Nice little article here from Site Reference about Link Building. If you are into easy reading, with pertinent information, well worth subscribing to their feed.

My wife’s online beauty shop took on a new product. We were talking about the zit zapping device and the brand name “Zeno Pro” a few weekends ago, so I checked the web and the .co.uk domain was available.

I quickly set up hosting, rammed up our Escape website framework and created a home page with no style. Then, being me, I got bored after two sentences and forgot about it, with a plan to come back later.

Well, it’s no. 2 in Google for Zeno Pro already, which proves two things to me.

1. Domain name choice is important.
2. Vertical and niche markets are where it’s at.

Client expectations are a funny thing when it comes to creating a new website. I remember a client once who wanted a website completed on 1st January so she could start taking telephone bookings the next day - we never actually finished that one after that comment.

I tend to be quite pessimistic with a new website. Firstly, from to my experiences, and more so now because the web is getting more competitive everyday, thus, it’s getting harder. It sets expectation at an appropriate level and, of course, no one wants to hear that.

No one wants to hear that it may take six months to start getting decent levels of organic traffic and it may also take hard work adding new content and gaining attention.

Yes, you get the odd ’story of success’ and ‘how I built 10,000 users in 20 days’ kind of thing and those guys work tirelessly to make that happen - usually only once. You also have to ask yourself - how long does that last? How real and sustainable is that traffic, and how relevant?

With billions of web pages out there - what makes you so special? And, how relevant are you?

By focusing on adding value to your website audience you are starting a mating ritual, you are showing that you give a damn and that you may well be the company to solve their problem in exchange for cash. But, if it’s all just sell, sell, sell… it will be bye, bye, bye.

Interesting interview here by Manish Pandey at SEOMegaCorp with Jeff Quipp.

Just as SEO has hit the streets - more and more people seem to be in the ‘know’ - the focus has moved back to a more generalized marketing approach, which is where it should be.

As the search market becomes more mature (and more saturated) it’s gonna get harder unless you take a longer-term approach. Look at e-commerce: Now the high street big boys have woken up, they are beginning to dominate the middle ground; and that’s on top of Amazon.

Unfortunately, too many people I speak to at the moment are looking for quick fix in terms of what they want from their web results - especially the harder B2B service market.

No pain no gain - it’s effort versus reward. It’s like going on a diet. You can quick fix in the short-term but the only way for long term success is to change your whole approach to food and excercise.

Haven’t read this Viral marketing document yet from Facebook but if you are using facebook pages, you may well be interested in the Facebook Pages Insider Guide to Viral Marketing.

Your meta title and meta description are quite important aspects of your web page and can help you make better web pages.

A specific Title tag and Description tag for each important web page is essential. Not only for optimization, but also for what displays in the search results. Your Title and Description effectively work as an advert - yes, you have been found and your listing still comes up but there nine other natural search listings and up to 11 paid for adverts - you need to stand out.

It’s something I always wondered about and often had to refine some tags a month in after they had listed and I knew what they looked like.

But now, some guys I work with have created a neat tool for checking how your meta title and description will look in a search engine…

It’s simple and cute but does the business.

I promise not to rip too much out of the e-book but I was told that this analogy works quite well (and I do like it myself) and I wanted to share.

Have you seen the new movie with Daniel Day-Lewis?

It’s 11 o’clock on a bright and crisp morning as I look out of the window. It’s 24th February 2008 and tonight it’s Oscar Award night. There is lots of coverage in the media about Daniel Day-Lewis and his performance in the movie “There Will Be Blood”.

This film has been heaped with critical acclaim and an Oscar for the leading actor seems a cert. Of course, he is a well known and respected actor, who has already received an an academy award for his role in ‘My Left Foot’ and has appeared in a string of films such as “Gangs of New York” and “The Last Of The Mohicans”. (more…)

So, for the past couple of months I have been writing a book about basic SEO for small business and I am giving it away free…

Find out more about the Free SEO Book for Small Business here.

The premise is simple. I’ve read a lot of stuff; used various techniques and refined the whole SEO package to a few simple rules.

These aren’t my rules by the way. These are things I use on a daily basis to get results for my business, and my clients’ businesses.

I’m not planning to get into authoring books so it’s a freebie… enjoy.

So, it’s March and I am finally ready to stick my neck out - something I don’t tend to do - because there are a few trends I am seeing that could be opportunities for someone, somewhere.

E-Commerce

I would expect to see a few e-commerce sites go this year - mainly from the lower end of the market. The once cost-effective pay-per-click model isn’t so cheap anymore and unless companies have built a customer database that can be leveraged, they have no asset. The price comparison market is already taking casualties and search is being dominated by the big boys that have the budget and the scale. I realise I am only one person, but I find myself going to Amazon more than ever for any product.

The only way to combat this is to get niche - even more niche. I find with one of my e-commerce solutions, most of the sales come from one product range. Perhaps I should scrap the others, stick to one single range and completely focus my marketing? Less income, but more profit.

Content is rising

Content’s where it’s at. Rich, value added information that builds trust, authority and credibility and gets attention from search and social sites. It’s a hard one to sell to a client but I am telling my clients to invest their marketing money into quality content for their web sites. I would also make sure I am not forcing it behind walls such as “you must give us your e-mail”.

Growth of the subscription model

Online websites with real quality information as their model, such as the high profile Bloggers, seem to be moving into a subscription model for the real quality (premium) content. This kind of goes against my last point but these are channels with solid information that have built a reputation over a number of years. They have eclipsed traditional publishers online to become publishers themselves and now they have authority, they are charging for some of it. It didn’t happen over night though.

Competition may be free

Do you use Google for search? How much do you pay them? Their whole business model is based around giving stuff away for free, yet they have managed to monetize what they do. It is a model that is being copied with a lot of online companies and it may transfer to a business model near you. Are you ready? Sound unrealistic?

The Escape competes with Indian companies doing the job for a fraction of the cost. We compete with “my sisters son who has just studied web design at college”. We also compete with Mr Website and software like iWeb.

Our value proposition needs to stand out and is defined with two clear points: The market sectors we approach and the level of which we operate; and secondly, the value proposition. That is the added extra we offer above and beyond a website - a website that delivers relevant traffic that converts to business. That takes proving so we can use my second point above.

Summary

It’s interesting times on the web as technology moves forward and the way we use the web matures. Ideas that would once make a marketer choke are now at a stage where they are real and if you are not doing them, perhaps a competitor is.

Every time you search, Google is trying to sort through billions of web pages in less than a second to deliver THE best page it possibly can. Two elements that it uses to decide who’s is top for a certain phrase are:

1. Content on your website
2. How other people see your website with links.

So, how do you get to the top for your key phrases? Firstly, you need to make sure your pages say what you do… and secondly you need to assess what incoming links you can get (deserve) and how.

One way to see how other people do this is through competitive research. This little video shows you some simple ways to look at other peoples successful websites.

Reference Links

• Firefox - web browser of choice
• SEO for Firefox - cool plug in for easy viewing of competitive search data