Peter James – WSI Digital Marketing Consultant

The Google Panda and Penguin algorithm updates continue to wreak havoc in the realm of search engine optimisation.  Particularly at risks are those sites that have…

• Poor quality content
• A high bounce rate (visitors take an instant dislike and return to the search results)
• Poor quality and spammy inward links

However, some of us are doing quite well under the new Google regime.  Why is that?  The reason is that the algorithm updates are separating out the good from the bad so, if you’re good, it’s easier to stay ahead.  All of my clients sites are doing better in rankings, visitors and conversions as Google continues to improve its algorithms.

So, what do you need to do to stay ahead in the SEO race?  It’s quite simple really.

1. Your website must have good quality and relevant (to the search keywords) content that engages the visitors and gives them what they were searching for.  If you haven’t got this then it’s really not worth bothering about anything else – you will fail!
2. You should develop good quality listings in the key online business directories.  You only need to focus on the top 10 – 20 in your area.  In particular, you should claim and optimise your Google+ business profile.
3. For good inward links work out where your customers are visiting and put up articles and other stuff there which will encourage them to visit your site.  This will not only give you some good inward links but, if you do a good job, referral visitors as well.
4. Build up your social media presence and link these to your website.

It’s all easy really.  So why isn’t it working for your website?  Perhaps you need a good digital marketing consultant!  If so, please call me on 0118 335 0401 or email me at peter.james@wsidigitaladvantage.com and I’ll make the web work for you.

Last week, I attended the annual WSI Global Excellence & Innovation conference in Paris.  This is where all we WSI Internet Marketing Consultants get together to exchange ideas and best practice as well as listening to some of the world experts in digital marketing.  As well as talking about the conference I’m also going to talk about some practical aspects of mobile marketing and mobile use in Paris.

Internet Marketing Conference

The keynote speaker was Avinash Kaushik.  There were also presentations on the future of organic search and paid search.  Here are some key take aways…

1. Print newspaper advertising in US rose to $60Bn by 2000 but has collapsed to $20Bn since then.  Although 29% of advertising spend is on print consumers only spend 6% of their media time reading print.  Therefore, it seems like print advertising revenue is going to fall further and digital (both Internet and Mobile) advertising revenue will continue to increase.
2. Successful search engine optimisation is mostly about great content.  Only 10% – 20% of searchers click on paid search adverts and 95% don’t look beyond the 1st page of search results.
3. The perfect landing page loads in less than 2 seconds and fulfills the promise in the ad or search results.
4. Think who are the most important (prospective) visitors to your website, how are they going to find you, what would be valuable to them and what you want them to do.

Mobile Paris with an iPhone and an iPad

I recently bought the new iPad and decided that I’d do the trip without a laptop.  The advantages of an iPad over a laptop are that it’s smaller and lighter as well as having a much longer battery life.  There are disadvantages such as you can’t use PC applications (and most of my applications are delivered as software as a service over the Internet anyway) and there is no easy way of getting files off a USB stick but I was able to live with these over a few days.  As long as I had a decent Internet connection I was fine.  Also, using the iPad for reading books and newspapers as well as surfing the web was great.

The other thing I wanted to do was to be online all the time but to avoid extortionate data roaming charges.  I had bought an unlocked mobile WiFi modem in UK and tried it with a french prepaid SIM card.  Unfortunately, this didn’t work (I now know how to do this and will post on that later) but a local Orange WiFi modem with 400GB of data only cost me €54.  So, I was able to use my iPhone to look at maps, work out metro connections (using the excellent Paris RATP apps) and keep up with email throughout my travels.

Of course, I used Google Places to find reviews on all the restaurants and cafes that we considered and also wrote Google Places reviews on them afterwards.  Google Places is now an essential marketing tool for any business (such as a restaurant or bar) with mobile customers.

It’s now important to know how to maximise the effectiveness of mobile technology both as a consumer and as a marketer – to find and to be found!

Most small firms do not have their own in-house internet marketing or web development capabilities.  This is because they do not have the need (or the funding) for a full-time dedicated Internet Maketing specialist.  Therefore, small companies will need to outsource their Internet Marketing and Website Development to an external consultant or specialist.  This Internet Marketing Consultant will work in partnership with the company to use digital media to help grow the business.  Such companies will need to choose that consultant carefully as a good partnership is vital for business success.

Here are some tips for helping choose an Internet Marketing Consultant for that vital partnership. 

What to Look for in an Internet Marketing Consultant

1. The consultant should not only know his or her stuff about Internet Marketing (and maybe Mobile Marketing if required) but should be able (and willing) to explain that stuff in terms that the business can understand.  The emphasis should be not only on how Internet Marketing services and solutions work but also how they can benefit the business.
2. The consultant should also know your stuff.  He or she must be able to understand your business and your customers needs.
3. The consultant should have the tools, knowledge and experience to analyse your online competitive position and to make recommendations.  The consultant should be able and willing to explain the analysis and recommendations.
4. The consultant should have access to a range of digital marketing solutions and services to implement the above recommendations.  He or she should be able to provide you with a single point of contact to implement those solutions and services as well as reporting on progress and issues.
5. The consultant should be able to customise these solutions and services to your particular business needs.  Identikit solutions will probably not work very well as every company is different.  In any case, do you want to have exactly the same digital marketing approach as your competitors?
6. If you are a small company then you will probably want to deal with a small digital marketing consultancy.  This way you will get a more personal service from somebody who understands small companies.  Make sure that they have good connections to other companies who may provide some of the solutions.  A franchise operation, like WSI, is a good choice as such an organisation will have a strong network for knowledge sharing and training as well as powerful economies of scale for purchasing from other suppliers (you will also have back up if your consultant has problems).

A partnership For Business Growth

Avove all, remember that your relationship with your Internet Marketing Consultant is a long term partnership.  Your business and the consultant should work closely together with lots of interchange and communication.  There must be no barriers between you.