This could be the case as it is almost exactly 3 months after the previous one so could this excitement be worthy of itself!?

What does page rank mean to 2012?

There are mutterings that page rank no longer means anything and some SEO extremists even went as far to suggest that page rank will be completely abolished in 2013 however, does this recent page rank tweak suggest otherwise?

Could Google reallllly go as far to completetly eradicate one of their founding metrics?

Well, lets wait and see shall we and if you think that this slight amendment in the world of page rank is the start of a bigger roll out of updates then let Kickstart know!

Ciao for now SEO’ers and good luck in the face of page rank updation

Kickstart

Hey all,

So…the big “G” is shaking things up for the international SEO side of things and the keyword of the moment (excuse the SEO pun) is mark up, mark up MARK UP!!

We saw the Panda released in 2011 which shook the duplicate content world somewhat and it looks like an international version could be set free in 2012. It looks as though anyone partaking in a bit of international SEO and who operates one website across a host of languages will now be tarnished with the duplicate brush.

“But Kickstart…” I hear you cry”…just get your geotargetting hat on, login to Google Webmaster Tools and get cracking” Yes Kickstartees, this used to be the case HOWEVER…no more. BOOOOOOOO

So Google is seperating the men from the boys and has created a a variety of new mark ups that will be used to inform Google that you are in fact duplicating odds and sods in various languages for a reason and not just for the fun!

It took around about 55 times of reading through Googles blog on this for Kickstart to understand what the chuff the big G was on about however, here goes…this is what we have interpreted these mark ups as:

If you have a domain with multiple sub domains in different languages you can now use a mark up that highlights to Google that the foreign content is the same as the .com but just in a different language, almost like a foreign canonical. You can also specify the region you want to target via your source code now as well.

For example…you’ve got the below versions of one site:

• http://www.example.com/ – contains the general homepage of a website, in Spanish
• http://es-es.example.com/ – is the version for users in Spain, in Spanish
• http://es-mx.example.com/ – is the version for users in Mexico, in Spanish
• http://en.example.com/ – is the generic English language version
You can use these specific mark ups to highlight to Google that es-es.example.com is the version for user in Spain, in Spanish etc etc.

PHEW…

For more clarity on this crazy mark up party visit the Google Blog and their support centre and see if you can decipher what this means for all you neeks out there!

Thanks and take care peeps,

Kickstart

This post will be a short and sweet one as we just wanted to say that WordPress can be nifty AND pretty all in one go.  We were chatting to some of our friends down at PRD Ceramics the other day and they have just launched their first ever website.  These guys are tilers by trade and computers aren’t their forté but they want to take their business to the next level and get themselves out there on the web.

Now this is where WordPress comes in…if you are a business who wants a website for any reason, whether you think you should have one, you want to generate more business or you simply just think websites are cool, WordPress is the way forward.  WordPress is a gateway to the web for beginners.

The user friendly interface allows any joe bloggs to logon, pick a theme and get cracking!  And the plugins, well don’t even get me started on the plugins!  Who even needs HTML when the plugins are there for you!  You want facebook on your site? You’ve got it!  You want an XML sitemap? You’ve got it!  You want to display super pretty pictures then you’ve damn well got it!! All through the power of the Plugin!

So there you have it people, it’s not profound, its not juicy SEO’ing gossip, it’s just a classic case of WordPress love and how WordPress can be the opportunity small business’s need to get them selves out there on the Google Map!

Ciao,

Kickstart

Good morning Kickstarters,

Please let Kickstart HQ apologise for the lack of communication with you guys recently.  The deal is we are being HOUNDED by pesky automated spammers and we have been trying to manage a way of getting these blighters to leave us the hell alone!

So we have done some research and lord knows how these “people” call themselves “gurus” but there are a number of people out there claiming that automated spamming is the way forward to get rankings.

The truth is this is RIDICULOUS.  Maybe in stoneage times when the Google bot was a mere “botling” this could have occured however this is black hat and quite frankly garbage!

Anyway, that’s enough of ranting from Kickstart but we are very interested in hearing other peoples woes of the spammers and also opinions on why you think people do it!

Kickstart are back on track now and promise not to abandon you so heartlessly again!

Ciao for now,

Kickstart

We’ve seen a PR retweek and have shot up to the dizzy heights of a Page Rank 1!

We know Page Rank isn’t everything but my word does getting our foot on the PR ladder feel good

Get in touch!

Kickstart would be interested to hear of anyone who has seen anything out of the ordinary with the page rank tweek so please do let us know!

Only a quick one today folks but just thought we’d let you confirm should you not be sure or think you were going a bit crazy!

Ciao for now Kickstarters!

x

So as you can tell, things have been quite quiet in the land of Kickstart. This is because we have been helping out a friend with their website! We touched on this in our last post about the Flipping Book Plugin (which we still love by the way ) but anywho, we’re all up and running on our friends website we thought we’d share some of the hints and tips we picked up along the way!

Kickstarts friend approaches Kickstart and says “hey, you know a bit about the internet and things and we want a website that looks professional, reads well and ranks for the term “builders in harrogate”.

So…Kickstart said “hey, no problem…we’ll see what we can do!” *Kickstart quivers on the inside as they have little idea of where to start*

However, Kickstart has risen to the challenge and three weeks ago embarked on the mammoth task of our first ever website creation (apart from our beautiful Kickstart obvi!)

One thing Kickstart has learnt from past SEO experience is the key is to have EVERYTHING in place before you even think about aesthetics of a site and PLAN PLAN PLAN! You MUST have a solid plan for your site in place, know what you want to say and what you want people to read! As obvious as that sounds you would be suprised at how many people Kickstart has come across who don’t do this!

Here are a few hints and tips from Kickstart on creating a successful website:

URL – Brand name or exact match…If you’re going for something local there’s no harm in picking exact match
Page Plan – Plan what pages you are going to have and where. Can you nest sub categories within main categories to make it look neater?
Navigation – You want your users to enjoy using your site so make sure it’s easy to use! Don’t scare them away by not laying things out logically
Pre – Write your content and OPTIMISE IT – Kickstart finds it so much easier to concentrate on one thing at once. Tuck yourself away with your laptop and a cold beer and get those creative juices flowing. Start with your homepage and then crack on with all your initial pages. Try and use the keywords you want to optimise towards around 3-5% of the time but dont sacrifice the readability of the content for the sake of optimisation
Pre Write Meta Data – Get your title tags and meta descriptions done EARLY. These are boring and labourious to write but man are they important! Remember they are front weighted so what ever you want to rank for put it at the front!
CALL TO ACTION!! – Again, this sounds SO obvious but make sure that you have a header created for your site that has a clear call to action. Users eyes are naturally drawn to the top right hand corner of your homepage so fill it with useful stuff! A phone number, a “special offers” advert if you’re ecommerce or anything that will convert a user into a consumer!!!
Link build to your holding pages – There’s nothing stopping you link building and creating that solid link portfolio even before you are ready to go live. This gives your website a great start in life and more chance of ranking for what you want it to!

Once you have all of this in place get on WordPress, pick a theme and play around! (Obviously WordPress is not the only avenue to go down but Kickstart likes it!) Once you have your content ready, all you have to do is drop it in! Faff around with Plugins, have a look at some of the ones we have recommended and get creative!

We only set our friends site up three weeks ago and we’re already ranking on page 2 for “builders in Harrogate”!!  High FIVE!

Kickstart are not claiming to be the guru of web design or SEO but what we want to say is, if we can do it…YOU can! Have a look at the site we created for our friends down at Black & White Property Solutions. We would love to hear your thoughts on it…go easy on us though as it is our first time

Anyway, that’s enough for today folks! We hope you find some of our info useful and if not, hey ho…dont use it!

Have a good one Kickstarters and keep checking in on us and our friends site as we will constantly be updating until we verge on perfection!!

Ciao for now,

Kickstart x

Being new to this blogging game means Kickstart is spending ALOT of time researching Plugins to make blogs look good and operate with ease! BUT at least that means we can impart our newly found knowledge onto you, our discerning followers!

Today’s Plugin is a great interactive gallery that makes pictures look great!  We were looking for a decent gallery because we’ve recently been helping one of our friends set up their own building website and as part of the website they wanted to display portfolio pictures from past projects!

So after a lot of mining through multiple gallery Plugins, finding a lot of them complicated and not aesthetically pleasing, we came across the FlippingBook plugin!

This plugin is great….its very easy to manage, you can add text to photos, you can manage what order you want photos to appear and you don’t need to know a thing about coding to be able to use it to great effect!

You can create as many “books” as you like and customise each one individually! We’re still playing around with our friends one but you can see what we’ve got so far in their building portfolio!

It’s so easy to use and Kickstart would highly recommend it to any of you beginnier bloggers like us out there!

Hope this helps people!

Keep blogging and stay safe,

Kickstart

Pump My Page Rank

Well the Internet World has been ROCKED!

The Google Page Rank update has occured…Kickstart must admint that we have felt a Page Rank update was on the cards!

So how was it for you??  Kickstart wants to know how you other bloggers have got on?

We are very happy down at Kickstart HQ as we’re only in our infancy and we’ve made the huge step from N/A to Page Rank O in all of our pages bar 1 so thanks for everyone checking us out and linking to us as we couldn’t have done it without our Kickstartees!

So here’s a GREAT geek fact for you…

The term “Page Rank” was named after one of Googles founders, Larry PAGE….rather lucky its all about juding the quality of a web page ey!

Anyway, this is just a quick one to confirm that yes the update has occured so get checking your blogs asap!

Laters,

Kickstart

Hello all,

This weeks subject again is a nifty WordPress plugin!  I don’t know if any of you also have the issues with wanting to put content on your website with out cluttering up the aesthetics?  Well…sometimes it may feel like there’s no hope if you havent got a PHD in javascript however….a solution is in sight!

If, like me, you know basics in coding and you know what looks good but you just dont know how to get it on your site then fear not…TheThe Fly have come to the rescue!

They offer a really great plugin that enables you to create tabs and javascript accordians on your WordPress website without having to use reems and reems of complicated javascript!

The Plugin is simple to use and all you have to do is place a little bit of code on the page you want your tabs, toggles or accordians on, fill in the content and titles where appropriate and bobs your uncle, you have a load of content all contained nice and neatly and the aesthetics of your site live on!

On that note…get your creative content hat on and get cracking with filling your sites with cracking content

Over and out,

Kickstart

Google Panda v.2

Hey all,

So the word on the SEO street is Google are set to launch Panda the Second!  I’m sure this will send a  a sigh of relief throughout the disgruntled many who saw their traffic plummet post the release of the bear!

Well here are few thoughts from Kickstart…I am sure they are not original however we thought we’d share them anyways.

So What’s Up With The New Panda?

I have witnessed first hand, post Panda 1, content that has been scraped and whacked on any Tom, Dick or Harry’s blog begin to rank above the original source which is seriously uncool.  Google are claiming that Panda 2 will be focusing on this in a major way to try and stop this from happening for obvious reasons!

This is the main attribute of Panda 2 as you can imagine how frustrating it is to spend days, weeks and months dedicated to creating unique content masterpieces for your website and some tinker comes along and steals it from under you and not only gets your hard work…they get Google glory for it too!!

How Do You Recover From Being Struck By The Beast?

Well..this is a tricky one as Kickstart have not come face-to-face with any survivors as of yet but here are a couple of hints and tips that we reckon are a good place to start:

CANONICAL

If you have a lot of duplicate on your website whack in a canonical tag.  This basically says to Google, “yer, I have duplicate content on my website and it’s there for a reason so leave me alone please!”  This is particularly handy for websites that sell products in a range…for instance if your website sells T-Shirts and all your t-shirts are made from the same cotton, are the same size, have the same logo but are just in different colours you don’t want to spend time and energy going through writing unique descriptions for a million different coloured t-shirts…hence, input a canonical and you are done!

WEBSITE CLEANSING

Well….this can either be a quick job or a painstakingly long one depending on how large your site is.  However, once you’ve done it you’ll feel good!  Basically, we all know that once we’ve been running our websites for a while and they increase in size then it’s easy to get complacent.  Take a wet, sunday afternoon and sit down with your headphones in and laptop on and get going through your website and checking whats needed, what’s not and what is duplicate and GET RID!  Have a good old tidy up basically!

WHAT IF  I’VE BEEN SCRAPED?

There’s a tonne of duplicate content checkers out there!  A classic is Copyscape. However if there’s a particular site you think has snapped up your precious content then try this one as it lets you compare 2 separate URLs directly…very handy!

Anyway, Kickstarts tired and has waffled onto you for long enough.

Keep tuning in Kickstarters!