Internet Marketing Agency

Some of you may have noticed that the analytics data you received between April the 30th and May the 5th was a little bit unusual. This can be explained by an error in the Google analytics system, which Google has apologised for:

System Message: Analytics Processing Delay from April 30th to May 5th

Google Analytics experienced a data processing error from April 30th to May 5th. Almost all of the data has been recovered and is currently being reprocessed. The recovered data will be reflected in your reports within a few days. Please note that a small percentage of data, particularly in the area of e-commerce reporting, was not recoverable from those dates.

We sincerely apologize for this processing issue and are taking every precaution to prevent such disruptions from occurring again in the future. For more information, please read through our common questions.
The Google Analytics Team

Google Analytics Upgrade

While we are on the subject of Google Analytics it's worth mentioning that we are currently in the process of upgrading all our analytics accounts. This upgrade will improve the tracking of Adwords campaigns through analytics and also make our sites compatible with new analytics features which Google will be introducing in time. As your site is upgraded your analytics will begin to track again from fresh although you will of course still be able to access historical data.

If you have any questions about the Analytics problems or the upgrade please contact me on 01926 494922.

Labels: Internet Marketing, SEO, Visitor tracking

You may have noticed that Google maps are now appearing regularly in the search results for location based searches such as "Vauxhall Dealer Leicester".

You might also be surprised to learn that adding your business to these maps and appearing high up in Google is free and takes very little effort. Just follow the simple steps here.

Alternatively, give us a call on 08451 255 855 to find out more about the benefits of adding your business to Google Business Listings, or contact us today if you'd like some hands-on help.

Labels: Internet Marketing, SEO

Google's Adwords geographical targeting has in the past been unreliable at best. Previously Google used the IP address of the computer carrying out the search query to determine the location of the search. This was an unreliable method for a number of reasons with the main reason being that often a computer's ISP (Internet Service Provider) was nowhere near the original computer which submitted the query to Google.

Fortunately there is now a partial solution to the problem as well as using the IP addresses Google is now using relevant location based words to determine the area of the search. For example if someone types in "Saab in Devon" Google will use the key word "Devon" to determine the area of the search.

It might not seem to be a revolutionary change, after all at Bluesky we have been using location based search terms to trigger ads for some time. It does however mean that when you want your next AdWords campaign setting up you can say things like "I want everything within a 60 mile radius of Coventry" and be confident that all the location based keywords for that area will be covered.

Labels: Internet Marketing, SEO

Every year American Dealers get together at the NADA (National Automobile Dealers Association) Convention and Expo. Interestingly representatives from several hundred UK dealers attend the show every year for a variety of reasons: workshops, exhibitor stands, meetings with manufacturers etc. NADA 2008 was staged in San Francisco from February 9-12.

The main purpose of my visit was to catch up with what American dealers are doing online. Last year's obsessions were search engine optimisation (SEO) and AdWords. I was eager to find out what this year's might be.

Probably the most interesting addition to car websites was new car videos to support new car pages. You can easily download, from a variety of sources (You Tube, Google), high quality car videos and insert these into your site. They look great and are free!

Similarly new car configurators, new car reviews and consumer testimonials are being added to websites in a bid to convince potential car buyers that they are making the right decision to buy from you.

Finally take a look at http://www.dealerrater.com/, a portal website where consumers rate their dealers! In one workshop I attended the speaker informed us that 30% of car buyers who visited this site changed dealers after reading their reviews. I wonder when a similar site will be launched in the UK!

For those of you interested in going to NADA in 2009 check out http://www.nada.org/; the event will be held in New Orleans. Can I suggest you book through Brian Hawkins at Baker Tilly - they do a great job organising the trip! Brian can be contacted on 07806 569772.

Labels: Exhibitions, Internet Marketing, Manufacturers, SEO

As Bluesky Interactive's Marketing Manager, I recently attended a series of Internet Marketing lectures in London on a range of topics. One thing which really stood out for me was a lecture on online PR.

At Bluesky Interactive we do some online PR for our Platinum SEO customers, mostly to build good quality links. The work we do is not necessarily intended to be for PR reasons in the conventional sense. The lecture highlighted for me the huge potential for online PR both in terms of building credible back links to sites, and generating publicity and improving your reputation.

What also became obvious was how easy it would be to make all your company's offline PR work for you online, improving search rankings, generating good publicity and enhancing your reputation. It just requires clear communication between Bluesky and the people doing the PR work. I hope our clients who use PR agencies or do in-house PR work can put us in touch with the people doing this work as I truly believe that together we can make so much more use of the efforts already being made.

Labels: Internet Marketing, SEO