|
|||
 |
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||
Finance Wales, the wholly owned subsidiary company
of the Welsh Assembly Government which provides
commercial funding to SMEs in Wales, has recently
appointed Gwyneth Bird as its investment executive
for Powys. Gwyneth will work with Powys-based
small businesses, including sole traders, partnerships,
start ups and expanding companies to help them take
advantage of Finance Wales’ micro loans to grow
their businesses.
Before joining Finance Wales, Gwyneth ran her own business for several years. She was also Mid-Wales regional manager for Young Enterprise Wales’, and managed Careers Wales’ Dynamo project. “We are delighted with this appointment,” explains Finance Wales’ loan fund manager, Samantha Cole. “Gwyneth has a broad range of experience and will be able to help even more small business take advantage of Finance Wales’ micro loans, which can be a very useful source of funding to start ups and expanding companies. I would urge small, growing businesses in Powys to contact Gwyneth to discuss their funding requirements.” Gwyneth can be contacted at Finance Wales’ Newtown office on 01686 613324 or on 0800 587 4140. About Finance Wales
Finance Wales is a wholly owned subsidiary company of the Welsh Assembly Government which it created to provide commercial funding to Welsh SMEs. Backed by European and private sector funding, Finance Wales works closely with a number of other public sector organisations, banks and private sector investors. Financial year 2005/06 has been a hugely successful year for Finance Wales, with record levels of investment (£21m million) in Welsh businesses, as well as its 1000th investment. About Finance Wales’ micro loans Finance Wales’ micro loans, which range from £1,000 to £10,000, are available to small businesses throughout Wales, including sole traders, partnerships, start ups and expanding companies. Finance Wales provides a fast, efficient service which means you get your money in as little as 10 days. Their interest rate is fixed and they don’t charge any administration or application fees. |
||||
|
||||
|
||
“Pay-per-click” advertising can be a very effective
way of targeting new customers. Search engines and
price comparison engines (such as
www.kelkoo.co.uk) offer organic search engine
results when a search term is looked for. They also
offer paid or sponsored links to Web sites that have
paid for the privilege of being shown once a
keyphrase has been entered. The two main pay-per-
click methods are Google AdWords
(www.google.co.uk/ads) for Google and Google fed
search engines, such as Ask Jeeves, or Overture
(www.overture.com), for other search engine
advertising, with both working in the same way.
The customer (the Web site owner) purchases
keyphrases that trigger an advert when the phrase is
entered into the search engine. Once a user of
Google has entered the keyphrase into Google, an
advert (developed by the Web site owner) is
displayed down the right hand side of the screen,
encouraging the user to click on to it to take them to
a relevant Web site.
Once the advert has been clicked on, Google would deduct 10p (or whatever amount you have nominated per click) from your account and the user would be taken to your Web site. Things to consider when embarking on a pay-per-click campaign: • Your budget can be set by you so you are in full control of expenditure • Many keyphrases can be bought depending on your budget • Different adverts can be written to compliment different keyphrases • You only pay when your advert is clicked so the prospect coming through to your site is a likely to be a good prospect • You can pause the campaigns and re-start them at your convenience • You can easily measure the campaign’s success in terms of visitors to enquiries and visitors to sales • It is NOT a quick way of getting in organic search engine results, it is for a specific reason – paid for advertising If you are already a pay-per-click user, why not try enhancing your campaign as described below. Use negative keywords
Using negative keywords is a way of targeting your adverts so that they are more likely to be shown to the right audience. You can exclude your advert from being shown when a specific keywords are included in the query in order to target your advert to the right people. This may result in few advert impressions but a higher click through rate, which can lead to higher sales and lower costs per click. To enable this, you simply need to add the keyword with a minus sign before it, to your keyword list. Use site targeted campaigns Most people tend to run Google AdWord campaigns that are targeted at specific keywords that people type in to the search engines. However, it is possible to set up a campaign that targets a type of site, rather than a keyphrase. Google adverts are also shown on other Web sites, across the Internet, that have signed up to have them displayed on their Web site, in return for a small commission on the value of the click. Following the wizard, Google will list Web sites that relate to your Web site and also enable you to specify particular sites that for inclusion in your campaign. Run ‘Pay Per Mile’ campaigns As a variation on the site targeted campaigns, you can bid to have your advert shown on specific Web sites at a cost per thousand impressions (cost per mile). An impression occurs every time your advert is shown. This is a very good way at getting your advert shown on specific sites and you don’t have to pay-per-click. Try Overture www.overture.com offers as similar service to Google but targets a different set of search engines and requires payment in advance. This service would be worth a try as it would enable you to reach a group of customers that use alternative search engines to Google, such as Yahoo. |
||
|
|
||
In every newsletter, we are bringing you 2 of our top
ten search engine tips that will help you get more
traffic from the search engines.
The top ten are: 1. Choose the right keyphrases 2. Optimise every page on your Web site 3. Optimise your Page Titles and other Meta Tags 4. Optimise your Page Content 5. Undertake a reciprocal links campaign 6. Use keywords in hyperlinks, filenames and image text 7. Make sure your site is search engine friendly 8. Do not spam the Search Engines 9. Update your site regularly 10. Buy the right domain names and use them to your advantage In the last issue we covered optimising your page title and other Meta Tags and the importance of optimising all of your pages for different keyphrases. This month we are covering tips 5 and 6. 5. Undertake a reciprocal links campaign As more and more Web sites become optimised for search engines, other ways of assessing the relevance of a Web site to a search phrase are being adopted by search engines, including Google. As well as being the second main way to drive new visitors to your Web site, the number of linking sites is an increasingly important factor used by search engines in order to determine your position in the search engine listings. In order to boost your rankings, you should conduct a reciprocal links campaign by contacting related but not competing businesses, portals, directories and local town Web sites and arranging to include reciprocal links on each other’s Web sites. Top Tip If you are unsure as to which types of Web site would link to you, a good tool to use can be found at www.linkpopularity.com. As well as giving you an indication of the number of links to your Web site that exist on the Internet, it will enable you to see which Web sites link to your competitors. This may well provide you with some ideas of the types of Web sites that will be prepared to link to you. Its not just the volume of links coming to your site that matters, it is the quality of the links. Quality links are those that come from sites that are also popular in terms of links, sites that are relevant to your Web site, links from pages without lots of other links to other sites and links that use your chosen keyphrases to link to your Web site. A good way to assess the link score of your own site, competitors and potential link partners, is to use a function that comes with Google Toolbar (free – http://toolbar.googl e.com). A page rank appears on the Google Toolbar on your Internet browser software and gives a graphical link rating of 0-10. One final point. Search engines always place more importance on the home page of a Web site and this is also the page that most links on other sites will go to. Therefore, if you want your Web site rank well in the search engines, it is important that your home page is optimised well for the search engines with lots of keyword rich text. If you have a simple entry page to your site with an animation or, ‘click here to enter’ with a logo or picture, remove it! Getting more links to your Web site can be very effective in improving your position in the search engines. 6. Use keywords in hyperlinks, filenames and
image text
This section covers three other places where you should include your keywords/keyphrases in order to make your site be seen more favourably in the search engines. Hyperlinks – When linking to other pages on your site or indeed to other Web sites, try to include your keywords and keyphrases in the link text. These can be your main navigational links, text within the body of the page or a separate set of links at the bottom of the page. If your main navigational links are graphic buttons with text in them, search engines will not be able to read them. You should either replace these buttons with text or text on top of a plain graphic, or alternatively include a list of hyperlinks at the bottom of the page. Filenames – Keywords within filenames can also be used to help with your rankings in some search engines. You can’t rename your home page, but things like changing a page about bed and breakfast tariffs from tariffs.htm to bedandbreakfasttariffs.htm is easy to do. A word of caution. Be sure to change the links on other pages that link to the page that you have changed the link for or these links will cease to work. Most Web design software will make the changes automatically for you. Image text - Alt Tags (the text description that appears when a mouse hovers over an image) can contribute to search engine optimisation and also serve to aid accessibility. You should include your keywords and keyphrases in these rather than merely describing the image or indeed having no Alt Tag at all. This will also help your Web site to be more accessible to the disabled community as the text can be read by screen readers that are used by people with impaired vision. |
||
|
|
||
We are running a series of day long workshops for
businesses. A mixture of presentations,
demonstrations and hands on sessions that will
enable delegates to develop their eCommerce skills
and get practical use out of IT applications as they
relate to their business
The daily attendance fee of £50 will be refunded to
those businesses who sign up for Opportunity Wales
Implementation Support, with each workshop
counting as half a day's support to that
business.
Workshop durection: 10am - 4pm Cost: £50 per workshop.
|
||
|
|
|
|
Dont forget to join one of the 10,000 businesses in Wales who have had a free Opportunity Wales eCommerce review! Click here to request yours!
Sincerely,
Eddy and Anna
InSynch Business Services Ltd
phone:
01654 703777
|
|
