SEO Blog

With the launch of Bing, many website owners have discovered that the description of their site is not all it should be.

Whilst, as most site owners understand, the description on Google is taken from the Meta Description tag, Bing has taken the decision to extract the information from their listing in the Open Directory (DMOZ).

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SEO and Internet marketing agencies are often given a bit of a rough ride. As an industry, it is not without its charlatans and is still tarnished by the bad old days of black hat upstarts propelling websites up the search rankings through the shadiest of methods.

Search engines have made it increasingly difficult for websites to cheat the system. Their complex set of rules and finely tuned algorithms ensure a far higher level of quality from any SERP (search engine results page). Modern-day SEO is all about adding quality through a series of multi-faceted processes; not simply spamming select pages full of white text or keywords. It can take time and exhaustive effort to make up a few places in the rankings.
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Firefox have now started allowing “Add-on Collections” which is a great way for users of Firefox to share, or make public, their favourite plugins (add-ons) for a give topic.

One of those to already be made available is a “Best of Breed Firefox Collection for SEO and Internet Marketers” from Andy Beard. Andy’s assembled some very useful plugins here in one collection so you could add them all or just view the list and add individually. Enjoy!

We hope that you enjoy reading the information in our blog. It’s intended to be a mix of information for anyone interested in search engine marketing, together with observations and news stories related to the Internet and “search” in particular. We also use it, of course, to announce news related to Impact Media such as when a new client chooses us for their SEO or PPC management.

However, if you’ve read through the information in our blog and are still hungry for more, you really should pay a visit to the BIGLIST of Search Marketing Blogs.

BIGLIST of Search Marketing Blogs

This is a comprehensive resource listing some of the most popular blogs related to the search engine marketing industry and has over 400 entries at the time of writing this post.

As far as SEO tools go, link building is pretty high on the list. Incoming and direct links will add credibility to your site – assuming of course, that they are from credible sources – which invariably leads the search engines to sit up and take note.

The aforementioned point on credible sources does need to be flagged up immediately though. Just as in any walk of life, if you hang around with shady characters, regardless of your intentions, inevitably some of that perceived negativity rubs off on you. There are so many spamming directories, many of which may request a payment, that it can be a bit of a minefield. But simply submitting your site left right and centre could cause more problems than it does offer solutions.

A brilliant way to create a number of decent links is to write and publish articles. Wisely, most article submission sites – eZine and Buzzle are probably the most popular – don’t allow you to pepper articles with keywords and HTML code, so you’ll need to be a little smarter than that. Essentially, the back link will often come from the ‘Author’s Bio’ (or equivalent), where you can write a little blurb about yourself, the site and get in that all important embedded link.

Submitting articles not only creates strong links, but if readers find your piece interesting you may find that it is also a good source of direct traffic too. This is reflected in a number of other free posting sites such as Squidoo. Here you have the opportunity to write an informative page about any topic – preferably related to your site and area of expertise – and provide a useful resource; both selfishly for your own site’s SEO but also for the genuinely interested readership.

There are also literally hundreds of business directories where you can also post links that point back to pages of your site; many are free, some are not, but be sure to shop around when locating them to avoid the spammers mentioned earlier in the post. LinkedIn is a particularly reputable business networking tool, allowing users to write a little information about themselves, their company and provide a link; everything you need really to continue pushing that message.

Linking is very much the unseen part of SEO. Whilst you can analyse how many links you have coming in, it’s not always as easy to ascertain what effect they’re having. Without a steady stream of good links to your site though, you may never gain the respect of search engines. The better the quality, the higher the search ranking. It’s not overly complicated, but it’s certainly worth taking the time to research and effort to do it properly.

There’s no doubting that SEO services get a lot of plaudits for getting websites noticed. In a recent Econsultancy article, SEO was compared to being a ‘goal hanger’, effectively being in the right place to benefit from other’s hard work and graft.

There’s probably more than a little bit of truth to this suggestion. However, keywords have shaped the way the Internet is used and ultimately the way in which both SEO professionals and casual search engine users interact. The language of the Internet is such that we don’t ask questions as much as we do make statements.

For example, if I was going to look for a grocery shop in Portsmouth, I’m unlikely to type in “where is the best place to buy groceries in Portsmouth?” If I do, this is all I can expect to see.

Conversely, type in “Tesco Portsmouth” or even less specifically “Supermarket Portsmouth” and you get exactly what you need almost straight away.

This kind of logic is now engrained in all Internet users, almost as an unwritten code. Defining, creating and distributing these keywords is therefore down to the SEO strategists, who simply bring in the people who already knew what they were looking for, just perhaps not where to find it.

The success and failure of any site can be determined by any number of factors though these days. You’ve got to have good strong links, a solid social media background and quality content. Only with all these things in place, plus your SEO language, will it all come together.

Of course, as a Search Marketing Company, we are likely to defend the SEO services we offer; but the simple truth is, that whilst it may be the domain of the goal-poaching ‘glory hunters’, the Ruud Van Nistlerooy’s, Luca Toni’s and Filippo Inzaghi’s if you like, it is ultimately an essential asset. If there’s nobody there to poach your goals, or in SEO’s case, boost your search ranking, then inevitably the whole team will suffer as a result.

So, returning to the original question, does SEO take too much credit? The answer is simple, no. Perhaps a more accurate question may have been: Do other elements of search marketing get too little credit? To which I’m sure the conclusion would be very different, but that’s an argument for another day.

If you’re looking to portray a professional, cutting edge image, the last thing you want is for old content to undermine your website’s credibility. Both from a visitor’s point of view and that of the search engine crawlers, new content can be hugely beneficial.

In terms of search engine rankings, fresh copy and relevant new pages are a great way of getting a major boost for your site. New content means that there are additional keywords bulking up your potential organic search pulling power. Plus, whenever you add fresh copy to a site, the search engines send out what we call crawlers or spiders, which will then process the information and index the page.

Boost Search Engine Rankings

Bearing in mind that potential visitors and clients can search for pretty much anything, it almost goes without saying that having additional related keywords and phrases on a site can only be a positive move. As with all things though, it has to be done in moderation. Having a sprawling site full of hundreds of pages, each one containing a wealth of copy overloaded with keywords, will more than likely put off any users once they’ve arrived.

News feeds and blogs tend to be a very popular and highly successful way of boosting a website’s content without cluttering up key pages. They update regularly and are a great for providing additional internal links, whilst also drawing in casual visitors. You can also show off your industry expertise and really add some value to your website’s message with.

Maintain Your Website’s Credibility

From a purely stylistic point of view though, content updates are essential on a number of levels. For example, would you buy from a site that still had Christmas banners in the middle of May? Or one that proudly boasts having products that were ‘Brand New for 2007′? Whilst these may be extreme examples, there are thousands of sites on the Internet suffering as a result of not keeping copy right up-to-date.

To maintain a credible image amongst visitors, every aspect of a website needs to be considered. From the design of the Home Page to the content of the copy, it all needs to be up to scratch. Thorough checks of your copy can be time consuming though, particularly if you’re operating a large site; however, the benefits of doing so are clear. You don’t want to be losing customers due to a typo filled product description, or suffer in search engine rankings as a result of continued inactivity; so content really is key.

If you’re looking for other ways in which to boost your copy and improve online visibility, Impact Media offer a full range of search engine marketing services that really deliver. These tailored packages are designed to provide real focus and help turn visitors into customers.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is one of the most important tools for businesses aiming to target customers on the Internet. It is part of an integrated package of Internet or online marketing activities that can massively increase the traffic to your website.

However, when most people design and build a website, SEO becomes an afterthought. When you have cold feet, putting your socks on over your shoes means you’re wearing shoes and socks, but something tells me it’s not the best way to do it.

Search engine optimisation and your online marketing strategies must be part of the initial planning of your website. Because too many people are willing to employ a web designer (many of whom have zero SEO knowledge) without fully understanding their marketing goals or the needs that their website will have. This means you can end up with a well designed website that isn’t fit for purpose.

It’s common for people to try to ignore the problem, to carry on and make small amendments as they go, but without ever making the most of their site. But let’s make one thing clear. Without effective SEO, you can kiss goodbye to your long-term success on the Internet, because you might be lucky now, but eventually, all of your competitors are going to get their SEO and online marketing in order and you will disappear so far down Google’s listings, no one will find your business.

Bringing in SEO experts before the design is the only way to do it, so that means discussing your business, its needs and marketing goals before the designer is even consulted. Your SEO experts should conduct their keyword research before any initial designs. Why? Because SEO should be wholly integrated in your site to get the most from it. And it’s a simple choice. Is your website just a big expensive billboard lost in the dusty wilderness of cyberspace. Or is it a way to increase revenue and build your business? The choice is yours, but SEO must not be an afterthought.

CMS systems help to create some very pretty websites; they’re easy to use and so people concentrate on the ease of creation, but so many of them are practically useless for marketing purposes, they become ineffective by not building SEO into the design.

So stop, before you spend time and money designing a website for your business that no one can find! Think it through. The way that potential customers find you is as important (if not more)as the aesthetic design of your site.

Most people just want to throw up a site because everyone else has one. But this ‘keeping up with the Jones and Co.’ mentality is what pushes people to build sites with no knowledge of how to get people to visit it. Imagine opening up a big restaurant in the middle of nowhere but failing to advertise your business or put up signs so that people could find you; that’s what putting the cart before the horse with SEO is like. SEO needs to come first if you want your business to succeed online.

If you’re planning a website and quite like the idea of people being able to find it, read more about our professional SEO services.

It’s a trying time for UK companies; you can hardly switch on the TV or the radio without hearing about the economic downturn and the gloom of the recession. Business leaders are under great pressure to take stock of their financial situation and cut back wherever possible; every pound saved means less dependence on immediate new business.

However, there is a slight paradox; if companies are to survive the recession and emerge strong and competitive with a healthy market share, then they must continue to invest in their sales and marketing to get more orders.

The wise choice then, is to market your company in a way that provides the best return on your investment. Those companies that have an online presence have an immediate advantage, since online marketing represents the most cost effective and beneficial opportunity to make a healthy profit.

As online marketing goes, the most immediate benefits can be achieved through the use of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategies to push your business to the top of search engine listings in your chosen market.

By investing in the right SEO consultant to collaborate with you, you can increase the number of potential clients that find you online, based on the key words and phrases they have searched for in the likes of Google and Yahoo.

You may have the best products and prices in your market, and the confidence to provide a better service than your competitors, but if people can’t find you near the top of the list, you won’t get the opportunity to win their business.

You don’t need to sell products and services directly online to get the benefit of Search Engine Optimisation. Since a good SEO strategy is multifaceted by using a mix of optimised web copy, site content and article writing there are many different methods to grab the potential customer’s attention.

Once your business has been noticed and given attention by the customer, you can use a variety of cost effect direct marketing techniques (such as e-mail marketing) to encourage them to place an order.

Along those lines, it’s also worth remembering that a good SEO approach cannot only win new clients, but also help develop existing ones. As any marketing manager knows, it’s more profitable to develop additional business from existing clients than to solely rely on new ones, and online marketing is a perfect tool to achieve those results.

As consumers in the private and commercial sector look to get the best value for money in their purchases, they will invariably increase their online buying habits in the search for a better deal. This is comforting news for a marketing manager who is looking towards a strong online marketing push to get results.

Search Engine Optimisation is regarded by Internet experts and business leaders as the most effective and efficient way to transform your online presence into orders. SEO is a high impact tactic, and most importantly in these tough times, offers an excellent return on your investment.

If you’re a business looking to maximise the return on your marketing investment, Impact Media can help with cost effective SEO services.

There are two questions we occasionally get asked with regard SEO:

1. How long will it take?
2. What guarantees do you offer?

Whilst we appreciate that for a business investing in SEO it is important to have an understanding of what they may receive for that investment, it is equally important for any business looking to use search as part of their marketing strategy that they realise it is an ongoing process that needs constant development. No ethical SEO company can tell you when a certain phrase will appear in a certain position nor can they offer any (meaningful) guarantee.

An excellent article by Mark Jackson, CEO of US based Vizion Interactive, has articulated this point very well. In “Give SEO Time!“, Mark uses an example of a situation where he was asked to provide a proposal but declined because the project was doomed to failure.

It’s an interesting read for anyone involved in SEO or looking to invest.

When you’re writing copy for your website, you need to ensure that it’s SEO or Search Engine Optimisation friendly. Here are ten things to remember:

1. Write for your Reader
One of biggest mistakes people make with SEO Friendly Web Copy is trying to please the Search Engines at the cost of alienating the human visitors to their website. So your web copy should be written specifically to target your intended reader. This means imagining the site from the perspective of someone coming to it for the first time.

2. Clean Code
In order to get the most SEO value out of your website, your code needs to be crisp and clean. That means writing code that is well organised, well structured and correctly formatted. This will help your website’s relationship with the Search Engines stay friendly.

3. Use Images to Support the Main Message
A picture is worth a thousand words they say. But that doesn’t mean you should clutter your pages with unnecessary pictures. Find just the right images to support the main message of your website and each of its pages. Remember, Search Engines cannot read pictures, but your human visitors can really be persuaded by good quality, professional looking images.

4. Externalise Scripts
When using complex scripts such as Java, you can make your pages easier to read by placing the JavaScript into External Files. This will make them easier to read by Search Engines. If you must use JavaScript on your pages, consider placing it at the bottom of the page so that the Search Engines read your content first.

5. Keywords
Research your Keywords carefully, choose 2 or 3 priority Keywords and work them naturally into your web copy. There’s no point stuffing the pages with Keywords, as both the Search Engines and human visitors will find your pages of little value. Your copy needs to naturally feature your Keyword selections at the right density without losing its flow.

6. Use Headers
Your headers need to feature your keywords and your brand/company name. Search Engines often crawl this information first, so important decisions as to the relevance of your site are made at this point. Spend considerable time choosing the right copy for these Headers.

7. Copy Length
Keep your copy above 250 words if you wish to ensure that there’s enough space to get your message across without making the Keywords jar. Don’t waffle on to thousands of words; just keep your copy informative but to the point. People don’t read drivel and they won’t engage with reams and reams of text.

8. Benefits not Features
Describe the benefits that your product, service or company have to your potential customer or client. People don’t buy features, they want to know ‘What’s in it for me? When a prospective buyer reaches the point where they feel that your product or service would really benefit them, they will then consider buying.

9. Paragraphs
Keep your web copy to small bite sized paragraphs. Don’t give the reader too much work to do, web readers are lazier by nature and like to skip through to the important parts.

10. Proof Reading
Many people are so happy to have filled up their website with great copy that they forget to go back and proof read it. Silly mistakes make you and your comGpany seem thoughtless and unprofessional!

We hope this helps but if you’d rather spend your time managing your business, please review our search engine optimisation services page to see if we can be of assistance.

To become an authority in your niche means that you must exhibit credibility. On the Internet, credibility means demonstrating a reassuring presence, projecting yourself as a trusted authority that people can place their confidence in when looking for answers.

Most people use Search Engines to find answers to questions they have, or solutions to problems they’ve encountered. By becoming an authority in your particular niche, you can be the first person that people turn to, on and offline for help and advice. This can massively increase traffic to your website and make you the most trusted authority for your niche on the Internet.

So how do you become an authority?

Blogging
More than 12 million people in the UK read a blog each day. It’s a quick, simple way of disseminating your knowledge on the Internet with little or no cost. You can host your blog at one of the good free blogging websites such as Blogger or WordPress. Or you can add a WordPress blog to your own website and blog from there. Pick a daily topic and air your views, remember to naturally sprinkle in some powerful keywords and add keyword inspired content tags to your blog posts. Soon, others will link to your blog, disseminating your knowledge (crediting you) and spreading your authority for you without any effort on your part. See our blog marketing services page if you can see this fitting your business.

Guest Blogging
If your blogging is successful, you can ask, or be asked to guest blog on higher profile websites, this adds further credibility.

Optimised Forums
Contributing to forums that are Search Engine optimised is a great way to disseminate your niche expertise. People ask questions and look for solutions all the time on forums, you’ll quickly become known for the excellent, reliable solutions that you can provide and on the occasion that they need to buy a product or service, they’re much more likely to come to you.

Expert Articles
A tried and tested way to gain total authority in your niche is publishing free articles online. By becoming an expert article author on your own website and Google-friendly submission sites, you can help people across the world benefit from your expertise and grow your authority globally. At Impact Media, we have a range of article marketing services that provide an effective solution for anyone looking to use this strategy as part of their online marketing efforts.

Publish a Book or eBook
Authorship always creates authority in a subject area. If you’ve published a book on the subject of your niche, then people will place a huge amount of trust in you. A good second-best option is to release an eBook. eBooks are the perfect way to demonstrate your authority in your niche, and what’s more people can buy it directly from you website, so you can earn money from it.

Publish Press Releases about your Achievements
There are hundreds of free and paid press release-publishing services online. When you release a product, add a service or do anything newsworthy, release a Press Release about it.

Podcasts/Vidcasts
Whether it’s from your website or from iTunes, you can disseminate your expert knowledge through audio podcasts. Giving away knowledge is one of the best ways to gain trust and it’s even better accompanied by the sound of your own voice. Video Casts work similarly but increase the credibility because people get a chance to ‘meet’ you.

Combine all this with being top on Google, and you’ve got a powerful way to boost your business. Whilst you can use an SEO company such as Impact Media to help you with many of these activities, your results will be greatly improved if you actively contribute to your niche and develop authority.

On the 12th day of Xmas…

Links are the backbone of any good search engine marketing strategy and below are 12 ways you can get quality inward one way links to your website:

1. Directories – submit your website to quality directories such as Yahoo, BOTW and DMOZ. Being in these directories can not only get you links from very credible places but also generate traffic and also other links.
2. Forums – contribute to forums in your niche and use your website link in your signature as you will gain links and also be seen as a contributor to your industry.
3. Articles – create them specific to your niche and submit them to places like Ezine articles as people will pick them up and use them on their websites.
4. Press Releases – Submit these online to places like PRWeb as you can find you get local or national media coverage and have your press release published anywhere on the web.
5. Social Bookmarking – If you have a really good article or piece of content that you have posted to your website then be sure to ask associates to review it and tag it through places such as Digg and StumbleUpon as this can go viral very quickly.
6. Wikipedia – Add your website or product only if it is credible and suitable as if you attempt to spam this resource you will get banned straight away and have your entry removed.
7. Answer Questions – Use Yahoo Answers and Google Groups to answer questions and link to relevant resources, not always yours but if its relevant then why not.
8. Hub Pages – Set up pages for your products or service on social hub sites like Squidoo and Hub Pages and use these to link through to your website.
9. Start a Blog – Publish great content regularly on your own blog and people will naturally link to it
10. Flash games – develop a fun game that can be distributed and that is specific to your industry if its good and more importantly fun people will link to it.
11. Tools – offer free tools or services that people will want to link to to add value to their visitors, this will naturally attract links.
12. Videos – Publish informative videos on your website that will be of benefit to people in your industry.

Above is only a few ways to develop you inward links but you can get as creative as you need to.

On the 10th day of Christmas, Impact Media brought to you…10 reasons why you may be banned from Google.

Toady we list ten common reasons why your site may have been banned or penalised by Google.  If you have suddenly disappeared of the face of the earth, you may find the reason below:

1. Robots.txt File
   A good place to start is your Robots.txt file. It may be possible that you have the wrong coding in place and this could be stopping Google from crawling your site. Ensure that you have the correct parameters set up. If you have set up a rule that is aimed at blocking Google from crawling a certain part of the site, be sure you haven’t blocked off the whole site.
2. Meta Tags
   Incorrectly coded Meta Tags can also stop Google from crawling your site. If you have a tag that reads: <meta name=”ROBOTS” content=”NOINDEX”> then Google will be sent away as soon as it gets to your site.
3. Cloaking
   If your Web Server is set up to return totally different content to Googlebot compared to the content your visitors see when they come to your site, this is classed as Cloaking and you’re more than likely to get a permanent ban from Google. Cloaking is seen as the tactic of trying to cheat your way to better rankings, Google don’t like this and, if found, you will be penalised.
4. Duplicate Websites
   A common practice or mistake that can be made is the use of multiple sites under different versions of the same Domain. People who are looking to secure rankings for .com, .co.uk and .net domains can fall into the trap of creating duplicate sites. This can result is getting one or all of these site penalised which could lead to losing all rankings instead of cornering the market. If you wish to cover all your bases by using multiple Domains, set up 301 re-directs to the main site.
5. Duplicate Content
   It’s also a common mistake to fill a site with the same content across a number of pages. This will again be classed as duplicate content. If Google catches onto this, you could find yourself dropped into the middle of nowhere. Make sure each page has its own individual content.
6. Hidden Text
   You should have nothing to hide. So don’t. Hidden text or text that is in the same colour as the back ground will backfire. This practice ironically is carried out so the search engines can see the hidden text but visitors to the site can’t. Usually the text is key terms the site is looking to gain rankings for yet if Google sees that you are trying to hide something from the visitor it will class this as spam and penalise your site accordingly.
7. Hidden Links
   This is much the same as hidden text. If you hide links you’re going to get punished.
8. Keyword Stuffing
   If you’re optimising your site you’re going to be looking to add important key terms to the page. If you over do it, you could find Google turning against you. Keyword stuffing not only stops your site from making any sense it’s also seen as spam. Your web page should always read naturally instead of a constant repetition of the same terms over and over again. Write for your visitors not the search engines and you won’t go wrong.
9. Page Swapping
   If you swap your well ranked page for something totally different, expect to see a reaction. Although this won’t get you banned in the true sense of the word, you will see a dramatic drop. Basically if your page or site is no longer relevant to the terms you have worked hard to gain rankings for, you won’t be appearing for them.
10. Linking to the wrong kind of sites
    Linking to other sites is a good thing but be careful who you’re actually linking to. Get caught up in the wrong company and you could find yourself disappearing. Linking to sites that aren’t exactly carrying out ethical practices will work against you. Adult and Gambling sites are an example of the types of sites to avoid. Don’t link to sites that spam. Avoid Link Farms. Only link to sites that are relevant and sites that would add value to the content of your site.

On the 9th day of Xmas…

On-page search engine optimisation is very important and below are 9 tips to help ensure you get the most from it:

1. Page Titles – Need to be unique, relevant, individual per page and most importantly contain your main keywords and these shout what your page is about so get them right.
2. META Descriptions – should be unique per page, include your keywords and be good sales copy as this will be displayed more often than not in the search results and is key to getting a searcher to click on your entry.
3. Content – This must be unique, good quality and contain your main keywords but do not spam it to the extent where the copy does not read properly as it will never convert.
4. Internal Linking – use keywords in the links you use to link the pages of your website together as this will increase the value of the link and the perceived relevance of the page you are linked to.
5. Headers – Make proper use of your headers starting with your prime title as a H1 and work down as this will be used to decide which phrases are most important on your page.
6. Alt Tags – Primarily used by screen readers to interpret an image to a visually impaired person, the search engines also use these to find out what the picture is about, so be sure to use your keywords where appropriate.
7. Sitemap – ensure you have a sitemap and that it is linked off of your homepage as this will ensure all of your websites pages get found and crawled.
8. Validate – go to the W3C website and ensure that your website validates. If it does it will be easier to crawl and the robots are less likely to get stuck on your site and give up.
9. Get a Blog – Blogs are fantastic as the search engines love fresh unique content and Blogs ensure they get it. Also its a great way of becoming a source of knowledge for your industry and will see you gaining more links and business.

These are 9 simple tips that if followed will see you gaining search rankings faster than you can polish of that turkey.

On the 2nd day of Christmas Impact Media share 2 user experience tips:

Build a Text Based Site Map
Large, complex sites should always have a site map. Don’t let your visitors feel their way through the site, if they are lost or confused, a site map will help them find their way.

Use Consistent Navigation
People are impatient, and therefore so are the users of your website. Don’t confuse people by making them learn new site navigation when they have just made sense of your current one. Use obvious and consistent navigation throughout your whole site, and always have a link to your homepage from every page on the site.

On the first day of Christmas, Impact Media gave to me… 1 Free Online SEO Tool.

One of the most important starting points with any SEO work is the Title and Meta data.
But ensuring that these elements are adding much needed relevance is sometimes over looked.

You may well have created a ‘killer Title Tag’ but have you ensured that your Meta Description tag is also working in harmony with the rest of your site?

A good free online SEO tool that gives you a good indication of this is the Meta Tag Analyzer at seocentro. This tool will display the Title, Meta Description and Keyword tags implemented at the entered URL and then tell you their relevancy rating to the page in question. This gives you a good starting point to any SEO campaign.

And the help doesn’t stop there. This free tool also informs you of Anchor Text found on the page, the keyword density of each word found on the page, Alt Tags used and any errors within the Meta itself.

Don’t say we didn’t gave you anything for Christmas!

http://www.seocentro.com/tools/search-engines/metatag-analyzer.html

When selecting a UK-based SEO Agency, many companies struggle to get a grip on what they should look for and how much they should pay.  The need for SEO assistance has never been greater, but a reliable, expert and cost effective SEO Agency can be hard to find.

SEO is not a matter for amateurs; a great SEO Agency is part design team, part IT whiz, part business analyst, part marketing guru and part copywriter.  In order to test the mettle of any potential SEO Agency, here are ten questions you should ask:

Q1:  What guarantees can you give us about Search Engine Ranking Positions?
Whilst all SEO Agencies will aim to improve and increase your SERPs, the truthful answer is none.  Search Engine Rankings cannot be guaranteed by anyone other than the Search Engines themselves.  If the SEO Agency claims they can guarantee ANYTHING, they shouldn’t be trusted.

Q2:  How much will increased website traffic cost me?
The cost won’t always indicate the quality of SEO service you’ll receive.  But clearly, with a bona fide SEO Agency, the more money you spend, the more dedicated time and effort they can place on your SEO work.

Q3:  Can we meet in your office to discuss this in person?
If you’re based in the UK, you’ll want to deal with a UK-based company.  Face to face contact builds trust and rapport and gives you a point of contact with your SEO Agency.  Outsourcing your SEO to someone in Pakistan, India or Mars doesn’t give you the same customer experience.

Q4: Will you need to change my website?
To optimise a website often requires changes to it. All changes should be mutually agreed, expertly actioned and made in-line with the design of your website.

Q5: What linking process do you use?
A good SEO Agency will be open with you about the entire linking process and give you weekly linking reports.  They will use acceptable linking techniques that won’t get you banned.

Q6: What’s your company’s history?
Clearly, the fly-by-night cowboy will have a sketchy past; the trustworthy company will have years of experience and a researchable online presence.

Q7:  What does your pricing include?
Ask for a full list of services included and compare this with their competitors.

Q8: What length of contract do you require?
Flexibility is the keyword.  All companies need to tie you into a contract, that’s business, but look for flexibility and no lengthy tie-ins.

Q9: Are you certified in Google AdWords?
Let’s face it, Google still accounts for the lion’s share of all search engine traffic, and AdWords remains the obvious choice for your Ad campaign. But anyone with a credit card can set one up, so Google offer certified status to professionals completing AdWords qualifications. Consider this as the benchmark for AdWords expertise.

Q10: Can you provide examples of the results that you’ve previously achieved?
If the SEO Agency can really do what they say, they should be teeming with testimonials and evidence of their success rate.  It’s a competitive marketplace where SERPS can shift on a daily basis, but happy clients show you that this SEO Agency really know their job.  If you get the opportunity to talk directly to one of their clients – do it, it will speak volumes.

Asking these questions is essential to choosing the best SEO Agency.  Don’t be dazzled or distracted; the answers to these questions and your common sense will indicate to you which SEO partner you should select.

Obviously we’re biased but we believe that if you’re looking for a professional SEO Agency, you should consider discussing how Impact Media could help you.

At the PubCon Search Marketing Conference in Las Vegas, Bruce Clay (bruceclay.com) gave a presentation in which he discussed how search engine optimisation (SEO) as we know it today is changing rapidly in line with the personalisation of search results that the search engines are moving towards, with Google being the leader of the pack.

He then re-capped his presentation in an interview with WebProNews: SEO About to be Turned on its Ear?

Chances are, that if you search online, you’ve already experienced personalisation of the search results. You would have received a different set of results based on your location or search history. In his interview, Bruce explains how he anticipates this being the tip of the iceberg as technologies improve and other media, e.g. video, contribute towards the rankings that a web page enjoys.

With mobile search entering the mainstream and search results by IP (location) becoming increasingly accurate, the ability for the search engines to send different results to individuals based upon intent, location and history is sure to feature prominently in the future. If we’re all seeing different search results, how do you measure success of your SEO based on search rankings (SERPS) alone?

Many site owners are fixated with SERPS to the detriment of other areas, e.g. the quality of the traffic. It is far better to work with the analytics for your site and to understand other factors such as bounce rate and conversions.

During an online chat with Webmasters in October, Google have answered many questions about ranking in the search engine and what factors effect search engine optimisation. Hopefully, this will put some myths to bed once and for all.

The full transcript has now been published on Google Groups – Questions and Answers from Online Webmaster Chat – or, if you prefer, WebProNews published a summary – Google Answers Some Tricky Questions – with their own translation on some of the answers that the Google panel gave.

There’s no great surprises in any of this but, if you run your own website or are responsible for the online marketing of one, it’ll certainly be worth spending a few minutes having a read through.

With the rise of the Internet as the most powerful business tool created, there has never been such a need for words. Regardless of developments in Internet video, the World Wide Web is still a text-driven medium. With blogs, articles, advertising and website text all needing words, copywriting has taken on a new importance in the battle for online presence. Words have always had great power, now they’ve taken on a vital significance for all companies that do business on the web.

But copywriting for the web is not like copywriting in the traditional sense. The requirements of Internet copy and the psychology of the Internet readership are very different from those involved in print copywriting. What’s more, SEO copywriting, the craft of creating copy that appeals both to human readers but also exploits SEO principles to attract higher Search Engine Rankings (SERPS) is an entirely different game.

The SEO copywriter needs to constantly balance the needs of their human reader with the need to maintain strong connections to Google and the other Search Engines. Writing for the Search Engines requires an awareness of what they are looking for. Ensuring that the article is topical, entirely original and contains the important keywords at an appropriate density is only the starting point of SEO copywriting.

The trouble is that even inserting the keywords is enough to flummox the average amateur copywriter. Sentences stuffed with keywords make little sense and the human reader clicks away to another page immediately.

Instead, SEO copy needs to appear like any other form of copy, well written, informative and engaging whilst retaining the highest possible optimisation factor. This requires expert writing skills to blend the SEO into the already tight copy.

Web copywriting is about grabbing the attention of the human reader who is already distracted by images, offers and enticements. Maintaining their interest with relevant and topical content known as ‘web copy’ is the next essential element of successful web copywriting. Web copy should differ from traditional written English because it is more accessible, less formal, and closer to the way that we speak.

The next stage is to lead the reader to the point of making a decision. The original meaning of the word ‘decision’ means to cut oneself off from all other options and choices. The persuasive copywriter invisibly removes all objections and concerns whilst leading the reader to the point of making the decision to click.

The aim of good web copywriting is to hook the human reader into staying at the website long enough to make that all-important click, to compel them to take action. This is the final stage of web copywriting.

Above all things, SEO copywriting creates crisp, attractive text that moves the reader towards the point of action. At the same time, it blends in optimisation techniques that ensure that the copy gets read. Without the SEO element, no matter how good the copy, if no one can find it, they cannot read it.

Excellent website copy is the correctly judged balance between highly compelling copy and expertly optimised text. If you need SEO copy, use SEO copywriting services.

If you’re a Webmaster or site owner, this should be of interest to you! Within Google Webmaster Tools, it has been possible for a while to get a list of those pages that Google has as ‘Not found’ or 404.

First and foremost, if you have pages not found, you should take steps to fix them, e.g. if a page has been renamed, redirect the old page to the new page (301 permanent redirect).

Now though, Webmaster Tools shows you where your 404 pages are being linked from (Diagnostics | Web crawl):

Webmaster Tools Shows Inbound Links for 404 Pages

Once you analyse the inbound links to old or broken 404 pages, you can take the appropriate steps to fix the issue. You could contact the Webmaster of the site that is linking to yours and ask them to update to give their visitors a better experience or you could 301 redirect the old page to new page if there is a suitable replacement.

Whichever route you take, you should definitely keep an eye on your Webmaster Tools account and particularly your diagnostics section. Keep your site in order and you may just get rewarded for it by gaining additional traffic.

Further Reading:

Webmaster Tools Shows Crawl Error Sources
Matt Cutts Tutorial on Using Web Crawl Diagnostics

If you’ve been trying to get your web pages ranked in the top of the search engines by yourself but are struggling, you may just decide to use the services of a professional search engine optimisation (SEO) company.

The big question is how do you go about picking a company to become your search marketing partner? How do you find a good SEO company that can do this effectively?

Here’s our top tips to choosing a good SEO company:

• Seek a referral from a trusted contact. Sounds obvious but who do you know (supplier, partner, business contact) who may already have gone through this selection process?
• Do a search! What phrase do you think a good search engine optimisation company should be ranked for? Obviously, the phrase you search for is an individual choice but go with what you feel and look through the top 10.
• Do some research about the SEO company. Look at the search engines and see if anyone has written anything positive (or even negative!) about them.
• Review the company’s testimonials but also see if you can talk one or two of their clients directly.
• Don’t believe anyone who promises you the No 1 spot at Google. Google updates regularly and, that aside, no one can guarantee top spot. The search engines just doesn’t work that way! Yes, you can rank highly, but you can’t always be No 1 at Google. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.
• Read their case studies. If they have none, ask why or just move on to a company that does.
• Cheap isn’t always a bargain. If someone promises to rank you in the top 5 at Google for a really low fee, you know that they are lying.
• Review multiple companies before you decide. Do your due diligence and find the best company for your needs. Compare like for like.
• Find out about contract terms up front. What length of time are you committed for? Yes, SEO can take time to have an effect but that doesn’t mean you should be locked-in to some lengthy contract period.
• Review the appropriate company registration site for your country to ensure you are dealing with a legitimate SEO company.

At Impact Media, we’re proud of the results we’ve achieved for our clients and would encourage you to review our search engine optimisation case studies.

Everyone wants to be Number 1 on Google!  Why?  Because those businesses that are Number 1 on Google get the greatest share of traffic to their site.  If you have a website and you aren’t placing within the first page on Google or one of the other search engines – then you don’t really exist.  Getting a good ranking equates to increased chances to convert interested visitors into satisfied customers.

Without this, no one will find your site; very few people even look beyond the second search page.  Getting a first page ranking is a priority for all businesses using the web to promote and sell their products and services.

There are various ways to improve your rankings and experts will tell you that it’s difficult to be sure which makes the biggest improvements fastest.

Content

They say that Content is King.  But the truth is that engaging, informative, constantly updated and search engine friendly content is the King of Kings.  Adding content keeps Google’s spiders crawling all over your site.  The content has to be original and make sense in order to cater to your human visitors.  Content can come in the form of articles, blogs, press releases, landing/squeeze pages – whatever style you believe will work best.

Keywords

Using a range of keyword tools, you can find out the best keywords and phrases that will attract the right visitor to your site.  It’s no use getting to Number 1 on Google for keywords that are unrelated to what you have to offer.  Be as specific as possible and think of combining your keywords into the phrases that people would use when searching for your product.  The key to choosing the best keywords is to choose words from the perspective of your potential visitor.  What would someone type if they wanted what you have to offer? This can be very different from how you might market the product traditionally.  The keyword density has to be just right so as not irritate Google, so if you’re not sure, consult an expert.

Links

The search engines look at your popularity with others and if you appear to have a steady stream of people linking to your site, it looks like your website is something that should appear higher up in the rankings.  Many people buy links from Link Farms and once Google finds out, they will punish your site, even making it disappear off the search engine rankings all together.

Black Hat SEOs

There are many dodgy characters out there that can make you Number 1 on Google.  But their tactics and techniques are highly questionable, their results tend to be temporary, they charge very high sums and eventually the search engines catch up with you and punish you and not the black hat SEO. It’s just not worth the risk!

Improving the rankings of your website is a tricky business.  There are many ways that people trying to get higher rankings can mess up their optimization and damage their relationship with the search engines.  No one knows exactly how many different levels or facets the search engine algorithms have, but through years of experience, reputable SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) companies have developed techniques that increase the chances of a good ranking on Google or one of the other search engines.

At Impact Media, we offer a professional search engine optimisation service for UK based businesses that are looking to achieve greater returns from their website.

It seems that another development has arisen from the last Google Update seeing Google live up to its promise of not allowing the automated querying of its search engine by blocking some automated rank checkers.

It has been reported that popular software applications Web Ceo and Web Pro Gold have been blocked from querying the Google search engine leaving their owners unable to extract search engine positions.

Google have always made their standpoint clear in their Information for Webmasters that they do not allow Automated quires and it seems now is time for the crackdown.