Before choosing a company to manage your SEO campaign you may want to jot down some SEO related questions… Doing your homework is important, the industry of SEO is not regulated so you will need to box clever and make sure your getting enough bang for your buck!

Ok, you will find no shortage of SEO companies in Hampshire, prices will vary, and SEO jargon can take time to get used to… but remember, it is the job of the SEO Company to explain their processes, break down the work, time scales and costing involved… If you are unsure at any point, just ask! Making sure both parties fully understand the SEO campaign, requirements and expectations before work gets underway is vital…

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On Friday my wife and I went out for dinner with the owner of Portsmouth, Southampton, Chichester and Valencia Language Colleges… The crazy thing is, he had about 10 of his head teaching staff at the meal (people we had never met) plus us… Ok, it was not a networking event, however it was a great night and also a privilege to be invited and told our services (Web Design and SEO) had helped him to achieve what he has today!

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Today I would like to ask the question; How do I make my business stand out from the crowd? We all know about a USP (Unique Selling Point) and yes they can help create a unique brand identity… Some of us have also heard about SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and how it can boost business via the web… However, what this blog post aims to look at is how one business can stand out from a crowd filled with inviting USP’s and companies already investing in SEO!

Advances in technology (primarily the internet) have opened many doors for innovative businesses to develop and grow… But with these advances have come bigger and better competition, making the task of standing out from the crowd much more difficult!

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Following on from my recent blog posts that looked at how to create a business plan and what is a brand, I thought I would now look at how to create a memorable company slogan for your business.

When it comes to creating a memorable company slogan I guess you have two options, the first is to employ a company to do this for you… The second is to empower a group of mates (maybe with a bottle of wine or two) to sit down and brainstorm your business, the services you offer and your character AKA brand identity. You would be amazed how many of the most memorable company slogans and brand identities have been created either by accident or when they least expected it!

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Yesterday evening I wrote an article titled ‘What makes a good brand?’ for my business & investment blog.

This article looked at businesses and asked the question what makes one brand better than another? Was it the company image, size of a marketing budget, its personality, energy or simply a desire to do better?

Lets face it, if you are proud to use a brand, happy to stock a brand on your shelves, and the customer experience and the expectations are always exceeded, then that brand will grow stronger and stronger over time… Part of a brands development is delivering the desired results day in day out!

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To end a busy week I thought I would type up a short blog post on new business marketing strategies that I believe really work! Running a web design business I often deal face to face with business owners, it is after all them signing cheques for new websites or the SEO campaigns we offer at Tidy Design. Anyway, I have found that not everyone embraces social networking, video marketing or SEO as viable business marketing strategies. Many established business owners are still hooked on old school marketing strategies such as Yellow Pages or cold calling… However can we really say which is right and which is wrong? Ok, Tidy Design invested several hundred pounds into Yell Group one year… To me this was a waste of money however if you don’t try these things then you will never know! As business owners I believe everyday should see some form of investment into your company, be it a blog post, investing in an advert or social networking, continual efforts and hard work will pay off in the long run! If you don’t invest your time and money into your own business and marketing strategies then don’t be shocked if your website generates no business or your brand / company is not talked about on the high street! Like with all things in life you get out what you put in, and business is one tough cookie to crack!

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This week I wrote a very long article (over 2100 words) for my ‘Business and Investment Blog’ titled ‘Ten Tips for Business Blogging & Writing Blog Posts’

These ten tips for business blogging I have listed below:

Noting each of the above points is important when it comes to ensuring the growth and development of your business blog. Like all things business related, it is worth creating a schedule, setting aside X amount of hours per week to researching and writing content for your business blog.

If at first you don’t succeed then try, try again! Why not experiment with different blogging schedules to see what works best for you and your business. Being in business myself I know first hand that certain days will be busier than others, things also rarely go exactly to plan! So if Monday is a busy day for you then don’t try to blog, maybe a Friday afternoon is quieter, a better time to reflect on the week past etc… Another idea could be to do your business blogging in bite sizes, allocate just X20 minutes a day or night to one decent article per week.

Ok, maybe this sounds obvious but it is worth remembering that your blog needs to deliver what your customers want, you should be posting information that your customers will want to read. Also, why not try linking your business blog with your next company newsletter; ask existing customers and that database of pending people to click a link and comment on the various topics / posts you have published.

If you would like to find out more about business blogging then please check out my full post, it breaks down each of these ten tips into more detail. And finally, if you are new to business or the world of blogging then I would like to wish you the best of luck. Remember, both business and blogging require great discipline, the investment of time and determination… Neither is easy however both offer great rewards!

Michael Jon Ward

So how will our government’s belt-tightening, increase VAT and the expected rise in unemployment effect business next year? Ok, 2011 is not being forecasted as an easy year for small (or large) businesses; however it is inevitable that a few hardworking companies will see growth, contributing to our countries economic recovery.

I believe 2011 will be a challenging but exciting year for homes, businesses and technologies… I mean, we will likely see businesses invest even more time / money into online marketing and mobile technology. The battle will continue between online shoppers and high street retailers, the web possible wiping out a few more high street names! I believe 2011 will also see giants of the World Wide Web such as Google and Facebook wage war on each other, developing new products, more services and battling for new members, more users and that all important add space!

2011 should also see the shake up of web marketing cowboys; companies such as Yellow Pages who have been branching out, offering SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) services to business that are loyal to the name!

I am aware of a couple of companies who have experienced the hard sale from Yell, only to end up with an almost identical domain name (purchased for them by Yell Group) and having a shitty looking website uploaded, spamming keywords!! This is not good for SEO, in fact I would go as far to say as this is damaging for business!! Yell, could you please tell me, what http://thefittedbedroomcentrep05.co.uk is all about?? Surely this domain / website is not helping http://thefittedbedroomcentre.com (the official site)… Sorry for the rant my loyal readers, yes I have already complained to Yell, without great success!! I just don’t like seeing hard earned money wasted on marketing campaigns such as these!

So what else can we all expect in 2011? Well, this year we have seen iPad dominate the tablet market, I predict this will change dramatically in 2011! The mobile web will continue to improve (getting much faster) and following the introduction of more advanced mobiles and tablets, businesses will find themselves asking the question, ‘app’ or ‘mobile friendly site’?

If 2011 is anything like 2010, then I see 12 months of hard work ahead, businesses will need to continue thinking outside the box and re-investing what they can into online marketing and future technologies. One of my many resolutions for 2011 will be to network with more business minded and inspirational people… After all, two heads are better than one, three heads are better than two etc.

If you have enjoyed this post or would like to add your thoughts / predictions for 2011 below then please do. Over Christmas (when I have slightly more time) I will be tidying up this site, so please visit again soon.

Have a lovely Christmas and New Year

Michael Jon Ward

What ever line of work you are in, the internet and the influence of search engines such as Google is not something to be ignored. A majority of your website traffic is going to be generated by the three major commercial search engines, Google, Yahoo and Bing. Taking this into consideration you should be allocating both time and money into improving your organic search results with these three internet giants!

So how can you make Google, Yahoo and Bing choose your website over the many hundreds or thousands of competitor sites already on the web? Well, it is down to you (or your SEO Company) to tick as many boxes as possible when it comes to search engines algorithms. Think of it like this, with hundreds of millions of web pages to sort through, Google, Yahoo and Bing need to choose the best possible match / result for someone searching the web… Once a ‘Keyword’ or ‘key phrase’ is entered, each search engine will follow a set of rules, known as an algorithm to generate a result. Exactly how each search engine algorithm works is top secret, however, all major search engines follow certain rules and offer some guidelines when it comes to getting your site ranking higher.

Having worked in the SEO industry for a few years now it is amazing what stories I have heard from business owners! Even today I had a call from a guy who found Tidy Design on Google whilst searching for SEO companies; he had sadly invested both time and money into a 12 month campaign which did not even generate his homepage a Google PR (Page Ranking)! I hope one day the SEO industry does see some kind of regulators or standards… It seems anyone these days can call themselves an SEO expert or marketing guru, charge companies lots of money and not deliver a result!

If you would like to learn more about online marketing and search engine optimisation (SEO) then I would suggest you Google it! Select a company that is local to you, someone you can meet up with and discuss the progress of your SEO campaign. Don’t be fooled by SPAM emails, overseas companies offering guaranteed results for next to no money!

I will be posting more info and articles about web marketing on Business Networking Link in the coming months, I will also be attending our networking events (once dates are finalised), so will be able to answer some of your questions in person. In the mean time please feel free to visit our ‘Web Design & Marketing Blog’ tidydesign.com/blog or my own personal ‘Business & Investment Blog’ mjward.co.uk/blog

Finally, please take advantage of our FREE Membership and register for Business Networking Link today! If you have any thoughts, questions of comments about web marketing & search engine optimisation (SEO) then please post these below. I will do my best to answer them ASAP! Until next time, have a great week!

Michael Jon Ward