Qlockwork more than doubles visitors in 5 weeks using Plug in SEO
At Plug in SEO it's great to hear when we help our customers to get more visitors to their web sites. Anne Currie used Plug in SEO for the launch of a new-look website for her company’s time tracking product, Qlockwork. The new site launched at the end of March, optimized based on Plug in SEO’s recommendations. What has the benefit been in just 5 weeks?
The background
Anne is managing director of workingProgram Ltd, which offers IT consultancy alongside its flagship product, Qlockwork. The company had recognised that a standalone site for Qlockwork might be clearer for potential customers, and it was also time for a refreshed look-and-feel.
Operating on lean startup principles, there is very little cash for workingProgram to splash on marketing, so getting traffic to the new site through natural search and through inbound links is a clear priority.
Plug in SEO’s recommendations
When the new site was built, it seems Meta descriptions slipped through the net – this was easily corrected once it was highlighted by Plug in SEO’s website optimisation recommendations.
A big push has been on building inbound links to the new site. It was common sense for workingProgram to contact their existing list of bloggers who had previously written about Qlockwork, but many additional, relevant sites and conversations were located through Plug in SEO.
Despite their small budget workingProgram are investing in content creation. Says Anne “On Plug in SEO’s advice we’re now making the time to blog about time management and time tracking. We’re also creating different types of content – we’ve even dipped our toe in the water with making videos, which turns out to be easier than I anticipated, as well as good fun!”
Result: Visitors double in 5 weeks
For Qlockwork, it took around 3 weeks for search terms to first start appearing in the top 50 results.
“We’re thrilled that within a month, the new Qlockwork site is already getting more traffic than the workingProgram site was,” says Anne. “At present Qlockwork is getting most traffic from site referrals, so we still have some way to go with natural search – but we didn’t expect search results to materialize overnight. We have at least overtaken our old workingProgram site to rank most highly for the Qlockwork brand name! And the good news is that the charts are moving the right direction for our most important keywords.”
And... what we’ve learnt at Plug in SEO
workingProgram has given us a customers’-eye-view of what it’s like to use our Plug in SEO features. For example, it was quickly clear that our conversations recommendations started off too broad, and we’re tightening up the relevancy.
We’ll be paying a visit to Qlockwork again in a few weeks’ time to report back on how their traffic building is coming along.
A paint-by-numbers guide to building inbound links
Our 15 minute link building webinar shows you how to create linkworthy content and build relevant links: boosting your SEO.
You'll see Yahoo! Site Explorer, uberVU and Plug in SEO in action, with brief appearances from BackType and Majestic SEO. Tools that make creating great content and finding linkers as easy as paint-by-numbers.
Take My Keywords, Link Suggestions and Competitor Links for a spin in Plug in SEO.
Plug in SEO Beta: Now open, but what are we?
Registration for the Plug in SEO Beta trial started on Monday. Not too many bugs later we're inviting you, our blog readers, in too. We like to think we've built a different kind of SEO tool: one that allows you discover keywords, unearth insights using keyword groups (more on that in our next instalment) and then do something about it.
Discover keywords
Real keyword searches that drive traffic to your site arrive in Plug in SEO Keyword Suggestions fed from our real-time Analytics tracking.
Unearth insights using a keyword groups hierarchy
My Keywords is the heart of Plug in SEO. Here you can easily build a keyword hierarchy containing hundreds (or even thousands if you like) of keywords from Keyword Suggestions or entered by you.
Within My Keywords learn what are your best, worst and flat performing individual keywords and, more insightfully, keyword groups. Check individual and aggregate organic rank, visits and conversions to discern where to focus your SEO efforts.
Do something about it
Once you've determined the keywords and keyword groups to target, Business Blog with Link Suggestions enables you to create internal links in your blog post with a single click. When one of your My Keywords is found in the blog text, Link Suggestions will highlight it along with the relevant URL. One click and the keyword anchor text becomes a link. Simple.
We're just getting started
This is our initial beta but already we've built something a bit special that we hope you'll find useful in improving your search engine optimization.
To get instant access to Keyword Suggestions, My Keywords and Business Blog with Link Suggestions, not to mention real-time Analytics, Twitter monitor, Descriptive URIs, Dashboard, an extensive API plus software updates every week simply create an account for the inaugural Plug in SEO Beta.
We'd appreciate your good and bad feedback which you can easily give us using the feedback tab on every page. Subscribe to the Plug in SEO Blog to catch our upcoming post "Be Surprised with Keyword Groups".
Review: Zemanta blog enrichment extension
Create more compelling posts and boost SEO by tagging and links
- Free Firefox extension, IE plugin plus others
- Enterprise edition available ($1,200/month)
- Directly embed relevant copyright-cleared images
- Related link, tag and blog post suggestions
| Functionality | 4/5 | effortless incorporation of suggestions into post |
| Interface | 5/5 | clear and consistent, comfortably sits alongside blog post creation |
| Value | 5/5 | a free productivity aid, doesn't distract from creating quality content |
| Support | 4/5 | open support forum with reactive company reps |
Producing original and engaging blog content is great for SEO, but it takes precious time. Zemanta finds related images, web and blog links, and tags for your post. With the Zemanta Firefox extension (other browsers are available) incorporating these suggestions in your article requires a single click.
Semantic power
Under the bonnet Zemanta uses its semantic API to determine what your text is about and then finds content falling into the same categorizations. What differentiates them from other semantic engines is that they have a powerful API with a useful, real-world application built on top.
The realisation of a completely semantic web may be some way off, but it's Zemanta that's a great example of companies making practical application of semantic technologies. Promising also is their freely available (up to 10,000 calls/day) API.
Compelling content
Google Image Search doesn't cut the mustard for serious bloggers. Once you've spent an hour and found a fantastic image, more often than not you don't have the copyright to post it. Zemanta on the other hand is purpose built- only showing images available under re-use licenses.
Good blog articles aren't dead-ends. Once the reader has engaged with your post they'll often want to go on and find out some more. With the related blog post and link suggestions you can pepper links throughout with a single click.
Thoughtful execution
The technology that powers Zemanta is powerful, but thankfully none of the wiring is exposed when you just want to write your blog. Flowing alongside your post composition pane are the image, link, post and tag suggestions, updating as you compose.
It does take up a good chunk of screen real estate and the option to collapse would be welcome. That said, the Blogger interface is quite spartan and Zemanta isn't an unwelcome intrusion.
Niggles
Semantic similarity is hard and Zemanta makes sense of texts better than most. However, for short articles (1-2 paragraphs) and product or technology specific pieces it does struggle to generate quality suggestions.
It appears to want a main theme which if it can't find then the relevancy suffers dramatically. A search box is provided, but the opportunity to coach or coax Zemanta in the right direction when it goes haywire would be immensely useful.
For a medium to long blog post the image and blog suggestions are numerous. The number of tags and web suggestions stay around ten. Being able to request more is missing.
Better blog posts
Image by Peter Čuhalev via Flickr
Quite simply Zemanta will help you to create better blog posts. Better for your readers and better for SEO. It does this with minimal intrusion and a good understanding of relevancy.
