Spannerworks: Giving away valuable data

A 'free' interactive feature works to get a site bookmarked.

The Site

Spannerworks, a UK-based search engine marketing agency, highlights a Free SEO (search engine optimisation) Toolkit on its home page. The kit consists of six tools that allow users to check different aspects of their website’s performance in relation to its visibility to search engines. These include a Search engine position checker as well as Link popularity and Index visibility checkers, an HTTP viewer, Spider’s eye view and Keyword density analyser.

Each is free to use on the site with an assurance that Spannerworks “do not record any information entered”. The toolkit index page also includes links to more information about Spannerwork’s SEO and paid search services, and to other third-party tools that the company recommends.

The Takeaway

Spannerworks’ toolkit is a good example of how an interactive feature can work as ‘sticky’ content to get a site bookmarked. But Spannerworks is neither a charity nor a not-for-profit co-operative, so what’s it doing giving away six good-quality tools that anyone can use to build up a valuable insight into how well their website is set up to be found by search engines – one of the hottest issues for any organisation? The answer is using the web to make a commercially astute pitch for business.

Precisely because this is a high-on-the-agenda item there are a lot of service providers out there touting their wares. Spannerwork’s online toolkit guarantees it attention because it’s both free and valuable, so people are attracted to the offer and impressed by the quality of the information it generates. That’s good for the Spannerworks brand, but also creates or reinforces a higher-level need – if these are the facts, what can we do to improve things? Or, more likely, where can we get some advice? Chances are they’ll start with that ‘click here’ link, and Spannerworks will have a live prospect for its consultancy services.

First published on 22 June, 2006