I got talking to the owners about how to market themselves and their website and one of the best ways I thought of being able to show off the size and quality of the 10 berth self catering house would be to use the power of Youtube.

Just before we left I did a quick walkthrough with my digital camera and then added some music (King Creosote) via I-movie.  Took about an hour to do in total and everyone is happy with the results.  Since the clip was added at the end of June it’s had nearly 400 views which for a niche market isn’t bad at all…

Click here to view the embedded video.

I also wanted to demonstrate how close to the beach the property was (60 seconds away) so  I created a clip that demonstrated that.  This clip has had over 200 views.

Click here to view the embedded video.

My point is that these are so easy to do.  Anyone can do them.  I went a bit fancy by adding titles and music, but that’s just because I could and I’m a bit of a frustrated creative.

I’m currently working on some similar video content for my Loch Lomond Self Catering Accommodation client up at Ardlui – they’ve got so many great selling points and amazing scenery so it’s a no-brainer for that property to use video.

The truth is you could spend practically ALL of your working week attending business networking events and following up on conversations you had at them…often with little or no return.  By far and away the most effective business networking group I’ve been attending has been the BNI Glasgow Trailblazers group.

BNI isn’t for everyone.  On the face of it, BNI does seem a bit rigid and structured but I wouldn’t be dragging myself out of bed at 6am for a 6.45am meetup every Thursday morning if it wasn’t working out for me.

There’s a bit of a push on for more members of our great business networking group so to help out with that and because I’m an all-round good guy, I knocked up a quick WordPress install so we have a web presence in advance of the impending big push.

Do you need a clean, distinctive web presence in a hurry? Contact us today to find out how we can help.

“Here’s my card. Don’t look at my website it’s awful.”

“My website address is on there but it doesn’t work, so don’t bother looking.”

“Take a look at my website. It doesn’t work properly but you’ll get the idea”

“Don’t bother checking out my website as the info is really out of date”

Remember that your website is a showroom open to potential customers 24 hours a day. What is effectively your online sales brochure should be turning these interested visitors into paying customers.

A card with no web address on it isn’t such a bad thing after all.

If your website is on the least bit shaky ground contextually or cosmetically, scrub it from your business card.  Think about some of the other places you can send breakfast meeting prospects to instead when you follow up your encounter via email.  Here’s a couple of non-industry-specific nuggets to kick off with:

Linkedin profile:  What do you mean you don’t have one?  It’s a great resource for showing how well connected you are and how well regarded you are through the recommendations system.  Here’s mine.

Google Places listing: Search Google Maps for your business.  Find your listing then verify and add to it.  Encourage happy customers to leave reviews. Here’s ours.

Got thousands of business cards left?

Sure, there’s plenty of creative uses for old business cards out there. But what if you care about the environment and don’t quite have the time or energy to make cool business card cubes?

Why not just stick a forward on your domain name to your recently verified Google Places listing?

No embarrassment in that!

What’s the Japanese for confused by it’s higgledy-piggledy-ness? How do the Japanese cope with so much clutter?

Some ten years ago, the rock band I was managing  dabbled in providing a Japanese version of it’s UK website.  Primarily to boost the chances of getting a visit out there (it worked) but also to try to engender the crazy sort of devotion that Japanese music fans accord to bands they like (that worked too).

We sorted out a Japanese translator based in Glasgow and even went so far as to acquire a Japanese keyboard.  We gave up after a few months as it just didn’t generate a decent enough audience to justify the expense.

Maybe the design (which mirrored the UK design) was just too straight-laced?

It’s a quality location for a holiday and we really wanted to transmit that sense of that  quality through the website design and I think we’ve done that pretty successfully.

We’ve also integrated the Supercontrol booking system into the site to enable the owners to take online bookings directly.  With third party organisations such as Hoseasons and Visit Scotland taking upwards of a 20% share of any booking, it really makes sense to try to capture bookings independently and the Supercontrol system offered the flexibility and speed of implementation that the client really needed.

Ardlui Retreat has already seen a 150% year-on-year increase in website visitors since our involvement and this has also translated into a  similar rise in occupancy rates.

Over the coming months we’ll be working hard at further increases to traffic via SEO and more traditional forms of marketing.

It’s been a while in production as we wanted to get it right, but it’s now being implemented into a number of client sites, the latest of which is Electric Fencing Direct (EFD), one of the country’s leading electric fencing and agricultural supplies specialists.

What sets EFD apart from the competition is their dedication to their customers.  The free advice they offer and the lengths they go to to satisfy their ever-growing customer base is second to none.   We can relate to that here at Ubisan!   Their old system relied heavily on a positively creaking Microsoft Access database and this has been replaced by a fast and user friendly e-commerce and customer management system which will help the company grow it’s online profile, and sales  considerably.

Further features are also in the pipeline to maximise the online shop’s sales potential and this will be further boosted by our involvement in ensuring EFD remain ahead of the pack when it comes to marketing their products and search engine optimisation

I’m not interested in outing anybody so for the purposes of this article, let’s change the name to something suitably Glaswegian…BAWBAGSEO. This list just serves as an example of stuff I’ve discovered going on that I believe no decent web or SEO professional would ever involve themselves in. Furthermore, if you are a business and considering outlaying for some SEO on your site, steer clear of any of these scenarios…

1. BAWBAGSEO carries out SEO work for Client A and gets Client A good results. BAWBAGSEO then approaches client B, who is a competitor of client A and offers to optimise client B’s site for a long tail search term that Client A hasn’t optimised his for. You read that right…SEO’s offering out sloppy long tail seconds to client competitors. Very poor.How to avoid: Ask your SEO if they have any other clients in a similar sector to yours and what their policy is relating to this.
2. Aside from providing SEO services, BAWBAGSEO also runs 3 day “all you can eat” SEO courses at a £1000 a pop so participants can then carry out SEO successfully themselves (alongside running their day to day business)
3. Scaring client B into SEO expenditure (preferably supplied by BAWBAGSEO) by showing them their site’s W3C validation error report when BAWBAGSEO‘s validation report has twice as many errors as client B
4. Guaranteeing page one results for long-tail, traffic-light, highly specific search terms. A recent post on the consistently excellent Hoboweb blog titled How many clicks does a no 1 ranking in Google get compared to No 2, 3, 4 & 5 threw up some pretty interesing data that shows how much potential traffic can diminish past the first few results. Of course, using the Google Keyword tool, you can find out roughly how many searches across the Google network there have been for a specific search term. I reckon it’s even tougher now because the first page of search results is getting so clagged up with Google Places, Adwords and other Google bolt-ons.  Remember folks..technically, a page one result could be position 10 and you’ve got to ask yourself how much of a return on your SEO investment will this get you?
5. Beware the one month contract.  Any SEO relationship needs to be set up for the long haul.  If an SEO tells you they can achieve everything they need to achieve in one month they are lying.

I guess we all know companies similar to BAWBAGSEO. Has anyone uncovered any other unsavoury SEO practices they’d like to share?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Whilst some of the changes to this algorithm can be minor, some can have a pretty major impact on your search positions – good and/or bad.

How are you placed?  With changes taking place almost daily do you have the time to keep up with these developments?  Contact us to find out how we can help with your website optimisation and safeguard your Google Equity now!

1. An existing search competitor wins back it’s share
2. A startup becomes the new golden child of search
3. Web search fractures into verticals
4. Traditional Web Search is Replaced by a More Compelling Information Retrieval Model

But what about Facebook?

If I were Google I’d be more concerned about the sustained and continuing growth of Facebook and the tightening grip it is having on people’s lives.

Regular Facebook users can completely immerse themselves in the Facebook world for hours on end (even if this time can consist of cyberstalking, running farms or playing at being a Mafia boss) and it strikes me that if Facebook can develop a useful, reliable method of search from within that extends outwith it’s own network then they’ll be well on their way to becoming a dominant force in search and a real challenger to Google.

Facebook already comes ready-rolled with a search box.  Imagine the “convenience” for it’s users if this search box was their gateway to information on anything they want, rather than just a tool that gets used to track down friends?

There’s also several concerns over privacy relating to Facebook but imagine how focused  search results could be served if they were not only based on what was out there but on every single piece of data that you’ve added over the years to your Facebook account.

Scary, or simply progress?