Web content that improves your return on investment

Jonathan Bowers, January 31st 2008, 12:09PM

In relation to other advertising mediums, the internet is just emerging from infancy. It's no surprise then that many people are still not getting sponsored links right and essentially throwing money away by delivering poor relevance.

Search engines reward on relevance for a very good reason - it's what the user wants. So if you place an ad online and it doesn't lead to a page that delivers on the promise of that ad - you are punished two fold. Users will not stay on your site and Google will in turn hold back from rewarding you.

How can Google promote a website that the user doesn't want to see?

There are some very simple rules you can follow in preparing the landing pages for your online advertising that will help to keep the visitors from reverting back to the search results never to return again.

First off, you should make sure your 'Creative' which is the descriptive text within the advert is an exact distillation of the page they will click through to. Then ensure that this page is the most relevant page on your website for these keywords. Do not require your user to click further to find the information they need.

To give yourself the best chance of converting the visitor make sure that the navigation across the website is very simple and user friendly so that your landing page is as few clicks away from a transaction as possible.

There is one major 'don't' with landing pages too. Do not place them in an area that requires a login or registration process before the user can reach the information they require. This is a sure way to send them straight back to the search results with a bitter taste in their mouth.

At UKFast we create new pages for every keyword that appears in our advertising campaign. It's an ongoing process that can be very rewarding when done correctly.

Tags: advertising, adwords, websites
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Internet attackers Storm Valentine's Day

Jonathan Bowers, January 18th 2008, 12:33PM

Following on from an earlier post about spam and the responsibility of the user to avoid encouragement, I thought it worth highlighting a particular attack that shifts its consumer focus.

One of last year's worst viruses is known as Storm. The virus takes many forms and disrupts in many ways, it does not fall into the category of Trojan, Bot or spam agent (which all effect computers in different ways) it is in fact all of the above.

The cyber criminals behind this project are constantly reinventing the emails that deliver it and use red letter days - or special occasions to try and trick users into opening the email and downloading the file.

A report this week from Websense informs us that Storm's focus is now on Valentine's Day having shifted from a New Year focus. It is always worth bearing in mind that any email you receive from an unknown user are likely to be spam and not worth opening. Following this rule and deleting on receipt - without opening - avoids encouraging the machines behind the attack to resend in different forms.

Tags: spam
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Spam increases - are we to blame

Jonathan Bowers, January 9th 2008, 6:12PM

December saw the worst proportion of spam to legitimate email that we have ever experienced according to a report by SoftScan. All the focus is on the perseverence of relentless spammers and not enough thought is being placed on the ways in which we as email users are encouraging this activity.

Too many people are unaware of the technology that is at play behind these emails. Many people believe that as long as they do not respond to the email they have not encouraged it. However, as soon as you open the majority of spam emails it sends a message back to the originator confirming that your address is valid and adding it to a database that they can then sell to others spammers.

As users we are responsible for encouraging spammers often without even realising.

Tags: spam
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established businesses and web technologies

Jonathan Bowers, January 8th 2008, 12:03PM

A new survey headed up by KPMG adds further weight to the argument that B2B companies are not embracing many of the webs potent communication technologies because they do not fit in with traditional company procedures.

The survey, which draws its conclusions from answers provided by 472 executives worldwide actually pinpoints security and governance issues as the main reasons for the slow adoption of tools such as blogging, podcasting and wikis. However, combining this with many meetings I have had with executives over the last year or so, I would say that the fears about changing company policy and transferring trust and responsibility are at the heart of the decision.

A large number of executives in decision making positions at long established organisations simply do not feel equipped to give the go ahead. This is why the areas of the business community that have exploded onto the web 2.0 scene have been driven by the SME community. Smaller machines have less key decision makers and arguably less policy and red tape, allowing them to move with the times much more successfully.

What's the solution? I guess it's education. One executive pointed out to me recently that people simply don't know where to go to start acquiring good technology services and many CTOs have let their knowledge slip over the years and find it hard to admit that they need to refresh their skills and move forward.

What businesses need is to be presented with substantial proof that changing their working model and including web 2.0 techniques will bring tangible economic benefits? I believe this information is available but also think that a psychological shift has to occur for many decision makers to be ready to consider the options seriously.

Tags: business_policy, web2.0
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Empower business with online video

Jonathan Bowers, January 4th 2008, 11:03AM

As ever there are many blogs about what the big trends of the next year will be. Some say widgets will guide growth online, others believe personalisation of online services will be the focus. In the business community I believe we are going to see media empowerment. Written content will continue to be the main format for business commmunication but online video is going to prove to be a very potent force allowing a stronger voice in ways that we haven't seen before.

As a hosting provider, UKFast is able to look at thousands of businesses and draw conclusions about excellent business practice from those who are competing at the top of their chosen fields online. What we can see is that the companies growing at the fastest rate are those who are truly engaging with their audiences and communicating with them through multimedia formats.

Imagine how much more Northern Rock could have done to bolster customer confidence in the aftermath of the crisis if they had taken a more personal approach to informing their customers. The website included a list of FAQ's regarding the situation but they could have posted video from senior management talking direct to each customer. This would have been much more effective.

Crisis management is just one area where video is priceless. I think we are going to see a boom over the coming months in video being employed directly on company websites as a new element in the drive to build trust with the target community.

Tags: communication, video
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