Also known as Daily Deal or Collective Buying sites, Group Buying Websites (GBW) are a relatively new phenomenon only hitting the mainstream in 2009. The principle behind them is to exploit the power of the web and social media to sell large quantities of an individual product or service at a discounted price that appeals to buyers, while still providing many benefits to seller.

Up until the beginning of the year, companies were advertising within Facebook to Jersey and Guernsey users without any problem. Suddenly, after Facebook introduced changes to it's advertising platform, the number of users it believed present in the islands fell dramatically from tens of thousands to just over two thousand!  This meant it was no longer possible to graphically target adverts to people in one or both of the islands, click throughs plummeted as adverts no longer displayed to their true target audience.

How are you getting on with your Google+ account? Whether you were one of the early birds who were invited to try out the new networking service from Google or you joined with the masses last week, it's clear that already Google+ is getting a lot of people very excited. But why? At first glance it may seem as though it could be a handy networking tool, and a way of grouping different people into circles, such as family, friends, colleagues, clients and so on. But how is this really going to affect your SEO marketing strategy?

For a limited time, Blue Llama is offering a full SEO audit report for a single web domain at a cost of just £250. This is not a computer generated document but a focused, human written report that incorporates your strategic aims and the competitive factors in your marketplace, to arrive at a plan to increase the revenue generated by your website.

While the UK is a fantastic place to live, it can be really bloody expensive!  It's not just consumer products that exhibit inflated price tags but business services too.  I live in Jersey, an island built on money from the finance industry and the comapnies servicing the banks and trust companies rightly demand big bucks themselves.  Small businesses often receive sub-standard service as providers concentrate their efforts on larger clients.  This inequality was the premise for founding Blue Llama; a small business for small businesses!  ...But enough of the sales spiel.  

The introduction of Google Street View to Jersey has brought with it both excitement and a wave of protests over privacy. Most of us have just used it for a quick exploration of our neighbourhood, or in an attempt to find ourselves meandering the streets of St Helier on the way to work.  However, for small business owners, Google Street View provides many  new marketing opportunities. As I've explained in my previous post, Google Places: Free and Easy small business promotion, there is no reason to avoid getting a Google Places listing. The introduction of Street View to the Channel Islands has only exacerbated this.

I've been using these set of online applications and browser plug-ins for quite a while now, and while others come and go, these remain at the top of my SEO toolbox.  I've broken them down into four categories: keyword, on-page optimisation, link analysis, and performance reporting.  

With these bad boys, no SEO can blame his tools!