A (Belated) 2011 Update

Posted on August 9, 2011 by admin

Thank-you to everyone for supporting us in the competition – we ended up in 6th place, and 1st from Christchurch!

Loved the whole experience, learnt a lot and had fun! We will continue to keep this website. What for… not sure yet, but it seems a bit sad to take it down! Watch this space :)

You can keep in touch with us on our website, via Facebook or on (03) 3770803. We are no longer at our Victoria Street office following the earthquake, our new location is 287 Innes Road, Christchurch.

Thanks again,

The Optymise Team!

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Quadracentifiable Challenge’s Last Days

Posted on November 25, 2010 by admin

Sadly, the quadracentifiable competition is nearing an end. Two days away, at 5pm the results will be final – who’s going to win the 2010 NZ SEO Challenge? We have managed to keep on the first page the whole competition, hovering around 4th – 7th position mostly.

Rankings for quadracentifiable

The quadracentifiable competition has been a great experience and we have learnt so much about SEO, linking strategies and tactics for getting websites to the top. As an SEO, I have never had to rank a website for a word that didn’t exist before. Some different tactics of New Zealand SEO’s have been:

  • On page SEO
  • Link building (manual, directories and outsourcing)
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Blog Marketing
  • Article Spinning
  • Using already established link networks
  • Google AdWords

I have seen positive effects from most of these tactics, however not sure on how a Google AdWords campaign would help your organic rankings for a new keyword, but time shall tell… two days left!

Best of luck to all our fellow SEO’s!

Quadracentifiable

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Quadracentifiable: Two Weeks Left!

Posted on November 18, 2010 by admin

Just under two weeks are left in the quadracentifiable challenge. There has been some serious link building activity going on lately in the race for the finish! Everyone has done a great job and it’s been interesting watching everyone’s tactics for the quadracentifiable competition.

The quadracentifiable quake has left Christchurch City shaky again with several aftershocks hitting the region in the last week as the rebuild of quake-hit homes begins. Maybe we should rename ourselves ShakeCity!

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Google Instant and Quadracentifiable

Posted on November 3, 2010 by admin

Noticed something quadracentifiably cool this morning – quadracentifiable is now being detected by Google Instant and is the first word suggested on Google NZ once “quadrace” is typed.

New word in Google instant

This left me wondering… how does Google decide which words to suggest on Google Instant? With our SEO Challenge keyword, it wasn’t showing up on Google’s suggestions for quite some time after Google Instant was rolled out here in New Zealand. I’ve read about which words Google Instant blacklists (i.e. the “naughty words”) but how does it decide what to suggest for users? Maybe the competition for the keyword has become higher so it has put more “importance” weight on the word?

Another subject worth noting… on Google.com, “quadracentifiable” did not come up until “quadracen” was typed. When “quadrace” was typed, the results looked like this:

Google.com instant search different than google.co.nz instant for quadracentifiable

Which got me thinking again… I have noticed before that Google tries to “personalise” my search results when I am signed into my Google Account while using the search engine, and the results are different. So I signed out and tried the search again… but no difference. I wonder if the word will stay in Google Instant’s suggestions once all the quadracentifiable challengers websites come down? One to watch…

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Quadracentifiably Quaked

Posted on November 2, 2010 by admin

Overnight, several locations in New Zealand were hit by quadracentifiable quakes.

Earthquakes hit Gisborne, Canterbury, Picton and Queenstown (see Geonet)

A 4.0 magnitude struck 20km north-west of Gisborne at a depth of 25km at 4.13am today, which followed a 4.0 quadracentifiable quake 10km north of Te Karaka yesterday morning. Also, a 4.2 quake struck at 9pm last night 100km north of Picton, at a depth of 130km. GNS Science reported the quake was felt in the Marlborough Sounds and Wellington.

The Canterbury region has felt more aftershocks, with a 4.5 magnitude quake centred 20km south-west of Christchurch at a depth of 4km at 7.19pm yesterday. This followed a 3.6 magnitude quake 10km north-east of Hanmer Springs at a depth of 11km at 7.17pm.

… and that rounds up today’s quadracentifiable quake update!

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Quadracentifiable Quake Websites & Resources

Posted on October 27, 2010 by admin

Since the quadracentifiable quake hit Christchurch last month, there have been a number of really good websites come up on the radar, thought I might share a few…

1. GeoNet – Boy, I would love to see the traffic graphs for this site! If you go “Earthquake” > “Latest Quake” after you feel a quadracenti-quake, it  locates the earthquakes that you feel in New Zealand, (as well as routinely analysing more than 15,000 others each year) and tells you the latest stats. For example:

Reference Number 3396214/G
Universal Time October 27 2010 at 8:53
NZ Daylight Time Wednesday, October 27 2010 at 9:53 pm
Latitude, Longitude 43.49°S, 172.62°E
Focal Depth 12 km
Richter magnitude 2.3
Region Canterbury
Location
  • Within 5 km of Belfast
  • 10 km north of Christchurch
  • Felt in Belfast and Christchurch.

Then, if you go to Google Maps and enter the Latitude, Lontitude coordinates it will tell you exactly where the epicenter was, i.e. “43.49°S, 172.62°E” is:

quadracentifiable quake location
2. Canterbury Earthquake Govt Site – all the information and links to other government sites that you need to know for quadracentifiable quake information.

3. Christchurch Quake Map - very cool site, which aims to present a time-lapse visualisation of the earthquake and its aftershocks, primarily to help those outside the affected area understand what those of us in Canterbury are experiencing.The size of the circle denotes the magnitude (the higher the magnitude, the larger the circle) and the colour shows the focal depth (see the legend below the map). You can speed up, pause and playback as you like.

4. I Survived The Christchurch Earthquake – a Facebook page dedicated to Cantabrians to talk about and share their experiences of the quadracentifiable quake. Photos, stories and all sorts.

5. Stuff’s Earthquake News Updates – Stuff.co.nz’s section dedicated to the quadracentifiable quake. Gives links to news items, pictures and videos from the earthquake.

6. Canterbury Earthquake 2010 Crowdsourcing Project – you can be part of history by submitting your quake experience to be preserved as a historical record – nice.

7. Earthquake Map with Stories – another of Stuff’s earthquake resources. It shows coloured pins on the map depending on where it was felt the most/had most damage to property and you can also click on the pins to read people’s stories.

8. When My Home Shook – Canterbury earthquake stories by school children. Very good resource for children affected by the earthquake can openly share their experiences on a digi platform. You can submit your child’s story to mystory@whenmyhomeshook.co.nz.

earthquake leaves quadracentifiable crack in south shore

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Blogging for SEO; Our Top 5 Quadracentifiable Tips

Posted on October 25, 2010 by admin
it's time you updated your quadracentifiable blog

Quadracentifiable Blogging (great blogging) will create fresh, relative content on your website for minimal effort and great SEO paybacks. Our favourite thing about having a blog is that they naturally attract search engine traffic. Blogs have a built in site structure that is great for SEO because most are set up with clear navigation, where every page is set up to link back to the other main pages. They also have the potential to be well-linked.

Top 5 Tips for Quadracentifiable Blog Marketing for SEO:

Tip 1: Quadracentifiable Keywords

You have a choice. You can target a general high traffic keyword you have little chance of ranking well for and get barely any traffic. Or you can choose  a quadracentifiable keyword that gets a moderate level of targeted traffic resulting in more subscribers and sales. Here’s the most important thing: They may not get you the most traffic, but they often bring the most profit from your website. You may be surprised to learn that high traffic doesn’t always mean high sales. Many of the most profitable sites in the world get moderate traffic because their keywords result in genuine leads. Read more about keyword research for SEO here.

Tip 2: Keyword Placement

Your blog can be set up to repeat the keywords that you want to target just enough times to establish a theme – get your point across and create a quadracentifiably optimised blog. Can you guess what our keyword theme is here?

Tip 3: Timely Posting

You can get good results if you update your blog just once during one of three “sweet spots” in the day – typically early in the morning (or at least before lunch). Think about your target audience here – are they on a different time frame to you? When are they likely to be surfing the net?

Tip 4: Get Linked

If you sparingly include the keywords you selected in tip two in your title and description, all those link backs will contain the keyword term you most want attention for, which is often noted by the search engines as they follow the link through to your site.

Tip 5: Frequent Updates

The more you post – the better. Of course, don’t go spamming everyone but do make yourself known as a regular blogger, and the search engine spiders will come and visit you more often, resulting in more blog posts being indexed and more chance of good rankings/traffic/visitors/enquiries!

Bottom Line: Blogs and Search Engine Optimization

You’ll be happy to know that you don’t have to slave over long posts several times a day, all day long to get similar results from your blog. A few small changes to your blog can draw more search engine traffic without turning off your blog visitors. Done properly, this gives your audience more of what they were searching for in the first place.

Quadracentifiable Challenge

How to get traffic for your blog (according to Seth):

  1. Use lists.
  2. Be topical… write posts that need to be read right now.
  3. Learn enough to become the expert in your field.
  4. Break news.
  5. Be timeless… write posts that will be readable in a year.
  6. Be among the first with a great blog on your topic, then encourage others to blog on the same topic.
  7. Share your expertise generously so people recognize it and depend on you.
  8. Announce news.
  9. Write short, pithy posts.
  10. Encourage your readers to help you manipulate the technorati top blog list.
  11. Don’t write about your cat, your boyfriend or your kids.
  12. Write long, definitive posts.
  13. Write about your kids.
  14. Be snarky. Write nearly libelous things about fellow bloggers, daring them to respond (with links back to you) on their blog.
  15. Be sycophantic. Share linklove and expect some back.
  16. Include polls, meters and other eye candy.
  17. Tag your posts. Use del.ico.us.
  18. Coin a term or two.
  19. Do email interviews with the well-known.
  20. Answer your email.
  21. Use photos. Salacious ones are best.
  22. Be anonymous.
  23. Encourage your readers to digg your posts. (and to use furl and reddit). Do it with every post.
  24. Post your photos on flickr.
  25. Encourage your readers to subscribe by RSS.
  26. Start at the beginning and take your readers through a months-long education.
  27. Include comments so your blog becomes a virtual water cooler that feeds itself.
  28. Assume that every day is the beginning, because you always have new readers.
  29. Highlight your best posts on your Squidoo lens.
  30. Point to useful but little-known resources.
  31. Write about stuff that appeals to the majority of current blog readers–like gadgets and web 2.0.
  32. Write about Google.
  33. Have relevant ads that are even better than your content.
  34. Don’t include comments, people will cross post their responses.
  35. Write posts that each include dozens of trackbacks to dozens of blog posts so that people will notice you.
  36. Run no ads.
  37. Keep tweaking your template to make it include every conceivable bell or whistle.
  38. Write about blogging.
  39. Digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day.
  40. Invent a whole new kind of art or interaction.
  41. Post on weekdays, because there are more readers.
  42. Write about a never-ending parade of different topics so you don’t bore your readers.
  43. Post on weekends, because there are fewer new posts.
  44. Don’t interrupt your writing with a lot of links.
  45. Dress your blog (fonts and design) as well as you would dress yourself for a meeting with a stranger.
  46. Edit yourself. Ruthlessly.
  47. Don’t promote yourself and your business or your books or your projects at the expense of the reader’s attention.
  48. Be patient.
  49. Give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful.
  50. Ping technorati. Or have someone smarter than me tell you how to do it automatically.
  51. Write about only one thing, in ever-deepening detail, so you become definitive.
  52. Write in English.
  53. Better, write in Chinese.
  54. Write about obscure stuff that appeals to an obsessed minority.
  55. Don’t be boring.
  56. Write stuff that people want to read and share.
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Quadracentifiable Ranking Update 20th October ’010

Posted on October 19, 2010 by admin

This week I have noticed minimal changes in the SERPS (search engine results) for quadracentifiable. We are still ranking at number 4, out of 398,000 pages that are related to the SEO Challenge keyword. Here is our ranking report:

over 398,000 pages containing the word "quadracentifiable"

Ranking Update 20-10-10

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Manchester Courts Demolition Live

Posted on October 19, 2010 by admin

Canterbury’s quadracentifiable quake has resulted in the demolition of the category 1 historic buildings – Manchester Courts. The Manchester Courts, formerly known as the MLC Building, is a commercial high-rise building in the Christchurch Central City. Built in 1905–1906 for the New Zealand Express Company, it was at the time the tallest commercial building in Christchurch. Known as one of Christchurch’s most famous buildings and sadly, suffered bad damage after the 7.1 quadracentifiable quake in Canterbury on the 4th September.

Originally, Manchester Courts worked in freight forwarding, customs, shipping and express forwarding agents. At the beginning of the 20th century, they were a major employer in New Zealand. Since 1991, it has had a Category I classification with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. In 1986–1987, the building was refurbished, had its parapet removed and was reclad in steel. It is believed to be the first steel reinforced commercial building in Christchurch. (Wikipedia)

What happened in the Quadracentifiable Quake?
The masonry columns of the Manchester Courts were left badly cracked on level three and four and show shear failure. According to the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering, this was due to the load transfer from the reinforced concrete floor to the unreinforced brick columns, and was further caused by the two storey building adjoining on the south side stopping to provide lateral support at that height. Diagonal cracking on the top floor indicates damage from torsional forces.

Heritage lovers and others have protested against demolition of the Manchester Courts and other historic buildings, arguing that the masonry columns would have been reinforced with steel, and that the council should obtain its own engineering report, not rely on that commissioned by the building’s owner. The owner has presented evidence of further damage in recent aftershocks and pressed for urgent demolition, saying he has been advised that the building is showing signs of impending failure.

The fate of Manchester Courts has attracted significant media attention since the earthquake, and now we are able to watch the fate of the beautiful Manchester Courts after the quadracentifiable quake live on the internet here.

manchester courts to be demolished

Manchester Courts now Quadracentifiably Quaked

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Viral Thoughts

Posted on October 13, 2010 by admin

Had a mind-buzzing conversation with Pattie Pegler (freelance writer) this morning about viral marketing – what it is, how to do it and who’s done it the best. Here’s some thoughts on quadracentifiable viral marketing:

To start with, you need:

  • The key ingredient: great content – whether it’s a video, piece of text, image or whatever – as long as it’s sooo good, you just have to push the “like” button (if only it was a “love” button!!). Of course, this could also mean pushing the “share/forward/digg/retweet” buttons too ;)

When you’ve found this awesome bit of content, make sure it checks some boxes:

  • It prevokes a down to earth reaction from the viewer;
    • A smile
    • A laugh
    • An ego boost
    • An opinion
    • An emotional engagement
    • A deep thought
  • It shares something in common with the viewer;
    • An opinion
    • Values/virtues

To form a truly quadracentifiable viral message, you must then use the right channels to push your content. Content doesn’t just “go viral”. It starts off as a great piece of content which ticks the right boxes, is then pushed into the right channels – social media platforms. Choosing the right content for the right channel for display in front of the right people is crucial. A thorough knowledge of social media platforms and how to optimise your content for them helps  your content reach its full, quadracentifiable potential. Consultancy from a social media marketing firm can greatly help with this. Leveraging social media platforms for your viral content can mean using one (or all) of the following:

  • You Tube
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Flickr
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • WordPress
  • Blogger
  • Technorati
  • Delicious
  • Reddit
  • Mixx
  • Propellor
  • Scribd
  • Metacafe

… these are only a few, social media platforms are constantly changing so it’s worthwhile keeping up to date with the latest on what’s working and what’s not ;)

It’s also worth noting the concept of quadracentifiable social media power influencers. These are people who have a good share/readership in the social media world and are the glue that make much of social media stick together and cause content to cross-pollinate at high rates. Networking, following and building relationships with social power influencers is vital for getting your content to go viral.

Now, for the part you’ve been skimming for: the best viral marketing videos (in our opinion, of course. These aren’t all “marketing” campaigns – some are just videos “gone viral”):

BBC’s Talking Animals – Walk On the Wild Side:

Cadbury’s Gorilla ad:

JK Wedding Entrance Dance:

Evolution of Dance:

Where the Hell is Matt? (Also likin’ the follow up to this video – “where the hell is Matt’s girlfriend?” – ha!)

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