There are some exceptionally cool strategic tools available that can give your organisation the edge over your competition.

Imagine you have a business-to-business website…

How would you like to know exactly which organisations are visiting your site? What they searched for? Which pages they visited, Whether they have visited before etc etc.  Yes, its very much the kind of general web stats information that you can get from most free or cheap website packages but let me repeat this because its quite important…. you can see exactly which organisations visited your site!

If you were a mainframe computer software company would you want to know that a major European bank was searching for repository solutions?  How would your sales staff feel if they could receive an email instantly telling them of the visit - would they not jump all over that potentially red hot lead?

Maybe your business supplies security products and a major player is checking you out - wouldn’t you want to know immediately?

This kind of strategic business intelligence can give you the edge over your competitors as well as providing valuable feedback about the visitors you are reaching so you can improve your site to make it more attractive. 

Its not necessarily valuable for all business to business companies as only the bigger players can be identified as specific organisations.  However, if these are your target audience then you might want to check it out - it could be the strategic advantage you are looking for.

Contact info@strategyinternetmarketing.co.uk if you would like to know more.

If you want to remember something say it 3 times - that’s what they say right?

As the singularly most important thing for most websites to achieve it is essential that you measure your conversions from all your different sources.  If you don’t care whether your website brings you conversions then this post is not for you.

However, if you want your website to make you money… read on!

A well optimised website will bring targeted traffic not only through search but through referrals too (referrals are visits that come from links on other people’s websites).  Getting targeted traffic to your site is fantastic but then you have to convert them.

Most SEO companies stop at getting traffic to your site, in fact the vast majority of SEO companies stop at getting you rankings! Because our company is all about Strategy we look to the very end of the process and understand your business objectives and what the goals are for your website.

Think about what you are trying to achieve… 

• Are you looking for completed sales?
• Sign-ups to your newsletter?
• Completed enquiry forms?
• Contact by phone or email?
• Increased and consistent traffic so you can sell advertising? 

Whatever you want your website to achieve, whatever your conversion is, you should be measuring it at every stage so that you can get more of them. Do you know where your best traffic comes from? Do you know which are your money phrases?  Do you know what aspects of your site are your conversion factors? What is the route from landing page to conversion that works best? Do you know where the weak areas are on your site? How does your competitor offer a better experience than you do?

Knowing the answers to questions like these will improve your conversions so that your website makes you more money.

If you are looking to increase targeted traffic to your website so that you can increase your conversions contact us today.

At an exhibition recently John Courtney, Chairman of the Strategy Group, discussed Pay-Per-Results and how Strategy are growing our client base by offering pioneering performance-related pricing for our comprehensive search engine optimisation services.

We captured this video and produced a short (90 second) video giving a brief explanation of this pricing and the kinds of clients who find this most appealing.

Having video on your site brings a new dimension to those who visit your site. It makes it real, literally bringing people to life and (hopefully) instills confidence in the company. Consider ways in which you might be able to add video to your own website so that you can add value to your visitor’s experience and also publish the video to attract more visitors to come to your website.

Adding video is not difficult and with a little patience and know-how you can adit your video using Windows Movie Maker which comes free with Windows. I learned how to edit videos by watching a training video on YouTube! It was super easy!

Publish it on YouTube and Google News and embed it into your own website wherever it may be useful.

First of all do you know if you website is indexed in the major search engines?

If not check it out by typing “site:www.yourdomainname.co.uk” (without the quotes and with your own domain name into one of the search engines).  e.g. here is our site in Google site:www.strategyinternetmarketing.co.uk this is a live link so you may bet a different number but at the time of writing this we had 91 pages indexed.  We recently redeveloped our website so the number of pages will continue to grow but the list of results that you are looking at shows you the pages that the search engines see - it shows you the meta title and the meta description as it would appear if it were listed in their results pages.

Now the important bit…..  WHEN was your website last indexed?

To see this you need to look at the cache date (you say it like “cash”) but it tells you when Google last took a copy of that page.  Click on the word “cached” under the page listing.  Why is this important?  Its because when you make changes to your website the search engines don’t know about it until your new pages has been visited by their search spiders and copied (or cached) - so, you can look at the cache date and see the actual page in the cache and see if it has your new page.

If your pages, especially your important pages, are not cached regularly then you could have a problem.

What can you do about it if you do have a problem?

You need to get the spiders coming back more regularly so the following will help:

• Refresh the content by editing the pages that need revisiting and republish them. 
• Get some more links to these internal pages 
• Write and publish an article with deep links into these pages
• Create content on your own site and link to other internal pages
• Look at your existing content, does it make sense to create some internal links to other pages?
• Create some social bookmarking content to point links to your pages

To run some other diagnostics on your website check out our DIY SEO Site Review - you will see your website in a whole new light!

In June some of the Strategy Team attended the Online Marketing and Media 08 Show at the Design Centre in London:

Strategy Internet Marketing Team at Online Marketing & Media 08

It was a very busy couple of days as we had a great spot - Stand Number 1, right at the top of the stairs as you entered the exhibition floor.  We’ll be in the same place next year if you want to swing by and say hello.

We had such a popular stand that John was selected to be interviewed by the event organisers:

John Courtney, Chairman of Strategy, being interviewed

Some of our clients came to say hello and we talked to literally hundreds of new prospects & possible partners and found that its a great experience for getting to know how you are truly perceived in relation to your competition.  There are sadly very few people we spoke to who said that they are very happy with their previous experience of SEO so our Pay-Per-Results Pricing for Organic Search Engine Optimisation was a real attraction!  Conversations we had also indicated that people really appreciate when you take time to understand their business objectives and provide a transparent service.

Strategy Chatting to Prospects & Partners and handing out information

Altogether it was a exhausting but satisfying couple of day - the show as a whole seemed to deliver a good mix of seminars and exhibitors and many visitors came back for the second day which reinforces what the show had to offer.

We have already booked the same spot for next year so please do come along and say hello.

Design Centre - Online Marketing & Media Show 2008

PAY-PER-RESULTS SEO (PPR) has changed the lives of my staff at Strategy Internet Marketing in just a year since we launched it. There are many more of them, they are better paid, and there is a
buzz about the place.

In an industry that has suffered from snake oil merchants but still demands that clients take all the risk by paying fees, it struck me that there must be a way of sharing the risk. We first dreamed up a pricing model which was a hybrid mix of fees and results in order to share the risks with the client. This was successful and, after trials, we went the whole hog and priced just on results. The clients love PAY-PER-RESULTS SEO (PPR), they know your skills, reputation and fees are on the - line if you don’t perform you don’t get paid.

That rather focuses the mind on the job in hand. And that has brought us talking to some of the biggest names in UK business from groceries to electrical goods and from cosmetic surgery to finance.

Interestingly, it has also brought to the table many clients who, while they may be spending a lot on PPC, have been shy of trying organic optimisation. There are many prospective clients who have been burned in the past by the snake oil merchants promising the earth and not performing. You know the sort - “you will get a guaranteed top 10 position or your money back”. Getting a top ten position (particularly for a poor key phrase) is just bunk. What clients want is traffic, and good quality traffic that will buy the goods or services that they are selling. And they are happy to pay if you can bring them that traffic. Look at the success of PPC; this is a results based model and some clients are paying literally millions of pounds a year on this service.

We started with charging on increased visitors, and we probably have half our clients on this basis. But we don’t just go for volume of visitors; we also increase the quality of the traffic.

“…fees are on the line - if you don’t perform you don’t get paid”

Recently we have added a second pricing model, which we have dubbed PAY-PER-ENQUIRY SEO (PPE). This is based on the increased number of completed enquiry forms on the client’s own web site. Here we are taking a further risk as the visitors we attract have to be interested enough to complete the enquiry form. Many have shown an interest in this pricing model and we have started to take on clients with this.

Of course, we still do a fee based service too, and some clients prefer this because it allows them to budget accurately.

The important point though is that these are just pricing models. What we do in terms of organic optimisation on a client’s web site is the same regardless of which pricing model he has chosen. We still do a Strategic Action Plan and agree Objectives and Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s); we still research the competition; we still do deep, multilevel keyword research using many databases; we still obtain quality relevant inbound links, and still produce detail reports. The quality of how we do organic optimisation doesn’t change - there are just different ways of pricing it.

This pricing innovation has got Strategy Internet Marketing noticed, and brought us clients. And we plan to continue innovating, not just in pricing but also in ways of optimising, the types of service we provide and in levels of customer service too. Innovation brings results.

Don’t worry about my staff coping with more change though - they love the extra rewards and the buzz and embrace innovation.

See us at Stand No.1 at the Online Marketing and Media Show 08 on 24/25 June.

Good links will get you better rankings.

Great links will shoot you to the top!

Why? Because links are something that search engines use (particularly Google) in order to understand what your pages are about. They are a kind of vote of confidence expressed by one site to another which is why better links have more power to influence your rankings.

Google was invented by a couple of PhD students at Stanford University, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. They decided that one of the ways to distinguish one page from another in terms of its authority on its topic was to base it on a kind of academic model. Academic papers are backed up by citations and in the same way web pages could be backed up by authority links from on-topic sites linking back and providing a vote of confidence in the page’s relevance to its topic.

This is why relevant links are so important and why some links carry more weight than others. Links from authority sites such as government sites and academic institutions carry more weight than commercial sites. Commercial sites that have established their own authority on their topic provide more weighty links than a new website that is still getting bedded in. Getting the only link on a page that is written about a particular topic carries more weight than a links page with tens of links on it.

Do you see how it goes…..?

Generally, the more links you get the better but specifically the more weighty the link, the faster you will get results.

You need some kind of website analytics package in order to know who is visiting your site - there is no other way of knowing!

If you want to make more sales, get more leads or sell more advertising (who doesn’t?) then you need to get more visits from the right people - analytics packages can tell you what you need to know about what actually happens on your website so that you can make informed decisions and grow your business.

BUT not all website analytics packages tell you what you need to know.

You might have a free package with your hosting - webaliser is a common one, so too is AWStats but there are many more.  If you have a package available already take a look as it should show you some interesting things about what has been happening on your site up until now.

If you are serious about improving your website then you would benefit from packages that are a little more sophisticated - there are many out there, from free to mega bucks but it really does depend on your needs and most importantly what you plan to use the information for.  Don’t get caught in an information overload as there are stats available enough to drive you insane even on a tiny site!  As with all data analysis ask your self…. “WHAT do I need to know” and also “WHY do I need to know it”.

Some people like visuals so look for the charts and graphs that you like, others want detailed visitor paths, others want to be able to tag search behaviour and interact with the data…. there is no one perfect package but there are lots of options and I suggest you check some out for yourself before you invest in buying a package.

If you want to learn more about your website then an excellent freebie is Google Analytics - there are lots of graphs, charts and tables and many options to look at the data in ways that will help you improve your business.  Its a good place to cut your teeth and probably find some surprising results…

Here are some results that we have highlighted to website owners:

• 90% of your search traffic comes from the middle east because your business name is the same as their local stock exchange (lots of traffic but all irrelevant).
• the only search terms used to find your site include your company name (very common)
• the .com version of your site is pointing to a devil worship site! (make sure you know who controls your domains)
• an article written 12 months ago brings significant relevant traffic (write more articles).
• several people are blogging about your website which is boosting your rankings AND bringing you traffic (this is great).
• 80% of search traffic comes from Google, the next most popular source is AOL (why not Yahoo or MSN?)

The list of leassons learned is endless and you will soon learn what helps you the most.  Your website is a marketing tool and no matter the size or type of business you have it is possible to get more business through the web - it COULD BE your most successful channel so learn to understand your website, make informed decisions about improvements and make your business more successful.

If you don’t have the time or inclination to get down and dirty with your website analytics we can help you as traffic analysis and continuous improvement of client’s websites is integral to our approach.  Check out how Strategy Internet Marketing can help you make more of your online business by driving more traffic to your website and increasing your conversions.

What is all the fuss about blogging… is it really necessary?  The short answer is ‘no’ its not absolutely necessary but think about the benefits it could bring to your relationship with your prospects and clients…

I have wanted to write our blog regularly but I haven’t - why not? because its a real commitment to post regularly and I have felt that its important to blog regularly.

I have changed my mind, I would rather blog irregularly than not at all!

A blog on a website allows an oppotunity to create a conversation with your reader, its more personalised than a regular web page because you can share your thoughts, opinions and recommendations in a quick and easy fashion. A blog will have more of a personaility because you can mix up the topics, talk about business issues but also personal stuff and even tell some jokes - blogs should be easy to read and dip in and out of.

Here are a few benefits of a blog:

• Develops a relationship with your readers by commuincating with them in a more personalised way.
• Adds value to a reader’s experience by sharing knowledge and tips.
• Allows readers to get to know you and your company so they can understand more about how you work.
• You can even make money by making recommendations and including affilate links!

Engaging an Internet Marketing Partner involves a significant amount of trust.  Trusting that we know what we are doing, that we will deliver a good service, that we will get the results you want - this is one of my personal motivations for blogging - because I think a blog is an excellent vehicle for you to learn more about Strategy and feel more comfortable in your decision to work with us.

Therefore I would say that a blog is not essential to a website, its a choice to add another dimension to the way you communicate to your prospects and clients.  It is also good for SEO but that shouldn’t be the first reason you do it!