We are getting this right – aren’t we?
One shouldn’t expound on ones luck too much, it may turn against you, but we did want to point out a few things that we do seem to be getting right at the moment and those things are always nice to share.
There’s a ton of news these days about politicians expenses, journalistic hacking and more recently our banks. All this leaves us mere mortals asking – who in authority can be trusted, is there anyone out there whose not in it for themselves. So let’s translate that to the world of the Internet.
We’ve got Google, Apple, Facebook and good o’le Microsoft, these guys keep being put back into their boxes by European Commission rulings, anti-monopoly bodies and whatnot, they’re private companies (more or less) and we al know they’re mission is to make money so we give them more leeway.
But when it comes to our role these are some examples of what we’ve done:
Google and Search Engine Optimisation
We build the best sites we can, we don’t try to fiddle the system and while some companies spend considerable amount (£1000’s per month) – we’ve taken the line that it is worth investing a small amount to maintain your presence on Google… our pricing is between £150 and £250 per month.
Recently Google made two major updates to their search engine, known as Panda and Penguin, these updates have sent many highly optimised websites reeling and dropping down the search engine rankings. Many so called experts have suggested Google is purposefully targeting websites that put a lot of effort into SEO and you can read about it on SearchEngineWatch.
Because we’re not killing the goose and over-optimising I can safely reassure you that not a single one of our websites has been effected by Google’s updates – if anything we doing better than before, because our websites are properly constructed and remain the sort of websites that are desirable to Google.
You need some SEO – but going mad on SEO is not the answer – it is just part of a series of solutions.
Facebook & Twitter (Social Media)
Google love a ‘fresh’ website and so we encourage Facebook and Twitter adoption – it brings your product closer to where customers might be. But ultimately our recommendation is always ‘right tool for the right job’ – we’re not doing it just because we can or because everyone else is. If the product offers you a service we encourage it.
Sadly Facebook and Twitter both serve an SEO objective and so having a presence on these services is vital. But let’s not go overboard. Facebook change their formats regularly (think the new timeline) and Twitter are still trying to work out how to add advertising in an acceptable way. So we treat with caution.
I’ve quotes thousands of pounds worth of work to clients wanting a Facebook App, or to do something with Twitter, luckily very little of it has ever happened because it would have been a waste of money if it had.
The latest example, and I’ve seen this with one client, is the use of Facebook Advertising. When trying to collect ‘likes’ it’s easy to spend money on them, but they have absolutely no value to speak off. Most come from strange places and look suspicious in the extreme. The BBC have picked up on this and I hope it gains wide exposure because it is ultimately bad for all of us. Read www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18813237
When we advertise on Facebook (right tool for the right job) we always recommend sending people to your website and not to your Facebook page.
Your Facebook likes cannot be brought. They have to earned and that seems like is the right advice at the moment.
Conclusion
What I’d like you to take away from this – is that while we’re not the biggest agency or web company out there, we are getting things right and we do always have your best interests at heart. We strongly believe ‘right tool right job’ is the right philosophy for our clients and we try to recommend solutions that are tried tested and simple work.
Unlike all those politicians, journalists and not bankers we hope you appreciate the integrity we try to bring to your website.