When you’re talking with your friends, the last thing you’d expect or even want, is for a stranger to come and interrupt you mid sentence by shouting about how great they are. If they did want to join in with your conversation, their best tactic would be hang round in similar places as you, become familiar with your interests and wait for the right moment to politely introduce themselves. Next they should ask a few questions about you and most importantly LISTEN so they can start to understand your likes and dislikes. Then you probably wouldn’t mind if they started offering useful related stories and information in the flow of the conversation. How about they then used all the information they had learnt and threw a party – where the food and music were exactly to your taste. You’d probably go. And you’d probably bring your like minded mates with you. And during the party you’d also probably be happy to listen to the host with an open mind about what they have to...

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HSBC launched The  Future of Business 2011 report last Thursday and we were pleased to be mentioned. A fair chunk of the report was focused on the prospect of a manufacturing renaissance but digital communications, biotechnology and low-carbon industries were also heavily featured. The report describes Brighton as an ‘alternative economy super-city' and a 'dynamic centre for innovative companies forging novel ways of doing business'. Sounds about right. We were featured as one of Brighton's 'new breed of online marketing agencies'. Jack Hubbard, then our MD and now our CEO, is quoted a few times and if you want more detail you can find a copy of the report here But if you like things short and to the point let's just say that our company values - fun, adventure, innovation, creativity and wellbeing - are what got us noticed in the first place and keep us focused on the opportunities the report...

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I think you spend far too much time worrying about Google’s algorithm. Not you personally but search professionals generally. Even Google thinks you spend far too much time worrying. "One piece of advice I give to SEO masters is, don't chase after Google's algorithm, chase after your best interpretation of what users want, because that's what Google's chasing after." The above quote is courtesy of Google's Matt Cutts and it's obvious stuff really. Google has something like a 90% share of the UK search market and it would very much like to maintain and even improve on this because, simply put, advertisers follow their customers (and have to pay for the privilege). It's good, old-fashioned economics in action. And it's a good, old-fashioned onsite content opportunity that you can take advantage of. Serving up the results that deliver the compelling and useful content that people want is what will protect and amplify Google's power. And those businesses...

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Search is evolving. More and more marketers understand that the technical configuration part of SEO, although essential, is not the entirety of any good SEO strategy. But there’s one thing that hasn’t evolved and shows little sign of changing yet – initial contract duration.   It will be interesting to see if this changes as knowledge of SEO best practice becomes widespread within marketing departments. While a contract lasting 12 months may have seemed sensible when companies were focusing almost exclusively on the technical configuration part of SEO, the landscape is completely different now, and yet a typical initial agreement is likely still to be for only 12 months.  There are a number of reasons why I think this will inevitably change, to the benefit of both agency and client: 1. SEO is a creative discipline There is a large amount of creative work required to deliver top-quality SEO, both to deliver authoritative external content and to increase...

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