Question: Our company is planning to out-source our SEO. We have lots of companies pitching, what are the major things we should be looking for from these agencies before we hire one?
Answer: You will hear many similar promises or processes from SEO agencies so it can be difficult to tell them apart. Based on several SEO pitches I have run for clients and reviewing a lot of proposals talking to a lot of clients on SEO courses, here are 7 important questions that I would advise asking - it"€™s vital that you do all you can to find the best fit possible!
Exactly how will they improve our results? Some SEOs may be unwilling to disclose techniques, but ethical techniques are well understood and documented and so an open relationship about SEO methods is essential. It will aid internal learning as well as ensure that you integrate better. Take an example…
Question: A lot of your posts on SEO seem to be aimed at the expert, do you have something on the basics of SEO?
Answer: That's a fair comment, we have written our 7 Steps guide to SEO for Expert members to be easy to follow for marketers less familiar with SEO. Here's a round up of some of the best guides introducing the basics of SEO.
1. The Google SEO Starter Guide PDF
Best to go straight to the Horses Mouth - this is a great intro with examples, although published in 2008 and not updated since. It underemphasises the importance of backlinks - links from other sites.
Google also a short practical video to SEO for startups.
2. Google How It Works
This is a great visual guide which I've started using when talking to non-search specialists in training - definitely not for SEOs... Nice visuals though.
…
Question: How Do I Get My Customers To Recommend Me To Their Friends?
"€œI am interested in learning more about 'Referral Marketing' and wondered if you have any blogs or references on this subject. Essentially, my boss has asked that I e-mail all of my database with a 'Please talk about us' kind of message. I'm not too keen on this as I think it needs to have a bit more substance? Are there examples out there of people doing these types of e-mails? I'm not necessarily talking about incentivising base customers to talk about us, just nudging them to ask them to recommend us. Is that a 'done thing'?"
Answer:
Just asking people to refer does not work -- after all, why would they? Keep it authentic and treat people as you"€™d wish to be treated, we"€™re all human and it can be annoying if you sense you"€™re being hounded…
Ignoring the power of LinkedIn to drive new business and build relationships is missing a big opportunity for companies small and large alike.
LinkedIn is the first place many larger businesses check out potential suppliers and new hires. Using LinkedIn makes you more visible to existing and potential clients as well as your peers. These reach and growth figures are undeniable:
LinkedIn has over 65 million members in over 200 countries.
A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second, and about half of our members are outside the U.S.
My ten practical tips are aimed at helping you to get more out of LinkedIn.
1 - Complete your profile
Improve how people can find and connect to you by adding past places you have worked, details of your higher and further education (leave out schooling before 18), activities and professional memberships.
You have 1895 characters to create your LinkedIn profile. Do include:
BACKGROUND
HOW WE CAN HELP YOUR COMPANY
CONNECT…
My most popular blog post in the last year has comfortably been the post on buzz monitoring software tools (aka social listening tools). Problem is, there are around 30 tools on the list and of course, there are more not covered.
So the obvious question for the marketer is "how on earth do I decide which tool to select for my company?". Well the original post does categorise the software according to purpose, but selecting the right one needs some assistance.
I had seen some nice case studies about a tool called Social Radar, including this one on the Infegy Buzz Study blog using it to evaluate sentiment around the iPad launch. So when I got a chance to meet and interview Gray Dudek, the Managing Director of Infegy Europe, the creators of Social Radar, I had some obvious questions to ask, and I asked them from a potential…
Tools to determine target keywords are well-established. But new tools - see Market Potential / Market Demand Tools - provide a lot more analysis of market potential or customer demand for products than the established software/systems. Many of these query the excellent Google research database available direct from Google as the Googlr Keyword Tool or Google Insights for Search.
For ideas on using these analysis tools - see this series on Keyphrase analysis by James Gurd.
Most popular keyphrase analysis tools
The best known and longest established keyword tools are:
Google Keyword Planner - Formerly the Google Keyword Tool
Google Trends - good for geographic variation and time series
UberSuggest - Excellent tool for international evaluation
Word Tracker US and UK versions available
Keyword Discovery US and UK versions available
Google Analytics SEO: Queries tool and Google Webmaster Tools Search Queries
Market Potential / Market Demand Tools
These are the newcomers…
A comparison of 36 social media monitoring software tools
There are a bewildering number of social media monitoring tools to choose from. A 2015 comparison of social media listening tools from Ideya Ltd shows that there are around 250 tools available. Of these 191 are paid, with the remainder free or using a combined model.
How to decide which tool(s) is best for you?
Knowing how to decide on the best tool is certainly challenging. This post isn't as comprehensive or up-to-date as the latest Ideya report, thanks to all the merger and acquisition activity in this area, but it compares 36 of the best known social media listening tools including free and paid. If you want to know the free tools go straight to category 4.
The bulk of the work on the original post was completed by a specialist, Michael Brewer of Clerestorey who compiled this comprehensive directory of…
Google tends to favour larger sites belonging to larger companies with well-known brands.
Since more authority and trust is conferred on these sites which have greater scale and more backlinks, smaller and medium businesses (SMEs) have to work harder on their Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to gain prominence in the natural listings of the search engines.
But smaller businesses often have the advantage of being more nimble and dynamic, so if they can take advantage of this flexibility, how can they compete through SEO?
To help answer this question, I asked Susan Hallam, a fellow-trainer and consultant whose clients include smaller businesses. My questions covered five key areas that SMEs should review for their SEO activities:
SEO approaches SMEs can use to help them beat larger rivals in the search listings
Tips on using the Google Local Business…
One of the most interesting aspects of digital marketing currently is watching and advising companies developing strategies for how Twitter can support their business. I did a roundup in Feb 2009 on different approaches businesses are taking in their Twitter strategy.
So, I was pleased to receive a review copy of the Twitter book by @timoreilly who is best known for first defining the Web 2.0 concept and has over 600,000 followers (not bad for a business bod) and @SarahM who is a Twitter specialist who describes herself in her bio as the 21st user of Twitter.
This post gives a brief review of the book and highlights, what for me, were the 10 most useful practical tips for companies developing their Twitter business strategy. Since I like to be useful, I'll also summarise some of the tools I found useful in the book which I wasn't aware of.
…
For effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the importance of building quality backlinks from third party sites to your site is well known. Applying online public relations techniques to support backlink creation is now a core part of the service for all competent SEO agencies and PR agencies.
But how do you assess the approach of the SEO company or improve your own internal process? This interview outlines best practice in using online PR to support SEO from the SEO agency perspective.
In this month"€™s interview I talk to Phil Robinson, the founder and Managing Director of Search Engine Marketing agency Clickthrough Marketing about the processes and tools his SEO team apply to take advantage of online PR. My questions and Phil"€™s answers will step you through some of the…
