Retaining customers has a lot in common with getting more exercise. We know how important it is, we sometimes feel powerless to affect it, and it often takes a crisis to make us actually do something constructive about it. One of the reasons for this is the apparent lack of tangible data points for us to latch on to. Every Wednesday … Read More
What can you do when Google are wrong?
We just discovered a bug in Google Analytics. In itself that’s worrying enough, but Google appear quite adamant that this isn’t an issue. I strongly disagree. Here’s what happened. While recently reviewing organic search traffic in Google Analytics, we noticed that some of what Google was identifying as organic was actually coming from AdWords. When we looked further, Analytics identified … Read More
Does the name really matter?
An enormous amount of time is usually spent naming a product or service, but is this necessary or justified? Conventional marketing thinking certainly thinks so, but I’m starting to think that this may not matter as much as it once did. There are the obvious blunders to avoid – names that are too easily mispronounced, misspelt, have sexual connotations or … Read More
Why are you still using that old thing?
You’re almost certainly running Google Analytics on your website. But have you ever stopped to question why? Most likely it’s down to one of the following: Because it’s free. If so then you might want to question the wisdom of choosing a solution that monitors your website, analyses your online efforts and essentially directs and evaluates all of your digital … Read More
2013 – the year that SEO died
We’re just about to start an SEO project with a new client, and around ten days ago I received the following email. I’ve been working with SEO for more than 16 years, and every year come across hundreds of such predictions. I even wrote a blog post on the subject (SEO is dead. Long live SEO.) more than three years … Read More
A needle in an SEO-stack
Finding a good SEO is as difficult as finding a good accountant*. There’s an abundance of options to choose from, most look good on paper, and they usually sound good when you reach out to them. More importantly still, there’s a good chance that you don’t have the right skills when it comes to separating the sub-standard bullshitters from the … Read More
SEO tools don’t do SEO
The average software company has 1.5 more SEO tools than they use. Obviously a completely fictitious and ridiculous statistic, but when it comes to SEO, it’s become fashionable to talk utter crap. Last week I had a call with a company interested in our SEO services. We discussed the problem that they’re facing, and they offered to send me data … Read More
Processes that should never exist
As a UK business you have to register for VAT (value added tax).  Stick with me on this.  You have to register “if your turnover of VAT taxable goods and services supplied within the UK for the previous 12 months is more than the current registration threshold of £79,000, or you expect it to go over that figure in the … Read More
Repel Your Visitors – with examples
I’ve put together a non-exhaustive list of more than thirty ways to ensure that visitors to your website don’t stick around. I suspect that most people reading this are guilty of at least one or two. Fixing them will genuinely make the visitors’ experience, the web and even the world a slightly better place. Â (See number 18.) Confuse them: 1. … Read More
Website teardown: BrickOvenBaker.com
Today’s website teardown is a little brutal. I’ve been in touch with today’s victim, and in the last email he had the following to say:Â “Dave, please be as brutal as you need to be.” I am delighted to oblige. “I look forward to having the shit kicked out of my site.” Excellent. “I hate it more than anybody else and … Read More
