Posts on State of Search about ‘Business’

How Phone Data Might Change Your Search Strategy – #brightonseo

brightonseo logo

Ali White from T W White & Sons, a car dealership business, took to the Corn Exchange seat next at the jam-packed full BrightonSEO conference, providing real-business examples on how phone data meant his entire SEO and PPC strategy altered.

To start us off, Ali walked through what Visitor level call tracking actually was; as one of the many who weren’t really sure, he explained that T W White & Sons used visitor level call tracking to provide a unique phone number to each site visitor so the business can better track who is calling to give stronger actual conversion data as well as a better customer profile. (more…)

Why Should I Choose You?

Best Business Decision

No matter what business you are in, this is the one question you should ask yourself everyday. If your sales are up or down; if your rankings are up or down. Big brand or small mom and pop shop. You should always be striving to be able to answer that question with more than just “because we are the best.” Best is subjective and in this world of low barriers to entry, you need a good answer to that question.

Not sure how to answer that question? It’s not just about being what the Harvard Business Review calls category creators (you must pay to view, sorry guys), the people that create an entire new business idea. It can be a number of things that we’ll review in a minute, but the point is that you need this not only for your business as a whole, you need it for many parts of your business. A good unique selling proposition (USP) is beneficial for: (more…)

Thinking Customer Centric Not Channel Centric

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One of the nice things about attending conferences is it gives you an opportunity to listen to peers in your industry and gauge how their experiences and opinions stack against your own. So it was heartening for me yesterday at the UK Search Conference to find that some of my own musings about where digital is going were broadly in line with what others were thinking.

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Reflective SEO: Money, Power, Respect

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It’s not often that I actually do an opinion piece, for those who have seen my first few blogs on state of search or seen my presentations or seminars over the years will know that I like strategy, facts, figures and of course add my opinion or experience to that but I rarely actually put out a heartfelt blog post, well this year has made me feel like I’ve had a hard paper round!

If you’re not familiar with my background I started in Search about 2003, a little wet behind the ears and no clue about how a Search Engine worked, I delved in and like a lot of my generation of marketers learnt by trial and error. By 2005 I took the company I work for to rank basically number one for the phrase “SEO” in Google UK. I was still young and maybe even a little cocky thinking that I must be so good at what I do because I ranked top of Google for SEO.

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A Few Things I Learnt From Freelancing

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Before my current job I spent quite a few years freelancing as an SEO and have always wanted to write a post about the experience. This isn’t a guide to going freelance, but it does discuss some points that I think anyone considering taking the leap and working for themselves should think about. A lot of people consider being your own boss and working from home the ultimate dream; getting up when you want and taking the odd day off when you don’t feel like working. The reality couldn’t be further from the truth. If you do decide to go it alone you’ll find yourself working twice as hard as your counterparts with ‘proper jobs’. Be prepared to be up early, work late into the night, work weekends and deal with problems when you’re on holiday. In short, there is no such thing as true ‘time off’. Added to that you’re going to have to quickly learn how to run a business and suffer the mistakes when you make them.

There are also some immense benefits, but not in the way that most people expect. One guarantee is that you will come out the other end with a work ethic that I don’t think you can develop in any other way. If you’ve had to deal with being in a situation where you do the work or face earning no money; suddenly most day to day issues simply won’t be a problem anymore – you’ll just fix them because it’s what you’re used to doing. Not being tied into a particular role also means you can develop in the way that you want to, when you want to. If there’s a training event you feel you need to attend you can; if you decide to spend time developing a new skill you can. (more…)

Past and Future: I’m an old man now, you better listen

personalisation-its-all-about-you

Today I turn 40. Now that is an age on which most men go out and buy that fast motorcycle or the convertible car which makes them feel like they are 21, even though at the age of 21 hardly anyone can afford a car like that. Now this mid life crisis behaviour of course is triggered because a man feels he is about halfway through his life and he is now part of the ‘old’ people. It’s because it is a time of looking back and looking forward. What have I reached and what is there to reach?

I have not bought a motorcycle. I have not bought a car. But of course, I reached the ‘dreadful 40 age’, I have looked back and forward. And I wanted to share (part ;-) ) of that with you, the part which is about what I do: online marketing, search, social, speaking and State of Search of course. Things are changing and we all need to be aware of that and act on it. And remember: I’m an old man now, you better listen to what I have to say. (more…)

Why doing a little SEO is worse than doing no SEO

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It’s hard not to constantly look to the future, our industry changes so rapidly and so dramatically that the next big thing could pass you by in the blink of an eye, without you even knowing about it. The SEO industry has come a long way over the last decade or so, and we’re almost free of the “spam-hobbit” reputation. I say almost because, let’s face it, the majority of people outside of the industry either have no idea what SEO is, or think that we spend our days writing spam comments and “clicking on results in Google until it goes to the top of the results” – if only it was that easy, seriously. On the flip-side of the coin, modern business owners are beginning to appreciate the amount of work and skill that goes into creating a successful SEO campaign. Some even understand just how vital it is to have the right SEO team behind them if they are ever going to compete in the world of online business. (more…)

Digesting the EU Cookie Legislation

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Perhaps it’s been the way in which the new legislation has been communicated, but there certainly seems to be an air of confusion. At SEOgadget we’ve been doing quite a lot of work recently to better understand the directive ourselves, and also to work out how best to advise clients on the most appropriate action to take. Rather than writing a definitive ‘how to comply’ type post, I thought it would be pretty interesting to put down some thoughts on the matter, and discuss some of the more confusing aspects of the legislation.

The challenge here is that we’re advising on a legal document, and whilst we understand cookies and the part they play in websites, we’re definitely not qualified lawyers. If your clients are seriously worried about the possibility of picking up a fine it’s probably best that they seek proper legal advice. However, the chances of receiving a fine as a first resort look pretty slim; the most likely form of punishment (if any) is a warning stating that your website does not comply, complete with details of where you’re going wrong. That being said, it looks like this is here to stay so it’s well worth at the very least gaining a good understanding of how this could affect yours or your clients sites. (more…)

7 notes from the inhouse SEO to agency SEO’s

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This is a guest post from a blogger who wishes to stay anonymous. Let’s call this blogger our own ‘Stig’ ;) . The post is  a ‘letter’ from an inhouse SEO to agency SEO’s. Because after all, they need to work together, whether they like it or not.

The ‘letter’ contains 7 notes from the inhouse SEO to the agency SEO’s. We are curious about your comments! (more…)

5 checks to Make Sure You’re Getting Value Out of Your SEO Agency

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SEO is a complex industry to be involved in as you can ask 5 experts to solve a websites ranking problems and you’ll most likely get 10 different strategies. The issue is 8 out of the 10 will work and each one will have strengths and weaknesses.

So how do you appoint an agency?

Hiring a reputable agency with a strong track record is the route a lot of companies go with but that also has its weaknesses as you may get the A team in the pitch but the C team actually works on your project. Conversely hiring a small agency may mean that they simply don’t have the resource or aren’t geared up for expansion leaving you frustrated with your level of service.

Having seen a few of these scenarios lately I thought I’d write a post on a few quick checks you can make to ensure you are getting value out of your agency. (more…)

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