NikkiPilkington.com - Nikkers' Off!

Why aren’t you listed?

nikkipilkington — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 22:26:45 +0000

Every week I meet people that complain that their website isn't at the top of the search engines, and I usually point them to www.nikkipilkington.com to learn about the things they can do for free.

Then I go and look at their website to see what's going on there.

Invariably I find 3 things:

1) They have no META tags
These are tags within the first few lines of code on a website that help most of the search engines (not all) work out what to do with your site, how to display your description and various other things. At the very least, you should have a META description and a META keywords tag. Check for yours by going to your site then going to View –> Source in your browser. No META tags? Fix it!

2) The META tags are full of spam.
By this I mean that key words and phrases are repeated ad nauseum in the hope of beating competitors to the top. If one word is repeated in your META tags 50 times, that's spam. 10 times is spam. Some search engines see 5 times as spam. Find out what the limit is and stick to it.

3) The META tags bear no relation to the site.
If you have the phrase 'John's Great Widgets' in your META tags, but it's not anywhere on the page of your site, really you're wasting your time (unless you have a really non competitive phrase). A search engine is just like a database – it is logical (believe it or not!) and can only do what you tell it to do. Give it a helping hand guys!

Now, before I get loads of emails from people – I know that META tags aren't the be all and end all of search engine promotion; however, they DO help and therefore they DO have a valid place in a website. I’ll cover other ways of getting to the top of search engines in other weekly tips.

Ants in my pants rant

nikkipilkington — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 07:42:15 +0000

OK people, I can't take any more. What’s with this 'let's take something that's been around for years, give it a wanky new name and make it flavour of the month' rubbish?

Examples? There are loads, but here are just 3.

1) Podcasting (crap phrase alert #2!) – what is 'Podcasting'? It's the recording of an audio file and the sharing of that file via the medium of the web. We used to call it 'audio files' or if you wanted to be a bit trendier, 'audio streaming' – but that's not good enough for the Noughties – we have to repackage it as Podcasting and make it the new big thing.

2) Webinar (crap phrase alert #3!) – webinar? webinar? I'll say it again – webinar? Purlease…. So, imagine the meeting (I bet there was black ash furniture and a pool table involved a la 80's advertising exec type office … and maybe one of those Pacman games)

"I know, we'll video something and either show it live across the web or record it for future use. Yeah, I know they used to call it video streaming, but that's not sexy, and besides, no-one bought into it. Let's give it a sexy new name and we'll be rich, rich I tell you! OK, so it's like a seminar….. and it's on the web….. semiweb, internar, seminet… no, no by Jove I have it – a WEBINAR….

It's OK, no-one will ever realise it's just a crappy made up name to make them think we've invented something new – this time next year we'll be millionaires Rodders….."

3) Blogs (OK only a semi crap phrase…)… OK, I’ll try to say this slowly and I’m only going to say it once.

A blog is like a diary, where you update it regularly and people can comment on it if they like.

Real blogs include:

The Artfinder blog – http://www.art2008.co.uk/blog/
Dom’s blog – http://www.dompannell.com/
The Dude blog – www.itdudes.co.uk/blog
The Emperor’s New Clothes blog – http://theemperorsnewclothes.blogspot.com/

Last Thursday is not a blog site (although it now offers your own personal blogging facility) – it's a community with a variety of forums (fora).

So is Ecademy, So Flow, Linked in and numerous other so called Blog sites.

When you post in a club or on the Front Page – that's called starting a thread, not a blog.

When you reply, it's a post, not a blog.

So if anyone else says to me "Why don't you blog about it" while talking about posting a thread on a forum, I think I may scream. Bring on the sponsorship by Lockets….

What's that nurse? Give you my arm? That's a mighty big needle, are you sure it won't hurt? OUCH! Oooh look at the pretty colours…. maybe I’ll blog about it……

The ‘I wondered how long that would take’ bit

nikkipilkington — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 07:41:07 +0000

A childcare company in San Jose is suing Google, stating that as they dropped in Page Rank from 5 to 0, it has effectively cut off all traffic to their website. Usually Page Rank drops when someone uses sneaky tactics to try and get higher listings, but the owners of the site swear they did no such thing. The suit charged Google with having a monopoly in online search and contended Google was denying KinderStart its First Amendment right to free speech under the US Constitution. Google intends to defend the suit ‘most vigorously’ More here http://uk.news.yahoo.com/20032006/323/child-care-website-alleges-google-stunted-growth.html

Splut?!?

nikkipilkington — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 07:39:50 +0000

Don't ignore the smaller search engines when it comes to promoting your website – some of them provide great well targeted traffic. Submit your site to http://www.splut.com- it's not a very well known search engine, but it generates traffic to nearly all my customers' sites. It's free to submit to, or you can choose to pay to get higher listings.

Communications merged at last

nikkipilkington — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 07:38:46 +0000

More and more businesses are using Instant Messaging to connect with their clients and networks. But with AIM, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, MSN, Skype and more, it's becoming a nightmare to keep up with who's on where, and a pain to have to run multiple chat clients! Gaim http://gaim.sourceforge.net is an Instant Messaging client that works with AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu and more. So all you have to do is run one chat client, freeing up space, memory and time. It has no support for Skype chat as yet but I’m sure it's only a matter of time.

Weird & Wonderful (I)

nikkipilkington — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 07:38:03 +0000

A round up of strange websites I’ve found recently

Are you lonely? Are you poor? Solve all your problems with one mouse click – marry an ugly millionaire! http://www.marry-an-ugly-millionaire-online-dating-agency.com/
Do you spend hours popping bubble wrap at Christmas time? Well no you can do it all year round with Virtual Bubble Wrap! http://www.urban75.com/Mag/bubble.html
Pavement Gear – a site detailing bits of clothing and items found on the pavement. No, I have no idea why either… http://www.pavementgear.com
An oldie but a goodie – The Anagram Finder http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/index.html – absolutely pointless, but at least minutes of fun, with such gems as:Nikki Pilkington – Liking kink in pot
James Wayde – A mad Jew, yes
Aboodi Shabi – I is a bad hobo
Leanne Smith – Is mental hen
Lydia Bates – A bats yield
Derek Sorensen – Denser sneer OK

Who is Nikki Pilkington?

nikkipilkington — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 07:15:41 +0000

12 years ago, at the 'tender' age of 21, I decided that I needed a career, not just a job, and the Internet beckoned.

Back in 1994, it was easy to work on the Internet. Every man, and all of their dogs(!) were 'designing' websites, and professing to be the next big thing. And I wanted part of it!

The thing that struck me very quickly, however, was that although there seemed to be thousands of people out there designing websites, I was still meeting people every single day who were complaining about how their website had no visitors, brought them no business, was a waste of time, etc. (Incidentally, I still hear the same complaints today, 12 years later!)

It became obvious that there was a niche for people that could work out how to do business online or via a website, and I set out to learn as much as I could.

And so I developed my skills in search engine listings, email campaigns, banner advertising, and more. I wrote articles, gave out advice, and slowly but surely built up a reputation for helping people to make the most of their websites.

And over the last ten years, I have helped small, medium and large sized businesses to realise their potential on the Internet, through a variety of services. Firstly running my own company, Severina Publications, then running the online department of a marketing agency based in Northampton, and now working as NikkiPilkington.com in conjunction with Weblator, a web design and programming agency in Milton Keynes.

From initial consultation, through to planning and implementation, I offer a very personal service that brings measurable results. So there you have it – Nikki Pilkington, Internet Marketing Expert for 12 years.