British consumers have a higher level of trust in .uk domain names, and a loyalty to local websites.

Nominet’s Domain Name Industry Report (PDF) provides some useful marketing information regarding trends and developments in the UK domain name market and behaviours.

Here are my highlights:

• British Internet users are six times more likely to choose a .uk rather than .com address when looking for information via an Internet search engine

• And a YouGov survey found that 62% of users believe a .uk address suggests that a company is local or more relevant than .com.

• When searching for a particular company on the Internet, 72% said they would visit a British address above any other.

• And an independent online survey in August 2007 found that 60% of UK marketing professionals would choose to buy a co.uk domain name

• The vast majority (92.4%) of .uk domain name registrants are based at a UK address, with the largest proportion of registrants based outside the UK being in North America

• 25% of domain names that are cancelled are then re-registered (presumably by somebody else) within one day, and 7% are re-registered within 10 seconds of cancellation

• Only 12% of all UK domain names are registered in the East Midlands

Even Saintly Google has a bad day, sometimes.

Google demands high standards for its AdWords advertising: it has it’s Editorial Policies, it’s strictures against Repetition of words, and promises that all ads “are reviewed by our support staff to make sure they meet Google’s guidelines.”

Nevertheless even Google can goof up when despicable Pay Per Click Ads like this one appears:

What rock did these advertising idiots crawl out from under?

But it did make me laugh!

Once upon a time Meta Tags were an important part of your search engine optimisation activities. But no longer: very few of the search engine spiders even consider Meta tags when indexing your site.

But you ignore Meta Tags at your peril.

In particular, the Description tag plays an important role in the search engine results page. It is part of the persuasive call to action to searchers, encouraging them to click on your site.

Give your site a fighting chance in the results page, and write a good Description tag.

Note that Google displays the Title Tag in bold blue, and below it are displayed the two black lines containing my Description tag:

You can see your Title and Description tags by using the View | Source option in your web browser.

And finally, remember those two black lines of text in the Google search engine results might come from your DMOZ entry, or from some relevant text extracted from your site.

Date: 28th November 2007

Time: 09:30 – 16:30

Do you collect personal information on your website? You may have a Contact Us form, or a newsletter subscription form that collects names, email addresses, phone numbers, that sort of thing.

Are you sure your website is complying with the Data Protection Act in terms of how you collect and store that personal data?

More importantly, did you know that company directors and senior managers are personally criminally liable for in the event of failing to comply with the Act. And saying “you’re sorry but you didn’t know” is just not good enough.

The Information Commissioner has published a very useful Guide to Collecting Personal Information Using Websites (PDF)

I learned a few new things:

• how and when you need to display your privacy policy statement, and the principle of having 3 “layers” of privacy policy statements
• your responsibilities if your site collects personal data using “cookies”
• publishing personal information about staff or clients on your website
• restrictions on “scraping” email addresses off websites and using them for email marketing

Happy reading!

I was pleased as punch to see TimeOut London recommending my emarketing workshop – yes, you did read that correctly.

TimeOut have astutely recognised the entertainment, as well as educational, value of my presentations. Needless to say the workshop was sold out, but I must confess the elderly tourist in the back row appeared a bit perplexed…

The green starred Recommendation was in both the print and online versions of TimeOut.

A very special thanks to CIDA for promoting the event so effectively.

Date: 15th November 2007

Time: 09:30 – 16:30

Every discipline has its current best practice, and Internet Marketing is no exception. But the rate of change on the internet means best practice is changing every few months, new technologies appear and established approaches become obsolete.

Keeping up to date with the latest online marketing trends can be an overwhelming task because there is so much information to absorb.

In one day Effective Internet Marketing will provide you with the skills, tools and techniques to ensure your organisation is making the most of every opportunity the internet can offer as part of your marketing strategy.

Take a look at the Effective Internet Marketing course outline.

Brilliantly presented by Susan Hallam, this extremely effective and practical one day Masterclass is an essential part of any organisations Internet Marketing Strategy review.

This workshop is organised by Milestone Seminars:  Performance Learning for Marketing and  Management Professionals.

Book your place

Keeping up to date with latest trends in search marketing means a lot of reading. Here are some suggestions to help you burn the midnight oil:

If I only have time to read one thing, it is my Search Engine News subscription. It’s a monthly update, comprehensive, authoritative, practical, of what’s new in in the world of search engine marketing. I’m afraid it does cost real money, but with the dollar so weak, the price tag of US$144 for a whole year amounts to less than 80 squid. Warning: this website looks big time American cheesy spammy, but the quality of the subscription is excellent.

If you are looking for free info, then blogs has to be the way to go. The BigList of SEO and SEM blogs by TopRank lists more than 400 blogs. Awesome, in the literal sense of the word. It’s arranged alphabetically which can make it difficult to get to grips with, but it is a great launch pad. It is interesting to note Danny Sullivan’s Sphinn is the editor’s pick; Sphinn is getting a lot of profile, but it wouldn’t make my personal top 10.

Along the same lines, take a look at AdAge Power 150 media and marketing blogs.
You won’t go far wrong if you pick a few to read out of the top dozen or so.

Happy reading!

Are you looking to grow your business through trading internationally? Want to know how to promote your website internationally?

I’m teaching a one day International Web Marketing workshop on 28 November at Highfields Conference Centre, just a few quick miles away from M1 | M6 | M69

The theme is how to acquire, convert and retain international customers.

Email me to book a place; discounts available if you register 2 or more people.

Date: 9th November 2007

Time: 09:30

Every company, large or small, old or new, is able to take advantage of the commercial opportunities of ranking well in the search engines.

A recent research report by Internet Marketing consultants Hallam Communications reveals 78% of small businesses in Greater Nottingham cannot be found easily in the search engines. If a business can’t be found in the search engine results, then it just doesn’t exist for a large number of potential clients.

Where are these businesses, perhaps businesses like yours, going wrong?

In this half day workshop Susan Hallam will be explaining the principles of search engine optimisation for small businesses:

• What are the characteristics of sites that rank well in the search engines
• What simple steps do you need to take to improve your rankings in Google
• Practical examples and reviews of local businesses’ websites

Book your place now