May 2nd, 2008
In response to a lot of recent client enquiries on how long it takes to get found on Google, I thought it’d be a good idea to give an explanation. Many website owners feel that their site should be on the first page for their keywords, and are surprised and disappointed when this doesn’t happen immediately. We always repeat the caveat: it could take between six and 12 months before you get found. In most cases, it’s less than that, but you need to be prepared for the way Google deals with new websites, and newly optimised websites.
Many people think that Search Engine Optimisation is more of a dark art than a science, but really it’s just a case of moulding your site to fit what Google likes. If Google can’t understand what your site is about, or if Google doesn’t realise that your company is an industry leader, then we work to help Google like your site. This is an ongoing, and sometimes protracted, process.
Getting into the top 10 results on Google is not getting any easier, and Google is always inventing new ways of deciding how relevant websites are for a particular search result. Old chestnuts like (excuse the techy talk) link popularity, H1 tags, ALT text, meta Description tags, etc., have fallen by the wayside. While they still figure in the mix, there are so many different factors at play. Are searchers clicking on your site, where are your links coming from, is there much readable text on your home page, how is your website designed, where is your site hosted…the list goes on.
Add to this the fact that Google would prefer you to spend money through their AdWords programme rather than give you free ‘clicks’, and you can see why the forces are stacked up against your website getting high rankings anytime soon.
But work at it, and stay the course, and you will see an improvement. The simple things work best, but waiting is often the best option. Pepper your homepage with keywords, try to have content-rich pages on your site, submit your site to the directories, and check back every three weeks to see if rankings have improved.
And if you don’t see instant results, don’t be disappointed. It’s a long-term strategy, but it will pay off in the end.
Posted in Uncategorized, Search Engine Marketing, Marketing | No Comments »
April 25th, 2008
Just read a very interesting report from MailerMailer about email marketing metrics. The report is well worth a read, and I’ve summarised what I’ve learned below.
Open rates have been in decline for a while now, and and are currently just under 14%. Open rates aren’t a good or accurate indicator of campaign success for many reasons, and are becoming less so as people read their email from handheld devices. Open rates were highest for emails from banking/financial companies, travel agencies and telcos.
As we’ve said on numerous occasions, click-through rates are a much better indicator of a campaign’s effectiveness. MailerMailer report click-through rates of 2.9% for the last half of 2007, down from 3.2% for the first half of the year.
As discussed in other blog posts here, you can increase your click-through rate by having a call to action (’Buy Now’ or ‘Click here’), a deadline for response, and a well-designed email that provides useful information or content.
Interestingly, they also found that subject lines with less than 35 characters had a much higher click-through rate than longer subject lines. As we’ve also mentioned in the past, it’s a good idea to test different key concepts in your subject lines and monitoring click-through rates, to see which words and phrases your audience will more readily respond to.
This report is well worth a read for anyone who’s interested in getting more out of email marketing.
Posted in Email | No Comments »
January 29th, 2008
I recently got an email from the Guardian Weekly (I know, he’s going on about that paper again…), and I decided I’d share it with you, because it’s a really good example of direct marketing through email. They get everything right here, and the landing page is great too. Have a look at the email and landing page:
The only problem I’ve found with this email is the use of ‘free’ in the subject line (”Explore world news with four free issues”), which might explain why it was sent to my Junk Email folder.
But apart from that it’s an excellent email. The headline font stays true to the Guardian’s ‘brand’ font, the headline is clear and obvious, and the images of the four free issues tangibilise what you’ll be getting.
The use of the ‘Click for your free trial offer’ button, both to the right of the images and at the bottom of the page, are very effective calls to action.
The copy (”The world isn’t simple…”) draws you in and is fairly straight to the point. The email gets across the selling point of the Guardian Weekly - because it’s a weekly paper, they have the perspective on the world news that dailies lack.
If you click on any of the calls to action, you’re brought to a landing page. The landing page is another classic example of direct response. The headline (”Explore the world”) restates the 4-week free trial, and the use of sub-headings (”Gain a global perspective”, etc.) really gets across the benefits the Weekly has to offer.
The landing page is peppered with testimonials, outlined in different shades to grab the eye. And the killer punch: 5 reasons to subscribe, at the bottom and in a different colour to the rest of the page. The 5 reasons uses many vintage direct marketing tactics - “no obligation”, “save money”, “money-back guarantee”, “free trial”.
The first start of the ordering process asks you what country you are in. You are then taken onto a quite long subscription process, which really could have been condensed a bit. But no matter. The email and landing page will already have done its job with a lot of people. This is how email marketing should be done.
Posted in Design & Usability, Marketing, Email | No Comments »
December 18th, 2007
Funny email attachment I got from a friend. Click on the image to expand it.
Posted in Uncategorized, Miscellaneous, Social | No Comments »
December 11th, 2007
So now we know the blindingly obvious (or is it?) fact that social networking sites like Bebo, Facebook and MySpace don’t widen your circle of close friends.
Most of my friends are on Facebook, and I’ve started to use that a bit more than Bebo. I mean, Bebo’s got a reputation for being teenager’s site, and I’m getting on a bit now, so Facebook is the fashionable alternative.
I’ve ‘met up with’ many friends that I hadn’t seen or heard from in years. It’s great to hear from them again, and you’ll organise to go for a pint with them or whatever.
But, as this new research from Sheffield Hallam University says that the average person’s group of friends consists five very close friends, and a much larger group of 150 friends that we keep in touch with less frequently.
If you’re in any doubt as to what Facebook (and the other social networking sites) is, here’s a really good primer (and yes, if you’ve guessed, The Guardian is my favourite newspaper!).
Posted in Social | No Comments »
December 4th, 2007
In yesterday’s Media section of the Guardian, several Internet frontrunners attempted to peer into the crystal ball and tell us what they saw. A very interesting article indeed, with contributions from MySpace, YouTube, Google and other heavyweights.
But one section I found to be very interesting was by Maurice Levy, CEO of Publicis Groupe, who was predicting future trends in advertising. Levy, who is referred to in Wikipedia as a “French advertising magnate”, made some very cogent points about the future of interruption advertising.
Levy argues that, in an era where people are vocally against advertising that ‘interrupts’ their enjoyment of a programme, show, website or newspaper, advertisers will need to seek more creative means of reaching their target market. “This implies a brave new world of engagement and involvement between marketers and consumers”.
As far as online is concerned, I have to disagree. Ads on popular websites are rarely given the attention that their designers had hoped. Click-through rates are miniscule. And for every successful viral promotion or online game, there are countless others being decried as shameless publicity stunts.
More than ever, search engine marketing is the basis for online advertising. Being found when users search for your products and services is still by far the best way of raising your sales.
While Google is working to increase its hold on advertising outside of search, expect some innovation. But in terms of achieving measurable results from online, search is still the key and in that arena, simplicity rules supreme.
Posted in Uncategorized, Search Engine Marketing, Online Advertising, Pay per Click, Marketing | No Comments »
December 3rd, 2007
Open rates for email campaigns are dropping every year - but is the open rate an acceptable statistic for measuring how successful your campaign is? If your email doesn’t reach your prospect, how can they open it?
To increase your return on investment from email marketing, first look at whether your intended recipients actually receive your email. Your deliverability rate, the percentage of your list that actually gets your email delivered to their inbox, is the first statistic that you need to improve. Here are some tips for doing it:
1. Use double opt-in to make sure that the recipient wants to be on your list. When a user signs up to your newsletter from your website, send a confirmation email that must be replied to (or a link that must be clicked) before users are placed on your list.
2. If some of the addresses on your list persistently ‘bounce’ (i.e. emails can not be delivered to them), remove them from your list. Service providers track bounced emails, and your email can be blocked if it causes regular bounces.
3. Choose your words carefully. If at all possible, avoid words such as ‘medication’, ‘money’, ‘poker’, ‘viagra’ and so on. There’s a good list of spam-words here.
4. The HTML code you use in your emails may be affecting your deliverability. Make sure your images use “alt” tags, be careful with tracking your emails for responses, and have a read of this article to make sure your HTML is up to scratch. If you put your email up on your website, you can validate the HTML code on the W3C Markup Validation Service.
As always, the Wikipedia website is a solid source of information. Check out their article on email spam. And be sure to keep your list, content and HTML clean if you want to get your message out.
Posted in Analytics, Email | No Comments »
November 15th, 2007
For many of our clients, Christmas is important. It’s the end of the year, targets have to be met, and customers are, well, much more willing to part with their euros. Indeed, Christmas is the most significant event in Ireland’s retail calendar. In the UK in 2006, online sales reached £1 billion a week. So what’s the best way to take advantage of this surge in online sales? Here are a few dos and don’ts:
- Firstly (this especially applies if you have good search engine positions) don’t start putting “Christmas gifts” and other such phrases in your page Titles. Your site is not going to get high rankings for these phrases at just one month’s notice. If you really want to optimise your site to appear for these phrases, you need a longer-term strategy.
- Having a ’splash page’ on your website, which will be seen by all users visiting the site, can be a good idea. You can use this page to get across your fast delivery, great prices, wide selection, or whatever your USP is. Be aware though that this may cause a short-term drop in rankings if Google indexes your site during the Christmas month.
- If you’ve got an email database, the run-up to Xmas is a great time to keep people updated on your products. Send a seasonal email - nothing too tacky - with some special offers or a guarantee of delivery before the post cut-off date
- Now’s a good time to have a look at streamlining your site to make sure that users can do business with you. Trim down any forms that are too long, try to shorten the purchase process, and make sure that the site downloads quickly. Most important of all, aim to have a site that users understand instantly when they arrive. A higher conversion rate will have an obvious impact on your sales.
- Don’t have dancing Santas, a ‘Ho-Ho-Ho’ sound file, or Flash animations of holly trees detracting from the purpose of your site. People know it’s coming up to Christmas, and too much of these gimmicks smacks of superficiality.
Let us know of any ideas you’ve had for bringing in visitors and sales this Christmas.
Posted in Miscellaneous, Marketing | No Comments »
October 16th, 2007
Accepted wisdom: submitting your website to web directories such as the Open Directory, Yahoo (with a $299 fee) and Best of the Web will increase the number of links pointing to your website, thus improving your rankings on Google and the other search engines.
But submitting to directories is getting more and more difficult, for three main reasons:
1. They are almost all paid submissions now. Yahoo charges $299, Best of the Web costs $40, BCentral $50, JoeAnt $40, $70. While these directories give good link popularity (thus helping your rankings), it’s hard to justify these spends for such indirect (and intangible) benefits.
2. Of the directories that don’t charge, about 60% require that you link back to them. This is so frustrating when we’re manually submitting client’s sites to directories - you get to the submission process, then realise you have to link back to the directory to get a listing. What right-thinking corporate website links to a spam-filled directory?
3. Of the remaining directories (the Open Directory and a few others), there is no guarantee that your site will be listed. In most cases, you won’t be told that you’ve been listed - all you can do is come back and check to see if you’re there.
At the same time, these directory links are very handy for getting your site established on the Web and in the search engines. If you’re not already listed there, go to www.dmoz.org, find the correct category, and submit your website. There are other directories out there - make sure you’re listed in Irish-specific ones such as Browse Ireland.
Ultimately, it might be best to submit your site to the Yahoo directory and some others such as JoeAnt, Go Guides, and BCentral. While this in total would cost $459 (currently €313.65), it’s worth trying for a year to see the impact it has on Google rankings. If it can move you onto the first results page quickly and efficiently, it’ll be money well spent.
There’s a very good list of the top directories here. Also, check out the 54 free directories list here.
Posted in Search Engine Marketing | No Comments »
September 7th, 2007
I signed up to WebProNews about 8 months ago - I saw a couple of interesting article on their site, and decided that I should opt in to receive their emails.
So they started to send me their emails every day. As with all newsletters, I’ll scan the subject line and see if it’s worth keeping for future reference or to read on a break.
After a while, though, it stopped appealing to me. For one, a lot of the articles were telling me what I knew already or was getting elsewhere.
I’d also been receiving unsolicited email in the guise of ‘WebProNews Sponsor Updates’. These didn’t appeal to me at all - nor did the spam I received from sites I’d never heard of before. Seeing a connection, I decided enough was enough and unsubscribed from the WebProNews site.
I was taken to a page on the iEntry site saying “Thank You for your patronage”. I was off the list.
Or so I thought. The next day, another mailing from WebProNews. So, I think to myself, it takes a few days for them to remove you from their system.
But now, over 10 unsubscribe attempts later, I’m still receiving mail from them. I’ve set up a rule for it to go directly to my Deleted Items, but it raises a question: How can a company that writes articles daily on best-practice online marketing get their unsubscribe process so wrong?
Of course, I’m not the only one giving out about this - check here, here and here - but when WebProNews publish articles bemoaning the proliferation of spam and encouraging email marketers to get the unsubscribe function right, you’d think they’d sort this issue out.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
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