SEO friendly URLs or Search engine friendly URLs , are web addresses written in a manner which is better for SEO, basically.

The most SEO friendly URLs are those which contain the main search term for that page, and little else.

For example, if the web page is about SEO, and the main search term is seo (good look with that one!!), then you would want domainname.com/seo

If you use wordpress, you create search engine friendly URL’s simply by changing the permalinks to %postname%  - just be sure to install a plugin such as permalink redirect, to re-direct all of your old post URL’s to the new.

Are they important?

Search engine friendly URLs are just one of many important elements of good SEO, like all the other elements, they’re not the be all & end all, but they’re certainly a stone that you would not want to leave un-turned.  In my opinion, seo friendly urls are up there with page titles, and header tags, as to there importance in the general scheme of things.

comparethesquirrel.com

Haha – what else can I say? NUTS!

Struggling for Christmas gift idea’s – have you ever thought of photo cushion covers?

Photo cushions are a fantastic Christmas gift idea, affordable, usable & meaningful due to the image that you use to personalise the cushion with.

Photoimageart in Poynton, Stockport Cheshire – are still able to produce printed photo cushions up until Friday 17th for pre-christmas delivery, or up to Tuesday 21st if you can collect from the print studio in Poynton, Stockport.

Merry Christmas!

A client of mine has recently created a blog called examples cover letters – I wanted to talk about it as I think his content is so good, and very much needed for anyone today who is out of work & struggling to find a job, or anyone frustrated & stuck in a rut in their old job who can’t seem to get themselves into a better position.

My client is someone who has worked in recruitment, and who has had a lot of experience and success in landing jobs for himself, and then became an employer & has experience from the other side of the interview room, and a result of this is some really good common sense advice.

He gives examples of some the kinds of cover letters he has received previously & the cover letters which are likely to make an impression & why.

Some rather bold claims are made about the power of cover letters, but I completely agree. Many people may be skeptical about his opinion that a well written cover letter can go most of the way towards getting the job in the bag, but I have had experiences personally which do support his theory. What he’s talking about is the way that human minds work very hard to stick to the very first impression you make – so if you make a fantastic impression with the cover letter, any shortfalls such as lack of experience or not asking the right questions in the interview,  are likely to be forgiven because the employers brain is working hard to stick to the inital impression of the person.

The first impression is certainly all-important, we all know this, and I really can see that writing a great cover letter is the perfect way to set the first impressions – because if we don’t make a great impression with the cover letter, it’s up to the resume / CV to do the job, ans resume’s / CV’s are more like technical documents which explain your experience & qualifications, they don’t really have the same potential to set a great impression about you as a person. Therefore if you don’t make a great impression with a cover letter, i.e. if you send no cover letter at all, or not a very well written one – then the first impression may already be negative, and when you turn up for the interview, unbeknown to you – the interviewer may already have a slightly degraded impression of you due to the absence of a great cover letter, or due to an uninspiring cover letter – and then it’s up to you in the interview to ensure you make a great first impression.

Some people have incredible presence, and therefore have the ability to make a very strong positive first impression in an interview – but the majority of us are not so comfortable interviewing, so if we don’t make a great impression with the cover letter, we’re taking a chance by hoping that we happen to say the right things & in the right way in the interview – and when we’re up against a number of other people who’ve done the same, then it’s anyone’s to win – but if one of the candidates has sent a very well written cover letter, then that person has a very good chance of landing the job – so make sure that person is you!

See examples cover letters for more.

So you’re looking for a 100% honest Aweber review? Or you’re looking for the best autoresponder or email marketing software / service?

OK – here it is  Aweber is AWSOME!!!!!!!

What more can I say?????

OK, I can say more….

I’ve been using Aweber now for maybe 2 or 3 years.

Aweber isn’t the first autoresponder / email list marketing system I’ve used – I have used others, but i’ve never been as impressed with an email marketing / autoresponder as I am with Aweber – and the crazy thing is, Aweber is the cheapest I’ve used!

I’m at a loss to even describe how good aweber is, seriously – I don’t know what I’d do without the awsome autoresponder – and I’m still amazed that it’s so cheap!!

If you’ve read my eBook (which you can still download FREE currently) The Ultimate Marketing Machine, then you’ll know exactly what you can do with this incredible list building & marketing platform, and how to use it – step by step – to literally transform your website from being an “online brochure” to being a “24/7/365 Marketing Machine!”.

___________________________________

Download my list marketing guide “The Ultimate Marketing Machine”

With Resale Rights Included!

Free for the first 100 downloads only! Get it free today!

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The thing is – as I’m thinking for negatives – I really can’t think of any! Usually with a service which is so fantastic, there would be somthing I could say which is negative, but there just isn’t.

Price: Excellent! Cheapest email list building / broadcasting /  autoresponder system I’ve used, $1 for the first month & then $19 pm thereafter.

Ease of use: Couldn’t be easier. FAR easier than the other autoresponder / email marketing systems I’ve used.

Customer Service: Amazing. Prompt, courteous, easy to understand, easy to contact – couldn’t be better.

Features: World class. Does everything I have ever wanted to do with list buiding & marketing, and more.

I feel a bit lost when writing this review on Aweber – if you’ve read any of my other reviews, you’ll know that I don’t usually hide my opinions, when something isn’t great I’ll say so, and I usually point out both the good & the bad – but honestly, with Aweber, I am scratching my head looking for negative things to say!

Help me – someone, come on, there must be something about aweber which isn’t 100% perfect??

If you can help balance out this review with something which isn’t 100% spot on perfect, then please reply & let me know.

You’re only allowed 1 service…

If I took on some crazy challenge, where I was dropped in the middle of the arctic in a cabin  – and I have to make my own money online to pay for the heating…. (OK, bit of a mad challenge ) and I was only allowed one service / peice of software, and everything else I had to do manually – I would choose Aweber as that 1 sevice, without a doubt!

So there you go, my 100% honest review on Aweber, the list / email building & marketing package I couldn’t do without!

Don’t expect many reviews from me to be so completely positive – I have complaints about pretty much everything else!

Thanks for reading

Kev

Just a quick post about how quickly we can get new websites indexed these days – and also a bit of a test at the same time.

There are a number of ways we can gain speedy Google indexing of new websites – obviously that isn’t to say that these websites will necessarily be straight up to the top of Google, that depends on a number of factor including competition – but you’ve “gotto be in it to win it” as they say, so getting your website onto google fast is a very good first step.

The Best Accountants in Manchester is a website I’ve literally just created, as a Manchester accountancy directory. I know it doesn’t look very nice – it’s just a very basic template site so the design isn’t up to much – but i’ll create a proper website design & more useful pages as soon as it’s indexed.

Cannock Accountants is another one, similar idea. Again its an accountancy directy focusing on accountants in the Cannock, Staffordshire area. Only put up a few hours ago – so it will be interesting to see how long that takes to get into the big G.

Accountants City of London same thing but focussing on accountants in London. Again, only put up a matter of hours ago, so we’ll see what happens.

Plasterers Bury North Manchester I set up about a week ago as a bit of a test. It got indexed within a few days.

Obviously what I will be doing once the above sites are indexed, is I’ll then work on gaining page one ranking for the relevant search terms – and when I’ve done that I’ll spruce up the design, add more pages of useful content, and I’ll give free listings & offer a paid ad spot. If you have any use of any of these sites though, for instance if you’re a designer & you’re about to design a website for a London accountancy firm – or if you’re a plasterer in Bury & you want to 301 re-direct the site to your own, or move your website onto this domain – then just drop me an email.

If you’ve read my other reviews of SEO tools / website marketing software in the past, such as my review on Web CEO and SEO Elite, you’ll know that my  SEO software reviews are honest, and that unlike many people who “review” such products, I have actually used them.

I don’t swear by tools. I see them as exactly that – tools, to be used when required, but I don’t tend to use them habitually, the only tools I use constantly are free firefox plugin’s which enhance our manual capabilities & speed up the process.

But, there’s a “little” SEO tool I’ve come across recently – that I think I may be in danger of becoming addicted to!  Andy Black’s “All in One SEO Toolbox”

Andy Black runs through the feature of SEO Toolbox.

I refer to this as “little” – it’s not by any means “little” in terms of effectiveness or power – but in terms of the size of the overall application – AND the cost, this is teeny – but like David’s slingshot, it packs a real punch! (Watch out Goliath! )

Many of the things that can be done with tools like webCEO, take away a lot of the freedom & flexibility of doing it manually – it can be like trying to play guitar with gloves on. So, usually I’ll dip into tools like this just to use certain parts of the tool which saves a lot of time & effort.

With All in One SEO Toolbox though, I’m finding that everything that the software does – is a real time saver! It’s rare that I would say this about an ap.

I’m not going to go into detail about the features of the tool – no point because the video above goes through it, but the first thing that will hit you when you watch that, is just how simple it is. Many applications of this nature are complex, and packed full of features you just don’t need – this isn’t, you won’t even need to read the instructions, it’s really self explanatory.

One of the most important elements of SEO right now, in my opinion, is finding great Niches so you can “shoot the planes on the ground” – keyword research within these niches, and registering keyword rich domain names. This tool does all of the above! Perfect!!

I’ll just go into what I’ve just said, in a bit more detail to make sure I don’t confuse anyone – I’ll write a full post about this shortly, I’ve been meaning too for a while now.

What I’m talking about is the fastest way to get a return. This, for most small businesses, is what is most important at the moment (which is why I’m offering my new one off cost SEO service), OK it has always been important to get a return, but in previous years it’s not been so important to get a return as quickly as it is now. A couple of years ago, it may have been OK to start an SEO campaign & wait 3-6 months or more for any results at all – for most of us now, we don’t have the buffer to allow that, and we need a quick return from any marketing we do.

Going after the most competitive & high volume terms in your Niche, isn’t usually about fast returns – it’s about gaining that elusive page one ranking for a term which could make a major impact on your business. often this can take months, even years in some cases, depending on the competition.

So the most appropriate thing to do, if you need at least some return within days / weeks – not months/years – is to do more in depth keyword research to find terms which you have the ability to rank for within the near future, but which also have the ability to bring targeted traffic.

The fastest route to page one rankings, for lesser competitive search terms, is keyword domains.

So, in an ideal world, you would do your keyword research, find that the search term in your Niche, for example “Dinglehoppers in Somerset” (well, better than “widgets” is low on competition – but OK for traffic.

Note I say “OK for traffic” – it’s very unlikely you’ll find a low competition term which has mega traffic, not impossible but it’s very rare.

You’d register the domain “DinglehoppersinSomerset.com” (or .co.uk, or whatever) and create a website which is focused around that main term. Doesn’t have to be only that one term, for example the websites I’m doing this with generally rank page 1 for 20-30 search terms of this nature or more.

This doesn’t have to be a “Landing Page” type website, you can create your main website on a keyword rich domain.

Lets use a really good example – B&Q. If you’re in the UK then obviously you’re aware that Britain’s biggest DIY store is B&Q – and there domain, diy.com.  In fact, B&Q were a pioneer in keyword domains, they were probably one of the first big retailers to do this.

Obviously  the website will contain your branding – we’re not talking about just plastering the website with the search term. Unless of course you were creating a niche directory with your business in the prominent spot (This can be a very effective & cheap way to do this – email me for more info), in which case we’d go about it in a slightly different manner.

So – this is the fastest way to gain fast results. If you’re a medium to enterprise level business with plenty of resources, then this probably isn’t the route forward for you – but if you’re a new business, home based business, start up SME, or you run a small business  & you need to increase sales fast or you won’t be running a small business for long… then this would be an appropriate method to use.

And – for using this method – Andy Black’s All in One SEO Toolbox is absolutely spot on.

Just watch the video above, you’ll see what I mean.

And the price – it’s cheap!! It’s nearly 10 times less than I paid for WebCEO, and I probably use it ten times more!!

So there you go – by shirt review of the new SEO software ALL in one SEO toolbox.

Something else – I’m pleasantly surprised by Andy Black’s sales copy – for once, it’s sales copy where hype is kept to a minimum, and he simply says what it does.

You’ll have seen in my review of SEO elite that I was critical of the over the top sales copy which seemed to suggest that the software would turn everything you touch into gold , and recently I’ve been seeing more & more hype on sales pages, some of it is really off putting & often down right fanciful. The website for All in One SEO toolbox is really balanced, it tells you what it does, gives video’s & screenshots – and then tells you the price & gives you the link if you’d like to order it – Perfect!!

Thanks

Kev

This is way off topic – but a client who’s just contacted me for some free SEO consultancy has a really interesting website.  If you’re in the process of a break up, or if you have already split up with your wife, husband, girlfriend or boyfriend – then check out How to get your ex back forever

Initially I was sceptical to say the least, but actually – having read some of the idea’s & watched some of the free video’s on there, they do actually make very good sense.

The overall message is about how most people in this situation are missing the major point, they’re focussing on getting their ex back – but they’re doing it in a way which would only usually get temporary results.

It’s actually very positive advice – it’s not about begging & pleading, scheming, mind games, “text terrorism” , reverse psycology & all that rubbish…. So if you’re unfortunate enough to be in that position currently, I would recommend you have a look.

Cheers

Kev

I’m not taking on retained SEO clients at the moment, as I’ve just got too much going on – however I am getting a lot of requests at the moment for SEO consultancy for small businesses.

Often it’s small businesses, start ups & home based business people who have websites & know they need more search engine traffic, but want to know what they need to do – or what they need to have done to their websites in order to gain more organic search engine traffic.

So – for a limited period (while I’ve got time) I’m offering to do FREE SEO consultancy work for small businesses.

Send me your URL, and I’ll tell you what the current situation is with your website, and what needs to be done to gain better search engine rankings & more targeted search engine traffic.

Obviously this isn’t going to be hours & hours of painstaking research & reams of reporting – basically I’ll go through your site & tell you quickly & simply what needs to be done, and how to go about it.

A client of mine has produced a free guide on SSAT & ISEE exams, and helping to get yourself (or your kids) into the top private schools.

SSAT & ISEE are entry exams used by private schools in the USA. I’m in the UK so I know little about this, but I’m helping to tell people about her brand new free guide, so I’ll just copy & paste her message here.

In the United States, the public school system isn’t working any more. Most parents & children alike will agree with this!

Getting your kids into a good private school is a very important thing to do if you are concerned that they get the very best education. And – it’s no secret that being in a private school dramatically increases the chances of also getting into a private college later.

Getting into the best private schools isn’t just about passing the SSAT &  ISEE exams, this is obviously very important – but there are other very important steps you can take.

In my free guide, I take you through all of the things you can do to help your kids to get the edge, and increase their chances of passing the SSAT and ISEE exams and getting into the private school of their choice.

Read my Free SSAT & ISEE report today & find out just how much of a difference you can have on your childrens education & therefore their future.