The Influence of Branding

I've mentioned before the importance of branding and creating an important idea of trust for your website users. Every company needs and depends on this - even the search engines. Google's huge market share as a preferred search engine in the US is around 70% and only slightly less in the UK - so it's important to keep the branding up, to keep the users coming back.


There is a premise that you will always return to a search engine - like a store - to find what you're looking for, even if the products (in this case the results) start to worsen. With the arrival of Bing and Microsoft's intention of winning back some of that huge market share, Microsoft employee Michael Kordahi has developed a Blind Search Page which I think is a great idea.

The page has a search bar at the top, for you to search for anything you like - kind of like any normal search engine. However, the results page will show you three columns of results, from Yahoo! Google and Bing, but without the branding. You need to review the results, compare and then vote for the column you think has fulfilled your enquiry. Once you click, the results are revealed.



I think it's a very fun tool to play with - to have all 3 results on the same page right next to each other, and have enjoyed playing around with it. I suggest you give it a go and see what you think. Feel free to leave a comment below.

Want to appear high on these 3 search engines, too? I offer website optimisation in Barcelona to enable higher rankings for your chosen keywords. Or if your traffic needs an immediate injection then let me manage your Barcelona Adwords account.

The Google AdWords Hook - By Post

Like many of you, I'm sure, this morning I received through the post an invitation to Free 100 € credit for an AdWords account. The promotion is only valid until the 26th July, and comes with a personal code for you to reclaim your credit.

The leaflet is very clear, and states such benefits of "Earning clients with Google" with such ease of Three Easy steps. Create an Ad, Choose the keywords for your daily budget, and your clients will click and reach your company.

So, where's the catch? Well, the leaflet is clearly based at people who have little or absolutely no idea what Google AdWords is (it's only mentioned once on the whole 4-page leaflet), and they even have a 902 number where you can call and a "Google specialist" will help you create and set up your first AdWords account. And therein lies the catch. The coupon code if for accounts of less that 14 days old. The majority of first time users of an AdWords account will have useless keywords, far too broad, and even probably take heed of the keyword suggestion tool (basically encouraging you to spend more money). Depending on your sector/niche, the 100 Euros gift could be used up very quickly in clicks. However, you will be so tied up with the adwords campaign (which you have probably put a lot of effort into or spent money on the 902 number) that you'll want to continue, and will probably keep spending badly for hopeless clicks for another couple of months before either deciding that "it doesn't work/it's too expensive" - either that, or pay for a professional to have a tweak and set out a quality campaign. So it's a win-win situation for Google who'll probably easily make back the 100 € gift.

Have you received one of these through the post? What do you think? Please contact me for AdWords Management in Barcelona and for any other elements of Search Engine Optimisation in Barcelona I'll be happy to help.

Real Time Search

As I've mentioned before, the Engines are struggling to cope with the impact of real time search as seen on social sites such as Twitter. I think if you haven't claimed your social media name already, you're wasting time. At least your brand name or company name - even if you're unsure of what to do with it just yet.

We've seen steps recently that Google seems to be adding Twitter information (profiles, not Tweets) of fairly high profile users in the SERPs - where a normal search for your own name might throw up a Linkedin page, Ashton K's Twitter profile is showing.

Bing has also attempted to add real time search into their results, but it's a bit sketchy at best. Keep your eyes peeled for more.

Looking for better results from your website? Contact me at Barcelona SEO for a no obligation chat/review of your site. I also offer Link Building Services in Barcelona to boost your rankings in the SERPs.

Facebook Click Fraud

I commented on this blog last year about Facebook Ads and them being a cheaper alternative to Google's AdWords and other Pay Per Click ventures.


However, a recent thread over at techcrunch has highlighted the fact that many people feel they're being over charged for their accounts, with conflicting reports of clicks from Facebook compared the third party web analytics software. This is worrying as in some cases the ratio was said to be as bad a 1:10.

Facebook is a huge company who many believe have not been able to monetise their vast growth - the same kind of rumours flying around about Twitter at the moment. They are expected to raise $550 Million this year - over twice the amount raised in 2008, so that might be a big ask, especially as they're not the bigger player in the Facebook vs Twitter game in terms of growth.

I have 2 clients with Facebook ads, but we have had them on pause since December last year, so I can't comment directly on any known discrepancies with our Weblogs vs Facebook's spending/Billing cycles. What I will say, is that I won't be resuming either campaign just yet, until I can see a transparent solution (which if you read the techcrunch artile, Facebook cliam they're on top of it).

Looking for Website Optimisation in Barcelona ? We also provide SEO Training in Barcelona in a workshop or One-on-One basis. Please contact me for more details.

Search with a Bing

Microsoft recently released Bing, it's new Beta search engine, with a fairly powerful advertising campaign, and email campaign.



I have to say that compared to MSN search and Live! search, it's much much better. They've managed to clean out a lot of the spam from the listings, and there's a handy pop-up box to the right of the search results which displays what is on the page and other links on the page, too. It also looks more like a search engine home page, with no distractions apart from the search box (no news, no tabs, no other images) which is where Google has always steered clear from.

I can also say from the web analytics from my sites and some of the sites I manage that people are using Bing, or at least experimenting with it. It's not all just Google, which is good news I think. If people find the right information within Bing's results, they'll come back.

If you want to know how to optimise your site for the search engines like Bing, drop me a line at Barcelona SEO and we can chat about your site. Or if you're looking for instant traffic to your site, I can help set up and maintain your AdWords Barcelona Account, too.

How to Keep Visitors on Your Website - Part 6

Server Down time is an important factor in any website or online business. Google themselves have stated that if your server is down on more than one occasion that Googlebot tries to crawl your website, then you risk exclusion from the SERPs - obviously not something you want.

This is equally important for your regular customers or those which will visit your site either directly, or from another means that is not a search engine - other publicity or advertising you may do. Imagine if they visit your site ready to buy/sign up, and the server is down, so they get an error page. Not good. So how can you tackle this?



Some people would say pay for a dedicated server, so that you have a unique IP address for the site and thus avoid the possible pitfalls of shared servers, etc. However, there are easier ways of deciding whether or not to switch servers or hosts. For example setting up a website monitor service. This is not an affiliate post at all, but I'd like to share a free website monitoring service with you. The site is very easy to use and sign up for an account, and you will be emailed reports when your site is down, and when it comes back up again - handy to know and this kind of thing might influence a change of server, or dedicated server instead.

Not getting the results you want? Contact me for SEO in Barcelona Or fancy learning more about website marketing? I also offer SEO Training in Barcelona for groups or one on one.