Link popularity is the total number of Websites that link to your site. Good link popularity can dramatically increase your Website traffic. Well-placed links are an excellent source of consistent and targeted traffic. And due to recent developments, they can even generate additional search engine traffic to your site.
Most of the major search engines now factor link popularity into their relevancy algorithms. As a result, increasing the number of quality, relevant sites which link to your site can actually improve your search engine rankings. You cannot get high link popularity by submitting your Website to thousands of FFA (free for all) link pages. Improve link popularity of your website by adding links from important Websites. This have a greater effect on your link popularity and your search engine rankings.
Successful link exchange tips
1) Search engines value links to and from sites that offer quality information on pages that are not overloaded with advertisements and pop-ups. If you link to a high-traffic volume site that is poor on relevant content, it is unlikely you will see an improvement in your search engine ranking.
2) Link to sites that compliment the topic or category of your site, thereby offering the web visitor more information on a relevant topic. This is sure to boost your search engine ranking and pull in more qualified visitors to your site from those that link to you.
3) The more quality links to relevant sites that you have, then the better your search engine ranking and traffic volume will be.
4) A consistent ongoing campaign of link exchanging is vital to your success. Not only should you look to build link volume, but you should also look to constantly review the links you have in place to keep them fresh and up to date.
5) Use keyword phrases in the link text. Links to your site with 'click here', 'please visit our sponsor', 'check this out' or similar phrases can lower your ranking.
6) Do not get links from link exchange sites and link farms. Link farms are networks of heavily cross-linked pages on one or more sites, with the sole intention of improving the link popularity of those pages and sites. All of the major search engines consider such links as Spam, so stay clear of these types of links.
7) Before approving a link exchange partner, consider where your link will be posted on their site. If it's posted on some obscure page that no human could possibly ever find, then you may want to reconsider accepting his or her link.
8) You should not go overboard in the quest of getting more and more links. Quality should not be sacrificed at the cost of quantity.
Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Top 10 Web Design Tips
1. Have a strong, clear brand message
Your web site should project the image you want the world to see and the great news is that through web design you can control that image entirely. In terms of physical design this means positioning your logo or key message in the top left hand corner – the part of the screen our eyes are most naturally drawn to.
2. Provide a clear, concise navigation method
A good web designer will ensure that they use design techniques to lead the user around the screen and site. Clearly differentiated sub-sections and even a site map can ensure a concise, easy to follow navigation route, while good use of position, colour, contrast and size can all help focus the eye. Stick to one main navigation menu, remain consistent throughout the site, use sub-navigation and keep it uncluttered by avoiding drop down menus.
3. Make it intuitively easy to use
Visitors can be fickle and if a site is hard or slow to navigate they will be off. Ensure navigation buttons are obvious and easily identifiable towards the top of the page is good and have appropriate links directly from page to page so the user can quickly switch when something catches their interest. Finally, adhere to the functionalities people have come to expect. For example, if text is underlined your user will naturally expect it to be a link.
4. Keep it consistent
Users like to know where they are within a website and if the style of a page changes dramatically or somehow feels different visitors will become disengaged and can start to feel lost. Maintain consistency – and a professional image – by ensuring everything matches, from heading sizes and typefaces to design, colour and style of image.
5. Keep it simple
The whole draw of using a website is that it should be quick and easy to use. To this end simplicity is key.
Succinct, useful information should be available at the touch of a button. Today’s surfers won’t hang around so make sure the page is scannable. That means not being afraid to use (read: leave in) plenty of white space. There is a theory behind this – our eyes do not naturally work in a linear fashion. Given the chance they’ll take in more and then zoom in to an area of interest from the bigger picture.
6. Ensure it’s easy to understand
Visitors coming to your website typically won’t want to spend much time so ensure that every aspect is easy to understand; from the navigation to the copy. There are design techniques that can help make the information on a page easier to understand – think shorter sentences, larger font, sections differentiated by contrast and colour and, as previously mentioned, good use of white space. To this end, there are some common rules of thumb: never use more than three typefaces, or more than three different point sizes for a font and keep lines of text to 18 words - 50-80 characters – max!
7. Degrade gracefully
Not everyone has the latest pc and the fastest broadband so make sure your code is as simple as it can be without compromising on the elements you need. HTML code needs to degrade gracefully and not slow down or cause problems to lower spec computers. Cause an IT issue on your visitors pc and you can be sure that customer won’t be back again... or be recommending your site to anyone else!
8. Write it with your target audience in mind
When writing – or commissioning - the copy for your website, do bear in mind your target audience. Tempting as it is to use the medium to bombard the user with all the information you can, do keep it succinct in style and use laymen’s terms if appropriate – or include a glossary if technical terms are unavoidable. If you are hoping to attract visitors through search engine optimisation (SEO) you’ll need to consider the key words people will be using in their searches. Weave these into the copy as often as is appropriate to help propel your site up a search engines listings.
9. Consider usability
At the end of the day if your website isn’t usable visitors will be off – as quick as a mouse. So, when working on the web design, consider the end user’s experience of the site.
It can be a good idea to make a list of the things a user will want to use your site for and then checking that these are easy to achieve and if necessary are readily available from the homepage – e.g. Start shopping, Current offers, Book an appointment etc. Then test early and throughout the process test and test again. The only way to really check that your site is as user friendly as it can be is to test it out on people who know nothing about your business.
10. Make sure its compliant
A good website should adhere to certain guidelines. For example, all web sites designed by Alchemy Interactive – a London based web design agency – comply with the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). This ensures their sites are suitable and accessible for people with disabilities and cover aspects of web design such as screen flickering - line with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).
Your web site should project the image you want the world to see and the great news is that through web design you can control that image entirely. In terms of physical design this means positioning your logo or key message in the top left hand corner – the part of the screen our eyes are most naturally drawn to.
2. Provide a clear, concise navigation method
A good web designer will ensure that they use design techniques to lead the user around the screen and site. Clearly differentiated sub-sections and even a site map can ensure a concise, easy to follow navigation route, while good use of position, colour, contrast and size can all help focus the eye. Stick to one main navigation menu, remain consistent throughout the site, use sub-navigation and keep it uncluttered by avoiding drop down menus.
3. Make it intuitively easy to use
Visitors can be fickle and if a site is hard or slow to navigate they will be off. Ensure navigation buttons are obvious and easily identifiable towards the top of the page is good and have appropriate links directly from page to page so the user can quickly switch when something catches their interest. Finally, adhere to the functionalities people have come to expect. For example, if text is underlined your user will naturally expect it to be a link.
4. Keep it consistent
Users like to know where they are within a website and if the style of a page changes dramatically or somehow feels different visitors will become disengaged and can start to feel lost. Maintain consistency – and a professional image – by ensuring everything matches, from heading sizes and typefaces to design, colour and style of image.
5. Keep it simple
The whole draw of using a website is that it should be quick and easy to use. To this end simplicity is key.
Succinct, useful information should be available at the touch of a button. Today’s surfers won’t hang around so make sure the page is scannable. That means not being afraid to use (read: leave in) plenty of white space. There is a theory behind this – our eyes do not naturally work in a linear fashion. Given the chance they’ll take in more and then zoom in to an area of interest from the bigger picture.
6. Ensure it’s easy to understand
Visitors coming to your website typically won’t want to spend much time so ensure that every aspect is easy to understand; from the navigation to the copy. There are design techniques that can help make the information on a page easier to understand – think shorter sentences, larger font, sections differentiated by contrast and colour and, as previously mentioned, good use of white space. To this end, there are some common rules of thumb: never use more than three typefaces, or more than three different point sizes for a font and keep lines of text to 18 words - 50-80 characters – max!
7. Degrade gracefully
Not everyone has the latest pc and the fastest broadband so make sure your code is as simple as it can be without compromising on the elements you need. HTML code needs to degrade gracefully and not slow down or cause problems to lower spec computers. Cause an IT issue on your visitors pc and you can be sure that customer won’t be back again... or be recommending your site to anyone else!
8. Write it with your target audience in mind
When writing – or commissioning - the copy for your website, do bear in mind your target audience. Tempting as it is to use the medium to bombard the user with all the information you can, do keep it succinct in style and use laymen’s terms if appropriate – or include a glossary if technical terms are unavoidable. If you are hoping to attract visitors through search engine optimisation (SEO) you’ll need to consider the key words people will be using in their searches. Weave these into the copy as often as is appropriate to help propel your site up a search engines listings.
9. Consider usability
At the end of the day if your website isn’t usable visitors will be off – as quick as a mouse. So, when working on the web design, consider the end user’s experience of the site.
It can be a good idea to make a list of the things a user will want to use your site for and then checking that these are easy to achieve and if necessary are readily available from the homepage – e.g. Start shopping, Current offers, Book an appointment etc. Then test early and throughout the process test and test again. The only way to really check that your site is as user friendly as it can be is to test it out on people who know nothing about your business.
10. Make sure its compliant
A good website should adhere to certain guidelines. For example, all web sites designed by Alchemy Interactive – a London based web design agency – comply with the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). This ensures their sites are suitable and accessible for people with disabilities and cover aspects of web design such as screen flickering - line with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).
Tuesday, 24 July 2012
Top 2 SEO Tips for Content Marketing
Here are two SEO tips for content marketing:
Creating a content recycling campaign.
Creating great content on a consistent basis is no easy task. A strong content marketing campaign is going to include blogs, white papers, articles, online press release, videos, infographics and more. Even if you have an in-house writer handling the content creation, you have to remember that time is money! Get the most out of each piece of content they create, not matter what platform it was intended for and recycle your contentcorrectly! Keep in mind that content recycling is not that same as article spinning—you are not submitting the same piece of content to a dozen sites. A press release can be reworked to become a promotional blog post, which in turn can be posted to your Facebook wall or Tweeted about. If you are launching a new product, you’ll have to write a new page of content for your website about that product, which can be used as the script for a product demonstration video that you post to YouTube. A white paper can be sliced into a dozen blog posts or a webinar can turn into a year’s worth of 2 minute videos for your video marketing campaign. They key to content recycling is to keep the messaging consistent but change the style/formatting to fit each new medium.
Every time you recycle a piece of content, you have the ability to optimize it for SEO. Target your most important keywords, as well as a few long tail variations. Include the full http link and anchor text links to help with your link building. And remember to share everything on social networks! The more times a piece of content is shared the more links it creates and the more valuable it becomes in the eyes of the search engines.
Stop stressing over content creation.
Don’t over think your topics! Just about every site owner I meet says their number one problem with their content marketing campaign is that they don’t know what to write about. They think that they have nothing to say or that no one is interested in listening. There is always something to talk about! It’s just a matter of getting out of your own way and letting yourself see your industry from your consumer’s point of view. They don’t have the in-depth knowledge that you do about your industry, company and products. If you knew nothing, what kind of information would you search for? Have your sales reps/customer service reps write down every question they get asked and turn them into a site FAQ. Use blog comments as starting points for new posts. Expand on bullet points in a webinar or white paper. Most site owners are so worried that no one is going to be interested in what they have to say that they get stuck.
Creating a content recycling campaign.
Creating great content on a consistent basis is no easy task. A strong content marketing campaign is going to include blogs, white papers, articles, online press release, videos, infographics and more. Even if you have an in-house writer handling the content creation, you have to remember that time is money! Get the most out of each piece of content they create, not matter what platform it was intended for and recycle your contentcorrectly! Keep in mind that content recycling is not that same as article spinning—you are not submitting the same piece of content to a dozen sites. A press release can be reworked to become a promotional blog post, which in turn can be posted to your Facebook wall or Tweeted about. If you are launching a new product, you’ll have to write a new page of content for your website about that product, which can be used as the script for a product demonstration video that you post to YouTube. A white paper can be sliced into a dozen blog posts or a webinar can turn into a year’s worth of 2 minute videos for your video marketing campaign. They key to content recycling is to keep the messaging consistent but change the style/formatting to fit each new medium.
Every time you recycle a piece of content, you have the ability to optimize it for SEO. Target your most important keywords, as well as a few long tail variations. Include the full http link and anchor text links to help with your link building. And remember to share everything on social networks! The more times a piece of content is shared the more links it creates and the more valuable it becomes in the eyes of the search engines.
Stop stressing over content creation.
Don’t over think your topics! Just about every site owner I meet says their number one problem with their content marketing campaign is that they don’t know what to write about. They think that they have nothing to say or that no one is interested in listening. There is always something to talk about! It’s just a matter of getting out of your own way and letting yourself see your industry from your consumer’s point of view. They don’t have the in-depth knowledge that you do about your industry, company and products. If you knew nothing, what kind of information would you search for? Have your sales reps/customer service reps write down every question they get asked and turn them into a site FAQ. Use blog comments as starting points for new posts. Expand on bullet points in a webinar or white paper. Most site owners are so worried that no one is going to be interested in what they have to say that they get stuck.
Top 10 Tips to improving your SEO
1. Keyword Research
It is essential when optimising your site, that the content is keyword rich. However, there is little point in writing keyword dense copy if the keywords are not commonly used in search terms.
It is advisable to keep keywords ambiguous when using any SEO tool, e.g. KeywordDiscovery or Google Adwords Keyword Tool. This will allow the SEO tool to return more suggestions, some of which may be surprising, and ones you had not thought of.
SEO tools will also allow you to see the levels of competition for the most popular keywords. This will allow you to optimise your campaign for the most effective keyword use.
2. Link Building
A high Google PageRank is something most sites aim for, and while the algorithm for determining page rank is constantly changing the number and quality of links into your site always features.
We suggest using reputable sites and niche directories to link back to your site. With genuine, relevant content, links back to your site can really boost your site’s PageRank.
Some SEO tools will also allow you to view the number of links your competitor sites contain, this will enable you to make sure you have more valid links therefore it is likely your page rank will increase.
3. Deep Linking
While it is important to have as many good quality relevant links as possible coming into your site, it is equality important that these go to different pages across your site. This will allow you to target more relevant links to each specific page. This will not only improve users experience more but will allow search engines to see that your site has lots of valid content, boosting PageRank. Sites that only have links going to the homepage are often viewed as shallow by search engines, or that the links are not genuine and generated by automation, reducing the sites value.
4. Sitemaps
The site map is an important tool for increasing the ease of navigation across your site. It allows web crawlers from search engines (and users) to quickly and efficiently search every page of your website. Every page of content is therefore easier to find, reducing the number of clicks, both web crawlers and users have to make before reaching the required content.
There is another version of the sitemap that is also used by search engines. XML sitemaps consist of a list of all pages and include the dates the pages were last modified. XML sitemaps are submitted to search engines to help them find and link to all of the content on your site.
5. Relevant Content
The most important part of SEO is perhaps having content relevant to your main page or site topic. The readable text on the page needs to be relevant to the targeted keywords and information in the meta tags and alt tags.
The content needs to read well, in addition to being keyword dense, in order to be useful to a reader. All information needs to be explained fully so it makes sense to the reader. The site content needs to be relevant in order for the search engine to link it to the search term. However some keyword stuffed copy can appear to be spam and put potential users off.
6. Optimise Meta Tags
The Meta tags are in the code of the site. The two most important meta tags are the description and keywords. Meta tags summarize what the site is about and are still have a role in the search rankings.
The description tag is what users will read when your page comes up in search listings and can make the difference between them clicking on your site or not. The recommended length for the description meta tag is 150 – 200 characters. The description tag should have a few keywords within it but should not be stuffed with keywords, this should read like a sentence, not a list.
Many search engines hold little importance to the keyword meta tags due to “keyword overstuffing”. However all search engines still recommend adding them. When putting your list together, you need to think of the terms people are likely to be searching for (see Keyword Research), so they are led to your site with relevant content. It is not useful to add too many duplicates to your site (e.g. SEO agency, SEO agencies, London SEO agency, etc) as these are essentially the same, it is better to pick one or two variations of each keyword.
7. Use Alt Tags for Images
The alt tags will help SEO as a brief, descriptive alt tag can add relevant text to your source code, which search engines can see when indexing your site. A higher search ranking can be obtained with more relevant content, making these tags valuable.
The use of alt tags also helps the visually impaired who asses the site using screen reader. Whilst they cannot see the image, the alt tag describes what the image was off, so they do not miss any content from the site.
8. Social media
Not technically SEO, Social Media is a fast growing factor in getting your website noticed, and is an important element to include in plans.
Social Media is a term used to describe a variety of Web-based platforms, applications and technologies that enable people to socially interact with one another online. Some examples of social media sites and applications include Facebook, YouTube, Del.icio.us, Twitter, Digg, blogs and other sites that have content based on user participation and user-generated content (UGC).
To achieve the most form social media it is important to have a give and take relationship. Helping members out with retreats, or digs or giving helpful advice will increase the effectiveness of this media.
9. Ensure Domain Name Contains keywords
You do not need to pack lots of keywords into your domain name, but a few carefully chosen keywords to highlight the topic of the website are useful. Too many keywords in the domain name can make a site look like it is spam based. Avoiding the overuse of hyphens is also a key element in getting the domain name right.
10. Use Headings
The page title will be the first thing a search engine will look at when determining what the page is about. It is also the first thing visitors to your site will see when they get to your page. Therefore it is important that heading contain one or two keywords, they are relevant to the content on the page and provide appropriate targeting.
Headings have an important role in the organisation of information on a website, they are also able to provide aesthetically pleasing aspects to a site. It is recommended to use the appropriate page heading tags through out the site as these enable webcrawlers to access the site easily.
It is essential when optimising your site, that the content is keyword rich. However, there is little point in writing keyword dense copy if the keywords are not commonly used in search terms.
It is advisable to keep keywords ambiguous when using any SEO tool, e.g. KeywordDiscovery or Google Adwords Keyword Tool. This will allow the SEO tool to return more suggestions, some of which may be surprising, and ones you had not thought of.
SEO tools will also allow you to see the levels of competition for the most popular keywords. This will allow you to optimise your campaign for the most effective keyword use.
2. Link Building
A high Google PageRank is something most sites aim for, and while the algorithm for determining page rank is constantly changing the number and quality of links into your site always features.
We suggest using reputable sites and niche directories to link back to your site. With genuine, relevant content, links back to your site can really boost your site’s PageRank.
Some SEO tools will also allow you to view the number of links your competitor sites contain, this will enable you to make sure you have more valid links therefore it is likely your page rank will increase.
3. Deep Linking
While it is important to have as many good quality relevant links as possible coming into your site, it is equality important that these go to different pages across your site. This will allow you to target more relevant links to each specific page. This will not only improve users experience more but will allow search engines to see that your site has lots of valid content, boosting PageRank. Sites that only have links going to the homepage are often viewed as shallow by search engines, or that the links are not genuine and generated by automation, reducing the sites value.
4. Sitemaps
The site map is an important tool for increasing the ease of navigation across your site. It allows web crawlers from search engines (and users) to quickly and efficiently search every page of your website. Every page of content is therefore easier to find, reducing the number of clicks, both web crawlers and users have to make before reaching the required content.
There is another version of the sitemap that is also used by search engines. XML sitemaps consist of a list of all pages and include the dates the pages were last modified. XML sitemaps are submitted to search engines to help them find and link to all of the content on your site.
5. Relevant Content
The most important part of SEO is perhaps having content relevant to your main page or site topic. The readable text on the page needs to be relevant to the targeted keywords and information in the meta tags and alt tags.
The content needs to read well, in addition to being keyword dense, in order to be useful to a reader. All information needs to be explained fully so it makes sense to the reader. The site content needs to be relevant in order for the search engine to link it to the search term. However some keyword stuffed copy can appear to be spam and put potential users off.
6. Optimise Meta Tags
The Meta tags are in the code of the site. The two most important meta tags are the description and keywords. Meta tags summarize what the site is about and are still have a role in the search rankings.
The description tag is what users will read when your page comes up in search listings and can make the difference between them clicking on your site or not. The recommended length for the description meta tag is 150 – 200 characters. The description tag should have a few keywords within it but should not be stuffed with keywords, this should read like a sentence, not a list.
Many search engines hold little importance to the keyword meta tags due to “keyword overstuffing”. However all search engines still recommend adding them. When putting your list together, you need to think of the terms people are likely to be searching for (see Keyword Research), so they are led to your site with relevant content. It is not useful to add too many duplicates to your site (e.g. SEO agency, SEO agencies, London SEO agency, etc) as these are essentially the same, it is better to pick one or two variations of each keyword.
7. Use Alt Tags for Images
The alt tags will help SEO as a brief, descriptive alt tag can add relevant text to your source code, which search engines can see when indexing your site. A higher search ranking can be obtained with more relevant content, making these tags valuable.
The use of alt tags also helps the visually impaired who asses the site using screen reader. Whilst they cannot see the image, the alt tag describes what the image was off, so they do not miss any content from the site.
8. Social media
Not technically SEO, Social Media is a fast growing factor in getting your website noticed, and is an important element to include in plans.
Social Media is a term used to describe a variety of Web-based platforms, applications and technologies that enable people to socially interact with one another online. Some examples of social media sites and applications include Facebook, YouTube, Del.icio.us, Twitter, Digg, blogs and other sites that have content based on user participation and user-generated content (UGC).
To achieve the most form social media it is important to have a give and take relationship. Helping members out with retreats, or digs or giving helpful advice will increase the effectiveness of this media.
9. Ensure Domain Name Contains keywords
You do not need to pack lots of keywords into your domain name, but a few carefully chosen keywords to highlight the topic of the website are useful. Too many keywords in the domain name can make a site look like it is spam based. Avoiding the overuse of hyphens is also a key element in getting the domain name right.
10. Use Headings
The page title will be the first thing a search engine will look at when determining what the page is about. It is also the first thing visitors to your site will see when they get to your page. Therefore it is important that heading contain one or two keywords, they are relevant to the content on the page and provide appropriate targeting.
Headings have an important role in the organisation of information on a website, they are also able to provide aesthetically pleasing aspects to a site. It is recommended to use the appropriate page heading tags through out the site as these enable webcrawlers to access the site easily.
Monday, 23 July 2012
Top 10 SEO Strategy Tips
1. Site Review & Audit :
First, we start from checking the basic structure of the website, design, coding standard , basic meta data, page speed, etc. This way, we know what needs to be improved or worked on.
2. Keywords from the Client :
We make sure, we have handful of keywords from the client, before we start doing research on its competition.
3. Keyword Research :
After getting the keywords, we start our research and we use tools like Adwords Keyword Tool, SEO Quake Firefox Toolbar, and Semrush Keyword Manager. We mostly look for high search volume and low competition terms only.
4. Competition Analysis :
Everytime we get a SEO project, we look for our client’s competitors. We check their trends, like how they have optimized it, from where they have got the backlinks, how they are promoting, etc. This helps us in planning for our client’s website.
5. Link Structure : We check the current link structure of the website first and how far it can impact the search engines when with keywords.
6. Index Importance : The first campaign is always done for the homepage, so we make sure, we are doing it the right way, with the keyword rich h1 tag, proper meta tags and meta description.
7. Page Optimization :
Once we have finalized the keywords, we make individual pages for those keywords and do the campaign for it. A dedicated keyword page is must in the website, if you are targeting that way.
8. Initial Ranking Report :
Before, we start working on the campaigns, we prepare a initial ranking report for the customer. That way, the customer can track how much efforts we are putting in for his website and his ranking status.
9. Detailed Planning :
According to the budget, we prepare a onSite , onPage and offPage Optimization proposals for our customers. So, they know, what we are going to do with their website in the coming months.
10. Monthly Maintenance :
No website can rank #1 forever, until and unless, the online marketing campaigns are done in regular basis. So, you need a professional company doing your SEO over the time, without a stop, and make sure, you are never low in the ranking.
First, we start from checking the basic structure of the website, design, coding standard , basic meta data, page speed, etc. This way, we know what needs to be improved or worked on.
2. Keywords from the Client :
We make sure, we have handful of keywords from the client, before we start doing research on its competition.
3. Keyword Research :
After getting the keywords, we start our research and we use tools like Adwords Keyword Tool, SEO Quake Firefox Toolbar, and Semrush Keyword Manager. We mostly look for high search volume and low competition terms only.
4. Competition Analysis :
Everytime we get a SEO project, we look for our client’s competitors. We check their trends, like how they have optimized it, from where they have got the backlinks, how they are promoting, etc. This helps us in planning for our client’s website.
5. Link Structure : We check the current link structure of the website first and how far it can impact the search engines when with keywords.
6. Index Importance : The first campaign is always done for the homepage, so we make sure, we are doing it the right way, with the keyword rich h1 tag, proper meta tags and meta description.
7. Page Optimization :
Once we have finalized the keywords, we make individual pages for those keywords and do the campaign for it. A dedicated keyword page is must in the website, if you are targeting that way.
8. Initial Ranking Report :
Before, we start working on the campaigns, we prepare a initial ranking report for the customer. That way, the customer can track how much efforts we are putting in for his website and his ranking status.
9. Detailed Planning :
According to the budget, we prepare a onSite , onPage and offPage Optimization proposals for our customers. So, they know, what we are going to do with their website in the coming months.
10. Monthly Maintenance :
No website can rank #1 forever, until and unless, the online marketing campaigns are done in regular basis. So, you need a professional company doing your SEO over the time, without a stop, and make sure, you are never low in the ranking.
Sunday, 22 July 2012
5 Tips to Perfecting Your Internal Linking Structure
In SEO, when people talk about linking they almost always focus exclusively on external linking. They might talk about new link sources,what factors are making more of an impact and so on. Yet few people will talk about the other half of the linking formula – Your internal linking structure.
Your internal linking structure is crucial to your search engine success. Without it, it’s very difficult to get ranked. Internal linking alone won’t get you ranked, but if you don’t have strong internal linking, your chances of getting ranked are very slim.
The best thing about internal linking is that it’s relatively easy. Unlike external linking that needs tons and tons of effort, mastering internal linking really requires understanding just a few core principles. Here’s what you need to know.
Get Rid of Image, JavaScript or Flash Links
Start by getting rid of any links on your site that aren’t text. Try to use advanced CSS to create good looking buttons rather than images. Google has a very hard time reading JavaScript, Flash and Image links. Instead, you want text links that Google’s used to looking at.
Use Keyword Relevant Anchor Texts
When you link to other pieces of content on your website, make sure you use a keyword relevant anchor text. Google will use this anchor text to determine what the page being linked to is about.
If all the links on your site to a particular page contain the word “fish, “ chances are Google is going to think there’s something on that page about “fish.”
Link Consistently Throughout Your Site
You should have a navigation map throughout your site that makes sense for both users and search engines.
Have a navigation bar along the top of your site or on the side of your site (or both.) Make sure all the links in your navigation bar are in text. People should be able to easily find their way around your site, no matter where they are on your site.
Use a breadcrumb trail navigation to allow people to find their way back to higher level categories and to your home page. A breadcrumb trail looks like this:
Home > Category 1 > Subcategory 4 > Page
People can click on any of the previous categories or pages to be taken back to a higher level.
These kinds of breadcrumb trails make browsing your site easier. Google also loves them. They also help you naturally “silo” your site into different subtopics.
Give Google an XML Sitemap
If you want all the pages on your website to be indexed, then it’s a very good idea to take the time to create a sitemap. A sitemap is exactly what it sounds like it is: A map of your site, with all the different pages on your site listed in one easy place for a search engine to see. This sitemap will prevent Google from having to spend a lot of time crawling your site.
Generating a sitemap is easy. If you’re using a WordPress site, there are over a dozen different plugins you can choose from to generate a sitemap. If you’re not using WordPress, you can go online and find a number of different free tools that all help do the same thing.
In Content Linking
Link to other pages on your site from within your site’s content. Whenever you’re creating new text content, look for other pages on your site that you can link to.
For example, let’s say you’re writing an article about the mortgage crisis. As you’re writing, you talk about the causes of the crisis, the effect’s it’s having on homeowners, how it’s affecting the financial sector and how things look moving forward.
Instead of just touching upon each of these topics, make it a point to link to more in depth material on the rest of your site on each of these subtopics. Your readers will thank you for it and Google will love you for it.
Keep these tips in mind as you build your website and your internal linking. Your internal linking is an indispensible part of your overall SEO linking strategy.
Local SEO: Top 10 Tips for Ranking in Your Area
One of the best ways to bring in new business to an offline establishment is to use the internet. Just about everyone has internet access now. Often people have internet access through several devices, so they’re connected no matter where they are.
Getting ranked in your local area is more important today than ever. Here are the ten top tips to help you get ranked in your area.
Tip #1: Google Places
The first place you should look to get setup is Google Places. If you haven’t already “claimed” your business as yours, do so now.
Add your hours of operations, menu, pictures and any other information you can to your Google Places page.
Your Google Places page is what will actually rank in Google Local searches and on Google Maps searches on the iPhone.
Tip #2: Update Your Bing Page
A lot of people ignore Bing simply because it’s not Google. The reality is that since Bing merged with Yahoo, it now has nearly 30% of the search market share. That’s not a market you want to neglect.
Furthermore, Facebook’s mapping system uses Bing’s maps. So you definitely want your information up to date on Bing and you want to pay attention to getting ranked on Bing.
Tip #3: Be Active on Yelp
Do you have a Yelp page for your offline business? Of so, you should actively monitor and try to improve your Yelp rankings.
Add as much detail as you can to your Yelp page. If anyone ever posts something negative, respond to them right away. Answer any questions people ask.
Tip #4: Pay Attention to National Customers
Just because you have a local business doesn’t mean you should neglect national customers. In fact, if you land a national customer, that could be a fantastic chance to also land a high quality, high PageRank backlink to your site.
Tip #5: Check Your Citations
Google uses a system called “citations” to make sure your business really exists. Having good citations will also help you rank.
A citation is basically other websites that corroborate your address, phone number and business name. Look for other business listing sites in your industry and make sure all your information is up to date there.
Tip #6: Split Other Services into Different Domains
If you run a laundromat and a café, think about splitting the website into two different domains. If you run a boxing gym and a yoga studio, again think about splitting them into different domains.
This will allow you to optimize both sites for different keywords and achieve higher rankings in both, rather than mediocre rankings for a one-size-fits-all website.
Tip #7: Network Locally
Network with other people in your area. For example, go to your local Chamber of Commerce meetings, your Business Networking International meetings and your Toastmasters meetings.
These are fantastic sources of business deals and backlinks.
Tip #8: Keep Your WHOIS Up to Date
Make sure your WHOIS information is up to date. Your phone number, address and name should all match. Don’t use WHOISguard if you can help it. Google wants to know you are who you say you are.
Tip #9: Participate in Online Communities
Online communities are a fantastic way to generate more backlinks.
Try to get involved in online local communities. For example, mailing lists that have to do with your area, blogging circles around your city and so on. These can be a fantastic source of customers as well as backlinks.
Don’t just use these communities as advertising opportunities. Try to actually join these communities and become a valuable contributor.
Tip #10: Master the Art of Asking for Reviews
Sites like Yelp and Google Places are driven by consumer reviews. If you want to rank highly on these sites and bring in droves of customers, you need to get dozens of reviews.
The best way to do that? Ask. Master the art of developing rapport with people and letting them know how big a difference a review would make for you. Try to ask 5 people a day to leave you a review. Do this and you’ll quickly outrank the majority of your competition.
These ten tips are all you need to vastly improve your local search rankings. Do these ten things and you’ll quickly dominate your competition – Especially if they’re not on the same digital wavelength.
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