Love your website

It is Valentine’s day, the day you are supposed to tell people how much you love and care for them.

Those that want to increase traffic to their website, must love their site. I do not mean this in some weird way. You must simply spend time on your site, making sure that you add fresh content, optimising the title tags and the images.

Valentine's Day cupcakes

I am guilty of not spending enough time on my website. I would like to update it daily, but I simply do not have time with a full time job that eats into my evenings. And then if I am out networking, I cannot update the blog that day. There are many people in this situation, working long hours and busy social/networking lives.

You can come up with all the excuses for not working on your site, but you just have to make time. Here are a few tips on how to get the most time to work on your website.

1. Spend just 30 minutes a day during the working week researching ideas, writing posts for your site. If you do not have time to publish the post, just save it as a draft and come back to it the next day.

2. Check the analytics
It is really important to see where your traffic is coming from. See what keywords people have used to find your site, this can give you ideas for new posts on your blog or new pages on your website.

3. Images
A picture paints a thousand words. Add images and optimse them with relevant alt tags on your website. Pictures catch the eye of people looking at your site and will encourage them to stay and read on.

4. Write interesting articles
Do not just write for the sake of it. Make sure you have something of value to add. I write about my experiences with seo and some of my posts are therefore written from a subjective perspective, such as the post about 301 and 302 redirects.

5. Spell check and edit
If you do not have time to add to the site, make sure you are regularly going back to read your older pages/posts. Make sure you do not have any spelling mistakes. Many sites have spelling mistakes on their site, often because they rush the editing.

6. Fun
Remember, having a website should be fun. It should not be a chore to update and change the website. If this is the case, then you should get rid of it.

The photo is gabby’s cupcakes from flickr.

What is on page optimisation?

On page optimisation is one of the first steps in seo and looks at all the elements on the web page that can be used to improve a website’s rankings in the Search engine result pages (SERPs).

On page optimisation looks at the following elements of a page
Title tag
Meta description tag
Meta keywords
alt tags
H1, H2, H3 tags
Internal links
URL structure
Keywords within the content of the page

Before any of this, you have to choose the keywords or keyword phrases for the website. These keywords will be in the URL, the title, meta tags, H1,2,3 tags and alt tags as well as in the body text. You need to be aware of keyword stuffing which is the over use of key terms. To avoid this, you should aim to have a keyword density of 2 – 4% ( or 2 to 4 times per 100 words). This is the number of times the keyterm appears on a webpage (in the code and on the page).

1. Title tag
This is one of the most important elements of on page optimisation and should contain the keywords for that webpage. The keywords should be at the front part of the title tag with branding at the end.
For example on this page the title is:
On page optimisation | seo tips | seojoblogs
The key term I am optimising for is “on page optimisation”

2. Meta description
This is the information that appears in SERPs. It needs to be compelling to encourage those people to click on and visit your site.

3. Meta keywords
These are not as important due to the fact that black hat seo gurus took part in “keyword stuffing” and are not seen as important by Google.

4. Alt tags
Images need to be optimised so that they can be ready by search engines. Spiders only read text. The alt tag should contain text that describes the image and should be short but concise. eg “Nokia 6700 mobile phone.jpg” instead of “DSC344550.jpg”
The image title appears as a tool tip when a user moves the mouse over the image.

5. H1, H2, H3 tags

The H1 tag is the most important of all the H tags on the page. It should contain the keywords for the webpage as it is the headline for that page.
The H2 and H3 tags are the subsections and less important. The Htags are not as important in SEO as once thought according to seomoz but it is still good practice to implment.

6. Internal links
Linking between the different pages of the website with footer links on all pages will improve the visibility of the website for the search engine spiders and the visitors.

7. URL structure
It is important to keep the URL short and optimised with keywords.

Once you have optimised your webpage, you will then need to begin off page optimisation – which includes getting links to your site, optimising press releases and submitting your site to directories. It takes time, but I would strongly suggest looking at the on page optimistion elements first.

SEO explained

I have been trying to explain to non seo gurus why people should engage in seo and felt I needed to clear up the “myths and fasle information” that people have been told. Then I saw last Friday, that Patricia Robies wrote on econsultancy blog about “The six inconvenient truths about SEO” and what an interesting read it was. Here are the six points she mentioned with my comments added.

1. Time – SEO takes time.
It can take anywhere from 3 to 6 months for the results of your seo efforts to take fruit. You should be patient, do not give up.

2. SEO is not fair.
Patricia mentioned that paid links may work and your competitors might be winning by using them in disregard of Google’s ‘rules’. Don’t worry about this though, just focus on your site and use white hat seo techniques.

3. Top SERPs aren’t always possible.
I agree with Patricia on this point. Even though you perserve and put in a lot of time optimisng your site, you may not be able to get the top SERPs for particular keywords. There may be a lot of competition, too much in your field and for your budget.

4.SEO is not all about process.
Some people are natural born seo gurus and some are not. Those that have the talent are able to get to the top of the SERPs. I agree with Patricia in some ways, however, I do feel if someone is passionate about seo and trains and works on a vast number of websites, their experience will help them become the seo expert delivering sought after results.

5. SEO isn’t a standalone marketing strategy.
I strongly agree with Patricia. I have mentioned before than seo is BAU . SEO should be part of the company’s marketing strategy. It should be implemented with paid search, display, email and offline marketing.

6. The last mile counts more than the first 99.
Once you have reached top SERPs, don’t sit back and wait. Now that you are ranking within the top ten of google, you have to convert those users.

To find out more about the six inconvenient truths about seo please visit the econsultancy website.

SEO is Business As Usual (BAU)

SEO is Business as Usual

SEO in the search world is an acronym for Search Engine Optimisation. But I also like to think of it as the Simple Easy Option. People over complicate things a lot and website optimisation is no exception.

A friend of my sister’s who owns a dress agency in the high street asked me for help with her website. She did not understand why her site wasn’t coming up and how she could increase traffic to her site.

The trick is to keep it simple, one step at a time. As the owner did not have the files for her site, we could not amend the content or the code. So the only realistic and effective option was to build links to her site. Create a buzz about it .. too easy. Her shop is different to the other clothes shops in the high street. It is a dress agency where women sell their designer clothes which she then sells in her shop to other women looking for a good deal.

After we checked if the site was indexed (which is wasn’t) and checked for the number of links to her site (which was 0), we worked on the keywords. We decided to optimize for only three as it has just three pages, simple. We looked at her competitors as well. She is lucky as there aren’t many, and the competitors didn’t have well optimized sites but they did have links. Easily done.

So let the link building commence….Did we do directory submissions I hear you ask? No no, we did not, well only to one business directory. What we concentrated on, was good old fashioned press releases. In a press release we can build links back to the site, have our key terms and even include an image which will appear in the search results. In addition, the owner had contacts with the local councils, both in her residential area and where the business was located. So one press release, sent to two councils published on two websites and in two newspapers. Easy…

Financial cost = nothing Resources = time.

So you don’t need to have a lot of money or be some tech guru to get involved with seo. You just need some patience and think of SEO as the acronym for the Simple Easy Option.

Online Marketing Show

If you work in digital and online marketing or this is an area you would like to get into, I recommend you visit the “free” trade shows in London.
Yesterday and today, the Online Marketing Show is on at Kensingston Oympia. It is free to enter if you register online www.onlinemarketingshow.co.uk
With over 50 exhibitors, free workshop arenas and pay per click advice centre, this is one show not to be missed.

I recommend going to the free workshops. There was a very interesting workshop on Twitter yesterday by Immediate Future. They discussed the hype of Twitter and how everyone is getting onthe bandwagon but not always to great effect. Some companies are not thinking about their Twitter strategy and so are appearing confused and sending mixed signals.

The show is a great place to meet people in the digital marketing market. There were a number of different media agencies, market research companies, print and promotional organisations. So if you are looking for a new agency to work with, you can meet people in person instead of trawling through the internet.

What is an expert in seo?

So you want to get into SEO but you are told you cannot because you are not an expert.

What do you do?

Well, all experts have to start somewhere. The first thing you need is passion and enthusiasm.
I tell you, this gets you a long way. This will drive you to pick up those books and more importantly read them and the other blog posts on the internet about seo.

Then I suggest you practice those skills. Take a website of a close friend or family, a small one, of five to ten pages. Go through that site and conduct a “site analysis”

This is where you will look at:
1. The title tags
2. The meta keywords
3. The meta description
4. The alt tags
5. The internal links
6. The outbound links
7. Anchor text
8. dynamic pages

Then I suggest if you have access to the site, to try out your new found skills.
First thing is to do keyword research – find out what the competitors are doing. If there is a lot of competition for a word, try and be creative. Include commonly mis spelled names eg champagne can be mis spelt champane. Combine words together like Louis champane or roederer champane.

Upload these keywords into the content management system and try finding your site with these words. Remember to change the terms often as it can be a very competitive market.

Remember to also install google analytics so you can track the number of visitors to your site and see how it increases dependent on your work.

Continue to work on a wide range of websites. I guarantee in a few months, your confidence would have grown and within a year’s time you will have an impressive portfolio. And by managing different websites you will have also gained experience in the account management field. Keep on top of the news in seo and you will be the “expert” you have always wanted to be.

What are the most important elements in SEO?

You want to increase traffic to your site but are not sure where to start.

Here are a few tips:

Content
As I mentioned before, content is king. But it is even more important that you have relevant content on your website. Do not have duplicate content. It needs to be updated regularly, so it is a good idea to have a content management system in place. You need to be able to go back to site and amend the anchor text, insert new links, make sure the current links are still active. Put the keywords in the title tag and also the domain name. For example I want to increase traffic to this site and therefore one of the steps I have made is to have the domain name seojoblogs.

Links
Use trusted sites to link too. If you link to a spam site or a link farm, you will not begin to rank higher. You will need to start is by using less competitive words and writing content with those words in mind. For example you may want to put a h1, h2 tag using the exact match of key phrase. Build links to the page and see if you hit that page with the keywords.

Inbound links are also important. People think it is important just to have inbound links to the home page, but you need links to the tier two and tier three pages. At least 50% of links should go to the other pages on your site.

Never give up
SEO is an ongoing job. If you want to achieve high ranks, you will need to see what your competitors are doing, research keywords. You also need to make sure there are calls to action on each page. For example, allow users to sign up for RSS feeds, incentivise them to make a purchase. You want these customers to come back.

The benefit about SEO is that you are able see measurable increases in web traffic. The more you optimise the better chance you have of gaining market share in your area. You may need to add new links to your site, add new pages or even new sub headings within the page. What you mustn’t do is leave your site. A static website is sure to fall down the rankings in all search engines.

Start seo today

What is seo?

Seo has to be one of the most talked about subjects on the internet.

Seo stands for “search engine optimisation” and is the process of how to increase traffic to your website from search engines. Some of the most well known search engines are google, yahoo, alta vista and msn. Seo is a fundamental part in website development and maintenance and everyone who is managing a website whether at home or at work should be clued up on seo.

Don’t worry if you are new to this, if you keep reading seojoblogs, you will be an seo pro in no time.

Building a brand new site

If you are building your site from scratch you will want to  liaise with your graphics, marketing and development team to plan the site. If you are lucky enough to have these people on hand to help you.  Most of the time you will have to do this by yourself.  Don’t panic, here are a few simple steps to get you on your way.

1. Content is king

That has been said over and over again but I cannot stress the importance of dynamic and rich content which include targeted keywords.  You should have relevant text on your website which you update regularly.  This means when someone types in for example “Seo blogs” they will come to this site.

2. Meta information

The meta tags are the keyword and description tags.  The description tag is seen in the search engine results page and is therefore often seen as more important than keyword tag. However, both are important and contribute to search engine ranking. The meta information is in the code behind the web page and look like:

<meta name=”keywords” content=”keyword1, keyword2, keyword3″>

3. Title Tags
The title tags of each page are the most important element for SEO.  It describes a specific web page. Creating relevant title tag is a very important factor in achieving high position in search engine. Title tag should contain no more than eighty characters. The title tag is a representation of the core keywords.

4. Image Tags
Images on the website should all have ALT tags. Alt tags help visually impaired people browse the site.  They are also a place where keywords should be inserted to improve rankings in SERPS.

5. Header Tags
H1, H2, H3 etc. tags are not strictly essential but they do contribute to ranking.
H1 Tag are the main heading describing the content of the page.
H2 Tags are the subheadings on each page.
H3 tags are the smaller headings.

6. Sitemap
A sitemap page is essential to help Google find all the pages and also gives you a place to link to any new ‘SEO pages’. A sitemap is an interactive table of contents that visitors can view. The site map breaks down the website’s information into different categories and can include every page of the website. Normally it is found on the footer of a website.  Some, have all the links displayed below the fold of their website and it occurs on every page.  This is a great way to provide in bound links to your site – which I will talk about next time.

That’s it for now.  That wasn’t so bad as the introduction to SEO was it?