How do you use social media to promote your business?

I FOUND A SOCIAL MEDIA REPORT BY SOCIAL MEDIA EXAMINER WHILST DOING SOME GENERAL RESEARCH ON SOCIAL MEDIA ISSUES THAT I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE WITH YOU.

This report can be found online here  I also found a few videos that I thought were worth a watch which I have embedded below for you to appreciate as well.

In this first video Marcus Sheridan, founder of The Sales Lion shares how businesses can use social media to develop relationships with potential customers and increase sales.

In this video, Jason Falls, co-author of the book No Bullshit Social Media shares some excellent tips and explains how social media can impact your business.



Remember that the SEA's (Search Engine Algorithms) are now giving much more value to social signals, so choose a SMP (social Media Platform) that best suits your client / customer / user base and ensure that your SMG (social Media Group) gets the info that they want about your brand, product or service with plenty of links splashed in to your  call to action pages where your sales will be concluded and payment accepted.

Do NOT be pushy and act like a sales person in your SMP (Social Media Platform) but remember to supply links to your sales pages and other call to action pages using the correct key words near the links as determined by your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) representative within your marketing team.

Always be aware that your SMA (Social Media Activities) are part of your marketing strategy used to funnel your social groups online actions to your call to action pages that should be managed within your company web site.

Many thanx for reading Our blog. check out our Google Plus page and leave us a note telling us what you would like to know more about and we will do our best to accommodate your request.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Is SEO SPAM ? an answer from Matt Cutts

Well the truth is SEO is Search Engine Optimisation and that is the art of ensuring that search engines find your pages, and hopefully place them high in the SERP (Search Engine Ranking pages). SEO is not SPAM at all, though some BHSOET's (Black Hat Search Engine Optimisation Technicians) do use very dirty tricks to get their pages on your screens.

These BHSOET's have given the whole SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) industry a bad name. View this short video by Google with Matt Cutts discussing the question "Is SEO SPAM"



Thanx for your time, please book mark our blog and pass comments on our posts so we can know if our efforts are helping you understand whether our efforts to inform you of SEO issues and how SEO can be integrated into your whole marketing is helpful.

 If you want a specific SEO topic to be discussed ask for it in a comment on a post and we will do a little research on the subject and try to discuss your request looking forward to hearing from you in a reply or comment.

 Regards Frank
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a health check for your site in Google SERP's

Google's Matt Cutts discusses your web sites SEO health and quality issues and why Google does not give your site a health certificate.

What's the value of a Google+ +1?

What's the value of a Google+ or a +1? Now this is a good question that needs some explanation.

Social signals are the new buzz word in SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and are quite a scary bunch of things affecting page rank and SERP (Search Engine Results page)

what is the value of colour in terms of SEO

The value of colour in terms of SEOV (Search Engine Optimisation Value) is underestimated because it is not seen as a ranking factor for search engines within the marketing world.

This is a big mistake, and is caused by the misunderstanding of SEO (search Engine Optimisation) in general marketing terms. In the past SEO technical staff were the only ones involved in SEO. This has changed drastically over the last year  where SM (social Media) has become the newest buzz word and is now considered to be a prime factor in the SEO industry.

Read this article on the issue of colour and its value to your web site also read the comments which are insightful as well.

You really do need to consider your target market with their social values and  cultural values as well as group preferences when considering colours for your web site or a section of your web site. Once this has been evaluated by the marketing team you need to do a small test run on a subsection of your pages and get user feed back.

Look carefully at what they have to say, as all the search engines have done this and are currently using user appreciation and user functionality as part of their SEOV (Search Engine Optimisation Value) system, where individual pages get scored for a variety of factors which are all entered into the SEA (Search Engine Algorithm) which determine your pages SERP's (Search Engine Results Page Positions)

If the SE's (Search Engines) like your colour scheme and think you pages are user friendly you will do a lot better in the SERP's. Remember things like readability and site aesthetics are determined by your colour scheme. So take your time on this one and do a few small tests on some sub domains to see the results before rushing off and making any changes to your colour scheme

content is KING, but the king is not lonely

Content is king  ..  A great saying that needs some back up and a little explanation.

Unique content within your pages is helpful from an SEO point of view, but it is not the only way to get visitors to your site take a look at this video and evaluate what works best for you.

What is the purpose of social media in marketing?

What is the purpose of social media in marketing? This is a question that is seldom asked and never discussed with any clarity.

Social media marketing does not generate direct sales, it drives customers and interested parties to your web site where all online business should be conducted.

Brand awareness is only part of the issue, and social is social not business. Social media is used by the public to get personal and social with their various groups of friends. Us as marketers are intruders in this space and should remember this at all times.

The many social media platforms are a source of prospects and a place to create brand awareness, not sales. Social media platforms have been hijacked by marketers and it does not take the public long to realise this and ignore your company page once the social edge wears thin and the marketing edge starts to shine through.




Being on the social media pages that your potential customers use is all about brand awareness and implementing the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) strategies which your marketing team should have in place that ensure your customers use the correct key words and key word phrases when searching for your services, products or events in all the major search engines.

It thus follows that you may have many thousands of likes, followers, G+'s  and other social signals, but little direct business from your social media pages. So once you understand clearly that the purpose of social media pages within the online marketing arena is to create brand awareness and SEO points for your company pages which funnel interested and focused buyers to your company site, then you will be alright, and get the results from the organic search results in search engines like BING,  YAHOO and GOOGLE with your targeted key words and keyword phrases showing up at the TOP of SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages)

Read this interesting article "How has Social media changed our marketing landscape"

What is the value of social signals?

The value of social signals in terms of SEO (search Engine Optimisation) is a growing concern amongst many webmasters and web site owners. The number of social media websites has grown exponential over the last year or 2 and is still growing rapidly.

Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest G+ and Linked in all add value to your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) efforts. Using all these platforms is hard work that is extremely time consuming, but is really worth the effort.

These social media efforts are all long term efforts that should not be rushed, the choice of usernames is a big issue, and when ever possible should be brand names and names associated with your web site. These social media platforms should not be seen as competition for your web site, but looked upon as complementary efforts that send visitors to your online call to action pages.

This article called "your guide to social media signals for SEO" is a must read for any web site owner / webmaster / SEO specialist

The value of social media signals in terms of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is not truly understood, and is growing rapidly as more and more companies are using the social media to promote their brands, products and services.

How we as SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) professionals treat these social signals amongst our selves will be evaluated by the SE (search Engine) operators, and we will  need to be aware of their reactions to our efforts. The SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) crews and the Search Engine engineers need to have a common platform, but this is just wishfull thinking, as there are far too many cheats and BH (Black Hat) SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) crew members.

When the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) professionals start behaving rationally and work within the system without trying to gain unfair advantage through some form of skulduggery or trickery then we may be able to truly understand the value of  social media and the value that social media actually adds to our efforts.

The current trend to buy social signals from vendors to push the effects of the SEO value of these social signals through to higher SERP's (Search Engine Results positions) should be avoided as Search Engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, ask and many others will soon be writing changes to their algorithms to punish these cheats and BH ( Black Hat) vendors and all their clients in ways that will surprise many and catch many others unawares when their pages just simply drop out of the organic listings.

So we as SEO professionals need to harness the value of social signals as organically as is possible, or face the prospect of being dropped from the organic listings of all search engines. The SEO value of good social signals should not be under estimated, as it is a growing force that needs to be harnessed and nurtured to ensure it's impact is not short lived or negative to the SERP's (Search Engine Results Positions) of our collective client bases.

Google basics explained - on video

This short video gives a very brief explanation of the basics of Google's methods to index sites and what variables are most important for ranking high in the SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages' / positions).

three things that are most important for search engine are
1) how to craw the web most efficiently
2) index the pages, and sort according to some criteria
3) Rank all pages then serve the pages to searchers according to their needs

To ensure that your pages are indexed in search engines you need to ensure that  search engines find your pages through links from other sites, and that your pages have internal links so that all your pages can be found by any search engine that locates any one of your pages.

Once your pages are indexed by search engines they perform quite a few mathematical tricks useing a host of variables such as but not limited to the list below to give some kind of score to your page. Then the search engine will store this value along with a number of pre calculated variables that will be used to evaluate an end users search query and return a SERP (Search Engine Results Page) in their indexing system.
1) the specific words within your pages, and how they are used, where they are in relation to each other and other data on your page.
2) all inbound links form other websites including the anchor, text where the link is on the page, words near to the link, and words on the landing page which the link refers to.
3) all out bound links, including anchor text, words near the link, words on the landing page of the link, and the context of the link related to other onpage data.
4) all internal links linking to the specific page as well as all internal links linking to other pages within your site taking the page content and many related issues into account.

When an end user submits a search query this is search query is compared with the indexed words and some very  advanced mathematical algorithm is used to determine the end users intent and match this intent with the aboutness of your pages. Once the search engine has determined the best possible matches from its index with a searchers intent the search engine delivers a SERP (Search Engine Results page)

Undersatnding Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO or Search engine optimisation is a difficult thing to come to grips with because of the diverse opinions within the industry and many saying SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is DEAD.

Confusion starts when one looks for a definition of SEO (search Engine Optimisation) and does not get a clear concise definition.  I like to define SEO (search Engine Optimisation) to my customer base as follows:

SEO or Search engine optimisation is the collective online effort of your entire marketing team to ensure  that your pages are indexed in search engines in a manner that ensures that you get qualified visitors who are looking for your products, services or related information.

Most companies leave the SEO (search Engine Optimisation) of their pages up to the web design team and do not integrate SEO into their entire marketing policy, leaving no SEO (search Engine Optimisation)  policy specific directives for any other online work. This is purely because the management have not been correctly informed of what SEO (search Engine Optimisation) is and why they need to have a dedicated person in charge of their SEO (search Engine Optimisation) . Once you understand the definition above you will realise that SEO (search engine optimisation) is a complicated affair that requires team work with a clear set of policy directives that need to be enforced across a wide spectrum of disciplines within your advertising and marketing efforts. 

Defining the "ABOUTNESS"  of your pages and ensuring that this aboutness is translated into your page construction and the subsequent social media marketing  and related promotion of your web site is the key to ensuring that search engines send your site well qualified visitors which can be converted to customers.

To achieve this you will need to have some policy directives that need to be in place and followed by your entire marketing team. You will need to understand your target market groups and cater for each target market group separately, ensuring a common thread, with some common key words and a base set of pages that form a core from which you will expand the different target market groups in a coherent and logical manner that search engines will be able to understand and relate to the aboutness of your entire site, with out losing focus of your intent.

Remember that search engines are changing fast along with the social media influences that you will need to manage in ways that ensure that your page's aboutness can be related to the searchers intent. Search engines are taking more and more variables into account as the amount of data online increases. It is becoming very difficult for search engines  to manage these large data volumes and still supply an end user with relevant up to date information. Search engines are taking strain and are showing signs of frustration due to the large amounts of spam and irrelevant data that is on-page in the form of advertising as well as links to pages that do not discuss similar or related information. Sites that link to other sites just for the sake of generating links as in link farms are also of grave concern to search engines, as they have very little importance or value to the page in question. 

These 2 articles explain a little more  and offer a different view on some issues.

1)  the end of link building as we know it 
2) impact of the next penguin update



 

What is the true purpose of SEO

The true purpose of SEO (search Engine Optimisation) has some how been hidden from plain view, and now seems to be obscured by the technical jargon thrown around by technical SEO experts.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is a complex task which involves your entire marketing teams efforts that starts with  the Manipulation of "IN-PAGE DATA" to suit your target markets vocabulary and ends with ensuring that search engines understand the complete "Aboutness of your page" so that they are able to match this to the intent of the searcher who is looking for your information which you want your target market to find.

Put bluntly SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is done to ensure that your web pages and related online information  get visitors. So we can happily say that the purpose of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is to ensure that search engines send visitors to your pages.

Problem is how ever that website owners (you) don't  want large numbers of visitors who will be uninterested and bored with what their web site offers, but want qualified visitors who will be entertained, take some action on their pages call to action statements, and tell their friends about the great experience they had.

Good SEO (Search Engine Optinisation) involves your complete marketing team to ensure

1) that your web sites visitors are entertained and have a great experience at your site. This end user satisfaction is fast becoming a primary concern within many SEA's (Search Engine Algorithms) which was never an issue in the past.

2) your in-page navigation structure is user-friendly and easy for search engines to understand in a way that enhances the SE (Search Engine) ability to link the pages aboutness to a searchers intent. This is also becoming a very contentious issue within the SEI (Search Engine Industry)

3) your web site has a good solid back up within your SME (Social Media Efforts) as social signals are becoming increasingly important within all major search engines metrics that are used within their SEA's (Search Engine Algorithms)

4) the copy writing is linguistically correct for the specified   language in the META TAGS within the head section of your page. Good language and the correct syntax is getting a lot more attention within SEA's (search Engine Algorithms) than it did in the past, as this is assisting the search engine to link your pages aboutness to the users intent. Being linguistically correct involves using slang that is indigenous  to your target market, so be careful how you interpret this.

5) the META TAGS in the HEAD section of your pages has all the right segments for your page type and page style. Is the page
                   a) a news page
                   b) a technical info page
                   c) a shopping or e-commerce page
                   d) an educational page

AS search engines learn  about people behavior and thinking patterns within various communities, they integrate this into their algorithms with devious mathematical tricks on the data they have about your pages to link the aboutness of your pages to the intent of the searcher.

It thus follows that SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is no longer just about the technical in page SEO stuff, but must now include many more metrics. Google technical staff within the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) field say that they use more than 200 individual metrics in their SEA (Search Engine Algorithm) and some of the more important ones are listed below.

1. page title in <HEAD>
2. page description in <HEAD>
3. key words tags in <HEAD>
4. other META TAGs in <HEAD>
5. language
6. user friendlyness
7. navigation structure, internal links and out bound links
8. inbound links from out side sources not under your control.
9. Social media signals associated with page, site and communities
10. in-page HTML use, structure and style (image alt tags, link title tags etc)
11. copy content and relevance to other pages in sub-domain as well as complete domain relevance

Once again the true purpose of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is to get search engines to send visitors to your pages.  I hope that you now understand why SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) must be integrated into your company marketing holistically, and why you need a dedicated SEOM (Search Engine Optimisation Manager.)

Once the marketing manager is up to speed with the true purpose of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) in the new online information age, you should not have any difficulty in ensuring that your company appoints a single dedicated person to manage your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to ensure that SEO  related policies and guidelines are in place and functional.

Google web master tools videos to see....

Google web master tools is a great site to help you understand the issues involved in SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

Google Webmasters Youtube library has great list of videos that cover almost every aspect of SEO and many related web design issues with tips and tricks on many tools that Google offers.

This video is a good start and should be watched a few times and understood very clearly before continuing to the second link which links to the Google webmasters video library.


Google webmasters Youtube Library

How much do you spend on SEO and Social media?

SEO  (Search Engine Optimisation) is a time consuming and costly affair that needs careful attention from your marketing manager. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) needs to be an integral part of your company's marketing strategy that runs through all your marketing policies with a primary focus on ensuring that your social media marketing teams work closely with your website design team and  keep your intended target market in mind and ensure that all your online marketing strategies have a consistent thread that is well optimised for search engines at every stage.

If your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) manager is not on the ball, you will end up duplicating your efforts, and spending an awful lot of resources on target market identification for each platform. Your products and services have a common target market across all platforms  as listed below

a) web site
b) face book profile
c) twitter profile
d) pinterest ptofile
e) Google + profile
f) any other social media profile

The purpose of having social media platforms in place is to get attention to your web site and funnel your social media fans through to your web site where you will perform all sales. from this statement you can understand the importance of all your social media efforts being co-ordinated and managed by a single person who also has an input into your web site management issues.

It does not matter where your viewers or end users start out, they will most likely use a search engine to locate your web page or your social media profile. This search engine may be an external search engine like Google, Yahoo and Bing or it may be an internal search engine at a social media site such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn  or any other social media platform.

Your SEO team and Social Media teams will need to co-ordinate their efforts and ensure that they use the same key word base, image store and copy writing style. then take into account what Jordan Kastler had to say here

 Jordan Kasteler is the Online Marketing Strategist for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) as well as a speaker, author of A to Z: Social Media Marketing, and entrepreneur. You can follow him on @JordanKasteler. See more articles by Jordan Kasteler

How do you measure the impact of your social media efforts?

Measuring the impacts of your social media efforts is a difficult task at best, but how do you connect this to your bottom line?

In my opinion all social media efforts are in place to funnel online activity to your call to action pages that are manged out side of the social media arena. Others will have different opinions and explain why they think the way they do.

Social media is a very powerful marketing tool, but there are difficulties in measuring its success. having  a large number of Facebook followers does not necessarily translate into a large number of people buying your product or using your service, and the correlation between face book likes and feet in to physical stores is quite difficult as followers may live in foreign countries / out of state .

That is why target market selection is critical in your social media efforts. FB adds can be very effective if you use the Geo-targeting tools made available, but still extremely difficult to measure. Other  social media operators also allow for Geo-marketing but none offer any tools on how to measure the effectiveness of your social media efforts.

how do you tie your social media efforts to your bottom line? read here and then decide which way you want to go, and what actions you can take to convince your boss to spend more on social media marketing.

I firmly believe that your social media efforts need to be seen as promoting  your existing online sales and marketing efforts which need to be managed as a collective entity keeping your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) policies and principles in place and ensuring complete integration of all your marketing / online sales channels.

If you do this  you will have the tools to measure the success of your marketing efforts and keep tabs on the separate parts with out loosing the fact that they are part of an integrated system.  read this and think about what I have said here today

Understanding search experince from an SEO viewpoint

The  experience of an end user of your information at a search engine is determined by many factors This article helps  us to put some of them into the picture more clearly.

What an end user is  expecting when he / she uses a search engine is often forgotten by the web master and those involved in designing a web page, as is clearly pointed out in the article. So what is your responsibility as an SEO specialist when you discuss the make up and contents of a web page?

Which words an end user will type into the search engine is difficult to determine, but what your end users perceive your website to be about  is very helpful, and your marketing team should fill you in on this as they are the ones who determine your target market, and give you a brief on the aims, objectives and purpose of a page.

The term "aboutness" is used in the article discussed and this is very often neglected by the design team. How to ensure that this is taken seriously by the marketing people in your design team is often a problem,  as they are concerned about the marketing issues and loose sight of the fact that  the rest of the team must be following their instructions, as all online materials which are not directly sales pages are about marketing different aspects of your company / organisation in some shape manner or form.

The aboutness of your pages is often a subject that is attributed to the web site as a whole and not a single page. This is an important aspect of the search experience as the words that the end user (Searcher) uses to find your information is defined by his ideas of the aboutness of your information. It thus follows that each page needs some attention of its own aboutness as a stand alone page.

As a seasoned internet user you know and take many things for granted which most end users are totally ignorant about. This often leads to the aboutness of a page being lost or misplaced and thus not included from an SEO point of view in the page makeup instructions in a manner that the copy writer clearly understands.  When your work force is small and there are less than 5 people working on your pages these things become more critical as there are less eyes to pick up these small errors that lead to the aboutness of your page being misinterpreted by search engines.

Now we all hear about KEY word META TAGS being irrelevant for SERP's (Search Engine Results Positions) and how they are a waste of time and effort, but what do they do for the ABOUTNESS of your page?  Did you ever think of the aboutness of your page from a key word meta tag perspective?

To ensure that the aboutness of you page is interpreted better by both search engines and end users ensure you page has the following.

1) a page description  (meta tags in head)
2) a page title (meta tags in head)
3) a key words list (meta tags in head)
4) good well worded content
5) out bound links to related material (internal)
6) inbound links (internal links) from other relevant pages within your web site 
7) out bound links to related material (external)
8) Inbound links from
                                 a) your social media platforms
                                 b)  external sources (other webs sites)
If you have all eight of these essential parts of your SEO in place the end user will find your site closer to the top of the SERP's and thus have a better search experience when searching for your info..

Search experience is determined by the search engine, and you (SEO / SEM staff)  play a small but very significant role by ensuring that your pages are search engine friendly. read this article for more on understanding search experience

SEO resouces by iblogzone.com

I found this wonderful resource site where there is just simply loads of good well researched stuff with many links to relevant information and a great easy to use navigation structure that allows you to find the stuff you want in a jiffy. check their SEO or Search engine Optimisation section here

check their home page here  

Go to their pages and surf around, use their in site search tools to find all the info you need about SEO read their articles and be surprised at what you can learn from these guys.

Just remember what SEO - Search Engine Optinisation is.... the art of ensuring that your online target audience finds your pages in search engines....

Take time and discuss this with your managers and ensure that you, or a person who you can work with is part of the marketing team. Make sure that the marketing staff understand what the purpose of SEO is and that this is a common thread in all marketing efforts.

SEO for startups in under 10 minutes Plus other reading material.

The links below will add some value to this video covering basic SEO - Search Engine Optimisation, and should be read only after you have viewed the video, as the video will still be fresh in your mind, and you will be able to tie the pieces together with a deeper understanding of the many complexities of SEO or Search Engine Optimisation.

This short video discusses the very elementary basics of SEO (search Engine Optimisation) and gives some very good tips to beginners in the SEO business.

What is not discussed is the fact that SEO or Search engine Optimisation starts with defining your target market, and choosing your web site content and the COPY with great care to ensure that your target market group  forms the core base of all visitors to your site.


After all your hard work you dont want a bunch of visitors to your pages who are not interested in what you are discussing, and feel that they were some how tricked into clicking on your link.  So think this through clearly and remember that SEO or Search Engine Optimisation should form an integral part of your complete marketing strategy.


Reading previous posts in this blog http://4uband.blogspot.com will also help in understanding how to integrate SEO into your marketing strategy at the top level and why it is essential to ensure that your SEO manager has a good working relationship with your whole workforce.

what is SEO and who cares

SEO -as described by  Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Webmaster academy - tools and tips  

Bing Webmaster Tools Revamped, Better?

BING web master tools

 SEO - best practices

Mobile SEO – Just How Different Is It?

Is SEO dead?

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is not dead, and will never die, as SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is the collective work done to ensure that your online information is found by your intended target market . So as long as you have online information of any sort you need to do SEO

The very technical stuff that used to be done by technical SEO experts is taking a bit of strain, and under serious pressure, from Social Media experts, and this may be what some experts are referring to as the death of SEO.

Once again SEO or Search Engine optimisation is a collective effort that needs to be integrated into your entire online marketing strategy. The "Link building" and Social "signals" that are generated when others quote your work are one of the most essential parts of any SEO effort, as this offers the search engines an insight as to just how useful your audience has found your online offerings.

This article - What is SEO and who cares is a very interesting read

This article  Mobile SEO – Just How Different Is It   is also a bit of a surprise, but not entirely new or alien to SEO

Managers need to understand that SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is a very big issue and it needs to be integrated into the company marketing policy and managed from the top in a co-ordinated and integrated fashion. SEO is no longer the stand alone department that it used to be, but should now be an integral part of any online  marketing strategy.

Who is in charge of your SEO and why?

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is a very diverse and mystical art form that is totally misunderstood by most managers. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) often has its own manager and its own budget in big companies. In small companies SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is treated as a marketing project with its own stand alone staff that fall within the IT (Information Technology) or marketing departments.

In small to micro businesses SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is left in the hands of the web master and does not receive the attention that it deserves. in micro companies and organizations with less than 50 employees SEO ( Search Engine Optimisation) is generally not discussed unless the company focuses on IT  (Information Technology services).

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is a marketing strategy within the online marketing of any business / organisation and needs to be fully integrated into the whole marketing strategy of the company / organisation from the beginning. For this to happen managers need to understand what Search Engine Optimisation is, and the mystique associated with the art of ensuring that a companies information is found online needs to be removed.

First one needs to understand what is the purpose of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). The answer to this question is very simple and once clearly understood will make many other decisions an awful lot easier.

The purpose of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is to ensure that your online information is found by your target market.

So who should be in charge of this? simple answer your marketing manager, or a person delegated by your marketing manager.

How much power should your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) manager have ? Quite a bit, as this person needs to ensure that your marketing is integrated at all levels. This means that your online marketing needs to be integrated with
1) your print media marketing
2) your radio marketing
3) your TV marketing
4) your Social Media marketing
5) your web site and all related online publications
6) your telephone-marketing
7) any other marketing avenue that your company may use.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is not a quick fix to get visitors to an individual page, but a marketing strategy to ensure your information is found online by your target audience, and not the wrong crowd that have no interest in your product, service or information.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is not about big numbers of visitors to your online pages, but about ensuring quality visitors to your online portfolio who make use of your products, services or information in a manner that generates a return on your investment.

Your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) manager needs to be a very strong minded person who is capable of leading as this person will be in a very demanding position that requires a deep understanding of team efforts and influencing several different teams in a manner that ensures the complete integration of information relating to the total management of your online information. There is no place for favoritism, and each team member needs to understand where their part of the puzzle belongs and what it does so that copy writing and choice of words used are constant and reflected equally at all levels.   

Back to our original question Who is in charge of your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and why. read this article  on Search Engine Land   and think about the answer to this question. This needs careful evaluation and considerable thought. The person in charge of this section of your company will influence your entire marketing strategy and needs a very deep understanding of your company aims, objectives and purpose.

What words to use and why from an SEO perspective

First things first, content is king, and the most vital part of any SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) strategy.

Linking your content to your target markets vocabulary is step 2. Defining your target market is the real trick that needs to be mastered, as you don't want people coming to your site then leaving in a hurry because they are not interested in your subject matter, and feel that they have been deceived by your marketing tricks.

Understanding your target market and their vocabulary is vital as you need to understand what words they would use to search for your information and optimize your page with these words in mind. Mis-spellings, foreign language words, and local slang are important, and all major search engines are beginning to use these concepts to establish the intent of a searcher from the words he / she has used in the search box.

all past searches are stored and evaluated by search engines on an ongoing basis to determine trends and search patterns within their user base. These results are factored into the SEA (Search Engine Algorithm) to determine a users intent, and search engines are beginning to get quite good at this.

This implies that your content must be well written and match up to your META TAG info, especially the keywords meta tags and any categories you may have listed in the head section of your page. Connecting the intent of an end user to your page is not a simple task, and a host of  variables will be factored into this section of the Search Engine Algorithm, with MANY OF THESE FACTORS BEING WAY OUT OF YOUR CONTROL.

Things like past searches done by others and current trending topics will be at the top of this list used to determine the end users intent at the search engine. Read this post for a deeper understanding of how search engines are using user intent factors.
http://searchengineland.com/is-googles-synonym-matching-increasing-how-searchers-and-brands-can-be-both-helped-and-hurt-131504

Bottom line is GOOD CONTENT using your intended target markets vocabulary and words that you believe your intended target market will use in search boxes when looking for your information, in well worded copy.........

Facebook Adds and SEO

Facebook Advertising is the new buzz word in social media circles and needs some serious attention from the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) crew, but first we need to determine the value of your Facebook marketing and placing adds within Facebook for your situation.

Read the whole post first then  read the 2 links at the bottom of this post to better evaluate what is written here

This evaluational is a complex task  that can only be done by your own marketing team, because of the list below...

• they know what they have done, and others can ask about what is missing, and why it is missing after looking at the complied list of what has been done and what has been left out - 
• others=
• SEO(Search Engine Optimisation) team
• Web publishing team
• Social media team
• they know where they have placed adds, others can ask why the specified location and not else where
• they know what SEO related tasks have been done to promote those adds they have placed, and your SEO team can discuss what is missing, then add to their own independent SEO efforts accordingly
• They know your target audience and their preferred platform of use, as well as how to get a call to action functional within that platform.
•  They have selected the action call, associated images, key words and key word phrases accordingly
• They have the tools to determine 
• the ROI (Return On Investment),  
• the popularity of your Facebook adds
• actions taken by viewers and subsequent results
• impact on brand retention and brand recognition

Marketing, web publishing, SEO  and Social media need to be integrated for any one of them to be successful.

If there is or is not  a related web site associated with the Facebook marketing efforts is the next critical question, with additional questions being how many links from within the related Facebook marketing pages to this web site are there and what key words and keyword phrases were used in these related Facebook

• adds 
• posts
• fan pages
• apps 

Next you need to evaluate your web site, blogs, and other marketing avenues using the same or similar tactics and tools. Then you have a fair means of evaluating  the face book add and its value to your complete marketing strategy, which should include but not be limited to

• inputs from your marketing team
• inputs from your social media team
• inputs from your online publishing team (web master and crew)
• inputs from the SEO team - separate from online publishing
• inputs from production staff
• inputs from management and PR teams
• inputs from your sales team showing sales graphs and related statistics so that these can be interpreted  correctly taking Social media signals and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) efforts into account and linking these to peaks and troughs in sales. Often sales and sales data are not part of this picture, due to the lack of integration because of marketing staffs selfish attitudes

Remember that Facebook does not allow the editing of their HTML nor insertion of  any META DATA into  their pages, so  only extreme basic SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is performed on your Facebook pages, including your Facebook Adds. Unfortunately your marketing staff do not consider SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)  and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) as part of company marketing strategy for some obscure reason.

Facebook adds create great value within Facebook for your :

• likes
• friends
• shares

These social signals (likes, shares and friends)  are interpreted by most popular search engines today  and add value to the SEO JUICE  factor which is included in the SE (Search Engine)  SEA's (Search Engine Algorithms) and passed on to the linked pages from the specified profiles / fans pages

The greater the SEO JUICE factor of a page the better a linked to page scores within SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages / listings) and thus the closer to the top of the SERP's. Unfortunately Facebook Adds do not link directly to a website out side of the face book domain, so you need to ensure that the landing page of your advert within the Facebook domain contains at least one link, and preferably more to your sales pages within a domain that you control and can optimise for the search engines using the carried SEO JUICE to your best advantage.

The Facebook adds landing page needs great care when the basic SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is done as this SEO is extremely limited to the on page selection of keywords and  key word phrases as well as the in-page copy and any inbound links that you have generated from other domains to the Facebook landing page (The page your Facebook add refers to)

Facebook has their own internal linking structure and tools, which you need to understand and use as well by placing posts and fan pages within Facebook with carefully planned links, linking to the URL of your Facebook add. This very basic SMSEO ( Social Media Search Engine Optimisation) practice improves the value of the add within the Facebook SEA (Search Engine Algorithm)  and subsequently improves the quantity and quality of the SEO JUICE carried over to your pages from the Facebook add.

What this means is that you must use the Facebook adds to funnel your prospects from Facebook to your sales pages in your own domain, and use this strategy as part of your overall SEO strategy to improve your SERP's (Search Engine Results Page Listings) within Search engines to catch all searchers looking for your product / service / information thus improving your overall marketing and ROI (Return On Investment) of your total marketing budget.

face book sponsored results
integrate Social Media and SEO


REMEMBER THAT ALL YOUR MARKETING EFFORTS NEED TO BE CO-ORDINATED AND INTEGRATED HOLISTICALLY

SEO (SEARCH ENGINE |OPTIMISATION , SOCIAL MEDIA, BLOGS AND FORUMS ALL FORM PART OF MARKETING AND NEED TO BE INTEGRATED INTO THE COMPANY MARKETING STRATEGY CAREFULLY, EXCLUDING ONE OR GIVING ONE MORE VALUE THAN THE OTHERS IS VERY SHORT SITED.

SEO and what it really means

 SEO - Search Engine Optimisation - has changed over the years, and some how the meaning of the term SEO has been lost. SEO could be described as discussed in the post Search engine optimisation and your social media marketing strategies: SEO and what it really means  where I use this definition of SEO to try and get people into the right frame of mind when discussing SEO

A definition of SEO : The techniques and methods used in generating good copy written with the intended target market in mind and the related subsequent online promotion of the copy once it is placed within the desired platform so as to ensure good SERP's (Search Engine Results Positions) within that specific platform. 

SEO involves the whole marketing team, as well as every other aspect of the company and should adopt an integrated approach when properly done. The most important part of any SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) effort is to ensure that the target market is clearly defined, because all subsequent efforts are really in place to ensure that this specific target market finds the material concerned and actually clicks on the link provided by the search provider.

This means that the SEO technician needs to be consulted / instructed with the desired end result in mind, with a clear road map showing all the target market groups  and the associated   marketing strategies which include but is not limited to:

• all social media platforms including but not limited to :
• facebook
• twitter
• pinterest
• news platforms and forums
• all blogs and associated news letters (online or offline)
• any other online marketing associated with the project at hand
•  all related marketing avenues

The related subsequent online promotion is the big issue as it involves the  generation of quality back-links and these should come from as wide a variety of sources as is possible and include the above listed sources. This means that

• the company blogger
• the different social media platform managers
• the company media consultant
• the company publicist
• the marketing manager 
• other affected departments within the company

All need to be part of the SEO team and each needs to supply the SEO technical team with reports detailing their online activities showing how, and where they place links  to the company web site. These reports need to be analyzed and followed up with feed back, specifying words to be used in copy as well as specific pages with associated links that should be used within their subsequent online promotion of the desired pages within the company website through the medium that they use.

That means that

• the Facebook team must discuss and link to specified landing pages
• the twitter team must tweet specifeid words with links to these same landing pages
• the pinterest team must pin images from these specified landing pages and add comments with specified keywords
• Linked in team must discuss specified product / service and link to specified landing pages
• G+ team must follow similar guidlines
• Company blogs must follow similar guidelines and link to specified landing pages

 These actions need to be integrated and each team should ensure cross referencing is done in an organised and structured manner with each platform referring to all other platforms with the prime focus placed on the call to action pages in the company website where sales will be the main focus.

 I recently watched this video about how to convince the top management to spend money on social media marketing, and was quite shocked, because it highlighted an important issue for me. this issue is that SEO is not understood by marketing people, as it is perceived to be separate from marketing!!!!!

SEO is the prime marketing tool that will ensure your online efforts - be they in the social media, on blogs, in news casts or web pages - are found by your intended target market. once again an overview of what SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is

A definition of SEO : The techniques and methods used in generating good copy written with the intended target market in mind and the related subsequent online promotion of the copy once it is placed within the desired platform so as to ensure good SERP's (Search Engine Results Positions) within that specific platform. 

Search Engine Optimisation and social media issues

Just a quick comment about a page you need to review

check here to read more about this topic (Search Engine Optimisation) by Adam Sherk
Interesting reading...
The social signals generated by the Social media websites are being incorporated into organic search results and having a very positive impact on the total site score of your web site. If you are neglecting the social media efforts in your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) you are planning to be at the bottom of the SERP's (Search Engine results Pages)

Search Engine Optimisation and social media marketing

The YouTube play list below contains videos covering SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) issues, and the write up discusses SEO \(Search Engine Optimisation) and SMSEO   (Social Media Search Engine Optimisation) in general

Info4u offers Online cloud computing services, and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is an essential part of all online cloud systems that ensures the relevant target market finds the various information portals within your company or organisations online computing cloud.

The target market could be

• internal office staff
• different segments of your corporate intranet
• your customers
• your suppliers
• the general public

Each target market segment requires different approaches and different sets of information. How to ensure which set of viewers find which set of information is out of your hands, and in the realm of your Search provider, but you are in control of how you optimise  your page for the different search engines to evaluate your information.

SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is a delicate subject that requires a deeper understanding of many marketing concepts and starts with understanding your target market.

Next is to use selected key words in the web page copy, and ensure that these are used by your primary target market group.

The many SEA's (Search Engine Algorithms) use different techniques and procedures to score points for your selected keywords, so you need to have a very good understanding of what key words are, and how to construct sentences around these key words in a manner that is visually pleasing to your target audience, and also logical to SEA's  (Search Engine Algorithms)

Each video in this play list will add some understanding to the bigger picture, and each video should be viewed independently and analyzed separately first, taking into account the target market of the information provided in the video.

Adding META TAGS in the head section of any html page adds tremendous value to the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) value of the page, and many of the videos in this playlist will discuss these tags.

The META TAGS should how ever never be separated from the content of the page that the end users (viewers) see and read, and words not in the content should never be placed in the <HEAD> section willy nilly, as this may cause the SEE's (Search Engine Engineers) to view these words as SES (Search Engine Spam).

SEA's (Search Engine Algorithms) are closely guarded secrets of Search Engine Owners, and have many variables which are mentioned from time to time, and when you watch a video discussing any of these take careful note, and write this down so you never forget the particular variable, and its worth within the SEA (Search Engine Algorithm) 

Google professes to use in excess of 250 (two hundred and fifty) individual variables in their SEA (Search Engine Algorithm) which gives you an idea of the size of their logical equation used to evaluate your web pages and the words within your pages when deciding which page goes to the top of a SERP (Search Engine Results Page) list.

SMSEO (Social Media Search Engine Optimisation) is hardly ever discussed in any online forum, but is an essential part of ensuring the success of your social media marketing efforts.  Take note of the videos discussing your target market selection and the word selection criteria during key word selection.

 The first step in SMSEO is to use your selected key words and key word phrases in your social media marketing efforts.

The second vital step in SMSEO (Social Media Search Engine marketing)  is to ensure that your posts have inbound links from -:-

• your web sites
• your blogs
• your forums where you discuss the different aspects of your project, product or service
• Your other social media platforms

The third vital step SMSEO (Social Media Search Engine Optimisation is to ensure that your posts contain out bound links to  -:-

• your web sites
• your blogs
• your forums where you discuss the different aspects of your project, product or service
• Your other social media platforms

Following these three steps  is the best you will be able to do, as no social media platform allows you to edit the html code where your social media posts are displayed.

So watch these videos carefully and evaluate them with great care, and make adjustments to your web pages and social media posts with respect for what you have learnt from the videos in this play list.

For further info visit www.info4u.co.za or fill in the online form found here

SEO and what it really means

SEO or Search Engine optimisation is clearly a misunderstood concept, and this is very evident when you talk to marketers who use FB (Face Book) to promote their products or services.

The first question that needs to be cleared up and put on the table for discussion when dealing with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is who is your target market and how do you expect this group (your target market) to find your information, product or service on the Internet.

Next step is which platform do you expect your intended target market to use to locate your information.

• will they use a social media platform
• will they use a search engine like google, yahoo or another found here
• will they go directly to your page cause they found your link in the printed media
• will they go directly to your page cause they heard it on radio or saw it on TV
• will they access your page through a link found in their email

This is one of the most important steps in any SEO (Search Engine Optinisation) effort, if you fail to do this your are planning to ensure your pages get no (zero) visitors. Your copy (the words you use in your article or post) are chosen according to the platform as well as  your intended target market, with their language use and vocabulary base

You also need to remember that every social media platform (SMP) you use has its own built in search engine that uses an algorithm to supply you with the best matches in their data base for your search.

How these internal search engines allocate points or establish a ranking order for the matches within their system is a mystery, just as the algorithm used by Google, Yahoo and others is a mystery. But be sure there are methods and tricks to ensure your information is placed higher up in the SERP's (Search Engine Results Positions) than others.

In face book the number of likes (often called social signals) is a prime factor, and the more likes a specific post has received the higher up the author and related information gets in the SERP's (Search Engine Results Positions). Other factors in FB include but are not limited to

• the number of friends one has,  
• the number of common friends one has with the person who placed the article
• your likes of similar articles or posts
• the number of your listed friends who have liked the relevant post or article
• the total number of posts you have made
• the total number of external links to the relevant article and their positions within other search engines.

So how do you get likes in face book?  simple answer is write what the public want to hear about, and they will like your post. If that fails then you need to specifically request individuals to read your post and click like. The same applies to all other social media platforms, just likes are replaced by terms such as" PIN IT" in pinterest, follow or re-tweet in Twitter, +1 in Google Plus and similar in other SMP's (Social Media Platforms)

Facebook does look at links from other SMP's (Socaial Media Platforms) for their SERP's (Search Engine Results Positions), and so does twitter and pinterest, but what  the value of this is unclear as their algorithms are kept secret, just as in Google, Yahoo and others.

Bottom line is that good, well written copy, that is unique to your product, service or related information is essential to your viewers. All the search engines understand this, even the internal search engines within the many SMP's (social media platforms).

So a clear definition of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) would be

The techniques and methods used in generating good copy written with the intended target market in mind and the related subsequent online promotion of the copy once it is placed within the desired platform so as to ensure good SERP's (Search Engine Results Positions) within that specific platform.  

 The purpose of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is to ensure that your information is found by your intended target market when they use their preferred search engine on their preferred platform.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is not only for big business and big websites, and if you do not use basic SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) in your online marketing then your online marketing  will fail and you will have wasted your time and effort.

Once again SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) starts with defining your target market, and this should be the first step in any marketing campaign, thus by default your marketing strategy already includes the first steps of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) Once you have come to grips with this very elementary statement you will soon realise the value of basic SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and just how easy it is to perform the very minimum SEO which requires no technical skill at all.

The related subsequent online promotion of your posts on any social media platform are essential to ensuring better SERP's (Search Engine Results Positions) in all platforms. Web sites allow for more technical SEO techniques and methods than social media platforms (SMP's) and Web Site search engine optimisation (WSSEO) needs to be treated very differently to Social Media Search Engine Optimisation. (SMSEO)

 search for the term  #info4u2use in twitter for posts containing links to SEO and related posts by staff at Info4u.

List of search engines

list of search engines http://www.thesearchenginelist.com/

I hope this list of search engines helps you discover more stuff on the internet.

Reasons for social media integration!

I have been a bit busy with the issues around the IMPLEMENTATION OF THE IWPA (ISIMANGALISO WETLAND PARK AUTHORITY) IMP (INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT PLAN) AND RELATED PPP (PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PROCESS / PROCEDURE)

This issue is very problematic and full of political interference from many levels. There are many thorny issues that need to be discussed honestly in the public domain, which the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority are deliberately sidestepping. See this blog for details http://iwpappp.blogspot.com/

So lets get back on track and discuss the value of integrating your social media efforts with your other marketing efforts, keeping in mind how your prospective customers first find out about your products or services. If you operate in a closed community then you have no problems, as everybody will be aware of what your products / services are, what they cost and how to contact you for more info or adsvice.


If on the other hand your business relies on the public or a niche market, then you know that your customers / followers / clients first find your web page by using a search of some type. Most used Search system (called a search engine) is Google. others are improving and a list can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_search_engines 


Search engines are tricky things to master, and no search engine will volunteer their algorithm that they use to sort out the returned list of possible matches that you need to evaluate and choose from. So what should you as an owner of a web site, social media profile or blog do to ensure that your information is located by your  intended target market ?.


The answer is quite simply apply SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) techniques when creating your pages and writing your copy. I am sure you are thinking  "I don't know what that is!!!" but you are wrong, because you use many of these techniques already in you basic marketing plan any way.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) starts with defining your target market, and using words that your defined target market are familiar with when writing your copy. If you do this you are over half way there already. The next step is to ensure that your information has some inbound links, that is ensuring that other websites, blogs, social media pages or forums link to your information in some way. In Facebook clicking a like or share button does this automatically for you. So by loose definition, the more likes a post has in face book the more inbound links the post has. placing a link in Facebook to some remote page  (out side of the FaceBook domain) creates an out bound link in face book which is an inbound link at the remote page you referred to.


The search engines use this data and much more information that they collect about your information by using what they commonly call spiders that crawl the web, looking for webpages and collecting all types of data from the page and storing this data for the Search Engine algorithm to use according to the search engine engineers instructions. 

When you type a word or combination of words into the search box and press enter the search engine processes this request according to the instructions in their algorithm and displays a list of probable matches for you to choose from. 

So taking the above info into account and evaluating what needs to be done so people find your information you need to ensure that you have at least 2 but preferably more places where you discuss your business online, and link these together by cross referencing  your various online information portals.

example : you have a website, a facebook profile and a twitter profile.

step 1 is to create a fan page in FB and write about this fan page on your  wall and link to it on your wall.
step 2 write about your fan page on twitter and place a link to your fan page in your tweets


Step 3 write about your twitter profile on your facebook wall and place a link to your twitter profile on your face book wall.


Step 4 write about your face book profile in your website, and link your webiste to your FB profile with a FB badge 

step 5 write about your twitter profile in your website and place a link to your twitter profile with a twitter badge / banner


step 6 write about your fan page in your website and place a link to your fan page using a FB badge.


step 7 write about your web site in your face book pages, and refer back to your twitter posts.


step 8 repeat steps 2 to 7 on a regular basis, and keep adding extra pages to your website. ensure that each new page in your webiste gets a mention in your facebook effrots as well as in your tweets. keep mentioning your tweets and facebook posts in your web site and update regularly (at least once a week - preferably more often)


Step 9 get your friends and others to mention your info in their facebook pages
step 9 get others to retweet your tweets about your FB pages and your web pages.


step 10 regularly go over what you have done and check for errors that may have crept in. adjust and repeat steps 1 to 9. then repeat step 10 as often as is needed.


If you do this then you will have some success. once you have the hang of this you can expand and really improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) by using HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) in your website and in all your social media where you are allowed to. this will improve your SERP's (Search Engine Results Position / placements)  drastically


The value of integrating your social media profiles with your web site and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) efforts  will become evident as your online business picks up due to the organic listings generated in many search engines by your hard work and thoughtful use of your key words as used by your target audience.


before purchasing a domain name for your website, or when purchasing a new domain name to expand your online branding consult with at least 3 or 4 different SEO specialists and ask for branding advice related to domain name purchases. If the SEO specialist does not ask you to define your target market before discussing further, be weary as he / she still needs to learn a lot. The primary issue when doing SEO is to know the target market and their vocabulary and terminology used within the target market group.


When integrating your different online marketing segments remember to keep you intended target market in focus and write your copy accordingly. this will generate the most value for your efforts.

National Environmental Management: Integrated Coastal Management Act (No. 24 of 2008)

National Environmental Management: Integrated Coastal Management Act (No. 24 of 2008)

read this as back ground info and study material

Is FaceBook marketing successfull

Is marketing on faceBook worth your efforts?

Well the short answer is a very big MAYBE

Read this article   then come back and read further here

Well what does the success of your FaceBook marketing depend on?

the answer is simple, is your target market clearly defined, and have you used the correct product / service related terminology in your copy-writing?

The success of your FaceBook marketing  can further be boosted by doing some good old fashioned SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) in the back ground by supplementing your FaceBook stories with

• a twitter campaign with its own profile
• a blog or two with related posts
• a  website at its own domain that has 
• a facebook like button
• a tweet this button
• links to your related blogs
• been optimised for search engines
• making use of online forums and chat rooms
• active marketing profiles on other multi-media platforms

A multi-media campaign  with the following components will also help if you have the resources

• old fashioned flyers
• magazine adds
• newspaper adds
• radio adds
• TV adds

enjoy your multi-media and social media marketing, or else get specialist to do these things for you.

Econimic losses due to mismanagment in iSimangaliso Wetland Park

Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Park: Responsibilities of a World Heritage Site Resident...: To live in or adjacent to a World Heritage Site has certain responsibilities. Claiming you are living in a World Heritage Site...

For many years I battled to get support for the idea that St. Lucia was suffering great losses due to the mismanagement of the IWPWHS (iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage Site) by the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) and became consumed with this issue until I went bankrupt.

Many others followed this route to financial ruin, though most were a lot faster than me. The collapse of the Domestic tourism market along the Elephant Coast of KZN South Africa  is still denied by the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) and they are due for a wake up call following the incident where a hippo attacked a man in St.Luci recently read more here

This in incident will lead to many other issues being discussed, and hopefully in the right forums where the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) can be held accountable for their actions that preceded this attack. The hippos feeding grounds have been poisoned with DDT as a MALARIA retardant, sprayed to keep the number of mosquitoes down.

Fences have been erected without  due diligence of EIA (Environmental Impact Assessments) and no PPP (Public Participation Procedures)  have been done as is mandated by the NEMA (National Environmental Management Act) the ICMA (Integrated Coastal Management Act) and many other laws have been blatantly disregarded by the IWPA (iSimanagliso Wetland Park Authority)
The IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) has been making a mockery of the MSA (Municipal Systems Act) and deliberately not taken part in the local municipalities IDP (Integrated Development Plan), which has ensured that the public have never read

• the IWPA ICMP (Isimangaliso Wetland Park Authority Integrated Coastal Management plan)
• The IWPA IMP (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Integrated Management Plan)
• any studies associated with the IWPA MP's Isimangaliso Wetland Park Authorities Management Plans
• Public participation reports associated with these plans.
• Zoning proposals and zoning schedules as specified in the Mtubatuba Municipality's LUMS  (Land Use Management Scheme)
• any other relevant planning documentation specified by a host of laws including the WHA (World Heritage Act)

This has lead to the central government believing, and then informing the world that tourism within the iSimangaliso wetland park is alive and doing well.  Any visitor (read domestic tourist) who has visited St. Lucia recently as well as 9in the past will inform you that this is a load of BS (in English - BULL SHIT)  as it is blatantly obvious with the change in the makeup of shops and tourism activities that this is not true.

Caravan parks and camp sites have closed up shop, Self catering facilities that catered for large groups have closed up shop and been converted to guest houses that cater for up market individuals, the arts and crafts market has disappeared into nothingness, and the total tourism figures for the area have been misrepresented by the IWPA (iSimanagliso Wetland Park Authority)  in ways that have deceived government officials.

True tourism figures are not available for the Elephant Coast, as they have not been done on purpose to hide the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authorities) blatant and purposeful mismanagement efforts. The domestic tourism market within the Greater St. Lucia area has collapsed with more than 20 -000 people losing their jobs according to a study done by KZN Tourism, but no action has been taken to remedy this matter. 

why? Well I believe this has been done in preparation for the mining of Lake St. Lucia and the surrounding coastal sand dunes along the Elephant Coast of KZN South Africa. The 4x4 ban was in my opinion implement to ensure that the collapse of the domestic tourim market along the Elephant Coast of KZN South Africa was realised, so that when mining is eventually offered as a job creation project to alleviate the local poverty there would be no opposition, as the tourism industry  would be non existent.

 recommended reading
 http://bit.ly/IWPA-tourism-report
http://bit.ly/IWPA-seed-report

Social media and advertising stuff from big brother

If you dont know who "BIG BROTHER" is then you are wasting your time reading this post.

BIG BROTHER  watches your every keystroke and follows each click of your mouse, when ever you give him and his many allies the opportunity. This is scary stuff for those who wish to hide or those that have privacy concerns.

I just read this post http://www.zdnet.com/quarantining-facebook-to-control-tracking-7000000228/  which reminded me of these very disturbing issues. But the big marketing firms are the main culprits, and not the governement (well not yet anyway)

Targeted advertising is getting better and better for those that have the resources to tap into the rich data mines that have evolved along with the social media growth. They know your every move, who your online friends are,  which chat rooms you visit, what you purchase online, who you purchased it from, how many searches you made about the product you purchased before you spent your hard earned cash, how many times you visited each online store, and what other items you looked at whilst browsing. SCARY STUFF but very true.

Each website you visit leaves a cookie on you computer, or the computer that you were using. when you login to a site from a different computer the site notes this and leaves an indicator within the cookie that you use different computers, so that the owners know that they need to treat your data slightly different to that fella who uses one access point only.

for those that do serious SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) these data mines are an interesting pool of information about how the end user interacts with your pages, and what tools to use to ensure your SEO  is treated as you would like it to be by the search engines and their marketing friends who are associated with BIG BROTHER.

Remember that you "SMART PHONE" is a computer too, and also keeps cookies in its memory bank. these cookies are vitally important for your security at any site, and deleting them places you in danger of having your info attacked by hackers. so be aware of what these cookies do before you just delete them from you computer. But getting your browser to remove them is also a security risk. What to do? 

Only do online banking from your own devices, never use a shared computer for any financial transactions of any nature. It is very risky to do so!!

always log out / off from any site that requires a pass word to enter

never allow your device to remember your pass word, if others get access they have access to all your remembered passwords.

When using Faceook, Twitter, Linkedin or other social media  you are bombarded with ADVERTISING FROM all sides and many different angles. take time and notice what these adds are for and be surprised at how accurate the marketing companies are getting with their offers.

Something about title tags and their value

Title tags are used in many places not just in the <HEAD> section of your page.


So what is the value of a title tag and why should it be used ? Read more and discover some truths that will help you understand who has trust in walking fish with demonstration placards