This is Tommy the tit, he’s just got his 1000th follower and is chuffed to bits.

Everytime he tweets, his 1000 followers see his message and he gets to feel really important.

………But what happens to Tommy’s tweet once it’s out there in the twitterverse?

Does anybody bother to read it? Does it have any influence on anyone? And are, in fact, his 1000 followers comprised largely of spambots and auto followers?

So how can Tommy judge if he’s genuinely successful on Twitter if follower numbers alone are meaningless?

Influence, Influence, Influence!

Without influence your tweets are pointless. This applies to every tweeter out there. If you’re a business, do you influence people to buy your product or remember your brand? If you’re a thought leader, do people read what you recommend they should be reading? If you tweet to your friends, do they all come running to the pub when you tweet ‘Fancy a pint’?

So how should we be measuring twitter success if it’s not a numbers game, and surely influence is pretty damn impossible to measure anyway……. well no, not at all nowadays actually!

For me there are three key stats which will show if you are successful on twitter:

1) Click throughs on links you post.

Be it a link to your own blog, or a resource you’re recommending, you want people to follow that link. The more people who click through respect your recommendations and want to listen to what you have to say. Most link shortening services provide really simple tracking so it’s easy as pie to get a good idea of how well your tweets are received, almost immediately after sending.

2) Retweets

How many people like what you have to say enough to shout about it to their followers? A retweet is the highest recommendation in twitterland, so look out for them, and treasure them. Build relationships with those who retweet you and carry on discussions with them about what they have retweeted.

This again is so straightforward to measure with a simple feature such as Tweetmeme

3) Monitor tweets @You

When you post a question, how many people carry on the conversation with you? This is a great measure of your genuine popularity and influence. You might have 1000 followers but if none of them reply to you what are the chances they’re paying any attention to you at all?

So in summary, Twitter follower numbers as a metric are dead. Discuss!

One of the best things about digital marketing is how easy it is to measure pretty much everything. Using simple, and free analytics packages (most people use Google Analytics) it’s possible to track how many visitors you get, how they found your site and what they do when they get there (amongst countless other stats).

So when you can measure pretty much everything, what should you focus on?

1) Conversion rate

This is, without a doubt, the number one stat every web master should be measuring. If you don’t look at your conversion rates, every other stat is meaningless. What’s the use of a huge visitor increase if none of them take a positive action? Whats the point in reducing bounce rate if visitors then leave never to return?

Identify what you want visitors to do on your site. It might be to make a purchase, sign up for a newsletter or to provide your sales team with a lead. Whatever it is, set it up as a goal in your analytics package, and see how successful you are at converting visitors into customers/members/subscribers. Once you know this you can then optimise your site to funnel people towards this goal, and measure the results.

Measuring conversion rates is not just a site wide process however - you should be analysing it on every aspect of your website.

Look at which channels provide the best quality visitors. You might find Google organic search gives the best quality traffic; or it may be that visitors coming from Twitter are more useful to you. Whatever you find, you will have a better idea of where to focus your energy. You can also drill down on a keyword level to get an accurate idea of the benefits of your SEO efforts. If your top keywords convert well then great; if they don’t, you might want to research keywords which will provide you with more of a benefit. Look for keywords you don’t rank highly for that have led to a conversion, and focus on boosting those rankings.

2) Measure figures against the same month last year.

An easy trap to fall in is to measure against the previous month, but in most industries seasonal trends have a big impact on visitor numbers, conversion, AOV and most other stats you can think of. If you measure against the same month from the previous year you will get an accurate picture of how much you have grown.

3) ROI

If you’re spending money on your marketing you must measure how much it returns. There are a few methods out there, so find the one most appropriate to your business. For ecommerce sites I generally recommend measuring ROI based on profit. I advocate a measurement called ERS (effective revenue share). This is Marketing Cost divided by Revenue X 100. This tells you what percentage of revenue is absorbed by your marketing spend. As long as you know your gross margin you can then easily work out what an acceptable ROI is for a given channel or campaign.

What not to measure in 2010?

1) Page Rank

Google has come out and said that page rank doesn’t mean much nowadays. Not only is it not updated regularly but Google ‘Say’ it is a less significant factor in ranking than ever before. Sometimes you have to take what Google says on SEO with a pinch of salt, but more and more I see sites with a low page rank out ranking those with the higher PR.

2) Blindly measuring visitor numbers

Visitors are great. We all want more and more visitors to come to our site, but you must always be asking what have I/we achieved by attracting those visitors. For ecommerce sites this is obvious – have they bought anything?  But for bloggers it is more difficult. Maybe it’s “have they left a comment?” “Have they retweeted my post?” or “have they signed up to my mailing list?”

3) Twitter Followers

With the increase of auto followers and spammers on twitter follower numbers don’t mean a great deal. Anyone can get thousands of followers by using auto follow technology, but those followers will be of little to no use. Twitter is all about influence and authority. You want to look at stats like how may people follow a link you’ve tweeted, or how many people retweet. This interaction in social media is far more valuable than sheer numbers.

The issue is deserving of an entire post, and indeed there is a comprehensive one over at SEO-Chicks by Julie Joyce which sparked me into writing this very article.

The issue here is, should you report a competitor for buying links?

For me the answer is generally a yes. As someone who doesn’t buy links, it’s incredibly frustrating to be told by Google not to buy links, and then see no action taken on those blatantly breaking the guidelines. I hate to do this as I feel like a ‘tell tale’, but the fact is that it can otherwise be impossible to outrank a competitor who is buying links, without paying for links yourself.

So these are your options:

1) Buy links yourself to outrank them – risky but in some industries it’s accepted as essential.

2) Report them and cross your fingers Google takes the appropriate action. Which, may I add, for me should mean devaluing the paid links rather than handing out massive site wide penalties.

When is the answer No?

If you buy links yourself and then report a paid link that’s pretty unethical in my book. You must be clean cut and not breaking Google’s guidelines, otherwise you’re setting yourself up for someone to do the same to you.

So what do you think? Would you report a site for buying links, or do see outing a site as below the belt?

If you can demonstrate knowledge and experience of everything on this A to Z, the web will be your oyster. If you’re trying to get into online marketing drop a few of these into your cover letter and you’ll be quids in:

A is for Adwords
B is for Bing
C is for Conversion rate
D is for Digg
E is for Email Marketing
F is for Facebook
G is for Google Analytics
H is for Hitwise
I is for Insights for search
J is for Joomla
K is for Keyword Research
L is for Local Search
M is for Microsoft Adcenter
N is for NoFollow
O is for (google website) Optimizer
P is for Paid Search
Q is for Quality score
R is for Return on investment (ROI)
S is for Search engine optimisation (SEO)
T is for Twitter
U is for Usability
V is for Video
W is for Webmaster Tools
X is for XML Sitemaps
Y is for Youtube
Z is for @Zappos; a bit of a stretch I admit, but if you want to learn how to use Twitter, follow their CEO!

If anyone can think of a better J, O or Z please let me know!

Everyone is, or should be aware of sights like Mashable, Blogstorm and eConsultancy. If you’re not, then they are three blogs to check out on a daily or even hourly basis.

But what about the 100o’s of other online marketing and social media blogs out there? Here is my list of top blogs for you to check out that you might not have come across before:

1) seo-chicks.com ; Great blog contributed too by some of the leading women in the industry such as @nicholastott, @lisadmyers & @yoshimi_s

2) laurenceborel.com ; Social Media blog from Laurence Borel. Great site for picking up what’s hot in Social Media. Follow ‘Lolly’ on Twitter @Blogtillyoudrop

3) ciarannorris.co.uk ; If you go to search conferences then you will probably say this shouldn’t be in a list of lesser know blogs, as Ciaran is pretty high profile in the digital world. Check out his blog for Ciaran’s thoughts on SEO, Social Media and “music, stuff & nonsense” to quote him. If you’re going to a search conference where he is speaking I recommend going to one of his sessions. Along with the always colourful Dave Naylor Ciaran is one of the most entertaining speakers in the digital world. Follow him @Ciaranj

4) janecopland.co.uk ; Search consultant at Ayima with a previous post at SEOmoz Jane is well respected in the digital field. A great blog for SEO news and goings on as well as her personal take on all things digital.

5) chrisg.com ; OK, so this is another blog that is actually pretty huge within the industry, but i’ve got a feeling it will still be new to a lot of people out there. Chris Garrett is an expert in blogging and social media, and it’s well worth not only reading his blog, but subscribing to his mailing list and definitely someone to follow on Twitter if you’re not already @ChrisGarrett

6) thehodge.co.uk ; Dominic ‘The Hodge’ Hodgson is a lively SEO and Social Media marketer. Great blog for a look at digital developments written with an entertaining slant. Heard him speak about Twitter at A4u London and will make sure I catch him again if I see him on the agenda elsewhere. Another great guy to follow on twitter @thehodge

7) chewie.co.uk ; Great posts on everything SEO, SEM & Social Media, only problem is not the most frequently updated. When it is though it’s always a good read.

8 ) seogadget.co.uk ; SEO blog mostly by Richard Baxter. A highly recommended read. Follow on Twitter @seogadget

9) vervesearch.com ; A useful SEO blog from Lisa Myers, a regular SEO conference speaker. Again not updated as often as i’d like but great content when it is.

10) seoptimise.com ; A great blog from SEOptimise with regular updates and news on SEO, SEM & Social Media

11) marketingdonut.co.uk ; General marketing advice on all aspect of marketing but with a frequent focus on digital marketing.

12) michaeljcooper.co.uk ; Blog from Michael Cooper looking at marketing, social media & the future of digital. Follow him @michaeljcooper

13) ukcopywriting.com ; Blog with a focus on copywriting for the online world. Follow him @martinjwilliams

14) prgeek ; More of a PR blog really but has a strong focus on the online industry. Also some more lighthearted posts and fun stuff

15) searchenginechocolate.com ; Blog from Joanna Butler, another online expert with some great insights on digital developments. Another blog that i’d love to see updated more regularly though!

16) unmemorabletitle.co.uk ; SEO and copywriting blog from Andrew Nattan

17) seosmarty.com ; Fairly well known within the industry, the seosmarty blog is focussed on SEO & Social Media

18) katylindemann.com ; Useful for PR, Social Media & Branding

19) ppcblog.co.uk ; A PPC specific blog thrown in as it’s an area not as well covered as SEO & Social Media on the top blogs. Not updated since October though…. anybody there?

20) webtoastie.co.uk ; A useful SEO & Social Media blog from Kieron Hughes. Also a good guy to follow on Twitter @kieronhughes

I’m always on the look out for new digital blogs so please tell me about yours either by commenting or tweeting me @simonjturner

A couple of weeks ago I noticed twitter lists making it onto page one of the SERPs. Fair enough not for competitive terms (yet), but to say twitter lists have only been around a month or so it’s quite a development – Check out these examples:

SEO Heavyweights

tech or digital blogger

UK PR and Social Media

In time I can see more and more twitter lists making their way to the top of Google; for more and more competitive keywords.

I’d like to see what would happen if a few big bloggers, with some real link juice behind them, threw some anchor text rich links at a couple of twitter lists for competitive keyterms. If lists can rank quickly for powerful terms this could be a big development in shaping the SERPs.

Has anybody seen a Twitter list already ranking for a competitive term?

Google have today announced they are testing out realtime search

This has long been a question over Google’s future market dominance, and today goes a long way to answering how they are dealing with it. Check it out for yourself here

It’s a pretty nifty feature which gives a listing for ‘Latest Results’ in a similar way to how news or shopping results are displayed. They’ve created a pretty awesome scrolling feature which auto updates:

You can then click on this ‘latest results’ section to see the entire real time results taken from twitter, the blogesphere, news sites etc.

Google trends has also been updated to show up to the minute trends of what the world is talking about.

What do you think? Has Google just blown the other engines out of the water once again or are you unconvinced by this innovation?

I was just doing a quick search for Christmas gift inspiration when I came across an example of how NOT to run your PPC campaigns. See if you can spot the ad that really shouldn’t be targeting the UK:

(Note the image link may take you to updated results not including the bad ad!)

In case the image is too small, it’s an advert for a US site displaying in the UK results. It’s got $ instead of £’s in the ad text, and if you click through the site is clearly US only .

This is a disaster for a paid search campaign for the following reasons:

1) As the ad text states the price in $’s it will have a poor CTR in the UK. This will bring down the quality score making each click more expensive.

2) People from the UK either can’t buy from the site, or shipping will be expensive. This will give the ad a terrible conversion rate and thereby a poor ROI.

3) Money spent on clicks in the UK will drain the budget which would be best spent targeting the U.S market.

It’s such a simple issue to avoid – just be sure to select only relevant geographical areas in your campaign settings. If you’re a local business you can really narrow it down and select only the area you are likely to sell too. So a plumber is Sheffield could bid on the keyword ‘emergency plumber’, but only display when somebody in Sheffield has performed the search.

Tis the season to be jolly, and Firebox.com certainly should be. This is because, in my humble opinion they’ve got their Christmas online strategy spot on.

Their website is at the cutting edge of usability, they rank pretty well in the search engines, and their use of social media is exemplary. Add to this great customer service; and their business must be looking pretty rosy right about now.

As a case study there’s a lot that other websites can learn from them, so here are my favourite 5 things for an online marketer to take away from Firebox:

1) Usability:

I find the firebox website really easy to use at the best of times but I’m particularly impressed by their use of Ajax on their Gift Finder. For their product range and customer type this way of browsing the products is really cool and must aid conversion rates. I personally was persuaded to buy a load of stocking fillers!

2) Customer experience & resulting engagement:

Orders are shipped out fast. I placed my order and got my goods the next day. Included was a free delivery code for my next order; and although I didn’t get any I hear most customers get some free sweets in their box! It’s a nice little touch which makes customers feel engaged with the brand and want to come back.

The resulting engagement is really impressive. They get a lot of reviews, as many sites do, but notably they get numerous video reviews sent in by chuffed customers. These not only demonstrate brand loyalty and customer interaction but will notably have a great impact on conversion rates, and will help with link building and SEO.

3) Social Media

I follow @Firebox not only because it’s good fun, but also to learn about how to run a Twitter campaign. They currently have 7000 followers which isn’t a tremendous amount, but their interaction is superb. They run daily competitions getting loads of entries every time. Every entry helps spread the Firebox brand and directly promotes a product. Very clever.

They also use Facebook to good effect, and I reckon both of these channels will provide tangible results for them. Take a look and get some inspiration for your brand.

4) Innovative link building

Firebox have a couple of campaigns on the go which will draw links for all the right reasons. They were bang on top of things with the royal mail strikes with their Royal Fail game. This was a great viral game which not only spread word of their brand but will have acted as a good piece of link bait.

They also have innovative campaigns such as their Global Secret Santa product which will undoubtedly create interest in the site and again build natural links.

5) Shopping Cart

I found the checkout process really smooth and loved the use of ajax throughout the checkout process. It meant that requested info was kept to a minimum as forms generated as you selected things such as your card type – eg once Visa was selected only details appropriate to Visa cards were included. Take a look and see if there are lessons to be learned at this vital conversion point on your own website.

Before you ask no this is not a sponsored post! I have just thoroughly enjoyed my experience of dealing with Firebox, from finding them through their Social Media campaign to receiving my products – and beyond. I don’t only recommend them for some cool Christmas gifts, but more importantly to take away some tips on how to improve your own website and service.

So what is SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation is the art/science of making a website rank well in the search engines to increase visitors to that website. It’s also the single most important online marketing practice to be aware of (queue comments disagreeing with that one!)

If you’re just setting off in the world of online marketing you need to get to grips with SEO, and I strongly recommend you become as knowledgeable as possible about it. Luckily the basics are pretty straight forward, and if your website isn’t in a competitive industry you can get some big wins by getting the basics right.

So firstly a simple summary of how Google works:

Google crawls a website and adds it to it’s index. When it crawls a site it ‘reads’ all the content, and even the images to understand what the site is all about. Then when somebody performs a search Google decides what the most relevant websites are for that search. The content and structure of your site are know as ‘on site’ ranking factors.

Google doesn’t only base it’s rankings on what it find on your site though. It looks at how many other websites link to yours, and the quality of the websites that link to you. These external links are known as ‘off site’ ranking factors. Links are widely considered the most important of google’s ranking factors, particularly when targeting competitive keywords.

How to get started with SEO:

1) Keyword research:

Before you start optimising you site you need to know what keywords you are aiming to rank for. The factors you want to consider are:

a) The search frequency of a keyword. There’s no point ranking for a term that nobody searches for.

b) The competitiveness of the keyword. Look who ranks for a keyword, check out their link profile and consider if you are going to be able to compete. For example there’s probably very little point in a new website targeting a terms like ‘Bingo’, ‘Poker’ or ‘cheap flights’ unless you have massive time and financial resources.

c) The relevance of the keyword to your website. You want to rank for terms which are going to achieve your aims. So identify what you want a visitor to do on your site and what terms are likely to drive relevant visitors.

There are some good free tools for keyword research including Google’s Keyword tool and Google Insights for search.

2) Page title’s:

Arguably the most important onsite ranking factor. Make sure you include your top keyword targets in your page titles. Make every page title on your site different, and as relevant to the page as possible. Remember as well that the page title becomes the main description of your site in the SERPs, so try to word it well to aid a good click through, possibly even including a call to action.

You also need to be aware of meta descriptions and meta keywords, but these are not widely believed to be important ranking factors anymore, at least for Google, so i’m not going to cover them here.

3) Internal linking

You need to tell Google what every page is about, and the best way to do this is with internal links. When you link to a page use descriptive anchor text, ideally your target term for that page. Never link with terms such as ‘Click Here’ as you’ve just missed a great chance to tell Google what that page should rank for.

4) Header tags:

Within your content use header tags. Use one h1Tag per page to tell Google what the main subject of that page is. Use h2, h3 etc for subheadings.

5) Links

You need to build links to your website. This will tell Google your site is well respected and every link works as a ‘vote’ for your site. The better quality the links the better your site appears in the eye’s of Google. To measure the quality of links you can use Google Page Rank as a rough guide, although the importance/accuracy of that is in question. Look at the back link profile of site’s and make your own mind up if it appears to be a quality site. Linkscape is another tool you can use to measure the authority of a site.

Link building is such an important area i’ll write an entire post on the beginners guide to link building over the next couple of weeks.

6) Read Googles guide to SEO. This is the best guide for beginners and will explain best practice SEO in simplistic terms.

This blog post is only a basic guide to help you understand a little bit about SEO. There are a massive amount of other factors to look at but hopefully this will give you a start, and begin to get your site ranking.

If you’re an SEO expert please leave your beginners tips in the comments to help extend this guide.