If you’ve been following the news recently major websites such as Wikipedia and WordPress.org are running a 24 hour blackout today in response to the two bills SOPA and PIPA that are making their way through congress. I won’t go over the full details here. A search for “SOPA Blackout”, “WordPress Blackout” etc should suffice for you.

What I thought I would do is take the time to comment on how their blackouts are not really blackouts. And all because of Search Engine Optimisation.

I’m going to take WordPress.org and Wikipedia as an example for my post (as they are, to me, the main websites staging this blackout). If you load any page on their sites today you will be confronted by the following pages:

However, on further inspection, these blackout ‘faces’ to these websites are simply masking the content sitting behind them. These websites will load all of the normal content that they should show and then force a full screen display over the top.

With a few bits of in-browser Javascript* you are able to view the full content behind the page as it should be.

So why haven’t they replaced their entire websites to actually ‘black out’?

Being some of the biggest websites on the internet they achieve results through strong search engine rankings. Their sites are rich in content and Google (and others) will check them regularly for any updates in content and update their records of that website accordingly. When a Search Engine wants to look at a website it requests a copy of the ‘source’ of a page just like your browser does. Your browser would then convert this ‘source’ or ‘code’ into a nicely styled version for you to view with pleasure. Search Engines don’t have this same wish for aesthetics and will happily read through the code they’re given to understand what that website is about.

What this is in effect doing is keeping all of the content there to keep their search engines happy but then masking each page using those styles I was talking about to hide the useful content from the user audience. This is instead of supplying user and search engine with just the content and styles for these black out messages.

Now if these websites just supplied the content for the  black out messages then when Google does its check today it will decide that every page on their site now reads on the lines of “WordPress.org protests the protect IP act”. Suddenly you will see every page drop out of its place in the rankings. I guess this is a risk that both websites could not take.

Admittedly for these large websites it wouldn’t take them long to be re-ranked once their normal website content comes back online. And with the number of users that will surf directly to wikipedia.org or wordpress.org without going through a search engine they should still see their traffic rise once again. However this is all theoretical and should happen but will not necessarily happen.

Does this make their stand of less value?

Some could say it does and some could say it doesn’t. Unless you work with websites for a living none of this may be at all obvious to you at all and it will be as though the websites are inaccessible to their normal content. However for me it does show that they’re not willing to take the search engine ranking hit to have a real black out. And taking that hit would potentially be great headlines in the fight against the SOPA and PIPA legislation. But their websites will be left at a huge disadvantage online.

So what do you think?

*Javascript is functionality code that runs within the user’s browser once it has loaded the content of a website. It is most commonly used for powering website slide shows and other pretty things.

**If you would like me to clarify anything in this post please leave a comment and I will do my best to help.

Tagged as in Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, web development, Websites

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you probably can’t fail to have noticed the meteoric rise to fame of Jasmine Star, Californian photographer for “fabulous people”. Jasmine’s story is a great example of how talent matters, but not nearly as much as powerful marketing.

I’m always completely wowed by Jasmine’s website: high energy, high style and highly aspirational. I love Jasmine’s photography, but most of all, I love the brand she and her team have created for her business. They’ve worked incredibly hard to create something that feels effortlessly chic, glamorous and high end. And although the way she has chosen to market her business and her personal brand is a little marmite, you can’t deny that it has worked – with bells on.

Jasmine knows that standing out is key to creating a powerful brand. That blending in just doesn’t cut it. Her videos, magazine style blog and super glam website are super powerful. I do think it’s important to note that if she wasn’t a great photographer then her brand wouldn’t have longevity, she couldn’t back up what she promised and she wouldn’t still have a successful business. But what’s made a huge difference is that she has bags of self confidence and the ability to stand out.

And Jasmine does do a lot to promote herself as a celebrity which may not be right for you. But ask yourself: what inspiration can I take from Jasmine Star?

Lessons small businesses can learn from Jasmine Star

Be confident and believe in yourself it’s the starting point to getting that confidence from your clients

Create a brand that’s aspirational and you’ll attract the right sorts of clients who really value what you do and are prepared to pay a premium to get you

Use video – and I don’t mean staring into your webcam chatting (yes, I’ve tried that too – bad move!) – I mean use video to get people really excited about your business

Make it happen, don’t just wait for it to happen. Sitting about waiting to get “spotted” doesn’t guarantee success. Hard graft and powerful marketing seems to do the trick very well!

Be bold and stand out. Being brave takes courage, it means going against the grain and doing things that other players aren’t doing. How can you bring a piece of that into your business?

Tagged as , jasmine star in Branding, Powerful Branding

I LOVE Joules. I love their sense of fun, their style and their quirky touches that bring everything to life.

I blogged last summer about how inspiring I find the Joules brand and whilst they’re not everyone’s cup of tea, I think they’re fabulous! This seems to be a common theme in branding doesn’t it? The concept that you can’t be all things to all people. It’s one that small businesses would do well to take on board I think. The bolder you can be, the more passionate your fans.

I know that it’s easy to think that they’re hanging on to the Boden coat tails, and they’re certainly in a similar marketplace, but to me they are incredibly different. For me, Joules is Boden’s younger, funkier sister! What do you think?

A strong brand identity, a clear style and plenty of direct mail has enabled Joules to catapult themselves to success over the past few years. And it’s their strong sense of design that has helped them to get noticed. At a much smaller level there are plenty of smaller businesses that embrace great design that have also got noticed: I’m thinking Poppy Treffry (more on her later!) amongst others. There are plenty of others that sprang to mind, but their websites were too disappointing to share on this blog ;-( (quick aside – reputation is crucial in branding and shouldn’t be overlooked, but don’t make life difficult for yourselves by having a design that lets you down – you’ll make it much harder to win business).

What can small businesses learn from Joules?

Attention to detail. Joules put enormous attention to detail into their brand – it’s one of the reasons I love it. How can you inject the same attention to detail into what you communicate?

Creativity matters. I posted last year about the impact powerful design had on the Joules brand. Do you think we’d notice them quite as much if they didn’t have the confidence to stand out? Those quirky, creative touches are what get people in the gut and the heart. They matter. And if you want your business to stand out then you need to start thinking big and thinking about creativity.

Don’t be afraid to change your proposition for the sake of commercial success. It wasn’t so long ago that Joules was a niche equestrian retailer, but they’ve completely revolutionised their proposition (and last time I checked, there were very few riding clothes available to buy) and in doing so, opened themselves up for growth. I’m not saying it’s right for everyone, but it seems to have worked for them.

What else is there in the Joules magic that you could inject into your own brand?

Tagged as , joules, joules brand identity, joules branding, small business branding in Branding, Powerful Branding

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while it’ll probably be no surprise that I’m a big fan of Cath Kidston. Between Dani (our lovely Account Exec) and I we must own half the shop. And whilst I accept that she’s not everyone’s cup of tea, I can’t get enough of her cheery colours [...]

Tagged as , Cath Kidston, Cath Kidston branding in Branding, Powerful Branding

Powerful branding is something we could all use a bit of within our businesses. Powerful brands really add a tremendous amount of value to your business, make your working life a more fun (and frankly, profitable) place to be, and mean that you don’t have to be constantly looking over your shoulder at what your [...]

Tagged as in Branding, Powerful Branding

Welcome to my new series: Powerful Branding. Given that from next month I’ll be working through my Branding Masterclass with many of you, I thought that now would be the perfect time to focus the blog on what we really mean by Powerful Branding. And so over the next couple of weeks, expect a series [...]

Tagged as in Branding, Powerful Branding

Whether you’re sharing my fighting spirit and optimism from my last post, or you’re feeling a bit jaded after the seasonal festivities and a lack of direction I would love for you to join me on my Branding Masterclass. It’s an online class that starts on 6th Feb and runs for a month. You can [...]

Tagged as in Branding, Fiona's Book, Flourish Stuff, Inspirations, Marketing, Workshops

Are you all fired up and ready for the new year? I have to tell you, I am just bursting with creative energy right now and optimism for the year ahead. I think it’s going to be a really exciting year and I can’t wait to see what the future unfolds. We all had a [...]

Tagged as in Five Minutes to Focus, Flourish Stuff

I’ve been meaning to do a bit of a “roundup of the year” post for some time now but life keeps getting in the way. And then what do you know, the lovely Holly Becker at Decor8 blog posted her List Your Accomplishments post where she says: “Rather than think about what you didn’t accomplish [...]

Tagged as in Flourish Stuff

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year. Thank you for all your support this year, both with the business, the blog and the workshops, we have really appreciated it. We’ll be back in the new year with a whole host of exciting goodies for you. In the [...]

Tagged as in Flourish Stuff