A fast server is intrinsic to your online marketing campaign

Lawrence Jones, July 4th 2008, 3:21PM

Did you know the speed and reliability of your website is a massive factor in the stickiness of your site, for both human visitors and search engines?

For the ever demanding customer, website response rates have to be immediate. How long do you spend on a slow page which doesn’t load properly? My guess is not long at all. And neither do your potential customers.

For slow websites the click-away rate is often incredibly high – and what do web users do when they’ve clicked away? They go to the next search engine listing, which just happens to be your fiercest competitor.

Speaking of search engines, many of the top ones use website response rate and server speed as part of the ranking process.

When a website responds more quickly, search engines see the site as more reputable and of a higher quality. These sites are rewarded because they offer a good customer experience and so they’re boosted higher in search rankings.

Fast websites are always located on quick and powerful dedicated servers. The hosting solution will often include more than one dedicated server for increased stability and performance – but that’s for another blog.

When you choose an internet hosting provider make sure you check out the reliability of their hardware. The speed of your server is as vital as other parts of your online marketing campaign.

Meta, keywords, PPC, dynamic content, great design and link building are all successful methods with which to advertise online. But what’s a great campaign if the website it’s based around is too slow to keep the attention of your customers?

Tags: dedicated server, marketing, ppc, seo, seo campaign, ukfast, websites
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The power of the press release

Lawrence Jones, March 6th 2008, 9:19AM

I’ve been collecting information for quite some time now regarding what you think is the most important thing for your website.

Currently the trend shows:
• SEO at 46%
• Link building at 26%
• PPC at 20%
• PR at 9%

However, if this was reversed would it really be so bad?

The highest ranking is currently SEO – if there is such a thing. This made me contemplate things. What exactly is SEO and how do we use it?

Search engine optimisation has evolved with the internet and it relies on a series of complex rules to place businesses in order of relevance to your search.

However, what’s the point in attempting to optimise your site if content isn’t regularly changed?

If your content isn’t changed, Google probably won’t recognise it anyway.
Plus, if content is substandard, no matter how high you get in the search engines, you continue to find that leads don’t convert into sales. People won’t stay on the site long enough to buy from you if the pages aren’t interesting.

At 26% and 20%, link building and PPC came in second and third which I find strange. Pay per click can be the most costly solution and therefore you’d think it would rank more highly in public opinion.

Coming in last place with a vote of just 9% is PR. In my opinion this has many more online uses than a lot of people realise.

Online PR has even more benefits in addition to the traditional function of building your brand and getting your business in the press.

With online PR you can distribute your release across the web in various different portals.

There are a plethora of online publications just waiting for your release. Not only are these sites trawled by local, national and international media relations professionals, each one can be linked back to your site.

As you know, links to your site increase your Google page rank and your position in the search engines, as well as serving to build your company reputation and get some press. So that’s dealing with link building, SEO and PR in one fell swoop.

And sending a press release is free.

By writing press releases you are essentially killing an entire flock of birds with one stone and yet figures show so many businesses don’t hold the idea in high regard.

In my opinion, the sooner you embrace the press release the better for your business.

Tags: keyword, poll results, ppc, pr, seo, seo campaign
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Protecting company data

Lawrence Jones, February 14th 2008, 2:16PM

The astute director makes absolutely sure his company databases are fortified. Your databases are your competitors marketing advantage, so protecting them is hugely important to your business.

In light of recent travesties such as 25million records disappearing from a government database in a day, it is no wonder data protection is a hot topic. With the storage of more online data than ever before, security worries are multiplying quickly.

There are several reasons for protecting your databases, including customer confidentiality, protecting your client base and keeping the secret to your business’s success.

Client records must be kept safe under the Data Protection Act, which states customer information must be: “kept secure with appropriate technical and organisational measures taken to protect the information”.

Trade secrets are your business’s foundations. CocaCola for example, is unlikely to give away the secret of its taste to new employees. Not only would competitors be able to make the drink themselves, but the company would lose the mystical brand image that has been cultivated for over a hundred years.

Similarly, with regards to my web development company, Text, if somebody was to gain access to our coding, we would lose the competitive advantages we gained through hard work and dedication. If other companies start to use our coding it makes all our hard work trivial.

As your company increases in size, you employ more new people who you have to grow to trust over time. If there are no restrictions on company computers just think what could be carried away on a USB drive or sent via web based email.

Employee access to personal applications at work is something which differs for every company, of course. But in my opinion it is something to be seriously considered in your business strategy. Think carefully. A company depends upon its databases. It is a director’s duty to protect them. By eliminating opportunity you can ease concern that your own data can be removed.

Businesses have several ways of protecting important information. Limiting access to specific drives, disabling USB ports and blocking web based email accounts are just a number of ways.

I know of several managing directors who take these strategies to the absolute pinnacle but I’m a believer that with some standard procedures in place you can be sure that your in-house databases are safe.

As managers you may worry about your company gaining a reputation for being dictatorial with such precautions, however there are compensations you can take on board to avoid this feeling. Installing computer terminals in the staff room that are not attached to the company network is just one of these. This can allow staff to view web based email accounts in their break times without the concern that they can attach and send company information. The history of their work email can be recorded and this is deterrent enough.

As is often the case, instilling a great work ethic within your team is the secret to success but it always pays to stay secure and reduce risk.

Tags: data protection, seo, text internet marketing
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Online video changing the face of the web

Lawrence Jones, January 17th 2008, 12:29PM

In 1979, video killed the radio star. Today, online film is set to become the next media craze.

This week a study by Tiscali showed that more than a third of UK consumers log on to watch TV on demand. The figures show double the amount on last year, of people watching television online. I’m sure you’ll agree that’s an astounding increase.

The statistics reflect a growing trend in viewing and producing online video. It is a media format most definitely has its good points - providing dynamic web content on platform that can be seen the world over. And it also has its bad points. I’m recalling the recent happy-slapping craze which swept video download site YouTube.

Online video downloading also has the potential to financially cripple the entertainments industry as downloading free and often illegal video beats buying it by four to one.

But for better or worse, internet video is here, and its here to stay.
For businesses, advertising, marketing and communications videocasting has massive, almost untapped, potential.

For example, when designing your website it’s important to remember that content is king. Lots of text is wonderful for search engine spiders, but it is not just robots who read your web pages. Even if you manage to get a top spot in the search engines, if your content isn’t up to scratch, your organisation’s message is lost.

By adding video content to your site you automatically increase your validity as a company, appearing bigger and more authoritative. Additionally you open up a medium to provide a direct message to your audience.

Video attracts visitors and keeps them. It’s proven that consumers don’t stay long on pages that bore them, which is why reams and reams of text may not convert your hits into sales. Online film gives a face or personality to a format which is otherwise quite flat. It builds a trust with your customers, and can be both informative and entertaining.

In the years to come, videocasting will become more and more commonplace, so start now. Be ahead of the game and your online business will benefit no end. At UKFast , we have had a massive interest in our new videocasting department. We’re producing broadcast quality video for our clients as well as ourselves and the standard of dynamic content we are providing has given some glowing testimonials.

My advice is this: don’t stop writing content, it’s still important to have substantial information on your site. But if you haven’t already, definitely consider dynamic content like podcasts or videocasts to really capture your audience’s attention.

Tags: marketing, seo, videocasting
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Can enthusiasm dampen results?

Lawrence Jones, July 20th 2007, 3:11PM

How often do you type in your keywords on Google to see where your advert appears? If you are like the rest of us, probably quite often.

Firstly it’s important to weigh up where your advert appears in the rankings. Are you going up are you going down? It is imperative that you measure your results.

However, are you aware that Google calculates the number of times you view the adverts? If you do not click on them, after a relatively short time (undisclosed by Google) your advert disappears!

Don’t worry it is still there for the rest of the world to see, however the search engine recognises that you keep ignoring it, so it serves you something else instead.

Very clever, but how do you check your adverts with out affecting the potency of the campaign?

Simple, go to:
https://adwords.google.co.uk/select/AdTargetingPreviewTool

This allows you to see all the adverts without any interference. This way you get to see everyone, including competitors etc. At the same time, by not clicking on competitors adverts, they are removed from the list as well, so it is easy to get a false sense of who really is competing in your market place.

You might be asking why does it matter to use the tool, and so what if you can’t see them, as long as your customers do?

Rest assured, Google is calculating the potency of your click-throughs and the volume of adverts that are being shown. Literally every view counts and therefore to guarantee best results, use the tool. In my opinion you should use this for natural SEO too, not just "pay per click".

Please note you can’t click through to the various sites from this page it is merely a read only application.

Tags: adwords, google, keyword, marketing, pay per click, pay per clicks, ppc, search engine, seo
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