Engine PLC and its research team know the value of effective observation and searching, either on Google, or on an operating system, or even looking for a sound business investment. So lets take a brief moment to consider the facts, and you, with your sleuthing skills, can make your own conclusion…

Just take a look at your current newspaper, today’s. I guarantee you will find a headline, and articles, discussing the current need for energy saving. Why is this? Because not only is it big business, but it has become essential to ethical business, and looking after our planet. Global warming and oil prices are no scam, but real, prevalent issues.

Do your research, current alternative energy solutions, don’t really fill the demand. Government subsidies are essential to making these products viable and attractive to customers. Now in no way are these products a scam, Energy plc however, produce energy saving products and that is so much more effective. How so? Saving energy is like creating energy but only better, better for the environment and better for your profit. It means easily installable components that could save up to 50% of energy usage and its great for your customers too.

Why is it so great for customers? Because they can enjoy a product with a very fast return on investment, and a product that tackles these global issues. Unlike just boosting their profit in the year, saving money is a more effective way of improving the bottom line.

This brief blog can’t give you all the details but Enigin certainly can. Take the time to question them.

The game is afoot.

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So, let’s walk through a few steps to understanding and approaching SEO.

The major work needs to be done by the owners of your website’s content, and your search rankings depend on your adhering to a few well-established rules.

Keyword Management and Content

In a world where content is king, keywords are the power behind the throne. A basic rule of thumb to follow is this: No more than two keywords per page, and no more than three pages per keyword. Confused? Let me explain.

First, a keyword is not necessarily a “word.” It can be several words that appear together and are subject-based, such as these: “Record of the English Language,” “Online Dictionary,” or, simply, “OED.”

Second, use your keyword, in context, within the text of your page. Write for the reader, not some unknown bot, and focus on that keyword within the content. Yes: repeat the keyword, in context, throughout the text. No, don’t simply repeat the keyword over and over again. Bots are made and programmed by engineers at places like Google—you’re not going to outsmart them, so don’t even try.

Third, build your list of keywords, and develop pages around them. Always think about the Long Tail and remember not to forget about less popular and slightly obscure keywords.

A note on content: Write your page content for the people who are reading it. Your content should…

• Be roughly 500 to 1,500 words
• Include images, titles, and well-structured paragraphs
• Be relevant to the keywords
• Include links to other pages within your site, or to other sites

Look out for the next post and more SEO advice

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It is the byline for Enigin Plc that all presentations, training and above all else marketing needs to be excellent, not good, or very good, but excellent.

In modern marketing, email can be a powerful tool to get you business, services and brand out there - but it is far more than just sending out emails.

Lots of things that can go wrong with email marketing, from broken links, typos, unoptimised images and so on, but you shouldn’t focus so intently on tiny technical details while losing sight of the big picture, which is customer engagement.

Keeping in mind the need to tread the thin line between email right and wrong, here are David Meerman Scott’s deadly sins of email marketing.

• Bad marketing automation.
  The positive benefits of personalisation will turn quickly negative if your message begins Dear [blank]. No subscriber thinks you sat down and wrote a personal offer—but she can reasonably expect that you’ll get her non-personal personalisation correct.
• Boring content.
  We can’t expect subscribers to share our inherent passion for our products, services and news. So tell a compelling story, and hold their interest with humor, controversy and interesting facts.
• Lack of variety.
  No matter how much customers like a service or a brand, they’ll lose interest if the only thing its messages ever say is please buy this thing. Mix it up with content that educates and builds relationships.
• Predictable timing.
  If you send messages on Tuesday morning because someone said that’s when you should send a message, you’re probably missing big opportunities. Find out what works for your company by testing a variety of days and times; you might even discover success with a weekend campaign.

Finally think communication first. It’s important to cross your t’s and dot your i’s, but don’t get so carried away with the details that you forget to simply engage your subscribers.

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To succeed they need to understand how Google can drive awareness and traffic to their location, and they need to recognise the vital role that search-engine results play in their competition against their competition.

It is well known that consumers are more likely to click on search engine results that appear on the first page of Google or similar search engines. When consumers find a local business it is only natural that they conduct some research before making a purchase. Thus, “owning” the first page of the search engine results page (SERP) is an important part of web-presence optimisation for any local business.

You can optimise your web presence to own page one of the Google SERPs in a variety of ways. Use a “build and buy” strategy that begins with paid advertising, and claim and create sites and social profiles that are active, optimised for search, and linked to one another.

Here are the fnal five of 10 effective ways your business can own the first page of search results (the following five will be in the next post.)

6. Google Profiles

The launch of Google+, Google’s social network, along with its recent decision to open up the network to businesses, too, bodes well for those seeking attention from search engines.
Those profiles can rank high on SERPs for your business name; of course, you should include business-name keywords in your Google Profiles or Google+ About pages.

7. Online Directories and Listings

List your business on digital directories and listing sites, such as Citysearch. Think of such sites as the “Yellow Pages” of the Web. By making sure that all of your listings are accurate and the information on all the sites is identical down to the details, you can help search engines such as Google pull your listings data higher in search.

8. Social Profiles

Claiming, optimising, and using social profiles are important ways to own more real estate on page one of SERPs. The four most popular social networks used for ad campaigns are Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Company profiles on those social sites will often rank high for your business name, especially if you optimise your profiles to include your official business name in the content.

9. Review Sites

Listing your business on local review sites, such as Yelp, is another way you can own more territory in search. Customers may already be leaving reviews about your business online, so it’s important to claim your business profiles on review sites to monitor and manage your online reputation.

10. Syndicated Press Releases

Creating search-optimised press releases when major news occurs and syndicating them via a wire service can spread news about your business and help you own more SERP territory. Major news sites can pick up your press releases off the wire and run them, word-for-word, on their sites—which would pack a lot of authority with search engines.

To add more authority to your overall Web presence, optimise your press-release content just as you would a website page, and include links to your business website, pertinent blog posts, and social profiles.

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To succeed they need to understand how Google can drive awareness and traffic to their location, and they need to recognise the vital role that search-engine results play in their competition against their competition.

It is well known that consumers are more likely to click on search engine results that appear on the first page of Google or similar search engines. When consumers find a local business it is only natural that they conduct some research before making a purchase. Thus, “owning” the first page of the search engine results page (SERP) is an important part of web-presence optimisation for any local business.

You can optimise your web presence to own page one of the Google SERPs in a variety of ways. Use a “build and buy” strategy that begins with paid advertising, and claim and create sites and social profiles that are active, optimised for search, and linked to one another.

Here are the first five of 10 effective ways your business can own the first page of search results (the following five will be in the next post.)

1. Search Engine Advertising

Google search ads can appear at the very top of the SERPs, creating instant visibility for your brand, regardless of what results appear on the rest of the page. That’s why it’s important to bid on your business name. For any business keyword, search engine advertising is the quickest and most cost-effective way to secure top billing on a SERP when consumers search for your type of business or your business name online.

2. Website

A business website is important for ranking well on search engines, especially if your domain contains your exact business name. By creating a search-optimised site with a front page that strategically lists your business name, address, phone number, and other important details, you can help your site rank well for searches that use your business name.

3. Optimised Website Pages

Create keyword-optimised pages throughout your website (e.g., the About, Products, Contacts, and Press Releases pages) to increase the chances of getting your business website ranked for your business name and getting individual pages of your site to rank high on SERPs.

Typically, up to four additional pages can rank on SERPs before Google displays a “Show more results from [website URL]” link.

4. Blog

Search engines love relevant, fresh, dynamic, and regularly published content about your business, industry, and community. Blogging is one of the most effective ways to dominate the first page of SERPs. In addition, social “likes” and “shares” are becoming important signals to search engines. People tend to share timely, informative, or entertaining content from blogs, rather than static pages from websites, so you can create search-friendly links and social authority via your blog.

You can create and host a blog in several ways. For example, you can integrate your blog with your business website, or create a blog on a different Web address and cross-link the blog with your website. The latter will enable your blog—with its unique Web address—to rank on its own. Moreover, your blog will be deemed a unique site, which means multiple pages from your blog could rank individually on SERPs for your business name.

5. Google Place Page

Claiming your Google Place page is an absolute must for any local business. You can optimise your Place page for search around your business name and business keywords, and your listing can also appear in Google Maps and at the top of the SERPs.

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At Enigin we value communication but communication needs to valuable - so here is advice for Enigin Distributors and Partners who are running their own energy saving businesses.

It was once believed that there’s no such thing as over-communication. Now we’d do anything to make it stop. Communication is out of control and it can take all the fun and productivity  out of work.

Yes communication is as important to business success as it used to be, but now there’s just too much of it.

For whatever reason, the new problem of hyper-collaboration, where everybody’s included in everything, can become a problem.

Whatever the reason, communication overload has reached epidemic proportions and it’s killing precious productivity and effectiveness at a time of economic strife and global competition, when our already overwhelmed and under-resourced management teams and workforces can least afford it.

Here are the second five of 10 Ways to Stop Communication Overload:

6. If anybody out there is still trying to make matrix management work, stop. It’s a brilliant organizational concept that’s nearly impossible to execute without creating mass confusion and, ultimately, way more problems than it solves.

7. Be leery of noncritical management fads that are sure to create tons of meetings with amorphous results. Remember OD - Organization Development?

8. Question the ubiquitous “I want to be involved” and “keep me in the loop” micromanaging / controlling mentality.

9. Don’t use collaboration or communication tools for the sake of using them. If the net ROI isn’t clear, don’t do it.

10. Never forget that, now more than ever, time is everyone’s most precious asset.

We have gone too far the other way as far as communication is concerned and we need to take some of this communication and collaboration stuff off the table and create a little balance or, if nothing else, some time for people to actually get some work done.

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At Enigin we value communication but communication needs to valuable - so here is advice for Enigin Distributors and Partners who are running their own energy saving businesses.

It was once believed that there’s no such thing as over-communication. Now we’d do anything to make it stop. Communication is out of control and it can take all the fun and productivity  out of work.

Yes communication is as important to business success as it used to be, but now there’s just too much of it.

For whatever reason, the new problem of hyper-collaboration, where everybody’s included in everything, can become a problem.

Whatever the reason, communication overload has reached epidemic proportions and it’s killing precious productivity and effectiveness at a time of economic strife and global competition, when our already overwhelmed and under-resourced management teams and workforces can least afford it.

Here are the first five if 10 Ways to Stop Communication Overload:

1. Every meeting - physical or virtual - must have an objective, an agenda, a start time and an end time; everybody who attends every meeting must have a specific and definitive purpose for being there.
2. Stop adding people to processes and groups. Every person you add to every process, group, communication, team, whatever, adds complexity and reduces productivity because people tend to say and do things, then others tend to respond, and so-forth. It’s always easier to herd fewer cats.
3. Question the broad use of predefined email distribution lists, reconsider every individual you cc on an email, and most importantly, don’t automatically hit “Reply to All.”
4. Reconsider internal meetings to prepare for other internal meetings, layers and layers of review meetings, the wisdom of “all hands” meetings, and panicked, kneejerk reactions to involve the whole damn world in a crisis.
5. Encourage and reward employee accountability, risk-taking, and initiative for resolving problems on their own.

In the next post there will be the final five of the 10 suggestions.

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Check out the article below:

Content officers are the folks responsible for your site’s content-what it looks like, what it reads or sounds like, where it goes in terms of subject matter or throughout the social universe.

Besides editorial skills, journalistic training and business acumen, here are the social skills that a chief content officer (CCO) needs to have:

Digital intuition. Good content creators “get” the Web. Handley quotes HubSpot’s Rick Burnes: “If you don’t intuitively understand the dynamics of [its] ecosystem-how Twitter can drive traffic to a blog; the kinds of headlines that attract attention; the simple things you can do to build blog subscriptions-you won’t be able to help your company attract online visitors.”

Amateur passion. The root of “amateur” is the Latin word for ”love,” Handley notes. The key here is to find people already producing content because they love to do it. Does your candidate maintain a blog, produce videos, share Flickr videos? Is he Twitter-savvy (and active)? People with a passion for content produce it even when they’re not being paid.

Community leadership. Your CCO needs to have the skills to contract with “outside” contributors-be they in other departments within your firm or completely outside of it.

Social DNA. Your CCO should be a social butterfly who enjoys interacting via social channels. She knows how communication (and reading) styles vary by platform-but she can maintain fidelity to your core mission across all of them.

Conclusion: It’s a gift. Content leadership isn’t about publishing the occasional blog. It’s about having an intimate understanding of how people communicate online-and knowing how to reach them.

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Joining a local business social network is an ideal way to spread the word of what you can offer to local industry, commerce and the public sector - but you need to use it well.

On CMSWire, Web engagement strategist Dion Heathcliff shares what he has learned from successful-and not so successful-social businesses in recent years. The lessons he offers address “what to focus on and what drives improved outcomes when applying social media within a large organization.” Read the full article for the meat, but here are a few observations to whet the appetite.

Changing staff behavior is more important-and harder-than selecting social tools.

Today’s workers multitask over a wide array of tools-too many, actually, Heathcliff says.

Your task is to get them to change their habits in a natural and intuitive way. Imposing more tools is the typical approach to doing this, but it’s an ineffective shortcut, he argues.

Work processes must become more open, shared and transparent in the social business world.

The more control over the social outreach you seek, the less you’ll have.

It is imperative that you design your social outreach for how you want users to behave. Create their paths in ways that take your needs, legal and otherwise, into account from the very beginning of their engagement journey.

Help people help each other.

Successful social communities aren’t purely self-organising. They still need leaders and effective support systems (like community management and well-integrated CRM that acknowledges the most pertinent current user needs).

Don’t lose the observable value your social business creates.

Store your activity streams, and make them accessible, discoverable and trackable.

Most of their value lies in the information accrued, so make sure you employ resources for distilling trends and market signals from all that conversation.

The Aim:

Implement intelligently! Social business has matured enough that we can glean what works and what doesn’t from past experience. It’s time to take heed of the lessons of those who have already walked the path.

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We encourage Enigin Distributors to also avail themselves of Search Engine Optimisation, so here are few tips:

1) Use Google AdWords’ keyword tool to find the most popular keywords related to your website and your beat

Before you begin tuning your specific key words and phrases, you need to discover what key words and phrases Internet readers are using in search engines to find content like yours’. Google’s various keyword tools can help you do that. The AdWords tool will show you the approximate number of searches conducted on Google for words and phrases that you enter, or for phrases associated with a URL of your choosing.

Google’s Search-based Keyword Tool quantifies the popularity of various key phrases, with both search volumes as well as suggested advertising bid prices to “buy” those keywords through Google’s text-ad program. That last bit of information can show you not only which key phrases will drive the most traffic to the site, but which will drive the most lucrative traffic to you, as well.

Use the tools to identify the best overall phrases for your site, the ones that you will use in the site’s title and on its home page and navigation. Then, use the tool to build experience that will help you select the best key words and phrases to spotlight when writing and producing individual articles and blog posts on your site.

Google’s home page provides guidance, as well, as Google now suggests various keywords and phrases - and reports their popularity - based on the partial search terms you type in its entry box.

2) Use key words and phrases in your HTML title tag

Once you’ve identified your keywords and phrases, use them in the most importance place where search engines will consider them. The search engines give the content of the title tag the greatest weight of any single element on the page, so your most appropriate key phrases better be there, Sullivan said.

If you are using a content management system [CMS], know which input field will populate the title tag (usually the headline). Use the resources above to determine which words ought to make it into that headline. Imagine yourself as a reader, and ask what terms you would use on Google if you were searching for this story. Those terms had better be in your head, and page title.

Also, be sure to use powerful, popular keywords in the title, description and tags of your videos you post on YouTube and elsewhere online.

3) Write an engaging meta description tag for each page

Sullivan, and others, find little SEO use for the plethora of descriptive meta tags that can be included in the head of a webpage. But the description tag still provides good value, as Google uses it to create the short blurb that it displays under a page’s title on its search engine results pages [SERPs]. A sharp description can help lure a visitor to your site over others, including ones that rank ahead of you on the page.

4) Switch from AP style to “SEO style” on references in body copy

Keyword repetition and density on the page still play a role in where you end up in the SERPs (though not nearly as much as in the pre-Google era.) You can help yourself, therefore, by moving away from rigid AP style rules on second references and place names to more SEO-friendly use of full names on some (but not all) subsequent references within a story.

5) Use keywords in your URLs whenever possible

The search engines value the use of keywords in URLs, as well. If you’ve got one in your site’s domain, great. But keywords in the directory path or file name of the URL provide a boost, as well. Rather than use numbers or nonsense text in article URLs, opt for a CMS that uses real words, ideally keywords for which readers will be searching.

Sullivan also recommends that you configure your CMS to use hyphens instead of underscores to separate keywords in your URLs.

6) Never publish the same article under two or more URLs on your site

Duplicate content penalties have killed news websites’ positions in the SERPs in the past. You shouldn’t publish the same article at multiple URLs on your site. It’s fine to reference one piece with multiple tags and from multiple index pages, but they should all point to the same, single URL when referencing that story or blog post.

Much of Google’s decision on where to rank a page in the SERPs is based upon the number and quality of links to that individual page. Concentrate the in-bound links to one story on a single URL. Posting that content on multiple webpage addresses simply dilutes the power of all those links across those multiple URLs.

7) Create standing pages as linkbait for popular ongoing stories and issues

This extends the point above. In an ideal world, you would concentrate all the inbound links to a story you are following to a single URL, driving it to the top of the SERPs for all related searches. But that’s tough in a traditional news publishing environment, where each day brings a new article, with a new URL. Staff-written summary wikis and well-crafted index pages can provide a standing URL that others can link when referencing your coverage of a particular person or issue, boosting the search engine popularity of your work.

Never retire or change page URLs without providing a 301 redirect

Search engines respond to a variety of responses from a Web server when a search engine requests a URL that no longer exists. A “404″ or page not found response is the worst response your server can deliver. It should, instead provide a 301 redirect, which tells the search engine to which new URL it should transfer the old URL’s SERPs position. Here’s how to do a 301 redirect in several CMSs and scripting languages.

9) Use bit.ly or other URL shorteners that use 301 redirects and provide click stats when posting to Twitter

When you are using URL shorteners, you want to make sure that your site is getting the search engine “credit” for that link, and not the shortener itself. Sullivan suggested bit.ly as one of several services that use 301 redirects, and after trying it, I’m impressed with the click-through statistics it tracks for each URL I shortened through it.

10) Link to other great, original content and invite other publishers to link to yours

The last advice might be the most important. Great on-page SEO ultimately will do little to move your pages up in the SERPs if other websites are not linking to you. Use your social media and offline promotional skills to let other influential online news publishers know about your work, and invite them to link to it. Tweet your posts and write them with enough flair that others will want to retweet.

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