SEARCH CLINIC

1. Optimize your anchor text
Anchor text is one of the most important parts of a link to your website. It’s very likely that some sites will be linking to you with less than optimal anchor text. In some cases this may be basically along the lines of “click here” or “learn more”.

Try contacting site owners and provide them with an example of how you would like the link to be shown. If they’re already linking to you, there’s a good chance they see value in your website and will help you out.

3. Change the destination URL of your links
If you’re targeting specific pages as a part of your SEO strategy, try asking site owners to change the URL of their link. For example, you may want to redirect links from some of your homepage to key inner pages.
 

Hope that these suggestions help you.

Its survey suggests that three out of four people have switched at least one product or service in the last two years due to poor service. 

Lifestyle firm WhiteConcierge, which commissioned the study, said the findings suggested that more than 30 consumers were signing up with different companies every minute of the day.

The report found that the worst affected sectors for losing customers over the past two years were motor insurance, electricity and home insurance.

Organisations have to work harder than ever to keep their best customers. Consumers have become increasingly demanding and discerning, and with the rise of price comparison websites for example, it is now much easier to compare and switch products.

The findings have come as no surprise to the CRM community. In the recent tough economic times, service may have been one of the many cutbacks made across the breadth of the organisation. However, service is precisely what will keep current customers and continue to attract new ones.

Much has been made of the birth of ‘Generation Y’-ers – those who multi-task throughout life and communicate with organisations via a multitude of channels. This should strongly underline the need for businesses to reassess their service provision. 

The search giant must pay £266,000 in damages and interest to French publisher La Martiniere. Google was also ordered to pay £9,000 a day until it removes extracts of the books from its database.

It was one of many to take Google to court for digitising its books without explicit permission.

Google expressed disappointment at the ruling.

“French readers now face the threat of losing access to a significant body of knowledge and falling behind the rest of internet users,” said a spokesman for the firm.

Google wants to scan millions of books to make them available online.

This court case will be seen as a victory for critics of the plan who fear Google is creating a monopoly over information.

Publisher Herve de La Martiniere launched his court case three years ago but Google continued to scan books during this period.

La Martiniere, the French Publishers’ Association and authors’ group SGDL who started the court battle initially demanded that Google be fined £13.2m.

Google’s plans to establish a digital library have hit several road blocks. It agreed to a settlement with US authors and publishers but is renegotiating after the US Justice Department concluded that the deal violates anti trust law.

Prediction 1: Mobile will drive local search growth

BIA/Kelsey predicts that mobile local search ad revenues will grow to $130 million by 2013, and that mobile local searches will increase to 35 percent of all searches by 2013. Amid this growth, we’re seeing significant innovation on the mobile front, from new Yellow Pages iPhone apps to mapping technologies that deliver relevant local information to users on the go.

In 2010, advertisers will be faced with a growing set of options, and many will have limited knowledge of how to break through. The providers that will do well will be the ones who can make sense of this quickly changing platform and deliver programs that offer quality sales leads to advertisers.

Prediction 2: Local search providers will vie for social media

The truth is that no one owns social local search yet, but all the major players have an eye on getting there. Here’s why: Neilsen reported that ad spending at top social media sites increased 119 percent over the last year, and the share of social media ad spending to total online spending doubled to 15 percent in 2009.

Advertisers know that significant trust exists within online social communities and that social networks have become a crucial way in which we relate with others. The question in 2010 will center on how we can authentically tap into those networks to serve local business information to consumers looking for it.

AT&T; has said it will launch its answer to this question in 2010, and SuperPages has a Twitter search tool available right now. Praized Media launched Calgary.com this fall as a beta program and is hoping to expand it additional regions. I can only imagine where we’ll be a year from now.

Prediction 3: Local print advertising will continue to decline but won’t disappear

Dr Search has been predicting the death of print media for quite some time. I don’t believe that print media will disappear anytime soon, but certainly usage is changing. Media fragmentation is causing a gradual decline in the quantity of print Yellow Pages references, for example, although the quality of those references is still very high. Quite frankly, the perception of the usage decline in the printed Yellow Pages far exceeds the reality of what is actually happening.

For advertisers, this means taking a close look at advertising spend and evaluating their print investment. Those who are too quick to abandon it may see a reduction in qualified sales leads, while those who aren’t open to some of the newer platforms available might be missing a big opportunity.

Prediction 4: A hybrid marketing approach will win

My colleagues spent a good part of this year talking about the hybrid model that they’ve deployed in their sales teams. Yellow Pages sales representatives, for example, are now armed with portfolios of options ranging from owned products to partner products. And in this way, have essentially become advertising consultants to small businesses.

Advertisers should think about taking advantage of these kinds of information resources by devoting an hour or two to thinking through the options out there and devising a strategy that spans the appropriate media for the business. 

The first Monday in December – so called Cyber Monday, is the cue for a stampede as shoppers who see goods on the high street over the weekend use their office high speed broadband connections to place orders once they return to work.

This year’s forecasts from the IMRG, the trade body for online retailers, are exceeded by those of Kelkoo, the shopping comparison service, which predicts sales of £417m.

Total sales are expected to be £5bn for December, a 14 per cent increase on last year, according to IMRG.

“To reach that amount during a recession shows the huge resilience of the online sector,” said David Smith, IMRG director of operations. “People are turning to the internet to look for value.”

On the equivalent Monday last year, Amazon said it saw 1.4m items ordered in 24 hours. The website expects this to rise about 10 per cent this year. 

Kelkoo found that about 70 per cent of people plan to shop online, while the IMRG’s research suggests that nearly three in four people who shop online will buy most of their gifts over the internet.

Christmas will be less frugal than in 2008, according to indications from Google. Searches for “Christmas gifts” have risen 22 per cent in the past year, while searches for “gold jewellery” are up 39 per cent and “diamond rings” 76 per cent. In contrast, searches for “coupons” were a theme last year.

According to Kelkoo, about 40 per cent of British shoppers plan to spend more on gifts than last year. The average household spends £665.