I’m Feeling Lucky with Google

3 February 2012 - Digital

Have you ever wondered what the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ button on the Google search page is for? Have you ever typed in a query and clicked on this button? Were you surprised at the result? Well, if so, this blog is here to explain just what the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ button is all about on the Google search page.

I have read somewhere that this button may have been named in honour of Clint Eastwood’s character in Dirty Harry – “Do you feel lucky, punk? Well, do you?” I’m not too sure about that myself, so I’ll carry on.

Normally when you type a keyword or phrase into the Google search text field and click on the search button (or tap enter or return on your keyboard), Google will return a list of results on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) showing a number of websites that closely match your search query.

The ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ button does away with the search results page and takes you directly to the website that is the highest ranking site in Google for that particular keyword or phrase.

Try typing ‘number 10′ in the search input box and click the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ button, you’ll be taken straight to the government’s Number 10 Downing Street website. If you enter ‘apple’ and click on ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’, you’ll go directly to Apple Computers official website. Try it for ‘fa’ and you’ll find yourself at the official Football Association website. Essentially, ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ is a shortcut.

Dependent on your search query, the first and highest ranking result is usually the result that you are searching for, so clicking on the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ button will save you some time as the Search Engine Results Page will not be loaded.

The ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ button is very handy if you are confident that the highest ranking result in Google is going to be the exact page that you are looking for, but not so helpful if you know that you are going to be searching for a lot of different sites.

Using the I’m Feeling Lucky Google Button with No Search Query

Back in December 2009, pressing the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ button without entering a query in the search input box would take you to a countdown ticker to New Year’s Day. By doing the same thing today, you are taken to the Google Doodles page, where you can browse the different alternative logos that have featured on the Google search pages over the years.

The I’m Feeling Lucky Google Button in Other Google Tools

The Google Toolbar has the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ feature included and this works in the same way as on the regular Google search page. Picasa also has an ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ button, but in this instance, clicking the button applies adjustments and enhancement filters to the images.

Using the I’m Feeling Lucky Google Button with Google Instant

If your browser is set to Google Instant, the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ button will disappear as soon as you start entering a search query. Fortunately, you can still use the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ feature even with Google Instant enabled by hovering your cursor over the list of predictions in the text input field. An ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ link will appear to the right of the prediction. If you are feeling particularly efficient, you can navigate this feature by using your arrow keys. Press the down arrow to scroll through the suggestions, and then tap the right arrow if you’re feeling lucky.

So, the next time you perform a search using Google, experiment a little with the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ button, you may be surprised at what you find.

If you would like to find out more about Google and the most effective way to promote your corporate website in their search engine, please do not hesitate to contact us, we will be very happy to answer your questions.

Google V’s Twitter – Battle of the big guns

16 January 2012 - Digital

Google V’s Twitter – Battle of the big guns

The battle between Google and Twitter appears to be getting bigger and bigger with what seems to be a good old fashioned slanging match currently taking place, and in my eyes there can only be one winner.

For those that don’t know, Google launched its Google+ (Plus) service in June 2011 after the demise of Google Buzz. Google+ generated a big buzz (pardon the pun) amongst techies and search engine experts alike as a sort of grown-up and professional version of Facebook with bits of LinkedIn, Twitter and other social platforms thrown in for good measure. The fanfare that its launch produced was pretty impressive in the early months due to its perceived exclusivity making it like that new toy or gadget that you have got to get your hands on. As such the number of sign-ups was massive when it was rolled out further to anyone over 18.

Last month the number of users surpassed 62 million, at that growth rate the number of users will hit around 400 million by the end of the year!! This won’t be the case though, the huge number of Google+ sign-ups in the early months was out of curiosity and when you actually get in to the nitty-gritty of what Google+ has to offer you, for want of better words, it’s pretty rubbish. It has a few cool features and potential but the problem is – everyone you know is already on Facebook and most of those are also on Twitter and this fulfils most people’s social needs at the moment. Is there actually room in Average-Joe’s busy day to browse a whole different Social Media platform? Most people I know signed up and since then have rarely looked at it. On a personal note, compared to Facebook and Twitter I find Google+ dull (but that may just be me).

Google clearly feel strongly about the potential of Google+, far more so than it did about Buzz and with a base of 62 million people already, it is unlikely to go away. They are going to continue to push, promote and improve it as heavily as they can, and that’s where Twitter seem to be getting their knickers in a twist and doing a lot of whingeing in the press.

Google have announced that they are making changes to its results in order to integrate Google+ in to it. Calling it ‘Search plus Your World’, it will push results from Google+ up the rankings and really put it in the faces of users. This will only apply to users signed in to their Google accounts and will fire back far more personal and tailored search results related to the information Google knows about you, your friends and your acquaintances. It sounds like a big change but until it’s fully rolled out nobody really knows how much of a difference it will actually make.

Twitter is making a big deal of it though, with their lawyer and ex-Google employee Alex Macgillivray labelling it a “bad day for the internet”.

Twitter expanded further with an official statement including “For years, people have relied on Google to deliver the most relevant results any time they wanted to find something on the internet.We’re concerned that as a result of Google’s changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone. We think that’s bad for people, publishers, news organisations and Twitter users.”

All sounds very right-on but would Twitter be kicking up a stink if their Tweets dominated the top of the search results for every Google search imaginable? Would this provide a good search experience for Google users? I think the answer to both of these questions is “no”.

At the end of the day, Google is just a website and just a business like any other, it just happens to have grown astronomically to the point where almost everybody on the internet in the world uses it and thinks of it first when they want to find something. Off the back of Google millionaires are made across the globe and that’s why any changes they make are scrutinised so thoroughly by anyone who thinks it may affect them negatively. Google is not a regulating body, it is a website, if they want to promote their own product (Google+) ahead of somebody else’s (Twitter) then surely they are entitled to do so.

My money’s on Google in this current battle. If you don’t like Google or are unhappy with it then the answer is simple – don’t use it. It isn’t compulsory and as the owners, they can do what they want with it. Maybe Twitter should remember that in a world where search and social media are becoming more and more entwined.

For more information on Google’s changes or to discuss any aspects of social media, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Instil Confidence in your Corporate Website

12 January 2012 - Digital

‘You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover’. This saying can be equally applied to the World Wide Web. Websites are usually visited by people so they can purchase products or services, search for information and news or interact with friends and colleagues on social networking sites. It is not very often that the user would pay much attention to the design of the website, except in two cases:

Extremely Good Web Design

If you have designed a truly original, unique and innovative website you should find that it captures people’s imagination and this may have a positive impact on your site’s status as people will want to share their find with others by promoting it on social and bookmarking websites such as Twitter, Facebook, Digg.com and Delicious.com.

However, this does not necessarily mean that a visitor who appreciates the aesthetics of your website will go ahead and purchase the product or service that your site is offering.

and Extremely Bad Web Design

Conversely, there are websites out there that you wish you had never seen, visited or tried to navigate. If a web user has a bad experience on a company website, they will more often than not decide that they cannot trust you as a business and, once you have failed the ‘trust test’, you will have very little chance of doing any business with the visitor.

So what are the essential ingredients that you should consider when designing your website?

Less is More – Colour

Back in the pioneering days of the World Wide Web, website designers were restricted to a colour palette of 216 ‘web-safe’ hexadecimal HTML colours. These are the only colours that could be rendered accurately by the web browsers and monitors of the time. Improvements in browser and monitor technology have since meant that designers can now utilise a full spectrum of colours, but in most cases less is more. Think very carefully about the range and scope of colours that you want to use on your website. Try to keep them to a minimum; a clearly defined palette will give your site a professional look and will inspire confidence in your business.

Clear and Concise Design

Your website does not have to be complicated to do its job. Just because you can add all the bells and whistles to your design does not mean that you should. An effective website is one that is easy to navigate and allows a user to access the required information with the minimum of effort. Think about download speed: if a visitor to your site has to wait while an elaborate graphic is downloaded, then they are likely to go elsewhere. Similarly, if a webpage is over complicated or fussy, you are likely to lose potential business to a competitor who has a more user friendly website.

Compatibility is Key

Although it is a lot easier to ensure that a website looks consistent across the full range of web applications available today, it is imperative not to get complacent and make sure that your website is comprehensively tested on all browsers, tablets and hand held devices. Try to build in as many safeguards as possible to instil confidence in your site and corporate business as a whole.

If the three points above are considered and implemented in your website design and build, then you will go a long way to having a website that inspires confidence and generates your company plenty of online business.

If you would like to discuss your company’s website design, promotion and online marketing strategy, please do not hesitate to contact us – we’ll be only too happy to talk.

Glossary of SEO terms (Part 2)

9 January 2012 - Digital

Welcome to the second instalment of SEO terms from HROC. As mentioned in Part 1, the process of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is full of acronyms and abbreviations, much like in many other industries, which allow Search Engine Optimisers to discuss terms related to the industry easily – a simple acronym such as ‘PPC’ is a lot quickerto say than ‘Pay Per Click’.

It is all well and good that the people in the SEO industry use these terms, but if they start using them during meetings, on the phone or in any correspondence, how is the client going to have any idea what we are trying to explain?

A lot of the terms used describe processes, technical specifications and reporting tools that are unique to the SEO business so may not be easy to recognise or translate into plain English. To give you a little idea about some of the terms that are used we have started this glossary which, when complete, should give you a good grounding as to what the main terms mean. If there is ever anything you don’t understand though – please just ask! Us SEOers don’t bite!

What is Page Rank (PR)?

Google uses a system called PageRank as a scale to measure the authority of your site. Google uses the links that are pointing at your site to decide its PageRank. Not all links are created equal, and Google differentiates a link from an important site (such as www.bbc.co.uk) as being better than a link from someone’s personal blog page for example. The PageRank scoring scale ranges from 0 to 10, with 10 being the best, and most difficult, to achieve. The higher the PageRank of the page that is linking to you, the more your site’s PageRank will benefit. Generally, the higher the PageRank, the better you’ll do in Google. It can take a very long time to achieve a high Page Rank score though. To get from level 2 to 3 is relatively easy, but as you get higher up thescale, the harder it is to increase your Rank.

What is Anchor Text?

Anchor text is the term given to the text that is visible on a link, for example: this is anchor text.

What are Keywords (Keyword Phrase)?

Keywords are the words that an internet user types into a search engine to find what they are looking for (query). To get your site to appear for the right keywords, your site must be optimised for those words. A keyword phrase is a multi-word search query

What is a Search Engine Algorithm?

A search engine algorithm is what Google and other search engines use to determine how it selects websites to appear on a search engine results page (SERP). Google will create a set of rules by which it decides which website should appear above another; Google changes these algorithms from time to time to keep SEOers on their toes!

What is a Spider (Crawler)?

Sometimes known as a bot or robot, a spider is a programme created by a search engine to view your site, strip out the information that it thinks is the most relevant and then store it in a database. This database is a catalogue of websites on the internet that search engines refer to when returning results on a search engine results page (SERP) making the process a lot quicker than searching all websites when a term is searched for.

That’s all for this part of the SEO terms post, keep your eyes peeled for Part 3 coming soon!

If you require an SEO specialist to help increase your visibility in search engines and attract more visitors, or for a detailed description for any of the above terms, please give us a call and we will be more than happy to help.

Good Twitter Etiquette for the Business

16 December 2011 - Digital

When it comes to Twitter there is no right or wrong way to use it. However, if you are employing Twitter as a marketing tool to boost and promote your corporate brand or business, there are a few basic unwritten guidelines that should be followed in order to maintain good Twitter etiquette.

1) Strategy – Have a Plan

Don’t get carried away when Tweeting. It is very easy to lose all sense of time when promoting your corporate brand and interacting with your followers on Twitter. Have a structured timetable for when you spend time sharing content and conversing online. Set aside a specific time in the morning, midday and late afternoon, stick to this plan and be disciplined.

2) Stick to the 80-20 Rule – Don’t Over-promote

Make sure you abide to the 80-20 rule of marketing. Spend 80 percent of your Twitter time indulging in activities that are not considered to be self promoting. Someone who is constantly ‘bigging’ themselves up and promoting their own agenda will be a big turn off for other users and no-one will want to interact with you. Pass on useful information, such as links to ticket information and upcoming events, be creative, ask questions and start conversations around subjects that are related to your brand, but not directly associated with it. By offering diverse tweets in your own Twitter stream you can establish a strong following who will be interested in what you have to say.

3) Mix it Up – Integrate your Tweets with Your Marketing Plan

It has been proven that the most successful marketing strategies are ones that are fully integrated. Make Twitter part of this in every way you can, for example, put a ‘Follow Me’ button on your corporate website and company blog and a link in your e-mail signature. Make sure your Twitter profile reflects your corporate image by giving it a unique background, consistent colour scheme and profile picture.

4) Mind Your Language – Don’t get too Personal

As you are using Twitter as a marketing tool, you’ll want other users to view your Twitter profile and all your previous tweets. Once out there in cyberspace you will have no control over where your tweets end up as followers re-tweet and share them online. Google now index tweets, and they can get archived by all sorts of establishments and institutions. Don’t be a keyboard warrior and don’t ever tweet something to somebody that you wouldn’t say to them face to face. Be wary of being lured into arguments or squabbles, particularly if they run counter to your corporate brand beliefs.

5) It’s Good to Listen – Engage and Interact

Remember, there are millions of Tweeters out there and it is not all about you! To reap the rewards that Twitter has to offer as a marketing tool, you will need to view it as a relationship building instrument. Spend time listening to others, acknowledge and encourage them and share their content. As mentioned in Point 2 (above), do not over-promote.

6) Speak in Plain English – Don’t use Corporate Jargon

Unless your target audience are a niche market that expects to hear it, steer clear of corporate specific jargon. As mentioned in a previous blog (Glossary of SEO Terms), in house terms and abbreviations can be very confusing and could turn Twitter followers into ex-Twitter followers very quickly. Similarly, do not use corporate rhetoric. No one wants to follow a corporate brochure and read a robotic tweet stating ‘Going forward we shall implement a prototype realignment within our cross functional service plan strategy,’ instead an easy-going tweet along the lines of ‘we are working on a new customer service plan that our customers will love’ is much better.

We hope the points above have been very helpful. If you are still unclear about the opportunities online marketing can do for your business, please do not hesitate to contact us. We will be very glad to help.

The secret world of Affiliate Marketing

5 December 2011 - Digital

Many companies and a lot of internet users in the UK have no idea the world of Affiliate Marketing exists, what its purpose is or that it is a multi-million pound industry that could seriously increase you company’s turnover. It shouldn’t be ignored by any online business looking to increase its visitors, sales and profits.

The principles of Affiliate Marketing are simple – you get as many online marketeers and website owners as possible to promote your brand or company and then if they generate you some worthwhile business, you give them some commission (usually per sale). They make money and you make lots of money – everyone’s a winner, it’s a no-brainer really. Sound easy? Well here’s some additional information that you need to know:

Affiliate Networks house the Affiliate Programmes, there’s normally an up-front cost accrued for the set-up of your affiliate programme plus the Affiliate Network normally takes a percentage of each sale and often a monthly management fee too. Affiliate Networks are like a regulating body, at one end they look after all of the merchant programmes, at the other end they look after all of the affiliates signed up to their programmes and in between is their tracking and reporting interface. Both merchants (you) and affiliates need a transparent way of tracking who generated sales, where they came from, what they were for and how much commission to pay.

Affiliate Marketing has been around for well over ten years in its present form, albeit a lot less competitive and lots easier for affiliates to make money with in the past. In the early years ‘bedroom affiliates’ could become millionaires overnight, well… not exactly overnight but it only took one booming Christmas for an Affiliate promoting that year’s must-have item to become very wealthy. Especially as the term ‘bedroom affiliate’ was coined to basically mean internet-geeks sat in their bedroom on their computer with no overheads, no staff and hardly any outgoings. In the world of Affiliate Marketing, millionaires can be made without the need to speak to anyone in person or deal with any of the trials and tribulations fully blown businesses encounter on a daily basis.

Many huge retailers use Affiliate Marketing as a promotional channel to add incremental revenue to their business. Companies such as Amazon, Argos, Sky, Dell and many others understand the full value of a successful Affiliate Marketing campaign. In recent years, Affiliate Marketing has evolved massively and is now a far more technical process designed to ensure that businesses are getting value for money and both merchants and affiliates are playing by the rules. Nowadays, affiliates are often companies employing large numbers of staff with an annual turnover in the millions.

Some businesses steer clear as they don’t fully understand the world of Affiliate Marketing and are scared of getting ‘ripped-off’ and indeed, some merchants have had their fingers burnt in the past. As with any money-making venture, there is always going to be some unscrupulous individuals looking to take advantage and the Affiliate Marketing world is no different. There are many loopholes and pitfalls that could lead to a company being exploited unless they know 100% what they are doing. The terms ‘brand bidding’, ‘cookie dropping’ and many others may sound unfamiliar to you but these are practices that could end up costing you serious amounts of money and lining the pockets of a savvy but unprincipled affiliate.

Fortunately there are agencies such as us who know the potential pitfalls and dark areas of Affiliate Marketing and can be your guiding light to success. Our Online Marketing team have over 10 years of experience of the industry from both sides of the Affiliate Marketing fence. The Affiliate Marketing arena generates millions for companies who use it wisely so if you are looking to grow your online presence, generate more sales or just want some more information, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

The Pioneering Years of the World Wide Web

2 December 2011 - Digital

These days we couldn’t imagine life without the World Wide Web.  If it disappeared overnight the civilised world would come to a grinding halt, and a few of us would be out of a job. Yet, it has only been around for a relatively short time.  So us Digital bods at HROC thought it would be a good idea to give you a very brief history of the pioneering years of the World Wide Web 1989-2003.

March 1989

You can probably trace the World Wide Web’s roots back to the invention of the first electric telegraph in 1831, the fax in 1843, the first telephone call in 1914 and the Sputnik launch in 1957. But the Web really started in March 1989 when British born Tim Berners-Lee, who was employed as a computer scientist at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland wrote a paper entitled ‘Information Management: A Proposal’.  This document was to transform the world as we knew it.

The ‘Proposal’ outlined a plan to manage information by using a ‘hypertext’ method of linking related documents together over a computer network.

It read:

• Remote access across networks
• Cross-system compatibility (called “Heterogeneity” in the proposal)
• No centralisation – allowing nodes to be created where they were needed
• Access to existing data
• Bookmarks (called “Private Links”)
• And so on…

As you can see this ‘Proposal’ is extremely similar to the method that links the pages on the Web today.

October 1990

In October 1990, Berners-Lee teamed up with Belgium born Robert Cailliau and they set about working on a prototype entitled the ‘WorldWideWeb’ (the name was later changed to incorporate the spaces between the words). The pages on this system could be viewed and edited using the ‘WorldWideWeb Browser/Editor’ (this name was also later changed to Nexus). At this time the information on the Web was strictly text only, the browser was not capable of displaying images.

February 1993

The Web remained in this text only format until February 1993 when American born NCSA  developer, Marc L. Andreessen, programmed and released the Mosaic Web Browser for Unix’s X-Windows platform. This browser had the capability to show graphics on the World Wide Web for the very first time.

Early 1994

As interest in the Web increased, NETCOM joined the fray by releasing a programme named Netcruiser (originally known as Internet Xpress) for the Microsoft Windows 3.1 Operating System. This programme allowed users to gain access to the Web and contained a browser very similar to the Mosaic, further enhancing the Web’s graphical capabilities. In March of 1994 some NCSA employers, including Marc L. Andreesen, left the company to form Mosaic Communications Corp. (this was later changed to Netscape Communications).

Late 1994

Late in 1994 the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was founded by Tim Berners-Lee at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Laboratory for Computer Science (MIT/LCS) with the aid of the European Commission and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which had been a pioneer in the development of the actual Internet.

The intention of W3C was to ensure compatibility and agreement among industry members in the adoption of new World Wide Web standards.

1994 to 2003

During this time versions of ‘Hyper Text Mark Up Language’ (HTML) were developed and released, and finally XML and XHTML 1.0 were unleashed on the Web.

This period also saw the war between Netscape and Microsoft to deliver the ultimate Web browser experience.  This hotly contested battle was ultimately won by Microsoft, who bundled their browser with their dominant Windows Operating System.

The Web continued to grow in popularity and more and more people gained access  to the Internet. Even today, many people do not understand that the Internet and World Wide Web are actually two different things.

December 2003

On December 31st, 2003, Tim Berners-Lee was awarded a CBE for his pioneering work in creating the World Wide Web.

The World Wide Web has had a major influence and affect on millions of people all around the globe and it all came about from a paper written in 1989 by a man born in London.

Glossary of SEO terms (Part 1)

29 November 2011 - Digital

The process of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is full of abbreviations and acronyms, which allow us SEOers to discuss more complex terms easily – a simple acronym such as ‘SERP’ is a lot easier (and quicker) to say than the mouthful that is ‘Search Engine Results Page’.

It is all well and good that the people in the know use these SEO terms, but if we start spouting these terms during meetings and in emails how on earth do you know what we are talking about?

Unless you have an understanding of SEO, all of the terms and acronyms will almost certainly go over your head, and if they do, please tell us! We will be more than happy to explain what they mean, and please don’t think we are trying to hide behind them and baffle you with words that have no substance.

To give you a quick heads up, below is a list of five SEO terms, expressions and acronyms (and their meanings) that regularly crop up when SEO is being discussed. I will be bringing you a new set of SEO terms on a regular basis so keep your eyes peeled for the next update!

What is Alt Text (Alt Tag)?

This is a shortened term that stands for ‘alternative text’ and is used to describe what appears in an image on your website, and appears when you hover your cursor over the image. It is important that the alt text used for an image accurately describes what is being depicted as software for visually impaired users of the internet also read aloud this text to describe to the user what is depicted on screen.

What are Backlinks (Inbound Links)?

You will often hear SEO specialists telling you how important these are for your website – and they’d be right. These are links from another site on the internet linking to a specific web page on your site or your entire site. Generally, the more backlinks you have, the higher you will rank (but it’s not always that simple!).

What is a Click Through Rate (CTR)?

Commonly used when discussing Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns, this is a measurement of how many times a link that has appeared on a search engine results page (SERP) has been clicked. If a link to your site has appeared on a results page 100 times (100 impressions) and has received 20 clicks then the Click through rate is 20%. The higher the click through rate the more people are seeing your website and therefore increasing the possibility of a sale (conversion).

What is a Description Tag (Meta Description Tag)?

Similar to an alt tag (above), a meta description tag describes what is featured on the web page that it is connected to. The meta description tag also appears on a search engine results page below the title link. Meta description tags are an indicator to search engines as to what information a page is offering.

What is Google Analytics?

This is a web based tool that allows an SEO specialist to view the statistics of visitors to your site. It can track, amongst other things, how many visitors your site has had, how many pages they viewed and how long they spent on the site. It can also aid us in identifying keywords that visitors are searching for when visiting your site. An essential tool when optimising and tracking visitors to your site.

If you require an SEO specialist to help get your site ranking higher and attracting more visitors, or for a further, detailed description for any of the terms above, please give us a call and we will be more than happy to help.

Keep a look out for the Glossary of SEO terms (Part 2) coming soon!

Digital Marketeer | SEOer | SEO Strategist: Is your head spinning?

10 June 2011 - Digital

A man walks into a bar, gets into a conversation with the barman and the theme turns to occupations. Barman explains his bar work is part-time and he is a plumber by trade. Easy. Read more >

How the world of SEO has changed over the past year

6 April 2011 - Digital

We are now sitting in April 2011 and looking back at the changes that have occurred in the ‘SEO World’ over the past 12 months. Whilst we reflect on these changes that many of us are witnessing Read more >