on paying companies in the Philippines to list your site on thousands of bogus sites.

So, yes.  Panic.  You need to call us.  We’ll help you and your website by holding your hand through the generation and development of genuine and interesting content.  Only then will you win genuine links.  There is no other way.

Often, when pitching for a client’s Google AdWords business, we are granted access to their current campaign. This is occasionally preceeded by having to sign a non-disclosure agreement. This happened to BusyView a few weeks ago. We subsequently logged in, and couldn’t believe what we were seeing – a client, spending thousands of pounds a month, but with an average click through rate of below 0.25%.  For some month’s data, it was drastically below this.

We’ve just been shown another amazing example.

And yet, frustratingly, it appears clients are choosing their agencies on price ie how much they charge (or what percentage they charge) per click.  This shouldn’t be the case. Clients should be choosing their AdWords agencies based on click through rates achieved and subsequent conversions. If an agency gets this bit right, they’ll pay less per click (and get more of them for their money) anyway.

Somebody once said client’s get the advertising they deserve, and of course it’s true in this case too.

So, let BusyView give confused Google AdWords clients a quick but effective set of explanations:

Every time a Google searcher enters a term into Google, all AdWords advertisers who have selected these search terms are entered into an auction. For every one of these search terms or keywords a maximum bid is assigned. This is the maximum amount an advertiser agrees to pay per click.  However, the stronger the CTR on Google, the less you need to bid in order to achieve the higher performing ad positions.  You are therefore rewarded by AdWords for higher performing ads.  (This is part of Google’s attempt to ensure relevant ads are shown to relevant searchers.)

Another way of expressing this is as follows:

 Ad Rank = Click Through Rate x Maximum bid

 The higher the CTR (expressed as a percentage) you have, the better rank (higher up the page) you get without spending more.

Google AdWords used to be simpler.  One wrote an ad, chose a keyword, and then bid for position.  The more you bid, the higher position your ad was positioned.  But as from May last year, no more!  In a bid to improve relevancy, Google changed everything!  Being marketing savvy, and clearly concerned about their users/customers, Google wanted more control over what ads show or appear when certain keywords are used.  Just like organic search!  It’s all about relevancy.

The following three statements are related to Click Through Rates (CTRs) and are taken directly from Google.  These are key to running a successful Google AdWords campaign:

 ”CTR is the number of clicks that your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown (called impressions).

 A high CTR is a good indication that users find your ads helpful and relevant. CTR also contributes to your keyword’s Quality Score which can affect your costs and ad position.

You can use CTR to gauge which ads and keywords are successful for you and which need to be improved. The more your keywords and ads relate to each other and to your business, the more likely a user is to click on your ad after searching on your keyword phrase.”

In a nutshell, the higher quality score a keyword receives, the less you have to pay for a click, the more clicks you will subsequently be able to afford.

Easy!

Much like many of the other social networks, of course, but this one is a better attempt at replicating how we might organise information in the real world.

If you want to make a fortune on the next stock market floatation, send them a CV requesting a job in their London office.  They haven’t got one yet, but don’t say BusyView didn’t warn you.

We started by creating our own wonderful page.  And yes, it’s fun and interactive.  Move the slider to the right and watch our moon come down. Go ahead and like us!  After all, we’ve got a fun Facebook page!

But this is missing the point.

When was the last time you actively clicked ‘Like’ on a Facebook page?  For me, it was a long time ago.  Yet a whole industry has sprung up around the creation of funky corporate website pages begging you to like them. eg Redbull.  Why?  Once you’ve pressed ‘Like’ you will never see that page again, unless you actively seek it out.  It’s usually on the top, left-hand menu called Welcome or Home. Instead, anyone who selects ‘Like’ on a web page, should they ever return to that company’s Facebook page, will be taken directly to that company’s wall.  Significantly, anyone selecting ‘Like’ on a company’s Facebook page will have given the company the right and power to write to your wall. Hence the stampede to get you to ‘Like’.

It seems to us at BusyView however, (and this is the reason I probably haven’t selected ‘Like’ for a long time), there is little incentive for anyone to ‘Like’ many Facebook pages out there. There’s usually a lack of any marketing proposition. Many corporate Facebook pages (and ours is currently no different!), don’t provide you with any reason or incentive to click ‘Like’ – unless you’re Virgin Active and you hide your whole Facebook page and associated content until you’ve been “Liked”.  As a marketer I’m tempted by this approach.  But isn’t this a bit irritating for a prospective customer who has yet to decide to buy into your brand?  I guess you have to decide who your Facebook page is for first.

We’re about to start work on two Facebook pages for clients.  We’ll be deciding who the pages are for, and setting up compelling marketing propositions. We know why clients want a Facebook page. It gives them the right to write to many user’s walls. But we’ll be starting from the user’s perspective. What’s in it for them in the long term? ‘Like’ our page and you can buy our product a month before it comes on the open market. ‘Like’ our page and we’ll enter you into our monthly draw. ‘Like’ our page and we’ll give you 20% off every month. Every month someone who has clicked ‘Like’ on our page will be helicoptered into our HQ for lunch.

Interested?

Having launched Arron Storey’s site earlier this month, BusyView has just unveiled Brace Yourself!, a new website for a popular West London Covers band.  From The Killers to Kylie, and the Kings of Leon to The Kaiser Chiefs, we think Brace Yourself! has everything…

Our first work of the new year just gone live: http://www.arronstorey.com.

Arron is a professional musician.  He not only plays and teaches music, but writes and composes too.  We’re fans.  Let us know what you think.

Simon

In conjunction with Regasys, we have developed the following virtual tour for Ealing Squash and Fitness.  (Click on the banner on the home page).

With faster broadband speeds and the development of more sophisticated software, we are now able to represent our clients more effectively through visual technologies.

So, here’s another piece of terminology I’m going to try and use (with a straight face of course.)  I won’t pretend it’s mine.  A corporate conglomerate might get a bit upset.  But from now on, if your web content isn’t “liquid and linked” then you are doing something wrong.  Cool huh?

Liquid and linked!?  Apparently the on-line world isn’t short of content.  In fact, there’s too much of it.  So, any new content you produce must be liquid.  This means it has to be of such power and sufficient interest, that it becomes porous ie of sufficient value that it’s passed on and shared exponentially.

Linked?  Well there is no point producing liquid content if it isn’t linked.  ie linked to your brand, your core values and your marketing strategies.

Liquid and linked.  You heard it here first!  Err, unless you work for an extremely high profile soft drinks manufacturer….

Simon

This is a question we often get asked.  And we occasionally come across companies who physically count down to as many as twenty pages of Google themselves (before employing us, of course!)

We use many tools to track client progress, but if it’s just “Where is my page in Google?” one of the better tools around is Free Monitor for Google from Cleverstat.

Unfortunately, however, we never expect much from these utilities.  You see, what you see on Google isn’t what I see on Google.  Not only are results tailored towards your location, they are also influenced by your search history.  So there is a limit to what can be delivered by any software promising to tell you where you sit in Google.

Search has become personal, and is getting more so.

Yes, we read this, so you don’t have to!

It’s about time Google chucked out all those domain holding pages containing nothing but ads.