The initial scope of the project was to research, plan, set up and manage an international Google AdWords advertising campaign targeting individuals in the company’s key markets of the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East, which we duly did.

We were subsequently engaged to provide search engine optimisation consultancy and advice for a new web site being developed by Inigo Media, which launched earlier this year and has already proven successful at encouraging potential customers to enquire.

Nikki de Prey kindly gave us a brilliant testimonial saying:

Working with Mackerel Media has been great from the start.  In my initial call to enquire about Google AdWords Nick [the MD] spoke to me in a language I understood, put me at ease that what I was wanting was possible, and was happy to spend a long time on the phone with me finding out about my marketing needs and telling me about his background.  I got several quotes at the time, and although Mackerel was not the cheapest I just couldn’t bring myself to go with anyone else!  And I’m thrilled I made that decision.  Their attention to my company and my needs has been fantastic, even though I’m small fry!  In short, Mackerel  know what they are doing, work until they get the results the client wants, and offer great customer service always with a friendly voice!  I am so glad I found them!

It’s not every day you get a quote like that from a client – thank you Nikki!

Google has been using site speed as a ranking factor in its AdWords model for some time, but speed is now one of the 200 or so factors taken into account when ranking a page in organic listings, marking a fairly fundamental change and making it ever more challenging for web developers, web masters and search engine optimisers to achieve strong, high ranking positions. The knock-on effects will also be felt at hosting companies (particularly those who rely on the high-volume, low-service model) as more pressure is put on them to deliver web pages quickly, which itself can be largely dependent on the quality of code produced by programmers but also on the hardware provided, internal infrastructure, bandwidth available and connections. Suffice to say, those who invest in high-quality infrastructure and fast connections will feel the benefit as clients migrate towards them, as will developers who take the time to produce efficient, clean code that doesn’t get in the way of the user experience.

The team at Google are keen to stress that the impact is likely to be minimal, saying:

While site speed is a new signal, it doesn’t carry as much weight as the relevance of a page. Currently, fewer than 1% of search queries are affected by the site speed signal in our implementation and the signal for site speed only applies for visitors searching in English on Google.com at this point. We launched this change a few weeks back after rigorous testing. If you haven’t seen much change to your site rankings, then this site speed change possibly did not impact your site.

Speed has long been of interest to Google as they have carried out extensive testing on the impact of speed on how users interact with their search tools. In short, a speedier site means better click-through rates, higher levels of engagement and a generally higher degree of satisfaction.