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A Web spider's update - Richard Martin - October Sent Thursday, November 10, 2011
making the web work for small businesses

October News - Issue 27

Richard Martin

Client feedback : the basics of getting found.

After last month's update some people asked me  "What is 'Black-Hat' SEO?"  Coincidentally, a client also asked me to review their site to make recommendations about their basic searchability.  In a third example, I reviewed the guidelines an agency gave their client which were just plain inaccurate.  In a fourth example, a client related how their web package was encouraging them to "fill out their keywords tags" - which search engines stopped looking at back at the turn of the millennium!  (And indeed mis-filling this section can actually penalise you).  So I thought a small article on the basic do's and dont's of SEO might be useful?  Please feel free to forward this to anyone else you may feel would be interested.

Other items in the news this month

The biggest "I told you so" moment this month attributed to Steve Jobs, is Adobe's withdrawal of "Flash" from the mobile browser market.  Flash is Adobe's proprietary graphical interface that allows for amazing animations on websites.  Apple had already withdrawn support for Flash from its iOS devices citing instability and it now looks like Adobe has concluded the same.  But it was on the cards:  with the release of HTML5 early this year, which supports many graphical transition effects natively from within HTML, I indicated in an earlier newsletter that Flash would increasingly be regarded as yesterday's technology: requiring high skill levels and expense to use it, as well as being totally unsearch-able.  The time is rapidly approaching for people with Flash-based websites to consider moving off it.

Interesting Client Developments this month

"Scooter-senior"
This eCommerce site is still a work-in-progress, but now well under way with the population of products. 
La Croix Facebook Tabs
I have now created a properly Tabbed Fan Page for La Croix Spa, including "Activities", "Availability" and "Directions" pages. This is my first foray into Facebook fan sites.
Great results for Green Energy Eu
As well as updating the product set and site look-and-feel, the analytics now show combined monthly traffic for all Green Energy's sites is in excess of 5,000 visits!  The guys are seeing this result in a steady number of enquiries and contacts for information and quotes.
Vitrinesdexpositions
My PPC campaign with Selquin is now in care and maintenance with the client, pending any further review of market demand and monitoring of prices that they may want.They are very busy with new plans of which hopefully more anon.

What's more?

A mistake turned out well for me...

You will have received a message from me by mistake last month.  Huge apologies - I was adding some new newsletter recipients and my software decided to send their welcome message to everyone.  However, I was very interested by the response of so many of you saying "yes please do keep me on", as well as (only) one response asking very politely to come off.  Iknow everyone had to "opt in" to receive these emails in the first place - but I felt after this experience that it might be healthy every now and then to ask explicitly - and check to see if you're getting something of value.
 

Theft of Copyright - What to do

This spectre rears its ugly head far too often on the web, although since the "Panda" update earlier this year, Google has gone some way to diminishing the value of "second copies" of content.  Nevetheless it is theft, and can have serious implications on your business.  See an article I once wrote regarding the topic, and what to do.
 Did you know?
 
The "tipping point" in numbers of FANs registered to a Facebook Page, before it starts generating regular business interest is considered to be 500.

For web sites I have an analogous figure I give my clients of 1500 visits per month - just based on what I see in the stats Vs what they tell me they're receiving in phone calls. emails etc.

As a small business you are now more likely to have a Tweet opened by the right people if it is sent to LINKEDIN, than within Twitter itself. Your message won't get lost in the feed so easily as it does in Twitter, and on LinkedIn you can have threaded conversations around a particular topic, whcih you can't on Twitter.

Marketing tools I use

here are the shortcuts to tools I only came upon by months of trial and expensive error.

Socialoomph
For Social message management

 aWeber
For eMail newsletters		 Internet Business Promoter (IBP)
For SEO		 SEMRush
For market demand analysis
Adobe Creative Suite 5
Web Design Suite		 SpeedPPC
(Bulk) PCC campaign manager		 Likno
Java-based menus & tooltips		 Royalty-Free Photos
A great site when you're stuck for a photo.

 
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