Engage Web December 2010 - Engage Web

Your New Year’s SEO Resolution

Posted on December 31, 2010

As another year draws to a close it’s time for many to take stock of the year that has just gone, and look towards 2011 with a sense of optimism, belief and determination. For people running their own business 2011 looks to be a promising year as the recession is well and truly behind us and the economy is expected to improve steadily.

Of course, if your business has a website this means very little if nobody is actually looking at it. One of the biggest things to come out of this, and indeed any, recession is the number of new business start-ups. As we’re in the technological age the large majority of these new businesses (and you may very well be one of them) will have got themselves a website to help promote their new venture. However, as is also the case with many new business start-ups, these websites will (more…)

Posted by Carl Hopkinson

The Greengrocer’s Apostrophe and Other Hazards

Posted on December 30, 2010

The term “greengrocer’s apostrophe” has come to refer to the incorrect use of an apostrophe to form a plural, presumably originating in the numerous signs outside shops advertising “apple’s”, “pear’s” and so on. This slightly humorous term pokes fun at the small grammatical errors that can seriously undermine the image of a business. Using a greengrocer’s apostrophe will tell anyone who’s paying attention that there’s some slight incompetence at work, and can seriously change the intended tone of (more…)

Posted by Jenny C

The Invisible Grammar Monster

Posted on December 30, 2010

grammar_monster There’s something stalking your search engine optimisation content, and it’s not pleasant. It’s impossible for most people to see, but they detect it nonetheless. The biggest companies have hired trained experts to hunt this creature down, but smaller companies are rarely equipped with a defender who will fight this invisible monster roaming the net. It’s up to their owners to develop the skills and summon the courage to confront this silent, stalking traffic-killer… the Invisible Grammar Monster.

The thing is, you don’t need to know the words of grammar to know when something’s wrong. Plenty of people who can’t even spell ‘apostrophe’ will recognise when one has been misplaced. You don’t need to know what a gerund is to know that (more…)

Posted by Cheryl Mathews

How do you transfer ownership of a .co.uk domain?

Posted on December 29, 2010

One of the most common problems we come across with regards to business websites is where a domain name, a .co.uk domain name, has been registered to an individual who no longer works for a company and the business in question wants to do something with the domain. The problem is that the person whose name is on the registration for a .co.uk domain is the legal owner, and ownership cannot be transferred away from them without their permission.

This means that whenever a business registers a .co.uk domain name, which is governed by Nominet, the business itself should be listed as the legal owner, not one of the directors, the person in charge of IT or the web design or SEO company. If the domain is registered to one person, and they leave the employment of the company, they can take the domain name with them.

Even if you do manage to persuade the registered owner of the domain name to transfer ownership, it’s (more…)

Posted by Carl Hopkinson

Are you a shark or a clown fish in SEO?

Posted on December 28, 2010

Nemo and Bruce Sharks are incredibly efficient animals. Everything about their bodies has helped them become the deadly predators they are, from their sharp serrated teeth right down to their sandpaper-like skin, which helps them move more swiftly through the water. It’s not just one thing about a shark that makes it so dangerous to its prey. It’s everything.

Your average shark is a lesson in nature about many parts moving together. This is something you need to pay attention to if you want your SEO to succeed.

A good SEO plan is one that (more…)

Posted by Cheryl Mathews

Getting Your Own Ghost Writer

Posted on December 27, 2010

When you look at the selection of bestselling books nowadays, a huge number of the biggest titles are ghost written, especially the celebrity memoirs that never seem to be out of the top of the book charts. The books may give a faithful account of the celebrity’s life and relationships but, because there’s a professional writer present in the process, they’re also a lot more readable than they may have been if left in the hands of the celebrities themselves. Ghost writing is so commonly used now that there’s a degree of openness about it that (more…)

Posted by Cheryl Mathews

The power of lulz

Posted on December 27, 2010

Lolcats has its own translation of the Bible. This has been pointed out before, but I really think it needs to be pointed out again. Lolcats has its own translation… of the Bible.

This is either the coolest thing in the world, or the most tragic. Maybe it’s a little of both.

There are some powerful examples of the power of humour on the net, and the lolcats language is just one of them. FAILblog had to put up a disclaimer for the first time this year when its central concept was used (more…)

Posted by Cheryl Mathews

The Dr. Frankenstein method of site uploads

Posted on December 26, 2010

It’s dark. Rain lashes against a window. Lightning flares and, in the chilly room, you see a tall, gaunt figure in a white lab coat. The figure reaches out a trembling hand to a switch. It grasps – flicks the switch – and then…

Your website is uploaded.

The best work is done in the middle of the night. This applies not just to the raising of the strangely reconstructed dead by mad scientists, but also to the raising of the average website.

Work best done in the dead of night

Uploading your site’s pages after search engine optimisation is an extremely vulnerable time for your site. As you probably already know, all sorts of things can go wrong when you upload reworked pages. When you have to change whole sections, as occurs with SEO, the potential for disaster increases. This is why those in SEO get used to late nights and performing intricate tests when they (more…)

Posted by Cheryl Mathews

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