When designing Titles and Meta Descriptions for Search engines, note the recommended averages on title and description length below:
Google
Title: 65 characters with spaces
Description: 160 characters with spaces.
Yahoo
Title: 70 characters with spaces
Description: 160 characters with spaces
MSN
Title: 70 characters with spaces
Description: 180 characters with spaces
Averages - recommended
Title: 60 – 70
Description: 155 - 180
Showing posts with label SEO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SEO. Show all posts
Sunday, 10 August 2008
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
Managing redirects notes & links
Managing Redirects
When designing landing pages with new unique marketing URLS, alerts need to set up a redirect to the correct page. If the site is indexed by search engines, the traffic needs to redirect seamlessly and correctly to avoid any problems with crawling and indexing.
The way to achieve the above is to implement a permanent re-direction (HTTP status code 301) to the pages which need to be moved.
Important to remember that 301 redirects – are server side redirects which are generally set up in the .htaccess file (Apache server) or in the control panel (IIS server).
Process being to use either the PermanentRedirect or mod-rewrite to redirect the page.
If on a Linus or Unix – system then placing redirects into a .htaccess file will be the best and easiest way.
The.htaccess file is just a text file which can be created in with a plain text editor (ie: Notepad). When uploaded to the root level of the website with the main index page, it will work alongside the server and handle everything.
It can even redirect from htm to asp – see below:
Redirect 301 /old-file-name.htm http://www.yourdomain.com/new-page.asp
Important to note that meta refresh or javascript redirects are not best practice when it comes to SEO – to find out more I recommend the below links:
Useful links for more information
IIS Redirects – 301 & 302
Apache Domain Redirects for SEO
301 Parking and Other Redirects for SEO
Draw backs and options
Setting up the redirects does mean that for every incorrect URL request, you will in turn be asking the browser to go and fetch a new URL (in effect 2 requests). However it is enabling you to not show to the search engines 2 URLs of the same content, which is bad practice.
Another option with regards to marketing landing pages, is that if all landing pages are set up in a separate directory - you can inform spiders not to index the pages, by disallowing that area for all spiders in the robots.txt file.
Redirects are also used to help solve duplicate content issues. It is important to make sure that 1 page can’t be reached by more than 1 URL. You can sometimes see sites with more than one URL for the same content example being:
Such as:
- mysite.com/products
- mysite.com/products/
- mysite.com/products/defaults.aspx
Should people (bookmarks) sites (Href) link into these pages then by having 3 separate URLS will mean that you will fail to maximise on all your incoming links.
The number of incoming links is very important for SEO – and if you fail to get control on how people could link to your site – then you are immediately reducing
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
Multiple Domains there not big or clever !
I had a query recently from a friend – who was hosting 2/3/4 domains of the same content. They had noted that Google was now mainly indexing one URL and not the other. They had also seen shifts in the search results, this is my advice….site names have been deleted to protect the innocent! And it was an innocent mistake.
Although written on here about Duplicate content penalties before, thought to share my comments here (in a different tone) and could be useful for others to refer to in the future – as the duplicate content issue will never change on Search Engines.
Feedback
Firstly I see your site is built in asp now this was designed and released before SEO became the talk of the town. However it is performing well for some key terms, well done on that, and it certainly does the job at converting visitors with great help areas and calls to action.
Should you be building the site right now, the first bit of advice I would give you to plan early for SEO, considering how your sites architecture is going to be laid out. Building relevant link paths of relevant content – good thing about the fact it is a “Holiday site” is that you can dig down deeper from
Hopeful that you will already be using Google Webmaster tools to help you with SEO really useful, especially the ranking information plus suggestions on how to improve your site for indexing.
If you are not using it, start today. With digesting & implementing data from Google, the comments below and keeping your current internal linking, headers and content, will put you on the right path.
First step
Before beginning to develop new key word rich content (density of around 3% for 250 words) and implementing tools as required. You need to tackle a pretty big issue of duplicate content.
Firstly I am unsure why you thought parking more than one domain was a good idea ! If you think it would increase your presence in search engine result pages, you would be mistaken.
To be even more blunt this is Pretty Old School !
By having more than one website – showing the same content on multiple domains you are taking away the uniqueness & richness of your content – Google want to supply searches with unique and relevant data. Check out the Google Rules in Webmaster help, it tells you clearly there that duplicate content is a no go.
Several site owners actually use Copyscape.com, to check if people are using their content – which can some times happen and decrease their relevance quality in Google.
Google only want to present one website, not a big list of similar websites.
It makes sense
Imagine what a dull place a search engine would be if that happened all the time, ie: presented you with the same site, over and over again. After while (the big G) will work out which one/site it prefers – there are lots of algos (rules) to determine this, however the main one would probably be links into the site from external sources. Another option is to think you are up to something dodgy and ban you (it does happen!).
It is likely that the site that remains has more external links (links in) than the other site – it could be bookmarked by more people.
As this site does mirror another site, your quality score of relevance is diluted this is why you are seeing a shift in search results as Google struggle to make up its mind.
You are making the spiders job difficult. Don’t.
Another thing is that the spider won’t come back as often if you make its life difficult, think customer service, give it what it wants and it will come back. (as mentioned earlier see Webmaster help).
Second step
I do hope that you don’t have a link from one site (of same content) to another as if Google doesn’t see it, a competitor may, and they can very easily submit a spam report across the 3 major search engines. Outcome being as above, you will be banned from search results.
In effect by having multiple sites you are cheating the system as you are putting out more relevant words…… Google is highly focused, clever, and getting clevererererer so beware.
Third step
Query: Is it 3 domains you are supporting or more ?
Most people don’t realise that the below URLS are not the same:
www.mysite.com/villas
mysite.com/villas
www.mysite.com/villas/
mysite.com/villas/default.asp
Search engines would view these as 4 different sites – and this isn’t even counting your other domains. (However note - if your site has history, Google does work out in the end that mysite.com is the same as www.mysite.com - takes about a year).
So if you create content which the search engines can get to with or without the www you are decreasing your uniqueness and duplicating the content.
On a positive – it is pretty easy to resolve your issue of having a number of domains with same content.
Finally: Sorting it all out
Lucky for you, your IIS server does have a built in ability to sort this out.
You will need to create a permanent redirect in IIS. In the Virtual Directory – it will say when connecting to this resource content should come from - …Tick ‘A redirection to a URL’ – and then place in Redirect to: http://www.mybestrankingsiteblahblah.com/ Make sure you also tick ‘ Permanent redirection’. So when requests are put in for your other domains – the server will issue a Permanent redirect.
You will want to check who is linking to you too, you could request for some sites which have wrong link, to change it to the correct one.
You can but ask !
It will be OK not to change the URLS though, the only downfall is that your server will have to work a bit harder as it is having pull 2 pages (the first one and the correct one).
With regards to links, IMO the best place to check links is Yahoo Site Explorer UK, rather than Google (using inlinks:) obtain the little snippet of code in Site Explorer and keep check of those links in – and keep building them (good links, not link farms, and don’t submit to more than 25 link directories a day – Google have eyes and see this too). I have spent quite a while sourcing those good directories, think about 3 yrs in total.
With regards to which URL you should pick, first thought, which has the most external links pointing to it and also consider the name.
Note although Google doesn’t have URL name/wording in their algos/rules – (some people think they do, as appear highlighted in search results, this is just conditional formatting) – a positive about having two main keywords in your URL is useful in link building exercises – as Spiders do read the link text. Positive move for you was using a hypen, between two keywords relating to your brand, reason being is Google read underscores as continuation of a word (due to historical codey stuff) – hypens separate the word.
More information on SEOing your site for visitors and search engines on the blog.
END
Thursday, 31 January 2008
Google Sitemaps - The Benefits & How to set up
What are XML sitemaps
XML Sitemaps are the best format to use to record and montior pages on your site, benefits include:
* Supported by Google, Yahoo & MSN see: http://www.sitemaps.org/index.php
* Up-gradable (can add extra info at later dates)
* Can separate website blogs into separate site maps or jumble together
* Where have more than one domain, make it possible to tell the search engine the preferred URL.
* Search Engines will use the sitemaps to enhance their crawl and discovery process, it does not however guarantee that those pages/URLs will get indexed.
* See: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/siteoverview?pli=1
NB: There is a limit of 50K pages, although nested sitemaps can be submitted to get around this.
Why Submit
Submitting a Google sitemap – lets Google know about the URLS on your site.
It is also helpful tool to make sure that some of your pages are not easily discovered by the spiders for example, pages that are only accessible via a form.
From a web design perspective Google sitemaps can identify potential crawling problems, broken links, robots.txt or crawling problems arising from the CMS.
From SEO perspective Google sitemaps also give indication on the top performing phrases by country and identify trends. This information is available elsewhere however useful to have link information and keywords in one place.
Reason to set up
Along with providing information to Search Engines, so that they can better understand the site, making sure they know about the URLS.
Another reason for setting up a sitemap in Google (Webmaster tools) is that you can capture statistics such as how many of your URLS are indexed.
Which is really useful on launch of a new site, new category/section.
No guarantees
Google do not guarantee that having a site map will increase your rankings, however it does increase your chances of getting crawled, as using site maps we can let them know about new URLS, and help them prioritize them, ie: know where to start the crawl.
Having a Google site map can however lead to increased visibility in the search engine result pages.
Understanding about setting priorities in the sitemap
Google state: "priority only indicates the importance of a particular URL relative to other URLs on your site, and doesn't impact the ranking of your pages in search results."
Adding priority 1 or another level to all of our pages, does not mean that they will rank any higher or be crawled faster than another site who has all their pages set at priority 0.7 for example.
Also by only indicating that all of your pages have the same priority is the same as not providing any priority information at all.
The default priority is 0.5 and many web masters make the decision to leave it on the default. See evidence at the Sitemap help forum.
Google mention ‘relative to other URLs’, so should priorities be set then
it may provide them with indication on how to crawl your site, ie: start at home / about us, then dig deeper into categories, subcategories and products.
In effect the priority order can only provide hints to Google about the importance of the pages. There is also an area to state how often page is updated, similar to the Robots revisit rule, which is known not to have an impact. Due to this I see no pressing need to update this area. Spiders will revisit regardless of updates.
It is however believed that by giving hints on updates, will be of benefit when a new section of site, or new site is launched.
Adding meta data to Sitemap
If all the meta data is 100% the same, then there is no pressing need to include the tag in the sitemap.
The reason for the meta data is to Google can distinguish the difference between each URL.
Where should a sitemap be placed
With sitemap cross submission, you can place it just about anywhere as long as the sites are verified in your Webmaster Tools account.:
---------------------
Steps in Setting up Sitemaps – from Dave Chaffey – E-Marketing Guru
1. Go to personal Sitemaps page at Google Webmaster Tools http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ requires Gmail login.
2. Create Sitemap format in correct format: See https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/protocol.html
It is limited to 50K URLs, but for larger sites you can create a sitemap index file that references more than one sitemap file.
1. Verify site - there are two methods - see http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35181&topic=8509- I don't see any particular merit in either approach - use that which is most convenient, but remember the security implications of publishing your sitemaps.
2. To create site maps you could use the Google sitemap Generator or hidden on the site are these third party tools
I have personally found the free downloadable tool which crawls a site automatically on this list best for creating mine: http://gsitecrawler.com/,
Remember that Yahoo! have now launched an equivalent in Yahoo! Site Explorer
-------------------------
More answers can be found at: Sitemaps Help Group
XML Sitemaps are the best format to use to record and montior pages on your site, benefits include:
* Supported by Google, Yahoo & MSN see: http://www.sitemaps.org/index.php
* Up-gradable (can add extra info at later dates)
* Can separate website blogs into separate site maps or jumble together
* Where have more than one domain, make it possible to tell the search engine the preferred URL.
* Search Engines will use the sitemaps to enhance their crawl and discovery process, it does not however guarantee that those pages/URLs will get indexed.
* See: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/siteoverview?pli=1
NB: There is a limit of 50K pages, although nested sitemaps can be submitted to get around this.
Why Submit
Submitting a Google sitemap – lets Google know about the URLS on your site.
It is also helpful tool to make sure that some of your pages are not easily discovered by the spiders for example, pages that are only accessible via a form.
From a web design perspective Google sitemaps can identify potential crawling problems, broken links, robots.txt or crawling problems arising from the CMS.
From SEO perspective Google sitemaps also give indication on the top performing phrases by country and identify trends. This information is available elsewhere however useful to have link information and keywords in one place.
Reason to set up
Along with providing information to Search Engines, so that they can better understand the site, making sure they know about the URLS.
Another reason for setting up a sitemap in Google (Webmaster tools) is that you can capture statistics such as how many of your URLS are indexed.
Which is really useful on launch of a new site, new category/section.
No guarantees
Google do not guarantee that having a site map will increase your rankings, however it does increase your chances of getting crawled, as using site maps we can let them know about new URLS, and help them prioritize them, ie: know where to start the crawl.
Having a Google site map can however lead to increased visibility in the search engine result pages.
Understanding about setting priorities in the sitemap
Google state: "priority only indicates the importance of a particular URL relative to other URLs on your site, and doesn't impact the ranking of your pages in search results."
Adding priority 1 or another level to all of our pages, does not mean that they will rank any higher or be crawled faster than another site who has all their pages set at priority 0.7 for example.
Also by only indicating that all of your pages have the same priority is the same as not providing any priority information at all.
The default priority is 0.5 and many web masters make the decision to leave it on the default. See evidence at the Sitemap help forum.
Google mention ‘relative to other URLs’, so should priorities be set then
it may provide them with indication on how to crawl your site, ie: start at home / about us, then dig deeper into categories, subcategories and products.
In effect the priority order can only provide hints to Google about the importance of the pages. There is also an area to state how often page is updated, similar to the Robots revisit rule, which is known not to have an impact. Due to this I see no pressing need to update this area. Spiders will revisit regardless of updates.
It is however believed that by giving hints on updates, will be of benefit when a new section of site, or new site is launched.
Adding meta data to Sitemap
If all the meta data is 100% the same, then there is no pressing need to include the tag in the sitemap.
The reason for the meta data is to Google can distinguish the difference between each URL.
Where should a sitemap be placed
With sitemap cross submission, you can place it just about anywhere as long as the sites are verified in your Webmaster Tools account.:
---------------------
Steps in Setting up Sitemaps – from Dave Chaffey – E-Marketing Guru
1. Go to personal Sitemaps page at Google Webmaster Tools http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ requires Gmail login.
2. Create Sitemap format in correct format: See https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/protocol.html
It is limited to 50K URLs, but for larger sites you can create a sitemap index file that references more than one sitemap file.
1. Verify site - there are two methods - see http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35181&topic=8509- I don't see any particular merit in either approach - use that which is most convenient, but remember the security implications of publishing your sitemaps.
2. To create site maps you could use the Google sitemap Generator or hidden on the site are these third party tools
I have personally found the free downloadable tool which crawls a site automatically on this list best for creating mine: http://gsitecrawler.com/,
Remember that Yahoo! have now launched an equivalent in Yahoo! Site Explorer
-------------------------
More answers can be found at: Sitemaps Help Group
Monday, 28 January 2008
Optimising Press Releases
How to write a press release
Along with formulating a writing style to your press release which will resonate with your brand, you can also SEO optimise your press releases to increase presence of your company in the Search Engine Result Pages.
Word of caution though is to avoid keyword stuffing press releases, as not surprisingly this will reduce the credibility of your news to the readers. A good SEO copywriter will be able to incorporate the keywords into a press release at the same time satisfying any creative requirements for a compelling read.
Writing a press release for SEO is the same as writing a web page for SEO, looking for relevant links and relevant content on subject matter with keyword density of around 3% - 7%.
For step by step guide on considerations when writing a press release see the criteria at Pressbox.co.uk http://www.pressbox.co.uk/contpr1.htm
More information on writing Press Releases can be found at the BBC and WikiHow: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/A4288944
http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Press-Release
Where to distribute
For maximum impact, where to distribute your press release is also an important consideration. Dependent on your industry and importance of the news story will decipher whether you pay or opt for a free press release service.
Remember that wire press release services will send out your press releases to a number of mail boxes, in effect Spamming mail boxes, thus you need to consider whether you want your company associated with that practice.
List of Press Release Distribution Services
The number of press release distribution services are growing, however at this current date, these are the ones I recommend:
Press Coverage free:
Press Coverage cost: Members news releases will be found on Google News, Google Search, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask.com News, Ask.com. My favourite is PRweb.
- http://www.prweb.com/ - also always your news feed to be fed into five targeted industries and 2 metropolitan areas. – Cost $80
- http://www.prleap.com
- http://www.webwire.com
For big announcements opt for:
RSS Feeds
Another strategy on getting press coverage on your news story is to pull journalists to you by making sure you have good visibility on places where they will be looking ie: RSS feeds in search results.
Make sure that the news is available to this network of readers ie: every article or press release distributed is available as part of a RSS feed. Should news stories be updated daily or weekly on your site then you could be eligible to qualify for Google News. Other criteria for Google News include: editorial needs to be written by more than one person, regular news stories on the site and these can’t be a duplicate of a news story found elsewhere on the site.
Thursday, 24 January 2008
Optimising for You Tube
Optimising for You Tube
By making the most out of You Tube you will be able to:
· Promote videos
· Promote business
· Increase traffic to site
· Target niche groups related to company
Information on building & optimising your own YouTube Presence
1. Create your own channel (Creating on sign up to YouTube account)
2. Create your own profile and link back to your website URL
3. Create your own How to guides – more people likely to subscribe.
4. Join a group, create a new one (public or invitation only)
Tips
Review customised options in your channel settings:
Thoughtfully select 9 videos to appear on your channel profile page. Make sure you target your content by choosing the most appropriate account type
Info on account type: Account type is found within the channel info page, in here you will asked if this is Standard account, Director etc…in general most people will choose standard….so as you are experts in your field choose Guru. The Guru/expert account type lets you choose a custom logo and allows you to link to other websites within your profile page. Also people can search by account type.
Choose appropriate video length:
You have more chance of your videos being highly viewed if length is no more than 5 minutes. Bear this point in mind when choosing videos to appear on your profile page. It is also good to stay in the file size limit of 100Mb. Should you have longer videos you could create play-lists – allow viewers to decide whether they wish to watch at later time (when have more time).
Choose the right category:
Make sure you choosing the right category and tags for video. Do not rush this. Check popular videos in your niche, view how these have been tagged and placed in categories.
If you are uncertain of the category, run a keyword search for similar content and take note which category they belong too. Also look at less popular categories, as this will reduce competition and place you as most popular video with a specific category.
Tag it right:
Add as many keywords / tags that you can think off as tags allow your video to be tagged alongside other YouTube Channels, as a relevant video and this will increase awareness of your Channel and your profile and most importantly your site.
Create niche targeted play-lists:
Gather individual videos into niche groups, so that viewers can find related content more easily.
Don’t forget that YouTube is a social community:
There are options to email other YouTube users, promote your channel, comment on others videos. Make sure when contacting that user is in your target market. Also take advantage of Bulletins (short messages) on your profile and on others. Bulletins are a way to leave messages for users on their profile pages, increase your audience. Promote new videos or simply news about company. If they like your videos then they may even subscribe, also Bulletins lets visitors know you are active YouTuber. As mentioned earlier it is important to make sure you target the right audience correctly.
Join or create a group:
This is a great way of reaching out to your target audience. To monitor responses you can choose whether posts/messages, can be posted freely or whether they need approval. If objective of your group is to generate awareness then remember to open it to the public, another option is invitation only. Main aims of group set up though are too share videos.
Extra way to increase awareness
You can turn on (newish feature) ‘Active sharing’…which allows you to drive traffic to your profile. How ? This service is aimed for those who which to form opinions on subject matter, or for those interested in video trends. Basically, if you turn on ‘Active sharing’ then your YouTube name will appear under the video, people watching the video maybe interested to click on your name and see what else you have been watching. This is within your profile, where link to your site sits.
By making the most out of You Tube you will be able to:
· Promote videos
· Promote business
· Increase traffic to site
· Target niche groups related to company
Information on building & optimising your own YouTube Presence
1. Create your own channel (Creating on sign up to YouTube account)
2. Create your own profile and link back to your website URL
3. Create your own How to guides – more people likely to subscribe.
4. Join a group, create a new one (public or invitation only)
Tips
Review customised options in your channel settings:
Thoughtfully select 9 videos to appear on your channel profile page. Make sure you target your content by choosing the most appropriate account type
Info on account type: Account type is found within the channel info page, in here you will asked if this is Standard account, Director etc…in general most people will choose standard….so as you are experts in your field choose Guru. The Guru/expert account type lets you choose a custom logo and allows you to link to other websites within your profile page. Also people can search by account type.
Choose appropriate video length:
You have more chance of your videos being highly viewed if length is no more than 5 minutes. Bear this point in mind when choosing videos to appear on your profile page. It is also good to stay in the file size limit of 100Mb. Should you have longer videos you could create play-lists – allow viewers to decide whether they wish to watch at later time (when have more time).
Choose the right category:
Make sure you choosing the right category and tags for video. Do not rush this. Check popular videos in your niche, view how these have been tagged and placed in categories.
If you are uncertain of the category, run a keyword search for similar content and take note which category they belong too. Also look at less popular categories, as this will reduce competition and place you as most popular video with a specific category.
Tag it right:
Add as many keywords / tags that you can think off as tags allow your video to be tagged alongside other YouTube Channels, as a relevant video and this will increase awareness of your Channel and your profile and most importantly your site.
Create niche targeted play-lists:
Gather individual videos into niche groups, so that viewers can find related content more easily.
Don’t forget that YouTube is a social community:
There are options to email other YouTube users, promote your channel, comment on others videos. Make sure when contacting that user is in your target market. Also take advantage of Bulletins (short messages) on your profile and on others. Bulletins are a way to leave messages for users on their profile pages, increase your audience. Promote new videos or simply news about company. If they like your videos then they may even subscribe, also Bulletins lets visitors know you are active YouTuber. As mentioned earlier it is important to make sure you target the right audience correctly.
Join or create a group:
This is a great way of reaching out to your target audience. To monitor responses you can choose whether posts/messages, can be posted freely or whether they need approval. If objective of your group is to generate awareness then remember to open it to the public, another option is invitation only. Main aims of group set up though are too share videos.
Extra way to increase awareness
You can turn on (newish feature) ‘Active sharing’…which allows you to drive traffic to your profile. How ? This service is aimed for those who which to form opinions on subject matter, or for those interested in video trends. Basically, if you turn on ‘Active sharing’ then your YouTube name will appear under the video, people watching the video maybe interested to click on your name and see what else you have been watching. This is within your profile, where link to your site sits.
Friday, 12 October 2007
Optimising content & links
These are all steps I've known about in the search engine world for over 5 years, now putting finger to keyboard and sharing with you.....
Search Engine Optimisation steps to take:
Step 1:
You need to review target audience, what are their needs, optimise site around these needs. Look for online studies for demographic information, visit other sites, social communities where audience reside online.
Step 2:
The selection of keywords should be based on campaign strategy, competition, products & volume. We research keywords using, tools such as WordTracker, Overture keyword checker (currently offline) & data from Google & Yahoo search marketing accounts. E-consultancy reported (2006) that over half of the online audience now use phrases that are 3 words or longer in their search queries, this further indicates need for key-phrase analysis to determine the most appropriate. Studies have highlighted that it is important to note the different themes used in search, when choosing appropriate key phrases:
Search themes (courtesy and thanks sent to e-consultancy) include:
Comparison: compare hotels
Price: cheap holidays
Intended use: family holiday in September
Product type: package holiday
Product spec/feature: Hotel with spa facilities
Brand: Seymour Hotels
Location: Hotel Jersey
Action: Book Hotel Jersey
Google’s keyword tool is a great way to generate synonyms and variations of your existing keywords. It also predicts monthly search volume on Google for previous month, based on campaigns locaiton and language settings, and gives indication (if interested in PPC) of the number of advertisers bidding on each keyword across all of the Adwords.
With regards to competition analysis, the below tool could be used to identify the most common key-phrases listed on each page of competitiors sites, showing 2nd, 3rd and 4th most popular key-phrases.
http://www.abakus-internet-marketing.de/tools/topword.html
We also use the advanced search syntax for competitor benchmarking in Google and identify pages that perform well through googling [“keyphrase” site:www.competitor.com].
Step 3:
Base site architecture and navigation on the audience & keyword research in step 1 and 2, ie: If site sells Shampoo, consider how could categorise so people find what they are looking for in natural search, ie: are people looking for Shampoo for Coloured Hair or are the searches more brand related. Set themes, as this will assist with setting future objectives, performance, and ongoing optimisation. For example for retailers themes would be based around product ranges, categories and subcategories.
Structure of the site is also about labelling content in the most appropriate way & making link journeys relevant for spiders and humans with this in mind place appropriate keywords in filenames.
Step 4:
Make sure the website is suitable for users and search engine spiders. Spiders are unable to fill out forms, read JavaScript links, and they sometimes have trouble with Flash. We can use these areas, as long as we make sure that we provide alternative HTML links in the navigation. Ask E-scape Interactive about the document (in continual progress) titled ‘code considerations’ document for more details.
Step 5:
Where possible you should look as every link as an opportunity, and be descriptive (within reason) with every link, be it general more information ‘on subject’ link, link to image, video clip – it is important that using Alt & Title attributes that we let the spiders know what they can expect at the other end of the link . The online sitemap should be given close SEO attention.
We have experiene in optimising both videos and images, ask E-scape Interactive for details.
Step 6:
Search engines need to read keyword rich text to help them determine what the website is about. As mentioned before the copy produced should be based on the chosen keyword phrases and the sites target market needs. Looking at generating a keyword density of 3 – 7%. (No more than 10%) within the text.
Step 7:
Place the important and page relevant keyword phrases into each pages unique Title Tag. Typically between: 10 to 15 keywords (60 – 70 characters). The information you place in this text will appear as clickable link in search engines. Also make sure that the meta description is focused on the page content. Remember that just 15-20 words (approx: 150 – 180 characters) of the meta description are visible within the SERPS of Google. Keywords in the meta data are now not deemed as vital, however useful for engines which use meta crawlers. Use 5 to 8 keyphrases maximum otherwise there will be a dilution effect which will decrease keyword density
A good example of keyword density can be found by Googling, Yahooing, or Live searching for Cycle breaks Jersey: There are 266 words on this Seymours page (which ranks 1 or 2) 10 of which are the keyphrases, giving a keyword density of 3.75%. Which is about right for number of words on the page, note also the link off the page.
Step 8:
All the search engines place weight on the sites overall link popularity when determining the natural search engine placement. With this in mind it is important to make sure that the site is link worthy ie: is it full of useful information, updated content. Then people will link to the site without asking. Another way of creating links is contacting directories (relevant & quality ones), increase reach in Blogs, Forums, niche portals, and if e-commerce site shopping portals (ie: Froogle & Ebay).
Hint 1: You can find people to link to by putting this into Google "niche word""add url" or "niche word" "add site".
Hint 2: You can find all links to your site by putting this into Google link:www.URL.com to exlude internal links put in, site:www.URL.com and to find niche directories put in: intitle:"word directory".
Link building is an important practice, as with all other steps, relevancy is key. Steer away from link farms and be selective in who you decide to create link partnerships with.
The best way to assess links in is to use the Site Explorer tool at Yahoo, placing relevant code within your meta data.
This is your basic list - next step is integrating your results with your sales & marketing strategies.
Search Engine Optimisation steps to take:
Step 1:
You need to review target audience, what are their needs, optimise site around these needs. Look for online studies for demographic information, visit other sites, social communities where audience reside online.
Step 2:
The selection of keywords should be based on campaign strategy, competition, products & volume. We research keywords using, tools such as WordTracker, Overture keyword checker (currently offline) & data from Google & Yahoo search marketing accounts. E-consultancy reported (2006) that over half of the online audience now use phrases that are 3 words or longer in their search queries, this further indicates need for key-phrase analysis to determine the most appropriate. Studies have highlighted that it is important to note the different themes used in search, when choosing appropriate key phrases:
Search themes (courtesy and thanks sent to e-consultancy) include:
Comparison: compare hotels
Price: cheap holidays
Intended use: family holiday in September
Product type: package holiday
Product spec/feature: Hotel with spa facilities
Brand: Seymour Hotels
Location: Hotel Jersey
Action: Book Hotel Jersey
Google’s keyword tool is a great way to generate synonyms and variations of your existing keywords. It also predicts monthly search volume on Google for previous month, based on campaigns locaiton and language settings, and gives indication (if interested in PPC) of the number of advertisers bidding on each keyword across all of the Adwords.
With regards to competition analysis, the below tool could be used to identify the most common key-phrases listed on each page of competitiors sites, showing 2nd, 3rd and 4th most popular key-phrases.
http://www.abakus-internet-marketing.de/tools/topword.html
We also use the advanced search syntax for competitor benchmarking in Google and identify pages that perform well through googling [“keyphrase” site:www.competitor.com].
Step 3:
Base site architecture and navigation on the audience & keyword research in step 1 and 2, ie: If site sells Shampoo, consider how could categorise so people find what they are looking for in natural search, ie: are people looking for Shampoo for Coloured Hair or are the searches more brand related. Set themes, as this will assist with setting future objectives, performance, and ongoing optimisation. For example for retailers themes would be based around product ranges, categories and subcategories.
Structure of the site is also about labelling content in the most appropriate way & making link journeys relevant for spiders and humans with this in mind place appropriate keywords in filenames.
Step 4:
Make sure the website is suitable for users and search engine spiders. Spiders are unable to fill out forms, read JavaScript links, and they sometimes have trouble with Flash. We can use these areas, as long as we make sure that we provide alternative HTML links in the navigation. Ask E-scape Interactive about the document (in continual progress) titled ‘code considerations’ document for more details.
Step 5:
Where possible you should look as every link as an opportunity, and be descriptive (within reason) with every link, be it general more information ‘on subject’ link, link to image, video clip – it is important that using Alt & Title attributes that we let the spiders know what they can expect at the other end of the link . The online sitemap should be given close SEO attention.
We have experiene in optimising both videos and images, ask E-scape Interactive for details.
Step 6:
Search engines need to read keyword rich text to help them determine what the website is about. As mentioned before the copy produced should be based on the chosen keyword phrases and the sites target market needs. Looking at generating a keyword density of 3 – 7%. (No more than 10%) within the text.
Step 7:
Place the important and page relevant keyword phrases into each pages unique Title Tag. Typically between: 10 to 15 keywords (60 – 70 characters). The information you place in this text will appear as clickable link in search engines. Also make sure that the meta description is focused on the page content. Remember that just 15-20 words (approx: 150 – 180 characters) of the meta description are visible within the SERPS of Google. Keywords in the meta data are now not deemed as vital, however useful for engines which use meta crawlers. Use 5 to 8 keyphrases maximum otherwise there will be a dilution effect which will decrease keyword density
A good example of keyword density can be found by Googling, Yahooing, or Live searching for Cycle breaks Jersey: There are 266 words on this Seymours page (which ranks 1 or 2) 10 of which are the keyphrases, giving a keyword density of 3.75%. Which is about right for number of words on the page, note also the link off the page.
Step 8:
All the search engines place weight on the sites overall link popularity when determining the natural search engine placement. With this in mind it is important to make sure that the site is link worthy ie: is it full of useful information, updated content. Then people will link to the site without asking. Another way of creating links is contacting directories (relevant & quality ones), increase reach in Blogs, Forums, niche portals, and if e-commerce site shopping portals (ie: Froogle & Ebay).
Hint 1: You can find people to link to by putting this into Google "niche word""add url" or "niche word" "add site".
Hint 2: You can find all links to your site by putting this into Google link:www.URL.com to exlude internal links put in, site:www.URL.com and to find niche directories put in: intitle:"word directory".
Link building is an important practice, as with all other steps, relevancy is key. Steer away from link farms and be selective in who you decide to create link partnerships with.
The best way to assess links in is to use the Site Explorer tool at Yahoo, placing relevant code within your meta data.
This is your basic list - next step is integrating your results with your sales & marketing strategies.
Wednesday, 8 August 2007
Exploring Yahoo Site Explorer
Yahoo Site Explorer
I never really saw any point submitting to Yahoo Site Explorer, as Yahoo spiders search the web and will find the site. However an old search colleague informs me that it is worth while tool to use and good way to manage website. Especially if one of the main aims is to increase in links to the site. Which for new sites, this is a must, and would be nice to have a tool, which has most authority to do the job.
So aim to test it.
Features include the normal list of ‘inlinks’ to the site, which are regularly cited as being a more accurate picture of your links in regards to the ones reporting by Google. (which from experience is well off the mark).
Lets you know last time the Yahoo spider visited / cached the page/site, so good for reporting impact of SEO changes.
Tells you all the subdomains it is aware of at the site.
Apparently gets websites indexed quicker !
Allows you to submit a feed – and finds your feeds quicker.
It also makes sure Yahoo knows the correct language of your site, not sure what the steps are though if states you are talking Double Dutch !
All you need to do is place a new Meta Tag with Y!Code on the sites home page.
Will watch out for impact with interest,
Sarah
Monday, 30 July 2007
Understanding Duplicate Penalties
Duplicate Penalties
Penalty in the search world means that search engines will punish a website for violations against the search engines terms of service. The punishment includes removal of the website from the search engine listings.
There is a ‘duplicate content penalty’ for content that is duplicated with little change on a single site. There is also a ‘mirror penalty’ for content that is more or less duplicating another single site.
Swings and Roundabouts
Should your content be reproduced on another site, you will not incur a penalty as Google look at a lot of other factors beyond just the content of the page, ie: links. however should that site have a higher page rank than your site, it is likely that link to the article on the other site, will be listed higher than our own website.
However by adding a link, you can increase your chances of receiving visits to your site by adding more entry points.
Targeted traffic
Allowing customers or people with a common interest to your proposition toplace blog feeds, or place your articles on their site, will increase the number of targeted visitors to your site. Also if the article is posted on a relevant to your proposition site, then the links from this will increase your search engine listing position.
Penalty in the search world means that search engines will punish a website for violations against the search engines terms of service. The punishment includes removal of the website from the search engine listings.
There is a ‘duplicate content penalty’ for content that is duplicated with little change on a single site. There is also a ‘mirror penalty’ for content that is more or less duplicating another single site.
Swings and Roundabouts
Should your content be reproduced on another site, you will not incur a penalty as Google look at a lot of other factors beyond just the content of the page, ie: links. however should that site have a higher page rank than your site, it is likely that link to the article on the other site, will be listed higher than our own website.
However by adding a link, you can increase your chances of receiving visits to your site by adding more entry points.
Targeted traffic
Allowing customers or people with a common interest to your proposition toplace blog feeds, or place your articles on their site, will increase the number of targeted visitors to your site. Also if the article is posted on a relevant to your proposition site, then the links from this will increase your search engine listing position.
Friday, 27 July 2007
Local Search coming to a neighbourhood near you
Your Local Search listing
An increased number of people now use local search engines to find businesses online.
Indicating that presence in a local search engine would be a positive move to increase your traffic and links to your site. Due to Google’s launch of Universal Search, which integrates vertical search networks into the results, there is an increasing need to build presence in local search.
Google Maps was launched in 2005 as a development off their local search service, which linked in with the Yellow pages listings.
It has recently been enhanced further as they now offer businesses with the opportunity to add more detailed information, such as: extra contact details, logos, images, business descriptions, payment mentions etc. You can also post promotions on the site which users can print out bring along to the shop (if you have one!).
The thought is that as local search marketing and the vertical networks grow in importance, and when mobile search services develop then the need to have placement in local listings will indeed increase.
Is this the end of the Yellow Pages?
Do you search locally? Hotel in Jersey, Flowers, Plants from Jersey, Cheap DVDs Jersey,
e-Marketing Agency Jersey. I am sure you do.
More and more people now turn to the internet to help with their local searches. As well as appearing in local search engines, forums, directories you should work at making your websites location friendly, so that it is responsive to search queries which have a location basis.
You can do this by letting people know where you are based within your content and title. Where possible you should also add your site to local directories, forums where people go to find your products.
Online submissions
The main local search engines with map technologies include:
Google Maps – Can add listings via local business centre
Yahoo Local! – Powered by Info Serve
MSN live search – will be made live with link from ThomsonDirectories / Thompson Local (see below)
You can also submit to:
Yellow Pages - £360 a year.
Info Serve - feeds Yahoo Local and City Visitor plus a range of local search engines
Thomson local - free, Live Search buy the data from Thompson Local and put on their site, there is no obligation on their part to add each and every listing ie: they are allowed to be selective. From submitting to Thompson Directories it takes 4 to 6 weeks for it then to be on Thompson Local, then around 2 months to appear on Live Search (who buy the data).
192 - costs start at £192
Local.co.uk - this also provides free entry onto Classifieds.co.uk - however currently only UK focus (Not the Channel Islands)
UK Top local listings - Local directory - costs min £8.99
The most local one for Jersey I can find is a Directory site with a Jersey section here:
http://www.freeindex.co.uk/Channel_Islands/Jersey/
NB: At this present date Google Maps service currently cover United States, Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, the UK, China, and Japan. Jersey is indeed a part of the UK, however not all of our 12 parishes yet are listed, however I have a nudger at Google, and have you scratch my back and I’ll scratch your letters to get Jersey firmly on the map. My quest here continues.
An increased number of people now use local search engines to find businesses online.
Indicating that presence in a local search engine would be a positive move to increase your traffic and links to your site. Due to Google’s launch of Universal Search, which integrates vertical search networks into the results, there is an increasing need to build presence in local search.
Google Maps was launched in 2005 as a development off their local search service, which linked in with the Yellow pages listings.
It has recently been enhanced further as they now offer businesses with the opportunity to add more detailed information, such as: extra contact details, logos, images, business descriptions, payment mentions etc. You can also post promotions on the site which users can print out bring along to the shop (if you have one!).
The thought is that as local search marketing and the vertical networks grow in importance, and when mobile search services develop then the need to have placement in local listings will indeed increase.
Is this the end of the Yellow Pages?
Do you search locally? Hotel in Jersey, Flowers, Plants from Jersey, Cheap DVDs Jersey,
e-Marketing Agency Jersey. I am sure you do.
More and more people now turn to the internet to help with their local searches. As well as appearing in local search engines, forums, directories you should work at making your websites location friendly, so that it is responsive to search queries which have a location basis.
You can do this by letting people know where you are based within your content and title. Where possible you should also add your site to local directories, forums where people go to find your products.
Online submissions
The main local search engines with map technologies include:
Google Maps – Can add listings via local business centre
Yahoo Local! – Powered by Info Serve
MSN live search – will be made live with link from ThomsonDirectories / Thompson Local (see below)
You can also submit to:
Yellow Pages - £360 a year.
Info Serve - feeds Yahoo Local and City Visitor plus a range of local search engines
Thomson local - free, Live Search buy the data from Thompson Local and put on their site, there is no obligation on their part to add each and every listing ie: they are allowed to be selective. From submitting to Thompson Directories it takes 4 to 6 weeks for it then to be on Thompson Local, then around 2 months to appear on Live Search (who buy the data).
192 - costs start at £192
Local.co.uk - this also provides free entry onto Classifieds.co.uk - however currently only UK focus (Not the Channel Islands)
UK Top local listings - Local directory - costs min £8.99
The most local one for Jersey I can find is a Directory site with a Jersey section here:
http://www.freeindex.co.uk/Channel_Islands/Jersey/
NB: At this present date Google Maps service currently cover United States, Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, the UK, China, and Japan. Jersey is indeed a part of the UK, however not all of our 12 parishes yet are listed, however I have a nudger at Google, and have you scratch my back and I’ll scratch your letters to get Jersey firmly on the map. My quest here continues.
Wednesday, 25 July 2007
Search Timeline
History of search
1995 - AOL got people on the Internet
1999 - Yahoo Organised it
2003 - Google made it searchable
2007 - Facebook made it socialable
e-Scape Interactive envisage that the future of search will be focused around the power of the new social networks, with consumer decisions based on other peoples opinions/recommendations. We envisage that search engines of the future will display information based on: Personalisation (Vertical search & social book-marking) and intent (to buy/order/rent etc). It’s just a thought, and builds of the martini effect, anytime, anyplace, anywhere – by adding what do you want it for, what do you want to do with it. We would be interested to hear your thoughts on where you believe the future of search will be and what your ideal search engine would look like, so if you are passing by, feel free to comment:
Google / Facebook / MySpace / Someplace else ?
1995 - AOL got people on the Internet
1999 - Yahoo Organised it
2003 - Google made it searchable
2007 - Facebook made it socialable
e-Scape Interactive envisage that the future of search will be focused around the power of the new social networks, with consumer decisions based on other peoples opinions/recommendations. We envisage that search engines of the future will display information based on: Personalisation (Vertical search & social book-marking) and intent (to buy/order/rent etc). It’s just a thought, and builds of the martini effect, anytime, anyplace, anywhere – by adding what do you want it for, what do you want to do with it. We would be interested to hear your thoughts on where you believe the future of search will be and what your ideal search engine would look like, so if you are passing by, feel free to comment:
Google / Facebook / MySpace / Someplace else ?
Writing articles is a great way to drive traffic to a website
Why article submission
As well as being a good source of PR, I heard on the grape/webvine that article submission is a quicker way to build links, in comparison to contacting directory editors submission times.
Article sites generally make the article live with the company link straight away, as they are keen to get fresh new content on their pages.
It makes sense.
Another advantage of article submission is having them republished in some other persons blog (in theory this should related to your proposition). This will help increase visitors to your site, create new links, which in turn will assist your placement in the natural search engine results pages.
You can stumble across a few issues with article submission as several of the article publishers don’t follow the same rules:
As well as being a good source of PR, I heard on the grape/webvine that article submission is a quicker way to build links, in comparison to contacting directory editors submission times.
Article sites generally make the article live with the company link straight away, as they are keen to get fresh new content on their pages.
It makes sense.
Another advantage of article submission is having them republished in some other persons blog (in theory this should related to your proposition). This will help increase visitors to your site, create new links, which in turn will assist your placement in the natural search engine results pages.
You can stumble across a few issues with article submission as several of the article publishers don’t follow the same rules:
- Some won’t add links (wasted effort for SEO, good for PR)
- Some sites need HTML coding – although don’t state that (unfortunately sometimes find out after submission, when link is shown as not a live one)
- Some offer article templates which are great for bulk submissions as you can copy and paste some sections ie: Category & Author.
Tips: Place article in Dream weaver the view source and copy and paste the code. or add the code yourself and place in own tags
ie:Bold anything you want in bold should go between 'b' tags
italic anything you want in italic should go between 'i' tags
and you can create a Href link to your site with name of choice. YourWebSite
More tags can be found here:
http://www.web-source.net/html_codes_chart.htm
A lot of the article sites, state that you are free to republish the articles as long as the links to article site and the author/site stay with the article. I am currently collating a list of Article submission sites, and struggling to find those UK focused article submission sites, should you be reading this and have any links, happy to receive.
Tip: When writing articles – provide an introduction filled with unique keywords, and finish off the article with some keyword filled comments.
Vertical Networks
Targeted categories: Will search engines be focused on these in the future ?
If I think of any more will add below:
· Automotive
· Business & Finance
· Computers & Internet
· Conservation
· Eco Warriors
· Education
· Family
· Fashion & Apparel
· Films
· Food & Drink
· Gadgets & Games
· Gambling
· Gay & Lesbian
· Health & Fitness
· Hobbies
· Home Improvement
· Humour
· Kids & Teems
· Legal
· Marketing
· Men
· Mobile Communications
· Music
· Parenting
· Pets & Animals
· Politics & Government
· Recreation & Sports
· Relationships
· Self Help
· Travel & Leisure
· Web Development
· Women
· Work
· Writing & Reading
If I think of any more will add below:
· Automotive
· Business & Finance
· Computers & Internet
· Conservation
· Eco Warriors
· Education
· Family
· Fashion & Apparel
· Films
· Food & Drink
· Gadgets & Games
· Gambling
· Gay & Lesbian
· Health & Fitness
· Hobbies
· Home Improvement
· Humour
· Kids & Teems
· Legal
· Marketing
· Men
· Mobile Communications
· Music
· Parenting
· Pets & Animals
· Politics & Government
· Recreation & Sports
· Relationships
· Self Help
· Travel & Leisure
· Web Development
· Women
· Work
· Writing & Reading
Wednesday, 18 July 2007
Google's Radical Update May 16th 2007
Did you notice?
Have you ever noticed the boxes/links which appear above the Google Search box (where you enter your keyword), do you use them ? In general many people don’t, however for your reference these additional areas are known in the Web World as ‘vertical search engines’, where you can search a specialised area ie: Images, News, Maps, Product, Groups, Scholar, More>
Google noted their lack of use and made a radical decision on May 2007 to integrate all their vertical/specialist search results into our regular search results. This update was named by Google as ‘Universal Search’.
What does this mean to you?
Well if you search Google for ‘Simpsons movie’ or ‘Hotel in Jersey’ you will get the general idea, results in the main search result pages now show links to blog articles, news stories, image, video links, and where relevant local map information and book search links. It is providing users with more information and providing you with increased opportunities to increase your exposure online. Search is getting personal.
For your interest you may like to visit this search engine, which displays results in a vertical/specialised manner www.searchmash.com and with regards to search getting personal check out www.50matches.com which only shows sites that have been book marked or voted by people on social bookmark sites Digg, Delicious, Reddit – thus as well as being relevant to query, they also deemed important by the searchers themselves.
Exciting times are ahead in the ever evolving world of search engine marketing.
Have you ever noticed the boxes/links which appear above the Google Search box (where you enter your keyword), do you use them ? In general many people don’t, however for your reference these additional areas are known in the Web World as ‘vertical search engines’, where you can search a specialised area ie: Images, News, Maps, Product, Groups, Scholar, More>
Google noted their lack of use and made a radical decision on May 2007 to integrate all their vertical/specialist search results into our regular search results. This update was named by Google as ‘Universal Search’.
What does this mean to you?
Well if you search Google for ‘Simpsons movie’ or ‘Hotel in Jersey’ you will get the general idea, results in the main search result pages now show links to blog articles, news stories, image, video links, and where relevant local map information and book search links. It is providing users with more information and providing you with increased opportunities to increase your exposure online. Search is getting personal.
For your interest you may like to visit this search engine, which displays results in a vertical/specialised manner www.searchmash.com and with regards to search getting personal check out www.50matches.com which only shows sites that have been book marked or voted by people on social bookmark sites Digg, Delicious, Reddit – thus as well as being relevant to query, they also deemed important by the searchers themselves.
Exciting times are ahead in the ever evolving world of search engine marketing.
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