Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 54. styles

Style are created to change the way a piece of text looks and then applied as often as you like througout your website. Styles can change the way a header looks - so you could define text as a header and then change it to actually look like normal text. This is a black hat SEO technique - is the search engines think they are looking at a header while the reader sees normal text. Black Hat techniqies are not recommended.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 53. article heading

When creating news or articles for your website ensure the title of the article agrees with the keywords used on your webpage. This helps the search engines get the point easily.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 52. Tagging the breadcrumb

The breadcrumb trail appears on all pages and you can add additional text to it to emphasise your key message to help the search engines.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 51. Breadcrumb

As your visitor progresses through your website the pages they have been on can be displayed as a breadcrumb trail. This can help the search engines understand what the focus of you website is if the web pages are named well.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 50. Free offers

People like free offers and building in free offers and promotions will result in improved traffic to your website.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 49. Dynamic menus

Building menus or a list of links that change based on the content on your website will help the search engines find the content you believe is important quickly and improve your search engine position.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 48. Search

The search engines cannot use the search facilities in your website. So make sure that you have "canned" searches that the search engines trigger by following a link.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 47. Google news

There are a range of alert services to report news direct to your inbox, Google News is one. If you have news on your website you can attempt to get the news alert systems to pick up on it and increase your traffic.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 46. Flickr

Posting photographs on flickr gives you a valuable place to reference your website from and this will help your page rank.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 45. You tube

Posting videos on You Tube gives you a valuable place to reference your website from and this will help your page rank.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 44. Digg

The social bookmarking sites such as Digg give you the chance to promote your website and build external links to it.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 43. Peoples names

Ensure that your sales and senior management teams names are listed as your customers may track you down by them rather than your services or products.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 42. Product names

If you are reselling products make sure your webpages emphasise the product name.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 41. Geography

When creating content ensure you make it clear the geographical area in which you are offering your services.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 40. Scrolling text

Java and flash can be used to scroll text but the search engines will be unable to see it. This will reduce the chances of your website being found by the search engines.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 39. Expanding text

Some websites hide text until you click on an expand button. If this is done correctly the search engines will see the text even if the text is hidden from the visitor.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 38. Java

If you are using java script on your website remember that it is not search engine friendly.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 37. Newsletter

Offerring a newsletter from your website will help drive traffic to your site. Third parties may well choose to refer to your news and create links to it on your website.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 36. RSS Feeds

Offer third parties an RSS feed from your site. This will create a great deal of incoming links to your website.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 35. Referral Linking

Building commercial relationships with third parties will increase the number of links to your website and improve your page rank.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 34. PR

Online PR is a great way to build external links to your website. This will help your page rank.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 33. Blog

Using a blog within your website is a good way to become disciplined about changing content. The search engines like websites that change.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 32. Architecture of the words

When creating title bars and content thnk about what people are looking for and rearrange the phrases used to help the search engines find your website.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 31. Database Structure

When building a database to hold content make sure it has areas for tags, keywords, description and other important meta data. This will help you build a website that the search engines can discover easily.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 30. Dynamic SEO

Search engine optimisation can be enhanced by changing the keywords and other meta data based on the content being served by content databases.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 29. Tag Clouds

Tag clouds are areas where all the different tags used thoughout the site are displayed. The more a tag is used on the website the bigger the font used. This helps the search engines find out quickly what the websites focus is.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 28. Related subjects

Websites with lots of content can help the search engines by associating similar content on the same page. This improves the understanding of the search engine with respect to the topics under discussion.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 27. Tags

Websites with significant amounts of content can help the search engines by exposing tags. Tags are single words or simple phrases to emphasise the main aspects of the content for an article on your website.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 26. Deep linking

When developing the number of external links you should ensure that a number of them point to internal pages to encourage the search engines to rank all of your websites pages.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 25. Page at a time

A well search engine optimised website has each page optimised. So optimise your website a page at a time - be logical.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 24. Adword info

The Adword facilities in google also provide valuable information on what people are looking for. Use that information to influence your keywords and content.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 23. Analytics

Use tools like Google Analytics to find out how people are finding your website and use that information to improve the content of your website.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 22. Wordtracker

To find out what people are looking for use tools like Wordtracker. This will help you find the correct keywords for your website.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 21. Review

Successful search engine optimisation relies on a regular review of how your website is performing. Be prepared to change keywords and add pages as required.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 20. Database use

If your website uses data served up from a database you should ensure that the data contains (or is complimented automatically) with the appropriate keywords.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 19. Structured Menus

By structuring menus the search engines will get a clear view of the topics covered in your website ie technology >> software >> java.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 18. Landing pages

Landing pages for particular topics, offers or competitions helps the search engines direct the right traffic direct to the specific interest area. This is at the heart of search engine optimisation.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 17. Focus

Ensure that each page of you website has a tight focus. That will help the search engines get an overwhelming sense of what the webpage is all about.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 16. Bold

Just like humans the search engines know that something in bold is important.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 15. Alt tags

Alt tags appear under the image and are therefore seen if the image has went missing. Search engines will read them to get an undestanding of what your website is all about.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 14. Image titles

Image titles appear when your mouse hovers over an image but the search engines also use them to understand what your website topic is. Use them carefully to improve your search engine optimisation.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 13. Anchor Text

When linking from an external website or internal page make sure the text is a description of the page rather than simply the URL of the website. For instance for all Search Engine Optimisation free advice visit Search Engine Optimisation Scotland.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 12. External Links

Websites that point to your website improve the Page Rank and encourage the search engines to believe that your website is important.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 11. Internal Links

Linking pages to one another within your site will help your Page Rank with the search engines.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 10. Sitemaps

To help the search engines find all the pages on your website create a sitemap and store it in the top directory.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 9. The depth

The Search engines like deep websites with lots of pages to explore. While you should not create lots and lots of boring pages just for a search engine, if your site does have a lot then your search engine optimisation chances will improve.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 8. Long Description

You can use the Long tag associated with images for search engine optimisation purposes but care should be taken as its use is for those who find websites to access. So use it sensibly but there is nothing wriong with choosing your words carefully to maximise SEO.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 7. Flash

Flash and search engine optimisation don't get on well, though moves are afoot to improve that. If you have a page that is almost all flash then it will act as a block to pages that are behind it. Basically the search engines at the moment like text not flash.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 6. The Images

Including images on your website is normal and you can use the fields associated with the images to improve your search engine optimisation. There are a number of tags such as alt that can include an SEO'd kyword or phrase.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 5. The Description

The description metadata is required for search engine optimisation and is used as the text that search engines display under the website title/url. Ensure the description agrees with and enahnces the chosen keywords for maximum SEO effectiveness.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 4. The Keywords

Keywords are identified in the metadata - sounds techy but its just an area in the stuff behind the scenes that highlights what the website is all about. Keywords are essential for search engine optimisation to work - but they are not the be all and end all.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 3. The Copy

Probably the most important thing when carry out search engine optimisation on your website is the copy on that page. Make sure it is concise and clearly says what you do or are are selling so that search engines get the message. Mentioning cabbage a lot (though not to the point that the page is unreadable) will help the search engines realise that you are all about cabbages.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 2. The Title

The title of your website and of each website page helps your search engine optimisation immensely. Each web page should have a title (thats the bit that appears at the top of the browser) that features what you do and the words that are important. ie best cabbage in UK, cabbage sales, cabbage products would be a good title for a webpage selling cabbage.

Search Engine Opimisation 101 tips, 1. The URL

The search engines like easy to understand URLS - thats your domain name. So if your website sells cabbage then a url with the word cabbage in it will help your search engine optimisation profile.

Search Engine Optimisation – Z is for optimization

Spelling mistakes are a great way to attract traffic to your web site. The best place for deliberate spelling mistakes is in your keyword metadata area. Search Engine Optimised web sites often include frequent spelling mistakes or common company name abbreviations and typos to catch vistors.

Search Engine Optimisation – Y is for Yesterday

Here today gone tomorrow. It’s easy to slip down the Search Engine listings and your once front page position disappears – so stay on top by staying on top of your Search Engine Optimisation activities.

Search Engine Optimisation – X is for Don’t get Cross

It’s easy to get frustrated when your web site doesn’t get highly ranked by the Search Engines – but don’t get mad just because your Search Engine Optimisation ain't working. When things aren’t working out try and think through what you have done and more importantly what you haven’t – are you really doing everything you can to get noticed?

Search Engine Optimisation – W is for Wordtracker

If your looking for the terms that your customers are looking for then sign up for Wordtracker to research your keywords. A Search Engine Optimised web site uses keywords to influence all aspects so use Wordtracker to get the inside track on what your customers are thinking.

Search Engine Optimisation – V is for Victory

Getting your web site number one in the Search Engines for the terms you want is very rewarding. Even the smallest of companies can get to number one ahead of the big guys. Indeed Search Engine Optimisation for smaller companies is often easier to do than for the big guys – so if your small or medium go for it!

Search Engine Optimisation – U is for Underhand

You may have heard about SEO Black Hat or Underhand SEO techniques. Search Engine Optimisation techniques that use white text on a white background are frowned upon and may cause your website to get blacklisted.

Search Engine Optimisation – T is for Title

Many websites use the title bar along the top of the browser poorly. Often it simply contains the name of the company or the name of the page. Instead it should use the keywords or key phrases to improve your Search Engine Optimisation.

Search Engine Optimisation – S is for Search

Search Engines are a wonderful free advertising resource and the only thing you have to do is to ensure your website has been fully Search Engine Optimised for the terms your customers are looking for – how hard can that be?

Search Engine Optimisation – R is for Rip-off

A number of SEO experts have pricing models that we believe are summarised best as a rip off. We don’t believe that it is right to pay to have a specific keyword ranked highly on the search engines. Indeed we don’t think it is service that you can charge for in that way. If you think you are getting conned let us know and maybe we could help out instead with your Search Engine Optimisation activities.

Search Engine Optimisation – Q is for Quit

If you’ve been at it for months and despite your best Search Engine Optimisation efforts your website isn’t being picked up for the terms you want then it’s time to quit. We’ll not quit….. ask around or drop us a line for some comment. There is always something else worth trying in the world of SEO.

Search Engine Optimisation – P is for Page Rank

Page Rank gives a score to each page within your website. The higher the score then the better the chance of the Search Engines listing the site for the keywords you desire. PageRank considers the number of pages and the number of incoming links to your site is a measure of your web sites importance. A fully search engine optimised web site will do everything it can to have a high Page Rank.

Search Engine Optimisation – O is for Optimise

The main optimisation activity is to ensure the content reflects the keywords and phrases that your customers are looking for. Search Engine Optimised web sites & web pages ensure that the keywords and phrases are repeated often enough to get the web site noticed. This process is called Opimisation – but ideally your web site should be optimised from day one.

Search Engine Optimisation – N is for Noise

Sometimes despite your very best Search Engine Optimisation work you can’t get your site high on the Search Engine for the terms you want. Often this can be because other web sites use some of the terms you use y coincidence. For instance in the UK the National Health Service makes it hard if you want a website that gets found for a phrase that includes Service. The NHS has many highly ranked pages making a new site featuring similar keywords a difficult thing to get ranked.

Search Engine Optimisation – M is for Metadata

Don’t be confused by the term Metadata, it’s simply a technical term that refers to the data that is hidden behind the scenes. The Metadata areas hold the Description of your web page as well as keyword and title data. Getting that data correct is important for Search Engine Optimisation purposes. To see the metadata click on view source option in your browser and have a look around.

Search Engine Optimisation – L is for Links

A truly Search Engine Optimised website will have a number of incoming links pointing to it from external sites. And it will also have a rich internal link structure to enhance navigation as well as promote itself as a highly Search Optimised website.

Search Engine Optimisation – K is for Keywords

It’s all about Keywords. Well Search Engine Optimisation is only partly about Keywords – they are the start but the URL, the content, the description and the promotion of the website all matter the same if not more.3

Search Engine Optimisation – J is for Jam tomorrow

Some Search Engine Optimisation experts claim that its just a matter of time before their work will cause your website appears on the search engines for the terms you want. But if after 4 weeks you don’t think your site is being found for the terms you want its time to ask hard questions. Make sure you get sensible answers about why your site is not getting found and what your SEO experts plan to do about it.

Search Engine Optimisation – I is for Instant Success

In some cases you’ll find the SEO success comes quickly – almost instantly. The Search Engines have powerful systems that crawl websites regularly. Get your website Search Engine Optimisation correct and you could find your web site appearing high in the Search Engines within just a few days.

Search Engine Optimisation – H is for Hard Work

Nothing works better when it comes to Search Engine Optimisation than hard work. Diligent analysis of the keywords that visitors search for combined with professionally produced highly structured websites and the creation of interesting content takes time and effort. SEO means hard work.

Search Engine Optimisation – G is for Google

Google has changed the landscape for the internet over the past few years. It’s adword tools, visitor analytics and webmaster tools provide a rich environment in which Search Engine Optimisation experts can experiment and develop ideas.

Search Engine Optimisation – F is for Firefox

Firefox increases in popularity every day and for web designers it provides a good test for their html coding. Firefox also uses tags slightly differently from Internet Explorer – some would say accurately. For instance don’t expect the Image “alt” tag to behave the same way it does in IE. The “alt” tag in Firefox is used to mark the position of a missing image – it is not used by default as the “title” tag unlike IE.

So if you are carrying out Search Engine Optimisation activities make sure you know how Firefox and IE differ.

Search Engine Optimisation – E is for Engine

The Search Engines now boil down to three main players – Yahoo, Google and MSN Live Search. Get listed on one and you’ll get listed on them all. Each has its own method of using the information on your carefully crafted Search Engine Optimised site and some experimentation is required to see what works on each.

Search Engine Optimisation – D is for Description

Behind the scenes your web page includes an area for a description to summarise what the web page is all about. The Search Engines use this as a way to influence what they think about your website and what it is all about.

Search Engine Optimised sites ensure that the description on each page is specific to the page and also reflects the keywords and key phrases related to that page.

Search Engine Optimisation – C is for Content

Above all else it’s the content that matters on a website. Without interesting content with a strong sales message you might as well not have bothered.

A well designed website featuring top class Search Engine Optimisation techniques will feature content that ensures that the Search Engines find your site and the specific page of interest quickly and easily.

Search Engine Optimisation – B is for Browser

Your visitors use all different sorts of browsers and all ages of browsers to view your website – some you wont even have heard of. By far the most popular ones are Safari (Apple Mac world), Firefox (we don’t like IE) and Internet Explorer (it came with the PC).

Make sure your website displays correctly in each and also bear in mind subtle SEO differences. Search Engine Optimisation uses elements like the “title” tag and “alt” tag associated with Images to explain what the image or web page is all about. But in IE you can get away by just using the “alt” tag so be careful not to get into lazy habits because you use one browser more than most.

Search Engine Optimisation – A is for Advert

The reason that you’ve went to all the trouble to get your website Search Engine Optimised is to advertise your website so make sure your site and the message that the Search Engine displays promotes what you do professionally and clearly.

Search Engine Optimisation is simply a technique to ensure you gain Search Engine Advertising exposure. So bear in mind why your doing it and make sure the advert is clear.

Search Engine Optimisation - The URL

To maximise the Search Engine Optimisation of your website make sure that the url (address) of the website page makes sense. Hopefully, your website URL already reflects what you do but if it does not then it is even more important to ensure that the internal pages emphasise what you do by including some form of description in the url - for example....

mywebsite.com\toysfor5yearolds.html

This helps the Search Engines understand that you sell Toys For 5 Year Olds even though your website name does not really explain that you are a toy shop.

Search Engine Optimisation - The Copy

The most important thing about a web site is what it says or does. So if your website has poor copy or content then it won't be much use to the visitor. However, it is important to make sure the content is optimied on the page so that it reflects the keywords you believe will attract the cirrect type of visitor.

A Search Engine Optimised website has copy or content which reflects the keywords that you think matters - so make sure The Copy, The Title bar and The Description are all related in the way they refer to the SEO keywords.

Search Engine Optimisation - The Keywords

Most people who have looked at Search Engine Optimisation have heard the term Keywords. But normally they think that that is how you SEO a web site. But simply listing Keywords in the Keyword section of a web page is not enough.

Keywords have to be reflected through the Title, Description and Content - not just the Keyword metadata area. To see the keywords on a page right click and view source and search for keywords. Then check to see if they are actually being used in the page.

Search Engine Optimisation - The Description

The Description of a webpage is hidden from the normall visitor to your site but the Search Engines love it so you have to use it. To see what is in a Description you can right click on the page of a website displayed using Internet Explorer. Then click on view source.

Once the code is displayed look for "description" - the text contained within that tag is the description of the page. If there is not a description then the page has not been optimised for search engine purposes. If there is a description then compare it to the text on the displayed page. If it agrees with the content on the page then the chances are that the site has been SEO'd at least to some extent.

Search Engine Optimisation - The Title Bar

Lets start at the top of the page or in this case the browswer.

Along the top of the Browser is the Title Bar. Make sure when you are search engine optimising your website that the Title Bar says something that agrees with the page. Most websites simple say "Company X - About" or "Company X - Products" but for SEO purposes this does not have much effect.

Instead your Title Bar should pick out the key things that your page is talking about and in many cases its not even worth mentioning that you are "Company X".

SEO Keywords - what works? Benefits!

When choosing your keywords for Search Engine Optimisation don't forget the benefits of the product or service - that's why people buy!

So if you are selling Apples then your keywords will be along the lines of "Healthy Apple" or "Filling Apple" - make sense?

SEO Keywords - what works? Features!

Just as in any marketing or advertising campaign your keywords are likely to include the features that the product has. So during your Search Engine Optimisation activities make sure you think about the features. If you are selling Apples make sure your keywords include things like "Red Apple", "Fresh Apple" and so on. Don't rely on saying Apple alone - that will be a very competitive search term so be specific about your product.

SEO Keywords - what works? Price point!

As you get used to researching your keywords for your Search Engine Optimsation you will find that poeple tend to look for "cheap" or "cost effective" products. So if you sell Apples then using those types of terms on your Apple page will be helpful to attract traffic. However, don't say something if it isn't true or if it isn't what you want to say - we dont think what we do is "cheap" we think it's good value.

So don't use descriptions just to get traffic to your site - the chances are they are the wrong type of visitor.

SEO Keywords - what works? Geography!

When choosing the keywords to help your Search Engine Optimisation activities tools like wordtraker help, but don't become a slave, the tool is not perfect.

For instance if you sell Apples then the chances are that people are looking for an Apple in your area - even if wordtracker does not report that. So if you are based in Stamford and sell Apples make sure the page with the Apples includes the fact that you are based in Stamford, near Peterborough. Although the web can help you sell internationally don't forget that it will also help you sell locally.

Search Engine Optimisation - golden rule 3

The third golden rule and the one that involves the most work for good Search Engine Optimisation is:

Ensure the Title Bar, Description and Content for each page reflects your researched Keywords.

The title bar along the top of your browser should state clearly what the page is all about using your keywords found from golden rule 2. The description should succinctly explain using the keywords what the page is promoting. And the Content should extend the conversation again featuring the keywords in a natural and engaging manner.

And it goes without saying - so we'll say it - that the researched keywords should be put in the Keyword area of the page/

Search Engine Optimisation - golden rule 2

Our second golden rule for Search Engine Optimsation is:

Research what your customers are looking for on the web.

Finding out what your customers are looking for may sound daunting but it's easier than you think. We use a relatively priced online tool from http://www.wordtracker.com/ . This lets you see what people search for when the search for the term say "Apple". The results include things like "red apple" or "apple computer" you get the idea.

It also shows you how many pages on the web feature that keyword. So it gives you an idea of how hard it will be to get visitors if you are buiding a web page that needs to sell Apples.

Search Engine Optimisation - golden rule 1

Golden Rule 1 for Search Engine Optimisation:

Make sure you optimise each page on your site individually.

It's a common mistake to talk about optimising a website but in effect you optimise each page on the site. So ensure your site is structured so that each page is focussed on one thing (or two at the most).

So if you sell Apples then a page that concentrated on the benefits of selling Apples makes a lot of sense to the customer and the search engines.

The Search Engines like things to be simple (and so do your human readers) so a page for each of your core products or services is an essential first step in a highly optimised website.

Search Engine Optimisation - 3 easy rules to remember

So to recap there are three realy simple rules when it comes to ensuring your website is search engine optimised...

1. Make sure you optimise each page on your site individually.
2. Research what your customers are looking for on the web.
3. Ensure the Title Bar, Description and Content for each page reflects your researched Keywords.

Letting Agent in East Kilbride gets SEO'd

We're very pleased with the SEO work we have done for East Kilbride Property Letting Agent Property Store EK.

The site is easy to update and also ensures that the corrent Search Engine Optimisation data is revised automatically.

Google will no doubt soon realise that the site has something new to offer and will begin to rank th site appropriately but in the meantime if you are renting in the East Kilbride area of Scotland why not visit Property Store EK and check them out.

SEO - three little letters, SEO rule 3 of 3

And our third golden rule for Search Engine Optimisation...

3. Ensure the Title Bar, Description and Content for each page reflects your researched Keywords.

SEO - three little letters, SEO rule 2 of 3

Rule 2 of our golden rules for Search Engine Optimisation...

2. Research what your customers are looking for on the web.

SEO - three little letters, SEO rule 1 of 3

Search Engine Optimisation is relatively simple - though at times frustrating here is rule 1 of our three golden rules....

1. Make sure you optimise each page on your site individually.

Think about you website first - before thinking about SEO

This may seem rather unhelpful.... think about what your site is all about or your site won't appear in the Search Engines for the terms you need. Split your site up into focussed pages about specific products, services and case studies. Don't mix a page up with the numerous things you do - the reader may get confused but the Search Engines definitely will.

Splitting the site up into focussed pages will help your SEO or Search Engine Optimisation.