Q. How do I know half of SEO companies can’t be trusted?

A. Because the other half tell me so. . .

In fact I get told quite a lot by SEO companies so I thought I would attend Salford University’s SSMM course to help me make an informed decision when it comes to choosing a future SEO partner.   Previous to joining the course finding an SEO specialist wasn’t too difficult as there are not too many days go by when I don’t receive an email or a sales call from an SEO company.   They generally all start the same:

“Just been looking at your website, it’s really good but I couldn’t help noticing. . .”

At this point the pitch takes one of two approaches – either the use of vanity or fear to get my attention and the sale.

• Vanity in terms of getting my site onto page 1 of Google and ahead of my competitors. Because surely that’s where I’d like to be.
• Fear because apparently there are Panda’s and Penguin’s roaming the internet that are taking no-prisoners when it comes to poorly managed websites.

From here I’m told there are a lot of SEO companies that can’t deliver what they promise so I should be careful who I trust my business with.

I should explain . . .

Let me clear up one point I don’t work for large blue-chip organisation whose company logo would appear on an SEO companies website as sign of kudos and respectability.   The company I work for, Wray Bros www.wraybros.co.uk is good at what it does and I believe has an enviable reputation in the B2B janitorial sector.

Nevertheless, it isn’t a household name nor is it a company with a huge marketing budget.  So for all the courting I don’t kid myself we are a marquee signing.  As an aside, I’ve often wondered – As we have a limited budget does that mean I’ll always be fishing from a poorer quality pool of SEO specialists?

Or could the same observations be made with companies blessed with much larger marketing budgets and recognised brands? Perhaps someone from a blue chip company could shed some light whether all things are relative?

As mentioned the intention is to use the information gained from the SSMM course to build my knowledge to become more effective in my search for the right SEO partner and to become a more productive and contributing client.

The original plan

The plan was to review potential supplier websites to determine if they follow the best practices as highlighted on the course.  Some of the tools I was keen to use to compare SEO companies

• Google page Speed Insights: Google Page Speed Insights.  A higher score would tell me those sites that have invested time in making sure their site is running efficiently to enhance the user experience.
• To review their own company and staff blogs to see what makes them tick and what they’re passionate about.
• Use Open Site Explorer or Firefox SEO Book in order to benchmark across a number of potential suppliers to determine how they perform in regards the number of linking domains and their domain authority to see how they could rank against each other

A change of direction

However, the more I learned from the course and listening to guest experts talk in-depth about best practices for on-site optimisation and use of social media etc it dawned on me whatever quirks the SEO companies I have come into contact with may have a fair amount of the problems of unmet expectations have come from myself.  There you go, I’ve said it – I’m a customer who isn’t always right!

I have since come to realise whereas I thought when I employed an SEO specialist I was paying for knowledge and results, in-fact in now understand I am paying for knowledge and their time.  As I have a limited budget what can I realistically expect of someone to achieve with limited time.

Perhaps, if I think and act differently I can use that limited budget more effectively?

The new plan of action

Over the following months the intention is to differentiate the Wray Bros website from the many competitors within the janitorial supplies market.  The plan and the starting point is to get back to basics and ensure the redeveloped website foundations are sound before considering new activities such as proactive link building or using social media.

The first phase of the plan is not to get fixated by traffic volume but concentrate on the conversion rate.  This is to be achieved by becoming an authority in our field by developing unique and helpful content.

One aspect of the janitorial market is that the majority of distributors use the same images and copy supplied to them by the manufacturers without thought of its suitability for the web or the fact their own competitors are using exact same material.

First phase for redeveloped website is to improve the on-site optimisation

• Re-visit the product copy to make it engaging, keyword effective and more importantly original
• Develop supporting content that help a user make an informed decision, i.e. produce user guides COSHH risk assessment documents, dilution guides and best value guides, e.g. microfibre mops or traditional mops.
• Fully optimise the site’s 4000 product images through better constructed file names and alt attributes to help differentiate from the competition
• Re-visit the sites title tag structure and ensure I was targeting relevant keywords
• The urls have been improved by using hyphens and removing surplus or irrelevant terms and again using the relevant keywords.
• Whilst the approach has been to improve the content and visual appearance we have also been mindful not to impact on load times.
• From the first phase I want to create some meaningful metrics. I’m proposing to:
  • Monitor visitor duration and page views to determine if the content is making a difference.
  • As we sell consumables I’m interested in new sales. Yet the key metric will be the number of repeat purchasers.

Second phase activities include

• The same supporting content mentioned above will be used as the basis for creating a knowledge bank blog.  The intention is to provide free knowledge and advice on cleaning and hygiene issues in order to become a company worth knowing.
• Actively seek customer feedback and star reviews for the site to help build trust and credibility
• Build in time to commence a link building programme
• Review user behaviour and re-visit the site content to determine how to improve visitor numbers

Finally, what is my view on SEO companies and my limited budget?

The Salford University course has definitely provided me with some useful skills to be more self-reliant yet it has also made me realise the value of a good SEO specialist.   I believe I can use that limited budget more effectively with especially with specific targeted activities? So the next step is to find an SEO specialist and now I know that easily more than half of SEO companies CAN be trusted.

Hey there,

So i’m now on attempt two of attempting to enter the blogging world so you’re in for a treat!

To give you some context we’ve been asked to write a blog post about a topic that we’re aware of that’ll let us demonstrate our skills – currently this is going well as I’m being forced to write this on two keyboards – one where the letter ‘b’ doesn’t work and the other doesn’t have a working ‘ctrl’ or ‘space’ – clearly the first rule of social media and blogging is test your equipment first!

So to give you some background I should start off with a topic that i know about – me and where I work. My name is Huw and I work in undergraduate admissions in the School of Social Sciences of the University of Manchester (Hence the witty title!) basically if you want a Degree in Development Studies, Course in Criminology or a Programme in Politics then let us know. Most of my role involves various admissions processes but where it comes into Search and Social Media (and the reason i’m here) is that I am also responsible for updating areas of our website and course information profiles.

So this blog post will be talking (briefly) about some of what I’ve learnt though the course, we’ll also be doing a presentation about this at the open evening where hopefully i’ll be expanding the points below with what i do not and what i’m hoping to do. I just wanted to raise a few key points that I’ve taken away from this course. Nothing technical – but just how my awareness of how SSMM is increasingly important and not how if we’re not making the best use of this then we’re just missing a trick.

• Search and Social Media Marketing is a mindset – It’s not something that I’d considered too much in the past- concentrating more on just providing information that was useful but paying attention to what you’re writing , why?, who are you talking to?, what tone are you using? and how will people find and access this information? Even subtle changes to language and tone can be effective and structuring keywords and optimising your page can mean that your content is even more accessible. If you have better content and more people can find it then it’s win-win!

• You’re not writing or designing for yourself – Whilst this sounds a bit obvious it is an easy trap to fall into – designing content for a website that appeals to you but not necessarily your target audience is a bit of a danger – forms of communication and the forms of social media that you might use need to be appropriate and it might be the case that your users want a different experience than you intend- also expect the unexpected – your users won’t necessarily find content or perform actions in the way or order that you would expect them to – with Search such an integral part of the web experience people will pop in and out everywhere so it’s best to be prepared!

• Content is King – definitely a phrase that you will hear repeatedly on the Search and Social Media Marketing course! – it’s familiar because it is so vital. Marketing campaigns or improving Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is helpful, but it is engaging – unique content that will attract people. We’re on the web for a reason – whether it is to provide information, engage with people or sell things – but it is only your content that will get your users to this end point!

• Social Media is Social – Again this seems like fairly common sense but from the examples that I’ve seen it’s important that you’re talking with and not talking at people – engagement can be really useful – particularly where you’re trying to build a sense of community or stronger sense of brand. Key though is that you need to know what you’re doing before you get started (i do now!) and that what you’re doing and the social media that you’re using is appropriate for what you want to do. Don’t just have social media for the sake of it- but it really can work for you if done well.

Well – That’s just some of the things i’ve picked up (amongst the many others) – hopefully this is useful for you – though if you have any ideas about what you feel are the most important concepts in SSMM i’d be really interested in hearing them – please comment or tweet me (seamless social media usage there?) @huw.peters

Thanks for reading!

Temporary car insurance saved my skin

Blog feature is to describe the how attending an SSMM will enhance the brief and product catalogue spreadsheet for a re-developed site before handover to a web development company.

Explain current position, i.e. website needed to incorporate back office and decided to use the opportunity to re-visit the website build

The third Search, Analytics and Social Media conference (SAScon) in Manchester promises to be bigger and better than ever. Not only is it offering a great line up of internationally renowned speakers but is also attracting great attendees who will contribute to the networking and debates during what promises to be lively sessions. One of these attendees will be Lisa Dickinson a small business owner in Manchester who wants to learn more about Search and Social Media Marketing for her business.

SAScon Manchester

SASCon takes place on the 17^th and 18^th May 2012 and it is just one of many reasons why the Manchester Search and Social Media Marketing community is a great asset to the region. The organisers of the conference are also active supporters of the #SSMM course at Salford Business School which is now delivered from the cutting edge MediaCityUK campus of the University of Salford.

The course is delivered in partnership with industry speakers, who share their knowledge of latest practice and offer delegates the chance to show their skills by writing a blog post – the culmination of their learning experience. The blog posts and their presentations have been judged and the coveted prize includes Free Entry to the SASCon conference.

More than just the Queen’s Jubilee year for a Manchester Florist

For the past ten weeks Lisa Dickinson has been attending the Search and Social Media Marketing course at MediaCityUK. During this time Lisa discovered that:

• her www.venusinmanchester.co.uk website had been copied by another business and she has been successful in arranging the deletion of the copy website
• the “Queen of Shops” got it wrong when it comes to eCommerce for small businesses on the high street
• her flowers were presented to the Queen on her 2012 Jubilee visit to Manchester when she opened MediaCityUK
  most importantly,
• she had won the best blog post and presentation which entitles her to attend SAScon 2012 conference.

Lisa Dickinson is an inspiration for many Small and Media Sized organisations, who as a Manchester based small business owner is challenging the perceptions of Mary Portas and many others that Social Media and Search Engine Optimisation, rather than helping to bring about the demise of the High Street, can actually be a lifeline for it.

Lisa received the SASCon free entry prize from Richard George – one of a team of great industry speakers who make this Search and Social Media Marketing a unique cutting edge learning experience.

Photo: Lisa Dickinson and Richard George 28th March 2012.

Do you want to learn more about Search and Social Media Marketing?

Book your ticket to attend the SAScon conference and sign up on our next #SSMM course!

One excellent method to help your business achieve an SEO boost is to listen and monitor your industry to find out what topical subjects are being discussed. Topical subjects for SEO can help you identify relevant content for your blog posts, websites, social media networks and press releases, either on-line, off-line or both.

How Topical Content can help boost your ranking

Google is by far the most successful search engine in the UK and they achieved this through their algorithms that are constantly being refreshed. The Google algorithms strive to deliver the most relevant website page for a given search query and Google especially likes pages that appear to have expert information. An excellent way to achieve this is by posting topical content for your industry on a regular basis, you will then become an authority webpage and gain a higher page rank. For an example I have written a blog post about the NHS Reform bill and the affects on patients, how I achieved this is shown below:

How to Find Relevant Topical Subjects

1. Carry out some research on keywords/keyphrases – I logged on to my Twitter account and tried and searched a few phrases relating to the NHS Reform Bill, that included #NHS, #NHS Reforms, #NHS Cuts# NHS Spending Cuts. This enabled me to see what could potentially be a good indicator of what discussions around my subject were being had.
2. Use Google Keyword tool – I did a broad search for terms that included: NHS Reforms, NHS Spending Cuts and NHS Cuts. I was then able to determine which keyphrases had the most searches, which enabled me to create my post to optimise for the best keyphrases, especially for the URL, Title page, H1 header, H2 header and the actual content.
3. Write an enticing title – using my selected keyphrase, ‘NHS Reform.’
4. Use the same title for the H1 header – to enforce what my page is about.
5. Use a relevant H2 header – at this point I thought it would be appropriate to include a location.
6. Create content – I then wrote the main content using the keyphrase.

Conclusion

The reason I chose this subject was because:

• It’s topical content which may entice people to read, comment, like, share and link
• It’s local, using Stockport
• It has consistent keywords in the URL, Title page, H1 and H2 headers

Each of these points will give you a higher chance of ranking highly in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS) and thus the start of the process to be seen as an industry expert.

Please take a look at the NHS Reform Cut blog at this link. NHS Reform cuts that affect patients

To conclude on this subject, please comment, share and pass this message to others so people know what how to use topical subjects for SEO.

ColinBlackmore1

The NHS Reform bill is having a detrimental affect on the treatment and care of patients in the Stockport area. This blog post illustrates this negative effect by bringing attention to one of many patients who is struggling to get help from NHS in the form of Terbinafine prescription thanks to the Funding Cuts!

The Stockport PCT (Primary Care Trust) are currently responsible for cutting the Stockport region spend and are stopping GPs from prescribing certain medication to their patients.

A resident based in Stockport, who wishes to remain anonymous, was told by their GP surgery, that they can no longer prescribe the drug Terbinafine.

The patient was diagnosed with a fungal fingernail infection and needed the Terbinafine treatment over a course of 6 months.

In January 2012 the patient went to their GP surgery to discuss options for treating the fingernail, because the GP could not prescribe Terbinafine through the NHS as a result of recent funding cuts that have been enforced by Stockport PCT.  However the GP was able to give the patient a private prescription for the Terbinafine, which was taken for 18 days. The patient was content with this because, using Terbinafine for six months would most likely get rid of the infection.

The patient then went to get a repeat prescription but was told by the GP they cannot prescribe the Terbinafine privately either, because Stockport PCT has ruled that this is not possible.

“I am very upset and disappointed by this news, and I really do not know what I can do to get rid of this nail fungus, which is affecting my quality of life.”

This decision by Stockport PCT is incomprehensible, it is forcing the patient to have to go private or move GPs in another area. I have also been told by a GP that many drugs have been black  listed by Stockport PCT and GPs are unable to prescribe a number of drugs.

To conclude on this subject, please comment, share and pass this message to others so people know what real affects are happening as a result of the NHS reforms.

Journey Into The Unknown Or Silent Assassin?

When signing up for the Search and Social Media Marketing Course at the Manchester Salford Business School, I had precious little knowledge of how SEO worked – this, despite working as a freelance journalist and therefore attuned to promoting ‘brand awareness’ over the last four years for an industry-leading motorsport website. Journalists and writers tend to chase the next story and are much less concerned with keywords and search rank – rather leaving it to the organisations they are loosely connected with, or represent, to get on with task of improving results within SERPs.

Therein lay the problem – I didn’t understand SEO and how to maximise the opportunities that being creative presents. I enjoy my part-time writing work much more than my regular job, working within the warehousing and logistics sector as a forklift truck driver. At the start of this year my personal life reached a crossroads and this was the perfect time to do something about it. Learning SEO and Social Media marketing seemed a logical step forward and armed with a healthy Twitter following and enthusiasm to learn another skill, I signed up.

Information Superhighway

My eyes would be opened over the next six weeks much more than I could imagine. What became clear very quickly is that with any good business, success begins with planning, research and building the foundations to work from. Studying the competition, keyword research through Google and Google AdWords is a great place to start and can give you so much information in just a few minutes. Without a clear structure and plan of how you want to go about improving search rankings, failure to achieve the maximum is likely. In my case, I had just lost a deal to supply detailed written Formula 1 motor racing weather forecasts to the site I was affiliated with. The choice was either to stop completely and give up what I love doing – or to find another outlet to share my views and knowledge with others.

The #SSMM course – run by Aleksej Heinze – is the perfect educational tool to take your website on the road to major SEO improvements and a better search rank. Citing previous creative examples, students are guided through the do’s and dont’s of planning, keyword research, creating widgets, social media engagement and social media asset management to name but a few topics – all with you in mind. Prominent industry speakers are backing this course and give talks, adding further insight and giving information openly on how you can change things on your own site to help improve visibility and search ranking potential.

The road to success

Many people like myself, prior to enrolling on this course would be entitled to think that 99% of companies and website owners have their systems already optimised to the maximum, and therefore it would impossible to go and work as an SEO, or to create your own site as an independant. After all, SEO has been around for several years. When you actually conduct the research and examine the competition of your chosen field, you may be surprised. I certainly was. The best endorsement that I could give this course, is to demonstrate that in just 15 days from starting my own blog, I took http://f1weather.com to second in Google’s worldwide search for the short-tail keyword ‘F1 Weather’.

What is Pinterest

Pinterest  was named one of Time Magazines best websites of 2011. Quite a feat for a website that had only been in existence for 16 months at this point. Even Barack Obama has now signed up to Pinterest pinning the Obama’s favourite family recipe for chilli resulting in 169 pins.

Pinterest is an online pin board which allows its users to pin and repin ideas, photos, instructions, articles, images, videos and a whole host of other online materials.

Using Google Adplanner to look at the demographics of Pinterest I was able to see that Pinterest already has 20 million daily users in the UK. Whilst this may sound measly compared to Facebook’s 250 estimated users, it is worth remembering that Pinterest is relatively new having only launched in 2010.

How to use Pinterest?  What’s so special about mood boards?

Pinterest is unique thanks to its ability to create pages of ideas that all come under one heading. So for example say I want to decorate a room and I have a few ideas, I’ve seen a few things online but I get to the DIY store and my mind has gone blank I’m sure I liked something pink oh ill have to get my ipad out and look through my favourites I just wish there was a way to see all these ideas on one page to see what works next to each other… Step in Pinterest’s Pinning app.

Downloading this app means that you can grab an image from any website and pin it to one of your mood boards. 

To Repin or not to Repin?

When it comes to what to repin and how to use social ettiquete it is worth remembering that the Pin app allows any user who has downloaded it to  lift an image from a site without any prior warning or notice for the owner of that image/site. This creates a link back to the original site, which can be a good way to create traffic and build links. Furthermore every repin is effectively another chance at getting your site out there.

Pinterest and intellectual Property Theft 

It is also possible to upload an image from your desktop, ipad, smartphone and pin to a board. If a pinner uses an image downloaded and saved to their desktop, the advantage of a  link no longer exists. Effectively the user is taking the credit for that image and additionally those who repin that are themselves allowing this intellectual property theft often without even realising it.

I myself love looking at Pinterest but I am not yet brave enough to repin, especially as Pinterest’s terms and conditions state that if a case is brought against a user for intellectual property theft, the defendant will also have to pay Pinterest’s legal fees. A risk I am not sure im ready to take at the moment.

Did you like this? Feel free to comment below Repin, like and tweet

NiktoriaM

How can I help Neil Spencer Bruce?

This is Neil Spencer Bruce

Neil wants to drive more traffic to his website so he can get more work as a rated session musician and sound designer, or in music production. He also wants more people to go to his website so he gets more money from advertising. Apart from the obvious Musicians Wanted or guitarist wanted adverts, I  had to think of other ideas.

When he found out I was undertaking the Search and Social Media Marketing Course (#SSMM) he asked for some tips. As I was stuck with an idea for my blog, I said I’d make Neil my pet project!

Marketing your website

The first problem is that his website is called www.spencerbruce.com, but everyone knows him as Neil Bruce, so I’ve made sure his full name appears as much as possible in this blog!

Neil can do everything – he’s available as a rated session musician, a sound designer, he works as a freelance photographer, and you can read his blog about all his areas of expertise. Despite all this, somehow Neil still manages to produce a creation a day.

He’s also worked as a recording engineer on sessions with legends including Al Green, Barbara Cooke, Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page and Channel 4’s White Room.

As well as being an expert in making sound by design, he can also do audio branding (you know when someone says “Intel Inside”, and you go “do-do-do-do”?! ).

Neil also teaches music and sound – his most popular video on YouTube is how to play Jessie J’s Domino

Using Social Media and SEO on your website

Neil is already doing pretty well for SEO and Social Media – he has accounts in all the right places: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, uses testimonials about his work on his website (as you can see from these links though, the URLs need work to be optimised!)

I suggested Neil could maybe do some more online freebies, like this guide to audio branding? I also suggested he look at his competitor’s websites for both music and sound design for tips, and follow similar people on Twitter.

He could make his Facebook posts interactive – friends could rate his piece a day – getting a chance to get involved makes it more likely they will listen to the entries.

I’ve even managed to sneak him on Wikipedia’s page on session musicians (and it’s still there as of 3pm on 28 March!) Of course this is of little use since Wikipedia use our lovely friend the rel=”nofollow”, but I guess someone who might want a session musician might click through and hire him?!

If anyone else has any ideas how I can help Neil Spencer Bruce, please comment below!

If you look carefully, hopefully I’ve AIDA’d you. I made you:

• Aware of Neil and how cool he is
• Interest -you want to know what else he can do.
• Desire – wouldn’t it be great to have Neil working for you?
• Action – bet you’re going to look at more of his awesome solos here

(You can also find Neil on LinkedIn and contact him at mailto:neil@spencerbruce.com or  +44 (07771) 877690. Oh, and if you mention this blog when hiring Neil, you’ll get a 15% discount.)