NCompass Circle – it is starting to work
This is an opinion piece, so really not backed up by any data or anything wise like that, but equally it is really important to encourage you as we are seeing accross the board success with this approach and with Chrstmas coming we keen to get as many people as we can onto it.
The NCompass Circle is something we’ve been thnking about for a while now… It was last christmas that we really started to put a few things together and analysed what was driving traffic to peoples websites in short what we found was that SEO for websites was getting harder and harder.
The Google Conundrum
I have not read about this anywhere, so you heard it first here, but Google seem to be having a trust problem, not dissimilar to every other giant company in human history when they grow so dominant, bad news spreads fast and wide these days, all the advantages of a domineering force such as Google start to be obiquitous and people tkaen them for granted, leaving the problems and worries exposed to human critisism, nothing new here.
Google in some ways have not helped themselves in that their mission is to put the right information in front of people fast and to balance that with Paid Adverts.
The problem comes when Google is perceived to be profiteering as many believe it is. Everyone knows Google has Adverts and is making money, everyone knows it’s in Google’s interest that we click these adverts, probably more than our own. And that’s where the problem lies.
If we are looking up a Train time or what’s on at the local Cinema, or the weather, or some mathamatical computation, all is well, we trust Google implicitly… what Google tells us is probably closer to the ‘actual’ that the various websites that hold the information. Google is great here.
But if you are looking for a new bathroom, double glaing, a car, some product, a way to make something, this is an entirely different proposition. If you are looking for almost any product or solution where there are more than a few suppliers you are liable to get advertised at. The adverts equally a form of persuasion and that basically feels like you are being coearced, there is little difference in ‘feeling’ from an Egyptian Byzzar.
The human solution is still, as ever was, to rely on recommnedations from friend, family and sources we trust, and if we take this at face value then we will find increasingly we are looking up products and service by their ‘brand name’.
The rise of the Brand Name
And this is what we have noticed again and again, if you analyse any website based on keywords in whatever way you can, you will see 100 visits on Brand and then the next best will be 15 visitors on some keyword.
Often variations of the Brand name will make up 9 of the top 10 keywords that people find you website by. The reasons for this are obvious, if you type in a generic keyword for your product or solution, chances are you’ll click an advert and not a ‘free listing’ so adverts take up all the clicks on most non-brand keywords… And then we wonder why conversion rates are so low on non-brand keywords. the truth is, it’s not our websites that are untrust-worthy it’s Google itself.
Enter the NCompass Circle.
NCompass Circle
So how do people hear about you… the so called ‘trusted-sources’, personal recommendations, friends, family… well guess what they are all on Social Media, whether it’s public facing on Instagram or private messaging on WhatsApp – people are communicating like never before. You’re more likely to ask people about their holidays or new kitchens on Social Media than ever you are on Google.
And when people respond saying ‘I used so and so travel agency’ or ‘I went to so and so website’ – that’s Brand and that’s what you Google.
It sounds all a bit tenuous and wishy washy, but firstly how do we explain the fact that Brand makes up the bulk of Organic visitors to a website… also how do we explain that having an active social media presence really does lead to more sales and more visitors.
Again the trouble here is that Google does not want to give credit to a Sale to Instagram or Facebook… Google does as a general rule prefers to tell you it was a Google Ad that caused a sale. Added to the fact that it’s actually difficult for Google to trace sources from Social Media and suddenly all the Brand Traffic you are getting is from a ‘direct’ or in google-speak ‘unknown’ source.
Proof in the pudding
I wish I could say – try it for a week or a month… but I can’t… it takes months to see this effect… But the Circle works… an active social media channel like Instagram, leads to a strong rise in Organic SEO traffic with a very strong slant on Brand keywords – which leads to more sales and more activiy on your website.
But you’ll never know without really making Instagram or Twitter or Facebook work for you. You’ll never know without being religious about it, without building followers, and without building a community of people that like or lve your products and services.
Back as base – we can tell – these are our success customers and they without quite realising it use the NCompass Circle for their marketing.