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Building Backlinks

September 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

A backlink is a link to any of your web pages from another website.

A good backlink building strategy is one of the key factors in helping your website to rise in Google’s SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

In general, the more backlinks you have to a page on your website, the higher it is rated by Google and the better chance that page has of gaining a higher place in Google’s SERPs (search engine results pages).

In short, Google ranks web pages based on the relevance of the content on the page, the quality of that content, the age of the website and the number and authority of the backlinks to that particular page.

A backlink is like a ‘vote’ for your website or, more accurately, a page on your website from another website. In theory the more votes you get the better.

Some Backlinks are More Relevant than others

All votes are not created equal however. Google recognises some websites as authority sites and therefore places a greater weight on their vote. Authority backlinks include those from government websites, education websites, popular highly regarded websites such as online emagazine sites and others.

Some ‘votes’ are seen as totally irrelevant by Google. These are often votes gained by ‘black hat’ SEO techniques such as links gained from link farms or from other websites that have no relevance at all to your website’s keywords. Google has methodologies to find out whether the backlinks to a website were from other sites that had any relevance to the website. If not, they no longer have any value.

Based upon Google’s continued improvement in battling those that manipulate search to promote their own websites and those of their clients no matter what the level of relevance to a search (commonly those that employ what are known in the industry as black hat tactics) it is best at present to use white hat tactics to build backlinks.

How Can You Get Help to Build Backlinks to Your Website

If you do not have the time or feel you do not have the technical expertise to build backlinks yourself for your website OVMwebbuilder we can help you with your site’s keyword strategy, search engine optimisation (SEO) and create backlinks (and higher authority backlinks) for you.

Just drop us a line explaining your situation, your website address and what you are trying to achieve via your website.

This is an essential service you cannot do without !!!

 

Check out the following posts on building backlinks to improve your knowledge in this area ;-

 

Filed Under Backlink Building Tagged With backlinks

Introduction to Wordpress

October 17, 2009 By kirkoconnor Leave a Comment

This video tutorial by Kirk O’Connor from Onlineassist4u introduces new users to the Wordpress platform.

Kirk works the user through a simple visual representation of the Wordpress system explaining what posts, pages, categories and archives are, their purpose, their importance and their prime use in a typical Wordpress system.

This tutorial is an absolute must for new users of Onlineassist4u Wordpress websites as it lays the foundations upon which subsequent video tutorials are based.

This video has been produced at a high level of quality in order that you can enlarge it to your full screen size to better see the data on the screen. Click on the full screen icon on the video’s play bar to do so. As higher quality images take a bit longer to download those that have their video stopping throughout playback may be wise to let it download fully before playing the video. For those that have a high bandwidth connection the video can be played in high definition to get the best view of the information presented in the tutorial

Filed Under Featured Articles, Wordpress Tutorials, tutorials Tagged With tutorial, wordpress introduction

Wordpress – How To Write A Post

October 12, 2009 By kirkoconnor Leave a Comment

This video tutorial by Kirk O’Connor from Onlineassist4u introduces new users to the Wordpress platform and, specifically, how to write their first Wordpress post.

Kirk works the user through logging into the Wordpress dashboard selecting the Post menu and the write a post menu item.

The tutorial then explains the basics of writing your first post, pointing out key features on the write a post page and the meaning and importance of various available options.

Kirk also goes on to show the new user how to successfully copy and paste information into a post without also adding all the ‘unseen’ formatting characters that can accompany a copy and paster operation.

This tutorial is an absolute must for new users of Onlineassist4u Wordpress websites as it lays the foundations upon which subsequent video tutorials are based.

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This video has been produced at a high level of quality in order that you can enlarge it to your full screen size to better see the data on the screen. Click on the full screen icon on the video’s play bar to do so. As higher quality images take a bit longer to download those that have their video stopping throughout playback may be wise to let it download fully before playing the video. For those that have a high bandwidth connection the video can be played in high definition to get the best view of the information presented in the tutorial

Filed Under Featured Articles, Wordpress Tutorials, tutorials Tagged With beginner, tutorial, wordpress, write a post

The Smart Way – Temporary Adwords Campaigns

March 10, 2010 By Jeanet Petersen Leave a Comment

Temporary Adwords campaigns can be a great way of gaining the maximum return for your investment of your Adwords advertising dollar.

If it is relevant to your business, products or services it can be a good idea for you to set up temporary campaigns as a supplement to your permanent AdWords campaigns.

You can choose to set up temporary campaigns for specific sales periods or holidays depending on what your business sells.

Seasonal Campaigns

Easter is a great time to run a seasonal Adwords campaign

Easter is a great time to run a seasonal Adwords campaign

Seasonal campaigns can relate to different times of the year or holidays. Here are some examples of what could be an occasion for a seasonal campaign:

  • Father’s Day
  • Mother’s Day
  • Valentine’s Day
  • Christmas

For instance, if you have an online shop selling gifts it will be a very good idea to set up a Christmas campaign to get that extra bit out of your AdWords activities. Another example could be an online dating agency setting up a seasonal campaign for Valentine’s Day as this is a time of the year where single feel especially lonely and could be open to start dating online. In such cases seasonal campaigns can be used to boost sales in the respective period.

Promotions and Specials

As a temporary campaign you can also run promotion, specials or discount campaigns for periods where you have special offers. Examples of promotional campaign could be:

  • Summer sale
  • Specials
  • Promotions
  • Discounts
  • End of financial year sale

What You Really Need to Know About Temporary Campaigns

Instead of running a whole new temporary campaign to promote any special offers you can also choose to add new ad texts to your permanent campaigns. You should then pause the current ad texts and activate the new ads for the period you run your specials.

When running temporary campaigns always remember to make sure you pause the temporary campaign when the promotion period is over. The same goes for the ad texts where you have to remember to change back to the old ad texts when the sales period is over and pause the sales ad texts.

Always, remember only to set up a temporary campaign if it makes sense to your business area. Setting up temporary campaigns just to do so will be a waste of money as it will not lead to converting traffic if it is not relevant to what you sell.

For more information on Temporary Adwords Campaigns please call Jeanet at Gateway Search Marketing on 0488 789 042 or send an e-mail to info@gatewaysearch.com.au.

Filed Under Featured Articles, Google Adwords Tagged With adwords, campaign, google, seasonal, temporary

Social Media Marketing White Paper

January 29, 2010 By kirkoconnor Leave a Comment

What is Social Media Marketing ?

Social media marketing is a term that describes use of social networks, online communities, blogs, wikis or any other online collaborative media for marketing, sales, public relations and customer service. Common social media marketing tools include Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr, Wikipedia, Orkut and YouTube.

In the context of internet marketing, social media refers to a collective group of web properties whose content is primarily published by users, not direct employees of the property (e.g., the vast majority of video on YouTube is published by non-YouTube employees).

The Concept

Social media marketing has three important aspects:-

  1. Creating buzz or newsworthy events, videos, tweets, or blog entries that attract attention, and become viral in nature. Buzz is what makes social media marketing work. It replicates a message through user to user contact, rather than the traditional method of purchasing of an ad or promoting a press release. The message does not necessarily have to be about the product. Many successful viral campaigns have gathered steam through an amusing or compelling message, with the company logo or tagline included incidentally.
  2. Building ways that enable fans of a brand or company to promote a message themselves in multiple online social media venues. Fan pages in Twitter, MySpace of Facebook follow this model.
  3. It is based around online conversations. Social media marketing is not controlled by the organization. Instead it encourages user participation and dialogue. A badly designed social media marketing campaign can potentially backfire on the organization that created it. To be successful SMM campaigns must fully engage and respect the users.

According to Lloyd Salmons, first chairman of the Internet Advertising Bureau social media council “Social media isn’t just about big networks like Facebook and MySpace, it’s about brands having conversations.”

Source Wikipedia

Some Facts & Figures

Social networking sites are the most popular online destinations globally (based on the amount of time people spent there in December), with games and instant messaging coming in second and third, respectively. (Side note: As gaming becomes more popular on sites like Facebook, it will be interesting to see how this affects time spent.)

In December, Facebook was the most popular social networking site globally, with 67% of social media fans logging in. In addition, time spent on Facebook has been on the rise; globally, people spend close to six hours per month on the network.

In the U.S., people continue to spend more time on social networks, but year-over-year growth for Facebook and Twitter individually outpaced overall growth for the category at large.

Twitter was the fastest-growing social networking site in December 2009, during which it had 18.1 million unique visitors. That’s up from 2.7 million unique visitors in December 2008.

Top US Social Media Sites and Usage 2009

Top US Social Media Sites and Usage 2009

Source mashable.com

And this doesn’t include YouTube !

Facebook Facts & Figures

  • More than 350 million active users
  • 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
  • More than 35 million users update their status each day
  • More than 55 million status updates posted each day
  • More than 2.5 billion photos uploaded to the site each month
  • More than 3.5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week
  • More than 3.5 million events created each month
  • More than 1.6 million active Pages on Facebook
  • More than 700,000 local businesses have active Pages on Facebook
  • Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans
  • Average user has 130 friends on the site
  • Average user sends 8 friend requests per month
  • Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook
  • Average user clicks the Like button on 9 pieces of content each month
  • Average user writes 25 comments on Facebook content each month
  • Average user becomes a fan of 2 Pages each month
  • Average user is invited to 3 events per month
  • Average user is a member of 12 groups

More people clicked through to Facebook than Google on Christmas day 2009.

So ya don’t think that your prime potential customers use facebook because they are a more mature audience ? Think again !!!

Facebook Users by Generation 2009

Facebook Users by Generation 2009

Why Should Your Business Use Social Media ?

An overnight success ten years in the making, social media is as transformative as it is evolutionary.

At last, 2010 is expected to be the year that social media goes mainstream for business.

Here are some reasons you might consider investing some time in Social Media;-

1. Better interaction with your clients
2. More personal interaction with your clients
3. To better serve your clients
4. The same for your suppliers
5. To have input to what is being said about your brand online
6. To better understand the trends in your industry
7. To learn from the gurus and the leaders in your industry
8. To promote your brand online (be careful – the salesman at the BBQ !)
9. To make ‘special offers’ to existing clients & potential new clients
10. To introduce your products and services to potential new clients

Full social media integration often happens in stages — it’s an evolutionary process for companies and consumers alike.

Here are the some common stages that businesses experience as they travel the road to full social media integration.

Stage 1: Observe and Report

Listen and learn. This is the entry point for businesses to better understand the behaviour of an interactive marketplace.

Stage 2: Setting the Stage + Dress Rehearsal

Once the initial intelligence is gathered, businesses will set the stage for social media participation.

Create official presences across one or more social networks, usually Twitter and possibly Facebook (Fan Pages), YouTube, and Flickr. Early on, this is often experimental, and less about strategic engagement.

Stage 3: Socializing Media

The next stage in the evolution of a new media business is the proverbial step towards “joining the conversation.”

As companies take the stage, they will eventually pay attention to the reaction of the audience in order to respond and improve content, define future engagements, and humanize communication.

Stage 4: Finding a Voice and a Sense of Purpose

By not only listening, but hearing and observing the responses and mannerisms of those who define our markets, we can surface pain points, source ideas, foster innovation, earn inspiration, learn, and feel a little empathy in order to integrate a sense of purpose into our socialized media programs.

Stage 5: Turning Words Into Actions

Actions speak louder than words. Businesses must act. Once the door to social consciousness is opened, bring the spirit of your company through it to affect change.

Stage 6: Humanizing the Brand and Defining the Experience

No longer will we focus on controlling the message from conception to documentation to distribution. We lose control as our messages are introduced into the real world. Our story migrates from consumer to consumer. This chain forms a powerful connection that reveals true reactions, perception, and perspectives.

Stage 7: Community

Community is an investment in the cultivation and fusion of affinity, interaction, advocacy and loyalty. Learned earlier in the stages of new media adoption, community isn’t established with the creation of a social profile. Community is earned and fortified through shared experiences. It takes commitment.

Stage 8: Social Darwinism

Listening and responding is only as effective as its ability to inspire transformation, improvement, and adaptation from the inside out. Survival does not hinge solely on a company’s social media strategy. The social element is but one part of an overall integrated strategy. It’s how we learn and adapt that ensures our place within the evolution of our markets.

Source mashable.com

Google & Real Time Search

Do you get any business from your website ?

What is your position in the Search Engine Results Pages on a Google search for a particular “keyword phrase” that relates to your business ?

Did you know that approximately 60% of clicks go to those businesses listed on page 1 for a relevant keyword search ?

What Is Google Trying to Achieve ?

To increase the number of people using its services by providing them with the best possible (most relevant) results for their keyword search.

Why – because Google sells advertising space and makes an awful lot of money from doing this.

Google reported revenues of $6.67 billion (USD) for the quarter ended December 31, 2009, an increase of 17% compared to the fourth quarter of 2008.

What Are Google’s Latest Initiatives – Where is Google Heading in Terms of Search?

Google is focussing on real time search.

YouTube videos are already placing near the top in search results.

Realtime = relevance = better search results

Realtime is sourced from Social media amongst other places.

Google and Twitter have already signed an agreement.

Content Is King !

The “static” brochure website is dead !

Google rewards relevant, interesting and frequently updated content because it fits the profile of what people want to view.

As a small business owner who wants to gain their fare share of business from an increasingly connected marketplace you need to consider the following;-

Engage with your clients past, present or future (this also drives referrals)

Listen to what they are saying

Help them when they have problems

Make it really easy to find your brand online

Keep them up to date with what is happening in your business and in your industry in a manner THAT MEETS THEIR NEEDS NOT YOURS !

Offer them special enticements via social media portals or via your website. This drives customer loyalty.

Conclusion

The 1950s through to the early 2000s saw a domination of the market by big corporations.

This domination was leveraged through each existing and emerging media channel.

“Dead Tree Media” is dying (no matter what Rupert Murdoch might like to believe).

TV will succumb to IPTV and Internet connected media devices.

We will watch whatever we want to watch from anywhere around the world and we will no longer have to be “spoonfed” by local TV stations and newspapers with specific agendas (political, commercial or otherwise).

The Apple iPad Tablet will be a huge winner (to released Jan 27 in the US by Apple – it will be as big as the iPod and iPhone) !

I will go so far as to say that it will revolutionise the way we interact with the online world & the media. It is also another new channel for us to use as a promotion tool for our products and services.

This is the best chance in the last 50 years for small business to compete with the big guys.

We will do so by better service and the enhancement of our reputation through social media.

Social Media is here to stay. Get with the program or be left behind by those that are prepared to make the effort !

Download a Hard Copy of This Presentation

You can also Download or print a hardcopy of Onlineassist4u Social Media Marketing Overview Jan 2010 by clicking on this link.

Note: We have attempted to credit the source wherever we have quoted another organisation. The people we have quoted are excellent and deserve the small amount of time it would take you to check them out. So do it, you will not be disappointed !

Filed Under Featured Articles, Social Networks Tagged With facebook, marketing, social media, twitter, youtube

Online Marketing for Small Business Seminar Handouts

December 4, 2009 By kirkoconnor Leave a Comment

This week witnessed our fledgling company’s first seminar and, judging by the feedback forms collected afterwards, it seems that our content was right on the money so to speak.

Both Geoff and I would especially like to thank all of you who attended on the day as, without your support, there would have been no opportunity to share all of this information which is burning in our skulls.

Onlineassist4u Seminar Kirk and Geoff tell it like it is
Onlineassist4u Seminar Kirk and Geoff tell it like it is

At onlineassist4u we are fully committed to helping small business gain full control of their online marketing. The tools exist and they are not difficult to use.

The only issues at hand we believe are as follows;

  • Is there a benefit to your small business in taking the time to market it online ? If not, do not do it. Do whatever else you have determined to be a better ‘payoff’ in terms of the marketing of your company.
  • If you believe their is a benefit then put the time into learning what must be done. It may be that once you have a reasonable idea of all that must be done that you outsource some of that work to a trusted third party (that not only performs the work but reports back to you with the results of that work)
  • Measure the returns you are getting on your investment (both time and money) and modify your activities accordingly

Marketing your business online is an ongoing activity. There is no point in just getting a website up and then moving on to something else. All you have created is an online brochure. An online brochure with an extremely limited shelf life.

The slides from our seminar are available below. You will need to install the Adobe Acrobat reader to view them and the latest version can be downloaded from Adobe Acrobat Reader.

The seminar handout is available here Download onlineassist4u seminar overheads

Videos from the seminar will be sliced and diced and presented on this site over the next couple of months.

To make sure you see them all just subscribe to our RSS feed click here to subscribe to our RSS feed

Filed Under Featured Articles, Internet Marketing, Social Networks, seminars Tagged With Internet Marketing, seminar

Internet Newbies and Email SEO Scams

November 26, 2009 By kirkoconnor Leave a Comment

I loved the following article so much I am including it in full (with the publisher’s permission of course) for you guys.

It perfectly sums up our opinion (and most if not all of those providing quality Internet Marketing support services) with regards to the crooks, scam artists and swindlers sending small businesses solicitations via email to get their website on the front page of Google.

I get these emails regularly myself as I run a range of websites in various markets and mostly ignore them. Commonly the scammer sends me an email the next day wanting to know why I have not responded to their offer of help.

I have been tempted to respond with a tirade of abuse telling these crooks what I really think of their unethical and, yes, criminal, business proposals, however, that has not happened as yet.

Modern social media means that it will not be long before the vast majority of people are alerted to the fact that the promises of these crooks are just another scam. Hopefully we are doing our bit in educating those of you that visit our site.

SEO Scams and Newbies Realm of Gullibility

an article by David Jackson

One of my all-time favorite tv shows is The Twilight Zone. I particularly like Rod Serling’s memorable opening narration:

“There is a sixth dimension, beyond that which is known to newbies. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, and it lies between the pit of newbies gullibility and the sunlight of their naiveté. This is the dimension of smoke and mirrors. It is a dimension known as SEO Scams and Newbies Realm of Gullibility.”

Okay, so I took a little poetic license with Mr. Serling’s classic narration. But I did it to make a point, and the point is, everyday thousands of naive and gullible newbies are targeted, and ripped-off by common SEO scams – mostly scams that have been around since the advent of the Internet. You may even have been a victim yourself.

The question is, why do these seemingly obvious scams continue to thrive year after year after year? My guess is, because most of the victims are newbies who have entered the newbies realm of gullibility.

Hopefully, this article will prevent other newbies from entering this undesirable realm, and being unnecessarily victimized. Anyway, following are some of the most common SEO scams:

1. E-Mail Solicitations

First of all, legitimate companies, SEO or otherwise don’t send out e-mail solicitations without permission. And unless you signed up to receive e-mail solicitations from a particular company, delete all spam immediately. Don’t open it, and don’t send these scam artists your hard-earned money!

I always delete all spam – except when I’m doing research for articles like this one. On those occasions, I find opening e-mail spam extremely useful, because I can pass on what I learn to my readers.

Anyway, if you’ve registered a new domain recently, you’ve probably been solicited by SEO scam artists, looking to steal your hard-earned money. See if any of these e-mail solicitations look familiar:

“I just looked at your website and we can help you get better search engine placement.”

I had to laugh when I received this solicitation, because I had just registered a new domain, and hadn’t even built my website yet. The only thing I had up was a generic “This website is coming soon” placeholder. Obviously, there was no way they could have looked at my website.

Here’s another e-mail solicitation I received recently:

“We have performed a free analysis of your website, and we can help you get better search engine placement”.

Again, how could they have performed an analysis of a website I haven’t even built yet? Answer: They couldn’t.

Here’s another one:

“I was just browsing your website, and realized that despite having a good design, your site was not ranking on any of the search engines for most of the keywords pertaining to your domain.”

Despite having a good design? It’s a freakin’ generic placeholder you scamming idiots!

This next e-mail solicitation I received doesn’t even bother wasting time with false pretenses. It goes right for the jugular (i.e. your wallet) immediately:

“Website Listing Service”

Annual Website Search Engine Listing.

From Nov. 1, 2009 thru Nov. 1 2010

Amount Due: $65

At first glance, this solicitation appears to be a bill for some sort of “annual website search engine listing.” But if you scroll down like I did and read the fine print at the bottom of the letter, you’ll see this:

“This is not a bill. This is a solicitation. You are under no obligation to pay the amount stated above unless you accept this offer.”

I can’t emphasize this point enough: Legitimate SEO companies don’t send out e-mail solicitations without permission. And unless you signed up to receive e-mail solicitations from a particular company, delete all spam immediately. Don’t open it, and don’t send these scam artists your hard-earned money!

2. “We’ll Submit Your Website to 2500 Search Engines “

First of all, there aren’t 2500 search engines out there – at least not 2500 that actually matter. There are really only three search engines that matter.

The three search engines are:

Google

Yahoo

Bing (Formerly MSN Live)

And the reason they’re the only three that matter is because they’re the only ones that can send you any significant traffic. And that’s not my opinion, that’s a fact!

According to The Nielson Company, 66.1% of searchers in this country use Google. 16.6% use Yahoo! and 8.8% use Bing (formerly Microsoft Live).

The point is, since there are really only three search engines that can send you any significant traffic, paying anyone to submit your website to 2500 search engines is really a waste of time and money. The three aforementioned search engines will eventually find your website on their own.

However, if you want to submit to them you can easily do so yourself. There’s no need to pay anyone to do it for you.

3. “Achieve Top 10 Search Engine Rankings Guaranteed!”

No legitimate SEO company will guarantee you a top 10 search engine ranking. Why? Because they can’t. A website’s ranking is determined by a variety of factors within a search engine’s algorithms. SEO companies have zero control over the constantly evolving algorithms of search engines.

And since SEO companies don’t have any control over those algorithms, it only stands to reason that they can’t legitimately guarantee you a top 10 ranking, right?

Now it is possible for you to get a top 10 ranking for certain long-tail keyword phrases that are less popular – keywords that aren’t heavily searched?

Yes, that’s very possible. But again, no one can guarantee you a top 10 ranking for those types of keywords either.

And even if you do manage to get into the top 10 for certain keywords, there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to stay there. Because the search engines are constantly changing their algorithms to thwart cheaters.

For example, you can be on page one today and just as easily be on page one hundred tomorrow. It can happen just that quickly. Don’t believe me? Do some research on Google’s infamous Florida Update.

4. “Generate 10,000 to 1,000,000 Visitors to your Website Guaranteed!”

This SEO scam is called a Guaranteed Traffic Program. And yes, you’ll receive plenty of traffic, but they won’t hang around on your website for any length of time, and they won’t buy anything.

Why? Because the traffic is poor quality. It’s garbage. It isn’t targeted. In fact, in many cases, it’s not even humans that actually visit your site through these programs.

I discovered first-hand that when you purchase guaranteed traffic credits, it’s actually bots clicking through to your site, and then immediately clicking out. While doing research for this article, I actually tested a guaranteed traffic program.

And the numbers don’t lie. When I checked my raw data logs, I discovered that all of those thousands of visitors I received only stayed on my site for about five seconds. Don’t waste your money with guaranteed traffic programs.

5. Avoid SEO Contracts That Hold You Hostage

This particular SEO scam struck close to home recently, when my sister became a victim. Here’s how it works: Unethical SEO companies coerce you into signing a contract that commits you to using their service for 12 months or more. My sister got reeled in, because they told her that they needed to optimize her website’s coding every month to keep up with the search engines algorithm changes.

Can you believe that? What a load of bull crap! Anyway, she didn’t know any better, so she entered the newbies realm of gullibility, and signed a 12 month contract.

Unfortunately, when she finally got around to telling me about it, since she had already signed the contract, there really wasn’t anything that I could do to extricate her from the situation. And since her SEO contract is also tied into her hosting, they’re holding a huge hammer over her head.

In addition to that, they have all kinds of penalty clauses built in, in the event she tries to terminate her contract early. The good news is, next time, she’ll check with her big brother first, before she signs anything.

In fairness to legitimate SEO companies, I want to make something perfectly clear. Not every SEO company that has you sign a contract is unethical. And there are legitimate reasons for contracts.

For example, if you are implementing a link-building program, that obviously has to be monitored over time. Or perhaps your SEO company is managing your pay-per-click program. Again, this is something that has to be monitored over time.

That being said, caveat emptor! Personally, I have a problem with even legitimate SEO companies holding people hostage with long-term contracts.

Seriously, what do they need to hold you hostage for anyway? Now I don’t have a problem with a month-to-month contract. That way, if you’re not happy with the results you’re getting after a month or two, you can simply walk away without penalty.

So there you have it. The most common SEO scams rampant on the Internet today. Hopefully, you’ll heed the advice in this article, and walk away from these schemes, whenever they rear their ugly heads.

But should you choose to ignore the advice in this article, you can’t say that you weren’t warned!

David Jackson is the owner of http://reviews-by-customers.com – the Internet’s hottest new business directory!
This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

Filed Under Featured Articles, Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization Tagged With Internet Marketing, scammers, scams, search engine optimization, SEO

Google Search Tips from the Guru

November 19, 2009 By kirkoconnor Leave a Comment

As we have told you many times, the guys at Google want you (the user) to get the best possible response to any search you make using the Google search engine.

Why ? because the better results Google gives you for your search the less chance you will go and use an alternative search engine such as Bing or Yahoo or the myriad of other smaller alternatives.

More searches on Google means more advertising revenue for Google.

There are a few power tips for using Google that will get you much better results for your searches.

Most of us wouldn’t use these power search tips day to day, however, there might be that odd time when you are looking for something pretty specific and upique and these power tips could come in mighty handy.

In the video below Google Guru, Matt Cutts, very quickly shows you some of his favorite power tips to supercharge you searches on Google.

So take 5 minutes to watch and you might pick up a snippet of information that could at least make your life easier, however, at best might make you a couple of dollars along the way.

Filed Under Featured Articles, office automation

Wordpress Wins Content Management System Award

November 18, 2009 By kirkoconnor Leave a Comment

WordPress has been awarded the Overall Best Open Source CMS Award in the 2009 Open Source CMS Awards.

This is a landmark for Wordpress as marks a shift in the public perception of the system, from blog software to full-featured Content management System (CMS).

This is a fantastic achievement as the Open Source CMS Awards received over 12,000 nominations and more than 23,000 votes across five categories.

Every day thousands of new people are embracing WordPress to power not just their blogs but entire sites and communities without compromising on usability or scalability (as would be the case with a legacy CMS).

So Why do we use Wordpress as the base for every website constructed at Onlineassist4u.com;

  • I am typing this article in Wordpress’ text editor. It is as simple as writing an email. You can use it too if you are capable of writing an email.
  • Many of our clients love the power of being able to make changes to their own website within seconds. Worpress lets them do this
  • Our clients can also upload photos, graphics, audio, pdf docs, videos and more. All through a simple, fast, email-like interface
  • Wordpress is open source and thus continues to be improved with added functionality by programmers across the globe
  • Wordpress is used by millions of people daily ensuring a huge community that supports the continued development of the Wordpress core
  • Wordpress is at once free and at the same time priceless
  • Wordpress is modular in nature allowing the addition of plugins to add all sorts of new and exciting functionality to the websites we produce. new plugins with new functionality seem to be released daily
  • Wordpress is optimized for SEO (search engine optimization) and this helps your website rise up the Google search engine results placings
  • There are a veritable army of people who develop for Wordpress. Much of their work is free, some we have to pay for (and do so gladly). Most of it adds value to our business and the online marketing of your business
  • Wordpress is structured in a similar manner to the best modern websites. It utilizes cascading stylesheets, supports server side scripting (PHP) and has at its heart the mysql database. As such when we develop with Wordpress we know we are providing our clients with a product that has longevity
  • As Wordpress is an open standard we know that clients that chose to move to another supplier can take a copy of their onlineassist4u.com Wordpress database and restore it onto another Wordpress website. This is important for us as we strongly believe that you should have choices.

There are so many more things that we could add, however, we won’t continue to extend the list as you likely get the picture already.

At onlineassist4u we are Wordpress fanatics in the best sense of the word as it ensures our company can deliver the best possible product at the most reasonable price and that our clients can have some independence from us as well being able to make their own updates to their site in real time and, if they find someone they like more than us – however impossible that may sound ;-) – even move to a new supplier.

Old, static web design in html is no longer a reasonable option for those that want to supercharge the promotion of their business online. And, as for sites built out of flash, well you might as well just send an email to the search engines and tell them to ignore your website.So get a website that allows you to make the most of your passion for your business and rewards your passion and your effort. get a Wordpress website.

Filed Under Content Management, Featured Articles, Uncategorized

What’s All This About Then ?

November 14, 2009 By kirkoconnor Leave a Comment

For those who simply want a great website at a very affordable monthly rate that doesn’t blast a hole in their cash flow:-

We provide a customized website for you. Fully hosted, your colors, your logo, your information, 6 email accounts e.g. you@yourbusiness.com etc, weekly backup and an administration area where you can add information to your website or change information on it, add pictures or add content such a pdf docs etc.

Plus you get access to our focussed and easy to understand documents, videos and podcasts on how you can work your website to rise up the search engine rankings and to close more business through your website.

We give you all this for $1.60 a day. There is no contract, there is no minimum term, there is no upfront fee (apart from your first month’s membership of course which is $48.66)

For those that want to supercharge the online marketing of their business

Onlineassist4u.com provides a complete range of services and features. You can add email marketing, an online shop, search engine optimization and MOST IMPORTANTLY for those that want to fast track their route to the pinnacle of the search engine rankings you can make it our task to create and publish your content and build new backlinks to your website every month.

Filed Under Uncategorized

Villa di Bucu Bali Goes Online with Onlineassist4u

November 11, 2009 By kirkoconnor Leave a Comment

The owners of a new luxury holiday villa in Bali known as Villa di Bucu (the villa on the corner) have entrusted their online sales drive to Onlineassist4u.com.

Villa di Bucu is a luxury residence located centrally in Canggu which is available for rental at very competitive rates.

The villa was recently built as a display by a western builder using the finest tradesmen in Bali and is regarded by many in the industry as one of the best built and most detailed projects in Bali.

Villa di Bucu Bali is located on Jalan Subak Sari in Canggu. Canggu is an area in South Bali, north of Seminyak and south of Tanah Lot. Canggu proper is small village on the beach about 20 minutes north of Seminyak half way to Tanah Lot.

Villa di Bucu Bali luxury holiday residence

Villa di Bucu Bali luxury holiday residence

The marketing team at Villa di Bucu are looking for maximum ‘bang for their buck’ from the Onlineassist4u team and they have chosen the ‘Kryptonite Membership Plan’ to help get their website rising rapidly through the search engine results pages.

Keyword research, website optimization and content creation have already been performed by the Onlineassist4u team with a total of four articles to be created for the website each month for submission to authority directories and ezine sites.

The website was online within days with all the essential information required to publicize the villa to potential holidaymakers plus some superb images of the property arranged in image galleries and a slideshow on the homepage.

All this plus keyword research and the first month’s backlink building session and content creation was achieved for an initial investment of less than $200 from Villa di Bucu’s owners.

Checkout the website at by clicking on this link to Villa di Bucu Bali

 

Filed Under Client Solutions, Featured Articles, web development

Emails from Offshore SEO Experts and Why You Should Exercise Caution

November 5, 2009 By kirkoconnor Leave a Comment

Just had a rather tasty dinner of home made pizza and dropped back into my desk here to check my emails and my Twitter stream.

What should I find when I checked my email other than a very polite email from an ‘offshore’ Search Engine Optimization expert called Reema (if in fact that is a real name).

I have included the text of the letter below, however, to cut a long story short, I will show you what can be learnt from such proposals.

Firstly, the website Reema refers to is a “not for profit website” that myself and a couple of buddies maintain for the local football (soccer) market here in Perth, Western Australia. It is our passion and we love it, giving up our time and using our skills to promote our sport locally.

‘Reema’ states that “I was surfing through your website and checked it for a few keywords on Google. Unfortunately, it was not ranking on any of those.”

Well Reema, last time I checked, the website ranks as number 5 on Google for its primary keyword “football wa” out of 9.9 million entries (see image from Google).

Not so shabby for a website that we do not actively perform Search Engine Optimization on is it ?

So what keywords was my expert friend Reema checking our website for ?

Well , surprisingly enough Reema doesn’t mention these keywords. An oversight perhaps ?

Finding our primary keyword wouldn’t have been that difficult for someone who had any modicum of Search Engine Optimization knowledge. Its actually in the domain name www.club-footballwa.com.au. Yes its “football wa”. Well hidden wasn’t it ?

The website has been active for just on a year and to get to a number 5 position out of 9.9 million entries without trying is a pretty amazing effort but not according to my expert friend Reema.

So, what can we take out of this little exercise ?

Reema, of course, could be genuine and be genuinely interested in helping this website perform better in the rankings. Of course Reema is in business to make money and has a service to sell so why not send us an email offering to help ?

Alternately, Reema could know very little about football or football websites in general and therefore not know that our website ranks so highly for our primary keyword “football wa” because Reema didn’t consider that keyword a candidate in his / her list of “a few keywords”.

If this is the case Reema is definitely not the sort of person I would want to do business with as his / her knowledge of such an obvious part of this business is very limited.

Club Football WA Google Rankings
Club Football WA Google Rankings

Another possible option is even more worrying. “Reema” (and many like him / her) could be sending out hundreds of these emails a day to various websites around the world and convincing a huge number of small business people who know very little about SEO that they need Reema’s company’s services based upon at best poorly researched information or, at worst, no research at all. I do not know this to be true but it has to be an option I consider.

My advice to you friends is to only have Search Engine Optimization performed by someone who has been recommended by a business colleague or, if you can’t get this, a local Search Engine Optimization consultant.

Pick a company that you can work closely with to have them understand your business and, should things go wrong (and sometimes they do), one where you have some recompense towards the return of some or all of your hard earned readies (your money).

Give “Reema” and his / her buddies short shrift.

Hi,

I am Reema, Manager – Online Marketing

We are an ISO Certified, SEMPO registered Online Marketing firm based in (taken out to protect honest businesses in this country).

I was surfing through your website and checked it for a few keywords on Google. Unfortunately, it was not ranking on any of those.

As per the trends in your industry – over 80% of people search for your products/services online and buy the same. These rankings also influence other channels of sales as well.

There is a simple equation that is applicable to the online world.

Ethical SEO -> Better Traffic ->Higher Sales.

Just wondering, if you would be interested improving the position of your website for the key terms your clients would be using to search your services.

In case you require any additional information, it shall be our pleasure to furnish the same. No obligations.

Let me know if you are interested we can discuss this further.

I look forward to your mail.

Yours sincerely,
Reema

I don’t think you will be doing any business with this little black duck Reema !!!!!

Filed Under Featured Articles, Keyword Market Research, Search Engine Optimization, blog Tagged With keyword research, ripoff, search engine optimization

Small Business Marketing Questions That You Should Ask

November 4, 2009 By kirkoconnor Leave a Comment

Most small business people know that marketing your business is essential to its success. After all, no prospect flow, no deal flow !

Depending upon our business model, industry, market segment, geographic location or demographic we all market our businesses in different ways.

Some will place their emphasis on print, some on the Internet, some through business clubs or not for profit organisations, others through signage, word of mouth or even a young kid with a sign around his neck waving a very big hand with a finger pointing to the shopfront.

The fact remains though that most small businesses have a very limited marketing budget and we are all especially keen to make sure that we get the maximum return from our investment.

Do We Think Thoroughly Through Our Investment in Marketing ?

In our case. No !

I hate to admit it but some of our marketing has been reactionary to say the least. Some has paid off and some just wasted our money.

Are you in a similar situation ? I bet some of you are (or are we the only ones ?).

If you are in that situation perhaps asking yourself a few quick questions before you made your investment would have made it a much more focussed and productive investment.

Well we have found a webpage that gives you a list of 101 questions that you could ask yourself to hone your focus.

Now don’t get too worried. You do not need to ask yourself every one of them. You can hone down your focus and ask yourself the ones that best pertain to your business situation.

It makes sense to have a look and to bookmark the article for the next time you come to plan an investment in marketing for your small business.

You can find 101 Small Business Marketing Questions for People Who Don’t Speak Marketing by clicking on this link.

Filed Under Digital Marketing Strategy, Featured Articles, Internet Marketing
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