SEO Tips

It’s all about Google
Google is the biggest search engine on the web and it widely anticipated that it will continue to be so over the next decade. Google are continually creating applications to help Webmasters improve their visibility on the web.  If you are the owner of a website then you are a Webmaster.  It would be very sensible to keep an eye on what Google is up to.

Tracking your Website
Install some sort of analysis software to enable you to see how many visitors you are getting a day, what keywords are used to reach your site, how long visitors stay and which pages perform better than others. Our preferred tool is Google Analytics. It is free to use.  Just insert a snippet of Analytics code in the HTML, (coding) before the “</head>” tag.

Webmaster Tools
Webmaster Tools is another free application from Google. After you have verified your account with Google, either with Meta Tag Data, an FTP upload or through Google Analytics you will be able to see information on how Google Crawls and indexes your site.

Compare Click Through Rates (CTR)
Webmaster tools will also allow you to see what words people use to find your site and how often they click on your site. For example, maybe your website appears many times but no one clicks through because the description in the search results isn’t very appealing. Perhaps by changing the Meta Tag Description the CTR will increase.

Keywords
Careful! To many and Google thinks you’re a Spammer, and thus remove you from the index. Too few relevant keywords and your site will not be picked up for the right search phrases.

Back links
Webmaster tools provide details of all websites that link to you. As SEO experts we like to see what websites are linking to our websites. The more quality back links you have the better! Our premium SEO service can create many quality back links to your site. Please contact us for more details.

Google Alerts
Sign up! Find out what are competing websites writing about. When you are performing well for a certain keyword you need to be aware of who else might catch up or perform better for that keyword.

Directory Submission
Some are good and some are bad! At the end of the day, you, along with many others are submitting your site to a directory that lists your site along with others. People say that it can’t do any harm submitting your site to thousands of directories, and this is true.

Sitemap
Submit a sitemap in Webmaster tools. This can either be in Sitemap.xml format or an RSS feed, or both.

Feedburner
Get this application and submit your RSS feed to it. Google has recently acquired Feedburner. Feedburner monitors your Blog and RSS feed. It gives Google information on how popular your Blog is, how many people comment and how often it has new information. The more popular the better!  If you haven’t got an RSS feed or Blog then perhaps you should consider getting one.

Broken Links
Monitor broken links and malware issues in Webmaster Tools. It is imperative that this data is checked periodically. For example any broken links to any pages will be a black mark against your website, thus affecting Search Results. This black hat technology is common amongst some web developers keen to remove competing websites. Ensure any broken links are fixed by a 301 re-direct code in the “.htaccess” file as soon as possible.

HTML Validated
I may be on my own here but I’m sure that one of the things Google like is “pure code”. If your site is HTML validated it is crawled better by the Google Robots. Why not check to see if your website is HTML validated? If not – attempt to fix all errors.

Content is King
Content is King. Content is King. Content is King. Get the idea? Make sure you have the best and most interesting, well written content on your site. We charge £15 plus VAT for each 500-word article. Each article is researched, relevant and keyword rich for your website.

Download Speed
Do you really need all those flashy pictures? People search the web on their phones, old PC’s, new PC’s, on the move and whilst being distracted by children. Some people only access the web via 3G so have limited download speed. People want information and they want it quick. The new decade of website visitors do not want to wait for pages to load. Make your site small, quick to download and easy to navigate. Make sure your site is coded suitably for mobile phones, iPads, net-books, tablets etc.

Check your site in all browsers
Internet Explorer is a fussy browser and your site might not look as good. Check your site in all of the major Internet Browsers such as Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera.  If there are errors loading your site visitors will immediately click away from your site, (100% bounce).

Get Social
Having a social network integrated within your website is crucial in this day and age. More and more people are on Twitter and Facebook or look to YouTube for reviews. Managing all of these applications can be difficult but worthwhile. Take part in conversations, be a real person and join in.

Get an Expert
If managing all of the above seems a bit too much then employ an SEO expert. You wouldn’t try and fix your own car would you?  When looking for an SEO expert make sure you read their portfolio and can provide examples of how their SEO techniques have improved other websites.  As your chosen SEO expert if you can view screen shots of actual visits and page views.  A confident and skilled SEO technician should be able to do this easily.

Please contact us to discuss any of your SEO requirements.  Please see our portfolio of you have any doubts.  We are more than happy to help and discuss any issues regarding your Search Engine Optimisation needs. We can offer a complete SEO service from start to finish or just an SEO report. It’s up to you.

Stay on the top of Search Engines
Once you’ve mastered the art of SEO and you are getting the visitors you need make sure you keep going. Don’t loose interest; don’t let your site die! Keep content fresh, communicate with people and most of all look after all your hard work. We call this “site maintenance”. We can offer SEO maintenance contracts from £50, per month, including the addition of new content; please contact us to discuss further.

Summary:

  • Keep an eye on what Google gets up to
  • Get Google Analytics
  • Get Google Webmaster Tools
  • Keep your site live – regularly review
  • Validate your coding
  • Reduce download speed
  • Get Social
  • Get an Expert
  • Keep it up!

Managing all of the above can be a extremely time consuming and especially difficult if you are trying to build up other areas of your business.  However we are here to help and are more than happy to discuss the full range of SEO services available.  Remember contacting us is free!

Speak soon…