Bigmouthmedia's blog - Latest Comments

Re: 10 Handy Social Media Tips for Spring

Lewis Phillips — Tue, 15 May 2012 17:29:23 -0000

Did not know about the ability to edit link descriptions on Facebook - really handy. Thanks very much!

Re: Paid Search Management Tools

IM Gourmet — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:04:03 -0000

Question, then - what PPC tools would you recommend, or at least recommend considering?

Re: So, what does a User Experience Architect actually do?

Amy Mcinnes — Tue, 08 May 2012 10:56:00 -0000

Thanks for pointing that out Ustad! Link should now be working :)

Re: So, what does a User Experience Architect actually do?

Ustad — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:38:04 -0000

link broken to job....

Re: Making finance content Pinteresting

Margaret Kay — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 07:27:46 -0000

Who knew the finance industry could be fun!? :) Totally agree with what you said about finance content having a bad rep for being dull but that the BRAND doesn't necessarily have to be dull.

Re: Can we avoid creating an SEO monster?

Ingo Bousa — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 19:33:32 -0000

That is a very good question indeed Andrew.

http://sebastians-pamphlets.co...
I think Sebastian asks some very interesting questions here...and someone else is a bit more eloquent [and angry] than me: http://www.seo-theory.com/2012... : )

Re: Branded Facebook Timeline Covers: 10 of the best (so far)

Andrew — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 07:03:00 -0000

wonderful covers...everything is unique in its way....

it seems like www.jellycovers.com copies few covers fom there

Re: The State of the Travel Market

Cheap Flights to Kuala Lumpur — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 06:32:46 -0000

You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.

Re: Can we avoid creating an SEO monster?

Andrew Girdwood — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:29:04 -0000

Not tired of leaving impressive blog comments, though! I think you're right - Google and the SEO community have made this happen together.

You have to understand why Google acts to understand what Google is doing. Google is certainly interested in making money. The question is; does Google believe that by making its SERPs as good as possible that this is the best way to make money?

Re: Can we avoid creating an SEO monster?

andrewburnett — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 09:22:45 -0000

Gimme a shout Matt, you know how ;)

Re: Can we avoid creating an SEO monster?

Byron_Martin — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 08:12:57 -0000

Excellent post! Thanks for sharing the viable information. Dearly appreciated.

Re: Can we avoid creating an SEO monster?

Ingo Bousa — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 07:12:08 -0000

I am tired.

I am tired of lazy SEOs moaning about Google taking the rankings of their little affiliate sites away because they did nothing but comment spam and spun article marketing. Now they beg for stumbles and shares, desperate to create a couple of 'social signals'.

I am tired of Google and their smirking smug geek poster boy Matt Cutts who finally got themselves into a right pile of shit with kicking off this new paranoia craze by instead of ignoring shit links, now asking webmasters to 'get rid of them', spawning a new industry of 'site link cleaners'. Sometimes, as you already pointed out Andrew, the same people who built these pointless links in the first place.

I am tired that I now actually need to think about if for example the do-follow text link in the sidebar of my personal blog to my wife's parent's B&B in France is actually 'against Google's guidelines'.

I am tired of companies who think that offering me 12K to rank "top 5 for 'home insurance' in 3 month" is a viable business and marketing strategy.

I am tired of clients who ask and pay for an extensive SEO site audit but then take the 50 page document and do nothing except arguing with their developers about what can be done instead of working through the top action points and getting their site in a state that a user and a search engine can have some fun with it, creating better rankings, more traffic and, if the offer is right, more conversions.

I am tired of seeing most SEO conferences being mainly a big piss-up, in some ridiculous instances nothing more than an expensive lap dance event with 'industry rockstars' regurgitating well known facts and some common knowledge to an audience that fancies themselves as SEO/EM Ninjas, fighting some honorable fantasy fight against Search Engines in the name of 'The Free Market'.

I have huge respect for maybe three handful of intelligent SEOs who have vision, skill, integrity and some dignity ..but I am getting a bit tired with this overhyped industry as a whole.

And you know what? Outside of the SEO Marketing bubble no-one actually gives a shit. People just want to use Google to find stuff. Porn, info, deals, cat pictures. They want to see the most relevant and informative result if they search for 'best laptop under £1000' and not a SERP with pages that are there because some clever SEO manipulated the perception of the search engine and filled the front page with shit laptops under £1000.

So, is there something wrong in some rooms of this house of SEO. Is this the right time for a big cathartic crash to give this industry including the search engines a chance to contemplate and re-group?

As long as Google operates and thrives in a capitalist market, their objectives will be the same as the objectives of the people who will exploit algorithm loopholes: Make as much profit as possible.

The SEO Monster is standing in the middle of the room since a long time next to the Maximum Profit Monster and they won't won't go away.

Re: Can we avoid creating an SEO monster?

Robert Nicholson — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 06:04:54 -0000

Interesting points Andrew - it worries me as inhouse we often deal with legacy SEO, such as agencies doing dodgy SEO that I've had to fire - do we then have to pay to clean this mess up? Do I know take legal action against the SEO agency?

Even when it comes to links - some sites are almost impossible to get removed from, despite contact.. how do we get that fixed?

A monster indeed...

Re: Can we avoid creating an SEO monster?

LordManley — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 05:36:28 -0000

When the topic is celebrities then the Mail will do well - when the subject is effective mosquito repellent the buzz* is going to be around sites such as safariquip instead.*Hahahahaha! Hilarity!

Re: Can we avoid creating an SEO monster?

Matt Davies — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 05:23:49 -0000

I'd say the trick to what you're suggesting is to avoid the 99% of sites that don't lend themselves easily to viral / link bait. I hear a lot
about creating sharable content for SEO but so rarely see this backed
up with successful real-world examples.

The Daily Mail *actually* interests people - it's the logical conclusion of the "create content that people will share" argument - but will an internet full of shrieking attention seekers really be any better than one with an underbelly of spam?

Re: Can we avoid creating an SEO monster?

Martin Woods — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 04:48:19 -0000

I also found it very reassuring to hear so many people talking about quality engaging content, we might have been saying it for years, but @ionSearch I defiantly heard a lot more people talking about content strategies than ever before, which is great.

I also enjoyed the way the debates naturally progressed on to social sharing and UX. I think the creative people in our industry will do very well over the coming years, whilst the more 'old skool' SEOers out there may struggle if they don't get the bigger picture.

Re: 10 Handy Social Media Tips for Spring

Simon Heyes — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:24:03 -0000

Thanks Suzanne :)

Re: Can we avoid creating an SEO monster?

Andrew Girdwood — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 14:45:48 -0000

Even more succinctly: the trick is not to be shit.

Re: Can we avoid creating an SEO monster?

Andrew Girdwood — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 14:44:18 -0000

"Nobody but nobody naturally stumbles, diggs, reddits or (to a lesser degree) even tweets half of the shit that SEOs want social signals on."

I think that was recognised at #ionsearch too. The trick is to be in the other half and it was good to see some discussion on tactics and techniques to archive that. If content/news/insights/media is generated that *actually* interests people then it'll do better. That was a common message from the event.

However, we also went to talk on about the increasing importance of UX when it comes to this sort of thing - not only do we want to reduce bounces we actually want a user experience that encourages people to share.

Re: Can we avoid creating an SEO monster?

andrewburnett — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:02:54 -0000

Just another development in the evolution of search rankings.

The furore over paid links is all well and good, Google will have to backtrack on this latest though I reckon… If you look at Shaun's post over at Hobo: http://www.hobo-web.co.uk/nega... that cannot be allowed to happen. It takes power away from Google in terms of how they rank.

Also, the whole 'signals' debate is tired. There are signals for sale on ebay these days.

Nobody but nobody naturally stumbles, diggs, reddits or (to a lesser degree) even tweets half of the shit that SEOs want social signals on.

People share, talk about, comment on, and generally socially interact with good stuff. It is as simple as that. Why does the Oatmeal get so many social signals? Answer that and you've hit the motherlode.

Re: 10 Handy Social Media Tips for Spring

Suzanne Bearne — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 06:34:46 -0000

Wow. Very useful. Just deleted lots of unwanted friend requests.

Re: 10 Handy Social Media Tips for Spring

Simon Heyes — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 06:01:07 -0000

You may have indirectly helped, yes :). Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

Re: 10 Handy Social Media Tips for Spring

Natalie Martin — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 05:48:04 -0000

I so picked your twitter name! Love all of the tips here- very good Mr Heyes!

Re: Image content is the future of social networking

Natasha Boehm — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 22:09:05 -0000

I disagree, people can take lots of bad images, and that won't make their profiles socially appealing....I think Zuckerberg missed a target on this one, except maybe to pump up the value of Facebook.....How many instagrams of cats, drunken debauchery, and badly composed subjects can you handle on one's profile? Scrolling through a ton of poor images is time consuming and annoying, even if they are done through a neat filter. There's a reason why some are talented photographers, and they already share their well-captured photos and gained followers precisely for that reason. Like in self-authored youtube videos, not everyone can be a star phtographer.

Re: How Google is destroying trust in its own results

rich_falconer — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 12:38:13 -0000

Interesting one that Simon. I'll explain later ;-)