The big brands are now getting more exposure in the Google search results than ever before. Although Google are talking about the importance of brand there seems to be little information about how “brand” is measured, what makes a brand stronger in the eyes of Google would be very useful indeed.
One thing is for certain - the way the big brands are handled by Google is changing, but so far we can only speculate on how Google measures a brands strength. It’s such a fuzzy area and one that is difficult to research so I put brand expert Nichola Stott on the spot at the last Brighton SEO meet and this is what she said:
Google is now allowing the initial pages of some search results to be dominated by a single brand or website, if it has sub-domains and a “strong user interest”. The fact that a user’s query “may be restricted” to a search of the one website/brand most associated with that query is an issue for SEO providers. For an example of this type ‘dell’ into Google and it will return the 5 top results from dell. But this is not universal – type Nike into Google and it’s a different story. This suggests these restricted searches will only effect brands that have been specifically targeted by Google so smaller businesses will not be effected. Your ranking, however will be effected by what Matt Cutts calls ‘trust metrics’.
He even goes on to say that Google doesn’t think about Brand that much! Mmmmm… I’m not so sure about that, but I certainly think that following his suggestions will definitely help your SEO efforts:
Provide great content
Become an authority in your niche
Be the expert that people want to link to (read linkbait)
Be the expert that people want to talk about (ie: references to your company name)
Rob Green from iCrossing talks about Data Analysis for SEO.
I know it’s taking me forever to upload all the videos from #brightonseo but I am getting there! Don’t judge me! @kelvinnewman of Site Visibility is already talking about the next one maybe in November. I might be finished by then!
Its time for Rob Greens presentation on Data Analysis for SEO. One of his recommendations was to use a combination of the Google Keyword Tool and Competitor Analysis data together to to collect more data to make more informed decisions about identifying keywords.
Rob suggested looking for search terms that include universal search in the results on them and using media (image and video) effectively to appear in universal search.
He made an interesting point about how you can use SEO to help increase brand awareness and encourage direct visitors to the website. Rob showed the effect that non-branded keywords can have on brand terms.
I really don’t need to go into more detail as Rob says it all and I have it all on video:
Data Analysis for SEO Part 1 – Rob Green form iCrossing
Read more for the second part of Data Analysis for SEO
Brighton SEO was a half-day conference followed by some drinks and networking in the evening, held at Community Base on Friday 23rd July, a brilliant and educational event organised by Kelvin Newman of Site Visibility.
saving this image for my bad photoshopping post!
I videoed almost all of the content and I’m sorry I haven’t posted it up sooner but I haven’t had the time. Never the less I will be uploading snippets bit by bit over the next few weeks so keep your eyes peeled. The first part features Kevin Gibbons and his wonderfully useful wordpress plugins, Cedric Wooding with an enlightening presentation on facebook advertising and Annabel Hodges thinks out of the box when it comes to search.
Silicon Beach Training offer a great range of web development courses including CSS training, XHTML Training and the latest HTML5 training. See the end of this post to learn about an incredible deal on all three courses.
There are many articles out there that say HTML is dead, many will suggest that you should learn XML instead. Is this true? Should you learn XML before you learn HTML if you want to be a web developer?
In a Nutshell
The answer is no – HTML is not dead! It has just needs a little X.
Sites are being built every day using HTML. The majority of companies still use HTML for their Web sites. Those that use XML, still need HTML output so that Web browsers can view the pages.
So for Web Development – HTML is still a basic requirement.
However:
HTML 4.0 is obsolete. The latest version of HTML is in fact XHTML.
XHTML 1.0 is very similar to HTML 4.0, it is basically HTML rewritten to be compliant with XML rules.
If you want to train to be a professional Web developer, you should start by learning and writing XHTML you can do this on our HTML Training Course.
Writing XHTML means that you should close all your tags, including tags like <option>, <p>, and <li>. For single tags you will need to include a trailing slash in the tag, for example <img src=”" />. You will need to follow all the rules for writing good XML.
XHTML forms the basis for learning other XML languages, such as WML, XSLT and CDF. All of these languages are all based on XML, and will continue to be used for some years to come.
XML is not a language – HTML is a language.
XML is more like a set of rules that can be applied to many different languages. XML rules also allow you to create all new languages.
HTML lives on as XHTML. However, HTML5 will be the new standard replacing XHTML. This marks a return to HTML rather than XML as the basis for the web.
What training do I need for a great foundation in web development?
In this order:
HTML Training – 2 days – This HTML course will teach you both HTML language and XHTML
CSS Training – 1 days – This CSS course will enable you to understand CSS and create style sheets for web or XML projects
HTML5 Training – 2 days – This HTML5 course will teach you how to implement HTML5 to provide alternatives for features unsupported by XHTML (embedded video and audio for example)
These web development training courses add up to 5 days in total and would normally cost £1160 + vat in total. We are currently offering the whole web development package for only £760 + vat = a saving of £400!
You do not have to take the courses all at once you can give yourself a break to practise and consolidate what you have learned. This offer will only be available on bookings made before September 30th 2010. So what are you waiting for?
There’s a handy tool over at Chirrps.com which lists the current top 50 most retweeted users on Twitter.
Most of them are as you might expect but number one is maybe a little surprising -
Reverend Run, the man formerly known as the “Run” in Run-D.M.C., Rev Run is a respected rapper from hip-hop’s golden age who broke out on his own in the mid-2000s. Born Joseph Simmons in Queens. Globally renowned he even appears a subject for Brighton Graffiti Artists. To paraphrase the man himself he is the king of twitter, there is none higher – other twitter users should call him sire. He even manages to beat Justin Bieber into second place.
What can business users learn from Rev. Run?
Rev Run is not the most followed person on Twitter, he’s not even in the top 100, nor is he the most prolific, but his tweets are interesting, entertaining and show personality.
Rev. Run gives great advice (personal favourite – “When life hands u lemons, turn around & make grape juice out of it.. & shock the hell out of folks”).
Nikki Rae from Fresh Egg, as usual, provided us with an entertaining presentation – this time on Custom Variables in Google Analytics at Brighton SEO conference on Friday organised by Kelvin Newman of Site Visibility.
Custom Variables allow you to get more details and tailored results Google Analytics, allowing you to define additional segments to apply to your visitors other than the ones already provided by Analytics.
A good example of where this would be useful is the case study presented by Annabel Hodges AKA @searchpanda (will write this one up later so keep posted) where she had a site that was being used by teachers and students, she could have used two logins on the site – one for teachers and one for students these different logins could be variables that could be used to create two segments in Google Anlalytics. These are User Defined variables.
What is interesting to Google Analytics specialists like Nikki is that Custom Variables allow you to set session level segments, which will stick to the visitor while they are active on the site, and page level segments, which correspond to pageviews and events on the site. This allows you to get much more detailed with the information you’re gathering and storing in the custom variable. For example, you could separate different sections of the site by using the page level scope, or you could track if a visitor has completed a particular action during their session with the session level scope.
The different levels of interaction that can be used to find out more about your users behaviour are:
The Visitor; such as the browser or mobile phone operated by a person.
The Session; what happens during the period of time during which the visitor is active on the site.
The Page; activity on a page like a click on a movie button or an add to a shopping cart
Nikki got members of the audience to participate in an amusing demonstration.
Yesterday evening I attended Keven Meredith’s (aka @lomokev) book launch for 52 Photographic Projects at Add The Colour Cafe, North road, Brighton .
All the usual suspects were there from the Brighton photographic community, which is a testament to Kevin’s popularity as a photographer. Now it’s not just that Kevin is a lovable character, or that he is the judge for our current photographic competition that closed today, but I genuinely think this is one the best photographic books I have ever seen! I have been taking pictures on and off for decades (you can see some of my images on my facebook page – become a fan!) and still there are so many new ideas and ways of thinking between the covers of this book.
I showed it to someone this morning who has been thinking of taking up photography for some time. She has no experience in photography yet she was getting quite excited about the book, she could see that she could do it, that photography was more of a journey and an experience than a science. I defy any photographer vintage or newbie not to find something interesting or inspiring in this book.
Well done Kevin, that’s quite an achievement. If you would like to buy a copy you can order it through his website.
For those who are interested I took these images with my new Sony Cybershot with Sweep Panorama, and yes this is my friend photographer Anthony Hunt trying to appear three times in the same shot!
Remember when Twitter sceptics claimed it was a passing fad that was only good for knowing what Stephen Fry was eating for breakfast? Then along came the outing of oil giant Trafigura as a global flytipper, the tidal wave of moral outrage against Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir and a near revolution in Iran.
Twitter was a central player in all three stories and, suddenly, we all realised the immense power we now have to coalesce around a movement or an idea and run with it.
So I’d urge a little scepticism of your own when you hear the inevitable tutting from the same cynics when they scoff: “I already know what Fry’s eating. All Foursquare adds to my life is that I now know where he’s eating it – so what?”
Whether you are a restaurant, travel agent, gardener, circus, accountant, movie star or spaceman, Foursquare will help you find potential customers and understand what motivates them in ways that were previously unimaginable.
I’ll tell you here how Metrodeco, a small tea shop in Brighton, is using the site to do this (here’s our Foursquare page) – but first, a note of caution. Foursquare gives users the ability to hold businesses to account like never before – in fact, I bet your business is already on it without you even realising. Go to Foursquare’s website – you don’t even need to log in – and search for your business’s name. There’s a good chance people are already checking in. Feels slightly uncomfortable, doesn’t it?
The big brands are now getting more exposure in the Google search results than ever before. Although Google are talking about the importance of brand there seems to be little information about how “brand” is measured, what makes a brand stronger in the eyes of Google would be very useful indeed.
To learn more about how to use Twitter and other Social Media tools look at our 
