content

5 minute read: 55% of visitors spend less than 15 seconds on your website

13th January 2016 by Alan Leave a Comment

What?!

Before you panic and run for the hills, we take a closer look at where and why this data was generated. And this is the focus of our first ‘5 minute read’.

The background

Generated by Chartbeat, an online software analytical application, it looked at media companies. On one hand, this is a broad business model but, every business is different. The headline actually refers to what visitors to your website are actually reading which, in this case, are articles; it does not include home pages, landing pages etc.

What is the research telling is?

However, before we discard this statistic as scaremongering tripe, we need to take a deeper look into what and why people are using or accessing information for.

There are several key points to the study:

Current or news worthy content is more engaging that ‘evergreen’ content

The online world is current and fleeting, with the bad stuff hanging around with a penchant for popping up when we least want or expect it – ‘the right to be forgotten‘.

News events that are current, or trends on social media platforms tends to be the type of content that draws in visitors, or according to this pieces of research it is. This study look at a chunk of websites – 2,000 in fact – and monitored 2 billion page views across these websites.

Although this statistic tells us that many visits are fleeting it doesn’t rule out evergreen content as being something we should ditch.

Evergreen content is very important

Evergreen content are the articles, blogs and posts that people write on a variety of subjects from the best way to unblock a drain, to the colours to use in marketing your products, services or brand to your customers.

‘Marathon not a sprint‘ is the motto here as evergreen content has proven to be a lead-generator. Newsworthy stuff is all well and good, especially for a quick read but, for the longer term, generating content that is both valuable and useful to the customer/visitor is essential.

Social media has little effect on ‘reading engagement’

The study that generated the ‘15 second’ statistic also found that of the 10,000 articles shared via social media there was no relationship between the amount a piece of content is shared and the amount of attention the average reader gives it.

Before we all throw our laptops out and rip up our content marketing plans, take note of the following:

Social media – the finding of your website by a visitor through the various social media platforms is ‘random’. In other words, they came across something and their interest was piqued. It might be the website is not of interest or value to them.
Search engine – visitors who find your site through a social engine search are in ‘search mode’, focused on finding an answer to a query, question or concern. In this sense, they are likely to stay longer on your website.

Banner ads are not working…

And here in lies a debate:

Move them – the authors of the ChartBeat study suggested moving the ads to a place where the eyeball falls as people are now suffering from ‘banner blindness’ i.e. regardless of what wonderful deal is on the banner, potential customers pay very little heed.
Quality content is key – another aspect is that people will often be searching for a specific fact, answer, product, service etc. and thus, banner ads are not always the best value spend for all businesses. Some pundit suggest that quality content on your pages, rather than ‘renting space on another website’ is a better, wiser move.

The 5 minute round up

The great thing about these kind of reports and studies is that, even though we may not be the same kind of business, we can still take away some great lessons.

Hijacking newsworthy stories and events can be useful IF your company, business, product, brand or service has a link to it e.g. the recent health news that there has been a rise in skin cancer amongst people over the age of 50, attributed in part to the rise of cheap package holidays in the 1960s could be something your healthy living company could tag on to.
Quality content with value and authority is still paramount
Social media can attract people to your website, but they may not always stay long – but, say experts, this is the nature of the social media ‘game’
Banner ads may no longer be a great marketing spend for your brand, especially if your content is not working hard.

Content audit – reviewing and creating MORE success via your website content, blogs & posts

23rd January 2015 by Alan Leave a Comment

New Year Resolutions – are they a failure or success?

Why stopping, reviewing and remodelling can be the most productive of exercises

According to Forbes, only 8% of people who seriously make a New Year’s resolution will stick to it. There are various reasons why we fail and succeed with the goals we set; after all, we know we should be eating a healthy salad after the deluge of cheese, bread and wine over the festive period but, somehow even the crispest of salads does not have the same satisfaction rating as a chunk of bread and mature cheese.

Perhaps cutting it out completely is not the answer; rationing and setting this as a goal, may return better results.

And of course, the biggest factor in reaching any goal successful – and surpassing it – is the ability to stop and review, making any changes necessary.

Content is one of those areas within a business that can be left to flounder; even though you are posting content daily, and bashing it ‘out there’ on the several social media platforms, when was the last time you STOPPED and reviewed what you were doing…? And what the results actually are?

A Content Audit: your objective

The content in your website is of such importance that it deserves some additional attention. As we enter the first few weeks of 2015, the goal posts for content and search engine optimisation of your website have barely changed…

Your content should be written and crafted in such a way that people want to promote it by sharing it or linking with it. The increases the trust and authority associated with your site and hence, search engines are more likely to scan your pages for keywords the next time someone searches for them via their search engine.

Does your content do that?

But, before you start ripping your site to shreds and writing a whole heap of new content, take a look what is on there. Audit it. Review it. Modify it. Recycle it.

WHERE to start with a content audit

You should have some fairly minimal stats on where visitors to your site start e.g. you assume it is your home page but actually, they may land on another first. And, when you audit your content it may be because the information on that page is better, more keyword responsive than the home page.

There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with this and there is no hard and fast rule as to where or why customers should land on the home page first; many businesses find the ‘about us’ page is the most frequently landed/visited page.

The Whole Thing

Ok. You have some bare statistics and now you need to look as The Whole Thing.

What does you website feel and look like (remember this is content audit, not a design review)? What is the tone ‘saying’? Does it fit? Do you still want this tone or has the time come to tweak this a little?

Is it too wordy? Is it formatted correctly?

Keywords do matter and so you also need to audit these too; are they still relevant to your website and business? Do you need to more/take away/ research them again?

The Nitty-Gritty Mechanics

You’ve done the easy bit, now you need to create a ‘to do list’ and this need to contain the detail of the who, what, how, when and where. In other words, you are creating work but it can pay dividends in the end.

Trust us. It does.

Step 1: Set the objectives of your Content Audit

Apart from us telling you this is quite a good idea, what is it you want to achieve from this content audit exercise?

Remember, objectives need to be SMART

Specific
Measureable
Achievable
Relevant/Realistic
Time bound

So, how about this as an objective…?

To update all blog posts posted on site in January to June 2014 (24 posts) by the end of April 2015 so that website traffic is increased by 20%, by December 2015

A delightfully SMART objective:

Specific – we know it is all blog posts and that there are 24 of them
Measureable – you have 24 blog posts on your website and you have a target of increasing traffic by 20%
Achievable – yes. With 24 blog posts that is not too many to review and the timescale seem within reason too ( you could set a target of updating so many posts per week, once you have reviewed what needs doing to what post)
Relevant/ realistic – yes (but only you know your workload)
Time bound – yes. You are set to achieve the update of keyword by the end of April, and can review your success in December or January of the following year. You could also have mini-reviews once the project to update/recycle posts etc. is complete

Step 2: Create a spreadsheet

Hop on over to Excel or Google spreadsheets (great if you are working in a team, because you can update this spreadsheet and share it via the cloud so everyone can see who has done what and when)

We suggest the following columns, but you can obviously add or delete as necessary:

Date, the page URL (address), Action required, Who? By when?

Step 3: Seeking answers to questions and deciding what must be done to achieve your SMART objectives…

So, as you go through your website, page by page (a great excuse for tea on tap and a biscuit or two), ask the following questions, noting answers and action in your spreadsheet:

Does the page content fit with your strategy? Is it floating in mid-air or is it linked with the important topics and categories if your site?
Are some the pages and content stuffed with keywords? (We all did this ‘back in the day’ so don’t feel guilt admitting this; it just needs simplifying!)
Are the images on the page correct/useful/appropriate?
What about the headline?
Does the first paragraph grab the reader’s attention?
Are there errors on the page?
Are the links working?
Can links be added that are more relevant and current?
Do you have links to other pages on your website?
Formatting – are words and phrases highlighted? Is it in neat, small paragraphs?
Do you still want/need the post? Can it be recycled/re-written/re-used?

Your To-Do list may end up looking HUGE but, after you have all this information, prioritise the list – which pages are a must do NOW, which need doing in the next batch and which can be left until last?

A content audit is not about just creating a whole heap of work; it is about looking at what you have got and what can be updated/changed/modified (and even deleted if it’s no longer relevant) and setting some goals for action.

2015 could be the year you are part of that 8% of people who do meet their New Year resolutions… just make your goals obtainable.

Adaptive Content – the buzzword for 2015?

8th January 2015 by Alan Leave a Comment

We’ve looked at brandscaping – the process of partnering with a non-competitor to your business, but one that you can form a professional bond with; you both pool your resources, financial and otherwise, and head up a joint marketing campaign. You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.

And then we came across this new phrase – adaptive content. You’ll either love it or think it’s a cop out, so let’s take a meander through the concept…

The idea of behind adaptive content

At this early stage, Copyblogger thinks that adaptive content doesn’t have definition as such, more of a rolling spectrum of what it can be. However, that is pretty useless for you (and us) and so here is Locally’s definition of adaptive content…

You create a piece of content, such as a blog but, instead of just leaving it where you put it, on your website, you publish it everywhere, by adapting it so its fits all these other places.

Great, you think, we do that… yes but, we bet you write a new blog every time. Right?

With this concept you create a blog, publish it everywhere, pulling in readership from across social media and anywhere else where you can grab eye ball time.

But, instead of then writing a fresh one, you reduce, reuse and recycle current content and keep spreading this marvellous content.

Think about the amount of time you spend in a given working day creating content; from updating webpages to writing new blogs. For some people, words trip off the typewriter and yet, for many of us, they are laboured over; changed and edited a hundred times before we press the publish button. Why waste all this effort?

For example, the recent blog we created on how to counteract negative online reviews would look quite good sitting in an infographic… and then, we may look at some of the information, chop some of it, add to some of it, give more detail and authorities links and then create a presentation posting it on Slideshare… and, each and every time, ‘selling’ each piece across every online platform that we choose to frequent.

It’s about getting more for your dollar, more from your posts by hitting the eyeballs of a wider audience with the same content that looks and feels different because not all of your audience will find your website; they need to help to discover it. To do that, you need to tell as many people as possible, in different places that your content exists.

Simple, then?!

Mmmm yes sort of, but things never are that simple are they because it isn’t just about rewriting an old blog and giving it a new title.

Analytics – what worked?

And this is where analytics comes in; you know – the stuff that creates data that we all love and understand.

Which blogs did you readers and consumers like? Which tweet pulled them to your blog or website? What kind if statuses grabbed eyeball time?

There is no point rehashing the same thing in a different format if it wasn’t the blog or article topic that grabbed attention.

We’ve also said that as consumers, we are an impatient lot and technology has done marvellous things for us. One thing it has done is heightened our expectations. We expect to able to do everything from out PC, mobile and tablet. Including buying the things we want, when we want and how we want.

Being more adaptive

This type of adaptive content goes places; just lobbing a blog post at your website and hoping for the best won’t work. It is a drop in the ocean but, before you all shrink from the challenge you need to know one thing: this is not because the quality is bad.

In fact, really brilliant content can sink without a trace; it is the fact that it is not used enough across all the platforms that are available to it. Some brands are starting to realise the impact of adaptive content and there are 5 elements that need to be included to make the best use of content:

Reusable – content is used across a range of platforms and in different formats
Structured – small bite-sized content works well across different devices
Simple – the format should be sophisticated and simple, not overly difficult to read or use
Metadata – the secret, techy bit that describes what the content is about and it needs to be accurate
A content management system (CMS) – that allows you to do all of the above!

Hence, we end back at the reduce, reuse and recycle system of adapting your content to fit across all the platforms you use with your business

Adaptive content is about re-using the content you have, but adding a spark of something extra to it.

Thus adaptive content is a two pronged attack –

Not reinventing the wheel every time but reusing, recycling and recycling or recharging content
Linking content which the behaviour of your clients or customers (they came via Facebook, so why can’t they create an account with your via Facebook?)

Where does a small, online and local business start with this adaptive content process?

Take a look over your content and, if your have the data, identify what people liked or commented on and, using a different approach, re-use this material. And then publish it again across all your platforms and see what happens…

When you use your content to its FULL POTENTIAL, it is truly adaptive content; how do you adapt your content?

Usability, your website and some hard lessons…

20th November 2014 by Alan Leave a Comment

The festive season is nearly upon us and those of us who do not leave our Christmas shopping to the last minute on Christmas Eve, may have already started to cast about on the web for THE perfect present for him, her and the dog.

Invariably, you will come across websites that you will quickly navigate away from; somehow this is not a conscious decision, it just seems to happen. And there may have been many reasons why…

It doesn’t feel, look or sound right.

We came across a brilliant, frank and comprehensive usability checklist that should you choose to work through it, will ‘catch common usability problems’ on websites. If your website does not strike the right chord with the consumer – trust, authority and security – then you could be losing an awful lot of sales.

Here, we have highlighted some of the more common aspects that you may need to take a look at on your website in order to answer the question, is it cutting the mustard?

The checklist

To publish the whole thing here would be keeping you logged on till Christmas, but all flippancy aside, we believe that the very comprehensive nature of the checklist highlights just how important your website or online presence is to your evolving business.

Frankly, if it is not sleek and delightfully easy to use, then your website falls way below standard. Here we have summarised the key points from under each heading…

USER EXPERIENCE

This looks at everything from currency, language as well as pricing being clearly displayed. It also suggests that users are look for measures of credibility. For example, on Locally’s newly designed and launched website, we have several written ‘references’ from people who have been more than happy with the websites we have designed them, along with the service we offer. We do this, like many other business, to lend a sense of credibility and authority to our website.

It also suggests that in terms of user experience, your website also needs to look and feel uncluttered, with text that can be easily scanned and images that can be enlarged or zoomed in on.

This section has 7 areas that the checklist suggests that you look at in detail.

HOMEPAGE

Your homepage invariably is the landing page – the first page – that your website visitors and potential customers see; the feel of this page needs to be spot on! There is no room for error.

As well as checking for the obvious spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, the checklist suggest 8 additional checks such as a clear to call action (tell your customer what they need or must do!), along with all the important information the visitor needs to know. It also suggests that all images and video used needs to be relevant to the page.

ACCESSIBILITY

This section has 4 checks that all play an important part in ensuring that your visitors can access the parts of the website they need quickly and easily. It points to technical aspects of your website that are not immediately obvious and to factors which you think may not be important… but they are! For example, when a customer hovers their mouse over a graphic, what is the caption that is displayed…?

NAVIGATION

This section is about how your website is mapped, especially in the case of larger websites; sitemaps are important and that any links are descriptive – the ‘click here’ is no longer sufficient! It also suggests that sorting information is not done along alphabetical lines, unless there is no better way of doing it. Customers, it seems, prefer information to be grouped in sections that are related e.g. items and accessories that are related to ‘kitchens’, and another section for ‘bathrooms’ etc. How is the information navigable on your website?

SEARCH

Being able to search your website quickly and easily is important, and it seems that websites that have this function stand head and shoulders above the rest. The search facility needs to be on every page, in the same place. But a common pet hate, it seems, that customers detest are search bars that are too narrow or small, meaning that as they type the words or phrase becomes obscured.

LINKS

According to the usability list, important commands should not be links, but buttons such as ‘pay now’ etc. and small details make all the difference; for example, the colour of a link changes once a customer has clicked on it.

But the most important part of this section is making sure that any links of your website are still active; there is nothing more off-putting for a potential customer when they click on a link only to find that it is broken one.

LAYOUT

This is section that looks at more than just the aesthetic appeal of a website; for example, is all the important information a customer needs at the top of the page?

Is the layout, design, colours etc. and the ‘feel’ of the website consistent throughout the website? And finally, is your website responsive? This section also includes that website should fit the screen of the user – did you know that horizontal scrolling was a non-no?!

PROCESS

This section of the checklist looks at the whole practical process of building and testing a website; with the excitement of either a new or re-vamped website taking over, companies and business tend to have a habit of launching it… without really checking every single aspect of their website and hence, the small but important ‘teething issues’ are not spotted and repaired prior to launch. This can not only mark you down with customers, it can also cause problems in the all-seeing eyes of search engines…

Just like you wouldn’t launch an expensive advertising campaign in the press without intense consideration, launching your website should go through the same process of consideration and goal-setting.

FORMS

Increasingly, websites are inviting customers to be part of a newsletter drop or a ‘join’ a website and this necessitates forms. However, it seems that customers are put off by lengthy, complicated forms hence, this checklist has 5 essential must-check factors, from your form supporting auto-fill and being simple, usable forms rather than lengthy version that seem to collect information that feels superfluous (why do you need to know how old you customers are?!)

CONTENT

Finally, is the section on content that has 6 must-check factors:

Contrast between text and background
Content is ‘scannable’. That is, customers and visitors are able to scan down the page, looking for key information they need
Written in language that is understandable
Contact and company information clearly displayed
Content is useful and up-to-date
Upper case letters are avoided unless they are in the right place!

Having the right look and feel to a website is more than just pretty pictures and flashy bits; there is far more to creating a delightful, successful website. Is your website due a re-model?

Check out the FULL checklist – how does your website do?

Creating trust with a blog

13th November 2014 by Alan Leave a Comment

What does your blog really say about you?

Wherever you turn on the wonderful world of the web, you will be told/encouraged/advised/bamboozled (*delete as appropriate) into including a blog on your website.

In terms of content generation, creating that all-important authority on the web, this is a great idea. Providing that you regularly create and publish high quality, relevant content with some delicious links to authoritative, relevant websites, you are on to a sure-fire winner (slap thigh, whistle a tune and sit back, basking in the delight of knowing you HAVE done something right…).

You can feel it coming, can’t you? The word that throws everything is to disarray, the word that dashes a thousand dreams and renders your blogs useless (that’s an over exaggeration for dramatic affect)…

BUT…

Does your blog build trust in your company?

Every blog should be written in a way that shows the customer that you can be trusted as a seller, an online retailer and that what you say is ‘right’.

NB This confirms something we have been talking about for years… and that is the fact that your blogs, for all the content marketing speak out there, MUST BE WRITTEN FOR YOUR CUSTOMER and not a search engine.

To help you out with your blogs, we have created a list of 10 words or phrases you could use to enhance your blogs, and make them a more trusted source. Blogs need to have

an authoritative tone
be consistent in the number of times blogs are published (if you haven’t blogged since November 2009, you may be in a spot of bother)
high quality
with social signals
and also have a good reputation.

A bit like the blog here at Locally… (blows own trumpet).

Are they worth it?

It seems the whole world is blogging and this should tell you something. Content experts often talk about how wonderful content needs to be and, as part of this argument, blogs add credibility to you, your website and business.

In fact, don’t just take our word for it. Jeff Bullas, a blogging master conducted a survey around what customers thought about blogs that they came across and how they informed their decision to buy, or not.

To the question “do blogs add credibility to a website?” an astounding 68% of respondents said yes, they did. That’s a BIG proportion of people who use the signals given off by a blog as a positive endorsement of the company, their products and services. It seems if you are not blogging regularly, keeping your online, local business website ‘alive’, then customers may be navigating away.

When Jeff Bullas looked in to this a little deeper, he found that the factors that added this all-important credibility to a blog were quality content, followed by regularly published content. There were other factor too, from a good social media presence to good design. So you see, blogs are important after all…

Good blogging words

If you are writing a blog that is part of your online marketing and selling strategy, then your blogs must have some delightful words sprinkled through them that sub-consciously send signals to your potential consumer…

Here is Locally’ 10 ‘sprinkle them through your blog’ words or phrases:

Fair

Ah yes, being fair. We like that. We like to think that by being or playing fair, we have the moral high ground. We love it and your consumers love it. From sayings such as ‘one thing you can say about so-and-so, she is fair’ to ‘fair pricing policy’, by using this word and applying it to your online, local business, you are showing people just how lovely and fair your business is.

Fair treatment

This is listed as a separate phrase as, according to research, ‘fair treatment’ is very ‘user-centred’. This has an important psychological impact. If people think that you will treat them fairly as consumers, they are more likely to gravitate to your business.

Care/caring

Yup, an online purchase still needs to have the ability to show consumers you care about them and their purchase. And so, weaving this word into a blog can go a long way in showing the human face to your business. All too often, when things go wrong with a purchase, we find that the company we are trying to contact has an outsourced helpline to foreign climes and it is impossible to make any form of meaningful contact. Dispel these fears with a blog that tells people how much you care… anything from their purchase to the environment is perfectly acceptable.

Trust

A bit obvious? You would have thought so but apparently being told that they can trust you as an online retailer WILL create the feeling of trust, so use it! Little word, big impact.

Quality

A great buzzword but one that works. We all like to think that the product we are buying is the highest quality but this is about creating the feeling of quality with a blog, not just saying the word. For example, is it error-free? Does it say what it needs to, clearly? Is it enjoyable? Does the design of the website also ooze quality…? (If not, call us… everything we do is QUALITY driven).

Competent/competency

A longer word but one that spells out just how much your business can be trusted as you know what you are doing and you do it well, all the time.

Change/changing

Now, on one hand you would think that this would set alarm bells ringing but, according to various studies, when a company tells its customers it is changing (for the better) – and why – people like it. It shows that you care and want their custom, as well as their experience of buying from you, to be the best that it possibly can be.

Always

Ah yes, another great word that shows you are committed as a company to do the best for your customers, from always offering the best price to always producing great blogs.

Never

We would always counsel caution when it comes to using negative words and ‘never’ is one of those words BUT, you can turn this word around to give it a positive connotation. Why not try ‘never being beaten on price’ or ‘never compromising on quality’?

Privacy/private

People’s information is sensitive. They like to know that their data is kept safe, guarded and private. Sometimes, telling people this is a good way forward.

And so…

The next time you blog, think about what it is your blog is ‘saying’ in both an obvious and sub-conscious way. Is it oozing trust? Is it inviting customers to trust you, your business and the content they are reading…?

When was the last time you blogged?

Learning from Tony Bennett and Elmo: unconventional partnerships that reap rewards…

24th October 2014 by Alan Leave a Comment

Brandscaping – the latest buzzword

There is a new buzzword that describes a concept that could take off… in fact, depending on which angle you look at it from, it may already be in full swing, it’s just that we, as consumers, haven’t quite cottoned on yet.

So, what is it and is it something that online, local business could find useful OR, is it just another great big waste of time? And where do Tony Bennett and Elmo come in to it? Find out here…

What is brandscaping?

Sounds almost painful, but actually it isn’t. The concept is quite a nice one; brandscaping is about your online, local business joining with another relevant company, business, sole trader etc. to, and we quote, “drive consideration, increase demand and add revenue”.

A classic case, we think you would agree, on ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’. But, it is slightly more complex than that as we are talking about the online world of content sharing.

It is about identifying another company who holds or shares the same ‘audience’ as you; you not only link content, but pool financial sources too. Maybe you both agree to outsource to the same agency or writer to create blogs and content that links together.

It might be that you link with a company who you feel has your next customers. Andrew Davies believes so much in the power of online partnerships that he had written a whole book on the subject!

Content as we know is key to getting your website recognised, as well as up there in the rankings. Creating partnership with someone else gives you brand scope – as it does theirs. There is a constant flow of information and, you can be part of a whole new crazy world where people like your content… and start buying for you.

Mmmm… still not sure?

Neither were we until you realise what this could mean for some smaller businesses out there who battle on a daily basis to get their company or business in on the action. Big corporate bodies not only have the budget, but the people to work solely, day and night, on content.

For the local, online small business, this is not an option. You spend your day earning the money, the evenings doing your books and, at some point, you also squeeze in time to blog, bath the kids and visit your mum.

It is a busy world.

How could this work in practice?

OK, let’s take a really obvious example…

‘Bride and Grooms’ is a wedding dress and suit hire emporium. They have 3 shops dotted about over two counties. They are becoming known as THE place to go for wedding dresses, from budget to bespoke, as well as a range of wedding suits for hire.

‘Sally’s Flowers’ is a small florist with big ambitions; she would like to physically expand her florist shop into new, bigger premises as well as look at opening another shop in the next town. To do this, Sally realises she needs more of a ‘brand identity’; people need to look and feel confident that she can deliver modern, sassy, cutting edge designed flowers… and weddings are big business.

These two businesses could ‘brandscape’; they could pool a financial amount each months and really start to plug their services via blogs that link; these links could then be forged via the social media platforms they both use.

Likewise, they could then become a force in the local wedding fairs, the season that starts in the autumns and takes them through to spring. By summer, they could both be knee deep in flowers, customers and wedding parties.

Win-win

Right so the message is this – you are looking to create demand for your mutual services by creating content with the maximum hit, with the lowest cost.

Partnership is perhaps a mis-leading term as you could, technically have more than partner, but the expense would be shared equally.

Your ‘audience’ needs to overlap, which clearly in our illustrative case above, clearly does – brides and dresses, then brides and flowers. You may have a local company that does wedding favours, table settings and the like… they could partner too. And then maybe there is a wedding planner; they could come on board too.

Why brandscaping? Why now?

Suggestions are that there is content overload; the web is an increasingly busy place and we everyone competing to get on to page 1 of the search engine results, it is no wonder. And so, suggest strategists, companies need to start working together to get genuinely brilliant results; return of investment (what you spend on content creation) should be maximised.

Does the idea have legs?

Possibly. For local businesses, it really could propel some smaller businesses into a far stronger position on the web.