Over 31 M UK web users do (on average) more than 4 searches per day each

Earlier this month, comScore who measure the digital world released UK search rankings for April 08. The top 10 sites accounted for 96% of UK searches with Google sites accounting for 74.2% of all searches. The next 3 best sites accounted for less than 14%:-

• eBay 6.0%
• Yahoo sites 4.3%
• Microsoft sites 3.4%

The research identified there were over 4 billion searches in the UK in May 08 (more than any other European country). Over 31 million users searched at least once during the month with the average being over 4 searches per user per day. See details of comScore survey.

So if you want to attract more people to visit your website you number one priority must be to get a good ranking with Google.

Google Pay Per Click gives you a high degree of control and immediate results for a large range of KeyWords. Organic or natural search offers 'zero cost' clicks but takes much longer to get results and usually covers a smaller range of KeyWords.

Both Pay Per Click & SEO should be part of your web marketing strategy to attract target prospects. Note, I use the word target prospects and not just any visitor. For more information, see my blog posts Is more web traffic always a good thing?

and Does search play a big enough role in your web marketing strategy?

Remember...web marketing is about solving customers' problems profitably.

Peter Hawtin is an internet marketing specialist with Brand New Way, a UK web marketing agency which helps companies to attract and retain valuable customers online.

Is more web traffic always a good thing?

It's natural to assume that more web traffic is a good thing but this is not always true. For most web sites, the quality of the web traffic is much more important than quantity. 

By quality, you key web metrics should be measuring the performance against your key web objective, which could be sales revenue or leads or downloads etc. There is no point in being fixated on increasing web traffic (the number of visits or unique visits) if there is no corresponding increase in sales, leads or downloads.

Measurement of key web metrics is crucial to ensure that you maximise your Marketing ROI and achieve the best results for every £ spent. 

Attracting target web leads is one of the 3 key ways that I help my clients to attract and keep valuable customers. The key word here is target. Traffic for traffic's sake is pointless. e.g. When I started using Google PPC in 2003, one of my clients had already set up a Google AdWords campaign. I was able to make an immediate improvement by eliminating ineffective KeyWords and changing the ad copy. This resulted in 50% less web traffic and 50% less PPC spend but no change on sales. i.e. They achieved the same sales for half the cost.

Previously, they had focused too much on increasing web traffic and too little on conversion rates and sales. 

Key Learning

Focus on the quality of your web visitors, not just the quantity.

Get more information on Marketing ROI

Remember...web marketing is about solving customers' problems profitably.

Peter Hawtin is an internet marketing specialist with Brand New Way, a UK web marketing agency which helps companies to attract and retain valuable customers online.

Are the inward links to your website smart?

Some people say 'all publicity is good publicity'. I guess the same people would say all inward links to your web site are good links. I disagree with both views.

Inward links are one of the ways that Google use to determine your web site's ranking for a particular keyword. Inward links help Google evaluate:-

• the importance of your site - with more links from sites with high page ranks the better
• which keywords are relevant to your web site based on the anchor text used on the other site
• what your website is about 

So, finding other relevant high ranking sites that will link to your site is a good objective. I would be delighted if the www.bbc.co.uk reported on some of my articles and linked to my web site.

However, some people are so keen to get a higher Google ranking (than they deserve) they resort to unethical ways to achieve this. This is only likely to offer a short term improvement (if any). Clearly Google want to ensure that the cream rises to the top and I am sure Google have hundreds or thousands of smart people trying to prevent unethical methods distorting their search results. Once found out, there is a risk of your site being blacklisted by Google which would be no small issue. 

Today, I received an email which said 

'I have been reading over your web marketing site after finding you on a Google search and would like to suggest a resource that might be useful to your other visitors.' 

It came from a media agency promoting one of their clients that makes handmade silver jewellery. Of course, some of my web visitors might buy jewellery. They also might buy cars, pianos, stocks, clothing or rhino horns. However, given my site content includes marketing newsletters, a marketing ROI system, a Marketing Performance Index & marketing seminars it doesn't seem a natural fit to me unless it was part of a web marketing article because:-

• they had a great website or
• did outstanding web marketing or 
• provided some sort of terrific service to me or someone I knew

What would a visitor to a web marketing site make of a straight link to a jewellery site? To me, it would seem out of place.

What do you think?

Remember...web marketing is about solving customers' problems profitably.

Peter Hawtin is an internet marketing specialist with Brand New Way, a UK web marketing agency which helps companies to attract and retain valuable customers online.

Can your web customers trust you?

It should be no surprise that businesses who lose the trust of their customers are unlikely to increase their Customer Life Time Value. This damage to trust can happen in many ways.

It may be due a failure to carry out your core service well or a failure to respond adequately to a customer concern. 

For web businesses, data is becoming a big potential cause of loss of trust. In the last year, there have been a number of high profile examples of Government departments and companies losing customer data.

How companies use the data is equally important. In my case, I collect prospect data when people sign up to my marketing newsletter. However, I make it clear when people sign up that I will never sell or share their email address and they can opt out at any time.

USA Today recently reported that a woman in Texas had 'sued Blockbuster for alleging that they had transmitted her personal information to Facebook.com through the website's Beacon marketing program.' Her claim is that Facebook's Beacon got information on her movie buying and rental habits from Blockbuster by tracking her usage without her permission. Blockbuster deny the allegation. Read More

Facebook advertise Beacon as a programme to 'enable your customers to share their actions they take on your website with their Facebook friends.' For some people, viewing friends or colleagues purchase behaviour is considered helpful. For some years, Amazon have made recommendations such as "Other people who bought x also bought y.' However, they do this anonymously (as I don't know who the individuals are) but I have always found this service very useful and made numerous purchases based on the recommendations. 

In time, we will find out the US court findings for the Blockbuster case. Blockbuster may have asked for (and received) her permission to share her data to others. The woman from Texas may have given her approval or not, but I assume that given she is taking the case to court that she doesn't believe that she gave her permission. 

Permission is the key issue. Some people might not want their friends to know every book they have read or every film they have bought. I wouldn't feel comfortable about sharing every purchase I made to Facebook friends. I would be happy to share a selection or to share recommendations and by coincidence, last week I added an Amazon feature on this blog showing books that I have read recently. Some people might be interested and perhaps go on to read the books.

The key points for me to avoid losing your customer's trust are:-

• think long and hard before sharing user / customer data
• be sure that your business will really benefit, or is it a potential 'own goal'
• check the legal implications carefully
• even if it is legal, make sure it doesn't compromise your customer Terms & Conditions or just as importantly, their expectations
• make sure they know that the data is being shared in advance and as explicitly as possible

If you lose the trust of your customer, it will be hard if not impossible to get it back. It's more important to increase customer lifetime value, than 'make a quick buck'.

Remember...web marketing is about solving customers' problems profitably.

Peter Hawtin is an internet marketing specialist with Brand New Way, a UK web marketing agency which helps companies to attract and retain valuable customers online.