Next Generation Internet Explorer offers Faster Browsing
The next version of the Internet Explorer browser will offer much smoother graphics than its predecessor, Microsoft has said. IE9 will offer faster JavaScript performance and support for the HTML5 standard, meaning that it won’t be limited by the capabilities of plug-ins such as Adobe’s Flash.

IE9 will be able to work a computer’s graphics processor to its limits, offering much faster and smoother visuals, the company said, after it released a second developer preview of the browser.

“The IE9 Platform Preview shows the significant performance gains that web pages enjoy when a browser takes full advantage of the PC’s hardware capabilities,” said Dean Hachamovitch of Microsoft. However, the company has previously stated that IE9 will not be compatible with Windows XP and will only run on the Windows Vista and Windows 7 platforms.

Meanwhile, a report from web-monitoring firm Net Applications showed that Microsoft is losing ground in the browser market to Google. IE’s share has slipped to under 60 per cent while Chrome’s share grew from 6.1 per cent to 6.7 per cent in April.

Internet Marketing by Direct Submit

Importance of Pay per Click Landing Pages
Setting up a Pay per Click campaign, such as Google Adwords and attracting visitors to your website will not necessarily create sales for your particular product or service. Having a poor quality landing pages could mean click thru’s – and therefore your money, are wasted by the client being taken to a page that does not provide the specific information the visitor is looking for.

Your landing pages should be a direct reflection of the copy used in your Pay per Click advert. Picking one generic page of your website to send every visitor to is not the right approach and, as I’ve already said, it’s likely that, with this approach, youl could well be losing potential sales and money with this approach.

Having your visitors land on the home page of your site is not the most effective strategy for any Pay per Click campaign. Look to have a targeted landing page to send your PPC clicks thru’s. Not only do you want the page to reflect the details from your Pay per Click advert but it is very important to have some sort of call to action items on your landing page.

 If you want the visitor to call you don’t assume that they will know to do this. Make the contact telephone number and other contact details stand out as much as possible in multiple areas of the landing page.

Put yourself in the shoes of the person clicking your ad and anticipate where you would like to land. What would you think of the landing page? Would it induce you to part with you hard earned money?  Does the landing page offer the product advertised in the Pay per Click advert, is the page attractive and is there a call to action which is both simple and tested. Make sure it works!

Finally, check to make sure link is not broken on your advert. You would be amazed at how often this happens and it is a sure fire way to put a potential visitor off from visiting your website as well wasting your PPC campaign budget.

In short, if you want to make the most of your Pay per Click campaign, make sure you have good quality, advert specific landing pages set up.

Internet Marketing by Direct Submit

Making a Website Work for Your Business
In a perfect world, SEO would be developed while a website is still in infancy. While this ideal situation rarely occurs, the following steps summarise the process as it should occur every time.

Key Phrase Strategy and Website Development
Before building your website, you must have a keyword strategy. Select key phrases that are relevant to your business and receive an acceptable level of traffic. It is often appropriate, particularly for smaller / new businesses, to avoid the most competitive phrases where the level of competition you would be up against would be significant. You can always develop to these phrases as your business grows.

Once you have selected your keywords you can begin to develop the website using basic SEO site structure principles. These include the Meta titles, Meta descriptions, linking strategy, clear site navigation, optimised coding and great content.

Web Analytics
Try to include some web analytics platform that will allow you to monitor users are coming from and what search terms they are using. One free example is Google Analytics which provides a reasonable level of feedback on the traffic levels and sources to your website. This information will enable you to monitor and update your website to try and achieve the best results possible within your market sector.

Driving Traffic to the Website
Obvious really, but look to get your web pages listed in the main search engines as quickly as you can.  You can submit the website, but also look to get your URL linked to from websites already in the search engines. Subscribe to directories and develop a strategy for effective link building. Remember, with links, it’s about quality, not quantity; a handful of links on top-notch sites is worth hundreds of links on irrelevant, insignificant sites.

Incorporate off site and traditional marketing methods. For example, include your web address on your stationary and have it displayed on the side of company vehicles.

Consider employing the services of an Internet Marketing specialist to help with the Search Engine process. At Direct Submit we regularly see clients who have spent thousands on a website wrongly assuming, the traffic will just come, only to find their lovely looking website is not SEO friendly and they have no identifiable SEO strategy in place.

Monitor, Evaluate & Refine
After you campaign has run for a time, review and look to assess how the project has been working. Are your keywords receiving the most traffic and bringing in the best ROI, is your website listed in the major search engines and do you need to update /refine the website content.

Facebook Mulls Over U-turn on Privacy
Facebook looks likely to cave into pressure from users and simplify its privacy settings in the near future. It follows criticisms of its privacy policy from US senators, the European Union and civil liberty groups.

The social networking giant told BBC News that it was listening to the message from users that it has “made things too complex”. “We’re working on responding to these concerns,” a spokeswoman said. “Watch this space,” she added.

At the end of last year Facebook changed its default privacy settings, allowing profile information to be shared with the wider web, unless users specifically opted out. Last month it moved a step further, opening up Facebook data to third-party websites, described by founder Mark Zuckerberg as a move towards “a web where the default is social”.

While Facebook sold the idea as a way to offer a more personalised surfing experience, critics were concerned that users were losing control over their information.  Facebook has launched a new site to appeal to mobile users It prompted a letter from the European Commission saying changes to its privacy settings were “unacceptable”.

The move caused outrage among some users, who have organised a “Quit Facebook” day, scheduled for May 31. Last week Facebook held an internal meeting to deal with the crisis, which has already seen some high-profile users deactivate their Facebook accounts. Facebook said it “didn’t comment on deactivations”. “Some 10 million users have joined Facebook since the recent privacy changes,” said a spokeswoman. “There is a notion that people don’t know what they are doing but people are much more savvy about their online privacy than is often portrayed,” she added.

Since the changes were introduced in December, more than 50% of users have changed their privacy settings, Facebook said in a statement to BBC News. “The fact that approximately half have accepted, and half are customising shows that our recommendations are reasonable,” the statement read. But it acknowledged that more could be done. “We have heard from our users that our efforts to provide granular control have made things too complex. Of course we’re working on responding to these concerns,” it said.

Critics say navigating its privacy policy is overly complex. Its current privacy policy has 50 different settings and 170 options and runs to 5,830 words, making it longer than the US Constitution. Alternatives to Facebook are springing up, including open source social network Diaspora. Designed by four students from New York University, the project has quickly gained thousands of backers and received $125,000 in donations to help get it off the ground.

Benefits of Internet Marketing in Business
The Internet has changed a great number of things in our lives. Today, instead of driving to our local supermarket or book store, we now go online to stores such as Amazon or Play.com and order online via the Internet.

As the Internet has developed then businesses have started using it to their advantage. Marketing to a global market and promoting their products and services at a fraction of traditional advertising costs being just one advantage.

Internet marketing is the process of using marketing tools to connect with your prospective buyers and those interested in your services / products. This process (Internet marketing), when done correctly, can help your promote product awareness and in building stronger business relationships with your target market.

Internet marketing offers many benefits which include:

1. It can be very effective. Internet marketing can help your business reach millions of people. Millions of people from around the world use the Internet not only for information but to shop for your products and services online. So by taking your business onto the World Wide Web, there is an enormous potential that you will have the opportunity to reach a whole new ‘massive & global’ audience.

2. Internet marketing is often very cost effective. Compared to traditional advertising / marketing, Internet marketing is much cheaper. Internet marketing, when done properly, will see your website (and its products / services) listed prominently in search engines such as Google, Yahoo and BING.

3. The Internet offers long lasting results. Unlike traditional marketing, where you need to pay for each new marketing campaign, Internet marketing can offer you with long lasting results. For instance, Internet marketing, when done properly, will see your website (and its products / services) potentially listed for many years in search engines such as Google, Yahoo and BING.

Internet Marketing by Direct Submit.

Registering a Domain Name for your Business
There are lots of important things to consider when it comes developing your online presence and launching into the World Wide Web. These include registering your domain name, developing a website, hosting your domain & website, and promoting your online business to the greater community. Registering your domain name is a very simple yet crucial part of this process.

So how do you register your domain? Go to a domain name registration company (there are thousands online), select your domain name(s) and complete the online forms. These days registering a domain name won’t cost you the earth, typically at the time of writing around £10 to £15 to register an available UK based domain for two years.

When you register your own Domain Name it is very important to remember that whatever name you register will be representing your own Business online. Your domain name is one of the most important pieces of your overall marketing process and should be considered as important as your logo and your business name.

You can of course register more than one domain name for your business. Many companies will register their company name, for example Direct Submit Internet Marketing, who then registered ‘market specific’ domains to supplement their company domain name. Again, to continue using Direct Submit as the example; registering the domain ‘search-engine-solutions.co.uk which is very obviously related to Internet Marketing.

Several basic questions to ask when registering the domain name:

(1) Does the domain name registered represent the company and its services?

(2) Will it come with hosting included? Many domain registrars don’t and you have to then pay for hosting.  

(3) Will it be possible to transfer the domain to another hosting company if you want to?  This is often where domain holders have problems. For some reason getting some domain registrars to transfer a domain is very difficult, they give little or no support to do this and make it so difficult many people simply give up. We are not just talking about the small independents here, some of the biggest European and US domain companies are notorious for this. Some will even charge a fee to transfer the domain and you need to be aware of these issues whenever you register a domain.

(4) Whose details will be used in the domain name registration process?  Many clients I have spoken to in the past have had their domain name supplied for free with their hosting & website design agreement.  In these cases, make sure the domain has been registered in your name as I have actually come across cases where the individuals concerned don’t even actually own their own domain name. Be aware!

You register your own Domain Name for all the same reasons you register your own Business Name and it’s an important part of your marketing and company branding.  It’s well worth giving the process some thought and making sure you get right name and the right deal to suit your needs.

Why would you want to get to the top on Google?
Search engine optimisation (SEO for short) is the art of getting your website to the top of the search engine listings. So why would this be of any interest to a business operating a website and why in particular would they want to get onto the first page or two of Google?

It’s a fact that the search engines are the way in which 90% of people locate the internet resources they need and Google has a recorded 75% market share in the UK, Europe and the USA. Add to this that 84% of recorded searchers never make it past the bottom of page two of Google, and 65% of people never click on sponsored (“Pay per Click”) results. Then being at the top of the non paid (or “natural”) search results should be a priority for the modern business in a world ever more dominated by the internet.

Around 15% of all sales in the British economy are now reportedly completed online, and price comparison service uSwitch predicts that internet sales will make up 40% of all purchases by the year 2020. The numbers are similar in all the developed countries of the word, including the United States.

So why is it that we at Direct Submit still, frequently, come across business owners who are happy to spend thousands on a website then reject the need to properly address the Internet Marketing and SEO requirements of their website?

Internet Marketing by Direct Submit

Local Search Engine Optimisation Services
For many businesses who operate on a regional or ‘local’ basis, local Search Engine Optimisation is all about achieving first page results for their business or product when the search term includes a reference to the specific town, City or County. This is becoming more important as ‘Local Search’ has rapidly becoming one of the most popular search types on the web as more and more people start to use search engines to search for a local service.

More and more people are using the search engines to search for such as “motor home rental North East” or “Van Hire Newcastle” and this local element is reported to be one of the fastest growing areas for ‘searches’ online.

Local Search Customers Are Twice as Likely to Buy
It has also been reported that people who use the search engines to search for local products or services are reported to be far more likely to be at or near making the decision to buy a particular product or service right now.

These local search ‘visitors’ could be one of the most critical groups of people to visit your online business, so doesn’t it make sense to make sure you’re website is optimised for local search traffic and you are doing all you can to convert each one into a satisfied customer?

Our local Internet Marketing service is helping many local businesses succeed. If you would like to discuss your local SEO project, call us now on 0191 2673030 or email us at mail@directsubmit.co.uk. We look forward to your call.

Tips for Choosing the Best Keywords
You’ve probably heard of people claiming significant traffic to their site after achieving a top ranking on Google or Yahoo. But sometimes you hear from someone else who also achieved a similar top ranking but they were disappointed when no one arrived at their site. How can two people achieve a top ranking and have such markedly different outcomes?

Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to brainstorm your own list of keywords, only to find out later that they are not as popular as you first thought. Keyword popularity is essential to success in search engine marketing. The question to ask yourself is how do you really know if you’re optimising your pages for keywords that Web surfers are looking for?

Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience.

For example, you may have a “clothing business” where you “sell clothing.” While those phrases describe what you do, they are not necessarily the words that your audience would enter into a search engine to find you. How many times have you went to Google and typed in “sell clothing” in order to find a particular shirt or hat?

Target Niches.

While “mens clothing” in the previous example may be one of the most popular clothing related searches, it unfortunately has a lot of competition. If you do a search on Google, you’ll find it returns over 1 million results for that phrase. While this type of phrase may gain you a lot of traffic, achieving a top ranking may prove difficult and time-consuming.

Brainstorm for keywords in your category

There are many ways to brainstorm new keyword phrases. You can examine the content and the meta tags on your competition’s Web site to see what phrases they consider important. While this is a good place to start looking for ideas, there’s no guarantee they are targeting the best keywords. You must check these keywords against the corresponding popularity and competition factors.

Choose only relevant keywords

Just because a keyword is popular with a low competition factor, doesn’t mean you should target that keyword or phrase. The phrases you target must be relevant to what you have to sell. It must also be applicable to what you have to offer on the specific Web page you are optimising. How many times have you searched Google, landed on a page, and then backed out within 5 seconds of arriving? That page had a top ranking, but it did not have what you were looking for.

Perhaps the Web site did have what you wanted, but the product resided elsewhere on the site. Unfortunately, your visitor may never know this. If you target a keyword or phrase, then the page they land on must offer the products, services or content that they expect, or you’ll be wasting your time and your visitor’s time. At the very least, the page should offer direct links to the potential products and services they may expect to find there.

Understand that keywords can have multiple meanings

If you have a travel business, then your first thought might be to target the word travel. However, if someone is searching on just plain old “travel” are they: 

1. Helping their child with a paper on some aspect of “travel?”
2. Looking for the “travel channel?”
3. Looking to plan a vacation cruise?
4. Preparing to take a business trip?
5. Day dreaming about time travel?
6. Looking for driving directions for their travel across the country?
7. Looking for a travel club such as AAA?
8. Looking for the perfect backpack or hiking supplies for a travel expedition?

If you own a travel agency that specialises in vacation cruises and optimized your site for the single keyword “travel,” only a limited number of the people identified in the example above would be qualified prospects. This of course assumes that travel was not too competitive to begin with.

While a top ranking on travel would yield a great deal of visitors to your site, many of them would select the “Back” button in their browsers, turn around and effectively walk out of your store! That’s not the outcome you’re looking for. When you select more targeted keyword phrases such as “Alaskan Cruise,” there is a much higher likelihood that you have focused in on exactly the right audience. It’s the difference between attracting actual buyers versus tire kickers.

For help and advice on making the most of you Internet Marketing campaign, call Direct Submit and see how they can help improve your online marketing campaign.

People who use their computer to make illegal downloads could have their internet connection cut, under new government proposals.

Download movies illegally and you could have your internet connection cut off. Those are the tough new measures to tackle internet piracy of movies and TV, according to a draft government bill leaked to a newspaper today.

Hollywood knows that distributing films via the internet is a goldmine, which is why the big studios have been fighting scriptwriters demanding a cut of the profits.But while this dispute is all but settled, the movie giants are still battling on another front. Illegal downloading equates to huge losses in revenue.

Numerous search engines on the net allow people to find films and music they want to download. The problem is that not everybody pays for it.

According to documents obtained by the Times newspaper, people who persist in illegal downloading are to be targeted by new legislation. Under the proposals they would receive a warning email the first time they download without paying. On the next occasion their internet access would be suspended. And it would be blocked for a third offence.
The responsibility for enforcing the law would fall to internet service providers, who would face prosecution if they failed to comply. But already the industry is suggesting such a law is unworkable.

In a statement, the Internet Service Providers Association told Channel 4 News -

“ISPA does not support abuses of copyright and intellectual property theft. However ISPs cannot monitor or record the type of information passed over their network.

“ISPs are no more able to inspect and filter every single packet passing across their network than the Post Office is able to open every envelope… and data protection legislation actually prevents ISPs from looking at the content of the packets sent.”

It is thought there are 900 million music files available for download from file-sharing networks.

Lost revenue from films or other material illegally downloaded will continue to cost the creative industries dear until there’s agreement on how to tackle the problem.

The department for culture, media and sport has refused to comment on the proposals leaked to the Times. But it says its strategy has been developed further and will be published shortly.