If you're thinking of hiring an SEO or are an SEO - this is a must browse
Earlier in January, you may have seen a useful piece of research completed by SEOmoz that looked into the costs and service structure of SEO agencies.
I've included that below, but the main reason for this post is to alert you to this excellent summary by Dan Barker (one of our Expert commentators) which features the UK and, in my opinion, is far clearer and so useful.
You can checkout the full post and research on SEOmoz here.
Turning to the UK data, from Dan, the most interesting for me, which prompts questions you should ask of your agency are...
What services do you provide? Surprisingly few do content creation or promotion - surely a core 2012 SEO technique. A surprising number don't provide link-building recommendations
What charging models do you use? Fixed price is offered by 51.9%, so…
Putting Facebook at the centre of communications strategy including 8 techniques to engage Facebook fans
The brand we're featuring in this case has created the third most engaged Facebook Page in the UK. Although Vets Now is the UK's leading provider of Out Of Hours emergency veterinary care, its not a "megabrand", so it really shows what you can achieve if you get the communications strategy right. In this post I'll review what Vets Now set out to achieve and the lessons they have learnt in their online journey.
Whilst many organisations use social media to prop up, or drive traffic to an existing website, Vets Now took the opposite approach. To build a stand alone community of pet owners (quite literally a MumsNet for pet owners), they and their social media agency Fresh Networks decided to…
An interview covering the process, tools and skills needed to increase conversion, leads and sales
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="246" caption="Karl and Ben at the Googleplex"][/caption]
Many web consultants have relevant-but-similar backgrounds. They're experts at design, or pay-per-click advertising, or another specialty.
But when I recently met Ben Jesson and Karl Blanks from Conversion Rate Experts their background didn't fit the norm. Their company was founded when a real-life rocket scientist teamed up with a internet marketing specialist to look at websites through unconventional eyes.
This unusual perspective has turned out to be highly profitable for their clientele, which includes firms like Google, Vodafone, and Sony.
In this interview we explore how Conversion Rate Experts approaches optimisation since I think companies, agencies and consultants can learn a lot to their approach to returning the commercial returns from websites of all types.
I've asked them about the process…
Value: [rating=5]
Recommended link: Raven GA Config Tool
Our review of the tool
We’ve said many times that Google Analytics is a great tool “out-of-the-box” when you first setup the tags on your site. However, to really get the most from it, it needs a lot of configuration to tailor it for your business as we describe for the new version of Google Analytics in our online training course and Ebook showing 7 Steps to get more from Google Analytics.
I’ve recently discovered this free tool from Raven Tools that I wanted to tell you about since it's a nice tool to help with configuration. It makes some aspects of this an easier process since it steps you through what’s involved for a number of key setup areas of…
Interesting online media trends for 2011 & 2012
Value/Importance: [rating=4]
Recommended link: eFrontier
Our commentary
A fantastic report from eFrontier, looking back over 2011 and with an interesting outlook on 2012. The report covers, in great detail, the spending patterns globally and across multiple platforms (Google vs Facebook for example) for their client base. It certainly sounds like Q4 2011 was the big spending month with regards to YoY growth, with US retail spend up 18% YoY. The key trends for you to consider from the report are:
Mobile spend (specifically tablets) is becoming increasingly important, likely to make up 16-22% of all paid clicks by the end of 2012
Facebook advertising spend will reach 5% of all spend by end 2012
Overall media spend will grow 15% by the end of 2012
You can view the full report here, or checkout the top level…
6 key management issues to include within all social media strategies
Social media marketing is now a mainstream business activity. The State of Social Report 2011 indicating that almost two-thirds of companies say they are now beyond the experimental phase, and are integrating social media efforts with other marketing channels and across business functions. This compares to just over 50% a year ago.
Given this emphasis on social media marketing, in this post I'll review what I see as some of the most important issues arising from marketplace and technology developments in 2011, that need to be considered as part of planning and implementing a social media strategy in 2012.
1. Outsourcing social media
There was a time last year when businesses were being warned away from outsourcing their social media functions. A number of high profile social media mishaps were attributed to the disconnect that can occur when social profiles are out-of-house social, including Eurostar’s…
An infographic emphasising the future skills gap for "data scientists"
I blogged recently and mentioned the importance of new skills being brought into your marketing team, and especially people with computer and mathematical science qualifications being of increasing importance.
I noticed this infographic and thought it was useful for their emphasis of the importance of 'Data Scientists' to the future of companies. It seems there's a growing recognition of the value of applying data to marketing.
As you can see, it seems as if demand for "data scientists" will outstrip supply, indeed it already is. So that's an opportunity for getting an edge in the jobs marketplace. As you might expect, the main challenge isn't lack of tools, it's having the skills to apply them, to ask the right questions and for management to give a supportive framework where time is defined for analysis and decision making based on data.
…
Models of human interactions that help manage the convergence of social media and mobile marketing
Social and mobile are two of the largest growth areas in the technology world. It is therefore inevitable that commentators are keen to identify (and understand how to monetise) convergence between the two. There is great synergy between the two areas. Both are focused on communication, both are undeniably personal and both are very immediate.
Which new propositions can you offer though combining mobile + social?
Whilst a computer is a window onto the web and into your social connections, a mobile, be it an iPhone, iPad or Android smartphone, is your personal window. And unlike a computer it brings extra data and functionality with it. With a mobile, you can share where you are and what you’re doing, generally in a much richer way than a simple status update. This is all becoming fairly commonplace and the…
Our round-up of the best advice on how marketers should respond to the Google Search plus Your World integration
Most are dubbing the latest changes to Google's search engine as some of the largest since its launch. The integration of Google+ with the the new Search plus Your World certainly has the industry buzzing again. As Google's social network grows beyond 90 million users with 60% engaging daily, its influence on personalised search is growing fast and will bring new dimensions to SEO.
Dave Chaffey covered off the initial launch of Google Search plus Your World here if you're looking for an introduction on how it integrates communities, relationships and people into its mainstream search results.
Recommended posts on how to harness Google Search plus Your World
Since its launch, how companies should respond based on the implications for SEO and PPC have been a hot topic. There's been a lot of great advice, so…
You will have 7 days to update within the next few weeks
Value/Importance: [rating=3]
Recommended link: Facebook blog update from 24/01/2012
About this update
You’ll remember the introduction of the Facebook Timeline feature on personal accounts back in September last year?
Well this alert is just a note to say that it will be mandatory for everyone using Facebook within the next week or two. Watch out for the message at the top of your page alerting you that you have seven days to preview and update. I'll need to give it some thought - of course my daughters have had it setup for ages - embarrassing being a late adopter...
Marketing implications of Timeline feature
This is mainly a personal alert to the pending update to your page. The Timeline won’t directly affect company pages since this feature isn’t being made available to these. It will affect placements of ads and…
