Presented to the Internet Retailing Expo conference in Birmingham
The techniques I recommended in this talk are reviewed for a case study company with their permission. Although the recommendations use a retail example, they apply to other types of business also.
Here's a preview of the recommendations:
1. Identify Consumer search behaviours NOT just keyword lists
2. Use a gap analysis to drive performance
3. Improve your brand messages: Communicate your OVP for a smooth customer journey
4. Check the relevance of blended search – here Google Places
5. Don’t forget the second biggest search engine…
6. Evaluate paid search YouTube options
7. Obsess about links
8. Obsess more about content
9. Integrate “added value content”
10. You can always re-engineer your title tags more…
11. Even keyword density analysis can help…something you shouldn’t do?
12. Make the most of your home page and high-level utility pages
13. Get the balance right oncategory and sub-category pages
14. Review…
Which are the most popular search engines I should target in each country?
Its not often I look at trends data but its good to do every quarter. The popularity of search engines does change and within this blended search like video, images, local search is becoming more important.
My comments below focus on how this data has search implications but the links also show popular social networks & entertainment sites. This data is always useful when justifying time & effort for channels or campaigns. Another tool not mentioned below is Google's Adplanner (& its top 1000 sites report), this is a great tool when you need data / demographics on categories or specific websites.
Data on most popular UK search engines - Hitwise
March 2012 update - Hitwise have just published a simple infographic summarising UK search behaviour. The main insight which prompts questions about how we target through SEO and paid search…
New data shows how slow is too slow
Conversion rate optimisation specialists have been recently shared two new pieces of research which show that page load speed should be a concern for all. I thought I'd summarise them here as a reminder that speed matters!
The first shows data shared by Walmart shows how their conversion rate varies as page load times increases. You can see there is a dramatic decline in conversion as page load times increases to 4 seconds:
Secondly Tagman published research that showed a similar pattern, except with specific conversion rates.
How can we review and improve our site performance?
Google has been releasing tools for to help you with your website loading speed for some time now but what is classed as a fast website and does it…
Are free press release websites worth using?
The question of whether to use free press release websites is a common one amongst many hands-on marketers trying to get a benefit for SEO and PR... Quickly followed by how many of these should we use and is it worth paying?
To help answer this question, Vitis public relations conducted a month long trial which investigated the value of free PR Websites from different angles. I'm alerting readers to it since it's a fascinating and immediately valuable / actionable for business and clients. The point to stress in all of the comments below, is that I am referring specifically to free PR websites, not the more quality controlled paid for services. The report shows the best sites you can use based on different criteria.
What are Free PR websites?
Such websites exist as content hubs for press releases from all manner of business. View them as a press…
What is the objective of your SEO program? Actually you will have many but at the heart will be the desire to increase the amount of relevant traffic that hits your website(s) from natural search.
The total number of potential keyword searches that could drive traffic to your website is enormous. Some web owners get traffic from hundreds of thousands of different keywords. However, not every keyword delivers high quality traffic that adds value to the bottom line of the business.
One of the biggest challenges for SEO is to learn which keywords are contributing to ROI, focusing efforts where they can deliver the most reward. To achieve this you need to separate the wheat from the chaff and that means using the data available to discover what doesn’t work.
This article takes a look at some of the techniques you can use to identify and screen poor performing keywords, enabling you to…
Using nofollow tags to support SEO
Nofollow tags are important in SEO, but I find many marketers I speak to haven't heard of the approach.
That's understandable since you would only expect SEO specialists to be aware of them. However, I think they are a useful concept to understand as a "hands-on" marketer, since they will effect conversations you have about buying media or understanding the way links in social media work.
Nofollow tags explained
A nofollow tag is a basic piece of HTML. Appended to a hyperlink, it allows webmasters to control whether search engines follow a link or not.
For example, the following URL on a page of another site allows search engines to visit Smart Insights’ website and credit the website with the link; each link is scored by the search engines, supporting SEO:
<a href="http://www.smartinsights.com/" title="Smart Insights">Visit Smart Insights</a>
Here's the same hyperlink,…
Examples showing how building your network in Google+ gives you more visibility in the search results
This post highlights part of the importance of Google+ for SEO purposes. It does so by contrasting 2 screengrabs of Google search results pages, illustrating how H&M have managed to use Google+ to radically affect results for their network of followers, or circlers if you prefer.
About the Images
Both images are from Google.com, where the feature which makes this important to SEO, 'Search Plus Your World' have rolled out more fully than in other countries.
The first image shows search results for 'David Beckham' when not logged into Google+
The second image shows search results for 'David Beckham' when logged in. The important thing to note here is that H&M's business page is circled by the account I've used to take the screengrabs.
Image 1: Not Logged In to Google+
…
18 questions you must ask when selecting an SEO agency
If you have a good understanding of SEO, that will help you list requirements and the criteria that an agency must meet. If you don't, then whilst it makes it harder, you can still evaluate service providers if you focus on their understanding of the basics of SEO.
With regards to assessing potential SEO providers, areas you should look for:
Their own website
Question 1. How well optimised is their own website for relevant keywords searches?
Question 2. How effective are they in using social media to communicate with stakeholders?
Question 3. What is the quality of content on their website?
Why ask these questions? Because these 3 strands are crucial to SEO and if they can't be bothered to get their website in order, then you need to push them for reasons. Granted small agencies often let their websites suffer to focus on client delivery and priorities…
If you're thinking of hiring an SEO or are an SEO - this is a must browse
Earlier in January, you may have seen a useful piece of research completed by SEOmoz that looked into the costs and service structure of SEO agencies.
I've included that below, but the main reason for this post is to alert you to this excellent summary by Dan Barker (one of our Expert commentators) which features the UK and, in my opinion, is far clearer and so useful.
You can checkout the full post and research on SEOmoz here.
Turning to the UK data, from Dan, the most interesting for me, which prompts questions you should ask of your agency are...
What services do you provide? Surprisingly few do content creation or promotion - surely a core 2012 SEO technique. A surprising number don't provide link-building recommendations
What charging models do you use? Fixed price is offered by 51.9%, so…
Our round-up of the best advice on how marketers should respond to the Google Search plus Your World integration
Most are dubbing the latest changes to Google's search engine as some of the largest since its launch. The integration of Google+ with the the new Search plus Your World certainly has the industry buzzing again. As Google's social network grows beyond 90 million users with 60% engaging daily, its influence on personalised search is growing fast and will bring new dimensions to SEO.
Dave Chaffey covered off the initial launch of Google Search plus Your World here if you're looking for an introduction on how it integrates communities, relationships and people into its mainstream search results.
Recommended posts on how to harness Google Search plus Your World
Since its launch, how companies should respond based on the implications for SEO and PPC have been a hot topic. There's been a lot of great advice, so…
