How to get to the top of the search engines?

The task isn’t as straight forward as you might think. There is a lot of work involved in ensuring you have a search engine friendly website, having well written content and a good number of pages to ensure you have rich content that will cater for all those visitors searching for your products and services. There is a mix of technical and content marketing activities required to optimise your website to improve it’s positions on the search engines over time. This type of activity is a slow burner, but over time, you can grow traffic levels that will then convert into enquiries that will cover all the effort and more. From that point onwards, it’s a case of targeting further keywords to grow traffic levels. This is why PPC can be a good way of filling the gap and paying for high positions in the short term, then finding a good strategy between SEO and PPC to give you the best return possible.

The type of SEO work involved is as follows:

  • Create rich engaging content
  • Uploading sitemaps to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools
  • Ensuring you are using 404, 301 and 302 status codes where needed to redirect old pages
  • Load times are important and to ensure that your site is optimised for mobile, phablet, tablet and desktop
  • Use search friendly URLs that are clear and relate to the topic of the page
  • Use all the semantic mark-ups available on the page/source code to ensure everything is marked up and descriptive, such as title, meta data, alt text on images and more.
  • Use schema.org to display rich snippets of text where possible, Google might display this at the top of natural results
  • Know your industry and the keywords that visitors will use to find you, this is important as well as the content marketing strategy
  • The spread of keywords used across the site is also important and must relate to the page content. For example, high volume/high competitive search terms to be at the top of the web structure (such as the root) and long tail phrases to be at the lower levels (less competitive terms) following a hierarchical system.
  • High quality backlinks is also a must which acts as votes from other websites

To find out more about how we can help, please read the information on ‘Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)’ and ‘PPC Management’.

Find out more about our services:

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Let us help improve your rankings by improving your website performance, semantic mark-up’s and keyword targeting to increase your traffic levels and brand awareness.

Pay Per Click (PPC) Management

Getting the best out of your paid media? We can build, manage and improve the performance and growth of your paid campaigns. Lowering CPA and improving CoS/ROI.

Marie Jermy, Erotic Romance Books/Novels

Marie Jermy Author - Together Forever
Marie Jermy Author – Together Forever

Marie Jermy is an upcoming new author that is already on her 3rd book. The genre is erotic romance, and after her first book was rejected by Mills and Boon, it was quickly accepted by Siren Publishing, and since then it has become a string of books, one after another! Well, Mills and Boon have certainly lost out there! Marie Jermy a dedicated author who enjoys writing will continue this unique art form of hers, currently working on her third book called ‘Animal Insticts’, where there is a mention of Mark Ovens, an online marketing expert in Norwich, that spent some years growing up with Marie amongst a group of friends through their high school years.

So far Marie has released Secret Eyes and Together Forever, the latest books are available at: www.bookstrand.com/marie-jermy, keep your eyes peeled for the 3rd book Animal Insticts. She is already thinking about her 4th book and will be revealing some information on that sometime soon. Feel free to read the reviews of her books on the website.

Siren Publishing (Siren-BookStrand) is a fast growing romance e-publishers with many authors writing exclusively for Siren, all are distributed in electronic form and available for devices like the Kindle. Successful books moving on to paperback form and can be bought from many online retailers. Marie Jermy I’m sure has a very bright and successful career ahead of her, and we look forward to reading many more of her books!

Mark Ovens – Digital & Online Marketing Specialist

Mark Ovens, Digital Marketing Specialist
Mark Ovens

Mark Ovens lives in the Norwich & Norfolk area, specialising in the world of digital and working in the online environment, he prides himself of being very meticulous in everything he does. He’s not a salesman so don’t worry about the hard sell, he tells you how it is without the flannel and is upfront about the work that needs undertaking. He is known by word of mouth and is involved in all areas of online marketing, as an expert/specialist he deals with areas such as search engine optimization and pay per click advertising, web development, setting KPI’s and conversion optimisation, proximity marketing, QR codes/barcodes and so much more, as the world of digital is such a big arena. So if you’re looking for a digital and online specialist in Norwich, Norfolk, then look no further.

Mark Ovens can be found on social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter, or find him through his website www.iMark-Online.co.uk, you should be able to find him everywhere, just type his name into a search engine…! So if you’re looking for someone with a strong background in direct marketing, specialising in digital media in an online environment, including all forms of digital technology and devices, then Mark Ovens is your man!

mo4 Digital Marketing

Helping to grow your business

Inferior films and DVD’s

What’s really started to frustrate me is the increased number of DVD’s that are hitting the shelves with similiar titles to iminent new and big budget blockbusters. Only yesterday I saw what I thought was the latest blockbuster hit the shelves in Sainsbury’s called ‘Battle of Los Angeles’, I remembered it because I had previously seen the previews/movie trailers hit the TV and on the Apple movie trailer section of their site. So I knew that it was advertised for the cinema and that time may have passed so potentially being release on DVD at some point; so I thought! So although I was surprised that it hit the shelves so quickly which isn’t unusual these days, I decided to purchase it.

That evening I had settled down for the evening and put the DVD on, really looking forward to the film. I had got my snacks and a few drinks in preparation of what I thought was a big budget movie. The DVD started and the first advert was a film called ‘Snakes on a Train’, I thought this was the well known film which led to ‘Snakes on a Plane’, but as the film trailer progressed it was clear that it wasn’t the original and a very poor low budget remake of it, at this stage I was shocked to see this advert on a big budget movie as this!

The menu appeared which I was disappointed with, as there was no graphical animation, I selected ‘Play Movie’, and the first thing I noticed was the poor quality picture, this is when I knew something wasn’t quite right!

The film started after the very disappointing intro, and straight into an action schene with fighter jets flying through the air, which actually looked like model aeroplanes that had been previously suspended on cotton, the effects were poor and the flying saucers/alien aircraft were un-imaginative and were created in very low resolution effects along with the explosions. I knew at this point that either there was something suspicious about the movie or I had picked up a DVD that was produced from a company that was selling a DVD, that was cheap to make to fool the public and the consumer in buying, letting them think it is the new awaited big budget movie. This poor DVD was even produced this year, so to me it looks as though it was deliberately produced to coincide with the upcoming big movie, and I’m sure it isn’t a coincidence that the titles are so similar, the inferior film called ‘Battle of Los Angeles’, compared to the upcoming big budget movie called ‘Battle: Los Angeles’.

I had looked up the movie I had bought ‘Battle of Los Angeles’ online to find out more about it, and found that the movie I had bought was also being sold at some other retailers such as HMV which I was shocked about, it is obvious that this company that created the movie had deliberately made a film with a very similar title and science fiction theme of an alien aircraft battling over Los Angeles, which was exactly the same as the upcoming big movie that hadn’t been released yet and will be on the cinema’s later this year, November 2011, even though the trailers have already been on the TV, which I can’t help but think that this poor remake has benefited from, and I’m very sure they were fully aware of this which is why they have created this inferior film/DVD and released it prior to the release of the big budget movie.

The correct title to look out for, for all those science fiction fans is ‘Battle: Los Angeles’! What made it even worse, is that after I had found out this information on the Internet, I noticed that on the back of the DVD I had bought, right at the bottom there was a note that said ‘NOT Battle: Los Angeles’. So to me legally they covered themselves to let people know that this wasn’t the big budget movie that consumer’s would be expecting, but this was not obvious from the front and I felt was still very misleading. I’m sure the company will also make a lot of money from other consumer’s who would not have been aware of this, and even if they had, they may not think that they could take the DVD back to the store they bought it, thinking that the error was made on their part.

I’m now starting to wonder how many other companies are starting to do this by creating cheap budget movies with the same theme and similar titles of upcoming big movies, and benefiting from the upcoming big budget movie trailers on the TV and online, helping these poor remakes being sold in the high street and online stores.

Beware that this appears to be on the increase. It’s even more scary that these poor remakes can be bought so easily online as it looks like the upcoming blockbuster movie, it has the same theme and storyline, and the cover of the DVD also reflects the science fiction genre, so you would buy it as it was also produced this year. Once you received it, and if you discovered this is a poor remake, then you may be relunctant to send it back due to the hassle in returning/sending it back to the retailer, and again think that the mistake was made on your part. So more sales for the makers of this inferior film/DVD.

So if you don’t want to be disappointed by a cheap science fiction film called ‘Battle of Los Angeles’, then wait for the new upcoming, big budget movie called ‘Battle: Los Angeles’ later this year.

I hope the producers of ‘Battle: Los Angeles’ are aware of this, and that the new upcoming blockbuster is not affected by this poor remake.

If you have suffered with similar experiences with DVD’s, then please feel free to adding your comments at the bottom of this article.

Unemployment and looking for work

Unemployment figures are up, and there are so many people out there looking for work to ensure their bills are paid each month, in many cases people relying on very little savings to see them through hard times.

It’s so much more important nowadays to have money put away just in case the company you work for goes through troubling times and possibly forced to make redundancies.

Unfortunately we may all think that it won’t happen to us, but unfortunately these things can come out of the blue even though you think the company was doing well, everyone experience unemployment at some point in their life, so be prepared.

There are many ways to market yourself and ensure everyone knows you’re available for work, it could be that you may decide to go freelance or take on contract work, but either way there are other opportunities out there which could lead to different forms of work.

A popular place to start is to sign up with recruitment agencies, they are always looking to find people to fulfill their clients requirements, but be sure to sign up with recruitment agencies that best focuses on your skill sets, as some agencies may just focus on admin staff, which means it will be no good if you have specialist skills, for example there are agencies that just focus on engineering jobs or offshore work.

Other places you might want to focus on are websites where you can upload your CV such as The Ladders, Monster Jobs and Total Jobs, plus local newspapers that offer job sections and ways of signing up for notifications that will inform you of new jobs in the area for your specialist skills.

Other ways of promoting yourself and to network and let people know you’re available for work or looking for new opportunities is to use websites such as Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook and other social networking channels to deliver news broadcasts and to engage and interact with other users and companies.

Of course the main one is also checking with job centres and the government job seeking website that also list many jobs across the uk. You can also buy newspapers looking at job sections and keeping an ear out for companies that are recruiting, you could also send them a letter and CV to see whether there might be any opportunities for you and have your details kept on file. Sending out emails to HR contacts with local businesses is a very good way to get yourself known and to see if companies are going through a recruitment phrase.

Unemployment can be very tough for many people, and some may not know where to even start, especially when you could be going a high level of stress and worry.

If you have any other ideas of ways of looking for work that may help users that are unemployed and looking for work, then please feel free to add your comments below.

Centre of my world

Isn’t that a phrase that we’ve all heard!? I think we all wish that someone thought of us as being the centre of their world, but interestingly enough it’s usually the guys that would be expecting too much if that was the case. I’ve noticed that it seems to be the females who always wants their partner to treat them as if they are the centre of their world or if the woman was single then she might be looking for someone who will look at her as being the centre of their world, but if it is the other way, it’s the female who would come out with words such as ‘the world doesn’t revolve around you’ or ‘you think a lot of yourself, don’t you!?’. It’s funny when this is supposed to be a world of equality, and no sexism, but there are still a substantial differences between the sexes!

I stumbled across the quote the other day which made me write the article, I was looking for a good status message for my facebook profile and the quote I found was, ‘To the world you are someone, to someone you are the world’.

But it’s interesting that there are so many of these type of quotes about, but in reality, does this really happen, certainly not in my experience.

The older you get the more responsibilities you have, and it could involve money, running a home or business, being close to your family and even having children. For some people, they would think more of their job before anything else as that is what pays the bills, and if they were career minded then everything else comes second place, so no one would be centre of their world. So many woman out their have children, so it would be their children that would be the centre of their world, so naturally everything comes second place, and for some mothers, their career would come next before they would consider any other relationship.

I guess the phrase was never really meant for relationships, although the term is used by many woman, but in reality anything can be the centre of someone’s world, but I think it’s just human nature that we all want to be the centre of someone’s world, I just think that it’s nice to think that it could be possible, but it’s unlikey with so many different things going on in all of our lives. It’s just another thing we say without too much thought, because not everything can be the centre of our worlds, instead we live by a priority list, and our ‘other halves’ from the relationship aren’t usually at the top of that list.

Be interested to see what other people’s views are…!?

Disasters across the world

It was devastating to hear the latest news yesterday (11 March 2011) about the magnitude earthquake yesterday measured at 8.9 in Japan, triggering a 10 metre high tsunami. This is devastating, not only with the wave of water hitting the north east coast of Japan and bulldozing houses and sweeping cars and trucks along the way, this is the worst earthquake in Japan since the Great Kanto earthquake back in 1923 which was at a magnitude of 8.3. Although there has been others since, like the one in 1995 at a magnitude of 7.2.

From this large earthquake, the tsunami also threatens other countries and coastlines such as Hawaii and New Zealand amongst others, but at least these countries have more time to prepare. So far I haven’t heard of any major damage of Hawaii or along the West Coast, but I guess there will be more news of yet things to come. I only just heard on the news today that the nuclear power plant in Japan has been badly affected by the tsunami, it’s been said that the Fukushima Daiichi power plant has exploded and there is now talk of a radiation leak, so their emergency services is going to be stretched even further to deal with these disasters.

Previous to this natural disaster, there has also been other big disasters like the Indian tsunami which was a tremor measured at a magnitude of 8.8 causing the waves to hit the India coast on boxing day 2004 that took 230,000 lives. The large waves of up to 30ft high swept the coast of Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and East Africa from the powerful earthquake, and from some other information I found on the web, there was another quake further down the fault line that was measured at 8.6, I wasn’t even aware of this one and hadn’t even seen it in the news.

Last month, February 22, was the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand measured at a magnitude of 6.3. Although this wasn’t so big as the others, it still caused a huge amount of damage, with buildings colapsing causing people to be caught in the rubble. But it appears to have been worse that the 7.1 magnitude quake they had previously on the 4 September, this was another quake I wasn’t even aware of.

So what is happening to the planet, with the world economy the way it is, countries revolting against their government such as Turkey, Tunisia and Libya, and with the constant damage we are causing to the planet, with cutting down the trees and damaging the ozone layer…are we now experiencing the world fighting back, is it retaliating with the damage we have caused it?

You can’t help but think, what will be coming next? Others say with the new technology we have available now, that we only now get more up to date information with what else goes on in the world within minutes, and that these natural disasters have been going on around the world without us realising. But it was only yesterday that there was confirmation on the news that these disasters appear to be happening more frequently. When looking at the history of these quakes then you can see that’s it’s not often that we get earthquakes with a magnitude of 8 plus, so do we have more reason to be concerned, are we going to see more natural disasters in our lifetime, is the planet slowly fighting back, or are we slowly destroying it, what are we leaving behind for our children, the next generation who will have to live on this planet for longer. It really does make you wonder!

Skydiving and Parachute Jumps

This is an activity I’ve got into over the last couple of years, but unfortunately one that I’m not able to do as regular as I’d like, and that pretty much boils down to finding the spare time, as family commitments and even weather can be an issue for this type of adventure sport.

I first got into it many years ago when I decided to do some parachute jumps for charity, it was for cancer research, the static line parachute jumps took place in Peterborough at the Sibson airfield. I managed to do two parachute jumps but I never had the time or determination then to all the perfect jumps to then progress to the skydiving level, but things have changed since then.

AFF skydiving courses, which stand for Accelerated Free Fall, which allows people to try skydiving but you don’t jump out on your own, this is a very controlled sport, and whilst training you start with exiting the plane with two instructors holding onto you.

I decided on attempting the AFF training course after doing a couple of tandem jumps, I enjoyed it so much that I just had to attempt to at least try AFF level one. For the first level, there was practical and theory training for a day which is quite in depth, you go through how to deal with parachute malfunctions, how to check your parachute when you’re coming down, canopy control, how the parachute works such as the vents in the canopy, heading awareness, body position, how to land, when to be facing upwind or downwind. You are also even taught how to deal with emergency situations, if they were to occur such as opening your reserve shoot.

Although on the first AFF level, you still have to be taught how to exit the plane, jumping out between 13,000 and 14,000 feet, and how to stablise yourself when in the air, even though you’ll have an instructor on both sides of you checking to make sure you do all the manouvres correctly. You have to go through the full process of arching your back correctly, positioning your arms and legs properly so that you will level out when free falling, you must check the horizon and then your altimeter, turn to the instructor (secondary) on your left and shout out the reading from your altimeter, then turning to the instructor (primary) on your right and doing the same again. There are various hand signals you learn to ensure that you understand what the instructors are telling you, as there is no way you can talk at that altitude falling up to speeds of 130mph, so it’s important you know what the instructors are telling you.

Although skydiving is classed as a dangerous sport, there are some mechanisms in place to ensure your parachute opens, of course there will always be some risks, but if you were to pass out in the air or you didn’t open your main parachute in time, there is an altimeter on your parachute which will detect the speed you’re going at a specific altitude, and if you’re still travelling too fast then a small mechanism will cut the metal chord of your reserve parachute. The device is very clever and will make sure the parachute is open ready for your landing.

For me the sport is very exhilarating, liberating, and is a completely different experience to any other. For me it is very addictive that you feel you want to complete all the levels so that you can exit the plane completely on your own and skydive without any assistance, that is a very big achievement. A very big wow factor for me, that I guess is why it’s so addictive, it’s not an every day sport, it takes determination and time to work your way through the levels to eventually be rewarded with your full skydiving license.

Here is an overview of the 8 AFF levels you have to successfully complete to get your full skydiving licence:

Level one – Your first skydive with two instructors, climbing out of the plane, standing at the edge, hotel check and exit count, arch on exit, HASP, 3 x PRCT’s, small circles, lock on, wave off and pull parachute chord.

Level two – still two instructors , climbing out, hotel check and exit count, arch on exit, HASP, PRCT’s (as required), team turns, altitude check, forward movement (optional), small circles, lock on, wave off and pull.

Level three – now down to one instructor, climb out, hotel check and exit count, arch on exit, HASP, PRCT’s (as required), altitude check, heading maintenance, hover control, small circles, lock on, wave off and pull.

Level four – still one instructor, climb out, hotel check and exit count, arch on exit, HAP, 90 degree turns until 6,500ft, small circles, lock on, wave off and pull.

Level five – with one instructor, climb out, hotel check and exit count, arch on exit, HAP, 360 degree turns until 6,500ft, small circles, lock on, wave off and pull.

Level six – no instructors, solo exit, climb out, hotel check and exit count, HAP, instability test, altitude check, forward movement (optional), small circles, lock on, wave off and pull.

Level seven – solo exit, climb out, hotel check and exit count, altitude check, instability test, altitude check, 2 x 360 degree turns, altitude check, forward movement, small circles, lock on, wave off and pull.

Level eight – solo exit from 5000ft, pull within 10 seconds.

Once you have completed all 8 levels and the necessary consolidation jumps, and they are happy with how you perform your freefall and under canopy, then you will be able to apply for your full skydive license. My AFF training took place at the parachute centre which was in Attleborough, Norfolk, but has now moved to the airfield in Beccles, Suffolk.

Society becoming more fickle?

Life has changed so much for most people, new generations are born into a very different society to how it was over 50 years ago, so what is it that has made things so different?

From my point of view, it’s easy to ask a variety of questions, is it the economy, are we under more pressure than we use to be, could it be with how careers and technology has evolved, more ambitions, or are we just too busy…!?

The one thing that springs to mind is that when anybody gets involved in a relationship, is that it seems that we look to see if we’re compatible, any slightest disagreements or interests that are so different, then it’s so easy to give up on it and move on to another. I think the one thing that makes us less tolerant and patient with people is due to the ease of meeting new people now. We have so many dating sites, social networks and improved communications with mobile phones and apps. Certainly over 50 years ago, this wasn’t available, so I guess meeting people was so much harder back then, so when you met someone worth staying with, you put in all the effort to make it work. Nowadays, as soon as we’re faced with problems it’s so easy for us to throw in the flannel, walk away and find someone else online. You can communicate with so many people online in any one time, which allows you to vet them before you even decide to meet them, this is a privilige we have now, that our forefathers never had!

But how do we find love and happiness? Happiness we can find in many activities and hobbie along with friendships and relationships, but how do we find love even though we could possibly be more fickle about it? Less people are getting married, and those who are choosing to get married, the divorce rate is on the increase. Has the seven year itch turned into the two year itch in these modern times!? So what does that say about love, we appear to have many more partners in a lifetime. So is love really love, or are they just strong feelings, do we put up barriers to prevent us from getting hurt so that it is easier to move on if we have to, or if we decide that the relationship isn’t working without really putting in the effort to give it a real chance?

I know that this is not the same for everyone, there are the minority that may have started in life not being hurt and given earlier relationships every chance of working, and maybe for some people who have been hurt, may have ended up resenting relationships because nobody likes feeling that way, and this is something that many people do struggle with, as it affects their friendships, work and family life, as many people around them who are close to us can be drawn into it.

I guess we shouldn’t let the old phrase affect us, ‘twice bitten, twice shy’, we all get hurt from time to time, from a relationship that may have not worked, if we think it’s worth fighting for then we should do it, if we don’t then we must learn from it, pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off and give it a little bit of time before looking for someone new, we all need time to reflect and recover mentally before rushing into anything new.

With social networks and dating sites allowing us to meet many new people online without leaving our sofa’s, we need to remember that occasionally it’s always good to get out and leave your home to meet people, as it’s easy for people to hide behind the computer screen and pretend to be someone you’re not. Is this where we get the idea of how people are more fickle with relationships?

Although society may be more fickle than it use to be, let’s hope that it’s just a phase and that times will change again, once peoples pressures ease off, allowing us to focus on other things in our lives again. But hey, as we all know, it’s money that is the necessary evil, and it’s money that makes the world go round!

Be interesting to know your thought, feel free to post your views.

Hapkido Martial Arts

Hapido is still pretty new to me, but during the last year learning this very active cardiovascular form of martial arts, I’ve come to realise that you have to be very dedicated. I have been committing myself to one session per week, while others may do two or three sessions. Not only is this great for self defense but it’s great way of keeping fit, but to also learn how to relax, destress by meditating and breathing exercises. This is a very disciplined art just like other martial arts.

These classes start by 10 minutes of warming up, it’s important to warm up all your joints so that you don’t pull any muscles when you later start trying some of the hapkido moves. This may consist of a little runing, star jumps, and other exercises to help warm up your wrists, elbows, hips and knees.

This form of martial arts is a lot more active than others, Hapkido involves a lot more jumping around compared to Karate, for me, I needed something that was going to keep me moving and have me working up a sweat, as I was looking at continuing with this sport as a replacement for my cycling through the winter months.

The exercises really does get all your joints moving, learning side kicks, punches, how to hold a good firm stance, break falls, forward rolls, jump kicks and some judo moves. Regular grading gets you progressing through the different colour belts, but the order is very different to karate, and there are about three tabs on each colour belt too, starting at white as a beginner then moving on to orange, gaining three tabs before continuing on the next colour belt.

All I would say, is that this is martial arts, you can still get hurt, so you must be very carefull, so it’s still classed as a dangerous sport so best be careful, and you have been warned. I learned after a free-fighting session, when I dislocated a finger and fracturing a knuckle, at the time I didn’t think  too much of it, so I just popped my finger back in and carried on fighting, I just thought it was the right hardcore thing to do, and nobody at the time seem to be too phased about it, except for the instuctor. I had another free-fighting session before I thought it was time to talk more about what happened and whether my hand needed looking at. After the instructors realised that it was the first time it had happened and that it wasn’t a regular occurrence, they strapped my fingers together. It was only the morning after, that my fingers started looking a little grey and knuckle almost black that I have to make a trip to the doctors on the way to work, although that wasn’t enough. They sent me to A&E! It was then they found the fracture after an X-Ray, it took a while for my three fingers to heal properly especially the dislocated finger, this took a good six months…! So beware…!

This is a great sport, it well get you working up a sweat, keep you fit and help you learn some self defense too!