What is On Page SEO?

On page SEO can be summarized in one word; content.

On page SEO is what is displayed on your website, what users and search engines see, and what you hope will get you boosted up the search engine rankings. The most prominent feature of on page SEO is copy.

If you know anything about SEO you'll know the key to a successful SEO campaign is in fact good keyword research. Target keywords with no search traffic and no one will see your site – even if it is number 1 in Google. Target keywords that have too many searches and are too competitive, and you'll find it hard to make any ground when it comes to a coveted first page ranking. It's important to find the balance between too much competition and too little competition.

The key to on page SEO is quality content – and lots of it. In times gone by website owners could get away with spun content, or copy they'd had written by someone with a less than adequate command of the English language. Since the Google Panda update the emphasis on quality content has never been stronger – Google are all about keeping users happy – so if you're pumping out pages of crap that no one wants to read, they'll suppress your site far down the results – even if the articles are keyword rich.

Aside from great copy there are other things you can do, like making use of H1, H2 and H3 tags (including your main keyword in each), including your keyword in the page URL (and domain name where possible), and maintaining some sort of internal linking structure.

For those who are using WordPress as their chosen platform for building a website there are a few worthwhile SEO checklist plugins out there that will help you in your quest to optimize your website. They're not cheap – but they are concise and straight to the point. Remembering every single component of effective on page SEO is hard, so it's nice to have a visual checklist on each page you can use to assess your site.

Website Content is King… Always!

It might seem pretty mad – but the content you have on your company's website could be stopping you from growing. If your website is just something you threw up in haste so you can tell people you've got an online presence, perhaps it's time to reevaluate your priorities – because a web presence is not just advised, it's essential.

If you want to grow your business, a dominant web presence is the way to go. It doesn't matter if you're running an online shop, or a local car valeting company – the value of a web presence is often underestimated by many business owners. The reason for a dominant web presence for people running online shops is clear for all to see, but for those who run a business offline, it can be hard for them to justify plowing money into a website –

so let me enlighten you! When was the last time you used a phonebook? (If you've ever used one at all!) The chances are, it was a long time ago – where do people go to find information and contact details for local businesses now?

The internet of course! If you populate your website with high quality content that has been professionally optimized to help you dominate search terms for keywords that relate to your business, you could potentially see a big influx of clients, helping you grow your business significantly.

Be one of the smart people – invest in quality content and contract a professional SEO firm to help you become King of the search engines. Phonebooks have past it, people look to the internet now for businesses – if you're sat proud at the top of the search engine results, your business is only going to grow!

We have content writers at had to help you with any content you require. Just give us a call- Our content creation team love new challenges!

What happens within 60 Seconds in Social Media

Infographic by- Shanghai Web Designers

If you love Social Media or SEO statistics- have a look at the overall Web stats below – simply staggering!

I could go even further and calculate these statistics into days, weeks, months or years…. but that may overwhelm you all!
All you need to realise is – Social Media,  Social Networking and Social Media Marketing are NO fad what's so ever!

When family and friends asked me 3 years ago why i invested sooooooo much time into Social Media, I always felt like I had to defend my reasoning.  Today is a different story- if your business, brand, company or product is not embracing Social Media then I hate to state the obvious but I will- Your competitors who are using Social Media are taking one hell of a chunk of your market, and your revenue. Would you let a competitor walk into your store and take a few thousand dollars out of your till EVERY WEEK? Well that's exactly what they are doing – if you don't step up!

If you say you don't have the time to learn how to run a blog, use Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin or YouTube … then that's like saying you don't have time to run your business. So get with the times or have your competitors run you our of town! Want to find out how to intergrate Social Media into your business successfully? Well you've in the right place- that's exactly what we do!

Search engine Google serves more that 694,445 queries

• 6,600+ pictures are uploaded on Flickr
• 600 videos are uploaded on YouTube videos, amounting to 25+ hours of content
• 695,000 status updates, 79,364 wall posts and 510,040 comments are published on Social Networking site Facebook
• 70 New domains are registered
• 168,000,000+ emails are sent
• 320 new accounts and 98,000 tweets are generated on Social Networking site Twitter
• iPhone applications are downloaded more than13,000 times
• 20,000 new posts are published on Micro-blogging platform tumbler
• Popular web browser FireFox is downloaded more than 1700 times
• Popular blogging platform WordPress is downloaded more than 50 times
• WordPress Plugins aredownloaded more than 125 times
• 100 accounts are created on professional networking site LinkedIn
• 40 new Questions are asked on YahooAnswers.com
• 100+ questions are asked on Answers.com
• 1 new article is published on Associated Content, the world's largest source of community-created content
• 1 new definition is added on UrbanDictionary.com
• 1,200+ new ads are created on Craigslist
• 370,000+ minutes of voice calls done by Skype users
• 13,000+ hours of music streaming is done by personalized Internet radio provider Pandora
• 1,600+ reads are made on Scribd, the largest social reading publishing company

Social Media Careers

Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking at The Geelong Careers Expo at Deakin University. My topic- Social Media Careers

My first issue to overcome was I had a time slot of 20 min!!! How on earth do I do that? Its like reading 20 Chapters titles in the index of a book, but not being able to give any meaty information…. or so I thought!

Social Media Careers are becoming more well known, but haven't been around for very long – I'd say that it's only been within the past 2-3 years. The job titles of Social Media Manager, Social Media Community Manager, Head of Social Media, Social Media Team Leader and Social Media Analyst are now very much main stream, and the Corporate companies like Flight Centre and the National Australia Bank are 2 examples that I shared with the parents and students at the Geelong Careers Expo.

In 20 minutes I managed to entertain and educate a group of enthusiastic students in the wide world of opportunities within Social Media Careers. I also made a few crystal ball predictions (they're on video for use at a later date!)

The most interesting part of the evening was speaking afterwards in private with an amazingly talented 16 year old girl about blogging.  She was a treasure to speak with and I could tell very passionate about writing. Oh how I wish I had started a blog at 16! We chatted about the possibilities within Social Media and how many of her friends were not into Social Media- or they were but only for fun at this stage. After encouraging her to start a blog and let her writing come out freely, to be consistent in posting and just enjoy the experience, I wondered that night if she would take on my advise?

Two days later I smiled widely as I received an email from her and a link to her blog! I quickly clicked on the link and started reading- mesmerised for the next 15 minutes. Indi (pen name) you seriously have an amazing writing style, you kept me wondering what was going to happen in every paragraph. Your main character is so strong, yet quirky and humorous- very lovable!

Indi keep blogging, and I'll keep reading – Your  Social Media Careers may just have started!

Social Media Influence – Klout

Social Media Experts and  Social Media Guru's have begun to get on my nerves.

It's winter here in Australia but you'd swear it was Social Media Spring – Social Media Experts and Social Media Guru's have sprung up everywhere. They're a bit like agapantha's. Agapanthas can look pretty but they are actually weeds.

The Social Media Craze has gone from madness to utter delusion and  I'm quite tempted to use a few images from Twitter and Facebook as proof examples.  I digress.

To me the words expert and guru are like nails dragging along a blackboard (I'm not a PC person and refuse to use the words chalkboard – it is a blackboard!) these words make me screw my face up and block my ears.

At a conference today I was asked how Small Business owners can check the authority and creditability of someone offering services in Social Media- so I thought I'd share part of my answer here.

If you had a problem with your gas hot water service, you'd naturally call a plumber.  But you'd soon find out that there are Plumbers, Gas Plumbers and Roof Plumbers. Not all of them are qualified to fix your hot water service. This analogy is similar to the field of Social Media. The 5 main platforms are Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube and Blogging.  You will generally find that a "REAL" Social Media Specialist will have a strong presence in 2 or 3 of these platforms. And just like the plumbing example there are further specialists within a platform, like  Facebook Advertisers or YouTube Marketers.

As Social Media has developed so have the monitoring, reporting and tracking tools.  And this will continue- it's not a fad either.  Currently the easiest way is to check their Klout ( the link is to my Klout score). I'm not a huge fan of Klout as I can see it's flaws and limitations.  However it does show me that these metrics will be important in the future, I'm sure there are at least a dozen start-ups in Silicon Valley working on a better "Authority Rank" tool right now. The Klout system can be manipulated or "gamed" as us geeks would say, but it is a start.

So Social Media Experts and Guru's will sprout how amazing they are- just google them, find out where they are so called "experts" and steer clear if you cannot find them online!

Google+ Answers – A New Business Platform

Only 3 days ago I received a Google+ invitation. All I can say is WOW. How did Google keep this tidy little platform so "under wraps".  No it's not another edition of Buzz or Wave- it certainly has outshone any new Social Media Connection network since … well … facebook! And you just have to love the competition heating up between the Google and Facebook!

So I started playing with Google+ and intended to write a post about my findings- the good, the useful and the ridiculous…. after reading  Chris Brogans post titled "Google+ 50"; I seriously couldn't not share his findings. His blog is one I read religiously!

Google have raised the bar with Google+ and I fully believe it has amazing capabilities for Business users. Yet I do firmly believe that Facebook will stand as the Personal sharing and Connecting platform. Here are the first 10 points from Chris Brogans Post and a link to the complete post (that is 80% ad free)

If you're curious about Google+, the new social network platform from Google, you're not alone. I've logged several hours already on the platform, experimenting, testing, and observing. It sparks my attention from several angles: marketing, technology, community, media, mobile, advertising, and more. To that end, I wrote down 50 things to think about with regards to Google+, in no particular order:

The purpose of this list is to get you thinking about a bunch of different possibilities. You're welcome to dispute them all, but that really wouldn't be the point. Instead, make your own similar post and link back. People can compare.

THE GOOGLE+ 50

1. Google+ is built to take you away from either Facebook or Twitter (or both), and it could do it, in time.
2. If it seems like FriendFeed, and thus you worry it might burn out, know that Newt Gingrich has already joined.
3. With a Google+ account, you get unlimited photo storage on Picasa. (Flickr feel threatened? FB photos?)
4. With Circles (how one groups people), you control privacy in a way that makes clear and obvious sense.
5. Your "about" section is rich, robust, allows links, photos, QR codes, and more. Marketers rejoice.
6. If Google+ starts influencing Page Rank (meaning, if a link shared on G+ is weighted more than others), it's game on for SEO/SEM.
7. If Google Music integrates into this platform the way YouTube is now, it's a powerful entertainment media platform instantly.
8. The Android integration for G+ is strong already in these early days. If the platform does take off in a big way, this could shift mobile OS choices, and spending. (very speculative, I admit)
9. You don't need Quora, if you can ask detailed questions in Google+ and share them with specific Circles, etc.
10. The live video chat feature is a powerful addition to collaboration and workshifting scenarios.

"A QUESTION TO ASK YOURSELF IS, 'SHOULD I GET IN EARLY, BEFORE ANYONE'S THERE TO BOTHER WITH? IF I DON'T LOOK AT IT FOR A YEAR, WILL I LOSE GROUND? IF IT'S STILL EARLY DAYS, WHY SHOULD I BOTHER WITH GOOGLE PLUS YET?'" Read The Full Artic

Whats you thoughts on Google+ ?

What the hell does Backlinking have to do with it?

If you're interested in SEO and you're confused by all the terms you've encountered so far, here's another one to add into the mix; backlinking.

You might be wondering what a backlink is, and why it's important when it comes to SEO, and it's actually quite simple to get your head around.
Aside from keyword rich, high quality content, backlinks are the biggest deciding factor in how well your website will place in search engine results. Backlinks are really easy to obtain, they're just time consuming to construct, and that's why many people outsource their backlinking efforts to other people. Alternatively, some people use backlinking software which will generate backlinks by the hundred, with the minimum of hassle.
It's important to understand why search engines, especially Google, pay so much attention to backlinks. They're what help Google determine what is a good site and what isn't – the more inbound links you have the more popular your site appears to Google – it's that simple. Different third party sites have different page ranks – and the higher a third party site's page rank, the more beneficial it will be to your website to have a backlink with them.
Backlinks can be submitted in many different ways; some people opt to submit reviews or articles about their website to article directories like Ezine or HubPages – the link is usually placed at the end of the article. Other people tend to just pay someone to submit their site to the major bookmarking websites out there. Backlinking can be done in many different ways – but the best results will be observed by those who allow a gradual backlink campaign to happen. Natural backlinks are loved by search engines – if they see a spike in your backlink numbers suggesting an artificial backlinking campaign, you could be destined for Google's sandbox!
Paying someone to do your backlinking for you is always a smart move as the chances are your time can be better spent elsewhere. A backlinking package capable of blasting your site to the moon usually costs less than $50 – so it's a worthy investment. Your website will never be search engine optimized unless you spend a little time working on backlinks. Have all the quality content in the world, but other sites with better and more backlinks will always outrank you.