SearchEngineOptimisation.com, only one way up

If you are transferring from an old domain to a new one there are some guidelines that can help you make the transition smoother:

Alert the Search Engines to its Existence

If you have a new domain name festering in the shadows, now is the time to do something about it. By posting just a page of fresh, interesting and appropriate content will alert the search engines to its presence. This is much better than displaying a domain parking page or error page.

Make the Transition in Stages

As there is a whole range of unknowns involved in transferring between domains it should be tackled in a controlled manner. Phase the transition between domains. Start by choosing part of the site that is not as important as the rest and host it on the new domain, then carry out the 301 directs from the old domain to the new one.

However, before you start the transition process firstly note the levels of traffic and the rankings for the page you are about to transfer. This will be a crucial benchmark helping you to monitor the impact the domain name change has on your SEO and rankings.

The next stage is to look at both contextual and navigational links in this section on the old domain and update the links to the new domain page. The aim is to keep things simple for the search engines and to support your existing search engine optimisation.

Once this has been actioned look again at the rankings and user traffic on the new pages. Has the new domain simply picked up where the old domain left off? Have both rankings and traffic dropped off completely? If yes, how long is this for? Keep an eye on things until the usual rankings and traffic levels are sustained. This will allow you to build a picture of how long the whole site will take to get up to speed. This will help you manage any outside expectations.

A phased approach can also help to build an association between the old and new domains. Adding new links will also cement this. Using basic SEO techniques in link building such as producing high quality articles and PR and publishing them on sites such as prweb and ezinearticles is a quick and easy way to do it. Using embedded links to both the new and old domain within the article will reinforce the association and will create link equity on the new domain.

Make that Leap

Once you have carried out all the tests and have made all the estimates you can, it’s time to migrate. You now have a good idea of how well the migration will go so go over the steps taken above with the test pages and roll out the transition across all the pages. Check your 301 redirects and all links and then finally submit your sitemaps to all the search engines.

At www.searchengineoptimisation.co.uk we are an SEO company offering a range of SEO services to clients.

A major part of your SEO strategy will be link building. The importance of link building is well recognised with high quality links providing websites with the trust and authority that search engines tend to reward with higher rankings. However it is not productive in the long run to get obsessed about creating large volumes of links rather than focussing on the level of quality attained. The online reputation of the websites that supply links to your site have a huge impact on your own internet reputation and need to selected with care.

If you use links from sites that are inappropriate or downright dodgy it can not only backfire on your search engine optimisation efforts but may also damage your brand development also. Here are some of the key websites that should be avoided at all costs:

Spam Websites

Never build links from spam websites. These sites are considered to be low grade website that offer no value to another online business. Within the internet community they will be branded with a tarnished reputation as they offer no value to internet users and exist solely to push their own products. Search engines consider these sites to be disreputable and rank them low on the SERPs if at all. If a search engine does crawl a spam site it won’t stick around for long as these forms of website are very transparent about what they do. This means if you do have a link from such a site it won’t get followed which is after all your main goal in encouraging links. By association you will also earn yourself a poor online reputation not only with search engines but also your target audience.

Black Hat SEO Users

If a website is a user of black hat SEO then they are also one to avoid. Search engine optimisation like this can be penalised by search engines. Black hat techniques are a form of manipulation and this is not tolerated by the search engines anymore. They are becoming more stringent and ensuring that offenders are punished in some way.

If you have taken care to avoid using black hat SEO in your own site’s optimisation then you should also make sure you aren’t inadvertently associated with it through linking to a company that employs these underhand tactics. Again you may jeopardise the business through your association to this site. When the site is penalised – and it will be penalised at some stage – your site will also feel the repercussions.

Irrelevant Sites

Linking to sites that have no relevance to your own is not in your best interest. Although finding a popular site and linking to it may seem like a great way of gaining extra traffic, if it bears no relation to your market then it will not be in your favour. Links must be relevant to attract the right traffic. Don’t link to competitors but look out for other trusted sites within the industry.

At www.searchengineoptimisation.co.uk we are an SEO company offering expert advice on all the best SEO techniques.

Linkbait is an important part of your SEO strategy. Although the word may conjure some negative connotations, it is in fact high quality content that engages internet users and makes them want to either link to it or share it with others. This may be due to its attractive layout or the concepts and ideas written about. Linkbait can dramatically increase traffic and is an excellent method for link building, developing your website and disseminating ideas. When linkbait is created with the goal of educating visitors and raising the amount of traffic, it can also become an effective means of building a positive online reputation thus maximising customer loyalty.

There are many forms of linkbait to choose from. The most popular are articles, videos, info graphics, widgets and quizzes. Regardless of the format, linkbait must be emotionally appealing and engage readers so they feel compelled to link to it or to send it on to others. Here are some tips for making your content attractive to readers:

An Eye Catching Title

The title is very important in capturing a browsing reader’s interest. It is this that will hold the attention and inspire someone to read on. It should also act as a means of informing a reader about the subject and content within the main body. A controversial title will stand out and you can also try making connections between two unlikely subjects or things. For example ‘What Gordon Brown can teach us about SEO’ is a good title for attracting attention. Keep the title concise and snappy to stand out from all the other content out there.

Illustrate with Infographics and Images

Readers of all walks of life love to see good images and info graphics. Good quality visuals add interest and can break up a body of text effectively. This makes the content more readable and will illustrate key points. There is nothing more appealing than an interesting and informative piece of text that is highlighted by interspersed images and graphics.

Infographics take time to create but they are wonderful for simplifying information and key concepts. The most commonly seen info graphics are graphs, pie charts, charts and statistics put together in a bright, colourful and engaging way. This form of information will very quickly establish you as an expert on your industry subject.

Keeping it Concise

If you are writing an article as linkbait then don’t get hung up on the number of words. Put breaks into the content to that a longer piece looks shorter and can be digested more easily; internet readers scan content. Keep each point succinct whilst explaining ideas fully. You can include examples but make sure each sentence is used wisely. Although the word count isn’t everything aim for 800 to 1000 words depending on your subject or market. In a more technology based arena content can become more in-depth and therefore longer whereas a lighter topic such as entertainment will be shorter.

At searchengineoptimisation.com we are an SEO company offering a wide range of search engine optimisation services.

Search Engine Optimisation falls in to two broad categories: “on-site” and “off-site”.

“On-site” SEO services consists of all the techniques used in the construction and authoring of a website to ensure it gets the best possible positioning in search engine results.

“Off-site” SEO incorporates all the ancillary techniques used to boost a site in search engine rankings, such as link-building, blog posting, and blog commenting, and what is known as PPC, or pay per click advertising.

PPC originated in 2000 when Google launched an advertising system known as AdWords. Subscribers to the Adwords system have their sites listed in a demarcated area of the search results page under the heading “sponsored sites”. For instance in Google, sponsored links appear in the right-hand navigation area of the results page, with non sponsored links featuring in the central page area.

The Adwords system, which powers these sponsored links, and which has now become common across the major search engines, works as follows: customers create an account, then place a bid for a particular search keyword. The higher your bid for a given keyword the higher your site will appear in the sponsored sites results rankings. Clients, however, only pay the search engine when their “sponsored link” is clicked; hence the phrase “pay per click”. The payment made is on a per click basis and proportionate to the size of the bid placed on that keyword.

Some of the benefits of PPC are as follows:

First, this off-site technique it tends to generate site visits considerably faster than on-site techniques, which could take up to 90 days to bear fruit. In-fact, PPC can generate an immediate return on investment, especially if you are running an ecommerce website.

Furthermore, a consistent ROI can be expected through prudent use of PPC over a sustained period. For example, an online travel agency recently attributed a 40% annual growth over three consecutive years to a consistent, carefully planned use of PPC.

A further gain from PPC is the ability to target and tweak your advertising very specifically. Through the analytical tools provided by the search engines you will soon be able to figure out what keywords, or combinations of keywords, do the trick.

There’s also a narrower field of competition with PPC. It’s easier to get your site noticed, through fine-tuning of keywords, when competing only with fellow PPC advertisers, as opposed to competing with all the other sites on the internet.

Despite these above benefits of a PPC campaign, however before diving in, bear in the mind following caveats.

PPC is no substitute for a fully developed SEO strategy. In-fact, PPC is at its most effective when it is part of a multi-pronged SEO campaign.

Indeed, to get the best out of SEO, you’d be well advised to consult with a professional SEO services company. For instance, here at SearchEngineOptimisation.co.uk we know that the “devil’s in the detail” with a PPC campaign, and it’s that careful attention to the subtleties of search engine advertising, based on sound industry knowledge, which could generate that magic extra percentage point in your click conversion rate.

SEO can be a complex process to get right, and sometimes it’s best to leave the detailed hard work to experts specialising in professional SEO services.

Building links manually is a process that is more advantageous to your SEO than using automated link submission solutions. In order to compete successfully in your market here are some great tips on how you can achieve links manually for your site. Search engine optimisation relies upon relevant, high quality links which is what manual link building stands for.

What Makes Up the Manual Link Building Process?

There is a long list of manual link building tasks and here are just some of them:

• Creating natural looking links

• Managing costs and budgets

• Managing time

• Analysing competitor activity

• Researching new keywords

• Analysing data and trends

• Finding sources of relevant links

• Building and purchasing links

• Negotiating price and SLAs

The Pros of Manual Link Building

As with all things there are pros and cons to manual link building and how difficult it is will vary upon the industry or website. It works best in a competitive market where attracting high quality links can create a significant advantage. In markets where the competition is less rife it can be enough to have plenty of directory submissions which are a lower quality link. It will create you a good position within the market. However if you market is highly competitive as in the financial sector for example having lower quality links will not impact your ranking position. This is where manual link building comes into its own. Enlisting someone to approach websites that are relevant to your market and enquire about links and liaise over prices and contracts can make all the difference. You can find yourself catapulted from page 2 onto page 1 of the search results. You will gain often permanent, relevant and reportable links via this method.

The Cons of Manual Link Building

The main disadvantage is that you are not guaranteed links and some markets will find link building this way harder than others. Look at your competitors to gauge where you have weaknesses and then pursue links accordingly. You can use tools such as Open Site Explorer for example to look at competitor links and analyse the type and amount of links there.

Its essential to look at budgets and decide on the right keywords in order to get a good ROI on link building. You can find an SEO company that will gain the links for you in addition to finding them. The process is open so you can decide on the best option for you.

Once you have researched where you need to improve you can also analyse domain authority, page authority, brand usage in keywords and anchor text. This information will highlight what you are missing and how you can improve your SEO.

Building links is still a high priority within the SEO industry and there is less emphasis these days on reciprocal links. You can use social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to boost your online presence and social media channels can provide an engaging means of building links. However this course of action can be time consuming and this can cause problems for some online businesses. There are however plenty of other ways you can build up your links. Here are just some:

Videos

You can gain fantastic exposure and gain some useful links to your site by using videos. YouTube can be used to great effect but you can also add videos to your own site. The main goal is to entice visitors and ultimately links to the webpage. If you add relevant and interesting videos to your site and use a variety of popular viral videos that can be shared people will be likely to link into the page rather than going to YouTube to view the original.

Images

Images are not quite as wide reaching as videos but they can still help to build links. Don’t overload your site with images as this can slow the site down. Choose relevant imagery and use charts and graphs as this can attract good quality links from people who see you as an authority on your industry or topic.

Interviews

You can attract a lot of traffic by interviewing leaders and experts within a certain industry or field. We’re all interested in what the experts say and you can even try out a Twitter interview feeding the tweets through to your website. Be well prepared and keep the questions professional. Agree with the expert in advance the topics for discussion and keep the length of interview to a time that isn’t too long so it won’t start to bore your audience. The person you interview is likely to link in to your site giving you some high quality exposure.

Tutorials and How to Guides

The internet is a huge information resource and most people will do their research via the web. This may be via watching videos or reading articles. You can quickly get together an informative article or tutorial on a topic you know well. Short videos demonstrating your knowledge are always good too. It gives people reassurance that you know your stuff and through providing useful information you’ll attract some good links to the site.

Free Downloads

People are always tempted by free stuff. If you have any apps or scripts that others may appreciate you can offer them or free. This will be instantly popular with links generating extra traffic to the site. If you are not a technical person then offering useful checklists and PDF documents will also attract links.

Reports and Studies

Statistics are always popular. By carrying out some research on a topic within your market you can provide some useful stats which can be displayed in charts and graphs. It will attract readers and increase your reputation as an authority in the industry.

At SearchEngineOptimisation.co.uk we are an SEO services company offering solutions for all your online marketing.

One of the most effective ways to boost your search rankings is to build up plenty of high quality links. Links are viewed by the search engines as a vote of confidence and the more you have the higher they will rate your website. There are a whole host of ways you can improve your link building and here are some tips to get you started:

Directory Links

A great way of building links is to register with an industry specific directory. There is a wide range of directory services for all industries and some general ones covering most markets. They are seen as useful links as they offer insights into your market for the search engines.

Top Ten Listings and Other Articles

It doesn’t matter whether the top ten list relates to myths within your industry or offers readers some top ten tips, lists are always a popular read for web users. Writing great content that relates to your industry and also adding your own personal viewpoint can create a great deal of interest and has enduring appeal for your readers. You can create a real buzz with readers wanting to link to the list and pass it on to others. Choosing to write about ‘top myths’ is always a great one for starting a debate as it focuses on opinions and often some controversial subject matter and is guaranteed to increases traffic and create those all important links.

Press Releases

When launching a new brand, website or product a fantastic way to promote is to use press releases. They can be hugely effective as well as providing some great backlinks. You will find a choice of websites who specialise in distributing press releases which will help you promote your site and will attract some good quality links to boost your SEO.

Social Media

SMM should be an essential part of your search engine optimisation. The three biggies to prioritise are Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. However there are plenty of others such as Digg, Squioo and Hubpages. There is such a wealth of social media platforms available that it really will be to your advantage to learn about them. By writing original content and topical articles you will instantly attract backlinks as well as well targeted traffic. You will also start to build up referrals from readers who will want to share the content with their followers and friends.

Blogs and Forums

Link building and SEO should be viewed as a long term process and an important part of this process is to spread the word about your business. To do this seek out relevant forum communities and start to participate and comment on other blog posts. You can effectively promote pages on your site by adding helpful feedback when queries are made. There are those forums that allow links to be followed adding to the traffic on your site. Avoid blatantly promoting your site by spamming comments and bolg posts with links to your site as you will very quickly get banned!

These are just some ways of improving your links. At SearchEngineOptimisation.co.uk we can help you design winning SEO campaigns.

It is common knowledge that sites with new domain names have to wait a long time to feature significantly on Google’s results pages. When you think of how important it is for new sites to rank highly for chosen keywords in order to get established and start trading, and how many of them there are, that makes this a very big deal. SEO consultants have to take this delay into account when they give advice to new companies, but because Google are being secretive about it, much of what we know amounts to speculation.

What’s not a matter of speculation in SEO news is the mounting evidence to suggest there exists a protocol whereby new sites are forced to wait a very long time to get to search listings, as long as three to nine months or even longer according to some. This length of time could easily seem like an eternity if you’re eager to bring traffic to your site, which every new business is surely in a hurry to do.

Whatever the nature of the filtering system Google are using, it’s commonly being referred to as the Google Sandbox.

General opinion is that the Google Sandbox relates to keywords only, and that other aspects of SEO are not affected. That means that good link building will continue to act in your favour while you’re in the sandbox. In the same way, other SEO tools will still work for you.

If the keywords you target as a site are highly competitive ones, it seems natural to assume that the Google Sandbox offers a way for the search engine to actively validate your site before presenting it on results pages. This could be a result of bad practise from some publishers when it comes to featuring keywords that aren’t related to their content.

It would appear that Google are indexing sites straight away but relegating them to the bottom of results almost immediately. What’s particularly strange about this is that entering the exact name of your new company into a query box will not raise your site from the doldrums onto a results page.

While it seems to be impossible to avoid the sandbox effect completely, there are some common sense things you can do to help you site. Being pro-active is better than spending half a year waiting and sulking, after all.

Keep Introducing Good New Content, Especially on Your Blog

This is essentially about remaining positive and optimistic. If you nurture your blog, your links and your content over time, you’re likely to have a much better site when you do eventually get listed. Practise good SEO methods and be patient. Maximise the amount of traffic you get from other search engines and through good link building.

Create a Good Image for Google

While you might feel like you’re being unnecessarily punished by Google when you’re waiting in the sandbox, it’s best to view the experience as a kind of test. If Google are watching you to see whether you deserve a high ranking on their search pages, give them every reason to believe you do. Certainly don’t engage in any unscrupulous methods of bringing traffic to your site.

Promote the Site As If You Weren’t in the Sandbox

Like our advice about maintaining fresh content, this relates to creating a site that will be a force to contend with when it is eventually released from the sandbox. In terms of social media optimisation, for example, the period of time spent in the sandbox is enough to get a very effective social media campaign up and running. Be ready for a lot of traffic when you leave the sandbox. Use the time to prepare to meet your clients.

Think About Longer Combinations of More Obscure Keywords

Remember that being in sandbox for common keywords doesn’t necessarily prevent you ranking for more obscure searches. Do some research and consider some alternative routes users might take to reach you. Do you produce ‘mineral water’ or do you produce ‘refreshing bubbly highland spring H20’ for example. Read up on latent semantic indexing and get creative!

Don’t waste the time you spend in the Google Sandbox, and don’t assume it’s going to be dead time either. Remember that traffic will come to you via Yahoo, MSN and other search engines with a very high volume of users. Importantly, do not despair. Remember that the sandbox is not your home forev

Good linking is absolutely crucial for good search engine optimisation. Links to, from and within your site not only allow for transparency, they form a key basis when it comes to search engines determining how useful and relevant your site is. If you’re new to internet publishing, there are some things you really need to know if you’re to avoid common mistakes and get on the right road to achieving the results you need.

A good SEO agency will usually provide link building services which help you to really get the most out of links. If you’re wondering what their advice might sound like, we’ve compiled a list of five good linking practices you’re likely to hear a lot about.

1. Keep it relevant. This is our first tip because its importance these days cannot be overstated. You’ll be judged by the quality of links to and from your site, and quality these days means relevance. Bought links from sites that aren’t related to what you ostensibly do can reflect negatively on your site and result in penalties being imposed by the very search engines you wish to impress. Relevant links, on the other hand, show that you’re popular with other sites that are related to you and count as ticks in your favour. Really good links are those that come from sites with recognised authority on the web. Domain names tell you a lot about how authoritative a site is.

2. Take care of links from your site. In much the same way as you want good links to your pages, you want to link out well too. It all counts in terms of relevance. Professional SEO services will tell you to avoid links that send users to sites they’re unlikely to be interested in. Obviously, from a marketing point of view you really don’t want to appear careless in the eyes of users. Irrelevant links are bad on many levels, as are out of date links that lead to non-existent sites.

3. Play the detective. Use some of the free means at your disposal to find out who’s accessing your pages and linking to them. This will enable you to create a list of useful contacts. If people are linking to you, they’re likely to be willing to feature some of your content or to engage in mutually beneficial practices. Trackback software is available for anyone to use, and search engine optimization services will almost certainly recommend you use it. Another way in which it pays to have your eyes open involves no software. Look at your competitors and what sites they’re linking to. If they have links that are obviously bringing them traffic and high rankings, then why not get the same ones? It always pays to know what the competition’s doing, and link building is no exception.

4. Feature keywords in links on your site. Effective linking within your site will give users a good experience of navigating your pages. Links back to your homepage should feature on every page. A sitemap should be created which also features keyword-rich links in abundance. These keyword-rich links are like gold, and you shouldn’t miss any opportunity to feature them. Having keywords in your anchor text is important too. Don’t miss the opportunity of having beneficial keywords in the text that leads users to your site from search engines. Try to make it memorable and concise, so that users can type it in easily whenever they want to visit you.

5. Avoid every kind of spamming. Be active when it comes to making the Internet a good place to spend time. Use ethical practices and discourage any form of duplicity when it comes to links. So-called ‘black-hat’ SEO strategies like cloaking can ruin user experience and lead to severe penalties from the search engines. Some of the worst methods include over-filling pages with keywords, misleading search engine software, and featuring popular keywords that aren’t really related to your content. As a general rule, stick to sound, ethical marketing practices if you want to get ahead and avoid penalties.

These tips will help you on your way to results pages and in the world of the Internet, no one stays new for very long. You’ll quickly become experienced and find that SEO starts to be second nature. Get advice from a good SEO agency on ways in which you can climb the ladder to the top and stay there.

Much as you might like to sit back and let big search engines find your website, appreciate its quality and list it near the top on results pages, you are probably aware that it is not as simple as that.

Search engines use software called robots to ‘crawl’ the internet and find content that their users will find useful. How do these robots travel the web? They use links. So if you think you can sit back and get exposure for your website by doing nothing, you’re wrong, because links are the roads the robots use and it’s your responsibility to build good ones and maintain them.

Professional SEO services can provide you with a lot of information about the best ways to go about devising strategies for building the right links for your business. SEO link building is a service in and of itself, involving an array of modern methods and techniques. There are some things you should do to get good links, starting today, and we’ve compiled a list of tips to get you started.

1. Try to get links from sites that are seen as authoritative. This includes .gov (government) sites and .edu (education) sites. Links from sites that are obviously reputable enhance your image and bring rewards from search engines. Ways of doing this involve connecting the service you provide to their agendas.

2. Get linked from libraries and other resources. Think about the places where people go to get information, and get yourself listed on their pages if you can. It’s good exposure and these links will probably be seen as authoritative too.

3. Create a profile on as many local listings sites as possible. Even if your business targets a worldwide market, these are excellent links to have.

4. Create a page on Squidoo. Websites which allow you to post your own content are great for building backlinks to your own. Post good content for maximum effect.

5. Think about getting onto Wikipedia pages. If your business is important enough, you might create a page for it. Alternatively, think about pages on which your site might usefully feature as a link.

6. Contribute to forums and maximize on opportunities to link from them to your site. Contribute in a meaningful way and you’ll accomplish a great deal in terms of marketing while at the same time creating an opportunity to build useful links.

7. Make the most of the opportunities presented by social media. Social media marketing is one of the new methods endorsed by professional SEO services. Launching an effective social media campaign can bring astonishing results and quickly. Think how many people are using social media, such as Facebook, every minute of every day.

8. Submit product reviews as an expert in your field. You probably know a great deal about your product or service, so why not get yourself heard and get some good exposure through submitting reviews of similar products? Use the opportunity to build links from popular sites that feature reviews. These could be shopping sites, consumer affairs sites or others. All offer good linking opportunities.

9. Write testimonials about products, services or sites you’ve found useful. These are likely to be featured on pages if they’re well written and gratefully received. A link to your site can easily be included as a footnote.

10. Have a blog on your site.  As all search engine marketing services will tell you, a blog is one of the best free SEO tools you can use. Search engines want to see new content on your pages, and blogs are the perfect vehicles for that. Make it a good blog and there’s huge potential for it to be linked to. Include links in your blog in case it’s featured on other pages of the web. Make it an exceptional blog that will keep users interested. You’ll find links increasing along with traffic and business for your site.

We hope you’ve found some inspiration in our list of ten tips for link building success. Keep in mind that it’s the tip of link-building iceberg, and professionals can advise on more points than we’ve listed here. If you find yourself bewildered by the possibilities, don’t despair. As a general rule all of the things which you do to market your site effectively are good SEO from a link building point of view too. And don’t forget to link to other people. Linking should be a two-way street.