12
May
2013
Driving increasing amounts of traffic to a site is one of the fundamental results of good SEO. As an agency, we employ varying strategies, both on and off-site, in order to make this happen, and whilst some work better than others, there are a few that should always be part of a site’s approach to SEO. One of these, is on-page blogging. Whilst guest blogging is done away from the site in ...
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5
Apr
2013
As the modern world increases its reliance on the digital medium and small start-ups to media conglomerates clamber to produce the newest and most original applications, Facebook steps into the fray of mobile communication, a place where Apple’s and Google’s operating platforms battle it out to gain the biggest share of this extremely lucrative market.
Whilst Apple, Google and Am...
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20
Mar
2013
The annual British Excellence of Sales and Marketing Awards (BESMAs), organised by The Institute of Sales & Marketing Management, exist to reward and recognise those who have exceeded industry standards and excelled in the field of sales & marketing over the last year. With this in mind, we were incredibly pleased to find out that we had been nominated for our incredible sales ...
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5
Mar
2013
Facebook are set to unveil a new look for their newsfeed at a special press conference held at Facebook HQ in Melina Park California this Thursday. It will be the second time the social platform has updated the feed and at this stage there is little indication of how significant the changes could be. However, with their recent move to push ads within the newsfeed itself and a greater push on mobil...
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5
Feb
2013
During the Super Bowl 2013 there was an unexpected 35 minute blackout in the third quarter which helped swing the rhythm of the game in the 49’rs favour. As it transpired, the blackout may have served as a monumental game changer, much in the same way a tennis star can come back from the brink after the saving grace of a downpour. Whilst the 35 minute interruption allowed the 49’...
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28
Jan
2013
We are looking to hire an experienced SEO strategist to join our awesome team. You’ll be working alongside seven experienced, passionate and aspiring SEO’s, for a driven digital agency with huge plans for growth.
Want to know more? Here are the headlines:
What we need from you:
A proven track record of keyword rankings and traffic improvements from Google
A detailed k...
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16
Jan
2013
The Consumer Electronics Show of 2013 took place at the start of January, displaying a host of staggering technological developments and proof that entrepreneurialism and innovation are as strong as ever. Whilst some of these technologies may never reach the mass consumer market and others may come to a grinding halt in the mass production stage, it is interesting to see the new ideas which a...
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14
Jan
2013
While Facebook has come under much public scrutiny the past couple of years, notably for its privacy terms, which people were shocked to find out, weren’t so private; it is now Google’s turn to shift awkwardly in the spotlight. Tax dodging Google, along with Amazon and Starbucks, took a relative battering in the UK media for the meagre, yet lawful sums they paid in taxes. Last mon...
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8
Jan
2013
It looks like 2012 was the year for one billion. Digital media sales surpassed the one billion mark, Facebook hit one billion users and Korea’s first international pop sensation Psy became the most viewed video in YouTube history with Gangnam style receiving over 1 billion views. But it wasn’t all about the figures, 2012 saw a number of trends that had been bubbling away over the ...
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7
Dec
2012
As part of our rapidly expanding business we are looking for an SEO Executive to join our team. Having successfully established the company and grown the business to 18 staff and over 60 clients, we are looking for an SEO Executive who can work on client campaigns alongside the rest of the SEO team based in our Wilmslow office.
The role
You will be trained up to understand SEO best practices f...
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5
Dec
2012
Let’s face it, journalists are no longer the gatekeepers of media content and they haven’t been for some time - we are. Anyone can call themselves a journalist these days just by having a Wordpress or Twitter account. Yet whilst media laws are enforced on traditional journalists to avoid classic cases of defamation, just how do you tackle equal enforcement on the rest of the world and ...
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23
Jul
2012
One of the most integral practices of our SEO strategies is the art of ‘guest posting’, a vital cog in the link building machine to promote our clients’ companies and build their brands across the internet.
Guest posting is the process in which we utilise our SEO keyword research into pieces of content to be posted on various blog websites. This content will contain certain word...
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23
Jul
2012
I’m currently researching the myriad ways to analyse social media activity and my God, there are a lot.
Throughout my merry investigations I’ve read quite a lot of articles debating the use of Klout and Peer Index scores as measurement, heard tell of job adverts listing “raising our Klout” as part of the job description and been flabbergasted to learn that there was ...
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23
Jul
2012
6 ways your killer content is like a Christmas dinner! Ho ho ho!
1. Turkey = Your message. Business focussed, problem solving content is the turkey of the dinner, the meat of the meal, the main focus of the whole event. Without creating content which fits in with your business strategy, details how you solve your customers’ problems or otherwise puts across your message, you’re one tu...
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23
Jul
2012
I like Waterstone’s (Waterstones?) I know many bookish people scorn it, but I used to work in one to fund my MA and they’re not quite the high street monster many say. They’re not your local friendly independent bookstore either, but they do try very very hard to employ people who love reading and encourage them to share this love with customers.
In other words, they try to prom...
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23
Jul
2012
I’ve said it before on this blog. Your digital strategy shouldn’t be a standalone thing. Silos are completely out of fashion.
Digital should be an extension of your real world activities. Even better than that, if possible it should enhance them.
There have been moves in the right direction. Order online and collect in store was a good start from ecommerce. Augmented real...
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23
Jul
2012
Everyone has some awareness that their site needs to good web design keep visitors on it. After all, no-one wants their website to be some sort of internet scenery that people say “ooh” at but pass by quickly and forget.
Web design's changin and it’s becoming increasingly important too that your website holds people’s attention and compels them to browse othe...
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23
Jul
2012
Regular readers know that we at Venn spend a lot of time talking to recruitment agencies. Not just because we like hiring people, but also because we believe passionately that recruitment agencies can benefit hugely from taking a little time to invest in their online presence – it’s a great way to attract candidates, but having some of your consultants make Linkedin connections...
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23
Jul
2012
The SEO world has been shaken. Something strange, something…unknown is creeping into the reporting and has this month, in the UK, experienced something of an epidemic.
(Not provided) is the SEO equivalent of a withheld telephone number, or a potential customer contacting you on the basis of a referral, but refusing to tell you who recommended you. Except it’s not the customer that&rs...
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23
Jul
2012
This is one of those recurring subjects in SEO. It’s part of the whole “white hat/black hat” debate you might be familiar with.
Last year Google unleashed a change to its ranking system, called Panda, which is designed to reward quality and penalise rubbish. And paid blog link networks are the most recent target of this system, with Google having trawled the web and de-indexed a...
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23
Jul
2012
Amazing! Our rankings have soared in 1 month! Our agency’s brilliant….
Wait, now they’ve dropped again in month 2. Did my agency get lazy?
This is the natural reaction if you start a new SEO campaign and see a sharp early rise in rankings, followed by a dip. You’ll assume that your agency has worked really really hard setting up the campaign and doing some early activit...
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23
Jul
2012
When it comes to releasing a new product, a manufacturer usually goes through the motions of a bit of advertising, posters and a mention on Twitter. Aston Martin, however, went a little further than that and it’s more than paid off.
The penultimate week of June saw the luxury car brand lift the wraps off of their DBS replacement, the Vanquish and the new GT supercar has been breaking record...
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13
Jul
2012
After all the anxiety, all the media pressure and general nationwide anticipation, England have made it through the group stages of Euro 2012, and with all their dignity intact to boot.
The Three Lions managed to top Group D thanks to Wayne Rooney's hair plugs getting the solitary goal in what was a tepid performance from our boys in white. All the while, our friends over the Channel, France, wen...
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13
Jul
2012
Why your tweets no longer appear in LinkedIn and what it means
A few weeks ago, when you logged in to LinkedIn you would see a timeline of updates, most of them probably containing hashtags, some musings about the weather and @ mentions of seemingly random people. In conclusion, you were seeing tweets.
It's quite possible you did this yourself as well, auto-posting your tweets into Linked...
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13
Jul
2012
Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE Since 1997, Google have been evolving their engine and developing their infamous algorithm system by including more elements to take on board when analysing a search, both to help you and to help themselves.
Much like the Google logo has changed subtly over the years, so too has the search engines algorithm.
In e...
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13
Jul
2012
The next stage of authoritative linking is upon us thanks to Google's new Authorship Markup method which will see a new take on how search users will see content on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).
Thanks to the search engine giant pushing their Google+ initiative as hard as possible, the California based company have begun to integrate their take on social media in their own search results wh...
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29
Dec
2011
Welcome to the second part of our recruitment agency special - this time, Recruitment Agencies and Twitter; Thoughts from the front line of sales by digital expert Sarah.
Does this look familiar??
1) Associate / Senior Consultant Location: North London Salary: 40k -50k .. #jobs #hiring
2) #job for Digital Producer (3 month contract): Company : *** Location : France Exciting oppor... (li...
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1
Dec
2011
Facebook pages for recruitment agencies – If you Google this topic, you will find a mixture of blogs and advice ranging from “Recruiting on Facebook’s really hard, but stick at it” to “Facebook’s great! Your whole market is there so stop wasting time and set up a page!!!”.
In my daily readings around social media I’ve seen expert...
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15
Nov
2011
Part One in Venn Digital’s Specialist Digital Recruitment Series
A while ago our wonderful digital sales expert Sarah penned a post about recruitment consultancy web design and SEO.
It’s good, read it.
But if you don’t have time, in short it’s about how recruitment companies can often be a little behind the curve in terms of their website.
Why? And what can be d...
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14
Nov
2011
We Brits can be a fairly cynical lot. Despite some 37.4 million UK adults using Facebook “regularly” and 15.5 million being on Twitter, we’re pretty rigid in how we want to use it.
Apparently, according to an article in The Guardian yesterday, we take the “social” part of social media seriously, more seriously than most other countries, and this means we are hardes...
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28
Oct
2011
Ask the majority of people if they like Coldplay and most people say no. And yet they’ve sold over 50 million records worldwide, and they’re everywhere. On the radio, at awards ceremonies, their songs even get sung all the time by kids on X Factor, despite it being deeply unfashionable to say that you like Coldplay.
The Drum recently published a post by Simon Robinson from Kitcatt Noh...
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14
Oct
2011
The MEN today reported that clothes stores have been suffering recently. Strange goings on such as the heatwave meant that people just didn’t fancy buying their chunky autumn knitwear and winter coats like they normally would at this time of the year. The effects of the recession are ongoing, and soon there could well be snow keeping people indoors and out of shops!
Up here in the N...
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4
Oct
2011
7 seconds.
That’s the amount of time a visitor will take to decide whether to stay on your website or whether to return to their search engine results and look at your competition.
7 seconds! That’s less time than it takes to read a CV, send an email or post a Linkedin update. 7 seconds to judge an entire business based on a landing page?! I was equally shocked wh...
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23
Sep
2011
The term ‘Social Media’ seems to have been following me around this week like a wasp that simply won’t go away! I have had countless conversations with colleagues, clients, future clients, relatives and even a celebrity sports personality regarding the benefits of such interaction.
I thought it was about time to put pen to paper and stop my vocal ranting to anyone that will list...
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20
Sep
2011
The debate’s raging on comments boards about the purpose and implications of Facebook’s new button.
Cynics and naysayers were quick to jump to the “they’re trying to be Twitter! They’re trying to be Google+!” conclusions, damning the site for succumbing to some sort of non-existent pressure to be like other social media sites.
Other people have accused...
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13
Sep
2011
With social coming to the fore in 2010 more and more businesses are beginning to see social media as an integral part of the online marketing mix. It was never going to be long before search engines finally sat up and took notice of social media and the influence social is having on consumer search patterns. Finally, in December 2010, Google and Bing admitted they are using social media platforms...
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16
Aug
2011
As new online regulations came into place in the UK on Tuesday, businesses will have to scrutinise their content marketing online much more closely from now on.
Having been passed back in September last year the implications of the widening scope of the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) should come as no surprise to many, but how will this impact the daily activities of most businesses?
Acco...
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16
Aug
2011
Usability is a word that can never be understated in any area of life. If something is difficult to use whether it be a service or product it will never perform well. In terms or web design, usability is paramount.
Time is a commodity many people don’t have too much to spare in the digital world we now live in. Online this is even more precious as there are so many sources of information, s...
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16
Jul
2011
This is the big one of the week…the Facebook challenger (apparently). This is still in Beta at the minute and is on an invitation only basis but at least Google has finally decided to enter the world of social media with a product that could actually take on Facebook. After the relative failure of Google Buzz the pressure is on.
Relativley slow on the uptake of Social, over the last year G...
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30
Jun
2011
Over the last couple of weeks it seems that Google has gone into overdrive with new product launches and updates to current services covering search, social and web development. With so much going on we though a quick summary of Google’s latest innovations was in order. As there have been many recently and with more due to come I will split these up into a few very small posts, the first (t...
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28
Jun
2011
The web is a great source of low cost advertising and business, when compared to traditional media, for any company. Unfortunately, many businesses do not make use of this great resource available and fail to exploit the potential of the web or their own site to maximise their exposure online.
Does your website send out the right signals and portray the right image of your business?
Does your ...
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20
May
2011
Social media for some people is a bit of fun for posting opinionated blogs, photos of Ibiza 2009 and talking to friends, but for others it’s serious business and if you don’t know what you’re doing you can spend an awful lot of time getting not a lot done.
By this we mean if you don’t know how to market yourself and your company correctly then you’re never going to s...
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14
May
2011
Venn Digital officially launched for business on the 1st October 2010 however it has been a busy 4 weeks getting everyone and everything in place. Thanks to everyone for the messages of support and especially to the team for their hard work and long hours!!!!! We are at the beginning of a very exciting journey and feel confident that our passion, drive and ambition will help both our clients and o...
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1
May
2011
The objective of any successful SEO campaign is to deliver qualified traffic that offers new business opportunities and creates new income streams. This is often easier said than done though. There are always challenges to building an SEO campaign but none more so than delivering an ROI for services or products that receive little or no search volume.
Search volume can all too often dictate how a...
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12
Apr
2011
As a follow up to Part 1 of the post I wrote last week I wanted to explore in more depth the techniques I find most effective when trying to judge the success of any SEO campaign. Previously an increase in rankings may have been enough but is that really delivering value? Those managing SEO campaigns need to start looking at the value they are offering clients and delve deeper into the returns bei...
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8
Apr
2011
In a bid to fend off the ever increasing threat of Facebook Places, Foursquare finally got round to developing a much improved corporate offering yesterday. Since the Foursquare boom of Summer 2010 there have been countless articles and blogs predicting the failure of Foursquare, but criticism over its business offering has been hotting up recently. In the UK especially, businesses have been extre...
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11
Mar
2011
With more customers buying into our approach, as a result we now have four vacancies live. Life at Venn Digital has suddenly become rather hectic (not that we are complaining of course). To add to this, our head of Development has just put the finishing touches to our very own CMS called Evolve. Long days and late nights has resulted in a modern state of the art Content Managemen...
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11
Mar
2011
Facebook have just announced that over 750 Million photos were uploaded over New Years weekend. This is incredible when you think that it was only 5 years ago were were all excited about taking digital photos and sharing them there and then in the pub!!
We can only see this side of Facebook growing which means more members and ultimately.......more advertising revenue. With Facebook j...
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11
Mar
2011
Since the emergence of search engines in the 90’s there have been individuals trying to manipulate the algorithms in an effort to get their site to the top of the results pages which has sparked an arms race between the search engines and SEO specialists. Have businesses who try to improve their positions been duped into looking in the wrong direction when judging how successful their effort...
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11
Mar
2011
Previously, I looked at some potential strategies to increase and optimise your social media campaign to improve SEO. However, it is all very well using social media more as part of your online strategy but this will do nothing for your SEO efforts unless you understand how search engines are using social data.
For years social media has been seen as a desirable activity rather than a necessity, ...
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11
Mar
2011
The arrival of HTML5 last year sent a wave of excitement and apprehension through web designers and developers. It was jam-packed with goodies to help them get the best out of their websites without being markedly different from the old version. But despite this there are still people out there not making the most of the new technology and who have got left behind as it has developed.
The key fea...
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11
Mar
2011
Recently we have made the decision to go mobile for our social media capabilities. We chose the new Blackberry Torch as our weapon of choice due to its flexibility of managing different apps......not to mention it has a proper Querty keyboard!! What an asset it has proven to be, due to the social feed application. By integrating our tweets, facebook, linkedin and our Blog we can ...
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11
Mar
2011
Who you are, what you do, how technical you think you are and how successful your business has been offline mean little in an online environment that levels playing fields. You may believe you are a market leader but if you are not paying attention to SEO and your website your business has an immediate sell by date written all over it.
In 2011 and beyond all businesses (no matter how small or lar...
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22
Nov
2010
Please have a look at our careers section for our latest vacancies. Due to high demand and investing in our future we are looking for talented and ambitious colleagues to join. We look forward to hearing from you.
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22
Nov
2010
We have just managed to secure our first two valued customers. We can’t thank them enough for choosing Venn Digital and look forward to a great partnership going forward. Hopefully the first of many!!
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