August 14, 2020, marks the 20th anniversary of IndieFilmWeb.com (IFW), Australia's first ever streaming film and music website. Founded and Produced by Brian M Logan, IFW was the first time Australians ever got to watch streaming movies, music videos and documentaries on their computers.

Sponsored exclusively by Apple, IFW streamed with the Apple Quicktime 4.12 codex when originally launched, and the site was reported in the Australian media as: 'The biggest thing to happen to the Australian Independent Film and Music industries since the advent of television'. And its launch marked a significant shift in how Australians viewed content.

Though a website long since lost to the dotcom collapse, and forgotten by the passages of time, IndieFilmWeb.com is a site that shall live long in the memory. For those who used it. And for those many talented film, music and web professionals who were involved in bringing it to life.

In the here and now of course, we don't think twice about watching a film or music video on the internet. But think back to the start of the millennium, to 4 YEARS BEFORE YOUTUBE EXISTED. And imagine the excitement of Australians logging into IndieFilmWeb.com and actually watching a film or music video on their computer! From the comfort of their own home, no less! It was nothing short of breathtaking. They weren't at the cinema. They weren't sitting in front of their TV in the lounge room. They were in front of their home computer, which was connected to that new and still rather shiny thing known as: 'The Internet'. 

When I conceived and produced IndieFilmWeb.com in 1999/2000, I did so based on an idea I had had for many years to take independent film and music distribution out of the hands of the Murdoch's of the world, and place it squarely in the hands of the filmmakers and musicians themselves. And as blasé as this all sounds to the Millennials reading about this today, in 2020. I still get goose bumps when I think of the first time I ever saw an IFW short film stream on the computer in my office back in my home in Lane Cove. When those images on my computer MOVED. Actually MOVED. It was well and truly a 'WOW!' moment. And something I will never forget.

Regards
Brian M Logan
Founder & Producer
IndieFilmWeb.com

IFW Press:

IFW Press 1 - IFW Press 2 - IFW Press 3 - IFW Press 4

On August 10, 2020 Google rolled out a HUGE algorithmic update. And the results to the SERPs are as BRUTAL as they are NONSENSICAL.

At least it looks like they rolled out a huge algorithmic update. Either that or what's happened is some amazingly destructive bug! Only time will tell which one it is, but at time of writing we have to assume it's an algorithmic update and deal with the consequences. Because the disruption to the SERP results are so dramatic, so wide reaching, that we can only HOPE that it's a bug, and not a permanent update.

It's too early to say what exactly is happening as results are volatile. But suffice it to say that an enormous earthquake struck, way out in the middle of the Google ocean. And now every small business is desperately trying to keep afloat while the tsunami hits.

Since yesterday forums are ranking well for no apparent reason. Amazon listings are ranking well, directories are ranking well, sites that are out of area are outranking local businesses, and even random job listings are ranking well. All these sites offer little user satisfaction to the person doing a search in Google, and yet they are now, at time of writing, outranking legitimate industry client sites who operate well SEO'd websites.

But it's not just that directories, forums et al are now out-ranking normal sites, and all the 'normal' sites are pushed down below them. Because this has impacted individual websites within niches too, seemingly at random. It reminds me of the Macabee algorithmic update of Dec 2018. Only this could be WORSE. Much worse (and that's saying something, believe me).

And unlike algorithms like Macabee or Penguin this algo isn't targeting sites with dodgy links; because I've got several clients who have been negatively impacted (in different niches) by this since yesterday. All of whom have sites with robust, white-hat link profiles helping them kick their SEO goals. And I also know of one company (not a client) who dumped 80,000 dodgy links in one week a couple of months back via black-hat link building bots, who are now suddenly ranking SERP #1, #2 and #3 in the country for their major industry keyword after this update!

So much for Google's algorithmic updates being about making search better, huh?

It's things like this that are really soul-destroying to SEO companies who do the right thing, and only run white hat 'Google Best Practice' SEO strategies. Because you want people doing dodgy, black-hat SEO to be caught with hand in the cookie jar when Google does a big algorithmic update. You don't want to see them rewarded. And you sure as hell don't want to see honest, by the book, small businesses websites get penalised in Google search for no reason whatsoever.

​Bottom-line for all small business is that until we know WHAT this algorithm is targeting and WHY, we have to just sit tight and keep on doing all the regular white hat SEO strategies that we normally do for our clients, week-in- week-out. Because it's these strategies that have stood the test of time and outlasted a hundred thousand Google tsunamis.

Google's John Mueller has just reported that yesterday's CHAOS was in fact a bug and that everything is now 'back to normal'. So YAY FOR THAT!

Now, the cynic in me, while being over the moon that everything in Google-land has gone back to normal, can't help but wonder if it was in fact a 'bug' as Google are claiming. Or was it rather Google accidentally showing their hand and releasing something into the wild before it'd gone through more rigorous testing? Because it seems to me (and this is personal research done over a bunch of different client verticals), that the websites who benefited from the August 10 'update' / 'bug', were in fact sites that had a truck load of links pointing at them. And I don't mean the GOOD type of links. And if the 'bug' was in fact Google showing their hand too early, then they appear to be tweaking the core algorithm to give more weight to links. A LOT MORE WEIGHT.

Only time will tell how much...

Firstly, the good news: SEO North Sydney is OPERATING AS NORMAL during the time of COVID-19 because Google is the cloud. And quite honestly, the cloud is the safest place to be right about now!
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The only difference for an SEO company like us during this pandemic, is that our team are now working remotely rather than coming to the office. Which is something they do from time to time anyway and we’re obviously already set up for this, as staff have access to our secure cloud, and only need internet access and a computer to do their jobs. So, rest assured the SEO work is still being done each month and that your Google rankings are safe!

We’re living in crazy times. There are no two ways about it. And amidst all the chaos there are a few questions that keep popping up from current and prospective clients that I thought warranted a post to answer them.

Existing clients ask:

1: How will my SEO rankings be impacted by what’s happening with COVID-19?

While new SEO clients ask:

2: Should I start a new SEO campaign now or wait for COVID-19 to pass?

And new web build clients ask:

​3: Should I launch my new website now or wait until the COVID-19 pandemic is over? Let me answer these in order, as they’re all very valid questions given what’s happening in Australia and the world at large.

The short answer is: THEY WON’T.

There’s not much to smile about in the midst of this pandemic, but the good news is that so far as Google and your digital marketing is concerned, it’s business as usual, as all of Google’s algorithms exist in the cloud. And all the SEO magic we have to do on a week by week basis for your website, also happens in the cloud. And when people search for what you do and where you do it, they’re doing it in the cloud. And the cloud is the one place COVID-19 can’t get to!
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Now, more than ever, it’s IMPERATIVE to maintain your Google rankings. Because while all small businesses are suffering in the short-term during this pandemic (to a greater or lesser degree) it’s now more important than ever that we keep working on your Google rankings, because if we don’t, your rankings will plummet, and it’ll take six months to a year to get them back up to where they need to be to make the phone ring. And in three to six months, when we all come out the other end of this craziness, you’ll be needing the phone ringing more than you ever have before. And if you’re not doing SEO on your site during this time, your rankings will drop as surely as the sun sets in the west. And you only need to see the chart below to see how dropping even a few positions in Google can impact how much traffic your website gets. And by extension, how many phone calls or enquiries you get. 

Everyone knows that it takes Google a minimum of three months to start caring about whatever SEO we do on or for a website, today. It’s the very reason that a standard SEO contract is 12-months long, because it takes a MINIMUM of 3 months for Google to start trusting whatever we do on or for your website, today. And it takes on average 6-12 months (or longer) to properly convince Google to trust and rank your website. The rule of thumb being: the more competitive your industry vertical is, the longer it’ll take Google to trust (and rank) it.

The first three months of an SEO campaign is always ‘Getting your house in order’ (or ‘fixing whatever someone else has done wrong!’). While the second three months is all about ‘Getting Google to understand that your website is legit and that they should start to trust your website – and by extension, rank it’. With months six to twelve (and onward) being all about continually reminding Google that ‘Your website is THE most important website in your industry vertical’.
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Anyone who’s ever done SEO knows and appreciates these facts. They know how long and hard it was to get those Google first page rankings in the first place. They also know how competitive it is online to maintain their hard-fought rankings. And they know how easy it is for those rankings to fall away if regular week by week, month by month SEO isn’t being performed.

If you’ve read the above section, you’ll already know the answer to that question is: YES – YOU SHOULD START YOUR NEW SEO CAMPAIGN NOW because it’ll take the better part of 6 months for you to start getting some serious rankings for your site. And if you want the phone to ring when this pandemic is over, you need to START IT NOW. Because if you only start it when things have returned to normal, the phone won’t ring for another six months. And as stated above, when you come out the other end of all this COVID-19 craziness, you’re going to need the phone ringing IMMEDIATELY, not six months later. Because by that stage you might not have a business to market.
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As the old saying goes: ‘You don’t wait for the well to run dry before you start looking for water’.

This question is a little trickier to answer, and depends on how you plan to market your new business website once it’s online.

If you’re not planning on doing any SEO for your new website, and are basically just wanting a website built as a kind-of ‘on-line brochure’ that you can direct clients to for information, then maybe you can think of holding off launching your new website until COVID-19 is in the rear view mirror, and business is getting back to normal.

However, if you’re launching a new website in order to GET LEADS, then you’ll naturally need to do SEO on and for your website in order to make that happen. And as stated above, SEO TAKES TIME MANY MONTHS TO WORK. So, if you want the phone ringing in 3-6 months, then absolutely you need your website built now. And if you don’t, then by all means hold off until your cash flow is back to normal.
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Though as SEO North Sydney now offer the ability to get your website built today, BUT PAY FOR IT IN A YEAR, INTEREST FREE, there’s never been a better time to get your new site live. And with websites starting at just $68.20 p/m and all of them coming with 12-months free hosting (and many with also including free content), maybe you might want to reconsider waiting, and build your new website today. 

​The other thing to consider during this time of COVID-19  (and we’ve got many clients doing just this) – is that if your business is quieter than usual, now is the PERFECT time to do whatever you can to it to help with the SEO and to help with conversions. That can be either involve adding LOTS OF NEW CONTENT to the website (because Google loves well SEO’d new content added on a regular basis) or else it could mean GETTING A WHOLE NEW WEBSITE BUILT. Because with things being quieter than normal, now is the perfect time to do what you’ve been talking about doing on or for your website for year, but never seem to have the time to do.

Call me direct, business owner to business owner, on 0425 204 887 today and let us help your small business during the COVID-19 pandemic.  As the old saying goes:

‘A Year from Now You’ll be Glad You Started Today’. 

Tired of mansplaining politicians who think they know better? Then why not take out your frustrations by visiting www.PunchScottMorrison.com.au and www.PunchBillShorten.com.au to give them both a good old fashioned (digital) pasting!' - FREE!

#punchscottmorrison #punchbillshorten

With the run-in to the May 18 Federal Election well underway, Australians are already tiring of PM Scott Morrison and opposition leader Bill Shorten's rhetoric, with tens of thousands of disgruntled voters demonstrating their growing dissatisfaction by visiting PUNCH SCOTT MORRISON! and PUNCH BILL SHORTEN! to 'let them know what they really think of them!'.

Predicting the Result of the 2019 Federal Election!

While some political pundits will view the greater number of votes counted on May 18th as revealing the winner of the Australian Federal Election, everyday Aussies will know the truth: that the real winner of the election will be the candidate who receives the least number of (digital) punches, and thus demonstrates once and for all, his superior popularity!

Back in 2016 the 'Great Australian Punch Up' proved to be the perfect prognosticator, with the final 'Punch Tally' being: 'Malcolm Turnbull - 70,528,013 Punches' and 'Bill Shorten - 72,044,130 Punches' thus perfectly predicting the election result! So keep a close eye on the 2019 Punch Tally as the election gets closer...

*** Digital Disclaimer ***

SEO North Sydney Pty Ltd, being the web design company responsible for these displays of digital shenanigans, wish to point out in the strongest possible terms that they are in no way taking sides in this election. Indeed, if this current Australian political debate were made up of countries, SEO North Sydney would be Switzerland. (Just without all the silly accents, hidden slush funds and corrupt FIFA officials…)

Further, while these websites may at first glance seem to be 'putting words into the mouths of Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten, SEO North Sydney Pty Ltd wish to point out that the words 'spoken' by the cartoon versions of both Scott and Bill on these websites, in no way represent either the views of the Liberal or Labour parties, or Scott Morrison's or Bill Shorten's personal views, or indeed anything either candidate may or may not have said in real life. Rather, the words 'spoken' are purely there for the purposes of parody, SATIRE, et al. Naturally we could have had cartoon Scott saying, "If you have a go in this country, you will get a go. There is a fair go for those who have a go. That is what fairness in Australia means. This is something we hold very dear to us. It is why we believe Australians should keep more of what they earn." And had cartoon Bill saying, "Labour is at its best when we are the party of ideas and action - ideas that empower the powerless and actions that build a better Australia for the long term.” But honestly…where’s the humour in that?
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Also, while we’re on the subject of pointing out the patently obvious, SEO North Sydney Pty Ltd wish to go on record and say that these sites are in NO WAY PROMOTING VIOLENCE. Be it against politicians or anyone else. And as much as you may wish to give these (or any other) politicians a good old fashioned shellacking for broken campaign promises or ludicrous shifts in policy. Don’t. Just don’t. Rather, might we suggest that you take out your pent-up frustrations on them here in the digital domain. Where, with a bit of imagination, you can give them a good what-for 'till the cows come home!

A strategic SERP plan can have huge implications for website traffic. Read on to find out what you need to get a featured snippet on Google so you can sit back and watch the traffic roll in.

What is a SERP Plan and Why do I Need it?

When you Google something, the SERPs are what appears. SERP is an industry acronym that traditionally stands for ‘Search Engine Ranking Page’. As in, if you’re on the first page of Google, you’re ‘SERP 1’. But in recent years the acronym has morphed in colloquial usage to also stand for ‘Search Engine Ranking Position’. As in, if you’re first on the first page of Google, you’re at SERP 1. If you’re third on the first page, you’re SERP 3, etc. So when you read an SEO article and someone mentions SERP or SERPs, they could be referring to either or both.

Google – the Overlords of Search

Google, in their infinite wisdom as the overlords of search, determine which sites will appear at the top of a search query in order (theoretically) to provide the best value for searchers, by giving them the sites that best meet their search criteria or best answer their question. So naturally you'll increase your site traffic if you can create a SERP plan to master your Google rankings.

But what does a strategic SERP plan look like? Good question. Let me break it down for you to help you create a great SERP plan that drives traffic to your site by providing Google with exactly what it's looking for. 

Understanding SERPs

Before devising an effective SERP plan, it helps to know more about SERPs themselves. SERPs are always unique. If two users type two queries into the same search engine using the same keywords, they will get different results. This happens because Google customises SERPs for users in order to provide them the most useful results. Each SERP is unique because of factors like a searcher's location, browsing history, and more. Even if the two pages look the same at first glance, there will likely be small differences according to the different user metrics. 

In order to provide the best value to users, Google is always changing the way SERPs appear. It's important to stay up to date on the latest algorithms and experiments Google is conducting, so you can modify your SERP plan accordingly. Of course that’s easier said than done, and is where having a company like SEO North Sydney on your team comes in mighty handy, because we’re 24/7 at this SEO caper; and with Google updating 500-600 algorithms a year (that’s 1.6 algorithmic updates per day if you’re trying to do the math!), to say it’s a full time job to stay ahead of the Google Bell-curve is in no way an exaggeration.

Creating a Strategic SERP Plan

Ultimately the key to a strategic SERP plan – indeed the very bedrock of a comprehensive web strategy - lies is providing searchers with valuable content that answers their search query.

If you can figure out the intent of searchers and devise a way to provide them with what they're looking for, Google will bump your site up on the SERPs. 

Due to algorithms like Penguin, sites can no longer "trick" Google by doing things like keyword-stuffing or using dodgy links out of India or Serbia or Russia or wherever. And longer, more informative content is now prioritised by Google over shorter, less informative posts.

These changes mean that your SERP plan should focus in on giving searchers content of value, instead of trying to use tricks and workarounds to fool Google. Put what the customer wants first, as the old saying goes, and the sales will follow.

Google of course don’t make any money from organic search. They make money from the ads they place on the same page as organic search. Which makes it that much harder to get the phone to ring for small businesses and SMEs operating on a tight marketing budget. Doubly so when you realise that there are now four paid ads that appear at the top of the page rather than to the right of the page (where they used to appear before) which push the first organic listing down the page.

So given all this, how do you approach SERPs in a way that will both please Google and beat the competition?
One of the best ways is by getting what is know as a ‘Featured Snippet’.

Featured Snippets – What You Need to Know

You've probably already seen featured snippets on your own Google searches. These appear in a box at the top of the search results page. Featured snippets take a summary of the answer to the searcher's query directly from the webpage. 

Users will also see a link to the page, the page's title and the URL along with the snippet. According to Google, "The summary is a snippet extracted programmatically from what a visitor sees on your web page."

A user is much more likely to pay more attention to content with a featured snippet than to content without one. Results with featured snippets are at the top of the page, and they also provide users with a hint that this page will definitely have the information they’re looking for.

How Do I Get a Featured Snippet?

To get your site at the top of the page with a snippet attached, use these simple steps.

• 1. Figure out a question

You'll want to start by finding a straightforward question that searchers in your market area are likely to ask. This question should be simple and clear, not complex or ambiguous. 

• 2. Provide an answer

Somewhere on your site – ideally on its own page - make sure that question is answered clearly and directly. 

• 3. Give value to users

It's not enough to just answer the question of course. Your site should also give information beyond a  simple answer, so that users will gain something semantically relevant to their initial query. Keep in mind that Google prioritises longer content than it did before. So don’t skimp when hiring an SEO Copywriter. Because great content is, and always will be, the most important piece of the Google puzzle.

• 4. Make the information easy to find

Your answer and additional information related to the answer, should be easy to find on your site, not buried somewhere behind lots of other posts. Make it easy for both bots and humans to find.

Choosing the Right Questions

Getting a featured snippet isn’t easy. But neither is it rocket science. Great organic content, tailored to searchers questions/queries, can drive a lot of traffic to your website.  And the four-step approach described above is easy to do and easy to repeat. Don't stick with answering one question. Research and find out multiple questions that might be asked about your product or service. Then work on creating content that answers each of those questions, in addition to providing helpful additional information in each post. 

In order to target the right questions, long-tail keywords must become your best friend. Post the launch of Google’s ‘Hummingbird’ algorithm, we know that over 60% of all search is long-tail. So don't just target general keywords: target the full question, including the "how to," "how does," or "what is" that many users type in the Google's search bar. 

Narrowing down user queries via comprehensive research helps you on your way to getting a featured snippet. Not sure where to start? Type in a question users might have into Google. You'll see other, related queries that people have searched for, ‘suggested’ by Google via an instant dropdown menu. Ultimately though, as my late sainted mum used to say, ‘Use the brain that God gave you’ and you’ll soon figure out what questions people are asking. After all, you know your business, your products, your services, better than anybody else. You’ve been client facing long enough to know what sort of curly questions customers ask. So write them down in a long list. Then hire a professional copywriter to write content for each page that answers the questions you’ve come up with – IN DETAIL.

Once you’ve exhausted your own ideas on what questions your customers are asking, it’s time to enlist some algorithmic help. There are many programs that can help with this part of the process, but one I like is answerthepublic.com; which is a nifty (free) tool that suggests possible questions based on a keyword, using a cool visualisation tool. 

Conclusion

Ultimately, your chances of getting a featured snippet depend on a few key factors:

• Are you asking the right questions? A bit of research, as discussed above, can help ensure that you are.
• Are you providing the best answers to those questions? The more clear, straightforward, and accurate your answer is, and the more additional information (related to the question) you provide, the more likely it will be the one that Google will choose to feature your answer as a featured snippet.
• Finally, you must make sure that you are providing content that is genuinely useful. If you write 50 blog posts of 50 words each that all provide one answer to a commonly asked question, you won't do well on the SERP.  Don’t look for cheap shortcuts. Long, well written, and informative content wins out every time.

When all is said and done, users want content that is high quality and detailed, covering everything they might want to know that's related to their question. Because it's all about value. Provide users with valuable, interesting answers to their questions, and Google will reward you. 

Contact SEO North Sydney

Looking for help getting to the top of Google? Then call SEO North Sydney today. The longer you delay, the more of your business your competitors get. And where’s the sense in that?www.seonorthsydney.com.au/

​There’s an old saying in business that goes: “It’s 80% harder to get a new customer, than it is to get an existing customer to come back.” And while we all want to get as many new visitors to our ecommerce website as we can (as sales is a numbers game), it behoves anyone running an ecommerce store, to encourage multiple visits from everyone who comes to their site. To do this we need to optimise our online shop’s buying funnel to get more out of each visitor we get.

Here are a few sage pointers to help you do just this:

Google Analytics – the Devil’s in the Detail

Have you ever seen in a basketball game when a shot goes halfway down the basket, only for the ball to spin around and (seemingly against the laws of physics!) pop out again?

Well that's a feeling we online marketers are all too familiar with. Because nothing's more heartbreaking than checking our Google analytic data and seeing that a potential customer came to our site, loaded up their shopping cart…only to leave empty-handed.

Don't get discouraged by this, though, as only 2% of visitors make a purchase on their first trip to an ecommerce website. It's how you bring back the other 98% that makes the difference.

What is the "Buying Funnel?"

The buying funnel is the journey prospective buyers go on when they buy something. The further down the funnel they go, the closer they are to making a purchase.

The buying funnel has four stages:

1. Awareness: the prospect is aware he or she has a problem or requirement.
2. Education: the prospect is conducting research and gathering information on potential solutions/options.
3. Evaluation: the prospect narrows down his or her options.
4. Decision: after weighing all the options, the prospect makes a decision and follows through by making a purchase.

Sometimes the trip down the funnel takes only a few moments. I know if I want to buy the new Neil Gaiman novel, I go to Amazon.com, type in the title or the name of the author, and hey-presto, my purchase is completed. But some purchases require more care. Buying a house or a car for example can take many months.

A common trap marketers fall into is having a lack of regard for the buyer's journey. Like the gigolo who wants to take that woman he’s only just met at the bar five minutes before back to his place, without all that tedious, ‘Can I buy you a drink?’ and actually getting to know her, palaver; marketers want to skip ahead and go right to the sale instead of nurturing the buyer through the process. Understanding where the buyer is and will go on their buying journey will help you optimise your website to reduce bounce rates, keep your prospects wanting more, and nail down that purchase.

The First Step in E-Commerce is Being Found

Before you can bring prospects back for multiple visits and turn that traffic into conversions, you'll naturally need to get that first visit taken care of.

Prospects will already be at the Awareness stage in the sales funnel before they visit your website. That's the whole reason they’re searching on the web in the first place. They know they have a problem and are looking for solutions. You of course need to be found when the would-be customer is searching for what you sell, online. And that comes down to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Needless to say we have no shortage of resources to help you in this first and ALL IMPORTANT step -- This is SEO North Sydney, after all! So to learn more about SEO, you can browse our other SEO and SEM related blog posts at your leisure. We also offer a variety of very competitive SEO packages to help make sure Google's algorithms feel all warm and fuzzy when they measures your website’s worth.

Guiding the Customer Through the Buying Funnel

Okay let’s imagine you’ve been running a successful SEO and/or SEM strategy, and the customer finds you website link, while conducting a search online. What then? Because when someone does come to your website, you need to be prepared to guide them past the Awareness stage and through the rest of the buying funnel. As you'll never get the prospect to the Decision stage if you don't lead them through the Education and Evaluation stage.

Right Now Your Product Doesn’t Matter to the Customer

Before they even lay eyes on your product page, you'll need to give the prospective customer complementary, brilliantly written content that helps satisfy their search query. And from there you need to lay the trail of breadcrumbs to lead them to their final (buying) destination.

Brilliantly Written Content is King

The prospects are hungry for information. That’s why they’re there after all. So help them jump from the Awareness stage to the Education stage.

Give Them Answers and Solutions - Not a Sales Pitch

At this point you're no longer an internet marketer. You're a professor. You're an authoritative source for the topic the prospective customer is researching. Therefore your content needs to offer solutions/options to satisfy/answer the questions or requirements the prospect has. After all, you've created a website that offers them what they’re looking for. You just have to help them come to that realisation!

Here's the tricky part though: you can't at this stage, focus on your product. Because the prospect isn't on your website to read a glorified ad. They're on your website looking for information that satisfies their needs or answers their questions. So talk (via your content) about the core of the issue at hand and the desired end result, not about the product that will get them there. The reader doesn't want to buy (for example) a frying pan; they want to fry up some delicious chicken. They just need a new non-stick frying pan in order to do this.

So show the prostpect what they need to do to solve their problem. Think of Benefits rather than Features. Yes your product is great. Yes they’d love it if they bought it. But if you want them to get buy you need to help them through the buying funnel so they realise all this.

Selling Your Stuff

Now that the prospect is armed with a new knowledge and understanding of how your product can solve their needs, they will need to evaluate their options. Don't be surprised at this stage if the prospect leaves your website…only to come back and buy at a later date. Responsible buyers will want to do due diligence and compare products. It’s only natural. You do and I do it. So expect them to do it too.

When they do end up back on your product page, it's time to do what you've been waiting to do all along: Sell your stuff.

The prospect is now informed and actively engaged with what you’re selling. They have specific questions about product details and features. They're looking at prices, warranties, and shipping information. So give them what they need in a well-designed product page overflowing with brilliantly written words, professionally shot pictures and (ideally) classy high-end videos.

Getting the UX Right

The UX (User eXperience) is super important if you have an ecommerce store.

Is information accessible and easy to understand? Does the website look great on both desktop and mobile devices? Is the website quick and responsive? Is checkout simple, yet secure? If not, you could once again lose a sale despite your hard work. 74% of online shopping carts were abandoned by shoppers. So make sure your website is user-friendly and looks the part. Having a cheap looking ecommerce store is like a salesman wearing a cheap suit. Neither engenders trust in the prospective buyer.

The End Game

So build a great website. Simplify the checkout to make it easy for prospects to buy what they’re looking for. Populate the website with great written content, quality product shots, and informative videos. Hire an SEO company to get your website on the first page of Google, and to run a competitive SEM campaign across multiple channels (so you don’t have all your eggs in one basket). Then sit back and wait for the money to start rolling in!

Beyond the End Game – it’s All in the Follow-up

If you've optimised the buying funnel as described above, you're well on your way to converting the prospect into a sale. However the buyer's journey doesn't stop at the sale. To really get the most out of each visitor to your website, you want to keep up the relationship after the cheque is cashed.

Your company's Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategy is vital to making all your work efficient and worthwhile in the long haul. So build your database, then email them regularly with special offers, and great content on the topics that interest them. This way your company’s brand will be top of mind whenever they’re looking for what your ecommerce shop sells.

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​A consumer's buying funnel will never involve your business if they never get to your website in the first place.
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Geofencing marketing is an incredibly powerful marketing tactic with an impressive ROI. Learn how to use it properly and grow your business fast.

Are you familiar with geofencing marketing? If not, you're missing out a great way to drive traffic to your business.
Small to medium-sized businesses face stiff competition in the marketplace. So it's crucial that you use every means possible to get customers to your door. Enter: Geofencing, the latest cutting edge marketing technique that can add as much a 20% increase in conversion when adding location data to their ad data.

What is Geofencing Marketing?

In simple terms, geofencing marketing is a location-based tool that helps you target customers that are geographically near your business, or near an area you wish to target. This means they may be driving by or are shopping in the same mall where your business is located. Or that they may be located in a geographic 'fence' that you think would be a gold mine if only you could be found there.

How Can I Implement It?

There are a few different ways you can implement geo fencing technology. The method you choose will depend on a variety of different factors, including your marketing budget and size of your business. Here are a few ways to get started:

Web Ads

Web ads are an easy way to get started with geofencing. When you buy web ads through Google, or another party, these ads will display to consumers when they enter your pre-set geofencing area.

For example, when a customer Googles information on another business in your area, they'll see an ad for your current promotion. Pretty cool, huh? This could well persuade them to visit you instead, since you're nearby and offering them a deal.

Social Media Ads

Social media ads work very similarly to web ads. If a customer is browsing Facebook, Instagram, or any other social media site your business uses, they'll see an advertisement for your business.

Text Messages

If your business runs promotions via text message, take this technology a step further by incorporating geofencing into your strategy. As customers enter your geographic area, they'll get a text message alert of any sales or promotions you're currently running.

You can also simply send them an alert that says they're nearby, and that you hope to see them soon. This is one of the most direct ways to use geofencing, and you typically see huge ROI.

App Engagement

If you're a larger business with its own app, this is a great opportunity to deliver notifications once a customer enters the range of your store. So long as they've downloaded your app (and have notifications enabled) they'll receive an alert to sales or promotions you're currently running. Like a text message, this is an easy and direct way to ensure your customers will see that they're near you.

3rd Party App Engagement

Don't be concerned if you're business can't afford to develop its own app quite yet. You can also rely on third-party app engagement. There are tons of different coupon and money-saving apps out there. Do some research to find which ones are the most popular in your area, and they'll do most of the work for you. Customers using these apps can receive messages and notifications once they're near your business. However, be wary that customers will often receive multiple deals and notifications from other businesses they're close to as well, so there is more competition for you.

What Are the Benefits?

There's a long list of benefits to geofencing marketing, but here are a few highlights that might convince you:

1. It Makes Your Messaging More Timely

You might spend thousands of dollars on advertising online or in print, but is this actually getting customers off the couch and in your store? Geofencing helps you meet them halfway by sending them advertisements when they're already out the door.

Think about it, you might be offering a sale that's appealing to your customers, but after they see the initial ad it's out of sight and out of mind. If they see it when they're already out and near their store, they're much more likely to stop in and take advantage.

2. It's More Effective

Sure, it's easy to target Facebook or other paid social media ads to specific customers, but geofencing helps you target an even more specific group.

Geofencing helps you reach a small sample of the population that's most likely to take action and make a purchase at your business. They already know about you and they're geographically close. Reminding them of a sale or special at the right time will likely put more money in your pocket.

3. Better Data to Help Measure ROI

Measuring ROI with geo fencing is easy, mainly because it gives you plenty of solid data points to work from. You'll know exactly when your customers are out and about and how often each customer comes near your store.

You'll also have solid insight into exactly what deals they respond to the most. This means you can create targeted ads that offer customers what they want exactly when they want it.

Which Brands Are Setting Good Examples?

Geofencing is new. And is mainly being used in the US by large, global brands. SMEs are yet to get across this technology, so yours could be ahead of the bell curve if you run with it.

Top U.S. brands such as Whole Foods and Sephora both use the technology effectively. Sephora, for example, uses it's branded app to send notifications to shoppers when they near a store. These notifications can include sale announcements or even notifications of gift card balances.

Whole Foods uses a similar model by targeting everyone in a specific area with web ads on daily specials or sales they might be having. While these are large, billion-dollar brands, geo fencing can be implemented on a small-business budget as well. All you need is a good team to get you set up with the right tools.

Which sounds like a pretty perfect segue for you to pick up the phone and call SEO North Sydney... 

Ready to Get Started?

Have you figured out that your business needs geofencing marketing? If so, it's time to get started. The key to getting the most out of your geofencing marketing strategy is finding a good a team on your side that understands exactly how to make your geofencing technology succeed.

Our team at SEO North Sydney can do all that and more for your business. Read more about our SEO and marketing services, and don't hesitate to reach out to learn exactly how we can help your business succeed.

I was just sitting here on a Friday afternoon, pottering away on a new website build we're about to launch for a client, when it occurred to me that it's been twelve years since I last worked a 9-5 office job for 'the man'.

Back then (we're talking 2005) I was working in North Sydney and making money for someone else. Now if I make a quid, I know it's going into my bank account (well, my company's bank account) and not into the bank account of some faceless corporation that doesn't care one iota about foot-soldiers such as me.

Running a small business is no picnic, and as any small business owner or entrepreneur will tell you, it has as many downs as it has ups. But if you can make a go of it and if you're lucky enough to bring in enough coin to keep the wolf from the door, then the upsides are spectacular.

And I'm not just talking about the money, because as a small business owner there are bills a-plenty to eat into that! I'm talking about the intangibles. The work your own hours. Take a day off when you feel the need to. Have a nap in the middle of the day if the mood strikes (fat chance, Logan!). Take an early mark to beat the rush at the gym on a Friday night. All that kind of thing. It's the freedom more than anything, that appeals to willow-the-wisps like me. That and the fact that you don't have a douche-bag of a micro-managing boss standing over your shoulder telling you what to do. Even though you know more than they do and could do their job with one arm tied behind your back! How do you put a price on things like that? I'm not sure you can. But the work-life balancing act is so much easier when you're the guy steering the boat. Full steam ahead or temporary solace in a safe-harbour, it's completely up to you. And gosh that's a nice feeling.

Of course there are bills to be paid, client deliverables to be delivered, deadlines to be met. It's still a job at the end of the day, even when you're the boss! And with it comes a type of pressure people who work for someone else, will never understand. So don't think for a second being an entrepreneur is all beer o'clock and afternoon siestas. Because that couldn't be further from the truth. It's more, 'Oh crap another bill!', 'Weekends, what the hell are they?', and 'You want it WHEN?'. That and a hundred other demands on our time is the reality for most of us who run their own business. But would we trade it for being an 'employee' again? Not a chance. Because once you get off the hamster wheel it's very, very, VERY hard to get back on.

Let those spreading 'Fake News' and disseminating poor content, beware: Google's new Search Quality Raters Guidelines have you in their sights!

Google's Search Quality Raters Guidelines are going to impact millions of Internet users (and more importantly, abusers) in the months and years to come. So if you're not across these new guidelines, or else make a living out of corrupting the system for your own ends, be afraid. Be very afraid.

To find out what these Search Quality Raters Guidelines mean to your business, read on. Because the changes to online content will be, *insert dodgy Trump impression here*: "Huuuuuuuuuuuuge!".

Let's start with the obvious question: 'What are Quality Raters, exactly?'. Quality Raters are a Google Army of over 10,000 (and growing) independent contractors whose job it is to check that the facts they read on websites are accurate, and that the content and the website that content is on, is reputable. They check the credibility of websites, report images that are illegal or offensive, and help push the best pages to the top of Google's search results.

They are also tasked with getting rid of false, offensive, or generally hateful information that has been showing up all too frequently in Google searches of late, by using humans to supplement super-smart machine-learning algorithms like Panda, in order to stem the tide of dross that is forever pouring into the internet.

Good luck with putting that particular genie back in the bottle I hear you cry!

But what exactly are Google's Search Quality Raters targeting? To find out the answer to this, I invite you to read Google's 157 page Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines document. A document that covers everything from understanding YMYL pages ('Your Money or Your Life'), to learning how to spot EAT pages ('High Level of Expertise / Authoritativeness / Trustworthiness'), and everything in-between.

But if reading 157 pages of techno-babble sounds a little too much like hard work, then allow me to give you the crib notes, so you can get a handle on the topic without devoting three days of your life to the task!

'Fake News!' can be viewed as the dissemination of misleading and falsified information presented as fact. Whether this involves using a website to exaggerate the truth, or else completely make things up, this is a tactic that simply isn't going to fly in Google anymore. The irony of course in all the 'Fake News!' brouhaha, is that Trump, the king of 'Fake News!', was the very person to coin the phrase. Thus to a very real degree, allowing him to own it.

Do you remember the end of the Curtis Hanson, '8 Mile' film, when Eminem is in a rap-battle against that guy who hates him? And how Eminem - going first - uses all the negative stuff that he knows his opponent will say about him. But says it first? Thus getting ahead of the 'information' and self-deprecating to a point where he OWNS his faults, his flaws, and by so doing takes the power away from his opponent who can no longer use the self same 'facts' as weapons. Well that's exactly what Trump's done. By coining the phrase, 'Fake News!' and using it against real news outlets like CNN, BBC NEWS, et al, he has been able to blatantly lie about just about everything, while instantly shielding himself from the inevitable criticisms from those very organisations who actually care about pesky little things like facts, because he has a ready-made response that says that anyone who disagrees with him, or questions what he says, is simply spreading 'Fake News!'. 

The tactic is breathtakingly Machiavellian. And if it weren't so insidious, so downright evil, then one might actually admire the audacity and scope of it. But given it's coming out of Trump's warped and twisted psyche, 'admiration' is not a word that'll spring to mind in anyone with an IQ in triple digits... 

With its newly hired army of fact-checkers, Google is now going to be working to combat the spread of 'Fake News!' (because Trump is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to lies being disseminated as facts on the internet). So when 'Fake News!' sites are spotted by the Quality Raters, they will now be pushed down in the search results, thus preventing them from organically being found. And (hopefully) preventing them from 'going viral'.

Google Search Raters Guidelines state that any websites that mimic other, more prominent sites, specially news sites, are going to be hit big by these new guidelines. For example, any sites that are designed to look and function like news sites but actually contain false or misleading information will be going down hard. These kinds of sites typically exist to misinform readers and spread false information / propaganda etc, for the gain or benefit of some other person or organisation.

We now live in a post Trump world. And like it or not, while he still has his finger on the launch codes and the Twitter Feeds (God help me, I don't know which is more dangerous), then we are all of us at the mercy of 'Fake News'. So hats-off to Google for trying to eradicate the disease at its source.

Of course Google are not the only boffins trying to eradicate the 'Fake News' epidemic. Two professors (technology professor Dongwon Lee and communications professor S. Shyam Sundar) from Penn State university recently received a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop technology that will enable digital devices to weed out fake news. So expect other left-leaning, politically savy tech minded people to join in the battle over the coming months.

Of course if you're weeding out Fake News, you need to know whether you're dealing with a bot (a computer program pretending to be a person), or a troll (a low-life nut-job-cum-online-bully pretending to be a person).

Any overtly racist or hateful content will now, thanks to Google's Quality Raters, be given a lower spot in the search results, and in many cases, will be removed from the search results completely. Pages that promote hate speech or actions against specific groups of people are now able to be tagged with an "Upsetting-Offensive" flag.

Of course this has the potential to get into very murky waters, as the internet was founded on freedom of speech and the spreading of ideas. And when one organisation (no matter how noble their intent) starts being the judge, jury and executioner of what should, and should not be shared on the internet, then we're suddenly a lot closer to 1984 than 2017. Censorship being one of the most insidious of all the evils. 

That said, if a website is promoting hate speech against the gay and lesbian community, or a particular religion or ethnic minority, or engaging in internet bullying, or attempting to re-write history by saying that the Holocaust never happened because 'Hitler was right', etc...then is the internet really losing anything when said content is buried on page 968 of a particular Google search? I suspect not.

But again, censorship is as censorship does. And it's a slippery slope when an all-powerful organisation starts to make judgement calls on content, just because said organisation deems it to be against guidelines it internally came up with, and which may or may not (depending on the individual reader's moral compass or beliefs) be 'offensive'.  And just because you and I, and most of the people we know, disagree with what is being written, we should never disagree with the author's unalienable right to write it.

One of the biggest problems plaguing the web right now is clickbait. To understand why clickbait is so bad, you must first understand what it is:

Clickbait articles usually feature shocking or catchy headlines designed to make people click on the article so they will be redirected to an external website which exists purely to make revenue off paid advertisements. The problem with this method is that the actual pages the reader goes to when they click on the click bait stories, contain nothing of substance. In many cases they may not even answer the question posed by the catchy headline at all. They exist purely to drive the reader to an external website and make the reader click through dozens of pages in order to see so called 'facts', one 'fact' at a time. The model being that each page a 'fact' or 'story' appears on, is surrounded by paid adverts. And the website owner receives revenue every time a sucker clicks on an advert. And sometimes they even get paid per 'impression' rather than 'per click'. So the website owner makes money even if the readers ignore the ads because the advert has been 'served' and therefore seen by the reader. Ker-ching, Ker-ching.

Google wants the web to be full of brilliantly written, well researched, knowledgeable information that answers a reader's search query. However, because so many people click on those misleading titles, those posts are rapidly moving up the search results and gaining traction because of an increased Click Through Rate. So they get to rank well, even though they do not deserve to. Googles Quality Raters are aiming to help combat this.

E-A-T stands for “Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness” and it’s the yardstick Google’s Quality Raters use to help Google rank pages. 

According to their guidelines (Section 4, Part 1), this is what constitutes 'High-Quality' pages:

1. Enough Main Content (MC): content should be ample enough to satisfy the needs of a user for a page’s unique topic and purpose (broad topics require more information than narrow topics, for example).
2. The page and its associated content is expert, authoritative, and trustworthy for the topic they discuss.
3. The website has a positive reputation for its page topics.
4. The website features enough auxiliary information, for example, “About us,” “Contact,” or “Customer Service” information.
5. The website features supplementary content (SC) that enhances the user’s enjoyment and experience of a web page.
6. The page is designed in a functional fashion that allows users to easily locate the information they want.
7. The website is maintained and edited regularly and frequently.

Attempting to get your head around what EAT actually means is tricky, as ultimately what Google is talking about brings to mind the old 'chicken and egg' question (ie: which comes first?). To be trusted by Google on a particular topic, you need to be an expert on the topic (what you say), and brilliantly express that knowledge (how you say it) both vertically and horizontally on your website. This then leads to a 'Positive Reputation' for the new content as the pages then get trusted by Google, because Panda loves it and because human beings respond to the pages by staying on them a long time, by interacting with them, and by going to other similar / related (Supplementary Content) pages on the website. 

But you can't get that 'Positive Reputation' if nobody finds the articles you've authored because they're buried on page 129 of Google, now can you? And therein lies the conundrum for Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs everywhere. Because you can't have an egg without a chicken. But you can't have a chicken without an egg...

You also can't fake the 'Expert' part. Because you either know what you're talking about or you don't. Plus the level of craft involved in how that knowledge is expressed on the page (the quality of the actual writing) is now of paramount importance. And with Panda being the most important algorithm out there, the days of you outsourcing your content writing to India to somebody named 'Frank' (real name 'Gupta') are gone. Because when it comes to content (like everything else in life): YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.
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The takeaway in all this is that when it comes to EAT:

1. You need to be an expert in what you're writing about.
   
2. You need to be (or hire) a professional writer to express that knowledge on the page (because Panda can tell how well written the content is, and knows the difference between 'University Level Writing', 'High School Level Writing', 'Primary School Level Writing' and 'Donald Trump Level Writing').
3. You need to garner a 'Positive Reputation' on the web, via quality on-page analytic data and via links from reputable, industry related websites that Google already trusts.

There are websites and there are websites. Some sell widgets. They may be good widgets, they may be bad widgets. But one thing is for sure, 'believing' the information expressed on a particular web page about the widgets will not effect your health or your state of mind. Nor will it impact your happiness or income (unless you're stupid enough to spend your life-savings on buying a gazillion widgets I mean!). In other words, visiting a widgets' website is unlikely to impact Your Money or Your Life.

However if you read a site that tells you that taking X cures Y (when it doesn't). Or you read a 'Fake News' site that tells you that X happened and Y was responsible (when it didn't, and they weren't), then those things can impact Your Money and Your Life.

Google offers the following categories as examples of YMYL pages:

1. Any page with the potential to be dangerous or detrimental if it possessed low levels of EAT.
2. Shopping or financial transaction pages.
3. Pages that offer medical information about specific diseases or conditions or mental health.
4. Pages that offer financial information, for example, investment or tax information.
5. Pages that offer legal information about topics like child support, divorce, creating a will, becoming a citizen, etc.
6. News articles or public/official information pages.
7. Disaster response services.
8. Web pages which are important for maintaining an informed citizenry, including information about local/state/national government processes, people, and laws.
9. News about important topics such as international events, business, politics, science, and technology. 
10. Government programs and social services.

The YMYL bottom line being that if your website is making bold claims, make them quantifiable and accurate claims. And if you website is stating facts, let those facts be, you know...factual.

With the release of these new Quality Rater guidelines, it's obvious that Google is pushing more and more for websites to have well written, high quality, accurate content. But how do you as a Small Business Owner or Entrepreneur know if your website content is good enough? What exactly qualifies as low quality content anyway?

Good question! For a more in-depth answer to this, read the definitive Panda article. But so far as Google's human Quality Raters are concerned, think of it like this:

• Your website content needs to be ORIGINAL. Not unique - nothing's unique on the world wide web - but ORIGINAL all the same. Have something to say that isn't just, 'We're great, buy our stuff!', because that's exactly what your competitors are saying on their site about themselves.
• Your website content needs to be FACTUALLY CORRECT. Because if what you're saying is incorrect, or -worse - deliberately misleading...then your website will get nuked by Google big time.
• Your website needs to be well designed. Because, while the Quality Raters aren't too fussed about how your website looks (functional wins over pretty in their eyes) functional and pretty wins over everything. So if your website is poorly presented, has a messy or cluttered design, or is hard to navigate, etc, your Google rankings will take a hit.
• Your website content needs to be PROFESSIONALLY WRITTEN, because the Panda algorithm can tell great copy from good copy, and good copy from bad. And just because you can string a few words together in an email yourself, or just because you wrote a few papers whilst at uni, DOES NOT MAKE YOU A PROFESSIONAL COPYWRITER. Any more than having a driver's licence makes you a formula one driver. So if you care about ranking your website: CARE ABOUT THE COPY YOU PUT ON IT.

At the end of the day, if people do not have a good experience using Google, they will stop using Google's services altogether. So search quality is everything to Google, which is why they have to continue to release new algorithmic updates to combat the surge of low-quality content. And why now, for the first time ever, they've hired an army of HUMAN BEINGS to supplement the algorithms.

Essentially, when you click through to a website, Google wants whatever you find on that website to match your search expectations. This isn't rocket science, people!

So what's the takeaway here? That's easy: make sure you are REGULARLY publishing authentic, well written content and that any facts expressed in your content are well researched and accurate. What you put on your website must match or exceed the high search quality Google is now demanding for websites.

Let's recap how you can prepare for these guidelines and keep your search rankings intact:
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1. If you are creating content and headlines that could be considered clickbait, reconsider NOW.
2. You want visitors to find exactly what they're looking for, so prioritise the User eXperience by delivering high-quality content and a well thought-out and well designed website.
3. Never, under any circumstances, publish low-quality content on your website. It's not about the word or page count (though more is better if the writing is great), it's about the QUALITY of the writing.
4. Do not release any factually inaccurate information.
5. Spread fake news at your peril!
6. Indulge in hate-speak at your peril! 
7. Share your quality content so you can get links from trusted sites, so your website has a 'positive reputation' in Google.

Ready to conquer the first page in the SERPS? Then call SEO North Sydney. We are here to assist with your all your small business's online marketing needs, including SEO, Web Design, Pay Per Click Advertising and Content Marketing.