Visual Lizard
Why Visual Lizard?
Our dedication to web standards means that your web site will load faster, be more accessible, cost less and reach more people right out of the gate. From structure through design, we are dedicated to the person that will be using your web site.
Your business needs are simple: reach more people, deliver your message, make a connection, complete a transaction. Your web site should not impede any of your needs. Don’t let it.
Find out more about us...
Google gives hints for better ad placements
Here are Visual Lizard, we build websites. We build great websites with tons of information on them. Events in Winnipeg. Music in Winnipeg. Moose Hockey and more. We love getting to the point where we can launch a work in progress live for everyone else to enjoy.
But what do you do when your website is launched?
One idea is to get your website into Google’s AdWords program and start building traffic. The kind of traffic that is looking for your product, service or organization. The good kind of traffic.
Recently Google has posted a blog article about leveraging their AdWords program even during tough economic times. Here are a few of their points that we think are really well made:
1. Focus your ads on low prices and savings.
Consumers care about prices more than ever, especially on day-to-day purchases. When someone searches on a particular product, you know they’re interested; by using your ad to tell them that you’ve got the highest quality and the best price, you’re more likely to earn their click. Update your ad text to focus on low prices, good values, and timely promotions.
This may seem obvious, but it bears repeating. Focus on low cost and areas where you can maximize savings. Good advice for any economic climate.
3. Make sure your ad groups are targeted and relevant.
Ads perform best when their ad text reflects the ad group’s keywords; this makes ads more relevant to their intended audience. Make sure that both the text and the keywords in each ad group focus on a specific topic or product. For instance, an ad group about "tennis sneakers" will generally perform better than a broader ad group about "sneakers."
This is solid advice for anyone getting started with AdWords regardless of their budget or the state of the economy. Focus again is key.
5. Make it easy for customers to buy.
Since people are spending more time comparing products and services online, make it easier for them to find what they’re looking for and buy from your site. Use the best Destination URL to send visitors directly to the page about the product or service promoted in your ad.
We build websites and while this seems like something everyone should be thinking about anyway, our experience shows that people seldom actually consider their URLs. Whether it is their domain name or product catalog. URLs fall somewhere on the development list at or around the very bottom. Never send people to the homepage of your site unless they can complete a purchase directly from it.
For the complete article visit the Google AdWords blog..
If you have questions on how Visual Lizard can assist you in driving more traffic to your site please use our contact form.
Understanding Google Analytics Terms - Bounce Rate
Here at Visual Lizard we use Google Analytics to track the site traffic to our web projects. Analytics is a very deep and powerful application from Google. With a price tag of free it also fits most of our client budgets perfectly. Over the years, we have heard the same questions many times. Today...
The Team at Visual Lizard for 2009
From left to right: Wil Alambre, Julian Moffatt, Max Chiriac, Dwayne Kristjanson, Doug Ross and Ross McDowall. More to come.
CakePHP Model Associations Using FinderQuery
Working on a CakePHP application, I found I needed to associate two models, but not in the regular way. In most cases, I could make a hasMany relationship by putting an appropriately-named foreignKey in the other datatable. So, if a Model named "Post" hasMany "Comment",...
Flash, CSS z-index and Internet Explorer
The newest browsers understand how to combine flash and css. The issue of flash always rendering on the top level has been addressed sufficiently, and can now be displayed like any other element by using proper css code. Except for Internet Explorer. We came across an issue where our HTML / CSS...
On Our Radar
Color of Magic
Jul 14, 2009
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Jul 15, 2009
Dollhouse, Season 1
Jul 28, 2009
Folklorama
Aug 02, 2009
From The Web
Firefox 3.5
Go get it. Really. If your computer still runs Internet Explorer 6 as your browser, you are going to be seeing less and less internet content in the very near future.
Linked by Julian
Bell and Telus to Get Apple iPhone
Rogers has some competition for the iPhone in Canada. This should be interesting to watch.
Linked by Julian
Study Finds Working At Work Improves Productivity
The Onion with an attempt at humour that turned out much more serious than they intended.
Linked by Julian
Comic Origins of Phrases
Linked by Wil
RIAA gets it wrong... Again!
Woman accused of music piracy vindicated due to the fact she DIDN.
Linked by Ross
Michael Jackson dead at 50
Linked by Wil
10 Unexpected Merit Badges
Linked by Wil
Doorbell Instructions
Linked by Wil
Five useful CakePHP functions I just dicovered
The good part with frameworks is that they include a rich reusable API library full of functions that will make life easier for most programmers. - Lennaert Ekelmans.
Linked by Wil
Simple Site Maintenance Mode with CakePHP 1.2
The ability to put a website into offline or maintenance mode seems like a pretty common request these days. - Jamie Nay.
Linked by Wil
Giant Wraparound Screen Shows Air Traffic in Real-Time [Visualizations]
This installation shows all of Lufthansa's flights at once, all projected in 3D on a 180-degree, 46-foot-wide screen. And damn is it cool. - gizmodo.
Linked by Wil