Consider using Facebook as a marketing tool

It'll be surprising to learn that a recent survey, carried out by Hitwise, admitted that Facebook had accrued more hits than Google Search in October this year. So, with that in mind, should more of us be thinking about honing in on the power of Facebook and using it as a key marketing tool. An additional way to generate awareness of our brands, products and services?

Think about setting up a Fan Page for your organisation. Make it a clear path to your orgnanisation, make sure the Page title is clear and describes who you are. Include a strong logo, or visual representation of your organisation.

Your 'Fan Information Page' is like creating a landing page within a Facebook tab. You can choose this page as the tab that people first access on visiting your page. It's essential to include as much information on here about your organisation as possible. The more relevant information you include, the more likely that people will find you whilst searching.

Also take full advantage of the small 'About Us' box on the left-hand side of main Fan, to succintly describe your services and organisation. Include keywords and phrases that people will use to find you in the search.

Key to the prominency of your Fan page, is getting as many people as possible to 'Like' you. As in standard SEO practices, links to your Fan page are 'votes' for your page. The more votes, the more points for your page. So you'll also need to advertise your Facebook page from your website and promote it as much as possible.

Facebook allows you to create a 'Find Us on Facebook' badge, or embed a 'Like' Box on your website for maximum visibility.

If you need some help with harnessing the marketing potential of Facebook, then please do get in contact with us at Oxford Web SEO. We can review your current website marketing plan and advise on ways you can include social media optimisation into your strategy.

Can FB really sell 'Facebook Messages' on the back of a sentimental trip?

I've just watched the new video for 'Facebook Messages'. It's some how trying to convince me that this new feature is like having a nostalgic 'Box of Love Letters' like my Grandma and Grandad shared in the War.

I hardly think think that keeping messages about 'what do you want for dinner from Tesco's tonight?', or 'what time can you pick the kids up from school', constitutes a romantic love letter? To be honest, I'm not sure that I'd want to keep a running commentary of my everyday life online. I don't do that with text, chat or email messages now, so why would I bother in 'Facebook Messages'?

Surely not everyone wants to keep every minute detail of their everyday life saved for prosperity?

Whilst it's a nice concept that we can choose to contact people by messaging, SMS, or email from one interface. Essentially it's still using the premise of an 'Email Address'. So it is email?

Well to be honest looking at the BETA screens it's just an inflated version of the current messaging system. Yes, it's uses an '@facebook.com' address, but let's face it it's not 'GMAIL'. I think it's competing much more with the likes of 'Blackberry Messaging' and 'WhatsApp', rather than an email client.

Facebook says - "Ignore that a given friend or family member prefers SMS or email or chat—just send the message your way and he or she will receive it their way."

To send a text, your friend needs to have text messaging enabled. You can now archive 'Conversations' and the layout of 'Replies' functions seems much more intuitive. The new feature is also invite only, so to start using it you have to have a friend 'invite' you!

I'm still not convinced that this new feature is the replacement for old love letters, but it's certainly an enhanced way within Facebook to facilitate friendships and communications.

Take a look at the video:

What drives our motivation?

As a Fellow of the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce), I am privileged to be party to some of the most inspiring and innovative talks.

The following talk in the 'RSA Animate' series explores what drives our motivation. It
asks why people give to charities? Volunteer? Write blogs for free? Generally why do we do the things we do? Do watch it, as it comes to some fascinating conclusions about our behaviour.

"Delete This at Your Peril"

I was a little sceptical when I received this book as a pressie last month, but it's actually very witty.

One man's 'two can play at this game' strategy pays off, as he fights back at spam email; making up more and elaborate counter offers and schemes of his own.

Check it out, it is very amusing.

Is Facebook Turning into a Stalker's Paradise?

Don't get me wrong, I am as much the avid Facebook user as anyone else; in fact you could tell me I have 'FAD' and I wouldn't be offended. I love the good things it stands for; the ability to stay in contact with friends that you don't see everyday; its frequent mundaneness and the way I can make complete strangers lifelong friends.

However, what I don't understand is Facebook's increasing disrespect for Members' privacy and security. I read a great article today on PC Pro about a new Facebook feature that they have just launched "See Friendship".

At first glance this link is a great new addition, allowing friends to see a history of all the posts and comments that they have made between themselves. However, this is where the 'creepy' side comes in, not only can you see everything between yourself and your friends, but also all of the content shared between any two friends via a new search facility. It lets you enter in the names of any two friends to reveal their entire Facebook correspondence with each other — even if the content dates from before you added either as friends.

Does the phrase 'Stalkers Paradise' spring to mind here? Of course you could do this yourself just by rifling through your friends accounts if you really wanted to, but this new facility saves you at least a day! Obviously this being Facebook, all users are automatically opted in and it currently appears that there is no way to turn the feature off.

To read the full article 'Creepy Facebook Adds Friend Stalker Tool' go to the 'PC Pro Blog'.

Are Individual Eureka Moments Really That Rare?

I recently came across a review for this book by Stephen Johnson - 'Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation' and immediately wanted to read it.

The author explores the idea that 'eureka' moments by individuals are extremely rare. He argues that good ideas and innovation are rarely attributable to just one person - rather it's a group or collaborative learning effort.

Looking forward to understanding the 'Stacked Platforms' effect. Look out for my review soon...

Are we moving back to a world of private messaging?

There have been many high profile reports of faux-pas with users of Facebook and Twitter. Many of us may not have been sacked from our jobs by posting inappropriate facts about our boss, but I'm sure at sometime or another we've all had a social networking regret. Whether that's sharing something you wish you hadn't, saying the wrong thing or accepting people as 'friends' because you felt you had to.

It seems that many of us are now looking at more discreet and private ways to share the intimacies of our lives with real friends, rather than our Facebook page or Twitter. So are we looking at a resurgence of the old-school chatrooms? I came across this interesting article on The Next Web, which looks at how people's concerns over privacy are leading them to find apps that allow private chatting with select friends. For example, Blackberry Messenger, Whats App and Foursquare. Even the new Facebook 'Groups' features allows small privately invited groups of people to chat together, share photos and videos that only they can view.

I quite like that idea that people are beginning to return to the 'old fashioned' way of communicating, (well circa the 1990's anyway). Sometimes it's nice to just share a few intimate words with close friends, rather than announce it to your extended Facebook or Twitter family. ‎

Why are Keywords so Important?

Just ‘Google it’ – I’m sure that there can’t be many of us who haven’t at one time used that immortal phrase? People use and rely upon search engines everyday to find and gather a diverse range of information – whether it is product or supplier research, sourcing specialist news articles or maybe finding their perfect partner!

What do we do when we want to find any of the above? Well simply we use words and phrases to try and find what we're looking for, hoping that they will find a match on what we want. Therefore, if you're using the right keywords and phrases to describe your website, then hopefully people will be able to find you.

Thinking about what those keywords will be is so important to getting your website noticed by search engines. It is a huge mistake not to chose the keywords and phrases for your website carefully, as search engine spiders depend on them to find your site. If you have not targeted specific keywords for your website, then you will not easily be found.

So how do I start to choose my keywords? There are many online keyword finder tools that will provide statistics on how many times a word has been searched for in a month; as well as all related searches. Keyword tools can help you get a clear idea of what people are actually searching for and you can then use those words within your website content and structure to attract more people.

Keyword selection is both an experimental and on going process. You need to continually review, amend and update them across your website.

Good Design is the Best Way to Navigate Information

David McCandless from "Information is Beautiful", looks at complex datasets and creates infographics to simply define and present the information.

Listen to his talk on TED, it's really fascinating:

Google Instant Search - Kind of Official Launch

We've kind of known about Google Instant Search for a good few weeks now. The feature has been promoted in the form of YouTube adverts (see previous post below) and some mystery news alerts and promotional logos.

So what does it really do? Well, Google Instant is a feature that predicts what you’re searching for and shows results as you type. It uses Google’s autocomplete technology to show predicted search terms in a drop-down box, and begins to display search results below the drop-down.

Ben Gomes, an Engineer at Google summarised the announcement as "Google Instant seems so obvious, that in retrospect, you'll wonder if search could have been any other way."

However, at the moment Google Instant is only available in the US, but will be launching in the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Russia within a week. Also
the service is only available to users signed into their Google Accounts.

It will be interesting to see how this will affect Google AdWords and organic long-tail keywords / SEO. You can read what Google is saying about expecting traffic fluctuations around organic keywords.

If you want to find out more, then I came across a great easy to follow user guide on the features of Google Instant at Search Engine Land. Really read the article as it does provide an insight into this new feature.

It is difficult to say what impact Google Instant will have on SEO at this stage and how much it will change the way that we currently standardise our approach.

'.co.uk' vs '.com' Domain Names

Many people ask if it's more advantagious having a '.com' domain name over a '.co.uk'. Many see the '.com' domain as a way of appearing as an 'international', or 'worldwide' organisation. However, you need to consider where geographically most of your services or products are provided and if it's the UK, then a '.com' could put you at a disadvantage in search engine rankings results such as Google.

It is worth noting that people in the UK tend to click on '.co.uk' website extensions more than any other website. Research carried out by Nominet showed that 77% of UK searchers are more likely to favour 'co.uk' domains rather than '.com', which actually means that if you register a '.com' website and manage to get a first page Google ranking, then you are more likely NOT to get any clicks from people searching in the UK.

If you do not have a geography-specific domain such as '.co.uk' for the UK and instead you opt for a '.org', '.net', or '.com', then Google will use the geographical location of your hosting centre as the method for determining which local index your results should be found in. So thinking about where your website is hosted is equally as important.

For example, if you were to search Google for UK results only, and your '.com' site was hosted by a UK hosting supplier, but in a German datacentre, then you would never appear in the search results. Of course, you would appear in the 'google.de' search results, but obviously not many German Google users are looking for websites and businesses in English or relevant only to a UK audience.

Careful consideration is needed in getting the right domain name. Make sure that you stick to promoting one single, consistent domain name across all your communications, such as 'http://www.oxfordwebseo.co.uk/'.

It is worth noting that Google has now changed its ranking algorithm in order to display more results from the same website, when there is strong interest in content from a particular domain. So consistent advertising of one single domain name for your organisation is even more important.

What's so good about organic SEO?

When it comes to search engine optimisation (SEO), many people are confused and baffled by what SEO is and what it actually means for their organisations' website.

Search engine optimisation is the process of improving the volume of traffic to a website from search engines, typically via ‘organic’ or ‘natural’ search results.

Many see it as some kind of alchemism - the casting of a magical spell to get your website to the number one spot on Google. But be very wary of anyone who claims that they can get your website to the number one spot on Google. Unless obviously they are wearing a wizards' hat or brandishing a magic wand!

Unfortunately, there is no magic involved, only lots of hard work to try and get your website visible to your potential clients, members and customers. Effective SEO is about organising and presenting your website to search engines to ensure relevancy, creditably and accessibility.

Organic search engine optimisation techniques employ the use of natural ranking methods of search engines to generate traffic to a website. It means that you don’t have to use paid advertising to draw traffic to your site. Our strategy at Oxford Web SEO is based on using keywords and phrases that match your organisation and ultilising those throughout your website.

You may think paid-for-advertising is a quick win, but it requires constant investment and a large budget – especially in a competitive market. Organic SEO is a one time initial investment, but is ongoing and requires hard work to maintain. Also consider that since Google began auctioning popular keywords to the highest bidder, paid for advertising is no longer viable for small to medium sized businesses.

Organic SEO is good because:

• Typically organic SEO encourages more traffic to your website than paid for advertising.
• Organic SEO techniques hone in on relevant content for a website and not flash advertising gimmicks.
• Search engine users are often wary of adverts and typically they follow links to websites within the actual search results. If your site is displayed in amongst the top search engine results, then people are more likely to trust you.

The organic SEO services we provide at Oxford Web SEO is combined with our overall strategy for your website. The techniques and standards that we adopt are applied to every aspect of our SEO services.

If you would like us to take a look at your website and provide you with a review of how we can improve your search engine rankings, then please get in contact with Tracy Walker on 01865 920121, or at info@oxfordwebseo.co.uk.

Google Testing New 'Streaming" Search Engine

According to an article on TechCrunch, Google has been testing search results that will change in real time as you type into your Google Search box. Google refers to this as a "streaming" search. As you key new characters into the search box – or remove characters – the entire search results page changes accordingly.



It will be very interesting to see how this will effect keyword based advertising, based on altering the letters in words and their context as you type. Results are going to change rapidly in this realtime scenario.

What Next for Generation Facebook?

An interesting article from the CEO of Google Eric Schmidt about his fears on how much personal information we're giving away online now and the repurcussions this could have for us the future - "My fears for Generation Facebook".

Star Spotting

The Perseid meteor shower occurs once a year in August. Apparently in optimal viewing conditions, you can see between 60 and 100 meteors per hour streaking across the sky.

Unfortunately, last night I ultimately failed in seeing another other than a police helicopter circling overhead and a slight twinkle of a low flying aircraft in the distance.

Unsurprisingly, though there are always 'Apps' that can help me identify what to look for in the night sky over the net few days. Google Sky Mapfor Android phones, or Star Map or Star Walk for the iPhone / iPad.

Mind you if all else fails, I could chat someone at NASA, as they'll be hosting a "chat with an expert" event during the peak shower times!

Apparently There's No New Twitter 'ShoutOut' Service

Yesterday blogger Louis Gray speculated about how 'ShoutOuts' could be a new Twitter service that will allow users to effectively ‘endorse’ other users, similar to the way the ‘Follow Friday’ tradition works. See the story at - http://bit.ly/bVIU33

Today Twitter have released an official statement saying that 'ShoutOut' is an internal service for employees - see the very funny statement at http://bit.ly/9I1fy1

Oxford Web SEO Launches New Blog

Hey there... We're Oxford Web SEO - a division of The Big Oxford Computer Co. Ltd. Welcome to our new blog...

We're going to be updating you with all of the latest SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) news and views on a regular basis. Giving you hints and tips on how to stay ahead in organic SEO and how to keep your website search engine visible in Google, Bing and Yahoo.

For starters, why not read this article from SEO Chat about 'Google Search Engine Optimization Tips'. Do you ever wish you had an SEO checklist of tips from Google on what you should and should not be doing with your website? This three part series covers the SEO Site Review given at Google I/O 2010 in May 2010.

You'll be amazed at some of the things you can simply do to your website to help improve your search results ranking. You don't need a huge budget to get the basics right, just time and patience; as well as an eye for detail and the knowledge of your organisation.

Give us a call on 01865 717770 if you'd like to have a chat about Oxford Web SEO and how we can improve your website rankings naturally.