Receptional Blog

Welcome to the Receptional Blog where you can read the latest insights by Receptional on various aspects of the internet marketing industry.

Google Analytics Engagement Metrics in AdWords

29/10/2012 - 13:31

Last week I stumbled on some additional metrics to analyse when reviewing the performance of your Google AdWords campaigns. Quality metrics such as Bounce Rate, Pages Per Visit, and Average Visit Duration are now available within the AdWords interface, which makes it even easier to spot the campaigns, ad groups and keywords that are driving... Read more...

Happy 13th Birthday Receptional

26/10/2012 - 14:36

You can't have missed us Tweeting about how excited we are that Receptional has now turned into a teenager. Receptional has been a Digital Marketing Agency since 1999, founded by Dixon Jones and David Smith. Since its formative years, Receptional has grown to include many aspects essential to the Digital Marketing mix for today's consumers... Read more...

Setting the Right Tone in your Social Media

23/10/2012 - 08:46

Successful social media campaigns have a tone that increases readability. This can range from happy, exciting, funny, casual and approachable and enviable enthusiasm for their work; like Intel: Or the more professional, client-centric and friendly tone of voice as seen in leading South Wales law firm, Watkins & Gunn Solicitors:... Read more...

LinkedIn New Endorsement Feature, One-Click Engagement Builds Interaction

19/10/2012 - 09:49

By now, if you're a LinkedIn nut like me, you will have had a good old play on the new Endorsement feature the LinkedIn-ians have created. The new application allows your profile's list of skills to be endorsed by your Connections, and in turn allows you to endorse their skills - you are simply one click away from being in someone's good books.... Read more...

Is Google Disavow Links Tool the only solution to low Ranking website?

17/10/2012 - 13:38

I hear webmasters around the world jumping up and down with joy, thanking Google for listening to them and finally announcing its new Disavow Links Tool yesterday (16th Oct 2012). Webmasters are hoping that this shiny new tool from Google will help them recover their low ranking or banned websites from any penguin penalty, as they can now easily... Read more...

1st Position in Google Receives 53% of Clicks

15/10/2012 - 13:40

Advertising on the most popular search engine, Google can be done in two ways; either through organic "natural" listings as a result of SEO activity, or through paid listings as a result of paid search advertising. Many consider a successful online marketing campaign to consist of both (and other online marketing methods, such as email... Read more...

Facebook Want Button eagerly awaited by e-retailers

12/10/2012 - 11:20

Since Facebook's Initial Public Offering (IPO), the continued diminution of share prices have raised many concerns amongst investors, and the social network giant has come under immense pressure to keep them happy. In a continued effort to entice advertisers, growing its revenue stream and sustaining share prices, Facebook has recently announced... Read more...

Matt Cutts States That Schema.org Doesn't Provide Ranking Benefit

10/10/2012 - 22:54

In the latest Google Webmaster Help video published on YouTube today, Google's Head of Webspam, Matt Cutts addressed the following common question: "Does the use of schema.org markup create a ranking benefit?" Matt explains that the simple inclusion of schema.org markup on a website will not necessarily provide a ranking benefit for that site... Read more...

The Art of Guest Blogging

10/09/2012 - 08:19

Guest blogging is one of the most-common and successful link building strategies being used right now after the Google Panda and Penguin updates. This guide will help teach you how to find guest blogging opportunities and how to make the most of them. What Do You Want to Get Out of Guest Blogging? Knowing what your intention is when it comes... Read more...

Do you live and breathe social media?

29/08/2012 - 13:25

We're currently looking for a brilliant social media consultant to join the Receptional team, working alongside SEO, Link Building and PPC teams to deliver integrated digital marketing campaigns to a huge range of clients. You will be responsible for developing social media marketing within the agency, from the strategy and research phases,... Read more...

Google Changing Star Search Query For Quality Results

23/08/2012 - 13:25

A quick method of getting an overview into the amount of quality content on a website is to check how many of its pages have been relegated to Google's Supplemental Index. This useful information helps gauge how much of the website is performing, and how much improvement work is required. While not an exact science, certain search queries... Read more...

5 great and engaging content ideas for companies in Boring niche

22/08/2012 - 10:53

As an SEO consultant I experience many challenges every day, and one of the questions I face time and time again from clients in the less exiting sectors is: "How do we create interesting and engaging, yet brand-orientated content?" They truly believe that just because their business is of a boring nature, their website design and content... Read more...

How to Avoid Link Building Penalties

21/08/2012 - 09:31

(image credit: t r e v y) The number of cases of websites being penalised for their link building is on the rise. There are pages of users posting questions on the Google Support Forum asking where their site may have been penalised or how they have to fix this. There are several users searching Google for support, and there are... Read more...

40 Blog Post Ideas for When You Get Writer's Block

16/08/2012 - 14:39

(image credit: Ed Yourdon) Since the Google Panda and Penguin updates, content marketing has become as important as it has ever been for Search Engine Optimisation and Link Building. Creating quality content for your blog or a third party blog will help towards attracting an audience, customers and can be used as a way of engaging. The more... Read more...

Klout improves usability at the expense of marketers

15/08/2012 - 09:42

Over the past few days, Klout has rolled out significant updates to its service, most notably a significant increase in the majority of users' Klout scores. However, the introduction of this score adjustment, alongside several new features has come at the demise of three previous measures that a few marketers will be dissapointed to see... Read more...

Google+ Introduce Vanity URLs

14/08/2012 - 09:42

If you visit a page on Facebook or Twitter the URL will contain that person’s name, however if you look up a person on Google+ instead of their name you will be greeted with a group of letters and numbers that represent that person or company. However this is slowly changing as Google are introducing ‘Vanity URLs’. To begin with only a few... Read more...

8 Ways to Get Kicked Out of Google

07/08/2012 - 13:57

Website owners and bad SEOs who manage to get their website kicked out of Google don't do it intentionally. Rather, they seemingly lack the knowledge to prevent it, and/or take too-bigger risks. Here are 8 ways to get your website kicked out of Google. I suggest you understand these and keep well away from these practices if you want to... Read more...

What has Captain Planet taught us about Digital Marketing?

25/07/2012 - 08:34

[Image Source] 20 years ago, almost every kids TV show was designed for one purpose; to sell toys. Each episode, Transformers shifted their focus onto whichever character's toys weren't selling that week, driving that individual toy's sales. The same was true for He Man, Action Force (GI JOE in the US), My Little Pony, Inhumanoids, Galaxy Rangers... Read more...

Are You Still Using Outdated Link Building Methods?

24/07/2012 - 11:19

The world of link building, just like digital marketing, is forever changing. The methods that use to work for link building have quickly become outdated. To help make sure you're not still in 2011 when it comes to link building, here are 6 old strategies to ditch and what to replace them with: Old: Repetitive Anchor Text Once upon a... Read more...

A comprehensive list of Twitter search operators

20/07/2012 - 09:00

We've put together a comprehensive list of search operators that work on Twitter. Twitter can be a difficult platform to effectively manage. As soon as you start following more than 50 people, or are trying to effectively track mentions of brand names, competitors and keywords, it can become near impossible to hear anything amongst the crowds. At... Read more...

Why You Suffered from the Google Penguin Update

19/07/2012 - 11:31

According to Google, approximately 3% of sites were affected by the Penguin update on 24 April. A big reason why we believe so many blogs, businesses and websites fell victim to Google’s Penguin and Panda updates this year comes down to inexperienced, Black Hat, or just plain bad SEOs. If you have paid for and used either inexperienced, Black... Read more...

Distilled - CRO and the User Experience Review

13/07/2012 - 15:43

Yesterday evening, Nick Andrews and myself popped down to Distilled's Live event at the Minster Exchange, Mincing Lane, London to listen to 3 talks on Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO). Having previously attended Distilled's successful event on the Psychology of Link Building on leap day, I was eagerly-anticipating picking up a number of useful... Read more...

Search London - Schema Markup and Google+ Local Review

12/07/2012 - 09:48

On Tuesday evening, I popped down to London with my colleague Nick Andrews to check out Jo Turnbull’s latest Search London event, Authorship and Schema Markup, Social Media and Google+ Local. The event was twice as good as any previous ones we had been to, with two excellent speakers on stage this time, as opposed to the usual one and an excellent... Read more...

Receptional Now Sell Puppies

11/07/2012 - 10:02

After the Nth phone call asking for Husky Puppies, we managed to ask the question "where did you get our number?" before Joe Public could hang up. "I don't really know. I'm not sure even what I'm looking at..." replied the voice. This was a simple case of another member of the public getting confused, because of an ad on a scraper site. A quick... Read more...

Strong correlation found between social signals and search engine rankings

13/06/2012 - 10:04

Social media signals from Facebook, Twitter and Google+ correlate very strongly with Google search rankings, higher than keyword rich header tags, backlinks with keywords, on-site images and page descriptions, a recent study has found. Looking at 10,000 selected keywords, 300,000 websites and millions of links, tweets and shares, Searchmetrics... Read more...

Facebook launches mobile-only ad offering

06/06/2012 - 11:52

Facebook have launched their first mobile-only advertising offering this week, allowing marketers to buy Sponsored Stories for the News Feed specifically for mobile devices. With nearly half of the 900 million Facebook users accessing their account through mobile devices, being able to focus specifically on those users is a big plus for... Read more...

ICO changes stance on EU cookie law 48 hours before going live!

28/05/2012 - 10:13

New EU regulations on the use of website tracking technologies such as cookies came into force on Sunday, but the cookie guidelines for British websites were altered by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) just 48 hours prior, drastically changing the ICO’s stance on user’s consent. Designed to tackle privacy issues resulting from the... Read more...

Yahoo re-ignites search capability with new visual browser

25/05/2012 - 08:14

Yesterday, Yahoo! announced the launch of Yahoo! Axis, a new internet experience, combining searching and browsing into one single seamless experience, promising to allow you to ‘rip through the web’. Released as a plug-in for browsers, as well as an app for Apple’s iPhones and iPads, Axis provides the user with visual previews of sites,... Read more...

Google Penguin... Croaked?

22/05/2012 - 14:55

A couple weeks on now since the Google Penguin update and we are still noticing some odd results in the SERPs. Yesterday Nick Andrews discovered that link spam is still working in Google, in this example for the keyword "Payday Loans". Two websites with no mention of "Payday Loans" on their website are ranking on page 1 of Google results for this... Read more...

Google Rolls Out An Unknown Algorithm Update

17/04/2012 - 16:10

It would appear that Google are today (and have over the past 24 hours) been rolling out an update to their algorithm which is causing significant problems for webmasters and site owners. Initially reported by Barry Schwartz over at Search Engine Roundtable Barry highlights that the Google Webmaster Help forums have seen significant activity from... Read more...

Brighton SEO Roundup – 13/04/2012

16/04/2012 - 09:07

It may have taken place on Friday 13th but last week's Brighton SEO Conference passed by without any major catastrophes, despite Dixon's best attempts on a crowded M25. We even managed to take notes. If you were or weren't able to attend Brighton SEO this past Friday at the Brighton Dome, here is a list of tips we picked up during the sessions:... Read more...

Finding The Right Google AdWords Partner

16/04/2012 - 08:31

I spent a large part of last week looking at the competitive marketplace with regards to potential PPC suppliers, and it really does surprise me how many companies and individuals claim to be PPC Gurus, so I thought I would share some of my thoughts with those looking to source a PPC agency. There is a lot of choice for advertisers these days,... Read more...

Bas van den Beld on What is Social Search?

09/03/2012 - 16:25

Bas, http://twitter.com/basvandenbeld is a quiet hero of mine. He has built www.stateofsearch.com into a fantastic and reputable resource for our industry. He does not present all that often – so it was great to hear him keynote at the UK Search Awards conference today, where MajesticSEO and Receptional was also speaking as a category winner.... Read more...

Social Media Week – February 13-17

13/02/2012 - 10:15

Social Media undoubtedly plays a huge part our digital lives, and this week marks the fourth annual week dedicated to exploring the changes. From the 13th to the 17th of February, digital marketing professionals will gather in London, New York, Hamburg, Paris, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Toronto, and 14 other major cities around the world, to... Read more...

Why Don't Google's Seller Ratings Add Up?

24/01/2012 - 15:46

Browsing Google Product listings recently, I noticed that the seller ratings seemed much higher than you would expect based on the breakdown of reviews provided. Companies with many 1 star reviews seemed to enjoy quite high averages which didn’t seem to add up. In the interests of science, I took a closer look. I searched Google for [television],... Read more...

Social Media Ownership - Who owns your followers?

16/01/2012 - 10:50

The huge increase in social media uptake has brought many new legal challenges with it. A man working for a US mobile news website currently being sued for taking his Twitter followers with him when he left. Noah Kravitz tweeted for news site Phonedog under the Twitter handle @Phonedog_Noah, but when he left the company he changed his username to... Read more...

Link Widgets in Action

12/01/2012 - 11:12

If you can demonstrate that you have data that is of value, then link widgets definitely can help you in your marketing efforts. However, for the widget to start creating links for you without you having to touch each website owner individually, your content needs to be useful enough for people to track you down. Take Majestic SEO's "Majestic... Read more...

Engaging with the influential is now more important than ever

11/01/2012 - 13:54

Google’s search results are going social Beginning it’s rollout across the world yesterday as we predicted, Google has finally launched the integration of its social media site into search results. The update to the world’s largest search engine, aptly named “Search, plus your world”, will incorporate pages that a user’s friends have liked, or... Read more...

A blogger's resolution. Don't blog often, comment often!

09/01/2012 - 11:43

Many bloggers began 2012 with a common new year’s resolution - blog more often. For some, this has meant setting out a specific timescale - blogging Tuesdays and Thursdays perhaps. For some, this means blogging at least once a day, without fail. “Yes, regular thought leadership - that's what my blog needs!” The rise of the blogger The huge rise of... Read more...

The Perils of Google's Soft 404 Detection

06/01/2012 - 11:35

A soft 404 is basically an error page with the technical part wrong (the error code). I'll save you the tech stuff, which Google themselves explain well enough. So, when Google visits a page, it checks for common words used to denote an error page - "page not found" "error", “missing” and similar. Historically, this has been... Read more...

Guest Post: Use Site Acceleration to Increase Your Search Engine Rankings and eCommerce Revenue

23/12/2011 - 10:16

Guest Post by David Henzel Learn how to use site acceleration to convert more people and make more money! I was shopping for a watch yesterday, and I found an affiliate marketing site selling every type of watch under the Sun. It was well-optimized for searches for specific types of watches, so it showed up pretty high on Google when I did a... Read more...

Our Holiday Opening Times

22/12/2011 - 12:02

Friday 23rd – 9:00 – 17:00 Saturday 24th – CLOSED Sunday 25th – CLOSED Monday 26th – CLOSED – Bank holiday Tuesday 27th – CLOSED – Bank holiday Wednesday 28th – 9:00 – 17:00 Thursday 29th – 9:00 – 17:00 Friday 30th – CLOSED Saturday 31st – CLOSED Sunday 1st – CLOSED Monday 2nd – CLOSED – Bank holiday Tuesday 3rd – 9:00 – 17:00 Receptional are... Read more...

Most Common SEO Issues 2011 Countdown - Number One

16/12/2011 - 14:01

It's only just over a week away from Christmas, snow has settled outside the Receptional offices and we’ve reached the final instalment of our Top Five Most Common SEO Issues as Seen by Receptional in 2011 list. For any latecomers, the title will have given it away but we’ve been counting down the most common SEO problems we’ve encountered over... Read more...

Most Common SEO Issues 2011 Countdown - Number Two

15/12/2011 - 15:46

It’s Thursday, and this is number two on our Top Five Most Common SEO Issues as Seen by Receptional in 2011 list. Previous issues making the countdown were Titles & Meta Elements, Content and XML Sitemaps, which are all worth checking out, if I do say so myself. Der Der Der Dun-Dun-Dun, Der Der Dun Duuuuuuuun So number two, rarely considered... Read more...

Most Common SEO Issues 2011 Countdown - Number Three

14/12/2011 - 14:48

Welcome readers to the midway point in our weeks countdown of the Top Five Most Common SEO Issues as Seen by Receptional in 2011. If you were unfortunate enough to miss numbers four and five of the countdown, don't worry, dry those tears, here they are: Number Four – Content Number Five – XML Sitemaps Today’s issue, at number three on our chart is... Read more...

Facebook preparing mobile advertising platform

14/12/2011 - 10:07

Already with over 800 million active users, Facebook is focusing heavily on mobile technology in 2012, according to two unnamed individuals cited in Bloomberg yesterday evening. Facebook is putting together a mobile advertising offering that will be launched by the end of March 2012, consisting initially of sponsored stories ads, which feature... Read more...

Most Common SEO Issues 2011 Countdown - Number Four

13/12/2011 - 14:34

Welcome to the second instalment in our Top Five Most Common SEO Issues as Seen by Receptional in 2011. For anyone who missed yesterday’s blog, the premise of this countdown is to highlight common SEO problems – the issues we see time and time again on the vast majority of websites. Number five in our list was XML Sitemaps, an issue that sparked... Read more...

Most Common SEO Issues 2011 Countdown - Number Five

12/12/2011 - 13:50

It’s that time of year again, aromas of spruce trees, turkey and brandy soaked puddings caress cold noses, blinking lights adorn our streets & houses, lofty voices send carols spilling from warmly lit churches and bloggers sit hunched over keyboards, tinsel reflecting in their monitors as they fervently hammer away posting end of year lists.... Read more...

Twantrum monitors consumer rants on Twitter

06/12/2011 - 11:58

A simple site that monitors consumers bad mouthing brands on Twitter has recently launched, courtesy of three Australians, James Aviaz, Julian cole and Ryhs Edwards. Simplistic in its design, Twantrum uses Twitter’s API real time search to pull out mentions of consumer brands with anger-related keywords, and displays them for all to see. Twantrum... Read more...

Strategy first. Social media ROI will follow

05/12/2011 - 15:10

Back in February of this year, research highlighted that 74% of CMOs predicted 2011 to finally be the year that social media efforts could be tied to a quantifiable return on investment (ROI). Yet, as we’re nearing the end of 2011, how social media marketing can be measured remains an often unanswered question. We often have clients approach us... Read more...

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