Is Applegate directory any good?

February 28, 2012 Online Advertising, Website Analytics 1 Comment

This is one of those blogs that has multiple aims:

1. To show you how you can learn from the keyword phrases that website visitors typed (to find your website).
2. How that spins off to a new opportunity.
3. To answer the question ‘Is Applegate directory any good?’
4. To show you how Applegate fits in with A1WebStats

Here we go …

To learn from what website visitors typed

Exactly a year ago we wrote a blog that talked about Applegate, the online directory.  It wasn’t written with the intention of getting Google positioning, but it did.  Here is just a tiny sample (there are tons of them) of the keyword phrases that have brought people to our website over the year …

We used A1WebStats to easily pull out that information (and if we wanted to could look in detail at the individual visitors who clicked through to us).

If you type those phrases into Google you’ll see the blog on the first page for many of those phrases.

So the question you’re asking is: “Where’s the value in that?”.

The answer is: “not a lot for that particular blog, but the value may be in a new blog (this one)” …

How that spins off to a new opportunity

By typing ‘is applegate’ into Google, it previews particularly popular phrases that people type, as you can see from the screenshot below …

So we know that the phrase ‘is applegate directory any good’ is quite popular.  As the rest of this blog reveals, there are strong benefits for us attracting website traffic when people type that phrase and hopefully, when made live, this blog will appear under that, and similar search phrases.

For you, the reader, the opportunity is to start typing phrases into Google, that you think could be linked to your business, and then creating a blog (or website page) around particularly popular phrases people type.  The key point here though is that by being able to pick up on keyword phrases that people type, that bring them to your website, it can spark off further thinking.  In this case the thinking is to find a way to pull in more ‘Applegate’ type traffic to the Custwin website.

Is Applegate directory any good?

Any online directory is only as good as a few factors,  Applegate included …

1. Is the directory going to appear in Google results when people are typing in relevant phrases?

   I searched Google for a randomly picked subject, ‘nickel plating’ and then ‘nickel plating companies’.  I saw no evidence of Applegate in the first couple of Google results pages and yet they have 433 results come up under ‘nickel plating’ when you search for it within their website.

   If the directory appears in Google when people use certain search phrases related to your business then that’s at least a good sign to start with.

2. For those people that know what Applegate is, then a search within the site can bring up a ton of relevant results.  Tick in the box here for Applegate.  BUT it relies on knowing that Applegate exists.
3. How good is the business listing within the directory?

   This depends on how good the business are at presenting themselves.  Some are strong, others are rubbish.  Some people may gain direct contact from being listed, whereas others won’t.

4. What about people who click on the website address within the directory listing?

   This is where the problems kick in and it’s hardly Applegate’s fault if a website of an advertiser is not strong enough to convert clicks to enquiries.

And point 4 is where I sympathise with Applegate because they want companies to pay for listings but when those companies come to renew, they may think they’ve not had enough value from the listing (because their perception is that Applegate hasn’t performed for them).

Part of the reason could be that there weren’t enough people going to their Applegate page (ref: the nickel plating example of poor Google visibility).   In that case it’s definitely the fault of Applegate for not doing their SEO well enough.  However, a big part is also that the advertisers website is too weak, which means that people may find them on Applegate and click through to their website but it doesn’t inspire them enough to make contact.

And this last point takes us to the final part, which will probably be of interest to anyone thinking of advertising on Applegate …

How Applegate fits in with A1WebStats

If you have a listing on Applegate (whether paid or not) it should be of interest to you which companies are interested in your type of business.  If you know who they are then there may be opportunities to capitalise on that.  You should probably also be interested in how deeply people click into your website pages because if they don’t bother spending much time on your website it could indicate that the website needs strengthening.

Currently, it doesn’t appear that Applegate themselves can provide you with details of which companies are looking at your listing.  However, IF those companies decide to click on the link to your own website, then it starts to get interesting because A1WebStats can show you which companies came to you from your Applegate listing.

For example, the screenshot below shows you that a company called Modular and Portable Buildings Limited  came to the Custwin website on 12^th December, having searched for ‘applegate directory is it worth it’.   That could equally have been them going to the Applegate directory and then clicking through to your website.

And that’s where the whole purpose of this blog ends up … to show people from companies, who have initially typed a phrase similar to ‘is applegate directory any good?’, that there are benefits to Applegate but that bigger benefits can be gained from a strong website statistics system which allows website owners to identify people who click through from directories like Applegate (or any other website) and, where it’s identifiable, show which company they were from, and which pages they looked at.  Then, if that company didn’t make contact, there is at least the awareness that they visited, which may be something to capitalise on.

In theory, we could do that with this blog.  We could identify companies who have searched on a phrase similar to ‘is applegate any good?’, who have found this blog, and we could (if we thought they needed it) offer them our services.   At the very least we would encourage them to take a closer look at what they gain from clicks that come into their websites from other websites (particularly directories).

Is Applegate directory brilliant?  Not in our view.   Is it really bad?  Again, not in our view.  It currently falls somewhere inbetween but one thing we would say is that if you’re not measuring your traffic/enquiries that come from an Applegate listing, then you won’t really know for sure how well or not it’s performing for you.

Why tracking enquiries saves £thousands

March 24, 2011 Online Advertising, Website Strategy 1 Comment

I had a conversation with someone today that went along the lines of …

Them: “We’re going to start asking enquirers how they found out about us”

Me: “That’s good – what’s prompted that?”

Them: “We think that Yellow Pages, the Phone Book, and other directories aren’t bringing us enough enquiries compared to the investment, so are thinking of cutting them down”

Me: “How long have you been advertising in places like Yellow Pages?”

Them: “At least the last 8 years”.

Me: [Stunned Silence]

It’s a common occurrence – companies use various forms of marketing but aren’t keeping records of how many enquiries originate from each source of marketing.  So, the person I was talking with has no idea which marketing expenditure, over several years, had been gaining them enquiries.

The good thing for them is that they’re going to start measuring it – but only at a point in time where things seem to be tight for them and they’ve now got to get the most out of their marketing budget.

People in business generally have a good ‘feel’ for where their enquiries originate from but often don’t keep formal records.  However, even when formal records are kept, people don’t record the full picture – for example, someone may record an enquiry as being ‘website’ when it may actually have been any of:

• Search from a search engine (such as Google)
• Link in from a directory to the website (e.g. Yell.com)
• Direct entry of a url into the browser
• Link in to the site from something social media (e.g. a Tweet)
• Printed materials containing the website address
• Link from another website

So it’s important to be specific in recording enquiries that are gained.   I hope that the following process is useful …

1. Create a spreadsheet containing the following key columns:

• Date (of enquiry)
• Time (of enquiry)
• Source (of enquiry)
• Description (rough details of what the enquiry was about)
• Other details that are useful to record (name of the person, email address etc.)
• When using the ‘Source’ column, use specific phrases (e.g. Google, Yell.com, Newspaper advert) or better still, create a column for each source of enquiries so that a ‘Y’ can be put in the appropriate column each time an enquiry is gained.

2.  Ensure that all customer-facing staff are committed to completing the enquiries log.  It may be easier to have a Google Doc created that everyone can access.  Someone though should take responsibility for ensuring that all enquiries are being recorded.

3. On a periodic basis (monthly is typical), analyse the enquiries gained and assess which enquiries came from each source.

If one source doesn’t seem to be performing, don’t necessarily stop using that form of marketing – there could be various factors that contribute to it not generating enquiries.  For example, many people have found that “PPC advertising doesn’t work”.  In reality it turns out that it’s either the PPC campaign setup that’s inefficient or the website itself isn’t strong enough to convert clicks to enquiries.

In the same way that a company should be regularly checking on the business finances, enquiries logging and analysis should also be a regular activity, which will usually lead to further actions that are beneficial.

If you aren’t recording details of where enquiries came from then your ability to assess return on marketing investment is significantly reduced, which means that you could be wasting £thousands on underperforming marketing.

Is it worth advertising with Applegate or Yell.com or other online directories?

February 28, 2011 Online Advertising 1 Comment

Last week I was asked the question “Is it worth continuing with Applegate advertising?”.  It’s a question that you can substitute ‘Applegate’ for anything else (e.g. Yell.com) and the answer would always be the same:

How much business has it brought you already?

To which the answer is usually: “I don’t know”.

It’s a common problem and underlines the stupidity that goes on within so many businesses – signing up to online directories, costing a fee, and then not measuring what’s gained out of them.  Then when it comes to renewal time there’s no way of telling if the advertising had worked or not.

It’s not hard – just these simple steps will answer the question of whether any online directory is worth advertising in:

1. Record every enquiry that comes into the business.  Include the date and time of enquiry and if possible, try to determine where the enquirer found out about you.
2. If the source of the enquiry can’t be easily determined then refer to your website statistics package and link the data in there to the date and time of the enquiry – this will show you whether or not it came from an online directory you’re advertising on.
3. Keep a monthly tally of how many enquiries originated from each source of company visibility, plus how many of those enquiries became something more useful.
4. After a few months compare the cost of the directory listing in that time period to the business gained from enquiries identified to have come from that source.
5. If results aren’t great then decide whether it’s because the directory isn’t sending enough traffic to your website or whether the fault is actually with weaknesses within your website (which would stop potential buyers from making contact, having found you via your directory advertising).  Better still, get your website reviewed for strength before attempting to make it more visible online!
6. Make changes accordingly.

To be honest, any business who spends money on advertising in directories such as Applegate, Yell.com etc., and who isn’t measuring what they gain out of it, should reprimand the person stupid enough to have laid out the advertising money in the first place, but who didn’t insist on a method to measure return on investment.