Mon, 30 Apr 2007 by Jayson Munday
Well its official, Google’s group of sites are now the world’s most visited places on the net. Google has had a 13% increase in March, overtaking Microsoft and Yahoo! Microsoft Corp. received a 4% rise while Yahoo Inc. only saw a 1% increase.
The significant jump in Google’s visitors could be attributed to their rollout of sites such as YouTube.com, Gmail, and the corporation’s online calendar and online payment systems, even though these sites are still nowhe... Read More.
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Fri, 27 Apr 2007 by Pete Handley
I recently blogged about the fact that it is now possible to use a spreadsheet to create a Google Local listing for multiple locations of your business.
In this blog, I am going to give a step by step guide on how to submit a single location to Google Local.
When I start making a Google Local Submission, I first go to Google Maps (or the US Version if you are doing a submission there).
Above I have highlighted the location where you can begin making a submission for Google Local. On... Read More.
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by Cameron Winslow
Many companies have developed their online marketing strategies around the assumption that by placing their business in a directory, they will be seen by targeted consumers.
What companies have not been taking into consideration is one of the key location factors that determine a brick and mortar business in scouting a location. Most anchor stores will not allow a direct competitor to be in the same complex.
Take for example Pacific Fair on the Gold Coast, one of the largest open a... Read More.
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Thu, 26 Apr 2007 by Hannah Parker
When search engines crawl your site, there are certain words they are programmed to ignore - these are called "stop words" - and include words like:
I, a, about, an, are, as, at, be, by, for, from, how, in, is, it, of, on, or, that, the, this, to, was, what, when, where, who, will, with, the...
This means that in order to save space, the search engines don't actually index these words in their database. Furthermore, when you're actually searching using these terms, they are also ignored. This c... Read More.
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by Jayson Munday
It is a fact of life that search engines are now turned to for all the latest and breaking news around the globe. Traditional news agencies have realised that when a major story breaks they must be seen or they will lose a lot of readers to their competitors. When news breaks, people start searching for the latest and these traditional news agencies rely heavily on search engine visibility, they simply cannot afford to be down the bottom of the page.
To combat this challenge, large n... Read More.
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Wed, 25 Apr 2007 by Hannah Parker
Google Co-op... I do wonder sometimes where they come up with all the awful names. Maybe not quite as bad as the Web 2.0 names but still. Ask any Brit what they think Google Co-op might offer and I'd be fairly happy to guess that it wouldn't be a custom search engine. Possibly an Internet equivolent of a local corner shop - or even funeral service...?
Anyway...
Sometimes I sit and bang my head on the desk trying to come up with content for a site that might support keywords that we're aiming for... Read More.
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by Pete Handley
I had been looking at submitting one of the sites that I work on to Google local,as they are a London estate agent that serves particular regions.
They have 5 offices based in a number of locations, and at first I wasn't certain how to approach this, as I have only made Google Local Submissions for companies that operate from a single location.
However, I found when I went to do this, that you could actually create a number of entries, for each office/shop that is used, ... Read More.
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Mon, 23 Apr 2007 by Matt Hopkins
To add to some of the Google usability tips and tricks we've mentioned previously:
Using the "Movie" keyword
Showing 100 results
Disabling personalisation
Excluding supplemental results
Here's another quick one - "Define".
You can use Google as an easy dictionary or encylopedia/wikipedia with this keyword. Simply place "define:" in front of something that you want to know the definition to or want to understand better:
define:search
define:optimisation ... Read More.
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Fri, 20 Apr 2007 by Matt Hopkins
People usually think that location does not matter when it comes to the internet... and they may be right in terms of doing business, but with the internet, location makes quite a bit of difference.
When you use a regional search engine such as www.google.co.uk, it places a preference to web sites that are "UK-oriented". There are two ways that the search engine's detect a regional-bias - top-level domain and geolocation.
The top-level domain (TLD) is a type of domain... Read More.
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by Hannah Parker
It's so much more of a pain to configure error pages on IIS. In Apache it's just a case of fiddling with the .htaccess file and uploading a file and everything sorts itself out but in IIS you have to have access to the control panel of the hosting company - and you have to have your wits about you to ensure that it returns HTTP header status of 404 (page not found) - rather than 200 (all ok)
Here's an example of going through the steps with one hosting company
Select to "use your own custo... Read More.
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Thu, 19 Apr 2007 by Hannah Parker
Oh dear - I seem to have been quiet for a while. I've been on holiday - and I had absolutely no Internet access - seriously. I had withdrawal for a few days.
Anyway - back and catching up with myself now. Remembered the joys of cyber geekiness. To the extent that I've managed to amuse myself with Google's new change..
Froogle has gone. Good thing too if you ask me - I always thought "Froogle" was a naff name for a service - associating a service with the word "frugal" does not seem a good idea t... Read More.
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Wed, 18 Apr 2007 by Jessica Faltot
Outsourcing has gained credibility online as more businesses discover that it takes more focus, time and expertise to successfully get their company on top of natural search engine rankings.
With today's demands on business to produce high quality products, reduce margins and increase profits - there is little time or money to invest in training someone to handle their SEO in-house. With global or local competition online, it makes good business sense to outsource you... Read More.
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by Jessica Faltot
Is your company web site ranked for one major term or phrase? Can you measure the traffic or sales conversions from being ranked under this one key term? Is that small visibility good enough or would you rather find an affordable way to establish a total presence online. One that brings in tenfold the business and gives you company a high profile in the world market? What is the impact of having qualified prospects find your business in the natural ran... Read More.
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by Michelle Smith
Design your web site around what your business offers. That sounds like a basic criteria most companies would naturally follow, but frequently we talk with businesses and review their sites only to find that what they told us were keywords, did not correspond to the content on the site.
Another issues is all flash sites. Some businesses or graphic designers still think that a "Flashy Site" is the way to impress visitors and sell their image/services. With little to no text for t... Read More.
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Tue, 17 Apr 2007 by Matt Hopkins
Here’s a neat tip - if you ever want to temporarily disable the “personalised” results that Google returns when you are logged in, simply add “&pws=0” to the end of the Google query string / URL.
For example:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=search+marketing
versus:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=search+marketing&pws=0
You should see different results – depending on what you have searched for (and clicked on) recently. Try it yourself an... Read More.
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by Pete Handley
Everyone who works in the Search Engine Marketing world knows and appreciates how important good content is. When we talk about good content from an SEO perspective what we really mean is that there is a good amount of "Real" text on the site.
Other forms of content can help your internet marketing, however this is not in the same direct sense that text can. For example, interesting videos, pictures or animations can encourage people to link to or bookmark your page, which will help develop the ... Read More.
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by Joe Ogden
Hi All,
I am taking a well earned rest from the world of SEO to write this blog to pose a worrying problem that has arisen out of the Google universe. Matt Cutts, a well known 'mole' working inside the fortified gates of the Google empire, has recently asked web masters to report any site that participates in a 'paid link program' or more specifically web sites that exchange money for a link from a prestigious high page rank site. Google has implied that this is an information gathering p... Read More.
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Sat, 14 Apr 2007 by Matt Hopkins
You may have heard before that relevance plays a huge part in how your web site is ranked.
Which web sites link to you (inbound) and which sites you link to (outbound) should be related to your own site in terms of an overall content-based theme. This allows the search engines to categorize your site by “association”.
Sites that link to you and are not relevant provide no real benefit in terms of your search engine ranking results. You wouldn’t be... Read More.
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Thu, 12 Apr 2007 by Matthew Hopkins
A recent report published by Internet Retailer magazine reveals that search engine marketing is a high priority for many web-based retailers. The study surveyed 245 merchants and found that search engine marketing activities are growing and are driving more than 50% of sales for many of the respondents.
It was also interesting to note that organic search is really starting to take a priority due to the rising cost of pay-per-click. The majority responded that SEO actually provided a ... Read More.
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Wed, 11 Apr 2007 by Matt Hopkins
As many of you know, a site map is a standard that describes the pages on your web site. This standard is now supported by the major search engines (Google, MSN, Yahoo) and is a great way to ensure that all of your content gets indexed without completely relying on your internal linking architecture.
Until today, these site maps needed to be submitted to the search engines – manually or automatically. On Google’s blog, Vanessa Fox announced that Google ... Read More.
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by Joe Ogden
Hi All,
I hope you are all well and existing happily in the land of search, I have recently been looking at blogs in general and I thought I would write a quick note to you all about Google Blogs (Beta) which is a search tool to find all your favourite blogs!
Google Blog Search
Happy blog searching!!!
... Read More.
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by Pete Handley
I was watching the news before I got up on Saturday morning, and after hearing there was going to be a bulletin about how people are now "'Cheating' the search engines" I decided to pay a little more attention than I normally would watching TV at that time of morning.
I'm quite a fan of the BBC Click program, where they discuss a range of technology and online advances from DRM (Digital Rights Management - protection for media files) to digital video compression.
This week they were discussing ... Read More.
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Tue, 10 Apr 2007 by Mary-Ann Dick
Online consumer travel sites in the US are predicted to hit $94 billion
in 2007, with a 17 percent annual growth rate, according to eMarketer's current report.
To stay on top in this fiercely competitive industry, players will need to re-engineer themselves in order to keep up with consumer demands and rapid changes in technology.
Providers in this industry may need to rethink their business models enabling them to provide their consumers with customization, as more and m... Read More.
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Sun, 08 Apr 2007 by Mary-Ann Dick
Here are two changes apparently on the way:
When you create or change an ad, commencing May 2007, short descriptions will be required. Long descriptions will be optional.
From June 2007, Yahoo! Search results will only show short descriptions. Should you choose to use long descriptions your ads will be automatically cut off to fit within the character limit.
So go ahead and create a short description for any ads your currently have.... Read More.
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Thu, 05 Apr 2007 by Matt Hopkins
Rand Fishkin over at SEOMOZ has just released a report that summarizes the opinions of 37 different SEO industry contributors on the different ranking factors for achieving success in Google. It’s a great reference document and well worth reviewing and keeping to hand.
According to the study, the top 10 positive factors that effect Google rankings are:
1. Keyword Use in Title Tag
2. Global Link Popularity of Site
... Read More.
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by Joe Ogden
Hi All,
I was recently researching Google’s Supplemental results index for reasons why sites or rather pages get placed in this 'secondary' index and I came across an interesting concept.
It appears that some web pages / sites can be returned 'supplemental' and 'non supplemental' for different keywords. In other words, a URL can be returned as a 'normal' result for one keyword search and a supplemental result for a different keyword, which makes things interesting to say the least!!
... Read More.
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by Jayson Munday
Social networks are the networking tools of today. Find a network online, join and give your two cents worth. But what does this mean to you, and more importantly your business. Well with more and more people using social networks online, people no longer just look at your website; they delve deep into it, into past clients, current clients, and even your prospective client’s mind. They are able to use these networks to find out your reputation as a company, and rev... Read More.
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Wed, 04 Apr 2007 by Mary-Ann Dick
If you are going to submit your site to a directory you need to ensure firstly that it is a legitimate directory and not a link farm designed to trick the search engines. You also need to determine if its going to be of value to you.
Look for industry related Directories in which to list your site. Obviously if the Directory has a high Google Page Rank this will certainly be of benefit to your site.
When you do find a suitable Directory of course it’s equally important to ensure you... Read More.
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by Mary-Ann Dick
http://www.webuildpages.com/seo-tools/strongest-subpages-tool.php this tool will help you find 30 of your most backlinked subpages and discover how many pages on other websites that are linking to those pages.... Read More.
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by Jayson Munday
Imagine sitting back watching your favourite show on the TV, when suddenly in the ad break you see that car is being advertised, the one you where just looking at online. Then you notice an ad for the laptop you looked at yesterday online appears. You then realize that all the ads seem to be speaking to you, as if they know exactly what interests you and what you have been looking to purchase.
Is it by coincidence? I highly doubt it. Chances are you have been targe... Read More.
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Tue, 03 Apr 2007 by Pete Handley
I was watching Click recently (a BBC technology News Item) and they brought a really useful site to my attention.
The site in question is www.picnik.com - this is a really handy online tool that allows you to edit picture size and add a number of effects to the image. Useful for resizing blog images as well as resizing photos before printing (and probably a whole host of other things I can't think of right now).
If your blog image is too large, why not check it out and see if you can make i... Read More.
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by Matt Hopkins
There’s an interesting search engine optimisation discussion going on at the moment on a WebmasterWorld.com forum relating to some rumoured changes taking place this month with Google and its search algorithm.
Basically, a lot of people are reporting Google SERPS changes with their sites and the only apparent weighting criteria that seems to be different is the freshness of both the content and the inbound links. If this is a true update (albeit a minor one), it further emphasises t... Read More.
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Mon, 02 Apr 2007 by Hannah Parker
Well - last month Google Notebook thingy came out of beta. It's been around for a while but seeing as it was officially launched I went and had a look.... and then I stopped looking because it didn't seem fantastically interesting.
But then the next time I did a search on Google I noticed it had added an extra caption to my search results which actually IS a little bit nifty. Alongside "Cached" and "Similar pages" it now says "Note This" to me. If I think - "ooooh what's that" and click on ... Read More.
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by Matt Hopkins
Although there is some commonality with keyword research, until recently PPC campaign management and search engine optimisation required different skills and approaches to search engine marketing.
Recently, however, Google introduced a quality score into its Adwords system. This score assesses your keywords, ads and landing pages with a rating of either “poor”, “OK”, or “Great” and is designed to improve relevance to the searcher. Keywords with low... Read More.
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