60 Site SEO Audit Checklist

Reviewing SEO in an audit sometimes can be overwhelming. We all want to make a systematic approach so we are able to address two important issues: a) Make use of time efficiently and b) Ensure we don’t miss any relevant SEO issue. Hence this SEO audit checklist for webmasters who don’t want to engaged with a consultant and learn more about SEO at their own pace.

1 Indexed pages
Use the “site:” operator in Google search (for example enter “site:seo-hongkong.com“) and verify how many pages are indexed in Google.

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Unsafe PPC Ads

One of the things a Google AdWords advertiser must bear in mind before setting a campaign live is to ensure that the landing page website is safe and not infected with unwanted entities like spyware or links to unsecure websites. Otherwise, the appearance of an ad — displayed with special symbols on certain browsers — discourages people from clicking on them. Consequently, the likelihood of getting traffic from targeted sources becomes pretty low.

Take a look at a sample ad appearing on Google search results. Even though not all browsers display warnings, those with anti-virus add-ons automatically tag a website as unsafe to visit with that bright red button.

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Google Oil Spill Aid: BP’s Expensive AdWords Campaign

In its effort to save itself from further trouble, BP is employing search engine marketing as a PR tool. Yes, search engine marketing can be used as a reputation management device, even if it’s not sustainable or long term solution. I posted an entry about the benefits of having multiple pages appearing on the same search query results citing that by trying to own the page for a certain keyword query, the information search engine users see is the one you want them to see. That’s probably in the mind of BP, which is now spending up to US$10,000 per day to maintain its ads at the most prominent ranking. Hopefully, to those who use the query to find more news (and probably more degrading to BP) they’ll be able to find an alternative tone, essentially a positive message in spite of the huge tragedy the spill has caused. All searches on Google for ‘BP oil spill’, ‘BP oil spill lawsuit’ and ‘BP suit’ show a sponsored listing from BP as the first result.

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9 Reasons Why Our Paid Search Ads Don’t Appear As Expected

Ever wondered why our paid search ads don’t show up as expected? There are occasions that we don’t need our ads to show up on search results or partner pages. That’s because we want our ads will only be exposed (and clicked) by people whom we think are our target audience. For example, they may only be residents of a certain city or country, they may only be online from 9am to 4pm or their browser language should only be in Simplified Chinese. Paid search programs now allow advertisers to be very specific about their ads. While this could be among the reasons why ads don’t show up on search results, they’re not the only ones.

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AdWords Trademark Policy Change: Possible Consequences

Last week, Google’s Dan Friedman wrote via Google AdWords’ official blog “..we are adjusting our trademark policy in the U.S. to allow some ads to use trademarks in the ad text. This change will bring Google’s policy on trademark use in ad text more in line with the industry standard.”

This development allows advertisers who don’t own a trademark keyword to incorporate them into campaign ad copies in many countries (China and Hong Kong isn’t in the list yet). This comes after the same ruling was imposed in the UK early last year.

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