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There are now only six months (162 days) left until 25th May 2012 to ensure that if your website asks for cookies there is an opt-in policy for your site visitors to accept any cookies your website places on their computers.
UK is one of only 5 countries requiring website owners to conform to this EU Directive – the others are Austria, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden. Many other countries have also passed the legislation for the ‘cookie law’ (in particular, Article 5(3) of the e-privacy directive) but are not enforcing opt-in.
The article states:
‘3. Member States shall ensure that the storing of information, or the gaining of access to information already stored, in the terminal equipment of a subscriber or user is only allowed on condition that the subscriber or user concerned has given his or her consent, having been provided with clear and comprehensive information, in accordance
with Directive 95/46/EC, inter alia, about the purposes of the processing. This shall not prevent any technical storage or access for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network, or as strictly necessary in order for the provider of an information society service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user to provide the service.’;
It is a LEGAL requirement for all sites using cookies to understand the full reach of the law and ensure their sites are compliant. The Information Commissioner has said this week that websites must try harder, and has published updated guidance on how to comply. Depending on the amount of information requested, and the level of ‘tracking’ that a cookie may seek from a user’s activities, the penalty for non-compliance could be severe – up to £500,000 for a serious breach.
There is a whole host of information about making your website and collection of data compliant with the new law before May on sites such as Cookielaw.org. This website includes a DIY Cookie Audit as well as Cookie Toolkit to help you resolve any issues that your website may face under the new law. There are also ebooks, FAQs, and much more information, online.
You will need to check every page that your visitors will visit, and try out all functionality. If your company has a large website, this may take a few people to ensure a full check has been carried out. It also gives you an ideal opportunity to check that all your forms etc are functioning as you would expect them to. Unless some kind visitor lets you know that part of your website is malfunctioning, you may not realise unless you have Objectives and Goals set up in Analytics and notice a sudden drop-off of completions of goals.
The use of cookies is sensitive – for some privacy advocates, cookies are an intrusion. For companies looking to gather additional marketing information, they are simply a tool to do a job. For instance, Google, Amazon, Facebook and most online ad agencies and brokers use cookies to target and push information to users based on the tracking information gathered.
Whichever side of the fence you sit on about cookies, as a website owner you will need to comply with the law so check out the Cookie Law on the Information Commissioner’s website today.
As the Google + integration continues, yet more of Google’s ‘experimental apps’ are being closed down. This morning it is Sidewiki, which was a great application that allowed a visitor to make comments directly onto a website that would be visible to other Sidewiki users.
Perhaps Google feel this has been overwhelmed by comments, Twitter etc, but actually the loss of Sidewiki (and many similar post-it note type direct commenting apps) is a real loss for those who want direct feedback about their websites, and for those who wish to leave it.
For instance, for a corporate site, this app allowed a visitor to comment directly at the point where the feedback or opinion was most relevant, rather than just at the bottom of the page, through an email link or to a social media account belonging to the company. It was not a lost in time comment, or one which was only available to an exclusive group, but a comment visible to all other Sidewiki users visiting that site.
Feedback from users at the moment where the process has maximum relevance is always going to be of higher value than minutes, hours or days later when an email is finished, a phone call answered, a tweet finally written, or a comment composed. Simple methods to gather feedback from your users should feature highly in website design and Sidewiki was one of Google’s niceties, although a fairly well-kept secret.
Which may, after all, have proved its downfall. Too few people know about the very many applications available to all of us from companies such as Google through their Labs. And without mass uptake, these apps frequently fail to gain the adoption necessary to make them worth supporting by the companies who have developed them.
Google is culling apps left, right and centre at present as Google+ is more deeply integrated into its product set and we should all be a little nervous about what this means for the apps we are using. After all, Sidewiki is by no means the first good app that has gone by the board.
Google Buzz and Wave, whilst not necessarily of interest to everyone, were touted as the next big thing and then canned. Meanwhile, people had put many hours into experimenting, trialling, incorporating into work and marketing processes.
There has to be a lesson here. If there is software, an application, or a process that you build into your company, and it belongs to a third party, think very carefully about how you will manage if it suddenly becomes obsolete. And it can happen, especially with global corporates such as Google, in a matter of days or weeks. Sometimes even hours. The provider of that incredible solution you have found that works perfectly for you may be bought out purely to remove them from the competition, leaving you stranded and having to fork out again for an alternative.
Further to our thoughts about the dying art of email earlier this week, email marketers should take a close look at their lists.
Are you emailing a number (small or large) of people each week who do not actually want to receive information from you but who cannot unsubscribe without going through a lengthy process? For instance, when someone wishes to leave your email list, do they need to try and recall a password that your system insisted was set up some 1, 2 or 5 years ago? If there has been no requirement to use that password in the interim, it is unlikely that the subscriber will recall it. What other requirements does your unsubcribe process insist upon that may prove difficult?
Try now. How easy is it to unsubscribe from any email list you run?
If your email lands, week in week out into the inbox of someone who does not want to receive it but has been unable to unsubscribe, then all you are doing is pushing home a negative message which is likely to be passed on by those recipients. Not jsut by email but by word of mouth, twitter, facebook etc.
It is all very well insisting on a double opt in process to ensure that people have chosen to receive your info, but how easy are you making it to opt out? Or are you leaving people with little option but to report your emails as spam or to filter them permanently into the delete folder?
If people are finding it more simple to report your address as spam, this will have an effect on your presence on blacklists, and hence whether your emails will be delivered to other address who may actually wish to receive your content.
Take 5 minutes today to set up an address on your email marketing list and then try to unsubscribe. Are there issues? Can you make life easier? Have you already been blacklisted for spam due to a complexity in your unsubscribe mechanism? How clean is your email list? When was the last time you spoke directly to your list and received a substantial number of responses? Are your email falling into black holes?
Does your email marketing campaign work? Have you tied it into your social media marketing campaign so that you can track results? Are you actually reaching your target audience?
let us know what tactics you have tried and the changes you have made in email marketing over the last year or so….
In August, Google announced a new feature which has been dubbed “mega sitelinks”. Although this seems to be a small change which wasn’t widely reported, we think it is important.
The reason, is that for every site of a well-known brand, the most important searches by volume are brand search terms. Sitelinks give an excellent opportunity to engage both customers and prospects by highlighting the best content.
If you’re not familiar with Sitelinks, they are the listing of extra links below the brand main site description when you search on a brand name. Before this change site links in the natural search results gave just a series of links. But this example showing the new sitelinks for ClickThrough Marketing, shows that they now take up much more of the page with 8 to 12 alternatives and include more detailed descriptions.
ClickThrough Marketing - Mega Sitelinks Example
We suggest you take a look at your sitelinks and those of your competitors and answer these questions:
Most established brands will already have sitelinks, so you can skip this question. If you’re a small business or not in the top position the change won’t help you, in fact it could push you down the search results page.
If your sitelinks are wrong or have glitches like an unsuitable title or error page, then it’s worth changing these – this can be done in Google Webmaster Tools as explained below.
Since Google’s site algorithm is automatic it does a good job of highlighting the most important and shared pages on a site – typically those within the main navigation. But also other popular or shared content.
You can’t tell Google what you DO want as a sitelink, but you can tell it what you DON’T want. This is where you go to in Google Webmaster Tools and the new Google facility.
One of the big changes is that the new site link adds a description – if you want to change this, you can through editing the meta description of the page through the CMS.
The most important description is for the home page – often this doesn’t explain the site value prop well, but this one does.
Adwords now has its own “Ad Sitelinks” above the natural listing – you may want to use these to highlight offers that are popular in your natural sitelinks – or missing! These work well for many ClickThrough clients already.
This is where people search for the brand name plus a product or service. It seems that Google may include more of these now, so you check your analytics to see whether Brand plus phrases are driving traffic for you.
You can use the Landing page report in Google Analytics to see the importance of different brand phrases in driving traffic. This graphic summarises the steps to tackle this.
Glenn Tucker, Project Manager at ClickThrough Marketing
In the latest team member profile we chat with Glenn Tucker, Project Manager at ClickThrough about the importance of Facebook, his role at ClickThrough – and find out which Disney film is his favourite!
Who are you? - Glenn Tucker, Project Manager at ClickThrough.
When did you start at ClickThrough? – I joined ClickThrough in July 2010.
What will you be doing at ClickThrough? - I began in the role of Web Optimisation Manager. This included project management of a range of clients, ensuring the strategy, monthly tasks and reports are all delivered in time on a monthly basis. Now, in my new role as Project Manager I will be looking after the SEO department as a whole; this will include many of the same responsibilities but on a larger scale.
What were you doing before you arrived at ClickThrough? Where did you work? – Before clickthrough I was working as a graphic designer for a small agency based in Birmingham and before that I was working in house for an online jewelers. This involved the creation and design of a new brand they were launching in Germany and the USA.
What accounts/clients have you worked on before? – Previously I had worked on accounts for Network Rail, The Crowne Plaza and work in the education sector.
What are you most proud of in your career to date? - A few years ago I won a Birmingham based design and advertising competition that secured me paid work placements in some top design and advertising agencies.
What do you love about your job? - I enjoy the fast pace of Digital Marketing. There is always something new happening or new approaches to Website Optimisation and SEO. I am also able to use my design skills to help with conversion enhancements on many of our client’s websites.
What do you think is the number one thing for online marketers to watch out for in the next year? – The continuous rise of Facebook is always big news. As Facebook begin to allow for micro sites within their own platform these may begin to develop into full service portals that require more engaging content for the end user.
Who do you most admire and why? – Pick any Springbok Rugby Player. Watching how the players commit to the sport and their country always amazes me.
What is your favourite book? – ‘American Gods’ by Neil Gaimen or the original ‘Pinocchio’ - I can’t believe it was written for children!
What is your favourite film? – The Lion King. I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t love this film yet, I have yet to see the stage version.
Name your top three songs? - 1. Metallica – ‘Unforgiven’.2. Placebo – ‘Every You Every Me’. 3. Infected Mushroom – ‘Vicious Delicious’
What do you like doing in your spare time? – When I’m not suffering from another change of season cold I enjoy doing as many outdoor activities as I can fit in, from mountain biking and surfing to long walks in the park. I also like feeding ducks as they make me laugh. In winter I like to play squash and go to the gym as often as possible, mainly to keep warm.
The breaking story today in the social world is the development at Etsy which has led to all buyers’ personal details and purchases being able to be searched by anyone. Whatever they have bought, and whenever they bought it.
The theory behind the changes appears to be that people shop based on the recommendations of their ‘circle’ of friends. It’s all about making shopping ’social’, but the debate has to be do you want every purchase you make through a website showing up on Google under your name? Along with your email address, real name and possibly even your Facebook link?
If you ask on Facebook or Twitter which make of washing machine your followers or friends would recommend, that is your choice to reveal that you are planning to buy a washing machine. Or a hand-embroidered pink leotard to wear on your work at home days. Or whatever you plan to buy.
Purchases that you make normally are private unless you CHOOSE to review a product, ask your friends about it, or boast about the great deal you have just managed.
Etsy have just turned that privacy on its head with its PeopleSearch facility, by opting in all registered users to the new search system and opening up the database to the search engine spiders. You can opt out, but a new user should not need to trawl forums and consumer-run Etsy help sites to find out to opt out.
Whether or not this is permissible under strict UK privacy laws about data protection remains to be seen, but it is possible that Etsy may find themselves facing a fairly expensive lawsuit if they don’t rescind this functionality fairly quickly. Rather like Facebook did with Beacon.
Whilst the noise about the Google Panda update (previously called the Farmer update) is beginning to die down, there will still be many websites who should consider the value and quality of all their content and how this may reduce their chances of good listing in the SERPs.
The obvious contenders may not be those you first assume. Aged and static content that has not been updated for some time may actually be bringing in long tail traffic, so don’t just bin old pages without checking your traffic stats and backlinks for those pages first. However, it may be that your business has changed direction since that content was added and it is no longer relevant, so take a look at some of your historic content to ensure it still fits the bill.
More likely culprits for content deemed to be of low quality by the search engines are those which may seem far too similar to other pages on other sites. For instance, if you sell products with a generic product description that other companies also sell, and you have one page per product (required for inclusion in Google Shopping/Base), these product pages may not appear unique to the spiders.
A quick fix would be to add the capability for reviews and testimonials. Until those reviews begin to appear on your site, add a “no index” tag, and then manually remove this from any pages where reviews have been added. You can request reviews from your customers for products that they have purchased, which will also give you a chance to get in touch with your customers and ask for feedback.
Other low quality pages may be a links page that includes broken links, links to irrelevant content, or links which are not providing any link juice to your site. Keep a weather eye on any links on your site to ensure that these are working, relevant and worthwhile.
Check your traffic stats (analytics) to see which pages are rarely visited or have high bounce rates. Check to see why this might be the case – is navigation difficult to reach that page? Is the content out of date or off-topic for your target audience? A quick revamp of your navigation or content may be all that is required to raise the quality score for that page.
And whilst we are talking about Quality Score – take a good look at your PPC, or ensure that your internet marketing agency understands how Quality Score works. One or two keywords in your Pay Per Click campaign that are not performing as they should can have a decidedly negative effect on your QS rating, which will affect your PPC positions.
Rob Stoubos, SEO Manager at ClickThrough, shares the lowdown on the new Facebook fan page layout changes.
Facebook are looking to roll out a new Fan Page layout which will mean that Fan Pages have a change of layout very similar to that of Facebook Profile pages.
Overall we feel this is a positive change which will mean pages are more streamlined with both Page owners and fans encouraged to interact even more with Fan Pages.
We’re summarised the changes below:
Summary of New Facebook Layout updates:
Summary of New Facebook Page Features:
So, what are our tips for making the most of this new layout?
ClickThrough Marketing Tips for the New Facebook Page Layout:
In his final post of 2010, Dr Dave Chaffey predicts what he believes will be the major trends in search in 2011, including the importance of social media, understanding consumer intent, video search and local search.
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Well it’s that time of year to take stock of which marketing techniques were effective this year and plan ahead to update our investment in different marketing activities.
To help, here are my views on 11 search trends for 2011 from the big to the small which I’ve described in terms of activities that I think are essential to success. You’ll see many are updates on the main trends in 2010.
1. Investing in content
Success in SEO has really always been about the content. In the early days, success was based on relevant copy formatted the correct way to rank well; more recently, content to attract links and today to encourage social sharing and bookmarking. This is just as true in 2011 as it’s always been. But the bar is higher now, brochureware content won’t cut it. Instead you need exceptional content to attract links. That requires investment and process and is increasingly becoming a core marketing activity.
2. Encouraging social sharing
Such is the growth in social sharing through Likes on Facebook; Retweets on Twitter and Shares through Linked-In, Google has a problem. The number of personal and company bloggers has declined as behaviour has shifted to sharing links – it’s far easier. To remain relevant, particularly for real-time content, Google has been forced to use the social graph. Through it’s data share arrangements with Facebook and Twitter it now rates posts, blogs and even individuals on their popularity. Many, including me have suspected for a long time that Google uses social sharing and bookmarking as a signal for quality to content which should be ranked more highly. This recent interview with search engine representatives now proves for the first time social mentions are used as a ranking signal: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-bing-confirm-twitter-facebook-influence-seo.
3. Responding to real-time search and online conversations
From the start of 2010, Google’s real time search box has featured Facebook and Twitter links. I believe overhyped since it currently only tends to feature in the search results page for major trending topics like the launch of the iPad. Still, it does point to the need to monitor online conversations and manage them.
4. Creating your social content hub
Given the trends suggested by my first point, creating quality, timely content is not a nice-to-have, it’s essential for success in SEO. I believe a blog or media centre is essential to most companies to act as a hub to distribute and share your content and offers. This means a big challenge for many companies, because the implication is that the company needs to become a publisher or at least adopt a publisher mindset.
Of course, search marketing agencies like ClickThrough can help here in creating a content strategy and implementing it.
5. Speed matters
Another change from earlier in the year is that Google is using page download speed as a quality signal. If your platform doesn’t deliver the latency Google requires, you may have a problem ranking.
6. Microformats
Microformats are a tactical way to give you an edge in the search results page – think starred hotel reviews from Trip Advisor. These are based on a standard called hReview used by Google, but increasingly they will use this for product information using hProduct when linked to reviews. If you’re involved in publishing, retail or travel sectors it’s worth exploring the microformat options available via Google.
7. Think Glocal
Google is getting increasingly good at offering specific content for individual countries and for providing content for local searches which often mean mobile searches. This year Google Local Business Centre was renamed to Google Places and companies with a presence on Places have started to appear more prominently. This is a great opportunity for businesses with a distribution network to boost their visibility via paid and natural search. Read more about Google Places best practice: http://www.smartinsights.com/search-marketing-alerts/3-ways-to-optimise-for-google-places/
The new proximity marketing through the Likes of Foursquare and Gowalla also offers opportunities as we noted in our location-based marketing whitepaper: http://www.clickthrough-marketing.com/resources/reports-downloads/location-based-marketing-white-paper
8. Don’t forget YouTube!
One stat that surprised me this year is that YouTube is now the second biggest search engine in the US. This gives opportunities in both natural and paid search. Creating engaging video for natural search is a bit of a hit and miss affair, but within paid search Promoted Videos and Adwords placements give new opportunities to create awareness outside of the text results.
9. Take advantage of new Google Adwords formats
Google innovates a lot to deliver relevance in the natural results, but it’s also keen to maximise the relevance of its ads since that equals relevance so it’s invested in that also. Our clients have seen success this year with several of the new ad formats, in particular the Ad Sitelinks which you can use to advertise specific products or campaigns in response to a brand or navigational search.
10. Advanced SEO = Analytics
I was interested in a recent discussion on seoMoz which asked “what is advanced SEO”? http://www.seomoz.org/blog/what-is-advanced-seo. This is a good question for all agencies and clients to be asking. The use of analytics is what struck a chord with me. At Clickthrough we’re increasingly mining Google Analytics and link analysis tools to identify opportunities for search. One approach which we find works well is the gap analysis segmenting and comparing paid and natural visits which I outlined earlier in the year: http://www.clickthrough-marketing.com/the-what-why-and-how-of-a-search-gap-analysis/
11. Understanding customer search journeys
In 2010 Google introduced “Search funnels” (we blogged about search funnels back in August) to tell you whether those 2 or 3 word generic category search terms contribute to conversion since they are often followed by longer product searches or brand terms. With the high cost of clicks in AdWords, understanding which traffic sources influence sale over multiple visits before purchase is important to make the best media decisions. I say can be, because it’s particularly important in more complex, high value purchases. If the majority of you visitors convert on the first visit it’s a lot less significant. Some questions to ask via your analytics are – how many visits does it take to first purchase? What is the latency, i.e. how many days does it take to purchase?
12. Reducing dependence on Google – An Extra Trend!
Every year, the Googlization of digital marketing, all marketing even, seems to get greater. Google has driven the vast majority of searches for a long time, but with its ownership of YouTube and the Google Display Network (formerly the content network which accounts for around 30% of its revenue) this extends far beyond the search box.
So part of digital strategy has to be look for opportunities for de-googlization. Building a memorable brand and an online experience that visitors will want to visit direct helps and Google favours strong brands more and more. Let the affiliates take the costs and risks of Google; find partner sites with low-cost display placements. Try using the Google network for placement targeting or remarketing which was introduced in 2010 and has produced excellent results for some of our clients.
Here’s wishing you every success in your search marketing strategy in 2011!
It is nearly a New Year, and it is always a good time to stand back from your website and take a long hard look at it. And the first people you should ask to review it are not in-house, but your customers. Ask yourself when was the last time either you or your internet marketing agency actually spoke to your real life website visitors. Not a survey, because we all lie in surveys, but an honest appraisal of what your site visitors think.
Are you a retail or customer-oriented environment? Then, you have a first class opportunity to quiz your visitors about their experience on your website. And the time of goodwill is the best time to encourage your customers to be honest. Ply them with mince pies and Xmas cheer, a happy smile from a member of staff, and a gift voucher or a chance to enjoy the best your company offers, in return for an honest reply, and you could be entering 2011 with a critical yet positive approach to e-commerce and internet marketing.
You can do the same through your website but website visitors invariably behave like small children rather than a focus group – they answer what they think you want to hear in order to be in with a chance to win a prize. Or they behave like really stroppy children and tell you untruths because they dislike the present you are offering.
If you only ask one question this Christmas, ask about your page layouts. Whether that is your homepage, landing pages, e-commerce site or your comments page, find out whether it works for your customer. For repeat visitors, are they finding the information they require or do they need to scroll through interminable blog posts to finally find the offer they were looking for? Are people following you specifically for certain content, in which case, are you making it a simple task to find that content? Do your website pages interlink naturally and logically? Or are there no links per se or just ones to major product pages? Ask about social media and learn about your audience. If you can’t talk to them as Christmas approaches, you never can!
Use this Christmas season to establish if your website works. Not just for your customers, but also look at how it works for the search engines. And then consider if it is actually working for you.
