Penny Parker

I’ve always learnt quicker using analogy, picturing new concepts against familiar ones based on previous experience. So with this in mind, and based on a thirty year career in the events industry this is my attempt to explain Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and website optimisation against the backdrop of organising an exhibition stand at a trade show.

Whilst working at The Brighton Centre, I’ve seen exhibitors turn up at show with fabulous stands which twinkle and shine. Amazing graphics and multi-coloured carpet tiles; sound effects; scantily clan women pacing around clutching brochures; over enthusiastic sales men and women intimidating the casual passer-by.

I’ve also seen stands which look like they were designed on the back of a packet of fags.  Tired graphics; sales staff working hard on reaching the next level of Candy Crush on their phones; chipped and scruffy furniture; last year’s brochures with a sticky label slapped over the date.

So think about your stand (website) from the visitors (users) perspective and you will understand some basic SEO and website optimisation concepts.

Read more…..

SEO & Social Media Marketing Essentials

Wednesday 24th July – Book Now

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Social Media Optimisation (SMO) are no longer an optional choice for many organisations competing for the increasingly internet savvy consumers. Do you have a digital strategy and a social media policy? Do you know that if you don’t manage your social media presence chances are your customers will manage it for you and not always in a most favourable way.

As part of the University of Salford’s commitment to delivering the best digital training available, Salford Professional Development have developed a one day ‘SEO & Social Media Marketing Essentials‘ course. This course is aimed at busy executives who want to have theoretic understanding as well as some basic hands on practical exercises which will highlight the essentials in SEO and Social Media Marketing. This knowledge will enable you to develop a better understanding of your customers behaviour online and help you to develop long term plan and implement basic techniques for management of day to day social media engagement. Working from your business objectives you will be able to draft some key performance indicators for your online presence, identify key social networks for your organisational use as well as conduct some basic Social Media Optimisation. The main focus on this course is to offer you a broad overview of search and social media marketing and help you to start working on your long term digital marketing strategy as well as plan for use of techniques.

Tutor:

Aleksej Heinze – http://businessculture.org

The course will be taught by Dr Aleksej Heinze, Aleksej is a co-director for the Centre for Digital Business which is part of The University of Salford’s Business School. He currently works on an international projects Passport to Trade 2.0 which helps businesses to understand International Business Culture and develop new business opportunities in Europe using social media networks.

Guest Speaker:

The course will also feature Martin Cozens who is the Managing Director for Banc Media. Based in Old Trafford, Manchester, Banc Media are a Search Engine Marketing company providing Pay Per Click & Search Engine Optimisation. They specialise in a measured & transparent approach, focussing on ROI for our clients through researched search engine marketing.

Martin Cozens: “We develop close relationships with our clients, proving to become an integral part of their business, smashing targets set by them and showing real return on investment in the products we supply and the search results they gain. Developing these relationships is what makes our business stronger and helps our team grow further to providing the very best service.”

Their clients include:

• Lufthansa’s business rewards air miles scheme SACP
• Cruise1st – a leading cruise holiday provider operating in the UK, Ireland & Australia
• FADS.co.uk – the nationally known online furniture retailer that was on the high street in over 800 stores
• Breens Solicitors – a renowned law firm operating out of Merseyside for both private and business clients.

Venue

SEO & Social Media Marketing Essentials is based and delivered at the state of the art teaching and training facilities in the heart of the UK’s Media hub at MediaCityUK, University of Salford. This cutting edge facility is on close proximity of the BBC, ITV and many other top digital and media agencies.

Price

This course costs £299 + VAT.

Want to know more?

If you wish to enquire about this course, simply get in touch with Robert Goodison at Salford Professional Development on 0161 295 5407 or email R.Goodison@salford.ac.uk.

Have you ever wondered why certain online digital marketing campaigns go viral? As part of our MSc Marketing course at Salford Business School we created a video and tested how Jonathan Berger’s STEPS concept works in real life projects.

We were introduced to Jonathan Berger’s idea of STEPS during our Search and Social Media Marketing module guest speaker’s Denise Brooks presentation.  Berger suggested that going viral is not just luck, its science based on psychology of talk.

Jonathan Berger’s STEPS concept

The key 6 STEPS in creating a viral video using Jonathan Berger’s idea of STEPS are:

1. Social currency
2. Trigger
3. Emotion
4. Public
5. Practical value
6. Story

Here is bit more background on the concept from Jonathan Berger himself:

I feel Good – viral video campaign concept

Our task was to create a viral campaign to promote Salford Business School to future applicants. The question we faced was – “How to make a video viral?”. We decided to take an interactive and lively approach to the campaign and link it to the online community of those following the ‘I feel good’ song by James Brown as a base for the viral video. Using keyword research we identified that “I feel good” is a popular search term, which taps into an existing community of interest online.

Through this song we emphasised that Salford Business School has great facilities and it is an enjoyable place where students feel good when they are better placed. People from different backgrounds have sung the verse showing the cultural variety that could be found in Salford Business School. This video linked to current campaign of the University of Salford – ‘Be better Placed’ and anyone interested to study business management courses at Salford Business School. At the end of the video we used a call to action message: You feel good when you’re better placed. Salford Business School… Be better placed. What makes you #IFeelGood? The idea here was to get people to share their own stories and get the video “viral” so that students would create their own footage and post it using this already existing hash tag on twitter  – #IFeelGood.

Jonathan Berger’s STEPS Framework application and results

The video contains 4 key Jonathan Berger ideas: It has social currency as the video uses humour which makes people feel good and encourages people to share. This is because of well-known trigger, the song, which becomes associated with the positive emotions that could be achieved studying at Salford Business School. It kindles the fire to share as ‘feel good’ emotions are embedded in the song. The video has a public message as it shows how Salford Business School community is beneficial for studying business in an interactive environment.

“I feel Good” campaign results

The “I feel good” campaign ran for one week during which time we were competing with five other student teams. By integrating this video with social networks sharing and organic search optimisation we achieved over 500 views in just over a week! This was associated with an incredible number of re-tweets, shares on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+, comments and various social media platforms.

Our campaign integrated Social Media Optimisation (SMO) with YouTube video optimisation. YouTube optimisation was done using a keyword rich video title, video description and keywords in video tags so that we have had a good stream of organic traffic coming from different searches.

This practical project as part of our Search and Social Media Marketing module proved that a viral campaign could be easily managed through a controlled message and a plan without a budget!

What do you think about Berger’s STEPS framework? Is it a science that makes it contagious or just luck? Please share and comment below.

Diana is on LinkedIn: Diana

@dianatolockaite

OK, so, you’re probably asking what’s search engine optimisation (SEO) training in Manchester, social media training, cormorants and good food got in common? Well, if the Search & Social Media Marketing course site hasn’t made it apparent yet … yes they can all be found at the University of Salford in Greater Manchester – cormorants and the food a little later!

SEO training Manchester – getting it right first time

The importance of getting the right search engine optimisation and social medial training for a small business owner cannot be underestimated. Most website designers will offer you great service in converting your sales literature into attractive on-line web pages. However, what do you do next if only a few people visit your web pages? One of the major sources of web page traffic are search engines and social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook etc. Everyone who has a web page on a certain topic is competing for the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) positions – and only those whoa are on the first three pages have a higher chance to get a click from the prospective customers – no-one wants to be left behind! This means that two of our key customers have to be our visitors first then search engines and social media platforms which help our website visitors to find us.

The very first thing that I realised as part of this course is a thorough understanding of the customers or – prospects needs. What keywords do people use to find your products or services? What sites are they likely to visit for social media and how could we all engage them in a conversation which helps them to solve their need and us to keep a business going? These are some of the key questions which need to be determined and researched prior to commending a full website implementation. Yes, you might say a website is never set in stone you can always change it – right, yes, you can! But, it is an additional cost and drain on resources and for someone like me, who is already busy running a business – spinning the plates – the last thing you want to do is change your website hierarchy every six months! Therefore, getting it right first time – if you are on the quest of carving out a career and making a living in the world of SEM (search engine marketing) – then from my experience, it is essential that you start with strong solid foundations that will set you up in the long term, namely a good SEO and social media training course.

But, get it wrong at the beginning – as most of us do when venturing into a new area – and it can be a very frustrating experience costing you time and money. Personally, I feel learning from mistakes of others is a good way to keep you focus on important things, but I know I have done it myself sometimes you think there is a short-cut to things and you might just be able to do it yourself…

The nature of "the beast" (the Internet) can be overwhelming – there is too much information to digest out there in fact, you will find that the majority of us mere mortals will get sucked into an arena that generates a lot of noise which contains a lot of false & contradictory information that inevitably leads to confusion and frustration – speaking from experience here. So, learn from my personal experience:

“to succeed in search engine optimisation and social media you need to get the basic fundamental’s right first time ….”

SEO newbie’s approach to self taught SEO training

So, lets look at the typical SEO newbie’s approach to self taught SEO training, and yes I speak from experience (yes I’ve done most if not all!) and in no particular order, my list of common would be newbie mistakes is:

• Signing up to multiple internet marketing “gurus” lists
• Shifting through 100+ email (offers) a day
• Believing some of those offers – you know they are too good to be true but you still hope they will prove you wrong…
• Joining as many SEO forums as possible
• Read contradictory & false “advise” in said SEO forums
• Downloading ebooks with the latest “how total SEO newbie made 10k in 1st month”
• Downloading more ebooks on SEO and Social Media training
• Downloading even more ebooks on search secrets
• Following the video hype of SEO training product launches by yet another “guru”
• Executing your new found training strategies half heartedly
• Reading SEO blogs from SEO ninjas and SEO wizards
• …..expecting organic search ranking results improvements overnight – but they never do!!!
• The list goes on …

Information overload and the “noise” created on the internet is a massive DESTRACTION that will no doubt get you FRUSTRATED, blur your vision and shift your focus from becoming a competent search marketer.

Idealised process for strategic use of Search (SEO) and Social Media Optimisation (SMO)

One of the main things that I took away from the Search & Social Media Marketing course is that there is some method to this “SEO and SMO madness”! Each week we refer to the 11 steps of SSMM which start from clear business vision and strategic plan for the website (bearing in mind organic SEO can take months and in some cases years to come to fruition) so if you are looking for results fast Pay-Per-Click and Social Media campaigns – also discussed as part of this course can come handy! Ok, what are these stages of search engine optimisation and social media optimisation? At the core of the optimisation process are these seven steps:

1. Identification of organisational / business needs and how online media could help
2. Setting Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Social Media Optimisation (SMO) goals
3. Research the keywords that you prospects are likely to use to come to your site and benefit from your products and services
4. Strategically position keywords in your website structure and architecture
5. Tactical keyword placement on individual pages
6. Optimisation of your off site profile in social media, mobile and if needed PPC
7. Tracking and measuring of your results and learn from your actions in relation to the goals that you set in step 1 and 2

In order to succeed in search engine marketing you need to get the fundamental basics right first time, and University of Salford’s SEO and Social Media course – or to be more precise #SSMM (Search & Social Media Marketing) training course does just that and from my own personal experience – is the best starting place as it encompasses all the relevant mixes of search marketing in separate modules:

• SEO
• PPC
• Social Media
• Mobile Marketing

And just in case these do sound overwhelming still the sessions of the course are based on a method too – practical exercises during training and homework – like writing of this blog post and hence practising the use of SEO in social media! The course is packed with excellent industry guest speakers from the Manchester SEO community, SEMPO Institute online training material, online course support community on LinkedIn, Twitter hash tag – #SSMM and a Facebook page – just in case there are some cormorants about!

The mystery of Cormorants – are they interested in SEO training or Social Media training!

Right, have I mentioned cormorants already? well, cormorants are the full time overseas students taking part in the training too! Just in case you are wondering – these creatures did sit outside of the training room in the Maxwell building in Manchester. There are a couple of theories that explain their interest in SEO and Social Media training – a) interest in increasing their social media profile – tweeting in particular or b) the sight of good food or etc)?…

Have a look at the Search & Social Media Marketing course Facebook page for more evidence of these keen tweeterers!

An SEO training banquet fit for a king

… oh I nearly forgot to mention the spread at each session – a banquet fit for a king-fisher (or was it a cormorant!)!?

Why invest in SEO training?

Having been through the steep, frustrating, sometimes tedious learning curve in pursuit of my goal albeit in an unorthodox sporadic fashion, it’s a great relief to have found a well structured approach to learning the internet mix, that is SSMM.

If you wish to short-cut your path to success in the search marketing arena I would suggest that you seriously consider the training course in Greater Manchester’s University of Salford has to offer. If you don’t live in the Greater Manchester area it might be worth considering to move to Manchester for the 10 weeks time – it is a great place with a number of SEO and Social Media networking groups organised using LinkedIn and Meetup, MediaCity is also about to open its doors too – and as evidenced by the cormorants they did a bit of a commute too!

Now, although it looks like a blatant endorsement for the University of Salford’s commercial SEO training, well it is; part motive for writing this post is in the hope that individuals, business owners and professionals alike will see heed this message:

There is no substitute for good hands-on training that’s backed by a wealth of solid in-depth learning resources to maximize your online successes!

If you have any questions about the course – see when the next #SSMM open evening takes place or if you want to speak to me please get in touch:

• Nev Nelson LinkedIn
• Nev Nelson on Twitter

PS: Do you have any of your theories to explain the "The mystery of Cormorants"? please use the comments sections below!

Internet and website marketing companies from all over the region have turned up en masse at the University of Salford as part of an initiative to combat recent cost cutting announcements.

Under the guise of an intensive training course in SEO and search engine marketing, the University of Salford is selling .ac.uk backlinks to companies for £2000 a pop!

Enduring several 4 hour gruelling sessions, companies specialising in SEO in Manchester and the surrounding areas are holding out until the bitter end to bag one of these highly prized links and, while complaining about the amount of homework, have been happy to part with their hard earned wonga in order to jump on the backlink bandwagon.

One Leeds SEO firm camped outside for three days to make sure of a place on this so called course and told me . . .

“We really need high quality inbound links to complete an internet marketing assignment for a company specialising in van hire Leeds and also a well known mens shoes brand so we’ll do whatever it takes”.

I have to say that I enthusiastically enrolled to ensure that I wasn’t left behind by my colleagues and competitors but very soon began to forget the prize which was waiting and became engrossed with the excellent content of the SEO course itself.

Top SEO training tips and techniques

From the ground rules for keyword research and selection through advanced link building techniques to the latest thinking in social media marketing, both the superb core team and their excellent keynote speakers really managed to get their ideas across and moved my understanding and my ability to apply my learning right across my client base immensely. High end benefits for my clients and a more effective approach by my team will really mean more business and a more enhanced reputation for my company in the dynamic and competitive world of internet and website marketing.

Not sure how ethical this backlink sale is, although I do think the Search and Social Media Marketing Course is actually extremely good and I would definitely recommend you enrol for the next sessions. Hats off though to the guys at the University of Salford, Search and Social Media Course for thinking outside the box with this innovate if somewhat extortionate way to plug the funding gap and keep themselves and their mates in a job.

As a post script I would urge you to register early for this university SEO training course as places are selling like hot cakes and there are only a limited number of .ac.uk backlinks available – Good Luck and Bon Voyage!

Well, compiling effective link building strategies is just one area of what can only be described as a minefield when it comes to Search Engine Optimization. PJ Web Solutions are a company for whom I currently work. Whilst they have always known how important link building is, PJ Web Solutions are only now attempting to become more proactive in their approach rather than being reactive and look for a source of information that separates the "wood from the trees" when looking to develop an effective link building strategy. It is for this reason why this blog post was born, it will separate the mindless array of junk that is posted on various websites and spam emails detailing ways of building links and will focus on what I regard as the ‘Top 5 effective link building strategies .

5) Effective Link Building Strategy : Internal Links

When a lot of people think of link building strategies they tend to always think about links that link back to their website. Which is fine, however it is integral that the way your own website links to other pages within your site, are structured logically and create content silo’s which ensures that new pages you create are crawled by Google and indexed correctly.

4) Effective Link Building Strategy : Manual Link Submission

Manual link submission is important when developing an effective link building strategy, especially, if you can use non-financial methods of persuasion. It involves manually navigating to relevant websites in your industry and finding a point of contact to request a link to your website. A good starting point is to search for your targeted terms and choose non-competitive websites to request a link from.

3) Effective Link Building Strategy : SEO Directories

Mindlessly submitting your website to as many directories is not a good element of an effective link building strategy and it can be argued that it could even have harmful effects on search rankings. Unfortunately, I am very much in agreement with the idea that if the directory is free then it is not likely to be worth submitting your website to. There are, however, directories worth submitting your site to such as Yahoo and Dmoz.

2) Effective Link Building Strategy : Linkbait and Viral Campaigns

Viral content, if done properly, can be a powerhouse in creating an effective link building strategy. It attracts links by other sites referencing the piece of code which provides the back links to your website. For example free code such as calendars etc that people like to embed on their websites can create links back to you! Twitter, Facebook, Youtube etc increase the effectiveness of link viral campaigns, as if people like the piece it will be ‘retweeted’ ‘liked’ and discussed gaining more and more exposure.

1) Effective Link Building Strategy : Content

My opinion is that whilst there is no doubt there are many ways to attract links to your site, some free, others paid for, the most effective way of building links is to prepare good, relevant content that people want to read. Content is king and if written well, it will appear on sites such as Digg, it will be retweeted and cause discussions amongst communities and social media channels. If content is written regularly and well, you can build a kind of social empire that people talk about and look forward to reading. Good ways of generating discussion could be, being slightly controversial, or playing devil’s advocate about a topic in your industry.

Always remember that building an effective link strategy takes time and is very much an ongoing process. If you dedicate the time to do things right there is no doubt you can succeed. Make link building fun, enjoy what you’re writing about and rather than it being a marketing chore, you can enjoy building links and driving your site up the search engine results page rankings (SERPS)!

Join us on 17th November 2010 for blog post presentations! As part of their SEO & Social Media training, participants in Salford Business School’s ‘Search & Social Media Marketing’ course are writing individual guest blog posts which will be available soon on www.searchmarketing.salford.ac.uk

Why might you wish to attend these presentations?

1. If you are interested in joining the course yourself in the future – the next course starts on 10th February 2011 – this is an ideal opportunity to see what others have learned and speak to them directly to find out if this course is for you;
2. If you are looking for potential collaborations or new freelancers or employees who are well trained in the latest developments in the area of Search & Social Media Marketing you can meet our course delegates;
3. If you are simply interested in meeting people in the Search & Social Media Marketing field and sharing experiences.

The Search & Social Media Marketing course offers students ‘Search Engine Marketing Professional Organisation (SEMPO) Institute Online Training’ certification and practical examples shared by guest speakers from local agencies such as PushOn, Latitude, MEC Manchester and academics from the Information Systems, Organisations and Society (ISOS) Research Centre. The final week of the course offers delegates the opportunity to summarise their learning experience over the weeks and to demonstrate their knowledge in a practical task such as writing a guest blog post on a topic of their choice.

What are the guest blog presentation details?

• When? – Wednesday 17th November 2010
• What time? From 16:00 to 20:00
• RSVP deadline (for refreshments) – Friday 12th November 12:00 noon
• Where? – University of Salford, Maxwell Building
• How to book? – email Kate Bowes K.Bowes@salford.ac.uk, telephone: 0161 295 6352

Who are the delegates?

Here are some of the delegates:

Jamie Carter

Marketing/Digital Design Manager/SEO/ Web Design

Chris Ellison

Marketing Assistant at PJ Web Solutions

Jane English

Design & Marketing at Cetus Solutions Limited

Michael Fraser

Project Manager at Sizzle Media

Steven Flower

Technology Enabler at Substance

Richard Hayes

Marketing Officer at School of Art & Design, The University of Salford

Keith Hobson

Director at Cortelmedia

Noel Mellor

Copywriter, journalist, blogger

Laila Naqvi

Student at The University of Salford

Mark Sanders

Online Communications Officer at Salford Business School, University of Salford,

Mike Towers

Director Mantra Design & Print Ltd

Peter Vella

Sales and Marketing Director at Countryside Properties (Northern)

Alastair Walker

Freelance copywriter at Source PR Cheshire