So what changed that caused this effect on website rankings? Well the answer lies in backlinking campaigns and the release of Google’s Penguin Algorithm. Heavy linkback campaigns have long been a key part of SEO strategies, getting links back to a website was free, quick and previously garnered good results. This was because before Penguin,
generally the more inbound links a website had to it, the higher it would rank. The key change with Penguin however, was that Google put a large focus on the domains that these links were coming from. Suddenly the lower quality links from directory websites not only failed to improve your organic ranking, they actually got your website heavily penalised. Subsequently websites begin to fall lower down in the search results.

Suddenly many online marketing agencies were not only stopping linkback campaigns, but actively contacting websites, attempting to get inbound links removed. A strategy which is not only incredibly time consuming but also only partially successful – many directory sites simply refuse to remove the link. It’s been several months now since the release of Penguin and the super power that is Google, seemingly decided that people have suffered for long enough. On the 16th October the Google disavow tool was released whereby you can submit a list of linking domains which you would like removed by Google and they will disavow them.

The overall process sounds relatively simple

1. Find the poor quality links you want removed using webmaster tools

2. Compile them in all in a document

3. Submit this to Google using the disavow tool

4. File a site reconsideration request or wait for Google’s crawlers to find you and re-evaluate your site

However, the official advice coming from Matt Cutts – the head of web spam at Google – is that the tool should be used with extreme caution. Realistically you should only consider using it on a website which has suffered one of the following-

1. You’ve received bad link warnings from Google’s Webmaster tools

Bad link warnings in Google Webmaster Tools are currently the only direct signal from Google that they have a problem with your link profile.

2. You’ve been manually penalized

Diagnosing if you’ve been penalised can be tricky, but if you have clearly been hit with a manual penalty you can be 90% sure it’s link based.

3. Your organic traffic has plummeted since Penguin

We know Penguin primarily targeted aggressive link building strategies, if your traffic fell on or immediately after 24th April 2012 then the chances are you’ve been hit by Penguin.

Now the official protocol from Google is that the disavowal tool should only be used after you’ve contacted the site administrator for the link which you want removing and that they have either refused or tried to charge you – not uncommon. After this, the link qualifies for use of the disavow tool and Google will honour it.

The POSH agency would suggest, that you should use extreme caution in identifying which links need to be removed. You have to remember that every link still contributes to SEO. If you’re going to be proactive and begin slashing all your back links, you may actually do more harm than good. Firstly assess your risk level, how aggressive has your campaign been and how black hat are these links? What is Google going to think when your site is currently not penalised and you submit 300 links for removal? Once you have decided your risk level you have two choices. If time is on your side use the tool conservatively. Pick a few of your worst links to disavow and see what happens. In other words move slowly. Alternatively, if your traffic has already been decimated, then you unfortunately you can’t afford this luxury, this risk of inaction is greater than the risk of overreaction.

It is such early days that there is very little data to substantiate the successful use of the tool. David Naylor’s team tested the tool and showcased potentially successful results of the disavowal tool, however the evidence is indirect. We’d love to hear from you on your own progress with the disavowal tool. Good luck!

Email the team to discuss further or call  0141 342 4335

It is introducing the new Timeline layout for pages that many users have been switched to in recent months. As with a lot of Facebook changes, there was an initial backlash of dislike from Timeline users, then acceptance. It will most likely be the same for the new page layout.

We’ve gathered our thoughts below on how this will impact Hotel & Tourism businesses and what you need to know. Please take a moment to leave a comment at the end.

Have you got your imagery “covered”?

One of the main changes is the introduction of the new cover photo at the top of the brand page – a bit like a main image banner on a website it offers a great chance to showcase the brand.  This could be great for hotels and tourism businesses in iconic locations who can use the imagery to help promote their brand.

Contact Us

The new look is definitely more visually appealing and also includes the ability to contact the page owner directly.  This is exciting, as it leads to the potential for enhanced customer service via Facebook: only the user can contact the brand and not vice-versa, thus reducing the potential for spamming the community.

But there may also be the opportunity for brands to use the new layout to enhance revenue, for example, if brands choose to offer their own flash sale then the community could contact the page directly to participate, provide their contact details and be directed to an off-page URL for booking.

Things and Arrows

However, there are also a couple of potential downsides to this; firstly page owners will no longer be able to direct followers to a custom landing page, nor will they be able to use arrows, text or other calls to action that encourages liking and interaction.

This has been a very popular method for branding the current layout and also encouraging engagement, so there may be a few casualties along the way as brands get to grips with updating their page in the new format.  This wouldn’t be good for brand reputation or customer trust, so it is important that businesses are prepared in advance.

Its still all about the content

But probably most significantly, the new layout may remain irrelevant anyway since the vast majority of actual engagement with the brand happens in the users feed. We manage more than 30 hotel and tourism pages on behalf of our clients and we find consistently that the level of interaction on the branded page itself hovers around 1-2%.

Therefore, it is still all about the content and the message that the brand communicates. If that is weak then it will get lost in the users feed (or worse, in the ticker) and the job of directing the community to the lovely new timeline page will be a bit like pushing water up a hill.

Email the team to discuss further or call  0141 342 4335

Over the past year or so the next big thing has been Social Media and we’ve been involved in lots of discussion with our clients about ROI and the pro’s and con’s of adopting this new and disruptive technology. We are enthusiastic about it, we do think that it will fundamentally change the online customer experience (for the better) and we’ve helped most of our clients to establish their social presence and develop a strategy to make the most of their investment (we prevent them getting shot in the back).

In most cases this involves us establishing a presence for the client across most well recognised social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc, applying our knowledge of the client and their market and working out the best way for them to engage with guests / visitors.

So it probably comes as little surprise that we have been dabbling in “the next big thing in Social” Google+, it’s really early days but from what we’ve seen the user experience seems to take a lot of the good things from both Twitter and Facebook and leave behind a lot of the rubbish.

In particular the interface is really clear and clean with very little clutter and distraction, you can still attach links, images & videos to what you post and your friends / followers can “+1″ your content, this is the same as sharing on Facebook or Retweeting on Twitter. One of the things we like a lot is Circles, this is a really easy way to organise your connections into groups that you control, so you can have Friends, Acquaintances, Work etc, this is a really intuitive way to organise your privacy too as you can decide which circles to post content to and the other circles don’t see it.

Google+ is still technically in beta test so there are some things that need work, but so far Google seems to be quite responsive about listening to feedback and implementing changes quite quickly. The one thing that we’re most excited about is the launch of business / brand pages on Google+, we’ve built and customised lots of Facebook Pages for our clients and whilst they can be really good for interacting with your customers, there are some challenges and workarounds that always present a challenge.

It seems that Google have taken a decision to delay creating a business platform on Google+ to ensure that they make as few mistakes as possible and also integrate it as tightly as possible with its other business platforms such as AdWords and Analytics. We agree with this and we look forward to building some pages for our clients once it launches.

Tell us about your experience with Google+ so far, have you signed up?

Email the team to discuss further or call  0141 342 4335

“the campaigns are very well structured using ad groups. Most ad groups have multiple ads. Deep-linked destination URL’s are being used. Ad extensions are being used. Most keywords are using advanced features by phrase and exact matching. I can’t see anything missing.”  Ouwei Cheng, Google Adwords Team

The POSH Agency SEO and PPC strategists are very pleased with this Google recommendation and continue to strive to deliver the best for our POSH clients.

Email the team to discuss further or call  0141 342 4335

The New Team Structure

We have now brought all our online specialists under one roof to increase the POSH Agency productivity, skill set and customer care.

Select from the below to find out more about our online skills and the web experts we now have on board:

• Google Analytics Specialist and Consumer Behavioural Reports
• Hotel Ecommerce Experts
• Content Manager and CMS Kings
• Online SEO specialists
• Website Developers
• PPC specialists

Select from the above to find out more about each of our team members and specialities.

Email the team to discuss further or call  0141 342 4335

Online strategy management for hotels and providing hotels with our online ecommerce expertise is where we began and where the heart of our online agency lies. We have lived and breathed hotel eCommerce our entire careers, running websites like Hilton and MacDonald Hotels know working with small and large UK independents and hotel chains such as Crieff Hydro, the Royal Garden Hotel in London, and Apex Hotels. Our online expertise, customer dedication and marketing quirkiness sets us out from the normal online delivery agencies, along with our track record for hard results!  We have never seen anything but exceptional growth for our clients from our efforts.

We make budgets work harder and have proof to show that if you spend a little, you will make so much more back.

Email the team to discuss further or call  0141 342 4335