An interesting post over at SEOMoz highlights the spending disconnect that exists in the way that many companies allocate their online marketing spend.
Not surprisingly, search advertising should continue to be the largest category, growing from $9.1 billion in 2007 to $20.9 billion in 2013.
- Source: C|Net News, June 30, 2008
While the current spend on natural SEO?
SEO: $1.3 billion (11%)
- Source: SEMPO data via Massimo Burgio, SMX Madrid 2008
So, out of a total of around $10.4 billion spent on search, only $1.3 billion, or 12.5% is spent on natural search placement. Therefore you would expect the potential traffic from natural search to be the smaller piece of the pie, right?
Wrong.
Looking at the Google heat map we can see that it’s the natural results that catch the attention of users viewing the page.
This superior visibility is matched by the click through rate data,
The natural results in Google drive more than 70% of search traffic, though only account for 12.5% of online spend.
Why is this? Take your pick from any one or more of the following,
- PPC is an easier concept for people to understand, there is a general lack of education and understanding of the SEO process.
- PPC is quicker (almost instant) to get results and you only pay for traffic that you actually receive. There is a higher perception of accountability and control.
- Traditional marketers pay far less attention to SEO, column inches in the business press given over to SEO are far less than PPC. Again this may well be due to a lack of SEO understanding amongst journalists.
- There is a lack of trust in a segmented and unregulated SEO marketplace. A basic lack of understanding handicaps buyers and can lead to acceptance of poor advice and wrong buying decisions.
We took a dogs dinner of an old website and transformed it into a work of art that converts users to buyers. As always the project was delivered on time and on budget.
Design
Yapp Wine Merchants website now has a fresh, modern design, packed with tools to help you find the wine you need. It is unfrightening and designed to cater to Yapps broad user base. We’ve made searching for wine fun and easy whilst retaining Yapp’s connoiseur edge.
Usability
Everyone has their own ways of looking for wine so we implemented 4 ways to navigate the site:
- The Easy Wine selector uses dynamic searching
Watch your search results change dynamically with easy to use search sliders. Have a play. The great advantage of this is that it all happens on one page with no hopping backwards and forwards to and from search results.
- The Food and Wine selector allows you to search for wine by Food Type by clicking on images of different food types. This is not rocket science but is dis-armingly useful.
- Advanced Search - for those who really know what they are after.
Search by Regional maps
- “You recently looked at”
Isn’t it annoying when you look at lots of different items and then have to re-find them by re-doing the searches. Well we eliminated this problem with the “You recently looked at section” so you dont have to re-do previous searches.
- Tell a friend / Bookmark tools
Not strictly a navigation tool but so simple and effective. How else can you let your loved one know what you want for Christmas? Simply post your choices to your Facebook page and invite others to have a look.
Search engine friendly
As always with Datadial, the site is built to be search engine friendly
All pages from the old site have been redirected to the relevant new pages.
The site uses Friendly URLs so http://www.yapp.co.uk/Wine-List/Rhone-South/Chateauneuf-du-Pape/ instead of
http://www.yapp.co.uk/?catid=6/?type=3/desc?=12/
Technology
Integrated stock control - the site is integrated to draw stock levels from Sage accounts.
The site is fully content managed, giving Yapp control over all aspects of the site including creating offers, mixed case offers and product information.
The site is also integrated with Datadial’s email marketing system.
Having just got back from SMX London I thought that rather than be one of 50 recap blog posts I thought I would try to do something a little different.
Sitting though about 15 hours of presentations and Q&A over the past couple of days was no mean feat. I’ve got a lot of sympathy for people with a short attention span!
Taking this sentiment on board I have put together a list of the best hints, tips, tools and strategies from the past couple of days, not just from the speakers themselves, but also picked up from around the conference halls and bars.
- Download the Microsoft AdCenter Excel plugin for keyword research. It’s incredibly versatile, users can easily manipulate long keyword lists and data. It even goes as far as adding extra data sets into the mix by offering historical data and demographic breakdowns. Unfortunately, since the is currently still in beta UK specific data hasn’t yet been made available.
- In ushering in a new era of transparency MSN is giving users an unprecedented amount of access to actionable data though the impressive AdCenter labs, some of the best tools include,
- Detecting commercial intention based on a URL or keyword phrase.
- Keyword group detection tool for detecting related keywords.
- Search funnels, for visualising search sequences and search funnels.
- Ad text writer, for the lazy PPC marketer! Enter a page URL and it will spit out a list of ad text.
- MSNs webmaster centre is now displaying lists of pages your pages that are penalised, contain malware or link to pages that contain malware.
- “More than 60% of companies are planning to increase their PPC or SEO budgets in 2009″ Linus Gregoriadis. Recession? What recession?
- Keyword phrase composition - consider all of the elements that may make up your users potential keyword phrases.
For example - Use (For school) + Action (Buy) + Price (Cheap) + Attribute (Black) + Brand (Sony) + Location (UK) + Quality (New) + Your Keyword.
Consider the alternatives for each of these and build your keyword lists accordingly.
- There is a real lack of awareness of new UK laws (enforced by Trading Standards and The Office Of Fair Trading) that now make it illegal to offer fake editorial content, without first making this fact clear to the reader. This will also affect fake internet reviews, promotional blog posts and comments that don’t offer disclosure of payment. - Judith Lewis
- Although there is/was some obvious disagreement, the consensus is that owning the local TLD is by far the easiest way of of ensuring rankings in the correct local search engines. Other factors include local hosting, links, translation and address data in both the WhoIs and on the pages themselves.
- The Redfly Google Global Firefox extension is perfect for searching local versions of Google quickly.
- Linkbait - It is now vital to keep it on topic/niche. Wandering off topic may make things easier, but it’s probably tempting fate. Jane @ SEOMoz
- Facebook fan pages are live, indexed and the links are non-nofollow.
- The Forrester Groundwell tool is great for understanding the likely social media engagement level of your target market demographic.
- Social media campaigns must should be carefully planned - be sure that you know who your audience are, which social media channels they’re likely to use, the creative message that you want to get across and your delivery strategy - Ciaran Norris
- Vanessa Fox - Duplicate content across local TLD properties “should” be properly dealt with by Google, the correct verion “should” be delivered in the equivalent local version of Google. - Notice emphasis
Again, I would say to be sure to have key content rewritten.
- Use psychological hooks in your linkbait. Take your core niche and add in a social media angle - environment, politcal, geeky etc. Be aware of the linking demographic, they’re typically male, intelligent and tech savvy. Linkbait isn’t linkbait if it doesn’t elicit links! - Lyndon Antcliff, Cornwall SEO
- Use search operators to find expired pages such as keyword+”this page is no longer available” either, contact the page owners for them to add a link to content on your site, or, contact the sites linking to the expired page asking them to link to your content instead. Tom @ Distilled
- Keep an eye on competitor business closures or bankruptcy, this gives an opportunity to either buy they domain, or contact sites linking to them to link to your site instead. Wiep Knoll
- Use forums and similar Web 1.0 communities for user generated linkbait
- Always try to use your keywords in the article title of linkbait pieces - it really helps getting your keyword phrases in links.
- Try launching linkbait on forums before onto social sites. In this way you can test it’s effectiveness, get feedback, and frequently pickup better quality content.
- Avoid foreign links from foreign sites, in large quantities these can be an obvious flag for closer inspection. Jay @ LinkFish Media
- Some “killer” tools worth taking a look at - Linkscape, Majestic SEO, TubeMogul, Optilink
- Buying websites for SEO can provide a competitive advantage in terms of links, or 301 redirecting the site to pass domain trust/authority and the backlink profile. Use these tactics sparingly though, too many sites being redirected can lead to a search engine penalty. Concentrate on buying traffic and relevance over PR and backlinks.
- Web 2.0 linkbuilding! We’re moving away from Web 1.0 methods like exchanges, link pages, paid links and comment spam, and moving towards internal link optimisation, online PR syndication, targeted PR submissions, guest writing, linkbaiting and social media.
- When buying domains change ownership indicators slowly, things like Whois data, hosting, design and content should be left as long as possible and changes staggered, Google will zero any link and age benefits if there is an obvious change in ownership. DaveN
- Finding domains for sale - Google searches, forums, DMOZ listings etc Richard Kershaw
Thanks also to Rob, Bruno, Chris, Rob, Rishil and many other people who I had a lot of fun discussing all of this with!
One of the main obstacles to overcome when trying to convince a client of the merits of corporate blogging is the view that it’s a niche medium and it’s really read by visitors.
Recent figures released by ComScore indicate otherwise. A huge 41% of the total internet audience visited at least one blog in August 2008.
“Blogs have become part of the essential fabric of the Internet today,” said Herve Le Jouan, Managing Director, comScore Europe. “They live and breathe in real-time, helping quench media consumers’ thirst for the most up-to-date breaking news, information, and analysis. It should not, therefore, be particularly surprising that they’re increasingly displacing traditional media usage and carving out an ever-increasing slice of the online advertising pie.”
It’s no surprise that the most visited properties were technology and entertainment based with Engadget and UnrealityTV being the most popular.
Yes, yet again we are recruiting for a .net developer. Do you know any super geeks or just normal people who would love to work in an expanding web development agency, who can think on their feet and work tirelessly from morning to nightfall and beyond. More details about the role are on our main site
Its always nice when a client emails to tell you how things are going. I have removed the clients details to ensure their website visitor numbers remain confidential.
September site report summary
Bumper Month with record number of Site visits and Page views
Total business
During September 08 we had 141,000 visits to our 4 sites which is the largest ever in one month. It is also a 91% increase on September 07!
During September 08 we also had 430,000 page views which, again, was a record and was a 62% increase year on year.
xxxxx.co.uk had 93,000 visits in September 08 – the biggest ever – beating the previous record of 77,000 which we got in July this year. Year on year we have doubled the number of people visiting the site.
Looking at page views we had 273,000, another record and 57% up on Sep 2007.
We also had 1,600 new registrations in the month which is the largest monthly figure, outside of a period where were spending money to generate new members.
xxxxxx.co.uk had 44,000 visits in September 08 – the biggest ever – beating the previous record of 35,000 which we got in March this year. Year on year we have increased the number of people visiting the site by 91%.
Looking at page views we had 129,000, another record and 59% up on Sep 2007
We also had 1,390 new registrations in the month which is the largest monthly figure, outside of a period where were spending money to generate new members.
With this particular client one of the largest problems was the size of the sites, running into the tens of thousands of pages. Initially we concentrated on the site structure, making sure that the page optimisation was good as possible - ensuring each page had unique page titles and meta data, improving the page structure, URL formats and internal navigation.
Once we were happy that the site would rank as high as possible we concentrated on ensuring all of the pages were indexed and raising the overall profile of the site through an ongoing like development program. The client was very easy to work with during this entire process, taking information on-board and acting on our recommendations - of course now they’re benefitting from the results!
I am pleased to announce the arrival of Adam Miller. Adam will join our growing online marketing team. Adam was head and shoulders above other interviewees for this position. He showed passion for the subject area, an ability to communicate in clear english, and he has a string of projects already under his belt that demonstrate his ability in promoting sites online. I am confident that our clients will be well looked after by him.
We are pleased to announce the launch of 4 new sites this month. Each one demonstrates a different skillset that we can provide here at Datadial.
New - e-commerce launch: www.basicallyblack.com
One for the ladies. As usual this site is fully updateable by the client and includes stock control, dispatch notes, customer management, full reporting and is integrated with Datadial’s email marketing system. Perfect site to find that oh so hard to find little black dress. Buy now!
AJAX engineered quote generator - www.flowduplication.com
A site for generating quotes for DVD and CD duplication. The quote generator has been developed in AJAX and provides an easy to use interface for ordering CD’s and uploading artwork.What is AJAX - AJAX speeds up a website by only refreshing the part of a page that needs refreshing. Well that’s the simple explanation. The increased speed hugely improves usability and eases frustration Datadial developed the site from a logo provided and designed all artwork on the site
The client commented “my boss was grinning like a cheshire cat all afternoon when he saw the site, thanks to you and the team
Content management system www.lloydgeorge.com with Fin International
Relaunch of this Fund Management site, following a re-branding exercise by www.FinInternational.com. The site is fully updateable by Lloyd George staff using Datadial’s content management system.
Originally designed brochure site and blog www.carnabystreetthemusical.com
You haven’t heard of it yet this will be the next BIG West End musical in the New Year. The site is being populated bit by bit as people send in their memories of the sixties. If you were famous in the Sixties and loved Carnaby Street let us know!!
Datadial have launched a revised second edition of their SEO buyers guide. The guide is designed to take the confusion and guesswork out of buying SEO services. One of the main problems facing the SEO industry is that buyers often aren’t clear on exactly what they are buying and why.
The problem arises when less scrupulous companies aim to take advantage of this lack of knowledge, promises are made that can’t be fulfilled, or the required work simply isn’t carried out.In the end it is not just the client that loses out, but also the industry as a whole as confidence is a difficult thing to win back.
Our buyers guide is aimed at taking the guesswork out of choosing your SEO vendor. It details the more common scams, details the work that should be being carried out in any good SEO campaign, and offers a list of key questions that you should be asking your potential SEO.
The key for any buyer is to educate yourself as much as possible about the service that you’re buying, the more you know, the more informed your decision will be.
Download our buyers guide for free
In many ways the perfect work environment can dramatically improve the productivity of employees whether they are working from home or the office. This topic is often overlooked, especially in small businesses where the main concerns are profit margins, not pot plants and natural light!
All too often (especially in the IT industry) employees are expected to work in basements, boiler rooms, bullpens, hallways and quite truthfully un-inspirational offices that are often bad for their physical and psychological health. Other negative factors come from indoor pollution caused printers, photocopiers, carpets, dust, electrical equipment and office cleaning products.
In order to achieve the best possible performance from employees it is important to create the optimum climate within your office. This can be achieved by air purifying plants that release moisture and oxygen and absorb heat and breakdown harmful substances. Many of people find that office plants can help to reduce stress as well as symptoms of headaches and fatigue. Research has also shown that employees who spend more than four hours a day in front of a computer screen feel much better and more productive when plants are placed on their desk.
Benefits of office plants:
- Emits Oxygen
- Purifies the air
- Reduces stress
- Reduces minor aliments
- Improves concentration
- Increases productivity
- Reduces dust pollution
Another ways of reducing stress and increasing productivity at work is by using a technique known as design psychology. Design psychology is the study of how our environment can affect or behaviour, mood and well being. It even goes as far as claiming that furniture arrangement, décor and other design aesthetics can influence a person concentration levels and well being.
In reality it is not always possible to implement certain changes to your office due to limitations like health and safety, budgets and space, but these improvements don’t always require you to purchase expensive items or make drastic physical changes. It is possible to improve your office environment with non-tangible things like instant messaging, which can help to make employees feel less isolated and more connected with other colleges and the outside world. Thin client technology like VPN can also make a big difference to working life as they allow employees to work from home or other remote locations, which can help to improve their emotional, physical and psychological welfare.
With a small amount of money, some imagination and a willing boss, an office can be transformed into an environment that facilitates new ideas, productive employees and social harmony.
Working at Google Zurich
Online business success
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