Link Building - Effective, Authentic SEO

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is about lifting the website of your choice up the search engine rankings. Link building is one method of doing this authentically, thereby building trust as well as getting more hits.

Freedom Of Speech: When The Chickens Come Home To Roost

The shocking events that took place in Charlottesville last week have been interpreted in a number of ways. For some, it's a case of the chickens coming home to roost. If we ban hate speech, they reason, it'll go away. If we punch Nazis, they will go away, right? Oh, dear.

If you're easily offended, hit the back button. I won't be pulling my punches.

How Your Web Presence Affects Your Reputation

I've had arguments with various people about what makes or breaks the reputation of an individual or group. Given my personal experience I'd say, hand on heart, it's conduct, i.e. what you actually do. That said, other factors play a part and tonight I'm going to look at the role played by your web presence.

The Ripoff Report Shakedown Service: Holding Your Reputation To Ransom

There is nothing I despise more than online bullies who use shady tactics to squeeze vulnerable people. Trolls usually only want to have a laugh at your expense, then move on. But Ripoff Report wants your money. This my experience of how they operate.

Can You Trust Consumer Review Sites Like Pissed Consumer?

Given my recent experiences of consumer review sites you could forgive me, I'm sure, for giving them no more credibility than a public toilet wall. That said, Techdirt has a lot of good things to say about Pissed Consumer that has got me thinking again about their value to the internet and online life in general. Let's take a closer look.

It's Official — I'm Not A Criminal Mastermind On The Internet, Or Anything

Well I've had a tweet, an email, and I've confirmed it with a nice chap via 101 from from Greater Manchester Police over the phone: I'm not under investigation for stampeding cattle through the Vatican extortion, theft, and crimes against nature, etc.

Do People Who Do Dodgy Things Have A Right To Get Them Forgotten?

We all do things at some point in time that, on reflection, we wish we hadn't. And there are times when someone's opinion of our conduct differs from our own perceptions thereof.  Let's be honest here, it's funny when people go all King Canute and order the tide to stop coming in* only to end up with wet feet, particularly when they do it on the internet. The attempts of one Dr. Janice Duffy of Adelaide, Australia, are a case in point.

What Is Right, What Is Legal, And Why It Matters

What is right is not always the same as what is legal - concerned citizen Edward #Snowden pic.twitter.com/9UptnRGD9m
— PPI (@ppinternational) July 1, 2014

The above tweet is important because one of the replies to it throws open a Pandora's Box of unintended consequences. But then, I believe in the rule of law. When you think the rule of law either doesn't apply to you or is a voluntary arrangement in which you arbitrarily decide which laws to obey, it's not going to occur to you to check your bedfellows to ensure they don't have fleas as long as they agree with you.

Too Good To Be True? Five Ways To Find Out

Today I found a notice in my inbox advertising a new website hosting service. I'm perfectly satisfied with iPage but if I wasn't, these guys might have tempted me. They really caught my attention with their excellent offer but I've had cheap hosting before and ended up paying for it via rolling blackouts in which my website would go down for hours because of the junk on the servers. I've learned my lesson; if you buy cheap, you get cheap.

Here are five ways to spot whether or not you're getting a good deal or being taken for a ride.

Fake Traffic And What You Can Do About It

To be perfectly honest, I never really bothered about fake traffic one way or the other. I could always delete spam because my blog is set to hold comments in a moderation queue, so I didn't really bother about the ones that slipped past my anti-spam plugins. However, when it caused my hosting account to be suspended, I realised I'd have to do something about it.

Let's Link Up!

It makes good SEO sense to link to each others' businesses online. I'm happy to post links to other peoples' businesses as long as they satisfy the following criteria:

• They link back to me


• They're not directly competing with me


• They're family-friendly


• They're genuine businesses, not link farms

The Ten Web Design Commandments

And lo, it came to pass that word came to Wendy Cockcroft of the advent of Web 3.0. An angel of the internet came down and declared, "Blessed art thou, Wendy, for thou hast sought out the web design blogs of knowledge of good and evil, and hast partaken thereof. Now take down these ten commandments of web design and development, and go forth into the world and preach them unto the multitudes."

Ten Ways Web Designers Can Fail

As a member of Linked In and other social networking websites, I often get emails that point to other websites, particularly those that offer web design and development services. Rivals. Well you'd think that in such a competitive business environment, they would make an effort to present themselves in the best way possible. Here are ten ways they get it wrong.

Five Free Tools To Improve Your Website

Anyone who makes a living from working online knows the importance of regularly checking their stats and acting on the clues they give. Below are some tools I've found to improve my site's performance.

Owning The Narrative: How To Control Your Online Image

The narrative, or story of you, your business, and how you are perceived, encompass all your internet real estate holdings and all the places you go or are mentioned online. It's about the perception of you, what's important to you, and the message you want people to receive, understand, and accept.

You can only really own your narrative if you have the support and consent of your audience. Forget that at your peril. There's no point in complaining about your reputation if you're not doing enough to present yourself in the best possible light. Reputation management companies will offer to bury bad news about you under positive posts in blogs, etc., but if you want to be respected there are some rules you need to follow or you're going to have to spend a lot of money on a professional publicity machine. Everything I'm recommending here is free.

Your professional narrative: your website IS your business

I'm working with a client at the moment. We're at the pre-deposit stage and talking about how the website will look when it's finished and the thing I'm pushing harder than anything else is the need to make it look crisp and professional. The advantage of working with a client who thinks you're great is they trust you, however, when they have ideas of their own you often find you have to work hard to save them from the perils of bad design decisions.

I'm never less than 100% honest with my clients and since understanding how the internet works is as essential to my business as it is to theirs (I describe myself as an internet consultant for a reason), if I think they're making a bad decision I will say so. Let me get this out of the way right now: if you don't have a crisp-looking up-to-date mobile-ready website, call me now on [deleted] or email me on info@wendycockcroftwebdesign.com. Don't wait another minute. The trouble with a shoddy website is it says you just don't give a rat's, which means you'll probably give a shoddy service. Think about it; have you ever bought services from a website that looked dodgy and old-fashioned? Don't make the same mistake they did.

If your website is the first point of contact, how will it drive business to you? Look at what your rivals are doing. Here's where they get it right:

• Immediately visible contact details


• Clear, concise information that tells you what they do and who they do business with


• Pictures that reflect their core business


• Clean graphics


• Navigable website that scales well on a mobile phone


• Attractive colour scheme


• Legible text


• Clear, well-worded content with no spelling or grammar errors

The graphics on your website should be of the highest standard — no dodgy .jpgs with red eyes or fuzzy .gifs. I love animated .gifs and make them myself but please note that people often get annoyed by insistent flashy things going off on the side like mini visual bombs. And don't use huge images. They load slowly.

Your narrative on social media

You know those rather narcissistic posts you see on Twitter or FB that go, "Me me me! Look at me!" They rarely get likes unless the sycophantic followers of popular celebrities have posted them, or they're funny, sad or useful. Anything that provokes a visceral response will be retweeted, liked, or shared. That's how memes get started. Anyway, I've seen FB accounts that receive posts but there's no engagement. I don't get a lot of action on my FB account but I live on Google Plus and Twitter. Sooner or later you've got to decide which of the social media websites you're going to "live" on because that's where you do your marketing as well as yakking about stuff with those people you find interesting. Let's take a look at the essential social media websites.

Twitter

Twitter is what is known as a microblogging site. Many people think it's just about posting inane comments but actually you can post images, videos, and links there. I use it mostly to promote my business via my blog posts. The way it works is quite complex: I use Facebook's Networked Blogs app to receive my RSS stream and broadcast it to Facebook, Twitter, and Linked In, which receives my Twitter feed. I have to post to G+ manually.

You can have conversations with people there by replying to their tweets. It's considered good netiquette to retweet those tweets you like and not to post too many items in a row either by tweeting your own stuff or retweeting other people's. That's spamming and I've dropped a fair few people for doing it. Sorry, but the last thing I want to see is a whole page full of one person's tweets. Use TwitLonger for tweets longer than 140 characters.

Facebook

Facebook is for family and friends. They have business pages where you can post blog updates (Networked Blogs takes care of all that for me) and assorted information and they're great for interacting with other businesses and people. That's the page you have to keep an eye on because failure to respond quickly to enquiries via your Facebook page makes you look bad. Respond every time. It could be a deal-breaker.

Linked In

Linked In is the professionals' network and the socialising is mostly done via groups. You post a topic and people either reply or you sit there looking like a lemon. I've seen some people come a-cropper there by being obnoxious, trolling (starting a fight for the sake of it), or spamming the various threads with links to their businesses. Always be courteous when posting an opinion and work on building relationships with potential clients and employers as well as your peers.

Google Plus

Google Plus is nerd heaven. There are also a number of conspiracy freaks and fascist nutbags who frankly terrify me. This is where I do all the politics, and I've been doing a lot of that lately. I mostly get on with the liberals and there's the odd conservative with whom I have the odd heated discussion but we end up being friendly even if we disagree. After politics it's cats, science fiction, and pop culture. I'm a bit of a grammar nazi so couldn't resist it when Social Media mogul Kim Beasley shared a post that went along the lines of "Are you a sci fu fan? Come and join our hangout later on."

My response: "Is that a typo or is it about martial arts with aliens? Think 'Star Wars' meets 'Blood Sport' and there's cage fighting in the cantina. I can has finance?"

I got a few lols from other Plussers. The point is, in conversations, be friendly and funny, or relevant and reasonable, but never obnoxious. I've got nearly 500 followers at the moment, which is important because sooner or later at least one of them may want to employ me. They'll only do that if they like me enough to trust me, then pay me.

Leveraging social media

Since most businesses have been persuaded to get social accounts, it's a great way of getting customer service issues resolved if you can't get satisfaction over the phone. I've resolved a few things by visiting the Twitter accounts of someone who has annoyed me and leaving a tweet @ them. They don't like receiving negative press so they're pretty quick off the mark when that happens. The pic on the left shows a crook being thwarted by PayPal, who agreed to remove a domain I own from another user's PayPal account even though I'd broken their rules by setting up an account in that fellow's name. When the phone-based customer service didn't work, I took it to Twitter. Job done.

This is a fantastic way of demonstrating good customer service so rather than being annoyed or upset if someone criticizes you on your social media account where others can see their comments, turn the negative into a positive by saying, "Sorry you've had a bad experience, Mr. X," then present them with a solution. You can either get their email address and get all the details sorted out in private or follow them, ask them to follow you back, and do all the back-and-forthing on Twitter. Same goes for Facebook and your other social media accounts. The idea is to get a resolution sorted out and a happy customer at the end... and more customers when they see how well you resolve disputes.

On and offline media

There are a few rules to getting it right in order to own the narrative of who you are and what you do. If you don't take careful steps to manage your image, you're going to have a situation where what you want to project diverges significantly from what your audience perceives.

Discussions

I get so distracted by Google Plus discussions, it's untrue. I've just been involved in a rather spirited one about adverts, ad blocking, and whether or not it's ethical. The way you behave in discussions can make or break your reputation. I'm often seen as well-meaning and idealistic because I am. And since I'm always trying to learn new things I seem childlike to some people because I don't pretend to know things when I don't. I try to be positive because being negative is not an option for me. People appear to perceive me as I actually want to be perceived. While the discussions can get a bit heated, if you want to be perceived as being reasonable, you have to be reasonable no matter what.

Remember that what you say on the internet stays on the internet, even if the moderator removes the comments and deletes the thread because some aggrieved person might screencap your comments and send them viral on Twitter, etc. If you find you're at the name-calling and flouncing-out-in-a-huff stage, get off the internet. Switch off your PC and find something else to do. You don't need a horde of trolls and troublemakers to destroy your reputation when you can do it well enough yourself by flying into a four-letter rage online instead of high-tailing it out of there.

Media

I haven't been the subject of media reports but I do like to read them. Since the American ones I spend the most time on are political in nature, I'm particularly interested in the narratives provided by each one on any given subject. The polarisation between the right wingers and the liberals creates some interesting stories and because this is an election year, there has been some considerable heat in many of the articles. One thing to note is that there is dishonesty on both sides as each of the more extreme ones seek to demonise the other while ignoring the central truths of a given situation.

The lesson for us is that the way each side seeks to portray itself is often very different from the way it ends up being perceived. The US Right wants to be seen as the party of the family and social stability and continuity. They have become American Dad's Stan Smith. The US doesn't really have a left. The Liberals range in opinion from a quasi-Socialist agenda to centre right, as represented by their current president. The uniformity of right wing opinion on the hot button issues (Libertarianism is mostly about breaking down Federal control. They're not centrists, as a rule) is due to the litmus test that I've never seen even the mildest Republican fail.

Building the narrative

To begin taking hold of the narrative in order to change the way you are perceived, you need to start with a clear plan of how you want to portray yourself. I like to be perceived as a fair and reasonable person who is willing to stand up for what she believes on the personal level, and as a competent skilled web and graphic designer on the professional level. For the most part I've achieved this. Try finding any negative comments about me via an online search. Now check out the links on my Testimonials page. They're checkable.

How not to do it

Building the narrative requires collusion with your audience. It's not and never can be a one-sided endeavour because you want them to believe and perceive the story of you and your business that you're telling in your online interactions. This is why the MPAA and RIAA end up being called the MAFIAA. They don't own the narrative of who they are and what they stand for; we do. If they wanted more sympathy they'd have to give up the sense of entitlement they have towards their content, and that's not going to happen in a state-sponsored and enforced monopoly. As it is, any deviation from their preferred narrative is characterised as "misinformation." The correct, and indeed the most common, response to this is "Aww, diddums!" because they never bother to engage with the public except as potential criminals bent on stealing their work. The correct response to that is to support the Pirate Party. Engage with your audience in a positive way, is what I'm saying, if you want to get people behind you and whatever policies you're promoting.

Case study: PPUK's Loz Kaye

Musicians and writers sometimes feel threatened by the Pirate Party's policies because they tend to rely on copyright royalties but I've managed to win some people over by pointing out alternative revenue sources. By doing this, I've taken over the narrative from detractors by giving people an alternative viewpoint to see them from. In the press, we are perceived as being reasonable, decent people. The recent Loz Kaye quote in the BBC's report on ACTA shone a bright light on the digital rights cause. It doesn't hurt that his remarks came across as patriotic, that he's a working musician, that he often blogs about digital rights in the Guardian and the Huffington Post, and that he gets involved in local issues and events like the March Ancoats Canal clean-up. In the slideshow, you can see the back of his head as he labours away. Loz owns the narrative of the UK's Pirate Party because he's a thinker, a professional, and he engages with his audience. He's a great musician, too. See his work. It's a great brush to be tarred with.

Taking over a narrative owned by others

This is the story that prompted this blog post:

She will always be a victim without a name.

It only took a second for Associated Press photographer Huynh Cong “Nick” Ut to snap the iconic black-and-white image 40 years ago. It communicated the horrors of the Vietnam War in a way words could never describe, helping to end one of the most divisive wars in American history.

But beneath the photo lies a lesser-known story. It’s the tale of a dying child brought together by chance with a young photographer. A moment captured in the chaos of war that would be both her savior and her curse on a journey to understand life’s plan for her.

“I really wanted to escape from that little girl,” says Kim Phuc, now 49. “But it seems to me that the picture didn’t let me go.” - New York Daily News

That little naked girl, running in fear and pain from her burning village, grew up owned by a narrative that was exploited over and over again for propaganda purposes. Only the photojournalist who took the picture cared enough to make sure she got medical attention and followed up with her to see to her welfare. Later on, when she was finally free from her Communist minders, she was able to reverse the process and own the story of what had happened to her. It started with her decision to bring out a book and a documentary, which she followed up by becoming a goodwill ambassador. She engaged with her audience to build the image she wanted them to have of her and the plan worked.

Possessing the narrative

Once we have built the narrative and own it, we need to manage it in order to continue possessing it or ownership might slip into other hands. Controlling the perception others have of us relies on getting and keeping their support and belief in us. Lose that and you've lost everything. Even if you have some supporters they won't be highly regarded and you'll pull them down with you. Eventually they might quit and leave you on your own. Here are a few rules to follow in order to remain in control of your narrative.

• Be available


• Be approachable


• Engage with your audience


• Be flexible


• Be reasonable


• Be professional


• Control your temper


• Be transparent


• Be honest


• Be willing to stand up for what you believe


• Be willing to admit it when you're wrong


• Be willing to change or try new things

This is what I do and it works for me. The fact that people who disagree with me on many of those issues that are dear to me still like me and are willing to associate with me nonetheless says it all.

How I can help you

If anyone needs help with social media marketing I can help with that by making templates for social media accounts, advising on how to make the most of them, then following those accounts on mine. Web design and development services include content writing based on the information you provide me with. Graphic design is integral to this and doesn't cost more when it's part of a website building project. If you need any help with your online presence, let me know.

Hide And Seek Or Play For Keeps?

Unless you're a con man or Austin Powers you don't want to be mysterious, you want to be discovered. Failing to engage with your client base (and therefore your clients) will cost you dearly.

I've had dealings with clients who have asked me for difficult things before, and there will always be clients who ask for the impossible. However, clients who ask for the impossible need to understand that I'm not some kind of fairy godmother and the internet works by linking websites to each other on the information superhighway. To make your website work as intended you must first decide what its purpose is, then how you're going to leverage your information and presentation to attract visitors and keep them coming back.

To get your website indexed you need to have links in and out. And to get the website recognised by the search engines you need to use keyword-rich content and have other websites linking to it. To get it up the rankings you need to make it a) popular and b) worth returning to. And that's before you even think of attracting clients.

Purpose

The purpose of most if not all business websites is to attract clients to gain more business. Websites for businesses that don't attract clients look something like linxto.co.uk. I kid you not, it's just a business card. Or they're just decorative and have no real information. In my opinion, the business cards are better. At least they tell you something. Don't get me started on the legacy flash ones. They're just awful.

Okay, let's assume you want to get business from your website. As the SEO people are constantly saying, content is king. Think about this for a moment. I've been banging on about keyword-rich content, but have you actually thought about what this means? The number of websites that actually fail to get this right is astonishing.

Bearing all of the above in mind, consider what needs to go on a website to make it attractive to clients. Here's a list:

• Distinct logo that is the same on everything related to your company


• The company name should be clearly defined


• Your contact details should be visible and in the header or at the top of the sidebar


• Make it clear what your company does and who your client base is


• Introduce your company in brief on the home page and in detail on the About page, which ought to have some details about the owners


• Fully define what your company does in brief on the home page and in detail on the Services page


• Have a clear call to action on the home page that gets people onto the response page (Services, Contact, Email Newsletter, or Shop) and in contact with you


• Put brief contact details on the home page above the fold and in detail on a Contact page


• Post regular updates on a company blog. It's easier if you just build the site in WordPress (or pay me to do it!)


• Be mobile-ready. Your rivals are


• Stand out from the crowd. Be specific about what makes your company worth dealing with


• Engage via social media. Be available

If the purpose of your site is to attract clients, have something for them to see when they arrive. Decorative sites won't tell them what you do or how to get hold of you. Checkable details gain trust. Vague assurances will get you dismissed. Transparency and honesty is valued. Opacity and mystery is not. What you don't say about your business can be as telling as what you do put down. Failing to disclose the most basic information can be a deal-breaker. Basically, if you can't be open about who you are and clear about what you do, you can't and won't get business from your website. Therefore, don't even imagine that you can be anonynous online and run a successful business that's based on gaining the trust of your clients — and large sums of money.

SEO

While SEO is not my main discipline I know enough to know when someone's got it wrong. Do a search on those companies that are likely to be rivals using the search terms you want your website to be found under, i.e. "Manchester-based web designer." I'm on the first page (near the bottom as of today) after almost 18 months of existence. The main reason I'm there is because people visit my site after clicking on links that I've posted with "your website — your way. Manchester-based web designer" in the title everywhere I go (where possible). I've done that on most of the websites I've built and on every website that allowed me to use HTML. "Your website — your way" puts me third on the first page, in case you're interested, because I've been using it for longer. So have my rivals.

Being found is all well and good, but you need to give readers a reason to come back — and bring their friends with them. A pretty site may provide a good example of design, but as Jeffrey Zeldman says, "Design without purpose is empty. It's decoration." Punters want information. This is where your keywords come in handy. I'm a web designer, so on every static page of my admittedly sprawling website (a deliberate choice to showcase my HTML/CSS customisation skills on PHP-based CMS), there are references to the areas involved in either web design or running a business.

Leveraging information

When I choose a theme for a website, particularly a WordPress one, I usually make sure it'll show up on mobile phones. This is something I find increasingly important in light of the fact that more people than ever are using mobile devices to browse the internet. If they can't get onto your site or read it easily, punters will drop your site for one that's more accessible to them.

I usually choose magazine themes, though others are available, because they look lovely on large screens. On my current 1600 x 900px screen, a three-column magazine theme is a thing of beauty. A responsive magazine theme scales down and adjusts to the size of the screen it's being viewed on. That's not what gives a website its overall look, though it does help; it's the content. You know, the words and pictures. They give the site its shape. They fill those little boxes. Deciding where to put each picture and the words that go with them is called information hierarchy.

If you want to win clients via your website, you need to work out which pieces of information are the most important. The more focussed you are in your choice of words and pictures, the more attractive and professional your website will look. Generic pictures from image banks have their place, but the more original an image is, the more trustworthy it is deemed. If your website is for a construction company, you would be better off having pictures of building in progress or completed projects than "smiling white people in suits." Use short sentences that fully describe what you do and avoid padding and repetition. The jury's out on bullet points but you do need stand-out phrases.

Presentation

Now decide which of those pieces of information is the most important. Look at my home page. At the top is my company name and logo, along with my contact details on a crisp white background. Below that is the menu and below that on the left is the intro and on the right there's a slideshow that displays some of my work. In the intro I explain where I am, who my intended audience is, and what I do. People know where they are with me from the start. Below that I go into detail about the main services I provide in clearly illustrated boxes with call to action buttons that lead to the relevant pages. Below that are my blog posts, email newsletter signup form, social media buttons, and Twitter stream so people can see what I'm like online. Below that is the footer, where I've got all my miscellaneous and SEO links, and a sitemap. They're not terribly important but they do need to be there.

Now look at the mobile version. Only the most essential information is there because it's going to be seen on smaller screens. Those layouts are based solely on the information hierarchy. If I had fewer services and less to say I'd have probably only used one column. As it is, on the main version, I've got four because it's important to break it up into manageable chunks and present each piece from left to right in layers in order of importance. Information hierarchy is worth a post to itself. Suffice to say that to present your information most effectively it must be focussed, ordered, and clear.

Exceptions

There will always be exceptions to the anonymity rule. Websites that don't make huge efforts to be contactable are usually online shops selling items or services either via affiliate schemes or directly. Even then, there are protections in place via PayPal or whoever's running the credit handling. Others are services that gain revenue from advertising via Adsense, etc. and aren't directly engaging with clients via the website as a rule.

Always assume, though, that readers may think that if a company appears to have something to hide, they probably do. Remember your own experiences with companies that don't make it easy to find out who's behind them or how to get hold of them directly: isn't the customer service awful? That is how readers are likely to view a site with no clear contact or manager details.

Reputation

Whether you choose to be open online or cloak yourself in mystery you have got to build a reputation for your business somehow. Those people who can get business via word of mouth don't need to worry too much about building a reputation online, but those who want to get business via their websites need to engage with their clients online. Social media accounts are only as effective as you are. If you engage with your customers online, you can demonstrate your approachability and eagerness to do a good job. If people are leaving messages that go unanswered, it's going to make you look bad.

You also need to get other people talking about you in friendly terms. Ratings websites help, but what you really need to do is get yourself noticed on the trade blogs either as a contributor or as a source. Blogging, as I do, on matters pertaining directly or indirectly to your business can get you perceived as a knowledgeable person. This is what gets the punters coming back again and again. Be sure to post links to your blog posts online for maximum benefit.

Either way, sooner or later people will need to connect with someone whether it's online via social media or in real life over the phone. If all they've got is a company name and no person's name to go with it you're going to have to work harder to gain their trust. If, however, you're putting your name and your face to your company, people feel that they know who they're dealing with before they even pick up the phone. Don't put barriers in the way of your company's success. Don't hide. Come out and engage with people or you may find you're not getting as much business as companies that are more open about who's running them.

SEO No-Nos: Five Ways To Lose Me At Hello

I get a lot of emails from companies offering me SEO services. Sometimes I respond to them. A professional approach will at least get you time of day. Here are five mistakes SEO service providers have been making with me.

Which Social Networking Sites Should You Use?

When a Facebook buddy invited me to Netlog I was delighted because I thought I could use it to promote my business. Actually, it turned out to be a perve-pit full of desperate middle-aged men trying it on with me so I deleted my account. This is what I've learned.

BT Tradespace: Why Should you Bother With It?

BT Tradespace, let's be honest about this, is a rubbish website. It's slow, it's butt ugly and it doesn't give you much in the way of styling ability. The support isn't great and usually consists of shrugging and saying there's not much they can do about it. Don't get me started on the navigation: Scott of the flippin' Antarctic would lose another team in there, it's so awkward to use. Is there any benefit in having an account there at all?

The old adage that you get what you pay for has so far held true for BT Tradespace. It's free for the most part and you don't get much bang for your buck. You can pay to upgrade, of course — but to what?

What it is

It's a social networking behemoth that lumbers slowy from one function to another, providing a website of sorts to people who haven't got one. You can, in theory, forego having a website and just use BT Tradespace instead. Functionality includes

• home and about pages


• discussion forums/help/customer service area


• galleries to display images


• news that imports the RSS feed from your blog AND allows you to post items


• selling online via an Amazon app

Who does it better

Facebook. By a country mile. It's faster, easier to navigate, has more interactivity and better apps integration.

So why should we use it, then?

After all I've said about it you'd think it best to give BT Tradespace a very wide berth, but actually there are some advantages to using it, most of which are to do with SEO. The one and only reason I have an account there is to boost my SEO. Nothing else. No one interacts with me there (I presume they're all at Facebook) and I've never had an enquiry from there. I used to offer account setup, configuration, integration and customization there but never got a response for it one way or the other. But you should at least consider having an account there because of the SEO advantages which include

• It makes you put keywords and titles on each image you upload


• It gives you separate areas, each of which has a link of its own


• You can make as many business profiles as you like: one for each of your websites if you have more than one


• The apps integration allows you to connect your Twitter account and your blog


• You can make as many services, community and gallery pages as you want

A brief search of my name alone will bring up a few of my BT Tradespace links on the first few pages. It's one of the things that makes me findable online, so as much as I despise it, I'll update my services pages, galleries and what have you from time to time to keep my content fresh — and add more SEO value to my account.

SEO: Is It Worth The Effort?

One of the problems of being a one-man band is that I have to do everything myself. I've got skilled rivals to contend with who have been around longer and know more than I do about SEO. For that reason, I'll never float to the top of the search results under "web designer Manchester." Is there a point in carrying on with it?

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users.- Wikipedia

It's about being able to be found in a search on Google or whatever. The first five or so results are most likely to be clicked on in a general search. It's only when you're looking for something more specific that you're likely to find a particular thing. My website floats to the top of the search results on my name and is second from the bottom of the first page (at the time of writing this post) on my tagline, "Your website - your way." But who in the world is going to search for a web designer they've never heard of by name? By tagline is unlikely, but they might.

The problem

• The internet is chock full of web designers of varying ability who all use the same keywords


• People who have been in the game longer have more inbound links, i.e. links leading to their websites


• People who have been in the game longer have more people visiting their websites, i.e. they're more popular already


• People who have been in the game longer have optimized their websites and know their SEO


• They also have more pages indexed

I'm not even on the thirtieth page of the Google search results on "Web Designer Manchester" because I've got all these other people ahead of me and they've been there longer. The best I can do is

• Sign up to online directories, promotional websites like Skillpages and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter


• Comment on industry-specific blogs and forums


• Guest blogging


• Blog here on my own website to get more pages indexed


• Make sure my website is as standards-compliant as possible so I don't get penalised for anything

Well I've been doing that so far, and in eleven months, this is how far I've got. The fact is, since I started, other people in Manchester have also gone into business as web designers, swelling our numbers. That's more people using "Web design Manchester" in their keywords and on their websites. And at this point, you have to ask if it's really worth all the effort if you're going to stay at the bottom of the search results on the keywords you need whatever you do. The main problem I have as a one-man band is having to do everything myself. This includes

• Updating my directory entries


• Updating my portfolios on the general and industry-specific job boards


• Blogging


• Posting on other websites


• Adding new content to my website

This has to be done on a regular basis (good luck with that!) or I start to lose whatever ground I've gained. It's tedious and time-consuming enough, but since Google keeps changing its algorithms to stay ahead of the ad farm shysters and black hat practitioners (white text on white background, etc.), you have to keep working with whatever they're doing and keep on learning more about SEO and how it works. It's really a full-time job, is what I'm saying, and it's not my primary discipline; I'm a web designer, for goodness' sake! I've considered paying for backlinks to .edu, etc., but I've come to the conclusion that my rivals have already done this and they've paid more. Getting onto DMOZ would be great if I could manage it but they haven't listed me yet. If you need help updating your website free Article WritingServices will help you out with content for your site.

Is there a point to doing SEO at all?

What, without paying some industry expert an arm and a leg? Don't get me wrong, they're very, very good at what they do but I just can't afford it where I'm at. When you're up against a tsunami of competent professionals who do it full-time you haven't really got a chance, have you? It takes up so much time as well. When I'm attending to my SEO I have to drop something, usually an interesting design or writing project but I will say it's worth doing because

• You have to be findable in some way, shape or form


• You need to be able to demonstrate some ability in SEO to clients or they'll go to someone else


• Failing to update your portfolios, etc. means that if you do get found by chance, they're seeing your old work


• Getting on directories, etc. makes you findable by people who use them


• Intelligent comments on blogs, forums, or social media gets you noticed for the right reasons

Basically, it's unprofessional not to and we're expected to do it. People who don't understand SEO think you'll float them straight to the top of the search results. Erm, no. Not without paying for advertising. But it is worthwhile and we should do it. Just don't expect miracles from someone who doesn't do it full-time.

Image by Ian Parkes Licence: Creative Commons