The CCI at Swinburne University of Technology released a report in May outlining the online habits of Australian internet users. The report presents findings from the second survey of the Australian component of the World Internet Project.

Where we live, whether we download illegally, what we think of restricted content, how we stay in contact with friends - even how internet usage has affected our book-reading, there is a lot of information in there (and it is downloadable for free!).

What is of most interest to me (and my clients) though, is the online SHOPPING habits of Australians. I was surprised to discover that Australians appear to be some of the most avid online shoppers in the world, with over two thirds of users making an online purchase every month, and nearly 90% of users using the internet to research products. 

Between the last survey (2007) and this one (2009), the number of users spending more than $500 online per month more than doubled to 22.6%.

Other interesting findings of the survey:

 - Over 75% of users use the internet to make travel reservations
 -  Over 70% use it to pay bills online
 - Over 60% purchase event tickets online
 - And 73% of users had researched goods online before purchasing from a local store, while 41% reported they look at goods in stores before buying online
 
Australians are increasingly comfortable, and interested in, online shopping, which means a website and the accompanying online marketing should be a priority for retailers targetting Australians. Shops offering easy to find, and use, online shops will benefit from Australians eager adoption of internet technology.

There are many tools out there that can help you with your SEO campaigns.  Some are free and some are not.  One of the tools I have used a lot over the past couple of years is Caphyon’s Advanced Web Ranking.  The main purpose of this tool is to track how your website is performing on the search engines.  Every morning the first thing I do when I get to work is fire up Advanced Web Ranking to see what happened over night.

We use it to track a large number of websites and 1000s of keywords, on search engines around the world.  We can track rankings in China, UK, Germany, Netherlands and the US, and I have double checked the results while I have been visiting these countries and it is very accurate – not 100%, but I would say about 90% and when it is out it is not by much.

It is a very easy program to setup, with as straight forward interface and simple wizards.  I do wish it was easier to load larger amounts of data into it – but there is options to import files.  If you have trouble there is also a very good help interface and one of the best forums I have come across – very quick replies.

With SEO you don’t just need to look at where you are ranking today; you need an easy way to see where you have come from.  This help to paint a picture of which keywords may be performing well in the future, and which keywords might be dropping.  In this case AWR is quite good at visualising the progress over the course of the project.

As Advanced Web Ranking checks so many keywords across so many domains and search engines, it can lead to a bit of an information overload.  This is one of my main gripes with the interface is that it can lead to a lot of clicking around in order to get to the information that I am interested in.  It is not as intuitive as I would like and campaigns with lots of keywords can become confusing.  It is also a tool that is more utilitarian in its approach, but some people may appreciate this.

The reports are excellent.  They are hugely customisable so I can send out reports based on what the client needs.  These are automatically generated and sent.  The reports range from keyword performance to visibility reports.  This has greatly reduced the man hours required for our reporting.

I really appreciate being able to come in to work in the morning and have these reports already generated.  I just do some double checks but I rarely find any issues.

There is a variety of AWR packages available that would suit anyones needs.  It is fairly inexpensive and definitely cheaper than developing a solution yourself.  For tracking SEO campaigns I highly recommend Advanced Web Ranking. 

What software do you use for tracking?

If you sell goods online, whether it is fashion, electronics, books or tools, there are a tonne of virtual shopfronts you can use to increase sales.

Virtual shopfronts can be set up at a variety of stores, like Ebay and Myshopping.com.au. The advantages of having yourselves on these stores is;

1. It increases your exposure to shoppers - comparison sites are becoming more and more popular. Some people use them as their first port of call to compare prices and see who the providers are.

2. It is very low cost, often commission based

3. It increases your exposure in the search engines - for many products, sites like Getprice and Myshopping show up on page 1 search results. If your site isn't on page 1, shoppers could still find your store through Getprice and Myshopping if you are listed.

If you want to increase exposure for your products, you might want to consider stores on;

Ebay                                     Getprice
Shopping.com.au              Shopping.com
Shopbot                               Froogle
Bizrate                                  Shopferrert
Yahoo Shopping                Miracle Shopper
PriceCompare                    Etsy (if your goods are independent, handmade or antique)

 

Wagamama's, a UK restaurant chain which has a few stores here in Australia (international aiport terminal for example) has become the 'first' restaurant to launch it's own iphone application.

The free application allows iPhone users to find the closest Wagamama restaurant, browse the menu, place their order and pay, all through their iPhone. The order is then sent to the kitchen just like the other orders their staff are taking through their wire less hand held devices.

This clever marketing ploy taps into the current zeitgeist which embraces all things iPhone, while also promoting convenience and immediacy, must-have's for the Wagamama demographic.

Free iPhone applications which act as another customer service point or entry point could be the next big thing, and businesses should think about whether there is a feasible app for their particular niche. Of course, the app must be easy to use and actually add value. Like corporate Facebook pages and blogs, these things aren't worth investing in if they don't actually add any value, because people won't use them. They have to add something unique, which is either honestly entertaining or useful.

is addictive.

For a long time I assumed it was one of the online marketing myths, but I have found that actually people DO spend a lot of time on Yahoo Answers, and in fact it is just as valid as any other social media site.

Yahoo Answers is a place where people can post questions on almost any topic and have strangers answer it for them. These questions and answers are stored on Yahoo for a long time, and can be searched to find information. It was established in 2005 and has since

The sections cover everything from health, family and relationships to maths and science. It has been criticised for not being very 'accurate' and more about 'social networking', but that is what makes it such a fun site in which everyone can contribute, and surely what makes it so addictive.

So how can you use it in your own marketing? Lets go back to my favourite fictional store, the online shoe store. Say this was your store and you were an expert on all things shoes. Then you could register on Yahoo Answers and look for questions related to shoes or fashion.

If someone is looking for your product, or asking a question about yours or a related product, then you can answer them, maybe use your store as a resource, and thereby extend your brand name to a potentially interested buyer.

Any links you include in your answers won't be made into clickable URLs until you are a level 2 contributor - which takes a bit of dedication.

Make sure everything you write on Yahoo Answers is truthful and accurate as possible, and don't go the hard sell (remember, this isn't the way to use social media). Yahoo Answers is a community, and you don't want to be banned or ignored for being an annoying contributor.

Apart from introducing you to new, relevant customers, Yahoo Answers is just fun and interesting as of itself. An ability to help people out and feel like a smarty-pants makes for a good website.

According to Compete Site Analytics, Yahoo Answers received 65 million visits in the US in 2009,  but it is actually used all over the world.