Search

Effective search engine optimisation (SEO) is complex, and it is common for websites to be a victim to its many pitfalls. Here are four common mistakes to avoid: (more…)

The two top search engines are Google and Microsoft’s Bing, with Yahoo in third place. Most search engine optimization strategies will have a similar effect for Google and Bing, but businesses need to be aware of the differences and the (more…)

Social media is the ideal way to really know what makes your customers tick.

In the past, you may have (more…)

There are two methods to ensure your website is high in the search engine rankings: search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) advertising. Many websites concentrate on one of these strategies, but it can be more effective to (more…)

The internet is built around links. Any page on the internet can link to any other page. Paying attention to how you use links is a vital component of search engine optimisation.

Consistent links

Home page file names begin with the word index, so that when you type in a domain name such as www.mybusiness.com, visitors are directed to the home page. There are many different ways to link to the home page from any other page on your website. If your domain name is mybusiness.com and the home page is index.html, then all the following link text will take visitors to the home page:

index.html
www.mybusiness.com
http://www.mybusiness.com
www.mybusiness,com/index.html
http://mybusiness.com/index.html

Whilst it makes no difference to your visitors which form you use, it is clearer for search engines if all links are consistent and you stick to one format. The easiest form is www.mybusines.com. This also means that if you change the name of your home page to index.php, or index.htm, using simply your domain name as a link ensures that the link always points back to your home page.

The link format to other internal pages should also be consistent.

Not all links are on websites

Not everyone finds your site from either search engines or links from another website. It’s a good move to include direct links to your website in the signature on all emails and newsletters.

Quality links

You can pay for links on directory sites, but free links from sites with a high page rank are better. It is helpful if the text surrounding a link to your site is related to the content and keywords for your site. Quality links are more important than the quantity of links.

Although there are many components to a successful linking strategy, implementing these tips should increase your site visitors.

Search engine optimization practices have changed a lot over the last few years. Here is a list of what you may wish to do now to respond to changes in how Google ranks websites: (more…)

It’s estimated that there are an incredible 60 trillion web pages across the world, and Google has the enormous task of reading and indexing the web. Here are some of the things it does: (more…)

Search engines such as Google and Bing do not publish the exact algorithms they use to rank sites, but Google has issued guidelines for webmasters, which explain some of (more…)

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the art of optimising your web site to rank high in the search engines. There are a number of SEO myths that are (more…)

Search engines focus on helping people find quality content. Google and other search engines do not disclose exactly how they judge the quality of website content in order to rank websites in their search results. Google does however have guidelines which, if followed correctly, will help your site have a high ranking.

Here is a summary of Google’s main recommendations:

Trusted experts

Google is looking for information that can be trusted and this means it should be written by an expert or trustworthy enthusiast on the topic.

A high ranking web site needs to be regarded as a reliable source of information with original unique content not found elsewhere.

Give both sides

If a subject is controversial then acknowledge that there can be two sides to a story, and give both views to enable readers to reach their own conclusions about the topic.

Relevant

All content should be relevant to the subject matter of the site. Off topic articles and articles that are too similar should not be included on the site.

Websites should be aware of the interests of their readers and this will inform relevant content.

Grammar and spelling

As well as articles being free of factual errors, there needs to be no spelling, grammar and stylistic errors.

Too many ads

Whilst advertisement can be a good revenue stream for a web site, too many advertisements surrounding an article distract readers and will be penalized.

Not too short

Articles should not be too short, unsubstantial or lacking specifics.

Remove low quality content

One page of low quality content can negatively affect the ranking of the whole site, so it is worth while removing this content.