Posts

Spotify launches across the pond 14th July 2011 5:01 PM

Must admit, haven't heard of this one before, but nice to see something originating here for a change, and then launching across the pond.

"Spotify is a new way to listen to music
Millions of tracks, any time you like. Just search for it in Spotify, then play it. Just help yourself to whatever you want, whenever you want it"
A world of music - Spotify

Don't quite understand how the model works, assume there must be revenue going back to the original artists and it's not a napster

A rival to itunes or a young pretender?

Forget PageRank - Now it's Panda Rank 14th July 2011 3:04 PM

Here's a cracking article from Danny Sullivan, SEO guru and editor of Search Engine land.

He explains the recent wave of Google Panda updates, and what they actually are.

Here's a summary, but if you want to learn more about optimising for Google, this makes good reading.

"it

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Thanks from: Bill Ryan

Goodbye News of the World -hello Sunday Sun? 14th July 2011 11:42 AM

So NewsCorp have withdrawn from the BSkyB bid, it does look like the Media Moguls wings have been truly clipped!

Think there's a few redfaces though from all parties, as no one seems to have come out of this very well

Now we've been shown up publicly as a corrupt nation where politicians and police can be bought...

ahh well at least Italians will sympathise with us

Lease Cars/Company cars yes or no? 14th July 2011 11:33 AM

This is a subject I get completely confused with.

Looking to replace my 4x4 early next year. Obviously its a capital outlay, so looking at all the options, and looking at revisiting lease options. I leased a car a few years ago, and at the time, the accountant advised me it was more cost effective to buy the next car myself. Didn't really understand, but nodded and agreed.

So have any of the rules changed, or does anyone else do a business lease?

Just getting a feel for what everyone else does? Do you business lease, personal lease or buy it yourself?

If you business lease, is it ok to park the car at home, as I remember being told before the car is classed as a pool car so legally should only be parked at the office.

Any company recommendations? Plus can you haggle, like when you buy a new car, or is the price set in stone?

So many questions, all very confusing

Best purchase: What have you bought that you cannot live without!? 14th July 2011 11:22 AM

Originally Posted by highlandspring

“I have to be cheesy and say my wedding ring. Wife is away with kids in our Villa so they are in my thoughts all the time.

”

ahhhhhhh

Obviously I was going to say that as well. The rest of us are obviously just materialistic gits

Correct spelling IS important 14th July 2011 11:01 AM

Originally Posted by highlandspring

“And now Google is using spelling and grammar in its algorithm to score page quality.

So spelling etc is more important than ever.”

I didn't know that! Can you link to anything concrete about that or is it rumour? Would love to see a breakdown of their algorythmn.. we need an inside mole...

But Mary's right, spelling is something that gets overlooked on so many sites. Web designers normally aren't content writers, so it's upto site owners to take charge of the written word on their site.

If you are diving under the covers and playing with a bit of coding, this can be even more of an issue.

The other day I had to pose a question on the SEOmoz community forum, as a report was showing I had thousands of pages reporting onpage SEO issues.

Was racking my brains, checking and triple checking, and someone spotted I had an extra "/" at the end of my title tag which was throwing out all of my meta info. Just a simple silly typo, but on a template page which is used to build 90% of the website

Very embarrassing, but just goes to show...

Expected cost of SEO work for start up websites 14th July 2011 10:47 AM

Originally Posted by Kip FX Design

“aha the first truly accurate answer! ROI!”

Your right, and its back to basics. To be honest, anyone running a business should factor this in as a matter of course.

It goes for any kind of marketing, PPC, SEO, SMM, Billboard advertisng etc..

No point shelling out

Expected cost of SEO work for start up websites 13th July 2011 11:22 PM

Yup agree, no way you can give a rough guide as keywords vary wildly.

Reality is, people setting out with a new site will have very little idea or expectation when it comes to SEO, as most people will be unfamiliar with it.

Petrol price war 13th July 2011 9:28 AM

Originally Posted by OnlineTileShop

“In Bristol the other week it was

Adwords good or bad? 13th July 2011 12:29 AM

Originally Posted by Sharpink

“Could I achieve similar results by "paying" a lump sum to an SEO?”

Ahh the age old question

We haven't had an adwords post for a while, and it normally sparks a good debate.

Personally, I love adwords. Said it before, no where else will you get instant marketing and see instant results. It's a powerful tool, but one you need to closely monitor and analyze results, otherwise you just end up wasting money.

Adwords is great for those keywords you would like to have, or are not sure how they will convert.

Organic SEO is a longwinded time consuming affair, so you only want to spend valuable time optimising keywords you know will convert for you. With adwords you can put a toe in the water, and try different things without all the hardwork. You could then shortlist which ones to optimise for organically.

Or, if you have narrowed down to a good set of performing keywords in adwords, and they are converting well, then you may want to leave them running, which is what we have done.

But never use adwords just to generate traffic. Every click costs, so make it count. If a keyword doesn't convert, dump it. That said, if you can't get a keyword to convert, but it is generating traffic, then that maybe pointing to an issue on your site, eg sign up process, something not grabbing the user etc. So maybe try a new page, and then try the campaign again.

As marketing tools go, and the amount of data you can pull from your google analytics, adwords takes a lot of beating imho.

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Thanks from: Big Ray...