seo archive
Creating content targeted for Google search phrases
Jul
12
2010
Recently Northstar was approached by a company offering advertising on its website which targets the National Health Service. For a mere £350 we could have a 70 word listing as one of 5 preferred suppliers for website design in the Yorkshire region.
The reason for this opportunity is that the government has given up on a centralized computer system, after spending several billion, and now requires that all hospitals, surgeries and medical practices create and maintain their own websites.
Rather than paying to appear on someone else’s website, we created a single page that was optimized to target the NHS.
Using Google’s Keyword Tool, we identified a handful of popular search phrases to incorporate into the meta data and content.
Within three weeks, this page on Northstar was outperforming an entire website built to capture this target market.
Here are just a few of the phrases that are getting first page results on Google (July 12, 2010}:
NHS web design Leeds - No 1
NHS web design Yorkshire - No2
Visit Northstar’s NHS web design page »
Search Engine Optimisation isn’t some magic button you just press. It’s about continuous growth and development of your website, generating content that is targeted at key search phrases that will bring clients to your business.
Tags: nhs web design, search engine optimisation, search phrases, seo
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Google to rank websites on speed
Mar
23
2010
Over the course of 2009, a consistent theme that Google has been involved with is that of speed. In announcement after announcement, Google has talked about the importance of speed on the web, and how the company wants to do everything it can to make the web a faster place. Has it occurred to you that how fast your page loads may have a direct effect on how your site ranks in Google?
Don’t worry, it hasn’t had an impact…yet. In an interview with WebProNews, Google’s Matt Cutts told us that speed may soon be a ranking factor.
“Historically, we haven’t had to use it in our search rankings, but a lot of people within Google think that the web should be fast,” says Cutts. “It should be a good experience, and so it’s sort of fair to say that if you’re a fast site, maybe you should get a little bit of a bonus. If you really have an awfully slow site, then maybe users don’t want that as much.”
“I think a lot of people in 2010 are going to be thinking more about ‘how do I have my site be fast,’ how do I have it be rich without writing a bunch of custom javascript?’” he says.
I would say that based on Matt’s comments it is probably fair to assume that Google will indeed begin taking page speed into consideration as a ranking factor, although he doesn’t come right out and say that they definitely will. That said, making your site faster is going to benefit your users and possibly your sales anyway, so you might as well start optimizing it for speed anyway. Then if Google really does start using this as a ranking factor, you will have a head start on boosting your rankings.
Google has generally been pretty good at providing webmasters with tools they can use to help optimize their sites and potentially boost rankings and conversions. Google recently announced a Site Speed site, which provides webmasters with even more resources specifically aimed at speeding up their pages. Some of these, such as Page Speed and Closure tools come from Google itself. But there are a number of tools Google points you to from other developers as well.
If you’re serious about wanting your site to perform better in search engines, and you haven’t given much thought to load times and such, it’s time to readjust your way of thinking. Caffeine increases the speed at which Google can index content. Wouldn’t it make sense if your site helped the process along?
Source: news.cnet.com
Gordon Brown’s internet marketing machine
Mar
23
2009
Gordon Brown and the labour marketing machine have embraced the web in an effort to reach and engage with a wider audience.
“We’re listening.”
Taking notes from established business marketing techniques, they have a photo gallery on flickr, videos on YouTube, some particularly dull posts on Twitter and neglected facebook account.
Unfortunately, one of the primary strengths of the internet and social networking, is the interaction with your audience - a fact that seems to have been overlooked.
You can’t even send an email.
On 10 Downing Street’s contact page there is the following, succinct, explanation in plain English:
“Email Number 10 - We have decided at this time that it is important to take another look at the Email Number 10 service to ensure that it meets the same high standards as the other content and communication measures that the website delivers. Unfortunately, this means that we will be unable to replace the service as quickly as we had hoped, but we aim to have it up and running as soon as possible. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.”
Even the smallest sites we’ve built for a couple of hundred quid have email. How come the Goverenment can’t manage it?
Ah, that will be because they need to “ensure that it meets the same high standards as the other content and communication measures that the website delivers.”
Accessibility Standards
This Government has also brought in legislation that all commercial websites should comply with standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).
Number 10 has an Accessibility page which covers all the correct guidelines they should be following - but they aren’t.
1. Number 10 says: it complies with W3C 1.0 Transitional Guidelines. This standard is low and 10 years out of date, and still it fails on 5 points.
2. Number 10 says: it complies with WAI AA. Again, a lower standard than Triple A and still it fails on numerous points.
3. Number 10 says: “all images on this site are accompanied by a brief alternative text which describes the image or its function as appropriate.” Some, maybe 40% have.
4. Number 10 says: you can increase text size and tells you how to do it. Unfortunately, that’s quite out of date and doesn’t apply to 75% of visitors.
5. Access Keys are one of the most basic forms of accessibility you can give a site, so people with mobility problems can navigate without a mouse - this site doesn’t have them.
No wonder this Government isn’t enforcing the legislation they introduced to make websites accessible for all.
Most of Northstar’s websites comply with all of the above standards, not just the home pages, but every page. If we didn’t, we certainly wouldn’t post an Acccessibility page and lie about what we were doing.
Tags: email, gordon brown, internet marketing
Posted in marketing, seo | Comments
10 Signs That Your SEO Company Is a Quack
Oct
26
2008
By Jill Whalen
There are so many SEO/SEM firms cropping up that talk a good game but don’t deliver results. This is in part because there’s so much information that is freely available about search engine optimization.
On the surface, SEO sounds easy - and it really is - once you’ve had a number of sites to experiment with. What’s even easier than SEO, however, is discussing SEO as if you know what you’re actually doing (when you don’t)!
Here are 10 signs to watch out for that may very well indicate that your potential SEO is a quack. Please note that one of these individually may not be bad, but if you notice more than 2 or 3 of these when speaking with any SEO company, you may just want to head for the hills!
1. Your SEO company talks about Meta tags and Google PageRank (PR) as if they are the magic bullet to high rankings.
For the most part, there’s no reason to even bring up the keyword Meta tag nor toolbar PR in a discussion about what needs to be done to get better search engine exposure for your site.
Both of them are issues that quack SEO companies will talk about because they actually believe they are the key to SEO success. They are not.
I’ve discussed in previous articles the Meta keyword tag’s lack of importance, so I won’t go into that again here. In regards to PageRank, increasing the little green bar graph’s number should never be the ultimate goal of a professional SEO campaign. A good campaign will automatically increase your real and true PageRank (as measured by Google) without your specifically setting out to increasing it on your own.
Since PR doesn’t bring you traffic and sales (nor rankings), increasing it should not ever be the main goal of your campaign. This fact is of course lost on SEO quacks.
2. Your SEO company’s site (or those of their clients) has the same Title tags on every page. Sounds crazy I know, but I’ve seen this more than once!
I once got a client who had previously used a very major SEO company that most people have heard of. They had been with this firm for a whole year, and yet the Title tags on every page of their site were all the same (the name of the company). Since Title tags are probably the most important (and easiest) thing to change on a site, any SEO company that can’t do this one basic thing for their own site or their clients’ is most definitely a quack!
3. Your SEO company talks only about optimizing for the “long tail.”
Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with long-tail keyword phrases, as they can bring a lot of traffic when all is said and done. But you don’t need an SEO company if those are the only phrases you’re interested in - you can do it yourself just by writing articles.
Your SEO company should not be afraid to optimize for the actual keyword phrases that most people would use at the engines to find your site. Yeah, it’s gonna take time and money to go after the most competitive keyphrases, but there’s usually a happy medium.
Most sites have plenty of phrases that are somewhere between long tail and highly competitive. Those are the ones you definitely want to target.
4. Your SEO company tells you it’s ALL about links (or ALL about content).
SEO isn’t ALL about anything. It’s about lots of things all added together to make the perfect combination for your site.
A linking campaign alone will never be as effective if you neglect your on-page content, and vice versa. Be sure that your SEO company looks at your site from all angles and makes sure all your bases are covered. Otherwise, they’re probably a quack!
5. Your SEO company tells you that you need a linking campaign even though you already have tons of links and are a well-established popular site in your niche.
Not every site needs every SEO service out there. Just because your SEO company likes to sell link-building doesn’t mean you actually need it for your site. Why should you pay for something you don’t need?
The same thing goes for sites that already have great, well-written, optimized content. If you’ve got that, perhaps you just need a linking campaign to help boost your traffic and sales. Don’t allow an SEO quack to fix what isn’t actually broken.
6. Your SEO company is almost surely 99% quackish if they tell you that they can rank your brand-new site in Google for keywords that will bring you traffic within a few months.
In fact, if they claim they can do it in less than 9 months, they’re either inexperienced or lying.
Google has an aging delay that is most certainly related to the age of the site, as well as a certain trust factor. It is only the very rare and wonderful site that can get around this delay. But if your site is like most, you’re going to have to look to the long term for your Google results, regardless of what the quacks might try to convince you of.
7. Your SEO company never mentions that they may very well need to redo your site architecture so that your important pages are prominently featured within your site navigation.
In this case it’s very possible you’re dealing with an inexperienced, quack SEO. This is usually something that is not a quick fix, so most quacks are reluctant to discuss it with you (if they even know it’s important). But if your site architecture is not search-engine-ready, everything else you do will have much less impact.
8. Your SEO company can’t provide you with any quality references.
This one pretty much goes without saying, but do be sure to get references, and do be sure to actually call them. Yeah, a reference may very well turn out to be their cousin, but you should be able to get some feel for the company you’re choosing if you can at least talk to some references.
9. Your SEO company tells you that you have to have a DMOZ listing or your site will never be able to get high rankings.
Sure, a DMOZ listing is great, but it’s a link just like any other. Submit and forget about it. If you don’t get in, it’s no big deal — there are plenty of other links you can get instead.
10. Your SEO company’s site mentions that they’ll get you high rankings in AltaVista, Fast, Inktomi, Lycos, Excite, HotBot and the like.
If it does, you are 100% positively dealing with a quack! ‘Nuff said!
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Jill Whalen of High Rankings® is an internationally recognized search engine optimization consultant and host of the free weekly High Rankings® Advisor search engine marketing newsletter. Jill’s handbook, “The Nitty-gritty of Writing for the Search Engines” teaches business owners how and where to place relevant keyword phrases on their Web sites so that they make sense to users and gain high rankings in the major search engines.
Jill specializes in search engine optimization, SEO consultations, site analysis reports, SEM seminars and is the co-founder of Search Engine Marketing New England (SEMNE) a local networking organization.
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Further reading about Northstar’s SEO services »
Tags: jill whalen, search engine optimization, seo, seo company
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