CAT | Articles
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Free SEO Tips and Tricks Blog
0 Comments | Posted by andy in Articles, Blogging, FAQ, FAQ - Analytics, FAQ - PPC, FAQ - SEO, Internet News, Keyword Research, Landing Page Optimisation, Link Building, Local Search, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Marketing Resources, Search Engine Resources
Although we at Slipstream here in the UK, we recognise that some webmasters just love doing search engine optimisation themselves and, for that reason, we make a lot of SEO information freely available in our blog.
However, if you’re looking for free SEO tips on a regular basis, i.e. daily, then I recommend you take a look at the Daily SEO Tip blog.
This blog is dedicated to giving free SEO tips and was founded by SEO specialists, Loren Baker and Ann Smarty.
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Published by SEO Prof Andy
23
Search Engine Marketing is not a Business Lifesaver
0 Comments | Posted by andy in Articles, Bing, Click Fraud, Google Adwords, Keyword Research, Landing Page Optimisation, Local Search, Pay Per Click (PPC), Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Marketing Resources, Yahoo Search Marketing
Without doubt, the Internet is a great place to be for anyone looking to sell products or services online.
Buying online is now very firmly in the mainstream and there are many businesses operating profitably online. Some of these have taken care of their own search engine marketing, whilst others have elected to use a specialist agency such as Slipstream.
Whichever direction a business takes, it is vital that they recognise the marketing of their website is just one part of a complex model. With Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), you can improve your online visibility in the natural search results and using Pay per Click (PPC), you can complement SEO by having your adverts shown when users perform a search.
Both of these are proven methods to drive more targeted visitors to a site and we at Impact Media have helped many businesses to achieve more from their online marketing. However, Search Engine Marketing is certainly not the ‘be all and end all’ of running a successful business online.
Search Engine Marketing – A Business Lifesaver? Of course, the site itself has to perform well and engage with visitors in a positive fashion. There are many clues Webmasters can get from their log files and other reporting mechanisms. Google Analytics will show a Bounce Rate, this being a percentage of people that exit a site immediately. If your Bounce Rate is high, e.g. over 50%, for a page, then you need to understand why. Some suggestions could be:
1. Your pricing is not competitive (Tip – take a sampling of your products and compare with other online suppliers)
2. Your site design or navigation is poor (Tip – try usertesting.com for independent reviews)
3. Your payment processes are restrictive. (Tip – Provide as many methods as possible and don’t just rely on PayPal or Google Checkout)
Obviously, one of the advantages of the Internet for shoppers is the fact that they can visit a range of suppliers in minutes and carry out their own comparisons very quickly. For this reason, you need to ensure that your site is optimised for making online sales, not just receiving visitors (Tip – buy ‘Don’t Make Me Think‘ by Steve Krug. Also, whilst you’re buying it from Amazon, think about your own purchasing experience and how it compares to your own site)
It is vital that you review your analytics data and overall site performance. Just throwing money at Search Engine Marketing whilst ignoring the type of issues highlighted above is just not very sensible.
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Published by SEO Prof Andy
23
SEO is…SIMPLE
0 Comments | Posted by andy in Articles, Keyword Research, Landing Page Optimisation, Link Building, Local Search, PR, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Marketing Resources, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Search Engine Resources
By following some straightforward Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) fundamentals, you can be sure that your site is ready to be indexed by the search engines and all set to meet your objectives.
S is for Searches
Keyword research will show you which search terms are most commonly used by searchers. It is important that you optimise your site for keywords and phrases which will be searched for; otherwise your site may be ranking high in the search engines for terms that very few people search for.
I is for Index
It is important that your site is indexed often by the different search engines. One way to ensure that the search engines keep coming back is to repeatedly add fresh content to your website. A blog or latest news section allows you to add new content to your site with affecting any current on-page body copy. A WordPress blog is free and you can then theme it to match your site – SIMPLE!
Remember it doesn’t have to be a 500 word post, (even though an occasional one this long is good) a short paragraph about some industry news will suffice. As long as it is related to your website or industry and is of interest then that should be more than sufficient.
M is for Money
Not really a SEO tip, but the reason you’re doing SEO in the first place is to meet your site’s objective, which in 90% of cases is to generate income. If your website is not appearing in the search engine results for terms that have commercial intent, then ultimately your site is not being run profitably.
P is for People
Don’t forget people when you are reviewing your SEO strategy. Even though your website should be search engine friendly, visitors to your site should not be put off; after all, they are the ones with pounds in their pocket ready to spend on your site and hopefully make you are profit.
Optimising your site goes hand in hand with making your site user friendly. It is important that the site is easy to navigate around and you should test your shopping cart to make sure that there are no barriers to checkout.
L is for Links
Inbound links to your domain from other websites will allow the search engines to frequently find your site and hopefully keep coming back to it by way of these links.
Don’t forget, it’s not the external links into your site that are important, ensuring your internal linking structure is optimised and functions effectively is essential too. You can replace ‘Click Here’ on the pages of your site with optimised anchor text, which will help to strengthen your internal link profile. Internal links will also help visitors to the site to navigate with greater ease, whilst also sending them straight to money pages.
E is for Engines
Please don’t forget that Google is not the only search engine. Of course it is the main search engine which the majority of searchers use, but there are other search engines out there to optimised for; these include Bing, Yahoo and Ask.
To improve your website within the search engine rankings you need to be patient; all changes you make will first have to be indexed by the search engines, which can take time. To see significant improvements you may need to wait anything from a couple of weeks to months.
A number one ranking in one of the other search engines may not deliver hundreds of visitors, but the quality of those visitors may still be good and could result in additional revenue, which previously you may have been missing out on.
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Published by SEO Prof Andy
23
Using PR to Compliment your Website’s SEO
0 Comments | Posted by andy in Articles, Copywriting, Link Building, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media, Twitter
If you’ve got a website, or indeed have a client who has a website to be proud of then you want to show it off. SEO is the best way of getting the attention of the search engines, and those who use them, but there’s much more you can be doing besides.
Any PR specialist will tell you that anything can be promoted; it’s just about knowing where and how to do it. With PR fundamentally centred on generating buzz, the Internet is the perfect forum for getting the message out there loud and clear.
Online PR is by no means a detached process from your general search engine marketing processes. It can incorporate elements of SEO and link building, whilst of course spreading the word about your latest innovation, newest products or achievements. Any successful PR strategy just needs an angle; something that will make you stand out and unique from the competition.
Creating Buzz through a Unique Perspective
Finding that angle isn’t always straightforward though; how can you persuade someone who may only have a passing interest in what you’re offering to visit your site? Well, that’s the skill of PR.
Search engines are still the most consistent sources of traffic. There are very few sites that have succeeded in spite of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft; we use them to search for almost everything, which is why SEO still has to come first. But if you’re in a position to diversify and want to explore new channels, PR is the way forward.
Modern PR isn’t simply about creating press releases and sending them off to the local paper or releasing it through the newswire. Today, that same press release can be submitted to a site like PRWeb and within hours showing on journalists’ screens as well as search engine results pages across the world. It’s a far more dynamic system that provides opportunities for distribution that would not have been possible even in the last decade.
Of course, the modern digital press release has another major bonus, HTML coding. That’s right, most sites will allow you to include embedded links within the copy before distribution. Therefore, once it’s out there on the Internet your site is gaining SEO strength as well as providing an interesting news story that could well get picked up.
Promoting a site can take on many forms though. For example, once you’ve created a press release that links to your website, you can then go and promote the release itself. This can be done in many ways, but the most popular currently is social media. Sites like Twitter allow quickfire messages with short links, providing the perfect opportunity to talk up your own press release. Social bookmarking is another fantastic way to increase exposure; just get on Digg or your own site of choice and flag it up, you’d be surprised how many extra reads your press release can achieve.
It might sound a little complicated, promoting a promotional press release, but the truth is it can get results. PR today is about finding ways to utilise the resources available to their optimum. If you’ve spent a few hours writing a release, you want to make sure that it’s read, so why not spend the same amount of time promoting it? The same of course is true of most things, including blog posts and news stories within a site; by channelling visitors through intermediary content, you can get better results than providing a direct link.
An example of how to market a press release
Online users seek authority in the information that they read. For most, spam is still a major turn-off, so avoiding this online PR disaster – i.e. using inappropriate hashtags in Twitter promotions – is just as key to success. Provide people with something interesting, informative, eye-catching, captivating, intriguing – however you wish to term it – is a fantastic way of helping boost site traffic and profile.
Don’t let your hard on-site work go to waste. If you’ve got it, flaunt it; show the world what you’re all about through the search engines and innovative online PR.
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Published by SEO Prof Andy
