Stafferton Consulting Limited.

Testing Social Signals: The power of the social media ‘ghost town’ [Infographic]

Simon — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 23:03:54 +0000

Its quite amazing how Google operate. Preference in the search results seems to be given more in favour of sites that have good Google Plus business profiles, compared to similar Facebook and Twitter profiles… a coincidence? Or possibly a factor in the algorithm to try and gradually drive business away from the power house that is Facebook to the small by comparison ‘new comer’ (again relatively speaking) Google Plus?

A test recently concluded by a website placement firm demonstrates that a website connected to a Google Plus business profile with over 100 followers ended up moving up in the rankings compared to websites linked to a Facebook page with 100 fans, a twitter account with many re-tweets etc. The test wasn’t in depth or scientific, but certainly an interesting indicator… what do you think?

Oh, and if you’re wondering what the Ghost twon reference is all about… a client of mine who is a big twitter user recently described G+ as a ghost town compared to the world of twitter. All depends on your follow / follower numbers, but in terms of activity he has a point… All the more strange how G+ page followers has such an influence eh G?

Source: www.tastyplacement.com/infographic-testing-social-media-signals-in-search

SEO Porridge – too hot or too cold? Or just right? [Infographic]

Simon — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 18:47:41 +0000

Some fairly extreme examples here but interesting take and useful having everything in one place. Be aware Google will if they haven’t already, drop it if its hottt!

SEO Infographic by SEO Book

SEO Petersfield

Simon — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:04:13 +0000

SEO in Petersfield…Well, if that is what you are looking for then you’ll be pleased to read that’s exactly what we specialise in. Being a small Web Presence consultancy we focus on helping local small to medium business with the web presence, this invariably involves undertaking onsite SEO Audits of current websites, and following this with well thought out off-site SEO campaigns.

We haven’t been advertising at all for the first 9 months and have been fortunate enough to build up a client base of fantastic clients, many in the local area, a few a bit further afield. Our USP is honest, direct and personal service. Techno jargon kept to a minimum, letting the results speak for themselves. If you are within a half hour or so of Petersfield we’d be delighted to come and discuss your requirements face to face.

Part of the overall service we provide includes advice and assistance with Social Media marketing, as well as Web Analytics - helping you understand how valuable the traffic your website are getting is to your business, and looking at ways to maximise the value. We also advise on Website Design, to help people actually stick around on your site when they arrive and can undertake website redesigns including full e-commerce sites.

In April 2012, we are offering free initial SEO site reviews to all new customers, but this offer will be limited on a first come first served basis. So if you feel your business is not really getting the most out its web presence, and want to maximise your return on investment, get in touch today!

The top 1 Million websites

Staffers — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 23:08:43 +0000

May have to a bit of geeky number crunching on this data… not sure what I’ll find, but watch this space!

http://blog.majesticseo.com/research/million/

Eliminate spam comments in WordPress

Simon — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 09:29:15 +0000

On many of the sites I am responsible for, increasing volumes of spam comments are becoming a bit of a chore to deal with. Akismet is all well and good, but they have a paid service for commercial websites, and in my experience many comments thatare clearly rubbish still get through. So I had to bite the bullet and introduce a new ‘spam gate’ on the higher traffic sites using WordPress. This isn’t a detailed review, but below are listed 5 anti-spam plugins that were tried, tested and rejected. They were rejected for being either incompatible with some themes, too convoluted to install (SweetCaptcha… great concept, but over complicated), or plain didn’t catch spam effectively enough for me. The one I ended up selecting is at the bottom… still early days, but so far so good!

Antispam Bee Visit plugin site

Conditional CAPTCHA for WordPress Visit plugin site

Enmask Captcha Visit plugin site

Spam Free WordPress Visit plugin site

SweetCaptcha Visit plugin site

And the one that trumped all of the above, is plain and simple ‘Captcha‘. It installs with ease, is compatible up to version 3.2.1 and not surprisingly has a 4.5 out of 5 rating in the WordPress Plugin directory. The way it works is presenting a simple maths question, mixing numbers and words – so for example 4 + three = ?. I personally can’t stand some of the captcha solutions you see, that are sometimes barely readable even by humans…. yeah Facebook & Google you know what I’m talking about! You can any text you want before the question is presented (i.e. “we just want to ensure you are not a robot!”). The options screen is very simple – see below.

Get increased online visibility for your business

Simon — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 14:05:49 +0000

If you want to make your businesses website more visible, then you have come to the right place. SCL are experts in optimising Web Presence for business, meaning getting the right kind of visitors to your website – quality not quantity. This can be via a better social media presence, more focussed SEO or a laser targeted Pay Per Click campaign.

We have the skills, experience and passion for website optimisation. We also limit the number of clients we take on, to ensure the best customer service possible.

If you want to make sure your website maximises its potential, give us a call now on 0844 8708791. Alternatively fill in the form below for a free no obligation consultation.

[contact-form-7]

Cost effective Website Optimisation that simply works

Simon — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:04:44 +0000

If you are looking for help with making more of your current website, then you have come to the right place. SCL are experts in Search Engine Optimisation, and know what works and what doesn’t.

We know that good SEO is about great unique content that cries out to be shared.

We know that good SEO is about making your site as relevant, as readable and as easy to use as possible, meaning your visitors will stick around, and come back often.

We know that great SEO relies on your online reputation, with naturally and virally created links from all kinds of respected and authoritative places.

We also know that simply creating/buying tonnes of back links to your site alone is no real help to anybody, and Google is much wiser to this following the most recent major update to it’s ranking algorithms - Google Panda.

If you want to make sure your website maximises its potential, give us a call now on 0844 8708791. Alternatively fill in the form below for a free no obligation consultation.

[contact-form-7]

New SCL Facebook landing page

Staffers — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:10:00 +0000

The new SCL Facebook landing page is live!

SCL had a Facebook Page since launch, but never a proper landing page until now. This Facebook Landing Page ensures visitors don’t just arrive on a wall, but on a purpose designed page that has branding and a marketing message.

It is a relatively simple and non-flashy page, but has the ‘like gating’ functionality, which means users see a different landing page if they haven’t liked the page, compared to those that have liked the page. This was simple to set up, with creation of a basic Facebook app, linking to a specially modified WordPress site, perfectly designed to fit into the Facebook canvas. It also has a trial of ‘friend gating’ which means some content is only revealed once a user has liked the page, and at least a pre-set number of their friends have too… will see how effective the new Facebook landing Page it is!

Check it out! www.facebook.com/SearchEngineConsultancy

If you want a Facebook Landing Page like this for your company, we can build it for you in a very cost effective manner, and you will be able to edit the content at will. Get yours now!

Sharing your Google Analytics reports

Simon — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 09:26:51 +0000

If you have Google Analytics on your site, but are a bit over whelmed at what it contains, or have never really delved into the various reports or understood what’s going on, then maybe I can help. One of the services offered by SCL is Web Analytics and whilst not the only solution out there, Google Analytics is a very comprehensive and critically free service that anyone with a website and a Google account can sign up to. There are a number of both free and paid alternative Web Analytics solutions, but for most small to medium and many larger businesses too Google Analytics (GA) is ideal.

To add another user to your GA account, simply follow these six steps:

Log into Google Analytics here www.google.com/analytics

At the bottom of the page you should see user manager (if you have more than one account you will need to click into your chosen account first)

At the top right click on ‘add user’

Enter the email address of the person you wish to share GA with (must be an email associated with a Google account)
Select the access type, commonly View reports only will be adequate, but if you wish to allow someone to do more advanced things such as setting up custom reports, filters or goals, then they will need to be made an account administrator.

Finally, select the website profile you wish to share by adding it to the select website profiles box, and click save changes.

Now, the person you shared with will be able to access you website’s Google Analytics Profile. If you are interested in understanding more about your website users behaviour, please contact us.

This is obviously very basic stuff, but if you found this useful please let me know in the comments! More Google Analytics guides will be added over the coming weeks, check back soon or follow us on Twitter or Facebook to ensure you don’t miss them!

Google updates mobile search interface

Staffers — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 19:09:51 +0000

No doubt driven by the huge growth in web browsing on smart phones such as iPhone and Android, Google have updated their mobile search interface.

It has top icons for Google web search, image search, Google places and News. There is a small expand icon on the left that gives you access to various search options previously reserved for the full desktop site. This allows you to limit results by time, locale etc. Additionally there is a ‘more’ link top right that gives you direct access to the majority of Googles most popular services, including YouTube, Apps, Shopping and Maps.

It seems to operate very effectively using Atomic on the iPhone, and is a decent improvement over the previous mobile view. Let me know of you like their new mobile site or not, or if you experience any difficulties on your mobile device.