Online Marketing Nottingham

SEO Strategy for eCommerce Websites

2010-04-16T08:31:00.000-07:00

The inspiration behind this post came from two distinct sources. Firstly, acting in the capacity as the Nottingham expert on E-Commerce, it is the monthly Web 2.0 Surgery tonight and I will be there to answer any questions people may ask on E-Commerce development or marketing. This latest event is also focused on E-Commerce and everything from design, development, marketing and management will be discussed.

Secondly, I was reading a really good Blog article all about Google's Page Rank and how important it is for people to pay attention to. Personally, I have always not worried too much about it seemed to be just one factor of many to contribute to SEO. The post in SEO Book went into this in more detail about how Page Rank is calculated and confirmed my sentiments that it no longer holds its importance that it once did. Read about the importance of Page Rank in SEO Book article here.

The most poignant thing about the post was the strategy needed for successful SEO. A lot of people place the majority of emphasis on the technical aspects of code, links, architecture (and Page Rank) etc. Whereas the most successful strategy is to look at the broader picture of SEO and Online Marketing in a holistic approach. Getting the overall marketing strategy right is vital to the success of SEO.

I've talked a lot about strategy and how is must be mapped out from the beginning of any project or web build. The most important part of developing the marketing strategy is that it clearly identifies your market. This includes your competitors, your products, who your target audience is and how you are going to reach them. What your overall strategy should also include is a great understanding of which E-Commerce market you are in (or wish to be in).

After working in and around E-Commerce sites for many years, there are 5 distinct markets that each require a different strategy and planning. So what are they?

1: Niche

Sometimes there is just a product that you can't find anywhere else. A left handed widget, remote controlled lawn mower, Indian spices, chilli chocolate, imported bluetooth watch phone. You can find yourself in quiet company on the web with a niche product, which can be both a blessing and a curse. If you are promoting something that people might already be searching for (Chilli Chocolate for example) then people will always find you and the likelihood of going elsewhere is slim. You can develop a loyal following and your niche will ultimately do the marketing and promotion for you. Your strategy should be focussed on helping people to spread the word of your product and site; social media, PR, social bookmarking for example.

However, the curse can be that your product might be so niche people don't even know it exists. This can amount to a significant amount of hard work to let people know about it. The strategy should be focussed on getting in front of people and educating them about what it is you're selling. You might even find that you have to create the keywords for people to search.

2: Competitive

Let's start with the positive. If something is competitive, there is a demand for the product so you'll never be short of people who want your product. This does mean you'll have a battle on your hands to carve out your market share and constantly batter for position. The other positive point about this market is that you can amalgamate all the positive things from the competition and put it into your website. From the start, you need to distinguish yourself from the competition in some form. Think of it as why visitors should by from you and not the others? If you can be savvy on price - winner! If you can't then you need to offer some definite incentive - delivery - choice - buying process etc. Strategy for a competitive website is all about a numbers game. You will be starting from the back of the queue so for SEO time is not on your side and therefore you need more short term measures (PPC, banner advertising) to get you visitors. The pace is fast, cut-throat and needs your full attention.

3: Under-developed

Not to be confused with a niche market, the market that is under-developed has a known product demand but is not yet developing into online sales. Why this is happening can be a number of reasons; is it something that people don't think they can buy online? Does it prove to be a logistical nightmare? Has no-one got the business model right for online sales? As with the niche market, you need to spend a significant amount of time establishing the visitors and why they should buy from you. For example, if people are used to buying plants/shrubs from a garden store, why would they want to buy online from you? The strategy for this is simple, keep experimenting with the model until you find the right solution and people will buy. This also involves more traditional forms of marketing and moving off-line to capture your visitors.

4: B2B

This can be very different from the B2C market in many ways. The demand is as high as the B2C, the marketing can be the same but the real difference lies in the buying behaviour of businesses. Depending on the B2B market, you may need to offer a specific payment option to aid the process. For example, if you are in the education market you'll find that most educational establishments like to buy on account rather than using an online payment form. Some businesses like to open accounts as they are buying in bulk orders so you have to adhere to your market's buying behaviours. For marketing strategy there is also a big difference. B2B online purchases are usually based on actual products and not the general product group. For example, a manufacturing company will not be searching for "machinery parts", they'll be searching for "Benodict 4S3P Cogs". Therefore, your strategy should be focused on marketing your products individually and making sure your products are optimised and distributed as much as possible.

5: Fast Moving

A fast moving E-Commerce market is really what you think...products that move fast and furious. There are many websites that cover the latest gadgets and fads, usually low priced and seasonal products catered to the browser and not the savvy online shopper. A good example of this kind of E-Commerce market are the gift websites. Often branded as 'men's gifts', 'gifts for valentine's day' or 'corporate gifts' run aggressive marketing campaigns over a short space of time and then change to a different product range. This kind of activity requires a lot of attention and short term planning. What works for one campaign or product range may not necessarily work for another so planning is essential. A marketing strategy for this involves being able to fast react, therefore organic search positions will not be suited to short term campaigns. Viral marketing, PPC advertising and display advertising would be best suited to this market. Online shopping portals such as Kelkoo or Shopzilla are good examples of how to boost short term products exposure.

Before any SEO and Online Marketing is planned, knowing which market you are in will help you plan. For the short term you will need to be quite specific as to which channels you will be using but long term should be using a more holistic approach. Think products, think competition and know your market to reach your visitors.

A quick update for SEO in 2010

2010-01-11T04:37:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

There is that famous saying that "24 hours is a long time in politics". However, I think this can be applied to almost every industry or job that you work in. Especially in the world of SEO!

My last post was talking about the trends of 2009 and some of the changes/updates that were going to take place in 2010. Most notable of these was the appearance of Google Caffeine and the (possible) effect this was going to have on search industry. Well, here we are in 2010 and there is more debate as to whether the update has actually been put live. The update was designed to bring together more social and 'real time' results for keywords to make the user generated content more focused. Despite there being much testing done in the latter half of last year, there has not been a universal appearance of the Caffeine search results that everyone can see. One such article that explains the reasons why this is the case can be seen in this post.

As the above article puts it, some aspects of Caffeine can be seen in the search results. The social popularity might of Twitter can be see the most, as you can see in the example below:

Twitter is such a strong example of the influence of 'real time search'. However, as this is just a brief post into the happenings of 2010, I shall leave my musings on Twitter to a later post.

The Latest SEO News from around the Web

2009-10-07T08:11:00.000-07:00

Despite my apparent slacking off in writing a few posts on all things online marketing recently, this does not mean that there has been nothing to write about. There have been numerous mutterings and musings around the web discussing the latest trends of viral marketing, search engine updates and good old fashioned SEO practices. Therefore, rather than pick one in particular, I decided to give a very brief run down of three of the important trends that have got me thinking.

Firstly, good old Google decided to release yet another beta test of their ubiquitous search algorithm this time in the form of the oddly titled 'Caffine'. With the web developing more and more towards UGC and social media, the latest offering from Google was an attempt to harness the more social, 'real time news' aspects of search and provide better search results. It caused quite a stir and has certainly got the online marketing community motivated around the way websites are promoted. Read more about Google Caffine here.

Following on from the Google Caffine update is the power of Twitter from a business perspective. Twitter has grown and grown in popularity recently and is now a far cry from being the playground of Online Marketing professionals that it used to be. It has developed from a concept of taking the basic feature of FaceShite (you know I hate using that word) and turning it into a world influencing power. With people ranging from the Prime Minister to the Gov'ner of California telling us what they had for breakfast, the most influential aspect of it is the speed of which breaking news can be transmitted all over the world. Take the Iran election demonstrations or the death of a celebrity being broadcast before it is seen on national news. Twitter is big business. One of the latest developments is how businesses can use Twitter in a more direct marketing way to really interact with their customers. Watch this latest video about Twitter's plunge into the Business Services world with its Business Product.

Finally, an article that I've taken great interest in is regarding the most basic but prevalent of SEO principles - links. Also following on from the above trends, Google Caffine pays a good deal of attention to links from media sites, especially news websites (BBC, The Guardian etc). Therefore more people have been looking to get links from articles written on certain topics. Thus causing a new medium of advertisers taking money on news sites to place links and paid advertising. This of course going against the principles of Google of paid links. Quite a conundrum for the industry and something I will be watching with great interest. Read more about SEO links here.

Enjoy this and more to follow soon...

Google and International Hosting

2009-06-04T08:04:00.000-07:00

As I have now become fully engrossed in international online marketing, I always pay close attention to the deatils of international websites. Some of the questions I ask myself are, how international does this company look - one country or several countries, how are they appealing to the different countries, do they have a separate website for the different countries, have the English pages been translated, are they using a Top Level Domain, Sub Domain or Sub Directory?

All of these questions are important for how the website appeals to a different country and culture. Design for example, can be subtly different for each country. Take the colour red for example, in some countries this is seen as danger or anger, but in China this would be a colour of prosperity. Similarly, some words cannot translate well into different languages. So in English 'GoKu Ltd' might sound fine but in Russian this might tranlate to 'toilet paper' for example. That might sound a bit far fetched but brands and product launches have been known to fail dramatically by failure to do this research.

Next are domain names. I have mentioned before about the importance of using the correct domain names for international websites in this post. If you want to have local presence in a given country, you need to have the right domain name that will prioritise your domain above other international domains. For example, your company GoKu Ltd is expanding into Germany so you have had your website translated into German. Thinking you need an international Domain, you set up www.goku.com. After searching for your company or keywords in Google.de you wonder why you are not appearing in the top search positions. If you notice they will more than likely all be .de domains, i.e. German companies. Therefore, by registering your company on a German top level domain, you can see your website being listed high on Google.de as www.goku.de.

The second part of this equation is equally, if not more, important. You must actually be local. How do you do this?

Hosting is important. If you have the international top level domain, then you should be hosted in that country. Google sees this as very important as it shows to the Googlebot that your goku.de belongs in the Google.de results as a German website. This is important for producing the important 'Local' search results and relevancy. So what about Google? Today I installed a new ad-on to Firefox that is very simple yet very useful. Called Flagfox it simply shows a flag of the country that the website is hosted in. So what? I loaded up Google.co.uk and here's what I found:

Google Germany:

Google France

Google Korea

Notice anything about the flag? Strange that all the 'local' versions are all hosted in the US and it would appear so are the servers. Not a very local position that Google preaches about being international. Something to follow...or not to follow?

Reasons why your eCommerce site doesn't convert

2009-05-28T02:51:00.000-07:00

A flash of brilliance came into my inbox the other day. I have spoken many times about conversions - so much so that I'm sure everyone is more than aware of its importance. Probably the most frustrating part of managing an eCommerce site can be finding that winning formulae. Quite often, just a simple change can make a difference of 100% improvement in turnover: a banner image, change the position of the checkout, amend the page header - any of which can make a difference. So where do you start?

A simple answer is just to test. You also need to become good friends with your web analytics and keep a sharp eye out for emerging trends. It is a constant process of change and testing to make sure people go where they (and you) want them to go - the checkout.

Now, back to my inbox. A really good video that was sent to me highlighted some of the things that people either miss completely or need to think about in the shopping process. Have a look at this video on making your eCommerce site convert.

The key area under discussion in the interview is improving the checkout process. There are some significant areas that can prove a barrier to conversions that can include:

forcing people to register or fill out forms before they buy
not making the shopping cart clear enough
the hidden costs that appear later in the process
including more secruity seals.

Have you really looked at your conversion funnel? Look again, is there something missing?

Can you overdo SEO?

2009-03-19T10:32:00.000-07:00

As any SEO professional or website owner will know, getting results from SEO can be both a joy and a real frustrating nightmare...figuratively speaking of course. I prefer to see it as a challenge but that's just me.

Whilst working intensively on one of my client's websites, I did reach the stage of frustration where I found myself shouting at my screen "Why is this site not ranking!?" Might I add that this was after hours and days making sure that the details were in place. As most people who do a lot of SEO or subscribe to one of the numerous Mailshots will know, there are countless parts to check to make sure the engine is in tip top condition. I'm talking on and off site mechanics of content, code, links, meta info, sitemaps, robots txt, internal linking structure and of course the wider online strategy for the site. The latter being essential.

I've already stated my own formulae for success a successful website:
SEM (SEO + PPC) + SERPs = ROI seen in this post.

The more you read about what SEO strategy you should be employing, you'll find that the emphasis is always on carrying out procedure. Or that there is always something to work on. It was interesting to find from a professional point of view, to discuss SEO strategies with other people on forums. Why I like to do this is to gauge other people's opinions on what is important and what is not. I'd like to share my opinion on this matter here. Where we (SEO people) all work around the same ethics and techniques, there is always an open opinion as to what is more important and what is not.

Take asking for directions for example. In the UK, if you were in a pub and you asked for direction to somewhere you would quickly find that everyone has a different opinion as to the best way to get there..."no, you don't want the A452 at this hour, you need the B746 and then pick us the A1 south of etc etc etc". The same with SEO. Asking the question of why a site is not ranking I will guarantee you will receive about 50 plus posts on different techniques. What is also fun is that you just might see an argument brewing between two people who have replied.

I am not mocking nor claiming the importance of forums as there are always new ideas to be sought. The point I'm making is that when there are so many options available, which one should or could you take? For a novice this can overwhelming and not easy for a professional sometimes as well.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to try a new approach. Quite simply do nothing. Not as radical as it might sound. Let me explain. Working on a client's website with some new page content that they wanted to be found for, I made sure everything was correct and the boxes were ticked. Not a great deal happened and the rankings didn't progress. This was for a site with an established online reputation and domain history. There was not a great deal of competition for the keywords and this didn't matter. So I tried a new tactic...I let it be for a while.

Confident that everything was in place I just let the Search Engines take their course and naturally progress the rankings. What actually happened was that it did actually work. I then try to experiment with other sites and halt work for a week or to. This also had a similar effect and didn't even produce any negative results.

My conclusion was that perhaps there is such a thing as too much SEO? If you are making too many changes perhaps the Google et al will struggle to make up its mind. If you had a site development where the client was constantly requesting changes on a weekly basis, will it ever go live? Taking time for things to settle down makes it easier for the site to be properly indexed. How much time to leave things is dependant on the market that you're site is in of course, as overly competitive market would require regular attention.

The overall point to be made here is that perhaps too much of something can be a bad thing. If you are confident that things have been done right, have a little patience. Therefore, I shall add that to my formulae for online success where P is for Patience:

SEM (SEO + P + PPC) + SERPs = ROI

Strategy + Content + Code + Links + Patience

Social Media vs. SEO for 2009

2009-01-28T02:10:00.000-08:00

Now that we're in a new year, it is easy to see what the buzz was for 2008 in the online media world - Social Media.

As the presence of SEO has built over the years and now e Businesses are fully aware that in order to succeed they need to invest in SEO, there has been a lot of attention put onto the next stage of web development. Everyone should now be aware of what exactly Web 2.0 is and how the blogging world has made such an impact. What has been a much welcomed development in SEO has been the take off of blogs. This has given a whole new platform for which people can add to their online marketing strategy and one that has meant that anyone and everyone has a voice of opinion and can talk about what they want to. I have written before about the importance of businesses to have blogs and the value of communicating with your target audience and/or customers. This has developed in 2008 to Social Media.

Most people should now be aware of the networking behemoth that is Facebook - and if you're not where have you been hiding? Before Facecrap - Faceshite - Facebook (sorry), there was the creative MySpace, for the younger audience BeeBo and the much forgotten about MSN Live Spaces, all designed to bring people together and share content. They are now attracting more users than ever and a recent post about the rise of the networking sites really strikes home just how large it is. With over 55,000,000 visitors in December 2008 alone, you can see why social networking is dominating the online world.

Businesses that have observed this increase have already made a move to use Social Networking as part of their marketing mix. A sports coaching gap year company has used its target audience on Facebook ads to drive traffic as well as promoting their Facebook group with great effect. A company promoting quad biking in Nottingham have developed a YouTube channel to show off their activities. All this allows a business to showcase their brands where people can experience and share whats on offer.

The emphasis here is on the word 'share'. Sharing photos, sharing messages and events and more popular than ever now, sharing status updates. Also in the Mashable.com (ref. above) is the rise of microblogging. Twitter has seen a huge increase in popularity, 664% to be exact. For those who don't know what Twitter is check out my 'Tweets' on the right of this blog. Here you can update people with what you are doing any time of the day or night - even from your mobile phone. So once you have shared your status or interesting find on the web, what do you do? This brought about the next phase in social media - Social Bookmarking sites.

With the emphasis on sharing content between users, Social Bookmarking sites like Digg, Delicious or Stumble Upon have soared in popularity and have found themselves attached to the footer of all blogs (just check the footer of this post for the bookmarking tools!). You can come across these even on the BBC news website, on YouTube or on a recipie website, all urging you to tell everyone you know about what you're reading/seeing.

This begs the question, in the future what is the role of the search engine going to be? In a separate post about the ways social media will change in 2009, this article mentions that social media is evolving to meet not only the needs of people but also to cross the different platforms. With mobile technology developing we are now increasing able to take our stumbles, status updates or blogs where ever we go.

So a change is on the horizon for SEO. This will definitely not see the end of SEO at all but more like an evolutionary step. Remember that search engines still need to make sense of the information out there. As Eric Schmidt famously quoted recently that the internet is a "Cesspool" where false information thrives, there still needs to be order out of chaos. That which needs to be indexed properly will still need to be optimised to make it appear. With the increased activity of businesses making use of social to promote their products or brands, there still remains a need for this to be structured.

This does mean that the overall nature of SEO will change but definitely for the good. The web is an evolving sphere of information and in order for people to embrace this, we all need to develop our strategies. I for one consider Social Media as already part of SEO.

The longtail of longtail keywords.

2008-12-02T06:10:00.000-08:00

This is something that I like to emphasise to all people when they start SEO or planning their online marketing campaign. Research is vital. Strategy is vital. Preparing your strategy you must first effectively map out your strategy based upon keyword research. Most people know about keyword research and perhaps even using the Google Adwords tool. When clients come to us they usually have a set of keywords that they assume are the top targets and they ones that they need to optimise for. Quite often I have to be the bearer of bad news...

I as mentioned above, getting the strategy right is crucial to your success in the search engines. You have to be able to clearly and concisely inform both visitors and the search engines what your site is about and where it should be indexed. At the centre of this is effective keyword research as the Search Engine Optimisation is formed around which keywords you select.

If your site is new, or has little domain history, you need to give your site the best chance of succeeding. Vital to this is getting the best 'sporting chance' to succeed. What I mean by this is not by tackling the big targets head on. If you are unfortunate to be a start up online business in the world of 'mortgage advice' for example, then are you really going to achieve stonking success when taking on much larger online brands that have more money and more online presence then you? This is where we analyse the short and long tail keywords.

To those who aren't aware (and it shall be a very small number in the online world) short tail keywords refer to the very general, non specific keywords that have a huge number of search volumes. Not good for your short term strategy really. Long Tail keywords on the other hand are more suited for your strategy. They are focused, target your exact business model and can get you the right visitors. An example of this would be 'mortgage advice in Nottingham'.

While it is good to find the right balance between search volume and high competition, going the opposite direction towards the extreme long tail can be equally as disastrous. A perfect example of this is a site that I came across this morning. Advertising itself as a directory of things to do in Nottinghamshire, there was a page that caught my attention. It was concerned with becoming a partner with them and to highlight their position on the web they listed several keywords where they appeared number 1. I was delighted to see this keyword:

'things to do around nottinghamshire on bank holiday monday 5th may 2008'

Interestingly, they did appear number 1 but I decided to look at the search volume for this keyword. Zero, nothing, zilch. My question would then be: why target, optimise or even report this as a success? You will more than likely reach your number one position but when you might attract around one click per year for it...what is the point?

This is a good example of a lack of proper research. To develop your overall online strategy requires a lot of research into the current search market, your competition and where you want your site to be found. Without effective keyword research, your strategy is lost.

The Value of Content for SEO

2008-11-24T08:56:00.000-08:00

Keeping up with the constant changes in the Google Algorithm is like keeping up with a certain footballer's change in hair style. In fact they may both have a lot in common...lots of money, domination over their market and one small change can make headlines all over the world. So, what was the change this time?

If some of you have not researched or even read countless articles on the mythical algorithm, you may or may not have come to the conclusion that it ends up as searching for the golden fleece. However, with articles like this you have to start listening and maybe even listening to the advice. Not only was the article a good read for the astounding 450 updates that the beloved algorithm (I shall hence forth refer to it as the Alg) had last year, but the answers from Mr Matt Cutts from Google. I like the short translations most of all, i.e. 'Yes' or 'No'.

What is important about this post was that it drove me to take a look at one of my sites in a more detailed look. I was also recently at a advanced Google Adwords seminar where one point came out that caused a real stir amongst the participants. To increase the quality score of your campaigns it is imperative that you have a landing page that is directly relevant to the campaign or ad group keywords. I.e. relevancy and content is most important. I then read a few blog posts to confirm that Google has now taken a liking to content not that it didn't before, but more so now. Content for SEO is king again.

Interested by this I took a look at one of my websites from a content point of view. Looking at some of the keywords, we had them all grouped so they were targeted towards one page in particular. Hmm, this would not do. What we needed was each keyword to have its dedicated page that was full of quality content for both the user and the search engines.

Take for example the keyword for wheelchairs. Instead of having the keywords all directing towards one page, I separated them to have a landing page, for example Lightweight Wheelchairs, Folding Wheelchairs and Travel Wheelchairs. The result? Improved keyword presence for the site, improved visibility of the products and not to mention the user experience wtih the information provided. Content is back and time for us to be focused on the user expeirence!

Improving the Links to your site

2008-10-22T02:27:00.000-07:00

Whilst browsing through the Matt Cutts blog, I came across this new feature in Google Webmaster Tools. Its so simple yet so effective and makes my job a whole lot easier.

We all know (or at least everyone who owns/runs a website should know) that links are the currency of the web. Just as a healthy cash flow makes a business successful, a healthy inbound 'link flow' will mean your website will grow in size. Its all down to something so simple yet at the same time the hardest to do! Getting links will make your website gain positions in the SERPs but getting that all important deeplink with relevant keyword anchor text from a quality and highly relevant site can be a serious challenge.

However, you cannot forget the multitude of links that appear as part of the organic growth of your site. I.e. the links that other people have done for you. But what happens if the links suddenly become broken or set up incorrectly? How would you know or be able to check each of them to see if they are correct? Google Webmaster tools has a new inclusion to help with this problem.

Take for example a e-commerce site that I work on that sells mobility aids. As part of the continual development we recently changed the menu and the way the products were categorised, and as a result changed the URL of the category from walking frames to the better targeted zimmer frames. This would mean that anything linking to the old URL was bound to bring up a 404 and some annoyed web users. Now here comes the best part...

Log into your Webmaster Tools (I have to mention again that this is essential to have) and go to the Diagnostics tab, and then click on Web Crawl. You should see the pages that return 404 errors in the image below...

On the right you'll see the new addition of the pages that this page links from (circled in red). Perfect! Once you click on this you'll get a popup that displays all the websites and/or pages that link to the old page.

Now all that remains is to go to each place and fix the broken link. This might mean taking time asking webmasters politely and asking if they can possibly update the link or simply fixing the link yourself. It may sound like a tedious task but this will improve not only the traffic to your site but also increase the number of URLs listed in Google. Now that has to be worth the time?

Making friends with the Checkout Drop-outs

2008-10-15T03:56:00.000-07:00

Whilst looking at several client's sites, not to mention my own, I started to compare the abandonment rate of each of the checkouts to see how they varied. As you can expect, there is a lot of difference in overall visitors but what does vary is the percentage of Checkout Drop-outs.

What I mean by a Checkout Drop-out is the people who on arriving to the checkout on eCommerce websites, they proceed no further and leave the site. Not good for any Website Owner to see people leave without a 'thank you, come again' or 'sorry you're leaving' cheer. It might startle people to know that the average drop-out rate on an e-commerce site is around 60%. That does sound rather large but there can be so many reasons why this might be the case. Factors such as being in a highly price competitive market or the delivery charges are examples of why people decide to go elsewhere. I found a really good article on the e-consultancy website about the possible why customers abandon the checkout.

The sad reality though is that there can be a multitude of reasons why this happens. Take a look at this graph on the e-consultancy website to see some of the reasons why.

This however, was taken from the results of a survey of online shoppers by Marketing Sherpa and WebCredible. Unfortunately for the website owner, we cannot get this level of understanding from the web stats analysis. Instead, we need to pay attention to our customer's behaviour and apply the golden rule of e-commerce success - trial and error. Sometimes a small change such as moving an image to a different location can have such a huge impact on overall conversions.

Using webstats software such as Google Analytics, you can see a 'Funnel Visualisation' of where people drop-out of the goal conversion process. This can allow you to pin-point the area that could do with improvement and then make changes to see if this makes a difference. With some A/B testing (also an option in Google) this will allow qualitative analysis to directly see what affects conversion.

Improving the shopping process should be paramount to any e-commerce website. This should also be treated as an evolving process as needs and competitor services are always changing and being added to. There can be many different ways to improve the conversion rate of the checkout, and I've happened to mention one in a previous post about registration. A concise list of some of the important factors in improving the checkout process can be found in the blog conversions matters. Happy reading and think about that all important bottom line!

Hectic week for disabled scooters

2008-09-19T09:48:00.000-07:00

A frustrating week for disabled scooters. Hopefully I'll get to the bottom of what the problem is and get things back to normal. Google...I will solve the problem and make things right! Disabled mobility scooters will make it back on the SERPs.

Getting back Disabled Scooters

2008-09-17T01:09:00.000-07:00

One of the most frustrating things to happen in SEO and Online Marketing is seeing all the hard work suddenly disappear. There are so many factors that can be attributed to this that its hard to see which once could possible be the reason for the change.

Following all the rules so closely is a must for any SEO professional but the problem that we encounter every so often is that the rules can change or suddenly something that did have high value no longer has. The other problem, sorry I mean 'Challenge', is digging deep to find out what the cause of the change is.

I have a big client who is targeting the keyword 'disabled scooters'. This keyword had a great deal of success in the SERPs with a top 10 ranking in Google, MSN and Yahoo! In particular this keyword was continually improving until last week it suddenly disappeared! Frustrating to say the least and very worrying as it meant I had to analyse everything about the site, links and web analytics and seek out advice. However, thanks to a post here, I found it.

Google Webmaster Tool is essential for any website and SEO. Not only does it help with problems Search Engines have with the site but it gives a wealth of information about how the site is indexed and the problems that exist. From the blog post I rediscovered the feature of requesting the re indexing of a site in Google. A simple feature that can prompt Google to 'have another look' at your site. More details on this feature can be found here.

Having done this right away I also spent a few hours housekeeping on the site to check that all the content was OK, which keywords were performing well and checking for Title and meta tag errors. Despite the initial annoyance of all the hard work on 'disabled scooters' going astray, I found it such a useful experience to keep on top of the indexing stats and also to make sure that Google is happy.

Online Advertising is watching you!

2008-08-06T09:52:00.000-07:00

"Wake up Neo...the Matrix has you".

Or should this be, "Wake up Stu...Phorm has you"??

For those of you who don't know what Phorm is, beware. This is a system that tracks your browsing behaviour in order to better target advertisements to you. Whilst the technology is totally sound, it is my belief that this really does violate the rights of privacy. I for one am a bit wary of having my browsing behaviour tracked - not for having any guilty secrets I might add! The main reason is the end result...advertising. Despite being in the Internet Marketing industry, I still don't like getting junk mail. If I had a product and/or site that I'm interested in then I more than happy to receive interesting stuff from them. I think the main problem arises when I get sent things that I don't want.

Maybe because I'm a bit of a control freak but I like to think that I'm in control of what is being sent to me. Even more alarming is that 3 main ISPs have already signed up for it...one of which is my ISP. Users of Firefox and the amazing Ad Block Plus are more than likely not happy with this 'service' and certainly not me.

It also seems that I'm not the only one who is weary of Phorm as the EU have voiced their concerns as well. Read an article all about Phorm and the e-petition on this BBC article

No content = no rankings!

2008-08-05T09:30:00.000-07:00

I've been a bit slack recently and not done any posts. I have a defence, honest! Actually there are two good reasons for making a good point about not writing a post recently, both of which are deliberate to emphasise why I haven't written a post (again honest!)

Firstly, by checking my rankings for 'online marketing Nottingham' for this blog I was annoyed and frustrated in a way only SEO people get about losing a ranking spot. Its hard to criticise yourself for not achieving and its much easier to do it about other websites, competitors and sites that are used for research. Tut tut you haven't done anything recently. No latest news, no content updates and no navigation changes! There's the reason why you've fallen out of the rankings. In my case it was because I haven't got my behind into gear and written a blog post!

So that is reason numero uno for making a point. I didn't update my blog and look what happened. Other competitor sites are rubbing their hands together in glee as I tumble down to page 2. Sometimes its hard to keep a blog momentum and I have this conversation with clients all the time. My reply is always; if you want you blog to work for you, you need to find the time to update it with original content. There you go! Don't follow my example!

Point number two. Is it better to have something that is actually nothing then to have nothing at all? What I mean by this is the delightful, "website under construction" or even better "content to follow shortly". A page greeted with this text or graphic really isn't doing much. I've found some websites that have been this way for a long time and never actually got around to creating the content. Even better, you can wait for eons for something to appear only for it to dissappear! How do people expect to rank for their targeted keywords when there is nothing there to start with? Its all about content. Don't follow by my example...deliberate example!!

Next time I'll put this image here to make my point.

Metafocus Global Online Marketing

2008-07-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

We've very proud at Metafocus that our new website for International Internet Marketing is now live! There has been a lot of new design elements that have gone into the new site and our services for companies wanting to export online including our portfolio of Chinese to English and English to Chinese websites. We've built up our expertise over the years in understanding the best methods of translating a website and also using advanced local SEO techniques to market websites in a desired country.

The new site is full of examples of how we do this and also what we can do. We pride ourselves on the fact that we produce complete international online marketing solutions tailored to any country that you wish to work with that work on every level.

Sub Directory or Sub Domain - eh and what?

2008-07-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

Something I've been doing all week, including the latter half of last week also, was looking at the internationalisation of domains. Now that our new Metafocus Global website has been launched, we're looking at the best methods of helping our clients reach out to their global customers with online marketing. As we've built a few successful multilingual websites, we have looked at the best way for a business to represent themselves both to their chosen audience and also to the search engines.

The first issue to consider even before the website has been built is how the Domain is going to be organised. Say, for example, a company wants to appeal to the Chinese market and have a Chinese translation of their website. Obviously you want to have a dedicated area that has the content in Chinese, but this can be done using a Top Level Domain (TLD), a Sub Domain or a Sub Directory. I'll go through each in turn:

A TLD is a new domain for your business, www.business-china.com. This will essentially be a new site that can be hosted in your targeted country, i.e. China.
A Sub Domain is a new domain that is part of your existing domain; http://china.business.co.uk/
A Sub Directory is part of your existing site located in a folder; www.business.co.uk/china

I won't go into too much detail about each as this would be a very long post indeed. Instead you can find a good overview of it at the Matt Cutts blog.

What is interesting about the three approaches is how they are currently being used by some international websites. Amazon is a good example of focusing a domain to the targeted country, as they have a dedicated domain for the UK www.amazon.co.uk. When it comes to translating a new site into a different language Yahoo! have made use of the Sub Domains. For example Yahoo! in France is found at http://fr.yahoo.com. The advantage of this is that this will appear in the local search engines, for example in Google.fr:

A different approach is used by both Microsoft and Adobe by using the Sub Directory. www.adobe.com/de/ for example is a translated site into German and targeted towards the German market. This is a good method for making the site manageable in terms of content management but the obvious issue with this is concerned with duplicating the site and making it twice, or in the case of Adobe 100 times, as large.

There are also SEO factors associated with which method you will use. Again I could write a lot on this also, so have a look at these Google results and read some of the Forums for people's opinions about the SEO of different domains.

There are many factors that can influence which strategy to use for an international domain. I personally believe it comes down to how much time and investment you have. With the TLD being the best option, its really down to the time and effort of the company. But then again, both Adobe and Microsoft are hardly short of either and use the simplest, quickest option. A good blog explaining the different strategies is this particular blog. I suppose the answer is in what each business wants for its global online strategy. I hope this helps :-)

When all else fails - go back to basics.

2008-07-18T09:12:00.000-07:00

Always at the end of the week there is a lot of loose ends to tie up. My regular routine of managing my SEO accounts is to check how the work I've been doing during the week has progressed in the SERPs. Sometimes its a cause of great frustration that certain updates or strategies seem to take forever to make an impact and then other things that you happen to do on the fly just meracuslously appear at the top of the lists. So is the industry of SEO and Online Marketing.

After reading through the numerous newsletters I've subscribed to, there seemed to be a theme of the basics of SEO and reminding people that when all else doesn't seem to work - go back to basics. One of the articles that I read on Sphinn really caught my attention. It was all about 5 easy SEO tips, you can read the full article here. What really caught my attention was the back to basics approach. I'm a bit of a sucker when it comes to making sure that I'm doing the right thing. I often read the SEO overviews to make sure I have all the bases covered.

Anyhow, the back to basics approach turned out to be a real winner. Looking at a few client's keywords positions, I decided to take an indepth 'audit' of the websites in turn and make sure things were being done right. As it happens there were many areas that needed improvement and fine tuning. URLs, link text, copy changes, Header reviews and sitemap improvements. It was quite the refreshing change from going on the all out link assault and blog offensive (which are in fact good tactics in their own right). The main lesson I learned from this week was not to forget looking at the SEO basics.

Also this week:

I'm now an official Mac user.
I've just joined Twitter - who needs Facebook?
Back to basics is essential
Mini celebration for the hard work that went into making a site successful - and it is
So far so good.
Metafocus Global is coming!

Fruit is always better for you...

2008-07-16T06:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I moved away from the darkside. I've been considering to do it for a while and my decision to do so was not only out of necessity but also out of sheer frustration. Here's some of my issues that led to my decision:

The word 'crash ' is all too familiar
Unreliability
Upgrade to the new version that starts with 'V' - no way!
Performance issues, speed slowing down on a daily basis
Updates. Update this, update that...general updating.
Defragmentation
"A fatal error has occured and xxx needs to shut down. Please report this problem"

Can you guess what it is yet? Switching to Apple Mac was made a whole lot easier when I booted up to a welcome error concerning Windows Explorer and a problem of the latest Windows update that has corrupted the firewall settings. See more about this latest problem here.

The saddest thing about moving from PC is that I don't regret the decision. It was a lot of money mind you, but then again the hassle I'll save will be all worth it. Up until yesterday I was the only member of the Online Marketing team not to be on Mac. Not that I want to be a sheep and follow the crowd but having explored and researched it for enough time it was definitely the right decision.

What is great about the development of the web is that it is the traditional operating system less and less important. With so much technology being put into the Web and Google making steps to increase its services of applications, the need to be Windows bound is no longer necessary. The beauty of working on the web (as the Online Marketing industry mainly does) there isn't any real need for many Windows applications. As long as I can access the internet and use my SEO tools, nothing is impossible. Let the fun begin...I hope!

Gap Year Sports Online

2008-07-14T01:07:00.000-07:00

Its great when you can really say a lot about a website - something that's different, something that's really marketable and above all a really strong brand. Sport Lived is a website with that certain mix of excitement about it. Now launched with a new website, new brand and developed online strategy, Sport Lived is destined to make a big impression in the Gap Year arena.

Having done a gap year myself, I'm aware of many of the different programmes available and that there are a lot of company's out there doing it. What I love most about Sport Lived is the different type of programmes available. Its quite easy to think that a gap year is just about teaching English or wildlife conservation, sometimes something not all of us are either wanting or capable of doing. Sport Lived believe that a gap year should be one of the most exciting, fulfilling experiences of your life; the chance to make new friends, live in a lively city and most importantly, develop and find the true you.

What better way to achieve this by spending a gap year playing and coaching sport? Doing something you love on a daily basis together with the thrill of living abroad. The tailored programmes allow Sport Lived to cater for individuals of all sporting abilities. Whether you want to coach school kids, train hard to improve your own game or just have fun playing your favourite sport in a new environment, there is a programme to suit you. Such a variety of sports are available, such as coaching netball, hockey coaching or even play cricket.

All of the countries to which the programmes are run are renowned for their al fresco, action-packed approach to life and are perennially popular with travellers from all over the globe. Sports coaching courses like rugby in New Zealand, also give participants the chance to explore much more of these spectacular countries thus combining a passion for sort with fantastic travel opportunities. I can't think of a better way to spend a gap year Australia then playing sport and doing something I loved doing everyday.

Online Marketing Speciality for Hotels

2008-07-09T07:49:00.000-07:00

Quite often at Metafocus we find ourselves SEO experts on certain websites and businesses. One area that we definitely succeed in is Hotels and B&Bs in Derbyshire and Lincolnshire.

With a variety of different websites being managed us, we can always use the expertise from one website to the next. Our Derbyshire hotels include some fantastic places full of charm located in some quaint villages. Firstly, Holly Cottage is traditional English Bed and Breakfast located in Pilsley Village in the heart of the Chatsworth Estate. The splendours of the Peak District are also on the doorstep with local villages and glorious scenery.

Also located within Derbyshire is Whitton Lodge. Being a small, friendly family owned spa hotel in Derbyshire, Whitton Lodge is ideally located close to both the Peak District and Sherwood Forest. The hotel also boasts some fabulous facilities that include a heated indoor swimming pool, a sauna, a gym and a games room.

Perfect for a wedding venue in Derbyshire is Morley Hayes. Granted a licence to perform civil wedding ceremonies, Morley Hayes also offer a full catering service and hotel accommodation for civil weddings. Also on offer at this 4 star luxury accommodation is an expansive conference venue, fantastic bars and restaurants and also a professional golf course.

Rounding off our Derbyshire hotels is Cascades Gardens. People looking for Peak District Accommodation will not be disappointed with Cascades Gardens luxury bed and breakfast. The house dates back to 1832 and is set in a stunning 4 acre gardens set on many levels with a new garden room around every corner.

Across the other side of Nottingham in Lincolnshire are two more fantastic Hotels. One of the best places for accommodation Grantham is the Olde Barn Hotel. This charming rustic hotel is set in the beautiful countryside of Grantham in the heart of England. Perfectly located with excellent accessibility for those all-important business conferences and meetings or for exploring the area's many cultural sites and attractions.

Last on our list of Hotels, but certainly not least, is Manners Arms. This is a quintessential country inn, beautifully refurbished and managed by the Duke and Duchess of Rutland. We comprise a luxury hotel offering bed and breakfast Grantham and a bar and restaurant, all of the highest quality.

Its quite a long list but as you can see from each of the websites, we certainly know how to provide quality online marketing for the Hotel Industry.

Herbaceous Perennials for Summertime Colour

2008-07-08T06:11:00.000-07:00

I love the summer. I could talk all day about why but I'll try and get it concise enough for a single blog post. In fact, I can be very to the point as to why I love summer so much. It has to be down to one thing - colour. Sound strange? Let me explain...

Think of the typical English winter, cold, dark, wet, grey and generally very miserable (remember I did say that I hated winter!) You can really see it as a disastrous cascading effect cause by the lack of sunshine. Because of this everything dies out that isn't evergreen. The lack of sunlight means that most things die out and because of this everything appears grey. Therefore, there is lack of colour. Blue, red, green, yellow, purple etc. In fact, just the lack of green makes me feel sad.

Then summer arrives and all is well. The sunshine is back and with it all the colour of the trees and plants. Most definitely time for all to make the most of the amazing colour available and what better way is there than going to the countryside and viewing spectacular open gardens.

Once such place to view such amazing colourful flowers and plants is Cascades Derbyshire Garden. Situated in the heart of Derbyshire, there are so many beautiful flowers on show. In particular there is an amazing collection of choice and unusual herbaceous perennials. Hardy perennials are those which can stay out in the garden all year round and are resistant to frost. The Latin term 'perennis' means 'many years' - 'herbaceous perennials', simply means they 'disappear' in winter. The plants die back to a rootstock where next year's shoots are protected, as the weather warms up in the spring the flowers start to grow back.

Other flowers that are on view include hellebores that are always blooming with an almost infinite colour range. Colours can range from pure white through to deepest purple/black, including all shades of pink, cream, primrose-yellow, smokey purple and pinkish red. Fantastic for the sun filled days!

One thing is for certain, a trip to Cascades Public Gardens will definitely fill your appetite for colour and the splendour of summer.

Firebug is back!

2008-07-05T04:18:00.000-07:00

So happy to have Firebug back in my add-ons! Its been a big hole in my SEO toolkit since I upgraded to Firefox 3 but now its back.

Something quite simple but its always the smallest things that you seem to miss the most...in my case it is anyway!

For those who don't use Firebug, I strongly suggest that you get your butt to the add-ons page and get it immediately! No pressure of course ha ha :-) You can find it by following the link here...

We also welcome Ben to the Metafocus blogs. Ben's blog is all about web design and development.

Marketing Software made easy with DM Play

2008-07-04T01:17:00.000-07:00

Direct Marketing takes on a whole new meaning with the innovative web to print direct mail gamecard from DM Play.

DM Play (from Perspektiv Markeing) is a web to print direct marketing tool specifically for the gaming and sales promotion industry, enabling users to launch a bespoke direct mail campaign straight from their desktop. At the heart of the mailer is a latex scratch off gamecard with an accompanying personalised message. With a wide variety of game mechanisms to choose from, including bingo, poker, slots, racing and soccer, the user can decide for themselves which scratchcard game would be best suited for their customers. The mailer and scratchcard are then tailored to the company’s own brand to develop a mailshot which is relevant and fun.

What makes DM Play really stand out is that it is completely flexible, allowing you to change the type of game card template, the number of winners, the prizes and even the time when it is sent. You can create a personalised and targeted campaign in minutes which means that you'll be able to see the response rates soar as you grab the attention of the users more effectively than any traditional DM campaign ever could.

The four key benefits of this marketing software are:

Rocketing response rates; pinpointing more than just a single person and adding in magic and intrigue
Success that's measurable; something that is every businesses dream!
You're in control; you can define how every part of the campaign will look and work
Stop the clock; create a campaign in minutes and send it out within 48 hours.

Ever though of a scratchcard gaming solution that could change the way your customers interact with your business? Why not visit DM Play to see a live demo today.

SEO with PPC for SEM to score high on SERPs and Achieve high ROI

2008-06-30T08:23:00.000-07:00

It may sound like a typical industry set of acronyms - and it is really - but in the context of online marketing it all makes perfect sense. We in the Search Engine Marketing (SEM) industry basically use each one to compliment each other in a sort of global strategy for websites and businesses online. Consider each one in turn:-

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) encompasses so many different things that its completely necessary to abbreviate it. As a website owner, you either come across it at the very beginning or you find out the hard way that your website cannot live without it! Consider the illustration below:

SEO also fits into the broader strategy of online marketing, or as mentioned above SEM. This includes Pay Per Click advertising (PPC) as the major marketing arena of online marketing. Those who start a brand new website should invest in PPC at the beginning stages to ensure that their SEM strategy is being executed.

After which the broader activity of SEO begins to move the strategy towards achieving high in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). This leads to the ultimate goal of all online business to achieve the maximum Return on Investment (ROI).

In a nutshell, a successful website uses a formulae:

SEM (SEO + PPC) + SERPs = ROI

Quite simple...but then again best left for the experts in online marketing to make it all happen for you!

Anaeorbic Digestion Technology - Recruitment Drive

2008-06-25T08:53:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered what other forms of energy are out there? In particular, renewable energy? We all hear a lot about solar power, wind farms and bio-fuel but what about other sources of energy?

One such energy source is Anaerobic Digestion Technology to produce electricity from Biogas. This is not as complicated as it sounds. This is basically the treatment of organic waste products to produce gasses. These methane gasses can then be harnessed to produce electricity - and a clean form of electricity.

With so much importance on society to develop new ways of producing energy and reducing our carbon footprint, it is encouraging to find that there are ways of developing renewable energy. Monsal are a specialist environmental technology company that provides environmental products, technology and research for waste products. They are so dedicated to making a difference to the environmental challenges that they are having a recruitment drive to find other dedicated people who want to make a difference.

So much is needed to make renewable energy more prevalent and Monsal need talented people to aid their growth. There is a chance to make a difference and this is your chance to become a part of it! Why not visit www.monsal.com and be a part of the largest growth sector in the UK.

Technorati Registration Monster - Part II

2008-06-19T08:47:00.000-07:00

I concur with Mr Ed's problem...

Don't let this put you off of course!

Hotel in Lincolnshire embraces YouTube

2008-06-19T03:27:00.000-07:00

One of our clients recently embraced Web 2.0 very enthusiastically. Much to my delight as it give not only a chance to improve the online marketing and brand awareness for the site but also for the Hotel's customer relations and overall image.

Being a luxury hotel in Lincolnshire, appearance is key and what better way to demonstrate your services and amenities than having a video. Vital to marketing any website is using a variety of different media effectively. As the Olde Barn Hotel has a variety of facilities, such as Health Spa and Gym, pool and being a top being a wedding venue near Lincolnshire using video is a fantastic way of capturing your audience and show your facilities first hand.

Have a look below at the YouTube video on one of the Hotel's conference suites. Sites that take time to embrace Social Media are definitely worth a visit!

Increased conversions for Mobility Scooters

2008-06-17T04:00:00.000-07:00

Running an e-commerce site, there is always something that remains paramount in everything you do...increase conversion! Not only should the website be designed and built in an accessible way, the content should be clear and helpful, the products easy to find and more importantly it should be easy to make a purchase. Online marketing plans for all business' should consider their customer's experience.

Internet shoppers are very e-commerce savvy, which means that ecommerce owners must be constantly aware of their customer's needs. In a fiercely competitive marketplace, its not always price that can turn someone from just browsing to a conversion. There are two kinds of people shopping on the internet; those who casually look around and can be a customer if they are persuaded and those who know exactly what they are looking for.

The latter are definitely the people that you want to catch and this involves making the shopping process as simple as possible. From viewing the product information to selecting purchase, the latter stages can make all the difference. A big question to ask of your site is 'how simple is my checkout'? Think about the shopper's experience from start to finish.

Is it clear what I need to do?
Are there too many stages?
Do I need to enter in my information too many times?
Is the security apparent?
Do I need to create an account?
How long will this take?

How does your site fare? Good, bad, frustrating, quick, simple, slow?

We at Metafocus have worked recently at improving one of our client's shopping basket and checkout process. The problem was around people being required to 'register' before they can actually purchase disabled scooters. Working closely with Mobility Buddy, we found that a lot of their customer’s needs were not being met at the checkout stage.

To improve the overall experience, the shopping checkout no longer has a ‘register now and login’ page. The customer simply proceeds to a page for entering in their billing information, then a second stage to enter in the account details and the process is complete! Aiding the customer is a breadcrumb trail to visualise every stage of the process and an option to log in or create an account at the first stage. This gives the shopper a quick and easy purchase experience without being forces to create yet another username and password. On the other hand it also gives the customer an option to create an account for the future and lets face it, having such a pleasant and hassle free experience will have a positive influence on deciding to create an account.

In summary, do you need to force people to create an account? By giving people the option to do so is far more appealing and easier to capture the savvy and the casual browser in one easy stage. Which sounds more appealing, ‘Register Now’ or ‘Buy Now’?

Blogging for Glory!

2008-06-11T07:15:00.000-07:00

When we sit down with prospective clients, one of the key SEO methods that we really pay great attention to is the importance of running a blog. What is really important to point out here is that I said 'running' a blog and not just 'having' a blog. We see time and time again companies that start a blog or a news section on their site, only for it to be left untouched, forgotten about and gathering dust. What a missed opportunity is what we always say.

Running a blog, i.e. updating it and adding posts on a daily/weekly basis, can do so much. Not only for online branding and reputation but also for talking to your website audience and not to mention the SEO benefits. Google absolutely loves blogs and for good reason. They give fresh content, rich in media and can generate their own community. Google thinks they are so important that they even purchased Blogger.com!

Where as your website's content is more than likely static and changes once in a blue moon (in most cases "last updated 2006"), a regular blog updates on a weekly or daily basis. The best part is that they can be used for absolutely anything; news, views, opinions, feelings, reviews or just a plain "nothing to say today but I'll write something soon". Websites that are succeeding in using their blog are the ones who actively embrace it as part of their business. Communicating a company goal or sharing customer feedback about a new product is all the blog needs to make it successful.

We at Metafocus not only run our own blog but actively create, promote and optimise several of our clients blogs. There are a multitude of methods of getting a blog out into the WWW Metafocus can help you achieve your goals. Ultimately, businesses need to embrace the power of their blog and really capture their users on a more personal level. Why not see some examples of blogs that we maintain:

Things to look forward to......

2008-05-29T07:48:00.000-07:00

Whilst thinking about certain areas of SEO and Online Marketing, I started to think further ahead of what rankings my websites are currently enjoying and looked at how my job was going to change in years to come.

As anyone in this industry knows, the Online Marketing world changes and develops on a daily basis. It takes a lot of resilience to come up with a set of strategies and then be prepared to drop them the next day in favour of a complete set of new ones...but that is the SEO and SEM industry. On the other hand it makes things quite exciting and always changing. The most exciting one is seeing how things develop and what we'll be doing tomorrow.

Reading today's blogs, it became apparent that the future of the web is actually...the web! Sound confusing? What I mean by that is Microsoft's successor OS, Windows 7, is set for release around 2010. Cast your mind back to before the release of Vista, you might remember MS saying that it was to be the last of the operating systems. Obviously not.

Google have demonstrated their IO, as a rival to the Apple iPhone and the mobile browsing technology. Also hot from the Google camp is news that the future of operating systems is basically an internet interface. This makes the above news of the new Windows OS as a bit of a mystery? Will we look forward to a OS free laptop/desktop and work through the browser solely?

One thing is for certain, things to look forward to are all exciting as the next step of the web will shortly be upon us. Personally, I'm looking forward to the release of Firefox 3 and a switch in operating systems! Metafocus will be busy embracing the new developments with much more to follow on the power of Blogs. More to follow soon........