Tim Ash’s keynote began with saying it’s not about the technology, its about the inside of our own skulls, and focusing on that will deliver a lot of improvement in conversion rate.
Our lives depend on trust and there are thousands of actions every day that require trust. The pinnacle of trust is family and this deprecates as we move outwards. Building trust online is really tough because: (more…)
In my presentations I often have several slides in there which are all about using bloggers to get more visibility in search engines. Bloggers already have rankings, already have webpages which are being well indexed by Google and already have authority. Why not use that authority? The big question however is: how can you find them?
One example I gave in my presentation at A4U was about how Universal Film Studios had used only seven influential bloggers to spread their message about the new Harry Potter Theme Park they were launching. Its a good example of how to build up your brand without actually spreading the message yourself.
Another good example I give more often is the one of Sony. When launching a new LCD Television, they looked for the influential bloggers in their industry and used them to spread the word about the new television even before the TV was actually for sale. They didn’t use the press until the television was actually in the stores. They gave the bloggers previews, send them pictures and videos and had them discussing it. That made that when the TV actually was there Sony dominated the search results. Not just with their own site, because they gained a lot of links out of the use of the bloggers, but also through the bloggers-websites. They were the ‘other’ results on the page. And they were all talking about the Sony TV. Some branding that was. (more…)
It’s all about winning not losing
Sam Crocker from Distilled is my first presentation of the day, and it’s most definitely a winner. Sam is talking about focusing on going beyond just protecting your site, and thinking about getting on the offensive.
Some initial explanations of what this means. Think about looking at static vs dynamic. It’s not just about letting information come to you, go out and hunt down information that can help you and your site. e.g.
Social Media can be a bit of a difficult space for an affiliate business. An affiliate website acts as a conduit to a merchant website; thus by that very nature much of “the story” belongs to somebody else. It must therefore seem to some that the only opportunity is the following: create multiple profiles – use automated software, or rent-a-fan packages to generate an audience of followers – publish automated messages containing links to your site – get clicks.
If short-term traffic and revenue boosts are your goal, then this may look like success to you. I’m not here to debate the morality of the numbers game or lament “there goes the neighbourhood”. I have no interest in lecturing an audience on the proper way to use a product which does not belong to me. I do however, know through experience that there are more benefits to participating in social media to be had.
At theMediaFlow we help develop affiliate websites into brands. We’ve seen how a true social media strategy brings many rewards and opportunities time and again. Many successful affiliate experts do this well, and generating an identity and buzz to an affiliate business seems to come naturally to them. On the other hand, some affiliate site owners may not feel disposed to social media or may not feel comfortable measuring “guru-touted” conceptual benefits of the conversation. It is not true that social media is difficult to measure, or that returns are less tangible.
Here are just a few of the immediate additional opportunities and benefits social media has delivered for one client… (more…)
Yesterday afternoon was a hot one in the city. I was making my way through Soho Square towards the Groucho Club, for the launch of the fourth annual Search Marketing Report and I was pleased to see that Soho Square was packed with media types catching the afternoon sun and chucking back champagne. When I say pleased; I really mean jealous, (don’t you people have work to do?) but I took this as a good sign that perhaps things are really bouncing back for digital media.
I got to The Groucho (quick celeb check… Lenny Henry, Ross Kemp, Danny Dyer) and was greeted by our Econsultancy hosts; Senior Analyst, Jake Hird, Research Director, Linus Gregoriadis and a very nice Guava Champagne cocktail from the sponsors (nice touch Guava!) We chatted about the report and the general state of the industry (consensus – search up, display down), as the room filled up and the cocktails went down. Guava’s Martin Dinham began to round us up, so we took our places. Now in it’s fourth year this report, (from over five hundred respondants), is rather extensive and now includes social media; so I’ll highlight a couple of points that stood out for me. (more…)
I like many senior personnel in SEO organisations have spent a fair amount of time in the last couple of weeks recruiting for a number of SEO positions. Like many recruitment drives its been an interesting process, however its certainly once again reaffirmed my initial thoughts as to the level of highly skilled expertise currently in the UK search market.
My initial thoughts over the last couple of years, having recruited for a number of SEO roles over the years has been that the level of quality SEO expertise within the marketplace is currently fairly limited. One only has to look at social media resources such as Twitter or LinkedIn to see the very ‘incestuous’ nature of the UK SEO marketplace – and highlight the depth of talent which exists within the current marketplace.
Given the recent upsurge in interest SEO experienced over the last couple of years, one would suggest this is a trend which can only get worse, as more and more organisations become aware of and enter into the organic search marketplace. As many of the these organisations either pool their resources internally or recruit the expertise of an external agency the requirement for skilled SEO expertise can only increase. (more…)
Money is what makes the world go around. And money could also be the trigger for many to take a step they otherwise might not have taken that easy or to get the attention of those who are otherwise hard to reach. So if you want traffic to your website, but it isn’t going fast enough, why not throw in some money?
Its a concept which many sites have tested, with different success. Some ‘bought’ traffic by paying for advertising, others have tried to give away stuff to get visitors to come back to their sites. Microsoft is probably the best or at least the biggest example of a site, in this case even a search engine, trying to ‘buy their way in’ by throwing in hard cash for every search with their cashback program. The most recent one going this way is real time search engine Leapfish, where you can win $100,000 in cash and prizes if you help the search engine reach the 20 million searches they want in 2010. (more…)
As you may have noticed State of Search is a group blog. Which means that its not just one person writing all of the content, but many more. On this site we have a few of the best bloggers in the business producing great content just for you.
There are many group blogs out there and running a group blog seems easy. After all, you don’t have to produce all the content yourself, and with a bloggersteam like we have it should be easy as hell.
Well…: wrong! Yes, the fact that great content comes from the different bloggers is the absolute plus for this website. It makes or breakes the success. But to get to that success you need to lay a good foundation. And if you are blogging for business it can even be hardere. In this post I’d like to share with you some tips on how to run a group blog. Based on my experience here and on Searchcowboys. I know, it’s not about search, but I hope it will benefit you. (more…)
Europe has been ‘hit’ with a natural disaster this week. In Iceland a volcano burst leaving not only about 700 people homeless, it also left people stranded all over Europe with flights being canceled all over the continent.
As you can expect this event has been discussed all over the Internet. Several websites are down, others (like the Schiphol airport) have put up a plain html page because they can’t handle the traffic. A lot of activity on the web, all for a sad reason. The information people are looking for is also very difficult to filter and to find out the right answers to your questions. A quick look around the web also showed that not many are actually using the situation for their own benefit. Is it because its not ‘decent’? Or are many out there just not paying attention?
Lets take a look at a few opportunities which you have to gain from the situation and how you can help those looking to go home at the same time. (more…)
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