16th April 2011 · Paddy · 1 Comment »
Buzzstream is best described as a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool for link building. It has the backing of Eric Ward who is well known as one of the most respected link builders in the world. The key thing to point out about Buzzstream is that it doesn’t build links for you. It is designed to help you be more efficient with your outreach.
I first started using Buzzstream a few years ago when I was working for Pin Digital. I came across the software by chance really and got in touch with Paul May who is the CEO. He struck me immediately as a really nice guy and if anyone is considering giving Buzzstream a go, get in touch with Paul as he is a really nice guy and not a pushy salesman!
Buzzstream Features I Like -
Collaboration on Projects
When multiple people are building links for the same site, it can sometimes be a bit tricky to keep a track of who has done what and who has spoken to who. Buzzstream allows for users to login with their own account and immediately see if another team member has looked at the same link target. There is a nifty little toolbar plugin too which allows you to save a link target to the project, if you try to save a link target that is already in the database, you will be told so. You can then see if outreach has already been done, what stage it is at and if you need to do any work.
Related to this, you can even see the email that a team member has sent to a link target and the replies. You get an email address that you can BCC into an outreach email which will add a copy of the email to the link target. This is very useful, not just for collaboration, but also just for an individual who is contacting lots of link targets at the same time.
Doing Outreach
A great feature of Buzzstream is the ability to send outreach emails from within the tool itself. This saves the hassle of copying and pasting emails and contact details over to your email program. The way that Buzzstream allows you to do it as well is a totally white hat method. You’re not sending tons of emails in one go. You send one at a time but you can use a template if you want. However its highly advised (by Buzzstream too in their demo) that you add some unique elements to the email so that you increase your chances of success.
The interface you can use is very slick too and you can choose a set of targets, then very quickly send emails out to all of them one after the other.
Working on Multiple Projects
If you are an SEO agency, this feature is invaluable. You will have many clients who you are doing link building for and keeping track of outreach on all of them can be tricky. Usually it involves multiple spreadsheets! In Buzzstream, you can add multiple projects very easily and work on them from the same interface. So you no longer have different copies of spreadsheets floating around, you can manage all clients from the same place.
Sharing Link Contacts
From what I can tell, this isn’t a feature that is talked about very much on the Buzzstream website. But it is certainly something that I think is valuable to agencies. One of the features of Buzzstream is the ability to “tag” link targets with keywords. For example you could tag my blog with “SEO” or “link building”. What we do is tag link targets with a broad industry, such as “tech blog” or “finance” or “insurance”. This means that we can sometimes use the same link target for multiple projects. If a colleague has built a relationship with a tech blogger, I can easily search Buzzstream to find them. Once I’ve found them, I already have a warm lead to go after for another project that may be in a similar industry.
31st December 2010 · Paddy · 35 Comments »
Bit of a disclaimer before you read too far and get angry with the lack of “real” SEO tips -
This post is more about getting SEO done rather than pure SEO. The point being (as the title of this post implies) that even if you are an SEO rockstar, it doesn’t mean you are good at getting shit done.
This probably applies even more if your job title has the word “consultant” in it. Yep, mine has it! I bet that loads of SEO Consultants read loads of great SEO blogs, follow loads of great SEO people on Twitter, go to loads of great conferences. Does it mean they can do SEO? Nope.
Does the client care that you do all this stuff? Nope.
Does the client care about the work you do for them and what their ROI is? Yes!
Relating this back to real life
Back in May this year I joined Distilled. I was super excited about going to a company that not only specialised in SEO, but were one of the leading UK companies. I was super excited about how much more I could learn about SEO. I couldn’t wait to get inside Distilled and learn all the “secrets”, oh and before you ask, I can’t tell you!
Looking back over the last seven months, I have learnt LOADS. But to be honest, although I’ve learnt loads of SEO stuff, the more valuable stuff I’ve learnt has been more focused on getting shit done.
Before I joined Distilled, I worked for Pin Digital where I was in the enviable position of being in total control of client websites. If I wanted some development changes (within reason) I could usually get them done. It was just a case of walking next door to the developers and asking nicely.
I didn’t appreciate how valuable this was. We were also in the fortunate position of working with companies who were big enough to understand the value of SEO, but not so big that they did their own SEO. So we took pretty much 100% control over work and it was our job to get stuff done. This isn’t that difficult in SME companies where you have control of the development side of the site too.
What I Learnt (sometimes the hard way) at Distilled -
SEO means nothing unless it gets done
A few months after starting, I was fortunate enough to take part in some in-house training sessions. Will blogged about one of them here, the other was with a super smart person on the subject of influencing change and basically getting shit done. The latter was probably the single most important thing I’ve learnt since starting at Distilled.
It changed just about everything about the way I did stuff.
I realised that being able to look at a client’s website and make SEO recommendations wasn’t enough to make a difference to their business. Providing reports and strategy documents wasn’t enough to make a difference to their business. Swapping emails with clients wasn’t enough to make a difference to their business.
Influencing Change and Getting Shit Done makes a difference to their business
To do this is not easy. I’m by no means perfect at it. It essentially comes down to a few key things -
1 – Know your client – you can’t do this over email
We’re all geeks, we don’t like using the phone. But it is by far the best way (short of meeting in person) of getting to know your clients. I was far too used to just swapping emails with clients and feeling like that was enough. Instead of this, I tried to concentrate on proper contact with clients over the phone and even working from their offices or sitting in on their internal meetings.
I was naive as to the power of just being around in a clients office. I was amazed when a client told me that just me being present at one of their planning meetings was enough to help the SEO tasks get done. I hadn’t even said anything!
Just working at a clients office – even if you’re doing other client work – is incredibly valuable because you are there for the client if they need you. You also overhear their regular day-to-day workings and get to know their methology and how they work. Again, very valuable information that will help you when it comes to getting shit done.
2 – Know who matters at your client company – who makes decisions and who pays your invoice
I don’t mean just know who the CFO is! You’ll usually have a person who is your main point of contact, but in some cases they’ll always have someone to report to. It could be their manager, the board of directors or the owner of the company. Either way, find out who it is and what you need to do in order to get them on board with your SEO efforts.
If you have a point of contact who does report to someone else – make them look good in front of their boss. Take them out for lunch, get to know them and what makes them tick.
3 – Take ownership of the problems
This is paramount to any project. Its easy to take ownership of the solutions, thats the fun bit right? Coming up with creative solutions and implementing them. But what happens when you hit a problem? I’m yet to work on any SEO project that hasn’t hit problems along the way in some form or another. When problems arise, take ownership of them and solve them. Don’t file the email away or leave it for someone else to deal with. Do it yourself.
4 – Don’t think that delivering a document is the job done
As consultants, many of us are used to delivering strategy documents which are essentially reports. It probably contains problems that need to be solved and may include some solutions to these problems.
This isn’t doing your job.
Sorry, sounds harsh but its true. Most good SEOs can deliver a document that is a comprehensive technical site audit – how many of them make sure it gets done? How many deliver it in a format that can be given straight to a developer to be implemented?
Not as many.
I’ll be honest – I’ve learnt this the hard way. It was one of the most valuable lessons I’ve learnt so far and it is now always in the back of my mind when I deliver anything to a client.
When you deliver something to a client, its your job to deliver change which gets done and gets them results. Thats it.
Seriously, thats it.
If you don’t influence change or make stuff happen, you’ve failed.
As I said, I’m by no means perfect and I’m learning all the time. Part of the reason for writing this post was to give a reminder to myself how important this stuff is so I can refer back to it. I also wanted to share some insight into why I think just being good at SEO isn’t enough and you shouldn’t rest on your laurels thinking thats it.
a4uexpo Bavarian Beer and Sausage on stand 50
8th December 2010 · Paddy · No Comments »
Andy is running a test on SVG images so I wanted to help him out with a link and let you read more about what he is doing – Andy J Davies
7th December 2010 · Paddy · No Comments »
Its been quite a busy time since the last time I posted on my personal blog! But more about that another time, fortunately I’ve had some help in getting this blog moving again.
This is a guest post written by Peter Unitt is the Managing Director of Polished Media, an online marketing company that provides solutions for small businesses across the UK. Peter has provided succesful results for all sizes of businesses although his expertise lies with small business and local search.
Here, Peter is going to talk about convincing businesses that not all SEO’s are snakes.
I come in to contact with a lot of business owners and in particular small business owners and when talking about SEO I quite often hear comments about so called SEO companies’ cold calling them offering their services. Now I’m not saying that SEO companies shouldn’t cold call people however the problem surrounding this is the stigma attached with this method.
I know from experience that a lot of companies that do this are 9/10 from a sales background, perhaps they have been involved in sales for an internet marketing company that provides business directory listings or the like. The problem lies here, many of these sales people are money orientated, the more they sell the more money they make, they don’t care if the customer is happy at the end of the day, they just want your money. This is the type of person who will cold call companies on the assumption that the person they are calling will have little to no knowledge of SEO.
The people who I speak to generally fit this category and can sometimes be convinced that the services they offer will get them the results they desire, only to find out months down the line that the traffic and conversions on their website is little to no different. When calling to complain the answer they get is that they are ranking, and generally they will be, but for some obscure term that might as well be a made up phrase for the amount of searches it gets.
Many of the companies I speak to will often lose their confidence of SEO as an industry after such experiences and this is where it is damaging the industry for the real companies. In fact many SEO companies will agree that it is now that little bit harder to get customers on board because we now have to convince some companies that we are the real deal and that SEO as an industry is really a valuable thing for a business.
One of the things I try to do at Polished Media is educate small business owners on the risks of these companies, how to spot one and who are the really good SEO companies. Here are some of my main pointers.
• Always ask what terms you are going to appear for (sounds obvious but the people I have spoken to often forget to ask).
• Make sure you get the name of the company you are buying SEO services from and do some research on the Internet, searching for things like [company name reviews] or [company name scam] or even just the company name on its own will often bring up results or problems people have had. If no results show then I would still be wary, you want to find positive and glowing reviews.
• Ask other business owners if they have had any experience with a certain company or if they know of a reputable one. Word of mouth referrals are still the most important way for real SEO companies to gain business.
• SEOmoz have their own SEO company directory as do Blogstorm for UK businesses. You will find some great companies here.
5th December 2010 · Paddy · No Comments »
As some of you will know, I love travelling. I love reading about other people’s travel stories too and I jumped at the chance of having a guest blog post on here. So please welcome Elle-Rose Williams who provided this guest post on the 8 things Ellie has learnt about travelling.
You know when you buy a really awesome phone? And when you buy it you’re thinking “this is pretty awesome”. Then as the days go on (and you download more apps/ upload more photos/ take advantage of more free wifi) your opinion changes from “pretty awesome” to “Totally. Freaking. Amazingly awesome”. Well travelling is a bit like that.
The first time you take the leap, it’s pretty awesome, and then the second time it gets better than that. And the third time it gets even better than that. And then just when you’re pretty sure you’ve reached the pinnacle of awesomeness, you realise there is so much more to come and so much more you need to do.
I’ve done a fair amount of travelling (as many of us have) and it’s fair to say I’ve learnt many lessons, often from making many mistakes. For example, when in Venice… don’t leave your passport on a boat. Because boats sail away. And they do so very quickly. Quicker than you can swim, anyway. So the most important lessons?
1) Travelling doesn’t have to cost a fortune.
Sure, some things will cost a lot and there is no way of getting around it (flights, tax, insurance). But for the other things (accommodation, transportation, food, activities) you can get by just as easily with a tiny budget as you could with a blow out budget. Don’t forget how cheap public transport is in comparison to taxis, or how cheap hostels are in comparison to hotels. By saving money on simple things like this you can afford to invest in some great memories instead… use the saved money and book a scuba diving trip, a skydive, a bungee jump, shark diving or desert trekking.
2) Use other tourists as your tripod.
As fun as self timer can be, if you want a photograph, just ask someone to take it for you. It sounds like common sense but I’m always surprised at how many people go away without taking a single photograph of themselves in the place they’re visiting. In a years time, you’ll find it hilarious looking back on how burnt you were or how huge that mosquito bite was on your nose… and having the memory right there in front of you will have been totally worth the awkward minute you had to pose for the photograph while “Hans” the over friendly Swedish guy (in Hawaiian shorts and a snorkel mask) makes sure he has the aperture just right.
3) But don’t be camera crazy.
I’ll be the first person to admit I am photography mad. I take my camera most places at most times and I wouldn’t change that because the fact is I love having my own private collection of memories available to me whenever I want. But sometimes it’s important just to enjoy the moment. Put your camera down for a minute and take a second to appriciate and take in your surroundings.
Just maybe still have the camera within arms reach, in case the Queen walks by or something. But you get my point.
4) Don’t forget to try the local food.
If you’re going to another country, don’t limit yourself to McDonalds and Starbucks, however tempting it might be. Local food is the easiest way to truly experience the culture of the place you’re visiting, and you’ll probably make a few new local friends and hear a few entertaining stories if you stick around afterwards too ( and if your complimentary enough about the cooking). A quick note though, if the menu reads “Lion” and you were a big childhood fan of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’… you won’t be able to live with the guilt, so just steer clear.
5) Sometimes the best things are free.
Some of my best travelling memories? Things that cost me absolutely nothing. Instead of splashing out one evening, challenge yourself spend nothing. Go and watch the sunset, go swimming at midnight, go and window shop all the designer labels at the local mall, visit a local landmark, find a free event to take advantage of…. the list is as long as your imagination.
6) Act like James Bond. Kind of.
Some of the best views of a city are found on the top floor of the poshest hotel. So one night put on your cleanest clothes and blag your way up to the top floor. Depending on the hotels security, this ranges from entirely possible to absolutely impossible but it’s always fun to try. You’ll feel like you’re playing a part in Oceans 11, and the amazing view teamed with the sense of accomplishment when you finally reach the top is well worth actually getting dressed up for. A tip for those that are considering attempting this? Your Auntie Jane is in Room 3- 0 – something. You forgot the last digit. You’re meeting her for coffee though and she’s expecting you.
7) You can’t control everything.
A friend of mine once missed her flight back from to the UK by an hour because a key road was closed off and the taxi driver was a newbie and didn’t know an alternative route. She cried at first (I know because i was the lucky person on the other end of the phone trying desperately to think of someway she could get back to the UK in time for her brothers wedding) but then she buckled up and found a solution. She got the train home. From Hong Kong. Just goes to show, even when things go wrong it can be kind of awesome. For ever since she has regaled us on at least a weekly basis of her experiences on that train. From passport raids, to surviving on nothing but pot noodles. And I hate to say it (for the sake of her ego) but I’m still not bored of hearing them.
8 ) Pack lightly
As a female, this is one of the lessons I struggled most with learning. The truth is though, you only need to take the basics because everything else (within reason) you can purchase cheaply when you get to your destination. Even clothes. To this day, one of my favourite dresses was bought for £2 in Singapore, and I bought it because I’d forgotten to pack one. Yes, I believe in Fate.
13th April 2010 · Paddy · No Comments »
Last month I spoke at Think Visibility about Getting the Links that Matter. Part of my presentation focused on getting the attention of the person you want to get a link from. The traditional method that most people go with is email – I pointed out that a phone call is better but we are all geeks and don’t like using the phone 
I have found a neat way to still use someones email address but perhaps find out more info about them so that you can contact them through some other means. If you install an Outlook extension called Xobni, you can find social media accounts held by the person you are emailing. You can see an example of this in the screenshot below. (The blurred parts are my email and phone number)
In this example, I can see that the person I’m contacting also has Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin accounts, so there is the possibility of contacting them via one of these accounts as well as their regular email. You can even use a combination of both, perhaps a tweet followed up by an email. It can also help if you haven’t already got the persons name, chances are that you can see their full name from their Facebook account as well as seeing part of their profile.
Using xobni you can also see links between yourself and the person you are emailing, for example if one of your other email contacts has already contacted this person, it will show up in the sidebar. This can be very useful because you have “an in”, you can mention this other person in the email and it may help get the persons attention.
This is just another small tip which can make a big difference to your link building conversion rate and give you a little bit more chance of getting a reply and getting the link you want.
2nd April 2010 · Paddy · 4 Comments »
Very quick post today on link building, this one is for ecommerce websites who have offline shops as well.
I’ve noticed that some shopping centres throughout the UK have their own websites, they often list the shops inside the shopping centre with details of opening times, location etc. Some of them also provide a link to the official shop website too.
I’ve found an example using the website for the Bullring Shopping Centre in Birmingham, Ann Summers. Honestly it was the first one I came to that had got a link to their website! Well, maybe not the first but the first that caught my eye
So if you have a client with offline stores, draw up a list of all of their stores across the UK and see if any of them are within a shopping centre. If they are, you know what to do!
16th March 2010 · Paddy · 6 Comments »
Well its done – my first ever conference presentation is over. I was very nervous but looking back on it – I’d love to go back and do it again! I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who was presenting for the first time – Paul Carpenter has written a great post about his experience and I can relate to a lot of it.
I’ve already written a post over on the Pin Digital blog which reviews the presentations I attended and the conference as a whole. Rather than bore you with the same stuff here, I wanted to take a more personal angle of the whole experience. So I thought I’d write about the things I’ve learnt from being a speaker for the first time, as well as once again being an attendee.
Being a First Time Speaker – Oh Shit!
I can still remember submitting my application to be a speaker, it was the night before I was due to fly to New Zealand for 3 weeks. The closing date for applications was whilst I was away so it was a case of now or never. I had to quickly think of a topic I felt comfortable talking about and would be of interest to the Think Visibility crowd. After a quick chat with my mate Paul Forcey, I decided to submit a presentation on link building. I knew I wasn’t very well known in the industry so I wanted to make my subject stand out, so I decided to talk about actually getting important links rather than just where to find them.
A few weeks later, after my fantastic New Zealand trip, I got an email from Dom accepting my application. Now, this is pretty much what I said out loud after I read the email -
“Oh shit I didn’t think he would actually say yes!”
Closely followed by -
“Oh shit what did I say I was going to talk about?”
After a chat with Paul again, I worked out what my presentation was going to be about!
I started to note down little things that I thought I wanted to include, printed out articles, made notes on them and wrote down the process we were using at Pin Digital for our link building. It was actually a massive learning curve and the process of preparing for the presentation actually led to me re-thinking some of our own practices and re-writing some of them.
1. If you are the next speaker and are watching another presentation before you – stay at the back close to the door!
I went to see Sarah Carling‘s presentation before mine, it ran on time but I could have done with giving myself a few extra minutes to get my presentation loaded on my laptop and have a quick flick through the slides. I also had a technical problem with my laptop which made me panic for a few minutes, not the best preparation! So I could have done with making a discreet exit a little early so I could get ready without rushing.
2. Networking and making friends is key to a great conference experience
For many SEOs, they will only pick up one or two golden bits of info from a conference which they were totally unaware of before. This is no bad reflection on the content, its just the nature of SEO that brand new stuff is often blogged about before a conference anyway. Therefore the best bits of info are often found out whilst having a drink in the bar afterwards, so take advantage and go to them!
SEOs are a friendly bunch too! Don’t be afraid to go over and strike up a conversation with a group of people and just introduce yourself. I’m not the most confident of people when it comes to doing this but once you’ve met one or two people, you’ll be surprised how quickly you make more friends as they introduce you to others.
3. If you have extra questions, go ask the speaker!
I don’t think I’ve come across a conference speaker yet who wasn’t happy to give a few more minutes of their time to answer questions. From a speakers point of view, I found it very encouraging that I was being asked questions and enjoyed speaking to more people. I’m sure others feel the same!
10th March 2010 · Paddy · No Comments »
Thought I’d do another post on SEO Rank Monitor which I reviewed last week, I wanted to show a quick way to get your keywords into the software with tags attached. SEO Rank Monitor allows you to group sets of keywords together using tags. This is a great feature as you can quickly filter your keywords by group and see which ones are performing better than others. This is very helpful as sometimes you can work on a few keywords, which will then have an effect on other keywords within the group. So using SEO Rank Monitor you can see these changes easily.
How to Import Keyword Groups in SEO Rank Monitor
1. Put your keywords into Excel in your first column, then in the next column add the name of the keyword group, eg:
2. In the next column, enter the following formula:
=CONCATENATE(A1,”|”,B2)
3. Drag the formula down the rest of your cells so that you get something like this:
4. Highlight the cells in the column you just created
5. Login to SEO Rank Monitor and go to Settings > Keywords and paste in your keywords, click Submit
So now you will be able to filter your keyword rankings by tag and narrow down your results better! If you are a regular user of SEO Rank Monitor, you may also want to checkout my post on Exporting Keyword Rankings.
9th March 2010 · Paddy · No Comments »
As regular readers will know, I love Google Analytics. Its a great piece of free software and can tell you a lot about how users interact with your website. However it can’t do everything, sometimes you need something a bit more advanced to tell you more details about users. I’ve spent a lot of time looking at various Analytics products which help spot problems with converting a visitor into a buyer, one of the products I came across was Clicktale.
I noticed that they have a free trial so I decided to install Clicktale on this blog to get an idea of what it can do. I was pretty amazed with what I learnt and what Clicktale can do, even with just the free version. With the free version you get access to click heatmaps which show you were people have clicked on a certain page, you also get access to scrolling heatmaps which shows you which section of a page people keep their attention on the most. A great application for this would be if you have an ecommerce website and wonder whether people actually scroll all the way down a long product page.
The best part of Clicktale for me though is the opportunity to watch actual videos of browsing sessions by real users. So you can see exactly what they did as they browse your website. This really is valuable information which is also very actionable. You can make an assessment on what people do on their site and change your design or calls to action to suit. Although there is a drawback – if you are a large website recording hundreds of sessions, you can’t aggregate them into one movie like you can with heatmaps etc. So this is a potential issue.
One thing that I learnt from the analysis run on my blog, is that the blog post titled “New SEO Strategies and Marketing Ideas” which is linked from the right hand side, attracted more clicks that any other blog post in that section of the page. So I know that this kind of content is of high interest to my visitors. But it also tells me I may need to work on my other blog post titles as they attracted very little attention! You can see how this data was shown to me in the image below -
Clicktale have a free trial version which gives you a good idea of what it can do, I’d recommend just giving it a try and seeing what feedback you can get from this. I’m sure you can get some good, actionable tips just from the free version. If you are running an Ecommerce website, I think software like Clicktale is essential.
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