Graham Charlton

How Appliances Online went from 2,500 to 1m Facebook fans in just two years

Online electrical retailer Appliances Online (now rebranded as AO) has seen impressive growth on its Facebook page, recently hitting the milestone of 1m likes.

According to AO, it is also making Facebook sell, something not all retailers have managed to do.

It has seen a 60% in branded search traffic, which has led to a 58% uplift in sales driven by brand terms.

To find out the secrets behind this growth, I've been asking AO Social Media Manager Yossi Erdman...

by Graham Charlton 21 May 2013 10:07am 12 comments

How should publishers respond to link removal requests?

Thanks again to Panda, Penguin etc, it seems many webmasters are panicking about links they have obtained in the past, or have been pulled up by Google as a result of over-zealous link building.

As a result, we are receiving many more link removal requests than we ever used to, ten or so in the past couple of months.

To be frank, these requests are annoying, and I'm also a little put out that they see this blog as a risk to them. Chris Lake touched upon this recently and, as he says, 'a lot of folks seem to have a bad case of The Fear'.

I thought it was worth exploring this issue in more detail, so I've asked a few SEO experts for their views...

by Graham Charlton 16 May 2013 10:34am 9 comments

Why does mobile out-perform desktop on this ecommerce site?

I had an interesting email from an ecommerce site owner in Texas over the weekend, wondering why mobile outperforms desktop on his site for conversion rates.

The site in question is discgolfstation.com, and owner Clint Henderson tells me that mobile conversion rates are twice that of desktop, which is obviously unusual.

While the mobile site isn't bad at all, it seems the problem is down to poor desktop performance.

Here, I'll suggest some possible reasons, but it would be great to see what suggestions you have for improvements as well...

by Graham Charlton 15 May 2013 11:26am 5 comments

70+ epic ecommerce best practice tips, stats, blog posts and more

After this post rounding up some of our case studies, articles and reports on social media, I thought I'd steal Andrew Warren Payne's idea and do the same for ecommerce.

We have written a lot on ecommerce since the blog launched, but here are 70 or so of the our best practice tips, interviews with ecommerce folk, stats, and reports from the past year or so.

Hope you find this useful...

by Graham Charlton 10 May 2013 10:45am 5 comments

Is guest blogging becoming risky?

After Penguin hit a lot of sites hard last year, it seems many SEOs have turned to guest blogging for alternative methods of link-building.

I see this in the volume of requests I get for guest posts on this blog, and Google presumably sees this in the volume of new links it is seeing from guest blogging.

It seems that Google is now taking a serious interest in guest blogging, so what are the risks for the bloggers and the sites hosting guest articles?

I've been asking some SEO experts for their views on the potential risks and how to avoid them...

by Graham Charlton 13 May 2013 11:23am 32 comments

15 tips for getting the best out of your guest bloggers

Post Panda and Penguin, guest blogging has become a more popular tactic for link-building, and I see the evidence of this in my inbox every day.

We value the contribution of guest bloggers on this blog as they have been responsible for some of our best content, but it's important to manage guest writers well for the benefit of both parties.

Here are 15 tips to help you to make the most of guest posts...

by Graham Charlton 09 May 2013 13:05pm 4 comments

Announcing The Digitals awards shortlist

So, after reading through a whopping 850+ entries, we have decided upon a shortlist of 156 for our Digitals Awards.

All entries were judged during the first phase by Econsultancy's internal staff then sent to our external judges, comprised of some of the finest minds in digtal marketing and ecommerce.

The judges work at firms such as House of Fraser, John Lewis, Poke, Santander, LBi. BSkyB, Samsung and more (You can see the full list here).

There have been some really fantastic things going on in digital in the past year or so, and we believe that the shortlist represents real innovation and best practice in our industry.

Well done to all who have been shortlisted, and commiserations to the others who just missed out (some by very narrow margins).

The winners will be announced at our Awards night on June 27...

by Graham Charlton 09 May 2013 11:34am 3 comments

Is Primark mad to ignore ecommerce?

Obviously, we're big believers in ecommerce at Econsultancy, and we would advise any retailer to start selling online, if they aren't already doing so, but one big name still doesn't see the virtues of online retail: Primark.

I've written in the past about retailers that have shied away from online retail, and most of these retailers have since taken the plunge.

Not Primark though, and it seems the retailer has no immediate plans to sell online. Indeed, its most recent trading statement (pdf) makes no mention of the internet at all.

So, is Primark missing out as other fashion retailers grow their online sales, or is its business model somehow less suited to the internet?

by Graham Charlton 01 May 2013 11:43am 37 comments

11 great ways to use social proof in ecommerce

One of the most effective techniques you use on your ecommerce site to increase the confidence of buyers is 'social proof'.

Social proof is the phenomena where people tend to believe that the decision and actions of others reflect the correct behaviour in a given situation.

Here are 11 examples of social proof in action on ecommerce sites.

Some obvious, some more innovative. Please suggest any other great examples you've seen...

by Graham Charlton 24 April 2013 10:50am 10 comments

Ayssa Adnani of jamieoliver.com on a UX-focused redesign

Jamieoliver.com was redesigned recently, with a focus on providing an improved user experience, and tempting visitors to look at more than just recipes.

It's a tricky balance to strike, and the aim was to continue the focus on recipes, while attempting to showcase the other content and areas of the site.

I've been speaking to Jamie Oliver Head of Online Ayssa Adnani, and Pixelgroup, who were responsible for the redesign.

by Graham Charlton 25 April 2013 11:30am 2 comments