We’re happy to announce the launch of Decorated Shed, a new website for a  design and build specialist company. Decorated Shed has an original range of garden offices, garden studios, annexes and sunrooms for a whole host of requirements - each with breathtaking design, created with high grade premium materials.

The Decorated Shed website is full of incredible video and CGI illustrations of their beautifully engineered buildings - take a look at the website.

Visit Decorated Shed on YouTube.

Bing - Microsoft’s much talked-about new search engine - achieved a 10%+ share of the overall US search market in August, according to newly released figures from Nielsen. As well as the respectable market share percentage, Bing also registered the biggest month-on-month growth of any search engine by some distance, upping its usership by more than 22%.

Google, of course, still dominates proceedings with a 64.6% share of the market, followed by Microsoft’s new search partners Yahoo! in second place with a 16% share. Notably, Yahoo’s month-on-month usership dropped by more than 4%, perhaps giving an indication of where some of Bing’s new users are coming from. Google’s userbase crept up to 2.6% in the same month.

So it’s good news for Microsoft then?

Yes and no. Yes because it’s moving in the right direction and registered a fairly huge jump in users in a relatively short space of time. No because the shift in users looks like it was Yahoo!-to-Bing as opposed to Google-to-Bing as Microsoft would’ve no doubt been aiming for. If Bing’s userbase is going to grow in this fashion long-term then there’s a clear ceiling to how far it can go. Unless it starts winning Google’s audience over on a significant scale then it won’t make much more of a dent in the market share ratings.

Also, we’ve got the inescapable fact that Google isn’t going anywhere.

Google is still big news

Google set the blogosphere alight yesterday by simply posting a cryptic crop circle symbol in its usual logo space, without explanation. The move, whatever it was about, even achieved references on international newspaper websites as well as the usual tech blog soapboxes. This is the sort of position that Google is in now - getting major publicity without even trying. It’s a position that Microsoft - at the moment - can only dream about achieving with Bing.

However, at the end of the day it’s just a month’s worth of stats. The real proof of any progress will come in 2010 when Bing has been around for a full year. Perhaps only then will the true size of the task become clear.

The map that you occasionally see right at the top of Google’s organic search results is the Local Business Listings. These listings tend to show up on service-orientated searches where regional modifiers are used as part of the keyterm, ie; “bars in Newcastle”. The prime positioning of the listings on Google’s results page means that if you’re focusing on a particular location for sales then Local Business Listings should really be prioritised in your wider SEO programme.

Google’s Local Business Listings are technically separate to organic SEO, yet rely largely on the same basic rules for success - the main one being the use of good relevant content. Listings are created through Google Accounts, with the option to add a brief description and the all-important location which is highlighted on the results map. It’s so quick to set up, and depending on the type of company you’re running, the benefits can be incredible.

Following the basic principles of SEO good practice is the best way to get a strong performing listing;

- Create a clear title, with a single main keyterm included.

- Write the description for real-world users, in a no-nonsense copy style. Keyword stuffing, as always, results in unreadable copy.

- Focus on your main service - this offers a clearer message to both users and Google.

- Don’t forget to add the business URL - an obvious point maybe, but this isn’t a mandatory field on the set-up form so can be easily missed out.

- If anything notable changes with your business - new services, services phased out, location changes etc - change your listing. It should always be up-to-date.

- Remember Google’s primary aim - to provide the user with the information they’re searching for - if your listing isn’t as helpful and useful as it could be, change it.

While it ranks on its own merits in relation to competition, the performance of a Local Business Listing is assisted by the quality of the associated business website. If that website is doing everything it should with an ongoing SEO programme, then the business listing will benefit accordingly.

Like organic SEO you’ve got the top ten to aim for, as these are the results that will appear on the all-important first page. However, again like organic SEO the competition can often run into the thousands depending on the keyterm and location in question. Approach the Local Business Listings like any SEO project - remember there’s no quick fix or silver bullet, stick to the known principles and the results will follow.

Get in touch to discuss your company’s SEO programme with Green Media.

Details of a search engine collaboration between two of the three major names in the industry were revealed today, with Microsoft and Yahoo announcing a partnership.

Under the terms of initial ten-year deal, Yahoo’s popular search engine is likely to be enveloped into Microsoft’s Bing platform, with search technologies and profit shares from ads distributed accordingly.

The move is the latest ominous sign that Microsoft really does mean business with Bing, because however mutually-beneficial the deal is dressed up to appear by the respective marketing departments, it has essentially swallowed up it’s nearest competitor in the field. Also, the ten year timescale of the agreement is an interesting note to the episode, suggesting that Microsoft isn’t expecting an overnight result and is in it for the long haul.

However the size of the task in attempting to overthrow Google hasn’t got any smaller. Even combined, Bing and Yahoo’s current share of the search market (28%) doesn’t come close to Google’s domination (65%*).

All in all, Microsoft’s recent moves on search show a certain tenacity for the fight, but it doesn’t look like it has produced a genuine gamechanger… yet.

* Comscore. July 2009.

Seasonal SEO - as the name suggests - is a highly targeted form of search engine optimisation aimed at achieving rankings on a topic at a specific point in the year, these typically being key buying times such as Christmas, Easter, Valentines Day or any period that might be important to a particular company’s activities.

We’ve recently developed a seasonal SEO programme for the Beamish Wild Ropes Activity Centre, based on attracting visitors during the school summer holidays. Following some on-site and off-site SEO work the site is now ranking 1st page (on Google.co.uk) on a selection of client-specified keyterms, including;

“summer fun for kids North East” - 7th

“summer fun for kids County Durham” - 1st

“summer holiday activities Durham” - 5th

“family fun in County Durham” - 6th

“family days out in County Durham” - 7th

The preparation required for a seasonal SEO campaign varies between websites, and can range from weeks to months in advance, depending on the keyterm topic, competition and general search proficiency of the website in question. Organic SEO - as ever - depends on various external factors so it’s always best to plan ahead as much as possible by phasing in the campaign over a number of weeks to help ensure that you hit the rankings you target at precisely the right time. Getting the timing wrong can have far-reaching consequences - there’s no business benefit at all in reaching the 1st page when no-one is searching for the keyterms anymore.

Seasonal SEO campaigns should be linked in with your company’s wider marketing strategy, and have the ability to seamlessly shift to the next relevant target when required, while always retaining the core SEO focus of the website throughout the year.

Interested in a seasonal SEO campaign for your company website? Get in touch with Green Media to find out more.

Sticking to what you do best on your company website is a good mantra for SEO.

As always, keep in mind that the main aim of Google (and the other major search engines) is to enhance the user experience, and they do this by ensuring the user finds what they’re looking for as quickly as possible. Therefore the top ranking websites for any search will always be the ones most applicable to the search term, naturally. Search engines thrive on clear topics and obvious authority on a given subject, and this is borne out in the rankings.

For instance, if your company offers a wide and varied set of services, you can be sure that there are competitors out there who are just offering one of those services. Depending on the quality of the websites and other SEO factors at work (such as off-page issues, link-building, domain name, domain age etc), the dedicated website will generally rank higher than the multiple service one, as the search engine will class it as more of an expert on the subject.

So, if your website is diluted with several different and disparate topics then you’re likely to find it tough to rank highly on any keyterms consistently, as search engines will struggle to pin your site down to a specific subject.

To avoid being lost in the search engine ether for this reason, think about topic themes and consider the natural connections between the different elements of content on your website. If all of the sections on the site can’t be naturally linked to each other then they shouldn’t be on the same website in the first place, at least if you’re expecting any decent level of search engine performance.

Green Media has been providing SEO solutions to companies since 2000, across a massive range of sectors and industries, for a multitude of performance requirements. Get in touch on 0191 275 9777 to find out how we can help improve your performance on search engines, delivering more traffic, sales, brand exposure and a clear return on investment.

The new third generation iPhone went on sale at the weekend, and while it proved to be an instant success with customers and critics alike, it seems that Apple might not have thought through the long-term SEO potential of the product - and has gone for a subtle yet drastically-sudden name change today.

Originally titled the “3G S”, the new iPhone is now known as the “3GS”. Apple hasn’t made any official comment on the change, but it’s plain to see on their website that it has happened.

What’s in a space character?

If the move is down to pure search engine motives, then perhaps Apple have made an unnecessarily knee-jerk decision as searches today for the old-style “3G S” are returning iPhone-dominated results on Google, Bing and Ask. (Only on Yahoo was the iPhone denied top-spot, perhaps understandably by the Three/3 mobile phone network official website.) Considering the millions of digital column inches that will be written about the 3GS in the coming months, the product will surely tighten its grip on the search term - space character or no space character.

Conversely, doing a search today for the new “3GS” name brings back a similarly iPhone-heavy set of results across the board, with some high-ranking references dating from several weeks ago, pre-empting Apple’s decision. Perhaps, when all is said and done, it wasn’t very clear that there was a space in the first place…

Either way, it’s interesting to see that maybe SEO can now impact on product launches of even the world’s most marketing-savvy companies.

We relaunched the HLA Services website in May, with a specific brief to improve search engine performance. The client came up with a wish-list of twenty-five keyterms - only one of which was ranking at all on Google at the time - covering the various specialist areas of the business.

Just over a month into the project we’re happy to report a veritable avalanche of results;

• 20 rankings overall
• 14 Top 10 / 1st page rankings
• 7 No#1 rankings

So in a period of five weeks, from a benchmark position of one solitary keyterm ranking, the HLA Services website is now a powerful competitor on twenty prime industry search terms - in the top ten for most of them and the absolute top ranked website for seven of those.

Just to clarify, these weren’t keyterms that we cherry-picked ourselves to ensure a positive result - these were client-specified, highly competitive terms designed to generate more business.

Like our Lucion Environmental project, HLA’s SEO programme is a long-term campaign, so we’re aiming to take this even further over the coming months.

Does this sound like the sort of SEO performance that your business could do with? If so, get in touch.

Microsoft’s latest attempt to gain a greater share of the search engine market went unexpectedly into beta last week. Pitched as a “decision engine”, bing.com comes as the replacement for LiveSearch.

With a fresh look, stunning photographic background imagery and a reported immediate impact with users in the opening test week, is Bing the next big thing in search?

Nice touches, nothing groundbreaking

The homepage is undoubtedly good-looking, but how does Bing fare when it is actually put to work with a search? The results page looks more or less as you’d expect, with a couple of nice touches.

Related searches are bumped up to the top left, instead of appearing in the footer as you’d expect. This could be a slight time-saver if you’re not overly familiar with what you’re searching for, but it’s nothing you couldn’t get before elsewhere.

Each individual result, when hovered over, has a small pop-up containing a synopsis and various links from the same website. Presumably this is to offer as much information as possible before a user commits to a click. This doesn’t seem a million miles away from Ask.com’s thumbnail preview, which offers a sneak peek of a website on the results page. Neither are particularly useful, but at least Ask.com’s effort offers some neat visuals.

Both cases essentially miss the point of the results page and their own faith in the suggested websites - the fact that a site is appearing on the 1st page should be reason enough to click on it. Any in-depth pre-investigation required before accepting the search engine’s suggestion indicates it might not be what you’re looking for.

Advanced search offers a pleasingly flexible and straight-forward set of variables - including country and language - but these aren’t exactly daily requirements for your average web user.

Spammy returns rank strongly

The synopsis tool actually comes in quite handy as a few random searches show that while Bing is returning relevant websites, it often suggests very deep links or spammy findings. These absolutely need to be weeded out before any full launch, or there’ll be all manner of “optimised for Bing” results appearing - a sure-fire way to kill the user experience.

Loose PPC connections

Bing’s suggested pay-per-click websites seem decidedly fuzzy, which is odd given PPC’s highly manageable nature and in particular the sharp targeting available through Microsoft’s own Adcenter system.

A search for “email marketing newcastle” returns an accurate selection on organic - but a poorly irrelevant mix of hotel, job vacancy and football websites on sponsored search.

The same search on Google.co.uk returns a watertight set of paid-for Newcastle-based email marketing results.

Despite the apparently hapless targeting, Bing does repeat the top ranking PPC ads at the bottom of the page - meaning that those advertisers who are paying top dollar get a second bite of the cherry if their main ad is ignored. Good for advertisers, good for Microsoft’s pocket.

Endless images

When using the images tab, Bing doesn’t seem to limit the result thumbnails, returning as many as 1000 at a time. While this helpfully removes the need to click through multiple pages to find what you’re looking for, it also produces reams of loading thumbnails as you’re scrolling the page. Maybe that’s why every other search engine, ever, uses multiple pages.

“Verbing Up”

Google is so synonymous with the very act of searching online that it comfortably reached the brand nirvana of becoming an associated verb some years ago. While Google’s top brass have made noises in the past that this is something they’re not too happy about - it “dilutes” their other offerings apparently - it is surely the pinnacle of brand domination. This obviously isn’t lost on Microsoft, with Chief Exec Steve Ballmer openly stating that Bing was chosen as a name that can be easily “verbed up”.

First impressions…

So will we all be “binging” for our information in years to come? On the evidence of the beta, the answer has to be a pretty clear ‘no’. Bing needs to offer something that Google doesn’t, and at the moment it isn’t doing that. However, with a reported marketing budget of $100m to ease the full introduction, Bing is likely to be around for a while. We’ll see how it goes, but with such a glitchy opener and the absence of anything really new, or even useful, it doesn’t look very promising.

Of course the beta phase of any project is intended to iron out the creases, so perhaps the niggles mentioned above can be forgiven for the time being. Perhaps the full launch will be a little slicker…

All in all, it’s good to see that someone is taking a determined run at Google’s domination - it’ll certainly be interesting to see how the market leader responds in due course.

It’s been little over two months since we mentioned the SEO success of Lucion Environmental following the start of Green Media’s search optimisation programme, and we’re pleased to say that the results have got even better. Lucion’s website is now ranking on the 1st page on Google for every single keyterm that was targeted by the client at the start of the campaign.

Starting from a benchmark position of no ranking at all on the chosen keywords, the lowest ranked term is now 3rd. That’s quite a leap.

What’s more, Lucion’s Google PageRank is rising, underlining the increasing authority of the website and providing a sure sign that the programme is working as planned.

Take a look at the rankings;

“asbestos newcastle” - 2nd

“asbestos gateshead” - 2nd

“asbestos crawley” - 2nd

“asbestos northern ireland” - 2nd

“asbestos tyne” - 3rd

If you’d like your company to experience the same SEO impacts on the keyterms that matter, drop us a line.