FOK Marketing is based at the Wilton Centre Redcar, so when we heard that a Mercedes F1 car was arriving compliments of PerkinElmer, we just had to take an hour off an see the car.
Much of the work we do at FOKM Marketing is motor industry based, so we found this as an excuse to visit the car. PerkinElmer got up and did a 1 hour talk on various scientific examination equipment and measuring operations that keeps Mercedes GP reliable and safe for the driver. I could see many in this field would be good at search engine optimisation as understanding algorithms and data is a part of what we do.
It has been out for a few weeks now and the new Google design has been stated as a success by most people I have spoken to. Google has always tried to deliver uncluttered results and its homepage is still probably the most expensive web real estate in existence, yet offers nothing more than a search box a Google design logo that changes to suit specific dates of the calendar. Unlike Yahoo that fills its homepage with news horoscopes and anything they can squeeze in, however recently Bing the new MSN search engine has mirrored Google and has a simple search page too.
But when it comes to inner pages, Google has started to add twitter comments and quiet a lot of adwords stuff, making the search results more cluttered than we had been used to. the new design offers more information, but changes in fonts and what they call the “Search Options Panel” offers more information in a neater presentation.
The challenge for Google was the sophistication of searches now being used every day on Google and hoe to represent many different options to that search result, form images, to books, and results that are related but not necessarily directly relevant. the conclusion is search results that delivers relevancy through the main page, but many other options on the “Search Options Panel” to the left.
Apparently this change has evolved since 2006 with many different designs being trialled, we presume it has been implemented to coincide with the huge hardware update called Caffeine, where there is still no confirmation that the roll out is complete across all data centres. SEO Companies are trying ascertain how this affects the performance of commercial websites and what they can do to enhance visitor experience through these changes.
Previously Mark Flanighan Managing Director of FOK Marketing delivered SEO training to private groups as well some public funded projects. However during 2009, all workshops were put on hold whilst the focus was put on rebranding ICS Learning and developing large lead generation sites.
The move to the Wilton Centre (ex ICI offices Redcar) now means that seo training can resume using the excellent facilities present here. The Wilton Centre offers rooms to suit very small groups to much larger ones, within its own theatre. The beginning of 2010 has seen more changes to the SEO world with Google Caffeine and of course the gradual development of search through 2009. This means that strategy is becoming even more important to deliver Google rankings than ever before and so training is based around the same processes that FOK marketing use with their own projects.
SEO has become so complex, that you just can’t learn everything in a day, so the course is suited from beginner up to those with web experience, looking to trade locally with their websites and wish to be on the first page of the search engines.
The day starts with the theory and on page factors, then moves on to link building practices then a practical session, to recap everything taught using real examples and the websites owned by those attending. This means the learning’s can be applied directly to their own sites.
Refreshments are included, but there needs to be a minimum of 5 people attending for a course to go ahead. If anyone is interested in the day, the cost is £110 + vat to included lunch. Use the contact form to gain more details
We do a lot of “in house” projects and Leasbam is one of the latest lead generation sites we have developed that has now gone live. This project was conceived over a year ago and with funding from Business Link was published to web around July 2009. Now a good 6 months later there is sufficient traffic to justify charging for the service.
Customers are drawn to the service, because it delivers several quotes from filling in one form and the prices are presented in a way they can compare, as well as look as previous feedback and vehicle supplier details. The car lease suppliers are drawn to Leasebam, because the cost of receiving a lead is considerably cheaper than doing it themselves. Some sources claim it can costs £200 to gain a customer in the motor trade, so even with a poor conversion rate, Leasebam will cost only a fraction of that, making the service a no brainer for contract hire companies needing more business.
This type of site, requires a huge amount of SEO and constant work to deliver customers and is more likely to do this with specific search terms, rather than the basic “car lease” generic terms that attract window shoppers. Most people, who are looking for car lease, know what they what in terms of makes and models, so the research prior to the sites creation was critical.
There are other projects in the pipeline and as they are delivered, we will update with our news section here at FOK Marketing
It is a usual name and I suppose related as to giving its searchers and energy boost, but Caffeine is the name for Google newest search engine. According to Matt Cutts, Google’s software engineer, to the searcher nothing will look any different and it will not deliver different search results, it is what happens within that is changing. The question then is, if it looks the same and does the same, why change its name? Or in fact will this name be present on the Google search page?
The changes are related to speed. How fast is delivers results and how fast it indexes new data? We have been told that searches will not be affected but us search masters cannot see how results can remain static after such a huge change. In better words, a website that cannot be spidered quickly may find itself being thrown out of the SERPS. As pages are indexed quicker, then surely search results will alter as new links and new content is found.
We are sitting here, thinking remove all java script all videos or anything that will slow down the Google spider or suffer on Google. For those bloggers out there, this could be good news, ensuring your content is found straight away must be good for them. Here at FOK marketing we have found certain news items on our blogs being found by Google in minutes and now we know these were probably trial algorithms.
It si possible that is some of the technology is already there, that the impact is smaller that we are expecting, but Matt Cutts has stated that Caffeine will not be launched until after Christmas and then only one data centre as a full roll out.
One ting is sure, that Google data centre will get some usage as SEO gurus around the world will be tapping in to compare search results.
Before you decide that search engine optimisation is for you a consideration should where your market is, is it international, national or local. Take car showrooms for example, there is an argument that some people will travel some distance to get the right car for them, so optimising for national search terms might be an option. However the work and time required delivering national car related search terms is considerable and of course will cost more and in many cases the rewards would not match the cost. If you are however a specialist car retailer and the vehicles you sell have a demand beyond supply, you could find national SEO as a very attractive option.
In many businesses however staying local is just not a big enough market and the internet can take that business to a national level. For others though, being local is what the business is all about, say a restaurant or local DIY shop.
We always research the market share before entering any SEO contract and if we do not think the market is big enough to give a financial return we will say so, even if it means not getting the business.
FOK Marketing loves dealing with businesses based in the North East because there is an opportunity to meet, to understand ho each of us works. We also find that it is easier to build a relationship of trust when there has been at least one meeting face to face.
As a business on the North East register with a 5 star rating, you can be assured of a professional and transparent service.
Heh, what a great day this turned out to be! Ok didn’t quite like the breakfast workshops as the title of the workshop did not match the content but it got much better as the day went on. Personal favourites were Robert Senior the CEO of SSF (Saatchi Saatchi and Fallon), who explained that with great ideas people come to you, rather than you needing to push your message to them. Examples of their work included Cadbury’s drummer chimp and the recent T Mobile dancing in the station campaigns. I found this a bit like SEO, where people come to you via search term, looking for a service. Another key statement was how people buy with emotion, so marketing should be just about that, the emotions your target audience are likely to feel to a marketing campaign, get it right, its a winner, get the emotion wrong then back to the drawing board. For the record, Robert stated that Social Marketing was shit! Oh ok??
Collette Dunkley of X and Y reminded me that selling to women is totally different to selling to men and the figures quoted were outstanding. They have had success in the telesales market, where by changing the way they talked to women, increased sales by 43% or so. There is a real argument, that search engine optimisation and websites should be segmented in to male and female segments. An example is how men and women buy cars differently, a sector that FOK marketing is closely associated with, but had never realised the conversion rates we could get by focussing on the female view rather than just the men’s.
But it was Tim Smit who stole the show, not talking much about marketing and more about team creation and having real values, before you die. He was very funny and even though he apologised for not talking about marketing, you pretty much understood if he was talking about people that you were learning about marketing.
The day was finished off nicely for me with a private chat with Peter Cobley of I Spy. He was not shy and explaining the link building principles of Littlewoods and how they managed to get deep level links to their site, increasing revenues and search engine rankings. Really good stuff!!
Days like this are fascinating, and the fact it happened in the North East is a credit to Business Link who arranged it.
Keep your own house in order should be the lesson of the day. Bt at last we are starting to add our own promotional videos to the FOKM site. Gary is the video man for FOKM and has dedicated page to his video production side of the business. Adding videos to a site can give dramatic conversion rates above the norm and in a world where every sale counts; this must be a worthwhile investment.
Gary has finished the Leasebam videos which is car lease lead generation site developed by FOK marketing and is currently going through a trial period with 5 car lease companies. Anyway this week has been dedicated to bring some videos and some pages of life with content and a greater explanation of what we do.
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!
