Eight ways to optimise your website for search engines and people

By Ned Wells, 10th June 2013
 

On 15th May I spoke at IFSEC International, the largest event for the security industry. The exhibition took place in two of the massive halls at the NEC and I was invited there by Cicada client, the British Security Industry Association.

It was pretty huge: over 650 exhibitors from 100 countries and the BSIA had an impressive stand which included a conference room. In the event, only a handful of people attended my talk which was fine by me: the main aim was to get more experience of public speaking and I certainly got that.

 

BrightonSEO, from a creative designer’s perspective

By Nick Mason, 3rd May 2013
 

Nick Mason creates digital art and beautiful websites.

His creative work for Cicada includes the illustrations on the First Line Support homepage and the related the magazine advertising – of which this is an example.

We were delighted when he accepted an invitation from us to attend the BrightonSEO conference. And we were even happier when he wrote a thought provoking post for us about how his views on SEO had changed, as a result of going to the conference.

Enjoy!

 

Notes from the BrightonSEO charity and NGO roundtable

By Ned Wells, 17th April 2013
 

On Thursday 11th April, the day before the main BrightonSEO conference, I was lucky enough to host the charity and NGO roundtable discussion.

The talented Aisha Kellaway from BrightonSEO took the notes, and here they are for you to refer back to:

Download the notes from-brightonSEO-NGO-roundtable

 

From bread and butter to big and engaging: content counts at BrightonSEO 2013

By Caroline Mainprize, 16th April 2013
 

Content was king last week at BrightonSEO 2013, a massive one-day conference for the search industry, featuring 40 speakers in three different venues.

Never before has so much up-to-date technology been seen together with so many, er, retro hairstyles.

From the panel of ex-Google staffers, who urged delegates to “solve someone’s problem”, to Hannah Smith from Distilled, who said it was a case of “Go big or go home”, everyone was hammering home the importance of good quality content.

 

“Selling SEO” talk at OxonDigital

By Ned Wells, 4th April 2013
 

Well, I did it. Bit nerve-wracking standing up in front of 50-odd people to talk through a bunch of slides.

But I think it was well received and it was certainly good experience for me. Nothing like getting out of your comfort zone every now and then!

My talk was based on a guest post I did last year for SmartInsights, and you can check out the full presentation on SlideShare:

Thanks to Daniel Bianchini for organising the evening and to SEOptimise for sponsoring the bar.

 

Hosting the charity roundtable discussion at BrightonSEO

By Ned Wells, 2nd April 2013
 

BrightonSEO is fast approaching and I wanted to let you know that in addition to the little sponsorship package that we’re doing, we’re also hosting a roundtable event the day before.

Roundtable what?

OK so here’s what’s happening. The main conference takes place on Friday 12th April. The day before that, the organisers have put on two other things:

  • some training workshops, on topics such as advanced Google Analytics, advanced link building, local SEO, mobile SEO.
  • after the training workshops, a number of roundtables to allow people working in similar roles or similar interests, to meet, compare notes and generally chew the fat.

 

Cicada sponsors BrightonSEO again

By Ned Wells, 2nd March 2013
 

Cicada sponsors BrightonSEO again!We’re sponsoring the brilliant BrightonSEO conference again!

Coming up on April 12th, for the first time it’s running as a multi-track event.

Check out the agenda here.

Never heard of BrightonSEO? It’s the brainchild of Kelvin Newman from Brighton SEO agency SiteVisibility, who also runs the very good Internet Marketing Podcast.

 

My first guest post on OxonDigital

By Ned Wells, 8th February 2013
 

OxonDigital is a website and networking group set up by gifted local SEO professional Daniel Bianchini. I’ve been to a few of their networking events since he set it up in 2011, and have been impressed.

So when Dan asked if I’d be interested in contributing to the blog, I was happy to commit to a regular monthly post on a subject I feel I can write well about: Google Analytics.

 

Video short from SEOmoz: how to win at content marketing

By Ned Wells, 4th February 2013
 

Helpful video short by Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz, called “How to Win a Content Arms Race.” In his video, Rand acknowledges that the rate at which organisations are developing content is accelerating.

So the question he’s addressing is, how can you produce good quality, maybe even better quality, content that our competition, and keep doing it?

Check out the video here.

 

 

 

Great testimonial from a charity client

By Ned Wells, 6th December 2012
 

We’re delighted to have recently received this glowing testimonial from our charity client Marie Stopes International:

“Marie Stopes International has been working with Cicada Online since 2010 to maximise the commercial impact of our digital work globally. Most recently, Cicada provided extensive and ongoing support around the launch our new international website www.mariestopes.org, delivering significant improvements in our time-on-site and bounce-rate measures in the six months since launch.

More broadly, our work with Cicada has resulted in a boost in our websites’ Google rankings for the keywords we are seeking to achieve greater visibility for and a strengthening of our SEO performance.

At the London Summit on Family Planning in July, we worked with Cicada Online to develop a successful Google Ads campaign and social media monitoring plan around our coverage of the event. We were delighted with the results of this work which cemented Marie Stopes International’s leading role in digital activity around this high-profile international gathering.

Cicada Online continue to provide valuable strategic and tactical insights that help us ensure we get the most out of our online activity. And they have proven themselves to be flexible and quick to respond to our varied and changing needs as a rapidly growing provider of reproductive health, we would be happy to commend their services to other NGOs.”

 
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