Pete is one of the most personable and well-thought of people in the SEO industry; with a reputation for honesty, loyalty, customer-retention and some kick-ass SEO skills too! With five years experience of managing over 100 clients at Portsmouth based Vertical Leap, Pete’s a veritable old-hand in the industry.

Pete is going to be a great asset to theMediaFlow, and we are both super-excited about developing our client base and industry profile in the coming months. We’ve got an exciting conference-speaking schedule already lined up for Q1 2012 (more anon), plus a range of new clients to get cracking on in the next few weeks.

Please join me in welcoming Peter to the team!

Getting decent citations and links from local websites should be a fundamental part of any local SEO strategy. I’m a firm believer that this should mean getting out and meeting real people and forming real relationships. Spurting out link requests all day long can drive pretty much anyone to despair. Getting involved in your local business community is a lot more enjoyable and can be really productive in terms of business development AND your local rankings. In fact, this is all about thinking way beyond just getting links. If you can build up real partnerships and earn a good local reputation, the links you need should follow.

What I’m not saying is that the normal methods of SEO and link building can just be forgotten about; making sure your website is SEO friendly and optimised correctly, whilst at the same time building your domain’s authority are still vital. But how about going the extra mile and making a real impact in your local area? If you can incorporate this into your existing online work, then you should be in a much stronger position to dominate the local search results.

So how can you go about making a start in taking your online efforts offline? I’ve personally been looking at ways in which I can improve our local presence at Go Search Marketing, and without too much effort found some pretty interesting ideas:

Networking Events

Just by searching for networking events in my local area, I immediately found quite a nice selection of organisations who host a variety of different networking events where local businesses can get to know each other. One of the most popular style of events I found were breakfast meetings where for the price of a decent breakfast you get to get to know other business owners over a plate of bacon, eggs and of course a fresh coffee.

Due to my standard pre 9am personality failure (just ask my wife), I thought I’d search for some other options and there were plenty around. Ranging from evening events, business awards and workshops, there are absolutely tons of ways that I could go out and start getting involved with other like minded business folk. Taking this back to local SEO, it shouldn’t be too hard to find people with websites that could be interested on working together on some content, or recommending each other’s services (via links). If all else fails then at least you’ve had some decent grub along the way.

Partnerships

It would be pretty unlikely if your local area didn’t feature some businesses with which you could potentially partner up with in some way. Even if it’s just a case of recommending related services, or coming to some agreement with regards to referring clients; there are always opportunities, you’ve just got to find them.

Even though your end goal might be to get some links, try to separate yourself as far as possible from that state of mind. When contacting someone for the first time try not to even mention links or anything to do with SEO. Instead, why not try asking if they’d like to meet for coffee sometime and seeing if there’s any possibility of getting involved and potentially helping each other out with business?

Local Community Projects

How about looking out for local community events and projects that your company can get involved with? If you’re reading your local press on a regular basis, you should easily be able to find some events or projects to help out with or maybe sponsor. For example, in my town every year we have a ‘Race for Life’ which helps to raise awareness for breast cancer. That’s a great opportunity to get involved and help out. Are there any small charities operating in your area? Small charities are usually really gratefully for any help they can get, so why not get in touch and see if you can help out a little?

There’s quite a lot of debate over whether it’s ethical or not to donate time or money to charity for the purpose of building links. My personal view is that it all depends on your attitude and relationship with the charity or local project. If you’re fully committed to helping out and being involved and you happen to get a few links for it, then to me that’s no problem.

Local Societies

Does your town or city have any clubs or societies that hold events? It would be quite unlikely if there was nothing going on at all. Often, smaller societies and clubs are on the lookout for new ideas for their events as they need to fill their calendar and keep their members entertained. It might be Worthing speaking to some of them to find out if there are any speaking opportunities, or maybe to find out if they are looking for anyone to sponsor any upcoming events.

There’s been a lot of talk recently about how SEO and online marketing needs to become more and more integrated with offline marketing and genuine relationship building. With all these great opportunities right on your doorstep, this is approach is none more true than with local search.

About me: I run Go Search Marketing, an SEO consulting business offering advice and services to SME’s and local businesses. Feel free to come and say hi or throw me any questions on twitter @jonquinton1

The UK Search Awards 2011 will take place on November 3rd at the prestigious Emirates Stadium and will bring together the biggest and brightest stars of the search marketing industry.

A total of 17 categories of awards are to be judged by some of the most experienced names in the search industry.

We’re thrilled to be short-listed for an award for Best use of Search – Retail, for our work with our client BathEmpire. We have some extremely tough competition from a number of agencies much older an larger than us, so even to be short-listed is an honour, and of course the awards night itself promises to be a riot.

I (Nichola, MD of theMediaFlow) do promise to follow-up with photographic evidence of all that transpires on the evening, which will be published on our Facebook page. I’m sure our table will be very well behaved.

Completing my response to the report was an enjoyable and interesting experience, as we were asked to consider factors such as

• how much education plays a role in producing quality content
• what we look for in a writer
• what university education (or lack thereof) has done for our own business

You can get your own copy of the report completely free when you sign up to Angie’s newsletter, or if you would prefer to find out more about the sort of content Angie will be providing in her newsletter then read a little more about it here.

If you are in the exciting position of running your own small business you probably wish you had more than 24 hours in a day to do all the work that comes with it. Being a small business owner requires mucking in and turning your hand to many tasks that might not be your forte. When you find yourself spending more time on peripheral tasks rather than business-driving tasks, this can become a problem. A simple solution to this problem is starting to work with a Virtual Assistant (VA).

What is a Virtual Assistant?

A “virtual” assistant is so-called, because they are located at separate premises, and communicate with you using email, phone and online instant messaging. VAs are hired as contractors either to work on a specific project (event organisation) or a set amount of hours to complete ongoing tasks (diary management). Most clients usually retain good virtual assistants for months and years.
Your virtual assistant can complete tasks similar to any administrator, secretary, PA would do in an office environment. This can cover any aspects of business administration from phone calls handling, book-keeping, data entry, scanning to email and diary management and writing reports. Some VAs have specialist skills in marketing, IT, web design or publishing. Some VAs specialise in working with certain business sectors like coaches, speakers, associations or IT consultants.
Many virtual assistants work in teams to cover for each other and serve many clients worldwide. Around the world today, there are an estimated 35,000 VAs, most of them women working in the comfort of their home to help people in business achieve their desired goals.

Where do you find a VA?

It’s important to find the right VA for the role you are looking to fill. If you are looking for a more general support with a variety of business tasks look for someone who’s an expert in your niche market. If you need to outsource a specific project – look for someone with specialist skills and a solid track record.
Remember, that the actual location of your VA has no relevance to the quality of work or adhering to deadlines. However the principle “you get what you pay for” would stand true in many cases so be careful before using a VA who sounds unbelievably cheap. You can look for VAs on Twitter (Twellow), in online directories like UK Association for Virtual Assistants, Society of Virtual Assistants, Alliance of UK Virtual Assistance, VA Support Group.

How does a VA work?

A good VA will have an initial consultation with you to identify your business goals, your requirements and the level of support you require. It may be that the VA will actually prefer to refer you to someone else who, in his/her opinion, would be better suited to assist you.
After the consultation you will receive a proposal detailing the requirements, fees and main T&Cs. Once you sign the contract the VA will establish online system for sharing documents, managing your diary and email, project management, time tracking, reporting. Most of the communication will be done via email, IM (Google talk, Skype, MSN), sms or phone.

Why should you use a VA?

Many people engaged in offline and online businesses have recognised the great benefits of having a virtual assistant.
1. Expert knowledge on hand – when working with a VA you gain a real specialist on your team who can provide advice and guidance to your business. Virtual assistants invest in their own professional development so as a client you will always be using the best technologies and systems available at the time.
2. Cost effectiveness – you don’t have to pay for the overhead associated with hiring an employee. You don’t need to worry about NIC, PAYEE costs, office space and equipment, training or managing someone all the time. VAs only work for you when you need them so you don’t have to pay for idle time or holidays.
3. Convenience – VAs can work with you 24/7, regardless of your time zones or state holidays. You don’t need to keep on monitoring them on a daily basis. A good VA will focus on your business goals therefore you will see some positive results in your business very quickly.
4. Business efficiency – a good VA will be focused on your business goals and is a fast worker.
5. Continuity – unlike some employees who could join your company, receive all the training and work experience and then leave to work for your competitor, your VA is here to stay for as long as his/her business is up and running (provided there are no payment or other issues between you). The longer you keep on using the same VA – the more work you will feel confident to outsource and the more impact of the previous four benefits you will see in your business.

What sort of tasks can I give to a VA to do?

• General administration: call answering, scanning, data entry, business cards processing, receipts processing, sourcing the right suppliers for your business, printing & posting letters of your behalf.

• PA services: email and diary management, travel arrangements, typing, transcription, document formatting, spreadsheet creation, presentations design and formatting, expense claims, mailshots, research.

• Financial: book-keeping, invoicing, credit control, VAT.
• Events and conference organisation.

• Marketing: copywriting, graphics design, desktop publishing, lead verification, scheduling appointments, PR.

• Web support: creation and maintenance of your website, social media profiles creation and optimisation, online networking, blog maintenance, creation and sending of e-newsletters.

• Design: graphics, logo, templates, website, artwork.
  Customer service, handling email and phone enquiries, managing an online ordering system or a shopping cart, telesales.
  And many more!

So if managing your business is becoming stressful to you, consider getting a VA to do the minor tasks or even just the tasks you don’t like to do. This way, you can focus on what you love to do and get on with running your business.

Tamara Baranova is a managing partner in TJConsulting Virtual Assistance, specialising in executive PA support for IT professionals and Internet entrepreneurs: social media coaches, Google PPC professionals, IT and SEO consultants. TJConsulting also offer extensive social media maintenance services for profiles, blogs and e-newsletters including WordPress template customisation and newsletter design services.

I explained that at the core of every service, our focus is on maximising revenues through commercial performance optimisation and conversion rate optimisation.

Richard made an extremely valid point; that in the online industry, online marketing services particularly, are described using alienating jargon; self-congratulatory titles and pretty meaningless three letter acronyms.

I cannot help but agree. SEM, SEO, MMO, SMM, SMO, CRO, CTR, CPM, PPC, GUI… (I could go on) might be the stuff of a geek meet-up. However for most small to medium sized businesses, who are seeking to expand to the web, these terms mean nothing.

I wanted to walk through all the steps, to explain in particular – Conversion Rate Optimisation .

What the hell does that mean?

Quite simply; I’m in Marks and Spencer, all the packaging is gorgeous, the products are clearly priced and labelled, everything is laid out in an order that makes sense and the shelves are always full. Once I walk towards the till, every irresistible treat I could ever desire in a moment of weakness sits beside me as I move forward at a brisk pace towards the payment point of my choice (of which there are many).

Gorgeous packaging, clear pricing and labelling; an intuitive store layout, full shelves, additional treats, fast payment process and multiple payment options: none of which are there by accident.

Online, offline, mail order, whatever… it matters not the physical medium to purchase. Every purchase medium has multiple variables, and the tweaking of these variables will affect how well my product sells. That’s conversion rate optimisation.

So why ‘conversion’ not ‘sales’ optimisation?

Websites can make money through advertising, selling physical goods, selling virtual/digital goods (like gifts you see on Facebook, or downloading a ringtone); providing a service (e.g. insurance) or by providing qualified leads to service providers. Soooo many different online business models exist and not all of them are direct sales models. Hence the term ‘conversion’ is used to cover any activity that results in revenue.

Conversion rate is therefore the percentage rate at which revenue actions occur, compared to volume of unique or total visits, for the same time period.

Where Do You Start?

We start by identifying all of your conversion metrics, and ensuring that each one is tracked. We then take the user journey, imagining we would like to buy your product, fill in your lead form, or download your e-book. We do this in multiple browsers and we’re paying attention to usability, functionality and technical performance.

Then What?

Data analysis… Lots of it… Tonnes in fact!

Not everybody’s cup of tea; but we love it. We analyse every single metric and every single variable available.

We establish average’ behaviours’ across types of traffic, types of browser, types of visitor (new or returning), we then look at specific deviations of a percentage greater than ‘normal’ deviations.

We look for anomalous patterns and data points and compare this with error logs and visitor by browser/OS data. (Oooh look. I’ve done it again! OS = operating system.)

We compare all of the data findings with the online user journey and seek to identify holes, low performance areas, broken areas of the site, poor trafficked areas, high bail-out pages, low conversion rates.

Then We Make Our Bespoke Recommendations

Data and research is presented and recommendations are made, which may often include A/B testing different layouts, changing colours here and there, tweaking the layout of landing pages. Cross browser errors and other technical corrections will be listed, and we also look off-site too. We make recommendations for optimising the route to site, for commercial intent. Recommendations for more relevant keywords, keywords with more purchase-intent, optimising external profiles in social media and such-like.

No Matter What Site These General Rules Should Help…

1. Your site needs a search box; which should be top and centre or top right, for highest engagement (on every page).

2. Your search box should be 50 characters wide minimum.

3. Don’t put any text in the search box (users scan the page for the big white stripe, and I’ve actually seen “Search here” appear high in site search logs for brands that should know way better).

4. Any actionable item needs a rollover state (be it a link, a button, whatever…)

5. Any call to action should be above the fold, or designed in such a way that highest performing items are prioritised on list-style landing pages.

6. Red can work as a colour choice for sale prices or cheap goods prices, otherwise avoid.

7. Make your content font size at least 12pt or risk losing 2MM (UK) visually impaired users (RNIB).

8. Make sure your error page is commercialised.

If you would like to know more about conversion rate optimisation and commercial usability, we’d love to hear from you.

It is good practise to have your own customised error page, which is in your own template look and feel, as this provides a consistent user experience and allows you to communicate a suitable message; whilst being in control of that message. Additionally if you don’t create a formal process for errors of this nature you may risk how well your site is perceived by search engines.

Most search engine optimisation and usability experts will recommend you have a customised error page that makes some apology to the user, explains in basic terms what has happened, and suggests some useful and popular content or pages to visit as an alternative. Tip: Don’t reference “404″ in the page content as it is meaningless to the user.

Here’s what we do, which seems to work for us :

Example of a customised error page

Whilst all of this is professional and does something to rescue a poor user experience; for a commercial website, this is a missed opportunity. Make the most of your error pages by turning what could have potentially been a poor user experience into a commercial opportunity by creating a commercial error page.

Tips for Creating a Commercial Error Page

1. Start by doing some simple analysis into your most popular products and pages with highest conversion rates.

2. Do your research first, and if your are a new site, wait a couple of months to get some statistically meaningful performance data.

3. Don’t just put your most expensive products on the page, as this may look hollow and may not convert at all. Wait until you have some interaction and conversion rate data beforehand.

4. Identify top 3 to 10 products and present them in the error page content.

5. Identify top converting pages and explain what these pages are, asking if they might be of interest to the user.

6. Put your search box on your error page.

7. Optimise your error page by testing performance of different products.

8. Analyse the visitor route to error and see if there is a pattern or commercial inference to be made.

Here’s the best commercialised error page I’ve ever seen.

Best Commercial Error Page We Have Seen

Note the friendly and apologetic intro, the huge search box in prominent position, and the placement of the trendy, popular and celebrity-fave footwear items. This brand is working hard to make me like them and to get my business.

It’s worth saying that I was surprised to find a huge number of giants in online retail with a lot of opportunity to increase commercial usability and user experience, by improving on their current solution. Such as ASOS and their automatic redirect to the homepage , Argos and their complete lack of customisation and possibly the biggest surprise of all was Amazon and their slightly formal and completely non-commercial message; which for a web retail giant like Amazon, could be a considerable bit of scooping up to be done. (As you have gathered, I didn’t need to look past ‘A’ to find a surprising amount of missed opportunity.)

Automatic re-direct to home

Er... Where Am I?

Mal Function

Kudos to Zappos for leading the field. Do please let me know if you come across any really good or really bad error pages in the comments!