Blank or default Titles
As I mentioned in a previous post ‘Title Meta Tags‘ are one of the single most important elements on your web page when trying to rank for your key terms and so leaving them blank or having many pages with the same titles will hurt you. Keep them short and make them all unique.

Using other website’s Copy
As important as it is to have a wealth of content n your website, it is by no means adviseable, for a multitude of reasons, to copy content from other websites . Not only do you risk a very nasty e-mail or phonecall from the original content provider but the search engines can easily spot duplicate content. The rarer something is, the more valuble it becomes.

Hidden Text
Again, we want lots of keyword rich, unique content and sometimes you may find it difficault to fit the bill; do not be tempted to hide any of your pages’ content thinking that the search engines will not notice that the background colour is the same as the text colour for example. If the search engines see something than that which a human sees, you WILL be penalised for it and perhaps even excluded from their SERPs alltogether.

JavaScript & Flash
Search engines don’t read JavaScript well and whilst they are trying to get to grips with reading content embeded in JavaScript and Flash, it is still in no way as accessible as plain text. Wherever and whenever possible use plain HTML and avoid unecissary scripts or Flash/images where any important information lies.

Outbound Links
Just because someone has asked you to link to them does not mean you should. Be particular about the kind of links you give away and only link to those websites you deem would be valuble to your visitors. I would also recommend not having more outgoing links than you have incoming, this one should be pretty self-explanatory.

Inbound Links
Whilst it is true that having lots of incoming links is a good thing in general, it is also true to say that quality is better than quantity. Don’t go out there and do something silly like buying 500 links to your website, especially if you are notfamiliar with the company who will be acquiring the links for you. Google frowns upon link trading and although they may never find out, you are still at the mercy of the websites from which are linking to you. If you acqure too many links from dodgy questionable websites, your rankings will go to pot drop.

Search Engine Submissions
Do not submit your website to Google, Yahoo and Live, there really is no need. Any website that relies on being listed due to a submission will never rank well anyway. Just get at least 1 link from a half decent website out there and the search engines will do the rest.

Page Addresses & Directory Structure/Architecture
For the simple reason that you want to avoid duplicate content and missing files when Google et Al spiders your site, you do not want to mess with your Directory Structure or Filenames unless you absolutely must. Good planing from the start is necissary in order to avoid this pitfall.

Hyphenated Domain Names
Avoid buying a domain name with more than 1 or 2 hyphens ‘-’ in it. A great number of spammy sites and link farms use such domain names and you will therefore look more like such a website. If possible, always buy the domain name shortest, and with the least hyphens in it.

Domain canonicalization and index
Make sure that your domain name only resolves to one location. For example: mywebsite.com and www.mywebsite.com are 2 different sites. Ensure that whichever you do not choose to be the main location is redirected to the chosen location. Also, make sure that your homepage is the same throughout your website. In other words you do not have links to mysite.com and mysite.com/index.html. The search engines see these as 2 different pages with the same content and even though it will not hurt your ranking much directly because of this, you are essentially splitting your link juice 2 ways instead of allowing the 1 page to fully capitalise from all the inbound links.

The amount of content one should add to one’s website varies, but all in all it is a sure thing that lots of quality content really helps to get you found more frequently. People are looking for information online and if you can provide this in an easy to understand and relevant manor, chances are, the visitors will continue browsing, come back, add your RSS feed to their favourite reader or even convert for you.

For those of you wanting to know what sort of impact adding content has purely in terms of authority in the eyes of the search engines, well, it does help tremendously to add content regularly. This content must be worthwhile though and when considering how often you should update your website with new content, think about the following points:

• How much information do you have to share on your topic(s)?
• How often are your visitors likely to come back?
• How lengthy should your new content should be?
• What is the true value of this new information you are offering?
• Are you updating out of necessity because of service/product or price change?

Frequent updating of your website is essential if you want to outreach to new segments and sometimes it is simply a matter of necessity due to the fact that your products, services, prices etc are fluctuating. When Search Engines sees simple data changes such as prices, products etc they understands that the site is being looked after and is therefore an important addition or part of it’s listings. When Search Engines see new content being added on an ongoing basis they understands that you are more authoritive in your particular fields or niches (not pronounced nitch all you Americans! :p) thus giving you better overall rankings in their SERPs.

Remember, the content must always be of a good quality, so don’t bother adding more information just for the sake of it or repeating yourself. The keywords here are Quality, Unique, Relevant and Readable. If you know that there is a limited amount of information you will be able to publish then spread it over time and publish one article every 3 days instead of every day for example (yes, every day is best… hell… every 5 minutes if humanly possible); but keep the updates regular. Your visitors will become accustomed to the frequency of your updates and are far more likely to return if the updates are regular rather than haphazardly appearing all over the week or month. If you have access to analytics just look to see how frequently your visitors return and you will know the minimum frequency with which to update your site.

Whilst it is good to update your website with new content as frequently as possible you must realise that in most cases, people want to get the information quickly and don’t want to read a novel on the subject. Keep your articles at a minimum of 500 words for the search engines, but not too long for the reader. If you do have particularly long articles that are any more than 1500 or 2000 words, I would recommend you paginate (split the article into more than 1 page).

How often should a website be updated? As frequently as possible.

So there you have it, and now I can breathe easy again, safe in the knowledge that Google will soon be visiting and finding some juicy new content to share with the world. Until next time (which I promise will be sooner than this time around!).

Take care.

Search engines often overlook what you might assume are some of the web’s best pages. Just think of the tools many designers use to make web pages exciting. Great illustrations, stunning photos, animation and emoting music. Throw them all onto your pages and the world’s most important web ’spiders’ might just crawl right past you.

Our big brother, Final Design Studios, provide proven Search Engine optimisation results using only ethical techniques. Their Search Engine marketing ensures a high return on investment by achieving maximum visibility for your website within major search engines including Google, MSN & Yahoo! Search. Search Engine optimisation provides numerous benefits:

Benefits of Search Engine Optimisation Services

SEO Services provide numerous benefits:

• Your website will be found – there is no point having a web site that nobody can find.
• A web site that is optimised for search engines is also optimised for users.

Some of the most basic aspects of Search Engine optimisation include:

• Finding words and phrases that internet users are looking for. Target the wrong keywords and your efforts will be in vain.
• Placing these important words and phrases in prominent places on each page, such as page titles, headings and links
• Writing optimized HTML code that search engines can easily sift through
• Providing great content that other websites will want to link to

FDS adhere to the guidelines of major search engines at all times, including: Google’s Guidelines, Yahoo Guidelines or MSN’s Live Guidelines and we also ensure the existing design of your site does not violate them.

What next?

Speak to one of our Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Consultants at FDS today and discover how SEO can lift your website ranking to the top of the SERPs by calling us on (UK) +44 (0)208 5727 781 or (Roaming) +44 (0)700 7000 337. Alternatively, send us an enquiry online. FDS will discuss your Search Engine Optimisation needs and requirements without pushy sales pitchs and with absolutely no obligation on your part.

1. Keywords in Url (domain name)
2. Keywords in Title
3. Keywords in Heading
4. Keywords in body text-especially near the beginning
5. Keywords in “description” and “keyword” meta tags
6. Keywords in “alt” tags
7. Keywords in text links
8. Keywords in inbound text links
9. Popularity of other sites linking to yours should be high
10. Do not keyword stuff

You may think a link is just the same as any other, wherever it comes from and you would be wrong. Try to put yourself in the position of the Search Engine and think about the relevancy of the web site linking to you. Apart from the fact that having a link to a web site selling cat food from a web site selling spare tires would not yield many clicks, the search engines would get a mixed signal as to what neighborhood you are a part of, thus decreasing the potential value of a link to you. This is common sense, so try to avoid sending out link requests to a list of sites that have not been screened for relevancy. Few links to your web sites from industry related web sites are more valuable than many from unrelated web sites.

Anchor text (what the text link reads) for your link is very important. Not only will this give the visitor a better understanding of what they are going to get when they click it, but the search engines will also be given more focus on the topic of your web site. This increases the chances of your site being found in the SERPs, for the terms used in the anchor text, as a part of their search.

Now that we know that the anchor text to your web site is important, what should the text read more specifically?

Anchor text should be:

• Descriptive
• Short
• Enticing
• Varied

Examine the kind of traffic you are getting from each of the different link text you are using and refine the quality of traffic you are getting from them. You may find that one of the anchor texts in use on some of the web sites linking to you are bouncing off your site more frequently. You may also find that some types of web site convert better for you than others or spend more on average. In short, learn what works best and what does not so that the quality of the new traffic is as high as possible. In the end, the return you are going to get from the time invested in the link building process is all that matters. Sometimes, less really is more.

Having good title tags for all of your website’s pages can make a huge difference above and beyond that of any other single on-page factor, with the exception of ensuring you have lots of relevant content. As I am sure you have already heard, content is king. Your Title tags are seen hilighted in the SERPs, listed as your bookmark, call your visitors to action or attention, increases brand awareness and above all, demystifies what the page is going to be all about if and when clicked.

Keyword Use in Title Tag

Take a look at the following examples:

oceantowels.com
luxury pink towels - oceantowels.com
OceanTowels.com | Cotton Towels | Luxury Pink Towels
Luxury Pink Towels • OceanTowels.com
Luxury Pink Towels • Cotton Towels • OceanTowels.com
Luxury Pink Towels | Cotton Towels | OceanTowels.com
Buy Luxury Pink Towels » Cotton » Ocean Towels | FREE DELIVERY

The 7 examples above offer a range of Title tags you may hypothetically find for a web site’s product page. You will clearly notice that the order in each of the title tags switches around and the level of detail increases. Balance is the key.

Although the full title tag will always be read by the search engines, the maximum number of characters that google displays in it’s listings has changed slightly over time (At the time of writing this article the maximum number of characters you may use before the infamous ‘…’ appear is 68). The number of characters you can see in the favorites list is also limited in some cases. It is important to remember that the order in which the keywords appear dictate their importance. First words are seen as being the most important in the title therefore carefully consider the order in which you will be employing your most important terms or words for this important SEO job.

Important things to consider when writing Title Meta Tags:

• Order the keyphrases effectively
• Make your titles enticing to the eyes
• Keep titles targeted and relevant to the page copy
• All pages should have unique titles
• Use separators

Things you should never do with your Title Meta Tags:

• Never leave the title tag blank
• Never use ‘default’ titles
• Never write irrelevant titles
• Never stuff your titles with repeated keywords

It is important to understand that the type of website you are publishing will determine the way in which you want to title your pages. Unique, specific and targeted title meta tags will help the search engines better understand what your page is all about and will increase the quality of the visitor as they become better targeted for action. A good title tag can help a page in the SERPs, bad title tags throughout can ruin a web site.

Love is in the Eye of the Beholder <3

When the search engines crawl your website they do not see the pages in the same way that human visitors do. This is probably the most important thing to remember when building your website and will dictate the outcome of most decissions that you will ever make when designing a website that you want to perform well in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). The spiders that crawl your website, such as googlebot, read web pages on a code-level and disect the information they read in order to try to determine what the page is about. Usually this will mean that putting the most important information you want to communicate as close to the top of the code as possible and not nested inside many tables or wrapped around a plethora of ‘mayhem and chaos’.

Avoid the Mayhem & Chaos

Javascript

As a rule of thumb, it is generally accepted that it is better practice to link to external files wherever possible, rather than presenting on the web page itself. Many spiders may timeout or reach their maximum character count when reading your page(s), potentially preventing it from completing it’s process of reading all that you have to offer and abandoning the page altogether if you use a lot of javascript. Avoid using JavaScript to build links and menus. Spiders do not like it, they are much more at home following native text links marked-up in a standard form. Avoid using too much Javascript in the head of your html document and avoid dropping it between sections of your page.

Flash

Whilst Flash can make a good impression with your visitors, Flash cannot yet be read by the search engines, therefore you must be aware that any content included in a flash applet will be invisible to the search engines. Using Flash for your navigational menus is like placing Search Engine spider-traps. There really is no excuse for it. Alternatives exist that can present almost, if not, just as well as flash when it comes to menus; look to CSS for rollover effects for example. In brief, placed stragetically and minimally can be a very good thing, but in the wrong places, it could be the death of you.

Tables

Avoid using too many nested tables when considering Web Site Architecture. Using tables 4 or more deep can make page layout easier for a designer but some spiders can get a little lost and just give up on the page altogether. If the spider does eventually find the information, they may also think that it is nested so deep in the page that it is of little importance. Once again, CSS can position your information perfectly well without the need to overnest tables, whatever your design needs.

Following to the above rules of website information architecture will not only make the page more Search Engine Friendly, but also make the management of your pages far less painful. You will be left you with clear and light-weight pages that both you and the spiders will be able to quickly and easiily read.

Directory Structure

When designing your website, keep your directory structure simple and as high-level as possible. Avoid irrelevant or lengthy folder names and instead opt for short and descriptive names relating as closely to the overall content of the folder as possible. For small websites, try to keep all of your pages on the top-most level. Most search engines consider pages located nearer or at the top of the directory structure to be more important. Only the most complex websites need go as deep as 2, 3 or even 4 directories.

SERPs of major search engines like Google and Yahoo! may include different types of listings: contextual, algorithmic or organic search listings, as well as sponsored listings, images, maps, definitions, or suggested search refinements. The major search engines also offer different types of search, such as image search, news search, and blog search. The SERPs for these specialized searches offer specific types of results.

SERPs usually contain advertisements. This is how commercial search engines fund their operations. Common examples of these advertisements are displayed on the right hand side of the page (e.g. Google Adwords) as small classified style ads or directly above the main organic search results aligned with the organic results to the left, usually boxed on a pale colour to subtly distinguish the difference between paid and organic listings.

As a marketing strategy for increasing a site’s relevance, SEO considers how search algorithms work and what people search for. SEO efforts may involve a site’s coding, presentation, and structure, as well as fixing problems that could prevent Search Engine indexing programs from fully spidering a site. Other, more noticeable efforts may include adding unique content to a site, ensuring that content is easily indexed by Search Engine robots, and making the site more appealing to users. Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO or spamdexing, use methods such as link farms and keyword stuffing that tend to harm Search Engine user experience. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques and may remove them from their indexes.

The initialism “SEO” can also refer to “Search Engine optimizers”, a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search Engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term “Search Engine friendly” may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems and shopping carts that are easy to optimize.

Internet Marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the internet, including design, development, advertising and sales. Internet Marketing methods include Search Engine marketing, display advertising, e-mail marketing, affiliate marketing, interactive advertising, blog marketing, and viral marketing.

Internet Marketing is the process of growing and promoting an organization using online media. Internet Marketing does not simply mean ‘building a website’ or ‘promoting a website’. Somewhere behind that website is a real organization with real goals.

Internet Marketing strategy includes all aspects of online advertising products, services, and websites, including market research, email marketing, and direct sales.