Black Hat's

Don’t Hide Under Your Black Hat March will be forever remembered for many things, St Patricks day, the ides of March the break of spring and now the time when Google lifted the hat from the black hat world. Build my rank was a website that used article marketing to get back link juice, and those who used this service woke one March morning to find their links gone and Build My Rank de-indexed from Google The media giant has now set their targets on other sites of similar disposition. The upshot of this for SEO pro’s is positive. Here’s why? The best way to build quality links with high authority is through hard work and identifying the best links to target and acquire through natural methods. This means that we will see the high ranking sites that are just niche oriented and have got to the top of the ranks by scrupulous methods will drop dramatically. Constant quality content for the end user is more important and now those internet marketers that believe they are on easy street, will now find it not too easy at all. No matter what you do in life, there is always a way out of any situation and no doubt there will be new methods created in the Black Hat World to find out how to manipulate the algorithms again. However, Google has now offered much more in the way of comfort to those of us that work tirelessly to provide quality content and to rank our sites well for users by having natural high authority link juice. This latest google update is somewhat of a double edged sword. On one hand it makes the work of the SEO professional more validated but also stirs those in the underworld of the SERPS to find a way of manipulating the ranks once more. Nevertheless, Google will consistently be targeting those sites that are poor and have manipulated the ranks by using unscrupulous methods.

Authors need SEO too by Jock Brocas

Authors need SEO too, thats what Jock Brocas of Authors Websites is claiming. He maintains that authors often forget the Optimization of their websites. Jock Claims your site should be an integral part of your marketing tools and that you should not overlook SEO. Consider this; you have just finished your first book, you are so proud of your achievements and luckily you have found a small publisher to publish your work. Your’e excited and this is understandable and soon your excitement breeds a new dream. You dream that you will buy a new house with the proceeds that you will make, or perhaps a new car. You believe that when your book comes out, you will be rolling in the money, no more financial concerns, and you can pay your medical bills that have accrued over time. These dreams are understandable, but unfortunately, they will often not come to fruition, and not because your book is not good enough, but because all those sales that you thought would come - won’t. Here’s why; your publishers won’t sell the book for you. Even though the publisher put it out there, gone are the days when publishers would throw Pr and money at selling titles. It is now up to the author to do most of the marketing themselves. The publisher will support you, but not with money or costs towards marketing, the support came when they thought your work was worth publishing. The industry now widely accepts that authors will have to promote and sell their own books, while the publisher takes most of the profit, that’s just the nature of the beast. Its not all doom and gloom though, because Authors can sell vast numbers of their books through the internet, which is why most new Authors start off with the self-publishing business model. Ask yourself what are the most important tips for writers to self promote themselves? The first thing is to establish a good website and make sure you consider your book marketing in the design and coding of the site. You should realize that you are not only selling your book, but you are selling yourself too, after all who better to sell the work than the individual who wrote it. Your website therefore is an ambassador for you and speaks volumes about your work. If it looks great you’re on your way - right? Wrong! If you can’t be found, you won’t sell Your website will be one of the most important things you do to sell your work and to sell yourself. The truth is that your website may look brilliant and have moving images and flash embedded, but you are no where in the top rankings within search results. Many writers do not even consider that a website should be built around the genre they write about and therefore just go for a fancy looking site with no marketing under the hood. They believe in the old saying “Build it and they will come,” but they can’t come if they can’t find you. Consider this, I want a book, I know what I like to read and you have written one of my favorite subjects. So let’s say I want a book about fly fishing in USA. I search for the keyword fly fishing in USA in books and you don’t show, but your competitors books do. That’s because you have not taken your book into consideration and added the appropriate keywords into your site. Sure, the cover looks great, but unless you are a well known author, you will find it difficult to get noticed. So before you jump into online forums, and promotion on social media. Think about getting your site right first time round. Don’t just get someone to design your site who has no real idea of modern and up to date Search Optimization Techniques that will get you, your site and your book noticed on the web. Don’t think for one minute that if your site looks cool, you will attract the readers and the sales, you won’t. No matter how flashy it is. Search Engine Optimization - one of the ways forward Search Engine Optimization is one of the way’s forward for authors to get a head start on selling their books. The website can become a hangout for readers, a place to share more information and share important links. What you want is to have a website that is optimized using the latest seo strategies so that your site and your work will rank favorably with search engines. It is more important than ever to get it right, especially with the advent of ebooks and electronic ebook readers. Millions of people are searching and downloading books directly from websites and online stores. The upshot of all of this is that you have to consider your seo as part of your overall strategy for selling your books. Research Its not all about keywords either and meta tags, sure its an important part of the seo process, but you also have to consider obtaining quality back-links that will ensure your site gets a vote from the site linking to you, which in turn results in better ranking in your search engine results page (SERPS). Research your competition and your keywords, then ensure that your site is coded well and has the relevant anchors in relation to your content. These are also other factors that help your website to rank well, therefore its safe to say that you do not have to just research for your book, but research for your site too. There are many web design companies that will design a tidy looking site and build all sorts of bells and whistles into it. The truth is that a great percentage of web designers do not know much about SEO practice. They will know a minimum amount to get the basics done but they also have little knowledge of the publishing industry that you have to compete in. It is important that your design and Search Engine Optimization works hand in hand as well as the research of your target market. If you would like any information on Web Design for authors or SEO for Writers. Authors Websites

Apple Boss Moves On

Apple Visionary passes to spirit. We offer a fond farewell to the Apple co founder Steve Jobs who recently passed to spirit. It was no secret that Steve, himself was suffering from Cancer, yet no one could have believed he would have left so suddenly. Steve was instrumental in revolutionizing the digital industry and will be sorely missed by his family, friends and colleagues. Apple was guided from its meagre beginnings to the largest and most powerful technology company in the world. At one point, Apple was on its knees and facing bankruptcy until the visions of Steve and his colleagues began to take shape. The word apple is synonymous with powerful words like, quality, innovation, technology, robust, intelligent and uniqueness. Apple is renowned in the personal computer industry as being the ‘best of the best’ – expensive to buy and holds its value like a vintage car of old. It is the choice of computer professionals throughout the world. A truer statement could never be heard as; “once you go Mac, you never go back,” which is true and I speak from experience. The apple Mac is a wonder of the modern world, the iPad and IPhone is now the must have accessory not only for business but is a fashion of its own. Steve returned back to Apple when it was on its last legs and turned the company around with such innovative must have technologies in their computers. The humble Mackintosh computer changed to the Mac, the Macbook pro and revolutionized computing to this day, then other innovations followed. The iPod was borne and we said goodbye to large stereos, followed by other products such as the iPhone and iPad, which changed the way we communicate in the modern world. Apple has certainly led the way in modern technology to this day, which caused other giants in the industry to play catch up. All of this down to the visions and genius of Steve job, his passing now will surely have rocked the apple camp, yet his memory will live on and I am sure the development of further ground-breaking industry technology will continue in his name. Steve has certainly left his legacy. The question on everyone’s lips will be “What is to become of apple now”? And “Who will take Steve Job’s Job”? I am sure that Apple will continue on the path it is on but I do not envy the person who has too step into Steve’s shoes for they are big shoes to fill indeed.

David and Goliath

Google Launched Officially!! It’s official, Google has finally launched its social networking platform Google+, but is it a serious contender to Facebook? Of course Facebook has launched its own assault by changing its platform and offering similar services. Facebook has 500 million users and that would seem a most powerful adversary, but let’s face facts; Google has the internet full stop. What I mean is that nearly every web user in the world has some interaction with Google and every web master in the world wants to rank their websites for Google. So numbers really mean nothing when it comes to sheer internet power and prowess. Google will stalk Facebook like a cheetah stalking its prey. Does Facebook have the legs to out run its predator? Personally, I do feel that Facebook’s bubble will soon burst. Google has a great interface, it is clean and not as messy as Facebook. It’s new hangout’s are set to dominate peoples time as they create new clubs and societies on the net. Google has integrated all of its algorithm to rank and to make the user experience as joyful and easy as possible. It is perhaps too little too late for Facebook. Security has played a major role in Google’s platform, and personally, I feel this has been lacking within Facebook in many ways. I know many of you will say this is down to the user but these weaknesses have also been taken into consideration with Google. I am aware that Facebook fans will ultimately turn away from Googles platform, but with the sheer cunning that google has, will bring them over in the end - peer pressure or just sheer brilliance from what will start to grow from it - add ons and integrated scripts - who knows. What I mean is that when Facebook launched it took a considerable time for apps to be developed and integrated php scripts for web designers, yet they eventually did and became a market on their own. I am positive this will happen with Google +, and slowly and surely you will start to see a new era emerging in Social Networking - a war - gladiators fighting to the death. Who is your money on? I know who I am backing. It will take time and Google is in no rush, for every user that Google tempts back to them, Facebook will feel it and retaliate with something else. Perhaps Facebook will launch its own search engine and then you will see the David and Goliath of the internet. Nevertheless I am excited to see what the future will bring for the New Google +, which I believe is awesome.

Sell your Luxury Boats Ranks No 1

We are pleased to announce that http://www.sellyourluxuryboats.com, which is a recent site that was developed by us, is now ranking no 1 on google for its main keyword term. This is exciting news not only for authors websites, but for the owners of the site who are delighted with the results. This is in part due to our new in house SEO team who play a large part in the promotion of the websites we have designed by implementing good SEO practice and link building strategies.

Now the hard work begins because ranking well for one of your key words is of course only the beginning, and it is important that you do not just sit and wait on business coming in because you are ranking well. The truth is there are many competitors that will constantly be after your rank, and you will find that your SEO practice will have to continue for some time. You will have to keep creating excellent content and getting those do follow back links to your site in order to remain at the top of your game. Google no longer places just ranking as one of its key factors as the Google algorithm continually changes to adapt to the search engines and the needs of the searcher. This makes online marketing a particular challenge not only for the web owner but for the design company who should look beyond the design and behind the scenes to ensure the sites are attracting the correct traffic.