Tom Doyle

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Posts Tagged Search engine optimization

Web design search volume in decline

Jan 7

Posted by Tom Doyle in Online Marketing, Web Design, Web Development


As the recession hit, most web design companies were busier than they had ever been before. There seemed to be a sudden rush of businesses trying to get online. In the majority of cases it was a knee-jerk reaction to prop up their falling incomes. During the latter half of 2009, this sudden rush seemed to have abated. There are many stories flying around that some of the major web design companies in Ireland are hanging on by the skin of their teeth and offering well below cost websites in order to generate some sort of cash flow.

Although they say that 99% of all statistics are made up, it’s still worth looking at some… :)

Google Trends is a great tool for researching keyphrase search popularity over a number of years of traffic on Google. So I used this tool to run a few searches on terms relating to web design to see if it could paint any sort of picture of what the state of the web design is in.

Web Design Search Stats - Google Trends

As you can see from above graph, the search term “web design” has been on a massive decline since the recording of the statistics began. Interestingly, if you take a close look at the latter quarter of 2009, you can also see a steady decline in searches for “web design”.

December is generally a slow time for new business in web design terms, so there are no surprises when you see the massive dips in searches across all years. Also quite interesting, is the steady performance of the term “website design”. In fact, there’s possibly a slight growth in searches for this term throughout 2009.

Does this mean that the web design industry has finally entered the recession with everyone else?

Only time will tell I guess…

Looking at the other side of our business; online marketing, it appears to be performing quite well. There is an obvious increase in searches for “SEO” – everyone seems to know what it is now or at least know someone that fancies themselves as one. There is a decline in searches for “Internet Marketing” though, maybe a phrase that has been lost to the popularity of “SEO”.

Although it’s hard to see from this graph, there has been a surge in searches for “Social Media Marketing“, which started showing up on the radar in 2007. No surprises there, since it’s the latest and greatest buzz word on the planet!

Online Marketing Search Trends

We’ll never get a true picture of the web design or online marketing industry from statistics like this. For example, the searches for “SEO” are being diluted by people trying to figure out how to market their own websites rather than actually looking for those services. None-the-less it’s interesting reading for anyone in or trying to get into this industry.

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Business Blog or Not?

Aug 21

Posted by Tom Doyle in Internet & Computers, Online Marketing

Here’s a little scenario I’d like you to think about. It’s something we come across on a regular basis.

Tom runs a landscape gardening company and has a small 5 page websitewith the following structure:

Home Page
About Us
Services
Examples of Our Work
Contact Us

At the moment, Googlehas listed all 5 pages from his website on their search results. Tom knows that he shouldn’t really target more than 2-3 keyphrases per page and that his contact page and examples page have very little content, so therefore would be pointless to use for keyword targeting.

That leaves Tom with 3 pages that he can use to target Google for his chosen keyphrases. He thinks to himself, “surely there’s an easier way to get more pages on my website, so I can target more phrases”.

Tom notices that there’s a one day seminar being run in his local enterprise centre on online marketing. So he decides to attend. An apparently well respected Online PR expert recommends that he should use a blog as it will “significantly increase his ranking on Google”.

So after the seminar, Tom’s mission is to install a blog on his website. The first article he write is titled ”how to create a perfect lawn”. He remembers the Online PR expert mentioning that most blogshave a system whereby they “ping” Google to let it know that you have published an article. In most cases, your article should appear pretty quickly on Google, in some cases in less than 15 mins.

After publishing his article, he does a quick check on Google to see how many pages of his site they have indexed (site:yourdomainname.com). “Brilliant”, he exlaims! “I now have a 6 pages listed on Google! If I keep going at this rate, I’ll have hundreds of pages indexed by Google in a few weeks. This is gonna be great!”, Tom thinks to himself.

As days go by, Tom keeps a close eye on his website statistics and notices that the site is getting a lot of traffic for “how to create a perfect lawn” and “a perfect lawn” etc. Surprisingly for Tom, he hasn’t yet got one sales enquiry. “Why could this be?”, he thinks.

Tom contacts his local SEO expert and asks for some advice. The SEO expert quickly points out that anyone searching for “how to create a perfect lawn” are unlikely to be looking to hire someone? “Isn’t it most likely that they will be trying this themselves since they searched Google on how to do it?”, the SEO expert says. “Ah, that makes sense”, says Tom.

So the next day, Tom decides to create an article that is more tailored towards the keyphrases he wants to target, rather than providing free tips and tricks. His new article is called “Landscape Gardening in Ireland”. He doesn’t want it to appear as a spam article, so rather than just filling a page with keyphrases, he spends quite sometime researching and writing a post on “Landscape Gardening in Ireland”.

After a few days, he checks his website stats again… “YES!”, he exclaims. “I’m being found for “landscape gardening in Ireland” and Google has 7 pages of my website indexed!”, he says.

Tom is delighted, this is great news. Tom thinks, “But why have I not got any sales enquiries?”. “Surely this time, people searching for “landscape gardening in Ireland” are looking for a landscape Gardner?”, Tom thinks to himself.

On further inspection of his website statistics, Tom notices that most people finding his website are going directly to his blog article and then leaving the website. They’re not even bothering to have a look at his wonderful portfolio page of all his great work. Tom’s unsure where to turn next. He has wasted time writing these articles that he doesn’t even enjoy doing and he has plenty of other things that he could. On top of this, he’s not too sure what to write about next… But what should he do??

Does this sound like you?

The simple answer to this is – Tom should talk to someone who can help – www.2bscene.ie would be a good place to start! :)

The above scenario is similar to situations we encounter on a regular basis. Website and business owners are led to believe that blogging is the be all of a successful online marketing campaign. The simple fact is that they can be, but NOT for everyone.

The truth is that most of those requesting a blog have been ill informed about the true value a blog provides. Most don’t really understand how to use a blog successfully as part of an online marketing campaign. They expect miracle results even though they’re not sure what exactly a blog does or can do for them.

The increase in requests for blogs can lie squarely at the feet of fly-by-night SEO Experts and ”social media and online marketing experts”. These guys love to talk the talk, but most have never really walked the walk. They hype blogs as the saviour in terms of promoting and marketing your website. Unfortunately, they only give away half the facts.

To get the answers you need to see if you it’s worthwhile you need to ask them the following questions:

  1. Do you think it would suit my business?
  2. Do you think I could generate business from a blog?
  3. If so, what would my best approach to doing this be?
  4. Have you examples of clients you have helped create a return with a blog?
  5. If so, can I talk to them!

That should be enough to have them either running away or helping you understand how a blog might help your business.

Here are the simple facts:

  1. Blogs DO NOT increase your search engine ranking
  2. Google loves content – the more you have – the better (ideally it should be related to your area of business)
  3. Blogs DO help you create more content for the search engines – therefore, you should increase the traffic to your website, because your website is likely to be indexed for more search terms
  4. Blogs are a great way of building your profile and help promote you as an authority in your field

Whatever your reason for wanting a blog, please don’t be fooled by those selling it to you as a “magic bullet” solution for search engine rankings. It’s not, if it was everyone would just install one rather than hire a SEO expert.

Blogs can be good for your business, but you need to seriously consider why you are creating a blog. You also need to consider if you plan to create business from your blog and if you do, what is the best approach to achieve this.

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Google local business search – how important is it?

Aug 17

Posted by Tom Doyle in Online Marketing

I had a conversation recently with a respected SEO expert, that shall remain nameless for the moment in relation to Google’s local business search. I told him how I felt that I had yet to fully crack how results appeared at the top of these search results. Of course I’d read a lot about how in theory it worked, but hadn’t yet (with my own tests) seen examples of it actually working. For

Something he said to me triggered my thought process and I made a few changes to 2bscene’s listing to see how it affected it. Within days I was ranking in the top local business search results for “online marketing dublin“, “internet marketing dublin” and a phrase we hadn’t ever ranked for before, “web design dublin“. We’ve been there for the past week now and have had time to assess the value of it to our business.

The reason this SEO guy brought up the local business search with me was to see if I was getting any business or even traffic from it. During our conversation, I obvioulsy couldn’t help, but now with some statistics behind me I can give some indication of its use in terms of traffic and business development for people visiting our own website.

In the past week – we’ve seen an obvious increase in visits from people finding us through Google local search. I can only truly say that one of the 10 odd visits from these searches has turned into business. This isn’t bad considering we weren’t appearing for that search phrase until last week.

I know this is very little to go on so we will be working with many other clients to help them get to the top of the local business search on Google, as I do and get more meaningful data, I will let you know how important we feel it is for your business.

If you need help getting found in Google’s Local Business Search results – contact us @ www.2bscene.ie

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Google Experts or are they?

Jul 30

Posted by Tom Doyle in Online Marketing

Over the past few months, we’ve had a number of clients contact us here at 2bscene to inform us that they’ve been offered these great deals by so called “Google Experts”.

Not only are these Google Experts promising them the sun, moon and stars, they are also insinuating that they are better than any other SEO company out there because of the speed at which they can get you to the top of the Google search results.

Quite frankly, they’re lying. Any SEO company that tells you “they can guarantee you a number one position”, “are better than other SEO companies” or that “they have inside knowledge of how Google works”, are quite simply lying and trying to scam you out of your hard earned cash.

Any true Google Expert will know that there is no way to control the results that Google presents in it’s search results, so therefore guaranteeing no. 1 position is impossible.

Yes, there are ways that SEO experts can manipulate the search results by carrying out specific search engine optimisation techniques on and off your website – but that’s really all that they can do for you. unfortunately, there is NO magic bullet when it comes to appearing at the top of the search results in Google.

In a way I’m glad there isn’t because it would probably mean that there wouldn’t be an SEO industry there for us to work in.

So what are those signs that you should look out for if someone is offering you a great SEO deal? Well here’s a few things you should know…

  1. You won’t be cold called by a Google Expert – the best SEO companies aren’t likely to need to ring you, they will most likely have a lot of business already and if really good, will be getting a lot of business from the web!
  2. If they promise you the sun, moon and stars – such as a No. 1 spot on Google – they are unlikely to be a genuine company.
  3. Promise to get you to the top of the search results for the name of your business – only 15% or so people searching the web will look for you business name, plus it’s one of the easiest things to do in terms of SEO.
  4. If they tell you the have inside information on how Google works – they are lying.
  5. And if they tell you they are the best…. well what can I say….

It’s like everything else in life… if it sounds too good to be true… it probably is!

If you receive one of these calls (or emails) – please don’t hesitate to contact me for some advice. Or of course, if you need help with your online marketing strategy contact us at www.2bscene.ie

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I need a website – how much will it cost?

May 27

Posted by Tom Doyle in Internet & Computers, Web Design, Web Development

In this day and age, every business should have a website. It doesn’t matter if you are a one man operation or a multi-national plc, your website could be one of the most cost effective sales leads generation tool you have ever had for your business. Of course, you need to take some important steps to ensure your website is generating the proper level of interest in order to get a maximum return.

Most of my working life is spent preparing quotes or speaking with people about getting a website. I constantly here the phrase “I need a website, how much will it cost? I hear it some many times that my structured brain would love to have a process in place where it could just spit out a one liner that will answer that question in an instant. Unfortunately for me, it’s not that simple.

There are so many things you can do with a website, that it’s impossible to gauge how much work is involved in a project without going into detail. Out old cliched response is obviously “how long is a piece of string”. This isn’t about us looking to sound smart, but more about it being the easiest way for us to get out point across.

Of course there are many projects that can be very straight forward, you know the ones, a 5 page website with a reply form. We could usually give you a ballpark figure on this type of website pretty quickly. Generally speaking, those people that want a website of this nature tend not to want to make much of an investment in their website and are looking for a cheap and nasty solution because they believe they “have to” have a website. They tend not to be that interested in trying to achieve a return on this investment and really just want a “presence”.

Do I think this is the right approach?
In some cases it’s fine – like how much information can you really say about a one man electrician company? The lack of competition in the search engines for something this specific could make it a worthwhile investment for this business. But what happens when all the other electricians come on board and also get themselves a simple website? Very quickly there will be a lot of businesses in that space all fighting for the top positions on Google.

In most cases a properly thought out website is the only way to go. Do you need to have a CMS? Do you need to interact with visitors to your website? What do you want to achieve with your website? How will it handle sales for your business? These are all questions that you should really be asking yourself when planning the development of your new website.

Cut to chase Tom, how much will it actually cost me to build a website?
Well again there are many variations. A typical brochure site with 5-10 pages will cost you anywhere from €300 (from a cheap and nasty web design business) to over €3k (from a professional web design company). Once you start getting into bespoke application development, the cost can increase quite quickly into the 10s of thousands.

Working with the right web design company will help you get the most from your website. They will be able to guide you as to where you should put your money and effort for the best return.

If you’re looking for a quote on your web project – why not contact us on www.2bscene.ie

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Search Engine Marketing Tips from Microsoft

May 1

Posted by Tom Doyle in Online Marketing

Image representing Microsoft as depicted in Cr...
Image via CrunchBase

Microsoft’s Live Search Webmaster Centre Blog has started a new blog series on Search Engine Marketing. Topics to be covered include tips on how to improve your conversions from your website to how to run a successful pay per click campaign.

They also plan to include a new section to cover topics specific to search engine marketing. The first post will be titled “What is SEM and why does it matter?”

More information over here : http://blogs.msdn.com/webmaster/archive/2009/04/28/search-engine-marketing-101-a-new-blog-series.aspx

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Free Online Marketing Campaign worth €2,000!

Apr 28

Posted by Tom Doyle in Internet & Computers, Online Marketing

With the recession in full swing, now more than ever before can your website become the most cost effective way to market your business.

More and more people are opting to search for products or services online using search engines such as Google, MSN or Yahoo! If you want your website to be a success, it’s imperative that your business can be found for phrases relating to your business online.

So ask yourself this, are you getting business from your website? If not….. why not?

2bscene can help you answer this question. We will review your website and suggest ways to improve your websites visibility and increase your conversions.

We are also offering one lucky business the chance to win a FREE online marketing campaign worth €2,000.

To be in with a chance of winning – please email free-seo-campaign@2bscene.ie – include your contact details and the website address of the site you would like us to review.

The deadline for applications will be the 8th of May 2009, with the winner being announced 22nd of May 2009.

This offer is open to all Irish and UK businesses. Follow us on Twitter for updates on this special offer (and more).

So what are you waiting for, go tell everyone! :)

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Red Cardinals FREE €3k Conversion Optimisation of your website!

Apr 6

Posted by Tom Doyle in Online Marketing

The much respected SEO expert, Richard Hearne of Red Cardinal, has today launched an amazing offer for Irish website owners. He promises to give 5 Irish websites a free Conversion Rate Optimisation service worth €3,000 for free. Yes FREE!

To be in with a shot of getting this amazing offer for your business, get yourself over to his blog by clicking here
Further details of the offer are at the link above too.

Great idea from Richard and great opportunity for some Irish business to get their website making money for them!

You certainly won’t get a better offer anywhere else on the web!!

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Making your website work for you during the recession

Apr 1

Posted by Tom Doyle in Internet & Computers

I have seen a huge upturn in businesses looking to improve their online presence since the recession has taken hold. However, most people approaching us just want their website to be on the top of the Google results. It’s as if they have swallowed a handful of books on SEO and all of sudden think this is all they have to do to generate business online.

I agree, being on top of Google for products or services that your business provides is definitely a key part of any online presence, however it doesn’t just stop there. It takes a lot more to make your website work for your business.

Since the recession took hold, I have seen that more and more people are increasingly beginning to shop around and they seem to be taking a lot longer to make their purchasing decision. The time has come for you to take a serious look at your website and see where you can improve it, to make money online through this recession.


 

  1. Design
    I am a believer that design is subjective, let that not be confused with “good design” which is more of a usability issue. I like blue, you like green, we’re all different, so our tastes will be different. However, keeping your website design clean, neat and concise is of the utmost importance.Think of it like this, who would you buy from, the shop with the messy shop front and interior or the one that is clean and presents itself well? So if your website looks like it’s “dirty”, talk to your web designer to see if there is anything they can do for you.
  2. Usability
    If the visitors to your high-street store can’t open the door or can’t find that beautiful pair of jeans in the window, you’ve quite simply lost the sale.It’s the very same on your website.If visitors can’t get to the areas that interest them quickly and easily, they will leave your website in an instant. So If you have an important message to get across – make it as clear as possible and provide plenty of call-to-actions so that they can interact with you as easily as possible.

    Access to key areas within one click (where possible) is extremely important. Avoid creating a situation where the user has to go all the way back to the homepage to get to another area of your site. Think of it like going into a shopping centre, can you imagine visiting each shop and then having to return to the entrance to find another store?

  3. Online Marketing / SEO / SEM
    There is so much you can do to promote your business online. Although I do believe that targeting the organic search results in the major search engines is one of the most important elements of online marketing, it is also one of the slowest and most time consuming. Fingers crossed we will begin to see the recession fade very soon, have you really got six months to wait until you appear on top of the organic search results?So in the meantime don’t be afraid to dabble in different areas of online marketing. Pay Per Click campaigns don’t have to be expensive if done strategically. Creating a simple Twitter special offer campaign can be thought up in a few minutes of brainstorming. Writing an article on your blog with inside information that will make people turn their heads and get exposure for your business. All of these are done quite simply and shouldn’t take more than a day to get it done.

So if you are sitting on your thumbs waiting on the next customer to come in the door, now is the time to reassess your web presence and see what you can do to improve things.

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Searchers becoming more sophisticated with their searches

Feb 27

Posted by Tom Doyle in Online Marketing

hitwise-search-percentage-us-clicks-number-keywords-january-2009The past year has seen an astonishing increase in the number of keywords used in a typical online search query.

People searching for keyphrases of 8 or more words increased by over 22% in the last year.

Searches with 5 or more phrases have increased 10% over the last year. The data comes from Hitwise with a sample of 10 million Internet users.

In our business we call this a “long tail” search. Long-tailing is something we have been talking about for years now and although it’s growth is surprising, most SEOs would have used long tail strategies in their online marketing campaigns. The reason is simple. The searches are more specific, therefore, there should be less competition and in turn this should result in more conversions. However, you are likely to get a lot less traffic for such specific searches.

So it’s probably time to take a serious look at your SEO keyphrase strategy! It looks like people are becoming more specific in their searches when seeking the information they require.

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