Search:
Google have produced an excellent search engine optimisation (SEO) guide.
The Google SEO Starter Guide (PDF) starts with the basics of on-page factors like Title Tags, through to site architecture concepts, and finishes with an overview of freely available tools in your Google toolbox.
It’s a good starter guide for beginners, and includes tips and tricks for the more experienced web marketer.
Happy reading!
Google dominates the UK search marketplace, delivering more than 90% of all search results, and it rates as one of the busiest Internet sites in the world.
But Google is much more than just a search engine. If also offers a range of office productivity tools which can make your information management more efficient, improve your business processes, and save your business money. From YouTube to Patent Searches, Picasa to Gmail, Google offers well more than 50 different services in addition to its familiar search engine.
Underpinning all of these services is a free, personal Google account. Your account acts as a single gateway to your subscribed Google services. This single point of access raises issues, however, in the view of human rights watchdog Privacy International, who rank Google at the very bottom of their Privacy Rankings of Internet Service Companies. Access to the services mentioned in this article requires you to have a Google account, but first you might want to read about the privacy implications
Google Alerts
Google Alerts is a free tool which will notify you anytime your personal name, your company name, your competitors, or a key phrase of your choosing gets mentioned on the web. It tracks your professional interests on the web, and then emails you of changes that you need to know about. Your Google Alerts are easily configured to send weekly email summary on a range of searches:
* Your personal name, or your company name, to see what people are saying about you, and to monitor your online reputation. Just put your name into the Alerts box surrounded by inverted commas, eg “Susan Hallam”, and Google will automatically alert you whenever there is a new mention of your name on the web.
* Create an alert on the names of your competitors to keep an eye on the their activities and the coverage they’re receiving. This is a free competitive intelligence tool that could help you to keep track of developments relating to their firm
* Use Google Alerts to stay informed of your key clients’ developments.
* And of course, you can use keywords describing your interests or professional responsibilities
You can limit your search to certain types of information on the web, such as blog articles, news articles, or web pages. I would recommend you choose Comprehensive search meaning all of the above.
And finally, choose the frequency with which you want to receive updates, whether once a day, as it happens, or once a week.
iGoogle
iGoogle is your personal Internet desktop, providing instant access to the information and websites you use frequently.
You define what goes on your desktop, and can include:
* Gadgets, such as driving mapping tools, weather forecasts, currency converters, the Tube map
* News feeds from the web, such as Law News from the Times Online, BBC News, or hundreds of other news services
* A convenient place to organise your reading on the web, including Blog and podcast feeds pertinent to your business interests
Google Apps
Google Apps is a head-on competitor with the Microsoft Office suite. Known as “software as a service.” Google Apps comprises a word processor, spreadsheet, calendar, email and other software tools that run on the Internet.
More importantly, Google provides a free private network within the Internet, with no need for technical resource to manage hardware of software. Known as an “extranet”, users can have access to their documents, email, instant messaging and other information from any device that has an Internet connection.
Here’s a screenshot of Google Apps in action:
Google Docs is a word processor that is fully compatible with the Microsoft version. I can work on the document on my own computer, and then put a copy onto the company extranet to be shared with my colleagues.
That means for employees who want to work at home, they can access their documents securely in their firm?s private Google environment accessed over the Internet. As amendments are made to documents, the revised version is saved for other colleagues to collaborate or make contributions. In much the same way, calendars, videos, spreadsheets can all be accessed and shared via the Internet.
Firms could also use Google Sites to create secure areas for clients, making client information and reports available. The information is hosted securely using your own domain name, and the branding and layout can reflect your own firm’s requirements.
Organisations like the Telegraph Media Group are moving away from Microsoft in favour of Google Apps. Their decision was influenced not only by cost, but the benefits of working in a collaborative, mobile and flexible way using the Internet.
Google Apps has both a free and fee-paying version. The free version is subsidised by the appearance of advertising on the pages, whereas the fee-paying (”enterprise”) version has the advertising disabled, as well as additional functionality particularly in the areas of security. At a cost of US$50 per user per year, it could worth firms investigating Google Apps as an alternative way of working.
This article by Susan Hallam was first published in Internet Newsletters for Lawyers & Law 2.0, November 2008
Time: 09:30 – 16:30
This Masterclass will provide you with all you need to know to take advantage of the latest opportunities in search engine marketing. You will learn latest tricks to promote your website in the search engines, and you will walk away with the knowledge and confidence to make your website highly visible in the search results.
The day will focus on Optimising for Universal Search, and Social Media Marketing. Keeping up to date with these latest online marketing techniques is a real challenge, but essential if you want to stay ahead of the game in search engine marketing.
This brand new workshop is the latest in the Hallam series of search marketing events designed for anyone who promotes websites: web designers, marketing consultants, or in-house web marketing teams.
Our in depth training is delivered in a small group setting, which means plenty of time for discussion about your website and one-to-one support from your instructor, Susan Hallam.
Google search results are rapidly changing, blending information from video, images, mapping, reviews, local information, and related links.
These additional results are highly visible to searchers, and highly influential to their behaviour. Are you optimising your content so that it is making maximum impact on the Google search results?
Google’s Universal Search, Google One Box, Google Sitelinks: How you can be sure that your content is being found in all the right places?
During this session you will learn how to optimise, publish, and evaluate your universal content, with specific focus on user generated content (reviews, feedback) rich media content (video, image, podcasts), news services, local content, and more.
The Internet is being transformed by social technologies: social networking, social bookmarking, tagging, rating and review sites. Your clients are creating content that gives their views about your business, reading about what others say about your business, reacting to others’ content, collaborating and communicating with you, and between and amongst themselves.
You may think the loss of control on the web is threatening. Or that it isn’t appropriate to your market. But it is here now, or it is coming your way. And the Social Internet has a big impact on the search engine results.
You need to get a handle on all this social media activity, and learn how to take full advantage of the opportunities it presents. Choose the right tools from the Socail Media toolbox. Create a plan of action, and deliver against it
In this session you will learn how to connect to this wave of social activity. Discover practical techniques for listening to what your clients are saying, energise your clients and engage appropriately and effectively in this tsunami of social activity.
09:00 – Registration & Coffee
09:30 – 16:30 Course
16:30 – 17:00 Informal Q&A
PDW Training Centre, Colwick, Nottingham
£365.00 + VAT (payable by credit card or cheque).
Includes comprehensive course notes, lunch, drinks and snacks.
Our training courses are not for absolute beginners: we are assuming that you already have a website, or you may be planning a new website and that you understand the basics of how search engines rank pages.
This is going to be a fast paced day, and it includes as much SEO knowledge as you can stuff into your brain!
You will leave the day with a written plan of action detailing the specific steps you need to take to optimise your website.
Susan’s workshop materials are constantly updated as the industry shifts and changes, and this workshop will reflect the latest strategies to reflect the evolving search engine optimisation marketplace.
You will be provided with a comprehensive set of course notes, articles and reference guides. Following the course, you will have access to Hallam’s password protected online library of SEO support resources.
Susan Hallam one of the UK’s leading Internet marketing trainers and consultants, with more than 20 years experience in the information industry.
She is a regular speaker at conferences including Search Marketing Expo, Search Engine Strategies, InternetWorld, and eBusiness Club.
Time: 09:30 – 16:30
Central London: Friday, 5 December 2008
Every discipline has its current best practice, and Internet Marketing is no exception. But the rate of change on the internet means best practice is changing every few months, new technologies appear and established approaches become obsolete.
Keeping up to date with online marketing techniques is essential and a challenge to any firim in any economic climate. This workshops has been designed to specifically update you on the latest Internet marketing techniques.
Learn the skills, tools and techniques to ensure your business is making the most of every opportunity the Internet can offer as part of your marketing strategy.
Friday, 5 December 2008
09:00 – Registration & Coffee
09:30 – 16:30 Course
16:30 – 17:00 Informal Q&A
Euston House: opposite Euston rail station
24 Eversholt Street
London NW1 1AD
£365.00 + VAT (payable by credit card or cheque).
Includes comprehensive course notes, lunch, drinks and snacks.
This one day Mastercalss will give you a solid understanding of the breadth of online marketing tools and techniques, and how you can use them to benefit your firm.
Ranking well in Google is now, more than ever, an essential part of any website marketing strategy. Learn about the interplay between the key factors influencing the “organic” or “natural” results in Google. Identify the specific steps required to improve search engine rankings. Become familiar with the services offered by search engine optimisation partners.
Learning how to master email marketing in the age of spam is difficult but achievable. Find out how to improve the content of your email marketing messages, ensure your messages get delivered to the desktop, where to rent email marketing lists, and how to automate the management of your subscribers.
PR has moved onto the web. Your audience is online, so make sure you know how to reach them. Learn how you can use online press releases to get better search engine visibility, as well as traditional media attention. See how to write an optimised press release. Understand how online PR services work and their benefits.
When the Financial Times writes about the benefits of corporate blogging, you know its time to consider it as part of your Internet marketing strategy. Explore case studies that identify why some blogs are successful, and why some are not. Understand the technologies and processes associated with successful blogs.
Facebook, Linked In, Digg, Technorati, Stumbling,Second Life. What’s that all about? The explosion of the Social Internet has changed the Internet marketing landscape. What impact are social technologies having on your business, and how can you harness the buzz to acquire visitors to your website, convert them into customers, or keep them loyal to your business?
This Masterclass encourages a free flow of questions and answers throughout the day. Small group settings means your instructor is readily accessible for informal one-to-one discussions about your website. This summary session will provide the opportunity to discuss your views and answer any remaining questions.
Susan Hallam one of the UK’s leading Internet marketing trainers and consultants, with more than 20 years experience in the information industry.
She is a regular speaker at conferences including Search Engine Strategies, InternetWorld, and the East Midlands eBusiness Club’s Web Academy and eBusiness Expo.
This morning’s email inbox contained a scary message from Google saying one of my blogs has been identified as a potential spam blog. In it’s fight against unscrupulous search engine optimisers doing link spamming, Google’s automated classifier had flagged it is spam, and invited me to logon to provide an explanation and submit a review request.
I was thinking “Surely this is a phishing request for my Google account details.” I don’t write spam, or at least I try not to!
After a moments reflection I realised the Google email was genuine, and it really was a spam blog that Google had found. Less than 12 hours ago I had demonstrated how easy it is to create a blog by setting up a dummy “Worcester Internet Fun” blog, and included a single jokey posting with a keyword rich anchor link to my Hallam Internet marketing website.
It was a light hearted way to demonstrate how easy it is to blog, but it contained all the link spamming signals:
Note to self: delete all blogs created as part of the teaching process
On the one hand, Google’s rapid response is excellent news:
However, Google has had some trouble in the last few months when it inadvertently locked down innocent blogs due to a glitch in the spam processing algorithm.
I’ve written elsewhere about fake blogs, so let this be another salutory lesson to optimisers thinking links from blogs is the silver bullet to the top of the search engine results.
I’m aware that my company website design is nearly three years old, and that the design is looking a little tired and is due for a website refresh.
Why not take a peek at the draft design of the new site. Your comments would be most welcome, keeping in mind this is a work in progress! The real site will not have my ugly face on the front, but it is a useful image to use at this stage!
The idea is to put a new “skin” on the site, retaining the existing file names in order to preserve all my search engine optimisation efforts.
I’ve worked closely with my graphic design partner to design something that looks corporate, and modern, and clearly conveys the key messages. I am also looking to include more Web 2.0 functionality, but I’ll let you know more about that later.
Further progress regarding the site development to follow-
Just to let you know I’ve developed a new training course, Universal Search and Social Internet Marketing. This is a useful next step for those of you who are already doing Search Engine Optimisation.
We’ll be talking about Google’s Universal search, and the trend to blend a range of information types.
We’ll be discussing techniques for:
And then we’ll explore the practicalities of Social Media Marketing: social bookmarking, tagging, reviews, blogging, Twitter and more.
The course takes place on 26 November in Nottingham; get in touch if you want more information.
I’m also scheduling a range of Search Engine Optimisation training courses; to to www.hallam.biz/events.asp see dates and locations.
It’s been a month since my last blog posting, and after three years of blogging I ran into the dreaded Blogging Writers Block. Or as I would prefer to say, taking a blogging hiatus.
So why the blogging drought?
The cobbler’s children never has shoes.
Blogging puts significant demands on small businesses, meaning you need to find the time to write the postings, come up with suitable topics, and just plain sit down and do the work.
And I just haven’t had the time. Until now.
|I need a quick reminder that blogging is a valuable part of your Internet marketing armoury, providing a low cost tool that
I’ve enjoyed my blogging hiatus, and thanks to you who have dropped me a line asking why I’ve been gone so long!
