The following conversation contains scenes of SEO nudity, and may not be suitable for the easily offended, the SEO ignorant, or most CEOs. Reader discretion may be advised. The names and personal details have been changed to protect the clueless. MeansWell: “Okay, but this one, this one here, this is a really important keyword for us.” Me: “Great, let me look into that.” … Read More
Why Google know best (better than you too)
The anti-Google brigade seem to have missed Google’s greatest coup: not only knowing everything about us, but now even understanding our intentions better than we do ourselves. For example when I search for Cloud Computing, of the nine standard results that Google show me, six are variations of “what is cloud computing“, even though I may have been looking for … Read More
What everybody needs to know about tracking
The era of being able to accurately track your online marketing efforts is over. Or more accurately: the era of thinking you could accurately track your online marketing is over. Only a few years ago, we thought we could track almost every single keyword that was used to find our websites. The reality was that we could track the keywords … Read More
How do I know if my AdWords account is working?
When it comes to AdWords, what works for some may not work for others. One account’s goals may be different from another. I might want to show my ads to a large number of people, while you might only want to show your ads to those who are at a specific point in the purchase process. We each have different … Read More
Taking a step back (WWBD)
I recently stumbled across a great source of practical, qualified and tailored advice for our company. He knows our business like no-one else, is an expert in his field, always has time for us, and is completely free. (Despite the publishing date of this post, this is not an April Fool’s Joke.) Aaron and I recently had our annual get-together, … Read More
Data can cause pain and irreparable damage
Tracking is deadly. It skews our perception of reality, gives us a dangerously false sense of security, and pushes us into making poor decisions. In our own company, we track the work that we do to near-psychotic levels of accuracy. Note that isn’t a boast thinly veiled to look like criticism (I’m thinking of “my greatest weakness is my attention … Read More
Why shouldn’t you choose a local firm? Because you’re worth it.
As a service provider, who would you think is our biggest competitor? It’s not another SEO agency, and it’s not an AdWords agency. It’s the firm based near where you work, who can walk, drive or commute to where your business is run. This is ludicrous. Historically it made a great deal of sense. Our parents and grandparents did business … Read More
How to adapt to not having keyword data
Last week’s post on Why keywords are no longer relevant to SEO produced more of a reaction than anticipated. Today I’ll show you how to adapt to the new reality. In a sense, Google have done the SEO world a favour, by forcing us away from a flawed model. Even ignoring the (not provided) issue, the fact is that different … Read More
Why keywords are no longer relevant to SEO
SEOs have to take their fingers out of their collective rears. Apologies for the vulgarity (this was the toned-down version) but being an SEO in 2015 means you have to duck and weave with Google, fight web designers, combat the “we’ve always done it this way” mentality, and, depressingly, fight the never-ending wave of ignorance within the SEO industry. I’ll … Read More
The AdWords vs. SEO debate is over
I think it’s time to stop chewing over the SEO vs. AdWords debate. Here’s why. Google have long argued an absolute separation of their organic and paid search results, at least from the point of view of the factors and variables involved. Yet the two sets of results have, over the years, moved closer to each other, both in terms … Read More
