Those of you with good memories will recall the re-launch of our website a few months ago. This is still ongoing, and soon we’ll be adding some tasty case studies to our site, so you can see exactly what we’ve done for a selection of our clients. While those are being put together, we thought we’d give you a brief heads-up about one of the businesses we work with: Complete Driveway Designs.
We’ve been working with Complete Driveway Designs – a Bury based pattern imprinted concrete driveway company – for a couple of years now. And in that time our services have had a definite, measurable impact on the effectiveness of their web presence; thanks to our Web Analytics supported SEO and PPC work, they’re now getting conversions and qualified leads for approximately 10% of what they were paying before we got involved.
In the time we’ve been working for Complete Driveway Designs, we’ve built up an excellent understanding of their work, their business, and their goals. This is something we do with every one of our clients; it’s the only way to achieve sustainable results.
The longer we’ve worked with Complete Driveway Designs, the more we’ve come to identify with the skills they use when they’re installing pattern imprinted concrete driveways. Like, for example:
- A professional attention to detail.
- An excellent understanding of the capabilities of different specialised tools.
- An appreciation of client’s needs.
- A willingness to put the effort in.
- Pride in the end result.
Despite the differences in the services we offer, at a core level we’re very similar.
We’d be interested to hear what values other agencies and freelancers feel they share with their clients: leave a comment and let us know.
July 5th, 2010 - No Comments »
Posted in Search Engine Marketing | Tags: case studies, moo marketing news, northwest, PPC Management, seo, web analytics
Google Analytics provides a massive amount of information. A big part of getting the most from your analytics platform is setting it up in a way which highlights the information that’s relevant to your business aims.
The dashboard is the first screen you see once you’ve logged in to Google Analytics. It’s an overview page, and it displays a number of reports. You can choose which reports you want to be displayed; this means that it’s possible to set up an Analytics Dashboard that presents you with key analytical business information as soon as you log on.
A well set out, well thought-through dashboard will give you a general idea of your website’s performance through bounce rates etc, important business metrics like conversion rates, and any anomalies. Then, if something catches your eye, you can drill down to get more detailed information.
You can incorporate any of your analytics reports into your dashboard by clicking on the ‘Add to Dashboard’ tab within your Google Analytics. Let’s say, for example, that you’ve been concentrating on SEO (always a good idea!) and want to track bounce rates for visitors generated by a certain keyphrase. Find the relevant report in analytics, add it to your dashboard, and it’ll be one of the first things you see next time you log on.
Some Tips:
- Don’t swamp yourself with too much information. You can have a maximum of twelve dashboard elements; use them wisely.
- Clear Identification of your business’s key metrics should dictate which reports you prioritise. Picking reports that represent your website’s goal completion rates is a good place to start.
- Remember that each of your websites or businesses may require different dashboards to show key data.
- Different analytics users need personalised dashboards so each person sees the information that’s relevant to their role.
You can add and remove new reports with ease. And, when it’s necessary, you should. Over time your business will develop, and your use of analytics will become more sophisticated. Remember that the dashboard is customisable for a reason: don’t miss an opportunity to keep tabs on relevant information, and don’t be afraid of streamlining your dashboard.
June 22nd, 2010 - No Comments »
Posted in Website Analytics | Tags: analytics dashboard, google, google analytics, seo, web analytics
A couple of weeks ago, Google announced the completion of Caffeine, their new web indexing system. They’re pushing its speed, its comprehensive coverage of the web’s content, and – this is where it gets interesting – the improved “freshness” of search results.
It’s a reaction to the ever-increasing amount of content on the web. The official Google blog explains it like this:
Our old index had several layers, some of which were refreshed at a faster rate than others; the main layer would update every couple of weeks. To refresh a layer of the old index, we would analyze the entire web, which meant there was a significant delay between when we found a page and made it available to you.
With Caffeine, we analyze the web in small portions and update our search index on a continuous basis, globally. As we find new pages, or new information on existing pages, we can add these straight to the index.
What does this mean for potential developments in the SERPs that Caffeine will allow Google to develop? We’ve seen the inclusion of video and real time search. Is this going to lead to more complex SERPs, moving further away from Google’s original design simplicity?
By altering their SERP generation process to reflect the rate at which content is being published, Google have made it more important than ever – and easier than ever – to drive traffic to your site via updating your content.
At Moo we’re well aware of the results that can be achieved through well optimised, well written content. Caffeine isn’t going to massively revolutionise SEO; it’s a reflection of the importance that Google – and its users – place on “fresh” content. Quality and quantity aren’t mutually exclusive, and all SEO strategies need to be user-focussed; Caffeine consolidates the importance of good SEO content.
June 21st, 2010 - No Comments »
Posted in Search Engine Optimisation | Tags: content strategy, copywriting, google, seo, seo news
New data collected from Hitwise is showing that social networking sites have overtaken visits to search engines. Anyone who has been following trends in UK web use – and if you haven’t, you should be – will recognise this as a continuation of recent developments. Social networks are obviously doing what they were designed to; attracting engaged visitors. And digital industries and the customer relations departments of other businesses have adopted them with vigour.
Implications? Well, the difference between visits to social and search sites isn’t exactly huge; social sites are currently 0.55% more popular than search engines when you compare percentage of total UK internet visits. Of course, every leading edge can be leveraged, and 0.55% of total UK internet visits is still a potentially significant amount of traffic. Search engines are still receiving 11.33% of total UK internet visits, a more than healthy amount.
While Facebook is becoming increasingly ubiquitous, there’s still no Google-equivalent amongst the social networks. Facebook’s share of social network visits is 55%. Whilst that’s impressive, it’s nowhere near the market domination that Google has achieved. Facebook is making some big steps interconnecting with other social networks, and diversifying its functions into areas like ecommerce. This latter development could have massive implications, but it’s still early days; we’ll be looking into it in more detail in a forthcoming blog.
Social network users are there to interact with each other and with organisations and brands. Hence the opportunities for brand exposure and customer relations that make social networks an important arena for businesses.
As surfing habits change, it’s important to redeploy your strategy where potential customers spend their time, whether that’s users looking for engagement on a social network, or within search engine results. More than ever, ensuring that there’s cohesion between your social strategy and your search strategy is important. There’s a need for a coherent brand message and targeting across both.
June 9th, 2010 - No Comments »
Posted in Social Media | Tags: facebook, google, search stat, seo, Social Media
New research from UKOM – UK Online Measurement – shows that there’s been a significant increase in the amount of time that British residents are spending online. According to UKOM, web use has grown by 65% in the last three years; web users are spending an average of just under a day a month on the internet.
There’s significant change in the way people are using the internet. Social networks and blogs are taking up the majority of time spent online. The growing focus on information sharing and interaction between users and the sites they visit is clearly reflected in UKOM’s report.
What does this information mean for the online marketing industry? An increase in web use means there’s more potential for engaging with visitors. Well, although UKOM’s figures might seem distressing at first, showing a relative 3% fall in the use of search engine websites, there’s a concurrent 10% increase in the use of portals, which increasingly incorporate their own search functions. Think Yahoo!, MSN’s integration of Bing on its homepages, the increasing ubiquity of iGoogle… People are using the web more, so they’re using search more, they’re just getting used to having search come as part of their portal.
It’s the increasingly social nature of web use that presents the biggest opportunities in our industry. Brands and businesses – i.e. our existing clients and our future clients – need to react to this change, and we need to be there to offer them the skill-sets and the tools that meet their needs.
It’s in the interests of the search platforms to facilitate effective advertising and marketing, hence Google’s quick response to changes in web use (Content network remarketing, for example). It’s in our interest, and the interests of our competitors, to do a number of things:
- Continue to develop our analytics methodology so we can deliver actionable insights within a changing online environment.
- Adapt our use of advertising platforms so we’re always exploiting the opportunities that will benefit our clients.
- Ensure that we continue to deliver best-practice SEO which is always centred on the visitor.
We’re well up for it.
Does anyone have any other opinions on what UKOM’s report indicates for our industry? Leave a comment and share your insight.
May 21st, 2010 - No Comments »
Posted in General | Tags: content network, google, search stat, seo, Social Media, web analytics
