tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34716229839323009142024-03-05T08:26:37.121+00:00Web Brandingadamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01167566857697107422noreply@blogger.comBlogger116125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471622983932300914.post-50974665506165594432012-10-19T12:20:00.000+01:002012-10-26T11:26:10.821+01:00How Will Recent Google Penguin Updates Affect Methods of Search Engine Optimisation?<div id="article-body">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvgZuZfPixQ__BFE1EtDTTSmogOcrA4sban7PIxFmWkjvvW7lcMRS8CrhDK-tDd8o5s59duXsaWeuzYUr2qmu3ZYb_sHEk49QlW_B73C9UKWasBmeAHPEx1Khu0xalQ_ItO2TTyTydaOs/s1600/google_penguin_update.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Search Engine Optimisation" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvgZuZfPixQ__BFE1EtDTTSmogOcrA4sban7PIxFmWkjvvW7lcMRS8CrhDK-tDd8o5s59duXsaWeuzYUr2qmu3ZYb_sHEk49QlW_B73C9UKWasBmeAHPEx1Khu0xalQ_ItO2TTyTydaOs/s320/google_penguin_update.jpg" title="Web Branding Sheffield" width="275" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Google's most recent algorithm update referred to as the Google
Penguin seem to have made the scores even, which proves to be an
advantage to minor sites. Prior to Penguin, a lot of websites dominated
the SERPs for stuffing articles with keywords, participating in negative
link building schemes, and creating duplicate contents among other
practices that violate the guidelines set forth by Google. By launching
the Penguin, Google turns the table, and allows sites that used to get
overlooked for being natural to rank on top. Although other major search
engines like Yahoo and MSN remains as is, Google still has the final
say when it comes to search engine optimisation. But unless you do not
need visibility for your website, Google won't matter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>To Look Natural is the Key</b></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Keywords
are used to increase the relevance of web content. Before Penguin,
stuffing an article with keywords in the title tag, subtitles,
paragraphs, meta keywords and side bars, helped it rank no. 1 in Google.
By this habit, <a href="http://www.totalseoservices.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_new">SEO services</a>
tend to sacrifice content quality over SERP performance. <br /><br />The internet
is a portal for disseminating information to the target audience, and
this purpose is taken for granted due to the desire to beat other
websites in the search engine lists. Google Penguin aims to make
contents appear as natural as possible for better understanding by
readers. <br /><br />It is recommended that web contents have a keyword density of
less than 5% as more than this will send a red signal to Google.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>How to Create Backlinks</b></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Backlinks
are links from other sites. It makes use of anchor texts to direct
users to the page or site you wish them to view. Backlinks are now
limited to related sites only. Before, it is possible to link any other
site by using a click here, see mywebsite dot com and other similar
anchor texts. <br /><br />This will not work anymore, and Penguin will only put you
further in the SERPs if you will insist on doing so. All sentences have
to appear natural, and the anchor texts should be relevant to the
landing page. Thus, if your article is about making quality contents,
you cannot add impertinent sentences to it and use them as anchor texts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Avoid Duplicate Contents</b></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;">If
you are thinking about reproducing contents to increase visibility of
your website, you can get penalized by Penguin. When Google detects
duplicate contents, it selects the most original before displaying the
search results. Thus, if yours is a copied content, it can get kicked
out of the SERP.</span><br />
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<div id="article-resource">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.totalseoservices.co.uk/" target="_new">SEO Services Sheffield</a> from Total SEO Services. Providing Search Engine Optimisation, Business Branding and Web Development.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Article Source:
<a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Robert_Playford">http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robert_Playford</a></span>
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<br h3="h3" />
<b>Written by Rob Playford<br /></b></div>
Rob Playford is the Creative Director and co-founder of Total SEO Services, an innovative online <a href="http://www.totalseoservices.co.uk/">SEO Services</a> Company. Total SEO Services provide all the necessary tools for effective <a href="http://www.totalseoservices.co.uk/branding.htm">Company Branding</a>, powerful Search Engine Optimisation and extensive <a href="http://www.totalseoservices.co.uk/webDevelopment.htm">Web Development</a> skills to ensure online business growth.<br />
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Rob is also the co-founder of <a href="http://www.webbranding.co.uk/">Web Branding</a>, another web based company dealing with Business Branding and Website Design.<br /><br /> <br />
You can find him on <a href="https://plus.google.com/111679558114662395806?rel=author/">Google+</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/TotalSEOserv">Twitter</a> - feel free to get in touch.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK53.381129 -1.47008553.2295905 -1.7859420000000001 53.5326675 -1.154228tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471622983932300914.post-21634936128669126332012-03-01T09:45:00.001+00:002012-03-01T09:46:10.531+00:00Branding software – An Efficient way to keep your brand consistent online<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB8pCTp5OItGPEHGYdt707fj_P8Lb59GfkryHcn1YNO282a-dcLQlkDolJavDtrpNz74tb7p4xYvbqYi5MyCDx3_2Q7DTva4ECt6MZ1i8UeSTELOUlHImW3F-FHkawhNKGWwd4r0_n2PY/s1600/brandingSoftware.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB8pCTp5OItGPEHGYdt707fj_P8Lb59GfkryHcn1YNO282a-dcLQlkDolJavDtrpNz74tb7p4xYvbqYi5MyCDx3_2Q7DTva4ECt6MZ1i8UeSTELOUlHImW3F-FHkawhNKGWwd4r0_n2PY/s1600/brandingSoftware.jpg" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">For most companies our websites have become the heart of our brand, it can be easily monitored by everyone at a company to make sure a brand is being delivered consistently. This is relatively easy to keep it updated with the current brand style and use it as a template to base all printed material on.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div>However, for most businesses your website is not the main way your customers interact with your brand. <br />
All the physical representations of a brand are the ones that are going to stay with them and these elements of your brand are harder to keep control of and keep consistent.<br />
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As companies grow it becomes increasingly difficult to monitor everything that is distributed as more things are taken care of independently by different departments of your company. This can lead to a really fragmented brand that is less able to maintain customer loyalty and the other advantages a strong brand can offer.<br />
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One solution to this is to implement a branding software package. Branding software is an easy way to recentralize all your branding efforts. First you have a designer create and provide templates for the various documents you are likely to need, stock images, fonts, style guides and any other branding tools. <br />
Then you create an online database to store all this information.<br />
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Putting all this information in an online database means that you can grant access to it to anyone in the world, meaning that every arm of your company has access to this information to easily create documents by filling in templates.<br />
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As companies grow, a large number of branding tools will amass. Branding software is designed to make it very simple to find the information you need by the way it is filed within a searchable database. Customizable interfaces make this even simpler by only allowing individual users to resources they are likely to need. This means there is no risk of information over load as well as reducing the risk that confidential documents could be seen by the wrong person.<br />
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Communication is a critical part of any branding effort but can be hard to maintain as companies grow. More sophisticated branding software includes its own communication systems. More advanced than email, these systems usually look more like internal social networking programs. <br />
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This makes it easy to search profiles of other members of the company making it simple to know who needs to be included in certain conversations. These conversations can then be monitored by those driving the brands.<br />
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Any documents produced can then easily be approved centrally and sent directly to the printers through <b><a href="http://www.brandworkz.com/features/web-to-print">web 2 print</a></b>. Speeding up the approval process like this means there is no reason not to have things approved centrally.<br />
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Your brand is about more than just your website, so make sure you keep control of it and keep it consistent, a consistent brand is a strong brand. <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: blue; text-align: left;">Many thanks to Ewan Cambell MacDougall for this Guest Post</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: blue; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: blue; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black;">If you'd like to write for this blog please check out the following <a href="http://blog.webbranding.co.uk/2010/12/write-for-our-blog-write-for-our.html"><b>Guest Posting for Web Branding</b></a></span></div><br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3471622983932300914&postID=2163493612866912633" name="_GoBack"></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471622983932300914.post-23612870840544408092012-02-07T11:07:00.000+00:002012-02-07T11:07:06.441+00:00Social Media Explained via the Donut Theory!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9cdZFHDgE7iPliiC6qJYqEdd27pfPkthbBXm8iKUl6FoNdhNIUKOBMsaopZj5Tmbgk434iBNzW7-j-hKGRW6_J1pv0jQVLLe32iexJM2JU_pLVh8HCVWUCjSrAEnP3KXkKkaKqxvdZCE/s1600/social+media.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9cdZFHDgE7iPliiC6qJYqEdd27pfPkthbBXm8iKUl6FoNdhNIUKOBMsaopZj5Tmbgk434iBNzW7-j-hKGRW6_J1pv0jQVLLe32iexJM2JU_pLVh8HCVWUCjSrAEnP3KXkKkaKqxvdZCE/s1600/social+media.jpg" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471622983932300914.post-54835141169841467412011-05-05T21:53:00.001+01:002011-05-09T20:48:23.959+01:00Web Branding's 3rd Interview welcomes Tom from Steel Ink Design in Sheffield<div style="color: #660000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">We say hello to Tom Merrill the founder of <a href="http://www.steelink.co.uk/"><u>Steel Ink Design</u></a>, a graphic design company based in Sheffield. This is the 3rd interview of the Web Branding Series, 2011.<br />
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</div><div style="color: #660000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Firstly Tom, thanks for taking the time to talk to us today.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">No problem.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #660000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">From checking out your website and your facebook page I can see you have a great <span id="goog_149335777"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"><u>collection of work<span id="goog_149335778"></span></u></a>. What work have you undertaken in the past that you would say best demonstrates what Steel Ink Design is all about?</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I recently completed some work for a Sheffield based events company. They’re always on the look out for the next big thing in the promotion world in order to effectively reach their target audience. So I created a very simple flyer that contained nothing but a QR code. The whole concept was based around the idea of intrigue getting the better of you. The flyers were strategically placed around locations where they knew their target audience ‘hung out’ to entice them into scanning the code.If you want to find out who the company is, well, you’ll just have to keep your eyes peeled for one of the flyers and scan the QR code yourself!<br />
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</div><div style="color: #660000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I understand that you’ve recently set up your own business, <a href="http://www.steelink.co.uk/"><u>Steel Ink Design</u></a>. What advice would you give to any of our readers out there that are thinking about going alone? Any tips for getting motivated, inspired, creative?</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I think it’s important to build up a library of design books and example work that you admire. There are always times when I’m working on a project and it seems as though it’s not progressing at all. I look through design books, get ideas, and see how other designers tackled similar issues. Then I go back to the work another time (I often leave projects 24 hours before looking at them again) and it almost seems blindingly obvious as to what I need to do after a break from thinking about it. Suddenly everything becomes clear and makes sense.</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Whilst in the process of setting the company up, I found SENTA, the Sheffield Enterprise Agency to be invaluable. They’re a completely free government funded organisation. I received a lot of useful business support from the Sheffield Enterprise Agency, support that otherwise wouldn’t have been available to me. I’d recommend joining SENTA to anyone who is thinking of starting his or her own business in Sheffield.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
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</div><div style="color: #660000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I see from your website that you’re a <a href="http://www.steelink.co.uk/about.html"><u>freelance graphic designer</u></a> and a landscape architect. Is there much cross over between these two jobs and would you like to combine the two in the future?</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I trained at university as a landscape architect, but during that time I found that my passion lies within graphic design. Landscape Architecture is extremely important in terms of how we shape our environment but often the work produced in this discipline is poorly presented. Funding for landscape projects often lies on the landscape architects presentation to the client, and so the way in which their ideas are portrayed graphically is hugely important. So yes, I believe there is a strong crossover between the two disciplines and one that is often not fully exploited.<br />
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</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjqQzGZzU3elE6gLWVUSGjdhA7VoivPBxTWhAwBgLuAZUWvknXPGIv_1N60PrOXSz62Zf460DSHC42TvMxFjKBDBJyq4EgEViYkuwXGSrqVR7rpiQAVZ1zf-ZwKx-grSn42htDqGOjo-c/s1600/mind-the-step-sign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjqQzGZzU3elE6gLWVUSGjdhA7VoivPBxTWhAwBgLuAZUWvknXPGIv_1N60PrOXSz62Zf460DSHC42TvMxFjKBDBJyq4EgEViYkuwXGSrqVR7rpiQAVZ1zf-ZwKx-grSn42htDqGOjo-c/s1600/mind-the-step-sign.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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We see you’re also based in this great city of Sheffield, do you see Sheffield as a pioneer city for all things creative? Like for instance the new brand ‘Designed in Sheffield’ which hopes to bring more creative jobs into the area.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I think Sheffield is a great place for all kinds design, especially with its rich steel heritage. I know a lot of different creative’s based in Sheffield and they all enjoy working here. The thing that I love about Sheffield is the fact that it’s got everything a big city should have, as well as being so close to the peak district. It’s perfect for encouraging all kinds of different and varied design.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
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</div><div style="color: #660000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I can see you’ve spent some time working on the interior design of a nightclub in Sheffield, please tell us some more about this.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I’ve always loved music and clubbing and the electric atmosphere that comes with it, so it was a real honour for me when I was approached by the legendary <a href="http://www.steelink.co.uk/projects/niche-nightclub-interior-design.html"><u>Sheffield nightclub called Niche</u></a> to be part of their ‘rebirth’ in 2009 after nearly five years since the original venue closed. I was always aware of the immense pressure to deliver on this particular project;the club had such a strong following within the city, and indeed the rest of the UK. Over the previous 20 years or so, it had become somewhat of a musical phenomenon leading the way at the forefront of one of the UK’s biggest underground music scenes. It even received a gold disc for sales in excess of 100,000 copies of both the ‘Ministry of Sound and Niche present The Sound of Bassline’ albums, so the pressure was on!</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
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The main room was designed to have a distinctly underground and dark feel, yet still retain a fresh and exciting vibe to bring Niche firmly into the modern era. It was extremely important that this room set the right image for a venue that would play host to the fast moving and ever changing face of the underground music scene that Niche was so famous for creating. The second room was designed around the idea of an ‘original Niche replica’. It was to host Niche anthems and original speed garage classics so it was important that it reflected many of the memorable qualities of the original Niche all-nighter venue. I worked closely with the people behind the Niche brand, often visiting the original building on Sidney Street to get a taste of the true intrinsic underground value of the venue that made it what it was. I was there on the opening night and the feedback from the clubbers was amazing, many of them saying that ‘they were back home’. That made all the hard work worthwhile.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiCbLIhTyN2niQYTZw5dCDOFw6ifixKE0F2PH3m-d823Pa4QrO_Hx10YyXwCx4RYW9R2A0fFuF4SnxdOT50mw7uPP51B98rTZB-kSPAnCcziJbjzQ8GWxIlNEHYzvMH70wROYtpmY19hw/s1600/niche-old-skool-room.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiCbLIhTyN2niQYTZw5dCDOFw6ifixKE0F2PH3m-d823Pa4QrO_Hx10YyXwCx4RYW9R2A0fFuF4SnxdOT50mw7uPP51B98rTZB-kSPAnCcziJbjzQ8GWxIlNEHYzvMH70wROYtpmY19hw/s1600/niche-old-skool-room.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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Do you have any little pearls of wisdom from the design world that might help our audience? Neat websites, shortcuts, helpful software etc.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I think that the most important thing that any designer can do is to keep your eyes open. Design is everywhere and you should try to look at the detail in everyday items. Try to analyse everyday objects that have obviously been designed by someone. There are good and bad examples everywhere of design everywhere and understanding the difference between these is extremely important.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
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</div><div style="color: #660000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">What would be your dream project for Steel Ink Design to land? Re-designing the 2012 Olympics logo springs to mind! Absolutely anything!</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Right now while Steel Ink Design is still relatively young, I think rather than an individual project, it would be great to be able to collaborate on a project with some of the designers that inspire me. If I were to have to pick one, at the moment it would be Matt Pyke of <a href="http://universaleverything.com/"><u>Universal Everything</u></a>. I’ve been inspired by some of the work that he’s created recently, and I admire the way that he works. I think that everyone can learn something from working with other like-minded designers.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
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</div><div style="color: #660000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">What do you see as the next big thing around the corner in the world of graphic design?</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I thinkiPads(and other similar tablets) will start to play a bigger role in everyday life. Not just for the graphic designer and the way in which a designer works on projects, but also in the way that information and design is delivered to users. I don’t think they’re quite there yet in terms of taking over, but they’re starting the advance quickly. I can see them eventually replacing laptops as an all in one computer. So for me, it’s very important to start thinking about how <a href="http://www.steelink.co.uk/services.html"><u>graphic design projects</u></a> can make use of new technology to effectively reach and make a greater impact on the end user.<br />
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</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTj3YfhdTM9g2KF5ApmqIGKGhs2_Q9mSrJ0Iy3Xvn24TTy7TGxnhzT6ZMJlQbe-FYRSrLpLv4KmHFQNfSqwxtp07F1u2r6OBMf64ojXbM5ItEJ-RPBLYbcYMKjjlW_aNEQ34rgzQ3J8hY/s1600/steel-ink-design-logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTj3YfhdTM9g2KF5ApmqIGKGhs2_Q9mSrJ0Iy3Xvn24TTy7TGxnhzT6ZMJlQbe-FYRSrLpLv4KmHFQNfSqwxtp07F1u2r6OBMf64ojXbM5ItEJ-RPBLYbcYMKjjlW_aNEQ34rgzQ3J8hY/s1600/steel-ink-design-logo.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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Finally, many thanks for being part of our 2011 interview series, if you have any final thoughts, plugs, links etc. please feel free…</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Thanks for interviewing me. You can have a look at my latest work on my website and social networking pages.</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.steelink.co.uk/">www.steelink.co.uk</a></b></div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.steelink.co.uk/facebook">www.steelink.co.uk/facebook</a></b></div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.steelink.co.uk/twitter">www.steelink.co.uk/twitter</a></b></div><br />
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Web Branding would like to introduce you to Social Monkee - a completely free tool for automatically building 20 backlinks or more every day!<br />
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Just follow the link to <a href="http://www.socialmonkee.com/index.php?af=10620" target="_blank">Social Monkee</a>, sign up and start building links - It's as simple as that.<br />
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<a href="http://www.socialmonkee.com/index.php?af=10620" target="_blank">www.socialmonkee.com</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471622983932300914.post-80860970289829894582011-04-05T18:03:00.001+01:002011-04-05T18:14:18.224+01:00Our Latest New Website<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.beatthatrate.com/images/blog/beatThatRate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="406" width="452" src="http://www.beatthatrate.com/images/blog/beatThatRate.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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Web Branding is pleased to announce our latest new website - <a href="http://www.beatthatrate.com" target="_blank">www.beatthatrate.com</a>. A revolutionary new website aimed at ensuring that their customers can achieve the best price available for a wide range of products and services.<br />
Whether you are looking to raise finance for a special purchase or are just looking to reduce the cost of your house insurance, we can put you in touch with a friendly adviser. Take a look through the services offered by browsing the menu at the top of the page.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471622983932300914.post-40669761653615361572011-02-25T14:33:00.000+00:002011-02-25T14:33:15.309+00:00Web Branding Website Competition WINNER<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Congratulations </b>are in order for <b>Nicola Shipley</b> who came out as the winner in the Web Branding Website Design Competition.</span></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Many thanks for all the entries. It went down to the public vote and after we had recieved nearly 500 votes, Nicola's design for the Peakford Ford Owners Group came out on top.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Well Done to all out Competitors..</b></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Here's a sneak preview of the newly designed website that should be up and running next week.</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOYCdba-iBKT4fO7K9PkhGg67n17jHEy2I1Q3ZNVPrd1rjyjg0x8IZX0ovvb8-jEJh67fBz-ryDBwjY31BN5vW3a12ojJerFWDZ6Lr1qcjJmJnPa_cXrGV57pWrn8mdAcux14SVFI9DpY/s1600/peakfordBlog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOYCdba-iBKT4fO7K9PkhGg67n17jHEy2I1Q3ZNVPrd1rjyjg0x8IZX0ovvb8-jEJh67fBz-ryDBwjY31BN5vW3a12ojJerFWDZ6Lr1qcjJmJnPa_cXrGV57pWrn8mdAcux14SVFI9DpY/s1600/peakfordBlog.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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We have secured the domain <a href="http://www.peakford.co.uk/"><b>www.peakford.co.uk</b></a> and you'll be able to check out this website soon<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmHitVIP4ESpEbFSZtumPV8Akj7ewQdu3FvRoJt3u3MEt3Wqk_BxvUeQjd267mO3wt6BHa0TQDAz6pAYlGdZRt-mYWITT0h1ys4JWEVBJ1hl28bVAXQUd_-b-dzAkdsJZ7b4qMn0U2fWE/s1600/brian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmHitVIP4ESpEbFSZtumPV8Akj7ewQdu3FvRoJt3u3MEt3Wqk_BxvUeQjd267mO3wt6BHa0TQDAz6pAYlGdZRt-mYWITT0h1ys4JWEVBJ1hl28bVAXQUd_-b-dzAkdsJZ7b4qMn0U2fWE/s1600/brian.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Today I am happy to be joined by Brian Patterson.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">He is a Partner at <b>MangoCo</b>, a design and <a href="http://www.mangoco.com/">seo firm based in Northern Virginia, USA</a>. MangoCo deals in Search Engine Optimisation, Reputation Management, and Unique Web Design and has a strong track record for achieving top rankings.</span><br />
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First off, many thanks for agreeing to this interview, and let’s begin with a brief introduction about yourself and MangoCo. </span></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Thanks for the inviting me to participate in the interview series. My background is a mixed bag of IT consulting, project management, and search engine optimization. I’ve consulted on projects ranging from an enterprise system roll-out at a Top Secret government agency to building a celebrity gossip blog for a client that showcases the most interesting celeb tweets. My focus these days is primarily on SEO and Online Reputation Management.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b style="color: #990000;">And how long have you been at the SEO game? What’s been the biggest change since you’ve been dealing with Search Engine Optimisation?</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">I’ve been doing SEO for about four years now. Compared to some other SEO professionals, I’m just a baby in the industry, and they are right. However, 4 years in an online industry is also an eternity in terms of evolution. The biggest macro change that has impacted me is the shift by the algorithms towards stronger domains. <br />
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When I first started, it was fairly easy to get content on brand new sites to rank well fairly quickly. However, the updates over time seem to have shifted a lot of trust to ‘authority domains’ – aged domains with strong links that Google can really trust. Often times these domains many not have as good of an article to fulfil the query as a newer site, but Google is ranking them higher because it trusts them more. This shift has changed the way we go about doing SEO, with almost no focus on ‘quick results’ for any sort of competitive keywords<br />
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On a side note, we’ll soon be launching a site with details on how we go about building authority sites/domains, so stay tuned and we’ll be sure to share the details here when its live.</span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJMEl7j_LRAatotwjWM5HiUmStE5IB7HCnwbEY1LeLudmjAXAfiWKImNhS9glZJkgmJurCC4Ao87ZyFxfA3ZcUpMPM6IIqdqQNgx8rgKkc2DhvSSlQTnjV7YOfoozxVgvnmg1GgG7NgdY/s1600/MangoCo_banner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJMEl7j_LRAatotwjWM5HiUmStE5IB7HCnwbEY1LeLudmjAXAfiWKImNhS9glZJkgmJurCC4Ao87ZyFxfA3ZcUpMPM6IIqdqQNgx8rgKkc2DhvSSlQTnjV7YOfoozxVgvnmg1GgG7NgdY/s1600/MangoCo_banner.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b style="color: #990000;">If you had to make 3 predictions about the future of SEO in the coming few years, what changes do you see having most impact on how SEO is carried out?</b></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Prediction 1</b>: Bing’s market share will continue to grow, and here why: Facebook is seeping its way into every aspect of our online lives and activities. From the Like button to Facebook Connect, many of us interact with Facebook on a daily basis OFF of the Facebook website. Microsoft relationship with Facebook allows Bing to crawl it to see what people are ‘Liking’ on the web. This gives Bing the unique opportunity to adjust their ranking algorithms based on social activity that Google cannot see. I can imagine a marketing campaign with Bing touting how they can personalize the search experience just for you. ></span></span><br />
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<b>Prediction 2</b>: Brands will focus more on Reputation Management, and Google will find more ways to combat Brands focusing on this; Its typical cat and mouse. I recently <a href="http://www.seomoz.org/blog/our-online-reputation-management-playbook" style="color: #990000;">wrote this post over at SEOmoz</a> about how we helped a client combat the issue where Google was recommending their brand name plus the word ‘scam’ in Google Suggest.<br />
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Since reputation management is on my mind lately, my prediction is as Google becomes aware that more brands are doing this, they’ll find ways to combat it and surface true user feedback in the algorithm (for branded searches).<br />
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<b>Bonus prediction</b>: I also think the algorithm’s bias towards negative suggestions will decrease as a way to get brands to not spend as much time manipulating the algorithm because of reputation management problems.<br />
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<b>Prediction 3</b>: Content farms aren’t going anywhere! Everyone is complaining about how Google is just full of spam and junk courtesy of Demand Media and the like, but Matt Cutts just <a href="http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/google-2000-vs-google-2011" style="color: #990000;">posted today</a> about how the results back then were actually a lot worse, and he has proof. I think eHow and similar sites will still stay around, because they do have their place. For quick, short answers, they actually do the trick quite often.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgraNEreRkH-MMtPlEj6cS3SJHjCIBfRfErenShV44Od3UAu0ASfdllW0JmbRQ6wr_GqAxQVgvp3oxxS8ZOTXMz8Y9OEHf4bex8BUUoRHsOrrw3VQhvTpdrMlWPgBT2RBQMzol4G9dNBUo/s1600/Services.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgraNEreRkH-MMtPlEj6cS3SJHjCIBfRfErenShV44Od3UAu0ASfdllW0JmbRQ6wr_GqAxQVgvp3oxxS8ZOTXMz8Y9OEHf4bex8BUUoRHsOrrw3VQhvTpdrMlWPgBT2RBQMzol4G9dNBUo/s1600/Services.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><b style="color: #990000;">What’s your Business Philosophy?</b></span><br />
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At MangoCo, our primary focus is on developing recurring revenue streams. Currently 60% of our income is through client work, while 40% of our income is through web properties and web tools that we develop and monetize. We have large authority sites like <a href="http://www.maciverse.com/" style="color: #990000;">Mac Help</a> site Maciverse, mid-sized but growing community sites like <a href="http://www.myfivefingers.com/" style="color: #990000;">My Five Fingers</a>, and tiny niche sites that we are experimenting with like the <a href="http://www.besthairstraightenerguide.com/"><span style="color: #990000;">Best Hair Straightener</span> </a>Guide. As you can see, we put our hands in a lot of pots. Over time, we hope to build our sites and projects to be a larger percentage of our overall portfolio.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJRcPNmScyGSknROA7j5lvU76cDTGwQ7i3AZlneo68nge__NWcP5t4b68O9zTk-m0oWswZZHX-FfU2pYOCVRjNydY1Wz_B4rcywI0ioB8pyx2RoNTp61WSeVBHZTzllvbAsqPoZo1Kb2Y/s1600/maciverse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJRcPNmScyGSknROA7j5lvU76cDTGwQ7i3AZlneo68nge__NWcP5t4b68O9zTk-m0oWswZZHX-FfU2pYOCVRjNydY1Wz_B4rcywI0ioB8pyx2RoNTp61WSeVBHZTzllvbAsqPoZo1Kb2Y/s1600/maciverse.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b style="color: #990000;">What are your top tips for keeping up to date with all the breaking SEO news?</b></span><br />
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I’m a big RSS guy. I follow over 60 SEO related blogs, and I hate unread counts, so I generally read everything in my Google Reader account throughout the day. I think this keeps me fairly up to date, but I also follow a bunch of SEO’s on Twitter to catch any interesting conversations or breaking news.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">If you had to choose one process as the single most important aspect of an SEO campaign, what would this do?</span></b><br />
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Hmmmm…. That’s a tough question because there really are so many critical pieces. If I had to pick one though, I guess it would be keyword research. It’s critical to know your targets.<br />
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<b style="color: #990000;">What is your opinion on CMS Website platforms such as Joomla, Drupal, Mambo etc from an SEO point of view?</b><br />
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You left out my favourite – WordPress! I’ve used all of the others you listed, but I’ve found that WP’s ease-of-use coupled with the ability to tweak everything for SEO makes it hands down my favourite CMS for most websites. I haven’t used Joomla in a few years, but I remember at the point I was using it that it was terrible for SEO – there was so much duplicate content generated if you wanted to use the pretty URL option. And, if you didn’t, you had long strings of variables in your URLs. I didn’t like either of those options!<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF67dI44qxsq1QNsWbhdRiqTyp3Wa-rMytr6OP-TDuoz0RT-iaG17LsmgWOtsNjXMl-cZP6pQlVbuG5HyTl8wcTDE6VOnNK4FJvJYpS5iQP_3GqzgxVFsAVowLrlm6Zzzf6_vM09utO98/s1600/wordpress.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF67dI44qxsq1QNsWbhdRiqTyp3Wa-rMytr6OP-TDuoz0RT-iaG17LsmgWOtsNjXMl-cZP6pQlVbuG5HyTl8wcTDE6VOnNK4FJvJYpS5iQP_3GqzgxVFsAVowLrlm6Zzzf6_vM09utO98/s1600/wordpress.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><b style="color: #990000;">How do you see Google Realtime Search affecting SEO campaigns and do you think this will rival Twitter Search?</b><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">I don’t know that a lot of people use Google’s realtime search, I know I don’t and I don’t pay much attention to it either. If I need to search something in realtime, which I admin is not too often, I use Twitter’s search.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #990000;"><b>If you had to name two of the biggest challenges that you have had to overcome when optimising a website over the last year, what would these be?</b></div><br />
Page load time is always a big challenge when we are brought in after a website is already developed. It can be a hastle to get large companies to make changes to their website that affect the underlying architecture. It takes time and effort to identify what the culprit is of a slow loading website and then even more time and effort to develop a plan an execute on it. While we have done this a bunch, I much prefer link building!<br />
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The second problem we seem to hit fairly often is where client doesn’t want to create any new content, and doesn’t want to pay to have it professionally created, either. This is tough because obviously fresh, interesting content generates links on its own. Additionally, if we are going out and building a lot of links, we like to hide that spike behind content creation. Our thought process here is that the search engines won’t see that spike as “ah ha, SEOs are working on this site”, but rather see it as “ah ha, this site is creating lots of new content, and new links are flowing in because of it”.<br />
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<b style="color: #990000;">Are there any gems of SEO wisdom or advice that you would like to share with our readers?</b><br />
<br />
I would say – think creatively! There are a number of clever and creative ways to get good, strong links. While the popular methods do work, such as widgets, badges, infographics, etc… there are many other ways to get strong links. To get your juices flowing, here is one idea we used in the past:<br />
<br />
We found a link acquisition target that was a typical blog run by one guy. We noticed he was sorta vain and liked posting pictures of himself. So, we hired a caricaturist on oDesk for $15 to do a caricature of him. We sent it to him along with a way to link back to us. Easy and unique, right? When you are going after harder-to-get links, it pays to use your thinking cap.<br />
<br />
<b style="color: #990000;">And lastly if you have any final thoughts/ plugs, please feel free..</b><br />
<br />
Thanks again for the opportunity. If you’re interested, you can follow me on the Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/brianspatterson" style="color: #990000;">@brianpatterson</a><br />
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<br />
We have been working with Joe over the past couple of months <b>designing</b>, <b>building </b>and providing <b>SEO </b>for the new website.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.sheffieldgardening.co.uk/"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjYubwTCokVca_Vz5FKUU6L_85Tya9H7asvEubTAtkjrcsajw_2B6EpcvGuLmGe6Ii11LI_E-rZEDLVVOrdOGpVJbntlFq4OmNH8viuK1SVjNep4JwNzpzElVx8AXkwlCK9B2cXtk5Xss/s1600/homePage.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<b><i>“With over 10 years experience creating designs for National Trust owned properties and other landmark gardens, Joe Bond's reputation for providing innovative and contemporary Garden Designs throughout Sheffield and Derbyshire is difficult to match.” </i></b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.sheffieldgardening.co.uk/portfolio.htm"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQXahrPJ81FXC485PPq0nyPKbBFlaD9ZOexVqTmjpr4yPRFERTz6YlqQ8EQHUI5drhI2Yu-bx4L65I31GIyPHbGlFDrhRHHFjlBJ0VT033pSCpPh6My0118mbP_xkDpqC1cDEKkFg9eYw/s1600/portfolio.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Whether you are considering a simple garden clearance or a complete redesign, Joe Bond Gardens are happy to provide recommendations to suit your budget. Please visit <a href="http://www.sheffieldgardening.co.uk/">Sheffield Gardening</a> today<br />
<br />
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Generally when you talk to someone working within the SEO profession, any optimisation strategy that they're following will be heavily focused on acquiring backlinks. <br />
<br />
This common issue is generally caused by the misconception that backlinks are the best way of achieving those prestigious number one positions, whereas in actual fact the best way to gain these positions is by addressing numerous factors together. <br />
<br />
Yes, backlinks are very important within Google's ranking algorithm, but they cannot achieve positioning on their own. Other important factors include page optimisation, relevant copy, internal linking, the domain name and the following smaller, yet effective techniques:<br />
<br />
<b>Page speed...</b><br />
<br />
Google announced last year that year that it's algorithm would now consider the page loading speed of websites, giving optimisers another way of impressing Google when they crawl their website. A website can be optimised to load faster by compressing images, removing unnecessary JavaScript code, optimising the CSS and cleaning up HTML code. <br />
<br />
<b>Optimising images...</b><br />
<br />
Similar to page speed, adding alt tags to images might not have as much of an impact as some of key SEO techniques, but it can help to make a difference. By placing alt tags on images, you're effectively telling Google what the images are about, as when crawling, Google is unable to read them.<br />
<br />
<b>Creating a blog...</b><br />
<br />
By adding a blog onto your domain you're giving yourself a hugely impactful resource for linking and also generating much more copy. Regular posts from your blog can help to increase the rate that Google crawls your website, provide more linking power to your pages and help to tell Google that you're experts within your field with the additional copy. <br />
<br />
These <a href="http://www.totalseoservices.co.uk/">SEO Services</a> are great for giving your website a boost, helping to make it easier for Google to identify what your website is about and increasing your chances of achieving those top search engine positions.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Paul Rogers - Marketing and Web Development Manager of Big Game Hunters, an Oxfordshire-based retailer of <a href="http://www.etoyszone.co.uk/">Trampolines </a>and <a href="http://www.playhousesshop.co.uk/">Playhouses</a>.</i><br />
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<br />
<img alt="" height="150px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/VmKaDQaZtVDVZc8exNbJjPWMrEOfdRkCEgm-kN2lVe8orFJbkhoowS51_IFFpWQI4UCsRIf8jYd6OsGeg7DybM3Fm8Kzysd9gyPHx6EAD0tCqyg6Ew" width="570px;" /><br />
<br />
<strong>First off, thanks for agreeing to this brain picking session!<br />
<br />
Please can you give a brief introduction about yourself & your company: When was Vivoo Creative formed and how? </strong><br />
<br />
Hi! My name is Luke and I own <a href="http://www.vivoocreative.co.uk/"><b>Vivoo Creative</b></a> which is generally myself but I employ in-house on a contract basis for larger projects.<br />
<br />
Vivoo Creative was formed in March 2010 before this I generally worked in-house at other design and digital agencies, I am self-taught in what I do, I left school with 1 GCSE (in Drama) but at 15 stumbled upon myspace and gained an interest in HTML, through the years I was a Chef so creativity was generally in my blood, while I was working as a Chef thanks to Google and Youtube and my own dedication I taught myself website design and development and have gone on to SEO, UX, Social Media, and email marketing… eventually I left catering to take on Web Design and Development full-time.<br />
<br />
<strong>How’d the name come about?</strong><br />
<br />
Absolut random, I try to be as different and unique as I can be within my designs so I figured why not do the same for the name? Originally it was just Vivoo but I decided to change it to Vivoo Creative so it at least signified something! It’s great when I get enquiries as the first thing that is asked is ‘is it viv-ow or viv-oo’? After discussing the name of the business I think it puts the potential client at ease and they get to know you a little!<br />
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<br />
<img alt="" height="103px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/KFfN4IQn6xj5PlHz1V_90zUZYvTJz5XdMj-8sJKGo2Ua77C-kuuYmG2pBA2Zl-aBty5bXr7odlGuW-_ur2s9EFRKBJtxTX92szkqCUrALocHwh1v0A" width="570px;" /><br />
<br />
<strong>I see from your Blog you’re in the process of refurbishing your studio, what’s the key to a great working environment? Any tips for our readers on how you gain that creative inspiration? </strong><br />
<br />
I’m glad you asked me this, I have worked at too many agencies which are just too dull and ‘call centre like’, Grey walls and florescent celling lights, what’s that about? <br />
<br />
This is the creative industry so surely the environment you work in must be creative too! Full of colour, and fun within a motivated and interesting environment, with Mood boards on the wall or your own work, so you can look up and say… I did that!<br />
<br />
Actually I do something called sketch boarding, it’s not only a good way to plan out your website for usability but it also gets you away from the computer I recommend anyone doing this if you are freelance or a team.<br />
<br />
<img alt="" height="300px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/CboKl5e3ZpEr-wb_UekgnAGLd62vAhp9BgrhJ-snT2Lo-uZSCQKwHNB0xXiv7P9LS9cR7nH23Jx8ogNqAW_O7h_jhByTm51v1GXl1_zjNgnPpRIhiw" width="570px;" /><br />
<br />
Another thing I try to do is my own stock photography, after reading a blog post a few months ago I build a few light tents, this is another thing I think everyone get involved in and have input in a working environment, me personally I do it to get my own shots and get away from the computer, though it can be time consuming!<br />
<br />
People get creative inspiration from all sorts of things, above is just my approach, sometimes I wake up at 2am with an idea for a project I’m working on so I think in general inspiration comes from the mind!<br />
<br />
<strong>What’s your Business Philosophy?</strong><br />
<br />
To be a unique input into the creative industry.<br />
<br />
<strong>It seems you’ve just enjoyed a prosperous 2010, what’s the biggest lesson(s) you learnt about your industry last year? </strong><br />
<br />
Usability is a massive key for any project, even for the smallest projects always plan in detail! It’s worth the extra 2/3 days, I’m not a master at UX but I can understand why there is masters in usability.<br />
<br />
Also, make sure you client knows who the designer is, I made the mistake once in just saying yes to I can design it like this for you, yes I can do it like that, and that was the last time I let that happen… don’t let them take over, they hire you because you know how to create, for some reason a lot of clients still don’t get this, I’ve lost clients previously because I have stopped them from trying to be the designer but that was my choice. The way I see it you wouldn’t tell a builder how to build a house, you hire them to build it, just like we are hired to build and design websites! <br />
<br />
And this is just a bit of advice to people starting out as I hear of this mistake every week, I have worked with a lot of agencies who outsource to me, sometimes they will ask for concepts (just like some clients do) before any payment is made or even before you even have the project in hand, I tell you now, it doesn’t matter if they are an agency, private client or the queen of England, say no to spec work. <br />
<br />
<img alt="" height="103px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/B8LcqBlMFqreEU1biUCsQFdUxZZxGiZtlJSY_29UcB3OkfRC38wIf1_yfeaTid4bdOdqG4Nm2xen97x59Jfa2FbASX6ZPilDDFjxd5n8rhHwyGjk8Q" width="570px;" /><br />
<strong><br />
And the biggest challenge of 2010?</strong><br />
<br />
Motivation, don’t get me wrong I absolutely love what I do, but working long hours by yourself really can take its toll! To overcome this I used to go out every day and do stuff, generally go for a pint in the evening if I’m honest! Or sometimes If I’m not doing dev or design work I would go and take my laptop some place and do admin stuff. Only having people on Twitter, Facebook and IM doesn’t count and it can take you out of the real world!<br />
<br />
<strong><br />
With the ever increasing rate of tech advances, what do you find is the most challenging aspect of keeping up with the ever evolving online world? </strong><br />
<br />
Dealing with Project Management, Admin, Accounts, Server Management, Clients, Marketing, social media, and of course the initial design and development work is what I have to look after on a day to day basis so trying to keep on top of the current trends and technology is somewhat impossible, I do try my very best to keep in the loop, but with all this other stuff going on and with there be improvements in technology every day it can be very difficult to have time to sit back and read a blog post, watch a video or have a chat about HTML5 or something!<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>Where do you see the web design industry in the future?</strong><br />
<br />
Very little flash…. HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery is the future oh and no internet explorer if we are lucky.<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>2011 is set to be yet another year of dramatic change in the online world. What do you predict will be really big this coming year? </strong><br />
<br />
Hopefully the death of Internet Explorer, but if not we can dream right?<br />
<br />
<strong>And lastly, a BIG THANKS, if you have any final thoughts/ plugs, please feel free.. </strong><br />
<br />
<br />
Referring to one of my answers Google UX sketch boarding, it’s interesting!<br />
<br />
<b>Twitter </b>– <a href="http://www.twitter.com/vivoocreative">www.twitter.com/vivoocreative</a><br />
<br />
<b>Personal twitter -</b> <a href="http://www.twitter.com/himynameislukie">www.twitter.com/himynameislukie</a> (follow at own risk)<br />
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<b>Website </b>– <a href="http://www.vivoocreative.co.uk/">www.vivoocreative.co.uk<br />
<br />
</a><img alt="" height="103px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/tEU92jhLf6u9szxU9Jc861E5TKpEMDs_TV5Rbe22bw34glFTDgZaXB2AWi4RIzoHTfyFLGVHZ3D0RGauOKn0NcmlW2FpKUAYgMz9WEXggw2ZfAQMKg" width="570px;" /><br />
<br />
<br><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio1HUW7VAjXRSLOj8od74mcI5PnBfsmQQJl9XQuJMP5oprCTWSvMOEYkACC-BrbwogcFnA8sZqdSPU6OrOTPSz4XxtWcSo3l6rHQEe7R6tURwnmF3cmcEdzixDzjqybngthEoFl7MpSO4/s1600/2011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio1HUW7VAjXRSLOj8od74mcI5PnBfsmQQJl9XQuJMP5oprCTWSvMOEYkACC-BrbwogcFnA8sZqdSPU6OrOTPSz4XxtWcSo3l6rHQEe7R6tURwnmF3cmcEdzixDzjqybngthEoFl7MpSO4/s1600/2011.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2011 - Yet Another Year of High Speed Change Online</td></tr>
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Last year saw a remarkable growth in Social Media, the increase in users on the main social network platforms showed no signs of slowing up.<span style="color: red;"> </span><a href="http://www.totalseoservices.co.uk/" style="color: red;"><b>SEO Services</b></a> are constantly changing to keep up with more sophisticated algorithms and Online Media continues to rapidly evolve.<br />
<br />
<b>All signs are pointing to the fact that search engines must pay more attention to the vast amount of social data out there. Social signals such as ‘<i>Like</i>’ buttons may become a key factor in determining the relevancy and popularity of the results we see.<br />
</b><br />
At present, <b>popular Tweets</b> are being <b>instantly indexed</b>, a tell tale sign of what’s to come. This revelation will see the new sponsored Tweets become even more valuable to SEO Services.<span style="color: red;"> </span><b style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.webbranding.co.uk/articles/FutureAlternateSEO/futureSEO.asp">Real-time search</a></b> will undoubtedly come into its own this year and become more of an established feature on Google results pages.<br />
<br />
We may likely see the end of the <b>PageRank</b> and a new hybrid version that can <b>calculate quality and relevancy to determine value</b>. This may even bring about a decline of duplicate and regurgitated content in the name of rank.<br />
<br />
With Smart phones and tablets more affordable than ever, this will mean that keeping in touch on the many social forums will continue to grow. 2011 will see a marked increase in mobile search and yet another influx of even more impressive apps. The application boom will not only feature within the mobile market but also web apps will play a key role as <b>HTML 5</b> is steadily rolled out to the masses.<br />
<br />
<b>A sleek and better looking internet will adorn the New Year as the wonders of the new html and CSS3 will finally give HTML 4 a long needed overhaul.</b> Media rich sites no longer need to rely on third party applications. We as the user will see an end to the excessive messages of ‘<i>To view this content download/ update this player</i>’.<br />
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Online Video’s have also followed a pattern of expansion with ever more websites favouring this format to inform users about their wares. Better broadband speeds coupled with cheaper video recording devices and ever more user friendly editing software means <b>the future is set in video format. <br />
Get ready to start hearing the term ‘<i>Video SEO</i>’ a whole lot more.<br />
</b><br />
The slow demise of TV as we know it will make way for the rise of Internet TV, with the likes of Google and Apple keen to corner this market.<br />
<br />
<b>Search Engine Optimisation</b> is also a changing playing field. The art of optimising your online content has become much more main stream.<br />
<br />
A few years ago if you followed the laws of SEO to the book, anyone half computer literate would be able to see noticeable results. <b>The approach of ‘<i>painting by numbers</i>’ may very well be on the way out, as Social Media takes a more prominent position</b>. As Algorithms become more sophisticated in 2011, this will surely ruffle a few feathers within the SEO community. More innovative and creative SEO techniques shall spring up, many echoing the core elements of marketing.<br />
<br />
2011 has certainly the makings for yet another year of fast paced technological advances.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #0b5394;"><b><i>I’ll close with the thoughts of an article I recently read where the author made the very insightful simile of how internet years closely resemble that of dog years, 7 years of advancements in 1 year! </i></b><br />
<br />
</div><br/><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.lookb4ubook.co.uk/"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqbwRt8h9Hndco6A-qvrvLHvCfpqebEM34Cg0idCxXaZMeMae6pZ7dmCkzRaMTODopaE3-31S_i81xv8O6QgWmX5oTTqvI2uGu7sPeu3T_5WuSWgriIT-pequ7IpUQwuj-lrkAcQz-Rtc/s1600/LookB4UBook.jpg" />LookB4UBook Website</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.lookb4ubook.co.uk/"><br />
</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">We have been working closely with the team at <b>LookB4UBook</b> over the past few months to rebuild their site. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i>"LookB4UBook Uniquely showcases holiday cottages in the most sought after locations across the UK, providing a personal approach to selecting the perfect holiday accommodation by taking you on an engaging property video tour."</i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><u><br />
The website incorporates the following features:</u></div><div class="MsoNormal"><u><br />
</u></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 37.9pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Database Driven Content</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 37.9pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>E-commerce Site</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 37.9pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Compatible with Mobile Devices – iPads / iPhones etc.</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 37.9pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Clear User Navigation and Login Accounts</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 37.9pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Dynamic HTML accessible on all browsers</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 37.9pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Social Media Integration<br />
<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>LookB4UBook are currently offering Free Video Production as part of their introductory offer. <br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">If you are in the market of renting out holiday cottages or know of anyone who could benefit from this great service, get in touch with the LookB4UBook team.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>The LookB4UBook platform is a great way of promoting your properties Online:</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Why not check out <a href="http://www.lookb4ubook.co.uk/" style="color: red;">LookB4UBook</a> today..</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><br />
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<br />
We didn't receive a great deal of entries in the end, but many thanks for all our entries. <br />
Please see the 4 contenders below for the website prize. <br />
<b><br />
To register your votes please click on your favourite entry at the top right hand side of our blog.</b> <br />
<br />
Please feel free to link to this page to get your friends voting for the winner.<br />
<br />
We put back the final submission date to the 31st Dec 2010 so now the final deadline for the winner to be decided by will be the 15th Feb. <br />
<br />
Best of Luck to all our Entrants<br />
<br />
<br />
<u><b>Entry 1 </b></u><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><u>Sponsor My Talent by Mahmood Choudhury</u></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWxIloCxbg5hEufugLhmHWLGHjrKoqrzf6GhLmp_MFJ34SU6glJ-hgwk2sl07CjEjvrwRvCoZWPq-cMDYUbNBwZZ1eb0DEsI17uQMsB1yopMv50i8FjrHCZA1N3IE2CxNl9yyEVM-hZBw/s1600/Mahmood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWxIloCxbg5hEufugLhmHWLGHjrKoqrzf6GhLmp_MFJ34SU6glJ-hgwk2sl07CjEjvrwRvCoZWPq-cMDYUbNBwZZ1eb0DEsI17uQMsB1yopMv50i8FjrHCZA1N3IE2CxNl9yyEVM-hZBw/s1600/Mahmood.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Mahmood writes:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“My name is Mahmood Choudhury and this is my entry for the website design competition. I have designed the page below. Basically, what it does is to connect talented people to potential sponsors, tools and resources to help them get their projects and dreams off the ground.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><u><b>Entry 2 </b></u></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><u>The Love Farm by John & Tom</u></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuiRFHwD2WtaqDARJZjhURwvjP9SAGH5xA7PRE9vaY-arTzz-8yhEiy74uST8RLum9BIncS-Z6ejGOJPY3Q7k5yOEfP7dG-aUGtDfJxNh9gOUpeicYjEr7ozTkPsgjw6cpxHZu_HKqYRk/s1600/love.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuiRFHwD2WtaqDARJZjhURwvjP9SAGH5xA7PRE9vaY-arTzz-8yhEiy74uST8RLum9BIncS-Z6ejGOJPY3Q7k5yOEfP7dG-aUGtDfJxNh9gOUpeicYjEr7ozTkPsgjw6cpxHZu_HKqYRk/s1600/love.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><u> </u> </div><div class="MsoNormal">“The big picture in the middle of the site will continually change and we want the picture on the bottom left to actually be a video of John and I talking about what we are doing etc. The pictures in place at the mo were the only ones I could lay my hands on!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It is a nice simple design, which reflects what our company is trying to achieve and the values we are working to. We are not looking for a complicated site, but one that is easy to navigate.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Entry 3 </b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><u><br />
</u></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><u>Bray Wanderers AFC by Alan Power</u></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifS4Z954dlKIGHkFC2wTvFG6DYTvCTE9UZ4qFiD7XLcEZmfPs12Vk-oibVh6wvEMIRniM2LwxAb-M3RmI66YGdU01f3gQQI9tobpqaNT56sHHrcL9HiUL7m2_QEc9dPI5N2hIqHemmBNg/s1600/alanPower1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifS4Z954dlKIGHkFC2wTvFG6DYTvCTE9UZ4qFiD7XLcEZmfPs12Vk-oibVh6wvEMIRniM2LwxAb-M3RmI66YGdU01f3gQQI9tobpqaNT56sHHrcL9HiUL7m2_QEc9dPI5N2hIqHemmBNg/s1600/alanPower1.jpg" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">Alan submitted a potential design for Football Club</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Entry 4</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><u>Peakford – Ford Owners Group by Nicola Shipley</u></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTs12EC9AEIM0sNhx38-lzRw-rKE3IGQL1iWbhzYYDU4ldAujNHRixakyeGp2k3225bg0Xk1rQCYkWWDn74jVeg0uoiS2NkiuLrOzlpAXdGX72DGYQJVzAzGKCf1gpaTH-4Q6QZXrEnqs/s1600/com_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTs12EC9AEIM0sNhx38-lzRw-rKE3IGQL1iWbhzYYDU4ldAujNHRixakyeGp2k3225bg0Xk1rQCYkWWDn74jVeg0uoiS2NkiuLrOzlpAXdGX72DGYQJVzAzGKCf1gpaTH-4Q6QZXrEnqs/s1600/com_.jpg" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“The website will be a Ford enthusiast club website (I hope). My inspiration is my boyfriend’s obsession with Ford cars, he and his friends want to be part of clubs but all the relevant clubs are down south so I figured I would create one for him. We currently have 12 members but haven't advertised other than car stickers and as much as I love him I can only do so much web building. I would love for this to get off the ground for him. We already own the web address.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><br />
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<br />
<strong><em>A forum represents an online community; a collection of thoughts, views and ideas. Online forums are often overlooked in favour of its trendy counterpart: social media. The forum is a powerful business tool and is definitely here to stay.</em></strong><br />
<br />
Forums are everywhere and for everyone. Even the most specialised niches will be represented on a forum somewhere.<br />
<br />
<strong>To really get the most out of forums I would first advise getting a basic plan in place.</strong><br />
<br />
• Research your target market<br />
<br />
• Formulate a list of all relevant forums<br />
<br />
• Whittle down your list, leaving the forums with either the higher page rank or the best following<br />
<br />
<br />
A small amount of <strong>market research</strong> will have you ready to get posting in no time at all. Start off by targeting five forums from the top of your list.<br />
Time and effort are the required input to reap the benefits of your chosen forums.<br />
<br />
Long gone are the days where you could just sign up to any forum and start posting links back to your online resources. Most forums these days will require you to make a minimum of posts before you can add a linked signature or use URL links within your posts.<br />
<br />
The first stage is to build up a reputation on all the forums. <strong>Be polite, friendly, amusing and helpful</strong>. Try to make regular posts to help establish your position within the forum. This process will help you gain the <strong>trust</strong> of the other forum users. <br />
<br />
Remember that you have chosen your list of top forums on the premise that this is your area of expertise. Play to your strong points and always try and go that little bit further to help the online community. Forums are a great place to not only spread the word about your online wares but also to learn the latest news within your specific sector.<br />
<br />
<strong><u>Share Your Knowledge</u></strong><br />
<br />
If you have some gems of wisdom about your subject, share it. The age of guarding the ingredients for that secret sauce are over. If you don’t speak up and take credit for the knowledge you’ve required it won’t be long before someone else does. <br />
Share links, tutorials and most of all personal stories. A personal story is a much more human way of transferring information. If you are able to reach the people on your chosen forum on a more emotional level this will definitely play to your favour.<br />
<br />
<u><strong>Final Note </strong></u><br />
<br />
One word..Perseverance, stick at it at all costs. Set aside an hour a day, an hour a week whatever you can afford but for that period of time try and help and guide people. Get involved in all sorts of conversations just as long as you have something relevant to say.<br />
<br />
<strong>The 3 R’s – Remember Relevancy Rules </strong>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471622983932300914.post-42261816384798879772010-12-17T17:12:00.000+00:002010-12-17T17:12:54.961+00:00Google Body Maps - Cruise around the lower intestines, surf the stomach acid waves or follow the neurone pathway!<b>Enter the Google Body Browser:</b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj8lQpSYWUGjqh1DrBGa7r3_c1Yj6hOa7ZcjKkSmShzOF_sUlgRxv09ul-3rkwP39tbhUV6Jb9aJBoYQkZXgsnvtntU_FPkG-3XQ-NZ10Bx5vuI0ybVfUcbQdPq5-rFQwlxQjphP0tMxM/s1600/google-body-browser.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj8lQpSYWUGjqh1DrBGa7r3_c1Yj6hOa7ZcjKkSmShzOF_sUlgRxv09ul-3rkwP39tbhUV6Jb9aJBoYQkZXgsnvtntU_FPkG-3XQ-NZ10Bx5vuI0ybVfUcbQdPq5-rFQwlxQjphP0tMxM/s320/google-body-browser.png" width="285" /></a></div> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-GB</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">The latest innovation bubbling away in the Google Laboratory is the Google Body Browser. You will be able to take us on a journey inside our bodies. <br />
<br />
<b>Cruise around the lower intestines, surf the stomach acid waves or follow the neurone pathway!</b></span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">The current Google beta version is still a work in progress and will currently only work with Chrome. <br />
<br />
This will certainly bring to life biology lessons and may come as a relief to many medical students who currently rely on diagrams or sketches.<br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Definitely One to watch for the future</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><b> </b><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">To find out more check out <a href="http://bodybrowser.googlelabs.com/index.html">http://bodybrowser.googlelabs.com/index.html</a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471622983932300914.post-34494987383206500392010-12-14T18:24:00.000+00:002010-12-14T18:24:37.632+00:00The Life of Links through the Eyes of the Search Engines<img alt="Link Building SEO Services" height="275" src="http://www.webbranding.co.uk/articles/articleImages/linkBuilding.jpg" width="600" /><br />
<br />
The deciding factors that come into play when a search engine judges a link from, or to your website are the following:<br />
<br />
<strong>• Authority<br />
• Relevance<br />
• Trust<br />
• Anchor Text</strong><br />
<br />
From these deciding factors the search engine algorithm will work out how important it will classify the link. The more important a link is, the better for the receiving website’s reputation and rank. Links from independent sources of high page rank, carry sizable weight. This is especially so if both sites share relevant content.<br />
<br />
<u><strong>Finding Different Link Sources</strong></u><br />
<br />
If you have various different domain names, blogs and social media sites that all link to one another this will be spotted by the search engines. This process is known as ‘cross-linking’ and may result in all your closely linked sites being classified as one. The search engine spider will just see one large cluster of links.<br />
<br />
<strong>A wide variation of links from different sources is the basis of a strong link building campaign. </strong><br />
<br />
If you can acquire links from a multitude of sources, the search engines will read this as your site holding a broad appeal. As a result your website will be assigned more value. Steer clear of relying on just one source for all your links. The search engine algorithms are constantly changing and if your source of link reliance is suddenly given less prominence your whole SEO campaign will suffer.<br />
<br />
<u><strong>The Great Link Quantity Misconception</strong></u><br />
<br />
Which is better? (Links from the same domain)<br />
1 link OR 20 links?<br />
<br />
Well there is NO difference, as <strong>search engines do not count multiple links from a domain as additional links</strong>. One or Two Hundred, there is no difference!<br />
<br />
More links from a domain is good but the value of each link diminishes as the number of links increases.<br />
<br />
<strong><u>Lifetime of a Link – Tell tale Signs</u></strong><br />
<br />
Search engines not only are interested when you add a new link but also when one disappears. Data is stored on the lifetime of links. Factors include:<br />
<br />
<strong>• First appearance</strong> – and relation to other new links added around that time<br />
<strong>• Link disappeared</strong> – replaced by a new web section or perhaps a blog post moved to the archive automatically.<br />
<strong>• Link lifetime</strong> – older links can lose reputation over time. <br />
<strong>• Rate of Link additions</strong> – a quick surge of inlinks may be flagged up by the search engines as inconsistent behaviour.<br />
<br />
<u><strong>Where you Links Live?<br />
</strong></u><br />
<strong>The anchor text link</strong> is major tell regarding a links purpose and destination but not the whole story.<br />
<br />
Another few factors to consider:<br />
<br />
<strong>• Link Neighbours</strong> – If the link that points back to your website is sat on a page with some highly reputable links next door, this is good news. More weight will be attributed to this link. Beware of the opposite though, a link from a spam ridden site can do great harm.<br />
<br />
<strong>• Like Minded Neighbours</strong> – It is a good sign if the content next to your link is relevant to that of your site. Remember Relevancy Rules (RRR).<br />
<br />
<strong>• Location, location, location</strong> – If your link forms part of a heading or is high up in the body content then great. A worse location like a sidebar of a hundred links will notably lessen your link power.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471622983932300914.post-18572951276270912792010-12-14T13:01:00.000+00:002010-12-14T13:01:55.662+00:00The SEO Build - Key Positioning for a new SEO Campaign<img alt="SEO Services: Laying the foundations" height="275" src="http://www.webbranding.co.uk/articles/articleImages/seoservicesKeystone.jpg" width="600" /><br />
<br />
The secret of launching or re-launching a website that will rank high in the search engine results comes down to good planning. You must first endeavour to lay the correct foundations for your website.<br />
<br />
<br />
<u><strong>The first and most important rule that should never be overlooked is the <a href="http://blog.webbranding.co.uk/2010/12/how-to-decide-perfect-domain-name-for.html">domain name</a>.</strong></u><br />
<br />
Your domain name holds the most <a href="http://www.totalseoservices.co.uk/">SEO</a> weighting. Your domain name will be included on all your web pages, links, contacts, articles, blog posts and much more. Choose a keyword rich and descriptive domain name. <strong>See this as the keystone, it will lock all the other stones in position and without a strong, correctly shaped stone the whole structure will collapse.</strong><br />
<br />
<strong><u>Page Titles / Title Tags</u></strong><br />
<br />
The second most important element of a website should be your page titles. A search engine will look to this title as a description of a webpage. The title of your homepage should act as a description for your website as a whole. Use keyword rich language but ensure your title is relevant. <br />
A few key pointers to take on board:<br />
<br />
• The optimal character length of a page title should not exceed 70 characters. This includes spaces. Since November 2010, Google now allow 70 characters, previously this was 66. If you want to ere on the side of caution limit yourself to 65.<br />
<br />
• Bear in mind the importance of the page title and therefore use your most effective and relevant keywords.<br />
<strong><u><br />
H1, H2, H3 tags</u></strong><br />
<br />
<em>H1, H2 & H3 title tags will be used where necessary in order to demonstrate to Search Engines which parts of the code relate to product titles. <br />
</em><br />
All these tags should be put to good use by including keyword rich headings. The heading tags are an important <a href="http://www.totalseoservices.co.uk/guarantee.htm">Search Engine Optimisation</a> on-page feature, apart from the domain and title tag this is the third most important feature. Endeavour to make the best use of these key features within your website. Once again make good use of header tags. They should help search engines acquire a measure of content importance from your page.<br />
<br />
<u><strong>Meta Descriptions</strong></u><br />
<br />
<em>The Meta-description tag will be placed between the tags in your HTML page.<br />
</em><br />
Some website directories and certain search engines may use this meta description as a little bit of descriptive blurb when showing a link to your website. The Meta Descriptions should adhere to appropriate length of no more than 160 characters. <br />
<br />
• Sell yourself within this description as this may well appear below your listing in the search engine results pages.<br />
<br />
• Once again, make sure your description is relevant to the page it describes.<br />
<br />
The final stage foundation laying is the main body content. As with the points made earlier for title tags make sure you use keyword rich content and it is relevant to the descriptions with prominent call to actions at the end of each section or paragraph. Try not to exceed 400 words of content per page.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471622983932300914.post-78814927967140133622010-12-09T19:33:00.000+00:002010-12-09T19:33:00.912+00:00Write For Our Blog - Write for Our Website - Get in Contact with Web Branding<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ9Aq3Wpzn4i1HkZUdE-6sGX7KmyEEH7Wn02jLmOrbHY3PjCZPBJpN1r1KXbKoH7FJTVBUXtP483SE34n3ZFvbcFfl9VM2A_jdjHMdB8CRkUj2Y__5RL2YHS8AneNC8utZou00LE7vDOw/s1600/guestBloggingWB.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ9Aq3Wpzn4i1HkZUdE-6sGX7KmyEEH7Wn02jLmOrbHY3PjCZPBJpN1r1KXbKoH7FJTVBUXtP483SE34n3ZFvbcFfl9VM2A_jdjHMdB8CRkUj2Y__5RL2YHS8AneNC8utZou00LE7vDOw/s640/guestBloggingWB.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> If you would like to write about any topics on either Search Engine Optimisation, Company Branding or Web Design and Development we'd love to hear from you. <br />
We'll post all Relevant Content.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> <div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"> If you would like to write for our blog please </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.webbranding.co.uk/contact-us/contactUs.asp">Get in Contact with Web Branding<br />
<br />
<br />
</a></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471622983932300914.post-25882096593644231612010-12-09T18:41:00.003+00:002010-12-15T17:39:40.396+00:00Link Building by Guest Blogging - 4 Steps to Success<img alt="Guest Blogging to Increase Links" height="275" src="http://www.webbranding.co.uk/articles/articleImages/guestBlogging.jpg" width="600" /><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Can you create original quality content that will be of value to other internet users?<br />
Do you have a blog or website that you want to make more popular?</b><br />
<br />
If you can answer yes to both preceding questions then you will be able to start taking advantage of the art of guest blogging. <br />
<br />
<br />
There are many blogs and websites out there that avidly search for outside content contributors. If the area of your expertise matches with their content, there is a good chance that they will accept your articles. In return for your content, you will receive links pointing back at your URL of choice. <br />
<u><br />
<b>Stage 1 – Credibility </b></u><br />
<br />
To convince someone you are worthy to guest blog for them you will have to demonstrate, not only that you can create quality content but also that it is of relevance to their site. First you need to build up an archive of well written articles specific to that genre. Once this is in place you are ready to move to the next stage.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Stage 2 – Research</b></u><br />
<br />
<b>Know exactly what areas you are going to focus on</b>. The focus of your article archive should demonstrate this. Take advantage of applying category tags to all work you write. Create a list of the keywords that will benefit your site most. These will be used as anchor text links in the content that you submit for consideration. Take time to research using the Google Keyword Tool. This will help you find which are the most popular phrases being used.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Stage 3 – Locating Suitable Blogs/ Websites</b></u><br />
<br />
By using Google to search using query variations you will be able to locate suitable blogs or websites that are on the lookout for your specific genre of writing.<br />
<br />
<i>“submit post” + “your specific keyword”<br />
“write for us” + “another relevant keyword”<br />
“write for our website” + “another keyword”</i><br />
<br />
Continue this searching process until you have a list of potential blogs or websites to approach.<br />
<br />
Now search through your potential list and <b>narrow your search down further</b> by looking for the following:<br />
<br />
• Do they allow links? <br />
• Check whether the links are ‘rel= “nofollow” is they are take them off your list.<br />
• Is the content relevant to your site? If not remove.<br />
<br />
Another great way to find blogs willing to post guest blogs or vise versa, then look no further than: <br />
<a href="http://myblogguest.com/" style="color: red;">My Blog Guest</a> this is a community to aid both bloggers and blog owners, definitely worth checking out.<br />
<b><br />
<u>Stage 4 – Creating Quality Content </u></b><br />
<br />
Now is the time to create some unique, relevant and interesting posts. Remember the following points:<br />
<br />
• Ensure good grammar and spelling. Write a first draft in a word processing program.<br />
• Well structured articles look better and read better. Make use of font styles.<br />
• Use images if possible. They will add more interest and better explain certain points.<br />
• Use a single keyword rich anchor link pointing at your URL of choice, add other links if beneficial to your article.<br />
<br />
Finally submit your articles and await a response. Have <b>patience</b> during this process, especially with popular sites. Keep a record of what and where you have submitted. If you’ve heard nothing a polite email may remind the site owner about your article. Best of luck with Guest Posting and remember getting your first article published is always the hardest, but <b>do persevere</b>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471622983932300914.post-65987433478707320402010-12-09T13:03:00.000+00:002010-12-09T13:03:28.518+00:00Quality Content Creation: Finding Article Ideas and Creating Popular Internet Content through Article writing<img alt="Quality Content Creation" height="200" src="http://www.webbranding.co.uk/articles/articleImages/QualityContentCreation.jpg" width="600" /><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>Quality content creation</strong> is a great method of improving <strong>search engine optimisation</strong>. Keywords are an important tool and will help search engines identify your market needs quicker. If you can regularly add unique articles to your website about your specific niche, this will be looked upon favourably by search engines.<br />
<br />
The key to creating original and relevant content is to find out what is of most interest to people at that specific time. If lots of people are inquiring about a certain topic or asking how to complete a certain task, then you have found a good subject to write about. Your content will not only be up to date but also has the potential to be very popular.<br />
<strong><br />
When trying to find article ideas to ensure you can provide popular internet content you may want to consider some of the following pointers:</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>• Emails or Blog Posts</strong> – If any visitor has asked a question via email or on your blog you can use this as the basis of an article. Of course respond on your blog with an answer but then perhaps follow it up later with a link to a more in depth answer. This will look good towards other visitors, as it is clear you have gone to the extra effort.<br />
<br />
<strong>• Other Blogs</strong> – Take a look at some popular blogs within your niche and find a topic that’s got everyone talking. The popularity of a subject is a dead giveaway for a great article choice. Consider what responses people are giving and work out how you could add to the dialogue.<br />
<strong><br />
• Forums</strong> – These online communities are a breeding ground for new ideas, thoughts and information. Once again, be on the lookout for popular threads and queries and if you feel that you can successfully help on a particular topic, get writing an article then link to it.<br />
<br />
<strong>• Google Alerts</strong> – If you haven’t come across this tool before it is extremely useful. This will send up to date information straight to your inbox. Simply set up an account and the specigy a search criteria for each alert. Something like ‘SEO Services News’, now whenever any news or blog post matches these words you will be sent an alert via email.<br />
<br />
<strong>• Yahoo Answers</strong> – Why not check this out and find out the kind of questions that people are asking within categories relating to your market. <br />
<br />
<br />
Once you have a healthy amount of potential titles you may want to consider doing some keyword research for you title. This is an important step as it will determine how many people will get to read your article. Quality Content Creation relies on great article writing put also the title choice is just as important as it will receive more traffic. <br />
<br />
Google’s Keyword Tool is useful for finding which words are frequently being searched for. <strong>By combining popular and relevant keyword phrases you will have foundations for a populular article that will Boost your <a href="http://www.totalseoservices.co.uk/" title="Total SEO Services">SEO Services</a>.</strong>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471622983932300914.post-77860119715767715212010-12-09T11:18:00.000+00:002010-12-09T11:18:16.662+00:00Future Online Video for UK Business: Online Multimedia, Content Creation and Fast Distribution<img alt="Future Onlie Video UK" height="275" src="http://www.webbranding.co.uk/articles/articleImages/futureOnlineVideoUK.jpg" width="600" /><br />
<br />
Companies streaming videos online are showing an exponential increase in usage. Year on year the figures keep rising. Two key contributing factors are: <br />
<br />
• Better broadband speeds<br />
• Development of efficient backbone networks that speed delivery of content by providers<br />
<br />
<strong>The future of online video for business will surely continue to increase. This market is truly lucrative and has been compared by some to the dot com boom of 2000. <br />
</strong><br />
Within the UK, our digital industries pull in around 10% of the country’s GDP, which equates to the princely sum of approximately £130 billion. With the digital economy employing near to 2 million people, this represents nearly 6% of total UK employment. The UK also has the largest creative sector within the EU and is a real force within the global market. The demand for creative content is also a growing industry, in particular, content in English.<br />
<br />
The Prime Minister just announced his ambitions to make the UK have Europe’s best superfast broadband by 2015 and also, to turn a corner of east London into a Tech City. The UK’s answer to Silicon Valley. <br />
<br />
<strong>Some Interesting and Relavant Stats from The Oxford Research Agency</strong>:<br />
<br />
<em>• 85% of the UK is now online<br />
• A Third have uploaded to a Video Sharing Site<br />
• 85% watch Video Clips Online<br />
• A Quarter write <a href="http://blog.totalseoservices.co.uk/" title="Total SEO Services Blog">Blogs</a><br />
• In the Past Year the number of people watching TV Online has grown by 600%<br />
• 78 of UK user look online before making a purchase <br />
</em><br />
All these contributing factors make the future of creative online content creation a veritable gold mine. Figures show that this growth is set to continue by an estimated 4% each year.<br />
<br />
The <strong>future of the internet</strong> will mean that every user can become a multimedia producer. It has never been easier to produce a whole variety of media from publishing pictures, video recordings, slideshows and podcasts. It is also just as easy when it comes to uploading content and of course sharing which is inherently what makes online communities so popular.<br />
<br />
<strong><a href="http://www.totalseoservices.co.uk/seoServices/seoServicesFull.htm" title="Link Building Campaigns">Content distribution</a> will be available over a whole host of networks; this streamed content will be available on everything from mobile smart phones to</strong><strong> high-definition home theatres.<br />
</strong><br />
A full integration of all our online media is just around the corner with everyone wanting everything in one location, storage and distribution will be effortless.<br />
<br />
Many businesses are slowly coming round to the fact, that they may be better, to move with the times rather than hold off any more. We can expect to see a vast increase in video streaming suppliers and content creators. TV as we know is slowly making way for a more interactive and connected internet TV platform. Television advertising revenues in the UK are showing a continued decline. The rate of revenue in 2009 was down to £3.54bn, to put this in context this was lower than the market in 2003. <br />
<br />
<strong>As the UK technology industry continues to grow this can hopefully act as a catalyst to help other UK businesses take advantage of a highly skilled local workforce and reap the benefits of this digital revolution.<br />
<br />
</strong><br />
Rob Playford, <a href="http://www.webbranding.co.uk/index.asp">Web Branding</a>, 08/12/2010Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471622983932300914.post-28390531380678592642010-12-07T18:08:00.000+00:002010-12-07T18:08:16.896+00:00SEO Sustainability: Monitoring and Fine tuning<em><img alt="Stage 1 - Initial Research" height="275" src="http://www.webbranding.co.uk/articles/articleImages/SEOdevStages/SEOdev6.png" width="632" /></em><br />
<em><br />
The previous article within this collection focused on how the implementation of a Search Engine Marketing Campaign will help <a href="http://www.totalseoservices.co.uk/seoServices/seoServicesInter.htm">improve traffic levels</a> and increase web reputation.</em><br />
<br />
<strong>When starting an SEO campaign it is very important to get in the habit of recording all possible starting data. This will help provide an initial benchmark to work from. Without this primary data it will be difficult to measure your progress.<br />
</strong><br />
• First off, you will need to decide what are going to be your key measuring factors. These should definitely include monthly traffic rates, number of unique visitors and number of page views, amongst others.<br />
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• Set out realistic and achievable goals at periodic times throughout the year. <br />
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• Out of the readings you decide to measure make sure an appropriate amount of weight is given to each variable. For instance your total number of visitors will be more important than how many times a specific page has been seen.<br />
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• At each decided monthly interval you should take stock of the analytic data for that period and if the set goal has been met successfully, raise the bar accordingly for the next period. <br />
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Keeping a consistent measure of your <a href="http://www.totalseoservices.co.uk/">SEO </a>work will help you grow our campaigns. The collection of data will allow you to predict future trends and also learn from past results. The world of SEO is continually changing and to ensure you say top of the game you must grow and evolve in response to changes.<br />
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<strong><u>Include the following measuring factors when taking a more in depth look at your SEO campaign:<br />
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• Organic Search Traffic from various search engines. Focus on the top few keywords.<br />
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• By using tools such as Google Adwords you will be able to work out which keywords are performing best and search out any new words of interest.<br />
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• Check which parts of your website are most popular by checking your analytic reports. Also make a note of parts of the site that are not getting visited. Make changes accordingly.<br />
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• Conversion rates can be monitored within the analytics reports. This service is good for tracking any goals that may have been set.<br />
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• Check how often your website is being crawled. This will help give you an idea of how much attention search engines are paying your website.<br />
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The key point of this article is to drive home the point that is you don’t have any valuable data you will have nothing to make comparisons and no way to improve upon the past. <strong>Without past records of measurement to draw from, <a href="http://www.totalseoservices.co.uk/guarantee.htm">SEO improvements</a> cannot be made.</strong>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471622983932300914.post-23766120395592614582010-12-07T17:48:00.000+00:002010-12-07T17:48:14.696+00:00Search Engine Marketing and Online Promotion<em><img alt="Stage 1 - Initial Research" height="275" src="http://www.webbranding.co.uk/articles/articleImages/SEOdevStages/SEOdev5.png" width="632" /></em><br />
<em><br />
The previous article within this collection focused on how you should try and increase the amount of quality links pointing back to your website to help improve your website reputation.</em><br />
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This article will look at the benefits of implementing a Search Engine Marketing Campaign, otherwise known as SEM. This can take the form of keyword and location relevant adverts on search engines, social media sites or adverts on industry specific websites.<br />
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A successful SEM campaign will boost the amount of traffic your website receives. SEM is inherently a more focused form of internet marketing that will increase websites’ visibility within the SERP (Search Engine Results Pages).<br />
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<strong><u>To carry out a successful SEM campaign it is important to consider the following points:<br />
</u></strong><br />
<strong>• <a href="http://www.totalseoservices.co.uk/companyBranding/brandingStationery.htm">Advert Creation</a></strong> – Use good grammar and avoid excessive punctuation. Be sure to create a stand out and catchy advert that also uses your top keywords. Google Adwords is a good place to start, and there is plenty of help sections available to get you started. Google often offer a free £50 voucher for new businesses to get you up and running.<br />
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<strong>• Landing Pages</strong> – It is common practice to see search engine adverts linking to just a company’s home website. Be sure you create a specific landing page that directly links to what the advert stated. Leave the customer with no doubt in their mind as to what you are selling. <br />
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<strong>• Customer Incentive</strong> – Free downloads for say graphics, tutorials or whitepapers are a great way of collecting customer data. Consider offering a newsletter or vouchers in return for customer details.<br />
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<strong>• Budget</strong> – It is important that you decide upon specific goals and a strict budget.<br />
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<strong>• Conversion Tracking</strong> – Every SEM campaign needs conversion tracking. Your website should aim to provide sales or leads so it’s imperative to measure the data available. Do not end up in the situation where you just end up paying for traffic. Conversions Count<br />
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<strong>• <a href="http://www.totalseoservices.co.uk/guarantee.htm">SEO</a></strong> – A well optimised site will increase impressions and provide better conversion rates. <br />
Organic search results outperform sponsored adverts so put your time and effort into making sure your website is high as possible in the search engine results pages.<br />
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<strong>There are some great <a href="http://www.totalseoservices.co.uk/">SEO Services</a> available today.<br />
</strong><br />
By adhering to the advice in this collection of six articles you will have the firm foundations for a long lasting and <strong>successful SEO Campaign</strong>.<br />
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<em><br />
The following stage will demonstrate that SEO is an ongoing process that needs constant analysis and appropriate fine tuning. Performance monitoring will help ensure SEO sustainability. </em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471622983932300914.post-37349410034859532362010-12-07T17:31:00.000+00:002010-12-07T17:31:17.517+00:00Link Building is an Important Part of SEO Development<em><img alt="Stage 1 - Initial Research" height="275" src="http://www.webbranding.co.uk/articles/articleImages/SEOdevStages/SEOdev4.png" width="632" /></em><br />
<em><br />
The previous article within this collection focused upon the elements that should be covered to ensure excellent on page optimisation including online assets.The stages that have been covered so far have explained the importance of laying down the correct structure and content. This stage involves the art of building links back to your website to increase online exposure.</em><br />
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Already now we have the key ingredients to go after decent and relevant links. Within the Keyword research the words with the most potential have been found, and it is these keywords that will help drive high quality links back to your website.<br />
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The following advice will set you on the right track to grow your sites’ inlinks. The process of link building is an integral part of SEO (<a href="http://www.totalseoservices.co.uk/">Search Engine Optimisation</a>). <br />
<strong><br />
The more links you build the more highly regarded your website will be by the search engines. </strong><br />
A website with a good reputation will feature high in the SERP (Search Engine Results Pages).<br />
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<strong><u>Consider the following:<br />
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<strong>• Article writing</strong>: The basic premise of writing articles for submission to article directories such as Ezines is that you trade your knowledge and expertise for links back to your site. Most high ranking article directories will allow you to have 2 links in return for an article of approximately 250+ words.<br />
It is important you articles are relevant to your industry and this will also allow you to make the most of your most effective keywords.<br />
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<strong>• Forums</strong>: The first key to making the most of forum participation is to find industry specific forums where you are able to help and advice other members. Most forums will allow you to set up a signature box which will appear below each post that you make. The more you contribute the more inlinks you will receive. Not only will you <a href="http://www.totalseoservices.co.uk/branding.htm">build your reputation</a> in the eyes of the search engines but you will also gain the respect of other forum contributors helping raise your business profile.<br />
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<strong>• Blog Comments</strong>: Many blogs encourage readers to comment on posts. As with forums try and be as relevant and informative as possible and be sure to make use of keyword anchor links pointing back to your website where appropriate.<br />
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<strong>• Testimonials</strong>: Perhaps a recent product you have bought or a holiday you went on. By giving your two pence worth you will be able to link back to your website. Once again the same applies as the two entries above; appealing and worthy content will ensure your link gets more exposure.<br />
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When carrying out these activities keep an eye out for high ranking article directories, forums and blogs. Remember that the quality of links far out performs quantity, so be on the lookout to post on high ranking sites.<br />
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<em>The following stage will look at the various options available online or paying for a higher position within the results pages. This includes elements of <a href="http://www.totalseoservices.co.uk/seoServices/seoServicesFull.htm">Search Engine Marketing</a> and online promotion.</em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0