Following months of speculation, News International has erected a paywall around the Times newspaper website. After a couple of weeks running two sites, www.timesonline.co.uk and www.thetimes.co.uk in parallel, visitors to the former site are now automatically redirected to the latter.
Since last Tuesday, users have had to register to read content on the Times website (as well the separate Sunday Times site).
However, they don't yet have to pay: during the trial period, which is expected to last until the end of the month user have to just register to access the content behind the paywall.
Friday, June 25, 2010
MSN UK and Sainsbury’s launch food and drink channel
MSN and Sainsbury’s have joined forces to create Sainsbury’s Food and Drink on MSN UK.
The channel will focus on tasty food ideas & recipes and is the first channel of its kind to be hosted on the portal. The new partnership, which launches today, will see the supermarket working with MSN to provide exclusive online editorial content about all things food and drink. The deal was brokered by Sainsbury’s London based media agency, PHD.
The online channel, targeted at mums and household food shoppers, is designed to encourage readers to experiment with recipes and new ingredients, take advantage of in-season, fresh produce, and will draw upon Sainsbury’s existing TASTE campaign. The new channel will also feature cookery videos from Sainsbury’s, including some featuring the grocer’s brand ambassador, TV chef Jamie Oliver.
Visitors to MSN will be directed to Sainsbury’s Food and Drink through pages on the portal including MSN Life & Style, Messenger Today, MSN Celebrity, MSN Him and MSN Money. This new partnership between Sainsbury’s and MSN is part of a long standing relationship between the two, with MSN having hosted inspirational cookery videos provided by the supermarket since summer 2009.
Sarah Squire, Senior Brand Manager at Sainsbury’s, comments:
The launch of the food and drinks channel on MSN allows Sainsbury’s to engage with a new audience and encourage them to think about new ways to shop for and consume food.
The channel will focus on tasty food ideas & recipes and is the first channel of its kind to be hosted on the portal. The new partnership, which launches today, will see the supermarket working with MSN to provide exclusive online editorial content about all things food and drink. The deal was brokered by Sainsbury’s London based media agency, PHD.
The online channel, targeted at mums and household food shoppers, is designed to encourage readers to experiment with recipes and new ingredients, take advantage of in-season, fresh produce, and will draw upon Sainsbury’s existing TASTE campaign. The new channel will also feature cookery videos from Sainsbury’s, including some featuring the grocer’s brand ambassador, TV chef Jamie Oliver.
Visitors to MSN will be directed to Sainsbury’s Food and Drink through pages on the portal including MSN Life & Style, Messenger Today, MSN Celebrity, MSN Him and MSN Money. This new partnership between Sainsbury’s and MSN is part of a long standing relationship between the two, with MSN having hosted inspirational cookery videos provided by the supermarket since summer 2009.
Sarah Squire, Senior Brand Manager at Sainsbury’s, comments:
The launch of the food and drinks channel on MSN allows Sainsbury’s to engage with a new audience and encourage them to think about new ways to shop for and consume food.
ASOS to launch online marketplace
Online etailer, ASOS is to launch an online marketplace to allow user to trade their own clothes.
ASOS are currently in the “advanced stages” of preparing the marketplace and hope it will be launched later this year.
The channel will offer customers the opportunity to buy and sell their own clothes to and from other users.
The marketplace is seen as tapping into a desire by customers to have a more environmentally friendly approach to shopping. It will also allow for the pure play site to become a hub for vintage clothing and independent fashion designers.
ASOS’ Chief Executive, Nick Robertson comments:
This is an exciting extension to ASOS’ existing customer offer which makes perfect sense in today’s market. This is a sellers’ platform. We will start simply and continually improve the platform over time. Our sellers will help shape the future.
ASOS are currently in the “advanced stages” of preparing the marketplace and hope it will be launched later this year.
The channel will offer customers the opportunity to buy and sell their own clothes to and from other users.
The marketplace is seen as tapping into a desire by customers to have a more environmentally friendly approach to shopping. It will also allow for the pure play site to become a hub for vintage clothing and independent fashion designers.
ASOS’ Chief Executive, Nick Robertson comments:
This is an exciting extension to ASOS’ existing customer offer which makes perfect sense in today’s market. This is a sellers’ platform. We will start simply and continually improve the platform over time. Our sellers will help shape the future.
How to Optimize Your Wordpress Blog by Setting up the Right Meta Tags and Other Code
This instruction goes deep into the optimization of a Wordpress blog. I started out with 2 earlier posts and it would be best if you went through the steps outlined there first. Those links are:
Now I want to show you a plugin that will reverse your URL so that your keyword rich post title comes before the rest of the URL. One thing that could mess it up though is your html code. To make sure the code is right you need to go into the theme editor and load up “header.php” and search the html code for where it says “wp_title();” and make sure there is two single quotes marks between the parenthesis like this: wp_title(‘’);
You can go ahead with the plugin and come back to this step if it doesn’t work right. The plugin you need is “Headspace 2” by John Godley. It is a very powerful plugin that unlocks many SEO options for your Wordpress blog. You can just Google some tutorials about Headspace 2 to find out more.
Once you have it activated, click “settings” and “headspace.” That will bring you to a page that says “Headspace / Page Settings.” Once there you will see many different selections and you want to open up “post settings.” You will see 3 fields: page title, description, and tags. In the field marked “page title” you want to put this short code starting with the percent sign - %%title%% - Your Blog Title. So since the title of my blog is Dan Lambeth, I have this in mine - %%title%% - Dan Lambeth
Then go to the category selection on the same page and put this code in but replace the title with your own. There is a space on each side of Archives and the dash>
%%category%% Archives %%page%% - Dan Lambeth
Then go to the tags selection and do the same thing>
%%tag%% Archives %%page%% - Dan Lambeth
Next I want to tell you that Wordpress will let you write a description for posts, pages, and categories but most Wordpress themes will not actually put the description anywhere. With Headspace you can control that by putting this code (%%category_description%%) without the parenthesis, into the description field of each of those pages. Then you should write a description for the categories and you will have a default description for every article you don’t write a description for.
You can also optimize your images if you use them. There is a plugin called “SEO Friendly Images” to install that will do this. After you activate it there are three settings. In the ALT attribute field you should put (%title) without the parenthesis.
In the Title attribute field you should put (%title photo) without the parenthesis. And check the box that will override Wordpress’ default alt tag. Then if you don’t specify a title for any image you upload into a post it will use the post title.
You can also install an html site map with a plugin called Dagon Design Sitemap and then go through the settings and you will have a page that has a link to every page and category on your site. People can use this for navigation and the search engines can use it to index all of your content. Another site map plugin you should install is an XML site map for computers to read and it is called Karailiev’s sitemap
How fast your pages load also affects your SEO rankings. There is a plugin that will speed up how fast your pages load called WP Total Cache and there are some options with the CDN or content distribution network you can configure with this that will cache your content on Amazons S3 CDN.
Top 10 Blog Directories
Blog without traffic obviously provides little or no return on investment for your business.
Obviously, content is the most important element which determines your Blog’s overall performance however, to gain the benefits of excellent content your Blog needs exposure and traffic.
There are numerous methods to increase Blog traffic all requiring some investment in human and in most cases financial resources.
As part of your Social Media Marketing Program you should of course be promoting the content of your Blog via Social Networking site’s such as; Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.
Although Social Network promotion of your Blog is highly recommended, it is time consuming and requires commitment to follow through with networking discussions.
Blog Directories
Blog directories are an excellent source of traffic for your Blog, with the added benefit of providing back-links to your Blog which will assist to improve your Blog’s visibility in the Search Engine Results Pages.
Top 10 Blog Directories
I have a significant list of Blog directories and other resources where Blog’s and web sites can obtain back links and have selected some of the highest traffic Blog Directories to get you started. The list below requires you to register and the time registration requires is well worth the effort.
I have selected some of the highest traffic Blog Directories which in theory should provide your Blog with increased traffic. After all, there is little point in taking the time to register your Blog with a Blog Directory which receives little traffic.
Blog Catalogue Technorati
Blogged Blog Top List
Ice Rocket Top Blog Area
Bloggapedia Top Blogging
Blog Hub Blog Search Now
The Last Word
Ensuring your Blog benefits your business requires commitment. The registration of your Blog with the above directories is highly recommended to deliver both traffic and back-links. The most important thing to remember in the registration process, is to ensure you select the proper categories for your Blog, and be consistent throughout all Blog registration sites.
The time is worth the effort, a successful Blog is one of the most important Social Media tools you have available to your business.
About The Author
Pete Hollier is an Information Scientist, and possesses a Bachelors Degree in Information Science. Pete is SeoWizardry’s owner and principal Web Site Performance Consultant, assisting businesses to leverage the power of the Internet to improve overall business performance
Obviously, content is the most important element which determines your Blog’s overall performance however, to gain the benefits of excellent content your Blog needs exposure and traffic.
There are numerous methods to increase Blog traffic all requiring some investment in human and in most cases financial resources.
As part of your Social Media Marketing Program you should of course be promoting the content of your Blog via Social Networking site’s such as; Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.
Although Social Network promotion of your Blog is highly recommended, it is time consuming and requires commitment to follow through with networking discussions.
Blog Directories
Blog directories are an excellent source of traffic for your Blog, with the added benefit of providing back-links to your Blog which will assist to improve your Blog’s visibility in the Search Engine Results Pages.
Top 10 Blog Directories
I have a significant list of Blog directories and other resources where Blog’s and web sites can obtain back links and have selected some of the highest traffic Blog Directories to get you started. The list below requires you to register and the time registration requires is well worth the effort.
I have selected some of the highest traffic Blog Directories which in theory should provide your Blog with increased traffic. After all, there is little point in taking the time to register your Blog with a Blog Directory which receives little traffic.
Blog Catalogue Technorati
Blogged Blog Top List
Ice Rocket Top Blog Area
Bloggapedia Top Blogging
Blog Hub Blog Search Now
The Last Word
Ensuring your Blog benefits your business requires commitment. The registration of your Blog with the above directories is highly recommended to deliver both traffic and back-links. The most important thing to remember in the registration process, is to ensure you select the proper categories for your Blog, and be consistent throughout all Blog registration sites.
The time is worth the effort, a successful Blog is one of the most important Social Media tools you have available to your business.
About The Author
Pete Hollier is an Information Scientist, and possesses a Bachelors Degree in Information Science. Pete is SeoWizardry’s owner and principal Web Site Performance Consultant, assisting businesses to leverage the power of the Internet to improve overall business performance
Google’s Biggest Competitor Is You
With Google owning 72% of the US search market I often wonder who Google thinks of as its competitors. Whilst Bing’s relaunch provided an improved search engine over MSN Live, I wonder whether it’s actually proving better than Google. I still Google rather than Bing!
So if not a rival search engine, who might Google think of as competition? I believe the answer to that question is YOU. If you have a social graph then you threaten Google’s dominance as the go-to source of information, as Nielsen research shows that consumers trust real friends and virtual strangers more than search engine algorithms. Despite efforts, Google has yet to crack social media as such, as evidenced by the recent announcement that Google is looking to hire a “Head of Social”.
As customer research patterns evolve from simply “Googling” products or services to consulting their social graph for opinions on a product or service, prospective customers might themselves be the ones finding products rather than products finding them through traditional outbound marketing. ”Being the brand” or “having the product” that a social graph is discussing virally will be paramount, as evidenced by Ford’s effort to go viral with its Fiesta model.
What does this ultimately mean for marketers? Actively participating in social media is becoming increasingly important. Here are some helpful hints to help you positively situate your brand and product or service in social media:
Put your ear to the ground. Track your brand and important business keywords in social media outlets to find out what people are saying about you and related services. Set up an RSS feed of your target terms to stay updated. Listen first, sell second.
Invite dialog and customer feedback. This will afford you the great chance to interact with your customers and prospects.
Think of social media as a cocktail party. Offer insightful information in your interactions and don’t just go on about yourself.
Be worth paying attention to! Your social media followers/friends are paying attention to what you have to say. How do you get more (thereby extending your social media reach)? Easy! Say something worth paying attention to
Be a human. Social media is really all about human interaction after all. Increasingly, studies show that prospects want to form personal connections with companies so let your personality come across.
Be dedicated to social media. Give ownership of your social media accounts to someone (or several people) at your business. That person(s) can monitor and participate in these conversations and find useful information to share on your social media profiles.
On a closing note, try to not to obsess about the ROI of social media. HubSpot CEO, Brian Halligan, thinks that questioning the ROI of Social Media is akin to questioning the ROI of putting on your pants in the morning (you just have to do it) while the Social Media Revolution video makes the case that the ROI of social media is that your business will still exist in 5 years.
So if not a rival search engine, who might Google think of as competition? I believe the answer to that question is YOU. If you have a social graph then you threaten Google’s dominance as the go-to source of information, as Nielsen research shows that consumers trust real friends and virtual strangers more than search engine algorithms. Despite efforts, Google has yet to crack social media as such, as evidenced by the recent announcement that Google is looking to hire a “Head of Social”.
As customer research patterns evolve from simply “Googling” products or services to consulting their social graph for opinions on a product or service, prospective customers might themselves be the ones finding products rather than products finding them through traditional outbound marketing. ”Being the brand” or “having the product” that a social graph is discussing virally will be paramount, as evidenced by Ford’s effort to go viral with its Fiesta model.
What does this ultimately mean for marketers? Actively participating in social media is becoming increasingly important. Here are some helpful hints to help you positively situate your brand and product or service in social media:
Put your ear to the ground. Track your brand and important business keywords in social media outlets to find out what people are saying about you and related services. Set up an RSS feed of your target terms to stay updated. Listen first, sell second.
Invite dialog and customer feedback. This will afford you the great chance to interact with your customers and prospects.
Think of social media as a cocktail party. Offer insightful information in your interactions and don’t just go on about yourself.
Be worth paying attention to! Your social media followers/friends are paying attention to what you have to say. How do you get more (thereby extending your social media reach)? Easy! Say something worth paying attention to
Be a human. Social media is really all about human interaction after all. Increasingly, studies show that prospects want to form personal connections with companies so let your personality come across.
Be dedicated to social media. Give ownership of your social media accounts to someone (or several people) at your business. That person(s) can monitor and participate in these conversations and find useful information to share on your social media profiles.
On a closing note, try to not to obsess about the ROI of social media. HubSpot CEO, Brian Halligan, thinks that questioning the ROI of Social Media is akin to questioning the ROI of putting on your pants in the morning (you just have to do it) while the Social Media Revolution video makes the case that the ROI of social media is that your business will still exist in 5 years.
Google launches smart TV service
Search giant Google has launched a TV service that unites live television with the web.
The "smart TV" service allows people to search both live channels as well as content from websites such as YouTube. Special TV sets - or normal TVs connected to a Google box - will also allow people to access the web and download applications.
The first TV sets will be produced by Sony and should be available in the Autumn.
Rishi Chandra, Google, said:
Video should be consumed on the biggest, brightest, best screen in your house - the television.
He said that there were currently 4bn TV users worldwide and that around $70bn (£50bn) was spent annually on adverts in the US alone.
The "smart TV" service allows people to search both live channels as well as content from websites such as YouTube. Special TV sets - or normal TVs connected to a Google box - will also allow people to access the web and download applications.
The first TV sets will be produced by Sony and should be available in the Autumn.
Rishi Chandra, Google, said:
Video should be consumed on the biggest, brightest, best screen in your house - the television.
He said that there were currently 4bn TV users worldwide and that around $70bn (£50bn) was spent annually on adverts in the US alone.
Become a Target Of Investors Seeking Small Cap Stock Ideas
- Use WordPress For Investor Relations 2.0
A 2010 study conducted by Harris Interactive has shown that, just like most industries worldwide, investment has moved online. The Harris Interactive study surveyed over 1,000 investors, spanning the ages of 21 to 65. In the study, both age groups indicated that financial websites and blogs were their first choice for financial advice.
This study shows that industry trends are moving towards self-directed investors, meaning that investors are conducting their own research and investing directly with online brokerage firms, as opposed to working with a financial advisor. Investors are increasingly using financial blogs to gather information about the companies in which they are investing. One of the best ways that a publicly traded company can attract new investors, build a following, and communicate with existing shareholders is to start a blog.
Why is establishing a Corporate blog important for Small and Micro Cap Publicly traded companies who want to attract investors seeking new stock picks ?
Corporate blogs give insight on the Company from within the Company itself. These blogs help to form relationships with investors by providing commentary on a particular aspect of the Company and or its management, and crystallizing the information for investors. Corporate blogs are a communication medium the Company can use to broadcast its message, and provide investors with otherwise unknown facts and information. This helps to solidify why the Company is an attractive investment.
Corporate blogs also open communication with investors. They enable free exchange of feedback, questions, and commentary that the Company would not usually have access to. Therefore, corporate blogs are great two-way communication tools that help to form relationships establish an even higher degree of trust with investors.
It is imperative that Companies self-publish blogs if they are interested in attracting investors seeking new stock ideas. Corporate blogs will attract traffic from investors who are seeking undiscovered companies with potential to appreciate. If you are an undiscovered Company looking to attract a following online, a Company blog is an urgent need.
WordPress is an open source application designed for blog publishing and content management. It is written using PHP and backed by a MySQL database, making it ideal for producing dynamic web pages featuring content that tends to be edited frequently.
WordPress was originally designed as a weblog (blog) application that enabled the creation, editing, and publishing of blogs and photos. WordpPress has many attractive features, which include image management, web syndication, and post and comment moderation. With these additional plugins and applications, WordPress has evolved into a popular content management system. In fact, it is a top choice for the creation and hosting of many top Company websites. In numbers, WordPress is utilized by over 2% of the 10,000 biggest websites, making it one of the most popular types of blog software used today.
Benefits of Using WordPress.com for Corporate and Financial Blogging
Easy to Use ….
o WordPress’s blog editing tool functions very similarly to a standard word processing program. You can update your blog from anywhere; there is no software that must be downloaded to a specific computer.
Custom Designs to Incorporate Branding…
o WordPress allows you to upload a custom designed blog theme that reflects your Company branding. 21st Century Investor Relations has a professional design team who can design a theme using your Company’s logos and colors so that it corresponds with the look of your Company website. This will help keep the two sites connected in the mind of the consumer and further solidify your brand.
Encourage Investor Conversation…
o WordPress contains functionality for comments so that investors can interact with your blog, ask questions, and give feedback. Additional plugins are available so that you can monitor the most commented on posts, and identify those who are doing the most commenting. Not only does this feature help you build relationships with your investors, but it also adds to the content on your page, which has major search engine optimization (SEO) benefits.
SEO Friendly…
o There are a variety of plugins available that help WordPress sites become optimized for SEO. Google Sitemap Generator will build site maps for your blog, which will help your site be found by Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and other search engines. SEO will help more investors find your blog and create an increased investor following, which will ultimately result in an increased shareholder base for your Company over time.
Promotes Social Networking…
o WordPress sites can also be easily set up for Social Networking by adding a Share This button on your website. This button is a small toolbar that allows readers to share your content via Twitter, Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon, and other social media sites. Social networking aids in the process of finding investors, who may find your blog through these social media outlets. Social networking will help your blog have a viral, widespread impact, which will lead to an exponential increase in acquiring new investors that follow your Company.
Versatile Share Options…
o Easily add share options so that investors can subscribe to your content through RSS feeds and email lists. Investors can even subscribe to comments so that they can stay up to date with other investors. Share options make it effortless for investors to follow your blog, allowing it to quickly become a point of reference for them.
Encourage Interaction and Continuous Improvement…
o The key to Investor Relations 2.0 is two-sided conversation and interaction, as well as relationships with investors and potential investors, shareholders and potential shareholders, customers, and clients. Add widgets that encourage investors to interact on the site and create polls to get readers’ opinions. Establish a rating system to help you improve the site and customize it to the needs of your investors. Finally, build a community and engage your users in a conversation.
Using WordPress to host your blog is a must when it comes to Investor Relations 2.0. Investors will be looking for an online source for updated content, and you must keep up. WordPress provides the tools to make the process easy. Contact 21st Century Investor Relations for more information or help in building a winning WordPress blog:
A 2010 study conducted by Harris Interactive has shown that, just like most industries worldwide, investment has moved online. The Harris Interactive study surveyed over 1,000 investors, spanning the ages of 21 to 65. In the study, both age groups indicated that financial websites and blogs were their first choice for financial advice.
This study shows that industry trends are moving towards self-directed investors, meaning that investors are conducting their own research and investing directly with online brokerage firms, as opposed to working with a financial advisor. Investors are increasingly using financial blogs to gather information about the companies in which they are investing. One of the best ways that a publicly traded company can attract new investors, build a following, and communicate with existing shareholders is to start a blog.
Why is establishing a Corporate blog important for Small and Micro Cap Publicly traded companies who want to attract investors seeking new stock picks ?
Corporate blogs give insight on the Company from within the Company itself. These blogs help to form relationships with investors by providing commentary on a particular aspect of the Company and or its management, and crystallizing the information for investors. Corporate blogs are a communication medium the Company can use to broadcast its message, and provide investors with otherwise unknown facts and information. This helps to solidify why the Company is an attractive investment.
Corporate blogs also open communication with investors. They enable free exchange of feedback, questions, and commentary that the Company would not usually have access to. Therefore, corporate blogs are great two-way communication tools that help to form relationships establish an even higher degree of trust with investors.
It is imperative that Companies self-publish blogs if they are interested in attracting investors seeking new stock ideas. Corporate blogs will attract traffic from investors who are seeking undiscovered companies with potential to appreciate. If you are an undiscovered Company looking to attract a following online, a Company blog is an urgent need.
WordPress is an open source application designed for blog publishing and content management. It is written using PHP and backed by a MySQL database, making it ideal for producing dynamic web pages featuring content that tends to be edited frequently.
WordPress was originally designed as a weblog (blog) application that enabled the creation, editing, and publishing of blogs and photos. WordpPress has many attractive features, which include image management, web syndication, and post and comment moderation. With these additional plugins and applications, WordPress has evolved into a popular content management system. In fact, it is a top choice for the creation and hosting of many top Company websites. In numbers, WordPress is utilized by over 2% of the 10,000 biggest websites, making it one of the most popular types of blog software used today.
Benefits of Using WordPress.com for Corporate and Financial Blogging
Easy to Use ….
o WordPress’s blog editing tool functions very similarly to a standard word processing program. You can update your blog from anywhere; there is no software that must be downloaded to a specific computer.
Custom Designs to Incorporate Branding…
o WordPress allows you to upload a custom designed blog theme that reflects your Company branding. 21st Century Investor Relations has a professional design team who can design a theme using your Company’s logos and colors so that it corresponds with the look of your Company website. This will help keep the two sites connected in the mind of the consumer and further solidify your brand.
Encourage Investor Conversation…
o WordPress contains functionality for comments so that investors can interact with your blog, ask questions, and give feedback. Additional plugins are available so that you can monitor the most commented on posts, and identify those who are doing the most commenting. Not only does this feature help you build relationships with your investors, but it also adds to the content on your page, which has major search engine optimization (SEO) benefits.
SEO Friendly…
o There are a variety of plugins available that help WordPress sites become optimized for SEO. Google Sitemap Generator will build site maps for your blog, which will help your site be found by Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and other search engines. SEO will help more investors find your blog and create an increased investor following, which will ultimately result in an increased shareholder base for your Company over time.
Promotes Social Networking…
o WordPress sites can also be easily set up for Social Networking by adding a Share This button on your website. This button is a small toolbar that allows readers to share your content via Twitter, Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon, and other social media sites. Social networking aids in the process of finding investors, who may find your blog through these social media outlets. Social networking will help your blog have a viral, widespread impact, which will lead to an exponential increase in acquiring new investors that follow your Company.
Versatile Share Options…
o Easily add share options so that investors can subscribe to your content through RSS feeds and email lists. Investors can even subscribe to comments so that they can stay up to date with other investors. Share options make it effortless for investors to follow your blog, allowing it to quickly become a point of reference for them.
Encourage Interaction and Continuous Improvement…
o The key to Investor Relations 2.0 is two-sided conversation and interaction, as well as relationships with investors and potential investors, shareholders and potential shareholders, customers, and clients. Add widgets that encourage investors to interact on the site and create polls to get readers’ opinions. Establish a rating system to help you improve the site and customize it to the needs of your investors. Finally, build a community and engage your users in a conversation.
Using WordPress to host your blog is a must when it comes to Investor Relations 2.0. Investors will be looking for an online source for updated content, and you must keep up. WordPress provides the tools to make the process easy. Contact 21st Century Investor Relations for more information or help in building a winning WordPress blog:
5 Must Do SEO Tasks
No matter what you’re trying to achieve, there are always some must do tasks and SEO is no different. There is no doubt Search Engine Optimization is an ongoing process and in may cases lack of financial or human resources is one of the biggest hurdles faced by companies wishing to improve their web site’s business performance.
The 5 Most Important SEO Tasks
If I had to suggest an absolute minimum Search Optimization Program proposal for a client this is what it would entail:
1: Basic Web Site Review
To improve your web site’s performance you must have some idea of its current performance and identify issues which may impact on search visibility and user experience. The following must be included in your web site’s review.
Check all pages are accessible to Search Engines. The tool to use for this is the Firefox Web Developer Plug-in which enables you to easily turn off JavaScript and crawl the web site in much the same way as the Search Engine Bots.
Content and process review to ensure the information and processes your visitors need to complete their business tasks are available in the right place at the right time..
Competitive review of your web site. You must know where you stand in order to compete in the future. Review:
Age of Domain
Number of Back links (yahoo Linkdomian)
Alexa Rank for comparison of your web site’s estimated traffic volumes versus your competitors’
2: Keyword Research
To even have a remote chance of driving traffic via Search Engines you must have an understanding of what terms the public use to find the products and services you offer.
At the very least you should visit Google’s Keyword Tool and research the keyword phrases related to your business. The results will provide you with a list of suggestions and provide an indication of their popularity and competitiveness.
3: Competitive Analysis
A review of your web site’s competitive environment is an absolute necessity. To compete you must know how your site compares to both the competitors you have previously identified, and also the web sites which are currently obtaining search visibility for your desired keywords and phrases.
Competitive analysis will assist you to determine if your web site is currently well placed to be competitive and will assist you to identify keywords you are capable of competing for, or indicating the work required to be competitive.
At the very least you need to compare the performance metrics; Domain Age, Back-links and Alexa Rank of your direct competitors and those of the sites currently ranking for keywords you are considering optimizing.
4: Keyword Integration
Keyword integration is how you assist the Search Engines to determine your web page’s topic which will be used by the Search Engines to index and include your web page in search results relevant to a user’s search query.
Increasingly keywords in web page URL’s, Titles and Descriptions are showing up in the search results, which indicates the weighting of Relevancy within the Search Algorithm has been increased. The following keyword integration should be considered the minimum:
Targeted keyword in page Titles, Alt Image tag.
The description tag has minimal SEO value however, it should be well written including targeted keywords to encourage searchers to click on your link.
Integrate keywords and synonyms into web page content in Headings an prominently in paragraphs.
Where practical use bold and italics to highlight keywords.
5: Back-links
You must have links leading to your site to enable the Search Engine to find and index your web pages. Back-links are also one of the most highly weighted factors within the Search Engine Algothrim and are used to indicate how attractiveness of a web site.
A link building program must be implemented. At the very least a list of directories relevant to your business activities should be created and submissions made. I do not consider Directories an ideal back-link source however, Directories are one of the easiest way to begin the link building process.
The Last Word
Without at least some Search Engine Optimization the investment your business has made in your web site development will have little or no ROI. The above techniques are just scratching the surface of the work required to obtain search visibility for your web site.
From my past experience Search Engine Optimization is extremely beneficial to web site’s which put in the time and effort required for success. SEO is something where the amount of success is clearly defined by the amount of time and effort invested to achieve results. The more you do, the better your web site will perform for your business.
About The Author
Pete Hollier is an Information Scientist, and possesses a Bachelors Degree in Information Science. Pete is SeoWizardry’s owner and principal Web Site Performance Consultant, assisting businesses to leverage the power of the Internet to improve overall business performance.
The 5 Most Important SEO Tasks
If I had to suggest an absolute minimum Search Optimization Program proposal for a client this is what it would entail:
1: Basic Web Site Review
To improve your web site’s performance you must have some idea of its current performance and identify issues which may impact on search visibility and user experience. The following must be included in your web site’s review.
Check all pages are accessible to Search Engines. The tool to use for this is the Firefox Web Developer Plug-in which enables you to easily turn off JavaScript and crawl the web site in much the same way as the Search Engine Bots.
Content and process review to ensure the information and processes your visitors need to complete their business tasks are available in the right place at the right time..
Competitive review of your web site. You must know where you stand in order to compete in the future. Review:
Age of Domain
Number of Back links (yahoo Linkdomian)
Alexa Rank for comparison of your web site’s estimated traffic volumes versus your competitors’
2: Keyword Research
To even have a remote chance of driving traffic via Search Engines you must have an understanding of what terms the public use to find the products and services you offer.
At the very least you should visit Google’s Keyword Tool and research the keyword phrases related to your business. The results will provide you with a list of suggestions and provide an indication of their popularity and competitiveness.
3: Competitive Analysis
A review of your web site’s competitive environment is an absolute necessity. To compete you must know how your site compares to both the competitors you have previously identified, and also the web sites which are currently obtaining search visibility for your desired keywords and phrases.
Competitive analysis will assist you to determine if your web site is currently well placed to be competitive and will assist you to identify keywords you are capable of competing for, or indicating the work required to be competitive.
At the very least you need to compare the performance metrics; Domain Age, Back-links and Alexa Rank of your direct competitors and those of the sites currently ranking for keywords you are considering optimizing.
4: Keyword Integration
Keyword integration is how you assist the Search Engines to determine your web page’s topic which will be used by the Search Engines to index and include your web page in search results relevant to a user’s search query.
Increasingly keywords in web page URL’s, Titles and Descriptions are showing up in the search results, which indicates the weighting of Relevancy within the Search Algorithm has been increased. The following keyword integration should be considered the minimum:
Targeted keyword in page Titles, Alt Image tag.
The description tag has minimal SEO value however, it should be well written including targeted keywords to encourage searchers to click on your link.
Integrate keywords and synonyms into web page content in Headings an prominently in paragraphs.
Where practical use bold and italics to highlight keywords.
5: Back-links
You must have links leading to your site to enable the Search Engine to find and index your web pages. Back-links are also one of the most highly weighted factors within the Search Engine Algothrim and are used to indicate how attractiveness of a web site.
A link building program must be implemented. At the very least a list of directories relevant to your business activities should be created and submissions made. I do not consider Directories an ideal back-link source however, Directories are one of the easiest way to begin the link building process.
The Last Word
Without at least some Search Engine Optimization the investment your business has made in your web site development will have little or no ROI. The above techniques are just scratching the surface of the work required to obtain search visibility for your web site.
From my past experience Search Engine Optimization is extremely beneficial to web site’s which put in the time and effort required for success. SEO is something where the amount of success is clearly defined by the amount of time and effort invested to achieve results. The more you do, the better your web site will perform for your business.
About The Author
Pete Hollier is an Information Scientist, and possesses a Bachelors Degree in Information Science. Pete is SeoWizardry’s owner and principal Web Site Performance Consultant, assisting businesses to leverage the power of the Internet to improve overall business performance.
New Look is UK’s third-biggest online fashion retailer
New Look’s e-commerce offering has become the UK’s third-biggest online fashion retailer, taking 1.3m orders in its latest financial year.
NewLook.com has moved from fifth to third place in the market, taking a 4.1% share. The recently launched new website approached two million hits a week.
The online figures came against a background of growing revenue and operating profits. Total revenue in the year to March 27 2010 rose by 10.7% to £1.46bn, while underlying operating profit grew by 17.7% to £163m.
The company now has stores in 12 countries, with four new countries added this year. Sixteen of the company’s 61 new store openings were in the UK.
Carl McPhail, chief executive of New Look, said the “hard to predict” nature of the current UK economy would be one of the retailer’s main challenges in the year ahead.
He added:
We remain confident in the fundamental value of our of our business and our strong future growth prospects and expect to make continued progress as we focus on driving the business at home, internationally and online.
NewLook.com has moved from fifth to third place in the market, taking a 4.1% share. The recently launched new website approached two million hits a week.
The online figures came against a background of growing revenue and operating profits. Total revenue in the year to March 27 2010 rose by 10.7% to £1.46bn, while underlying operating profit grew by 17.7% to £163m.
The company now has stores in 12 countries, with four new countries added this year. Sixteen of the company’s 61 new store openings were in the UK.
Carl McPhail, chief executive of New Look, said the “hard to predict” nature of the current UK economy would be one of the retailer’s main challenges in the year ahead.
He added:
We remain confident in the fundamental value of our of our business and our strong future growth prospects and expect to make continued progress as we focus on driving the business at home, internationally and online.
Apple showcase the many and varied talents of HTML 5
Steve Jobs loves HTML 5. We know that. He's probably got HTML 5 pjs and HTML wallpaper, he probably dreams in HTML 5. He's sure it's the future of the web, and you'd be hard pressed to argue with Apple's captain.
And as if to prove a point Apple today revealed a web-showcase of just what the new web-standard is capable of.
An instantly loading video, that you can't scan through, but can scale dynamically (which is neat if not almost entirely useless). A natty text editor that showed the way in which text that had previously been jpegged into webpages could now be actual text.
An audio player and impressive 360 spinning image jobby -- where you can scrutinise an iPod touch from all angles, as if it were there in front of you.
The functionality isn't groundbreaking but the way in which it's achieved is, as code. Code that you can just drop into a webpage, like you would a br clear="all" or target="self". Bonkers right!?
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