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Wednesday 29 September 2010

Link Exchanges Schemes are Bad for YOUR Health

So you’ve got yourself a website, and all excited about it you tell your friends, colleagues and business contacts all about it; and the first thing they say is “ Oooh.. that’s great, you can link to mine and I’ll link to yours”.. and everybody involves thinks this is a great idea exchanging links in this way because hey, the more links you have makes your site popular with Google.

Now this is all very well if you are talking about a few links between ‘networking businesses’, but in the bigger picture, exchanging reciprocal links is not a good way to ingratiate your site with Google. Be wary of joining Link Exchange Schemes or you could catch a nasty cold!

If it were that easy all we’d have to do is put a couple of hundred (or a thousand ) links from our web pages to other pages and ask them to do the same. Websites would immediately become ‘huge link banks’ rather than sources of information which is essentially what they should be in every case, even commercial sites.

Google views 1 to 1 reciprocal linking very very low in importance, for just that reason.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t do your friends a favour and they not do you the same, but just think about what Google thinks is important or you might just have a long term negative impact.

Google LIKES inbound links to your site where there is no reciprocal link back. Why ? Because that scenario is a neutral (and therefore more valuable), editorial vote for your site’s content.

Google ABSOLUTELY LOVES the inbound (and not reciprocated) link where the link is from a site that is relevant and complementary to your own, ESPECIALLY if that site is regarded highly by Google already. So if you do arrange that reciprocal link with a business friend, just consider that your visitors may find their site irrelevant to what they are looking for. e.g. don’t link to your friend’s Doggie Washing Service if your site is about Commercial Property Investment for example. Keep it relevant.

So how do you go about getting quality links ?

What about Link Exchanges then ? You know, those people who drop an e-mail into your inbox offering a campaign where your site offers other sites (with similar relevant content to yours) a link ,and in exchange adds a links to yours from theirs.  Well, we’ve just blown reciprocal links out of the water; but schemes like that that promise hundreds of links are not a good idea to get involved with.

Here’s why you shouldn’t take my word for it, this is what Google has to say about this.

“..Excessive link exchanges, could “negatively impact your site’s ranking in search results.”

“ Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or Page Rank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.

some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines and can negatively impact your site's ranking in search results”.

The best way to get other sites to create relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community. The more useful content you have, the greater the chances someone else will find that content valuable to their readers and link to it.

So ok. If you can’t use Link Exchanges, how do you go about getting quality ‘votes’ for your site ?

Link exchanges used to be a popular but old way of getting links, and although links of any type to your site are still counted there is always the risk that you could catch a very bad cold if you actively participate in link exchanges.

Start to look at the social networking sites and get your site out there. Social networking sites such as Digg, Twitter, Delicious, facebook and Stumbleupon are well capable of driving traffic in their thousands to your site; but only if you have unique and interesting content on the site. The more interesting your content, the greater the chances someone else will find that content useful to their visitors and link to you.

Always consider that your outward links are part of your content. If you link to sites stuffed with irrelevant adverts or to a site that tells you how to Wash a Dog (and your site is about Property Investment), then the visitor is going to question your motives and will not link his own site to yours.

So focus on good quality content and then look at using social networking to drive visitors to your site. If you have good content, then other sites will start to link to yours.

If you ARE involved in Link Exchanges, visit the reciprocal links as often as you can and make sure you don’t have an unhealthy neighbour, and that you still have a link back.

Always remember that the risks of a Link Exchange system far outweigh the benefits.

Saturday 25 September 2010

Phab new site launch

We are pleased to announce that we have launched our latest site for Chichester and Wittering PHAB Club.


PHAB stands for People Have ABilities.


Chichester and Wittering PHAB is a club where disabled and non-disabled people can get together in a social environment with total inclusion.


Their members ages  range from 8 to 55.


Chichester and Wittering PHAB is a charity in it's own right but the only funds they raise are by jumble sales, car boot sales, designing and selling Christmas cards and collecting days.


They are always looking for volunteers to help them out with activities, ideas or to make donations to keep the charity going.


If you would like to help, please visit the site and tell them how you can help.


Visit http://www.chichesterandwitteringphab.org.uk/

Thursday 23 September 2010

Did Google just instantly kill your website ?

You may, or may not yet, have noticed over the last two weeks that Google has made major changes to the way they present your results by predicting a full page of results as you type.

This is ‘Google Instant’

So what is ‘Google Instant’ and how does it affect your website?

'Google instant' is a new search enhancement that shows a page of results as you type. Google reckon that this saves the visitor seconds on each individual search, so is it a smart gimmick ? Google are far too savvy to risk their cash cow on a mere gimmick. Google believe that ‘Google Instant’ will deliver much more relevant results over time, and that will keep Google at number 1 as the search engine of preference. ‘Google Instant’ will also ‘learn’ as individual users search. So what does that mean ?

This is the first very important distinction between the new and the old google


It used to be that if two people typed in the same search term they would get the same page of search results. This made it relatively easy to optimize a site on a specific search phrase. However, over time, Google will now ‘tweak’ the results for individuals based on their search history.

As an illustration then, John Smith works on a farm and is looking for a fencing company in Sussex. So is Fred Brown, who wants a fence around his Arundel residential property. Typing in ‘Sussex Fencing’ will give them both the same page of results (in the old Google). In future, Fred Brown, who also fences as a sport, will start to see different results over time because of his interest. In six months time, Fred Brown will be returned more sporting result pages because Google will have ‘learned’ that he clicked on more Sporting Fencing pages than Fencing Contractors.

Now this only happens if you are logged into Google with your account, but it’s only a matter of time before ‘Google Instant’ is a default for all google users.

 Some experts think that this makes optimizing your site to appear on page 1 virtually impossible.


Not true.

It changes the way you and I need to approach site optimization. It changes the game… and it is a game ! Just like in any game, the winners are the most flexible and nimble team and the ones with the best all round strategy and set up.

What is the best strategy ?


Content, content, content.


Give your visitors exactly what they are looking for and you will win with the search engines. If we play this way, we give your web site visitors relevant benefit and in doing that we are giving Google’s customers relevant benefit and so Google will want US to win the game.

More and more SEO has less to do with figuring out the search engine algorithm and more to do with content; content that serves customers. That means we have to start working together more and more as partners, because we need regular up to date content from you and in return we will make sure that we play the game well.

That changes the game for us in that we would like you to spend more time making articles, newsletters, blogs etc. We have a specialized SEO service set up for this and this is outlined below.

So how can HW Marketing help ?


We can ensure that your ‘expert content’, articles, blogs etc, get out there into the web, and in doing so hardwire your site to hundreds if not thousands of relevant links that Google will look on favourably.

You will notice also that 'Google Instant' favours large companies and brands and pushes the searcher toward those sites. This is because with predictive results, a page of results is presented to you after typing just a few letters. Potentially then, a visitor may find exactly what they want before they have typed the ‘sussex’ bit of ‘Fencing Sussex’.  Firms with large SEO budgets will always globally and nationally out rank the smaller business anyway. It was our job as SEO people to make sure that we picked the least competitive (but still high traffic!) local search terms for your website to ensure you beat these big brands on a local basis. Now, we need to work differently to beat the big chaps.

Please take a look at our SEO service, and call us to discuss any questions you might have.

HW Marketing are a Chichester Web Design company and the choice for Startup Companies and small businesses who want an affordable professional optimised website presence quickly

Wednesday 22 September 2010

We've got to move it move it, we've got to, move it!

HW Marketing UK, a Chichester Web design company,  are pleased to announce another website launch for a start up company today.

Man and a Van company, manandabigvan.co.uk came to us just three days ago ad wanted an optimized website presence as soon as possible.

Robbie, the company's proprietor, was aware that a website takes time to bed into the internet and that it takes time before a site can be found on search engines.

Man and a Big Van operate in the Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire, M25, A3 and M3 corridors. Their list of services include (but is not limited to) small removals, courier service, store collection, student moves, business/office moves, long distance service, house clearances, collect and deliver e-bay purchases and furniture delivery. Our van is fitted with a tail lift for heavy items.

Man and a Big van use a Mercedes Sprinter with an extra high Box Conversion and a tail lift for heavier goods
.
We look forward to working with manandabigvan.co.uk

Tuesday 7 September 2010

5 of the biggest mistakes new businesses make

The following are five easy traps to fall into that all new and growing businesses must do everything in their power to avoid.
Any one of these five could seriously limit your income and profits. Combined, they can destroy a business. Avoid at all costs.

1 Trying to sell something that people don’t want
It sounds obvious but you would be surprised.
Choosing a good product or service to sell is easy.
You just choose something that large numbers of people are currently spending money on – and market it better than anyone else.
But that’s far too easy for many would-be entrepreneurs who feel they have to invent something new. If you’ve watched Dragons’ Den you know precisely what I mean.
Your product may be ‘great.’ It may be something we all ‘need.’
Just make sure it’s also something that people want. It’s a key distinction

2 Wasting Money on Ineffective Advertising
Most small business Advertising does not work.
You must be ruthless and immediately stop any advertising that is not producing profits for you.
When you’re growing a business, finances can obviously be tight. The problems caused by wasted advertising go far beyond just losing the money. Businesses end up in a loop where they feel pressured to throw more at the advertising, that creates more financial pressure and then there’s the continued frustration that the ads are not producing customers.
This cycle of Advertising despondency is very demoralising as well as being very expensive.
If you’re Advertising is not working – Stop It!

3 A Website that’s the World’s best kept Secret
I’ve seen business owners spend weeks, months and in some cases years building their website. Many of them have probably not even spent 30 minutes working out how to get people to the site.
Unfortunately, the quality of your website has virtually nothing to do with the number of people who will visit it. The analogy of the internet as a massive shopping centre is just plain wrong.
Actually the opposite is true. Take all the shops in the mall, spread them out over a radius of 100 miles and make people drive to them and you have a closer analogy of what it takes to get people to your site.
So how do you attract customers to your website?
Here are 7 methods to focus on, all of which we can cover with you in detail
1. Pay per Click Advertising
2. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
3. Viral Marketing
4. Email Marketing
5. Online Articles
6. Inbound Link Campaign
7. Offline / Traditional Advertising
Do all of them and you’re set to become a true online success story. We can help you with any of these

4 Creating Unrealistic Time/Money Pressures
Most new and growing businesses seriously under estimate how long it’s going to take them to be successful.
It’s certainly possible to create remarkable shifts in your business performance faster than most people think possible.
But it’s also true that masterpieces take time.
It’s a real shame when you see entrepreneurs with really good, solid business ideas suffer because they haven’t given themselves enough time. You need to have access to enough cash to keep you going, probably for twice as long as you planned. How you do that is up to you. You have to do what it takes and you have to give yourself enough time.

5 Just Selling One Thing - Not creating a ‘back end’ of Products and Services
I’ll go as far as to say that if you don’t get this one right, you’ll never have a truly great business.
The real profits in most businesses are in the long term relationships with customers
The costs of Marketing to new customers are very high. The costs of Marketing to existing customers are very low – with the internet and email, close to nothing.
So you simply must build up a ‘back end’ of products or services to offer your customers.
If you do not have anything obvious to offer them, find someone who does, team up with them and offer their stuff to your customers.

It’s all in the back-end!

Thursday 2 September 2010

Water, water everywhere... or not

HW Marketing UK, a Chichester Web Design Company are  pleased to announce their latest website launch, Ecoteric Systems Ltd


Ecoteric were so keen to go live with their website as soon as possible, that they insisted on launching with only the home page completed. 


Ecoteric have rebranded substantially in the last few months and the new website reflects the new image. 


The rest of the site is due to be completed in just 8 days time.Global water consumption is doubling at a rate that is more than twice the rate of population growth. 


Fresh water is a finite and precious resource, which has, in recent years, largely been taken for granted.As our climate becomes drier and warmer, so the need to call on efficient, ecological purification systems grows at a rapid pace.


Ecoteric Systems Ltd design, construct , monitor and maintain bespoke natural wastewater handling, sewage and effluent treatment/purification systems and work within the regulatory advice of the Environment Agency and the EU Water Framework Directive.
Ecoteric provide environmental consultancy relating to all aspects of wastewater handling in Industrial, Agricultural, Domestic and Leisure environments.As our climate becomes drier so the need to retain rainfall becomes greater. 
As the charges for water increase at a rapid pace we are finally looking at ways of using every last drop that falls on our property. Legislation is already in hand to ensure that roofs covering a certain area will be required to collect water for use, a process known as rainwater harvesting.


Simple water butts are widely used, but these will be replaced by much larger and sophisticated water systems. These are already being installed in agricultural buildings, industrial and commercial sites.


Ecoteric Systems can providde expert advice in rainwater harvesting. They undertake a full site assessment, providing a range of solutions which include full system design, installation and maintenance.


Find out more at www.ecotericsystems.com

HW Marketing UK are the Chichester Web Design Company of choice for Small or Startup Businesses in the area. Easily understandable pricing packages start at £200. The Company was established in 2009 by Neil Holley-Williams who worked for 25 years as a Freelance Consultant for IBM, Skandia Life, Invesco Perpetual and Carnival UK.