Category Archives: Search Engine Optimisation

If I went to a networking event and met someone in the same industry – what would you talk about!?

A while back at a networking event I met someone who was a web company who did SEO and SMM – including blogging and twitter.

We started talking about the approaches to SEO and SMM – and I was amazed that we had such different views.

I take a more holistic approach to search engine optimisation – looking at the technical and content aspects of the site – from CSS layout to query strings to title tags to link titles.

Bolting on a blogging and twitter strategy can boost your SEO campaign & traffic to your site:

Adding a blog is a quick and easy way of adding new content on a frequent basis – which is what Google looks for
Inbound links – commenting on other people’s blogs creates inbound links into your website
Getting your articles reblogged is another great way to get inbound links
Twitter can be a good source of quality traffic to your site – if the campaign is being run effectively

So that was my view……….this chap then continued to say that he pushed the information from his blog to Twitter and LinkedIn account and pushed his tweets to his facebook account. So it was about ensuring the right message and brand values were communicated in which ever social media site people looked at.

That completely missed the point of participating in these sites – as surely it’s about a dialogue and not a monologue. It’s about engaging with others – whether it’s your peers, contemporaries or customers – it’s about engaging with them and having a dialogue. NOT PREACHING your opinions to them.

Needless to say after a short conversation I accepted that we were never going to share the same views on this and moved on to talk to someone who shared the same values and beliefs as me.

Putting yourself on the Map

With the launch of Google Latitude that is software that allows mobile phone users share their location with friends, it s becoming more obvious that Google is focusing on the more personalised / local search. So for any business it is essential for any SEO and SMM campaigns that the same information is out in the public domain. More importantly it is essential that the SMM and SEO camapigns are interlinked, so the same message about the company can be found in You Tube, blogs, twitter, facebook or linked in.

Using Google Local Business Centre you can enter your companies address and details – here are some instructions if you haven’t done it already!

What you can then do to ensure you are maximising the leverage of this in the social media sites. Ensure the business listing points to your location page.

What you then need to do on the footer or contact us page is to promote the:

link to your company’s Facebook page
link to your company’s blog
link to forums that you consistently post in
link to your company’s Linked In page
link to your company’s Twitter account
link to any You Tube footage
link to any shareslide presentations
link to eventbrite for any events that you are holding

That way your potential customer, partnerships and colleagues can keep track of what you are up to!.

So then all your various online networking efforts will inter-feed each other and hopefully will help promote your website, not just in the search engines either!

It is not about broadcasting the message out there either, as Online PR agencies tend to do, but actually engage with your audience – and have a conversation with them, as that’s what it’s all about is it not?

SearchWiki – being tested in Adwords?

Back in November Google launched SearchWiki where Google Account users can modify search listings. I did a blog posting about it in January. Using Search Wiki, users can add, delete, amend or comment on a listing. So what’s big about that?

Google stores this data so you can view other people’s combined results. So ultimately I can see Google integrating this into the search algorithms. So the listings on your website would be influenced by your visitors overall experience of the website / company / customer services etc. Since I read the article in November I have long seen this as a new tool to be integrated.

Google Adwords – is this the test?
Today there are articles on Search Engine Land and E Consultancy both saying that they have seen this being tested on Google Adwords. The question of the moment is that if enough people remove the ad will it effect the Quality Score on the PPC………is this is the software being tested in earnest.

I guess if the testing is successful then it might get rolled out into the search listings.

So what does this mean for Ads and natural optimisation?

Companies can’t be lazy when setting up their PPC campaigns and tailor the content to the ads
People need to take a holistic approach to web design / customer service / operations / usability – as these are the criteria your customers will be judging websites on. Unless customers get an all round good experience, then in one click they can remove you from the search listings
Companies need to engage with their customers online – either through blogs, twitter, getstatisfaction.com……..as this could be a turning point and unless you’re an early adopter you’ve missed the boat.

Google Glitch on Saturday 31st Jan

I was at my brothers this weekend and made chocolate muffins with my nieces. I went to Google to search for buttercream icing and got the warning on all search engine listings ‘ malware warning: “This site may harm your computer,”.

I initially thought it was the MAC I was using but then decided it had to be Google and perhaps it had been hacked or something. Anyhow, it didn’t last for long and I got the recipe (and the muffins were yummy!).

Anyhow yesterday in the news the headlines were:Google Glitch Briefly Shuts Down Search Engine Saturday

I then wondered what was the impact of this glitch on traffic to websites on Saturday and if this had a real impact on the bottom line for companies. I hear that it was down for 1/2 an hour and the data from the website analytics would reflect this. Looking at the websites that I manage, this downtime in Google must have been for quite a short time – as there is no correlation in a drop in traffic or sales for that day.

The traffic was slightly lower than for other saturdays but who can tell what is an average day anyway in these erratic economic times!

SearchWiki – the future of search?

Back in November 08, Google released SearchWiki where you can customise your own search, by adding, deleting, re-rank or comment on search results. You can write notes to a particular site and these results will be shown every time you re-do the search. This is only available for signed in Google account users.

Long term, if Google is storing the data on people’s custom ranking, will it use this data to determine search listings? Microsoft also launched a similar beta project last year where people could post their ratings on a site.

So what does this mean for web masters?
In October Google launched their search engine optimisation starter guide and on page 22 which talks about opening dialogue with the commnuity that you service. This would take it to another level – so based on customer ratings your site could rank higher than those who haven’t engaged with their customers / community and haven’t got good ratings………Certainly food for thought for where the future of search could be going!

Content is King – how could you forget!

Over Christmas and New Year I was reading various email newsletters and blogs that I follow. The Google blog is one I follow closely as they frequently give great information on search engines and new product they are launching / upgrading.

Going back to basics on search engine marketing is probably one of the key aspects I have implemented this year. It is really easy to get caught up in link building campaigns or social media marketing. Adding good relevant content on a site is the key to engaging with your site users and potenitally building great inbound links. There was a posting in October on the Google blog about how to generate inbound links into your site through site content.

I am a firm believer that ‘merit based inbound links’ in the future will have a greater weighting in the algorithms than directory or purchased links. So web site owners need to be investing in adding content to their site to make the most of this opportunity.

Adding content is key to growing rankings for any website. Forget trying to re-optimise existing content or tweaking key word denisities on a page.

So how can you grow content on your site:

Set up a blog and integrate it into your website – and give commentary and insights into your industry. Ensure you blog on a regular basis, so your passion and commitment grows your credibility.

Participate in forums in your industry – as this will drive traffic to your site – and will drive traffic to your new content.
Think laterally about the content that you can upload to the site– it might be your take on an article in an industry publication or that you have launched a new product. What ever you decide is appropriate for your website, I recommend that you look at creating a content plan for the year. So you have a plan of how your site content will grow, rather than haphazardly adding content. That way you can be more focused around the key phrases you want to target.
Be committed – some clients think that once they have got their site live, it’s the end of the project and they can sit back and wait for the rankings. How wrong can they be? It is the start of the journey, and the clients need to be committed in terms of time and cost (to either invest in a content management system or for a maintenance contract) to grow their presence in the search engine listings.

Are bounce rates a factor in search engine listings

In Google analytics the definition of bounce rate is:

‘Bounce Rate: Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits (i.e. visits in which the person left your site from the entrance page. Bounce rate is a measure of visit quality and a high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance (landing) pages aren’t relevant to your visitors. You can minimize Bounce Rates by tailoring landing pages to each keyword and ad that you run. Landing pages should provide the information and services that were promised in the ad copy.’

Google can collect user search behaviour through the Google tool bar, analytics and Google Chrome. So they have a complete picture of people’s search behaviour.

Last month a web master did a test which indicated a change as a result in a decrease in bounce rate. Although the test is not conclusive, the chances are bounce rates for specific landing pages is factor included in search engine listings;

So what action do you need to take?

High bounce rates can indicate poor content, so look at your pages with high bounce rates. Then run a ranking report on the high volume key phrases and look at the terms the pages are ranking for. The look at the content and ensure it includes some of the search phrases.

Improve the usability on the page to make it easy for the visitor to work out where or what to do next

On The Web

Your online credibility is an increasingly important way of showcasing your specialised knowledge and expertise which will build your online credibility. As more people engage with the social web differentiating yourself become imperative

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