Today, it seems near impossible to imagine a world in which the Internet did not exist. In fact, most people would probably admit that the idea of going even a day without the internet seems inconceivable. Staying away from Facebook or resisting the urge to Tweet for a mere 24 hours has become a feat few can claim to have achieved, with the average time spent on social networking sites today being around 3.8 hours a day. With this in mind, it is easy to forget that the World Wide Web is actually no more than a quarter of a century old, as today it celebrates its 25th birthday. It was on March 12, 1989 that Sir Tim Berners-Lee presented the blueprint for the web – something which would completely transform the world. However the internet didn’t always look like it does today. Google, for instance, didn’t enter the scene until the 90’s, and its original cartoon-esque logo seems far [...]

How to select the right keywords or phrases for your SEO campaign. Selecting the right keywords or phrases for your website to rank for is an extremely important decision you will need to make for your new or existing website. Targeting a keyword that generates a high volume of searches may be great for search traffic but may not lead to sales or lead generation. Keyword selection is about attracting the right visitors. The more specific a keyword can be, the more likely the visitor to your site is going to be to purchase your products or services. A more generic search term may lead to more “browsers” on your site or people simply looking for information on your chosen subject rather than those willing to part with their money! So how much exactly is a keyword worth to your site? If for example you owned a online shop with a particular specialism in red jumper’s for men. It [...]

This week the team here at Skyline have been getting proactive and involved with the University of Exeter’s Spring Enterprise Week – a week full of activities, such as talks and workshops, offering students the opportunity to meet fellow entrepreneurs and develop enterprise skills.Rob and Joe, along with local entrepreneur Dan from Webwise Media, have been offering their pearls of wisdom on setting up a website on a budget, on SEO and on other marketing strategies including social media. On Monday they held a workshop, ‘A Beginners Guide to Website Design,’ showing students the basic tools for getting started and demonstrating how to set up WordPress (one of the most popular low-cost frameworks in existence for creating a great website).This will be followed up on Friday with a slightly more advanced ‘Part 2’, showing students the best free sites and resources available to help boost your online presence, with an Introduction to Photoshop, to coding in HTML and CSS [...]

This week we are celebrating Global Entrepreneurship Week, which is the world’s largest campaign promoting entrepreneurship. Initiated in 2008, each year Global Entrepreneurship Week encourages millions of people across the world to start up their own businesses. During the course of the week over 3,000 events are taking place in the UK, involving more than 300,000 participants. From lectures given by the world’s leading entrepreneurs, to start-up competitions and networking events, the week is aimed to support and inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs. Our team at Skyline knows the importance of events like Global Entrepreneurship Week. As an independent company founded in January 2011, we are passionate about supporting aspiring entrepreneurs and promoting entrepreneurship. Due to our close links with Exeter University, we were delighted to be invited to speak at a workshop held at the University. Our company director Joe Hibberd attended the event, delivering an engaging speech on the benefit and importance of SEO when [...]

Good Morning and Welcome to our latest blog post, With over 3 billion video views per day, YouTube has cemented itself as an essential marketing tool for all businesses, big or small. One popular YouTube marketing method available to small businesses is the ‘viral’ video. We’ve all been sent one – a funny or sometimes controversial video that is created with the intent of being shared repeatedly via social media and email. A viral video will be seen by a large audience in a short amount of time, and if your viral is good enough, YouTube may promote it to the homepage, bringing further traffic to your video and channel. A viral video will not send your business global, however. By creating a channel for your business, a wealth of opportunities for marketing become available to you. It is not as easy as just creating a channel, it should be noted. In order for YouTube marketing to be successful, [...]

Twitter is in the process of updating its search experience by introducing additional filters and “social context”, as users type their query. The new search displays photos and accounts in the search results and added context, including recent and saved searches. The update makes Twitter’s web search more like the Twitter mobile experience. Twitter announced its update on 1st August via its official account: “Search update on http://twitter.com : See photos & accounts in results + recent searches & social context as you type your query.” As Search Engine Land reported, the three main changes to the Twitter search results page are: people results are now shown in the search results at the top of the page. Photos are displayed in a large pane at the bottom of the page. The page now features Results, People and Photos in the top left corner, instead of the original filters Tweets, People and Top Photos which were previously shown.

People results will appear [...]

Online marketing is the relatively new kid on the marketing block. It includes any form of marketing that uses the Internet and covers search engine optimisations (SEO), e-mail marketing, social media, pay-per-click, blogging, QR codes, video, online advertising to name but a few. Its counterpart, offline marketing, encompasses the more traditional forms of marketing such as advertising (TV, radio, press, outdoor), direct mail, public relations and sponsorship. Online marketing continues to grow in importance and the following statistics from the Office of National Statistics illustrate why: In 2013, 36 million adults (73%) in Great Britain accessed the Internet every day Access to the Internet using a mobile phone more than doubled between 2010 and 2013, from 24% to 53% In 2013, 72% of all adults bought goods or services online, up from 53% in 2008 In Great Britain, 21 million households (83%) had Internet access in 2013 Online marketing also brings the following advantages over offline marketing: Improved effectiveness: an [...]

Hello, Well, January has flown by, what a start to 2013. We’ve picked up a couple more clients including Ashby Crane and co who specialise in Jewellery repairs in Exeter. They offer a truly world class service and we’re delighted to be helping them grow their online presence. In other news, we’re moving (again), which is a shame because we love The Barton in Dunchideock but we feel our business will be better to suited to the environment which the Innovation Centre at Exeter University offers.   We’re really looking forward to working from such a prestigious location.  We’ll keep you updated on the move. Our App(s) We’re very hopefully that 2013 will see the development of a least one app for both iPhone and Android, these apps will be aimed at making you life easier. We’re hoping they’ll be free to download but a final decision has yet to be made, again we’ll keep you posted. Google 2012 saw another big change to Googles [...]

Google are now giving website owners a tool to disassociate their website from unwanted links, This new tool is called “Disavow Links.” THIS IS ONLY TO BE USED BY PEOPLE WHO HAVE ENGAGED IN BLACK HAT – BLOG WHEELS ETC. IF YOU HAVE NOT RECEIVED A NOTIFICATION FROM GOOGLE YOU DO NOT NEED TO USE THIS TOOL. The mains ponts are: It’ll allow you remove unwanted links. It’ll take weeks to process. It’ll take even longer to reinstate a disavowed domain (so be careful). Be careful when using the tool – it is possible to shot yourself in the foot. Matt Cutts does suggest trying to contact the website owner first and ask them to remove the link. If that approach fails, he advocates using Disavow Links to notify Google. Matt stresses that ‘mum-and-pop’ operations and anyone who has not engaged in ‘black hat’ SEO techniques are unlikely to have to use Google’s new tool.