SEO Blog

Meta descriptions are one of those things that can be easily glossed over. They don’t have any bearing on the appearance of your page and their influence on your overall ranking could be called into question. But the fact is it does have an effect and it will help you draw in visitors.

You see, rather than simply adding to your keywords, a Meta description will also appear for that particular page within the search engine results pages.

Whenever you search for something on a search engine you’ll get a list of results. These are usually made up of a title and a short two line description. It is the short description that appears directly beneath the title that we are talking about. This is that page’s Meta description.
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We all know that you can’t buy your way to the top of a search engine, or at least that is the perceived wisdom at any rate. You have to be prepared to work for your place and really earn the right to gain a ranking. There really is no such thing as a free lunch, even in SEO.

So you’re setting a website. What domain are you going to get? Google will rank a website higher if the keyword that they’re targeting is in the domain. That said, most of the major ones have now been purchased, plus you need to find something that really fits your brand - most likely the name of your company.

If you’re a UK company, get a .co.uk domain. Whilst you might lose out on some global traffic, you will at least have the opportunity to highlight where you are to the search engines. These domains are cheaper and you don’t need to go out and buy dozens either. Just get one and develop that.
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Sometimes, even as professionals in the field, we all have to step back and remind ourselves that it is called Search Engine Optimisation, not simply Google Optimisation. What works for Google might not work as well for Bing or Yahoo, which is why it is so important to become too focussed on just the one.

Okay, we are all well aware of the fact that 90% of all the searches performed in the UK are done so using a Google site. Therefore, it makes a good degree of sense to go after this vastly superior market. In fact it would be somewhat churlish and a little foolhardy to instead focus on one of the competitors.

Fortunately, by and large the optimisation processes are very similar across the board. If you do things right and you do them well, you ought to be rewarded by the full quota of search engines. To be sure though you might want to install the Webmaster Tools from each and see how the search engines perceive your site.

Often it will be the smallest issues that can cause you to lose rankings. So by implementing just a few small changes - changing a few broken links, implementing permanent redirects or adding some copy - you can be boosting your Bing ranking in no time.

As I’ve said before, you can’t ignore the 10% of other potential search traffic providers; however, with the complexity of modern algorithms and the tendency for them all to focus on the quality of links and content, this is a good place to start if you are broadening your horizons. You certainly don’t want to be doing anything to appease a lesser search engine, say Yahoo, which will undermine your Google presence - unless of course you are convinced that this will be the best source targeted traffic.

Open up your horizons by making sure you are getting plenty of decent links and all of your pages are full of excellent, unique content. Keep an eye on how the other search engines view your site and make sure that nothing could be ruining your rankings elsewhere. But always remember that Google is just one of many search engines; granted, it is by far the biggest, but that doesn’t give anybody license to simply forget the others.

Before the days of analytics and accurate methods of measuring success, the only way you would know how popular a site was would be through its hit counter. The more hits you had, the more successful your site was deemed.

Of course there’s nothing wrong with a few stray clicks onto your site, it might bump up your bounce rate but it shouldn’t do any lasting damage. The only trouble is, it is also highly unlikely to produce any meaningful long-term benefits either. Aimless traffic is nothing, particularly without conversions.

The definition of a conversion will invariably alter from site to site. Ecommerce is all about getting people to buy your products, charities might be looking for donations and businesses might just want visitors to fill in a contact form; but however your conversions are measured, these are the measure of your site’s relative successes.
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There’s a common misconception that everything in SEO has to be performed within the confines of your own website. In fact, a great deal can be done in the outer peripheries of your site’s sphere to help boost your search engine optimisation efforts.

Link building is done almost exclusively away from your site. Whilst of course it is preferable to attract links organically through providing interesting content, through the pages of your site or blog posts (often referred to as link building), there’s plenty more that you can be done elsewhere.
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When it comes to outsourcing anything, you need to be sure that you’re putting your business in good hands. SEO is something that is quite new to a lot of people; whilst they understand the importance of having a website, many aren’t all that aware of how exactly to market it. As such, there is often a similar level of confusion over just what is required and who to hire.

SEO is one of the most effective ways of marketing a website online. With search engines providing such a wealth of targeted traffic for sites, it’s a logical place for most to begin. Plus, with the way search engine algorithms have evolved to involve a far greater emphasis on quality, SEO is almost like a best practice strategy for development of a site. By getting it right first time, you can really see some benefits.
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A website isn’t a single entity. The moment you start believing that it is, is the moment that you lose sight of how to optimise and improve it.

A website is in fact a wider collective of smaller sites converging under one banner. In order to effectively optimise you need to treat each individual page as a unique entity. Continuity will be maintained through the design and navigation, but ultimately a website will only ever be as good as its weakest page.

Imagine, if you will, visiting a site with a stunning homepage. It has informative content, an exciting design and plenty to entice you in further. However, beyond the homepage the content becomes generic, the navigation is complicated and it is blighted by irregularities.

If you have come through the homepage you might be tempted to give the rest of the site a chance for redemption; however, what if you were to first land on a poorly designed page with little or no structure, would you give it the time of day?
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Sometimes you can become so involved with the creation of your website and developing the SEO that you lose sight of what you are really targeting: the searchers. Whenever you optimise a website you aren’t just optimising aimlessly for the search engines, you are actually targeting the phrases that people are actually looking for.

All keywords and phrases need to be researched; simply assuming that they will be exactly what expect them to be could be leading you vastly astray. Of course nobody knows your business and services better than you do, but that doesn’t mean to say that the searching community is tuned in to the language that you use.
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Your keywords play a pivotal role in the successes and failures of any website. If you choose the wrong terms, you could find yourself hopelessly off the radar in terms of search engine rankings, whilst the right ones could be delivering a steady stream of targeted traffic right throughout your site.

The earlier you are able to define your core keywords, the sooner you will be able to begin your optimisation process. Nothing is more frustrating than writing a whole page of copy, plus Meta targeting one set of keywords and then having to rewrite the lot with another. Over time, changes may occur as your SEO campaign develops, but you don’t want to have to change this too early in the game.
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There are so many complex elements associated with SEO that it almost appears like topping Google is the ultimate in impossible dreams. The truth is though, much of it is actually very natural. For example your content, it makes sense to have a decent amount of descriptive copy that is well written and includes targeted terms - it is in fact obvious to the point of just being a given.

Unfortunately though, many websites are still getting tangled up in the complexities of perfecting their background coding and forgetting all about the issues staring them right in the face.
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