Owner: Internet Marketing Agency SEO Consultants URL:http://www.seosem.co.uk Join Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2007 15:39:33 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: A blog on internet marketing and search engine optimisation and its impact on modern business and communications. Site statistics:Click here
Website Photographs and Imagery 2007-03-11 19:51:29 iStock Photos are one of the best sites I have found for photo content on the internet. They have a really good selection of stock images at amazing prices for quick download and use. I hate visiting sites with really poor imagery, as a website like any other marketing communications tool must present as strong a brand image as any other of the elements used by an organisation. A personal blog on the other hand can be different…..mmmmh! Read more:Imagery
Optimisation and Marketing 2007-03-10 08:58:27 People new to the world of internet marketing sometimes get confused between the two general themes of the subject: search engine optimisation and search engine marketing. Optimisation
refers to construction of a website and its contents so that the search engine spiders or robots can easily read and index their contents. The information is ‘optimised’ and the activities are internally focused around the website. On the other hand Search Engine Marketing
or ’search marketing’ as it is sometimes called is outwardly focused on marketing your website through a variety of means such as pay-per-click advertising, on-line pr campaigns, directory and search enigne listings.
Search Engine Relationships 2007-02-09 22:17:38 Many people are not aware how interlinked the various search engines are. A professional SEO will ensure that your website is not optimised just for one search engine but a number of them including off course Google, Yahoo and MSN. This SearchEngineRelationships
Tool shows just how inter-related things actually are and why an entry in DMOZ can be so important. Read more:Search Engine
Dynamic Templates For Emails 2007-01-03 09:33:35 I am not sure if I am a fan of email templates, except in well designed eshots. The ones I have received (somtimes) simply mess up my reply email layout - fonts go large and line formatting goes haywire. So I am a firm believer in keeping it simple and the simpler the better. Emedia Solutions may be the company to solve this. If you want dynamic content in your communications their website offers a range of solutions. Read more:Dynamic
, Templates
, Emails
Ecommerce Regulations 2002 Update 2006-12-01 11:45:07 Some really useful regulation which could protect both ecommerce providers and their clients: from 1st January 2007, UK companies have to comply with the E-Commerce Regulations
2002 (an update to the Companies Act 1985) and show their company registration number, place of registration and registered office address on a page on their website. I also recommend to companies I work with to adopt a similar practice with their emails to avoid any problems - is an email a formal business document and therefore one that can be accepted in a court ? There is still debate over this but if it is signed ‘in kind’ i.e. by an employee stating their name and title on the email, it can be. Read more:Update
Social Blogging 2006-11-11 14:15:27 The web is such a fascinating tool for sharing information. Wikipedia defines social bookmarking as a popular way for people to store, classify and share information. Sites like Add This provide some really useful tools to enable this form of bookmarking in the form of cut-and-paste code for bookmarking and RSS feeds. Read more:Social
, Blogging
How Useful Is Blogging ? 2006-10-13 14:04:27 Blogging in 2006 took off in a big way and can prove a big hit in commercial marketing. Why ? A personal web log (or Blog) can be used by the senior member of the organisation to provide their thoughts on the industry they operate within and help to position that organisation. In addition, when placed on a keyword/keyprhase rich domain with relevant content linked to the main website, the search engines can view the relationshop as an ‘authority network’ reinforcing the search engine rankings achieved by the content. Read more:Blogging
, Useful
Local Search 2006-08-25 11:00:01 We may be told to ‘think global and act local’ but I am thinking more and more about the ‘local’ as local search rises in importance. The internet has been a great tool for reaching a wide audience but nowadays many organisations operating on a regional basis need to think about how their customers will find them on the internet directories and search engines. Traditional paperbased companies like Yellow Pages and Thomson have had internet based search sites for some time but now they are under threat from the search engines themselves. Just look at the success of Google Site Maps or a search for a local plumber. For this reason it is becoming more and more important to include local content on a website including address, map and directions and importantly the organisation’s postcode. Look at this local map for plumbers in Chester - see what I mean ? A friend also recently told me that 25% of searches done on line are done so with a view to making a physi Read more:Search
, Local
, Local Search
Linking But To What ? 2006-08-12 15:03:12 Once you have a high-traffic site do you still need to carrying on investigating link requests or actively pursuing a linking strategy ? The answer has to be yes because your competitors will be. A top ten, twenty or thirty ranking in a specific search engine is a snap-shot of that index. It can and will change, sometimes even between hours and so the best strategy is a pro-active one. The problem is now that linking is still an underestimated workload for many website managers. Linking
to the wrong type of organisations or worst case a link-farm due to be hit with search engine penalties could have disastrous effects on your rankings. The best strategy therefore must build in enough time and resources.
Creative Writing 2006-07-19 01:23:03 How many times do people really think outside the box ? Creativity and lateral thinking are key SEO and PR requisites but so is patience. Ask any PR how long it takes to write a good press release and they will say two days - one to write it and the second to review it to spot the obvious and simplify the message. Read more:Creative Writing
PRWEB Services 2007-03-12 15:10:48 I recently came across PRWEB
as the leading on line visibility organisation for press release content. I am trying them out and will see how well we get on. I have used newswire services before but for some releases have found them to be better targetted using a direct media database where I can select the individual media titles to send to. I believe that PRWEB will be different in that they are pushing my releases out to a variety of internet resoures and search engines - time will tell. Read more:Services
Blog Terminology - Speek The Lingo 2006-12-16 00:28:01 This is nice. I cam across this site before Christmas giving some general advice on Blog Terms. I would hate to hazard a guess as to how many new terms have come into existence thanks to the internet over the last few years. Any how if you are new to blogging then this glossary will help you get started. Read more:Lingo
Where to focus: On-Page or Off-Page Factors 2006-11-19 22:05:30 It is really strange how you have to focus different webpages for the different search engines and also manage the other aspects they are looking at. For example, Google seems to place more importance on off-page factors than say Yahoo and MSN. This is may not be that surprising when you think about Google’s founders and their backgrounds in academia. It is another reason to have a sound linking strategy in place and to make sure you are in DMOZ and the Yahoo directories. This can be just one more bit of confusion for clients in the SEO world - as Yahoo was principally a directory and is now trying to become more of a search engine (like MSN and Google).
Email Service That Gets It Spot On 2007-03-14 00:35:42 I have to say that Vertical Response is one of the best of its kind - handling your website mailing lists and eshots. We link a couple of our website ‘Join Here’ buttons to servers run by these guys and use their services to send out our newsletters and e-shots. They make the whole process easy and economic. Well done. Read more:Email
, Service
Landing Pages or Microsites ? 2007-03-16 00:15:53 I was with a client today with whom we are working on a specific portal through which their customers can purchase products and services.
The question came up of whether to make a specific landing page or microsite (website). The answer most definitely here was a microsite because of the need to position a complete offer complete with decision making information, downloads and product sizing tools. This does not mean that the landing-page is specifically out of the question and we may use them specifically for targetted eshots to drive customers to the portal and microsite in the near future.
From a search engine optimisation viewpoint we have to take great care to avoid duplicate content on the microsite (and landing page) and will probably opt for using a NOINDEX command where appropriate (NOINDEX - tells the search engine spiders not to index the content and skip the page in question). Read more:Pages
, Microsites
, Landing Pages
Search Engine Strategies Conference 2007-03-16 00:08:05 This is one of those ‘I would love to attend’ conferences’ and if it is in your country or area I would recommend going. The one recently in London was fabulous and offered a unique venue to catch up on the latest in search engine strategies as well as software products from various suppliers. The conference runs alongside the exhibition and we will definitely be there at the next UK even in 2008. Read more:Search
, Engine
, Strategies
, Search Engine
, Strategies Conference
, Search Engine Strategies
Tracking Site Visitors 2007-03-21 20:14:06 For retail environments much time is spent analysing how to direct traffic around a store - where are the hot and cold spots and how much is generated in sales per square metre. Well with a website it is possible to track which areas are the most visited. Website statistics (webstats) are a great starting point but more sophisticated SEM tools are available that identify this information graphically on a specific page.
Clicktracks is one such system. On their site they have some simple screen shots as a flash demo that convey the principle. All useful information especially when you consider that a website should be constructed, just like a retail environment with an entrance and exit, and order desk, enquiry area or pay point somewhere in between. Read more:Tracking
, Visitors
Search Engines Search For Words 2007-03-21 20:01:55 I was with a giftware retailer today who was becoming disallusioned by the search engine performance of their new look website. Both websites were still online and being indexed by the search engines. Both we operated from different website URLs.
When we went online it was obvious that the new one focused more on image content and was geared towards e-tailing. The older site contained far more search engine ’spider food’ in terms of general content - longer product descriptions, selection guides for special occasions, how some of the giftware products are made and so on. The old website used static HTML pages. The new site was database driven with typical dynamic content URLs.
Sometimes search engines treat new URLs like wine - they prefer some maturity and time on-line before the sites rise up the rankings for relevant keywords. This approach helps to level the playing field somewhat and allows organisations with varying budgets to compete. Under these conditions we woul Read more:Search
, Words
Links, Clinks and Google 2007-03-22 22:21:47 Many moons ago, when I was writing my business degree assignments, we got points for the quality of our bibliography. The problem was that they were easy points to get. Simply state the work that you had drawn on, its author and publication date. However, the tutors included the bibliography in the word count and penalised you if you went over it. A conundrum.
Little did I realise that several years later search engine rankings, especially on Google
would work in a similar manner. You see, Brin and Page, the founders of Google used the same approach in their algorithm for defining relevant responses to keyword requests. They consider the number and quality of links from external sites to a specific page as a measure of the importance of that page. In addition they consider the text around the external link and its relation to the linked website.
A practical example of this is to type ‘click here’ into a search engine. This will always bring up the Adobe website because so
Blogging Tips 2007-03-25 18:59:52 There are many blogs in the internet and if your blog forms a vital part of your internet marketing there are several things you need to consider:
1. Search engines pick up on themes and there can sometimes be no better way to start this than to pick a URL (web address) for your blog that is an industry keyword or keyword phrase or mixture of the two.
2. Make sure you have an RSS feed. RSS stands for ‘Really Simply Sindication’ or ‘Rich Site Summary’ according to Wikipedia. What you are actually doing by creating an RSS feed is saying to everyone - here is a stream of content from my blog. If you tell your blog notifier to track my RSS feed, everytime I post something new, you will be automatically notified. Also, don’t hide the fact that you have an RSS feed. You want people to pick it up and so place it in your sidebar and footer text.
3. Link to relevant content around the theme of your blog so that the search engines can ‘pick-up’ on the Read more:Blogging
Hot Blogging 2007-03-25 18:37:03 Blogging is one of the hottest ways to optimised your marketing. It is estimated that one blog a second is being added to the internet. So what is driving this phenomenon ? A Blog or (web log) can serve several purposes for an organisation:
1. Market Positioning - a blog can help define an individual (and their organisation by association) as an industry expert.
2. Public Relations News Service - people can be kept up to speed with the latest thoughts and comments from an organisation if they subscribe to an RSS feed and blog notifier.
3. Customer Interaction - two-way communication can occur as customers and prospective customers, suppliers and third party organisations can post their own comments.
4. Search Engines love blogs. That right. Provided you post regularly to your blog and link to other web pages you can be sure that the search engine spiders will keep visiting and indexing the content.
5. Market Testing - an organisation can test general concept ideas out by posting a com Read more:Blogging
Spiders Only Want Fresh Meat 2007-03-26 11:31:18 The internet is changing many things. Traditionally an advertising agency would run an advert campaign for several months, analyse the results and tweak as necessary. Nowadays, with search engine rankings proving of such high importance to some organisations, timeframes are running in hours and days, rather than weeks or months.
An example of this is the search engine position your website achieves for any given search term. Without the regular addition of fresh content to a website, the search engine spiders will reduce their revisit and reindex rate. Using a Meta tag to instruct them to revisit in the next 10 days will have no effect.
Search engines like content and the only way to keep ahead of your competition is to add website theme orientated text on a regular basis, either as a new page or a blog RSS output. Only then can you be guaranteed regular spider visits. But how can you monitor this ? View your website statistics which should also reveal a rich stream of marketing data
Why keyword stuffing gets penalised 2007-03-26 10:25:35 Keyword stuffing is the practice of placing the keyword or keyword phrase you are optimising a page for into too many places. Search engines do not like this spamming practice and include a ‘penalty’ clause in their algorithms for it. Google is known to operate a ’sand box’ for the worst offenders - though you can end up here for all sorts of ‘black hat’ SEO techniques.
When you view a web page in your browswer you can see the various on screen places that a keyword may be - headline tags, page title and body copy. Places not to place the keyword/keyword phrase sometimes include the image tag, i.e. the phrase that comes up over an image when you point at it with your mouse, and more importantly in the code behind the page in places such as comment tags or the tags in the < head > section covering the website author, subject, copyright and other such pieces of data.
So what is the best approach ?
1. Make sure you have carried out good keyword rese
Blogging Tips 2007-03-25 18:59:52 There are many blogs in the internet and if your blog forms a vital part of your internet marketing there are several things you need to consider:
1. Search engines pick up on themes and there can sometimes be no better way to start this than to pick a URL (web address) for your blog that is an industry keyword or keyword phrase or mixture of the two.
2. Make sure you have an RSS feed. RSS stands for ‘Really Simply Sindication’ or ‘Rich Site Summary’ according to Wikipedia. What you are actually doing by creating an RSS feed is saying to everyone - here is a stream of content from my blog. If you tell your blog notifier to track my RSS feed, everytime I post something new, you will be automatically notified. Also, don’t hide the fact that you have an RSS feed. You want people to pick it up and so place it in your sidebar and footer text.
3. Link to relevant content around the theme of your blog so that the search engines can ‘pick-up’ on the Read more:Blogging
Hot Blogging 2007-03-25 18:37:03 Blogging is one of the hottest ways to optimised your marketing. It is estimated that one blog a second is being added to the internet. So what is driving this phenomenon ? A Blog or (web log) can serve several purposes for an organisation:
1. Market Positioning - a blog can help define an individual (and their organisation by association) as an industry expert.
2. Public Relations News Service - people can be kept up to speed with the latest thoughts and comments from an organisation if they subscribe to an RSS feed and blog notifier.
3. Customer Interaction - two-way communication can occur as customers and prospective customers, suppliers and third party organisations can post their own comments.
4. Search Engines love blogs. That right. Provided you post regularly to your blog and link to other web pages you can be sure that the search engine spiders will keep visiting and indexing the content.
5. Market Testing - an organisation can test general concept ideas out by posting a com Read more:Blogging
Retainer or Project Pricing 2007-03-23 09:55:57 The purpose of a marketing agency is to deliver results and value for money for their clients. How agencies are paid is rapidly moving from retainers to project fees and this is something I whole heartedly applaud. There are many agencies out there who simply charge a monthly flat fee retainer. Sometimes the client sees value for money within a given period and sometimes not. This can lead to problems in the relationship and defocus it.
There is definitely a delicate balance and I feel that the best approach is a mixture of the two and in such a proportion that both parties are comfortable At Optimised, we have used several formulas a couple of which are shown below as examples:
1. A paid for project - generate an search engine optimised website or press campaign.
2. A fee retainer paid monthly that can be used for a variety of tasks such as an on-going link campaign to increase website traffic by 25% over 6 months.
The actual key is to set measurable objectives for the time period Read more:Project
, Pricing
Links, Clinks and Google 2007-03-22 22:21:47 Many moons ago, when I was writing my business degree assignments, we got points for the quality of our bibliography. The problem was that they were easy points to get. Simply state the work that you had drawn on, its author and publication date. However, the tutors included the bibliography in the word count and penalised you if you went over it. A conundrum.
Little did I realise that several years later search engine rankings, especially on Google
would work in a similar manner. You see, Brin and Page, the founders of Google used the same approach in their algorithm for defining relevant responses to keyword requests. They consider the number and quality of links from external sites to a specific page as a measure of the importance of that page. In addition they consider the text around the external link and its relation to the linked website.
A practical example of this is to type ‘click here’ into a search engine. This will always bring up the Adobe website because so
Tracking Site Visitors 2007-03-21 20:14:06 For retail environments much time is spent analysing how to direct traffic around a store - where are the hot and cold spots and how much is generated in sales per square metre. Well with a website it is possible to track which areas are the most visited. Website statistics (webstats) are a great starting point but more sophisticated SEM tools are available that identify this information graphically on a specific page.
Clicktracks is one such system. On their site they have some simple screen shots as a flash demo that convey the principle. All useful information especially when you consider that a website should be constructed, just like a retail environment with an entrance and exit, and order desk, enquiry area or pay point somewhere in between. Read more:Tracking
, Visitors
Search Engines Search For Words 2007-03-21 20:01:55 I was with a giftware retailer today who was becoming disallusioned by the search engine performance of their new look website. Both websites were still online and being indexed by the search engines. Both we operated from different website URLs.
When we went online it was obvious that the new one focused more on image content and was geared towards e-tailing. The older site contained far more search engine ’spider food’ in terms of general content - longer product descriptions, selection guides for special occasions, how some of the giftware products are made and so on. The old website used static HTML pages. The new site was database driven with typical dynamic content URLs.
Sometimes search engines treat new URLs like wine - they prefer some maturity and time on-line before the sites rise up the rankings for relevant keywords. This approach helps to level the playing field somewhat and allows organisations with varying budgets to compete. Under these conditions we woul Read more:Search
, Words
Landing Pages or Microsites ? 2007-03-16 00:15:53 I was with a client today with whom we are working on a specific portal through which their customers can purchase products and services.
The question came up of whether to make a specific landing page or microsite (website). The answer most definitely here was a microsite because of the need to position a complete offer complete with decision making information, downloads and product sizing tools. This does not mean that the landing-page is specifically out of the question and we may use them specifically for targetted eshots to drive customers to the portal and microsite in the near future.
From a search engine optimisation viewpoint we have to take great care to avoid duplicate content on the microsite (and landing page) and will probably opt for using a NOINDEX command where appropriate (NOINDEX - tells the search engine spiders not to index the content and skip the page in question). Read more:Pages
, Microsites
, Landing Pages
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