In September 2007 I wrote an article for our Competitive Edge newsletter on What Price Google Analytics. The article generated a fair amount of debate, yet despite the large number of people who were quite vocal with their disagreement, many also agreed. The point of the article wasn’t that Google Analytics is bad. The point was that Google Analytics isn’t … Read More
What should I call my product?
Whether you’re about to launch a new product or are considering renaming an existing one, deciding what to call it often proves to surprisingly difficult. One approach is to name according to what the product does. For instance some of our clients have products like System Mechanic, PDF Annotator and Advanced Outlook Repair. Another approach is to make the name fit … Read More
Website users ignore pointless pictures – how very odd?
From Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox: “Users pay close attention to photos and other images that contain relevant information but ignore fluffy pictures used to “jazz up” Web pages.“ And he can prove it. Like many of Jakob Nielsen’s statements, it sounds absurdly obvious. So why do so many websites get it wrong? How many times have you seen websites using a … Read More
Conversion fraud – another AdWords thing that makes you go hmmm
As an Adwords Certified Partner, we spend a major chunk of our week handling client’s AdWords accounts. A part of our process involves looking for anything that stands out as unusual. Try this for unusual. One of our clients saw an unusual increase in conversions. As much as we’d like to think this was a direct result of our efforts, … Read More
Google’s new feature obscures paid ads
Google have quietly introduced a new preview feature – in the form of a little magnifying glass next to each of the search results. Click on it and a preview of the web page opens: My first thought was that this was a result of an updated Chrome extension, or perhaps from Norton Internet Security. Yet a quick search on … Read More
AdWords customised date range options expanding?
Is it just me or has the list been getting longer? It’s a shame they don’t offer a “Last 28 days” option. I suppose that would be too useful.
How do I get more people to my website?
Company Q have a great service that sells well. An impressive 5% of the visitors to their website buy what they sell. With 200 visitors a day, their sales are reasonable, but they want more. Company P are using marketing company SP to manage their Google AdWords account. Their conversions are great, obviously, and they see around 20 sales a … Read More
I’m a software developer. What software should I write?
It’s a common question. Software developer leaves school or university and is great at churning out tight, functional, well-written code. Software developer doesn’t want to work for someone else, and likes the idea of running their own software company. But s/he doesn’t know what to write that will sell. They could start by following the wisdom of crowds through Google: … Read More