I’ll be working right through Christmas and into 2012, with the exception of the weekends and public holidays and I know many people are in a similar situation.

Work will still continue on my SEO campaigns but I am looking forward to the downtime for a professional refresh, not just a general refresh.

So what’s a professional refresh? For me, it’s a time where I get to go through my professional life and trim the fat – ie, analyse everything linked to me as a professional and make it work harder for me.

This isn’t about seeking a new career, it’s about giving yourself a better professional image by updating contacts, profile information and even your photo.

Since the downtime won’t involve daily calls with clients or aiming for inbox zero, this is a moment free from distraction to set yourself straight for 2012.

Here’s what’s on my professional refresh agenda – mind you, I’ll be doing it in board shorts with ice tea in hand!

1. Update Twitter – weed out profiles that no longer offer value and maybe even look at a background change!

2. Update resumé – not a lot has changed but it’s worth a review – maybe some wording change, maybe my goals/objectives have changed?

3. Update LinkedIn – give that bio a refresh (here’s a guide to avoid all the buzzwords), update work experience / skills / achievements and even the photo if possible. Find new contacts too!

4. Update my ‘online presence’ in general  – this involves Googling my name and updating profiles / info about me elsewhere.

5. Finally launch a re-designed JaavedKhatree.com.au – this has been in the pipeline and my version tracking has faded away.. a new site awaits in 2012!

 

What’s on your professional refresh agenda?

When Google started displaying things like currency conversions, flight details, real estate listings and even flight bookings,  I honestly thought they were going to sink the boot into sites dedicated to those sorts of services, especially when they acquired ITA Software (albeit with some strict rules).

They’ve sort of scaled back things a bit in that regard but with Chrome OS and Chromebooks abound, it’s got me thinking again about the concept that the browser is everything and the search engine is everything. Take it further to just having a browser that essentially was the search engine and where everything was conducted.

After playing with the new Google app on the iPad, I agree when some say they’ve snuck in features of Chrome OS into the iPad. I only use that app now for mail, G+ and searching. I feel it’s a very complete experience and I still love being able to type in currencies to convert along with flight details to help me work out if a flight is on schedule or not.

Google probably lost focus with a lot of things as they diversified but people downplay the impact Google will have in the coming years once they tighten their grip on localised searches and including a lot more things into the search experience.

They’re a bit like the All Blacks in some respects. When they get it right, they’re merciless and punish their opposition. But when they keep dropping the ball, people start to lose confidence.

Google has every reason to sink the boot into price comparison sites with Google Shopping. They can nail XE with currency conversions. Goodbye Babelfish thanks to Google Translate. Forget RealEstate.com.au, use Google Real Estate Listings. But somehow Google just hasn’t managed to get their act together.

I feel that when they do (only a matter of time), they will BE the experience.

Anyway, rought thoughts on hump day. Feedback appreciated!

 

I was recently browsing around checking out websites of digital/media/advertising/marketing agencies in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne and being an SEO, I had to analyse their websites in every detail.

Not surprisingly, many were going for the ‘wow’ factor and not the SEO factor but what bothered me even more was the social media presence of these companies.

It was as if some companies couldn’t be bothered either being involved or they just didn’t feel like showing everyone they were embracing social.

It’s a bit odd if you’re on Twitter or Facebook or YouTube or Google+ but you don’t have any links/icons linking to those profiles from your footer/homepage. It’s bad enough if it’s only on the Contact page but when it’s not there altogether, that’s just plain bad.

It’s a bit like being an SEO company but not ranking anywhere decent for any relevant/worthwhile keyword. Or being a dentist with horrible teeth.

This isn’t just an issue with agencies but I cite them because if anyone should be doing this right, it should be them. But the lesson is for all and sundry:

1. Embrace social media – it’s no longer an option.

2. Don’t be afraid to share it with the world. Place icons and links from your footer (small but noticeable icons are fine if design is an issue) and be sure to include links within your email signatures (such an underused promotional tool).

3. Take the time to be active on these social networks. If you’re not sure how to make it work for you, there’s no harm or shame in seeing what the competition is up to (if they’re doing it right). If they’re running FB only competitions that are well received, you need to do that too.

Social is about being public – when you’re a business and a brand, you can’t escape this. It’s a different ball game on a personal level but that’s for you to worry about and be quite selective with whom and what you share.

As a business with an online presence, you need to be out there in the face of your customer. Just think about a company like Coca Cola. Coke is the most popular cola in the world but the company doesn’t rest on its laurels. It gets out there and in your face everywhere it can. It’s currently using social in a big way (just look at their FB page) and their ‘share a coke with <name>’ campaign is a big social success.

Learn from the big guns.

I’m not a coffee addict in the purest sense and I certainly don’t rush for a caffeine hit when I need to be awake or the first thing in the morning at the office.

It’s not uncommon for me to make a cup at home around 10pm when I clearly should be avoiding stimulants. And as much as I drink and wholeheartedly prefer instant coffee to alleged ‘gourmet’ coffee from outside vendors, I actually know when my coffee is rubbish, regardless of where it’s made.

I’m not a coffee snob so spare me the ridicule, I’m actually going somewhere with this.

You see, I have a few close friends who own coffee machines at home (not of the pod variety) and they always freshly grind their beans before making a cup – and their coffee tastes amazing (this is a short sell but the point is made), whereas much of the stuff I get from indepenent vendors and even Starbucks and Gloria Jeans tastes burnt and undrinkable many a time.

I see coffee vendors claiming they only use 100% Arabica beans, they are constantly coming up with fresh grinds and they want to be there to share a special moment in my life by brewing the perfect cup of coffee.

My friends also use 100% Arabica beans, freshly grind their coffee and they’re definitely there sharing moments in my life, special or otherwise.

So how is it that in both instances, where it’s all ‘freshly ground’ and all that jazz, that there’s heinous differences in quality?

It’s about the person involved and how they make it (and why).

No doubt, many baristas definitely have a love for coffee and get much joy in making coffee for others. However a love for coffee doesn’t automatically translate into the ability to make great coffee.

Yes, bean quality matters but only so much. I believe companies would be better off training staff to truly make really great coffee and using this as their USP, not the quality of their beans.

I mean, if you look at Starbucks or Gloria Jeans or even McCafe and Michel’s Patisserie, they all go on about their bean quality but never about their awesome baristas who have a clue.

I think if you focused more on the ‘people’ and ‘service’ part of the coffee making process, you can start using a different catchphrase…. “Awesome coffee, made with 100% Arabica beans and 100% awesomeness”.

Appreciate your thoughts.

My foray into the world of SEO was almost by accident though there’s a bit of a logical progression when I think about it.

I first went online back in 1996 at a disability conference in Auckland, New Zealand. Telecom New Zealand was showcasing the wonders of the ‘Internet’ with their product: Xtra. It lived at Xtra.co.nz and was (at the time) an imagemap of a little ‘town’ which served as a portal for news, sports, weather and other such information.

The booth attendant asked me what I wanted to do with the ‘Internet’ and I had no clue. I tinkered around with the Xtra portal and landed on Yahoo.com. I found the chat room section and started making friends in no time.

Speeds were at 28.8 and 33.6kbps but it wasn’t an issue at the time – the whole idea of the Internet as a place to get info on everything at any time was just too amazing for my young mind!

I insisted we ‘get the Internet’ at home and when a new Windows 95 equipped computer landed at my door in late 1996, we were ready to go online!

Naturally once you start going online daily, you begin to wonder how to create your own website and I used Netscape Composer to create my first website. I used Yahoo’s free hosting and my site remained online for a few years. Admittedly, it wasn’t much more than a collection of great links, photos and ramblings but it did sport an impressive array of tiled backgrounds, colourful and unique page headings courtesy of Paint Shop Pro 5 and of course, animated gifs.

I kept up with web design for the ‘fun of it’ during  high school and uni years and began to dabble in some asp.net and php but this was extremely basic. And I was still using Paint Shop Pro 5 but had upgraded to Macromedia Dreamweaver!

In December 2003 I secured a position with Dark Blue Sea, an Internet media firm in Brisbane as part of their Customer Care team. I provided support for clients using their 4 products: ROAR.com and PageSeeker.com (PPC search engines), Fabulous.com (wholesale and domain monetisation platform) and Dark Blue (affiliate program). Dark Blue Sea was bought out by the Photon Group in 2007.

It is here that I developed a great interest in SEO courtesy of an SEO competition run by Dark Blue for the phrase ‘nigritude ultra marine’. The goal was to be ranked #1 for that phrase by competition close and whilst I was unable to participate, I did watch the competition keenly. Back then, meta keywords, stuffing of content and all sorts of other dodgy things were still used to somehow help with rankings and the one thing I questioned about it all was the validity of such techniques, since as a corporate entity or business, you wouldn’t be able to resort to those sorts of tactics without ruining your image. You would have to seek out more professional, long term strategies in order to rank well in search engines.

When I completed uni, I found a job in Sydney with 247 Real Media (now Outrider) and actually ventured into the PPC game. There was scope to move into the SEO department (where my passion lay) but at the time, PPC was hot and I worked on great campaigns for News Limited where I developed my skills in keyword research and copy writing. Despite the experience and fun of it all, I felt SEO was the future since most people I talked to simply ignored the paid ads. Back then the concept of social media was not so well developed or prominent but people were still trying to grasp the c0ncept of using the Internet to market their business.

I moved back to Brisbane in 2007 to join a Web Design and Internet Marketing company called Diggy and successfully managed one of their 5 branches for almost 3 years. This role was extremely varied but had plenty of web design and SEO to keep me happy. This is where I met Dan Petrovic, my mentor and friend who helped me focus my energies on ‘marketing websites’. Under Dan’s wing, I learnt a great deal more about SEO, far more than what you would read in a book or at a seminar. His patient and practical approach to SEO is the reason why he is the best in the biz and I consider myself very fortunate to have been schooled by a world-renowned industry expert. When Dan setup an official entity in the form of DEJAN SEO, I had to join him as I would be able to work day in and day out on SEO campaigns in an environment that fostered creativity and allowed for a great deal more experimentation and learning with SEO.

I’ve been at DEJAN SEO since December 2009, I currently manage 80+ campaigns for small to medium businesses in Australia, New Zealand, Israel, USA and Japan. I work with about 35 talented link builders and digital marketing strategists. SEO is at the core of what we do and I spend my days auditing websites and either making the necessary onsite SEO changes or guiding my clients on how to do so. I also assist with link building, help identify opportunities for online growth and I even work hard in the conversion optimisation space because a #1 ranking means squat if it doesn’t translate into sales.

There are many elements to a successful digital strategy and it needs to be comprehensive if you want results, such as:

- a solid website that converts well and ranks well

- a mobile site

- a strong social media presence

- consistent email marketing

and even a mobile app if it’s relevant and appropriate!

But I believe SEO is as vital as any other component and forms the corner stone of a solid online presence. Pete Williams of Deloitte Digital fame might disagree (he reckons it went out with body shirts) but I’d like to think that there seems little point in worrying about chandeliers and feature walls if your foundation is falling apart.

SEO FTW.

Like me, many folks missed out on Online Retailer this year (yet again!) but thanks to Twitter and the #orec hashtag, it’s almost as if we were there!

To make it a bit easier to catch up, I’ve collected some of the better tweets about #orec for your convenience.

It has been a bit of a rush but I’m sure you’ll get what it’s about. Please do enjoy!

great online retailer = service

cheaper and easier to update mobile site than app

95% research on web before buying

65% of instore sales started on the web

65% of users of daily deals return to the merchant, 42% say they wouldn’t use a deal service again

19% of tweets mention a brand says google

google’s focus: browsing experiences, geo and local places, mobile commerce

85% of Oz retailers don’t have smartphone-friendly website

79% those w/smartphones use for online shopping! And check 40x a day! Huge opp

Small Australian retailers are leading the pack in online retail

in Australia avg conv rate in AU 4.9% in US 2.9%

29% growth prediction by Aussie online retailers over the next 12 months

Then longer you have been online as a customer, the more you will spend.. A customer who has been online 5 years spends more than one who has been online 2 years

49% of Australian online retailers provide in-store pick up

australian multichannel retailers don’t feel that they are providing a seamless cross channel experience to customers.

Search still the best source of customers for Aussie retailers

The most popular places to use a smartphone are at home and work.

Mobile customers are looking for great cross channel experiences

Australians focusing too much on social media

Only 20% of online retailers say that social media has been an effective customer acquisiton tactic But 70% of online retailers will use #social as a marketing focus in the coming year

social provides ‘soft ROI’ – first #marketingjargon of the day at #orec

What haven’t aussies gotten into affiliate marketing? What barriers to entry?

9% of Australian online retailers say affiliate marketing programs is an effective customer acq. channel vs 49% in the US

Only 9% of Australians use affiliate marketing v USA 49%

Affiliate marketing looks set to boom in Australia over the coming years

Why don’t you have a mobile optimised site? How to get one or build one. Slides from #orec 2011 :http://slidesha.re/oeqjbK

Don’t let perfect get in the way of better – Gabby Leibovich, Co-founder Catch of the Day

45,000 people join Catch of the Day and Scoopon each day – just due to word of mouth, no marketing… very impressive

Catch Of The Day ship 6/7 semi trailers of orders per day with Australia Post!

Catch of the Day guy is fiercely entertaining and insightful.

Huge growth with no marketing budget

Stats on Catch of the Day: 100% growth yearly since launch, 150,000 daily visitors

Catch of the day sell 10k shoes in a 24 hour sale – Old school footwear retailers cannot compete with this

catch of the day set to grow by 250 percent

run Scoopon with no marketing budget. All word of mouth. Unbelievable Interesting.

Scoopon started with catch of the day database to start offering its services

Clicktale for conversion optimization for checkout! you’ve got 2 seconds before you lose your mobile customer!

get started , click here, fix my glass.. focus people on the goals and outcomes when you’re using call to action buttons!

We used a strategy called Growth By Experimentation – or in normal terms trial and error’ Grays Online

Just because a certain activity is not driving sales online, doesn’t mean it won’t drive sales instore.

What is driving your conversion rate? Is it the day, channel or promotion?

Nike stormed market in ’72 – v exciting but created bad habits. Now a radical re-think re running shoes… just like e-tailing

Online retail started as small movement but now 5% of market shopping online and there’s not turning back

Three biggest challenges etailers face: building without a plan, price wars and technology challenges

Only 35% of retailers have a documented strategic plan ~ BRW & AMP Capitol report ‘Business of retail 2011′

Should be about showing your customers greater value not discounting

Get to know your customers so you can drive relevance Give your high value clients VIP experiences.

Know your top 50 customers intimately

Give your lower value customers repeat purchase stimulation

We don’t see our sites with our customers eyes – they just want the site to work for them – we see ‘tree stumps’

Enhance the value of your brand from day one until customers are your advocates – unlocking the power of permission

Flirt with your prospects; drive them to your site with engaging methods

Be specific in error messages on your site to provide better customer experience

Parklife know their customers – Facebook competition 2 for world’s most ridiculously expensive ticket.

All about value Zappos all about value and not price.

Tell customers they’re not the cheapest but focus on customer service

Integrated email one of most impactful and under-utilised method of successful marketing

Personalised welcome email within 30 days of registration followed by program of comms

Cart abandonment programs are important; anywhere from 30-70% shoppers abandon their shopping cart

Three types of cart abandonners: One-time abandoner, Serial abandoner & recent goal abandoner – can recover sales

Only 17% of top 500 online retailers run cart abandonment programs! ~ Silverpop

Merch solutions produce more relevant offers 2 increase conversion rates, average order value & improve overall user experience

Online shoe browsing is longer and more important than other apparel

Twitter can work if you have a proper strategy

Multiple comms w targeted content can have direct impact on purchase intent

Purchased an iPad2 from @JBHiFi in-store today – only $9 more than @Kogan but I didn’t have to wait. We consumers are a fickle bunch.

Onsite Search customers convert better so make sure that you optimize your search experience

Easier to deliver service to customers when working to a plan

Utilise email – low cost and you can deal one-to-one.

Do it right. Have a plan.

Best examples used for cross selling websites from IBM: westfields, Surfstitch & oo.com.au Good to see 2 out of 3 use ChannelAdvisor

Wai Hong Fong from OZhut – 80% of his customers start from search

‘Sale’ keyword is higher than ‘cheap’ keyword. Bargain hunters and tight arses have updated their vocabulary

http://www.ozhut.com.au/toolstogatherdata – tools to gather data c/o OzHut

Your first brand customer touchpoint can be your google adwords; do they represent your brand?

Customer service is the number one value customers look for online. Low price is 5th

Download Permission White Paper “Top 10 tips to online retailing success” at wp.permission.com.au

Gaming lifts the level of shopper engagement. Eg – sneakpeeq

Exclusivity also lifts the level of customer engagement eg. BrandsExclusive

56% of people start shopping process with a search engine – google

44% of online purchases in Australia are for overseas retailers

Q4 2010 more smartphones sold than PCs for first time ever

Social is about the conversation. Email is about the conversion

Love it – marketing acronym gone nuts ‘mocial’ = mobile + social + local + email

Takes 15 mins to set up email optin forms on Facebook Social sign in for web forms increase form conversion by 10-50%

71% of US top 500 retailers only use Facebook like buttons in emails moving from share to social and find us on FB

Email content needs to be shareworthy for share to social to work.

Brandsexclusive.com.au photograph and catalogue 12,000 products a month, and each is online for only 2 days!

Positive surprise is the single most important driver of word of mouth

Google guy: “1 in 4 people use iPhones in the toilets.” I say that’s crap- it’s 4 out of 4. (Gabby of COTD)

my fav quote from the day “be impatient for profit and patient for growth” #BrandsExclusive

I’m using a BlackBerry temporarily and found the WordPress app in BlackBerry App World so I thought I’d give it a shot!

Even before the iPad was released, I had all sorts of wild ideas running around in my head about innovation using tablet PCs.

I remember having a laptop in uni thinking it would make life easier in lectures for notes etc but it was more of a distraction and just saved on ink and paper… I still had to write notes for each slide… and I wished my laptop had a touch screen.

Enter the humble tablet PC. I saw a fellow student with one in class and he used a stylus to write notes and it was just awesome. It was the right sort of device for lectures that saved on printing but still allowed you to write notes. Plus you had all your other notes in one handy spot.

I recall how at a Pakistani restaurant in London, the waiters all had PDAs to take orders with and they all synced up to the main computer for swift order taking and management. I then thought about how that could be expanded further with a tablet PC given its compact nature.

How about installing an iPad in a restaurant booth? Patrons can come in and order from an interactive menu and all orders link up to a central computer and patrons could then use the iPad to order extra food, summon a waiter to pay their bill or if possible, pay their bill directly from the iPad (I’m thinking Square-like technology).

I’ve found it very useful at conferences where I get to show people their websites and search results with ease. I also get them to sign up for a free SEO audit straight away and without any hesitation. It’s awesome for building up our database but also just a very easy paperless way to collect leads.

Speaking of leads, at Giapo in Auckland, NZ (the best gelato, by far) there’s a touch screen computer in the wall which you can use to record a video and post to Facebook. You can like the business and post comments too. This is awesome and no wonder Giapo has a cult following. He’s got a very firm handle on social media and uses it very very well. He’s on FB, Twitter, Foursquae and has a QR code too. LEGEND. There’s no iPad but it can be done.

At my local hairdresser, they have a TV to keep you occupied. There’s no sound, so there’s subtitles instead and you can’t choose what’s playing (it’s usually something from Pixar) but it keeps me distracted. I don’t think the iPad could work here but I can see it being handy at places where you wait for things to be done for you, like a beauty parlour (while waiting for your nails to  be done?)

For years I was also saying I wished there was a way for hospitals to use tablet PCs instead of paper charts. It could all be linked with a central server and you could even use barcodes. I know there’s hygiene and reliability concerns but when you think about how the iPad is the tool of choice for so many entrepreneurs, where they use it for emails, appointments, browsing, managing tasks and so on.. this idea has plenty of worth.

There’s so much potential and the more I use the iPad, the more I see it changing everything we do. Just yesterday I was showing my 90 year old grandfather some information about Noah’s Ark (apparently located in Turkey). It’s so easy to just flip out the iPad and do some research or check your mail. iPad – it’s the way of the future!

@jessnichols on Twitter just asked if we need resumes these days, considering she hasn’t updated hers in ages as she relies on LinkedIn to do the talking.

This is something I’ve been going on about for ages. LinkedIn is certainly growing in Australia but in the USA, it’s insane. There’s all sorts of amazing figures about people being headhunted and finding jobs via LinkedIn and it seems to be a huge thing amongst professionals there.

However I find it’s just not as big over here. No one has ever asked for my LinkedIn username or the URL to myLinkedIn page. Granted, I do tell people to “Google me” – not to sound trendy but because when you do that, you get all the necessary info about me – my website, my blog, Twitter and LinkedIn. You find out a bit more about other sites I’ve designed and community/other groups I belong to. I mean, really, a resume seems redundant.

A LinkedIn profile is set out to be easier to read than a cover letter and resume. You get the right info straight away and you can easily connect with people and get more info. I think this is a lot more efficient and helps you select better candidates.

I have plenty of connections, a decent amount of recommendations and a decent sized job history, with appropriate descriptions that clearly show off my command of the English language. There’s even a nice smiley photo of me to go with it. I should probably just make out business cards with my name and LinkedIn profile URL. Might work a lot better.

 

20 years ago, the idea of mobile phones was a bit of a fairy tale and not something most people could grasp, even though early concepts were proving promising.

10 years ago, mobile phones started growing in popularity with every household having at least 1-2 handsets.

Fastforward to 2011 and now not only does everyone have a mobile phone but our phones now have access to the Internet and everything within. We can do our banking, find our way through GPS and communicate with others next door or in the next country, with a few touches.

Unbelievable.

But the leaps in technology are not just the only unbelievable thoughts behind mobile technology. We’ve now become hopelessly addicted and reliant on our mobile devices for just about everything.

20 years ago, if you were waiting for someone, and they didn’t show at the scheduled time, you just waited and waited, eventually gave up, then went home. Nowadays, we’re constantly in touch, sending texts, leaving voicemails and of course, making calls. I don’t think we’re really ‘missing’ meetings and such things anymore. We’re a lot more in the loop.

20 years ago, if you were lost somewhere, you pulled out your map book. Or if you were walking around, you’d ask for directions or help. Or you’d do research at home and write down addresses of places or times and venues of events.

Now, you can use the Internet on your phone to guide you wherever you need to go, to find out the name of that new restaurant (and read reviews!) as well as book tickets for events.

I’ve been using an old Blackberry since my HTC Magic conked out and it’s so old, I can’t go online with it. It’s so frustrating because I’ve found myself in situations where I’ve needed to check my email urgently or needed to check an address or whatever but since my phone has no Internet, I can’t do that.

Insanely frustrating. And eye opening… since it’s showing how reliant I am and we are becoming to the Internet, our mobile devices and the Internet on our devices.

What would I be doing 10 years ago? or 20 years ago? I’d be a lot more patient, that’s for sure.

I wonder what the future holds for us – with devices like the iPhone revolutionising how we go through our days and innovation in mobile technology jumping ahead every single day, it’s scary and exciting at the same time.

I think I’m more excited than scared. Though I just hope we don’t become as dependent on the Internet in order to live, just as we do with oxygen.