Posts Tagged ‘Search Engine Optimisation’

How to Select an SEO Service That Will Really Work

SEO | Posted by admin
Feb 08 2010

You understand that () is vital for the success of your business and you’ve got the budget to get the support of an excellent service. But with the number of services around, it’s difficult to know how to select a service that will really work for you and your website.

Here’s what to look for when selecting an service:

Ranking Prominence of their Own Website:
When you type in the term ‘ Consultant’ where do they come in the SERPs (Search Engine Ranking Positions)? If they’re not on the first or second page of , they’re hardly practicing what they preach. Why would you sign up with any service that didn’t do for their own site what they say they can do for yours?

Quality of Personnel
Who runs the service? Is it one man and a dog in a shed in Droitwich, or a dedicated team of professionals with years of experience, qualifications, accreditation and perhaps even reputable publications to their name? Look to an service with a history of experience and expertise.

Case Studies
If the service is proud of its achievements, it will give examples of what it can do through what it has already done. Case Studies provide you with a chance to look at companies in a similar situation to your own and what the service did to help them. Case Studies demonstrate that the service has a traceable history of achieving results.

Testimonials
Whether you place much faith in Testimonials or not, it’s clear that if the company has lots of great testimonials from clients that can actually be contacted to back up the claim, then the service is clearly delivering results.

Face to Face
A quality service won’t have a problem speaking with you by telephone or even meeting with you face to face. They will want to build a personal working relationship with their client.

Here are some things to avoid when selecting an service:

Guarantees and Promises
Only the Search Engine could provide promises and guarantees of the rankings that your site will attain. No service can guarantee results. If people make outlandish claims, they’re either full of it or they’re planning to use unethical techniques to get your results. If they do this, they may get you banned from the Search Engines. Equally, Money-Back Guarantees are a sign that you should avoid the service. Avoid.

Link Farms
The service plans to buy your links from link farms rather than create high quality links themselves. Avoid.

Unethical Practices
The service suggests that they can use some special techniques to gain priority treatment from and the other search engines. They’re talking about Black Hat techniques that offer quick results and get you banned. Avoid like the plague.

Big Talk
When a great service speaks with you, they offer you plain English explanations of what they do and what you get for your money. When an unscrupulous service speaks with you, they use big words and fancy technical terms that mean nothing and are meant to bamboozle you into buying their services. Avoid.

Something Feels Wrong
If you have a feeling that something isn’t quite right, go with your instinct and back out. Avoid.

Now you’re armed with the information you need to select a quality service and avoid the rip off merchants.

Ben Norman is a UK Based SEO Consultant who specialises in helping businesses to significantly improve their online visibility.Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/how-to-select-an-seo-service-that-will-really-work-1304096.html

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SEO – It’s Not Rocket Science

SEO | Posted by admin
Jan 31 2010

The common cry amongst website owners is that they want their website on the first page of for their ‘pet’ search terms, whilst the common cry among those true professionals is that it is not ‘Rocket Science’ and that if they really want their site on the first page all they have to do is to follow some simple rules and do some ‘hard’ work.

As an professional I could not agree more with this comment, getting a website listed is all about hard work and the following of what after all sets of quite logical rules, but (there is always a but) Search Optimisation is also not ‘rocket science’ for another reason.

So why is not like Rocket Science

Well, in my view is not like Rocket Science for one principal reason, and that is that unlike rockets, which have to obey the (known) rules of the physical world, the professional is dealing with a set of rules that (a) are not fully known and understood, and that (b), and the like can decide to change the way that any of these ‘rules’ work.

Imagine being a rocket scientist and being told that gravity might or might not be operating in its normal way the day you are planning your next moon mission? I expect that it might just cause a few sleepless nights and cause some serious rethinking about whether to put a man aboard or not…

The Data Speaks for Itself

For confirmation of this peculiar fact, you only have to look at the listings for any keyword and then do some analysis of the sites that are listed on the front page. Here, you will find some sites that ‘deserve’ to be there (they have followed all the rules etc), but you will also find some that do not. Look at these sites in detail and you will soon be scratching your head and asking the question “Why is that site listed on the front page?”

The best way of seeing this is to use one of these ‘Miracle’ products that claim to be able to show you why a site is listed and yours is not. Look at the data they provide and you will see all the major indicators like ‘keyword density’, use of the header tags and use to bold, italic and lists tags, with results all over the place, often the sites with the very best match to the ‘rules’ not being in the positions they ’should’ be.

Of Course There is a Lot More to It

Of course the data that such programs provide is only a small part of what needs to be done, and the interaction between all the rules (and the way that a site meets them) bears some resemblance to the way that weather works (and we all know how accurate weather forecasts often are), so it is not surprising when reality does not match up with what you think it should, that is a part of the challenge of .

Not Rocket Science, More Like Rocket Art !!

So, in my opinion, is not Rocket Science, there is also a huge pinch of ‘art’ and a bit of ‘mystery’ as, as pointed out above, we don’t know all the rules, and if we did we don’t know just how much meeting them will mean (in the goal of getting a good ranking). True, some professionals know more rules than others, but no one is immune from the vagaries of the Engines in what, is in part a constant ‘war’ between the Engines and those that seek to manipulate them to get (often unworthy) sites to the top of the listings.

So give the hard working professional his / her due, they are doing their best in an uncertain world (like everybody else) and cannot always guarantee the results that you as a website owner would like, the online world just does not work to the same physical rules as the rest of the universe.

Graham Baylis works for a business called Serendipity Online Marketing, whose sole aim is to help businesses use the power that the Internet offers. This article is one of his many offerings and tries to help people understand just how thinks. For more articles about Search Engine Optimisation see www.serendipity-online-marketing.co.uk

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/seo-its-not-rocket-science-949063.html

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SEO Linking Strategy

SEO | Posted by admin
Jan 24 2010

If you’re working on some tactics to improve the visibility of your website, then you cant go past inbound links.

When search engines look at other sites, they take note of any links that point to other websites. The more sites that link to your site, the more credibility your site is given when it comes to determining search engine ranking relevancy.

It has been apparent for quite some time that search engines like and Yahoo will use the number and quality of incoming links to calculate the credibility of your site.

This calculation only tends to hold true though if the sites showing links to your site have some relevance to your niche topic.

Along with increased search engine results, you also have the benefit of being able to attract traffic from those sites linking to you from their own visitors. People who click links are showing they have an interest in your site?s topic, so you know you’re getting targeted traffic with can increase your profitability.

This is where it becomes important to be choosy in which sites are placing links to your site. The web crawlers and search engine algorithms take into account the quality of the site that is linking to you. This means if you’re going to ask a site owner for a link pointing to your site, you should be sure that site has good quality content along with a decent amount of traffic going to it. Just requesting a link exchange program from a website that is completely unrelated to yours may actually damage your efforts.

So how do you find the good quality links? While it is possible to buy link-ins from websites seeking a little advertising revenue, this doesn’t guarantee the quality of the link you’re going to get. Besides there are far cheaper ways to find links into your site that you’re able to control much better. Here are some tips for building relevant links.

*Contact the owner of several relevant sites that have similar keywords and topic focus as your own and ask them if they’d like to exchange links with you. This way you’re both benefiting from extra back-links into your respective sites. While this can mean you need to monitor your outbound links to ensure the other site is still reciprocating, it can be a good start.

*Look around the Internet for blogs, forums and newsgroups that are interested in the niche your website is in. If you find a or forum that will be useful join as a member and create a signature that will serve as a link back to your site. Then begin posting helpful, community-focused posts designed to help rather than sell. The more you post valuable and helpful information than the more likely it is that people will click on your signature link to visit your site. Leave helpful comments on blogs and don’t forget to leave a link to your website as part of your comment.

While leaving signature lines in forums and community mailing groups used to be a great way to build back-links, many forums now add a “no-follow” tag so that these links are no longer as effective as they once were. However you may still benefit from the added traffic.

Even though you want to build as many links as possible pointing to your site, quality is still the primary focus. Exchanging links with sites that are completely unrelated to yours, or buying links on link-farms can seriously damage your efforts.

This kind of link maintenance can require quite a lot of time and effort. If you’re serious about building your websites credibility properly on an on-going basis, you may find that it becomes a lot more economical to outsource your efforts.

Hiring a company to achieve high quality links that will actually help your and search engine visibility efforts could enhance your websites profitability and popularity faster than you could do it alone.

The Hull SEO company provides services to Hull based businesses. Contact them now for a free search engine optimisation consultation

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/seo-linking-strategy-934125.html

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Why Web Design And Search Engine Optimisation Cannot Function Separately

Web Design | Posted by admin
Jan 18 2010

We all know what is and we all know what is. And just in case you’re new to the planet, just know that the former is the creation of a home on the web while the latter is the promotion of that home… on the web. And now that everyone’s on the same page, we’d like to shed light on the necessity of approaching and as if they were two parts of the same thing.

 

It’s all about the visitors that visit a website, your website. You see, the internet is all about getting noticed. You might have a brand spanking new company to produce an eye-catching website, but if it doesn’t get noticed, then you’ve just wasted quite a bit of money (which, we hear, can be reclaimed from annual taxes in certain countries). Getting people to notice your website through internet marketing is even better, because it means that the internet marketing is working, to a degree.

 

What most business owners and website owners forget to remember is that their website is in itself a product – a product designed to stimulate sales of other products or services. Now consider this: any product you’ve ever held in your hand, any one product you can remember – when was it not designed specifically for a target audience? Would cars have looked the same if the target audience was neglected? Quite definitely. Your website, as a product, has to be designed specifically for those people you hope will invest in whatever it is you are trying to sell.

 

Now enter and why it should be an essential element of .  The strategy depends entirely on the product, does it not? The marketing strategy for a candy bar is not the same as it would be for a trip to the Alps. We can therefore surmise that each website should have a marketing strategy as unique as itself. Only then will you be able to reach those individuals that invest in your very livelihood more effectively: your customers.

 

But there’s more! The benefits of using a company that offers both and indicate a perfectly functioning machine – one with a reduction in errors because the usual cross-company communication gaps are missing. This in itself implicates a reduction in on-screen and technical mistakes, both of which could end up penalizing your virtual home by presenting your customers or search engines with errors or by presenting both with the wrong type of content.

 

It is therefore not only in your best interest to ensure that you find the perfect solution, but it is especially in your customers’ best interest that you make the right decision in terms of your and needs. After all, they want to buy your product or invest in your service – all they’re asking is that you present it in a way that’s appealing to them, nothing more and nothing less.

Synergy Web Media is a Manchester Web design and Search Engine Optimisation company that provides lucrative digital services to customers who know that the target audience means everything.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/why-web-design-and-search-engine-optimisation-cannot-function-separately-951194.html

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Using a Blog to Gain Rankings

Blogging | Posted by admin
Dec 01 2009

isn’t just telling people your thoughts and ideas on the Internet. is a highly successful way of improving your Search Engine rankings. Why is so successful as a method of gaining good rankings? It’s simple, Search Engines look on your website for content that’s fresh, original, relevant, popular and of a good quality. When you write a great article, post or entry that’s precisely what you add to your website on a daily basis.

Frequency is essential when it comes to creating the kind of fresh content that Search Engines love. If you’ve just got a brand new website, beautifully designed, lots of great copy, amazing products and services, you’ll probably find yourself on , perhaps even in a good ranking position. The trouble is that many businesses then leave that website alone to sell their products and services and only ever update the site for product changes. Sooner or later, and the other websites notice that your shiny website hasn’t been updated for a while, and very quickly, it drops your website in its rankings, very quickly you’re nowhere to be found!

But if your website is constantly updated by a , on a daily or weekly basis, your website will look very fresh to and the other Search Engines. Think about Wikipedia, and it’s loving relationship to ; that’s a website that’s constantly being updated and it’s constantly on the first page of the Search Engines for millions of keyword search terms.

One of the ways that determines your ranking position is by the number of other people that have created a link to your website. This is called a ‘backlink’. When lots of other people with good quality websites backlink to your website, then boosts your rank. When it comes to blogs, they are full of relevant and informative content that people would want to read to help them in their business or personal lives. So, a good quality can massively increase the number of people that suggest that others read your by providing a backlink from their site to yours.

Another way is that works on well distributed keywords throughout your content. What could be a better way of producing content that has the best possible keywords than to daily on a set of topics with lots of great keywords? Don’t forget your can also feature -friendly tags, short keyword rich tags that describe the content of your post/.

A further thing is that you can add a piece of tracking software to your that allows it to ‘Ping’. A Ping is a notification each time your is updated. Newly pinged websites get attention from ’s spiders. There is some technical Know-How required for this, but every time a spider visits your site, the site gets ranked on , so pinging is very useful to keep your site well ranked.

Something else to think about is the cost of . Compared with traditional ways to help people find your business, is an incredibly cost effective way for a business of any size to improve their online visibility.

Using a , you can increase your site’s rankings, improve your credibility and increase your online presence all at the same time. Come on, why aren’t you ?

Adrian Bold is Head of Search at Impact Media Ltd, a specialist in . They practice what they preach and publish a well respected SEO blog. Subscribe to the to get information and advice on .Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/using-a-blog-to-gain-rankings-1330623.html

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Organic SEO or PPC advertising?

PPC, SEO | Posted by admin
Nov 22 2009

Sadly enough, there are still many online business entrepreneurs who take it for granted that they can still use the old marketing techniques in order to overtake their competitors. Little do they realize that those old basic techniques such as including a simple “click here” link, simply doesn’t cut it anymore. If for example you own an online business which is currently in dire need of some changes, then you may need to consider taking advantage of online marketing techniques which include the likes of and pay-per-click advertising.

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve already heard about these techniques from some of the world’s best internet marketers, but the truth is, you might be reluctant to begin integrating them into your existing business. However, there’s nothing to be gained by simply keeping these strategies on hold, so here are a few tips on how to go about using () and advertising.

Organic is essentially an online marketing strategy which is dependent on having momentum and some long term commitment. By utilising , you’ll be taking a step in the right direction in terms of accumulating information regarding link building campaigns, relationship building with other webmasters, and even some respectable and desirable publications. Of course, in order to be in full control, you need to set certain milestones so that you’ll be able to monitor your progress as you proceed.

For example, you need to ask yourself what it is exactly that you wish to accomplish. You also need to pay attention to your current image and to the level of optimisation regarding your website.

An experienced specialist will be able to help you determine which the best keywords to use are, and of course they’ll be able to help you integrate those keywords into your meta tags so that you’re able to restructure your marketing strategies in order to overcome any negative fallout resulting from your previous attempts. Over and above , you could of course also take advantage of other techniques, such as paid one way links and link exchanges for example, providing you do so with other reputable websites. But don’t forget – once you start organic , you need to continue with it in order to maintain the momentum or else your diligently attained rankings will go down.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

advertising places much emphasis on keyword usage and the placement of adverts which are relevant to a specific website. In fact, it’s often said that this form of advertising has revolutionised the world of online advertising, in that it can provide small businesses with the same amount of leverage as what the big businesses have. Providing it’s done correctly, advertising can certainly help you stand out from the crowd. If you’re currently considering a campaign then you should also pay attention to the following three questions:

1. What do I have to offer?
2. Why will customers want to click on my advert?
3. How can I hook them with just ten words?

At this point, the most important thing for you to do is to integrate an ideal title and ten words which tell potential customers what your business is all about. The most difficult aspect of advertising is that you will be in close proximity to your competitors, both in search engine results and in sponsored positions. Remember, if someone types in a search relevant to the type of website you own, your advert will appear at the top of the page or on the right hand side, and it’s vital that your advertisement must be powerful enough in order to trigger an immediate response.

Essentially, in order to get the best results you should ideally consider using and advertising simultaneously, rather than just opting for one of them.

Andrew Plimmer is CEO of Suncoast Internet, Sunshine Coast, and web development specialists. For more information on Internet Marketing go to => http://www.suncoastinternet.com.au/

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/organic-seo-or-ppc-advertising-1488173.html

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Pay Per Click Versus Orgainic Search Engine Listings

PPC | Posted by admin
Nov 10 2009

The fable of the hare and tortoise’s race is known by most people, both young and old., but it has parallels in the world of Internet Marketing, specifically in the area of Search Engine Marketing (SEM and ).

Search Engine Marketing covers the many ways by which a website can be made more visible and thus get more traffic, these being centered on making sure that a site is listed when people search for a particular phrase. This of course covers the area of ‘’ () and that of ‘Organic’ or ‘Merit’ listings, all the visits in the former being paid for , whilst those generated from the later are free.

It is that makes all of its money, and is an method used by many website owners today to ensure that their site is visible and thus gets visited.

What is this to do with tortoises and hares then??

The relationship is quite simple really, is very much a ‘hare’ (gets a website on the front page very very fast, sometimes within hours) while Organic listings can take a long time (sometimes months), and are thus very much ‘tortoise like’.

In this little story we take the analogy even further, but first, let us select the rules for the race. In the original fable, it was just a straight run to the finishing post, but in the world of Search Engine Marketing it is slightly different, the race not being one to get a website’s listing on the front page of (such a race will always be won by the hare), but instead to the finishing point that marks a successful Return on Investment?.

Why is this true, quite simply because being first in the listings using is not always the right answer, as you will see as this story unfolds.

So to the Race !!

Picture if you can the starting line, there is the hare with a huge sack load of money, money that he intends to give to anyone who will visit the site while on the run to that finishing post. The poor old tortoise has only got his soap box, knowing that he will have to do a lot of talking to people, asking them to support his site (by links) and by convincing them that the site is worth visiting in the first place.

Worse still for the tortoise, he cannot take the shortest path to the finishing line, as he will have to go out of his way to visit as many other people (sites) as possible in his quest for support. Plus to make matters even worse, he knows that even when he does get ’support’ for this site, it will take the umpires (in this case the Search Engines) quite a time before they will even ‘notice’ this support, this making his climb to the front page of the listings and his goal of getting a good ROI on his labours even longer.

It is no surprise therefore that when the hare races off, the visits to his site pour in just as fast as he can throw the money out to people, but wait, is this really the idea, the way to success? Surely you have to make sure that the right person is being given the money and visiting the site? Asking these questions (in the SEM world this in part equates to choosing the right key phrases and writing the right adverts) slows the hare down a bit, but he is not worried as he knows that the tortoise is going to have the same sort of problems.

The tortoise’s journey is, as you can see much slower, he has a longer path to take and do a lot of work to get people to notice him and his requests for support, he even has to make sure that the words (key phrases) he uses (in the SEM world this equates to those on each of his web pages) are used in the just the right way, as otherwise he knows that the umpires will disallow his gains (he could be accused of cheating or ’spamming’ in terms).

As you can see, with all this work to do, it takes a long time before the pages that the tortoise is trying to promote to get onto the front page of , whilst the hare has had his pages listed on the front page ever since the race started, but he has gone through a lot of money ‘buying in’ those visits and it took longer to get to the end than he thought it would too.

So who was the Winner?

Unlike the fable, in the SEM world, the winner is not so certain, can work very well indeed (when managed properly). But however successful the campaign is, it will in virtually all cases not be as good at converting visitors to buyers as a well constructed Organic campaign. So while there may be lots of visits to a site using , they may well end up like the hare, i.e., a bit short of cash!

The morale of the story?

By all means, do use the ‘hare’ () approach, but be aware of the dangers of , always remember that those that click on ads do not seem to be so committed to purchase or enquire as those who click on any organic listings. So go for by all means, but don?t please don?t forget the good old tortoise, after all he did win in the original race?

Graham Baylis works for a business called Serendipity Online Marketing, whose sole aim is to help businesses use the power that the Internet offers. This article is one of his many offerings and tries to help people understand just how thinks. For more articles about Search Engine Optimisation see www.serendipity-online-marketing.co.uk

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/pay-per-click-versus-orgainic-search-engine-listings-928688.html

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