Link popularity
new msn ads
web searching tips
yahoo shopping
Google go loco
go loco
more seo tips
Friday, September 26, 2003
Thursday, September 25, 2003
Helpful advice from Google Groups
26 hardcore SEO tips
Authority linking
just posted
Don't tell anybody about alt.internet.search-engines
26 hardcore SEO tips
Authority linking
just posted
Don't tell anybody about alt.internet.search-engines
Wednesday, September 24, 2003
Wednesday, September 17, 2003
Act global, think local
Believe it or not, generating interest from the web is not about doing business worldwide. It's actually more about doing business next door.
Remember that IBM e-business advert in which the small guy and the fat cat find each other over the internet and decide to go into business together? It is quite humourous- at the end of it they are so happy about their future propects that they simultaneously walk out of their offices to punch the sky and let out an almighty cheer only to find themsleves standing infront of each other.
Basically the advertising agency got it absolutely right- these kinds of scenarios happen all the time. In fact the almost the same thing happened to me today: a friend invited me to a meeting with a company whom he had met and arranged the meeting with over the internet. I waited with baited breath for the call detailing where the meeting was going to be held, ready to mobilise for the long haul at any time, only to find that it was within spitting distance of my office. Their office was literally round the corner from mine.
The only difference between what the ads suggest and what does happen in reality, is that there is nothing ironic about these kinds of coincidences. Although the internet delivers worldwide communication at the touch of a button our transport system does not. We can send our goods worldwide if we use a courier yet at the same time there needs to be a courier at the other end. Much to my frustration it is just not worth me sending goods back and forth from Sri lanka because it is highly likely to get lost on the way. These kind of factors also effect internet based businesses. We're all where the broadband pipe is. We're all around the big advertising companies because that's where our clients are.
The point I am making is this: The internet is a network which mirrors the network of our own lives. It is not a network that particularly enhances our quality of life. You can't sit on a beach and run your business while the waves lap your feet. They lied to you.
t would seem like this should be just one big joke because global and local are antithetical but in fact there is almost a double edged lack of irony at play busting out and confirming the way we work. Firstly, there is no irony in the fact that people use a vast global network to track down suppliers round the corner, and secondly, there is no irony in the fact that a vast global network tends to deliver local answers. These are fairly given- we are all used to using the yellow pages to find our nearest supplier and we have always been able to use these directories to drill down to the specific answers we want.
One might say that "in cyberspace no one can hear you be ironic". If this is the case, why is this the case?
Believe it or not, generating interest from the web is not about doing business worldwide. It's actually more about doing business next door.
Remember that IBM e-business advert in which the small guy and the fat cat find each other over the internet and decide to go into business together? It is quite humourous- at the end of it they are so happy about their future propects that they simultaneously walk out of their offices to punch the sky and let out an almighty cheer only to find themsleves standing infront of each other.
Basically the advertising agency got it absolutely right- these kinds of scenarios happen all the time. In fact the almost the same thing happened to me today: a friend invited me to a meeting with a company whom he had met and arranged the meeting with over the internet. I waited with baited breath for the call detailing where the meeting was going to be held, ready to mobilise for the long haul at any time, only to find that it was within spitting distance of my office. Their office was literally round the corner from mine.
The only difference between what the ads suggest and what does happen in reality, is that there is nothing ironic about these kinds of coincidences. Although the internet delivers worldwide communication at the touch of a button our transport system does not. We can send our goods worldwide if we use a courier yet at the same time there needs to be a courier at the other end. Much to my frustration it is just not worth me sending goods back and forth from Sri lanka because it is highly likely to get lost on the way. These kind of factors also effect internet based businesses. We're all where the broadband pipe is. We're all around the big advertising companies because that's where our clients are.
The point I am making is this: The internet is a network which mirrors the network of our own lives. It is not a network that particularly enhances our quality of life. You can't sit on a beach and run your business while the waves lap your feet. They lied to you.
t would seem like this should be just one big joke because global and local are antithetical but in fact there is almost a double edged lack of irony at play busting out and confirming the way we work. Firstly, there is no irony in the fact that people use a vast global network to track down suppliers round the corner, and secondly, there is no irony in the fact that a vast global network tends to deliver local answers. These are fairly given- we are all used to using the yellow pages to find our nearest supplier and we have always been able to use these directories to drill down to the specific answers we want.
One might say that "in cyberspace no one can hear you be ironic". If this is the case, why is this the case?
Friday, September 12, 2003
It's excellent reading
I've read some great books recently:
interesting new links: (thanks mat)
I've read some great books recently:
interesting new links: (thanks mat)
- A Softer World
- Zeldman
- London at night
- theDefinitive site intro (flash) (apparently).
Wednesday, September 10, 2003
.Com or .gone?
Everyone loves choosing their domain name. It seems like the perfect tool, the global brand, the ultimate symbol that will dot every flyer, brochure, and business card that we will ever be produce. When the time is ripe, the web design agency presiding over the ceremony, loves to pop the question, “.com or .co.uk?”
Without a moment of doubt in that moment of truth, you utter the fateful words, “.com.”
Fateful is the keyword here, so choose well. The main reason that people opt for a ‘.com’ over a ‘co.uk’ domain is due to the perception that the former is grander and the latter is cheap. Many businesses mistakenly assume that ‘co.uk’ is the pale reflection of a 2-man outfit. Yet this cannot be the case because in the real world when you are looking to do business in a particular country, you base yourself in that country. Apply the same strategy to positioning yourself in the online market.
So, if you’re thinking of going global, take advice from the hippies and think local. Ironically both search engines and their users tend to judge the information on your site pretty robotically: if it looks relevant it probably is. For this reason UK search engine indexes tend to privelege ‘.co.uk’ domains over ‘.com’ on the assumption that UK sites are more likely to be based in the UK and therefore more relevant to UK users. Sites with foreign domains are not going to feature highly in country specific search engines and are more likely to be pushed to the bottom of the rankings.
The fact is that there is no ‘.com’ club to belong to unless you want to introject all the hype at your peril. Therefore if you want your site to do business online all you need to be is:
A domain name is a domain name, and on the search engines they all work the same. Except some are more suitable to your market than others.
Everyone loves choosing their domain name. It seems like the perfect tool, the global brand, the ultimate symbol that will dot every flyer, brochure, and business card that we will ever be produce. When the time is ripe, the web design agency presiding over the ceremony, loves to pop the question, “.com or .co.uk?”
Without a moment of doubt in that moment of truth, you utter the fateful words, “.com.”
Fateful is the keyword here, so choose well. The main reason that people opt for a ‘.com’ over a ‘co.uk’ domain is due to the perception that the former is grander and the latter is cheap. Many businesses mistakenly assume that ‘co.uk’ is the pale reflection of a 2-man outfit. Yet this cannot be the case because in the real world when you are looking to do business in a particular country, you base yourself in that country. Apply the same strategy to positioning yourself in the online market.
So, if you’re thinking of going global, take advice from the hippies and think local. Ironically both search engines and their users tend to judge the information on your site pretty robotically: if it looks relevant it probably is. For this reason UK search engine indexes tend to privelege ‘.co.uk’ domains over ‘.com’ on the assumption that UK sites are more likely to be based in the UK and therefore more relevant to UK users. Sites with foreign domains are not going to feature highly in country specific search engines and are more likely to be pushed to the bottom of the rankings.
The fact is that there is no ‘.com’ club to belong to unless you want to introject all the hype at your peril. Therefore if you want your site to do business online all you need to be is:
- top of the search engines
- in front of your market
A domain name is a domain name, and on the search engines they all work the same. Except some are more suitable to your market than others.
Monday, September 08, 2003
Many happy returns from Googol
Belated happy birthday to Google who just turned
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,005 on sunday ; )
Belated happy birthday to Google who just turned
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,005 on sunday ; )
Tracking Web Traffic
Web Traffic IQ looks quite promising. If you are looking for full visitor and website usability tracking then you'll want to get your hands on this neat piece of kit: Click Tracks
If you want to track the performance of your ppc adverts, keyword by keyword, then you need to setup tracking URLs. It is simple enough to do through your own website or you can use Hypertracker.
Web Traffic IQ looks quite promising. If you are looking for full visitor and website usability tracking then you'll want to get your hands on this neat piece of kit: Click Tracks
If you want to track the performance of your ppc adverts, keyword by keyword, then you need to setup tracking URLs. It is simple enough to do through your own website or you can use Hypertracker.
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