Primary Position awarded learnpipe SEO Contract

posted under , by Dave
David Quaid, lead consultant with Primary Position SEO, is delighted to announce that they have been awarded a 12-month SEO Contract with leading Training Course Search Engine, learnpipe.

learnpipe, headquartered in Cork, Ireland, is an international search engine for training courses announced the contract on the learnpipe Blog.

Quoted from their blog:
"To help us improve our SEO strategy and execution, we've teamed up with David Quaid and the team at Primary Position (www & blog)- David has a proven track record in helping companies to improve their on and off site seo. We've made a great start and are looking forward to working closely with him over the course of the year."

Greenhouse Incubator - Blogging & Social Media Course

posted under by Dave
Evert Bopp has announced a Greenhouse Limerick event at the Absolute Hotel in Limerick for the 13th June 2009. You can read more about the event at the Limerick Open Coffee Site.

To tell you more about it, here is some information from the news announcement itself:

BLOGGING & SOCIAL MEDIA FOR BUSINESS SEMINAR ANNOUNCED BY GREENHOUSE LIMERICK

Absolute Hotel Limerick, June 13th 2009

Are you wondering what social media is all about? Perhaps you don’t know a Tweet about Linkedin? Do you think that a blog is a character from Star Trek?
The Greenhouse Limerick start-up incubator has organised an event to help businesses benefit from the current popularity of social media. The event is targeted at start-ups and Small & Medium businesses who can benefit from learning more about using free tools such as Linked In, Twitter, Facebook, IgoPeople and Blogging.

The event was put together with the aim of answering a number of questions for attendees such as “Wondering how your business can benefit from using social media?”,” Want to improve interaction and communication with your customers and increase your revenue?”.

The Greenhouse incubator has planned a full day Blogging & Social Media for Business seminar on June 13th in the Absolute Hotel in Limerick.

At the event attendees will be able to listen and talk to Irelands’ leading experts in social media & online networking. Included in the list of luminaries as:

Bernard Goldbach: Senior Creative Multimedia Lecturer, University External Examiner, Writer & Podcaster.

Krishna De: Brand Engagement and Word of Mouth Marketing Commentator.

Fred Caballero: Web project manager at Channelship Web Agency, Video blogger.

Peter Donegan: Landscape designer, celebrity blogger.

Campbell Scott: CEO IGOpeople, former director of Consumer Solutions at Eircom.

The event is organised by Evert Bopp, Internet Entrepreneur and the driving force behind Greenhouse Limerick Start-Up Incubator. “This is an area of great interest for new businesses as well as for those who have developed offline but now need to move with the times and get into online presence. The Greenhouse Limerick Start-up incubator is all about helping start-ups to develop, grow and use the tools available to them better. We are proud to organise this event and to welcome the guest speakers to Limerick,” said Bopp at the launch of the event in the Absolute Hotel.

Attendance Costs: €150 including 3-course lunch, teas & coffee and a .com domain and 1 year web hosting for everyone attending.

All proceeds will go to fund the Greenhouse Incubator.

Full details & registration on the events website: http://url.ie/1l87

For details: Contact. contactevert@gmail.com, 0868645099

The end of the road for single domain name strategies

posted under , , , by Dave
For a long time many companies have focused on a single domain name for their business. Typically this has taken the form of their brand name. This is fine if you are an established well known brand like Rolex, Mercedes, Coca-Cola or Walkers.

But for the guys that are offering a competing product, they don't have the same brand appreciation as the bigger brands. And for the most part, they are targeting consumers and businesses based on cost. There are many smaller companies operating on differentiating themselves through better value, better quality and better supply/availability. But they're not actually winning through branding. And this is a key failure for most businesses to recognise.

If you are targeting a marketplace based on selling commodity or in demand product on cost - you are not selling a brand. Yes, you can create brand awareness but you're targeting people interested in price, not a brand.

Most companies who pick their Brand name or company name as their domain name are therefore carrying the same mistaken idea into their online marketing campaign. Firstly, people don't come to your website automatically. They come for a reason. The world's premier TV and electronics producers bring people to their websites through massive advertising programmes.

People who are selling discounted electronics products bring people who are looking for discounted electronic equipment and/or discounted electronic brands. Putting your own brand up gets in the way. If you want to sell products that compete with brands, then use domain names that match what people are looking for. Don't be afraid to use more than one domain.

The strategy for small, price-competitive brands
to use brand names in SEO marketing really
has reached the end of the track








Some advice about selecting an SEO....

posted under , , by Dave
Ok, this might sound a bit funny - an SEO telling you how to pick an SEO but I know my fair share about SEO and how it works, and I've been doing it for a long time (since 2001), so I'm bound to have an opinion or two! Here is how I evaluate an SEO company or service when I come across one:

1. What do they have they say about SEO? Is it just a few pages of content on SEO? Maybe it's just a single page on a website offering a range of services. SEO is quite a broad and in-depth subject, so having a content-thin site sets off some alarm bells.

2. Do they have a PageRank - PageRank can be a funny thing but if it's zero, it could be of concern - an SEO should have at least some PageRank (0-10, 10 being best)

3. I check to see if they rank - can they be found - for their town/city and county? Do they rank nationally? I check a number of search terms - SEO, Search Engine Optimisation, SEO Dublin, SEO Ireland, SEO Limerick etc

4. What is their portfolio like? When I visit their clients, do their clients rank? Do they rank well?

5. I get very concerned when I see on-site pricing models. SEO is about competition - "property" or "Pensions" as search phrases are highly competitive. Giving different pricing levels without first evaluating a site seems pretty impossible and optimistic to me at best.

2009 is shaping up to be very busy

posted under by Dave
Not that I'm complaining but I'm getting so many referrals and calls, its been a lot to deal with...so I've been busy working on proposals and enquiries. Which has given me a lot less time to catch up on twitter, the blog and the beautiful weather that we should be experiencing in Ireland. At least I presume it's lovely outside.

It still surprises me that so many people don't think SEO is an involved manageable proposal. A lot of people I talk to still think SEO is something thats done quickly. In fairness, a good few understand that it's an online business development programme.

A worryingly large number of people still believe heavily in off-site SEO. I think that people are picking up a lot of this from the many websites and web design companies that offer their understanding of SEO. Most of these sites and web designers don't actually rank anywhere, so its very surprising that people are so ready to believe!

Anyway, we are delighted to be announcing that we will be working with the widely acclaimed Landscape Contractors, Castleknock Garden Services, who provide a range of garden design and maintenance services as well as paving, lawncare, wooden and timber furniture and extensions (think decks, patios and tables).

We're also delighted to be continuing our work with leading high performance and leadership development company, PeopleResources.ie.

Organ Donor Week

posted under , by Dave
This week is Organ Donor Awareness week. I was reminded of this very important week and the life-saving contributions that families and people make becoming Organ Donor's by Sian from www.GiftsandVouchers.ie - the Irish Gifts website - through reading her very brave and touching story that she's shared on her gifts and vouchers blog.

So, I'll take this opportunity to encourage everyone to register as a donor and get a donor card.

Source: http://blog.giftsandvouchers.ie/

Bizcamp Limerick

posted under , , by Dave
Bizcamp Limerick was an outstanding success by all accounts. Many thanks to the people who attended, talked and organised the event, which was held at the fantastic Kemmy Business School, which is a brilliant, world-class facility of higher education.

First of all, a big thank you to the Dean of the Kemmy Business School, Prof. Donal Dineen. It was a great space and very apt to have the Bizcamp here. The next big thanks and congratulations go to Stephen Kinsella, Evert Bopp, Ger Hartnett, Shane McAllister, Gabriela Avram and Mark Cahill. Also all members of Limerick Open Coffee Club who got together after the fall out from Dell and other large scale redundancy notices.

With nearly 200 people attending, a wave of media coverage and much buzz, it was a fantastic day altogether. Thank you to everyone again!

I gave a talk on SEO and how it works. I'll post up the presentation when I get back from Milan. Thanks to everyone who sat in, asked questions and the plenty of positive feedback I got.

I also met a lot of twitter buddies. Twitter is working out fantastically - it's how I got involved in Bizcamp in the first place. I've also found an exciting new business to invest in - but more about that in April.

Was delighted to meet great minds like Anton Mannering, Tony Frattaroli, Chris Byrne, Joy Redmond, Derry O' Donnell and many others I've already forgotten. Mail me if I met you and forgot you!

Reacations from the blogsphere: ShaneyMac's photo series on Pix.ie, Bizcamp Limerick, Limerick Blogger's coverage, Mark Cahill, Anton Mannering, Mike Quilligan, Reva Health.

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