More business is being done online – so where are you at?

When you switch on the news or logon to a news website all you hear is the doom and gloom of the recession. There are always winners and opportunities at times like these, and it is making sure you are on the right side of it.

Looking at some statistics always focus’s the mind on the opportunities:

  • In the UK people spend more time online than in any other European country, averaging 33 hours per month. That’s 8 hours a week, double the time spent reading newspapers and magazines. (comScore World Metrix, Sep 200, JupiterResearch, ‘Media Consumption Patterns: Online Vies with TV As Primary Medium)
  • 30% of consumers are more actively seeking out promotions than they were 12 months ago. (The Retail Bulletin ‘Consumers seek out promotions as economic downturn bites’, Jun 2008)
  • 73% of users find search engines an important resource when researching a product, ahead of personal recommendations (63%). (EIAA Mediascope Europe Study, Nov 2007)
  • Around 30% of online consumers in the UK, France and Germany post a comment to an online newsgroup or a website during a typical week. (Harris Interactive ‘Digital Influence Index’, Jun 2008)
  • Social networks now receive one in, every five page impressions in the UK.— Hitwise ‘The Impact of Social Networking in the UK’, Nov 2007

What this means for businesses is that:

  • More people are spending more time online.
  • The user of search engines when researching a purchase is key.
  • More people are searching for discounts and vouchers
  • People are actively getting involved with online communities and posting comments.

Getting involved in doing business online is key to surviving the rocky road ahead. The slow down will drive the adoption of new technologies and the use of the internet.

Businesses that embrace the new technologies and building business online will grow their competitive advantage. Companies that ignore online marketing, do so at their peril.

Google Glitch on Saturday 31st Jan

I was at my brothers this weekend and made chocolate muffins with my nieces. I went to Google to search for buttercream icing and got the warning on all search engine listings ‘ malware warning: “This site may harm your computer,”.

I initially thought it was the MAC I was using but then decided it had to be Google and perhaps it had been hacked or something. Anyhow, it didn’t last for long and I got the recipe (and the muffins were yummy!).

Anyhow yesterday in the news the headlines were:Google Glitch Briefly Shuts Down Search Engine Saturday

I then wondered what was the impact of this glitch on traffic to websites on Saturday and if this had a real impact on the bottom line for companies. I hear that it was down for 1/2 an hour and the data from the website analytics would reflect this. Looking at the websites that I manage, this downtime in Google must have been for quite a short time – as there is no correlation in a drop in traffic or sales for that day.

The traffic was slightly lower than for other saturdays but who can tell what is an average day anyway in these erratic economic times!

 

SearchWiki – the future of search?

Back in November 08, Google released SearchWiki where you can customise your own search, by adding, deleting, re-rank or comment on search results. You can write notes to a particular site and these results will be shown every time you re-do the search. This is only available for signed in Google account users.

Long term, if Google is storing the data on people’s custom ranking, will it use this data to determine search listings? Microsoft also launched a similar beta project last year where people could post their ratings on a site.

So what does this mean for web masters?
In October Google launched their search engine optimisation starter guide and on page 22 which talks about opening dialogue with the commnuity that you service. This would take it to another level – so based on customer ratings your site could rank higher than those who haven’t engaged with their customers / community and haven’t got good ratings………Certainly food for thought for where the future of search could be going!

Guerrilla Social Media Marketing – short term win, long term gains

I came across this blog on social media marketing on one of the Linked In groups that I participate in. I have used similar techniques before but never really thought about the terminology for what to call it.

This technique is probably used already by some companies launching a new product or service as a method of promotion. The challenges of using guerrilla social media marketing is to engage with customers for the long term rather than for a short term win. People will see through the initial ‘discount voucher’ or initial effort.

It is about building an online profile on the various different sites. Once other users recognise you as a valuable resource for information you become more powerful in that community. Your bookmarks, articles, submissions etc take on greater value than any anonymous contributions. The ultimate goal is the power of influence. Once you have a voice in the community marketing becomes a soft sell rather than a hard one. Which is why companies need to be in for the long haul on social media marketing than for a quick win!

Content is King – how could you forget!

Over Christmas and New Year I was reading various email newsletters and blogs that I follow. The Google blog is one I follow closely as they frequently give great information on search engines and new product they are launching / upgrading.

Going back to basics on search engine marketing is probably one of the key aspects I have implemented this year. It is really easy to get caught up in link building campaigns or social media marketing. Adding good relevant content on a site is the key to engaging with your site users and potenitally building great inbound links. There was a posting in October on the Google blog about how to generate inbound links into your site through site content.

I am a firm believer that ‘merit based inbound links’ in the future will have a greater weighting in the algorithms than directory or purchased links. So web site owners need to be investing in adding content to their site to make the most of this opportunity.

Adding content is key to growing rankings for any website. Forget trying to re-optimise existing content or tweaking key word denisities on a page.

So how can you grow content on your site:

  1. Set up a blog and integrate it into your website – and give commentary and insights into your industry. Ensure you blog on a regular basis, so your passion and commitment grows your credibility.
  • Participate in forums in your industry – as this will drive traffic to your site – and will drive traffic to your new content.
  • Think laterally about the content that you can upload to the site– it might be your take on an article in an industry publication or that you have launched a new product. What ever you decide is appropriate for your website, I recommend that you look at creating a content plan for the year. So you have a plan of how your site content will grow, rather than haphazardly adding content. That way you can be more focused around the key phrases you want to target.
  • Be committed – some clients think that once they have got their site live, it’s the end of the project and they can sit back and wait for the rankings. How wrong can they be? It is the start of the journey, and the clients need to be committed in terms of time and cost (to either invest in a content management system or for a maintenance contract) to grow their presence in the search engine listings.

Are bounce rates a factor in search engine listings

In Google analytics the definition of bounce rate is:

‘Bounce Rate: Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits (i.e. visits in which the person left your site from the entrance page. Bounce rate is a measure of visit quality and a high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance (landing) pages aren’t relevant to your visitors. You can minimize Bounce Rates by tailoring landing pages to each keyword and ad that you run. Landing pages should provide the information and services that were promised in the ad copy.’

Google can collect user search behaviour through the Google tool bar, analytics and Google Chrome. So they have a complete picture of people’s search behaviour.

Last month a web master did a test which indicated a change as a result in a decrease in bounce rate. Although the test is not conclusive, the chances are bounce rates for specific landing pages is factor included in search engine listings;


So what action do you need to take?

  • High bounce rates can indicate poor content, so look at your pages with high bounce rates. Then run a ranking report on the high volume key phrases and look at the terms the pages are ranking for. The look at the content and ensure it includes some of the search phrases.
  • Improve the usability on the page to make it easy for the visitor to work out where or what to do next

 

Women Tapping on the Glass Ceiling

When I was staying at my parents in November, I was reading the newspaper and breakfast and came across an interesting article that got me thinking.

Women tapping on the glass ceiling talks about the increasing number of women entering the boardrooms of the country’s 100 biggest companies . However, women still account for less than one in 10 of the total number of directors.

I also attended in November an event by Jo Haigh who was promoting her book ‘Tails from the Glass Ceiling’

As a female director of an open source consultancy, we have operated a democratic board of directors and have certainly not felt that I am a lesser person than my male counter parts. We have played to our strengths as a team, irrelevant of gender, which I think is impressive especially in an IT company (which is a male, geeky dominated world!).

However, when I have been to other networking events with senior business leaders, I certainly have felt that that glass ceiling is there. Being younger, female and in IT I have in certain situations felt to challenge some people’s preconceptions and beliefs.

It is too easy to loose sight of our aspirations and need inspiring. I came across the Yorkshire Women in Business Convention which is on the 6th March 2009 in Harrogate, which I’ll definitely be attending.

IoD Yorkshire and Humber Young Directors Forum

Back in the summer I was appointed the Chairman of the IoD Young Directors Forum for Yorkshire and Humber. At the end of 2008, I now reflect on the achievements of the forum this year.

So what is the YDF?
I asked myself the same question when I was appointed – ‘What do we stand for and what’s our vision?’. I am fortunate to have a wonderful committee who are enthusiastic and committed. We spent some time working through our vision and what makes us different.

“Provide emerging leaders with support and development to enable personal and business success. Aim to represent and support views of the forum’s membership in the Yorkshire business community and we will build partnerships with the key power bases in the region to allow this to happen.”

What makes us different to other IoD branches?

  • We are tomorrow’s leaders, today
  • Challenge current IoD thinking and practise
  • Embrace modern ways of working, not held back
  • Latest technology
  • Social networking
  • Link traditional and new works of working
  • Informal | Relaxed | fun
  • People centred

The Plan for 2009
In the current economic climate we have spent time talking to our members about what they want in 2009 and how we can engage with our members. A key message that came back is that people are feeling isolated and are feeling the pressures of running a business.

I would like to develop the membership of the YDF into something of real value where younger members of the IoD can share their experiences and discuss ideas and current issues with their contemporaries. The ultimate aim that we all can develop skills and relationships that will allow us to become business leaders of the future.

Halloween Update in Google – those scary inbound links

With the rise in popularity of social media networking (such as twitter, facebook etc) it is no surprise that Google has revisited the importance of inbound links.

Around Halloween there was an update in Google: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/3777991-2-30.htm which looks like it has devalued directory inbound links. Anyone can get a directory inbound link, but actually embeding your website in the community that it serves is far more challenging?

You may ask what I am talking about……..but this change is fundamental to the ongoing success of any search engine optimisation campaign.

You need to start engaging with your customers and start a ‘dialogue’ with them.
It may be that you want them to start leaving reviews on Google or on Kelkoo. Perhaps you have thought of setting up a forum so people can start leaving comments about the products / services – with the aim of boosting customer service.

Writing relevant content is also imperative to the ongoing success of the SEO. Adding new pages means that the website is growing and changing (which is another criteria Google looks at). but if the article is helping and relevant to users / customers the likelhood of them then blogging about the content, posting it in forums, bookmarketing it on de.li.ous or one of the other social media networking sites, is probable……..

So what do you need to do:

  • Start looking at your content plan and how you can tailor the articles around current & relevant news
  • If you are an e-commerce site manager – look at the ‘thank you’ emails after some one has purchased, and give them an opportunity to write a review or comment on a forum
  • Put in a footer to the other social media networking sites – so it’s easy for people to comment on your site
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On The Web

Your online credibility is an increasingly important way of showcasing your specialised knowledge and expertise which will build your online credibility. As more people engage with the social web differentiating yourself become imperative

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