We are very pleased to announce No Pork Pies will be working with Claims Direct on their Search Engine Optimisation campaign.

We will be working closely with Claims Direct’s Web and Paid Search agencies to maximise conversions from Natural Search and increase brand visibility for core search terms, such as No Win No Fee.

Winning the Claims Direct account from one of the largest search agencies demonstrates No Pork Pies’ abilities and ambition to work on some major brands.

We look forward to working with Claims Direct and demonstrating our abilities on this account.

I just got a great spam email that I thought I’d share as it’s a great example of why regional targetting is important!!

The email is ‘apparently’ from Patricia Hewitt MP, the labour MP, this is the first issue I had with it as it spells Labour ‘Labor’… err pretty sure a UK MP wouldn’t spell their own party name in American English!

It then goes on to say the following:

I got your contact info via your country’s national directory and intend
introducing a project concerning charity in your country and maybe
neighboring countries around you.

Again some American spelling but if I was trying to scam someone I’d atleast make an effort to find out what country they live in!

All in all it would have been a fairly good scam if the person executing it wasn’t a complete monkey!
Oh yeah and just to add to their stupidity they show their reply to email as: p.hewitt07@yahoo.com.hk – Go on spam away, you know you want too!

Full Email below:

Dear Friend,

GREETINGS FROM THE UK HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT

This might startle you a little as you might have seen or read about me but
really don’t know me in person. Well, I am Rt. Hon Patricia Hewitt MP. A
British politician and Labor Party Member of Parliament for Banking. I was
the first Minister for Children appointed in a newly created post with the
Department for Education and Skills and presently Minister of State in the
Department for culture, Media and Sport under Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II
of the United Kingdom.
I got your contact info via your country’s national directory and intend
introducing a project concerning charity in your country and maybe
neighboring countries around you.
A few months ago, I was compelled to make an over estimation during a budget
and set aside the sum of Six Million Three Hundred Thousand Great Britain
Pounds
(6, 300,000.00GBP) with the sole intention of channeling it all into charity
which I am delegating you to executed on my behalf with complete supervision
of my Attorney as he will also be the one in charge of securing these funds
into your custody.
This transaction will result to you being paid a commission of 11% of the
investment capital and the balance, distributed to charity organizations of
your choice or reinvested and the net income, used for rehabilitating
charity organization in and around your country through you/your agency
annually for the period of five years or a little more. The last time I
orchestrated this sort of Grant, the individual in Australia succeeded in
successfully setting up three standard orphanage homes in less than a year.
I have never been so proud of such a noble individual. I hope we would have
a reoccurrence in your case. If you are willing to execute this Humanitarian
Project, You must understand that I desire absolute confidentiality and
professionalism on this issue. For security reasons as regards my
reputation, I will not be able to communicate regularly with you; but my
Attorney will take up the processing on my behalf and get these funds
processed and released to you without any delay.

I don’t plan on benefiting anything from this project, but will be
absolutely fulfilled, if and only if you remain sincere to me on the
handling of this project with utmost sincerity and confidentiality; and
eventually utilize the funds for the purpose which I have explained to you
above. Kindly respond urgently if you are interested as the fund have been
tied down for too long, so I can equip you with the necessary details, along
side my
Attorney’s contact information, so as to commence the transaction
properly; on the other hand, if you are not, please let your intentions be
known or better still, Kindly relent from replying this email.

You could get personal info. on me via my official website, but do not try
contacting me via any personal information you may lay your hands upon on
the internet as almost all my contact info are connected to the British
House of Parliament data base except the ones I personally sent to you; as I
don’t want our effort and my reputation, jeopardized.

Kindly send your response to this E-mail:
p.hewitt06@yahoo.com.hk <-----------

Sincerely,

PATRICIA HEWITT MP.
FORMER SEC. OF STATE FOR HEALTH
GROUND FLOOR FRONT,
5 FROG ISLAND LEICESTER, LE3 54G
UNITED KINGDOM.

Junior Search Marketing Executive

No Pork Pies is a relatively new Social Media Agency and we are looking to grow. We aim to integrate our clients’ strategy into a full service Social Media offering, including SEO, PPC, PR, Content and Creative.
If you want to work in a creative, exciting, fun and modern marketing agency then please read on.

Job Description:
Your role will be to implement and Manage our SEO and Paid Search Campaigns, as well as some Social Media involvement. SEO experience is preferable but we are happy to teach if you are enthusiastic about learning.
We want people who want to work in marketing, who want to work in digital and who are proper geeks!

Responsibilities

The key responsibilities of this role are:

•Analyse Client’s results
•Achieve Client’s Targets
•Implement SEO technical procedures
•Keep up-to-date on Search Engine development
•Develop Company websites for testing performance
•Maintain and develop client Paid Search Campaigns
•Implement some aspects of the Social Media strategies
•Work with PR and Content to deliver monthly work
•Write company blog posts on new ideas and technologies
•Use and help develop new tools to analyse the web and client results.
•Writing monthly performance reports
•Ad hoc analysis where required
•Occasionally attend client meetings

Skills Range:

You will have or be willing to develop skills in:
•Marketing, an understanding of marketing principles preferable.
•Data analysis skills, fluent in Excel
•A passion for anything digital and an excitement to learn more about how it can be used
•Ambition to develop within the digital industry
•A willingness to get your hands dirty in multiple digital roles.
•Able to work in a small team
•Technical ability – HTML, CSS and Database driven website knowledge preferable

Key Experience and Knowledge

Experience with web analytics tools such as Google Analytics or any analytics package would be a bonus but not essential
•Ability to analyse data in Excel is essential
•Technical understanding of how the web and web marketing works
•SEO experience preferable
•Social Media understanding (Social Media is more than just Facebook.)
•Ability to build a website, no matter how simple
•Programming experience would be an advantage but not essential
•Understanding of HTML and basic web languages
•Marketing degree, Computer degree or equivalent experience

Salary:     £17,000 – £20,000 Depending on Experience

Additional Information:

No Pork Pies are small, if you are looking for a big agency we aren’t one of them! That being said we have a big agency mentality and experience. Our client list is growing regularly and you will learn everything you need to know about Digital Marketing, as well as having a say in everything the business works on and does.
This is a great opportunity to work up within a small agency and develop your role as the agency develops in size.

How to apply:
Please email CV and covering letter answering the question ‘Why you’ll kick arse in digital marketing’:

Contact Name:

Adam Lee
Email Address:     info@noporkpies.com

No agencies.

No Pork Pies is moving up in the world, well about 3 miles up the road to be honest!

We’ve moved to our new office in Hove Lagoon allowing us to have the space to expand, have meeting room space, an on site coffee shop and free parking, oh yeah and we get this as our view

Based on this new found space we’ll be happy for anyone to come visit us so here’s a map:

View Larger Map

Portslade train station is about a 5-10 minute walk to the office or there are plenty of buses from Brighton if you prefer to sit in traffic. Alternatively, you can do what we do and cycle all the way along the sea front cycle path (its a really nice ride!).

As we’ve moved we’ve also got a new phone number – 01273 384 928. The old one will still work for a little while longer.

I guess you also want the new address:

No Pork Pies Ltd
Maritime House
Basin Road North
Brighton
East Sussex
BN41 1WR

We look forward to welcoming you.

Seeking a break from World Cup madness? Well, I promise that none of the news items in this week’s round-up is football related.

Apart from the second one that is.

YouTube makes video editing simpler 

YouTube has brought out a new online video editor which should make your YouTube clips shorter and sweeter.

The video content uploading site has long been targeted by those in the search engine optimisation industry; an acknowledgement of how big the video content market has become.

Using the new editor could help you:

•Trim the start and the end of your clips more easily
•’Mash-up’ videos by seamlessly adding one video to the end of another video
•Provide a soundtrack for your footage through choosing one of the thousands of songs available on the video editor’s AudioSwap library

Best of all, you don’t need to install any extra software to take advantage of these new facilities. 

Appropriately enough, there’s a YouTube clip talking you through the merits of the new video editor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YsQ6f125GY&feature=player_embedded 

What links Lionel Messi with Wayne Rooney?

Having watched the opening two rounds of the World Cup you would think that there is little in common between Argie footballer Lionel ‘Leo’ Messi and England’s Wayne Rooney.

Messi has won wave reviews for his early performances while ‘Wazza’ has yet to put his shooting boots on.

But, according to The Official Google Blog, there is more in common between these two sportsmen than just a bulging pay packet.

Apparently, research has shown that people who tap the name ‘Messi’ into a search engine are most likely to tap in the names ‘Rooney’, ‘Drogba’, ‘Torres’ or ‘Ronaldo’ next.

Popularity is the connection – these players are the most talked about footballers on Planet Football and are all seen as talisman figures for their country’s supporters.

Club connections also influence search-engine behaviour. Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba might be sworn enemies during this summer of football but are likely to figure on consecutive searches as they both play for Chelsea.

There’s more information on how the branches of football search trees spread out on Google Insights for Search – it’s also a useful tool for your business or product.

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#

Have you got a Google search story to share?

Search engine optimisation is all about making sure that when potential customers tap in a word or phrase relevant to your market they find what you are offering.

But, just sometimes, a search engine leads you up some pretty interesting alleys, side-streets and cul-de-sacs. Sometimes, these can be miles away from the place you want to find but can make for a pretty interesting journey.

These ‘one thing leads to another’ searches are the inspiration behind Google Seach Stories – a place on YouTube where contributors can upload video content of a “silly, inspiring, true or imagined” nature.

 Much of the content (’How To Get Married’, ‘Valentines Night’) seems to be of a romantic nature. 

Inevitably, some famous people have contributed content. Woody and Buzz from Toy Story weren’t slow to upload a story about one of their internet search sequences (wonder how much their Pixar puppet masters charged for that). 

But it’s all pretty inspiring stuff and makes me think of a friend who was looking for gig listings at a Brighton pub called The Free Butt and, to his horror, found rather more than he bargained for.

But that’s another story for another time.

Have a good week.

In internet terms who is the most ’searched-for’ player currently starring in the World Cup? How does a footballer improve his search popularity? And has the Dutch general election or the Dutch football team attracted more interest on the worldwide web?

Well, the answer to all these questions is contained in a posting called ‘Kicking Around Search Terms For The World Cup’ which appeared recently on the Official Google Blog.

The most searched-for player

With superstars like Messi, Kaka, Drogba and, of course, Emile Heskey gracing the world’s most famous tournament this was bound to be a closely-contested raced.

But when it comes to being Googled Cristiano Ronaldo popularity shows no sign of taking a nose-dive. The name of the Portugal poster boy was tapped into the world’s biggest search engine more times than any other player in the immediate run-up to the World Cup.

How players can improve their Google performance

For those players coveting Ronaldo’s Google crown, the Google Blog suggests there is one sure-fire way of boosting your search ranking. Surprisingly, it doesn’t involve scoring goals but getting injured.

According to Google’s stats experts, interest in Germany’s Ballack, Holland’s Robben and England’s Rooney all ’spiked’ when they picked up injuries near the start of the World Cup.

Ballack wasn’t faking injury just to attract extra search-engine activity – he really will miss the tournament but thankfully Robben and Rooney have both climbed off the treatment table to keep alive their country’s hopes.

The Dutch General Election or the Dutch football team?

Google users in the Netherlands have voted with their feet by conducting five times as many news searches relating to their football talisman Robben as they did for information about their country’s national election candidates.

The Google Trends service also highlights that the World Cup has presented businesses and entrepreneurs with many opportunities to make a quick buck during the football extravaganza.

The search term ‘World Cup decoration’ has highlighted how many armchair fans have used the internet for inspiration when looking to festoon their living room with footy-related balloons and flags during the sporting extravaganza.

Looking at search volumes it seems that World Cup 2010 has attracted less internet buzz than World Cup 2006.

But Google Trends could give a clue as to who the next major force in world football will be. India is the country where the search term ‘Fifa World Cup schedule’ is the most popular. Could Indian hands be gripping that famous gold mantelpiece ornament at a future World Cup?

I’m getting really excited about the world cup so I couldn’t resist putting together the ‘world cup dream team’.

There are simple rules to this:

1) The player has to be in the world cup 2010 squad

2) They can’t be injured and out of the team

3) They have to be played in a position they are suited to – eg having a forward in defence is no on but having a left footed forward as a left winger is an option.

4) You are allowed a starting 11 and 1 sub for each position – technically choosing 2 starting 11 teams.

That’s about it. You can find the world cup squads on the fifa site if you need to see who you can choose from.

Here is my World Cup Dream Team

Goal Keeper
Iker CASILLAS

Defence

DANI ALVES – Right back
Kolo TOURE – central
John TERRY – central
Giovanni VAN BRONCKHORST – Left back

Midfield

KAKA – right
Steven GERRARD – central
XABI ALONSO – defensive midfield
Lionel MESSI – left

Attack

Wayne ROONEY
Cristiano RONALDO

B-Team (subs)

Goal Keeper

Gianluigi BUFFON

Defence

MAICON – Right back
Daniel AGGER – central
Nemanja VIDIC – Central
Phillip LAHM – left back

Midfield

David Silva – Left
Florent MALOUDA – Defensive
Andres INIESTA – Right
XAVI – Central

Attack

David VILLA
Fernando TORRES

I’ve played Messi slightly out of position but he’s left footed so could handle being a Left Winger and can alternate positions with Steven Gerrard.

The attack was the hardest part using the 4-4-2 formation. 4-3-3 might have made it easier but I’m happy with my team.

What would your Dream Team be?

People wishing to find what they’re looking for on the internet more quickly are sure to get a kick from today’s news that Google is to serve up a fresh new service called Caffeine.

Caffeine is Google’s new web indexing system and the search engine giant is confident that it will provide “50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index”.

The Official Google Blog compared the internet to a vast book and likened the old indexing system to an index at the back of the book, detailing where to locate specific information.

As the internet has expanded so quickly, and seen a rapid growth in new content such as video clips, the old ‘index’ needed replacing – hence the birth of Caffeine.

Caffeine promises to be strong enough to meet the increasingly high demands of people typing in search phrases to the Google engine.

Publishers – looking to have their latest work speed to the top of the search results’ pages if they put in the hard work to satisfy the secret rankings criteria – are also likely to find Caffeine refreshing.

Caffeine will certainly have its work cut out to analyse the new content appearing on the internet – Google estimates that if new web pages were piles of paper they would grow three miles taller every second.

The announcement of the new indexing system hasn’t been universally welcomed.

Rick Aristotle Munarriz, writing on The Motley Fool came up with the headline: Google Fixes What Isn’t Broken.

He suspects that Caffeine is Google’s reaction to Microsoft’s Bing and is an innovation motivated by Google’s desire to be seen as always “moving on” rather than standing still.

Have a look at some of the other reactions generated by the search phrase ‘Google Caffeine’.

Hopefully, thanks to Caffeine, your search will be quicker and more relevant than before! Time to start thinking about getting regular new content onto your site to maximise the potential of the increase in the speed of site indexing. If you don’t have time its a service No Pork Pies offers – SEO Copywriting

So, picture the scene. You’re in the pub having a private conversation about the problems you’re having with your BT Broadband internet connection.

Then, a stranger – let’s call her Sarah – wanders over to your table, says she works for BT and offers to help you solve your Broadband problems.

Would you feel delighted at this unexpected intervention or would you be alarmed that someone had been eavesdropping on what was intended to be a private discussion?

In a way this scenario is happening many times each day as firms such as BT, Carphone Warehouse and Easy Jet search the internet looking for negative comments about their products in order to monitor customer satisfaction levels.

According to an article published in the Daily Mail last week, BT uses a software system called Debatescape to see what the public is saying about the company.

And, the Mail reports, BT isn’t just content to listen in to conversations but often ‘interrupts’ and offers help.

The paper gives the example of a man who aired some derogatory comments about BT services on his Facebook page, comments which led to him being contacted by a lady called Sarah from BT who asked “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Obviously there wasn’t as the unnamed man called the offer “Big Brotherish and sinister”.

But it seems that many people in Britain still have a taste for Big Brother ways and practices as BT’s social networking campaign monitors insist that most feedback from customers contacted through sites such as Twitter has been positive.

Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, is not a fan of such practices and told the Mail: “This is nothing short of outright spying.

“The firms liken this to listening to a conversation in the pub. But it is more like listening at someone’s door with a very large glass.”

It is becoming increasingly common for SEOs to use monitoring software. But there is a thin line between keeping your ear to the ground and attracting accusations of eavesdropping.

Engaging with your customers via social networks must be done with care as nobody likes a meddler – no matter how well-intentioned they may be.

Did you know that Google isn’t the only search engine out there?

So what recent news is there of other search engines? Well over at Ask.com there have been a few changes.

Last week, the Ask.com blog highlighted the popularity of Ask’s Related Searches function. This feature examines what keywords or phrases you have tapped in the search box and then suggests further searches.

Other search engines provide similar services but Ask.com has attempted to steal a march on its rivals by unveiling Related Questions.

Ask.com promises to answer any reasonable question that you tap into the search box and let Related Questions suggest similar queries you can pose based on your original question.

For instance, I asked Ask.com “Which came first the chicken or the egg?”

Look away now if you don’t want to know the answer – in 0.22 seconds-flat, someone called Jeeves told me that “the egg preceded the chicken” (I guess this is something to do with two non-chickens mating and their zygote’s DNA having a mutation that produced the first chicken).

All very well and good but what was even more interesting was the list of Jeeves’ suggested Related Questions on the right-hand side of the screen. One of these was the highly-philosophical evolutionary-related “Who made God?”

Another suggestion – “How long is a piece of string” showed that Jeeves seemed to realise that my question might have been a little flippant.

It’s all very diverting and if it catches on maybe it will lead to more people spending even more hours surfing the magical world of nooks, crannies and cul de sacs that we call the internet. Which will lead to even more opportunities for SEO.

Perhaps the service will become so popular that one day people will ask “Which came first: Related Searches or Related Questions?”

Anyway I’m signing off to spend more time finding out the answer to some of those riddles which have vexed men’s minds since the dawn of civilisation.

Such as “Can monkeys burp?”