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!
Thursday, 23 December 2010
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
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
See Matt Cutts talking about Google Rankings and Twitter & Facebook Signal and you'll see what I mean.
More later
Saturday, 18 December 2010
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:-
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
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
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
Wednesday, 15 December 2010
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)
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)
Monday, 13 December 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, 12 December 2010
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..
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..
Friday, 10 December 2010
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...
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...
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
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!
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!
Tuesday, 7 December 2010
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
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/
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/
Sunday, 5 December 2010
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.
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.
Friday, 3 December 2010
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).
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).
Thursday, 2 December 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
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:
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:
- "Ever try dunking an Oreo cookie with a fork or anything else?" 8,200 likes and 2,300 comments
- "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'.
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