This is something which many of our internet marketing clients are involved within; however the majority of them only have basic understanding of how Google Adwords actually works. Instead they put their trust into Brick technology. Did you know that we are a Google accredited company handling a large number of client Adword Campaigns?

What is Google Adwords and why use it?

Google Adwords is a system which Google have put in place and developed in order to help you in the marketing of your company products and services within their Google Search Engine and other Affiliate sites.

It assists you in your marketing by placing a text ad which will appear when people search for phrases related to your product. This will appear as what is known as a sponsored link and works on a pay per click system.

Pay per click means that what you do as the company is to actually dictate where your ad will appear for a certain product or service by bidding for a series of phrases. Pay per click does exactly as the name would suggest you pay the amount that you had bid and if someone clicks on the ad as a result of a web search you are charged.

What does a Google Ad contain?

• Title
• Descriptive Line 1
• Descriptive Line 2
• URL Link to website or specific page on your website

Example from one of our customers is when you type “insulation fixings” into Google they appear in the Ad part at the top of the search results:

As mentioned the ad works by appearing in the page of results which you have selected for it to appear in; they appear at the top and to the right of the organic search engine results. In addition to picking the page you want it to appear on you can also dictate at what position on the page for the ad to appear. However the more you bid the higher the mount you pay but the further to the top you appear.

Why use Google Adwords?

There is the fact that those visitors who come to your site after finding your website through the organic searches actually behave a lot differently to those who come onto your site through Google Adwords.

This could be because traffic which arrives on your site from the organic search may only be looking for further information whereas those arriving from a pay per click, Google Adword campaign know that they are clicking onto an Ad. Maybe it can be assumed that an ad is something they click because they want it and they want to buy a certain product or service.

You may ask the question then why not just get these targeted visitors via Google Adwords however, if it was that simple everyone would be doing it! It is a little bit more complicated and requires someone with experience and knowledge within this field in order to be successful otherwise you end up throwing money away.

If you want to discuss Google Adwords then come to Brick technology; as mentioned above we are a Google Accredited company and have had experience with a number of Google Adword Accounts.

For more information call us on 01254 277190 or email info@brickweb.co.uk.

Article source: http://www.brickweb.co.uk/news/2012/january/brickweb-are-google-accredited.html

Many people want their website to appear on page one of Google Search Results and this can be achieved through internet marketing. However, one of the easiest ways to get onto page one of Google is to sign up for Google Places.

Google Places was first introduced so that local search results could be made more relevant and this would enable businesses to create a free business directory listing with the advantage of your business appearing when a user searches this type of business.

In addition to your company name appearing a little pinpoint on a map will mark your location. Business listings are becoming important as more and more are being displayed in the search results.

Within this business listing through Google Places you can add the following information:

• Business name
• Business Address
• Business Hours
• Payment Methods Accepted
• A Website Link
• Business Photos and Videos

What you need to do is apply to Google Places and then await a pin code from Google who will need to validate your request. They do this by phone, text message or a postcode. Anyone with a Google Account can then write a review about your company on this page and it is these reviews which will provide you with a rating from 1-5 stars. It is this rating which you need to increase and build on.

To get higher positioning in Google for localised searching you need to encourage your customers to leave reviews through their Google accounts on your Business Listing page.

In addition to the reviews you need to add new photos to the account and also videos which will help increase visibility and ranking. Within the business listing itself you should include location keywords and these should also be in the listing description too.

For more information about Google Places and how to get yourself on the map then contact us on 01254 277190 or email info@brickweb.co.uk.

Article source: http://www.brickweb.co.uk/news/2012/january/google-places-where-are-you.html

We are very excited about the emerging market for Smart TV’s or “Connected TV”. For us and our clients this means a shift in the way more than one person will experience the Internet. Now, this might not be news to everyone, however especially for our clients with high ticket items or shopping that requires a decision by more than one person in the household in particular furniture, holiday and real estate websites this will certainly aid conversions.

Our world class web design team are taking this new viewing experience in to consideration when implementing our latest website projects. Web design is more than just a great looking site, but designing a site that performs perfectly on all new platforms, mobile, smart TV, tablets etc. We’re even seeing more e-commerce purchases on Nintendo Wii and Xboxes. 

50% of all new TV sales in the UK thus far in January have been for “connected TV’s” If you are one of the first adapters to this. Take a look on your TV at some of our optimised for smart TV clients.

Twistfix Damp Proofing Products
Childrens Mattresses
Winchester Chesterfields

BBC Click recently went to Vegas and shows some of the manufacturers that are going full steam ahead in to this emerging market. Take a look here. We expected Smart TV’s to really take off in 2012, however with the current state of the economy and the price of these first TV products it may not boom until 2013, but, Brick clients are already there!

If you would like to know more and how you can make sure your website engages multi-viewers, please get in touch.

Article source: http://www.brickweb.co.uk/news/2012/january/a-new-internet-shopping-experience.html

For quite a few years now a number of digital advertisers have been declaring that the year of the mobile has arrived however, this hasn’t been the case and it hasn’t taken off as planned. Right now it is extremely obvious that the mobile is a highly effective platform and with this in mind many companies are looking for mobile websites and mobile apps.

In the past a mobile was simply a portable landline and although this is still the case there are a number of other tasks that people use their mobiles for. Organising, sending photos and videos, browsing the internet, capturing video and photos, reading the news, playing games, sending a text and much more.

Now mobiles are being used by marketers and advertisers as an advertising platform and as a company or business if you want to keep ahead with the times then you need to move into mobile.

With the smartphone market growing massively it most definitely has not reached its maximum! In 2012 various people have predicted that the sales of smartphones will exceed that of a PC.

What are the advantages of advertising through a mobile app?

Does it even work?

Believe it or not research has shown that 73% of respondents had downloaded an app that included embedded advertising and 60% would be happy to do so again. But most interesting to note is that one in four respondents who clicked on a mobile ad actually ended up making a purchase.

Another very interesting fact is that in December 2011 only 37% of those who downloaded a mobile app actually paid for it which was down, 17% on the last year and shows that the value of a mobile app may not be in the sale of it but more in the advertising revenue that could be potentially generated.

Brick technology is highly experienced with creating mobile websites and mobile apps and so if you are interested in any of these please let us know. We are happy to discuss the various options which are available to our customers and we urge companies and businesses to definitely take a look into this because otherwise you are going to be stuck playing catch up.

Speak to us today! Call us on 01254 277190 or email info@brickweb.co.uk.

Article source: http://www.brickweb.co.uk/news/2012/january/move-to-mobile-now.html

Last week Google announced a brand new page layout algorithm update. This is a landing page quality update which will see Google Bots look at the layout of a webpage and note the amount of content you see on a page once you click on a result.

This is as an opposed plan to having people scroll beneath ads in order to get this – sound familiar?

Yes! You wouldn’t be wrong many have stated that it is extremely similar to Google Panda. Already many people assume that it is Google Panda Algorithm which is penalising ad heavy pages. Google have claimed that the new change isn’t one which is going to affect every single site but rather just those which have an excessive number of ads obstructing people getting to the content they requested in the first place.

It is going to affect less than 1% of searches on a global scale which is less than one in one hundred. If you do believe that your website has been affected by the page layout algorithm change then you need to take a look at how your web pages used the area above-the-fold and whether the content on the page is obscured or hard for a used to locate. Check your website on a number of screen resolutions also.

If you have been penalised it is an algorithm penalty not a manual one so if you simply fix the layout of your page then Google Filters will pick this change up next time they come to crawl your site and providing everything is in order then the penalty will be lifted and you can start to rank highly again. It is the manual penalties you need to avoid.

Although this particular Google change isn’t going to affect a huge amount of sites we are wondering what is going on in Google world right now? After all is this simply an unofficial Panda update for 2012?

What do you think?

For more information please contact us on 01254 277190 or email info@brickweb.co.uk.

Article source: http://www.brickweb.co.uk/news/2012/january/unofficial-google-panda-update-or-not.html

Your website is the first impression and sometimes the last impression which you create in a person’s mind. From the moment a person lands on your website they will have already made a decision about your company, products and services based upon the web design they see in front of them.

By using a professional web design company such as Brick technology you can ensure that each and every single person who lands on your website is left with a positive impression towards your company.  A world class web design is not only professional but it also makes your company look credible and attracts in more traffic.

You need to ensure that you are enhancing your online presence and turning any negatives into a positive. For instance when your website launches it is important to take in the views of your colleagues as well as customers to see what it is they find difficult or not all that good. Once you have these then use them as constructive criticism in order to make changes to your website and over the life span of your website being live you will probably see a number web developments.

Everything from web design to web development along with additional services in internet marketing and media production can be found all under one roof at Brick technology. There are a number of companies who just offer web design services but in order to be successful you do need to have a full digital agency at your fingertips.

Our web designers at Brick technology will create web designs which are not only aesthetically pleasing but will incorporate a number of ideas which you probably never even thought of doing yourself. They bring fresh, new and exciting aspects to web design and as we are always researching we are constantly looking for ways to improve our services.

In addition to this we are always looking for techniques which work in regards to online marketing and advertising although we already have a number of years experience within this particular industry.

If you want to achieve web domination then please contact us on 01254 277190 or email info@brickweb.co.uk.

Article source: http://www.brickweb.co.uk/news/2012/january/get-your-company-some-web-domination.html

Over the past week you may have tried to access sites such as Wikipedia and WordPress amongst others and found that their content had been taken offline. Thousands of sites took their content offline in order to make a stance against the potential damage which could be caused by the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (Pipa).

These are two bills which are currently being considered by members of the US congress and through these on Thursday the Department of Justice announced the shutdown of Megaupload. This is one of the internet’s biggest file sharing sites and with this proving to be extremely wrong by many “hacktivists” who align themselves under the name “Anonymous” started their attack.

They hit hard websites belonging to US authorities as well as music companies and other advocates who were in support of a crackdown on piracy. Following this the discussion of the two bills was halted in its tracks. Many described the attacks as simply a form of exposing the sheer amount of people who are involved within internet piracy as an economy.

Everyone knows it is morally wrong to simply lift work which someone else has done without acknowledgement but in the fight for an “open internet” high profile campaigns were launched to stop new US laws coming into force.

Wikipedia closed for the day with a landing page urging people to make a stance and join the resistance whilst Google “censored” its doodle asking their users to also oppose the legislation. They feel that blocking access to some mass piracy sites will “break the internet” but still through other websites which do not break copyright infringements then views can be expressed.

However is the crack down on piracy motivated by the actual principle or by profit? Most people do not think that digital theft is all that serious. The piracy economy works by four steps:

1. Online hosting services pay users to upload the most popular files and charge freeloaders for faster downloads.
2. Search engine giants like Google, Bing and Yahoo earn billions every year just from their online advertising with illegal free music and films as one of their major drives of traffic.
3. It is then the broadband providers who profit; they charge users for extra bandwidth which they consume downloading free items.
4. The online advertising industry then earns commission from the ads on pirate sites and brands reach huge audiences without burning a hole in their pockets. These four steps make up the hidden internet piracy economy although strangely many of the companies who benefit from this process claim not to support piracy in any way, shape or form.

Unfortunately as a long term thing this cannot work and if we are looking for a digital economy which will work for all involved then certain people need to stop their addiction to the money which they gain from piracy. Instead they need to show, like Steve Jobs did that value other forms of people’s individual creativity as well as their own.

Is it about piracy though? Many people in the US do not want to wait for their favourite show to go on air and so they use file-sharing sites instead. It is more about the availability than the fact these are free and the same would go for music and movies. The public have a demand for better services and increased availability of items at a fair price

The real question is:

Can you imagine a world without free knowledge?

Let us know your thoughts on the situation and what you think the correct solution to the problem should be. Do you support the piracy and free knowledge or

Email our Editor Hannah, h.pearson@brickweb.co.uk and we will publish some of the comments.

Article source: http://www.brickweb.co.uk/news/2012/january/can-you-imagine-a-world-without-free.html

High quality graphics, engaging and informative text as well as competitive prices and great customer service are just a few features what makes a e-commerce web design work. You need to be able to get traffic flowing to your website and professional web design can help you achieve this.

When you have an e-commerce web design you should start to see that customers want to purchase products and services from you almost immediately. It is for this reason that you must ensure the purchasing process is not only fairly quick but also extremely easy and possible to carry out.

Too many problems are caused when a customer will click onto your website, select the product they want at the price you have selected and then the purchasing process was that complicated they clicked out and went elsewhere. When this occurs that particular customer will remember this user experience and probably not return to your site which could prove damaging. It is for this reason you must ensure that any problems arising from your web design are carefully ironed out at these initial stages.

Brick technology Ltd can work together with you in order to design and create a company branded, professional e-commerce web design which will eliminate the chances of visitors and potential customers becoming frustrated and leaving your site without converting to a sale. What you need to do is ensure there are clear and easy to follow instructions or guides which outline definitively what you want the customer to do. Sometimes strong calls to actions are appropriate so that you are in control and you can get the customer to do what you want.

If it is contact which you wish them to make, so picking up the phone and calling you then a “contact us” or “call us now” should appear say on product pages and underneath services as a call to action.

As we are a professional web design company who has been in this particular industry for over twenty years now we have a savvy team who are always on top of the latest technologies and testing them out to see how popular they are with customers – it is safe to say we know what works and what doesn’t work and if you want a successful online presence and professional web design then come to us today.

Speak to Hayley a member of our friendly team and book an informal consultation where you can come and discuss a whole range of web design requirements. When you come to Brick technology you get the whole package as we offer services in internet marketing and media production too.

For more information then please can you contact us on 01254 277190 or email info@brickweb.co.uk.

Article source: http://www.brickweb.co.uk/news/2012/january/e-commerce-web-design-and-calls-to.html

It is something we haven’t really touched upon at Brick technology web design but what is the cost of social media to a company or business? In order to set up a social media strategy and get the most out of it then how much do you have to pay out in order to get the success you want?

Businesses have a great opportunity through social media of creating miniature communities where their customers can speak to them as well as speak to each other regarding the purchase of a product. Social media is at the height of its popularity right now and everyone is jumping onboard but not everyone knows what they are doing.

Seting up a profile on the more popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter is FREE but this is where companies and businesses become mislead. What they do not realise is the investment in these they need to make in order to run such social media campaigns successfully. Just like you wouldn’t have a website online and leave it unmaintained and untouched the same does for social media.

In addition to having someone in charge of heading the social media campaign of your company as well as investing their time and effort into maintaining it you also need to realise that there may be additional items which you require and these come at a cost. Items such as advertising which needs to be carried out correctly and professionally but when it is then it can have a great return on investment for the business.

Why invest time, effort and money into social media?

• Customer Engagement
  Social media is a great way to engage with people who have already decided that they like your brand, your company, your products and services as they have chosen to “Like” you or “Follow” you and therefore these are extremely credible people who you should spend time engaging with and focusing on direct customer engagement.  You can offer useful hints and tips or just engage with them in other means but either way it shows a personality to the business and company and remember it is social, so be yourself!
• Speed of Feedback
  Social media is a great way of getting the feedback you would like quickly and easily. You can simply post a question or query about something and have your fans or followers give you their opinion. Not only is this good for the business but it is also good for customer relations as your showing them that you are a business who takes onboard customer feedback and is interested in what your customers think.
• Brand Building
  Customers listen to other customers; by having a maintained social media profile on say Facebook and Twitter you can create miniature communities. If you can get customers talking to other customers about your products and services as well as recommending them and sharing them through their own personal profiles then this can be great for your brand. It spreads your brand name around as well as credible recommendations which people do take note of. This process could lead to new customers as well as the ability through engagement on socials to retain existing customers.
• Reach
  With the amount of people who choose to be online and join a social network it has meant that there is now a huge target market all collected in one place and so why would you not want to be known on social network sites and let all these people know who you are and what your company is about?
• Lead Generation
  As Facebook and other social media sites collect so much information about you when you are running say a Facebook advertising campaigns then you are in a position to target specific people based on their qualities, location, hobbies, interests and other valuable information they provide. You could say launch a campaign for FREE spray tanning for women, within Blackburn who are aged 18-35 years old and like going out socialising. By targeting the specifics you can get your perfect customer and generate more leads.

If you want help and guidance as you simply do not know where to begin with social media and starting a effective social media campaign then come to Brick technology and our internet marketing team can hold your hand and help you each step of the way.

For more information please contact us on 01254 277190 or email info@brickweb.co.uk.

Article source: http://www.brickweb.co.uk/news/2012/january/is-social-media-free.html

Social media marketing in 2011 has seen a massive rise in industry growth than any other year and finally social marketing has been accepted for business use!

We have seen the introduction of Google+ and Facebook changing their layout to introduce a timeline feature. For every social campaign that you are going to do then you need to ensure there is set specific marketing objectives and Brick technology can help you with this.

There are three main objectives to think about in regards to social marketing:

• Growth
• Engagement
• Monetisation of Fans

Brand presence is so important for fans to be able to “like” and “follow” you through Facebook and Twitter and when thinking about social campaigns it is important you use these as a way to grow the brand presence.

Secondly, you need to ensure that the brand audience are able to engage with you and also that you encourage your targeted audience to engage with you. This can be through comments, sharing information as well as generating user content.

When you have got a good brand presence and your audience are starting to engage more through your socials then you need to try and ensure the leads you are getting are qualified. There is no point in having millions of visitors coming to your website if they are not qualified and will just jump right out not taking the time to look around and purchase the products and services you have on offer.

In 2011 social marketing and a company’s other marketing activities were not properly integrated. A company’s website was not matching to their social network profiles; in addition there was no integration via the brand and other channels.

Towards the end of last year we did start to see brands adding social networking site logos onto their email templates, television adverts and other advertisement methods. They were encouraging customers to get involved within their social media and thus keep their brand in their face.

Brick technology web design are going to be seeing more integrated efforts and are going to be encouraging our clients to get involved with social media and also to ensure this reflects their brand across the board so that everything is matching and in sync.

We have a vast experience in social media and can help you get the social marketing strategy which will bring you into 2012 with a bang!

Contact us today on 01254 277190 or email info@brickweb.co.uk and let us help you to integrate all your website details with social media campaigns.

Article source: http://www.brickweb.co.uk/news/2012/january/get-yourself-a-social-media-strategy.html