Just trying something out…….

http://childstats.gov/disclaim.asp?URL=http://www.mobility-plus.co.uk&cache=yes
http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/scripts/redirect.asp?url=http://www.mobility-plus.co.uk&cache=yes
http://export.gov/wcm/fragments/fl_eg_outsidelinks/redirect.asp?URL=http://www.mobility-plus.co.uk&cache=yes
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/offsite/?pg=http://www.mobility-plus.co.uk
Construction Jobs London

Chef’s Special Sauce

I know the following image is juvenile but it still made me laugh out loud.

‘Chef’s special sauce’

The Benefits of Social Media Monitoring

I heard a bloody brilliant story the other day that really highlighted the power of social media but, more importantly, the beneftits of monitoring it. The story came from fella who was giving me a demo of a new, very powerful, social media monitoring software.

One of the companies using this piece of software is a large online betting shop.  During the summer transfer window the company in question were monitoring all manner of conversations taking place in the social mediasphere when they stumbled across a tweet saying something along the lines of ‘Just seen Michael Owen in a restaurant with Sir Alex Ferguson…..LOL (I don’t know if the tweet contained a ‘LOL’ but I’m going to put one in there because i’m down with the kids).  Obviously this made ears prick up and the company started searching more specifically around this subject area. Sure enough more sightings were reported throughout the day.

At this point the betting shop dropped their odds on Michael Owen joining Manchester United.

The next day the social media monitoring tool revealed another interesting tweet, along the lines of ‘Michael Owen spotted at a Bupa Hospital in Manchester with United officials’.  Again, more sightings and rumblings surfaced throughout the day.

It was clear now that something  was definitely happening so the betting shop dropped their odds even further.

Sure enough Michael Owen’s medical was reported just hours later on Skysports as shots of the player leaving hospital were broadcast to the general public.

God knows how much money the betting shop saved from dropping their odds so early but it’ll be significantly more than they paid for the software.

McDonald’s Risk Outrage with New Race-Specific Websites.

For those of you who don’t know McDonald’s have launched two new websites specifically aimed at the Black community and the Asian Community:
www.365black.com
www.myinspirasian.com

This is undoubtedly a bold move by the global food chain, and one which is likely to generate huge publicity. But is this a step too far or is it a genius piece of marketing by McDonalds?
For a number of years now online advertising engines have enabled companies to target very specific demographics, including race, but all details of who is being targeted have been kept in the private domain. This, however, is very much in the public domain.
This is likely to be the most high profile instance of a company targeting race to date, particularly as McDonalds, who are hardly a shrinking violet, are the company behind it.
So are McDonalds racist or are they forward thinking pioneers?
I don’t know where I stand on it to be honest. I certainly don’t find it offensive but it does beg the question ‘would they create a website specifically for the UK’s white population?’. I think not!

Introducing Dotcom Digital Marketing

Well folks, it’s finally here. Introducing my new company Dotcom Digital Marketing – affordable seo services for small to medium size companies.
The website went live last week, and i’d be grateful for any feedback.

New Adwords Interface

Anyone else think the new Adwords interface is absolute garbage?

I used it today for the first time and I hate it! 

Is this a sign that Google are finally losing the midas touch…..

Beer prices up again?

Forgive me for going all political again but what the hell are these idiots playing at? I know that it’s tradition for the Chancellor to increase beer prices but don’t these cretins read the news – failing economy, more people staying in, pubs closing down at an alarming rate, beer sales down etc.
So what do our trusty politicians do to reverse these alarming trends? They put the prices up of course!
You couldn’t write it could you.

Now I know what you’re thinking – here’s another drinker upset at having to pay 5p more on a price of beer. In actual fact I don’t drink a lot and rarely go out so it affects me less than many others(that p*ssed on your bonfire didn’t it). I do, however, understand the importance of the pub trade on our economy which is why i’m absolutely stunned at the stupidity of our non-elected Prime Minister and his cronies.

I know it’s a bit of a zany suggestion but how about reducing the duty on beer to encourage people back into our pubs.

I’m back

Hi folks, sorry it’s been so long since I last posted. For those of you that don’t already know i’m in the process of setting up my own SEO company so the blogging has taken a bit of a backseat of late. However, the website copy has all been written and i’m hoping to launch in the next couple of weeks so watch this space.

The Dangers of Neglecting Small SEO Clients

I’m currently in the process of setting up my own SEO/PPC company having recently left my position of Search Engine Marketing Manager for an agency in Leeds. One thing that has become abundantly clear since I started actively trying to recruit clients is how many small to medium sized companies are dissatisfied with the level of service they are receiving from their existing SEO/PPC company. This is good for me because i’ve been able to poach 4-5 new clients on the back of a simple promise to provide a better level of communication than their previous consultancy. It’s pretty bad for the industry though because it creates distrust and dissatisfaction that affects everyone within the SEO/PPC community. IMO it comes down to pure complacency – an arrogance born out of working within one of the world’s fastest growing, most dynamic and certainly most exciting industries.

I’ve been involved in Digital Marketing for around 3 years in which time i’ve seen a number of companies cutting their teeth with small to medium sized clients before abondoning this strategy to chase the big fish. Now this is completely understandable but it does tend to leave the original (smaller) clients receiving a poor level of service through no fault of their own, while the agency concentrates their efforts on ensuring the newly acquired bluechip clients are satisfied.
Given that small to medium companies make up around 99% of all companies in the UK that’s a lot of potential clients left by the wayside – a lot of companies who, if they do choose to invest in SEO/PPC consultancy, can expect to receive a shoddy level of communication and service. Now I realise that there are a lot of generalisations in this post but I can only provide commentary on my own experience.

If, as predicted, digital marketing moves increasingly in-house with larger companies creating internal teams to oversee their integrated digital marketing strategies what does this mean for agencies?
Firstly I think it’s safe to assume that a lot of agencies will lose employees to client-side roles – higher salaries, greater profile, improved job security and better perks will prove too tempting to resist.
No doubt some agencies will go out of business, particularly those for whom 70-80% of their sales come from two or three big clients.
Most significantly though I think it will lead to a huge about turn with agencies returning their attention to the SME market because this is where the greatest concentration of potential clients will be found. Afterall, how many small companies have the financial resource to employ in-house digital marketing teams?

Anyway the whole point of this post is to highlight the pitfalls of creating dissatisfaction and distrust in a market we could all be relying on for our salaries in the coming years. If you nurture your small clients now they’re more likely to increase their spend with you as they grow. However, if you leave them feeling like their business doesn’t matter to you then i’ll poach them from you and it’ll be me who benefits.

New Emphasis on Brands Will Change the Way People Use Google

Two things sprung to mind when I read SEO Book’s recent post about Google placing more emphasis on established brands going forward:

1. It blows my previous theory about Google letting us police it’s SERPs out of the water
2. It will significantly change the way searchers use Google

The article focuses on recent comments by Eric Schmidt (Chairman and CEO of Google Inc.) that suggest Google will place more emphasis on established brands in future. The majority of feedback i’ve read about this new development, from SEO professionals in particular, is very negative. The general consensus seems to be that it will see big companies/brands dominating the first page of Google for the majority of generic search terms, thereby changing the level playing field that currently exists and removing the opportunities for smaller companies to establish themselves by achieving prominent listings in Google.

However, my take on this new development is completely the opposite. I see it as a positive move by Google that will change the way in which people use its search results for the better.
Most people who use search engines for shopping purposes are looking for the best deal or the most convenient company to use based on the particular service they provide or their geographical proximity. This rules out most of the top brands because more often than not they are more expensive than smaller providers and offer less flexibility in terms of the services they offer.
If Google consistently serves up the top brands on page one for any particular search term then searchers will quickly learn to look on page two or three for smaller companies that were previously found on the first page. I believe it will also increase the use of longer tail search phrases to identify products and services that meet the particular requirements of the searcher eg. rather than searching for ‘Wholesale Jewellery‘, a search term that would deliver results for the top brands, the searcher would search use more specific search parameters like ‘Wholesale Jewellery supplier Yorkshire’.

This can only be a good thing, as far as i’m concerned, as it opens up Google’s search results and spreads out the traffic. Currently positions 1-5 attract the vast majority of traffic and anything below that is feeding off scraps. In future, if this developent works as i think it will, listings on page two and three of Google will receive significantly more traffic than they do now which can only be a good thing.