May
31
2010
Health Chemist is a leading online pharmacy and natural health specialist. Its natural health section has one of the highest sales turnover of any Health Shop in New Zealand and the website has won the Hitwise Top 10 site award several times.
In 2008, it was decided to take the e-commerce operation to the next level with the launch of a new website. First Rate was tasked with overseeing the redevelopment from a best-practice search engine optimisation perspective.
A strategy for targeting long tail keywords (product names and product categories) was developed and more than 30 relevant, popular and competitive search terms were identified and targeted. First Rate’s “on-page” e-commerce SEO recommendations were incorporated into the website redevelopment.
Download First Rate’s e-commerce seo case study to learn what search engine optimisation results were achieved.
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May
25
2010
Grant Osborne, First Rate’s Director of Strategy & Performance, spoke at Social Media Junction and covered the following topics:
- Google is getting more social
- Integrating search into your social media strategy & vice versa
- The importance of keywords and how to use them effectively – examples from YouTube, Twitter & other social networks
Social Media Junction Buzz #smj
There was plenty of buzz and coverage of Grant’s talk during and after the event, a selection has been included below:
Social Media Junction 2010 Topics & Speakers
- Keynote speech: Becoming a Trust Agent – Social Capital and the New Tribe. Julien Smith, Canada
- Changing people’s behaviour with Social Media – the 3Rs of Social Media use: Representation, Responsibility and Respect. Mike Hickinbotham, Senior Adviser Social Media, Telstra, Australia
- International Best practice in Social Media: 20 leading case studies from the private, public, not-for-profit and creative sectors. Justin Flitter, Social Media Practitioner and Paul Reynolds, Director, McGovern Online
- 5 Top Tips – What to avoid when implementing social media into an organisation: lessons from Facebook, YouTube & Twitter
- How to Manage Measurement and Tone in Social Media. Andy Beal, online reputation management expert Founder of MarketingPilgrim.com
- Bloggers Panel: 5 Top Tips The content challenge: how to keep it compelling and relevant
- Using Social Media in a broadcasting environment; external and internal stakeholder management. Aisha Hillary, Senior Marketing & New Media Specialist, SBS – Special Broadcasting Service, Australia
- Social & Search inseparably connected; how to ensure you do both well. Grant Osborne, Director of Strategy & Performance, First Rate
- How to harness video content for a local yet global social media campaign. Ross McConnell, Executive Director, Kea New Zealand
- Using Social Media effectively from an advertising perspective international best practice from MySpace. Andrew Cordwell, MySpace, Fox Interactive Media, Australia
Interested to read more? Download Grant’s presentation here: Social Media Marketing & Search.
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May
24
2010
First Rate, a Google AdWords certified partner, took over the search engine marketing programme for SKYCITY Hotels in late 2007 and has managed the Google AdWords account throughout 2008-2009.
Since taking over the programme, First Rate has been engaged in ongoing optimisation of the AdWords account.
As a result, hotel bookings from AdWords increased by 1,747% with only a 107% increase in cost (3 months period Sept 2007-Nov 2007 compared to Sept 2009-Nov 2009).
To find out how First Rate can lift the performance of your company’s search engine marketing programme – with ppc technology or without – download the SKYCITY PPC case study.
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May
20
2010
Google has retired the Google Advertising Professionals (GAP) programme and replaced it with a new AdWords Certification programme.
Penry Price, Vice President, Global Agency Development for Google, writes:
We’ve had a lot of great feedback from agencies and today we’re announcing changes designed to offer them better training and more rigorous certification in AdWords proficiency, and to lower costs for those who help advertisers get the most out of AdWords…The new program provides agencies and their employees with more up-to-date, comprehensive, strategy-focused training and certification on the latest tools and best practices for managing AdWords accounts.
Recently, Google has released a new set of exams for the AdWords Certified Partner Programme.
Following on from being the first AdWords Qualified Agency in New Zealand under the old exams, First Rate are happy to announce that the entire consulting team has passed both the Fundamentals and Advanced exams.
There are four exams in total, here is what’s covered:
- The Google Advertising Fundamentals Exam: Basic aspects of AdWords and online advertising, including account management and the value of search advertising.
- The Search Advertising Advanced Exam: Intermediate-to-advanced best practices for managing AdWords campaigns.
- The Display Advertising Exam: Intermediate-to-advanced best practices for advertising on YouTube and the Google Content Network.
- The Reporting & Analysis Advanced Exam: Intermediate-to-advanced best practices for maximizing account performance using Google Analytics, Website Optimizer, the AdWords Report Center, and other analysis techniques.
The ‘Display’ and ‘Reporting’ Exams are not yet available, but First Rate consultants will be sitting these as soon as they become available.
Google AdWords Search Advertising Advanced Exam
The following advanced Adwords topics are covered in this exam:
- AdWords Ad Formats
- AdWords Targeting and Placements
- Keywords and Keyword Targeting
- AdWords Language & Location Targeting
- Placement Targeting for the Content Network
- Location Extensions
- AdWords Bidding and Budgeting
- AdWords Policies
- Ad and Site Quality
- Invalid Clicks Issues
- AdWords Tools
- AdWords Editor
- AdWords Reporting
- Conversion Tracking
- Optimising Performance
- Optimising AdWords Campaigns and Ad Groups
- Optimising Websites and Landing Pages
- Optimising for Greater Conversions
- Managing Multiple Accounts
- Overview of Managing Multiple Accounts
- Managing Accounts with My Client Centre (MCC)
- Using AdWords API
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