Is paid advertising worth the outlay?

Yes & No, but there are conditions! Paid advertising is useless if it isn't done correctly. Many people register with Google AdWords, create an advert for as many vague keywords as possible and start throwing money away! Literally thousands of Google ads could be improved with a little foresight and planning.

Finding a niche keyword and paying 2p a click is all very well, as long as you realise its probably cheap because no ones searching for it. Google will provide tools 'a plenty to help you on your way with things, but using the tools is sometimes harder than it looks! Use Google's help section and the thousands of forums and blogs on how the tools can help.

Effectively paid advertising is only as useful as you make it. Throw money at it and you may as well burn it, learn how to use it and it becomes a valuable marketing tool!

To sum it all up I've listed some basic tips for using AdWords:

1. Be relevant; When choosing text, content and keywords be relevant to your site.
2. Have a landing page; Make the users transition from the ad to the relevant content on the page as simple as possible. Advertising a service, then sending them to the homepage to find it themselves will put people off.
3. Open your wallet; Some keywords are cheaper than others, chances are they are cheap because they are rarely searched for.

Be wise when setting your budget and remember Quality visitors from AdWords is much better than Volume of visitors especially if you are selling a service!

Till next time.

Dan

Are website directory links important?

We have all seen adverts on the Internet and arriving in our inbox advertising top ranking in the search engines for X amount of your hard earned cash. But can you encourage similar rankings without forking out? Over 80% of your web traffic will come from search engines, which begs the question where does the other 20% come from. Either directly typing in the URL or Directory links will make up the other 20%

Getting a listing in a directory provides visitors to the directory with a single page outline to your business. Getting the text right on this page can mean the difference between a click through to your website, or a competitor getting your business.

Business directories and Link directories are very important for increasing your traffic. With over 3'500 directories available, you can get a link to your website for free. We have found over 200 directories with a Google PageRank of 4 or above. Links to your website from high PageRank website are substantially more valuable.

Top tips for directory listings:

1. If you are on a limited budget opt for the Free listing. It may not get you click through but it will provide a valuable link to your website in the search engines.
2. Directories often use your "title" as a link to your website, to maximise your keywords saturation use a few keywords in your link text. e.g. "ClearInsite.co.uk" becomes "ClearInsite - Website Analysis, Design and Hosting".
3. Accurately choosing a category for your website to be listed in is valuable in ensuring you get quality traffic. There is no point in getting 1'000 visitors a day if only 2% of them are actually interested in what you are selling!

I hope these tips are useful, and help to get you into the search engines. ClearInsite offer a website directory submission service which will insert an ad into over 200 PageRank 4 website directories.

Till next time!

Dan

Welcome to Usability, Accesibility and Your Website

Welcome to the ClearInsite SEO and Accessibility Blog.

I'm Daniel Gallacher, IT Manager and Web Designer at ClearInsite, a company specialising in website usability, accessibility and search engine marketing.

Over the coming months I will regularly post tips and links to sites, that will help you make the most of your website. Also with new UK regulations regarding website accessibility, I will help you stick to the standards without compromising your design and layout!

But for now I shall leave a link, on the site you'll find a few valuable articles on SEO.
http://www.clearinsite.co.uk

If you require Website Analysis, Design or Hosting please click here.