M25 closed after serious minibus crash injures nine people near Staines

A man has been arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/m25-closed-after-serious-minibus-15220434

Family is raising money to thank hospice for 'amazing' care

Joseph Robert Lee Smyth, 14, spent the last two weeks of his life at Shooting Star Chase's hospice in Guildford

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/family-raising-money-thank-hospice-15206778

Thousands of food hygiene warnings handed out in Surrey - here's how your area fares

Thirteen establishments were closed in Surrey, six of them in Runnymede alone

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/thousands-food-hygiene-warnings-handed-15214113

Crime break down in Farnborough reveals that a quarter are violent and sexual offences, 10% less than Aldershot

Perhaps one of the biggest concerns is the 31 possession of  weapon crimes reported - isn't one report too many?

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/hampshire-news/crime-break-down-farnborough-reveals-15205586

See the criminals locked up in Surrey in September

Surrey Live is profiling the efforts of the police and the courts to bring the county's worst offenders to justice

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/see-criminals-locked-up-surrey-15218616

Fly-tippers fined more than £2,000 for offences in Spelthorne

Three separate cases of fly-tipping were punished by Spelthorne Borough Council

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/fly-tippers-fined-more-2000-15211943

Surrey weather: El Niño set to bring above-average temperatures up to Christmas

Despite the ferocious Beast from the East this year could be the warmest on record

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/surrey-weather-el-nio-set-15218751

These are the stories of the men recorded on Guildford's new war memorial

The new memorial commemorates 18 men from the borough who have died while serving in the armed forces since the end of the Second World War

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/stories-men-recorded-guildfords-new-15183241

Pedestrian hospitalised with 'serious leg injuries' after two-car Chobham crash

The collision took place in Bagshot Road on Saturday afternoon (September 29)

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/pedestrian-hospitalised-serious-leg-injuries-15217598

The incredible story of how a Farncombe man swam the Channel aged just 11

Tom Gregory wrote his book on the 7.28am train from Farncombe to London Waterloo

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/nostalgia/incredible-story-how-farncombe-man-15178297

If you live in Rushmoor you are more at risk from STIs than in Liverpool, Newcastle and Birmingham

Hampshire County Council's advice for anybody that is sexually active is to "use condoms to reduce the risk of STIs"

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/hampshire-news/you-live-rushmoor-you-more-15171991

Redhill house for £350,000 has three double bedrooms so no-one gets the box room

This pretty mid-terrace Victorian property is close to Redhill town centre

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/property-news/redhill-house-350000-three-double-15172262

£1,000 reward offered after custom motorbike stolen from outside Sainsbury's in Burpham

The custom bike was stolen from outside Sainsbury's in Burpham

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/1000-reward-offered-after-custom-15217425

'Telephone wires hanging down' after car smashes into telegraph pole in Chertsey

Emergency services were called to the scene in Chertsey at around 11am on Saturday morning (September 29)

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/telephone-wires-hanging-down-after-15217263

'Highways England want their cones back': Police scold resident's attempt to reserve parking space

Officers were not amused by the Addlestone resident's actions

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/highways-england-want-cones-back-15216195

Frank 'cheesed off' as owner abandons him during Thames Ditton police chase

Officers were involved in the short pursuit of a Range Rover in Thames Ditton in the early hours of Saturday morning (September 29)

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/frank-cheesed-off-owner-abandons-15216005

Hunt for 'cowardly' VW Golf driver who smashed into Audi and sped off

The incident took place in Horley in the early hours of Saturday morning (September 29)

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/hunt-cowardly-vw-golf-driver-15215700

Dorking Brewery builds tap room at so you can drop by for a beer

Pints will be sold for £3.50 and bottles from £2.50

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/dorking-brewery-builds-tap-room-15209801

All you need to know about World Heart Day 2018

Founded in 2000, World Heart Day is an initiative of the World Heart Federation

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/you-need-know-world-heart-15200314

'Vile predator' who sexually and physically abused two youngsters jailed for 16 years

The 57-year-old faces 16 years behind bars for the offences, which took place from 2012 to 2015

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/vile-predator-who-sexually-physically-15214089

Owner of Ripley's Nest café is selling her historic home in the village

As the proprietor of Nest café and interiors shop looks to move, see inside her beautifully styled 16th-century home

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/property-news/owner-ripleys-nest-cafe-selling-15206789

Start contributing to open source: Pro tips from Felix

Creme d’Or recalls assorted chocolates due to 'undeclared natural pistachio flavouring'

Customers with pistachio allergies are being advised not to eat the chocolates

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/creme-dor-recalls-assorted-chocolates-15215119

Up to 90 MILLION Facebook accounts left vulnerable after 'security issue'

The Facebook security breach was discovered on Tuesday (September 25) and has since been resolved, but millions of accounts have been affected

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/facebook-data-breach-hack-warning-15215017

Camberley care home worker 'smashes' cupcake decorating world record

The chef at Aura Care Living’s Kings Lodge in Camberley beat the current record of 47.21 seconds

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/macmillan-coffee-morning-cupcake-bake-15212009

East Surrey Hospital simulates response to Gatwick Airport plane crash to show 'reality' to employees

It was a 'resilience exercise which simulated a major incident to help train staff

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/east-surrey-hospital-simulates-response-15200328

Surrey County Council staff's £4.9m expenses claim 'rings alarm bells'

A county councillor thinks last year's amount was alarming, especially when the authority is trying to make savings

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/surrey-county-council-staffs-49m-15214327

Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer spotted filming 'Location, Location, Location' in Guildford

Property experts Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer filmed in Guildford Castle Grounds on Thursday

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/kirstie-allsopp-phil-spencer-location-15212043

Kirstie Allsopp and Phill Spencer spotted filming 'Location, Location, Location' in Guildford

Property experts Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer filmed in Guildford Castle Grounds on Thursday

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/kirstie-allsopp-phill-spencer-spotted-15212043

Brothers jailed over Camberley cannabis farm where police found drugs worth up to £286,000

Owais Hussain and Al-Rashid Mohamad had pleaded guilty to running the farm in London Road containing 116 cannabis plants

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/brothers-jailed-over-camberley-cannabis-15210052

Removing subway and footbridge from Staines roundabout is perilous and risky, says councillor

The revamp of Crooked Billet roundabout has been been proposed in a bid to “improve safety with reduced accident rates”

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/removing-subway-footbridge-staines-roundabout-15211429

Surrey weekend weather: What it will be like where you live

Relax, the snow is not imminent, in fact, the forecast for the weekend looks rather nice

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/surrey-weekend-weather-what-like-15212117

Woking skyscrapers predicted to help fetch borough council £40 million windfall

The council has to build 292 homes every year between 2012 and 2027, of which half will be in the town centre

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/woking-skyscrapers-predicted-help-fetch-15212540

Five unanswered questions about Surrey County Council chairman Peter Martin's resignation

A county council spokesman declined to answer SurreyLive 's questions except to say the "appropriate complaints procedure" was being followed

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/five-unanswered-questions-surrey-county-15212331

Woman in 'life threatening' condition in hospital after Ashford motorbike collision

The female pedestrian was hit by a motorbike on Wednesday evening (September 26)

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/woman-life-threatening-condition-hospital-15211613

NHS emphasises importance of flu jabs to parents as winter approaches and schools go back

The vaccination is free on the NHS for children aged 2 and 3 or in school years R to 5

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/nhs-emphasises-importance-flu-jabs-15212607

Teenager hospitalised with head and arm injuries after car 'rolled several times' in A3 crash

The girl was 'extricated' from a vehicle by Surrey Fire and Rescue on the A3 near Hurtmore

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/teenager-hospitalised-head-arm-injuries-15211679

Missing Farnham man, 32, found following urgent police appeal

A large police presence was reported in Farnham as officers 'urgently' tried to locate missing man Gary

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/missing-farnham-man-32-found-15210665

Inquest tribute to 'loving and thoughtful' son who died after being hit by train

Emmett Gillah's mother Wendy paid tribute to her son, who died near Nutfield station in January 2016

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/inquest-tribute-loving-thoughtful-son-15211031

Ask Yoast: Can I repost my guest-authored content?

Hoe Valley School students crash road should have speed limit cut, say councillors

A borough mayor has called for a reduction in the limit after two students were hit by a car near the Woking school

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/hoe-valley-school-students-crash-15211828

Behind-the-scenes at South Western Railway's driver training centre

What does driving a commuter train actually involve?

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/behind-scenes-south-western-railways-15211282

Travellers leave Windlesham memorial field after 'fantastic' residents' nighttime vigil

A traveller encampment was set up on the Windlesham Field of Remembrance on Tuesday (September 25)

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/travellers-leave-windlesham-memorial-field-15207033

Mother fears for her child's safety in Woking following recent knifepoint incidents

The parent, who did not wish to be identified, now does not let her son out on his own after dark

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/mother-child-safety-fears-knifepoint-15208412

Head teachers to get detention from Surrey County Council for flouting planning law

Surrey County Council has warned it will send red letters to schools that do not implement a travel plan

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/head-teachers-detention-flouting-planning-15211660

Your reaction to hearing that Rushmoor is the happiest place to live in the UK

As well being the happiest, people in Rushmoor also have the highest life satisfaction

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/hampshire-news/your-reaction-hearing-rushmoor-happiest-15208762

Trial date set for men charged over death of Guildford gardener Matthew Bradley in Liverpool

Matthew Bradley was enjoying a night out in the city when he was hit by a car on November 3

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/trial-date-set-men-charged-15210773

Scheme to revamp Staines Crooked Billet roundabout unveiled

Highways England said the proposed works will improve safety and reduce congestion

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/scheme-revamp-staines-crooked-billet-15210546

HSBC customers unable to access accounts as online banking app crashes

The global bank is 'investigating' the online issue

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/hsbc-customers-unable-access-accounts-15210807

Surprising SEO A/B Test Results - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by willcritchlow

You can make all the tweaks and changes in the world, but how do you know they're the best choice for the site you're working on? Without data to support your hypotheses, it's hard to say. In this week's edition of Whiteboard Friday, Will Critchlow explains a bit about what A/B testing for SEO entails and describes some of the surprising results he's seen that prove you can't always trust your instinct in our industry.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another British Whiteboard Friday. My name is Will Critchlow. I'm the founder and CEO at Distilled. At Distilled, one of the things that we've been working on recently is building an SEO A/B testing platform. It's called the ODN, the Optimization Delivery Network. We're now deployed on a bunch of big sites, and we've been running these SEO A/B tests for a little while. I want to tell you about some of the surprising results that we've seen.

What is SEO A/B testing?

We're going to link to some resources that will show you more about what SEO A/B testing is. But very quickly, the general principle is that you take a site section, so a bunch of pages that have a similar structure and layout and template and so forth, and you split those pages into control and variant, so a group of A pages and a group of B pages.

Then you make the change that you're hypothesizing is going to make a difference just to one of those groups of pages, and you leave the other set unchanged. Then, using your analytics data, you build a forecast of what would have happened to the variant pages if you hadn't made any changes to them, and you compare what actually happens to the forecast. Out of that you get some statistical confidence intervals, and you get to say, yes, this is an uplift, or there was no difference, or no, this hurt the performance of your site.

This is data that we've never really had in SEO before, because this is very different to running a controlled experiment in a kind of lab environment or on a test domain. This is in the wild, on real, actual, live websites. So let's get to the material. The first surprising result I want to talk about is based off some of the most basic advice that you've ever seen.

Result #1: Targeting higher-volume keywords can actually result in traffic drops

I've stood on stage and given this advice. I have recommended this stuff to clients. Probably you have too. You know that process where you do some keyword research and you find that there's one particular way of searching for whatever it is that you offer that has more search volume than the way that you're talking about it on your website right now, so higher search volume for a particular way of phrasing?

You make the recommendation, "Let's talk about this stuff on our website the way that people are searching for it. Let's put this kind of phrasing in our title and elsewhere on our pages." I've made those recommendations. You've probably made those recommendations. They don't always work. We've seen a few times now actually of testing this kind of process and seeing what are actually dramatic drops.

We saw up to 20-plus-percent drops in organic traffic after updating meta information in titles and so forth to target the more commonly-searched-for variant. Various different reasons for this. Maybe you end up with a worse click-through rate from the search results. So maybe you rank where you used to, but get a worse click-through rate. Maybe you improve your ranking for the higher volume target term and you move up a little bit, but you move down for the other one and the new one is more competitive.

So yes, you've moved up a little bit, but you're still out of the running, and so it's a net loss. Or maybe you end up ranking for fewer variations of key phrases on these pages. However it happens, you can't be certain that just putting the higher-volume keyword phrasing on your pages is going to perform better. So that's surprising result number one. Surprising result number two is possibly not that surprising, but pretty important I think.

Result #2: 30–40% of common tech audit recommendations make no difference

So this is that we see as many as 30% or 40% of the common recommendations in a classic tech audit make no difference. You do all of this work auditing the website. You follow SEO best practices. You find a thing that, in theory, makes the website better. You go and make the change. You test it.

Nothing, flatlines. You get the same performance as the forecast, as if you had made no change. This is a big deal because it's making these kinds of recommendations that damages trust with engineers and product teams. You're constantly asking them to do stuff. They feel like it's pointless. They do all this stuff, and there's no difference. That is what burns authority with engineering teams too often.

This is one of the reasons why we built the platform is that we can then take our 20 recommendations and hypotheses, test them all, find the 5 or 6 that move the needle, only go to the engineering team to build those ones, and that builds so much trust and relationship over time, and they get to work on stuff that moves the needle on the product side.

So the big deal there is really be a bit skeptical about some of this stuff. The best practices, at the limit, probably make a difference. If everything else is equal and you make that one tiny, little tweak to the alt attribute or a particular image somewhere deep on the page, if everything else had been equal, maybe that would have made the difference.

But is it going to move you up in a competitive ranking environment? That's what we need to be skeptical about.

Result #3: Many lessons don't generalize

So surprising result number three is: How many lessons do not generalize? We've seen this broadly across different sections on the same website, even different industries. Some of this is about the competitive dynamics of the industry.

Some of it is probably just the complexity of the ranking algorithm these days. But we see this in particular with things like this. Who's seen SEO text on a category page? Those kind of you've got all of your products, and then somebody says, "You know what? We need 200 or 250 words that mention our key phrase a bunch of times down at the bottom of the page." Sometimes, helpfully, your engineers will even put this in an SEO-text div for you.

So we see this pretty often, and we've tested removing it. We said, "You know what? No users are looking at this. We know that overstuffing the keyword on the page can be a negative ranking signal. I wonder if we'll do better if we just cut that div." So we remove it, and the first time we did it, plus 6% result. This was a good thing.

The pages are better without it. They're now ranking better. We're getting better performance. So we say, "You know what? We've learnt this lesson. You should remove this really low-quality text from the bottom of your category pages." But then we tested it on another site, and we see there's a drop, a small one admittedly, but it was helping on these particular pages.

So I think what that's just telling us is we need to be testing these recommendations every time. We need to be trying to build testing into our core methodologies, and I think this trend is only going to increase and continue, because the more complex the ranking algorithms get, the more machine learning is baked into it and it's not as deterministic as it used to be, and the more competitive the markets get, so the narrower the gap between you and your competitors, the less stable all this stuff is, the smaller differences there will be, and the bigger opportunity there will be for something that works in one place to be null or negative in another.

So I hope I have inspired you to check out some SEO A/B testing. We're going to link to some of the resources that describe how you do it, how you can do it yourself, and how you can build a program around this as well as some other of our case studies and lessons that we've learnt. But I hope you enjoyed this journey on surprising results from SEO A/B tests.

Resources:

• SEO Split-Testing: How to A/B Test Changes for Google
• Do it Yourself SEO Split Testing Tool With Causal Impact
• Case studies:
  • SmokyMountains.com
  • iCanvas
  • ConcertHotels.com

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

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These are the most and least dangerous areas in Spelthorne so far in 2018

A total of 5,722 crimes were recorded in Spelthorne between January and July this year

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/most-least-dangerous-areas-spelthorne-15189337

Council plans to regenerate east of Dorking 'centre around' turning Pippbrook House into housing site

The historic building currently has protection from development as it is designated for community use, but the council intends to remove that

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/council-plans-regenerate-east-dorking-15197721

Chequers deal will ensure electronics companies remain in Chertsey, Philip Hammond insists

The Chancellor of the Exchequer was speaking at a public meeting on what the Chequers deal and Brexit will mean for local residents

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/chequers-deal-ensure-electronics-companies-15206067

Caroline’s Corner: How to stay unique despite being one of many bloggers in your niche

Salesian School pupil hit by 'marked police car' on response to 999 call

Surrey Police will now investigate the circumstances of the collision

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/police-car-hits-salesian-pupil-15209884

Snickers the dog is on the mend after horrific badger baiting injuries

The two-year-old was dumped and left for dead in Smallfield

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/snickers-dog-mend-after-horrific-15208901

Met Office verdict on whether UK will see FOUR months of snow

Remember the Beast from the East?

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/met-office-snow-surrey-uk-15208041

'Frightened' sister confronted brother after finding GP note - only to discover his cancer diagnosis

Megan Golder, then 20, bravely spoke to her older brother Adam, 23, after she and her mum discovered the letter from his doctor

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/guildford-sister-macmillan-cancer-support-15196764

Call to make Rosalind Franklin 'Close' a 'Road' to give scientist proper recognition

Rosalind Franklin was a chemist who played a vital role in discovering the structure of DNA but did not receive a Nobel Prize for her work

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/call-make-rosalind-franklin-close-15206177

Urgent search underway for missing Farnham man Gary Woodward

Gary Woodward, 32, was last seen around noon

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/urgent-search-underway-missing-farnham-15208628

Blacklash and boycott threats halt planned rename for Heinz Salad Cream

Heinz received an 'angry backlash' from customers

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/blacklash-boycott-threats-halt-planned-15207364

New Independent group warns Guildford risks becoming 'one party state'

Councillors Tony Rooth and Bob McShee accused the council leadership of lacking transparency

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/new-independent-group-warns-guildford-15202669

Lidl is selling matching hair trimmers for pets and owners

The budget supermarket is selling 'His n' Purrs' hair trimmers so that man’s best friend and his owner can be as well-groomed as each other

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/shopping/lidl-selling-matching-hair-trimmers-15201598

Surrey County Council chairman Peter Martin resigns over 'thoughtless and outdated remarks'

Cllr Peter Martin said his judgement had been "called into question"

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/surrey-county-council-chairman-peter-15206500

Issues facing Woking residents are 'problems of success', MP Jonathan Lord says

"There is a trade off between our green belt and building up in the town centre and I prefer to keep our green belt," Jonathan Lord said

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/issues-facing-woking-residents-problems-15206598

'Jedi' and 'Stormtroopers' wanted for Surrey County Council data team

You may need to bring your own lightsaber though...

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/jedi-stormtroopers-wanted-surrey-county-15205109

Ed Sheeran tickets go on sale for summer 2019 shows - how to get yours

Ed Sheeran will play at these two parks in August 2019

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/ed-sheeran-tickets-go-sale-15206098

Eric Clapton’s 2004 blue Ferrari 612 Scaglietti F1 is for sale

The car, with only 29,700 miles on the clock, will be sold by H&H Classics on October 17 at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/eric-claptons-2004-blue-ferrari-15202084

Police investigating relationships Surrey children have formed through online gaming, including Fortnite

A school email shared by a Surrey parent suggests someone posed as a child and requested indecent images from children

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/police-investigating-relationships-surrey-children-15195748

Female pedestrian suffers serious injuries following collision with motorbike in Ashford

The male motorcyclist was also taken to hospital.

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/female-pedestrian-serious-injuries-motorbike-15205953

Guildford green belt campaigner calls for housing target cut as population forecast slashed

Cllr Susan Parker said lower population growth forecast by the ONS means Guildford's green belt could be saved from development

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/guildford-green-belt-campaigner-calls-15198043

Plan to increase A25 speed limit because drivers don't stick to it is labelled 'madness'

The speed limit at the Bletchingley/Godstone border was slashed in 2012 but a decision on whether or not to increase it again has now been deferred three times

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/plan-increase-a25-speed-limit-15192186

The E-Commerce Benchmark KPI Study: The Most Valuable Online Consumer Trend of 2018 Revealed

Posted by Alan_Coleman

The latest Wolfgang E-Commerce Report is now live. This study gives a comprehensive view of the state of digital marketing in retail and travel, allowing digital marketers to benchmark their 2018 performance and plan their 2019 strategy.

The study analyzes over 250 million website sessions and more than €500 million in online revenue. Google Analytics, new Facebook Analytics reports, and online surveys are used to glean insights.

Revenue volume correlations

One of the unique features of the study is its conversion correlation. All website metrics featured in the study are correlated with conversion success to reveal what the most successful websites do differently.

This year we've uncovered our strongest success correlation ever at 0.67! Just to give that figure context: normally, 0.2 is worth talking about and 0.3 is noteworthy. Not only is this correlation with success very strong, the insight itself is highly actionable and can become a pillar of your digital marketing strategy.

These are the top factors that correlated with revenue volume. You can see the other correlations in the full study.

Click to see a bigger version

• Average pages per session (.37)
• Average session length (.49)
• Conversion rate by users (.41)
• Number of sessions per user (.67)
• Percentage of sessions from paid search (.25)

Average website engagement metrics

	Number of sessions per user	Average pages per session	Average session duration	Bounce rate	Average page load time	Average server response time
Retail	1.58	6	3min 18sec	38.04%	6.84	1.02
Multi-channel	1.51	6	3min 17sec	35.27%	6.83	1.08
Online-only	1.52	5	3min 14sec	43.80%	6.84	0.89
Travel	1.57	3	2min 34sec	44.14%	6.76	0.94
Overall	1.58	5	3min 1sec	41.26%	6.80	0.97

Above are the average website engagement metrics. You can see the average number of sessions per user is very low at 1.5 over 12 months. Anything a digital marketer can do to get this to 2, to 3, and to 4 makes for about the best digital marketing they can do.

At Wolfgang Digital, we’ve been witnessing this phenomenon at a micro-level for some time now. Many of our most successful campaigns of late have been focused on presenting the user with an evolving message which matures with each interaction across multiple media touchpoints.

Click through to the Wolfgang E-Commerce KPI Report in full to uncover dozens more insights, including:

• Is a social media engagement more valuable than a website visit?
• What's the true value of a share?
• What’s the average conversion rate for online-only vs multi-channel retailers?
• What’s the average order value for a hotel vs. tour operator?

Video Transcript

Today I want to talk to you about the most important online consumer trend in 2018. The story starts in a client meeting about four years ago, and we were meeting with a travel client. We got into a discussion about bounce rate and its implication on conversion rate. The client was asking us, "could we optimize our search and social campaigns to reduce bounce rate?", which is a perfectly valid question.

But we were wondering: Will we lower the rate of conversions? Are all bounces bad? As a result of this meeting, we said, "You know, we need a really scientific answer to that question about any of the website engagement metrics or any of the website channels and their influence on conversion." Out of that conversation, our E-Commerce KPI Report was born. We're now four years into it. (See previous years on the Moz Blog: 2015, 2016, 2017.)

The metric with the strongest correlation to conversions: Number of sessions per user

We've just released the 2019 E-Commerce KPI Report, and we have a standout finding, probably the strongest correlation we've ever seen between a website engagement metric and a website conversion metric. This is beautiful because we're all always optimizing for conversion metrics. But if you can isolate the engagement metrics which deliver, which are the money-making metrics, then you can be much more intelligent about how you create digital marketing campaigns.

The strongest correlation we've ever seen in this study is number of sessions per user, and the metric simply tells us on average how many times did your users visit your website. What we're learning here is any digital marketing you can do which makes that number increase is going to dramatically increase your conversions, your revenue success.

Change the focus of your campaigns

It's a beautiful metric to plan campaigns with because it changes the focus. We're not looking for a campaign that's a one-click wonder campaign. We're not looking for a campaign that it's one message delivered multiple times to the same user. Much more so, we're trying to create a journey, multiple touchpoints which deliver a user from their initial interaction through the purchase funnel, right through to conversion.

Create an itinerary of touchpoints along the searcher's journey

1. Research via Google

Let me give you an example. We started this with a story about a travel company. I'm just back from a swimming holiday in the west of Ireland. So let's say I have a fictional travel company. We'll call them Wolfgang Wild Swimming. I'm going to be a person who's researching a swimming holiday. So I'm going to go to Google first, and I'm going to search for swimming holidays in Ireland.

2. E-book download via remarketing

I'm going to go to the Wolfgang Wild Swimming web page, where I'm going to read a little bit about their offering. In doing that, I'm going to enter their Facebook audience. The next time I go to Facebook, they're now remarketing to me, and they'll be encouraging me to download their e-book, which is a guide to the best swimming spots in the wild west of Ireland. I'm going to volunteer my email to them to get access to the book. Then I'm going to spend a bit more time consuming their content and reading their book.

3. Email about a local offline event

A week later, I get an email from them, and they're having an event in my area. They're going for a swim in Dublin, one of my local spots in The Forty Foot, for example. I'm saying, "Well, I was going to go for a swim this weekend anyway. I might as well go with this group." I go to the swim where I can meet the tour guides. I can meet people who have been on it before. I'm now really close to making a purchase.

4. YouTube video content consumed via remarketing

Again, a week later, they have my email address, so they're targeting me on YouTube with videos of previous holidays. Now I'm watching video content. All of a sudden, Wolfgang Wild Swimming comes up. I'm now watching a video of a previous holiday, and I'm recognizing the instructors and the participants in the previous holidays. I'm really, really close to pressing Purchase on a holiday here. I'm on the phone to my friend saying, "I found the one. Let's book this."

Each interaction moves the consumer closer to purchase

I hope what you're seeing there is with each interaction, the Google search, the Facebook ad which led to an e-book download, the offline event, back online to the YouTube video, with each interaction I'm getting closer to the purchase.

You can imagine the conversion rate and the return on ad spend on each interaction increasing as we go. This is a really powerful message for us as digital marketers. When we're planning a campaign, we think about ourselves as though we're in the travel business too, and we're actually creating an itinerary. We're simply trying to create an itinerary of touchpoints that guide a searcher through awareness, interest, right through to action and making that purchase.

I think it's not just our study that tells us this is the truth. A lot of the best-performing campaigns we've been running we've seen this anecdotally, that every extra touchpoint increases the conversion rate. Really powerful insight, really useful for digital marketers when planning campaigns. This is just one of the many insights from our E-Commerce KPI Report. If you found that interesting, I'd urge you to go read the full report today.

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from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/epsom-man-sentenced-selling-fur-15188842

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from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/addlestone-pet-owner-furious-after-15186525

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from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/murder-investigation-launched-after-man-15186963

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from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/coming-chertsey--15-things-15118825

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Box Hill's tough 10k trail run returns for the ultimate winter challenge - here's how to enter

The charity run will be muddy, steep and uneven - you've been warned!

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/box-hills-tough-10k-trail-15178121

The most popular baby names where you live in 2018

Oliver and Olivia top the lists again

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/most-popular-baby-names-you-15182580

Why do we use weather sayings and what do they mean

In the days before weather forecasts, people often turned to sayings and proverbs to provide an indication of what tomorrow's weather might bring

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/use-weather-sayings-what-mean-15184565

Quality Street pick and mix stations are coming to John Lewis!

Chocolate fans will be able to enjoy all their favourite flavours without feeling guilty for leaving the ones they don't like

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/quality-street-pick-mix-stations-15186382

House of Horror 4D opens soon - and you will need a 'change of clothes'

WARNING: disturbing content - What happened when a reporter tackled the new House of Horror experience

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/house-horror-4d-opens-soon-15183344

31 things to do and places to go in Surrey on a rainy day

How to make the best of the drizzle with a packed list of more than a dozen attractions and activities in Surrey

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/things-to-do-rainy-day-9143865

CCTV released after attempted burglary in Banstead

The alleged incident happened at around 3pm on September 12 in Holly Lodge Lane

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/cctv-released-after-attempted-burglary-15186126

Man wanted in connection with Warlingham burglary

The alleged incident happened at approximately 12.30pm on August 23 in Warlingham

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/man-wanted-connection-warlingham-burglary-15186069

Aviator hotel's five course Christmas Day lunch sounds lavish - this is what you get for £125 per head

Diners can tuck into honey roasted goose and eggnog sorbet, alongside canapes and Champagne at the Farnborough hotel

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/aviator-hotels-five-course-christmas-15173608

11 bars, pubs and restaurants in Guildford that Surrey University students love

There are some seriously cool places on this list compiled by Surrey University student journalists

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/11-bars-pubs-restaurants-guildford-15165741

The life and 'thrill of the chase' of a Detective Inspector for Surrey Police

Detective Inspector Dee Fielding has opened up regarding how a murder investigation with Surrey Police runs from the moment a body is found to the offender being convicted

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/life-thrill-chase-detective-inspector-15092697

'Savoy' of burial grounds Clandon Wood will guarantee you can rest in peace for eternity

With cemeteries regularly filling up, becoming overcrowded, and in certain cases being dug up for development, there’s a chance your eternal resting place may not be as it was 30 years later

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/savoy-burial-grounds-clandon-wood-15112016

Surrey Oaks pub in Newdigate in running to be named best in UK by CAMRA

The Surrey Oaks has won best pub in East Surrey, Surrey and in Surrey and Sussex and is in the last 16 of CAMRA's Pub of the Year 2018

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/surrey-oaks-pub-newdigate-running-15170106

Three men deny murder of fisherman Scott Wilkinson whose body was found in River Thames

The body of Scott Wilkinson was found in The Thames near Sunbury Lock on July 28 2016

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/three-men-deny-murder-fisherman-15183128

Ask Yoast: Disavow backlinks from shady sites?

Legoland to host 3D Lego themed firework display this Halloween - and it sounds spectacular!

Visitors will have to wear Lego 3D glasses to see the fireworks explode into thousands of tiny Lego bricks

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/legoland-host-3d-lego-themed-15165968

This £2 Wilko bauble could stop your kids misbehaving until Christmas

And at £2, it's definitely worth buying if it means some peace and quiet over the school holidays

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/shopping/2-wilko-bauble-could-stop-15168486

University of Surrey study of sugar content in yogurt leaves a sour taste in the mouth

Scientists from the Universities of Leeds and Surrey analysed the product information for 921 yogurts available in major UK supermarkets

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/university-surrey-study-sugar-content-15171952

Met Office issues weather warnings for high winds and heavy rain in Surrey

It looks like it is going to get very wet and very windy

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/met-office-issues-weather-warnings-15182912

This is how tall the development proposed for Guildford's Casino nightclub would be

Casino nightclub owner Michel Harper says the building would be "in keeping with the buildings adjacent to us"

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/how-tall-development-proposed-guildfords-15177770

Evans Cycles with Guildford and Woking branches seeking new owner amid financial struggles

Evans Cycles is thought to need an injection of at least £10 million to meet its obligations in the coming months

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/evans-cycles-guildford-woking-branches-15182055

£50,000 Range Rover stolen from Ewell West train station car park

Two men forced their way into the vehicle before making off

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/50000-range-rover-stolen-ewell-15182663

SNARL react to 'shock' announcement after police conclude Croydon Cat Killer doesn't exist

The announcement has left members of the public furious

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/snarl-react-shock-announcement-after-15181916

Former dance teacher behind bars after being found guilty of child sex offences

Thomas Cox, 25, of Bordon, was jailed for seven years after he preyed on two girls aged 11 to 16

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/former-dance-teacher-behind-bars-15182067

Price of beer set to rise AGAIN in Surrey due to scorching summer

Just when drinking in Surrey already seemed completely unaffordable...

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/price-beer-set-rise-again-15169511

The 'Killer Clown' craze could be returning after new sightings with some 'holding knives'

Time to hide - the 'killer clown' craze could soon be back in Surrey

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/killer-clown-craze-could-returning-15182184

Reigate on Ice 2018 cancelled but organisers say it could return next year

A disagreement over where to hold this winter's event has led to the decision

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/reigate-ice-2018-cancelled-organisers-15179678

Car fails to stop after collision left elderly pedestrian with a 'serious head injury'

The 83-year-old pedestrian suffered a serious head injury and was taken to hospital

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/car-fails-stop-after-collision-15179400

Chris Evans reveals names of newborn twins after previously nicknaming them 'Ping and Pong'

His wife Natasha Shishmanian gave birth to twins at Frimley Park Hospital on Thursday

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/chris-evans-reveals-names-newborn-15181455

Spectator to Partner: Turn Your Clients into SEO Allies - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by KameronJenkins

Are your clients your allies in SEO, or are they passive spectators? Could they even be inadvertently working against you? A better understanding of expectations, goals, and strategy by everyone involved can improve your client relations, provide extra clarity, and reduce the number of times you're asked to "just SEO a site." In today's Whiteboard Friday, Kameron Jenkins outlines tactics you should know for getting clients and bosses excited about the SEO journey, as well as the risks involved in passivity.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Hey, everyone, and welcome to this week's edition of Whiteboard Friday. I am Kameron Jenkins, and I'm the SEO Wordsmith here at Moz. Today I'm going to be talking with you about how to turn your clients from spectators, passive spectators to someone who is proactively interested and an ally in your SEO journey.

So if you've ever heard someone come to you, maybe it's a client or maybe you're in-house and this is your boss saying this, and they say, "Just SEO my site," then this is definitely for you. A lot of times it can be really hard as an SEO to work on a site if you really aren't familiar with the business, what that client is doing, what they're all about, what their goals are. So I'm going to share with you some tactics for getting your clients and your boss excited about SEO and excited about the work that you're doing and some risks that can happen when you don't do that.

Tactics

So let's dive right in. All right, first we're going to talk about tactics.

1. Share news

The first tactic is to share news. In the SEO industry, things are changing all the time, so it's actually a really great tactic to keep yourself informed, but also to share that news with the client. So here's an example. Google My Business is now experimenting with a new video format for their post feature. So one thing that you can do is say, "Hey, client, I hear that Google is experimenting with this new format. They're using videos now. Would you like to try it?"

So that's really cool because it shows them that you're on top of things. It shows them that you're the expert and you're keeping your finger on the pulse of the industry. It also tells them that they're going to be a part of this new, cutting-edge technology, and that can get them really, really excited about the SEO work you're doing. So make sure to share news. I think that can be really, really valuable.

2. Outline your work

The next tip is to outline your work. This one seems really simple, but there is so much to say for telling a client what you're going to do, doing it, and then telling them that you did it. It's amazing what can happen when you just communicate with a client more. There have been plenty of situations where maybe I did less tangible work for a client one week, but because I talk to them more, they were more inclined to be happy with me and excited about the work I was doing.

It's also cool because when you tell a client ahead of time what you're going to do, it gives them time to get excited about, "Ooh, I can't wait to see what he or she is going to do next." So that's a really good tip for getting your clients excited about SEO.

3. Report results

Another thing is to report on your results. So, as SEOs, it can be really easy to say, hey, I added this page or I fixed these things or I updated this.

But if we detach it from the actual results, it doesn't really matter how much a client likes you or how much your boss likes you, there's always a risk that they could pull the plug on SEO because they just don't see the value that's coming from it. So that's an unfortunate reality, but there are tons of ways that you can show the value of SEO. One example is, "Hey, client, remember that page that we identified that was ranking on page two. We improved it. We made all of those updates we talked about, and now it's ranking on page one. So that's really exciting. We're seeing a lot of new traffic come from it.I'm wondering, are you seeing new calls, new leads, an uptick in any of those things as a result of that?"

So that's really good because it shows them what you did, the results from that, and then it kind of connects it to, "Hey, are you seeing any revenue, are you seeing new clients, new customers," things like that. So they're more inclined to see that what you're doing is making a real, tangible impact on actual revenue and their actual business goals.

4. Acknowledge and guide their ideas

This one is really, really important. It can be hard sometimes to marry best practices and customer service. So what I mean by that is there's one end of the pendulum where you are really focused on best practices. This is right. This is wrong. I know my SEO stuff. So when a client comes to you and they say, "Hey, can we try this?" and you go, "No, that's not best practices,"it can kind of shut them down. It doesn't get them involved in the SEO process. In fact, it just kind of makes them recoil and maybe they don't want to talk to you, and that's the exact opposite of what we want here. On the other end of that spectrum though, you have clients who say, "Hey, I really want to try this.I saw this article. I'm interested in this thing. Can you do it for my website?"

Maybe it's not the greatest idea SEO-wise. You're the SEO expert, and you see that and you go, "Mm, that's actually kind of scary. I don't think I want to do that." But because you're so focused on pleasing your client, you maybe do it anyway. So that's the opposite of what we want as well. We want to have a "no, but" mentality. So an example of that could be your client emails in and says, "Hey, I want to try this new thing."

You go, "Hey, I really like where your head is at. I like that you're thinking about things this way. I'm so glad you shared this with me. I tried this related thing before, and I think that would be actually a really good idea to employ on your website." So kind of shifting the conversation, but still bringing them along with you for that journey and guiding them to the correct conclusions. So that's another way to get them invested without shying them away from the SEO process.

Risks

So now that we've talked about those tactics, we're going to move on to the risks. These are things that could happen if you don't get your clients excited and invested in the SEO journey.

1. SEO becomes a checklist

When you don't know your client well enough to know what they're doing in the real world, what they're all about, the risk becomes you have to kind of just do site health stuff, so fiddling with meta tags, maybe you're changing some paragraphs around, maybe you're changing H1s, fixing 404s, things like that, things that are just objectively, "I can make this change, and I know it's good for site health."

But it's not proactive. It's not actually doing any SEO strategies. It's just cleanup work. If you just focus on cleanup work, that's really not an SEO strategy. That's just making sure your site isn't broken. As we all know, you need so much more than that to make sure that your client's site is ranking. So that's a risk.

If you don't know your clients, if they're not talking to you, or they're not excited about SEO, then really all you're left to do is fiddle with kind of technical stuff. As good as that can be to do, our jobs are way more fun than that. So communicate with your clients. Get them on board so that you can do proactive stuff and not just fiddling with little stuff.

2. SEO conflicts with business goals

So another risk is that SEO can conflict with business goals.

So say that you're an SEO. Your client is not talking to you. They're not really excited about stuff that you're doing. But you decide to move forward with proactive strategies anyway. So say I'm an SEO, and I identify this keyword. My client has this keyword. This is a related keyword. It can bring in a lot of good traffic. I've identified this good opportunity. All of the pages that are ranking on page one, they're not even that good. I could totally do better. So I'm going to proactively go, I'm going to build this page of content and put it on my client's site. Then what happens when they see that page of content and they go, "We don't even do that. We don't offer that product. We don't offer that service."

Oops. So that's really bad. What can happen is that, yes, you're being proactive, and that's great. But if you don't actually know what your client is doing, because they're not communicating with you, they're not really excited, you risk misaligning with their business goals and misrepresenting them. So that's a definite risk.

3. You miss out on PR opportunities

Another thing, you miss out on PR opportunities. So again, if your client is not talking to you, they're not excited enough to share what they're doing in the real world with you, you miss out on news like, "Hey, we're sponsoring this event,"or, "Hey, I was the featured expert on last night's news."

Those are all really, really good things that SEOs look for. We crave that information. We can totally use that to capitalize on it for SEO value. If we're not getting that from our clients, then we miss out on all those really, really cool PR opportunities. So a definite risk. We want those PR opportunities. We want to be able to use them.

4. Client controls the conversation

Next up, client controls the conversation. That's a definite risk that can happen. So if a client is not talking to you, a reason could be they don't really trust you yet. When they don't trust you, they tend to start to dictate. So maybe our client emails in.

A good example of this is, "Hey, add these 10 backlinks to my website." Or, "Hey, I need these five pages, and I need them now." Maybe they're not even actually bad suggestions. It's just the fact that the client is asking you to do that. So this is kind of tricky, because you want to communicate with your client. It's good that they're emailing in, but they're the ones at that point that are dictating the strategy. Whereas they should be communicating their vision, so hey, as a business owner, as a website owner, "This is my vision. This is my goal, and this is what I want."

As the SEO professional, you're receiving that information and taking it and making it into an SEO strategy that can actually be really, really beneficial for the client. So there's a huge difference between just being a task monkey and kind of transforming their vision into an SEO strategy that can really, really work for them. So that's a definite risk that can happen.

Excitement + partnership = better SEO campaigns

There's a lot of different things that can happen. These are just some examples of tactics that you can use and risks. If you have any examples of things that have worked for you in the past, I would love to hear about them. It's really good to information share. Success stories where maybe you got your client or your boss really bought into SEO, more so than just, "Hey, I'm spending money on it."

But, "Hey, I'm your partner in this. I'm your ally, and I'm going to give you all the information because I know that it's going to be mutually beneficial for us." So at the end here, excitement, partner, better SEO campaigns. This is going to be I believe a recipe for success to get your clients and your boss on board. Thanks again so much for watching this edition of Whiteboard Friday, and come back next week for another one.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

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from The Moz Blog http://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/10368598

NatWest customers unable to access accounts as online banking not working

The bank is currently working to sort the problem but does not have a timescale for when it will be fixed

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/natwest-customers-unable-access-accounts-15181240

Van stung and suspected thief arrested after 20-mile police chase from Woking into London

A 28-year-old man from Lithuania was arrested

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/van-stung-suspected-thief-arrested-15179182

River Wey life belt dispute 'putting lives at risk', says Normandy resident

A spokesman for Surrey Search and Rescue said well-maintained rescue equipment was "vital to ensuring river accidents don't cost lives"

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/river-wey-national-trust-guildford-15161909

See rats and maggots infesting Farncombe family flat during 'block-wide' rodent problem

The mother of two young boys has had to clean rat droppings and blood from her flat

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/see-rats-maggots-infesting-farncombe-15164601

Man airlifted to hospital in 'serious condition' after fixing broken lift shaft in Staines

The Health and Safety Executive has been informed

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/man-airlifted-hospital-serious-condition-15180702

How to build an FAQ page with Gutenberg and Yoast SEO

Farnham Beefeater restaurant delivers 'additional training for the kitchen team' after 'raw' chicken burger served

The chain is confident it was an 'isolated issue' and fully refunded the meal

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/farnham-beefeater-restaurant-delivers-additional-15177126

'Clearly not fit to hold a licence': Police slam Twitter user over threat to run cyclist over

Top tip for road users - don't threaten to run over a cyclist on social media, the authorities are watching

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/clearly-not-fit-hold-licence-15175285

Heinz 'Mayochup' could come to the UK, and it's exactly what you think it is

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from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/heinz-mayochup-could-come-uk-15178181

Pupils involved in car crash outside Hoe Valley school now back home with families

A collision outside Hoe Valley School in Woking left two year 10 students in hospital on Wednesday afternoon (September 19)

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/pupils-involved-car-crash-outside-15177180

Surrey weather: Yellow warning as Storm Bronagh and winds of up to 65MPH set to strike county

It is forecast to be blustery for at least the next four days

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/surrey-weather-yellow-warning-storm-15176141

What to do if you can't log in to your Barclays online banking account

Barclays online banking has been facing a some issues

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/barclays-banking-online-crash-login-15177853

Croydon cat killer investigation ends as police blame foxes for hundreds of cat mutilations

An individual was previously thought to be responsible for the killing and mutilation of around 300 animals

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/croydon-cat-killer-investigation-ends-15177947

Spelthorne Borough Council axe Staines Park leisure centre plans

The council said strong opposition is behind its decision to drop plans to build on the 15-acre site

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/spelthorne-borough-council-axe-plans-15177771

A fifth of Surrey children without vaccines for serious disease such as measles and mumps

The benefits of vaccines far outweigh the risk of side effects, according to the NHS

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/fifth-surrey-children-without-vaccines-15168740

Wisley M25/A3 junction upgrade 'will make traffic worse', says academic

Dr Steve Melia has argued that expanding the junction between the M25 and A3 will make traffic worse in Guildford and have little effect on congestion at the interchange

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/wisley-m25a3-junction-upgrade-will-15171938

14-storey tower block on Guildford Casino nightclub site will be 'impressive architectural addition', says owner

Michel Harper has proposed replacing his Casino nightclub with 300 student rooms, retail units and a restaurant

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/14-storey-tower-block-guildford-15176414

Dorking Wanderers FC admits to overcharging some students for opening home games of the season

The football club advertised discounted student ticket prices, but some people were then told at the gate they "did not do discounts"

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/dorking-wanderers-fc-admits-overcharging-15174190

Chris Evans thanks 'amazing people' at Frimley Park Hospital after wife gives birth to twins

Former Chiddingfold resident Evans has strong links to Surrey, and for a period worked at Dunsfold Park hosting Top Gear

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/chris-evans-thanks-amazing-people-15176536

Cows 'all fine' following huge Ash Ranges fire that destroyed 12 hectares of military land

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from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/cows-all-fine-following-huge-15173209

Sticks needed alongside carrots to get Guildford residents out of their cars, says academic

Dr Steve Melia told Guildford Borough Council that "strong leadership" would be needed to shift people out of their cars and onto their bikes

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/sticks-needed-alongside-carrots-guildford-15173630

Mole Valley bin collections are getting harder in some areas due to narrow streets and double parked cars

Mole Valley District Council scrapped a proposal to implement parking restrictions on one side of a road in Pixham

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/mole-valley-bin-collections-getting-15169051

Box Hill light boxes: Why there are 66 illuminated shapes at the beauty spot

The art installation is the latest part of the 'Surrey Unearthed' project

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/box-hill-light-boxes-66-15167498

'Do not use cameras or video equipment' around the pool at Guildford Stoke Park

Guildford Borough Council has reminded visitors in the wake of a report of man 'taking photographs of children' in paddling pool

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/do-not-use-cameras-video-15171346

How to Improve Your Link Building Outreach Pipeline

Posted by John.Michael123

Link building is probably one of the most challenging pieces of your SEO efforts. Add multiple clients to the mix, and managing the link outreach process gets even tricker. When you’re in the thick of several outreach campaigns, it’s hard to know where to focus your efforts and which tactics will bring you the most return on your time and resources.

Three common questions are critical to understand at any point in your link campaign:

• Do you need more link prospects?
• Do you need to revise your email templates?
• Do you need to follow up with prospects?

Without a proven way to analyze these questions, your link building efforts won’t be as efficient as they could be.

We put together a Google Sheets template to help you better manage your link building campaigns. The beauty of this template is that it allows for customization to better fit your workflow. You'll want to make a copy to get started with your own version.

Our link building workflow

We've been able to improve our efficiency via this template by following a simple workflow around acquiring new guest posts on industry-relevant websites. The first step is to actually go out and find prospects that could be potentially interested in a guest blog post. We will then record those opportunities into our template so that we can track our efforts and identify any area that isn’t performing well.

The next step is to make sure to update the status of the prospect when anything changes like sending an outreach email to the prospect or getting a reply from them. It’s critical to keep the spreadsheet as up to date as possible so that we have an accurate picture of our performance.

Once you've used this template for enough time and you've gathered enough data, you'll be able to predict how many link prospects you'll need to find in order to acquire each link based on your own response and conversion rates. This can be useful if you have specific goals around acquiring a certain number of links per month, as you'll get a better feel for how much prospecting you need to do to meet that link target number.

Using the link outreach template

The main purpose of this template is to give you a systematic way to analyze your outreach process so you can drill down into the biggest opportunities for improvement. There are several key features, starting with the Prospects tab.

The Prospects tab is the only one you will need to manually edit, and it houses all the potential link prospects uncovered in your researched. You'll want to fill in the cells for your prospect’s website URL;, and you can also add the Domain Authority of the website for outreach prioritization. For the website URL, I typically put in an example of a guest post that was done on that site or just the homepage if I can’t find a better page.

There’s also a corresponding status column, with the following five stages so you can keep track of where each prospect is in the outreach process.

Status 1: Need to Reach Out. Use this for when you initially find a prospect but have not taken any action yet.

Status 2: Email Sent. This is used as soon as you send your first outreach email.

Status 3: Received Response

Status 4: Topic Approved. Select this status after you get a response and your guest post topic has been approved (this may take a few emails). Whenever I see this status, I know to reach out to my content team so they can start writing.

Status 5: Link Acquired. Selecting this status will automatically add the website to your Won Link Opportunities Report.

The final thing to do here is record the date that a particular link was acquired and add the URL where the link resides. Filling in these columns automatically populates the “Won Link Opportunities” report so you can track all of the links you acquire throughout the lifetime of your campaign.

Link building progress reports

This template automatically creates two reports that I share with my clients on a monthly basis. These reports help us dial in our efforts and maximize the performance of our overall link building campaign.

Link Pipeline report

The Link Pipeline report is a snapshot of our overall link outreach campaign. It shows us how many prospects we have in our pipeline and what the conversion/response rates are of each stage of our outreach funnel.

How to analyze the Link Pipeline report

This report allows us to understand where we need to focus our efforts to maximize our campaign’s performance. If there aren't enough prospects at the top of the funnel, we know that we need to start looking for new link opportunities. If our contact vs. response rate is low, we know we need to test new email copy or email subject lines.

Won Link Opportunities

The Won Link Opportunities report lists out all the websites where a link has been officially landed. This is a great way to keep track of overall progress over time and to gauge performance against your link building goals.

Getting the most out of your link building campaigns

Organization is critical for maximizing your link building efforts and the return on the time you're spending. By knowing exactly which stage of your link building process is your lowest performing, you can dramatically increase your overall efficiency by targeting those areas that need the most improvement.

Make a copy of the template

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

from The Moz Blog http://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/10354355

Students 'conscious and talking' following crash in Woking, Hoe Valley School say

In an email sent to parents, a spokesman for Hoe Valley School said the students involved were "conscious and talking" while being treated by paramedics

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/students-conscious-talking-following-crash-15175385

Jono reviews: Cats Protection

Three students left in hospital following crash outside Hoe Valley School in Woking

The crash caused Egley Road to close in both directions on Wednesday while emergency services dealt with the situation

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/three-students-left-hospital-following-15175138

'Heartbroken' riding school confirms death of 'special' horse stabbed with fence post during break in

The Epsom Riding for the Disabled Association said three horses were stabbed with an electric fence post during a break in last month

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/heartbroken-riding-school-confirms-death-15174257

Car fire in Tadworth is believed to have been arson

Police believe the offender then left the scene in a small dark coloured vehicle

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/car-fire-tadworth-believed-been-15174886

Richmond Station reopened after temporary closure as police respond to 'security alert'

British Transport Police officers investigated a "suspicious item"

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/richmond-station-police-london-overground-15174504

Fox 'dies in agony' after getting caught in TWO spring traps in Sunbury

The RSPCA said the fox was left trapped and "cowering" in a back garden in Sunbury. Warning - graphic image

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/fox-dies-agony-after-getting-15172698

Aldershot teenage footballer's career ended by unprovoked stabbing on way back from training

Montel Brown, 18, was close to death after he was stabbed in the abdomen during an unprovoked attack by a 14-year-old boy

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/hampshire-news/aldershot-teenage-footballers-career-ended-15168053

97-flat tower block in Addlestone left without running water due to 'unforeseen circumstances'

Bottled water was delivered to residents of Surrey Towers in Addlestone on Tuesday (September 18)

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/97-flat-tower-block-addlestone-15172770

Missing Ashford man, 89, 'home safe and well' after police search

Surrey Police thanked everyone who helped with the search and shared the appeal

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/missing-ashford-man-89-home-15172603

Storm Bronagh could be coming to Surrey just as Storm Ali leaves the UK

There will be strong gusts of 45-50mph, according to Met Office

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/storm-bronagh-ali-met-office-15171946

Here's how to vote for Guildford in this year's Great British High Street Awards

Guildford has been shortlisted in the "champion" category of the awards, which aims to find the UK’s best high street

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/heres-how-vote-guildford-years-15151793

DVLA has banned these number plates because they are too rude

These are the registration plates you won't be seeing on Surrey's roads (or anywhere else in the UK) this year

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/dvla-banned-number-plates-because-15168838

See the 14-storey tower planned for Guildford by Casino nightclub owner Michel Harper

The 45m high building would replace the Casino nightclub in Onslow Street with at least 300 student rooms

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/see-14-storey-tower-planned-15171460

Breck Bednar film that discusses dangers of 'hidden' online grooming to be shown at schools

Four police forces and the Breck Foundation have worked together to produce a short film that will be shown in schools across the country

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/breck-bednar-film-discusses-dangers-15165110

Cigarettes 'likely' cause of Ockham Common fire, says fire service

Firefighters spent more than four hours battling the fire on Monday (September 17)

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/cigarettes-likely-cause-ockham-common-15171044

Esso pipeline: Five areas that could impact Spelthorne

The oil giant has published its preferred route for a new pipeline running to its storage depot in West London

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/esso-pipeline-five-areas-could-15167061

Woking skate park closed as boy, 12, hospitalised after falling off scooter and hitting raised screw

WARNING: Story contains graphic image

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/woking-skate-park-closed-after-15168849

Dog attack near Dorking leaves 12 lambs dead and 5 sheep fighting for their lives

It is unclear how many of the five that were injured will survive the mauling

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/dog-attack-near-dorking-leaves-15162390

Behaviour 'out of character' as vulnerable 89-year-old man from Ashtead goes missing

Officers do not believe Robert has his medication with him, and he may become very ill without it

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/behaviour-out-character-vulnerable-89-15170827

Permanent 'glamping' site planned for Surrey Hills but not everyone is happy

Surrey Wildlife Trust submitted the application for the site at Phoenice Fields in Norbury Park

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/permanent-glamping-site-planned-surrey-15163875

Demolition of former Robin Hood pub in Knaphill proposed to build 'community transport depot'

The pub stopped trading during the summer of 2018 and was listed for sale for £900,000

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/demolition-former-robin-hood-pub-15166532

Worplesdon mum takes on half marathon after recovering from extremely rare cancer

Jasma Patel went from being unable to walk to attempting the 13-mile Shine Walk in two years

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/worplesdon-mum-takes-half-marathon-15162488

Woman 'helped to safety' from roof during Guildford High Street closure

A woman was on top of the building near Sainsbury's for more than one hour

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/woman-helped-safety-roof-guildford-15169969

See how Woking could look if Victoria Arch is widened and one-way system is removed

The council wants "to relieve congestion around the town centre"

from Surrey Live - News https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/see-how-woking-could-look-15165730

Yoast Academy: Teach yourself SEO

It’s a common misconception that the internet is the ultimate learning environment. Yes, you can find everything you need, for free, but the information you end up with is not always trustworthy. It’s scattered, often outdated and sometimes contradictory. So if you want to learn all about a particular subject, you might be better off signing up for an online course. Yoast offers all kinds of SEO training courses in its Academy, with great success. Marieke, who is responsible for most of the courses, explains how Yoast Academy came about.

“We first had the idea for the Academy when Yoast reached its fifth birthday. We had already successfully published an ebook called ‘Optimizing your WordPress site’  – later called ‘SEO for WordPress’ – and a second one was in the works. But we wanted to combine our knowledge in a new way, something more engaging and hands-on because there are more effective ways of learning than reading a book or a hundred blog posts. That’s when our courses were born,” Marieke explains.

How to learn SEO

Yoast Academy is the go-to place if you want to teach yourself SEO. You can find a selection of in-depth courses on site structure, SEO copywriting, Yoast SEO for WordPress, basic SEO and technical SEO. The latest course added to Yoast Academy is Keyword research. And we’re nowhere near finished!

According to Marieke, Yoast Academy fits Yoast to a tee: “Yoast Academy fits perfectly within our company mission. At Yoast, we want to make it possible for everyone to build a findable website, and by sharing our knowledge we can help people to do that. It’s also one of the reasons we make our content available in different formats. Besides, we are great proponents of open source and give away a good deal of what we know for free. A lot of what we teach is freely available on our site. We even released a free SEO for beginners training this year. This has allowed a lot of people to get acquainted with Yoast Academy. We’ve even seen that lots of them have decided to follow a paid training after trying out the free one, which we’re obviously very happy with”

Efficient, complete and of great quality

One of the first things people will say when given the option to pay for a course on SEO or whatever other subject, is that you can find everything you want online, for free. Marieke: “Sure, that’s true. If you have enough time and perseverance, you can indeed find everything you want. But we’ve found that a course package is much more efficient, to the point and complete. If you surf the web looking for answers, you’ll quickly get outdated and sometimes contradictory advice. Our courses are exhaustive, up to date and well-thought-out. They offer a great mix of practice and theory. The quizzes let you test your new-found knowledge and make sure it sticks. Moreover, we even have courses with assignments you can get feedback on from our experts.”

The SEO courses in the Yoast Academy have been well-received. Matt LaClear, one of the first participants in the Structured data training, found that Google rewarded his site with rich snippets within a day after applying the knowledge he gathered from the training:

“As a result of what I learned from the Structured data training, my agency is now running Schema audits on our clients’ sites. We’re finding big time opportunities to increase their traffic levels. Those are opportunities I would have missed without Yoast Structured Data Training. If you run an agency yourself, I recommend you take the course. Period.”

Developing material

A course that takes several hours to complete is a different animal compared to a blog post or even an eBook. A good course is well-structured, in-depth and engaging. It has to be an enjoyable experience, and it shouldn’t be too hard or too easy. This is quite a challenge, Marieke acknowledges: “It’s not hard to come up with subjects and material, but it’s the structure and activities that make it a challenging product to build. In the end, you don’t take a course just to gain a bit of knowledge. You want to learn practical SEO skills you can apply immediately.”

In 2018, Yoast Academy has taken a huge leap. Marieke: “In the past, Joost and I created every course. It was a complicated and tough process. Now, we have a dedicated Academy team of 5 university-trained teachers. Jesse, our Academy lead, helps us find the best ways of structuring a new course. Our Academy team then crafts scripts we use to create videos, including relevant images which foster learning. That way, we know for certain that the course achieves what we want it to: our students should be able to immediately improve their SEO in the real world.”

Keeping things on track

In general, if there is one thing almost all online courses have to cope with, it’s the high drop-off rate. It’s something Marieke notices as well: “Yeah, it’s hard to keep students on track in online courses. It’s always disappointing to see that a certain percentage of customers never finishes the course.”

The missing link could well be the human touch, says Marieke: “We’re in the process of giving our courses a more personal approach. Take our SEO copywriting course, for example. During the course, our students need to send in two assignments. These assignments are hand-checked by our SEO experts, and students get a tailored reply with valuable feedback. This works very well; students love to hear from us. This year, we’ve added similar assignments to our Yoast SEO for WordPress training and Keyword research training. Although expensive to produce, this is something we’re going to add to more courses in the future.”

Much more to come

More and more people are finding their way to Yoast Academy; it is the fastest-growing product group in Yoast’s portfolio. The number of students in Academy has more than tripled in the past six months. Of course, that creates more responsibility as well. Marieke and her team are making progress with new courses and improving and updating current courses. But, it doesn’t stop there, says Marieke: “The current courses touch on a wide range of SEO-related subjects. In the future, we will expand our offerings, but we’re also thinking about a different model. If possible, I’d want to work with a more modular approach. There has to be a way to tailor a course to the specific requirements of a student. Not everyone starts at the same level and with the same knowledge and I’d like a system that adapts where you can pick and choose from suggested subjects.”

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• From keyword research to technical SEO
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More info

Keep an eye on Yoast Academy! Our most recent course on keyword research was a big success and we’re already working on a new and improved version of one of our other staples: site structure. Why don’t you try one and see what all the fuss is about!

And, you’re in luck: we currently offer a 15% discount on all our courses to celebrate the third anniversary of the Yoast Academy!

Get your 15% off on any course!

The post Yoast Academy: Teach yourself SEO appeared first on Yoast.

from Yoast • SEO for everyone https://yoast.com/yoast-academy-teach-yourself-seo/