"It's complicated." I'm sure you've heard that a few times, particularly since Facebook launched. I've heard it a few times in the context of agencies and consultants having difficulties detailing the quality of a site's reputation and the impact of link-building strategies. But if the vast majority of top natural (earned) positions are highly dependent on the quality and diversity of inbound links and social signals then surely it's a difficulty worth overcoming? And, thinking about it, surely it can't really be that complicated? Perhaps it's made complicated because that serves certain interests. I wonder what many clients would think if they were provided with coverage books detailing links secured, the context of those links, the domain authority of the referring sites etc. I wonder what many of those coverage books would look like. I wonder how confident those same clients would be if it was really clear where they were getting links from and how many of...

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We've had a number of interesting conversations with both clients and potential clients recently about how to maximise sales through international SEO.   So here's an attempt to massively simplify what is a complex area that can make or break a business! Assuming that you already have an English language .com site, there are a number of things that you need to consider before making the international plunge, outside of the extremely obvious such as the appeal of your products to an international audience.   If you're a retail business, then you'll need to consider: Whether the size of your business and the potential opportunity justifies a local language site Changes probably required to your customer database to take into account international addresses Local hosting of foreign language sites Whether you have or need an in-market sales/marketing team and whether you work to a centralised search strategy Multi-lingual customer service queries Consistency of...

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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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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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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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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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It's a great end to the week for Propellernet. The sun is shining and we've bagged our second CIMTIG Travel Marketing Award! Last night, the third CIMTIG Travel Marketing Awards took place at the very glamorous and contemporary Ballroom, in the Intercontinental London Park Lane Hotel. Our Travel Team Captain, Rachel and New Biz Director, Stefan attended the awards, which aim to demonstrate marketing excellence in travel, and reward and raise the standards across the industry. With this in mind, it was music to our ears when the crown of 'Best Use of Search Engine Optimisation' was awarded to us (for the second year running!), for our 'Villas in Tuscany' campaign for To Tuscany. The judges were particularly impressed with our "innovative approach" and "impressive search engine positional jumps" for the search term 'villas in Tuscany'. Back in 2010 our 'Flourishing Families Campaign' for Sovereign Luxury Holidays also earned us recognition for innovation in SEO,...

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With less than ten days until the big man arrives and with 2011 fast approaching, here at Propellernet we’ve started to reflect on 2010 and what a year it has been! So, sit back, get yourself a hot toddy and share with us some of the highlights at Propellernet Towers... The year got off to a flying start with us moving from our rather tired offices in Hove and arriving at our bright, sparkly new office in January. Our Finance Director Jim Jensen headed up the project and we will all be eternally grateful for our beautiful creative space. Check out the making of video here. Read the rest of this entry...

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We’re winners… Again! The 4th Travolution Awards took place on Wednesday at The Boiler House at Battersea Power Station (what a stunning location). The Awards recognise companies, brands and individuals that excel in the fields of online travel distribution, digital marketing and technology so it’s only fitting that we were on hand to pick up the award for Best Use of SEO for the work we’ve done for our client www.to-tuscany.com Read the rest of this entry...

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The past couple of weeks have been livelier than usual in the Propellernet offices thanks, in part, to the buzz caused by winning Best Use of Search at last month's New Age Media Effectiveness Awards, but also because of our hard working SEO-PR team. We’ve indulged in a bit of shameless self promotion and have been entertaining journalists, photographers and even a BBC film crew! Local paper, The Argus, was keen to do a business profile on us after we explained that we'd not only been winning awards for Search, but also for being the Best Employer and the Healthiest Workplace at last year's Sussex Business Awards. We therefore invited them down to the office to show them firsthand why Propellernet was such a great place to work, and why we firmly believe that a happy workplace means healthy profits. Read the rest of this entry...

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