For those of you who use Adwords, please feel free to view my recent article on www.SEOmoz.org regarding reducing keyword costs by using Adwords editor.

The article is short, and lacks a lot of substance, but I have found this technique quite interesting and it has helped to reduce some of the costs per click associated with running paid search campaigns. On a side note, anyone looking for more information about search engine optimisation would do well to pay SEOmoz.org a regular visit, as both the blog posts from site staff, and contributors (like myself ) regularly post extremely useful information offering good advice.

Hope the article is of some use!

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Just thought I would send out a quick update based on my previous post, the great blogging experiment.

Firstly, July 2008, was the first month my blog had any action on my site, to cap off that month my stats were as follows:

• 98 Visits
• 69 Search Engines
• 16 Referring sites
• 13 Direct Traffic

August 2008, has been the first month of the blog being live for the whole month. I have been quite surprised by some of the statistics.

• 535 Visits
• 104 Search Engines
• 293 Referring Sites
• 138 Direct Traffic

Now I will advise you to ignore both the Referring Sites and Direct Traffic data, this has been influenced by joining a few site networks, and thus I am going to exclude this from discussion and instead focus on the search engine benefit alone.

In June 2008, 2 months ago, search engines only generated 17 visits to my site. Since adding the blog, within 2 month, traffic has increased by around 900% – up to 104 visits. The figures also indicate that the blog section of my site is now the most popular piece of content here, which is not really surprising.

I have also noticed that since I have been adding content on a regular basis, my blog posts are now indexed within hours, and generally less than 2 days. So in theory, I am currently adding between 2-6 pages of new content to the Google index each week. So realistically speaking I should be able to add at least another 200 pages of indexable content in the next 12 months! (easier said than done).

I will provide a much bigger update with more stats soon!

Filed under: SEO, PPC, Design by Moley
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Without doubt there is a multitude of information out on the web regarding ways to optimise your website for search engines and really try to bring home the bacon, or traffic so to speak!

However I have often considered alternative ways with which Google might use data to help influence rankings. This is just pure theoretical on my part, and whilst I have no proof, I am guessing at some point soon or in the future, some or all of the following will be considered.

• Google Analytics – without doubt this fantastic free tool has helped informed webmasters the world over about their websites traffic, helping to identify trends etc – however whilst us dear webmasters have been informed about this, so too has Google. I would guess that Google would base some of the algorithm on related stats. For instance a better website with great content would have a shorter bounce rate, and visitors would of course stay on site for longer! Not to mention that Google would also be able to detect keywords from other search engines and links which contribute to the flow of traffic, in fact the deeper your delve into an individual analytics account, the more you could see the benefit of using this data across a wider scale.
• Gmail and GTalk – we use GTalk at work all day, passing quick comments, links, office banter etc, is it possible Google would monitor what links we provide in GTalk? And could this then be extended further into Gmail? In fact could Google Consider the words around any links as having additional keyword relevance, possible!
• Google Docs & Spreadsheets – similarly to the point above, any links and URLs mentioned in Google Docs has the ability to be considered at some point.
• In fact the same could be said of other Google Products like Youtube and Orkut.

They are just a few ways with which Google could, in theory use off-site data to enchance their algorithms. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a load more examples of ways with which google feed information into their systems to help enhance their algorithm, and in some cases, that data would actually use real user generated information to power their search engines, in addition to code!

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Well Google doesn’t really hates, in fact it eats them for breakfast, most in the search engine optimisation society know that. However, recently there have been murmurings of websites tanking since Google updated its algorithm regarding reciprocal and paid links. One such post which got my attention can be found here: Authority Directory.

One issue I had specifically was that of paid directories. There are hundreds if not thousands of them out there, some niche, others more generic, however all have played a role in promoting websites whilst (hopefully improving their pagerank). After reading that Google now frowned upon paid links I shed a little tear, as I know it is one way to help give new sites a little shot in the arm. However it looks as though that tear was in vain as what you actually pay for on most directories is for someone to preview your site, and if they like it, add it to their directory – about as close as you can get to a paid link, without it “officially being paid”.

A lot of problems I found using and managing directories over the past has been the issue of reciprocal links. It has been one of the oldest forms of SEO – exchanging links with business partners or websites of a similar nature. However in recent years I know some websites have created massive pages dedicated to hosting all reciprocated links in one place. These pages are in fact a complete mine field of useless information, they may not be useless as such, but any human may have serious trouble trying to navigate or understand them.

So what? You may ask, well simple really all search engines have stated that we need to provide content for humans, not search engines – by creating massive lists with hundreds of URLs we are in actual fact creating links for the benefit of improving search engine results, and thus removing the human element from our website.

So while reciprocal linking on a smaller scale probably won’t hurt your site/business try becoming a bit more creative with your partner links. Consider dedicating a whole blog post about partners, adding the content is good for organic search results anyway, and try to get your linking partner to do the same back. This will create content that humans would more likely read, interact with and increase the chances of that link being clicked. Not to mention the old fashioned referral bit of business you have just created.

Additionally try and add links to your website in other ways. My site has a friends page, with companies I have dealt with or worked for, plus a few friends I want to link to. Whilst this may not be the best example out there, the fact that the page isn’t called links.html will probably slightly help those links somewhat. Additionally that page doesn’t contain too many companies, so it is easy for a human to digest the information.

If however, I were to suddenly increase the amount of links on the site, I would need to portray the information to make relevant and simple to use. And this is where the post comes full circle, the great thing about directories is that they are categorized in relevant, logical sections. So within each segment of a directory you always understand what the websites are about, and where they fit in context to the site.

I am a great believer in directories being fantastic additions to websites, even smaller ones. An example of a project where I implemented a similar directory as shown on Ipswich Central’s website whilst working for Jacob Bailey. The shopping category was broken down into niche sections, allowing the end user to navigate to the section which immediately interested them, grouping relevant links together. To extend the quality of this particular directory, each link has its own page, giving a brief description about the company, as well as additional contact information and opening hours. Whilst it is a bolt on directory to a successful site, it is also a great resource for the end user. It has also created over 300 extra pages which will no doubt help the site improve its traffic from search engines.

So that has to be the best way of working with reciprocal links, whilst creating an extension to your website which is both a resource to your users, and useful from a search engine perspective.

Filed under: SEO, PPC, Design by Moley
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I thought I would throw this one back into the mix, a few years back (probably 2004/2005ish) a friend of mine in the UK came up with a product idea, this product being a dump valve sound generator.

Off the cuff most people will probably have no idea what I would be referring too, so to summarise, a dump valve is related to cars, and more specifically to high performance cars which have a turbo installed. I don’t know the technical details of how they work exactly, but I can tell you they create a PSSSSST sound when they activate. The dump valve sound generator was purely a concept which would replicate that sound, creating an illusion of having a nice fat turbo under the bonnet, quite the often the car in question would have an old struggling engine consistenting of less horsepower than a donkey with 2 broken legs.

The UK performance car market is very lucrative, and it was evident that my friends had really stumbled onto a product which fits a niche. The product was/is a lot cheaper than a full turbo & dump valve conversion. Additionally the product did not increase insurance premiums and it could easily be installed by anyone with a little knowledge. The device certainly had the desired effect and a lot of 12 year old girls would look on impressed as a rust bucket would stroll past whilst unleasing the PSSSSSSSSST sound.

However rewinding just a few months, during the development stage of the product, and more importantly (as far as I am concerned) the branding. My mates came to me with a very loose brief of what the product is and what it is supposed to do. We got chatting floated a few ideas and sat on it for a few weeks. Then with a spark of genius one of the guys popped round with a massive grin across his face. Eager to find out what inspiration had hit him, I sat him down, got him a cool glass of water and waited in anticipation to see what he had to say…and the words hit me “DUMPMASTER” we want to call the product DUMPMASTER.

At first it didn’t appeal, and I crudely likened it to the expelling of bodily waste, however we registered the domain name just to be safe.

A few weeks later I had a phone call from the same guy, once again he had seen the light and once again I waited in anticipation for his new found genius… and there he spoke “NOMIS” (or for the codebreakers present SIMON backwards – why simon, well that is his name). Nomis, it was generic and possibly something that we could build a brand around, but something just wasn’t right and then it hit me… No Miss, Yes Miss, Three Bags Full Miss. There was no way we could go with a name which could degrade the whole branding process, so I got the guys round for an all out brutal discussion about branding, design, websites and the power of a good name.

We sat down, looked through various performance car magazines, compared other advertising and marketing material from competitors and begin building the mindset required to come up with a brand that would suit the marketplace.

It was clear that a lot of performance car marketing/advertising was aggresive, with a lot of bold colours and high contrasting. Names were also very important and needed to symbolise strength and aggression. I then started suggesting all manner of things, Knight, Tiger, Panther, similar names – all of which seemed to be taken by one competitor or another, and then it hit me… SABER -

1. a heavy, one-edged sword, usually slightly curved, used esp. by cavalry. 

2. a soldier armed with such a sword. 

3. Fencing. a. a sword having two cutting edges and a blunt point. 
b. the art or sport of fencing with the saber, with the target being limited to the head, trunk, and arms, and hits being made with the front edge and the upper part of the back edge of the sword and by thrusts. 

4. to strike, wound, or kill with a saber.  (thank you www.dictionary.com)

The name fitted the environment with which the product was targetted, it had class and wasn’t too cheesy, we almost gave the product some real credibility. And to make it sound a little better I added the -EDV to the end of the name, thus creating the SABER-EDV, Saber Electronic Dump Valve. What followed was perhaps the quickest and cheapest branding/marketing campaign I have ever taken part in. Within 5 days I had to build a website, design a logo, create a full page advert, design a product box and come up with a design for a show banner, all for the small price of thin air (don’t you just hate being called in for favours).

Within 2 weeks we were at our first show, and by all accounts it was successful, shifting a total of GBP 8,500 in just days, the name was out, and along with flyers which I previously forgot to mention I believe they had follow up sales in the following month which also reflected that figure. The product was featured extensively and whilst it hasn’t made the guys millions, it has really brought home some significant finances. The product is known as the Dump Valve Simulator and has both its knockers and fans. Whilst it is considered a “Gimmick” product there is no doubt that the branding and design has helped both suppliers and customers take it seriously, besides would you buy something for your car named the dumpmaster.

Shockingly there is a video on Youtube and enough websites have discussed the product in depth. There is no doubt that a few hundred thousand people have been exposed to the product, and regardless of financial compensation, it feels good to see your logo/brand being sold and handed out on mass. For more information either visit my Saber-EDV portfolio page or the official Saber-EDV website.

Please feel free to share some of your more random branding/design projects here!

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