The Apprentice 2014.......................

[rpguk]

I didn't get around to seeing the final yet but have been following it here. I can't believe they are actually going with the climbonline name! The .net wasn't even registered last week and I'm amazed they don't even have a holding page up somewhere to take email addresses. It seems such a waste of exposure.

For someone in digital marketing of all disciplines it's just astonishing.

Edited by rpguk on Tuesday 23 December 16:29

[Evangelion]

FourWheelDrift said:

GetCarter said:

SEO's make me laugh.. I get e mails from them every week asking for money, and not one of them yet have reached the google position I have for my website. I should probably help them, not vice versa.

Still, I booked Mark as winner from the start. Probably the best waste of £250. With AMS1 he'll stand a chance.

The only one you should consider using is the one that can get their own business at the top of a google search for SEO.

... which according to me is www.click.co.uk

And can anyone explain exactly HOW these people get you 'up the pecking order'?

[KTF]

Years ago, you used to put key words in the HTML at the top of the page that would be picked up by the search engines robots.

I imagine they do something similar.

From their site it appears to be done using a plugin:

click said:

<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin v1.5.3.3 - https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/ -->
<meta name="robots" content="noodp,noydir"/>
<meta name="description" content="Click Consult is a Digital Award Winning Search Engine Marketing Agency with a Focus on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) &amp; Paid Search (PPC) Let’s Work Together to Create Something Brilliant, Contact us Today"/>
<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.click.co.uk/" />
<link rel="publisher" href="https://plus.google.com/102472046014219425800/about"/>
<meta property="og:locale" content="en_US" />
<meta property="og:type" content="website" />
<meta property="og:title" content="Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) &amp; Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Agency" />
<meta property="og:description" content="Click Consult is a Digital Award Winning Search Engine Marketing Agency with a Focus on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) &amp; Paid Search (PPC) Let’s Work Together to Create Something Brilliant, Contact us Today" />
<meta property="og:url" content="http://www.click.co.uk/" />
<meta property="og:site_name" content="Click Consult" />
<meta property="articleublisher" content="https://www.facebook.com/ClickConsult" />
<meta property="fb:admins" content="100002522266847" />
<meta property="og:image" content="https://www.click.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/cc_og_logo.png" />
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/>
<meta name="twitter:site" content="@ClickConsultLtd"/>
<meta name="twitter:domain" content="Click Consult"/>
<meta name="twitter:creator" content="@ClickConsultLtd"/>
<meta name="msvalidate.01" content="41FC097AFD6E06774C838AC3D486664F" />
<meta name="google-site-verification" content="Ul6ibbZxLihWpOdgX3VAQFFspc28-D_oPGDmrqN0RPs" />
<!-- / Yoast WordPress SEO plugin. -->

https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/ = Free

Edited by KTF on Tuesday 23 December 16:50

[rpguk]

Evangelion said:

... which according to me is www.click.co.uk

And can anyone explain exactly HOW these people get you 'up the pecking order'?

Two ways, for the organic results or paid adverts.

For organic i.e Search Engine Optimisation -

Google* aims to rank sites based on relevance to your search and more recently 'you' (i,e your location, device and history). So the actual rankings are starting to vary from person to person and will only get more personalised.

How they rank the sites is a bit of a secret but you can roughly look at it as relevance of site to search time. They also give each webpage a ranking of importance which is kind of used as a multiplier and is based on how many links a site gets and the importance of those pages which link to it.

So to get to the top you need to have content which is relevant to the terms you expect people to search for and pages which are seen as important and get links in.

There are various 'tricks' used and what works or doesn't changes constantly. People pay for links to their site from already established sites, put keywords in page titles, links etc. Things which worked last year might get you blacklisted today as Google is constantly evolving the algorithm to thwart these tricks. It can take time for techniques to work and in short it's a market saturated with snakeoil salesmen and even if you find someone good past results are no indication of whether a company will be any good going forward.

Saying that a well structured site with well written, fresh and recent content won't do any harm.

The other way to get to the top is PPC or Pay per click adwords, this is where Google makes the bulk of it's money and those adverts at the top and side of results are auctioned off (they are also ranked by relevance, click through rate and some other stuff) but broadly speaking each click is going to cost anywhere from pennies to pounds depending on how much competition there is for the phrase. There is some skill in getting the best bang for your buck with these adverts.

I didn't see the final but I'd hope it's not just going to be another company cold calling me up with vague promises. If he's smart he'll be more broad on the 'digital marketing' front which really is well beyond just SEO/PPC now although his constant droning about getting you up the rankings suggests not.

• other search engines are available but for now no one really seems to care.

Edited by rpguk on Tuesday 23 December 17:14

[spikeyhead]

What really put me off Mark is that he spent almost as much time slagging off other ideas as he did emphasizing the positives of his own.

[The Moose]

GetCarter said:

Still, I booked Mark as winner from the start. Probably the best waste of £250. With AMS1 he'll stand a chance.

It won't have cost him anywhere near £250k. Using investment vehicles it'll cost him a good chunk less.

[GetCarter]

The Moose said:

GetCarter said:

Still, I booked Mark as winner from the start. Probably the best waste of £250. With AMS1 he'll stand a chance.

It won't have cost him anywhere near £250k. Using investment vehicles it'll cost him a good chunk less.

...and he'll make several million from the BBC prog. No wonder he wants to do year 11!

(Just before the BBC assassins turn up, it's sold worldwide, so makes all of us in UK PLC a big profit).

[Jasandjules]

GetCarter said:

...and he'll make several million from the BBC prog. No wonder he wants to do year 11!

I read somewhere that he can write a cheque to cash for over 100m, I don't think he does it for the money, but for the fame. Might be wrong though!

[Mastodon2]

His net worth is over 700 million, so 250K a year (which probably isn't even completely from his personal pocket) seems like a pittance for the ego stroking exercise he gets from it.

[Evangelion]

Precisely, he's such a conceited little st he can't stand for his ugly mush not to be on telly for a single moment.

[jammy_basturd]

You guys seem to be missing the obvious fact that you don't get that rich be frittering away £250k here and there.