When we set up UKFast in 1999, no one really knew what to expect. There was huge excitement at the birth of a new industry which was reflected on the stock exchange and the first internet millionaires were created without really producing any viable products. A massive downturn ensued and people thought, that was that. Back in 2001 after the bubble burst, no one could have predicted how technology would evolve at such a pace. In a decade everyone’s lives have changed. The internet is bigger than TV, Radio and Press put together and it’s just the beginning. Google came out of nowhere, (or rather a garage in San Francisco) to challenge Microsoft with alternative ways to search the net providing innovative ways to advertise… Read the Rest »
“Rupert Murdoch has bigger balls than you Lawrence.” That was a comment from Nick Jaspen from How-Do the great online resource that keeps Manchester upto date with the latest business news and current affairs. I had described Murdoch as a dinosaur at a round table event held at UKFast. It wasn’t meant in a derogatory way at all. Find me a man who didn’t love dinosaurs as a kid. They were incredible species. The biggest, the best, the fastest, the most aggressive, they were just awesome in every way. Then one day, poof, they are gone. All we are left with are memories from people who have picked up the pieces of times gone by. There is no doubting Rupert Murdochs achievements, but I still feel… Read the Rest »
Whether or not you like Bing as a search engine you have to be impressed with recent events. Google the internet giant that grew from a garage start up in San Francisco has a competitor. As an underdog myself in the hosting world fighting to grow our business, I have to favour the smaller player. It is not often that you can refer to one of Bill Gate’s enterprises as a smaller entity. But smaller for how long? A little like a boxer who smiles at his opponent in the ring when he feels a punch that cuts him to the quick, he makes too much effort to hide the pain. Recently Google have been sparring in similar style scoring points with Microsoft over petty… Read the Rest »
I had a couple of great discussions yesterday with an SEO expert who challenged UKFast on their “fast servers deliver better results” message. Google actually reduces your cost per click on faster sites and penalises you, charging you more if you have a slow site. FACT. (See the quality score rules in your Google Adwords account.) Why is this? Is Google acknowledging that faster sites give the customer a better experience? Absolutely! Is traditional SEO as we know it dead or is it evolving at such a pace that it has caught a large proportion of the SEO enthusiasts and internet users by surprise? Could it be that speed has always been a major deciding factor in ranking and no one knew about it? Or… Read the Rest »
I was asked in a focus group recently, whether Google allowed a company to put multiple ads under the same keywords. I have always been led to believe that Google does not agree with this, on the basis that it is unfair competition. It merely drives up the cost per click for other advertisers and allows them to monopolise the Google results. I know that from time to time UKFast advertises under the same keyword. However, we do so only when promoting completely different brands. Each brand has a different marketing strategy so it is very unlikely that two UKFast ads are ever seen next to each other. Whilst doing some research, I chose keywords that related to our industry. The two words being ‘dedicated… Read the Rest »
In the last few days we have seen Northern Rock suffer a dramatic loss in consumer confidence and consequently customers. In spite of the Government issuing a guarantee that Northern Rock customers would not loose any money, customers have queued in their thousands to withdraw money from the wavering building society. Ironically the longest queues were experienced with those trying to log in online. The biggest area where we see consumers being unforgiving in this instance is when they cannot access the Internet site to view or transfer their money. We are all programmed to expect to access our regular and favourite websites 24 hours a day. So often I come across clients who spend a fortune on their web site and then underestimate the… Read the Rest »
Online marketing, where will it stop? In a desperate race to out do their competing news rivals, the Telegraph and Business Guardian both have added Anita Roddick’s name to their pay per click advertising. Traffic to the newspaper’s sites is so important; the media giants, who once ignored the Internet and search engines, now pay Google to forward them traffic. With businesses paying a premium to advertise on their sites it is imperative the newspapers grow their online presence. Any type of customer is a potential good customer and so we see topical stories driving the pay per click campaigns. Personally I don’t view it as a bad thing as I am great believer in freedom of speech and with that surely comes the freedom… Read the Rest »
How often do you type in your keywords on Google to see where your advert appears? If you are like the rest of us, probably quite often. Firstly it’s important to weigh up where your advert appears in the rankings. Are you going up are you going down? It is imperative that you measure your results. However, are you aware that Google calculates the number of times you view the adverts? If you do not click on them, after a relatively short time (undisclosed by Google) your advert disappears! Don’t worry it is still there for the rest of the world to see, however the search engine recognises that you keep ignoring it, so it serves you something else instead. Very clever, but how do… Read the Rest »
