MadeSimple: Blog - MadeSimple

LinkedIn Company Pages

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +1200

When you think of Social Media, the first thoughts are of Facebook and Twitter. Not many of us think immediately of LinkedIn, but with over 90 million users LinkedIn is a valuable tool. It allows business professionals to stay connected to their business network but ...

Source: LinkedIn Company Pages

72% of people choose their lawyer online

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +1300

In a New Zealand survey which asked “If you needed to find a lawyer, where would you look?” 72% responded that they would look online.¹

This transition to ...

Source: 72% of people choose their lawyer online

Firefox 4.0 Released

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +1300

Following the release of IE9 last week Firefox 4.0 has been released.

The previous version of Firefox (3.6) was released in January 2010 and over the last year had slipped from its leading position behind Chrome, Opera and the recent IE9. ...

Source: Firefox 4.0 Released

IE6 Countdown to 1% usage

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +1300

Microsoft have recently launched a campaign to encourage the reduction in use of Internet Explorer 6. The goal being to have only 1% using IE6 by the end of this year.

The ie6countdown.com website has a countdown to track the reduction in use which has seen worldwide use drop 9% in the last year to just 12% in February 2011. In ...

Source: IE6 Countdown to 1% usage

Engage with your website

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +1300

Unlike a print brochure which is a snap shot in time, that is signed off, printed and is a constant fixed resource, your website is a living tool to market your business and engage with your audience.

This fits with the nature of modern businesses which are not static and are constantly evolving and adapting. There is always something new happening. This evolution and change can be ...

Source: Engage with your website

Google rules the NZ search engine market

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +1300

In New Zealand Google is a key referring search engine with a total 93.26% of the market share. Second is Bing with 1.9% and third Yahoo with a total of 1.61%.

For NZ the stats to the 29/1/11 for the proceeding 12 week period are:

1. Source: Google rules the NZ search engine market

Improve the conversions on your website.

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +1300

The key in making your website start working for you is to take the website from an online brochure, catalogue or business profile to being an active part of your marketing. You want your website to create business for you.

So how do you make your website work for you? You need to decide what you want people to do once they visit your website. This all ties back what ...

Source: Improve the conversions on your website.

Get your website greater exposure through Free Online Directories

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +1300

Many businesses have great websites, but are only found by people in the know looking specifically for your website.

Online Directories send traffic to our websites giving our websites greater exposure, increasing visitors and opening us to new customers.

They allow you to be found by people looking for your specific product or service and also come up in Google ...

Source: Get your website greater exposure through Free Online Directories

SEO 101

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +1300

Search Engines are constantly refining the way the compile the results that you see when you search. The results displayed in the body of the page are known as organic results as opposed to Adwords, the paid sponsored results at the top and right side of the page.

An Algorithm is what drives these organic results and it is fairly complex. There are some components which we know the ...

Source: SEO 101

Many businesses are missing out on the marketing potential of a website

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +1300

MYOB have released their latest Business Monitor survey results which looked at the number of NZ businesses that have a website.

Only 34% of New Zealand businesses surveyed had a website and only 20% were selling products online.

The results of the survey indicated that businesses with a website and an online presence tended to perform better and generate more revenue than ...

Source: Many businesses are missing out on the marketing potential of a website

Vanity URL for your Facebook page

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +1300

One of the neat features with Facebook is getting a vanity URL for your Facebook page. This is available for people and businesses with more than 25 friends or likes.

For MadeSimple our dedicated URL is http://www.facebook.com/MadeSimple

This makes it a lot easier to market your Facebook page and it also means ...

Source: Vanity URL for your Facebook page

World Press Photo Exhibition Auckland

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +1200

The World Press Photo Exhibition is the world’s most prestigious exhibition of international current affairs photography. It is a public showcase of photojournalism featuring award-winning images. ...

Source: World Press Photo Exhibition Auckland

Blog, article or news

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +1200

Many clients ask me whether they should have a blog, article or news on their website and which one is appropriate for them. Effectively they are the same thing, it is just the tone and manner of the content that determines what it is called.

Article

Articles are more informative and educational in nature. On the whole they are written with the business or organisation as ...

Source: Blog, article or news

Duplicate Content

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +1200

Just like your teachers at school, search engines don’t like plagiarism, they like unique content.

Search engines have an advantage in that they can compare content and determine whether two pages are the same. When they find two pages that are the same they choose one and index that and effectively ignore the other.

When you think about it, it makes sense. Search ...

Source: Duplicate Content

How does Google work?

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +1200

We know that we get results when we search in Google or other search engines, but how does Google know what to show in the results?

The first thing to understand is that Google does not go looking for results when you search. It has already indexed what content is on the internet. Based on what it has indexed this is then used in the results.

Google has a programme where it ...

Source: How does Google work?