How Google Alerts help with search engine optimisation

Most companies have heard about how Google Alerts can help keep track of when certain phrases appear in blogs etc. online.  The fundamental basic for any company to do is to set up a Google Alert that makes the company aware whenever the company name appears online - because it’s important to keep an eye on who is saying what about you or your competitors.

However, are you aware of how you can use Google Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts) to find out why your competitors are doing better in the natural search engine rankings?

What you need to do in order to get good positioning in Google (and other search systems) is a huge subject but one of the key methods is having relevant links coming into your website from other websites.  This doesn’t mean getting your mate with a website about miniature poodles to link to your website but means doing it in such a way that fits in nicely with what Google would approve of.

If you go to Google and type in phrases, what do you see?  Do you see competitors appearing more prominently than you?  If you do, then you’d be in the majority.  So what is it that helps these competitors to get stronger positioning than you?  It could be a variety of things but one of them could be the links they’ve got coming into their website from other websites.

So where does Google Alerts come into the picture?

All types of companies would want to be visible when certain phrases are typed into Google.  Here we’re going to use the phrase ‘fixed asset software’ as a real example we’ve recently seen.  In this case, a company wanted to be highly visible under the phrase ‘fixed asset software’ but noted that when that phrase is typed into Google, high up the natural rankings is a link to a website called www.realassetmgt.co.uk – a competitor.

Because ‘fixed asset software’ is a subject of high importance to this company, and they wanted to see what people were saying about that subject, they set the phrase up in Google Alerts.  By doing so they gained some insights into why www.realassetmgt.co.uk were getting stronger search engine positioning than them.

The Google Alerts highlighted that there had been a blog titled ‘Fixed Asset Management a “Competitive Advantage”, Study Shows’.   Clicking on the link to that blog within the Google Alert takes you to the page http://adva-reason.com/?p=11, which initially looks like a relevant article.  However, looks can be deceiving ...

Within that article there are three links that can be clicked on.  Each link doesn’t look quite ‘right’ when read with the rest of the article and it doesn’t take long to realise that the links are just links back to the website www.realassetmgt.co.uk.   When you dig deeper into that site (http://adva-reason.com/) you’ll find numerous articles, within which there are links to various websites.  In short, the site exists to create links back to client websites so that search engines are duped into thinking those websites are popular.  Of course, there’s a lot more to search engine optimisation than getting articles written in the right way, linking back to the company website (which is itself a deep subject) but initiatives such as this are likely to have helped www.realassetmgt.co.uk gain their good search engine positioning when people type certain phrases.

The key purpose of this article though is not to go into the various methods of improving search engine optimisation but to highlight that through using Google Alerts properly (ask us how if you need help), you will become aware of when certain phrases are used online and in some cases, as the example here shows, will gain some insights into why competitors are getting better search engine positioning than you.

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Twitter - did you act on it?

In last months newsletter there was an article about why it’s important to grab as many relevant Twitter names as possible. We looked at the statistics of how many subscribers opened last month’s email newsletter and of those, how many clicked on the Twitter article.  Looking back after one month we’ve seen some interesting stuff ...

Those people who didn’t read the newsletter – they’ll definitely be losing out when competitors grab the juicy Twitter names.

Those people who read the newsletter but didn’t look at the Twitter article – ditto.

Those people who looked at the Twitter article – a mixed picture here ...

Going through the details of subscribers who looked at the Twitter article, for some of them we (recently) typed in some Twitter names and found that many really obvious ones (linked to their businesses) were still available.  They may be available for some time yet but the point is that they could so easily be snapped up by competitors at any time.  Other subscribers, including several we’ve spoken to, took action and have now cornered not only relevant Twitter names but often the names of their competitors, which limits those competitors in the future.   We were particularly interested to see that of two clients who work in the same industry, one took notice of the article and snapped up the juicy Twitter names whereas the other hadn’t even read the article.  In months and years to come, the knock-on effects of that will be interesting to observe.

So what’s the point of repeating reference to the Twitter article from last month?  Quite simply because we’re all busy people and it’s not always possible to pick up on genuinely useful information when there’s a ton of other things going on.  So we won’t keep on about land-grabbing Twitter names but will instead offer a simple piece of advice to subscribers ... if you still want to understand why grabbing those Twitter names is so important then take a look at that previous newsletter article or contact us for some advice that’ll cost you nothing except 5 minutes on the phone.

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Are website testimonials believable?

People are sceptical about what they see on websites and there are divided views on how much of an impact customer testimonials have.  The Custwin view is that it’s imperative to have as many customer testimonials as possible on a website but we’re also aware that human nature may think that those testimonials aren’t genuine.
 
So what can you do to take website testimonials to a level in which people have no doubts at all about how genuine they are?  What can you do to make potential customers think “actually, these are totally genuine testimonials?” and so have a higher chance of them making contact with you?

One option is the website http://www.authenticatedtestimonials.com/.  It’s an American service (there are probably UK alternatives, but if not, there should be) that may not even be available outside the US but the principle is good.   It costs money of course but in essence an annual fee plus $13 per authenticated testimonial gets someone on the phone to your customers going through a process (http://www.authenticatedtestimonials.com/process.aspx) that basically results in you having an Authenticated Testimonials graphic next to each testimonial.

Another option is Checkatrade (http://www.checkatrade.com/), which is in the UK, is aimed more at the trades (electricians, plumbers etc.) and works in a slightly different way.  Self dubbed as ‘The answer to the UK’s rogue trader problem’, the principle is similar but instead of just verifying a testimonial, Checkatrade encourage the users of services to grade the service provider.   Let’s see an example of this ...

A D Sparks (http://www.adsparks.net) is a Custwin client, supplying electrical services in Farnborough and the surrounding areas.  On the website there is a clear link to the Checkatrade website (to encourage potential customers to check out A D Sparks to see what other people think about them) as well as a testimonials page that we’ve made so that people have no doubts as to the quality of service provided.   That page (http://www.adsparks.net/testimonials.htm) includes the text of:

We are monitored and vetted by Checkatrade, who not only verify our insurance, qualifications, and professional memberships, but most importantly, collect feedback directly from our customers.   We feel that any company can put customer testimonials on their website but that it's important to have such testimonials verified by an independent organisation such as Checkatrade, and for those positive testimonials to be consistent over a period of time.

Below you can see just a few testimonials from our clients but to see a much bigger range of testimonials, please check our customer feedback page on Checkatrade.  To find out more about how Checkatrade helps you to make the right decision in choosing a trade, please view their website at http://www.checkatrade.com.

We feel that for this client, highlighting the fact that their performance (and therefore their testimonials) are monitored by Checkatrade, will put them in a stronger position than competitors.  There are many people competing for electrical work in any area of the country and so just one such reassuring element within a website can make a big difference – especially in the trades, which don’t have the greatest reputation.

So, the bottom line is that testimonials intelligently used within websites are obviously really important but in a world where people flick from one website to another within search engine results, adding that extra level of ‘testimonials’ reassurance can be a worthwhile investment.

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Google Options - are you capitalising on them?

Next time you’re searching for something on Google look to the left of the bar that says ‘Results 1 – 10 of ..’ and you’ll see an option to + Show options...   If you’ve not clicked on that link then you’re missing out on something that will make your searching experience better and can also lead you to winning more traffic to your website if you capitalise on it properly.

When you search Google the results are a combination of everything.  Websites, blogs, forums, etc.   When you use ‘Show options’ you can drill down to a tighter range of search results.  So, if you’ve typed ‘red widgets’ and only want to see forums that discuss red widgets then you can click on ‘Forums’ in the panel that appears on the left-hand-side.   Similarly, if you want to see reviews about a particular film then you click on ‘Reviews’.  You can then break the search down further to certain time frames such as the past 24 hours, week, or a specific date range.    There are other options as well – go and play with them and see what results you get.

So where does the ‘are you capitalising on them?’ come into play.  How can those Google options benefit your business?

Let’s use the example of hypnotists.  Someone thinking about using a hypnotist may want to search online for more information.  By typing ‘hypnotists’ into Google and selecting the ‘Forums’ option they can see what people have been saying about hypnotists on various forums.  By being aware of this, hypnotists who are looking for more business can start to frequent such forums, offering useful advice (in a non-salesy way) and having simple links to their websites as part of the postings they make.  This way they may win some business just from being visible on the forums and they’ll also likely benefit from a SEO viewpoint, because there could be more links going into their website.  In the same way, by looking at the ‘Reviews’ of hypnotists they can engineer it so that they themselves appear in such reviews.

But what about those of you who aren’t hypnotists?  How would you capitalise on those Google options?  The best advice would be start typing in phrases related to your type of business and then exploring the Options that Google presents to you.  It could well be that you think your type of business just isn’t the type of business that would naturally be participating in online forums about your subject, or wouldn’t have any interest in appearing in online reviews.   But do think about it deeper …  

As another example, type the phrase ‘wedding caterers’ and select to search the Reviews.   That brings up various links and if you click on the first one, it takes you to the page http://www.reviewcentre.com/products2323.html.  Within that page you can narrow your search to geographical areas or even expand your search in different directions (e.g. wedding cakes, wedding flowers).  If you stick with just the main results you'll see that there’s a company called Ribble Valley Hog Roast, Lancashire that are standing out as having 38 reviews about them and a 5 star rating.  Although such reviews can be fixed of course, they are still powerful when in good enough quantities.   Anyone in the Lancashire area would be hard-pushed not to at least investigate that company further.   OK, that Review Centre site isn’t a brilliant example because much of it is there purely to drive people to Google Sponsored Links, which generates them revenue.  In principle though, if people are looking for reviews of wedding caterers then they could use that Google Options functionality and anyone who is a wedding caterer would be wise to ensure that they implement a programme of gaining reviews of their service so that they can stand out from their competitors on such review sites.

As with all these things, spending a few minutes investigating could lead to a good angle to pick up new business that may not have been previously considered.

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Bing for future success online

There is one dominant search engine – Google, and most people who use PPC advertising tend to focus on the dominant player.  However, there is also Yahoo and what used to be the MSN search system, reborn as Bing (http://www.bing.com). 

By getting into Bing in the coming months, you may gain a juicy competitive advantage later on.

In the short term, Google will dominate, but Google clicks are getting stupidly expensive for some sectors and there’s not a great deal of innovation happening.  Yahoo, the next biggest, are complacent beyond belief, but Bing (read: Microsoft) are undoubtedly going to do everything they can to take big chunks out of the Google pile of revenue.

There is also (quite likely to happen) talk that instead of Yahoo trying to create a great search system, they’ll be buying in the Bing technology to run on Yahoo.   If you look ahead quite some time your crystal ball will show you that paid advertising on Bing will become very much important, especially when you’re aware of just how much Microsoft will do to gain profitable market share of anything.

So if all this is stuff to happen in the future, once regulatory hurdles have been cleared etc. why should you be considering using Bing now?  Quite simply for the following reasons:

1. Although it has far fewer people searching on it now (than Google), those numbers will rise over time and the costs of clicks will be cheap compared to Google.
   

2. By ‘getting in early’, your advertising on  Bing (if created properly) has the opportunity to gain strong click-through-rates, which puts you in a stronger position than advertisers that come in down the line and think they can dominate just by throwing money at Bing (which they probably wouldn’t be allowed to do).  So, if you’re offering 25p per click for the phrase ‘red widgets’ and have a very strong rate of clicks and good positioning in the Bing search results, built up over a longer period of time, a competitor that comes in offering 50p per click is unlikely to be positioned above you because your history with Bing is stronger than theirs.
   

3. The Bing system is likely to get a lot cleverer than Google.  Imagine a time when a local advertiser is given priority over a national advertiser in paid search results, but doesn’t pay through the nose for the privilege (which is unfortunately what currently happens on Google).   So, if Bing are really serious about winning lots of advertising business from smaller businesses, they’re going to find ways to innovate.   If you only sell wedding cakes in Kent then you would feel valued as an advertiser if a system such as Bing allowed you to be visible above wedding cake makers from outside Kent, but the clicks are still cheap.   Although Google have had the opportunity to be ‘kind’ to smaller and local advertisers for a long time now, they haven’t chosen to do so and therefore, hopefully, people like Bing will innovate when they realise there are opportunities to capitalise on.
   

4. Bing is going to try harder.  Like a short/fat/ugly bloke in a nightclub at the end of the night, Bing is going to try harder to get what they want.  They know that Google is the advertising equivalent of the best looking blokes that women want and they’re going to do whatever is needed to entice people away from Google.
   

5. Because experimenting is good for you.  As long as a Bing PPC campaign is set up intelligently (ask us how if unsure) then although levels of clicks won’t be high in the near future, as long as those clicks aren’t expensive and you’re measuring whether it’s Google or Bing clicks that are converting into enquiries, then such experimentation gets you used to the Bing system long before the mad rush of competitor advertisers clambering to get onboard.

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