I was at a business meeting this morning and I allowed give a quick presentation about the Internet and so I talked about an interesting part of the web industry called “Link Building” as part of a Search Engine Optimisation campaign. I started by trying to make a similarity of a link on a website to a verbal referral from a business colleague.

The more of my business colleagues that let their friends and staff know that we have worked on their website the more people who are likely to let others know about ourselves. In Internet terms, it’s whereby you, your website address to be exact is named on another website. So if you are a garage repair service and you are members of SIMI. Do they list you as a member? By doing so they telling Google and the world that you are related to them in a business sense. Search engines count these “Links” and use it as part of their Algorithm to judge the benefit of your website to the world.

If your site is informative about your products and services, if it’s up to date, and is the best documentation that the search engine can find, then your sites “Page Rank” is increased.

How to get people to link to you?

Some companies will try to tell you they can do it for you and indeed they may be able to get you a few links, but are the links of any good. Good links I would suggest are from relevant and respected sites. Dodgy sites that are “Link Farms” (sites that could have a 1000 links on one page) are not recommended. Using these types of links can often be categorised a Black Hat* tricks by search engines

* Black Hat methods of SEO are sneaky tricks like, putting your key phrase in white text at the top of the page to add extra key phrases.

Sites that are respected by search engines are generally sites that you yourself would recommend, Use a spoonful of cop on when choosing sites to get linked from. Getting back to that Car garage, if he was offered a link from a Circus website, do you think that link would be of any use. . . . Me Neither. . .  I doubt Google would too.

So, I would recommend that you contact your suppliers in your industry and ask them to put a link to your website from their website. I could try to do it but they are more likely to do it for you rather than a stranger these days. Once that is in place make sure you put a link from your website back to them. This is called a reciprocal link.

To start a Link Building Campaign for your business today contact Dave Jordan of Cada Media Ltd, Tel: 053 9430748

Google’s listing, How do they work?

We have had a number of inquiries from companies this week asking us to help them get on top of Google.  It’s interesting to see how the “recession in the building trade” has pushed into many other aspects of life in Ireland.

One inquiry today asked if we could create a script to refresh a website so that I will appear higher in Google? Is this true If I write a script to refresh the page it will increase it Page Ranking in Google?

I don’t think so, is the simple answer.

Google has a complex algorithm that now consists of over 200 criteria that it rates a website. Google changes and alter this algorithm each day. Google is not a script that is the same each and every week. Google evolves, think of it like the stock exchange, it adapts to trends in the world and sometimes there are more focus on certain area’s than other.

In years gone by it could have been many things such as :

• your domain name
• your image content
• your video content
• the amount of links that pointed to you
• the amount of internal links
• the amount of good copy you have written on the site
• the amount of times the website was updated
• spelling
• grammar

Often business owners have their own idea of how Google works, but it is not always as simple as they think. We also has one company marketing director ask about changing the company domain name to AAsometing.ie as they assumed that Google lists is websites alphabetically.

Interesting so see how different businesses assume so much about how a search engines work and yet all be so far from the truth. Search Engine are a science, not rocket science but never the less a science, It’s called “Computer Science”

Many people are afraid to ask for help in business these days, we have found that if people let us work on the area of expertise that we specialise in we can help grow their business and grow their company.

Let Cada Media Ltd take your hand through the complex world of Search Engine Optimisation and put your business ahead of the rest. Call Dave Jordan on 053 9430748 for more information.

We are please to announce the launch of a new website for the “Small Job” around the house that everyone has and are looking for tradesmen online to come and work on. The type of jobs that wouldn’t be looked at a year or two ago are now the main bread and butter for many in Trades such as carpenters and plumbers etc.

We have worked with our client Paul on creating a directory style website that he can manage himself in terms of content and ECommerce payment facilities the site incorporates. The site allows tradesmen from all over Ireland insert a small advert for their services in a County or town they wish to apply for. It will also allow for miltiple listings if required.

Tradesmen nagigate to the area they wish to be listed in, they click on “Add Listing” and fill in the form and follow the steps. The site then links them to a payment option and they can get listed virtually immediately. The owner of the site “Paul” then checks their listing for approval.

The site has the following features:

• Search Engine Friendly Directory
• Printer Friendly
• Downloads Fast
• ECommerce facility
• Content Management Software
• Online Advertising Management

Services carried out were

• Domain Management
• Consultancy
• Web Development
• Training
• Web Marketing

This is a common issues with websites, trying to keep them fresh, you can look at the following

1. Read your website and each page to see if it makes sense to you as , a newbie or as an experienced user looking for information. Do you cater for both
2. Make sure you have good meta tags on every page, the description and keywords match each page.
3. Look at your competitors sites and see if they have something you may have overlooked.
4. Check other search engines to see how you rank try www.google.co.uk and search for your products and services there for example if you cater for the UK market.
5. Are you linked from enough sites, are their suppliers who should have a link to you? Link building is very important, get all of them to link to you.
6. Start a Social Media Networking campaign, Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter etc for your business
7. Get involved in posting articles on forums say on Boards.ie etc

This is just a sample of how you can keep your site and information online about your business fresh for more call Dave Jordan on 053 9430748

Dave Speaks at IIA Seminar in Waterford

Dave Jordan has been asked to speak at the half day seminar organised by the IIA and Waterford City Enterprise Board Today at Dooley’s Hotel, The Quay, Waterford.

This half day seminar is designed for businesses to get more from their websites and is run in conjunction with the Marketing Institute of Ireland.

Dave will be speaking at 2.20pm on  Web Design for Business Success

We wish him all the best at the event.

from the Staff at Cada Media Ltd

Google has changed.

Yes, Google have changed their algorithm as we have been writing about since last year. It seems that many people came back to work this week to find their website gone from it’s usual place in the search engine.

Expect more of this in 2009 as “Rich Media” plays a bigger role in getting listed in Google.

See :

http://blog.cadamedia.ie/2008/11/google-changing/

http://blog.cadamedia.ie/2008/11/google-algorithm-changes-all-the-time/

http://blog.cadamedia.ie/2008/11/matt-cutts-from-google-interviewed/

Matt Cutts from Google was interviewed in Las Vagas at the PubCon show recently and he pointed out a number of changes that are going to be happening in Google in the new year.

He talked about the user experience gaining in priority and that a move towards personalisation is very important. Meaning that the website content for searches must be geared towards the users and not just writing for search engines. Google basically will look at the content and examine it to see if it reads well or is just a string of key phrases thrown into a paragraph.

Localisation was touched on again by Matt pointing out that Geo Targeting your search results will become more to the front in 2009. Basically depending where you are will show results for your geographical location.

On the question on is “Page Rank Dead?” he pointed out again that basically Yes they are moving away from displaying sites with a high page rank and giving priority to sites with good website content. He also said that they are going to be looking more at companies that use “White Hat Solutions” and “Black Hat Solutions“. These are methods of creating web pages that fool a search engine into showing it first, like loading it with H1 tags in displaying content or “Keyword Stuffing” pages with key phrases what people might use, but when you actually sit down to read the page it’s crap. Just a load of phrases and no “Real Content” to understand what that page is about.

So to all our clients, get your thinking cap on and start coming up with good web copy and starting writing for your audience.

We have mentioned about google changing its algorithm over 450 times last year and having over 200 criteria for their page rank but now it seems that from early 2009 they will be pushing for Geo-Targeting search results, meaning that depending on where you are it will display different results. We have carried our a few simultaneous searches in our Wexford offices here and our Dublin office as well as a colleague in the Uk and found that we all have got different results depending on our location.

Great you say  . . .  but what has this got to do with me and my website. Well you must now starting taking this into consideration when writing your website content. Google is starting to look at wheat searches you are carrying out and is return results to suit you. This will happen even if you have a google account or not. They are looking at search trends and what an IP address for instance looks for.

This means that page rank could be a thing of the past as they change the way they look upon information around the world and how they index it.

We are predicting that people will start seeing their website jumpin Google’s listings from early 2009.

I was reminded this morning of how common this question is . Many of our inquiries always say they “want to be No 1 in Google” but don’t have an idea how to get there. I talk about search engine optimisation SEO (this goes over 99% of peoples heads) but really i am talking about getting a natural listing in Google listings.

I have to remind people that this is 2 tasks, 1 getting a website and 2 getting it top of the search engines.  It doesnt automatically happen (sorry!)

There are many search engines that are in use, Google, Yahoo, MSN and there are also directories such as browse.ie and of course GoreyLinks.com our baby ! Each search engine has it’s own formula to read a website and categorise its content into relevance for search terms people use when searching the net.

So what is SEO?

SEO is where you configure / program a website so that you are giving a better chance of coming up for a particular search phrase.

Why is SEO important?

It’s important because getting and retaining customers is important. If your website is not optimized to be read better by search engines you will not be on the first page of google let alone on the top. Remember being on the top of Google is google’s way of saying this is the best website we can recommend for your search term. So don’t expect a one-page for a chipper to be listed No 1 for “Restaurants in Ireland“.

This is actually a very common fact, that people who have a “One page website” often think that their job is done. Just put it up there and people will find it. With about 20 billion pages up on the net that theirs will pop up. You might as well nail a flyer to a tree in the amazon and hope that passers by will read it.

The internet is not “Field of Dreams“, Build it and they will come.

You must work at it, read up about what search engines want, get rid of :

• Frames
• large images
• large flash animation

And Make sure to insert:

• Meta tags
• Keywords tag
• Description tag
• Title tag

These may sound basic, but basic means to have the foundations correct before you build further on your site. Also a quick hit, make each page unique with titles, meta and content.

What is link Building?

This is the process of getting relevant website to point to your. It’s no good having a website but no ones knows about it. You don’t get a business telephone line and then keep your number our of the phone book, so don’t do it online.

Get your website listed on directories and portals that are important to your industry. Links are the Internet version of sign posts, Get “links” or signposts from good sites. The more signposts/links you have pointing to your site the more footfall you will get.

Note: don’t get links from crap sites, sites that are just one long page of links for every industry in the world, This is a link farm of 000’s or links and does nothing of benefit for you site. In fact some think it may have a negative effect on your site. Like putting a link in the local dump to your hotel, Its guilt by association.

Time for lunch…..

I decided to pop down to Wexford town to attend a presentation put on by the Irish Internet Association and Wexford County Enterprise Board. These type of event are run all the time in every county around Ireland and it a great opportunity for business owners and managers to take a day off !!

No. No. Many people think this, but in fact to see the response and the questions from the floor, these type of events are seriously needed. I was surprised by the questions, things that I was taking for granted about search engines, the internet and blogging were not understood by the people there.

There were 4 great speakers to give a talk about how to use social media as a marketing tool for your business or brand. They were:

• Mr. Philip Macartney (Head of Sales Ireland) Bebo
• Mr Donald Douglas (Managing Director) Return2Sender
• Mr. Brian Greene (Director) doop
• Ms. Joy Redmond (Director) Flexitimers.com

Philip from Bebo was not sellign Bebo but rather selling the idea of branding and pushing your brand through a busy social networking site to reach a large audience. Interesting to see him again give us a few examples of how large companies use bebo to reach their target audience. Even more interesting to see that none of them are Irish examples, It was as if this is too high brow or beyond Irish marketeers. I’ve seen a few presentations by Bebo in Ireland and still nothing with an Irish flavour to it.

Donald educated us on how the use of mobile advertising is growing in Ireland, but that it must have a purpose. Assigning it a real task is important. Just putting up your website in a mobile format is great but it really has a getting chance of getting found and used if you use it for a competition to engage your customer base. Guinness are one of their clients and again not sure if your average business in Ireland would get involved but definately worth noting. “Rewards are for the early adopters”

Brian is a Digital Media Consultant with Doop.ie , a business involved with the postcast media and audio industry. He loves his job, it’s great to see someone really understand their topic and passing on the knowledge is a well presented manor. He showed us the growth in podcasting in Ireland and how it has gained in popularity of the past few years. RTE for example are the largest podcasting company with 1/2 a million listeners per month. He mentioned to take note about copyright issues with music and to use bought music from sites such as podshow.com

His point were , Engage your Clients, Expand your customer Channels, Enable internal dialogue, Enhance comapny profile, Enforce your message.

Having a podcast is great but how do you get it noticed, “Every good podcast deserves a blog” thiswill drive search engines towards your podcasts. He concluded by telling us to lookout for “Social Radio” as this is on the horizon.

Joy is a Director of Flexitimers.com, a newly launched business (and our office neighbour by chance) Joy gave us a bit of her background in the Web design industry and that she was at the forefront of website design in Ireland back in the 90’s.  She has great experience in software development and also was a lecturer for 4 years teaching website design etc. During those years she also was thinking about working on a part time basis, with a 1 year old at home, she wanted to be there but still keep her position in the work place. Years later she and her ex boss decided to set up Flexitimers.com to help other professionals looks for part time work. Also of course to allow employers who are looking for people for part time work.

A new step away from recruitment agencies who charge anywhere from 8% to 10% of the salary of a client. Agencies are supposed to trim down the long lists of people looking for jobs and send you the top 3, but often they are commission based and only want to get the top position with the top salleries as then they can get a higher commission. Grr!

Flexitimers.com are looking to get into this recruitment industry in a new and different way.

They are asking employers for a “fixed fee” to list their positions on the site. The site then matches the two like a dating style site.

Great Idea and and having a background in the software and Web industries really puts Flexitimers.com at a huge advantage as many businesses are set up on an idea, but the people running the site often don’t really have a grip of the technology. This marriage of both will be a winner in my opinion.

Joy was easy to listen to and got her point across very well, people scribbling notes left right and center. That’s always a good sign.

Search engines are all about new fresh content, we are saying this on a daily basis to our clients and prospective customers. Search engines was to see who’s say what and how mush are you saying about your field of expertise. Thus I’m writing this !

I would suggest uploading new content each day, but at least each week. Websites are looked upon like newspapers, you don’t read them twice. so if you have a content managed site get stuck in and edit your site, if not get someone to do it, even better get us to do it!

When writing your content write for real people, think about the keyword and key phrases alright but really write to your audience in a personal manner and it will be reflected back in your hits. People don’t search the website short phases like “hotels ireland”, they search for “family run hotels in wexford” much more specific. Wrire for those people not just the googlbot robot scanning your content in the middle of the night.

Get good quality links to your site. Don’t get crap links from any old site thats handing out free links left right and centre, Google pagerank for example looks for quality links from relevent sites. Think of them like sign posts, you would not follow a signpost to a hotel from the middle of a dump, but you would from the main street in a town. Website Links are the same. Get good links.

If you can’t get links, buy them with Google Adwords, If you dont know how call us.

Make sure while all this is going on to be keeping an eye on your site stats that it actually making a difference, see what pages are being view, what time, what search phrases people are using.

It’s friday 5.15, long day, im heading home!

If you are thinking of starting a business in Wexford, now is a great time, believe it or not even with the downturn in global economy there are advantages and one of the main one we have noticed is the amount of domain names flooding back onto to the market.

Like shares in companies that are bought when they are at a low price and available so too are domain names. We have looked at the irish domain names being dropped by companies “cutting back” on advertising and see great opportunities for new business to grab a good generic domain name such as www.WeddingBells.ie for people in the wedding directory website industry, www.Auctioneering.ie for business involved in the house sales etc, www.BetterJobs.ie for the recruitment industry, the list is endless.

Note: One of the benefits of registering a domain that was let go by another business is that 1/2 the marketing is already done for you as there is a great chance that the search engines already know about the domain and it has a traffic history with them!

So the time is right, contact us today to see whats the latest domain that have become available to register. Tel: Dave Jordan on 053-9430748

When you are looking at your site hits and pageviews etc and wondering about where to generate more traffic for your site make sure to think about who your target market is and where are they?

If the people you are reacing for are in the UK or Germany then start to think about the search engine that they might be using. Many people in Ireland assume that it is Google, but our statistics and surveys would indicate that each country has a favourite search engine

Find out what pc’s they are using and this is also a good indication that they are using a certain search engine and each pc manufacturer usually using a particular search engine. In Ireland for expample Dell is a very popular make of Pc and they are shipped with MSN or Live.com as their homepage, Thus producing different results.

There can be a huge difference in search engine results depending on the one you use. If you are targeting the Uk market for example then which is the most popular search engine in the UK.

For more details or to find out how we can help market your business online call Dave Jordan on 053-9430748

Failte Ireland have given the contract to review and amend websites to 44 of it’s memebers to Terry Murphy Media in Waterford. If you are looking for your website to be reviewed and given a fresh look for 2009 then please let us know.

The desicion of Failte Ireland to start looking seriously at the Internet is to be commended as we have been saying this to Tourist operators for many year. After working in Print and Tourism ourselves we have seen the demise of the printed brochure to moving online. That’s one of the reason we moved online over ten years ago!

So To avail of our expertise and experience contact Dave Jordan today on 053-9730748

If you get an email to your business asking for renewal or subscription to a Directory or to submit your web address to search engines, please forward it to ourselves and then Delete it. They might be real, but the benefits are minor if any at all.

Example we got yesterday:

Notification