'tis been 3 months

Its been a long time since I posted here mostly due to demand for my SEO services but I haven't entirely forgotten you, my dear blog reader.

Plans are in place to improve the branding of All Things Web together with a whole host of exciting marketing material to generate even more work in my capacity as a dedicated SEO consultant.

Things are moving forward at a rapid rate and it is more than likely this blog will be moved to within my own domain, with its own uniquely custom design that might, just might, set the SEO world alight... ok maybe not that much but one has to be ambitious. ;)

I have also been asked to guest blog elsewhere with a prestigious web design agency in Bristol but I also intend to do likewise with other great contacts I have in the web marketing (and web development) industry to further increase my contact network sphere.

I'm looking positively into the future, things are great for me (and certainly for my clients too) - I'd like to invite you to join me on the forthcoming journey my
business is going to take in 2008!

Thanks for sticking with me.

Can you hear the tumbleweed blowing through?

Yes I will be very shortly hearing and seeing tumbleweed as I am off to Nevada for a weeks short break, gliding and skiing up at Heavenly - hopefully there appears to be enough snow...


Also may I offer my sincerest apologies for the lack of updates (my ref to tumbleweed)... having been manic for weeks I have plenty of time on the aircraft, whilst flying over to SFO, to develop ideas I have for this blog and for other websites I will be releasing over the next few months (mostly do to with mobile phones, don't worry I've got the domains.... just need a $$$ making idea now and I have one brewing.)

Thanks for your patience and sticking with me. Its appreciated.

A little trip to London SEO...

I checked out London SEO last week on recommendation of Lisa Ditlefsen of SEO Chicks fame and boy am I glad I visited.

I met up with some really decent people in the SEO world, down to earth yet knew their optimisation (or PPC or social media or, well just take your pick!) like the back of their hands. Like me. Of course.

Amazingly the beer was free, kindly sponsored by Ayima Internet Marketing and I must say thanks to Mike Jacobson for that - we briefly met but I never said cheers for the beers so I owe you one (or two at least).

I also got the chance to hangout with some of the team from SEO MOz outside in the pub beer garden - it seemed to be the place to be even though it was bloody cold! I swapped stories with Mr Fishkin's father and had a highly interesting and entertaining conversation with him on the subtle (and not so subtle!) differences between American English and the Queen's English! (Thats Her Majesty's English not Queens, New York! And not those kind of Queens either!)

Simon Hesletine - top bloke - go check out his blog searchenginetigers.com - had a really interesting conversation about Brand Management, SEO and life in general. Good bloke and welcome on my doorstep anytime especially if he's round these parts in Wiltshire! :)

I also met up with Lyndon Antcliff - top SEO Linkbaiter - and had a really enjoyable time over beers in the evening discussing linkbait - and, er, in the morning too over breakfast - where we were admonished by 2 respectable seniors for being too loud in our enthusiasm for SEO and linkbait... left me chuckling over the weekend thinking they missed out on all of Lyndon's red hot linkbaiting tips and tricks.

I'm definitely going again and I will say this if you've been around SEO for some time and not sure, don't sweat it, just turn up and you'll find everyone's top notch friendly!

About time! Office Managers using Facebook to bust staff!

I get a lot of resistance from clients who say they won't blog and have banned Facebook in their office.

My response is that the young people they employ now will tomorrow mostly become managers and directors in their thirties who WILL blog, read blogs and actively use Facebook as a business/social network tool - something my clients should not forget as time moves on for their business.

And its certainly happened now - check out the intern caught out telling his boss he was not able to come in due to a family emergency and instead was partying hard at a Halloween celebration.

Staff member busted by Facebook

"Nice wand."

Love it!

.htaccess... easy when you know how....

To some there's an air of mystery about .htaccess files, which tends to put people off utilising them on their websites.

So heres the link to 5 htaccess tricks every webmaster SHOULD know about.

With time management training this blog's back on track

For the past few weeks I have been away, been off sick and returned to the aftermath and promptly sunk under the weight of SEO and web work I faced.

Advanced Time Management Techniques

So I bit the bullet last week and spent the day being trained in advanced time management to help myself become far more effective - and allow me to digg, stumble and blog daily again to help increase my online profile.

Even though I spent years as a gliding instructor training others how to soar at heights in excess of 20,000 feet I've always been resistant myself to any kind of self development training so I faced the time management course with some trepidation, wondering if I had anything to learn. Believe me, I did!

I needn't have worried though.

With Andrew Bramwell - a highly effective Management Trainer of Train Me Now at the helm - myself and the other course members left at the end of the day with some fantastic time management tips to manage and prioritise our time. I applied a few of those tips over the weekend and suddenly found DIY jobs around the house that I'd put off for months were getting done in virtually no time at all.... if it was that good for me personally, I am really looking forward to what its going to do for my business.

So I owe a big, big thank you to AJ, my trainer in effective time management techniques. He certainly comes VERY highly recommended. :)

Attracting clients by the bucketful using no budget or previous connections

Whilst stumbling I came across this marketing blog

Pumpkin Patch Marketing

An interesting approach but let me show you one technique that works well especially for those starting out with their own businesses (this works better for those perhaps in the Business to Business arena who get around seeing clients).

It does not matter where you perform this technique. In a shop, in a bar, in a business networking event. Just ensure its used when talking with one person.

From experience this works far better when someone else engages you, though you can turn this around and engage someone else.

It costs nothing and has helped me secure new business on a regular basis in the past.

Here we go:

Other person: "Hi/hello. How are you today?"

You: "I'm really, really busy. I've never been so busy, people love what I do. I only started a little while ago and things have been absolutely manic."

Its important you DO NOT tell the other party what you do. Arouse THEIR curiosity.

Other person - who by now has to have their curiosity satisfied: "Oh, what is it that you do?"

You: "I do X. I didn't realise there was so much demand for it."

Then reel them in. Worked every time in promoting my business without forcing it on someone. I got THEM to ask the questions. Try it, it might just work well for you.

Blatant Charity Plug! Action for M.E.

M.E. - a debilitating illness sometimes known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Symptoms can range but here's an excerpt that kinda just shows the damage it can do to people's lives:

"The most disabling part of my illness is mental fatigue. Even a ten-minute conversation exhausts me."

Action for ME website

Action for M.E. is a registered UK charity that seeks to help sufferers of M.E.

For this reason they are holding:

Beijing 2008 Action Adventure

To help raise much needed funds for M.E sufferers.

Action for M.E are looking to increase their profile and gained exposure on the BBC last night - check out:



The trip looks highly fascinating and is a great way to help Action for M.E.

For more details check out the AFME website here:

Support AFME

Tubes...? interweb....?

Oh looks like a new "in" statement about the internet is now pathetically in fashion:

Series of tubes that is the Interweb

What muppet I wonder came up with this gem?

Gotta be the most pathetic statement so far this year...

SU... it's greatest strength is a weakness

I like SU - its opened up a whole new world of websites but one thing that really grates me is that I also use it to "favourite" websites that I want to come back to... when I come to view the list weeks later I have to go through the hoops to find what I want.

If SU could generate a drap and drop capability on my profile (or even in a backend) on pages that I have stumbled that would allow me to more easily keep up to date and find websites I stumbled.

Right now I have to trawl through a very long list and I find this rather encumbersome.

Does anyone else?

So come on Stumble Upon help me out. If there is a 3rd party feature that allows me to already do this, then someone please let me know...

Well done Sherlock.... Google dominates search

The BBB news site is carrying a piece on "Google dominates search".

C'mon, like we didn't already know this! Tell me something we don't know.

Ok. Interesting to note that after Yahoo the next search engine is Baidu - a Chinese search engine that, I imagine, is heavily censored giving the Chinese online population just exactly what they want. Not.

I wonder if the Chinese can make the jump and become a truly global search engine. There's a thought.

Promise with one hand, taketh away with the other...

I need mobile internet access for my laptop using a data card and approached my mobile phone provider (O2) to check out details whilst in one of their retail stores in Bristol.

The store price sticker quoted the monthly price to be "Free" and "Free" to "£120" for the data card. Not bad I thought and decided to ask the young retail assistant in-store a few more questions.

She knew little about the product and went back and forth from a back office repeating my questions to a manager who did not wish to bother to show his face... the answers I got back were verbatim and left me very confused. Why? Mostly because the monthly price was not "free" AS ADVERTISED and instead was £30 a month.... and was just the "one offer"... all rather flaky really.

The retail assistant seemed satisfied she had given me an answer and skipped back to her desk to do what ever she was doing before I arrived. She never even stopped to ask why I looked confused or was there anything else she could do to help me work out what was exactly on offer.

So I checked out the O2 website and get sidetracked by O2's internet offer of:

Unlimited – so you can download exactly what you want

Yet below this is mentioned:

Fair usage policy applies.

How is this unlimited use? I have to admit I feel that this stinks, smacks of being not particularly transparent and encourages me to lose faith in 02.

I then call O2 and speak to an advisor who mentions there are various offers for the Data Card, one being free which I think this now sounds good. Then she spoils it all by saying I would have to pay the £50 for the data card, which I refused seeing as Vodafone were able to offer to me one for free plus a monthly connection for 12 months at £25-00 plus VAT for 3GB usage (which seems steep to me).

So for those of you who can remember Sean Bean's little strapline in the O2 ads:

See what O2 can do for you

Well for me, O2 quite frankly can not do much right now.

So another LARGE company that doesn't get it and then wonders why it loses customers....

So what if your website is inaccessible to the blind...

Be afraid.

Target (an American DIY chainstore though correct me if I am wrong) has had a judge allow a class action to be filed against them by the National Federation of the Blind.

I heard of this before and thought it had been sorted. Turns out it might not have gone away.

"All e-commerce businesses should take note of this decision and immediately take steps to open their doors to the blind"

Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation for the Blind

I agree though common sense must prevail too.

"Target is committed to serving all of our guests and we believe that our Web site is fully accessible and complies with all applicable laws"

Target spokeswoman Carolyn Brookter

This is what muddies the water for everyone else. If a company the size of Target believes their site is accessible to the blind, what hope is there for the rest of us?

Believe me when I say this is not going to go away.

P.s. This is the 300th post on this blog!

Striking gold at Yahoo!

For those always on the lookout for free keyword research tools it always pays to view some of the tools search engines provide from a slightly different viewpoint.

Yahoo's! new Search Assist - though not perfect - can significantly help provide you with other keywords that could be of extra help whilst carrying out keyword research for yourselves or clients.

Here's a screen shot:










My only criticism is that the list is not long enough. The term "accountant" only yielded 11 extra results. I'd expect 30 to 50 results might be a better figure to work from but then Yahoo! is providing Search Assist for it's user base rather than us SEO'ers...

Still it could turn out to be small SEO goldmine.

Whats going on in your SEO Kingdom?

I like helping others.

Its in my nature.

I taught people to fly gliders for years and got a real buzz watching students go off on first solo. It was nice to pass those skills across.

Today was also one of those superb days.

I got an urgent call from a SEO pal of mine who needed some guidance on PPC. I couldn't directly help with the issue - a first that I had ever seen - but I did come up with a solution on how to grab Google's PPC team by the balls and get more than a standard "lame-o" response.

That seems to have worked. It was also great to talk to another SEO professional - if you're into SEO give me a call, more than happy to hear from you, telephone me on 01793 729326. I promise not to bite.

Oh but don't bother calling if you're out to pick my brains... I'm just looking to network with other highly effective people in web marketing.

The other was a design company in Bristol that I work with regularly on a consultancy basis. Their own rankings have slightly slipped for a couple of keyword phrases. By looking at the improvements that they have recently made to their site I noticed Google was having problems and listing supplemental results for their targeted keyword phrase(s).

I recommended they sort out the internal link structure of their website, adjust content on one of the offending problems, tweak a title tag and that should bring them back onto the first page. I think I turned them away from redesigning the whole site - seems like overkill, they just need to carefully work their keywords on their pages. That and some due diligence on link building should help.

I also got to speak with a marketing gentleman recommended by the fantastic Lyndon Antcliff of Cornwall SEO - that really looks like it could be prove a frutiful relationship for both parties. Thanks for the time Peter!

Finally I found the all things web.co.uk site is listed 3rd on Google for "web marketing services" (on Google.co.uk). Talk about putting a smile on my face at the end of a long day!

So whats going on in your SEO world?

:)

Please no more hot potatoes!

I'm a fan of Facebook and its already generated me 3 to 4 enquiries about SEO. How cool is that? Yup its cool.

However the MOST pointless Facebook app has to be "Hot Potato". C'mon can you be so daft to let an application gain access to your Facebook data to pass on a virtual potato? Do me a favour and send it to someone else.

Next person to send me a Facebook Hot Potato gets banned. ;)

Anatomy of a Search Engine

For those desperate for the holy grail - check out the anatomy of a search engine - its an oldie and for some may be heavy going but persevere - there's some real gems here.

To those who fly, the sky is home

I'm somewhat distressed to find out about the passing of a friend of mine who during August was taken from us in a glider mishap in California.

What hurts more is that it was featured in on the BBC news website and I completely missed the reports.

Geoff moved from Wales to the USA over 26 years ago and during the eighties and nineties set major hang gliding records. He was a natural in the air and it was nice to hear his "voice of the valleys" across the radiowaves when soaring above the Nevadan and Californian high desert.

Geoff's glider was found on a mountainside 10,000 feet up. There is some uncertainty as to what caused the crash, in time I expect details will come out.

So to a decent Welshman I unintentionally offended at the end of an American bar back in 1998 - which lead to some good advice - let me raise a pint of the good stuff to you.

Keep on soaring Geoff.

Are Meta Tag Optimization Services still in vogue?

Carrying out keyword research this afternoon I discovered that the search term "Meta Tag Optimization Services" is in reasonably high demand with an expected 180+ searches on Google a day...thing is can people still believe this is all it takes to rank on Google?

I so wish it was the case. I'm contemplating testing the market by offering a low cost service that optimises/upgrades the meta tags making them all unique to each page based on prior keyword research.

Title tags are important together with well written descriptive tags but so is ensuring your page content is structured correctly with decent links...

If this service takes off I'm sure to let you know..... haha more like I'll stay quiet... I don't think it will be too hard to rank for, its not that competitive but I'll have fun writing the page content.

Say hello to the "Brad" Pack!

Its not because we're fans of Brad Pitt, it is in fact a group within my BNI chapter in Bristol: Bradman Chapter.

I'm not one for calling the group a chapter - it makes it sound like a Hells Angel meeting but thats what the greater gods of BNI deem so be it (for now).

Anyway I am now in a mini group within the chapter - as well as becoming Membership Co-ordinator and thought I would introduce the guys!

So in no apparent order:

Kevin Hurlow - Professional Mortgage Broker based near Bristol (no official website as yet)

Ian Burkitt - for reliable and pro-active IT Support Bristol

Kevin Edenborough - an exciting and dynamic (yes they DO exist!) Chartered Accountant in Bristol and Swindon


I'm looking forward to the opportunities we can provide to the rest of my BNI group.

Drunkenly stumbling onwards....

Stumbleupon... since the paid link fiasco rose it's ugly head above the parapet, the disloyalty of Digg (supposedly, I've not covered Digg) and the non stop march of "social, social, social networking!" I've found that www.stumbleupon.com has stepped up to fill the breach...


I've been a member of Stumbleupon for quite a while - since late 2005 but I missed the boat on this one from the current levels of activity I seem to see there.

Now I have some catching up to do - made all the harder as there are so many Good stumblers.

I've seen the light though and now stumble upon websites and recommend them if I honestly feel they bring originality and creativity to the Internet (or quite simply make me laugh).

Google Algorithms and SEO

Everyone wants to know about Google's Algorithm(s) and their secrets.... and I think it could come down to an algorithm as small as this one (but heh I am no mathematician!)

Targeted Meta Data + Targeted (Resourceful) Content + Accessibility = £££ (or $$$)

Thats the simplest formula I can give. I am missing one component of this algorithm... have you guessed what it is yet?

Some days you just can't win....

It had to happen eventually.... I've been on a mega roll recently and because of my skills and experience in marketing and optimising websites AND my own it has been reasonably easy to convert new clients into business.

Until today.

I had presented to a prospective client who had seemed highly interested in allowing me to work with their designers to optimise their website and review and modify conversion rates.

After what felt like months of waiting they have chosen to go with another supplier for one reason. Price.

What I have to figure out now is how best to learn from this experience, which is made especially more difficult when the client gave off positive buying signals at every stage.

What it really comes down to - as my wife is keen to point out - is that I hate to lose...

Did you phone and leave me a message????

To the lady who called me last week and left a message on my voicemail for SEO services if you read this blog would you care to call me again on 01793 729326.

Regrettably the number you gave with the code starting 01157 is not valid according to BT and I am unable to return your call. You did kindly mention your website but it is hard to make out on the voicemail and I am unable to decipher it...

Look forward to hearing from you!

Darren

Are you giving your ecommerce website some slap and tickle?

Or are you just slapping it together?

I regularly read a new blog from a client of mine who are doing some excellent web design in Bristol and across the UK too.

It is still early days for their blog but they are offering some real insights into how they think and why it is they do so well for their clients.

Their latest blog post Successful Ecommerce Websites is a detailed goldmine that I think is worth recommending for those starting out on the ecommerce path to riches.

Optimising an online art gallery the right way

I've been busy working on a canvas art gallery online recently - working through all their web pages, with their developers and then linkbuilding using a combination of various links on blogs and other websites to help rank the site higher on Google.

I've gone for a balance of competitive keywords and niche keywords too on the website to ensure both "tails" are captured.

SO instead of just concentrating on one keyword i.e. canvas art I carried out research to use further keywords that would make the optimisation appear more natural preferably avoiding the spam route.

Keywords I focused on were:

Canvas art
Canvas artwork
Art on canvas
Contemporary Canvas Art
Landscape Canvas Artwork
Abstract Canvas Prints
Modern abstract art on canvas print

FOr those not in the know note how the keyword phrases get longer as we progress.


...and so on.

This will help the site to rank higher against established websites in what is a highly competitive field.

Its early days but I am excited to see that traffic has begun to increase already so all the signs are promising!

Tarnishing paid links with the bad boy brush

Whats all the fuss over paid links?

We've had them for years and now suddenly everyone's up in arms as Google appears to have stated it wants to see them out of action?

Paid links are (to me) a sign that someone is serious about investing in their website. Wanting free links from free directories is just chancing your arm and does not get you anywhere.

I do hope that certain individuals in the SEO world have not "tweaked Matt Cutts ear", especially if they had a strategy already mapped out if he did listen. I don't know if he did but it does make me wonder.

If Google knows which links go to bad neighbourhoods in general then why not adjust their filters to acknowledge "good" paid links and "bad neighbourhood" paid links?

Let us SEO's go figure out which ones sit where, like we don't already know!


As I've always said go for a balance of free and paid links, blog links, 3rd party corporate website links, pr links, linkbait and links via social media and you'll likely have a better spread if Google decides it does not like one certain type of link.

I'm wondering if Google in time will really clamp down on hard with those of millions of links and perhaps look for a few hundred links that really are high quality?

How to give your titles a dose of nitrous oxide!

Once in a while you come across a web page that blows your mind - this one is just one of those:

Learn to write titles

How to piss off Facebook users in one easy step

Cool, I'm trying to message my brother through facebook and in the form where I should reply Facebook plasters a banner ad with no remove facility.

Facebook you seriously suck if thats gonna be the way forward.... this is seriously frustrating from a user point of view and not something many would tolerate in my book.

Here's the evidence!

When is duplicate content not duplicate?

If Google is capable of spotting duplicate content and penalising sites for it how then does it treat online pr websites with likely thousands of multiple duplicate content across other pr websites. Is it giving them some kind of dispensation? I known from research that they apply a dampening filter to links from online pr articles but I wonder how just do they treat the same online article across multiple websites? Do they give it very little value at all if they do not rate duplicated content?

How much should SEO cost?

How much do you think SEO should cost? And why do you see it as a cost? It's a highly targeted investment if done professionally and correctly.

Figures (and services) for SEO vary wildly. Someone starting out may be selling cheap SEO for less than $500, an agency may well expect figures to be in the 6 figure region before they get interested.

I'm mid range these days based on my experience, knowledge and results. I'm happy here.
So what price do you think you would pay for good SEO?

Fetus on Facebook. Great. Friend requests. Pah! :(

A fetus is already on facebook. Strange but ok I get to see why the parents are doing it.

What I find weird are the friend requests on something thats not yet been born!

I'm on Facebook stalking yurz profile....

I had to admit it never really dawned on me until yesterday that Facebook might be, just might be a risky place to post information for those who are into social engineering to commit id theft and fraud...

I came across this scenario whilst on site at a clients. We were in discussion and I mentioned Facebook and the up and coming importance of social media when a female member of staff walked by and piped up "I'm on Facebook!". Like it was the greatest claim ever...

I thought you don't know who I am, what I do or where I come from but you've possibly opened a pandora's box if I was some freaky stalker.

Inside 15 seconds without knowing her name I'd found out a lot... unfortunately her profile was wide open and I'd pretty much discovered enough to contemplate phoning her to see what other information she might give up (if I was an evil social engineer). I didn't of course but I did let her boss know she might want to restrict her profile to those who were not friends as there was enough there to do some damage.

Facebook then gave me a strange experience on the way home too... but thats another story I'll blog about when I'm ready... and its a pretty random one too!

:

Running web marketing consultations around Bristol

I'm keen to do business in my home town of Bristol. Search Engine Marketing consultations are proving to be highly popular with businesses in the city mostly because of a highly affordable rate AND clients can quickly see the benefits of my knowledge and experience that will enhance their business online.

So if you want search engine optimsation and you're in Bristol or the surrounding area why not give me a call on 01793 729326? I can guarantee my search marketing skill will make a direct positive impact on your corporate online presence.

Apologies for the somewhat "direct sell" - I've got a point to prove. If you want to know why, then email me to find out more! :)