Journal iSM - The Voice of Internet Search Marketing
September 9, 2011
The iSM of the Future!
You asked, we listened! The new site is here, with all new features!
With the continued rapid growth of iSM's market-leading portfolio of over 2000 Microsites, we were inundated with requests by clients and visitors alike for a user-friendly way to enable them to understand online-marketing opportunities available to them.
We heeded your requests and have developed the new site with 100% openness in mind. All services we offer, as well as the features of each are now fully explained on the website. To see what services we have to offer, click here. To understand the key features of our Microsites, click here.
Whilst displaying the features and services does answer a lot of frequently asked questions, a major additional development has been the creation of our newly branded tour.iSM Microsite Portfolio search functionality that allows any user to quickly and easily find the perfect Microsites on offer to compliment their online marketing strategy.
A further benefit of these changes to businesses, is that we are, for the first time, offering package deals with major discounts, saving you potentially hundreds of pounds!
If you haven't already checked out the portfolio, please do so now. If you're an existing client, you'll be able to decide which additional microsites can enhance your current listing - all at substantially discounted values.
If you're yet to join thousands of other satisfied businesses, the best place to start is to read the services page and once you understand the benefits we can provide for you business, you'll be ready to use the portfolio search to begin to narrow down your preferrred Microsite package.
With the continued rapid growth of iSM's market-leading portfolio of over 2000 Microsites, we were inundated with requests by clients and visitors alike for a user-friendly way to enable them to understand online-marketing opportunities available to them.
We heeded your requests and have developed the new site with 100% openness in mind. All services we offer, as well as the features of each are now fully explained on the website. To see what services we have to offer, click here. To understand the key features of our Microsites, click here.
Whilst displaying the features and services does answer a lot of frequently asked questions, a major additional development has been the creation of our newly branded tour.iSM Microsite Portfolio search functionality that allows any user to quickly and easily find the perfect Microsites on offer to compliment their online marketing strategy.
A further benefit of these changes to businesses, is that we are, for the first time, offering package deals with major discounts, saving you potentially hundreds of pounds!
If you haven't already checked out the portfolio, please do so now. If you're an existing client, you'll be able to decide which additional microsites can enhance your current listing - all at substantially discounted values.
If you're yet to join thousands of other satisfied businesses, the best place to start is to read the services page and once you understand the benefits we can provide for you business, you'll be ready to use the portfolio search to begin to narrow down your preferrred Microsite package.
August 17, 2011
Linkbuilding - An In depth Look
A link building campaign is essential to maximise the impact of your SEO campaign and will improve search engine rankings on chosen keyword/phrases. An inbound link is viewed by search engines as a vote for your site. So Site A linking to Site B is seen as site A voting for site B, and SITE B's ranking is improved.
On Site Optimisation
If you are going to invest in link building then it is worth carrying out some optimisation checks on your web site. iSM can undertake a brief review and recommend any changes which will optimise your site for link building work. Prices for a more detailed review can be obtained upon request from your Account Manager.
As iSM does not have access to your web site you will be responsible for on site optimisation, this can be done yourself if you have access to your own site, if not then via your web design company.
Choosing Search Terms
Search terms should be chosen strategically. Take for example a business named Beaches Guest House that is located in Blackpool. If you were to buy a link building package based on the search term 'Blackpool' then this would not be effective for 2 reasons:
1 - The site is unlikely to appear easily in a search for the word 'Blackpool' as you are then competing with every other site in that town. It is too competitive and not cost effective. It would necessitate too many links to achieve this, even if the site does rank for this search term then anyone searching for a broad term such as 'Blackpool' would not necessarily be looking specifically for accommodation.
2 - Web sites in most cases have domain names which are their business names and do not mention services offered or geographic location of a business. Sites with domain names such as this do not receive a search term/domain name match bonus in search engine ranking algorithms and subsequently are not seen as relevant in corresponding search results.
Ideally the search terms in this example would be something like: Blackpool Guest House, Blackpool Bed and Breakfast, Blackpool Accommodation. Each search term reflects what a person looking for accommodation in Blackpool would be likely to type into a search engine. In this example link building would be sector specific, geo-targeted and highly worthwhile; the site would ultimately rank in search, whereas without link building, the only way it might be found is if someone actually types your business name into a search engine. Search engine optimisation attracts potential clients who are looking for the services you offer in your location. Having your web site appear on page 1 of a search result greatly increases your visibility to potential clients.
By using the search term (client chosen keywords/phrases) as the text that makes up the link, we can increase the weighting the search engines apply to your website for that particular search term.
There is no particular type of link that Google and other search engines like. They expect to see a mixture of links coming in. This is why we use a combination of 3 types of link - Social Bookmarking, Article Marketing and Directory Submissions.
What is a Social Bookmark?
Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to share, organise, search, and manage bookmarks of web resources.
E.g. - You see a page you like and you want to create a link to it for you to return to later. Search Engines love Social Bookmarks as they are user generated content and can seem to be popular web pages.
Social bookmarks offer a 100% acceptance rate and can be seen instantly.
What is an SEO Article?
SEO copywriting is an art in itself. We need to get the keyword density to an acceptable level so that the search engines associate the article with the search terms. We can place 2 links in the author's bio section of the article. One as a generic term to the homepage and one as a niche term to a product page.
What is Article Marketing?
Article marketing is where we take the article mentioned above and distribute it across the Internet.
We create a full page with your article on and the only outgoing links on the page are to your website.
Articles are very useful as landing pages for "long tail search terms" and may even drive traffic to your website. Here's an Example
What are Directory Submissions?
The SEO friendly web directories we use are basically a list of websites categorised by business sector. Google and other search engines like directories. For SEO purposes, we like them as they are a quick and easy way of getting anchor text links in bulk at a low price. Here's an example of a directory listing.
On Site Optimisation
If you are going to invest in link building then it is worth carrying out some optimisation checks on your web site. iSM can undertake a brief review and recommend any changes which will optimise your site for link building work. Prices for a more detailed review can be obtained upon request from your Account Manager.
As iSM does not have access to your web site you will be responsible for on site optimisation, this can be done yourself if you have access to your own site, if not then via your web design company.
Choosing Search Terms
Search terms should be chosen strategically. Take for example a business named Beaches Guest House that is located in Blackpool. If you were to buy a link building package based on the search term 'Blackpool' then this would not be effective for 2 reasons:
1 - The site is unlikely to appear easily in a search for the word 'Blackpool' as you are then competing with every other site in that town. It is too competitive and not cost effective. It would necessitate too many links to achieve this, even if the site does rank for this search term then anyone searching for a broad term such as 'Blackpool' would not necessarily be looking specifically for accommodation.
2 - Web sites in most cases have domain names which are their business names and do not mention services offered or geographic location of a business. Sites with domain names such as this do not receive a search term/domain name match bonus in search engine ranking algorithms and subsequently are not seen as relevant in corresponding search results.
Ideally the search terms in this example would be something like: Blackpool Guest House, Blackpool Bed and Breakfast, Blackpool Accommodation. Each search term reflects what a person looking for accommodation in Blackpool would be likely to type into a search engine. In this example link building would be sector specific, geo-targeted and highly worthwhile; the site would ultimately rank in search, whereas without link building, the only way it might be found is if someone actually types your business name into a search engine. Search engine optimisation attracts potential clients who are looking for the services you offer in your location. Having your web site appear on page 1 of a search result greatly increases your visibility to potential clients.
By using the search term (client chosen keywords/phrases) as the text that makes up the link, we can increase the weighting the search engines apply to your website for that particular search term.
There is no particular type of link that Google and other search engines like. They expect to see a mixture of links coming in. This is why we use a combination of 3 types of link - Social Bookmarking, Article Marketing and Directory Submissions.
What is a Social Bookmark?
Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to share, organise, search, and manage bookmarks of web resources.
E.g. - You see a page you like and you want to create a link to it for you to return to later. Search Engines love Social Bookmarks as they are user generated content and can seem to be popular web pages.
Social bookmarks offer a 100% acceptance rate and can be seen instantly.
What is an SEO Article?
SEO copywriting is an art in itself. We need to get the keyword density to an acceptable level so that the search engines associate the article with the search terms. We can place 2 links in the author's bio section of the article. One as a generic term to the homepage and one as a niche term to a product page.
What is Article Marketing?
Article marketing is where we take the article mentioned above and distribute it across the Internet.
We create a full page with your article on and the only outgoing links on the page are to your website.
Articles are very useful as landing pages for "long tail search terms" and may even drive traffic to your website. Here's an Example
What are Directory Submissions?
The SEO friendly web directories we use are basically a list of websites categorised by business sector. Google and other search engines like directories. For SEO purposes, we like them as they are a quick and easy way of getting anchor text links in bulk at a low price. Here's an example of a directory listing.
