I rarely write blog posts for work, (as you can probably tell from our own
blog! #naughtynaughty) but when I do, it’s either from a weird thought I’ve had or off the back of something I think is awesome. On Monday I attended
SearchLove in London, having returned enjoyed last year’s event so much.
The team at
Distilled once again did not disappoint. A great day was had with some really insightful and often funny talks, with just the right amount of swearing! Throughout all talks there was no end of great tools to use and processes to implement that ultimately would make me a Digital Superhero (thanks to
Ade Lewis for one of the most action packed talks with things I want to do straight away for all clients and for his talk on Becoming a Digital Superhero).
So what do I know about SEO? It got me thinking: how much do I really know about SEO? I’m not ashamed to say, not as much as I thought! This became painfully obvious when listening to Oli Gardner
describe case studies of some of the work he’s conducted (in some awesome red shoes!) which highlighted the need for de-cluttering your messages on landing pages so to lead customers to your clients desired outcome, which in turn leads to increased conversions.
Every campaign needs a dedicated landing page Some of the points Oli raised often seemed to be some simplistic they should be obvious, but we see lots of the mistakes highlighted across the web, with eCommerce sites being a prime example of cluttered pages with confusing messaging. But that was the beauty of his talk; most of this stuff was simple. He proved with ever more examples, that simple works.
Google User Metrics are Bull Shit! Annie Cushings gave some super helpful insights into how to get more out of Google Analytics with “
Are your Google Reports Pretty Little Liars?”. Annie was full of great tools to use, whilst also had some great examples of how utilising custom variables in Universal Analytics, pulling data from across all of your businesses touch points (whether in-store or online) gave such cool sets of data that you have to be able to create really targeted strategies.
I’m in it for the long game! My stand out talk of the day however was from
MacKenzie Fogelson on “
The Measurement Behind Your Integrated Marketing Strategy” which for me, was the perfect topic for what I am currently working on at iThinkMedia. Many of our clients operate big teams in many departments but often work in silo’s, which for us can be very difficult to achieve desired results for the SEO channel. What “Mack” described was how to ask the right questions of your clients in order to achieve the most for them and that to win in today’s online space, ultimately it’s the long game that counts! In this talk I was given such a great framework for planning that I am already looking to implement it throughout our business – but baby steps first, need to get my head round all this wonderful knowledge being thrown at me! I aim to be reporting data that tells a story referencing the right metrics that back up the goals of the company thanks to insights I got from the first day at SearchLove.
It’s all about the customer Whilst the topics of all the speakers was unique and super helpful, one thing was clear throughout. Improving customer experience online, no-matter what interaction it may be, it will make a difference to your online business. Customers want/need to be impressed in today’s cluttered online market space and the only way brands and companies can grow and retain that customer base is by ensuring on every device and every interaction is the “best it can be”. The sheer amount of actionable things you come away with from SearchLove is frightening, which is why I think my head is still spinning. But what it has done is open my eyes to how much there will always be to learn in the SEO/Digital space and how much an effect I can really have for my clients. All with a bit of careful planning of course. Thanks also to
Wil Reynolds,
Hannah Smith,
David Sottimano,
David Mihm and
Will Critchlow for making the first day so inspiring.
About David Cable — SEO Manager, always the optimist, probably the angriest in the office and always striving to learn more. Connect with me on my
LinkedIn Profile and of course catch me on the rare occasion I’m on twitter
@TheDavecable!