As I am sure you are aware, no-one knows what new algorithm changes we are going to be faced with, or how these will affect the SERPs (search engine results pages). However the search community have to a conclusion; well written, relevant content is the way forward. So, how do we know this? Google have made it pretty clear in their Webmaster Tools guidelines.

Moving forward I want to discuss the topic of creating content that is not only going to help you rank, but is going to be useful!

So how do we write great content? First, we need to understand what our audience want. Second, find your voice and tell it loud and proud! No matter if you are a one-man-band or you have a team of copywriters, be consistent!

You may decide to go for a corporate voice or prefer a distinctly more relaxed conversational tone. Whatever you choose, consistency is essential to building your brand personality.

Research                                                                                 

Knowing what to write about is challenging but the solution is rather simple, look to your most important assets; your audience. Find what they are blogging about, tweeting, discussing on forums or on Facebook, these are just a few places to start your discovery process. Remember that Google is your friend, use is it to your advantage: be an active listener. I have included common approaches to content marketing are:

• Informational Content Marketing
• New Product Release
• PR Articles
• Topical Piece

Ultimately, research will dictate the content that you produce, but one thing is for sure. Good quality, relevant content is the key to forming meaningful relationships.

Optimisation

Content is not only vital for forging meaningful, trustworthy relationships, but it also plays a vital part in Search Engine Optimisation! By appropriately incorporating target keywords in conjunction with high quality, engaging content you should reap the rewards. Don’t be afraid to ask for social shares, likes and comments. Social media and in particular social shares are playing an increasingly important part in SEO and useful content is more likely to garner comments and shares than out-of date, useless content.

Content Diary

Developing a content diary or schedule is a great idea. A content diary will ensure that you know exactly what type of content is being posted and allow you to ensure that you allocate sufficient time and resources to the creative process! Believe me, it’s not that easy. If you find that it’s just not happening, don’t force it. Well thought-out high quality content is far superior that off the cuff reactive content.

The SEO team at Only Web are experts in creating high quality, optimised content that people love to share. Speak to us today.

I’ve already noted the growth in mobile marketing and the important role it is set to play in future marketing strategies. Whilst we know that more and more people are browsing the internet with their phone, businesses are still underutilising the power of mobile website design by not fully optimising their site for the mobile user.

A few years ago sites could have got away without having a mobile version of their site but not anymore. Mobile websites have gone from being an attractive extra to an absolute necessity – and it isn’t enough just having one. With the commercial and economic opportunities available to online businesses via mobile phones it is crucial that the mobile site is designed to optimise the mobile user experience. Non mobile friendly sites are losing out on an increasingly large amount of business as more and more people buy though mobile devices. Fortunately there are a couple of simple tips and guidelines you can implement to make sure your mobile site is as user friendly as possible.

Streamline Content

Landing pages and content “above the fold” is crucial when it comes to PC websites. This importance is magnified on a mobile web page. Do not waste time, effort and most importantly space, putting anything but the most important information on your mobile pages. Removing things like side menus or other content links allows your site to focus on only the most important information, making your site easier to read, quicker to load and generally improving user experience.

When it comes to seeking mobile conversions or sales it is crucial that your site prioritises important information relevant to conversions such as contact details. Overloading your page with irrelevant content will push important content down making it less likely to be found. Users will also become frustrated with having to scroll or delve deeper in to your site to find the content they want.   

Optimise layout

An easy way to streamline your content and improve user experience is to optimise your page layout for mobile devices. Simply displaying your standard PC website through a mobile device will negatively affect your users experience and likely lead to a high bounce rate. The text displayed will be too small to read and users will have to navigate a raft of different menus.

Optimise your layout into just one single column with additional content running down the page not across. This allows users to use the far more natural and preferred process of scrolling downwards, avoiding the need to scroll sideways or zoom in and out.

Alter Navigation

With such a small area to work in, navigation becomes an issue on mobile websites. Placing all your navigation at the top of pages moves the valuable content too far down below the fold and with a single column layout it can’t go down the side – where does it go?

The answer is to emphasise your homepage. Only place navigation on your homepage and do so at the top of the page. On other pages place your content at the top with the only navigation links being back to the homepage or the most relevant previous step in the user’s journey. Placing breadcrumb links at the top of the page with navigation links back to the homepage at the bottom, users are able to easily navigate the site without detracting from the valuable content.

If your site’s users want to see content straightaway rather than look to navigate or search for specific content you should place the navigation at the bottom. This way it does not get in the way of reading the content but can still be easily accessed by the user. Placing an anchor link at the top of the page will allow users to reach the navigation quickly and easily.

Minimise text entry

It is not just visually where mobile websites differ from their desktop or laptop partners. Usability is another major issue when creating mobile friendly websites. Typing, even on the best touchscreen keyboards are difficult for users who frequently make errors and can often become frustrated with over-elaborate and time consuming text entry. You can reduce the need for text entry for users by allowing them to store personal and login details on site or ask them to use a numerical PIN instead of a password. Instead of entering text akin to a standard text message allow the users to provide information by choosing between different selections.

Similarly you should be aware of the limitations of touchscreen devices for usability. Links (particularly when in amongst other links) can be difficult to click on. Users will become frustrated at the additional time and cost wasted by accidentally clicking on the wrong link. Therefore you should look to use highly visible and easily clickable square boxes for important calls to action. 

Take advantage of inbuilt functionality

Ultimately when designing a website for mobile use, you should look to take advantage of the mobile devices unique properties and utilise their inbuilt functionality

Mobile phones were initially designed to just make phone calls (I know it might seem hard to believe!). Take advantage of this by allowing users to automatically call a number when clicking or tapping a contact phone number.

Similarly phones now have in built map applications. Give user’s a better idea of your location by automatically opening the phone’s map application after the user clicks on your address on site.

Take advantage of social media in regards to your website. Make it easy for a user to share your mobile site socially or share their location via the device’s inbuilt GPS. This can allow users to better interact with each other and find nearby stores or events.   

Conclusions

2013 is set to be the year of the mobile. Marketers and webmasters are waking up to the power of mobile devices. The mobile will hold a crucial role in how businesses promote and market their websites online. It is crucial that as mobile devices are increasingly used to access the internet that websites provide users with as clear and smooth a user experience as possible. Following some of the above guidelines will help in ensuring you get the best return from your mobile website.

The team here at Only Web have been building, developing and marketing quality mobile friendly websites for clients for many years. Speak to our mobile website design team to ensure you get the best out of your mobile website.

In Google’s never ending quest for high quality user friendly search results they have released another algorithm update. This one is set to affect “low quality ‘exact-match’ domains” and has been rather unimaginatively christened “the EMD Update”.

What are Exact Match Domains?

Exact match domains are domains which feature keywords which the site hosted on that domain is optimised for. For many years EMDs were a sure fire route to the top of search results for the chosen keywords. This led to major competition between webmasters for domains featuring high traffic keywords.

What does this update intend to do?

This is not simply a one off update designed to purge all exact match domains but simply another attempt to reduce the number of spammy low quality content sites in SERPs and boost the user experience.

For you see there are a large number of exact match domains which offer very little in the way of quality to the user. Instead many are over optimised, keyword stuffed and chock full of adverts and affiliate links. If it is simply the domain which leads to the high ranking position, lazy webmasters are getting “free” traffic, with little incentive to offer a quality user experience.

This update is designed to reduce the boost that exact match domains provide whilst also continuing to promote high quality content over spammy heavily optimised sites.

I have an exact match domain – panic?

The update won’t affect every exact match domain for the simple reason that it isn’t possible. Every domain on the internet is an EMD for a search. Granted there might not be many searches for that term but “technically” it’s an EMD. To punish all EMDs would be to punish all domains. Google is not doing this; it is punishing a certain type of domain which has sought to abuse the benefit of EMDs with disregard for the user experience. It is reducing the influence which EMD has as a ranking factor, as opposed to simply punishing sites that have one. SeoMoz noted the following drop in EMD influence from their data.

If you look at the update in this way, it can be seen as simply an extension of the previous updates of Panda and Penguin. Both attempted to boost the quality of search results by targeting sites with low quality or spammy content. The EMD update is a continuation of this effort but simply focuses more heavily on exact match domains as the element of “over optimisation” it wishes to address.

How can I recover from a hit – or avoid one completely?

All the on page optimisation issues targeted by previous Google Penguin and Panda Updates holds true but now the domain is taken in to account when considering over optimisation, keyword stuffing and other black or grey hat SEO tactics. So if you have an exact match domain, don’t overdo the on page optimisation lest you risk the wrath of a Google update.

Sites which survived the update also had a number of on page elements which sites affected lacked. These included videos on page, pictures, links to industry authority sites and proper natural internal linking.  

Similarly in off page optimisation, if your site has a majority of links with exact match anchor text, and the anchor text used matches your domain, then this update will likely have a major effect on your site.

In line with Google’s mantra for a quality user experience, greater emphasis is again placed on social signals and shares.

Much of the advice prevalent in recovery from the Panda update is relevant to that of the EMD update. 

The Future

This is merely another step towards ridding search results of low quality or spammy sites. Like Panda and Penguin the EMD update will return periodically to assert its authority over Google SERPs.

Google aren’t looking like giving up in this, so its time webmasters take the hint and stop peddling outdated SEO strategies which simply will not work in this environment any longer. 

Our team at Only Web are vastly experienced in SEO and Website Design and are able to develop bespoke strategies to recover from various Google algorithm updates. We offer both a Google Panda Recovery service and a Google Penguin Update Recovery service making sure your site gets back on trick as quickly as possible. If you think you have been hit by the EMD update or any other Google algorithm change, contact us now.

Given the level of attachment most people have towards their phone you'd be forgiven for assuming mobile marketing had already revolutionsied the industry. However, up until recently the inherent marketing advantages which the mobile offers to advertisers haven't been fully utilised. 

My last blog post talked of the impending Mobile Marketing Boom and the team at Only Web have developed this infographic to better outline just why 2013 looks set to become the year of the mobile.

2013 is set to be the year where marketers and advertisers finally wake up to the potential of the mobile phone as a marketing tool.

The market is growing rapidly and is changing the way people not only access information but how they live their lives. Over 90% of people are within arm’s reach of their phone 24 hours a day. No other device provides the same level of interactivity. This gives mobile a huge advantage as an advertising platform.

Television advertising requires the consumer to be watching television at the time of your advert, online ads require them to be on the internet and other traditional advertising methods provide an even narrower window of opportunity. Mobiles offer a vast array of advertising options for budding mobile marketers available to target the consumer 24/7, including SMS, WAP, app display ads, search ads, rich media and video adverts.

Marketing is all about reaching the right people with the right message at the right time – and mobile advertising allows you to do just that. Take a product with a rapidly increasing market. Ensure the product is an advanced communication and entertainment tool, vital to the customer’s everyday life. Give the product the technology to advertise to consumers at any time of the day across a vast array of different means and then you will have a very powerful marketing tool.

The power of the mobile is reflected in the level of consumer engagement with mobile advertising. 90% of searches made on a mobile device leads to a form of action and with over half ultimately leading to a purchase. More and more people are using the internet to access their information, particularly when regarding purchasing goods or services. And with the technological advances and convenience on offer, most are using their mobile phones to access this information.

It is only now that marketers are beginning to realise the full potential of mobile advertising. Here are a number of stats which outline just why mobile marketing is fast becoming the most effective marketing tool available today. 

A Growing Market

• There are now four times as many smartphone users as PC owners.
• There are more people in the world who own a mobile phone than own a toothbrush.
• In the UK, there are more mobile phones than people.
• It took the television 13 years to reach 50 million users. It took the iPhone just 2.

With Greater Levels of Engagement

• People report a lost phone on average after just 68 minutes. It takes over a day for the average person to report a lost wallet.
• The average person responds to a text message in just 90 seconds. An email takes 90 minutes.
• Over 90% of the US population have their mobile phone within arm’s reach at all times.
• Over 425 million people actively visit Facebook on their mobiles. Those who use their mobile are twice as active on the site as the non mobile users.

Searching on the Internet

• The number of people searching the internet on their smartphone doubles every two months.
• Over 25% of all the internet usage is carried out from a mobile phone.
• Search queries in the travel, retail and entertainment industry coming from mobile devices have risen by up to 90% since 2011.

 And Ready for Action

• 70% of all mobile searches result in action within 1 hour.
• Mobile coupons are redeemed 10 times more frequently than traditional coupons.
• 90% of mobile searches lead to action - 50% lead to a purchase.
• Over half of mobile adverts result in a phone call. This rises to over 60% when using local search.
• eBay has forecast mobile sales of $8 billion for the coming year – at a rate of one sale per second.