June 2009

Content Managed Systems are clearly the future but they can affect your search traffic.  Our project was to move to a content managed website and do so without upsetting our rankings - something we have done for clients many times before.

We have gone for a system called Joomla which we know that many clients have been very happy with and some of our largest ones too.  The system runs on php and uses a mysql database - which basically means that most competent programmers could get under its hood and understand how it works.  We wanted to duplicate our site visually and get all the content into the database so that we could reskin it sometime in the future.  This was easily completed and the site was up and running quite quickly.

The main issues were:

1. Page Names - these should be natural language page names and if they are different to the original site then a 301 redirect should be put in place
2. Ensure that the functionality you have in place (such as email collection forms, live chat) are all in place within the CMS
3. Meta Tags - make sure that these are all properly completed for the new site
4. Use a test server thoroughly before you go live and have as few false starts as possible
5. Upload a new sitemap for Google and all the other engines to spider
6. Do not forget your stats code and other extra tags (such as search engine verification tags) must also be uploaded

Otherwise the whole process was much easier than anticipated.....and we have lost no rankings so thats pretty good!

May 2009

Our client the World of Relocation launches its new global website amid much excitement as it is an ambitious and exciting project to connect individuals and organisations all over the world with service suppliers all over the world.

We also want the searchers from all over the world to land on locally relevant data - American's search for realtors whilst the British search for estate agents. We have to therefore establish a complex hosting structure and seperate content for different geographical regions - quite a challenge and very exciting work.

March 2009

Our client the Anglo Swiss Hotel in Bournemouth has rebranded itself the Best Western Hotel Royale in Bournemouth. This needed a change in domain name as well which as you can imagine is a little bit worrying as we dont want to lose search engine traffic.

We have been ultra careful in effecting this change of domain name and the key thing is that all the goodwill associated with the old url should be transferred over. There are a number of ways forward in effecting such a move but whatever route you take you are strongly advised to get a professional seo team to assist.

At the time of writing in early March the new site is not even indexed on Google and we have managed to maintain search engine traffic - no mean feat!

December 2008

Ethical "white hat" SEO is a key feature of our business - our new in house SEO standard ensures we comply with the increased requirements of all search engines to comply with their guidelines.

In the past a small minority of seo companies were black hat - using tricks and subterfuge which gave their clients an unfair advantage on the engines. However, this advantage proved to be very short term as the engines have become increasingly aware of this unethical approach to search engine marketing. These sites (and their seo agencies) are now routinely black listed with little sympathy from the seo industry and their competitors. Unethcial search engine optimisation still happens and Google offers reporting methods for white hat seo agencies such as ourselves to report the bad guys - and we do.

We were particularly pleased to see on of the major international hotel booking systems lose their Google ranking completely as a result of our report - we learned that their seo adviser was subsequently sacked to peddle his methods elsewhere.

In order to learn more about the guidelines we follow it is worth visiting Google and reading theirs - it makes a fascinating read!

October 2008

With the banks being rescured across the world it is encouraging to note that the online world seems to carry on regardless of recession and all the doom and gloom in the real world.

Almost all our clients seem to be finding times tougher in the real world - predictably those in business relating to property and financial services seem to have been affected the most. However, for those clients with online shops the upward trend seems to have continued without so much as a sideways glance at the problems of high street shops. Indeed those clients with both online and high street shops have confirmed the trend that the high street is going through tough times whilst the online shop seems to be still in a growth phase.

This of course is the first genuine recession since the arrival of the internet and there is no obvious reason why the financially strapped consumer should turn into a cash rich web visitor. It has to be admitted that the lower costs of doing business online (no transport or parking issues) as well as the opportunity to buy at the most competitive price could well make the internet the most recession proof area of the economy.

For those with an online presence, an imaginative and purposeful approach to their website could well be a recessionary lifesaver..

August 2008

It now seems that the merger talk of search engines is dying a death and that we will be left with just the big three for the time being. The impact of the status quo is probably to be welcomed. The main issue for our clients is whether or not it is worth the effort to even consider rankings on MSN and Yahoo.

Our own view is that with Google controlling around 70% of the US market and nearly 90% of the UK market (Hitwise) what little competition is left has to stay independent of the monolithic emperor of search. It is however astounding that the resources of both Microsoft and Yahoo seem to be so inept at offering a reasonable challenge to Google - and that challenge must lie in the quality of their search engines. The results are simply not good enough - search for one thing and you get some reasonable responses and some useless ones. With Google the search engine results are of the highest quality.

For the time being we continue to optimise for all three engines, but not surprisingly when clients express concern about their rankings, we know that the only engine they have in mind is Google.

April 2008

Google is almost certain to overtake ITV on its advertising revenue volumes during the second quarter of 2008 - this is really quite an extraordinary turnaround in the UK advertising industry. And of course - this is only the start. Projecting ahead one has to question the future value of cable and satelite TV as a medium at all. Broadcast TV as we know it may well disappear and be replaced by Internet TV in its entirety. We have no doubt that Google will almost certainly be a major new player in this market - whatever will happen to the BBC? What place is there for a state financed production business? The future looks truly uncertain for all the existing TV companies - exciting times!

February 2008

The month of the big bid for Yahoo by MSN has left us all pondering the future of the search market. It is not easy to predict the effect of this bid for us or our clients but we have to say that anything that increases search competition will be a good thing for our industry. Despite promises it seems to us that Google once again wishes to dominate the search engine world even more and we just hope that it gives the Yahoo search business real opportunity to grow and compete with the traditional Google engine. We want to market our clients on other serious engines and that opportunity is slowly disappearing.

 January 2008 - Web Results Direct joins Facebook

We have finally succumbed to the pressure of Facebook and now have set up our own profile. We are delighted to become friends and fans of our clients and anyone with an interest in us and what we do. Visit our profile!

Facebook is an increasingly important application on the web as it a method by which people can recommend other people to do certain things on the web. A recommendation on Facebook on a busy profile can generate very significant volumes of traffic and it is for that reason that we are really interested to set up our own profile and prove the point.

December 2007 - Office Move to Peper Harow

Web Results Direct, the specialist internet marketing company, is moving to new offices on the Peper Harow Estate in Godalming in order to provide more accomodation for its expanding team of search engine and internet strategy professionals.

Founded in 2001, the Company currently has approximately 150 retained clients from all over world and in all fields of business activity.