Is the Home Page Dead? Only One Way to Find Out…

June 7, 2007 | 15 Comments

Are your visitors landing in the wrong place?

 

Well, my website has been bouncing around Google’s search listings for ‘copywriter’ for the last few weeks; however, I’m pleased to announce that it now seems to be stabilising on the lower rungs of page one.

I’m not totally convinced how I’ve managed to get there, and I’m not sure why some of the other sites deserve to be there either, but at least now I’m receiving a steady flow of targeted traffic.

I’m not popping the champagne just yet though as it’s actually my blog which has become my landing page, and not my main business website.

My business might be well sign posted, but when potential clients arrive expecting to find a copywriting service site they simply turn around and walk back out the door, annoyed at not finding what they were looking for.

After contacting my local IT support network I was given some excellent advice by two local experts, Ed Stivala from www.n3wmedia.com and Andy Bircumshaw from networkned.co.uk. Their thorough responses crystallised the fact that my blog has now become my business landing page, and I’m going to have to do something about it.

The problem is finding a format to satisfy both types of visitors.

I have the info hungry surfers looking for answers to their questions, and I have potential business clients looking for a straightforward copywriting service.

I’ve tried adding a copywriting service link to my header, but only 1/10 ever seems to click through. I think a lot of my business service visitors probably aren’t blog savvy, and view them as just online diaries rather than professional marketing tools.

However, my quandary is not an isolated case. With Google indexing pages rather than sites this means people can land on a variety of pages, and not just the carefully composed home page.

Is it time to reconsider how we structure our websites? Is the landing page dead?

The Blog Business Summit certainly seems to think so. Jason Preston highlighted an article in the New York Times discussing how people were now bypassing home pages:

‘media sites are discovering that many people are ignoring their home pages where ad rates are typically highest and using Google to jump to the specific pages they want’

Jason advocates the potential death of the home page as people are just batting it aside in their hunt for information. This might suit information seekers, but what about people looking for a service?

As discussed by Brian Clark this week, landing pages are needed to communicate the value of your offer. You have to get across the benefits of your product or service quickly and succinctly in a short space of time. A big part of achieving this is through your headline, which means for a start my blog title is going to have to get a lot longer.

The problem I now face is getting across the benefit laden features of a landing page without distorting the Copywriter’s Crucible’s blog format for readers.

Integrating the other pages of my business website into my blog should be easy. This gives me an excuse to take a hacksaw to some of its content, and not just a surgeon’s knife. It’s just finding a way to capture business service visitors without a traditional landing page that might be tricky.

If anybody can suggest to me some sites which are as effective as blogs as they are at landing pages then I’d certainly be interested in taking a look.

So, is Jason from Blog Business Summit correct; is the home page dead?

Looks like I’ve got no choice but to try and find out.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Search Engine Optimisation, blogging 

Why Copywriters are now Builders, not just Decorators

May 11, 2007 | 1 Comment

As internet marketing evolves so do the responsibilities of the copywriter. There was a time when the copywriter was just brought in to splash punchy prose over the website’s pages, before packing up and moving on to the next project. It was the web developers who stayed behind to keep an eye on the site, to make sure it was well sign posted and a pleasant place to visit.

However, research on people’s shopping habits suggests that copywriters are now a vital part of a site’s maintenance team.

Not only are they needed for the initial decorations, but also for regular refurbishments and constant building work to make the website is as big, bold and prominent as possible.

I was directed to the basis of this week’s topic by Mark White at Better Business Blogging. In a recent post he linked to a report on how UK shoppers respond to search results.

The report, commissioned by Tamar search conversion agency, provided some interesting insights into the UK’s attitude to search:

  • Over half will switch to a competitor if they see negative comments about a company in the search results.
  • 7 out of 10 will abandon a search altogether if they see negative results.
  • 43% know the difference between natural and paid search.
  • 9 out of 10 prefer natural to paid.
  • Women prefer natural results because they are seen as more relevant.
  • Men are cynical of the keyword manipulation tactics used in paid search, and don’t trust them.

The study reinforces the need for businesses to approach their online marketing as a long-term commitment.

Getting to the top of the natural rankings should be the primary aim, with paid search just a useful tool for getting quick, early customers

Paid search can be very effective if you know your conversion rate, and only need to sell a few high value products to make a profit. Consequently, it suits some businesses better than others.

It is ideal for those whose visitors are more likely to buy on their first visit, and don’t need convincing of your product’s benefits.

The problem with relying solely on paid search is that it’s a bit like attracting shoppers with a megaphone, but not having a sales team to greet them when they arrive.

Few people are ready to buy the first time they visit your site. To persuade them to part with their money you need to build trust. The best way of doing this is through the ongoing provision of content of value, and developing the sales process over time. A natural search campaign can achieve this.

Getting to the top of the natural search results takes a much greater investment of time and energy than paid. With Google’s algorithms enough of a puzzle to support a whole industry, there’s no quick and easy way to get to the top, and stay there.

Natural search optimisation is like building and running a shop. It takes a lot of effort, and requires regular investment long after you’ve first opened your doors. Ongoing renovations are needed to keep it relevant, and to build up the content needed to attract search spiders, garner backlinks and develop trust with visitors.

That’s why copywriters should start thinking of themselves as a website’s resident builder, rather than just the initial decorator. Copywriters are now needed to hang around to keep the website’s content up-to-date, and to pull in the search engines.

Your words are your bricks, and with them you are responsible for constructing a website’s organic material needed to push it to the top of the natural search results.

A natural search campaign is about building concrete foundations. Once your website’s relevance is robust enough to be on page one then you’re there for good, and open to do business with the steady stream of customers flowing through your doors.

People trust you because they know you have spent time laying the groundwork to be there. You are not a fly-by-night organisation who has just bought your way onto their screens.

Paid search is a lot like setting up a market stall at somebody else’s shop door. You’ve paid the market inspector for the pitch, and then you try and waylay as many of the shop’s customers as possible.

Most will pass by because they don’t trust you, but at least one in ten is likely to stop and have a look at your wares.

Paid search might be the quick and easy way of getting noticed. But with 90% preferring natural results you are missing out on a lot of business by not having a natural search campaign.

At present most businesses are still fighting over the best market stall pitches, rather than investing in long-term bricks and mortar.

A recent survey, taken from E-consultancy, highlighted the following:

  • 6 out of 10 UK businesses plan to increase their search marketing budget in the next year.
  • 44% said the rising click costs were affecting the ROI of paid search.
  • The average proportion of a marketing budget allocated to online was 32%.
  • 61% of an online marketing budget was spent on paid search, with only 33% on natural SEO.
  • Most felt SEO had a more positive impact on branding than paid search.
  • The scope of success in driving their search marketing strategy was limited by the lack of internal resources.

Based on this survey, it would appear we still have a long way to go before business mindsets change from focusing on paid to natural SEO.

Once more businesses wise up to the long-term benefits of natural search then they will need copywriters to build and manage their campaigns for them. Not only to provide wheelbarrow loads of news and information, but also to drown out the noise of disgruntled customers.

The Tamar report highlighted the problem of negative comments in blogs and social sites clogging up search results, and scaring off visitors. Over half of those surveyed would switch to a competitor if criticism cropped up in a company’s results.

Copywriters are needed to drive down negative search results, by building a website’s positive exposure with happy news stories and cheery case studies.

But I’m going to have to save this discussion for another day, because it’s time for my tea break.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Copywriting, Online-PR, Search Engine Optimisation 

Why Copywriting is the most important SEO skill, and how I proved it

April 24, 2007 | 10 Comments

There was a time when the role of the copywriter was to just write the website’s main service pages, with the requisite keywords craftily sewn into the copy. It was the developer’s responsibility to apply their HTML wizardry to trick the search engines into pushing the website onto people’s screens. However, as Google’s algorithms have evolved so have the responsibilities of the copywriter.

Google increasingly ranks sites based on who is providing the most relevant information and with the most high quality back-links. For achieving both of these aims good quality copywriting is key.

Your website’s copy has never been a more significant, central pillar to your search marketing strategy. Copywriting is what will attract search engines, as well as consumers. Copywriting is the glue that holds your SEO playbook together.

Search marketing guru Lee Odden recently hosted a poll to assess what SEO skill was the most important. Lee’s readership is certain to include some of the most experienced and savvy search marketers around. His poll’s results should provide an accurate insight into the search industry’s thinking.

Here are the results at the time of writing, but please check Lee’s original post for the latest figures. I don’t think anybody will be surprised by the result, and judging by the comments section nobody was:

  •  Copywriting (30%)
  •  Keyword analysis (13%)
  •  Marketing strategy (10%)
  •  Web analytics (10%)
  •  Online research and search (8%)
  •  Traditional link building (8%)
  •  Social media for SEO (5%)
  •  Online PR for SEO (5%)
  •  Account management (3%)
  •  Creative and design (3%)
  •  Coding (2%)
  •  Sales process consulting (1%)
  •  Media and link buying (1%)
  •  Server side issues (0%)
  •  Blog marketing (0%)
  •  Blackhat skillz (0%)

Steven Bradley, another SEO specialist, offered his insight into the poll. He assessed that although no discipline on its own is the answer, copywriting is the central skill needed to drive most SEO tactics.

As the industry moves increasingly towards link building and visitor retention, the importance of good copywriting is only set to continue.

Internet marketers have long advocated how copywriting is the most important element of your website. Only your words will truly engage with visitors and persuade them why they need your product or service.

Internet marketing is now venturing into the realms of engagement, online PR and blogs; copywriting has never been a more crucial skill for getting attention and effectively marketing yourself online.

Lee’s SEO skill poll’s result couldn’t be more appropriately timed judging by my own recent experience of search marketing.

In the last week there has been a slow trickle of visitors reaching my website for my key search term ‘copywriter’. It would appear that Google has seen it fit to push my website onto page 2 of UK search results.

Reaching the higher echelons of UK copywriter websites is now within my grasp. If I can raise my game and post to the Crucible more often, I might be able to turn this trickle into a flood of targeted traffic, bursting into a torrent of phone calls when I have clawed my way onto page 1.

Google’s decision to promote my business revolves around the copywriting (or technically speaking the ‘content’) that has gone into the Copywriter’s Crucible.

If I hadn’t started blogging then my website would probably have remained treading water in the outer reaches of search results, a place that receives so few visitors and such little attention that it becomes a virtual graveyard of failed businesses.

Simply by posting once a week on subjects relevant to my business, and that I hoped would interest other people, I have been able to overtake my competitors’ near-static websites, sat complacently watching the world go by.

Copywriting and blogging has been the fuel that has kept my website vibrant and healthy. Writing regularly is what has given my website the wind to power my search marketing strategy, and hopefully eventually sail my way onto Google UK’s front page.

The search term ‘copywriter’ is the lighthouse by which people will find me. Now my website has nearly reached the shoreline of page 1’s search results I will soon be able to dock and wait for business to arrive, rather than be stranded out at sea without even a paddle.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Copywriting, Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, blogging 

Why Businesses Aren’t Blogging

April 12, 2007 | 2 Comments

I am a business blogging evangelist. There I’ve said it. I think businesses should be selling their services through education and building trust with information of value. What better way of achieving this than with a relevant and regularly updated blog?

Sometimes I wonder whether I do get carried along with the whole web 2.0 crowd and should stop to see why business blogging hasn’t yet taken off on a larger scale. After all, not everybody thinks there is going to be an imminent revolution in how businesses communicate.

This week I’m going to step down from my pulpit of normal sermons, on the need for businesses to engage with their marketplace, to see what the other side thinks.

Last week’s Blogging4Business conference was an opportunity for those in marketing and PR to listen to blogging’s proponents and decide whether to be afraid or rejoice.

The BBC sent a reporter along so, with their government mandate for objective reporting, I was interested to see what impression was being broadcast to the wider world.

The BBC’s reporter attended a session hosted by Microsoft’s Darren Strange, one of their leading bloggers, who gave a typically browbeating speech:

He delivered an impassioned plea for firms to allow staff free reign to write their own blogs.

“I know it sounds scary that you have hundreds of people writing what they like about the firm, and you having no control over it,” Mr Strange said.

“Yes, things will go wrong, people will say things that perhaps they shouldn’t but the benefits outweigh the downsides.”

The room of PR executives meanwhile had been stunned into silence.

It’s a common theme in the blogosphere that the traditional PR and marketing mindsets are struggling to come to terms with the new attitudes to communication. It would appear that this view is also shared with the wider world and still a reason why business blogging isn’t being pushed along the traditional lines.

People often fear what they don’t understand or think they can’t control. Mainstream exposure of blogging is always beneficial for the movement’s growth, even if it’s just to highlight the gaping void between the traditional mindset and new breed of online proponents.

In my search for people prepared to stand up and challenge the beliefs of the business blogging movement I came across a white paper by Lewis PR. The report is well researched and objective, and does give a clear insight into some of the barriers holding the movement back.

Here are some of its key points:

  • In a survey of 300 companies from 10 countries only 5% had a blog. A stark contrast to the popular and oft quoted Jupiter research report that heralded 35% of companies would be blogging by the end of 2006. The fact is that business blogging hasn’t yet taken off and is still mainly the preserve of individual professionals, marketing and new media agencies.

  • There is uncertainty about the benefits and best practices. More mainstream awareness is needed of case studies and businesses who have gained from blogging.

  • There is less enthusiasm to invest in new technology simply because it is the latest fad. Businesses are no longer going to spend money just trying to be cool. People are keeping their fingers in their pockets after getting them burnt in the last misfired internet explosion.

  • Blogging requires a significant investment of time, skill and knowledge. You can outsource the first two, but will still soak up an employee’s time providing the third.

  • It’s difficult to assess the value of blogging in terms of cost-benefit. We are still missing a recognised set of metrics for measuring engagement, although some would argue that a lot of marketing takes place without robust metrics anyway.

  • It’s difficult to pitch blogging to a CEO. Without quantifiable benefits like bringing in sales leads and reputation enhancement, but with the much publicised risks, it’s a difficult sell. Page 10 of the report does, however, provide a good summary of all the possible benefits for HR, marketing, sales etc.

  • Marketers and blogging gurus might read a lot of RSS feeds but that doesn’t mean business people do. Will your blog be able to gain their attention with all the emails, industry magazines and sales calls they receive in a day? (Research was, however, published by Edelman showing that blog readership contains a large proportion of influencers: people responsible for buying decisions who want to be up to date on the latest developments. RSS has also only been integrated into browsers for a few months).

  • Your blog has to be able to provide news and information of value to attract readers. If your business isn’t in a fast paced industry then you might struggle to provide enough for the business crowd.

  • Blogs need to be transparent and fit in with the blogging culture, if this doesn’t fit in with your business’ culture then your blog might struggle. Corporate speak doesn’t work online.

  • Your blog might attract negative comments and feedback if you’re in a controversial industry or attract criticism. Animal testing firms should probably think twice.

Lewis PR’s report highlights many of the issues business blogging is facing: lack of awareness, lack of well known case studies and the fear of jumping in before everybody else.

The business blogging movement still continues to gain pace though, with SEO firms now signing up and many PR agencies making hesitant enquiries.

Last year I went to a small business exhibition in Milton Keynes to distribute leaflets on the benefits of blogging in the hope of riding the web 2.0 wave. I’ve still got a pile sat in my drawer. Lewis Global PR’s report shows that it might still be too early to give them another airing just yet.

Business blogging might not be appropriate for every business. But for those wishing to reach a global audience with a niche product, the time is still ripe to start talking about yourself and engaging with your online marketplace. I still know which side I’m on, even if it is just because it’s more interesting.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Copywriting, Marketing, Online-PR, RSS, Search Engine Optimisation, blogging 

“Google is not a search engine. It’s a reputation management system”

April 5, 2007 | 6 Comments

The relationship between copywriting and search marketing has never been closer; I now find myself covering the same stories as eminent SEM pros Lee Odden and Andy Beal. All three of us have recently covered issues highlighted in a Wired article about ‘The See-Through CEO’, a story about how being transparent can enhance your image, and how Google is now your mirror.

The article discusses how a CEO openly talked about his business and reached out to his marketplace. By exposing some of the myths and taking out al the ‘sales baloney’, he was able to build relationships with customers like never before. He also appeared to upset the rest of his industry in the process, but I digress.

In our new connected age it is impossible for businesses to rely on smoke and mirrors to disguise their problems. People can now spread their opinions and experiences faster than a Paris Hilton home video. Companies such as Sony, Walmart, Dell and South West Airlines have all felt the wrath of disgruntled customers, haemorrhaging their reputation with relish.

The powers of a company to control their message are dissipating. People can now block out their overt PR and sales spiel. Transparency now appears to be the language to adopt, spoken with the vocabulary of relevance and value.

The key area of my shared interest with Lee and Andy in the article is the impact of comments and opinions on search results. Google loves regularly updated websites with plenty of back-links. It’s these that are highlighted as the most relevant and pushed onto people’s screens.

When the uproar over Dell’s customer service exploded the first two search results were posts attacking Dell’s reputation. The lesson is that if you don’t talk about yourself than somebody else will, and you might not like what they have to say.

With hindsight, Dell should have simply released an apology and a promise to do better. Customers get angry when they think they aren’t being listened to, but can be forgiving if they feel their problems have at least been acknowledged.

Google is no longer just an online directory, but a reflection of your reputation. Its search results show what is being said and what information has the most influence. Internet marketing is no longer just about getting your website to the top, but also about getting to know the search results around you.

Previously brands would hire a PR agency to push positive stories onto the news channels to influence what people were saying. Now people are creating news channels of their own, free to say whatever they like and with an audience that listens intently.

As the Wired article comments:

“Being transparent, opening up, posting interesting material frequently and often is the only way to amass positive links to yourself and thus to directly influence your Googleable reputation. Putting out more evasion or PR puffery won’t work, because people will either ignore it and not link to it - or worse, pick the spin apart and enshrine thosecriticisms high on your Google list of life.”

The same topic was covered by a panel at the Bloggin4Business conference, currently in full swing in London. The panel of experts were discussing the impact of social media on advertising and marketing.

“Marketing needs to completely reinvent itself because the media world has completely changed,” commented Anthony Mayfield from Spannerworks, “Success means earning attention by being useful.”

The notion that online marketing is purely about SEO is dated. It’s now about becoming a relevant and active cornerstone of your marketplace’s community. You need to become an ‘authentic brand ambassador’ and an integrated part of your online ecosystem.

A brand’s internet marketing strategy should be about being as transparent as possible and generous with their news and information. Not burying their heads in the sand and hoping people in the internet bubble will run out of air.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Copywriting, Marketing, Online-PR, RSS, Search Engine Optimisation, blogging 

E-consultancy Roundtable Online-PR report

April 3, 2007 | 3 Comments

Discussion of Online-PR continues unabatted with the ever reliable e-consultancy releasing their report on the status quo.

A few of the key points:

  • There might be widespread use of Online PR for defensive purposes, such as reputation monitoring, but there is still little proactive use for marketing due to lack of experts and PR agency knowledge in the area.
  • Companies need an integrated offline and online approach with activites supported and reflected in both.
  • Uniting online and offline PR is a recent development -“SEO internally is quite easy but persuading the PR team to take online PR seriously is difficult because they don’t understand the value it can bring to the business.”
  • “Traditional PR is about cuttings and circulation. Online is about influence and conversation. What is putting a lot of traditional PRs off is that it’s seen as being about technology. But it’s about relationships and conversations.”
  • There are SEO agencies offering Online PR services, but these agencies may not have the online copywriting skills needed to carry out important aspects of online PR effectively.
  • Bloggers can be particularly powerful in niche areas.
  • “It’s about remembering why people form communities in the first place. It’s got to be relevant otherwise there is no point in being there.”

So far, my attempts to develop Online-PR in Milton Keynes hasn’t met the groundswell of support I had been hoping for. The perception of blogs as a marketing tool is still taking time.

In my experience, whenever you are trying to push something new people need to hear about it from a number of sources before they start to take it in. Now that e-consultancy are on the case they should be hearing a lot more about Online-PR from a lot more people very soon.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Marketing, Online-PR, RSS, Search Engine Optimisation, blogging 

How Copywriters can Bring Peace to the SEO vs. PR Debate

March 21, 2007 | 6 Comments

Just when we think we are making progress a new battleground emerges. The buzz around ‘Online PR’ had built hopes of a bold new world in which websites are evolving portals of news and information, and online brochures are resigned to the bin.

However, the battle-lines are being drawn over who should have dominance over the new discipline. Is it the role of SEO companies to manage their client’s online reputation? Or is it the responsibility of the PR agency? Instead of working towards a common goal both clans seem to be worlds apart. It’s up to the freelance copywriter to bridge the gap and resolve their dispute for them.

With awareness of RSS spreading and businesses waking up to the opportunity of harnessing their news, the time is ripe for ‘Online PR’ to spread. With a steady stream of press releases and articles, filled with relevant keywords, it has never been easier for niche businesses to reach a global marketplace and seduce prospects with their relevant, insightful information.

An article on E-consultancy ‘Why online PR and SEO go hand in hand’ outlined why the two went so well together: PR is about building reputation through positive coverage, exactly what effective online link building is all about.

The PR agency can write engaging press releases and thought leadership articles, whilst the SEO team can ensure the key phrases are present and the articles are submitted and linked to the right places.

In his post, Ken McGaffin from Wordtracker.com does however describe a world in which the PR tribe is largely ignorant of SEO’s rituals and traditions. Ken gives some examples of how PR campaigns have been stunted by their failure to capitalise on the opportunity to build the message further online.

Some of Ken’s key reasons why PR needs to understand search strategies were:

  • Website articles can be searched for, found and read months or years after an event. The exposure of magazine articles only lasts until the next issue.
  • Interesting and useful information attracts not only readers, but also back-links to push your website further to the front of the crowd.
  • Online news spreads fast. Online press releases appear on the same day on Google news and can be found by every interested surfer, rather than rely on the whims of an editor to decide if they’re news worthy.
  • It has never been easier for niche businesses to compete online. By providing news and information of value you can position yourself as a news leader and reach the influencers in your marketplace.

Ken’s article portrays a world in which PR and SEO agencies haven’t yet learned to work together, but for them both to evolve they certainly should do.

The positive comments section was a roll call for all those in the UK who got the new ‘Online PR’ philosophy and to pledge their support.

One comment in particular was by Katy Howell, whose Online PR consultancy I had quoted in my previous post. She was able to provide me with another useful sound-bite:

“The PR industry has suffered a great deal of slating over the press release (often justified in the past) but a new waive of ghastly copy is making its way onto the wires and posting sites. So I would like to caution that PR is a job for PR professionals. After all releases will only generate interest from journalists and surfers to, ‘spread like wild fire’, if they are actually good. That is, newsworthy, interesting, well written, informative and above all, relevant!”

It would appear that, judging from Katy’s comments, a new generation of PR professional is required. One who understands how to compose a punchy press release combined with the knowledge of how to use it to grab the online audience and pull them back to their client’s website.

From the article’s comments I was also able to latch onto another post on the same theme by SEO consultant Shane Quigley. In ‘PR is Dead, Long Live SEO!’, Shane spells out how misunderstanding is creating an impending war between the PR dinosaurs and tech savvy SEO consultants. Will they be able to converge in some way, or will the PR dinosaurs simply swallow up SEO agencies when they feel the time is right?

Internet marketing is evolving at such a pace that SEO experts have had to learn to evolve at almost a daily rate. The PR dinosaurs have been able to lumber along with the same practices for centuries, blissfully unaware of an approaching asteroid that could wipe them out.

Unsurprisingly – and quite possibly intentionally - Shane’s article drew a healthy debate between the proponents of the two disciplines. The agreed standpoint was that neither will replace the other. But a new hybrid professional is needed to act as middleman between the two.

Whilst SEO agencies struggle to find web savvy PR professionals and PR agencies keep their heads in the sand, the door of opportunity is open for astute freelance copywriters to walk in and introduce themselves as the answer to all their problems.

If you’re a freelance copywriter then you might want to put together a press release on your new ‘Online PR’ service and give your local SEO and PR agencies a call.

I think my own website is now going to need a bit of a rewrite.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Copywriting, Marketing, RSS, Search Engine Optimisation, blogging 

Chris Anderson on ‘The Long Tail’

October 12, 2006 | Leave a Comment

The Internet can potentially turn the traditional business model on its head. It is now possible to sell your niche products to a global marketplace, and reach consumers way outside your normal 50 mile radius catchment area.

Chris Anderson – editor of Wired magazine – coined The Long Tail to explain how the Internet was changing the means of consumption and commerce. In this audio he provides a summary of his theory and the background to writing his ground breaking book.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Search Engine Optimisation, blogging 

Before You Can Conquer The World You First Have To Secure Your Own Backyard

October 10, 2006 | 2 Comments

These are exciting times for small businesses. The rush is on to find the best way of using the web to propel your product to a larger audience and reach the global marketplace. But before you start dreaming of exotic holidays and fast cars you have to first ensure you are already covering your own backyard. After all, The Beatles would never have cracked America if they had failed to sell any records back home.

Business models are changing fast. But you should never underestimate the importance of reaching your local consumers. The fact is that the majority of businesses conduct most of their trade within a 50 mile radius. Ensuring that people in your vicinity can find you as easily as possible is crucial.

The latest research from the US suggests that more and more people are searching for, and finding, local businesses and services online. Global exposure can still be your long-term goal and dream. But reaching local consumers should be your priority - and is a lot easier to achieve.

Research by Comscore networks showed that in the US 63% of interviewed net users conducted a local search in July 2006 compared to only 43% the previous year. These searches were for local restaurants, entertainment and businesses. The most promising stat is that this in turn led to 41% making contact online.

The Yellow Pages is now being left to gather dust in a cupboard, whilst the days of ringing costly directory enquiry lines might be coming to an end. The Internet is a resource for information and is increasingly the medium on which people will find your business.

Developing your web presence so that the search engines push you onto people’s screens has never been easier. And it doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg via a short term pay-per-click ad campaign. PPC is fine if you know your conversion percentage. But for smaller businesses, just looking to capture more targeted visitors in your local area, it’s probably not the most cost effective solution.

Posting to your blog once a week with relevant material will not only develop the sales process but will ‘organically’ optimise your website for search. Depending on the competitiveness of your keywords, you could be hitting the top of Google and Yahoo for local search terms in less than two months.

The advantage we have in the UK is that business blogging is still in its infancy. This is largely due to lack of awareness and reluctance to invest time and money in a new marketing technique with no obvious, immediate ROI. This simply means that the early adopters will find it easier to push their website to the top of their local search terms - and capture the most targeted traffic as a result.

Research by Fasthosts (a web hosting company) revealed that although half of UK SME businesses think they should be blogging only 3% actually plan to start. When you consider the growing importance of local search, ensuring your website is as easy to find as possible should be regarded as mission critical.

Marketing is no longer simply a case of carpet bombing your area with leaflets and placing an ad in the local paper. Maximising the optimisation of your web presence for search is essential for reaching an increasingly web savvy population.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Search Engine Optimisation 

Pay per click advertising – A Waste of Time and Money?

August 8, 2006 | 2 Comments

It would appear that after getting a slap on the wrist, following some expensive lawsuits, Google and Yahoo are now finally doing something to try and combat click fraud. Whether these efforts will have any success, or be pursued with any conviction, remains to be seen.

With estimates of fraud accounting for between 14% and 30% many businesses should stop and think whether investing in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is really worth it? PPC is, after all, only a short term solution to a long-term objective, and can be an expensive one at that.

 

 

Last year Yahoo paid $5mill to disgruntled PPC advertisers and last week Google handed over $90mill. This was the culmination of a number of years’ complaints and law suits because they were viewed to not be doing enough to tackle the problem. A study, called “Click Fraud Reaches $1.3 billion, Dictates End of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Era” released by research firm Outsell, claimed that “Google, Yahoo and MSN…are stonewalling on click fraud, to their own and others’ detriment.” They were seen to be dragging their heels to plug a hole that was pouring money into their own coffers.

The search engines have now clubbed together to form the ‘Click Measurement Working Group’ to work alongside the new ‘Interactive Advertising Bureau’ (IAB) and ‘Media Rating Council’ to establish guidelines on what classifies as a fraudulent click.

The jury is still out on how effective they will be in first identifying and then proving cases. A lot of the automated click through programs use false IP addresses or are installed via a Trojan Horse. They will also have to establish who was actually using the PC at the time, if at all.

Proving cases will not be an easy process and will have to be pursued with some vigour for it to be effective. When it isn’t in their interest to limit the problem you shouldn’t expect to see any vast improvement in your bills anytime soon. As Clarence Briggs, chief executive of Web hosting company AIT (which has sued Google over click fraud) put it, “Do I think the fox should guard the hen house?”

With SEO now moving from a technical method to an ongoing ‘organic’ strategy the question has to be asked whether PPC is an efficient use of time and money? How much of a window can you afford to give your companies website before your ad budget runs out and it gets lost from view? Wouldn’t your investment be better spent producing content to market your business and create a sustainable long-term presence?

Pay per click advertising can gain you visibility in minutes but has a limited shelf life due to the ever increasing price of keywords. Standard SEO techniques are now also inadequate. Fiddling with meta-tags and carefully crafted page titles might get your site indexed, but wont satisfy Google and Yahoo’s desire for the most up-to-date, relevant info.

You now need to think about ‘organic’ optimisation to be on the first page of search results. Studies by Jupiter Research also suggest that 6 out of 7 people will click on the search results rather than the PPC ad – even more reason to invest your budget in evolving your site’s content.

In a previous post I discussed how I have been able to achieve top rankings in Google and Yahoo after 51 days simply by posting to my blog every week. My daily hits are now approaching 250 and still rising.  The current price for the top ad for ‘copywriter’ is £1. To receive the same daily traffic, relying purely on PPC advertising, could cost me £250 per day = £1750 per week! If I’d exhausted my marketing budget on PPC my site would simply slip back into obscurity never to be seen again. 

PPC is only viable as a short term tool for selling products of significant enough value and conversion ratio to ensure a good ROI. Using a PPC ROI calculator you can gauge whether a paid ad campaign would be appropriate for your business. Your campaign will also need to be monitored on a daily basis to ensure you are using the most profitable keywords and hitting your conversion target. If the results aren’t as hoped you can always pull the plug. One of the advantages of PPC is its campaign visibility.

As more businesses join the rush to advertise online prices will inevitably rise. PPC may eventually only be feasible for businesses able to budget for thousands of clicks at £5 a pop. PPC might gain short term visibility. But is not an adequate long-term strategy and certainly not for small businesses.

The resonance of the phrase ‘content is King’ is gaining strength as search marketing evolves towards long-term, cost effective organic optimisation. The words on your website will not only sell your business. They are now needed to tell Google you are offering the most updated, relevant info. Organic SEO can build targeted traffic to your site and more clicks still means more sales. But unlike PPC, each click isn’t going to eat into your profit or cost you extra because of fraud.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Search Engine Optimisation 

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