Understanding Personal Search

0 comments

Posted on 29th January 2009 by admin in Uncategorized

I make it no secret that I am not a fan of personalised Search.  Google Wiki has taken SEO to the next level and in my mind it does nothing but make the task of an SEO near impossible.  Doesn’t it?

Well thats only one angle and perspective of the whole personal search debate.  Of course, as with everything there is another side to the story.

I approach personalised search from the point of view of an SEO.  Making SEO harder benefits Google.  How?  By eliminating the potential for ‘spammy’ sites and increasing its own popularity with searchers as they find content that is relevant to their search criteria.

Google is a brand, and an extremely strong brand at that.   So, as a small SEO in comparison we have to adapt and cater for their needs (as it were).

The call to actions here are:

  • Start working on building your brand, Google signaled this last year.
  • Step out of your comfort zone – don’t be afraid to learn new things.  Move with the times.
  • Adapt and give Google what it wants, don’t site their complaining that old tricks no longer work

Here is a talk by Ted Leonsis – a big wig from AOL – on one of this many talks.  After a few minutes of watching you will probably see just how personal search can help your business move to the next level.

What are sitemaps and how can they help my SEO project?

0 comments

Posted on 29th January 2009 by admin in Uncategorized

Firstly, what is a sitemap?

Sitemaps come in two different formats. A sitemap can either be a HTML page that shows a list of links to other pages in a web site, or it can be an XML file that acts as a database of the structure of the web site. This database is then read by tools such as Google’s Webmaster Tools when learning about a web site infrastructure for crawling purposes, thus improving your search engine visibility. XML Sitemaps are vitally important when it comes to Search Engine Optimisation of large web sites.

The real advantage of having a sitemap is that it allows people and search engines to delve deep into your web site for pages that they might not normally find. The other advantage is that it acts as a directory for your visitors, so they can browse the directory looking for the page that is of interest to them.

Sitemaps are play an important part of any medium-large sized web site. If you are finding that you have too many links to include on the home page of your web site, then its time to use a site map.

HTML Sitemaps, that is the web page that acts as a directory of your site, are really easy to create. They are basically just web pages with a list of hyperlinks to the different pages around your site.

XML Sitemaps are a little more complexed in that they use an XML based data structure. This structure has to follow certain guidelines to enable the search engines to understand it. There are tools and web sites on the market that help you generate these.

The importance of your keyword Strategy in SEO

0 comments

Posted on 29th January 2009 by admin in Uncategorized

Your marketing strategy may be made up of a number of different sources such as web sites, blogs, article submissions and social media channels, but in any of the above situations using the correct keywords, correctly, is essential.

Search Engine Optimisation can have a dramatic effect on your business.  Do it well and site visits and sales can increase, do it badly and the results of your marketing efforts are greatly reduced.

Keyword strategys are a fundemental part of any SEO project.

Proper keyword optimisation can yield excellent Search Engine rankings, and therefore a higher number of site visitors.
The search engines use the text on your site to identify the relevance of your site against the search phrase that the ‘search user’ entered.  If you don’t use enough keywords you will suffer, and likewise if you cram too many keywords into your copy you will get penalised.

There are three main areas that you should focus on when it comes to keywords.  Accuracy, Positioning and frequency.

Accuracy

Keywords should be relevant to the topic of your web site.  Search Engines are very clever when it comes to understanding the relevance of the copy on your site through technqiues such as LSI.  If you don’t follow the strict practices of white-hat SEO you can quickly find yourself buried in the rankings.

Positioning

The placement of your keywords on the page is absolutely essential.  Where possible use the keywords in the title of your page (even name your page using keywords if you can), and also use them in the description of your page.  The description is often picked up by the search engines and displayed in the search results.

Remember that your copy must make gramatical sense.  Google can pick up on that aswell. Write you copy for the site visitor, not for the search engines.

Frequency

Don’t get carried away with key words in your copy.  It’s easy to over use key words and phrases to grab the attention of the search engines.  Keyword spamming or stuffing is generally marked down when it comes to SEO, and could end up dropping your site down a few pages in the rankings.

The big question is what weighting should you look at when it comes to using keywords.  Opinions vary as there is no strict rule, but anything between 2-5% of the copy as keywords is generally safe.  There are many free keyword density tools on the market to help you in the right direction.

Finally, never forget the golden rule. Be natural with your copy.  Write it for humans, not for Search Engines.

Does Google show bias with search results?

0 comments

Posted on 29th January 2009 by admin in Uncategorized

A quick snippet for the day

Have you seen the suggestion tool used by Google when it thinks you have misspelt an item?  It tries to correct it for you – very helpful indeed, thank you Mr Google.

Or maybe there is a cunning plan up its sleeves.  What if the intention is to direct you to look at specific content through these suggestions. The nature of Google’s results is very important if for nothing else but the fact that so many people rely on the search engine for obtaining information. Some people think there is a bias there, but is that really the case?

Discuss…..

The Google Algorithms – Latent Semantic Indexing

0 comments

Posted on 29th January 2009 by admin in Uncategorized

As an SEO I can spend much time trying to work on how Google indexes sites.  Unfortunately this is a secret that Google (rightly) keeps close to it’s chest and no SEO can claim to know exactly how it works.

This post explores the LSI technique.  Just one of the many Algorithms that we beleive Google has in place.

Latent Semantic Indexing

Ok, I will try not to get too heavy here, but basically LSI is all about processing language. Latent semantic indexing allows a search engine to determine what a page is about outside of specifically matching search query text.  It considers the natural flow of the text and the relationship between words on a page.   The purpose of LSI is to distinguish between natural text (i.e. text written for the site visitor to read) and keyword-heavy text (text inserted by the SEO to try and improve the ranking of the page).

LSI is designed to set apart text designed to manipulate search results.   For example, if you are writing an article on Golf Putting aids it will scan the article and pick up words such as Golfer, Driver, Green, Golf Course, Putting, Golf Club etc

LSI is the reason that SEO’s should write natural copy on their pages, and not cram them with keywords.

Article Submissions and SEO

0 comments

Posted on 29th January 2009 by admin in Uncategorized

There are numerous other, possibly more effective ways of SEO that have been suggested to you. But article submission is still a very popular amongst Search Engine Companies. This is because article marketing has a rich history in print media–think of ‘expert’ columns in magazines and newspapers–its online applications can be just as effective at attracting traffic and publicity. Thus, you enjoy the twin benefits of optimizing your site as well as generation of huge traffic to your site.

Article Submission and Traffic Generation

A website owner can write an article, distribute it, and increase their traffic through the links in the ‘About the Author’ section. The reader of the article gets expert knowledge for free and the online marketer gets free or very low-cost advertising. If the article is very well written, the website owner can be sure that readers will definitely click on the link given in the ‘About the Author’ section. Hence, by having a detailed interaction with your target audience, you can inform them more about your business and the various benefits of doing business with you.

Article Submission and SEO

Search engine optimization and article marketing go hand in hand. When an expert writes an article, they will naturally use the keywords that pertain to their niche. Hence by writing an ‘optimized’ article, you can get your article to rank well in search engines and drive traffic through the article.

Apart from this, every time one of the articles containing a link to the author’s site is published online, more links pointing to that site are put into place. Search engines detect those incoming links and award a higher search engine ranking based on the number of links and the relative search engine rankings of the linking sites.

Secret to Success

However to make your article submission campaign successful, you need to ensure a positive user experience. To provide a positive experience for your readers and encourage future repeat traffic, you need to choose your article content carefully. Providing valuable content to the Internet community is what article marketing was meant to do! Distributing articles with high-quality content does more than gain an initial surge in traffic and a higher search engine ranking. It also establishes the site with loyal readers who will keep coming back on their own.

What does all of this mean for you when you are in the early stages of designing your Web site? Web design can easily be geared toward search engine optimization. By including quality content articles on your own site, you provide a reason for casual visitors to stay and look around. When coupled with article marketing, this online marketing method is an effective way to increase your odds of attracting and retaining prospective clients.

However, over aggressive article marketing can produce excessive redundant content which may be flagged as spam by some search engines.

SEO – Some frequently asked questions

0 comments

Posted on 29th January 2009 by admin in Uncategorized

We are often asked questions with regards to Search Engine Optimisation, whats involved, how much it costs and how long its going to take.  Here a few FAQ’s to help get the ball rolling for anyone considering SEO.

What is search engine optimisation?

Search engines have different criterion to measure web page importance. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of increasing the importance of a web page with the goal of getting the page positioned at the top of the search results.

How long will it take for my web site to get to the top of the search engines?

Most often SEO is a long term process. Getting a new site indexed in the major search engines could take several days to a few months. But getting good positioning in the search engine is a longer process and can take up to a year or longer. There is no way to determine how long it will take to achieve desired positioning. Patience is the key to search engine optimisation.

How much traffic will my web site gain from SEO?

The traffic you get will depend on what keyword phrases you optimise your web pages for and what positioning your site achieves. If you optimize for less competitive keyword phrases you may gain a top position but receive very little traffic. Optimising for competitive keyword phrases and achieving a top position will increase your traffic. However, if you are optimised for the wrong keyword phrases you could achieve higher traffic that results in low conversions.

What will you do to optimise my web site?

Current SEO trends include: back linking, html and title tags, content copy, anchor link text and keyword analysis. Depending on your situation all or a few of these methods will be used.

How often will you submit my site to the search engines?

Your web site should only need submitting to the search engines once.  Submitting to search engines is an outdated SEO technique. With proper back linking major search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask Jeeves will crawl and index your site naturally. Most of the smaller search engines pull their information from the major search engines and directories such as Google, Yahoo and DMOZ, so there is no need to submit to the smaller search engines. Time is better spent back linking to relevant web sites and submitting to relevant directories.

How much does SEO cost?

SEO services range from several hundred pounds to thousands. Some web site owners spend over £20,000 per year on search engine optimization. Many SEOs will custom a SEO package to fit your budget. Our average price is around £5,000 per year.

What is backlinking?

Backlinking, or link campaign, is one of the most important aspects of the SEO process. Back linking involves getting other relevant web sites to create links to your web site. The text used in your back links is also very important. It should contain your most desirable keyword phrases. Many web sites have very high positioning in Google without meeting any other SEO criterion except for back links.

Do you pay to have my site listed in a search engine?

No, we do not pay for inclusion into any search engine; however, we do occasionally purchase back links.

Do you offer a guarantee?

No SEO can guarantee a position in the search engines, but you shoud look for guarantees that your web site will be optimised by current SEO trends and requirements and that your positioning will improve. We do not guarantee a particular position in any search engine, nor do we guarantee any particular amount of traffic or sales improvements.

Why do I need search engine optimisation?

SEO is essential to increasing your web presence. SEO takes research and patience, and if you are running an e-commerce web site without SEO then you are missing out on one of your greatest Internet traffic resources. SEO can make the difference between success or failure of an e-commerce venture.

Why does search engine optimisation take so long?

As search engine optimisers, we are sometimes competing with millions of web pages for positioning of a single web page. Many of these web pages are highly optimized due to being several years old and having thousands of back links, therefore, establishing a web presence among these highly optimized web pages is often a long term project requiring considerable effort.

Why did my web site disappear from Google?

Assuming your web site wasn’t penalised for spamming or over optimising, your web site might have disappeared due to the Google sandbox or other delays. It is very common for a new web site to disappear from Google for up to a year. Many in the professional SEO community believe this is a type of a web site quality control technique being used by Google. There is really nothing that can be done about the disappearance of a web site except to use the time wisely . The best approach during this period is to gain relevant back links and continue to improve on your web page content.

Google Pagerank – Essential Tool or Gimmick?

0 comments

Posted on 29th January 2009 by admin in Uncategorized

Page Rank plays an important part in Search Engine Optimsation.

Firstly, let me explain what Google PageRank is. It’s an algorithm by which Google measures the relative importance of individual web pages. Most people probably know of Page Rank as the little green bar in the web browser which is part of the Google Toolbar pack.

Page ranking is scored on a scale of 0-10, with zero being the lowest and 10 being top of the class. Very, very few pages actually achieve a 10. The score on the Google Toolbar isn’t the actual ranking of the page – no one but Google knows the exact algorithm used to calculate page rank but it is thought that it updates page rank information every 3 months. It is widely said that the ranking gauge on the Google Toolbar does not show current data.

The aim of the search engines is to provide relevant content to their users. For this reason alone they keep their ranking methods close to their chests and make frequent changes.

I have read many times over that people become obsessed with Page rank. Infact, they probably become more obsessed with the toolbar pagerank that the actual position of their pages in the search results. For this reason alone many people believe that the Google Toolbar version of page rank is simply a gimmick. One that has created a lot of fuss and speculation.

Not only do people get obsessed with page rank but it also creates sense of pride, envy and increased prices for sales of links. As daft as it sounds, those same two things that pay you more money for having “good pagerank”, can just as easily cause your pagerank to decrease.

Google tries to discourage the sale of links to increase page rank by penalising people of sell links. If you buy a text link on a page with good PageRank, and use a keyword rich anchor text for the link, it boosts the web page you are advertising for that keyword phrase. This is an obvious manipulation of the search results – which is why Google is discouraging and penalising sites who participate in such activity.

However, all this being said, Google Page Rank is still a real world ranking criteria that determines search engine results. However, this is Google’s real Page Rank, and not the Toolbar Page Rank.

Google Wiki – The dawn of personal search

0 comments

Posted on 29th January 2009 by admin in Uncategorized

First of all, what is Google’s Search Wiki? It’s a brand new dynamic tool that has just been released that enables you to customise the search engine results for anyone term when you are signed in to your Google account.

This means that I can prioritise my search engine listings and put whatever site I want at the top of my list for any given search phrase.  These results will then only show whilst I am logged into my Google Account.    Once I log out the normal Google page results appear.

The facility for users to edit and customise their own search results will surely have en effect on search engine traffic and if your page is not the page that the user likes best then they are not going to rank it, they may delete it or just send it to the bottom of the lisings.

I’ve always said that, no matter where you rank, your Meta Title and Description tags are the most important on your page as it is what the search users see’s on the Google listings.  I now believe that they are even more important as they could decide if the search user promotes or removes them from the customised search results.

Nobody knows for certain about what is going to happen with regards to Search Engine Optimisation following the introduction of this new Google service.  However, I am slightly concerned about the way it may or may not affect Search Engine Optimisation in a negative way.  There may also be positives that come out of it though so it might not all be doom and gloom!

What will Search Wiki mean for new businesses who wan’t to promote their products and services?  How will the search user viewing their ‘preferred’ results be made aware of new, exciting web sites?

There are certainly a lot of questions that need answering right now.  Right now I think that it’s probably a bit of a novelty rather than a useful tool.

I certainly won’t be using the feature, not in the short term anyway, but I will be keeping an eye on the progress of its development and integration and the way that it will shape SEO for the future.

What does 2009 hold for SEO?

0 comments

Posted on 29th January 2009 by admin in Uncategorized

We are currently riding through tough economic times on a global scale, and online marketing and SEO companies will need to prove their value and worth even more in 2009.

So what will we see from SEO in 2009? In the eyes of many, Search Engine Optimisation is already dead and has been replaced by Online Marketing. Same thing right? Well, yes and no. Search Engine Optimisation could be said to be a part of Online Marketing.

In 2009 it is forcasted that search will become more personalised. We have already seen this with the introduction of Googles new personalised search results tool – Google Wiki – towards the end of 2008.

2009 should be focused on five Search Engine Metrics:

1. Non-Branded Search Engine (Organic) Referrals – that is search engine results and click throughs from organic search results. Sure, this is where SEO as we know it comes into play – getting the positions that people can find.

2. Bounce Rate – a metric that we all love. Lowering bounce rate should be of huge significance in 2009. Make your content more appealing and let them find it fast.

3. Time Spent on Site – closely related to bounce rate is the amount of time spent on your site. This metric helps you to find out what is working on your site and what isn’t.

4. Subscribers to Your Content – personalisation is becoming more and more popular with the average searcher. As a result, rankings in this sense are irrelevant. However one area that you will need to monitor as personalisation and blended search become more common is tracking the users that are subscribing to your content. For example, your RSS feed subscribers to your blog(s), the number of followers that you have on Twitter, the number of people subscribing to your YouTube channel. These social subscribers can provide a lot of insight into how people are engaging with your web properties and with your brand online.

5. Site Search – how users are engaging with your site’s search functionality. Besides Google, you would think that internal site search is a popular activity when users land on your site. This engagement metric provides you with additional insight into what keywords and topics people are looking for when they arrive on your site. The fact that they are using your internal site search may also be an indication that they are not finding the information that they are looking for when arriving on your site. In 2009, engagement metrics such as site search will become even more important in understanding the searching habits of your site visitors. Are they looking for demos? Perhaps they are looking for video content. Whatever the case may be, look for this metric to become more important in 2009.