Instagram & Facebook – Why?


A few hours ago I read that Facebook had acquired Instagram for $1bn… aptly enough, this news came to me via my Facebook feed. There’s also an official release here from Mark Zuckerberg My first thought once I checked the legitimacy Read more

Return On Influence: The New ROI


There is not a single activity in business which is exempted from a query regarding return on investment.  Focused strategic planning and expenditure to optimise your e-commerce mix is known to be an investment worth making for product and Read more

Search Engine Optimisation

Should your company SEO and PPC campaigns be run by the same team?

Posted on by Mike in Pay Per Click, Search Engine Optimisation, SEO Tools | 2 Comments

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: Whether you have experience first-hand or outsource you organic and paid search, you know that both play a large role in the success of your site. If potential customers can’t find you, then how are you ever going to get their business? A highly ranked website can get thousands or millions of website visitors per month, depending on the keywords. This is a good thing because the traffic is free. Of course, depending on how your campaign is run, this traffic may not be completely targeted to your product or service. When a website cannot rank well for keywords in its niche, it then becomes necessary to essentially “buy” traffic, PPC or Pay Per Click advertising. If you do this correctly, the money you spend to get visitors to your site will pay for itself – this is the goal of course, it may sound simple but as anyone who has tried it can attest, it’s not so cut and dry. Despite their differences, PPC and SEO are almost one and the same thing. They both aim at helping a page rank high and earn revenue from increased inflow traffic. Though one can outsource the SEO and do PPC in house or vice versa, it may be best to have the two managed by the same team of professionals. To see how these can be beneficial to the company, let’s see how the two campaigns complement one another. More exposure SEO and PPC may be different in operation but their results are the same-…


Top SEO’s to follow on Twitter

Posted on by joseph in Search Engine Optimisation, SEO Tools | 2 Comments

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: There are over 300 million users all over the world using Twitter, all tweeting about something in general whether it’s something personal or for their business. Some sending a few tweets every day, to a few hundred tweets every day. Each tweet can only be 140 characters long, but don’t be fooled, you can discover a lot in this little space. As an SEO individual myself I use twitter daily. Not just to tweet, but by following the right people that give me vital information every day.  There are certain people that I would highly recommend to follow on Twitter if you work in the SEO industry as they really do have an influence on what you can do. At the recent ‘LinkLove’ Seminar at Distilled in London, I was lucky to meet some of the biggest names in the Industry from the likes of Rand Fishkin, Wil Reynolds, Will Critchlow and many more. Throughout the course of the day we were handed out name after name of little gems to follow on Twitter in the SEO world. I have documented these below along with some others who I feel are really worth following on Twitter. Rand Fishkin - @Randfish - CEO and founder of SEOmoz, tweets regularly on inbound marketing, SEO, start-ups and entrepreneurship. Well worth following. Will Critchlow - @Willcritchlow - Runs Distilled, and co-founder with Duncan Morris in 2005. He has worked with some of the biggest websites in the World. Wil Reynolds - @Wilreynolds - Founder of SEER interactive and enjoys helping his clients grow their business. Tweets regularly on…


Top Tweets from BrightonSEO

Posted on by Mike in Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, Seminars | 1 Comment

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: BrightonSEO has now been and gone, and what a great event it was too. Congratulations to Kelvin and everyone else involved with the organisation. If it continues to grow at the same rate, they might need to use Brighton’s sparkly new football stadium to host everyone next year. Now that the dust has settled, and in true SEO list style, below are my top tweets using the #BrightonSEO hashtag If I have missed a great tweet, ping me a message and I will add it #BrightonSEO conference review bit.ly/IGhbKu check out our image of @kelvinnewman looking like he is a #rapstar — Matthew Scholey (@SEOevents) April 17, 2012   A few of my favourite bits at #BrightonSEO from @GravytrainLtd gravytrain.co.uk/blog/2012/04/a… — Kevin Taylor (@GravytrainCEO) April 17, 2012   15 Top Quotes and Takeaways from #BrightonSEO j.mp/IXU9mO — Craig Deakin (@craigdeakin) April 17, 2012   @leximills #BrightonSEO:The top quote- “Have two espressos and eat a bag of Haribo”go Lexi go, even sounds great out of context — Richard Smith (@theinternetcons) April 17, 2012   My review of #BrightonSEO for @FreshEgg freshegg.com/blog/brightons… Includes links to the majority of the presentations, plus some classic quotes — David Somerville (@southcoastdavid) April 17, 2012   You know what the most common bit of negative feedback on #brightonseo was about nasty tweets, criticism is cool, nastiness isn’t — kelvin newman (@kelvinnewman) April 16, 2012   How many SEO specialists does it take to change a lightbulb, light_bulb, light-bulb, light.bulb, light bulb? @freshegg #brightonseo — J Lil (@3wdl) April 13, 2012   Would’ve paid bloody good money at #BrightonSEO to see @rishil & @searchmartin continue the conversation with Google & Bing…


Best free SEO tools available online

Posted on by joseph in Search Engine Optimisation, SEO Tools | 5 Comments

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: There are many SEO tools available online today each having their advantages and disadvantages. Some of them are free, some ask for a donation and some simply charge a flat fee. In going to discuss the best free SEO tools available online today, which I use on a daily basis and quite frankly couldn’t live without. So for all those SEO’s out there that can’t budget for an SEOMoz membership or any other subscription. Here you go. Searchstatus – Searchstatus, all one word, is a plugin extension for the Internet Browser Firefox. Unfortunately its not available in other browsers yet but Im sure they are working on it as it really is a great tool. Its extension adds a small menu to your browser toolbar and shows a number of statistics for the webpage that the user is viewing. These 3 parameters are Page Rank, MOZrank and Alexa Rank, 3 key factors when accessing the value of a certain page on a Website. Other valuable tools it has are the WebPages Meta details, WHOIS record, sitemap.xml, robots.txt and many more. I really couldn’t work without this. SEOMoz free toolbar – The SEOMoz toolbar is only available on Firefox and Google Chrome and again is a vital tool which I use on a daily basis. It can be found here http://www.seomoz.org/seo-toolbar.  It’s great of SEOMoz to deliver this brilliant tool as it’s packed with so many different browser features that it makes life easy for many SEO’s. When installed, it simply displays other important Website…


Curating Content for Niche Authority

Posted on by Mike in Blogging, Digital Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation | 1 Comment

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: Directing traffic to your website involves a multiple tiered approach.  The design of your website and the functionality of it provide half of the equation while quality relevant content keeps readers (and customers) coming back for more.  This is the reason why most businesses realise the value of maintaining a blog on their commerce website.  It acts as a conduit to engage the brand product or service with its end user in a meaningful conversation.   It’s relationship marketing at its best! However a common mistake that SMEs make while utilising social media outlets such as Twitter or Plurk is adopting a broadcast one dimensional tone of communication.  It is important to introduce new products or services and inform your clients of new offerings.  Naturally the announcements that you will be most excited about will be your own, and social media networks are idea for announcing press release material and sharing news.   But if your organisations style of sharing involves broadcasting of facts and information in a unidirectional dictatorial format, it may be time to invest effort in diversifying the content you are providing. What does it mean to curate relevant content? In short all businesses should look for opportunities to demonstrate niche authority.  If you are going to recruit new customers (and retain the loyalty of your existing ones) it is important to prove yourself to be not only knowledgeable but established and innovative within your field.  Consider the following advantages to niche content curation. Provide Non-Centric Niche Content How informed are you regarding your…


The Importance of Link Diversity in Competitive Niches

Posted on by Sam in Digital Marketing, Link Building, Search Engine Optimisation | Leave a comment

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: The Google Algorithm is a giant black box.  We can make inferences as to what works and what doesn’t work, but one generally held rule is that you need links to rank.  A widely held belief is the more competitive the niche, the more links you need.  There has been plenty of conversation recently about linking not being as important, social signals being more important than links, anchor text not being as important, and other proclamations about the decreasing influence of links.  In the search results that I’ve seen for competitive financial terms, auto industry terms, and health related terms, links are definitely alive and well and there is a definite correlation between the more links and higher rankings. One aspect of link building that often gets overlooked (at least I’ve overlooked it previously) is getting links from different sources.  If you notice link profiles of high ranking sites, they generally have links from a wide variety of sources.  I’ve noticed that when I push real hard on a certain link type for too long, the benefits slowly grind to a halt.  But when I switch up the link type, I’ll notice an additional boost.  For example, recently for a client we got many guest posts targeting a competitive term.  We rose from the top of page two to the bottom of page one, plateauing around position 8.  After a month of being stalled we switched up the link type (still targeting the same term) from guest posting to niche directories…


Instant Flood Sandbags : The latest technology

Posted on by Kim in Blogging, Ecommerce, Featured, Internet Marketing, Local Search, Other stuff, Web Design, Web News | Leave a comment

Generate UK recently purchased the rights to Instantsandbags and in doing so designed and developed a new website called Instantfloodsandbags. The product itself was not only innovative and new to the market but it’s ingenious space saving design and it’s real ability to keep the water out was exciting to us. The passion and drive behind the project from day one has been fantastic; symbolising the belief and high potential in the product. From the initial thought process Generate UK utilised the internal skill set to create a brand new site which really markets Instantfloodsandbags. In the last 2 weeks the product is being marketed through it’s dedicated Facebook and Twitter page which you can follow or like. The website is now reaching  out to local counties surrounding Berkshire, Somerset and even Ireland. The sandbags are made of a jute material together with a thin layer of cotton and they contain a water absorbing gel. You are also able to securely purchase the sandbags via Paypal on the website. Flood alerts may not give you sufficient warning, but an instant flood sandbag can be stored easily to defend your home or business! Please feel free to visit the website for more details Instantfloodsandbags


Respond To Reviews On Google Places

Posted on by Mike in Local Search, Search Engine Optimisation | Leave a comment

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: Starting from today verified Google place’s owners can respond to customers reviews. A great way to interact with customers and also attract new customers gets better. Whether you’re looking for a great lounge to hang out with your friends or a trusty shop to repair your bicycle, the web is a great place to discover and learn about local businesses and services. Some of the listings on Google Maps showcase reviews to help prospective customers make informed decisions and find the places that are just right for them. Reviews on Google Maps are assembled from a variety of sources on the web to give you the best possible overview of what people are saying about a specific place. We also encourage users to share their opinions by writing reviews directly on the Place Page of any place they’ve visited, be it a local business, tourist attraction or the like. Starting today, if you’re a verified Google Places business owner, you can publicly respond to reviews written by Google Maps users on the Place Page for your business. Engaging with the people who have shared their thoughts about your business is a great way to get to know your customers and find out more. Both positive and negative feedback can be good for your business and help it grow (even though it’s sometimes hard to hear). By responding, you can build stronger relationships with existing and prospective customers. For example, a thoughtful response acknowledging a problem and offering a solution can often turn a customer who had an initially…


More Than Just Reporting

Posted on by Mike in Search Engine Optimisation | Leave a comment

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: How many SEO’s (and their companies) deliver a monthly or quarterly report and believe that justifies the client’s time and money? Every SEO or digital marketeer can almost definitely own up to this claim, as it forms the mainstay for many agencies worldwide, I myself have been put in this situation, This was and is completely wrong and very frustrating for both client and SEO. Too often SEO companies are blinkered and the basic principle of SEO is forgotten and this opens the door for bad press we so often receive. SEO is about converting new traffic into customers and sales through search engines by enhancing web pages, content and obtaining quality links. Reports are great, right? – Wrong. Reports often contain far more information than is actually required and I am willing to bet the vast majority of the report is not even read or understood by the client. Clients don’t want 10,20 or even 30 page reports on the state of the traffic to and from the site, inclusions of stats that mean nothing and half a page of recommendations on how to improve! They want results. Nice to Meet You SEO’s and agencies simply do not spend enough time getting to know the client and their business. This is a fundamental problem for a prolonged business relationship and often results in the client not liking the individual working on the project and even further down the line terminating the contract because of poor communication and lack of results. It’s really not difficult to pick up the phone…


Take Advantage of Your Traffic

Posted on by Mike in Analytics, Digital Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation | Leave a comment

Archived; click post to view.
Excerpt: Through SEO you have to make two impressions on your customers to eventually reach a conversion: • Firstly you need to gain a high ranking with a solid call to action. Although the description does not affect your ranking it does effect conversion. A solid call to action will allow for a much better percentage of receiving the traffic from any given SERP. • Secondly your content, structure and usability of your websites landing page or pages must be easy to interact with and navigate. This not only benefits search engines robots but human visitors too. Where do you want your traffic to go and why? Understanding where you want you visitors to go within your site is fundamental to converting traffic. What messages are you giving them once they land on the site? Helping your traffic move seamlessly from one page to another through the site not only makes for a better customer experience but allows you to convert traffic on the right pages and help point them towards your target page. Try to think where you want them to go next and refine your calls to action if required. Look at your traffics behaviour patterns Utilise Google Analytics to understand your websites traffic patterns. It is one of the most advanced and easiest to work analytical tracking tools for web traffic – and it’s free (well at least for now.) It provides you with a superb insight into how your traffic behaves. Look at your pages and keywords to discover which terms are delivering traffic and which are…