Lots of the questions I get on Twitter and Facebook relate to blogging and SEO, and as I was typing up a quick and dirty guide to SEO Blogging for a client, I mentioned it to someone else and they asked for a copy. Then I mentioned it on Twitter and others asked. So I tidied it up a (little) bit, put it in PDF format and here it is

It covers:

• Thinking of what to write
• What not to blog
• How much should I write?
• How do I get people to comment?
• Should I tweet and facebook my blogs?
• Blogging for SEO – a quick and dirty guide
• Making sure Google knows about your blogs

It's not an advanced guide, it's not rocket science and hopefully it's not full of jargon.

I'm offering it free – no sign up, no cash, nothing – all I ask is that if you like it, you drop me a line in one of the many places you can find me, and then direct someone else to this page by either Tweeting about it, Facebooking it, mentioning it on Linked in, writing a blog post about it, or shouting on the High Street with a megaphone (special kudos to those of you who do the latter!).

Anyway, please click on the link to get 67 SEO Pointer for Blogging Beginners – a free guide

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photo credit: lumaxart

We get asked this a lot – when people look into our Article Marketing services, one of the first questions they ask is “But won’t I be penalised for having duplicate content online?”

The simple answer is no. The web thrives on the sharing of information, and duplicate content is a part of this.

I was going to write  huge post about the different types of duplicate content, and then I noticed in my Twitter stream a message from @clairejarrett, pointing to this post from High Ranking.

As it says:

If your own bylined articles are getting published elsewhere, that’s a good thing. You don’t need to provide a different version to other sites or not allow them to be republished at all. The more sites that host your article, the more chances you have to build your credibility as well as to gain links back to your site through a short bio at the end of the article. In many cases, Google doesn’t even filter out duplicate articles in searches, but even if they eventually show only one version, it’s still okay.

It’s a well thought out article, and I agree with every word, so rather than reinventing the wheel over here, I’m urging you to go and read it over there.

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photo credit: where are the joneses

We’ve published our latest article, “Social Media Marketing – An Old Story”

The world of business is going mad for social media, with a recent study suggesting 92% of businesses in North America are using it in some way.

This is exciting of course, but in this excitement, many seem to have forgotten that while some of the technology may be new, the phenomena is not.

In fact, this interactive methodology has been at the core of internet marketing since its very inception. Web pages are, after all, interactive and multimedia by their very nature. We were clicking, viewing, commenting and sharing, long before the term ‘social media’ was coined.

In fact, ‘social’ has always been as aspect of marketing. So, how can the lessons of the past inform the way we approach social media marketing today?

Read the rest of this article.

Article marketing – the practice of submitting written editorial to article publishing websites that then redistribute them to other sites throughout the internet – has slipped in and out of fashion in recent years, with commentators tending to fall into two camps: love it or hate it.

In one camp there are those who argue that spreading your carefully written advice across the internet sends traffic in the wrong direction; while other advocate it as an effective way to raise ones profile online. So who’s right? Is article marketing a boon or a boob?

Like any marketing activity, there are advantages and disadvantages, but it’s my feeling that the pros outweigh the cons, and you can read why in the full article.

(Another big thanks to Emily Cagle of Emily Cagle PR for placing this article with Bytestart, the small business portal.)

A big thanks to Mad.co.uk for featuring two of our recent articles on their website. And an even bigger thanks to Emily Cagle of Emily Cagle PR, who has been doing some great PR work for us, and is responsible for bringing us to Mad’s attention. If you’re looking for online PR, then drop her a line and see if she can help you too!

Below is a synopsis of each article, with a link so you can read the full thing if you want to!

• Brand Trashing – What to do if your reputation takes a beating online

It’s every business’s worst internet nightmare: you head over to Google, tap in your company name to see how your web presence is coming along, and there in prominent position is something far from positive about your brand. Deserved or not, this entry could be damaging your business with every passing second. Nikki Pilkington, founder of NikkiPilkington.com explains more.

• A little marketing knowledge is a dangerous thing: the top 10 marketing myths

It’s very common for a business’s first foray into internet marketing to be a low cost DIY job, but this approach carries risks explains Nikki Pilkington, owner/founder of NikkiPilkington.com.

Here are ten of the most common misconceptions about internet marketing, and what you need to know to ensure you don’t fall foul of a DIY disaster.

We’re doing quite a lot of Article Marketing for clients at the moment, which we love, but it’s clear that when clients come to us they’re not sure what they want to achieve.

So we’ve developed a set of questions to help us to write the best articles for our clients, and I thought these might help some of you out there writing your own articles.

What is the aim of the article?

It’s important to know what you want to achieve with your article. Is it aimed at promoting one of your services? A general overview of your industry? Setting you out as an expert? Encouraging newsletter signups? People want articles for all sorts of reasons. The important thing in article marketing is to realise that an article needs to be educational and informative, not purely self promotional, but know what end result you want rom it helps you to form the structure in the first place.

What essential information must be included in the article?

It’s probable that you have something you REALLY want to say. It may be about some legislation, it might be about some recent research, maybe even just some stats you’ve foud – remember to include it by writing it down, and expanding from there.

What information/perspective should be excluded from the article?

If there’s info out there that you DON’T want in the article, or a perspective you DON’T want to address, then it’s worth making a note of it. This relates more to articles you’re getting other people to write, but it’s a good question to think about.

What are the key ‘terms’ or phrases that you would like included in the article?

If you’re writing articles to help get good backlinks or help SEO, then it’s worth doing a little bit of keyphrase research before starting. Which phrases do you need to include – and which ones do you want to exclude?

What action would you now like the reader to take?

When the reader has finished reading your article, what do you want them to do now? What’s the ‘call to action’? Do you want them to click to a certain page on your site, download a demo, sign up for your newsletter, pick up the phone, send you an email, find out more infor about you – what? Deciding on this can help you to close your article with a strong call to action and ensure you’re more likely to get the result you want.

Are there any good resources that you would like the writer to use when creating this document?

If you want to refer to stats or surveys, other websites or resources, make a note of them so you (or we) remember to include links to them. Quoting stats but not linking to the original source leaves you open to people not believing you, as well as making your article less powerful overall.

What is the TITLE of the article?

Once all the above steps are taken, choosing the title should be pretty easy. In some cases you’ll have decided the title ahead of time, but either way, it’s a pretty important part of the process

Hopefully the above questions that we ask our article marketing clients will help you to get started on your article – if you’re still stuck, there’s always our Article Writing special offer until the end of January!
photo credit: MagdaMontemor

One of the things I hear most often when I talk to people about promoting their websites themselves, is that it ‘takes too much time’ and they ‘don’t know where to start’.

Well, while I can see where they’re coming from on the second point, the first one doesn’t ring true with me. It’s not about spending loads of time every day, it’s about doing SOMETHING every day and seeing the effort pile up and bring results. It’s about not giving in because you ‘don’t have the time’ and not putting things off because you’re ‘not sure how’.

Promoting your website can be done by you, it can be done a little every day and it doesn’t need to take up your time.

I’m challenging you right now to do 3 things every day to promote your website. That’s all – 3 little things that take up less than half an hour of your time.

Here are a few ideas to get you started – pick 3 and do them today!

• Post a blog – it doesn’t have to be 1000 words, just something you think people would be interested in. Make a comment about some news related to your industry, write about a new product or service, announce a new client, offer some tips and help (like this blog!) to help others – it shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes.
• Schedule some Tweets. Use Hootsuite or similar to schedule a few tweets throughout the day – links to your website, blog or services, but also relevant news, funny things you’ve found, thoughts you’ve had. It should take about 5 minutes and means you have a steady presence on Twitter throughout the day. Don’t forget to still check in and post in real time too though, don’t automate the lot!
• Add something to your Facebook Fan Page – a link to your site, a video you found on YouTube, a news item, a new discussion, or just ask a question in the status. Another 5 minute job, if that.
• Add a client testimonial – hopefully you’re always asking clients to say nice things about your work – instead of hoarding the testimonials to post all at once, add one every so often. After all, this also gives you something to talk about on your Facebook and Twitter profiles. Time: 5 minutes!
• Comment on a blog. Read a blog related to your industry and make a comment – you’ll get a link back to your site, and might even generate some discussion. The more you comment he more you will become known. Make your comments relevant and knowledgeable though, not just ‘Me too’ type posts. Time: 10 minutes for reading and commenting.
• Post on a business forum. Again, a great way to link back to your site, share knowledge, help people out, get help yourself, and get yourself known. Time: 10 minutes to read and post.
• Add yourself to a directory. Find a local business directory, or one related to your industry, and add your website. Some directories provide great backlinks, and some have good traffic. Time: 2 minutes.

There you have it, just a few things you can do off the top of my head – and that’s before we’ve started on SEO, landing pages, newsletters and articles!

What 3 things are YOU going to do to promote your website today? Do one right now by commenting below
photo credit: Robbert van der Steeg

I’ve been talking about this for a while, but this is the first chance I’ve had to put thoughts into words properly, so hopefully it will ring a few bells with some of you!

We’re all pretty much aware by now that one of the first things a potential client does when considering working with you is to ‘Google’ you – they’ll head off to google and type in your company name, maybe your director / owner’s name, and probably look through a few listings to see what others are saying about you.

The results that are shown here form the basis of what I call your ‘Circle of Credibility‘. Your Circle of Credibility is the extent to which you appear to be credible online. When someone searches for you, what’s the impression you get?

Without a doubt your company website should be appearing on the front page of those results, whether the search is for your company name or your boss’s name, but what else can appear in that search result to help compound the good feeling the potential client is going to get? And just as importantly, what can appear that can make you look bad?

The Good

- Your company website. Ideally your website will be in the number one position, and if you’re lucky, you’ll have prominent links showing to the main areas of your website, including testimonials.

Your website is probably the first thing someone will be looking for, so make sure it contains some great testimonials / reviews, and shows you at your best. Case studies, examples of work and quotes from happy clients are great for showing you in a good light.

- Your blog. Whether your blog is attached to your website, or a separate entity, it gives any potential client a flavour of your thoughts, opinions and expertise. A quick read through a corporate blog can often tell you much more than a company website, as a blog tends to be more informal and have more of a ‘personality’ – make sure yours is visible and showing the side of you that you want people to see.

- Your Twitter profile. Of course, this is only a good thing if you WANT people to find it, and if you’ve thought about your company image and brand while posting tweets If your Twitter profile is full of ‘Got a hangover and don’t know the name of the man I woke up with this morning’ then it’s probably best if you give it a different name

However, if you use your Twitter profile as part of your company brand then having it show up as one of the results for your company name is a good thing.

- Your LinkedIn and online networking profiles. Along with places such as UK Business forums, UK Business Labs, Xing, WeCanDo.biz, BT Tradespace and more, your LinkedIn profile shows that you appear in various places online that are related to business. These profiles, especially if very active and up to date, show that you’re not just a fly by night, and that you can be tracked down in the event of any problems. This is especially important if you’re a ‘virtual’ company, in my opinion.

- Articles you’ve written. Whether they are articles on your own site, or articles on somewhere authoritative such as Ezine Articles, having your content easily findable shows you spend time promoting yourself, and those articles could be the difference between you showing your expertise or becoming just another ‘also ran’ in the competition for someone’s business.

- Interviews. If you’ve been asked to do interviews and the transcripts or audio files are online, then they’re a great way for a potential customer to learn more about you – if you’ve not been asked to do interviews, start making it known that you’re available!

- Videos. Whether it’s your very own YouTube channel, or videos on your site, having videos show up in the search results for your company name is a good thing. Not everyone likes reading reams of text about how great you are

- Your Facebook profile and / or  Fan Page. This is only a good thing if you’re aware that your Facebook profile could be seen as part of a ‘fact finding’ mission by potential customers. If your profile is available to all (and Fan Pages are by default) then make sure it shows your best side, not just your wild and possibly drunken side

Basically, you want the search results for your company or your name to show a well rounded promotion of your company and services. When people see your website, your blog, your Twitter profile and Facebook Fan Page, numerous articles written by you, interviews, videos etc, they see that you’ve been around a while, that you’re not going anywhere and that you’re probably the person that they want to deal with.

That’s why we always recommend to our clients that they have up to date profiles in as many places as possible, that they blog and write articles regularly, and that they bear in mind their Circle of Credibility, no matter what they’re doing online.

Tomorrow we’ll look at some of the things you DON’T want showing up when people search for you online, and how to avoid it happening.

We’re featured in the December issue of Better Business Focus, with our article “10 Ways to Make Article Marketing Work for You”

It was a bit of a surprise to us, as we didn’t know we were going to be featured (hence the rather dodgy picture of Nikki!), but they tell us that “Better Business Focus is an internet-based monthly magazine that is personalised to your firm, underlining your credentials as a specialist business adviser. It will strengthen your clients’ confidence in your firm and demonstrate that you are a progressive and innovative organisation, willing to go that extra mile” so we’re not really complaining!

There are some other good articles in there, and you can download it with this link: December_Bizezia

You can find out more about Better Business Focus at www.bizezia.com

People’s reactions to my job / business frequently amuse me, but none more so than the responses to various promotional links I place in the places I network online.

As some of you know, yesterday I wrote a list of “10 Things You can Post on Your Facebook Fan Page” – and at the end of it is a promo for a special offer we’re running on setting up Facebook Business / Fan pages.

Last night I posted a status update on Facebook mentioning this, and received the following response from someone:

“Wow, you CHARGE for something as simple as that? Its easy to do for FREE”

Anyone who has read my articles, posts and comments over the past 10+ years will know that I have ALWAYS said that you don’t have to hire someone like me to do your SEO, set up your Facebook fan pages, write your articles, do your blogging etc etc etc – you can do it yourself, and in fact I provide a whole host of articles aimed at helping you to do these things yourself, the aforementioned 10 Things You can Post on Your Facebook Fan Page included.

Recent articles and freebies I’ve published on the site include:

• Free Twitter for Business checklist – to help you plan and run your Twitter account
• Top Ten Tips to Make Article Marketing Work For You – showing you how to pomote yourself with articles
• 3 ways to Increase Your Website Conversion Rate – showing you how to increase leads and sales by changing a few things on your site and NOT hiring someone like me!
• 20 Ways to Website Heaven – 20 FREE ways to promote your website

The list goes on, but one thing all of these have in common is that I tell you you CAN do this yourself – if you want to and if you have the time.

OK, so a lot of the articles I write and the freebies I give DO have a link or promo for one of my services, but this is always the afterthought – the main aim of the article is to tell you that this stuff isn’t that difficult to learn – *I* learned how to do it, so you can too!

However, like anyone, I have to make a living. I give out free advice, help people out for free and even take on work on a pay by results basis on occasion, but at the end of the day I have a family to feed and a shopping habit to fund, so I charge for my expertise and time.

So to have someone (and it happens a lot) come clod hopping over my posts with ‘And you charge for that? But it’s easy to do for free!’ really really gets my goat.

Yes, I charge for my services. I charge for my time. And I charge for my knowledge. It’s up to my readers and contacts to decide whether or not they want to take the free advice I give and do the work themselves, or pay me and my colleagues to do it for them.

As for the person complaining about me charging for something “so simple”? Well, he’s a business coach. I’m thinking of posting “Wow, you tell people how to run their business? And you CHARGE for that? How far into the course does the ‘post unprofessional comments on other people’s posts’ module kick in?”

Grrr….

photo credit: Jan Tik