Receptional Blog

Welcome to the Receptional Blog where you can read the latest insights by Receptional on various aspects of the internet marketing industry.

Reciprocal Link Building is Still Strong

02/09/2009 - 12:39

Link exchange appears to be a dying trend in the link building industry, at least according to Google Insight figures. This could be due to the increase in searches for "link building" in recent times or some of the misconceptions about reciprocal link building. However, exchanging links is still a strong form of link building. The Myths... Read more...

Why Invest in Pay Per Click During A Recession

28/08/2009 - 12:54

With the global financial crisis that has seen many businesses go under, many redundancies made and that holiday to New York you were dreaming of go out the window, it is no wonder some people around us are panicking. But panicking is a mistake you should avoid. People are cutting back on advertising spend thinking they will save money. But... Read more...

Twitter Commercial Accounts – Coming Soon!

24/08/2009 - 12:48

It has been reported from the very mouth of Co-Founder of Twitter Biz Stone that Twitter is in the stage of being able to produce commercial accounts which businesses will be able to use with features such as tracking systems and a business minded application programming interface (API). This new functionality will not only persuade business users... Read more...

Intrusive Advertising – how long will it last?

24/08/2009 - 12:12

Latest news of the intrusive advertising being used on iphone applications got me thinking about how advertising is changing, and it has to! Advertising has to move with the ease for consumers to ignore, delete and block your advertising efforts if not done in a intelligent and related manner to offer them products and services which they are... Read more...

How To Use Twitter For Customer Service

19/08/2009 - 10:04

This is something that gets brought up again and again, usually due to the fact that 'Twitter-phob's' can't see how this is possible. Consider this, you have an online company, you are very keen in providing customer service, and your customers are online, are people going to ring you up if they have a problem or a question? Most wouldn't bother.... Read more...

Why Are My Pages Not Being Indexed?

17/08/2009 - 15:22

A regular issue to owners of new websites, and even a worry to some owners of older websites is when their internal pages and sometimes even their homepage are not being indexed by search engines. Why could your pages not be being indexed? Search engine spiders travel around the web and index as many of all the billions and billions of websites... Read more...

B2B Social Networking Case Study

17/08/2009 - 01:57

Who says social networking campaigns are better for B2C campaigns than B2B campaigns? I have spent a long week at Search Engine Strategies creating interest in Receptional and also in our new announcement, MajesticSEO - which is the largest and most comprehensive map for link building on the Internet after Google. Since Google doesn't share its... Read more...

Is the Content Network Cost Effective?

14/08/2009 - 12:09

Is the Content Network Cost-effective? The key question is how cost-effective is the content network in comparison to standard pay per click advertising? With 80% of online market reach, Google's content network is the world's largest advertising network, a fact they're justifiably happy with. The content network platform generates over six... Read more...

Twitter applications Part 1

12/08/2009 - 11:04

As most people who are active users of Twitter will know, the options for uses are endless and having lots of followers is an exciting prospect but how can you make sure that you are not going to get swamped with heaps of information, hundreds of emails for follower notices, thousands of Direct messages, and many @username Tweets which will most... Read more...

Facebook Buys Friendfeed in an attempt to take on Google and Twitter

11/08/2009 - 15:18

It has been announced yesterday that the largest social network in the world, Facebook.com has bought the growing social media start-up FriendFeed. Friend feed has much been attributed as the idea behind a lot of Facbook's new functionality and will offer Facebook the opportunity to work with some of Google's Ex-engineers who will be giving the... Read more...

The Advantages of Manual Directory Submission

10/08/2009 - 09:43

Manual Directory Submission vs Automated Submission While directories don't hold as much authority as they use to, they are still of good value to any link building campaign and they are still popular. Unfortunately, people and businesses are becoming lazier when it comes to submitting their own sites, and that's easy to do given the number of... Read more...

‘90% of content on twitter created by 10% of the users’ in relation to ‘pareto principle’

05/08/2009 - 15:51

Reading this you could be forgiven for thinking that 'this sounds like a title from a University Essay' but I was sent this interesting principle today by a colleague who pointed out how this principle related to the discovery that '90% of Twitter content is created by 10% of the users' from the Harvard study which surfaced a couple of months ago... Read more...

Teens Dont Tweet

05/08/2009 - 14:44

Now one of the top trending topics on twitter today was 'teens don't tweet' and after investigating what all this was about I see that this has to do with the stories that have been surfacing recently to do with the Morgan Stanley 'How teenagers consume the media' document (featured below). This document is very interesting and has been written... Read more...

The Risk of Three-Way Link Building

05/08/2009 - 11:50

Three-way link building has been highly popular in recent times. I'm one of many who get the regular message in your inbox telling you about the "latest way to get to number 1 on search engines" and how it's natural and that search engines won't penalise you etc etc. Well, only someone with little knowledge or experience in the link building... Read more...

The Benefits of Link Building

03/08/2009 - 11:05

Link building can be a difficult task for anyone with a lack of knowledge in this area, with the search engine algorithms becoming increasingly complex. You shouldn't hold back on your link building or search engine optimisation in general with competition levels always on the rise. As a link building specialist; it's second nature to know... Read more...

The Government and Twitter - Twitter Strategy for Government Departments

28/07/2009 - 11:38

I was interested to read the document (below) today which comes from the ‘Cabinet office blog’ a guest post by Neil Williamswho is the head of corporate digital channels at the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) (also on Twitter). It highlights how the microblogging site "is a low-barrier to entry, low-risk and low-resource... Read more...

Google Lowers Conversion Optimizer Threshold to 15 Conversions

24/07/2009 - 15:33

Google Adwords has just announced that it is lowering the threshold for using conversion optimizer from 30 to 15 conversions a month. This will open up the system to a broader range of advertisers that were previously only generating 15 to 30 conversions in a 30 day period from their AdWords activity. Considering that the original threshold was... Read more...

Using Social Bookmarking for Link Building

24/07/2009 - 14:04

Social bookmarking has grown rapidly over the past couple of years and some might say that it is now at its peak. Whilst it was originally designed as a chance for you to bookmark and share your favourite websites with others on the internet, it has become an increasingly popular way to create easy and free links to your own website. There are... Read more...

Google To Monetise Google Voice

23/07/2009 - 15:36

I have just been reading how Google plans to monetise its Google voice service and wondered if this would be the end of listening to wonderful hold music that am sure we have all grown to love! Google has just filed a patent called "Ringback Advertising" that has the capability to insert audio advertisements into your phone calls, with... Read more...

Google Adwords Conversion Tracking Vs Analytics Conversion Tracking

22/07/2009 - 15:33

It is not uncommon for clients to ask us what the difference is between these and why there is a discrepancy between the AdWords and Analytics conversion figures, so I thought I would explain why. No two tracking systems will ever provide the same data but this is normally acceptable when they're close enough for it to not be a major issue.... Read more...

Do you have Gay Tweets?

22/07/2009 - 09:18

Now this was a little thing which I came across this morning thanks to Mashable’s always interesting blog! It may from the outset seem a slightly strange thing to write a blog about but I just wanted to share this very clever piece of Social Media Marketing with you. This is a little quirky site created to promote the Stockholm Pride event at the... Read more...

Link Building Basics part II

21/07/2009 - 11:17

Fresh on the heels of the link building basics blog I posted last month, comes part 2, with more simple tips to help improve your knowledge and understanding of link building. This article will focus on the following topics:- Anchor Text- Page Rank - Location Anchor Text - The hypertext used for a link to your site is known as "anchor text", and... Read more...

Link Building Services in India

17/07/2009 - 13:50

I was surprised to see this week on Google's keyword tool that "link building India" is the sixth most popular search term when entering "link building", above key terms such as "one way link building" and "link building company". This implies that a general, outsourced strategy is more desirable than some specific link building techniques but why... Read more...

Find underperforming keywords: Yahoo Web Analytics for SEO

16/07/2009 - 10:19

This post is the first part of a series where we will be providing hands-on information as to how an SEO can get efficient, actionable web analytics data using the Yahoo Web Analytics system. How to find underperforming keywords: listings not on page 1 of search results Even for the most competitive keywords, page one of results is the place to... Read more...

Negative News Story About You? Turn To Social Media

16/07/2009 - 08:58

As most of you reading this will know, we have a news and blog group on Linkedin which has some very interesting discussions and posts. I read one this morning which I commented on and thought I would share this in a quick blog as it may be useful to quite a few people. The question posted in a discussion was from the owner of a villa rental... Read more...

Link Building Practices to Avoid

15/07/2009 - 15:34

Having already brought you the popular Link Building Basics article, I now want to highlight a list of common link building practices to avoid. Below is a list of methods used in the online marketing world that often result in bad publicity or penalties. Make sure you avoid these to keep a clean reputation and a good link building strategy in... Read more...

Free Yahoo Analytics Account

15/07/2009 - 13:05

Update: we're now out of quota for free accounts for July, but we'll be providing more accounts in the first week of August. First come first served, so you can increase your chances by subscribing to our rss feed or following us on Twitter (or both). Good luck, Andy We are not promising anything, but we notice that there is a bit of a clamour... Read more...

How Can Companies And Marketers Use Twitter To Find Relevant Content

09/07/2009 - 16:04

I gave a little presentation on Twitter yesterday and I wanted to highlight how every company can use Twitter to find current and relevant content which will be sent right to you. Twitter is a wonderful tool for this, finding the correct people to follow who post content and talk about subjects which interest you and are to do with your business... Read more...

Ways That Companies Can Use Twitter

09/07/2009 - 15:46

I gave a short presentation on Twitter yesterday to highlight the way that companies already use Twitter for ether customer service, marketing, promotion, education, themed posts, Affiliate marketing, brand building etc. Here are a few slides from my presentation.... Click Above slide for featured Article 'Dell Makes $3Millon for Twitter, what... Read more...

How To Use Twitter

09/07/2009 - 15:34

I did a little talk about Twitter yesterday as I think that every one should at least know how to use it and give it a go because anyone can get a use out of it. Here are a few quick slides to help all of you understand a bit more about the Twitter application so that you can all have a go and see what you think... Read more...

Google Announces Chome Operating System

09/07/2009 - 10:14

Around 9 months ago Google launched Chrome, their browser akin to Firefox & Internet Explorer. Chrome hasn't yet taken over the world of search but has seen some success in becoming people's browser of choice which is no mean feat considering the saturation of IE and Mozilla. On Tuesday 7th of July, they announced the Google Chrome Operating... Read more...

How Marketing Agencies Can Better Address The World For Clients

08/07/2009 - 15:49

I attended the Marketing Week Live, Online Marketing Show '09 at Olympia London and was surprised with the improvements made from last year’s Exhibition. I sat in on quite a few interesting discussions and presentations which were, I think, of great use to us as a business. I'll try and write more about this as I get the time. In my opinion, the... Read more...

Why Online Marketing Is The Future

07/07/2009 - 15:58

PayPal has recently released a very interesting report on online spending that predicts online shopping in Britain will rise from £8.9 billion to £21.3 billion in annual sales by the end of 2011. This forecast spend means every adult in the UK will be spending around £430 a year online (over double the current figure) and that £1 in every £14 will... Read more...

Twitter Enters the Dictionary

07/07/2009 - 15:35

I was sent a story from the Telegraph Newspaper Earlier today by a colleague which talks about ‘Twitter’ now being introduced into the English Dictionary! Not only does it have the generic ‘twitter’ but another 3 twitter related entries. This shows the reach of Twitter in today’s society, its inclusion in everyday life with the introduction of... Read more...

Checking for Clean Links

07/07/2009 - 11:57

Link building is often thought of as the least interesting part of someone's internet marketing or SEO campaign and occasionally the most difficult part too. Viral marketing campaigns don't always go to plan, link exchanges don't always get accepted, and spamming the internet isn't the best of approach to use either. The goal is to build "clean... Read more...

How to attract affiliates

05/07/2009 - 09:32

Web Marketing Today interviewed me at Pubcon in Las Vegas and I have only just seen it, after a lead came in from the website from a person that saw the interview. I hadn't realized that I was so sober at Pubcon! The interview discusses some of the techniques I have used for acquiring and supporting affiliates in the past. It's less than 10... Read more...

Using PPC to aid SEO

03/07/2009 - 09:55

Personally, I think PPC is wonderful. As long as you have good tracking in place the instantaneous nature of the data you can look into about your account's performance allows for quick updates and improvements and fewer lost opportunities. Besides the obvious up sides of using pay per click advertising it can also be used to gather quick data to... Read more...

Where SEO began in Europe

03/07/2009 - 09:27

In computer terms, the PC industry is reputed to have started at the homebrew club. Searchcowboys have published a guest post from me about how our industry started in the UK. If you were there, go on to the post and remind me and the world! If you still want to to come along to the reunion tomorrow, the Pubcon discount codes may still work. Dixon... Read more...

Link Building Basics

29/06/2009 - 15:29

The popularity of link building is ever-increasing, with marketers now finding it to be an important part of any online marketing campaign. Search engines currently place a big emphasis on the importance of links coming to your site as a factor in determining your ranking, therefore making it important to build the right kind of links. A basic... Read more...

Click Vs Visits- Why The Discrepancy?

25/06/2009 - 15:51

Many people often look at Google Analytics, or other tracking systems, and wonder why there is a discrepancy between the number of clicks from PPC ads and the number of visits (also called sessions). Below we look at 5 reasons for this discrepancy but before we mention these it is important to remember that ‘clicks' represent the number of times a... Read more...

New Google Mobile Specifically Made for Social Networking

25/06/2009 - 09:03

The New Google phone which launches in the UK Next month will has been specifically designed to work for Social Networking. It has integrated Google's free and open source Android software which allows the use of the users address book to send twitter and Facebook messages. HTC Hero On Orange (Above) T-Mobile G1 Touch (... Read more...

Inline Google API testing

25/06/2009 - 08:50

Do Internet Marketing Companies seem to think they KNOW something that you don't? If so - sorry about that. You happen to have stumbledupon a little test we are running. Feel free to enjoy or look away now :) Below is a map of camps and lodges in the Okavango Delta using Google Maps with an API. The test is to make sure that maps using an API key... Read more...

Google To Test New Product Ads

24/06/2009 - 14:56

Google have announced that they will be inviting users to test their latest advertising format "product ads", which will work alongside their existing search results and will include product and pricing information as opposed to the standard 3 lines of marketing text currently used on the Google network. Apart from the new format being visually... Read more...

Should Google Step In To Stop The Scammers?

24/06/2009 - 14:18

Sky news have reported in the last few hours of a site using paid search on Google to effectively trick people into believing they need to pay for a free security check when visiting the US- visit the link here. The article reports that the site is ‘on the brink of being banned' by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and questions have been... Read more...

E-commerce Sites: 5 Ways to turn traffic into sales

22/06/2009 - 14:12

We deal with a lot of eCommerce sites but it is surprising how many eCommerce sites are not making the most of the traffic they receive and are missing out on sales as a result. The eCommerce advice that follows might sound obvious but they can seriously damage your website conversions if not done well. Here are my top 5 means of improving your... Read more...

Building Links on Social Networks

18/06/2009 - 16:06

Social Networks have been on the rise over the past couple of years, with the latest successes being Facebook and Twitter. Originally popular with the younger generation, used for messaging, photo sharing and finding friends, the social network has seen a lot of changes recently, now popular amongst the older generation and businesses. Businesses... Read more...

What's the best tool to find backlinks?

18/06/2009 - 14:38

The over-riding question is why you do you want backlink data? Let's assume the reason is because you want better performance in organic search - probably Google. The question then becomes, how do I find backlinks that increase performance in Google? We then need to define the characteristics of such a link: - ... Read more...

Thoughts on SEO Content Writing

18/06/2009 - 14:29

If a website is a body then the content of the site is surely the heart & circulatory system. Well written, keyword focused (without spamming), informative and concise page content is as an integral part of optimising a site's performance as any other measure you can take. Anyone reading your site is almost guaranteed to have arrived there by... Read more...

The emergence of social media as a direct marketing channel

17/06/2009 - 14:35

Social media is fast establishing itself as a direct marketing channel and as such should be considered a valuable tool for any brand conscious and marketing savvy company. Social media is the hot area within online marketing, with ever more businesses looking to directly and interactively communicate with their customers it offers the ability to... Read more...

Which search engine do you really like best?

17/06/2009 - 12:56

It's often hard to do away with personal bias when evaluating the quality of search results across different search engines - you may be more familiar with the interface of a particular engine, which skews your perception of what is genuinely most relevant, or you may just like seeing your own sites and pages in the top spot. Of course, relevance... Read more...

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