NetNews our ONLINE NEWSLETTER (NetNews December 2005)

Developments in web marketing, site design, and web services

The Online Newsletter from Net Commerce Solutions

As we show in (2) below, online sales are already far surpassing last year’s levels. However, we highlight in our lead section that the hurdles to getting a share of this are being steadily raised, with the rewards going increasingly to those who can manage their sites most actively.

We hope that – possibly with a little help from us! – you are part of this process, and that the continued strong upswing in online activity helps to push your own figures along, both now and in the New Year.

In the meantime we send you, and all our clients, every good wish for a Happy Christmas, and a successful 2006.

1. NET ISSUES
Important issues that could impact on your website approach

Managing your web site ranking

Google, Google…….– they increasingly dominate internet coverage. This simply reflects that the visibility (ranking) of websites is arguably becoming a more critical competitive factor than website design and development.

Google’s recent announcements, particularly the Jagger changes (see (5) below), all place a premium on going beyond simply building reciprocal links, to achieve a good results ranking. Increasingly, sustaining a high position in Google search results requires also:

• a higher proportion of non-reciprocal links – these can include both paid, and non paid directories – good quality directories can be extremely useful, and can help to reduce the proportion of reciprocal links.
• refresh your site content – Google reward those sites which show continual changes in their text and content.
• don’t just rely on old links – Google like to see a flow of new links as well as a good volume of well-established links.
• it is related links that matter – increasingly, relying on links from sites in non-related activities will be ineffective – you need links from sites whose activities relate closely to your own – the more closely related, the better.

Overall, to get strong positions in the search results, these issues now need to be managed more actively – if required, we can assist you in this, and in the detailed monthly position tracking, both of activity and ranking levels, which is needed.

2. NET HAPPENINGS
News, themes and trends from the Internet – home and abroad

Technology enablers still developing strongly…………….…………..……………

WAP – during 2005, WAP volumes are running at 24% higher than in 2005 – an average of c59m page impressions are served up each day (mda.org).

Text messaging – in the 3rd quarter of this year, 89m text messages were sent out on average each day in the UK. This underpins a forecast of a total of 32 billion messages in 2005! – up 25% on 2004 (mda-org).

Broadband – broadband adoption has doubled over the past year. Over 8m UK homes are now connected, and the UK now has a higher level of broadband penetration than the USA (iabuk.net).

Online Shopping Update - UK figures showing strong growth……………….….

• Latest online shopping figures show that online shopping is growing 130 times faster than high street sales. UK internet year-on-year shopping grew by 40% by October, while total retail sales for the month were up just 0.3% on October 2004 (imrg.org).
• PayPal report that the average UK shopper now spends £157 per month online – with men spending more (£175 pm) than women (£137 pm).

Internet Advertising – continued shift away from traditional media……….

• Internet advertising spend is soaring – the online ad spending has grown by 62% this year, compared to growth of only 3% in the total UK advertising spend.
• Online advertising spend now exceeds outdoor advertising, and radio ad spend (iabuk.net).

3. NET TIPS
Some hints you could consider

Local Search Marketing – locality features increasingly in web searches. On all new sites where the local dimension is critical, we put the address and postcode in the footer of each page, and we now include the name of the city in the Title tag.

Page rank matters – we can readily tell any of our clients how they can quickly track the page ranking of their own site and their competitors’ – despite many Google changes the Page Rank indicator is still an invaluable indicator of progress towards getting a higher position in search results which will increase your targeted visitor volumes

Articles count – articles can be a useful source of inbound links. Many sector sites and directories value knowledge-based articles highly. If you provide an article of this nature, those sites will often give you a link from their site – as this is on a non-reciprocal basis, this carries extra weighting under Google’s current assessment process.

Designs can date – although content is always king, the look and feel of any site is critical, and designs do need refreshing over time. Are the colours too “solid?” Do the pages look too static? – would revolving graphics, or dissolving images increase the visual interest? We use an increasing range of visual features in our new designs, (whilst avoiding excessive use of Flash which can hamper search engines).

4. NCS FOCUS
News and services from NCS that might help

NCS Managed Search Engine Marketing – site owners increasingly need to manage their site positions actively. NCS can assist in this by insourcing the management of the site ranking.

We now manage the sites of a number of clients on this basis, and provide detailed monthly assessments and actions to help them sustain a high position in the rankings. We are happy to provide fuller details of the basis of our approach and the costings which apply – in the meantime, just click here to see further details

Multilingual Site Copy – we are seeing an increase in the number of sites which use foreign language copy. This varies from foreign language product details, to individual country pages. Via our translation partners, we are able to provide the translation also, and can easily incorporate these within the structure of the site.

5. NET NOTHINGS
You probably already know that:

The Jagger Update does not refer to a pop idol – it is a set of significant algorithm changes introduced by Google during last Sept-Oct. Very briefly, it rewards sites which have high quality link programmes, and correct and ethical optimization.

Inbound links matter for your site ranking and position – but you may not know that Microsoft had 29 million inbound links the last time we looked – it shows how seriously they take link building!

“Cloaking” is not just winter attire – it is a system of showing web pages to the search engines that differ from those shown to web surfers. It can deliver short term ranking improvements. Equally, though, should Google detect this on a site – as is quite likely - they may well delist the site in question. Like other unethical optimization techniques, it should be avoided!

Dave Abernethy,
Managing Director,
Net Commerce Solutions Ltd

Tel:     (+44) (0) 870 246 7642

info@net-commerce-solutions.co.uk     Web site: www.net-commerce-solutions.co.uk

Registered in England and Wales. Company number 4052885: 6 Bramble Close, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 4AN