Wednesday 3 November 2010

Google Analytics suffers downtime on 02/11/2010

If you are a fan of Twitter and you are interested in SEO news, there's nothing bigger than Google suffering problems in every country across the globe, hence the phrase #Google Analytics trending worldwide on Twitter.com
If you were looking for your website stats on the morning of November the 3rd no doubt your jaw would have hit the floor and had you running to the nearest SEO forum to find answers.

The most popular link in replies to this post was to the Google Analytics Status dashboard:

Web Report11/1/10
All times are shown in your local timezone unless otherwise noted.
Time 5:59 PM 
Description:
We are continuing to investigate this issue. We will provide an update by November 6, 2010 12:00:00 AM UTC detailing when we expect to resolve the problem.
Starting Oct 25th, a 24hr delay with processing in sampled reports was identified in some accounts. No data has been lost and a fix is in progress.

The whole world seemed to stop for a few hours - ten years ago less than 5% of all posts on the internet on this subject would have been read - Google trending has thrown itself into it's own vat of boiling oil.

For some ecommerce sites this was unaccepteble, for others it was a cause for hilarity, but for everyone all data was restored by 12noon GMT and suddenly, the world started to turn again.

Want SEO updates as they happen straight to your inbox? Pop in your email address here at my website www.1weekseo.co.uk and please post your comments below on how you were affected:

Wednesday 27 October 2010

Twitter book giveaway! Competition on Twitter


Win - "The History of the World Through Twitter" hardback book
This book is more than just a straight re-telling of history...Twitter is perhaps the most potent and versatile phenomenon yet thrown up by the web and the authors have created a fresh, hilarious, original and just occasionally (sort of) educational book which will take full advantage of the extraordinary popularity of Twitter.

On this day in history, 26th October 1965 The Queen awarded the Beatles their MBE medals at Buckingham Palace.

What would she tweet about this?  

TO ENTER: Leave a comment on this blog, or tweet your answer to @1weekSEO with the hashtag #TwitBook


The History of the World Through Twitter
Takes readers on a voyage through world history, told through the speculative tweets of its some of the famous people: from the Lord's commentary at the creation of the universe to Hardy's view from the Battle of Trafalgar, and from the Mona Lisa's reaction to being painted to Jackie K's take on the JFK assassination.

100 key moments from history are picked and reported in tweets - those 140-character maximum bite-sized chunks that are so familiar to Twitter users - and anyone who has read a newspaper in the last six months - today.

Oh, and if you happen to have a website and would like a free SEO website audit email me at seoseomerset@googlemail.com and I'll reply within 24 hours.

Tuesday 26 January 2010

Friendly SEO services - see results fast!

You're here because you want your website to perform well in Google search and drive traffic to your website ...... right?

I'm happy to give you a free consultation to give you an idea of how I can help and how cost effective it will be for you.

Based in Somerset UK, my services cover the whole of the UK remotely, there's no need for an on site visit. Working as an independent consultant with little overheads I am proud to offer a wide range of SEO services at a reasonable price.

I have valuable advice to give small businesses with new sites under a year old, but also have solid experience in SEO for companies with a 6 figure turnover, so get in touch for a free consultation today.

Below is a snapshot of traffic to a site that I was responsible for in January 2010.
The spike is from the power of social networking site Twitter and a free giveaway of a pocket 2010 diary. This went viral online and traffic spiked from 600 average hits to over 6,400 in one day!


Contact me if you would like to see your site perform well in terms of traffic and visibility in Google search engine results pages.

So, you want Google page 1?

The sooner people get over the idea of "top of google" as being a definition of SEO, the better. But it DOESN'T suit all businesses, just as other mediums don't. It's real, it's here to stay and for most businesses who plan correctly it can be hugely profitable.


You wouldn't believe a TV ad agency if they told you they could get your ad placed in the X-Factor breaks for £100, so why would you believe you're going to double your business for an equally suspect fee from an SEO company?

Research. Research. Research. People get scammed because in most cases they fail to conduct ANY research at all in the first place. It's basic business acumen. If you feel let down by a previous agency or consultant I would love to hear your story.

With a brand new website, position 1/2 in Google is achievable (in free organic search) with keyword research and regular emarketing I'd say 6 months in all honesty. I'm not going to lie about this and anyone who says different will just be taking your hard earned cash! However - with Adwords I can get you to google page one in a matter of hours. What adword daily budget would you set yourself?

I have worked with new sites and currently work full time on contract for a company who launched in October 2009, 39 hours a week just to put it into perspective the man hours involved are substantial.

SEO tasks include:
  • Installation and reporting of Google Analytics
  • Submission of URL to Google Webmaster tools, and code installed into your site to verify
  • Similar code verification for Alexa, Yahoo, Bing
  • Adwords reporting, keyword researching
  • Directory submission with full lisiting and photos, images, information
  • Article writing (500 words) submitting to article sites and press release sites
  • Blog creation on wordpress, Blog on Google (blogspot)
  • Google maps directory verification and submission
  • DMOZ submission
  • Posting on forums, creating identities
  • URL submission using a tool for global search engines
  • Facebook, Twitter, social networking accounts, creating proper profiles
  • Setting up Google Alerts for competitors and your own URL to track appearance on the internet
  • Meta tags and meta description for your website, Alt tags on images, proofreading for grammar etc
  • Web page copy composition in a style to suit your site
What I say to my clients with a low budget is to agree an arrangement of so many hours a week and I continue through this list and take payment as we go along. The work I carry out with contracting is done in the evenings and weekends.