Credit Crunch has us all GOOGLE-EYED...!

As the credit crunch chomps away and consumer and business confidence slide, many are finding that do it yourself search engine optimisation may hold the answer to many of their marketing problems.

With Advertising and Marketing Budgets quite often the first thing to be cut at times of economic uncertainty, one Gloucestershire company has come up with a winning low cost formula to help businesses in the region shine brightly. MA Design Solutions Limited to date has helped in excess of 150 of the region’s companies to better understand the jargon surrounding Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO for short. Their ‘Do It Yourself Search Engine Optimisation (DIYSEO)’ Courses not only give a clear understanding of what SEO is, but most importantly they empower website owners with the knowledge to implement SEO relevant changes themselves.

With search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Ask now central to our everyday lives both at home and in the workplace, online sales and business enquiries are still soaring, despite the current economic climate. Businesses are, it would seem, increasingly looking to the web for new business and increased sales.

“One needs look no further for evidence of this than the popularity of the DIYSEO Course itself ...” said Jason Ayers, cofounder of MA Design and the training course tutor. “What started out as a few trial courses provided in partnership with Gloucestershire College, the Federation of Small Businesses and the Gloucestershire Tourism Skills Network, soon became so popular that an additional 15 courses had to be added. This course illustrates to people the basics of what they, their web designers or their chosen SEO provider should be doing to their website.” Ayers added.

“Our courses simply empower people with entry level SEO knowledge. We are not here to criticise the efforts of others, indeed, we hope to show businesses exactly how much time and energy is needed when optimising a website. After our course, companies can then decide how to approach their own websites from an SEO perspective. Many delegates have been able to see what a great job SEO companies have done for them. Conversely, it is equally evident where a poor SEO job has been done. We are letting people draw these conclusions for themselves based on their newly acquired knowledge.” concluded Ayers.

Indeed, many of those local companies that have attended the training courses have had nothing but praise for the content, delivery and value for money offered by this insight into the relatively closed door world that is Search Engine Optimisation.

"We've now reached second place on one of our key phrase searches and appear on the first page on most other selected phrases...need I say more?" comments James Filmer of Cotswold Windows, one of the first companies to benefit from the content of the course.  Claire Watkins of Hazlewoods Business Advisors & Chartered Accountants also comments that it was "... an informative course, I found it helpful to revisit the fundamentals of SEO in a focussed environment".

With more courses scheduled for later on in the year, it is recommended you register your interest and reserve a place on one of the courses sooner rather than later. Follow this link for more information about DIYSEO Courses from Cheltenham based MA Deisgn.