December 19, 2011
Blogs, SEO
No Comments
We’ve all seen it – people who respond to blogs we write, hoping that we’ll approve their comment (if we’ve been sensible enough to set up our blog so that it doesn’t automatically let everything through).
Here’s a recent example below:
The blog was called ‘How much does a Google Adwords consultant cost?’ and as you can see in the screenshot, the blog commenter set their name up as ‘adwords consultant’ and also created a link from the words ‘adwords consultant’ – both linking back to their website.
They, of course, would have been hopeful that they’d get a backlink to their website for the phrase ‘adwords consultant’, which helps them a bit in their SEO goals.
I’m not against people having a go at getting backlinks from other people’s blogs but as the example above shows, they usually apply very little intelligence to it. In this case, all they needed to do was have a page on their website which has useful information about choosing an adwords consultant, and then write something in the blog response like:
I agree, it’s a nightmare getting the right advice. Your readers may be interested in a guide I’ve written called Choosing a Google Adwords Consultant, which I feel adds further thinking to this subject.
Although I’d still see that it’s an attempt to get a backlink, I’d take a look at what their guide says, and if I thought it was useful then I’d let them have their backlink because they took the time to put a bit of effort in and it’s also useful to my readers.
Unfortunately, the (in my view, archaic) Google system whereby credibility is given to certain types of backlinks, is here to stay for some time. As the screenshot above shows, it’s not hard for someone to find various websites related to their niche and attempt to get backlinks to their own website. The Google system doesn’t know any better and so the insanity continues.
I don’t have an issue with people wanting to piggyback off what I write, including getting a backlink to their website, but only if they’re providing something of value in their comment, or what it links through to. In time, Google may well be in a position to adopt a similar mindset – it already rejects certain types of backlinks and it will get cleverer over time.
For anyone wishing to get backlinks to their website, that will be long-term considered to be ‘qualiity’ backlinks, there is ample time to get working on that. And if that doesn’t seem to be a top priority right now, consider this …
Google want to be seen as ever-growing (in revenues). When their Pay Per Click revenues start to show a decline they will need a way to boost those again. My view is that ‘their way’ will be a ‘coincidental’ change of algorithm that makes a significant amount of websites dive down the rankings. That change of algorithm will focus on the quality of backlinks to websites. They can probably already do it but are keeping it in reserve for such a time that, as a business, they need to boost their revenues (from Pay Per Click). By releasing such a change in algorithm they make people’s organic rankings take a dive and to stay in business they’ll be forced (short term) to buy into PPC advertising, which raises Google’s revenues again.
It’s coming … it’s just a matter of time. And of course, when it does happen, it’ll be ‘just a coincidence’.
November 2, 2011
Blogs, Branding, Twitter
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This is for those who doubt the power of using Twitter AND have something that people want to hear about.
It started with a Custwin blog about using keywords in a domain name for SEO benefits that was picked up by Jo Dodds and tweeted onto her own followers. You can see that tweet below …
Jo has a strong following (and if you’re interested in social media and blogging then you should follow her on twitter – @jododds and via her website http://jododdssocialmedia.com/).
That tweet brought 38 eyeballs to the blog during that day. That’s 19 people (assuming all those people had two eyes). Some of those 19 people went on to look at other blogs and a few went deeper into the Custwin website.
What’s been achieved there is an increased awareness of the Custwin name. Although we don’t expect any of those people to be rushing to sign up for our services, we know that if they see the Custwin name in the future, then they may become receptive to interacting in some way (perhaps via signing up for the newsletter or maybe more).
What we see here is someone (Jo) who is very much known to be a ‘giver’, i.e. she shares her knowledge to many people, typically via social media, which builds trust in her own brand. When Jo then expresses agreement with something someone else says (e.g. our blog) then her followers can view that as being an endorsement, which makes them more likely to click through to the blog than if such information was presented to them ‘cold’ from another source.
There are three key points here …
- Blogging useful information is what builds trust.
- Using systems like Twitter to impart that information is common sense.
- Being linked to people who have a similar mindset leads to further views of the material you’ve produced.
Putting figures on it we know that most people are happy to grab free information but that very few actually go a step further to use the products or services on offer. However, the more that trust is built up, the higher the potential to gain business from just the small percentage of people who could become business at some point in the future.
Whatever type of business you’re in it’s likely that you could have something worth blogging about, even if it’s fairly infrequent (e.g. 2-4 times a month). If it’s useful and not a sales pitch then people will want to keep reading what you produce.
If you’re producing blogs at the moment and are tweeting those out, are you measuring the numbers of people who click through to look at what you’ve written? If not, you should be – it will tell you a lot about how well you’re engaging with your audience.
October 19, 2010
Blogs, Google Adwords, SEO, Twitter, Website Development, Website Strategy
No Comments
4th January 2011 sees VAT rise to 20% and there’s likely to be a negative knock-on effect to the majority of businesses.
The start of the year is usually quite a painful time for many businesses because people tighten their belts after Christmas, which has an impact down the line to businesses. Taxes also have to be paid by many businesses. Add onto that a rise in VAT and it’s generally not going to be a good time.
And guess what? You, whoever you are, are likely to lose business/customers in January 2011. It may be through no fault of your own but the impact of the VAT increase plus other factors beyond your control will inevitably lead to lost clients. Customers of your clients, whether B2B or B2C, will be paying out more in some ways and so will be cutting back in others and unfortunately, you could be on the receiving end of some of the pain.
So, enough doom and gloom – the purpose of this blog is to encourage proactivity now. Let’s say that you set yourself for a 10% loss in business in January 2011. You’ve pictured the end of January figures and they show you being 10% down on typical months. While it’s not good to be negative about such things it’s also not good to have your head in the sand.
Think about your website and how much it does or doesn’t generate for you in the way of enquiries/business. What is there that you could possibly do in order to increase the levels of business it generates by 10% or more? If you’re analysing your website stats then you’ll have an idea of which parts aren’t working. If you’re using advertising such as PPC then you have an opportunity to dig deeper into what that’s gaining you. Are you blogging and tweeting to build up your online presence? Are you identifying which companies are visiting your website and considering how to capitalise on those who didn’t actually make contact? There is so much you can do within a website to make it more effective.
In short, if you set a mental expectation that the increase to 20% VAT will have a negative knock-on effect to you (directly or indirectly) and set an estimated loss of business figure (e.g. 10%) then you have the opportunity to be proactive now, in the remaining few months of the year, to build strength within your website that will help to offset anything that comes along to hit you in January 2011.
Also, if you use PPC to advertise, you can guarantee that your competitors will be paying more in the early months of 2011 because their business will be down and so they’ll throw more money at advertising. Google will rub its hands in glee as companies try to outbid each other. If you’re clever right now, you can put into place PPC strategies that will mean you don’t get caught in a price war as the new year woes have a knock-on effect to the desperate measures some advertisers will take.
And if you do all that and then find that actually, the VAT increase didn’t adversely affect you? Well, good for you because not only will you be better off but you’ll have taken your website forwards in a way that will continue to benefit you while your competitors are sitting there wondering why things are so quiet in January.
February 5, 2010
Blogs, Email Communications, Email Newsletters, Twitter, Website Strategy
3 Comments
We’re coming up for the Kent 2020 exhibition in April 2010 and it’s started …. the stream of emails and phone calls from companies trying to sell exhibitors their services. This could be printing, exhibition stand stuff, gimmicks, whatever.
Like local political party reps at election time, they come out of the woodwork expecting to gain business. To be frank, it’s insulting, opportunistic, and in today’s climate, just plain stupid.
The winners in business in the future will be those that create an ongoing, but non-invasive awareness of themselves. Does Custwin want to buy new exhibition popups etc. for Kent 2020 this year? No. Would we need to next year? Possibly. Would we be adverse to getting a blog feed, Tweets, or an occasional email newsletter from companies who supply such products, over the months? No, we wouldn’t be adverse. In fact, it would help to build up trust, it may even lead to us meeting the suppliers at some point, and it’s got a much stronger potential to turn into business for the suppliers at some stage.
Taking another subject, a company was pitching chocolate fountain hire for the Kent 2020 exhibition. As a cold introduction to 100 people it’s possible that very few may respond. But as a warm drip feed over a longer period of time, the percentage of buyers will increase. HOW that drip feed is implemented is a subject all of its own but it’s not rocket science.
The focus here happens to be on an upcoming business exhibition but the principle applies for any type of business that wants to gain new clients, particularly at times of the year when those potential buyers are more likely to need such services.
Those businesses that don’t embrace the concept of drip feeding their message into potential clients will soon find themselves losing out to their competitors who understand what makes potential clients tick.
