Web Hints

Customer Reviews –How to Catch the Savvy Shopper – 5 Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:45:00 +0000

Watch yourself the next time you’re shopping online. You’re almost certainly reading the customer reviews from other buyers of the product you’re looking for before you make your buying decision, and with research showing that 61% of customer read online customer reviews before making a purchase, and 63% are more likely to buy from a site that offers reviews, if you have an e-commerce website, and you’re not offering reviews, you’re almost certainly letting some savvy shoppers slip through the net.

Today’s Times headling reads ‘Savvy Shoppers Weigh Their Options’, and although you need to be subscribed to The Times in order to read this, the gist of it is that we’re making fewer impulse buys, dithering before we decide, and taking time to read what other’s have to say before we click on ‘buy now’.

One of the problems of reviews is that there is a black hole of fake reviews which have been written to order. Read The Guardian, on ‘Fake Reviews Plague Consumer Websites’ which may of course put you off the whole review issue altogether.

However there is a middle line, of real customer reviews, independently written by customer who have actually bought the product. Many e-commerce companies steer away from these because a) they are not free, and b) they will be honest reviews, negative or positive, and who wants to publish a negative review?
Well actually you do. Showing negative reviews when you have the opportunity to show how you have dealt with problems, swiftly and effectively, can be far more profitable than trying to sweep problems under the carpet.

5 Tips to Catching the Savvy Shopper using Customer Reviews

1. Use an independent customer feedback system such as Feefo or eKomi, where an email is generated and sent to the customer post purchase requesting a review. Only those who have purchased may review the product and their experience.

2. Make it obvious on your home page that you are showing customer reviews. More and more shoppers like transparency and the ability to see what others have said. They’re doing it on Facebook and Twitter so let them start with your products on your website.

3. Show your customer reviews on each product page or link to them there, both good and bad reviews. Prospective customers want to get at the truth. They are not going to trust a 100% five star rating. Would you?

4. Make it easy for your customers to review your products by making your questions short and sweet – don’t ask for an essay, but give them the opportunity to write one if they so wish (within reason).

5. Deal with any problems within reviews openly and quickly – you’re more likely to profit from problems and turn customers into advocates by making it obvious how much you care about your customer service. Never allow a negative review to go un-answered.

As we shop more an more online those e-commerce websites not publishing customer reviews will fall further and further behind.

We want to shop from trustworthy retailers, and not all will be household names. Publishing customer reviews encourages a more level playing field by encouraging trust, and shows that you care about your customers and react swiftly to problems.

How to Cancel your Times Subscription the Easy Way

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 11:09:00 +0000

If you want to cancel your Times Subscription you would think that you could just go online, as you can with most websites and click on a few links. Not so the Times. Obviously they don’t want you to cancel……..funny that.

However, as they are just about to double their price for the digital package I decided to switch. Searching for the solution to cancelling my subscription, as there wasn’t much on the website itself, if anything, I came across a lot of complaints.

There is an easy way, of course.

Just pick up the phone and call 0800 018 5177

Choose the cancellation option you’ll be offered and within a couple of seconds you’ll be put through to someone who will then, probably and hopefully, offer to keep the price the same for a period. Or will help you cancel.

Make a note in your calendar when any new offer expires so that you don’t get caught with the price rise later on.

You can also email help@timesplus.co.uk but frankly it was so quick to call I wouldn’t bother, then you have to wait for a response.

It should be much easier to cancel your Times subscription, and smacks of bad practise that you have to call. But it isn’t difficult.

Content Marketing Strategy – The Art of Writing for Readers not Rankings

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Tue, 28 May 2013 10:45:00 +0000

Your content marketing strategy should have changed radically over the past year, particularly if you were one of those employing cheap writers to write articles for you and then spread them over the web in ways you didn’t delve into too hard.

In case you haven’t gathered, Google doesn’t like that anymore for many reasons, most of all because most content creation was part of a marketing strategy to obtain backlinks for ranking purposes predominantly, and frequently didn’t benefit the reader that much.

With this turned on its head two things stand out – that from now on you have to write for your reader first, and SEO second, and that those who will succeed the best at this are those who can both write about your subject specifically, have a good working knowledge of SEO, and therefore an ability to write optimised content.

So Who Should be Writing your Content?

I read only last week but in an undated post, that you should ‘find a fella in India to do your article writing for you’, well nonsense to that. You need people to write your blog posts, email newsletters and social media sharing posts who can understand your subject or product, write grammatically sound content, incorporate your keywords into the relevant content and craft pieces of 400 words plus that are attractive, interesting and useful to read for your market. So cheap writers offering ridiculous prices per article have just fallen off the wall.

Those writers with value now to a successful content marketing strategy are those who can write quality content on niche subjects. Make sure that you have one of those to hand in your niche as this is definitely going to be the trend going forwards.

Quality vs Quantity

Whereas previously it was considered an advantage to create a positive outpouring of content, dripping with keywords, and post it everywhere, now the only thing that matters is the quality of writing and publishing this relevant branded content via your own resources. There’s no question that brands have now become publishers in their own right and the most successful brands have picked this up and are running with it.

You’re not writing for search any more, but putting real people first. Imaging you’re writing for someone specific and that what you’re writing matters, and you’ll get the drift.

Those who are still looking for cheap article writers are about to be left out in the cold and are obviously not keeping abreast of the new content marketing strategy rules. These can benefit you, or work against you. And if you’re wondering why you’ve suddenly slipped in the rankings you need to get up to date fast.

You may also like: Content Marketing 2013: 3 Ways to Optimise your Content

How to Write a Blog – 5 Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Sat, 25 May 2013 11:09:00 +0000

How to Write a Blog - Blogging has become part of all good website managers and brand owners online strategy. Why? Because not only does blogging create constantly updated content which Google loves (and more about that) but more shareable content to drive traffic to your site.

On the subject of Google let’s be clear – there’s no point in writing content of any sort, blogs or otherwise, that is not going to be of interest to your market. Content needs to be well written, relevant to your potential and existing customer base and, most importantly, optimised for your market in a way that matches how you are being searched for.

Blogging without optimisation is like shooting arrows with no target. You may think you know how people are looking for you, but without the proper research, and then using that research to optimise your blog post for search you will be wasting your time. You won’t be found on Google, and you’ll be losing the opportunity to capture the attention of your own market.

Here are 5 Tips on How to Write a Blog.

Make sure you know who you’re writing for – who is your customer, what are they looking for and what makes them buy from you? Always keep your customer in mind when you write, and write for them.

Create a list of posts you’d like to write, or ideas you want to write about, and keep adding to it. Sometimes something will flash into your brain and you’ll immediately put pen to paper (as it were). Sometimes you’ll not be in the mood and it’s harder to get started. With a list of ideas to be developed you’ll always have something waiting to fill the gap.

Do your keyword research – you cannot write an optimised blog post without doing your research. Use the Google Keyword Tool and research your ideas to find out what words and phrases are being used. Then use your main keyword or phrase (at the front) of your title, and heading, and several times throughout your post. This post on Ways to Optimise your Blog Posts for SEO is well worth a read.

Keep your paragraphs short and interesting. No one is going to read acres of content, so no matter now much you want to write make sure you’re interesting, useful to your target market, friendly and to the point.

Keep up the Content – Set a target of the number of posts you want to write – be it daily, every other day or once a week and stick to it. Using your blogging tools you can write posts in advance and set them up for publication.

Blogging can be hard work, but it shouldn’t be too arduous if you think ahead and keep your target market in your sights. And the more you write the more you’ll be noticed. Which is where you started out, after all. Knowing how to write a blog the right way for both your market and search is just the start.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ShopaholicGuide
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And contact me at phd@thesiteguide.com

How to Write Meta Tags for SEO

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Tue, 14 May 2013 15:22:00 +0000

Writing meta tags for SEO is not rocket science, although there are many who would have you think it is. It is time consuming, can be tedious if you have a lot of pages to write meta tags for, and you need a basic level of knowledge about SEO, but when you understand how important your meta tags are for SEO it can become interesting to see the difference good meta tags will make to your website.

Your title meta tag is what appears at the top of your browser, and it will be read by search engines and visitors to your website alike. As a result of Google’s algorithm updates in 2012 which have caught many out and sent them to the foot of the rankings (or page two, at least, which is pretty much the same thing) your title tags are more important in that they not only need to be relevant to the page to which they refer, but they need to be readable, rather than just a string of words.

Here are the basic rules for meta title tags:

Establish your keywords and key phrases with the lowest competition (but a high volume of searches) that best refer to the page you are optimising.

Write your meta title tags for SEO in less than 70 characters and put your main keyword or phrase at the front.

If possible make your title tag form a readable sentence and just use one, or no more than two, keywords or phrases.

Only use the pipe bar | as a separator. No other characters such as hyphens, commas etc.

Put your brand name at the end of your title tag.

Ensure that each meta title tag is relevant to the page to which it refers.

Don’t duplicate, make sure that each meta title tag is unique.

Don’t use too many keywords. If in doubt use one. The days of saying the same thing several different but very similar ways is well and truly over and you will be penalised if you keyword stuff – this applies to anywhere on your website.

Meta Description Tags

Write your meta description tags in a way that is interesting and enticing to readers when your title tag comes up in search. So whilst you’re doing all that keyword research and optimising your meta title tags, you should write readable descriptions to accompany them. Meta descriptions have two functions, therefore, both for Google and to get more clicks through to your website. It’s worth spending some time here.

The basic rules for meta descriptions tags:
The main keyword or phrase should be at the front

Don’t include extraneous characters.

Don’t write anything longer than a couple of sentences, 160 characters is the maximum (you’ll get used to writing to this length as you create your meta descriptions)

Don’t keyword stuff

Be relevant to each title tag, and make sure each meta description is unique – don’t duplicate.

Be enticing and interesting to the reader. Google will pick up on your keywords and phrases, but you want to get more visitors to your site, so entice them with good copy in your descriptions.

Meta Keywords.

Don’t bother about these. It’s annoying how most CMSs still have the field for keywords which can encourage people to stuff them with keywords. One developer even commented to me that he included keywords as the client ‘expected to see them’. This is nonsense. As Matt Cutts of Google said a short while back: ‘Google does not use the keywords meta tag in our web search.’

Enough said……..

Find me on:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ShopaholicGuide
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesiteguide
LinkedIn:http://uk.linkedin.com/in/patriciadavidson1
And contact me at phd@thesiteguide.com

Why you should List your Interests on LinkedIn

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

I’m not sure why LinkedIn, in its wisdom, has put the ‘Interests’ field at the foot of each profile page, however that doesn’t change the fact that anyone who is interested in talking to you or working with you (in particular) will want to see that field filled in – and of course you can make it as interesting as you want.

It was pointed out to me recently, about another post on LinkedIn and lazy profile building, that I didn’t mention the importance of putting in this information, so I thought I’d include it here.

And by the way when I say interests, I don’t mean your work interests, which I notice some people adding, from your profile we can tell what you do, or we should be able to, but those hobbies and interests that complete the picture as to who you are.

This is one example – not mine, I have to say, so no names here, but I’m sure you get the picture. Some use the interests field to put what they do, such as ‘Blogging, Social Media Marketing’, but if you’re looking for like minded connections, who can already work out what you do from your main profile and experience, paint more of a picture of who you are by listing your lifestyle interests, those that you want others to know about, anyway.

And for more suggestions as to how to use your LinkedIn profile…..or not:

Alt Tags and How to Write Them–SEO Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Thu, 09 May 2013 16:59:00 +0000

Alt tags matter, and I’m always amazed at how many websites have not given their image alt tags the attention they deserve and are therefore losing out on the extra search benefits they can bring. Those benefits can make a big difference to the number of visitors to your website and making sure that all your alt tags are keyword rich and set up properly can only do you favours.

I’ve written about this under SEO tips before but seeing so many websites that don’t have them set up made me realise that I should write a reminder.

Screen readers can’t understand images, and so if you’ve omitted to put your alt tags in place your images simply won’t show up in search, exactly where you want them to.

You may think, along with title tags, that alt tags are another time consuming effort (and you’d be correct), however there is absolutely no point in having a well designed website and not going down the full SEO journey. I have had clients who have spent a fortune on Adwords without realising that SEO, whilst time consuming and sometimes costly if you need to pay for help, can generate far better results. Organic search wins hands down over paid search, by a huge percentage, as much as 94% to 6% according to Econsultancy and so anything you can do to get yourself high up in the organic search rankings must pay off.

Image alt tags need to completed for all of your images (just as your title tags need to for all of your pages).

They need to be relevant to the picture

Alt tags need to be unique

Do your keyword research and make sure they are keyword rich with your main keyword or key phrase at the front of the alt tag

Keep your alt tags short – just enough words to describe the image.

Don’t try and stuff your alt tags with keywords. One main keyword or phrase will be stronger, keyword stuffing will lose you points.

Make sure that all of your alt tags are in place and showing properly on your website and they’ll help you more than you think. They’re not rocket science, but they need to be done.

Find me on:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ShopaholicGuide
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesiteguide
LinkedIn:http://uk.linkedin.com/in/patriciadavidson1
And contact me at phd@thesiteguide.com

Content Marketing 2013–3 Ways to Optimise your Content

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Fri, 03 May 2013 11:55:00 +0000

Content marketing is no longer about just getting content about you and your business out there. Content marketing for 2013 turns you the content creator and the brand owner into the publisher – no one knows your business like you do, no one knows your customer like you do, and no one else will produce content specifically aimed at your customer in the way you can.

Now, relevancy and the importance of well-directed content are what counts, as opposed to pre 2013 search marketing techniques which for the most part were based around the concept that content about your business and products pretty well anywhere would boost search as long as it offered a link back to the host site.

Middle to end of last year Google changed all of that, to the effect that content, without being relevant, and optimised for a specific audience, would count no longer. Now, the content on your website, blog posts, social media marketing and on need to be properly directed to a specific audience, answering and directed to that audience’s desires and fuelling the viral marketplace with the advantage that there is no limit as to how far it can travel.

Know Thy Customer

Creating a profile for your customer is more important than ever. Knowing who they are, what they are most likely to be searching for and therefore seeking to buy is most important stepping stone in content marketing, as without this your content will not be aimed as it should. This is no finger in the air exercise, but a strategic analysis of your site analytics and purchasing metrics to produce a picture as close as possible to your customer profile.

The importance now of ‘personalised’ content, broken down into segments that aim directly at a specific audience can’t be stressed enough. For every piece of content you write, make sure that it is well aimed, intelligently written, relevant and interesting.

Pick your Keyword Wisely and Use them – Optimise All Content for SEO

Having established who your customer is and what they might be searching for this needs to be analysed in terms of the keywords and phrases most likely to be relevant to them by dint of research. Keep the keyword tool close to you and write nothing without including judicious use of your chosen search terms. In the same way that your title tags need to be not just optimised for key words and phrases, but readable in their own right, so with everything else you write.

Make sure that whoever is writing your content, whether you do it in house, or use outside help, understands who your customer is, and how and why to ‘optimise’ every word they write. This is both a skill and an art – you can’t just use anyone to do your blogging for you any more, imagining that word count alone is what matters, that the more content the better. It is the more fully optimised content that matters, the rest is, literally, irrelevant.
Make sure that your Content Placement is Relevant- Forget content for the sake of it.

There are so many ways now of publishing your content. Keeping it close to your brand and therefore close to home is what matters most, so concentrate on publishing your content to your website and constantly updating your blog. Email marketing personalised and segmented and directed straight to your customer base. Publishing your blog and new content on social media channels regularly that is well written, interesting and optimised both for search and for what your customers are looking for.

The main focus out of all of this is that you and your business are the hub, and every piece of content you produce relates back to you, however widely you publish.

5 Tips for Successful Upselling to your Online Customers

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:10:00 +0000

‘If you like this you’ll love that’, how many times have you heard that? Now it’s the norm when you’re looking at a product online to be offered several others. But how much thought has gone into what appears on the page will determine if you’re likely to increase the basket size by enticing your customer to buy more.

Large online businesses use recommendation systems to increase their shopping baskets by between 10 and 30%, matchmaking customers’ attributes such as previous browsing history and historical purchases to find other ‘likeminded’ products. However if you’re not in the market for one of those the easier way is to use the upselling, or ‘related products’ tools that come with most platforms. It’s too easy to overlook these with the amount of work that managing a website brings, or not not even realise that they’re there.

When choosing products for upselling, don’t imaging for a moment that random products will work. Spend a little time looking at what customers who bought a specific product have also bought from you in the past.
Look at the product they did purchase from you, if they went for one style or type, and focus in on that, recommending other items of the same genre or accessories to go with. Don’t be tempted to offer them something entirely different. It is so much less likely to be successful.

Choose products that will work with what has been put in that shopping basket. If it’s a dress they’ve bought from you then consider offering the shoes, bag and jewellery that will style in well to create a complete look.

Make an offer if a customer purchases a set – maybe a discount for two products along the same lines or more, or ‘buy one get another for half price’ (or 15% off, or whatever discount you choose).

Show what other customers have bought who have bought that product – again this needs to be based on what will really go with the purchase and with what has been bought as an add on historically.

Upselling is intuitive marketing whatever size business you run and can reap £££££ in extra business. Use the upselling tools at your disposal, and your own knowledge of your customer and your products to get the message across that there are benefits for your customers by using your experience, or taking advantage of your offers, in adding to their shopping baskets.

For a little extra work, upselling is a technique all businesses should be taking advantage of.

Content is King | How to Write a Blog Post | 6 Steps

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 18:02:00 +0000

How to Write a Blog Post in 6 Steps - I’ve written endless posts about a variety of subjects from restaurants and fashion to SEO and LinkedIn. Nearly every time I think I’m writing a post that all are going to want to read I’m wrong, and quite often it’s the simple ones about the places I’ve been, that dress I loved or a book on web usability I use as my web bible that get the most reads.

Two of the things that have become more and more obvious when thinking about how to write your next blog post are that a) you’re much better off including an image than not, as posts with images are much more attractive on the whole, and b) you need to make your post long enough. Short posts get fewer reads, less attention from Google and therefore less attention from everyone. That’s not to say that you should blah on about nothing in particular, but stick to your subject, make it interesting and keep the information coming.

Content is King, in two ways. You need to make sure that whatever you’re writing about is directed at your specific audience and takes account of their interests and needs. You either know your audience exceptionally well, or you’ll be using the Keyword Tool to find out what’s being searched for in your niche, a phrase or word where the competition isn’t going to throw you down to the 25th page of search and one which you can write about knowledgably.

I never write anything these days without using the Keyword Tool. It’s free. It’s a mine of information and to not use it would be ridiculous. Why write about something you have an instinct about, which may be totally off key, when you can tweak that thought just a little and write about things that not only interest you, but you know others are looking for. It’s a kind of double whammy, but one that always works.

So here we go; How to Write a Blog Post in 6 Steps.

Step 1. Open up the Keyword Tool with an idea of what you want to write about. Of course everyone should be working off a schedule/plan, and if you’re writing blog posts for clients, as I do, this is a much better way to work. Otherwise choose a subject that’s close to you and put various ideas into the Tool. You’ll soon see what is being searched for (and what is not), where there is high competition and where the competition is medium or low. Click on the little drop down arrows beside the word ‘Competition’ until you get the low competition options at the top and try and write around one of those, using it in your title and in your post, several times.

Step 2. Write your Headline. Include your chosen keyword or phrase and try also to make it catchy and interesting. Interesting, by the way, is the key. You want to give your readers information they may need, or may find useful. But never be boring. That way will surely lead to no reads.

Step 3. Include an Image. Sometimes in a hurry I’ve written posts that don’t include an image and I find these are less read than those that do. Use an image that’s relevant to your post (obviously) and if you’re using more than one you can either stagger the layout so that they’re left and/or right of your text, or center them as I have here. Or just have one main image at the top. Either way include something that you think will draw more attention to your post.

Step 4. Write your Content. Write your content and include your keyword of phrase, probably no more than three times but depending on how long your post is. You don’t want to be accused of keyword stuffing by the powers that be, on the other hand you want to be found in search, so once you’ve found your precious word or phrase use it wisely and you will be found. Don’t let your content be too short. A couple of paragraphs does not a blog post make. Give yourself enough time to craft something special and make it work for you.

Step 5. Break down your content into readable chunks. No one is going to read a huge page of text so break down your content and make it more readable. I always find that posts with clear steps, or numbered hints particularly in a ‘how to’ post work much better than those that are just a series of paragraphs with no sense of the journey. I wouldn’t read them myself. It’s much easier to read something that is properly laid out. You can either plan this in advance (better) or break down your content after you’ve written the whole thing. Obviously a clear path will work better for you and your readers so try and do this first.

Step 6. Don’t stop there. Just writing and publishing your blog is not enough. You need to take steps to ensure that it’s read. Publish it to your social media pages, depending on the relevancy, to your audience on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The big danger of writing a blog is that no one will read it. There’s no point in publishing into thin air, any more than there is in creating a website and then not marketing it. Your blog can help you improve your website traffic, it can produce rich constantly – note that work – updated content for search which Google and other search engines will love, and it will give a voice to your knowledge.

And then of course, as a two edged sword, particularly if you’re a lone blogger, like me, you need to keep going. Ensure that your audience knows that you’ll be back to them very soon. Blog at least every other day. We all fall down on this at times, but the more you blog, interestingly and with relevancy, the more you’ll be read and listened to, the more clicks you’ll get to your website. Don’t give up. Make a start and keep on going. Dividends await…..

Find me on:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ShopaholicGuide
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesiteguide
LinkedIn:http://uk.linkedin.com/in/patriciadavidson1
And contact me at phd@thesiteguide.com

How to Manage Control of your Content Management System

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 13:02:00 +0000

Your CMS, or Content Management System, is the ‘back end’ of your website, as opposed to the ‘front end’ that your visitors see. You probably already knew all of that but just in case……….

It’s essential that you have control of your CMS and don’t have to go to your developer to ask them for every content and image change and creation of new pages, however, there’s a huge risk also that, having created a website you love in conjunction with designers/developers you may change, or allow others to change, the look and feel you’ve striven so hard for (and probably paid thousands for). And end up with something that does not have the personality you wanted.

Learn Your Own Way Round

No matter how busy you are doing the day job – buying, merchandising your products – you, the website owner, and if you don’t employ someone specific in-house, need to take some time to learn your way around your CMS – how to add or change metadata, where to input descriptions and upload new products, where to add new images and image alt tags. Don’t expect your developer to do everything for you, this will cost you yet more thousands.

Once you’re in control, and that’s what this is about, then you can decide who you want to allow to update your site and make sure they know their way around as well. You can farm the main tasks out to leave you the time do do what you really want to do, or you can do it all yourself - at least now you have the choice.

Know your SEO and Maintain Editorial Control

There are two aspects of this which are of vital importance, the first is to know what you’re doing with regards to SEO and make sure that you don’t stuff your site with spammy keywords, or create pages that aren’t optimised, or write title tags that Google won’t like, (which may send you packing in the rankings) and the second is to maintain editorial control to ensure that you don’t lose the personality of your site by allowing just anyone to update content.

Editing is Easier than Writing

If you don’t like writing, or you don’t have anyone on your staff who can write good copy in your chosen style then find someone who can do it for you. Editing is much easier than writing, and writing optimised copy requires specialist knowledge.

The Customer Should Be the Only Focus

Make sure above all that everything you do in controlling your CMS and its editorial content, whether you do it all yourself or allow other, keeps your specific customer in mind. Whatever you do don’t leave your CMS in the hands of your developer – they will not have your customer clearly focused in their head whilst having moved on from your site.
Find me on:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ShopaholicGuide
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesiteguide
LinkedIn:http://uk.linkedin.com/in/patriciadavidson1
And contact me at phd@thesiteguide.com

3 Quick Steps to Updating your LinkedIn Profile

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:01:00 +0000

LinkedIn matters. As a way of finding business and connecting with others in your own and associated businesses LinkedIn offers you, free of charge, the opportunity of putting yourself ‘out there’ on the web.

As with everything online this has pros and cons. Use LinkedIn properly and it will work endlessly on your behalf. Set up your profile half-heartedly and it can work against you, as you can either appear to not know what you’re doing in this online world, seem unprofessional, or look as if you just can’t be bothered, in which case why should people bother to connect to you?

1.   Get your picture up there. If you don’t have a picture on LinkedIn people will wonder why? We place so much importance on how a person appears that to not have a picture will stop people inviting you to connect. Make sure that your picture is not a daft Facebook-friendly ‘hi family and friends’ pic, but something that although it doesn’t have to be you in a suit, looks intelligent, friendly and approachable.

Forget thinking ‘I’m not photogenic’, ‘I hate all pictures of me’ and put one up there.

2.    Complete your headline area properly and make it look interesting. Use short phrases, preferably keyword researched. Don’t let it look sparse. You’re there for a reason, to tell people about you, so do.

3.    Write a summary about who you are and what you’ve done and again make it interesting. Two paragraphs preferably.   This doesn’t have to take long, and if you’re not sure about what you’ve written get someone else to read it through, but make sure that your summary area is completed.

Next you want to turn to your work experience. Don’t just include a headline and dates. Fill it out. Check back each month and see if there’s anything new to add. More about this later.

Some Typos are Worse than Others………

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 11:28:00 +0000

We all make typos. There’ll probably be one somewhere in this post, however there is one typo (and yes I just spotted it in a Tweet) that is so obvious but appears so frequently that I had to write about it……….. again.

‘You’re’ and ‘your’ have totally different meanings. You may think they look the same, but when someone is reading something you have written and you have used the wrong one it will, to many, stand out a mile.

’You’re’ means ‘you are’. - for example ‘you’re totally wrong’, ‘you’re about to miss your train’.
’Your’ means appertaining to you – for example ‘your coat’, ‘your tickets’ etc

This is one to concentrate on as, as I said, it stands out a mile. Personally I think the days when typos in blog posts and tweets etc were accepted (if they ever were) are long gone. Those who read and edit and think and write decent English will do far better than those who don’t bother.

It is impossible to get it right all of the time. However slowing down will help and we do everything online far too fast these days, at least I know I do.

Simple SEO - What your Title Tags Say About You

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 18:57:00 +0000

There are many out there who say that there’s no such thing as simple SEO, that SEO is a kind of dark art (and when you take into account the term ‘black hat SEO’) you might well think it is, and that unless you’re paying a fortune to have your Search Engine Optimisation done for you, you won’t get it right.

On some levels SEO can be complicated, but the groundwork is simple, and you can choose to have the work done by someone else, or do it yourself, but the most basic part of optimisation should be well known by all – that of making sure your title tags work correctly, as without this you are limiting the possiblity of being found in Search – or you’ll be paying another fortune for Adwords, thinking it’s the only option.

There are many aspects to simple SEO – and for those who are currently talking to a developer or considering a new website design, make sure that you will have control over the meta data (your title tags and descriptions) that go into the back end of your website. Too often I find that developers set up new sites without considering the ongoing keyword research and writing of meta data that will need to be carried out and making it easy for the client to have access and update. Or they’re looking for extra work after the site is completed – please don’t get me on that one.

If you have not yet tackled your on-site SEO and you’re not sure how, please contact me at phd@thesiteguide.com for questions to ask your developer and a few simple tips.

Back to what your Title Tags say about you. Well written title tags make sense to browser and search engine alike. They need to be relevant, unique and readable, and they will contain no more than two, most probably one, well researched keyword or phrases.

It’s easy to spot well optimised websites from the basic title tag construction which should follow through from categories to sub categories to products and other landing pages. Well written title tags say that you understand the basics of SEO (and what Google, putting the rest aside for a moment, is looking for). Title tags that are not well constructed indicate a lack of understanding of their importance. But listen up…

A website without well written title tags is like a closed door. It will not be found in Search without large amounts of money being spent on advertising. And then it will not be found in natural Search, which is free. And most likely, if you don’t have well written title tags you won’t have optimised the rest of your website. There’s a simple hierarchy to SEO. Start with your title tags first and then work through the rest and you’ll start to see results.

Link Within – The Simple Way to Link to Past Posts and Increase Engagement

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 16:21:00 +0000

Link Within is a simple widget to add to your blog that indexes your posts and then adds links and images to related posts at the foot of each post, adding more interest and engagement.

It’s incredibly easy to add to your blog, just use their form to input your email address, blog URL, blog platform and the number of posts you want Link Within to find, click on ‘Get Widget’ and Link Within will automatically take you through to your blog platform so that you can install the widget.

One thing I would recommend, if you have posts in your blog history that are totally out of date, or that you don’t want to show to anyone again, you’ll need to delete these so they don’t unexpectedly appear.

There is, of course, the other way of doing this via links which you select yourself, but Link Within is much the quickest option. Once installed you can forget all about it and get on with writing your next post. I’ve installed Link Within at both www.glamoursleuth.com and www.webhints.co.uk.

5 Steps to Optimising your Product Pages

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:36:00 +0000

Website optimisation doesn’t begin and end with your home page. Each product page you have is a landing page in its own right, and if you want to benefit from organic search, and not rely on paid advertising such as Adwords, then you need to pay attention to your product pages as they can produce great rewards, not just from getting people straight to the product they’re looking for, but getting them to your website, your brand, and all your other products.

Think about what you have called your products before you start optimisation. If you choose a product title that no one is searching for you’re not taking advantage of the easiest way to get people to your page. Use the Google Keyword Tool and write product titles that make sense, but also contain keywords that are being searched for, hopefully with less than high competition, although this is getting harder and harder.

For example; One client is offering a certain type of scarf on their website, one which is being searched for, with medium competition. However the search term was not being used in the product name. I therefore included the search term in each product title for that type of product. They were all different titles as they included the individual names as well, however the keyword stood out and these products are now regularly appearing on page 1 in Google.

Make sure you include the keyword you have researched for that product in your title tag, and at the front. Make your title tag readable by people looking at your website as well as for search and don’t stuff your title tag with keywords. One is enough, plus your individual product name which makes your title tag unique.

Then create a description to go with your title tag in the meta data, including your keyword/s near the front.

You already have your keyword or phrase in your product title. So write some product copy again which includes your keyword or phrase. Make it relevant and interesting and depending on the length, use your keyword up to three times. Don’t cut this short if you want people to arrive at your page.

Finally make sure that your image has an alt tag containing your keyword.This may sound like a lot of work, and it is, and more depending on the number of products you have. Start with your five best sellers in each category or product group and watch them rise in Google. Bringing new business to your website for free.
Find me on:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ShopaholicGuide
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesiteguide
LinkedIn:http://uk.linkedin.com/in/patriciadavidson1
And contact me at phd@thesiteguide.com

How Facebook Timeline is Changing Again

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 15:28:00 +0000

Not content with changing the News page on Facebook, your Facebook Timeline is about to change again as well to become more streamlined and simplified. Anyone fall over yet?

Facebook is returning (happily) to a single column timeline as an option, with all other activity moving over into the left hand column - does that sound like a backward step? Yes, but an improvement all the same - as with modernising the pages at the same time Facebook is finally going with web usability as a priority and making pages easier to read.

The emphasis will be on the wider column on the right for updates and a narrower column for About, Friends, Likes and Photos. About will be directly underneath your picture and there will be more scope for adding information on likes, interests and apps.

I personally think this will be an improvement - we've never liked the double column Timeline, which made it difficult to keep posts in chronological order, let alone read two columns at the same time, so thank you Facebook - we'll go with this update - until you roll out the next one of course.

3 Reasons why you need Customer Reviews on your Website

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 09:48:00 +0000

You may not even realise you’re doing it, but you are likely to stay longer on a website, take its offering more seriously and to buy from it if you can read real customer reviews. In fact 61% of us read online reviews before making the decision to buy, which makes it imperative that any e-commerce site looking for success offers reviews.

The first reason why you need to offer customer reviews is that it increases trust. Potential customers don’t want to hear what you, the retailer has to say about your products, they know you think they’re wonderful, or you’re going to say so any way. We’ve moved a long way from accepting brochure pics of hotel rooms or marketing blurb. Savvy buyers that we’ve now become we’re not only looking for the best price, but we want to hear what other purchasers have to say, to look at their pictures, and to hear both the good news and the bad.

On that point I have often had debates with clients over their worries about showing reviews, as it’s inevitable that not all will be good. Offer 100% good reviews and no one’s going to believe you. A balance of good and bad reviews (and how you answered and resolved problems) will get you far more Brownie points, believe me. And show that you care about your customers’ experiences.

The second reason is that you will increase sales. We now look for reviews, and we’re far more likely to buy from a site that offers them to the point that we disregard manufacturers marketing content and look for real time comments and discussions. According to Reevoo, offering customer reviews can deliver as much as an 18% uplift in sales which includes basic conversion, shopping basket size and customer return.

Customer Reviews help SEO – compare two websites offering the same product. One has the basic product information which tends not to be updated. The other offers customer reviews delivering updated content to the page on a regular basis – just what Google is looking for. The winner in the rankings will be the site that is constantly updated with relevant product comments and information.

As I said above, you may not even realise you’re doing it, but you are now actively looking to see what other say about a product or service before you decide to splash the cash, and you may well be reviewing products yourself, so make sure that you’re offering customer reviews on your website and allow your customers to join the conversation.

The Dangers of Downloads – How to Avoid Malware

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:53:00 +0000

I recently downloaded a well recognised piece of software which unfortunately had, snuggled in beside it, a search engine I didn’t want and didn’t need, which I then couldn’t get rid of until my computer ‘man who does’ came in and sorted it for me.

How to avoid malware? – in this era of fast downloads and thinking that you can multitask online is not easy. Many free pieces of software now have these companions (who have paid to be there) and because you know the name of the software you just click on ‘download’ without suspecting anything. Even recognised download facilities offer you more than you initially want.

The answer is, of course, to be very careful where you download software from and if at all possible only download from the generic source. As this isn’t always possible one good place is Download.com, from where you are extremely unlikely to pick anything up although you will still get other offers. For anything you download take it one step at a time, and if you are offered any add-ons refuse them or think very carefully and do some research.

Another way to avoid malware is to download (!) Malwarebytes (and by the way you’ll see that you’re taken straight to download.com to get it).

One of the problems of these unwanted pieces of software is that you won’t find them as programs in your control panel, they’re too insidious for that, and they can propagate across all of your browsers.

There are thousands of 'avoid and deal with malware’ ads all over the web. Mostly with downloads. Just make sure you don’t get more than you bargained for….

Also look at:

Three Books Every Website Owner should Read
How to Get your Custom LinkedIn Profile
Free Software – Check for Broken Links

Find me on:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ShopaholicGuide
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesiteguide
LinkedIn:http://uk.linkedin.com/in/patriciadavidson1
And contact me at phd@thesiteguide.com

How to Update your Google+ Cover Photo

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 11:17:00 +0000

Here we go again – you need to update your Google cover photo - yet another important social media update that could be all too easy to forget, just in case you signed up to Google+ a while back and haven’t done much there since and even though you’ll be there now by default if you have a Google account such as YouTube, Gmail or for any other Google service.

Google+ unique visitor numbers are on the rise and there’s little doubt about Google’s determination to make Google+ a success – and it will most likely succeed, anyone else would have given up by now. So even though you may be hot on Facebook you should be prepared for this one as well.

Anyway, back to the latest Google+ update – you almost certainly are on Google+ with a huge (think vast) image space surrounding your small profile picture. It’s time to get on to photoshop, or get someone to help, to design you a Google cover photo which measures 2120 x 1190 – yes you heard that right, and be careful when you’re setting it up as you need to keep your main content fairly central so that it shows in all browsers.

There are some templates you can upload to help you with this but be very careful you don’t get any extraneous software with them – I preferred to create my Google cover photo from scratch and then adjust the size of the central part via trial and error. Once you’ve uploaded your photo you can adjust the crop as many times as you want to. Make sure you leave un-busy space at the foot for your profile pictures and strapline and check that your main image details are central.

You can make your Google cover pic as simple or as complicated as you want, I’m still playing with mine. Better get started now………….

Extra Reading

Why you should be on Google+ (Forbes)
Google+ has 105 million Unique Monthly Visitors (Mashable)

If you do One Thing to your Website Today–Check your Alt Tags

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 10:12:00 +0000

Alt tags carry less weight than they used to with regards to getting your site indexed by Google, Yahoo etc, however they are still important, and if your images fall into one of the following two categories:
No Alt Tags
Keyword Stuffed Alt Tags

Then you need to take action, as either of these will affect your rankings.

With the emphasis on SEO now of relevancy and conciseness, it’s important to make sure that every one of your images has an Alt tag that matches the image it is attached to, and makes reading your website easier for those who are using browsers to help them if they are visually or hearing impaired. Or for those who do not download all your images – they will still have an accurate definition of what your image is about and then choose to download or otherwise.

In the case of keyword stuffed Alt tags these need to edited down to a single, relevant keyword or phrase as otherwise your tags may be treated as spam and this can adversely affect your ranking in search.

The main message is the same as for all SEO

That what you did last year, pre the Google updates, will not help you now, and may have the opposite effect.

That you need relevancy and readability for all your tags, be they title tags or Alt tags.

That you will be penalised for keyword stuffing. Anywhere.

That the longer you take to update your SEO the further down the rankings you may fall.
Find me on:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ShopaholicGuide
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesiteguide
LinkedIn:http://uk.linkedin.com/in/patriciadavidson1
And contact me at phd@thesiteguide.com

LinkedIn Connections – 5 Reasons not to Accept an Invite

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 16:14:00 +0000

LinkedIn is the business networking site with millions of connections and constant activity. Some have taken the facility and run with it, building their profiles, amending them regularly and making sure that the offer valuable insight into their niche.

With any network that has grown so fast there are inevitably those who don’t use it properly, and worse, those who use it improperly – to try and hijack your contact list, and to endeavour to make you think you they’re something other than what they really are.

Then there are the ‘newbies’ or the ‘I can’t be bothered’s’ or the ‘I don’t know the tricks and tips’ all of whom, with a very little time spent, can learn how to use LinkedIn properly and will surely benefit.

But here are 5 reasons not to accept a LinkedIn invitation. Your LinkedIn connections are important to you – don’t give them away.

You’re short of time - and you get an invite via email. Don’t ever automatically accept one of these without looking into the profile of the person who has invited you properly at LinkedIn. If you don’t know them personally this may be a spam invitation and there are more and more of those about.

Don’t accept an invitation from someone who hasn’t bothered to fill in their profile and summary. How are you supposed to know who they are? And if you don't know, you don't want them as a connection.

Think twice about accepting someone as a connection who hasn't put up a profile picture - why haven't they?

Look at the number of connections someone has. If it's very low it may be totally bona fide and they may be new to LinkedIn. Or it could be, as with Twitter, that they are spammers. Look for the other signs before deciding to connect with them.

Consider if they have anything to offer you and your connections, or are they just after yours? If they already are linked to others in your industry and sound interesting to you, accept the invitation. If not, and you suspect ulterior motives, then don't. It's perfectly ok to say no.

I had an invitation (which arrived first on my email) by someone recently who sounded perfectly respectable, although not in my industry. As I never accept anyone without looking them up properly on LinkedIn when I went through I saw there was no picture, almost no connections, and no bio or summary.

So the moral is never automatically accept. Use LinkedIn and be careful who you befriend. It's worth taking those few minutes to stop and think.

Find me on:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ShopaholicGuide
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesiteguide
LinkedIn:http://uk.linkedin.com/in/patriciadavidson1
And contact me at phd@thesiteguide.com

You might also like:

Why you should optimise your LinkedIn Profile

How to get your Custom LinkedIn URL

3 Essential Updates to your LinkedIn Profile

Twitter Hashtags–The What, Why and How

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 15:50:00 +0000

You’ve seen them everywhere on Twitter, and they’re being used more and more – a simple word or phrase with the # sign in front of it. A hashtag.

When a topic is very popular with people you follow you’ll see the same #word used on tweets repeatedly. Take for example the hashtag #fitness. Go to Twitter, type #fitness into the search box and you’ll see who’s talking about it right now, whether or not they’re in your stream. You can then choose if you want to follow them or not.

Alternatively just click on the hashtag in a post on your feed and you’ll go straight to other relevant posts.

So to simplify, Twitter collects everyone who’s tweeting about a single subject and using the # to identify it, into one stream, making it easy for you to follow conversations on subjects that interest you.

Hashtags frequently identify trending topics, so you can, if you want to, keep up to date with what’s going on, or use them simply to keep up and find like minded people to follow.

There’s nothing clever about setting up hashtags – use a # that’s already trending and join in, or create one yourself that you think will be of interest to others and that they may search for.

You can see what’s trending right now at twitter.com/ and personalise what you see depending on where you are and subject matter.

Just a note – don’t try and hijack an already trending hashtag to talk about something else – make sure that if you use a hashtag that’s already in circulation your conversation or comments are relevant.

Twitter says the following about hash tags:
‘Definition: The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages.

People use the hashtag symbol # before a relevant keyword or phrase (no spaces) in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets and help them show more easily in Twitter Search.
Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets marked with that keyword.
Hashtags can occur anywhere in the Tweet – at the beginning, middle, or end.
Hashtagged words that become very popular are often Trending Topics.

Don't #spam #with #hashtags. Don't over-tag a single Tweet. (Best practices recommend using no more than 2 hashtags per Tweet.)’

5 Ways to get Results from your Email Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 15:53:00 +0000

We all get bombarded with email newsletters, and no matter how many you unsubscribe to they seem to just keep on coming.

There are several things you can do to make your next email newsletter more effective, and although they may seem very obvious when you read straight through actually they’re not, and the mistakes are made over and over again.

Headline – This is what will make people interested in the first place. Write your headline in a way that is attention grabbing without being overtly so – in other words you know it should appeal to the people you’re sending this missive to, make it well written and punchy and make sure that there are no typos.

Length – We don’t read online content, we scan it. Keep the message short and the content concise and relevant as well as interesting. No one is going to read paragraph after paragraph. Forget about it. It won’t happen.

Message – If you want to make your email newsletters stronger send one message at a time. Don’t try and combine different subjects – you’re much stronger with one.

Links – Check your links from preview to test email. Make sure that all of them work and don’t leave any checking out. Broken links look unprofessional and as if you can’t be bothered. A sure fast way to lose a reader.

Typos – No matter what you do if you’re in the business of content creation you will make typos. We all do. Having edited and proof read several books, once published I still found typos. They are a part of life. They don’t need to be a part of your next email newsletter. Once your piece is ready, concentrate. Stop thinking about anything else and read, word for word. It sometimes helps to read out loud so you can catch punctuation errors and other typos. If in doubt get someone else to read as well.

Do not rely, as I have just seen suggested, on your spellchecker, that won’t catch all of the typos. Reading and reading again is the only thing that will work.
Find me on:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ShopaholicGuide
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesiteguide
LinkedIn:http://uk.linkedin.com/in/patriciadavidson1
And contact me at phd@thesiteguide.com

3 Books Every Website Owner Should Read

noreply@blogger.com (Patricia Davidson) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 18:06:00 +0000

There are hundreds and thousands of books about websites out there, some completely out dated, some for the professional where if you don’t understand the lingo you won’t get any of it, and some that every web owner should read, even if they employ others to do the work for them. There’s nothing as powerful as your own knowledge of a subject.

No 1 is without a doubt Steve Krug’s Don’t Make me Think. Yes it’s been around a while, and some things have changed where web design has changed, but human nature hasn’t, and this book is about how humans use and react to websites, and how they should be designed to make navigation simple.

It’s a friendly, well written and illustrated book with more than a few tongue in cheek comments, and if you haven’t read it already, now’s the time. It won’t take you long, and you’ll go back over and over again.

A word about SEO – This is now a thorny topic, with all the changes that Google made to its algorithms last year that changed the landscape of SEO completely and sites that were well ranked for various reasons plummeted in days.

The most important things to look for are books that are post Penguin and Panda (Google updates) in fact as recent as possible, but also structured in a way that is readable and understandable by us mere mortals, rather than code writers and developers, who all need this information, by the way. What it has meant is that books that were very good only a few months ago are now no use to you, so be careful about what you buy.

My recommendation, and No 2 on my list, is Tim Kitchen’s How to Get to the Top of Google. This is an easy to read book covering a lot of ground in a few pages, and you may want to move on to something more in depth once you’ve read it, but what I particularly like about it is that it gets to the main points of what you need to do quickly.

Remember when ordering any of these self-help books on SEO that if they don’t mention Penguin and Panda they’re probably not worth having, books take a long time to get into print from manuscript and during that time they can easily become out of date. And I know these things…..

Thirdly but by no means last, I recommend that you buy 500 Social Media Marketing Tips, by Andrew Mccarthy, as a small book full of short sharp and very good advice on all the main Social Media sites including of course Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. The tips are all there, but the in depth help to achieve the suggestions are not, such as ‘Get your LinkedIn Vanity URL’. But then this book is about tips and tricks, and not the detail, which you can easily find online.

There are a lot of books on ‘Social Media’ out there, but most don’t give us what we want, which are the specifics for success. If you do choose to buy a book solely on Facebook or LinkedIn etc make sure it’s right up to date, as the platforms have changed endlessly. Best of all look for the huge amount of information available online, and also check out my blog at Web Hints for specifics on things like getting your LinkedIn Vanity URL and endlessly useful Twitter Apps such as Buffer.

Find me on:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ShopaholicGuide
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesiteguide
LinkedIn:http://uk.linkedin.com/in/patriciadavidson1
And contact me at phd@thesiteguide.com