ASOS is king of natural search among fashion retailers
In the battle for fashion shoppers in natural search, research by I Spy Marketing shows that ASOS is trouncing the competition.
The e-tailer appeared in the top ten for 66 out of 72 generic fashion search terms in Google – Amazon was the second best performing retailer followed by Debenhams.
The Fashion Sector Report found that fashion brands and luxury clothes sites, with the exception of Net-a-Porter, were absent from the results.
Social media and SEO massively undervalued: study
Now that TagMan has been tracking all the activity of some very big clients for a substantial period of time, we can provide some pretty definitive answers about how different campaigns appear in, and contribute to, the path to conversion.
From this data, we have proof that natural search and social media channels are vastly undervalued, while the effect of paid search is overstated...
What does it really take to rank well on Google News?
If you could get your website content syndicated and ranking well on Google News, it would be an awesome way to generate traffic, but how difficult is this?
We decided to explore what it takes to perform well in Google News by starting our own general news site from scratch (it’s a German site at www.noows.de) and it helped us learn a whole lot.
20+ stats you might not know about user search behaviour
One of the major trends explored in Econsultany’s new SEO Agencies Buyer’s Guide is that user search behaviour is changing.
In this industry, there’s no shortage of information around how and why marketers are using SEO, but to me, there seems to be a distinct lack of research which looks from the other side of the fence at how we use search as internet users.
Best practice is extremely important, but so is understanding how people are actually using search engines.
So I jumped at the chance to check out some recent research out by Performics and ROI Research, where they had surveyed people’s motivations and behaviour when using search engines. The data is US-based, but in my opinion reflect trends that are globally applicable.
Family Guy tips for producing great SEO-ready content
Mnemonics implies that two of three fundamental principles of memory are association and imagination. This post may be re-wording some things that people know, but I personally find it’s always easier to recall quirky pointers when working, rather than trawling my brain for dull information.
I’m quite a fan of Family Guy, I’ve no shame in admitting it. I also quite like search, although it’s not always as amusing and sometimes less socially acceptable to say so.
So, in a moment of madness, and I realise that I might be pushing things a little bit here, I’ve taken the time to slam the two together and tried to use a few episode titles to demonstrate how to produce great SEO-ready content.
The actual episodes might be different from the points I’m making, but hopefully the association will stick between the two. So, whenever you’re watching Peter Griffin’s antics on TV, you’ll suddenly begin thinking of SERPs...
Social Media Engagement - Good habits are hard to start!
Typically, the hardest thing about a "habit" is to try and stop it... it takes 21 days at the least, apparently. Habits are viewed as negative; the word is usually being associated with vices and things that are bad for you.
Well, have you ever thought about how to start a habit? One that is good for you and your business?
Having worked with a number of organisations to help them integrate the social web into their existing customer communications strategy I've learnt that the hardest thing isn't the ideas, the approach or the social medium to use; the hardest and biggest challenge is "change". There is a definite requirement for businesses to adopt and adapt; they need to own and be responsible for managing the social media engagement and not to treat it as separate channel. Some great ideas have crashed and burned because of this, so here are a few ideas to help organisations thinking about; or those who are struggling with their whole social media engagement approach.
Can a single tweet create a tidal wave?
Ever started a round of applause? if you have, you'll understand that weird sense of satisfaction you get by doing so. In fact, I've sometimes felt the need to tell people about it. How sad is that!
A much better game is to see if you can actually achieve the last clap of a round of applause; my six year old daughter wins that game every time.
Anyway, can a single Tweet have a similar contagious effect? Is there something that can be done to enhance its attractiveness. make it retweetable and build up a crescendo of intense internet noise?
The social media paradox: success & time.
Successful social media engagement for online businesses requires a lot of creative thinking, time and effort. Initially, the balance is tipped in favour of hard graft, dedication and eureka ideas and then you start to see some results. Better results and more followers means more time required to interact effectively with them.
A slippery slope or a stairway to heaven? Should we be spending all this time in the social web? Or is it time to take a step back and put the social media hype into perspective?
Is SEO the 'goal hanger' of internet marketing?
Prepare yourself for a very loose football analogy... apologies in advance. If natural search (SEO) were a football player, I bet it would be the guy who hangs around the 6 yard box tapping in the goals.
The goal hanger may not be contributing much to the build up play, yet is happy to take all the plaudits for scoring; happy to receive the player of the month awards and can be seen regularly signing autographs.
Why am I saying this? It's no fault of the player. In fact, without him the team would not achieve the same results and he is absolutely instrumental to achieving the overall success. But what about all the craft and skill of the build up play? The hard tackling and running off the ball to help win back possession? A lot of this usually goes unnoticed.
