Like so many other small businesses there is no money for development or marketing at the moment.

Her business relies on clients signing up for her paid seminars, on her website.

In a nutshell, the site needs qualified traffic to convert to the goal of an application for her seminars.

So where is the site in Google? Despite the small niche’s name being in the domain name it does not rank on the 1st page in the SERPS. It is in fact on page two.

Some PPC advertising is happening to ensure the site has 1st page presence. There does not seem to be any competition keeping the click price down.

Why is it not ranking on the first page?

There is a lot of content and lots of links to subsequent pages which is great. (10/10)

The title tags for each of the pages are unique although the home page does not include the niche’s main keyword.

The meta description tag is the same for all pages and needs to be unique.

Interestingly the site is in DMOZ and its description in the SERPS is being pulled from this entry. Again more emphasis on the main keyword is required here.

There are very few other links to the homepage suggesting a link building campaign is required.

There may well be some duplicate content issues with the domain.tld and domain.tld/home showing the same content.

With a days consultancy and a link building campaign this site could easily rank on page one and probably in position three after one site and a wikipedia entry.

I know that the money is not there for a days consultanc, and to be honest the website owner is pretty tech savvy and in my mind is a great candidate for DIYSEO.

DIYSEO is a relatively new service that mentors the user in optimizing their site through bite size steps that they can do at their own pace.

They are currently offering a free trial for 7 days although £30 a month for SEO ongoing is not a bad price either.

Here is the link again:

DIYSEO – SEO for SMB – Get a 7 Day Free Trial Today!

So now we have got the traffic rolling in through our optimised site we need to concentrate on the conversion.

Conversion

One of the first things that struck me about the site was no obvious call to action.

As previously stated there is a lot of content on this site and the call to action is hidden within the navigation in text format.

If the end goal is to get an application from a visitor it should be the first thing they see.

I would replace the header image with a banner advertising the online seminar with a huge apply now button and emphasis on online so anyone reading considers themselves a prospect irrespective of where they live in the world.

The banner rather than the current ‘mailto link’ would go to a form with a simple request of an email address followed by another form for date choice and even payment in the future.

So why have a form?

A two stage form will allow you to capture the email address ensuring if the date choice and payment is not made you can follow up with a three stage email campaign. (More about that later)

Some development work is going to be needed here in order to program the form and store the data.

At least three different banners should be created and tested using Website Optimiser from Google. One should have some emphasis saying last few places available even if it is not true to promote a faster reaction to the call to action by the visitor.

Traffic is low to the site but considering the end goal never changes within months rather than days you should have a winner.

Using a service like Mail Chimp, email addresses that are captured but goals are not completed could be sent the following emails.

1. Thanks for your interest would you like some more information before booking.
2. Have not heard from you would you like me to call you to make the booking.
3. OK last ditch attempt – I have one place left that I can offer you for 10% off if you book today.

Usability

To understand how users interact with the site I would recommend having a go with Clicktale that records random sessions from users.

You see their mouse movements and clicks. It is not real time but easy to implement and view. You can learn an awful lot about your users in a short space of time.

Further Work

Further enhancements could be made by using information from Google Analytics such as which pages have the highest exit rates, see where drop off is using funnel visualisation.

Finally a PPC campaign here would allow the website to gather lots of keyword data and suggestions that could then be implemented into the natural SEO. That is another blog post!

So to summarise

1. DIYSEO
2. Banner creation witha strong call to action
3. A two stage form with the option to pay in the future.
4. A 3 stage email campaign on drop offs using Mail Chimp
5. View all of your hard work working using Clicktale
6. Get to grips with Google Analytics and set up funnels and goals
7. Think about a PPC strategy really soon.

Hopefully my findings will help the regular in the pub, and anyone else in the same situation.

If anyone has any comments or additions please feel free to leave them here.

If you need any help with your website please get in touch.

Rob Richman the companys founder felt that there was a gap in the market for computer training for absolute beginners.

Some people do not have the confidence to admit to a group of people in a class environment that they cannot use a computer.

ahelpinghand.co.uk combats this by providing the training on a 1-1 basis in that persons own home and more importantly on that persons own computer.

Now for the clever part. Rob at A Helping Hand understands that his end customers by definition are not going to find his website by searching in Google – they will after his training mind.

No, his new customers will come in the form of people redeeming gift vouchers they have received as gifts from loved ones wishing them to give them a boost in computer literacy.

For example. Lets suppose you are based in New York on secondment from Head office in London. Your mother who is based in London is missing the grandchildren since you moved six months ago.

How great would it be that Nana could read a bedtime story over Skype with full video and voice every Sunday evening before they go back to school the following week.

The trouble is she has never used a computer and whilst you could buy her one with all the necessary hardware, she would not know how to use it.

This is where ahelpinghand.co.uk comes in. You buy a voucher on their fully transactional website ahelpinghand.co.uk. Having paid using the well known and safe payment gateway Paypal your voucher will be mailed 1st class to your Mother.

Upon receipt she just has to give Rob or one of the other fully trained instructors at a helping hand to book her computer lesson at a time that suits her.

The lesson will aim to cover exactly what is needed by the client, in this case, internet setup, skype installed, webcam and speakers installed and tuition on how to use the software itself.

Before you know it your children will be chatting to Nana as if she is the room with them even though she is some 3000 miles away.

Amazing.

So rather than cheap flowers for mothers day gifts or Moonpig cards for Nana on Grandparents day (1st Sunday of the October) make sure you check out ahelpinghand.co.uk for the ultimate gift. The gift that will last a lifetime and allow loved ones to make full use of technology available today.

Weeks of development and copywriting have gone into their website and having installed Google analytics realise no one is seeing their new creation.

There are many things to ensure good ranking in the SERPS (Search Engine Result Pages.)

This post relates to just one aspect of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) – Link building.

The facts

• Links are important for good ranking
• Links believe it or not also bring traffic!!
• Links can have different weights
• You cannot distinguish between a paid link or a free link
• You do not necessarily need hundreds

Step 1

First you need to dig out your list of keywords and phrases you compiled when creating your website. If you do not have a list, you need one now. Make sure the key phrases you wish to rank for are in the copy of the website and titles of the page.

To clarify when I say titles I mean the content within the <title> tag.

Next, draw up a list of people who will link to you. This may be other websites you own. Linked In profiles, Facebook, The designer who made your website. Now if its possible you need to build anchor text.

e.g. a link to www.jonlloyd.co.uk should not look like www.jonlloyd.co.uk if you wish to rank for your key phrases.

The example above is made from the code below

<a href =”http://www.jonlloyd.co.uk”>www.jonlloyd.co.uk</a>

Ideally if one of your key phrases was Search Engine Optimisation the following would be better:

<a href =”http://www.jonlloyd.co.uk”>Search Engine Optimisation</a>

You would also link to the most relevant page on the site for that keyword rather than homepage. For extra points the keyword/phrase you used should be present in the title tag.

This method is not always available to you, for instance you may only be able to enter a URL in Facebook

You should repeat the above for all of your key phrases evenly but giving weight to more of your important ones. Only have one link to your site for one key phrase in these type of positions – Do not stuff.

Step 2

Make sure you are listed in Google Local Search for your business.

Google Local

Get a link from your local chamber of commerce.

List your site at the local library’s Website if possible

Submit your site to DMOZ

http://www.dmoz.org/add.html

If you can, add your site to Yahoo Directory. Currently it is $300 per year but it is a highly authorative (is this a word) link

https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/intro/

Step 3

Write a 200-500 word article for each key phrase you have on your list. The article should sell your services. It should include 3-4 links of your key phrase as anchor text to the correct page on your site.

Submit these articles to sites like

EzineArticles, GoArticles, iSnare, Digg

Step 4

Reciprocal links. Now you could argue that reciprocal linking does nothing for SEO as Google tends to give these links a very low score. However, they will give you traffic.

Reciprocal linking should be done with like minded websites ideally i.e. your competitors. What, I hear you cry no one would do that. Really, a wedding photographer in Scotland is highly unlikely to take a contract in Devon so why not have a reciprocal link arrangement.

Again keep thinking anchor text.

<a href =”www.weddingphotographer.co.uk”>Wedding Photography Devon</a>

Step 5

Ask and/or answer questions on Yahoo! Answers

http://answers.yahoo.com/

Set up a Squidoo Page to discuss new advancements in your field. Add links to expert web pages, along with a link back to your site.

www.squidoo.com

The above are just some ways to generate links to your site and ultimately increase your SERP ranking.

This list is by no means exhaustive and does reflect my thoughts and experiences in getting sites ranked well.

Maybe I will post a part two in the future.

If you cannot wait then by all means drop me a line and I will get your SEO back on track.

Feel free to add comments.

I have a VPN connection set up between home and the office via the routers and the Watchguard Firebox firewall.

All is well until I go away from home. There is no client for the Watchguard Firebox firewall that will work on the Mac.

What I need is a way to connect to my home network when away from home with my Mac which will then in turn allow me to connect to my office.

There are probably many solutions out there so I am not saying this is the right or only solution out there for my dilemma

Setting up the server

My Server is running Ubuntu 9.04 in desktop mode with a fixed IP address of 192.168.1.9.

Install openvpn

sudo apt-get install openvpn

Comment all lines in /etc/default/openvpn with # and add:

AUTOSTART="openvpn"

This line tells OpenVPN which configuration file it should use by default when starting. Configuration files are in /etc/openvpn and use the .conf extension so the setting above points to/etc/openvpn/openvpn.conf, a file that still does not exist and we will create later

The following will start, stop or restart OpenVPN as usual, let’s see:

Start OpenVPN:
/etc/init.d/openvpn start

Stop OpenVPN:
/etc/init.d/openvpn stop

Restart OpenVPN:
/etc/init.d/openvpn restart

Every time you change settings in /etc/openvpn/openvpn.conf you will need to restart OpenVPN.

Keys and certificates

Now we need to create security certificates and keys. We’ll do all this in the server as root:

sudo su

And add your password to get root access

cd /etc/openvpn/

Copy the directory easy-rsa to /etc/openvpn:

cp -r /usr/share/doc/openvpn/examples/easy-rsa/ .

Remember we’re still inside the /etc/openvpn directory. Now let’s edit the file vars with our favorite editor (replace vi with yours):

nano easy-rsa/2.0/vars

modify the below

export KEY_COUNTRY="UK"
export KEY_PROVINCE="SU"
export KEY_CITY="Birmingham"
export KEY_ORG="home"
export KEY_EMAIL="jon@example.com"

Save and quit.

Now run:

cd easy-rsa/2.0/
. ./vars

Important: that’s a period, a space and another period followed by /vars. This is a common confusion in many setups.

Now:

./clean-all

The next command creates your certificate authority (CA) using the parameters you just set, you should just add Common Name, I used OpenVPN-CA. For this step you’ll need OpenSSL; if you don’t have it in your server install it by running:

sudo apt-get install openssl

Ok, now we’re ready:

./build-ca

Now let’s create the keys, first the server:

./build-key-server server

This is important. When build-key-server asks for Common Name write server, the same parameter you provided to the command.

Also you’ll need to answer yes to these two questions: Sign the certificate? [y/n] and 1 out of 1 certificate requests certified, commit? [y/n].

Now the key for the client:

./build-key client1

Use client1 as Common Name, the same parameter you used above for build-key.
You can repeat this step if you want to have more clients, just replace the parameter with client2,client3, etc.
Now let’s create Diffie Hellman parameters:

./build-dh

There you are! Now you should have a new directory with your certificates and keys:/etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys. To configure your first client copy these files from servo to cliento:

ca.crt
client1.crt
client1.key

Ideally you should use a secure channel, I use scp with RSA authentication

Openvpn.conf for the server:

dev tun
proto tcp
port 1194
ca /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/2.0/keys/ca.crt
cert /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/2.0/keys/server.crt
key /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/2.0/keys/server.key
dh /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/2.0/keys/dh1024.pem
user nobody
group nogroup
server 10.8.77.0 255.255.255.0
persist-key
persist-tun
#status openvpn-status.log
#verb 3
client-to-client

Place this file in /etc/openvpn/

Now start openvpn by

/etc/init.d/openvpn start

Setting up the router

Just make sure that the port and protocol 1194 TCp in my case are forwarded to the server 192.168.1.9

Setting up tunnelblick

Download the dmg from http://code.google.com/p/tunnelblick/

Install as usual by dragging the icon to the applications folder.

When you run it for the first time it will add a black tunnel icon near your spotlight icon.

You will also need to enter your admin password as the client requires root access.

When clicking the tunnel you are presented with options. The defaults are fine.

Click on the details and you will see the OpenVPN log output.

Click the edit configuration

Openvpn.conf client content:

dev tun
client
proto tcp
remote 81.174.97.97 1194
resolv-retry infinite
nobind
user nobody
group nogroup
# Try to preserve some state across restarts.
persist-key
persist-tun
ca ca.crt
cert client1.crt
key client1.key
comp-lzo
# Set log file verbosity.
verb 3

Paste your client openvpn.conf copy in to the text editor and save.

Don’t worry it will overwrite despite the prompt.

It saves the file in user/Library/Application Support/Tunnelblick/Configurations

I placed the certificate and keys for the client in here as well. You can place them anywhere but you would need to change the client openvpn.conf accordingly.

Now press connect and you should see the verbose output suggesting a good connection

Test

If you ifconfig on the mac you should get an extra entry for tun0

Now ping 10.8.77.1 and you should get a reply from the server.

I can now vnc to this server and then vnc to from the server to any office computer on the subnet 192.168.40.0

Other things to consider could be username password authentication as well as the certificates in case the Mac is stolen.

I would now like to route traffic so that I can get to the 192.168.40.0 subnet without having to vnc to the openvpn server.