While waiting for my train on Flinders Street,  I decided to search for a a dentist to whiten my teeth using a smartphone, [...]]]> Observe people in any public area these days and there’s a good chance you’ll see someone browsing the web on a smartphone, such as iPhone or Android.

While waiting for my train on Flinders Street,  I decided to search for a a dentist to whiten my teeth using a smartphone, 10 mintes passed by and I looked up to see if my train had arrived. Looking around I realised that almost everyone was consumed by their iPhone or smartphone. Whether they were looking for some information about a car they were about to purchase, looking for a plumber, checking the weather or using an App, I realised that people are consumed by these devices, more than ever before.

After doing some research we have found that:

One of the biggest growing markets in Australia is smartphone devices. Well over 51% of Australian consumers own a smartphone in which they are engaged in some sort of online use. We also found that more than half of all the Australians that are online have accessed the Internet via a mobile device.

Another interesting fact is that women are spending more time then men accessing the Internet using their mobile phones.

People are becoming more tech savvy, and are using the Internet on their mobile devices. This trend is rapidly increasing, which provides the opportunity for all business owners to take advantage of this medium. With 51% of Australian consumers using their smartphones everyday to purchase or search online for local businesses, it is then clear where the opportunity for small business owners lie… in a small pocket size device.

Having a mobile friendly site will not only provide a better experience to the visitor and a possible consumer. Making sure that all the content is readable and pictures are downsized so the site is faster uploaded is vital.

Next time you are on the train or walking to work or going to lunch while in the city, take a good look around and see how people are behaving and how often you see someone one their phone. Seize the opportunity.

For information on how to mobilise your website contact Webfirm today!

An “article” is just like a blog post written about your business that includes your SEO keywords and links to your site. These Articles significantly improve your rankings in Google, far more than simply building links.

Given the [...]]]> Firstly, what is article writing?

An “article” is just like a blog post written about your business that includes your SEO keywords and links to your site. These Articles significantly improve your rankings in Google, far more than simply building links.

Given the most recent developments with Google, never has the need for good quality content been more important than now.  When it comes to content, the most popular, easiest to produce, and most cost efficient remains the ever-reliable article.

A well written article is able to fulfill most (if not all) SEO requirements without falling into that grey area often associated with penalties and prohibited practices. This is perhaps the best technique regarding article writing for SEO purposes.

So what are the elements of a well-written article?

Catchy, interesting headline

Nothing captivates a reader more than an inviting headline.  Being the very first thing to be read, it is from this point that the reader then decides if the article is indeed worth reading through or not.  This is why the most salient point of the entire article should be encapsulated in the title alone, providing a promise of the things to be gleaned later on as they read further.  For maximum optimization, it would be prudent to include the main keywords in the title as well.

Fresh, unique content

Given that article writing still remains the foremost known form of SEO-driven content, there are easily thousands of articles online about every known topic in the world.  This would mean that new written material on a given topic would be quite hard to come by.  This does not mean that fresh and unique content is impossible to achieve.  Given that the topic must have been discussed at length a couple of hundred times, there would still be ways to write it in another direction or approach.  Combine this with new research and additional data that may not have been utilized yet and you have a completely fresh article with unique content on a popular topic.

Value-laden, with a takeaway

What sets a great article apart from those deemed as just being good or average is when the article itself comes with value.  Value in an article is when it has information or lessons that are actually useful and practical, rather than just theoretical and senseless technical ramblings.  Add to that a takeaway, an actionable piece of real-time knowledge that can be implemented even without further research or practice, and you have the makings of an article with fantastic value.  This is true for both human readers, and because of the eventual referral and sharing after reading, for social purposes as well.

For further information on SEO, article writing or any digital media services please don’t hesitate to contact us at Webfirm – call us on  1300 932 347  or email us at info@webfirm.com.

Google Adwords currently uses an auction system where you bid on individual keywords depending on how much you are willing to pay to [...]]]> Google have recently rolled out a Bid Per Call option in the US and the UK. Ok, so what is it and is it coming to Australia?

Google Adwords currently uses an auction system where you bid on individual keywords depending on how much you are willing to pay to get to that coveted position on the top of the rankings in Google. For more information on Google Adwords check my previous blog: http://blog.webfirm.com/2011/11/how-does-google-adwords-work/

The bid-per-call feature allows you to bid for phone calls, in addition to bidding for clicks on keywords, both your max bid per click (max CPC bid) and max cost-per-call bid (max CPP bid) can influence your ad’s position on the results page.

Bid-per-call requires you to use a Google forwarding number when you activate call extensions. It provides detailed call reporting, so you can have a better sense of the value of calls and clicks your campaigns are generating. Reporting includes:

• Cost, completed calls, and phone-through-rate (PTR) summaries at the ad group and campaign level
• Call-by-call detail including call time, duration, and caller area code

These kinds of insights are already available through certain platforms within Australia like the one Webfirm currently use with Reach Local, however this is the first we have seen of Google offering this kind of feature.

This is a great feature and is just another step to driving qualified leads to your business. Will it be coming out in Australia – time will tell but I have a hunch it’s on its way! In the mean time check out Webfirm’s Google Adwords phone tracking technology, call us today.

For further information don’t hesitate to contact us at Webfirm – call us on  1300 932 347  or email us at info@webfirm.com.

Web Crawlers are not creepy little web bugs that do your website harm, a Crawler is an [...]]]> You have probably heard this term thrown around the Internet a fair bit, along with other terms such as Web Spiders or Web Bots essentially these terms all relate to the same thing.

Web Crawlers are not creepy little web bugs that do your website harm, a Crawler is an automated software agent that crawls the content of your website and then sends this information to search engines so that they can position your website based on relevance to the users query or search.

How does it work?

When web crawlers visit a web page they crawl through all visible text and tags on the site and are also able to follow every link it can see through your website.

The search engine then takes the information that is gathered by the web crawler and determines from there what the website is about. This information is “indexed” then your website is added to the millions of other websites in a search engines database, it is then listed in the search engine ranking process according to its relevance.

Below are a few tips that will help when web crawlers visit your website

Make sure you are aware of duplicate content:

Having duplicate content is a great way to waste your websites time with the web crawlers, so to ensure that you are maximizing the time that you have with the web crawlers you will need to deal with content duplication properly. In most cases a 301 redirect that points all your duplicate content to the one page is the best solution. If the content is immensely similar you can also add a canonical tag, which will tell the crawler which page is more useful.

Make robots.txt files:

Robots.txt files tell the web crawlers what you don’t want them to index such as pages with content duplication or irrelevant folders. Creating robots.txt files is the more advanced side of SEO and you must be careful with it, creating incorrect robots.txt files could render your website un-crawlable.

Get a XML sitemap:

Remembering that Google is not exactly small so it may take time for Google to find your website and crawl it. This process can take quite a while if you have a new site and very little to no links pointing towards it. This is where the sitemap will come in handy, as you are able to submit your sitemap to Google, which will help speed up this whole process.

Google Webmaster Tools:

Adding your site to Google’s Webmaster Tools will allow Google to let you where your website has crawl or site errors. Google’s Webmaster Central will keep you up to date with information and will also be able to help with keeping your website search engine friendly.

Make sure you are sticking to the basics of on page SEO:

Considering there are over 250 factors that go into where you rank on Google it is the up most importance to use your basic on page tactics correctly:

• Make sure your H1 tag is a headline and contains your main keyword
• Change your internal linking so that your anchor text is relevant and that your internal linking structure runs smoothly throughout your website
• Relevant keywords are included in your image alt tags without keyword stuffing
• Your content has enough keyword density and is readable and avoid keyword stuffing.
• Page titles include important keywords at the start

Now you have the bare basics for making sure that your website is maximizing its time with the web crawlers.

Webfirm is a specialist online marketing agency – we can optimise your website in the best possible way to improve your rankings. Talk to us today about any online marketing needs – phone us on 1300 932 347 or email us at info@webfirm.com.

According to BIA/Kelsey, ‘We are on the verge of a real revolution in [...]]]> Small and Medium Businesses are planning on spending 26% of their marketing budgets in online marketing in the coming year. This is according to Local Commerce Monitor, BIA/Kelsey’s 15 year tracking study of SMB advertising spending.

According to BIA/Kelsey, ‘We are on the verge of a real revolution in marketing platforms that serve SMBs, in particular around digital presence.’

More than half (52%)of the respondents in the study report that they use social media to promote their business and nearly half (49%) say they purchased online advertising of some sort over the past year.

In late 2011, BIA/Kelsey forecast that by 2015, only 30% of marketing budgets for SMBs would be spent on traditional media such as print, radio and television. This means that small and medium business on average will be spending 70% of their budgets on things like Search Engine Optimisation, Search Engine Advertising, Display Advertising and Social Media.

According to BIA/Kelsey this means in dollar value in the US, the allocation of SMB marketing spend to online marketing will reach $40 billion in 2015 which is up from only $22 billion in 2010, an average growth rate of 12% per year. In the Australian market online advertising spend is now at $2.6 billion a year and the growth rate each year is even higher at 17%!

This rapid growth rate potentially means that if you are a small or medium business and you are not growing your investment in online marketing by 17%, or at least a little each year, you are falling behind.

Webfirm is a specialist online marketing agency – talk to us today about any online marketing needs – phone us on 1300 932 347 or email us at info@webfirm.com.

Article reference: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/168894/smbs-up-ad-budgets-for-digital-media.html