Some of my clients’ website have been penalised by search engines because their website utilises black hat SEO. Unfortunately for many of my clients, they have no idea what is the SEO methodology used by their vendors.

This is sad, but true.

Very simply, PageRank is a score given to your website. This score dictates its overall popularity with its “friends” (websites). Do take note that even if you have a very high page rank (example say 7/10), it doesn’t mean you will be ranked highly. Although it will definitely help your ranking if you have a very high score. Let me give you an example. If ABC Restaurant and DEF Restaurant both have very optimised web content, however, if the former has a higher PageRank, he or she will definitely be rank above the sites that they are competing with. PageRank is very simply the foundation needed to build your ranking methodology.

So how do you improve your PageRank? Well, the easy answer is that you should get as many inbound links from other websites that are already on a high PageRank. However, saying is definitely easier than doing it. How do you convince your friends or even strangers to link to you? What about people from the same industry? How do you convince or con your competitors to link to you? Many spammers actually do alot of Link Farming. What it means is that they build thousands of website with little or duplicated content and then linking these sites to their own website. The truth is, it doesn’t work that way anymore. Getting lots of links from a website with PageRank of 0 will do you no good. Quantity does not equate to Quality in Google’s eyes. In fact, in the recent Panda upgrade, many link farmers website actually get penalised because of it. You can have a look at JCPenny for a recent example.

PageRank – Who invented PageRank?

PageRank is actually a mathematical concept named after Google founder Larry Page. Hence the name PageRank. PageRank takes into consideration a website’s inbound links and the quality of those links to determine its value. This is a simple concept that many more “popular” websites did not think of. That’s the reason why Google was able to overleapt competitors such as Alta Vista, Yahoo! and many other search engines.

How to get links from high PageRank sites?

To improve your website’s PageRank, you need to get these “votes” from other websites. You need these websites to link to you. There are actually 2 PageRank values. 1 is invisible to you, the other is visible. The Actual PageRank value is known only to Google and it is fiercely guarded. The Toolbar PageRank is an open value open to many plugins and browsers. In fact, a very popular Firefox plugin is the Google Toolbar which enables you to view the PageRank of every site you visit. For Search Engine Optimisers like us, this is a very important tool in our SEO efforts. As with search results, your PageRank differs every few months. So, don’t be surprise if you see your ranking on the SERPs rising and falling, fluctuating as time goes by.

Besides knowing the PageRank score, you also need to know the technicality of PageRank flows. Let’s imagine a website with a PageRank of 6/10. If that particular website has 3 outgoing links, in simple terms, it means each external link actually received a PageRank juice of 2. Of course, the mathematical concept behind the PageRank value is not so simple. Search Engine Optimisation values and factors actually number in the 200s. Every different page on your website also has a different PageRank. The page on your website that has the highest PageRank should naturally be your homepage since that is the page most users will link to.

Next, you have to know whether the link you have is actually flowing PageRank juice to you. Nowadays, many blogs and forums uses “nofollow” attribute link. Which mean to say the PageRank is not passed on to the site, even though there is a link. Google introduced this to combat spam as many Internet Marketers and Black Hat SEOers actually build many link farms to link to each other. Techniques include 1-way linking, 2-way linking, 3-ways linking and 4-ways linking (or multi linking).

If you would like to find out how you can utilise SEO efforts to improve your ranking on the Search Engines Results Page (SERPs), do send us a Request for Proposal.

#PrayforJapan !

Every year, tens of thousands of medical tourists come to Singapore to seek medical help. A good majority of these medical tourists are looking for affordable dental services. Even better if the dental clinic is located in the Orchard Road belt because they can easily sandwich a dental appointment in between their shopping experience.

If you are looking for an experienced dentist in Orchard Road, there are a few things to consider before making the decision.

1) The cost of the dental services

Depending on the actual dental service you require, it can range from $80 for a general tooth cleaning & polishing service to thousand of dollars for a top of the range dental implants treatment. The dental fees in the Orchard area are considerably higher than in the heartlands so do be prepared to pay more. Even though you’re paying more, the level of care you receive can be generally higher than the heartlands. Some dental clinics have massage chairs, free food & drinks, wi-fi services and even Playstations to keep you entertained!

2) Experience of the dental surgeon

Since you’re already paying that kind of money to engage a dental surgeon in the Orchard area, it makes sense to engage 1 that has years of experience. Source around. Do a search on Google and the local Internet Yellow Pages. Read comments and check out their Facebook & Twitter page. The more you know about the dentist, the more comfortable you are with letting the dentist fix your teeth.

3) The timeslots of your appointments

Preferably, you want to be able to enjoy your stay in Singapore, and at the same time go for your dental treatment. Try not to arrange for an appointment right after you’ve landed in Singapore. You do not want to rush to the clinic and do a hasty job. Similarly, do not arrange an appointment just before your flight.

Call or email the clinic way ahead and arrange for a comfortable schedule. Most dental clinics should be able to make provisions for you.

If you want to know more about finding an accredited dental surgeon, you may pop by the Singapore Dental Association website.

What has massive amount of users using these platforms have in line with marketing? Well, marketers too have gained a whole new range of channels to broastcast their messages. In fact, many smart marketers are using these channels to engage their customers, to answer their query on an instant basis and finally to use these platforms to drive up their sales opportunities.

Marketers aside, many Small-Medium-Enterprises (SME) bosses also realised that using and leveraging on these platforms can help them grow their business, at a very cost-effective price. SMEs can no longer afford to ignore social. Why? Simply because this is the channel where their customers are spending the most of their time online. Recent research from Nielsen also shows that internet users are spending their time on social media networks and blogs more than any other internet channel. In fact, close to 25% of their time spent online is spent on social networking activities.

Besides, it wouldn’t hurt if the process actually helps to drive more traffic from organic results of search engines. Results have shown that optimising your reach in these social networking platforms also helps in their Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategies.

Let’s look at the table below. The table below shows a typical user (US user) spending time on the internet in an hour. Not surprisingly, 22.6% of time spent is utilize on Social Networking portals. Search, even though it is used by everyone, only contributes about 3.5%. This is only natural because users search on Google & Yahoo to reach other websites. They don’t actually spend a lot of time on the search engines portal. In fact, companies like Google & Yahoo wants to bring you to where you want to go fast. They wouldn’t like if you hover around in their website for long amount of time.

Search engines such as Google & Bing are also realising the threat from social media. Google came up with Google Buzz but unfortunately could not generate the “buzz” they wanted. Bing on the other hand, instead of coming up with a new product, actually team up with Facebook to incorporate their data into the search engine results. There are increasing developmental plans in terms of social networking features for both Bing and Google.

Actually, very recently, both Google and Bing confirmed that they actually use social signals from Facebook and Twitter as relevancy indicators. This bodes well for users (we love to see what our friends recommend), for the search engine (giving better more qualified results) and also for the social networking sites (expanding their reach and brand value).

In fact, in terms of money spent improving their digital lead generation, besides search engine optimisation, following closely behind is social media marketing. Let’s take a look at what some marketers in a recent MarketingSherpa survey has got planned for their 2011 marketing budget.

Website Design company in Singapore

“If we are not leveraging on digital we are missing out on a segment of consumers who could be our potential customers.”

Rolls-Royce, a luxurious car manufacturer has taken to digital marketing for its 102EX, a one-off, fully electric powered Phantom, in what may be considered a departure from the company’s largely conventional mode of marketing.

Rolls-Royce has always pride itself on its selection of high premium advertising platforms targeting at the super affluent. This change in its marketing initiative may well be a winner due to the way the advertising campaign is structured.

More on the Phantom…

Phantom debuts at the Geneva Motor Show on 1 March 2011 and will serve as a working test bed for a global tour that takes place in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North America.

In preparation for the debut, Rolls-Royce will also launch the website www.electricluxury.com this week, a portal to fuel a wider global debate seeking views on the question of electric luxury from media, VIPs and stakeholders. The site will also deliver regular updates of the car’s progress while on tour.
Other platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube are also being leveraged by the brand in a bid to garner feedback.

When asked if digital marketing component marks a permanent shift from its traditional approach to a more integrated one with digital being a key component, CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös (pictured) said: “I think so. If we are not leveraging on digital we are missing out on a segment of consumers who could be our potential customers.”

Picture Source: http://www.extravaganzi.com

With 102EX the company hopes to carefully test the opinions and reactions to alternative drive-train options of a range of stakeholders including owners, enthusiasts, members of the public and the media.

“With this vehicle, we begin an exploration into alternative drive-trains, seeking clarity on which alternative technologies may be suitable to drive Rolls-Royce motor cars of the future,” said Müller-Ötvös.

iClick Media

After cutting about 700 employees last December, Yahoo! announced it will further lay off 1% of its global workforce, which is estimated at about 130 people.

For Google, however, it wrote in an official blog post that 2011 will be “the biggest hiring year in company history”, surpassing 2007 when it added 6,000 people to Google worldwide.

In the Japan and Asia Pacific region, Google is planning to hire over 500 people.

Alan Eustace, SVP engineering and research of Google, said many of the company’s big bets, including on mobile and display advertising, have started to pay off.

According to Google, display advertising has been a main driver in 2010 and of its China business, with the largest advertisers increasing their spending by 75%.

For Asia, Google said it would continue to act as an export gateway, allowing Asian businesses of all sizes to connect with new international clients via export tools such as AdWords and AdSense. – Marketing Magazine

Pain is your body’s way of telling you that something isn’t quite right. More often than not, you have some idea of what’s behind it. But when it comes on suddenly, lingers longer than usual, or just seems different, it calls for medical attention–and the sooner, the better. According to our experts, all of the following pain conditions should be considered red flags

1. Chest pain
“If patients were to become well versed in what I think of as the subtle language of the heart, many could avoid needless worry and expense,” notes Arthur Agatston, MD, a preventive cardiologist. “Studies have found that women experience a wider range of heart attack symptoms than men do.” In Agatston’s experience, there are three good indicators that something isn’t right, and they can occur in either gender. They are chest pain that doesn’t go away, varied shortness of breath, and any upper body pain that hasn’t occurred before. If you experience any of these symptoms, he says, you should call your doctor or 911 immediately.

28 days to a healthier heart

2. Severe head pain
Chances are, it’s a migraine. But if it isn’t accompanied by other migraine symptoms (such as a visual aura), sudden, severe head pain can signal a brain aneurysm. “A burst aneurysm can cause brain damage within minutes, so you need to call 911 immediately,” advises Elsa-Grace Giardina, MD, a cardiologist and director of the Center for Women’s Health at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.

Experiencing headaches on the weekends? Find out what your body is telling you.

3. A throbbing tooth
It’s likely that the tooth’s nerve has become damaged, probably because the surrounding pearly white enamel is cracked or rotting away. Unless you get it patched up quickly, bacteria in your mouth can invade the nerve. And you definitely don’t want that breeding colony to spread throughout your body, says Kimberly Harms, DDS, a dentist outside St. Paul, Minnesota. If your tooth is already infected, you’ll require a root canal, in which the tooth’s bacteria-laden pulp is removed and replaced with plastic caulking material.

Dental Toothache

4. Sharp pain in your side
You may just need some Beano. But if you feel as if you’re being skewered in your right side, and you’re also nauseated and running a fever, you could have appendicitis. For women, another possibility is an ovarian cyst. Typically these fluid-filled sacs are harmless and disappear on their own. But if one twists or ruptures, it can cause terrible pain.

In both cases, you’re looking at emergency surgery. “If you don’t remove an inflamed appendix, it can burst,” says Lin Chang, MD, a gastroenterologist and co-director of the Center for Neurovisceral Sciences and Women’s Health at UCLA. A twisted cyst also needs to be removed right away, as it can block blood flow to the ovary within hours.

5. Abdominal discomfort with gas or bloating
For the past month, you’ve felt gassy and bloated more days than not, and it takes fewer slices of pizza to fill you up than it once did. If the symptoms are new, the worst-case scenario is ovarian cancer. In 2007, the Gynecologic Cancer Foundation released the first national consensus on early symptoms of this form of cancer: bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, and difficulty eating. If you start experiencing them almost daily for more than two or three weeks, consider it a red flag. Schedule an appointment with your ob-gyn to discuss your symptoms.

The 20 biggest health excuses that hold you back

6. Back pain with tingling toes
If you’ve just helped your cousin move into her new fourth-floor apartment, anti-inflammatories should banish the pain. But if they don’t work, hobble to an orthopedist. “One of your discs (the spongy rings that cushion the bones in your spine) could be pressing on the spinal nerve,” says Letha Griffin, MD, an orthopedist and sports medicine specialist in Atlanta. Without proper attention, you risk permanent nerve damage.

7. Leg pain with swelling
Your calf is extremely tender in one location, noticeably swollen, and red or warm to the touch. You might have deep-vein thrombosis (DVT), commonly known as a blood clot. Resist the urge to massage the area or to try walking off the pain. If the clot breaks free, it can travel through your veins up to your lungs and cut off your oxygen supply. Instead, see your doctor right away. He or she will do a CT scan or ultrasound to check for a DVT. If that’s what you have, you’ll need to take blood thinners–sometimes for up to a year–to dissolve it, says Suzanne Steinbaum, MD, director of women and heart disease for the Heart and Vascular Institute at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

Dental Clinic in Singapore

Mr Lee Kuan Yew said in a new book to be launched today that the day would come when voters ‘get tired of a stable government and say let’s try the opposition’.

PAP Lee Kuan Yew

‘There will come a time when eventually the public will say, look, let’s try the other side, either because the PAP has declined in quality or the opposition has put up a team which is equal to the PAP and they say, let’s try the other side. That day will come.’

He referred to the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party, which held power from 1955 to 2009, with an 11-month interruption from 1993 to 1994, and said its downfall was partly because it ‘carried on with old ideas’.

He added: ‘No system lasts forever, that’s for sure. In the next 10 years to 20 years, I don’t think it’ll happen. Beyond that, I cannot tell. Will we always be able to get the most dedicated and the most capable, with integrity to devote their lives to this? I hope so, but forever, I don’t know.’

Mr Lee, who was party leader until 1992 and now remains on its central executive committee, made these candid comments in a series of interviews with a team of Straits Times journalists. The interviews are published in a new book, Lee Kuan Yew: Hard Truths To Keep Singapore Going, to be launched today at St Regis Singapore.