After intensive and very successful beta-testing, a “third way” of Internet Marketing is being launched at E-Commerce Expo 2007 by Strategy Internet Marketing: Pay-Per-Results (PPR).

John Courtney of Strategy Internet Marketing commented: “Until now there have been two main methods of Internet Marketing: Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and generic Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).  Pay-Per-Click has become very popular because the client only pays every time a prospect clicks on his advert.  Search Engine Optimisation, while very effective, is traditionally priced with up front fees which puts some clients off as it demands a financial commitment and the SEO company is paid regardless of how well they perform.

This Pay-Per-Results (PPR) method is really combining the best of Pay-Per-Click and the best of Search Engine Optimisation. We are only obtaining generic listings but we have priced it like PPC.

One electrical e-commerce client that Strategy Internet Marketing has been working with over the past few months on Pay-Per-Results (PPR) has seen dramatic increases in both traffic and sales and a substantial return on investment.”

Strategy Internet Marketing is a division of Strategy Consulting Limited which has just celebrated its 10th Anniversary.

FURTHER INFORMATION AVAILABLE FROM JOHN COURTNEY ON 07976 436757 OR 0117 377 8237 OR ON STAND 103 AT E-Commerce Expo 2007

When I first begin speaking with prospects about working together the first question I ask them is “WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR WEBSITE TO ACHIEVE FOR YOU?” The answer to this helps us focus on the desired outcome right from the start.  If you are talking to us then the answer to this question has to be that you are looking for more traffic, more conversions and increased profits.

Next we talk about the story of your site so far – how old is the site, who is your target audience, who is responsible for the web design, have you implemented any SEO strategies so far, how do you measure your success, what works well and what doesn’t…. you can see how it goes!

Before we discuss how we might be able to work together to reach your goals it is important to us that you understand our services.   If you have any doubt at all about what SEO is and how it works I give you a short but comprehensive overview which seems to hit the spot!

Next we do a mini site review together, amongst other things we look at how your site is indexed in Google, what your meta tags look like, how your site is structured, we look at your inbound links and how each page may (or may not) be focused towards attracting a particular ranking or target phrase. 

Once we have a better idea of the current situation with your site and a clear idea of what you want your website to achieve we can recommend and discuss suitable SEO packages.

SEO services can differ hugely and its often hard to compare one company with another.  Much of the decision making process is built on trust so ask for references and evidence of success.  Our client relationships are long term so it is important that our clients know we can work well together so to that end we encourage you to ask questions and feel comfortable with what to expect.

If your SEO has not discussed the desired goals of your website with you then the service is not likely to deliver what you want.

If you would like to talk to us about how we may be able to help you increase your profits through more effective search engine optimisation please do contact us on 0845 838 0936 or email kath@strategyconsultinglimited.co.uk.

Checking to see that your site is indexed in the search engines is actually really easy for ANYONE to do themselves.

Go to www.Google.co.uk and type into the search box “site:www.yourdomain.co.uk” without the quotes and see what is displayed. Remember that you need to be listed in the search engine index in order for the search engines to list you in their results pages.

Check the number of pages that are displayed and make sure that your important pages are listed. If all of your important pages on your site are not listed then you need to take steps to get them included in the search engine index.

Check the cache link on the listings to see the date that each page was last indexed but also to see what the search engine sees.

If your site is contructed entirely in Flash you will probably find the cache shows a blank page. Also if your site is framed the search engines will see a blank page. This is not good because the search engines will not have enough information about your site to rank it.

Do the same search in Yahoo! and MSN to see how those search engines rank your site. The different search engines often have a different number of pages in their index. It is commonly easier to get indexed in MSN, then Yahoo! and finally Google - the most influential of the search engines.

Contact Strategy Internet Marketing if you would like to know more about getting your site listed in the search engines and actively bringing good quality traffic to your site.

Kath

We have written this paper to provide you with a brief guide to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) essentials.  If you have a website that is not bringing you as much traffic as you would wish, or you are planning a new website, you need to consider the following SEO essentials to ensure that you have the best chance of being ranked well in the search engines. 

Keyword Research
Keywords or key phrases are the words that people type into search engines to find the results they want.  If an initial search does not produce the kind of results that people are looking for they will refine their search so there will be a good number of phrases that people could use to find your website.

Brainstorm as much as possible to consider your target audience.  Ask potential customers what keywords they would use, ask colleagues and compile a list of phrases that you think will be used.  Then check it out using keyword research tools such as Wordtracker and Overture which will provide you with data on what people actually searched for.  This is a useful exercise as you may find that a minor difference in search term can produce significantly more traffic!

Try to identify one primary search term per page and several secondary terms that would compliment the primary term.  You can now apply your optimisation to individual pages.

Title Tag
This appears between these two tags .  It should start with your primary phrase and be about 5-7 words.  This title will appear in the blue bar at the top of your web page and will also provide the clickable link fro the search engine rankings. 

Description Tag
This appears between these two tags .   Your primary phrase should appear as soon as possible in the description but make sure it describes the page because there is nothing more frustrating for a visitor to your site if they get there and find that your description was not accurate.  Often, but not always, the description will for part of the wording that is presented in the search engine rankings that will persuade a visitor to click on your link.

Keywords Tag
This appears between these two tags .   Commas or no commas – whichever you choose be sure to be consistent.  Don’t spam the keyword tag i.e. don’t repeat keywords over and over.  Provide a list of relevant and complimentary keyphrases for those algorithms that give them a value.

Alt tag
If you have images or pictures on your site use the alt tag to provide information that describes the picture.  Search engines cannot read pictures but they can read alt tags, in addition specialist software can read alt tags if disabilities prevent a user from viewing the pictures.

CONTENT IS KING!!
Write your web page copy for your human visitors first while also keeping search engine spiders in mind.  Keyword density and prominence are measurements that are most efficiently considered in relation to competitors for specific rankings.  Search engines also like to detect regular updates as this is an indication that sites are being maintained.   

Anchor text
Anchor text is the text that you define as a hyperlink to another page.  The anchor text is expected to describe the theme of the page you would be jumping to by clicking on the link therefore anchor text has been given more value in search engine algorithms.  If you use something like ‘click here’ as hypertext rather than something more descriptive (and keyword rich) such as, for example, ‘SEO Case Studies’ then you are missing an opportunity.

Site Map
Add a site map to your site and link it from the home page so that spiders can crawl the site map quickly and from it crawl every important page on your site. 

Google Site Map
Add a Google sitemap to your site – this is an xml file which visitors do not see and it is specifically for Google.  By creating a Google sitemap, locating it in the root file and submitting it to Google you are ensuring that Google can easily identify every page on your site and also ensure that updates are notified to Google quicker than would happen without a Google sitemap.

Inbound links
Inbound links or links from other websites into your site provide credibility and emphasis the relative importance or authority that your site has over another site that has fewer links with relatively lesser importance. Inbound links have always been important but as search engines refine their algorithms in order to provide better and more relevant results they give more weight to ‘quality’ links that are considered relevant to the theme of the site or page.   Irrelevant links or links from link farms are increasingly undesirable and may even incur a diminishing affect.

Site Structure and Navigation
The structure of your site can affect how efficiently search engines are able to spider your site – hence the use of site maps. It can also affect how efficiently a human visitor will be able to interact with your site and whether or not you are able to persuade them to complete the action you desire – whether it be to place an order, make an enquiry or gather the knowledge they need. 

If possible steer clear of framed sites and flash sites as these may cause problems for the effective spidering of a site.  

Black Hat vs Ethical SEO
Black hat SEO uses methods to trick the search engines into awarding higher rankings and as these tricks are considered unethical you run the risk of having your site banned if you employ them.  Duplicate sites, spamming, hidden text and cloaking are just a few black hat techniques.  We would recommend ethical SEO every time.

Conclusion
The elements discussed above are considered to be the basics of search engine optimisation.  Addressing these elements may be sufficient for some sites but more advanced SEO may be necessary to get rankings for other sites.  If you have the time available to learn, research, test, adjust and test again then you have a good chance of being able to produce the kind of results in the search engines that you are looking for.
There is however much more to search engine optimisation than has been covered in these basic elements but this is an excellent starting point.  Other elements to consider would include more advanced elements such as competitor research, keyword density and prominence, deep linking, ensuring clean code (W3C compatible), optimal site structure and navigation.  You may also wish to consider blogging and RSS feed which can also be very effective methods to increase traffic.

As a final word…. Remember that search engine optimisation is not just about achieving rankings, it is about increasing traffic to your site and converting that traffic to profit.Best of luck!

For more information about Search Engine Optimisation you can visit our
SEO Frequently Asked Questions page on our website.  This is a clickable link!

KATHRYN DAWSON BSc. (Hons)., M.B.A.
Kath is the company’s Marketing Director, and she is also an experienced and multi-skilled consultant in her own right. Prior to Strategy Consulting, Kath was head of Strategic Business Analysis and International Client Administration with a multinational corporation and operated in both the UK and USA.

Contact Kath at Strategy Consulting Limited for more information about SEO Services.  Kath@strategyconsultinglimited.co.uk or 0117 3778237.

search engine optimization, SEO, search engine rankings, guide to SEO, internet     

Dear Introducer,

Thank you for your interest in Strategy Consulting Limited. Our website will provide you with an overview of the services that we are able to offer your clients, and I invite you to browse around and familiarise yourself with them.

I have personally been a Company Director of SME’s for over 25 years, and I have used the services of various intermediaries. I have learned that quick, efficient and knowledgeable service, together with good communication, are the keys to client satisfaction.We work with many different types of introducers - from consultants and lawyers to accountants and entrepreneurs.

We like to work closely with our introducers in order to provide the best service to your clients, whether that be for finance or consultancy advice. Needless to say, we provide a share of our income to our introducers and have an efficient in-house tracking system which will keep you updated and ensure that you are paid.

I hope that you will accept my invitation to try our service and that it delivers you the ability to generate extra income and offer additional products to your clients, helping you to offer a complete service for most circumstances.

My friendly and efficient team responsible for liaising with introducers is lead by my Marketing Director, Kath Dawson MBA and my Sales Director, Stephanie Iles. More details of our Introducers scheme is available from Kath or Stephanie on 0845 838 0936 or you can simply click here and one of them will call you.

I look forward to working with you and I hope we exceed your expectations. John

J. G. Courtney, Chairman
Strategy Consulting Limited
john@strategyconsultinglimited.co.uk

introducer, introduction, commission, fees, funding, finance, strategy, marketing, business, angels, SFLG, bank, loan, consultancy, SEO

I just read this article Google Big Daddy SearchQuake About to Rumble Your Ranking? By Mike Banks Valentine (c) 2006 in SiteProNews

The discussion centres around a client who was getting different rankings than his SEO was reporting in their ranking report. The rankings the client was getting were higher than the SEO.

The SEO explained: “Google has (at last count) nine data centers which serve up search results and that they were getting results from a data center in the Eastern US which showed differing results from results shown to us here in California.”

It is rumoured that there are about 60 data centers scattered all around the world using more than 100,000 computers.  The reason you see website rankings and page rank changes is due to the fact that the results are switching back and forth between an updated and an old data center. Things usually stabilise after a few days but its best to just ride it out and trust that it will settle down. 

I am not sure how many data centres there are in the UK but it seems that the only time Google shows different results is when there is an update in progress. When it eventually settles down then the index is the same on the related data centres.

The difference between the google.com and google.co.uk results is due to Google presenting more relevant results to the different market places. Things like UK hosting and .co.uk inbound links and a myriad of other factors would help Google to determine relevancy.

Good luck with the impending “rumble”

Regards,
Kath

Marketing: SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION - MARKETING - NEW PRODUCTS
Funding: BUSINESS ANGELS - SMALL FIRMS LOAN GUARANTEES - GRANTS
Strategy: STRATEGY - BUSINESS PLANNING - WORKSHOPS

Google, data centres, search engine, SEO, web site rankings

What’s in store for us in 2006? Inspired by Google’s poor search relevancy and making friends with Wall Street rather than its users, disaffection is growing apace and surfers are switching their loyalties to Yahoo and MSN. Conspiracy theorists believe that Google influenced pay-per-click and the ranking process to crank up their share price to almost double that of January 2005.

But whatever negative sentiments are shared about Google, all of the major search engines have recognised that users are demanding far more specific search, a trend driven by localised search, personalisation and increased specialisation. These three initiatives are narrowing the scope of the current problems inherent in generic search.

Today, web users are demanding far more selection and choice, with personalised content gaining the upper hand. This has been achieved with syndication through RSS. Today, the web is no longer about surfing and passive reading; it’s about creating, sharing, socialising and collaborating. Increasingly, many new websites are disseminating news and views through blogs and articles.

RSS really did make headway last year – and expect even greater take-up this. Instead of the web browser, users are increasingly looking for content via news feeds. This allows them to see at a glance what sites have added new content on any of the topics they select as being of interest. This means less time is wasted on checking to see whether or not a site’s content has changed. It also ensures a more efficient delivery platform.

But it’s not just news sites that have converted to RSS feeds, companies are increasingly offering information via news feeds using WordPress as a seamless and integral part of their website. This method of information delivery helps users evaluate new content and, as a bonus, categorised sections of WordPress blog are being indexed from the home page. This in turn increases the volume of data on the site, thus boosting PR ranking, and broadens keyword exposure.

Also, professional blogging has a very bright future. Internet search now finds many blog sites on first-page returns. Many professionals are also using external blogs, such as blogger.com. When these keyword-rich blogs are linked to the main site, it helps the site to grow. However, the blog should be fresh, as it would be foolish to merely duplicate content and get the main site blacklisted.

The third aspect of the paradigm is article writing. The aim here is to provide interesting articles that, even though they have limited time exposure on the engines, do find themselves float to the top very quickly.

So the professional blogger has a lot to look forward to in 2006. And as business blogs start to take hold as the new standard for marketing, public relations and SEO, 2006 should witness a huge increase in demand for their services.

blogging, professional blogging, RSS

Marketing: SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION - MARKETING - NEW PRODUCTS
Funding: BUSINESS ANGELS - SMALL FIRMS LOAN GUARANTEES - GRANTS
Strategy: STRATEGY - BUSINESS PLANNING - WORKSHOPS

The following question appeared on an SEO Forum blog in September 2005:
I had read that separating keywords in domain names was purely a matter of choice, or does this only relate to file names - webdesign.html -v- web-design.html being the same?

The response provided to this question:
There are two different issues involved with this question. The first concerns the characters that are allowed in a domain name and/or a URL, the second concerns how special characters are treated by the search engines.

For example, Nominet rules limit the characters allowed for a .uk TLD (Top-Level Domain) to:
• the twenty-six unaccented Roman letters (i.e. a-z inclusive);
• the ten western digits (i.e. 0-9 inclusive);
• and hyphens.

So the only possible separator character to use in a .uk domain is the hyphen e.g. keyword1-keyword2.co.uk.

There are fewer restrictions on which characters can be used in a URL (i.e. in the directory and file name section of a web address). Safe characters are the 26 letters, 10 western digits and $ _ - . + ! * ‘ ( )

All other characters are either reserved - have a specific meaning in a URL (e.g. / ? : @) - or unsafe (e.g. # ~ [ ] ^). Reserved characters must be and unsafe characters should be encoded in their appropriate US ASCII notation. e.g. a space is encoded as %20, # as %23 etc.

So, in theory, you could equally well use an underscore as a hyphen in a file name as a separator between two keywords as in: example.com/keyword1_keyword2.html.

However, Google decided in its early days that it would index the underscore as a recognisable character and the hyphen as a word separator.

There is a small advantage in having keywords in your URL that are discernable by search engines and the most reliable way to achieve this is to use the hyphen, the only separator which is acceptable throughout the URL, including in the domain name.

domain names, keywords, url

Marketing: SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION - MARKETING - NEW PRODUCTS
Funding: BUSINESS ANGELS - SMALL FIRMS LOAN GUARANTEES - GRANTS
Strategy: STRATEGY - BUSINESS PLANNING - WORKSHOPS