OK, so, you’re probably asking what’s search engine optimisation (SEO) training in Manchester, social media training, cormorants and good food got in common? Well, if the Search & Social Media Marketing course site hasn’t made it apparent yet … yes they can all be found at the University of Salford in Greater Manchester – cormorants and the food a little later!

SEO training Manchester – getting it right first time

The importance of getting the right search engine optimisation and social medial training for a small business owner cannot be underestimated. Most website designers will offer you great service in converting your sales literature into attractive on-line web pages. However, what do you do next if only a few people visit your web pages? One of the major sources of web page traffic are search engines and social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook etc. Everyone who has a web page on a certain topic is competing for the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) positions – and only those whoa are on the first three pages have a higher chance to get a click from the prospective customers – no-one wants to be left behind! This means that two of our key customers have to be our visitors first then search engines and social media platforms which help our website visitors to find us.

The very first thing that I realised as part of this course is a thorough understanding of the customers or – prospects needs. What keywords do people use to find your products or services? What sites are they likely to visit for social media and how could we all engage them in a conversation which helps them to solve their need and us to keep a business going? These are some of the key questions which need to be determined and researched prior to commending a full website implementation. Yes, you might say a website is never set in stone you can always change it – right, yes, you can! But, it is an additional cost and drain on resources and for someone like me, who is already busy running a business – spinning the plates – the last thing you want to do is change your website hierarchy every six months! Therefore, getting it right first time – if you are on the quest of carving out a career and making a living in the world of SEM (search engine marketing) – then from my experience, it is essential that you start with strong solid foundations that will set you up in the long term, namely a good SEO and social media training course.

But, get it wrong at the beginning – as most of us do when venturing into a new area – and it can be a very frustrating experience costing you time and money. Personally, I feel learning from mistakes of others is a good way to keep you focus on important things, but I know I have done it myself sometimes you think there is a short-cut to things and you might just be able to do it yourself…

The nature of "the beast" (the Internet) can be overwhelming – there is too much information to digest out there in fact, you will find that the majority of us mere mortals will get sucked into an arena that generates a lot of noise which contains a lot of false & contradictory information that inevitably leads to confusion and frustration – speaking from experience here. So, learn from my personal experience:

“to succeed in search engine optimisation and social media you need to get the basic fundamental’s right first time ….”

SEO newbie’s approach to self taught SEO training

So, lets look at the typical SEO newbie’s approach to self taught SEO training, and yes I speak from experience (yes I’ve done most if not all!) and in no particular order, my list of common would be newbie mistakes is:

• Signing up to multiple internet marketing “gurus” lists
• Shifting through 100+ email (offers) a day
• Believing some of those offers – you know they are too good to be true but you still hope they will prove you wrong…
• Joining as many SEO forums as possible
• Read contradictory & false “advise” in said SEO forums
• Downloading ebooks with the latest “how total SEO newbie made 10k in 1st month”
• Downloading more ebooks on SEO and Social Media training
• Downloading even more ebooks on search secrets
• Following the video hype of SEO training product launches by yet another “guru”
• Executing your new found training strategies half heartedly
• Reading SEO blogs from SEO ninjas and SEO wizards
• …..expecting organic search ranking results improvements overnight – but they never do!!!
• The list goes on …

Information overload and the “noise” created on the internet is a massive DESTRACTION that will no doubt get you FRUSTRATED, blur your vision and shift your focus from becoming a competent search marketer.

Idealised process for strategic use of Search (SEO) and Social Media Optimisation (SMO)

One of the main things that I took away from the Search & Social Media Marketing course is that there is some method to this “SEO and SMO madness”! Each week we refer to the 11 steps of SSMM which start from clear business vision and strategic plan for the website (bearing in mind organic SEO can take months and in some cases years to come to fruition) so if you are looking for results fast Pay-Per-Click and Social Media campaigns – also discussed as part of this course can come handy! Ok, what are these stages of search engine optimisation and social media optimisation? At the core of the optimisation process are these seven steps:

1. Identification of organisational / business needs and how online media could help
2. Setting Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Social Media Optimisation (SMO) goals
3. Research the keywords that you prospects are likely to use to come to your site and benefit from your products and services
4. Strategically position keywords in your website structure and architecture
5. Tactical keyword placement on individual pages
6. Optimisation of your off site profile in social media, mobile and if needed PPC
7. Tracking and measuring of your results and learn from your actions in relation to the goals that you set in step 1 and 2

In order to succeed in search engine marketing you need to get the fundamental basics right first time, and University of Salford’s SEO and Social Media course – or to be more precise #SSMM (Search & Social Media Marketing) training course does just that and from my own personal experience – is the best starting place as it encompasses all the relevant mixes of search marketing in separate modules:

• SEO
• PPC
• Social Media
• Mobile Marketing

And just in case these do sound overwhelming still the sessions of the course are based on a method too – practical exercises during training and homework – like writing of this blog post and hence practising the use of SEO in social media! The course is packed with excellent industry guest speakers from the Manchester SEO community, SEMPO Institute online training material, online course support community on LinkedIn, Twitter hash tag – #SSMM and a Facebook page – just in case there are some cormorants about!

The mystery of Cormorants – are they interested in SEO training or Social Media training!

Right, have I mentioned cormorants already? well, cormorants are the full time overseas students taking part in the training too! Just in case you are wondering – these creatures did sit outside of the training room in the Maxwell building in Manchester. There are a couple of theories that explain their interest in SEO and Social Media training – a) interest in increasing their social media profile – tweeting in particular or b) the sight of good food or etc)?…

Have a look at the Search & Social Media Marketing course Facebook page for more evidence of these keen tweeterers!

An SEO training banquet fit for a king

… oh I nearly forgot to mention the spread at each session – a banquet fit for a king-fisher (or was it a cormorant!)!?

Why invest in SEO training?

Having been through the steep, frustrating, sometimes tedious learning curve in pursuit of my goal albeit in an unorthodox sporadic fashion, it’s a great relief to have found a well structured approach to learning the internet mix, that is SSMM.

If you wish to short-cut your path to success in the search marketing arena I would suggest that you seriously consider the training course in Greater Manchester’s University of Salford has to offer. If you don’t live in the Greater Manchester area it might be worth considering to move to Manchester for the 10 weeks time – it is a great place with a number of SEO and Social Media networking groups organised using LinkedIn and Meetup, MediaCity is also about to open its doors too – and as evidenced by the cormorants they did a bit of a commute too!

Now, although it looks like a blatant endorsement for the University of Salford’s commercial SEO training, well it is; part motive for writing this post is in the hope that individuals, business owners and professionals alike will see heed this message:

There is no substitute for good hands-on training that’s backed by a wealth of solid in-depth learning resources to maximize your online successes!

If you have any questions about the course – see when the next #SSMM open evening takes place or if you want to speak to me please get in touch:

• Nev Nelson LinkedIn
• Nev Nelson on Twitter

PS: Do you have any of your theories to explain the "The mystery of Cormorants"? please use the comments sections below!

The SEO & Social Media Training Giveaway is now CLOSED! The winner will be announced on the 1st September 2011 at the SSMM Open Evening.

This is a unique opportunity to join a course that is regularly oversubscribed – it is more than a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Social Media Training course – you will have a chance to learn from experts in the industry from:

• Brilliant Media
• Latitude Digital Marketing
• MEC Manchester
• Pleer SEO & Web Design
• PushON
• Salford Business School
• SEMPO Institute

This is your opportunity to win a free place on a Search & Social Media Marketing course worth £2000 – this includes both the Foundation and the Professional course course as well as three online SEMPO courses!

What do you have to do?

Simply write a comment on this blog post with the reasons why it should by YOU who gets the free place on the Search & Social Media Marketing course!

*Terms and Conditions

1. There is no cash alternative available.
2. Prize is only valid for the Search and Social Media Marketing Course at the University of Salford during academic year 2011/12.
3. One entry per person.
4. The prize is not transferable.
5. Competition closes on Thursday 25th August at 12:00 noon.
6. Details of the winner will be announced at the Search and Social Media Marketing Open Day on Thursday 1st September 2011 and published on www.searchmarketing.salford.ac.uk.
7. The competition is not open to University of Salford staff.
8. Entries will be judged by the Search and Social Media Marketing Programme Team.
9. Entrants must be contactable by email within a week of the closing date.

Congratulations to Briony Gunson from Fast Web Media – the winner of the blog post presentations on 21st April 2011! Having written a blog post about the latest Google search algorithm update and presented to a panel of independent SEO and Social Media experts she picked up the prize of a free entry to Manchester’s finest Search Analytics and Social conference – SASCon 2011!

Briony said:

“I was thrilled to win the SAScon ticket based on the presentation I gave for my final SSMM blog post about the Google Panda Update. The SSMM course has proved a very valuable experience. My search skills were honed intensively using SEMPO material along with the Salford lectures and expert speakers, allowing me to apply methodologies immediately at work. Going to SAScon will be the icing on the cake!”

Thanks to SASCon 2011 organisers

The latest Professional course of Search & Social Media Marketing (SSMM) was delighted to be able to offer a prize sponsored by SASCon 2011 organisers some of whom are also the industry guest speakers supporting the #SSMM course:

• Richard Gregory, Chief Operating Officer, Latitude Digital Marketing
• Ben McKay, SEO Director, MEC Interaction
• Simon Wharton, Managing Director, PushON
• Peter Young, Head of SEO at Brilliant Media

Here is a brief overview of SAScon and the SSMM course from Peter Young who handed over the prize of the SAScon ticket on the day of the blog post presentations:

Have you booked your place for SAScon?

If you have we will probably see you there – you can meet our course team representatives at a stand at SAScon!

If you would like to know more about our Search & Social Media Marketing courses please book into one of our open evenings, tweet, facebook or just contact us!

@SalfordUniSEO

Dear Business Developer,

Are you looking to get started as web marketing consultant within search and social media marketing? Then read on…

I’m sure you’ll agree that online marketing is huge! Everyday you hear about Google, Facebook, YouTube or Twitter. These brand names – that have entered our lexicon – are like pesky mosquitoes buzzing around. They just won’t go away.

And you know it’s a fact the Internet has changed the way savvy businesses do business.  And even the dinosaur companies are starting to realise they’re going to die a horrible death unless they act now.

But Beware the Cowboy Search Marketing Companies

Just last week I bumped into a friend who told me he was working for this type of company. They have a big telesales operation and prey on the naivety of business owners. People who are desperate to increase their sales and profits. Telling someone you can give them 10,000 hits on their Facebook page is a little different to the reality – 10,000 impressions on Facebook. It’s a subtle but crucial difference.

Only get involved with an ethical company.

Do you need Selling Skills to be Successful?

Absolutely. Ideally you’ve got at least two years’ business development experience in the bag. Also, I’ll take it as red you understand to how to build rapport with strangers. And you can generate leads through cold calling (it’s easier than you think). In addition, you’re able to uncover sales opportunities at networking events or down at your local health club.

And it doesn’t just stop at talking. You need to be a competent business writer. Why? Because business developers should be able craft a professional proposal.

Lastly, you must possess good presentation and closing skills.

Search and Social Media Marketing Training will Pay Dividends

Okay, so you’ve got the selling ability of Brian Tracy or Zig Ziglar. If you haven’t then you’re working at it. What do you do next?

Well, if you want to shortcut the road to success then get yourself booked on a quality course. One that covers search engine optimisation (SEO) and social media marketing: the hot topics. You can pick up extra knowledge, such as email marketing, pay-per-click advertising and affiliate marketing once you’ve got a good handle on the SEO and social media stuff.

There are quite a few courses out there, but I’d highly recommend you first take a look at Search Engine Marketing Professional Organisation (SEMPO). It’s a not-for-profit trade organisation and they offer online certification courses via their commercial arm – SEMPOinstitute.com.

They’re a global organisation and all the top digital marketing agencies (your prospective employers) recognise SEMPOs qualifications.

Do you live near Greater Manchester. England?

If not, then don’t worry. But if you do then check out Salford University Business School because they offer SEMPO courses in a classroom environment. As well as certification, you get the added benefit of industry speakers who come along to offer advice on all aspects of search and social media.

Other Golden Nuggets to Help you Get a Business Development Job in Search Marketing

Below are a some of the things I’ve done over the last ten years to give me better understanding of web marketing.

• Buy and sell items on eBay
• Author an ebook and sell it online
• Dig into Google webmaster tools
• Start blogging or tweeting about your favourite topic
• Stay current by reading SEO/Social news websites
• Get social – set up profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
• Shoot a video and upload it to YouTube
• Put some holiday snaps on Flickr
• Read great books on Internet marketing (contact Para Web Marketing for a FREE list)
• Build a website, so you have an appreciation of the design, traffic building and conversion process
• Help a local company or charity to promote their business or cause online

7-Step Blueprint to Guaranteed Success

1. Keep honing your business development skills
2. Get a recognised qualification in search and social media e.g. SEMPO
3. Create a CV and covering letter that’s specific to the sales role
4. Try out a few of the golden nuggets (mentioned above)
5. Be proactive – fire off your CV to job boards, recruitment agencies, and web companies who are advertising sales positions
6. Pick up the phone – contact every search, web design and social media company within your commuting area. And ask if they need a good business developer (prepare thoroughly before calling)
7. If you’re anti-social become social – attend industry events, follow and interact with companies you’d like to work for

BIOGRAPHY – Simon Davies LLB

Simon is a freelance business developer and web marketing consultant based in Manchester, England. He has 20 years’ sales and marketing experience, including 10 years at former telecoms giant BT. His time is divided working on his own web projects and that of other small businesses. In addition, he freelances for digital marketing agencies helping them to generate leads and sales.

Despite a decrease in teenage pregnancy across England, UK – Manchester is still classified as the 4^th highest city with under 18 contraception rate, escalating the rates of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). Locally, Brook Manchester is successful in attracting young people but was missing an opportunity to translate their efficiency without having an evaluation tool-kit to enable professionals to inform national policy, show good practise and ensure that they serve young people’s needs.

Another major outcome of the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project was to embed digital strategies in Brook Manchester’s daily activities in order to engage their clients through a variety of communication channels.

What is a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP)?

The knowledge transfer scheme was established in 1975 and ever since, it has been a possibility between academics, recently graduated individuals and an organisation to work on a joint project. This way, the academics apply research into a real world project; the graduate gains valuable work experience and guidance from experienced mentors, along with the prospect to undertake personal development; and the business, which has the opportunity to increase their competitiveness, productivity and performance through a joint project.

A Business IT graduate from University of Salford, with a wide experience in system development and marketing I joined Brook Manchester as a knowledge transfer partnerships associate. Brook is a sexual health organisation which offers free and confidential advice and contraception to young people.

Throughout the KTP journey at Brook Manchester, I was guided by my supervisors, Ben Light, Professor of Digital Media, School of Media, University of Salford; Paula Ormandy, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Salford, a health service researcher with wide expertise in service evaluation, and Stephanie Malls, Director of Brook Manchester and recently Interim Executive Director of Quality at Brook.

KTP journey at Brook Manchester

During the 2 years of the KTP project between the University of Salford and Brook, I successfully liaised with sexual health professionals and the academics to deliver the outcomes set as part of the project. I have undertaken a company audit to understand the needs, researched into best practises in sexual health and health in general and converted my findings into framework strategies.

One of the many tasks delivered was to create an application to enable youth workers to deliver education in the busy areas of Manchester. The application was nominated for a national award, and to prove its success it was further picked up by Manchester Evening News and we were Invited to BBC radio to talk about the  Knowledge Transfer Partnership Project, the application and its benefits.

The application http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW8FD1uEduA:

Now, the Knowledge Transfer Partnership project has been moved to a national level and I am the process of developing and trialing with young people a moderated forum and chatroom with enhanced evaluation opportunities. During the project we aim to analyse daily online activities and the data to establish a total cost of running a forum and the chat room, technical and clinical issues, confidentiality, etc. If this is successful – then the project will become part of Brook services.

KTP – Brook –  SOCIAL MEDIA  and digital technologies

When I have started the KTP project, I personally thought that through some of the social media mediums, especially Facebook and Hi5, the organisation would be able social engagement. During the research undertaken, I’ve learned that those mediums are not always suitable.

Young people are on social networking websites for fun and a push from health organisations is seen as invading their privacy and their fun time. However, research shows that up to the age of 16, young people use more than 6 devices simultaneously and we have explored this information further.

We’ve created video applications, including the condom demo and evaluated them during the trial period. The data gathered shows that young people prefer the condom video as it is more private, less embarrassing, and clearer.

The key lesson from our project is that knowing your audience, analysing their needs and engage them through their ideal channel are key factors in achieving the objectives wanted.

Have you tried to engage your audiences in Social Media and did you manage to get the level of engagement you wanted?

Internet and website marketing companies from all over the region have turned up en masse at the University of Salford as part of an initiative to combat recent cost cutting announcements.

Under the guise of an intensive training course in SEO and search engine marketing, the University of Salford is selling .ac.uk backlinks to companies for £2000 a pop!

Enduring several 4 hour gruelling sessions, companies specialising in SEO in Manchester and the surrounding areas are holding out until the bitter end to bag one of these highly prized links and, while complaining about the amount of homework, have been happy to part with their hard earned wonga in order to jump on the backlink bandwagon.

One Leeds SEO firm camped outside for three days to make sure of a place on this so called course and told me . . .

“We really need high quality inbound links to complete an internet marketing assignment for a company specialising in van hire Leeds and also a well known mens shoes brand so we’ll do whatever it takes”.

I have to say that I enthusiastically enrolled to ensure that I wasn’t left behind by my colleagues and competitors but very soon began to forget the prize which was waiting and became engrossed with the excellent content of the SEO course itself.

Top SEO training tips and techniques

From the ground rules for keyword research and selection through advanced link building techniques to the latest thinking in social media marketing, both the superb core team and their excellent keynote speakers really managed to get their ideas across and moved my understanding and my ability to apply my learning right across my client base immensely. High end benefits for my clients and a more effective approach by my team will really mean more business and a more enhanced reputation for my company in the dynamic and competitive world of internet and website marketing.

Not sure how ethical this backlink sale is, although I do think the Search and Social Media Marketing Course is actually extremely good and I would definitely recommend you enrol for the next sessions. Hats off though to the guys at the University of Salford, Search and Social Media Course for thinking outside the box with this innovate if somewhat extortionate way to plug the funding gap and keep themselves and their mates in a job.

As a post script I would urge you to register early for this university SEO training course as places are selling like hot cakes and there are only a limited number of .ac.uk backlinks available – Good Luck and Bon Voyage!

What is the Google Panda Update? How has it affected the SERPs? Which tactics might be taken to minimise the effects of the Google Panda Update?

The recent Panda, or ‘Farmer’, update to the Google search engine algorithm has had some interesting and unexpected results in the Search Engines Results Pages (SERPS). Working for the Search team at the Manchester digital media agency Fast Web Media, it is vital for me to understand the purpose, initial impact and long term implications of the Google Panda update and shape SEO strategy for our clients accordingly. Considering all that I’ve learnt on the SSMM course at Salford, I thought I’d tackle this Panda head-on.

The purpose of Panda?

The Panda first reared its head in February 2011 in the US, whilst the rest of the world watched and waited for Panda paw prints to appear in the rankings. Sites in the UK that received significant traffic from the US quickly saw if the Panda update would affect them once it was rolled out globally in March.

The Google Panda update had one principle aim:

Reduce SERP rankings for Low Quality Sites—i.e. sites with low value to users, generally containing unoriginal or shallow content.

The intended targets in the Panda’s sights? Low-quality domains which had little user trust and contributed trivial levels of information or services, such as, affiliate sites containing a high volume of content scraped from legitimate sites. As expected, such sites lost significant visibility in the US Google-SERPs at the end of February.  But what else was hit? This would apparently affect the results of some 12% of search queries. An independent SEO software firm, Sistrix, collated a lot of data and published a list of some of the winners and losers from the update (although the recent article from State of Search questions these figures and their severity)

The main losers appear to be:

• Price comparison sites, such as travel sites
• review sites, like qype.co.uk
• voucher sites, myvouchercodes.co.uk

You can see a more recent list of those affected on Pete Young’s blog (of SSMM fame!) On first look, what is similar about these sites? Shallow content? Poor structure? Prolific use of ads? Poor content and aggressive ad placement generally results in poor user engagement – you are unlikely to stay on a site for long if it’s full of inane drivel and haranguing you with pop-ups.

Google’s algorithm has previously proven capable of identifying nonsensical spam (e.g keyword stuffing) but Panda’s mission is to identify shallow-content, low quality sites. A supposed by-product of the Panda update was that it would help Google to identify high quality sites and reward them in the SERPs accordingly. Sites such as those belonging to established brands, which have their own original content, and ones which promoted high value user experiences would win over the heavily optimised affiliate site that allowed for no quality user engagement. This very interesting interview by Wired with Google engineers Matt Cutts and Amit Singhal in March 2011 outlines the Google thought process behind the update.

Bamboo-zled by the Panda

[Image reproduced from batterymouth.com please contact a.heinze@salford.ac.uk if you object to this image being used on this site].

Some in the Search industry feel that the Panda update was a long time coming and that “wise” SEO practices will have protected against algorithmic changes that targeted low-quality content. The side effects of this ambitious update have been quite a lot of collateral damage. It has hit legitimate sites with a lot of user-generated content, such as Review Centre (see their concerned reaction to the Panda update in a blog post on the Review Centre website).

Mahalo, an information sharing site with a large and active community, suffered heavily from the Panda update and 10% of Mahalo staff were apparently fired the day after the new algorithm took effect. Mahalo is widely viewed as a content farm and is exactly the kind of site Panda should be targeting. This interesting article about Mahalo by SEOBook discusses it in more detail: SEOBook: Black Hat SEO Case Study Nevertheless, traffic being heavily cut through these changes is a grave issue for many sites and businesses, big and small. And more recently, questions have been raised as to the possibility of competitive targeting of certain Microsoft owned sites by the algorithm changes.

Saying all that, there are many ecommerce affiliates that are still holding strong positions and all their product descriptions are duplicated. I know at Fast Web Media, we can still see 2 or 3 voucher sites ranking within the top 10 for brand specific keyword searches for a particular client. Google have removed the ability for webmasters to ask for reconsiderations for those who’ve suffered from the affects of algorithm changes but you can tell them if you think you’ve been unfairly dismissed.

What can we learn from sites like Mahalo which hold some genuine value being penalised by the algorithm? Mahalo’s content base is vast and in topics so broad that it is suspiciously vague in its purpose. It’s certainly no Hitchers Guide to the Galaxy. And what of voucher sites? They often contain many broken links, timed out deals, etc. Is it this kind of sites Google is to rid the SERPs of? It is interesting to note what happened to the price comparison site, beatthatquote.com, which was also negatively affected by the Panda update. Google bought that site last month for £37million. Why would Googly punish its own acquisition, other than to appear fair in its execution of its algorithm? Is it that valuable for Google in terms of a business for price comparison or is it a knowledge/data gathering exercise? It is likely that Google are investing in comparison websites as a way of gathering information about how people interact and use such sites. Under the current Panda update, the way content is produced, structured and shared across such sites is too subtle for the algorithm to distinguish between those more low-quality sites. This first generation Panda, although quite unruly, may evolve to be something a bit more personable and sophisticated when recognising quality content in successive incarnations.

Paws for Thought

So, what do you do if have been backhanded (or “backpawed”) by the Panda? Combating Panda at a basic level boils down to examining the structure and content of your site and being sure to eliminate duplicate or shoddy content. You can start by looking at the impact on traffic and user behaviour using Google Analytics across the different pages of the site and go from there. SEO Mark Nunney clearly outlines some more detailed steps to analyse any potential impact and steps to rectify a SERP slashing in his Panda mauling survival guide. In summary, the main things to look out for are:

CONTENT:

• A high level of duplicate and unoriginal content – either internally or from content being very similar to other site. Example site: Tech blogs – gadget reviews, etc.
• Overzealous On-Site Optimisation – Poorly written content for the user – lacking semantics – continuous repetition of the same phrase or keyword.
• Many pages throughout the site with a low amount of original content.

SITE USE:

• Low CTR (click through rate) from SERPs
• High bounce rates and very low user times on the site
• Low percentage of returning traffic to the site

SITE STRUCTURE:

• Lots of sponsored ads – especially irrelevant ones – littering the page
• High number of paid links from sites owned by the same brand/company/site owner for self promotion
• None or an unconvincing Social Media presence, nor little mention from sites like as news, reviews, forums.

These are all classic SEO issues which should be addressed when implementing best practice and have been covered extensively on this SSMM course at Salford. And although we can outline what quantifies a quality user experience (high traffic, high returning traffic, low bounce rate, long amount of time spent on site, etc), just how does Google begin to identify what is “quality content”  algorithmically? How can the web crawlers scan the content on sites and obtain a substantive and accurate impression of the semantic value of that page? The easiest signals to look out for if content is quality is the amount that site is shared – linked to, tweeted, social bookmarked, etc. AKA The capital of social engagement!

The issue is that “quality of content” is a highly subjective matter. How does one define “low-quality content”? The Wired interview with Cutts and Singh mentions that they compared the Panda results using the Chrome Site Blocker (allowing users to specify sites they wanted blocked from their search results) as a case study for what qualified as “low quality content”. The intuition of the algorithm can only be so sophisticated.

“The Panda eats shoots and leaves; it doesn’t go on Masterchef!”.

Google try and collect enough information and data on user behaviour to create and apply an objective algorithm to subjective matter.

Keeping this in mind, this is where I wonder if the Panda update is a pre-emptive move before rolling out Google +1…

The Personable Panda

Google has also been trying to jump on the social bandwagon of late without much success. Sites such as Google Buzz, a social messaging and information sharing site, and Google Knol, similar to Quora, have failed to crack into the social media market with any noticeable effect. Back in 2009, Google introduced Google Social Search and it has updated and improved the service constantly since then. Matt Cutts not long ago revealed that Google would start taking into account social impact of URLs in the algorithm – i.e. the more a URL is tweeted and shared on Facebook, the more gravitas that link will be given in the eyes on Google. As a result, SEO now involved more than just on-site optimisation and PPC. Social media is now the dominant force in the way internet users share and consume content, and it is playing an increasingly significant role in determining where your site appears in SERPs.

This latest update is a significant shift in the way social affects a site’s position in the SERP. Whether users are posting videos to YouTube, publishing photographs on Flickr, writing content on their blogs or just talking to their friends on Facebook and Twitter, their activity now affects a site’s authority and how it is viewed by Google.

So called “Google +1” is being trailed in American and you can beta test it on your own account at the moment in the UK. It is a way of competing with social networks, such as Facebook, but whilst also being able to glean from user behaviour what results far more relevant quickly and effectively. What is Google +1? Google will allow you to click on a +1 button next to a link as a seal of approval. And other users in your social network groups will be able to see that you’ve “+1” a link.

You can read more about Google +1 from Techcrunch and the speculations on its uses but the reason I’ve included it in this post is in the Panda update preceding Google +1. By currently being largely closed off from the social media world, Google lacks the ability to be able to analyse user behaviour on a highly social level. This is where Google +1 could act as a key to unlocking some of the data potential whilst apparently bettering the user experience of the search engine.

Allow me to elaborate: Panda has apparently hit the tech blogging community quite hard. Many of these sites are genuine hubs of collective interest. But as pointed out by Patrick Altoft in his blogstorm post, how many times do you need to hear about the same gadget review? For such forums and blogging communities, the significant drop in traffic could drastically reduce their site’s viability. Thinking long term, I wonder if such updates that negatively affect the visibility of said communities may further catalyse the way that people will interact online – less through many review sites and forums and more through social media.

Much like if someone dictated you what you could and couldn’t do at a party, you’ll probably just sit sulking in a corner or end up not even going. The Panda update is more evidence of a paradigm shift in the way that content is structured and angled more towards enabling social online. With this in mind, I was wondering if the Panda update may be pre-emptive strike that encourages websites to structure themselves favourable, ready for Google +1.

Conclusions

Google wants to be more than just a search engine – and its forays into all sorts of projects, most particularly with social projects such as “Buzz” and “Knol” are testament to that. Google talks about wanting to produce the best user experience possible. Why? So users continue using their services. Yet I am curious about the long term impact on social communities, such as legitimate tech forums, which have been hit by the Google algorithm by such changes. Many of the Panda victims appear to make sense, and with any algorithm change there are winners and losers. But why remove the visibility of sites that allow and foster genuine community engagement? At the end of the day, the algorithm is a scientific formula that is being applied to millions and millions of sites. It is inevitable that some genuine sites, in particular ones which do have a lot of the same content (even if it is user generated) will be hit by the update.

Under the new Panda regime, what do you do if you search for something and forums/review sites don’t show up in the top 10? You search again, you use other sites. Users navigate the SERPs more and giving Google more user behaviour data. Users may also be more inclined to use Google reviews, thus helping to promote Universal Search, etc. By hitting the review sites, I wonder if it’s not just Google trying to promote their services and in turn getting more information out of its customers. Is Panda preparing us to be more social (along with the advent of +1) by clearing the SERPs of site that had poor user engagement?

As we all well know, you cannot force online communities to be social – social sharing and communities and manifests themselves in a way that external forces can try to influence but it is often an internal catalyst which drives it and helps it take form. You can create a social space but cannot really dictate the way it is used – trying to do so often spells disaster. But social is well and truly here in the SERPs. And it will be interesting to see how the SEO community shifts and adapts strategy in the coming months post-Panda.

And speaking of being social, you can find with me on LinkedIn or @BrionyGunson

Starting the Facebook fan page Journey

Creating a Facebook fan page may seem like an intimidating and scary thought for companies just starting out on the social media highway, this blog post will offers you step-by-step instructions on how to set up that initial Facebook fan page learnt from my time on a Search & Social Media Marketing course at Salford University in order to set up my own social media strategy for my company NIBS Group. This blog post will also cover some of the reasons why you should set one up and why its interactive elements make it such a great tool for business promotion.

You may already use Facebook for personal reasons such as keeping up with your family & friends or sharing photos, but the idea of running a business page on the world’s largest social network might still seem intimidating. Businesses of all sizes can both obtain value from Facebook pages – "for free"! On the one hand, big corporations can display a more accessible and personal image by promptly answering customer inquiries and developing a community around their products and services by for example posting fun photos or videos.

On the other hand, small businesses and start-ups can expand their customer base by reaching out to their prospects and by doing what small businesses do best – be personable and knowing your customers in person. This could be around customer engagement which developed around specialist content that is of interest to your customers, thus lowering other marketing-related costs.

Simply put, Facebook business pages are easy to use, flexible and interactive – all great reasons to justify setting one up today. You are advised to watch the video below and explore more Facebook features on your own to take advantage of this free, effective tool!

It takes 5 minutes to create a Facebook fan page – but a lifetime to deliver it

Important: Knowing the waters before developing your social media presence is essential, this includes finding niche keywords used that relate to your business. Facebook Trends also helps facilitate ideas on common search terms pertaining to your business. As a business you also have to make a decision to allocate adequate time to maintaining of this new channel that you will offer to your customers – it takes a short time to create a Facebook fan page but potentially a lifetime to deliver it...it takes time, long term effort and patience.

Although Facebook pages set-up is free to you now, you will be committing time and effort in a platform which is hosted on a third party and although at the moment there are no charges to businesses Facebook long term have to make money too! However, assuming that you know that the demogaphics that you are looking for are on Facebook – go to Google Adplanner to get latest stats… there are few reasons why you should not try Facebook Page for your business! Remember – that you can delete your page within two mouse clicks so if you don’t like what you see you can always leave Facebook when you want (to do that go to Edit Page > Delete Page that simple)!!!

Advantages of Branding Your Business on Facebook

So, you are still reading this this! Good! This means you have the courage to see if Facebook works for you! Below are just some of the reasons why you others have joined Facebook and you should consider joining it too. Facebook…

• Acts as a contemporary reference resource for your site.
• Helps gain relevant traffic to your site; this means your referral traffic can be increased.
• Facilitates relevant link exposure for your site and services & products.
• Supports your search engine optimization campaign.
• Doubles your SERP listing chances, which means this will improve your visibility in search engine results.
• Can reduce off-line advertising costs by targeting your prospects more specifically with Facebook ads.
• Brands and helps you to engage with your customers and hence help in maintaining positive reputation online.

For companies wanting a more professional image for their Facebook fan page, companies such as NIBS Spectrum offer a social media set-up service which gives businesses the chance to get professionally created Facebook fan pages which are designed to compliment your overall company brand image as is shown in the example below:

To set up your account

Right, are you ready to give it a go? It should take you no longer than 5 minutes!

1. Go to www.facebook.com.

Create a profile. If you already have a personal profile on Facebook and don’t work your work profile to be associated with this it might be worth creating another "work" related identify for you.

Once signed in, Click on Ads and Pages:

Then click + Create Page. To create a page for a celebrity, band or business” Determine the appropriate category for your business by clicking the relevant category:

Now, enter the name of the business. Read the Facebook Pages Terms and then sign your authorisation by ticking the relevant box and click on Get Started.

2. Add main image and tag line.

Hover your mouse over the big question mark:

and then click on Change Picture. Upload your logo or a photo of your business or product here. {This will be your business’ Facebook image.} Under this image, click on “Write something about . . .” This is where you would put your tag line or a brief description of your business.

3. Edit your Basic Information.

Click on the Basic Information tab:

and then Edit your company information. The amount and type of information that you are able to input here depends on the category you selected for your business. Once complete press the Save Changes button.

4. Upload photos.

Click on the Photos tab:

and upload photos of your business and/or your products. If you’d like, you can create multiple albums to group images together by category.

5. Edit default landing tab.

Within Manage Permissions, decide where you would like your fans and non-fans to land when they go to your Facebook profile:

6. Congratulations! You now have a Facebook business page!

When you are satisfied with the appearance of your new page you can invite others to like it! Once you create you page it will be immediately publicly available for all to see on the internet!

7. Become a fan.

You should become your first fan so that you can experiment with different posts and get a feel for the functionality of your new page.

8. Tell your customers or clients about your new Facebook page and encourage them to become a fan.

The more fans you have, and the more that your fans interact with your page, the more you will be able to take advantage of the viral nature of Facebook and its power for unlimited "free" advertising.

9. Get a Facebook Vanity URL

In order to get a Vanity URL (in other words the company name as your Facebook URL for example facebook.com/MyCompany) – your page needs at least 25 fans to have a user name, so this is your first challenge to get 25 people to like your page! Once you reach 25 people go to Basic Information and set your name.

Some Quick Facebook Tips and activities to engage your audience:

• Learn from your competition: Do research & learn how the emerging business patterns exist already.
• Keep natural: Facebook users are very alert and with it, let things flow naturally.
• Talk officially unofficial: Remember to update your readers with topical news but deliver it in language that is interesting and easily understandable.
• Keep the salesmanship down: Though networking and community building are the two prime jobs of social media, it is ok to pepper in some relevant service news. You can announce your offers discounts in a clear concise manner but be tactful in how you do it.
• Talk about topics related to your business: No point in talking about ‘X’ if you’re doing business in ‘Y’. Simply put – you won’t be speaking to the people listening to you and will add followers that may not care about the majority of your posts.
• "Follow" and "Become a Fan": It depends on what kind of people follow you or become your fans and what kind of information you release.

One Great Facebook Feature:

One great feature of Facebook – if you have a company blog is that you can upload your blog posts to your Facebook profile automatically:

• Once on your Facebook page, click on Edit Page.
• Under Apps, click on Notes > Edit Settings.
• On the Edit Settings pop up box click add and then Okay:

• Now click Go to Application next to notes. Click on the bottom left Edit import settings

• Now enter the URL of your blog feed and click Start Importing:

• Please note that there were recently (April 2011) some glitches with Facebook and the notes import feature does not always work…

Now, how did you find creating your fan page, did you find it easy or was it difficult?

I would love to hear from you, please contact me on Twitter

I am writing this based on experience from my company’s first foray into the world of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising (using Google Adwords) and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). I am the sole marketing person for an independent manufacturing business – Alker Fibre Optics – and when I joined I was made aware that we intended to commit a large slice of the marketing budget to PPC.  I explained I had little experience with this but was told not to worry:

The experience taught us a rather expensive lesson, but we also saw glimpses of how it could work and gain us a lot of business, but at the time we just did not have the skills in-house. So, what have we learned from this?

Adword for Dummies – it did actually work!

I should also mention that prior to hiring an agency to help with our account, our Director, armed only with an ‘Adword for Dummies’ book got stuck in and set up some Adword campaigns, and I have to say, it did actually work! There was a real pick-up in enquiries and business almost immediately. However, it quickly became clear that the campaigns were not the most economical, we were spending far more than necessary to achieve our targets not to mention the countless hours spent googling for keywords! At the time, outsourcing to someone with the know-how and time we lacked seemed a better option – and it might have been, had we ourselves been better informed before choosing our agency.

I do believe we have to take some responsibility for not having a clear understanding of what to expect, but I also think that there are agencies and consultants out there who are more than happy to take your monthly fee and then run and hide behind Skype and email once you start asking questions.

So if you are intending to outsource your Adwords campaign here are my top ten things to ask agencies before you commit – but with the caveat that you should also do some research and find out more about search engine marketing and what it means to your business before going ahead.

You can skip the intro and go straight to ‘Top ten questions…’ if you have already done some research on the power of Google, SEO and Adwords.

Why is ranking high on Google so important?

I have built on my experience at Alker by attending the excellent Search and Social Media Marketing (SSMM) course at Salford University, so below follows a little information on where to start your research.

A little on Search Engine Optimisation first.

How many times have you clicked past page one when searching with Google? Not many I bet. If you don’t go past page one why would your potential customers? This link from SEOBook.com illustrates the point beautifully:

• The reason so few people click past page one is because Google is very good at what it does. It simply wants the person searching to find exactly what they want in the shortest space of time. Google therefore rewards websites which are relevant to the search by placing them towards the top of page one. This is why ensuring that your website is optimised for search engines is so important.
• For Adwords or Pay Per Click, the same is true. Relevancy is king and Google will reward you by charging you less per click if the pages you direct your adverts to are highly relevant to the search term. They do this by allocating a score to each of your keywords used in your campaigns and your chosen agency should make sure your scores are relatively high (no lower than 5 out of 10).

This is a very basic overview and as I said before I highly recommend you familiarise yourself with the field further. A good starting point to find out more about Search Engine Optimisation and Search Engine Marketing is as always Wikipedia – SEO / SEM, but I can also recommend Avinash Kaushik’s web analytics blog.

10 questions to ask before outsourcing SEO and Adwords

So, born from expensive experience, here is what I should have asked, and what I believe you should expect from a good Search Engine Marketing/Adwords company or consultant – but don’t forget to do some homework first!

1. How long do I need to do this ‘optimising’ for?

   The first thing to bear in mind is that Search Engine Marketing is not just for Christmas – it is for life. A long-term strategy is therefore important. If you are relatively certain that you want to outsource both the organic optimisation and the paid for search for the foreseeable future, then budget for it and agree a long-term strategy with tangible outcomes and regular updates.

2. Is there any training offered?

   If your longer-term strategy involves bringing the skills in-house or making sure your staff have some core skills around search marketing, ask your shortlisted companies if they offer training and on-going support (and if they have run any courses so far). If you want to train your staff independently of your chosen SEO company I can highly recommend the Search and Social Media course at Salford University.

3. Will you understand their reports or is it one big alphabet soup?

     Ask to see examples of client reports (without the client data of course) and if there is something you don’t understand – ask.  A good digital marketing company should be able to explain what all the terms mean and why they are important in such a way that you understand it. Most search engine optimisation is not about technical know-how. It is about ensuring you have good, relevant copy that is easy for the search engines to find and understand. It is about increasing your web-presence and authority with an all-round strategy.

4. How will they build you good, authoritative links?

   This is a key part of getting your website up the rankings and unfortunately also an area where less reputable companies will take shortcuts that can seriously damage your business (to the point where you no longer show up at all on Google searches). Instead of going for someone promising you 100 links a day, choose the company that will take the time to talk to you about who your customers are, or what the online trade journals and directories relevant to your business are and if you can gain links back to your website from these. As an example, my company, alker fibre optics, has a number of Universities as clients. Getting backlinks from these around work we have done with them was far more valuable to us than random links from irrelevant websites, and also unlikely to land us in trouble with Google!

5. How will they communicate with you?

   Decide if you want regular face-to-face meetings. It may seem a small point, but some companies will prefer to deal mainly on email and phone.  Personally, I prefer to know I have someone’s full attention when discussing my business and did find it frustrating when regular meetings were difficult to arrange, particularly for the first few months when there is a lot of new jargon to take in.

6. Who do you liaise with and vice versa?

   This goes both ways. Your chosen company should ensure you have key contact people you can easily get in touch with and, likewise, you should champion the SEO and Adwords work from the top of your own company. Make sure that it becomes part of someone’s job to manage the day-to-day work. If, for instance, you are implementing customer feedback on your website there is nothing worse for your business than to then ignore it because you haven’t got time. The same goes if your digital strategy involves using social media platforms (like Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter). If you’re going to do it, make sure you do it consistently.

7. Who will have access to and work on my website?

   Does your shortlisted companies outsource the work or do they have the staff in-house? Outsourcing isn’t necessarily a negative, but I would find out if they regularly use the same consultants and that your work will be assigned to mainly one contractor to ensure a consistent approach.

8. Who else do they work with? 

   A good digital media agency should have current or previous clients that they are happy for you to get in touch with. 

9. Their website looks great, but…?

   Do all the basic checks you would do if you were making any substantial financial commitment. It is amazing how a great looking website can dazzle you into thinking everything is hunky-dory. Check their registration with companies house, ask them about staff turnover, how long they have been in business etc. NB: A lot of SEO/Adwords companies are relatively young – don’t immediately count this against them!

10. Manage your expectations.

    There are no magic widgets that you can buy that will propel you to the top of Google’s organic listing and no one can guarantee you this using SEO alone. If you are starting from scratch you should allow three months for the work to start making an impact. If you are also implementing Adwords, this will have more immediate results and you should expect to see your adverts appearing on Google in the first week of going live. How long the work takes leading up to this depends on the complexity of your business, but I would expect it to take at least 4-6 weeks.

I would be interested to hear feedback from the excellent agencies that have contributed to the SSMM course  about their experiences – are expectations from clients too high? Have I missed any obvious points in my list?

Find me on LinkedIn/AnneGrondahl or @annegrondahl.

My recent foray into the world of Search Engine Optimisation, PPC and Social Media with the Manchester digital agency Fast Web Media has been an intense and enlightening experience. 

And the Search and Social Media Marketing course at Salford has allowed me to refresh and expand my SSMM knowledge. So I thought I would use this opportunity to share a little about my experiences of starting out a career in SEO with regards to the Salford course for those who may be considering a similar path.

Getting a taste for SEO

Prior to my role with Fast Web Media, I had, like the majority, been an avid consumer of “the internet” for work, rest and play. A Wikipedia addict, a Facebook user, a mocker of Tweeters, a LiveJournal dabbler and a Geocities resident way back when, my online world previously revolved around university work, amusing memes, stalking friends on Facebook and Googling for cheap gig tickets.

I had relied heavily, if not solely, on Google over recent years to help me navigate the digital seas; although I had rather naively shown little regard as to how search engines manufactured their results pages (as a science graduate, I look back and find lack of curiosity really rather shameful!) However, my role at Fast Web Media threw me in the deep end, opening my eyes to a brave new world.

The ever expanding Google empire, the Social Revolution…

along with the maturation of mobile technology and the digitalisation of the almost everything seem to correlate with the evolution and expansion of SEO. There is so much to learn and so much to take in all the time. To bastardise a Douglas Adams’ quote (forgive me), my initial impression was that

“SEO is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is.” 

The Foundation course at Salford allowed me to refresh the basics of what I had already learnt “on the job”, as well as gaining a general overview week on week. The course broke down all this information before my brain resembled something like a smashed bowl of petunias.

As SEO strategy is generally comprised of many smaller strategies and tactics, it is important to explore the different options and keep an eye on how existing methodologies are changing, lest you wish to fall behind the frontrunners. As any SEO will tell you, we are constantly learning all the time.

The Spice of Life

So, what do I like about working in digital media, in particular is SEO? One short-tail, high competition keyword can probably sum it up: Variety.

Variety with clients; variety in my day-to-day tasks; variety in my professional relationships. Fast Web Media has a great range of clients, big and small, which I’ve been allowed to sink my teeth into. Work can vary between Carling, Bravissimo and The Premier League (or “Beer, Boobs and Balls”, as I like to quip) in a single day. The benefit of doing the Salford course is that I have been allowed to explore the intricacies involved in the different theory and disciplines whilst then seeing and employing their practical applications on a wide variety of client work and the bespoke strategies we use.

Day to day in the office will always be different: from linkbuilding to pondering cunning new tactics for linkbaiting; from approaching new clients to constantly re-assessing existing clients and keeping them abreast of new developments in SEO. I might spend a morning getting lost in Google Analytics or stalking potential new leads on Twitter, or reading the countless brilliant blogs that make up the ever-expanding knowledge database for inspiration, advice and often educational amusement.

The main draw to the world of SEO, PPC and social media is that it allows me the chance to be analytical and creative in equal measures. And not being afraid of being wrong is pretty much the best advice I’ve had. It’s all about testing, learning, reviewing and creating.

A Bitter Taste

Being new to the industry, you cannot fail to notice the variety of attitudes towards the SEO as an industry. We certainly have a name for ourselves – the recent JCPenny fiasco has been the most recent case whereby the debates around the ethics of SEO have been fired up again. I personally find the whole Blackhat/Whitehat debate fascinating, amusing summarised in this video from SES London 2009:

I think it’s true to say that the forerunners of any industry or discipline are often the ones challenging its boundaries and pushing the limits as far as they can go. Although, please don’t take that as a commendation of such “immoral” practices – but it is the existence of such a spectrum and wide variety of methods and talent which so enamours me to the industry.

Google is a powerhouse of the internet world. It professes that it constantly amends its algorithm so as to “enhance the user experience”. It is that algorithm that SEOs are constantly puzzling over, trying to manipulate the results for various ends. Google says it has a responsibility to its users to have the most relevant content in its SERPs, and recent changes to the algorithm such as the Panda Update have seen the life of an SEO become that all a bit trickier.

However, in some ways, I see value in SEO reach beyond the financial. I think it is the responsibility of SEOs to constantly challenge Google’s algorithm since Google acts as an authority on knowledge and dictates what is relevant content. Any authority which has such power and financial, social and political influence should be questioned, challenged and held to account. Experimenting with Google’s algorithm and the SERPs is to exercise the right to question its results; Google promotes content which Google has attributed quantitative value to, and as mass consumers of this mass knowledge, we should question their methodologies and intentions. They say “content is king” – but I think it’s important to challenge the “natural order” if it is Google dictating who the monarch is.

What’s Your Flavour?

As such a colourful industry, involving so many different skillsets, I’ve been fascinated by the winding tales as to how people have ended up in the SEO/digital media world – including the wide spectrum of people on the SSMM course, from port to ponies!

After divulging a bit about mine (we can talk more here), I’d be very interested to hear more about you – so, what’s the story about you and SEO?