Feelingpeaky

The boys and girls at Google have been busy again. Quite rightly, they want to make sure customers get what they want when they Google something. Here are a few ideas to help you keep up with the latest and improve your SEO activity.

1. Focus on Google.

That’s still where it’s at in the UK (around 90% of all searches), with Yahoo and Bing therefore coming not very close seconds. If you have an international audience you’ll need to look at other search engines.

2. Select generic search terms and then look for qualifiers.

Think adjectives “cheap flights”, comparison/quality “compare flights”, intended use “flights to Ibiza” and brand “EasyJet flights”.

3. Educate the website team.

Make sure your website’s author(s) and editor(s) know which keyphrases to use and where they will have the most impact.

4. Prioritize the key phrases for each page.

When considering what keyphrases are right for a page, think about whether that is what the visitor was expecting to find when they typed in the search phrase.

5. Don’t overdo it.

Google spots “keyword stuffing” and will penalise you by decreasing the position of that page. A key test is that a human being can read it without noticing you’ve optimised it.

6. Update your site regularly.

Google is always on the look out for new stuff and may index a new or updated page within hours.

7. 20% of searches specify location.

(e.g. “theme parks Surrey”) so make sure you are listed on Google Places.

8. Keep your content unique.

Google has developed a special tool for filtering out duplicate content.

9. Work the crowd.

Google notices when you are being talked about on the social networks. For example, have a look at our client Longleat Safari & Adventure Park and their Facebook Account.

10. Not all links are created equal.

One link from a website with authority can be more valuable than 100 from less relevant sites.

Have you got an SEO tip? Why not share it?

According to Hitwise figures (4 weeks ending 04/09/2010.) Google maintains its complete stranglehold on the UK search market with 91.85% share of volume of searches. Therefore, like me you probably think it’s fairly important for your site to feature (hopefully prominently) in Google’s listings. But how dammit?! …. 10 points to consider…

1. Relevance

Google is looking to present back to searchers relevant search results and broadly speaking this is done by focusing on three main factors – content, code and links into your site.

2. Content is king

It should reflect your target search phrases – but remember it will ultimately be read by a human. Generally they don’t like to see an endless stream of repeated phrases, repeated phrases, repeated phrases, repeated phrases – Get it – rather annoying.

3. Think of your content like the front page of a newspaper

More importance is paid to the headlines, sub heads and bullets – these are often much larger than the body copy to draw your attention. Google works on a similar way – and whilst it doesn’t matter about the size of the font it’s important to ensure for example headlines are coded as headlines <H1>, < H2>. Eek! … sorry that’s a bit of code!

4. What are your target customers searching for

First brainstorm within your team, ask your current customers, ask suppliers but best of all ask Google or Wordtracker . The key phrases that you think are right for your site may not be the ones that they are searching. These services provide you insight in to search phrases – the reality and what you should be targeting. But don’t get too generic. Everyone wants to be top of Google – your better off targeting two or three niche but valid phrases per page. Eg. NOT THIS – ‘Travel’ …TRY THIS – ‘self catering cottages in cornwall’

5. Content, content and more content

It’s one thing having a website up but are you generating fresh, engaging and interesting content on a regular basis? The more relevant content you generate, the more times Google returns to your site, the more pages that get indexed, the more phrases you target, and ultimately the more leads they’ll potentially generate. Remember to write at least 200 – 250 words on your target phrases. Google needs to “read” what your page is all about.

6. More quality content the more quality links

Create interesting and thought provoking content and links will naturally come your way. Whether it’s from Tweets, blogs or referenced from articles on others sites. The more quality themed links into your site the more important Google will perceive your site. Notice the word “quality” – ie. links coming from relevant sites, with relevant content.

7. Linking in your site

When Google moves through your site it wants to know where it’s going. So links like “click here” and “more” are bad as they give no clues. Your much better off placing the key phrase in the link eg. “mens watches” or “black umbrellas”. Note – the blue texts aren’t real links in this case !

8. Create a top TITLE tag

You what? This is a bit of HTML code that is critical as it’s given a high relevance by Google. It appears in the browser right at the top of your screen above the tool bars. Think of it as a “Key Phrase Title Tag” and write accordingly. Therefore, for example,  “home page – business x” – IS BAD, “Wedding Florist London, Wedding Flowers London” – IS GOOD

9. Meaningful Meta tags

Completing these careful is valuable but they aren’t the nirvana they were say 10 years ago. Write a meta description that reflects your target phrases and the content of the site. This will often appear in Google’s search listings and could therefore potentially influence how a searcher might click. Worth considering carefully therefore. Keywords on the other hand aren’t used by Google to influence its results. Use it though, but don’t obsess about it.

10. Time

Getting listings in Google can take time, be patient. The longer your site has been online the more trusted it will be. By focusing your site consistently over the long term the trust, importance and relevance Google places on your site will increase.

Plus one for luck….

11. Your link popularity

I detailed the importance of content to drive links but you can also be proactive in obtaining inbound links – eg. by submitting your site to directories, reciprocal linking, article distribution, blogging, forums and social bookmarking.

Novelties Galore specialise in Party Supplies, in fact wholesale party supplies to be more precise. They supply novelties and other party accessories to businesses and individuals looking to have a great party.

Feelingpeaky created this e-commerce site for Novelties Galore a couple of years ago and since then the client’s business has gone from strength to strength. Whilst the site would have worked fine as it was I think the key reason why business has grown is the client’s commitment to improvements and marketing over the long term. That’s why we are talking Christmas Crackers in August!

But it’s hot outside…

I know it’s summer and feels way too early to be thinking about Christmas however, Novelties Galore is one of the largest distributors of Christmas crackers in the country and therefore we need to plan ahead to make the most of the season when it arrives. There are a number of keys to good search engine listings – the primary one being good content. With this in mind we prepared some interesting facts about Christmas crackers, some fun Christmas cracker jokes, and introduction to how to make your own Christmas crackers. The next step will be to starting building quality links into this page with the final aim to get it to page 1 in Google by the autumn. We are already there for our primary keyword phrase of ‘wholesale chistmas crackers‘ but we feel there could be a big boost in sales by improving listings on the more generic term ‘Christmas Crackers‘.

I’ll look to report back on year on year performance later in the year.

London based, Carole Ann Rice is one of the UK’s leading life coaches who has literally turned around the lives of countless people who, like you, no longer wanted to waste time and money on things that don’t work. Regularly featured in newspapers magazines and TV programmes her unique style of life coaching has produced some phenomenal results.

The trouble is her old website wasn’t performing the same phenomenal results – why – well it lacked consistent structure and clear navigation. The site had no obvious goals or outcomes and design was stuck in the 90’s and included the dreaded ‘comic sans’ font.

So what did we do for this London Life Coach?

The first thing we focused on was the communication goals for the site. It turns out that Carole Ann’s business is driven by two things – her offer for an initial free life coaching session and her monthly newsletter – Wit & Wisdom. So this is what we focused on.

In terms of design – Carole Ann wanted a very specific style – retro/americana/bewitched. She wanted to stand out from the run of the mill sites and be seen as something a little more special. Our design involved reworking the logo, developing a caricature and animation and adding a variety of design elements to build up that positioning.

The end result – Within the first few weeks Carole Ann has already seen a massive increase in the take up of her newsletter. Her site has jumped from know where in Google to page 2 for Life Coach London. A key focus of the site – as it was ascertained that clients were looking for a local life coach. It still very early days but we’ll look to take her new site www.realcoachingco.com up to page 1 on Google where she belongs.

Looking for a Life Coach in London? – contact Carole Ann Rice of the Real Coaching Co. Why the links on search phrases? We’ll this is to help tell search engines about the page that they are going to. In turn, this will help Carole Ann be found under her target search phrases and along with the other actions we are implementing help her to build her business online.

Every company starts somewhere and our starting point many years ago was a florist based in West London … www.westlondonflowers.com – It makes sense!

While it was great in it’s time the web moves fast and the design looked dated. Also Beryl, our fabulous florist had moved on in her business to concentrate in one key area – that of a wedding florist. So the site has been completely redesigned and focused on wedding floristry and wedding flowers.

But how do you stand out in a crowd of florist sites?

It was a bold move but designed under Beryl’s direction westlondonflowers to a colour scheme of black and grey .. with some shocking pink to contrast. Both client and us are very pleased with the results – not least that within a week of going live she was well on the way to breaking even for the cost of the project.

Google Success!

The key to the project being a success so fast is the search engine optimisation process we went through. Targeting the two key phrases of wedding florist london and wedding flowers london has led to some excellent page 1 results.

As of 23rd May on google.co.uk

Wedding florist London – 2nd out of 1,100,000 listings
Wedding flowers London – 4th out of 1,360,000 listings

..and not too bad on more generic phrases either…

flowers London – 6th out of 9,120,000 listings
florist London – 4th out of 1,340,000 listings

So if your looking to stand out in the crowd and get great listing to boot then call us with your brief. To end on a bad pun …Your future could be rosy!