Networking

I had a really enjoyable day yesterday, meeting some of the guys from TradeDoubler and AOL, and some other affiliates.

I picked some brains... and then had a few G&Ts so I was quite surprised I actually remembered the conversations.

All the affiliate networks I am with encourage us to get out there and meet other affiliates, merchants, etc, and since starting this mentoring scheme I have decided to grab every opportunity as it arises.

So today I have booked myself onto the A4U Expo at ExCel in October - getting that Early Bird discount with just hours to spare. It seems to be awash with related networking events but as it's costing me £179 (plus VAT - and worth every penny I expect) I may lay off the gins so I don't risk forgetting everything I learn. Then again, I may just take notes.

By Sarah, UK Broadband Finder

User generated content

User generated content - a great big name for my first, small website poll!

My first broadband poll has been up for a few weeks now. I have to say it is quite a slow process - I hope they will become more popular, and I will try to make the topics more specific. The first poll title was Most important in my next broadband package.

Results so far (it is still up) are:
Superfast 32.8%
Cheap deal 18%
Short or no contract 8.2%
Great customer service 11.5%
Extras and freebies 0%
None of the above 29.5%

Now I want to know what the None of the Above respondents want.

The first poll was really just to test the idea (and the Joomla functionality). My next task is to create more targeted polls (eg a wireless poll on my wireless page, a cheap broadband poll on my cheap broadband page) and ensure the suggested answers cover as many bases as possible (in as few word as possible...).

Then I need to start looking at other types of user-generated content (broadband reviews, here I come).

By Sarah, UK Broadband Finder

The great SEO programme continues...

I am still working through my UK broadband comparison website www.ukbroadbandfinder.com, making all pages as search engine-friendly as possible (apart from my Adwords landing pages, of course).

I hadn't realised I had so many pages - nearly 250 at the last count. As part of my SEO drive I am looking at keyword phrases, H1, H2 headings, page titles, and internal and external links.

Since I started www.ukbroadbandfinder.com I have seen via Google Analytics that particular broadband providers and packages seem to be picked up by the search engines more readily than others and I have never been able to work out why (it isn't solely a case of ISPs with generic names being picked up less then ISPs with specific brand names). I hope that my SEO-inspired website revamp will boost all broadband provider and broadband package pages on the site!

I am also adding metadata (a description and a few - and I mean a few - keywords). I have heard over the last few years that it is (a) completely pointless, or (b) still worth doing but only as a minor part of of any SEO programme. So although it isn't the first change I make, I am adding it.

By Sarah, UK Broadband Finder

Adwords - again!

Time for a quick update on my AOL Adwords campaign - problems I encountered, and how I've set about fixing them.

Despite my previous work on my campaign, I wasn't getting the clickthroughs I needed and my tweaking wasn't having the desired affects. I also discovered that too much tweaking could affect my Adwords history, which could be detrimental to how Adwords judges my campaign, keywords, etc.

Sanj Mirchandani, the Publisher Manager at TradeDoubler, has been really helpful and came back with some honest advice about my original landing page - that it was:

1. too general - cluttered with lots of information about AOL packages, without really focusing on a core offer
2. designed for SEO, NOT for Google Adwords (Sanj pointed out I should design different pages for SEO and PPC)
3. text-heavy
4. unlikely to convert - with too few calls to action

So I tweaked my Adwords campaign to:

1. focus on only four Ad Groups, with each focusing on one particular aspect of the AOL broadband offer
2. get rid of non-converting keywords
3. focus on keywords and ads that would bring in people actually wanting to buy broadband
4. switch on Content Network on my campaign
   
5. put a lower limit than previously on the default maximum cost per click
   

And created four short new landing pages (one for each Ad Group - see one here) with:

1. new images relating to the offer - including the famous AOL free wireless router!
2. brightly coloured headings and buttons - calls to action that really stand out (and link) - using a package called Webstyle
3. content containing my best keyword phrases
4. AOL package details and Buy buttons above the fold
5. small, keyword-heavy AND relevant sections of copy below the fold

So far clicks are significantly higher, and my cost per click is going down.....

I think the main point I learnt from this exercise was that a Google Adwords page should be designed differently to an SEO page - it sounds obvious but it is easy to forget when you are in an SEO mindset with H1 and H2 tags, link text, etc.

By Sarah, UK Broadband Finder

Driving sales with Google Adwords

My Google Adwords campaign has been running for a few days now and is driving traffic to my AOL landing page on my UK broadband comparison website www.ukbroadbandfinder.com.

I can't use AOL trademarks, but I have written loads of ads which are quite specific about AOL broadband and dial up package details - speed, downloads, free wireless router, free month, broadband with no minimum contract if you switch to AOL, etc.

Now the campaign is up and running I am tweaking it all the time - clearer Google ads, more popular keywords, keyword mis-spellings - and I'm also continually optimising the landing page (while I also work on the general SEO on the whole broadband site).

It is hard work but the person I really feel sorry for is Jason Henry at affiliate network TradeDoubler, who has been the recipient of far too many emails from me about Adwords functionality, keywords, and optimising. Sadly for Jason, there's more to come.

I'll be working with AOL and TradeDoubler later this week to fine-tune my campaign, and also to find out which areas of my broadband availability website need search engine optimisation (SEO) changes.

By Sarah, UK Broadband Finder

Blogtastic

I've currently got four consumer blogs linking to www.ukbroadbandfinder.com

So far they haven't been optimised for search engines (SEO) as I have been concentrating on my main broadband website, but I hope I am doing some things right to build traffic on my blogs and to drive traffic from them to my broadband website.

Google loves blogs if they are regularly updated.

UKBroadbandFinder Offers at http://ukbroadbandfinder.blogspot.com. I use this blog to post new broadband offers or promote aspects of my broadband comparison website (new articles, great functionality, etc). I track all the links so I can establish if any sales come directly from this blog. I also make sure that all links have title text and keyword-rich link text.

My broadband blogs:

UK Broadband News at http://ukbroadband.wordpress.com. This is for news articles about broadband, dial up, mobile, internet and more. There is usually something to write about about each day - for a start there's always a story about Virgin Media (people trying to buy it, spats with Sky, cable broadband offers...). I'm using it to drive traffic directly to my broadband website and increase my credibility in the sector.

The Broadband Glossary at http://broadbandglossary.wordpress.com. Need a broadband definition? I've been developing this glossary for a couple of months now. It covers more than just broadband - dial up, internet, www, etc. I'm trying to add to it each day. It drives traffic to www.ukbroadbandfinder.com, and vice versa - I hope it answers users' questions about broadband and keeps them on my site.

UK Broadband Finder blog at http://www.ukbroadbandfinder.com/broadband_blog.html. This blog has broadband special offers, industry trends (free trials, free broadband) and website information (new articles, new site functionality).

BT Tradespace site at http://ukbroadbandfinder.bttradespace.com. This has short blog and product posts about broadband offers and news. BT Tradespace is quite popular with search engines.

Next blogging steps:

1. BT Tradespace has an option to upload a podcast. I'd like to record my own broadband-related podcast and upload it to the site.
2. Update my ukbroadbandfinder.com blog more often!
3. The first 3 are all on Technorati. I need to link up with other blog directories.
4. Do more for SEO on the blogs themselves.

By Sarah, UK Broadband Finder

Broadband Adwords campaign goes live

This week I finalised my new Google Adwords campaign and sent it Live.

I've used Adwords for broadband before but I had found it difficult to get good returns - so a few months ago I switched it off. Since then the sales have been building, but I know I need to make Adwords work alongside my SEO-driven organic search traffic and sales.

With Adwords, the obvious broadband keywords are, not surprisingly, expensive, and my previous landing pages were too generic (which meant I paid even more for my clicks).

So with my new campaign:

1. My new PPC (pay per click) campaign is more targeted - it goes to a revamped AOL landing page that has been optimised for SEO.
2. TradeDoubler sent me some good converting keywords
3. I used an application called KeywordConvert which is really useful for generating keyword phrases (add your keywords to three columns and it automatically comes up with all possible combinations for broad match, exact match and phrase match).
4. I have written targeted ads - four for each Ad Group. It will be interesting to see which of these gets the most click-throughs (and whether those clicks then convert!)

Now the campaign has been running for a couple of days I can already see where I need to add more keywords so I'll try to do that this weekend.

By Sarah, UK Broadband Finder