Silicon Beach Training Blog

Train the Trainer: Why Trained Trainers Are Better at Training

Andy Trainer — Wed, 16 May 2012 07:30:59 +0000

Trainers, in any subject or field, should be trained themselves. This sounds obvious, and so is often overlooked when considering a training provider.

Recipients receiving training of any kind from academic to athletic to in-company usually make the assumption that their trainer is a qualified and knowledgeable trainer. However, not all trainers are experts at what they teach or how to teach it (Except ours of course, they’re all fantastic!).

We strongly believe that all trainers should be trained both in the subject they teach and how to teach it – we make sure our are! That is why we run our Train the Trainer course, a highly popular workshop that teaches the best-practice adult training approach. You can find more about the course at the bottom of this article or by following the link.

Why is it important for trainers to be trained?

Image courtesy of HikingArtist.com on Flickr

Expert Knowledge

It is important that trainers know what they are talking about – they should have a deep understanding of the subject the teach. Here are some of the reasons why:

People trust experts – Who would you side with if Professor Brian Cox and Jamie Oliver were having an argument about the cosmos? How about over recipes? The expert. For all we know Jamie might be a keen amateur astrologer and Prof. Cox might be a big fan of Saturday Kitchen, but the instinct is to go for the one with the experience, qualifications and success. This is why it is important for trainers to be experts in their fields. You wouldn’t be happy if you came on our blogging course and found out the trainer had never written a blog themselves! That’s why this will never happen and all our trainers know what they’re talking about.

Answering questions – Adults are not shy of asking questions during training sessions. The trainer must be able to answer their question or know how to find an answer. Simply having read the course materials themselves is not enough, if that’s all there was to training everyone would just go on the internet or open a book instead of attending courses! This is especially true for practical sessions as delegates are encouraged to try things out themselves and can sometimes come up with a variety of results.

Don’t bluff – It is usually obvious when somebody attempts to answer a question they don’t know the answer to. Even if they get away with it, the trainee will soon find out they’ve been given misinformation. It may be tempting to make up an answer to a question you don’t know to look more knowledgeable but actually it is far more valuable to admit you don’t know, and then find out the answer. You can then answer that question in future! While it is always better to know the answer already – experts know best – if you don’t, find out and don’t bluff!

Expert Training

It isn’t just expert knowledge that is important! As anyone who had a bad teacher in school will attest to, all the knowledge in the world won’t help you if you don’t know how to impart your wisdom to others. Great trainers know how to run great sessions. They know how to plan courses, speak to delegates, answer questions, explain difficult subject matter, encourage participation and ensure high pass rates for exams. Here are some of the attributes that make trainers great:

Patience - Having a patient instructor is crucial if delegates are going to learn anything. Trainers must be understanding that people don’t always get everything first time round and must be able to explain things patiently so that delegates are not left behind.

Involve delegates - Trainers are not lectures and they are not presenters. You might be able to get away with it in a one hour lesson but nobody wants to sit through a whole day (or more) of somebody talking at them. This can be achieved through practical approaches – having the delegates try out what they are learning – or by starting discussions and welcoming questions. Even asking delegates questions will make sure they are engaging with the course content.

Recognise different approaches - On a public course with 7-10 delegates (we don’t like to make them bigger and we will never over sell courses!) it is likely that there will be trainees from a range of backgrounds and careers. Trainers must recognise that they can’t teach a one size fits all course as different people will find different information useful. It is always best to encourage delegates to adapt their learning to their work environment. This will allow them to start implementing their new training as soon as they get back to work, rather than trying to discover how it all fits together themselves.

Structured flexibility - Yes, these words do fit together! It is all about planning. There must be a straight forward plan in place with different sections of the course fitted together and everything covered. However, all plans must allow for the chance that delegates need extra help in one area but are already proficient at another. Lessons plans must be structured so that the training course runs smoothly, but must also be flexible to allow for any changes on the day.

Here at Silicon Beach Training, we pride ourselves on quality and that is why all our trainers are experts in their field and know how to run engaging, useful and successful training sessions – just check out our feedback from clients!

Train the Trainer Training

Not everyone who is skilled in a subject can transfer those skills in a training environment. If you don’t feel confident teaching a class or aren’t sure how to structure your lessons then our incredibly popular Train the Trainer Workshop is perfect for you. The hands on course will help you:

Identify your strengths and weaknesses
Understand the differences between training and presenting
Realise the different between teaching children and adults
Practice your training techniques
Learn how to plan ahead

And much much more! Call us on 01273 622272 for more details.

Top Tips For eBook Marketing

Aaron Charlie — Mon, 14 May 2012 07:43:20 +0000

Nobody can deny that eBooks are rising and rising in popularity – for both consumers and writers/marketers. Consumers are being won over by the ease of using Kindles and the like, and even those who tried to stand by their love of ‘real’ books can’t argue that eBooks and associated devices are simply more convenient to use.

Writers, industry leaders and marketers have long been using eBooks as a quick and easy way to publish content. So long, in fact, that there are many published eBooks on offer that are badly written, designed, and under-marketed.

In a growing market, it’s not enough to throw something together, put it up on Amazon, and expect people to find and enjoy it.

A successful eBook can be a huge asset to a company’s marketing campaign – and effective marketing is needed to ensure the success of the eBook! Content needs to be well written and thoroughly edited, books need properly designed formats and images – and proper marketing needs to happen to ensure the books are found in the first place.

Training in internet marketing will teach you the techniques you need to help people find your content, whether this is a website, blog or eBook download. Here we give you some insights into the benefits of breaking into the cycle – and how to find your way in.

Benefits of eBooks for Businesses

eBooks can be very powerful marketing tools. As with other types of content marketing, they establish your company as industry leaders and showcase your expertise by giving the reader takeaway knowledge and understanding. You can also use them for some promotion of your own products and services – although this should not be the main focus.

Producing an eBook

eBook concept

When planning what will go in your eBook, think about how you will market it. You will need a niche in order to draw the proper attention. As mentioned above, there are a lot of eBooks out there, and you need yours to stand out – it won’t be enough to throw together a summary of everything you know and publish it as an eBook. You need to know that it will be something people will want – or need – to read. This will make marketing much easier.

Do research into which part of your expertise is under-represented in the eBook market. Be an early adopter – read blogs; see what people need to understand better, what they’re threatening to do or say they want to do – and have your book ready for when they do it.

Choose your platform early on – do you want this to be viewable/downloadable from your website on a computer, or through a mobile device such as a Kindle?

eBook design

One thing that is lacking from self-published work is design, design design. Most people who publish eBooks are authors or content marketers who are skilled at writing words but not at design.

Hiring a designer to help you with your eBook can cost hundreds or thousands of pounds – and that’s just for one project! Training in InDesign and/or an Illustrator course will give you the skills you need to for your eBook design – skills that you can use for future projects

We’ve written a detailed post on how to make an eBook for mobile devices with more of these excellent technical tips.

eBook content

Gamification is massive right now – websites, social networks and blogs are finding that the best content is interactive content. Include some kind of gamification in your content, e.g. questionnaires, crosswords, quizzes. These not only make the content rich and fun, but they can give the reader a self-empowered sense of having learned something – which makes them appreciate your worth.

Don’t publish bad content. This goes for websites, and eBooks as well. If you are publishing a book to market yourselves then make sure you are presented in the best possible light.

eBook price

If you’re publishing an eBook for the main purpose of marketing, then publish it for free. You’ll get your return through better reputation and industry status.

Marketing an eBook

Social Media

A well-written and designed eBook that targets an identified niche will be straightforward to market. Do your research whilst the book is still in production – find out who the biggest influencers are in the field and engage with them on social media.

Don’t forget the importance of real engagement when marketing on social media. It’s not just about tweeting all the time about how great your book is and how to download it. It’s about finding out what people are talking about, responding to them, becoming part of a community – and downloads will follow.

Reviews / Testimonials

Reviews are important for any publication, especially in a busy marketplace. Create a buzz by offering advance copies to relevant bloggers in return for a write up – this will bring links to your book’s landing page, as well as those all-important reviews.

As well as identifying and contacting bloggers for reviews, you can use your existing fans and followers – offer them advance copies in return for a review. Making them feel appreciated will mean they are more likely to favour your content than if they had to access it at the same time as everyone else.

SEO

The selling page for the eBook must rank well in Google and Bing results pages for relevant searches. The good news is that both engines say they will find you (and ensure your potential customers find you) if you publish the good content those customers are looking for. The bad news is that no-one quite knows how these search engines define ‘good content’ – which is why people undergo our SEO training courses to help their websites (and products) get noticed.

Your eBook will need its own well-designed landing page for SEO. This is imperative for conversions (downloads). Don’t just tack it onto the end of another page on your website – think it through.

Marketing for eBooks + eBooks for Marketing = Income

A well-written, professional-looking eBook should be straightforward to market – and generate income for your business. By making your marketing plan part of the writing process, and remembering the importance of quality design, you will be about to ensure the success of your eBook – and of your overall marketing campaign.

SEO, Social Media & Internet Marketing ‘Pick ‘n’ Mix’ Training Packages

Aaron Charlie — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:05:58 +0000

Here at Silicon Beach Training we have a great offer on our SEO, Social Media & Internet Marketing courses in Brighton. We recognise that these disciplines overlap more than ever and a well rounded marketing team must have experience in all areas to succeed.

Our 5 day ‘Pick ‘n’ Mix’ deal is just £945 + vat (normally £1,475). Pick from any of the courses below to create your own 5 day custom package:

You can take these courses at dates to suit you (visit the individual course pages for upcoming dates) or you can complete the training in the same week with one of our suggested packages. Call us on 01273 622272 to discuss availability.

Not sure which package to pick? Here is an overview of each course to help you understand how they work together as a complete online marketing package:

SEO Training – 1 day – £295 + vat

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is vital for all businesses with a website because the higher you rank in the search engines for your keywords, the more customers will come your way.

This course provides the basis for you to plan your own online campaign and will lead to a dramatic effect on your sites search rankings.

Search engines are always pushing towards human & quality signals for ranking and so Social Media and Content Marketing will complement your SEO efforts.

Social Media Training – 2 days – £495 + vat

This training course will teach you how and why to use social media (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest etc.) for your business. It will help you to engage with your customers, build your brand’s online presence and increase sales.

This course also gives a brief overview of how social media can affect your SEO and increase the visibility of your content.

Blogging & Content Marketing Training – 2 days – £295 + vat

Our SEO course teaches you that quality content is essential to high rankings, but what is classified as good content? And how do you market that content to an audience?

This course will teach you the fundamentals of writing for the internet and how to develop a content marketing strategy that will tie in with your SEO & social media.

Google AdWords Training - 1 day – £295 + vat

Sometimes, SEO is just not enough to ensure that your site is visible for the most competitive keywords. Natural rankings are also unpredictable and its never good to put all your eggs in one basket.

This AdWords course will show you how to set up an effective PPC (pay per click) campaign that improves your ROI (return on investment) when natural search results are not going your way.

Google Analytics Training – 1 day – £295 + vat

Google Analytics is a free tool for analysing your website and blog. This training course will teach you how to install Google Analytics, understand basic reports and set up your own filters and goals.

This Analytics course will also show you how to monitor your SEO, PPC, Social Media & Content Marketing campaigns.

Advanced Google Analytics Training – 1 day – £295 + vat

If you want to take your Analytics training to the next level or already have some experience using the tool, this course will teach you the more advanced features of Google Analytics.

Learn how to use reports more effectively, analyse visitor data to make measurable improvements and improve CTR (click through rate) and conversions.

WordPress Training – 2 days – £495 + vat

WordPress is a great, free tool to help you build your own website and get you on the web. This 2 day course will lead you through the process of setting up your WordPress site, how to manage your site and much more.

While this course will teach your how to use WordPress, it won’t show you what to write or how to market your site effectively. Content marketing, SEO, PPC & social media are all useful skills to have to make sure that your site is visible to potential users. We also recommend Google Analytics for analysing your website.

Advanced WordPress Training – 1 day – £295 + vat

This advanced training course is for users of WordPress who want to learn more in-depth knowledge about this great web site builder. Attendees will learn how to customise their existing WordPress Theme, create new WordPress templates and more.

As you develop your WordPress site you may be interested in our HTML5 and CSS3 courses, which will show you how to create websites using the industry’s latest standards for web design.

Email Marketing Training – 1 day – £295 + vat

On completion of this Email Marketing course you will be able to deliver a successful email marketing campaign from planning through to delivery.

You will also learn how to create an opt-in list, how to design your campaign and be confident enough to try out advanced methods for your own email marketing strategy.

HTML Emails Training – 1 day – £295 + vat

Once you have learnt how to set up effective email marketing campaigns you will want to make sure that your emails stand out from the crowd.

Our HTML Emails course will teach you how to create attractive email templates that can be reused throughout a campaign.

New Google AdWords Training Course – Why You Need PPC

Aaron Charlie — Tue, 08 May 2012 07:49:11 +0000

In the ever-changing world of SEO, a constant is needed – a way of guaranteeing that your company will appear at the top of Google page 1. With that in mind, we are happy to announce our new Google AdWords training course - to give you the opportunity for a more rounded SEO campaign that doesn’t rely purely on organic rankings.

This 1-day course will teach you to set up a brand new campaign, or revitalise an under-used one, in order to drive highly targeted traffic to your site.

The first public course is running on 25th July 2012 for £295 + vat.

It can be taken as part of our Pick ‘n’ Mix SEO and Social Media package – select another 4 days of related training to go with your Google AdWords course and pay just £945 + vat (a saving of up to £650!).

We also offer private and in-company Google AdWords training. For more information, or to book, call 01273 622272.

Ever heard of the adage “Don’t wait until you’re thirsty to dig the well”?

This piece of advice very much applies to businesses and search marketers who depend on Google search results for their livelihood. Rankings can drop significantly in no time, as happened last week with the Google Penguin update (the catchier name given to something previously only known as the Webspam Algorithm Update).

As with the Panda update last year, businesses that had been riding high on page one suddenly found themselves disappearing from SERPs – with little idea of why and how to recover. These are the times we find increased demand for Google AdWords training and, as ever, we’re happy to meet this demand.

Think You Don’t Need AdWords? Think Again

At Silicon Beach Training, we provide SEO training using white hat techniques founded on the Google Webmaster Guidelines – to protect our delegates against Google algorithm changes.

The benefits of appearing on page 1 are absolutely beyond debate – as proven by the response to last week’s Penguin algorithm update.

Those who found their rankings dropped had to consider the possibility that they had, knowingly or unknowingly, broken the Webmaster Guidelines – and Google had now caught up with them. It takes time for those affected to identify why they were penalised and to recover lost rankings.

Having already had training in using Google AdWords means you can quickly switch on, or increase, your Pay Per Click campaigns to protect your business if your ranking drops.

A vast proportion of businesses have no Google AdWords account, or one they don’t fully know how to use. Training in Google AdWords is vital to ensure you have a full knowledge of how to use the product – before it is needed!

Benefits of Google AdWords

Google AdWords allows you to advertise your site on Google and associated networks. It allows your Ads to appear only for targeted users, on a Pay Per Click basis. The success of the Ads can be tracked, analysed and adjusted to ensure maximum ROI. You can set daily budgets and maximum costs per click so it can be used on a small or large scale.

Once you have an AdWords account, the relevant tracking codes on your website, and training in how to make best use of the product; you can switch campaigns on and off as you wish – allowing real flexibility in the long term, or as a short-term response to a drop in rankings.

PPC and SEO Working Together

Pay Per Click advertising is a great way to ensure you appear on the first page of relevant SERPs, either as well as or as a back up to organic SEO.

Google AdWords is an important tool that all businesses must have at their disposal – without it, huge amounts of revenue can be lost from algorithm changes.

What the SEO world has learned – again – this week is not to take good rankings for granted. You don’t know what’s round the corner, and a number 1 spot one day could become number 50 the next.

Having training in Google AdWords under your belt, whether to use straight after the course or as a back-up plan, is crucial for any business that relies partly or fully on SEO.

5 Benefits of Health and Safety Training

Liza Baron — Wed, 02 May 2012 07:30:49 +0000

Meeting government requirements for Health and Safety, of course, has the ultimate goal of protecting your employees from harm. You would not want a workplace accident on your conscience; or to feel responsible for long-term effects from work on someone’s health.

Further to this, having staff trained in IOSH Managing Safely means reduced insurance premiums, enhanced local reputation, increased productivity, reduced absence, and protects you against legal costs – or even imprisonment!

Within the company, the role of managing health and safety usually falls to a manager or supervisor. It is vital that they undertake training in Health and Safety law and practices in order to fulfil this role and protect the rest of the staff.

Here’s some more on those ways that following Health and Safety practices can benefit your business:

1. Reduced Insurance Premiums

Proving that you have managers who are trained in Health and Safety issues will reduce your insurance premiums because, of course, it means you are less likely to make a claim. Not only that, but the actions taken to prevent injury or illness will mean those premiums stay low because no claims are made.

2. Enhanced Reputation

Take this as an example: One in four call centre staff say they suffer problems with their throat and voice as a result of inadequate health and safety consideration. Not only is this going to increase costs in terms of covering their absences, it can severely impact the reputation of the business.

Imagine that a young call centre agent texts her mum to say she can’t speak to her on the phone as planned because of discomfort caused by her job. Her mum may tell a neighbour that she hasn’t spoken to her daughter for a while, the neighbour asks why, the mum tells a them that it’s because of her job at Company X – and they then chat about how irresponsible it is for that company to put their staff in that position. Word spreads from there and, very soon, people won’t want to buy your products or work for you.

Conversely, if an employee feels that they are looked after, they will tell people. You’ll then have more competition for employment – and more people buying your products.

3. Increased Productivity

A staff member who experiences back, hand or wrist ache as a result of sitting at a computer may not always have the confidence or awareness to raise it as an issue. Instead, they may suffer in silence and work more slowly than usual, with more unofficial breaks to manage the pain.

A thorough health and safety audit by a trained manager will check for this sort of occurrence. Once identified, action will be taken to ensure this person is protected from this kind of injury and that they have the resources to be as productive as possible.

4. Reduced Absence

A manager who is trained in IOSH Health and Safety practices will be in a position to reduce illness and absence. For example, knowledge of allowed working temperatures and required washing facilities could prevent viruses spreading and causing sick leave.

5. Legal Protection Against Damages

With or without formal policy (which is a legal requirement of anywhere that employs more than five people), all companies must take reasonable steps to protect the health of their staff.

A business owner who is proven to have been negligent in protecting their staff against accident or illness can be held personally responsible; fined and even imprisoned. IOSH Managing Safely techniques will ensure that any minor incidents are documented and investigated, thus reducing the chance of injury and subsequent claims.

Workplace accident insurance will cover some types of claim in some circumstances but, even with insurance, you will always need to prove that reasonable preventative steps were taken. Insurance payouts often don’t cover all costs involved in accidents, e.g. equipment repairs or to cover lost profits.

The cost and time spent on Health and Safety training and measures are tiny when compared to the potential damages from workplace accident or work-related ill health.

Why Experts Aren’t Always Great Managers – Tips For Promoting From Within

Liza Baron — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 07:41:39 +0000

A recent blog post by Scott Weiss on Tech Crunch strongly advised readers to ‘Never, ever promote from within’. This is a bold statement which was ultimately retracted within the text – the article itself went on to touch on individual differences within organisations, the suitability of some workers making the transition to management, and what to do if a promotion doesn’t work out.

Our Management Skills for New Managers course helps make that transition go smoothly. Management is a skill that must be learned; giving someone the title of manager gives them only the permission – not the ability – to manage.

Business owners must be aware of the different skills required by managers and trainers (we also offer a Train the Trainer course) and the importance of effective leadership skills for both roles. Someone who is a great trainer may not be suited for management, and vice versa. It’s important to consider these individual differences when considering who to promote to which role.

Alan Shearer: Great footballer...

Who to Promote?

What to Look For

It helps a manager to be an expert in their field but it’s not always essential. Look for those – in the team and in other teams – with good communication skills and who show signs of leadership; nurturing and motivating others. Management training will teach the theory and use of these skills, but previous sign of management instinct is invaluable.

Who Not to Overlook

Foregoing someone a promotion to management because they’re good at their existing job is a decision that comes with a whole herd of ramifications. Almost everyone wants to have opportunities to move up, or even sideways, and if you don’t give them those opportunities then you risk losing them altogether to another company.

The example given in the Tech Crunch article of losing your best salesman by promoting them to sales manager seems valid on the surface, but is by no means comprehensive.

Promoting someone to management because they are the best salesman is naïve. Promoting them because they are the best salesman AND they show promise of leadership skills AND because you think they can motivate others to improve, is a different story.

By doing that, you gain a great manager with knowledge in the field and you potentially gain improved knowledge for the rest of your workforce.

Hands up who wants to be manager?

When the Wrong Person Wants the Role

Don’t be blackmailed. Yes, people may move elsewhere if they are not given the promotions they are hoping for – but as long as you promote an atmosphere of opportunity for the right candidate then you’ll keep the trust and support of your staff.

When promoting from within, invite applications – it may throw up some unexpected candidates and will also protect you from suspicion of discrimination.

If you know someone is hoping to progress within your organisation, but you genuinely don’t think they can be an effective manager, look elsewhere for additional responsibility to give them.

Can they learn any new skills within – or on behalf of – the organisation? For example, a social media course, health and safety, project management – all important business skills that companies don’t always make time for.

The Transition to Management

The number one rule – and the underlying point of the Tech Crunch article – is that you can’t just take someone from their team and expect them to lead it. No matter how much knowledge they have or what management potential they show, they’ll need support in and training for their new role.

The Importance of Finding a Balance

Management requires the ability to balance the needs of the team and the needs of the business. Without training, every new manager will fall too far in one direction – usually by focusing too much on the business side as they feel the need to impress those above them.

This imbalance often takes the form of micromanagement, so new managers need to be trained in how to identify their management style, and then how to improve it.

For example, the distinction between delegating and dictating is rarely instinctive. New managers often need to be taught that delegating empowers staff and lightens the load on the manager, while dictating reduces employee capability.

Establishing the New Role

Those new to management can often feel isolated and need guidance in how to establish new, healthy relationships with the team they were once part of.

Learning New Skills

More specifically, skills such as judging performance, conducting appraisals, motivating, managing conflict, and dealing with disciplinary issues don’t just come out of nowhere. For the new manager to thrive – and for your business to get the most benefit – they need guidance and training for the new role.

Will SEO Always Be About the Numbers?

Heather Buckley — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 07:30:06 +0000

Being sponsors of Brighton SEO 2012, I was invited to attend the speaker/sponsor dinner the previous evening. I found myself sitting opposite Pierre Far, Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google. As providers of SEO training we are always updating our courses to keep them relevant (this has kept us quite busy lately) so it was a good opportunity to speak to a real Google representative about search.

I have thought for a long time that Google is now going in the right direction, although it’s a direction that has been tough for many SEO agencies. Suddenly their world has been turned upside-down. Previous link building schemes have stopped working and many believe some previously beneficial links now have a negative effect on page rank. Content marketing has become more about quality than quantity, and the former is much harder to achieve than the latter. Previous on-page optimisation practices have become almost irrelevant and over-optimisation has become a potential threat.

Social sharing, liking, tweeting, +1ing have become powerful indicators to the Google engine when it calculates what to serve up. The social influence of those sharing has also become significant. This was confirmed by Pierre during the “Ask the Engines” session at BrightonSEO.

Though Google will not admit to anything when it comes to the strength of these signals, it’s safe to say that that the algorithm is being developed to recognise human behavioural indicators to determine whether or not a webpage/site is worth looking at. It also takes into consideration what the user does when and after they click on a link to try and determine whether or not the searcher is pleased with Google’s results.

So important indicators of quality that we can monitor in Google Analytics, numbers that perhaps we don’t pay enough attention to are:

Did they stay long on your page/site?
Did they click through to another page on your site?
Did they come back to your site?
Did they click on your listing when your result appeared in their search results?

I started a conversation with Pierre about how the changes in the algorithm are great – how creating great and unique content that is “share worthy” and encourages users to engage with your website and content is soooooo much more fun than link building.

I put it this way to Pierre: I think it’s brilliant that Google are getting so much better at recognising legitimate user behaviour, both from their interaction with a site once they arrive and their use of social networks. I suggested that “Google uses user behaviour metrics to indicate quality and to influence search results.”

Pierre’s response to this was “What does that even mean? I wish the SEO industry would stop thinking about the numbers.” He added that he and Matt Cutts had discussed this very same issue not long ago. He suggested that if you think about the numbers, you may think that buying a load of Plus Ones is going to be good for your page rank. If you simply focus on your content and nothing else, making sure that your users get exactly what they want and the quality is good, then that is all you need to do. That is what we teach here at Silicon Beach Training, and we practice what we preach. Google seems to be rewarding us well for our efforts – it definitely works. However, business owners need to make a profit, they need to rank reasonably well for important keywords, and they now need to pay people to create this killer content. Of course it’s still about the numbers.

This is where I think the SEO industry and Google will always disagree. I can understand how the web spam team strive towards the utopian dream of a search engine that can always detect exceptional quality, relevant content, and reject thin, poor quality web spam. Google wants to be the best search engine at serving up the most relevant, exciting and exceptional content out of the 50 billion web pages it may have in its index.

It’s true that Google just gets better and better at this, and that Web Masters and SEO agencies can experience some surprising results when they do focus on quality, sharablilty and uniqueness – but, in my opinion, it still is and will always be about the numbers. Why are we all suddenly striving to publish the shiniest, best, most entertaining, eye-catching and useful content in the world? Because we are playing with the numbers. I don’t deny the importance of a great user experience. When a potential client arrives at our site we want them to come back because they think we are knowledgeable, professional, interesting and trustworthy enough to offer great value when they make a decision to purchase a training course. I’m just pointing out that that is only half of the story, we need people to be able to find us first in order to have the opportunity to prove ourselves worthy.

When the difference between a top 4 position and a page 2 position, over time, can mean a difference in turnover of thousands or even millions of pounds, how can it ever not be about the numbers? If the number of social shares, social links, quality links from relevant, reputable and authoritative websites (in the eyes of the Google search engine) all add up to sink or float your content, how can it not be about the numbers?

The Google Search Engine is a machine; it’s been around a long time now and has been honed and refined constantly to serve better results. The data that is available to Google is mind-blowingly colossal. Google constantly monitors the human response to the content it indexes, it’s getting smarter, more sophisticated, but it is still not human – it’s an algorithm, it records data, calculates numbers, and serves results.

I can understand why Google would adopt the mantra “it’s not about the numbers”; they don’t want black hatters to make money out of selling and buying links, tweets and plus ones.

Google needs be able to differentiate between 500 +1’s purchased from a dubious source, all coming from different IP addresses at different times, and a genuinely brilliant piece of journalism, information, art or video that naturally and organically gains traction because of its quality. I do know, as Pierre mentioned at BrightonSEO, that velocity of sharing, and that the reach and influence of those who share your content and post your links will now affect how Google calculates the quality of your content.

That is why the use of Rich Snippets and the rel=author markup is now important. I think that Rel=author is one of the most significant trust signals available. If you are consistently publishing quality content that gets social shares, attracts links and appears on relevant and respected websites then you’re sending great signals to Google. Added to this if the links and shares come from other influential authors, then Google can use this to attach a value to your content that should be much higher than the value of spam and poor quality content.

I believe that these factors will become even more relevant, and buying numbers in the form of links, shares, likes, friends, followers or tweets will become less effective. I hope so.

The focus of any good SEO agency should now be about finding ways of getting legitimate links and shares. The only way to get them is to keep producing great content, mark it up for the search engines to validate it, and become socially engaged with the right people.

While we are singing from the same hymn sheet at last, I still think– “It will always be about the numbers.”

Is the Mobile Patent War Finally Coming to an End?

Liza Baron — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 07:30:08 +0000

In the fast-growing market of smartphone and tablet software development, big companies including Apple, Microsoft, Google, Motorola and Samsung have been rushing to patent software that they have not yet developed. When another company comes along with that software, legal action is taken to stop them selling their products.

Last year we wrote about the law suit over patents by Motorola where they stopped imports of iPhones and iPads by Apple to Germany.

The saga’s been back in the news this week, and it looks like the courts are getting bored – Apple and Samsung bosses have been ordered to resolve their messy patent disputes between themselves. This is great news for smaller-scale developers – and consumers.

It seems that many mobile software patents have ceased to be about protecting intellectual property, and become more about making life difficult for competitors. By taking the dispute out of the courtroom, these big companies will be forced to co-operate and – hopefully – competition will become fair again.

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The Battle So Far

By looking at just a few examples of big company behaviour with regards to patents, we can see why courts are getting tired.

Google Acquisition of Motorola

Google bought Motorola Mobility for $12.5billion in August 2011, thus acquiring the rights to a vast amount of patents owned by the brand. Whilst Google has not, to date, sued anyone for breach of copyright; getting ownership of these patents was significant to the advancement of the Android platform.

Google’s CEO, Larry Page, said on the Google blog that the deal allows Android to defend itself from “anti-competitive patent attacks”, i.e. over patents from companies such as Apple and Microsoft.

Apple vs. Motorola –Slide-to-Unlock

Apple won a law suit in Germany against Motorola this year, over Motorola’s ‘copying’ of the patented ‘slide-to-unlock’ feature. Motorola had to implement a new unlocking system, but claimed there would be no effect on sales.

Google and Oracle

This month, Larry Page was in court with Google accused of stealing bits of the Java platform to build its Android software. He insisted that Google had only used the open parts of the Java software (“we were very careful about what information we used and what we did not use”) – and that a previous interest in partnering with Sun Microsystems (now owned by Oracle) was irrelevant. (As reported on The Guardian Online)

What the Apple-Samsung Case Means for Developers and Consumers

Apple’s suit says that the Galaxy phone and tablet infringe patents and the trademark shapes of the iPhone and iPad designs – and was followed by a counter-suit from Samsung, who said their own technological patents had been infringed. The court has decided that the CEOs of Apple and Samsung must meet in the next 90 days to settle these matters.

It could be said that, by suing Samsung, Apple are attacking Google by proxy; as Samsung devices run on the Android open software – which profits Google.

What these companies seem to forget is how their actions may affect their brand reputation. The consumers want the products they want, e.g. the German market wanted iPads and iPhones. If – or when – the consumer realises that brand X is the reason they can’t buy brand Y, their opinion of X goes down – and this must have an effect on sales and profits.

More importantly, when a company registers a patent for a software they may never develop, it stops other companies developing it and means the consumers may never get value from that software. Clearly, the big companies like Apple and Google should only, ethically, be allowed to patent things they have the resource and inclination to fulfil. Otherwise, this anti-competitiveness becomes a war that the smaller developers have no chance of surviving.

Rulings like this latest one means that those who develop their own software in good faith are less likely to accidentally find themselves stepping on the toes of Google and the like.

By battling over intellectual property, the big businesses are forgetting the collateral damage – the consumer. With any luck, the step taken by the courts over the Apple-Samsung dispute will force a first step towards a more long-term peace treaty amongst developers.