Sam Applegate: SEO Consultant

First Investment: 250 Quid in Quindell Portfolio PLC

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 10:31:00 +0000

Over the festive period, besides stuffing my face and getting fat, I've been busy looking for potential investment opportunities. As I mentioned before, I really am a novice at this. However, one thing I have picked up on is that research and background reading is important (duh).

Continue Reading: First Investment: 250 Quid in Quindell Portfolio PLC at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.

New Year: New 1000 Quid Investment Adventure

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Right then, I've decided to have a play on the London Stock Exchange. I've got some spare cash floating around in my bank account, so why not. The way I see it, I'm only earning 1% interest in my current account, I'd rather have a bit of a gamble and maybe learn something in the process, than let my wonga sit there collecting dust.

Continue Reading: New Year: New 1000 Quid Investment Adventure at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.

7 Corking Ways to Promote Your Online Content (For Free)

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

When it comes to blogs, the majority of online writers don't actually know much about promoting them. And, after all the research and hard work that's gone into the content, it seems such a terrible waste (violins at the ready).

Continue Reading: 7 Corking Ways to Promote Your Online Content (For Free) at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.

Top 7 Crap Celebrity Websites to Make You Cringe!

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Now, you would have thought that celebrities, of all people, would invest in beautiful, all singing, all dancing websites. They're constantly in the public eye, right? They surely need to make a lasting impression on their adoring fans.

Continue Reading: Top 7 Crap Celebrity Websites to Make You Cringe! at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.

5 Mistakes to Avoid in Social Media

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Social Media is an extremely effective way of increasing your brand presence and producing quality results for your website. You can use it in many ways and drive traffic to your website. However many strategies often fall victim to an array of failed marketing tactics. Embracing these common mistakes will not produce solid results.

Continue Reading: 5 Mistakes to Avoid in Social Media at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.

How to Make Your SEO Job a Barrel of Laughs!

Sat, 25 Aug 2012 05:00:00 +0000

I don't even know what a barrel of laughs is but I like the sound of it, I mean, have you ever seen a barrel filled with chuckling sounds? I reckon it would be a pretty eerie sound to be honest. However, that doesn't mean that a barrel of laughs is a bad thing.

Continue Reading: How to Make Your SEO Job a Barrel of Laughs! at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.

Facebook, Twitter and Death: What Happens When You Die?

Sat, 25 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Fact: We're all going to die, and if you're on Facebook and/or Twitter, you may be curious as to what will happen to your account when you're gone. Each social network has their own process and options to handle the pages and accounts of the deceased. Read on to learn more about each site's policy.

Continue Reading: Facebook, Twitter and Death: What Happens When You Die? at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.

Using Social Media Effectively: It's not all the Same!

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest... They're all the same, right? Wrong. It's all too common for people to think that social networks will provide the same service and that they are all in competition with each other.

Continue Reading: Using Social Media Effectively: It's not all the Same! at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.

Search by Image: Guess the Twitter Profile Picture!

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 07:22:00 +0000

Google's Search by Image feature is now about 1 year old, and seems to be getting more and more accurate (and fun). I had never really used this feature before, but it recently came in very handy for a project I was working on. I decided to demonstrate its coolness by setting up a little quiz.

Continue Reading: Search by Image: Guess the Twitter Profile Picture! at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.

What Makes the Perfect Blog? Pyramid Content Structure

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 09:05:11 +0000

Of course, everybody knows content is king. But I'd like to expand on this, and discuss some of my thoughts on the development and structuring of content, particularly for blogs. Without sounding too much like a crazy Egyptian, I think - to write a successful blog you need to build a pyramid of content.

Continue Reading: What Makes the Perfect Blog? Pyramid Content Structure at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.

How to do Keyword Research: Tips, Tools and Techniques

Wed, 30 May 2012 16:00:00 +0000

With no keyword research, there would be no O in SEO. How can we optimise our website if we don't know what we're optimising for? This is why every website you build, every article you write and even every title you create, should start with a healthy dollop of keyword research.

Continue Reading: How to do Keyword Research: Tips, Tools and Techniques at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.

BOOM! I Just Doubled the Conversion Rate on my Website

Thu, 24 May 2012 17:09:00 +0000

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to display a phone number on one of my lead generation websites. The phone number would be connected to a call centre, which would allow me to collect telephone-based leads, in addition to my online form.

Continue Reading: BOOM! I Just Doubled the Conversion Rate on my Website at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.

My 80s Medley on Today's Google Doodle

Wed, 23 May 2012 12:24:22 +0000

Google are celebrating Robert Moog's 78th Birthday today, with a unique Google doodle on their homepage. After about 20 minutes of learning some basic songs like the Starwars Imperial March and Super Mario Bros theme tune, I decided it sounded naff.

Continue Reading: My 80s Medley on Today's Google Doodle at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.

Lord Sugar Finger Analysis: Who will win The Apprentice?

Tue, 22 May 2012 14:23:30 +0000

For those of you that don't know, The Apprentice is a BBC reality TV show which follows 16 candidates as they attempt to secure a £250,000 investment from business legend - Lord Sugar. Each week, Lord Sugar sets a business task, and the most stupid candidate gets fired.

Continue Reading: Lord Sugar Finger Analysis: Who will win The Apprentice? at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.

Some old Affiliate Marketing Techniques (with Examples)

Mon, 21 May 2012 09:00:05 +0000

Look what I spotted the other day, high up on my shelf. Stuck between Borat and Hancock - an old backup DVD of my affiliate marketing websites from 2007. I thought sharing some of these ancient websites on here might make for a good post.

Continue Reading: Some old Affiliate Marketing Techniques (with Examples) at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.

Some Great Link Building Strategies from an Expert

Thu, 17 May 2012 09:15:10 +0000

I stumbled across a super link building book last week. Despite it being over 12 months old, Becoming a Clockwork Pirate by Kelvin Newman contains some fantastic SEO link building strategies which are still relevant today. The resource provides a nice introduction to link building, and offers up plenty of food for thought.

Continue Reading: Some Great Link Building Strategies from an Expert at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.

Negative SEO and Faking Link Removal Notices

Wed, 16 May 2012 15:35:16 +0000

Yesterday I read an interesting post by Jon Cooper on negative SEO and faking link removal notices. Jon made a very good point after reading this post on how a legitimate website was contacted, and mistakenly ordered to remove hundreds of so called spammy links. Jon asked the question - What is stopping black hats from sending fake link removal notices?

Continue Reading: Negative SEO and Faking Link Removal Notices at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.

How to Build Links with Viral Marketing and Link Bait

Wed, 16 May 2012 10:08:02 +0000

I'd just like to thank my mum, my dad, all my friends, God...? No, but seriously. Wow. After just 3 days of launching my How to Rank #1 on Google parody on YouTube, it's been viewed 16,016 times and has been shared on major SEO websites

Continue Reading: How to Build Links with Viral Marketing and Link Bait at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.

How to Estimate Keyword Traffic from Google

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:36:00 +0000

I proved in a previous post, that the Adwords Keyword Tool is great for finding out how many searches are performed for a given keyword, in a given month, from any given location. However, how do we use this data to generate decent predictions on how much traffic we might receive at different ranking positions?

Continue Reading: How to Estimate Keyword Traffic from Google at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.

How to Create a Matt Cutts Google Mash up Video

Sat, 12 May 2012 16:30:00 +0000

I thought I'd have a go at making a funny video of Matt Cutts. For those of you that don't know, Matt is a Google engineer, and is currently head of the Google Webspam team. What started off as randomly browsing dozens of Google webmaster videos looking for potentially funny sentences like an immature 10 year old

Continue Reading: How to Create a Matt Cutts Google Mash up Video at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.

Google Now Displaying Schedules for Sporting Events

Thu, 10 May 2012 12:49:09 +0000

I'm a big motor sports fan, particularly Formula 1. Over the last couple of years it's really started getting interesting again. With the redesign of tires to increase degradation, strategy has become more important than ever.

Continue Reading: Google Now Displaying Schedules for Sporting Events at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.

How Accurate are the Keyword Tool Monthly Search Figures?

Tue, 08 May 2012 00:01:00 +0000

Let's define a couple of things here. Traffic is the number of visitors your website receives. Search volume is the number of people which search for a given keyword. They are two very different things. The Adwords Keyword Tool has no idea on your potential traffic.

Continue Reading: How Accurate are the Keyword Tool Monthly Search Figures? at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.

Rich Snippets: Great for Searchers but Bad for Webmasters?

Thu, 03 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

At the time of writing this, rich snippets certainly aren't new. They've been around for months now and I've seen many examples pop up on a day to day basis. Although there's no denying that rich snippets are great news for searchers, are they potentially bad news for webmasters?

Continue Reading: Rich Snippets: Great for Searchers but Bad for Webmasters? at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.

How I Started a Home Based Business in 3 Days

Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

My girlfriend was moaning (as usual) about her job the other day. She works in a customer-facing role and sometimes really doesn't want to get out of bed. We've all had that feeling right? But because I'm such a nice boyfriend, I decided to try and do something about it (plus it meant I might get some peace and quiet).

Continue Reading: How I Started a Home Based Business in 3 Days at Sam Applegate's SEO Consultant Blog.