Google Keyword Tool – is it useful?

Google Keyword Tool – is it useful?

How do you decide which keyword phrases to use when you want to optimise a certain page of your website to appear high in Google?   Many people use the Google Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.co.uk/select/KeywordToolExternal) but there are varying opinions online about whether that tool is actually useful.

For example, if you use the phrase ‘canterbury plumbers’ the tool implies that there are 390 ‘local’ monthly searches (meaning, 390 people within the UK use a search phrase that includes the words ‘canterbury’ and  ‘plumbers’ each month) …

If you get more specific and ask Google to show how many people type just the words ‘canterbury plumbers’ alone then it thinks there are 12 per month (see the phrase in square brackets below) and it thinks that there are only 16 searches on the phrase ‘canterbury plumbers’, which may have words to the left or right of the phrase (e.g. ‘cheap Canterbury plumbers’) – that’s the phrase with quotation marks around it in the view below …

Surely there’s more than 12 people per month typing the phrase ‘canterbury plumbers’ on it’s own!

So I ran the test on ‘custwin’ as a phrase, which brought up the following:

This implies that three times as many people search for ‘custwin’ than they do for ‘canterbury plumbers’.  I find that quite hard to believe.

Let’s say though, that for the sake of argument, there really were 390 people searching for phrases incorporating the words ‘canterbury’ and ‘plumbers’ each month.    If you’re a Canterbury plumber and are visible somewhere in the first page of Google then there are reasonable chances of getting clicks to your website – but you’ll never get all 390 people clicking.   If you’re highly visible on the search results page then you’ll get a reasonable percentage of those 390, but the lower you are, the more the drop-off in potential clicks to be gained.

Let’s pick a nice-to-have result of 10% of all searches becoming clicks through to the website of the Canterbury plumber.  So, about 39 per month (going by Google’s figures of 390 per month total searches).  The big question is:

How well does their website convert visitors into enquiries?

If the website of the plumber isn’t strong enough then the percentage of clicks to enquiries will be low.   This is made worse when the plumber is paying for clicks (via Google Adwords) because they may be getting a reasonable share of those 390 searches per month but they’re paying for traffic that could be unimpressed with their website.

So what’s the answer for any business that wants to be visible under certain keyword phrases (when people type them into Google)?  I’d suggest the following:

1. Use the Google Keyword Tool as just an indicator of possible levels of searches per month.  Type in the phrase that you want to be visible under and see how many people are supposed to be searching for that phrase each month.
2. Take that ‘Local Monthly Searches’ figure with a pinch of salt and remember that you will never get all those people clicking through to your website and of those who do click (probably around 10% if you’re lucky), only a certain number will become enquiries, which may then lead onto sales.
3. Look at your website and in particular look at the page that you’d want people to land on, after typing your chosen keyword phrase into Google.
4. Ask yourself the question “is this website page/website overall good enough to make people want to make contact?”
5. IF you’re totally convinced that it is good enough then set up a small Google Adwords campaign, containing only the keyword phrase that you’re interested in, and link it to the most relevant page of your website.   Offer a high enough cost per click allowance so that Google makes you as visible as possible.
6. Run the Google Adwords campaign for enough time to give you a reasonable sample of clicks to analyse (typically, 50-100).
7. Compare your number of clicks to the number of perceived enquiries (and resulting business) that you gained from those clicks.
8. If the percentage of clicks to enquiries is too low then you’ve proven something: your website wasn’t actually strong enough in the first place and it was probably good that you didn’t invest substantial time/money in raising your organic Google positioning for that search phrase.

In summary, the Google Keyword Tool  can be useful in that it gives you a very rough idea of how many people are searching on particular phrases each month.   It’s not accurate but it lets you see what types of phrases that your competitors may be visible under and if you’re not visible then they could be taking business away from you.   However, just because your competitors have invested time and money in becoming highly visible for your keyword phrase(s), doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re getting a good return on investment.  That good return can only come from a website that’s strong enough to convert good levels of clicks into enquiries.

Twitter: should there be quality checking?

Awhile ago I received the following email alert from Twitter, that someone was following @custwin:

He’d sent one tweet and yet had 178 followers and was following 1,186.

Needless to say I didn’t bother looking at his profile.

When I search for him now in Tweetdeck I see the message:

That’s not really a surprise that he’s been suspended but it does seem odd that the Twitter system isn’t more intelligent than it is.

There should be some sort of quality checking that restricts the activities of Twitter accounts after a certain point.   Perhaps the Twitter system should work something like this …

1. User signs up with an account.  They have to agree that they’ll abide by certain regulations.
2. If they reach a threshold where they’re following a certain number of people but their tweets are tiny in comparison, then the Twitter system should jump in and put on hold their ability to follow until they’ve gone through a checking process.  That process could mean them going through some sort of online training system (relatively quick) that encourages best practice.  If they click the box to say they’ve been through it all then they can be allowed back into the system but if they continue not to adhere to guidelines then Twitter suspends them.

Perhaps there could be different levels of grading.  For example, people who are followed more than following, and who are also active in ‘non-rubbish’ tweets, may get some sort of privileged status.

It would take a bit of working out to determine what the right combinations would need to be (these are just some initial thoughts) but Twitter would probably be a better system if it found a way to introduce a bit of quality checking to weed out those who deliberately (or otherwise) went against the rules.

Tommy Dellar: one month in

Here’s the views of Tommy, the Custwin apprentice who’s giving his insights into what Custwin do, having been here for a month now …

After working here at Custwin for a month, my responsibilities have been building up, and my skills have been developing hugely. To begin with I was set simple tasks, which I have now come to realise, with time and practice, can become more intense and beneficial.

At the beginning of my apprenticeship, Andy showed me the basics of how to use certain programmes such as webstat, which enabled me to complete the tasks I was assigned at the time. Now that I have got to grips with how the system works, I am learning how to use new tools such as Google Adwords, and Google Docs, which enable me to further my analysis of the data I extract using webstat.  With the further information I am able to gather, I am able to identify how many of the website visitors are turning into customers, and which visitors could be potential customers.

When I began working at Custwin, my understanding of what Custwin was trying to achieve was fairly loose.  I thought that the company was purely about improving client’s websites in order for them to gain further clients/customers.  That’s part of what is being achieved but I have come to discover that the company does far more than that, and the work being done for clients is a lot deeper.

Custwin are able to accurately identify companies that visit the websites of clients, what pages they looked at, and draw conclusions from that before sharing those conclusions with clients.  The work being done at Custwin isn’t just about analysing data and making the client’s website more appealing physically, but also getting the clients a higher ranking within Google; which is achieved through SEO (Search Engine Optimization).   SEO is something I had never heard of before coming to work at Custwin, but after being here for a month, not only do I understand what SEO can achieve,  I have also come to understand the importance of maximizing it to the benefits of clients. Understanding SEO is fairly simple, but when it comes to implementing,  it becomes trickier, and this is a skill that I am constantly working to improve through becoming increasingly involved in the building of SEO into the client’s websites.

Through my new responsibilities, I am now in a position where I am able to explain to people what Custwin is actually about, and what we aim to achieve, which came in handy at my first networking event,  ‘First Friday’, which I attended last week.  At this event I was able to meet people from various businesses who are basically wanting to build relationships that will hopefully build more business.

Kent weather – snow, storms, and opportunities

Every now and then I come across a website that’s been created with pure passion but could perhaps capitalise better on what they’ve done.

Today, the snow has fully gripped Kent (and most of the UK) and a decision had to be made about whether to attempt a trip into the office or not.  I searched Google for ‘Kent weather’ and after the usual Met Office and BBC links there was a link to the website http://kent-weather.co.uk/.   I believe that the SEO achieved was probably mainly accidental (and could be easily further built on) but at the same time I don’t think commercial gain is the aim behind this site. 

In a nutshell, the site provides weather updates from someone (see http://www.kent-weather.co.uk/staticpages/index.php?page=about) who is passionate about meteorology and is sharing their insights with people in a way that explains more about the reasons behind weather currently in Kent.   It’s highly ‘regional’ and so is potentially of interest to many Kent people, whatever the weather – snow, storms, heatwaves … this site, and its owner are providing what could be a useful and interesting service to many people.

The Custwin approach to blogs is to provide information, which raises awareness of skills/expertise, and potentially business down the line (in a non-salesy way).  The Kent Weather site doesn’t seem to have any ‘down the line’ objective, and it’s clear there are many opportunities that could be capitalised on (if wished to).

There’s a phrase of “People buy people” but to extend that I’d say that “People buy people who have passion about their subject of expertise”.   I don’t know what Shaun (owner of that website) does for a day job, or whether he’s happy as things are, but I do get the feeling that there’s so much more that could be done with the website.  

For a start, he has huge potential to be the ‘go to’ source in any situation where Kent weather is a topic of interest.  Radio stations, local TV, newspapers and more …. all could have him as a ‘go to’ source.   So, there’s opportunity to become better known via the Kent media, which raises awareness of the brand that he doesn’t yet have.

I looked at the Twitter page, which has 249 followers.  If you took the whole population of Kent and boiled it down to a relatively small percentage who would be interested in seeing Kent Weather tweets, that’s still a huge number of followers that could be gained.  I’ve just made the number 250.   A recent estimate of the Kent population was 1.6 million people.  Just a half percentage of those would be about 8,000 people as followers on Twitter.

So what would be achieved by having more followers and getting publicity in the Kent media?   The answer is ‘awareness’.   Take the current snow in Kent – with thousands of followers on Twitter, an update on the website could be tweeted, which attracts people to the website to see the full details.   People could interact with the posting and whatever the weather, they’re likely to get a warm feeling about the person behind the website (because they’re providing something for nothing).  But none of that makes the website owner any money.  The website owner may not WANT to make money from the website, but with the right strategy, there are many opportunities.

For example, the website layout could be easily changed to allow for advertising, advertorial, and more – all from Kent companies or those targeting Kent.   If that advertising had a weather theme (e.g. a Custwin advert saying something like ‘Bring your website in from the cold’) then it may appeal more to the website visitors as it’d be more targeted (assuming the landing point from the advert also kept the theme up).    There is, of course, a fine balance between having a website that’s giving information (with passion) and one that becomes viewed as solely there to gain advertising revenue, but that balance can be achieved. 

The few thoughts here are just the tip of how a passion for a subject, with a geographical focus, could be monetised and there are numerous marketing people (online and offline) who would have views on the potential.   The point is though, that opportunities are there.  What would I do if I was the owner of the website?

1. Make a commitment to keeping the passion/quality of content up.

2. Find outside help (possibly a reciprocal deal, rather than paying for it) to look at the design and layout of the site, allowing for opportunities to place advertising and more on there.

3. Actively build up Twitter followers (there are so many ways to do this) to a very respectable number – 1,000 being an initial target, building to more and, in time, gaining a huge achievement like having 1% of the Kent population following.

4. Then capitalise on all the revenue and reputation generating opportunities, possibly turning it into a full-time business.

5. Think about how to expand further – find people in other parts of the country who have a similar passion and either link up with them or create an infrastructure that makes it easy for them to share their localised weather passion while monetising.

In my everyday work I see tons of websites that have been created purely to capitalise on advertising revenue and so it’s refreshing to see a website prominent in Google and providing a service to the Kent community.   If handled sensitively there’s much more that could be achieved without going over the top.     Look, for example, at Martin Lewis of http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/ - he didn’t suddenly get successful overnight (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Lewis_(financial_journalist)) but he had a passion for a subject and he progressed over time.  The subject of weather obviously isn’t as huge as consumer savings but it may still be something that could be monetised, as could many other subjects.

Update 21 December: a recent flurry of publicity, plus the snow, have increased the Twitter followers to 396 – this’ll be an interesting one to see how Shaun evolves what could be a business in its own right.

twalue.com – where quality misses the boat

Those who know me know that I’m not a big fan of big numbers for the sake of big numbers.   Several years ago I wrote an article on how insane it is when the focus is on quantity instead of quality.  In that case I was referring to a portal that had X thousand members and the owner of that portal thought it was fantastic, but my argument was that the majority of the members were dormant accounts.   

Going back further than that Iworked for a dotcom in the boom (and then bust) days and the company I worked for were obsessed about numbers of website visitors (which helped them to sell advertising space).  The figures all meant nothing.

I was reminded of this yesterday when someone tweeted to me “What’s your twalue?” with a link to www.twalue.com.  They seemed pretty chuffed that their Twitter value was something like $500.   So I looked at the @custwin value and it came in at $71.14.   

Should I be depressed about that?   Perhaps not when you understand that things like twalue are basing ‘value’ on factors such as:

• Number of Followers
• Number Following
• Lists
• Age of Twitter account

So on that basis, I could be a teenager who has had a twitter account for some time, has followed loads and been followed loads.   I could have been producing utter tripe for ages and got into a never-ending process of building up my supposed Twitter value and the end result is a financial figure put on everything that I’ve been doing.

Let’s look at the other side of the coin.  I could be using Twitter more judiciously, carefully selecting who I’m following and not wishing to get every single follower who wants to follow me.  I could be tweeting less regularly but could be focusing on the quality of what I’m tweeting.   In this case it’s no surprise that my Twitter value is supposedly only $71.14.  To me, my Twitter value is only one thing – assessing how, over a period of time, my Twitter activity has contributed to business that has helped me or my clients.

It’s not unlike those people who seem to be always participating in online forums, attending all the networking events etc.  Does that mean they have higher value?  OK, there are big benefits to being highly visible of course and we all know that ongoing interaction is important, but if people are spending most of their lives tweeting, participating in online forums, and going to networking events, what does it actually say about how successful they are?  I’d suggest that it says they’re not doing well enough in their business because in theory, if they were busy enough earning money then they wouldn’t be so active in other ways.

I’m sure there will be many who disagree with that last paragraph but the point I’m making is that overall, quality should always win out over quantity and, for me, the quantity of followers I have, or the number of tweets I make, means nothing compared to the quality of what I’m saying and how people interact with that.

Having said all that, an independent system that measured the quantity of online and offline activity that someone undertakes, and directly compares that to their personal or business income – now THAT would be pretty interesting!

Of course, money isn’t everything but for most people in business I’d suggest that all the online and offline activity is undertaken with the intention of raising revenues, although there are of course exceptions which are fully justified.

10/10/10 – just an excuse to encourage website excellence

Today is 10th October 2010 – 10/10/10.   Many websites are highlighting that this is supposed to be a lucky day and couples are getting married everywhere, hoping it’ll bring them luck.   One website goes into detail about the possible significance of 10/10/10 whereas the BBC site has an article about a boy who will be 10 on 10/10/10 at 10:10.

This got me thinking about business websites – how many would get a 10/10 score for their website, in terms of it’s ability to attract potential customers and convert them into business?   How many go to bed at night thinking “Wow!  I’ve got a 10/10 website that’s bringing me lots of business”?

A 10/10 website is unusual.  Many are lucky to be considered 1/10 effective by their owners.   Have a think about your own website and what mark out of 10 you’d give it.    Have some marks if it brings you website traffic, have more marks if the quality of that traffic is good, and add more marks if a reasonable number of website visitors become enquiries/sales.   Ponder on how much out of 10 your website achieves and then think about, and ask the experts, to find out what could help you get to the point where you consider your website is worth a 10/10 score.

As for superstition around 10/10/10, who knows?  For me it’s just an excuse to link into a blog subject.   But that’s still not stopped me writing this blog live on 10/10/10, ready to click the ‘Publish’ button at 10:10 (London time), trying to get as close to 10 seconds past the 10:10 as possible.   If I get blasted by lightening then it was nice knowing you.  If I win the lottery next week, it MAY have been nice knowing you.  But if nothing special happens I’ll just carry on helping clients work towards 10/10 website excellence.

£113M Euromillions Winner – How this could be you

We’ve just had a huge Euromillions lottery winner in the UK and although at the time of typing we don’t know if it’s an individual winner or a syndicate, it’s still a huge sum of money.

Millions of people will be waking up today thinking “I wish that was me”.  In a way though, it could be …

Invested in a basic bank account, £113 Million would bring in roughly £8,500 per day in interest.  Most of the world would probably be happy to forfeit the original £113 Million if the exchange was to have £8,500 per day for the rest of their lives.  

The phrase “you’ve got to be in it to win it” is well worn and for one ticket holder, it’s come true, as it does for lottery wins week in, week out.  But that phrase can equally apply to business and there’s merit in boiling the big numbers down a bit …

Instead of being better off by £8,500 a day, how about being better off by £8,500 a month?  That’s £102,000 per year better off.   OK, it won’t buy all those luxuries but it’s still a nice step forwards for anyone.  That may seem like a dream to many in business, who are just managing to bring in a certain amount of income per month but it’s possible – I’ve done it myself.    I also do it for many clients and there are numerous examples of client companies that have seen their turnover increase by over £8,500 a month.  It’s worth looking at how this is achieved …

Most companies are good at what they do but are weak in other areas.  One such area is having the knowledge to turn websites into winners and to effectively market those websites online.   As I talk to each potential client the words “you’ve got to be in it to win it” often come up and by that I mean that they’ve got to be strong online in order to beat their competitors who may be doing the same.   It doesn’t mean chucking tons of money at Google but instead means taking a gradual approach, starting with website strength and then raising the online visibility.   Sometimes really quickly and sometimes longer-term, clients see enquiries and sales increasing and they see that all-important increase in revenues.   If clients weren’t gaining substantially then they wouldn’t keep paying Custwin – it’s that simple.

But this doesn’t just apply to online marketing – the “you’ve got to be in it to win it” principle applies to other aspects of business.  It may be more applicable for a business to be marketing themselves in other ways – ‘online’ isn’t right for every type of business.  It may be about enhancing product lines or services so that there’s something stronger to sell.  Whatever it is that a business needs in order to grow, the phrase “you’ve got to be in it to win it” applies – if you don’t buy into change then success won’t happen.  If you don’t buy a lottery ticket then you won’t have any chance of winning.

So, are you going to actually win £113 Million?  Probably not!   Are you going to advance your business so that it’s making you an extra £8,500 a day?  That’s probably a bridge too far for now.  But could you work towards increasing business turnover by £8,500 (or whatever sum you target) per month?   Of course you can!   It won’t happen as quickly as buying a lottery ticket and becoming a big winner, but by starting the process (whether that be via getting your online presence right or other activities), you will be on that path and one day be able to look back and wonder at how far you’ve come.   When will that day be?   It depends on your line of business.  I’ve had clients that have hit that target within one month and others that took several months - but, with a few exceptions, they previously had little concept that they needed to “be in it to win it” (online marketing).

So my advice is to keep buying those lottery tickets (after all, there’s always a chance) but perhaps think a bit more about your own business financial targets and what you may need to get to the next stage on your never ending journey to your definition of success.

Honey Chicken Stir fry – lessons to be learnt

Today, one of my kids toddled off to harvest festival at school with a tin of ravioli and a packet mix for honey chicken stir fry.

Nothing unusual in that you may think.  After all, harvest festival is all about turfing things out of the cupboard that you’ll never use.  However, the food from his school goes to needy old people.   Call me old-fashioned but although I can see the value of a tin of ravioli to an old person, I’m not getting a good mental image of an old lady with a wok making a honey chicken stir fry all for herself!

So what’s this got to do with getting the best from websites?

Also today I looked at the website of a potential client, having been asked to review it.   The website offers particular (and costly) IT software to larger companies.  As a plc company I’d assumed that they would have invested the time and money to get the right focus within their website.   How wrong I was!

What I saw was lots of information about the software products on offer but absolutely nothing about companies that had used the software, who had found it really good, and had positive comments to say.   The whole website was devoid of any evidence that a single piece of software had been sold to anyone.  The website is actively marketed online and will undoubtedly be losing potential business every day, because of the lack of focus on what people are interested in.

What do I care about as a potential buyer of that software?  I care about how it’s been applied in other organisations, and what those organisations say about the software.   Only after that am I interested in digging deeper into the technical abilities of the software.

My son was given (by she who won’t remain blameless) a packet of honey chicken stir fry but there was clearly no thought about whether the customer (the old person) would find that to be useful.

Many companies websites work in the same way – people have a hunger for something but they find something on the website that doesn’t match their culinary expectations.   In the case of the poor old person who ends up with the honey chicken stir fry, it’ll end up dumped or given away.  In the case of websites that don’t understand what their potential customers want to find on the website, the consequences are more serious.

England Flags – Stock Control, Stupidity, and Opportunity

Walking past a branch of a sports store chain last week there was a huge stall outside selling large England flags for 10p each.   Clearly, the store had overstocked, hoping for a better England performance and hadn’t negotiated a sale or return deal.  At 10p each they’d still have been making a fair loss on each transaction.  That got me thinking about incompetence both offline and online when it comes to event-sensitive sales of products.

I had a search online under the phrase ‘England flags’ and although many PPC adverts were still relevant (i.e. they weren’t focusing purely on the World Cup market), two adverts stood out as demonstrating PPC campaign management incompetence – nearly 2 weeks since England dropped out of the World Cup …

Looking at the Woolworths advert first, the high street store died not too long ago and out of the ashes came an online incarnation.   Woolworths died because it didn’t move with the times and it would appear that some of that spirit has translated to this website.    Would it have been simple to make a diary note to take down the PPC advert when England were knocked out of the World Cup, instead of, nearly 2 weeks later, having an advert asking us to ‘Support the England team with flags from Woolworths’, which looks just plain stupid?   Of course it would have been simple but instead, they could be wasting clicks (although it’s hard to conceive who would be buying England flags to support the team right now) by being visible.   They also make the woolworths.co.uk online presence look out of touch.

Onto the other PPC advert.  In this case, they’re not offering flags but a World Cup Poster.   Clicking on that advert takes you to a page that has a poster that’s totally geared around the World Cup, so has limited interest now that everything is all but over.   What’s really interesting about that page though is the number of those A3 posters they have in stock:

Yes, 5,000 A3 posters in stock.  Highly unlikely to be used and destined for recycling.  So who has paid for those posters?  The people who fund Keep Britain Tidy of course.   Who was responsible for thinking there’d be a high demand for such a poster?  Probably someone who is funded by those who put money into the charity.   And then there’s the person responsible for keeping the PPC advert live, possibly attracting clicks, when there’s no point at all.   As with the Woolworths example, it’s just lazy PPC management.

So I’ve covered the stock control and stupidity, now onto the opportunity …

Going back to the sports store with all the 10p England flags for sale.   A week later those flags still haven’t been sold and are still there for 10p.  Where’s the innovation in this country?   Why doesn’t someone buy them all up (and more if they’re available), store them, and then sell them at the appropriate time?   White background with red cross – it’s an England flag – it’s not going to change between now and the next big England event.  At 10p a time it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that they could create an ebay page, offer them for sale at prices much lower than typically sold elsewhere, and just let the orders trickle in.    If there are still flags left a couple of years down the line (for the European games) then demand may be higher.   If unlucky, they’ll still be in stock for the next World Cup, but what’s been lost by making those purchases at bargain prices and just waiting til they sell, undercutting the competition?

Barely a day goes by when I don’t hear someone moaning about how much things cost, or how hard it is to get business.  This is especially true with teenagers.  Perhaps it’s easier to moan than to innovate.  Perhaps the concept of buying up a stock of England flags isn’t the biggest short-term profitable activity to undertake and we’re living in a world where everyone wants quick wins and big bucks now.   But from small opportunities generally come bigger ideals about what’s possible to achieve and when sites like ebay make it so simple to start from those small beginnings, the opportunities open to people are limited only by how blinkered they are.

Web Strategy for Web Developers

For many web developers this will seem like a big case of teaching to suck eggs but there are many web developers who don’t capitalise on this simple strategic tip, reinforced in my mind by feedback from one of the web development companies we use for client projects, as told in the following conversation …

Developer: “Can you look at [site A] and [site B] and give me some strategic insights about them both?”

Me: “Wow! How did you get leads into those companies – they’re pretty high profile?”

Developer: “Both of them had found my contact details on the footer of [client site 1] and [client site 2], liked what they saw about the website and made contact”.

That’s a quite satisfying conversation to have and perhaps it’s the ultimate compliment to get potential business out of the blue purely because people like what you’ve done.  The developer had a swollen head for awhile, I was also happy (because my strategic input to the site would have created a big part of the impact), and the result was new business to be gained purely from the web developer having their details at the foot of each page of the website.

It doesn’t happen every day of course.  Actually, it’s rare, but at least by having a link to the developer at the foot of the page, there are opportunities.

The same also applies to anyone in a web marketing capacity.  Even more so.  For example, a company searches for ‘red widgets with blue spots’ and finds a client website.  They’re pleased with how easy it was to find the website and so if they see a link such as ‘Search marketing by [company name]‘ in the footer of each page then there’s always potential that they’ll want some of that same sort of visibility for their own company website.