In today’s digital world the first thing most people often see, or will head to, is your website.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Google Adwords ‘Pay Per Click’ (PPC) are invaluable tools when it comes to improving brand awareness and search engine visibility but wonder why there is sometimes no new business as a result of it. That’s because Traffic is Vanity and Conversions are Sanity.

Take a look at these two websites…

Which one are you more likely to trust?
Everyone knows who the second site is (its Apple); now what if I told you the first site is also Apple’s.

We all hate to admit it but everyone judges everything by first appearances, it’s human nature. So when our website works like it was designed for 1997 you can’t be surprised when all those visits don’t convert.

Luckily there are tools available to us all, the most common of which is Google Analytics, which allows us to research our website users’ behaviours and monitor the conversion paths. If you don’t have Google Analytics installed on your website then you should, IT’S FREE!

When a customer lands on your website it has to (albeit subconsciously) answer 5 questions almost immediately:

• Do you offer the service I need?
• Can I trust you?
• Where is the proof? – Either by way of case studies, customer testimonials or brand.
• How do I buy/enquire/download?
• Look and Feel – According to a Stanford University study, 46% of conversions are lost because the user loses trust in the brand, based on the websites look and feel.

Hubspot published a cool article “7 Habits of a Highly Effective Landing Page” on creating effective landing pages which would answer all of those questions.

Clear Call to Action
It seems obvious but many websites don’t drive a user down a path which results in the businesses desired outcome. You may receive a few thousand visitors a month, but if there is no clear call to action then you are potentially missing out on a few hundred enquiries.

You need to make the conversion funnel obvious. One reason shops put their tills on the left and at the back are so that we follow a predefined path, through the clothes, before buying. They understand their conversion funnel and they maximise on it!

…And this is all before you may have considered that the UK have the largest ratio of smart phone users, and that your website should probably be smart phone friendly, but that’s for another day!

…And yep! Apple has an app for that too!

Authored by James Lawler @JamesZest

SEO should be viewed as one of the most crucial considerations for a new business/website.  Every company or organisation that owns a web property should be interested in investing time and money into search engine optimisation. But unfortunately, people constantly overlook it due to not having accumulated knowledge surrounding SEO.

Search Engine Watch – How Search Engines Work

It can be very hard to explain the role of SEO because there are various factors that make an impact. The search engines are changing their algorithms constantly – Google updates their algorithm around 500 times per year, optimizes your pages and domain slightly to avoid traffic decrease. These again impact on traffic decrease with a result of a minor loss of 2-3 positions. Moreover, each and every site and business has a unique niche which demands a lot of study to be able to implement the best SEO strategy.

SEO is optimising a website for people who use search engines.

Everyone wants more traffic but what every business actually needs is to attract a relevant audience, successfully communicate their message, and then get their visitors to interact. The plan  should start by focusing on the message, content and creating an order for the deluge of traffic. A strategic plan can yield many answers to the business inquiry as well as for the leads.

Search Engine Land – The Ultimate Guide To Enterpise SEO

So how do you stay on top of your SEO game?

Before you make any changes to your site, you need to know where you stand SEO wise. Find out if your content is visible to search engines. All the HTML content is easily recognizable, h owever, images like Java applets, Flash files and other non-text content are nearly invisible to search engines. Make sure your elements are visible to the spiders to achieve the aimed result.
The next step you have to follow  is to find out how you measure up to your competitors. To help you identify and track both broad and niche competitors read one of our previous posts: Are you keeping watch of your competitors? 
Another way to see where you stand is to improve your SEO by evaluating your target audience. Find out more about them: for example, what age and sex they are, and where they are based. All of this data will tell you what your audience really needs and by this you could assess if you are fulfilling their needs and expectations.

But what do business owners really need?  

• Link building – named by others “relationship building”, you can transition your
• Contacts, partners and customers into link opportunities
• Co-branded linkbait – provide additional link opportunities by cooperating with industry leaders and partners.
• Conversion testing for websites
• Domain and anchor text optimisation
• Page optimisation
• Setting up a social network that’s connected and actively engaged with your domain and brand which can affect your business’s sales funnel. Social mentions can also further the outreach in Organic Search results.
• Strong content – after the update of Google panda, quality content with regular updates is the most important part of a website; many site’s ranking drops because of low quality content and backlinks. You need really great content to create leads and generate engagement.
• Monitoring and making sure each aspect of your strategy works in conjunction with the other moving parts
• You can also implement some off site SEO tactics like PR marketing business networking, all of which in time, may help with your search engine position

SEO should never be viewed as a cost but as an investment.

Investing in good SEO strategy is a must have priority to support your goals and objectives and to help position your business. Overall, it will be the case that these activities will increase your rankings to your site and will help build your visibility and virality. SEO is always changing at a rapid pace, keeping us on our toes – one of the many reasons we love working in this industry.

2011 was a fantastic year for Zest, and as a result we welcome James to the team!

Hi, I’m James the new Business Development & Operations Director.

As a previous Partner for an IT company I join Zest with 7 years business development and operations experience. I was responsible for introducing the company to online marketing (and now the companies entire marketing spend is invested online) which is where my interest with Zest originates. I was also responsible for securing some of the companies largest ever contracts and implementing internal procedures to help underpin business process. I have also had a business coach for the last 2 years who helped to reinforce my understanding with small company management.

Since joining Zest I have helped to implement a new CRM and Project Management system, plus the processes needed to help support the company’s continued growth whilst improving our customer service.

Outside of work I have a keen interest in gadgets and like to go rock climbing and snowboarding. I am also a fully qualified pilot and like to fly when the british weather is suitable!

I look forward to meeting with all of Zest’s clients and helping to significantly grow our client base. You can find me on Twitter and LinkedIn If you want to know more about me or get in touch!

Connect with James on LinkedIn
Follow James on Twitter

Searching for potential leads on Twitter

Outside of the ‘geek realm’, little is known about just how powerful Twitter’s search function can be. There are numerous search operators that can really help to isolate genuine opportunities. Head over to Twitter Search to begin.

Here is the list:

Here are a couple of examples of how you can use these operators to find potential opportunities:

1. Finding local business with Twitter

One of the great search operators is the ability to filter results within a certain area and/or radius. This function instantly rids of any potential business that might be out of your area of operation. Using your keywords and/or buzz words can bring up some interesting results. By “buzz word” I mean words that might suggest action. Here are a few:

• Recommend – “Can anybody recommend a…”
• Needed – “XXXXX needed to fix…”
• Suggest – “Can anyone suggest a good…”
• “Looking for” – “I’m looking for a decent…” (note that I’ve enclosed these two words in quote marks to keep them together)

In the example below, I’ve used buzz word “recommend” in addition to my keyword phrase of “driving instructor”. I’ve purposely narrowed down my search to within a radius of 40 miles (within:40mi) from Oxford (near:Oxford). You can control this  Low and behold, someone is looking for a driving instructor near Wootton Bassett! (On a side note, this is a genuinely fresh lead at the time of writing so if you know of any good driving instructors for Lottie, then do let her know!)

Searching for anger!

Twitter has proven itself to be a platform for us to vent our anger to the world. Luckily, there are a lot of businesses who work to solve problems and cure the wrath. If you’re one of those, then listen up!

It took me just two minutes to identify Annika and Aimee, two girls near Oxford in need of some help with their broken boilers. Plumbers and boiler specialists at the ready – these are free leads! By combing my keyword with a (sad face) I’ve told Twitter to serve me up a list of posts including the term ‘boiler’ that have a negative tone. By filtering this to show only results near Oxford, I’ve located two potential leads that might lead to some decent income (if I were a Plumber).

I used the (sad face) to show negative tweets because realistically we’re not looking for positive notes. If someone is feeling positive about a service or product, the chances are that you’re not going to swan in and take that business. By searching for anger, you’re locating people you can help.

Using Google to rapidly search for contacts on LinkedIn

Twitter is great for sounding out opportunities, but for professional contacts you’d be hard pushed to beat LinkedIn. The problem I find is that the internal search is a ball ache to use. It’s cumbersome and fiddly and there is, in my opinion, a better tool for the job – Google!

Google’s search function can also be made to work harder by using operators. I can search through hundreds of profiles and gain many contacts or names (to ask others for a referral to) by following the method I outline below the image (which is a screenshot of final results).

1. The first stage is to filter your search to only show results from LinkedIn. To do this we need to use site:linkedin.com where site: is the operator, and linkedin.com is the variable.

2. The second task is to filter down to my area of operation. In this example I’m going to continue with the Plumber theme I’ve used above. LinkedIn profiles use a set format for displaying someone’s location. Typically it’s “CITYNAME, COUNTRY”. In my case, I’m going to use “Oxford, United Kingdom”, as I’m only looking for contacts in Oxford.

3. The third part of the job is to decide on who I’m looking for. I have already identified a couple of leads using my Twitter search, but these are one-off. I’m going to look for Property Managers who might be able to provide me with regular work. Therefore I want to add “Property Manager” to my search.

4. Lastly, to ensure the results are showing me mostly relevant profiles, I’m going to add a inurl:pub (where inurl: is the operator, and ‘pub’ is the variable). This specifies that the URL (web address) must include pub in it, which all LinkedIn profiles do.

So my final search string which I type into Google is:

site:linkedin.com “Oxford, United Kingdom” + “property manager”  inurl:pub

Please note that Oxford can be replaced with any town, city, or region. In most cases, it’s good to try the same search string with a variation of locations. Some people will put Oxford, and others might put Oxfordshire or the name of a smaller town.

Likewise, not everyone will title themselves a Property Manager. It might be the case that there are multiple titles associated with any one job. Again it’s worth playing around with different combinations to maximise your results.

What to do with the search results?

When the results come up, I right-click and open each contact into their own window. I’ll open about 15-20 contacts before I take a break and sort through them. If they’re relevant, I might send them a message or add them to my connections. Or I might write them down for future reference. LinkedIn isn’t something you should spam, so often I keep my contacts written down and ask my current contacts for referrals if they know any of them.

Let me know how you get on with these over on Twitter or on LinkedIn – good luck!

Most people are now familiar with the importance of including social media in their online marketing campaigns. Despite this, many businesses struggle to get people visiting their social media web properties.

One of the simplest ways to promote your social profiles is by proudly displaying them on your website. The 5 examples you see below not only link to their profiles; they have taken it to the next level by integrating these links with the design of their website.

We start with a social media giant; Pepsi. Their homepage is dominated by links to their social properties; Pepsi clearly value the importance of social media marketing. They link to their Facebook, Twitter and Youtube pages from the top navigation menu, as well as the sidebar navigation menu and the main image navigation. This makes for 12 links to their social networks; no wonder they have over 6million Facebook fans!

Although this is overkill for most websites, it does suggest that there are returns to be had by getting people on to your social profiles.

Ricky Ryan, an Argentinian house music producer, has a minimalist yet highly stylised website. Although the homepage features no real information, it does drive visitors towards clicking on his social media profiles. Suitably styled and located under the main heading, these links have resulted in thousands of social fans.

Giant Nerd allows site visitors to log in to the website with their Facebook details, and then “socialise” with staff from the site. By inviting site users to open a dialogue with them, they are creating brand loyalty and putting emphasis on their customer service priorities.

Specifically asking for comments and dialogue from customers can have massive impact in the interaction levels of a business’s social profiles.

Fast food giants, KFC, promote their Facebook page on their website with a competition. By offering prizes and other incentives for becoming a social fan, business’s can get huge numbers of social fans.

Ribena links to their social profiles in the top right hand corner of their website. This is one of the most viewed points on a website; if you want to something to get a high number of views/clicks, this is a great place to put it.

Although the examples above feature heavily stylised examples of social media integration, simply the act of linking to your social media profiles from your website can help to create new fans and followers. Blog about your social profiles, as well as linking to them from the homepage/navigation. The more you mention your social profiles, the more followers and fans you’ll receive!

You’ll also catch cameo appearances from Alex Q and Alex M!

For those interested in attending the next event, visit http://www.oxondigital.co.uk to register.

Zest Digital’s Director, Alex Minchin, talked at the most recent OxonDigital event, held on the 21st of September. OxonDigital is a monthly meeting for like-minded professionals from the digital industry to meet, chat, and keep up to date with the ever-changing landscape that we operate within.

It was a laid back event, with attendees gathering at the bar to order their free drink (sponsored by Zest). People casually chatted and wound down after work, before sitting down at the tables for the 2 presentations of the evenings; Daniel Bianchini’s presentation on SEO techniques, and Alex’s on Local Search Strategies.

Daniel focused on some of the more technical onpage SEO techniques that can improve a site’s rankings, including site architecture, naming conventions, sitemaps, and content. Alex focused on offpage SEO strategies, intended to help improve the ranking of businesses’s Google Places profiles (a very powerful tool when targeting local markets).

The second Oxondigital was a success, with lots of new faces and a much larger turnout than the first. Many stayed afterwards to get another drink, ask questions to the speakers, and chat about the presentations and recent events. For more information on the next Oxondigital event, you can follow @oxondigital.

Alex’s slides on local SEO strategies can be found below:

Local SEO Strategies

OxonDigital – Oxford’s Digital Networking & Social Event

When running a PPC campaign in Google Adwords, you must optimise your strategy based on which Google network you run your ads in. There are 2 main networks; the Search Network and the Display Network (formerly called the Content Network).

Speaking to clients who have tried Adwords in the past, many aren’t convinced by its effectiveness. This is usually due to running a single campaign in both networks (which Adwords does by default). In most cases, running a single campaign in both the Search and Display networks is counterproductive to cost-effectiveness, unnecessarily driving down your ROI.

What are the differences between the Search and Display Networks?

Ads which run in the Google Search Network will appear in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). This means that when someone searches for the keywords you chose when building your campaign (for example: Dog Training), your ads will be displayed. The screenshot below shows this:

Ads which run in the Google Display Network will appear on websites which contain the keywords you chose whilst building your campaign, seen below:

Why should you use different strategies for each network?

Fundamentally, Google Adwords’ two networks target two different types of consumer. The Display Network targets people higher up the sales funnel than the Search Network does. Typically, people searching for a product or service on Google are already in a buyer’s frame of mind. They are specifically searching for the product/service with the intention to purchase it. This is where the true power of adwords lies; putting your ads in front of people who have their credit cards at the ready. The high value of these leads is why running your ads in the Search Network is typically more expensive than the Display Network.

Although the Search Network is where the most direct conversions are gained, the Display Network can also be a great marketing tool, but you must take a different approach.

The Display Network is more suited to building brand awareness, which can then lead on to consumer consideration (which is where your ads in the Search Network come in to play). With the right kind of eye-catching ads in the Display Network, you can direct people on to your ads in the Search Network (when they search for your business or product in Google after seeing your ad/banner on a website), which then leads them to your website. Combined strategies like this can be very powerful, but they require high levels of optimisation and testing to get right. When starting your first Adwords campaign, priority should be put on perfecting your campaigns in the Search Network, as this is where you will gain the most conversions/leads/sales.

When building your Adwords campaign you must first decide whether you’d prefer to build brand awareness, or gain direct/immediate conversions/leads. Both are essential to a businesses’s success, and both require unique strategies when using the Adwords platform.

We are Google Adwords and Google Analytics Certified Professionals, and can help you to build an Adwords campaign adhering to all best PPC practices. If you’d like to find out how a Google Adwords campaign can help your business, please don’t hesitate to contact us today.

1. Leave
2. Leave and come back later
3. Leave having purchased/contacted/booked/etc.

Hopefully they’ll do one of the latter two, and your chances of that happening will be greatly increased if you follow the tips in this post.

1. Have a clear focus of what you want your visitor to do
Your pages must have focus. What I mean by this can be summed up in a simple question (to ask yourself!):

What do I want everybody, who lands on this page, to do?

You might want every visitor to turn into a sale. Brilliant! First you must check how people get to your high-value/bestsellers:

• Is there suitable imagery and links to the product page?
• On the product page, is there an ‘Add to Cart’ or ‘Buy Now’ button? Is it clear to see?
• Once it’s in the cart, how do I purchase quickly?
• How many steps are there from adding to my cart, to receiving my order receipt?
• Do I have to sign up to anything along the way?

The last question there is interesting. Often a checkout process will ask a user to sign up way too early, and this can lead to lots of missed sales, especially if the average order value is low. It usually makes more sense to place the registration part right at the end, when the shopper has filled in their personal details and has ‘crossed the line of no return’ (or better put, has invested too much time to now stop). It’s worth asking someone, who isn’t connected to the business, what their opinion is. Afterall, a good button can increase conversions.

Always keep a clear idea of what you want a visitor to do, on any page that they might land on. Your conversion rates will be likely to increase dramatically with a little focus. Although not strictly web-related, Apple Inc. has for years remained the market leader for easing the user through a series of on-screen processes. Steve Jobs’ resignation from Apple won’t change that, because it’s so deeply ingrained in the company, that it’s almost become their brand.

Another recent example is the England riots. The Government website, although [in my opinion] a user’s nightmare, does clearly set out what someone should do if they have been affected. Whilst not optimum, it does serve a purpose, and it does guide the user somewhat. Their new AlphaGov BETA website is working on improving the usability side of things, through ‘revolution’ and not ‘evolution’. Here is a fantastic article on AlphaGov by usability whiz, Leisa Reichelt.

2. Position your business’ phone number clearly
Not everybody wants to spend time reading about how great you or your business is, and more often than not, those are the people who want to pick up the phone. A clearly displayed phone number means that a prospect can land on your website, and be speaking to somebody within a couple of minutes. A favourite place to display your phone number is in the top-right of your website. It’s also worth repeating it in the footer, and within content if the page is particularly long.

A second benefit is that a phone number adds credibility to your business. It signifies that you have a ‘base’ from which to receive calls. With SPAM artists on the increase, it’s these touches that will gain you extra sales.

If you do NOT have a phone number, for whatever reason, then consider using it to your advantage. Look at how Sunshine.co.uk (above) have turned it into a plus point. They simply state that they’re saving you money as a customer. So all the overheads and staff salaries saved quickly become a comforting sign and a benefit to the visitor.

3. Tell your user what YOU want them to do
This is a key part of marketing in any form. If the user has to guess what it is you want them to do, then they might lose interest or become distracted. With so many marketing messages being thrown at us in today’s world, it’s attention which is being lost. People want things now, and faster than ever before.

Whilst you don’t want to be too pushy, it’s OK to tell your visitors to ‘Like’ your Facebook Page ‘to receive special offers’. It’s OK to ask them to ‘please take just 2 minutes to fill in our survey’. Your response rate will be notably higher than if you simply have ‘our survey’ as your link. In the first case, you’re asking them to do you a favour, and assuring them that it will only take two minutes. Perfect – I know that I’m not going to be hit with a 3-page open question survey!

Most of the time it’s about the visitor. What do they get out of following through on your call-to-action? Remind them of it…

4. Use the ‘Fold’
In traditional marketing media, being ‘above the fold’ has always had an impact on response rates. Take a newspaper, for example, where the main headline needs to have a strong impact in a bid to stand out from other competing papers. A simple Google search for ‘newspaper front page‘ will show you just how competitive it is out there:

The  clever twisting of words, the bold typeface, and strong imagery – they all contribute towards earning our attention.

On a website, the situation is the same. You have just a few seconds – estimated between 3-7 seconds – to persuade your visitor to stay. The website must transmit all the usual signals that a customer is looking for; confidence in the product/service, trust in the company, and means of making contact. Depending on your screen resolution, the fold area will differ from one user to another. In that case, it’s best to serve the majority (unless your market suggests otherwise – elderly people may use smaller resolutions to increase the size of contents on their screen).

Strong imagery (animated images are popular and can deliver multiple messages), and text that clearly shows relevance to what the customer is after. This post is still very relevant to designing a good website for the user, and is worth a read. Potential ideas to help build confidence in the visitor:

• List your main products or services
• Areas you serve
• The pains/problems that your business solves
• Photos of your staff, office, and vehicles
• Awards you’ve won
• Associations; FSB, Chambers of Commerce, etc

What information is your website delivering above the fold? Could you be squeezing some extra conversions by focusing on your websites’ call to action?

What is Adwords?

Adwords is a powerful ‘pay per click’ (PPC) advertising platform created by Google. It is the Search Engine’s main source of revenue, with publishers ads running alongside and above natural search engine results (highlighted below in red), as well as on thousands of websites.

Adwords publishers can opt to be visible in Google’s search results for chosen keywords and searches (the Google Search Network), or they can publish their ads on ‘contextually targeted’ websites (the Google Display Network – GDN). Traditionally, the Google Search Network is used to target visitors who are further along in the buying cycle, and the Google Display Network is used for brand awareness. However, this isn’t to say that you can’t make direct sales with the Google Display Network!

Many publishers will use a combined strategy, using the GDN to build brand awareness. Instead of clicking on the publishers ad, they may go to Google and search for it. The publishers Search Network ad will then be shown. This is an extremely powerful strategy when executed properly.

What are the benefits of using Adwords?

Adwords allows for instant visbility in Google’s search results for competitive phrases which may otherwise take months of traditional SEO work. As soon as an advertising campaign is created, it is live in the search engine. Publishers can receive highly targeted traffic within ten minutes of creating their campaign.

What are the drawbacks?

PPC advertising means that you pay for every visitor that clicks on your ad and ends up on your website. The cost per click depends on the competitiveness of the keywords/niche, as well as the quality of your advertising campaign (keyword relevancy, ad text, landing page quality, etc). Google will display a campaign’s quality with its ‘Quality Score’ metric. A higher quality score means advertisers can pay less for clicks.

Clicks on the GDN can cost as little as 5p, whereas highly competitive clicks on the Search Network (‘Car Insurance’ for example) can easily cost one hundred times that! If there are high ROIs to be made, often the click price will reflect that.

5 key tips for getting started

• Choose a highly relevant group of keywords. Generic keywords are good for brand awareness, but not for targeted traffic that convert in to sales. (“Bicycles” is a generic Keyword, whereas “buy Bicycles in Oxford” is a targeted keyword phrase)
• Beware of ‘Broad Match’. Using broad match lets Google show your ad for keywords that it feels are relevant, but may not be. (If you are using broad match and targeting the keyword “Bicycles”, Google may also show your ad for “Unicycles” or “Motorcycles”. By using ‘Exact match’, Google will only ever show your ad for the exact keyword you’re targeting.
• Optimise your Landing Page. Make sure that your landing page is highly related to your keywords and ad text. This keeps conversion rates and quality score high (which results in lower click costs).
• Set a weekly budget, and stick to it. Publishers new to PPC can quickly overspend if not careful. Be strict about your budget whilst testing your campaign.
• Consult an Adwords Certified Professional for advice. At times, Adwords can be complex and expensive for new advertisers. It is however an extremely popular and proven platform, which can provide a great return on investment when used properly.

Measuring ROI

Adwords allows advertisers to track conversions within its interface. By adding a tracking code to their website, a publisher can assign a monetary value to each conversion, and see their Costs vs Sales within Adwords itself. This lets publishers see instantly whether their Adwords campaigns are effective or not. If a publisher doesn’t track conversions within Adwords itself, it is still very important to ensure that the costs of the PPC campaign(s) do not outweigh the return on investment that the PPC traffic has provided.

The next step

If you’d like a discussion with a Certified Adwords Professional about how Pay Per Click Advertising can help your small business, please don’t hesitate to Contact Us today!