Posts Tagged ‘news’

Twitter Search … what search?

Client News, SEO Scotland, Technology | Posted by Gavin
Feb 26 2010

Using Twitter is becoming a larger part of our daily business practice, but I find it bizarre that the ‘Twitter Search’ facility on the site is of little or no use at all. 

Twitter is all about building a following and following like-minded people, whether for business or pleasure.  As this is such a core part of the whole Twitter-thing, why is the search facility so poor?  In my opinion, the essential part of connecting with other businesses, is to be able to find them in the first place.

We run an SEO & Internet Marketing business in the Highlands of Scotland and there are not many businesses (in the grand scheme of things) that embrace the whole ’social media’ thing in our area which makes the Twitter’s inability to provide concise search results more frustrating.

However I recently came across an extremely helpful article with tools and tips at Mashable – http://bit.ly/mnQ1g - Have a read if you get the time.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Trip Advisor set to charge for business listings

Business News, Client News, Events in Aviemore, SEO Scotland | Posted by Gavin
Jan 11 2010

Trip Advisor, the well established travel/accommodation review site is no stranger to controversy with many blog posts and comments from the hotel & leisure industry questioning its policy on ‘the right to reply’ and ‘bonifide posts’.

TA bills itself as providing “Unbiased holiday reviews, photos and travel advice for hotels and vacations”

It came to light in 2009 that Trip Advisor was to begin charging for business listings – this has now come to pass.

As we have over 20 years experience in the hotel & leisure industry we are interested in feedback and comment from any Hotel, Guest House, B&B, Self Catering, Restaurant etc as to what this means to you ….

Popularity: 9% [?]

Pleased to support a worthy cause

Business News | Posted by Katie
Sep 23 2009

Our friends down at Severn Internet in Shropshire have asked us to support the efforts of the MD’s brother in his quest to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. You can read more about it all at the SIS blog.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Google Forum Search – important changes that will effect search rankings

SEO Scotland | Posted by Gavin
Aug 14 2009

Google’s recent ’show options’ addition to the SERP’s have provided additional search filters and I would like to continue this series of posts by looking at forums.

Online Forums and SEO

Online forums have been around for a number of years and were arguably the forerunner of social media and it’s many applications. Forums are basically online message boards, creating platforms for discussions around particular topics between people who share common interests – a place to connect with others online.

From an SEO point of view, forums represent relationship marketing opportunities as well as a chance to create and distribute valuable, topic specific content (and in some cases links).  Subject authority and online profile are additional benefits of forum participation and most market and interest categories are covered by the many that are widely used.

Google Forum Search Filter

It is not entirely clear as to what Google classifies as a forum within it’s SERP’s but indications are that not only large, specialised, dedicated forums that are listed but also forum pages that are included as part of a site, or are added as a sub domain or blog, associated with a site.

In any event, the development in the SERP’s indicate that many businesses and organisations should probably consider adding a forum in order to make full use of the this search filter option, especially ones that are particularly active in social media marketing.

As a direct result of this, posting to forums on other peoples sites is now even more important than ever.  While links within many forum posts may be subjected to the ‘nofollow’ attribute, the new filter makes the content of posts and thread more powerful and therefore a more effective traffic driver…

…What do you think?

Popularity: 31% [?]

Google Video Search – important changes that will effect search rankings

SEO Scotland | Posted by Gavin
Aug 03 2009

Google video search filterGoogle’s recent ’show options’ addition to the SERP’s have provided additional search filters and I would like to continue this series of posts by looking at video.

Google Video Search Filter

We all know about YouTube, Google’s video sharing website, where users can upload and share video content.  Since Google aquired YouTube in Nov 2006, it has fast become an internet phenomina in it’s own right and I recent read that it is the second most used search resource.

Google’s video filter option reinforces the value Google places on the ‘improved user experience’ and highlights the power of video to inform as well as entertain – something that text based content cannot do.

By using the video filter link, video based results are listed that best match the search query, including mini screenshots in the search results. The user then has further options that allow the results to be filtered by length, most recently upload etc.

SEO Actions – Utilising Video Search

  • Create topical, market related video
  • Ensure videos are of appropriate length and meet other upload criteria
  • Ensure that videos are optimised for search
  • Post videos to YouTube and other video search sites 
  • Post regularly, include interesting new video content

Popularity: 31% [?]