09 November 2008
SEO Trade Secrets - Writing Good Links
Every quarter I run a seminar Bristol for SMEs and start up businesses called How To Market Your Website. On this course I outline best practice for optimising your website to be found by your prospects using search engines, specifically Google.
External links - links from other sites
Internal links - links on your pages
Site maps
Links on your main page
So on the last course the entrepreneur who runs this Bristol Fashion Boutique asked how she could write better links in her website copy, or indeed when someone links to her site.
Well, the above link is a pretty damned fine example even though I do say so myself. I'll tell you why...
The "Anchor Text" (the blue, underlined bit) is useful to Google and humans. It describes what you will find when you click the link, and Google loves good anchor text...
In this case the anchor text is "Bristol Fashion Boutique", which means that Google will improve the landing page's (the page that the link points at) standing within it's index for the words "Bristol Fashion Boutique". I could have used the domain name: www.elsieriley.com as the anchor text, but that just means that Google will rank the page more highly for that search term and the website will always rank highly for that, so it's a waste of time. Plus, if people know the domain name, then they already know what the business does, so we're unlikely to win any new sales. The search term "Bristol Fashion Boutique" is much more likely to be used by people who don't know that Elsie Riley exists and therefore is likely to win more new sales from new customers.
I could have used the other crappy web page standards of 'click here', 'more info' and 'find out more' as the anchor text, but these would tell Google to rank the landing page more highly for the words 'click here', etc and who wants to rank highly for that?
If you mouse over the link to Elsie Riley's site again, you'll notice that a little bit of descriptive text pops up to tell you a bit more about the landing page than is already contained in the anchor text... this is called the 'title' attribute for the link (not to be confused with the page title). This is great for people using screen readers (devices which 'speak' the web page to a blind person) and again, for Google!
So, in short you should put descriptive keyphrases (the search terms people would use to find your site on Google) in your anchor text links, and in those anchor text links, include keyphrase rich title attributes anywhere you can, such as:
External links - links from other sites
Internal links - links on your pages
Site maps
Links on your main page
Here's a template you could use to create good anchor text links:
To make this link: A Descriptive Keyphrase, you need to use code that looks like this:
<a href="http://www.your-web-page.com" title="another keyphrase about the landing page">A Descriptive Keyphrase</a>
<a href="http://www.your-web-page.com" title="another keyphrase about the landing page">A Descriptive Keyphrase</a>
It's really useful to use this format as a link in the signature you use in any forums to help build link popularity too.
If you find this all a little difficult, just create a word document telling your web designer what you'd like the anchor text and title attribute to be for each text link on your site (if you have lots, just start with those on the most popular pages) and send it to them asking for a quote. If they tell you it's not relevant or it's too time consuming then send them to me. I love making web designers bend to my will.
Alternatively contact me, the web consultant and I'll help you get your web site to rank higher in Google. See what I did there, anchor text link fans?
Big love to you, and as we say in the 'hood; Peace Out.
Labels: better search engine rankings, SEO Trade Secrets
13 October 2008
SEO Trade Secrets - Generating Sitemap XML Files
If you want Google to know about every link on your website... you need to get an account here:
www.google.co.uk/webmasters/
And upload a sitemap.xml file - I spent ages trying to find a way to generate for these pesky sitemap.xml files and found this sitemap generator. It's fantastic and does loads of additional stuff such as point out 404 errors and broken links.
Sweet huh?
I'll go on about xml sitemaps and their importance to Google, Yahoo, Ask, MSN/Live when I have more time.
www.google.co.uk/webmasters/
And upload a sitemap.xml file - I spent ages trying to find a way to generate for these pesky sitemap.xml files and found this sitemap generator. It's fantastic and does loads of additional stuff such as point out 404 errors and broken links.
Sweet huh?
I'll go on about xml sitemaps and their importance to Google, Yahoo, Ask, MSN/Live when I have more time.
Labels: better search engine rankings, SEO Trade Secrets
28 September 2008
Why did my web site's PageRank drop?
Well, there's the 700 billion dollar question! Whatever happened to the $1m question is what I'm wondering.. Anyway let me tell you why the Google PageRank to your home page dropped today, of all days.
It's not a simple answer so you have got some reading to do....
PageRank is a numeric value that represents how important a page is on the web. Google figures that when one page links to another page, it is effectively casting a vote for the other page. The more votes that are cast for a page, the more important the page must be. Also, the importance of the page that is casting the vote determines how important the vote itself is. Google calculates a page's importance from the votes cast for it. How important each vote is is taken into account when a page's PageRank is calculated.
PageRank is Google's way of deciding a page's importance. It matters because it is one of the factors that determines a page's ranking in the search results. It isn't the only factor that Google uses to rank pages, but it is an important one.
First of all, do you know what PageRank is? If you do, don't bother with the next four paragraphs and avoid this somewhat half assed explanation.
PageRank is a numeric value that represents how important a page is on the web. Google figures that when one page links to another page, it is effectively casting a vote for the other page. The more votes that are cast for a page, the more important the page must be. Also, the importance of the page that is casting the vote determines how important the vote itself is. Google calculates a page's importance from the votes cast for it. How important each vote is is taken into account when a page's PageRank is calculated.
PageRank is Google's way of deciding a page's importance. It matters because it is one of the factors that determines a page's ranking in the search results. It isn't the only factor that Google uses to rank pages, but it is an important one.
However, while all links are equal, some are more equal than others.
For instance, Google filters out links from known link farms. Some links can cause a site to be penalized by Google. They rightly figure that webmasters cannot control which sites link to their sites, but they can control which sites they link out to. For this reason, links into a site cannot harm the site, but links from a site can be harmful if they link to penalized sites. So be careful which sites you link to. If a site has PageRank of 0 (zero), it is usually a penalty, and it would be unwise to link to it.
There's more detail in this post about PageRank.
The most important thing to note is that PageRank is not the be all and end all of your web site's ranking in Google's results pages, but often PageRank is better if it's higher for your web site.
The second most important thing to note is that PageRank is named after its creator Larry Page, who's dad used to be the Professor of AI at MSU, so you can guess Larry has an idea or two about computers. It turns out that Larry thought that academia wasn't for him and went on to become a reasonably successful entrepreneur and set up a little search engine, of which you may have heard.
I guess though, the information you're after is 'not all that bollocks', as my nephew would say as I slump into this post match bottle, but something a little more concrete.. Why do you have a lower PageRank than yesterday? That's what you want to know... Right?
OK, so your web site's home page has a lower PageRank today (27th September 2008) than yesterday (26th September, if I'm not very much misinformed). Is that a bad thing?
Possibly, yes it is. BUT, if your website shares useful information to your chosen demographic, then probably not, to be honest. I'd love you to get in touch so we could work together on SEO for your web site, but sadly for me, if you're reading this, you're probably doing enough to keep your site's listings high in the results pages without having to pay my (very) reasonable fees for my (absolutely) fantastic service. So read on to see why your PageRank may have dropped...
Google is notoriously cagey about revealing the algorithms it uses to calculate PageRank and the positions of web sites in its search engine results pages (SERPs), so this is nothing more than speculation I'm afraid, but I've been fiddling about with the internet and real buyers and sellers for the last 12 years, so if you haven't got this experience, I'd go with what I say as 9 times out of 10 and reading this blog will save you money.
As far as I can tell, in this last revision of the PageRank index, Google continued its process of assigning more importance to sub pages within websites as opposed simply designating the most importance to the homepage.
For example if you had a site that sold fruit and a page that was dedicated to navel oranges you'd probably find that your home page had dropped by a factor of 1 in the last week and the page about navel oranges had increased by the same factor. This is only a problem if your home page advertises all your products and services you offer but, your website has few sub pages. In most cases, your subpages will appear higher for more specific search terms, while your index page remains as a good performer as it always was for all the other products and services you offer.
If you just want to chat through your options, contact Jon Payne, the lead consultant at The Web Consultancy
If your PageRank has stayed the same for the last 12 moths, you'd better get in touch with the SEO Consultants.
Buenos Noches mes Amigos!
Labels: better search engine rankings, seo
27 September 2008
Google PageRank Update - 27th September 2008
Looks like there's been another PageRank update from Google. I've been waiting sometime for big update, so I'm really pleased!
N.B. If you're not sure what your site's PageRank is, you can learn that here: What is my Google PageRank? and if you want some ideas on how to improve it, you can find those here: Improve Your PageRank.
Anyhow - back to the PageRank update - what's happened? Well, I've found that the majority of sites I'm working on have got a greatly improved PageRank for many of their deeper pages within the site. However in some cases, sites showing these results have seen the PageRank for the home page drop by a factor of 1.
While this alarmed me at first, looking at the bigger picture, if the pages deeper within the site have a better PageRank, then it means that Google is likely to direct more traffic with 'long tailed keywords' to these pages, rather than to the web site's home page. In my experience, this makes the visitor 50-75 % more likely to buy / enquire / download or whatever. So, it all looks rosy!
It should be said that a high Google PageRank by no means guarantees a high placement in Google's results pages and equally, a low PageRank isn't all bad news. However, the general rule of thumb is the higher the better if you want to sell your products and services online.
For more information on improving your PageRank, how Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can get more traffic to your website, call The Web Consultancy. We will help!
Sayonara!
N.B. If you're not sure what your site's PageRank is, you can learn that here: What is my Google PageRank? and if you want some ideas on how to improve it, you can find those here: Improve Your PageRank.
Anyhow - back to the PageRank update - what's happened? Well, I've found that the majority of sites I'm working on have got a greatly improved PageRank for many of their deeper pages within the site. However in some cases, sites showing these results have seen the PageRank for the home page drop by a factor of 1.
While this alarmed me at first, looking at the bigger picture, if the pages deeper within the site have a better PageRank, then it means that Google is likely to direct more traffic with 'long tailed keywords' to these pages, rather than to the web site's home page. In my experience, this makes the visitor 50-75 % more likely to buy / enquire / download or whatever. So, it all looks rosy!
It should be said that a high Google PageRank by no means guarantees a high placement in Google's results pages and equally, a low PageRank isn't all bad news. However, the general rule of thumb is the higher the better if you want to sell your products and services online.
For more information on improving your PageRank, how Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can get more traffic to your website, call The Web Consultancy. We will help!
Sayonara!
Labels: better search engine rankings, news
31 July 2008
SEO Trade Secrets - 301 Redirects
301 Redirects are something I touched on briefly in this post: Considerations When Building A New Site. However they so important when you re-launch, re-design, re-jig or just shake up, your website, that the humble 301 Redirect deserves a more detailed post.
301 Redirects are simple little bits of code that say "Hi, this page has moved - I'll send you to the new one". Now we as humans don't see this, so why are 301 Redirects important?
Well, when you change the content of your site, often all the old pages disappear and result in error pages which look like this or this. These missing pages are known as 404 errors. Gosh! Aren't we having fun with these 3 digit numbers?
Anyway, this is bad news for anyone who has bookmarked the (now missing) pages on your website and slightly inconvenient for them as they'll have to type your URL (your web address) into their browser.
Even worse if the web visitor has arrived on this non-existent page having followed a link from another website which is extolling the virtues of your product and you as a supplier. They ain't buying from you now, you look like some flaky internet con artist.
Possibly even worse than this is when the page is featuring in the natural search engine results of Google or similar, because not only are your prospective customers following this link, finding an error and buying from someone else, but Google itself is repeatedly checking your site and finding 404 errors where it used to find, good, useful information. If you've worked hard on your site it probably has a good Google Page Rank and these missing pages are likely have an adverse effect on the page rank for all the pages within your site.
301 Redirects will stop all this happening!
Use a 301 Redirect to redirect all pages on your old site to your new site permanently. This tells search engines and users that your site has permanently moved. Google recommends that you move and redirect a section or directory first, and then test to make sure that your redirects are working correctly before moving all your content.
IIS 301 Redirect
1. In internet services manager, right click on the file or folder you wish to redirect
2. Select the radio titled "a redirection to a URL".
3. Enter the redirection page
4. Check "The exact url entered above" and the "A permanent redirection for this resource"
5. Click on 'Apply'
ColdFusion 301 Redirect
<.cfheader statuscode="301" statustext="Moved permanently"> <.cfheader name="Location" value="http://www.new-url.com/new-page.html">
PHP 301 Redirect
<?
Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
Header( "Location: http://www.new-url.com/new-page.html" );
?>
ASP 301 Redirect
<%@ Language=VBScript %>
<%
Response.Status="301 Moved Permanently"
Response.AddHeader "Location","http://www.new-url.com/new-page.html/"
%>
ASP .NET 301 Redirect
<script runat="server">
private void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
Response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently";
Response.AddHeader("Location","http://www.new-url.com/new-page.html");
}
</script>
JSP (Java) 301 Redirect
<%
response.setStatus(301);
response.setHeader( "Location", "http://www.new-url.com/new-page.html" );
response.setHeader( "Connection", "close" );
%>
CGI PERL 301 Redirect
$q = new CGI;
print $q->redirect("http://www.new-url.com/new-page.html");
Ruby on Rails 301 Redirect
def old_action
headers["Status"] = "301 Moved Permanently"
redirect_to "http://www.new-url.com/new-page.html"
end
.htaccess 301 Redirect (for HTML 301 Redirects use this too)
1. Either create an .htaccess file, open notepad, name and save the file as .htaccess (there is no extension) or if you already have a .htaccess file on your server, download it to your desktop for editing.
2. Place this code in your .htaccess file:
redirect 301 /old/old.html http://www.new-url.com/new-page.html
3. If the .htaccess file already has lines of code in it, skip a line, then add the above code.
6. Save the .htaccess file and upload to the root folder of your server.
If you are running a Unix server with mod_rewrite enabled you can do some really funky redirects, but I'm not showing you that for nothing. You'll need to buy me sweets.
If you have any questions call the web consultancy and I'll help you.
Bo!
301 Redirects are simple little bits of code that say "Hi, this page has moved - I'll send you to the new one". Now we as humans don't see this, so why are 301 Redirects important?
Well, when you change the content of your site, often all the old pages disappear and result in error pages which look like this or this. These missing pages are known as 404 errors. Gosh! Aren't we having fun with these 3 digit numbers?
Anyway, this is bad news for anyone who has bookmarked the (now missing) pages on your website and slightly inconvenient for them as they'll have to type your URL (your web address) into their browser.
Even worse if the web visitor has arrived on this non-existent page having followed a link from another website which is extolling the virtues of your product and you as a supplier. They ain't buying from you now, you look like some flaky internet con artist.
Possibly even worse than this is when the page is featuring in the natural search engine results of Google or similar, because not only are your prospective customers following this link, finding an error and buying from someone else, but Google itself is repeatedly checking your site and finding 404 errors where it used to find, good, useful information. If you've worked hard on your site it probably has a good Google Page Rank and these missing pages are likely have an adverse effect on the page rank for all the pages within your site.
301 Redirects will stop all this happening!
Use a 301 Redirect to redirect all pages on your old site to your new site permanently. This tells search engines and users that your site has permanently moved. Google recommends that you move and redirect a section or directory first, and then test to make sure that your redirects are working correctly before moving all your content.
It's best not to do a single redirect directing all traffic from your old site to your new homepage. This will avoid 404 errors, but it's not a good user experience. It's more work, but a page-to-page redirect will help preserve your site's ranking in Google while providing a consistent and transparent experience for your users. If there won't be a 1:1 match between pages on your old site and your new site (recommended), try to make sure that every page on your old site is at least redirected to a new page with similar content.
How to do 301 Redirects.
IIS 301 Redirect
1. In internet services manager, right click on the file or folder you wish to redirect
2. Select the radio titled "a redirection to a URL".
3. Enter the redirection page
4. Check "The exact url entered above" and the "A permanent redirection for this resource"
5. Click on 'Apply'
ColdFusion 301 Redirect
<.cfheader statuscode="301" statustext="Moved permanently"> <.cfheader name="Location" value="http://www.new-url.com/new-page.html">
PHP 301 Redirect
<?
Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
Header( "Location: http://www.new-url.com/new-page.html" );
?>
ASP 301 Redirect
<%@ Language=VBScript %>
<%
Response.Status="301 Moved Permanently"
Response.AddHeader "Location","http://www.new-url.com/new-page.html/"
%>
ASP .NET 301 Redirect
<script runat="server">
private void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
Response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently";
Response.AddHeader("Location","http://www.new-url.com/new-page.html");
}
</script>
JSP (Java) 301 Redirect
<%
response.setStatus(301);
response.setHeader( "Location", "http://www.new-url.com/new-page.html" );
response.setHeader( "Connection", "close" );
%>
CGI PERL 301 Redirect
$q = new CGI;
print $q->redirect("http://www.new-url.com/new-page.html");
Ruby on Rails 301 Redirect
def old_action
headers["Status"] = "301 Moved Permanently"
redirect_to "http://www.new-url.com/new-page.html"
end
.htaccess 301 Redirect (for HTML 301 Redirects use this too)
1. Either create an .htaccess file, open notepad, name and save the file as .htaccess (there is no extension) or if you already have a .htaccess file on your server, download it to your desktop for editing.
2. Place this code in your .htaccess file:
redirect 301 /old/old.html http://www.new-url.com/new-page.html
3. If the .htaccess file already has lines of code in it, skip a line, then add the above code.
6. Save the .htaccess file and upload to the root folder of your server.
If you are running a Unix server with mod_rewrite enabled you can do some really funky redirects, but I'm not showing you that for nothing. You'll need to buy me sweets.
If you have any questions call the web consultancy and I'll help you.
Bo!
Labels: better search engine rankings, SEO Trade Secrets
28 July 2008
Google's New Rival Launches Today!
Anna Patterson, who sold her last search engine to Google back in 2004 has launched her new project "Cuil". Cuil is apparently an old Irish word for knowledge. I suspect it had more to do with the fact that "knowledge.com" had already been taken, than the American habit of claiming long lost Irish / Scottish / Welsh ancestry, but anyway
Cuil claims to index 120 billion web pages, which is (according to Cuil) three times more than Google and ten times as many as Microsoft.
You can rest assured that the web consultancy will submit your pages to this new search engine on the block and will stay ahead of the game, so you don't have to. In fact we're already in it. Our search engine optimisation service has worked wonders for many, isn't it time we started working on your site so it works harder for you?
Byeee!
Cuil claims to index 120 billion web pages, which is (according to Cuil) three times more than Google and ten times as many as Microsoft.
You can rest assured that the web consultancy will submit your pages to this new search engine on the block and will stay ahead of the game, so you don't have to. In fact we're already in it. Our search engine optimisation service has worked wonders for many, isn't it time we started working on your site so it works harder for you?
Byeee!
Labels: better search engine rankings, news
24 July 2008
Facebook Privacy Tip
If, like me and many others you have business contacts and personal contact all mixed into your friends list on Facebook, you might want to pay some heed to this very useful article:
Wired How To: Set Up A Velvet Rope On Facebook.
Useful huh?
Wired How To: Set Up A Velvet Rope On Facebook.
Useful huh?
Labels: better search engine rankings
16 May 2008
Google AdWords Trademark Policy Revision
Interesting news arrived recently from the Google AdWords Policy bods.
The policy used to be that you could not use the trademarks in the text or sponsored keywords of your adverts, unless you owned them. While the policy remains that you cannot use someone else's trademark in your ad text, the revised policy now allows you to bid for trademarked terms in your sponsored keywords.
So my client who sells second hand Portakabins can now use the word Portakabins in his sponsored search listing and furthermore my customers who run a beauty clinic in Ringwood can sponsor words like Botox for their adverts.
Now, there's lots of people all getting worked up over this and saying it's essentially the end of days and we'll all perish in a burning trademark shaped law suit, but really the question is; How can this benefit your business.
For Google AdWords help from the professionals call the web consultancy today.
TTFN!
The policy used to be that you could not use the trademarks in the text or sponsored keywords of your adverts, unless you owned them. While the policy remains that you cannot use someone else's trademark in your ad text, the revised policy now allows you to bid for trademarked terms in your sponsored keywords.
So my client who sells second hand Portakabins can now use the word Portakabins in his sponsored search listing and furthermore my customers who run a beauty clinic in Ringwood can sponsor words like Botox for their adverts.
Now, there's lots of people all getting worked up over this and saying it's essentially the end of days and we'll all perish in a burning trademark shaped law suit, but really the question is; How can this benefit your business.
For Google AdWords help from the professionals call the web consultancy today.
TTFN!
Labels: better search engine rankings, google adwords, Portfolio
09 May 2008
SEO - Snake Oil for 2008?
I got this email from a concerned client today asking if the chap who sent it could actually help my client to optimise her site (advertising her excellent Bristol hypnotherapy clinic). Quite reasonably my client hoped it would be a better investment in search engine marketing than the work she and I have recently started to do together, following these search engine optimisation principals, which are essentially quite a bit of hard graft and this email seems to offer a short cut to effective search engine optimisation!
As with many of my clients Mindscape Therapies is a small concern, so I was particularly upset that it appeared that some shyster (or babbling brook, if you prefer) was trying to pull a fast one.... So in an effort to help others to be forewarned and forearmed, here's the email the business owner received:
---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: I visited your website and had a question
From: "Luke Ilech" luke@onelukey.plus.com
Date: Thu, May 8, 2008 12:58 pm
To: REMOVED FOR PRIVACY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi,
I was looking at websites under the keyword "hypnotherapy bristol" and
came across your site http://www.mindscapetherapies.co.uk/. I see that
you're ranked 42 - on page 5.
I'm not sure if you're aware of why you're ranked this low but more
importantly how easily correctable this is.
There's no reason you can't have a top three ranking for this keyword
based on your site structure and content. You have a very nice site.
You need significantly more one way anchor text backlinks. If you're
interested I can help you with this...
I'm talking about getting you ranked for ALL your keywords. Adding new
backlinks on a steady and consistent basis from high PR quality websites
is what produces the rankings you are looking for.
The right kind of links are very critical in getting top ranking....and I
can hand deliver these quality links to you.
My partners and I own 1000's websites and offer discrete, private linking
to hundreds of website owners like yourself.
I didn't send this email out to thousands of people but I am currently
contacting a list of your "keyword competitors".
Important: I will only work with one person for this keyword group.
I have your contact info as: phone 07810 510170. Is it ok if I give you a
call?
I have a very simple way to prove that what I do works and it's risk free
for you to try. Nothing beats seeing the results with your own eyes.
Is it ok if I give you a call? I would love to pursue this further over
the phone with you or should I go somewhere else?
all the best,
sincerely,
Luke Ilech
0845 003 0582
Now - I should point out that we've only just started working on the site in question and it's likely to take a while to creep up the rankings, but it is No 1 on Google (at the time of writing) for hypnotherapy Montpelier and emdr bristol from tiny acorns, mighty oaks, etc etc.
Anyway - here's my opinion on what this unpleasant little man said in his vile little epistle:
What “Luke” is saying is based in truth, but primarily that email is selling Snake Oil 2008.
While back-links are important for search engine optimisation, I don’t think “Luke” is going to do you as good a deal as he proposes to.
Let’s assume that Luke can deliver you a top three ranking for all the keywords you’d ask for (NB. He doesn’t stipulate which search engines, he just lets you assume it’s Google), if his service is sooooo amazing why isn’t there a website at the address “Luke” used to send his email from..... luke@onelukey.plus.com should resolve to onelukey.plus.com as a website right? WRONG.
The domain plus.com is actually registered to plus.net, a broadband supplier who do not offer the services Luke offers. So..... The person who has sent this email has actually appears to be “spoofing” this email address. Essentially, “spoofing” is using a forged “sent from address” in an email as appears to be the case here. Why this email was sent using a spoofed header I don’t know, but I suspect it’s because the sender isn’t particularly legit and would prefer not to have the many complaints about his unsolicited emails arriving in his email box. While I’m not clear on Email Spoofing’s status as a criminal offence it is certainly morally wrong in my opinion.
One final check. I called Luke’s number. The conversation went like this:
“Luke” – Hello?
Me – Hi. Is um, Bill there?
“Luke” - No, you must have the wrong number.
Me - Oh. Sorry.
“Luke” – What was it about? Maybe there is a Bill here.
Me – Nothing important, bye!
Surely if this wasn’t a scam of some sort Luke would have said “Hello XXXX website promotions, how can I help?” or something similar.
If you have heard from Luke or someone like him promising search engine joy, email the web consultancy and we'll tell you if you're being conned or not.
Pip pip!
As with many of my clients Mindscape Therapies is a small concern, so I was particularly upset that it appeared that some shyster (or babbling brook, if you prefer) was trying to pull a fast one.... So in an effort to help others to be forewarned and forearmed, here's the email the business owner received:
---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: I visited your website and had a question
From: "Luke Ilech" luke@onelukey.plus.com
Date: Thu, May 8, 2008 12:58 pm
To: REMOVED FOR PRIVACY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi,
I was looking at websites under the keyword "hypnotherapy bristol" and
came across your site http://www.mindscapetherapies.co.uk/. I see that
you're ranked 42 - on page 5.
I'm not sure if you're aware of why you're ranked this low but more
importantly how easily correctable this is.
There's no reason you can't have a top three ranking for this keyword
based on your site structure and content. You have a very nice site.
You need significantly more one way anchor text backlinks. If you're
interested I can help you with this...
I'm talking about getting you ranked for ALL your keywords. Adding new
backlinks on a steady and consistent basis from high PR quality websites
is what produces the rankings you are looking for.
The right kind of links are very critical in getting top ranking....and I
can hand deliver these quality links to you.
My partners and I own 1000's websites and offer discrete, private linking
to hundreds of website owners like yourself.
I didn't send this email out to thousands of people but I am currently
contacting a list of your "keyword competitors".
Important: I will only work with one person for this keyword group.
I have your contact info as: phone 07810 510170. Is it ok if I give you a
call?
I have a very simple way to prove that what I do works and it's risk free
for you to try. Nothing beats seeing the results with your own eyes.
Is it ok if I give you a call? I would love to pursue this further over
the phone with you or should I go somewhere else?
all the best,
sincerely,
Luke Ilech
0845 003 0582
Now - I should point out that we've only just started working on the site in question and it's likely to take a while to creep up the rankings, but it is No 1 on Google (at the time of writing) for hypnotherapy Montpelier and emdr bristol from tiny acorns, mighty oaks, etc etc.
Anyway - here's my opinion on what this unpleasant little man said in his vile little epistle:
What “Luke” is saying is based in truth, but primarily that email is selling Snake Oil 2008.
While back-links are important for search engine optimisation, I don’t think “Luke” is going to do you as good a deal as he proposes to.
Let’s assume that Luke can deliver you a top three ranking for all the keywords you’d ask for (NB. He doesn’t stipulate which search engines, he just lets you assume it’s Google), if his service is sooooo amazing why isn’t there a website at the address “Luke” used to send his email from..... luke@onelukey.plus.com should resolve to onelukey.plus.com as a website right? WRONG.
The domain plus.com is actually registered to plus.net, a broadband supplier who do not offer the services Luke offers. So..... The person who has sent this email has actually appears to be “spoofing” this email address. Essentially, “spoofing” is using a forged “sent from address” in an email as appears to be the case here. Why this email was sent using a spoofed header I don’t know, but I suspect it’s because the sender isn’t particularly legit and would prefer not to have the many complaints about his unsolicited emails arriving in his email box. While I’m not clear on Email Spoofing’s status as a criminal offence it is certainly morally wrong in my opinion.
One final check. I called Luke’s number. The conversation went like this:
“Luke” – Hello?
Me – Hi. Is um, Bill there?
“Luke” - No, you must have the wrong number.
Me - Oh. Sorry.
“Luke” – What was it about? Maybe there is a Bill here.
Me – Nothing important, bye!
Surely if this wasn’t a scam of some sort Luke would have said “Hello XXXX website promotions, how can I help?” or something similar.
If you have heard from Luke or someone like him promising search engine joy, email the web consultancy and we'll tell you if you're being conned or not.
Pip pip!
Labels: better search engine rankings, rants
01 May 2008
Flash Website Search Optimisation
The David Payne Drama website is a nice looking site for a theatre company including animations and video clips.
My job was to optimise it for search engines.... "How do you optimise a Flash web site for search engines?" I hear you cry.
Well amongst some other special magic I performed on the site, I also added a link that says "Can't See Anything?" in the site's footer. That little link leads to the slightly boring but terribly accessible David Payne Drama HTML site, which is good for Search Engines and good for business.
Happy days!
The Web Consultant
My job was to optimise it for search engines.... "How do you optimise a Flash web site for search engines?" I hear you cry.
Well amongst some other special magic I performed on the site, I also added a link that says "Can't See Anything?" in the site's footer. That little link leads to the slightly boring but terribly accessible David Payne Drama HTML site, which is good for Search Engines and good for business.
Happy days!
The Web Consultant
Labels: better search engine rankings, Portfolio
20 April 2008
Effective Google AdWords Campaign
This painted kitchen designer and manufacturer uses the web consultancy's search marketing services as the only form of advertising for his business. He receieves approximately an enquiry per day for his high end kitchens. The site was optimised for search engines in terms of build and we also wrote the search engine friendly copy too.
Labels: better search engine rankings, google adwords, Portfolio
Optimising For Google and AdWords
This Bristol based solicitor Personal Injury Solutions wanted to appear highly in the natural and paid search results on Google.
By employing best practice search marketing techniques, adjusting his site slightly and completely reviewing his Google AdWords, We've managed to increase the amount of traffic to his site by 100's of percent for no additional cost with Google Adwords. Plus he's featuring really highly for the search terms CRPS Compensation.
I feel pretty darned good about that and so does the client.
By employing best practice search marketing techniques, adjusting his site slightly and completely reviewing his Google AdWords, We've managed to increase the amount of traffic to his site by 100's of percent for no additional cost with Google Adwords. Plus he's featuring really highly for the search terms CRPS Compensation.
I feel pretty darned good about that and so does the client.
Labels: better search engine rankings, google adwords, Portfolio
10 February 2008
What are meta tags?
This is a follow on from the post Does a blog make a good business website? I guess the other question we need to ask in addition to what are meta tags? is... how can they benefit my business?
Meta tags are the bits of a web page that you don't ordinarily see, but they are there hiding at the top of all web pages. Here's what a meta tag looks like:
The main meta tags you should concentrate on when you are considering launching your new website are:
Title (not a meta tag, but now is a good time to take a look at it)
Description
Robots
Keywords
The title appears in the blue bar at the top of your browser:
And along with the description, the title also appears in the search engine results:
So it's a good idea to have the search terms you'd like your page to be found for in both the title and the description.... There are no hard and fast rules governing what you can put in the title, but it's best to keep it simple and under 20 words. For the description, I try to keep to under 35 words. Different search engines will show different amounts of the title and description in their results pages so, make sure all your important information is in the first few words.
If your site is listed in the Open Directory Project or ODP (a human edited search engine, and your isn't listed yet, submit it NOW!) then Google, MSN & Yahoo! will not show your description in the search results but the description that ODP has written for you. You can override this with the robots tag. "Robots" is a catch all term for the automated browsers (or "search engine spiders", "crawlers") which follow all the links on the web to build up the index of web pages for their parent search engine.
Finally we come to the meta tag "keywords" - way back in the 1990's when the web was young, and search engines weren't as rich, rather than waste expensive resources on sending out their robots to read an entire page, the robots would read just the meta tags (including the keywords) for a kind of synopsis. The page would then be ranked according to the title and description and because there wasn't much info in here you could tell the robots what else existed on the page by giving it a list of "keywords". For this page the keywords might read something like:
Sadly, some people would stuff their keywords with hundreds of words hoping it would improve their ranking and even worse, some other naughty people used misleading keywords so that unsuspecting surfers might search for "spice girls" and arrive at a page showing pictures of ladies with no tops on. This wouldn't do, so search engines pretty much ignore keywords now and look at the title, description and actual 'on page' content to see what the page is about. I still use the keywords attribute myself, but keep it to 4 or 5 words per page. I'm not sure it has any real value, but if the keywords are accurate and brief, I'm confident it doesn't do any harm.
There are a few of final comments:
Keep your titles and descriptions meaningful and accurate, search engines like providing their users with accurate results. You will not achieve high rankings in the search engines if you over egg the pudding.
I know it's difficult but try to make sure you have a unique title and description for every page, to reflect the content on the page. This way all your pages are more likely to rank highly in the search results and you are more likely to be found by people who are looking for your products and/or services and who have never heard of you.
Need more help? Confused about this? Post a comment or contact the web consultant
Meta tags are the bits of a web page that you don't ordinarily see, but they are there hiding at the top of all web pages. Here's what a meta tag looks like:
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html">This one would tell your browser to render the page as text. But that is soooooo tedious and nobody cares. So lets get to the useful stuff.... what you can do with your meta tags to make them improve your site's visibility in the search engines results pages.
The main meta tags you should concentrate on when you are considering launching your new website are:
Title (not a meta tag, but now is a good time to take a look at it)
Description
Robots
Keywords
The title appears in the blue bar at the top of your browser:
And along with the description, the title also appears in the search engine results:
So it's a good idea to have the search terms you'd like your page to be found for in both the title and the description.... There are no hard and fast rules governing what you can put in the title, but it's best to keep it simple and under 20 words. For the description, I try to keep to under 35 words. Different search engines will show different amounts of the title and description in their results pages so, make sure all your important information is in the first few words.
If your site is listed in the Open Directory Project or ODP (a human edited search engine, and your isn't listed yet, submit it NOW!) then Google, MSN & Yahoo! will not show your description in the search results but the description that ODP has written for you. You can override this with the robots tag. "Robots" is a catch all term for the automated browsers (or "search engine spiders", "crawlers") which follow all the links on the web to build up the index of web pages for their parent search engine.
<meta name="ROBOTS" content="NOODP">tells the search engines to show your descriptions, not those which ODP has written on your behalf. You can also give the commands "NOFOLLOW" (tell robots not to follow links on this page) and "NOARCHIVE" (tells robots not to include this page in the index), but really this should be done in a separate file called robots.txt, which all robots look for to get instructions when they arrive at a website.
Finally we come to the meta tag "keywords" - way back in the 1990's when the web was young, and search engines weren't as rich, rather than waste expensive resources on sending out their robots to read an entire page, the robots would read just the meta tags (including the keywords) for a kind of synopsis. The page would then be ranked according to the title and description and because there wasn't much info in here you could tell the robots what else existed on the page by giving it a list of "keywords". For this page the keywords might read something like:
<meta name="KEYWORDS" content="search marketing tips business uk">
Sadly, some people would stuff their keywords with hundreds of words hoping it would improve their ranking and even worse, some other naughty people used misleading keywords so that unsuspecting surfers might search for "spice girls" and arrive at a page showing pictures of ladies with no tops on. This wouldn't do, so search engines pretty much ignore keywords now and look at the title, description and actual 'on page' content to see what the page is about. I still use the keywords attribute myself, but keep it to 4 or 5 words per page. I'm not sure it has any real value, but if the keywords are accurate and brief, I'm confident it doesn't do any harm.
There are a few of final comments:
Keep your titles and descriptions meaningful and accurate, search engines like providing their users with accurate results. You will not achieve high rankings in the search engines if you over egg the pudding.
I know it's difficult but try to make sure you have a unique title and description for every page, to reflect the content on the page. This way all your pages are more likely to rank highly in the search results and you are more likely to be found by people who are looking for your products and/or services and who have never heard of you.
Need more help? Confused about this? Post a comment or contact the web consultant
Labels: better search engine rankings
03 February 2008
Does a blog make a good business website?
Here's an extract from an email I received last week....
> I need some advice about how to create a website succesfully! at the moment
> I can't afford to get one up and running by a proffessional - and I don't
> think it's something you should skrimp on - as a website can be very
> profitable to a business if done correctly.
>
> currently i've created a wordepress blog - which is a mixture of industry
> info and my informatiom about the
> company i.e 'about us' 'services' 'fees' etc etc - I'm not sure if its ok to
> use a blog site like this - but I've tried to use it to the best of my
> ability.
>
> I'd really appreiate it if you could explain to me terms like 'meta tag',
> CSS, RSS feeds etc etc - as its completely over my head!
Some good questions here, but I'll start by answering a question that wasn't really posed... Does a blog make a good business website?
Like many questions about doing business online, there's not really a definitive answer. What is right is what works for you. But, here's some considerations:
Using a blog in this way does make it difficult to optimise the site and it's pages for search engines, as the pages are built using templates provided by the blog provider (blogger.com, wordpress.com, etc).
Blog templates are designed for use by people of all levels of technical ability, and as such have a lot of bulky code built in to keep your web pages looking nice, and to allow you to apply your own house style. Now I mentioned "bulky code".
Simply put, "code" is the technical bit that holds the site together. The more efficient your use of code, the easier it is for search engines (and people with disabilities) to navigate your website and enjoy your content. Blogs can't use code as efficiently as a custom built site, as they have to cater for a colossal variety of styles, layouts, etc. This bulky code is just the sort of thing that makes it difficult for search engines to read and appreciate the value of your content.
It stands to reason that if your site is difficult for a search engine to read, and your competitor has a site with similar content that is easier for a search engine to read, your competitor's site will appear higher in the page rankings.
In addition to all the competitors in business you have to outperform, consider how many indirect competitors there are for your potential customer's attention.... news sites reporting on your industry, forums discussing products and services you sell, hobbyists who just love giving away your trade secrets.... It's easy for your site to be lost underneath this heap of 'competitive' sites.
There are however a number of blogs that perform fantastically in the search results of many search engines. How do they do this? Well, it will have a lot to do with their link popularity (see my explanations of link popularity) and, crucially, the amount of relevant content on their pages. So as getting hundreds of links to a brand new webiste is difficult, what you need if you're using a blog as the main website for your business is lots of content. Content is king!
When you see how much content is on the top performing blogs you'll see just how much content you need to compete with these chaps. It is likely to be at least 10 times as much as you're comfortable with, so to keep it easy to read, start with a compelling headline, and then a 5-15 word introduction to the information and give more and more detail as you get into your subject. Just like a newspaper article.
If you are using Worrdpress (I'm not, but I know many people do), make sure you click the button that shows the Advanced Toolbar (it's the button on the far right hand side of the menu that appears above the box where you type your content). Now you must use the format drop down menu to make the headline of your page 'Heading 1', the 5-15 word intro 'heading 2' and any subsequent headings 'heading 3', 'heading 4' and so on. This will show the Search Engines what the most important bits of your content are.
So it's worth having a section on your site that is a real blog, with compelling content to which people will want to place links on their sites, blogs and forum posts. Which will help your link popularity too!
Now, I know haven't answered the questions about Meta Tags, CSS & RSS yet, but I will this week, so watch this space kids!
Oh, and if I've been too confusing (people are increasingly referring to me as 'geeky') or you would like more info you can get in touch with me at The Web Consultancy or simply add a comment to this post using the link below.
> I need some advice about how to create a website succesfully! at the moment
> I can't afford to get one up and running by a proffessional - and I don't
> think it's something you should skrimp on - as a website can be very
> profitable to a business if done correctly.
>
> currently i've created a wordepress blog - which is a mixture of industry
> info and my informatiom about the
> company i.e 'about us' 'services' 'fees' etc etc - I'm not sure if its ok to
> use a blog site like this - but I've tried to use it to the best of my
> ability.
>
> I'd really appreiate it if you could explain to me terms like 'meta tag',
> CSS, RSS feeds etc etc - as its completely over my head!
Some good questions here, but I'll start by answering a question that wasn't really posed... Does a blog make a good business website?
Like many questions about doing business online, there's not really a definitive answer. What is right is what works for you. But, here's some considerations:
Using a blog in this way does make it difficult to optimise the site and it's pages for search engines, as the pages are built using templates provided by the blog provider (blogger.com, wordpress.com, etc).
Blog templates are designed for use by people of all levels of technical ability, and as such have a lot of bulky code built in to keep your web pages looking nice, and to allow you to apply your own house style. Now I mentioned "bulky code".
Simply put, "code" is the technical bit that holds the site together. The more efficient your use of code, the easier it is for search engines (and people with disabilities) to navigate your website and enjoy your content. Blogs can't use code as efficiently as a custom built site, as they have to cater for a colossal variety of styles, layouts, etc. This bulky code is just the sort of thing that makes it difficult for search engines to read and appreciate the value of your content.
It stands to reason that if your site is difficult for a search engine to read, and your competitor has a site with similar content that is easier for a search engine to read, your competitor's site will appear higher in the page rankings.
In addition to all the competitors in business you have to outperform, consider how many indirect competitors there are for your potential customer's attention.... news sites reporting on your industry, forums discussing products and services you sell, hobbyists who just love giving away your trade secrets.... It's easy for your site to be lost underneath this heap of 'competitive' sites.
There are however a number of blogs that perform fantastically in the search results of many search engines. How do they do this? Well, it will have a lot to do with their link popularity (see my explanations of link popularity) and, crucially, the amount of relevant content on their pages. So as getting hundreds of links to a brand new webiste is difficult, what you need if you're using a blog as the main website for your business is lots of content. Content is king!
When you see how much content is on the top performing blogs you'll see just how much content you need to compete with these chaps. It is likely to be at least 10 times as much as you're comfortable with, so to keep it easy to read, start with a compelling headline, and then a 5-15 word introduction to the information and give more and more detail as you get into your subject. Just like a newspaper article.
If you are using Worrdpress (I'm not, but I know many people do), make sure you click the button that shows the Advanced Toolbar (it's the button on the far right hand side of the menu that appears above the box where you type your content). Now you must use the format drop down menu to make the headline of your page 'Heading 1', the 5-15 word intro 'heading 2' and any subsequent headings 'heading 3', 'heading 4' and so on. This will show the Search Engines what the most important bits of your content are.
So it's worth having a section on your site that is a real blog, with compelling content to which people will want to place links on their sites, blogs and forum posts. Which will help your link popularity too!
Now, I know haven't answered the questions about Meta Tags, CSS & RSS yet, but I will this week, so watch this space kids!
Oh, and if I've been too confusing (people are increasingly referring to me as 'geeky') or you would like more info you can get in touch with me at The Web Consultancy or simply add a comment to this post using the link below.
Labels: better search engine rankings
14 January 2008
How to choose a domain name
Each domain name consists of two parts - the ‘Mid Level Domain’ (MLD), and the ‘Top Level Domain’ (TLD). The Mid Level Domain is the ‘thewebconsultancy’ in thewebconsultancy.org, the ‘amazon’ in amazon.co.uk. This part of the domain name can consist of up to 63 characters in .com, .net, or .org domains. Only letters, numbers, or hyphens are permitted; no underscores, exclamation marks or full stops. The Top Level Domain refers to the .com, .net, or .org part of the web address. There are also country code Top Level Domains (ccTLD's) such as .uk for United Kingdom, .fr for France, or .us for the United States. In most cases, you will need to reside in that particular country if you wish to purchase a ccTLD.
Choosing The Right Domain Name For Your Business
Keyword or Branding?
Keyword
A keyword domain is a domain chosen to take advantage of search engine traffic. By choosing a domain that matches a keyword search, we are able to rank higher for targeted keywords and thereby benefit from added traffic and more potential for sales. For example, if you were a Bristol estate agent, you might want to target the search phrase Bristol Estate Agency by choosing the domain Bristol-Estate-Agency.co.uk. Looking through the Bristol yellow pages, many estate agents have websites, but most do not target any specific keywords. It appears most realtors are simply naming websites after themselves; e.g., www.cjhole.co.uk and www.taylorsestateagents.co.uk who won’t be benefiting from a lot of free search engine traffic.
Whether you choose a brandable domain or a keyword domain is a choice you must make, and a choice you should make in accordance with your business plan. If you have a large offline advertising budget and the budget necessary to brand your organization, I'd recommend a brandable domain. If, on the other hand, you're working on a shoe-string budget, choose a keyword domain and let the search engines bring the customers to you.
Don’t forget to ask friends, family and customers what they think of your proposed domain name choices.... they’ll really help you get a different perspective.
If you want to search domains this site has a really good tool: www.freeparking.co.uk
If you want more advice – call 0845 643 0977 or contact the web consultancy.
Labels: better search engine rankings
19 December 2007
Considerations when building a new site
I have just completed a simple sheet of information for a couple of clients who are looking to build a new website. They needed a little guidance as how to identify keywords and how to use them effectively... If you are a very small, or start up business who can't justify buying in someone like me, then the advice I gave to them will probably stand you in good stead for your website.
Targeting the right market – Keyword Selection
The keywords selected must be used appropriately throughout the website in the main navigation, copy and text links.
This is not a one off approach, analysing your website’s traffic logs will provide data which can be used to refine and improve on keywords selection and targeting.
Optimal Keyword Usage
Directory Structure
Wherever possible the most appropriate keywords must be used in the folder name and file name of each page. With a little additional planning this is quite simple to implement in the directory structure of the site. Content Management systems that place question marks (?) and ampersands (&) in URLs of the web pages should be avoided, while search engines are becoming more adept at getting around these symbols, it is best practice to stick with forward slashes (/), underscores (_) and dashes (-) if possible.
Navigation
A menu across the top of the page or down the left of the page is optimal for both usability and search engines. A text based menu is preferred for the menu items, as this is more accessible and also improves the weighting for the landing pages. However, if an image based menu is used a duplicate of this as a text menu must be placed in the footer of the page.
Page Titles
This is what will show as the ‘headline’ on Google so it’s is important to make this attention grabbing copy while using the most appropriate keywords. At the time of writing using a maximum of 100 characters and a maximum of 3 keywords is optimal.
Page Meta Tags
Page Content
An html sitemap will encourage spiders and robots to index pages that might be quite within the site. Sitemaps (XML & TXT) should also be created and uploaded to Google & Yahoo! upon launch of the new site, with regular updates at least monthly.
Old Pages – Redirect
Prior to launch, all pages listed in the major search engines should be listed and then mapped to relevant pages on the new site. The old pages should then be redirected using search engine friendly 301 redirects and the new pages will likely inherit the PageRank attributes of the old ones.
Every site is different, so there is no real one size fits all approach, but hopefully this will help you if you aren't up for getting in an expert like me to help... if you do need some help, then talk to me about my search engine optimisation service.
Targeting the right market – Keyword Selection
- What Key Words or Search Terms are people using to find products and services similar to those available via your website?
- Which of these keywords already drive acceptable levels of traffic to the site?
- Which of these keywords aren’t working for you, but you feel (or evidence suggests) that they work well for your competitors?
- Which keywords currently provide most conversions?
The keywords selected must be used appropriately throughout the website in the main navigation, copy and text links.
This is not a one off approach, analysing your website’s traffic logs will provide data which can be used to refine and improve on keywords selection and targeting.
Optimal Keyword Usage
Directory Structure
Wherever possible the most appropriate keywords must be used in the folder name and file name of each page. With a little additional planning this is quite simple to implement in the directory structure of the site. Content Management systems that place question marks (?) and ampersands (&) in URLs of the web pages should be avoided, while search engines are becoming more adept at getting around these symbols, it is best practice to stick with forward slashes (/), underscores (_) and dashes (-) if possible.
| Examples |
| "http://www.car-dealer-website.co.uk/php/a3_offer.php" might perform better as "http://www.car-dealer-website.co.uk/new/audi/a3_offer.php" |
| "http://www.car-dealer-website.co.uk/php/special_offers.php#swindon" might perform better as "http://www.car-dealer-website.co.uk/used/audi/swindon.php" |
Navigation
A menu across the top of the page or down the left of the page is optimal for both usability and search engines. A text based menu is preferred for the menu items, as this is more accessible and also improves the weighting for the landing pages. However, if an image based menu is used a duplicate of this as a text menu must be placed in the footer of the page.
Page Titles
This is what will show as the ‘headline’ on Google so it’s is important to make this attention grabbing copy while using the most appropriate keywords. At the time of writing using a maximum of 100 characters and a maximum of 3 keywords is optimal.
| Example |
| <title>Car Dealer Website > New Cars > A3</title> might perform better as <title>New Audi A3 UK Special Offer – Discount Audi A3 – Order Online</title> |
Page Meta Tags
- Description – compose as a sub heading to the Page Title, use up to 100 characters and 3 keywords
- Keywords – use 3 keywords without repetition or punctuation
- Robots – a must to include to show spiders and robots the pages you want indexed
| Example |
| <meta name="description" content="Choose your new Audi A3, select the options and see the discounted price "> <meta name="keywords" content="audi a3 uk discount"> <meta name="robots" content="index,follow"> |
Page Content
- Copy – using keyword rich copy will improve the weighting search engines will apply to the page.
- Links – using keyword rich links will improve the weighting search engines will apply to the landing page. Utilising the ‘Title’ attribute will also improve this.
- Images – acceptable ‘Alt Text’ is essential for accessibility.
An html sitemap will encourage spiders and robots to index pages that might be quite within the site. Sitemaps (XML & TXT) should also be created and uploaded to Google & Yahoo! upon launch of the new site, with regular updates at least monthly.
Old Pages – Redirect
Prior to launch, all pages listed in the major search engines should be listed and then mapped to relevant pages on the new site. The old pages should then be redirected using search engine friendly 301 redirects and the new pages will likely inherit the PageRank attributes of the old ones.
Every site is different, so there is no real one size fits all approach, but hopefully this will help you if you aren't up for getting in an expert like me to help... if you do need some help, then talk to me about my search engine optimisation service.
Labels: better search engine rankings
18 December 2007
Interesting interview with Google chap
When optimising your site to achieve higher rankings in Google, you'll often have an amazing idea about how to fool Google into thinking your site is bigger, better and more important than it actually is.
If you're one of my clients I'll often (tactfully) tell you that you cannot use your "revolutionary" technique as it has been used by people who have tried to (or are trying to) fool Google for more nefarious purposes and therefore it will be considered 'spamming'.
While the article below is probably too detailed for many end users, it is a great interview with Matt Cutts, of Google's antispam team and is pretty interesting... which these interviews have a tendency not to be, normally.
Stephan Spencer interviews Matt Cutts
Enjoy!
If you're one of my clients I'll often (tactfully) tell you that you cannot use your "revolutionary" technique as it has been used by people who have tried to (or are trying to) fool Google for more nefarious purposes and therefore it will be considered 'spamming'.
While the article below is probably too detailed for many end users, it is a great interview with Matt Cutts, of Google's antispam team and is pretty interesting... which these interviews have a tendency not to be, normally.
Stephan Spencer interviews Matt Cutts
Enjoy!
Labels: better search engine rankings, news
17 December 2007
What keywords should I use in my website?
A client and I are working on her new website... and we're trying to make sure that she features highly in the search results for her chosen market. It's great to be in as part of the build process, because website optimisation is so much more effective when it is part of the framework of the site.
So, her question is "What search terms are people using to find products like mine?" In short, what keywords should we target?
Whatever stage you are at, keyword research is an essential component of search engine optimisation. Without it, your efforts to rank well in the major search engines may be misdirected to the wrong terms and phrases, resulting in rankings that no one will ever see.
I find the most effective method to research keywords include:
Brainstorming - Thinking of what your customers/potential visitors would be likely to type in to search engines in an attempt to find the information/services your site offers (including alternate spellings, wordings, synonyms, etc).
Talking To Customers - Surveying past or potential customers is a great way to expand your keyword list to include as many terms and phrases as possible. It can also give you a good idea of what's likely to be the biggest traffic drivers and produce the highest conversion rates.
Use information provided by Keyword Research Tools - Several tools online (including Wordtracker, which is one of the ones I use) offer information about the number of times users perform specific searches. Using tools like this can offer concrete data about search trends. However, while it can help you see broad information about search trends, if you're looking
to estimate traffic numbers, use programs like Google's Adwords and Yahoo! Search Marketing to test the number of impressions a particular term/phrase gets.
Search Term Analysis - The next step is to create a matrix or chart that analyses the terms you believe are valuable and compares traffic, relevancy and the likelihood of conversions for each. This will allow you to make the best informed decisions about which terms to target.
Performance Testing and Analytics - After keyword selection and implementation of targeting, analytics programs (like Google Analytics) that measure web traffic, activity and conversions can be used to further refine keyword selection.
Keyword targeting is then an ongoing process, you should continually refine the words you target and add new ones, based on your changing products and services and the conversion rates of particular phrases.
If you're stuck on getting any of this sorted out yourself, perhaps you are too busy, or simply not as sad as me, then talk to me about my search marketing services
So, her question is "What search terms are people using to find products like mine?" In short, what keywords should we target?
Whatever stage you are at, keyword research is an essential component of search engine optimisation. Without it, your efforts to rank well in the major search engines may be misdirected to the wrong terms and phrases, resulting in rankings that no one will ever see.
I find the most effective method to research keywords include:
Brainstorming - Thinking of what your customers/potential visitors would be likely to type in to search engines in an attempt to find the information/services your site offers (including alternate spellings, wordings, synonyms, etc).
Talking To Customers - Surveying past or potential customers is a great way to expand your keyword list to include as many terms and phrases as possible. It can also give you a good idea of what's likely to be the biggest traffic drivers and produce the highest conversion rates.
Use information provided by Keyword Research Tools - Several tools online (including Wordtracker, which is one of the ones I use) offer information about the number of times users perform specific searches. Using tools like this can offer concrete data about search trends. However, while it can help you see broad information about search trends, if you're looking
to estimate traffic numbers, use programs like Google's Adwords and Yahoo! Search Marketing to test the number of impressions a particular term/phrase gets.
Search Term Analysis - The next step is to create a matrix or chart that analyses the terms you believe are valuable and compares traffic, relevancy and the likelihood of conversions for each. This will allow you to make the best informed decisions about which terms to target.
Performance Testing and Analytics - After keyword selection and implementation of targeting, analytics programs (like Google Analytics) that measure web traffic, activity and conversions can be used to further refine keyword selection.
Keyword targeting is then an ongoing process, you should continually refine the words you target and add new ones, based on your changing products and services and the conversion rates of particular phrases.
If you're stuck on getting any of this sorted out yourself, perhaps you are too busy, or simply not as sad as me, then talk to me about my search marketing services
Labels: better search engine rankings
10 December 2007
Improve your site's PageRank with contextual back-links
I've briefly touched on this in my previous article on Link Popularity. To reiterate, link popularity is used by many search engines to calculate the importance of a particular web page, and therefore that page’s rankings in the search results. And when I talk about back-links I mean those links from other websites that link back to your web site.
Since it’s by far and away the market leader, we’ll concentrate on Google’s PageRank system (see my article “What's my site's Google PageRank?” to find out your site’s PageRank if you don’t already know it), to get a handle on your website’s link popularity.
This diagram hopefully gives an idea of how PageRank calculates the popularity of your web pages.
In the diagram above, Mathematical PageRanks (out of 100) for a simple network (PageRanks reported by Google are rescaled logarithmically). Page C has a higher PageRank than Page E, even though it has fewer links to it: the link it has is much higher valued. A web surfer who chooses a random link on every page (but with 15% likelihood jumps to a random page on the whole web) is going to be on Page E for 8.1% of the time. (The 15% likelihood of jumping to an arbitrary page corresponds to a damping factor of 85%.) Without damping, all web surfers would eventually end up on Pages A, B, or C, and all other pages would have PageRank zero. Page A is assumed to link to all pages in the web, because it has no outgoing links. (Thanks Wikipedia)
So, it’s important to remember that PageRank is Page to Page, not site to site.
Getting your PageRank improved then, is a matter of getting more back-links to your web pages from more sources each with a high PageRank.
There is an additional (and possibly more important) way to boost your PageRank. Include your most important keywords in the anchor text of the back-link. The anchor text is the text which the visitor would click to follow the link... For example in this link: www.bbc.co.uk the anchor text is www.bbc.co.uk , but in this one: News and information the anchor text is news and information. Both links point to the same page, but the second example will boost the landing page’s relevance for the keywords news and information.
So utilise this knowledge about anchor text to boost to place well for your chosen keywords. The best way to take advantage of this is to request that your keywords are placed in your back-link anchor instead of your domain name.
Here’s the code you need, just fill in the relevant bits about your web page:
<a href="http://www.mydomain.com/" title="keyword">Keyword</a>
There’s a lot to take in, so if you need more help call the web consultancy
Since it’s by far and away the market leader, we’ll concentrate on Google’s PageRank system (see my article “What's my site's Google PageRank?” to find out your site’s PageRank if you don’t already know it), to get a handle on your website’s link popularity.
This diagram hopefully gives an idea of how PageRank calculates the popularity of your web pages.
In the diagram above, Mathematical PageRanks (out of 100) for a simple network (PageRanks reported by Google are rescaled logarithmically). Page C has a higher PageRank than Page E, even though it has fewer links to it: the link it has is much higher valued. A web surfer who chooses a random link on every page (but with 15% likelihood jumps to a random page on the whole web) is going to be on Page E for 8.1% of the time. (The 15% likelihood of jumping to an arbitrary page corresponds to a damping factor of 85%.) Without damping, all web surfers would eventually end up on Pages A, B, or C, and all other pages would have PageRank zero. Page A is assumed to link to all pages in the web, because it has no outgoing links. (Thanks Wikipedia)
So, it’s important to remember that PageRank is Page to Page, not site to site.
Getting your PageRank improved then, is a matter of getting more back-links to your web pages from more sources each with a high PageRank.
There is an additional (and possibly more important) way to boost your PageRank. Include your most important keywords in the anchor text of the back-link. The anchor text is the text which the visitor would click to follow the link... For example in this link: www.bbc.co.uk the anchor text is www.bbc.co.uk , but in this one: News and information the anchor text is news and information. Both links point to the same page, but the second example will boost the landing page’s relevance for the keywords news and information.
So utilise this knowledge about anchor text to boost to place well for your chosen keywords. The best way to take advantage of this is to request that your keywords are placed in your back-link anchor instead of your domain name.
Here’s the code you need, just fill in the relevant bits about your web page:
<a href="http://www.mydomain.com/" title="keyword">Keyword</a>
There’s a lot to take in, so if you need more help call the web consultancy
Labels: better search engine rankings
06 December 2007
For Web Traffic Statistics, Use Google Analytics
As the owner / director of a small business which has a website, you should be monitoring the visitor data to your site. Key Performance Indicators are:
Then your web hosting company is insulting you by even providing them. You need something more useable. You also need to ask what what the hell they do all day for the money you pay them... nothing but drink energy drinks, coke and coffee while they do unspeakable things to servers or build online games... is my guess. And, I know. I've been there. I've watched them do it and it sickens me.
If you don't have stats provided, your web design company or web host may have suggested you use one of these:
Which is so ugly and is so unfit for that purpose that I actually contemplated poking my own eyes out so I didn't have to gaze upon it any longer. Plus it's also an advert for someone who makes Flash Logos. But just to make crystal clear how poor this is as a way of measuring visitors, refresh this page and look at the counter again. It went up, right? Oh, how useful. If someone is browsing your site and you use one of these, it's like having a shop and having just one customer come in and go back out again, come in, go out, come in, go out, ad infinitum. And then you as the shopkeeper say at the end of the day "Well, I don't know why we didn't sell anything.... there were 100 people through the door today". !
Anyway, back to the task at hand and that's getting you some useable, business related stats.
All you need to do is sign up for a Google Analytics account and put a little bit of JavaScript (simply, a little bit of programming code that is invisible to most users) on every page you want to monitor. You may need your web designer to do this for you, but it is a very small job.
If you already have a Google AdWords account you should apply for Google Analytics by clicking the little green tab at the top of the page between 'Reports' and 'My Account'. If not, you don't need to be using AdWords to use the Analytics, and you can sign up here:
http://www.google.com/analytics/en-GB/
It's all pretty self explanatory, but if you get stuck and fancy a half day training on how to get the best out of it get in touch. I'll see if I can help.
Once you've got this all installed you can analyse which marketing works for your website and which doesn't. It will probably give you a better handle on your marketing ROI than any other tool you've used.
- Number of visitors
- Referring website (the site on which the visitor clicked a link to land on your page)
- Search term used to find you (if the referring website was a search engine)
- Entry Page
- Exit Page
Then your web hosting company is insulting you by even providing them. You need something more useable. You also need to ask what what the hell they do all day for the money you pay them... nothing but drink energy drinks, coke and coffee while they do unspeakable things to servers or build online games... is my guess. And, I know. I've been there. I've watched them do it and it sickens me.If you don't have stats provided, your web design company or web host may have suggested you use one of these:
Which is so ugly and is so unfit for that purpose that I actually contemplated poking my own eyes out so I didn't have to gaze upon it any longer. Plus it's also an advert for someone who makes Flash Logos. But just to make crystal clear how poor this is as a way of measuring visitors, refresh this page and look at the counter again. It went up, right? Oh, how useful. If someone is browsing your site and you use one of these, it's like having a shop and having just one customer come in and go back out again, come in, go out, come in, go out, ad infinitum. And then you as the shopkeeper say at the end of the day "Well, I don't know why we didn't sell anything.... there were 100 people through the door today". !
Anyway, back to the task at hand and that's getting you some useable, business related stats.
All you need to do is sign up for a Google Analytics account and put a little bit of JavaScript (simply, a little bit of programming code that is invisible to most users) on every page you want to monitor. You may need your web designer to do this for you, but it is a very small job.
If you already have a Google AdWords account you should apply for Google Analytics by clicking the little green tab at the top of the page between 'Reports' and 'My Account'. If not, you don't need to be using AdWords to use the Analytics, and you can sign up here:
http://www.google.com/analytics/en-GB/
It's all pretty self explanatory, but if you get stuck and fancy a half day training on how to get the best out of it get in touch. I'll see if I can help.
Once you've got this all installed you can analyse which marketing works for your website and which doesn't. It will probably give you a better handle on your marketing ROI than any other tool you've used.
Labels: better search engine rankings
04 December 2007
What's my site's Google PageRank?
Your website's visibility is heavily influenced by it's link popularity and a good judge of this is Google's PageRank. It's easy to find out your site's PageRank, you just need Google Toolbar.
Get it here: http://toolbar.google.com
Once you've agreed all the terms and conditions and downloaded the software, it should appear in the menu bar of your browser.
At the extreme right hand side of the bar click 'settings' then select 'Options' from the drop down menu. In the dialogue box select the tab 'more' and tick the box 'PageRank'. Click 'OK' to accept and then 'OK' to close the dialogue box.
Now browse to your website and check out it's PageRank.
Don't worry if it's only 2/10 or 3/10, that's not the end of the world you can make some improvements, but bear in mind that the BBC is only a 9/10.
If your site's PageRank is less than 2/10 then you should probably do something about it to improve your website's visibility. If you don't know what to do, check out my article on Link Popularity, to see what you can do yourself or talk to me about my search marketing services for your business.
Get it here: http://toolbar.google.com
Once you've agreed all the terms and conditions and downloaded the software, it should appear in the menu bar of your browser.
At the extreme right hand side of the bar click 'settings' then select 'Options' from the drop down menu. In the dialogue box select the tab 'more' and tick the box 'PageRank'. Click 'OK' to accept and then 'OK' to close the dialogue box.
Now browse to your website and check out it's PageRank.
Don't worry if it's only 2/10 or 3/10, that's not the end of the world you can make some improvements, but bear in mind that the BBC is only a 9/10.
If your site's PageRank is less than 2/10 then you should probably do something about it to improve your website's visibility. If you don't know what to do, check out my article on Link Popularity, to see what you can do yourself or talk to me about my search marketing services for your business.
Labels: better search engine rankings
Find out who links to your site
When I'm talking to people about search marketing and improving a website's rankings on Google, I often cover the importance of link popularity. As you can imagine, in my working life my words are often met with blank looks. Sometimes the looks stay just that, blank. Occasionally, when I'm doing my job properly the looks turn to ones of understanding, and often I'll elicit looks of pity. I sense right now that you have a blank look. Let's see if I can fix that. Link Popularity is quite a simple concept to grasp. Think about your website. You want people to visit it and a good way for people who've never heard of you to find it is using links from other sites, such as trade associations, local news sites, The Yellow Pages, etc.
This is also how search engine spiders find your site. It's reasonable to assume that the more popular your site is link-wise, the more times a search engine spider will arrive at it from a unique source. The more times a search engine spider finds your site via a unique source, the more useful a search engine perceives your website to be for it's users and therefore it gives your site a higher ranking in it's search results.
To see how many sites in the Google index link your type this in Google's search box:
link:www.yourdomain.com
For example to see how many pages that link to my site you would type this into Google's search box:
link:www.thewebconsultancy.org
Link popularity is only a part of your overall search marketing mix, but it is vital. It's also important to get links from useful sites, not just your web design company! See this article for more details on Google's PageRank system: http://www.google.com/technology/index.html
And if you want some help with your site, get in touch
This is also how search engine spiders find your site. It's reasonable to assume that the more popular your site is link-wise, the more times a search engine spider will arrive at it from a unique source. The more times a search engine spider finds your site via a unique source, the more useful a search engine perceives your website to be for it's users and therefore it gives your site a higher ranking in it's search results.
To see how many sites in the Google index link your type this in Google's search box:
link:www.yourdomain.com
For example to see how many pages that link to my site you would type this into Google's search box:
link:www.thewebconsultancy.org
Link popularity is only a part of your overall search marketing mix, but it is vital. It's also important to get links from useful sites, not just your web design company! See this article for more details on Google's PageRank system: http://www.google.com/technology/index.html
And if you want some help with your site, get in touch
Labels: better search engine rankings
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