How else can you help your SEO / Google listings?

March 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment
It’s easy to forget about search engine listings when the world and his dog are hyping social media marketing to the max, but it’s important that you don’t forget it.

While social media will obviously serve a purpose, a large proportion of people are still using Google and other search engines to find products and services.

How are you doing? Can you be found when people search for your products and services (NOT just your name!) online? Or are your potential clients finding your competitors?

If you think you’ve done all you can on your website, here are a few more ways you can enhance your SEO, followed by a couple of blog posts you might want to read, and of course the by now obligatory offer :)

3 Ways to Help your SEO

1) Get a Google Plus account. Like it or not, Google is giving preference to sites that have been ‘plus oned’ in Google+ and the more you take part, the more you can promote your sites and content. Share your site with your G+ contacts and encourage them to ‘plus 1′ you too.

2) Blog. I know, I know, you’re sick of hearing me saying it, but a regularly updated blog gives Google more content and makes your website seem more dynamic – both great for enhancing your SEO.

3) Guest blog or write articles. Incoming links do still count for something, and rather than buying a load of dodgy links and risking getting penalised, guest blogging on popular blogs or submitting articles to popular article sites will help you to get well thought of dofollow links that matter.

There are just 3 ways you can help your SEO with very little effort – have a think about it over the weekend and get started next week!

Of course, none of that is going to help much if you haven’t got your on page / site SEO sorted, so do have a look at our Super Silly Spring SEO Offer to get you on track there.

SEO Blog Posts You Should Read

  • They Know Your Name So What?
    It’s easy to become complacent when your analytics tell you that you’re getting lots of hits from Google and other search engines – but look at those stats a little more. If the only thing you’re being found for is your company name, you’re missing out on a whole load of potential customers who will never find you. And that means they’re going to your competitors.     
  • Why Duplicate Content Doesn’t Matter
    This has been a hot topic of debate for some time now, but it became more widely discussed last year when Google did their ‘Panda’ update. You’ll never get 5 SEO people in the same room to agree on this topic, but I’m of the view that it’s not as important as some people are making it, and this blog post explains why.     
  • The one single way your content management system could be ruining your chances in Google
    Content Management Systems are great and allow you a massive degree of control over your website. But if your system isn’t set up properly, it could be ruining your chances of Google positions – read this to find out why and how.
Enjoy reading, and feel free to update me on how you’re doing with SEO (especially if you’re doing my 30 Day SEO Challenge) and of course, do have a look at our Super Silly Spring SEO Offer if you need any help.

Happy SEOing!

Nikki


Filed Under: Admin posts, Google, Latest Offers, Musings Tagged With: , ,

5 Reasons Your WordPress Blog Should Be Self Hosted

March 11, 2012 By 1 Comment

I’m a HUGE fan of WordPress for websites and blogging, as anyone that reads here regularly will know.

But did you know that there is a difference between having your blog hosted by WordPress themselves, and hosting it on your own hosting (known as self hosting)? If you didn’t, don’t worry, a lot of people don’t.

To clarify, if your blog site has an address something like http://yourcompanyname.wordpress.com or http://yourcompanyname.blogspot.com then it’s hosted by either WordPress or Blogger / Blogspot.

If your blog has an address something like www.yourcompany.com/blog then the chances are it’s self hosted (although hat’s not always the case, drop me a line if you’re not sure and want to check).

So, read on to find out just 5 reasons (there are many more) why you should be self hosting your WordPress blog if you’re serious about your business blogging.

You’ll have more credibility

It used to be that if you had an @aol.com email address or a geocities domain name, you were seen pretty much as ‘second class’. And the newer version of that seems to be having a WordPress.com or Blogspot.com domain name for your blog.

It’s pretty simple – do you want people to see that your blog is a part of your business, or are you happy with them thinking you’re ‘playing’ at it?

I know and you know that there are some great blogs out there that AREN’T self hosted – but if you want to be taken seriously in 2012 then your blogsite needs to be either a part of your main site or have it’s own domain and be hosted on its own web space.

Are you serious about your blog?

You’ll get better search engine positions

A simple fact of life is that free blog sites just don’t do as well in the search engines. Quite odd really, especially as you consider that Blogger is owned by Google! But that’s how it is.

Add to this the fact that you can get some great SEO plugins for self hosted WordPress and it’s a no brainer.

Do you want your potential customers to find you when hey search on Google?

You’ll have control

OK, it’s unlikely to happen, but what would you do if WordPress decided to take down your blog? Or remove your blog posts? Or jus remove access to them for a while?

While you’re hosing your blog on a freebie site, you’re at their mercy – your content belongs to them and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Self host, and YOU’RE in control – you can back up your posts, move them where you like, and run pretty much no risk of your account being closed down and your hard work wiped out.

Would you like to be more in control of your content?

You’ll have a better choice of themes

There’s a massive range of themes on WordPress.com, but let’s face it, how often have you seen the same themes being used time and time again by different industries? With self hosted WordPress you can have a hue choice of themes, from an out of the box standard one to one that matches or complements your own website.

Do you want to stand out by looking different to everyone else?

You’ll have better plugins

I alluded to this earlier with the mention of SEO plugins, but there are a whole array of plugins that you can use on self hosted WordPress but not on the free hosted version.

From Social Media plugins to sharing plugins to commenting plugins to analytics plug ins and beyond – if you’re serious about your blog you need quite a few of these plugins.

Are you serious about your blog?

In short, self hosted WordPress is the way to go if you want to look professional, have more control, have flexibility and make the most of your blog – what’s stopping you going self hosted today?

Like this post? Check out our Wacky WordPress offer to take you from free hosted to self hosted at a drastically knockdown price!

 

 

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Filed Under: Admin posts, Blog, Blogging, Google, Latest Offers, Musings, No no no! Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

SEO for 2011 – one day only special offer!

December 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

We know that a lot of you want SEO, and we know that funds are often tight at this time of year, so for ONE DAY ONLY we’re offering a massive 50% off our Bronze SEO Package.

What do you get?

Our Higher Google Listings service does exactly what it says on the tin – helps you to achieve higher listings within the Google search engine.

Includes:

  • Initial keyword research
  • Initial optimisation
  • Ongoing optimisation when needed
  • Submission to Google and ODP
  • Weekly reporting of placements
  • Regular ideas, hints, tips and recommendations
  • 10 keyphrases
  • Minimum 6 month contract

Usually this package costs £499 setup then £100 a month, but for TODAY only we’re offering it at just £249 setup and then £50 a month – a massive 50% saving.

There are only 5 places available so be sure to get yours booked now by paying the setup fee in Paypal (below) – then we can be ready to get started in 2011!

Questions? Drop me a line to nikki@nikkipilkington.com

Filed Under: Admin posts, Google Tagged With: , ,

Protected: It's a Weekend special offer for Twitter & Facebook followers!

October 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

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Want to win a website marketing package worth £4599?

September 27, 2010 By 5 Comments

nikkifb

STOP PRESS! The competition was won by Samatha Higgs – more details soon!

Maybe it’s because Summer is over and we need cheering up when we look out of the window at the fog…

Maybe it’s because we’re still riding high after our week of special offers…

Maybe it’s because we love our work..

Whatever the reason, we’re offering a fab Website Marketing package worth £4599 to one lucky person, and that person could be you!

What’s in the package Nikki?

All services are for 6 months, and the prices mentioned above are based on setup fees and 6 x monthly fees. The total is a fantastic £4599!

So how do we win it then?

This is the easy bit! All you have to do is ‘Like’ our Facebook Business page! That’s it! Then on October 31st (ooh spooky…) we’ll throw all of our Facebook ‘fans’ into a random generator and pick out a lucky winner!

That’s it?

Yep, that’s it – go to our Facebook Business Page, click on the Like button at the top, and you’re in with a chance! Ask a question on the page and we’ll put you in the draw twice!

Post details of our offer on your own Facebook profile (use the ‘share’ button right at the bottom on the left) and we’ll enter you a third time!

It’s that simple – so if you want to have your website promoted by us for 6 months for free, go ‘Like’ us now and say Hi!

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Filed Under: Admin posts, Blogging, facebook, Google, twitter Tagged With: , ,

2 great SEO offers from NikkiPilkington.com!

September 24, 2010 By 1 Comment

Wait. How do you REALLY feel about yourself?#5 in our week of special offers

Whatever the service or product that you provide, the chances are that someone is searching for it online; in Google, Bing, Yahoo pr another search engine they’ll be tapping in a few words and trying to find what you offer. But if they don’t find you, who do they find? That’s right, your competitors!

Well with our two special offers on SEO, we’ll help you to ensure that you’re in with a chance of being the one they find – and quickly!

Usually we offer our SEO services on an up front setup and then a monthly fee, but we know that a lot of you don’t want to commit to that. So these offers should help you to spread the cost!

Offer #1 – One off Standalone fee

Some of you just want to pay a one off fee for the up front work, and then carry on the link building, checking, reporting etc yourselves, and this offer is for you!

You’ll get:

  • Keyphrase research
  • On page optimisation (copy, meta tags, alt tags, internal linking etc)
  • Webmaster Tools Account
  • XML-sitemap
  • Guide to blogging for SEO
  • ‘Cheat sheet’ for further pages you may add to your website
  • Full report
  • 1 month’s email support

This is for 10 search phrases (each phrase must comprise 2 words or more) only, and you must be able to give us FTP and CMS (if applicable) access to the site.

The cost? A one off fee of just £400. That’s £99 less than our usual setup fee and an absolute bargain! £400! What’s a front page listing in Google worth to you?

To take advantage of this offer, drop Nikki a line now on nikki@nikkipilkington.com

Offer #2 – Spread the cost!

Again, you’re telling us that sometimes an up front fee is a little difficult to find, and as we really want to support small business, we appreciate that and want to help, so this offer is for you!

Instead of paying an up front fee, sign for 6 months and all you have to do is pay £200 per month! Sign for 12 months and it’s just £180 per month! No up front fee, no big chunk of cash to buy, just easy monthly payments paid by standing order – what could be easier?

And you’ll get the same great service as all our other clients:

  • Keyphrase research
  • On page optimisation (copy, meta tags, alt tags, internal linking etc)
  • Webmaster Tools Account
  • XML sitemap
  • Guide to blogging for SEO
  • ‘Cheat sheet’ for further pages you may add to your website
  • Full report
  • Ongoing optimisation
  • Link building where appropriate
  • Weekly reporting of placements
  • Ongoing hints and tips
  • Email and Skype chat support
  • 10 keyphrases (must be 2 words or more)

All for either £200 or £180 a month! Email now on nikki@nikkipilkington.com for more information!

The small print:

Offer #1 fees must be paid up front before work can commence. Offer #2 fees must be paid by standing order. All keyphrases must be agreed before onsite work commences. Only 3 clients will be taken on for each offer, and phrases must not clash with current clients – ask if not sure :)

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Filed Under: Admin posts, Google Tagged With: , , , ,

Keep forgetting to update your Facebook page? This offer is for you!

September 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Time SpiralYou started off with all good intentions – your Facebook Fan Page all set up, nice and new and shiny and just waiting for you to gather fans / likes, add content and keep updated, and reply to comments as they come in.

But then business took over, your page hasn’t been updated for a few weeks, you haven’t looked for ‘likes’ for a while and you’re not sure whether or not you should carry on. You just can’t find the time!

That’s where our Facebook Business Page Management Service comes in – we’ll take the worry and the hassle of updating your page away from you.

We will:

  • Post at least once a day – not just links to your site, but items of interest, questions, videos, comments, statements and more – making your page an interactive and useful resource, not just a ‘me, me, me’ page that no-one pays any attention to.
  • Reply to any comments posted on the page, ensuring that conversation and relationships are nurtured rather than ignored.
  • Pass on any requests or comments that we feel you should deal with direct, such as product or service enquiries.
  • Publicise your page to our own contacts, Twitter followers and blog readers to help grow fans / likes
  • Send you a report every month with details of growth and achievements

Usually we charge £150 a month for this service, but this is our week of special offers so we’re offering it at just £65 per month!

Yep, you read that right – £65 a month! We’re only taking on 5 people at this price, and of course it’s first come first served.

We ask that you commit to 3 months with us, but apart from that there are no restrictions.

Sign up now with the Paypal subscription button below, or drop Nikki a line on nikki@nikkipilkington.com if you would prefer to be invoiced.

Join the 75+ clients that have had NikkiPilkington.com help to make the most of their Facebook pages!

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Filed Under: facebook Tagged With: , ,

Running out of blog ideas? Let us help!

September 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

moleskine & favourite penOffer #2 in our week of special offers!

It always happens eventually – you haven’t updated your blog for a while and you’re staring at a blank screen, wondering what to write – we’ve all been there, and the more you stare, the less you can think of.

The ‘last updated’ date on your blog makes you break out in a sweat, and you’re sure your readers are leaving in droves.

Well today’s special offer could be for you!

We know how difficult it is to commit to letting someone else write your blog – which is why we’re giving you a chance to try us out for a low, low price.

We write blog posts for over 50 clients, in a number of areas, including:

  • Telemarketing
  • Children’s clothing
  • Cosmetic surgery
  • Health
  • Marketing
  • Web marketing
  • Web design
  • Branding
  • Finance
  • Women’s issues
  • and more!

With a network of blog writers (and Nikki!) we produce over 500 blog posts a month and we’ve not hit bloggers’ block yet!

We’re offering to write a bespoke one off blog for your blogsite for just £30. That’s right, £30 for a 400 word blog post, optimised for your SEO keyphrases and aimed at getting comments and reposts. In many cases you’ll also be able to use the blog to submit to article sites, with a little tweaking, which we’ll help you with!

All we ask is that you a) have an idea what you want to blog about and b) let us track the amount of visitors the blog post gets.

So if you’re struggling to write and need a blog post written for you, use the Paypal button below to buy – it’s first come first served and we’re waiting to hear from you!


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Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: , ,

5 Things you should do to enhance your Facebook Fan Page NOW

January 29, 2010 By 5 Comments

npfbIt’s easy to start a Facebook Fan Page, post a few things, get a few fans and then run out of steam. I wonder how many Fan pages are languishing in Facebook hell with only one fan and a few blog updates, or even worse, all automated updates and no interaction?

Here are 5 things you can do right now to help your Fan Page along:

1) Hook it up to your twitter account – this means that when you add things to your FB page, they will be automatically tweeted out – you can do this at www.facebook.com/twitter

We’re not suggesting that you automate EVERYTHING to go out on Twitter – after all they’re two very different beasts. Choose carefully what you allow to go out on twitter direct from Facebook – your twitter followers will be pretty annoyed if every link you send them goes via your FB fan page, especially if they’re not Facebook members! Don’t automatically tick every box and post everything to your twitter profile, but maybe status updates and new photos is a good start.

2) Invite all your contacts to become fans. You can do this in 2 ways. Firstly by clicking on the ‘suggest to friends’ button on the page – top left. Secondly with the ‘Share’ button on the page, bottom left. The first allows you to choose friends to invite to become a fan. The second posts details of the page to your profile.

3) Become a fan of your own page by clicking on the ‘become a fan’ button! I’m always surprised by people who come to us for Facebook management and aren’t fans of their own page!

4) Once you have 25 fans, go to www.facebook.com/username and choose a ‘vanity url’ for your page. It makes it easier to remember and linking to it is easier

5) Put a ‘become a fan’ widget on your website. Details of how to do this, and other ways to promote the page are here http://www.facebook.com/facebook-widgets/

There are many more things you can do to enhance your Facebook Fan Page, and we’ll be posting about them in the future. Be sure to subscribe to this blog (Feedburner subscription, top right) to be sure you don’t miss out!

And if you need Facebook fan page ongoing management, check out our Facebook Management Service.

Filed Under: facebook, twitter Tagged With: , , , , , ,

10 Things to Post on your Facebook Fan Page

October 28, 2009 By 21 Comments

It seems so easy – click a few links and hey presto, you have a Facebook fan or business page!

But then comes the hard bit – you need to gain fans, keep them interested, get them to participate, keep the page going on top of all your other efforts, don’t let it get dull and boring, not be too self promotional – AARRGGHHHH!! How on earth can you think of all that AND run your business?

Well, worry not, here’s a quick list of 10 things you can post on your Facebook Fan page to keep it interesting and encourage interaction – feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

1) Questions – Update your status each day, but rather than telling people what you’re doing right now, ask them a question. It’s clear by looking at the statuses of people on Facebook (whether individuals ot businesses) that asking a question provides a massive response. Let your fans and contacts feel involved – ask them a question related to your business right now.

2) Videos – It doesn’t even have to be your video! It could be a demonstration video from YouTube, a funny video related to your industry, or a music video if you like, but video reaches people that words sometimes don’t. If you have your own video, then even better; either way, break up the monotony of your page with the odd video to keep things interesting.

3) Links to sites other than your own – yes, we know it seems to go against the grain. You started a fan page to promote YOUR business, right? But people soon switch off if your page is nothing more than a list of links to your website, so show them that you’re not just in it for you. Post links to other websites – interesting blogs about your industry, funny stories, news items, even (gasp!) competitors sites occasionally. If some of these sites belong to your fans too, then you’ll inspire loyalty and may get the same in return!

4) Requests for more fans – ask your fans to use the ‘share’ button or the ‘suggest to friends’ link to share your page’s details with their friends on Facebook. It may not have occurred to them to do so, and if you don’t ask, you don’t get!

5) Links to discussions on your discussion forums – if your forum on your page isn’t getting the responses you want, it may be that people just aren’t noticing it! Post links to interesting discussions on your Fan Page wall, and ASK THEM TO COMMENT!

6) Photos & pictures - again, a great way to break up the relentless words of a fan page, photos tell your fans more about you and your business. Post pictures of your premises, your customers, your products or services, diagrams, cartoons, in fact anything that you have that is related to your business.

7) Links to your blog – If you use Networked Blogs, you can do this automatically, but even if you don’t, when you post a new blog, link to it from your Fan page – encourage comments and contributions – remember, no asking, no getting :)
8) Events - use the events tab to post details of time sensitive special offers, open days, launch days and more. It’s an often forgotten tab but can be very useful if you think about it a little differently ;)

9) Notes – the notes tab can be used for lots of different things; mini blog posts, testimonials, quotes, thoughts – anything that is too big to be put as a status update. It’s another way to add extra interest to your fan page

10) Thanks you to your fans - if your fans are interacting, then it’s worth taking the time out to post a public thank you to them every so often. You can do this by posting a status update and referencing certain fans by prefacing their names with an ‘@’ sybmol. You could go one further and offer prizes or giveaways to a couple of fans per month, given to those who interact the most and the best.

So there you have it – a quick and dirty list of ways to keep your Facebook Fan Page interesting. Without interaction and interest, a page quickly becomes nothing more than a list of links, with no intrinsic valu whatsoever. Don’t let your Fan page fade away!

No time to sort out your fan page? Stuck for what to post? Fans not interacting or even following you? We might be able to help – check out our January Facebook Fan page offer.

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