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UKFast Websight - October 2008

Dear Newsletter Subscriber

Welcome to UKfast's new look newsletter. We want to make our monthly newsletter a greater asset for you, so that the time you invest in reading it will be time well spent.

We have shaped the new format to allow us to provide you with a full range of articles that reflect our expert knowledge of the online business world. So included in this month's packed edition is a look at the big stories in our industry, advice on maximising your online marketing, an insightful spotlight on the utilities industry and tips on getting the most out of your UKFast hosting solution.

Also look out for our sections on new products, competitions, ways to save money and enticing extras.

We hope you enjoy the new look UKFast newsletter. We would like it to become an interactive medium, so we welcome any comments or contributions you would like to make.

Best Regards,

UKFast Communications Team

You are probably bored of reading about it but the 'credit crunch' has been the obvious business headline of the moment. But how has it affected the online business sector? Well, actually many online firms have seen growth in the current climate.

The key driver to this climate bucking trend is the appreciation that online business is cost-effective business. Even though the current financial situation is forcing many firms to make cutbacks, there is a clear understanding that cutting back on online commercial endeavours is a false economy.

And this goes for online advertising as well. The marketing budget is often the first to go when companies have to tighten their belts, but here again the business world has realised that online marketing is such great value that ecommerce advertising is actually increasing.

The latest figures from the Internet Advertising Bureau show that internet advertising expenditure increased by 21% year on year in the first half of 2008, while the total ad market fell by 0.7% in the same period.

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The rewards are also on offer for those bold enough to even boost advertising in times of recession. According to a new micro-website from the FT, several reports have calculated that companies that maintain or increase marketing spend during recession fair much better after the recession ends.

So while the coming months may seem tough for you, trust in your online business.

In other news, unlikely bedfellows Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have come together to sign a common code of conduct regarding freedom of expression and the protection of privacy online. The three companies are to battle internet censorship in countries like China with the help of human rights campaigners.

While many will see the development as a very positive step, many feel that the big three have signed up to fight a problem that they are partly responsible for. Actions will speak louder than words.

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UKFast Control Panel

Making the most of the UKFast control panel

Because at UKFast we strive to provide the best hosting service, we feed as much information back to you as we possibly can. One way we do this is through the online control panel.

The control panel allows you to see exactly what the UKFast tech team sees. You can view every aspect of your account here, from Bandwidth usage to CTMonitoring, Backups and more.

Every month we continue to enhance the resources in the control panel in order to make your customer experience even more valuable. So please continue to check in to ensure that you are getting the maximum benefit!

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Topicality works in pay per click campaigns

Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross

When it comes to online marketing, getting your company URL listed prominently in search engine rankings is half the battle. Pay per click campaigns can prove to be hugely successful marketing tools when employed correctly but only when the right search terms are selected at the right time.

As anyone who engages in pay per click campaigns knows, selecting the right terms to advertise on can be extremely tricky. However, some timely lateral thinking can deliver definitive returns.

So think laterally, think topicality. Identify terms that are likely to be popular search options at the time of your campaign. They don't even have to be directly linked to your industry. Any related term that is likely to get a large search engine audience is potentially a large audience for you.

For a perfect current example, consider the big media circus surrounding Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross. Over the last few days both men have been news leaders, appearing on front pages both in print and online. They are the big news story of the moment and lots of online searchers are, right now, going onto search engines to look up the terms 'Russell Brand', 'Jonathan Ross' and 'Brand and Ross'.

To take advantage of this hot subject, a number of websites have deliberately bid on Brand and Ross search terms to capture the traffic. The online versions of The Mirror and The Sun have both gained high Google rankings by bidding on Russell Brand, while most cunningly, online ticket seller Double8Tickets.com has used the Brand furore to top rank its general website link. In fact, Russell brand is the 15th most used search term driving traffic to Double8tickets and it is the only one in the top 15 that is sending 100% of the traffic through pay per click.

The obvious downside to this strategy is that companies will get a lot of inappropriate click through traffic which will immediately click away. However, despite this, the conversion rates are often so good that topical pay per click campaigns are a very strong online marketing tool that you should be keeping in mind.

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Each month in this new feature we will be looking at a particular online issue relating to a specific industry to try to spot useful trends. This month the spotlight falls on the utilities sector and its relationship with search engines.

Looking at the figures for the behaviour of utility searching online, the first point that stands out is how well the energy firms have done with their branding. Looking at search figures for the past month we find that five out of the six UK energy titans are ranked in the top eight search terms. This shows that searchers have a strong understanding of the firms in the market and their correct names. Only Scottish and Southern does not feature, suggesting that it is the least well know of the major brands.

British Gas is the former incumbent and as such is understandably still the best know energy sector brand and the search engine figures reflect this. The term 'British Gas' accounts for 9% of all utility searches, which is a massive share in search terms and almost double that of second most popular term 'Scottish Power'.

Pay per click ads also feature prominently. British Gas, Scottish Power and Eon all get about 50% of their traffic from paid search engine placements. While, the different derivations of comparison site USwitch generally get between 65% and 85% of traffic from pay per click.

This clearly indicates the importance of pay per click to the utilities industry, particularly for the comparison sites. Four out of the six big energy giants have more people searching on their names than on 'USwitch' or 'energy price comparison' etc. so to get the traffic the comparison sites need to have effective pay per click campaigns. Similarly, because of the strong brand awareness, rival utilities would be well advised to focus efforts on paid search ads to achieve top search positions on rival company terms.

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November's edition of Websight will be just as packed with the latest news developments in our industry, helpful advice from our expert technicians and marketers and more great offers on how to maximise your UKFast hosting experience.

Until then have a great Halloween and Bonfire Night.

Best Wishes,

UKFast Communications Team

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