Hamishs test blog

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How do I get Google Sitelinks?

Sometimes referred to as site index or sub links, these are officially labled by Google as Sitelinks

Sitelinks are links or shortcuts to a site's interior pages that appear in Google's search results under the main listing.

They are designed to help users navigate and find the information they are looking for quickly. Google analyzes the link structure of your website to find shortcuts that will save users time and allow them to quickly find the information they're looking for.

Your website must be relevant to the search phrase
Not all sites have sitelinks. Google only shows sitelinks for results which they think they will be useful to the user. If Google has trouble finding good site links for your website because of the structure, or if they do not think that the sitelinks for your site are relevant to the user's query, Google won't show them.

You are not able to "create your own." Google will decide if your website is "worthy" based on the relevancy of the search term. Usually they will only appear if your website is highly relevant. For example.

search on “furniture” and you’ll see the top listings do not display sitelinks
search on “furniture.co.nz” and you’ll see shoes.com is #1, this time with sitelinks b/c Google thinks you are looking specifically for their site / company, not just “shoes” in general

Your website must have some "power"
It is unlikely that a new website or a small website with limited traffic,, popularity, and credibility will qualify for sitelinks. It also seems to help if your website is a business website as opposed to a personal blog or information type website.

You can remove sitelinks

At the moment, sitelinks are completely automated, though Google do suggest that they may incorporate webmaster input in the future.

If you think that the sitelinks displayed for your site are inappropriate or incorrect, you can block them so that they no longer appear. You can do this using Google Webmaster tools once you have verified that you are the owner of the website

A competitor is advertising with Google Adwords using my company name?

Working with the Zeald.com marketing department I have noticed this issue on a number of occasions

Companies bid on the name of a competing company to show their Google Ads at the top of the search results. In fact it happened to Zeald.com on numerous occasions. I won't name names, but a number of companies were bidding on the search phrase "Zeald" and "Zeald.com" to trigger their ads for their web services.

As you might imagine, we have issue with this. It was blatently obvious these companies were trying to scrape away our valuable leads and ride on the back of our hard earned marketing dollars.

The problem with this...
We do not recommend that our clients or anyone for that matter utilise such underhanded technique with their Google Adwords Advertising. Sure there are occasions where the company name is very generic and is not really a company name anymore. FOr example "The web design company" is the name of a New Zealand company. But it is also a very generic and common search phrase. Whereas the word or name "Zeald" is a made up word and can only be associated with our company.

As a company we invest significant amounts of time effort and money into building our brand. So when people think of websites, they think of Zeald.com. It is a very important element of building an effective business. We spend money and effort advertising our website address and encouraging leads to visit our website. is might be newspaper ads, word of mouth, radio etc. Of course these days, most people use Google to help them find a website and will simply enter "Zeald" into Google to find us. Now when they do this and a competitors ad shows at the top, and entices a percentage of those hard won leads away from our website, our marketing department are not so happy.
The other issue is that these underhanded businesses show at the top of the results and our potential leads associate them with us which does not reflect well on our brand

Googles Adwords trademark policy
So we looked into ways that we could stop this. We discovered a great article from Google which outlines
Google's AdWords and AdSense trademark policy

In this article Google explains that they take this issue seriously and prohibit intellectual property infringement by advertisers as outlined in their AdWords Terms and Conditions . Advertisers are responsible for the keywords they choose to generate advertisements and the text that they choose to use in those advertisements.

Google Adwords trademark complaint form
However that does not of course stop some businesses from leaching from another businesses marketing spend. To enforce this Google ask that you make a formal complaint and tell them about the infringement. They provide a Google Adwords trademark complaint form that is reasonably painless to fill out.

Some important points regarding this form:

1. Your company name will of course need to be officially registered with the companies office and you will need to provide a registration number as proof
2. Google do not investigate use of trademarks as keywords in certain regions but New Zealand and Australia are on the list of countries that Google do investigate
3. You will need to specify exclusions if you would like to allow agencies to use your trademark to advertise on your behalf

Google do not guarantee that they will action your complaint
Once you submit your complaint, you should not hold your breath. Although the Zeald case was actioned in a few weeks, some cases are not so cut and dried. The name "Zeald" is a "made up name" and although using a made up name does not help with our SEO because it does not include important relevant search phrases like "website" or "design" it does mean that we own it and Google are sure that it belongs to us.

However if you had a company name for example "Website design company" then yes you will do well in the organic search results, however it is hard for Google to differentiate between the company name and a generic and common search phrase. Google will not allow dis-allow other Adwords advertisers from using this "Trademark" as a search phrase as it is also a very generic and common search phrase.

Designing a successful website

Web page design involves creating the look and feel of your web site. This is the step where the ‘creatives’ get involved. But, don’t get just ‘any’ graphic designer, or person you know who has a creative edge – you need someone who understands the principles of designing a web site that produces results!

Too many organisations spend a lot of money and time creating a pretty picture of their web site without considering the goals and objectives. The web page designer needs to make sure that they are designing for results. They need to keep the following things in mind:

• attract and convert new customers
• convince new customers to come back again
• convert returning customers.

There are a number of web page design principles that are absolutely crucial if you plan on achieving a web site that works. So let’s take a look at the principles of ‘results oriented design’.

#1 Consistent Branding

The first principle is ‘consistent branding.’ Your web site must reflect the branding of the rest of your business. Many organisations have a great physical business with very strong branding, but then go online with a web site that does not reflect that branding. Make sure you leverage your branding, which you have already spent much time, resources and money on developing.

#2 Clear & Consistent ‘Navigation’

Visitors to your web site need to be able to navigate quickly to where they want to go. If you confuse your visitors and they get stuck and cannot figure out how to get to your ‘order’ page, ‘enquiry’ page or your checkout page, then you will most likely lose them. Clear and consistent navigation is strongly supported by placing important navigation elements in ‘standard navigational’ areas on the web page design. You can do this by making sure your web site is template-based.

#3 Template-based

Many people do not like even the thought of having their website based on a template! The concern we hear is, “my website will look like every other website.” What most people do not understand is that a template does not determine how a web site is going to look, but rather, it guides where the different information is going to be located on the web page.
This is truly a wonderful thing!
Think about this– when you go to a web site, you know that the company’s logo will most likely be located in the top-left corner and that you will be able to navigate the web site using either the menu at the top or left-hand side.

Imagine what it would be like if every time you jumped into a different car the controls were in different places.

Web page design templates have helped to ‘standardise’ the Web and make it a whole lot more user-friendly for the average Joe and Mary.

#4 Lots of White Space

Cluttered web sites are hard to read and navigate. It is important not to present too many different ideas on the same page. This comes down the objectives of the web site. Focus on the objectives of your web site. If you have two main objectives then focus the main “content” on the most important objective and have a smaller highlight for the other.

#5 Text-Page Links

Whenever possible try to use text-page links instead of graphic links. Search engines struggle to navigate to pages that are linked-to using a graphic. Graphical links can also be detrimental to the web site’s loading speed.

#6 Loading “Speed”

Studies have proven that if your web site takes longer than 8-10 seconds to load on a 56k modem then you run a serious risk of losing your visitor. Most web sites need to be designed to minimise the number of graphics on each ‘page’. There are many clever techniques that can be employed to keep the web page design sharp and rich without using graphical design elements. As a caution though, this principle needs to be balanced with the next principle.

#7 Professional Look & Feel

Your web site cannot look cheap! A web site has the difficult job of building trust and credibility with its visitors. If it has a cheap look to it, then ultimately it will harm your web site’s results. Make sure your web site has a sharp, professional look. It should “look” like it has had some time spent on it by a professional web site designer.

So there you have it. Zeald.com’s seven principles of web page design. If you have any questions about our design processes please don’t hesitate to contact the Support Team.

The Importance of having a clear vision and goal for your website

If you don't know what you are trying to achieve with your web site design then you will probably achieve … nothing! Just as your company (hopefully) has a clear vision of where it wants to be in the future and what it wants to develop into - your web site design also needs to have a clear vision.
The vision for your web site design should be aligned with your company’s overall vision.
Ask yourself:

• what is the vision for this web site design?
• why are we getting a web site?
• what is the purpose of your web site design?

Next, think, what are the goals for this web site design? Be specific. What do you want to achieve through a web site? Think about the following areas:

• Enquiries
• Sales
  
• Brand development
  
• Business efficiency

Put specifics on everything. How many enquiries or sales would you like to generate through your web site? What would make your web site an amazing success? Many people decide to get a web site without defining the reasons behind their decision. Once again, know exactly what you are trying to achieve!

Test 2

Just a test to see how these things work?