Alex Radford
Alex Radford. Insights into Internet Marketing, Search Engine Marketing and the odd photo.
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Google Super Bowl Advert
Posted on February 8th, 2010 No comments -
Nexus One, aka the Google Phone
Posted on February 7th, 2010 No commentsI had an iPhone for over a year, which I had to trade in for a blackberry pearl when I got a new job. I missed my iPhone and quickly started to loathe my blackberry. I was just waiting to change back to the iPhone when I was introduced to the Nexus One. The google phone quite honestly rocks! It’s smaller, thinner, has a better screen and the apps are amazing, especially the augmented reality Apps like google maps and talk to me. I will be getting one, just going to wait to see if Santa Google may bring me one!!
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Glad advertising
Posted on September 20th, 2009 No commentsI’ve just watched a TV commercial for glad, though actually it was via one of these strange NZ entities called brand world or better buying or some other pointless group. This ad suggests that everyone should be using disposable roasting dishes to cook their Sunday roast. Not exactly the sentiment you’d expect in this day and age. Surely it is better to make use of reusable items. Worse still was that we should be cooking our roasts in glad bags! WTF!? Surely that then becomes boiling, not roasting!
These ads for me are the very scum on the surface of the advertising industry of New Zealand. They are patronizing, annoying, and pawn products that no one needs to the very people who can’t afford the products in the first place.
Advertising in my mind should be creative and inspirational. These type of ads are the complete antithesis of creativity and inspiring!
Stop infesting out TV screens with this tripe! Please…
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Google Fast Flip
Posted on September 17th, 2009 1 commentGoogle has just launched their lastest ‘labs’ creation. Google Fast Flip. This is supposed to be a bridge between trad and digital media. Not sure what to make of it yet – not enough personalisation yet for my liking but I’m sure Google will perfect and integrate over time… Have a look here: Google Fast Flip
Let me know what you think to the latest addition to Google innovative products…
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Elizabeth Stokes
Posted on September 17th, 2009 No commentsElizabeth Stokes
Elizabeth Stokes
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Facebook Username
Posted on June 13th, 2009 No commentsGot in quick and snaffled up the username radders007 so you can now also find me at www.facebook.com/radders007
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Digital Marketing News Roundup 03
Posted on February 13th, 2009 No commentsIt’s been a hot summer and no one has felt the heat more than our friends over the ditch in Victoria. This website was set-up by Google in response to the fires in Victoria as a resource for the world to see the extent of the devastation and also a place to get news and give support. Good to see that Google does have a philanthropic side… Victoria Fires Map
This is a great story. A large corporate using innovative social media marketing techniques to sell more stuff! If Dell can do then why not you! How Dell is using Twitter to increase sales
This story is great for those of you who are new to SEO. It really lays out the law on what to expect when entering into an SEO programme, especially if you are in a competitive industry like travel or finance. Give SEO Time!
And just to give a nice balanced argument between search and social media: Yes, Social Media is Powerful. No, It’s Not as Powerful as Search.
Link building. What is it and why do you do it? All your questions answered!! Link Building 101, Part 1
And if you’d ever wondered what the most aristocratic website on the internet is then your search is over! The Queen’s website: http://www.royal.gov.uk/
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Digital Marketing News Round Up 02
Posted on February 4th, 2009 No commentsHappy Waitangi Day for tomorrow!
So down to business quickly with some news from Google: A new version of Google Earth has been released this time with views under the ocean – Google Earth Version 5. Gmail is now a real contender to Outlook with the news that Google has released offline support through its Google Gears service: Offline Gmail. And finally proof that Google can also **** up! A Google Apology
So on to the good stuff. For those of you still struggling with the finer points of Google Analytics this posting has brought together some of the best online resources for Google Analytics.
How To Track Visitors, Rankings & Conversions in Google Analytics
With the explosion of “social media” it is really important to understand which social media sites are helpful from a marketing perspective and which are just a great way to whittle away the lunch hour. This posting talks sensibly about social media for B2B websites.
5 Ways to Use Social Media to Find B2B Influencers
Landing Pages make a BIG difference to paid search campaigns. Check out this posting for some smart tips:
9 Effective Tips for a Better Landing Page
We always hear that NZ is years behind the UK and the USA in all things internet but this excellent article from the BBC proves that most businesses in the UK still are pretty clueless about the world wide inter web:
How companies tackle the interweb thing
Well, I think that is more than enough to be going on with so I’ll end with a couple of fun postings to end with:
“Search is increasingly becoming a tool to help people accomplish certain tasks. We took a look at some data from 2008 and want to share our findings: The most popular how-to searches of 2008
Site of the day: If you haven’t set up a profile on LinkedIn then do so NOW! It is a great way to network, find old colleagues, find new business, etc, etc.: http://www.linkedin.com/
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Digital Marketing News Round Up
Posted on January 23rd, 2009 No commentsJanuary has already been a hell of a month for the online world. None more so than the inauguration of Barak Obama which was one of the most technologically wired events the world has seen, with social media playing a huge part in the way we as the viewing public engaged with the event:
News networks used images uploaded from the mobile phones of people in the crowd from sites such as flickr: http://blog.flickr.net/en/2009/01/20/we-watched/
The new administration used live updates on twitter to keep the world engaged: http://twitter.com/obamainaugural
And Barak Obama must also be the first person in history to make news about a robots.txt file international news: White House plans open government
Twitter was also in the news again twice this week, firstly as the first images of the crash of the aeroplane into the Hudson came not from a major news network but from a citizen journalist, his iPhone and a 3G connection to Twitter…U.S. Airways Crash Rescue Picture: Citizen Journalism, Twitter At Work. And then today it has been released that Twitter is now the quickest growing social media application having now overtaken Digg. Rumours of a Google purchase are rife… Tweet smell of success
Some other articles worth reading this week include:
Multichannel Analytics: Tracking Online Impact Of Offline Campaigns
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What is SEO when working with an SEO agency?
Posted on January 9th, 2009 2 commentsAlmost every day I get asked to explain what exactly SEO is and the processes involved, and it is often difficult to get the balance right between to technical and a little to fluffy, so here is my brief explanation of what SEO is:
Every day billions of searches are performed worldwide in search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Windows Live for products, services, research and just for fun. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is in essence the process of ensuring that a particular website appears in the search results for a search query.
the seo pyramid
The reality however is more complex and involved process that involves many of the steps below but more fundamentally means understanding why you want people to visit your website and then once they are there what you want them to do. Once we understand this we can then audit your website to get it found, make it engaging to the browser and then help develop the conversion funnel to turn that browser into a customer.
It is also important to understand two other fundamentals about SEO. The first is that it takes time. It takes time to make the changes to the website, it takes time for Google to then update their information and then it takes time to slowly move up the rankings and therefore it takes time to build traffic. And this also depends hugely on the size of your website (number of pages and amount of content), the competition for certain keywords and the size and aggressiveness of your industry. Secondly, it is a process that you will need to get involved in. You will be asked to sign off keywords, approve press releases and much more…
Once we understand all of these factors, along with your objectives and any suitable KPIs we can then develop an appropriate strategy based on the three pillars of SEO:
Code – Ensuring that the search engine spiders can access your website and can access the required information quickly and without hindrance.
Content – That the content on the website is presented in a way that can be “read” by the spiders quickly and that the keywords and key phrases being targeted have be thoroughly researched to bring the right traffic in appropriate quantities.
Trust – This is developed by securing links from authoritative and relevant websites back to your website. This is done to “explain” to Google that your website is the most relevant to a particular search query.
Hope this kind of makes sense!