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Pros of having video content on your website:
If you have a blog or website with articles or posts, you can add a video to be unique and set yourself apart from other websites and from your competitor’s websites. More and more people love to watch video as compared to reading text. YouTube is great example of this. Adding videos to your website can greatly increase your target audience and increase traffic to your website.
Video explains better and it’s easier to understand the concepts you are trying to portray. It will attract many visitors to your site. For example if you have launched a new product or service, you can run you own little video advert on your website easily allowing visitors to watch and learn about it. With videos on your site, you are able interact with your visitors in a much stronger, more direct way. Secondly, if you want to develop your personal brand, video could help with that.
If you have a blog or website with articles or posts, you can add a video to be unique and set yourself apart from other websites and from your competitor’s websites. More and more people love to watch video as compared to reading text. YouTube is great example of this. Adding videos to your website can greatly increase your target audience and increase traffic to your website.
Video explains better and it’s easier to understand the concepts you are trying to portray. It will attract many visitors to your site. For example if you have launched a new product or service, you can run you own little video advert on your website easily allowing visitors to watch and learn about it. With videos on your site, you are able interact with your visitors in a much stronger, more direct way. Secondly, if you want to develop your personal brand, video could help with that.
Published in
Development Blog
Friday, 26 February 2010 08:02
Choosing your Keywords: The Initial Research
Written by Dr Peter Fish
Choosing your Keywords: The Initial Research
Keyword research is one of the most important starting points of any internet marketing strategy. This has been stressed over and over again, yet it is either ignored completely or carried out illogically resulting in misleading results! In most cases we make flying guesses as to what keywords are popular in various business niches, yet time and time again after carrying out a properly thought through bit of research you’ll find you where in fact horribly wrong – let your competitors fall in to this trap, but don’t be foolish enough to land there yourself.
I’ve laid out a decent step-by-step approach to deciding what keywords to chase. This entry only entails the initial research; it does not go into estimating exact search densities as can be calculated via a carefully constructed AdWords campaign.
Note: For every step don’t forget to think in the dimensions of time and place!
Step 1: Prospective Keywords
To kick this research off you need to assemble a decent list of prospective keywords, before you do this give some careful thought to the following:
Keyword research is one of the most important starting points of any internet marketing strategy. This has been stressed over and over again, yet it is either ignored completely or carried out illogically resulting in misleading results! In most cases we make flying guesses as to what keywords are popular in various business niches, yet time and time again after carrying out a properly thought through bit of research you’ll find you where in fact horribly wrong – let your competitors fall in to this trap, but don’t be foolish enough to land there yourself.
I’ve laid out a decent step-by-step approach to deciding what keywords to chase. This entry only entails the initial research; it does not go into estimating exact search densities as can be calculated via a carefully constructed AdWords campaign.
Note: For every step don’t forget to think in the dimensions of time and place!
Step 1: Prospective Keywords
To kick this research off you need to assemble a decent list of prospective keywords, before you do this give some careful thought to the following:
- What service or product are you selling?
- What level of knowledge does your end user have? Can you use detailed jargon or are you selling to the layman? Words that you use every day, might be totally foreign to the end user.
- Consider tenses and plurality such as hunt, hunting and hunts
- A thesaurus.
- Use Google’s Related Searches function - merely plug the keyphrase into Google and have a look at the related searches which can be found by clicking the “Show options” under the Google logo on any search.
- Use Google’s Keyword Tool
- Use Google’s Search-Based Keyword Tool
Published in
SEO Blog
This question comes up a lot with my clients and it’s a pretty simple one to answer if you know the difference between the two options. I’m going to break down each function so that you can decide whether a page or a group would suit your needs best.
Group
Facebook groups have been around the longest and are similar to pages but have less functionality. To set up a group is also relatively easy since you only need to choose a category and sub-category, image and short description – then all you need is to send this out to all your friends and hope that they join.
Any updates to your group members appear in their inbox as messages which may sound great but can get a bit annoying if you update regularly. If you also have other sources which you would like to publish to your group (like blog posts or Tweets), you have to do it manually, posting the URL every time.
Published in
Social Media Blog
Monday, 15 February 2010 08:37
Using Google Analytics to understand your site visitors
Written by Adrian FitchetGoogle Analytics offers a wealth of information and statistics to monitor and understand your site usage. I always like to squeeze blood from a stone and get Google Analytics to offer more.
For the Google Analytics enthusiast there are plenty of ways to do this. We often like and want to know how users interact within our clients sites. One great way to do this is to record a users actions throughout a site. This can be done by using the Google Analytics event tracking method / functionality (_trackEvent()).
I will give some examples then show you how easy it is to implement.
Published in
Analytics Blog
Tagged under
What is SEO?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of optimizing a web site to improve traffic generated to the site through search engines via natural (un-paid) search results. This is done by making your web pages more relevant, more attractive and more easily readable for both humans and search engines. A web site normally receives more traffic from the search engine the higher it is ranked.
Search engines use programs called crawlers, spiders or robots to view and index your site. They travel from page to page and store links and relevant text. The search engines constantly improve how indexing works to help provide users with relevant websites and filter out spam. Here are some of our best SEO practices...
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of optimizing a web site to improve traffic generated to the site through search engines via natural (un-paid) search results. This is done by making your web pages more relevant, more attractive and more easily readable for both humans and search engines. A web site normally receives more traffic from the search engine the higher it is ranked.
Search engines use programs called crawlers, spiders or robots to view and index your site. They travel from page to page and store links and relevant text. The search engines constantly improve how indexing works to help provide users with relevant websites and filter out spam. Here are some of our best SEO practices...
Published in
SEO Blog
How to Optimise for the New Mobile Search Era
Google highlighted their work into their continually upgrading mobile search platform in Dec 2009. The latest additions include three serious technology dependant modalities that are a pretty mind-blowing; you can now search by sight, location and voice!
As the technology of mobile phones continues to improve and come down in cost the access the world wide web becomes more and more widespread every day. All these phones feature cameras, compasses and GPS systems. As the leading search engine worldwide, Google has jumped onto the bandwagon and run with it. All these searches are taken in context of your location if it’s available.
Location Search
Ever used Google Maps for Mobile? If not I suggest you click over to m.google.com/maps on your phone a download it ASAP! It’s utterly incredible. It utilises two methods of localising your position – either it integrates with your phone’s gps or it uses the cell system to triangulate your position which is surprisingly accurate. Once it’s installed you can use the search function to look for things that are nearby. For instance searching the word restaurant will bring up all the restaurants it has indexed near your current location. I honestly use this all the time. The mapping is superb as well. How easy is it to travel with this much info in your pocket?
Google highlighted their work into their continually upgrading mobile search platform in Dec 2009. The latest additions include three serious technology dependant modalities that are a pretty mind-blowing; you can now search by sight, location and voice! As the technology of mobile phones continues to improve and come down in cost the access the world wide web becomes more and more widespread every day. All these phones feature cameras, compasses and GPS systems. As the leading search engine worldwide, Google has jumped onto the bandwagon and run with it. All these searches are taken in context of your location if it’s available.
Location Search
Ever used Google Maps for Mobile? If not I suggest you click over to m.google.com/maps on your phone a download it ASAP! It’s utterly incredible. It utilises two methods of localising your position – either it integrates with your phone’s gps or it uses the cell system to triangulate your position which is surprisingly accurate. Once it’s installed you can use the search function to look for things that are nearby. For instance searching the word restaurant will bring up all the restaurants it has indexed near your current location. I honestly use this all the time. The mapping is superb as well. How easy is it to travel with this much info in your pocket?
Published in
SEO Blog
PHP Excel Reader
I recently had a request to setup a payment gateway on a website, so that visitors can purchase online. The website was built using MS Publisher and the products were spread across multiple static html pages. Unlike eCommerce websites, this website had no database populating the product catalogue and no shopping cart. My initial thought was to completely scrap the existing website and develop a database driven website from scratch.
As the cost of development proved to be a key factor, the challenge was clear. Find a cost effective solution for visitors to purchase the available products on the website, without redesigning and redeveloping the website, and still provide an easy "no-knowledge-of-code" way, for the client to update his product list and prices.
The first step was to determine the medium in which the client would provide the product list, secondly, the purchasing process and thirdly, how to populate the form posting to the payment gateway for transaction.
I recently had a request to setup a payment gateway on a website, so that visitors can purchase online. The website was built using MS Publisher and the products were spread across multiple static html pages. Unlike eCommerce websites, this website had no database populating the product catalogue and no shopping cart. My initial thought was to completely scrap the existing website and develop a database driven website from scratch.
As the cost of development proved to be a key factor, the challenge was clear. Find a cost effective solution for visitors to purchase the available products on the website, without redesigning and redeveloping the website, and still provide an easy "no-knowledge-of-code" way, for the client to update his product list and prices.
The first step was to determine the medium in which the client would provide the product list, secondly, the purchasing process and thirdly, how to populate the form posting to the payment gateway for transaction.
Published in
Development Blog
CurvyCorners
There is a growing trend with most new websites to use rounded corners for block elements i.e DIVs. I have come across a very powerful Javascript library that does just that, CurvyCorners.
By simple adjustments to your CSS class, you can create neat rounded corners for your DIVs with borders and even image backgrounds. I am currently using this Javascript library in a few websites and it works well across multiple browsers (IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome).
I did however, find some Javascript conflicts when implementing CurvyCorners on a website that already uses other Javascript libraries. This is common in most CMS websites (such as Joomla), that use a combination of PHP and Javascript libraries. For each component, module or plugin that is called when the page loads, the appropriate libraries are loaded.
The conflict occurs because many JavaScript libraries use $ as a function or variable name. While JQuery uses $ as an alias for JQuery, all functionality is still available without it. To use another Javascript library alongside JQuery, simply call to $.noconflict(). This returns control of $ back to other Javascript libraries.More on JQuery.noconflict() can be found here: http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.noConflict/
There is a growing trend with most new websites to use rounded corners for block elements i.e DIVs. I have come across a very powerful Javascript library that does just that, CurvyCorners.
By simple adjustments to your CSS class, you can create neat rounded corners for your DIVs with borders and even image backgrounds. I am currently using this Javascript library in a few websites and it works well across multiple browsers (IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome).
I did however, find some Javascript conflicts when implementing CurvyCorners on a website that already uses other Javascript libraries. This is common in most CMS websites (such as Joomla), that use a combination of PHP and Javascript libraries. For each component, module or plugin that is called when the page loads, the appropriate libraries are loaded.
The conflict occurs because many JavaScript libraries use $ as a function or variable name. While JQuery uses $ as an alias for JQuery, all functionality is still available without it. To use another Javascript library alongside JQuery, simply call to $.noconflict(). This returns control of $ back to other Javascript libraries.More on JQuery.noconflict() can be found here: http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.noConflict/
Published in
Development Blog
Many people when they hear the terms Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Online Marketing immediately think possible short term investment and a quick way to increase their online business sales or increase their website traffic. They think that rankings happen quick, that they only have to do it for a month or two and that using SEO software should do the trick. (This is a big no no!) You as an investor in your own business should know that only from hard work can you reap what you sow; there is no quick way to jump the ranking queue with SEO.
Many people when having a website designed or developed don’t even know what SEO is for and what it does, but let us tell you if you’re planning to have an online business or need to use your website as an online advertising portal to attract potential customers, Internet Marketing and SEO are vitally important.
We have had experience with clients saying that they don’t need SEO (for the obvious reasons of not understanding what SEO does) or that they have a “friend” that will handle the SEO for them…SEO is a full time job which requires constant monitoring and updating, most times this is more than friends are willing to do. If you stop doing SEO work a site, you will soon notice a decrease in traffic and online sales. There is so much to learn every day and the industry changes all the time, the complexity of search engines rules have changes drastically over the years.
Many people when having a website designed or developed don’t even know what SEO is for and what it does, but let us tell you if you’re planning to have an online business or need to use your website as an online advertising portal to attract potential customers, Internet Marketing and SEO are vitally important.
We have had experience with clients saying that they don’t need SEO (for the obvious reasons of not understanding what SEO does) or that they have a “friend” that will handle the SEO for them…SEO is a full time job which requires constant monitoring and updating, most times this is more than friends are willing to do. If you stop doing SEO work a site, you will soon notice a decrease in traffic and online sales. There is so much to learn every day and the industry changes all the time, the complexity of search engines rules have changes drastically over the years.
Published in
SEO Blog
Thursday, 04 February 2010 12:49
5 Things your SEO Company should be doing for you
Written by Alexi VontasAny company claiming to know anything about Search Engine Optimisation or SEO, should at very least be fulfilling certain functions for you on a monthly basis regarding the marketing of your website. If they are not doing ALL of the following, they are pulling the wool over your eyes, stealing your money, and giving good SEO companies bad names. To get the full impact of SEO, always ensure the following are being attended to:
On-site Optimisation
The pages on your website tell Google and other search engines what your website is about and what industry you are operating in. It is vital that your SEO company address the on-site elements and make ample use of your keywords in the appropriate places and even stipulate the area you serve to narrow down geographic location. This ensures any person searching for your product/service in your geographic area finds your site. Another SEO rule is that all links on your website should be follow-able by search engines (ie: text, not images). If your SEO guru overlooks this, alarms should start ringing.
Search engine submissions
No matter how well you website works or how amazing it looks to the viewer, the bottom line is that if your site is not submitted to the major search engines, it is highly unlikely that you will feature in searches for a long time. Google finds your site using links, and eventually when it follows a link to your site, it will index the pages. To save yourself time, submitting your sitemap to Google, Yahoo and others will speed up the rate at which your pages are added to its search results.
Inbound linking
Once your site is adequately SEO’ed, and search engines have decided where your site ranks when compared to other sites competing for the terms, the only way to climb constantly up the rankings in Google is to build high quality, one-way links to your website. This can be time consuming but really is the life-blood to reaching the first page for commonly search phrases. The more reputable the site you link from, the better.
On-site Optimisation
The pages on your website tell Google and other search engines what your website is about and what industry you are operating in. It is vital that your SEO company address the on-site elements and make ample use of your keywords in the appropriate places and even stipulate the area you serve to narrow down geographic location. This ensures any person searching for your product/service in your geographic area finds your site. Another SEO rule is that all links on your website should be follow-able by search engines (ie: text, not images). If your SEO guru overlooks this, alarms should start ringing. Search engine submissions
No matter how well you website works or how amazing it looks to the viewer, the bottom line is that if your site is not submitted to the major search engines, it is highly unlikely that you will feature in searches for a long time. Google finds your site using links, and eventually when it follows a link to your site, it will index the pages. To save yourself time, submitting your sitemap to Google, Yahoo and others will speed up the rate at which your pages are added to its search results.
Inbound linking
Once your site is adequately SEO’ed, and search engines have decided where your site ranks when compared to other sites competing for the terms, the only way to climb constantly up the rankings in Google is to build high quality, one-way links to your website. This can be time consuming but really is the life-blood to reaching the first page for commonly search phrases. The more reputable the site you link from, the better.
Published in
SEO Blog