Working as a PR consultant in a SEO agency, I get sent requests from journalists on a daily basis. These requests for stories, products or just general information can often result in fantastic (linked) coverage for our clients on high-profile websites such as Handbag.com and Guardian.co.uk but recently I've noticed more and more requests coming in from, shall we say, less traditional media outlets... Retailers! In the past few weeks alone, I've spotted Boden seeking contributions for its 'new community blog' and Dune looking for 'fabulous products, across all luxury lifestyle sectors for placement in the Dune Loves grid'. It's refreshing to see - because at long last it means that fashion retailers are recognising that in such competitive online selling spaces, product alone is simply not enough to bring traffic to your website, engage shoppers and convince them to buy. Product alone won't keep them coming back either. But quality content will. Take a look at...

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You can always rely on the good old British weather to sabotage a summer barbecue, but our travel blogger friends refused to be defeated! We teamed up with Matt Preston from Travel With A Mate and the Brighton Thistle Hotel to organise an event for the Travel Blogger Meetup Group, and it was a fantastic success with 20 or so travel bloggers attending. The evening kicked off with beers and a barbecue on the beach - at least while there was some sunshine - before heading over to the Thistle Hotel which had kindly given us use of its exclusive penthouse suite for the evening. More networking (and drinking) ensued while we enjoyed what must be one of the best views in Brighton. It wasn't all about looking out of the window... we had a great discussion about how bloggers and PRs can work better together. Some useful points were shared (including a list of bloggers' pet hates) and they're deserving of a separate post, which we'll get out next week. In the meantime,...

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Larry Page's timing is impeccable. In his first full quarter since becoming chief executive, the Google co-founder has just announced a 36% year-on-year increase in profits to just over £1.5bn. Unsurprisingly Google shares soared on the news. Page has taken a bit of stick since he took over in April, mainly because of plans to increase costs by hiring more smart people (what an idiot?!) and focusing on product innovation (doh?!), so one has to assume he enjoyed proving them wrong - and what do they know anyway... I'll let you pick through the results for yourselves but here are a couple of things the mainstream press seem to have got excited about: • Mobile devices are going to be big and it seems people like using search engines on mobile devices • The price of paid advertising is going up most probably because it's becoming more and more valuable as people spend more time researching and shopping online (and more and more competitors want a piece of the...

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We're busy sharing secrets. Hot on the heels of the search roundtable for luxury travel businesses that we ran in association with TTG in April we hosted a similar event for cruise businesses in association with Travolution in May. Some of the industry's biggest hitters were in attendance and it was a great afternoon of information sharing and discussion. June's copy of Travolution has some great coverage courtesy of TWgroup Head of News Lee Hayhurst. If you're looking for a bang-up-to-date search overview it's not a bad place to start and should take up no more than 15 minutes of your time. You can find the coverage (and the rest of the issue) here. We're doing a lot of roundtable events at the moment as part of an ongoing strategy to help travel and retail businesses understand what marketing means in 'the age of Google'. Get in touch if you'd be interested in attending a future event. We're happy to share our secrets if you're happy to share your experiences...

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A brief history of link buying From the very beginning of the web links have had an inherent value, driving visits and raising awareness to increase revenue and deliver improved branding. It's only been in the Age of Google that their true impact on search engine rankings has been better understood. Simply put, links (and particularly targeted anchor text links) can have a major impact on rankings. It's no surprise that a marketplace for links emerged with those sites with deep enough pockets paying to artificially boost their presence on search engines. Google quickly realised that the level playing field it had created could be 'gamed' by buying links en masse via trading sites or by dealing directly, so it changed its quality guidelines to advise against buying links, reserving the right to penalise those blatantly selling or buying. It also began proactively discounting the value of obviously bought links and its web spam team focused on improving the algorithm to reduce...

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