Search Marketing Blog from Interactive Return

A Good Time for Irish Broadband Growth

Aisling Blake — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 11:08:41 +0000

Research by Amárach consulting for Comreg has shown that for the first time ever, broadband is now the dominant means of accessing the web by home internet users. Irish companies now have a market of over one million internet users in Ireland to target online.

Search Engine Optimisation Tips - How do I choose effective keywords?

Aisling Blake — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 08:15:46 +0000

One of first steps of a search marketing campaign is choosing an effective list of keywords. The importance of choosing the right keywords for your website should not be underestimated and is one of the most important parts of your overall online marketing strategy.

Here are some tips to use when choosing a list of keywords:

1. One of the most important criteria for selecting keywords is that they are highly searched upon. There is no point in optimising your website for keywords that nobody is searching on.

2. When you are selecting your keywords you should try and think in the mindset of your customers - what are they thinking?

3. Try and focus on phrases and not single words. These days search strings are getting longer and longer.

4. You should also try and avoid choosing keywords that are too generic. For example the keyword “mortgage” is likely to be much more competitive than “mortgages in cork” or “bad credit mortgages”. The reality is that keywords that are very generic are often very competitive. Stick to your product models and niches.

5. Always check out the current competition for different keywords.

6. Choose your keywords with a conversion focus in mind. If you are selling cars why not focus on phrases such as “buy a ford car” as this is much more likely to result in the ultimate sale than the term “ford cars”. Searchers are already in a purchasing mindset.

7. Check out the keyword research tools that are available online to help you choose your list. Overture have a popular tool.

8. Use a good website statistics software on your website. Google Analytics is a good choice and will also show which keywords are referring people to your website and which are delivering the greatest value to your business.

Will Yahoo buy Bebo?

Aisling Blake — Mon, 28 May 2007 10:25:13 +0000

Rumours are fife that Yahoo! is to acquire the social networking site Bebo for as much as $1 billion. The site which is currently the most popular website in Ireland has 13.7 million unique users and also has the majority of the social networking share in the UK market.

According to Bebo, each visitor to the website looks at an average of 20 pages per day. If Yahoo! does purchase Bebo, it will mean that it is paying about $73 for each user. The rumour has already added 2.7% to the Yahoo! share price.

Online Advertising Spend tops £2 billion in the UK in 2006

Aisling Blake — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 09:20:07 +0000

The British Advertising Bureau has reported that online advertising spend exceeded £2 billion in 2006 putting it ahead of other forms of advertising spending including cinema, radio, outdoor and national press.

An article in the Sunday Business post on April 29th, 2007 said that five years ago advertising spend in this area was only £165 million compared to £2 billion today. There all also indications that advertisers are switching their advertising spends away from more traditional forms of advertising spending to online spending.

Search marketing accounted for 58 percent of the total spend and has grown by 52 percent since 2005 while display advertising increased by 35%.

The Irish Advertising Bureau has previously said that it expects that online advertising will account for 10% of all advertising spend by 2010 and these statistics would indicate that this is very likely.

Britian currently has the largest online advertising spend in the world with £50 per capita been spent on online advertising.

The article in the Sunday Business Post also recognises the obstacles that Ireland’s slow broadband penetration rates have on the reach and richness of online advertising in Ireland.

Search Engine Usage in Ireland continues to Grow

Aisling Blake — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 13:51:39 +0000

Amarach consulting has just published statistics on search engine usage in Ireland. According to the figures, over half of all Internet users in Ireland are now using search engines such as Yahoo and Google every day. For younger users, this percentage rises to over two thirds.

The study also noted that one in three users who are searching on a search engine will click on one of the first five results presented to them while two thirds of users click on sponsored listings at some point or another. The group most likely to click on sponsored listings are 35 - 44 year olds among whom three in ten will frequently click on such sponsored links.

This year in the UK, Google will receive more money from advertising than Channel 4.

Bebo overtakes Google as Ireland’s most visited website.

Aisling Blake — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 13:32:35 +0000

Alexa.com’s statistics now state that social networking site Bebo is Ireland’s most visited website. The website has seen significant growth over the past 12 months and Bebo have said that they now have over 1 million registered users in Ireland.

According to Alexa.com, Ireland’s top 5 visited websites are

1. Bebo

2. Yahoo.com

3. Google.ie

4. MSN.com

5. Google.com

The top 100 websites in Ireland also includes 6 Polish, 4 Chinese, 1 Russian and 1 Lithuanian websites.

Internet Usage Jumps Again in Ireland

Aisling Blake — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 08:17:15 +0000

New data from the Commission for Communications Regulation has just been published and shows some interesting stats on Internet uptake in Ireland.

47% of Irish people went online in the last quarter of 2006
The Highest Penetration rates came from 15-24 year olds, students, workers and those who used the Internet at home.
70% of all Internet usage came from Home.
Factors which are stopping other people getting online include - Lack of a PC (35%), Lack of Skills (31%) and a lack of an Internet Connection (21%)
Eircom had the largest Market share at 80%
The most popular activities online are - E-mail (65%), General Browsing (64%) and Information Search (58%)
Only 40% of Irish Internet Users have Broadband

Google Announces Details of Pay-Per-Action Ads

Aisling Blake — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 08:07:12 +0000

Google has just launched beta testing for pay-per-action ads. The difference between pay-per-click and pay-per-action is that advertisers will only have to part with their money when a certain action is performed by a user - whether it is a sale or a sign up.

This cost-per-action system is a big boost for websites which are selling physical or downloadable goods because the return on ad investment can be measured directly in terms of sales.

It is also hoped that it will help combat the problem of click fraud - Advertisers could be more assured that humans and not robots are cicking through on their ads.

Right now the system is been tested in the US for publishers who can pick and choose the ads which appear on the site - but watch this space.

Future gets brighter for Internet Marketing in Ireland

Aisling Blake — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 10:02:46 +0000

A new report commissioned by ComReg in Ireland has just been published and shows the generation gap that is emerging between younger Internet users and older ones.

The TRENDS report shows that more than half of all 15-24 year olds are now member of social networking sites such as BEBO, seven in ten use the Internet in Ireland and most are online every day. The report also shows that time spent online is now eating into time spent watching television and that Internet usage is now becoming the main leisure activity for young people.

Thanks to Amárach and ComReg for the news.

Tired of Google and Yahoo? Then check out Cranky.com - A Search Engine for Geriatrics

Aisling Blake — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 09:12:43 +0000

A media firm catering to people over the age of 50 has launched a new search engine this week geared to Baby Boomers and seniors. And the name says it all: Cranky.com.

Eons, the media company behind Cranky.com examined the 5000 most popular Web sites among a group of 500,000 Web users aged 45 and older and rated each site in order to create Cranky.com.

According to the Cranky.com Web site, the top requested searches for Web users over the age of 50 last year show some similarities to the most popular searches on sites like Google and Yahoo - searches about blogs and making new friends were among the top ten searches on Cranky.com-rated sites, for example.

But there were also several key differences between what’s interesting to younger Web users and the older ones that Cranky.com is targeting. While Paris Hilton and Britney Spears were top celebrity searches on Yahoo and Google, author Stephen King was the most searched celebrity according to Cranky.com. Other popular searches on Cranky.com were for information about brain builder mental exercises and jobs after retirement.

The new search engine, like many popular online sites geared at younger viewers, also features social networking tools and an answers function that lets users get responses to direct questions.

But why did they choose the name Cranky.com? Isn’t that name a bit of a stereotype?

Adapted from CNN.COM