SEO Blog

The terms SEO and website quality may have once been at polar opposites, but today there are a number of ways that you can improve your website and your ranking.

Everybody knows about the bygone era of SEO. Where keyword stuffing was commonplace and the visitor was far from being the top priority. But it has evolved since then. It has had to evolve in truth, primarily to match the added complexities that search engine algorithms have incorporated. No longer does ugly spamming promise an ascent to the summit of Google’s SERPs; instead, today, it is all about quality.

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The issue of page load time probably seems about as detached as you could probably get from traditional SEO, or at least it will if you have missed the recent news emanating from Google HQ. Yes, site speed is about to become a ranking factor.

As with any ranking factor, site speed will now come under the broader search engine optimisation umbrella. Now that a slow page load could be detrimental to other SEO efforts, it is essential that any issues are identified and corrected to ensure you don’t suffer a drop in rankings.
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When you do SEO work you need some form of feedback to gauge the effectiveness of the changes you have implemented. Where can you find this data though? Visitors? Page clicks? Probably not; no, the best way to see how your site is performing is by using an analytics package.

In short, analytics will provide you with all of your site’s statistical data. Clicks, keywords used, length of time on the site, bounce rate, where they went next even, all of this information will be at your fingertips thanks to one program.
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There are often criticisms of SEO, with many labelling it a dead or dying practise. The truth though is very different.

SEO isn’t so much an industry these days, but is more of a code of best practises. It provides websites of all sizes the tools and knowledge with which to get rankings on Google. The criticism of SEO is that it is a redundant industry looking to exploit ignorance, in truth it is just a method of unravelling the ignorance and ensuring everybody has the chance to compete online.
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Duplicate pages and, in particular, duplicate content is a major sticking point when it comes to effective SEO.  Whether you have a number of URLs for the same page, or have decided to reuse a bit of copy from elsewhere, you are running the risk of facing a penalty from Google.

You might not have been aware that an offence had occurred, or even that you weren’t strictly supposed to duplicate your content; however, in the world of SEO, ignorance isn’t necessarily bliss. It is unlikely that you will receive a severe punishment from the search engines, unless the offence is flagrant and in breach of their codes, but it could undermine your other site strengthening efforts.
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As always the world of search has moved forward in huge leaps over the past 12 months. We have welcomed new sites – such as Bing – and have prepared to say goodbye to a few famous old names, not least Yahoo.

So what have the changes in 2009 meant for SEO in 2010? Well, the emphasis that has been emerging over the last year has very much been on the quality of websites. Google, along with Microsoft and Yahoo, have been cracking down on those disguising bad sites with good SEO; which has resulted in huge changes in rankings.
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I’ve spoken at length about the virtues of link building throughout this blog. In terms of SEO few things are more important than a decent linking structure, both internally and externally.

It isn’t just the number of links you attract, nor is it all about the quality of those links, sometimes the page that they lead to is ultimately integral.

Don’t get me wrong, the abandonment of highly relevant links from websites with a high PageRank are hugely important; however, do all your links really need to go the Home page? It’s a trap that has lured in many websites in the past, but a lack of diversification when it comes to the destination of inbound links can be damaging.
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There’s a myth going around that the Internet is a pathway to untold treasures. If anything was learnt from the last online crash a decade ago, then surely it has to be that you can’t simply get money for old rope these days. Success is possible, but it takes time, innovation and high standards to achieve it.

The Internet as it stands is overburdened with websites. Everybody thinks that they’re offering something new and original, but more often than not, it’s got more than a passing similarity to another. This could be in terms of the products they offer, or their overall business, it may just be site content; whatever it is, having a wholly unique website is not easy to achieve.
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As I’ve said many times before, there is no hidden trick to SEO. What most people lack when they come to procure SEO services is either the time to do the work themselves or the ability to pinpoint why exactly it isn’t succeeding.

An SEO professional will of course be able to provide a more focussed analysis of a website. They’ll use their knowledge, review the current content, linking structure and performance, before making a number of suggestions where improvements can be made. But there’s no reason you can’t do all the ground work yourself.
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If you’ve been following the latest online news with even a casual interest, you will no doubt have read a good deal about the various changes going on with the three major search engines: Google, Yahoo and Bing.

Google are currently in the process of rolling of their real-time element within the search engine results. Bing too have adopted these Twitter updates and will soon be getting Facebook messages to display too. So what does this mean for SEO? Well, not a lot really. Yes, it is a significant change and the SERPs pages will look different; but ultimately it won’t affect your ability to optimise for certain key phrases and achieve a high level ranking.
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