One of our favourite websites for assistance with Search Engine Optimisation is, you guessed it. SEOBook.com.

In particular they provide FREE tools as add-ons for Firefox.

We’ve been using:

A few features of Rank Checker worth mentioning:

• It enables you to check all your keyword rankings within the SERPS of Google, Yahoo and Live Search (MSN).
• You can specify which Google to check. We’ve been using the .co.uk version of Google.
• It performs quicker than a lot of other tools we’ve tried out. (Web CEO for one…painfully slow)
• The top 200 results are checked for a rank, if you aren’t found you’ll see a dash.
• After using it for a month or so we’ve found it to be not always accurate, but its usually within 10 places or so.

A few features of SEO for Firefox worth mentioning:

• Customises your Google results page. Adding useful…& some not so useful information to each result.
• Adds some links underneath the search box, such as the interesting ‘Google Trends‘, and ‘Google Insights‘. CSV is also a useful tool, it enables you to export all data on the page into a spreadsheet.
• The most useful things it adds are ‘PageRank’ for each result, Alexarank, and Age of Website (Domain).

Go check them out.

SEO Book: Link

Roxbourne Search Engine Optimisation Services

Those who get a lot of referred business are usually good at their job – AND clients know it.

Their clients KNOW, understand and appreciate the service and its benefits, believe they are given good value for money and they also TRUST and LIKE the person that deals with them or provides the service to the extent that they want to help them.

KNOW, TRUST & LIKE are the attributes that need to be improved in order to get lots of quality referrals. more…

Those that don’t get a lot of referred business EITHER have a low level of KNOW, TRUST AND LIKE, unbelievably don’t ask for referrals, or both. If it’s mainly due to not asking; this is relatively easy to fix, but it must be done properly and consistently as a natural procedure and a culture developed and honed within the firm. Management needs to embrace it as a business system.

Client facing staff need to be aware that in order to gain lots of quality referrals they need to be generally liked, valued and trusted by their clients and thus should WORK on these aspects – with SINCERITY. They also need to CARE about their clients again with sincerity, and clients need to FEEL it.

Asking for referrals is NOT begging and should never be done in desperation. Clients need to be made aware of the benefits to THEM that you use Referral Marketing Systems. They should ultimately feel they WANT to refer quite happily, they should want to see you and your firm continue to prosper.

The best time to ask a client for a referral is just after you’ve concluded some work particularly just after they thank you; at this point they’re feeling very happy with their decision and suitably softened for your appeal.

A referral is only a referral if you have permission to quote the referrer’s name to them and giving thanks for referrals is a must; remembering personal details (write them down somewhere) to chat about will help build rapport each time you talk. A quick note on building rapport – it is not something confined to the first 10 minutes of a meeting; it is something you should do continuously. Business discussion can become tedious and dry and it helps to dilute that with normal human banter.

Alexander Bullivant Roxbourne Marketing Strategies

Also see post on about Referrals From External Connections

A COI is ideally a client who knows your firm and at least one person in it very well and trusts and respects what you do and is confident enough to recommend you often and without hesitation.

The reason they are like this is a combination of their character – “they are just naturally like that”, and their social status or power status at work. COIs need to be identified within your client-base and treated very well for obvious reasons. More…

Other COI in the local area that are not yet clients need to be identified, researched and carefully approached. These could be heads of Chambers of Commerce, managers of large clubs, the Major, local MPs, council executives and other public sector leaders, managers of the biggest firms in the area, newspaper and magazine editors, heads of influential business groups or associations, etc. A brain storming session is needed to build a list then ascertain why a person would be useful to develop a relationship with, and how you go about it.

Ideally you want these COI as clients and to get regular referrals from them – at the very least they need to know all about your firm and services and see you in a favourable light.

If in the course of conversations with a client, it transpires that they need help with something or they need a contact, e.g. to help get planning permission, raise funds, gain support for a new venture or influence authority, etc – then it clearly comes in handy if you can whip out your black book of COI contacts and other connections that you can introduce. You will be highly appreciated and remembered for when it comes to asking for referrals or recommendations in return.

Alexander Bullivant www.roxbourne.com

See our other blogs on Referral Marketing

Getting leads from Colleagues, Internal Business Referrals,  Inter-departmental Referring or Cross-selling, whatever you call it – either way you’re maximising the value of your clients. Here’s some simple tips – but be aware of the common problems.

This post is for any firm or individual that has clients,  rather than customers. It follows on from our other blogs on Referral Marketing and from info on our main website. Referral Marketing is the best business development strategy there is for Service Providers…

Some firms are good at inter-departmental referring others are not; either way your strategy for dealing with this should be included in your overall Marketing Plan.

Human nature needs to be used to your advantage rather than disadvantage.

There will be…

• “What’s in it for me?”
• “I don’t rate them”
• “I wouldn’t feel comfortable letting anyone else deal with my client”
• “I’ve heard bad things about their department…”

All these barriers need to be recognised, suitably torn down and replaced with a nice combination of warm loyal camaraderie and hard company policy.

Strong leadership and management is needed here to ensure colleagues share their clients where necessary and always look for opportunities for cross-selling. Regular Internal networking meetings, building closer internal relationships and integrating a suitable remuneration policy is crucial. How about social occasions for staff and selected clients mixed in?

KNOW, TRUST and LIKE also comes into play with regard to internal referrals too. (See previous referral marketing posts.) That’s why work colleagues need to socialise and network more.

Give Roxbourne a call and find out how much we could help you build your firm.

Alexander Bullivant Roxbourne Marketing Designers

Ask about our free initial marketing consultation

Referral Marketing is the best business development strategy there is for Service Providers…

…Accountants, Financial Advisers, Solicitors, Dentists, Designers, Architects, Plastic Surgeons, Builders, Vets, IT Services, Website Designers, Stylists, Trainers, Consultants, Printers, Landscape Gardeners, Brokers, etc.

Other service providers and professions other than your own have clients that may also need your services; your clients might also need their services. So it makes perfect sense to be proactive about it. Working more holistically and referring your clients to other carefully selected providers and professionals will compliment your own offering, bringing ‘added value services’ that your clients will appreciate and remember you for. In return the service providers and professionals are also more inclined to refer their clients to you, which is the main objective.

Whatever service you provide, the backbone of building your business is client acquisition and retention, one way to do this is to understand that there is a growing need to be more holistic. This requires knowledge of some other local service providers and professionals and their respective complimentary expertise. Building relationships and respectful trust with local firms and their individuals, getting to know how they operate and exactly what they can do – will help you spot opportunities for them. In the spirit of reciprocity they will want to refer back in order to keep you referring to them and to stay in ‘the reciprocal team of complimentary services’, with all its benefits.

EXAMPLE :- As an Accountant it makes perfect sense to build up good connections within Law, Financial Services and Risk Management, Banking, etc. And those fellow professionals should clearly seek out Accountants and Tax Advisers to compliment their own services too.

When the relationship with your external complimentary connections is managed properly it will bring new clients your way – either as direct referrals back again or via your clients recommending your more encompassing services. Joint effort projects bring added value services to each profession – building greater client satisfaction and thus greater loyalty, both of which need to be in place for your existing clients to recommend your services to others.

How you find other complimentary service providers depends on where you are now, you may know them and work with them already but maybe you both need to be more proactive. You may wish to be more analytical about it and research all the relevant local firms and their services.

Using a service level agreement (SLA) shows professionalism as it will state how you promise to look after their clients and what they can expect in regard to duty of care, procedures and service, etc. This builds trust also. Keeping a regularly updated database of referred clients and progress is a must. This is used to keep all parties informed and as a discussion document at regular review meetings. Approaching and building relationships with other service providers and professionals must be done carefully, with research, patience, determination and a Win/Win attitude. You have a lot to offer the right firms and in return you have a lot to gain from them, get it wrong and the doors will shut for a long time.

Alexander Bullivant www.roxbourne.com

See our other blogs on Referral Marketing

This blog is for any firm or individual that has clients and a client base, rather than customers. It follows on from our other blogs on Referral Marketing and from info on our main website. Referral Marketing is the best business development strategy there is for Service Providers…

Simple is best – it’s easier to ask with just one sentence, it’s clearly faster and efficient and less likely to be left out of a meeting than a long rehearsed speech on why you want referrals and how the system benefits the client, etc. However, you need to memorise a longer set of effective phrases when you come up against resistance to referral giving.

I have a 300 word speech from years ago written by an American referral marketing guru – it’s over the top but the core principles contained within it can hardly be argued with. When resistance occurs a better set of phrases is needed based on the core principles, just asking is NOT  insufficient.

Clients need to know why you work a referral system and how it benefits them in many ways, and why you would like them to refer people they know to you. Learning stock phrases and how to handle objections in a non-confrontational way is the key. This needs to be learnt, it should be embedded, tested and analysed on an on-going basis. The benefits will soon be realised. Those that become good at it will inspire and coach others eventually.

Thanking Clients for Every Referral

Remember a nice bottle of something as a thank you for each referral. How about posting some of your branded merchandise to the client’s place of work too. A great idea is a coffee mug with your company name, what you do well, your web address and phone number on it and importantly the words THANK YOU written on the other side – just an idea. Point is, their work colleagues will see it and it will not be thrown away.

Remember the attributes discussed in previous posts – KNOW, TRUST AND LIKE – if these are in place objections and hesitations will rarely happen.

Alexander Bullivant Roxbourne Referral Marketing Strategies

Call us about the FREE initial marketing consultation no obligation. 01543415423

The key to successful copy-writing -  for blogs, press releases, marketing literature, web pages, sales letters, tele-sales scripts, leaflets, posters, brochures, adverts, book titles, articles, white papers, etc.

……is having a High-Impact HEADLINE or TITLE

Draw people’s attention to reading the body text using a strong attention grabbing headline.

Grab them from the start. It’s about the HEADLINE TEST; if the title makes people read further – you have succeeded.

The headline should make sense, get ATTENTION and ATTRACT enough INTEREST for the reader to have the DESIRE to ACT by reading more.

If not, your copy headline is not strong enough.

To labour the point here’s a video of Dan Kennedy…

Make sure you’re barking up the right tree!

Aimed at business managers and entrepreneurs – this post is just to start you thinking about ways to improve your marketing efforts in 2009 and beyond.

New Economic Era – New Marketing Plan, The Customer Experience, Pain Points, Behavioural Data, Online-Shopping, Marketing in a Recession, Generation X, Y, Baby Boomers and Traditionalists. Predicting the Future.

How has the recession affected your target market?

What tactics within your marketing strategy do you NOW need to change, if you haven’t already?

Is it your prices or your target market? Do you work on efficiency, cheaper suppliers, etc ?

In today’s dynamic environment, where the consumer has a wealth of choice  and loves brands – you need to focus more on the customer’s ‘experience’ of your service, products, outlets, staff, website, etc.

What do they think? Ask them what they want. Collect email address to find out what they want, and then offer it… and stay in touch.

What is it that you are actually solving for people? The need to wear something nice that makes them feel better? The need for a cold beer? A hassle free way to sort out their tax or legal affairs?

Do they mainly want  the feeling of comfort or pride? Or mainly avoid hassle and pain?

Does what you provide as a business alleviate their fear, or increase their happiness?

You need to be aware of their pain points and explain in your marketing literature and website how you can solve their problems or increase their happiness.

Collect and analyse your customers/clients behavioural data and be aware of how consumers have changed in the digital information age – online shopping is is getting more and more popular for example. Should you go online if you’re not already? Does your website need an over-haul?

Be aware of how different generations think and react.

• Generation-Y (born 1978-2001 or so – aged below 30),
• Generation-X (1966-1977 31-42),
• Baby Boomers (1947-1965 age 43-61) and
• Traditionalists (pre 1947 age 61+)

They all have different buying decision processes. For example Generation Y are used to getting things quickly and probably don’t have mortgages or spouses yet.  Generation X – young families, overspending, disposables and materialism.  Traditionalists need a fair amount of trust, will take time in their decisions and prefer to buy things of quality that last. Baby Boomers – have half inherited their traditionalist parents principles but are loaded with Generation X aspirations and family responsibilities.

Which are your target market?   Approach and communicate with them appropriately.

The current economic downturn presents some very challenging issues and decisions for businesses.

More than ever it’s about the survival of the fittest. You cannot run your business like you did in 2007 or 2008. Flexible workforces – freelance can work for all roles – why not? Rather than cut prices – how about selling the benefits a bit better, or add some more. If it’s your business – get the family involved even more – an 8 year old can stuff envelopes!

There is much to be made from predicting the future – trends in consumer needs, behaviours and attitudes, enforced conditions. As a business manager or entrepreneur – your empirical skills and knowledge are made very much more powerful when you also use PREDICTION. Try it when you lie awake at night.

Surviving or even thriving in the recession starts with some great ideas and some well researched and applied business and marketing strategies.

Thinking positive isn’t enough – you need to work smart, be pro-active and get things done too.

It doesn’t matter how hard you bark – if the cat’s in a different tree you better stop and find the right one.

If you need some help with marketing – give us a call – see what we can do for you.

Alexander Bullivant, Roxbourne Ltd  Marketing Consultants

What is Google PageRank, and how important is achieving high PageRank when trying to earn a high spot in Google’s search engine? Keep reading to learn the answers to these and many more questions.

What is Google PageRank?

Google PageRank (one word) is Google’s measure of the relative importance of a Web page on the Internet. The numbers rank from 0 to 10. The higher the number, the stronger the PageRank.

Is the PageRank (PR) number for the entire site?

PageRank is determined for each individual Web page, as every page on your website has a different PR. The site home page is likely to have the highest PR as it will have the most sites linking to it. Each internal page will have a different Google PageRank. In many cases, the PageRank for a very informative and heavily linked article on an internal page will be higher than that of the site’s home page.

How is PageRank determined?

PageRank is calculated based on both the quantity and PageRank quality of your incoming links. The higher the PR of your incoming links, and the fewer outbound links there are on a page, the more PR is passed to your Web page. For example, a Web page with a fairly high Google PageRank of 6, but divided among many outbound links, might pass along much less PageRank than a PR4 page with only one or two outgoing links. It’s best to consider PageRank transfer on a case by case basis rather than as an overall blanket assessment. The number of variables is simply too high for easy calculations.

Is each inbound link important to the overall total?

PageRank is a form of a voting system. A link to a page is a vote for that page. Higher PageRank pages are viewed by Google as more important. Their votes are given more value by Google — much more value, in some cases. In general, the more voting links, the stronger the PageRank.

Does the number of links from a page make a difference?

The total number of outbound links from a page makes a huge difference in the amount of PageRank transferred to each receiving page. A Web page with ten outbound links sends one tenth of the total available flow to the receiving page. A page linking to only one page sends all of the available PageRank transfer to the next Web page.

How does a page move higher from one PageRank level to the next?

PageRank is represented numerically from a low of PR0 to a rarely achieved high of PR10. PageRank is not a series of equal steps. It is logarithmic in its calculation. In the same way that the earthquake Richter scale is exponential in calculation, so too is the mathematics behind Google PageRank. It takes one step to move from a PR0 to a PR1, it takes a few more steps to PR3, it takes even more steps to PR4, and many more steps again to PR5, and so one. Each level is progressively harder to reach.

Does increasing the content change the Google PageRank?

Adding fresh content doesn’t provide a direct impact on Google PageRank. The transfer is entirely dependent upon inbound links to the page. On the other hand, providing interesting, informative and theme relevant content will attract many natural one way links to that page. A fresh infusion of PageRank arrives with each link.

How does theme relevance affect Google PageRank?

Theme relevance refers to how related to one another is the subject matter of two interlinked Web pages. If both pages discuss tigers, then they are highly theme relevant. It’s thought that Google may be implementing a system of Topic Sensitive PageRank, designed to pass along varying percentages of available PageRank based on theme relevance. The more closely related the pages, the higher the PageRank amount transferred.

How does my PageRank increase?

PageRank increases in a geometric manner similar to the earthquake Richter Scale. For example, it is harder to go from a PR4 to a PR5, than it was to reach the PR4 from a PR3. In a similar fashion, it’s even harder to get to a PR 6, than it was to get to PR5 from PR4, and so on up. Each level requires increasingly more high value incoming links than did the previous level.

How can I find out my Google PageRank?

PageRank is displayed in increasing amounts of green on a gauge on the Google Toolbar. The Google toolbar can be downloaded for a PC at http://toolbar.google.com. The toolbar also displays a sampling of the page’s inbound links, but is not considered a reliable indicator of current PageRank. There is no Google Toolbar currently available for a Mac. Google maintains the true PageRank internally, and the toolbar display is generally agreed to be very inaccurate.

How soon do the backlinks and PageRank show up on my Google Toolbar?

It often takes two full monthly updates for all of your incoming links to be discovered, counted, calculated and displayed as backlinks. Even then the PageRank displayed on the Google toolbar is outdated. Google maintains the correct PageRank internally at their own computers. The green line shown on the toolbar is often very outdated, and very possibly entirely incorrect.

Do all of my backlinks get displayed along with the PageRank?

Google only shows the backlinks it has found and calculated for your pages that have a PR4 or higher. All links are included in the tabulation, however. Like the PageRank display, the backlink display on the toolbar is very misleading, and under-represents the total number of i

Do low level PageRanks help my website’s PR?

All incoming links count towards your total, but lower level PRs (0-3) don’t count for much of that total immediately. They will probably add more PR later, however, as their own PRs increase, making all inbound links valuable. Keep in mind that theme relevant links from theme related pages provide more power in Google and the other search engines than unrelated higher PageRank links. Always remember that PageRank is only one factor in the search algorithm.

Should I exchange links with low value PageRank pages?

PageRank should not be your primary concern for link exchanges. Benefits to your readers of discovering new and interesting blogs and websites should be your first concern. The PR is simply an added bonus, and the PR may rise over time. A PR2 could soon be a PR7.

Can a lower PageRank page drain and reduce my PageRank?

Lower PageRank pages don’t reverse or drain PageRank. The flow is always one way, from the sending to the receiving page. Linking to a lower PR page won’t lower your own PageRank. An exchange between two theme relevant pages might even raise each other’s PageRank. Google’s linking system, in its most basic form, is designed to reward linking to other sites, but not for establishing artificial linking schemes to trick the search algorithm.

Are 60 outgoing links to another Web page too many?

No, as Google is only concerned with pages of over 100 outgoing links. Google considers overly linked pages to be link farms, and they are penalised as such. Your site will not a experience a problem, although each page linked to your page will receive only very small amounts of PR flow.

Can my PageRank go down?

PageRank can decrease if you lose some important links that are no longer linking to your site. PR loss can also occur if some of your linking partners also experience a drop in their own PR, possibly setting off a chain reaction of lower PageRank all through the immediate linking network.

Does PageRank leak away from a page through outgoing links?

PageRank leak is a controversial topic that has both supporters and detractors. Supporters of the PageRank leak theory point to the fact that PageRank is transferred from page to page, resulting in a slight loss to the sending page. As a result, constant work to keep adding new links is required to maintain the existing PR level. The opponents of the leak theory believe that failing to send out links will harm the page, as some SEO experts believes Google downgrades pages that fail to transfer PageRank. They also believe that outgoing PageRank will return in larger amounts to the generous linker than ever flowed to outside Web pages.

Is it important to have good PageRank?

Yes, as PageRank is part of the Google algorithm that determines where your blog or website will appear in the search engine results. Higher PR pages, especially for competitive keywords, will often be listed higher, but high PageRank is only one of about one hundred determining factors in the Google algorithm. It is not by any means the most important factor in search engine rankings.

Has the value of PageRank to the Google algorithm remained constant over time?

The importance of PageRank has declined over time as well, so chasing PageRank is less important than adding theme relevant inbound links. Keep in mind that relevant on-page content of your blog or website is even more important than PageRank. If adding more PageRank remains a priority, strong content will attract high PageRank theme relevant links in its own right.

Has the possible new link dampening filter affected PageRank transfer?

It’s thought that newly acquired inbound links are dampened by a Google filter that lowers their link popularity and Google PageRank flow, despite their theme relevance. New links are only able to pass along a percentage of their available linking power, with that percentage increasing gradually over time, as the link ages. Eventually, the entire potential PageRank and link popularity value becomes awarded to the receiving page. The purpose of the new link filter is apparently to lower the benefit of freshly purchased links to their buyers.

Should I make PageRank values an important factor in my linking program?

PageRank concerns should be very low on the list of linking priorities for any website owner. Far more important is linking to pages that offer quality and useful content for your site visitors. Taking care of their needs should have a much higher priority. Also to be given more consideration is providing interesting and informative content on your own site. High quality content will attract inbound links in a natural manner. Those theme relevant links will bring along link popularity value, and of course an additional boost of Google PageRank. Even the lower PR value transfers add up over time, as PageRank is cumulative. The more incoming links, the better, and content is key to attracting them to your Web pages. The Google PageRank will arrive as part of the overall package.

Source: http://www.seochat.com by Wayne Hurlbert

Roxbourne Search Engine Optimisation Services