Hmmmm…. it’s kinda hard to stay on the sidelines here…. I’ve got problems with people replying to a post about T In The Park, whilst monitoring logs which show people are actually checking up on this guy - John Cardno, and asking if he is a scam. Should you buy tickets for festivals off John Cardno? Is this a ticket scam? (more…)

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When China made its bid for the 2008 Olympics, government authorities promised improvements in human rights. Seven years on, China remains a country that executes, tortures and silences its citizens. Amnesty International on Human Rights In China.

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Remember tomorrow is Bloggers Unite Day For Human Rights, and this year it is Amnesty International we’re spamming promoting in search engines and blog engines.

You can blog about anything to do with Human Rights; (more…)

Joomla is a fantastic content management system that allows you to do, well, just about anything with your website - that’s why it is one of our CMS of choice for new clients. But when you install Joomla, search engine friendly URLs are not on by default, you need to configure it. (more…)

Microsoft Yahoo Deal - No Takeover

Microsoft appears to be throwing in the towel with regards to the hostile takeover of Yahoo. In a public email transmitted to CNN and picked up by Search Engine Land too, Steve Balmer of Microsoft sent Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang the following message, ending the attempt by Microsoft to buy Yahoo to take on the number 1 search engine in the world, Google.

In a letter Saturday to Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer formally withdrew the software giant’s proposal to acquire Yahoo. - CNN

As ever, Search Engine Land was quick to pick up on the news…. (more…)

I pity the good folks in Manchester (home of my lifelong favourite band the Stone Roses) looking for a seo company. Manchester based Web Propeller (or Webpropeller or www.webpropeller.co.uk) seems to think “ethical seo” is to rip off Kalina’s and Marty’s excellent sites and pass their articles off as their own. Not content with that, they picked the Hobo site to rip off for their home page text too. SERP Assassination imminent!

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After a busy year this obsessive Search Marketer kicks back at the amazing T In The Park, Scotland’s biggest and best music festival.

When do t in the park tickets go on sale to the public in 2008?

The line up for T in the Park 2008 will be announced to the world on Friday 15th February with tickets going on sale on Saturday 16th February at 9am. (more…)

Linkbait as Lyndon said to me is;

the creation of compelling and seductive content that persuades you perform an action such as linking to it.

Linkbait (more…)

Really a test to see how Google discovers this blog….. but a list of the recent articles worth noting in the search marketing world for my team - (more…)

The SEMMYS were recently announced and I’ve been taking some time out to read up on them.

The SEMMYS are an annual awards event honoring the great content produced across the search and online marketing industry. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) has grown to include a variety of disciplines, including blogging, social media, reputation management, and more. The SEMMYS attempt to include all these elements into one awards event. We hope the SEMMYS serve as a complement to the excellent existing awards which honour blogs and bloggers.

…and here’s the winners; (more…)

We were asked by the nice folks at the registered charity, Forward Scotland, who promote sustainable development in Scotland, to come round to their offices in Stirling to tell them a bit about search engine optimisation, why it was important, and what they needed to consider when they were crafting their new pages in their new Joomla CMS powered web site. (more…)

Merry Xmas!

Just a quick post to wish everybody a Merry Xmas & A Happy New Year! from all at Hobo.

Our MD knocked together a cracking wee Xmas Message for you (takes a minute to download but it’s fun)
Hobo Christmas Opening Hours. (more…)

Rannoch Smokery today launches its brand new online store which offers customers the chance to browse, purchase and be amazed by a wide selection of delicious, award-winning delicatessen products which cleverly transport the taste of romantic Scotland to your door with a simple click. (more…)

I just received this email:

“Hi I’m a uk seo company, how could I get a link from your site to my site
from a high page ranking page please paid or free, not interested in
banners etc just a simple text link to my site thanks.”

Hmmm. No offence, but if you were a UK seo company of any merit, one look at our hobo site and you should have realised: (more…)

The Sumatran Orangutan Society launches a new appeal: Plant 10,000 Trees for Orangutans!

With less than 7,300 surviving in the wild, it is predicted that the Sumatran orangutan will be the first Great Ape species to become extinct if current trends continue. The Sumatran Orangutan Society works with local communities living alongside orangutan habitat, helping them work towards a more sustainable future for their forests.

The SOS are working on a new project with the local government and local communities in North Sumatra to replant large areas of damaged orangutan habitat inside the Gunung Leuser National Park. The Leuser forests are the last stronghold for the Sumatran Orangutan, but have been damaged by illegal logging and oil palm plantations inside the protected area. (more…)

Hobo-Web LTD is a search engine optimisation and web design firm based in Greenock, Scotland. Use the map below to get directions to our offices in the West End of Greenock. Just click on the “A” on the map! (more…)

There’s a seo company out there that I and a few other colleagues in the UK SEO scene, have some very great concerns about. I’m not going to publicly out this company, but with this post, I’m going to *hopefully* feature at the top of Google (in time) when searchers are investigating the possibility of hiring this seo firm.

***** Edit 28 / 9 / 07 *****

This experiment was never completed, so the results were never achieved. Pending legal advice, the test might never be complete, and this article may be removed from this site.

***** Edit 28 / 9 / 07 *****

My advice to you is do not hire this seo company! (more…)

The new Apple Iphone is now available to buy in the US. It was launched on Friday night (US Time). Some time ago, Hobo Web “threw up” a little website to take advantage of what we knew would be a massive traffic bonanza for the sites sitting atop Google free listings (even though we knew the competition for these positions would be intense). (more…)

“Introduction To SEO” Professional Training Workshop June 28th 2007

Hobo Web Marketing Director Shaun Anderson delivered a search engine optimisation work-shop for up-and-coming tech sme businesses at the fantastic Innovation Centre in Hillington (near Glasgow in Scotland, UK). (more…)

New Hobo SEO website design & development manager Alan Muir (left) presents Glasgow Redbrae goal keeper (and pal) Steven Wright a close up of the ball he’ll be picking out of the net all the next next season. (more…)

Hobo professional seo training for companies who wish to train their in-house staff in how to write good website copy and search engine optimise a website to rank better in Google and all other search engines, just like we do for ourselves.

If you’d be interested in professional seo (search engine optimisation / optimization) training for your employees, using your own website as reference for education and consultation, please contact us today. (more…)

Hobo have just launched a fantastic free online business directory website for Greenock, Gourock and Port Glasgow businesses. (more…)

A we bit of free promotion for our friends at Gaia Wind: (more…)

We’re all off to the Grow Your Business conference 2007 at the SECC in Glasgow this afternoon. Shaun is speaking at an internet marketing seminar where he will share a bit of his 7 years knowledge and experience of web design and internet marketing with fellow business owners. (more…)

Dimensional Imaging provides accurate 3D surface image capture and analysis solutions for dental, medical and other applications. (more…)

Free Listing On Inverclyde’s Premier SME Directory - MyGreenock

We’re putting the finishing touches to a FREE local SME Business Directory for Greenock, Port Glasgow and Gourock (Inverclyde) businesses and companies.

The aim of this seo friendly web directory is to advertise all the local businesses on Google, Yahoo and MSN - free, to show potential clients just what we can do in terms of innovative internet marketing. If you have a sme (small and medium enterprise) in Greenock or the surrounding district then you qualify for this free advertising. If you are a charity you can apply for site-wide free advertising in the directory. (more…)

A leading Scottish public relations consultancy has won a major European PR award for its launch of NetIDme, our client for SEO & Website Design. (more…)

Hurrah! I’ve been tagged and unlike a few others this link train actually has a bit of merit! Basically it’s a Charity link train. The idea is to help these charities rank high in Google for keywords and this is achieved simply by the type of anchor text rich links on this page. (more…)

Google says “The new version of Google Analytics is easy enough for a layperson to understand, but also offers the sophistication experienced users need.”

You need to go to Analtics Settings to see the new page!

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Are you in Google Supplemetal Hell? (more…)

One of my new friends at the SEO bit of UK Business Forums (one of the best forums I have tried to get involved with over the last few months) sent me a sticky regarding this interesting thread which stated, and I quote:

” I am considered the Number 1 SEO consultant in the UK, A big claim maybe,but I can say this based on the search engine results I have obtained. As to the cost of SEO ,it would seem to me that most companies out there are taking the public for a ride in various areas. (more…)

Are you losing customers because of a poor website design? Do you realise that your site will not and cannot look the same in all browsers (IE, Firefox, Safari etc? That some people with certain computers might not be able to access your killer sales tool? (more…)

Shaun Anderson, Web Marketing Director of Hobo has been invited to be one of the expert guest speakers at the successful Grow Your Business Conference held annually at the Glasgow SECC (Scotland). (more…)

EVERBODY’S FREE (TO ADD GOOD CONTENT)

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’07

Add Good Content (more…)

You can use this form to contact Hobo quickly about website design or search engine optimisation (seo) services. or you can call us on 0845 094 0839. (more…)

As a search marketer, I’m forced to trawl the web to keep up on the latest trends in internet marketing. Here’s a list of some of the best places on the web to share info and learn exciting stuff! (more…)

Since I found out I’m about to be promoted to a preferred member in Webmasterworld I decided to try and find out just how many posts make you a junior, full, preferred or senior user at this illustrious forum. (more…)

We have just started work on 4 new websites for our latest client NetIDme. At the moment we have put in place landing pages for the web addresses. Why? Well this actually helps the new sites appear quickly in Google, and may help minimize the effect of the Google Sandbox for new websites / domains.

We’re looking forward to working with Netidme for a long time indeed…..

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Search Engine Land (launched on Dec 11 2006) by Danny Sullivan looks to have achieved a fantastic Google Page Rank 7 in less than 4 months….just goes to show you the value of good content and loads and loads of incoming back links! (more…)

1. Their whole strategy is based on registering hundreds of domains you have to pay thousands for, EVERY YEAR, (which they mark up 50% of course) duplicating single content pages for these domains, and doing something like creating a directory and stuffing it full of these fake domains (not telling you when you stop paying them, they’ll just put a competitor in there in your place). (more…)

We have just been appointed to build and launch a few mini sites for NetIDMe: (more…)

Yes i know - strange, eh? Normally we would NEVER tell you that, but Google says if you have a new website and you want to get into Google: (more…)

Stumbleupon is a great resource for getting “eyes on site” so to speak. Writing a decent article can get you a traffic spike of 50-100 visitors. Writing an exceptional article can get you thousands of visitors a day. (more…)

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A client who I do web work currently pays a seo company to build a lot or domains / mini sites and create a directory of these domains and have everything cross linking back to his site.

These mini sites are all identical apart from a bit of variation in the colours of each site and the keyword targeted domain name.

It would appear to me that these would be called throwaway domains, or thin affiliate sites at best. The directory is populated with these domains - all effectively pointing back at my client site.

My opinion is that, at best, this isn’t a very solid foundation to build on. Surely search engine optimisation in 2007 is all about articals, blogging, networking, linkbait etc - not creating a fake directory and populating it with fake mini - sites?

….any comments please?

Is it ethical or unethical?

PS - I’m sure Matt Cutts said somewhere that domains should be pointed to the main site if there was no original or unique content on the site, but I cant find it for the life of me.

Anyone else having the same problem with google analytics? It seems to be taking a bit longer to update than normal?

Edit - We have an answer…

From the Google Analytics Blog:

“Update: Temporary Reporting Delay within Accounts
Friday, February 02, 2007

Google Analytics users,
There is a temporary reporting delay within your Google Analytics accounts due to system maintenance. You are still able to log in to accounts and please note that no data will be lost - data will continue to be collected and processed during this time.

We expect Google Analytics account data to be fully updated and displayed within your reports before the end of the day. We apologize for any inconvenience this delay in reporting has caused.

Thank you for using Google Analytics.”

We’ve just launched an exciting new website design for UK Work Permits, a client based in london. Optimised for search engines and built with the latest cutting edge css and xhtml, we’re sure it will become a very successful marketing tool for the company. (more…)