We all know that SEO or search engine optimization helps improve site rankings. Since Google is the most commonly used, its standards are used as a peg for configuring SEOs.

SEO basics require delivering value, creating great content and promotions, but there are times when Google changes their algorithms. So here are tips that you can follow to improve SEOs.

High-Quality Sites

Have you noticed that Google is now giving more importance to sites with great designs, good branding and unique content? The challenge now is to improve and make sure that your website can compete with others.

Social Signals

Comments on blog posts, tweets and Facebook likes or shares are good indications that people like your web content. This entices Google to increase your rank because they like “showing content that users like”.

Links

Linking isn’t as important as they used to be. They still remain an important factor, but Google is paying less attention to these due to link spams and focusing more on social signals. “According to a survey by SEOmoz, links used to account for 65% of the ranking factors in 2009 and now they account for about 40%.”

Keyword Usage

The old style required creating a page and optimizing it for the keyword you want to rank at. Google opts to send traffic to sites with a lot of content on the topic as compared to sites with just one article about it. It goes without saying that you still need a primary page with your desired keyword, but make sure to have other pages related to the topic and interlink them when you can.

Longer Documents

As mentioned earlier, more content (i.e. more words) gives your site better ranking.

Image from  Maria Reyes-McDavis

Linking is an essential part of SEOs and increasing page rankings, but at times it sounds forced or too repetitive. Here are some tips to make linking seamless and sound natural.

It is best to get links from various sources. Do not just rely on blogs, forums or directories. You can use all of them and add article sites, social bookmarking sites, new sites, editorial sites and many more other sources.

Keep in mind that the number of domains linking to you are much more important than the amount of links you have. Having many links from the same domain does not help much. It is better to have different links coming from different domains.

“Use the exact anchor text for 40% of your links”, but alter them in a way that they are combined with other words. For example, use “famous Italian restaurants” instead of just “Italian restaurants”, this type of anchor text must comprise 20% of the links. The remaining 40% of links should use anchor texts such as “check it out”, “click here”, “learn more” or showing the website itself.

If you create a page and optimize it for “Italian Restaurants”, direct 40% of the links to this page and 60% to your homepage. Do not lead all the links to the page you want to rank.

Lastly, use no-follow links. They help make linking more natural and less scripted.

Image from ivanpw

The Good

Cross linking benefits you in two ways: it helps you SEO-wise and helps your readers find related more easily. For the SEO part, cross linking is good because it helps establish relevancy between posts and pages. Pages containing related topics will, of course, be the ones linked to each other. Just make sure the anchor text for the links contain the keywords you need to help search engines know what the pages’ topics are.

When it comes to helping your readers, cross linking to older related posts will not only make access to these posts a whole lot easier for readers but will actually encourage them to stay on your blog longer.

The Bad

There are two things to avoid when cross linking: doing it excessively and misleading readers.

Linking excessively to your own posts can make you look either desperate or irritating. The main reason for linking to older posts should be to help readers find something of value to them and not just be means for self-promotion. That said, link only when it will provide value to your readers.

Misleading readers is even worse in my book. This happens when the anchor text you use is such that it makes readers think that they’ll be routed to an external page that’s the source of your post but instead gets routed to another post on the same topic. I hate it when that happens. It looks greedy because you’re caging readers in even when pointing them to an external page will help them find further information they need.

Business/industry blogs

If your blog is industry-specific and your target audience are professionals then using technical terms is not only ok but actually advantageous for you. The reason for this is that you want to appear knowledgeable and “dumbing down” your posts might make your readers think that you are not an expert in the field yet. However, being overly technical is still discouraged since you want your blog to be an easy, even pleasurable read. Keep the tone conversational but use proper technical terms when needed. Another advantage to using technical terms will be the effects on SEO. The technical terms will likely be used by search users and using these will ensure that the “keywords” will make your blog searchable.

Tutorials

If post tutorials and tips on your blog using technical terms and defining them will definitely be useful for your readers. However, make sure that you define the terms using simple easy to understand words. As mentioned previously, this will also benefit you in SEO due to the presence of keywords. Note too that if you might want to aim for your defined terms to appear in Google when the “define: ” function is used in search because it significantly means a lot less links to compete with for the same keywords compared to the general Google results.

Uniquely interesting titles are good. When they are outrageous and cryptic, they do tend to get more clicks as human readers would wonder what the post might be about. However, if you focus solely on this consideration, your post might not even make it to the first 5 pages of the SERPs. And what good will your cryptic title do you when people cannot find it in the first place?

My suggestion is this – try to work on your post title getting to the top of the SERPs. At the same time, don’t hold back on your creativity. So how can you work on getting to the top?

One way would be to incorporate keywords into your post title. The idea is to make use of words or phrases that are commonly used in searches. Now how do you find this out? Make use of keyword tools – there are so many out there! You can even use Google’s free tool, Google AdWords Keyword Tool. If you wish to do so, you can search for other keyword tools that can help you figure out which keywords are most used for certain topics. Once you have determined these words, then you can craft a post title that is engaging and SEO-friendly at the same time.

It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out the flaws in this technique. I don’t know if you remember but there used to be a lot of pages wherein you would simply see a mere jumble of words and phrases which were put together, repeated, and then repeated again. This resulted in trash content. If you have no idea what I am talking about, take a look around and I am sure you will still find some of those pages wherein the text does not really make sense – it’s just a mess of words thrown together.

Unsurprisingly, the search engines got wise to this practice and keywords began to be useless – or so some said. I believe, however, that keywords still bear much weight. By knowing how to use them properly, you will be able to make the most out of them.

Here are some quick ideas, which we will discuss in more detail next time – keywords in post titles, keywords in headers, secondary keywords, and anchor texts.

One of the main considerations when it comes to domain names is the keyword content. The rationale is that you have to have words in your domain name that would give search engines and users an idea of what your blog is all about. If, for example, a person does a search on Google using that keyword, then your chances of being up in the SERPs are higher. More so, if they stumble upon your blog URL, they already have a clear idea of what you are offering them.

Of course, you cannot merely guess what keywords are best to use. There are many tools online which can help you find keywords that are used a lot. Wordtracker is one. Webconfs also has a keyword-rich domain suggestion tool. Just take a look around and see which keywords related to your blog are sought after and try to incorporate them in your domain name.

At www.searchengineoptimization.co.uk we know that every site has unique features and individual needs. That is why our campaigns are adjusted to fit the specificities of individual sites.

If a site is a showcase for goods and/or services then it makes sense that it should try to offer excellent value for money. However, taking part in a ‘race to the bottom’ will not be profitable long term. Therefore it makes sense that quality is central to what an online firm delivers, day in, day out. If a site bases its appeal squarely on high quality, it should not be afraid of reviews. If it gets a positive review it may get more traffic from users and it may also benefit from the reference in the competitive struggle for rankings in the search engine results pages. Even a mixed review may be a boon, because users may be interested by the evaluation and will appreciate its likely authenticity. Reviews may also bring links and link acquisition from relevant sites can be very beneficial.

The question, then, is not whether reviews are positive or negative for a site. The question is actually how they can be sought in an ethical fashion. This is something which can be discussed with a specialist search engine optimization firm. Getting a review of your products and services on a relevant review site is not always straightforward, but it can be accomplished. Once one review has been obtained, it is often a bit easier to get another. Blogging and guest blogging can raise your profile. Reviewing other sites in a positive fashion may also be of assistance. One recommended technique is to link with a suitable review site. However, links should be used in accordance with the advice of an experienced expert.

Some firms have received and understood the idea that good reviews are good for their business. However, their enthusiasm has tempted them into faking positive reviews. To avoid users detecting their malpractice, some firms have established review sites to house their own fake reviews. They have then mixed up highly positive reviews with some less impressive ones. Despite their subterfuges, such firms have often been caught out. If their services do not match their reviews, customers are likely to cause problems.

Trying to get your site reviewed is good SEO, but trying too hard or being less than straightforward can be a big mistake.

It is far more desirable to approach a specialist with some knowledge of their subject, and in SEO, that is not too difficult to do. Even so, there is a distinct possibility that when your SEO company’s assessment of your site comes in, a lot of the information on that assessment won’t be expected. A good search engine optimization company will be able to answer your questions, and you can discuss any optimization concerns with our experts at www.seoconsult.co.uk. It can also be a good idea to know what to look for on your site to estimate the SEO work to be done.

1. Assess your pages. The things you should be looking for on your pages include the amount of content you already have, your existing link profile, any disputes with the search engines you’ve had in the past, and your current site structure. It can help to draw up your site structure on a page to check for clear paths. Use some of the free online search engine optimization tools available to give you a head start on where your current site is in terms of SEO.

2. Sort out your desired outcomes. It’s a good idea to look at your current desired outcomes for SEO, and any outcomes you’ve aimed for in the past. Having made some attempt at optimisation in the past is something that should be taken into account in your current optimization attempt. Your previous work could either help your current campaign, as there will be an established good history with the search engines, or it could hinder it if the work wasn’t done well.

3. Sort out areas of concern. If everything was going swimmingly with your site, it’s unlikely that you would be approaching an SEO consultant. Make a list of the problems you think need to be addressed.

These three steps won’t enable you to prepare an SEO plan yourself, but should help you to get an idea of what needs to be done.

Before you start your assessment, it’s important to consider the time factors involved in SEO. Although it might take you only a few hours to review your site, SEO professionals can take between 30 and 70 hours to properly assess a site and build up an optimization plan. The time required will depend on the size of the site, and the kind of work involved. A small site is generally considered to be anything under 1000 pages.

Most SEO companies work on several sites at once, so it’s important to allow a suitable period for your optimization. Although a company may estimate that they’ll take 30 hours to assess your site, they are likely to require a period of weeks to get the results back to you. This needs to be allowed for in your schedule.

According to data and research by Web Side Story, most searchers looking for items on the web enter one- or two-word queries.On average, one- and two-word searched constituted 83 percent of searches; on e-commerce sites, that figure was 91 percent.

Moreover, nearly 12 percent of searches lead to no results – a lost opportunity for marketers; among commerce sites, 8.5 percent of searches led to no results.

The studies examined more than 34 million searches on the sites of 42 Web Side Story customers: 15 e-commerce sites, 13 lead-generation sites and 14 media sites.