Back in November Google introduced Ad Sitelinks which allows you to put 4 additional links to your site into your adwords ad.
Ad  Sitelinks give you more screen real estate in a prime location and early indications are that it results in more clicks. However to take advantage of it you need to have a good [...]

Two keys metrics in Google Analytics that are very widely used, particularly by occasional users, are Traffic Sources and Bounce Rate. Both are useful for example when applied to individual pages but they need to be used with an understanding of their limitations. Direct Traffic is defined as ” people who clicked a bookmark to [...]

The latest Google Analytics update has one new feature that is extremely useful for information sites – Engagement Goals. For charity and nfp sites I have found that the traditional url based goals do not give a clear feedback if users find the site useful. The new goals, which are very easy to implement, are [...]

The presentation on Search Engine Marketing that I did for UK charities and nfps back in June 2008 has now been viewed over 1,000 times. It covers the basics including products such as Google AdWords and Google Analytics. Hopefully people have found it useful. It feels like`good karma`- I have now given a  little back [...]

One of the most common questions from pretty much any organisation that uses Google Analytics (GA) is `what Key Performance Indicators (KPI) should we be monitoring ?`. Of course the simple answer is to measure what is important to you. This points us in the right direction but gives no clear answer. For me the [...]

Google`s new search engine produces, as expected, a range of results when tested with top keywords from UK charities. Announced last week the beta version of Google`s search engine, codenamed caffeine, with the same interface as the existing search is available for testing now.

To see how it may affect UK charities I compared the search [...]

Google recently updated Webmaster Tools making it easiser for  marketing and business types to find great data to improve site performance.  The good stuff is under the tab Your site on the web.  Top Search Queries tells you the number of times your site appeared in Google search results ranked in order plus the percentage [...]

The AdWords Impression Share Report tells you the percentage of times your ads were actually shown compared to the total number of times your ads could have been shown. Google introduced it some time ago as a share of market/ share of voice measurement. While it is not an easy report to fully understand it [...]

Building an efficient keyword list is critical to the success of an AdWords Campaign – whether using a Google Grant or a regular paid-for AdWords account. The best and easiest way to start a Campaign is to begin with small groups of closely related keywords/ phrases covering a single idea in each AdGroup. Initially they [...]

In the Keyword Tool Google has modified the Search Volume columns. The two columns are now labelled `Global Monthly Search Volume` and `Local Search Volume: `. Note that Local here means regional eg UK, France, etc.
A quick test indicates that the data in Local Search Volume is good but the lack of historic `Local` data [...]