Following on from a previous post Questions to ask a web designer before you use them, I thought I would expand the idea to another area a lot of website owners consider outsourcing, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation ). This list is by no means exhaustive but it should hopefully point you in the right direction if you are thinking about taking the leap…

1. Can you provide examples of sites you have worked on before and any performance stats?
When it comes to SEO, every man and his dog claims to be an expert. To avoid taking on someone who talks a good game but has never used their ’skills’ in anger, ask for specific examples of sites they have worked on and how they increased those site’s rankings.

2. How do you monitor performance?
Just checking Google every so often isn’t good enough. There are dozen’s of good quality tracking software solutions out there which will tell you exactly where you are ranked for each keyword you are targeting. Also, ask for access to that data so you have complete visibility, be it through regular reports or direct access to the control panel to check your self.

3. What areas of off-site and on-site optimisation will you be looking at?
For on-site I would expect to see some of the following highlighted (in no order):
- Page titles
- H1, H2 etc tags
- Keywords in opening paragraph
- Link structure of the site
- Keywords used in the anchor text
- Your sites URL’s
- Meta description tags

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Links are the holy grail of any website with aspirations of being ranked in the top 20 results on Google, both in terms of quantity and quality. How you go about getting those links is the area of SEO that sets one site apart from another. Bought, traded or mutual links can only get you so far, eventually you need to take it to the next level and have sites linking to you because you do something so awesome that they want to, with nothing asked in return.

To encourage sites to link to them, savvy site owners create content that is known as ‘link bait’. These are stories, articles, tools, freebies, comment etc that have been created pretty much with the sole aim of other sites linking to them and are so useful, controversial, funny, original or insightful that another website refers back to it and says ‘go here to have a read’. Below are my top 6 examples of link bait (if you know of some other good examples, leave a link below):

1. www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors
Their whole site is littered with link bait (although they are an SEO company, so you would expect that), but this piece stands out for me. An in depth and comprehensive analysis of SEO factors from the industry’s leading voices. You could charge for this and people would buy it.

2. www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html
A great example of a site offering a scaled down version of it’s tool for free. Even this version is good enough for most small to medium sized sites.

3. http://www.carling.com/ipint_details.html
I own an iPhone and this was one of the first apps I downloaded. By offering something quirky and original (although the makers of iBeer might question that) with the wow factor, Carling has created a great link bait generator off the back of a branding exercise.

4. www.designerstoolbox.com
A great resource for anyone writing creative briefs or designing for the web, I would argue at least 90% of this site is link worthy because it offers so much useful content for free.

5. www.useit.com
This site breaks quite a few rules. For example, it looks ugly and the content is updated irregularly, however, when it is updated, more often than not it has something new to say about website usability that anyone can apply to their website, and it is free.

6. http://inside.123-reg.co.uk/archives/chris-anderson-free-long-tail
I couldn’t resist adding this one , but I honestly believe it is a good example of using an interview with an industry insider/ leading voice to generate interest, traffic and links. It worked for us!

Do you have any other examples of great link bait? Has anything on your website brought you a ton of traffic? Leave a comment to let us know.

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Since we starting writing this blog just under 18 months ago, traffic to this section of 123-reg has been growing steadily each month. Earlier this week I was looking back at some of the earlier posts and thought it was a shame new readers will never come across some of the useful and interesting content we wrote early on. Below are the 6 posts I think stood out in the first year or so of the blog…

1. The Chris Anderson interview
By far the most visited and commented on post we have ever done, John was able to get an interview with Wired editor and author of “The long Tail” Chris Anderson about his new concept of the free economy.

2. Search engine pay per click guide
Early on in the blog’s life I wrote a 5 part guide for beginners using search engine pay per click (SEPPC) advertising. The link above will take you to the final part, but that has links to the other 4 for you to check out.

3. Pet porn and hand grenades
The best post title we have ever had, and one which would have made it on this list regardless of the content I like it that much. Luckily it is also a very interesting interview with the founder of the “Darwin awards” website.

4. Tips to improve your website copy
One of those areas that is so important but often done in a rush or and with no planning.

5. The award for our most controversial post goes to…
This post received the angriest reponses we have had after we made the mistake of questioning the background of a number of well known domain names

6. Writing an effective PPC advert
With only 25 characters (including spaces) for your title and 70 for the main body of the ad, getting noticed, communicating your message and getting clicked on can be an art.

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It’s important to test the various elements of your website as you build it, and double check everything both before you go live and after you’ve launched.

There are lots of free tools around that can make this easier. In no particular order, here are six of the best.

1. Firebug and the Firefox developer toolbar
Ok, so this is actually two different extensions for Firefox. Our resident developer reckons Firebug is the better of the two (see the comments), so we’ve added it to the list. You can use them together - essentially, they let you examine every aspect of a website.

See how your pages look with images disabled, or JavaScript turned off. You can edit and test JavaScript and view all HTTP requests made by images and other linked files (like Flash movies) … and that barely scratches the surface. If you design websites, you need these add-ons.

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Just because you know what to type in to a text editor or how to use a graphics package doesn’t mean you can create a snazzy website or banner. I know how to use a paint brush, but it doesn’t mean I can paint, and one of the frustrating aspects for me of creating websites is my lack of design skills. There comes a time when if you want to take that next step forward you need to call in the professionals. Here are my top 6 tips to make sure your brief gets the results you want:

1. The designer is not psychic
For example, if you know you want your logo to be to the right of a banner, then be very clear that is what you want. It is easy to presume that they will appreciate this should be the case from your other design collateral or because “that is the way it has always been”, but if they have not worked with you before, you may get the first draft back with the logo on the left! This also goes for use of colour, fonts, images and everything else you can think of.

2. What action should it elicit?
Digital marketing is more than just sales. Make it clear what you want to achieve with the new banner, site, email… etc. Is it to raise awareness of your brand, to facilitate an immediate sale, to collect data or to influence opinion? (Or all of the above?)

3. What is your target market?
Depending on who you are targeting, the design of your collateral will vary drastically. For example, the design proposition for 10 - 14 year olds is very different to that of £100k+ a year business executives. Make it clear who your product / service target audience is and if you have it any insight into their online behaviour / preferences.
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1. Giving up after a couple of months because they aren’t ranked #1 on Google
Unless you are in a completely competitor free niche (try typing in “monkey shine on tree” in to Google!) your site will take time to be crawled by the search engine’s spiders, linked to by other sites and ranked high enough on a search engine to be found. Be realistic with your expectations.

2. Thinking building a website is a quick and easy affair
You can certainly get something up and running in a matter of minutes, whether that site will be attractive and/ or informative enough for repeat visits is debatable. Even the most simple of sites takes time and effort to get right. Don’t give up when you find an entire day had just disappeared and you still haven’t published the site!

3. Writing new content for the sake of it
You have heard search engines like updated content so you write new material each day hoping it will get your site ranked higher. if you genuinely have something to say, great, but this is such a minor consideration amongst all the other factors search engines use, your energy can be better spent elsewhere e.g. adding analytics tracking, tweaking the navigation, generating links, reading relevant blogs…
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At 123-reg we run an affiliate program that let’s you earn money by putting one of our banners on your site, and earning commission for each sale you send to us. Below are the top 6 reasons why you should sign up.

1. Earn up to £100 per product
Simply by placing one of our banners or links on your site and referring one of your visitors to us, depending on the product they buy, we will pay you up to £100 per product. There are no limits to how much you can earn, with commission paid out for every item sold. For example, if they buy a domain name, shared hosting and InstantTraffic you will receive £41

2. We are the UK’s largest web host
With 16% of all UK web sites hosted with us (source: Netcraft) we are the one of the best known web hosts around.

3. Your site’s visitors can search for a domain name on your site
We have a series of very cool banners that allow your visitors to search for a domain name directly from your site, with no extra work needed from you to make it work!
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Happy New Year to everyone. I thought I’d start the year with a quick post about the site that is sure to continue to dominate the internet news in 2008… Facebook.

Facebook has recently launched a new advertising platform to allow advertisers to write and manage adverts directly through their Facebook account. Facebook has always shown one banner advert underneath the left hand navigation area, however, this is a different proposition. These are the small static ’social ads’ you may have seen in your account sometimes in the news feed.

More information can be found here http://www.facebook.com/ads/

1. Keep the ads targeted
Facebook allows you to be very specific about who will get to see your advert, providing the tools to target by categories such as:

• Gender
• Age
• Interests
• Geography
• Political views
• Education status

It is tempting to keep them all open and target all 7 million+ users, but it is important you take advantage of these tools, especially if you choose to be billed on a CPM basis (per thousand views).

If you allow your advert to been see by one and all I can guarantee you will be wasting money on clicks or ad impressions from people who aren’t relevant and will never convert.

2. Keep your expectations realistic
Remember, these are still just banner ads, and just because its Facebook doesn’t mean they will be any more effective. Research has shown banner blindness is becoming more pronounced and banner click through rates (CTR%) is at an all time low of 0.18% (Source: www.adtech.de)
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So you’ve started selling online and you want to maximise your sales. Here are 6 tips that could help:

1. Use clear descriptions and good pictures. If you sell a physical product, it’s important people can see exactly what they’re getting. Describe the product in detail and include clear, well-lit photos - with large versions if possible. If you sell complex items, like electronic equipment, make sure you include the full specification too.
2. Get the fulfilment right. Once someone’s placed an order, make sure you ship the item in good time and keep the customer informed of what’s going on. Delivering an item quickly is an easy way to impress customers and encourage them to purchase from your site again.
3. Be comprehensive. Make sure you include information about shipping, extra charges, order changes and cancellations, returns and more. Think about what might stop a customer buying from you, and address those things in your FAQs or help content.
4. Make it easy for people to contact you. Give your online business a presence in the real world by publishing an address on your site where people can contact you. Supply a phone number and email as well, and try to answer queries in good time.
5. Don’t make payment difficult. Accept as many different forms of payment as you can, and make sure all online transactions are handled securely. Customers are more likely to buy if they can pay using their preferred method rather than the one which best suits you. Our ecommerce package lets you accept lots of payment methods, including credit and debit cards, PayPal and Google Checkout - in up to 9 currencies.
6. Keep an eye on your statistics. A web analytics package like Google Analytics can help you see how visitors are using your site. Look out for pages where people seem to drop out of the order process, or leave your site altogether. Why is this happening? Try making some changes and see if the figures improve.

What’s worked for your online shop? Leave a comment and let us know.

Previous top 6 lists:

• Books to read to help with your website
• Tips to improve your site copy
• Ways to increase conversion
• Online marketing misconceptions

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There are a lot of web design and online marketing books out there, so we thought we would share with you a few of the ones we have read and taken something useful from. Don’t worry they aren’t long winded reviews, just a brief summary of their content and then a link for you to find out more if it catches your eye.

(The Amazon links are for more information and so you can read other people’s reviews, no more than that)

Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results
This book looks at online marketing from the one metric that really matters, conversions i.e. getting a visitor on your site to take your desired action (hence the title!). It is an easy to follow book, well written, and has practical real life ideas that you can implement yourself without a PHD in web design or marketing. Call to action

Winning Results with Google AdWords
If you are just toying with the idea with advertising on Google or you have had ads on there for sometime, you will still take something away from this book. Covering each stage from beginner through to just below advanced, this is incredibly well structured and explains each step in getting your ads running up to bid strategies, simply and clearly. Winning results with Google AdWords

Don’t Make Me Think!: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
Focusing on website usability design, this book packs in loads of ideas to implement on your site to improve your visitor’s experience and to ensure they don’t ‘bounce’ away in frustration. Don’t make me think

Web Analytics: An Hour a Day
Installing analytical software such as Google Analytics is all well and good, but if you’re not using the information what is the point? This book is an in depth look at how to use your site’s data to your benefit. Web Analytics

The Long Tail: How Endless Choice Is Creating Unlimited Demand
You might have heard or read someone describe how they are targeting “The long tail” recently, it’s certainly a buzz word people are fond of using at the moment. This is where it all started. In essence it puts forward the idea that online traders can offer almost unlimited choice, and those products that sell infrequently and not many at a time, when added together contribute as much (if not more) to the bottom line as the best sellers. The Long Tail

Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers
Thousands of blogs appear and disappear every day around the world. Many fall by the wayside due to the amount of time and effort they take to maintain. This book deals with blogs and their place in the business world, and how they should be used as an integral part of a site’s communication process. Naked Conversations

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