Leading edge search engine optimisation strategies need to encompass both breadth and depth in terms of keywords, in order to strike the right balance between strong phrase URL associations and to increase the overall authority of the whole domain, according to PR, social media and SEO agency Punch Communications.

Whilst many traditional SEO strategies view a site as a holistic entity, another approach which is growing in appeal amongst the search community is to create a strong association between a specific keyphrase and a specific page – ie a ‘deep’ approach rather than a broad one.

Whilst clearly many sites cannot base their traffic numbers solely on the basis of a few well ranked keywords that are indexed and paired with sub-pages within a domain, the approach complements a broad strategy, where each link offers an incremental overall benefit to the whole site, effectively giving the best of both worlds.

Pete Goold, Managing Director of Punch, which has evolved from its roots as a PR agency, commented:

“The whole issue of branded versus unbranded keywords is interesting in the context of a deep versus a broad strategy – in effect it’s a question of making a judgement on a number of levels in terms of the most rapid route to traffic.

“On the one hand a deep approach will yield less overall benefit and relies on the success and prominence of one or possibly two specific terms per page. In other words, if interest in this term diminishes then the strategy will be less effective.

“However, a broad strategy relies on the continual improvement of the site and, on external factors, such as competitor activity, to a far greater extent. Conseqently whilst it’s ideal to rank as broadly as possibly and thereby cover all bases, it’s neither practical nor effective to do so, hence the growth in the appeal of the deep strategy as a swift route to traffic, if managed well.”

For more information regarding online PR or any other aspect of PR, Search or Social media campaigns, please visit www.punchcomms.com or call +44 1858 411600 for an informal chat. Add a comment

Companies located around the world are being urged to become more aware of the financial costs of web downtime.

Andrew Hilton, Technical Director at QuadroNation, said companies were in danger of losing thousands of pounds in revenue after recent studies showed almost one in four companies have suffered an outage that lasted more than one business day.

In order to combat the problem and after requests from their customer base, Andrew and the team have developed a web monitoring service entitled ‘UporNot’, which alerts businesses the minute they have an issue with their website, email server or any web accessible service for that matter.

Andrew said: “When a company suffers from IT downtime it means that it is having a direct affect on that business. Some firms can lose up to £10,000 an hour or even a staggering £1m a day, which means that the problem needs to be taken more seriously.

"What we have now created is a tool to stop that from happening. The moment there is something wrong with a website, we are alerted and the problem can be rectified as soon as possible.”

The need for strategic IT support is becoming increasingly important as firms strive to provide high levels of service to retain long-standing customers.

Andrew added: “IT support companies are still as invaluable as ever to any business, however, if a site goes down, it has to be treated in a different way than when there is something wrong with an email system, for example and being aware of the issue is really the first step.”

UporNot, which has now gone live, has already attracted global interest as it provides its services to companies around the world.

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A new Internet start-up is looking to revolutionize the way bloggers and website owners optimize and enhance their sites to better suit their customers and visitors.

By adding 1 line of HTML to a website, designers and website owners will be able to watch replays showing exactly how visitors use their websites – with every mouse movement, click and page scroll being displayed in real-time. It’s like sitting next to the visitor, watching their screen!

The new technology doesn’t require any software to be installed and records visitors from desktops, laptops and even the Apple iPhone.

MouseTrace offers a simple solution which allows any website owner or designer to monitor how their visitors really use their website or blog, no more guessing why people aren’t engaging more, buying or signing up for your newsletters. Drop 1 line of HTML code into your website and then sit back and watch your visitors as they navigate through your website.

By watching how the visitors actually use a website or blog, owners are able to rapidly find faults and identify where improvements can be made to drastically increase sales, better target advertising and improve reader engagement.

Founder, Dan Field explains “We developed the technology behind MouseTrace to enable us to improve our Google AdWords landing pages and our registration processes, which then lead to much better sales conversions for our other Internet businesses.”

“Without this kind of technology we were blind to how our visitors were using our websites, which means we were guessing where the improvements were needed”.

One of the unique features of MouseTrace is that it also keeps a record of what the webpage looked like at the time of the visit, so if it is being used on a blog you can watch how user engagement changes as the blog is updated – or in the case of an e-commerce site, try out different layouts or display options. By storing the raw page content at the time of the visit, MouseTrace is also able to display an accurate representation of the page as the visitor saw it –including how it fits within the visitors’ browser window.

MouseTrace is also the first to record user activity from iPhone users as well, showing the website owner how their website looks on the device and how the visitors are navigating through the website including zooming in and out of pages, rotating the view and using multi-touch gestures.

The MouseTrace service is being launched in the US and the Europe today, with further enhancements already in development. Add a comment

British firms are losing time and money from out-dated office practices and a struggle to handle and store electronic documents, according to research released today by 1&1 Internet Ltd, www.1and1.co.uk, the world's largest web host.  From a study of 410 small firms, 37 per cent report money is lost from employees failing to share updated versions of documents.  53 per cent of companies are held back by poor archiving of emails and documents, and one third have document files saved on hardware that not all colleagues can access.  1 in 4 report wasting over £2000 a year from excessive printing of documents.  Some 25 per cent are losing efficiency from slow-running email accounts clogged with attachments.  Document handling skills are inconsistent across staff in 41 per cent of firms, and only 1 in 4 firms has a strategy for increasing their efficiency in handling electronic data.  Many businesses could benefit from reviewing how they draft, share and store their electronic documents.

1&1's 'UK Digital Office Audit'(1) finds that many UK firms are losing time and money from their poor handling and storage of electronic materials.  A key finding is the lack of facilities for collaborating on electronic documents between colleagues.  In total, two thirds of small companies believe that their efficiency is reduced by problems with document handling.  1 in 3 firms (37 per cent) believe that time and money is lost as a result of staff failing to share the latest versions of documents.  Significantly, 43 per cent do not have access to a file-sharing method that removes the need to email whole document files.  59 per cent of owners are unable to amend documents off the premises and save them where their colleagues can access them.  Staff skills around creating and sharing documents can also be a problem.  Some 29 per cent report that documents are frequently deleted in error, and 41 per cent of firms believe their success is hindered by inconsistent levels of staff skills in this area.

The majority of UK business owners now value email to be an essential communication channel.  However, the data shows many find their efficiency in handling emails is not optimal.  Over half of small businesses surveyed (53 per cent) do not currently archive old emails in a structured, easily-searchable form.  1 in 4 companies find their email accounts are regularly clogged with large attachments and face reduced performance when sending attachments around their team.  1 in 4 have worked with a 'slow running' email system before the capacity was expanded.  Furthermore, over half of firms (53 per cent), do not have access to shared calendars across their staff.

Oliver Mauss, CEO 1&1 Internet Ltd. said, "For many firms, out-dated or inefficient methods of handling and storing electronic materials can negatively impact performance, costs and so their bottom line.  Companies of all types can benefit from examining how their day-to-day use of office technology can be enhanced.  There are now intuitive web-based options for document creation, collaboration and storage that can increase mobility, raise efficiencies and benefit the environment as well as the balance sheet".

The data suggests that filing and storing electronic files is an area where British companies can struggle.  1 in 4 firms believe that work is often repeated because documents from the past cannot be found quickly.  Some 29 per cent believe time is wasted as a result of staff creating and storing documents in differing ways.  For 1 in 5 firms, the server where files are stored is 'disorganised'.  Only 1 in 4 small companies has a plan in place for growing their electronic storage capacity.

The study reveals that wasteful office printing remains a challenge for many companies.  Over half of owners (56 per cent) surveyed believe that their staff are wasting money with excessive print-outs.  1 in 4 firms estimate that they are currently wasting over £2000 per year.  One third of businesses report that paper is wasted everyday in the routine editing and re-drafting of documents.  Many British firms still rely on out-dated paper based filing and communication.  46 per cent of businesses still maintain paper copies of documents on file as back-ups.  Furthermore, 43 per cent routinely pay to post paper copies of documents to clients and partners, and 22 per cent of firms still post documents to their staff rather than emailing them.  The use of paper files leads to a shortage of physical office space for 27 per cent of companies.

Mauss adds, "Cloud applications for small businesses will be instrumental in the years ahead.  Solutions such as 1&1 Online Office can be a great way of speeding up work-flows and achieving better consistency and security for documents and files.  Furthermore, the latest web-based email platforms, such as MailXchange, can offer the scalability and performance needed by firms to improve email management and storage".

1&1 Internet offers a wide range of solutions for small and medium sized businesses including Software-as-a-Service, instant business-website packages, business email solutions, domain names, shared and dedicated web hosting, eCommerce packages, Cloud servers and virtual and dedicated servers.  As the world's largest web host, 1&1 is well placed to deliver a high quality service to business customers.  The company currently holds more than 9.5 million customer contracts worldwide and manages over 11 million domain names.

For more information on 1&1 hosting visit the website at www.1and1.co.uk

(1) 410 UK small companies surveyed by OpinionMatters via electronic feedback form

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StreamSend, a leading email marketing software provider, has named ten top features businesses should expect from their email service provider (ESP).

“Businesses have learned that permission-based email marketing is an effective way for their organization to sell to known prospects, send out an email newsletter, and build customer loyalty,” said Dan Forootan, president of StreamSend Email Marketing. “They have also discovered the need for an ESP because their regular internet service provider is not designed for – and sometimes prohibits – bulk mailing. Here are ten key features they should look for in an ESP to help them execute professional, organized email marketing campaigns.”

1. Determine if you need a private IP address
If your email volume is large enough, you may not want to share an IP address with other customers at your ESP. Too many spam complaints against another customer could get your shared IP address blacklisted by a major ISP, preventing your emails from being delivered. Check with your ESP to see if you should have a private IP address.

2. Customer support and training
Your ESP should offer both online and phone customer support and training.

3. Robust infrastructure and locations.
Make sure your ESP has multiple, high-speed connections to the Internet through more than one source and hardware redundancy in case one of the Internet connections fails or there is a hardware failure. You will also want redundant location, e.g., data centers in two locations. Many ESPs will offer “click-tracking” tools that require links to go to the ESP first to track the click, and then they redirect it to your Web site. If the ESP servers go down, the valuable prospects and customers reading your emails won’t be able to click through.

4. Good Reporting
The ESP should offer a variety of user-friendly reports: deliverability success, open-rates, and click-through rates.

5. CAN SPAM compliance.
Your ESP should require customers to comply with the CAN SPAM Act and make it very easy to do so.

6. List Segmenting.
Your ESP should enable you to segment lists by demographic and other criteria. Targeting subsets of your list with content relevant to them leads to more successful email marketing campaigns.

7. Find your “Look”
Pre-built templates may be fine, but at some point you may want your own unique look and feel, so find an ESP that has experience building HTML email templates. Not only will you want the aesthetic benefit of that experience, you will want practical advice on readability, reader responsiveness and the necessary testing to make sure your emails work across all email platforms.

8. Free trial.
Most ESPs offer a free trial. Do a test drive to see if the service meets your needs.

9. No term contract.
Do not sign up for a service that requires anything beyond a month commitment. If you are unhappy with your service, you should be able to cancel and switch services at will.

10. Pricing Structure
ESPs host your email list on their servers. Some charge a monthly fee based on the number of emails on your list, while others charge a monthly fee based on the maximum number of emails you think you will send per month. Be sure to choose a pricing structure that fits your needs.

About StreamSend
StreamSend offers an easy-to-use, affordable and reliable email marketing software solution designed to help businesses make the most of their time and money when sending an email newsletter or other email campaigns. StreamSend offers a number of industry-leading standard pricing plans and also has strong private-label and affiliate programs. Started as part of EZ Publishing, a web hosting and design company founded in 1998, StreamSend is now the company’s flagship product. Add a comment