Scotland SEO Blog

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a crystal ball so we look into the future when undertaking our keyword research. Find out what is going to be popular in six months or a year and start to optimize now. If you play it right, you will hit number one in rankings just as your keyword list starts to take off.

Of course, we don’t have crystal balls, but we do have a lot of information around us. There are seasonal trends, there are special events such as the Olympics, the World Cup (in various sports) and even national events such as elections.

As a website owner you need to be able to identify those future business opportunities and start to work on them now. A good example is the Christmas-New Year period that is coming. I know, it is still six months away. My response, only six months away! If the Christmas-New Year period is a key time in your business calendar, you need to be working on those keywords now.

Most businesses have to deal with the here and now. There are no trends, no season events and no special occasions on the horizon. That does not mean you shouldn’t be looking into the future. If you sell products, I am sure there are new models on the horizon or new releases, updates or perhaps new products. Working on keywords related to those events may help you rank well when they are released - that is the point behind your search engine optimization.

If you include future possibilities into today’s keyword research program and start to optimize for those keywords, if the possibility becomes reality, you are ideally placed to capitalize. You may only have a high ranking for a short time as larger and older sites catch and pass you - at least you do have that high ranking and the traffic that comes from it.

However, if you are at number one, and you are receiving a lot of traffic that is converting, you will have made it that much harder for your opposition to overtake you. If you do have a crystal ball, once you have completed your keywords research, can we borrow it?

Search engines are continually changing the way they rank websites. Not only that, you have situations like the introduction of Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing. For the majority of web site owners, the question you have to asking is whether or not it is worth the time and effort to be chasing all of these changes.

Generally speaking, search engines like Google do make changes to their algorithms on a regular basis, almost daily if you believe some experts. The problem is, these changes are often very minor and a week later are changed again. For the average site owner, chasing all the changes can be very time consuming and the end results rarely make the effort value for time spent.

If you concentrate on the basics, you don’t need to even consider the minor tweaks that search engines make. Sure, they may lift your page from third page of the SERPs to page 2 but that may not equate to extra traffic. Stick to those basics - content, on-page SEO, link building (or off-page SEO) and online marketing.

Provide content that is useful and that readers will come back for. If you are in the business of selling, provide content that accurately describes (and sells) your products or services.

On-page SEO involves ensuring you have optimized for the right keywords, provided SEO-friendly titles and URLs, and that little things like ALT tags are provided with accurate and SEO-friendly information.

Build links with sites and pages that are related to your own. Wherever possible, try to get links that use the best anchor text. Don’t forget to use directories and article submission to help build those links.

Finally, some online marketing. Whether you use banner ads, social marketing or simply PPC campaigns - getting your web site’s name and reason for being into the eyes of others will lead to traffic. The more targeted your traffic is the better the chance of either completing a sale or receiving a link.

Chasing search engine tweaks can be fruitful if you and your SEO expert and you have nose tied tightly to the SEO grindstone. You may get a little benefit from chasing these changes, but in the long run, getting the basics right will do more for getting your pages ranked than any minor tweaking.

If you think you can’t do any social marketing on Twitter then you may want to read what Twitter themselves have to say on the issue. Most social sites frown on self promotion - Twitter seems to be promoting the practice, at least for small businesses. Take this quote from their blog:

….something we’re increasingly inspired by at Twitter. Small businesses—in this case restaurants—using Twitter as a low cost way to connect with patrons and ultimately improve profits.

Now if that isn’t a definite ‘get out there and promote your business through Twitter‘ statement then I would like to know what is. In this case, restaurants are Tweeting prices, specials, meal of the day and anything else that can help to promote their business.

I am not sure why social sites are so anti-marketing. For many of them, like Twitter, they are opt-in social sites. You will only receive these Tweets if you have agreed to, and if you don’t want to receive them in the future, you just opt-out again. For small businesses in particular, a clever social marketing campaign may bring some amazing results.

The question is, what can you write about your business in 140 characters or less? Your first reaction may be - not much. However, with a little thought I am sure you could do some self promotion in small bursts. In fact, small bursts of info are more likely to be remembered than email messages.

There is one word of caution I would throw at you and that is ‘caution’. Don’t suddenly start sending hundreds of Tweets ‘just because you can’. Remember, each person who subscribes to your Tweets has opted in - if you flood them they may well ‘opt-out’ at a million miles an hour. There is not much point in Tweeting if you have no subscribers so look after them.

Social marketing through Twitter is not going to suit all business types. There are many businesses that will gain some benefit including many that don’t even have an online presence. This is one example where a bricks and mortar business can successfully use social marketing to promote to their business.

There is a popular suggestion that blogging is great for building links and to a certain extent the suggestion is correct. However, if you don’t understand the concept behind blogging and how it helps to build links, you may find you are spending a lot of time and money for very little reward.

Having several blogs can be a great asset to an online business, particularly if that business deals in a wide range of products. Having a blog for each section of your business is a smart move as it allows you to concentrate on and promote that sector of your business.

You have two choices. You can host your blog with your web site(s). As a link building exercise, forget it. Any links coming from the same server are generally treated as internal links. Even if the web site is not yours, if it is on the same server then you won’t receive much link value.

Having blogs on different servers is a different matter. Each blog is then treated as a separate entity and each link treated as a bona fide link. There is one proviso to this, yet I come across it quite frequently. Links from blogs on separate severs are treated as links only because the search engines don’t associate the two entities.

Now think about that statement. You have a web site on server A and a blog on server B. They are two separate entities in the eyes of the search engines. So why on earth would you use the same Google Analytics account for both entities? The moment you do that, they effectively become one entity.

Search engines are becoming smarter and one of the issues they try to address is the creation of artificial links. Let’s face it, blogging is one way to increase links, but they can be viewed as artificial. Having said that, they are not by any means black hat links. The content of each blog, if well written, is valuable in its own right. If it is related to a particular product or service on another web site, it is only natural to develop that link.

If you have four blogs and you write to them every day, that is the equivalent of 1400 links in one year. However, over time search engines like Google will reduce the strength behind those links simply because of the volume from one source.

Link building requires variety. Links from blogs, directories or article submissions form only one part of the link building process. You also need to develop some organic links. These are acquired as users visit your sites, like what they see and decide to link back. Create a broad diversity and the links from the blogs can become lost in the masses. Create few other links and they stand out like sore thumbs.

Blogging is a good tool for link building, but only if done correctly and as part of a broader link building program. The old saying of not putting your eggs in one basket is so true - in fact, don’t even collect the eggs from the one hen house.

Sometimes we are so caught up in trying to increase traffic, we forget what the intent of our website is. Keyword research should be based on results rather than simply traffic on its own. This probably sounds contrary to what you have read in the past, but traffic for the sake of traffic is not always good for your site.

Let me give you an example. If you sell blue widgets then targeting a keyword phrase such as ‘installing blue widgets’ will not result in sales. Think about it for a moment - if someone is searching on how to install a blue widget - they must already have it. Chances are, they are not going to want to buy another.

There is an argument that suggests that attracting traffic and providing solutions may lead to sales down the track. It’s quite possible, but that then is a secondary issue, not a primary issue. Your primary focus should be to drive traffic that is wanting to buy what you are selling - today, not next month or next year. Once you have a strong keyword program up and running you can then start to consider those secondary issues.

Returning to the blue widgets example, I am sure if you gave a little careful thought along with some in-depth keyword research you could come up with numerous variations on the phrase ‘buy blue widgets’.

The end result then is a list of keywords that will drive traffic that is focused on an outcome - in the above example, selling blue widgets. Don’t become distracted by finding keywords that have little competition. They may well deliver traffic, but if that traffic is not converting, they could ultimately affect bounce rates and have a negative effect on your site.

Your keyword research is an important part of your SEO program so it needs to be smart and focused on your desired outcome, not just the delivery of traffic.

Having your web design developed around a series of tasks is a suggestion that has come out of, of all places, Google Adsense blog. I generally find that a lot of what Google serves up as advice is actually an attempt to undermine the efforts of SEO consultants. This time around, they are promoting what is in reality a very practical suggestion.

There are so many websites around that look like, and probably have been, built over time. A little like a house that keeps having rooms added, it can look a little ugly and be a little difficult to navigate. Most websites have a purpose, be it sales, generating subscribers, or hoping for clicks on your ads. If your website does have a distinct purpose then your web design needs to be built around achieving that purpose.

Google are doing a five week educational series designed to ’speed up your business’. The latest post deals with the ‘user experience‘. Knowing Google, that will be the theme behind all of the parts to this series. However, in the small paragraph on web design, they suggested:

Write down the top three tasks your users might want to accomplish on your site, and design to make those tasks quick and efficient.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be three tasks. It could be two or four or perhaps a few more. I certainly wouldn’t go overboard. Your website should have very clear objectives and these should not be too burdensome.

Having said that, don’t fall into the trap of thinking you only have the one objective. If you are selling then sales is obviously one objective. However, if the visitor is not ready to buy, rather than leaving your site you would want them to view your current sales catalog, or check out other items that are for sale, or perhaps slip across to your blog. These are still activities that need to be planned for and that planning starts with your web design.

Online advertising is probably the life blood of the online world. Hundreds of thousands of online entities pay to advertise on other sites and this is matched a hundred times over by the number of websites (blogs included) that publish these ads. Whilst they can be income earners, there are several pitfalls to look out for.

It is a little puzzling to understand why so many use, or publish, banner advertising. There is a popular term thrown around - banner blindness - that implies that banner advertising doesn’t work. Where banners do have an advantage is in helping to develop a brand identity. These ads are certainly not as effective as they used to be unless they stand out and really attract the visitor’s eyes - and therein lies your first major pitfall - if the banner ad attracts the visitor’s eyes, they are not looking at your content. If the attraction is strong enough they will click through and you have lost another visitor.

Of course, not all banners, or ads in general, stick out and attract your visitors’ attention. This means they may not even notice the advertisement and if they don’t notice it, they wont click through. Over time, your advertiser will stop paying for an ad that is not drawing any traffic. Admittedly, not all ads are banners, however the same applies - if no one is clicking through - why publish them?

There is an even bigger issue. Your web page is like a prime piece of real estate. As the town planner, you place your content where it makes the biggest impact. Paid advertising generally demands a prime piece of that real estate. That’s not so bad if you are being paid by the month to display an ad. If it is a pay-per-click type advertisement, you will at some stage need to assess whether or not the income received is worth the real estate it is using. Let’s face it, if you owned a beach side property, you wouldn’t accept bottom price for someone to rent the prime position - or would you?

Online advertising can work when it is done on a reciprocal basis with a business that is complementary to yours. If your visitors cannot find what they require on your site then perhaps they will find it on the advertised site - and hopefully the reverse will happen as well. In this situation you will not earn any income from displaying the ad - the benefit is in the traffic that may flow your way.

When it comes to accepting advertising on your site. Consider what the reward is, what the possible cost is, and which piece of real estate they want. A win-win situation is fine, however, what you don’t want is either a win-loss or a loss-loss situation. Online advertising can be a tough income earner, particularly if you have to sacrifice a prime position on your page - think carefully before accepting.

Incorporating site search into their web design seems to be the last thing on most webmasters’ minds these days, yet this one addition could be the one touch that makes or breaks a site. I recently wrote how site search could benefit the webmaster in their keyword research and touched on how it could help their visitors. Chris Crum has written another article which looks at the issue from a different perspective - and he is spot on.

We live in a highly competitive world so webmasters need to take advantage of even the smallest tools if they can help generate sales or conversions. Site search is one such tool. Visitors arrive on your site for whatever reason. They need to be able to find what they are looking for fairly quickly and have a search tool certainly aids that.

Web users have become sophisticated over the last two years or so. Using search is becoming second nature - this includes on site searches. If you don’t have a search function, and the visitor cannot find what they are looking for fairly quickly, they will leave - another potential sale out the door.

Chris Crum puts it perfectly:

A search function on your site not only helps customers find what they’re looking for, but it can also inspire them to look for more things to buy.

A good site search tool has additional benefits such as analytics. You can check to see exactly what it is that your visitors are looking for. With this knowledge you can either beef up the content or create new content to address those search queries.

Big business already has an advantage and you can guarantee that most of them have a search tool on their sites. Modifying your web design to incorporate a site search is not difficult and can take only minutes to complete. If you hired a professional to design your site, ask them to edit the content to include a site search and have it on every page.

One simple change to your web design can make a lot of difference when it comes to customer satisfaction. Being able to arrive on your site and quickly find what they are looking for is a must these days. Does your web design incorporate a site search tool?

That may sound like a dumb question but when you speak to some webmasters you would swear that link building was the only thing. The problem with concentrating on link building is that it is kind of like putting all your eggs in one basket - and right now, that basket is about to fall off the shelf.

In reality, you cannot separate the two. Traffic building is the name of the game - link building is just a means to an end. However, for those that concentrate all their efforts on link building, you may find that as a search engine optimisation tool, its days are numbered.

Links have been seen as a vote of confidence in a page’s authority. There are many SEO specialists who are now starting to look at the visitor as being the vote of confidence. When you take a realistic look at the situation, web content is created for the visitor so it makes sense that they have some say in whether or not a page has any authority.

It has been happening for a while anyway. If a user has found your page through the search results and found it wanting, they will click away fairly quickly. A webmasters worst enemy is the back button - if that is used too quickly then search engines like Google take this to represent a vote against the site. Get enough visitors doing the back button dance and you will see those pages drop in the search results fairly quickly.

Google is one search engine that is possibly smart enough now to analyze a page’s worth based purely on visitor habits. Hitting the back button or closing the tab is one statistic. Others include how long the visitor has stayed on that page; have they clicked through to any other pages or perhaps clicked through to another site through a link (this includes ads).

The sum total of all this activity will, over time, create a very accurate ‘bounce factor’ for each page. This will not necessarily be a simple formula. The variables that make up the formula could include where the visitor came from, e.g. social media, search engine, advertising, or an external link.

As your visitors’ habits take over in being the major ranking factor, the number of inbound links will drop in value. The only links that will maintain any value will be those that actually deliver traffic. Don’t drop link building from your SEO programs yet - but it is time to look at other means of attracting traffic. At present, one of the best approaches is to develop a good social marketing campaign that will attract targeted traffic - traffic that may help to boost your search result rankings.

There are probably thousands of posts on the Internet describing how to find long tail keywords and describing how they can boost your SEO. I won’t go into how to find those long tails; there is plenty of information available, including a post we published on long tail keywords back in May.

What you may be wondering is how can you get the most benefit out of those long tail keywords. There are three approaches you can take that should ultimately give your SEO a real boost and really help to get your best pages ranked for those keywords.

Find Those Long Tail Keywords In Your Content

I am assuming you have some type of site search installed. You don’t? Get it! A site search option can be a big help to your visitors, and a big help to yourself when you’re trying to find particular content. If you don’t want to use a site search, there are several tools available that may help.

Using site search (or similar), find any pages that have already used those long tail keywords. Focus on these pages for now. Determine which page (if any) relates very closely to that long tail. That page will be the one we want to get ranked highly (let’s call it the landing page) for that long tail keyword. Now it is simply a matter of linking the most appropriate pages back to that landing page using the long tail as anchor text. Don’t link every instance. Link the most appropriate.

Find Similar Long Tails In Your Content

The second option (which can and should be used in conjunction with the first), is to look for similar long tail keywords. Can these ’similar’ keywords be altered to better suit your long tail. You may find a more appropriate ‘landing page’ by simply tweaking a few words.

Even if you don’t find a more appropriate landing page, you will have more pages that could possibly link back to your landing page. Modify those long tails where necessary, however, bare in mind you don’t have to use exactly the same long tail as anchor text.

Create New Content Using Those Long Tails

Creating new content is always going to be helpful. The more content you have - in particular, the more new content - the more often your site will be crawled by the search engines. Give them something to spider by linking your new content back to that ‘landing page’.

How does this give your SEO a boost? Your defined ‘landing page’ is now the center of attention. As the search engines crawl your site they see the pages you have linked will lead to that landing page, boosting its importance. Gain external links and use a little social bookmarking to that page and over time it will climb in the search results pages.

You don’t have to limit this approach to just one long tail keyword. If you have several then work through each one. Before you know it, you will be ranking for a variety of long tail keywords without having to add hundreds of pages of new content. Your old content is already indexed - we have just given your SEO program a little boost using that old content.