Search Engine Optimisation & Marketing

Creative Search Phrases Using Puncuation

2007-09-18T01:06:00.000-07:00

Search engines, with a few exceptions, purposely ignore puncuation. This is a vital component in good copywriting because it makes it possible to create search phrases that wouldn't normally appear in "real" writing.

Quite often, people search for keyword location, even though that's very unnatural and a phrase unlikely to appear in naturally written copy.

So, there's a lot of searches for property Norwich, but it's much more common for us to write "Norwich property."

Knowing that search engines ignore punctuation, the copywriter can end a sentence with the keywords and then start the next sentence with the location i.e. "blah blah property. Norwich blah blah."

The search engine will strip the full-stop, leaving the unnatural phrase property Norwich intact.

Free Link on a PR7 Site

2007-09-11T07:13:00.001-07:00

Here's an easy way to get a free link on a PR7 site. Get yourself over to LinkedIn.com and add your businesses profile and voila! you now have a link on a PR7 site.

Forgetting link popularity for a second, the site is actually a great tool for networking and has many industry leaders listed.

So get over there... and don't forget to add me to your network if you think we can help each other.

Have You Seen the New Google?

2007-05-17T03:09:00.000-07:00

Not much time to write about this right now but just thought i'd let you know that there has been a major change to the Google interface.

You can read more about it here Google Introduces New Interface.

SEO & SEM Tools

2007-04-06T10:35:00.000-07:00

Below is a selection of tools and resources that I use in
my day to day activity as a SEO consultant. There's a wealth of information
out there if you look for it. This little lot should keep you busy in
the mean time.

Keyword research

Code & infrastructure

Content analysis

Spam analysis

Competitor analysis

Link analysis

Page analysis

Monitoring performance

Useful forums and blogs

Gmail Open To All

2007-02-15T02:20:00.000-08:00

Sign up to the GMail service no longer requires an invitation. Now anyone can register and take advantage of their free communication tools.

Don't forget, when you are logged into your Google account that your search results will be personalised. You need to bear this in mind when looking at how yours, or your competitors sites are performing.

To turn off personalised results sign out from Google and clear your Google Toolbar history.

Googles New Backlink Checking Tool

2007-02-06T04:44:00.000-08:00

In the past it was possible to check the number of inbound links to a site by using Googles link:operator. However, for some time, this tool has only been showing a sample of inbound links and many web masters have since been using Yahoo's link: operater for a true represention.

Google has listened to its users and extended the functionality of its link: operator. If you go to Googles Webmaster Central there is a much more comprehensive set of tools that allow the data to be classified, filtered and downloaded.

If you don't already have one, you'll need to greate a Google Account.

Google Personalises Search Results

2007-02-05T05:41:00.000-08:00

Google recently announced they are increasing user personalisation. If you are logged in to your Google account then the results returned for your searches will be personalised based on your search history, and possibly your geo location.

In the past Google gave the option to turn off personalised results. This option is no longer present, and when searching you have no way of knowing whether your results have been personalised or not. Unless, of course, you notice that the search results are becoming more and more targeted.

Whilst this may be useful in finding information, it makes it harder to judge how any site is doing for particular searches. If you are looking at where you competitors are positioned, for instance, you will see a misrepresentation of results.

You will see what Google has deemed are the most relevant results for you personally, and not necessarily what your audience is seeing at that point in time.

You can turn off personalised results by clearing your search history and ensuring that you are logged out of your Google account. I would imagine that applies to all Google applications including GMail, Blogger, Analytics, Webmaster Tools and Sitemaps, to name but a few.

SEO Explained

2006-12-14T05:25:00.000-08:00

Search engine optimisation is a subset of Internet Marketing. It involves adapting a web sites code, content and reputation to maximise its readability, relevancy and popularity, and thus its ranking position within, the organic, unpaid search engine results pages.

Successful SEO campaigns are based on a combination of on-page and off-page optimisation.

On page optimisation

On page optimisation can be further broken down into two functions; code optimisation and content optimisation.

Code optimisation

Code optimisation involves making it as easy as possible for the search engine spider to crawl the code and find the content, whether that be text, images, audio, animation or video. HTML / XHTML and CSS must be used correctly, making the best use of the tags and attributes available.

To ensure your code is correct you can use a validation service such as the W3 Validation service. You can also use this service to validate your CSS.

With web browsers becoming ever more sophisticated the use of XHTML and CSS for positioning is becoming more popular. Using CSS for positioning allows elements of the page to be positioned without the need for tables. The code to text ratio is reduced and the logical structure of the content is easier to follow. The easier it is for the spider to crawl a web page the easier it is for the spider to find the content of a web site.

Content Optimisation

Content optimisation relates to the generation of quality content written for the human reader in mind. It used to be the case that many webmasters would stuff their content full of key words and phrases which made it annoying and sometimes eligible for the human reader. While this used to carry some weight with the search engines it is no longer tolerated and can carry a penalty.

With the competition fierce it is no longer enough to simply target a few key words or phrases. The web site needs to show a running theme throughout and deliver original, unique, quality, engaging content in the form of copy, images, video or audio. Great content attracts visitors and natural links, increasing popularity and thus, rankings.

Off page optimisation

Off page optimisation is generally about increasing your link popularity. Link popularity is by far the most important factor used when ranking a web site. The search engines treat each inbound link to a site as a vote. The more votes a site has, the more relevant it becomes in the eyes of the search engines resulting in a higher ranking in the organic, unpaid search results.

There have been many methods and techniques employed by SEO's to artificially inflate link popularity such as reciprocal linking, link farming and other forms of spamdexing. These days such tactics are usually detected and those participating can find their site being penalised.

What has always been effective in judging the importance and trustworthiness of a web site are its inbound, on topic links. The top SEO's are in agreement that this will be the case for the foreseeable future.

Resolving Canonical Domain Issue on Shared Host

2006-11-07T08:37:00.000-08:00

I noticed recently that www.kesphelps.co.uk was accessible via the www and non-www version of the URL (or URI). I contacted my hosts to ask if IIS could be configured to permanently redirect the non-www version to the www version.

The issue this produces is known as the Canonical Domain Issue and is discussed here on Matt Cutts Blog. The problem is that the search engines can index both versions of the URL and may hand out a duplicate content penalty.

The host advised that their server was not configured this way by default. This is quite common on shared hosting packages and If you don't have htaccess or access to IIS then here is the solution:

Include this in all of your pages by either #INCLUDE'ing or placing the script in your config file.

This code will redirect any asp page to the www version'This code is provided as-is with no guarantee or 'warranty It is provided for free distribution as 'long as these comments are left in place.'Designed by www.jlh-design.com 2006Dim Domain_Name, theURL, QUERY_STRING, HTTP_PATH,TEMP_NUM'Get domain that the page is onDomain_Name = lcase(request.ServerVariables("HTTP_HOST"))'Check if URL is the www versionif left(Domain_Name, 3) <> "www" ThenHTTP_PATH = request.ServerVariables("PATH_INFO")'Check if page is default.asp if so, redirect to "/".'If other index page is used, such'as index.asp the numbers in the right and len statement ' need to be changed, as well'as the IF statment to indicate the index page.If right(HTTP_PATH, 12) = "/default.asp" ThenTEMP_NUM = len(HTTP_PATH)-11HTTP_PATH = left(HTTP_PATH,TEMP_NUM)End If' Sets the new URL settings with correct pageQUERY_STRING = request.ServerVariables("QUERY_STRING")theURL = "http://www." & Domain_Name & HTTP_PATH'This section passes on the query string variablesif len(QUERY_STRING) > 0 ThentheURL = theURL & "?" & QUERY_STRINGend if' Send 301 response and new locationResponse.ClearResponse.Status = "301 Moved Permanently"Response.AddHeader "Location", theURLResponse.FlushResponse.Endend if

The script doesn't just redirect but checks for the domain name the user used and then redirects accordingly, maintaining folder, file names and querystrings.

I #INCLUDE'ed the script across all pages on my server and the issue is now resolved. I shall report back the results after Google has re-indexed my site.

Credit: Thanks to softplus over at the cre8asite forums for putting me on to this one.

30 minute podcast on the topic of meta content

2006-10-09T12:59:00.000-07:00

A 30 minute podcast recorded a few weeks ago on the topic of meta content in regards to web design and internet marketing.

powered by ODEO

Web Design - Creating Glass Buttons

2006-09-25T10:45:00.000-07:00

How to create shiny, glass effect buttons like these ones in Photoshop.

1. Create a rounded rectangle 120px wide and 60px high with 10px curves and filled with a solid colour.

2. Create a second rounded rectangle 118px wide and 30px high with 10px curves and filled with the same solid colour.

3. Place the second shape 1px away from the inside of the shape underneath. (if you change the colour either of the shapes you'll see a stroke effect).

4. Create a selection of the top shape layer (CTRL + Click) .

5. Create a new layer above the selected layer, and choose the gradient tool from the tools menu. The gradient fill should be white to transparent, click and drag to gradient fill the selected area.

6. Alter the opacity of the gradient layer to get the desired effect.