App success leads to a Mobile Transactional site…

Budget Hotel chain Premier Inn are putting together a mobile website that will show room vacancies, a booking area and an order confirmation screen following the great success that its app had in generating room bookings.

The Hotel Chain has stated that the app developed a million pounds in bookings. The app was launched in January and has been very successful.  This has then generated the interest in a mobile friendly website that will include an order confirmation page to book the room. The website will be very similar to the app that was launched on the iPhone, android and Nokia handsets.

The App was produced because Premier Inn mobile users found the traditional website very tricky to navigate on the handset. This was preventing bookings.  The app was downloaded 250,000 times, it was also linked into the GPS systems on many handsets so that it would show the nearest hotel at any given time.

Research shows that the app really helped the business audience when booking a room last minute. However, most bookings were done via the iPhone approximately 3 months in advance.  The developer of the app is also been included onto the development team for the new mobile site. Key areas will be to keep the iPhone users business coming in and also make sure that the user experience is perfect for Blackberry’s, Androids and Nokia’s.

Nokia go backwards but the Microsoft deal is still on…

Despite declaring better than expected profits for the first quarter, Nokia’s share price is down but Microsoft is still involved.

The share price and profits have both recently fell. The share price fell by 4% to 29% and the profits fell by 1% which is about £304m.

Nokia have stated that the long awaited deal with Microsoft will change all that, as they attempt to reverse their fortunes.  Microsoft will be giving advice and developing a new Smartphone that will take on the giants of Apple.

Many investors have welcomed the news of the deal and this has helped the share price a bit but as always proof is in the pudding.

According to the chief executive, Nokia have moved along their process from defining the strategy to implementing it, confirming the deal with Microsoft and designing the product.

Nokia have admitted that they were slow to match the response from the competitors in the Smartphone market.  Just to rub salt into the wounds – Apple unveiled a 95% increase in profits in Q1. Nokia have it all to do now perhaps. Nokia have sold more handsets in Q1 than Apple, but its price that has brought Apple forward, an average Apple’s wholesale price was $585 more than Nokia.

One of the things that Microsoft will be doing is dropping the Symbian software and using their own as the Symbian is occasionally slow and not what the users want.

The Chief Executive also stated that the finalisation with Microsoft will then focus on execution, but they are not out of the woods yet and difficult times are still ahead.

Spending using mobiles hits £581m

The Smartphone, Apps and the increased availability to the internet via 3G and Wi-Fi have contributed to a £581m mobile spend. Purchasing Groceries is the main contributor towards the total figure, with travel tickets and clothing in a close second and third.

The main reason for this increasing spend via mobiles from the research is purely because of convenience, 78% of the sample stated that they like shopping on the move either during their commute to work or on the high street itself.

This spend is set to increase again in the near future because of the interest in tablet computers and net book sales. These devises are not considered as mainstream internet devices but they will be in 2012, and boosting mobile spends.

Going into the numbers more specifically, the results show that £908 is spent online on groceries per year. Travel tickets are at £675 and Clothes at £565. You may expect travel tickets be in the top three but perhaps not clothing and groceries.

Tesco is the dominate supermarket reaping the rewards from the mobile users requiring their groceries. Tesco has an app for the iPhone, Android, Nokia, and Windows Phone7. This app is a transactional app that Asda, Morrison’s and Sainsbury’s don’t have.

This then highlights that fact that the online and the mobile audience are making further steps into the mobile market, and importantly using their Smartphone’s and mobile devices for more every day activities.

Not having an App that includes a checkout facility will be vital as we discover new online habits.

What ways can I include useful content on my website, without cluttering it?

Perhaps the site that you have put together has the content that matches search engines requirements and even the visitors but not yours. So making any changes will effectively be undoing all you efforts.

You may be developing a good page rank, but there are hundreds of ways to improve a site and get it noticed. Making the site bigger is one way; putting more pages on with appropriate content will start new rankings.

Having said that, why is content so important? Google works on words, it reads them and determines the relevance of the site, and this is called indexing. So, the more information that is visible to a search engine the better, this will improve your chances to be targeting against more terms.

Each page will therefore acquire its own rank, the more pages the better the content that a search engine will recognise more.

So back to the original question – What ways can I include useful content on my website, without cluttering it?

You may have noticed that many sites have a blog or a news section. This is all about up to date content that is constantly being added. The more appropriate content that is added the better as this will improve the website and make it more receptive to an internet search.

Many sites put blogs or new updates on a fresh new webpage. This then opens the door to incorporate links across the website (ideally to what you want them to see or buy).

The blog content needs to be relevant but also varied so that it brings a wider audience. A blend of company news and industry news is a good place to start.

Another addition to a website that also promotes good ranking and content is a FAQ page. You may think that the FAQ is for visitors that may have a question; you may think that the FAQ is just to the customer so they can get an answer about delivery times or ways to pay. This is content again, that is both beneficial to the visitor and your site.

With the FAQ make sure that they have a positive outcome and always point towards the money pages of your site.

Always try and stay away from adding a page for the sake of doing so. This may deter visitors and they move away from the site altogether. Keep all the pages on your radar and keep the pages flowing. New rankings are not as beneficial as your main search terms, so don’t compromise those. Even updating the content and getting them re-indexed will improve the site performance so make sure that the site is with the trends.

Mobile Ad Spend Increase is Enjoyed by Affiliates.

The mobile device sector is the number 1 growth area in the advertising world. The ad spend for mobiles has more than doubled over the last year. This is what affiliates want to see.

In addition to that, many businesses are operating or at least developing a mobile marketing strategy. This strategy will include a mobile specific website and a mobile payment service that is usable and secure. The increase in spend is set it continue and could top the previous year.

These specific differences to traditional market advertising and spending has forced many marketing companies to review the investment plans as the target audience may be different, but by how much?

Currently, marketing in apps is a key area that highlights the ongoing strength of the online advertising. This will maintain the investment in affiliate marketing. Also, there has been an emergence of social media .ads on personal network websites, especially with the ‘like’ icon that is an accurate and live indication of your popularity. Those that do ‘like’ will then get any post about offers and promotions – an instant link to a receptive audience. The last area that is being more recognised as good practice is incorporating online video advertising into social catalogue websites like YouTube and to a lesser extent ITV player.

Crucially however, the mobile is generating new activities from its users. Learning this array of habits is very important as marketing teams target a growing audience. A fully developed mobile site is key otherwise people shopping on the move will move to a different website to shop.

Marketing teams do have an ace in up their sleeve because they can use the affiliates to gauge the tactics and mindset of the mobile shoppers and visitors. Gaining these behaviours and tactics is very importing for planning your next online marketing budget.

Google’s Android mobile operating system assists Intel

Intel is the largest computer chip manufacturer and it has decided to run Google’s Android software on its tablet computers. The operating system that will be installed is called Honeycombe and Google state that it is specifically for tablet computers, originating from its very successful mobile version.

Intel has also confirmed that many of their processor chips will also be included into many Smartphone’s. This market has in the past not been a core business area as it has struggled behind its competitors including AMD.

Intel’s first quarter revenues are up by 29% – which is all down to the connections with Google, Windows, and Nokia. This is despite the slight erratic supply from Japan since the recent earthquake and tsunami.

Mr Otellini is the chief executive at Intel and he said: “results in the first quarter are outstanding. If the pace continues we will be looking at a 20% growth.”

Research shows that there is an increasing demand for computer chips to be installed into our PCs, tables and Smartphone’s. This will have a profound effect on the computer chip business.

Many top manufacturers (Dell, HP, and Samsung) had to halt their production of computers in the first quarter while the Intel chips landed at their production buildings.

Microsoft cause delays for Yahoo!

Yahoo has stated that the partnership with Microsoft is not going swimmingly. The top level email provider and search engine have a drop in revenue because of technology delays. The internet company has announced a 28% drop in profits as it has to halt development while Microsoft make amendments to their technology.

28% in Yahoo terms is about $300m – Yahoo stated that the new systems at present are not paying off.  Yahoo was also hoping that this partnership with Microsoft would have been the missing component in their business model in achieving a greater market share.

Two years ago Yahoo brought in a new chief executive to improve the growth of the company, and over the two tears there have been mixed fortunes. The comment was made that Yahoo will not re visit the revenue levels that they experienced before they merged with Microsoft till the end of the Year. Many experts believe that this might not happen as well.

The chief executive forecasted that the revenues would pick up around mid 2011. However delays have caused Yahoo to miss this forecast.

Yahoo is striding forward and making progress because of its efforts, the goals are that they will be expanding into a fast-growing mobile internet market – utilising the very receptive video marketing platform.

After the short decline in share price and much criticism, Yahoo’s turnaround is on schedule, and all people involved are confident that Yahoo is going in the right direction.

Landing Page Improvement Tips.

There could be hundreds of reasons why people don’t hang around on landing pages, they click away and so don’t navigate around your website. This situation is often called the bounce rate, because the visitor bounces on and then off your website.

These reasons for bouncing could be website relevant or not but no matter what, it is impossible to get this bounce rate figure down to 0%. Not only is it annoying but it is also costly if the visitor has come through a search engine like Google.

So, what can be done to reduce this figure?

Firstly, from a user point of view there is nothing more annoying then clicking on a link or writing a URL to a website that takes an hour to load. If 5 seconds go by and there is nothing on the screen you might try it again, but it unlikely. Therefore, the visitor will go elsewhere. Make sure that the homepage or landing page is prompt.

Avoid any Popup windows early in the visitor’s experience of your site, despite what the popup says. It could be relevant but most users find them annoying. Keep the visitor focused on your main goal.

If the user searches for a particular product or service make sure that the landing page shows it. Otherwise the user may think that it’s an error and click back to the search results and may click on a competitor.

Manually check the enquiry forms or order forms work, on all browsers. Your site will need to be effective on all browses as you can’t predict what browser the visitor is using.

Keep the text on the landing page to a minimum, but make it match the search as much as possible.

Make sure that the design is engaging and try to stay away from harsh colours and bright backgrounds.

Keep the number of questions within online forms to a minimum, this will improve the conversation.

During the search process a visitor is likely to come across websites that they have never seen before. Make sure that the site has appropriate symbols and logos to develop trust. Also, design the website so that the visitor receives an email of they make an enquiry or place an order.

So, there you have it, logical really but often not recognised.

Google release their Panda update in the UK

Google have stated that the second phase of their Panda Update is now landing in all areas of the UK. Confused?

This update was rolled out in the US just over a month ago. The update was an algorithm change and it was created to help searchers find high quality websites in their results. The US launch did receive a lot of positive feedback. This feedback came from both website owners and searchers.

So, the update promotes the better website essentially and demotes the poor, possible spammy sites. A benefit for the better quality sites as their visibility and SERPs will be improved.

Google are impressed with the results initially as they are now able to highlight the sites that are poor quality.

Quality content is rewarded and might make you a King!

Measuring tools for your Social Presence

Perhaps one the key thing that we can do with any social media platform is to monitor the engagement, interaction, and ultimately feedback from our customers and our audience.  Effectively perusing interaction is a good thing as this might improve your page rank, and help to develop loyalty to your business and brand.

Don’t fall into the trap that many businesses do that it’s only using big brand terms. As much as you want to have your ear to the ground when monitoring comments about your business and your brand, it is essential that you monitor product comments or service experiences as well. Developing a strong brand presence is great but the brands foundations are the products and services that are provided. These have to be monitored as well.

Even a negative comment can be turned into a positive result provided the comment is actioned quickly and convincingly.  This will show that you are prompt and willing to help.

The tools that can be used are as follows:-

A Twitter Search is a great way to get an overview of what people are saying on Twitter. The search can be filtered and tweaked to make sure that the data that is produced is accurate and relevant. The search can also be done based on geographical areas, so there may be places locally that show positive tweets and vice versa.

Another approach is using Google Alerts, this is a content service that updates the user if there is a post online on a news board, blog or a forum. The user is contacted when the post is made based on the search terms that are set on the Google Account.

A new service that can be adopted is called the tweet deck. This deck has the facility to monitor many social media websites. This saves time as you will not have to sign into multiply accounts, particularly as we have mentioned any negative comments will need to be handled immediately. Plus, any offers, business news, photos and links that you want to post will land on all social media sites with tweet deck, instead of posting them on all the sites individually.