How much is first place in search worth?

Usain Bolt won the 100m sprint at the last Olympics. Who came second?

Michael Phelps came first 8 times in the pool at the last Olympics. Do you remember 2nd and 3rd places in any of those races?

Now, who do you think is raking in all the sponsorship dollars and appearance fees? Bolt and Phelps or the guys they beat? Trust me, the bulk of the money (like 90%) is going straight to the winners while the lunch money is being shared amongst the rest.

Online search is exactly the same. First place wins BIG, the rest pick up the crumbs. It doesn’t matter how many different survey results you look at, the numbers are always similar:

Position 1 = 42.4% of clicks-through

Position 2 = 11.8%

Position 3 = 8.4%

Position 4 = 6.2%

Position 5 = 4.9%

Position 6 = 4.1%

Position 7 = 3.4%

Position 8 = 3.1

Position 9 = 2.7%

Position 10 = 2.9%

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In web design, one word can make a big difference

Good web design is increasingly important for businesses trying to compete at a time when the Internet is the most consumed media in Australia. However, merely having a website isn’t enough these days. A good website is one that can be found easily in search, provides the visitor with relevant information and must has effective traffic conversion strategies in place.

So how much time have you spent thinking about the wording of your navigation? Or the location of a crucial button or link? You’d be amazed at the difference in results you can achieve with subtle changes.

We have been running Traffic Visualisation Analytics, such as heat-mapping, on several sites to monitor the results from changes to layout and wording. It has been a revelation. We have been able to see where people are clicking on the tested sites and where they came from. Then after making small changes we can compare results.

Heat mapping in action

On this particular site we found that visitors weren’t clicking through as much as we’d like to one of the most important pages in the navigation, “products”. So after a week of monitoring we changed the name of that page in the navigation to “services”.

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Inbound marketing gives cold calls the cold shoulder

If there is one thing that sales team generally hate, its cold-calling. Finding new business prospects from scratch can be very difficult and disheartening.

Having run sales teams for a local radio station, I’ve seen good sales reps struggle with the dreaded cold-call. They leaf through the phone book looking for prospects then go through the process of hunting down the decision makers only to be told their services aren’t required.

Imagine if sales teams could forget about the cold-calling and just meet with qualified prospects. Imagine only meeting with buyers who’ve already decided they’re interested in what you’re selling.

That’s what Inbound Marketing can achieve.

Inbound Marketing positions a business in front of potential customers when they are read to purchase. It provides the purchaser with relevant information and an option to find out more, or make an inquiry with that business. Inbound Marketing brings highly qualified and motivated customers to you.

The results can be staggering. One sales force using our Sticky Inbound Marketing system is currently achieving a conversion rate of 92% from appointments to sales. Every one of those customers contacted them. Previously the same team was converting 27% of appointments to sales using old lead generation techniques.

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Advertising agencies and web designers welcome

The market for advertising agencies and web designers here in Newcastle is very competitive. Very rarely do you see agencies or designers co-operating for the greater good of their clients. I’m sure its the same elsewhere in Australia too.

When we developed NLYZR our aim was to create something that could be of genuine service to anybody looking to improve websites. That means advertising agencies, web designers and other marketers.

• If you are working on sites for your clients we invite you to test it with Web NLYZR.

• If you wish to optimise them for more successful search results, please use SEO and Competitor NLYZR.

• If you aren’t sure which are the best keyword searches to target, we can assist you with Keyword NLYZR.

Already several Sydney and Melbourne advertising and digital agencies have used NLYZR to improve client sites, while many others have received free Web NLYZR reports. Please keep them coming.

I invite advertising agencies, web designers and marketers to take advantage of the tool NLYZR offers.  We’d rather assist than compete.

All submissions to NLYZR and Sticky will be kept in the strictest confidence. We can also discuss special rates for agencies, designers and marketers who wish to utilise NLYZR on a regular basis.

If you would like to discuss this in more detail please call me on 02 49695022.

The single biggest mistake made with well-optimised websites

Did you know that a website that has excellent search engine optimisation can still be missing out on valuable traffic? The reason is poor keyword selection.

We study hundreds of websites every month with our online marketing tools…sites with good search engine optimisation…sites with poor SEO…and everything in between. Probably the biggest mistake we come across, even with the best sites, is poor keyword selection. Its like tuning up a Formula 1 motor car and sending it out on a rally course. Tons of potential but no chance of success.

Professional keyword selection should be the starting point for a successful search engine optimisation campaign.

That’s where Keyword NLYZR comes in.

Keyword NLYZR is a professional keyword selection tool that reveals the most popular searches in your industry, which are the most competitive and which are the easiest to win. It then recommends the Top 5 short-term and Top 5 long-term Keyword Searches for you to target. The information it provides could change your total online marketing strategy.

Strategic keyword selection involves more that just picking the biggest search categories, it balances short & long term goals with realistic opportunities so that your website can build quality traffic faster. Quality traffic = more leads = more sales.

Very few websites get their keyword selection right, so the few that do have even greater prospect of success.

If you think your website is well optimised but you still aren’t getting the traffic and sales you’d like, then maybe you need to look at Keyword NLYZR.