Easy Ways to Improve Search Engine Ranking and Drive Traffic

Written on July 22, 2010

Every now and then we come across a news article that is very relevant to our clients needs, and below is such an article from Chris Hopkins

Easy Ways to Improve Search Engine Ranking and Drive Traffic
By Chris Hopkins (c) 2010

To learn how to improve search engine rankings and drive website traffic you need to understand the concepts that govern the way the search engines work.

Without an understanding of these principles and a system to incorporate them into everything you do online, you will not get the success you are seeking.

On the other hand, learn how to effectively utilize them and you will start dominating niches all over the Internet driving 1000′s of visitors to your site on a daily basis.

So what are the principles that rule search engine rankings and how do I improve mine? Here they are:

1. Relevancy
2. Popularity
3. Originality

Relevancy

Relevancy is something defined as having relationship to. For example if your website was about golf, related content would include information about such things as golf clubs, golf courses and golf lessons.

Content about anything other than the topic of the website or related topics would not score for relevancy, thereby having no chance of ranking in the search engines. Search engines check your site for relevancy.

You need to be right on topic for whatever it is you are targeting with the content you create. A final word of caution about relevancy: Relevancy alone will not rank your site. You could have the most highly relevant, best original content ever written posted at your site, however if there are no sites pointing to it, it will not rank in the search engines. Relevancy does not work without the concepts of popularity and original content.

The first step is to choose the keyword or keyword phrase you want your content to target. Let’s say you’re trying to get a higher ranking for this keyword phrase, the topic I am currently writing about, “Improve Search Engine Ranking”. First, you would want to find what people are searching for and specifically target that keyword if you want your content to rank for that phrase.

Make sure you include the keyword phrase in the title of the article. For example, your title could be “Strategies To Improve Search Engine Ranking”. Always try to put the keyword or keyword phrase as the first few words of the article title. Always remember to use the keyword phrase, several times throughout the article. Finally make sure your content remains 100% relevant to the keyword phrase.

Popularity

Popularity works together with relevancy to improve search engine rankings. Popularity is based on two key measures:

1. How Many Sites Link to Your Site

A site’s popularity is measured first by the number of sites that directly link to your site.

To demonstrate popularity let’s take a quick look at YouTube. YouTube is one of the most popular sites on the Internet, Why? All links and embed codes taken from YouTube and embedded on other sites, whether on Facebook, Myspace, a blog, a sales page or a website, create automatic links back to YouTube where the video is hosted. Every time someone shares a YouTube video a link is created.

With the number of videos shared, Youtube gets 1000′s of new incoming links daily. This is one of the reasons why YouTube videos rank very highly on the search engines. Their site is super popular.

2. The Popularity of the Sites Linking to You

The more popular the site linking to you is, the better the score given by the search engines.

The more incoming links to your site the more popular it is. It is therefore always important to syndicate the content of your site (with a direct link to the content on your site), to as many sites as possible. The Internet presents a host of sites where you can post your content for free to improve your search engine rankings, including popular high ranking sites like article directories, blogs, social bookmarking sites, video sites, press release and social network pages.

Originality

Originality basically refers to unique content. In simple terms the search engines ask the question, is this same piece of content all over the Internet? As an example, if I took a highly relevant and popular article from my site and posted it to hundreds of sites it would not rank high in the search engines as it would no longer be deemed unique.

There is no doubt that spreading your unique content across the Internet is important for driving traffic to your site. The secret is to make several unique versions of the same information all with a backlink to your original article posted on your site. Spinning is a popular term used to describe the process of changing the titles, key words and phrases throughout your article to make several unique versions. Placing these all over the Internet with a back link to your site will improve rankings.

Follow the steps above and I promise you will see an improvement in the number of visitors to your site.

iPhone Google search being replaced by Bing

Written on June 9, 2010

Interesting news surfaced recently regarding Microsoft’s Bing Search to be the leading search engine placed on Apple’s newest iPhone. Previously running through Google’s search, it appears TechCrunch has some news and further sources who have regarded the credibility of Microsoft taking over the search. The news seems very good for Microsoft as trying to compete against Google as a major search engine is not an easy thing to do.

I don’t know how Bing is going to run on the OS, as I’ve always been a huge fan of Google. In fact, I expect to be searching through Google in almost any app.

However with Google starting to fund and truly get behind the Android market, it appears as though a split between Apple and Google was inevitable. Not sure where the market will go from here, especially considering how many apps run through Google (YouTube, Maps, etc).

Here’s further info quoted from an interesting post discussing the relationship between Apple and Google. It reads:

Multiple sources at Google tell us that in informal discussions with Apple over the last few months Apple expressed dismay at the number of core iPhone apps that are powered by Google. Search, maps, YouTube, and other key popular apps are powered by Google. Other than the browser, Apple has little else to call its own other than the core phone, contacts and calendar features.

So at this point I’m a bit torn, only time will truly tell what’s going to happen. It was discussed in TechCrunch’s post that Google is paying Apple $100 million a year for the search rights for the iPhone, along with the rights to serve search ads within the app. Not to say this would be going away any time soon, unless Microsoft happens to offer a better deal.

SEO do’s and don’ts

Written on March 24, 2010

10. Don’t Use Flash for SEO

Flash websites are very eye-catching, but search engines cannot read or index this type of content. If it is impossible to avoid a Flash-centric website and you need search engines to index it, you will have to offer an html version too. Search engines don’t like Flash sites for a reason – a spider can’t read Flash content and therefore can’t index it.

9. Don’t Use too Much JavaScript

Searchbots are not designed to read and understand JavaScript code. If a website contains a few lines of text in the JavaScript code, chances are that searchbots will ignore the entire block of code along with the text. This is true in the case of JavaScript menus. Try to keep the use of JavaScript to a minimum. Alternatively, create an external JavaScript file if it is unavoidable.

8. Do Implement a Robots.txt File

The primary purpose for using a robots.txt file is to gain complete control over the data indexed by the searchbots. Implement a Robots.txt file only when you want to prevent unwanted web pages from being indexed. A robots.txt file is always placed in the root folder of the website where the searchbots can access it easily.

7. Do Target the Correct Keywords

Targeting the wrong keywords is a common mistake many optimizers make and even worse – veteran SEO professionals do it. Marketers select keywords that they think are explanatory of their website, but the average searcher does not think in those same keyword terms. Picking the right keywords can increase or decrease traffic to your SEO campaign. A first-class keyword suggestion aid, for example the Google search-based keyword tool, will help you find keywords that are appropriate for your site.

6. Do Include Long Tail Keywords

With a million websites competing for short tail keywords, it can take more than 6 months to rank in the top 20 for a competitive keyword. In this case, long tail keywords come in handy. Long tail keywords are more specific and can contain the name of a specific product, brand or city. Ranking for long tail keywords is comparatively easier and the rate of conversion is better than that of short tail keywords. Do include keywords in the title tags.

5. Do Maintain a Uniform URL Structure

If your website is dynamic, then you need to modify the URL structure of the web pages. This maintains uniformity and helps searchbots to understand which page it is indexing. It is very easy to maintain the URL structure in dynamic websites. Blogging platforms like WordPress provide an option for permalinks.

4. Don’t Link to Low Quality Websites

Link building is a very crucial aspect of search engine optimization. Search engines consider the number of incoming links to a website as an indication of their popularity and give them priority rankings. Many beginners fail to realize that it is links from authoritative and quality websites that are important and they mistakenly link to low quality websites for higher rankings. This tactic can cause the credibility of the website to go down with search engines and in some cases, the website may get banned.

3. Do Perform Competitive Intelligence

Before starting your search engine optimization program, visit the competing websites in the top results. Research these types of questions:

A. How many websites are competing for the same keyword?

B. How old are the websites in top search engine results pages?

C. How many back links do the top ranking websites list?

D. What type of social media is used by the competing sites?

2. Do Take Advantage of Google Analytics

2009 was the year when web analytics gained momentum. Google Analytics came up with advanced metrics and intelligence report features which revolutionized free analytics tools. Companies realized the benefits of using web analytics tools to extract their relevant data. Implement Google Analytics to analyze data and build a 2010 plan to increase traffic and rates of conversion.

1. Do Create Fresh Content

Search engines are famous for penalizing a website for publishing duplicate content. With plagiarism on the rise and availability of content checking tools such as Copyscape, marketers have become more cautious. Yahoo is considered to be among the harshest of all the search engines with regard to this penalty. Add fresh content to your website to help build visitor interest and credibility with the search engines.

These 10 simple do’s and don’ts can help you to avoid making potentially dangerous SEO mistakes and ensure your site is indexed and boost rankings.



Bounce Rate Explained

Written on January 5, 2010

What is the Bounce Rate?

I’ve had a lot of people asking about this web metric recently. So just to clarify a few things on what it is and isn’t. The bounce rate is the amount of people who leave your site immediately on first arrival. A high bounce rate can be indicative of a number of things, but can also be influenced by a number of things.

Here’s a brief break down of a few of those:

1) Your content isn’t what they expected

So you turn up on a search for “bananas” when you are selling “apples”. Nothing much you can do about that, but don’t expect visitors to wait around. You may want to perhaps start growing a potential banana business by providing a page on your site about where they can find them.

2) Your site design isn’t professional

We make judgement calls on people’s appearances within 30 seconds of seeing someone. Unfortunately the same is true online. If we are in “buyer mode” then it is all the more important to make first impressions count. A poorly thought out navigation system, or an ugly site banner, could be enough to put people off.

3) Where you’ve been linked from

If you have been linked to from a highly trusted resource, the chances are your visitors will stay longer than if you get a link from say comments in a blog.

Think of it this way.

If you are stumbling on the web, and are in what I call the “bored browser” mindset, you will be fickle. If you have ever used StumbleUpon – you’ll know what I mean by this. If however you are in the “ready to learn” mindset you examine web pages more carefully, you read around the subject you are researching.

4) The speed of your site

If you are running on a slow server, people aren’t going to stick around. Better to invest in a lightning quick hosting package than to have visitors leave because they are waiting for pages to load.

5) Audience profile

Lets say for the sake of argument you are a retailer selling shoes. If your traffic is coming from young and hip social networks such as Bebo or Myspace or Facebook – you need to analyse how many of these people are bouncing. Adding additional tracking metrics can help you determine if your online stock is appealing to younger audiences, and can actually help shape your buying decisions. Remember that age can influence how fickle an audience potentially is.

Template Website: The Pros and Cons

Written on October 22, 2009

While NECSES Webdesign does not build template websites we do want to give consumers all the facts about template sites so they can make an educated decision about what type of website best suits them. Below is a list of the pros and cons of template websites.

Pros of Template Websites

Template websites are a less expensive method of making websites. Template websites are a lot easier and take less time to create than custom websites which is what the site cost should reflect. While template websites should be cheaper than custom websites, that is not always the case. Many website design companies say they build custom websites but in reality they build template websites and charge clients for a custom website.

So how can you avoid paying too much for a template website? Get a quote from a custom website design company and compare it to the price of a template website company. Since template websites require a lot less work than custom websites, the price of a template website should be significantly lower than that of a custom website. If the custom website is close or lower in price than a template website than just go for the custom website.

Template websites are usually simple designs that take less time to build than custom websites. Template websites are less complex and have less functionality than custom websites thus taking less time to build and get running. Companies that are looking to get an online presence up immediately may decide to go with a template website.

It seems as though there are many more website design companies that offer template websites than custom websites. That being said, it could be easier for a business to find a template website company than a custom website company. More availability could make it that much quicker to find a website design company to build a template website than a custom website.

Cons of Template Websites

While template websites usually offer simple and clean designs, they can be very limiting. With a template you get what you see. Template websites are very limited in the changes that can be made to the design and functionalities that can be added. For many companies paying less money for a website is not worth the limitations offered by template websites. Companies should not build websites around a template but websites should be built around a company. Custom websites properly reflect who a company is and what they do, while template websites most of the time do not properly reflect this.

The simplicity of template websites does not let companies stand apart from others. Custom websites stand out from template sites because many template websites look similar and don’t offer much distinction. While template websites are very similar and plain, you can design custom websites any way you want allowing businesses to have a more professional unique appearance.

Most template websites are not search engine optimized. If a website is not search engine optimized it is likely to not be found in search results. What good is a website if it cannot be found? One of the reasons NECSES Webdesign builds custom websites is so that they are search engine optimized. If you want a website to show up higher in search engines then a template website is not the way to go.

Many smaller companies may be fine with having a limited amount of website functionality but larger companies especially require more functionality than template websites offer. Template websites are premade so they are not built to suit any particular company. Larger companies should choose a custom website design company to work with rather than a template company so that the website will be built around all of their needs.

Template websites are quick and easy to build because they work from a pre-made design and structure. Premade designs work for some companies, but they limit what can be done to the site. As a business grows their website should grow with them. Template websites cannot be built scalable so as a business grows and changes their website will not work for them.

With all of the cons associated with template websites, why would any company use a template site? Template websites may save companies money initially, but will cost more money and cause problems in the long run. Custom websites are the perfect solution for nearly every business. Contact NECSES Webdesign to discuss how a custom search engine optimized website can help your business.

3 steps to sales satisfaction

Written on August 26, 2009

Sales Completion: How to get it

One of the main problems in Internet marketing is that it is often a “winner takes it all” game. That means that the best website will get the deal and all other websites will get nothing, no matter how good they are.

Suppose someone wants to book driving lessons in Bury St Edmunds. They may search Google for driving instructors in Suffolk, take a look at the top 10 results and then decide to book  their driving lessons with one of the sites. That means that one site gets the sale and the other 9 sites get nothing.

Your sales can dramatically increase if your website is just slightly better

The above has an important implication: you just have to be slightly better than your competitors to get many more sales. If you make the change from being one of the discarded sites to the site that is chosen by the searcher then your sales will increase dramatically. You’ll make the change from getting nothing to getting everything.

How to be better than your competitors?

1. Choose the right keywords

Being better than your competitors starts with choosing the right keywords. If you target keywords that aren’t used by the people who want to buy then you might get a lot of visitors but no sales. Your web pages should be optimized for keywords that attract people who are looking for the products and services that you sell on your website and who are ready to buy.

2. You must be in the top 10 results

While it is important to target the right keywords, your website must also be found on the first result page of Google, Yahoo and Bing to attract customers.
Most people only take a look at the top 10 results on the first result page. If your website cannot be found on the first result page for your keywords then potential customers won’t find your website.

3. Your website must be convincing

It’s not enough to be listed on the first search engine result page. Your website must also be convincing. It should give the customer what he is looking for, it should have a professional design and it should make it as easy as possible to buy your product or book your services. That is why it is so important to work on improving the conversion rate of your web pages. By improving your conversion rate, you can generate more money “out of thin air” from your existing rankings.

A trustworthy and professional website with a good conversion rate also has positive side-effects. Your customers probably will stay longer with your company and people are more likely to link to your website.

The winner takes it all

It takes some time to optimize your web pages, but it is worth the effort. Even small changes can have a huge impact on the number of sales that you get. Make the change from being one of the discarded sites to the site that gets the sale and your sales should improve.

Remember that your competitors are also working on their websites. Even if you are better than your competitors you have to continue with the optimization to stay ahead.

NECSES Webdesign’s content management system inclusive websites give businesses the flexibility to manage their search engine opptimisation themselves, allowing them to constantly monitor the effectiveness of their site’s optimisation and adjust accordingly. For further information on how our websites can be of benefit to your business please click here

Breadcrumbs Spotted in Random Search Results

Written on August 24, 2009

Google appears to be testing breadcrumbs in some search results, at least in some areas. If you are unfamiliar with the term breadcrumbs, it refers to the hierarchical display commonly used in site navigation. For example: Home Page>Product Page>Product A Page.

This is a  feature that has been introduced by NECSES Webdesign for all of it’s web designs to aid navigation by users. Another example shows the breadcrumbs displayed in a different position within the search result:

Google’s use of breadcrumbs appears to only be a test, and a limited one at that. Google has talked repeatedly about sites having good site architecture in the past. This allows Google to more easily and quickly crawl sites.

Bing acknowledges this too. Rick DeJarnette of Bing Webmaster Center recently said, “You can have great content and a plethora of high quality inbound links from authority sites, but if your site’s structure is flawed or broken, then it will still not achieve the optimal page rank you desire from search engines.”

If Google does begin incorporating the breadcrumbs display, on a mainstream level, that will be all the more reason to clean your site architecture up, at least in the navigation area. Site architecture certainly goes beyond this, but it is a key part of usability anyway and one that we at NECSES Webdesign always take in to consideration when designing our clients web sites.

Blogging. Good for customers – good for business

Written on August 24, 2009

If you blog, you know that it’s good for your business.

But how — and how much?

To answer these questions, I looked at data from 1,531 HubSpot customers (mostly small- and medium-sized businesses). 795 of the businesses in my sample blogged, 736 didn’t.
The data was crystal clear: Companies that blog have far better marketing results. Specifically, the average company that blogs has:

• 55% more visitors
• 97% more inbound links
• 434% more indexed pages

Take a look for yourself in the graphs below:

Why are website visitors important? Because more visitors mean more people to convert to leads and sales.

Why are inbound links important? Because they signal authority to search engines, thus increasing your chances of getting found in those search engines.

Creating ‘Sticky’ websites

Written on July 6, 2009

Tactics to draw people back to your website

One of the biggest measurements of a website’s success is the stickiness of its visitor base. Generally web masters would rather have 1,000 visitors who return regularly (they are “stuck to the site”) as opposed to 3,000 visitors who only visit once or twice. These days the web is massive, carving out a niche for your site and gaining a following within that niche is the key to success.

There are many reasons why you should try to make your website as sticky as possible. Visitors who return regularly are more likely to purchase some of your products or services. If you have a membership site, then retaining your member base is critical for growing your income and long term success. Also, a faithful following will encourage viral promotion of your site.

There are “three C’s” of stickiness to remember, and they are:

Content

Regardless of the site’s design, without good content, the visitor will not come back or stay at the site for more than a few minutes. “Content is King” is a cliché, but true. High quality content is far and away the most important factor in attracting people back to a Web site consistently, and keeping them there for more than a few minutes when they do visit. It is said, in fact, that content is what drives 75 percent of consumers to return to their favourite sites.

In addition to your site being content rich, try to also keep it fresh. At least part of your site will be regularly updated, preferably at least once a month. This is why web sites which resemble online brochures generally fail in the stickiness stakes. Delivering the same content in a blog, posted in instalments, can be much more effective. This will encourage users to come back regularly, as they check in to see what new content you’ve added lately. This is stickiness in a nutshell.

Community

When a site attracts enough visitors with similar interests it has the potential to develop into a “community.” That can be very powerful for the site owner. Providing message forums, chat rooms, podcasts, user profiles, blogs, etc. are all tools to allow your visitors to interact with both you and each other. This also makes your site VERY sticky if you are able to develop a thriving community.

Rather than visiting your site once a month people may begin to visit it multiple times a week. Having a thriving community can be viewed as developing a site which is constantly developing its own content. Rather than requiring you to spend hours developing content, you can instead monitor the postings on your site to ensure they retain the kind of atmosphere you want for your site. As time goes by you may also be able to appoint some of your more responsible members to monitoring positions to do this job for you as well.

Communication

Communication is equally important as content and community. Communication includes building and maintaining your list, reaching out to people on it and interacting with visitors to your site. Try to respond to any question, comments, or feedback you receive promptly. This builds relationships with your visitors and will keep them coming back.

One of the best ways to reach out to customers is to provide quality, free information. For example, if you run a site teaching presentation skills tips and tricks, after your visitors have seen your “foot in the door” content located on your “splash page,” provide them with a discount on the first lesson of your course in exchange for their name and email address. You benefit from this by having names to attach to the IP addresses of your visitors. This provides you with more information about who is being drawn into your site. It is also important you use a quality auto-responder for this step, as communication is a critical part of your site and must be handled professionally.

One last note on communication: Be sure to provide your name and contact information clearly throughout your site. It will frustrate and turn away visitors if they have a question or comment and cannot figure out how to reach you.

How can NECSES Webdesign help?

NECSES Webdesign provides solutions for our clients’ online needs. We help generate ‘sticky’ websites through the inclusion of Content Management Systems (CMS) with ALL our websites.

This allows businesses to keep their website fresh and up to date whenever they like and can include a host of features, including; Blogs, Photo Galleries, Testimonials, online Polls, Chat functions, etc, that allow businesses to develop close relationships with their customers, and potential customers. Our content rich, search engine friendly and flexible websites provide you with everything you need to build your business on-line and ensure you get full return on your investment.

Microsoft launch new search engine – BING

Written on June 9, 2009

Microsoft’s Bing search engine has just become publicly available, allowing you to decide whether Microsoft’s latest effort has the goods to take on Google. Bing is available at www.bing.com and replaces Live Search.Microsoft is expected to spend $80 million to $100 million on Bing marketing which would be a nice hedge against Yahoo! because Bing will most likely take market share from Yahoo!.

Whether Bing ultimately succeeds or not, it will push Google to keep innovating search, and the new pay per click competition will ensure that Google doesn’t get too greedy.
How is Bing different from Google?

Bing is not dramatically different from Google, but some people have found its results stronger. There are some visible changes:

• Bing shows a preview of the web pages in the search results when you hover your mouse pointer at the right side of the search results.
• Bing displays fewer results if it is certain that it has understood your intent. The search for “Facebook”, for example, brings up just one result linking to the site itself.
• Some search results are divided into categories. For example, if you search for the popular musician “Justin Timberlake”, you’ll get results in the categories news, songs, movies, biography, wallpaper and downloads. In addition, the search results show images, videos and the popularity of the musician.
• Wikipedia searches can be displayed inline in the search results without leaving the Bing site by clicking the “Enhanced view” link.
• Bing features a different background image every day. The image contains special hidden hotspots that lead you to more information (soon advertising?) about the image.
• Despite the background image, Bing’s homepage loads very quickly in your web browser because the search box and logo load first. You can turn off the background image.
• Bing’s video search lets you watch videos without leaving the search engine.
• Bing offers specific health, shopping and travel search engines, as well as instant answers to travel searches. For instance, the search “Vegas hotels” displays a selection of hotels in Las Vegas, including hotel stars and prices.
• Bing’s search history lets you return to your most recent searches of the last two days. This feature can be turned off to protect your privacy.

However, some Google features are missing. For example, Bing doesn’t seem to recognize mis-spellings and returns no results in these cases. First impressions are that Bing has a long way to go before knocking Google of it’s pedestal. That will not stop NECSES Webdesign from ensuring our clients web sites are submitted to the new ‘decision engine’ (as Microsoft like to label it) ensuring full SEO for their buusiness.