He deserves it too. The past year has seen Captain Parks appear in his very own TV advert, get discussed on Real Radio North West, and engage with his customers through his Twitter account @CaptainParks. At the same time www.jetparks.co.uk has been firmly established across the major search engine for all its primary keywords, delivered a 20% click to conversion rate, which has in turn resulted in a 465% return on investment and seen bookings exceed targets by 33%. If this wasn’t enough, the JetParks project has been shortlisted for the Best E-Business Project at the 2010 Big Chip Awards.

So, all in all, a busy year for Captain Parks and JetParks, I’m sure you would agree.

When we began the JetParks project over 12 month ago, we had merely 3 weeks in which to deliver the website, so although we wanted to create a visually aesthetic site, a great deal of the limited time we had available was spent in the development of the booking system and all the other clever under the bonnet techie stuff. That is not to say we weren’t happy with our original design, and the Manchester Airport parking public have certainly embraced the brand, but it was felt, now that the site has proved such a success, that we could revisit the original concept and devote a little more time to the look and feel.

We felt it was better to evolve the design rather than starting again from the ground up. A website is organic and design forms part of that. We started by refreshing the home page and some of the other internal pages, with a refresh of the booking process coming shortly. The design has a bright, bubbly feel all in line with the brand. The Quick Booking area has also been simplified to help the user straight into the booking process, which we hope will further increase the already excellent conversion rate.

We feel that the new design give the site a fresh feel without any drastic alteration to the brand, but please have a look around the site yourself www.jetparks.co.uk and let us know what you think.

For too long now events like this have been the property of London, dragging the digital world to capital and delivering a thoroughly mediocre affair. It’s about time the North had a platform to attract an international audience, and show our selves off a bit.

SAScon is a truly international event, with celebrated practitioners from the US, Spain, Holland, Belgium and Iceland sharing the stage with some of Manchester’s own, Paul Fabretti from Gabba and Neil Hardy from the Co-operative group to name but two. Personally I can’t wait to hear some more on the darker arts of SEO from Ralph Tegtmeier, who, according to Aaron Wall, is “one of the most insightful minds and original voices in the search game”.

A great deal of credit needs to go to SEMPO and Manchester Digital for delivering SAScon at a time when the digital landscape in the North demands it. We have some of the most innovative minds and cutting edge ideas, not just with the digital agencies, but with the digital departments of our regions forward thinking companies.

Up here in’t North have always been willing to take a punt, always keen support and embrace new initiatives, happenings and events, as the success of Manc Twestival proved. SAScon has the potential to be a permanent fixture on the digital calendar for digital marketeers from around the country. If you can make it, please go, it will be great to see you there.

www.sascon.co.uk

@sasconference

#sascon

The Sun has drawn first blood with the sensational headline “Labour’s lost it”. The online version of this article is juicy enough link-bait to already hit the first page of Google for the search term “labour”.

There it is, at the time of writing, in fifth position (not counting news results). Ouch.

As well as associated articles, dossiers and microsites that can be found on the sun website, they are also using PPC as part of their attack strategy.

The terms labour, labour party and labour conference all bring up one of the following ads linking to the topic dedicated Feeling Blue section of their site.

And they seem to be pre-empting a response by buying up their own name.

It’s not been all one way traffic, though. Labour were pretty quick to respond with their own ad that plays on a pretty emotive anti-sun topic: Hillsborough. I took this screenshot this morning:

The gloves are off.

However, Labour don’t seem to be buying as many or as broad search terms. If they want to compete, they should be buying up all the search terms the Sun is and directly attacking the paper on its own turf. That could require some deep PPC pockets. In fact, as I check now the ad isn’t showing. Has the budget dried up already?

The US presidential election digital campaigns demonstrated the importance of rapid response to on and offline trending topics. In particular the paid search campaigns for both camps had to respond quickly and effectively to online buzz and breaking news. Eric Frenchman, the guy in charge of John McCain’s PPC has blogged about using search for political or news rapid response.

So now it’s the UK’s turn and although I hope the tactics might not get quite as… dubious as in the American election, I think Search and social media will be two areas where the battle will be viciously fought.

Interesting times lie ahead.

——————————————-

Update: It seems Labour didn’t have anything directly to do with the Hillsborough ads, the Telegraph reports. The ads stopped showing around 2 the afternoon. Either there was a very small budget allocated or they were pulled. Over enthusiastic supporters or plausible deniability? Either way it’s a shame, I’d have liked to see a real scrap!

I’ve found another blog post here on the same topic that discusses the Rules of engagement for political parties.

Since then we have been driving forward an SEO campaign aimed at dominating the market across Google, Yahoo and Bing, for "Manchester Airport Parking" and all related keywords and from a standing start, the green shoots of our industry are starting emerge (it must be all that rain we had over July and August?)

It hasn’t proved an easy task and there is still a long way to go to break the Search Engine monopoly of the large booking agents, but things are definitely moving in the right direction.

So in the last two months, what have we achieved? Well, at the start of the campaign we looked to make an immediate impact on the market by targeting keywords such as "cheap manchester airport parking" and we felt that if we could establish a solid presence with these we would then have the foundations in place to attack the primary keyword, "cheap parking manchester airport"

For each of the keywords we were targeting, our starting position was predominantly outside the top 500 on Google Yahoo and Bing. However, an aggressive campaign of on-site and off-site optimisation saw these positions sore to the top 3 on Yahoo and MSN and onto page 1 of Google.

However, the great success came with the keyword "manchester airport parking" a keyword with 100% advertiser competition and one that would cost up to £20,000 / month to be top of the PPC Sponsored listings. From no-where, we have witnessed a steady rise up the rankings to where we currently reside in position 22, 24 and 19 on Google, Yahoo and Bing respectively.

Now I know there will be choruses declaring you’re either page 1 of Google or no-where, and I agree, however, this position now gives us a great opportunity to aggressively target the keyword and drag it up to its rightful place and with conversion rate from clicks to bookings of over 25% we know if we can drive in the traffic, the site we built will make the customers stick.

The announcement was made on the 10/11th of August that Google had been working for months on a new update for it’s search engine. Code named: Caffeine.

SEO experts hold their breath everytime an Algorithm changes because it affects rankings and they could see their months of work, getting higher up the rankings and developing techniques to beat their competition in the SERPs, all destroyed in a matter of minutes. Others may experience a caffeine kick and jump up the listings.

So the SEO community breathed a sigh of relief when it was announced that the Caffeine Update is similar to the Big Daddy Update back in Dec 2005 and that the changes made were “under the hood”. Google describe this update as;

“A next-generation architecture for Google’s web search. It’s the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions.” – Google Blog.

Since the initial announcement we have had a month to test the New Google to see how things compare to the old. You can see how your site ranks on both the current Google and Google Caffeine here. WebProNews also managed to get an interview with Matt Cutts about Caffeine at San Jose Search Engine Strategies 2009, where he explains the changes made to the new structure of Google.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What does this mean for the average Googler?

The answer: Not really that much. The aim of this update, as with all updates, is to improve the users experience and find more accurate results for them. The person using Google wont notice the fact that speed of the search listings has now be increased, with results returned in 0.19 seconds rather then 0.3, and the number of indexed sites has increased from 752,000 to 1,220,000 (searches done on my name, we all do it), but it does show that the update has improved the indexing capabilities and this should improve the ease for the user to find what they are looking for.

As mentioned earlier on the Google Blog, the new infrastructure is just the first step, meaning that there are more changes to come. Does this mean an algorthim change? Maybe a more decisive move to take on twitter and its ability to provide breaking news?

Whatever Google has planned for the future, the search engine community are watching carefully and preparing for when the Caffeine Update goes live (date yet to be announced).

“4 years of my life, £16,000 and a sheet of A4 paper saying degree on it. Does this mean I should be able to pass it?”

I am happy to say that a Google Analytics Certificate now has pride of place on my wall in the office. Although I find it slightly cheap that I had to print the certificate off myself. Where was the large hall, my name being read out, and me walking up to the stage to collect it out of the hand of Larry Page or Sergey Brin?

I’m the new boy at KMP Digitata and when I first arrived I had no experience of Google Analytics and so this was an opportunity for me to show some ability to learn and work quickly. I was also able show self restraint when I was given the company credit card to pay the $50 for the exam, Amazon did pop into my mind but was forced back by Completion Funnels and RegEx codes.

So now what? What does this qualification mean to me?

For me this qualification brightens up my office wall but more importantly shows my colleagues and clients that I have demonstrated proficiency in Google Analytics. I am now able to manage data to create reports displaying any information required about a website’s traffic and users.

The next step for us here at KMP Digitata, regarding analytics, is to look forward and towards the ‘Google Analytics Authorized Consultant‘ certificate. It’s a lot harder to obtain then the GAIQ award but we have taken the first step, and probably the easiest, by having two Google Analytic certified members at the company.

As for me personally I think I have space next to my Analytics Certificate for another one. Maybe Google AdWords is next……

With nearly 90% the population finding a website through the search engines, 21 billion web pages through which to search, and with an estimated 80% of Search Engine traffic coming through the Natural Listings, SEO has never been more important.

But if you are standing still, you are going backwards.

Long gone are the days when you could throw in a few meta tags, submit your site to search engines and watch as it moves up the rankings with the merest of tweaks here and there. As the Internet has evolved and so to has Search Engine Optimisation, into a fine, and in some well documented cases, dark, art.

There are many popular myths that surround SEO, “PageRank is all important”, many ‘flavour of the month’ practices, “I only need to focus on links” and many companies who, despite the impossibility of the statement, will “guarantee you number one position”. I tend to find these are the same companies who have “a special relationship with Google”. This always makes me laugh, how did they come about this “special relationship” could they be in possession of a series of incriminating photographs taken when Google was just an aspiring young search engine, trying to make it big? If the Chinese government struggles to influence the listings unnaturally, what chance Shady Dave Digital?

What a lot of companies need to realise is that there are no magic SEO beans that will take us to the top, the Search Engine giants make the rules and we, like it or not, have to follow these rules (with maybe a slight manipulation here and there to keep us ahead of the game).

However, SEO is a long term strategy, with positions gained through a balanced, ethical approach, which in turn creates an effective process that will deliver results. If you start off with the right tools heading in the right direction, you will create something that will not only last, but will continue to develop independently.

Ken McGaffin is often quoted along these lines when he states “create good content, link to great content and great content will link to you”. However, may I be the first the first to quote Jimi Hendrix when he remarked “and so castles made of sand, fall in the sea, eventually.”

*in my next update I will be explaining how Hendrix’s 1968 hit “Cross Town Traffic” is in fact a reference to Google Adwords Geo-Targeting.

]]> http://kmp.co.uk/2009/06/search-engines-and-sandcastles/feed/ 2 http://kmp.co.uk/2008/08/4-things-you-wanted-to-know-about-blogging-for-business-and-werent-afraid-to-ask/ http://kmp.co.uk/2008/08/4-things-you-wanted-to-know-about-blogging-for-business-and-werent-afraid-to-ask/#comments Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:19:33 +0000 Gez Daring http://kmp.co.uk.s52763.gridserver.com/?p=99 Last Thursday saw me up at the crack of dawn in order to lead a breakfast discussion group for pro-manchester.

The topic was "Blogging for Business" and the presentation I delivered was a scaled down and slightly updated version of the one written by my colleague Paul for our July seminars on the same topic. The accompanying slides can be downloaded from our seminar pages.

I’m not going to recap the presentation here but there were some interesting points brought up in the ensuing discussion that gave me food for thought.

Fuelled partly by my presentation and partly by the coffee and sausage sandwiches provided by our host, Cobbetts, the discussion was lively and engaging. I was pleased that the topic seemed to strike a chord with the attendees so I’ll do my best to report on some of those issues discussed.

"Where do I start?"

Good question. I suspect the enquirer wanted to know how to set up a blog. That’s easy. If I were to answer that question I’d simply say head over to Typepad, Wordpress or Blogger and set up a blog; or if more protection of your brand and/or some communication strategy is required, engage an agency (KMP for example  ) in a design and consultation exercise.

But I think you should start by understanding a bit about the medium you wish to enter. The key to Marketing 2.0, PR 2.0 and [insert service here]2.0 is listening.

If you want to know how best to use blogs, see how other people do it. Head over to Technorati or Google Blog search and search for blogs in your field of interest. Subscribe to them, comment on them, get inspired by them.

Being actively involved with the blogosphere is very important whenpromoting your own blog and it’s always a good place to go for inspiration if the creative well is running a little dry.

The best way to consume content from blogs is with a feed reader. There are many free RSS readers available but I recommend Google Reader.Once you are signed up, any RSS feed link you click on will be able to be added to your Reader or your iGoogle personalised homepage.

"How do I protect my business from legal action?"

This point was raised by Steve from RALLI solicitors and in his
words it’s a "typical lawyer’s response" when the issue of employees being given free access to a blog that represents the company is raised. In fact it’s not only lawyers who worry about this. The risk of exposing your business to legal action or negative PR is an issue on most people’s minds. My answer to this is simple: strategy.

It’s very important to have a clear remit for company bloggers and ensure that they have guidelines to follow regarding content, copyright and tone of voice. There is a correlation between size and importance here. The bigger the company, the more important it is to provide clear, well thought-out blogging guidelines.

I firmly believe that the fear of negative PR and legal exposure should never be an insurmountable barrier to the benefits that a successful blog can provide. It just takes a bit of planning to get around the obstacle.

"What do we do if people say bad things about us?"

Whether you are talking about comments on your blog or content elsewhere in the blogosphere, my response is the same.

Listen, evaluate and respond.

Does this person have a point? Is their information incorrect? Have you made changes to your services/business since this person’s bad experience? Are they just a nutter?

Tell them, engage them, communicate with them. (Unless they are just a nutter. As long as no one is paying attention to them, it’s probably best to leave the nutters alone.)

Of course on your own blog, there is always the option of moderating comments before allowing them to see the light of day. But don’t assume that because you are blocking negative comments they won’t appear
anywhere else. They will and probably already are.

So engage the disgruntled party. Most of the time, it’s all they really want.

"You mean a blog can be used for SEO purposes?"

Emphatically, YES. 

If you are paying Google or another company thousands of pounds for PPC keywords but not including those keywords in your content to be naturally indexed you are wasting money. Blogs are extremely well indexed by the search engines and all content stays there, archived and available for users and search engine spiders alike.

In fact, as I write this post, the number one Google return for the term pro manchester business is Jon’s blog post written during the event from his iPhone. It returns above www.pro-manchester.co.uk.

I’m not suggesting you should try and game the system by loading blog posts with a nonsensical stream of expensive keywords. Just write about the things you want to be recognised for. It should come naturally. Of course if some frequently searched-for terms make their way naturally into the post title or body, all the better.

Here is a post on why blogs are useful for SEO including a list of further resources and here is a post with some tips on how to increase traffic to your blog.

This has turned into a bit of a mammoth post so I’ll sign off now. All comments gratefully received.

One problem that we knew about at the time was the fact that in many parts of the site we use AJAX paging to display search results and lists of content items. This makes it very difficult for search engine spiders to index all of the available content on the site.

On Monday this week I implemented dynamic sitemaps for the dynamic content sections of the site. A sitemap is a file that Google, Yahoo and MSN (soon) can use to get a full list of the available urls for indexing.

Rather than building a static file containing the page addresses for the site, I built a script that generates the sitemap on demand – when Google or Yahoo download the file, they recieve a full list of every page that is currently available. This has increased the number of urls discoverable by the spider from 190 to 1500+.

Another technique that we’ve implemented is harnessing the user generated content for in-page optimisation. We now generate the page description meta-tag in the Biofind Rumor Mill from the content of the posts on each page. This gives us over 1000 indexable pages with unique page descriptions, pages that will now be displayed in search results rather than hidden as "similar pages".

The results have proven to be fairly conclusive so far. I’ve compared the analytics from the past four days with the equivalent four days in December (3rd week). Not exactly scientific but the stats around the new year are not representative averages due to the holiday season.

In case the graphs are a little small, the Pre-SEO graph shows the daily number of visitor at between 3500 and 3800. The Post-SEO graph shows the number of daily visitors rising from 4300 to 6399.

The increased traffic to Biofind has raised the requirement for an upgrade to the site’s hosting. Hopefully the new environment will be able to handle the next series of optimisation ideas that I’m working on.

The traditional optimisation (in a nutshell) was to apply search engine friendly processes: Proper and relevant keyword titles and tags on pages and quality keyword focused content.

The new stage in the process is to optimise the text that gets returned in the listing and treat it as Ad copy. The search engine listing becomes the first stage of your sales pitch or content funnel for delivering the user to your “Call to action” page.

Example: Search for “music” on Google.co.uk

Here you can see that MSN has the slightly higher page rank but AOL has a more compelling description. Both of these listing could do with better title tags but the point of this example is that you need to ask yourself if you would advertise yourself using the copy in the MSN listing or the copy from the AOL listing.