Web Search & Marketing News

November 2004 Newsletter

Welcome to the November issue of our newsletter, providing news and advice to help market your business online.

This month we're proud to announce the launch of the new website for The Web Marketing Workshop , which will hopefully provide you with some useful information about marketing your Internet business as well as outline the range of services that we can now offer. You can read more below, but please also visit the site and, as ever, any feedback is always welcome!

Also this month we feature another new development from Google - their Desktop Search tool - which is another example of how 'search' is being developed to become a more integrated tool across a PC or network, as well as on the web. We also cover the question of 'click fraud' on pay-per-click advertising campaigns, which is often raised as a concern and we review the issues here. Finally we touch on another scam that you might want to be alert to!

Please read on below…and if you want to refer to any items included previously, or view this current issue online, you can find them here.


Best regards,
Clive Hawkins

In this month's news...

• The Web Marketing Workshop's new website is launched!
• Google's search moves onto the desktop
• Pay-per-click advertising and potential 'click fraud'
• Selling domain names scam

The Web Marketing Workshop's new website is launched!

We're pleased to announce that the new website for The Web Marketing Workshop is now online. The site showcases the range of services that we can now offer, including online strategy development, website design, a wide range of marketing options, and ways to analyse and improve your website. It also serves as a resource for anyone interested in promoting their business online or developing their website, with lists of issues to consider and resources to use.

We hope you like the site and find it useful, and please let us have any comments or questions.

Google's search moves onto the desktop

Google has just launched a 'beta' version of its new desktop search engine that operates at a far greater speed than the standard windows search. This is not a new idea as the Copernic desktop search tool was released in August and also the UK-based Blinkx tool has also received much publicity recently. However, crucially Google has rushed their new tool out ahead of similar concepts expected from Microsoft and Yahoo.

The application downloads quickly and runs from the desktop and within a web browser, integrating alongside the other Google search options such as web, images, news etc. Currently it can search for a limited range of files including:

• Outlook and Outlook Express
• AOL Instant Messenger
• Cached web pages from Internet Explorer
• Text files
• Microsoft office files

We've tried it out and have found it to perform very quickly and be very good at indexing cached web pages - making it much simpler to search through your browsing history to find a previously visited website. However, indexing Outlook emails can be problematic, especially if a number of different identities are being used, plus it would also be useful if more file formats (such as PDF) were searchable.

One of the main concerns about this type of application is that it is able to collect personal information. In its privacy policy Google states that it only collects a limited amount of non-personal information and it gives you the option to disable this in the preference settings. A more immediate concern is its effect on keeping information private from people who could gain physical access to your computer or network.

We found that it was able to index files on other computers across our wireless network and there have also been reports that the software is able to index files from different windows user identities on the same computer. This means that if someone has access to your computer they can search through your emails, browsing history and files on a contentious subject extremely quickly!

This tool is only a beta release with a number of clear limitations, but it does give a good idea of what can be expected in the future. Also, this type of application could potentially make real improvements to how productively computers are able to be used for a range of tasks, so give it a go and see how it can improve your search experience!

If you would like any further information about this tool, or other desktop search applications, please contact us.

Pay-per-click advertising and potential 'click fraud'

There has been a lot of publicity recently about 'click fraud' on pay-per-click advertising campaigns being run on tools such as Google AdWords and Overture. This involves the action of clicking on a company's adverts purely to increase their costs and is carried out either by competitors, software 'bots', and even in some cases there are reports of Indian companies employing people to click on adverts in return for a small fee.

There is much contention about how prevalent this practice is. Some claim that it is responsible for anything between 5 and 15% of all clicks, although we believe that the issue is more of a concern to high-spending companies in the US than those in the UK.

Although the PPC providers could make extra money from this practise, it is clearly in their best long-term interest to prevent this type of activity and they do have a range of measures in place to fight it. These include monitoring the IP address that clicks originate from and placing time restrictions on the level of clicks from a single source. They also claim to have systems to identify 'unusual' click behaviour.

We have had cases where Google and Overture have notified us about 'invalid' activity on some accounts and refunded some costs. However, no system can be foolproof and it is likely that some costs will be 'wasted', particularly on higher bid cost terms where competitors may occasionally use the link for any number of reasons.

Ultimately, although we can't ignore the fact that some 'click fraud' taking place, we need to build this into the costs of a PPC campaign and how effective it can be. That's why we always advocate that, whenever possible, an advertiser uses the conversion tracking code that is made available and measures the cost-effective of their activity so that bids or terms can be adjusted if they are seen to not be cost-effective.

If you have a PPC campaign running, or are considering this in the future and would like to know more about measuring the cost-effective of this activity, please contact us for more details.

Selling domain names scam

We have heard of a number of cases recently where companies have received an unsolicited call from companies trying to sell new domain names at highly inflated prices.

This is not a new scam and was rife several years ago as companies raced to buy up domain names. The call comes from an agency who claim that they have been approached by another company who intend to purchase a series of domains that are very similar to the recipient's own domain name/s. However, this 'agency' offers the recipient to buy these names first at a highly inflated cost of up to £450 for two years, but they have to act quickly and, in some cases, encourage them to make the purchase on the phone there and then.

The simple message is DON'T DO IT! This scummy practice preys on scare tactics to extort money from unsuspecting companies. There is no threat from another company and the costs quoted are extreme. Besides, if someone does buy a similar domain, will they really challenge your business or achieve online visibility that will lure customers away from you?

If you are approached with a similar offer, please ignore it or feel free to get in touch with us if you have any concerns or would like help in establishing whether it is legitimate or not.

We hope you've found the above information useful. Please contact us if you need any more details on the items covered, or our advice on any aspect of your website's performance.