All Web Based Systems developed by PJ Web Solutions are fully bespoke and are specifically built to suit the needs of each individual client. PJ Web Solutions pride ourselves by ensuring we fully immerse ourselves with the customer to ensure we build a Web Based System that will exceed expectations and deliver exactly what is required.

If you feel that your business could benefit from a Web Based System feel free to give PJ Web Solutions a call on 01204 328580 and we will me more than happy to have a chat about your requirements and go through how developing a bespoke Web Based System can help streamline your business process.

Some of the Advantages that developing a Web Based System can bring your company are:

• Increased Cost Efficiency

• Streamline Business Process

• Highly Accessible

• Cross Platform Compatibility

• Easily Managed and Updated

If you would like more information about Web Based Systems Development by PJ Web Solutions give Chris a call on 01204 328580 or email chris@pjweb.co.uk.

As part of your Twitter profile you have the ability to include a link in your biography that other Twitter users can click on to find out more information about you or what exactly you do.

You could simply insert your blog or websites ‘homepage’ or ‘about us’ page in your Twitter biography however this is impersonal and cannot be targeted specifically for Twitter visitors. Creating a specific landing page that can only be accessed via the link in your Twitter profile allows you to create a targeted landing page that offers many benefits.

The concept of a Twitter Landing page can be compared to optimising a page for a pay per click (PPC) campaign. If a user finds your advert through typing in for example ‘Cheap Sony Camera’s’ you would set your landing page as the page which displays the list of Sony Camera’s rather than the website homepage. Your PPC goal being that you want to increase conversions and reduce bounce rates and I feel creating a Twitter landing page is no different; it’s all about conversions and presenting the information the user wants quickly and easily.

A Twitter Landing page gives you the opportunity to extend your basic Twitter profile and gives you a chance to present the information they are looking for on the one page. Think about what people want when they click on your biography link. I know when I click on somebody’s biography I want to find out more information about the person behind the Twitter account such as what they do and how I could potentially start a business relationship with them. If I am taken to a blog or website homepage there is a high chance I am not going to get this information without a lot of sifting through pages and reading blocks of ‘about us’ text.

Benefits of creating a Twitter Landing Page

• Gives you the chance to write targeted content for the user without making them sift through different pages or long paragraphs of text

• Ability to create the page with a strong call to action, what this call to action is depends on your goals

• Gives you the chance to extend your basic Twitter profile as you are not limited by the constraints Twitter set on your biography

• Having something you can offer the user on your landing page such as e-books, video tutorials etc that they need to sign up to get for free can be a fantastic method of capturing leads and potential customer details

What to include on a Twitter Landing Page

• A profile picture – The same one that is used on your twitter biography as this may help reinforce your brand

• A message to welcome the user to your Twitter landing page and thanks them for visiting your page. I have seen many websites which have welcome messages on their home page which I must admit I am not a great fan of, however for a Twitter landing page I like the idea of greeting the user

• Some text about you and what you do, tell them your story, that’s what they have come to look for, more information about YOU

• Introduce your company website / blog. Do not simply copy the text you use on ‘about us’ page, ensure the content is unique and targeted

• If you have something for the user which could potentially help them for example ebooks, video tutorials etc include them on your Twitter page and ask them to sign up

Other Social Media Landing Pages

Using the same principals of setting up a Twitter Landing page you can do the same for other social media channels. Landing pages can be set up for Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg etc. Always keep in mind that these pages should be targeted for the audience that is going to view them so serious thought needs to be done before starting your copywriting.

Shows Google Places Positioning within the SERPS

Not only do the Places results appear on page 1 they actually display below the first organic result meaning that your Google Placing listing has the potential to increase your websites traffic significantly due to the exposure it will be subject to within the search results.

10 tips for Ranking on Google Places

• Ensure that your listing is 100% complete. This may be obvious but it is the single most important element of your Google ranking listing. There is a progress bar within your Google Places account showing what percentage complete your listing is. Ensure this reads 100% otherwise you won’t rank in the places listings.
• Ensure that the company details such as address, telephone number, email etc are correct and legitimate.
• When writing about your company and its services don’t simply copy what is on your company website. Ensure that what your write is well thought out, unique and well written.
• Ensure you do not have duplicate listings by having 2 or more Google accounts.
• Ensure that your customers leave reviews about your business on your Places account. It is worth the time making sure you ask them for feedback as Google see’s this feedback as a sort of tick of approval that Google can trust you.
• Ensure that your business details that you enter on your Google Places account corresponds with other business listings you have such as Yell.com. It is well documented and widely accepted that Google checks that your Places details  matches other external business directories.
• Make updates to your Places listing. Updating your business description shows Google that you are still active by keeping your listing up to date.
• Ensure you get as many citations as possible. The more other websites mention your business along with its address and contact details the better. A good example of a quality citation would be a listing on Yell.com
• Do not fill your company name in with Keywords you want to rank for. It will not work and in all probability Google will penalise you.
• Use additional information and company description to subtlety drop 1, maybe 2 of your keywords in. Ensure that it still reads well for users and do NOT keyword stuff.

It is important to note that whilst Google Places should be an essential part of any online marketing strategy it can only be used to target the area that you operate in. For example you couldn’t target places in Liverpool with a Bolton address.

I’d love to hear any other strategies that others have used when trying to optimise their Google places listing so feel free to get involved by commenting below.

Setting up your Business Twitter Account

Twitter has become a phenomenon with literally millions of accounts which all require a unique Twitter username, meaning that even if you don’t intend to use Twitter straight away if your company name is available grab it while you can. In addition if your business owns any major brands you may want to consider securing these Twitter names as well as your own personal name or any close variations of it.

A question that needs to be answered when setting your Twitter account up is the possibility of using multiple accounts to represent your business. Thought needs to be given to the sorts of audience you intend on communicating with as well as how much time you feel you have to dedicate to Twitter. Common reasons to have multiple Twitter accounts are:

• Keeping areas of interest separate
• Separating business Tweets and personal Tweets
• Tweeting in different languages

Another common question that is often asked when setting up a Twitter account for business is should you use your personal name or your company name if you only intend on using one account for Tweeting?

Unfortunately there is not a definitive answer to this question. I can only give my opinion on this topic and I believe that the following is a good approach:

If you are a small, local business then there is a good chance that the people who are communicating with you on Twitter want to know who you actually are rather than talking to a company brand meaning that a personal account would be better.

On the other hand if you own a large well established company then you will find that people want to know less about you as a person and are more interested on getting a question or enquiry answered meaning that your company name is probably more suited.

Again this is simply my opinion – you could make your own judgement on what approach you use for your company based on individual circumstances.

Choosing your Twitter Name

Things to keep in mind when choosing your Twitter name:

• Even if you sign up to Twitter with the username ChrisEllison for example, Twitter is not case sensitive and other users will be able to look you up or Tweet you back using @chrisellison.
• Avoid using unnecessary symbols in your username such as underscores as these accounts require more effort to look up and Tweet, especially on mobile devices.
• Finally keep in mind you only have a 15 character limit when it comes to picking your username.

Upload your Picture

Ensure you upload a relevant, up to date profile picture to replace the default Twitter image. I know that a bug bear of mine, which is a complete turn off for me, is Twitter users who can’t make the effort to upload a profile picture. If somebody cant make this effort how serious are they about participating in intelligent conversation?

When it comes to what picture to upload, (image of you or company logo) again there is no definite answer and I would go with the same logic as mentioned above in “Setting up your Twitter Account”. What I would advise is to use the same profile picture across all of your social media channels as this potentially is a great way of building up your brand across more than just one network of users.

Write up your Twitter Biography

When writing your Twitter biography you have 160 characters in which to tell your story as well as include keywords that people can find you by and entice them to follow you.

Witty, interesting biographies with short sentences tend to attract followers far more than mundane, run of the mill biographies that are simply one long paragraph telling everybody how great you are. Be creative and take care in writing your biography as this small piece of text could be the difference whether you are followed or not.

When writing your biography also ensure that the link you include links to the page you want users to see. For example PJ Web Solutions may want to take people who click on the link straight to their ‘Back Office System’ page rather than their homepage. You only have 1 link that you can display, ensure that you make the most of it and give it the required thought before adding it.

Conclusion

So there you have it; a simple guide to help getting your business on Twitter. Although the process of creating an account may seem straight forward, give it the thought it requires, think about your overall strategy and don’t simply rush this process. The more thought you give and the quirkier you can be may be the difference between success and failure on promoting your business on Twitter.

Feel free to leave me any feedback or post your best practices when getting your business on Twitter.

Spam

When sending your email campaigns you need to ensure your email passes any spam protection filters your recipients may have. Without sufficient testing against spam filters your email will never even be seen never mind opened due to it being automatically placed in the junk folder.  To give your email the best chance of passing spam protection refrain from using words that filters associate with ‘Spammy’ type emails. Below is a short list of the sorts of words that should be avoided in the subject line as well as the content:

• Free
• Discount
• Abbreviations such as “4 U”
• Overuse of “££££” signs
• Millions / Billions
• Overuse of capitals or explanation marks

If you search Google a far more comprehensive list of ‘spammy’ style keyword / phrases are available as there are far too many to list here.

Make it Personal

Rather than opening your email with a generic line ensure when possible to personalise your email with the recipient’s name. This is far more likely to lead to your email being read due to the recipient feeling they already have a relationship with you. Think of email marketing like real life; if you were walking around a busy supermarket and heard somebody shout ‘Hello’ or ‘Hi’ or ‘Hello Chris’ if you where Chris you would be far more likely to take note. If you can, ALWAYS open up your email with the recipient’s name, by doing so you are increasing the chance of your email being read by a HUGE amount.

Make your Links obvious and Consistent

99% of the time the goal of any email marketing campaign is to drive the recipients to your website so they can view your product or service offerings. It is for this reason that you want to make the links within your email obvious to give them the best possible chance of being clicked on. Linking banners or graphics is not always the best option and sometimes deploying links within your text in bold, blue underlined text is the best option. Most users will automatically relate bold, blue underlined text as a link as we are so used to seeing this everyday whilst browsing the Internet.

Stick to your Schedule

If you intend on sending regular correspondence to your recipient list then ensure you draw up a schedule that you can stick to.  If you have decided to send your email newsletter once per week at a specific time then ensure you do this. That way your recipients will be expecting your newsletter and depending on the content look forward to receiving it. Of course it takes time to build up these sorts of relationships with your recipients but providing you can provide quality content which at times is a help to them and stick to your schedule it certainly can be done.

Keep it Consistent

As well as being consistent with your timings you also need consistency in the way your newsletter looks. Once you have conducted your research into link / logo placement etc and are happy with the design and layout of your email newsletter stick to it and ensure that you do not chop and change where graphics, content and branding appears. By keeping your newsletter look and feel consistent it helps build your brand and image up and can help with building trust with your recipients.

The Subject Line

The importance of the subject line cannot be stressed enough. It is your make or break and in most cases will influence whether or not your email will end up being opened or not. There are many theories on the time you have when trying to catch the attention of the recipients with your subject line; some say you have the opening two words to draw them in other theories say that you have around half a second. What  we do know is that you have a very short period of time to catch the attention of the recipient otherwise your email will be ignored and probably deleted without being read.

The From Address

As well as the subject line the other bit of information that a recipient will see before deciding to either delete or open your email is the from field. From addresses such as noreply@ or sales@ are not only in personal and give the perception that you are not interested in hearing back from them they are generic and can be annoying. Using your name such Chris@ or Dave@ are a lot more personal and you never know the person receiving your email may actually want to click on the reply button to find out more information!

Play by the Rules

Anybody can send ‘spammy’ unsolicited mail and unfortunately they do. Last year of all the emails sent a massive 73.8% of them where spam. These numbers give the art of email marketing a tainted name and unfortunately email marketing over the years has built up a stigma of being annoying, unethical and at times pointless. We at PJ Web disagree with this and providing email marketing is done correctly with thought for the recipients then there is no reason why it can’t be an important part of any online marketing campaign.

We do not believe that emailing ‘opt in lists’ that are available to purchase is an ethical way of conducting any email newsletter campaign and the only people who you should email are people who have specially given you their consent to contact them.
In addition to ensuring you have opt in confirmation before sending any correspondence it is also essential to have an easy way of allowing recipients to unsubscribe from your emails. This is normally achieved by including something along the lines of the following at the footer of your email newsletters:

• No longer interested – unsubscribe here
• To stop receiving emails from us unsubscribe here

Experiment

Testing the success of your initial emails is integral and should always be done before settling on your design layout (of course once you are happy you have the optimum layout then stick to it). A great way of experimenting is to send your newsletter out with your links, logo’s graphics etc in a certain position and monitor the click through rates. Once you have this information have a play with the newsletter structure and on your next correspondence monitor whether this increases your click through rates back to your website. You can also experiment not only with the look and feel but increase / decrease images or content until you feel you have the right balance to move forward with.

Conclusion

Email marketing can still be and should be used as part of any online marketing campaign. It can be a very effective way of communicating new products or services to both existing and potential clients on a regular basis.

Like anything if you conduct your email marketing campaigns with the user in mind and treat them how you would like to treated then you will be on the right tracks. Avoid the temptations of buying in large lists of email addresses even if they are advertised as opt in as the chances are they haven’t knowingly opted in not to mention you will be wasting your time. Slowly and steadily build up your recipients in the right way and be safe in the knowledge that you are not wasting your time as well as giving yourself a chance of converting your time into sales.

Good luck and feel free to post your thoughts or any tips you may have about email marketing.

Java vs Javascript

As you are probably aware, lots of people, are advising you to turn off Java in your browser for security reasons.

Some people are worried that turning off Java also turns off JavaScript.

Most modern websites make heavy use of JavaScript, so these people are worried that sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc, will be pretty much useless if they follow our “turn Java off” advice.

So, let us clarify:

Java and JavaScript are completely different Turning off Java will not turn off JavaScript

They’re configured separately.

The converse is true, too. If your aim was to improve security by turning off Java, turning off JavaScript instead will not have the desired effect.

Apologies if you already know this. But the names are a bit confusing.

I’ll keep this article short and simple by not going into too much detail about the differences here.

JavaScript

Suffice it to say that JavaScript is generally built in to your browser, and is used to control the look, feel and function of web pages displayed inside your browser. So you can think of it as part of your browser.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t security risks from JavaScript. There are, but they’re different to the ones posed by Java, and they’re generally fixed or patched directly by your browser vendor.

JavaScript is very commonly used in modern websites. In fact, you won’t get very far without it on many of the popular sites out there.

So we are not recommending that you turn JavaScript off in your browser.

Java

On the other hand, Java, made by Oracle, is a software package installed separately from your browser.

It can be used for creating and running all sorts of regular-style software: web servers, code editors, word processors and much more. These are called applications, just like any other application such as Microsoft Word.

Java also provides a plugin system that allows stripped-down Java programs called applets to run inside your browser. They aren’t integrated with your browser like JavaScript programs, and their security generally depends on the Java system itself, not on your browser.

Java applets used to be fairly common, but (mainly through the rise of JavaScript) they are now are used rarely, or not at all, on most of the popular websites out there. In fact, you probably won’t miss much without applet support. For example, Facebook games don’t make use of Java.

Nevertheless, there have been several recent and widely-abused bugs in the applet part of Java that make your browser insecure.

So we are recommending that you turn off Java in your browser.

And that’s it.

A warning

By all means, turn off JavaScript if it suits you.

But let me reiterate: we aren’t recommending that. And if you do, you won’t get rid of Java, which is probably what you want.

So – do you still have Java turned on in your web browser?

If your answer is “Yes” or “I’m not sure” then it’s time to take action.

Right now, cybercriminals are aware and exploiting serious security flaws in Java that could lead to your computer becoming infected by malware.

Here then are some simple instructions on how to disable Java in your particular browser.

• How to disable Java in Internet Explorer
• How to disable Java in Firefox
• How to disable Java in Chrome
• How to disable Java in Safari
• How to disable Java in Opera

So, what are you waiting for?

Isn’t this just a storm in a coffee cup?

No, it isn’t.

Time and time again we’re seeing examples of cybercriminals exploiting flaws in Java to infect innocent users’ computers.

For instance, earlier this year we saw more than 600,000 Macs infected by the Flashback malware because of a Java security flaw.

In fact, it has become increasingly common to see malware authors exploiting vulnerabilities in Java – as it is so commonly installed, and has been frequently found to be lacking when it comes to security.

Cybercriminals also love Java because it is multi-platform – capable of running on computers regardless of whether they are running Windows, Mac OS X or Linux.As a result it’s not unusual for us to see malicious hackers use Java as an integral part of their attack before serving up an OS-specific payload.

Again many thanks to Mark of Aspire IT Services for his permission to publish such an important article.

There are some core principles that are the Holy Grail when thinking about building a quality Twitter following:

• Follow relevant people in your industry who share the same interests as you
• Communicate and take part in conversation with your customers
• Promote your Twitter account, for example on paperwork, email signatures, business cards etc
• Tweet original, interesting content that your audience will find useful and engage with

Finding Relevant Twitter Users

Before beginning your hunt for relevant Twitter users you need to ensure that your own biography is optimised and reflects how you want other Twitter users to see you.

Start with a relevant profile picture. If your account has been created for personal reasons then upload a picture of you. Other Twitter followers are far more likely to want to engage with you knowing what you look like rather than seeing the dull default Twitter avatar. If your account is representing your business then fill out all of your personal details and ensure you capture you or your company’s personality within the 160 character limit. This is your chance to show why other Twitter follows should follow you so ensure your biography has been given the necessary thought. In addition to your biography ensure that you take the time to fill out all the necessary fields about yourself as the more information other Twitter users can see about you the better.

Third Party Tools

There are many third party Twitter directories available each with different sorts of interfaces and features meaning that you have a wide range of options when choosing which one is for you. I am particularity fond of the wefollow directory which allows you to browse by subject and then refine your search further by searching by location.

WeFollow - How to Build a Twitter Following

Search Twitter

Using Twitters search functionality is also a great way to find users who are talking about your subject of interest. This will allow you to join in the conversation and spark dialogue with like minded individuals and its really easy to do, simply search for example #webdevelopment and you will be presented with tonnes of conversations, and dialogue. All that’s left to do is get involved, and start building your Twitter following!

Communicate and take part in conversation with your customers

Twitter is no different from any other social media channel in terms of it exists and relies on its users engaging with one another. People who don’t talk to people on Twitter and merely talk at them promoting their services and screaming about how great they are, are far less likely to be followed than people who reTweet content they find interesting and people who engage in healthy debates and conversations.

You can get involved in conversation by #searching for content you are interested in. Chances are no matter your subject or interest there is going to be a group of people at any one time talking about it and there is no reason you can’t get involved. Don’t expect to be followed straight away however engaging and contributing to conversations will gain you a steady stream of quality followers whom you have a common interest.

Communicating via Twitter is no different that communicating with other people in a room, if you talk to somebody chances are they will respond and this is essentially how relationships are built. If you enter a room and don’t engage with other people you will eventually become isolated and potentially miss out on quality relationships.

Promote your Twitter account

Using other channels to promote your Twitter account will do no harm and can help you build your Twitter followers. Add your Twitter username to Business Cards, Email Signatures and all paperwork. You can use your other social media channels such as Youtube and Facebook to reference your Twitter account.

Third party software is also available to promote your Twitter account such as paper.li which in essence allows you to create online newspapers from your Twitter feed. For more information about paper.li please have a look how it works.

Publish your own online news articles via your Twitter account

Tweet Original, Interesting Content

Why would anybody worth their salt choose to start following a Twitter user who Tweets dull, meaningless content that is of no use? It’s still a surprise to me how many people who are attempting to embrace Twitter for marketing their business simply to shout about their own offers on products and services and wonder why they don’t seem to get any return on the time spent Tweeting.

Tweeting information that your followers find interesting is likely to lead to reTweets and result in additional followers. Use third party software such as Google Alerts to be informed of new content in your subject of choice which you could use to Tweet to your followers. Rather than simply Tweeting about new industry news, why not give your opinion on a new development as this is potentially a fantastic way of sparking debate between you and your followers.

Google Alerts is a great way to help building a Twitter following

Including interactive elements in your Tweets can also lead to additional engagement from users and can encourage reTweeting.

A web development company may Tweet an image of a recently designed website and ask their following what they think? This is brilliant way of sparking discussion with other Twitter users and best of all they are talking about your work giving you and your company increased exposure.

Ensure you respond to Tweets to you or about one of your Tweets, reTweets or other users Tweets you find interesting and generally ensure you active in conversation.

Conclusion

So there you have it – a short list of helpful tips when answering the question, ‘how to build a Twitter following.’ These principals apply to people new to Twitter or people who currently use Twitter but want to take it to the next level, and best of all when you think about it, it’s all common sense by ensuring you treat Twitter as it is meant to be used, to be sociable! Feel free to leave some feedback about what you think about these tips and your methods of increasing your Twitter following, I would be really interested on how other Twitter uses go about improving their follow numbers.

Many companies however who do turn to Twitter in an effort to promote their business often get frustrated that their followers do not turn into new leads. There is however far more to consider than merely sending out regular tweets about your business, products or services. In order to achieve success via Twitter a business owner must invest much more of their time in the following areas:

Always have a Strategy

Rather than simply posting out tweets as and when, have a strategy in place and stick to it. It’s a good idea to make your Twitter strategy support any other online / offline marketing objectives. Before starting sending out Tweets get to know your customer base and learn how to take part in conversation with your online Twitter community. A good way for finding out about what your customers are talking about is to search Twitter using the hash tag and a keyword in your industry. If for example you are in the web development industry then #webdevelopment would be a great place to start when wanting to see what people are talking about in your industry.

Once you are confident you have a good idea of the sorts of conversations other Twitter users in your industry are having then you can start to think about what you are posting about and how often you intend to post. Careful consideration and planning should be given to the nature of your Tweets as you want to be posting Tweets than users want to click on and can spark a dialogue.

When deciding to use Twitter for your business careful thought is required when thinking about your goals. Are you taking to Twitter to sell products / services? To increase your brand awareness? Depending on the size of your business you could even think about using Twitter as a customer service tool to answer customer questions or handle complaints.

Once you have decided what your customers are talking about and what are your business goals then you are in a position to start building up your strategy and begin Tweeting and engaging your audience.

Do your Market Research

Implementing proper market research is essential before even thinking about using Twitter to promote your business and believe it or not it is not that hard to do. Asking fellow Twitter users how they feel about your industry, products / services, what influences their decisions and how they view your competitors can provide you with valuable information that you need before promoting your own products or services.

You would be amazed on what information a competitor would be willing to disclose by simply asking them. Why not find out what your competitors do not do very well and let your customer base know why and how you could do it better for them. Once you have started to build your Twitter following and start to gain a reputation through your quality Tweets you can exploit your competitors weaknesses and quickly let your followers know via Twitter.

Promote Conversations

For any business, building relationships with other business owners is essential and using Twitter is no different. Social media and especially Twitter is about having real dialog with your customers via conversation. Start conversations, respond to Tweets about your products or services and most importantly be honest, genuine and authentic.

A really effective method of promoting conversation and encouraging dialogue between you and your followers is to ask what they think about one of your particular products. Why not Tweet an image of a new product and ask your followers for their thoughts and feedback. Not only could receive some quality feedback from other Twitter users in your industry but it is a great way of promoting your brand.

Use your Employees

Delegating the task of building a Twitter campaign for your business to one individual employee is something that is not recommended. To really start building your Twitter empire you need to get all of your employees involved as this will share the time using Twitter for business requires as well as calling on all of your employees knowledge.

Organise your follow lists

Using Twitter for business means that inevitably you will be following different groups of people whom relate to your industry or business. Following a range of different groups of people can often cause your timeline to become cluttered and can lead to missing important information being tweeted. Creating organised lists can help you de-clutter your timeline and ensure you do not miss any opportunities or important information that may have an impact on you. Below is an example of how you could organise your lists:

• Customers
• Industry News
• Competitors
• People in professional organisations
• Suppliers

Optimise your Twitter Biography

When using Twitter for Business your Twitter Biography needs to tell the story of your business to anybody who views your Twitter page. As a general rule try to include:

• What your business does
• How you can help people
• A little bit about yourself

Creating a biography that tells your story in 160 characters requires great thought, imagination and creativity. Witty, clever biographies are more likely to be noticed and result in a follow than dull unimaginative biographies. Some of my personal favourite biographies that would certainly encourage me to want to find out more about the user are:

“The Coolest Geek You’ll Ever Meet – I’ll Help U Bling Your Blog and Make Your Social Web Sexy!”

“90% of your problems can be solved by marketing. Solving the other 10% just requires good procrastination skills.”

“I’m going to reveal the two secrets of my success: One) Don’t reveal everything.”

Measure your results

There are plenty of tools available to measure the success of your Twitter efforts such as Tweetdeck and Hootsuite which can measure your engagement and marketing success.

Twitter has become an essential part of any online marketing campaign and can be an extremely powerful way of promoting and growing your business. Like any social media marketing using Twitter for business purposes can demand a lot of time to do properly however overtime it will allow your business to become an authority in its field by sparking discussion and dialog about your products or services.

What is a Backlink?

A Backlink simply put is when another website links to your website in some way and search engines use the amount of Backlinks as a metric to determine how popular a website is.

Don’t be fooled; search engines measure the quality of the Backlinks to your website and not simply the quantity, and the more relevant, legitimate and established the website linking to your website is the better. In addition where the Backlink is placed within the content is also evaluated by the search engine and usually links placed within the body of the page content is better than being placed in the footer for example.

Some general rules of thumb when evaluating a quality Backlink

• Your link on a website that is well optimised and has a high page rank
• Your link on a page with few other links
• Your link within the content of the page and not tucked within the page footer
• A link from a .gov.uk or .ac.uk style website carry high amounts of page authority due to them being official government or academic institution websites

Backlink Pitfalls and what NOT to do

Implementing excessive traded links or purchased links is something which should NEVER be part of your link building strategy. If Google discovers or suspects that a website has an excess of traded links or that links have been purchased from link farms then expect being blacklisted and your website unable to rank for any keywords no matter what you do.

Slowly and steadily build up your Backlinks and focus on quality not quantity. If a website goes from having no Backlinks to thousands in a short space of time Google could penalise the website accordingly.

Building up your Backlinks

Testimonials

In most cases the website you are leaving a testimonial on when buying a product or service will allow you to leave a link to your website to ensure that that the testimonial is real. Ensure that the testimonial you leave is truthful as they will get used more!

Guest Article Writing

Finding relevant websites and applying to write a guest article is a great way to generate Backlinks. You should if possible provide a link within the article to the relevant part of your website rather than the homepage. Ensure that the article that you write is original and not simply recycled from another guest post you have done as Google may see this as duplicate content and penalise.

Competitor Links

Uncovering where your competitors are getting their Backlinks from can be an opportunity for you to try and submit your website to.

Link Bait

Link bait is creating content that other people will find useful prompting them to link to this via their own websites, blogs or social media channels. Quality link bait can be highly effective and if you can produce the bait your readers will naturally syndicate and do a lot of the link building for you.

Good examples of link bait articles are top 10 lists, breaking news and creating useful widgets or small web based applications that can genuinely help readers.

Partnerships / Joint Ventures

Asking your business partners or joint ventures for a link back to your website is always worth the question. You can offer to write a guest blog or article if they seem reluctant as this can be beneficial for both parties as they get free content and you get a Backlink!

Conclusion

Building up quality Backlinks is something that takes time and effort but if implemented properly and ethically will certainly help in increasing search rankings. Avoid the temptation of short term fixes such as link farms and purchased Backlinks as you are risking your website never being found on the search engine results page for any of your chosen keywords.

For more information about Backlinking and how PJ Web Solutions can help you with your Backlinking strategy contact Chris on 01204 328580 or email chris@pjweb.co.uk.

A record

An “A Record” (short for “Address Record”) is a DNS record type which translates (or “resolves”) a hostname ordomain name into an IP address.

Alias

In the context of DNS, alias usually means CNAME records which resolve to some other hostname. In thecontext of websites, “alias” will mean “A second hostname that a website folder will respond to or servecontent for”, for example many web hosting setups will be configured for “example.com” but will also alias to”www.example.com”.

Caching

Caching is the process where DNS servers or applications (such as your web browser) will store a copy of DNSrecords. The cached copy should be identical to what is currently published on the authoritative nameserver,however this is not always the case as the authoritative nameserver could update its records and a cachingnameserver will not immediately know about the change. For this reason DNS records set a maximum age onrecords, known as TTL (time to live). Hostnames which change IP addresses frequently or which need to loadbalancevia DNS will usually have a very low TTL (30 to 300 seconds).

CNAME

CNAME (also: “Canonical Name”) is a DNS term for a type of alias. A CNAME record does not provide the finalanswer (such as an IP address), but instructs applications to conduct an additional query against this otherhostname (specified by the CNAME) and use that result as the answer.CNAMEs usually work well for web hostnames, FTP, and other services but should not be used for certainemail configurations. You can for example, CNAME “webmail.example.com” to “mail.example.com” and thisworks because it is well supported by web browsers and servers. On the other hand, a CNAME inside an MXrecord is invalid and will result in email delivery problems (both sending and receiving).

Domain Name System (DNS)

The Domain Name System (DNS) is the address system people use on the Internet. DNS is responsible forresolving hostnames into IP addresses (and in the case of ‘reverse DNS’, resolving IP addresses back intodomain names). Think of it like a mapping table that maps a hostname to an IP address or another hostname.

Hostname

Hostname (or “host”) is the DNS name (address) of a server or network on the Internet. Hostname sometimesimplies the “short host” name, such as “www” in “www.example.com”. It is more accurate to refer to systemsby their Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) such as “www.example.com”.

IP Address

IP address represents the numeric address of a computer on a given network, most commonly referring to theInternet IP address (or WAN address, provided by your ISP). Less commonly, IP address can also indicate acomputer’s Local Area Network (LAN) or “private” IP address. If unsure which context of IP address is needed,it is always useful to provide both the WAN IP and the LAN IP.

Mail eXchanger (MX)

MX is a DNS record type which indicates a domain’s mailserver address(es). MX record values are fullyqualifiedhostname addresses (for which a hostname must actually exist in DNS). For example, the domainzone “pjweb.co.uk” contains an MX record whose value is “mail.pjweb.co.uk”. When mail is sent tosomeone@pjweb.co.uk, the sending mailserver will first resolve the MX record, then resolve the host A recordfor that MX, and direct the mail to that network address.

Nameserver

An authoritative nameserver (also referred to as “authoritative-only name server”) is a server which onlyreturns answers to DNS queries for specific domains which the server has been configured to resolve.The authoritative nameserver(s) are specified by the Domain Registration account for that domain, and thedomain’s WHOIS record will state which nameservers are authoritative.

Priority

A value to indicate which order to try and use multiple MX records (lower = more priority) – if the first returnsa host that is unavailable, it tries the next one etc.

Subdomain

A subdomain is a hostname which depends on (belongs with) a domain name. For example, if the FullyQualified Domain Name (FQDN) is “www.example.com”, the domain name really is “example.com”, and”www” is the short hostname ie. the subdomain

TTL

TTL is an acronym for “Time To Live”. TTL specifies how long the outside DNS servers (or your router) shouldcache this DNS record. TTL is sometimes called “cache time”. This tends to be set to one day, so that serversaren’t constantly coming back to check the DNS. If a site is due to be moved, we’ll often set the TTL to 5minutes about 2 days ahead so that the DNS change propogates a lot quicker, because we’re telling serversnot to cache it longer than 5 minutes.

TXT

TXT records are record types which are containers for free-form plain text. TXT record are most commonlyused as Sender Policy Framework (SPF) or DomainKeys, which are created using special syntax inside the TXTrecord.

We hope that our glossary will help answer some of our frequently asked questions and feel free to leave us some comments or feedback!