Archive for March, 2012

2003.12

Introducing Charlie Martin, Web Consultant

Posted by Optix Solutions in Company News, News, Online Marketing

Believe it or not, Charlie Martin has almost been with us for an entire year – and what a year it has been. We’ve been meaning to post a formal introduction for some time, but a certain someone has been especially busy getting to know our clients.

We’ve finally managed to secure 10 minutes of his time and here are the results of our interview.

Editor: Charlie, tell us a bit about yourself.
Charlie: Well, I am a recent graduate from Cardiff Business School, where I studied Business Management and specialised in Marketing. Therefore I don’t come from a particularly technical background but I have really enjoyed immersing myself in all things web related.

I’m a driven young man looking to make his mark in the world of business. I’m a very keen learner and enjoy the experience of challenging and improving myself.

My goal in life is to leave things a little better than when I found them. I haven’t worked out how I’m going to do this yet but one day, I hope to be able to help people in whatever form that takes.

In terms of my hobbies, I am addicted to all things sport, love to read and philosophise about the meaning of it all. I’m also very interested in psychotherapy, travelling and the prospect of one day swimming with sharks.

Editor: You’re a Web Consultant here at Optix, what does that mean ?
Charlie: It means I provide advice to all those that are interested in exploring the options available to them to improve their online presence. My role involves discussing business wide goals and objectives with prospective clients before suggesting ways that the web could be used to help facilitate their attainment. I’m here to provide a soundboard for people looking to change the way their business utilises the web.

It is crucial therefore that I get the opportunity to ‘lift the lid’ on the businesses I work with to see if we can help them. Everything begins with an objective and once this has been established it is up to me to provide the best advice I can on how that objective can be achieved online. I love talking business and working out where the opportunities lie. It is this that forms the basis for what I do here at Optix.

Editor: What are your top tips for businesses looking to create or redevelop an existing web presence?
Charlie: My 5 top tips for any business looking to improve their online presence are:

  • Consider your business objectives – how is investing in your online presence going to help you achieve that objective? (e.g. increasing enquiries)
  • Have your desired end user (target audience) in mind whilst making any decision about how to improve your online presence
  • Try not to compare yourself to your competition – the biggest gains online are achieved by those who can think ‘outside of the box’ 
  • Be very clear and concise with the message you are looking to communicate online – clarity creates confidence in the mind of your audience
  • Integrate your offline marketing efforts with those online – a targeted approach will ensue and this is critical for good return on investment (ROI) on any marketing project

Editor: Thanks for your time Charlie, it certainly is a pleasure having you as part of our team. Now, back to making our clients happy.

Posted in Company News, News, Online Marketing | No Comments »

0803.12

SEO and “Ads Above the Fold”

Posted by Dan Cave in Design, Online Marketing, SEO

We recently helped a friend of the company with some information about one of Google’s Algorithm (Algo) changes/updates. The Advertisements Above the Fold factor.

This is what we had to say:

Any Google update is designed to prevent low quality websites ranking (or rather rank high quality websites first). The “advertisements above the fold” layout Algo is an example of a use of block level analysis which we have known about for a long time. The Algo can see what is a side bar and what is main content so that it can discount useless stuff and rank you for the main content. See below

Block level page anlysis

Now what Google says is that if you have too much space above the fold (a term from newspapers meaning what you can see when the paper is folded) full of adverts or useless items that they are not going to rank you as well.

If you are worried about having too many ads above the fold, put your URL in here and see how much content you can see compared to ads. If you wanted to be ultra careful I would say both 1st party and 3rd party banners/ads should be included in your assessments. So even your own internal ads may be a negative factor should they dominate your page above the fold. http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/

Here is a screen grab of our site in the test:

Consider this: what should YOU have more of on the screen when you open the site? Content? Navigation? Ads? What percentage seems right to you?

As for our customers? We tend not to design a site with ads built into the layout too prominently as a design factor rather than an SEO one, but we do have a few sites that use internal linking banners (or 1st party ads) heavily on their site and we have seen no significant drop in traffic for those sites. However even those ads are designed to sit well below secondary navigation and other side bar features, and we are always beating the drum for original content and quality pages which helps our customers in search engines.

To worry about ‘ads above the fold’ for SEO reasons should be secondary to worrying about why there ads above the fold for user reasons, and taking up valuable site content real estate in the first place. Ask yourself is what you have really what a user wants to see? Is that really how you want your business perceived. If the first thing someone sees when they visit your website is a mass of advertising and banner ads, would you be pleased?

“This algorithmic change does not affect sites who place ads above-the-fold to a normal degree, but affects sites that go much further to load the top of the page with ads to an excessive degree or that make it hard to find the actual original content on the page.”

– Google

This page layout update only deals with one out of hundreds of SEO factors which go into determining a page’s rank, if you want to talk SEO we are in Exeter and happy to talk.

Our advice to designers is just keep putting content and users first and you will be fine. Consider moving ads further down the page, and increasing the size of the main content area.

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Posted in Design, Online Marketing, SEO | No Comments »