On this weeks podcast I have an interview with the lovely Jessica Dunbar from Anything Digital. She is the marketing director for the company and joins me on the show to share some search engine optimisation gems!
She tells us a little about her history of getting into the online marketing space, starting with optimising listings for eBay, and then her growth into particular areas including pay per click advertising to drive traffic to websites.
Show Notes
Joomla News
JoomlaDay Sao Paulo, Brazil
Over the weekend Brazil hosted their JoomlaDay - JoomlaDay Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Renato Bastos, one of the organisers from the event has kindly sent me the link to all the images from the event to share out with all the podcast listeners and Joomla Beat fans. You can see all of the photos in his public Facebook gallery.
Joomla UX/UI Code Sprint 8th-9th July
This week we also saw a UX/UI code print being held in the UK for the Joomla Project. A few enthusiastic members got together and contributed to new additions, improvements and work to the user experience and user interface of the CMS.
http://ux.joomla.org/jux-blog/73-jux-code-sprint-2013-invitation
I'm yet to see any more updates on the event other than it was going really well!
Interview with Jessica Dunbar from Anything Digital
Jessica Dunbar from Anything Digital, Online marketer and Interview on Joomla BeatBackground:
Jessica started out in network administration, but while she was at school (college) she paid for expenses by selling things off eBay. She learnt pretty quickly by competitive research and descriptive titles how to increase the final purchase price. Which lead her to the web, search engine optimisation (SEO) and marketing.
What drives her passion for marketing is that it encompasses a bit of everything, strategy, creative, psychology and a little bit of magic!
eBay Capitalisation
It was during 2000 and 2002, where eBay was relatively new. Discovered that cereal from the US was in high demand in the UK. So she shipped boxes and boxes of Lucky Charms over to the UK. Ended up selling beef jerky to Australian customers but discovered the strict regulations of importing into Australia! She would increase the shipping slightly, therefore make some money off of that.
From there:
She undertook an internship that was network administration focused. Working with 60 domain names, and she had to work with the DNS. Changing over DNS and gradually updating websites, and learning how they worked. At that stage, she was keyword stuffing to get to number one on Google.
She had a web project that required more than the standard html site. That is how she found Joomla, after testing Wordpress and Drupal also. Joomla turned out to be the winner.
Day to Day
Working at Anything Digital, Jessica oversee's the marketing operations and the businesses under the umbrella, https://watchful.li/ and the extensions that Anything Digital create and manage.
She focuses on strategy development, creative concepts, implementation and making sure marketing efforts turn a profit.
Jessica covers everything to do with marketing within Anything Digital, such as social media and inbound marketing services, such as www.jinbound.com
Inbound Marketing
The focus is when the visitor comes to your site, you want to turn the lead into a conversion. Quality leads vs quantity.
Google Analytics Certified
What it is, proof of advanced knowledge of Google analytics. This can be a very powerful tool.
About the Test:
$50 to do the test
90 questions in 90 minutes
Must get 80% to pass
Focuses a lot on the technical aspects, while integrating analytics with PPC. You have to have a pretty wide knowledge of the technical aspects of editing the javascript code and the reg expressions.
Prepare for the Test
Search for Google IQ test which will show some lessons from Google and some sample questions.
http://www.googleanalyticstest.com/
Another qualification is a Google Certified Partner
Jessica plans to gain this qualification, through Anything Digital. Where she will have to prove to Google that she is improving the marketing and ROI for the clients. Through client testimonials, training seminars and explain the methodology used.
Jessica's Approach to Marketing a Website
PPC (pay per click). The quickest way to get new traffic to site.
What is PPC? Search google, the top half is the ads. Thats where the PPC is. You pay for it to be displayed and for every click it receives.
Organic search results come below.
To the right is the maps.
A competitive keyword search term can get very expensive.
Start with limited budgets, while making sure you are blogging and writing a lot of content.
For a brand new site it is important to go over the technical aspects.
Making sure the accessibility is good.
Make sure Google can find it.
Load times are good.
Keyword research.
Social media encompassing. Let everyone know you have launched.
SEO, Social Media Website Maintenance
It isn't a set and just forget it. It is similar to the physical doors of a brand new business. You have to advertise, let people know, and keep marketing after the launch.
Jessica's Top Tips in Regards to Getting Your Website Online and Driving Traffic
Accessibility
Optimising your robots.txt - Google loves responsive, you can get them to stop blocking your CSS and your templates, Google indexes this and knows your website is responsive
Remove the line /templates/ from that robots.txt file
Architecture - relevant and best content
Reducing the number of times they have to click to find it
3 click method as in 3 levels deep and no more than 3 clicks to find the piece of content you're after
Flat architecture, makes it easier for Google to crawl
Security
Comprised websites can mess up your marketing. Keep it secure to keep the malware out.
Speed
Fast and optimised load times.
Images optimised
PPC
Gaining branded keyword phrase.
Content
Crucial pieces of the website - quality content.
250 word pieces of content isn't great. You need to put thought and passion behind the content.
Lengthening. 600 word blog posts.
Content spinning...avoid! always credit the source.
Subscribe for the next episode where we continue the interview with Jessica Dunbar and talk about social media marketing for your Joomla website.
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