You’re almost certainly running Google Analytics on your website. But have you ever stopped to question why? Most likely it’s down to one of the following: Because it’s free. If so then you might want to question the wisdom of choosing a solution that monitors your website, analyses your online efforts and essentially directs and evaluates all of your digital … Read More
2013 – the year that SEO died
We’re just about to start an SEO project with a new client, and around ten days ago I received the following email. I’ve been working with SEO for more than 16 years, and every year come across hundreds of such predictions. I even wrote a blog post on the subject (SEO is dead. Long live SEO.) more than three years … Read More
A needle in an SEO-stack
Finding a good SEO is as difficult as finding a good accountant*. There’s an abundance of options to choose from, most look good on paper, and they usually sound good when you reach out to them. More importantly still, there’s a good chance that you don’t have the right skills when it comes to separating the sub-standard bullshitters from the … Read More
SEO tools don’t do SEO
The average software company has 1.5 more SEO tools than they use. Obviously a completely fictitious and ridiculous statistic, but when it comes to SEO, it’s become fashionable to talk utter crap. Last week I had a call with a company interested in our SEO services. We discussed the problem that they’re facing, and they offered to send me data … Read More
Processes that should never exist
As a UK business you have to register for VAT (value added tax).  Stick with me on this.  You have to register “if your turnover of VAT taxable goods and services supplied within the UK for the previous 12 months is more than the current registration threshold of £79,000, or you expect it to go over that figure in the … Read More
Repel Your Visitors – with examples
I’ve put together a non-exhaustive list of more than thirty ways to ensure that visitors to your website don’t stick around. I suspect that most people reading this are guilty of at least one or two. Fixing them will genuinely make the visitors’ experience, the web and even the world a slightly better place. Â (See number 18.) Confuse them: 1. … Read More
Website teardown: BrickOvenBaker.com
Today’s website teardown is a little brutal. I’ve been in touch with today’s victim, and in the last email he had the following to say:Â “Dave, please be as brutal as you need to be.” I am delighted to oblige. “I look forward to having the shit kicked out of my site.” Excellent. “I hate it more than anybody else and … Read More
Website teardown: Business of Software
Having your website critiqued by a fresh set of eyes can be useful, as we’re so used to seeing our websites that we’re effectively blind to any issues that may be staring visitors in the face. This first in a series of website teardowns is for the Business of Software Conference. If you’d like to submit your website for review, … Read More
90 second SEO overview – no additional tools
One of the reasons that a lot of companies never get around to even looking into their search engine optimisation is that they don’t really know where to start. They’re often not too sure where to begin in looking at what often appears to be a pretty huge and overwhelming task. In today’s video I’m going to show you a … Read More
The reality of first impressions
How much of an impact does the first impression have on a website? We already know that visitors don’t really spend any time in deciding – they make snap judgments. So why do so many websites fail to deliver? Transcript of video: Hi this is Dave Collins from SoftwarePromotions. Today I’m going to be talking about how long visitors to … Read More
