Google Privacy Concerns

As the most profitable Internet company in the world it is inevitable that Google comes under fire on a fairly regular basis but such broadsides have been cropping up with greater frequency recently. The most recent of complaints was that of Google cookies tricking Safari into believing Google was submitting a form, which is one of very few times cookies are enabled on the browser by default. Google did say that they did not collect any personal information but they have stopped using this technique now.

P3P Privacy Settings

The exact details of how Google has managed to circumvent similar settings on Internet Explorer have not yet been made public. However, it does involve Platform for Privacy Preferences which are meant as a means to protect users’ privacy. Microsoft are making a lot of noise about the incident, although it does contradict their claim that users should move to Internet Explorer for a safer and more secure browsing experience.

Legislation Compliance

EU rules state that the storing and usage of personal user data is only permitted when the express permission of the user has been sought. This legislation was adopted by the UK and the ICO has given a deadline of May this year for companies to fall in line and mend their ways.

Google To Provide Information

The ICO has asked Google for more information on what has happened and how they collect and use data in order to ensure that the American company is meeting the guidelines. Further demands have also been made to ensure that all companies come to some arrangement over the collection and usage of data by the middle of this year.

Facebook

Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with more than 800m registered users around the entire world and, as such, it is a constant target for spammers, hackers, and those looking to use the site for illegal gains. Security and privacy have been a constant sub-plot to the emergence of one of the world’s largest and most intriguing business stories and this has helped make Facebook one of the most high profile targets.

Computer Student

Glenn Mangham was a software development student living in his parents’ home in York while studying. From the bedroom of that home he managed to hack into the account of a Facebook employee who was on holiday, target several servers, and bypass the company’s security system. However, Mr Mangham feared that he would be discovered and so tried erasing his steps. In June 2011, the FBI tracked down Mr Mangham to his home address and subsequently arrested the man, who is said to be an Asperger Syndrome sufferer.

Identify Vulnerabilities

When defending himself in court, Mr Mangham had said his intention “was to identify vulnerabilities in the system so I could compile a report that I could then bundle over to Facebook and show them what was wrong with their system.”

Judgement

Judge McReath, however, said that the actions were not those of “harmless experimentation” and that Mangham had undertaken “persistent conduct, sophisticated conduct and conduct that had at least the risk of putting in danger the reputation of an innocent employee of Facebook” before stating that his actions meant a custodial sentence was inevitable for the crimes committed. Mr Mangham will also have his access to the Internet restricted and will have to give up his computer equipment.

As the company continues to grow we need to get another pair of hands on board to help get through the volumes of orders we are getting.

The successful applicant will work within an existing team and duties will include but are not limited to -

1. Liaising with clients to ensure we are delivering what they want and need
2. Liaising with our back office team in India to ensure work is completed on time and to a high standard
3. Chasing supply chain in the UK for outstanding work
4. Answering the phone when it rings

Here is a basic list of the skills we are looking for -

Basics

• MS Office competent
• Search Engine knowledge
• Time Management skills
• Self Motivated
• Punctuality

Desirable

• Good Telephone manner
• Problem solver
• Managing multiple orders
• Liaising with suppliers
• Understanding of SEO/Internet Marketing as a product

Ideal

• Background in Digital Marketing
• Understanding of the industry
• Desire to learn and progress
• Ability to work under pressure

The application process

The application process starts with you emailing us your CV (send to info@manuallinkbuilding.co.uk) telling us why you are the person for the role and what additional value you will bring to the team. We will then arrange for you to come in for an informal interview and to meet the team you will be working with

The closing date for applications is the 20th March 2012.

We will close this early if we get a suitable candidate.

This is a permanent role and the salary will be between £16,000 to £20,000 depending on experience

The hours of work are Monday – Friday 9am to 5pm and the role is based in our Altrincham office, 2 minutes walk from the Metrolink station

Recruitment agencies – Don’t even think about calling us – look what happened to the last lot - http://www.pushon.co.uk/blog/bd-recruitment-ltd-of-manchester-i-will-never-use-your-services/

Do you want to explain to your boss why your company now has a reputation management problem!

The conference takes place in Leeds on March 3rd 2012, and at the event several esteemed guests will be appearing to give great online marketing advice.

No conference is the same twice, so if you’ve attended a previous conference, rest assured that a wealth of topical and up-to-date tips will be showcased, helping you make even more from your website.

WordPress

If you’re after WordPress tips, then March’s conference will include a speech from WordPress magician Dan Harrison.

SEO For Ecommerce

Pierce Communications’ Barry Adams will be giving a talk on SEO and the best ways to utilise it for e-commerce purposes.

Video SEO using YouTube

There’ll be a talk on how to use YouTube to optimise your marketing prowess from Sorbet Digital owner Carla Marshall.

Stats and Analytics

Koozai’s Anna Lewis will be giving a talk on how to really make stats and website analytics work for you.

Attend ThinkVis for free!

If you would like a FREE conference ticket, then why not enter our competition?

One of our staff members, Rhys, is due to visit our Indian back office to train with our staff there.

This is part of our continued dedication in providing a great outsourcing service for agencies. The person who can guess the closest on both of the following will receive the ticket:

a) How many miles is it from Rhys’ front door to the office in India?

b) How long in minutes will his total journey take including stopovers and transfers?

Rhys is embarking on his trip on Monday 20th February.

How to Enter

Email info@manuallinkbuilding.co.uk with your guess for the 2 questions, using the Subject line : I want to go to ThinkVisibility #rhysvsindia

Closing Date for entries will be 9am Thursday 23rd February so get your entries in quickly.

Disclaimer: This is for the ticket only, no hotel or travel will be provided.

Make your money go further

The ThinkVisibility conference will again cover a wide spectrum of relevant online marketing topics, with the focus on this occasion being making your capital go further at a time when finances are limited and paid traffic is becoming more expensive. Tickets are already selling fast, so if you would like first-hand, topical advice upon how to make the online world work for you, then be sure to secure your place.

The world of SEO and e-commerce is constantly shifting and evolving, so being part of the conference is a fun and interactive way of staying up to speed, with experts on hand to help.

The Move To Tangible Products

Google has previously shied away from the idea of entering the consumer tech market, instead opting for a plethora of online services. However, it would seem that such plans are now afoot as the company must be struggling to find new ways to invest in online and browser based advances. The most obvious sign of this diversification is the seemingly impending big money takeover of phone manufacturer Motorola.

The Google Experience Centre

The company, now worth just under $200bn, wants to develop what will be dubbed the Google Experience Centre. This massive 120,000 square foot centre is being likened to a private museum and exhibition centre. It will not typically be open to the public but will be used to show off to their biggest customers and prospective clients. This isn’t the most intriguing proposal of the new development though.

Project X

The California based company wants to add a lab and technology centre which will be used to adapt Project X which is a type of “precision optical technology”. Little more is known of this proposed development but if it demands its own lab, and carriers a moniker of that stature, then it has to be good.

Does It All Start With Motorola?

Co-founder Sergey Brin is one of the brains behind this move to the technology sector and it is understood that he has been working on a number of plans to develop high tech products like the driverless car. The Project X lab will be used for testing with gases like argon and optical coating technology. Presumably the first move in all of this will be the purchase of phone manufacturer Motorola in a deal that is said to cost $12.5bn if it goes through.

Getting Kids Away From The TV

For years, parents and even campaigners have been saying that too much TV is bad for children and that we should do everything we can to turn their heads. It seems that the likes of Mark Zuckerberg may have done exactly that, albeit unwittingly. In a recent poll, more than 1,300 people were questioned about their favourite pastimes and social networking was listed by two thirds of them as being their number one pastime.

Social Networking Growth

What’s more, while the numbers are slightly lower, the preference for social networking is growing in virtually all age groups. For the 25 to 34 year old age group, the numbers are fairly evenly spread while even 32% of over 55s said that they like nothing more than sitting down for a good Facebook chat with online friends. Other figures were perhaps a little less surprising.

Favoured Leisure Activities

More than half, 54% in fact, of 16 to 24 year olds listed TV as one of their favoured pastimes while 44% said they enjoyed reading a book and a perhaps surprisingly low 37% said they liked playing video games. Only one quarter of this age group listed exercise or physical activity as one of their preferred leisure activities. More than a third said that they watch TV and social network at the same time showing that multitasking is alive and well even in the younger generation.

How Much Time Is Enough Time?

6% of youngsters spend a staggering 8 hours a day chatting online and a third spend around 3 hours a day on their favourite social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Social networking isn’t a new phenomenon but it really has changed the way the world operates.

The Commonwealth Club in London will, on the 9th March, play host to the latest Search Conference 2012 event. Keynote presentations as well as case studies, panel sessions and a variety of presentations will be provided by winners and judges of the event; leading lights in the SEO and search industry. Particular attention is paid to the SEO industry and attendees will be able to learn about mobile campaigns as well as highlights of how local search and other search strategies have best been implemented in the search industry. The event is organised by the Don’t Panic events agency and features, as this year’s main event sponsor, Manual Link Building.

The Fast Paced SEO World

The world of SEO and search optimisation is a fast changing world. Recent years have seen social marketing and social media firmly inject itself into the fabric of search optimisation and this has proven an additional challenge for many companies and websites that rely on the likes of Google for the majority of their traffic.

Search Conference 2012

As ever, Search Conference 2012 will pay attention to these changing trends and deliver information that is pertinent to anybody looking to instigate an extensive and expansive search campaign. Winners from the 2011 search awards have been given the opportunity to stand up and provide case studies of how they achieved the results they have and such case studies include the best use of search, the best blog, the best local campaign, and many more.

Keynote Speakers

Court Action

The move comes following three months of court hearings and legal battle between the Indian High Court and 21 Internet companies and following the introduction of new Internet laws in India. These new laws mean that websites are legally responsible for the material that is published on their own website. The laws and the aftermath of the changes have led to services like Google and Facebook saying that filtering such content is impossible.

Avoiding Complete Censorship

It seems likely that the two have agreed to remove the content for fear of India, the world’s largest democracy and a major emerging market, blocking such websites in a similar fashion to China. The country asked the companies to put improved checks and filters in place on their websites or face having those sites censored completely in the country. With such demand now coming from India; demand that only looks set to increase further, the removal of content could pave the way for both sites to benefit in the future.

Continuing Action

A criminal case is still in the process of being heard and the companies are due in court next month as a result of this. Other companies facing similar threats include Microsoft, who have said that they are appealing the decision and they have yet to take action to remove the content that is causing the furore.

The Start Of The Troubles

The case was started primarily by the posting of altered images containing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi. There was also a picture that showed pigs running through the holy city of Mecca and these pictures caused several complaints to the High Court from Indian citizens.

The IPO

There has been much talk and rumour over when, rather than whether, the social networking giant would go public. Earlier this week, they filed forms for an Initial Public Offering of $5bn, which has led to speculators putting a price tag of as much as $100bn on the company and there are many employees and former employees of the company who will benefit.

Facebook Surges On

Facebook now has more than 800 million users and attracts more than 400 million registered members to its site every single day. However, it has not been without its problems or publicity and some of the people that Mark Zuckerberg has essentially paid off in stock will be rolling in it come the time of the flotation; so much so, in fact, there are fears that some of the brains behind the company’s success may well leave.

Those Who Stand To Gain

The biggest gain will come from Zuckerberg himself who owns a majority 28% stake in the company, worth up to $28bn. Co-founders Dustin Moskovitz and Eduardo Savarin will net £2.2bn and £1.3bn each respectively while Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss who claim they originally came up with the idea for Facebook and accepted a £12.6m cash payment and shares in the company will also be £95m better off.

The Richest Graffiti Artist In The World

The biggest winner, in some respects, though is Choe. Few will have heard his name but the decision to be paid in stock rather than cash means that he will soon be one of the richest artists in the world, richer than many tycoons and celebrities alike.

The Release

Founder Mark Zuckerberg has been reticent about floating the company too soon, for fear of losing control over how the company operates. However, it seems his fears may well have been overtaken by a desire to raise up to $10bn in capital. It is expected that up to 10% of the company will be made publicly available in the shape of shares and if the company does receive the $100bn valuation that many expect then this means that it will raise $10bn in cash.

Facebook Products

Facebook has 800 million users worldwide and holds a massive market share for display advertising, bigger in fact than Yahoo, Google, and all other companies. While they don’t manufacture or retail tangible goods, Facebook do hold real financial value to many of the people that are preparing their trading accounts for the release. There is almost certainly room for further improvements too, as Facebook Payments continue to build up a head of steam and further monetisation is almost certainly on the cards.

The World’s Most Valuable Companies

Apple is the world’s most valuable company, according to recent reports, and their value is said to be $418bn with oil giant Exxon coming in close 2nd place with a value of $415bn. Exxon had overtaken the consumer electronics giant in the last couple of months of 2011 but better than expected iPhone and iPad sales helped boost their share price by 6.6% to $448.14 putting them back on top of the pile.

The Facebook Float

No figures are yet known, and in fact there’s no official word on whether Facebook will float this week or not, but analysts are waiting with baited breath to see the figures that are introduced and whether the stock will be considered worth investing.

Google Emails

Registered users of the numerous Google services that are on offer should have, by now, received an email from the search giant, telling them that they are introducing a new, streamlined privacy policy. They claim that the problem is, with more than 60 different services on offer to their customers this means the same number of privacy policies and they, like most of us, are probably aware that people simply don’t ready these policies.

A Single, Shorter Policy

Replacing all of the policies would have proven time consuming and largely impractical and, as Google attempts to combine more of its services into a universal search service, the move seems to strengthen this position. The search engine came under scrutiny recently for introducing the Search Plus Your World service which incorporates results from your Google+ circles into the search results that you see on Google.

Universal Results

By combining the terms and conditions of each service into one, it not only gives the service a more unified feel but it means that information can be more readily shared between the different services that Google offers. It is this sharing that worries privacy critics pointing to the possibility that those sharing computers may end up inadvertently sharing their own information and the advertisements they are served.

Google Terms And Conditions

Virtually every move made by Google has its critics and this latest move is certainly no different. However, we, as web users, should be more alert to privacy rules and to the terms and conditions that we agree to when registering with services. The introduction of a single package of terms and conditions may mean that we are more likely to read them before we sign them (of course, it may not).

Google Quality Results

Google Takes Top Spot

Google has shown that it is still top dog, at least for now, by retaining its top spot in the rankings. However, in December it was actually second placed Amazon that came out on top so unless further changes are afoot, we may well see a new number 1 as the online retail giant aims to topple the search engine behemoth.

Internet Companies And Social Media

The pair were the only Internet names that featured in the top 20. The likes of Facebook, which has nearly 1 billion active users around the world, only managed 182nd, while Twitter, which has become every celebrity stalkers’ favourite destination came in at a meagre 615th. It is ironic, then, that Dove, who entered the chart for the first time, have done so largely thanks to an extensive and advanced social media campaign that featured on both of these sites.

The Rest of The Pack

Third place in the table was Marks & Spencer while the BBC took 4th, Heinz 5th, and Sony 6th making a fairly eclectic mix of brands. Perhaps the most worrying figures for most of these companies is that only three of the top 20 scores actually improved over last year. Amazon, Colgate, and Cathedral City all saw an increase in their index score compared to this time 12 months ago.

Other Figures

Android saw a large increase in its consumer score but still do not feature in the top 20 and it was Nokia, who dropped out of the top 20, who came top in the mobile phone and smartphone sector. Skype won the telecoms section and popular mobile phone manufacturer HTC saw the biggest increase in their index rating.

The venue for this year’s free conference is the Brighton Dome, one of the biggest and most impressive venues in Brighton and testament to just how popular the conference has become. Friday 13th April may be considered unlucky for some, and if you don’t register now for ticket releases then this could include you – last year’s tickets sold out in less than half an hour. Manual Link Building will be there and if you want to join us then you register your details today.

While the line-up of speakers has yet to be announced but, as a guide, last year saw talks and exhibitions from the likes of Kelvin Newman at SiteVisibility, James Carson of Bauer Media, and many industry leading SEO and search figures. Samuel Crocker of OMD describes the event as being “miles ahead of many of the paid conferences – and it’s FREE!” while Tom Nash of AOL/Huffington Post Media Group said that it “can more than stand its own against paid competition.”

The event is always a sell out (did we mention that it’s also free?) and is always one of the most popular events on the SEO conference circuit. Getting hold of tickets can prove impossible if you leave it to the last minute and your best option for making sure you don’t miss out on what Steve Lock of Analytics SEO describes as being one “of the best networking opportunities in the UK for SEOs.”

Manual Link Building is a proud sponsor of Brighton SEO 2012 and we know that this years event will be even bigger and better than those that have gone before (we’re sponsoring it, after all). Get your name on the mailing list now so that you don’t miss out on one of the greatest search optimisation opportunities.

The Start Of The Debate

The debate in India seemingly started in December when executives from companies like Google and Facebook were asked to meet with ministers. During this meeting, the government is believed to have told companies that they must have more stringent checks in place to ensure that offensive material was not posted and published. Based on the most recent moves it appears that those warnings were not acted upon, at least not to the satisfaction of the Indian government.

Summonsed

A court hearing has been scheduled for 13th March when directors from Facebook, Google, and 10 other companies have to be present in court. The companies in question have, for the most part, said that they will continue to work with the Indian government although Google has said that it will not remove content simply for being controversial. They say that it is the right of all people to have differing views so long as they’re legal and that these views should be protected.

Past Cases

Such action isn’t without precedent either. Police arrested the head of India’s Ebay site, Baazee.com, in 2004 because the website was found to be selling pornographic material. In China, Google famously withdrew its services following ongoing discussion with national officials and there is an extensive list of websites that are blocked in the country. Facebook and Youtube, Vimeo, Twitter, and various Google websites are all censored.

Internet Censorship

India’s officials seem keen to distance themselves from the word censorship, stating they want to protect their people. However, while they may not use the word censorship, it looks highly plausible that some of the world’s biggest and most popular websites will be censored in what the government describes as being the world’s largest democracy. Policing billions of web pages and user generated posts would prove impossible.

The Latest Figures

The Experian Hitwise figures that are released every month typically make for Google filled news but figures have declined a little in previous months. The period leading up to the 7th January saw Google rake back a lot of this decline in the UK at least. More than 9 in 10 searches conducted are done using Google websites showing our complete reliance on the service.

The Chasing Pack

Bing came in second best with 3.6% of the share while Yahoo followed up with 2.2%. Ask had 1.7% of the share leaving 1.1% of searches that are done using any of a large number of other search engines. All of these companies saw a dip in their results compared to the previous month. Yahoo saw the largest fall of -0.2% while Ask managed almost stable figures. Their decline was a more modest 0.08%.

Other Figures

Although Bing did witness a small decline of 0.12% they have enjoyed a steady rate of increase since Microsoft rebranded its online arm as Bing. This is especially true in the USA where Bing enjoys a 15% share. Yahoo also enjoys a greater share with 17% of all searches conducted using their own search engine offering. Google manages 61% which is still a dominant share but nowhere near the UK figures.

The Search Engine Market

Google continues to dominate the search engine market and with the recent release of new social search features thanks to the advance of their Google+ social network, this doesn’t look likely to abate any time soon. In fact, if users get to grips with the new site design which is currently only available to a limited number of people, it is possible that search figures could increase further.

The Illegal Ads

The most recent round of illegal advertisements centres on ads for cannabis, those from fake Olympic ticket sellers, and even ads offering fake UK passports. Google did eventually remove such ads but not until investigative reporters from the BBC contacted them regarding the situation.

Olympic Ticket Fraud

With the Olympics coming to London in 2012, the scramble for tickets has been, as expected, major. Unfortunately, the demand for and price of the tickets means that a number of unscrupulous websites and criminals also use the opportunity to sell fake tickets and, at least in one case, attempt to steal personal information.

Police And BBC Intervention

One consumer attempted to search for Olympic tickets and clicked through an ad for a company called LiveOlympicTickets which featured at the top of Google’s sponsored listings. The woman, who spent £750 on tickets for the games, became highly suspicious when she was asked to fax her signature. Despite contacting the police who, in turn, contacted Google, the ads remained until a week later when BBC reporters contacted the search giant.

Google Profited From Illegal Ads

The investigation found that Google had removed the ads but had profited from displaying them while they were on the publisher network. What’s more, the US search giant has so far kept the profits made although this may be in preparation to pay any fine hefted upon them.

Google Penalty For Illegal Ads

Only recently, the Californian based media company agreed to a $500m penalty imposed by the US Department of Justice because they were found guilty of having profited from displaying ads for Canadian pharmacies in the US where they are illegal. This figure was said to be the amount that Google had profited by whilst displaying the ads.

Our very own Rhys Wynne winning an award at thinkvis

The UK SEO industry is looking forward to 3 March when the 7^th ThinkVisibility will be held in Leeds. It is the first of two events to be held in 2012, and it is expected to be the biggest yet with tickets already selling fast.

Once again Dom Hodgson is hosting the event, so it will be great fun as well as informative. Dom has a reputation for making  sure that the content of ThinkVisibility is current and fresh, so that everyone goes away with new and innovative ideas.

The focus this year is on getting things done on a tight budget. SEO is a challenging and constantly changing arena, and many in the field have noticed that easy, free traffic is getting harder to find. Paid traffic, has become more expensive, and many of the shortcuts that worked only last year no longer do.

ThinkVisibility 2012 – Leeds

Dan McGuire of Carnival Creative will be demonstrating that buying a site getting it researched, designed,  built and hosted for under £100 is still possible using the services of Fiver workers. He will also demonstrate how to get that site to rank and convert using social media and link building, again for just £100.

Carla Marshall will cover the very important topic of video marketing, one of the best ways to bring your site ranking and traffic at the same time. She will demonstrate how to go beyond simply posting on YouTube and cover making videos really work to promote a website or product. Video marketing is going to become even more important in 2012, so this is unmissable.

ThinkVisibility aims to cover the whole SEO spectrum, and this year is  no exception. Dan Harrison of WordPress Doctors will give a presentation on new things to do with WordPress and Barry Adams Senior Digital Marketer for Search at Pierce Communications will cover SEO strategies for ecommerce websites. More and more new speakers are being added, so this looks like being the best ThinkVisibility yet.

Once again Manual Link Building,  and Majestic SEO will be sponsoring ThinkVisibility, so a fantastic conference experience is guaranteed.

When it comes to social networking, MySpace is one site that can claim to have helped start the phenomenon. Launched in 2003, it was the most visited social networking site in the world between 2005 and 2008 but since then it has endured a steady slide down the rankings. As sites like StumbleUpon, which has grasped that tenth place spot away from the music site, have improved their fortunes with a series of redesigns and improvements, MySpace has only been able to watch in envy.

News Corporation Sells up

2011 saw another change of ownership from the site with News Corporation selling to Specific Media and Justin Timberlake for $35m; just 6% of $580m that Murdoch backed News Corporation paid for the site in 2005. The site lost a lot of followers over spam problems while competitors have arrived in the shape of social networks like Facebook and social media sharing sites like YouTube. Both have gone on to enjoy improved ratings compared to the former heir to the throne.

MySpace has, until now though, managed to hold on to a top 10 place in the list of most visited social network sites in the UK. However, according to Hitwise statistics, this is no longer the case and the former giant has been replaced by StumbleUpon, a site which describes itself as a discovery engine and has undergone radical changes of its own.

The decline of MySpace traffic has been monumental over the past 3 years. It held around a 6% share of social networking traffic 3 years ago, compared to the most recent 0.31%.

With all of that said, if you are embarking on a social media campaign then you need to choose your websites carefully and well. MySpace does still have a strong following and it is highly probable that more changes are afoot. Being owned by Justin Timberlake would imply that further musical direction will be introduced, too, so the site could still benefit those that target a young, music loving crowd.

As you would imagine from a man that is so anti-digital, his Tweets leave a lot to be desired although the poor grammar and Twitter faux pas do at least indicate that the account is indeed managed by the media mogul himself. How long this will be the case remains to be seen.

There have been little more than two dozen Tweets so far, with the very first coming just hours before the end of 2011, and they have been a mixture of Tweets raving about Fox movies and showing off a seemingly insatiable love for reading along with political messages and a few erroneous Tweets to boot.

Digital Murdoch

The move has sparked several rumours. Many believe that Murdoch is embracing the digital revolution in a bid to save a reputation that has become seriously damaged in the past months. The man that was once seen as virtually untouchable has been shown to be entirely human and while his early Tweets perhaps further accentuate this fact, it is likely that they will improve over time.

Is investment imminent?

Another rumour is that the businessman is looking to invest heavily in the microblogging platform, or even acquire it wholly although following his lack of success in the acquisition of MySpace the latter, at least, seems highly speculative.

@rupertmurdoch is a major deal especially for Twitter. Not only does the account, which already has more than 100,000 followers, have the blue tick to show it’s a verified account but it even warranted a personal introduction from the site’s co-creator Jack Dorsey.

Not that the blu verified tick means much, of course, especially following the news that the blue-tick verified account supposedly belonging to Murdoch’s wife Wendi Deng has been exposed as a spoof and removed from the site.

Search Engine Indexing Frequency

Search engines visit websites as often as they believe they need to. Spiders may initially visit every few weeks and if they notice new content has appeared on the site every time they visit they will increase the frequency they turn up. As such, if you’re looking to get your site indexed very quickly then you should get a link from a website that is updated often.

Social Bookmarking Websites

Social bookmarking websites enable you to add a list of your favourite pages, including some of your own. You can also tag them, rate them, and often even talk about them with other members. Ensure that social bookmarking sites you use are search engine friendly and you can get your site listed quickly and positively.

Keywords In Your Domain

If you operate in a relatively small niche area then you can look for an exact keyword match domain name. This is a domain that is made up of your primary keyword or search term. They can be difficult to come by but for keywords without too much competition they can be highly beneficial.

Dot Com Or Local Top Level Domain

Generally speaking, global websites are best served with a .com top level domain. However, if you will be embarking on a lot of local SEO then you should consider a .co.uk or other locale based top level domain because this will help the search engines easily determine where your website is based.

Easy To Remember

Your domain isn’t reserved solely for the benefit of SEO. Making your domain name easy to remember means that visitors will be more inclined to come back to your site. This also has SEO benefit because other webmasters will be more inclined to remember your domain when posting a link to it.

Measuring Your Online Success

Your own online success is measured and determined by a number of factors. The number of visitors you receive and how well targeted they are, as well as figures like your conversion rate, average sale value, and bounce rate are very important. A good website owner or SEO will be tracking at least some of these figures to ensure that they are getting the best possible results from their SEO.

Google PageRank

Google determines the PageRank of a page according to the number and quality of links that page has. It cannot include relevance to a particular topic and it doesn’t include quality of page content or other important factors. By all means, check your PageRank every now and then and use it to determine whether it is worth chasing a particular inbound link but concentrate on more important statistics for your own website.

Getting Indexed

This means that getting a link from a website that is crawled regularly will help you to get your website indexed. Before a site is in the search index, it is impossible for it to get a good ranking. Fortunately, where it used to take months of submissions directly to Google and to the DMOZ open directory project, there are much quicker and more effective ways to get a site indexed while also starting your link building campaign early in the process.

Social Bookmarking Sites

Social bookmarking sites are updated regularly and this means that the Google spiders visit frequently. Getting a link from such websites can see your own pages indexed in a matter of hours rather than days or weeks. You do need to ensure that the links are dofollow, however, otherwise the spiders will be unable to follow the links.

Ethical Link Building

When embarking on a link building campaign, you need to ensure that any link service is providing you with ethical techniques. The search engines demand that you use only ethical techniques and if you don’t then you face the very real danger of having your website penalised and your pages pushed back into the supplementary index or, worse still, completely removed from the index. Check the techniques that your link building service are using are ethical.

Manual Submissions

Many forms of ethical link building require a submission stage. Whether it’s directory submissions or the submission of articles, press releases, or social bookmarks, these should be done manually. Not only does this ensure that these techniques remain ethical but it also means that the submissions have a greater chance of being accepted by the various directories and that the links provided are better quality and more numerous.