Now, if everyone believed what I said religiously then I’d firstly not have much to write about here and secondly I’d be a millionaire many times over. I’m not rolling in cash and in the most part people ignore me, so I’d better start explaining my position.

A splash page is a single page that greets the unwary Internet surfer when they visit a web page and it usually (in the least offensive cases) has a nice picture and a ‘click here to enter’ button. What it attempts to do is to impress you with their ability to draw a picture or have a nice animation of a bird or something, I’m not sure exactly why, they just do.

Anyway, in some cases they reach new levels of turpitude by making us listen to some music whilst we scramble across our keyboard for the ‘mute’ button. This usually ends up with my CD being ejected by mistake due to the habit of many laptop manufacturers of making their buttons invisible until touched. Clever, that.

That’s beside the point, what I’m trying to explain is that splash pages are absolutely and without exception an annoying part of the web that I really thought had gone away for good. But they’re still around and appear to be growing in popularity.

But why? What is it with companies who feel they have to inflict their own brand of multi-media hell on those that simply want to have a good look around a site? Why are you doing this to us? WHY?

Even worse are those that insist on using Flash. I like Flash a lot, but only when used sparingly. Flash is superb at getting information across to people in interesting ways and it’s pretty much the best method of viewing multimedia content, but when overused it just gets in the way.

When I view a website I just want to view the information I came to see and then do something with that information. If I have to wait for a flock of seagulls to whizz across the page until a phone number is revealed or even worse – before the page with all the text on can appear then I’m just going to go somewhere else.

And herein lays the rub. People want to get to information quickly and without hindrance and if you put barriers in their way then they will simply go back to the pool of 50-billion or so other websites to find one that does service their needs.

If you have a splash page then do yourself a favour and be done with it. Cast it out into the great trashcan on the web and let your website free so people can enjoy it in all its splendour. Web design doesn’t need splash pages and neither do you!

First of all, we need to examine the need for links. In a nutshell (because it’s covered elsewhere very comprehensively), Google sees each link to your site as a ‘vote’ for that site. In the same what that someone who has a lot of friends would be seen as a popular person, a website with plenty of links going into it would be seen as a popular site.

Now, as in real life, not all friends are created equal and if my circle of friends consisted of just Jim from the pub, the guy who fills the peanut machine and some woman who feeds pigeons at the park, then it’s unlikely they would carry much weight if I asked them for a job reference. However, if my number happened to be on Richard Branson’s Blackberry and I received lots of emails from Barack Obama then you would assume I had a higher standing.

This is a good way to see your incoming links from other websites – the more popular or more highly regarded your link – the better it is for your site rankings, but that’s not all. Relevancy does play a part and if we cater for this in our SEO then we can really make our rankings take off.

Part of Paul’s question asks if the number of links required is affected by the relevancy of them, and the answer is ‘yes’.

For example, if you ran a car dealership in Stoke and so did your competitor then it’s likely you’d want to be found for the search term ‘car dealership in Stoke’. So, all things being equal, if you get more links than him then you should be able to beat him. But you can make those links really work for you if you concentrate on high quality and relevant links, if only we knew what ‘relevancy’ was!

What is relevancy?

When Google indexes web pages, it categorises them based on the content of those pages and the links going to it. Now, nobody can tell you how that categorisation is worked out, but you can bet that if you have a web page that talks about cars, it will be categorised as a car site. Let’s assume for now that is the case. Your site will talk about cars in the ‘title’ tag of the page and also in the body. If you have a lot of content then that’s good – it will mean Google has no problems understanding your site and its pages.

So, all we need to do now is build links and if we build them from other sites that have an affinity with the subject of ‘cars’ then we can assume that they will be more ‘relevant’. That’s pretty much it. For example, if you happen to sell Ford cars and you manage to get a link from the main Ford website for the country, then you can assume that would be a highly relevant link and therefore would be better for your site than a link from a local chip shop.

Notice I’m using the word ‘assume’ a lot – there are no straight answers in SEO because the rules are locked away in a vault with a bit colourful ‘G’ on the front and Google aim to keep it that way. However, the above advice is taken from lots of experimentation and working with others in the industry so we know it works.

Can I make a link relevant?

Well heck, yes you can. One of the things we talk a lot about here is creating blogs to promote your product or service and most of the free blogging sites will allow you to create a number of blogs all grouped under the same domain. This means you can create your own relevancy by making sure that all your blogs are on the same subject. If you sell Ford cars from your website, then blog about Ford cars a lot on your external blog.

And what about my other products?

Remember one gold rule – “Google sees every page on your site as a home page”. This is important because it means you can promote each page individually and this is usually a heck of a lot easier than just pushing the home page for all of your search terms. For example, if you have a page for the new Mondeo, you could promote that for ‘Mondeo dealers Stoke’. This page can then be optimised for just the ‘Mondeo’ style keywords and if you’re exceptionally lucky and can get a link from the ‘Mondeo’ section of the Ford website then you have relevancy of both your page and your link.

In Summary

So, if I’m going to be accurate about this then we need to think about two things when getting those links and put some time into finding relevant links as well as ‘easy’ ones. The reason I don’t go into a lot of detail in the seminars is because many people would see this as an excuse to hold off doing any SEO until they can find just the right links, and that’s not a good idea. You should always be looking for any links if they are easy enough. You can’t be penalised for having links coming to your site and whilst you’re looking for fantastic relevancy your competitor is just building links all over the place and beating you.

When you’re looking at Yahoo site explorer to find out the strength and relevancy of the links going to your competitor’s site then, you need to click on each link and check it out. If you find that those links are highly relevant then you need to be beating him on that score too.

We cover this and much more in our SEO Training which can now be got at an impressive 95% discount for qualifying companies!

On a slightly (only slightly) deeper level people are attracted to people like them. Could be similar tastes, characteristics, hobbies whatever…

Guess what… this very simple truth works with your marketing too.

Most successful businesses are aware of the power of attraction marketing to generate sales and increase their long term client base.

If this is so simple, why do so many companies get it wrong?

Well, most businesses get it the wrong way around. Through lack of a proper plan, they decide to pursue new clients. A bit like the guys you see in the pub that hassle the pretty women after they’ve had a load of beers.

Even when no-one responds to their letters, emails or phone calls; they carry on regardless blaming the recession for the lack of sales.

Here’s an example of a better way…

We are obviously a web development and SEO company. People find our blog and newsletter reasonably funny, informative and useful. So that could be described as ‘attractive‘. Many people have downloaded our free guide to SEO, which in many cases has helped people generate more sales for free.

SEO is a market full of scamsters. By being open, honest and giving away solid free information, we set ourselves apart. People then link to our site and tell others about downloading our material and joining our newsletter.

When we send out details about SEO seminars we host, people respond well and we fill them because people trust us.

So, without spending anything on ANY traditional forms of advertising, there’s tonnes of people who know all about Calloway Green and our ability to help companies rank high on Google and produce great sales results.

THEN whenever someone who follows us decides they want to embark on a full blown SEO campaign, hopefully they come to us.

Now, does this take more time and effort? Yes.

Does it work better than banging out crappy flyers and emails in a shotgun approach, hoping someone will use your product or service? Yes.

So think about your strategy to become more attractive to your potential customers. Remember, people don’t like to be sold to, but they do like to buy. As I found out today when my wife came home with a new pair of shoes!

We realised that although people are all at a different stages in their online marketing. Some had created their own sites, some had invested a lot on an agency to create them a slick corporate site. BUT… the biggest issue people had was not getting enough traffic.

Without traffic you can’t tell whether your site is working or not…

Without traffic you have no idea how to enhance your site…

Without traffic you can’t build a list of people that you can turn into clients…

THE LIST GOES ON!!

We believe that a website for vanity purposes is a waste of time and money, you must get people there. Not just any people either, you need motivated buyers in your market coming to you first.

At the seminar Andy showed us a load of ways to get the right people onto your site and how to keep them coming back. We’ll be doing the same again on the 25th November 09.

Come and join us.

It was announced earlier in the week that users of Hotmail had been targeted in a ‘phishing’ attack whereby thieves steal your user-names and passwords and then either use them to access your accounts or sell them to others. Within hours it had been established that users of Google, Yahoo and AOL had also been affected.

If you’ve never heard of it before, a ‘phishing’ attack is where you get sent a link to a website which looks like it’s all above board. These emails usually say something like “your details have been updated, please confirm them by clicking below” and you’ll be sent along to a website that, for example, looks exactly like your Google log in. Except it’s not.

It’s actually a site made to look like Google and when you type in your details, they’re stored on this other server. You receive an email saying there’s being a problem and you leave thinking that every-thing’s been sorted – but now your details are off to some Eastern European gang.

So how can we protect ourselves?

Well, the main problem lies with the  number of websites we’re all members of. Each one requires a new user-name and password and so it’s human nature to use a password we can remember. Many people use the same password across multiple sites and therefore if one is compromised – all are compromised.

The easy and lazy answer is simply to say “use different passwords for each site” but that usually ends up in Post-it notes stuck to all corners of the desk which is an even bigger security risk.

Luckily there are some technological solutions to the problem, one of the best being “RoboForm”. This is a neat bit of software that stores all your passwords for you and actually logs you on to your favourite sites. It will also generate truly random passwords whenever you encounter a sign-up form.

It can also save a lot of standard profile information such as full name, address and email details so signing up to new sites becomes a breeze.

You can get a copy of RoboForum here : http://www.roboform.com/

When people talk about ‘hackers’ they are probably imagining high-tech geeks typing away at computers and decoding passwords with a computer chip that they wave over a scanner. Sometimes they tap into the resources of a huge computer so they can try all the combinations of a particular password within seconds and hence break in that way. But some take the much simpler route of just asking for the information.

There’s a great example of this in a book I read back in the nineties. I remember what it was called now (it’s in the loft, I’ll dig it out), but it explained how some of the most audacious hacks had been carried out. In this one example, our hacker stole the credit card of a company boss while his wallet was left unattended.

OK, simple, but this guy would soon report it lost or stolen and so our hacker needs to act quick so he waits for the boss to head to his office and then calls him up (his name is on the card, simply ask at reception) and says the following:

“Hi, this is Aaron from First National Bank. We’ve had a card handed in not yet reported stolen and we’d like to check it’s yours. Can you confirm you’ve lost your card?”

“Err, hang on”, checks his wallet, “oh yes, it’s not here!”

“That’s OK, we can simply cancel it. Just to check identity, could you confirm your PIN?”

The hapless boss simply handed over his PIN thinking his card would now be cancelled, instead it was cleared of funds.

That’s a phenomenon called ’social engineering’ and it’s used so effectively simply because people aren’t expecting to be manipulated this way. What’s more, they don’t believe they can be manipulated this way. Watch an episode of Derren Brown and you’ll soon realise that us humans are easy targets.

So what’s this got to do with Facebook? Well there are now various scams going around where someone pretends to be one of your friends and tells you that they’ve been mugged in London. They probably steal some-one’s account details by using one of the many software hacks knocking about, but then they slip into ’social engineering’ by playing on your friendship and then try to extract money.

Beware. Facebook are aware and are trying to close down compromised accounts, but the very nature of this attack means people will find out when it’s already too late.

More details here : http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9874388706

Well, if you are clever and actually use it for what it is and engage with your customers. If you’re the sort that thinks all this Internet malarky is for other people then you won’t, but maybe we should all sit up and listen when a name, a big name announces they’ve made a bit of cash from the social networking site of the moment…

I shouldn’t get angry, but I do. You see, I know what I’m doing. I do it well and I do it every day but when I meet people who say “that’s not for us” or “it’s just a fad” when they’re talking about new technology then I just see red.

I still meet people who say “This Internet thingy – it’s just not for our type of business”. Now, in the past I would have stood and argued and explained how it is for them and how with careful management you can actually do quite well out of it thankyouverymuch. But now I just shrug my shoulders and move on. Unless they are provoking me in which case I glare, and them move on.

It irks even more because most people I meet like this are in my own region. In the Black Country, right in the middle of the UK. Right where industry thrived, you know, the new stuff. Industry took off because a select few people threw away the old way of doing things and replaced it with lots of new technology that many people said “that won’t work”. They went against prevailing thought and decided that they would embrace new things.

But the Internet is different. We’re being overtaken by other areas, other companies and other industries because people round here just don’t get it. And that’s annoying.

I’ve just come back from a very wet week in Devon. Do you know, every single attraction that I wanted to go and see was available on the Internet? Every one! Not only that, nearly every specialist baker, butcher or candlestick maker had a website address on the outside of their shop.

They’re in the middle of a recession too and they’re not seeing the amount of visitors they used to see, but it doesn’t matter because they’re not just marketing to the short-wearing, hanky-sporting grey-haired Saga-louts of old, no, they’re selling their stuff to the world. Stuff the recession, they’re doing well anyway.

Look at this: www.tram.co.uk. What a fantastic domain name!! And it’s just a small tram that takes you on a 25 minute drive to a neighbouring town. And I can get prices, timetables and all the information I need through their website.

But hang on, let’s get back to the point. Twitter and that two million.

Dell have recently stated that their Twitter account has been directly responsible for sales of $2 million – read about it here : Dell.

Amazing huh?

Not really, you could do it too. I mean, I know you’ll say “Ahhh, but they’re Dell and they sell stuff and we don’t…” Blah blah.

You’re missing out and you’re not being left behind, you’ve been left behind.

Paul Frewer Consulting

We’ve worked with Paul Frewer and his business associate Pete Hayhurst in the past and so we knew that we were dealing with a straight-talking team who had a clear idea of what they were after. So, when we were asked to create a site for their exciting new venture, we were pretty sure we knew what they were after.

As with all Calloway Green sites, it is fully content managed and so Paul and Pete have full control over what they publish. This is important if you’re in a fast moving industry and as there are new designs of furniture being designed and promoted every week, it’s absolutely vital that they can add new products and images whenever necessary. Luckily, that’s a doddle and our integrated product system handles all the file uploading and image resizing necessary to ensure it fits perfectly with the rest of the site.

If you want to check them out, you can nip over to Paul Frewer Consulting right now.

Lewis Psychology

This company was new to us, but we weren’t new to them! It turned out that on one of our regular jollies to the Black Country Chamber event, we had bumped into Teresa Lewis and apparently made an impression. Luckily on this occasion it was a good impression and Teresa remembered what we did when she needed a website.

So, after a brief meeting we worked out exactly what it was the company needed and how that should be portrayed via a website. Essentially, it needed a professional look and feel together with an extremely easy to use ecommerce catalogue – luckily we could do both with ease and so we got to work and created the website within a few weeks.

Lewis Psychology offer a wide range of counselling services from help with conflict management through to personal anxiety and other stress related issues. They really do offer a fantastic service, go check them out : Lewis Psychology

Twitter is a fantastic tool for getting your brand out their into the world. Because of the amazing number of people using it, the fact that you can say something and it is picked up by thousands of (hopefully!) interested people is an amazing thing to behold. Can it be used for business? Yes it can and it can bring you many many new customers but who you go to for advice?

Well, if you happen to be on one of the many mailing lists that the Chamber of Commerce have, you’ve probably had a number of invites lately from companies that will tell you all about it. They’re ready to impart all of their knowledge about this amazing networking tool and show you just how they’ve used it to boost the readership of their website and sell more stuff. The best thing is, if they are using it, it’s easy to check them out because Twitter has search and I can find these people, discover what they’re twittering about and maybe check out how many followers they’ve got.

Now, just to explain for those readers who are perhaps wondering what all this ‘follow’ stuff is about, if you check out a Twitter account, it will tell you how many people have decided to follow a particular person. The more followers they have, the more popular they are. That’s all, easy.

The average number of followers is apparently 140 ish but some people have thousands, many thousands so you’d expect the illustrious speaker at any event to have a huge list of followers that they can use as an example of how great this social networking lark is.

I’m not going to name names, but the first invite I got listed only a few Twitter accounts and the biggest following was 127. That’s not much. That’s not much at all. I checked out their tweets. It went along the lines of “Doing some marketing this morning ready for the big event” and “We’re marketing more on Twitter than ever before”. It was like some marketing phrase robot at the back of the office had just been prodded with a stick.

So when the second invite turned up I was excited and looking for even more information. The blurb said:

“Many businesses are already using it to good effect.”

How inspiring. That being the case, I should be able to click on the Twitter account of this particular business and check out their Tweets then, huh? See what they’ve been up to. Except their Twitter account isn’t mentioned anywhere on the advertising. Nowhere.

So, I searched for the company using Twitter. You know, this amazing social networking tool that you’re banging on about and telling me is so damn good. The one you’re going to teach me all about, the one that is getting you business because you use it all the time. Can I find them?

No.

What I do find after a lot more searching is some tweets from the company promoting the event. Twelve in total. It’s almost like the event was happening so “I’d better start using it”.

Dammit, why am I so angry? I’ll tell you, it’s because this is the blind leading the blind. Businesses in this recession are looking for help from their local chamber and so when they hand over their cash, they expect it to be good information borne from lots of experience, not just a cursory glance over ‘The Dummies Guide to the Web’.

Or maybe I’m angry because we didn’t do this last year. That’s it – I’m jealous.

Edited: It may seem the point of this post is that you’re only any good on Twitter if you have lots of followers. Although the number of followers a person has is an incredibly good barometer of how they use the technology, it’s not the only thing. Many extremely interesting people only have a few followers and they are effective in their marketing.

The real point is that if you blart on about a technology then you should use it. Carping on about Twitter and then not even mentioning your account is just crazy. It’s a bit like buying a website from a company that doesn’t have a website themselves. I mean, that would be absolutely stupid, wouldn’t it? Eh, Black Country Chamber? Wouldn’t that be absolutely the most crazy thing to do to buy a website from a company that didn’t have a website?

Eh?

Didn’t think anything of it; thought it might add a bit of humour to the proceedings to. One of them was ‘The mailto: command, a great way to harvest email addresses”.

All my Hubs get broadcast on Twitter (so do  all my posts, ask me about it sometime) and this was no exception so it went out to the great big world.

Now, to explain. Harvesting email addresses is a ‘Bad Thing’. It’s the way that web scraping robots get a lot of their email addresses to be used for spam. They go around, find websites with exposed email addresses and then they add them to their big spam database and send you lots of emails about Viagra and dating sites etc.

My Hub was actually about stopping this from happening on your site not about how to do it, but that didn’t stop someone from ‘un-following’ me on Twitter with the message below:

From @Synthaetica : yes, @andycal , when you post about “harvesting email addresses”, you are not going to be on the follow list. buh-bye.

Hmmmm. Point missed methinks.

At first I was going to post this as a warning with the line “don’t confuse your customers with crazy headlines”, but I’ve changed my mind. It hasn’t actually affected my Twitter follower count (it’s actually gone up), but I would make this comment to those who get upset at headlines in any media – “read the book, not the cover”.

We are surrounded by attention grabbing headlines on both the Internet and in traditional print – but the headline is only an extract of the story itself. You might read the rest of the story and discover something completely different – I know I do all the time.

So is there a moral to this? Well yes – many people go into ‘corporate mode’ and their online persona is completely different to how they behave in real life. It’s a bit like those people you meet down the pub who you share a pint with but then discover they’re complete arses when you phone them at work. This doesn’t wash on the Internet or in social media like Twitter, you need to be natural. If we’re all just keyboard tapping robots churning out what we think people want to here in order to never damage our brand then it would be boring.

The answer therefore is – “Be yourself”. I’m going to keep on writing headlines like this and you should do it too. Here are some of my others:

How to ruin your search rankings quickly

Cloaking your site to destroy your google ranking

I could rename them to something less ‘controversial’, but that would be a cop-out.