Online Media Direct were pleased to present a presentation to local business’s in Rossendale at the Kingfisher Centre in Rawtenstall. Our Managing Director Garry Pickles helped to explain the importance of Internet marketing to local business’s.

Garry explained ” Contacting and helping local companies in Rossendale has not been something we have focused on in the past but we feel now is the right time especially coming slowly out of a recession. There is so much we can do to help these local companies as a lot of the positions available to companies are Free of charge online anyway. We hope to build up long lasting relationships with local business’s and help drive forward the local economy.”

Garry Pickles Our Managing Director at OMD Ltd

Kingfisher Centre in Rawtenstall Excellent Office Space

Over the past few months it has been brought to our attention an increasing number of marketing companies selling google adwords cpc on a fixed fee for 1st page positions. Following a constant flow of companies and after speaking to a number of sales men at these companies I felt it was our duty to try and inform the Uk business community the full ins and outs of this concept.

Put simply companies or agencies no matter how large cannot get google adwords at a lower fee than yourselves. If you were to open a google account tomorrow the same prices would apply. So I would like to put to bed this statement that companies can somehow receive a wholesale batch fee on fixed adwords placements it is simply not true.

I decided to get this 100% confirmed by my contact at Google Ireland and it was ” You cannot purchase adwords on a fixed fee on the first page of google” and “these companies are lieing” it was explained. So how exactly does it work and why are these companies selling adwords in this way.

Well to start with doesn’t it sound great you can be listed on google for a set fee for a choice of a few phrases ! If it was true we would be the first people doing it. But when you look into it the cracks begin to appear firstly the keyword or phrases that you choose are they going to be generic well used keywords I think not. The use of regional and long tail keywords that will give you a first page listing but wont deliver a massive amount of traffic is the way these companies operate.

Put simply these companies need to make money somehow I cannot speak for the way in which these companies use there funds received but the funds will not be used 100% on your google ads. Which is why being 100% transparent and knowing exactly where your spend is going is so important if you are considering google AdWords as a means of advertising for your company.

If you have experienced any problems with similar fixed fee google adwords offers please post your experiences below.

Using Google Universal as a way of generating traffic

In the times of the credit crunch and the worst recession in living memory in is important to remember with your online marketing you can achieve results not just in the conventional ways on google. As has been said before there is more than one way to skin a cat. This couldn’t be more true today with online marketing especially with google first page listings which we all strive for online.

You may offer a service or product it doesn’t matter you can apply these same principals to your company to improve the visibility online. To break things up and get to the point a search result page on google is made up of several different sections.

Lets leave bog standard search results and Google adwords cpc to one side and focus on other sources of traffic.

Google Universal means of getting a first page result

1. Google Maps results from local search – You can generate good levels of traffic from these by getting them properly manipulated to a particular search result that applies to your business and more importantly is being searched.

2. Google Images – On many searches Google displays the top images for that result so get tagging your images its common sense and doesn’t cost a penny so no excuses.

3. Blog Search – The blog search results displays the results taken from blogs posted across the globe.

4. Google News – Submit a press release and get listed on the google news section you could appear on the news section on the first page of the search results.

5. Live Search – As already mentioned earlier sites like twitter are now displaying search results on google live.

Using Different Link Building Strategies

There is no easy way of building links naturally the easiest way is of course to purchase links from sites that offer advertising positions but this can be expensive and when purchased still only provides links from one site position. So links will only arrive from one location online.

Here are the best ways in order to generate back links to your sites -

1. Article Writing - this can be on your own blog or using article submission sites online of which there are hundreds to choose from.

2. Social Bookmarking sites – Take a look at Digg and Delicious. Also consider opening a twitter or Flickr account.

3. Press releases – again you can find sites online that provide the ability to generate press releases that will find there way onto google news.

4. Old fashioned Webmaster contact – Email existing sites in your industry that have a links page and see if you can trade links. There is no easy way of doing this and it take good honest graft and time.

5. Leave Blog Comments – Add to the conversation online and leave comments on other blogs. You can leave your URL and name that will link to your site. Don’t spam blogs but add to the conversation and make it relevant.

Another tips is to look out for authority sites within your industry. So for example .gov , .edu or .org domains are ideal for this purpose. Google actually takes notice of things as specific as this also of course link from your keyword.