Author: Nancy McCord

Nancy McCord is the President and resident blogger for McCord Web Services LLC. She has been providing global web services since 2001. She is a web designer, search engine marketing professional, and search engine and blog expert. She lives in Maryland just south of the Washington DC metro area.
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Almost 50% Drop in Impressions AdWords Week Three

I would not have believed this if I did not manage so many accounts, but in week three of June, that is 6/15 to 6/21, nearly all businesses (nearly 40 AdWords accounts) crashed in regards to the number of impressions on Google AdWords. In fact, the problem has impacted so many accounts in such a big way that June is sure to be considered a poor month when tracking results in the long run.

When reviewing the statistical data of a conglomeration of accounts, impressions and also clicks dropped from a whooping 75% on some accounts to 15% on others with an average decrease expected by month end of around 20% to 33%. Google will really have to serve ads strongly this next week in order to pocket their full 30 day click budget.

As a result we have started to see some accounts be served way, way, over their daily budget, even more than the stated and authorized 10% over per day by Google to make up for the third week’s loss. One account we manage with a $9 a day click budget yesterday had a $20 spend. According to Google’s policies, they can only spend 10% more than the daily budget in a period of several days, but with really bad results in traffic this last week, I am sure that we will see particularly strong impression and click activity to help Google end the month back on schedule.

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Firefox Bane or Boom

Just two years ago Internet Explorer owned the Web, now Firefox owns nearly 20% of the market. If you haven’t looked at your older website with Firefox, you really need to take a peak.

If you are not testing your website in Firefox you really must be. In fact here is my list of browsers that I routinely test on:

Internet Explorer 7

Thinking about web design.Internet Explorer 6 – actually more people have 6 than 7 so make sure your site looks good in both

Firefox

Opera – but marginally here I still look, but don’t majorly stress out over incompatibilities as Opera is a nice browser but still used minimally in the marketplace.

The big difference between each browser is how they interpret the box model. In layman’s terms this translates into crazy spacing and padding and margins around important design elements. Sometimes the difference is so big, that you simply have to choose the least terrible approach. You will simply never get your site to look identical in all browser types and versions.

Typically I will identify what the client is using and make sure that it looks good in their flavor and version and them make sure it looks good in IE 7 and Firefox and not terrible in IE 6 and Opera.

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Top Five Web Design Myths

Here are my top five web design myths and answers to each one.

  1. Search engine spiders can index Flash so I’m okay if my website has been built in Flash.
  2. How long it takes to load a website page doesn’t matter – everyone has DSL anyway.
  3. I like an entry page for my website that is all graphics it’s pretty and sets the tone.
  4. I was promised by this firm top placement on Google if they overhauled my home page and website.
  5. I want my website to have a lot of video why are viewers complaining to me that they can’t see my video.

1.  Search engine spiders can index Flash so I’m okay if my website has been built in Flash.

Wrong, sorry, even Google states that they aren’t good yet on indexing Flash even though for nearly a year they have said they can index Flash. I can tell you that I get more calls for pay per click promotion and search engine optimization from websites done in all Flash. It is far better to use Flash judiciously say a hybrid html site with a Flash banner. What’s the purpose of having a website if no one can find you on search engines and if they can’t even bookmark a content page on your website?

2.  How long it takes to load a website page doesn’t matter – everyone has DSL anyway.

Wrong, sorry, even Google AdWords is now counting how long it takes for a page to load. The industry standard is a load time under 10 seconds. The faster your load time the better.

3.  like an entry page for my website that is all graphics it’s pretty and sets the tone.

Whoops, so sorry this one is wrong too. Splash pages are old news. Now search engines want content and they want it fast. Readers don’t want to watch a movie about your business. It is the Burger King Syndrome – my way right away!

4. I was promised by this firm top placement on Google if they overhauled my home page and website.

Hmm, the home page IS really important, but no one and no firm can guarantee top placement on Google. Google very closely guards the secrets of placement to prevent others from spamming the system. If they are not on the Google payroll, they simply cannot know how to guarantee top placement.

5. I want my website to have a lot of video why are viewers complaining to me that they can’t see my video.

Video is great, but the home page should be about spiderable content. When you do provide video make sure you provide options. I have found that videos turned into Flash are the quickest loading on the Web, then comes Windows Media Player files, and last of all QuickTime. If you are going to have video use only one on your home page and make it a Flash video. Try a preloader option in your body tag for other important videos and provide viewing options.

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Microsoft Introduces a Desktop adCenter Application

Finally Microsoft has introduces a desktop adCenter application much like AdWords Editor. I am testing the beta application and so far it looks like AdWords Editor but simpler. From what I see, I like it and will certainly find it useful, just wish I had more clients using adCenter and that Microsoft had better market penetration. If only Yahoo would get on board and get a desktop version too.

I usually use the online interface of AdWords for certain functions and the desktop editor for others. Sometimes I am using both at the same time. So as a result, I am tickled to death to be invited to review the beta version before mass distribution by Microsoft.

I’ll let you know how I feel about it later this week, but some of my favorite things about AdWords editor I could see were already included in the Microsoft desktop version of their own application.