Interface

The new look and feel of Google bodes a more modern and powerful overall search engine. Apart from the obvious and well publicised logo update, Google have implemented a variety of new search tools and filters on the left which cater to the needs of the evolved, modern day search engine user.  This has been dubbed “Universal Search”.

Users can now more easily filter and customise their searches based on the specific media or service they are looking for. Sure this has been available in a different form in the past but Google is now cementing these advanced search filters as one of the cornerstones of their search interface. The universal search toolbar now also provides a variety of extra search tools such as timeline and context specific searches to name a few.

But universal search has yet another trick up its sleeve. This is the ability of users to sort search results based on how often a website has been updated. This means users can now access the latest fresh content without the hassle of having to trawl through a list of outdated  results. Basically, universal search has made it even easier for users to switch between filters and views of the same search query in order to retrieve search results that are more applicable to their needs.

Finally, another notable new addition to the Google tool belt is Google Squared. This fascinating tool allows users to search for a product, category, service or any other entity and compare the results in a detailed matrix of information (in real time!). It’s just another helpful innovation from the good people at Google. Try it out for yourself here: http://www.google.com/squared.

Algorithm

As most search engine optimisation specialists would be aware, Google’s new search algorithm ‘Caffeine’ has changed the way in which Google looks at your website content. Google is now able to crawl a huge range of internet content (including video, music, news and social media) – faster and more reliably than it ever has before. This has enabled Google to understand the content and deliver a rich experience to the users in an array of new types of relevant and up to date search results.

With Google’s intelligence ever increasing, it has now become more important than ever to use reliable, white hat SEO techniques in order to achieve great search engine rankings as Google is  becoming more and more adept at differentiating between real content and spam/scam SEO work. For more information on how Google Caffeine may affect your business, read Andrew Knight’s article – What is Google Caffeine?

In this article we will look into how a local business can benefit from SEO and what steps you have to take in order to conquer the market and have the edge over your competitors.

The trend of potential users looking to the internet for a specific product or service is increasing rapidly, and therefore it’s important that local businesses ensure their website is optimised for search engine queries.

So how can you make your website important to the search engines and attract more traffic? Professional SEO services can be expensive, particularly if you’re a small business.

The answer is to optimise your site for geo-targeted keywords. A geo-targeted keyword is a keyword that only targets a specific location, eg: “hairdresser Toowong” or “Chinese restaurant Southbank.” The idea being that users who search these types of terms are more highly qualified leads and more likely to turn into paying customers.

By optimising in this way, you’re essentially allowing the search engines themselves to act as a filter whereby only high quality traffic is directed to your site.

Research into search trends is showing that this type of approach, particularly in industries where locality is important (eg: home services, dining, etc), is proving to be a very profitable way to cost-effectively drive more traffic from the search engines.

Search Engine Optimisation (more commonly known as SEO) is a method which involves a variety of techniques to alter a website’s natural position in the search engine results pages (SERPs), image search, local search and/or video search to help improve its web presence and ultimately increase its traffic volume.

Do I need SEO?

As more businesses and companies incorporate SEO into their digital marketing strategy today, it’s recommended to consider SEO into yours, especially if you are targeting consumers online. Gone are the days of finding your business or company in the Yellow Pages or newspaper and expecting a positive return on investment (ROI). More and more are making the switch online for reading, learning and interacting via a wide range of systems with search engines being one of the most used today.

Why SEO?

SEO is the key to opening the door to new customers you may have never found through traditional marketing while ensuring a competitive edge over your competition and building credibility online. SEO can complement other marketing efforts (online and/or offline) such as search engine marketing (SEM) to effectively allow promotion of your website in more places than one.

How long does SEO take?

SEO is considered a long term strategy as there are various external variables such as search engine algorithms and industry competition which impact on how a website ranks in the search engine results pages (SERPs), not to mention SEO differs from direct advertising such as Television Advertising or Search Engine Marketing (SEM) which gain high volume in a very short period. View more on How long does SEO take.

Where do I start?

Anyone can practise SEO after a few hours of learning and see results; though true SEO is comprised of extensive knowledge, continuous effort and a variety of techniques. However, if you would like to begin the process of SEO for your website, please read our SEO Checklist to ensure your website is SEO ready and search engine friendly.

Alternatively, you can look at using a professional SEO company like Reload Media.

301 Redirect - A method used to redirect permanently moved websites from an old URL to a new URL.

Algorithm - A mathematical formula used to rank web pages in the search engines. Algorithms are constantly changing to display the most relevant website results for users.

Authority - The credibility of your site in the search engines. A combination of high quality SEO, domain age, links and good content can help build a site’s overall authority.

CMS – Stands for ‘Content Management System,’ which allows users to easily update a site’s content through an easy editor.

Domain Age - The age that your site has been in existence. An old site can be ‘trusted’ more in the search engines, which can contribute your site’s authority.

Footer Links - Internal text-based links that are placed at the bottom of a page and links to other internal web pages.

Freshness Bonus – Occurs when new content is regularly added to your site. This attracts the attention of search engines, and can improve the possibility of the search engines crawling your site more frequently. And if it’s interesting, people will be crawling to read it too!

FTP – Stands for ‘File Transfer Protocol,’ which is a method of transferring local data to web servers and vice versa.

Geo-targeting - Geo-targeting is the process of making your keywords targeted to a geographic region. This is a good strategy to implement for your keywords, particularly if your site is competing in a competitive and established digital marketplace. Geo-targeted keywords (eg SEO Brisbane), can provide more relevancy for your site and it also usually means your users are more ‘purchase-ready.’

Google PageRank - Also simply known as PR, PageRank is a metric, on a scale of 0-10, for ranking a page based on its quality and quantity of links. PageRank was a primary factor on which Google’s algorithm was based.

Keyword - A word or term that your target market types into a search engine to find your website. Keywords can be generic, branded, long-tailed and/or geo-targeted. They should be selected based on your consumers’ mindset, relevant to the content on your site and how competitive your industry is.

Link Building – The action of getting other websites to link back to yours.

Meta Tags - Includes the meta title, meta keyword and meta description text that is inserted into the code of your site’s pages. The meta title and description for your site may appear on the search engines results pages (SERPs).

Referrals - Are those visitors that arrive at your site via a link from a third-party page. Link building can increase site referrals.

SERPs – Search Engine Results Page.

Title Tag - Title tags are inserted in the code of your site’s pages and appear at the top of your web browser. Title tags are important for SEO and should be unique to each page.

Website – Hopefully you’ve got this one covered!

Therefore, employing the services of a trusted and ethical SEO Company is recommended. However there are certain steps which can be initiated before SEO takes place to help make your website SEO ready.

• Website Content: A common and critical issue of today is lack of content (information) on websites. As content enables the creation of authority or “juice”, it helps search engines define what your website is about and ensures correct placement within their indexes. Just as a person will read to learn more, a search engine crawls to gather more information. However, please bear in mind when adding content to your website that it’s unique (not duplicated anywhere else online) and relevant, if not your website may be penalised or removed from the search engine’s index completely. For further information on content and how to maximise its return, please read my previous article on Building Authority.
• Website Pages: A website is generally created to offer a message, to sell products or offer services; therefore it becomes important to structure your website correctly. Nobody wants to read a giant page with information, nor do search engines. Just as we would turn the page of a book or a document, a search engine will crawl a website and its pages and categorise accordingly. Adding additional pages to your website with unique and relevant content will help further improve your chances of ranking higher when SEO is implemented.
• External References: An important factor search engines take into consideration are inbound links to a website, i.e. websites which link to a website. Without these external references, competing for keywords which yield high return is not possible. SEO itself involves extensive link building to help make a website relevant to its target keywords; however there is a line in the sand between quality and quantity. Therefore, contacting other websites which relate to your industry and requesting a link can potentially benefit you, however keep in mind when requesting a link the website is related. For example, if Bobs Tyre Company specialises in selling tyres for vehicles, his industry would be automotive. If Bob requested a link from Jane’s Beauty Parlour, Google may find that to be irrelevant, therefore the quality of that link will be low. However, if Bob requested a link from Smith’s Vehicle Parts, the same industry as Bob, Google will find that to be relevant and the quality will be much higher. For further information, please read my previous article on Link Building.

With these above points in mind and initiated before you enlist the services of an SEO Company, it will most likely save you both time and money whilst increasing the possibility of ranking higher in Google and other search engines faster.

At Reload Media we believe it’s very important to Google and your search engine rankings.

If you combine domain age with URL matches and good on-page optimisation, you are setting yourself up to have some great results.

Many businesses such as Digital Point are selling people (and spammers) older domains than what they can buy brand new on say Go Daddy.

At Reload, what we prefer to do is work with clients that have existing domain age and a good website, and therefore relevancy in the Google search algorithm.

That way, you aren’t artificially creating a result with a domain you don’t personally know or control and one that might have been in ‘blacklisting’ trouble in the past.

If you buy a business in the future it’s worth considering the value of the domain. With many baby boomers selling up in the next few years there are going to be many domains out there that aren’t valued properly if domain age isn’t factored in.

Search engines like Google use algorithms to define where a particular website sits in the search engine results pages (SERPs). These algorithms are constantly updated from a daily to hourly basis, depending on what can be improved; this helps ensure the most relevant websites are returned to the entered search query.
In order to help improve a website’s ranking, authority is required. Authority can be acquired through various factors, one of which is content. As crawling, finding and adding new content is the primary aim of all search engines; content clearly becomes a very important factor to every website owner.

Adding Content

To ensure maximum return on any content you add, there are a few simple steps to consider –

• Unique – Unique content is what search engines crave, once it’s added to your website, don’t duplicate it. Duplicated content can result in penalisation and potentially even banning your website from the search engines index.
• Relevant – Content that’s relevant to your site is essential, as it helps build what your site is about to both search engines and visitors.
• Plentiful – You can never have too much content, therefore when the opportunity arises, add more content. Furthermore, create pages with content revolving around a particular topic, helping boost your authority even more.
• Fresh – We love our fresh groceries and produce; well search engines love fresh content. Continually adding fresh, unique content will ensure constant updating of your site in the search engines indexes.
• Interesting – Keeping your content interesting will help improve your websites online presence, potentially opening the doors for natural link building, substantially increasing your authority.

Content is the foundation of any websites success, therefore combining all above factors can help start your website on the right track to building authority effectively.

However, getting visibility through the search engines is critical to success and one of the most cost effective marketing approaches available.

As search engines becomes more complex with the introduction of social networking feeds (Twitter) into their results, it’s high time for businesses to optimise their websites. Hence the New Year’s resolution for a business should be to get to the top of Google.

The power of search engines can only be experienced once your site is optimised and ranking well in the search engines. As the competition becomes fiercer amongst search engines in the coming year, it is very important to make sure your business is visible on all the major search engines.

This year is all about entering new markets and reaching the unattainable heights that is only possible through digital marketing. The success rate of SEO Marketing is higher compared to almost any other form of online marketing. Each and every single day, several billion users log into various search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo to locate business services and products. SEO can help your website to gain higher Search Engine Rankings and thus help in improving online visibility of your website.

SEO marketing is surely one of the ground-breaking marketing techniques which will help your website to gain more exposure on various search engines. It will also help you to reach out to a large number of potential customers resulting in increased revenue and ROI.

This is a New Year’s resolution you need to keep!

Flash websites are nice, they’re pretty and stimulating but still far from practical. In fact, in many cases, the prettier your site, the more complex message it sends to a potential or current client. Considering how far we’ve advanced in technology and with the Internet, you’d expect this primary focus would be clearer.

Unfortunately since we’re all wrapped up in these fancy improvements, we are focusing less on the potential/current client and more on our own wants and desires. Adobe Flash is one of these technological advancements which has utterly stunned everyone from the beginning, though it’s important to know the mechanics behind it and what effect it has on your pocket.

The first point I would like to make is that in my opinion you should never make your whole site entirely out of Flash, as this can be riddled with complications. In addition, I have provided other examples to why Flash isn’t ideal:

• Speed & Size – A full Flash site is simply too big in size. Majority of people do not have lighting fast fibre optic Internet, so they won’t be sticking around for long if they’re staring at a loading bar all day. Size has been reduced remarkably with further advancements, however catering for the majority is still essential.

• Dynamic Resolution Resizing – Catering for various resolutions isn’t possible with Flash, without spending countless hours and tens of thousands of extra dollars into creating multiple versions of one site. CSS (or Cascading Style Sheets) offers this option and is free and compatible with every browser!

• Mobile Web – Many unfortunately still don’t take mobile browsing into account, however this is critical in today, especially when mobile phones are replacing land lines (home phones) and some computers and laptops. Not to mention the revolutionary iPhone, enabling fast web browsing via 3G or Wi-Fi, many simply don’t see the need to carry around a 2kg laptop when they can carry a phone.

• Price – Flash takes longer and requires much more extensive knowledge, making a Flash designer worth their weight in gold. However with all these combined, comes one big hefty price tag. When you require a modification, you pay for it, and not lightly either.

• SEO – SEO is required for your website to achieve high ranking positions in the search engines and substantial traffic, which ultimately will be your potential/future clients. However, as Google can only read a very small part of Flash and other search engines aren’t unable to read it at all, you’re losing a great deal of potential clients.

This is not to say flash is bad, quite the contrary, as it engages users and creates a very dynamic feel, but it’s important to note with the combination of all these complications that creating a website in Flash is often only to impress or provide a “wow” factor to people, stimulating only their brains and not necessarily your pocket.

A new website won’t just pop up into the search engine results overnight without some SEO basics applied to the site first. Following that, search engines then have to find and index your site. And even once they’ve indexed it, it’s often another 3-6 months before any meaningful results occur.

Unfortunately, in most cases, results are not going to happen overnight. There are a number of external variables that are out of your control that can play a part on how quickly and successfully your website climbs up the ranks.

Firstly, the search engine algorithms are constantly changing as Google, Yahoo! and Bing endeavour to continually serve the most relevant search results to its users. Therefore, it’s highly beneficial to outsource your SEO to a SEO company who would continually monitor these changes in the algorithm.

Secondly, the competitiveness of the industry and search terms that you are targeting can also influence your ability to move up the rankings with ease. Generally broad search terms, such as “events” or “cars” will be much more competitive and more difficult to rank for than specific, targeted keywords that are relevant to your business and your website, for example “corporate events Brisbane” or “cars for sale Brisbane”. Usually, it will be much easier and quicker to rank for specific keywords that are less competitive and more relevant to your business. Additionally, if you choose your keywords strategically, you’ll also be more likely to get much more traction and draw high quality traffic to your website.

Finally, there’s no way to control what SEO tactics your competitors are using. Therefore it’s vital that you employ a long term SEO strategy to ensure that your website is constantly optimising against your competitors. If you stop applying SEO to your website but your competitors continue with their SEO, it won’t take long before you drop out of the ranks as your competitors overtake you.

In most cases, SEO is not going to happen overnight. The reason for this is because of the number of variables that cannot be controlled. However, by putting the right strategies in place, and by keeping an ongoing long term view of SEO, you’ll start to see meaningful, worthwhile results and add value to your business.