Archive for June, 2012

London Calling!

Thursday, June 28th, 2012

As we near the 2012 Olympics it has finally dawned on me (albeit a bit late) that London is going to be humming with people in the not too distant future.

The streets will be buzzing, millions of people will descend on the capital and while I like people, I can honestly say that I will enjoy avoiding the crowds and have thanked my lucky stars that practicing SEO in London involves being in my office with my computer, rather than a daily commute anywhere.

This has all got me thinking to be honest.  For an SEO professional like me my life is often lived out online these days, although I do go in to London regularly of course and the fact that my SEO services are based in London does of course mean that I can’t simply ignore it altogether.  However, my online use is fairly extensive.  The amount of online shopping I do is pretty impressive, my SEO is obviously an online activity and of course everything else you’d associate with a website geek or thereabouts means being online is a way of life.

So, this small train of thought got me thinking to be honest about how many ecommerce websites I see that have ‘issues’.

Ironically they are not always in relation to SEO itself, but of the many websites I go to it never ceases to amaze me on how many ecommerce sites are obviously not checked by their owners!

In a recent case, I was merrily buying something from a website and got all the way to the checkout, only to discover that the shopping basket was broken.  For anyone who relies on ecommerce and who spends regular money on SEO services having what is a ‘broken’ website is really not a very sensible situation to be in.

It seems that for the most part, ecommerce businesses are so busy ensuring they get orders out that they often forget to check their most important asset.

So here’s my definitive list of check points worth looking at to ensure you’re getting the very best from your ecommerce website.

  • At a minimum of once a week, run through a purchase on your own website.  If you don’t want too much hassle then create a 1p item and buy it.  This will allow you to check that you can accept payments and that nothing is broken in the journey.
  • Throughout the year, try to get an outsider to take a look at your site.  This can often help identify issues but also highlight things that become invisible when you are looking at a site everyday.
  • Check that the email system works.  There is no amount of frustration for a buyer when they want information and send an email only to discover the web form or email is rejected.  This email sent to you could be your opportunity to sell so you don’t want to miss it.
  • Check the internal links on your site.  If you have a product highlighted and someone clicks through to a broken link or dead page, it will really annoy them and you could risk losing them altogether.
  • With an ecommerce website it’s important that you never assume anything.  Regularly keep track of what your site is doing and where you can improve, after all your business revenue depends on it!

Now I’ve relayed that information to ecommerce site owners everywhere, I had better get back to my SEO work and use a webcam to check out the crowds in central London!

Paul

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How are you handling the Cookie Monster?

Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

For most, the Cookie Monster is a rather cool character from Sesame Street who has a slightly amusing voice.  However for anyone working within the digital sector this character has taken on a whole new form.

If you are wondering what it’s all about and haven’t really taken much notice, now is the time to sit-up and listen.

The EU Cookie Directive is all about recording of users behaviours online.  Or, more to the point it is designed to stop websites from recording what you’re doing and when you’re doing it.

It was decided over a year ago that use of Cookies on websites was an infringement of your personal privacy.  So, want to know why you need to listen a bit further?  Or would you prefer to be fined?

What is a Cookie?

A cookie is essentially a piece of data that is sent from a website and stored in our web browser while you are browsing a website.  Initially its use was to actually benefit users, so that they could visit a website and retrieve data on that website more quickly when visiting again.  The website would remember the state of your website and activity when you’d previously visited it.  Things that this may have included would be logging in or a record of what pages you’d visited.

However, when it comes to third-party tracking cookies and tracking cookies generally, these ended up being used to record long-term records of your browsing history, hence it became a privacy concern.  After all, why should you have information recorded about you when you visit a dictionary site?

The up-shot is that the EU decided enough was enough and brought in the EU cookie law which essentially would make website owners tell users that cookies were being used on the site, giving them the facts up-front.

Then, if a user didn’t want their activities recorded, they could simply leave the site.

However, it’s important to note that this is not an ‘option’ but a law with penalties for sites that do not comply to it.

In fact, you can actually get fined up to half a million pounds if you don’t adhere to the new law, which officially came in to effect on May 26th 2011, but a year of grace was given to allow website owners enough time to amend their websites.

So now over a year later, the law is officially in force and you should not take it lightly.

Here is a list of site types which will most definitely require you to implement a cookie management process to your website:

  • Any commerce website
  • Any website that has a log-in
  • Any website that utilises certain types of coding
  • Any website with a contact form
  • Any website that requires a sign-up

The list is very, very long and we could go on forever, but if you have any of these sites and are not currently displaying that you are using cookies, you need to act now as you are breaking the law.

If you have got cookies, as long as you tell people then you are within the law and you have quite a few options in relaying the information.

So, whether it’s a line on the front page if you’re using Google Analytics that tells people you’re using cookies and what it means,  or you think you might want something a bit more sophisticated, take a look at your site today and make sure you’re not breaking the law!

Paul

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Quicker than you can say ‘SEO London’

Friday, June 15th, 2012

Quicker than you can say ‘SEO London‘, Little Big Voice has a new addition to the SEO team here and it’s all go.

I am talking slightly in jest here though as the actual addition to the SEO team is in the shape of a rather cute 12 week old puppy called Homer.

He’s London born and bred and if I may say, is very challenging!

In a recent blog, I wrote about the benefits of having a K9 when working from home and while I sit here watching the little Andrex style pup eat a door (or at least part of it) I still think it’s a good idea.

It got me thinking about my SEO services when I set up in London many years ago.  It suddenly dawned on me, I can in fact measure my SEO career (and the years spent working within the industry) through my dogs.

Aaaaah! Homer and Dillan

My previous dog Rocky became a loyal companion for many, many years and while I cannot honestly say his SEO skills were up to much, it was great walking near our local park in London when I needed a breather and on the odd occasion having someone to talk to in the office, rather than myself.

When he sadly went to SEO heaven though, I replaced him of course with Dillan, but recently I decided the Little Big Voice crew was still spacious enough to add to.

It’s strange having two dogs to be honest, as I’ve always been used to the ‘one man and his dog approach’ and whether the addition of my Andrex puppy will provide a whole new lease of life for me remains to be seen.

I can however confirm, that for my older dog at least, the new puppy has invigorated him and he has suddenly regressed back to times past, so it’s two puppies in the office every day at the moment.

I am now in hope of a miracle of science though.  I, like a lot of other people saw Pudsey on Britain’s Got Talent and I’m now trying to train Homer to use a computer and understand keyword research.

It’s a little fact that it will take six hundred repetitions of the same word for a dog to remember it.  So imagine if I can get him to hit ‘return’ on the PC if I say SEO London?  Or better still, get him Google qualified?

I can see it now, Homer performing in front of David Walliams, Simon Cowell and judges.

The only problem is, at the moment I can’t get him to ‘hit’ return.  It’s more like he wants to ‘eat’ return, but just like SEO itself, a lot of patience and hard work will at the very least deliver me a dog that ranks well in terms of behaviour.

So, the message here is clear.  If you work from home, get a dog or even two and you’ll never have a moment’s peace, but you will enjoy the challenges it brings.

Oh and if you are in London, if you see a man running after two dogs in the park shouting “SEO London” it’ll be me and the dogs training.

Paul

 

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Is your SEO provider in London?

Monday, June 11th, 2012

As a point of interest, I decided to take a look at the term SEO London on Google.  Part of it was due to my own general interest (after all if you’re going to preach the benefits of SEO it is only proper to practice what you are preaching).  The other interest was down to which companies outside of London offer SEO services.

One major element of understanding SEO is based on what Google is doing and the updates it continually broadcasts.

We all know that the search results are becoming more and more tied to your actual location and while there is still the necessity for businesses of a national scope to reach the entire country, there are a number of businesses that rely on local based search results for services, particularly when it comes to SEO.

Interestingly, Google does not appear to penalise people for advertising for services that are actually not related to their own location, but does allow companies to offer services outside of their own location.  Therefore, on this basis a company can be in the North of England and offer SEO London.  But in short, what sort of service can a provider outside the city provide you if location is important?

I took a brief look at the search term and was surprised to find within the results, a company that were 141 miles away, offering SEO services in London.

This then got me thinking about SEO companies outside of London and the UK and their ability to provide SEO services that actually will have a decent impact on your business.  After all, if someone is in the Far East for example, will they have the knowledge of local areas to get your SEO right?

I have always firmly believed that knowledge in SEO terms is all about who you are, where you are and what you are trying to achieve and personally have never thrown the net out aimlessly, assuming that London being the city that it is must be a good search term to rank for.

Little Big Voice of course is actually in London which helps, but I frequently hear from people who have gone outside of the city for SEO services, only to be disappointed with the results, or worse still, to be so far away from their SEO provider that upon their disappearance have no idea how to contact them.

This should serve as a bit of a warning for businesses currently on the hunt for SEO services in London.  If in doubt, check them out and if they are suggesting they can offer SEO to you, ask to see clients who are actually based in your location.

I could offer SEO in New York, but even though I’ve travelled there I do not have the geographical knowledge to fully implement an SEO programme.  It would require someone who understands the districts and of course a business in relation to those districts.

Paul

 

 

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