The Internet is now an important tool for any business.  Due to the number of web sites and businesses that are now online, is it any wonder that there has been an increase in the number of SEO ‘Consultants’ over the last few years?   There is no doubt that the demand for good SEO practioners is high and personally I feel that the phrase ‘you get what you pay for’ is entirely relevant in this niche.

The problem with so many SEO’s is that simply don’t have the skills to effectively carry out an SEO campaign, and yet they still charge premium rates.  The other problem however, is that many businesses go for the cheaper option which ends up in tears as the campaign doesn’t live up to expectations.

So how do you choose the right SEO?

Firstly, check to see how their own web site ranks within Google.  If they can optimise their own site there is a good chance that they know what they are doing and their methods are effective.  This is especially true for SEO companies, who operate in a very competitive field in terms of search results.  The thing to remember here is that each industry is different.  That’s right.   Whilst techniques remain the same some industrys are considerably more competitive than others in the search engines – so will the cost of your campaign give you enough man hours to compete with the top dogs in the listings?

Does your potentional SEO offer just Google results, or do they throw other search engines into the mix aswell?  It’s important that they don’t just focus on one search engine – after all why cut off a % of searchers that might end up putting online business in your direction?

If you are a small business, with a small budget, then you should consider local SEO.  This would mean that you can get a presence on Google for localised search terms (e.gStaffordshire Plumber).  This route would probably see quicker results and ROI for you business than simply optimising for the term plumber.  After all, even if you ranked number one for the term plumber, is it likely that a search in Inverness is going to land you a job?  Highly unlikely.

There are a number of tricks and promises that you need to remember to stay away from.  Some of these include:

• Promises of certain positions within the search engines
• Submissions to 1000’s of search engines on a regular basis

Still not sure?  OK – when you speak to your SEO make sure you ask them a few searching questions:

• What sort of metrics do they measure the campaign on?
• Does the proposal look solid, built on common sense?  Have they offered suggestions on how their campaign will help your site or is it very much cloak and dagger?  SEO isn’t a secret so your consultant shouldn’t make it one.  Find out what techniques they are using.
• Do they promote silly gaurantees such as No.1 in 24 hours?
• Have they provided you with keyword research, showing you keywords that will actually drive you relevant traffic to your web site.
• Does the campaign include optimisation of your existing web pages, link building, social media, metrication and Search Engine Marketing or does it just pick certain elements out of these?

Dont be afraid to ask for samples of the consultants work.  See if they have any testimonials and if possible contact the companies that they have worked with to get a better picture of their methods.  Usually if the consultant refuses to give you references it’s a sign to walk away.

One of the bets ways to find the right consultant is to get a recommendation direct from an existing customer.  This is something that I have been very successful with in the past.

This post was written by Ian Sheldon, an SEO Consultant and founder of UK SEO Company, eSoftware Solutions.  If you are looking for help with your back link campaign then why not get in touch with us on 0845 838 8588 or email info@esoftware-solutions.com

If you are a SEO that is probably a question you hear on a regular basis.  For many people, SEO is a quick fix.  They think it is something that you do to a web site to move it onto the front page of the Search Engines, without any appreciation of, or concept of what is involved and how long it takes.

It’s vitally important to note that Search Engine Optimisation isn’t, and never will be, an overnight process.  Any SEO Company claiming to be able to get to the top of the search engines in 24 hours needs to be avoided.

The positioning of your web site can depend on many factors.  With established sites it will be easier to get them to move up the sites quicker than with a new build.  Google needs to establish trust with your site, and this can take time.

SEO is all about natural growth and persistance.  A good SEO will deliver sustainable results over time.  If your site doesn’t rank overnight, or in certain situations even within 2-3 months then don’t panic – its perfectly normal.

If you have a new web site then the best way to get it indexed quickly is with relevant back links.  By relevant, I mean that the source of these back links comes from a web page that is topically relevant to your own.  For example we have just launched a site at www.destination-lanzarote.com and we have contacted property owners and tourism web sites to seek back links to our web site from them.

As the Google guidelines explain:

“The best way to ensure Google finds your site, is for your pages to be linked from lots of pages on other sites. Google’s robots jump from page to page on the Web via hyperlinks, so the more sites that link to you, the more likely it is that we’ll find you quickly.”

There are a number of different ways that you can create backlinks and promote your web site.  They don’t just have to come from 3rd party web sites.

For example, the following activities can help to build your backlink count:

• Write articles relevant to your website content and submit them to article directories.  Article directories normally allow for at least 2 backlinks in a resource box
• Submit your web site to web directories, but make sure you post the links in relevant categories to give your link some relevance
• Trade links with other site owners, again making sure that the source page is relevant to your site
• Write a blog, or contribute to existing blogs
• Participate in forums that are relevant to the topic of your website and put a URL link in your signature
• Use social media channels such as Digg, Twitter and Delicious

Link building isn’t easy, not surprising when you realise the value of a good back link.  It pays off to research and search the web for sites with relevant content.  It may sounds like a time consuming exercise but with SEO there are no shortcuts.

It is also very important to consider the anchor text of your back links.  You should always use your chosen keywords in your anchor text, and make sure they link back to a relevant page for that keyword (they don’t all have to go back to your homepage you know, deep links can be very useful).    The anchor text is the text that appears to be clickable to site visitors, for example:

Holidays in Lanzarote

Ideally, your link building campaign should be spread out over time.  This makes it appear like natural link growth to Google.  If you do too much too soon it could be flagged as SPAM which could seriously harm the chances of your site ranking well.

This post was written by Ian Sheldon, an SEO Consultant and founder of UK SEO Company, eSoftware Solutions.  If you are looking for help with your back link campaign then why not get in touch with us on 0845 838 8588 or email info@esoftware-solutions.com

Although PageRank is not really a useful metric to SEOs (its often out of date) its a nice ‘trophy’ to advertise how popular your web site is.  After all we all like to see a healthy green bar on the Google toolbar don’t we?

How has this update affected your PageRank?

Search made some great strides in 2009, and we saw alot of changes to the way that search engines deliver results to users.  The recent introduction of real time search (providing results from Social Media Channels such as Twitter) was probably the most significant change this year.

Search also became very personalised in 2009, with the introduction of Google Wiki.  This allows users to manage their own results (through promotion of or removal of) when they are signed into their Google account.  At the time this was seen as a potential problem for SEO consultants, but in fairness I think it has done more to enhance the experience of search for the end user.

Of course, its difficult to talk about 2009 and not mention the introduction of BING.   Even if you still haven’t been convinced or are not a big fan Bing seems to have had a clear influence on Google.  If it wasn’t for Bing we may have been still waiting for real time search results for example. 

It’s also hard to forget the Google broke its own search results (well, here in the UK anyway) during 2009.  Thousands of UK searchers were being delivered US relative results.  I know that this caused many SEO’s problems for a short period of time.

We have also seen the introduction of and extreme growth of many Search and Social Media Tools .  Twitter is probably the cherry on the icing on the cake, as millions of internet users and businesses ‘Tweet’ to make themselves heard.  Google Wave, a  personal communication and collaboration tool, was also introduced through ‘invitation’ to around 100,000 users.  We think that Wave will make great strides in the first quarter of 2010.

I am sure 2010 will be a very interesting year for search.

Happy New Year!

It’s that time when us SEO’s start to look forward to the new year, and what challenges and changes it brings to the world of Search Engine Optimisation.  2009 saw alot of change and revelations such as Google denying the duplicate content penalty, changes to Page Rank sculpting and the introduction of real time social media being included in search results.

So what challenges will 2010 present us with?  Here are my top 5 predictions.

1. Real Time Search will be huge in 2010 – but to what benefit?

The growth of social networking sites, such as Twitter, simply cannot be ignored.  Late in 2009 Microsoft started to include real time social media feeds in their results pages, and Google promptly followed.  However, this isn’t neccesarily good for SEO as it potentially detracts from the need for quality content and inbound links.  Why not just tweet about a topic in order to get noticed?   The flip side of this is that real time search surely can only show the results for seconds as live results will change nearly every millisecond.

2. Search Engine Results Evolution could me less traffic

What do I mean by this?  Over the last 6 months we have seen more and more results displaying additional information in the actual search engine listings.  For example, type in the name of a Football Club whilst they are playing a live game and you will probably see the actual realtime score in the SERPs.  Great for searchers who are looking for quick fire information, but maybe not so good for site owners relying on click throughs.

3. Organic  SEO spend will rise

More and more companies will turn to organic SEO in an attempt to increase traffic to their site.  Organic SEO continues to outpace PPC in terms of growth, and 2010 will be no different.  More and more searchers become ’suspicious’ of PPC results whilst trust in the organic results grows.  This is surely a sign that the search engines have been doing the right thing when it comes to delivering results that searchers want to see?  What this might mean is that SEO’s are employed in house, rather than as an external resource.  Time will tell.

4.  The conversion metric will be king

2010 will see a greater emphasis on conversion.  In the past SEO’s have mainly focused on driving traffic, whilst the more dynamic SEO professionals will also have put a strong focus on conversions.  I personally beleive that 2010 will be the year of improving bounce rate and converting prospects to enquiries and enquiries to sales.

5. The Top 3 positions in the SERPS will become more valuable then ever

Generally speaking, sites that have been on the first page of the search results have tended to get the majority share of the traffic, but towards the end of the year we saw a trend that our sites in the top 3 ranking positions started to grow dramatically in terms of visitors.    This could be mainly down to the amount of information that Google is now trying to cram onto the first page of the SERPS since its ‘Caffeine’ engine was implemented.  Never the less, this makes SEO much more competitive and potentially more expensive for clients but the ROI from investment could also be much more rewarding.

In Summary

Of course, as we have seen with 2009, the world of Search Engine Optimisation can change on a regular basis and our friends at Google are quite happy to keep the majority of these changes under the hat and keep us all guessing.

What I am certain of though, is that 2010 will be a very big year for search, and with the right mindset and SEO company it could also be a very rewarding year for your business.

Have a very Merry Christmas and prosperous New Year from all of us at eSoftware Solutions.

However, on closer inspection (I viewed the page source) I noticed that there was a list of a couple of hundred links to adult web sites, where there was a heavy weighting of explicit phrases.  All this sat below the </html> tag on the page.

So… bottom line is their 3rd party CMS has been breached and I promptly alerted them about this.

However, more concerning is why Google is giving value to content NOT visible on the web page.   This breach has put a huge dent in their SEO campaign, and I imagine that the developer of their CMS needs to be held accountable for this, however I am dissapointed that Google has given significant value to content that is hidden on the page (i.e not visible to the user).

I have had issues with CMS driven sites in the past where the developer has shown no intuition towards SEO, but this is a serious matter on two fronts and quite frankly I feel let down by both Google and the 3rd party developer.  It means our efforts for the last 6 months could have been wasted unless we can find a very quick solution!

Update : After doing some more research on this problem I have found that it was actually a hosting company issue, and a breach of security that has meant that the .htaccess file was modified.  Now, Google has dumped my clients site out of the listings for what looks like an overwhelming revision of keywords on the ‘page’.  I have suggested to my client that they seek damages for the costs of the last six months SEO that have gone from very promising last month, to none existant this month. 

The hosting company by the way…. Media Temple

I’ve found, that over the last few months, Google’s Page Rank algorythm seems to be counting less and less as a factor for search engine rankings.  Why have I come to this conclusion?

Well, take one of my clients sites for example and one of his keywords – Radio Hire.

His site is now appearing 3rd in the Google rankings and he has a Page Rank of 4.  Above him are two other sites that have been around for some time.  Both sites above him have a Page Rank of 2.

See my reason for questioning the current relevance of Page Rank?

Here was my (short) response:

The ALT attribute (and it is an attribute, not a tag) is an alternative text description for images that often displays before the image is loaded (if it’s loaded at all). Or if the image fails to load the ALT text is shwon. ALT is a W3C required element for images and can only be used for image tags because its specific purpose is to describe images.

You can use the TITLE attribute for most page elements, but, unlike the ALT attribute, it isn’t required. As far as SEO goes you should use it to describe links. They’re more versatile than the ALT attribute and many search engine ranking algorithms read the text in TITLE attributes as regular page content.

Here is an example :

<a href=”http://www.online-digital.co.uk” title=”Search Engine Optimisation”>Search Engine Company</a>

If you are looking for a UK SEO Agency, or just want some advice on Search Engine Optimisation why not get in touch?