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! :)

Locking PPC down real tight

I spent this morning with a client who had, without my knowledge, began to use Google Adwords to help increase traffic to their website. All fair with that I hear you say and I agree, but I received an urgent call for help as they had received lots of traffic and little in the way of enquiries.

Probably a common complaint amongst newbies on Adwords. Before I had even reached their office I had formulated in my head what exactly was wrong and what fixes would be needed to ensure they start getting "pre-qualified" traffic from the interweb.

The client complained that their budget had been wasted so they had turned off the Google PPC campaign to prevent wasted clicks. Which is a good sign that they understand the value and power of Adwords.

I asked the client if they had sat down and planned a formula to ensure their click throughs were as high as possible and that they had spent time reading up on Google Adwords information. Both answers were a resounding no and from looking at the adwords campaign set-up, I could tell they had not done much apart from stick in a list of keywords together with some poor ads.

So a few hours were spent re-adjusting keywords in each Ad campaign, adding negative keywords, switching off the ads in the Content network and really locking down the PPC campaign to ensure clickthroughs through to the site would be as relevant as possible. I even encouraged the website owner to create seperate landing pages and make use of Google Analytics with goals set in place to ensure they can measure the value of the campaign.

I also adjusted and reduced the amount invested on Google so they should immediately see a cost reduction in their monthly bill and an increase in visitors and enquiries generated by Adwords.

So if you're SEO'ing clients websites I would say it would be a good measure of your skills to enquire of the client if they are using PPC and ask to check each Adwords Ad group to ensure they are getting value for money, with clickthroughs leading to enquiries.

Hell I did and I get decent leads as I am on Google's first page for Pay Per Click Firm.

Cheap websites != make you money

I get approached by a lot of people wanting a "cheap" website - say less than £500 - in the belief I can design, build, optimise and put it on number 1 spot on Google in less than a few days. Obviously for us in the industry we know this is not feasible unless its a shoddy job - something I just don't want to get involved in.

I found an example website from last year - a corporate venue that wanted a website. I was asked to quote and provided a somewhat detailed proposal breaking down services, costs and timeframe with an expected measurable value from having the site optimised and promoted on Google using Adwords.

Due to the size of the project I called on Sophie Wegat for her Web Design Services to help me out. I'd seen Sophie's previous work and even though she is based in Australia I felt she would be the perfect designer at the time.

Unfortunately the client chose to go with a local web designer and based on her comments I felt this would be an unfortunate way to go.

Turns out it was.

I spotted the website (I won't mention here so as not to embarrass anyone). From a laymans point of view they have just that a website.

From my professional point of view the website has been built entirely of images (including content text) so has major, major issues in the following area's:

Accessibility
Usability
Web Coding Standards
Optimisation

The thing that disappoints me is that the designer involved has given them what they want - a website.

What a professional (like myself) would have given would be something that brings in traffic, that ensures it works to convert visitors into leads, keeps the bounce rate down as low as humanly possible AND provides their business with a marketing tool that makes them money.

Some people though (even after my guidance and education) just don't get it, which is a shame as this client will have to be charged more to fix what they have rather than me (with Sophie's assistance) to have created a website for them in the first place (that is if they do come back, which I doubt).

;)