Google and the major search engines use links to gauge the importance, relevance and value of your website to visitors.  Think of a link to your site is a vote of confidence from one online publisher to another.  When we follow a link to distasteful, useless or annoying content, we hit the back button not once, but twice, so it is in the web site owner’s interest to provide links to only quality content that can add value.

So much in the same way as its off-line cousin, “word of mouth”, building links to your site enhances your site’s reputation. It’s simple.  Well at least the concept is – executing a successful link building campaign requires a lot of thought, networking, great ideas and a truck load of perseverance.

The point to take from this is to think of a link simply as someone recommending a site. To reach the top of search engines, your site will need lots of recommendations from influential, well respected people on the web.

Ben Lloyd

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Age of the domain

The bitter truth is, if your domain is just a few weeks old, you have a long journey ahead. When your domain has been well established for several years, your site will be more reputable in Google’s eyes than an internet new born. But perseverance is key in SEO, so do not be disheartened with your shiny new domain name

• If you have ideas for sites that you do not have the time to develop right now, then you can buy a domain and host a page of relevant keyword rich content. By the time you do get to it, the domain will be aged to an extent and have some keyword relevance attributed to it.
• If you are rebranding your site make sure you redirect your old domain to the new using a permanent 301 redirect. This will pass some of the authority and link juice of the old domain to the new.
• If you have an aged domain where the basic on page SEO has been badly executed, you could be sitting on a search gold mine once you do your conduct effective keyword research and improve the on page factors

Trust

Both your visitors and Google like to see reasons as to why they should trust you and your website. If your site is faceless and you hide the who’s and the where’s behind the site, you are hindering your SEO efforts.

• Add a phone number to each of your pages
• Include a physical address in your about or contact us pages. Include a link to this information in the footer of your landing pages to improve the quality score of the site and drive down PPC costs
• Authority seals such as Hackersafe will help to increase the level of trust

Bounce rate

The bounce rate refers to the percentage of people who land on your site and leave without clicking anything. Google collects this information and will use to gauge how much value your website offers to surfers. A high bounce rate suggests a site with little usefulness, and this will be reflected in your rankings.

• Ensure your navigation is clean and enticing
• Include links within your content to other pages in your site
• Create clear calls to action at the end of your pages to:
• Contact you
• Read a related article
• Bookmark/Digg/Tweet/share the page

So never leave your surfer to guess what to do next. They may have found the page interesting and useful, but if they do not interact and hit the back button, the visit is still considered a “bounce”.

Ben Lloyd

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Type your search terms, click ‘Google Search’ and create a prerecorded search to send to a friend / use on your website. Try it for yourself: http://lmgtfy.com/

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1. Opt-in incentives – Providing a tangible incentive for new opt-ins such as a coupon or free gift.
   Dell offered 20% off select products resulting in 14x lift in average opt-in rate during the holiday season.
2. Personalisation- The closer you can get to creating a sense of one-to-one communication, the better the response is likely to be. Expedia sent emails from a real travel consultant i.e.”Cathy Cruiser” resulting in 5.5% higher opens, 23% higher CTR and less unsubscribes and spam flags. Personalising the subject line with the recipient’s first name e.g. “Dave, Your 7 Day Alaskan Cruise Awaits.”, resulted in 10% lift in opens.
3. Call-to-action (CTA) placement and button size- Increasing the size, shape or color of buttons and the placement of CTA, can often increase clicks. Salesforce.com moved the CTA from a small box on right side to just below the message’s headline and made buttons larger resulting in 26% increased in CTR.
4. Video links – Watching online video is one of the most popular activities on the Internet. Promote video content in your messages by displaying a screenshot of the video and embedding a link for video playback. Interactive Intelligence, included video screenshots and playback links in their email newsletters resulting in double or triple the number of clicks as text links.
5. Email frequency- Testing the point at which you maximize revenue from messages without increasing the rate of unsubscribe. An ecommerce company who sell special-occasion gifts identified a highly motivated and loyal segment and tested various message frequencies, ranging from one message every other day to one message every three weeks. Sending an email once every other day increased revenue 3x compared to sending email once a week. Unsubscribe rates on a per-message basis did not rise significantly.

Example creative – http://www.marketingsherpa.com/cs/emailtests/index.htm

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Simply enter promotional code EMAY9 at the checkout. Offer ends 31st May 2009.

http://www.st-tropez.com

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A lot of the time it did feel a bit like an iPhone convention!

Ok – from my notes – from the top…

“Change Everything” – that’s the call to action here… there is no choice

Spread ideas by finding “super influencers”

Promoting your company, products, services, solutions etc.  is just too important to be left to the Marketing Dept. any more.

We can no longer make average products and sell them to average people.

Whatever you’re doing has to be remarkable – worth making a remark about….

Some of Seth’s slides were great – esp. some funny signs – I’ve already googled and downloaded some to use in my own presentations this year.

Interesting reverse bell curve with money to be made at the thin ends – scarcity or ubiquity – dead-zone with nothing to be made in between…

Talked about Barack Obama’s campaign – spreading ideas – 1,000 people is enough to start a movement – the whole “Tribes” vibe.

It’s really important to commit before something is proven/a success. Otherwise it’s too late.

Be remarkable – Tell a story – Spread the word – Get permission… [repeat]

Lots of stuff on leadership – “Shun the unbelievers” “Describe a future that resonates with the audience/buyer”

Change the rules – connect followers to each other – then get out of their way – but make sure they’re meeting at your place.

If people don’t “get it” you may need to adjust the story. Tell a better story – ramp up the drama – match their story…

I’ve written down “Pirates on A Mission” – not sure if Seth said that or that was a connection I made?

Ways to find your early adopters – they ask things like “OK -what’s Next?”. If someone asks you “Where’s the data/proof etc” – they’re not an early adopter!

Asked how it is that he’s so prolific with his blog and his writing, and taking time to e-mail people Seth replied quite honestly.

“I don’t work nearly as hard as people think. I son’t have any staff so I dion’t attend meetings – and I don’t watch any television.” I saw how much free time that would give you!

Anyway – that’s my notes – if I think of anything else I’ll post again.

If nothing else I’m feeling a bit more inspired to connect with the old blogosphere again (…Seth’s not a big fan of twitter by the way!!)

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Economic doom and gloom does have an upside. It has laid the foundations for a fertile new landscape of creativity and innovation. When the market gets tough brands have to work harder to keep their customers, they have to find more creative ways to engage them. Innovation becomes a must in the design process. It’s a case of innovate or risk a likely death. Which is why we predict a rebirth of creativity in marketing. This new era isn’t about big spend, it’s about big ideas and originality. Expect the unexpected.

Atricle passed on to me from Tim from The Cool Hunter website – http://www.thecoolhunter.co.nz/stores/Retail—Innovate-or-Die/ it’s a common thread I’ve seen on a number of blogsites. When things are this bad it’s actually a really good time to build your brand/company/reputation.

When – oh – when will MSM start lightening up??

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Festive Wishes, Season’s greetings etc. etc.

Have a look at our Yuletide Video.

Cheers

David Coe (MD)

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With the ability for real-time analytics – the ROI is measurable instantly.

There’s never been a better time to try some PPC campaigns with some split A/B testing and some SEO thrown in the mix.

So let’s get digital.

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