SearchEngineOptimisation.com, only one way up

There are a growing number of website owners that are using video as a means of communication on their sites. Using video can be an effective method of online marketing and is classed as new content for your SEO efforts. Video is stating to play a very significant role in search engine optimisation strategy and with the popularity of site such as YouTube growing by the day there is a large audience out there that is willing to watch them. Another exciting development is the popularity of video searches. Not only is it possible to add web videos to boost the interest and appeal of your website but they can also be central in your strategy to get the top rankings on SERPs.

Optimising for Video

The video development process involves ensuring your video is fully optimised to attract both visitors and search engines. If SEO techniques are not followed then you may not experienced the positive results your video deserves.

Put a Face to the Company

Web videos are most appealing to users when the website owner or someone else within the business takes part and represents the company. This allows visitors to see a face that fits with your business which will have the advantageous effect of making your site more personable. This personal touch often makes people feel more comfortable about buying from you. When people see the person who is supplying the information they often have more confidence in that information.

Make it Valuable

To make a video truly effective you need to ensure that the information means something to your audience and is perceived as being valuable. Avoid going down a sales focussed route to promote your business. Although it is tempting to boast about how fabulous the company is and make claims over the competition – don’t! This will not be deemed as interesting or trustworthy information and is likely to alienate the people you want to attract. A valuable video will demonstrate that your company is what they need and want. Product information should outline how they will benefit them and establish your business as a provider of high quality service.

Develop Your Profile as an Industry Authority

You can also use video to share information about the industry within which you operate. This allows you to demonstrate your expertise and industry knowledge which has the positive effect of establishing you as an authority within your market. This is a great way of engendering trust for your site and the company.

Be Practical

In any business you get so close to it you may assume that everyone knows and understands what to do when they land on the site. Practical advice within a video is always appealing to users and you can provide an information video on how to get the best from the website and how to buy things. This type of practical advice can be very effective even if the guidelines seem obvious to you.

At www.searchengineoptimisation.co.uk we offer a range of SEO services to our clients including help with web videos.

If you want to create a successful group blog as part of your search engine optimisation then you’ll need to invest some blood, sweat and tears to get it right. There’s plenty to do. You need to develop a strong brand, create inspiring high quality content, get together a team of expert bloggers and pretty much work all the hours God sends for little pay back initially. However, if you do it right you will create a blog that is robust and has a trustworthy reputation.

However, in the world of SEO getting yourself a bad reputation and ruining the blog is very straightforward. Here’s what will destroy it for you:

You Fail to Communicate

The quickest and surest way of killing off your blog is to cease communicating in the first place with your team of bloggers. If something changes that affects the way things are handled, let’s say the chief editor leaves for a new position elsewhere, if that is not well communicated then there can be confusion and uncertainty created within the team. This will be particularly damaging if the person leaving has been vocal about their imminent departure. Be sure to be open and transparent to avoid doubt, uncertainty and fear unravelling all your hard work.

You Fail to Moderate

Spam content is loathed and hated. If you want to see your blog fail dismally then stop filtering out spam in the comments. If you let spammers on the rampage and fail to control all those Viagra spam comments then it will be blatantly apparent that the blog owners have left it to go to seed,  and as a result your online reputation will be sullied. It is extremely important to remain vigilant where spam is concerned. Blog groups will always be a target for this form of content so by failing to keep a close eye on things you will risk your standing as an authority site.

You Allow Spammers to Take Charge

Failing to keep a control on spammers could be excused as negligent behaviour by some. However you can quickly appear to be purposely malicious and on a mission to destroy your own blog and its online profile if you allow spammers to have ultimate control over the blog. This is where you let spammers add content that is stuffed with links that take readers back to their own websites. True spammers publish appalling content and the links will be so obviously placed that most readers will simply click away from the blog site and never return. It won’t take much to work out that you’ve given these spammers a login and the failed to police what they write. Either your inaction will demonstrate a desire to see your own blog die or will show you have little thought or respect for your readers. Either way you are likely to lose your audience double quick.

At www.searchengineoptimisation.co.uk we can help you to avoid the issues above and create winning websites and blogs as part of your search engine optimisation.

As an online business, one of the big issues of tackling their markets is finding unwanted and unfounded results on Google. These damaging listings are becoming more common and a bigger headache when tackling SEO. Imagine your target customer is searching for your product and is hit with a long list of negative reviews or an industry news story about how your e-commerce website was hacked into and the account detail of thousands of customers were stolen from the website. You can bet that your target customer doesn’t take long to seek out a competitor instead.

If you were to be black and white about reputation management you would perhaps say that the best way of avoiding a bad reputation is to avoid getting in the first place. However, in the online world it takes just one disgruntled customer to make a negative impression of your company. Within seconds they can distribute damning reviews claiming you have the most terrible customer service ever experienced since time began.

Due to the constantly growing plethora of social networking sites and the growth in content generated by users in recent times, it is a straightforward process to make your thoughts known to the internet universe whether positive or negative. Although many negative reviews are based on genuine experience there are also many posts that show content that is wrong, defamatory or misleading. Companies must not only be aware of customers with a gripe but also watch out for ruthless rivals who may resort to posting negative content about your business in an attempt to grab some of your market share.

This makes internet reputation management a real concern and just as important as standard SEO company techniques. The internet is a vast universe that is constantly growing and keeping track of everything published about a company can be time consuming. In addition to blog sites and review sites, you also need to keep a close eye on Search Wiki by Google and the company entry on Wikipedia as these may also contain negative content.

One of the simple elements of online reputation management is the art of tracking it. By setting up RSS feeds and Google Alerts you will be notified when your company is mentioned on the web. However it takes real effort to take action to remove it. Some companies resort to spamming techniques posting fantastic reviews about their products and services on review sites as well as enlisting the services of bloggers to create glowing write ups about the company for a fee. It will be pretty ineffective if the negative publicity is actually turning up on well respected websites that rank positively against your brand.

It is essential to approach internet reputation management from a long term perspective creating strategies that utilise the social communities on the web, the development and dissemination of positive PR and processes to monitor any negative spin posted on the internet and the removal of it. SEO is the equivalent of the internet’s public relations department so use your SEO company well. At www.searchengineoptimisation.co.uk we offer expert SEO services.

In SEO your online reputation is just as important as optimising your site with relevant keywords and great links. If you were to compare the online world to that of the celebrity you may be mistaken for thinking that any publicity is good publicity. Is it not true that celebrities turn a blind eye to what the critics say? Not always. Most celebrities can be shocked and upset at some of the comments written about them by the press. However the frantic media storm can often pay off with album sales rocketing through the charts or them being inundated with offers for movie parts. Unfortunately for your online business, managing a company’s reputation can be much trickier.

Bad PR can Damage Your Business

Gossip and media hype are a celebrity’s business. They may appear enraged at the comments of some media critic but it would be foolish for an actor or rock star to completely reject the hype around their stardom. There are those who have a well planned strategy when it comes to attracting media attention from speaking out on a political issue to flying out to a third world country to help the disadvantaged.

For online businesses it may not be as simple. A bad reputation will not endear you to customers. Without a trusted brand most companies will struggle to succeed. Suppliers may wonder about trading with you, customers will be concerned about the reliability of your service and search engines may begin to look upon you as untrustworthy. Just how can you ensure that your online reputation is positive and customers keep the faith in you?

Seek Help from Online Management Experts

Online reputation management is a complex and detailed process and requires outside help from a search engine optimisation company. When the internet is on your side it can be a wonderful thing. Your brand starts to grow and develop, people start to explore your site and sales increase. However it takes little time for a campaign to take hold against your business online. With the launch of so many social media sites critics can quickly tarnish your reputation with access to so many internet users at the click of a button.

The first step in managing your online reputation is to be clear about the content that you publish. If you publish something that is likely to be deemed controversial you need to think carefully about the possible repercussions. An SEO company can advise you on the best way of managing this type of scenario and avoid PR and content becoming bad publicity.

On the other hand content that is attracting a negative response should also be removed as this can equally dent your brand image. The balance of inspiring and engaging content is a fine one and needs to be handled with care.

When there is an instance of bad publicity how you handle the aftermath is all important. Sitting back and not responding can sometimes be more damaging than going in there with all guns blazing.

At searchengineoptimisation.com we can help with all areas of SEO.

Linkbait is a great way of raising your online presence and building your online reputation as an industry authority. There are a number of vehicles you can use for linkbait from articles to widgets. Here are some tips on creating effective linkbait for your SEO:

The Importance of Layout

For successful linkbait there are a number of ways content can be laid out. Lists are often very effective as they sit well with a catchy title. They also chop up the data into smaller parts that gives the impression of a shorter piece of writing. If the title outlines that there will be seven numbered sections to the content – for example ‘Seven ways to make your business more successful’ – they are more likely to read to the end. This is contrast to a piece entitled ‘Making your business more successful’ that is one solid piece of text.

Using a ‘how to’ tutorial or guide is also very effective. Readers want to see a comprehensive guide on the subject and it also presents the writer as an expert in their field.

Highlight the Key Points

Numbered lists or section headers are a great way of highlighting key points so that they stand out to the reader. It also makes a large block of text easier on the eye and more readable. It can also be extremely effective to include info graphics alongside key points to keep the content simple and help readers to grasp new concepts and ideas. It also helps to relate key points to common references or popular culture so that it can be more easily digested. For example drawing parallels between the main concepts of search engine optimisation and popular movies can simplify some complex ideas. In short, it helps to create connections between things that a reader already knows and those that they are starting to learn.

Keywords

An SEO company will tell you that by adding in some keywords to the text of your linkbait you’ll improve your rankings no end. Your title may not be what a reader is searching for exactly so including keywords can ensure your content is returned in search results. However don’t get bound up with creating content for the search engines – linkbait is about attracting readers. Don’t overuse keywords and don’t wedge in keywords where a better term would explain the point in a better way.

Use the same principles that you learnt in school when writing essays – go over the same points outlined in the main body and tie up any loose ends. You can end the content with a sentences that rounds up the article as a whole or use a quotation instead. You should also add a request for comments or information. This will encourage people to interact with you sharing opinions, thoughts and feedback. Controversial linkbait will create much discussion and this is great for generating traffic and links.

At searchengineoptimisation.com are an SEO services company that can offer expert advice on all aspects of SEO.

Managing your online reputation should be high up there on your priority list. If your reputation becomes tarnished via some negative blog backlash or some damning PR it can be difficult to recover and also most impossible to remove traces of the bad press. However if you’ve hit a stumbling block with your online reputation management are there some scenarios that you can recover from? Here is a run down of those online reputation management situations that can be redeemed and those that, sadly, might not be:

Situations Your Company Could Recover From

Stolen or copied work – if you find that someone is copying your work and you have a copyright on it you do have some legal powers to enforce the removal of the offending content. The first step will be to explain the legal position to the Webmaster involved in a polite and direct way. If this fails you can submit a DCMA takedown notice either with the search engines or their ISP. If even this fails then you may have grounds for a court case.

A couple of listings – If there are one or two blemishes this can be managed more effectively than a full outbreak of bad PR or information.

Low rankings – If you have a single negative listing at position 7 of the search engine results you can more often than not brush this off. However if the listing is coming in at position 1 or 2 there will be a need for some well planned SEO and online reputation management campaigning.

Third party hosting negative information – You can sometime get this removed by referring to the terms of service or approaching a moderator.

Defamatory or False Information – If you can prove the information is false or intentionally damaging again there is a room for legal intervention. People are protected when reporting facts and also when stating an opinion. However when untrue accusations are made or defamatory content is published the law takes the opposite stance.

Impossible Situations for Online Reputation Management:

A multitude of adverse search results – If there are many negative listings it can be impossible to remove them all and you may need to look at how to address the problems directly.

News incident reported by many sources – This is almost impossible to eradicate and news sites are very hardy; so look at addressing this with positive publicity.

Reputation Assassination

If you are being attacked by someone who understands SEO and holds a grudge they may post negative posts on several sites, optimise those sites and link into the bad pages. This can be a challenge to clean up. However if you are a big company with many thousands of search results against your name it can be ineffective. However, smaller companies are very vulnerable.

Government records, judgements and injunctions – even when something has been resolved with the law, Google will still hold reference to it. As Google indexes government sites and ranks them highly the information is likely to be there for some time.

At searchengineoptimisation.com we have a wealth of expertise in search engine optimisation and online reputation management.

The reputations online businesses have these days can make a huge difference to how these businesses perform and the results they are able to achieve. Effective online reputation management is therefore a must and is a vital part of the majority of search engine optimisation campaigns. Monitoring the online reputation of your business within the online community can be beneficial in a number of ways.

Successful internet reputation management can help you to get your business noticed. With the numerous different online businesses out there you need to do all you can to make your business stand out from the crowd. If you are using SEO techniques to manage your reputation, this will give you a greater chance of attracting attention and getting others noticing your business.

Once you have gotten the attention of your target audience, it is vital that you gain their respect and online reputation management can help make this possible too. You have to show your business is of high quality and respectability if others are going to take you seriously. If you provide valuable and useful information and have a strong and positive web presence, this will be more likely and can make a big difference to how others view you.

Not only is it important to get others noticing and respecting your business but you must also encourage them to trust you too. There are a lot of unethical online businesses currently trading and online consumers fear being taken advantage of. You need to reassure those you are targeting that you are trustworthy and will do as you claim on your website and in the other information available about you. If you are using online reputation solutions and are therefore sharing information and building up a solid reputation for your business, this will go a long way when trying to establish yourself as a trustworthy company within your business industry.

Online reputation management is also hugely important for business owners because it can help them to drive targeted traffic to their sites. Creating flows of relevant traffic to a website is a main aim of any online business owner. Internet reputation solutions provide business owners with opportunities for new links so new flows of traffic can be developed.

Online consumers want more from online businesses today and this is why every online business must control their online reputation management efficiently. Doing so can help a business to get noticed, become respected and trusted and direct relevant traffic to its web pages too.

We at Searchengineoptimisation.com can provide you with a vast amount of useful information which you can use to the advantage of you and your business. We have the SEO knowledge and experience your business needs in order for an effective and successful SEO campaign to be developed on your behalf. We view internet reputation management as of great importance in online business today and can show you haw to mange your reputation within the online community so the best results possible are achieved.

When launching or running an online business, getting relevant traffic to your web pages is always a priority. The more potential customers you get arriving on your website and exploring what you have on offer, the greater your chance of making sales and your business becoming successful.

However, this goal can often lead to website owners neglecting important parts of their search engine optimisation campaign. SEO is not just about the website you have and the rankings you are able to achieve within the search results. Whilst these are of course issues of great importance, your presence within the online community is also of huge significance.

Online business is extremely competitive these days with new websites being launched each day and more and more businesses becoming interested in online opportunities. This means anything you can do to help your business to stand out from its competitors is highly beneficial and this is why online reputation management is so important.

You need to make others within the online community aware of your business and build trust and respect for your brand. If your target audience can get to know you through the wide and varied range of information available about your company online, this will help bonds to develop which will make them more likely to become customers of your business. The more potential customers know about your business, the more reassured they will feel of your competency and respectability if the information reflects your business positively. Effective internet reputation management will ensure this is possible.

If aware of online reputation management when using SEO you will not only have a high quality website and a top ranking but will also have a well developed brand within the online community.

Internet reputation management techniques involve using blogs, articles, social networking websites, forums, press releases and directories featuring content about your business to get your company noticed. If you generate a large amount of positive information about your business that others find useful and relevant, this will help them to see the positive aspects of your company and make your business more memorable to them for the right reasons.

Due to the nature of the internet today, it is easy for users to share information and feedback and any negative information about your company can have a big impact if it is able to gain exposure. This is why you must use online reputation management carefully and ensure negative content is handled accordingly and that it is only positive information about your business which gets the attention of the online community.

Online consumers explore the businesses they are dealing with a lot more thoroughly these days and so you need more than just a high quality website if your business is going to be successful. You need a trusted and respected brand and internet reputation management can help you to achieve this.

We at SearchEngineOptimisation.co.uk provide a range of internet reputation solutions which are selected depending on the individual requirements of the business. We can help you to develop your web presence further and get your business noticed, trusted and respected too.

When the big name search engines give advice about search engine optimisation, it’s usually as much about what to avoid as it is about good practise. There are some things that are simply never a good idea.

Every SEO agency may provide a slightly different service, but SEO consultants are generally agreed on what constitutes a very bad idea when it comes to optimisation.

Here are some things to avoid when optimising your site.

Don’t Copy or Steal Content

You may have listened carefully when the search engines told you to feature fresh content regularly, but did you think about what this actually means? Fresh content means original content and that means time and effort. As a publisher it might mean your own time and effort or it might mean paying for someone else’s. If you pay for material though, how are you going to know that it’s original? The search engines have ways of knowing, but you could quite easily pay for material that’s been re-hashed or directly lifted from another site. There are some tools at your disposal for taking care not to include unoriginal material, and one is Copyscape.com which will, for a fee, check material against current web content. To be absolutely sure of originality, you really need to oversee production and trust your sources.

Don’t Cloak Your Pages

Cloaking is one of the most unethical practises in SEO, and to say that it’s not tolerated is an understatement. The practise involves disguising text on pages so that users are presented with different pages than those read by search engines. Cloaking is a duplicitous and unethical technique that will bring you no friends among users. If you want to achieve good results, listen to wise SEO consultants and endeavour to maintain the integrity of results pages by keeping them relevant to users.

Don’t Visit the Wrong Side of the Tracks

Reputation’s a big thing as far as the search engines are concerned, and as in life, a lot of hard work can be undone with one thoughtless act. Be aware of who you link to if you want to stay ahead. Recklessly linking to sites that have a bad reputation will reflect badly on you. The knock-on effect could be disastrous. Check all links you feature personally, or delegate responsibility. Have a good reason for featuring each one.

Don’t Stack Titles

Using more than one title for a page in order to feature more keywords might seem harmless but it’s a black hat SEO method that will get you a bad name.

Don’t Overfill Pages with Keywords

This mistake has been mentioned so often that it’s hard to believe that anyone could fall victim. Keywords are extremely useful SEO tools but it’s very easy to overuse them, and search engines are on the alert for people who do. If you fill pages with keywords you’ll look like you’re trying to be something you’re not.

Don’t Neglect Your Reputation

In this world of social media it’s all too easy for comments to spread about your product on the Internet over which you have no control. Online reputation management is all about using platforms such as comments, blogs, forums and social media to react to changes in the marketplace and any criticism you might receive. If you fail to react to criticism from the public it sends a very negative message about your level of commitment. If they’re concerned with your product then why aren’t you?

Don’t Believe the Hype

Google and other search engines have issued publicity about what it means to have good SEO. While you should obviously take what they have to say on board, beware of such sweeping statements as ‘market your site as though search engines didn’t exist’. While this sentiment may be rooted in sound theory, you clearly need to be aware of the finer points of SEO in order to get to the top, especially when there are over 200 factors that come into play for determining rank.

In conclusion, straighten up and fly right would seem to be a good motto to adopt for good SEO. Watch for any areas in which your SEO might be slipping. Poor links and reckless keyword application can be disastrous. What might be put right in minutes could take months to rectify if you allow things to go unnoticed.

Noble efforts are rewarded when it comes to SEO, and we hope yours will be.

Online reputation management involves monitoring the Internet for material related to your product or your site. Why is it important? It’s important because the Internet, as well as providing an ideal platform from which you can market your product or service, has made it incredibly easy for others to react to what you do, and in a very public way.

Internet reputation management is not just about monitoring, though. The means that others are using to discuss what you provide are available to you too. There’s the opportunity to react to criticism, counter untrue claims and offer evidence that you are proud of what you do and how you do it. In this way it’s not dissimilar from a social media strategy, in that both involve getting pro-active online.

This is not to say that you should presume that all feedback you find will be negative. Using reputation management to discover who’s talking about you provides a tremendous opportunity to connect with an appreciative audience and build an army of devoted and loyal customers.
So as someone who’s new to reputation management, you should now have an idea of what it means and why it’s important. What are some specific things you can do to get the ball rolling as far as reputation management’s concerned?

1. Check blog posts via a network. Save time checking a lot of blogs personally by registering with a blog search engine and subscribing to RSS feeds. It would be impossible to check every blog personally for any mention of you or your product, and so blog search engines really become useful when you need to start monitoring. The feeds you receive will enable you to stay abreast of who is concerned with your business, and whether what they are writing reflects well on you or not. If it does, you may have an opportunity for some useful linking. If not, it’s in your power to respond in the form of published material of your own, comments and campaigns. Remember that it’s not always best to act defensively. Take the time to consider whether you might usefully take on board some negative feedback with a view of improving your service. Think of almost all comments as useful and all online reputation management as opportunity to improve.

2. Benefit from Alerts. Google are one search engines that provide an alerts service. This service notifies you about recent patterns in result page ranking. If someone has been very active in discussing your product, it’s possible that the keywords that would normally take users to your pages will direct them to that site instead. It’s not the only way in which alerts are useful, but it’s a big one. Failing to take advantage of alerts would be very lazy indeed.

3. Check comments. Comment on blogs, features and reviews, where possible. With the same principle in mind as for social media optimisation, make as much use as possible of opportunities to get your corporate voice heard. Don’t sit back and wait for storms to blow over, play an active part in dispelling rumour and countering negative feedback.

4. Make use of discussion boards. Using discussion boards to share your expertise will do no end of good for your reputation. It will enhance your presence on the Internet, establish a reputation and provide good opportunities for linking back to your site.

5. Check who’s Tweeting. Tweeter is a phenomenon. A microblogging site with a huge online community, it simply begs to be involved in your reputation management. Create a profile and search for instances where you’ve been mentioned. Respond to both positive and negative exposure and get a feel for some ways in which you might improve your product and reputation. Develop contacts and create an online community in social media for your product. See social media optimization and online reputation management as intertwined. Think of both as complementing each other when it comes to SEO.

These tips will certainly help you to get started, but a team of SEO specialists will be able to guide you on ways in which reputation management can benefit you in many more ways. Get advice close to the beginning of your campaign to ensure uniformity.

Don’t make the mistake of treating reputation management as a chore. Be thankful that you have an opportunity to respond to what people are saying. Go beyond reacting and tie reputation management in with your dedicated social media endeavours.