Should YouTube ban the Bullies?

The government is calling on the broadcaster YouTube to block or remove any bulling videos. The Education secretary Alan Johnson spoke to the National Union of school masters and (NASUWT) the union of woman teachers in Belfast and stated that he thought “Cyber bullying cruel and relentless, able to follow a child beyond the school gates and into their homes”.

“Cyber – bullying” is the self professed love child of the “happy slapping” craze that took off with the popularity of video on mobile phones. My gut reaction to this was “yes, they should remove it... but I have since considered all sides of the argument”.

Firstly the issue of censorship is that it has a tendency to push issues under the carpet and although I detest bullying, I thought I would rather people comment on the videos “good or bad” to raise awareness of this horrible deluded pastime. I could not find any of the bullying videos on the site which had been documented by the BBC etc, I did stumble across a few happy slapping videos, but the majority of videos I found were actually anti bullying and all the comments on the happy slapping clips were very negative against harassment, discrimination or violence of any sort. Although the use of term gay as something that is “weak” or “lame” still gets my back up, that’s for a totally different post. In its defence, the YouTube audience were very negative towards any displays of violence.

Secondly I then turned to the actual issue, the bullying itself. Shouldn’t the government be targeting the actual issue of bullying and supporting schools to condemn such behaviour instead of slating YouTube, it’s a little like shouting at the field after the horse has bolted. Why not ban mobile phones in schools, crack down on offending pupils, incentivise some sort of playground type neighbourhood watch … i.e.: deal with the issue. We arrest kids for stealing cars and we don’t find any of these videos on the internet? Perhaps if beating up on your fellow pupils was made illegal the little darlings wouldn’t do it and certainly would not be videoing themselves doing it?

I then re-read the Terms of Use that you agree to when registering a YouTube account and it all seamed in order until I got to 7. Account Termination Policy

B. YouTube reserves the right to decide whether Content or a User Submission is appropriate and complies with these Terms of Service for violations other than copyright infringement and violations of intellectual property law, such as, but not limited to, pornography, obscene or defamatory material, or excessive length. YouTube may remove such User Submissions and/or terminate a User's access for uploading such material in violation of these Terms of Service at any time, without prior notice and at its sole discretion.

If You Tube are saying that all obscene videos will be removed then doesn’t the torture of a young person by a gang of others come under such a category? Also if slander and libel are banned from the YouTube network to stop the harm coming to a person’s reputation then surely the physical abuse of a child should be included in this. I think perhaps we should be rethinking exactly why pornography has been banned on the network but violence has not, is it purely due to legalities?

I do worry about what has been described as the last platform of free speech being restricted, but, their can be freedom without allowing cruelty and I do think under this reasoning You Tube has a responsibility to stop cruelty from being promoted via its technology, and if it does continue make criminals of these bullies – not celebrities!

Further reading for and against the issue:

http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=864&id=551252007

http://www.csd.abdn.ac.uk/~fguerin/teaching/CS5038/assessment/essays_from_2006/groupC/YouTube.html

http://education.guardian.co.uk/pupilbehaviour/story/0,,2053932,00.html

Other Anti bullying videos can be found on YouTube

Meet me in the 'middle ground'!

Isn't about time that web designers, usability experts and search marketers learnt to get along and strive for the same goal?

If we are going to continue to drive this industry forward and raise standards we need to unite and agree on one common goal; a dedication to producing the very best in design, functionality and online marketing strategies for our CLIENTS! Because it is the client that matters, not our ego's. Sometimes this means some compromise from one party or the other, or both, but this compromise should be with the clients business and their objectives at heart. Its their business and it's their money paying for your expertise. However, all too often, dated and unfounded opinions of search marketing are standing in the way.

I know there has been a lot of coverage about this exact kind of issue but my rant comes about having spoken with one or two web designers recently, one claiming that ‘SEO is not marketing'. These sorts of comments are not only whole-heartedly wrong, they are also extremely unhelpful. How can we work alongside one another to meet a common goal if SEO cannot even be acknowledged as a marketing activity...and when implemented properly a damn good one as well, in fact possibly THE most targeted form of marketing there is!

I have always said that there is a big middle ground (and I mean BIG!) where good design, usability and 'on the page' SEO can meet (especially as there is so much cross over between usability and 'on the page' SEO anyway!).

It is essential that we are all prepared to meet somewhere in this middle ground - its a big space, I promise you! We have worked on numerous projects, with some great web designers and usability experts who acknowledge SEO and understand that if done in the right way it really does deliver the most fantastic ROI.

The result of all of this...good looking, functional websites that rank well and convert visitors into sales. And the result of this...happy clients who shout your name from the rooftops leading to a strong reputation and free leads! Everyone is a winner, nobody loses!

So come one and all; designers, developers, usability experts, accessibility professionals and search marketers - Leapfrogg are currently relaxing in the 'middle ground' so come and join us! It really is a most fantastic place where happy clients reside and successful new media companies flourish!

OK, rant over for today!

Banner Advertising – Are Users Turning A Blind Eye?

Whether part of a multidimensional online campaign, stimulating and reinforcing brand awareness or additional in support of integrated offline promotion, banner ad have their uses, but are users blind to their messages?

Of course this notion considers targeted placement such as a music equipment supplier on a Glastonbury forum however, what about longtail areas including clothing?

Banner advertising can reach thousands and thousands of people, particularly so as users spend longer online, harnessing social networking platforms and email services, but of course in many instances such adverts might be unwanted by the user.



CTR’s or Click Through Rates (obtained by dividing the number of users who clicked on a banner ad by the number of times the ad was delivered (impressions)) will of course depend upon how large the campaign is, and how many times the ad is served across multiple websites for example, however with reports from Doubleclick that the average banner CTR is 0.44% while Google Adwords reports a CTR across all keywords system of about 2% is the life of the banner slipping away?

Whilst it has been discussed that banner adverts can contribute to brand awareness campaigns, what of the marketing budgets for small businesses? Such businesses that cannot afford large campaigns of across Silicon Valley networks how are they to get higher CTR’s and the best level of exposure?

Well, certainly ensuring focus and accurate targeting is the key, however I would say a review of what exactly you want from the banner campaign in addition to an audit of the customer experience when having banners designed is of importance.

In seeking to counteract the traditionally low CTR of traditional static banners churned out from the ad networks and merchants we are seeing nothing short of an evolution. Gone are the days of poor quality flashing 468x60.gifs (or worse still a static image) and there now exists examples of flash animated banners which interact with the user, non more recognisable than those displayed by mobile phone operator Orange with their ‘Free Sim Card’ banner. Heavily featured on email provider websites, the Orange banner enabled the user to enter their personal data within the banner without leaving the original page they saw the ad from.

In addition, banners are also cropping up that are keyword rich so as to contribute to search engine rankings, such as that of the following mocked-up example.

	Leapfrogg Internet Marketing Ethical SEO SEO Info Library Our Services Frogg Blogg

But so as not to get into a comprehensive review of the individual demographics and their preference on how and what they click the crux of this post is that banners, like traditional media, have their place, not with driving qualified visitors like PPC does, but instead with generating exposure and brand awareness.

The points to which I pause to cast reflection are:
1. How will banner design evolve to engage the user?

2. Are users, thanks to social networks, savvier to online advertising, rendering it increasingly more difficult to convert?

3. And, perhaps more importantly, regardless of the message or indeed the usability within the banner, do users even see them anymore?

Problems with Yahoo Panama

We have had real problems with our newly migrated panama accounts this week. We were only able to navigate around the site for a maximum of 20 minutes before it would completely freeze up. Then when the account was frozen, we were unable to access anything within the Panama interface.

Speaking to Yahoo, they suggested that it may be problems with IE7 or Firefox, or even our internet connection. This confused us somewhat.

After about 3 hours of pulling our hair out (I am nearly bald now - used to have very long hair!) we found that it was a problem with the Panama login that we had initially bookmarked. When upgrading each account to Panama, you are taken directly to the new Panama login screen which asks you to bookmark it. As I took little notice of the login, I did not notice the length of the URL which was a lengthy dynamic url with many parameters. We then decided to try a version of the URL without the dynamic part:

https://login.marketingsolutions.yahoo.com/

And...Bob's your uncle! We had access to our accounts again! Thank God!

So, If anyone is having System Error with a newly migrated Panama account I would recommend re-bookmarking the login above, and then re-logging in. You may well find this is the answer to all your problems!

Google Street View - New fleet of Chevy Cobalts

I read with excitement this morning about Google’s new fleet of Chevy Cobalts, specially equipped with cameras to shoot Street Views for Google Maps.

Google Street View, if you haven’t already seen, it provides an excellent interface allowing the user to navigate around streets, look at monuments or shop fronts for example throughout its current 5 destinations, which include Denver, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Miami and New York.

Whilst Street View has been in the media recently for capturing nude sunbathers and husbands coming out of porn shops, Street view, despite the offend overiding concerns for piracy remains an excellent application to go and explore individual destinations, particularly if you wish to find out what is in or around the area.

How long before we see some Chevy’s over this side of the Atlantic let’s hope it won’t be long. A Google spokeswoman commented: "We are constantly working to provide Street View imagery for more regions."

Fantastic...

SEO still affordable for small businesses...just!

Finally...a few minutes spare…it’s about time I got back on the Froggblog!

Something caught my eye on Monday morning. A great article by Stoney deGeyter, CEO of Pole Position Marketing. He asked the question, 'Can small businesses really afford SEO?' He argued that 'finding the most efficient balance between time, budget and what is absolutely necessary for success is the only way to keep your SEO campaign affordable' concluding that SEO is therefore not out of the reach of small companies as long as these factors are considered.

Here at Leapfrogg we specifically target small to medium sized companies (roughly 1 – 150 employees) in the UK so I thought it would be useful to provide a view from this side of the pond, especially as we have the most active online population in Europe.*

When we started out, almost four years, ago our service offering was rather different to what it is now. 'On the page' SEO had a greater weighting compared to 'off the page'. In my view, SEO was a more straightforward and therefore a less time consuming task because the main focus was on the page itself. As long as you had a decent technical understanding of SEO, with some marketing experience to accompany it, search rankings were rather easier to come by.

Well how things have changed. The obsession with rankings has subsided (or should have done!) and the focus shifted instead to traffic. SEO is no longer about leveraging traffic from search engines alone but also many other sources; links on other sites (OK, this one has been around for a while!), social media sites incorporating blogs, forums, notice-boards and review sites, online press release submissions and so on. It is clear the whole landscape of SEO has shifted from focusing purely on the search engine to focusing on the Internet as a whole; identifying and leveraging all of these potential sources of traffic has fallen to the search marketer.

This inevitably means more man hours dedicated to SEO. The most successful campaigns are those that take an integrated approach leveraging every possible potential source of traffic with the right level of resource and approach. So what does this mean for smaller companies? Well, either they dedicate more time internally to learning about these new mediums and implementing campaigns themselves OR they pay an agency to do so on their behalf. Either way, more resource is required whether this come from the watch or the wallet!

As the SEO landscape continues to change and new disciplines enter the search marketing ‘mix’, the demand on time and/or money will only continue to increase. This does not even take into account growing competition online. I therefore fear that search marketing will be out of the reach of most very small companies within the next couple of years; I’m talking about businesses perhaps employing just a few heads where the time and resource to compete online will simply not be available and the potential returns negligible, if not, non-existent.

That is why we believe there is a window of opportunity for very small companies in the UK. Certain industries are already a closed door I'm afraid; I only had a local mortgage company call me today saying that they want to target Google's top ten for terms such as 'mortgages' and 'loans'. Top search rankings in the UK for those types of terms are dominated by the big aggregator sites with monster budgets. But beyond trying to target such competitive terms, what can you do? Well I suggest finding a niche; how do your products or services differ from those of your competitors? How is this niche reflected in search activity i.e. are there less competitive ‘long tail’ terms that you can target? Or perhaps you offer services on a local or regional level. Therefore, consider targeting those searching by location.

SEO still offers a massive opportunity for those smaller companies willing to make the jump but the window of opportunity is closing and pretty fast. Find your niche and grab it before somebody else does!

*comScore

UK Search Term Analysis Tools?

Search term analysis is probably the most important factor during the set up of an SEO campaign. It is vital therefore, that the right keyword search term tools are utilised to ascertain what keywords and key phrases should be used. The impending demise of the free UK overture keyword search term tool is a blow to all of those UK SEO companies who use this tool as part of their keyword tool armoury. Why? The overture tool was one of the few tools available offering UK results unlike many free and paid keyword tools which rely on US consumer search data. There has been much debate about Yahoo's new search tool and its usefulness. For instance the vast number ranges reported for some keywords ie 20,000 to 200,000 is not particular helpful to search marketers trying to determine exact search volumes never mind the apparant age of data used. There is a great opportunity for the right company who can provide a comprehensive keyword search term tool aimed purely at the UK market covering the major search engines. Answers please on a postcard!

Broad Match Terms - Watch Out!

I read an interesting article in Marketing Pilgrim this morning
(http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/07/google-adwords-using-non-selected-and-often-non-targeted-keywords.html) which highlighted some negative problems encountered when setting generic search terms as Broad Match.

The basic premise was that the author ran the new Search Query Performance report in Google Adwords for the first time for one of their clients' campaigns. This new report allows you to see the actual search queries searchers used to find your ad. The resulting report found that ads had been shown on keywords which were not in the account. The article hypothesised a number of reasons why this may be happening, which I will let you read in the article if you are interested.

Having ads appearing on non targeted terms is obviously not cost effective and will not lead to quality traffic being directed to the site. I would therefore HIGHLY recommend that if you have a Google Adwords account and are using broad match keywords, to run a Search Query Performance report. This will show you if your ads are appearing against any terms which are not targeted to your campaign. If you find any non-targeted terms I would then add these to the negative keyword list to ensure that budget is allocated solely to highly targeted terms.

As always if you have any feedback or would like any additional information, please leave a comment and a member of the Leapfrogg team will get back to you.

If you can’t join them… join them

In our haste to talk about social bookmarking and social networks we didn't spend any time letting you know how to get these buttons for your own website or blog.

Further to my recent post, dated 26th June, I stressed the importance of considering the user if you wanted to get noticed within these social media platforms, however far
from being a stick in the mud, I merely wish to reinforce this notion.

Focusing on the end user can create a better experience for both publishers and users alike…. Everyone wins!

So, the first question is:

‘What types of buttons would you like?’

There are numerous social bookmarking and site sharing outlets in existence, and it would be somewhat cumbersome and overwhelming to provide a button to them all. Instead you can’t go far wrong focusing upon the most prominent of this outlets including Digg, Delicious, Technorati and Stumble upon.

'How can I get these buttons on my blog?'

The easiest method of integrating these buttons is to simply go to one of the major button generation websites and select the range of buttons you would like. From experience, this approach is far easier then going to each individual website and selecting a button, and it also looks a lot smarter as all of the buttons as a uniform size.

We have selected our 2 favourite tools from some 2,270,000 results for social bookmark button generator. And what’s move, their free.

1. Addthis is a resource which offers both social bookmark buttons and RSS feed subscriptions and is the button feature on our blog. Their website offers full instructions on integration, and display a small button, which, when clicked transports the user to a new page where they can select the outlets they wish to tag the blog or website to. The only downside is that the bookmark page is branded with ‘addthis’ which can detract from the branding of the host website.

Frogg Blog Rating: Based on aesthetics, ease of integration and usability = 4/5.

2. Social Bookmark Script Generator is excellent, and allows publishers to select a large of social bookmark buttons. It’s easy to copy and paste the code from the script and integrate it into your website, and providing your blog isn’t adorned with some 50 buttons, then this tool can make an attractive, tidy and useful addition.

Frogg Blog Rating: Based on aesthetics, ease of integration and usability = 5/5.

More guides on social media to follow, however if there is something you would like us to cover, do not hesitate to get in touch.

Titles and Meta Tags - Simple but so effective!

OK so let's get back to basics today. We wanted to revisit that old stalwart of SEO...........Title tags and Meta tags.

Back in the day Meta tags were THE way to get your site rankings. Then after a lot of bad press and the fact that their importance in ranking formulas was diminished many people have started to ignore them.

BIG MISTAKE!!!!!!

Meta tags ARE still really important. They may not directly effect a page's chances of rankings BUT they do still have a pretty big impact indirectly.

This is because many of the major search engines use the copy within the Meta Description tag as the text for the listing a page is given within their results.

By having a good sales orientated sentence related to the product, service, information on the page that contains words similar to those the searcher has used, the Description can have a dramatic effect on the number of people who click on that listing and visit the site.

A number 5 listing with a good relevant Description could achieve a high proportion of clicks than a number 3 listing with a bad Description.

The Title tag is often grouped together with Meta tags and ignoring this Tag could have a dramatic effect. Many state that the Title tag is THE most important place on a page to have your key search terms.

It doesn't take long to write Title Tags and Meta tags and they can have such a positive impact that it doesn't make sense that so many people are still ignoring them and concentrating on other areas of optimisation.

So here is a quick guide to writing a set of Tags for your web pages:

Title Tag
The Title Tag should contain relevant keywords, but not repeats and be no longer than 80 characters. It should also be as readable as possible and succinctly describe the web page.

Example if this page were a web page:

"Title Tags, Meta Keywords, and Descriptions - Leapfrogg Guidelines"

Description Tag
The Description tag is precisely what is says and should describe the content of the web page. It must not contain more than 150 characters (approx 25 words) and must include relevant keywords and phrases. Make it engaging and try to include a call to action to persuade people to click through to your site.

Example for this page:
"Visit Leapfrogg today to learn the basic guidelines for writing great title tags, meta keywords and descriptions for your web pages."

Keywords Tag
Quite simply, the keyword tag should include all relevant keywords and phrases used by searchers including common misspellings. Ensure no more than 250 characters is used in this tag. Be selective, only put in terms highly relevant to the content of the page. Avoid one word, try to use phrases.

Example:

title tags, meta keywords, meta descriptions, meta tag guidelines, title tag guidelines

If you can find the time to write a set of Title tags and Meta tags for every page on your site you would like to achieve visibility on the search engines you will be amazed at the impact it can have on your sites' rankings for niche phrases, without having to make any changes to "on page" copy.

Try it now and see!!!!

Friday Fun with Search Engine Optimisation Songs

Hello, Pop-Pickers... I don't think I need to beat around the bush with this blog entry, as I am sure it will speak volumes, whether of course you will be cringing is another matter!.

Now, if only to inject a ray of sunshine into the office before the weekend, the Leapfrogg team have devised a top 10 list of SEO songs* for your pleasure....

10. (Google) Dancing in the Street – Mick Jagger & David Bowie

9. Streaming Windows – Tina Turner

8. Looking out for links – Fleetwood Mac

7. Confide in PPC – Kylie Minogue

6. I’m Still Ranking – Elton John

5. Ain’t No Ranking High Enough – Diana Ross

4. Nothing Compares to YouTube – Sinead O’Conner

3. How Deep is Your Link? – Bee Gees/ Take That

2. Smooth Optimiser – Sade

And this weeks number 1, based on relevance, quality and PR ranking is………

1. Google Earth Song - Michael Jackson

* Please note these songs are not available to purchase, which I suppose we can be thankful for… But of course if you have any other ideas, suggestions or video clip renditions then we would be more than happy to receive them.

Also, if you would like to share this post, don't forget to click the "Bookmark" button.

5 Tips on feeding wild Google Popularity Algorithms

1) Try basic link Food:

Previous observations of the wild Google Popularity Algorithm (GPA) will give you an idea of its feeding habits; feeding directories are a good place to start. Place some nice fresh links from your website on these directories, making sure that they don’t carry any nasty link spam as these delicate creatures hate spam and will most likely run and hide from any future food offerings.

2) Use specialist Food sources:

There are a number of Wild GPA trackers and experienced handlers about, it’s a good idea to communicate with these enthusiast’s and ask them for some of their GPA food until yours ripens, if you are genuine about your passion for the GPA and friendly they will help you, and may even invite you into their society and you can feed the wild GPA’s together. Make sure you get all kinds of specialist food on your site and open all the windows, very soon the wild GPA will smell this and come and have a taste.

3) Join a Google Popularity Algorithm Club:

Another way is to join an organised society and get them to place your food around to entice the GPA’s for you, since they know where they hide this is easy for them. They will only do this if they find your food interesting and if they do not, they will keep all the GPA’s for themselves.

4) Check your bait:

A way of checking if the wild GPA’s like the food you have placed around is to check for bites or clicks. This isn’t an accurate measurement and would probably have to be used in conjunction with other things.

5) Search in the Blog Grass:

A recent enthusiast has noticed that the wild GPA’s tend to show a great interest in areas of Cyberia called blogs, they seem to trust the blogs and spend time their feeding and it’s rumoured that they like human interaction.