Xflow Marketing and Consulting Blogs

Website User Experience (UX)   It amazes me how often businesses go out of their way to obstruct customers. I see it regularly online and in the real world and it seems to me such an obvious way of losing sales – and yet it’s seemingly everywhere. Back in the eighties it was common to visit your local retailer rather than a big department store or multinational warehouse for most common household purchases.   I remember my local hardware store. The owner would stand on the wooden steps of his single doorway, arms folded and brow furrowed.   It was as if he was moonlighting as a nightclub bouncer and he couldn’t shake the habit. Every day he would stand there until eventually he went broke. Obviously there are many reasons a business might close its doors but it seemed to me this place could have at least helped itself by opening up the double doors, displaying some of its product just outside its shop and welcoming its customers from within the business. Instead, there wa...

The true value of your website   Current day search engines have moved on from a time where they crawled and indexed a web site based on its keywords then retrieved it from a static database. The first generation of SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) resembled an old library catalogue from a bygone era. They would return results  in a regimented fashion – often with the good bits being hidden way down the results list – never to see the light of day. Now, search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo use thousands of powerful servers, complex algorithms and even Artificial Intelligence to return better, more relevant results to online users.   Peppering your site with keywords can be a waste of time – unless you do it right.   Websites are now ranked based on a variety of reasons, and in truth, most people working within the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) industry are left to guess exactly what formulas are used by Google, Bing and Yahoo to rank and display a websi...

Google Search versus Google Display   Clients often ask me about the differences between Google Search and Google Display Advertising in their Adwords accounts. Most are not really aware of the key differences between the two main modes of PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising so I thought I might tackle it here.   So what does Google Search mean in my Adwords account?   Google Search is the most common way for businesses to get involved in Adwords. Bids are placed for specific keywords that relate to or are relevant to a business’ products or services. On the search network, ads are displayed either at the top or bottom of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Obviously the higher the position on the first page of the SERP, the higher the cost of the bid. Here’s an example of how a typical ad may be displayed on the search network. In this case, I searched for hotels in Seminyak. It’s a pretty specific product to be searching for and the result returned at the top of the SERP...

Why Adwords is not for every business   My early business experience taught me plenty of lessons – most of them expensive. But one thing you gain with experience is the ability to filter out the wheat from the chaff, and this is particularly important when you’re talking about the many forms of marketing available to a business – not just the digital stuff. Many clients make the mistake of thinking the more dollars you pump into Adwords the more money you’ll make. I’m hear to tell you that if it was that simple every single one of us would be millionaires. The fact of the matter is that Adwords must be managed in a way that maximises its return to your business without becoming a financial drain on it at the same time.   Not all businesses are the same   I think these days we are too reliant on computers to provide us with all the answers and that’s why I believe too many businesses just get lazy and decide to blindly place their faith in Adwords. It’s not uncommon for me...

Understanding website conversions   Measuring the success of your Google advertising campaign is more complex than simply counting the amount of clicks you’ve received on your site. Traffic in itself is quite meaningless. It’s where the traffic is coming from, how it’s engaging with your site, and of course, how much revenue that traffic is generating for your business. Enter the term “Conversions”   So what is a CONVERSION?   Conversions are one of the best ways to understand if your new customers are actually arriving as a direct result of your Adwords campaigns. This is important because the last thing you want to do as a business owner is pay for advertising that you don’t need.   Sales, leads and other actions   I believe the best way to describe conversions is to think of them as either a lead, a sale or a desired action on your site. Conversions for each and every business are not the same because every business has various desired outcomes with various s...

Getting the most out of Adwords leads…   One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how business owners often believe that paying for traffic is the be-all-and-end-all of digital marketing. As a result they usually make the mistake of throwing all of their marketing eggs in the Adwords basket. Yes, Adwords is an extremely powerful marketing tool but its effectiveness actually hinges on the business’ ability to convert traffic, not necessarily on exposure to great volumes of consumers. Word of advice 1:  Adwords is quite simply one part of your marketing armoury and should not be relied upon as your sole source of new customers. Think of it as the very starting point of a business relationship or buying process.   Adwords is not just about sending consumers who are ready to buy from you. You need to make sure YOUR BUSINESS IS ALSO READY to sell to them.   As a business owner and consultant, I would tend to look at my business model as a whole and then consider how to ...

Choosing your search engine marketer There are many key factors you should take into consideration when choosing your search engine marketer. Like almost any industry, there are good and bad players, some who are surprisingly cheap, others who are over the top with pricing and some who are just outright cowboys. A great SEO consultant has a curious mix of talents It’s often perceived that search engine marketing is simply a matter of placing keywords in a website and writing up some Google ads – but nothing could be further from the truth. Search Engine marketing is a curious mixture of data analysis, technical work, content creation, testing, creativity, educated guesses and more testing. It’s therefore important the SEO consultant you are engaging has his or her head around all these facets of online business. If they don’t then you are simply paying someone who is not up to scratch, billing you for work you could easily do yourself. Key things to look out for Avoid consultants...