Most companies structure their websites in a hierarchy, with separate pages on each individual product at the bottom of the page. If you're you're building a new website, there are many reasons for not doing it this way, but we're going to assume you're stuck with that way of doing things for now, and would like to make the best of what you have.
Content is the key to Google finding pages. Plenty of words. That's why there's a problem with having a separate page for each product, because many... Continue reading ...
Posted by Tom Sykes on Thursday, August 19, 2010,
In :
GENERAL
Now you should have researched some blogs or websites which allow comments, and which cover your technology area, it's time to start commenting and getting those links. We act as professionally as possible, putting in good, solid comments. Most website owners are fed up with spammers commenting: "Great post! I really learned a lot from this!" and delete that sort of stuff.
With most blogs, you need to sign in to make a comment. Look at previous comments on the site, and you may see that the na... Continue reading ...
Posted by Tom Sykes on Tuesday, August 17, 2010,
In :
GOOGLE
We often talk about the need to get links from other websites but have you ever taken the time to do this for your website?
Most companies know that links are the key to ranking high in the Google results, but despite this, many make no effort to get these links.
For the rest of this week, we are going to outline 4 steps to get some "easy" links, by commenting in blogs and other websites which accept comments. You can do this yourself.
We will find the sites; sort out which ones are worth targe... Continue reading ...
Posted by Tom Sykes on Wednesday, June 23, 2010,
In :
SEO
If you need to set up a new website or a one-off promotion, you'll need to dream up a domain name that is fit for purpose. Here are a few considerations.
Keep it fairly brief. The longer the name, the more people will get it wrong, or simply be put off entering it in the first place.
Use relevant search words If you want to be found through search engines. The domain "cheap-beach-balls.com" for your a shopping site will probably pick up Google searches for "cheap beach balls", which is good. Bu... Continue reading ...
Posted by Tom Sykes on Monday, January 4, 2010,
In :
GENERAL
Happy New Year to you all.
There are some things in marketing which are so fundamental that they need to be reviewed on a regular basis. For most firms, who make plans in the autumn for the following calendar year, it should probably be late summer. But there's so much activity then, preparing for the autumn (when there's more exhibitions, more web traffic and more of just about everything). So let's resolve to review things at New Year.
Posted by Tom Sykes on Friday, December 18, 2009,
In :
GOOGLE
Google has made available a simple tool which provides an interesting insight into what people see when they visit your web pages. You can look in your analytics and see a breakdown of the screen sizes of your visitors (e.g "1024 x 768"), but the size of their browser windows will be substantially smaller than this. They may not be maximised to fill the whole screen, and they'll probably have toolbars and other clutter making the actual view of your site a lot smaller.
Having provided a wide range of services to construction industry clients in 2009, we've decided to focus on the ones where we can offer the most added value in 2010. These are the three things which we think every marketing manager in the industrial sectors should have as priorities in their online marketing, indeed in all of their marketing, next year.
1. Understanding Online Marketing It may sound vague, and organising that stand at the next big trade show in March is probably more pressing... Continue reading ...
Much of what is written about search engine optimisation assumes that you're writing a blog, or a news story, or the next great 'how to' article" …but of course it's just as likely that you're writing that all important product page. So how do you make a page full of technical specifications work in the search engines?
Of course, such pages are critical: no one will buy anything from you if they don't understand what you offer. It's just that, no matter how creatively written and carefully ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Tom Sykes on Thursday, August 13, 2009,
In :
GENERAL
We are due to be on the BBC Oxford's Evening News tomorrow night (Friday 14th August) between 6:30pm and 7pm on BBC1.
We are going to be talking about a project we run for the community called www.coleshillhouse.com and although we have been
given a tiny window we may appear on another programme later in the
year.
If you live outside of the Oxford area and have SKY you can watch it on sky channel 985.
We will try to get a copy of it on the Coleshill House website site over the next week.
Posted by Tom Sykes on Tuesday, July 28, 2009,
In :
SEO
"Should I respond to that
emailed request from some website owner to put a link to his site on mine, in
exchange for a link back?" The answer is "almost certainly not". But that
doesn't mean that "reciprocal" links are a bad thing. Let us
explain.
There are two reasons to get links: the traffic they generate directly, and
the incremental boost they give you in the search engine rankings. Now, the
amount of boost each one gives you in the search engines is related to the
"quality" of t...
Posted by Tom Sykes on Wednesday, July 22, 2009,
In :
SEO
I recently found this post on the internet and it is really valid and true advice. Its well worth a read. It was posted by Pete Caputa on this site.
A while ago, I wrote an article about link building. It is one of the most read articles on our blog.
It explains how to do link building the right way and provides a
path for newbies to get started and progress to master link builders,
the right way. The way that Google wants you to build links--by
attracting and earning them.
Posted by Tom Sykes on Friday, July 17, 2009,
In :
GENERAL
A bit of fun for a Friday morning, but with some serious undercurrent. Take a
screenshot of your website* or test your company's advertising artwork and upload it to www.feng-gui.com.
The site will, apparently, use artificial intelligence to simulate human vision
during the first five seconds of viewing your page. Whether it's accurate or
not, it does give you an idea of what people probably do, and it's almost
certain that they don't just look down the page in the linear order you expec...
Posted by Tom Sykes on Thursday, June 4, 2009,
In :
ADVERTISING
Getting customer testimonials can be awkward and even embarrassing. When asked directly by someone to say something nice about them, can you say no, even if you want to? And you don't want to put customers in a difficult position.
Here's a technique which produces results that will bowl you over (and not just the one from the happy customer who asked "You don't have a sister, do you?"). Set up a survey - using SurveyMonkey - we suggest two questions, both open-ended with large text boxes for...
Have you seen websites where they offer a Live Chat service? Is this something you might like to consider for your website? From our experience customers really like the function. Even if they don't use them, it gives off a nice warm feeling that your company cares.
The good news is, it's quite possible to put one of those on your website for free, using Google Talk. If you have a Google account, and your prospect does (and an increasing number of people do), then here's what you need. Continue reading ...
As you know, generating links to your website is very important. Look, it's May, and in a few weeks' time there'll be no end of self-confident, web-literate students looking for a summer job. I bet that in six weeks, one of these could generate enough links for you that you could increase your Google traffic significantly. Let's say you get 100 visitors a day to your website, and a stronger presence in Google from a few dozen good links increased this by 25%. At £1.50 a visitor (the value yo...
Using video marketing to drive traffic to your web site is an online marketing strategy many small business owners and internet marketers are beginning to embrace, with much success.
Having a traditional website only allows you to reach those people who first find your website. However, combining video, social networking and some simple video marketing techniques can drive hordes of qualified visitors to your website.
First, let's forget the silly videos you'll find all over YouTube of kids ...
Posted by Tom SYkes on Saturday, April 18, 2009,
In :
ADVERTISING
Many regional newspaper titles are being forced to fold, 60 in fact in the last year, as the recession forces unprecented cuts in the local print industry.
Even before the recession, newspapers were changing their ways of working - altering structures and embracing the web and video.
The pace of change has now quickened in the fight to survive and advertising most follow suit.
It would appear gone are the days when you can advertise in the local rag and the prefered method is now advertising ...
