The key thing to remember about linkbuilding is to make sure that you are seeking links from websites or pages that are relevant to your own. If your company is concerned with fashion, a link from a travel website will not be of any benefit to either party, as it will not be considered by Google, nor will it attract any relevant traffic. Though it can be tempting to take whatever links you can get wherever you can get them, there are some strategies that it is better not to consider. Reciprocal linking guarantees you a link but demands that you provide a link to another website and is a practice generally not approved of by search engines. Using link farms, while once acceptable, will now get you penalised by Google. Likewise, purchasing links is not a practice that is popular with search engines. Fortunately, if you make sure that you are always making relevant contributions, there are places in which you can build up your links without compromising your credibility with Google. These include:

• Article marketing and submitting press releases
• Posting on relevant forums
• Commenting on relevant blogs
• The use of social media , such as Facebook and Twitter
• The use of social bookmarking websites such as Del.icio.us and StumbleUpon
• Asking for a link from relevant websites

These can all be rather time-consuming, particularly posting on Forums, as most have a system in place designed to deter spammers, often a minimum post-count. Unless you meet that post-count by making relevant contributions, you will likely find yourself warned or banned before you can even post a link.

Equally, anyone who has attempted linkbuilding via email will tell you: you will be rejected on several occasions and ignored on many more. But sometimes, you will be given a link.

Whenever your linkbuilding is successful, there is always the possibility that the link you gain may be nofollow. In the case of Google, this does not mean that the link will not be followed, as the name suggests, but that the Google crawler has been instructed not to consider that link in terms of assigning PageRank . There is still a school of thought suggesting that a small amount of PageRank can be achieved with a nofollow link but as long as Google remains secretive about the full inner workings of their algorithm, it is impossible to know for certain. One thing that is certain, even if it does not help your search rankings in any way, a nofollow link is still one more route by which someone might arrive at your website.

If you would like help with your offsite optimisation , contact 4Ps Marketing for more information.

A few friends and I decided a couple of months ago that we would participate in the sponsored walk to raise money for the Charity.

Being a Kent girl at heart we signed up for the Folkestone Race for Life, Sunday 21^st June 2009. On the actual morning sky was a little overcast but stayed dry and everyone was in high spirits. We arrived at 10am for the optional warm up activities. It was quite a unique sight – a group of ladies of all ages, primarily dressed in pink (some in fancy dress) all waving their arms and legs in time with the music was quite impressive to save the least.

It was only when the race got underway you really got to appreciate the full sense of occasion. 3000 plus women walking, jogging and running all prompted by slightly different reasons but the same cause. On the way round we were alongside 3 Smurfs, several disco divas, a couple of fairies, mums, daughters and grannies. The spectators and Race Wardens were fantastic support clapping and cheering everyone on their way round.

Upon completing the race participants were presented with a Race for Life medal and goodie bag. Having raised £240 I left the event with a real sense of achievement; watch this space for the next challenge!

4Ps Marketing actively encourages employees to participate in charitable events & I would like to thank the team for all their support. As an agency we work on several SEO / PPC campaigns for charities / NGO’s & I find this work rewarding from a personal level.

That is exactly the situation one Lancashire Police Detective found himself in. Having created the blog "Night Jack – An English Detective" the author revealed insights into his working life and did not skip on political controversy.

The serving detective tried to keep the Times from revealing his true identity but the injunction was rejected with the judge stating blogging is "essentially a public rather than a private activity". The author has now been publicly revealed as Detective Constable Richard Horton.

Organisations have the tough task of managing their employees’ online activities so that they are not to the detriment of the company.

The blog which won an Orwell prize in April has now been deleted. Detective Constable Richard Horton has so far made no comment.

Blog’s are a very powerful marketing tool and 4Ps Marketing use them for varying reasons from SEO to PR but if you get it wrong it can go very wrong. Please contact 4Ps Marketing if you are interested in some expert advice on utilising blogs for SEO.

Graduating from Canterbury Christ Church University in 2003 with 2:1 in Marketing and Geography Emma  went on to work in the Leisure and Hospitality industry for 5 years managing PR and Marketing activity. Following a move to London area and appreciating the ever increasing importance of having an online presence with impact, Emma wanted to explore the online marketing arena.  Keen to work for an agency at the cutting edge of modern advances Emma approached the 4Ps Marketing Directors.

The 4Ps Marketing team is glad to have her on board and hope she enjoys working here.