Posts on State of Search about ‘Guest post’

Checking Google Analytics Is Installed On Every Page with Screaming Frog

Screaming-Frog

This is a guest post written by Kev Strong. Kev is an online marketing consultant at Newcastle Upon Tyne based digital marketing agency, Mediaworks. A lover of all things search and an ex-web developer, Kev Strong (a.k.a Goosh) is a specialist in advanced search engine optimisation.

Working with clients with hundreds of thousands of pages on their website is a cumbersome task to keep on top of; Ensuring that your analytics code, be it Google Analytics, CoreMetrics or any other analytics package, is present on on every page is another thing entirely.

During a recent project at Mediaworks, I encountered the possibility that Google Analytics was not installed on every page of a client’s website. Unfortunately, the solution I previously relied on (SiteScanGA) is no longer available and whilst there are great tools out there for checking if GA is installed on an individual page (e.g. GA? For Firefox) there is not an easy, non-enterprise way to check if Google Analytics is installed on every page.

Thankfully there is a solution to this problem by using Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider, Excel and a little jiggery-pokery. (more…)

Integrated Marketing: the right blend for success – by James Murray

retailers-YouTube-Experian

Today’s guest post in our integration series in one from somebody who knows a lot more about trends and developments than most of us together, because at Hitwise Experian James Murray must see many many stats who tell him what is going on. He takes part of that knowledge to talk about the right blend of success.

Marketers have been talking about a channel shift in advertising for years now. In September 2009 the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced the UK as the first major economy where digital advertising spend had superseded TV advertising spend. In some cases this has led to a complete switch of focus towards online advertising at the exclusion of all other channels. I’ve always seen this as a flawed strategy, as truly successful advertising increasingly relies on a blend of integrated marketing channels that complement and enhance one another.

Integrated marketing needn’t be a complicated affair. At the basic end of the scale, distributing existing video content online has the effect of extending the reach of a TV campaign and provides a simple way to bring the content to new audiences. Office supplies chain Viking Direct for example increased its online traffic six-fold by hosting its video advert on YouTube. At the peak of traffic, Viking Direct was receiving nearly four times as many UK web visits as its closest competitor Staples, demonstrating how powerful even a modest foray into online video can be. (more…)

Understand Your Market Before Integrating Your Online Marketing Channels – by Li Evans

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The “second round” of our guest posts is being kicked off by Li Evans, an old friend of State of Search, has been a guest on our radioshow before. We are very pleased to have her on board. She is going to write about understanding the marketing channels.

There are a lot of ways that marketers can integrate different marketing channels. From email, to social media to search (both PPC & organic) to even affiliate marketing and display advertising, the questions truly become overwhelming if you aren’t looking at data and research to help point you in the right direction. If you are just going by with “what worked in the past” you can find that your efforts are truly falling behind the times and aren’t garnering you any ground in engaging with your customers.

Launching a major integrated marketing strategy without understanding where your customers are, what they like, what are their passion points, what do they consider valuable and in the end, what makes them convert is a useless effort. It’s a lot like playing the child’s game of pin the tail on the donkey where players are blindly trying to put the tail in the right place. Without some sort of guide to lead you down the correct path, pinning down the right tactics will be as hit and miss as that child’s game is. Unfortunately your business really cannot rely on hit and miss marketing tactics for very long. Most companies today need to see results, fast. (more…)

Integration Series: Get Ready For Part II!

SOS-Integrationseries-oval

Last week we started something very special: a guest post series of one post each day by somebody either in the search industry or outside of the search industry. But not just any kind of guest post. All the guest posts have one overlap: the topic is set on “Integration”.

Integration of all different marketing channels is necessary to take that next step. We have to stop seeing “search” or “social” as separate entities and make them part of the entire marketing strategy. And that is what our guest posters are talking about!

So far we have seen some magnificent posts appear on the site. Bryan Eisenberg yesterday took Steve Jobs as an example of how Marketing integration can be done, while Kate Morris the day before looked at Journalism. The series last week was opened by Julie Joyce who took her own profession, linkbuilding, as a starting point. Sam Noble also took her profession of brand management as starting point with a look at the impact of Social on Search, while Sara Andersson before her looked at something which everybody should be looking at: user intent.

Now it is time to introduce to you the next group of guestposters who will be writing on State of Search in the next period! Again some fine fine names!
(more…)

The Steve Jobs Way to Marketing Integration – By Bryan Eisenberg (@thegrok)

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I am very proud that honored that Bryan Eisenberg agreed to do a guest post in our special integration series. Bryan is probably one of the smartest and knowledge people I know and at the same time a very nice guy. Bryan is speaking this week at the Conversion Conference in London as well as at Fusionmex this Friday. He decided to look at another great mind to give us an example of how we should look at marketing integration: Steve Jobs.

Do you currently own an Apple product? Better yet – more than one Apple product? That seems to be increasingly common. Have you ever experienced being in an Apple store? There is a reason that they sell up to 10x more per square foot than any other similar retailer. Even their online presence is demonstrating their dominance; they are now the number 2 most visited online retailer in the UK right after Amazon. The secret is an end to end seamless customer experience and equally tight marketing integration. Apple and a tiny handful of market leaders set the standard for your customers’ expectations. The question is – will you live up to it?

Ron Johnson who built Apple’s retail strategy said retailers should be asking, “How do we reinvent the store to enrich our customers’ lives?” Ask yourself: how will you reinvent your business to enrich your customers’ lives? If you find yourself or anybody at your company giggling then you have a propblem. (more…)

“What do I tell my journalism students about their future?”

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Up next in our Integration Series is a very knowledgable lady from the US, Kate Morris. Kate Morris is the Lead SEO Consultant at Distilled in Seattle. She decided to take the integration angle from the journalism view.

A journalism professor at A&T in North Carolina asked a panel I was on that question during Converge South. Too easy, I thought, so I piped up immediately with my answer: brighter than ever before… if they see what talent they have and where it is needed.

The Internet has become the place that most of the younger generation (61% of Gen X) gets their news. The downside to that, of course, is that anyone can say anything online. Zero dollars, a computer and half a brain can get you a blog, so now everyone is a journalist–or are they? (more…)

The Breakdown of Internet Marketing Barriers

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It is already the fourth post in the Integration series but only the first male to contribute! Today Raventools’ Taylor Pratt takes the stage. He is looking at PPC, Social Media and Conversion to SEO. 

Over the last year I’ve been so excited to see just how many people are beginning to take a different approach to their online marketing. A holistic approach, if you will. Holistic Internet marketing creates unity between all of your online marketing activities to increase effectiveness and success. Put simply, it’s the best and fastest way for our industry to continue to perform at such a high level.

If you’ve been thinking about ways to unite your various Internet marketing activities but aren’t sure where to start, I thought I’d share with you a few of my favorite holistic marketing strategies I use when marketing Raven. (more…)

The Impact of Social on Search – Integration Series

JC-Penney

In the series about Integration today we look at how Social, Search and Branding influence one another. The post is written by one of the industries young talents Sam Noble, who specializes in exactly this combination.

Before the Internet really began to boom, when we wanted to make a purchase it would involve taking a trip down to our local shopping centre to look around the shops before deciding on what to buy. We relied heavily on the shop assistant to talk to us about the product we wanted to purchase and other than word of mouth recommendation from friends; the shop assistant was ultimately the one who would convince us to buy it.

This process was exactly the same when it came to deciding on signing up to a service, buying a new car, getting car insurance and even something as critical like buying a house!

Now the Internet is at an all-time high and with the introduction of social media over the past 10 years, it is becoming more apparent than ever that all businesses big and small need to be paying attention. (more…)

Echo and amplify your content – The key to integrated search marketing

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In our guest post series about Integration today we look North to listen to Sara Andersson. Sara focusses on searchers intent and how both search engines and site owners should take that into account.

Many moons ago, when marketers first set out to use search engines as a tool for reaching potential new clients it was achieved using a banner associated with a search phrase (Alta Vista), then later on through a Google AdWords placement. Essentially, it was just another type of media placement to reach the client. It did not understand the searcher’s intent, or for that matter, the impact the searcher had on the actual results themselves.

In those days an integrated marketing campaign was a media mix where focus was on reach, and performance was measured by CTR (Click Through Rates). This is still applicable, but the structures we work within now are different and this presents new opportunities. The key to integrating search marketing (paid and organic) today is not only defining weather it should be TV, radio or print and aligning the communication message, but also take into account the searchers intent and their social activities. As a company you need to give the searchers access to fresh and responsive content in order to rank well both in the organic and paid search listings. (more…)

Integration series: Julie Joyce: Marketing Integration Key For Link Building

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We are kicking the guest post series about Integration off today with no other than Julie Joyce! Julie has been ‘a friend’ of State of Search for a while now, with her background of being an SEO Chick. And we couldn’t think of a better person to start this off with than Julie. She will be writing about integration and link building. Enjoy!

Now that we’ve all diversified, now that we’re link building experts or guest posting gurus or forensic SEOs or branding evangelists or PPC maestros, it’s time to stop specializing in Caribbean women’s menopausal health science and start being general doctors again, able to diagnose any issue or at least find somewhere to put you until we find someone to fix your problem. We need to become integration masters.

From a link building perspective, integration makes a lot of sense. As I’ve said (too often, I’m afraid) link building can only do so much. I’d be a crap link builder if I didn’t realize that. I’m lucky enough to have had a background that let me learn many pieces of the puzzle so that probably gives me a different perspective on all this, as when I started doing SEO I had to do it all from site architecture and coding to running the PPC ads. That isn’t the case with many people starting out today, as they can come in and quickly get slotted into an area, not needing to do anything else. If you’re specializing in building links, or any other specialty, while I don’t think you have to know how to do everything else, i do think that it’s critical that you at least recognize the need for integration and that you familiarize yourself with the basics of both what needs to be done, and who can do it if you cannot. (more…)

Next week: the Start of Something Special

SOS-Integrationseries-oval

I am very happy and proud to announce that next week we will be doing something very special. We are starting a guestpost series with writers from all around the globe, from different backgrounds, will be writing about one subject: ‘integration of marketing channels’.

We have reached the point in which we need to be talking about integration of all different channels, being it search, affiliate or something else. Just one channel won’t do it anymore. But how can we connect all these channels?

To find that out we have gathered people from different backgrounds to give their view on what integration should be. That means people in search, in social, in e-mail, affiliate marketing and other areas are joining in to create what will be the best file on integration on the web. And stay tuned, because at the end of the series we will have yet another surprise for you… (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…)

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