Although I only spent a half a day at ad:tech London I managed to cram in quiet a lot. Before I went I wrote a list of the people I wanted to see and what I needed to find out (how organised am I, time management my friend!!). I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the exhibition and quite shocked over the dominance of SEO/SEM companies exhibiting. Literally every other stand was a search company!

I met some of the “Big” SEO companies, amongst others, the guys from Big Mouth Media, and I must say that it is NO irony they are called Big Mouth, that is so suitably descriptive, just big mouths! Another few words that springs to my mind; condescending, sexist ratbags. They openly took the piss while I was standing there, talking under their breaths and generally being rude. For anyone that is considering applying for a job with them, I would think twice! Actually it’s a no brainer, don’t think, just stay away! Brrrr…

But the “big” agencies aren’t all bad. I also stopped by the Greenlight stand and had a chat with Chris Dunn, who was a lovely bloke and could talk for England =) He was telling me about some amazing sounding new PPC tools they are developing, think these guys are on the right track!

I also got the pleasure of meeting Dennis Mortensen from Indextools, a genuinely nice guy with loads of enthusiasm. I’m a big fan of Indextools and genuinely think it’s one of the best analytics packages out there. In fact at SES London this year I grilled the web analytics panel with questions and suggested to the crowd that they should give Indextools a go (and no I don’t get paid to say that lol).

My favourite monkey was also exhibiting, ha ha, that sounds well dodgy. Let’s start again, my favourite SEO dudes, Rob Kerry (aka Evilgreenmonkey), Mike Nott and Mike Jacobson was exhibiting with their new company Ayima. A pretty sweet looking stand and they were giving away chocolate, now these guys understand women =)

I also attended the Google University (supposedly Advanced) session, jeeese was that a waste of time. If that was the advanced session I wonder what on earth they were saying in the “normal” session; “to turn on your computer, you must plug it in……”

After the Google University I visited the Hitwise stand and had a chat with the very lovely Patrick Traynor and he gave me a handy little demo giving me some information about the demographics of Google compared to Yahoo. Did you know there is more woman using Yahoo then Google, it got me thinking about why. Maybe Yahoo has a slightly better appeal to women because of it social media side? What do you think? I also found it quite surprisingly that it’s more men in the age group 25-35 using Yahoo than Google. And although I am aware that Hitwise data is not set in stone and by no means pure correct data, I still think it’s interesting =)

After doing my rounds of people I wanted to talk to, it was time to head over to the Crown & Sceptre for our little SEO get together, which was great fun. A pretty good turn out and some thoroughly nice people turned up. It was the usual sweetness of beer, wine and SEO. Can’t get much better than that. Although I seem to remember agreeing to marry evilgreenmonkey if he can get a #1 position on Google for “weddings” PubCon Vegas could be interesting, Julie do you want to be a bridesmaid? LOL….Now that would be linkbait even Rand would be proud of (only joking Rand!)….

Here are some photos from the party:

Melissa & Mike Nott from Ayima, Mike you are sooo cute!!

The Ayima gang are happy - beer at last!!

SEO Chicks aiiii - from left: Shimrit, Rebecca Scott, Ylan (SEO Fangirl), Judith and me

SEO Chicks again =) - Shimrit, Rebecca, Judith and Lisa (Ylan in the back…)

Lisa, the lovely Tony King, Judith and Dixon Jones

Dixon, Tony and Lisa in intense discussion

Mike Jacobson from Ayima and Rohit chugh from LogicServe

Mr & Mrs Donkey - all happy =)

The Gorgeous - Judith

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If you’ll recall, the internet used to be somewhat free of censorship, back before anyone realized how powerful it would become. It’s all relative of course, but it was harder to control online information than it was to control print media and television reporting. Things seem to be really changing now, unfortunately.

Online censorship has been all over the news over the past year. With the latest reports of Myanmar/Burma cutting off internet access to help quash a rebellion, we’re seeing how critical the internet has become. Censorship seems to be a governmental response to something that, otherwise, they really have absolutely no idea how to handle.

I have never been a fan of censorship. It’s incredibly dangerous to mask other points of view, even if those ideas are themselves dangerous. Removing access to information of any sort tends to have the effect of simply making people flip out like ninjas and find alternate methods of doing whatever it is they want to do anyway. Preventing people from doing what they want usually opens up avenues that can be used for worse things as well…

You may not even think much about censorship if it’s never happened to you personally. That makes you really lucky actually. I remember how my brother refused his first place award in an arts competition because the arts committee had refused to showcase a painting of, gasp, a NAKED WOMAN. Naturally, the artist who had painted the censored work still felt the need to accept the 3rd place prize that he won for another painting he’d done that had not been censored. This, sadly, is typical. Most people just don’t give a damn.

Here’s why you should care though: censorship restricts basic human rights for people to express themselves. It prevents us from gaining access to opinions that we may never have considered, and shuts down our own growth as rational human beings. So what if we see the Piss Christ photo? Some consider it to be blasphemy, suggestive of society literally pissing on religion in disdain for it. Others see it as simply a representation of what society has done to religion. These are very different points of view, but both valid. Why is discussion about this so bad then?

Think about the censorship of books. In Charlotte, NC awhile back, there was an outrage over a book that had two male penguins raising a young penguin together. Obviously this was going to make homosexuals out of every kid who read it, so parents had to act. I guess no one thought about the fact that, if a book about penguins made a homosexual out of a kid, that kid simply might be gay anyway. Why would we ever think that an idea could alter our very nature? And, if it did, why is that so frightening?

J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye was censored, as were Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, John Steinbeck’s East of Eden (along with just about everything else he wrote), John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, and probably at least 50 other books that you read and loved. What if you’d never been allowed to read these? You’d still encounter the so-called outrageous themes they presented somewhere else in your life. Would it wreck you? I doubt it.

Boycotting something you don’t like is just fine with me. As a big lefty, I will jump on a boycott like a hobo on a ham sandwich. I boycott several things, from candy apples (they’ll yank your teeth right out!) to Domino’s Pizza, simply because I don’t like things that they’ve done. In fact, there’s not much I love more than a good boycott. Censorship is not ok. Some people love candy apples. Obviously they’re insane though. Some people eat Domino’s Pizza (not giving them a link due to the aforementioned boycott). That’s fine with me. If everyone thought the way I do, the world would be a boring (and utterly terrifying) place. We’d all sit around eating cheese dip, watching Father Ted, and listening to Wire. Bo-ring.

So pay attention to what’s going on with online censorship. It’s every bit as dangerous as every other form of censorship. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a great site devoted to what’s going on with online censorship. They also have a cool name that sounds like they’d do some Kraftwerk-style synth music, but somehow I don’t quite think that they do. More’s the pity.

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Have you been sitting around, bored out of your mind and wondering what nefarious and mind-blowingly ridiculous things your favorite little search engines have been up to lately? Here’s a quick roundup in case you haven’t been paying attention to all the ethical aspects of our collective internet obsession…

Yahoo!
Yahoo recently claimed to have simply been obeying Chinese law when handing over personal details of Wang Xiaoning, a Chinese man who had been openly critical of the Chinese government. Wang Xiaoning was subsequently sentenced to ten years in prison. His horrific crime was promoting democracy through the use of an online forum. In response to this, and other incidents, Yahoo is being sued in a U.S. court for aiding and abetting torture in China. Yahoo’s response to the lawsuit? The users knew the risks they were taking when they violated Chinese law.

My take on this? Yahoo should never have set up shop in China in the first place. Yes, they should have to obey Chinese laws if they’re operating over there, but when will it be time to refuse to do business with oppressive regimes?

Google
The National Legal and Policy Center, a U.S.-based ethics group, is appealing to Congress to prevent Google from allowing pirated movies to appear on YouTube. They’re really, really upset about it too. My take on this one? Copyright violations and pirated movies? Ye gads the world is going to hell in a handbasket. If this is the worst thing you’re doing, you’re still better than anyone else. I’m always first in line for a pirated version of absolutely anything. So, if you have anything good, let me know.

In news that’s so weird you think it must be a hoax, Google is currently being sued for $5m by an American man (figures) named Dylan Stephen Jayne who says that, when his social security number is viewed upside down, it forms a scrambled version of the word “Google” and thus his life is in danger. His complaint to the court was also handwritten. This man is most likely distantly related to me, since crazy hijinks of this type seem to run rampant through the Joyce genes. Also, when I write out the first letter of my 12 favorite punk bands, it forms an anagram of “Jayne is crazy” so I guess this is my last post, seeing as I’ll soon be gunned down. Um, I think my take on this has thus been made quite obvious. This guy could take make a freight train take a dirt road.

MSN
Microsoft is seeking seeking $100,000 in damages per domain name in a typo-squatting case against Anthony Peppler. Peppler could be on the hook for as much as $9.5 million. Apparently this horrible man has purchased domain names that are “confusingly similar” to MSN domains. For example, if you’re an idiot and you misspell MSN, you might go to one of Peppler’s domains. Apparently it’s a bad idea to confuse consumers. My take on this? If you’re typing in an MSN-related site, you deserve to get tricked. Peppler should take it one step further and create software that pops a fist out of the user’s computer screen to punch MSN users in the face too.

Let me know if I’ve missed any other egregious misuses of public trust…

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For those of you that are in London, please feel free to join us for a SEO Meet/Piss-up after London ad:tech tomorrow, Thursday 27th.

Location: Crown & Sceptre
Time: from 6ish

I have also opened a facebook group called ad:tech London SEO meet up

Currently it’s about 30-35 people.Amongst other SEO Chick Judith, Ylan (SEO FanGirl), a bunch of the LondonSEO crew and many more…

It should be a cracking evening! Come along!

As we have been on the theme of Ninja cats this week…

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When I was a youngster, my grandma always said, or yelled rather, “you’re gonna turn into a damned grilled cheese sandwich!” because I ate them constantly. At first I had lovely visions of being all gooey and buttery but then I realized that Grandma was really just a forward thinker who first began to envision the notion of “You are what you search.” In my mind, at least. The problem is, you’re not.

There’s a great article in the September 18, 2007 PC Magazine. And no I do not regularly read this periodical. It was pointed out to me. It’s entitled “You Are What You Search” just like this post! I can’t believe they have the nerve to copy me. Anyway, it’s about Google’s Web History project, something you might not have paid too much attention to.

Basically, the article explains that Google’s Web History project can create a record of everything you have ever searched for, for as long as you let it run. You have to sign up for this, thank goodness. The question is, why on earth would you want to? There are better ways to keep up with what you search for and find online you know. Even though you can pause the functionality or delete past search results, you still have to worry about the potential for your data becoming public knowledge. If you’re automatically logged into iGoogle and, let’s say, it’s not you but someone else who is using your computer momentarily, this person now has access to your search history. There are other ways in which people could get this information, but the point is that your search history isn’t guaranteed to be private.

I’ve written about the dangers of being defined by what you do online, and it’s really a serious concern (not that it stops me from searching for everything from the size of gorilla testicles to dirty limericks about the Irish.) My last piece on this issue mainly dealt with the problems of machines determining intent, but let’s think about the human potential for misinterpretation here for a minute…and I will give you an example of how quickly this can happen, at the risk of really offending the person who did this search. Oh well, it’s all in the essence of enlightening the readers.

Someone, whom I shall refer to as Sid, let me use his computer to look something up once when mine wasn’t hooked up. I was attempting to view something Sid had recently shown me, but when I hit the back button I saw something that read “naked crit.” You can imagine that the r in “crit” seemed to be to simply be a misspelling, and I began to think Sid was a big sick monkey with ill intentions. However, after questioning Sid about his interest in naked crits, he explained that a naked crit is a bike race where people are naked. I was thus a bit placated about this but the point is that it was easily misinterpreted. I also thought that Google was a porn portal when I first saw it in a URL, since I read it as “Go ogle” and no, I am not joking.

What would someone think of you if he or she had access to YOUR web search history? With the misinterpretations made by humans and machines, it’s unfathomable to imagine. Maybe your boss wants to sit down and show you a bit of code that he thinks is better than what you have, and he gets on your computer. I once worked for someone who loved to do this, and really loved to accidentally click on flashing IM windows and pretend not to know what they were while she read them. Considering that I was not always at my most professional on IM, you can only imagine the names I was calling my friend Heather. Heather knew that I didn’t truly think she was a raging whore whose herpes test had just come back positive, but my boss didn’t get this. Plus, it’s not nice to call coworkers a whore, especially between the hours of 9am and 5pm. Usually.

This quote from Google really concerns me though…
“Web History is accessible only by signing in to your Google Account with your username and password. As long as you don’t share your username and password, your web history should remain completely private.” Notice the “should” bit about remaining completely private.

And this bit is even more worrying…
“Web History uses the information from your web history or other information you provide us to improve your Google search experience, such as improving the quality of your search results and providing recommendations. In addition to enabling the Web History functionality, the information we collect when you use Web History may be shared among all of our services in order to provide you with a seamless experience and to improve the quality of our services. We will not disclose this information to other companies or individuals, except in the limited circumstances described in our main Google Privacy Policy, or with your consent.” Do you want their recommendations? Do you want a seamless experience? Do you want to be used as a white mouse for their quality service testing?

As the article points out, most people are already having their searches tracked through Google’s PageRank features on its toolbar, and god only knows where else since not everyone is as forthright about it as Google. This Web History simply lets YOU see the data too. It actually makes me want to stop searching for “ninja kitten” all the time lest I be seen as someone whose chakras need to be manipulated. So think carefully before participating in this project. As I say, you’re still being tracked in some way most likely, but don’t go out of your way to participate in this type of thing. Just think of the ramifications of a full month of your personal usage history being compromised.

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I’m studiously avoiding the conference talk I have to write on the top 10 ranking factors I committed to do. I’m thinking of sticking with the successful talk from last time and just adding a slide at the end which summarises my talk points.In doing so, I am also avoiding the articles I have to write although you’ll note I’m writing this blog post. It makes it *look* like I’m writing either an article or my talk.

So I started to look around beyond the October 3^rd date in my diary for my speaking engagement to other conferences and shows when an email pops in to my inbox about Internet World winning Gold for ‘Best Business Exhibition’ and the ‘Most Improved Established Exhibition’ Award.

Weirdly, I liked Internet World because not only did I win pink champagne, I also got chocolate, mints, t-shirts, mugs and all sorts of cool stuff (including stuffed animals). However aside from the swag, I also found it easier than the upcoming Ad:tech to identify sessions associated with my industry that I might want to write on or attend or avoid.

Ad:tech is coming along sharpish and so hopefully you’ve gotten your free ticket for the event. There might some sneaky hidden SEO drinking going on after the conference so make sure you’re plugged in and network is on.

The Future of Web Apps Expo is also one of the best conferences on the hot conference calendar but naturally I’m steering you away from it so you can come and hear me talk at the Search Engine Marketing Conference

Search Engine Strategies at A4U is also coming up in October making it a packed month full o’ conference-y goodness. There’s a London SEO Pissup after this conference making it even more attractive for the prospective attendee. Heck, LondonSEO is the only reason to go and you know it.

Not everyone is as clued up and plugged in as the Chicks here at SEO-Chicks and so I thought I’d mention a beginners conference which is a single day on social media for business. Squarely in the corporate, work-should-pay sphere, I’ll be there (but I won’t be speaking *sobs*).

As I continue to studiously avoid work, I progress on to some conferences coming up including the hotly anticipated SMX London which hits our shores November 15^th and 16^th. Ever since the rave reviews, I’ve been hoping that this conference would grace our shores and my prayers have been answered.

Online Information 2007 is free for pre-registered folk but everyone who is anyone is going to PubCon (where I’ll be). I know I’m focusing on London here but we all know where the SEO action will be - VEGAS BABY YEAH! I’ll be there with all the other SEO-Chicks so be ready for the X-TREME SEO CHICK ACTION!

Finally, February 2008 brings us London SES 2008 with a new line-up of speakers as well as a new guy in charge and all shiny-new everything including a new home. I hope I am able to cover the conference again and with luck you will be seeing me both at Technology Weekly *and* here at the most illustrious SEO-Chicks.

So there you have it - a brief glimpse of my Upcoming.org calendar. Go and mark your calendars up and book your tickets to Vegas. It’s time to meet up in the real world and not just online!

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Again I’ve seemed to have slipped out of the blog writing for a while, so I thought I would write a very appropriate post about time management. Yesterday my company made us all go to a time management course, at first I was a bit suspicious thinking they would just say stop pissing about and get on with it (which is fair enough), but I actually came out of the course quite surprised and inspired to make some changes =)

Without this sounding like a “poor me I’m so busy” rant I’ll give you a quick summary. I’m a single mother with a 3 year old daughter, work full time as Head of Search, do some freelance work on the side, do photography projects, run this blog (with the other chicks), and also occasionally have a social life….BUT my point is that no matter how busy you are, in fact the more busy you are, the more time there is to be “saved”. Organising yourself, and your time can not only save you time but save you a lot of stress. I know for a fact that what I spend the most time on is stressing about all the things I need to do, not actually doing it! Procrastination damn it, why do we do it?

So here are some tips on how to gain some “lady minutes” back:

The ever increasing to do list
If you are anything like me you will have 101 to do lists, I make them in spreadsheets, in my calendar task list, post it notes…you name it! It’s pretty obvious but sticking to one program and doing just 1 to do list, will erm..save you time! But even when you have 1 to-do-list it’s sometimes difficult to priorities. What is actually urgent? What can wait until tomorrow?

How about dividing your to-do-list into the following categories:

1. Must Do’s: What can not wait, and needs action taken straight away. This would be things like your boss saying “be in my office in 5 min or else”, or “if you don’t phone this client now
2. Should Do’s: What you should do as it will become a must do pretty quickly if you don’t do it now. The fact is most of your work should come into this category, if you deal with it when it should be done, it won’t get to the urgent stage. That’s logic I know, but for some reason it was still a bit of a “aha” moment when the course speaker said this =)
3. Could Do’s: this is the stuff that you can do if you have time left at the end of the day. The bitty little things, unfortunately this is the kind of time wasting stuff that you end up doing first, it only takes a minute right? Much easier than the BIG strategy document that needs to be written, or the 200 pages website that needs content optimisation…mwaaa..
4. Do do’s: ha ha it’s no category called that, just wanted to say do do…come on..have you not seen the episode of friends where Chandler says “do do” in an interview…

Stop Procrastination
- Do the “nasty” tasks first! Getting the difficult things out of the way first dramatically improves the day and makes everything seem easier. Again that’s logic.
- Give it 5 min! You know when you go to the gym, erm…who am I kidding, I NEVER go to the gym! But, I used to do kickboxing and although I really enjoyed it when I got going I was always thinking of other things I could do instead. But when I did go and was 5 min into it, I felt pretty good about it, not to mention how great I felt afterwards. I actually moved about for an hour, and kicked ass! Wohoo…Same applies to work, when you get into it, it’s not that hard, it’s just the start that blows..

Don’t always turn to email - it might actually take you longer
Now I’m an email slave, I even email my poor junior SEO that sits next to me. Now is that really necessary? The other day I had a client that couldn’t view their web analytics report, it showed no stats. We kept on emailing back and forth for a whole day!! Then I finally called her and the problem was fixed in less than 5 min! Jeese, what a waste of time the emailing was. Sometimes talking to someone on the phone can save you time, after all it’s difficult to get everything across in an email. And sometimes actually meeting someone in person might be even better, I find that after meeting a client face to face it’s much easier to understand them and know what they actually want later. Is that very female?

Spring clean your desk
Have you ever looked for something and found yourself distracted by a random article on your desk about “how a Flash programmer/designer finally admitted flash isn’t always necessary”???, nah? neither have I. But the point is that storing a lot of crap on your desk can be bad, really it can! How about going through all the documents and files on your desk and ask yourself the following questions:

- Would I pay £5 (ehm..that’s $10) for this, if not, chuck it!
- When did I last use it? Is it more than a year ago? Will you be likely to need it again? No? Chuck it!

Uninterrupted Time
Sometimes it’s just impossible to get some time to get on with your work, people interrupt me all the time to ask question, request meetings etc. I did try writing a post-it-note and stuck it on my forehead saying “Fuck off I’m working”, but it didn’t go down very well. Sometimes you need time to think about a project, planning or simply getting on with it. That’s difficult if you keep on being interrupted. Don’t feel guilty about needing time to think. Go to a quiet part of the office, maybe even a cafe with WiFi access (I love it when they have free WiFi).

Delegate if you can
One of my big problems is that I’m terrible at delegating, I always think it will be quicker if I do it myself. I have only been managing people for just under a year, it’s quite hard getting out of the habit of just doing it, and actually evaluating whether this is something that someone else could be doing. But when you do delegate it’s important to let the other party exactly what you are expecting from them. Be clear what you want the end result to be and not only what they need to do! Give the person room to do it their own way but be clear that you need the end result to be this and this.

Listen to your body clock
I’m one of these disgustingly chirpy people in the morning, I work best in the morning and work much more efficiently in the morning than late afternoon. So it make sense for me to arrange important meetings in the morning and early afternoon and not 4 o’clock when all I can really do is “no brain needed” type of work. Listen to your body clock and arrange “heavy task” work and meetings for a time that you are at your best.

Just do it!
All this is probably logic to most people, but I am surprised at how many of these “logic” things I don’t do! So I’m hoping by doing some of the above; I will save some time, improve my efficiency and become a fabulous manager. It might also give me a brighter smile, a knight in shining armour and a calm inner peace….

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Warning: the following post has almost nothing at all to do with SEO. It’s simply a rant.

A good friend of mine just showed me what I think is one of THE most ridiculous things I have ever seen. Besides Scarlett Johannson singing with the Jesus and Mary Chain even!

It’s a flash drive designed exclusively for women! And strangely, they’re not available in America.

What makes them designed for women anyway? Other than being pink, the product has a “sleek, feminine, cap-less design” which will, apparently, “make it ideal for women of all ages.” It’s a f&^(G! flash drive! What does your sex or age have to do with it? I assume that it also allows you to keep up with your menstrual cycle and fend off would-be attackers in dark parking lots. If it came with a rape whistle, MAYBE I could see its benefit but as it stands, this is truly ridiculous and it brings me to a point (amazing!) about products that are designed for women.

The “designed for women” market has really gotten out of hand lately. This flash drive idiocy is only the latest in a string of items ranging from products that are simply smaller versions of their bulky male counterparts to products that are pink, and thus will appeal to all of us for their simple color. Everyone knows that all women love shiny pink things. OK that sounds really vulgar…you know what I mean you big bunch of sickos. Yes, some women are small and could probably benefit from a product that’s designed more for their size than for someone who’s a giant hill person, but I’ve also known quite a few ham-handed brutish females (yes, I mean brutish, not British) who would beat the tar out of many men on their way TO a fistfight. It’s simply another way to make money, so why does it make me so angry? We’re all in this to promote something. So why do I care?

I care because it’s setting a horrible precedent. Especially with regards to technology, the idea that you need to pink up a product simply so women will understand it and relate to it is about as offensive as Britney Spears covering a Ramones song. Obviously, if there weren’t women-only flash drives we’d most likely have one like this:

The problem is that there are many women who will buy into this nonsense, thus creating the demand for more and more of it. Then what will we have? Will someone design a search engine that will work with women’s needs, or a woman-only browser that’s all pink and lacy? What about an analytics program designed for our tiny minds that are usually full of kittens and flowers? Why is it set in stone that all women like pink anyway? I do happen to love pink, but I sure as hell do not want a pink flash drive. Or a pink phone, or a pink iPod…I’d rather have all those in orange.

Obviously there are products that should be designed for women (such as my mom’s Smith and Wesson Lady Smith revolver, for example, so don’t anyone visit her to complain about her daughter please) for various reasons. Knee cap replacements, amazingly, also seem to be a big area for women-only design. I don’t have a problem with these. Well, the gun thing freaks me the hell out but still, I’d rather see Mom coming down the stairs with a weapon that fits nicely in her small hand than holding a giant shotgun that she can’t control. My point is simply that there are legitimate instances where designing for women makes sense. The flash drive, however, is not a case like this.

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Bounce rate is a critical web statistic that can give you tons of valuable information about landing pages on your website. As it’s a simple percentage (based on how many users hit a page without going elsewhere on your site in a session divided by the total number of users who hit that page) it’s a measurement that doesn’t tax your brain too much (hopefully.) If you’re going to take the time to drive traffic to your site, the least you can do is make sure users don’t leave immediately. However, it’s not a clearcut statistic like you may think it is (and like I have kind of implied that it is, too.)

Avinash Kaushik states that “My own personal observation is that it is really hard to get a bounce rate under 20%, anything over 35% is cause for concern, 50% (above) is worrying. I stress that this is my personal analysis based on my experience, but hopefully it gives you a feel for what you are shooting for.” Reading these numbers filled me with fear and loathing, I must say. After looking at the bounce rate for a particular site that I shall refer to as When Animals Attack Magicians, I felt like I should be as busy as a cat covering it up. I also did a bit of exclamatory cursing, something that Southern ladies should not do.

What this metric tells you is that your page/site has the potential to entice, bore to tears, or infuriate a user. In the case of When Animals Attack Magicians, it seems that I’m mostly infuriating people. I feel like Johnny Rotten with only a slightly better attitude. But oh wait! When Animals Attack Magicians is a blog so how do we deal with that? As everyone knows, it’s quite easy to read a ton of posts on a blog without going to another page on the site…

Here’s where things get a bit tricky. If I’m on a blog and I read 15 posts, then leave without viewing anything other than that great big long page of posts, I am counted as a bounce even though I’ve read a good bit of the site. If I look at individual pages and check THEIR bounce rate, this may make more sense in terms of giving me an accurate depiction of whether or not people are offended as deeply as I am when I see George Bush on television talking about how necessary the war in Iraq is. However, if these bounce rates are high, could that simply mean that the person has already read everything else on the blog and has followed a link into the site only to leave for a reason other than simply finding fault with the site? Yes of course it can, but how are we to tell that from the this one metric?

Let’s take a non-blog site then, which we’ll call America’s Funniest Dancing Cats, and think about its bounce rate, which is possibly easier to accurately measure. A high bounce rate here could definitely mean that the landing page is as charmfree as Paul Weller’s latest offerings. Unless you’re running an iframe or you have all your content on one page, a high bounce rate here should trigger a closer look at WHY these people are leaving without delving deeper into the wonder that is your site about dancing cats. Maybe, on your home page, you had a non-funny dancing cat photo and people simply thought you were nuts, for example.(Like there IS such a thing as a non-funny photo of a dancing cat!)

In addition to the type of site that you’re working with, you need to pay attention to the TYPE of pages that have high bounce rates. With some pages you should probably expect a higher bounce rate. Let’s say that someone was searching for your contact information and went directly to the contact page. Unless you’ve cleverly replaced your actual contact information with a blurb about ministering to the poor, the user is getting what he or she needs and will possibly find no need to go anywhere else on your site. Thus, a high bounce rate here would not be cause for concern. It’s common for ecommerce sites to have high bounce rates on the final review page of purchasing, as well, as people realize that really, they do not need yet another ceramic lighthouse.

In closing, let me just say that while I have possibly confused you about a statistic that IS actually quite valuable, my point is simply that this is a metric that cannot be viewed on its own with no thought about what it actually represents. You may be doing really well with a blog that has a 70% bounce rate, so don’t be alarmed when you see such a high percentage until you actively look around and see what is going on. This statistic does not exist in a Dyson you know…so use it and bow to its importance, but only in conjunction with a bit of human analysis. Numbers are our friends, but you can’t remove the need for interpretation.

**UPDATE**

Avinash was kind enough to comment on this post and lead us to two more posts that deal with issues raised here…so read them. NOW!
Tips for Measuring Success of Your Blog
Standard Metrics Revisited

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The online marketing world is buzzing with giddy excitement. A few days ago a new blog syndication network was launched by one of the most respected marketers online - John Reese.

Now, I know some people will express extreme scepticism - this being a marketing venture - but if you can bare to read a little further, you may just get on board with a truly revolutionary way to drive free and relevant traffic to your blog.

So BlogRush.com is a site that allows you to display a widget on your blog with links to other relevant blogs. The more you display the widget, the more ‘credits’ your blog gets. The more credits you have, the more often your blog link will be displayed on other people’s relevant blogs. The ‘cherry on the top’ is that you benefit from compounded exposure from people who sign up under your link - 10 tiers deep.

Now, personally, I haven’t seen any 10 tier benefit models out there yet, so that in itself is very exciting. But to round off the already very polished, professional looking site, we have two more awesome features. One allows you to block specific URLs that you don’t want to appear on your widget. And the other allows you to filter out specific content that you don’t want to appear on your site.

But if I’m not exactly doing a very good job of explaining this, here is the link to the video from John Reese (founder of BlogRush) - he’s very good at explaining the whole concept and how it will benefit your blog.

We decided to get on to that bandwagon and try this ourselves, so look at our right hand nav for a sample of what the widget looks like –>

I’d recommend you at least try it out and see if it works for you. It can potentially explode your blog traffic for free, and you can be a part of something significant, right from the beginning - which with a 10 tier deep benefit structure is a mega proposition! Don’t say I didn’t tell you…

As Lisa would say - once you’ve signed up and placed the widget on your site and monitor what’s the traffic you’re getting by analyzing your data? You have two places for stats - one is your Google Analytics, and the other is the actual BlogRush stats panel. You will soon realize if this is for you or not.

QUICK UPDATE: Julie’s just told me about this post on Search Engine Roundtable that talks about how you may be affected by the BlogRush widget if you also have AdSense on your site. Have a quick read to make sure you’re fully informed :o)

Get Free Traffic with BlogRush, But Watch Out, Google AdSense Publishers >>

Also, if you want to see another example of what the BlogRush widget looks like and the type of items it displays, you can look at the one I have on Reviewlicious.com.

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