For those of you who do not know what SEO stands for, it’s Search Engine Optimisation. What this means is that through the use of various techniques which are backed up by healthy doses of technology, people using the internet via search engines (Google, Yahoo, Ask, MSN etc) will find your website more easily. If you run a business, this means that leads, and thus sales, will increase.

In order to achieve the increase in internet search generated leads and sales, an SEO expert, such as Milan based Sean Carlos, Antezeta’s president, can help you.

Sean, who has worked in various big name organisations, including Pirelli and Hewlett Packard, knows plenty about SEO. This is something to which I can attest seeing as, as one expat to another, he has been helping me out with the SEO aspects of this blog. Sean is also up to date with the latest technology and, through his knowledge of Italian, German and English, can help sites raise their profiles in a variety of European markets.

In addition to its SEO related work, Antezeta can help unravel the complexities of Web Analytics. For the uninitiated, Web Analytics is the interpretation of the heaps of data that the average website collects on site usage – pages, visitors and the like. Through the analysis of such data, an SEO expert, such as Sean, can understand what works and what does not with regard to a website. Indeed, Sean has worked with the Web Analytics Association and the University of British Columbia to produce what is probably the first known Web Analytics course. This indicates that Antezeta really can help you to interpret and benefit from all those statistics your site creates.

Personality, or your website’s theme

However, SEO is not as simple as just sorting out the statistics, oh no. Many sites have a particular personality, and attract visitors with particular characteristics, and Sean can help webmasters understand how to keep a site’s character closely matched to its visitors, both existing and future. Antezeta also offers site usability advice to help you keep those visitors once they’ve reached you.

As Sean well knows, SEO can be an ongoing process, and results often do not happen over night, unless paid advertising like Google’s AdWords is employed to draw visitors into a site. Sean does advocate a merit-based SEO traffic model for the best medium to long-term results. Perhaps a better term may be ‘authority related traffic‘, for the secret to this technique revolves around a combination of good content and efficient SEO optimisation. The relationship between these two elements raises a site’s authority in the ‘eyes’ of many search engines, with the net result being increased well targeted traffic. Read higher sales, ad income, etcetera.

SEO in Italy vs. the UK

Now, although many in the UK have yet to cotton on to the benefits of good SEO, Italy is even further behind. According to Sean, in Italy’s case, this is partially down to the reduced level of internet usage here, and partially due to a basic lack of understanding of just how essential search engines are to the performance of a website or web based business. In Sean’s estimation it’s going to be around five to ten years before Italy catches up with the rest of the world in terms of internet usage. However, I beg to differ. Why? Because things like Wi-Fi, WiMAX and better more portable internet surfing devices will mean that more Italians get on-line. And once mobile phones provide good fast internet access at a low cost, I believe that Italians will be all over the world wide web.

Ready to profit from Milan’s 2015 World Expo?

Even if you agree with Sean, or tend towards my view, adopting an SEO strategy now is going to give your on-line businesses a head start over slow off the mark rivals. And, for Italian webmasters who wish to attract visitors from outside of Italy, SEO will, literally, pay dividends. It may also be worth remembering that in 2015, the World Expo is coming to Milan, and this event will raise the profile of the city both in real terms and virtually. Thus, a site that has worked at SEO will be in a much stronger position with regard to attracting business generated on the back of the Expo event. The same obviously goes for non-Italian web based businesses who wish to create Expo generated leads.

Next steps for SEO success

If you would like to face the future confidently, and you run a business with a sizeable web presence, then contacting Sean would be a very wise thing to do. For the moment, Antezeta is concentrating on the more far sighted medium to big business market, but that is not to say that Sean’s company will never be offering its services to smaller companies.

As a matter of interest, Sean has already carried out a brief SEO audit of Blog from Italy, and, I’m pleased to report that my mainly inadvertent SEO tactics just about passed his initial examination. He also kindly told me what I need to improve to achieve the results I’d like to see. Thanks Sean!

For more information about Antezeta SEO services and Sean, visit the Antezeta site, with free SEO resources, also in Italian and German. And don’t forget to check out Sean’s SEO related blog. This article first appeared on Blog from Italy.

Formed in 1991, Palmer Studio Legale, has always been a forward thinking law firm. Indeed, its inception centred around the need to provide legal advice and support to clients working within the European common market.

Today, Palmer, which now has offices in Milan, Bologna, Venice and Geneva, offers advice, consultancy, and assistance to both domestic and foreign clients.

The firm has extensive experience in the following practice areas:

• litigation
• arbitration
• out-of-court legal assistance services
• mergers & acquisitions, including cross-border transactions
• private equity
• company law
• commercial law
• contracts
• tax
• banking and finance matters
• bankruptcy and debt restructuring,
• patents, intellectual property
• information technology law
• antitrust
• real estate
• entertainment
• labour and employment
• criminal law
• administrative law

Although most of Palmer’s professional staff are English speakers, other languages including German and Hebrew are also spoken. Indeed, Palmer provides advice to clients as far a field as China.

Palmer Studio legale can be found in the following locations:

MILAN

Via Cosimo del Fante, 4
20122 Milano
Tel. (+39) 02 58310113
Telefax (+39) 02 58310377
02 58321173
E-mail:
milano@palmer-legal.com

BOLOGNA

Via Castiglione, 101
40136 Bologna
Tel. (+39) 051 584093
Telefax (+39) 051 3396898
E-mail:
bologna@palmer-legal.com

VENICE

S. Croce, P.le Roma n° 466/G
30135 Venezia
Tel. (+39) 041 9641280
Telefax (+39) 041 8109971
E-mail:
venezia@palmer-legal.com

GENEVE

40, Rue du Rhône
CH – 1204 Genève
Tel. (+41)(0) 223102552
Tel. (+41)(0) 225948170
E-mail:
geneve@palmer-legal.com

Palmer Studio legale are hiring at the moment:

The following positions are presently available in our Milan and Bologna offices:

• 1 fully licensed lawyer with a minimum experience of 5 years in the field of contract drafting and M&A.

• 1 fully licensed lawyer with a minimum experience of 5 years in litigation and arbitration.

• 2 trainee lawyers with a minimum Italian university degree mark of 100 or equivalent.

Priority will be given to applicants who have studied or worked abroad.

If you are able to work both in Italian and in English and you wish to develop or hone your professional skills in an international environment that is both challenging and motivating, then please send your CV to the following e-mail address:

opportunities@palmer-legal.com

Reddy’s Group is a Milan based Italian real estate consultancy that specializes in valuations, due diligence, property management, development advice and appraisal. The company’s main clients are banks, property developers, and investment funds.

However Reddy’s Group will provide advice to any company or individual interested in property development or acquisition in Italy.

In order to ensure and maintain high standards of service and professionalism, Reddy’s group’s founder, Alberto M. Lunghini, pays close attention to the British real estate association – the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and is also an active member of the RICS in Italy. Indeed, to help promote standardisation and consistency in the Italian real estate market, Mr Lunghini is also the founder member of an Italian association, AICI, that is an Italian equivalent of the United Kingdom’s RICS.

Many of Reddy’s Group staff are specialists in their own fields and are able to offer advice based on their experience and, more importantly, extensive local knowledge. Being part of the Italian real estate network enables them to provide their clients with an accurate insight into the Italian market. Reddy’s is actively involved in seeking new ways to exploit the wide range of opportunities the Italian property market presents. Currently, this potential is not being fully realised, due, in part, to high levels of bureaucracy which exist in Italy. While all the red tape can be negotiated, the staff and services of Reddy’s can help both smooth out and speed up progress along what is a potentially rough and tortuous road. Additionally, Reddy’s Group is actively attempting to align Italian real estate practice to those that exist in other European countries and at international level. The aim being, ultimately, to allow to the Italian property market to flow as smoothly as possible, so that it becomes as straightforward to do real estate business in Italy as it is in countries such as the United Kingdom and in the United States.

In fact, those who are interested in venturing into the Italian property market will be pleased to hear that Reddy’s is able to meet the demands of international clients, and many of Reddy’s professional staff speak English. Indeed, Alberto M. Lunghini, the company chief, speaks excellent English, which means that he and his staff are capable of explaining the more complex aspects of Italian property laws and regulations, including, for example, the intricacies of Italian planning legislation. The provision of clear, concrete advice means that crucial decisions can be taken more quickly, and this leads, in turn to the loss of fewer opportunities.

Although Reddy’s provides a full range of support to those considering the purchase or sale of property assets in Italy, it should be pointed out that the Group, due to Italian legislative restrictions, is unable to provide agency services and therefore cannot directly sell and acquire property.

If you are looking for a company with a high degree professionalism and with comprehensive knowledge of the Italian real estate market and maybe you are considering a medium to large scale development, acquisition, or require an accurate valuation, then Reddy’s group should be one of your first ports of call.