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Organic SEO

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 17:39:48 +0000

Organic SEO

Black Hat SEO: Is this the Future of Search? Scott Berinato @ Techworld

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:28:35 +0100

I’ve thought for a while that if search engines allow user created algorithms then ranking on merit is more likely and Black Hat SEO is less likely.

Scott’s article (http://tinyurl.com/32ry5ok ) really inspired a discussion of how Blackhat seo is pressurising Google to make some tough decisions everyday on how to evade the money grabbing blackhatters in Seo.

The issue is alway has always been keeping the algorithms a secret, the reality is algorithm isn’t ever going to be as clever as human wit - which asks is manual search results the better result and isn’t social media creating manual search results the best?

Asking the user to optimise there own search results is a technique in place with the new search engine Blekko. By user preference being added search becomes individual and overall eradicates the desire for pagerank from companies and responds to what the user asks instead. i.e…

1. initiate a search engine user once,

2. Ask the user for requests [similar to ebay product search]. - the latest, - the lowest price, - reviewed only.

3. Create a quick log-in to a cloud from then on.

4. get companies to initiate in a search engine similarly.

5. Call this ‘Google arm’ or brand it the opportunity for your own.

The danger is if search doesn’t do this then they lose out to social networks where word of mouth thrives and in my opinion white hat seo is flocking to for rewards.

Is Twitter For Marketers Or For PRs?

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Twitter is for marketers to analyze, measure and suggest - Twitter is for PR’s to express and provide upon the given.”Similarly, if a client wants social pr seo I give all 3 starting with an Seo strategy, developing this into a method of PR and adding a twist necessary for social media networks.

It is doing one thing well that works. The contradiction is that the ‘one thing well’ should be the message of the product.

http://www.chairblog.eu/2010/06/25/murakami-chair-by-rochus-jacob...

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:15:50 +0100

http://www.chairblog.eu/2010/06/25/murakami-chair-by-rochus-jacob/

Will Social Media Work For Me? (Rory @ Anglia & Midland Sports Ltd)

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 10:59:33 +0100

You can identify where your audience is socialising online through google searches such as Garden tennis “forums”/forum which brought the following up….

http://www.ltmn.com/forums/

http://www.tennisforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=210

or, private tennis court “forum” …

http://www.centrecourtmag.com/forum/

How about contacting your old clients and putting them in contact with each other for a “home tennis court championship” competition. We can have a site up and running where they go and submit entrants to and suggest further players. This is something easily applied through the bigger social channels like Facebook where we can identify audiences on Facebook and rally Digital PR for a private “home tennis court championship”.

With social media it’s about making your “own luck”!

“General Election 2010: What Did Go Wrong with Social Media?” (guillaume @NudgeSocialMedia.com)

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:27:00 +0100

I believe what went wrong with social media’s at the general elections was ‘time’. It takes time to build an effective social media campaign - it isn’t as mass or instant as say Television and the electorate didn’t have 1 year to campaign like Obama and his counterparts.

I don’t think social media is a dotcom boom/bust scenerio just mis-understood sometimes as ‘mass’ instead of ‘me niche’ media.

Can Twitter and Facebook really help increase sales for small businesses? (Anouska Hudovsky @ fabulousmasterpieces.co.uk)

Mon, 10 May 2010 11:40:44 +0100

Hello Anouska,

Social media is very wide. You can expect to find significantly important ‘groups’ of clients on networks all over the internet. I often advise businesses to look 1st at where the competitors are ‘socialising’ to find sales.

The best social frame of mind to be in is to get something out of socializing online - rather than purely on the basis of selling. Often it could be sharing knowledge that you have and perhaps learning from others.

The question therefore is sometimes “what can I share”, “who could I help online” and “wheres the debate?”. Here are some examples…

artistsandmakers.com

art-networks.net

Alltradeart.com

saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artforum/saatchi_forums

movethat.co.uk/London/Forum/Art_Club/

flickr.com/groups/artdirectory/

The idea of online socialising is not necessarily about updates or profiting. It is about visibility within your industry. This could involve downloading tools such as Tweetie or Tweet deck and searching twitter for alliances. It could be about starting a debate or finding answers to questions you want to know; like “do people still want the ‘classics’ in their homes?” “Do artists look to the classics for inspiration?” - In these debates it is possible to profitably open out your target audience online, establish your brand [profitably] as ‘the thinker’.

There is more chance through social networking to gain precous links that increase your ranking through search engines on new terms. This is profitable.

I hope this helps. The main advice I want to share is by finding your own way and pioneering your own social outcomes e.g. a new ‘We love Constable’ fabulous master piece.co.uk web page resource with a Facebook fan group attached is ideal. - Get the fans, interact with them and create an ‘environment’ on your site that helps these fans ‘find more’. For more resource ideas - visit socialprseo.com

Warm Regards,

Max

Battersea Power Station, London

Thu, 06 May 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Battersea Power Station, London

Help! I need to generate more enquiries from my site. (Paul @ hobdayconsultants.co.uk

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 08:43:28 +0100

Hello Paul,
Type “health and safety at work bristol” into google and list the results. This is the core of trade body links that you’ll need to build on.

Take a look at “health and safety training bristol” by typing this into google and list the results - these are your core competitors.

Now that we have these let’s ‘benchmark’ against your competitors [what ‘links’ do they have, what marketing do they do?]. After assessing this lets find a way you can start linking to or be recognised by the main local trade bodies online.

Get involved in building better on-page optimised pages against keywords. Off-page - there are directories like bristol online, approved network and yell which may help too.

My plan of action would be to find your niche amongst what keywords you’re striving for and target these particularly hard. It is obvious that we can do more to abilitate this and the reality is you will need ‘SEO’ discipline throughout your site and you’ll need to start finding a greater number of relevant links to your site off-page.

Links are the equity online and as such look for a resource you can create online which attracts local links and more traffic. Syndicate resources to get the coverage you deserve. An example of this is to syndicate your advice as a pdf to download [base it on the hse leaflet] and in my opinion start building a social presence by finding businesses in networks and offering the free download and free consultancy.

You have the resources. You just need to syndicate on a greater scale and make ‘you’ one personality of a very ‘cool’ company to work with.

My advice is tackle the consumers problem and your own problems will dissolve. Do this by adding socially online a personality and making your advice useful off-page in the greater world of opportunity

Max

I am finding it hard to find myself in google listings. The site passes WC3 coding and all css is fine, what do I do? (Phil @ LightweightMovers.co.uk

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 09:50:00 +0100

Hello Phil,

To help get your head around your on-page optimisation it is an excellent idea to perform a websitegrader.com analysis. It is free and points out things such as Title tag errors (e.g. title tags are in order of importance, you should start each title tag with a keyword, this is new opportunities to gear the site for rankings).

The analysis from Website Grader is a good start. It scores sites out of 100.

Take a step back and define where you want to arrive on Google search engine results pages. In order to properly serve your clientele I would suggest long tail keyword concentration e.g. “local area ‘x’ debt collection”.

In order to do this effectively why not create pages per long tail key phrase [do not duplicate content on each page as it is against google ethics - instead provide iterations of words in sentences] and write a paragraph on the homepage to convey where you cover and text link to each area page.

This then provides on-page resources to each area, is helpful to the end user and if each page is properly optimised to the long tail keyword you should in no time collect all the long tail search queries which people search for.

In order to get you local links to businesses. Why not perform local ‘linkbaits’ where on these new pages you build guides at the base of the page to affiliating services. By then contacting each business you’re spreading word and building local links which is the equity to online rankings.

Warm Regards,

Max

ps. Try Wordstream’s trial for there keyword tools! Google Keyword Tools aren’t as widely creative or UK specific that’s the only issue.

Another Google tool is wonder wheel. This is something I use to write copy for clients.

1. Do a search in Google

2. Click top left on ‘Show Options’

3. Scroll to wonder Wheel and click…. this gives you a peak into Googles copy based algarithm of associated words.

I have a debt collection agency. I would like to send a letter to our prospective clients but i have no idea on how to write a first contact letter. (Stephen @ DS Debt Collection)

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 08:37:00 +0100

You have 10 seconds to grab “impact”. Another 20 seconds to apply “relevance”.

e.g. I used to use T and C debt colection because they were professional, ‘no debt too small, we’ll collect’.

Perform a needs analysis as much as you can and define properly what your most profitable client would need and desire in a service. The personal touch still works so perhaps split your data into industries and gear a specialist service - which equats to a niche and less competition.

… reminding people of their rights is critical. Bring some authority to your communication and enforce the best value a debt collection company has.

Images. Don’t forget that the right images will immediately strengthen the values and communication impact.

Max

"If I’d Asked What People Wanted They’d Have Said Faster Horses."

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:39:00 +0100

“If I’d Asked What People Wanted They’d Have Said Faster Horses.”

- [1918: Henry Ford]

I own/run a restaurant directory. I need to make some big decisions. I need to get my company exposed at a rapid rate but don't think leaflets, salesmen, mail shoots will do it.

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 22:43:00 +0100

This may be a confusing comment. But is it worth purely concentrating on the target audience? This will kill both birds… try a leaflet that restaurateurs will put in their window or want to remind customers to fill out, maybe supply all restaurants with a voting pack and hold a tough specialist competition per cuisine.

My favourite chance is to be the 1st at something… write to the waitress’s or waiters and ask them to review the customers, allow video reviews of restaurants for the first time… have purely photo writeups ~ sound writeups.

Be the first and do so with an honour no one expected.

Warm Regards,

Max

If I approach Tesco, Sainsburys what sort of revenue would I look to obtain for advertising?(Anna @ supermarketwinereviews.com)

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:25:00 +0100

The big guys like Tesco and Sainsbury’s may look to work on a CPM basis. In which case at the rate of £250 per thousand impressions. Otherwise stick to 10 a cpc.

You’re best actually approaching Laithwaites and such like for advertising. In my opinion the big boys will negotiate on ‘editorial’ and raised rankings which you should see as unethical in your quest.

What if you went to them with a ‘white label’ idea, setup a specific reader review/top of the retailers selection page? I love the idea of making more of the categories (i.e Sainsbury’s) by expanding via price and region. The keyword cloud you have might not be enough you see.

I would approach retailers and say that you’ll expand their category if entering a deal that is good for both parties… i.e. exclusives and payment upon leads.

Meantime Affiliatewindow hosts Laithwaites and other wine brands. Perhaps this is a good start.

I have quite a few links on my link page on my site but not sure if they are any good? (Sarah Burns @ jewellery2clear.co.uk

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 18:57:00 +0000

I couldn’t see all too much in the way of quality inbound links to your site and this is the important link strategy to implement. Great site by the way, much nicer than your competitors like Glitzysecrets and Madaboutjewelry.

For inbound links try…

fancieface.com

victorianelegancejewelry.com

eveningelegance.com

Is it best to only link with other sites that have the same keywords that I am trying to optimise?

Stick to relavant pages to your keywords on sites with a good rank (could be any high ranking site like a newspaper or product blog, the power is in the page’s relevance), directories are a good start. Try to contact webmasters and appoint “costume Jewelry” as the linking text - this will increase as Jon calls too ‘the link juice’. shopsonthenet.com handbag.com resourcemecca.com … these are suggestions I nabbed from your high ranking competitors.

Should I only have links from these people without linking back to them?

Do link back to your fellow sites but know that this will be regarded as a reciprocal link and although a good trade between sites it’s not good trade to the eyes of search engines who’ll take it as reciprocal… I could recommend you block your outbound links and make them ‘No Folllow” - this is a html coding devise.

When I ask for a link how do I go about doing this and what to say to them?

The best plan for you may be a ‘custumer’ guide - “head to toe part 1 - guide to Easter decor”. This is whats known as a linkbait. Formulate the guide (have fun doing it, god knows we do), feature many other brands and companie you admire/desire, write and call to announce your guide and tell them you’ve featured them in your guide, Q1 would they like a copy of the guide on their blog or on their newsletter and hopefully 10% will accept which creates relevant links from relavant content from relevant sites.

Warm Regards,

Max

How do I make money from my staged photos? (Jeff @ dotsandspots.biz )

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:12:00 +0000

Hello Jeff,
istockphoto.com have a photographer’s ‘Sell Stock Photography’ ability where you can resell images and have your own profile. I like this very much in your case because the return and availability from searchers is good… you just have to pass the test thats all.

Incidently. They look for ‘subject’ shots so you’ll fit in nicely there. Another suggestion is cafepress.co.uk

It’s an “all or nothing” opportunity. Work hard on the keywords - attaching as many keywords to the individual photo as possible is the most driven way to get results.

One word of caution. No edited, out of focus, high exposed images are accepted.

Warm Regards,

Max

How do we get an extra % sales from our landing page? (Patrick @ Self Help Works inc.)

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:43:00 +0000

If you’re in the business of winning conversions then it’s best practice to make a competition out of your own successes, you know - raise the bar!!

Adverts, landing page images, text and calligraphy all should be rejigged on separate landing pages and monitored within a competitive period [do not duplicate - bad for rankings]. Why? Being content with one page isn’t going the extra 1% that as a business you’re constantly looking for.

Competition raises the game and competition is always looking for new answers… think of it as a market research excercise.

How do you monitor the success of individual wins though? Use Google analytics or if you’re struggling and want someething quick and easy then use statcounter.com.

This is the same for articles. rejig an article and resubmit… fresh content keeps you fresh and if a particular article works then exploit and improve it through the same channel.

The best tip for both content success and off-page article success is to make the resource and your ‘environment’ relevant to current affairs…

How?

Take a look at what events and opportunities are nearing. Emulate the story and bend the focus towards your product. In a nutshell, provide the news before the news networks.

e.g David Beckham is 35 on May 2nd. Should he be looking for a new career in xxx, or looking for a new holiday in xxx.

e.g. 2nd MAy is annual London Lifeboat week. Story… Should Londoners take to the thames and save the environment, or should they start at home and buy solar panels.

That’s good PR, good marketing and the excellent work.

Warm Regards,

Max

A guide to online Blogs and submitting resources.

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:50:42 +0000

A guide to online Blogs and submitting resources.

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Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:49:38 +0000

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