Mark Rushworth - SEO Leeds

Use Canonical URL to Target Different Countries in GWT

Mark Rushworth — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:50:59 +0000

Is it just me or does Google Webmaster Tools give you the ability to target www. domains at one country and non www at a different country whilst keeping the target URL the same?

Try it for yourself, log into Google Webmaster Tools and set up (and validate) two entries www.domain.com and domain.com go to each sites settings and there you can see you can set the country of focus.

Best use of canonical domains ever!

Stolen Samsung Laptop in Halifax (Red)

Mark Rushworth — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:44:19 +0000

Friday morning I woke to find that my car had been broken into and amongst some other things such as my sat-nav, cagoule and ‘Glastonbury’ sunglasses the dirty Ba#@rds stole my laptop.

If anyone in Halifax (UK) gets approached to buy a red Samsung laptop like the one shown below please let me know (of if you see it in cash-converters or some place like that)

Not had a good weekend.

p.s. if its still in a black laptop bag check the pocket for a brown stripy woolly hat.

Sick!

Mark Rushworth — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 09:05:41 +0000

Today I will mostly be being ill. I think my immune system has finally given up and I’ve got a cold which I originally thought was hey fever

Because I am a man I will be making a big deal out of this (cue dying swan routine).

I’m still in work tho’ so will make it my mission to infect as many people as possible… just call me typhoid marky.

Open Source ASP.NET Ecommerce System – NopCommerce

Mark Rushworth — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:05:53 +0000

Just discovered this Open SOurce ASP.NET ecommerce system called NopCommerce. This is pretty revolutionary for me as in the past, I have been lead to believe that .NET systems are closed source, make use of COM objects and closed library files which resulted in almost every piece of .NET software being a paid application.

The system looks pretty well formed and feature packed and it includes all of the standard functionality you would expect from an ASP.NET Ecommerce system in particular:

‘Anonymous’ Checkout
1 page checkout
Gift Cards
Product Configuration/Builder
Real-time exchange rates
Reward points
Discount codes and coupons

…and lots more.

Check it out.

Free Directory Submission, Social Bookmarking and Article Tool

Mark Rushworth — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 09:41:48 +0000

Today I am trialing a piece of software that provides semi automated submission to online directories, social bookmarking websites and article sites. What’s more this free directory submission is hosted right here on markrushworth.com for you all to try out.

Basically you register with the system (i give you 1000 free credits – 1 credit per domain which i think is more than ample) and you fill in some basic details of your target site. The free directory submission tool then visits each directory in turn and all you need to do is fill in the captcha and appropriate category for submission.

The reason for my trialling this is my annoyance with the paid services out there where there is no control over the quality of directories in a list. Also Google seem to be using ‘low level’ link building techniques like directory submission with great effect (even Rand thinks so).

Give it a try and let me know your thoughts.

Google has an Online Shop

Mark Rushworth — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 09:03:13 +0000

Some of the guys at Blueclaw have Google branded mice and gizmos and I asked if they picked them up at a trade show. What I didnt know was that theyve bought them from the official online Google shop which has loads of branded goodies at low prices(no phones tho?).

By all accounts you even have to buy stuff like this if you work inside of Google like Elanie, one of our PPC consultants did… the cheapskates.

So if you’re into Google branded goodies check the store out.

A Pragmatic Keyword Research Tool

Mark Rushworth — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 15:09:08 +0000

You can all thank Blueclaw’s Senior SEO consultant, Monica for this.

The blueclaw team hold weekly internal presentations where a member of the team stands up and talks at length and in great detail about a specific topic. Todays was a talk on Keyword Research by Monica which covered a lot of information about the tools, types and formats of keywords in best-practice usage.

As part of this presentation a slide was put up that showed a keyword research tool that I hadn’t seen before and I thought that in addition to the Google Link Wheel, provides a more lateral insight into the terms Google ring fences around a core topic. This tool is the Think Pragmatic Keyword Suggestion Tool.

It basically allows you to capture the live suggestions that Google displays as a search term is entered into the standard search box.

Nice!

SEO Stats 2010 by EConsultancy

Mark Rushworth — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:21:32 +0000

Heres some interesting SEO Statistics for 2010 as compiled by Econsultancy (link at the bottom).

PPC Conversion rates are set at 2.03% compared to an average of 1.26% from organic. THis is a great benchmark to identify whether your website is converting above or below par and definately a key demographic to watch.

Out of 1.5 million searches only 10% are ‘transactional’ in nature with 80% being identified as research based. Basically theres a lot of window shopping and fact finding going on so ensure that your website caters for this market – this should also help your site overcome Googles bias towards non-commercial content.

More than 60% of ecommerce sites perform SEO without optimising langing pages or thinking about customer egnagement.

SEO originated traffic achieves 200% more conversions when compared to banner, affiliate and social shopping referals.

When a customer is closer to the point at ahich they intend to buy the search pattern switches from broad match to branded terms so make sure your site is optimised for long tail brand terms and that your products by brand etc pages have content and feed directly into the sales funnel. The conversion metric for this type of search is almost 10%!

Approximately 26% of businesses spend between £10,000 and £50,000 on SEO per year. 30% spend under £5,000 and 44% spend over £50,000

92% of people searched across the first three pages of a search result.

98% of people browse organic listings with 95% using the sponsored listings at the top of the page and onlu 31% looked at sponsored listing in the right hand gutter.

Theres so much information in the full document and if you’re in the SEO industry its certainly worth a dig through.

Src

New Online Business Advice – Start Cheap!

Mark Rushworth — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:16:42 +0000

As a pro web designer with over 10 years experience it pains me to say this but if you’re starting out with an online business the key is do do things as cheaply and more importantly basic as possible and once the site achieves a high search engine placement, then you can use your experience, not guess work and expendable profit to reinvest in the design, branding and features of your website.

Time after time we get briefs from new business start-ups who dont have any cash but have grandioso ideas about the features and functionality required of their online store. Most of the time this is all wishful thinking an not really based on customer objectives and in the end our quote often makes them lose faith in becoming an online business.

So do yourself a favour…

Get an SEO involved for advice
Buy a domain for a few pounds, get some hosting (beefier the better if you plan on using Magento… more on this below)
Set up the email properly and integrate with Outlook
Find some open source ecommerce software like Magento Commerce, Prestashop or others
Use the standard theme!!!!! just change the logo (make sure it matches the colourscheme)
Ask your SEO how you should format your product titles, categories and ask for pointers on how to write effective descriptions
Populate the site with information
Ask the SEO to promote it.
Total cost (est) £100 plus SEO fees.
Then working with the SEO begin writing about your products from a non commercial viewpoint
The SEO should begin building links and making changes to the site to make it more search friendly
Make money

From this point on the plan should be:

Listen to the customers, find out what features they require
Look at your business rpocesses and work out what systems could be created to simplify/automate time consuming business tasks
Reinvest in hiring a designer to change the theme and branding with guidance from the SEO
Make more money
Repeat

You can even read the FREE online book Getting Real by online application developers 37 Signals which gives you an idea as to how theyve built and managed successful websites without the masisve overhead and complicated initial featureset.

10000+ Pligg Site List (Unverified)

Mark Rushworth — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 15:49:09 +0000

I recently was tasked with sourcing the largest list possible of Pligg sites (don’t ask why). For those of you who dont know Pligg is open source community software that allows members to post, comment on and ‘Vote Up’ topics that are of interest.

Pligg can be good for SEO if treated like a PR service with topical, newsworthy articles and content being published but is more often than not uses for spammers.

So if you’re interested in Pligg and would like a massive list of over 10000 pligg sites then here you go.

Pligg List