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How to find the best deals this Christmas

By Recommended

Having difficulties getting through your Christmas shopping? Finding the right gift for everyone important to you can take up a lot of your time and money. Personally with the internet at my fingertips I find it difficult not to spend sometimes hours traipsing through the internet looking for the very best deals. Luckily, we’ve found the solution:

TrackIF is a free app/website which allows you to track products on several major online retail stores such as Amazon, Best Buy, Target, Toys R Us & many more.

The beauty of this app is it can let you know the price history of almost any product throughout all of these stores as well as give you a notification when they are on sale.

You also get the major benefit of being able to track all major retailers from one website. This really can save you not only a lot of time, but a lot of money too.

We highly recommend downloading the app (available on both iOS & Android) and integrating with IFTTT/PushBullet for immediate notifications on the products your tracking across all of your devices.

Never miss out on a sale again.

The Fold Does not Exist, Scrolling issues with Tyler Consultants

The Fold does not exist

By Design, Website, Wordpress

Introduction

Understanding how users interact with your website is vital. Your product or service is meaningless if people cannot find an easy way to access necessary information easily.

With this in mind, it’s easy to see why people have been afraid of expecting their users to scroll down a page – it’s not always obvious to everyone that there’s more good stuff to read.

For a long time now in the web industry it has been considered arguably bad practice to expect users to scroll. The argument for this is quite simple, when people are prone to bouncing off of your website almost immediately – it’s best to catch their attention as quick as possible.

However recently UX & Research teams have been finding that “Everybody Scrolls”. This data is a testament to how important testing in the digital age is. Even a well constructed and respected theory can either change, or be proved wrong when further analysed.

Scrolling & Attention Below The Fold

Ironically, testing on the placement of content in context of the fold is by no means a new. However findings have always been remarkably inconclusive, when looked at collectively. Some research teams have found strong data backing the theory that you should try to keep content above the fold. While just as many research has provided evidence towards the notion that people are happy to scroll beyond the fold.

The issue is that research teams have not been testing extensively enough. If anything the results have shown that people sometimes scroll.

So the research should not be aimed at answering “do websites ever keep a users attention below the fold?” To recognising “which design elements provide visual cues which users need to scroll below the fold?” Huge Inc have attempted to find out the answer to this very question.

The Test

Huge conducted a test with 48 participants over 3 days – By using four different design tests:

  •  A control image, with no visual cues to scroll below the fold.
  •  A scroll arrow that cues users to scroll down.
  •  A short image, where users had to scroll to see above-the-fold content in entirety.
  •  An animated image with a moving element to lead viewers below the fold.

However what they found was that 9/10 people scrolled to the bottom of the page regardless of the visual cues (with the exception of the animated image which was 7/10.

 Suggestions

In the end scrolling is mostly linked towards the quality of the web design – First impressions count. Users will decide whether they want to find out more about your website instantly. So ensure that your web design has visual cues which integrate with your existing design and fit with your business category.

Remember, those that do scroll are showing an interest in your website and are more likely to have built a bond with your website (hence the further reading). Therefore Calls to Actions are much more effective below the fold, people are more likely to follow up on your CTA after you have provided them value.

 

If your finding that people are bouncing from your website before really consuming your content maybe it’s time for a website checkup. Give us a free call on 01273 328877 for any advice you may need on your site.

Pantone Colour of the Year

By Design

For the more ‘arty’ people out there, the world-renowned authority on color and provider of color systems (Pantone) has decided on the Colour of the Year 2014.

And the winner is Marsala

Colour in design is very subjective. What evokes one reaction in one person may evoke a very different reaction in someone else.  For what it is worth, this is what Marsala means to us:

  • The darker shades of red can be powerful and elegant
  • There is a hint of blood in the colour and so it can denote feelings such as passion or alarm
  • Dark red, when combined with white and gray, gives a very elegant and professional impression
  • Use shades of red to grab attention and to get people to take action.

For companies, the key is to consider how the colour you choose for your company will be perceived by your target market rather than the colour your business stakeholders like.

PushBullet

Our Top 10 Recommended Online Productivity Tools

By Marketing

2015 is on it’s way and with so much technology out there it is difficult to try and find the apps/websites that can really help you become more efficient.

Personally I can really struggle to keep focused on what to prioritise between the vast array of projects which I am juggling. Let alone stick to new year’s resolutions!

So for me, it’s really important that I integrate a lot of online tools into my work ethic.

Unfortunately finding useful tools can be difficult and takes a lot of time, kind of defying the point in saving yourself time… Lucky for you – we’ve done all the work!

Here are our Top 10 Recommended Productivity Tools:

1. Evernote

Evernote is a fantastic organisation tool which allows you to put all of your thoughts and tasks in one place, automatically syncing across your devices. Plus, by upgrading to the premium business model you can collaborate with all of your coworkers – ideal for managing teams from a distance.

Why we Love it: Evernote can be your “everything” inbox. The fact that you can load all of your materials, ideas, tasks and more or less any digital content into one place combined with cross-platform support makes Evernote the ultimate digital filing cabinet. Let’s be honest you couldn’t have a recommended productivity tools list without including ‘The container to store all other container’s’ Evernote.

Evernote UI

2. Pocket

Pocket is a really useful application for anyone who has an interest in consuming any form of content. Once installed via your browser, PC or mobile you can simply “pocket” pages to read or watch later from your phone or computer even without an internet connection! This can save you a lot of time since you can read your blogs while on the move.

Why we Love it: Pocket is THE place to consume all of your content. The fact that you can save news, videos, music all from your computer and immediately have offline access to it on your mobile is literally a godsend.

Pocket, place videos, articles etc. in one place

3. PushBullet

Ever had to email yourself a link? PushBullet is the no hassle method to sharing links and files between your devices or your friends. Not to mention the ability to share phone notifications on your desktop means you’ll never miss a call or text again. However, the real beauty of PushBullet is it’s integration with IFTTT, which funnily enough is up next on our list!

Why we Love it: Once you start sending and receiving SMS through your computer (via your mobile) you really begin to appreciate the time saved by pairing your devices. Not to mention the original benefit, there really is a lot of unnecessary bother sharing things between your devices.

PushBullet

4. IFTTT

In a world where time is money, being rid of the small tasks can equate to huge cash savings. So it’s with somewhat surprise that this app is still relatively underused. IFTTT or If This Then That will automate your life.

Create a automatic message when somebody follows you on Twitter, or automatically add videos you marked as Watch Later from YouTube to your Pocket and hundreds of other IFTTT recipes.

Why we Love it: Time defying stunts like automatically adding contacts to a Google Drive spreadsheet. Or Setting a reminder a year from now via email when you tag #remember. The possibilities really are endless with hundreds of apps integrated.

IFTTT

5. RainDrop

Raindrop is a bookmark extension for your browser and mobile. Much like Pocket it allows you to read your content in an optimised experience all in one place. However where they differ is that with Raindrop you can subscribe to RSS feeds and other Raindrop users, not to mention the gorgeous design.

Why we Love it: Weekly email digest reminding you what you have bookmarked means that you will actually remember to read what you have been bookmarking! Also being able to share entire collections of bookmarks is really handy.

Raindrop

6. Trello

Below is a Trello board. it’s a group of lists which you can compile alone or with a team all completely free. Inspired by Pinterest and other organisational tools Trello takes a much more visual approach to note-keeping. If your working as part of a creative or design agency this could be just the tool you need to maximise your efforts, without the need for lots of physical space.

Why we Love it: Boards make it easy to track what is being worked on, why by and when it’s due. Trello is a very intuitive tool we can even let clients in boards without investing a lot of time explaining the system!

Trello Board, a recommended producitivity tool which acts as a pinterest board but aimed at teams.

7. LastPass

Everyone at some point has forgotten their password, or has gone to great lengths to come up with a highly secure password.

No longer.

LastPass keeps all of your passwords in one place so that you only need to remember one password. All data is encrypted locally to your device so it’s only accessible to you.

Why we Love it: LastPass is particularly useful for us as web designers since we manage a large amount of personal data for a vast amount of clients.

LastPass mobile app login screen

8. CloudMagic

CloudMagic is an award winning email app. So what’s so special about it?

  • Well, it gives access to all of your email accounts in one place
  • Synced through the cloud which means that the app is lightweight and easy on your battery/data
  • Push notifications for all of your emails on every device
  • Highly customisable, snazzy design
  • Powerful management tools such as quick actions via swipe.
  • Integrates with your other apps like Pocket, Evernote & Trello.

Why we Love it: Fully featured email inbox with a real twist on default options all in a sleek, yet dazzling design.

CloudMagic Email box - one of our recommended productivity tools, it's incredibly minimal but is loaded with features.

9. Buffer

Buffer is a social media management tool which allows you to schedule tweets and shares throughout your day. The app has had a lot of success since launch and has since integrated with many other fantastic tools like followerwonk.

Why we Love it: IFTTT in combination with Buffer makes us feel like the boss of social! Plus all of the goodies which are continuously added truly time saving.

10. Google Keep

Another note-keeping tool, Google Keep has it’s own twist on the solution. Keep it simple. If your looking for vast documentation I’d suggest Evernote with it’s tag settings and categories etc.

But, if you just want a “sticky note” on your phone which you can just apply quickly then Keep is for you. Evernote in comparison is more like a filing cabinet personally I use both depending on the task, though I imagine some of you will stick to one or the other.

Why we Love it: Actually I’m the only one at Tyler Consultants to use Keep (but it’s still too good to not recommend), I love Keep for just the simple reminders which keep me on track with the everyday things.

That’s it!

All 10 of our Recommended Productivity Tools. I hope you’ve found them as useful as I do!

If your looking for more go check out our new eBook Top 5 Ways To Improve your Website. It’s packed with useful goodies and tools which you can use to get your website in the best shape, as soon as possible.

How To Get Traffic

How to get Traffic to your site (Beginners)

By Email Marketing, Link Building, Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Website, Wordpress

Starting up a website is hard.

Thousands of people are already in your industry and have already got a strong following.

Sometimes breaking into the crowd can seem impossible.

After all you’ve checked out the leading authorities on building up traffic, they’ve all had plenty of advice to give.

Yet here you are looking for more techniques to even get started on building traffic to your site.

Nothing has worked.

You start to wonder…

Have you failed as a content writer? Is your SEO really that terrible?

“…Is my website, useless?”

Building up a following can be really tough. I mean real tough, like climbing mount Everest with banana skin shoes tough.

But it is possible, people have managed it. (Popular Blogs, not climbing Everest with banana’s. Maybe one day).

So, the question, is how?

Out of all of the building traffic techniques you’ve read about:

  • SEO
  • AMA’s
  • Social Media
  • RSS Feeds
  • Video
  • Landing Pages
  • Email Marketing
  • Marketing Automation
  • Calls to Action
  • Analytics
  • Following popular blogs

None of them work.

Most suggested traffic techniques just don’t work

Here’s the cold, hard truth.

There are only four methods which do work, for a Beginner.

“There are only four ways to get traffic to my site?

That can’t be right. Surely not.

I’ve read all of those great posts on Moz, Hubspot etc. about building traffic…

And I mean well, it all makes sense.”

So why hasn’t any of it worked?

Because the vast majority of what people are saying just isn’t effective for startups.

Think about it.

These websites are aiming their blogs at businesses which already have a somewhat popular website, who are just trying to boost their website even further.

If your just starting out and are paying close attention to your followers, then what are you doing?

You don’t even have any followers,

Yet.

You can’t waste time on lead nurturing, email campaigns etc. When you don’t have an audience.

Leading authorities don’t write about how to get traffic, they write about how to improve your traffic.

This is a massive difference and which honestly, should be made much clearer. Your not the only people who have been struggling to figure out how to get their website to take off, TCmarketing included…

How to get Traffic for a Beginner (The only Four Techniques)

…So what exactly is effective for startups?

1. Guest Blogging

If your just starting out and looking to hit your mark on the web scene. This should be your weapon of your choice. Guest blogging is extremely effective at producing unique, targeted visitors for a start up website. The best bit? There are no prerequisites, all you need to get started is a few popular bloggers in your industry.

Steps:

  • Write a Guest Post
  • Ask for a small favour of linking your guest post to related posts
  • If someone shares your post, get to know them! Chances are they will share your blog too
  • Instead of linking back to your home page, link to your email opt in. This could get you many subscribers

2. Interviews/pod-casting

Not only do a lot of people want to hear what industry experts have to say. Industry experts have a lot to say. Don’t be afraid to ask to do an interview with influential people, as long as you keep it relevant interviews are beneficial to everyone.

Steps:

  • Plan your interview
  • Get as many Bloggers involved as possible (within reason)
  • Get permission to share your findings with the world, think about putting this behind a landing page/opt-in list

3. Outreach

Generally spending the time to put out a truly fantastic and original post just does not generate the visitors to be worth while. But here is the interesting part, if you pair them with outreach and the results can be staggering. However your going to need to be prepared to face rejection. Even if your content is truly some of the best in your industry.

Steps:

  • Identify Influential Bloggers
  • Get Noticed (comments, email, social)
  • Request a share/guest post/backlink etc.
  • Build the relationship

4. Advertising

When it comes to earning traffic as a beginner, this is the real deal. Advertising greatly out paces any other technique for generating traffic to your website as a beginner. However there is one flaw with this technique, which I’m sure you’ve already cottoned on to. That’s right, money. Now I’m not going to say go and bust your life savings on advertising for your website. However if you think you are ready for that increased volume, advertising can save you months of work, that’s how effective it is.

Get on with it then!

That’s it! The four techniques you need to invest in to build up traffic to your website.

So, what are you still reading this for?

Get out there and grab that web traffic, it’s waiting for you!

 

Seriously though, I hope our guide on how to get traffic for your start-up website was useful.

I mean, I put in enough time writing this.

So give me a share! Tweet this to your friends! Recommend me to your industry leaders!

 

By Gabriel Hourigan,

TCmarketing SEO

Another Google Panda Update Announced

By SEO News

Google Panda UpdateIn a post on Google+, Google’s Pierre Far announced the latest version of Google’s Panda update. How will this update affect the rankings of your web pages on Google? What can you do to make sure that your web pages get better rankings?

What is Google’s Panda update?

Google’s ‘Panda’ algorithm is a filter that Google designed to penalize web pages with thin or poor content. If the content of a website has been copied from other web pages, or if the content has very low quality, it won’t rank well on Google.

What’s new in the latest Panda update?

Here’s Pierre Far’s official announcement:

“Earlier this week, we started a slow rollout of an improved Panda algorithm, and we expect to have everything done sometime next week.

Based on user (and webmaster!) feedback, we’ve been able to discover a few more signals to help Panda identify low-quality content more precisely. This results in a greater diversity of high-quality small- and medium-sized sites ranking higher, which is nice.

Depending on the locale, around 3-5% of queries are affected.”

What does this mean for your website?

If your website has been penalized in the recent past:

If your website was penalised by the last Panda update, your rankings might recover if you have changed your web page content in the meantime.

If your rankings have recovered by recovered by October 5th, then you made the right changes. If not, you have to improve the content of your web pages to regain your former Google rankings.

If your website has not been penalised before:

If your website analytics show a significant traffic drop from Google, or organic search traffic in general, it might be that Google’s new algorithm has determined that your website content is not good enough – in terms of value added to the reader and relevancy.

In that case, you have to improve the content of your web pages to get better rankings.

Google’s Panda algorithm targets websites with low quality content. If you have a real website with real content that is totally relevant and adds value to your visitors, you won’t have to worry about this update.

If you would like to hear more about of SEO Services for Brighton & Hove businesses please leave a comment below or call us on 01273 328877

How to write eye grabbing titles

How to write eye grabbing titles and headlines

By Marketing

People have a lot on their plates. When people have so much work to be getting on with your Blog/eBook/SlideShare title had better be good. Your not just asking for people to be interested in your title, your asking for people to actually take out the time to read your content. Here are our tips so that you’ll be bringing in and gripping readers consistently:

“What’s in it for me?”

Be precise and give a clear aim to the value of your content. When people understand what exactly they will get out of consuming your content from just a glance, they are much more likely to read.

Of course this also means that your content has to provide value. No matter how exciting a title or a headline is if it isn’t going to benefit the reader it’s highly unlikely your content is going to take off. So the first step is to find out what your readers actually would like to read. Then tell them upfront to pull them in and don’t let up!

People understand Value, not specifications/process

People are not interested in the product/service you offer, they are interested in the gain from that offer. Clearly stating the benefits of an action, rather than the action itself will have a vast impact on how many heads you turn with your titles.

For example, most businesses are not interested in how email marketing can educate and connect with your audience. However if you explain customers who receive email newsletters spend 82% more when they buy from the company, you’re going to grab their attention.

This is a really powerful technique which takes some thought but is well worth the results.

Tried and Proven Header & Title Formulas

Great! Now that you understand the concept of what your headers and titles should be including here are a few examples of precise actionable templates:

  • [Insert Number] Of ways to solve [Issue which your audience is trying to solve]
  • The Definitive Guide to [Regular problem your readers face]
  • [Insert Number] Mistakes to avoid when [tackling obstacle your readers face]
  • [Insert Number] Steps to [Resolved issue]

Numbers are a powerful tool in your titles. People tend to know what they are looking for, the more specific your title is the less likely they feel like they will regret reading your content.

This has been our tips on working towards some really groundbreaking titles. What do you think? Have we hit the nail on the head, or are we missing something? If you have any examples of great headings which worked for you let us know!

Bing Explains How They Detect, Process and Filter Out Spam

By SEO

Bing LogoA few days ago Igor Rondel, Principal Development Manager, Bing Index Quality, published a blog post about the way Bing treats web spam.

His post explains how Bing detects, processes and filters out search spam from their search index.

Web page elements that help Bing to detect spam:

Firstly, Bing tries to understand the spammer’s motivation. As most spammers want to make money, Bing analyzes the following:

1. Quality of content

According to Igor Rondel, spammers generate content targeted at search engines and their algorithms, whereas legitimate SEOs generate content for their customers and prospects.
In most cases, spam pages have inadequate content with limited value to the user. “There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of signals used to make this assessment, ranging from simple things like number of words on the page to more complex concepts of content uniqueness and utility.”

2. Presence of ads

Presence of ads doesn’t make a page bad. Bing’s algorithms check how many ads appear on the page, the type of ads (e.g. banner, grey-overs, pop-ups), and how intrusive/disruptive they are.

3. Positional & layout information

Where is the main content located? Where are the ads located? Do the ads take up the prime real estate or are they neatly separated away from the main content (e.g. in the header/ footer or side pane)? Is it easy for users to mentally separate content from ads?

Popular spam techniques that Bing does not like

Igor Rondel listed some spam techniques that Bing does not like. For example, Bing considers the following spam:

• stuffing page body/url/anchors with keywords

• performing link manipulation via link farms, link networks, forum post abuse

• including hidden content on the page not meant for human consumption.

These are the same things that Google does not like. If you want to avoid a penalty, better avoid these methods and do ‘white hat’ SEO instead..

How spammers create content

According to Bing’s Igor Rondel, there are many content generation methods that spammers use:

• copying other’s content (either entirely or with minor tweaks)

• using programs to automatically generate page content

• using external APIs to populate their pages with non-unique content.

Bing’s algorithms try detect these and similar mechanisms. To amplify this, they also develop creative clustering algorithms (using things like page layout, ads, domain names and Whois-type information) that in a way act as force-multipliers to help identify large clusters of these mass produced pages/ sites.

Do not use spam techniques if you want to get high rankings that last. Bing and Google have big anti-spam departments and your website will be penalized if you use spam techniques.  Contact us if you need help putting an effective SEO strategy in place.

How will Google’s ‘Near Match’ change affect your Google Adwords Campaigns?

By Paid Search, SEO

Paid Search Marketing from Tyler ConsultantsGoogle recently announced the your ‘exact match’ and ‘phrase match’ keyword phrases in Google Adwords paid search platform will be matched with ‘variation’ or ‘near match’ keyword phrases starting in September 2014.  In this post we will look at what this means and how it will affect your Google Adwords campaigns.

So What exactly is being changed by Google?

In a recent blog post Google announced that from next month it will no longer be possible to bid on exact match and phrase match keyword phrases without including other very similar keyword phrases.

In their post, Google advised that more than 7% of all Google searches contain a misspelling.  The example they used was:

if you advertise for the exact match keyword “kid scooters”, Google will show your add for the search terms “kid scooters”, “kid’s scooter”, or “kids scooters”.

Currently ‘exact match’ means that if you had the keyword phrase ‘kid scooters’ your ad would only appear if the searcher keyed in ‘kid scooters’ and not for any variation.

So is the change good news or bad news?

As expected the official Google statement is positioning the change as great news for their advertisers as they can expect many more clicks as a result of their ad being triggered by more search phrases.  It also means more money for Google of course and as yet it is unclear whether the variation keywords will have the same conversion rate as the original keyword.

What seems clear to us is that the change is undoubtedly good news for Google but it might not be beneficial to their advertisers.

The change affects both exact match and phrase match keyword phrases

As we explained above Google will be showing your  exact match ad’s and your phrase match ad’s for more keyword phrases as a result of the change.  As an example if you were bidding a phrase match keyword phrase ‘black shoes’ then your ad will be shown in all searched containing the phrase ‘black shoes’ such as ‘buy black shoes’, ‘mens black shoes’, ‘black shoes for sale’ which is fine if you are selling black shoes but your ad will also trigger for non productive searches such as ‘my black shoes hurt’, ‘my girlfriend hit me with her black shoes’ which are still going to cost you money but are unlikely to produce any income for you.

From September when Google activates the new ‘near match’ change  your ad will be triggered by many more variations which means your click costs are likely to increased or your budget will be used up more quickly.

Unfortunately there is not much that advertisers can do about it as Google have made the decision to implement the change.  What you can do however is review your Paid Search campaign and look to see if you can change any of your current phrase match keyword phrases to exact match keyword phrases.  You can also make use of negative keywords to try and make best use of your budget.

If you would like to know more about our paid search services or any aspect of search marketing please call us on 01273 328877

Why Social Media is so Important for Your Business

By Marketing, Social Media

From increased brand exposure to improved search rankings, businesses today have realised how much of a positive impact social media has.

But if you’re a small business that has yet to venture past your optimised website and your occasional e-newsletters into the world of social media, here are a few reasons why you should.

Your customers are already using it

According to the UK Online Measurement company, the average UK surfer spends 22 hours and 15 minutes on the net each month. This means there is a high chance that your target audience is already using social media websites and blogs. So to reach them, you have to join them – by using social media you can reach more potential customers and send out your marketing message on a platform they are confident with.

Increase personal communication

Forget one-way marketing channels. With the help of social media, you can reach out to potential customers and atually have a conversation with them. Answering their personal queries and responding to their posts about your business will make them feel like they are being heard and apart of a community – increasing their loyalty and trust.

Competitive advantage

Your competitors may be racing ahead of you and building up a strong online consumer relationship. So it is important to include social media into your marketing strategy – you don’t want to be falling behind.
However if your competitors are still using traditional marketing methods and have avoided social media, then what are you waiting for? Get a leg up and venture in before them. Utilise this marketing channel before they do.

Cost effective

Instead of running a paid ad or mailing out thousands of leaflets; it is much more cost effective to send a tweet or post a message on Facebook – much quicker too. Marketing campaigns can also be demographic-specific, allowing marketing messages to be targeted to a specific audience, for instance through the use of Google+ Circles.

Increase your ranking on Google search

Having your website linked to your various social media profiles (Twitter, LinkedIn etc.) will help to increase the validity of your website and boost your google authority; essentially opening up more routes for potential consumers to reach your website.
Of course having updated and compelling content on your website will help to entice other websites to find your content and link to it.

Below is an infographic which shows just how many millions of users are using social media.
If you need any more advice, contact us now.

By Lucy Bone