We are constantly asked how to get better rankings in Google. If your site is not optimised correctly, the only way is Google Adwords (/websites/google-adwords-management) and if setup correctly, can work well and give you the instant traffic and exposure you need. The problem is that if it is not setup correctly you could be throwing your money away. Adwords works particularly well for ne ..

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Before adding a custom SSL certificate to your website, we need to ensure all features will continue to run and there will be no interruption to your hosting, navigation, third party plugins or online marketing campaigns. Switching to HTTPS will be like changing your website's domain altogether. It will take some time for search engines to re-index your website and this will impact your c ..

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Keyword Research (/websites/keyword-research) determines a list of the best phrases and search terms for an online business based on local monthly search results and trends. These Keyword search numbers give valuable information about the amount of searches that are made for that phrase, but how relevant, targeted and appropriate are these phrases to your target market and how do you evaluate  ..

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Google Analytics is the one-stop-shop for all information about keyword performance, site traffic and conversion statistics but what about those organic keyword metrics that are 'not provided'? It's frustrating seeing (not provided) in the number 1 spot on your organic keyword listing. (Not provided) certainly doesn't help you track down which organic keyword phrases were used by customers ..

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Adwords has a Trademark protection scheme that stops businesses from having Ads approved with trademarked text within the ad content itself. This is one of the reasons that Ads become disqualified and is often followed by a warning about advertising such trademarks on the Google Adwords network. If you notice that your trademark text is being used within an ad then you can file a comp ..

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We are often asked if Adobe Business Catalyst is SEO Friendly. The simple answer is VERY Friendly! There are a suite of integrated tools that not only make SEO on Business Catalyst simple, but in some cases 'fully automated'. Adobe is also very proactive, working with partners to improve the SEO functionality of the CMS, allowing us to better service and optimise our clients sites.  ..

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Ever wondered what the difference was between Algorithm Updates and Data Refreshes, whether Panda and Penguin were simply money making scams and if you are heading in the right direction with SEO? Matt Cutts once again debunks the theory's that seem to quickly circulate across the SEO industry, warning that we really should be looking at making customers happy, instilling trust in our ..

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How can you make better use of your organic snippets? Calls-to-action and smart, catchy text are a must but how can they be extended to include reviews, lists, addresses or events? Absolutely! There are provisions in Rich Snippets (https://developers.google.com/structured-data/rich-snippets/) to add microdata labels, mircoformats or RDFa formatting to your webpages to highlight revi ..

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Webmaster Tools have now been updated to include more detailed messages and url examples for any manual webspam actions. This means that if your site is penalised for any reason by Google, you will have further clarity into the reasons why and the associated pages of the penalty. This is a great move towards transparency, guidance and help for any Webmasters that have site issues and ..

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Do you know what your click-thru rates (CTR) are for searches that bring up your website result? Are your website CTR's low compared to the average? What if you have a great rank but don't get many clicks? Often the reason that your position is great but there is a lack of clicks, lies in a Snippet that doesn't match the search query and is not enticing  ..

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When buying a Domain Name there are a few essential points to consider to avoid ownership, site speed and search engine ranking problems. The first and most important aspect is to ensure is that it is purchased in your Business Name with your Business Address, ABN/ACN and Phone/Fax/Email included. These contact details become your Domains 'whois' information and should be consistent with  ..

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Sirocco Web Design needs to be granted access to your Analytics Account to link up to either Adwords, Advanced Website Ranking or Monitoring your SEO. To setup Admin Access to the Google Analytics account use the following procedure - Login to your Analytics Account (http://www.google.com/analytics/#?modal_active=none) using your Google username and password. Click into the Google An ..

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In the latest Nielsen Report on Smart Phone usage from October 2015 it reports over 15 million Australians now own a smart phone and around 12 million own a tablet device. With more and more people relying on a Smart Phone as their primary access to the internet it is crucial that your online marketing efforts are mobile friendly. Now having a mobile friendly (Responsive) website is a must and ..

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To login to the Admin Section of your Business Catalyst Website type your website address into your browser and then add a forward slash to the end of the domain name and type the word "admin" ie. http://www.your-website-address.com/admin then click "return". Next you will see the Business Catalyst Login page where you can enter your username (email address) and admin password. If ..

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When creating file names or image names for your site it is important from a usability and SEO perspective that they are properly named. This is vital for email marketing campaigns where incorrect file names can cause images to drop out cause broken links which can be disastrous. Follow these simple guidelines to ensure your file names are to web and Google standards - 1. Do not use speci ..

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With all the Panda and Penguin algorithm updates from Google recently, one questions how valid link building now is for online business, considering there are so many discussions on the issues of 'unnatural link warnings' and 'link penalties'. Regardless of the fact that some link building techniques are classed as ‘illegal’, like hacking blogs, link farming and paid submi ..

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The problem with optimising websites, testing and waiting for results is that it is very time consuming. It is a painstaking job that will bring you results but quite simply takes time. Now, using Google Analytics we are able to speed up the process and run different versions of your site pages at the same time to split test your traffic and report on the results. Not o ..

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Not only do we have to contend with the dreaded 'not provided' listing in Google Analytics for organic searches (/tips-and-tricks/get-not-provided-landing-page-information) where customers were logged-in to their Google accounts, but we also have the 'Not Set' issue to contend with. So what exactly is 'not set'? It is a placeholder for any information that has not been received for t ..

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Since the migration of Google Places to Google Local, when categorising a Business, we now have to use only the pre-defined Google Business Categories. We used to be given the opportunity to choose up to four of our own Business Categories and just one of Google's but now we have to choose from the Google Categories only. Problem is that Google does not provide a full list inside of G ..

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It's hard to keep up with the constant updates that are being made to the Google Algorithm and their impact on SEO and Online Digital Marketing. The team at Moz have made it much easier to check the Change History timeline from Google with a full list of all major updates from 2000-2013. Checkout the full list at www.moz.com (http://moz.com/google-algorithm-change) ..

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If you are planning to have a website in multiple Languages, it is important to understand the implications to your Search Engine Rankings. Sites should be setup with URL's that are designed specifically for the country that will view the site i.e. UK for customers in England, US for clients in the United states. Search results should show the appropriate pages to the appropriate au ..

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Thank you to the Google Engage team for the wonderful framed certificate that arrived by mail this week, after being a guest speaker at the Google Engage Masterclass series in Sydney in July. It was a great honour to be speaking alongside David Booth and Ben Mangold about "why your Agency's marketing is just as important as your clients". Can't wait for the next Google Engage ins ..

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When setting up an Email Marketing Campaign or paying for an Electronic Direct Mail (EDM) service it is important to be able to track how successful the campaign has been. How many people clicked back to your site? What pages did they go to? Some of this information can be found in your Business Catalyst Email Marketing Report but what about how many customers went on to make a Tran ..

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'Not Provided' is one phrase you are going to start seeing a lot more of in Google Analytics since the recent update by Google to encrypt all organic keyword searches. So is there anyway to get more out of your 'Not Provided' numbers? One trick we use is to add a Filter that shows what Landing Pages your 'Not Provided' keywords searches were sent to. Although this is n ..

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Facebook have some great new templates and ideas for SMB's to better harness Facebook Ads. Checkout their new Creative Tools for Business (https://www.facebook.com/business/a/creative-tools) for ideas on how to better advertise to your customers. Some of the important Ad tips Facebook recommend is - Using high quality Photography Use timely seasonal messaging Use consistent image ..

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