Some helpful SEO tips for your website

SEO is the basic principle of making your site friendly to search engines. It’s important to also get other websites linking to yours. This shows the search engines that you have power. SEO is important to any business because search brings in a lot of visitors to your site. Lots of online businesses rely on this method of promotion for most of their sales and leads. What should you be doing to make sure your website is friendly to the bots? Here are 5 simple tipsfor SEO success and a well balanced website:

Optimise your copy by making rich use of your keywords. Make sure you mention your terms plenty of times so the engines can see what you are about. Reflect this in your titles and header tags. There should be around 150 words of copy on each page. Add images to these to balance the content. Include internal links to other pages on your website so users do not reach dead ends as these may cause visitors to leave the site as they cannot find what they want.

Use Social Media because everyone else is. Social media allows you to connect with users. It also helps with indexing new webpages and your site for the bots. It is proven that using social platforms to promote your site can help it in the rankings.

Get high powered links so the bots can see your site has power. Links from blogs and website with a high Page Rank will help the most. Think quality rather than quantity with links. Powerful sites will funnel some of their juice to your sites through links. Make sure you optimise the anchor text.

Research your keywords so you are targeting the right phrases. Is there enough search volume for your words? There might be better opportunities or words to target. Make sure the words are not too competitive too or you will struggle.

Get listed in directories such as DMOZ. These are free and easy. Some directories will mention your site for free and some require a small fee which is fairly justifiable if it is a bloog directory. These are easy ways to get links from good domains. Social bookmarks also count as directories in a way.

The future of my website project...

As most of you know I run a website called nowtweet.it, a free URL shortener aimed at Twitter users. The site is pretty friendly at the moment but I’m still trying to further develop it and I thought I’d share with you some of my plans for the site.

Firstly, and maybe most importantly, I want to integrate a tweet feed onto the homepage, displaying the most recent @nowtweetit post, in order to keep the site fresh and provide some new readable content for regular visitors. This is all in accordance with my brand engagement of the site to encourage loyal users.

Secondly, I want more prominent social sharing widgets on the site. A ‘follow nowtweet.it on Twitter’ button, or something along those lines, and a more obvious link to the blog. This is further to develop the social presence of the site, which most competitors have failed to do well.

There are also some small development issues to look at, an update all the site copy and titles/descriptions etc and some meta stuff. This is all to give Google something to mull over during the next few months. 

Finally, in terms of future of the site, I am thinking of bringing in a new optimisation and wbesaite auditing service for small business, but keep your eyes posted on this and it could be potential big news!

Peace out xx

Transitions

After 4 years, I have finished University and start an adult job in a week's time. I am in a transition period now, one with no commitments or pressure. It's been 4 years since I last had this. When I finished college I had all summer to be free without pressure, and I was looking forward to the free time this go around.

Since I've been off, I've been bored a lot and not very proactive with my time. I've still been volunteering at the Brighton Chamber of Commerce to fill the odd day, and I leave for Nice in France tomorrow. I've decided I don't like all this free time and I'm actually very excited to start work at Fresh Egg on the 13th. I've discovered that I like to keep busy and I'm not very good with having excessive free time, especially since most my friends work, so can't just take the time off whenever they feel like it.

Education done. Real world starts next week, I'm just going to try to enjoy my holiday for now though :P

Getting your Graduate Job

If you are graduating this year, it's a daunting prospect going into work. You have to search for roles you find interesting, apply for them, attend interviews and hope for success. All this on top of your other commitments such as coursework and paid part-time employment can be really stressful. This encourages people to leaving looking for work to the last minute, and either taking a job they aren't keen or take out of desperation.


I was lucky enough to get offered a job for the company I really wanted to work for when I graduated. When I heard of Fresh Egg and checked out what they did, I instantly knew I wanted to work for them. They oozed passion and expertise in the digital field, and that was exactly where I wanted to be. I applied for a role there, with little experience in Search Engine Optimisation but hoped my passion for the industry and company would be enough for them to take a chance. So, based on my success here are my top 6 tips for getting a graduate job!

1. Be passionate about an industry - It's one thing saying you want to work in business, but you need to be more specific, and develop a genuine interest in a niche sector where you can obtain work. For example do you want to work in finance? Specifically Accounting? Management Accounting? It's best to find a sector you can become passionate about, and this will really come through in your interview if you do your homework.


2. Be passionate about the company - Find companies you want to work for, and go to them, they won't come to you. Show your passion for what they do, and why you should work for them. If a company see a spark in you and you show an interest in what they do, that's a really good way to attract their attention and one of the principle reasons why I think I was offered a role at Fresh Egg. I showed them that I knew what they did, who their clients were, what they could offer them over other agencies, and what they could potentially be doing in the future.


3. Have experience - It sounds really obvious, but you need some relevant experience in your industry. I was lucky enough to have digital marketing experience from my placement year at Rank Interactive. If you don't have any, then be proactive in your search, by offering volunteer work at companies, and again show your passion for why you want to work there. Places like the The Chamber of Commerce are always looking for enthusiastic people to help them out. If you can do things from home to improve your chances; such as building a portfolio or blogging, it will help getting noticed. A portfolio is a great tool to show off what you are made of. Just comprise examples of your work, samples of your blog, and projects you have worked on.


4. Be proactive - Keep looking for work in any situation. You don't have to rely on just websites posting jobs. You can email companies directly, find links and email addresses in press releases and in the local business news. Being proactive shows that you care and have intuitive, and employers can see this as a very strong indicator of a person. Whilst securing my job at Fresh Egg, I continued to stay in touch and arrange interview dates and do anything to move the process forwards.


5. Don't get hung up on salary - People sometimes worry too much about the pay they are initially offered. If it's a good job you want to do, the salary should be an after consideration, as you will be doing something you enjoy. The salary you want will eventually come, but it may not be instant.


6. Network - Always use opportunities to meet business people. You can use websites such as LinkedIn to connect with other professionals, and attend conferences and networking meetings to talk to employers and get a good grasp of the local business scene in your area. You can also follow people on Twitter who work for or own companies you like. You may hear of job openings or new opportunities as well as getting great chances to talk to the people who work at these places.


I hope these steps have been useful and given you some food for thought. You can follow me on Twitter @hybrdoriental or connect with me on LinkedIn. In effort to build my portfolio, you can check out my URL shortening website nowtweet.it and follow the blog, and Twitter @nowtweetit

The world of nowtweet.it

As most of you know, I run my own website nowtweet.it

It dawned on me today how much work I have put in around it!


The build of the site + writing the copy, testing, promoting etc
The initial Google AdWords campaign
The setting up and promotion of a Twitter page (+ ongoing tweets)
The setting up of a nowtweet.it blog (+ ongoing posts)
The revised Google Adwords campaign with multiple Ad Groups
The Facebook company page and attracting follows
The Facebook Ad promoting the fan page (focusing on impressions)
The LinkedIn Ad promoting the site (focusing on impressions)
The LinkedIn company page
Monetising the website and blog with Google Adsense
Putting Facebook 'Like' buttons onto the blog


I hope the popularity of the site goes from strength to strength after all this effort. Its been less than 3 months and the site has already created around 1250 links, with over 22,000 clicks of those links.


Nowtweet.it is the best and easiest URL Shortener around, and I hope you agree!

Brighton SEO Conference 2011

Brighton SEO took place on Friday; a full day of pure SEO geekery! (yeah, so what? :P). The event has grown over the last 3 years from what was a handful of professionals in a pub, to 160 enthusiastic SEO and digital marketing pioneers.

The proceedings kicked off early from 8.30am, where a bombardment of keen SEO's starting registering and taking their seats in the theatre.  People were pushing through the queues, eager to get in. This was typical form for an SEO, always desperate to get to number 1! :P


The day started with a debate on the future existence of SEO, which was actually great! You could see a few bodies squirming in their seats questioning their job security, but the message at the end was constructive. SEO needs to move away from a technical exercise and be treated with more of a marketing discipline. Anticipating the site users wants, needs and behaviour. Things not even Google can know.


Speakers for the day included expects in their relevant fields from Fresh Egg, iCrossing, White Hat Media, Clearleft, Leapfrogg, Propeller Net and Site Visibility. All the talks were well recieved, short and sweet at 20mins a piece, they packed punch, content and some humour. The day was smoothly run by Site Visibility and Kelvin Newman deserves a lot of credit for keeping the day running so smoothly!


What were my highlights? I found the Social Media metrics that Fresh Egg demonstrated early in the day fascinating. It's good to see that social media is starting to become more measurable. Another highlight was from Clearleft, a Brighton based UI company. Harry spoke about Dark Patterns and bad practice in terms of user experience and site design.


It was a great day and there's very positive feedback across the board. It was a great place to network and i really did discover the digital marketing scene is full of nice guys, it isn't cliquey or arrogant. The next Brighton SEO will surely be another great conference.


Twitter:


@FreshEgg
@SiteVisibility
@LeapFrogg
@WhiteHatMedia
@ClearLeft
@iCrossingUK
@PropellerNet
@KelvinNewman


Check the stream out too @ #BrightonSEO

Example AdWords campaigns on my website

This is for my IT382 Digital Marketing module.

This proposed AdWords campaign is for my website: nowtweet.it . The website is a URL shortener optimised for Twitter. Looking at the keywords and discription, I have proposed the following two AdWords Adverts:

Shorten those long URLS
Use Twitter? Shorten your URLS
the simple way with Now tweet it
nowtweet.it

Free Twitter URL Shortener
Nowtweet.it is the best way to get
your long URLs into Twitter!
nowtweet.it/shortenURL

Proposed Keywords: Twitter, URL, shorten URL, shrink URL, tweet, tweet URL, post URL, Twitter tool, free Twitter tool

The estimated search traffic that the Google tool shows is fairly low, but with a limited budget it should be adequate. The campaign can be monitored based on average costs per click and will be shown in countries where Twitter is commonly used; for example the UK, USA, Brazil and Canada.

Comparison of 2 Viral Ads

This is for my IT382 Digital Marketing Module

Blentec Blenders & Levi's Redwire Jeans.

Blentec created a range of popular viral videos demonstrating the strength and versatility of their products, by blending desirable products such as iPads, Nintendo Wii's and other tough objects with their blenders. The videos are presented by the Blentec MD and effectively show the strength of the product with a comedy element. They are generally regarded as some of the most successful viral ads of all times with millions of hits decending upon them. There is a case study here: http://nowtweet.it/fj

On the other side of the spectrum sits Levis, who usually have a good attempt at a viral. This one for their redwire jeans was poor, and to my mind, I see no real reason why people would engage or spread the word of this video. You can find it here: http://nowtweet.it/fb. The dancing boy does not convey the message of the functionality of the new jeans, and it's does not support key messages or value of the brand, unlike Blentec.

Viral ads can go two ways, there is always a risk when launching one, but some just completely miss the mark. 

For IT382 Digital Marketing - Critical Analysis of a blog

Critical analysis for an Ibiza News Blog - http://www.ibizablog.co.uk/

Ibiza Blog focuses on providing Island inhabitants and toursists alike with information, new and listings for the White Isle's top clubs and party venues. There's a regularly updated stream of entries, documenting opening dates for the various bars and clubs. The content is backed up with quotes and Twitter updates from the bars and clubs themselves, and these are displayed on the site.

The navigation provides a list of all the Island's main venues, and shows details on them all. However the site lacks content on other aspects of the island. Although there is nothing wrong with a blog purely based on clubs and bars, the website and name gives the impression there should be more for the site viewers, in terms of reviews and content for other activites in Ibiza.

The site has links to the relevant Facebook pages, and has been monetised with Google Ads, signs that the webmaster knows their stuff. There is also an archive of previous posts. The site offers a good all around information source for people coming to party in Ibiza, however to become a more popular blog and source of information for part revellers, there might need to be more information on flights, accommodation, food and other island activites.

Critical Analysis of an Email Communication from Play.com

This blog is for my Digital Marketing Module.


Play.com email communications arrive roughly twice a week, one just before the weekend, and one just after. I usually open them to see what special offers they are promoting at the time. The most recent one i received was entitled 'Dynamite Deals', advertising products from low prices. These come to me because i subscribed to their newsletter from a recent purchase.


There was no evident personalisation. It is common for emails to personalise the subject line, the content and promotions in the email by using dynamic fields pulling data on a specific customers habits from a database, such as Amazon do. The template is friendly to look at, although very image heavy, which can cause problems for a lot of people as the email is likely to be refused entry to the user's inbox, or filtered into the spam folder. It is best practice for emails to contain a rough 50/50 balance between text an images to optimise it for delivery.


There are two calls to action on the email, found in the images. 'Shop Now', and 'Pre-Order Now' can be found, although the buttons are small and fairly discrete, perhaps not giving the customer much of a reason to click though, although the general email gives off the impression of 'click anywhere to be directed to the complete list of products in the promotion'. The URLs go to a dedicated page for all the products available under 'Dynamite Deals', although there are no alt tags and the functionality of the email is fairly crude. For example the top has navigation to the various product categories, but it is a sole linked image so no matter what you click, you will always be taken to the same page.


I think the email has an attractive design, and gets the point of the promotion across well, however I think the CTA's are weak and the email is badly designed with lack of personalisation and balance of text content, some of the most fundamental properties of a good email campaign. Perhaps Play.com should go back to email marketing 101.

What gives me the right to critique an email from such a big company? Well, I worked for a FTSE company for a year on email marketing and CRM. I was responsible for executing email campaigns across several brands and used personalisation and tailored communications depending on the segment the email was designed for. We were widely regarded as having a good CRM department with communications being relevant, timely and personalised. They always performed to best practice and had some of the best open rates in the industry.


Ps. Don't forget to try my URL shortening service nowtweet.it for your next post :)

My new Twitter URL Shortening Service :)

Last week I launched my own URL shortener to compete against giants such as ow.ly, bit.ly, TinyUrl and others.


I never had the intention of become as big as those, but i wanted to offer an alternative to the big ones, which I don't think come across that friendly. I wanted the most simple user experience possible, with a great, friendly interface, and a nice brand and copywriting. I decided to specifically target Twitter users, as there are a lack of URL shorteners specifically designed for Twitter, probably the most used social platform of URL shorteners.


Now tweet it!


It's been live for 5 days, and has generated well over 100 uses, with an average of 14 clicks on each link produced. Coupled with a basic Google Ads campaign, nowtweet.it has created over 25,000 impressions on search.
I'm really optimistic about the site, and I've had some great feedback. If you haven't checked it out yet, take it a little peak! ;)


nowtweet.it

IT382 Digital Marketing - How Daniel's Article can be applied

This Blog is for my IT382 module. Referencing: Daniel et al (2003) ‘Towards a map of marketing information systems: an inductive study’, European Journal of Marketing, Vol 37, No 5/6, pp821-847


An Application of Daniel's Marketing Information System Map.

Daniel's map is cyclical and demonstrates how ongoing market activity can be adjusted throughout time. Her model demonstrates 4 key areas:

• Define your market
• Create a Value Proposition
• Deliver Value
• Monitor Value

It is possible to carry out these stages, and when monitoring the results, you can go back to the first stage and make ammendments if needed. For example, you may want to redefine your market if you realise it is not lucrative or big enough.

The method in which you create your value proposition can also change depending on consumer taste. The way in which people behave has a big role. More people are online now, with marketing spends online at a record high. This may alter how you create and deliver value. Daniel's model allows this to be assessed and modified accordingly.

Different Marketing Information Systems can be incorporated into this model as the technology becomes available, and sets out a good starting point on creating a valuable proposition for customers.

You can find the full article here:
http://ow.ly/3YkdS

Fortune favours the brave

It's easy to cut back on marketing spend during economical turmoil. There are 3 well known practices for deciding marketing budgets:

• The Economist's view - Supply & Demand. If demand is low, cut back.
• The Accountant's view - Spend as a % of sales/revenue. If revenue is dipping, cut back.
• The Marketers's view - Objective & Task, decide how to increase sales and work backwards.

Why focus on cutting costs, when you can focus on increasing sales?

Much empirical research by PIMS (profit impact of marketing strategy), based on thousands of companies over many years, suggests that companies who invest in marketing an innovation in a recession, come out better. Companies who increase their marketing spend whilst in a recession, whilst competitors are cutting down, are far more likely to be remembered and noticed by consumers when the recovery starts.

You have a company. You are manager. You are a consultant. Whatever you are, you have a database of customers who trust you. Increase your contact with these customers (but don't overdo it!), and remind them of your brand values and why they can shop with you in a recession, perhaps give them a reason, some sort of promotion spend or competition. Keep them happy and pull them through on the other side.

Fortune favours the brave, and those you don't cut the marketing spend await glory.

Customer lifetime value!!!

I'm overdue a blog, and something popped into my mind today...


I'm doing a piece of coursework on the retail marketing strategy of Ikea, and they got me thinking about an interesting topic. Customer lifetime value.


We know the population of the UK is ageing. People are living longer and theres a social demographic shift towards this. First time homeowners are older, and research shows that more people are redecorating their home as an alternative to moving. Ikea are very good maximising customer lifetime. They offer ranges of furniture and homeware for families of any age. And companies such as John Lewis are booming as the only people with money are the older generation.


Companies should use created relationships (which I have been blogging about previously), in attempt to maximise the time that a customer will stay loyal (if there's such a thing) to that brand. Customers who have a relatively young target market should be thinking, 'we have these customers now, but how can we keep them in 5, 10 years down the line'. The population is ageing and yes, this includes your customers! It might be a smart move to keep up with them rather than isolating them.


You can incorporate these ideas into your retention strategy, creating handy segments of customers who are interested in the different products/services you offer. This sort of database management will help you keep contact relevant, keeping everyone happy. The customers you have now, and the customers you still have from before. Sure there might be business growing pains, and some product diversification and extension, and Ikea are a big company, but don't dare to dream!


From cradle to the grave.