Archive for October, 2006

• Google Analytics - Identifying Search Sites

  Short and informative article about improving Google Analytics detection and reporting of search sites. Especially useful is a list for the UK and Europe.

  October 26th, 2006

• Click Fraud Reconstructed - keyword search

  I’ll state it clearly - we do not claim to be click fraud specialists. Our research into improving internet marketing, part of which is given here, illuminates click fraud mostly as a side effect of trying to identify user behaviour on web sites, in order to make sites work better for users and advertisers. There [...]

  October 23rd, 2006

• Hours lost fixing Internet Explorer

  Internet Explorer 7 was released last week to mixed reviews and comparisons with Firefox. A lot of misinformed opinion has been floating around about how this version supposedly “supports” CSS, isn’t it wonderful how Microsoft has embraced standards, etc. The actual truth is more mixed: Microsoft has certainly fixed a few of the [...]

  October 23rd, 2006

• Someone else is annoyed by Google’s duplicity

  A YouTube Video Critique of AdWords Arbitrage shows some great examples of just why this is so damaging:

  October 19th, 2006

• Improving Upon Google AdWords Training - Part 1

  You’d think a multi-billion dollar commercial organisation, raising its funds through advertising, would offer a training course that helped advertisers. You’re right! The AdWords Learning Center offers a free training course, leading to a third-party administered fee-bearing exam.
  Regrettably, Google’s pursuit of wealth, or just plain incompetence, has lead them to some gilding of the truth. [...]

  October 17th, 2006

• AdWords Click Fraud Reduction - Competitor Clicks

  Some low budget advertisers fear that if a competitor clicks on their adverts early in the morning, that the budget will be exhausted and they’ll have no spend for the rest of the day. We’ve not seen this pattern in any of our clients’ accounts, but it is often asserted in the AdWords Help forum [...]

  October 13th, 2006

• Has your web store crippled your sales?

  Maybe you started as a bricks’n’mortar store and you’ve added an online operation, or perhaps you had the idea of going online from the beginning and went straight online? You picked out some store software, or were forced to use a package, perhaps supplied by the manufacturer or distributor.
  Chances are strong that when you made [...]

  October 10th, 2006

• Google’s Evil Way with Content Match

  Google is mostly ethical and mostly gets stuff right. But every so often they do something that just has the stain of evil running through it. Google’s Content Match Advertising is just one of those things. I can see how they worked their way into it, and why the lure of cold hard cash keeps [...]

  October 4th, 2006

• Google AdWords API - why charging is a bad idea

  Recently (2006) Google have decided they’ll add a second fee for using AdWords, but only for certain types of user.
  You can see how it happens. Someone says:
  “Hey - these guys that use our stuff… they make money off it. We should be, like, charging them or something.”
  And some other person, who’s job is to make [...]

  October 2nd, 2006