Insider Programme: The Topics
These are the scheduled topics for the first eight months. These may change slightly as we account for new developments or demand for more information in certain areas.
Week 1:
Site Management - Part 1: Essential Site Tools
Installing two essential Free Tools from Google on your site
Playing the Google game might represent one of our biggest challenges in online marketing, but Google can also be a great help. Google Analytics is one of the most competent site traffic analysers available, and unlike most of its competition, it costs nothing. A second free product, Google Webmaster Tools, gives you comprehensive insights into how the outside world views your site. We explain why you should set up these services immediately, and how to do it.
Week 2:
Search Engine Optimisation - Part 1: Keyword Research
Thinking about the search terms you want to be found for
Before you start trying to improve your site's performance in the search engine results, you need to decide on the search terms which you want to concentrate on promoting. Should these just be the generic descriptions of the products you sell? Or are you better off concentrating on slightly more offbeat "keywords"? How do you find out what your potential customers are typing into the search engines in the first place? We start to answer these key questions.
Week 3:
Site Report - No.1: Keyword Analysis
Finalising an initial list of key search terms
This week we'll provide a personalised report on your site, using some advanced tools, suggesting what we think are the search terms you might like to consider focusing on. Based on this and your own views and requirements, we should be able to create an ongoing working list. In addition, we'll take a few of the key search terms and set up an external monitoring service, checking the position of your site in Google's results each week and presenting them to you in a management report.
Week 4:
Web Analytics - Part 1: Overview
Discovering what your site visitors are actually doing
Site traffic analysis is much more than a nice graph of the number of visitors to your site. What statistics do products such as Google Analytics make available to you, and why are these useful? We explain important concepts such as goal tracking, and how you can use web analytics to get instant snapshots of the return on investment of any marketing initiative designed to "convert" through your website.
Week 5:
Site Report - No.2: Page Titles and Broken Links
Understanding the pages you have on your site
This week we'll provide a personalised report on your site, crawling the pages like a search engine would do and extracting all of the page titles, so we can see if there's room for improvement. We'll also take the opportunity to introduce the concepts of page titles, and as we "crawl" your website, to see if you have any broken links which need to be fixed. Nearly all websites do!
Week 6:
Page Content - Part 1: Titles and Meta Description Tags
Rewriting the important descriptive copy for search engines
In the code behind every one of your web pages is a series of descriptive items, many of them hidden. You're in control of these, and depending on how you maintain your site, you may have been neglecting them. But some of these "tags" and titles are very important. How do you create them and what should go in them? Which ones are important? We discuss the essential ones, as well as pointing out those which can safely be ignored.
Week 7:
Page Content - Part 2: Headlines
Creating great headlines which work for all types of visitor
Few things on the page are as important to human visitors or search engines as the headlines. For humans, they have to stand out visually. For search engines, they have to be coded to highlight their importance. And making them stand out is only half of the battle - they need to work hard for your page by containing the right words. We look at the things you need to bear in mind when writing the headlines on every new page on your site.
Week 8:
Page Content - Part 3: Body Copy
Increasing your word count to increase search engine traffic
In business-to-business marketing, writing effective content for humans and for search engines isn't so different. Your visitors want clear prose, and so does Google. Stuffing pages with key search terms is not the way to go; we explain what you should be putting on your pages, the things to keep in the back of your mind, and why you should make your voice consistent across your site.
Week 9:
Online Publicity - Part 1: Press Release Writing
Rethinking where these will end up and the implications on content
Press releases are no longer private communications between you and editorial professionals. You will almost certainly be putting your press releases on your own website, and they will be found by customers there (or on third-party sites which publish them as-is). So the press releases need to sell, and they need to direct people to the relevant pages on your website where they can obtain more information. Online publication has implications for the copywriting process too.
Week 10:
Online Publicity - Part 2: Press Release Distribution
Distributing your news more widely and more helpfully
One of the great advantages we have in business-to-business marketing is that it's relatively easy to get other web sites to link to us, because so many make a living out of the news which we provide. But we need to distribute our news widely and effectively, and encourage others to cover it in the most advantageous way. We discuss the various types of outlet, free and paid-for, and which are worth concentrating on.
Week 11:
Web Analytics - Part 2: Visitor Reports
Creating a regular report on what your visitors are doing
A professional analytics application such as Google Analytics should, even at its most basic level, be telling us a lot more about our site than just "traffic". We show you how to set up a report which focuses on one segment of your site visitors, such as the quality visitors who spend decent time on your site and come from a certain country. You'll also find out how to have it emailed to you and your colleagues.
Week 12:
Site Report - No.3: Strongest Pages
Examining which pages on your site the search engines rate
This week we'll provide another personalised report on your site, looking at the pages which the search engines consider to be the "strongest". This will help you understand how the search engines think, and more importantly will play a part in choosing the pages which will become the focus of your optimisation efforts for each of your major key search terms. You may also wish to downplay the importance of certain pages!
Week 13:
Site Management - Part 2: Web Site Navigational Structure
Getting the product in front of the customer
The instinctive way to structure your web site is like a pyramid, from the home page down through various categorisations to the most specific data. But it that really the best way? If product A is ten times as important to you as product B, are you making visitors go through the same number of steps to get to each of them, just for your own administrative convenience? We discuss the best practice, and how your existing site can be adapted to be a lot more efficient.
Week 14:
Search Engine Optimisation - Part 2: Internal Links
Optimising the links which you control
More than ever, links are the currency of search engine optimisation. Whilst it is critical to start encouraging more external links to your site, it is also important to use links within your site to create themes and present your site to search engines in the way you would like it to be seen. We look further at the concept of anchor text, how to make the links on your site work that bit harder, and how not to waste internal linking.
Week 15:
Search Engine Optimisation - Part 3: Linking Out
Helping people to leave your site to your advantage
There are good arguments for not linking out from your website to any other, and not only so you don't lose your visitors after spending so much time getting them to you. But the benefits of linking out can be even greater, and we explain why. The search engines like it, you become a useful resource for your visitors, and you can back up your claims and arguments with third-party references. In addition, links out encourage links in, and links to you are something you really need.
Week 16:
Link Building - Part 1: Requesting Links
Obtaining more links to your website, the key to search engine success
When it comes to improving your ranking in Google, getting quality, relevant sites to link to you is perhaps the most fundamental exercise you can undertake, and of course links aren't just for search engines, they can send a lot of traffic in their own right. Yet most companies underestimate the worth of good links. We look at how to start a link-building campaign, and some of the most basic links you should set about obtaining.
Week 17:
Site Report - No.4: Competitor Backlinks
Finding out who's linking to your competitors
One of the best places to start getting quality links to your site is to find out where your competitors' quality links are coming from, and to see if you can get links from the same sites yourself. Well, why not? We'll run a backlink report on a selection of competitive and complementary sites to your own, to see if we can find any obvious ones for you to approach (or if they're a directory or some sort of self-service site, to sign up to yourself).
Week 18:
Search Engine Optimisation - Part 4: Robots Control
Telling Google what you do and don't want in its index
Your web pages don't have to be in the search engine results. Google and its contemporaries are quite happy not to include pages if you don't want them to be included. Why would you want to remove pages, or stop them from being included in the first place, and how would you do it? What is the "noindex" tag and the "robots.txt" file, and how do you use them? Conversely, how do you get pages included in the search engines which stubbornly refuse to appear?
Week 19:
Site Management - Part 3: The Site Map
Setting up a clear index for every type of visitor to your website
A "site map" is a list of all the pages on your website. Now, while it's quite possible that your site navigation system is clear enough for any visitors (whether they're humans or search engines) to find their way around to every nook and cranny, you can help them with a site map. We'll look at the current recommendations how to do this, including how to automatically create a machine-readable sitemap file based around the standard agreed format.
Week 20:
Search Engine Optimisation - Part 5: Creating a Google-friendly site
Playing things by the book for the best results
The number one search engine provides a whole list of suggestions as to how you can make your site as attractive as possible to it. You need to get quality content and links on your home page, and to ensure you have a logical and sensible site structure. Most importantly, there are a whole list of things not to do, many of which may have been recommended by uninformed colleagues, or unscrupulous search engine optimisation consultants.
Week 21:
Site Report - No.5: Site SEO Analysis
Identifying further areas for improvement
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to your web site from the "natural" results in search engines. Search engine optimisation consultants can charge hundreds of pounds for an elementary assessment of your website to see if it ticks all the boxes, but we do one for you and show you how to do it yourself in future. We also discuss when it does make sense to call for the search engine optimisation consultants.
Week 22:
Web Analytics - Part 3: Goal Setting
Sorting out the quality visitors from the window shoppers
You know how many people are visiting your website, and where they're going when they're on the site. But the real advantage of proper web analytics is to record which visitors are taking the actions you want, from downloading a data sheet to making an RFQ - or even buying something from your online store. Only when you focus on these people can you work out a return on investment for your efforts in getting them to you. We show you how to do all this.
Week 23:
Site Content - Part 1: Authority Pages
Making yourself an authority that the search engines can't resist
Take a look at the pages which are ranking the highest on Google for your key generic product search terms. The chances are, they're encyclopaedic in nature, perhaps even being on Wikipedia or another online reference. But who's one of the foremost authorities on this generic product type? You are. Creating great reference pages on specific topics is a classic way to get to the top of the search engine results, and we look at why and how you should write some.
Week 24:
PPC Advertising - Part 1: Landing Page Design
Converting the traffic you pay so much for into real business
Before you even think about pay-per-click (PPC) advertising online, you need to have pages which you can send people to, tightly linked to the adverts. These pages should be geared at conversions - getting people to take the action you require, whether it's an enquiry or a sale. We show you how to create these pages, what to put in them for maximum effectiveness, and how to test different designs to optimise them for your market.
Week 25:
PPC Advertising - Part 2: Ad Networks
Mastering the options available to you in PPC advertising
Although Google AdWords dominates the pay-per-click (PPC) advertising market, there are alternatives which get you smaller amounts of traffic, but potentially at a cheaper rate due to lower competition. We look at the various choices, and also the options within each one such as the Google AdWords "Content Network", which allows you to put your PPC advertisement on specific, targeted websites in a very efficient way.
Week 26:
Online Publicity - Part 3: Mailshots by Email
Obtaining quick, direct response completely under your control
A one-off email to your customer base, or a bought-in list, can produce good response at very low cost. But what do you need to think about before sending one? How long should the email be, and how much of a hard sell is recommended? What are the particular considerations of the business-to-business sector? What about the format, and the subject line? We discuss the perceived wisdom in the market, and look at some examples of emails which have worked well.
Week 27:
PPC Advertising - Part 3: PPC Ad Writing
Designing a hard-working ad in just three short lines of text
Just what makes an effective pay-per-click (PPC) advertisement? With a lot of mass-market businesses spending massive amounts of money on PPC advertising, it's been inevitable that some of their tips and tricks have leaked into the public domain. We look at some of the techniques which have been successful and what we can learn from advertisers getting far more traffic than would ever be available in the business-to-business sector.
Week 28:
Online Publicity - Part 4: Email Newsletters
Producing a publication your customers will look forward to
Email newsletters to your customers and prospects put your name in front of them regularly, keep them engaged and establish you as an authority and a major player in the market. What's more, they allow you to create the image for your company that you want. But how often should you send them out, what format should they be in, and how much material should you put in them? We look at what's been working, and discuss what you should expect from them.
Week 29:
PPC Advertising - Part 4: PPC Ad Targeting
Selecting the keywords which will bring you low-cost, high-quality traffic
Creating a good pay-per-click (PPC) advertisement is only half the job. Just as with magazine adverts, where a great ad is useless if you don't select the right journals for it, with PPC advertising you need to select the right keywords to advertise against. The most obvious ones are rarely the ones which will bring you the most cost-effective traffic. We examine how to track down the keywords which will bring you traffic which converts, at low cost.
Week 30:
PPC Advertising - Part 5: Bid Management Strategies
Bidding just enough to minimise the cost per conversion
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements give you a lot of flexibility about where you appear. The more you bid, the higher you'll appear, and the more clicks you'll get, so the cost rises exponentially. But is it worth going to the top? Are most of your real conversions going to find you even if you're lower down? Testing is the best way to find out, but there are tools available which can help optimise your bid per click to minimise your cost per conversion.
Week 31:
Link Building - Part 2: Generating Links
Identifying where to put in effort, from Wikipedia to bloggers
Getting your company mentioned on another website gets you traffic, provides valuable links to help you in the search engine rankings, develops your brand, and helps establish you as an authority. Many are far more important to you than a print article, yet few companies spend the same amount of effort on online coverage as they do courting the approval of magazine editors. We look at ways of producing interesting content which will start generating links.
Week 32:
Search Engine Optimisation - Part 6: Duplicate Content
Keeping your website original and avoiding repetition
Duplicate content is a phrase which you hear quite often, and which is associated with a lot of scare stories concerning the search engines. We'll explain the different types of duplicate content, and which you should be concerned about, if any. With some of the content you generate (such as press releases) likely to be syndicated and reproduced on other websites, this is an aspect of online marketing that it's useful to be aware of.
Week 33:
Site Content - Part 2: Ideas for More Content
Expanding your website past a list of product data sheets
Expanding the volume of words on your website is the best way to catch those "long tail" searches, the ones which individually are rarely entered into Google but which in total form a lot of valuable traffic. But what can you write about, and what brief should you be giving to your writers? We discuss the main options, as well as some of the more offbeat features which are designed more to attract links than search engine referrals.
Week 34:
Online Publicity - Part 5: 3rd Party emailed publications
Making the most of independent publishers' email circulations
The business publishing sector has been astonishingly slow to invest in launching online journals and other email publications, but there are some good ones out there which can reach potential customers unknown to you, just like the printed trade magazines can. We look at the best way to be featured in these, whether it's in editorial or as an advertiser, and how to ensure that any coverage you get produces the maximum number of conversions.
Week 35:
Online Publicity - Part 6: Surveys
Finding out what your customers or prospects really want
Finding out what your customers or prospects think and want has never been easier, thanks to online survey services. Offering products and services which truly meet customer demands should be a reality determined through market research, not a vacuous marketing slogan. We look at how to set up online surveys to get a near-instant snapshot of customer thinking at almost no cost, for any subject from product development to feedback on events.
Week 36:
Site Content - Part 3: Blogging
Creating an effective blog with minimal effort
It sounds like even harder work than an email newsletter, both to produce and to set up, but a company blog is neither. It's a great way to add content to your website, and generate a circulation of interested customers and prospects, without the hard and fast commitment of a regular publication. A blog also constantly reinforces your position as an authority in your field. Best of all, it's now easier and cheaper than ever to set up and run. We show you how.
Week 37:
Link Building - Part 3: Buying Links
Obtaining more links to your website, the key to search engine success
The web is full of advice telling you never to buy links. But there are several ways in which you can buy them quite honestly and legitimately, and these methods are a lot quicker to produce results than the painstaking methods discussed earlier. As with all links, you get a double benefit: more traffic to your website via those links, and higher ranking in the search engines. We've put together half a dozen great ideas which you can use immediately.
