Friday, June 30, 2006

If you tag it... they will come!

Tagging

Some of you may have noticed that I’ve began to ‘tag’ my blog posts. I stumbled upon this concept by accident and it’s completely changed the way I think about searching the web for blog and article content.

Tags allow a blogger/journalist/photographer etc to categorise their submissions and posts uniquely without having to search for a category on the blog. So no longer will I be searching the net for relevant blog directories, I’ll simply submit to one site and use my tags on my post to automatically ‘ping’ blog search engines!

No doubt I’ll be blogging on this in the future as I continue to discover more and more about the aft of tagging!

Watch this space!

Jamie
SEO Specialist

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Blogging... what's it all about?

What are Blogs?

Web logs or blogs, as they are otherwise known, are web pages made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged in date order. The content and purposes of blogs varies greatly—from links and commentary about other web sites, to news about a company/person/idea, to diaries, photos, poetry, mini-essays, project updates, even fiction.


Why Should I be blogging?

What ever your line of business you can be sure that someone somewhere is searching for something related to your industry right now. The Top 5 search engines account for 213 million searches daily* - Can you afford to not be among the results?

Many bloggers often report receiving traffic to their blog (and onto their homepage) via what is known in the search engine industry as the 'long tail'. This is often a very specific search term that a blogger may have written about months previously. An example might be: “referrals from a professional firm” Something that Will Kintish has blogged about on several occasions but that he may not of consider as being a relevant search term to attract new readers to his site.


Conclusion

Blogging is fundamentally about building up content, an archive, a back catalogue of thoughts, ideas and opinions. In an internet era driven by a demand for content you can be sure that it won’t be long (if marketed correctly) before you start drawing new customers to your blog and onto your homepage.

*Source: searchenginewatch.com

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Thursday, June 22, 2006

Boosting your Page Rank… or letting us do it for you!

Page Rank (PR) is no new buzz word. Every webmaster from the amateur hobbyist to leading web designers like our friends at VirtuAffinity all know about the value of a site's PR. But what so many people don’t always realise is what actually contributes to your site getting a good PR.

Some people believe that it is the number of sites pointing to their site that will determine their link popularity, and the more links there are, the higher their ranking will be. This is true; however, it is only partially true and can lead you into a trap.

PushOn’s Approach

At PushOn we take this concept and create a bespoke solution to your online marketing needs, based on the principle discussed above. We strive to build you a net of inbound links, that will not only boost your PR but will direct ‘traffic’ or customers to your site.

Your Site

Firstly, we give the site a once over. Is it legal? Does it conform to Accessibility Standards? Is your content appropriate? These are just some of the questions we’ll attempt to answer as we go through a steady ‘on-page’ optimisation of your site.

Your Marketplace

We believe that if your product is worth selling, and marketing, then you want it to be in the marketplace most appropriate for you. One thing that the big search engines seem to love is contextually appropriate links back to your site from sites in the same market. Links like this are gold dust and with a little help you could find your site linking in from a series of PushOn’s known sources.

Anchoring Links

A high number of your newly found inbound links will come from directories. For every link that we create we attempt to maximise your site's link presence by creating additional links within the descriptions available. This has been a highly successful technique and we’ve seen some great results from it.

The Personal Touch

Unlike so many bigger (and possibly cheaper) SEO firms, we don’t use automated tools to ‘spam’ your site's details at directories in a hope that a few of them may add your site to their pages. We believe this not only gives your site a bad reputation but is damaging to ours also.

Instead we employ a team of well trained and motivated LinkBuilders to create valuable links to aid us in boosting your site's PR and online presence.

What Next

PushOn have a range of tools and techniques to help boost your site in your chosen online marketplace that we’d be excited to discuss with you. So give us a call and see how our expertise can give you that edge over your competitors.

About the Author

Jamie Clouting is an SEO Specialist working for PushON, a Manchester based online marketing firm. He is currently studying Information Systems Engineering at the University of Manchester.

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Friday, June 16, 2006

We are family...

Our sister company Virtuaffinity have received a special commendation for their Heaven SPA website at this years Big Chip Awards in Manchester and they're pretty chuffed! Congratulations to them.

Based in Manchester, Virtuaffinity create effective web site solutions that help make money for your business. So check them out.

Jamie
SEO Specialist

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Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Online Business Directory

PushON have continued to add to their portfolio of "Stuff" recently by expanding the use of its online business directory under the VA Slingshot domain. It's main purpose is to aid in our Search Engine Marketing activities, but if you want a link in there (and would be kind enough to drop a link back!) we will be happy to oblige.

Jamie
SEO Specialist

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White Dental Spa - Cosmetic Dentists

I've been doing some SEM for this Cosmetic Dentists in Alderley Edge, near Manchester, in the heart of Cheshire. They have created one of the leading cosmetic dental practices in the UK.

They cater for both NHS and Cosmetic Dental Treatments.

Let me know what you think!

Jamie
SEO Specialist

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Why I'm here...

Just got a new Job, working with some great guys at a firm in Manchester Called PushON. Spending a lot more time on the net doing 'SEM' for them so thought I'd get going with one of these.

Oh and by the way... just incase you dont know what online marketing is...

Online Marketing is simply a collection of methods that help make your website work for your business. There are many reasons to market online. For instance, it may just be that you want to build your brand presence online. You may also want to bring lots of people to your website. Once those people reach your website, there may be a wide range of things that you want them to do. Many businesses want those people to buy something, but you could also consider bringing them to your site as a point of contact to support your product or service, effectively helping retain customers. Whatever you motivation, there are some solid and measurable techniques that you can apply to Digital Marketing

Check back soon to see what I'm upto.

Jamie Clouting
SEO Specialist

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