Search Engine Optimization Ireland - O'Mahony Donnelly

Think Before You Pay for an Online Directory Listing

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:24:00 +0000

Before you read this post, you may want to know my opinion on how to build a good business model. For a full account see my guest post on the Irish Internet Association blog Can an Ethical Online Business be a Successful Online Business? Here I pretty much say that developing solid long term relationships, providing value to your customers, is the best business model -- and one that you can be proud of. I've never been a fan of online directories. I believe that many people that start up online directories do so because they see easy pickings amongst small businesses desperate to get more visitors to their websites, but I do realise that this isn't the case for all online directories. Some genuinely believe they have a good idea and either go about it poorly or are out classed by the competition. Of course some, the vast minority, have a brilliant business idea that will help their customers as well as themselves.

General International Web Directories That Have Survived
Two international web directories that are still around from the earlier days of the Internet are Yahoo Directory and
The Open Directory Project. Both have been considered good links to have to help your Google results, but that may soon change.
- A few years back Yahoo started charging $299/year for new listings. I still recommend to new site owners to pay for one year to help get a jump start with search engine results, but the importance of the Directory for it's own sake is waning and it's value to Google may follow, especially as Yahoo has teamed up with Microsoft for it's search results.
- The Open Directory was once considered a link builder's best friend. Listings were easy to add and free and it feeds the Google Directory. A few years back it started taking ages to get a listing reviewed for inclusion and eventually it became known that, due to a lack of editors, some categories were not being reviewed at all, so many have given up submitting. Others have realised that if they volunteer to be an editor in their own category, they can keep the directory going and get their site included.

Other directories from those early days either no longer exist or are completely insignificant.

Irish General Web Directories
When I first moved to Ireland and started a web design business The Doras Directory was the main Irish online directory. It was good because 1) it was Irish when there wasn't a lot of pure Irish content and 2)they reviewed each site and you'd get a rating in shamrocks you could note on your site. So what happened to Doras? At some point Eircom decided to start charging for submissions (some say that they threatened some sites to pay up or be delisted) and the overall quality of the directory went downhill and then eventually disappeared.

This has been the fate of most of the lesser online directories that have been put onto the Internet, so...

Why do people still keep starting up new online directories?
1) It's a good project for an up and coming web designer, or as a marketing tool for an existing web development/online marketing company. If you don't have a portfolio of sites, what do you show prospective clients? You come up with your own project ideas and online directories are a natural choice. When I first moved to Ireland I found it really difficult to find out when and where activities and events were going on so one of my first web design projects was a directory of events going on in West Cork: West Cork Week. It was hard work getting all the listings together and keeping them up to date. The natural progression was then to create West Cork Directory - listings of businesses in the area. The small amount that people in the area were willing to pay for advertising wouldn't cover the time it would take to create and manage them, so I gave up on that idea. As I built up my list of clients, I had less time to keep up these sites and so added easy to manage Google AdWords to the site. It covers the cost to keep the sites going on a minimal level and as people are getting free listings I don't feel guilty about having those GoogleAds or that I don't have the time to update the sites more often.

2) There is a need for a directory to promote businesses and services in a specific region, industry or other marketing/networking group. Most tourism groups and business networks include a directory of members as part of their own websites. It provides value for their members and helpful information for visitors. In many cases inclusion in such a directory will be part of the membership fee.

3) The online directory offers potential to make a profit by charging for listings or advertising. Just after I quietly 'launched' West Cork Week in my home office, Dublin based web design company Webtrade decided to start up their Irish wide online communities in West Cork with West Cork Live. They had a big catered launch and our then local TD and Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh did the honours. They held meetings with business and tourism groups around West Cork and got a number of businesses to sign up for €100/year for a page on the site. (This pretty much made it impossible to get people to advertise on my site.) I don't think the momentum of that web directory lasted more than a year or two. I did end up doing business with many of those advertisers in the following years and most of them felt that they were really let down by that experience.

The funny, or not so funny, thing is that nearly ten years later more web directories, with less going for them than West Cork Live, are starting up and people are paying even more than €100 for a listing.

10 Things to Consider Before Paying for an Online Directory Listing
1) Is the directory THE definitive directory for your region, industry, niche marketing (i.e. West Cork Tourism, Irish Internet Association, Slow Food Ireland, Wedding Directories)?
2) Is there a significant number of visitors to the website? Are there a good number of page views in the section of the site where your listing will appear? (Are the site statistics audited so that you can trust the numbers?)
3) Does the site come up well in searches on phrases related to your business/organisation?
3) Will your listing appear in a section of the site that is easy to get to from the homepage?
4) Will your listing include your contact details, including a link to your own website? Is the information laid out to naturally bring the visitor to contact you and not just trap them within the directory? Will the link add to the 'authority' of your site which may improve your site's search engine results? (Read about Google's PageRank) Some directories use a method of linking so that they can see how many clicks you get, but this may keep Google from passing the value of that link onto your site.
5) Is the site well designed, easy for the visitor to use and does it use current web technology (RSS feeds, user interaction, etc.)
6) Is the cost of the link justified based on the return you expect? If a directory charges €300/year and you make an average of €30 profit per sale, will you make 10 sales over a year?
7) Are there other similar directories that may be better established, higher ranking, better publicised or more cost effective?
8) Is this the best way to spend your marketing budget?
9) How is the directory being promoted (advertising on other sites, in newspapers magazines related to the region, industry, etc.)?
10) Is the directory being run by an established business that appears to be around for the long term? Are you comfortable with their sales and marketing practices?

Think about this listing within the big picture of your entire marketing plan.
- Don't just try it out because they are the first to ask you, or you feel that you should help out someone starting up a new business.
- Look at what other marketing opportunities you have (online and off) and what free directory listings are available to you.
- Talk to people that are currently using the directory, or similar directories and see what the results have been like for them.
- Seek advice from others in the online marketing industry. There are a number of good, honest online marketing professionals providing such advice on our online networking channels (blog, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.).

If you run an online directory with paid listings, how does your site stand up to these questions? Are you truly providing value to the people that take listings in your directory, or are you just going to take their money and run?

The previous post on this blog; Link Building, more than just Link Exchanges and other posts under Link Building; will give you some alternatives to get more visitors to your website.

Link Building: more than just Link Exchanges

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 10:02:00 +0000

For years people have known that the number of links into your sites effects your rankings on search engines, such as Google (see their page on Google Friendly Sites). Thus started the mad dash to get as many links into a site as possible; through all sorts of tactics, but mainly looking for sites that had an "add a link" button. That brought the masses of spam emails of people sending thousands of emails to any address they could find requesting a link exchange. Sadly, this is still going on, even though we've found out that you need more than just a large amount of links to improve search engine rankings.

Now it is understood that is not just the quantity of links that's important, but that the 'quality' of the links is most important. The site needs to be relevant to the topic and well ranked itself to bring any value to your site. There's a long list of other considerations where there's much debate on if they are relevant or how relevant, but are at least good to keep in mind: the Google PageRank of the page, the number of links on the page, using three way links instead of direct exchanges, etc. There are other factors to consider: your own internal linking structure, link text, etc.

So a good Link Building Programme, while not rocket science, takes a lot of thought and time. In this blog, I've given advice for running your own link building programme (see category Link Building), but while link exchanges are a way to get some links into your site, there are more efficient and effective ways to get links into your site; ways that will also help boost the overall presence of your site on the Internet.

I've spent many nights trawling the Internet looking for good link exchanges for clients, always thinking that there must be an easier way. All the easier ways, though, were dodgy paid links or link farms that were not going to get you quality links or may get you penalised or banned on search engines. Forums and articles on the topic across the net all pretty much said that it just takes time to develop this. When I went to the Search Engine Strategies conference in London this February I decided that Link Building would be one of the things to focus on while there. In many of the panels and talks, Link Building was discussed with all pretty much saying that, yes, it is still important and, no, there are no magic tricks to getting sites to link to you. The highlight of the conference, apart from having lunch with Jill Whalen, was the Link Building Panel.

While this panel didn't give out any magic Link Building Techniques they did confirm that while link exchanges are a good way to get started, you need to get creative in getting more quality links and that the focus should be on the content and quality of the site involved.

- Social networking sites and blogs have now become very important for link building, not just because they may bring valuable links to your site (in fact pages that can only be seen after login won't get indexed by search engines and bring no link value), but they can spread the word about your site more easily than your standard site which in turn may get you a valuable link to your site.

- Articles and Guest Posting on Blogs are a way that you can further push your site. Again you need to find quality, suitable sites.

- Explore other types of sites and media that suit your topic: YouTube, for example is one of the most searched on websites. You can create videos to promote your business, more easily than you probably think. There's also image site, podcasts, etc.

- Other kinds of publicity, online and offline: One of the most interesting stories on the panel was from Dutch Link Strategist Peter van der Graaf, who had set up a PR 'stunt' just prior to the last World Cup. A client had wanted to bring more soccer related traffic into his site prior to the World Cup. The online marketing company set up a 'demonstration', outside the Dutch soccer team's training camp, by women protesting the amount of time their men spend watching soccer - calling for the cancellation of the World Cup. A Brazilian news agency picked up on the story and it started getting mentioned on web sites across the world, eventually getting a spot on the CNN site -- and that online marketing company had one very happy client. So this shows us that a bit of creativity can take you a long way. Some times this sort of 'Website PR' can come for free. Take Dublin web developer Jason Roe. His post on his blog about how he nearly found a way to get a free Ryanair flight, received strong comments from Ryanair staff and the Irish blogging community did not take it kindly. This story was noted on blogs and news sites all across Ireland and Europe, and, like the Dutch story, was picked up and posted on the CNN website (and here I am talking about it again here 5 months later).

None of these techniques are anywhere as boring as trawling the Internet in the wee hours of the morning, trying to craft non-spammy sounding link request emails and begging, begging, begging.

So define your target audience and what sites they go to on the Internet -- and get creative. Don't forget, that having a great site yourself, with a wealth of good content related to your business/organisation is going to better attract the best partners in this task.

If you would like a kick start, check out my workshop "Hands On: Your Own Website PR Campaign". The next one takes place on Friday 7th August, in our Clonakilty offices. The workshop is limited to 5 people so that we can work one on one and actually set up your own campaign on the morning.

Google Won't Ring You About Advertising on Their Website

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:08:00 +0000

Now it seems obvious to those of us experienced in online marketing and dealing with Google, but it has to be said clearly GOOGLE WILL NOT RING YOU ABOUT ADVERTISING ON THEIR WEBSITE.

A few years back, just after Google set up their European operations in Dublin, a prospective client told me that Google had contacted her and were going to help her manage a Google AdWords campaign. I assumed it was legitimate. I didn't look into it further at the time, they weren't clients and were choosing to do this rather than use my SEO services so I didn't think much about it.

Earlier this year our receptionist said that Google had contacted her husband about setting up an AdWords campaign for his very small website. As I've gained a lot more experience in dealing with Google and using AdWords, it was obvious to me then that it wouldn't be the case. Shortly after this, Twitter friend @whatswhat_sian (Sian Phillips), started posting about a company that was contacting businesses listed on her online directory WhatsWhat.ie offering a similar deal. Then they contacted her, not realising she had copped on to them. Read her post about it. She was really adamant about getting the word out on this and there was a piece in the Sunday Business Post by Adrian Weckler Rogue 'Google' firm targets Irish SMEs.

I didn't take too much notice again, but then today they rang a client of mine, who had the sense to tell them they needed to ring me. Again, she thought they were calling from Google. I rang them back myself and it was indeed the company that Sian was talking about, UK based Matchmaker Marketing. You can Google the name if you want to see their site and also notice on Google a long list of sites with posts by people concerned about them, like:
- http://www.t2.ie/blog/?p=270
- http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=88096

When I rang the number given to my client, he did answer the phone "Matchmaker Marketing" and said that he did not claim to my client that he was from Google, but that he was a reseller for Google. He also claimed that they were the only company licensed to use the Google logo, but very little of what he said rang true with me. As he saw that I was not going to avail of their services he said that I was wasting his time - rich for someone that does cold call sales for a living.

My fear is that this sort of 'marketing' will turn people off of Google AdWords and other online advertising that has potential to increase sales. A lot of companies set up and manage Google AdWords and other pay per click online advertising campaigns, some successfully and others not so successfully, but a potential customer has the right to be dealt with in an honest and straight forward manner.

You may have to pay a good amount for a successful campaign, especially if you are hiring an experienced professional, but it may bring you more sales to justify the cost. Because of this you should do a bit of research before you select a company to manage your online marketing campaign. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

- Get references from the company and talk to their customers about the results that were actually gained from the campaign.
* What was the return on the amount spent?
* Did the company communicate well what their objectives were?
* Where they comfortable dealing with the company?

- Do you want a company to manage the campaign for you completely or just set it up so that you can manage it yourself over the long term?

- Does the company have experience with PPC advertising in your specific industry or similar industries?

- Do you need a company that can do SEO as well as PPC - and perhaps changes to your site as well?

- Can you set up the campaign yourself? The AdWords system is made to be very user friendly and there is a lot of information available via Google and other sites on how to manage a successful campaign. It does take time and you may be better off spending to at least get the campaign set up by someone with experience.

The following are also important points to consider:

- Organic search listings are the ones that you do NOT pay for. To get good results with these you need to certain things on your website and boost your sites popularity through relevant links to do this. Pay per click advertising campaigns will not get you higher organic search results, though it can boost awareness of your site. If a company claims this, question everything they are saying.

- No one can guarantee that you will get on first page or top of organic or pay per click listings - especially not the organic listings. Some companies get away with guaranteeing that you'll be top for pay per click advertising listings by 1) bidding very high for the the phrase to be certain to outbid all others (which isn't financially sustainable over a long period of time) or 2) bidding on very uncompetitive and unpopular search phrases that no one else would be bidding on. This does not give you much potential for a good return on the amount spent. Most legitimate online marketing companies will not use the word "guarantee" because it has such a bad connotation in this area.

- Google does run a "Google Advertising Professional" Programme.

A person can become a "Qualified Individual" by doing the following:
"1. Sign up for the programme successfully and be in good standing. This means that you have accepted the Rules of Use and are not in violation of them.
2. Manage at least one AdWords account (yours or someone else's) in My Client Centre for 90 days.
3. Build and maintain at least US$1000 (or your local currency equivalent) total spend for your or your team's My Client Centre account during the 90-day period.
4. Pass the Google Advertising Professional Exam. We suggest that you take the exam after you meet the above requirements. However, you can take the exam at any time."

A company can become a "Qualified Company" by doing the following:
"1. Have a billing and mailing address in a country where company qualification is available.
2. Employ at least two Qualified Individuals in the programme. Individuals must be qualified under the main company-registered My Client Centre account and not their own account. See the requirements for becoming a Qualified Individual.
3. Build and maintain the minimum 90-day required total client spend (spend requirements vary by country) for the company's My Client Centre account."

See more in Google's section on AdWords Professionals.

It is not that difficult to achieve qualification as long as you have clients with the budget to do AdWords and know the basics on how to run an account to pass the exam. Qualification has nothing to do with bringing good results for your customers in these campaigns.

If you feel that you do need to work with an "AdWords Qualified Professional" you can confirm that they are indeed qualified by checking that they have a Professional Status page, which they would normally link to from the Google AdWords Professional logo on their own site.

- Some web development companies push AdWords over optimizing your site for better organic search results. Why?

* Google used to give commissions for AdWords spend, but they no longer do so. This was a big incentive for developers to push the AdWords in the past.
* It is a way to give a quick boost of traffic to your site when optimization for organic results (SEO) may take months.
* They don't have the skills/time/desire to do optimization for organic search results. I actually saw this stated on a web development company site yesterday and thought the honesty was refreshing.

I agree that AdWords can be a good way to get started while waiting for organic results. I also feel that AdWords can be a good part of an overall online marketing campaign, as part of the "big picture". But you don't need to hire a Qualified Professional. A local online marketing professional may be able to get you just a good results as well as being someone that you trust better than someone "up the country". I am not a Qualified AdWords professional. This is just because I have not reached that spending requirement in the required time period. This is because most of my clients are smaller businesses with smaller online marketing budgets and we've chosen to concentrate on getting better organic results.

So you may choose to work with Matchmaker Marketing, they have a lot of customers and maybe some of them are getting results, but you then have to keep in mind the type of company you are dealing with and make your own mind up.

Unfortunately Google will NOT set up your AdWords campaign themselves. Online marketing is just not that easy, but I am giving a workshop "Hands On: Your Own Pay Per Click Advertising Campaign" on the 2nd of October. In the half day workshop I will take you step by step through setting up and managing your own Google AdWords campaign. Click here for more details.

Twitter versus The Blogger and her Facebook Friends

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 07:25:00 +0000

The other day a friend made a comment that really made me think about how I am using online networking sites. The friend, who also happens to be a client, mentioned to me that often when she sees my posts on her Facebook page, she just scans down to find other more personal posts. So it made me think that there are probably a number of my Facebook friends that feel the same way. That is one of the problems with mixing Facebook business with Facebook pleasure, your old high school friends may not be interested in your online marketing facts. Was I imposing my "Twitter" style on my Facebook Friends?

When I started to think of how to present my posts in a more digestible format on Facebook I realised that much of this information could be compiled into blog posts -- and haven't I agreed over and over again that Twitter was really eating into my blogging time. So now is the time to address the issues of how to determine where and how to present all of my very useful information across the wide range of online networking sites that I belong to. Here I am going to focus on Twitter, Facebook and blogging.

When you post - whether it be micro-blogging, on a social networking site or in a full blog post - you really have to consider the people in your audience and their preferences and viewing habits Follow what is acceptable and practiced amongst your circle of online friends and in the application you are using.

Twitter
- On Twitter it is much more common to see people mixing business with pleasure. In fact, amongst my follows/followers our conversations go from "What's your favourite blogging application?" to "Who's going to this conference on Friday?" to "The tooth fairy forgot to visit last night" and "This is the best Chinese restaurant in New York."
- Twitter is about telling your followers what you are up to at the moment, as well as any other interesting bits of information you think they may be interested in: links, images, videos, weather reports, etc. So Twitter users expect a number of posts to be put up; and applications created to use Twitter are made to help people view a lot of posts from a number of different people in the best manner. Twitters own web interface isn't as good for this, which I only realised when a couple people said to me, "I only use Twitter via the website and all I'd see were a big list of your posts and nothing else, so I 'unfollowed' you." I support their right to 'unfollow' and believe that we should all exercise this right as needed. I have a good number of followers on Twitter, so think that there are a number of people that are happy enough with my volume there.
- You can pop in and out of Twitter as you have time so it takes as little or as much time as you would like.
- You can have any number of accounts on Twitter that you think you can manage. @ann_donnelly is my main account and I do mix personal and business replies. I also have @omahonydonnelly that I just use for business items, mainly for my partner, who isn't on Twitter himself.
- On Twitter you get a lot of off the cuff responses to new and current events. It's meant to be up to the minute and you may not have time to study up on a topic, but you can always come back later with an update.
- On Twitter you see so many posts that are correcting a previous post with a typo. You are typing quickly, you may be on a mobile phone, so a lot of typos happen. I don't bother correcting my typos like that, unless I think people will misunderstand the post. That just shows the style on Twitter. You are limited to 140 characters, so you use all sorts of abbreviations - official and unofficial - to fit in what you want to say. You may be responding quickly as part of conversation (or to enter a competition) or just to be a crazy little know it all, which we are all guilty of some of the time. Sometimes you do get into an actual back and forth conversation with someone, but many just use private 'DMs' for that. A proper instant messaging application would be better suited.

Facebook
- Initially Facebook seemed to be mainly for keeping in touch with 'real' friends and family; but now that Facebook allows you to set up pages for businesses there are many more people that are using Facebook for business purposes. My partner used to think that Facebook was just for personal friends, but as he has a number of clients located all over the world and now sees many are on Facebook, he sees that it could be another good way to keep in touch with them.
- On Facebook you can also group your 'Friends' and also choose not to see someones replies in your stream, so it makes it easier to throttle between work and personal topics, but this is a recent change and many people haven't set it up properly (including me).
- Your Friends on Facebook are more likely to be people that you have met, so you would probably like to keep them. Here it is more important to mind the volume and make sure that the posts are relative to the audience. Also, on Facebook most people set their accounts so only friends can view their stuff, so if you lose a friend that really cuts that person out. On Twitter, only a few people make their posts private, so the posts are open to the world, so easy to see what people outside your circle of follows/followers are saying pretty easily.
- As you don't see what your Friend's homepage looks like, you may not consider if your numerous posts are taking over, so you do need to be considerate.

Blogging
- Like having multiple Twitter accounts, I have multiple blogs. This blog is for business related posts and Tales from West Cork is for personal posts and I also have a weight loss blog (and Twitter account) that is separate as it's even more personal and specific in topic.
- In an informal Twitter poll, I got feedback that a blog post should take 2-3 hours to properly research and compose, and that many do such well thought out posts 1-2 times a week, with a few quick, timely posts in between. So here quality is more important that quantity. I do agree, but in my case I need to be better about scheduling those 2-3 hours in 1-2 times a week so that the posts get done. This is where I need to cut down on my Twitterage and focus on bloggage.

Just because it's easy to post something on a networking site, it doesn't mean you always should!

So when deciding where and how to post an item, think about:
1) What audience is the item suited to, and
2) What application will best communicate the information.

In many cases it's best to use all of your applications. When I finish this blog post, I will post the link on Twitter and it will automatically be posted to my business page on Facebook -- and many other online networking sites that I have this blog feeding into.

Do I Need a Blog for My Business?

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:49:00 +0000

This is another post aimed at those thinking of getting a blog. All you experienced bloggers are welcome to leave comments and links to their own posts that will be helpful to newbies.

In promoting my upcoming workshop Hands On: Your Own Blog (Set up your own blog in a morning!) I've been asked this question many times so thought a post was in order.

Why you need a blog:

1) If you don't have a website already. Setting up a blog with an easy to use blogging platform like WordPress, Blogger, Movable Type, etc. gives you an inexpensive site that you can update yourself. If you have a little experience with computers, are happy to use a free blogging platform and a free to use theme, the blog could cost nothing to set up. If you need to hire a professional designer to install the blog for you or to do a custom design, with your own domain and hosting; the blog could cost from a couple hundred euro on up. See more about choosing a blogging platform on the post Before You Start Your Blog.

2) If you do have a website your blog can be added as a separate section where you can include news and other current information that would be of interest to your visitors. If you are concerned about portraying a certain image on your site, you can use your blog to lighten up a little -- as people expect a blog to be a little more personal and conversational. Your blog is also a way to show off your expertise in your field with your insights on news and current trends.

3) Most of the popular blog platforms (as noted above) are developed to be EASY; easy to add posts, easy for your visitors to add comments (that are easy to delete if they are just rubbish) and register to find out when the blog is updated, easy add-ons with cool features (like lists of friends, calendars, videos, etc.)

4) Easy, also, for search engines to find and index so search engines love them and index mostly on a daily basis. There are easy to install Search Engine Optimization plug-ins that make your blog have even better results in search engines. Some search engines, like Google, have a separate blog index as well, so you may get double coverage.

5) RSS Feeds - RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it's true. The blogging platform generates a feed (which is really just a file in a specific format) that can then be picked up on other sites, wherever you or your subscribers want to see the feed - like a feed reader. This means that people don't have to remember to come back to your site to see if you've added something new. They can read your posts where and when they want to. RSS feeds can also be used in Widgets so your posts can be displayed on your main site or a social networking site (like MySpace, Facebook, etc.)

6) Media professionals use the Internet to research story ideas. These days you will see so many ideas started in bloggers or with references to blogs. With your blog you can be part of it.

7) The Irish Blogging community rocks! You may not be looking for a new group of friends, but a lot of bloggers in Ireland (and probably other regions) are very helpful to those starting out and you can build a network of blogs and bloggers in related fields that will help promote your own blog and business.

8) Blogs integrate well with your whole online marketing strategy - yes you should have one of these to make sure you are taking advantage of all the Internet has to promote your business! I have a friend that says email marketing is the glue between your online marketing efforts and I say that your blog can be the petrol that really gets it moving.

9) Your blog won't take over all your spare time - at least it shouldn't. If you are focused and organise your time you can have an interesting and current blog without spending more time than you can afford to give.

Who shouldn't have a blog?

If you absolutely:
- cannot stand the thought of putting your thoughts down for the world to see (many people are like this);
- will not find 2-3 hours at least once a week (as there's nothing worse than a blog that has a couple of posts from a year ago);
- do not have a target market that uses the Internet at all (but it's very hard to imagine any businesses with many customers like that).

If you still have questions, you can comment here and I will reply, or come along to Hands On: Your Own Blog workshop this Friday! If there is a demand we will be putting on additional workshops.

Before You Start Your Blog - What you need to decide.

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:50:00 +0000

This post is meant for beginning bloggers, particularly those that are attending my "Hands On: Your Own Blog" Workshop. If you are an experienced blogger, please feel free to comment and/or leave a link to your own blog post, or other recommended resources on basic blogging.

Should I use a free, hosted blogging application (like Blogger or WordPress.com) or should I register my own domain name and set the blog up on my own web hosting package (at a cost of approx €120/year)?
1) If you are setting up a personal blog or have a VERY limited budget, you may be happy using a free hosted application, where you will have an address for your blog like http://yourname.blogspot.com or www.yourname.wordpress.com.
- The benefit is that it is absolutely free and if you aren't sure about what you want to do with your blog you can leave it and start another.
- The downsides are that it doesn't appear as professional as having your own domain and you don't have control over your files so you are at the mercy of the blog provider if they choose to remove your blog or have technical problems. You need to back up regularly.
- You can choose in the future to move your blog into your own domain/hosting. You just need to be sure that it's done in a way to maintain any links to your blog and value you've gained toward search engine placement.
2) With your own domain name/hosting package you register the domain name that suits your business (if it is available). You then install the blog application onto the domain so that it goes directly in as www.yourname.com or www.yourname.com/blog.
- If you already have a website this is your obvious choice, unless there are technical reasons why you cannot install the blogging application on your hosting package (like me).
- The benefit is that you have a more professional appearance to your blog and it is a mini-website for your business.
- The downside is the ongoing cost of approx. €120/year, which is really not that much as far as web services go, particularly seeing how much benefit your business will get from your blog.
- Free hosted blogging platforms often offer less facilities for customisation and plugins to enhance your blog.
3) You could take a third option and register a domain name (for approx €10-20/year) and have it forward to your free hosted blog.

What blogging application should I use?
There are a number of blogging applications that are very good and widely used. Your choice of application will depend on the features available and what applications you currently use. For our blogging workshops we are offering you the choice of two platforms:

Blogger is one of the earliest blogging tools and is now owned by Google.
1) If you currently use a lot of Google applications you may prefer to use Blogger as it is on the control panel for your Google account.
2) There are a few templates to choose from and you can customise the look of the template from the control panel if you are familiar with HTML/CSS.
3) I haven't seen any benefit in search engine results based on the fact that Google owns it, but this may be developed more in the future. I've been told by employees there via Twitter that they are coming up with more aids for this, but for now you have to manually change the templates to get best results on search engines.
4) There is a wide selection of widgets that you can use to add content to your site, but to easily use this you need to use a standard template.
5) There are a number of tools you can use to more easily add/edit posts from "Blog This!" buttons on your web browser to a Blogger gadget on your iGoogle page.
6) Even if you host your own blog, the control panel for your blog is still on the Blogger site and the files are "published" to your own site after you make a change.
7) Added 29 June 2009 You can only publish posts in a Blogger blog. You cannot create information only pages like "About Us" or "Shipping Info".

Word Press has two applications WordPress.com is the hosted version and WordPress.org is where you can download the application to install on your own server and it seems to be the web developers blogging choice by far.
1) Using the application takes a little more getting used to, but is still very user friendly.
2) There are a large number of templates (themes) available, including very professional looking themes that you can purchase for a more unique look to your blog. The templates are customisable if you have knowledge of HTML/CSS
3) There are a number of plugins to for WordPress blogs, including those for statistics, calendars, best search engine placement, spam reduction, etc.
4) There is a large community of WordPress users that you can look to for support via their own blogs and forums.
5) You have the choice of the hosted version or hosting your own blog.
6) WordPress.com does not allow you to add many widgets like GoogleAds, if you'd like to make some money from your site.
7) Added 29 June 2009 You can create information only pages like "About Us" or "Shipping Info" to make the blog appear more like a 'regular' website and not just a blog.

More Resources:

Stop the Downgrading of Bantry Hospital

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:08:00 +0000

Skibbereen Business Association has asked that I set up a petition to show their support in the campaign to stop the downgrading of the Bantry Hospital.

Click here to view and sign this petition.

Downgrading the hospital will take away 24 hour acute services currently provided there. These services will then be available at Cork University Hospital, which will then mean a 2 hour, or longer, trip for the patient and their family and friends that will want to visit/assist the patient.

More serious will be the lack of emergency care in the area out of hours which may lead to an increase in fatalities due to the time to get to CUH. According to the website beara.ie "Currently 70% of admissions to the hospital are emergencies and outside 'office' hours." (Click here to view full story on beara.ie)

Set Up Your Own Blog in a Morning in our New Workshop

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:51:00 +0000

You've probably heard that a blog is a great way to promote your business, whether you already have your own website or not, but perhaps you aren't sure about how to set up your own blog. On Friday, 3rd July, I'm holding a half day workshop entitled "Hands On: Your Own Blog" where I will take you step by step through:

setting up your blog (whether as part of your own domain or with a free blogging service)
customising the look of the blog
adding plugins and features
adding content to your blog (including organising your time to do it)
promoting your blog (coming up in search engines, getting links, etc.

The workshop takes place in our offices in Clonakilty. I can only take 3 to 5 people, so that I can give personal instruction. You need to bring your own laptop so that you can set it all up during the workshop. (Sorry if you don't have a laptop. In future we may be able to accommodate you -- or talk to us about one-to-one coaching in your own office/home.)

The cost is €200 (additional for domain registration and hosting if required), which is very good considering you are going away with your own blog and lots of expert advice -- and 30 days support to get you off and running. Click here for full details.

This is the first in a series of Hands On Online Marketing Workshops which will enable you to set up and maintain your own online marketing campaigns. The full schedule:

3rd July, Your Own Blog
7th August, Your Site PR Campaign (which includes link building, social networking, offline marketing, etc.)
4th September, Your Email Marketing Campaign
2nd October, Your Pay Per Click Advertising Campaign

If any of the workshops fill up, we will schedule additional dates, as there are no other workshops of this kind, especially in West Cork.

Click here to read more about our Online Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation Training and Workshops.

Irish Interet Association Annual Congress & Net Visionary Awards

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:30:00 +0000

Click here to Book Your Tickets Now. Use voucher code CONG001 and get 20% OFF!

As mentioned in previous post, I am really looking forward to the IIA Annual Congress. First of all it will get me out of West Cork (and my family duties) for a couple of days. Secondly, I will get to meet many of my online friends that I have yet to actually speak to face to face -- and meet again others that I only get to meet at conferences and awards ceremonies. Thirdly, I will get to see if the manners of some of the other internet 'professionals' around Ireland have improved.

My first and only appearance at the Annual Congress was two years ago. I'm a fairly seasoned conference goer from my past lives in the business worlds of New York and London, but this was my first for my new life in Irish online marekting and I was really looking forward to it.

The main challenge was getting to the conference location, which was Killiney. I didn't have the time or budget to stay at the venue so planned to travel back and forth in one day. I flew into Dublin Airport and decided to take the cheap route, which seemed easiest anyway. I took the Airport Bus from one end of Dublin to the other (which was probably as quick as any other way), being left off at the Red Cow Hotel. As advised by the conference venue I took a taxi from there, but it took ages to arrive and much longer and more expensive to get to Killiney then my pre-trip calls advised. So I arrived at the conference late and pretty tired out already! (I may just drive to the conference venue this year to save all that hassle and can come and go as I please.)

The conference itself was very informative, especially as I hadn't been to any related conferences. There were speakers from Ebay and Bebo, as well as top Irish internet businesses. I really got a lot of information from the break out sessions as well and found most of the speakers really helpful. Throughout the sessions I was really looking for ways to help my clients who at that time were mostly smaller businesses in West Cork. Many of the discussions, particularly by the Email Marketing service providers, were suited to bigger businesses, but I always like to think big, but sometimes have to be pratical as the clients have limited time and budgets.

I am not great at mingling at these events, unless I have a particular question or subject to discuss, but at lunch I made a 'friend', a woman who was a senior person in online marketing across Europe for a fairly large, well known US company. After the official finish of the conference, we both had a couple of hours to spare and we retreated to the bar for a drink. There was a group of lads from the conference talking away. She was particularly interested in talking to one who was one of the main speakers, from Bebo, as her company were considering doing some marketing on Bebo. He was very helpful, even though some of the other lads were snickering about him coming over to talk to two ladies. One of the others in the group had been a speaker in an email marketing session and I asked him for some advice about why they didn't provide servicecs for under €300/month as my clients were unable to pay that much on a monthly basis. He asked if I had any clients that would be interested in spending that much and when I said not at the moment, he just laughed and walked away saying nothing. My friend then laughed and said that it was unfortunate he wasn't interested in talking to us, as her company was looking for someone to do their email marketing -- and their online marketing budget was hundreds of thousands of euros. Well, that made my day. It just proves that you should at least be polite, if not helpful, to your peers at a conference -- even to the 'girls' at the bar afterwards -- as you never know who they are, or who they may grow up to be!

West Cork Today (and Tomorrow?) - Sign Petition to Save Local Radio Show

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:03:00 +0000

As webmaster for the Skibbereen community website, I've just created a "Petition for the Return of C103's West Cork Today Programme" on behalf of the Skibbereen and Region Economic Network (SAREN) who "ask the people of West Cork to have their voices heard again by petitioning UTV Media for the return of David Young and his West Cork Today programme on C103. SAREN encourage all to stand together to have West Cork's voice heard once more. We will present UTV Media with this petition in the coming weeks."

Please click here go to the Online Petition Now and leave your Name, Email Address and a Comment if you wish.

When I first moved to West Cork, there were two resources that were necessary to find out about what is going on in the area: The Southern Star weekly paper and West Cork Today, the local radio show that is on air mornings Monday to Friday. West Cork Today provides helpful and entertaining information ranging from the weekly Garda file to interviews with local experts and event organisers. I was actually a guest a couple of times as West Cork's 'web expert'.

A few years ago Northern Ireland based UTV Radio purchased Cork City based 96fm, along with its regional stations which broadcasted as 103fm. Around that time I noticed a move away from the early morning West Cork programming feeding only from the North Cork station. Then a few months ago they changed the brand to C103 -- and I was never sure what they were trying to achive with that. Now UTV have dismissed David Young the presentor of the West Cork Today programme and are airing a show called 'Cork Today' presented by North Cork based Patricia Messenger. There has been a great backlash from the people of West Cork, who feel that a show like this just cannot cover such a larger area and it is most likely that West Cork issues and events will suffer as a result.

I think the elderly people of West Cork will miss the show the most. For many it was one of their only links to what is going on in the area. I know many that would never miss the show, especially on the day that their town/village has it's weekly report and they'd look forward to hearing about what's happened over the past week and what events and activities were coming up.

Click here to read a report on the issue from The Southern Star.

Last week I received a letter in the post from UTV/C103 announcing sessions the station was holding around the area to discuss new promotional opportunities availble on the station. It may be worth attending one of these sessions just to see if there is any battling going on.

Most businesses are making tough decisions on cut backs and changes needed to keep profits from dipping too low, but UTV may just find that thi sdecision could end up hurting their bottom line.

I don't know if there's any chance that the show will now be brought back. There was a public protest held today, 20th April, at the 96fm headquarters in Cork City. Clonakilty Town Councillor Councillor Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháin reports on his Facebook page: "Locked out for an hour, so couldn't hand in letter of protest. Then someone opened the door and we went in, were asked to leave for "Health and Safety", refused until the CE came out of his "meeting" to accept the letter. He did after 90 mins. Refused to talk to us because of "legal issues", but accepted the letter." In an earlier post he called for people to email their concerns to Kieran McGeary, Chief Executive of the station - kieran@96fm.ie and The Broadcasting Commission - reception@bci.ie asap. "We've lost the trains, ESB offices, Post Offices, Schools, Hospital Services, Pubs, small shops, bus routes and thousands of talented people in West Cork. No more!! Write today."

Google Providing Workshops for Small Businesses in Ireland, or just some PR?

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:49:00 +0000

I caught an interview on RTE Radio 1's Morning Ireland show with a Google staff member discussing workshops they are providing to help teach businesses how to be more competitive using the internet. I had a feeling that this would be a way for them to push their AdWords pay per click advertising programme, as that is their main way of getting revenue.

Google may be resorting to publicising this on our national broadcaster as many small businesses are finding that as more competitors are using the AdWords programmes they are having to spend more to get the same results that they did a year ago. I'm getting more and more emails from website owners asking about getting better organic search results, as PPC advertising is getting too costly. It's likely that as more and more businesses become savvy about search engine optimization and online advertising it will be harder, and more expensive, to get the top positions that will better ensure a good level of visitors to the site. As an SEO expert, I guess you wouldn't be suprised that I think that you should prioritise your spending on SEO to help get good results in the longterm -- over PPC which will need to be continually paid out. Overall I do think a mix of both can be good for you online marketing.

Back to the workshops. Morning Ireland, who referred to the workshop as "Survival of the Fastest", posted a link to the website of the Small Firms Association, who Google are running the workshops with. There is only one Google workshop listed there and it's fully booked:

April 16th: SFA/Google Online Advertising & Adwords (Advanced Knowledge) (Free of charge and includes Lunch!)

Ah-ha! Googled and found an RTE news story about on "Survival of the Fastest" that was from yesterday 9th April 2009! It seems that Ronan Harris, director of online sales and operations at Google, addressed participants at a Small Firms Association event. "Harris said: 'Survival of the Fastest is the new game in town. It is the companies that ignore trends such as technological advances and shifts in customer behaviour that are finding their markets eaten into by nimbler, hungrier rivals.'" (Nothing mentioned in that piece about workshops.)

Further searching on the SFA site shows that there was a basic AdWords course yesterday, so this must be the event Ronan Harris was speaking at. Seems that the Google and/or SFA PR machines are in overdrive and causing a bit of confusion! Morning Ireland also posted the email address press-ie@google.com, so I await further details. I do hope that this bit of PR wasn't just to promote a couple annual workshops that are already fully booked!

Please comment here if you know of any other workshops at Google, because I'd love to go! I know there are a number of other AdWords workshops (mainly in Dublin), but it'd be great to hear it from 'the horses mouth' and get a look inside the offices of Google.

20% Off Irish Internet Association Annual Congress & Net Visionary Awards

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 22:10:00 +0000

The Irish Internet Association Annual Congress & Net Visionary Awards
Dates: Thursday 21 May and Friday 22 May (Awards the night of 21st May)
Place: Crowne Plaza Dublin Northwood
Click here to book - enter voucher code "cong001" and get 20% off!
(Early Bird Rates are available until 17th April, so don't wait, book now!)

I am excited that the Irish Internet Association's Annual Congress is coming up in a few weeks. The overall focus of this year's event is "Better Business Online in a Tough Economy: Money, Marketing, Monitoring & Mobile"; really a combination of subjects that we have all been talking about and thinking about in regards our businessess.

The IIA have put together a good selection of main speakers:

Colm Lyon - Managing Director of Realex Payments
Trey Harvin - CEO, dotMobi
Ronan Harris - Online Sales & Operations Director, Google
Colm Long - Director of Online Operations, Facebook

The following breakout sessions will give you more of a chance to interact with experienced professionals from around Ireland. There are usually a number of good discussions amongst the panel, as well as the audience.

Online Marketing: Video & Search
Protect Your Brand Globally
Leverage Your Networks to Save Money
Reduce costs, increase revenues with effective eBusiness
Social Media and Networking
Mobilise Your Website
User Experience: Conversions and Conversion Analysis

There will also be 30 minute one-on-one Web Strategy clinics - advance booking required.

Of course one of the best parts is just mingling with people that you haven't seen since the last Annual Congress. There should be a good crowd this year as the Irish Internet community seems to have been brought closer together through some active social networking; like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. I'm particuarly looking forward to finally meeting Michele Neylon!

In Ireland, particulary in web related businesses, so many of us are working in a kind of isolation; in small businesses and/or rural locations and this is the one time of year that everyone gathers to compare notes and find out what's new in other parts of the country and other areas of the industry.

Hope to see you there. ROAD TRIP!

Google becomes more local - not so much in Ireland, though

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 21:00:00 +0000

Official Google Blog: Google becomes more local but they don't talk about the fact that this is really only shown for certain geographic regions - definitely US and UK. Local results also came up when I searched for 'restaurants munich', 'restaurants paris' and 'restaurants prague'; but not for 'restaurants dublin' (or 'restaurants lisbon')

At Search Enging Strategies London I asked a Google employee taking part in a session on Blogs and Feeds (this area being relevant to the local searches because of the ability to add product feeds into these local searches) when the service would be used more outside the US and UK - Ireland exactly? She said that it is not a priority and there is no proposed timing for it.

I get really frustrated hearing all the hype about Local Search, but not really getting the effects of it for Ireland - for personal and professional reaons.

Is it too much to ask Google to at least be aware of this fact in their blog posts and other articles so that they note exactly where these features are available and where they are not?

Keyword Research to Identify and Reach Your Target Market

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 22:48:00 +0000

'Keywords' or 'search phrases' are the phrases that people enter when doing searches on the internet on search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. 'Target Keyphrase Research' provides you with a list of search phrases, relevant to your business, that have been used on search engines during a certain period of time. Target Keyword Research is the first step on any new project we take on, including work for existing websites.

In one sense your Target Keyword Research is a powerful marketing tool, as it gives you insight into what people need, want or want to know about on the internet related to the products/services/information you provide. Because of this it makes sense to develop the content on your site based on this research.

More commonly Target Keyword Research is used in Search Engine Optimization in order to be sure to use popular search phrases in the best way so that your website will come up higher in search engine results for searches on these phrases. This is a very important step in Search Engine Optimization, but you must also be sure to use the phrases effectively on the site for best results.

Keyword Research is not only important for traditional brochure style websites. It is important for any pages on the web that you want indexed by search engines: e-commerce sites, blogs, newsletters, etc.

Keyword Research Tools

Wordtracker - For years I used multiple Keyword Research Tools, but Wordtracker was the most used. Wordtracker is a UK based company, but until a couple years ago, they only provided US based research results. The Keyword Universe Tool was excellent to come up with variations on the phrases that we came up with ourselves. A couple of years ago, when Wordtracker added it's database of UK searches, they also rolled out a new tool Keyword Researcher that streamlines the steps to do the research and made it easier to handle multiple projects. Both services allow you to dig deep to come up with a full listing of keyphrases and then also obtain the number of times the phrase appeared on selected search engines. An annual subscription to Wordtracker costs $329 and a monthly subscription for $59. You can take a free 7 day trial first to see if you like the service.
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UPDATE 09 April 2009: How's this for timing? @wordtracker just tweeted a link to an article on their site "The SEO Pro's Secret Path" with some helpful information on Keyword Research, especially on how to use their tool to do it. There's some interesting tips on finding initial phrases to start with: trade publications, competitor sites, your site statistics, etc. Worth a look.
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Google AdWords Keyword Tool is provided by Google to help AdWords users to select the phrases they bid on, but it is available for anyone to use. As Wordtracker didn't provide UK data until a couple of years ago, and I never felt that UK database was very good, I also researched on the Overture UK Keyword Tool. Overture was a very popular Pay Per Click advertising system that fed into Yahoo and a number of other high traffic sites. In October 2007 that tool came down, so I started using the Google AdWords tool for comparison.

I started using the Google AdWords Keyword Tool while managing AdWords campaigns for clients. Until recently Google provided very limted information on the number of searches. They provided on a scale 1-5 which phrases were most popular, but you didn't get more concrete data on the actual numbers searching. This was still helpful on a basic level, particularly as Google has been the most popular search engine over the years. The Google AdWords Tool became even more valuable in the past couple years when they added a feature to get results for visitors from a specific region. As I am based in Ireland, this is particularly useful. In the past year, they have started showing data more related to the actual numbers of searches, to make this a more comprehensive tool -- and it's FREE! I don't think that I will be renewing my Wordtracker account.

Keyword Discovery is another Keyword Tool that I haven't tried but it sounds very similar to Wordtracker. This service costs from $599.40/year ($69.95/month) to $4,455/year ($495/month) for the Enterprise package which allows a much higher number of searches and API access.

Using Keywords in Your Website

So now you probably have hundreds, if not thousands, of phrases related to your products/services. What do you do now?

Review the list and automatically delete any phrases that do not relate to your business.
Highlight the phrases that very specifically relate to your business (i.e. 'Search Engine Optimization Clonakilty West Cork Ireland' for me)
Take your site map (for existing or planned site) and assign the keyphrases to target on each page.
** The phrase must be related to the content you plan to have on the page, because you do actually have to use the phrase on the page. (I'll cover how to properly use the phrases in a future post.)
** I select one popular phrase and two less popular, but related, phrases for each page.
If there are phrases left on your list that are relevant to your business that haven't been assigned to any page, plan to write new pages with content based on these phrases. If a number of people are searching on this phrase related to your business then it's probably worth having a page about it on your website.

Prioritising the Keyphrases Used on Your Site

As it will probably be a big job to write/re-write content for your site, prioritise the work by how popular and/or relevant the phrases are. I've seen many people that never fully optimised their sites because they just saw it as one big block of work they never got around to doing!

Most of the extremely popular keyphrases may not be the best for you to target as they may be too general (i.e. 'search engine' vs. 'search engine optimization' or even 'search engine optimization ireland'). Be sure that the phrases you selected are specifically related to what you are offering/talking about on the page. Don't get tempted to target very popular phrases in hopes of getting millions of visitors to the page. Besides the fact that it probably won't be very successful on search engines, you'd be less likely to sell to the visitors that come through the very general phrases - as there is a lower chance that you are offering what they are looking for.
For many clients we started out using the regional version of a phrase as the primary keyphrase, if there was enough projected traffic for just the regional phrase. As we showed success for that phrase we then targetted the national/general version of the phrase on that page, with the regional phrase secondary (i.e. test out 'search engine optimization cork' first, then after seeing good results target 'search engine optimization ireland') If the regional and national/general phrases are both very popular, and/or the national/general version is just as related to your site, it would be better to target the phrases on separate pages so that you can be competitive for both.
The Long Tail is a theory that while 20% of searches are made using the very popular phrases; 80% of searches are made using a large variety of less popular, more specific, phrases. (Looking at the stats of a well optimised site will confirm this as the information on the keywords used to reach the site will go on for pages and pages.) While the number of people searching on each of these phrases is far less than the popular phrases, added together they make up a much larger percentage. Another reason this is so significant is that, as mentioned above, you are more likely to interest and make a sale to a visitor that found you via a search very specific to what you are offering.
KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Indicator) is a statistic that many people will tell you to ignore. It's based on the number of searches made of a phrase and the number of pages targeting that phrase on a specific search engine. Both Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery include this statistic in their results. Phrases with high KEI rating may be excellent niche phrases -- but only if very relevant to your topic. It wouldn't be wise to ignore other relevant phrases because of a low KEI rating. So KEI is only a useful statistic when used with other factors in mind.
If Plurals, Misspellings and Regionally Used Words come up on your list with any popularity, you must target them separately to the more commonly used version of the words, but be sure to keep your target audience in mind and make a common sense check on whether they'd use these derivations or not. In some cases you may find that the derivations are actually more popular than the 'root' word (i.e. 'hotels' is normally more popular than 'hotel').

In your goal to improve your search engine rankings, it's very easy to overly focus on all these words and numbers -- and lose sight that this is a good way to guide you to the information that your target market is looking for. So be organised in your research, use your site map, prioritise and don't lose sight of the fact that these searches are being made by individuals that are interested in what you have to offer, so talk to them in their own terms!

Search Engine Optimzation - Let the Force be with You

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:00:00 +0000

There is a lot of talk these days about Search Engine Optimization - techniques used to get your site higher rankings in the natural or organic results of search engine for search phrases related to your business. It's again become a hot topic in talk about online marketing, as people are looking for more cost effective ways of promoting their websites and to make best use of existing resources. It's time to make sure that your web site is doing the best it can in organic search results (as opposed to Pay Per Click Advertising, like AdWords).

Many people still think that Search Engine Optimization doesn't really work or involves using tricks to get your site higher rankings, but we can show examples of how Search Engine Optimization, using good old fashioned hard work, has brought about real results for our own sites and those of our clients:

A start-up accountancy firm grows it's client base significantly in the first year, and build on that year after year, by using its website to attract clients from around the world who are looking to do business in Ireland.
A luxury self catering accommodation business gets bookings from guests around the world through its website, with out paying for expensive newspaper or magazine advertising.
A whale watching operator becomes prominent nationally and internationally as his website comes up top for searches for "whale watching ireland" and very high for just "whale watching". Media researchers finding the site easily have featured the business on TV, radio and newspapers.
A start-up Wedding Cake business starts getting orders via Google Searches within a couple days of the site going live and since then gets a steady stream of enquiries - and orders - through the site.

I note these cases, not just to "show off" what I can do, but to provide real examples where businesses have thrived as a result of Search Engine Optimization, without also paying a lot of additional money for Pay Per Click, paid listings or other online advertising. I do think that other online advertising does have its place, but that organic search results should be a priority.

The best part is that Search Engine Optimization is just an extension of the marketing, public relations and networking that you should be doing for your business:

Define your target market and learning what they are looking for - Target Keyphrase Research
Provide information about your business/products/services/industry/region that is helpful/interesting to your target market - Optimizing the content on your web site.
Build relationships with businesses that offer products/services complimentary to yours - Link & Website Popularity Campaigns.
Learn about and engage with clients and prospects; and find new channels to provide information and sell your goods and services - Social Media Networking

Higher ranking on search engines, through these Search Engine Optimization techniques, will bring better results for your business:

Reach a wider, national and international audience in a cost effective manner. Many small businesses fail to realise that there are good prospects further afield; especially if you are located outside a commercial centre.
Reduce the cost of advertising and PR - online and offline.
Solidify your brand's position in your marketplace. A higher position in search engine rankings will also give the impression of a higher position in your industry (to prospects, suppliers, media and others in your industry). Just be sure to have a top rate website to back that up.

Search Engine Optimization - Q&A

If Search Engine Optimization is so effective, why aren't all sites optimized?
I'm always surprised why all web developers don't use best practices so that their sites get better results in Search Engines, but I have seen a few reasons why some don't:

They feel that Search Engine Optimization should be a separate service and don't provide it.
They charge it as a separate service at an additional cost, which is fair as it does take additional time and expertise, and clients choose not to take it on.
They don't have the time, expertise, etc.

As more sites use Search Engine Optimization all sites will then be equal, so why should we bother?
The fact that more sites are using Search Engine Optimization should show you that it's more important than ever for you to get started with your site.

As I noted above, there will always be people that are better at this than others, so it's important that you choose an web developer that is experienced in "SEO" or hire a specialist to work with your current web developer.
There are some factors which impact on your search results that are harder to 'manipulate' like the age of your site (another reason why it's important to consider SEO sooner rather than later).
Some people just don't have the time, or budget, to put towards additional search engine optimization.

Search Engine Optimization will cost too much and I won't be able to afford it.
As I said above, Search Engine Optimization does take time and expertise, so you should expect to pay for a premium service, but you should consider this within your entire business plan.

If SEO will save you money for other advertising and increase enquiries and sales it should take a priority in your spending.
In the long term good SEO will cost less than ongoing Pay Per Click advertising campaigns.
Hiring a professional web developer that uses basic SEO techniques in the development of your site your shouldn't cost more than a web developer that doesn't. The additional cost should come from additional services such as target keyphrase research, site/link popularity campaigns, social networking campaigns, etc. which take additional time. While these services are important, getting the site developed in a search engine friendly way is most important and will save you having to go back and redevelop later.
Doing all of these things will help to bring about best possible results for your site on search engines. If you are in a highly competitive area and/or targeting a wide client base you may need to do all of these things to get good results, but if you are in a less competitive business with only local clientele you may need less SEO work. This is why it is important to engage an experienced Search Engine Optimization Specialist who can prioritise the actions that you need to take and work with you on the budget and how best to use it to get best results for your business.

You can find more questions and answers related to Search Engine Optimization in my previous post Choosing a Web Development Firm.

Read more about my own Search Engine Optimization Strategy from the O'Mahony Donnelly E-Business website.

Dine to Read - Tuesday Push

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 23:28:00 +0000

I had heard of Dine to Read from a couple of people on Twitter and had meant to check out he site, but today was actually the first time I've actually visited the site. To be honest, from the domain name, I thought it was going to be a site about restaurants and could't figure out about the 'read' part - and it wasn't until tonight (again from someones tweet) that I realised the play on words "dying to read".

Once I reached the attractive site, I realised that oh, it's about books not restaurants *lightbulb*! The site is a meeting place for book lovers. Features include a forum, where registered users can join in or add new topics, either about a specific book, a genre or a question about books (i.e. "Guilty Reading Pleasures").

The unique feature of the site are the monthly meet ups organised via the site so that members can discuss the book of the month. (I love how the FAQs note that this is NOT a dating site.) Whilst it is free to register on the site it does cost €45 euro to attend a monthy event and this includes the price of the meal (excluding drinks). The next event, on 31st March, takes place in Galway.

Unfortunately I waited late to create my Tuesday Push post, so my registration on the site is still processing, so I can't try out the forum myself, but I can see that this can be an addictive site for book lovers.

**Update 27th March 2009 - two people from the site responded to my note that I hadn't received my registration details as I should have gotten them straight away. I must apologise as I didn't check my spam filter and the welcome email was there. So good follow up from the people at Dine to Read!

West Cork Tweet Up Friday 27th March in Clonakilty

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:56:00 +0000

A tweet up is a casual event to give us a chance to get together with people we've met online via Twitter, blogging, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. All are welcome. If you think you will be coming please leave a comment here so I have an idea of numbers and can look out for you.

When: Friday, 27th March 2009, 8pm

Where: Courtyard Bar, Clonakilty, West Cork (located behind Harte's Eurospar)

View Larger Map

For those of you that may be coming from further afield (why not stay overnight and take in some of the great things on offer in Clonakilty):
- View schedule of bus service from Cork City to Clonakilty.
- View the Clonakilty website for information on accommodation.

"Cheerful, brightly coloured Clonakilty is a bustling market town that knows how to look after it visitors. You’ll find smart B&Bs, top restaurants and cosy pubs alive with good music” Lonely Planet 2008

As I don't use my image for my profile pic, I better post it here so that anyone new can find us on the night!

Looking forward to meeting you then! (Please push this post on your own blog, via Twitter, etc. and get the word out!)

MyMunster.com: A Rugby Newbie Review

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:57:00 +0000

Eventhough I don't like rugby, I am reviewing MyMunster.com, "a rugby social media network that connects you with other Munster Rugby supporters" for a few reasons:
- It's midnight as I started so I am just getting in for the Tuesday Push, where Irish bloggers help promote a chosen site.
- The developer is a really good guy that I've met through Twitter.
- If you live in Munster and you don't follow Munster Rugby, you feel like you are really out of it! I love most sports and maybe it was such overwhelming enthusiasm that scared me off! Even I have to admit that there is amazing sporting talent there -- but don't want to look like I am just jumping on the bandwagon!

MyMunster.com has a number of features that are really attractive for fans: competitions, chat, fan photos & videos, news. There is also a blog with a long blogroll of rugby related sites.

You need to sign up to access some of the features, but you can view the blog and all of the news, pulled from a variety of sources.

It's refreshing to see that the site isn't loaded down with advertising as many of this type of site would normally have. It seems that the site gets some finances from selling credits to users that purchase them in order to enter the competitions -- the amount is nominal: €2.50 for the 250 credits you need to enter a competition.

I can see there are a few other new registered users from Tuesday Push, perhaps we will stay and join in the fun that Munster Rugby supporters seem to have on this site.

Check it out, even if you aren't a Munster Rugby fan.

Tweet Up Coming to West Cork!

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:09:00 +0000

What: A "tweet up" is a meet up of people using Twitter. They are informal gatherings held around the world whenever a few Twitterers decide they'd like to get together.

Why: I've made friends with a few people in West Cork through Twitter, and some other social networks, that I have still not met face to face, so we were thinking that it's time to have a West Cork Tweet Up!

Who: This Tweet Up is not exclusive for Twitter users. Everyone is welcome; but bloggers, other web people and those interested in the web would be most interested. I've heard that some of the Cork City Twitterati may be interested in coming down for a night out in Clonakilty!

When: Joe Scanlon has organised Cork Twitter/Blogger Pints in Cork City this coming Friday (13th March) so we'll need to have our night after that. As it's hard to pick a date that will suit everyone, I've set up a poll to decide the date (thanks to @denisecox for the idea). Please vote for your preferred date before 16th March so that we can announce the date by then.

Where: I was thinking that The Courtyard (behind Eurospar) would be good because there's parking, it's pretty roomy and they serve food if people are interested. If anyone else has a suggestion for a venue, please comment here. Once a date is chosen we can then confirm the venue.

Thanks and looking forward to seeing you then!

SEO and Content Mangement Systems

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:30:00 +0000

For ages we didn't use any Content Management Systems (CMS), as our main focus was Search Engine Optimization and there were no CMS applications out there where we could use our SEO techniques. In the past couple of years we've been integrating and customising php/MySQL applications to suit our SEO needs.

These days, many of the 'off the shelf' applications and those created by other web developers now include many features for Search Engine Optimization, but the end user clients are not shown how to use these in the best way, so I'd like to provide some tips on what to look for when choosing and/or using a CMS.

What to look for (or ask your web developer) when getting a CMS:

- Does the CMS create file names and a linking structure that is easy for search engine crawlers to follow. If the search engines cannot find your pages, it doesn't matter how optimized they are.
**Are the file names generated by the CMS search engine friendly? Search engines have come a long way to better follow long CMS generated file names, but it is still best for search engines (and users) if you have have tidy file names (i.e. www.yoursite.com/aboutus.php vs. www.yoursite.com/index.php?pageid=3243). It's clearer for people that want to link into your site, as well, as you definitely want to encourage that as much as possible.
**If the system adds pages automatically to a navigation bar, will the search engines be able to follow it. Will the end user be able to indicate what text will be used for the link or will it be automatically generated from another field?
**Will the CMS create/update a site map?

- Can you indicate different title and meta description tags for each page? Many just have a place where you indicate one that is used for all pages of the site. This isn't good enough, especially for the title tag.
**Do not use a system if the title for the page cannot be customised for each page -- this is one of the most important elements for best results with search engine results.
**You may get by with a single description for all the pages, as it is longer and you can creatively write a description that gives the overall feel for the site and that will cover all your phrases -- but it's still better to have the description specific the page.

- Can you include heading tags within your page? This may be done by certain fields in the CMS for a page or via the WYSIWYG editor (which is better as you can put them where you like in the page).

- Can you include alt descriptions for your images?

- Can you customise the templates to use elements of the CMS for best results with search engines.

- Is there an online support/forum to help you make best use of the CMS?

You may not get all these features in your CMS, but look for the one that offers the most or can be customised so that you or your developer can do the SEO work needed.

If you hire a web developer to create your site with a CMS, make sure that you get instructions on how to best use the CMS, including what you need to do to for best search engine results. We offer training as part of the web development package.

If your web developer doesn't seem to know how to get best search engine results from the CMS (perhaps they just don't offer search engine placement services, some don't) then try to get a consultation with a web developer that does.

We've provided such consultations for a few our competitors' clients :-)

Before you purchase a CMS or hire a developer to set one up for you, check other sites using the system and see if they are happy with the system. Are they getting enquiries through search engines and does the site owner find the CMS easy to use.

Visit our site to read about our Content Management Systems.

The Answer To All Your SEO Questions!

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:20:00 +0000

I've been so busy with projects and have a few half written posts to finish off (which I may not get to soon), so I will be sharing some of the more interesting and relevant posts and articles that I have come across on other sites, as I come across them. (It's great how social networking sites make it so easy to share articles and posts like this. One of its biggest benefits.)

The Answer To All SEO Your Questions! by Jill Whalen
Jill discusses why so many questions about SEO have to be answered with the phrase "It Depends". Many of my clients ask similar questions and because of this it's often hard to explain, and Jill does a good job here.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via my website.

Errorlytics: A More Intelligent Way to Handle 404 Errors

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:15:00 +0000

Customised error pages -- for "Page Not Found", etc. - are very important to keep visitors on your sites. Errolytics is an application to help handle this and provide statistics on the handling of these pages. See more on Mashable at: Errorlytics: A More Intelligent Way to Handle 404 Errors.

10 New Year Resolutions for Website Owners

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 10:33:00 +0000

January is a busy time for people searching the net for bargains, holidays for the year, new business ideas, etc. So it is a good time to make sure that your website is getting you the best possible results. It's also a good time to set out the goals for the results you want from your website in 2009, in order to make sure that your website is working for you. Here are my recommendations:

Get a face lift. Take a good, objective look at your website and ask yourself, "Does the design of my site reflect the image I want to portray for my business?" In the past you may have felt that you didn't have the budget for a professionally designed website and took on the job yourself; you may have used a student, relative or other less experienced designer; or perhaps the image of your business has changed over the years since your site was first designed. Now is the time to make the changes to make sure that your site is appealing to your market and portrays your brand in a way that will increase your sales. Find an experienced web development company with a portfolio of websites for clients in similar industries to yours, that shows that they can capture the image required for your business. It's important that your site isn't just a bit of text about your business, products and services -- make sure your site is based around proven online marketing techniques to move the visitor to become a customer.
Get Management. (Content Management System vs. Website Management Service). It is important to keep your website fresh, interesting and attractive to keep visitors coming. Ask your web development company about adding a Content Management System , so that you can either update all the pages of your site or perhaps just relevant sections (i.e. News, Events, Rates, etc.) If you think that you will not have the time or desire to make changes to your site yourself, you may prefer to take out a Website Management Service. Most web development companies offer a contract service that will save you money on site alterations and perhaps include other benefits; such as priority or expedited service, a higher level of support, etc.
Get Results (as in the best possible Search Engine Results). You cannot overlook the great opportunities to increase your traffic through better search engine results. If your site was developed a few years ago, or if you web developer wasn't search engine savvy, there may be some simple things that can be done throughout your site to improve results. If you are in a very competitive market on the Internet you probably understand the value of search engine placement, but better results may take more time and effort. I still get a lot of new clients that think that search engines are not going to be an important source of visitors to their sites, but within a year they then see the benefit of all that unexpected traffic to bring them new business, as well as PR/marketing and networking opportunities.
Get Links. Quality incoming links are important for a few reasons. It's a good way to bring in more traffic. Link building is a good opportunity to network with like minded business people. Search engines track the links into your site and a number of good quality links will improve your search results. For more information, see my post on Link Building the DIY Way.
Get Freedom (from Spam). Spam has gotten to be an expected factor in using the Internet. The problem is that it is easy to lose the good messages in the spam filter. First consider if you can stop using any addresses that are already getting spammed. Once they are in the spammers lists, they are not coming off and the amount of spam will just grown and grow. Use one address for yourself that will never be used on a website and kept absolutely safe, use another on your website (but encrypted so not exposed to email address harvesting programmes used by spammers) and a third address that you can post on third party sites that may be accessed by spammers (you know this one will get spammed, but you can change this account as needed). Make sure that your web developer "spam proofs" your enquiry forms.
Get E-Mailing. A few years ago Email Marketing was called the killer marketing Tool. This is still very true and it's stood the test of time (well a few years is a long time in this rapidly developing industry). Start by adding a subscription form on your website and ask people to sign up every chance you get (enquiry forms, point of sale, etc.). Be sure that you don't spam - by sending messages to people that have not requested the information - besides being illegal, it's annoying and not a good way to market your business. Your best targets are people that have used your business before, and it's usually easy to get them to subscribe for special offers, news and other interesting information that you can pass on. Some businesses find it sufficient to send a newsletter 1-2 times a year, perhaps to help boost business during the slow period. If you can generate interesting, relevant content more frequently - and it suits the nature of your business - you may want to send mailings as often as needed (i.e. whenever new products/services are added, when you are offering a special offer, etc.) We recommend using a third party mailing list management service, like iContact, as it provides a secure way to maintain your list, an easy way to compose professional looking newsletters, makes it easier to get through spam filters and provides good statistics on how many recipients opened your message and clicked links, etc.
Get Blogging. A blog - a user friendly, online 'diary' - is another way to provide interesting, up to date information about your business. The search engines 'love' blogs and regular Internet users do as well. There are many tools to make it easy for visitors to refer your blog posts to others using the net. You just need to add links into your website and your blog becomes an excellent marketing tool. Including useful, timely information also helps to establish yourself as an expert in your field and is a good 'magnet' for incoming links.
Get (Social) Networking. If any of the names MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. are not completely foreign to you, you are ready to take the plunge and use one/all of these Social Networking sites to promote your business. Like blogs, these sites are set up so that it's easy to send 'your message' to a large community of people. It takes time to build your community, but as you do, more and more people find out about your business. Using these sites can be less time consuming than writing regular blog posts -- but the more time you put in, the more you will get out of it.
Get a 'Tech Check'. The best €150 I spent in 2008 was to the West Cork Enterprise Board for a Tech Check, technology audit of our business. The result was a detailed, independent report on the technology we were currently using in our business, along with recommendations for new systems and procedures that we could use now and for any expected expansion. I hesitated to sign up for the service initially as I assumed that the person assigned would be pushing his own services and his recommendations would be geared to that; but it is part of the scheme that the auditor cannot provide the follow up services. In fact, my auditor doesn't provide such services for a living and most of his recommendations were things I could do myself, were free or very cheap and easy to download from the Internet. So if you have concerns about the security of your data, how to do back-ups more efficiently, if you need a better programme to manage your accounts, etc. this service will get you the answers you are looking for.
Give Outstanding Service. The one area where many web businesses fall down is in providing a decent level of customer service, so this is a great opportunity for you to stand out from your competitors. Many Irish e-commerce site owners are concerned about the fact that Irish VAT, one of the highest in Europe, has risen and UK VAT has dropped; so prices on Irish sites will appear higher than ever. Yes people are more price conscious these days, but when shopping online more people are concerned about doing business with a reliable, established business that they can talk to if needed. Be sure that your website provides clear contact details. Answer enquiries within 24 hours (sooner, if possible, even if just to say that you've received the message and will get back to the sender promptly). Offer delivery times and costs equivalent to your competitors (even if in neighbouring countries). Focus on the customers needs and strive to provide that to them, even if it means giving that little bit extra. This will set you apart from the pack.

With the concern about keeping your business going strong in the current economic climate it's important to make the most of your current resources, so resolve to make the most of your website and see the results in 2009.

Last Minute Christmas Shopping Ideas Online

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:36:00 +0000

As a follow up to my earlier post about Christmas Shopping Online, I just wanted to point out that there are still a few sites where you can get presents in time for the 25th! An Post's deadline for delivery by Christmas was 17th December, but you still have some options to shop online from Ireland (or anywhere from the net).

I have relatives that live away and I usually have to resort to sending gift vouchers, fearing that it is so impersonal; but many people really prefer to just get what they want. Many of you may have already shopped on the 'big' site like Amazon, Lego, etc. but here are some smaller local businesses that have broken into online shopping and provide you with a range of quality gift ideas.

The following sites offer online gift vouchers for notification to the recipient via email:

www.sallymiller.ie - Natural Handmade Aromatherapy Products make excellent gifts to suit women or men of any age: bath products, shampoo, a range of shea butter products, the best soy candles, etc. You can also find a list of shops throughout Ireland that carry her products -- in case you do get a chance to pop out.

www.irisharans.com - Handmade Irish Knitwear - a full range of knitwear for men, women and children.

www.kinkybutton.com - fun gifts for adults only (enough said).

Gift Vouchers sent via post:

www.alanahwood.com - B&B and Spa located near Skibbereen offers gift vouchers for accommodation or spa treatments.

www.inishbeg.com - luxury self catering accommodation on a private island off of Baltimore. They also offer Sue Holland cookery courses and now have special package deals as part of Explore Baltimore with boat trips and scuba lessons in their indoor pool!

www.irishwatersports.ie - power boat rentals, sales, courses and trips with locations at Inish Beg in West Cork and Dublin.

www.tridenthotel.ie - gift vouchers for accommodation or meals at this hotel located overlooking the water in Kinsale.

www.whalewatchwestcork.com - gift vouchers for a whale watching trip are a really unique gift idea and for the very special someone who is a real wildlife enthusiast they are offering a range of season tickets.

I am looking to pick up some last minute gifts, and a bit of Christmas spirit, at Hosfords Pre-Christmas Farmer's Market this Sunday. Earlier this year John Hosford began hosting a farmers market on the first Sunday of each month in his newly expanded Garden Centre. There is always a range of food producers and crafts people of the highest quality. Our client, Louise Manning of Dream Cakes will be there with her Gingerbread Houses. This Sunday Santa will be there and there will also be live music. If you cannot get down there, they are selling gift vouchers on their site www.hosfordsgardencentre.ie (I cannot tell if they are delivered by post or email without actually purchasing, though).

I've also just heard great feedback on www.curiouswines.ie, a new online shop. A case of wine was ordered yesterday and was delivered at 10am this morning. According to the owners, if you order by 1.30pm today (Friday 19th Dec) you will get delivery by Christmas. They offer free shipping on a case of 12, which is the minimum order. You can also shop in person at their warehouse in Bandon (ring to check opening hours).

Happy Shopping Online or Offline and have a great Christmas and New Year!

A Really Good Contact Us Page

noreply@blogger.com (Ann Donnelly) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:08:00 +0000

Do you need a Contact Us page? Would your contact details and an email link at the bottom of all pages work just as well? Ideally we could all have a Contact Us page like Eddie Hobbs:

Contact Eddie

Eddie Hobbs.com provides you with an option to take fee-based advice or to go to free sites such as Askaboutmoney.com., MABS, IFSRA etc.
Eddie's personal client base is full and doesn't allow him time to deal with individual personal finance issues for potential new clients or complaints about goods and services in general. You should refer back to the website for assistance.

If you have specific research useful as input to articles, radio and television, that would help consumers in general become more informed, please feel free to email.

Often when we develop a new site, it's for a new business, and the client is keen to get as many enquiries as possible. I imagine them just sitting next to the computer waiting for that form submission to hit the Inbox. In a few months, when the site and the business has taken off, we hear the concern that there are a lot of enquiries that are not amounting to anything.

Ideally your contact page will guide the visitor on the best way to make enquiries, based on the information he is looking for -- guiding them in a manner that will efficiently get him the information he is looking for in a manner that suits you best. For example:

This websites contains all of the details we have on properties we have on offer.
- If you would like a printed brochure, please click here [link to specific form].
- If you would like to schedule a viewing, please click here [link to specific form].
- If you would like to join our mailing list to be advised of new listings or other updates to this site, please click here [link to mailing list form].
- If you have a different enquiry, please complete the enquiry form below and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

If you get a lot of enquiries that are unlikely to bring sales, like Eddie, you can provide links to other sites to provide information so that the visitor goes satisfied and may return if he has a real need for your services. We've done this in regards to Vehicle Registration Tax. People were coming to www.omahonydonnelly.ie via searches for information on VRT. Most just wanted to know rates and procedures and were unlikely to become clients of the firm, so we added a clear link to the relevant page on www.revenue.ie, which would always have the most up to date details on the topic. We've helped the person and avoided a number of phone calls that were not bringing in new customers.

I am looking forward to the day when my Contact Us page says: Ann's personal client base is full, so go read my blog and leave me alone!