You Can’t Teach an Old Blog New Tricks – Or Can You?

Sorry for the terrible pun (and I do hope our canine friends will forgive me), but I just could not resist the idea. I expect it has been used before (although it was not coming up in Google) but whatever, I thought it was worth another airing.

But Can You Teach A Blog New Tricks?

I don’t know how many blogs you have looked at, but I’m afraid to say that the death rate is quite high, many blogs simply not being updated. The main reason for this I’m sure is lack of time, but I also imagine that a fair number are not kept up to date as people think that they are not being looked at.

Of course the problem may be that the content is poor, but it could also be the fact that not enough people are aware of the blog in the first place. Here the issue will be lack of marketing, some blog owners not even ensuring that their blog ‘pings’ the networks to tell of a new post. Also, not all make use of Twitter or Facebook to spread the word about new content.

So, if an ‘old blog’ is not using either pings or Social Media, then you can certainly teach it a new trick or two.

But there is MORE, much MORE that can be done…

Watch this space for more tips and tricks and make 2011 the Year of Your Blog!

The Link Between SEO and Signal Gets Stronger

There has been much chatter about what the link is between SERP's and Social Media 'Signal' but the rumours seem to be turning into concrete fact.

See Matt Cutts talking about Google Rankings and Twitter & Facebook Signal and you'll see what I mean.

More later

Case Study for Shire and Co - Powerful SEO in Practise

As any Blogger will tell you, one of the ways that you can use a blog effectively is to tell your readers that you know what you are talking about, that you know your onions and that therefore you should be listened too.

One of the best ways to show your expertise in any subject area (mine being Search Engine Marketing / and Social Media Optimisation) is a case study, showing how you were presented with a 'problem' what you did to fix it and what the results were.

In this case, Serendipity Online Marketing was contacted by Shire and Co after a referral by a current client. We went along and laid down what we could do for them, saying that it we would expect to be able to get them onto page one of Google for a number of top phrases in about 3 months, this being an especially difficult task as the site was very new.

We laid out a plan, our tried and tested plan, first doing the keyword research, then altering the site to include these words, then constructing a solid set of links to the site.

We were thus faced with the fact that we had a very new site, that was not built that well (the use of Joomla being a bit odd in places), that wanted rankings in a fairly competitive area. To cap it all, they wanted results fast!

When we started the site had no rankings for anything much (other than its own name) few links, and was totally unoptimised. It did not even cover all the areas that the customer wanted and which had been picked from the keyword research. Whilst it is not unusual to find that all the keyword phrases were not covered, it was unusual to find that some areas were not covered. But this was not a problem for Serendipity.

What we did.

As we knew what keywords were wanted, we started optimising the site, adding pages to cover the areas required and changing all the others so that they had the best chance of getting those all important rankings. We also added the iJoomla SEO extension to the site to make the process more efficient.

To cover the all important area of Social Media and Signal, we started a Twitter account and built the number of followers up to just under 400 in just a few weeks. Besides Tweeting from this account, we also Tweeted from our own accounts (which have nearly 8,000 followers in all) about Shire.

We also started the linking programme. As the graph below shows there were very few links to start with:-

The number of links took off under our influence leaping up to nearly 800 in just 2 months (with a lot more in process at the time of writing).

To show that this is not a one off, we also did some some work for a sister company of Shire and Co, Shire Leasing. As the graph below shows, when Serendipity started creating links in August, the numbers just took off...

 

But back to Shire and Co. So what was the result of our labours, what was acheived?

The Results

Being an SEO company, we were going to be judged on the number of rankings we gained for coverted words like 'Business Lawyers', 'Company Lawyers' and 'Employment Lawyers'.

As already stated, the rankings on Google for these words was a big fat ZERO before we started, the site had NO rankings at all. But after just two months, the rankings had started to appear and after three we had acheived:-

• Business Lawyers - Position 3 out of over 6 Million pages

• Company Lawyers - Position 1 out of over 36 Million pages
  
• Employment Lawyers - Position 10 out of 1.5 Million pages

However, what is important is not rankings, but the number of visits and enquiries. After just two months, we were getting reports from the customer of increased visitor levels and also, more to the point more enquiries.

Of course it was early days, there being a lot more work to do for the site to get it even better rankings, traffic and enquiries. However, that was not to be, an internal re-organisation of the Shire Group causing them to take all SEO works back in house. Whilst this was a shame, at least we at Serendipity had given them a sound base to work from.

So there you have it, faced with the problem of a site with no links, rankings and little traffic, we did the research, made the on page changes and created the links, in the end producing some very good rankings for some top keywords.


More on SEO next week

Google Analytics & Searchandising

I am often asked questions about Google Analytics, often because there is just so much data available that it just 'blows their minds'.

The trick here is to use Filters to place one set of data for say PPC visitors and another set for Organic visitors into different 'pots'. You still keep the 'big pot' with all the data in it too, but having these subsets of data sure makes it easier to understand.

However, this blog is not about reducing the amount of data in Analytics, its about INCREASING it, but for good reason.

We all know that the First Problem for all site owners is getting people to their site. As many have found, setting up a website and waiting for the people to flock in normally has only one outcome, a long wait (and a website covered in electronic dust). No, for all but the luckiest of businesses, a lot of hard work is required to get those potential customers into their site.

But there is a second problem

Getting visitors in is all well and good, but unless you get them to do something (buy or enquire or sign up for a newsletter) all the effort of getting them there is wasted. This “something” will vary from one site to another, but in all cases you want to make it easy for people to find what they want on the site as that is bound to increase the likelihood of them making a purchase or whatever else you want them to do.

The answer is of course the “Search” box. You’ll find these on many sites, and when they are done in the right way, they are really useful. With just a few clicks you can input the term “what do feed rubber ducks on” and be provided with a list of all the pages on the site that are relevant, all without all that tiresome tracking through the navigation and having to scan every page.

Searchandising

The term “Searchandising” is in fact all about the science of implementing these search boxes and the analysis of the data it provides and guess what Mr Google can help with both. For a small fee you can have a Google Search Facility on your site, this being backed by the same powerful search algorithims that Google use all the time. That beats the hell out of most so called search facilities I have come across on more sites than I care to mention - talk about awful!

Google have spent years perfecting their search function, so when you use it you have one that allows for the fact that humans are well, human. They just don’t do things the way a “sensible computer” would. For a start they can’t spell in many cases, and they tend to write as they speak, in other words they may well type in “yelow rubber duks”. Now a system that expects you to type in just “rubber ducks” is going to get really confused here and will probably decide that there is nothing on the site that matches these requirements and come up with an empty search list. Result, the user goes elsewhere and that potential sale is lost, not so with Googles offering.

Listing the Results

With Google you get the results in a way you understand and know, these being rated by relevance and from experience I can say that the small fee you have to pay each year is more than worth it.

The best bit is yet to come though

Search boxes are found on many sites, but that trick that is often missed is to check to see what people have actually typed in / are looking for. If you have this data you can use it to improve the way the site is laid out, e.g. what products are on the first page etc, but beyond that you can also glean a lot of information about visitor behaviour as it tells you what they want, and that can't be bad.

The data is also very useful for SEO purposes too, as there is a fair chance that any term typed into your internal search engine will be typed into Google and the like. Thus optimising your site for these terms is a great way of getting ahead of the competition.

That best bit

Perhaps the very best bit is that Google Analytics incorporates any on site searches in its database, allowing you to see what people have been looking for, all from that one interface, no extra programming, just DATA.

So what should I do?

Unless you have lots of money to burn, I'd hop off to Google, buy the Search Facility for your site and install the code pronto, its all very easy and if you can't do it, your web designer can in just a few minutes. Then all you have to do is to tell Analytics to incorporate the data (just a tick in the box being needed) and heh presto, you'll have lots of lovely new data to play with.

OK you might not want the extra data, but it will help..

More on Google Analytics (and Blogging, and SEO and .... tomorrow)

Win Some Lose Some

Being in the Search Engine Marketing business can at times be quite discouraging. After all you are up against it from the start. You don't know all the SEO rules (no one does) and then you'll be sure to have a few customers who think that you are selling snake oil and just taking their good money (and not doing anything for them). Then there are those that think that it's easy and that getting their site to page 1 on Google should be a piece of cake..

Still we crack on and get those rankings, or Twitter followers, or reduce a clients click costs by 50% and then guess what, the client decides to stop using your services. Sure there are sometimes good reasons for this but when you have delivered consistently it can be hard to take. Still that is business I suppose and you just have to take it and move on.

The good news is that the job is so varied and changing all the time. But heh, stop there, because contrary to public belief, the rules of SEO and the way the engines 'act' has not changed that much. Sure there have been changes and the Engines do use different 'signals' to decide what to list first, but in the end you have the words on the pages and the links to those pages. Those two are the foundations of SEO and always will be. The links may be on Twitter, Facebook in reviews on Google Places or Upmystreet, but they are still links.

The trick in SEM is to choose your 'battlefield' (the right one) and then capture the area by clever use of words on the page and links to that site, all the while using as much 'leverage' as you can. What is 'leverage', simply the process of using your website, the sites you know and your Social Media presence in the best possible way. At SOM we understand the value of leverage and how to make the very best use of our clients marketing budgets.

More on leverage (and blogging - not forgotten that one) later.

Google Giveth - But It Does Not Always Take Away

To be sure Goolge can give any business a huge leg up in the market place by placing their site at the top of the rankings for a really useful keyphrase. These Search Engine placements are themselves gained by the site being given 'points' by the Engines for the content on the pages, as well as of course most importantly, the links pointing to the pages of the site.

From this point of view you could say that these rankings are therefore 'given' by Google etc. But why does Google bestow these bounties and what causes it to 'take them away' a worrying thought that causes many a sleepness night for website owners.

This blog is not the place to go over what causes Google to 'like' a page, but it is the place to cover some issues about what causes Google to 'dislike' a page. One of the biggest scares that hit the market place was that if you paid for links that you would get banned from the listings. My recent research has led me to believe that buying links won't cause you to get banned at all, but on the other hand it won't get you any bonuses either !

Watch Out if You Host Paid For Links Though

What might get you into trouble is hosting paid links or hosting a part of a 'link sharing' network, as Google does not endorse the idea of 'paid links' (for SEO purposes) in any way shape or form. I experienced this to a degree myself, a site we were running SEO for having a 'paid link' on the home page. Even though we followed the procedure of telling all that the link was paid for, as we did not use the No Follow tag, we it seemed were penalised. The rankings were still on Page 1, but not as high as they had been. So we took the link off and within days the site had leapt up the listings, this seemingly proving the point.

Other data I have come across supports the above, one story telling how a business buying thousands worth of dollars of links every month lost not a single ranking when it stopped paying for them. The reason simply being that Google was not going to give any site a bunk up the rankings for having paid links, but it was also not penalising them for having the links in the first place.

In other words Google is not going to worry if you want to waste your money, but it won't go out of the way to tell you about it either.

Google therefore truly does give but does not always take away..

Is The Duplicate Filter A Myth Then?

I'm taking a day off talking about Blogging to raise an issue about SEO that is to say the least contentious, this being all about Duplicate Content.

The Dangers of Duplicate Content ?

For my part, I like many others have always considered that there on inherant dangers in hosting duplicate content on a website, some pundits stating that using content on your site that has been used on others will cause those pages to be disregarded by the Engines, some pundits going so far as to say that your site would be blacklisted!

No Blacklists but Maybe Just Ignored?

The rules that I saw (and to a degree believed) stated that the Engines, being so clever an all, would work out where the content first appeared and then disregard it when ever it saw it again. I was always a bit doubtful of this fact simply because sites get spidered at widely different rates (from minutes to weeks). As this means that the time a spider comes across a page has no relation to when it was first posted (on that site), it also means that the Engines cannot really 'tell' where the text appeared first anywhere. Thus it cannot penalise sites when it comes across the text again. It does however not follow that it will give any site it finds the text on any benefits. In other words you won't get penalised, but you probaby won't get anything out of it either (just like the issue of paid for links - see a later blog)

This sounds quite plausible to me and as I have seen duplicate sites listed in Google with my own eyes, most often when a page is listed under two different Domain Names. So if this is indeed the case what is all the fuss on the web about, all those sites which allow you to check for duplicate content plus of course all those sites full of words of doom?

From the research I have been doing in the past weeks, it looks like the issue of duplicate content is indeed a bit of a red fish (I mean herring), the words of Matt Cutt (yes Mr Google himself) perhaps putting the matter to bed for once and for all. The best resource on this matter is perhaps the one on Buzzle, the whole area of duplicate content being covered in some detail.

Duplicate Content - Nothing to Worry About Really.

The issue of duplicate content is therefore not as important as many would have you believe, but that does not go to say that you should use duplicate content 'willy nilly' as Google do boost the page it reckons is the best. This is especially being important on Ecommerce sites where the use of xml feeds from product sites can really turn Google off (the product pages looking exactly the same as hundreds of others - Google after all has limits like all of us).

So do try to use original content, but don't get too hung up about the issue and remember perhaps this one point. If you can, over time, convince Google that your site is an authority on something, then it will be inclined to think that your pages are the best, even if perhaps the content is not totally unique...

So Why Blog In The First Place?

It's a good question, after all Blogging takes a fair amount of time and not a little effort. Some people will be blogging for the what could be called the right reasons, that is to put their point of view across to a (potentially) mass audience, but others (the majority?) are blogging not so much to state their opinions, but to get links back to their site for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) purposes.

The reason for this is simple enough to understand (if you know anything about SEO) as the Search Engines LOVE links, giving sites with a lot of links a real boost in the rankings. This perhaps then is the answer to the question, people blog to get links and they want links as that gets them higher rankings.

Of course you can have more than one reason to blog, for my part I blog for lots of reasons.

One of them is that I, like many others have an inbuilt desire to write, I suppose that it is the 'frustrated author' in me. I don't pretend to be good at it, but I do enjoy dribbling on (and on) in my blogs...

Then there is the desire to help others, to provide them with ideas and data on the subjects of Search Engine Marketing and Social Media Marketing. I do this as I learnt my trade with the help of others, so if I can repay their generosity a bit by helping others then that is good.

I am however, not a complete saint (several bits are missing), and do I admit blog for two other important reasons. The first is to try to convince any reader that I know my stuff and that I could therefore help them with their website, gaining it both rankings and traffic. In other words I am after business.

The second reason, well that is pretty obvious. Yes, I too am after links to this blog, as these links will help these posts appear in Google etc, and that could lead to more viewers and hopefully business. These links will also boost the standing of this blog and thus the 'power' of the links pointing to our main SEO website, which in turn will boost its' rankings (and thus more traffic and business).

I expect that this is the case for most bloggers and as a good blog adds value to the web, I suppose it does not matter why the blog is written, at least that is my contention, which is after all one reason for having a blog in the first place.

Tomorrow - How to Blog!

Blogging For Business Seminar

I’ve just got back from a seminar run by Business Link and delivered by Hallam.biz. It was all very interesting, going over why you should have a blog and how you can easily set one up. The two types Hosted and On Your Own Web Server were also discussed and the merits of both debated.

As readers of my blogs and articles know, I don’t purport to know it all and today was no exception, as I picked up lots of valuable tips and tricks. I didn’t agree with all the speaker had to say on SEO (you go and get two SEO experts who agree with each other on 100% of things and I’ll go and get a gun and shoot down that flying pig) but as I said there were nuggets of gold in the seminar.

The biggest thing that struck me was the overall complexity of the whole thing. After all, you had to consider setting a blog up (potentially having to get your website designer to help) then decide what you were going to consistently write about (and the consistent bit is VERY important) and then make sure you promoted it well enough to make it pay for itself one way or another.

I have been blogging on and off for years now and know how difficult it is. For my part, and I dare say I am not alone here, it is not the problem of finding something to talk about, but finding the time to talk about it, if you see what I mean. For a busy business person, this could be just too much for them to cope with, which is no doubt why 80% of blogs die a lonely death when the writer just runs out of steam or time.
There is of course an answer, get someone to blog for you. This is OK (and indeed is a service we offer) but it is not the same as someone writing about the industry / marketplace they know and love. Still sometimes it comes down to good old Hobsons choice and if that is the case, bearing in mind the potential power a good blog has to raise a businesses profile, then that is the one to take.

More on Blogging Why Do it? later

Slow Communications Can Have BIG Effects

As every history buff will tell you, nearly 70 years ago the Japanese attacked the USA fleet at Pearl Harbour, in what was described as ‘A day of Infamy’ as there had been no official declaration of war. According to some historians, the Japanese had actually intended to declare war and then attack almost straight away, but slow communications between Japan and their USA embassy delayed things..

Slow communications as you can see can have dire consequences, an idea perhaps, celebrated by Google’s recent announcements that ‘It did not like slow websites and intended to penalise them in the rankings, in an attempt to get them to clean up their acts’. Such penalties could really hurt some sites, so it is not surprising that note is being taken of Mr Google’s threats.

The BIG question of course is, “Is my site slow and likely to get a penalty?”

Well there is one sure way of finding out and that is to add the FireBug add on to your Firefox browser. You can then use the ‘Page Speed’ section to analyse your site, all the issues (if there are any) being displayed along with potential fixes.

Some of these fixes are very complicated, others not so. But whatever, at least you will know what the issues are. Then you can have a chat with your web designer to get them sorted out. Perhaps all web designers should check their builds before they pass them on to the customer, but then again, they should really do the same for basic SEO (heh I’m talking myself out of a job here – careful !) shouldn’t they??

For more information on SEO and SEM please see our website http://www.serendipity-online-marketing.co.uk/

When is a Tweet not a Tweet?

Getting a celebrity to endorse a product is nothing new. We've all seen adverts featuring David Beckham etc, the idea being that this is supposed to make us want whatever it is too. Not sure it works for me, but the big brands spend mega bucks on such things so it must work (mustn't it).

Of course, most endorsements are easily seen as adverts so those nice people in the Advertisement Standards Agency are not concerned, as no one is misled in thinking that young David really likes the 'Smell for Men' he is fronting for (although of course he might?).

However, what if a celebrity started Tweeting about how wonderful say the new 4*4 from Range Rover is. Sure they may have one and may think it is great, but what if they have been given one as a 'payment' for the Tweets? Would you rate the Tweets in the same way, in other words would you believe what the Tweet said if you knew the content was not coming from the heart, but instead perhaps the wallet?

This is the quandary that the ASA finds itself in. One one hand it wants to protect everyone, on the other hand it does not want to stifle advertisers. In Rovers case, it has said that it would act if there were complaints, which if upheld would result in the advertiser having to withdraw the Tweet and ones like it. It is, however, perhaps the negative publicity and loss of consumer confidence that brands are worried about most though.

The USA have taken a different view though, their Federal Trade Commission has issued guidelines, these requiring that brands take steps to ensure that any Tweeter that has received payment in some form has to reveal this fact. The accepted method is to add 'ad' or 'spon' in the Tweet.

If you want to keep within the rules, then bear in mind the following advice. According to the Office of Fair Trading, if you don't disclose such payment connections, then, 'if it is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision they would not have taken otherwise' you could fall foul of the Consumer Protection Regulations.

This issue is also shedding more light on the practice of some advertisers who place positive comments about their products on review sites using false persona's as well as the other tricks that advertisers (and SEO companies?) are using these days?


For more articles and information on internet marketing and search engine optimisation see our website.

The Link Between SEO and SMO Become Clearer (Just)

It’s long been thought that there was a link between Twitter and Facebook and Rankings on the Search Engines.No one has been sure (and no one is really sure now to be truthful) what the link is, they've just known there was one.

The muddy water clears

The muddy water has now cleared a little now though with statements by both Google and Bing on the subject.

Google it seems is interested whenever anything is tweeted, especially if it is retweeted by someone that is deemed to be an authority figure, this being based to a degree on the number of followers they have. Articles and URL's that are tweeted about can therefore get extra SEO Omph by being seen in the Twittersphere.

As far as Facebook is concerned, links that are 'shared' are also taken into account, although Google has no access to private data at all (unlike Bing). There is also deemed to be a sort of 'Page Rank' effect here too, the number of people sharing a link increasing its power.

Bing is different

Bing has a similar view on Twitter, although it is mooted that they actually decide who is 'important'. They do however also take into account the number of Followers and Followed.
For Facebook, things get a little bit more complicated as Bing also checks to see if the URL / Article has also been mentioned in Twitter as well.The reason for this check is simply that if it is mentioned in both places that it must be important!

So, it looks like its now official, if you want to give your SEO efforts a boost, make sure you have a good Twitter presence (with lots of Followers etc) and that you are creating lots of great content for these 'authoritive' Twitterers to retweet.

Twitter’s tweets have more influence

One thing is clear though and that is that Twitter has more power when it comes to SEO, simply because it is by definition public and not a bit of a closed book like Facebook (due to much of the latters traffic being private in nature).

Should SEO Companies Sometimes Sack a Customer?

Let’s face it, there are lots of Search Engine Optimising companies out there that have been ‘sacked’ by their customers. There can be many reasons for this, from simple poor performance thought to great performance but still not at the level that the customer wants (see my earlier blog on setting customer expectations).

But this blog is not about the customer sacking the SEO expert, it’s about the SEO expert sacking the customer. From a business point of view, the idea of actually telling a customer that you don’t want to work with them any more is far from appealing, after all money is money is it not?

Well that might be the view of many, but not for me. I take a pride in what I do. And, bearing in mind that I am being judged on very strict criteria, i.e the rankings and traffic, if I feel that the customer is not taking my advice, well, what is the point of the relationship. He is after all only going to blame me in the end when it does not work..

However, I doubt whether my views on this matter are agreed with by many, so I imagine that the sacking the customer act is not likely to occur frequently. But, I still stand by this rule and have recently had to put it into practice.

I’m not going to mention names here, but needless to say, the customer wanted what all customers want, a front page (No. 1 please) place on Google for a term that was shall we say competitive (nearly 18 million other pages wanted it). I was not concerned at the level of competition, any battle can be won if you have the right equipment and knowledge (a little bit of luck helps too – Napoleon himself said ‘I don’t want Good Generals, I want Lucky Generals’) and the budget the customer was allocating was fair too.

No, the problem was that the site that wanted this ranking was not up to scratch. I did the research on the competition and worked out just what was needed. The winning strategy it seems being content quality and depth. Sure I can optimise a site for certain words (do it all the time) but when you are trying to get to the top in certain areas, Google seems to take a much wider view than just for the one page. They start looking at the whole site, what it brings to the Internet community, in much more detail than they normally do. This means that content, relevant, non duplicate content is needed.

In this particular market place, it was clear that the competition knew this to be the case and where making quite sure that they covered the ground in full. I knew we had to fight on even terms. I was not asking for the job of writing the content (although I said we could get it done), I just wanted it on the site so that I could interlink it all together and impress Mr Google. But no, he was not going to ‘go to that trouble’.

So what do you do, stick with it and know that you are going to fail, or say, no, I can’t work that way and politely part company.

As you can guess, it was the latter direction that I choose to take and perhaps if more SEO companies did this it would help the web, after all content is what we all want, so let us inspire all to include it on their sites. That way we all win.

Cookies and Stream

Social Media marketing is a strange beast and the things that work can really surprise. In previous articles I've talked about how using Twitter and Facebook 'properly' is totally different from the way it is being used by most. The issue is that using it the way it should be is both time consuming and difficult, the later for the simple reason that getting it right is not that simple.

Stream Marketing

This new term concerns the 'rivers' of comment that come from the 500 million people on Facebook and 200 Million on Twitter. Tapping into these rivers has been dubbed "stream marketing," by a certain Mr. Lazerow. Mind you, we do have to bear in mind that his company helps brands use Social Media to best effect, but even with this in mind what he says does ring some bells.

He reckons that what goes into those ceaseless rivers including updates and content from fans and friends, is some of the most powerful and important creative that we're going to see. What's more this content is 'talking the way that your customers talk', for the simple reason that it is your customers talking!

This however gives writers a bit of a problem as it requires a different set of skills to what most of them are used to produce. Gone is the 'promote or die strategy', this perhaps being changed to 'promote and die' as it seems people don't want to talk brands, instead they just want to chat and not be sold to while they are doing it.

"May the 4th Be With You."

An excellent example of something that worked (and surprised all when it did) was the message that BlackBerry used to celebrate Star Wars day. The Tweet turned out to be one of the most effective they have ever sent. The Tweet actually reached 150,000 people,and 98% of responses were positive. They were also mostly seen as a positive association with the brand, and what's more increased followers by 15%. Not bad for Tweeting something that had nothing to do at all with the brand in the first place.

As Mr Wallace of Blackberry said, "You need to be skilled at understanding how a seemingly random-type message can -- in the end -- contribute to the company brand."

Redefining relevance

It seems marketing executives all over the world are having experiences like Blackberry and Mr Wallace. In the past marketing was all about 'Relevance', but the rise of Facebook and Twitter looks to be forcing a change and redefinition of what is Relevant in the first place.

It seems that people using social networks don't actually want to read and talk about your products, they it seems just want to talk. The experts will tell you that promoting a brand using Social Media has always required that conversational touch, but many are surprised by just how conversational.

In fact there is increasing evidence that the most effective kinds of Social Media marketing are simple, random, even banal posts and Tweets.

Examples of ones that have worked are 'What are you doing this weekend?' or 'What is your ideal holiday?' Simple posts like this commonly receive in the region of 8,000 likes and 500 comments.
Reaction to these posts far outpace other conventional ones which concern product tips.

Perhaps the time when you spend a lot of money and time on creating and approving messages is over, it being replaced with very simple questions, like 'What's your favorite film.'

So your content should lean towards the conversational

The experts are now saying that 66% of a company's Facebook content should be conversational, but saying that the exact ratios will vary depending on the market place. Also with the whole area being so new there is little data around to tell anyone just how conversational posts compare to promotional ones in terms of marketing success, but much evidence is clear.

Some data from Facebook shows that 'conversational posts' produce eight to 12 times the response of brand oriented ones. It's not always about your brand, it is all about the fact that people are there to connect with other people and not you. Getting them to connect with you means getting them to like you.

And at last the Cookies I mentioned in the title

Oreo Cookies in the USA are masters in handling the balance between brand promotion and conversation. Examples from some of their recent posts and the responses are:

1. "Ever try dunking an Oreo cookie with a fork or anything else?" 8,200 likes and 2,300 comments
2. "Pick a flavor, any flavor! If you could create a new Oreo cream flavor, what would it be?" 7,100 likes, 12,500 comments

So it seems that using Social Media is more complicated and unusual than many thought, it is certainly going to lead to 'Interesting Times'.

The Implications of Cyber Monday on SEO

Yesterday was 'Cyber Monday', the day that everyone gets into buying online for Christmas in a Serious Way. According to Visa, the reason is that it's near Christmas, everyone has been paid (it being the end of the month) and perhaps more importantly, people have had the weekend to do their final research on the high street.

The latter is a key point, the whole ‘buying process’ said to be carried out in 3 phrases. First people do some research online to narrow down the potentials, then in 2 they go to the high street to view the items they are interested in, in the flesh. The third and most important part (for the seller) is the actual purchase, which is carried out online.

Take for example buying a digital camera. There are many models to choose from all very similar but with subtle differences, these of course making all the difference to people. For some it will be weight, for others the size or brightness of the viewing screen. Whatever, these things cannot be checked online, so a visit to a shop is a must.

If the above scenario is truly the case (and I have done this myself) then the high street shop does indeed have a place in the buying cycle, but not the one that the shop owners would have wanted I'm sure.

The real importance of the above is of course that once the model (or models) have been selected by the would be purchaser is what their next step is. The Cyber Monday predictors say this is to search online to find the best deals, which as you can imagine has major implications to what a site needs to be optimised for and thus found for on the Engines.

Things are a lot different at different parts of the buying cycle. At the start when people are looking for a camera, you’ll want to get found for generic terms like 'digital cameras' or 'canon digital cameras', but at the end, you will want to be found for 'Powershot 610' or 'Panasonic 57F' or whatever other model numbers are out there.

On one hand, it may look easier to get listed for such a definite term, but here you have to remember that many sites do not optimise their actual product pages very well at all, relying on the more generic terms to get traffic. This may well be a mistake, as even though they may succeed at getting traffic the start of the buying cycle, there is no guarantee that the visitor who finds them then will have any loyalty and come back to buy later.

Thus to be sure to get those sales, you have to optimise a site to get traffic for general terms and for specifics too. This brings its own problems as many sites rely on XML feeds from manufacturers sites to provide the descriptions of the products they sell. As this means that the words on their pages are the same as on other sites (because they all use the same feeds), they can easily get ignored by Google (who don't like duplicate content) and thus lose that all important listing for a specific model name.

Other sites don't have a problem with duplicate content, their problem being that the pages simply don't SHOUT the product number / name. The terms / words not being placed in the page Title or in any header tags, as is required.

So, if you want to be found on the Engines at the end of the buying cycle, do make sure that your site is optimised for those all important model names / numbers. Fail to do this and you could easily miss out on lots of business.

Content Management Systems and SEO

I know this is a bit of a hobby horse of mine, but I do get very frustrated by many CMS systems, at least when it comes to the carrying out Search Engine Optimisation for a site. There are many reasons for this, sometimes just a few things are 'wrong' in other cases the list is pretty endless.

The reason for these shortcomings is of course easy to explain, in that the CMS has been built so that it is easy to use and often also to a budget. Some open source CMS systems like Joomla have the advantage of lots of 'plug ins' / extensions that allow an optimiser to add the facilities that they need, but others do not and this leads to serious reductions in the number of SEO methodologies that can be used.

What is needed here is for the person commissioning the website to fully aware of his needs, i.e. is SEO an issue or is it just a brochure site. Here the website developer needs to ask some questions and to point out what they are going to do SEO wise and what the CMS that they are providing can and can't do. If they have any doubt, the should, at least in my view either not sell to that customer or to use a CMS that will 'fit the bill' so to speak.

It must be said that many CMS systems do have work arounds for most SEO issues, but none are as flexible as bespoke systems. Just a few issues that many CMS systems have:-

1. The Web page 'on page title' or the Meta Title are associated with the Menu so you can change these important items without ruining the Menu
2. The Menu does not allow the full use of the No Follow tag (used for Page Rank Sculpting)
3. Only parts of a page are accessible via the CMS
4. You cannot add extra javascript commands
5. You cannot alter the CSS

These are as I say just 5, there are many more.

So if you are about to purchase a new site using a CMS, please ask an expert on SEO to check that it will 'do the business' BEFORE you sign up for the deal.

More Tomorrow

Google to Show Twitter Ads in the UK

As everyone following the fortunes of Twitter knows, Google have been showing relevant Tweets in its results lists for sometime now. They are not always there, but even so, their inclusion started a bit of flurry with the big Brands. Why, simply because they were worried that some 'bad tweets' (at least bad for them) might, just might show up and thus put people off clicking through to their site, or as bad, damage the brand.

It was good for Twitter though and this and the belief that Google 'takes Tweets into consideration' in its ranking algoritim has been enough to keep the interest of people who are just Tweeting with marketing / business in mind.

However, one question that must have crossed many minds is 'Just how Twitter making any money?' The answer, is that they do allow advertising, sponsored Tweets now being seen in the Twittersphere. This form of advertising was given a boost in the USA when Google started putting these 'Promoted Tweet' adverts in its search results. It is the first time that Google have ever done anything like this, so is quite a breakthrough (and Google are open to ideas about others too it seems).

The benefits for both are clear, more revenue (they are splitting the cake on this one) and with it's introdction into the UK market place planned for 2011, it will provide another means for advertisers to get into Google, perhaps in a way that will be better even than PPC ads (which are starting to become a victim of 'banner blindness' it seems) as they will be in the body of the Organic results.

So watch out for Twitter Promoted Tweets on a Google Search Screen in 2011

Facebook Search & Social Media Marketing

The area of Social Media Marketing is one that is not fully understood by anyone, at least that is my view, everyone is still learning and wondering just how to make use of the medium. Sure some have got quite a good handle on it, but to be sure none know it all.

Twitter and Facebook

The two big names are of course Twitter and Facebook. My take is that these are two are very difficult animals, Twitter being more B2B focused than Facebook and easier to use too. Both take a hell of a lot of time IF you want to use them to full effect, something that few businesses are doing these days.

To Broadcast or To Have a Conversation?

Most business use Twitter as a ‘soap box’ from which they can broadcast messages about their products, whilst also keeping a ear to the ground, all the time checking if their brand is being mentioned. Where such comments are negative they quickly move to stop any rot, and where they are positive they’ll be sure to thank the Tweeter, all in the name of brand protection.

Of course the correct way of using Twitter is to engage with Twitterers and have a conversation. However, this is not as easy as it sounds and is very labour intensive – believe me on that one...

Facebook a Complex Beast

As for Facebook, this is a much more complex beast (and not one that I have a total handle on yet) and one that will in my view take even more time to use correctly than Twitter. Both have search facilities, and it is the latter that is causing ripples, at least for Facebook.

Facebook Search - A Lot Different From Google

The issue that is causing the big brands to scratch their heads is the way that the Facebook Search Engine works. Businesses using Facebook will of course want to be found for words associated with their brand, but unlike traditional Search Engines, getting listed in the top 8 (you have to be there or you can forget it) is not simply about the keyword density or the way a Facebook entity is created. With Facebook, it is all about ‘Friends’.

Brands therefore have to make sure that they have Friends who use the keyword they want to be found for in their name or on their walls. The places that their friends go is also taken into account, as is the number of fans and likes. All very complicated in my view and it will take some more digging before all is fully understood. One thing for certain is that because of the way that the Search Engine works is that if you are not in the first 8 then you can’t be clicked on and that means you can’t get a Like or a Friend to vote for you. Worse still while you are failing to get those all important votes your competitors (in the top 8) will be strengthening their position. If this is truly the case, it means that once you fall out of the top 8 you may never get back in.

Google - Video Ads & The Mobile Phone

The Search Market place never stops moving, Google releasing news on videos and Pay Per Click, as well as telling all of the coming importance of the Mobile Phone.We’ll cover the video bit first.

New PPC Tools

PPC has been around for sometime of course, but it never stops changing. One reason for this is that PPC is not working as well as it used to, the phenomenon of Banner Blindness (where browsers simply do not see banner adverts) is it seems starting to affect users behaviour on Google, the click through rate dropping quite substantially over recent time. By the way, this has been hidden to most as even though the CTR has dropped, the number of searchers continues to be so high that no one has really noticed the effect. Although saying that, it must be said that many of the big names are realizing the power of the organic listings and are putting more effort into getting / retaining listings. As you can see nothing is straightforward when it comes to the Web...

Video Adverts

So to the adverts , Google it seems is about to start allowing UK Brands to include videos in their Adword Ads. These ‘video extensions’ are being promoted by Google as a way of combining the benefits of brand advertising with search. The videos will play underneath the normal PPC advert allowing users to click through to a site. Every 10 seconds of video will cost the same as the click.

Then Mobile Phone - More Important Than Desktop PC's by 2014?

As for the mobile phone, well we all knew it was important, but did you know that by 2014 the pundits reckon that more people will connect to the Internet (and presumably spend more time on line) via mobile phones than desktop PC’s. It is therefore not a surprise to know that Google is spending a lot of time and money on sorting out its mobile advertising platform. See www.google.co.uk/watchthisspace for info.

The Third Area of SEO

Search Engine Optimisation has traditionally been about two things, On Page optimisation and Off Page optimisation. The first dealt with the words on the pages and how they ‘talked’ to the Search Engines, whilst the second was all about the links to a site.According to some there is now a third area, at least as far as Google is concerned.

Activity - The Third SEO Area

This latest area concerns the issue of ‘activity’. This activity itself covers two areas, that of activity in the matter of visits to a site and the activity on a site, that is the level of changes happening on that site.

Don't Let Your Site Go Stagnant

To be fair, the latter point has been one of the rules Google have been using for some time as they have never like stagnant sites that never seem to change. However, it is said that all of this area of activity now has a greater impact on the rankings for a site, so it is a matter that cannot be ignored.

At SOM we have been taking the whole matter very seriously for some months now, using both on page (e.g. the addition of news pages to sites) and off page techniques (e.g using Twitter to generate visits, all the time ensuring that Google are aware of the visits by using the Google URL shortening tool).

Links Are Still Important

It must be said that these methodologies look to be working very well, so if you are serious about getting (and keeping) your Google rankings I would give serious consideration to the matter of generating measurable activity for / on your site.That is not to say that you can afford to take your eye off the other two areas, this particularly being the case with links. Here you must ensure that your site has links from a wide variety of site types, IP address and that these links are pointed at pages other than the home page, these being called ‘deep links’ (aim for a deep link ratio of 50% – 80%).

Make Your Anchor Text Count

There is another issue with links too, this being all to do with the so called anchor text (the bit you click on). Make sure that the words here say what your site is all about and uses the keywords you want to be listed for, this really makes a difference.


So go and check your on page and off page optimisation, but please too, also consider this new area of activity.

SEO and Customer Expectations

I’ve been in the Search Engine Marketing business for over 10 years now and of the many issues I have come across perhaps the most important is that of managing customer’s expectations. Why is this so important? Well in my view it is because many people don’t really understand what SEO is all about, often thinking that all you have to do to get a good listing is to build a website, sit back and wait. Others though are more aware of all the issues, but whichever group they fit into, both want the traffic that getting a good ranking for the right keywords will bring and want it asap.

Guaranted Rankings?

Some want to know if you will guarantee getting them rankings. This is really a double edged question, as some customers will walk away if you do offer some them, whilst others will walk away if you don’t. Answering the question is however very easy for us, as we simply won’t offer guarantees, this for the simple reason (in our view) that you can’t. We say this as we cannot know how the competition are going to react, what changes the Engines are going to make and to some degree what ‘hidden’ factors are in play for that particular customer.

Examing the site

Our first job is therefore to explain why a customer’s site does not have the rankings that a competitor enjoys. In 99% of cases the reason is pretty easy to spot, it being down to a lack of links and / or poor On Page optimisation. In a few cases the issues are more difficult to deduce, but thankfully these are few and far between. We then go on to show how we will remedy the situation, detailing a project plan covering the next 3 to 6 months. This plan will cover getting links from a whole range of sources, changing the pages to make sure they are ‘talking’ in the way that the Engines understand, and, with Google, ensuring that there is enough activity being registered (i.e. visits to the site).

Our well trodden path

For one of our recent customers we followed our normal path of not guaranteeing results, just the normal promise of hard work and the application of our extensive knowledge in the area of SEO. This customer, Shire and Co, was it happens among the group that would be suspicious of anyone promising results, but they still wanted results, and wanted them quickly...We therefore started our normal SEO programme with a set of Directory listings (not submitting to the Engines though, we always like them to find the site via the links we build), this being a great way to kick start the linking programme. We also started building links via blogs, articles and social media, all again a part of our proven plan.

Making the on page changes

Time then came to start on the pages of the site, to make sure that they were SHOUTING the keywords Shire wanted rankings for (these of course being selected from the extensive number located during the keyword research phase). This is where the fun really began as the site had been built using Joomla. Joomla is a Content Management System (CMS) and is widely used in websites around the globe. However, it’s flexibility can lead to ‘unusual’ set ups and this was the case here (at least as far as our Joomla experts were concerned). Nevertheless, after we had taken stock of the build, we installed the iJoomla SEO component and set about allocating and weaving in, the target keywords to the most appropriate pages on the site, adding a number of new ones to cover areas that the site initially did not.

Amazing results

What happened next was amazing. As normal, we had advised the client that it could take between three and six months before real gains were made. But here, in just the second month, the site had got page 1 rankings on Google for a main (highly competitive) keyword and then a week later, the number 1 slot for ‘company lawyers’. Both I and the customer were to use the vernacular ‘gobsmacked’, and I was quick to warn that the rankings might slip (this often happens to new sites which have yet to build a firm enough base) but to date this has not happened, quite the reverse in fact, the rankings continuing to rise across the board.

Not the first time - but unusual

This is not to be fair the first time this has happened to one of our customers (and I’m sure to other SEO companies could same the thing too), the same thing taking place to others as different as a boat trailer supplier and a business intelligence consultancy. However, it is not usual and cannot be counted upon so we will continue to advise our clients that SEO is a long haul commitment for most at least.

I f you would like to keep track of the progress for Shire and Co, please see our website as we will be featuring this site as a continuing case study.

Content is King, But is CMS a King Killer?

Everyone understands that ‘Content is King’ on the web today. All the talk is about how the Engines only want to rate web sites which contain interesting information and this of course means in part at least the ‘words on the pages’. This information should also be seen to be changing on a regular basis.

A Vote for the CMS Then?

This would seem to be a vote for making it easy for website owners to add and amend their own content. This has of course been made easier by the huge growth in content management systems, these being available even on the cheapest of website hosting packages. Some of course are better than others and some are easier to use, however, there are real issues when it comes to the area of Search Engine Optimisation.

SEO Issues - Speed of Loading

There may be many more than the two I am going to cover below, but these are the two most important in my view. The first concerns the structure of the site itself, the way in which the pages are put together in HTML terms. Not all Content Management Systems (CMS) are bad of course, but if the pages load slowly because they have to make lots of ‘calls’ to the Web Server to ‘collect’ parts of the page itself, like css scripts, or files containing javascript code then the page will load slowly. This could well cause the site to be ‘downgraded’ by Google (this engine penalises web sites which loads slowly as it believes that they lessen the experience of web users) and that in turn can affect its chances of getting a good ranking.

Keyword Density

However, the biggest issue is that the web site owners can make any change they want to their sites text. Whilst this sounds like a good idea, making such changes can play havoc with a carefully optimised site. Areas like keyword density can be thrown out of the desired range (2% to 4%), whilst the all important heading text can be changed so much that the pages of the site no longer SHOUT the words they need to. If this happens, a page that had been enjoying a good ranking before it was changed by the owner could well drop down the rankings and even off them. If rankings are important (not all site owners are bothered) then you can see that allowing users the ability to change their own content might not be as good an idea as it first seems.

Headers SHOUT Keywords - Do you really want to Confuse the Listening Engines?

Problems are made even worse when the CMS has been set up to allow users to add headings whenever they want. Often these headings have been set up to use one of the old fashioned ‘header tags’ H1, H2 etc, which means that often the unknowing user ends up with a page full of header tags (which just ends up confusing things). Things can get even crazier when these headings end up in the wrong order, H1’s after H2’s and H3’s instead of before them, as this really makes thing messy!

The CMS & SEO Solution

Of course there is a way around the problem, first the CMS needs to be built in the right way, that is to minimise complexity and thus page load times. Secondly and more importantly the website owner needs to be made fully aware of how to use the CMS in the first place. This will allow them to make the changes they need whilst maintaining the ‘Optimisation’ of the pages.

So all you Web Designer chaps and lasses out there, please have a think about how you can help your customers, they'll love you for it in the end...

Back on the SEM SMO Road Again

Well it's been a long time since the last post on this blog. It happened for lots or reasons, the holiday season, we got busier, plus of course our business went Limited (we are in the UK). The sad fact is that a huge percentage of Blogs do go quiet, up to 80% some say, but whatever, for a while at least we were just one more statistic...

Now however we are back, with a new writer being assigned to the job of keeping this blog active. We have many reasons for doing this, not the least that it will soon become a part of our new link building programme - watch this exciting space!!

The plan is to post at least one blog a day on SEM, SMO topics as well as many more via our new 'Engine' as mentioned above.

We are going to start the ball rolling with a Blog on Content Management Systems and how they can be dangerous SEO wise..

Read on MacDuff (apologies to all Shakespeare fans for that)....

Graham

Of Volcanos and PPC Campaigns

Yesterday I finished a massive set of research in which I had to delve into the past of a PPC campaign to work out why something that was working had turned into something that was not. It took a lot of time and thought even to get started, the big question being, 'Just how do I handle this amount of data?'

Given some thought the plan emerged and with careful consideration of all the facts, the data was 'made sense of'. As it did the story it told unfolded in front of me and when finally I looked at the figures, showed just how far off track the campaign had gone, in just a few short months.

Google of course are the beneficiaries here, their 'Optimisation' and 'Missed Opportunity' practices causing keywords to be added that quite simply did not work (A lesson here for all, don't just add the ones that Google suggests willy nilly). On the upside a few gold nuggets were found, but overall, my customer had spent many thousands of pounds to no avail...

All of this comes down in the end to organisation. Organisation to only add the right words in the first place is of course hard, as you don't know that until you try it, but Organisation to check and remove the bad ones is easy, all it takes is time and an understanding of what 'good' and 'bad' are. However, such are the time pressures on many businesses, that they simply don't do this job too well 'in house', the result being that Google's coffers swell even the more.

Organisation, or should I say, lack of organisation, is one of the reasons people are having so much trouble getting home at the moment, with the airways around Europe being closed because of that volcano in Iceland. Organisation could not of course have stopped the eruption, but it could have saved a lot of people a lot of trouble. The swift mobilisation of Europe's Navy's and Air forces (the latter with their low flying transport planes) could have got 1,ooo's home and the commandeering of cruise ships in the Mediterranean could have brought 1,ooo's more home.

Of course, the governments of all shapes and colours did little and the situation has just got worse, until that is yesterday when they started to do things like getting the Royal Navy moving. So, in the end 'Organisation' was called in and the situation will I'm sure start to improve.

The question is, just like the Google campaign above, why were things left to get into such a state? Surely action on Google would have saved thousands of pounds, but that is in reality nothing to the pain and misery that is the very real problem for many travellers around the World at the moment.

The moral of the story is that one should always keep a close eye on situations and as soon as they start to slide, take action sooner rather than later, this being true whether or not you are dealing with PPC campaigns or volcanos.

More tomorrow

Does Your Company Monitor the Twittersphere?

I've commented before on the fact that the jury is out when it comes to whether businesses in general feel that Twitter is of any use for marketing. Some are undoubtedly throwing a lot of time and cash at the issue, while others dally and others do nothing at all.

This both surprises and does not surprise me at the same time. It surprises me as I know for a fact that every 'Twitter' course that is held around here is immediately booked up by businesses (mostly small) that want to know more. On the other hand, looking at what Twitter is, it does not surprise me that many have yet to leap onto the bandwagon, as they are in reality unsure of how high to jump and not sure whether it will be worth the effort if they do.

To be sure, Twitter is easy to use, but if the whole idea is to 'Engage' with your customers, I can tell you from experience that that is not easy. Whilst being a Twitter convert myself, I can still see that a lot of what goes on is just people shouting their messages about, I'm just not sure how much listening is going on. This of course means that for the purposes of 'selling' that Twitter may in the end not bring in results for some.

Whether or not you see Twitter as a route to market or not, you should however be aware of the 'darker' side of Twitter (at least it could be 'dark' as far as your business is concerned). The 'dark side' I am talking about here is that of the complaints (nothing to do with StarWars - stand down Luke) that you see sprinkled about on Twitter.

These 'complaining Tweets' may not worry some businesses at all (e.g crazycameras), while others are, rightly or wrongly, of the opinion that anyone complaining about them on Twitter is something that they should be concerned about. These companies are thus actively scanning all the Tweets made and if they see their business name or one of their products mentioned, are quickly in action, asking if they can help (or thanking the Twitterer for the praise) .

As I've said before, you could Tweet anything you like about some businesses and they will not turn a hair, but for others your Tweets will quickly bring in offers of help and assistance. I have seen this twice, once with BT and once with www.mobiles.co.uk. In both cases my Tweets were picked up and some help given. In my view this is excellent and shows that the medium can help people resolve issues, at least some of the time.

I don't know about you, but the fact that someone responds to my messages, be they of annoyance or a cry for help, makes me feel that bit 'warmer' to the business in question, something that may keep me as a customer or at least stop me telling all my mates to avoid 'x' as they are a right shower. Either way, the 'care' shown will be of advantage to the business in question.

The moral of this story is that if you are unsure of whether to use Twitter to market your business, at least take the time to monitor the Tweets to make sure that your name is not being taken in vain, as it may well save your business some grief and some customers.

More tomorrow

Addiction to Google's Page Rank

I was talking to a potential customer last week and they raised the question of Page Rank, while another was ringing me up with a worried tone in their voice as their Page Rank had dropped from 4 to 2 overnight. These sorts of conversations are not new, but do show how people worry about how Goolge 'view' their pages, perhaps more so than any actor that of the critics of the press. It goes to show just how powerful Google has become these days.

But What is Page Rank?

I'm not going to go very deeply into this (it gets very very mathematical) but I can give you an idea of how it works. Basically Page Rank is a ranking system, the rank based on the supposed 'importance' of any page on any website in the World.

This importance is calculated from the 'importance factor' passed on when page A links to page B (B being the one whose Page Rank is being assessed). If it was just a matter of counting the number of links to a page and using that to find it's Page Rank the job would be easy, but not very accurate (at least in Google's eyes) so they go one (well OK several) steps further.

Not Just the Number of Linking Pages

So, if it's not just the number of linking pages, how is Page Rank calculated, what is the additional 'magic formula'? This is where it gets complicated, as before a page can pass on 'importance' to another page, its own 'importance' (Page Rank) must be assessed. This of course means looking at the pages that link to it, and thus the ones that link to them and so on. You can see why this is a job of a (very big) computer and in essence goes on for ever and ever. All I can really tell you is that somehow, Google produce a Page Rank for a page and then, when it links out, pass on a fraction of that importance, as Page Rank, to all the pages that that page links too, the 'importance' of that page being divided amongst all those outgoing links.

It is obvious then, that a page with lots of links out of it, passes on less 'importance' to each of the pages it links too, than a page with just a couple of links on it. This is just one of the reasons that those links pages that you see on sites, in reality add little in the battle for Page Rank, there being so many links out of that one page, a page that will have scarce little importance to pass on in the first place.

It is also obvious that a link from a page with a high Page Rank is going to pass on more importance, hence the reason you pay more for links from a High Page Rank page (if you buy them that is - please be careful here)

Just How Accurate is Page Rank?

This is a moot point, I have heard some pundits say that the score you see in the Google tool bar can be widely inaccurate, while others still worship it like a God and will not dispute it. For my part I have seen a Page rank of 5/10 on a page in a site with just 5 pages, and not one single link in from any other site?, so I am not totally convinced of its accuracy, but it is a useful guide and I always like to see it go up.

The Importance Behind Page Rank

What really matters though, is not the actual Page Rank figure, but what is behind it. You see what it is the number of links to a page in a site, how those links have been created and yes, how influential is the page which holds the outgoing link, that really counts.

My view is a simple one, get in as many links as you can from a wide range of page types, with a wide range of 'importance' (and IP address) all the time using that most valuable resource the 'anchor text' (the bit you would click on) wisely - more on that another time. Sure, if you can land a link from a Education or Government site, or one like the BBC, then great, but if not, look at it as a numbers game, sure has worked that way for our customers over the years.

There is more to this subject (Page Rank Sculpting for example), but that will do for today

More soon

To Tweet Or Not To Tweet That Is The Question?

Can't say for certain (without looking it up) what day Twitter started, but I do know that for 18 months I ignored it on purpose. I really could not see the point in being able to send 140chr messages, this I suppose more than likely as I'm not a great fan of texting in the first place (rather talk than text).

The younger generation are however addicted to texting (and Social Networks) and it seems, if my partner is anything to go by, so are many of the older generation too. So with both old and young alike using Social Media, it is not surprising that business is interested in it for advertising etc.

This interest is most plainly evident in the way that "Understanding Twitter Courses" are sold out in my local area at least, in a matter of days. However when it comes to doing the deed, or paying someone else to Tweet for them, the number of businesses really interested seems to be quite low.

Sure many are playing with Twitter, but some (and this includes some businesses that are selling Twitter services) are hardly tweeting at all, and most, according to the pundits are not Tweeting in the right way either.

For many businesses then the question really is 'To Tweet or Not To Tweet' and from my experience todate, most are totally unsure of what to do.

We plunged into Twitter a few months ago, not for the reason of trying to make an impact on people, but to make sure that our customer's domain and company names were seen to have been mentioned in the 'TwitterStream' just in case, as rumour had it, that Google were taking this into account when deciding rankings (still not sure on that one). This is still one of the main reasons that we Tweet, as it is a basic concept of our SEO practices that we try to cover all the bases, this so that whatever factors Google decides to use to rate sites, our client's sites are covered.

As for actually gaining business directly from Tweeting, that I think is not happening as much as people might hope (this being born out by polls), but like any form of advertising, it does raise the profile of a business, and, if targeted at the right people, MUST to some degree at least be beneficial.

With this in mind, my advice to businesses is that Social Media and Twitter are an opportunity that should not be missed especially considering that an impact can be made for a very small investment in time / money.

Time will tell as to just how powerful this medium becomes, but from what I have seen so far, all interested in B to C marketing, will have to get 'involved' with Social Media in the very near future.

More soon

When to Step Into the Buying Cycle?

When you are selling something, anything, it pays to know a little about the 'Buying Cycle' for that particular product. The buying cycle is best defined as the what happens between when someone decides that they want something to the time that they go and buy it.

As you can imagine, this cycle can be very short; 'I'm thirsty, I think I'll buy a Coke' to long ones like 'I need a new TV, but I just don't know what type to get'. These cycles can thus last for seconds or months, some requiring detailed research, others none at all.

The producers of drinks or TV's could (and do) of course get involved with the customer even before they are actually looking, and that of course is the reason for many adverts on the TV. They want to put their brand in front of you for the time you are thirsty or looking for that TV. Branding is another reason why people write blogs or Tweet, it is all to do with raising one's profile.

When to get Involved?

However on the web, when it comes to a particular site selling a TV, the question is 'When should they get involved in that buying cycle?' Let us take TV's as the example. We can assume that the manufacturers will have been blasting out the reasons why people should pick a Sony or a Panasonic, all this being aimed at those who are either not in or have just started the process of getting a new TV, so that area is covered by the 'big boys'.

But what about you, the TV retailer, when do you start trying to catch the attention of that TV buyer? You also have to decide the means you are going to use, will you provide reviews and comparisons, will you set up a forum where people can get advice, or will you set up a Blog so that people can ask your advice directly and where you post this and that all about TV's. Or will you just wait until that last minute, when the buyer has decided on the model they want and then bounce and try to win the deal with the best price?

Some sites use both, and some don't sell on price at all, instead relying on the goodwill they have generated by providing the reviews and advice to the consumer.

As you can imagine, the process of capturing the eye of the customer early on is a time consuming and costly one. All those reviews and articles and the time taken to give advice are not going to be cheap to provide. When it comes to Adwords, the difference is vast too, as in one instance you are buying the word 'hd televisions' and in the other 'Sony XV4000'. As you can imagine the cost per click for one is a hell of a lot higher than the other...

As mentioned above, those sites wanting to wait until the end of the cycle, will, more than likely be using Adwords as the capturing mechanism. The reason for this is simple as it is very easy to 'buy' the keywords covering all the model numbers needed (rather than have your site tuned so finely that they appear in the Organic listings), and of course you are virtually guaranteed to be spotted (if you bid enough) by anyone looking.

Thus, if you have a good advert (and in many case a good price) you can more than likely get a sale from someone you have had no dealings with in the past at all. In a way you are 'stealing' that sale from those who (may) have helped that buyer come to the decision to by 'x' but that is, many would say 'business'.

Cheap is Not Always Cheerful

All you, as a site owner can do to counter this threat is to be as helpful as possible during the buying cycle and hope that this and the solid reputation you will have built up in the process will steer the buyer to purchase from you, even if you are that little bit more expensive. After all, cheap is not always cheerful at the end of that proverbial day.

More next week

Using Twitter to Interact with your Customers

It is not often in the UK that one has heard the words 'hats off to' and 'BT' in the same phrase, but that is what I must say today, at least for one thing.

Why do I acclaim BT in this way? Well quite simply for the way they are monitoring Twitter. It was yesterday morning when I tweeted about my broadband being slow and that I was waiting for BT to fix it. Then not an hour later came a @reply from BT customer care saying that they were sorry that I was having problems and sending me a link with some ways that might helpfix the issue.

This is a good use of Twitters Search facility (or perhaps Topsy - see www.topsy.com) as it allows anyone to 'engage' (the secret they say of using Twitter properly and getting the most out of it) with other Tweeters.

Obviously, this engagement could lead to other things, in the end perhaps a sale? If not then at least the person trying to engage will have been seen in the others 'timeline' (if they respond, which all should do - 'manners you know') and that can only raise their awareness level, which after all is what it is all about.

So hats off to BT for the monitoring Twitter so carefully (they have yet to fix my line though!).

If you want to monitor Twitter, then just keep using the Search facility, or better still use Topsy, pay the little bit extra and get 15 min alerts. This means that within just 15 mins of someone using a keyword (or your name) you can know about it and @reply to them with help, news, views or a request for more info so that you can help. You never know where it might lead...

This of course can also help with Brand protection (see yesterdays Blog post) as a quick response would show that you care and could also turn that customer's bad feelings around. They could end up a great supporter and start telling everyone about how great you are....

Of course there are some companies that cannot do much to rescue their brand and thus any efforts would certainly be much like flogging that dead horse (yes you guessed it I'm referrring to my old friends at Crazycameras) but for many others, monitoring Twitter carefully could well be a very very good idea.

More tomorrow

Brand Protection and the Internet

When Twitter started making a real impact, and especially when Tweets were first integrated into Google's search results, there was a 'flurry of worry' in the marketing world (or so it seemed to me). There were numerous posts, articles and comments all about how these Tweets could damage a brand and reduce sales.

Starbucks

The one I remember the best was from the marketing dept of Starbucks. They were worried that if someone used the net to find their local outlet (when visiting a new town) that they would see, just below the results a Tweet from a disgruntled customer and therefore decide to go elsewhere. Their 'brand protection' protocols were put on full alert it seems.

The idea of protecting your brand on the internet is of course nothing new, and just like in the old days (with press cuttings) some companies have a small army checking the 'web waves' for comments mentioning their brand in any way. Google alerts and the new Topsy (Twitter alert system) both help here of course.

Once detected, any 'bad' comment can be answered and combated in some way, be it to solve the issue or to simply draw people's attention away from it. Either way, this brand protection does at least limit any damage and, in the case of solving a problem, can actually boost a brand's image as it shows that they care.

To make matters even harder for the brand protectors, there are numerous 'Review' sites where anyone can tell of their experiences with a product or company. Just type in 'reviews + company name / product' into Google and you will more than likely be shown a whole list of sites.

Of course the answer to the problem is to have good products backed up with good supply and support, as that way you just won't get that many complaints and if you do they will be swamped by the good ones. Remember everyone knows that 'you can't please all the people all the time', so if you can please most of them you will be doing as well as can be expected...

As to why brand protection (both on and off line) is so important, well for the big companies of the world, like BT, Coca Cola, Ford etc the answer is obvious, but for the smaller businesses it must in the end come down to sales. After all if the world and his wife are continually slating you on the web, you are not likely to get much business via the web are you?

Crazycameras - and exception to the rule?

Well, it seems that however logical the above statement is, that our friends crazycameras, who have it seems been slated on the web for months, if not years, are still there selling online today.
True, they do not, I am told use any of price comparison sites (the many bad reviews), but they are still operating.

The complaints have also been for more than just poor service, or undelivered products, as they have included electrical safety issues, the equipment they supplied to one UK customer being unsuitable (and downright dangerous according to an electrical engineer) for use in the UK.

From this one can deduce that brand protection, whilst being a sacred subject for some, does it seem not matter to others (I have seen no efforts by Crazycameras to answer any of these criticisms).

I suppose the fact is that, if you, like a spider, spread your sticky web wide enough, that you will always catch enough unfortunates, even though if they had looked, they would have seen many many signs saying 'I'd turn back now if I was you'.

More tomorrow

The Power of Social Media & The Web Part 3

For anyone that has been following some of my recent posts will have noticed that I've not been too pleased with a company called crazycameras. This was for the simple reason that they did not tell the truth about their products, could not manage that famous p***up in that famous brewery and all in all are 'bad sorts', the sort of company that does the internet no favours at all.

Now let me make it clear, I, like many others did, in the end get my camera. Sure it was the wrong model (as USA one and not a UK one), does not have a valid UK warranty (thanks to Panasonic's own rules), but I did get my camera (even though I had cancelled it a number of times).

I am saying this to point out that my 'Twitter crusade' has not been a personal one, but rather one that was intended to rid the Internet of a particularly useless company, rather as a doctor would want to rid the world of a nasty virus.

Now it may be that Crazycameras have at last had enough of all the bad publicity and reviews (mine were just a drop in the ocean, there were plenty of others outside of Twitter) and / or that Google have seen the light and have stopped their ads, but they do seem to have gone (at least from my viewpoint) and that is all to the good. For without their pay per click ads, they are not likely to snare as many unfortunates into buying from them. Still this could be a short term thing and is one that I am keeping my eye on.

During my little crusade I am pleased to report that my Tweets must have raised Crazycameras ignoble profile to many hundreds if not thousands of Twitterers, as well as to Google, Panasonic and Canon. I must admit to not being sure if any of these big hitters were / are bothered about it all, their view seeming to be 'nothing to do with us'. This by the way is something which I simply do not agree with at all. They are the ones supplying the cameras and they are the ones allowing this company to mislead people by the use of a .co.uk domain name in their adverts, still they are also the ones who are having their names associated with the whole sad affair and that can't help them either in the long run...

Still if they (crazycameras) do decide to start placing their ads on Google again, I will be ready to act and having seen the power of the net for myself here, even if only in a small way, will be ready to bring into play another weapon, that of the dedicated website.

One of the best examples of this was the 'rebellion' against Simon Cowell's Xfactor by a certain Jon Morter. Jon decided to stop Simon's apparent command of the Christmas No. 1 and thus chose the appropriately named group 'Rage Against the Machine' as his weapon of choice. He then succeeded, by using the power of the net's Facebook (and of course Twitter), in beating perhaps, the most powerful force in music in the world today.

When the Guardian broke the news to Morter that he had won, he was initially lost for words. "Oh bloody hell," he said, as the consequences of what he had done became clear. Composing himself, he said: "I think it just shows that in this day and age, if you want to say something, then you can – with the help of the internet and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. If enough people are with you, you can beat the status quo."

Enough said, the proof was in the pudding and if Crazycameras try to make a come back on Google, we will see what a proper Twitter campaign, coupled with a dedicated 'Say No to Crazycameras' can achieve. It would after all be a very interesting experiment indeed.

More on the power of Social Media tomorrow...

So How Powerful is Social Media - Part 2

The second day of my 'Social Media' experiment was very interesting and is showing that Twitter can indeed be used to 'reach out' to people. It is however a slow process, and should be likened to an Ant pushing an Elephant, i.e. don't expect instant results, but when the beast is moving well, watch out..

The above analogy is perhaps truer than it first appears, as in some cases at least, the Elephant will not be moved by strength of numbers, but by the fact that it is annoyed enough by the constant harassment to move on.

It will be interesting to see if my campaign to get Crazycameras to stop using a .co.uk domain name in their adverts works through either getting Google to stop them, them deciding to stop, or another party like the Advertising Standards Authority or Trading Standards to stop them. Or then again, could it be Twitter power that will cause them to think again?

I am not sure of the success of this campaign by any means, but Twitter and the Net in general do allow the humble peasant the ability to draw attention to things, and if enough people agree, then I am sure that things will happen, be it to stop companies misleading customers, or to get customers to buy things...

To give more details on the second day, well the first action was to create a Twitter Poll, an interesting service that allows people to get Twitterers opinions by a vote or survey. Attention was drawn to this (or should I say attempted to) via many Tweets both in the form of normal Tweets and by Replies. I can't say the response was overwhelming, (just 5 so far), but all were against allowing Crazycameras to use the .co.uk domain (which proves that they at least have not voted).

There will be more attempts at getting votes today, along with other Tweets about how the matter has been drawn to the attention of Google and the Advertising Standards Authority.

Look out for more posts on this Social Media Experiment !

To vote on the matter by the way, please visit - http://twtpoll.com/xp2496

Just How Powerful Is Social Media? Part 1

I've not been doing my Blog for a few days now, partly this was down to lack of time (we got a whole new bunch of clients coming aboard) and partly because I have been 'bogged down' in dealing with an Internet retailer, one that simply, in my view should not be allowed to trade.

You may have seen comments on this blog (and others) about this company, www.crazycameras.co.uk, as they do have a fair few (bad) comments about them spread across the web, be it on Twitter or any of the many review sites that exist (more fool me for not checking up before I ordered!)

You would think that with all this 'bad press' that they would not get any visitors (let alone sales) but they do. It is really surprising to me, I really would have thought that 'public opinion' would have put an end to them, but I suppose that as long as Google allow them to use a .co.uk domain name, even when they are in the USA that they will get along just fine.

I have taken the matter up with Google but they say that crazycameras are not breaking any of their rules, which in my view is being irresponsible, but hey that is only my opinion.

It is my view that as they are in the USA, and supply USA version cameras that they should not be allowed to use a .co.uk domain name UNLESS they make it very very clear on their site that the cameras they are selling are non UK versions and that the warranty is only valid if you send the camera all the way back to the USA....

I'm sure if all the facts were known that the number of orders from the UK would plummet, but making that happen will take some doing.

It is however a fact that if the Twitter community (and others online) really got their act together that they could force Google (and Crazycameras) to change their ways.

The question is 'Will enough people be bothered?" for if not then the power of Social Media will not be all that it could be?

I will keep you posted...

The Virus Will Always Get Through

It was Stanley Baldwin who is first said to have quoted the phrase 'the bomber will always get through', this being used in 1932, in the speech "A Fear For The Future" to the British Parliament.

His words were proven to be fact in the later years and are today, just as true it seems, whether the bomb be delivered by plane or another means.

The sad fact of it all is that the same is true for computer viruses, no matter what defences you erect against them, they will eventually get through and make a right mess of your computer world.

Be sure on one thing here, I am talking from experience and from 'rubbing shoulders' with some of the top Computer Security guys over my years at the CCTA (Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency). Here their most telling comment about computer security was that "the only 100% defence was 6 inches of air" (i.e the system was not connected to anything - ever).

The other factor to remember is that the Virus protection software on your machine is always in 'catch up mode', it cannot ever protect you from a really brand new virus as it has not seen it before and hence cannot recognise it as a 'bad guy'. This is much the same in the world of medicine and we all have seen what a mess we make of fighting virus's there (even when they have been around for years).

So, what can you do about it?? The simplest and most complete solution is to make an 'Image' of your PC, BEFORE it gets any nasty's and make sure that you also make regular back ups of your data too.

That way, if your PC gets infected you can 'roll back' to an earlier version of your PC, pre the nasty virus, it being simply WIPED away when the PC's disc(s) has that old trusted version of you PC placed back on it. Sure you will lose some cookies etc that you had on the old machine, but overall much will be as it was, and all in a far faster time frame that getting rid of a determined virus (and less costly too, an IT man may well charge a few hundred pounds to remove a virus).

My advice, from one who has been infected (nasty it was) and has seen the pain of removal and the ease of the 'roll back' is to have a chat to your IT man and get an image of your PC straight away, the level of infections on the Net are rising all the time now, so don't waste time here.

By the way, in case you are wondering why I have taken the time from my normal Blogging about Marketing to speak on this, well, this is for three reasons.

Firstly, I have just been infected (for the first time in 9 years - and through a PDF at that !) and Secondly, having seen the ease of the roll back, as versus another machine in the business that took a day (and £400) to fix when it got zapped, I wanted all to hear what they could do.

The third reason is that by implementing the strategy outlined above, you are in effect, 'Giving Two Fingers' to the Virus producers (by taking all their 'fun' away) and that can't be a bad use of two fingers in my book.

More on Marketing soon...