The Intergage blog

Have You Personalised Your LinkedIn Profile URL?

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:07:40 +0000

When you create a page on Facebook you then require 25 ‘likes’ to be granted the vanity URL from Facebook. E.g. Intergage’s Facebook page has 64 ‘likes’, so therefore the URL is www.facebook.com/intergage

My personal LinkedIn profile URL is http://www.linkedin.com/in/garytrudgett, which then allows me the capability to post and control my public profile view and the information displayed to both registered LinkedIn professional who are not in my network and additionally to non-registered LinkedIn professionals to publically view my (selected) profile information.

To edit and create a personalised LinkedIn URL and to set up your Public Profile view, simply complete the following five steps:

Log in to your LinkedIn profile and select “Settings” (top right corner under your name)
Click “Edit Public Profile” link
View the box “Your Public Profile URL” (located on the right mid-page)
Click “Customize Your Public Profile URL” link
Enter your preferred customised URL

Here at digital marketing agency Intergage we run dedicated training workshops on LinkedIn as well as all the other major social media and networking tools (Twitter, Facebook, Google+ etc.). To find out more about our training courses here.

The Google Keyword Tool – Ignore It At Your Peril!

admin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:13:39 +0000

At digital marketing agency, Intergage, we are forever preaching the importance of solid and accurate keyword research. Without this, your web marketing strategy will be built on shaky ground and also the navigation structure of your Website.

While you may be adamant that you know the precise terms that your potential audience is using to search for your products and services – don’t rely solely on your guess work!

The Google Keyword Tool is a free device that will really give you insight into the search queries commonly used in Google by your prospective customers – the difference in search volume between the singular and plural version of a word can be massive and it is also worth paying attention to the level of competition for each term. It’s important though to note that this competition refers to the approximate number of advertisers who have sponsored that keyword in a Google Adwords campaign – not the level of competition in the natural listings. However – its fair to assume that a highly competitive keyword in PPC will also be competitive naturally.

If you put the time in, its quite common to unearth a golden nugget of a keyword that has pleasing search volume and surprisingly low competition – these are the terms that can boost the profitability of your SEO strategy – find them and create a new page on your Website which is solely focused around this theme.

Remember that you should not base your decisions around the broad match search volume of your keywords – instead, select exact match in the tool and get a truer indication of how popular that query is in your industry.

You can also choose to narrow your keyword research by language and country. Don’t just look at the global search volume – if you are specifically interested in the terms that English speaking customers in Spain are searching for, you can refine your results by using the country and language options in the tool.

This is probably one of the valuable ways to spend your time when it comes to building a web marketing strategy. Think of it as laying the foundations upon which everything else is built.

If you would like more information about getting the most out of this tool call our friendly web marketing team today on 0845 456 1022

Control The “Shouters” In Your Google+ Stream By Turning Them Down!

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:29:40 +0000

Across the many social media platforms we all tend to have extroverted people who at times dominant our social media feeds, timelines or walls. Whether they are continually posting status updates or sharing posts, articles and items multiple times per day they become at best a ‘noise’ at worst an unbearable annoyance!

These people are more commonly known in the world of digital marketing as ‘shouters’. A latest new feature within Google+ is the ability to control to your personal preference these ‘shouters’ by turning them down!

This great feature ensures that your Google+ Steam does not become cluttered and important posts from close friends or important Circles become more visible. Google describes this feature as the ability to “….graphic equalise and fine tune your Stream”

When you read a post on a Stream from anyone from within your Circles you will now notice a slider control appears prominently above the post (see image below).

You then have the following four personal preference options that you can select using the slider control:

Show nothing from this stream in my main stream
Show fewer from this stream in my main stream
Show most from this stream in my main stream
Show everything from this stream in my main stream

Here at digital marketing agency Intergage, we have experts on specialised subjects. Mine is Google+. For more information on Google+ why not book a place on the brand new Intergage Google+ training workshop here.

5 Things You Might Not Know About Quality Score

admin — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 09:33:05 +0000

At digital marketing agency Intergage, we are often asked about how rank is calculated for Google Adwords Pay Per Click adverts – the most common question being “Can I pay to always stay in the number one position?”

The short answer to this is No. You cannot simply bid above your competitors to occupy that elusive number one slot. In order to maintain the relevance and quality of the information on its search results pages, Google has a proprietary system called “Quality Score” which ensures that paid advertisers have achieved a certain quality threshold within their accounts before they are placed in the three highest positions on the left hand side of the search engine.

So the next question is – how do I achieve a high quality score and what does that mean for my account? Well, there are well over a hundred different factors currently influencing quality score but these are the main criteria involved:

* The historical click through rate (CTR) of your keyword

* The relevancy of your keyword to the ads in the ad group

* Account history (based on CTR for all keywords and adverts across the account)

* The quality of your landing page (in terms of relevancy and load time)

* The relevancy of your keyword to the matched search query

* Your account’s performance in the geographical region where the ad will be shown

The most important areas to focus on from the list above are points 2 and points 5. You can very easily make dramatic changes to your click through rate by increasing the relevancy between your keywords and the two adverts in that adgroup. Ensure that the most important keyword from the group is in the title of each advert and if possible repeated again in line 1 or 2 of the main body of the advert. All keywords within an adgroup should be based around a very central theme so perhaps pick the keyword with the highest conversion rate to go into the advert.

Finally, it is so incredibly important to ensure that the keywords that you are sponsoring, as well as including in your adverts, are clearly reflected on your destination landing page. It is vital to maintain the thread of relevance between the search term, the advert that a potential visitor sees on Google and finally the page on your site to which they are taken having made that all important click.

If you can adhere to these simple points then improving your quality score will be a breeze, meaning higher rank and low average cost per click – after all, its important to remember that Google rewards diligent advertisers by lowering average cost per click over time!

If you would like to know more about Pay Per Click please call our specialist team at Intergage on 0845 456 1022 today!

PPC Adverts Shunted Downwards: What Is Google Up To?

admin — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:42:55 +0000

Over the past month, Pay Per Click managers across the world have been scratching their heads in response to the decision by Google to remove standard Pay Per Click adverts from the right hand side of the search results home page.

Adverts that don’t qualify to sit in the first three positions on Google will now be listed at the very bottom of the results pages, beneath the organic listings. Although this move is currently being rolled out as a test – serious PPC Marketeers should be analysing the impact that this may already be having on their accounts and putting together a strategy to help them ride the wave of change rather than sink below it!

So what is Google really up to? At digital marketing agency Intergage we have two schools of thought. Being the positive bunch that we are, one theory is that the search giant is actually trying to put the right hand side of the results page to better use, especially for local search. From what we can see so far, if a geo specific search is conducted such as “Florist in Southampton” then Google will choose to use the right hand side to incorporate Google maps, reviews and various other ad-ons which will benefit the user with a more comprehensive search results page. Relevancy and a great search experience have always been top priority to Google, so could it be that this move is innocently based around improving user experience?

The search giant claims that the adverts at the bottom of the page have a higher click through rate (CTR) than those on the right hand side. I would definitely stick my neck out and say that these ads do appear to be more natural and less “salesy” looking than when positioned to the right – but I will be ruthlessly analysing my own CTRs and conversion data before making a final call on whether this has been a beneficial move by Google or not.

The more negative view that some may take on these changes is that Google is putting advertisers who rely on top positions for maximum ROI between a rock and a hard place – competition to occupy these prime slots may sore and consequently average cost per click goes through the roof….straight into Google’s pocket!

Time will tell how this test will affect PPC advertising – but savy PPC marketeers will be analysing their data right now, to keep abreast of how this is affecting their ROI.

If you would like to know more about Pay Per Click advertising or any other aspect of Web marketing, call our Google Adwords accredited team today on 0845 456 1022.