Over the past few weeks I’ve been UN subscribing nearly all of them. After all, I know where all my favourite blogs and news channels are and I can search or navigate to them in an instant. I’ve saved my self at least half an hour per day, if not more, and I have far fewer distractions.

Back in the Day

There was a time, not so long ago when it was cool to sign up to your favourite blog but today every man, woman and me has a blog and whilst many of them are good and worthy of our attention, do we want them appearing in our inbox?

OK, that was me having a rant about a situation I created myself over a period of years but I wonder how many people, like me have suffered this self afflicted distraction?

Sign-up to my newsletter to find out ?

During a sales meeting in the Portuguese Algarve in the late 1980’s I saw a really cool guy wearing a pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarer Tortoise Shell sun glasses and I just had to have a pair and I busted my monthly salary back then to get them.

That was about 25 years ago and I still have them, they are one of my prize possessions.

Since then I have had many pairs of Ray-Ban’s which I have worn-out, broken or lost and my latest pair, purchased on holiday Australia last year fool me into believing I am still a cool dude…

What’s all this Ray-Ban Stuff go to do with Digital Marketing?

Digital Marketing and social media management is a great deal of hard work and thanks to Peer Index and their Peer Perks programme hard working people like me and you are sometimes rewarded with a promotional gift from brands like Ray-Ban in return for a little enjoyable brand marketing.

Peer Perks are not given to everyone, just those people who put a lot of hard work into social media and high quality digital marketing which earns them high authority. So I for one are very grateful to receive a few nice perks from brands like Ray-Ban in return for the work I put in for myself and my clients.

Why am I telling you this?

Well, I’m not really a creative guy, strategy is my thing, but I know that a lot of my friends are very creative and I would like to bring the Ray-Ban #EnvisionSeries to their attention because there could be a great prize and experience in it for them.

Ray-Ban said:

We’ve set out to find a number of individuals who have found their purpose in life – and that’s staying true to their vision. The Envision Series depicts these individuals. Watch, get inspired, then it’s your turn to show the world who you are.

Tell us what you always wanted to do and together we might bring it to life.
Submit your Vision Here:

My Ray-Ban Peer perk received today.

Really cool Ray-Ban beach towel and a set of Ray-Ban playing cards. (Sun glasses not included)

A: Why website buyers often purchase websites which are not fit for purpose and
B: Explain to employers why website management training is essential for all staff involved in website procurement, website content creation, distribution and social media management.

I hope that I have answered both questions in the short video below. If not feel free to comment or contact me directly. Mick Say.


Mick Say talks about website procurement and website management training.

You Get What you Pay For

We know this because most of our clients are people who have previously purchased cheap websites, blogs or eCommerce platforms which have not been fit-for-purpose, and eventually they come to us for advice, support and to build new meaningful resources for them.

Does Low-Cost equal Low-Value ?

The problem is that we all have a different perception of what’s “cheap” and what’s “expensive” and of course there is no definitive answer to the question particularly when the person pondering the question has no experience or knowledge of the complexity of the product they are considering to purchase.

Each time we do not win business we quoted for I think of this very apt quote by the late John Ruskin.

“There is hardly anything in the world that someone cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price alone are that person’s lawful prey.”
John Ruskin – Born in London 1819, Died in Lancashire 1900

As an example of cost, we recently quoted £3,200.00 to build an eCommerce platform similar to the one explained on our Sales and Marketing Platform page and we did not win the business. I was informed by the prospect he awarded the job to another “company” who quoted £300.00 for the work, That’s a whopping £2,900.00 cheaper than our quote!

So does “low-cost” equal “low-value” in this instance? Yes. Let me explain why in bullet points.

This is what the prospect received for his £300.00:

• Very dark and unflattering website design theme
• PayPal only payment option in the shopping cart
• Poorly appointed layout and navigation
• Grey and orange text on a black background
• Inappropriate images ripped from the web
• Inappropriate use of bold and upper case in “h” meta
• Inappropriate, spammy keyword density
• Spelling errors in page titles
• HTML code escaping into visible content
• ZERO – page meta descriptions
• ZERO – page meta title
• ZERO – image meta data
• ZERO – Terms and Conditions
• ZERO – Privacy Policy
• ZERO – Returns Policy
• ZERO – EU Cookie Policy Compliance
• ZERO – Internal page/post linking
• ZERO – Social media integration
• ZERO – XML or HTML site maps
• ZERO – Google analytics or webmaster tools integration

The above is NOT an exhaustive list of errors and important missing objects/resources from the website and I could write an equally long list of SEO copywriting faux pas but you get the message.

It’s NOT the clients fault

The problem is that the client didn’t do enough research before arriving at his decision and he had very little knowledge of the technical and SEO requirements of eCommerce platforms with integrated blogs and web pages, so made his decision on price alone and he has fallen prey to John Ruskin’s famous quotation.

Got a question about eCommerce? Call Mick Say direct – 07719 061 835

Ecommerce website design is more complex than general website design, so unless you personally are an ecommerce development expert you will certainly need to discuss your aspirations and goals with an expert in this field. Getting it wrong at the concept and development stage will cost you dearly.

As you are reading this page I assume you are serious about building a professional eCommerce website and I am glad you have landed here as we can help you to reach your online sales goals.

How to choose an ecommerce website design vendor

There are thousands of eCommerce Website Design Companies around the world so it’s difficult to choose the best development company to work with. The best way is to start with a phone call to pick the brains of the “ eCommerce expert” and to get a feel for the person and company you choose to work with.

Got a question about eCommerce? Call Mick Say direct – 07719 061 835

Following a personal conversation your developer will have a general idea of how to structure your project and then he or she should email you a more detailed eCommerce website design and development questionnaire upon receipt of which the developer will be able to form a quotation and a scope of works.

How much will the ecommerce website cost?

This is a really difficult question to answer without first having a conversation about the project. Your eCommerce website must portray trust and authority in order to progress a visitor quickly to a sale and this can only be achieved with expertly crafted software and technology, so don’t expect to receive quotations under £3,000.00 – pay anything less than this and you will certainly not receive a professional ecommerce website.

UK eCommerce website development team

The Web Business Builder is a UK Ecommerce Website Design Company. If you would like to read more about different types and budgets of eCommerce website development start reading here about general eCommerce and then read the Micro, Small and Large eCommerce website pages as well as the Online Sales and Marketing Platform page.

It’s a meaningful two-way street
In my opinion the good guest blogger will write between 500 and 1000 words on a subject relevant to the host website. The article will be helpful, share expert knowledge and be fun or at least easy to read. It must have meaning.

The guest blogger may include external links which support the article and will add instructions for “nofollow” to these links because we don’t want to pass too much PageRank from the host website unless it is strategically necessary and has the host website owners consent.

If the blogger writes frequently on the host website, the blogger will link sensibly to relevant pages of his or her own website, providing of course that they are relevant to the story. Once the blogger has linked once via previous articles to each relevant page, then the blogger will “nofollow” all links from the article.

The good guest blogger will never place paid links in any article on host websites.

The good guest blogger will hopefully understand SEO and will write search engine friendly copy being careful not to “stuff” too many keywords into the article. The blogger will also place carefully selected heading tags between the paragraphs making it easy for readers to scan read.

Also, the blogger will supply (legal) supporting images which will enhance the aesthetics of the post.

What the guest blogger gets in return

Here is a non-exhaustive list of what the guest-blogger gets in return for his/her or time and effort:

• Helps build the bloggers authority, trust, respect
• Helps build the bloggers social capital as the post/s are shared
• Helps build social presence and awareness
• Passing of link-juice to the bloggers website

The passing of PageRank form the host website to the guest bloggers website is extremely high value to the guest blogger. But once the guest blogger has few good outbound links the benefit diminishes so good (clever) guest bloggers will write a lot of guest posts on multiple host websites rather than lots of posts and individual websites.

Guest Bloggers Bio and Authorship

It’s also essential for the guest blogger to have a short 250 character bio on the host website so that “authorship” is registered and carried through search as in the example image below.

We would love to hear hear your ideas as to what makes a good guest blogger or how to be a good guest blogger in the comments below.

Be careful because they may have an ulterior motive which could get your website banished from the Google Index and search results.

Black-Hat link marketing agencies are more prevalent than you think and are adept at disguising who they are and what their real intentions are!

Some guest bloggers do more harm than good, either by design or by accident.

Don’t panic just yet! Most guest bloggers are known to you, are trusted by you and their content adds great value to your website or blog. However I want you to consider three scenarios where guest bloggers actually do more harm than good, some by design and some by accident.

Lets call them the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Ugly Guest Blogger

The Black-Hat guest Blogger is the Ugly (metaphorically speaking) blogger who has an ulterior motive right from the start. They often introduce themselves to unsuspecting website owners and bloggers by saying something like: “I really like your blog, I’d love to write a guest post for you”

These “Guest Bloggers” are doing one of two things.
Example 1:. Trying to secure a “followed” back-link which passes PageRank from your website to theirs, in order to improve their own PageRank and social authority.

In this example the copy will be quite good and seem relevant to your website context. They will only ever write one post for you and they may even offer to pay you for for posting the copy on your website.

Example 2:. They are actively working on behalf of clients to whom they sell back-link services. They charge their clients for back-links and then they write a post on your website into which they will strategically place a text link to their clients website.

In this example the copy will generally be very good and relevant to the context of your website. Again these people may offer to pay you for placing content on your website or blog. Every article they place will have at least one paragraph which text-links to their clients website for A: Direct web-advertising, hoping that people will click through and buy the products or services, and B. to pass PageRank from your website to their clients website.

In both cases above you have contravened Google’s policy on selling back-links and passing PageRank for money which is designed to manipulate PageRank and SERPS positions. If Google catches you doing this you could be removed from their index…

Even if no money has changed hands – Google may assume that it has, and the outcome could be the same, so you need to personally check every link placed on your website or blog to ensure that the link is meaningful and helpful to your readers and does not lead to a dodgy site or obvious advert, sales pitch or spammy landing page. If it does – remove it!

The Bad Guest Blogger

The bad guest blogger is not really a bad person, but they are UN WITTINGLY posing a threat to your website by identifying you as possibly participating in a link-scheme, which again is outlawed by Google.

The “Bad” Guest Blogger writes good, honest content for you over the months and years all of which is relevant to the context of your website, but every time they write a post they put a text link to the home page of their website or eCommerce platform thinking that they’ll get increased PageRank because they are gathering lots of back-links.

Whilst this may have been true in the past; today Google only need a single back-link from one website to another to recognise the link and accept the passing of PageRank. If Google see’s a large quantity of “folow” links from one website to another, they may (sometimes wrongly) assume that you are involved in a link-scheme selling links for reward.

This activity would be particularly dangerous if you and your friend “guest-blogged” for each other passing multiple links between your websites.

Lets say your guest blogger has 20 pages in his or her website, and he or she writes 21 blog posts for you. the first post has a link to their home page and then the other 20 posts link once each to the 20 internal pages of their website. – At this point the guest blogger should put rel=”nofollow” in the links, on all their posts thereafter. This way Google will not recognise the links as a link scheme and both you and the guest blogger will benefit.

The Good Guest Blogger

The good guest blogger is aware of all the above and he or she will use the rel=”nofollow” rule where appropriate. The Good guest blooger writes for you because there is a mutual benefit. The good guest blogger is loved by everyone and is also loved by Google because they add genuinely meaningful content to the web.

Be an SEO purist from here on in…

Here are my top tips for avoiding the Ugly Guest Blogger:

• If the request to guest blog looks spammy and the grammar is poor – Ignore it – do not reply.
• If you do reply, ask why they want to be a guest blogger and vet their reply
• Follow up with a Skype or telephone conversation as part of your vetting procedure
• Inform the guest blogger that you will need to approve each post
• When the copy is ready – follow and vet the links
• Ensure that no two links go to the same page, post or product

If you found this post useful please share it and if you have any questions, please post them below…

Be safe – Happy Blogging – Mick

The relevance, quality and quantity of these links influence’s your website ranking. Other Websites linking to your website hopefully do so in context to the subject matter of your website; if they do, then they are indicating the quality and relevance of your content and are advocating you for what you do. This is a great benefit when done naturally and freely.

If you write way out of context to earn the price of a link, there is a high possibility that your readers will view it as spam. particularly if your readers receive your blog posts via an RSS news reader or directly via email.

Conversely if you link out to a third party website because you have accepted payment for placing an article and or a link in an article pointing to the third party website then you are violating Google’s guidelines and when caught your site may be downgraded and your rankings and standing with Google depreciated.

You need to be very careful because Google has an algorithm named Panda which can sniff out paid links. Generally if you are offered money to place a link to a third party website on your website then the party offering you the money is more than likely making the same offer to hundreds of other website and blog owners, which results in an un natural number of links pointing to a particular page or post which Google can identify then as paid for links and track back to your website and penalise you for participating in a link scheme.

My advice is this, only link out to a website or blog in real context to what you do:

EG: if you write about flower arranging and all of a sudden an article about home insurance which is way out of context for flower arranging appears on your blog with a link to the home insurance website it’s safe to assume that you’re normal readers will not appreciate this and if there are a lot more links from other blogs/sites pointing to the same website, then Google will assume you have participated in a paid link scheme and you may be penalised or even removed from the Search Engine Return Pages (SERPS) altogether.

The above is a very simplistic, non-technical description of a paid link scheme. Google are getting tougher on sites that sell links which pass PageRank and you will for sure lose out in the long term.

Selling Advertising on your site is safe if you do it by way of placing the advertisement in image format with the word “Advertisement” above it (Because image links don’t pass PageRank). Also, this is to ensure your readers understand it is an advertisement.

You can also declare that the article or text link is an advertisement and use rel=“nofollow” so that you do not pass PageRank.

Most website owners are simply not aware of Google’s rules and guidelines; if they were they would be less likely to accept payment for paid articles and links:

Top 5 reasons why you should NOT accept payment for links.

1. It violates Google’s guidelines
2. It degrades the context of your website or blog
3. It degrades your personal authority
4. Other website owners and bloggers will be less likely to link to you
5. You may lose your hard earned ranking for the sake of a few pounds

Read about our Search Engine Optimisation Training here.

Increasing numbers of buyers research people, products and services online before making their purchasing decisions, this is particularly true in the B2B services sector. Hopefully this website buying guide will help you to decide how to select your website vendor.

The objective of this post is: “website buyers beware” all that glistens is not gold.

Website Discoverability Before Visitor Conversion

Before we can convert a website visitor into a paying client we first need to get them onto our websites and this is increasingly difficult as more and more websites are added to the web.

The key to achieving dominance in the Search Engine Returns Pages (SERPS) is to understand how search engines work and then use that knowledge to develop website architecture which is “in-tune” with the search engine algorithms.

The most progressive of all search engines is Google and to really understand how to use best practice techniques to design and develop a website to be found the developer needs to have studied and understand how search engine algorithms work.

Our research begins by studying search engine algorithm invention patent applications. This is deep and heavy reading which borders on mind-numbing but it gives us a real insight into how search engine algorithms work and this puts us in a very strong position when designing and building websites designed to be found during online search.

What is the objective of this post?

We are always very grateful when a new client comes on board, but unfortunately most of our website clients come to us following an extended period of time operating a website which they initially purchased from a third party but the website wins very little organic visitor traffic.

When we investigate why this might be the answer/s is/are generally one or an assortment of the following :

1. They made a Do It Yourself website
2. They purchased the website form the cheapest bidding vendor
3. They purchased the website from a vendor with no SEO/Development knowledge
4. They bought a “turn-key” website
5. They are using a free website/blog
6. They have had no SEO and or web copywriting training
7. The website looks good, but lacks algorithm compliant architecture
8. The website content is aged, stale and not refreshable

The objective of this post is to say “website buyers beware” all that glistens is not gold. Meaning that many website design companies make websites which may look good, but they make websites with weak architecture which is why they can make them so cheaply.

If these clients came to us in the first instance they would have initially paid more money to obtain their new website but they would have saved a small fortune in the two or three years of wasted time and investment in their initial website. Not to mention the unknown volume and value of lost business and damaged reputation. What did John Ruskin say?

There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man’s lawful prey.
John Ruskin

So the objective of this post is to hopefully be read by people who are currently seeking to procure a new website in the hope that they will consider their options and invest just a little more money in getting the job done right first time.

How to select a website designer?

Question your potential website vendors about website discovery and algorithmic architecture, you’ll get a feel for their experience in the answer they give, which will give you confidence to move on (or not). Also ask them for the contact details of existing clients and contact them for a third party reference.

A new website is a big investment, so you need to choose your vendor wisely.
We invite you to read “What’s in it for you” here on our “UK Website Design Company” page and then read further from the links at the bottom of that page. You’ll learn all you need to know about us by reading these pages, but you could always contact us to arrange an informal discussion. We prefer an open, personal relationship with our clients.

The number of small businesses, in particular sole traders are up significantly demonstrating that the economy is having an impact on employment patterns which benefit small business service providers like the Web Business Builder.

Official Stats demonstrate the number of private sector businesses in the UK grew to 4.8 million at the start of 2012. This is an increase on the previous year which showed there were 4.5 million business in the UK.

Small Business Website Design Companies

With a new wave of Micro and Small businesses powering the UK economy the virtual service provision industry is set to capitalise on new business opportunities as these new small business owners begin to grow their businesses and need virtual support.

As a Website Design Company supporting the small business sector we expect to win new business from this round of growth in around two years time.

Our customer cycle tends to be made up of small businesses whom have purchased infective websites early in their development and have then come to realise that if they want to compete online, then they have to procure professional tools that actually work to deliver business.

Start here if you would like to learn more about the Web Business Builder Website Design Services.