It's NOT How Long, It's How Far

One of the things most of us would like to be is 'interesting'. Or at least, not boring.

When we tell a story we like people to be hanging on our every word, eager to know more or hear the next twist. What we don't want is to see them switching off.

But if we're in business there's a big danger people will be doing that all the time. It's fair enough if you've interrupted them and what you have to say doesn't interest them, but if you thought they were interested and they still can't wait to get away, you have a problem.

Turning people off can hurt you in other ways, too. After a while you'll find fewer people even notice when you start talking. And it turns out the same applies to your website. Google's infamous 'bounce rate'* is not a measure of how quickly people leave your site (or walk away, in real world terms) but how many of them only visit one page. That could be the real world equivalent of pretending to listen while they don't really engage at all, even if they don't actually walk away for some time. So, although they stay, they're not really with you.

If you want people to be interested, tell them a better story (by whatever medium you use), and one they want to hear. Your business, and your Google ranking, could depend on it.

Roy

*Google increasingly penalises a high 'bounce rate' by demoting your website in the search results.

Why This Website is Number One

'This website' being our Cinnamon Edge site, which is number one for the competitive term 'online marketing Bury St Edmunds', since that's what we do and that's where we are.

A few months ago, due to an, erm, technical hitch, we had to hastily rebuild our website on a new domain. We decided to use the opportunity to concentrate on getting it to number one as quickly as possible, as a test for ourselves and to prove to you we could do it.

And we did, within about three weeks. The site is still at number one for the key phrase we targetted, but because of the speed with which it was built we didn't really trouble ourselves too much with the design and appearance. So we also proved that, as far as SEO is concerned, design in that sense doesn't matter.

But how did we get to number one? The same way you can; by following the steps outlined here, on our Marketing Manual blog. Steps one to four are there now, with more to follow.

In fact, not only did we get to number one, we even got to positions two to ten at the same time, so we actually held ALL of page one of Google for a time - just to prove we could.

We'll be rebuilding the Cinnamon Edge site again in the next few weeks so it will be a site we can be proud of, but for now it serves to prove a point - online marketing, in Bury St Edmunds or anywhere else, is about much more than building pretty websites.

Roy

This SEO Stuff Works

Hello,

Proof, if proof were needed, that SEO really works was the page one listing I got for this blog, thanks to the previous post. Within hours, if you'd Googled 'Lucid SEO', you'd have seen RoyEveritt.com at number five.

I've always said that blogs are by far the easiest sites to optimise, and when you pay some more informed attention to key words and related words and phrases, it's even easier. Of course, I wouldn't have done so well if I hadn't paid attention to David Congreave's report, Lucid SEO on Trial.

Google loves Blogger blogs, and it loves fresh, readable and relevant comment. As long as you can string some reasonably intelligent sentences between the keywords, it's got to be the easiest way to grab a front page place!

Roy

PS. The labels help, too, so always have the keywords in there as well.

At Least Something Works!

Hello again.

Frustrating isn't quite the word when you've gone to the trouble of directing people to a website, only to find you can't update the content to give them what you've promised.

The mysteries of Internet Explorer and/or Google conspired to prevent me updating this page yesterday, but I'm here now.

And the plan was to tell you how the death of email marketing has been greatly exaggerated. To point out that any other advertising medium that could deliver a twenty-four percent response would be lauded to the hills. And any that subsequently delivered over sixty percent of those responders to the advertised event would be hailed as revolutionary.

It wasn't lauded (except by me) and there's nothing very revolutionary about email marketing. I guess it depends on three things:

1. How targeted the original list is
2. How good the offer is
3. How well we write the emails

So we can probably say we got three out of three for our last campaign. Fifty attendees from a list of about three hundred people (and from just under eighty opt-ins) has to be good.

So when I finished congratulating myself for that success I could only think I should be doing this kind of thing for a living!

Then I remembered I was, decided to tell a few people about it, and hit the brick wall that either Microsoft or Google temporarily threw up in my path.

Still, I'm here now, I've told you about it and I can only ask one question: how would a twenty-four percent response to your next campaign help YOUR business?

Roy Everitt, Writing for Amazing Results