Moving from inertia to action usually requires some sort of change in circumstances. Too often, status quo appears to be the easiest option – even when it isn’t. Many online businesses stick with using poor support and tracking systems for their customers. Not because they are so attached to the systems in question, but because the pain of switching to … Read More
How To Win Customers and Influence Visitors
Every page on your website has the potential to impress or repulse, so why has it become acceptable to only optimise the home page, main page and landing pages? Broadly speaking, every page performs one or more of the following functions: – To inform. – To impress. – To persuade. – To compel. Pages that inform. Passively sharing information is … Read More
Good headlines help your sex-life
An eye-catching headline can make the difference between a glance and engagement. This is beyond obvious, right? So why aren’t you doing it? You probably spend a fair amount of time writing and testing your website’s headlines. And if you’re running AdWords ads, you certainly understand the importance of a good title. Yet many companies fail to capitalise on the … Read More
Bad Content is the Fast Food of the Web
No-one questions the wisdom of creating good content. It reinforces authority and expertise. It acts as a catalyst for creativity. It’s good for search engine traffic, marketing, sales, and (shudder) social media. So why is there so little good content? There’s a seemingly infinite amount of content, but almost all of it is sorely lacking when it comes to quality. … Read More
Don’t Be Evil – really?
I don’t believe for one moment that Google are evil; it’s a baseless idea that most intelligent people reject as sensationalist. The embodiment of good, however, has to be more than just the absence of wickedness. And a motto of simply not being evil does little to reassure me of a company’s intentions. Imagine, for example, a person described as “not … Read More
SEO far SEO good
A few months ago I was discussing SEO strategy with a person who wouldn’t want to be named, but hopefully doesn’t mind being quoted. He asked: “If we had to choose between creating content or getting links, which would you prioritise?“ SEOs may wince, smile or raise their “good question” eyebrows, but many non-SEOs (aka normal people) might consider this … Read More
Interview with Rob Walling
This week we’re interviewing Rob Walling. Rob owns long tail SEO keyword tool HitTail and soon-to-launch email marketing application Drip, along with co-hosting the popular startup podcast, Startups for the Rest of Us. Rob is also the co-founder of the incredible MicroConf Conference, and I personally rate this as one of the best software conferences of all of them. Dave:  What … Read More
My name is Dave and I’m an SEO
My name is Dave and I’m an SEO. No-one ever follows this with “Hi Dave”. At best you get an awkward, vaguely sympathetic smile. In a way the dislike of SEOs is strange. We * don’t pollute the planet, exploit children, chop-down rainforests or sell products that kill people. But as an industry we’re responsible for a number of big … Read More
Mobile is here and you’re not ready
It’s easy to forget that the PC in your pocket is a mobile phone. It’s easy to forget that it’s even a phone. I rarely use the torch/flashlight app, but it still gets used more than the phone functionality of my device. The figures for mobile web usage are incredible: 56% of American adults are now smartphone owners. Amazon, Wikipedia, and … Read More
Target the right people in Google Ads wherever they are around the world
When setting up a Google Ads campaign, one of the central decisions you’ll need to make is who to target and how you actually target them. Google do provide a fair amount of control, however if you use the wrong settings, you’ll end up showing your ads to people who weren’t interested in the first place. Take the following into … Read More
