What! You have spent all this time to brand yourself and encourage me to call your company as a lead and you basically close the door in my face. What a waste. Will I call back? Of course not. Supplier crossed off the list and now I’m contacting their competitors.

Internet Marketing and SEO MUST retain a level of customer service. After all, clicking on your link through Google or any other platform is the same as a customer walking into your bricks-and-mortar shop. Hubspot always advise the need to create landing pages to capture as much information on all potential leads as possible, and customer service is just the same.

I feel the same for call centres. “We are experiencing unusually heavy call volumes…” Really? This is your business and if more customers are calling you…recruitment more telephone advisors.

I feel that SEO forgets that the people clicking those links and searching for those terms are real people, paying customers.

So when planning SEO campaigns, try and think how clicking (or “paying”) customers will feel and benefit? Makes you think twice about those random directory links you are making too!

The post The Other Side of SEO appeared first on Daniel Reed | SEO and Internet Marketing Consultant and Geek.

This is an article I wrote some time ago about the change in online business…

This article is the culmination of two ideas. One, the recent news that GM pulled their Facebok advertising budget and a video from a speaker I saw recently about the changing face of customer relations.

There has been a great deal of talk over the past few months and years about Social Media. “Like us on Facebook” or “Subscribe to my channel” litters the web as businesses and people connect in new ways. But social media has hogged the sofa for too long and especially after GM’s latest shocker to pull their $10 million in Facebook advertising it seems that finally, advertisers and marketers are seeing that social media may not be the gospel they thought.

Social Media relies on the idea that customers and users know something about a product or brand beforehand and the advertise, whilst may be well targeted, follows the same weakness of Google PPC (Pay Per Click) that 89% don’t read the sponsored ads. Internet users are now more keen to follow and trade with brands they are aware of which means less advertising and more quality content and relationship building. The Change Speaker Michael Jackson has recently discussed that now more than ever, businesses need to work face to face with their customers, which means a personal face and passionate sense of achievement rather than the mass campaigns of earlier years (see the video below, courtesy of bDaily).

On another level, it seems than the internet now has returned the business to customer relationship to the Victorian Age, in a good way. In Victorian Britain, small towns and villages would know their butcher and grocer by first name and face in the most personal of ways. And now, the with the fast pace of change, businesses need to get back to this with a social media strategy that reaches out to customers as people rather than pound or dollar signs. Similarly, internet marketing need to create content that appeals for the reader now for its sale pitch but for its compelling raising of awareness.

And with this comes a new style of marketing, Inbound Marketing. The days of intrusive advertising, throwing pictures and offers in the browser of innocent customers are slowly, and hopefully, moving on. Instead when shoppers sit down with Google and type ‘converse shoes, London’ they want compelling ideas, shops that offer something different as well as a social presence be it the odd tweet or more importantly, customer reviews.

Modern web users want to be engaged, not annoyed. So when planning your internet marketing strategy just think “What would the Victorians do”…well they didn’t have the internet so forget that but remember…personality is key in a faceless internet business sense so reach out, see your customers as friends and compel them to see you as an authority not just a sales person. Don’t assume that Social Media can help you. Instead, see how this can help you make the most of your personal strategy.

The post How the Victorians can Influence On-line Business appeared first on Daniel Reed | SEO and Internet Marketing Consultant and Geek.

1. Our designer makes a newsletter, image heavy
2. I compile and send the newsletter to 16,000 people
3.  We get a call and realise that one of the products has the wrong price! Crap!
4. Here is where FTP becomes my best friend…quick…pause the campaign and upload a new image, replacing the old price and covering our arses.
5. Done.

Wow, well there is a lesson. Proof read, Proof read, Proof read! But when we realised, this basically sums up our feeling:

Meanwhile, Magento is still the bein of my life and LinkedIn is now my most used website! (you can find my profile at Daniel Reed) With every new contact and connect I make at work, straight to LinkedIn. Love it, except at my last job where I was forced to remove all of the contacts I made in connection with them. Yeah…

And I am pressing on with learning Swedish with my Girlfriend (who runs the increasingly popular MbyMalin blog).

I will be back soon with some SEO and Internet Marketing tips, so stay tuned and subscribe to get updates as they are hot!!

The post A Week of Stress! appeared first on Daniel Reed | SEO and Internet Marketing Consultant and Geek.

But seriously, you expect a potential customer, voter or whoever your target audience to  use your services and trust you when using cheap marketing methods. If you already own a domain (surely step one for any serious business or project), simply:

1. Check in with Google Apps for Business
2. Register and link your domain
3. And using this tool, make whateveryouwant@yourdomain.com, which will run via Gmail.

Very simple and very effective.

So please…stop using free email providers for professional services.

The post Get Real with Emails appeared first on Daniel Reed | SEO and Internet Marketing Consultant and Geek.

When I set out to make Kwai, I wanted to get into blogging and make a sort of SEO resource pool as I started my career in Internet Marketing. And as time went on, Kwai did pretty well. I wrote a few guest posts and the like, but mainly I learnt the power of networking and personal marketing, making myself a successful SEO Consultant.

And this new site is based on this new lessons. Kwai is still going, and we are working through some growing pains to make this a full blown consultancy. And as for me, I have a new job, new views and some new ideas to test and run through.

So, lets get started, and don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed!

The post A New Home appeared first on Daniel Reed | SEO and Internet Marketing Consultant and Geek.

Sorry for the mistake earlier today, where WordPress got a bit trigger happy and published a test article! This is the real thing and to make up for it, here are some Japanese Seizure Robots.

As I started, I loved DuckDuckGo.

• I like its very simple design, speed, direct and not-personalised results
• I liked its lack of advertising
• I liked its removal of spam and pages ranked through shady techniques

But it just didn’t do it for me.  I think Google has grabbed an element of trust from myself, BUT…that is not to say that the SERP’s it returns are very interesting. For example. SEO Newcastle on Duck and Google return totally different results:

The good thing is that my rant from a few weeks back about SEO still being ugly has been answered by Duck. As you can see from the images above, the results are very different, and I have found the results from Duck hold a much greater user value. By this I mean, I am still noticing a great deal of spam and c**p on Google, but Duck sees this and throws spam way down its one page SERP.

Also because Duck focuses on the Search and less on the analytics, its page is much quicker:

What Duck offers apart from a Cleaner, Faster and more Relevant Search Engine is a whole new approach to privacy, noted in their open traffic data:

What is most interesting here is the HUGE increase around Data Privacy Day which not only more than doubled Duck’s traffic, but stayed stable as a Duck became a serious alternative to Google and other major Search Engines. Not bad for a small start-up from an Entrepreneur.

So, I think that DuckDuckGo is fantastic. In a short space of time, their concept has been strongly focused on relevance and whilst it will take time for myself and others to gradually learn to “duck it” instead of “Google it”, I think the future for Duck can only get stronger.

Put it this way. Whilst I have not fully converted yet, I used to add &pws=0 to the end of my Google searches to remove all of the personalised and local crap when trying to research cold result data. Now I use DuckDuckGo as an authority.

Fantastic work guys! I am looking forward to what happens next.

The post DuckDuckGo: Back from the Challenge appeared first on Daniel Reed | SEO and Internet Marketing Consultant and Geek.

This is another article I wrote some time ago on an old blog

Recent data from leading marketing agencies suggests that over the next 2 years, internet usage trends are moving towards the mobile market. Mobile internet usage is projected to overtake desktop usage by 2014 and 50% of all local searches are performed on mobile devices, according to data published by Internet Marketing Agency Hubspot. As our information and data becomes increasingly mobile, with smart phones and cloud technology how does this impact on the Recruitment industry?

The statistics are overwhelming. 27% of emails are opened on mobile devices and hence there is an increasing exposure to contacts and clients as 63% of potential candidates have applied for a position through their mobile devices (data from Reconverse).

Since the early 1990s, Recruitment has transformed from early candidate CV databases, to the power of LinkedIn and Social Networking as a recruitment tool. So the market has changed yet again and now calls for consultants and agencies to become mobile. Smaller screens, slower connections and less control mean that for Recruiters, targeting candidates on the move should become a bigger priority in the coming months.

For the time being, this is a continually moving and developing trend and something which Recruiters and Candidates should keep an eye open for.

The post Recruitment is getting Mobile appeared first on Daniel Reed | SEO and Internet Marketing Consultant and Geek.

“I originally wrote this post back in May 2012, but since mobile technology is growing substantially, I thought I would republish it here”

Recent research has shown the extent that modern adults use the internet (see Ofcom Research, 2011). As of 2011, some 80% of interviewed adults claimed that they used the internet with 32% using their mobile phone. So what do you do to enable your customers to enjoy a ‘mobile experience’?

As more and more users begin to find or use your website online, it is more important now than ever to optimise your site for smaller screens, lower bandwidth and an even more demanding user. The mobile internet market has remained rather neglected in recent years, with most businesses just expecting the mobile user to use the same site. A little tip: This doesn’t work.

The best sites are those which have a FULL and MOBILE version. These change their site layout, adding bigger buttons, simplified designs and quick and easy to use structures to help users find what they need quickly. You should too.

Let’s take National Rail Enquiries as an example.

Their FULL site is great. Lots of colour, lots of search fields, a few adverts but overall easy to use and detailed.

But on a mobile device, this would take so long to load and users would spend half of their time zooming and scrolling. So instead, the creative guys at National Rail Enquiries made a sleek mobile version. Big buttons for common searches and a very reduced layout, focusing on the main items rather than images, adverts or themes.

The lesson. Translate your FULL site to mobile. Google made a push for this a few months ago and you should too. Smaller screens make for some clever web editing.

1. 3 features users use on your website and develop your site around this (you can find this through Google Analytics)
2. Use key colours and logos on your site to brand your site but again, usability is the goal (see mobile above)
3. Key ideas come first. Phone numbers, emails, etc. These are most likely what users are looking for. Make it easy to find and make it clickable so clicking on a phone number calls it
4. Test, test and then test again. Page load times need to be low as do image sizes (but check for quality)

Google have written some mobile optimisation advice articles so get yourself away and make your site mobile.

Mobile is the next step in your internet business strategy. Make it count.

kwai.

p.s. Thanks to Jonathan Chong for his words:

Some nice words about @nationalrailenq‘s full and mobile website offerings. Very proud and pleased. thenortheasthub.com/blog/why-mobil…

— Jonathan Chong (@jonathanchong) May 31, 2012

The post Why Mobile Means Business appeared first on Daniel Reed | SEO and Internet Marketing Consultant and Geek.

The main part of his article is that the data Google gives you varies, is rounded and general and doesn’t really give a definitive answer to what you are looking for.

I’ll show you why.

See that…Ill zoom in for you.

That says Google Adwords…and there is a saying in the UK…”no such thing as a free lunch” and this is exactly the point. The data from the Google Keyword Tool is largely collected from Adwords data. Google are not going to give you access to all the search data they hold, so they base it on this instead.

And to say “don’t use the Google Keyword Tool”…well the other option is to guess. As I said in an earlier post on SEO Keyword Research, the Keyword tool refines your keywords into those people actually search for. Guess work gets you no where.

So yes, whilst the Keyword tool has its flaws and limitations, it offers SEO‘s and Internet Marketers a valuable resource I just haven’t seen anywhere else.

• “Google Insights for Search” never gives detailed data unless you’re looking for Justin Bieber
• “Google Trends” only works for cats playing pianos
• Bing Keyword Tool…same as their search…same phrase totally different, often useless results
• Wordtracker…SALE, SALE, SALE!

So use the Keyword Tool to understand your searching customers but don’t think that the data is 100% perfect.

kwai.

== SEOmoz have a great article on using Google Keyword data ==

The post Oh Malcolm Coles appeared first on Daniel Reed | SEO and Internet Marketing Consultant and Geek.

Facebook advertising is twofold.

One: Paid Advertisements.

The old school method of paying to get noticed worked for so long but as Inbound Marketing and more quirky and personalised internet marketing becomes more talked about and popular, this flush method of paying your way to the top is dying off. GM has started this.

Two: Social Presence

What GM has NOT done is ditch Facebook altogether. After reading Ian Lurie’s pretty irritating article about GM “doing Facebook Wrong” this is something I really want to stress.

“GM are ditching paid advertising”. That’s it. And the idea that a company can do this wrong irritates me because it laughs in the face of Inbound Marketing. You can easily make a social media presence without touching your wallet. If GM found that $10 million was not turning over enough conversions then fine and this is something which is being recognised by more businesses.

The same is for Google Sponsored Ads, which 89% of users typically ignore. Users rarely click on paid items and so all GM has done is taken the bold move to shift away from this and re-invest its budget into more useful means.

“GM can optimize it and improve performance, or reduce waste by removing non-performing ads and segments” writes Ian…they did, all $10 million of it!

So, to summarise; GM have highlighted the trend that paid internet advertising is fairly weak. Great. I couldn’t help but smile when I read this a few days ago. Facebook is a method. Social Media is the means, so how about some encouragement for using this rather than moaning about the GM-Facebook divorce.

The post The Saga of GM and Facebook appeared first on Daniel Reed | SEO and Internet Marketing Consultant and Geek.