'The SEO Song' - Showing the Importance of Professional Web Design & Online Marketing

The Creare Group, a company consistently dedicated to practising White Hat SEO techniques, have released a brand new music video to accompany 'The SEO Song'. It is designed to help educate businesses about the dangers of companies who promise immediate and organic results in the search engines that they just can't achieve. There are so many SEO firms who practise 'black hat' techniques, it can be hard to know exactly where to start when you need to find a company who can help you.

With their vast technical know-how and fully developed teams dedicated to search engine optimisation, website design and e-commerce web design, The Creare Group are in a great position to help educate others. In such an unregulated industry, with no official external standards, it is easy for companies to get away with manipulating and deceiving innocent potential customers.

The Creare Group are launching this campaign to raise awareness about these issues, and to ensure SEO comes to the forefront of public attention.

Just some of the falsehoods spread by those companies that thrive on using illegitimate techniques include: being affiliated with Google, guaranteeing front page or top position results in a limited time span and failing to properly explain the difference between pay-per-click and organic SEO campaigns. The Creare Group feel so strongly about the widespread black-hat SEO underworld, that they are making it their mission to educate small to medium businesses about these dangers.

A music video is an innovative and exciting way to publicise this message by reaching out to the masses without the technical jargon. Starring home-grown talent in the form of their very own expert web designer Michael Angrave, and the rest of his band 'Charlie And The Martyrs', this could be the best possible way to ensure all businesses understand the need to use honest SEO firms. The video was filmed in house, as The Creare Group pride themselves on their versatility, in addition to their skills with regard to SEO and Web Design.

Lead vocalist Michael Angrave comments; "It's not every day you get the opportunity to make and record a pop song and music video, so naturally, when we came up with the idea, I was more than happy to offer my input. I think the song itself is a fun take on what we do as a company, which is to make a difference to people's businesses and lives."

As a company whose search engine results are all natural and fully above board, The Creare Group feel so passionately that through the medium of music they want to amuse, educate and, above all, spread the word, so that no other businesses are exploited by the practices of black hat SEO firms.

"At Creare, we find nothing more soul destroying than when we go to see potential customers only to discover they have been mis-sold websites and deceived by SEO companies who promise to provide genuine organic results and simply rely on pay-per-click. We feel so strongly about this that we created the SEO music video to educate small to medium sized businesses about the risks of such practices." Mike McKinlay, MD.

The Creare Group feel so strongly about the quality of the techniques used in the SEO community that they will be promoting this video across a variety of online and offline channels. For more information about their honest web design and search engine optimisation services, you can see the video both on the Creare Group YouTube Channel, and on their websites.

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Guava to Appear at Chinwag Live

Leading search engine marketing agency, Guava, will be on the panel of the Chinwag Live event "Search is Dead, Long Live Search" on the evening of Tuesday 29th of September at the Slug and Lettuce pub in SoHo, London.

With the rapid growth of Twitter, as well as the launch of newer services such as Bing, Guava's SEO Director, Teddie Cowell, will be on the panel to discuss how marketers and SEO specialists can optimise for new search technologies.

Teddie Cowell, SEO Director of Guava commented:
"The search landscape is certainly changing. 'Search is Dead, Long Live Search' will be a great opportunity to explore how we can really optimise effectively for the ever-increasing range of search platforms available to web users - in the age of 'social media search'."

Guava are also sponsoring the event, which also sees speakers from Mindshare, Betfair and MediaVest. Chinwag Live is the first of many events Guava are due to appear at.

For further information on Guava's juicy event line up visit: http://www.guava.co.uk/events/


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Mobile Broadband Providers Deliver a Quarter of Advertised Speeds

The leading comparison site tested 3,342 mobile broadband connections during the period 1st March 2009 - 31st August, 2009, and found that the average actual download speed was 1.1Mbs compared to the average advertised maximum speed of 4.5Mbs.

The research also revealed that, whilst Vodafone recorded the fastest actual speed with an average of 1.3Mbs, it also delivered the lowest percentage of its advertised speeds at just 18% of the stated 7.2Mbs. The findings are particularly surprising as the operator has recently announced that its maximum speeds are set to increase to 14.4Mbs.

Although there was not a great difference in actual speeds delivered between providers, T-Mobile was the slowest at 0.9Mbs or 20% of the advertised speed. 3 achieved the highest percentage of advertised speeds clocking in at 1.2Mbs or 33.3% of the advertised 3.6Mbs maximum speed.

Rob Webber, Broadband Expert's Commercial Director, is calling for providers to add average speeds to advertising so consumers can make a more informed choice. He said: "It is completely unreasonable for a provider to advertise unrealistically high speeds that the vast majority of customers will never receive. Advertising unrealistic speeds will not help the long term growth of mobile broadband or the reputation of the providers if customers feel they are being misled."

By comparison, over the same period, Broadband Expert tested 94,546 home broadband connections where the average speed was 3.6Mbs or 44% of advertised maximum speed.

Webber concluded: "Consumers who see mobile broadband advertised at such high speeds may see it as a realistic alternative to home broadband, whereas in truth it should be seen as a complementary technology. Continued developments in the mobile broadband industry will undoubtedly allow it to become a true competitor in the future, but at the moment - as our research shows - there is still a way to go."
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Bookreaders Give Social Networks a Thumbs Down

In a recent survey conducted by Book Marketing Limited, book-lovers gave a resounding thumbs down to 'social networks' such as Facebook and Twitter with only 3% seeing them as very useful places they would go to for recommendations on what books to read next.

Instead, they actively seek out more authentic expert views on the web from Author websites as well as trusted independent sources of guidance such as Lovereading.co.uk. In addition, when asked where they find out about the latest books, the web was the most used but email newsletter and reviews in the newspaper scored highly as well.

At the other end of the scale, only 5% of respondents said they often looked at the expensive posters sites typically seen on public transport.

Peter Crawshaw of Lovereading said 'In one way the research findings support the more 'traditional' view that is held about book lovers. What is interesting however is the high level of independence shown by them in the sourcing of authentic expert views on what they might like to read next. It also points to the 'Stephen Fry / Jonathan Ross Twitter effect as being the exception rather than the rule'.
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Engage Customers Via Video

With UK online advertising now worth approximately £3.3 billion, a new website http://www.bizzibox.com launches today that offers businesses of all sizes a place to communicate directly with their online audience with advanced video streaming technology. Bizzibox is the interactive business directory with video streaming technology at its centre – enabling businesses to easily manage their online brand image and reach out to more customers.

UK Businesses list for free on http://www.bizzibox.com and receive a free, interactive profile page from which they can upload news and images. Listings are linked to expert information videos on products and services allowing consumers to find information and businesses quickly and easily.

One feature that business can access directly from their Bizzibox profile page is the My Bizzibox Player. ‘The My Bizzibox Player makes branded video streaming technology available to businesses of all sizes,’ comments Bizzibox CEO, Tom Acton. ‘It allows businesses to create video blogs, upload business videos and publish video news stories that play instantly on a business’ own website. From £19.50 per month, it’s the UK’s only affordable commercial-use video publishing solution and an ideal tool for businesses that want to add professional branded video to their websites.’

In addition to the My Bizzibox Player, the site also offers a professional Filming & web distribution service: ‘Video is a powerful way for business to communicate with their customers and increase their online traffic,’ continues Acton.

‘The consumer market for online video has grown rapidly over the past couple of years with approximately 29.6 million people in the UK accessing online video in a single month in 2009. To reach this ever growing market, businesses of all sizes need to stay one step ahead and communicate via online video. Bizzibox provides the ideal platform to do this.’
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UK's Largest Auction Site Sees Traffic Grow Over 5,000%

With a team of only 10 full time employees, Bid4Vouchers launched onto the UK auction scene with a fanfare not seen since rival German auction site Swoopo entered the market in 2008. From an initial membership of only three thousand the site has grown beyond all expectations increasing in size by over 1500 new members every week. This has left the company with a few initial growing pains but one of the fastest growing companies on the internet.

Founder and technical director, Oliver Hutcheon, explains;

"There's a significant difference between us and other auction sites in that we create substantially more winners because of our business model. We only auction gift vouchers for all the major high street stores and each auction varies in value from £10 to £500.

When we launched we planned for a steady growth so we could meet the challenges of higher traffic along the way. It hasn't been like that at all.. the growth has been phenomenal and driven partly by the auction winners themselves recommending the site. What we didn't factor in was the time that our members spend using the site which is sometimes up to one hour. Thankfully our hosting company, Red Technology, have been excellent in upgrading the hardware necessary to cope with the added traffic.

At present, we keep stocks of around £10,000 worth of vouchers on any of 30 high street stores we represent so delivery is quick and by registered post. You can play and win the day before you go shopping."

So how do the auctions work? It's a tried and tested model where each bidder pays a small amount for the right to place a bid and drives up the price by a few pence. But what's new about Bid4Vouchers?

Jon Molton, sales director explains,

"People have become comfortable with the standard auction model where anywhere up to a few hundred people will chase a very valuable prize for only a few pounds, paying a small price each time to bid. The trouble with the existing model is that this leaves one winner and many, many losers. We run auctions where you can fairly easily win bundles of high street gift vouchers for 30% to 40% of their face value, sometimes with as few as only 3 or 4 members participating in the auction. This new way of generating more successful auction winners has proved to be quite a significant attraction and the levels of interest we've experienced have certainly given us some late nights. But it's a great problem for the company to have."

Looking at some of the recent auctions on the website its easy to see why the growth has been so explosive;

£250 of Boots the chemist vouchers sold recently for only £12.18.
£500 of House of Fraser vouchers went for only £34.84
£25 of Argos vouchers went for only 89p.

Jon Molton again… "Some of the auctions only raise the price by 1p for every bid, so the final value is incredibly small but we're happy with that. Over 70% of the auctions do lose us money, but the 30% that don't make up for the other 70%."
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Bacs Approves Experian Payments Gateway

Experian, the global information company, has announced that its payment processing product, Experian Payments Gateway, has achieved approval under the Faster Payments Approved Software Scheme, operated by Bacs. As the first software to receive approval for unattended use with Direct Corporate Access (DCA), it will enable users to fully automate their Faster Payments and participate in the Barclays launch of DCA to Faster Payments in September.

Originally developed to enable payments originators to process Bacs Payments, Experian Payments Gateway has been extended, tested and approved for use with Smartcards and Hardware Security Modules (HSM) in both attended and unattended modes. It supports Faster Payments DCA via Secure-IP, the secure channel for corporates to initiate Faster Payments.

James Hilliard, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Experian Payments, said, "Many of our large customers use automated payments systems to help increase efficiency and reduce their risk and costs. Recognising their need to automate their Faster Payments securely, we have worked closely with the Faster Payments Approved Bacs Software Scheme to ensure they are able to gain maximum benefit from the new Faster Payments Service."

Gareth Lodge, Regional Research Director, TowerGroup, said, "Automating payments has always been a key priority for corporates as it has multiple benefits, from cost reduction to improved risk management. But in the current economic environment, it probably is even more important than it has ever been, with working capital benefiting in particular. And of course, the deeper that SEPA Payments are integrated into the end-to-end process, the greater the benefits."
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