Why I was working all over Christmas and the New Year Wednesday, 20 January 2010

Now you know why I was working all over Christmas and the New Year. I was working away on my new Tourism Site Fix website which has now changed from asp to php! Hopefully the changes will not cause the loss of any of my search engine rankings especially my longstanding Google #1 position for “Tourism website design” the 301 redirects will help everything settle down smoothly.

Launched today! 20th January 2010 It has been a marathon, just transferring each page across to the new template took forever. To compound it all, like spring cleaning, it’s only when you look closely you see how everything has got dusty! Well in terms of my website it all looked dated so I need to go through all of it with a fine tooth comb to weed out the old and update with some new stuff.

Notably new is of course Social Media, a term that hadn’t been thought of when TSF mark 1 was made. I have also done a little on site offering for a number of fixed price optimisation packages specifically for small business websites, especially in the tourism accommodation sector. I do plan to use my website from now on, keep it updated and not neglected it as so many busy professional people websites are!
Thanks for your help with the changes Steve I am eternally grateful.

Bucking the Trend Shedding Clients Monday, 12 January 2009

I must be the only business in the UK presently shedding clients but with more SEO work coming in and it becoming more and more involved if good results are to be achieved for clients, then something has to give.
I often get emails from India based companies with 60 or 200 staff touting for work, but the standard is pitifully low on my experience and there is always subttle language barriers.
My office is just too small to house staff! and i really dont want an office in town so i keep small and specialised. Do what I do best, shed the rest.
Personal contact with clients and an intimate knowledge of their business is what I like in order to enthusiastically work on building their online reputation. This has disadvantages of course for clients in that it costs a bit more than the run of the mill India based SEO. But hey, whats money when one can afford to shed clients!

Trying to please everyone Tuesday, 24 July 2007

Success in the Search engine optimisation business has its own pitfalls. Getting customers websites on to page one of the major search engines is every web site marketing businesses aim, and Google gives us the vast majority of traffic to our customers websites so I look to them first for results, though I never under value the traffic coming to our sites from the other major players, MSN Yahoo etc.

The other day whilst doing some searching I found a page where seven the ten top results were for web pages that I have optimized, from several different sites, this, and something that was said by Jill Whalen www.highrankings.com started me thinking. Ok I admit it, that initially the feeling is WOW!! and at the same time an involuntary smug sort of grin spreads across the face. (well it was a Google results page) Anyway, Jill had said in an article I read recently something about limiting the number of clients she takes on that are competing for the same business. I realised that I am starting to compete with myself for my own customer’s high rankings and that I need to do something before it becomes embarrassing.

I have been in Scottish tourism industry for a number of years and started Tourism Site Fix primarily to specialise in tourism web optimisation and design working from home here on the shores of Loch Ness in the Highlands of Scotland. Going back again to what Jill said, I think the time could come when I have to limit the number of each type of accommodation provider customers that I accept, at least on a local level, which would be a pity after spending many hours chasing local business. I also optimise and maintain other types of tourism business sites for example Jacobite.co.uk who do cruises on Loch Ness as well as tours to other visitor attractions in the Highlands. What would I say if a direct competitor of Jacobite asked me to do the same for them!! There are only four or five Loch Ness Cruise companies, could I possibly accept a contract like that ? In the same way this could manifest itself with web design, as we always optimise new websites, our customers will be competing against each other with sites that have all come from my desk.

I imagine hoards of ex customers forming a lynch mob outside my door all blaming me for not delivering what I promised, and all wanting my head to roll. I can justify my position though and accept this possibility without any guilt, this is why. The ongoing success of web sites that get to the top of the search engine organic rankings and remain there for months and years at a time is due to the level of input of a business into the web site. I think I can safely say this; a website that is regularly maintained, developed and updated with new content will achieve long term success. No matter how good a site starts out it will eventually be overtaken in the rankings if it is neglected. Getting a new killer website is just the beginning. However, I still need to do something to limit the number of same occupation businesses I take on from a local point of view!