Posts Tagged 'seo'

The famous ‘power of blogs’ experiment.

So here we are, live at BIBA 2011 (#BIBA2011), demonstrating how powerful blogs can be for your marketing efforts, and how well they perform in search engines.

Right now as all eyes rest on the screen behind me (pics to follow), we’ve taken a random blog title generated by the lovely BIBA audience, and we’re going to see whether this blog post will have indexed in the Google search rankings by the end of this BIBA conference breakout session that Pancentric have been co-hosting. For the good of digital marketing, not to mention my reputation, let’s hope this works.

Today we’ve discussed the merits of social media in the B2B space, how the insurance community can realise the potential social media presents businesses, and how social media fits more broadly with other digital marketing activity. We’ve heard from BIBA themselves how working with Pancentric to develop their social media offering has delivered some stand-out results for them both in terms of reach and awareness. Neil Grimshaw from the Ravenhall group has also been telling us how his use of social media has led to some influential connections and greater visibility for his business services. Our very own Tim Mears has presented some interesting social media case studies, demonstrating how social media plays an important role on the purchasing decisions of millions of online consumers, and now we find ourselves at the ‘experiment’…

To demonstrate how quickly Blogs index posts, we’re going to put this one live now, and in just 30 minutes time, we’ll search for our post in Google, and hey presto it will be there.

Digital, don’t fail me now.

It is all pretty zen really. Forget your profound metaphors of trees falling in the forest and the sound of single hands clapping. If you are on the web and can’t be found then are you really there at all?

Sure your website may well be the design statement of your generation. The flash interface worthy of a Pixar showreel. Your mission statement inspirational and your prices unsurpassed. But, and it is a big but, who the hell is going to know if you are hidden away in some dark corner of the dubya dubya dubya? Your mum was right. If you’re not prepared to blow your own trumpet then no one else will. Hide your site and unless you have very deep pockets to plug your URL to the world it will never deliver any meaningful return on investment.

Unfortunately many bean counters take this as a failure of the medium rather than of its application. Better to throw money up against familiar walls than think through the issues. Web marketing is still just basic marketing.

The place of importance is not a post code but rather a placing on the search results screen of a Google or Yahoo. For many it is indeed page one or oblivion. It is important to remember that these things rarely happen by accident.

Let’s face it the vast majority of bricks and mortar companies are not going to be turned on their head by e-commerce. For every Virgin Atlantic there are a hundred widget manufacturers. It is not just about getting seen. It is about being found by the right people. Delivering motivated window shoppers to be exposed to your sales pitch and convinced to pick up the phone, walk in the door or send in an email enquiry.

Search engines are the key. What key terms are your potential customers searching for and how well does your site attract them? It is important to remember that for most companies the product of their web site is not the inventory in their warehouses. It is the information about that inventory and the provision of a convenient means of accessing it. Amazon is an online giant not because its books are bound better than anyone else’s or the stories contained within are better than the same title from the discount bookseller down the road. It is successful because it delivers its information product so well. If you doubt the importance of search engines in this process try typing a book title into Google and viewing the results. Smart marketers refine and update their optimization strategies for new products, brands and opportunities.