Internet Marketing Consultant
I offer a dedicated Internet Marketing service that can consist of the following:
- One off consultancy and advice in person or online
- Monthly full marketing packages
- Pay as you go individual tasks
Please get in touch for an informal chat to see how i can improve your presence on the internet!
Know Your Customer
Knowing exactly who your customers are will enable you to know how to reach them!
A simple statement that makes perfect sense, but how often are you able to spend quality time tapping into your customers persona to discover how they search for your products and service?
I am pleased to offer one off consultancy days that provide you with all the knowledge to be able to answer two very straight forward questions:
- Who are your customers?
- How do you reach them?
SEO in 2012
If you’ve visited an internet marketing forum where website owners and SEO experts hang out then you can be forgiven for worrying about your own site after reading their horror stories. It’s only March and already Google has sent shock waves through the SEO world and there is more yet to come with the Google over optimisation penalty!
I thought I would spend a moment putting it all in perspective and answering some questions many of you have been asking me.
Will my rankings drop in 2012?
Rankings fluctuate all the time, even during different times of the same day! Google are shaking things up and creating what they call ‘bots’ that determine how a site should be ranked, they will never tell you the factors they use so be prepared for ranking drops, if you are prepared then you can deal with it accordingly.
Why would my rankings drop?
There are many reasons why your website rankings would drop, here are a few
- The ‘Google dance’ – This can be temporary ranking shift because your site is new, you have been doing link building or you have done some major onsite changes and the site needs time to stabilise.
- Release of new algorithms – To any non savvy person an algorithm is basically a ranking factor change. You have no control over these, it is nobody’s fault all you can do is reassess your site and talk to someone who is up to date with ranking factors. You can also gain knowledge yourself by reading Goggles published ranking factors http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291
- ‘Unnatural links’ message in your Google webmaster tools account – I have only ever seen this message once on one site in all my years of being an internet marketer. A popular marketing forum has suggested Google have sent these messages out to 700,000 sites so far in 2012 (it’s only March). If you get this message don’t panic, you need to analyse your links to see if you have any dodgy ones. Dodgy links can be links you have gained from using automated software such as directory submitters, over commenting on forums and blogs or even just links from bad neighbors. Many sites who receive these messages profoundly proclaim they have clean links so don’t feel you are being targeted it could be as simple as the site you gained the link from was suddenly penalised and you will therefore be branded a bad neighbor.
How should I optimise my site in 2012?
In a nut shell you should optimise for your customers and not for the search engines.
SEO is about making a great page more ‘findable’, not tricking the search engines into thinking its great. You need to take a good look at your site and whenever you do anything whether its offsite or onsite think ‘would my customer like this’?
If you are link building don’t think about quantity, think about quality. A handful of links per week is more than enough, if your competitors are mass link building then leave them to it, they may have once experienced high rankings but Google are coming and if they are over doing it they will lose those top spots.
If you have been relying purely on natural search engine traffic for your website then you should consider changing your marketing strategy to include other internet marketing strategies then if you do get caught up in the big Google changes you wouldn’t have put all your eggs in one basket and your success can carry on.
Google Over Optimisation Penalty
Googles Matt Cutts has broken the ‘norm’ and has pre-announced an upcoming algorithm that has Internet Marketers and website owners biting their nails yet again! Matt announced that his team are working on an over optimisation penalty that will penalize sites that are doing too much SEO and not enough fresh, quality content.
All those people doing, for lack of a better word, over optimisation or overly SEO – versus those making great content and great site. We are trying to make GoogleBot smarter, make our relevance better, and we are also looking for those who abuse it, like too many keywords on a page, or exchange way too many links or go well beyond what you normally expect.
This has left open the way for many nervous questions
Will this mean competitors can perform negative seo and use automated tools to blast your site with links?
Will Google take into consideration your past mistakes and linking strategies?
Arghhh I can hear you say, ‘Have all your efforts been wasted’?
Google for a while now has been introducing algorithms, the Panda update was detrimental for many sites, even the big brands. You only have too Google ‘BMW cloaking’ to read about how the German BMW got delisted!
What does the future hold?
Nobody can predict the way forward for SEO, all you can do is adopt a great deal of patience and diversify your internet marketing methods. If you have been using companies that promise top Google rankings then it might be time to change! This could be yet another ‘Google dance’ that will see many sites lose ranking or it could be just a way for SEO to evolve that includes digital media and other new age marketing.
My personal opinion is that Google wants to maximize pay per click and make it the most viable way of gaining high rankings, but does this mean you should stop SEO? Definitely not but you do have to make sure you are not putting all your eggs in one basket. A good SEO Consultant will encourage you to participate in many different forms of internet marketing and they will understand that SEO has been changing for some time now, diversifying is crucial.
What should you do?
- Ensure your site receives regular and fresh updated content (this could be blogs)
- Do not over link your site with the same anchors
- Think of SEO as just one component of Internet Marketing.
- Focus on conversions rather than being ‘the top of Google’ – If your marketing plan has only this goal and you lose rankings, this will put an end to your once successful plan!
- Build for humans, not for robots.
Is your Internet Marketing Campaign Working?
It is very easy to be dazzled by sales people and confused by lengthy reports that your marketing company send you, but how do you know if what you are paying for every month is working?
What your internet marketing company should be doing
Research
By identifying your target keywords and tapping into your customer’s persona, a good marketing company will be able to find out who your potential customers are and tell you how to be in front of them.
Knowledge
Knowledge is everything and your marketing company should feel at ease sharing their knowledge with you at any time.
It is vital that you gain a little understanding about internet marketing and more importantly have confidence that the person or company you get to run your internet marketing campaign knows what they are doing.
Let’s take for example SEO. Google in particular release algorithm changes all the time, take a look at this article a leading SEO software company published it emphasises the amount of changes to ranking factors Google makes http://www.seomoz.org/google-algorithm-change. It is often not your marketing companies fault if you suffer a ranking loss but failure to keep up to date with googles policies can be disastrous.
Straight forward advice
A marketing company should never feel pressured to get you quick high rankings, they should be honest with you about the consequences of such actions, even if it means they lose a sale from being upfront. You should ensure you receive honest advice about what return your marketing budget will give you.
Monitoring results
Success can be measured in many different ways, going back to the ‘lengthy reports’, data can look amazing in print but what about your bank balance? You should never expect success over night but it is important you develop a way of monitoring your sites progress. A marketing campaign that works is one that sees gradual success and steady growth. Your marketing company should explain to you in lamens terms how your campaign is progressing, what they are doing and what their goals are for the future.
How to survive the Google algorithm
If you regularly keep watch over your Google rankings or subscribe to various internet marketing newsletters, you will be aware of the panic that has left many website owners stressed out and confused.
You can’t fool Google, sooner or later they will weed out the spam and penalize you.
Why have websites dropped in rank?
The simple answer is Google algorithms. Without getting technical, Google regularly crawls sites and decides what keywords sites should rank on search engines for. Google uses various deciding factors when determining which keywords to award you high ranking with and periodically those ranking factors change. Why? Because website owners and SEO companies find ways of pushing sites up the rankings rather than allowing a natural climb.
Google is dedicated to providing searchers with quality results and therefore has a big task of weeding out spam sites and only showing the quality ones. Google does this by releasing new algorithms and that’s why websites see a sudden drop in rankings.
How to avoid ranking drops
Patience
The first thing you need to do is get rid of any impatience that makes you want to be at the top of Google now! If you want to get to the top of Google quickly then you must use pay per click, getting high search engine rankings naturally takes time, SEO takes time!
Fresh content
Google has hinted that it will look more at sites that provide regular updated content. If you haven’t got a blog on your website get one now. Write quality posts that are unique and informative.
Don’t overdo the links
Saying a site does not need links is just daft. Your backlinks are a big deciding factor when it comes to getting your site ranked but quality over quantity is essential!
Mix up your keywords
Keyword research is essential for a successfull internet marketing campaign. It is crucial that your site targets keywords with high search volumes. Aswell as short competitive keywords, you should also target broad keywords which can still bring good traffic. People use Google search to ask it a question so don’t dismiss the potential of long tail keywords.
Check duplicate content
You may not be aware that other sites or directories are using your content, this can impact your ranking. Use tools like copyscape to check for duplicate content. If you find some, send the website owner a polite email to ask them to remove it.
If you are doing SEO yourself then take a step back and review your search engine optimisation techniques.
If you think you are doing something that might get you penalised in the future, it is best not to do it.
If you are using the services of an SEO consultant then give them a call or drop them an email to ask what kind of techniques they are using. A good SEO specialist will be only too happy to have a quick chat about their work.
Choosing The Right SEO Consultant
A consultant is typically described a professional or expert in a particular field, they should posses extensive knowledge and experience of their chosen subject field.
Your website is a crucial competent of your business, it is your ‘shop front’ and should therefore be handled with care and treated respectfully. Unfortunately the internet marketing industry receives lots of scrutiny both for its underhand tactics and its rogue marketing companies, it is your responsibility to ensure you hire a professional to undertake any internet marketing work, especially SEO!
Get it wrong and your website will fail!This is a fact. Google in particular is on top of routing out rogue SEO tactics and it will not let anyone off if they find them responsible of attempting to fool the search engines.
With more and more algorithms being released, Google is on the ball and so should you be!
If you are looking to get search engine optimisation advice, you must make sure your chosen SEO consultant is competent and that they are able to answer any questions you have immediately.
Expanded Google Sitelinks Feature
Have you noticed a change in the way Google site links look? No your eyes are not deceiving you, the sitelinks have become massive.
The new super jumbo page links look much different to the older ones
New jumbo sitelinks
Googles old method limited the sitelinks to 8, however the new expanded links boast up to 12 and also include a page snippet as well as the title.
The new format is definitely a positive thing for your visitors to get directed to the relevant page, this will increase conversions for you however, it will be a big pain in the bum for those trying to optimise their site for brands in the search engines. It will mean they appear further down the page.
Google +1
Posted by Carrie-ann Sudlow in Do It Yourself, Google +1, SEO, Social Media, Useful Tips 
Comments Off 14
With the new launch of Google +1, this page is subject to change. The new social tool launched by Google is still in it’s testing period.
FAQ
What is Google +1?
The reports are, Google have been trying to compete with Facebook and Twitter for sometime now, the new google +1 button feature is a big step in helping the mighty G achieving that goal.
You may have noticed the buttons appearing on some websites, particularly next to bog posts (just like this one you’re reading 
). By clicking on one of these buttons you are basically sending out a signal to other google users stating that you like what you read! Those familiar with facebook and digg will notice the similarity in ‘like’ feature.
Who can see the +1 buttons?
Only Google logged in users can see the buttons appear next to websites on the search results.
Will it be a popular feature?
Early indications imply that its going to be but previously released apps and social media extensions launched by Google have been brought in and at the same time vanished without any recognition so everyone is watching this space to see how it develops.
Should I implement the button on my site?
I would recommend you do add it to your site, i cant do any harm. Its far too early to predict how Google are going to roll this out but its enough so far to get webmasters adding it to their sites.
How to get the Google +1 button on your site
http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1/button/index.html
How To Find The Best SEO Company
Finding the best SEO Company is allot harder than you might think! Why? Because they all claim to be the best. Yes, even browsing through my websites you may get the impression that I have joined the majority and claim that the Internet marketing services I offer are second to none. How on earth do you choose who to employ to get your search engine optimisation done?
First consider how important getting CORRECT SEO done really is.
Search Engine Optimisation is the process of optimising your web pages both onsite and offsite in the hope that search engines such as Google will give you a high ranking. Getting a high ranking can mean the difference between getting 1 website visitor a month and hundreds, even thousands! There is no secret to SEO so don’t let any search engine optimisation company tell you that they have a special relationship with Google or that they know the holy grail of SEO, its simply rubbish and they are trying to get a sale out of you.
What isn’t rubbish is the fact that you can get SEO done wrongly, and you won’t even know it. There are too many supposedly SEO experts who claim to understand Internet Marketing but they just know how to spin you the sales pitch. Some companies either use Google adwords, convince you its SEO or they use spammy linking tactics that rapidly get you high on Google only for you to be flagged by Google themselves and removed rapidly.
Two basic facts about Search Engine Optimisation
- IT takes time – if you are not prepared for the long haul, don’t start SEO
- Nobody can guarantee you top rankings – EVER!!! Only if they use Google pat per click
How to find the best person for the job
Ask questions, do research, gain knowledge yourself
If you want to save yourself a fortune and lots of heartache, the only way to guarantee you employ the best person to perform your SEO is to question the life out of them.
Many companies can posses outstanding testimonials from previous clients, they can even display impressive ranking results but this doesn’t mean they are the best person for the job!
If you personally take the time to understand how SEO works, you will be able to ensure your site gets the very best Search engine optimisation work carried out.
