Entries Tagged 'search engine optimisation' ↓

There’s so much to think about when creating a website – not only from a design and usability point of view, but also in relation to its searchability.

So what should you be thinking about when building your website?

In this video Matt Cutts looks at:

• Site maps
• General guidelines for your site’s visibility
• Why a Dmoz snippet is used even when a valid META description is in place
• Whether bold or strong tags are better for SEO

Are you ready?

A few things to think about there.

Next up, we’ll be looking at the top 3 to 5 SEO areas where webmasters make the most mistakes.

See you soon.

Sally Ormond

Copywriter @ Briar Copywriting Ltd

Follow me on Twitter and Google+

If you need to know anything about SEO (search engine optimisation) there’s only one person to ask, Matt Cutts of Google.

This is the first in a series of posts that looks at various aspects of SEO. This one relates to a phenomenon you may have seen – how an apparently non-optimised website can outrank your site that’s been optimised to the hilt.

This is what Matt Cutts has to say on the matter:

Hmmm, so things aren’t always as they seem. But then again, if achieving top rankings was easy it would make a mockery of the whole search ranking process.

The next instalment will look at the qualities of a good site.

See you soon.

Sally Ormond

Copywriter @ Briar Copywriting Ltd

Follow me on Twitter and Google+

Let’s get one thing straight.

Content marketing is great. Social media will widen your reach. SEO (search engine optimisation) will boost your visibility. But if you really want to make an impact you must do all 3.

By combining the power of great content, social engagement and search visibility you will become an unstoppable force, pushing aside your competitors.

[Like that image?]

So what should you be doing and how do these 3 elements work together?

Blogging

Blogging is the most popular form of content marketing.

It’s a great way to share your knowledge with the world and promote your business through your expertise.

But if you simply write and publish, you’re limiting your reach.

Make sure your blogs are written with keywords in mind to help their SEO potential. Then, make sure you promote them through your social media outlets to widen your audience.

Newsletters and email marketing

There’s no better way to get your content out to your customers than through newsletters and email marketing.

When you’ve got great content you want to shout about, send it to them, or a snippet with a link back to your blog. And make sure your social media links are clearly shown so people can choose to interact with you through those channels too.

Media

To further your reach and influence, make a list of industry websites, magazine and bloggers and ask if they will consider you as a guest blogger.

Writing your articles with SEO in mind will boost your visibility as will the link you’ll get back from the publication.

To get an extra lift, make sure you shout about your article through your social media channels.

Social networking and social media

Both of these have become part and parcel of everyday life, so your customers will expect you to be using them.

Use them to engage and chat with your audience as well as promote your blogs and articles.

Mobile

Have you noticed how much time you spend on your smart phone?

More and more people are using them to browse the web, so it’s essential your website is mobile friendly to increase your potential audience.

Video

Last but not least.  Video is a very powerful marketing tool and, when coupled with great SEO and social sharing and promotion, can draw shed loads of traffic your way.

There you go – content marketing, SEO and social media have to work together if they are to be effective.

Author:

Sally Ormond – copywriter, blogger, tweeter and Google+

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I’m confused.

There are lots of blog posts out there pronouncing that content marketing is killing off SEO.

Who’s writing them?

Are they content marketing companies trying to convince companies that SEO (search engine optimisation) is no longer the way forward because search is social now?

Or, are they narked SEO companies trying to cling on to their huge retainers?

Want to know what I think?

[Doesn’t really matter because I’m going to tell you anyway.]

As far as I’m concerned you can’t have one without the other.

The only reason I can see for SEO companies to throw their toys out of their prams is that they are practitioners of the dark arts. You know the type of company I mean. They are the ones that buy links and use black-hat techniques to trick the search engines into giving their clients good rankings.

But the only way to get quality links is through great content, so don’t the SEO companies and content companies need to work together?

If you’re scratching your head trying to work out where to put your sizeable marketing budget, my best advice is that you need both – you can’t be successful with only one.

A website with sheds load of content is just a dusty online library that may or may not be found. But a website with loads of content and good SEO is a super-charged knowledge bank that will enlighten the world.

Whichever way you look at it if you have content you need SEO and if you have SEO you must have content.

So, no, content marketing isn’t killing off SEO. They should be working together to create a richer, more rewarding search experience.

That’s what I think anyway – what’s your take on this debate?

Sally Ormond is a copywriter and MD at Briar Copywriting Ltd

Find her on Google+

In the aftermath of Google’s Panda and Penguin algorithm ‘tweaks’, the fact that we all get search results that relate to our location (yup, you’re no longer seeing country-wide results^*) and the prospect of even more changes on the way, is there a future for search engine optimisation?

Let’s face it, small businesses with a national (and international) reach relied heavily on their SEO to get great rankings in the search results. Now, they have no way of knowing who will see their listing because everyone sees different things.

OK, for local search this isn’t too much of an issue, but how are SEO companies dealing with the fact that they can no longer state, with any certainty, where their clients’ websites are ranking?

The changing face of SEO

Once upon a time, SEO could be divided into 2 categories:

1. Internal SEO – relating to your website’s structure
2. External SEO – articles, content, blogs, press releases, links etc.

Of course, the reason for Google’s changes comes down to that small minority who couldn’t be bothered to do things properly and had to find short cuts to make money.

These ‘black hat’ SEOers spoilt the party for all the other legitimate businesses who worked hard to get their rankings playing by the rules.

Now many face an uncertain future, or are being forced to rethink their whole marketing strategy because they can no longer reach out to the wider market place.

Search goes social

The focus behind all these changes is for our search results to become more social and therefore (apparently) more relevant.

The relevancy of your website is now to be dictated by the number of followers, comments, views and shares your content gets.

The problem I can see with this, is that it won’t be long before the cowboys work out a way of faking that too.

Where does that leave us?

For most of the big brands out there these algorithmic changes have little or no effect. But for the smaller businesses they can have a devastating impact.

Google claims that if you have followed their SEO rules your website won’t be affected, but thousands and thousands of sites have seen their rankings plummet because of them.

Online marketing is a fast changing environment. Keeping up with these new techniques is proving to be a major headache for many small businesses out there. They don’t have the budgets needed to get an expert on board to help them and so are left floundering in the wake of the might Google’s whims.

Over to you

Are you an SEO company? How are these changes affecting you and your clients?

Are you a small business struggling to keep pace with it all?

Leave a comment below because, whatever your story, we want to hear from you.

^*If you want to return to national results, simply go to your Google home page,  click ‘settings’ (bottom right), click ‘Search Settings’, click ‘Location’ and then enter UK in the ‘Where are you?’ box.

Author:

Sally Ormond, copywriter and MD at Briar Copywriting Ltd – blogger, cyclist and mum.