CAT | Local Search
23
Bing using DMOZ Description
0 Comments | Posted by andy in Bing, Local Search, Pay Per Click (PPC), Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Marketing Resources
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).
In fact, this is not new; MSN Search and Live Search both did this but with the publicity the newly named search engine is receiving along with its growing popularity among users, this issue has gained more focus.
For an example, see Bing’s description of their colossal competitor Google:
To ensure that the description of your site on Bing is how you would like it to read, the following Tag needs to be introduced onto your page:
<META NAME=”msnbot” CONTENT=”NOODP”>
Simply, this tells the MSNBOT not to grab its content from the OPD and select your Meta description instead.
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Published by SEO Prof Andy
23
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
What Tests Should I Try On My Landing Pages?
0 Comments | Posted by andy in Landing Page Optimisation, Link Building, Local Search, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Marketing Resources, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Landing page testing and optimisation has really started to pick up over the past six months and with more and more advertisers conducting tests, the more difficult it becomes for those of you who are not.
If three of your main competitors are frequently conducting tests, they will be collating extremely valuable data on how visitors react to their web page design.
Testing elements of landing pages is now playing a fundamental part of increasing a website’s conversion rate. There are a number of key elements on a page which warrant testing to find out what works for your customers and what doesn’t. How do you know unless you test?
The idea for this blog post came about when I was looking around the web for elements that I could test within a web page. There are lots of sources out there giving us ideas, so I thought a summary of my findings would benefit all.
Page Structure Tests
Page structure tests involve changing a key element on the page to differ completely from the original.
- Size and contents of the page header
- Size and contents of the page footer
- Horizontal vs. vertical navigation bar
- Trust symbols and accreditation logos
- Size and location of forms
- Swapping page sections from left to right
- Single vs. multiple columns
Main Headline Tests
People respond differently to the way a headline on a page is written, some respond to capitalisation, some respond to numerical statistics etc
- Asking a question
- Website not ranking for key terms?
- Is your website not ranking well for your key terms?
- Do you know how to get your website ranking for key terms?
- Business focus vs. customer focus
- We can help you increase your visibility in the search engines
- You can increase your websites visibility in the search engines
- Capitalisation vs. non capitalisation
- We Can Help You Improve Your Search Engine Rankings
- We can help you improve your search engine rankings
- Bold, capitalisation, underline, normal and italic
- We can help you improve your search engine rankings
- We can help you improve your search engine rankings
- We can help you improve your search engine rankings
- We can help you improve your SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS
- We can help you improve your search engine rankings
- Statistics
- We have helped 100’s of websites achieve page one rankings on Google
- We have saved customers £100’s in AdWords spend
Content Tests
We all worry about what a page looks like. Would you be surprised that some of the more plain web pages convert better? Testing colours and font styles have been known to drive significant increases in a websites conversion rate.
- Long paragraphs of text vs. short paragraphs of text
- Bullet points
- Punctuation
- Font size
- Font style
- Call to action button colours
- Call to action wording
The BBC News website posted an article which really brings home how much first impressions count on the web.
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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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23
Is Local Search Optimisation Now Essential for Business Websites?
0 Comments | Posted by andy in Local Search, Search Engine Marketing
When it comes to the future of search engine optimisation, local search looks primed to become indispensable for any business website. Whilst SEO focuses on what it is that your business offers, local search roots that information to a geographic location.
With the mobilisation of Internet connectivity people aren’t just going online at home or in the office. As such, consumers are increasingly turning to their mobile phones and PDAs to search for businesses and products within their immediate vicinity. This means that wherever we are, whether we are familiar with the surroundings or not, near continuous access to the Internet ensures that we are only a search away from getting directions to the nearest store, bank or hotel.
This is backed up by recent research performed by TMP directional marketing, which measured the effectiveness of local search on consumer activity. In their findings it was revealed that 32% of consumers with Internet-enabled mobile phones would search for local business information. That’s just shy of a third of all current Internet-ready mobile phone users, a market that is growing and is likely to continue doing so for the foreseeable future.
Ensuring Local Search Visibility
The local search market is undoubtedly vibrant, and not without good reason. Internet consumers aren’t always looking to shop online, they want to visit a store, talk to the business and actually get a sense of what it offers. In the most part a website is simply an online portal for a business, although ecommerce sites are an obvious exception to this. It is a way of providing the information that customers or clients may require with a view to finalising any business offline. Essentially it’s the Internet wing of your marketing department, which comes with a free map for visitors; so how you present this information, preferably through emotive, engaging content, can often make or break a deal.
With this in mind, where are you most likely to look for the services or products that you are looking for? Do you want to get search results that reflect the whole of the UK, or would you prefer the emphasis is put on more local matches? Well, in the most part, the answer is that we would all prefer to deal with businesses in our immediate surroundings.
The major search engines have acknowledged this, by introducing a local business search results alongside the aforementioned ‘free map’. This prominent placement within the SERPs is no accident. Google and their competitors listen to the needs of their users and have adjusted their results pages and algorithms accordingly. Online often works to compliment the offline world; in the case of local search, the more relevant the results and the higher the standard, the more likely it is to result in a conversion without users having to look elsewhere – the ultimate target of both the business and the search engine.
Portability, Speed, Convenience and Local Search
Now that local search results are firmly embedded within Google SERPs (as well as Bing and Yahoo it should be noted), the importance of optimising a website for its physical location is hard to ignore. Returning to my earlier point, the convergence of a desire for local convenience and the increase of Internet-capable portable devices, could significantly impact the amount of interest your website generates and customers you get as a result.
For further confirmation of how seriously Google treat the up and coming mobile search market you need look no further than their recent purchase of AdMob and the development of their own Google mobile phone [see: The Google Phone Is Very Real. And It’s Coming Soon – from TechCrunch].
Keywords and SEO won’t die off, far from it. However, local search isn’t something that people should be taking lightly. The way the world interacts with the Internet is changing, consumers are demanding instant results and search engines are working hard to provide them. Google are focusing a lot of their attention on the speed of websites as well as their own SERPs with the introduction of Caffeine; if you want potential customers in your vicinity to find you first, local search optimisation is a must.
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