Articles by Matt Paines on ArticleSnatch.com

It May Be Summer, But Itâll Be Christmas Before You Know It

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400

There’s a strange inversion in the seasons that can’t be attributed to global warming. Christmas is when all the holiday advertising starts, and any time now we’ll be seeing Christmas presents appearing in the shops. Which means that savvy Internet marketers are spending the summer getting their sites ready for Christmas. The wisdom of this is obvious for retail sites, after all it’s the busiest time of the year. But what about business-to-business? As retail prepares for an income boost, B2B gets ready for an inevitable slump. The Internet doesn’t close for Christmas, so it’s worth considering what can be done on-line, either to maximise the seasonal peak or ride out the festive trough. Now’s a very good time to overhaul the Website to make sure it does the best job possible over those crucial months. Your position in the search engines springs to mind as an obvious issue here. Anything you do is unlikely to make an overnight improvement in your listings; building your ranking is a slow process that typically takes months. Which is why you need to be thinking about this right now. **End Summary** Topics: search engine optimisation]]> XSEO]]> search engine positioning]]> search engine marketing]]> Search Engine Optimization]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> XSEOâs MD, Matt Paines, has been involved in the internet since 1995 and has been actively involved in search engine optimisation (SEO) since 1997. He was the only UK SEO invited to participate in the Microsoft Search Engine Champs project, which was first run in 2004. Matt speaks at various local and national seminars on the subject of internet marketing. Search engine optimisation

A Pit Opens for Incautious Online Marketers

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The news that major corporations are putting search engines such as Google and Yahoo! at the forefront of their marketing strategies could herald huge problems for incautious optimisers. We've already seen several significant players in the Car Insurance market fall victim to the dangers of over optimisation. Having reviewed the penalties, the companies involved are believed to have been black-listed by Google for search engine optimisation activities that don't comply with the webmaster guidelines. The important consideration here is that the companies were not necessarily doing anything wrong, they are playing Google's game, although a little too aggressively. In the past companies would disappeared from Google's listings because of attempts to deliberately fool the search engine to get traffic the site didn't deserve, but now it's possible for brands to lose their position in the results simply by doing their optimisation too enthusiastically.” Google has, for some years, judged a site's authority by assessing the links pointing to it from other Websites.This has given rise to an industry wherein companies sell link-building programmes to artificially raise a site's perceived authority. Google doesn't like to be manipulated. **End Summary** Topics: search engine optimisation]]> XSEO]]> search engine positioning]]> search engine marketing]]> Search Engine Optimization]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> XSEOâs MD, Matt Paines, has been involved in the internet since 1995 and has been actively involved in search engine optimisation (SEO) since 1997. He was the only UK SEO invited to participate in the Microsoft Search Engine Champs project, which was first run in 2004. Matt speaks at various local and national seminars on the subject of internet marketing. SEO

Why Search Engine Ranking is Like the NHS Waiting List

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0400

OK, so the optimisation process was a raging success. Youâ€'re number one worldwide for Lem-Sip flavoured dinnerware. Return to your office and prepare for profit. Donâ€'t rush, it could be a long time coming. Search engine ranking is a key performance indicator; it isnâ€'t an outcome. Itâ€'s all too easy to forget what weâ€'re actually aiming for and treat symptoms, not causes. The NHS analysts put huge importance on reducing the number of people on their waiting lists. We hear news items placed by various governments (Iâ€'m being party-agnostic here!) that waiting list numbers have reduced by X% and nod sagely at a job well done. Until we hear that the figures are being massaged by admitting fewer people to the lists. Bizarrely, it doesnâ€'t seem to occur to any of us that the number of people on the list doesnâ€'t matter. Itâ€'s how long youâ€'re waiting to be fixed that counts. Our obsession with search engine position is distressingly similar. The key outcome is conversions, not where you appear in Google. Imagine searching for treasure on a Pirate Island. The more holes you dig, the more chance you have of finding the doubloons. **End Summary** Topics: search engine optimisation]]> XSEO]]> search engine positioning]]> search engine marketing]]> Search Engine Optimization]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> XSEO"'s MD, Matt Paines, has been involved in the internet since 1995 and has been actively involved in search engine optimisation (SEO) since 1997. He was the only UK SEO invited to participate in the Microsoft Search Engine Champs project, which was first run in 2004. Matt speaks at various local and national seminars on the subject of internet marketing. He also provides services and research an an expert witness in Internet Marketing and Copyright related legal cases. Search Engine Ranking Like NHS Waiting List

Successful websites built onÃ¢â¬Ëgood foundations'

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Eighty six per cent of UK businesses do not realise building a website should always start with "good foundations". One of the UKâ€'s leading search engine optimisation experts is concerned that only 14% of companies reported that they had thought about how their website would be found on the Internet before they built it. Head of XSEO, Matt Paines, believes that companies are wasting their money if they do not build websites so they can be found by search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. "Good foundations underpin the potential success of any website," said Matt. "And it is vital that every website is built so it can be as search engine friendly as possible. "In the same way a building will fall down if it no has foundations, a website is rendered invisible on the Internet if it is not built in a way that allows it to be easily signposted online. "Companies still seem to see the appearance, content and functionality of their website as a priority, when in fact arguably the single-most important consideration is having a search engine friendly design. **End Summary** Topics: search engine optimisation]]> XSEO]]> search engine positioning]]> search engine marketing]]> Search Engine Optimising]]> Search Engine Optimizing]]> Search Engine Opti]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> XSEO"'s MD, Matt Paines, has been involved in the internet since 1995 and has been actively involved in search engine optimisation (SEO) since 1997. He was the only UK SEO invited to participate in the Microsoft Search Engine Champs project, which was first run in 2004. Matt speaks at various local and national seminars on the subject of internet marketing. He also provides services and research an an expert witness in Internet Marketing and Copyright related legal cases. Good Foundations

Articles by Matt Paines on ArticleSnatch.com

It May Be Summer, But Itâll Be Christmas Before You Know It

A Pit Opens for Incautious Online Marketers

Why Search Engine Ranking is Like the NHS Waiting List

Successful websites built onÃ¢â¬Ëgood foundations'

It May Be Summer, But Itâll Be Christmas Before You Know It

Successful websites built onÃ¢â¬Ëgood foundations'