Printed Business Directories - No Thanks
January 23, 2008
Welovelocal.com, the UK business listings directory recently commissioned a YouGov poll into printed business directories in Great Britain. The results show what we in the search marketing world have known for some time.
35% of British adults polled said they would prefer not to receive such directories. That equates to some 17.5 million unwanted directories, that’s a lot of waste paper.
Other results showed that 51% used the internet to source local business services and 67% trusted word of mouth referrals the most.
Professional search engine marketing companies actively work to increase trust and authority for their clients, knowing full well that word of mouth travels fastest of all online. Review sites are as popular as they have ever been and are an important stage in most searchers buying cycle, mine included. It is important that your business or brand is well represented online and that any negative publicity is balanced.
It just goes to show how much life has changed in the UK, usually we like to try and hang on to our national identity; red phone boxes, pounds sterling etc. but when it comes to having half a tree under the telephone, we seem happy to move on. Good news I say.
No Follow Tag & Internal Linking
January 21, 2008
I still see confusion regarding the no following of internal links all over the web. Well let me clear this up in this very small post. Straight from the lips of Matt Cutts, courtesy of Rand at SEOmoz, you’ll find the definitive answer right here.
The Long Tail - A Beginners Guide
January 21, 2008
As people progress through a natural buying cycle, they use search engines in different ways.
At the research stage a searcher can afford to be very generic and will maybe search a single keyword i.e widgets. This will return a vast amount of information for the user to browse. This browsing in turn leads to a more educated searcher.
The same searcher may call up a search engine later in the day and now search for aluminium widgets, recalling their earlier factual finds. As they narrow down on the widget they want, their search phrase can and will become more accurate. The user knows that by being more accurate, only the most relevant pages will be listed. Their final search may be cheapest pocket sized aluminium widgets.
That phrase is known as a long tail key phrase and is defined by us here at Uberhype as a 3+ word search phrase.
So how does this relate to your online widget shop?
By performing long tail keyword research, we can target in on these phrases and optimise your website accordingly. Your website needs to sell and long tail searchers are typically also known as converters. They have done their research and are ready to buy.
Long tail phrases are by their very nature undersearched when compared to the generic alternative but they deliver a far more targeted customer to your website and the competition for search engine places decreases exponentially. This means we can optimise internal website pages to target long tail widget phrases, leaving the homepage to target the generics and deliver you as much widget related traffic as possible.
A solid internal linking strucure and folder structure is imperative to maximise rankings of internal pages, poorly optimised websites stand little chance of competing.
Next time you enter the buying cycle, pay attention to your searching habits. You’ll fit in the same box as everybody else. When chasing conversions, laser targeted long tail keyword optimisation is the way to increase profits.
iPhone Update
January 21, 2008
I have recently installed the January update for my iPhone and thought I would share some of the new features with you:
- Multiple Home Screens - Cool feature is this. You can now have as many home screens as you like. By holding your finger on a logo, the screen begins to shake and you can then move apps around or by pulling the logo to the left or right, move it onto another home screen entirely. You access the new home screens with a little swipe to the left or right.
- Bookmarks on Home Screen - To complement your multiple home screens, you can bookmark your favourite websites straight to the home screen. This feature is integrated into the Safari browser.
- Maps Upgrade - Hybrid maps now available. Another cool feature is that with one button tap, the map will zoom into your present location.
All good upgrades and has stopped me from wanting to unlock my iPhone for the time being at least, maybe this was Apple’s intention?
Below The Fold - Naughty or Good Sense?
January 21, 2008
Michael Grey recently posted on how Match.com had introduced some static content below the fold. If you read the post you will notice that Michael has listed this under the Gray Hat SEO category, giving away his feelings for this particular method of on page optimisation.
I agree with Michael that the copyright symbol kind of signifies the end of a web page but this is no hard and fast rule and this is easily rectified. With that put to one side, I really cannot see what Match.com have done that could trigger a penalty in Google.
Websites have to be visitor centred, clear and easy to use and Match.com is no different. It looks like any other site of its kind, visually appealing with an easy login system. This section of the web page is immediately visible to the user upon entry to the website. Makes perfect sense to me so far.
In order to create relevancy to their topic, they needed to add some static content to the homepage. They chose to add content below the fold, they didn’t hide it in any way, shape or form and it is relevent to both users and search engines alike. What exactly is the problem here? Is Michael suggesting that Google will now penalise you for your usable, accessible web design with relevant content?
Highly unlikely in my book. Sometimes the SEO world forgets there is also a web design world out there, one where the user takes first priority.
UK Loses Out On New Adsense Referral Rules
January 21, 2008
This has really got my blood boiling. Google have made some modifications to the Adsense referral program that have left us Brits well and truly out in the cold.Now you can only make a commission if you refer somebody to Adsense who lives in North America, Latin America or Japan. That’s right, Google have blanked Europe completely.
All UK bloggers who refer people from their own country simply don’t get paid anymore. Is this Google saying we don’t care about Europe? Sure as hell feels like it doesn’t it?
Facebook and Nokia to Join Forces
January 21, 2008
Rumour has it that the bods at the social networking monster that is Facebook are about to complete a deal with mobile phone maker Nokia. This means we are likely to see FB links featured prominently on future Nokia handsets, maybe reminiscent of the You Tube link on the iPhone’s home screen.
The rumours, although not confirmed by either party seem to revolve around Nokia taking a stake in Facebook. I for one will be interested to see how this pans out and what Nokia’s next move will be, they certainly seem to be moving into the social space with some gusto.
What On Earth Is Crazy Egg?
January 18, 2008
That’s what you’re all wondering right? Well then, allow me to tell you all about it. Crazy Egg is a new and interesting way to track visitors to your website and discover exactly what they are clicking on when they are there. It achieves this by using a series of visual tools and overlays like the heatmap (as seen below) which graphically represents the hottest parts of your site, what people are clicking on the most, giving you instant visual feedback on wether your site design is working or not. Cool eh?
Another function is the confetti overlay which allows you to see where visitors are clicking based on such criteria as search terms, operating system and browser amongst others. Useful for discovering which kind of traffic is clicking your ads the most. Crazy Egg describes itself as for people who:
- Want more ad revenue
- Care what visitors do
- Need to make improvements
- Like things that are easy
Payment plans range from free to $99 a month.