If you’ve got your own website, the chances are you’ve heard about https. And if that website is currently HTTP, then you’ve probably been told that you need to change that ASAP!
So, why is everyone talking about https?
SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is a fantastic way to get your website in front of your audience. Google, is the go to resource for any query, whether that be where to buy a certain product, who the best plumber around town is, or simply to order a takeaway. Although there are competing Search Engines, such as Bing and Yahoo, Google is the primary resource for just about anything, with more than 40,000 search queries processed every second with Google.
Here at an SEO/Digital Marketing Agency, this is the paradox I live – the love of Google’s ability to track, provide indisputable data and hone-in on my target audience for marketing, and, am I, personally, comfortable with being watched and tracked to an excessive level, being someone else’s target (audience).
In most of my articles I go on about data, and how this is an absolute must for driving your business forward in today’s digital world, and it is. However, deep down I think I may be a bit of a closet conspiracy theorist.
1. Simplicity above the fold line
Two of my favorite sites, when it comes to UX and clean design are John Lewis and Macy’s. You will get to whatever you want to purchase in 3-clicks or less. There is no confusion and with John Lewis you can see that everything above the fold is the cornerstone of their business – clothing, electronics and homeware. Both are also outstanding for mobile as well. They are a masterful blend of traditional marketing concepts coupled with digital commerce.
Most of you will probably recognise the reference to the classic 1960’s comedy. The plot revolved around a manic treasure hunt for buried cash marked with a giant “W”, with the starring characters stumbling into various unexpected obstacles as they raced and schemed their way to the prize. I’m reminded of this for a couple of reasons; first, your riches are buried under a giant “M” for mobile, the other is the madcap adventure it takes most to get there.
For many companies on Facebook and twitter, a common shared problem is being able to effectively engage with their following, and finding out how successful they are at it. And as most people (unless they feel as though they are being spammed or overwhelmed) will not unfollow a Facebook page or twitter account – even if they do not actually ‘follow’ the content being produced – it is hard to gauge what works and what does not.
As an acknowledgment of the outstanding Google AdWords management from our PPC team, Tron Media has now been recognized by Google as a Premier Partner!
Tron has always held partner status and this has not always meant as much as it does nowadays. A few years ago Google raised the bar for what a “Partner” is and a great number of agencies that were doing the minimum lost this status, about 2/3 in fact.
There have been so many advances over the past year in computer evolved “learning”; or in reality, a computer’s ability to crunch mass amounts of data, devise a strategy to segment this data against a formula, and output accordingly. No matter how you care to look at it, computers are becoming extremely intelligent. I think we are still some ways off from Terminator type global intelligence, but from a digital marketing perspective I can faintly see an SEO Skynet evolving or at least a battle on the horizon.
SEO is ever changing and it is important to keep up and stay on top of new algorithm releases and changes to search engine systems. From the huge local SEO change to the Penguin 4.0 update – 2016 has been a huge year for SEO compared to previous years. But the question is, have you changed with these updates?
I think a potential stumbling block for companies and organizations which have not engaged or had much success in reaching their target market through this channel could be over emphasizing and fixating on the term “social” media as a noun. Perhaps thinking too deeply about the connotations of the title of the medium and perhaps blinding them to the potential revenue stream.