The Adido Web Design blog

How accurate is the Google Keywords Tool for SEO?

2009-07-08T17:35:00.012+01:00

Being SEO & PPC obsessives, we spend A LOT of time using the Google Keyword Tool to predict traffic and therefore sales for our clients. The information presented by the tool help us decide which phrases to target and which ones to avoid. In fact, it's fair to say that the data from the Google Keyword tool actually helps shape our clients future online!

The information from the tool only started to show Google search volume in the last few years. But it seems that the data has not got any more accurate at all. Being in the unique position of overseeing many thousand page one rankings in Google, we thought we'd share our data with our readers to prove just how accurate the tool really is.

Some points to note on how we've presented the information.

We've decided not to use the exact search phrases here to maintain client confidentiality so have instead just made reference to the industry & location that they operate in.
In addition, we have also split the phrases up by what we deem to be general and specific. General refers to phrases which don't contain any geographical search terms or additional words / phrases which would reduce the amount of results returned considerably. Specific phrases are those which target a particular county or place or contain something specific to what the searcher is looking for. Ok, this isn't an exact science but it helps as a guide.
The majority of our rankings use correct META tags and don't contain ...'s in them which might potentially influence whether the listings are clicked or not. Same for TITLE tags and page names as well
We use a piece of software to record our rankings. This information is pulled from Google UK data centres and is accurate for the large majority of the time.
Our traffic data is collected using standard installations of Google Analytics.
All search engine listings are in what we'll call the traditional SERPs. Very few, if any, of the phrases selected have news, local,product or video results as part of the results returned, thus making it a fair test in that respect.

Here are the statistics collected;

(Click image for large version)

Ok, so there are a lot of numbers here. Some of the predictions from the Google Keyword Tool do not seem to correlate when compared to real clicks, while others are fairly good. Here are some of the findings that we can draw from the information that we've collected;

Google Keyword Tool groups related phrases together when showing search volume. It isn't very clear how this information is grouped. For example, several phrases entered all returned the same search volume prediction, yet the specific phrases received very different amounts of clicks. Where the same search predictions were returned we omitted some of the possible results
Overall, the amount of clicks compared to the estimated search volume from the Google Keyword Tool was just about 1%. When making predictions on what sort of traffic you can get from SEO, don't be too optimistic!
There is a big difference between the clicks to prediction on specific phrases when compared to general phrases. In our test, general phrases get less than 1% of searchers clicks compared to something like 12.5% on specific phrases. So just because a phrase doesn't look like it will generate click volume, it may well actually perform better in terms of clicks than some phrases with supposedly higher search volume. This is another good reason to try your phrases out using a paid (PPC) search campaign.
Unsurprisingly, phrases which rank at #1 get more clicks than those that don't. Our data shows that when a phrase gets to #1, it tends to get 2x more traffic than those that don't. This is a general rule of thumb and is obviously different depending on the phrases being searched for, the amount of traffic etc. It does however highlight the fact that your SEO efforts don't stop until you hit the top!
A few of the phrases that we focus on had huge amounts of clicks compared to the amount of estimated searches carried out. These phrases tended to be very time specific and on newer phrases (e.g. containing 2009, 2010). This suggests that on phrases which are new or gaining search traction are not accurately estimated by the Google Keyword Tool.

All in all, it seems that the Google Keyword Tool can be helpful but in alot of cases, isn't very accurate at estimating clicks from search volume. Let me put that another way, using a straight line formula when estimating clicks from estimated searches isn't very accurate. Generally, it is a fairly safe bet to assume a higher click through rate on specific or local phrases compared to general ones. Yeah, so what, you probably knew that anyway. But maybe our research here might make you think twice about your estimates and possibly your ROI calculations.

Further research in conversion rates and PPC clicks to estimates would be good and if we have time we'll look into this further. For now, if you've any comments, we'd be very pleased to here them!

4 ways to tell that a web design company DOESN'T know how to optimise

2009-01-06T12:00:00.000Z

It still amazes me how many 'web design' companies there are out there who claim to offer professional SEO services. Having spent the last four years working in, and advising on SEO, I've seen a lot of 'must do' things come and go.

'You should add this to your website' or 'Everyones doing this today' trends come and go but the core principles of SEO haven't really changed since SEO first started (more on that in a later post). Given that SEO has changed very little from its fundamentals, I'm still shocked to see that some companies can't even do the basic right.

Here are four tell tale signs I've picked up which show that these companies don't (really) know what they are doing when it comes to SEO. Be warned!

Keyword stuffed page names
I've always thoughts that having keyphrases and keywords in page names has always been a sensible thing to do. If you've got a page which sells blue widgets, then it makes sense to call your web page blue-widgets.html rather than product13.html. After all, you want your page to be found under blue widgets, the page has good content on it mentioning blue widgets, so why not call the page name blue-widgets?
However, when you see SEO companies calling their pages web-design-seo-ppc-online-marketing-england-uk-services.html, alarm bells start ringing. A page name should be short and concise and not some mess of phrases and words stuck together in the hope that somehow Google will come along and put them #1 of the pile for the random selection of words that no one will ever type in.
TITLE tags stuffed with keywords
As with point #1, too many keywords in the wrong places sends out the wrong message. It has been widely rumoured for along time that less is more with TITLE tags. The W3C recommend 64 characters, and if you look at Google and other search engines, they only show a similar amount of text on the searh engine results pages (SERPs). If your TITLE is too long, then you get the dreaded ... at the end of your nice blue link on the results page. Why ruin your chances of getting that click from the search engine with irrelevant words stuffed desperately into the TITLE tag? I see this quite alot from some of the web companies in the UK and its always very disappointing.
Blocks of text stuffed with keywords
Adding the words that you want to be found by your searchers (your key phrases/words) into your pages is obviously a sensible thing. A search engine is never going to rank your page under the phrases that you want if you don't mention the phrases on your pages. But search engines are clever beasts and know when content is well written and when it is obviously trying way too hard to try and get Google brownie points. Even Matt Cutts (who is THE PR man for Google) say to avoid keyword stuffing. If Google say it's bad, it's bad. Don't know what I'm on about? Look for something like this:

We sell blue widgets to companies who want blue widgets in the UK. Our blue widgets are the best blue widgets available and we sell blue widgets in many places. We sell blue widgets in london, manchester, liverpool, birmingham, nottingham, leeds, exeter, sheffield, glasgow, bristol, cardiff, norwich, wigan, oxford and many other places. When you buy blue widgets, make sure you get your blue widgets from us!
No Internal links
When a website has a reasonable (say, 20) pages then it makes sense to link the pages together so that users can find their way around the website easily. Links also help search engines. Websites which have lots of links pointing to them nearly always do better than those which don't. One of the things that good SEO companies will do is link internal pages together, as this helps the cross linking of pages and strengthens the website. Getting links from other websites is never easy, so why companies don't get links from other pages on their own website seems like missing the fish in the barrel. This should be one of the first things that SEO companies do and yet many don't seem to know or bother.

There are other signs that show that supposed SEO companies really don't know what they are doing but these are the ones which disappoint me (and also make me laugh). When hiring an SEO company make sure you check out the websites which they have worked on to see if they've committed any of the faux paus' highlighted above.

For a more comprehensive list of things which influence ranking in good and bad ways, read the SEOmoz search engine ranking factors list.

If you've got any more you'd want to add, please feel free to add them below.

IE6: Flogging a Dead Horse

2008-09-12T15:15:00.002+01:00

Cross browser compatibility

For those of us unfortunate enough to be web developers or designers, cross browser compatibility is a constant thorn in our collective side. For the most part, said thorn exists in the form of Internet Explorer 6. As one of the most widely used browsers, web developers are forced by necessity to cater for this sinking ship. At the time of writing, IE6 still holds an impressive 25% of internet users in its demonic grip, while its younger, but equally frustrating sibling, IE7 maintains anywhere between 25% and 50%, depending on where you get your information.

Now anyone who is familiar with the topic knows what is coming next: I’m about to tell you about Firefox, an open source browser whose compliance with web standards makes life easier for developers. While the end user is unlikely to notice much difference, most developers not in the pay of Microsoft will preach the graces and virtues of this most pious of browsers. In fact, five minutes of reading various forums on the topic will have you believing that Firefox has descended from heaven to lead us all to the Promised Land. And while I am occasionally inclined to agree, I like to think my opinion is a little more subjective than that.

The fact is, IE6 is neither evil nor stupid. At time of writing, Windows XP and Windows Vista collectively occupy over 85% of the market. And since each copy of Windows comes conveniently bundled with Internet Explorer, it is the browser of choice for most casual users. So what’s the problem?

Web standards

The problem is web standards, or the lack thereof in Internet Explorer 6. For any of you scratching your heads right now, let me explain: there is an organisation called the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C for short, whose main job is to develop standards for how websites should be written. They are headed by a man called Tim Berners-Lee, the man heralded as the inventor of the World Wide Web.

Now when a web browser is created, it is supposed to interpret web pages according to the web standards set out by the W3C. Many browsers, Firefox most prominent among them, manage to maintain full compliance with the standards. Even Internet Explorer 8, currently only in the beta stage, is apparently standards compliant. What this means is that when a web developer writes a page, the outcome is predictable, no matter which browser the end user has installed. Unfortunately IE6 seems to ignore the standards in many cases, making extra work for the developer, who has to fix apparent “bugs” on the page. These aren’t problems with the page itself, but problems with the way IE6 is interpreting it.

The future

Now this argument is nothing new, but serves as a background for my main point. That is: IE6 is a lot of work for those of us creating web pages. It’s not only display bugs that cause problems, but lack of functionality. Many elements of CSS 2 remain unsupported in IE6. For developers, it’s like having a shovel to dig a hole but being told to use your hands – if you use any of these unsupported features then IE6 users won’t see them. For a long time this has been the case, and has become something developers get used to.

I’m sure that other developers, like me, are looking forward to the day when we can stop catering for IE6. After all, we used to complain about catering for IE5, which was even worse. And when IE8 is released, I’m sure we’ll complain about IE7. But as things stand at the moment, I am just about ready to throw in the towel anyway.

Why? Well I started thinking on the topic last week, when Google released Chrome. Along with IE6, IE7, Firefox and Safari, this makes 5 browsers for developers to test their websites in. On top of that, IE8 is on the horizon and will add even more testing to the mix. As a result, development costs for websites steadily increase. Clearly the most volatile of the above line-up is IE6. The question is, when is it ok to stop supporting it?

The day Microsoft releases a full working copy of Internet Explorer 8. At this point I intend in my personal projects to stop supporting IE6 for anything more than functionality. If the page “looks” broken in IE6 but still works, I will point my users to a small icon in the page saying “made for IE7 or greater”. Similar icons have been used in the past to explain to users why the page appears broken, and hopefully my users will say to themselves “maybe I should upgrade”. After all, IE7 is a free upgrade, and comes as standard in Windows Vista. But until developers stop catering for IE6, many users won’t bother to upgrade, since they don’t notice the difference.

Soon enough the time will come when we can abandon IE6 and start using CSS 2 in earnest. By that time we’ll probably be wishing we could use CSS 3, but as the saying goes, you can’t have your cake and eat it.

How much does the weather affect search engine traffic?

2008-09-03T19:56:00.009+01:00

So... yet another summer is over. The question everyone seems to be asking is 'where did it go?' It seems that yet again, a summer which promised so much from the weather forecasters back in Spring turned out to be mainly wet and generally quite miserable, save for a few glorious days.

While the sun was shining/rain was coming down, we were hard at work on several search engine optimisation campaigns. When planning an SEO project, it is imperative to know which phrases to target based on common sense, key phrase research, competitor analysis and various other techniques. Quite often we can predict how easy/hard it will be to get a client website ranked on the target phrases for their website. And now that we have more information at our disposal about which phrases generated the most traffic, and more importantly, how much, our selection process is becoming easier.

However, the figures we work on are predictions, based mainly on previous behaviour with search engines (although sometimes Googles figures are not that great when compared to reality...). But what effects search engine usage? There are a number of factors ranging from user age or experience, through to time of year or even the weather...

Having worked on some campaigns for clients in the last few months, we've seen that traffic has gone down in the last few months. Ok, the summer holidays have been and gone which means that most of the (small) business world stops for several weeks. But surely Google/search engine searches never stop. Or do they? There are dozens of industries which rely on the weather to make their businesses work, but it's interesting to see what affect this has on search engine traffic and searches.

Some industries which I can think of which rely on the British Summer are shown below using Google Trends to show traffic over the last few years.

The aim of this graph is to show where searchers in the UK look for their holidays; either camping in the UK or trips to the sun in Spain. As you can see there are various peaks and troughs which we can assume are down to the weather for those years (see the BBC news article showing sunshine and rainfall recorded in the UK).

Comparing two great British summer pastimes Cluedo and Conquet (ok, well not 'great', but still relatively popular to make it onto a Google Trend graph) you can again see that the Summer of 2006 bought people out in the dozens to play croquet rather stay indoors playing board games. In 2007, it was a different matter with Cluedo nearly catching up with the famous lawn sport. I guess everyone wanted to know if Mr Plum did do it or not.

These are just two examples of where we can see external factors having an affect on search engine traffic and user behaviour.

The weather isn't something that you can control yet (although I'm sure Google are working on that) but it may need to be considered for your business website. When planning a search engine campaign, it is important to try and take into account every possible factor you can to ensure that you get the best results from your marketing spend.

Don't come up with it - copy it!

2008-08-05T11:38:00.003+01:00

Many of you would have seen TV adverts for catalogue company Argos over the last few months. They end with the phrase - 'Don't shop for it, Argos it'. They have long running advertising campaign pushing the fact that when it comes to buying things, it is easier to use the Argos services, rather than spend your time touring your local shopping centre. Nothing unique in the message that Argos are trying to portray, they have been offering an alternative to the Saturday afternoon high street scrum for decades, but it is the way that they have done it which interests me.

For those who may remember, a few years ago Google caused a bit of fuss in the blogging world by saying that they didn't like it when people said 'Google it' instead of 'search for it' as it infringed on their trademark. Google went to the press twice about this issue, once in 2003, and then again in 2006. They claimed that the use of the Google brand name in this way was a trademark violation and that people who referred to 'Googling' shouldn't do so; they even sent out letters to people to ask them to stop/change references to using Google as a verb.

For many marketers, having a brand name or company name synonymous with an activity or industry would be the holy grail. Some companies have already achieved this, here are just some examples I can think of;

'I didn't watch it last night, I sky plus'd it' or

'Do you want a copy? I'll xerox one off now'.

I'm still pretty sure that when Google came out saying that they didn't want people to use Google with reference to search it was a massive double bluff. Why wouldn't they want their name to become so strongly tied to one of the fastest growing industries on the Internet, especially when competing against one of the biggest companies in the world?

Regardless if Google did or didn't want people to use their name with reference to searching, it certainly hasn't done them any harm. Google is now the most powerful brand name in the UK. They have even overtaken Microsoft in the world of brands as well as search.

It's not surprising then that other companies have tried to borrow ideas from the best brand in the UK to try and build their market share and brand profile. It always pays to 'borrow' from the best doesn't it!?

In this case, Argos, in my opinion, have tried to 'do a Google' and make their brand synonymous with brochure shopping. A smart move given that other companies exist, and are entering into, their market space.

Maybe it's me putting two and two together and getting five (Google started complaining about their infringements in 2003 and Argos started their campaign in 2005) but it seems that this is just another example of where the online world and online brands have had impact in the offline world and established companies.

FREE seminars to improve your website traffic

2008-08-01T14:59:00.010+01:00

Building on the feedback and success of recent series of free Internet events in Dorset and Hampshire, Adido have arranged three more seminars to help you take your website and online presence to the next level! The events will include an informative seminar by Director Andy Headington, introducing you to strategies and skills that are vital in any business.

How to make the most of Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising
Are you running a Pay Per Click or Google Adwords campaign? Do you want to know how to get better results and increase enquires and sales? This seminar will cover everything you need to know in order to get the best results from your PPC budget.
Date: Monday 15th September 2008

How to improve your search engine ranking
This event will look at how to improve your website ranking in the ‘free’ listings using a technique called Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Getting SEO right can greatly increase the number of visitors that come to your website and give you great Return On Investment.
Date: Monday 13th October 2008

How to increase your website visits using the latest online marketing techniques.
Blogging, e-newsletters, email signatures, online press releases and viral marketing are some of the latest online marketing techniques that will be discussed in the seminar to help you increase your website traffic.
Date: Monday 10th November 2008

During the event there will be an opportunity to network with local, like-minded business people with the added bonus of having the Adido team around to answer any questions or queries you might have! Free light refreshments will be provided.

Venue: Holiday Inn, Farnborough,GU14 6AZ
Time: 6pm arrive, 6.30pm seminar starts, networking until 8pm.
Price: FREE

To book your place click here for the online booking form, email networking@adido-solutions.com or call Alex Tucker on 0845 260 2343

Mind the Gap – How short term compromise can lead to long term losses

2008-08-01T14:09:00.003+01:00

Often clients will compromise on design or development due to budget restraints. While this is reasonable (none of us have bottomless wallets), it can often lead to long term costs that will have client and developer alike banging their heads in frustration.

Early on, the cost of creating a website can seem intimidating. You take a look at your budget and decide to compromise on quality in the short term. You can always fix it later, right? Wrong. You should always strive for the website you want rather than the website you can afford.

Ok so you can’t just make money appear out of thin air. Sometimes your budget is stubborn – you just can’t budge it. But if you can, you should seriously consider it. Don’t design twice when you can get it right the first time. Aside from the cost of having a site redesigned, you have the change of corporate image to consider. Your corporate image is an ever evolving beast, and is determined by, among many other things, the look and feel of your website. You don’t control your image directly – it is the sum of your marketing efforts.

So if you change that website, it will change how people perceive your business. And that should always be the primary motivation for redesigning your piece of the internet – change because you want to, not because you can afford to. And if you want to, why settle for less the first time round?

Of course, it’s all well and good to say “don’t compromise on quality”, but what does that actually mean? Well there are several ways this can happen, from accepting the first design given to you (even if it isn’t really right for you) to designing the site yourself. The latter may seem like a great way to cut costs. After all, who knows what you want better than you?

But if web design was that easy, then we wouldn’t have web designers, just web developers. Often when a client does all of their own design work, one of two extremes occurs: either the site looks bland and uninteresting, or it looks overcrowded and complex. And often the pitfalls of designing your own work have nothing to do with ability or lack thereof. It often comes down to objectivity. Something which a third party has, but you don’t. A full time web designer is used to designing quickly and not attaching too much sentiment to their work. They spend their career observing the strengths and weaknesses of every website they see, and you’d be a fool not to take advantage of that depth of knowledge.

Just remember that while it may seem like a short step to improve on your website later, that short step can quickly become a gaping hole that will swallow up your budget. Better to plug the gap early on and avoid long term costs.

Website Planning - A Developer's Perspective

2008-07-30T17:15:00.003+01:00

As any of the designers/developers at Adido will tell you, it is important to plan ahead. Knowing what you want is an important part of the web design and development process. But what are the differences between the two and how to they relate to each other? Let’s look at a real world example here at Adido, using Paul, Jamie and Ross.

Paul is a web designer. His job is to tell us how the website will look. He has an eye for detail and brings his artistic talent to bear on any project he works on. After some discussion with the client and a few concept designs, Paul will produce an image that looks like a finished website.

Jamie (that’s me) is a front end web developer. My job is to take Paul’s work and pass it onto the development team in a form that they can work with. Basically I create a website to look like Paul’s design. If it was a building, my end product would be an empty structure with no plumbing, no electric. It looks, however, like a finished product.

Ross is a web developer (in fact he’s the boss of development). Ross’ job is to take my website and make it work. Again, using the building analogy, Ross puts in all the plumbing, wiring and generally makes the building/website functional. Nothing much changes visually, but the website will actually start working as intended.

Every change that one of the three makes can affect the other two. Ross can’t add new pages without making sure Paul has a design for them, just as Paul can’t add pages into the design that haven’t been agreed upon by the development team. Without clear boundaries there are a thousand ways a developer and designer can start treading on each others’ toes.

The most important thing to know before you start creating a website is to know what it will do. Where does this link go? What should this button do? What text boxes should be on this form? If you know all this, then Paul can create a design that incorporates every facet of the finished website. Jamie can build the website with development in mind, and Ross can work efficiently without having pages redesigned to incorporate functionality that wasn’t thought of in advance.

What happens if you do not plan ahead? Designers and developers will trip over each other making changes and progress will slow while every change is run by the client repeatedly. And at the end you might have a website that makes a lot of noise but doesn’t go very far. This blunderbuss of a website will cost a great deal more than it should have.

Managing Micro Budget PPC Campaigns

2008-07-29T18:09:00.002+01:00

This is the first part of Pay Per Click campaign management blog posts. I will be posting more tips and tricks here that will help you manage your PPC campaign effectively.

As new entrants in the market (or an old player with unoptimised website), small and local businesses need immediate clicks and customers. Achieving higher organic listings in search engines can take time, sometimes over six months.

Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising can be an effective short term online marketing strategy for managers who are desperate for their websites to be found on search engines quickly. However, small businesses with micro or small budgets often find themselves competing with big rivals, who have more resources and budget to spend online. SMEs have to utilise their resources intelligently and often they do not as they try to cut corners and do things themselves without knowing the tricks of the trade.

Managing a micro PPC budget (typically less than £500 p.m.) is a tough job for marketing managers. However, by following some simple rules given below, they can use their PPC budgets wisely to get the most of the paid clicks.

1. First of all, use your website analytics data to find out some of the keywords people type in to reach your website. If you don’t have analytics code set up on your website, ask your web master to install it - it's a must.

2. Think like a customer. If you were a customer, what phrase would you use to find your services/products. When you've got a list, think again. Check with your colleagues, friends or family members to see you are along the right lines. We've seen that you get the best results if you involve some customers (prospective customers) in this “keywords research”.

3. Create your first keywords list. It is safer to select only those keywords which are relevant to your product or service. Often we see that customers come up with vague words around their business which are not specific to them at all. Don't push yourself to create a "fantastic long list of keywords".

Choosing keywords which have little or no relevancy to your business would only waste your budget. Select only a sensible number of keywords and spend more on phrases which are mostly clicked by users.

4. The next thing to do is to create a list of negative keywords in your campaign. You have a small budget to spend, you can't afford paying for clicks look relevant to your offers but actually they are not. Negative PPC words are those which you DON'T want your adverts to appear for when searching for your services. Often these include the words 'free', 'cheap' or places where you do not want to get clients e.g. Manchester if you are based in Dorset.

For example, while working on a PPC campaign for a client offering “fleet management services”, I found people searching for fleet management software. In that particular case, I added keywords like software, systems, computer etc in negative keywords list of the campaign. This trick saved approximately 35% budget of my client, that otherwise would have gone for wrong clicks.

We will be posting more PPC tips and tricks on here in the coming weeks. If you'd like to share any others, please leave a comment below.

Our charity bike ride is tomorrow!

2008-07-11T16:32:00.006+01:00

Bikes, bikes and more bikes! We just can't get enough of them and our big charity bike ride is now only one day away! So far we have raised just under £2,000 for Julia's House and The Youth Cancer Trust, we need to raise a further £3,000 by the end of the year so please keep donating!

Thank you to all those who have donated, it’s much appreciated!

We would like to say a huge thank you to Primera Bike Shop and The Connaught Hotel in Bournemouth for being our main sponsors, also to several local companies that have helped us out through out these last few months, you know who you are!

Tomorrow at 9am we will be starting our 80 mile cycle ride from our Surrey office, reaching our Bournemouth office around 6pm (hopefully earlier!). I will let you know how it went on Monday!

Happy birthday to us!

2008-07-01T16:47:00.004+01:00

Today is our fifth birthday here at Adido. It is very strange to think that what seems like just a few months ago, the original Directors here sat down and signed the relevant bits of paper to make Adido come to life. In the past five years so much has happened that it would take forever to write it all down here (and I'm sure it would bore most people).

Needless to say, we're very happy how the company has developed in that time. There have been some 'tricky times', times when things haven't gone as we've expected and times when we've surprised even ourselves at what we can achieve.

We've grown from four working in a living room to thirteen full time staff spread across offices in Dorset, Hampshire and Surrey. We've been able to make a real difference to loads of msall and large companies, either improving the way they work (and getting many, many thank yous in the process) to helping our clients improve their online sales, normally with dramatic effect. We now have a great team of web experts, each specialised in their own field, and we're all working to improve the way we work to make everyones experience that much better.

So, here's to the next five years everyone! We look forward to working with you...

Are Social Networks Low Value Traffic Sources?

2008-07-01T12:12:00.012+01:00

Nothing new in Jakob Nielsen's new article, it is pretty much same what SEO and Analytics community has been advocating for years. Unique visitors are not an effective way to measure traffic, you will most likely wish getting most of the traffic from loyal users and search engines.

However, in his latest article, Reduce Bounce Rates: Fight for the Second Click usability guru Jakob Nielsen definitely undermines the value of social networks. He believes traffic from Digg is of "low value” as diggers are notoriously fickle and leave the site immediately, once they've satisfied their idle curiosity.

I think it is not the case, diggers are witty, they don't waste their time. You must have interesting and relevant content on your website to engage your visitors with website.

Do you believe in Jakob Nielsen? Post your comments here.

The decline of traditional marketing Vs the growth of online marketing

2008-06-24T13:51:00.003+01:00

I joined Adido after studying marketing at Southampton Solent University and throughout my three years there we not once taught about online marketing techniques. Given the growth in online spending in the last few years it now seems strange why we didn’t even cover some of the basics of online marketing.

Given the current financial climate, I’m glad I know about online marketing now but wonder why more companies don’t make more use of effective online marketing strategies which can help businesses outperform the competition and stay ahead of the game?

The growth of the internet within our homes, work and education has brought many very distinctive benefits to marketing. Online marketing lowers costs of distribution to a vast amount of people, and can bring you an immediate global audience if you want it (although most SMEs still need to have a local presence).

Traditional marketing is normally the most expensive way of advertising and in the current financial climate businesses are trying to cut back on costs. However I’ve learnt that Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) are both online marketing methods which can be controlled in-house where the out-goings and results can easily be monitored.

I’m not the only one who thinks that traditional advertising is on its way out, Wikipedia also agrees that online marketing is cost effective;

“Internet marketing is relatively inexpensive when compared to the ratio of cost against the reach of the target audience. Companies can reach a wide audience for a small fraction of traditional advertising budgets. (Wikipedia, 2008)”

So can the traditional marketing methods be repaired and make a come back?

Well…I’m not too sure about this question, working alongside SEO and PPC professionals has made me realise that these methods are easier, more cost effective, save time, have a better response rate and can reach a vast audience with a click of a button. However, I’ve also learnt that most people need some help from an SEO/PPC professional to get the best results (like us!)!

I’m not saying that the traditional marketing methods do not work anymore as they do for specific products and brands, however for most SMEs I would definitely recommend using online marketing techniques first to get the most from smaller budgets.

The ever changing face of my PC screen...

2008-06-12T00:15:00.004+01:00

You know, sooner or later, we won't have TVs. We won't have videos or DVDs. We won't even have a record/CD player in our homes. Why? Because our PCs are fast becoming the centre of our entertainment world. I'm not going to start talking about media centres here, as that's something for another day...

However, what has interested me this year, is the amount of live/streaming video which is being put online. The BBC and ITV are both showing Euro 2008 matches LIVE via their websites. Even just four years ago for the European Championships to be streamed live would have been unthinkable and/or technically not possible. But the BBC and ITV have realised that a) This is increasingly where their customers are heading and b) That there is a very real demand for this type of service.

I can speak from my own experience in both of these cases, as I can often watch sport online while my girlfriend decides to choose something less interesting :) It's not just the beautiful game which you can watch online. The BBC iPlayer has dozens of shows online, as does 4OD, along with many, many other video sharing websites. For those a bit more technical, you can even watch TV programs from around the world using many of the live streaming software programs which are freely available.

I'm interested to see the big players' moves in this arena. For many 'techy' types (like myself I guess) the thought of using your PC/laptop as your TV is not anything new. A small minority of people have been doing this for quite some time. But in the years to come, I think we'll start to see all traditional programming provided over the Internet, probably available for free and probably available at any time you want. This will most likely be funded by advertising, and if you look at some of the shows online already, you will start to see adverts appear prior to your program loading (many believe this is how YouTube could be monetised in the coming years)

It will be interesting to see how much more time we find ourselves set in front of our PC screens in the future. We could end up in world where it really is the only thing that we need, not only for work, but also for entertainment. This culture shift will also have a massive knock on effect for the advertising industry, with advertisers being able to communicate their messages to a much more refined audience and hopefully achieving a much better ROI.

BEWARE! - Google Adwords Phishing Scam Emails

2008-06-04T15:21:00.006+01:00

GOOGLE ADWORDS PHISHING SCAM - BE AWARE!

I have just been made aware of some dodgy 'phishing' emails which are sent out which look like they have come from Google Adwords. The email looks exactly the same as the normal Google Adwords emails, but the link goes to a very bad website which will try and take your Google Adwords login details.

Here is the email text;

-------------------------
Dear Google AdWords Customer,

We were unable to process your payment.
Your ads will be suspended soon unless we can process your payment.
To prevent your ads from being suspended, please update your payment information.

Please sign in
to your account at http://adwords.google.com/select/login,
and update your payment information.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you for advertising with Google AdWords. We look forward to
providing you with the most effective advertising available.

Sincerely,

The Google AdWords Team
-------------------------

If you receive this email and are taken to this website;

http://www.adwords.google.com.startopl.cn/select/Login/

Which looks the same as a normal Google Adwords login screen but it isn't. Whatever you do...

DO NOT ENTER YOUR ADWORDS ACCOUNT INFORMATION!

The website is set up to take your details and then exploit your account and credit card information. This practise is known as 'phishing' and unfortunately happens all the time with online banking and eBay accounts, but now it looks like they have gone after Google Adwords customers.

If you have any more information/details about this phishing scam or any others which are 'doing the rounds', please let us know.

The new G - should we be bothered?

2008-06-03T21:46:00.004+01:00

Sometimes in the world of web design blogs and the internet blogsphere, many things are discussed and talked about. Most of the time these things are really worthy of discussion and provide great insights into the industry. Sometimes however, they are not.

I noticed today that Google had changed its 'favicon'. For those of you who don't know, the favicon is the icon which is shown in the tab/address bar when you are using Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox. Here is an example;

When I noticed this, I thought it was strange and didn't look that good. That was about as far as it went. However, this has been picked up by the blogsphere and has been discussed in many places. Here, here and here. There is also an official statement from Google!

"We recognized there was a need for a Google icon that would better work across multiple applications including web, mobile and client applications. We felt the small 'g' had many of the characteristics that best represent our brand: it's simple, playful, and unique. We will be looking to improve and enhance this icon as we move forward."

Personally, I think there are more important things to write about. Is this really newsworthy? And yes, I am fully aware of writing this post is very, very contradictory to the point I am trying to make :)

Yahoo for Ladies

2008-04-01T16:39:00.010+01:00

Though Microsoft may find sufficient reasons not to raise it's bid to overtake internet pioneer, Yahoo is continuously expanding its content network.

Yahoo has rolled out a new content rich site, Shine targeting the female Internet community between ages 25 and 54. The new site is a combination of original content, female bloggers as well as content from popular female publications. Yahoo explains the Shine, in there About Shine page:

When we started talking about creating a new website for women, we wanted to avoid all of the common categories that advertisers or marketers tend to put us in. We didn’t want to be a site just for moms or just for single women or working women, or any specific demo- or psychographic. We wanted to create a smart, dynamic place for women to gather, get info and to connect with each other and the world around them.

Yahoo is confident in it's latest move to compete with arch rival Google AdSense, as they believe women pay attention to ads.

Google turns the lights out

2008-03-29T17:18:00.004Z

Earlier today Google changed their home page as part of 'Earth Hour'. To mark this occasion they made the background colour of the Google search page black instead of white. The idea being that screens which output white require more electricity, so changing to black saves energy, as well obviously signifying that we should all switch off more.

Exciting stuff eh?

Where will SEO be in five years?

2008-03-28T18:15:00.003Z

One of the best questions to come from my talk in Southampton today was related to the future of SEO. Following on from my point that most people click on the left hand side of the search engine results pages (SERPs) or 'natural listings' or 'free listings', as opposed to the Pay Per Click listings. The gentleman in the audience wondered where SEO will be in five years time? If everyone cottons on the facts that SEO is a good thing and results in great things for their business (more sales, more brand awareness, beating the competition etc) then how will businesses be able to optimise their website and get it to the top of the search results?

This is something that I've seen a lot of in the last few months and was going to write about anyway. Already the competitive phrases all pull up very similar looking results, as most companies start to target the same phrases and use the same techniques (e.g. improving title tags, writing great META descriptions).

An example is shown below for 'chocolate fountains'

As you can see here, nearly every website has the phrase 'chocolate fountains' mentioned twice. This results in the pages looking very similar as the key phrases is highlighted in bold. As all of the websites are highlighted, there is little differentiation between the listings. As a result the user is going to find it difficult to make a decision between clicking on the first listing or the fifth.

It is a not very well known fact that 42% of searchers hit the first result regardless of what is returned. However, if all of the results look the same, will this still be the case? Will people trust Google to still give them the best result, or will they see a page of bold text and results all looking the same and not bother?

I would assume that Google are watching this activity very carefully to analyse the effect of optimisation on rankings, perhaps even to the point where they don't use the bold matching on some occasions.

Maybe in five years time, we might not be even worried about Google rankings and all searches maybe carried out in some other way or with some other company (Facebook? MySpace? Someone else?).

In the mean time though, companies serious about the Internet and getting the best results should look to maximise their returns through effective search engine optimisation. We're happy to talk to any company who wants to do this :)

If you have any views about where SEO is heading or where you think it will be in five years, please share your views with us below.

Benefits of social networking - follow up questions

2008-03-28T08:32:00.003Z

Despite the modest turnout to our second seminar this year titled 'The Benefits of social networks for business', the event went very well and the feedback from the attendees was very positive. It occurred to me that alot of SME's still not have much of an idea of what social networks are, how to benefit from using social networks or just how it can be applied to their business.

I gave a couple of examples of where companies have successfully used the power of social networks to become experts in their field, increase brand awareness or improved sales. The ideas and examples presented really got people thinking about how it can be applied to their business and I had some good questions from the audience. Below lists some the questions asked;

How easy is it to create a podcast or video for YouTube?
In basic terms, creating your own podcast or video for social networks is very easy. All you need is a piece of recording equipment such as a microphone or hand held video and a PC to edit the content. The real challenge is coming up with something interesting, unique or useful for your audience. The other big challenge is putting it in the right places where people will see it. One of the best places of doing this is to create a profile on a social network (e.g. ecademy if you are a business) and then 'get to know' other people with similar interests to yourself.

How easy is it to create your own social network?
Creating your own social network isn't an easy task, you will need the help of a good web design company to make it happen. Creating your own social network should also only be done as part of a companies online strategy who feel that their audience really needs a social network for their specific needs. Getting people to know about it and partake in it is a very difficult task and one which would require a lot of marketing effort on behalf of the company. However, it is can be made to work then the advertising, branding and research opportunities are potentially endless.

How do I get into a social network?
Getting into social networks is very easy. All you need to do is create an account with any of the social networks you would like to get involved with and you're off and running. As I have said, it is better to do a bit of research before committing to a network. In my opinion it is better to focus on one (possibly two) network so that you are better known in that place, rather than being spread too thin across a variety of places. Once you've built up a reputation in one place, it should be easier to transfer that reputation across with you.

What are the best social networks to be on for business?
I am not an expert on which social network is 'best'. To give the annoying answer, it would depend on your line of business. If you're selling to the over 50's, then maybe SagaZone is best. If you are looking to sell to people aboard, then you would have different options compared to someone focused in the UK.

The general consensus for the best social networks to get involved with for businesses in the UK is either Ecademy or LinkedIn.

Where can I find a list of the best social networks around?
Surprise, surprise, the lovely people of Wikipedia have put together a list of social networks which lists the main players as well as where they are located and who uses them.

How can I stop my photos being used on social networks (what are the copyright issues?)
We didn't cover this in much detail as it is not one of my specific areas of expertise. One of the best places to start when protecting your material online is the Creative Commons license website.

If you have any more questions relating to social networks and how to get the most benefit from them, please feel free to ask a question!

Google analytics seminar follow up - More questions answered

2008-03-26T11:39:00.004Z

Today I gave a talk to a Business Link networking group in Winchester, Hampshire. The talk was a sell out but unfortunately not everyone made it along to hear my presentation entitled 'Understanding Google Analytics'.

The talk was largely the same as the seminar we held in Poole a few weeks back with a few slides removed. Again, I like to think that I gave the audience plenty of food for thought, especially with regards to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for websites, 99% of people do not have these, so I hope I gave them something to focus on. I will share these on here in the coming weeks...

There were several questions after the talk which I have answered below;

Is there any way for Google Analytics to know about my website BEFORE I add the code to it?

The gentleman who asked this question wanted to know if it was possible to 'back date' the analytics information showing on his account. Unfortunately it is not possible to know this information, as Google Analytics can only collect information once it has been installed, not before. I referred the gentleman to Compete, which can give you rough information about yours and other websites based on information from ISPs. This rarely gives feedback on low traffic websites so is definitely not a replacement for you own good information.

The other option is to use an alternative website statistics package and then getting the raw log files from the server (you'd have to ask you web hosts for this) and then analysing them like that. Not a pretty solution but it could give some information about what has happened in the past.

How do you remove yourself from the Analytics's reports?

I mentioned the 'filter' options as something which is useful when it comes to understanding more about your website. I didn't go into this as I felt it was a bit techy for some, but it can easily be achieved. I could explain all about how this work but I think it's easier if Google explain how filters work in more detail...

What are longtail keywords in Google Analytics?

I gave a couple of examples of how GA can be used to identify the best long tail keywords for your website (if you don't know what the longtail is, you really need to go here!). In basic terms, Google Analytics shows you all of the phrases which people have typed in to get to your website. At the same time (provided you implemented the things I suggested :) you should also know what words were typed in to get people 'converting'.

Therefore, by looking at the graphs that Google Anayltics draws for you and spending a few minutes looking at the information available, you should be able to see the longtail working and where the best results are coming from on the website.

There were a couple more questions but after two more meetings today, I really can't remember what they were now! If they come back to me, I'll try and post here.

If you would like to ask any more questions about Google Anayltics, leave a comment below

An example of how a poor website can effect your business - a business leaders point of view

2008-03-25T14:22:00.016Z

As a fellow business leader, I wanted to share with you how a badly designed website or a poorly updated website can seriously affect the bottom line of your business when it comes to gaining new contracts.

Back in 07, I was with a new client discussing their website, and as part of the brief I asked how the current old site has affected their business. They told me how they lost a large contract with plenty of ongoing work due to the fact they had an old, outdated and poorly designed website, which was not good as they were in the process of growing their business and this contract played a large part of this growth.

Let me share with you how this happened. The website had not been updated in years, they had no control over it and the design was seriously dated and looked very unprofessional. As they tendered for this new contract, all was going well, in fact they were about to sign on the dotted line except they needed the approval from the Board of Directors from the holding company (this should have been only a pen pushing exercise) as my client was the preferred supplier and was going to be appointed the contract. The Board of Directors on this occasion decided to look at the website of my new client to check out who they were, and when the saw the old website they stopped the contract and enforced that a new company was found.

Now this is only one example that they were told about, god knows how many more they could have lost due to a poorly designed outdated website, this when they brought us in to solve this.

Businesses must realise that their website is a critical part of their brand and cannot afford to take shortcuts when designing their website and having control over it.

Three talks in a week!

2008-03-24T22:27:00.004Z

So, the Easter holidays are over for another year and the four days off has certainly helped the batteries recharge a little. Which is very good for me as this week I'll be giving three talks to various businesses in Hampshire and Dorset, spreading my words of wisdom about web design and online marketing.

If anyone is interested in coming along, the three talks are as follows;

Wednesday 26th March - 7am - 10am - Understanding Google Analytics
This will be very much along the lines of the talk which I gave a few weeks ago in Poole, Dorset. I'll be examining how Google Analytics can be used to get better understanding of how your website is working and how best to capitalise on the information.

Book here - http://www.businesslinkhampshireiow.co.uk/events/
results.aspx?keywords=&EventSubjects=412

Thursday 27th March - 5.30pm - 7.30pm - Benefits of social networking sites for businesses
Going on from the presentation I gave last year in Dorset, this talk will be looking further into social networks and getting to grips with how they can be used to benefits businesses looking to target more clients online.

Book here -
http://www.adido-solutions.com/resources/events/dorset-events.aspx

Friday 28th March - 12pm - 2pm - Discover the power of PR and website marketing
I will be presenting with national PR and marketing agency Aylesworth Fleming to talk about how PR, both offline and online, can be used to increase exposure for businesses to help reach new markets.

Book here -
http://www.adido-solutions.com/cms/site/news/
adido_and_aylesworth_fleming_pr_one_off_seminar_.aspx

I always like giving presentations. It helps me to clarify things in my own head sometimes and also allows me to put down how these technologies work in the simplest terms so that anyone can understand them. Standing on stage and talking for 45+ minutes isn't easy and the hardest part I find is actually knowing which level to pitch the talks at. Are the people in the crowd new to this? Have they been doing it for years?

My assumption is always that a certain percentage of people will come along because they may have heard about whatever subject it is, without knowing anything about it, so if I target the talk for them, then at least everyone should be able to understand. (e.g. What does SEO mean? PPC - how does that work?, What on earth are social networks? What's the future of the Internet? I want to know about web design basics etc)

Do I get it right all the time? Probably not, but I've got a lot better and more confident over the years and the feedback seems to be more positive.

I guess getting 'engagement' face-to-face is a lot easier than online!

Conversational media Vs Traditional media - Will the winner please listen up?

2008-03-18T21:08:00.005Z

One of the big areas of speculation from the mainstream 'people in the know' is where advertising and marketing is heading online. It appears the big media players are all fighting it out to create massive ad networks, buy buying numerous media properties/networks, to supply the media agencies and please the publishers at the same time.

In a very good article by John Battelle today discussing the growth & creation of ad networks, he mentions the power of 'conversational marketing' and how big companies have yet to figure out how to make the most of it and make it scalable, especially in relation to building brands online.

I was watching TV tonight and saw an advert for Shredded Wheat cereal;

and realised that some times getting the right message across is very difficult.

In this Shredded Wheat example, all I can see when I watch the advert is the ad agency sat in the big office coming up with ideas on whiteboards, not the people talking. I know it's not real and I'm not engaged with it. I can see why the idea of various people talking about how great the various features of the product could be good. Yes, it will work for a lot of people. Unfortunately I've become so involved/cynical about the whole 'mass media' advertising process that all I see are story boards and people sat in big offices coming up with lines to use on the advert.

The use of aged people = targeting the different demographics, very clever. The fact there are no artificial flavourings or colours = appeal to the health conscious consumer etc etc.

Big ad agencies are very used to creating adverts in this way, as pointed out by Mr Battelle. However can the message be conveyed in a better through conversational media and channels? The use of this new medium, conversational marketing, where communication is to two way, rather than one, is a big change and one which will appeal to different audiences. But with more and more ad spend going online and more and more time being spent online (up to six hours a week), how long is going to be before companies and agencies 'get' that broadcasting your messages isn't the best way to communicate?

Listening is becoming more important than ever, especially online, and companies who 'get' that, will succeed online.

How to remove yourself from Google

2008-03-12T12:33:00.009Z

Being a web design company full of 'web gurus' (hey, these aren't my words, they're our clients!) we often get asked weird and wonderful questions about web design, online promotion, Google and anything else which people are unsure about when it comes to the Interweb. Most of the time these questions are asked to help companies get a better understanding of the Internet and how to make the most from their investments.

However, there are occasions when there are more serious issues which need to be resolved. Something which I've been asked several times is 'How do I remove myself from the Google listings?'. Unfortunately when I've been asked this question in the past, the reasons haven't been particularly favourable and often there is a very good & legitimate reason for someone to have their information removed from the listings.

Regrettably getting information taken out of the Google listing or Google search results pages, isn't very easy and the tools available to remove yourself are limited.

One of the easiest ways to try to remove yourself, is by using the Google Webpage Removal Request Tool (bit of a mouthful!). This tool allows you to submit a request to remove a webpage or yourself from the Google Index and to submit a reason why.

One important thing to remember though, you can only submit a request to Google to remove a page. It is up to them to review your request and so they may so Yes but may also say No. There are no guarantees that the web page will be removed. So it is up to you to make your description & reason compelling enough.

However, if you have a Google Account, then your submission can be logged and you can check to see it's status at any point to monitor its progress.

Provide you have a good, legitimate reason, then you should be able to page the page removed from Google. I have used this tool successfully in the past so know that it works (eventually).

If you've any other experiences or questions about removing yourself from Google, we'd like to hear it! Leave a comment below!