Graeme Davidson speaks

You may remember my post about Christmas Shopping and the Next website where I was very disappointed with the way their site worked and how they made it difficult for me to actually buy their stuff.

So in follow up to this now, they have been sending me copies of their Next catalogue (I think I have had 3 so far in as many months!) along with my account details.  When buying the item from them at Christmas time, all I wanted to do was exactly that.  However, it would now appear that I have some sort of credit account with them, with a limit of £300. 

To me, this is absolutely ridiculous.  Not once did I ask for a credit agreement to be put in place, and I certainly didn’t sign anything for this.  And they have had the cheek to charge me something like £4.00 a pop for the catalogue to be sent to me.  Obviously, every time I have received a letter from them I have instantly binned it thinking it to be DM.  Yesterday though, I actually read it and realised what was going on.

Anyway, one phone call later, a complaint made and I think my account has been removed.  Probably meaning that I will have to sign up to a new account when I want to buy online again…

Please Next, sort your act out.  And please get rid of the terrible tunes on your homepage.

Posted on March 27th, 2009 in Usability with 1 comment

Due to unforeseen circumstances, my url for this blog changed ever so slightly (and I changed the design).  Not much mind you, but it did change and for the first few weeks Google did not rank my page at all.   However, Google did show up my new pages in SERPs.  The reason for the change to the url was to structure the Equator website and the Equator Live website with a better dynamic. 

Now, Google has decided to award me with a Pagerank of zero.  Great.  Before my url changed, I had managed to get up to a Pagerank of 2 and I am sure this was due to rise again soon (I have a hunch about that – don’t dare ask why, as I don’t know).  Therefore, I have dropped position in searches and completely lost my Pagerank.

Here is the question then – will Google eventually realise that this is the same blog as it was before (I remember reading something about e-consultancy changing their url and they lost their Pagerank.  And some terms that they were ranking highly for)?   I am unsure what will happen. 

Unfortunately, a lot of the inbound links that I have accumulated point to my old url (which do redirect to the new url) so how does this affect it?   Does that make these links obsolete?   Am I going to have to go on an Equator business development drive again to gain good links pointing to the new url?   I don’t know the answers to these questions, so go ahead, make my day…

Posted on March 23rd, 2009 in Work with 2 comments

Here is another post from the pages of The Drum website.  I seem to be picking up their stories a lot at the moment.

Posted on March 11th, 2009 in Work with no comments

This is an extract taken from The Drum

Posted on March 10th, 2009 in Work with no comments

Search engines have become the starting point for most (if not all) consumers thinking about making a purchase. For those with a product to sell it is critical their offering is advertised in the right place at the right time. Enter Equator…

As Scotland’s premier digital marketing agency we know what it takes to turn your online marketing budget into sales. You might say that We Know What Makes Your Customers Click. We’ll ensure that those who know your name can find your products and we’ll push your brand to those who have identified their need but not yet decided where to go. ‘What makes us the expert?’, you ask…

We start with learning about you: who you are, what you sell and most importantly how the buyers of your product find you amongst all the others in the marketplace. We pick your brains on the terms these people are likely to use in searching for you and then we ask you to take a step back and decide where you’re going to go after these guys so that we don’t eat up your budget without providing the return you need. From there we give you brand campaigns that’ll make your competitors think twice about bidding on your name and your brand patrons in no doubt about which advert to click on. As for the generic terms we work really hard to build keyword lists that reflect what you sell and that drive the most qualified traffic to your website. We organize your PPC account so that we spend your budget in the most efficient way for your company, and aim for an ROI you can boast about. And all the while we’re continually reviewing and researching your account to make sure we’re always on the ball, delivering your product at the most opportune moments and getting you the revenue your company deserves.

 We don’t boast a portfolio of high profile clients for nothing.

Posted on March 9th, 2009 in Online Marketing, Work with 2 comments