Designaweb Blog


Web Marketing Tip (November 2009)

Enquiry FormDo you have an Enquiry Form on your web site ? You are missing out if you dont

  • Monitor the number of form enquiries, then compare month by month.

  • Have you included the dropdown option "How did you find us " , this is a very important web metric to monitor, Basically was this enquiry an Organic sourced enquiry (Search engine) or paid for eg Google ad

  • Make sure your form has a thank you email -  An important opportunity to promote your company

  • Using web analytics like Google Analytics, monitor the visitor numbers to your enquiry page and compare with the actual  number of form enquiries received - This web metrics statistic is a valuable measure of the effectiveness of your form

  • Complete the form yourself and see if can be improved - When did you last do this ?

  • Respond to form enquiries within 24 hrs - This is critical.

 

SEO Tip (November 2009)

Several Customers have made contact asking if we know about BT Customer Street - Its a BT company so it should be credible ???? They offer SEO services with unbelievable claims which from our experience they probably are . The sales technique is high pressure and we urge you to Google search BT Customer Street before committing your hard earned monies . Here is just one link you have to read http://www.btcomplaint.com/2009/01/bt-customerstreet.html . The BT Customer website has a blog which hasn't been updated for over a year and some of the testimonials are incredible , one in particular claimed a top placement in Google , Yahoo  Msn, within 4 days !

BT Customer Street relies on cold calling and with this type of telephone selling remember to NEVER give out your card details over the phone to cold callers. If the deal sounds interesting ask for a web address + an email explaining the services and check out the terms and conditions before parting with monies - Incidentally the T&C for this company is 18 pages long . Last but not least Google the company and see what entries there are

 

 

SEO Tip - Directory registration (November 2009)

Hot FrogSubmit your site to Hot Frog . This is a UK based directory offering a free entry - apart from the potential of visitor hits direct from Hot Frog you might get a boost on your own SEO rankings as Hot Frog has a credible page rank and this will help in your offsite search engine optimisation programme . You can monitor your visits from Hot Frog using Google Analytics under the section Traffic Sources , Referring Sites - If you haven't got Google Analytics set up for your web site you are missing out on the best web analytic programme on the web , and its free -  If you need any assistance with Google Analytics just contact us . Hot Frog link

 

SEO Tip - Google Search (November 2009)Google Search

When checking on your site's ranking in Google make sure you are logged out of your Google account - eg Google Mail . If you dont you are likely to receive "personalised" results . Your positioning is likely to be much higher than it is in real life

 

Email Marketing Tip (November 2009)

Jacquie Lawson cardThis link wont suit everybody , though its very cost effective and you will get feedback -

As an alternative to sending xmas cards to your customers try sending animated Ecards through www.jacquielawson.com. We first tried it last year and for the first time in 9 years we received several comments - all positive, so if you are a client of ours you know what's in store !!

 

CuteRank Website Ranking Checker (SEO) November 2009

CuteRankWe like this one, although keyword positioning in the search engines is important , don't get too hung up about it as in the end its what visitor hits you get and a great number 1 position for a keyword with no clicks is of no use . CuteRank is free and the licence covers one web site - what are you waiting for
Download Rank Checker

 

SEO Tip - Siloing (November 2009)

siloingSiloing is now an accepted SEO (Search engine optimisation) jargon and based on Silos as used in agriculture – In simple terms Silos will store wheat or barley but not both in the same bin, this is the concept of Siloing – Think of a silo as theme, sector, group, page or whatever. 
full article on siloing

 

Computer Tip (November 2009)

Computer slow ? Check your broadband speed - Click here to check your speed

 

Web Marketing Tip (November 2009)

Enter your phone number into Google and see what results there are - if there are none have your full details ie name address , telephone number  etc entered on EVERY page of your web site .

Also check out your competitors phone numbers - you might get a surprise !

 

SEO Tip - Hyphens or Underscores in web pages (SEO) November 2009

Example: Is www.designaweb.biz/search-engine-optimisation.html more search engine friendly than www.designaweb.biz/search_engine_optimisation.html

For the answer, read Matt Cutts Blog: - its an old entry but still relevant today
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/dashes-vs-underscore


Google Caffeine roll out due soon (SEO) November 2009

By all accounts Google Caffeine has completed its beta testing and will be rolled out by data centre by data centre  in the coming months. Organic search positions will no doubt change  with no guarantees that existing rankings will be maintained. If you adopt current best practices you should be ok though if your site does need a check over please call us on 01359 231739  to discuss or visit our SEO Search Engine Optimisation page


SEO Tip - Has your page been indexed by Google ? (SEO) November 2009

If you want to check if a single Web page of your site has been indexed by Google go to Google.com and enter the "info:" command with your Web page URL, for example info:www.designaweb.biz/blog.html

 If your Web page is in the Google index, Google will show you to show the cached version of the page,

 

Domain Registration Tips (Domains) November 2009

Dont let this happen to you . Hamleys the famous London toy store forgot the pay their domain registration fees , which effectively  meant the domain name expired .The result was that their site was down for 36hrs . That's a lot of lost revenue. Once expired ie no registration fees paid the domain will be reoffered for sale after 90 days.

 

Google Alerts Research Tool : (Google ) November 2009

  • monitoring a news story
  • researching a new product or service
  • keeping tabs on you competitor

All this is easy to do - just sign up for Google Alerts www.google.com/alerts

 

Google Analytics Tip : ( Google ) November 2009

Searching for the site code to add to your pages can be difficult to find - Try this Edit website profile - Click on Check Status in the top right hand corner , now you have it

 

How many pages of your site are indexed by Google ? (SEO) November 2009

Simple to find out just Google search " site:www.yoursite.co.uk " without the quotes

 

Google Analytics Tip : ( Google ) November 2009

Google Analytics is an excellent way of tracking your visitors and visitor behaviour , and its free . Its not the easiest software to understand , though the rewards are there given a little time to understand - Once installed there are a few tweeks that can be easily implemented that will make your reports more relevant -

Blocking your IP Address - To stop your visitor clicks from counting simply open up your analytics account, Click on Filter Manager , From the dropdown select "Traffic from the IP Addresses" and add  your IP Address.

If you don't know your IP address , just click this link