You need two websites nowadays:

One thing that this should flag up for businesses, is that a social media presence, has become, at the very least, as important as your web site. Any product-focused operation needs to be where its customers are. Social media’s power to engage an interested audience, and to enable customers and prospects to advocate your brand for free only strengthens this argument.

But there has been a backlash among the Internet population about the control online behemoths such as Facebook and Google seem to have over us. These brands are much maligned in the media..we are constantly told that these people cannot be trusted.

Facebook and Google: Friends or foes??

People have a choice. There are plenty of search engines aside from Google. There are numerous other ways to organise and enhance social lives, or to promote your brand in a positive way, other than Facebook. These are just two of the best at what they do. We use them for convenience and for the quality of their service if nothing else.

If Google started to give erroneous and irrelevant results on a regular basis, we would soon turn away. And the same with Facebook..if it was really that intrusive and “Big-brother”like, we would soon delete accounts…and the population would fall at a much faster rate than Facebook users are currently jumping ship.

Friends for sure:

Rather than being perceived as dominant and oppressive control freaks in the online space, these two brands should be embraced and appreciated for the great things they are. There are very few people reading this, who will not have benefited from either brands myriad of great services. If that wasn’t the case, we would soon be off to use someone who could give us what we want!

Some companies; Mercedes-Benz being one, have achieved a phenomenal Facebook presence by adopting this strategy. But for many, they are beginning to realise, that the measurable effects of a multitude of “likes” are actually minimal.

In fact, they are simply a forced public display of an opt-in to a brand’s social news stream. It is not what it was first presumed to be; brand advocacy.

Phase 1: Like. Phase 2: Advocate

Advocacy goes beyond an affinity with a brand and can be extremely effective at influencing other people’s behaviour. 90% of people said they would trust word-of-mouth recommendations from people they know according to the Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey.

So if the wisdom of friends is becoming ever more relevant, how can you use social technologies to stitch together the wisdom of friends and increase the flow of advocacy of your brand?

Between 5-15% only of all pasts that past through people’s newsfeeds on Facebook are ever viewed. So to improve upon this, the “recommend” button was introduced. This is a form of advocacy as people are effectively saying when they use it, that “this is something which I like, and think will also be of specific interest to you”

The Google “+1″ button works along similar lines. Using this has the same effect; it publicly gives something your stamp of approval.  These stronger advocacy tools may well influence current SEO, giving much more weight to search via social interaction. That remains to be seen. But it does indicate that social media is moving into a new phase, where companies will be expected to work much harder to earn engagement and advocacy.

Fans must become genuine advocates. To achieve this, brands must create more meaningful and valuable interactions with people. It is no longer enough to be “liked”.

But determining exactly what you can do with Facebook is possibly the hard part. Relentlessly hunting for “likes” is for vanity really and nothing more! It is the equivalent for businesses of individuals competing for the most friends. It has yet to be comprehensively proven to be useful in selling anything. (although we stand to be corrected?!)

What Facebook can be used effectively as is a test bed if you like. You can gauge if something is actually going to work, by actually giving people a taster of a product and then monitoring their reaction. Facebook is the perfect place to set-up the equivalent of the perfect bricks and mortar “pop-up”store. You can quickly see what people think of your new idea and without a great deal of effort or expense.

Facebook is after all where the people are. Furthermore, it is a fast-moving environment where people are looking to access information or items of interest capriciously. They do not expect an immersive or especially refined brand environment.

The Adwords system is completely user-centric, whether you are someone typing in a search query, or a company looking to sell more of a product or service. It is all about relevance. Ads show that satisfy the user’s search query most effectively, and the company benefits because they know that the click, for which they have just paid, is a very qualified lead.

From a company perspective, Adwords can be much cheaper than employing a full-time sales team; with all the fixed overheads that come with that. You can measure exactly how much profit each sale generates (ROI) via a suite of measuring tools that Google offers to its advertisers for free.

How much did it cost to acquire each new customer? You can think about the margin you are looking to make on each sale, and then control the budget you spend on trying to acquire that sale via the Google Adwords/ PPC method. You are in complete control of your budget and who you are trying to target. And in conjunction with Google’s measuring tools, you can always look to improve your ROI.

By constantly tweaking your keywords and ad text, you will improve your sales and profit. A free keyword tool from Google, even does a lot of the leg work for you!

Google Adwords works. Our own clients can testify to this. We have increased their sales significantly over the past couple of years. And with complete control over the costs attached to marketing via Adwords, there are no hidden risks.

SEO insiders have wondered whether this new search innovation would affect placement strategies. And the simple answer is: yes. Yes, there will be changes to the way SEO professionals run their clients’ campaigns. Yes, this will affect the industry as a whole. And yes, we believe SEO professionals will have to adapt to meet ever-evolving needs.

But to think that this development is rocking the SEO world is to misunderstand the realities of the industry. In its roughly 15 years of existence, SEO has grown from being a small wildcat operation run by webmasters and content services to being one of the most dynamic, fast-growing sectors of the tech market. The reason for this rapid growth is because — not in spite –- of the constantly evolving nature of search engines.

Of course, as with any complex question about a dynamically evolving industry, there is a caveat. While the Bing-Facebook agreement and the recent updates to Google will change elements of how we do our business, the fundamentals will remain the same. As much as innovation shapes the day-to-day processes of optimization, the core foundations of the industry remain unchanged. The goal was — and still is — putting clients at the top of results pages, whether this is through organic search, paid search or social media.

Social media is nothing new in the world of online marketing. Facebook alone has 500 million users. We have already seen certain Twitter feeds included in Google search results. Before long, results may integrate other social networking sites, like Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite and myriad other sites that haven’t even been developed yet. For SEO professionals, this change highlights the need to integrate social networking if they haven’t already.

The Bing-Facebook agreement is indicative of the many changes that have taken SEO from a small-time game to a major, innovative industry. SEO is not about counter-punching, and it’s not about simply reacting to the changing search-engine landscape. Instead, it is about growing alongside search engines. It is about evolving with them to ensure that searchers get the results they need.

For years now, successful SEO firms have not been focusing their efforts strictly on organic search results. They’ve been steadily evolving along with changes in search engines: new Google algorithms, the emergence of Bing, the development of Google Local, instant searches, paid search, and searchable Twitter feeds. To be successful, SEO firms now need to become something more advanced: Digital Media Agencies.

Digital Media Ageniess are about handling the many online representation needs of their clients. While top search engine placement remains the major goal, it is just one aspect of what they seek to do. A Digital Media Agency also seeks to manage a client’s online reputation, create and maintain their social presence, and handle the many other aspects of a client’s online brand.

Will SEO professionals have to change their strategy in reaction to a new social media paradigm? The answer is yes. Their evolution into full-fledged Digital Media Agencies is imperative. And as the social and search industries continue to change, so too will Digital Media Agencies need to innovate.

Google faces an entrenched adversary. Last year, Skype became the leading carrier of international voice calls. In the year to June 30, Skype’s registered users rose from 397m to 560m. Gmail has just over 200m users.

But just 8.1m of Skype’s users pay for the service, and the company relies on these direct payments from these users for most of its revenues.

Google plans to undercut Skype’s prices. In a promotion designed to attract new users, calls to the US and Canada will be free for at least the rest of the year. Calls to other countries will be as low as 2 cents per minute, and will not include a connection fee. The service will become available to US Gmail users in the coming days.

Google already offered Gmail users free voice and video calls to other Gmail users, and the company rolled out Google Voice, a call management programme, earlier this year.

In unveiling the feature, Google emphasised the ongoing convergence of traditional telecommunications and the web. “Given that most of us don’t spend all day in front of our computers, we thought, ‘wouldn’t it be nice if you could call people directly on their phones

Analysts said it was too early to tell if low prices and the convenience of the inbox would allow Google to lure users away from Skype. Skype users are tremendously loyal; so it will be interesting to see how this pans out.

Well, you are not alone.  Every year, thousands of UK businesses buy into rogue services that fail to deliver results of any kind. The most popular type of service that Internet Marketing companies push is called Search Engine Optimisation, otherwise known as SEO.

What is SEO?

SEO is the process of increasing a website’s position in the search engines so that the website receives more visitors. If carried out correctly, an SEO campaign can deliver a measurable increase in targeted traffic:  visitors looking for a particular service or product.

By focusing on specific keywords, a website can be optimised to appear in the search engines for relevant searches. The more exposure a website gets in the search engines and the higher up in the results the website appears, the more visitors the website will get from its target market.

How do businesses get stung?

SEO is a specialist service that requires technical knowledge of how the internet and search engines like Google operate. There are a variety of scenarios that lead to a business feeling cheated by an SEO company. Typical scenarios are rogue SEO companies;

• Pretending that guarantees can be given for what ranking position a site will attain and how long it will stay there for.
• Not analysing the individual requirements of a client’s business and then applying inappropriate or ineffective strategies that don’t deliver results.
• Charging monthly fees on a rolling contract so that business owners see the campaigns as low risk (and essentially ‘worth a gamble’) but end up paying more than the value of the work done.
• Taking on clients that operate in extremely competitive environments where there may be no room for successful optimization.

10 tips to qualify an SEO Agency

So how can you avoid the unpleasant situations that we have just discussed? Research, preparation and asking the right questions are pretty effective in our experience. Here’s our top 10 tips.

1.    Ask them what guarantees they provide on indexes and rankings over time.

If they give any guarantees to do with Google (or other search engines), bin them
2.    Ask them how long it will take to get your website on the first page of Google

All SEO campaigns take time, and a real SEO company will say that a minimum of 3 months work is needed to make progress (unless you already rank for the keywords). Any mention of anything less, walk away.

3.    Do a Google search for their company name, paying particular attention at forum posts

Any negative experiences will come up, as will positive experiences
4.    Ask them what their rates are and how they price up campaigns

If they price per keyword that’s fine, but if they offer packages for £100 or £250 per month without first finding out what your needs are be cautious; the campaigns may not be tailored to what you need.

5.    Ask them what reporting they provide for clients

A genuine SEO company will provide monthly reports on what is being done each month for your money.

6.    Ask them what keywords their company website ranks for in Google.

Check their rankings. If they don’t come up, be sceptical. If they are a new company it’s acceptable to ask how they intend on ranking and how long it will take them (they should be at least trying to rank and have an understanding of timeframes) and only move forward on client testimonials directly from the clients (as well as doing point 2).

7.    Ask them what they think about your website

Most SEO companies will highlight how well optimised your website is for the search engines to read. Page titles internal linking, and keyword optimised copy are some points they should mention.  The emphasis shouldn’t all be on Meta Tags and if anybody tells you to focus on the “keyword meta tag” in particular, then beat a hasty retreat.
8.    Ask them how campaigns are planned to get you a return on Investment as soon as possible.

A good company will have a plan that will target low hanging fruit keywords to get an additional amount of traffic through to your website in the initial 1-3 months. Alongside this, they will have a long term strategy (3-12 months) to target the competitive keywords for your business. If they don’t provide a reasonable plan, question their approach and how long it will take you to see some form of ROI.

9.    Ask them what policies they have to protect your campaign and service from competitors.

An ethical SEO company will only service 1 client per sector or niche. By doing so, you will be sure that they will only optimise your campaign and not your competitors after you. If they do not commit to working exclusively for you within your sector / niche, be skeptical about their approach and ethics.

10. Ask them for case studies of their clients and contact details.

A genuine SEO agency will be happy to provide case studies and contact details for client references. These references will provide you with an unbiased, real life experience of the services being provided.

Conclusion

Just a few simple checks could mean the difference between a cost-effective campaign that delivers traffic, leads and clients, and an expensive failure that could even leave you worse off in the search engine rankings than before.

Remember to keep asking those questions! We have a proven record of delivering a return on investment when it comes to our clients regarding SEO. Why not give us a call on 01694 724 899, and we will be only too happy to answer any queries that you may have!

From the index of over 10 billion images in Google’s databases, Google has cross-referenced images as often as possible in order to more thoroughly identify what’s in the picture.  For instance, if you post a photo of The Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, but do not label it (even with a descriptive file name), Google will likely figure out what it is by comparing it to other photos of the hotel that have been labeled.  This is also true of many other types of images, even down to sub-species of animals.

When photos are displayed on the Google search, they pop up as a box over the top of the original page they’re on and this box has other information about the picture.  It tells you the size, weight (file size), any image information embedded (titles, photographer, usage rights, etc.) and gives you its best-guess if there is no labeling.  You can also use that image as the basis for a new search to find more like it.

You can even specify a color you prefer when searching for an image in the Advanced Search area.  So if you’re looking for Volkswagencars , but only want to look at red ones, you can include that and Google will do its best to only return red VWs. Now that is pretty neat!

All in all, there are a lot of cool new things in Google’s new Image Search.  It’s now become on-par with Bing and then one-upped the competition.

Both are incredible companies. There is no doubt about that. They have changed the world. But each has a profoundly different vision.

At it’s core, Google believes that at the end of all this, the world will be centred on computers, and computers will be doing everything. This may well be why Google has potentially missed the boat on  social-networking.

The Facebook model is radically different. As far as they are concerned, humans must maintain mastery over technology, rather than the other way around. The value of Facebook stems from the fact that people are the most important thing.

Facebook has come under so much scrutiny recently for its privacy-related initiatives. But under all that scrutiny, many of the founder’s objectives have been missed.

Facebook is all about transparency. It was founded on the premise that transparency will take over modern life. Indeed, you know that if you google your own name, you can’t always control what information is available on you in the public domain!

Facebook is trying to build a safer, more trusted version of the internet. By holding people to the consequences of their actions and requirements to use their real identity.

But is it right for a company to decide on whether people should be responsible or not for their own actions?  Who do Facebook think they are some would say? There is now so much data that resides about us on Facebook. Should any one company control and aggregate so much information about its users? We do not even know how it will be used in the future. This can be quite scary for some people, and understandably so.

Facebook uses some of this data for its own commercial gain, by making it available to advertisers. Is this the right thing to do?

So many questions, and in truth, I still have not made up my mind. I am not sure that a world governed by computers is the answer. So Facebook. Its vision to empower the individual is an admirable one. If they can give us the tools to enable them to communicate more efficiently, then that is not such a bad thing.

But what scares me, is that all this power is in the hands of one organisation. Soon, they will have as much information on us as governments do!

Food for thought..and if any of you can see the end result, please do let us know.