A thin page, or rather, thin content is lacking in usefulness.
(Had I stopped there, that would have been a great example of thin content)
What makes content thin?
There are 5 factors I believe to indicate content is lacking in usefulness. Or being useless, if weren’t minding my manners.

1. Duplication

Duplicate content can take many forms: Internal, cross-domain, [...]

After reading that heading, your response might have been “is SEO really that random?!”.
But read on, and I’ll show you there’s a connection. And more importantly it’s a connection that creates sales.
Let’s start with a story about pool tables.
I want a pool table in my house. Have done for a while now. So I began [...]

I was at the B2B awards last week and was a little disappointed in the quality of the work. Having seen the winners and read through the work, there did seem to be a few interesting stories, but the outcome of the quality didn’t live up to it in general. Of course there was some [...]

QR code usage is on the rise, with the most recent stats showing over 14 million Americans scanned a QR code this June alone.

Free smartphone QR apps combined with the curiosity of not always knowing what lies behind the code is helping to increase the number of views. To continue this trend we will need [...]

It seems to be every day right now that I stumble across a creative marketing campaign which is even better than the last. Today alone I saw the following and each became ‘my new favourite initiative’:
 
http://t.co/7ad610i
http://bit.ly/iLF08b?r=td (remember Tipex last year?!)
producten.hema.nl
 
But what place do these campaigns have in B2B marketing? To what extent will a good creative campaign alone [...]

I get what Lisa is saying. All we need to do is look back at the barclay card flume tv campaign which everyone raved on about. But other than it was for barclay card nobody really took away that it was actually about contactless payment methods. Great ad, great tune, beautifully done but the main [...]

we all know in our heart of hearts that without creativity our lives would be a lot less exciting. So get behind me, vote with your heart and vote creative.

My first blog – and it’s on the “boring” world of data.  Bet you didn’t know you could liken data to the glittering world of the movies?
Concept – your data.  A whole world awaits.  You need the structure of a sound database, the right analysis tools to get to the numbers and accessibility for all.  [...]

I recently spoke at the B2B marketing seminar on advances in Social Media.
We talked about new uses, including crowd sourcing information like LinkedIn Answers and Quora. I also looked in to the changes of skills a modern marketeer needs, a very different job spec since I started over 10 years ago!
To find out more we [...]

Yesterday, I wrote about how every now and then Google gives a bit of a clue about what it looks for in a website.
And today, I shall continue the theme.
Here’s the the ‘clues’ from Google’s small business blog, I’ll evaluate from an SEO perspective.

Pass the 8 second test.
A visitor should understand the purpose of your [...]

Over the last few posts, I’ve been talking more and more about site quality. This is because Google’s Panda update has made it even more important to produce a quality site/content/user experience.
But what does ‘quality’ mean?
As Google’s algorithm is top-secret, we can only look for indicators of what Google think makes a ‘quality’ site. And [...]

One of the simplest SEO fixes can also have the quickest return on effort.
“So what is it?”, I hear you ask.
Fix Your 404 Pages
404 pages are what happens when your page can’t be found.
The first thing to remember is having 404 pages is ok. Nothing disasterous is going to happen: The internet is constantly evolving [...]

Apple have recently come under fire for appearing to track the location of iPhones, leading to valid privacy issues being raised. They assure us that any data gathered is purely for the benefit of speeding up apps that require location data in order to function, reducing this time from minutes to seconds.

The number of [...]

This question was causing quite a bit of contention in one of the SEO focused LinkedIn groups I belong to: What is the most important aspect of an SEO campaign?
Some people thought it was all about the url.
Some people thought it was all about the META TITLE.
And one person was even brave enough to suggest [...]

Google’s latest algorthim update has now been rolled out to the indexes outside of the US.
And lots of sites have been affected. About 12% of US searches were affected, which gives you an indication of the reach of this update.
But how do you optimise for Panda?
I think the key take-away is to concentrate on quality.

Produce [...]

An interesting question was raised in Google Webmaster videos last week.
“How does a non-seo’d site appear above an seo’d one in the search results?”
Matt Cutts, of course, provides a very suitable answer.
My answer would have been a little different…
“You can do all the SEO’ing in the world, but ultimately, you need to have [...]

Matt Cutts on SEO Strategy
If you’ve not already seen this video, I’d recommend investing a couple of minutes.
Matt talks about the 3 things he’d concentrate on this year if he were an SEO.
To summarise, they are:
1. Improve your site speed. Faster loading pages encourage users to browse, interact and purchase more
2. Standardise your internal SEO. [...]

I thought I’d spend some time getting back to basics.
After all, without them even the most well-intentioned SEO campaign will fail.
So, what are the three things:
1. Keywords
2. Content
3. Links
Keywords
Essentially Google is trying to serve people results based on the language they use when searching. SEO types call them ‘keywords’, people call them ‘words’.
Yes, Google is [...]

Less than 500 days to go until London 2012. We’ve been working with Cisco, one of the Olympic Partners to create their digital comms -
www.cisco.co.uk/london2012
Also, join the BT and Cisco LinkedIn Group – Business Ready 2012 -
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=2514628

I was speaking at a B2B seminar last week on social media.
One of the things I covered was the importance of building a team of people to look after a brands social media content. From research, analsis, content planning, writing, responding to conversations and being reactive to other conversations, this is more than a job [...]

If received wisdom says there is nothing new under the sun how can you portray yourself or your brand as original?  Effective TL marketing is based as much on your organisation’s competence as it is on industry insight – the combination of these two elements is what creates a unique and potent angle for your [...]

At least you think you do. But do you realise…….
You need to be telling your audience something they don’t already know, rather than recycling other people’s ideas
You need to become “vertically famous” – effectively being ‘ King of your own Mole Hill’,  known by all in that industry, sector or specialist discipline
You need to [...]

When considering your audience and what content to create, it is important to recognise that your target audience are likely to be at different stages of the buying cycle.  Make sure you cater for all, including thought leadership to help build interest, educational content to assist lead generation, case studies to support sales, and social media [...]

Last year, Morgan Stanley did some analysis and in 5 years, mobile internet use will overtake fixed internet use.
http://gigaom.com/2010/04/12/mary-meeker-mobile-internet-will-soon-overtake-fixed-internet/
Obviously, this affects how and where people will be searching for you.
Is your website geared up for mobile users? And is your business starting to think mobile?

Microsoft has launched its largest-ever ad campaign targeting businesses, touting “Cloud Power” and its benefits over traditional server-based computing. The ads, which include TV, Internet, print, and outdoor ads, feature the line “cloud power” and brings the terminology into the mainstream, with actors portraying different types of customers and offering various takes on what products like Windows [...]

Most of Google’s algorithm changes are more like tweaks that the average user won’t even notice.
But they’ve said they’re working on an algorithm change that will affect 11.8% of the billions of queries they handle. And that means your site is probably going to be affected.
The update will down-grade the sites that ‘are low value [...]

When they take their customers for granted.  Walk down any high st these days and there will be at least two empty shops which had housed big High St brands – yes, we are either in or just coming though one of the worst recessions for 30+ years but the brands that have sustained their [...]

Here’s Google talking about an update to Social Search. I think it’s a clear sign that Google are more and more starting to use people’s social graphs to serve search results.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/update-to-google-social-search.html
What do you think? Is this a good or bad thing?

Valentine’s Day is here and it has been a hive of activity at the dnx offices as cards and flowers are delivered from secret admirers and loved ones. Yes, it is a bit of fun and everyone has had a giggle but we mustn’t forget that it was only last week we were complaining about the [...]

…they also need a big helping hand to align them and the right programmes and incentives to get them on board.
Cisco seem to be ahead of the other big traditional vendors when it comes to creating a profitable and meaningful cloud opportunity for their channel partners across the board. They have just announced the launch of [...]

It isn’t glamorous, nor is it as ’sexy’ as some of the fantastic awareness campaigns you see out there today, but if you get it right lead generation is still an incredibly effective marketing technique. When you say ‘lead generation’ to most marketeers they instantly associate this with somebody making cold call after cold call, desperately hoping [...]

With the gaudy images from TV series “my big fat gypsy wedding” still flashing bright in our minds there is another big marriage on the horizon; cloud computing and mobility! Mobile devices will become the primary means of accessing a company’s cloud applications – just as they’ve now become the the most common means of accessing [...]

Content doesn’t always have to be whitepapers, or executive summaries, or text based documents.  Think about what the audience is going to find intersting to look at, what would make you pay attention, make your content stand out!  Why not consider something like Kinetic Type?  This is an animation style, which essentially uses animated words [...]

Word Lens does. It is an augmented reality app, and quite a clever one too. It is a translation tool, but one that is quite different from the likes of Google Translate.
Forget typing anything. Point your iPhone camera at some foreign text (Spanish is the only language currently available), and the image on the screen [...]

According to research from distributor Computerlinks, 22 per cent of UK end users are already using cloud with a further 38 per cent actively evaluating its benefits. However less than half of all UK resellers are currently providing these services…

http://www.pamorama.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/CMO-guide-social-landscape.pdf
Obviously, I was most interested in the SEO column but you might find one of the others more interesting.

iPad 2. Will it also make the tea?
There are a lot of rumours circulating regarding the latest version of Apple’s iPad. Will it have a super-hi-res screen? Will it allow video-calling? Will it be ridiculously thin while maintaining a decent battery life?… Will you buy one?
One rumour suggests Apple may preview the new iPad 2 [...]

What’s in store for 2011 for us web designers? The first thing to consider is the huge array of devices that content can be viewed on. The screen size of the user’s PC used to be the only consideration (oh, how I miss the simplicity of those days sometimes!), but now we also have tablets, [...]

If ever a brand has stayed true to its heritage over the years it’s this one – how does it pull it off? is it strong ownership and leadership, or  clear and distinct brand differentiators that have allowed inspired marketing teams over that years to produce  advertising that appeals to the consumer on so many [...]

Talk about animated graphics on the web, and most people will assume you mean Flash. It’s true that the vast majority of animation on the web is Flash-based, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Indeed, if you want your content to be viewable on an iOS device (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch), then it [...]

In a world where information is power, persuading people to reveal their identity is one of the toughest challenges around. When there are so many factors that enable people to remain anonymous, getting them to reveal themselves, and allow themselves to be added to your database, is almost the Holy Grail of marketing. 
If that can [...]

There is an interesting thought here:
http://www.idealaunch.com/blog/content/using-content-marketing-in-the-b2b-sales-cycle/
“A B2B client wants to feel like a client, not like a customer. What’s the difference? When you boil it down, a client is someone you build a lasting business relationship with, while a customer is someone you sell something to.”
It’s important to remember why you are doing Content [...]

Google have just launched in beta a Contextual Targeting Tool to make it easier to develop display advertising campaigns. Here’s a video to show you how it works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBYtfXzZl0c

Ryan Lawler has a great post up on gigaom.com where he talks about the video codec wars. For those of you not in the know, there are multiple video formats on the web, not all of which work in all browsers. Confused? You will be.
For a long time now Flash video has been the most [...]

Is this a sign that more of Google’s search results will reference a user’s social graph?
http://googlesmb.blogspot.com/2011/02/google-hotpot-now-on-googlecom-and.html

These are some really nice top 10 tips that are worth considering:

Ensure all content passes the “So What?” test
Create remarkable content, take chances, stand out
Speed and agility are factors
Personality is essential
Content should forge connections
Worry less about perfection, more about tone
Make content scanable (and attractive)
Draft sticky headlines
Consistency and quality
Realise promotion can’t help bad content

http://www.toprankblog.com/2010/01/content-marketing-success/

If you’re using Facebook to promote to or engage with your customers, Newsfeed Optimisation (getting your Fan Page in people’s newsfeeds) is something you should consider.
EdgeRank, What Is It?
EdgeRank is how Facebook determines what appears in your news feed. The higher your object’s EdgeRank, the better chance it has.
How Is EdgeRank Calculated?
Here’s how Facebook calculates [...]

Whether it’s caused by planned maintenance, server issues or something nasty, at some point your site will go down.
And you can bet at the very moment your site is looking its worst, Googlebot will come to visit.
So how do you prevent Google from thinking your site is an ‘under construction’ message or a bunch of [...]

48% of 18-34’s check Facebook as soon as they wake up – More depressing  facts here…

My boyfriend is forever telling me I’m high maintenance. And every single time I present back all the reasons why I’m really not and he himself is actually the difficult one. Whilst on the surface my personal life may seem like it has nothing to do with lead generation, if I told you that he [...]

Brand ambassadors – do they work?  Is their input and effect measureable?  Is the risk worth the reward?  When the world’s most admired female model is had up on assault or drug charges or a previous Sportsman of the Year caught in bed with someone other than his wife how do you calculate the real [...]

A great quick reference guide to the benefits of different social media channels – http://www.pamorama.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/CMO-guide-social-landscape.pdf

The term ‘thought leader’ was first coined in 1994 by Joel Kurtzman, editor-in-chief of the Booz, Allen & Hamilton magazine, Strategy & Business, for an entity that is recognised for having innovative ideas. According to commentators such as Elise Bauer, a distinguishing characteristic of a thought leader is “the recognition from the outside world that [...]

Latest reseach dismisses the myth that B2B lags behind their B2C counterparts when it comes to Social Media.
86% of B2B firms are using social, compared to 82% of B2C.
Read more: http://socialmediab2b.com/2010/08/b2b-social-media-statistics/#ixzz1DThXpXAg