Software Scotland – Summer time and the living isn’t easy

It’s been a pretty busy time in the software business Objective Associates despite it being the holiday season. Normally the summer months allow us to relax a bit and plan out what we need to do in the second half of the year. This year has been pretty different. Enquiry levels are exceptionally high for online systems from a range of customers. When I finally find a quiet morning I’ll try and figure things out – maybe it’s because other companies are getting their systems organised ahead of a tight next 12 months  - or maybe its just our online marketing and search engine optimisation work that is creating results.

Online Marketing – first resort in a liquidity crunch

With our various online software systems we have seen good uptake with respect to things like email campaigns and Search Engine Optimisation work – I guess when times are tough it forces folks to think through where they are spending money and where the alternatives lie. For us we have found newsletters work well (if correctly targeted), and SEO works (as long as you can convert). So when money is tight start thinking creatively with the marketing budget – if it gets cut give us a call and we’ll help with some inexpensive and perhaps even more effective alternatives.

Echo echo echo – search search search

I had to google to find out where the Mansfield Traquair was. The Edinburgh Chamber had advertised the venue for their 2000 event but not the address. I assumed that I was simply not cool enough to know where the place was (as it turned out, most other folks at the event had googled as well). Which shows how well we have all adopted google and that we expect search engine promotion to work – which it does.

The Traquair is a 19th century chapel/church not sure which and it’s rather splendid inside. very impressive…. until the speeches started.  The echo aroound the chapel ensured that those of us not next to a speaker had no clue what was being said – but I applauded politely at the correct times.

I know some Sound Designers at the University of Edinburgh – I now know what they do, they do, do….. and where they can see some consultancy.

Where next on the Internet

“Where will the internet be in the next 5 years?” the question came from David Frost the Director General of the British Chamber of Commerce. I am sure that David probably knows more than most of us where it is going given his knowledge of business trends via the BCC but I’m never short of an opinion so I ventured a view. I gave a quick example about online profiling and online advertising …. typing in “fish” into Google in 5 years time will produce results influenced by your profile…. if your a keen cook you’ll get fish recipes, while if you are a keen angler you’ll get best fishing spots.

So thats my prediction – no doubt Google will prove me wrong by doing it all in 5 months rather than 5 years.

PR optimisation

After trawling through various PR sites looking for good quality PR stuff I was surprised (on balance) that a relative few pushed the use of PR to strengthen SEO actvities. Only a few pushed it hard which surprised me – and a few totally ignored the SEO value which surprised me even more. Search Engine Optimisation and online marketing is increasingly inescapable but it does seem to have escaped a few PR companies – but I’m sure they’ll catch up soon.

Bagrock for the masses and The Times

I can’t imagine that the Times Online reports on Bagpipers often, so it’s good to see them report on our favorite rock star clients at web wise business our website development arm – The Red Hot Chilli Pipers. With such a well respected news publisher the Chilli Pipers are bound to see even higher interest in their music and live perfomances – such is the power of online advertising and search engine optimisation.

Check out Red Hot Chilli Pipers at the TImes Online

Finance mortgage calculators

We are continually improving our financial websites such as the nowfirsttimebuyer website for first time buyer mortgages in the housing market and our nowselfemployed website for self certification mortgages.

We finally got out our rather clever Mortgage Calculator across all the sites and have been interested to see how sticky our sites become – so we are now ok with Search Engine Optimisation becoming Time Engine Optimisation (see earlier article). Average time on site has shot up and visitor engagement is much higher.

We’ve added it to the Buy To Let mortgage and landlord info website as well though have left it off the commercial loan and business loan site for obvious reasons. We’ll come up with a suitable tool for the Commercial Loan website soon.

STV take over from BBC

A late cancellation from Phillip Jay of the BBC must have given the folks organising the YCF digital conference a “bit of a moment” to quote the late Colin McRae. However, the substitute speaker turned out to be pretty refreshing.

Robert Dawson Scott has only just joined STV – 9 days and counting. That newness gives him the chance to still look at stv from the outside in and that proved pretty interesting. Robert has been drafted in to sort out the online STV presence and by the sounds of things his work is cut out. Registered users are not registered across all aspects of the site, google only placed them at 55 when you did a search for Tommy Burns the other day – despite the efforts STV went to to cover the funeral, and they are being hosed by BBC’s iPlayer.

The average weekly use of iPlayer is 1.4mn and growing at 20% month on month. And that 1.4mn figure is double the use in January. So as Robert put it…. “the BBC are a bit of a problem for us”.

It’ll be interesting to see the impact of Roberts Work – why not track it on Alexa (as he is doing). It’s all about website structure and search engine optimisation efforts.

Time Engine Optimisation

A good point was raised by Robert Dawson Scott (new start at STV website) at the YCF digital conference…..

google doesn’t include time on a site as an SEO factor.

I’m sure he’s right. And it opens up some thoughts about how SEO will change in the next couple of years. It also makes you wonder if any site could ever compete against sites like the BBC or YouTube if time matters. Interesting point and one to add into the profile mix. Online Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation will look a lot different in 18 months time and I think Robert’s casual comment is food for thought.

Dinosaur on film with banana

Google alerts has done it – a dinosaur caught on film eating a banana. Got this in via my Dinosaur Eats Banana google alert.

Video of a dinosaur thinking about eating a banana.

Proof of the interconnectedness of all things.