Jump Higher

One thing that really winds me up is the way that whenever a new search engine is released into cyber space, the media ALWAYS portray it as a so-called “Google Killer”….no it ISN’T!!

No doubt this is a nefarious technique to attract bohemians and those corporate Google haters but can anyone really take these rather stark headlines seriously?

When you consider just the sheer size of Google, the size of its market share, the number of sites they own and the number of cuil…I mean COOL…free tools they offer that actually work, how can they justify such a statement when a new upstart like this enters the market?

Yeah, fair enough, Cuil was built by ex-Google employees, and Google is facing various accusations and lawsuits on privacy issues (not to mention YouTube which Google currently owns!), but when you consider what Google offers a webmaster, it is miles ahead of the competition. Here are to mention just a few:

• Google Analytics - a FREE web analytics package which allows you to see, at a glance, what’s working for your online marketing campaigns (or anything else for that matter) or what’s not. It displays your information in a very visual manner and is a lot simpler to read than other web analytics packages that you end up paying thousands of pounds for!

• Google Webmaster Tools – simply the most useful tool, and an absolute must-have for any webmaster. It provides a wealth of information on the number of inbound links pointing at your site, broken links, time and date on the last time Google cached your site as well as a whole variety of other different aspects

• Google Adwords - By far the largest PPC provider in the world, a great many people out there focus solely on this utility purely because of the sheer volumes of traffic that Google provides as well as its ease of use.

• Google Maps – I for one use this tool a great deal! You can plot distances from start to destination and get detailed directions on how to get there.

• Google Earth – Tell me that being able to zoom in on your own house and seeing it in considerable detail is not cool?? Nuff said! Oh, and Google have now released Google Maps Street View that provides 360 degree panoramic views of a street at ground level (you’ll be able to see UK streets very soon!).

Of course not to mention Google Knol, Google Business Listings (get your business on Google Maps), iGoogle, Google Reader, Google Mail, Google Alerts and so much more!

Rand Fishkin, the man behind SEOMoz, published a great comparison article on how Cuil measures up with the other search engines out there, like Google, Yahoo, Live Search and ASK, and I have to say it doesn’t look good! As you can see, their relevancy on searches is dismal compared to the likes of Google and Yahoo (I even searched for my own name on Cuil and it presented me with a whole range of very obscure results! One of the results was of the San Diego Tribune that had no reference to “Norton” whatsoever!).

So, a few of the culprits are:

Geek Spot

Switched.com

PCMag.com

Readerszone.com

Streetinsider.com

Honestly, do you have to use the same old cliché? Google Killer it ain’t, Google is here to stay!

Norton

Love it or hate it (and I suspect the majority fall into the latter category) link-building is an essential element of any successful SEO campaign. Most SEO agencies these days either outsource their link-building or employ a dedicated specialist to look after this necessary but very time consuming evil. Unfortunately not everyone can afford this luxury and many are still struggling to figure out the best way to build good quality links themselves. Well I’m felling charitable today so here’s a starting point for you:

5 free link-building methods

Digg it! No, that isn’t my attempt at being down with the kids - I’m talking about www.Digg.com. Digg.com is a social bookmarking for people to share content from anywhere on the web with other users. If you’ve got something interesting on your website that you’d like to share, Digg it and get yourself a link in the process.

Submit your website to www.sproose.com. Sproose is a user powered search engine whereby internet users suggest websites they think are most relevant for a particular subject. Submitting your website not only gives you a link but might also drive some well-needed traffic to your site.

Submit your website to http://mastermoz.com. Mastermoz is a popular free directory that allows you to create a text/visual listing for your website. This is a legitimate web directory though so don’t take the p***!

www.mister-wong.com is another useful social bookmarking website that lets you recommend websites, blogs, and anything else web-based that you think other people might like. Recommend your own website and Bob’s your uncle, another link.

Create a blog using a free online blog website – there are plenty of them and they’re easy enough to find. Include the keyword you want to target in one of your posts and link it back to the relevant page of your website. The longer you keep your blog going and the more information you put on it, the more powerful the links from it will be. Be warned though, many ham-fisted link-building buffoons have abused this method and the websites have rightly imposed restrictions as a consequence of their clumsiness. Keep it natural, don’t overdo the links and you should be fine.

That’s all for now folks. Happy linking!

Steve

I suppose the first thing we should say is welcome to the JumpHigher blog. We hope that over time it will become a useful SEO and Web Design resource but also an informal journal of our experiences, successes and, on occasion, our amusing office anecdotes.

We’ve asked everyone in the company to contribute to the blog from our Account Manager to the company’s MD, so keep checking in to see what’s new.