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Hot Weather Equals Pool Maintenance Time

The hot pre-summer weather is out in full force and it’s time to start thinking about the 3 s’s: slurpees, suntanning, and swimming. For Melbournians lucky enough to have a swimming pool, it’s also time to make sure that it’s still in a usable condition after a lengthy layoff during the winter months.

The last thing you want to do is pull back the pool cover and find the build up of pond scum, or worse yet, a ringtail possum floating there motionless. And if your pool pump or filter isn’t working properly, there is bound to be other gunk building up! With regular swimming pool maintenance you can ensure your pool and spa are in tip top shape, and ready for your mates to come round for a bbq and beers one Sunday afternoon.

With the AFL finals, Spring Carnival and Christmas all coming up, your swimming pool is the perfect location to unwind and cool off after a busy day socialising and enjoying the many things our city has to offer at this time of year! All Seasons Pumps is your one stop shop for both products to look after your pool, and maintenance guys to come and fix any problems or perform installations for you.

September 19, 2011
Searching For Search Engine Optimisation Experts
The latest buzz word in marketing these days is SEO and if you haven’t heard of it, then you are falling behind your competitors. Even if you’re well aware of search engine optimisation, is your website benefitting from it as much as it should? There are endless companies claiming to get you high rankings on Google but unless you know what you’re paying for, you might actually be throwing money away.

The most important things to look for with an SEO company are transparency, and realistic offers. Don’t be afraid to ask what you’re paying for. If the company is legit, they will be only too happy to share with you the techniques they will be implementing. If a company makes a lot of promises that seem to good to be true, they probably are. Guarantees in SEO should be taken with a grain of salt, as Google is always changing and not even the experts can promise something definitively.

Some of the main ranking factors that are always tried and true include:
- backlinks (but quality of quantity, natural and contextual are crucial)
- keywords (mentioned in title, description and content, but again naturally)
- user experience (can they find their way around the site)
- quality content that satisfies the user
- fast page load speed and minimal site errors
Elliot Dean from Temerity Digital tells us that search engine optimisation is an ongoing process that should be done gradually, and consistently, through a number of avenues. Link building is the key to building popularity and thus high rankings, and attaining links from a number of sources is paramount. These should include links on other contextual websites, article submissions, blog postings, business directory listings, social network pages, and more. For high quality search engine optimisation you should receive regular reports and notice strong changes to your rankings as the SEO campaign progresses.

Website Usability

Ensuring your website provides a good user experience is becoming more and more crucial to securing good rankings on Google. Online user testing from a company such as TestMate (Melbourne born and bred might I add) can help website owners figure out potential problems or errors on their site, as well as improving the design so it’s easy to navigate and take action. This not only provides a better user experience (helping with Google rankings) but it also increases the conversion rates on the site, improving a business’s ROI.

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August 19, 2011
Do You Need A Recruitment Consultant?

Finding a suitable person to fill a role at a company is never an easy task. You ideally want someone with high levels of experience, strong work ethic, good social skills and time management skills, and someone who works well with others.

What seem like fairly standard skills can be quite hard to find on a regular basis, and employing a poor staff member can be to the detriment of your business. As an employer, you may not necessarily have the eye for a good employee, even if you know what you need done.

Furthermore, you may not have time to sit down and interview a dozen people, when there are important business deals to be made, and work to be done. For all these reasons, you may want to consider a recruitment consultant to help you find the right staff member. You can save money by hiring them for the duration of the process, rather than putting them on full time themselves.

These consultants are HR people, meaning they are experienced in human resources, rather than sales. So rather than just filling the role, they will fill it with someone suitable!

July 12, 2011
Promotional Models A Hot Marketing Tool

Getting your product exposure is one of the key factors in the success of any business. Sure, having a quality product (or service) is very important, but if no-one knows about it, then you’re still not going to make sales. Currently, a major tool in brand management is the use of promotional models.

Promo staff are employed by your business to “get your name” out there. Whether it be through handing out flyers, greeting people at a trade show, or walking around wearing clothing with your branding, it’s a good way to get noticed. You have probably noticed promotional models at the train station when you’re commuting too and from work. A lot of the time they are handing out free samples of a new snack or drink.

Most Melbournian’s love free stuff, but obviously not all companies can give away samples of what they offer. That’s why promo girls and guys are great. People might be hesitant to take a flyer from some random person standing around, but if it’s a colourful, attractive friendly person with good social skills, your success rate increases rapidly. If you’re looking to promote your business further and generate new leads, then promo staff are definitely worth considering.

June 2, 2011
Fencing Contractors Ideal For New Housing Estates

If you’ve recently bought a new home in one of Melbourne’s ever-growing housing estates, congratulations on getting into the property market. Despite a recent pullback in the median house prices in Australia’s most liveable city, it is still out of reach of many Melbournians.

Choosing to go a bit further out from the city centre, such as Caroline Springs, Cranbourne, Berwick, Melton, Keysborough, Pakenham and many more, can give you a large modern house and land for an affordable price. This is perfect for growing families that have a low to medium budget. When buying a new place such as this, you should also look into a new fence. These supply added security and privacy which can be lacking on these newly built blocks of land, and also gives your place some uniqueness and character.

There are numerous types of fences you may want to consider such as paling, timber, picket and merbau fencing. These are ideal in multi-unit developments. And the good fencing contractors will be able to tell you what sort of fence is most suitable for your area, and your specific house. Not only will the new fence provide an additional safety feature and give your place more of a homely feel, it is also a good investment and will increase the value of your asset moving forward.

May 30, 2011
Trauma Cover Can Save You Financially

Most Melbourne’s have health insurance but very few of us have trauma insurance. This means we are covered for any hospital stays and operations (after the excess), but it doesn’t help out if we suffer a serious accident or get diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Over 100,000 new cases of cancer were diagnosed in 2010. Cardiovascular disease affects more than 3.4 million Australians. These numbers are scary yet the majority of us don’t have trauma cover protection. A trauma insurance policy will pay out a lump sum for anyone diagnosed with a serious illness or suffers a heart attack or major accident.

With the cost of living in Melbourne and around the country rising all the time, it can be important to protect against unexpected occurances, and have money to pay any medical bills, as well as ongoing costs such as mortgages and school fees for our families.

April 13, 2011
Mobile Car Detailing Services You Can Trust

If you’re like most Melbourne car owners, time is precious to you. As well as working long hours, you are probably also spending 20 hours (or more) a week in your car. So you should at least feel comfortable in your vehicle and have it clean since you’re in it or such a large portion of the time. The catch is, with all the time spent in your car, you don’t have time to get it cleaned.

That’s where a mobile car detailer can help. They come to your own location, whether it be home or even work, and bring their own power and water. You just need to organise the time, and sit back and have them take care of it. But how do you choose a good company?

Been Detailed is one I would highly recommend for all your car detailing needs. They are a mobile company and cover all areas of Melbourne. In my view they are the best car detailers in terms of quality, reliability and price, and their site even provides general information on car detailing and vehicle cleaning.

April 11, 2011
Melbourne River Cruises to the Footy

Footy season is back in full swing and what better way to go to the game than by boat. Williamstown Charters is offering fun boat cruises to all AFL footy games at Etihad Stadium this season, which is a great idea for fans of all ages.

Go with your mates and have a few pre-game beers as you enjoy the relaxing river cruise down Melbourne’s waterways, or take the family and sit back and look at the scenery. The boat leaves from Williamstown Gem Pier 90 minutes before each game, and leaves half an hour after the match.

There is complimentary finger food provided to all people on board, and your captain Mick will make sure you have a great time, not only at the game, but to and from as well.

April 8, 2011