Whilst pulling my hair out working on some CSS that I could just not get to work (min-width and IE6 anyone?) I came across the following website which raised a smile.  Though not quite in line with the CSS I was working on, there have been many times in the past I've decided that maybe going backwards was the best way in going forwards:

http://giveupandusetables.com/

The more interesting thing I found with this site was the full story link at the footer which tells of how it came into existance and how in just one day it attracted over 35,000 visitors:

http://blog.goldencomm.com/2008/11/behind-an-internet-meme

Certainly makes you think about the power of linkbait and blogging!

When setting up a PPC campaign, it’s incredibly easy to stick in a whole load of keyword phrases and bid on broad because it sounds straightforward enough (and chosen by default) or bid on all three at once. 

Many times we have seen PPC campaigns set up in this way with little ROI and a high bounce rate, particularly on high volume keyword phrases, so let’s look at why this might by looking at what the definitions mean. 

Broad
The least “advanced” of the 3 types which also applies to variations of the keywords chosen.  If you choose, for example, the keywords:

download music videos

Your ad would also be shown for:

music download videos
videos music download
download videos music

In some cases this may not be in an issue but in others, when re-arranged, can mean something completely different to what a person is searching for and therefore become untargeted.

Phrase
More targeted as it pinpoints the exact phrase, in that if you choose

“wii games online”

As you were in the business of selling console games online, it would also trigger:

buy wii games online
order wii games online
purchase wii games online

You do though run the risk of targeting unwanted terms such as

free wii games online
download wii games online

In this instance you would use the negative keywords feature and flag “free” and “download” so as not to appear for these terms.

Exact
The most targeted match where you set the exact keywords to trigger your ad.  These tend to be more longtail and will generally have a better ROI.  So returning to the first example, if you chose:

[download music videos]

Then only when that phrase is entered will your ad appear.

Generally I’d recommend always starting on “exact” with various keyword combinations, in particular the high volume keywords.  In some cases, such as “buy football boots manchester”, you could probably just as easy start off on phrase match due to it’s lower volume and fact it includes the word “buy” but always be sure to keep a check of what traffic you get on your phrase matches to look out for any words you should be adding as negative keywords.  Once you have the majority if your keywords covered by exact and phrase, use broad to cover the lower volume variations.

The key though is to continually check your logs and use these to develop other keyword phrases as well as a negative keyword list.

When carrying out SEO research there’s a number of application and websites out there that can assist you in your efforts – Google’s PageRank checker, Yahoo’s site explorer as well as multiple keyword research tools.

At the end of last week SEOBook launched a new extension for Firefox which aids the process by grouping a number of these key applications into one handy toolbar.

I have been using this for a few days now and the early signs are encouraging, it certainly makes the process of evaluating a site much quicker.  Combine this with Firebug, which I find incredibly useful when assessing a site’s on site SEO efforts, and you have a whole range of key SEO tools all within the one browser – which certainly  makes life a lot easier.

Try it out and let us know what you think.  If you think there are other key SEO extensions / websites / applications out there that complement your SEO efforts, then share them with us via the comments below.

When many people think of Social Networking, they tend to think of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and the like in the sense that these sites are used by themselves and their friends/colleagues/children as ways of keeping in touch, tagging each other pictures of nights out, letting their mates know what they're up to and generally being social in an online world.

Sometimes it is very difficult for people to see how the growing popularity of Social Networking can be used as a key marketing tool for their business.

Essentially, Social Media Marketing is word of mouth advertising - and it's fair to say that most businesses have a product or brand they wish to promote - what you should then think about is which social networking platform is most suited towards your goals be it generating leads, driving sales, building awareness, increasing customer base etc

Still not convinced?  Here are a few examples of Social Media Marketing adopted by some of the world’s leading brands:

Adobe – Delicious

They have used the social bookmarking service for tagging numerous independent online tutorials which show users how to make best use of their products.

delicious.com/adobe

British Airways – Twitter

BA use the microblogging service to keep followers updated with special offers and information on their most popular destinations.

twitter.com/BritishAirways

Nike / Apple – NikePlus Online Community

Nike and Apple teamed up to give runners a social edge to their pastime by developing a pedometer you place in your trainers which tracks running data via your iPod.  I am personally a member of this community which allows me via the technology to track the time, distance and pace of all my runs, and then save this online whilst setting goals, challenges and plotting your runs using Google Maps all of which can also be shared with other runners. 

www.nike.com/nikeplus

H&M – Facebook

H&M use Facebook to promote their brand via a Fan Page containing videos, photo albums, forums and special offers.  With near over 700k fans they have direct contact with a large customer base within an extremely popular social network which undoubtedly makes this one of their most powerful direct marketing tools.

www.new.facebook.com/hm

IBM - Blogging

Whilst they make it clear that the thoughts expressed on their employee’s blogs are not necessarily those of IBM, they are more than happy for you to peruse the extensive collection of staff thoughts and expertise be it on their official IBM or personal blog.

www.ibm.com/blogs/zz/en/

When viewing your website analytics, it’s incredibly useful to know at what point visitors leave your site – both bounce and exit rate will tell you this, but they are both very different in the way they should be interpreted.
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If you’re new to the world of the search engine marketing you’ll probably have noticed there’s an awful lot of acronyms in use.  You’ll also have noticed they are fairly similar (particularly as most begin with S) which generally leads to their confusion and misuse.  In an attempt to bring a degree of clarity, here are ten definitions to the ones you’re most likely to come across.
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Back in the day (and today so far as some websites are concerned) to top the search engine rankings, once you had identified your keyword phrases you would place them repeatedly in as many places on your site’s pages as you possibly could, i.e. keyword spamming.

These days, it’s important to ensure you don’t spam your website and carefully consider your keyword usage, so whereabouts on a web page should you be looking to optimise?  Here are my recommendations for the most useful parts of a page in which to place your keywords:
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Jepson Holt are a leading specialist legal consulting practice and a long standing Gencia client. Following an expansion and restructuring of the business they required their existing website to be further developed to more accurately reflect the new  business structure.

The result is a suite of websites based on the PowerBase CMS that  will be further developed over time. The  new group website can be viewed at: JepsonHolt.co.uk

Whether you are carrying out on site or off site SEO, your linking strategy is a key aspect to optimising your site and obtaining better rankings.  Here are 10 tips that should help you on your way:
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There are many SEO companies out there promising “top ten rankings within 3 days” or your money back.  There are plenty blackhat SEO techniques that can be used to obtain high rankings, but chances are they will not stand the test of time.  Chances are, companies offering quick fix rankings are probably using these dubious methods.  More than likely, such websites will not be top of the pile for long.  Almost certainly, the SEO company you placed your faith in won’t care much either way.

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