SEO – A Three Step Process. Part Three
During step one I talked about how to find the best phrases to be found for in the search engines. Step two discussed how to use these phrases on your website in order to attract Google, Yahoo etc. Now in step three we will be looking at how to use these same phrases to boost your rankings further by doing a thing called link-building.
Link-building is an extremely important aspect of SEO. Done well, it will boost your search engine results massively and done badly it will get you ignored and even penalised.
A back-link is where your website is mentioned on somebody else’s website and they have provided a hyperlink back to your website from their own.
A useful back-link is where the link is on the actual words you want to be found for i.e. ‘accountants in bristol’ rather than ‘click here’.
Every page on every website has a Google page rank. The page rank is the measure of importance that Google place on that page rated from 0 – 10. The higher the number the more important the page and all the better to get a link from.
If the website has a similar theme to your own then this also counts heavily. For instance, if you get a link from a blog that discusses finance and tax affairs to your website for an accountant in Bristol then this counts more heavily than from a blog discussing Rugby.
Links can be requested from other webmasters in return for a link from your site. Social bookmarking, article and blogging sites are also excellent.
Very important to your SEO success is that the links are established over a period of time and not instantly. Many services exist offering instant links in return for very little money. These services are unlikely to bring you much success and may also cost you by getting your site downgraded if they are supplying multiple links from a ‘link farm’.
A link farm is hundreds and thousands of websites all hosted on the same server with the sole purpose of providing links in return for money.
If it looks too good to be true then it probably is!
Lyndon Ogden is a Director of Your SEO Solutions. Lyndon set up his SEO Company
in order to pass on his years of marketing experience to business website owners. The SEO Serviceswebsite features SEO advice, Free SEO tools and a whole host of SEO services to boost exposure in the search engines.
The companies motto is 'turning online searches into offline customers' and that includes both driving traffic and advice on how to convert it into leads and sales.
Although the company works internationally, it is very proud of its SEO Leedsroots and works extensively in the local community.
Tuesday 10 March 2009
SEO – A Three Step Process. Part Two
SEO – A Three Step Process. Part Two
During step one I discussed how to do some basic research on what terms your website should be search engine optimised for. Part two covers how to use those terms in your actual website in order to attract the search engines.
The main thing to remember is that the search engines do not employ people to critique your website. Instead they send their software robots to look at the site and capture the information needed to rank your website.
The best way to look at a search engine is that they are detectives looking for clues. The more clues you leave, the more likely they are to come up with the correct answers.
So what are these clues and where can you leave them? The clues are the phrases that you have decided you want to be found for and you can leave them all over the place including words, images and in the code.
The first three places are in the URL of the website, the description that shows when you come up in the search results and in the page title at the top of the page that is showing.
The URL is a great place to start and if you can get what you do in the URL then do so. If you have a taxi firm in Hull then you are far better naming your website ‘hull-taxis.co.uk’ than ‘fredstaxies.co.uk’.
The Page Title should have the two or three main phrases you are trying to optimise for. Do not go over nine words and do not repeat yourself. Using our Hull taxi example, a good page title might be “Hull Taxis – Hull Taxi Firm –Cabs in Hull”
The Meta description (the one that shows in the search results) would use the same words again that you want to be found for. Try to keep this down to two sentences along the lines of “Hull Taxis. Comfort and punctuality assured by this Hull Taxi Firm. For the best cabs in Hull ring xxxxxxxx”
On the page you should also mention these words and in particular as close to the beginning of the first paragraph as possible.
If you have an image of one of your taxis, get your webmaster to label it as one of your keywords such as ‘Hull Taxis’. Do the same with you other images but do not repeat the same term and always label honestly. Do not try to be too clever with the search engines as this can be counterproductive in the extreme.
If you get stuck with some of my terms such as Meta description, just Google it and you will find its simple enough to understand.
In my next article I will be covering the importance to search engine optimisation of link-building.
Lyndon Ogden is a Director of Your SEO Solutions. Lyndon set up his SEO Company
in order to pass on his years of marketing experience to business website owners. The SEO Serviceswebsite features SEO advice, Free SEO tools and a whole host of SEO services to boost exposure in the search engines.
The companies motto is 'turning online searches into offline customers' and that includes both driving traffic and advice on how to convert it into leads and sales.
Although the company works internationally, it is very proud of its SEO Leedsroots and works extensively in the local community.
During step one I discussed how to do some basic research on what terms your website should be search engine optimised for. Part two covers how to use those terms in your actual website in order to attract the search engines.
The main thing to remember is that the search engines do not employ people to critique your website. Instead they send their software robots to look at the site and capture the information needed to rank your website.
The best way to look at a search engine is that they are detectives looking for clues. The more clues you leave, the more likely they are to come up with the correct answers.
So what are these clues and where can you leave them? The clues are the phrases that you have decided you want to be found for and you can leave them all over the place including words, images and in the code.
The first three places are in the URL of the website, the description that shows when you come up in the search results and in the page title at the top of the page that is showing.
The URL is a great place to start and if you can get what you do in the URL then do so. If you have a taxi firm in Hull then you are far better naming your website ‘hull-taxis.co.uk’ than ‘fredstaxies.co.uk’.
The Page Title should have the two or three main phrases you are trying to optimise for. Do not go over nine words and do not repeat yourself. Using our Hull taxi example, a good page title might be “Hull Taxis – Hull Taxi Firm –Cabs in Hull”
The Meta description (the one that shows in the search results) would use the same words again that you want to be found for. Try to keep this down to two sentences along the lines of “Hull Taxis. Comfort and punctuality assured by this Hull Taxi Firm. For the best cabs in Hull ring xxxxxxxx”
On the page you should also mention these words and in particular as close to the beginning of the first paragraph as possible.
If you have an image of one of your taxis, get your webmaster to label it as one of your keywords such as ‘Hull Taxis’. Do the same with you other images but do not repeat the same term and always label honestly. Do not try to be too clever with the search engines as this can be counterproductive in the extreme.
If you get stuck with some of my terms such as Meta description, just Google it and you will find its simple enough to understand.
In my next article I will be covering the importance to search engine optimisation of link-building.
Lyndon Ogden is a Director of Your SEO Solutions. Lyndon set up his SEO Company
in order to pass on his years of marketing experience to business website owners. The SEO Serviceswebsite features SEO advice, Free SEO tools and a whole host of SEO services to boost exposure in the search engines.
The companies motto is 'turning online searches into offline customers' and that includes both driving traffic and advice on how to convert it into leads and sales.
Although the company works internationally, it is very proud of its SEO Leedsroots and works extensively in the local community.
SEO – A Three Step Process. Part One
SEO – A Three Step Process. Part One
Getting your website found by the search engines is not as difficult as you might think. All you need to do is to follow these simple steps and you are on your way to search engine success.
In order to know what terms you want to be found for it is useful to know what volume of searches there are for that term. A good free tool to use is the Google Keyword Tool
This tool will give you an idea of what volumes are being searched for and what the alternative search terms might be. Quite often it is sensible to avoid the main terms and go for the secondary ones that have slightly less traffic but an awful lot less competition.
To find out how competitive a search term is, simply Google it with speech marks at either side i.e “accountants in Bristol” and make a note of how many results are shown for websites using that particular term. Obviously, the fewer the better providing there is a reasonable search volume.
The smart move is to optimise the website for the geography you cover and/or for some specific features of your product. So you will find a lot more success optimising for “accountants in Bristol” than you will for “accountants”. Similarly, you will do better for “hardwood conservatories” than you will for “conservatories”.
You may already have spotted that “hardwood conservatories in Bristol” would be a perfectly good term to optimise for. The volume of traffic might not be great but it will be very well qualified. Do not make the mistake of confusing the amount of traffic with the quality of traffic.
In the following two articles I will go on to explain what to do with your newly decided keyword phrases in order to get found by the search engines.
Lyndon Ogden is the Managing Director of Your SEO services, based in the United Kingdom. Lyndon is an acknowledged expert on search engine optimization and also on what it takes to make a website successful. His SEO Leedswebsite features news, advice, free tools and paid SEO services
Getting your website found by the search engines is not as difficult as you might think. All you need to do is to follow these simple steps and you are on your way to search engine success.
In order to know what terms you want to be found for it is useful to know what volume of searches there are for that term. A good free tool to use is the Google Keyword Tool
This tool will give you an idea of what volumes are being searched for and what the alternative search terms might be. Quite often it is sensible to avoid the main terms and go for the secondary ones that have slightly less traffic but an awful lot less competition.
To find out how competitive a search term is, simply Google it with speech marks at either side i.e “accountants in Bristol” and make a note of how many results are shown for websites using that particular term. Obviously, the fewer the better providing there is a reasonable search volume.
The smart move is to optimise the website for the geography you cover and/or for some specific features of your product. So you will find a lot more success optimising for “accountants in Bristol” than you will for “accountants”. Similarly, you will do better for “hardwood conservatories” than you will for “conservatories”.
You may already have spotted that “hardwood conservatories in Bristol” would be a perfectly good term to optimise for. The volume of traffic might not be great but it will be very well qualified. Do not make the mistake of confusing the amount of traffic with the quality of traffic.
In the following two articles I will go on to explain what to do with your newly decided keyword phrases in order to get found by the search engines.
Lyndon Ogden is the Managing Director of Your SEO services, based in the United Kingdom. Lyndon is an acknowledged expert on search engine optimization and also on what it takes to make a website successful. His SEO Leedswebsite features news, advice, free tools and paid SEO services
Sunday 22 February 2009
Whats in a Name
Everything, when it comes to getting your website found by the search engines is the answer.
The biggest mistake you can make when putting your website together is to pick a name that has nothing to do with what you are selling. The reason for this is that the search engines do not send people to decide what your website is about, they send software ‘spiders’ to look for clues.
You can leave these clues all over the place i.e. in the page titles, meta descriptions, written text and photographic images. All of this will stand you in good stead but nothing is as important as the name of your website.
Most of my readers will have a business that only covers a particular geography. In this instance you have a fabulous opportunity to get high up the rankings. Let’s say you have a cattery and you are based in Glasgow. Which of these three URL’s would get the search engines hammering at your door?
glasgow-cattery.co.uk
comfycat.co.uk
purrrfect.co.uk
The answer of course is glasgow-cattery as it is the only one that gives the search engines the confidence that their searchers will find what they are looking for.
You may not like the hyphen in the name but this is the way you differentiate words in a URL.
The choice is yours of course. You can call your website what you like and it may be a fabulously catchy name or you can call it what it is and lose the fabulously catchy name. My choice would always be the one that got the traffic and not the one that looked great.
The biggest mistake you can make when putting your website together is to pick a name that has nothing to do with what you are selling. The reason for this is that the search engines do not send people to decide what your website is about, they send software ‘spiders’ to look for clues.
You can leave these clues all over the place i.e. in the page titles, meta descriptions, written text and photographic images. All of this will stand you in good stead but nothing is as important as the name of your website.
Most of my readers will have a business that only covers a particular geography. In this instance you have a fabulous opportunity to get high up the rankings. Let’s say you have a cattery and you are based in Glasgow. Which of these three URL’s would get the search engines hammering at your door?
glasgow-cattery.co.uk
comfycat.co.uk
purrrfect.co.uk
The answer of course is glasgow-cattery as it is the only one that gives the search engines the confidence that their searchers will find what they are looking for.
You may not like the hyphen in the name but this is the way you differentiate words in a URL.
The choice is yours of course. You can call your website what you like and it may be a fabulously catchy name or you can call it what it is and lose the fabulously catchy name. My choice would always be the one that got the traffic and not the one that looked great.
Saturday 21 February 2009
Sunday 1 February 2009
Link Building – Don’t Waste Your Money.
Link Building – Don’t Waste Your Money.
Now, I am not suggesting that link building is a total waste of money, but I am saying that without your website being set up correctly, it will not have the maximum effect you seek.
What I mean by having your website set up correctly, is that you have researched and decided what the keyword phrases are that you want to be found for.
Once you have the keywords decided, it is time to reflect them in your website. A failure to do this will cost you in the rankings and reduce your potential traffic.
Basically you need to make sure that your keyword phrases appear in the page title, meta description, page headline, image tags and text.
With regard to keyword use in the text of your document, there are a few simple rules to follow. The first is to get your keyword phrases as close as possible to the beginning of the first paragraph on the page. The first time they appear, you should put them in bold to show the search engines that they are important words.
The search engines also look at the keyword density on the page. Keyword density is the proportion of times a keyword appears on the page in proportion to other words. This is usually expressed as a percentage and the percentage you should go for is 3% to 4% and no more.
Do all of the above and your link building efforts will have more effect than otherwise.
seo services
Now, I am not suggesting that link building is a total waste of money, but I am saying that without your website being set up correctly, it will not have the maximum effect you seek.
What I mean by having your website set up correctly, is that you have researched and decided what the keyword phrases are that you want to be found for.
Once you have the keywords decided, it is time to reflect them in your website. A failure to do this will cost you in the rankings and reduce your potential traffic.
Basically you need to make sure that your keyword phrases appear in the page title, meta description, page headline, image tags and text.
With regard to keyword use in the text of your document, there are a few simple rules to follow. The first is to get your keyword phrases as close as possible to the beginning of the first paragraph on the page. The first time they appear, you should put them in bold to show the search engines that they are important words.
The search engines also look at the keyword density on the page. Keyword density is the proportion of times a keyword appears on the page in proportion to other words. This is usually expressed as a percentage and the percentage you should go for is 3% to 4% and no more.
Do all of the above and your link building efforts will have more effect than otherwise.
seo services
Monday 26 January 2009
Paid or Organic Traffic?
The question is a bit of a cheat because you will probably pay some money out to get a high organic listing by buying software or employing a SEO company to help you initially.
A more revealing question might be “do you prefer to pay money out for a lasting result or for a quick fix?”
I am what you might call a poacher turned gamekeeper when it comes to this question. Starting out on PPC and becoming a Google Advertising Professional before learning and opening up my own SEO business.
The reason I believe that companies should choose organic SEO over PPC is that the return on investment is far better. Whilst the cost of PPC soars ever higher as Google bolsters its revenues, SEO is as inexpensive as ever. If you know how, you can climb the results pages without spending a penny.
When you stop paying for PPC the traffic stops. With SEO, you are building a lasting legacy that drives traffic long after your activity stops. Not only that, it is well known that searchers trust and prefer the organic results over the sponsored listings.
Some companies choose to run both side by side but my preference would be to run PPC, only until the work you are doing on Organic SEO is paying off with search position and visitors.
SEO Leeds
A more revealing question might be “do you prefer to pay money out for a lasting result or for a quick fix?”
I am what you might call a poacher turned gamekeeper when it comes to this question. Starting out on PPC and becoming a Google Advertising Professional before learning and opening up my own SEO business.
The reason I believe that companies should choose organic SEO over PPC is that the return on investment is far better. Whilst the cost of PPC soars ever higher as Google bolsters its revenues, SEO is as inexpensive as ever. If you know how, you can climb the results pages without spending a penny.
When you stop paying for PPC the traffic stops. With SEO, you are building a lasting legacy that drives traffic long after your activity stops. Not only that, it is well known that searchers trust and prefer the organic results over the sponsored listings.
Some companies choose to run both side by side but my preference would be to run PPC, only until the work you are doing on Organic SEO is paying off with search position and visitors.
SEO Leeds
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