On Thursday June 21st I will be running an experiment. I will be distilling over 11,000 hours of Google AdWords experience into a 45 minute presentation. I guarantee that if you attend you’ll walk away with actionable information that can be used to improve your ROI. I also guarantee that you won’t have heard my views and ideas elsewhere.* This … Read More
Outweighing the pain of upgrading software
The psychology of pain is fascinating. We can remember incidents involving pain, yet we can’t precisely recall what the pain felt like, other than the fact that it was unpleasant. We can recall tastes, smells, sounds, images and touch with far greater clarity. Yet the more recent the pain, the greater our recall of the sensation, and the more we … Read More
Confessions of a late Twitter adopter
I’ve been using Twitter for forty-two months, have around 10,000 followers, and have tweeted in the region of 3,000 times. For the first forty-one months I received a total of 560 visitors, almost all of whom spent an average time of 1-2 seconds on our website. Low quality is an understatement. During the forty-second month of Tweeting I received 16 … Read More
Black-hat SEO is no longer viable (not that it ever was)
I just had a phone call with a company interested in using our SEO services. The following is an almost word-for-word transcript of part of the phone call – as best as my memory and notes can handle. Bob: “Okay this all sounds good, just we’re looking for. But can I ask you a question?“ Me: “Of course – fire … Read More
Twitter actually works (at more than procrastination)
Something unexpected has happened to me. I’ve finally seen the light. I now understand how to use Twitter for my business. Three years ago I wrote Twitter Flu – Win a $100 Amazon gift voucher, where I offered a $100 Amazon voucher for anyone who could tell me how to use Twitter for my business. Four months later I raised … Read More
Google over-optimization update: a sigh of relief (or not)
Most SEOs are today breathing a sigh of relief. The over-optimization algorithm update is live, and if our client’s sites are anything go to by, there’s little to worry about.
Ugly? You better be interesting.
The more we need a website, the more we’re prepared to put up with a poor design. Amazon’s layout is famously basic but effective.
How to measure the trend in “not provided” data
I’ve spoken to a number of people who found the There’s a war on data post a little worrying, and in particular wanted to know how to how many of their organic visits are being recorded as “not provided”, and how to see the rate of increase in this trend. It’s very simple. Go into your Analytics account, then choose Traffic … Read More
There’s a war on data – and we’re all going to lose
Your website’s data isn’t abstract, academic or a goal in itself. It’s a means of understanding your visitors – where they come from, what they’re looking for, what they do once they arrive and more. If you’re against the concept of analytics, you’re effectively against understanding how people interact with your website and your business. Which is why many businesses … Read More
The Myth of the First Impression
You only get one chance to make a first impression, but every interaction has the opportunity to be the one that lasts.
