SWeCS NEWSLETTER - January 2007
Welcome to this month's South West eCommerce newsletter.
In this issue...
- More Domain Names Means More Traffic... Right?
- This Fortnight's Question
- Internet Explorer Loses Some Market Share
- A New Year - Time For A Website Update?
- Resources For Small Business
MORE DOMAINS MEANS MORE TRAFFIC... RIGHT?
A common tactic we hear people talk about is purchasing multiple domain names and have them all redirect to their website, so that they will appear more in the search engine results and therefore get more traffic.
Although purchasing multiple domains can increase traffic in certain circumstances, it is not because of search engines. The majority of search engines will not include domain names in their database that are simply redirected to another website. They are smarter than that, and know that it is just a duplicate. They are interested in listing websites, not domain names. For example, if you have a website at www.somesite.com, but also have other domains like www.someothersite.com and www.yetanothersite.com, which just redirect to www.somesite.com, search engines will not normally list the latter two domains, they will only list the actual website, www.somesite.com. Make sense?
Having said that, there are sometimes good reasons for buying multiple domains, such as catching mis-spellings. If your business is called www.somesite.com but you know that it is often mis-spelt as www.somesight.com, then it would be worthwhile buying www.somesight.com and having it forward to www.somesite.com, in order to catch all those people who mis-spell it. Other reasons to buy other domain names could include to stop other people buying them (first in, first served), or for investment reasons, or whatever.
So there may be some reasons why buying multiple domain names is a good idea. And from $22 per year (.com) or $55 for two years (.com.au), it's not an expensive investment. However, buying multiple domain names for the purposes of appearing in the search engine results more is not worthwhile, because it doesn't happen.
THIS FORTNIGHT'S QUESTION
This fortnight's question comes Matt:
"What's the deal with the free clicks from Google?"
We are accredited Google specialists, meaning that we have undergone Google's training and tests to become qualified to manage paid advertising in their search results on behalf of other people. Google are encouraging people to have their paid listings managed by accredited specialists, so as to improve the efficiency of their editing process etc.
They are encouraging this by providing all new accounts with $130 in clicks. This is only available to new accounts that sign up through an accredited specialist. To give you an idea what this translates to, if you were paying $0.20 per click, this is 650 targetted visitors for free.
You can find out more, and apply for the credit, at www.southwestecommerce.com/ppc.htm.
Got a question? Send it to us at admin@southwestecommerce.com and we'll do our best to answer it, as well as publish one every
fortnight for everyone to see.
INTERNET EXPLORER LOSES SOME MARKET SHARE
Net Applications have released their latest statistics for browser usage, and compared it with stats from 1 year ago, which shows:
| Browser | As at 1/1/2007 |
As at 1/1/2006 |
| Internet Explorer | 79.64 |
85.05 |
| Firefox | 14.00 |
9.57 |
| Safari | 4.24 |
3.07 |
| Opera | 0.87 |
0.55 |
| Netscape | 0.85 |
1.24 |
This shows that over time, the other major browsers are gaining ground on Internet Explorer. This means that it is becoming increasingly important to make sure that your website appears the same in other browsers, not just Internet Explorer. If you only make sure it appears OK in Internet Explorer, you are now only accounting for 79% of the market.
NEW YEAR... TIME FOR A WEBSITE UPDATE?
Is your website looking tired? Time for an update? We'll give you a free quote to redo your website in a brand new design. We're sure you'll be pleasantly surprised at the price!
For a free quote, just reply to this email with your website address. Or to visit our portfolio of recently competled sites, visit www.southwestecommerce.com/webarchive.htm.
RESOURCES FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Browse through the SWeCS Ecommerce Library, full of FREE information about getting more out of the Internet. Sections include Web Site Development, Web Site Promotion & Internet Marketing, Online Commerce, Computer & Technical Issues, and Miscellaneous.
The SWeCS Newsletter archives provides a wealth of FREE information on small business and the Internet. Browse through the main topics or search for your particular query.
Start up another income stream, by earning commissions for each referral who signs up for one of our services.
Do you know of a resource that should be added
here? Email us and let us know. There is only one
condition - it must be free.
OTHER EMAIL NEWSLETTERS
Here's some other email newsletters you might
like:
www.dunsboroughbayvillageresort.com/news/newsindex.htm
http://derekstockley.com/newsletters/news-index.html
This newsletter is produced by South West eCommerce
Strategies - © 2007
PO Box 2340, Bunbury, WA 6230
Ph: (08) 9721 1326
Fax: (08) 9721 1352
Email: admin@southwestecommerce.com
Web Site: www.southwestecommerce.com
