Times Gone by October 4th, 2010

“Rupert Murdoch has bigger balls than you Lawrence.” That was a comment from Nick Jaspen from How-Do the great online resource that keeps Manchester upto date with the latest business news and current affairs. I had described Murdoch as a dinosaur at a round table event held at UKFast. It wasn’t meant in a derogatory way at all. Find me a man who didn’t love dinosaurs as a kid. They were incredible species. The biggest, the best, the fastest, the most aggressive, they were just awesome in every way. Then one day, poof, they are gone. All we are left with are memories from people who have picked up the pieces of times gone by. There is no doubting Rupert Murdochs achievements, but I still feel… Read the Rest »

Bing it on! September 27th, 2009

Whether or not you like Bing as a search engine you have to be impressed with recent events. Google the internet giant that grew from a garage start up in San Francisco has a competitor. As an underdog myself in the hosting world fighting to grow our business, I have to favour the smaller player. It is not often that you can refer to one of Bill Gate’s enterprises as a smaller entity. But smaller for how long? A little like a boxer who smiles at his opponent in the ring when he feels a punch that cuts him to the quick, he makes too much effort to hide the pain. Recently Google have been sparring in similar style scoring points with Microsoft over petty… Read the Rest »

Caching in on Anita Roddick’s good name September 12th, 2007

Online marketing, where will it stop? In a desperate race to out do their competing news rivals, the Telegraph and Business Guardian both have added Anita Roddick’s name to their pay per click advertising. Traffic to the newspaper’s sites is so important; the media giants, who once ignored the Internet and search engines, now pay Google to forward them traffic. With businesses paying a premium to advertise on their sites it is imperative the newspapers grow their online presence. Any type of customer is a potential good customer and so we see topical stories driving the pay per click campaigns. Personally I don’t view it as a bad thing as I am great believer in freedom of speech and with that surely comes the freedom… Read the Rest »

Can enthusiasm dampen results? July 27th, 2007

How often do you type in your keywords on Google to see where your advert appears? If you are like the rest of us, probably quite often. Firstly it’s important to weigh up where your advert appears in the rankings. Are you going up are you going down? It is imperative that you measure your results. However, are you aware that Google calculates the number of times you view the adverts? If you do not click on them, after a relatively short time (undisclosed by Google) your advert disappears! Don’t worry it is still there for the rest of the world to see, however the search engine recognises that you keep ignoring it, so it serves you something else instead. Very clever, but how do… Read the Rest »

SEO Focus Group at UKFast November 22nd, 2006

How do you find out what are the best practices on the net? At UKFast we are privileged to be hosting thousands of web sites. We are able to see who is doing well and whose sites are failing. From these sites we are able to put together a comprehensive guide to the do’s and don’ts of web hosting and SEO. The two are closely linked. There is a wealth of information available on best practices in SEO however who is correct? Is there a definitive list? The majority of people professing to understand the art of SEO are keen to charge you whatever you are prepared to pay, however they are not prepared to give you guaranteed results. It is our aim to help… Read the Rest »

Optimising your Online Presence June 8th, 2006

How do you create a successful business online? That is the question I was asked last night at a seminar on Optimising your Online Presence. The event was commissioned by Manchester Digital and organised by Don’t Panic and was attended by around 70 marketing professionals from the North West. I break down true online success into 3 categories. 1. Invest in the right infrastructure 2. Respect the search engines 3. Put your web site at the heart of your business 1. As the managing director of a hosting company, I am in danger of looking biased when I say that your hosting platform is a key ingredient, but I am well placed to give this advice. Since 1999 we have seen the rise and fall… Read the Rest »