Many website owners feel angst about where their sites appear in the search rankings.

Even more confusing for some is why the rankings fluctuate from time to time. In most cases its temporary, but we investigate why this happens and what you can do about it.

Google does not mail or email invoices, but you can print an invoice from your Adwords account.

'Engagement' is open to interpretation but for the purposes of this post and in the context of a website, it means how well your site captures people's attention and encourages them to do something – be it read content, push buttons, fill out a form, make a comment etc.

So, how do you know? You can't actually measure how engaged a person is, but you can infer it by what they do on the website. And how do you measure it? - enter Google Analytics statistics

Of course you need to be clear about the goals of your website and how you want people to use it to really understand how you are doing and what your engagement statistics mean. Everything may not be what it seems at first glance.

A landing page is any web page that a visitor can arrive at or “land” on.

It's common to refer to a landing page as being a stand alone web page that has been designed for a single focused objective in response to an advertising campaign, say from Adwords.

However, much of what makes sense for a landing page makes sense for any page on your website – particularly those that relate to your services or products. Because visitors could arrive – or land- on any page on your website not just your homepage.

So here's five you can easily apply:

Even today we talk to businesses that are not on social media. These typically are small businesses where the main decision maker is not on social media themselves, or they may be on Facebook but can't see the point for their own business.

It can be difficult to see the benefits without actually being there, especially as it can be difficult to measure some of the less tangible results like building trust. So here's why you need to become active on social media.

It can be very difficult to settle on one domain name for your website and email. Too often the decision is made in a vacuum or in haste. But fear not, you can have several.  The question is, how do decide which ones you should have?

We have written several blog posts over the years about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) which are how to's about what to do to get to the top of the search results.

In laymen’s terms, it means when people search for what you do, your site appears in the first few results.

But we get a lot of people who want to know why their site isn't in that elusive top ten.

So here we go:

Backlinks - which is a link from another site back to yours - bring the life blood to your website: visitors.  Without backlinks you will have to rely on paid advertising and other sales techniques.   Google sees a backlink as an endoresment of your site, so without them you will struggle with your search rankings.

Before you dig in, think of backlinks as the result of or a reward for a good marketing strategy - not the start of one. 

If you'd prefer to get 'free' traffic to your site by virtual of healthy search rankings in Google, read on.

According to the Search Marketing Company MOZ, 67 percent of users are influenced by online reviews when making a purchase. Customers look at reviews to find brands and products that will provide them with the best service, reliability and/or experience.

And because customer reviews show up in Google's search results, you can't close your eyes and hope any bad ones will go away or be ignored.

Less is More – a phrase from a poem written in 1855 and later popularized by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in describing the minimalist aesthetic. It has been adopted by minimalist fans and applied to all sorts of situations - digital marketing included.

But what does it actually mean in this context?  How should you apply it to get more bang from what is likely to be a limited buck?

Before applying the motto, one should ask what one should be doing less of, in order to get the 'more'.

We've written a few blog posts about content. Like this one about blogging and this one about content vs copy.

But we see websites with minimal content every day. Five pages, with a paragraph of text and that's it. And don't get me started about one page parallax scrolling sites. Why do we and every other online marketing person out there bang on about creating content?

In short, because without it your website is a useful as udders on a bull. Or as useful as a one armed trapeze artist with an itchy…. Well, you get the picture.

When it comes to your website, 'friction' is anything that make the visitor less likely to do the thing you want them to do.

That could be to call you, email you, read more content, sign up for something, download something or buy something.

The more of these points of friction you have on your website, the less effective it will be.  So how to you reduce or remove it?

This is term used frequently in online marketing conversations – so what does it mean?

It's an important concept that can make a significant difference to the effectiveness of your online marketing efforts.

A question many a small business owner asks themselves.

Unlike a lot of the advice you'll get if you Google "Facebook marketing", we don't necessarily agree that Facebook is the answer to all your marketing challenges – especially if you are a small business with a few (or possibly only one) employee(s).

Much of the advice is very generic and, just like stretch pants – one size does not fit all.

Google regularly makes changes the layout of the search results page.   Recently they announced a change to the way it displays Adwords ads which has an impact on all search results and continues the slow decline of organic search results visibility. 

It will have a big impact not just for Adwords advertisers but for your search engine optimisation strategy as well.