When starting a new business, or even in current businesses, software is a costly issue.  Everyone has become accustomed to the idea that you MUST buy Microsoft Office.  There are a few pretty good open source alternatives which don’t cost you a penny but your download bandwidth.  Open office is perhaps the biggest free rival out there – but there is no big brand behind it to help push it.

Now that Google has become the UK’s top consumer brand in July 2008, I feel it’s a perfect point to highlight that Google are not only a search engine, they also provide applications that are either free or ridiculously cheap for individuals or businesses.

Majority of the freelancers behind Gill & co all utilise the Google applications in one form or another so to kick off my introduction to Google applications for businesses, I will start with the application that I rely on the most.  Gmail for businesses – it allows me to use Gmail under my company domain name, so I can send emails out from info@gillandco.com or xyz@gillandco.com.  The emails are easy to setup and are all stored on Google’s servers, so it doesn’t matter where I am in the world, as long as I have an Internet connection, I can access my emails.

The second most used application I use is Google Docs, a Microsoft Word alternative that allows me to pretty much the same as I can in Microsoft Word but the major benefit is that all my documents are stored online, so I don’t have to worry about making sure my documents are the USB stick and packed in my case! When working on a project plan I tend to collaborate with others and Google Docs allows me to collaborate with other people and keeps track of versions – making sure no one overwrites each others work.

The third, and perhaps my favourite of the bunch, is Google Spreadsheet.  It is a Microsoft Excel alternative, again very similar set up as Google Documents and I pretty much use this to keep my financial records, again accessible anywhere with an internet connection, so I can always make sure I’m in the black.

Along with Google Documents, Google Spreadsheet is fully integrated into Gmail, so if a word document or an excel spreadsheet comes through on an email, Gmail automatically gives you an option to open it up in the respective application.

If you need advice or need Gill & Co to setup Google Applications for your business, please Contact Us.

A lot of clients, new and existing all ask for some form of SEO on a budget. With the nature of business, competition is high and usually the ones that reside in the top three on Google have the biggest spend on their Online Marketing. So now I advise my clients with the following budget seo tips to help them make an impact on their search engine listings.

1. Keyword Research, you know your business better than any marketing guru, you will already have an idea where and how people will find your business online. Utilise this knowledge and make sure your website is aimed towards these key phrases.
2. Content, this is perhaps the biggest impacting factor to help make a difference in your search listings and its free! If you create content that is of interest and of your field, it should engage enough click throughs and natural recognition, helping to lift you up in the search listings.
3. There are hundreds of thousand directories out there, such as DMOZ, Best of the Web, and a whole host of others, most are which are free (contact me for a list of free directories). If you spend a little time each week entering your information into 10 or more directories – they will surely help gain more hits and spread the word around about your website.
4. You most probably network your business at every opportunity, but many are clearly missing the networking opportunities online. This could be posting comments on websites that are within your market, or help out answer posts on a forum that your business specialises in. Make sure you create a signature on your forum listing your website details, or if posting a comment, remember to leave your link.
5. Another form of networking is exchanging links with your business partners (reciprocal linking). Discover which one of your partners or associates have a website and agree to exchange links, make sure that you have your keywords present in your link back to you.

Following these tips will help generate that much needed interest to your website from the search engines, now - to push further, assess how you convert that traffic into a lead for your business, is it as simple as it could be ?

Don’t be shy, evaluate how your competitors are doing it, see if you can’t take lead from them and improve on it.

AG

Normally - I’m not all too fussed about spam emails, black spider and outlook tend to take care of them perfectly at work. But, every now and again - I am scuppered by a spam email which completely fools me in the split seconds that it needs for me to read the email.

It came through as an out-of-office reply, how clever was that! It got passed the stringent wall of protection no problems - punting that they will be back tomorrow with new viagra deals - as they were out of the office for the day! I will keep you up to date in the blog with the new tactics spammers are using - if only they put their energy behind something more ethical.