September 1st, 2010
One question which is often asked is how important is the age of a domain name (web address) when it comes to Search Engine Optimisation?
The points behind this question include:
- well-established sites have old domain names, so by reverse logics, an old domain should mean that the site is well established;
- spammers register and drop domains quickly, thus logically spamming sites usually have newly registered domain names.
Generally, webmasters agree that domain age isn’t the most important Search Engine ranking factor but opinions vary:
1. it can be no factor at all;
2. it can play only a single minor factor in the millions of other factors (but it still is);
3. it matters a lot.
Google’s patent “Information Retrieval Based on Historical Data” of 31/03/2005 implies that Google does look into domain registration (1) and renewal (2) dates:
1. … the date that a domain with which a document is registered may be used as an indication of the inception date of the document.
2. Certain signals may be used to distinguish between illegitimate and legitimate domains.
… Valuable (legitimate) domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway (illegitimate) domains rarely are used for more than a year. Therefore, the date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain and, thus, the documents associated therewith.
While the patent does sound rather straightforward (by the way its official version is no longer available online, so it might have been deleted), domain age factor is both overestimated and misinterpreted. The point is simple: domain registration date cannot speak for either quality or trustworthiness of a website as:
- domains can be registered but never used for a long time (parked);
- new domains can be used for highly established companies (with the old domain redirecting to the new one);
- domain name can be used for illegitimate purposes for years and then sold to a “good” person/company without any change of the initial registration date.
Thus our verdict to the whole dispute is as follows:
1. Website age (and its backlink profile age) is what really matters;
2. Domain age can play a minor part only as damping factor – i.e. one of the factors signaling the search engine that this might be a spammy / illegitimate site;
3. Old domains may carry more weight due to their past records (i.e. old backlinks pointing to them) – this can be a good point to consider but then again if you are serious about your brand, keep in mind that an established domain already has associations and history before you own it and they might be hard to conquer.
Conclusion: domain registration date won’t of course hurt but it will hardly help. So we would focus on registering a new short niche-related and catchy domain name instead of trying to buy an old (previously owned by someone) one.
Posted in FL1, Marketing, Search Engines | No Comments »
August 31st, 2010
This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
For all the praise that brand advertisers have for social media, they must be aware that it’s very much a double-edged sword. And for all the free marketing, advertising and brand promotion via Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Linked In, and other platforms used to help build an identity and relationship with your customers, it can just as quickly turn on you and your brand.
Social media disasters occur for a number of reasons, the first being that your company probably messed up. It may not have been intentional, but something, somewhere down the line, went wrong enough for someone to complain and it was enough for others to vocalize that complaint en masse. One mistake is all it takes for social media to turn against your brand.
No one is perfect and you can’t expect to please everyone all the time, so the best trick is to be prepared for how to handle things if your company finds itself under attack in the social realm. Here are three examples of companies who were attacked by social media and how they handled, or should have handled the situation. Learn from their mistakes or successes so you can stay on social media’s good side.
Read more …
Posted in FL1, General, Marketing | No Comments »
August 6th, 2010
It’s the summer holidays for many, and things typically slow down.
Not for us I’m glad to say, as the internet gets busier and busier with more online business being done than ever before.
A key part of making any business work is being to measure its performance and make effective decisions on your findings.
The internet is no different.
Using tools such as Google Analytics, it’s possible to see what’s working and more importantly not working with your website.
We continue to get asked more questions about Google Analytics than any other subject, that’s why we’re offering a free training session throughout this August.
Drop us a line or follow this link if you’d like to know more.
Posted in FL1, General, Marketing, Search Engines, Technology | No Comments »
August 2nd, 2010
It’s been an interesting past few weeks at FL1 Group.
As well as building blogs, shops and content managed websites, we’ve been involved with securing a company’s website that wasn’t PCI/DSS compliant. The website stored credit card details in a database that was hacked into and the credit card details were retrieved. Two of them were used fraudulently, and that’s where the story began. The banks got involved with fines and costs to recover the costs of the fraud. Added to this the company has been forced to go through a programme of becoming fully compliant. To-date, adding the costs of consultants, website changes, fines, costs to re-issue cards, and significant amount of off-line processing changes and new equipment, the cost to the business at this current time runs in excess of £170,000!
This particular business is lucky enough to be owned by a much larger parent company that could absorb these costs, but these sorts of costs would easily put most small companies out of business.
It’s been an eye opening project that’s for sure, and based on what we’re learning from it, we’ll certainly be putting together a seminar to help more business understand what PCI/DSS is all about and how to stay on the right side of the banks.
It’s not all been about “the dark side” of the internet though…honest!
Ali’s been settling back in and taking to his new role as designer and project manager like a duck to water.
We’ve also teamed up with some a partner that will help our online stores excel using the shopping and affiliate portals, which has to be a good thing in these challenging times.
More on that next month!
As Google’s superb Analytics package gets better and better, we’re proud to announce some free workshops we’re running throughout the summer holidays. We install it on every single website we build, so if you’d like to know how to see how your website is really working, let us know.
The most important thing to consider, is tools like Google Analytics allow you to discover what’s working, but more importantly what’s not!
If you’d like to book a Google Analytics workshop or want to know more about PCI/DSS, drop us a line or call 01727 739812.
See you next month!
Posted in E-commerce, FL1, General, Search Engines, Seminars, Technology | No Comments »
July 1st, 2010
If you’re running an e-commerce website, improving the conversion of your product pages can have a dramatic effect on your bottom line. While many site owners focus the majority of their time on managing various advertising sources, focusing some time on optimising your website for conversions can often yield even stronger gains.
With Google recently releasing some tips for product page conversion, I thought I’d share the most useful advice with you below.
Product Images
Use a minimum of 3-4 images for each product so visitors can see it from different angles and being used in different ways.
Add the functionality for visitors to zoom in and get a closer look at the product.
Make sure to use professional, high quality images.
It’s common practise to place images on the right hand side of pages, but make sure to test alternative placements within your layout.
Product Descriptions
Benefits vs Features – Customers want to buy the benefits of your product, not its features. Tell customers that the grill they are buying will cook tasty and healthy food and save them money rather than having low emissions and four individual burners.
Test writing alternative sales copy instead of using the existing description provided by the manufacturer. This is one way to set you apart from competitors.
Delivery and Stock
Include current stock levels on your page. If your product is running low, tell the customer to order today.
Set expectations around delivery times and be as accurate as possible.
Run free shipping promotions – this can be a great way to boost conversions during major sale periods.
Other Important Elements
Reviews can be a great way to increase conversions, but make sure to only use legitimate reviews.
Give your page a single clear call to action or add to cart button.
Test including cross sells on your pages and see what impact it has on overall conversion/revenue.
Posted in E-commerce, FL1, Marketing, Search Engines | No Comments »