There's more to PPC than setting bids to 20p. (Image courtesy Images_of_Money @ Flickr)

We have a running in-joke in the ClickThrough Marketing office, between the content team and our pay per click staff, which basically centres around the misconception that PPC is easy .

We tend to mock our hardworking PPC account execs – claiming that they just have to set the clicks at 20p each, then sit back and count up the 20ps at the end of the day.

It causes much mirth – mainly because anyone who’s tried to run a successful PPC campaign will tell you it’s a far more complex discipline than simply counting 20ps.

PPC is an incredibly complex area: how do you ascertain if your paid ads are working? Which ads work best and at what times? Are people clicking but not converting? If not, why not?

Something as seemingly simple as discovering your main sources of traffic can be confusing.

In this blog, we’ll look at how URL tracking can help improve your data for PPC – so you know where your traffic is coming from, and how to attract more.

Most PPC managers will use Google Analytics to measure their paid ads. Within that, you can choose to utilise URL tracking.

Anyone running a PPC campaign alongside any kind of organic search engine optimisation work should consider URL tracking in Analytics.

URL tracking allows you to add unique identifier tags to each of your PPC destination pages. This means Google Analytics data concerning PPC campaign results can easily be separated from other online marketing results.

Oddly, the URL tagging function can be overlooked. The bottom line is that it should never be ignored: if this tagging is not carried out, the results you receive will all be shown as ‘organic’, and you will not be able to accurately review the success of your overall marketing strategy.

Correctly tagged URLs enables you to view ‘clean’ PPC data separately from other data, and receive in-depth statistics on that traffic – including the percentage of new traffic, average time spent per visitor, number of pages viewed, and bounce rate.

Those with Google AdWords accounts can link them to their Google Analytics account and enable the auto-tagging feature in the Preferences options menu under ‘My Account’.

Analytics will then track most AdWords campaigns automatically, but other paid keyword links will still have to be tagged manually on an individual basis.

Google has another tool, called the Analytics URL Builder, which can be employed to generate correct tags for any AdWords that cannot be processed automatically, as well as all other paid ads (including banners).

For those with a large number of URLs that need tagging, the URL Builder in MS Excel can be used too.

If you use back-end systems, then you should carry out tagging using another Google tool, ValueTrack. After setting the required parameters, it records the details you have asked for; which ad was viewed; which keyword prompted it, and where the visitor linked from, along with other useful data.

Any of the tagging methods can be used separately, or in any of these combinations:

• Auto-tagging
• Manual tagging
• Value Track manual tagging
• Value Track manual and auto tagging
• Value Track manual Analytics tagging and manual tagging

It is also possible to tag URLs for PPC campaigns other than AdWords, for social media campaigns and to set up individual metrics over and above the usual default options available.

Using URL tagging enables search marketers to easily compare traffic from every medium or source that is being used, on an individual basis.

That data is critically important in order to make informed decisions about future marketing campaigns, or to find a way to tweak existing campaigns to better suit their purpose.

Of course, you don’t have to use URL tracking: but then, you might only end up with a couple of 20ps to count.

HTTP response codes are sent to a browser when requesting a page

The world of status codes sounds like a world of incredibly geeky technical jargon – where servers talk in a secret language, spoken only in snidey, sarcastic tones to the technically illiterate when something goes wrong.

To some extent, that’s exactly right.

However, for any website owner, knowing what status codes mean, and what they do, is crucial.

Let’s get the terribly geeky technical summary out the way first: HTTP response status codes are returned by web servers when a browser requests a web page.

When someone enters a specific web page address in their browser, or clicks on a link to view a website, the page will normally just load as expected.

However, sometimes, the page may have expired – moved to a new section as part of a site reshuffle, perhaps. Or maybe the page does exist, but under a different name – so a user may’ve typed www.thismadeupurl.com/thing when they actually wanted www.thismadeupurl.com/things.

This is where status codes come in.

There are a range of different status codes, and each has a different function. Most codes are built into websites and are hidden from human users (except when an error, such as the above, has occurred). But crucially, Googlebot reads information about the status of each web page it crawls.

Codes currently in use are numbered in batches from 100 to 500, with the originating number referring to the general status, and subsequent iterations having more specific meanings. For our purposes, 100 to 400 are the relevant ones (the 500 range applies specifically to server errors).

We’ve compiled the most common server return status codes, and we’ll explain how they could affect a potential visitor. We’ll also look at their implications for Google and SEO.

Status Code 100 Range (Provisional Request)

There are only two codes in this status range. Code 100 indicates that the request has been acknowledged; Code 101 indicates that the server needs to switch protocols, but that the request is still proceeding as expected.

Status Code 200 Range (Successful)

Currently used codes are numbered 200 to 206. They are rarely viewed by a web page user as an actual code. Basically, they result in conditions ranging from normal, instantaneous loading, through to a period of load time before the content or web page can be viewed, or it times out.

SEO Implication – Generally, any actual ‘wait time’ is very short. In cases where it becomes extended, it could potentially result in an increased bounce rate, as bored visitors send their clicks elsewhere. There are also some rare cases where pages refuse to load in the time the server defaults to – this anomaly would need some adjustment.

Status Code 300 Range (Redirected)

The 300 range is all about variations in redirection, either permanent or temporary. It is perhaps far more recognisable to most webmasters as a result of the 301 redirect option, which is used deliberately to remove the issues surrounding duplicated web pages resulting from canonicalisation.

For instance, your website is registered on the www.yoururl.co.uk  domain. A visitor using their browser to find you types www.yoururl.com. A good 301 redirect will ensure the user still arrives at www.yoururl.co.uk – and they won’t even realise.

Status Code 400 Range (Request Error)

Codes 400 to 417 all indicate that the page cannot be loaded.  Some issues are simply caused by the page requiring the user to authenticate their access by logging in, others are more complex and require the URL in a specific format to allow access.

SEO Implication – Status Code 404 will require particular attention, as it means that incorrect information has been placed in a link, or that an existing link is reaching a ‘dead end’ or ‘bad territory’. Neither is a good thing for visitors, the perception of the website, or from the point of view of Google’s PageRank and indexing policies (which will check you haven’t generated a load of empty or irrelevant yoururl.com/subpage URLs, with no relevant content, in order to trick the spiders). It is a serious matter that requires addressing with urgency.

Some sites are really creative with their 404 errors – our own 404 features the ClickThrough rubber duck mascot assuring site users they’re not “quacking up”. Hilarious fun.

In Summary

Although this is fundamental information, available from reputable sources including W3C and the Google Webmaster Tools ‘Help’ pages, many webmasters do not take the trouble to review it.

It is of utmost importance to be aware of what visitors and Googlebot ‘see’ when they attempt to access web pages.

Yes, it sounds geeky, but the premise is simple: don’t settle for avoidable errors.

Saiqa Bi, ClickThrough's Paid Search Manager

Who are you? – Saiqa Bi, paid search manager at ClickThrough Marketing.

When did you start at ClickThrough? – Wednesday, May 9.

What will you do at ClickThrough? – My role is evolving every day, but generally I’ll be responsible for the strategic planning and analysis of client accounts. I will work on improving efficiency, building relationships with clients, researching the latest trends and planning strategies for PPC. At the moment, I’m still getting to grips with how things are done at an agency – previously I’ve worked exclusively on the client side of things – but I’m excited about bringing my skills and experience to the table.

What’s your background? What got you interested in digital? – I come from a marketing background anyway, but there are a couple of things that spring to mind that steered me in the direction of online marketing. I was taking a master’s degree in strategic marketing and consultancy, and our class was asked to help Cadbury with its social media measurement. I had experience in offline marketing consultancy – I worked with Barnados, for example – but Cadbury was the first project I worked on that had a digital focus.

The other major influence in my career choice was completing an e-marketing module at university. That and the Cadbury project really focused my mind and made me realise that digital marketing was the right field for me. Originally, I’d wanted to work as a strategic consultant.

What were you doing before you started at ClickThrough? – I worked for Home Retail Group (Homebase), managing its email, PPC and affiliate campaigns. I feel like I really came into my own as a project manager whilst I was there – for example, when Google Shopping changed its feed specification and policies last year, I managed the transition.  I built relationships within the affiliate community and within the industry in general, but most importantly within my team.

What are you most proud of in your career to date? – My first job after completing my undergraduate degree was with a community organisation, which was based in an office within a church. We worked with vulnerable adults in deprived areas, giving support, counselling and advice. The VCO (Voluntary Community Organisation) sector is a lively, active and very interesting sector to work in, and I’m glad I was given the chance to experience it.

What’s your impression of ClickThrough so far? – What attracted me to ClickThrough straight away was the fact that it’s an out-of-London agency with a clear vision. Having worked here for a couple of weeks now, I’m impressed. I think that our foundations are robust, we have strong teams in place and we have a very clear focus.

What do you love about PPC? – I love the constant innovation. I love that it’s always evolving. You never get bored when you work in paid search. Also, I like the fact that it does what it sets out to do. Users will see ads based only on what they search for (generally). It’s helpful. It’s user-friendly marketing. And it’s a direct link between companies and customers. It isn’t as intrusive as some other forms of advertising.

What are your predictions for the future of PPC? – We’ve heard a lot about the opportunities opening up in mobile and social, but I think the biggest development – the one that will affect commerce sites directly – is the increasing refinement of the attribution model. I think that we’ll soon learn a lot more about how we can value online media channels.

What’s your favourite book? – Serious answer: Spot the Dog. That book represents the single happiest period of my life – when I was 22. I’m joking, I was four.

What’s your favourite film? – For some reason, my whole family are really into East Asian martial arts and horror movies. Not the Jackie Chan or ‘spooky-house-on-a-hill’ types, but the real blood-spattering, heart-in-your-throat, extreme movies. Wu Xia is probably my favourite. When I don’t feel like scaring myself to death, I’ll choose one of those brilliant 80s kids’ films that they don’t make anymore – The Goonies, or Flight of the Navigator. They were great.

What are your top three songs? – I like too many different types of music to name just three songs. I like grime, RnB, drum and bass and dubstep, as well as stuff from the sixties like Ray Charles and Marvin Gaye. Of course, I love hip-hop too. 2Pac was a favourite of mine when I was younger – and I’ve recently been getting into French and Arabic hip-hop too. I don’t understand the lyrics, but I still find myself rapping along in the car!

What do you like doing in your spare time? – When I get home from work, nothing makes me happier than chilling out in front of the TV, or just hanging out with some friends. I need my winding-down time after a busy week in the office!

Trial and error is an invaluable tool: yes, nobody wants to make mistakes. But if you don’t make mistakes, you can’t learn or improve. It’s inevitable that, within any business, some strategies will work better than others.

And that’s exactly what A/B testing is for. A/B testing, or split testing, gives marketers the chance to experiment with different messages to see which works best.

It sounds like a very simple premise: in fact, it’s something which should form the basics of most marketing strategies.

Despite this, 60% of marketers do not use A/B testing*. That’s more than half the industry. Marketers who don’t use A/B testing can’t do the best job for their business or clients because they only know half the story.

For online marketing, split testing can potentially increase traffic by up to 40%.

Yet it still seems to fall by the wayside. With only 40% of marketers trying different strategies to find the best approach, one does wonder how the other 60% justify their paychecks.

If it’s a question of lacking knowledge, then that is easily fixed. If time constraints are a problem, then perhaps better time management, or prioritisation, is needed.

The bottom line, though, is that if you haven’t used A/B testing on any of your campaigns, you’re selling yourself short. And no marketer wants to do that.

The basic premise is simple, and obvious. A/B testing is carried out to discover the best performance from two variables. A very simple example would be to create two landing pages, with the same URL and call to action, but with something different about them.

This could be the colour scheme, font, layout, different fields on a form or even just a button placed differently. Click-through traffic is divided equally between the two variations and the one with the most conversions is considered the better option of the two.

The more variables that are tested the better, A/B testing suggests a dual-faceted approach, but really, the more information you can gather about a page’s performance, the more you can change to maximise its potential.

Of course, testing should only be carried out on one specific variable at a time to be accurate and most importantly, measurable. Once you establish the difference in one variation, check the next.

Not all results are going to be decisive or have immense importance.

A change of colour scheme probably won’t have the same effect as an improved call to action.

But the decision on whether or not changes should be made as a result of a test phase will become easier the more tests and analyses are completed.

Eventually, it is possible to have simultaneous testing on more than two different variables simultaneously (which, handily, is known as A/B/C testing), or to make the two test variables much more complex.

All Internet marketing channels should be the subject of A/B testing – including blog pages, e-mail campaigns, social media profiles and paid search ads, but only one variable of each should be tested at any one time, to avoid confusion between results.

Keeping records of the steps that have been followed in the testing process is all-important.

At each stage, a copy of the original A, or control, should always be kept; as should each treatment of element B, so that results can be analysed correctly.

A/B testing is an essential part of any marketing strategy. Doing one-off tests may yield short-term results, but to really succeed, testing has to be a continuous process.

For some companies, finding the time and resource internally to carry out thorough, meaningful A/B testing may be unfeasible. But then, that’s where Internet marketing experts like ClickThrough Marketing come in.

 * According to Marketing Sherpa’s 2011 ‘Landing Page Benchmark Survey’.

Marek Martin, Account Director at ClickThrough

Who are you? – Marek Martin, Account Director at ClickThrough Marketing.

When did you start at ClickThrough? – Tuesday, May 8

What will you do at ClickThrough? – Helping clients achieve outstanding results with their PPC, SEO and Social Media campaigns. The digital landscape is constantly evolving, so clients need the right tools in order to compete!

What is your background? – Integrated marketing. I’ve worked across many media channels delivering high performing campaigns within highly competitive markets. I’ve worked in telecoms, food, financial services and retail, gradually shifting my skill set towards digital marketing.

As the economy has tightened, more effective routes to market have been sought. Digital marketing is now an essential weapon in the marketers’ armoury!

What were you doing before you started at ClickThrough? – I worked as a marketing consultant for small start-ups. Essentially, I managed their entire digital marketing campaigns, helping them understand and improve results. With start-ups you have to be extremely effective, as the budgets are relatively small and require a quick return on investment.

What are you most proud of in your career to date? – I’ve delivered some of the best performing campaigns for the UK’s biggest brands. That’s something I’ve worked hard to achieve and am very proud of!

What’s your impression of ClickThrough so far? – It’s a highly personable and dynamic agency, with great people, expertise and market-leading technology. This makes ClickThrough very different and very special, in my opinion.

What do you hope to bring to ClickThrough? – I’ve had extensive experience working in client-side organisations and this will help ClickThrough become more client-centric – making the engagement process simpler, more effective and ultimately more rewarding for clients.

What are your predictions for the future of SEO? – Google is striving to deliver richer and more relevant search results for users. This means Google is set to continue its dominance of the industry and even take share away from other media. As a result, clients will need to keep abreast of changes to Google’s algorithm if they want to compete in this highly lucrative marketplace.

What do you love about SEO? – It’s a very challenging marketing discipline. I love that challenge.

What is your favourite book? – Roald Dahl’s autobiography, Going Solo. Dahl was an incredible writer – he had that rare gift of being able to paint the most vivid pictures in your mind using only the simplest of language.

What’s your favourite film? – Recently I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes films. He’s really invigorated this great British classic. The casting of Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr is inspired and the action scenes are simply awesome! And all whilst faithfully recalling Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original story.

Who are your top three musical artists? – Eric Clapton, Dire Straits and Fleetwood Mac. Especially Fleetwood Mac – unique voices, unique songwriting, unique sound. They’re legends.

What do you like doing in your spare time? – I enjoy life’s simple pleasures; good food, good company and fresh air in my lungs! I love socialising and going to restaurants – my partner is a cook so I’m spoiled when it comes to food at home too – and travelling. I recently drove 3,500 kilometres around France in a convertible, sleeping in a tent overnight – I saw just about every part of the country, and it’s a wonderful country to see.

I’m also quite active. I used to play tennis professionally, and I’m still part of a tennis club. I also enjoy skiing and snowboarding.

Dan Bailey, ClickThrough's latest SEO Administrative Assistant

Who are you? – Dan Bailey, SEO Administrative Assistant at ClickThrough Marketing

When did you start at ClickThrough? – Tuesday, May 1

What will you do at ClickThrough? – I was hired to help with reporting – I’m a bit of an Excel expert, because it was so integral to my previous role – but I’m already learning the basics of SEO. Eventually, I’ll be helping to build quality links for clients, and getting more involved in SEO in general.

What were you doing before you arrived at ClickThrough? What is your background? – I was a commercial team leader and analyst at Enterprise, a leading international logistics company. As well as managing my team, my role involved reconciling payments, making payments to suppliers, and producing processes for departments.

What attracted you to SEO? – I have to admit, I didn’t know an awful lot about SEO or Internet marketing before I started here. I’m learning new things every day though, and now that I’ve started to get to grips with it, I’m finding it extremely interesting. I’m always keen to learn new things, especially when it comes to my career.

What are you most proud of in your career to date? – I’m very proud to have been recruited by ClickThrough! There’s so much to learn when it comes to Internet marketing, which means there are so many ways my role could evolve. It’s exciting, and there are plenty of opportunities to get involved in new things.

Also, when I worked for Enterprise, I was promoted to commercial team leader at the age of 20. I’m proud to have had my skills recognised at a young age, and it was useful to gain management skills too.

What’s your impression of ClickThrough so far? – I’m impressed that ClickThrough is so efficient and can deliver so much to its clients – it’s a smaller machine, but it’s a very well-oiled machine.

What’s your favourite book? – Most of the time, I only read to educate myself about interesting topics. So I like reference books, particularly the Classroom in a Book range. The books explain – in clear and comprehensive terms – how to use software packages, such as Adobe Dreamweaver and Photoshop.

What’s your favourite film? – Easy, The Dark Knight. I was a fan of DC Comics as a child – its writers and artists came up with classic characters such as Superman, and of course Batman, so any film set in this universe is going to be close to my heart. And I love Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker.

What kind of music do you listen to? – I have quite varied music tastes, so the choice comes down to my mood. On a sunny day, I’ll usually listen to house or hip-hop, but if I want to chill out, I choose rock or indie.

What do you like doing in your spare time? – I enjoy spending time with my girlfriend and my family, socialising with friends, and – the big one – watching and playing football. I used to play in a league, and I might join a team again next season, but for now I just like to have a kick-about on weekends.

For instance, every time you attend a local networking event or a Chamber of Trade meeting, this will give you a perfect opportunity to ask all those present to add a link to your website on their own site(s). A quick visit to the offices of any local directories may also prove fruitful, because personal approaches are always more effective than emails asking for a link exchange.

Approach your local college or university and offer to run an event on one particular aspect of your skillset. If you market this well you should be able to get media coverage which will help with your local SEO as well as the event providing you with the opportunity to meet people interested in your chosen topic for the event, and potentially find new customers.

Support local events and charities in exchange for backlinks on their websites, as well as offline marketing e.g. a logo at the event, a poster in the shop window or even a magnetic sign on any vehicles the charity has.

Think out of the box – offer a freebie to one backlinker each month. You can do this online, but why not use the notice board in your local supermarket, library, or the corner shop? Make your poster stand out, emphasise the ‘prize’ and include contact details so that every linker can tell you they have entered your competition. Or you can put a door hanger on the door of every local business with an online presence asking for a link on their site. If you have a service or product that may be of interest to them, don’t forget to promote that too.

Review local products and services. Complementary not competitive to your business and this will give you the benefit of creating additional content for your website, email newsletter, blog, and so on.

What other offline techniques would you use to get backlinks? Please share your ideas….

Sharing keyword data – Negative Keywords

When creating a PPC campaign, it is very important to have a list of ‘excluded’ keywords: phrases the advertiser would rather not want to be associated with. When writing SEO content, or performing keyword research, knowing the words which have been excluded in the client’s PPC strategy is obviously extremely useful. Not only will these words stop their paid ads appearing and incur a cost, but exclusion will also help to prevent ads ranking for the wrong product, and should stop them attracting the wrong sort of traffic that could consequently skew your conversion data.

Weekly and Monthly Cycles

Close analysis of PPC data shows you days when your keywords are clicked on more, how budget is split through the week, and lets you try to monitor patterns. SEO is very much a slow-burner in comparison, but looking at the PPC reports allows us to plan SEO page content to be tailored around the trends.

For example:

• More people search for MOTs at the beginning of the week – Mondays especially
• Tyre searches peak midweek
• Car servicing drives half of midweek traffic

So, SEO pages can be used to capitalise on this data, by creating a strategy to rank for these terms, and by ensuring your pages highlight the right offers at peak times. One example may be to use specific days in your page titles to attract customers, such as:

Book Your Monday MOT | Early Bird Car MOT Specials

Social Likes on PPC

PPC ads now have social links integrated below them. Google says this should increase clickthrough rates by around five to ten per cent – based on the idea that there’s no better recommendation than from a friend. This social integration should also make PPC ads more appealing.

The traditional problem with paid search ads is non-clickers – a certain amount of distrust exists (possibly a hangover from the early days of paid ads), as well as reluctance to click the yellow highlighted ads. In many cases, people choose to click the organic links instead.

Integrating social comments on products and services, in paid ad results, should help counteract this: finally teasing the reluctant clicker into following your link, and buying your products.

However, you do need to have your Google Plus and AdWords accounts connected for this to work, and the search user must be logged in to their Google Plus to see social results.

The Double Hit of Integrated SEO and PPC

Research shows even the most successful SEO campaigns benefit from the ‘double whammy’ effect – having a paid search presence and high SEO ranking combined.

Other research, carried out by iCrossing, has shown that adding a PPC campaign to organic SEO efforts resulted in a decrease in the amount of SEO clicks, but an overall increase in the total number of clicks.

With good SEO and PPC combined, your businesses’ PPC ad can appear at the top of page one, with your SEO links right below them. This double whammy is great for increasing clickthrough.

In other words, you sacrifice organic clicks in favour of paid clicks – and you get more clicks as a result. This is a more expensive approach to traffic generation, but a potentially more lucrative one, too. They key is converting PPC leads.

Planned Time Testing – Cause and Effect

I still think slow and steady wins the race

The great thing about PPC is you can react quickly. SEO is a long game, but with PPC, you can quickly run a campaign and get results to base future campaigns on, as well as analysing what has what effect.

A PPC campaign can run for a week, and then you can use that time frame’s data to maximise your display in future.

This cause and effect strategy is great for testing new idea, and then using PPC results to update your SEO pages, which, without PPC date, might have taken weeks to update properly.

Using results from one discipline to benefit another is a great way to improve sites.

Doing A/B testing can also help to get the most out of what little space SEO and PPC allows you on a Google search. For instance, do searchers like ‘&’ instead of ‘and’ for a certain site? Trying to get the branding right throughout SEO and PPC is very important. And while abbreviations may work on contemporary sites, the Queen’s English may be better for more traditional sites.

This creative testing on PPC can be used to inform site messaging; giving searchers a feel for the style of the website before they click, and tracking these cause and effects both quantitatively and qualitatively, may get you less traffic, but more conversions, due to getting the right searchers on your page first time.

We don’t need to explain how important SEO and PPC are to online marketing, but the importance of using them together, not only strategically, but on a day to day basis, will yield much-improved results from doing either in isolation.

I think, if anything, it is important to remember the synergies and effects that both SEO and PPC can have on each other: in the future, these are going to cross over far more.

Facebook, the world’s most popular social network, is well-known for letting its users share content – now investors can grab shares in the site itself, after the company floated on the Nasdaq stock market in New York.

Anticipation for the flotation has risen in recent months, after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg unveiled plans for an IPO (initial public offering). Stocks were initially set at a price of around $38.

The flotation was supposed to open at 4pm today (Friday), but was delayed by around 30 minutes. Zuckerberg finally dinged the bell to signal the sale start at 4.30pm.

If the shares sell at $38 each, it would value Facebook at around $104bn – even more than retail leader Amazon.

It is expecting to raise around $18.4bn from the sale of shares – even adding an extra 84 million after interest skyrocketed.

How the sale goes remains to be seen – with concerns about Facebook’s longevity and ability to raise ad revenue making some investors hesitant to commit.

The world of social media marketing will be watching with interest.

News brought to you by ClickThrough – specialists in Search Engine Optimisation and Internet Marketing.

Who are you? – Josh Smithyman, SEO Linkbuilder at ClickThrough Marketing.

When did you start at ClickThrough? – Monday, April 23.

What will you be doing at ClickThrough? – My role is going to be very varied, but above all else I’ll be helping to build and improve inbound link networks for our clients. I’ll also be working with ClickThrough’s head of SEO to conduct SEO audits, set up strategies for new clients, and generally streamline our service so we can achieve even better results!

What were you doing before you arrived at ClickThrough? What is your background? – I can trace my interest in SEO back to my student days – whilst I was at university, I started creating websites on a freelance basis in order to make a bit more money. Of course, anyone who sets up a website will quickly find themselves ushered into the complicated world of online marketing. I quickly realised that I found this much more interesting (and profitable!) than the university course I was taking, so I left to pursue a career in SEO. And I haven’t looked back since!

So I started out at ASAP Ventures, working on its SEO and PPC campaigns, and generally coming up with ideas (some good, some bad, and some downright stupid – I was new to the game!). I then moved on to Net Logistics, another Staffordshire-based company, where I was responsible for managing all of the SEO, PPC and conversion optimisation services.

What are you most proud of in your career to date? – When I was with Net Logistics, I helped to improve processes across the board. I had a big role in boosting ROI on their PPC services by a significant amount, I helped to push their fulfilment service to the extent that they could take on four new warehouse staff, and I generally assisted in improving sales across all of their services.

What’s your impression of ClickThrough so far? – I’m learning a lot from the head of SEO, and my overriding impression is that it’s very organised and efficient here! I’m impressed.

What do you love about SEO? One word – freedom! It’s still a fresh industry, and everything’s still so open to change. There’s no tried-and-tested rulebook. Everybody who works in SEO brings something different to the table, and it’s all valid – it feels very democratic. That said, it’s important to learn from the mistakes and innovations of the past, as well as looking into the future.

What’s your favourite book? – I don’t seem to have a lot of time to read nowadays, but I recently read Keith Richards’ autobiography, Life, and really enjoyed it. I just really like the bloke – I can relate to him, despite him having lived this crazy life; he’s still down to earth. I also love The Catcher in the Rye – it’s weird in a way that creeps up on you.

What’s your favourite film? – The Descendants, with George Clooney, is a good one I’ve seen recently. Or Jerry Maguire, to name a classic. Basically, I find anything with a broken man in it really funny.

Name your top three songs – 1. Someday – The Strokes. It makes me smile and it’s a great breakup song. 2. Girl – The Beatles. I just love Rubber Soul, it might be my favourite album, and Girl is my favourite song on the album, so… 3. A Change Is Gonna Come – Sam Cooke. Just, wow.

What do you like doing in your spare time? My favourite hobby is people watching. When I’m not staring at strangers, I like to play guitar – my band recently split up, but we managed to bag some sessions with the BBC before we called it quits.