We’re happy to announce the launch of the Executive Compass Group website this week. The site, which is split into two separate areas for recruitment and business consultancy, incorporates a sophisticated design theme and a memorable brand identity.

See for yourself.

We’ve updated the Green Media portfolio for June, showing a selection of work carried out during the month. The update features the stunning new Simon CGI website and an incredibly effective Audi Newcastle e-flyer.

Take a look

The new third generation iPhone went on sale at the weekend, and while it proved to be an instant success with customers and critics alike, it seems that Apple might not have thought through the long-term SEO potential of the product - and has gone for a subtle yet drastically-sudden name change today.

Originally titled the “3G S”, the new iPhone is now known as the “3GS”. Apple hasn’t made any official comment on the change, but it’s plain to see on their website that it has happened.

What’s in a space character?

If the move is down to pure search engine motives, then perhaps Apple have made an unnecessarily knee-jerk decision as searches today for the old-style “3G S” are returning iPhone-dominated results on Google, Bing and Ask. (Only on Yahoo was the iPhone denied top-spot, perhaps understandably by the Three/3 mobile phone network official website.) Considering the millions of digital column inches that will be written about the 3GS in the coming months, the product will surely tighten its grip on the search term - space character or no space character.

Conversely, doing a search today for the new “3GS” name brings back a similarly iPhone-heavy set of results across the board, with some high-ranking references dating from several weeks ago, pre-empting Apple’s decision. Perhaps, when all is said and done, it wasn’t very clear that there was a space in the first place…

Either way, it’s interesting to see that maybe SEO can now impact on product launches of even the world’s most marketing-savvy companies.

We relaunched the HLA Services website in May, with a specific brief to improve search engine performance. The client came up with a wish-list of twenty-five keyterms - only one of which was ranking at all on Google at the time - covering the various specialist areas of the business.

Just over a month into the project we’re happy to report a veritable avalanche of results;

• 20 rankings overall
• 14 Top 10 / 1st page rankings
• 7 No#1 rankings

So in a period of five weeks, from a benchmark position of one solitary keyterm ranking, the HLA Services website is now a powerful competitor on twenty prime industry search terms - in the top ten for most of them and the absolute top ranked website for seven of those.

Just to clarify, these weren’t keyterms that we cherry-picked ourselves to ensure a positive result - these were client-specified, highly competitive terms designed to generate more business.

Like our Lucion Environmental project, HLA’s SEO programme is a long-term campaign, so we’re aiming to take this even further over the coming months.

Does this sound like the sort of SEO performance that your business could do with? If so, get in touch.

We launched the Simon CGI website this week, a stunning showcase of computer generated imagery and illustrations. The site will be part of our portfolio update for June in the next couple of weeks, but in the meantime why not take a look?

Microsoft’s latest attempt to gain a greater share of the search engine market went unexpectedly into beta last week. Pitched as a “decision engine”, bing.com comes as the replacement for LiveSearch.

With a fresh look, stunning photographic background imagery and a reported immediate impact with users in the opening test week, is Bing the next big thing in search?

Nice touches, nothing groundbreaking

The homepage is undoubtedly good-looking, but how does Bing fare when it is actually put to work with a search? The results page looks more or less as you’d expect, with a couple of nice touches.

Related searches are bumped up to the top left, instead of appearing in the footer as you’d expect. This could be a slight time-saver if you’re not overly familiar with what you’re searching for, but it’s nothing you couldn’t get before elsewhere.

Each individual result, when hovered over, has a small pop-up containing a synopsis and various links from the same website. Presumably this is to offer as much information as possible before a user commits to a click. This doesn’t seem a million miles away from Ask.com’s thumbnail preview, which offers a sneak peek of a website on the results page. Neither are particularly useful, but at least Ask.com’s effort offers some neat visuals.

Both cases essentially miss the point of the results page and their own faith in the suggested websites - the fact that a site is appearing on the 1st page should be reason enough to click on it. Any in-depth pre-investigation required before accepting the search engine’s suggestion indicates it might not be what you’re looking for.

Advanced search offers a pleasingly flexible and straight-forward set of variables - including country and language - but these aren’t exactly daily requirements for your average web user.

Spammy returns rank strongly

The synopsis tool actually comes in quite handy as a few random searches show that while Bing is returning relevant websites, it often suggests very deep links or spammy findings. These absolutely need to be weeded out before any full launch, or there’ll be all manner of “optimised for Bing” results appearing - a sure-fire way to kill the user experience.

Loose PPC connections

Bing’s suggested pay-per-click websites seem decidedly fuzzy, which is odd given PPC’s highly manageable nature and in particular the sharp targeting available through Microsoft’s own Adcenter system.

A search for “email marketing newcastle” returns an accurate selection on organic - but a poorly irrelevant mix of hotel, job vacancy and football websites on sponsored search.

The same search on Google.co.uk returns a watertight set of paid-for Newcastle-based email marketing results.

Despite the apparently hapless targeting, Bing does repeat the top ranking PPC ads at the bottom of the page - meaning that those advertisers who are paying top dollar get a second bite of the cherry if their main ad is ignored. Good for advertisers, good for Microsoft’s pocket.

Endless images

When using the images tab, Bing doesn’t seem to limit the result thumbnails, returning as many as 1000 at a time. While this helpfully removes the need to click through multiple pages to find what you’re looking for, it also produces reams of loading thumbnails as you’re scrolling the page. Maybe that’s why every other search engine, ever, uses multiple pages.

“Verbing Up”

Google is so synonymous with the very act of searching online that it comfortably reached the brand nirvana of becoming an associated verb some years ago. While Google’s top brass have made noises in the past that this is something they’re not too happy about - it “dilutes” their other offerings apparently - it is surely the pinnacle of brand domination. This obviously isn’t lost on Microsoft, with Chief Exec Steve Ballmer openly stating that Bing was chosen as a name that can be easily “verbed up”.

First impressions…

So will we all be “binging” for our information in years to come? On the evidence of the beta, the answer has to be a pretty clear ‘no’. Bing needs to offer something that Google doesn’t, and at the moment it isn’t doing that. However, with a reported marketing budget of $100m to ease the full introduction, Bing is likely to be around for a while. We’ll see how it goes, but with such a glitchy opener and the absence of anything really new, or even useful, it doesn’t look very promising.

Of course the beta phase of any project is intended to iron out the creases, so perhaps the niggles mentioned above can be forgiven for the time being. Perhaps the full launch will be a little slicker…

All in all, it’s good to see that someone is taking a determined run at Google’s domination - it’ll certainly be interesting to see how the market leader responds in due course.

It’s been little over two months since we mentioned the SEO success of Lucion Environmental following the start of Green Media’s search optimisation programme, and we’re pleased to say that the results have got even better. Lucion’s website is now ranking on the 1st page on Google for every single keyterm that was targeted by the client at the start of the campaign.

Starting from a benchmark position of no ranking at all on the chosen keywords, the lowest ranked term is now 3rd. That’s quite a leap.

What’s more, Lucion’s Google PageRank is rising, underlining the increasing authority of the website and providing a sure sign that the programme is working as planned.

Take a look at the rankings;

“asbestos newcastle” - 2nd

“asbestos gateshead” - 2nd

“asbestos crawley” - 2nd

“asbestos northern ireland” - 2nd

“asbestos tyne” - 3rd

If you’d like your company to experience the same SEO impacts on the keyterms that matter, drop us a line.

Take a look at our newly updated portfolio pages, featuring a selection of Green Media work completed during May. The update includes the new website for elite specialised security firm Bulwark Group, email marketing for Ferrari and a search optimised redesign for the HLA Services website.

Our PPC specialist passed the updated Google Advertising Professional exam this week, continuing qualified status for another year. The qualification provides a genuine reassurance for clients that a Google PPC supplier is an expert in the field, and can provide the best campaign performance possible.

We’ve been creating and managing PPC campaigns for a number of years now, with accounts ranging from £10 to £1000 daily budgets, covering single day promos to 365 day permanent programmes. The Google Adwords system is constantly being refined so it makes sense that the professional qualification is an annual requirement - and we’re always happy for the opportunity to put our skills to the test, and officially prove them.

Tips on passing the exam

If you’re thinking about becoming qualified for Adwords here are some hints and tips on how to prepare for the GAP exam, and some issues that crop up in the exam itself.

Alternatively, if you’d like a qualified expert to take care of it all for you - get in touch.

1) The Google Learning Centre

Google’s Learning Centre is the first place you should visit if you’re thinking about taking the exam, as it provides a valuable and comprehensive resource for the system as a whole. The centre is updated regularly with the latest new features, and splits the modules into relevant sections - great for revising through one stage at a time.

Lessons can be taken in text, interactive video or quiz format, depending on your particular learning preference. While all three have their benefits and should be explored, I personally find the quizzes the most useful - they are presented in largely the same style as the exam itself, and offer clear explanations when you get a question wrong. In the pressure-free environment of the quiz, getting answers wrong is often the best way to learn.

2) Are you experienced?

No matter how much time you spend in the Learning Centre there’s no substitute for the real world experience of managing a campaign to see the mechanics of the Adwords system in action (It’s actually a prerequisite of the qualification to manage an account for at least 90 days).

Some of the questions in the new exam relate to case-study style scenarios and optimising campaigns based on fictional client requirements - neither of which can be researched through the Learning Centre.

3) Don’t just stick to what you know - look at the bigger picture

Just because you’ve run some campaigns it doesn’t mean you know PPC inside out. Google Adwords is an expansive system, and the exam covers every aspect of it whether you’re familiar with it or not. It doesn’t matter if you don’t create and manage mobile ads or you’ve never looked at the Local Business Listings - they’re on the exam so you need to know how they work.

If you’re severely lacking knowledge in a particular area you’re likely to fail the exam, no matter how strong you are elsewhere on the system.

4) Beware of ambiguous wording

While there aren’t any ‘trick’ questions on the exam, there is a fair amount of ambiguous wording and numerous occasions where several answers initially seem to be the right one. This is frustrating - especially when the clock is ticking down right above the questions throughout the exam - but it’s not an insurmountable issue. Just make sure you read the questions and all available answers clearly, and don’t be complacent with any of your choices.

5) Use the ‘check back’ function

Every question on the exam has a ‘check back’ option that allows you to return to it at any point. The obvious use for this is when you’re completely stumped, but it should also be employed when you think there’s a chance that one of the other answers might be appropriate (…the ambigious wording problem again). A question that might seem tricky at first glance might be glaringly obvious when you go back to it later.

6) Use the available time wisely

The exam runs for 1:30 and contains 110 questions. Some questions literally take 10 seconds while others can take a couple of minutes to run through the possible answers. Either way, there’s plenty of time and you should have some spare once you’ve answered all the questions. Use this time to think through your ‘check back’ questions, and generally run through your submissions to make sure you’re happy.

Check out the updated Green Media portfolio, featuring a selection of April’s work - Beamish Hall’s fantastic new website, a typically stylish Liverpool Audi e-flyer and an exciting viral video for Northumbria Police. Take a look.